Dashing Devil Omnibus 1: Books 1-3, page 108
She turned to Mindy. “What did they do to you, anyway?”
“Oh, it wasn’t just what they did to me—or only the things they did to me. Some of them just thought very unkindly of others. The ‘small dick’ guy tried to rape a girl, got fought off, but managed to talk his way out of it. I put together a little list of the worst of them.” Mindy turned to Tinker. “It was petty, cheap, and probably wasn’t a very moral use of our Power… but Boyd humored me.
“It felt really good, but we decided to stop after that. We were separated not long afterwards, so that decision was never tested. I think we both learned what we needed to from the experience and were done, though.” She said the last to Boyd.
Boyd agreed, petty revenge like that felt good, but didn’t get you anywhere—like junk food, you should only indulge responsibly.
Mindy turned to Silvie before accusing, “Besides, you’re one to talk, little miss ‘sticks and stones’.”
“Huh, what are you talking about?” Silvie asked innocently then waved towards the kitchen area. “Oh look, the food is here!”
Boyd followed the motion to see Daisy flying over, trailing little colorful motes of light from her wings, almost like tiny glowing soap bubbles. Plates and other things floated through the air behind her, bobbing slightly to match the young woman’s flight.
“How is everyone this evening?” Daisy asked with a bright, friendly tone. Her smile looked real enough, even changing the shape of her large iridescent eyes.
Boyd was fairly sure it was at least as practiced as his own.
She didn’t wait for a reply as the plates floated out in front of everyone, settling down to the table. Everyone murmured something polite as a plate of pasta in a white sauce with pre-sliced grilled and seasoned chicken laid across it placed itself in front of them. It was followed by a side salad and two glasses, one prefilled with ice water.
As Daisy set everything out, Boyd wondered where Laura was. Their nurse had disappeared into the clinic and hadn’t been seen since. At lunch, she’d supposedly been inventorying the clinic. Boyd hoped she wasn’t avoiding them.
“Before we start,” Boyd said, turning in his chair to face Daisy and then looking at everyone else, “has anyone seen Laura?”
Mindy nodded. “She came out about ten minutes before you did, talked to Daisy, grabbed a plate, and then headed back to her rooms. That’s where she is now.”
“She said she didn’t want to interfere with your team bonding,” Daisy explained, then shrugged.
“Well, you both should know you are invited to eat with us—the two of you are part of the team, too,” Boyd grumped.
“Though it would probably be best if we started that after this evening,” Silvie smoothly inserted.
“Good. I’ll pass that on,” Daisy replied, then squared her shoulders. “So, tonight we have linguine in a creamy garlic sauce with herb crusted chicken and a side salad. I thought a nice light vinaigrette would be best, but I brought some other options.” Several bottles of various salad dressings settled within reach. “What would everyone like to drink?”
The table went around with their orders. Silvie, Mindy, and Raev all requested red wine, each receiving small bottles with, at most, two servings apiece. Boyd decided to stick with water and received a pitcher. Tinker asked for a canned drink Boyd had seen advertisements for, it was supposed to give you the energy to outlast an S-Ranked Powered’s endurance. Boyd was skeptical after looking at the ingredients—a caffeine and sugar high followed by a crash seemed more likely.
While ordering drinks, he remembered Silvie mentioning Raev wasn’t supposed to have grains. The pasta on her plate looked like the standard grain-heavy stuff. He hadn’t had a chance to look into grain-free alternatives but assumed it would look different. The thought also made him remember that the pizza crust from earlier today had been made from flour dough.
Boyd frowned at his oversight. Daisy had no idea what she was doing, she’d just been dumped into this situation with zero training. Nobody had showed her how to pull up nutritional profiles. He was probably the only one who could have. Not wanting to embarrass Daisy, he decided to wait for her to leave after delivering the drinks to address the problem.
“Raev, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to tell Daisy about you not being able to have grains. I should have caught it with the pizza earlier. Are you feeling alright? Here.” He snagged her plate and transferred his chicken to her plate and her pasta to his.
