“Are you all right?” Aisling asked, bending over me as I sat trying to catch my breath. “Are you hurt? Does anything feel wrong with you? Did he touch you?”
I shook my head, giving a wan smile when Kostya knelt beside me, pulling me to his chest. “No. I just feel… drained. A little weak. I’ll be all right in a few seconds.”
Kostya stared over my head at the man, then looked down at me. “Why?” he asked.
“Why?” I parroted.
He closed his eyes for a second, squeezing me so tight it was almost painful before letting me go and giving me a little shake. “Why did you summon the most powerful demon lord who has ever lived?”
“Huh?” I looked over at the man in the circle.
His smile grew.
“She summoned Bael,” Aisling said, slumping against Drake. “And after all the trouble it took to banish him to the Akasha.”
Seventeen
The man who stood in the circle—and who evidently went by the name of Bael—had wavy blond hair and a tiny little toothbrush mustache and wore a dark navy suit. He also had black eyes, not dark like Kostya’s, but black, utterly void of color. They were also the coldest eyes I’ve ever seen, without the slightest hint of humanity in them. Just looking at his eyes made me feel as if little bits of my soul were being torn off and dissolved into nothing.
Kostya took me by the arms and glared down at me, his eyes bright with all sorts of emotions, but unfortunately, pleasure at seeing me wasn’t uppermost. “What have you done?”
“It wasn’t me! It was the ring.”
“You summoned Bael!”
“The ring did,” I started to say, but had to stop because one thing Dr. Barlind was very big on was not lying to oneself. “All right, I did, but I didn’t mean to. I was trying to break the curse.”
“You are not a Charmer,” Drake said, his frown identical to Kostya’s. I wanted to point that out to Aisling, because I had an idea she’d enjoy that fact as much as I did, but I figured now was not the time. “You cannot break curses by yourself.”
“It would have been nice if someone had pointed that out before I tried,” I said dryly.
“It’s my fault,” Aisling said, gesturing toward me. “I egged her on. I thought maybe if Aoife focused, the power of the ring would be enough. I didn’t imagine that she would end up getting… him.”
I avoided looking at Bael. “I’m really getting tired of always being the one who asks the questions, but I’m going to have to do it again. Who’s Bael?”
“I am Bael,” the blond man said, giving me a little bow. “I am the premiere prince of Abaddon.”
“Was,” Aisling said quickly. “You aren’t the premiere prince anymore. In fact, you’re not even a demon lord anymore. All your legions were absorbed by Asmodeus, or so I was told.”
“You should not believe all that you hear, Guardian,” he told her with a smile.
Aisling pressed closer to Drake in response.
I realized at that moment that Bael hadn’t moved from the spot and that he was, in fact, being held within Aisling’s invisible circle.
“WHAT IS THIS?”
The bellow came from behind us.
Jovana stomped forward at such a speed that Guillaume had to trot to keep up with her. “I come out to tell you that the Charmer you wished me to contact has informed me she is on her way here only to discover this! Why is Bael in my club? Why is he in Paris? Who summoned him from the Akasha?”
She turned her eyes to Aisling, who held up a hand. “Not it.”
“Then it must have been you!” Jovana said, swiveling to shoot laser beams from her eyes at me. Or at least that’s what it felt like.
“I didn’t mean to!” I protested, simultaneously worried and annoyed. “It’s not like I deliberately set out to summon this dude.”
“Bael,” he corrected, frowning a little as he examined the floor around him.
“I mean, I don’t even know who he is.”
“I just told you who I am.” He glanced over to Kostya, coolly examining him before moving on to Jovana. “A mage? This is who you chose to replace you as Venediger?” He shook his head. “And I worked so hard to take that position from you. Ah, well.”
“I sense there is more going on than I’m going to be able to put my brain around,” I said somewhat sadly.
