“I have done so since we met,” she pointed out, taking back the magazine. “Don’t smear my toenails. I want to look nice when I see my beau.”
I moved my hand away from her foot. “Okay, here goes: do you have a magical ring that can save the world from some bad guy demon lord?”
“I have a shiny, yes. It is my offering to my beau.”
Well, crap. There went my very faint suspicion that Rowan hadn’t been telling me the absolute truth about his interest in Mrs. P. Which just made me feel all the worse for even suspecting such a thing. “And you stole it from this demon lord fellow who is evidently bad news?”
“Bael.” She gave a sniff. “It was not his to begin with, so I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
“I think the fuss is because this ring is a lifesaver. Literally, if Rowan is to be believed, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t believe him. Mrs. P, I told him I wasn’t going to do this, but I’ve changed my mind—you have to give the ring to him.”
“I do not.” She hummed softly to herself as she eyed an article on how to use erotic novels to spice up your love life.
“Let me restate that: you should give it to Rowan. I know you want to give it to your boyfriend—I’m still a bit confused about all that, but we’ll tackle that one another time—but you have to see that the fate of the world is more important.”
She looked up and pinned me back with a stare that should have scared the dickens out of me. Her eyes were brighter than they had been, the soft lighting of the cabin doing much to diminish the wrinkles that beset her face and neck. “If I do not give the shiny to my beau, we will not be able to be together. Nor will he resume his rightful place in the world. We have been separated too long, gel, far too long. I was cast out of the Underworld by Isis, who was jealous of me, and who swore we should never be together. My shiny will defeat her.”
My mouth had dropped open a smidgen as she spoke. When I realized what I was doing, I closed it, trying to process everything she’d said. “Your boyfriend has a wife?”
She shrugged. “Osiris is the lord of the Underworld, and Isis is his wife, although that has not stopped his eye from wandering. She has ever been jealous of me, but she shall not keep me from my true love. He is mine, now. Or he will be when I take him this shiny.”
“There’s nothing else you can give him?” I asked, torn between demanding she hand over the ring (which I had no right to do), and begging her for it, which I didn’t feel qualified to do since I had a tenuous grasp at best on the whole story, not to mention the fact that I should be thinking of what was in her best interest rather than my own.
“No. This shiny has the power he needs to escape this domain. No other will suffice.”
I stood up and silently opened the door, turning the lock in the knob as I did so. “I want you ladies to lock the bolt at the top after me, all right?”
“Why? No one will be able to get past us to our sister.” Ipy didn’t take her eyes off her cards.
“Right, but I took on the job of protecting Mrs. P, and I mean to keep on doing that.”
Ipy shrugged. “You will be right next door.”
“Not right away. I have to go apologize to Rowan. And that might take a bit of time because… er…”
“Because he has sublime buttocks,” she said, nodding. “If it will make you feel better, we will set the bolt so that you may enjoy yourself with your man without worrying that someone has defeated all six of us.”
“Thank you. Yell if you need me, Mrs. P,” I told her as I left.
She waved a languid hand toward me and inquired if there was going to be a round of Truth or Dare.
I took the precaution of locking the suite door, tucking the key into my cleavage since I wasn’t taking my purse with me. While I made my way up to Rowan’s deck, I glanced out to see the ship had pulled up to a small pier. Beyond it, I could barely make out the flat shapes of a small village. There wasn’t anyone on the pier, so I imagined we must have stopped to fix something in the engine or perhaps take on some supplies.
Voices drifted down to me from the upper deck, along with the sound of light music. Evidently our fellow passengers were enjoying the balmy night and romantic moon. “Whereas I have to apologize for being such an ass,” I said softly under my breath before knocking on Rowan’s door.
He opened it, making the apology on my tongue dry up into nothing.
“Chest,” I squeaked, my eyes eating up the sight of his naked chest. And arms. And legs. The only things covered were his naughty bits, and even those were noticeably bulgy in a pair of tight red bikini briefs.
“Yes,” he answered, his gaze on my Xena boobs. “Very much so.”
“I’ve come to apologize,” I said, dragging my mind back to what was most important.
He stepped back and gestured me into the room. I sat primly on the bed, hands folded on my lap, making no objection when he stood before me, although I had to admit that with his crotch close to eye level, my gaze might have strayed there once or twice. “I want to apologize for what I said earlier. Or rather, for throwing you out of the cabin.”
“I wasn’t aware I’d been thrown out.”
“Dude, I’m a dragonette. I kicked a demon out of the window. Do you think I couldn’t throw someone out of a room?”
One side of his mouth quirked. Goddess, I loved that quirk. “Quite possibly you could, although I am not without my own abilities.”
“Oh, I’m well aware you’re Mr. Martial Arts. You took care of the other demon quite handily. I’m just saying that I’m not a doormat or anything.”
“No,” he said, putting his hands on his hips. “That you aren’t.”
“I talked to Mrs. P. She confirmed what you said. I’m not sure I understand the whole bit about her going to see her boyfriend, who is some Underworld lord, but she refused when I asked her point blank to hand over the ring. She said it’s the only thing that will let them be together.”
