Dragon Unbound
Page 11

“We had a wonderful time, too,” Aisling said, and others around her murmured.
I took another step back.
“Which is odd, when you think about it,” she continued, turning her frown to me. “Since Drake hates dancing in public.”
“You wouldn’t know that the way you guys tango all around the house while you’re wearing skimpy outfits,” Jim said, giving Aisling a wink. “The last time he dipped you, I thought your boobs were going to pop out of that low-cut dress.”
Her cheeks pinkened a little. “I said in public. Dancing in one’s own home is perfectly normal. And the next time the Latin urge hits Drake, you are to look away, and yes, that’s an order.”
I took two steps back.
“Aw, man, you know how to take the fun out of spying,” the demon said before turning to me. “Hey, she’s getting away!”
I turned and bolted, flinging behind me a compulsion for everyone to look at something in the opposite direction. It would distract them for only a second or two, but that might be long enough to escape around the house to the van.
As it turns out, it wasn’t.
“Hrnff!” I grunted when, halfway around the side of the house and heading for the drive where the van was parked, I was tackled from behind. It felt like someone had thrown a piano at me, and when I crawled forward from underneath my attacker, I found May glaring at me from narrowed eyes, one hand holding firmly to the back of my dress. “Damn, girl. You could have just yelled stop.”
May released me long enough for me to get to my feet, wipe the grass from my face, and brush the dirt off my front. “Do you really think you can get away? Some of the most powerful dragons in Europe are here, right now, at this house. Running away is just going to make them angrier than they already are, and I can assure you that they’re pretty well at the top of the anger meter.”
“Of course they are. It would be asking too much of fate for anything else,” I said with a sigh, resigning myself to capture when Aisling and a handful of other people ran over to us. At Aisling’s orders, two men grabbed my arms and frog-marched me toward the house.
“We got her,” Jim announced, walking ahead of me into the house. The room I’d entered before was now full of people, all of whom were furious. “She tried to bolt, but man, May has a pair of legs on her. She had Vicky here spittin’ worms in no time.”
“I did not, at any point, have worms in my mouth,” I told the demon, and tried to look as if I had done nothing wrong. It was particularly difficult given that Andrew, Cassius, and Rina were now seated on a long sofa, their hands tied behind their backs. All three looked like they wanted to murder someone, and I had a bad, bad feeling I knew who they blamed. “Hello. Glad to see you awake.”
Rina snarled something in Russian that I was thankful I didn’t understand. Andrew held my gaze with his for a few seconds, then looked away. Cassius started spouting abuse and profanity until the green-eyed dragon snapped an order.
“There’s no need to find duct tape,” I said wearily, then gave them all a weak smile. Before anyone knew what I was doing, I turned to Cassius and sang a couple of lines from a popular dance tune, giving him a push to be compliant.
It was as if I’d dropped a bomb in the room. Andrew and Rina leaped up and tried to run for the French doors.
“She’s singing again!” Aisling yelled, clapping her hands over her ears, while at the same time the green-eyed dragon shouted, “The thieves are escaping. Gabriel, stop them!”
All of the dragons began yelling at once, running around like mad people, shouting orders and making demands to stop the thieves, to stop me, and, most of all, to not listen to my song. I stood now silent in the center of the madness, and looked across the room at the only person who wasn’t moving.
One side of his mouth quirked up for a moment. It was an annoyingly smug gesture but, at the same time, tugged at something inside of me. I couldn’t help it—I gave him a little smile in return.
And then I was thrown into a room in the basement, and told to behave myself, or else the consequences would be dire.
I slumped against the rough cement wall, uncaring that I was going to make my pretty red dress filthy with decades of dust. “Great. This is just how I planned this day to end—alone, in a basement, with a house full of powerful immortals all calling for my head on a platter.”
“Could be worse,” a muffled voice said. I turned to see a shadow in the middle of the light at the bottom edge of the door. A heavy snuffling sound followed. “You could be in the mortal jail where your buddies are. Drake called the cops on them, and they just hauled them off. So count your blessings, babe. You still have us!”
I slumped all the way to the floor. Doom, doom, doom.
 
 
Chapter Four

“What are you doing here?” The First Dragon closed the door of the room in which the siren was being held captive, and turned to evaluate her environment. Although perfectly clean, the chamber was clearly used as a storage facility, as it was partially filled with wooden packing crates. A small metal-frame bed had been placed in a corner, along with a round table and an uncomfortable-looking chair.
The last was occupied by the siren, whose face bore a fierce scowl.
“You aren’t here to let me go, are you?” she continued, crossing her arms over her chest in a way that allowed him to fully appreciate the curves contained therein.
“Why would I do that?” he asked. “You tried to steal from my kin.”
Her shoulders twitched. “I didn’t steal anything. I just sang a couple of songs.”
“Which allowed your friends to steal.”
“Yeah, well, they aren’t my friends.” She looked away, studying the crate nearest her. “I just work with them. And before you get all judgmental, no, I do not consider helping thieves as my career. It’s just something I have to do.”
“Why?” he asked, seating himself on the corner of the small bed. It was highly uncomfortable.
She eyed him with distrust. “You want to know my life story? You? A demigod?”
“So far as I know, there is nothing that says I cannot be interested in the lives of mortals.”
Her shoulders twitched again. “Where do you want me to start?”
“Wherever you feel your story begins.”