“We have a bit of a history,” Aisling said, her voice devoid of its normal warmth. She held on to Drake’s arm as she spoke, her eyes narrowed on Bael. “He’s the one who tricked me into becoming a prince of Abaddon.”
I stared at her for a moment, then shook my head. “Nope. Sorry. I’ve reached maximum capacity of things I don’t know, and I just can’t handle one more thing.”
“I dunno,” Jim said, shaking in a manner that sent both slobber and dog hair flying over to splatter on Bael’s legs. “You seem to me to have an infinite capacity for stuff you don’t know.”
“Silence, demon,” Aisling and I both said at the same time. We looked at each other, then giggled for a moment before Jovana reminded us that the situation was not one at all conducive to such things.
“Just what are you going to do about this?” she demanded to know, her arms tight across her chest. The look with which she pinned me back just about stripped the hair right off my head. “I insist that you remove this… this…”
“Prince of Abaddon,” Bael supplied.
“… former demon lord from these premises, and from all of Europe. We have enough trouble from Abaddon thanks to you dragons, and I simply will not have any more of my people adversely affected by your battles.”
“Holy garbanzo beans, lady!” My patience snapped, and I found myself standing toe-to-toe with Jovana, Kostya’s fire whipping around me in a spiral up my body. “I didn’t summon him on purpose, okay? And if you don’t like him here so much, then you have my blessing to send him back to this Akasha place.”
“Me?” She sniffed and stepped back one step when the dragon fire got a bit too close to her. I patted it out, not wanting to make the situation worse. “I cannot do that.”
“Why not? I thought you were almighty and powerful?”
She gave me a look that I’d seen all too frequently in the last few days, one that said I should have known better. “I do not have that sort of power.”
“No, she does not,” Bael said, standing up. He had squatted down to examine the floor more closely, an act I thought was strange until I realized that he was looking at Aisling’s circle. It really must be keeping him confined, a fact that made me relieved. Worry about just who and what Bael was had been growing to the point where I was now certain I had just done something seriously bad.
“Call whoever you must,” Jovana said, giving me a glare before spinning around and marching to the back rooms. “But I want Bael out of my club in no more than five minutes. Make it happen, or pay the price of your folly, and I assure you, it will not be a price you will recover from.”
I shivered at the threat that lay behind her words. The power snapped off of her, leaving the room filled with a charge.
“Wow. You pissed off the Venediger first time you met her. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.”
I made a face at Jim. “I thought you had your brain wiped? Why is it you know about the Venediger?”
“I’m not stupid,” he said, grinning. “I told you that I asked questions. Learned a lot in the last few days.”
“Can you do something about him?” I asked Aisling.
“Jim? I can order him to silence.”
“No, Bael.”
She pursed her lips for a few seconds. “I’m a pretty good Guardian, but even I would probably have trouble banishing him to the Akasha on my own. There’s Nora, I suppose.” We both watched Bael, who was stretching his arms out in first one direction, then another, once again obviously testing the bounds of Aisling’s circle. He seemed to have no trouble getting his arms past the boundaries, but I couldn’t help but notice that his feet never left the circle. “Nora
’s my Guardian mentor, Aoife. She’s very smart and has been of much help to me, although I’m not sure that even she and I together would be strong enough to banish Bael.”
“You wouldn’t,” he said, still testing the limits of the circle.
“Confine him, yes. But send him back to the Akasha…” She looked at Drake, who shook his head.
“I would not want you to try without much assistance. It would be dangerous for you and the child.”
“Well, I don’t know this Nora person, but I do know that I’m right here, and I have a ring that evidently can do things that are pretty outstanding. Kind of.” I took a deep breath and summoned up a smile for everyone but Bael. “How about we join forces? If I managed to summon him all by myself, then I’m sure if we pool our powers, we can send him back from whence he came.” I left Kostya’s side and marched over to Aisling, my hand with the ring outstretched toward her.
“I don’t think so,” she said, but stopped before continuing, giving the ring a doubtful glance.