Raev smiled at him sweetly but had a little amusement in her eyes. “I’m not a huge fan of garlic sauce, so thanks, but I take a pill so I can have all the grains I want. Which is great because I fucking love them—so don’t you dare tell Daisy I can’t have them. You should probably forget I shouldn’t have them, too. Mindy, can you do me a favor and… no?”
Raev asked it as a joke, which was clear, but her choice of humor still earned her a glare from Mindy. “Right. Sorry about that. Even joking about wiping my fiancé’s memories isn’t good. Got it.”
“Fiancé?” Tinker and Mindy asked together.
Silvie’s fork scraped across her plate with a screech that made Raev’s ears go flat and caused everyone to make disgruntled noises.
Raev laughed and shook her head at Silvie before continuing. “It was half a joke. I asked Boyd to marry me in a kidding way because he was onboard with dance practice. I’ve never had a guy that actually seemed into dancing enough to willingly practice with me. But when I asked, he was all like ‘Okay, when did you have in mind?’…” she did this last bit in a Boyd voice.
“Then,” Raev continued, “Silvie got all upset and said marriage should be a group discussion, but as far as I’m concerned, we’re engaged.” She shrugged at the end and popped a piece of chicken in her mouth as if the conversation was over.
Mindy chuckled, shaking her head and giving Boyd a look that clearly said he was a little shit. Then her mental voice carried the words with a laugh into his mind.
Tinker was gaping, looking back and forth from Raev beside her to Boyd, but Silvie had her arms crossed under her chest. She’d opted to put on a knee length dress for dancing after dinner. She leveled an expectant glare aimed straight at Boyd.
Boyd smirked back at Silvie. “I assumed you’d want the whole shebang… fancy dinner, some dancing, maybe a show, and a nice romantic scene that ended with me on one knee and a big ring. If you want something quick and dirty, I could just…” He played at rising from his seat to kneel beside her.
“Wait!” Silvie put both hands, palm out, to stop him. “You’re right. I want all that, Darling. Still… it sucks! How could you be so casual about it?” She pouted at him.
“I believe I’ve explained that I look at the Devotion as marriage.” Boyd shrugged and showed her his warmest smile. “We’re together forever. You’re mine; I’m yours. Unlike a legal marriage, there is no breaking it. That’s the one thing that matters to me. I’ll be happy to do whatever you want, with regard to a legal marriage, or marriages.”
He’d glanced through the plethora of options the night before when he couldn’t sleep. He’d confirmed they had options, and then moved on. “I was casual with Raev because that’s how she feels about it. I strongly doubted she was actually going to push to register our marriage until you were ready. She knows that would hurt you.”
“Yup,” Raev confirmed, wearing a much more serious expression. “I probably should have realized it might be a touchy subject for you and not even joked. Sorry, Babe.”
“She’s earned a little turnabout,” Boyd assured Raev. “I wouldn’t have agreed if it would actually have hurt her. I just wanted her to know what it felt like to have your marriage plans turned on their head.”
He smirked at Silvie who still glared back at him. “Still worried that I got engaged with another woman before you?”
“I know I have like zero right because I literally threw her at you, but yes!” She re-folded her arms and the pout returned.
“Mindy,” Boyd chuckled, “anything you’d like to contribute to this conversation?”
“Uh… no?” She kept her eyes on her plate, carefully cutting a piece of chicken into a smaller piece. ‘You are such a little shit.’ She hissed into his mind.
“What?!” Silvie spun to Mindy so quickly her chair almost toppled over.
Mindy kept her eyes down, pretending not to have heard anything.
Silvie glowered at her for a moment before grumbling, “Only freaking dated for like three months. Older girl taking advantage of a younger boy like that. Sex was one thing, but an engagement? It should be a crime.”
