Playing with Fire

I awoke confused, the echoes of an alarm followed by a man’s voice piercing my uneasy slumber.

The door was just closing as I sat up and shook the hair from my face. ‘‘Gabriel?’’

Our room was empty, but judging by the shouts filtering up from the floor below, I gathered others were up and about.

A woman’s scream drifted up. I leaped out of bed, jerked on a pair of pants and a shirt, and went racing barefoot down the hall to the stairs.

Cyrene stood midway down the stairs, holding a blanket around her much as I had a few hours before. Behind her, with his back to me, Kostya stood, clutching her tightly to him. I suspected that from the way everyone else present stood as still as statues on the floor below, he held some sort of a weapon on Cy.

‘‘I’m in deadly earnest, Gabriel. Your mate may be immortal, but even she won’t be able to long survive a neck slit from ear to ear.’’

I shadowed, not waiting to find out why Kostya believed Cyrene was me, creeping down the stairs until I was within a hairsbreadth of him. It was morning, but a dull, overcast morning, and the chandelier that hung from the ceiling above the stairs hadn’t been turned on. No one saw me until I was just behind Kostya.

‘‘Mayling, no!’’ Gabriel yelled, leaping toward me.

Kostya realized his mistake too late, half spinning around toward me as Cyrene lunged forward, tripped over her blanket, and hurtled down the stairs to the floor below.

I threw myself on Kostya, my thumbs digging into the pulse points on his neck. Cyrene screamed as Gabriel caught her. I didn’t get to see more than him setting her abruptly aside before Kostya swore and swung around, slamming me into the wall and knocking the breath out of me.

Gabriel’s roar of fury rattled the windows. I’m just about completely certain that if he had made it to Kostya, he would have ripped the latter’s head off, but fortunately for us all, Drake’s two bodyguards grabbed Gabriel before he could enact his rage.

Drake himself jerked me from Kostya’s grip, pinning his brother to the wall, ably assisted by a snarling Jim.

‘‘This will cease now!’’ Drake bellowed, sharing his glare between his brother and Gabriel.

‘‘Do not interfere in matters concerning my mate,’’ Gabriel growled, his normally lovely voice pitched low with warning as he struggled with the two green dragons.

‘‘I would not dream of doing anything of the kind, but this attack was not prompted by May. Kostya, if you do not behave in a civilized manner, I will allow Aisling to perform as many wards upon you as she can think of, and she has become quite inventive the last few months.’’

Kostya spat out what I assumed were some nasty oaths, but ceased fighting his brother’s hold. I shook the stars from my eyes and ran down the steps to Gabriel, wrapping my arms around him both for comfort and to keep him from attacking Kostya.

‘‘If I said this was getting old, would anyone pay attention to me?’’ Aisling asked as most of the occupants in the room-the dragon occupants-stood seething and glaring at one another.

‘‘No,’’ Gabriel answered at the same time Drake did.

‘‘Well,’’ she said with an injured sniff, ‘‘it is. I’m certainly getting tired of the dragon brand of testosterone, and I imagine May and Cyrene are as well.’’

Gabriel’s muscles relaxed slightly, enough that he slid his arms around me. ‘‘Your brother-in-law seems to make a habit of assaulting my mate, Aisling. I will not tolerate that.’’

‘‘You began this when you stole my phylactery!’’ Kostya yelled, shoving his brother aside. ‘‘The black dragons will regain that-’’

‘‘Oh, no,’’ Jim moaned, shaking its head. ‘‘He’s gone off on his Braveheart speech again.’’

‘‘-which we once held but was taken from us.’’ Both green dragons instantly leaped in front of him as Gabriel tried to move me out of the way.

‘‘Aisling’s right,’’ I said, digging in my heels to keep him standing still. ‘‘This is getting old.’’

‘‘We will face death to restore to the sept the pride, the glory, the true essence, of what it once was!’’ Kostya yelled.

I gave him a look so sharp it should have drilled a hole in his head. ‘‘Are you through now? Good. I think we need to have a talk, Gabriel. All of us. Without anyone assaulting anyone.’’

‘‘Amen,’’ Aisling said. ‘‘Jim, escort Kostya to the living room. If he makes any sort of move toward Gabriel or May, take him down.’’

‘‘You got that, bad boy?’’ Jim said, nudging the back of Kostya’s leg. ‘‘I’m going straight for the noogies, too. Just so you know.’’

The look Kostya shot the demon was almost comical in its indignation, but I didn’t feel much like laughing. It took a few minutes more of cajoling, reasoning, and outright threats from Aisling before the entire party was settled in a pleasant living room.

‘‘May is absolutely right. We need to have a talk, but since Drake has been nagging me to learn to delegate-’’

‘‘I do not nag,’’ Drake interrupted, a thin trickle of smoke emerging from his nostril as he shot his wife a quelling look. ‘‘I am a dragon. We do not nag. We suggest.’’

‘‘As Drake has been suggesting quite heavily, in a repeated fashion that would be nagging in anyone else, that I share tasks with others, I am more than happy for May to take the lead here.’’

‘‘Me?’’ I asked, startled into sitting up straight. I’d been snuggled up against Gabriel, the two of us and Cyrene sharing a couch across from Aisling, who was curled up next to Drake. The two bodyguards leaned against the wall behind them, their faces wary as they alternated between watching Gabriel and Kostya.

The black dragon paced back and forth in front of the windows, reminding me of a caged panther I’d seen in a tired traveling circus many decades before.

‘‘Why me?’’ I asked.

‘‘Well… it really is your show. Gabriel’s and yours, that is, but since Gabriel looks like he could happily murder Kostya, you’re clearly the one to take the lead. Don’t worry, we’ll ride shotgun.’’

‘‘Yeah. Shotgun,’’ Jim said, narrowing its eyes at Kostya.

‘‘All right,’’ I said after a moment’s thought. ‘‘I think the first question that needs to be answered is, where are Maata and Tipene?’’

Kostya made a show of sighing. ‘‘I told you I do not know where they are. I have not taken them.’’

‘‘We only have your word that you didn’t,’’ I pointed out.

‘‘You have no proof otherwise,’’ he snapped back.

I thought about that a moment, then admitted, ‘‘He has a point.’’

‘‘He lies,’’ Gabriel said.

‘‘Unless we find some proof to the contrary, I don’t see that standing here arguing about it is going to get us any closer to finding your guards,’’ I said.

‘‘He must have taken them. No one else would,’’ Gabriel insisted.

‘‘I did nothing!’’ Kostya bellowed.

‘‘I think we will come back to that point,’’ I said after the echoes died down. ‘‘The next question is whether the man named Porter is in your employ.’’ I had a hard time figuring out why Kostya would hire me to steal something he already held, but I figured we needed to exclude as many possibilities as we could.

‘‘Who?’’ Kostya asked.

I looked at Gabriel. ‘‘Truth or lie, do you think?’’

Kostya made a wordless noise of displeasure that I would call his statement into question.

‘‘Truth, I’m afraid,’’ Gabriel said with reluctance.

‘‘I second that,’’ Aisling said. ‘‘I’m pretty good at telling when people are lying, and Kostya isn’t. Not that he usually does,’’ she added quickly at a sharp look from her brother-in-law.

‘‘I agree with the consensus,’’ I said. ‘‘The next question concerns the phylactery.’’