“It’s worth a try, isn’t it? I mean, if everyone is saying it’s going to be super difficult to send him back—”
“Impossible is, I believe, the word you seek,” Bael said, his voice bland, but a little wave of anticipation seemed to ripple out from him.
“I suppose so,” Aisling said.
“I do not like this,” Drake said, facing her.
“Nor do I,” Kostya agreed, giving me yet another frown. “It is too dangerous for Aoife. I will not have her risking damage to herself simply to oblige us.”
“I’m the one who summoned this guy,” I pointed out.
He turned to me, putting his back to the others. There was a look in his eyes that melted me into a puddle of love-struck goo. Oh, he was still frowning—I doubted if he’d lose that for a very long time. But his eyes were soft with emotion, deep emotion, one that made me feel like I was standing in a field on a hot summer’s day. “I will not have you in danger,” he said softly, so that only I could hear. “I would be upset should anything happen to you.”
I swallowed back a sudden lump in my throat, wanting to tell him what was in my heart. I hesitated for a few seconds, unsure of what his reaction would be, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I stepped forward, tilting my head to brush my lips against his, whispering, “I love you, Kostya the black dragon. I love you when you frown, and I love you when your eyes light up so it looks like stars against the velvety night sky, and I love you when you’re stubborn and annoying and I just want to whomp you. And I’m beginning to believe I couldn’t survive without you, too.”
His eyes widened, and he slid a glance over my shoulder toward his brother, who was arguing in an undertone with Aisling. “You choose now to tell me this?”
“You started it. Besides, I thought you’d like to know,” I said, smiling and rubbing my nose against his. “I just want you to know that you can scowl all you want; you can stomp around and be grumpy as hell—”
“Abaddon!”
“Stop listening, Jim. You can argue with me, and make me insane with lust, and cling to the wounds that I know still hurt deep inside you, but nothing is going to change the fact that I love you, wholly and utterly.”
His jaw worked for a moment; then he grabbed me by the hips and pulled me up tight against his body, saying just before he stole all my breath in a kiss that damned near set the whole building alight, “You have the worst sense of timing of any woman I’ve ever met, and you’re going to drive me mad, if I’m not already, but I’ll fight to the death anyone who thinks he can touch my mate.”
The heat from his kiss seemed to sear my blood, making my whole body tingle with desire and need and a whole lot of love, all dusted over lightly with the purest lust. Joy filled me, my heart singing a hallelujah at the knowledge that there really was a person in the world for whom I was meant, and who, despite his protests, was wholly mine, heart, soul, and body.
I told him how much that meant to me, how I would always cherish him, and protect him, and give him the love that he so badly needed. I promised to always be faithful and that I would move heaven and earth to make sure his life was a happy one. I swore that I would love him until the end of my days. I spoke not in words, but in the love that flowed from everything that I was, merging with his fire, which I directed back at him.
He was everything to me, and I knew at that moment that all the hell I’d been through had been worth it just to make sure I was there to bring Kostya back from the dark place he’d lived in for so long.
It was a wondrous moment, a profound realization of not just the meaning of love, but our place in the world. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long-lived.
“Really, is this what I can expect from you? I had hoped for something a bit more entertaining,” Bael drawled in a voice that fairly dripped boredom.
“I hear ya,” Jim agreed. “Slick’s just got his hands on her ass. It’s much hotter when he’s groping booby, and she has her hands heading for his zipper.”
“That is not what I meant, demon. You, Guardian. Release me from this circle.”
“Jim, will you stop staring at Kostya and Aoife? They’re in love and allowed to do things like that. Although, good heavens, Kostya, really?”
“Hoobah! Now that’s what I’m talking about. He’s going to do the nasty right here in front of us!”
The words filtered through the emotions that swamped me, and the need I had to get Kostya to the nearest bed so I could do all the things that filled my mind, and I realized that somehow, I had managed to wrap my legs around his hips and was pulling on his hair in a demand for more… more fire, more of his kisses, more of everything he was… just more.
