Dragon Soul
Page 22

All three men watched with interest as I dug through her bag, finally pulling out a silver lighter, the old-fashioned kind that people 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.”