“She said much the same thing to me.”
“So I was thinking—if she won’t accept anything else to substitute for it, then maybe the dragon people would. To save the world, I mean.”
“It doesn’t work that way. The ring has to be destroyed in order to safeguard the world from it ever being used by Bael.”
“That’s the demon head honcho?”
“Yes.” Rowan made an odd little face. “Evidently one of my sisters inadvertently released him from where he had been confined. It seems my family has a habit of doing things like that.”
“You have a sister?” I asked, somewhat surprised by that. I don’t know why I was, but I relished hearing something personal about Rowan.
“I have two, one older and one younger. Ironically, both are mated to dragons.”
“So you’re just surrounded by dragonettes, then, huh?”
He smiled and instantly, a little pool of fire formed at my feet. I absently tapped it out while changing my posture to be less forthright and more “let me see your nipple nubs.”
“I certainly know which dragonette I’d like surrounding me. Are you, by any chance, here just to apologize, or are you interested in continuing the activities we started last night?”
“Does a dragon breathe fire?” I asked, then thought for a moment. “Wait, they do, don’t they?”
He laughed and knelt at my feet, his hands warm on my bare knees. “I’m told they do, although I haven’t seen it for myself. Sophea, you understand the situation I’m in. I must get that ring.”
“I understand. And although I won’t steal it from Mrs. P or help you steal it, I will do my best to help persuade her that we really need it. Perhaps there’s some other way around the situation that we just haven’t thought of. We can brainstorm the issue tomorrow, okay?”
“Well…” His hands slid up my thighs, sending waves of anticipation rippling upward. “I suppose we deserve an evening off the clock, so to speak. How do you feel about oral sex?”
“I am so go for it rig
ht now,” I said, sucking in my breath when his fingers reached ground zero.
“Good. Because I’ve been wondering what you taste like everywhere.”
I shivered at the heat in his eyes and the sensations his fingers made as they danced across my underwear.
“Why don’t we get you out of all this leather, and then I’ll indulge myself, hmm?”
“All right, but I think we should get your undies off as well.” I slid off the bed onto my knees when he stood to shuck his briefs, the material strained to its limits. “Here, let me do it.”
He frowned. “You said you wished for me to pleasure you first.”
“And you will. But I get to do this. Because I’m the dragon chick, remember?”
“Rawr,” he said, mimicking my claw gesture.
“You learn quick.” I caressed the bulging front of his underwear. “Glorioski, that’s… you’re… were you this big before?”
“Sophea,” he said in a strained tone. “Stop tormenting me with your heated looks, and teasing fingers, and for the love of the saints, don’t stroke me! You have no idea how close I am to disappointing you.”
“You could never do that,” I said, but stopped stroking my fingers lovingly across his bulges. “Now, if I ease your undies down just a bit, just enough to give you some breathing room—”
Something stopped me just as I was about to slide his underwear down his hips. I felt something move behind me, but when I glanced over my shoulder, there was nothing to be seen but the other side of Rowan’s cabin.
He stiffened, and stared past me.
“What… did you see something?” I asked him, releasing the waistband of his underwear.
He frowned, his eyes narrowing as he stared at… nothing.
I turned to look, but didn’t see what held his attention… until a movement in the air caught my peripheral vision. Over by the porthole, the air began to shimmer. That’s the best way to describe what happened—it was as if the air was collecting itself, twisting and twirling upon itself, tiny little motes of nothing collecting to form something.
The little motes grew brighter until they gave a little shake, and a man emerged.
Only he wasn’t a man. Oh, he looked like one—he looked perfectly normal, but there was something about him that wasn’t human. It was his eyes, I think. He stepped forward, his eyebrows rising as he took in the sight of me kneeling before Rowan, the color in his eyes seeming to shift and change subtly. And his pupils weren’t round… they were elongated, just like Mr. Kim’s had been.
“Um…” I said, glancing up at Rowan. His face was absolutely without emotion, a circumstance that scared the crap out of me. Hurriedly, I got to my feet to face the intruder. “Er… excuse me, this is a private room. The kind you shouldn’t materialize in without first asking permission.”
The man looked surprised at my words, and I realized that any being who could just appear in a room the way he did probably shouldn’t be addressed in that manner.
“That is,” I said quickly, clearing my throat a little, “it’s polite to knock before you enter a room where other people are staying.”
“Ah,” the man said, after eyeing me curiously for a few seconds. “You are the red mate. But my red children are no more.” His gaze flickered over to Rowan, who visibly flinched. “As you well know, Rowan Dragon Breaker.”
Oh, no. A horrible suspicion began to form and I took a step closer to Rowan so that I was pressed against his side. This had to be Mr. Big. “Are you the dragon daddy guy?” I asked, glancing at Rowan.
His expression was still blank, but I saw dread in his eyes, and that pierced my heart like nothing else could. I wanted to hold him, to make love to him, to make him forget that dread. I wanted to bring him light and happiness and lots and lots of sex. I moved forward a step, as if to protect him, but his hand pulled me back against his side.
