24
The dream started as so many others have—with a drowsy sense of presence, Drake’s presence, which seeped into the core of my very being and roused my awareness gently, but insistently.
I was disoriented as I always am in Drake’s dreamscapes—I was in warm silky water, in a large black pool, ringed with candles whose flames sputtered and danced in the heated air. Shadows stretched behind them in inky infinity, the light dappling only the water of the pool in which I sat.
“Mmm. This is a new one—frankincense and myrrh?” I asked as I cupped my hand and allowed the oiled water to pour from between my fingers. “I like it. It’s very dragon. This is awfully sweet of you, to send me a dream just because you had to go to Paris to get those blasted Tools, Drake, but it’s not necessary. I could have waited until tomorrow when you got home.”
“I, on the other hand, could not wait.” His voice slid across my damp skin like velvet, sending little skitters of anticipation rippling down my spine. I turned to look behind me, where his voice had originated, but there was nothing to be seen in the dense shadows.
“Oooh, are you going to be dominant and bossy in this dream?” I scooped up another handful of water and tilted my head back, letting it pour down my neck to my chest.
“I am always dominant. I am wyvern. You are my mate. It is the natural order of things.”
Movement flickered to my left. I peered into the darkness but could make out nothing but the slightest whisper of cloth as it dropped to the floor. I smiled to myself and heaved a mock sigh. “You live in your own little world, don’t you?”
“Yes.” A little breeze tickled my back. I spun around, but no one was there. “It consists of you and me, and nothing else of importance. Love me, mate.”
His lips were warm on the nape of my neck. I arched my back as his hands slid around my oiled skin, cupping my breasts as he nibbled several highly erogenous spots behind my ear.
“Oh-ho, it’s going to be an ‘all about Drake’ night, is it?” I asked, teasing him with more than just my words.
“Yes. Tonight I will take my pleasure of you. And when I am done, if you are worthy, perhaps I will allow you a little enjoyment, as well.”
I laughed, pinching the skin of his thigh. “In your dreams, buster. Oh, wait, this is your dream.”
“Are you so sure it is only a dream?” he asked, his hands gentle but demanding on my sensitive breasts.
“Oh, yes. If it was my dream, you’d be spread-eagled on the bed, and I’d be licking warm chocolate off you.”
“We will leave that for an ‘all about Aisling’ night.”
“Deal. Mmm. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” I leaned back into him, my hands finding the long length of muscles in his thighs. He was warm, and slick, and absolutely wonderful to the touch. “I much prefer you in the flesh, not that these dreams aren’t pleasant. But there’s something to be said for in-person attendance at these events.”
“I agree completely.”
I turned on his lap, examining his face, wondering how I could ever have thought I could live without him. He was arrogant, he was bossy, he did what he thought best regardless of my wishes—most of the time, although he was getting better about that—in short, he was the most exasperating man I’d ever met or ever would meet, and yet I loved him with every morsel of my heart and soul. “I used to think that love meant just wanting to be with someone. But it’s more than that. It’s all the frustrations and irritations and gloriously wondrous times all wrapped together in one magical being that has become so ingrained in me, I don’t think we could ever be separated into our original parts.”
His lips caressed mine, a familiar heat building within me that was echoed in him. “You are my life, Aisling. I knew that the first moment you strolled into the G&T. I will never forget the way you sauntered across the bar and challenged me without even knowing who or what I was. I did not wish to admit it, but even then you had captured my heart.”
I laughed into his mouth even as a tear rolled down my cheek. “You drove me mad then, you know that, right? You were so bossy, so mysterious, never answering any question, but somehow, always there when I needed you.”
“You have never needed me,” he said, cutting off my objections with a kiss so hot, it set the water ablaze. “You have not needed me to achieve what you wanted, kincsem. You were strong even if you did not yet recognize the full extent of your powers. It is a strength that will continue, even in times of darkness.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, acknowledging the sad, dark little corner of my soul. Giving up my Guardianship was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. It was as much a part of me as Drake had become, and refusing that part of myself, refuting it and denying it, felt like something had been amputated from my life. But I would survive the loss of it, whereas I could not survive the loss of the man I held in my arms, the man who was kissing every last little bit of sadness from me. “We will overcome this, too, mate. You must have faith that all will be well.”
“I have faith in you,” I whispered.
His tongue twined around mine as I kissed him, opened myself to his fire, accepted it, reveled in it, gloried in the fact that I could share it again, then returned it to him. The muscles of his back bunched under my questing fingers as he lifted me back onto the seat from which I’d slipped. Water lapped at the underside of my breasts as he knelt between my legs, his hands sliding up my thighs, parting them to dance a silky line upward.
“You’ll notice I’m losing my waist. I’m getting thick. Jim hid the scale, saying he was afraid of what would happen when I saw my weight.” My breath sucked in as his head dipped and he took one aching nipple into the fiery inferno of his mouth. I squirmed on the warm, slick seat of the tub as his fingers danced in my most private of places, the fire he’d started there burning up to where my breast was being laved by his tongue. “Are you one of those men who finds pregnant women sexy?”
He pulled his mouth from my breast, trailing flames as he licked a path to my other nipple. “No.”