I pulled my lips from his, blushing wildly when I realized that everyone (except Bael) was staring at us.
“Oh. Um. Sorry. We got a bit carried away,” I said, tapping Kostya on the shoulders so he would let me down. He looked like he was going to refuse but, in the end, sighed and allowed me to slide down his body until my feet were on the floor again.
I couldn’t help but notice that the ring was charged up, glowing slightly and feeling extraordinarily warm and heavy on my finger. At least I wouldn’t have to work up some emotions to get it to do what I wanted.
“Aoife is in love with me,” Kostya told Drake and Aisling by way of an explanation. “It is only natural that she wishes to express her affection for me.”
I reached around him and pinched him on his (adorable) behind. “You’re not supposed to go blabbing that to everyone!”
“Why not?” He looked genuinely puzzled. “You just got done declaring your love for me. You can’t have changed your mind so soon.”
I looked silently at him for a minute, then turned to Aisling. She pointed at Drake. “Blame him.”
“I am blameless in this,” Drake said calmly. “Kostya’s relationships with his women have nothing to do with me.”
“Except when you insisted on stealing them from me,” Kostya told him with a curl of his lip.
“I have never stolen a woman from you—”
“Paris, 1672. The barmaid with the red hair. She wanted to bed me, but you seduced her in the passage outside my door.”
Drake became absorbed in picking a microscopic bit of fluff from his sleeve.
“Reeeeally,” Aisling said, giving him a look that warned she would have more to say about that at a later date.
“Not to mention Ireland in 1711, when I was partaking of the dairy maids at a farm. I was all set to enjoy myself with the ripest of the maids, when you showed up, and not a single maid would give me a look after that. And then there were the triplets in Bavaria—”
“You know, I don’t think this is having the effect you’re hoping it will,” I told Kostya, my arms crossed as I considered punching him. “Assuming you’re trying to prove that you have suffered romantic disappointments over the years. It’s just making me a bit ragey, to be honest.”
“Did you believe me to be chaste be
fore I met you?” Kostya asked me.
Drake choked on the word. Aisling had to pat him on the back in order to get him to stop.
“Of course not, no more than you believe I never had sex before I met you. But you don’t see me trotting out a list of every single man I’ve slept with, do you?”
His eyes narrowed. “How many men were there?”
“That, sir, is none of your business. Or at the very least, it’s a subject for discussion at another time.”
“I wish to know their names,” Kostya said. “You told me about the one who was so stupid as to spurn you, but now I wish to know the others who did not.”
“Oh, come on,” I said, distracted enough by Kostya’s ridiculous demand to ignore Bael for a few minutes. “I appreciate the fact that you think being jealous is going to make me all swoony, but it’s hardly realistic.”
“Oh, Lord,” Aisling said, giving her husband a weary look. “I’m afraid to tell you, Aoife, these guys don’t think anything is at all wrong with going after exes. I had to put down my foot with Drake—he wanted to take out my ex-husband.”
“The beach bum,” Drake said, his eyes glittering wickedly. “I should have done as I desired; he would not then have been able to pester you with repeated demands for money.”
“I told you, sweetie—murdering mortals is illegal, and I refuse to break it to the twins that their daddy is in jail because he got bent out of shape about a man who has meant nothing to me for more than ten years.”
“You see?” Kostya told me. “There are valid reasons why I should have the information about your former lovers.”
Drake nodded. “It is your right to locate and eliminate them.”
“It is not… Oh, this is silly. I’m not going to continue the conversation. We strayed from the initial point, which was the fact that you blathered to everyone that I have nice feelings for you.”
“Like I said, blame Drake,” Aisling said, and when her husband protested again, added, “Or rather, blame his family. The men all think it’s just fine and dandy to have women madly in love with them without once bothering to tell us that they reciprocate the emotion.”