“Mrs. P? Are you okay in there?” I asked, opening the door to her room, my lamp held high.
The room was just as dark as the outer one, and just as empty.
“Mrs. P?” I flipped on the light next to the door and frowned at the unoccupied bed. The sheets hadn’t even been rumpled. “Mrs. P, are you okay? Did your dinner disagree with you?” I tapped on the closed bathroom door, but after a moment of listening at it, I opened it and found that the bathroom, too, was sans one old lady.
“Well, hell, she’s given me the slip,” I said, going back into the bedroom, the lamp cord trailing behind me. That’s when I noticed that something was not right. Instead of sitting on the luggage rack, where I’d left it, Mrs. P’s suitcase was on the floor. “What the—” I started toward the suitcase, but at that moment, there was a sibilant hoosh from behind the curtain, and I knew without a doubt that someone had just opened the window from the outside. Quickly I glanced around, trying to find a hiding spot. Under the bed? Not enough room. The bathroom? Too obvious. The armchair wasn’t big enough to hide me, but next to the room door was a large wardrobe, its doors spread wide to either side like a giant wooden moth. Perhaps I could hide behind one if its doors long enough to ascertain who was breaking into the room.
The thought flitted through my head that a lamp wasn’t much protection against an intruder as I ran to the farthest wing of the wardrobe, but that evaporated into nothing when I scurried behind the door… only to find the space was already occupied.
Rowan must have heard the intake of my breath preparatory to screaming, because his hand was over my mouth before I realized what had happened.
“Quiet,” he breathed into my ear, his breath warm against my head in a way that had little shivers spreading across my back. “Someone is at the window.”
“I know,” I whispered back as he pulled the door flush against us. Unfortunately, the lampshade was too big to let it fit behind the door with us, which left my hand sticking out with the lamp gripped firmly in it. “It’s okay, though. I have a lamp.”
The light behind the opened wardrobe door wasn’t very bright, but it was enough to see the odd look he gave me.
A rustle of the drapes had me tensing, but before I could do anything, Rowan suddenly twisted around, pinning me against the wall with his body. For a few seconds, we were pressed together from knees to chest, and I was extremely aware that I was a woman and he was a man, and it had been way too many years since I’d entertained the carnal activities that had been uppermost in my mind right before I’d been awakened.
“Oh,” I breathed softly, unable to keep from taking a deep breath so that my breasts smooshed happily against his chest.
I swear his eyes got darker at that, and he hesitated for about two seconds before he murmured, “To hell with the job.” His breath burned on mine, and then his mouth was moving over my lips.
With one hand, I clutched him, pulling him even closer so that he caught my moan in his mouth. His tongue twined against mine, stroking fires inside me that I hadn’t known existed. I was about to let the lamp fall so I could slide my other hand into his hair when suddenly he was gone. He moved out past me, out from the cover of the wardrobe door. I stood there for another handful of seconds just reliving the kiss before my brain pointed out that Rowan had gone out unarmed to face whomever had broken into the room.
With a bravery I hadn’t known I possessed, I flung back the door and, swinging my lamp forward, yelled, “Ha!” in the very best martial arts manner. The cord snapped out like a whip, slashing through the air and striking the man directly in its path who luckily wasn’t Rowan. No, Rowan was standing with his arms crossed, and his back against the door leading to the living room.
Mauritius Kim swore and leaped to the side, one hand to his face where the metal plug had cut his cheek.
“We meet again!” I said, suddenly full of bravado. I had no idea where it had come from, but dammit, if I was truly the wife of a not-so-mythical creature, and thus someone who could control fire, then by god, I wasn’t going to be afraid of some loser like Mr. Kim! “And this time, I have the advantage!”
Mr. Kim stared in disbelief at the lamp in my hand, as did his buddy Elton, who emerged from the drapes. “Are you insane?” he asked, giving me a scathing look. “Or just stupid? That’s not a weapon, it’s a lamp.”
