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Pamela stared.
Belus smiled in a manner that was not nearly as charming as he probably assumed.
"My dear Pamela. As they say: 'tis the season."
"You got me some sort of hellhound for Christmas? Which you know very well is not even a holiday I even actually celebrate."
Belus sighed. "It's a perfectly ordinary puppy. You mentioned that you missed Aaron - well, here's his replacement. Even shorter-lived than he was, of course, but then, that simply means that you won't get emotionally attached to it. I felt it was a rather thoughtful gift."
Why me? "Um. You do realize that Aaron was a werewolf? That's not exactly the same as a dog."
Belus gestured dismissively. "Close enough, I'm sure."
"Not really, actually." Pamela looked at the puppy. It probably wasn't anything other than what it looked like, but then, the food in Belial's castle had looked perfectly ordinary as well. Can I still trust my gift where he is concerned? Didn't it work that one time because I wasn't on Earth? "Where did you find him, anyway?"
"It's called a 'pet store', I believe." Belus sounded amused. "Are you going to keep asking me questions until I give you a wrong answer? If so, might we sit down and have something to drink? It might be a while."
"Fine." I suppose it would be nice to have some company again. Someone who knows how to make some really good hot chocolate.
Someone whom I know I can trust, at least most of the time.
Someone other than Belus, in other words.
The puppy looked at her with puppy eyes. "So what made you pick this little guy?"
Belus shrugged. "The shop assistant picked it out for me, after I had informed her of your wishes and characteristics. Apparently, this race is very friendly, easily trained, which I take to mean somewhat lacking in intelligence, and good with both very young humans and very old ones."
Pamela scowled. Belus smiled at her again, and this time, in spite of knowing better, she thought he was almost as charming as he thought he was.
("Be grateful I didn't get you a kitten that's the reincarnation of an ancient vampire king," he said, some time and several questions later.)
("I don't believe they actually sold that in a pet store," Pamela said. "So excuse me if I don't say thank you for that.")
(Belus's smile was a thing of evil, this time around, but it was an achingly familiar, more mischievous than malicious kind of evil. "Next year, then. Or possibly sooner. I did give his current owner your card, so you never know.")