I pinched his shoulder.
He flashed one of his heart-stopping grins at me, his eyes alight with amused passion. “Unless the woman happens to be you, in which case, yes.”
“I’m going to have to deduct five points from your total score for your delay in answering correctly,” I told him, presenting my poor, ignored breast for his attention.
He blew a little ring of fire onto it. “I will find you arousing even when these delectable breasts have lost their tone and lie limp along your chest.”
“Hey!” I said, indignation filling me. “I’m immortal! Doesn’t that mean I won’t get saggy boobs and gray hair? Because if it doesn’t mean that, I want a refund—”
The rich, deep sound of his laughter filled my heart. He bent down to nuzzle my waiting breast before cupping his hands under my behind, lifting me slightly off the seat. “You give me joy, Aisling. No other woman has ever done that.”
He pushed into my body, a hundred little nerve endings suddenly sitting up and paying attention, the burn of his body in mine echoed in the sensation of his fire shared between us. I wrapped my legs around him, welcoming the heat, feeling myself unfurling in the glow of his love, every moment in my life coming to culmination of that moment in time. I clutched the slick skin of his back as my orgasm burst upon me with shattering brilliance, wave after wave of ecstasy causing my muscles to tighten around him even as he cried out hoarsely against my neck. I watched for the exact moment when his body shifted, when the smooth skin of his chest and arms morphed into iridescent green and yellow scales. The back I was clutching changed in form as well, sharp spines bursting to life beneath my fingers. I had a glimpse of familiar emerald eyes smoky with rapture tilting slightly and elongating, long, powerful neck muscles straining upward as Drake flung back his head and roared.
It was the last thing I saw, the last thing I was aware of for a long, long time, until slowly, consciousness returned to me. M
y heartbeat pounded so loudly in my ears, I could scarcely hear over it. I melted in Drake’s arms, allowing him to pull me onto his lap where he had collapsed next to me.
He was back to normal, to all appearances a man, but I knew better. Beneath that gorgeous manflesh lay the heart of a dragon.
And it was all mine.
“I thought this was supposed to be all about you,” I murmured into his ear, giving his earlobe a little nibble just to show it I loved it.
“It is. I am well satisfied,” he answered, his eyes closed, his head resting against the edge of the tub.
I slid my hand along the wet planes of his chest, smiling to myself at the feeling of his heart beating fast beneath my hand. I was so relaxed, so sated, I felt utterly boneless, drifting along in a world that was made up solely of the wet man beneath me. “We need to have more Drake nights.”
“Amen.”
The pounding in my heart didn’t disappear. In fact, I noted with a frown as I lifted my head from where I’d been resting it against him, it seemed to get louder.
Drake gave a little start as he evidently heard the noise as well. “What?” he said in a loud voice, frowning into the shadows.
A crack of light appeared in the midst of the blackness, growing until it revealed the outline of a door. A hand shoved itself through the opening, the owner thankfully not following. The hand waggled a cell phone at us.
“It is Pál. He wishes to speak with you.”
I squinted at the door. “That sounds like István. What’s he doing in our dream?”
“What does he want?”
“He is following Kostya, as you asked. He says your brother has taken the phylactery…and Pál believes he is on his way to Gabriel.”
“No, no, no, no,” I said, frowning at the hand with the cell phone. “I am a tolerant woman, but I refuse to have István enter into our lovely erotic dreams. And I especially do not want any of this dragon politics stuff in my dreams. Make it go away, sweetie.”
The sight of Drake’s naked backside as he jerked open the door wide enough to take the phone made several things clear.
The light from beyond the door lit up the interior of the mysterious dream room. My face, shadowed and startled, stared back at me from a mirror. Familiar counters came into view…along with Jim’s dog bed (thankfully empty), a heated towel rack, and the negligee I’d worn when I went to bed earlier that night.
“This isn’t a dream,” I said, realization dawning with full horror in my mind.
“No. We came back early. I did not wish to spend an other night without you,” Drake said before speaking a Hungarian word into the phone.
“Oh, god. Then Kostya…”
Drake snarled a couple of words that I recognized as being not nice at all, slamming shut the phone. He hit the light switch in the bathroom, grabbing the pants he’d laid across a brass bench. “Kostya has gone to confront Gabriel.”
“Fires of Abaddon,” I said, appropriating Jim’s favorite oath as I scrambled out of the now-familiar black marble tub after him.
Drake paused at the door long enough to toss me my bathrobe. I gasped at the look of fury on his face. “He’s going to wish he was in Abaddon by the time I get through with him. Brother be damned, he has gone too far this time. This is tantamount to war.”
25
“Don’t even think you’re going off without me.” I rushed into our bedroom just as István went out the door to the hall. Drake had shifted into high gear, his movements as smooth and graceful as ever as he pulled on shoes, shirt, and jacket, but he was moving so quickly, he was almost a blur.
He did pause at the door to look back at me as I snarled under my breath when I tried to zip up my jeans. “This is dragon business, Aisling.”
“And I’m your mate! Dammit, I’ll wear a skirt.” I yanked open the closet and grabbed the nearest skirt and sweater I could find, grimacing when I wrestled my breasts into a bra that had suddenly become too small.
