Page 10 of Dragon Her Heels

“It’s solid. I haven’t seen the performance bonus section yet, but I’m the kind who works hard for the money, and performance bonuses make my world go round. If there is a structured performance bonus with quantifiable numbers, preferably in a mix of stocks, bonds, and cash, then I will work above and beyond to earn those bonuses. My previous company did a mix of quantifiable and subjective benchmarks for bonuses.”

“Which is how you earned your current lifestyle. I can send over an updated proposal for the performance bonuses with both quantifiable and subjective listings.”

As my first request had gone over well, I decided to angle for the next problem on my list: the unknown nature of travel and my pay for losing days or weeks of my life. “For the salary offer, a bonus equitable to the number of hours worked for the duration of the trip should suffice to make mandatory travel worth the while. I expect you have this written into the hours offer, but I’ll be blunt: I hate tracking hours outside of mandatory travel. All travel expenses, from hotels to meals, will be your problem rather than mine. On days off while traveling, lodging is the employer’s problem while meals and activities are mine.”

At my past firm, I’d been the foundation in Fort Lauderdale, and while the other secretaries had been dragged on business trips, I’d kept their operations working smoothly. I watched for trouble, and when trouble came calling, I fixed what I could and delegated what I couldn’t handle on my own.

“Consider it done. Anything else?”

“A corporate vehicle available for my use. While generous, that check won’t even come close to the kind of vehicle that dragon will likely need me driving.”

“Done. I see you have been paying attention to the world around you. Good. What do you know about corporate negotiations?”

“I’ve assisted with them. If he wants additional responsibilities added to my list, I will require additional pay, in either the form of a permanent salary increase or issued bonuses for the work completed. If it’s a job that takes an hour, I don’t mind tossing in the freebie every now and then, but I refuse to allow myself to be stepped on.”

“I will add a clause that will allow you to renegotiate the terms of your employment. Will that resolve most matters?”

I flipped through the salary offer, discovering most of it was generic rules of conduct expected of me, which aligned with my previous employer. “This does not have a section for personal relationships within the business, I see.”

“If I barred that in employees I’d hire, I’d run out of employees. For some reason, my employees keep marrying each other. No is a powerful word. Use it. If he doesn’t respect your space, teach him his manners however you see fit before giving me a call, and then I’ll teach him his manners as well.”

Well, that would work. “Put that in writing, and you have yourself a deal, Lucifer. I take it I’m one of your employees rather than his?”

“For now, yes. Should he take over your employment contract, you will have an opportunity to renegotiate. You will also be able to refuse the transfer. I’m handling this on his behalf because modern employment is a bit beyond his knowledge right now. The last time he was awake, his caretaker was ordered to do as told or be eaten. His caretaker did as told. The family died out a few years after the estate you’re living in had been built. The castle has been buried there for over a thousand years. Honestly, the damned thing is likely uninhabitable, so you’ll end up with a house guest.”

“You will pay his rent if he’s living in my house,” I warned him.

“Paying his keep is not a problem, but as it is not tied to your employment, I’ll draw up a leasing arrangement for you. That will keep things legal and cordial.”

“I can work with that. When can I expect the castle’s arrival?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know. As I don’t know, your hiring will happen immediately, and you’ll be free to use your hours as you see fit. I recommend that you work with that feisty filly of yours. Take the time to live for a while.”

That I could do, without hesitation nor regret. “Then I see no reason not to sign. Which envelope has the hourly contract? I’m going to use it to start a fire tonight.”

Lucifer laughed. “The last white envelope has your signing bonus in it, so don’t burn that one. The rest are just other offers, as I didn’t want to peek into the future for this. I prefer to get a feel for people personally. Welcome to the team, Crystal. You’ll only regret it for a little while, then you’ll see you’ve made the best choice of your life.”

* * *

The bonus check made me laugh; the memo indicated, if I wished, I could tear the check up, take a picture of the scraps, and accept a mansion equal to my home located within the depths of Lucifer’s many hells. Without a second thought, I did as told, texted the Devil with the evidence, and swept the debris into my trash can to deal with later.

I’d even flagged it as void before shredding it.

A few moments later, my cell rang.

I answered, laughing as I did so. “Hello, Lucifer.”

“Welcome to hell,” he replied, and like me, he chuckled. “You didn’t even think about it.”

“The dragon is an entity you, my new boss, is paying me to deal with, and it seems sensible to have somewhere close to where you live. Did you already have the place built or is it a work in progress?”

“It’s a work in progress. It’ll be equivalent to your current home, but I’ve found that I have happier minions if they have a chance to express their interests in a home before I start the builds. For the moment, should you need to visit me, you’ll stay in my home. You won’t have to come around often, at least to start with. I’m simply unsure on how long the dragon is going to hide near his sleeping place. Being honest, he’s keeping an old friend company, an old friend who is quite tired. His work has been hard as of late. He’ll be fine, but the dragon brings him peace and companionship in a rapidly changing world. Once he’s ready to be on his own, the dragon will come pay you a visit. For all I know, the pair may even test temporary separation.” The Devil chuckled. “The dragon is sentimental, as is his old friend. Time simply doesn’t pass for them as it does for most mortals. You’ll get used to it. Time isn’t going to pass the same for you, either.”

“Well, I am a hedge witch,” I replied, allowing myself a smile. “I haven’t been sure how much of my general youthful appearance has been due to magic or genetics.”

My mother wasn’t a hedge witch, but her mother had been before fate had twisted and she’d perished in a car crash. I had, upon hearing of the accident, learned an important lesson about the nature of life and death.

Eventually, death came for us all with limited exception.