Fire Me Up
Page 60

The bed was cold. And lumpy. I turned on my side, trying to find a comfortable position, mentally grumbling to myself that Drake's bed was never cold or uncomfortable, immediately riddled with guilt for thinking churlish thoughts. It wasn't Nora's fault she had been attacked, and since she was quite sure the incubus had snarled my name at her before he beat her up, it was the least I could do to stay with her through the night.
I fell asleep fingering the amulet, trying to work out the connection between it and the attacks. There had to be one. It had to be acting as a beacon or something, causing me to unconsciously summon a vile, lust-riddled incubus.
Nora was still sleeping very heavily when I dragged myself out of bed. I mumbled a good morning to Pal, who looked less than his usual perky self, and I was a bit surprised when Istvan, who had been scarfing down breakfast, leaped up to open the door to Drake's room.
"What gives?" I asked, too tired and sleep muzzled to phrase the question in politer tones.
He looked surprised. "Is proper."
I frowned up at him. "You've never opened a door for me before. Why are you doing it now?"
"You get off bridge."
I counted to five. "You put me on that damned bridge."
He nodded. "Is good you got off."
"I will never understand you," I told him, then went in to take a shower and get dressed for the day. Drake was up and about as well, having showered and dressed, and apparently just finished shaving with a wickedly sharp-looking straightedge razor.
"How is Nora?"
"Asleep. No nocturnal visitors. Not that I expected any, but there weren't, in case you were going to ask."
Drake caught me as I reached in to turn on the shower, turning me so I faced the lights above the mirror. "You need more sleep, mate. You should go back to bed. Forget your appointments this morning."
I rallied a smile and kissed his now stubbleless chin. "Thanks for the concern, but I can't. Too much to do, especially now."
His brows pulled together as his fingers slid along the chain to the amulet. "I do not like you wearing this."
"That's one of the things I'm going to be taking care of today. What lime did you say the afternoon gig is?"
His fingers caressed my lips for a moment. "'Gig.' You speak English, and yet sometimes I have difficulty understanding you. Four o'clock."
"Gotcha. Good luck with Fiat and the others."
News of the attack on Nora had evidently gotten out. The people I saw in the hallways and conference rooms were quiet and subdued, many of them watching me, some covertly, from the corners of their eyes, others openly. I avoided the buffet setup, grabbing only a cup of coffee and a muffin, scanning the ballroom for the face I wanted to see. I found him in the corner, in consultation with a white-haired middle-aged man in a colorful red suit.
"Good morning, Monish." I set my coffee and muffin at his table, smiling at the third occupant. "I hope you got some sleep."
"Ah, Aisling. I was speaking to Dr. Kostich about you. This is Aisling Grey, sir."
The man rose, bowing over my hand in an old-fashioned way. "Monish Lakshmanan has informed me of the happenings earlier this morning. He assures me that he has the matter well in hand and that there will be no further attacks on any woman." The man's eyes, a pale blue that reminded me of Easter eggs, narrowed as his hands traced a symbol in the air before me. I realized with horror that whatever he had done had frozen me into a block, leaving me unable to move, unable to blink or draw a breath, stopping even my heart. "I trust he does not speak false, Aisling Grey."
Panic burst through me, a black, deathly sort of panic as I struggled against the spell he had so easily woven around me. My heart fought to beat, my lungs strained in their attempt to breathe, my brain started to die, and still I stood there, a statue, my eyes locked on those of the man in front of me. With an annoyed sound, he waved his hand at me, turning to stride away as I collapsed onto the chair, gasping for air, my heart racing with the sudden release.
"Who the ... heck... was that?" I asked between gasps, watching the man as he moved through the ballroom. People seemed to melt away before him, no one standing in his path. "He almost killed me!"
"He is one of the few people who could," Monish said, handing me a glass of water. I drank half of it, my hands shaking. I could still feel the horrible frozen sensation. "He is an archimage, a high priest among the mages. He is also on the committee that rules the L'au-dela."
I shuddered. If that was an example of the sort of thing the committee would do to me, there was no way I was going to go against them. "Why do I get the feeling he doesn't like me?"
Monish shook his head slowly, his eyes solemn. "You have not made a friend there, Aisling."
"Great. Just what I need, someone else after my blood." I took another deep breath, just for the joy of feeling my lungs inflate, and carefully set down the glass of water, pushing away the muffin. I had lost my appetite. "Listen, I've been thinking about what Nora said last night. There's no way I could summon an incubus and not know it. There just isn't. I think someone's using me as a red herring to pull our attention away from what's really important."
"What would that be?" Monish's frown matched my own.
"I don't know. That's the problem. But there has to be something that will connect the two women who died, and now Nora. They were all Guardians—maybe they went to school together, or had the same mentor, or had something else in common."
Monish sighed. "I have looked deep into the pasts of both women who died, Aisling. There was no connection. They did not know each other. They were from different areas of the world. I will question Nora today, but when I spoke to her before, she did not mention knowing them."
"You spoke to Nora about the two Guardians?" Monish was silent, his gaze steady and unrepentant. "Oh. You spoke to her about me."
"I had to determine just how powerful you were," he said, a slight apology in his voice. "No one knew you. It was difficult for me to assess the situation. I had to take Nora into my confidence. She was most helpful."
"She's a nice woman. I'm sure she was," I said softly, then caught sight of my watch. "I'm sorry, I have to run to pick up my demon and then hunt down a hermit. I'm supposed to give him his amulet, but if it has something to do with what's going on ..."