“Tell your cheek that,” I said, swaggering forward a couple of steps. To my annoyance, he didn’t back up. Perhaps a little more threatening was in order. I shook the lamp at him and said, “In case you don’t know, you’re not just dealing with a normal person.”
“Oh, lord,” Rowan said under his breath, before adding a bit louder, “Sophea, I don’t think you want—”
“No sir, you’re dealing with a dragon’s mate. That’s right, I’m a bona fide dragon. Of sorts. Kind of. So Rowan says, and I have no reason to doubt him because he did the test. I can control fire, and likely do all sorts of other dragony things, so you had just better take your scummy little friend there and get the hell out of Dodge while the getting is good.” I grasped the cord with my hand, snapping it toward Mr. Kim.
He actually took a step back.
“Sophea, you really do not know—”
“It’s okay, Rowan,” I interrupted, giving him a decisive nod. “I got this.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“That’s right,” I said, pointing the plug at Mr. Kim. His friend was now next to him, the pair of them watching me with absolutely no expression on their respective faces. Perhaps they were as stunned as I’d been to find out just how awesome I was. “You heard me. I’m dragon. A crimson dragon!”
“Red,” Rowan corrected.
“Red dragon. Rawr!” I said, making a little claw gesture with my hand. “You may now leave before I unleash my unholy dragon stuff upon you!”
Rowan sighed and rubbed his face like he couldn’t face watching the ass-whooping that was about to be unleashed on Mr. Kim and Company.
“Well?” Mr. Kim said.
“Well what?” I asked, suspicious. I gestured with the lamp. “Well, as in, Rowan is blocking the door and you can’t leave?”
“Well as in let’s see you unleash your mighty mate’s powers on us.”
I blinked and glanced over at Rowan. He was now standing with one hand covering his mouth, as if he was trying to keep from speaking. “You’re better at this than I am. Will you tell these guys just how badass dragons are?”
He lowered his hand and gave me a wry smile. “They know.”
“Then why aren’t they running away?” I shook my lamp at them. “I’m a fire wielder. Or whatever they call it. Maybe I can turn into a giant scaly beast!”
“Go on, then,” Mr. Kim’s friend said. “Let’s see you.”
“I don’t want to,” I said, tilting my head so I was looking down my nose at him. “I have to be in the mood to be a giant scaly dragon, and I’m not right now. But I can do the fire thing just as I am, so you’d better vamoose before I call down a rain of fire that will singe the hair right off the tops of your heads And you know how bad burnt hair smells!”
“Sophea,” Rowan said tiredly, and stopped.
“What?” I asked him, keeping my eyes on the two men in front of me.
He gestured vaguely, then shook his head. “Never mind. Proceed.”
“Show us your rain of fire,” Mr. Kim said in a snotty tone.
“Don’t think I can do it, do you?” I said, wondering wildly what my stupid bravado had gotten me into. I didn’t dare ask Rowan how to make it rain fire, which meant I either had to do something to distract the men or put my money where my mouth was. What was a rain of fire? It was little blobs of fire dumping onto someone. The question was, how did I get the fire going? I looked around the room, spied Mrs. P’s handbag, and said, “Fine. Give me just a sec.”
All three men watched with interest as I dug through her bag, finally pulling out a silver lighter, the old-fashioned kind that peopl
e in black-and-white movies used. With the lamp tucked under one arm, I screwed up a room service menu and lit one end on fire.
“Fire,” I told Rowan, nodding toward the two hoodlums. “Now I’ll make it rain on them.”
“I look forward to seeing that,” he said politely.
I eyed him for a few seconds wondering if he was being sarcastic, but he just looked tired, so I figured he was being supportive in a non-obvious way. I turned to face the two men, held out the burning menu, and tried to force the fire onto them.
It just burned down the paper.
“Well, crapballs.” I gnawed my lower lip as I watched the fire, strangely captivated by it.
“Allow us to show you our rain of fire,” Mr. Kim said.
“Maybe I’m doing something wrong with it… wait, what? Your rain of fire?”
