Lou and Portia exchanged a look, and Portia went on. “Alice Gatlin is a lone witch. Do you know what that means?”
Cooper didn’t like the sound of that at all, so he shook his head. “Judging by the looks on your faces, being a lone witch is not a good thing at all.”
“No,” Portia said. “It’s not a good thing. In fact, witches without covens are rare. They’re also the perfect target for power-hungry covens. Especially since our girl likes to meddle with her substantial powers.”
Cooper narrowed his eyes ever deeper. “What do you mean byshe likes to meddle.”
“It’s simple enough. Whenever someone is negatively affected by the magic cast in the throes of pain, revenge, or just plain old ignorance, Alice does what no other witch in the world would do. She reverses the magic.”
His dragon’s nose fumed with smoke, very much echoing the sentiment he was feeling. Anger. Pure, unadulterated anger mixed with fear. “And just why in the hell does she do that? Why would she put herself in terrible danger like that?”
Portia sighed. “That’s not my story to tell, but you should ask her next time she comes to tend to your wounds. I think you two have a lot in common. You could become fast friends, and you might even be able to help each other out.”
“Yeah,” Cooper nodded along. “I owe her a debt. A life debt.”
The succubus’s smile was a little frightening, but only because Cooper recognized it as the smile of a woman who had a plan that went a bit above and beyond the rules of normalcy. Of course, as a sex demon who ran Lucifer’s resort for him, there was nothing normal about Portia’s life, but that didn’t mean Cooper would be okay with any of her schemes. He had known her long enough to realize that the particular grin on Portia’s face meant trouble.
“A life debt,” Portia exclaimed, smacking Lou’s shoulder playfully.
Cooper had no idea why Portia had brought her favorite and best bartender with her, but there had to be a reason. One that was about to be revealed. If he went along with it. Well, that would remain to be seen. There were limits to what a dragon could do.
“A life debt,” Lou repeated. “How interesting.”
Either Cooper was feverish again, or there were flames dancing in the bartender’s eyes. “Why do you keep repeating that?”
“Because it’s so damn perfect. It’s almost too delicious to put an end to the mystery.” Portia rubbed her hands together. “This is going to be so good.”
“Explain it to the poor boy before he loses his mind,” Lou coaxed.
“Oh, fine. Ruin my fun. As it turns out, Alice is in trouble. That’s why she is here. Of course, I didn’t know that until just now, or else I would have handled your injuries in another way. But that’s the beauty of this. Now you owe her a life debt, and she has to find a way to save her life.”
Cooper sat up with so much speed that he forgot all about his still-healing injuries. “What? Save her life? What’s happened?”
“Alice is injured too. She came here after the third attempt on her life.”
Cooper didn’t have a reaction this time. Not any that would be seen and noticed outwardly. But inside? His dragon was ready to fly right out of there to find whoever had dared to hurt a kind soul like Alice Gatlin.
“Three?” Lou commented with a low whistle. “That sounds terribly scary. But what does that have to do with…“ Lou stopped short, but there were definitely flames in his eyes then. “Oh, Portia, you absolute genius, you. This is such a good idea. Even by your standards.”
Cooper, who was unused to being left out of the conversation, tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed only to feel the world spin. He lay back with an annoyed grunt.
“Easy, dragon,” Portia laughed. “You’re not ready to stand just yet, but it’s not the time to rush to Alice either. This will require a bit more finesse on our end.”
“I almost died yesterday. Spell it out for me.”
“Well, since you owe Alice a life debt, how would you feel aboutsavingher life?”
Cooper grinned. Finally, this was going somewhere. “I would feel very good about that. Very good indeed.”
“Wonderful.” Portia clapped her hands together. “I was so hoping you would say that.”
“This is going to be delicious,” Lou laughed, earning himself a frown from Cooper.
“Why do I suddenly feel like I’ve agreed to way more than I bargained for?” He scratched his head, his left side screaming in protest as the new scar stretched out.
“Oh, that’s because you have,” Lou answered truthfully. He laughed when Cooper’s mouth gaped open. “But don’t worry, darling boy. Portia will take care of you.”
Confused, Cooper shook his head. “What’s going on? Keep in mind that I’m a dragon with a concussion. Do you know how hard it is to give someone like me a concussion? It’s basically impossible. I’m not exactly functioning properly, or I’m sure I would’ve figured out what you’re hinting at.”