Me and My Shadow
Page 62

She was fine until she spotted the twosome. The sight of them seemed to give her new energy.
“What is this?” she demanded, stalking into the room to stand next to the Cyrene/Kostya entity. “Who is this besom sucking the face of my firstborn, my delicious Kostya? Drake, what are you thinking allowing this?”
“Kostya is old enough to deal with his women as he likes,” Drake said smoothly, although he shot his brother a look as he said it. “I would, however, appreciate it if he managed to refrain from outright sexual intercourse during the sárkány.”
“You know how to take the fun out of any get-together,” Jim said.
“I insist that he stop!” Catalina said, hands on her hips. She nodded to the two models. “Remove that naiad from the person of my dear son.”
The two models hesitated, eyeing Cyrene. “I dare not contradict the wyvern,” one of them finally said.
“You will do as I say,” she said, gaining control of herself with every passing moment. “Remove her!”
“We cannot,” the second model said, casting an appealing glance toward the male bodyguard.
“We answer only to the wyvern,” he explained, somewhat lamely to my ears.
Catalina didn’t like that.
“Drake!” she demanded. “Do something! She will smother him.”
“Mother, I told you that your presence, no matter how charming, was not required at the sárkány,” Drake said, moving toward his mother, pausing only to glare at Magoth as he tried to look down Aisling’s top.
She drew a ward in the air that had the demon lord leaping back with a yelp.
“You obviously are not yourself right now. You will return to your room and rest,” Drake continued, taking his mother by the arm and propelling her toward the door.
“You will not order me around like that! I did not rip you screaming from my body only to have you order me around now! Madre de dios, she will kill him! She will suck the life out of his body! Drake! You will cease pushing me out the door.” She lurched to the side of the door, clutching the doorframe.
“Only dragons in septs recognized by the weyr may attend the sárkány,” Drake answered, prying her fingers off the frame. “You are a black dragon, and the black dragons have not yet been recognized. I will tell you later all that happens.”
“I will not have this!” Catalina yelled as Pál and István, each taking an arm, hauled her toward the stairs.
“Inventive, but alas, a bit on the shouty side,” Magoth said, taking my hand and pressing a wet kiss to the back. “It is better she is taken off. You look delicious as ever, wife. I see your twin will be hosting an orgy. Dare I hope that will take place during the torture?”
I yanked my hand from his, but I really needn’t have bothered.
Gabriel lifted Magoth up by the neck, and started to squeeze.
“May, do something,” Magoth squeaked, his face turning red.
“You know better than to bait Gabriel,” I told him, but mindful of the scene my twin was already creating, I decided that circumspection was the best course. I touched Gabriel on the arm and gestured toward the floor.
He hesitated a moment; then he, too, realized that strangling Magoth on the spot wouldn’t be in the best interests of the sárkány. He released him with a warning of, “Touch her again, and I will remove your curse.”
“You can’t remove it,” Magoth said blithely, then froze as the meaning sank into his lust-fogged brain. His hands moved protectively over his groin as he glared at Gabriel. “Wife, one of these days your lover will go too far.”
“Stop calling me that,” I said as Drake marched over.
“Your presence is not required, either,” he said, gesturing toward the door. “Leave.”
“I think not,” Magoth said, sitting down in a chair set at the wall.
“You are not a dragon. This is a sárkány, a meeting of the weyr. You cannot be allowed to stay,” Drake insisted.
“Ah, but my consort is here, and where she goes, so goes me. I. Me. Whichever. Those are the rules, and since you are such a stickler for such, I’m sure you will have no difficulty agreeing I should follow them.”
Drake shot me a questioning look.
“Unfortunately,” I said, my shoulder slumping a little as I leaned into Gabriel, “he’s correct. The rules say he can demand to be in my presence at any time.”
Drake said something that wasn’t very complimentary to anyone, but let it go, turning when the door opened again to admit a very handsome blond man, followed by two other men, both with light brown hair and bright blue eyes. “A thousand apologies for our lateness. The flight was delayed.”
“Bastian,” Aisling called from her chair. “How nice to see you. Did you have much trouble getting into Fiat’s lair?”
“None at all, dear lady. You look radiant as ever. Will you be having that child soon?” he asked, bowing over her hand.
Drake growled and elbowed him aside.
Aisling laughed. “Very soon, I hope. Forgive Drake—he’s overdosed on expectant-father genes.”
“Ah, but it is understandable.” Bastian greeted Chuan Ren, who nodded coldly to him. He turned to us with a warm smile. “The blue dragons offer greetings to Gabriel and his charming mate. May, I present to you Duarte and Godhino, my guards. And is that your twin who Kostya is kissing?”
“I’d say the reverse was technically the truth, but by now, it’s a moot point. Yes, that’s Cyrene. Please ignore them. They appear to be trying to break a world record,” I said, smiling at the blue dragon bodyguards as they grinned back at me before moving on to chat with Tipene and Maata.
“And this is . . . er . . .” Bastian didn’t quite know how to take Magoth, I could see. “This is . . . ?”
“I am Magoth, sixth principle spirit of Abaddon, lord of thirty legions, marquis of the order of dominations,” he said with an odd expression of concentration as he scanned Bastian’s face. “Don’t I know you?”
Bastian looked startled. “No. I’ve never met a demon lord before. Other than Aisling, of course, but she doesn’t really count because she is not evil.”
“Yes, I do. I know you,” Magoth said, continuing his scrutiny. “It was Milan in the last century. I was there for an opening of one of my films, and you were in the villa next to mine. You tried to seduce me. I would not let you because I was, at that time, busy enthralling a certain naiad who apparently has the ability to hold her breath for an inordinately long amount of time, but it was you—of that I’m sure. Well, well, well. And now you’re a wyvern?”