Mr. Kim smiled, and out of nowhere, little balls of fire began to fall from the ceiling onto me. I shrieked and dropped my lamp to slap the fireballs when they hit me, feeling both relieved when they didn’t burn me and confused as hell.
“You’re a dragon, too?” I asked Mr. Kim, picking up my lamp with the fire stopped falling.
“We are demons, servants of Lord Bael, the premier prince of Abaddon. We have dragon blood in our veins, but we are demons first and foremost, and now you will give to us the ring that the thief stole from our master, or we will kill you right here and now.” As if to prove he meant it, both men pulled long, wickedly sharp daggers from sheaths strapped to their thighs.
I looked over at Rowan. “Are they telling the truth?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said, strolling over to stand next to me.
“They’re demons.”
“Demon-dragon hybrids, to be exact.”
Quickly, I ran through my options. I didn’t like the way that Mr. Kim was lovingly caressing the blade of that dagger, and I had little hope that there were such things as good demons around. Which meant I had to do something to save Rowan and me.
“We tire of your games,” Mr. Kim, said, gesturing to his friend. “Elton, slit the mortal’s throat. I’ll take great pleasure in separating this mate from her head, and then we will search the room for the ring.”
“I don’t like them,” I told Rowan. “I don’t think they play nicely with others.”
One corner of his mouth quirked up, and I had the worst desire to kiss it. That shocked me out of my sense of befuddlement, which is why no one, least of all Mr. Kim and Elton, were expecting me to rush forward, lamp held forward with one hand, and my burning menu in the other. To my surprise, just as I thrust the menu forward, a ball of fire shot from it and hit the two men, sending them staggering backward to the window.
“Scarlet dragons to the rescue!” I yelled, and whacked Mr. Kim over the head with the base of the lamp. It shattered into a bazillion pieces of ceramic, but I didn’t wait to see how he handled that: I whipped around, and with a kick that I had no idea I could do, planted my foot squarely on Elton the demon’s chest, and sent him tumbling through the window.
Mr. Kim roared in fury and lunged at me with his dagger in hand, blood pouring out of a jagged cut on his forehead, but before I could try to coax another fireball from my almost-burned menu, Rowan was there in front of me, knocking the knife out of Mr. Kim’s hand and kicking his knee, causing him to crumple. Rowan grabbed Mr. Kim by his shirt collar and, twisting it viciously, dragged him over to the window. “I’ve had about all I’m going to take from you. The next time you bother us will be your last.”
Mr. Kim tried to spit out an oath, but Rowan’s stranglehold was effective enough to keep him from doing anything but making garbled noises. Rowan heaved the upper half of the man out of the window, and added, “Tell your master the ring is lost,” before shoving the man’s legs out with the rest of them.
“Tell me that we didn’t just murder two people,” I panted, dropping the menu when the flame finally hit my hand. I stamped it out and sidled toward the window, both shocked that I could kill a person so easily and thrilled that I was as badass as I had hoped.
“Demons are immortal,” he replied, and stuck his head out of the window. I edged up behind him, not wanting to see the result of a fall from a third-story window, but reminding myself that the men had planned on killing us. To my surprise, there were no bodies on the sidewalk, only black smudges.
“They’re gone? Did they walk away?” I asked, prepared to be amazed.
“No. You can destroy a demon’s form, but it will simply return to Abaddon to get a new one.”
“Abaddon?”
He closed the window and surveyed the room. “It’s what mortals think of as hell. It’s where the demon lords and their minions reside. Do you know where the ring is?”
“What ring? You keep talking about one, but I have no clue what you’re going on about.”
“Mrs. P has a ring. It is very valuable.”
“I don’t doubt that she does, since she obviously has a ton of money.” I zipped closed the suitcase and got to my feet. There were shards of a broken drinking glass on the desk that I swept into the tiny waste bin before gesturing toward the door and following him out to the main room. I frowned as a thought struck me. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m on my way to Cairo, just like you.”
“No, what are you doing here. In this room.”
His gaze dropped to my mouth.
