Thaumatology 12: Vengeance Read Online Free PDF Page B

behind her to where Lily was kneeling on a cushion. ‘Here, shekushka, try this. It’s recommended.’
    A hand took the offered drumstick and a second later there was, ‘Oh… Oh, Mishtresh. You have oo…’
    ‘Twill would beat you senseless with a spoon for talking with your mouth full,’ Ceri interrupted.
    There was a pause followed by, ‘Sorry, Mistress. It’s gorgeous. We have to take some back for Twill to cook.’
    Shrugging, Ceri bit a chunk off her haunch. The meat almost melted in the mouth and left a gamy aftertaste. It was a little like venison. Ceri glanced at Jubilia. ‘Is this one of those times where asking what a tukta was would make me regret that?’
    ‘It’s a reptile,’ the succubus replied. ‘Nothing especially horrific. Lives in deserts, moves very slowly. It’s amazing we haven’t hunted them to extinction, but they appear to have some method of keeping out of sight when needed. Some think they burrow.’
    ‘Huh.’ Ceri turned to her other table companion, Ophelia. ‘You tried this?’
    ‘Uh-huh. Torn said it was good.’
    Torn was sitting on the other side of Ophelia, looking a little uncomfortable. He had protested his seating on the table with the Overlord since he was just a minor Lord and someone more suitable should be placed there, and Ceri had told him to grow a pair, which was unfair given that she knew he was a fairly well-endowed Devos. He was sitting there because he was her appointee, like Jubilia, and she wanted people there she trusted, and because, ‘I say so. Any questions?’ There had not been.
    Beside Jubilia was Ignash, looking far happier than Torn, but not eating. Surface food disagreed with him, apparently. He had a supply of fish with him which he would take some of later. She knew he was quite anxious to get back into his nice, dark, deep water as soon as the banquet was over, but she had wanted him at the table, along with Jubilia and Torn, so that everyone else saw that he was currently in the Overlord’s favour.
    ‘You’re going back straight after the meal?’ Jubilia asked.
    ‘Yes. We’ve got things to do tonight… That’s over there night, not here night.’
    ‘It must be a little confusing, but, if you don’t mind me asking, what is it you do?’
    ‘Well, I’m a thaumatologist. I study the theory and science behind magic, but tonight I’ll be running with a werewolf pack, and I moonlight waiting tables at a club.’
    ‘I’m sorry?!’
    ‘You were the owner of a brothel until recently.’
    ‘Ah, well… I just think that, well… I didn’t expect to see a waitress on the throne of the Castle of Bones.’
    ‘You won’t. I’m also the first modern sorceress, the daughter of two of the best enchanters ever, and I come from the bloodline of two of the greatest dragons ever born. I’m pretty much as powerful as any of the Lords even without this crown. Some of them may have more experience, but I know way more about manipulating magic.’
    ‘Oh… Well when you put it like that…’
    Westminster, London, Earth.
    John had expected a different reaction from Gwyn at the sight of the decapitated corpse rather than a contemplative frown. She was supposed to be some distant relative of Ceri’s from Wales. Her Public Practitioner’s Licence said she was Gwyneth Price and he knew that Ceri’s mother had been a Preece before marriage, but there was something… not quite right about her.
    ‘They found bite wounds?’ Gwyn asked.
    ‘A single pair,’ Kate replied. ‘Very clean.’
    ‘Right up until the point he ripped her head off,’ Gwyn said.
    ‘Uh… yeah.’
    Gwyn tightened latex gloves around her wrists and picked up the head, turning it to examine the torn end and either ignoring or not seeing the looks of surprise on the detectives’ faces. She turned the thing in her hands slowly, methodically going over it and showing no signs of discomfort.
    ‘It requires considerable physical strength to manually tear a head from a body