“The situation is too volatile for you. I would be happier knowing you were home safe.”
I yanked the sweater over my head, glaring at Drake as my head popped through the tight neckhole. “Sweetie, you might as well get used to the fact that I’m not going to be left behind. I’ve got powers, remember. I can be helpful, just like I was at Fiat’s—”
He made an exasperated noise, marching over to take my hands, pinning me with a look that was intended to show just how serious he was about the matter. “You are immensely helpful, but this is not a situation where a Guardian will be called for.”
“Maybe not,” I said grimly, grabbing my jacket. “But Gabriel is my friend—I think—and I’m not going to let Kostya destroy him or the silver dragons.”
Pál shouted from the hallway. Drake’s face was a study in frustration, irritation, and grudging acknowledgement of what I said. “You will not endanger yourself in any manner,” he ordered as he grabbed up his cell phone. “You will do exactly as I say.”
“I’m not likely to do anything stupid. Not now when I’m poised on the brink of impending non-proscription. I would just like one last chance to be a Guardian before I have to give it up forever.” I ran after him as he bolted down the hallway. I was almost to the staircase when one of the doors opened.
“Aisling? I heard shouting. Is everything all right?”
I stopped at the sight of a sleep-rumpled Paula, consumed by guilt at the look of concern on her face. When we had returned from our little chat with Bael, she was nearly hysterical from the experience, Uncle Damian at his wit’s end to try to explain things to her. I’d decided right then and there that she was not going to be the sort of person who could live with the idea of the Otherworld, and had spent half an hour mind-pushing both her and David, ultimately convincing them that I’d taken ill at the wedding and had returned home without event.
And now here she was worried that I was still sick. “I’m fine, Paula. It’s…it’s Jim, my dog. It ate something bad, I think, and we’re taking it to an emergency vet hospital. Go back to sleep! We’ll call if we’re going to be late returning.”
Paula grabbed my arm in an iron grip before I could make my escape. “My dear, I absolutely insist that you let Drake take your dog to the vet. You are too ill to go gallivanting around at four in the morning.”
“I’m fine now, I’m just—”
“I insist! David? David, wake up and talk some sense into your girl—”
Oh, lord. That’s all I needed. I hated to give Paula another mind-push so soon after the last one, but Drake was already at the front door. I fired up my patented Guardian Mind Meld and beamed its rays straight at her. “It’s all right, Paula. I’m fine. This is nothing to be concerned about. Go back to bed and go to sleep.”
She blinked a couple of times before nodding. “I think I’ll go back to bed if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. I’ll see you later.” I grabbed the banister and hurried down the stairs even as she asked the now-empty hallway, “What am I doing out of bed?”
Suzanne was at the front door, holding it open so I could race straight outside and into the car that was waiting. “You heard?” I asked her as I grabbed my purse.
“Yes. Take care.”
“Will do. Where did Jim go?” I asked Drake as I settled down next to him. István hit the accelerator, and we zoomed off into the London night. I averted my eyes from the front window, feeling it was probably going to be better if I didn’t watch how recklessly he drove.
“It was in the basement watching DVDs of old British TV shows.”
“Not The Avengers again? Jim, I summon thee!”
Drake’s phone jingled from his jacket pocket. He answered it in Hungarian, his jaw tightening as he listened.
Jim appeared on the seat next to me, wedged between me and the side. “Jeez, Ash! Give a guy a little room! You’re squashing my magnificent self flat!”
“Keep it down, Drake’s on the phone. Get on the floor if you want room,” I answered
, skewing around in my seat as far as the seat belt would allow. “Oh, for god’s sake—you’re slobbering like crazy! You and your Mrs. Peel fetish. You’re not even the same species!”
“It’s not a fetish. I just admire her in a cat suit. Mmrowr!”
“Yeah, right. I notice you don’t watch it when you’re visiting Cecile, you two-timing rat. Wipe your flews once we get out of the car.”
“Boy, you finally get a little, and you’re just as cranky as ever,” it answered. “Where are we going, or do I want to know?”
I watched Drake. He had spoken few words, but his expression was growing blacker and blacker by the moment as he listened. I touched his arm to get his attention and mouthed, “Kostya?”
He nodded.
“What’s Kostya done now?” Jim asked in a whisper.
“Taken the phylactery and gone off to absorb the silver dragons.”
Drake erupted into a volley of angry Hungarian.
Jim made a wry face. “I had a feeling this would happen. Kostya was kicking furniture around earlier, muttering about everyone conspiring against him, and that the dragon thingie you found was a sign the time was right for him to take action, yadda yadda yadda.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” I asked, pinching its neck.
“Ow! Demon abuse!”
“Jim!” I said through my teeth.
It affected a hurt expression. “I couldn’t tell you, not unless you wanted me to interrupt your journey to boinksville. Drake booted me out of the bathroom and told me to go sleep somewhere else. The only reason I even saw Kostya is because I had to go into the study to get The Avengers DVDs.”
“Meh.”
Drake slammed closed his phone on a curt word, glaring out into the flashing lights of the city as they zoomed by us.