"Holly Lisle - Minerva Wakes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

get into a fight with Mrs. Mindley over Darryl's fucking
Wheaties, and my mind has turned her into a dragon.

The dragon clutched the box against its belly scales with
one wickedly taloned hand and grinned at Minerva, exposing
even more teeth. It definitely had a Mrs. Mindley-ish smile.
Then the dragon dropped the box into its own shopping
cart.

A vision of Darryl deprived of Wheaties danced in front
of Minerva's eyes. Darryl's voice, whining, "Is it such a prob-
lem for you if I ask you to get me a few simple things? Can't
you even take the time to do a little favor for me, when you
linow I'm trying to fake care of myself?" droned through her
memory.

"NO!" Minerva yelled, willing to face down a woman who
made her job hell, or even a real dragon, to avoid that selt-
pitying whine. She grabbed at the cereal box.

Opalescent blue-green fingers gripped viselike around
her wrist, and a sub-bass voice rumbled in her ear, "MINE."

As abruptly as that, she found herself sitting on a bruised
rump on the cold tile floor, staring up at the dragon's reced-
ing sapphire-blue back as it strolled casually down the aiiile-
That. lady, is one hell of a muscular hallucination, she
told herself.

The dragon and its shopping cart made two stops. Ifs get-
ting Pop Tarts and Instant Breakfast, Minerva noted,
bemused. Then it turned the comer, and disappeared.

Taking the Wheaties with it.

"Darryl, there was this dragon in the supermarket today,
and it snatched the only box of'Wheaties out of my hfind and
wouldn't give it back," Minerva imagined herself saying.
Right. Darryl will love that. I could save myself a lot of time
by going to the Emergency Room and. telling them the saiw
thing. They could check me into a padded room in a hum/.

6 Holly Lisle

A padded room seemed like a nice idea. It would be a
quiet room, with people to take care other, round-the-clock
tranquihzers, no responsibilities, no hassles, no chores. It
was obviously something she needed, something she'd been

building up for.