“The dragonkin are all my children,” the man acknowledged with a little tilt of his head. I remembered that the others had referred to him as the First Dragon, a nomenclature that was evidently his name as well as a description. He looked back at Rowan. “Payment is now due for the lives that were lost.”
Rowan’s arm tightened around me. “I don’t know how to give you back the dragons who died. I told you that when you bound the danegeld to me, and I say it again. If I could, I would bring them back to life. I would stop them from interfering with magic they knew nothing about, but I can’t change time. I can’t repair the past.”
“The penalty is the loss of your own life.”
It was all happening again, just as it had with Jian. I met a man with whom I had an instant chemistry, started building thoughts of a life together, and then he was taken from me.
“Not this time,” I said aloud, and stepped forward in front of Rowan. “Listen here, Mr. First Dragon. My husband died horribly, and I don’t see you blaming the drunk driver who took him down. What Rowan did was just as much an accident as that, so you have no right to blame him.”
Rowan gave a martyred sigh and pulled me back at his side. “Love, I appreciate you standing up for me, but it’s not necessary, and might well get you killed, too.”
I turned to gawk at him. “Did you just call me love?”
His eyes flickered toward the First Dragon. “I don’t really think a discussion about my choice of words is in order at this time.”
“But you did say it.”
He made an exasperated noise. “Yes, I said it. We’re sleeping together—I felt it appropriate to use such terms of endearment in that situation.”
“All right. I’m willing to accept that. But I want to have a pet name for you, too.” I smiled at him, and for a moment, forgot about the person watching us.
He didn’t forget us. “What makes you think the death of your mate was an accident?”
I stared at the First Dragon. “What do you mean? Jian was run down by a drunk driver.”
“So the mortal police told you. In fact, he was killed by demons because he could not be turned to their lord’s purpose.” His eyes, those uncanny, ever-shifting eyes, glowed with a gold light for a second. “That demon is no more.”
I glanced at Rowan. “Okay, he’s more badass than we are. We could only break their forms.”
Rowan’s expression grew serious. “You have no idea.”
“And now the time has come for you to pay for the loss of the four dragons who were taken,” the First Dragon said, raising his arm as if he was going to just smite Rowan where he stood.
I flung myself in front of Rowan again, my arms spread wide to deflect any such attack. “Wait!” I yelled. “There has to be another way around this. You want four dragons to replace the ones you had? What about me? I’m a red dragon now, aren’t I? I count as one.”
“You’re a wyvern’s mate,” the First Dragon, lowering his hand.
Rowan, for a third time, wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me back. This time, however, he kissed my cheek and murmured his appreciation for my attempt to save him from the First Dragon.
“But that’s like a dragon lite, right? Rowan said so.”
I swear the First Dragon’s mouth twitched. “Do you know Ysolde?” he asked suddenly.
“No,” I said, confused. “I don’t know anyone of that name.”
“You will. Shortly, too, unless I am mistaken. She will enjoy you greatly. Very well.” He addressed Rowan again. “I accept this wyvern’s mate as payment for one dragon. There are three others for which you must make amends.”
Rowan shook his head. “I don’t know any other dragons who aren’t already in the weyr, other than a couple of the demon hybrids who have been attacking us.”
“Those are not dragonkin,” the First Dragon said with another golden flash of his eyes.
“There has to be something we can do to find others,” I said, more than a hint of a begging tone to my voice. “You can’t just kill Rowan for something he didn’t do. Or rather, something he did but that wasn’t
his fault. If your kids hadn’t been so pushy, they wouldn’t have died, you know. I think you should take some of the responsibility for having such headstrong and frankly stupid descendants.”
The First Dragon seemed to consider that. “There is a point in what you say. I won’t agree that it is an encompassing one, but it does bear some truth. Very well, I will allow you payment for a second life in acknowledgment that my children are not always as circumspect as they should be. And for the other two lives?”
Rowan looked helplessly at him. “I have nothing. I’m sorry, I just have nothing.”
“Is it possible to make someone a dragon?” I whispered to him. “Like with your magic powers?”
“No. You need to be mated to be considered part of the dragonkin,” he answered. “The only other way is to be born into it.”
“Ah,” the First Dragon said, eyeing me speculatively, then glancing briefly at Rowan’s red underwear. “Your solution has merit. I will accept that as payment.”
“Accept what—” Rowan started to say, but at that moment, the First Dragon lifted his hands, and the air was suddenly filled with a golden light so bright, it seemed to pierce every bit of me, filling me with joy and love and happiness so intense, I wanted to shout in exultation.
Then just as suddenly, it was gone, and Rowan was on his knees before the First Dragon.
“Your firstborn will fulfill the danegeld. I will grant you an extension of time due to the circumstances.” The First Dragon placed a couple of broken bits of glass in Rowan’s hands. “The shard that was broken when the red sept was destroyed is now yours. Guard my children well, wyvern. Make the world safe for them, and you will carry with you my blessing.”
And then he was gone. He just disappeared, without even so much as a blink. One moment there, the next gone. Rowan staggered to his feet, looking absolutely gob-smacked.
“What… what just happened?” I asked, clutching him when he lurched to the side. “What on earth was that light? Are you okay? You look… odd.”