By Fairy Means or Foul: A Starfig Investigations Novel(71)

“Not without a resident’s permit. I know.” I smiled at my father. He stared me down, then sighed.

“You can’t be serious. First, you took a bed slave and now you want a pet demon?”

“I’m nobody’s pet, sir.” Bill grimaced and straightened his bowtie. “I’d like to be Twig’s assistant. He’s been looking for some help.”

“You, shut it.” My dad glared at Bill, then switched to me. “And you . . .”

Maybe it was a good thing my father ran out of words? Somehow I didn’t think so. “Look, I know it’s unorthodox. And I know you’re worried about your precious reputation, but Bill saved my life. He’s willing to abide by the rules of Lovely Creatures Guild—I’m assuming that’s where you’ll place him, right? And he’ll even sign a contract to that effect. All he wants is a chance to spend some time here. He won’t hurt anyone.”

“He ate your brother!”

“Well, I mean, anyone else. And there were extenuating circumstances.”

“I should banish him back to his realm after I’ve flayed all the skin from his body and ground his bones to dust. You realize this?”

“I guess it depends how you choose to see it. Yeah, you lost a son, but you also kept one. Believe me, Nyx wasn’t planning to let me live. So, if you banish Bill, you should probably banish me too.” I sure hope he didn’t take me up on it. Bill gripped my arm, but I shook him off.

My father actually looked pained for a second before his face smoothed back into its normal disapproving lines. “If I help him stay, I want you to agree to attend Lighthelm City Council meetings. You’ll run for a seat when the board has an opening.”

I grimaced. I hated the City Council. Snoozeville. Not to mention several of the members were prominent Alphae. In other words, so insufferably full of themselves they sucked all the air out of a room. Ugh. Bill better appreciate the huge sacrifice I was making on his behalf. I wasn’t sure whether him saving my life was worth attending those meetings. But maybe I could take him with me? Hmmm.

“Well?” My father said.

“You’ve got a deal.”

He smirked. “Good. The next meeting is in two weeks. I’ll expect you to be there. In the meantime, I’ll file temporary permit 980d until I can get the RP480d paperwork in order. That should take some time, but I’m sure I could manage to get you his permit, say, the night after the meeting.”

“You already filed the temporary permit, didn’t you?”

My father’s eyes glinted. He snapped his fingers and the signed permit appeared. “Of course.”

I’d been had. Bill sucked in a shocked breath. “Don’t worry, Bill. Just another day in the Starfig household. My father is a master manipulator.”

“No need for flattery, dear boy.” My dad beamed, magnanimous now that he’d gotten what he wanted. Fuck. Did the guy even care that Bill ate his son? I’d probably never know. And now I was obligated to attend City Council meetings. In the short time since my dad appeared, today went from good to crappy. I don’t know why I was surprised. Things never went well when more than one Starfig occupied a room. At least he wasn’t suggesting I try for a High Council post. Then again, to do so, I was required to serve on at least one other governing board first. Like the City Council. Ugh.

“What about Pie? Does he need a permit?”

“I assume you mean the bird?” My father’s voice was long suffering.

“He’s a parrot.”

“He’s a ghost.”

“I noticed.”

“Don’t get smart with me, Twig. I’m already going out on a limb for you. To answer your question, he’s dead, so no permit required. I don’t suppose you’re going to exorcize him? Ashes to ashes and all that.” He must have seen my look of horror. Exorcism destroyed a ghost’s essence. “No, of course you’re not. Always were too soft.”

My dad snapped his fingers again and a scroll appeared: a contract that would keep Bill from breaking the Lovely Creatures rules. Most of us signed some sort of agreement, but I knew this one would be magically binding and that my dad would add more safety clauses than a normal contract. Any attempt to violate it would not go well for Bill.

“Last chance to turn back, Bill,” I joked. Sort of. I’d be hesitant to sign it, that’s for sure.

He pulled out his quill and smiled. “I can’t believe it! This is a dream come true.”

“Sign here. In blood, demon.” My father pointed to half a dozen places in the document, his eyes so cold I couldn’t believe Bill wasn’t shivering. Then again, he wore his sweater vest.

Bill swallowed hard, but took his time to read over the document. He ran a claw over his palm and when a thin line of black appeared, he dipped his quill in it and then signed ‘Bill’ in a big loopy scrawl.

“Twig, I expect you to be responsible for him. Any indiscretion—I mean, any—and we’ll be having another talk. We clear?”

I nodded, clenching my teeth not to say something sarcastic to the man who sired me, but who seemed only to care how he could use me to consolidate his power base.

“And demon . . .” My father’s mouth drew back in a snarl. “We aren’t done yet. You took my son from me. I won’t forget.”