Jillian informed him that he was not expected to work when Cordelia couldn’t work, and he wasn’t expected to do random League chores to justify his pay. They were a tandem team, she said, and their work was hazardous enough. For her part, Cordelia hadn’t budged from her trailer over the past few days, and he found that he missed her more than he should. While he was certainly attracted to her, something about Cordelia Canton touched something deep inside of his cold, dead heart—which was amazing, since the girl barely touched anything. He could attribute it to her vulnerability, he supposed, and her willingness to trust him enough to kiss him, or maybe it was that they seemed to understand each other, the burden of their gifts and what it took to make a life with them. She’d had such a strange life, but had somehow made the best of it. She’d become a mostly-functional adult and he had to admire the mettle that it had taken to go through all that and remain as kind as she was.
…And he was mooning. Mooning was never an attractive quality in a man. He’d lived with enough O’Connor women to have that drummed into his head.
So without beer to properly lubricate his time off, he headed to the Mystic Bayou Public Library, braving the hostility of a cranky dragon librarian lady. The grand local book depository certainly put his own hometown library to shame, and not just because it was stocked with everything from mass-market fiction to scrolls stored in a caged-off section marked “The Wisdom of Alexandria.” Incredibly comfortable red chairs contrasted with gold-painted walls, hung with tapestries that might have come from actual medieval castles. The oak shelves, intricately carved with leaves and tiny acorns, stretched from the floor to the thirty-foot ceilings. But the stained-glass windows were the real eye-catcher, each of them hand-tinted and hand-set like enormous jewels. The windows depicted famous dragons in literature, though the stories were twisted decidedly in the dragons’ favor. The dragon stood victorious, one of his red-scaled feet firmly planted on St. George’s corpse. Alice fled Wonderland with the Jabberwocky in pursuit.
He pulled a number of delightfully worn canvas-covered tomes from the shelves and burrowed in, luxuriating in his choices for check-out. And while he was tempted by the latest James Patterson and a very old history of ancient Celtic kings, in the end, the windows influenced his selections and he checked out the entirety of the Lord of the Rings series.
“Don’t know how I feel about League personnel checking out my books,” the librarian, Bardie Boone, grumbled when he presented his League ID in lieu of a library card.
“I thought the books belonged to the library,” Brendan noted, with his cheekiest grin. Wrinkled and slightly stooped, Bardie Boone appeared to be entirely non-charmable with her iron-gray hair twisted into a tight bun and her thin lips painted an un-smiling blood-red.
“Are you trying to test me, bansidhe?” she asked, giving a pointed look to the window depicting Hobbit tartare.
“Of course not, ma’am, that would be foolish,” Brendan replied.
“You tell that nephew of mine that his interlibrary loan is here, though it pained me to even file such a silly request,” Bardie said.
“I’m sorry, who’s your nephew?” Brendan asked.
She sniffed. “You’ll find out soon enough. Dragons have a way of knowing things.”
She dismissed him with a wave of her bony hand. He walked out of the library muttering to himself, “Fecking weird.”
When he arrived at his doorstep, the burly mayor was sitting on his front stoop with Dr. Will Carmody stood on his little lawn, checking his phone. They had several six-packs of (sigh, American) beer between them.
Zed Berend, looking far more relaxed than any man should while reclining on someone else’s porch, slid his sunglasses up into his unkempt hair. He eyed the library books in Brendan’s hands, shaking his head. “You have a day off and you went to the library?”
“I like to read. Never been a Netflix guy. And I didn’t know to expect company,” he said. “Nice to see you again, Doctor.”
“I just stopped in to do a follow-up with Cordelia, and these two delinquents pulled me into a conversation on my way back. It happens more often than I care to admit.”
Brendan glanced at the bald man. “Am I in some sort of trouble?”
“Oh, no,” the sheriff said, raising his hands. “Not from me. I’m Bael Boone, local sheriff and Jillian’s mate. She thought I should stop by and say hi, since we didn’t get to meet the other night.”
“The dragon!” Brendan exclaimed. “I’ve always wanted to see one of your kind in full form. You made quite the impression at the Halloween party.”
Bael shrugged. “The kids always seem to like it.”
Brendan turned to Zed. “And you?”
“Honestly, my maman is worried about you and Cordy. She thinks you need friends,” he said, rising to his feet, towering over even Brendan’s considerable height. “And I was going to disagree with her until I saw you holding library books.”
“I don’t need your pity, but I suppose I’ll accept the beer. Come on in.”
“So, this is what these things look like on the inside,” Zed said as they followed him into his little living room. Zed whistled as he scanned the bland interior. “Creepy.”
“You live in an actual cave,” Will reminded him.
“It’s a recreated cave. And it has cable,” Zed countered.
“I have cable,” said Brendan. “I just don’t like American TV.”
Zed clutched at his chest. “I’m going to forget you said that, for the sake of our budding friendship.”
“That’s fine, because we’re not really friends,” Brendan told him. He crossed to his kitchen and pulled a bag of crisps from his cupboard. His mother would have been ashamed of him if he didn’t offer the guests something, even if they were uninvited and brought American beer. He put a bowl of crisps on the table with some pretzels, while the others made themselves comfortable. Suddenly, the librarian’s strange comment sprung to Brendan’s mind.
“Any chance you’re related to Bardie Boone?” he asked Bael.
“I’m related to every Boone in town. She’s a sort of great-aunt, twice removed,” he said.
“Well, she said to tell you that your interlibrary loan just came in…” Brendan paused, not sure how to say the rest. “And that she was embarrassed to even file the request.”
Bael groaned and covered his face with his hands while Zed spat a portion of his beer back in the bottle.
“I thought it was a perfectly reasonable title to read, given the situation,” Will told him, patting his shoulder.
“Was it an…erotic interlibrary loan request?” Brendan asked.
Zed threw his head back and guffawed, which only made Bael groan.
“It was What to Expect When You’re Expecting an Egg,” Bael said. “It’s written for mothers of dragon shifters, and since there aren’t any books for hybrid shifter pregnancies, I thought it would be the best guide.”
“For you,” Zed said. “Because Jillian’s done all her own research and homework and has a binder that she made herself.”
“Don’t pretend the idea of Dani being pregnant doesn’t completely terrify you,” Bael shot back.