Instantly, I wanted to kiss him again. And more…
“You’re not some sort of a jewel thief, are you?” I couldn’t help but ask once I wrestled my mind out of its smutty meanderings.
A flash of amusement passed over his face. “Not in the least. I’m just… interested… in unique items, and I heard that Mrs. P has one.”
“Good, because if you think you can buddy up to me in hopes that I’ll help you steal from Mrs. P, you’re sorely mistaken. Stealing is one of those things I don’t do. I may not have a ton going for me—although now I’m a super kick-ass dragonette who can push demons out of windows and play with fireballs—but I don’t steal. Or lie. I was going to add murder to that list, but I think I just killed a demon, so sadly, I’m not as righteous as I’d like to be.”
“You needn’t be worried that the destruction of a demon’s physical form will stain your soul,” he said with a pained twist of his lips. “It won’t.”
“You speak like you have experience in this matter. How many demons have you offed?”
“None before tonight.” He hesitated, then added slowly, “Why aren’t you worried about Mrs. P’s whereabouts?”
“That was a really excellent change of subject.”
“Thank you.” He made another of those little bows that looked incredibly sexy, rather than silly as I’d expected.
“I’m not worried because I fully expect to find her in the embrace of Edvard. Or at least trying to seduce him. She’s quite the character. I’ll Google demons to see if what you said is true, you know.”
“I’m sure you will. Do I need to apologize?”
“To Mrs. P for rifling through her things and breaking a hotel glass? Probably not. I’ll put things back the way she had them, and she doubtless won’t even notice. I’m forever taking the things she lifts from her bag anyway.”
“No, I meant for that kiss. I didn’t intend to do it. I just—you’re so—and we were there. Together.”
I smiled. Slowly. “I enjoyed it, actually. You’re quite the kisser.”
“So are you.” His voice seemed to have roughened. He cleared it and made an embarrassed gesture. “I enjoyed it as well. Perhaps another time we could do it again.”
“That sounds like a lovely plan,” I said, just as if he’d casually mentioned getting together for coffee. I don’t know what possessed me then. I can only attribute the fact that I walked over to him and planted my lips on his to the fact that I’d been woken up out of the most erotic dream of my life, coupled with the adrenaline rush of having dealt with murderous demons.
If an
yone was due a little distraction, I figured it was me. Especially now that Jian had given me his blessing to move beyond what we had together. I smiled at Rowan, feeling that it was somehow right we should be together at that moment.
It was as if fate had brought us together… and I was never one to take fate for granted.
Six
“Sophea…” Rowan cupped my behind, and pulled me against his hips, groaning into my mouth when I parted my lips for him. “We really shouldn’t.”
“Why not? We’re both adults. I assume you’re not involved with anyone and I know I’m not, and great Caesar’s gizzard, do I want to see if you live up to the dream. Besides, Jian said at the séance that he wants me to move on, and I assume that includes finally being with another man.”
“Dream?” he asked, peeling off the t-shirt that I slept in. “Finally? You haven’t… erm…”
“No. Not since Jian.” Cool air hit my naked flesh, making me shiver… until his hands cupped my breasts, instantly making them feel like they were on fire.
“I’ll do my best to live up to such an honor,” he murmured, his hands and mouth making me wild.
“I have no doubt you’ll do just that. I think… oh yes, do the other, please… I think we’d better go into my room just in case Mrs. P comes back early. I wouldn’t want to shock her.”
He murmured an agreement into my chest, still kissing and nibbling and licking as I backed us up into my room, nudging the door closed behind us.
I bit the tendon on his neck, licking the spot afterward as I unbuttoned his shirt, peeling it off to expose his chest.
Goddess above, it was a gorgeous chest. He had lovely soft chest hair that emphasized the swells of muscle, and a long line that led down into the waistband of his pants. I stroked one pectoral, the memories of the dream mingling with reality until I couldn’t differentiate between the two.
“You’re on fire,” he said, sucking my earlobe at the same time he slid off my cotton shorts.
“Only for you,” I answered, working on his belt.