Boyd just chuckled and shook his head. There was a two-year age difference between him and Mindy. No crime had been committed under The Authority’s laws. The engagement wouldn’t have been considered binding and they couldn’t wed for a few years, back when he’d first proposed. Nobody had been taken advantage of at all, things had developed organically. He trusted Mindy not to have messed with his head in that way. She only messed with you for your benefit, not hers.
“Wait! Neither count without a ring!” Silvie insisted after a moment. “There’s gotta be a ring. That’s the rules!”
“What if you don’t like wearing rings?” Mindy asked. “Risky business in our line of work to wear a ring. Punch a bad guy, and you might destroy it.”
Boyd saw where Mindy was going with this and checked his Bond with Silvie. While she was legitimately upset about Boyd being engaged to someone else before her, she also felt silly about it. He decided to handle it in a way that would let Mindy have her fun and probably make Silvie feel pretty good about herself, too.
‘That’s good… better even than what I had planned,’ Mindy commented in his mind, to which he sent a mental thanks.
“That’s a good point. I’m not sure even the really tough ones will work for my punches anymore.” Silvie put her chin in her hand as she contemplated the situation.
Boyd felt Tinker cycle through something like excitement, then concern. He took it to mean that she’d thought of something but wasn’t sure if she should mention it. He looked her way, caught her hazel eye and shook his head slightly.
She nodded just before Silvie thought of something. “I still want a ring for special occasions, but maybe we should make necklaces for daily wear? They might still get broken, but we could wear them inside our suits so it should be pretty safe.”
“Oh, then mine counts,” Mindy said smugly as she flicked the obsidian charm hanging from her choker.
Chapter 32
“I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” Raev entered the conversation.
Sha and Boyd had cleared half their plates already. The pasta was good but was definitely meant to accompany the chicken. It didn’t have a very strong flavor on its own. The double portion of carbs would fill him up, though, that was for sure.
“Is that obsidian?” the kitsune asked.
“It is,” Mindy said, lifting her chin to display her neck, which wasn’t distracting to Boyd. Not at all. He certainly didn’t almost choke on a mouthful of linguine.
“Boyd made it for me for my birthday,” Mindy explained, “but he gave it to me with a promise that we would wed one day. I think he only did it because I mentioned only wanting to sleep with the man I would marry because I thought it would be special, but still. He did promise to marry me when we could, as he gave it to me. He knew I didn’t like rings. I’ve only taken it off a few times when I was forced to since he presented it to me. I even sleep in it.”
“Isn’t that leather? It’s pretty thin, I’m surprised it hasn’t worn out,” Raev’s head tilted to the side and Boyd swore he saw her nose flex a little as she sniffed the air. “No, not leather…”
Mindy reached behind her neck and unclasped it, removing the choker from her neck. She rubbed her uncovered skin with a strange smile. “I literally only take it off to clean and oil it, I even shower in it. Please be careful.”
She rose from her seat to pass it over to Raev, leaning over the table to do so. Which also wasn’t distracting to Boyd. It did take Raev a moment to react, though, as if she might have been distracted by Mindy’s assets leaning over the table like that. Not Boyd, though. Nope.
Raev eventually took the choker gingerly, holding it up and turning it over in her hands. She ran her fingers gently over the crimson interior and he sensed the moment of realization over their Bond.
“That is so fucking hardcore,” she breathed, then her emerald eyes jumped to Boyd. “I want… no, I need one! Pendant optional, whatever you want. You pick the details. Just one of these as soon as you can.” She carefully passed the choker back to Mindy who took it back almost reverently.
Boyd nodded as he started to contemplate a style that would suit his fiery lover. Mindy’s choker was a bit on the thicker side, at an inch. He figured he would likely make Raev’s a bit thinner, maybe half-an-inch. He’d also attach the stones to it directly as opposed to a hanging pendant.
Boyd liked the heart he’d made for Mindy for the symbolism but had been told some women didn’t like them. Maybe just some basic cut stones?
‘That is typically more related to who it is from than the shape itself, I think what you have in mind would be lovely,’ Mindy assured him in his head.
“Is that…from Boyd?” Tinker asked, looking on. She seemed to have already eaten her fill.
