Dragon Soul
Page 26

“That doesn’t mean one can’t find alcohol,” he answered and gestured me before him.
I took a firmer grip on Mrs. P’s suitcase handle and plowed forward, keeping her close to me so she couldn’t escape on another one of her “adventures.”
Akbar led us through the throngs, noise, and general sense of chaos to a medium-sized sedan.
“I shall sit up front with the comely young man,” Mrs. P said when I tried to help her into the back of the car. She slipped out of my grip, and before I could do anything, she scurried into the front seat where she sat with a defiant glint in her eye.
“I don’t think that’s really wise—” I started to say, but was interrupted when a somewhat breathless woman arrived and said, “Oh good, you got a car. We didn’t have time to book one, what with trying to take out the remainder of demons in Munich before we had to fly out here.”
May, the same small, dark-haired woman who was in the tea shop, brushed past me and entered the car, followed by Gabriel, the latter giving me a brief smile before he plopped himself down on the backseat.
I looked first at Rowan, who was busy typing something on his phone, then into the car. “Uh… hello again. I hate to be rude, but I don’t think there’s enough room for all of us. Mrs. P and I invited Rowan to ride with us to the Hotel Cleopatra, and this isn’t a very big car…” I let the sentence trail off in obvious significance.
“Oh, that’s all right,” May said, lurching forward awkwardly. “I’ll sit on Gabriel. He doesn’t mind.”
“Far from it,” he said with a look that I felt was intended for her eyes only.
“But…” I glanced back at Rowan, not wanting to be outright rude in throwing out these interlopers, but at the same time, I had been looking forward to spending some time with him since we hadn’t been able to talk at all during the flight from Munich to Cairo.
Rowan finished his text and tucked his phone into his pocket, looking at me expectantly.
I rolled my eyes toward the car in an attempt to get him to notice the occupants and, hopefully, have some advice about how to deal with them. Perhaps we could take a separate taxi? A glance down the taxi row left that idea dead at the start. Swarms of tourists were four deep on the sidewalk, all fighting over the available vehicles.
“Go ahead,” he said, gesturing toward the car.
Akbar hovered behind me, adding, “Yes, yes, there is much room, plenty of room for all. Your friends wish to see the pyramids, too? I shall take you to them and you will have a most excellent experience.”
Resigned, I sighed and slid into the backseat. Rowan followed, giving May and Gabriel a little nod before smooshing himself in next to me.
I had to admit that I didn’t mind being pressed up against him, especially since his hand was resting casually on my thigh, but after a few moments of enjoying that, I had to remind myself that even if I was now technically a merry widow, it didn’t mean I had to make obvious the fact that I wanted to jump Rowan’s bones right that very second.
Dignity would be my watchword, I decided, covertly sliding my hand up Rowan’s thigh. Dignity and circumspection.
“I understand you had a visit from our friends at the tea shop,” Gabriel said as Akbar pulled into traffic and immediately slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a car that cut him off. He muttered under his breath, shot a look to the side where Mrs. P sat, and we started forward again.
“Yes, we did. They were more obnoxious than ever, but we took care of the matter,” Rowan answered in a distracted tone.
I stopped wondering how I could cop a quick grope of Rowan without the other two (unwanted) occupants seeing and leaned forward to say in a low tone, “I will ask Akbar to pull over if you continue such shenanigans, Mrs. P.”
She shot me an injured look that melted into a high-pitched cackle. “Your man wouldn’t like that at all.”
“This isn’t about Rowan. It’s about you behaving yourself when we are in a moving vehicle capable of killing us or others. No shenanigans, please.”
“Shenanigans,” she repeated, rolling the word around in her mouth. “I like that. Would you care to engage in some shenanigans later, young man?”
Akbar, luckily, was too focused on the hellish nightmare that was traffic streaming from the airport into Cairo proper and didn’t answer.
“Hands to yourself,” I reminded her and sat back in my seat, smooshing myself against Rowan. I tried to tell myself it was silly to get so worked up over a little innocent contact, but the girly part of my mind was squealing softly to itself, and wondering if it was too soon to ask him to spend the night in my hotel room.
“There were three others who arrived in the small hours of the morning, but we handled them, as well,” Gabriel said, pulling my attention from the pleasant (if smutty) thoughts about Rowan.
“Three other who?” I asked, throwing grammar to the wind. “Or should I say what?”
Gabriel glanced toward the driver, but as Akbar was now providing a running commentary to Mrs. P on the various buildings we were passing, Gabriel evidently felt it was safe to speak. “Our friends from Bael are more what than who, but as they were once our kin, I shall refrain from saying more.”
Rowan’s hand brushed my leg again, causing heat to pool low inside of me. Just how long was this cab ride going to take? I began to speculate how much time it would take to get Mrs. P settled before I could pounce on Rowan.
“We should be safe enough for a few hours,” Gabriel continued.
That pulled my attention from my plan to seduce Rowan. “Really? Rowan said that the… uh… guys who attacked us weren’t really… you know… but that they just had to re-form, so to speak.”
“He’s correct,” Gabriel said with a little nod.
Rowan felt nice and solid next to me. He turned his head to face Gabriel, which meant his breath teased my hair when he spoke. I might have leaned a bit into him.
“I’ve heard that the re-forming takes time,” he said, “unless the being in question is summoned to a new form. Is that true?”
“Absolutely,” May answered. “Which should give us just enough time to transact our business once we get to the hotel before the baddies get themselves back here.”
“Business?” I asked somewhat suspiciously. I was getting a bit tired of being so paranoid as to suspect everyone I met, but given the experiences that Mrs. P and I had had during the last twenty-four hours, I figured it was allowed. “What sort of business?”