“Yes, it’s made from Boyd’s wing,” Mindy answered. “He figured out how to treat and preserve it.”
It really just had to be dried.
“He also carved the pendant by hand. Literally using his fingernails to chip excess material away. I watched him practice, but he was a sneaky little shit and managed to hide why he was doing it from me. He made himself believe it was just something to keep his hands occupied while he was around me.”
“But…” Tinker said, concern in her voice. “Raev, would it be okay if he used something I made instead? I could make it just like his wing leather—down to the cellular level. Just like the new suit I make from your hair. Heck, I can even make it fresh so Boyd can treat it the same way. He just wouldn’t have to cut off a piece of his wing to make it.”
“I mean… I guess,” Raev said with a shrug, but Boyd could tell it would lose some of its significance if he let Tinker do that.
“Tinker, thank you for your concern,” Boyd rumbled after waiting a moment to see if Mindy would take care of it again. He received a vague thought that she didn’t want to get in the habit of solving everything and making everyone dependent on her.
So, he continued, “I would personally prefer to cut a small section away from my wing. I promise you it doesn’t really hurt. I’m not sure what the equivalent would be for you…” Boyd pondered what sorts of pain someone like Tinker would likely be familiar with. “Oh, you’ve probably gotten shots before, right? It hurts me exactly as much as when you get a shot.”
Tinker frowned sternly at him. He sensed mostly concern on their freshly formed Bond, but also a little anger. Part of him wished the Bond was deeper already so he would better understand how to assuage her concerns. He tried to quiet that part of her concerns but found it too difficult. And his other self didn’t want to cooperate on this, either, it seemed. It felt like his other self was insisting that it would be good for her to deal with it on her own, and that Boyd’s delaying deepening their Bond was what was provoking her needless distress.
Boyd was frustrated by his other self because Tinker had clearly stated she wanted to take things a little slower.
“I can help,” Mindy stepped in and said out loud. “Assuming Tinker doesn’t mind me touching both of you at once, I could share Boyd’s memory of the time he made this one,” she held up her choker before putting it back on. “I made him show me because I initially had similar concerns. It’s actually less pain than I personally experience from shots. Like I said, he has a very different relationship with pain than most of us. It’ll be easier to show you than to explain it.”
Tinker peered at Mindy for a moment, making a judgment call.
Boyd felt quite a bit of trepidation coming from her. He knew the two hadn’t gotten off on the best foot but hoped that Tinker would come around to trusting Mindy soon. He knew having a Mind Powered around could be disconcerting, but thinking that she was somehow out to get them was a little paranoid.
Although, he reminded himself that Tinker was being much more of a professional about it than him. A Hero was supposed to be cautious for signs of dissension, even among their own team members—especially amongst their own team. He should be a lot more cautious of Mindy himself, but he just didn’t want to let himself think of her as a potential enemy. Not after he just got her back.
Instead, he was trusting that her side was the right side.
“Okay,” Tinker said after a moment, thankfully coming down on the side of trust.
The process was quick. Mindy asked Boyd to come around to Tinker’s seat with her, then took his hand and put her other hand on Tinker’s shoulder. Tinker made a small hiss then paused as Mindy removed her hand before asking, “Th-that’s it?”
“That’s it,” Mindy said, returning to her seat.
Boyd stayed behind Tinker and very carefully started rubbing her shoulders. She was feeling a little insecure about the conversation. Like everyone was against her—which he needed to rectify because it just wasn’t true.
“That’s not so bad,” Tinker responded thoughtfully.
“Yes,” Mindy agreed. “I wouldn’t let Boyd hurt himself without cause. To me, something symbolic like this is the same as a piercing or a tattoo. The ends justify a little suffering. Raev is like me, wearing a part of Boyd like this has a powerful meaning to me. It’s worth it,” Mindy promised while gently touching the choker secured around her neck.
“Okay. I get it,” Tinker slumped in her seat, but she wasn’t feeling quite as uncomfortable.
