‘‘Sweetie.’’ Aisling put her hand on Drake’s arm to get his attention. ‘‘Defluff those hackles. Gabriel wasn’t insulting you any more than you were insulting him. I know you want to have the phylactery to keep it safe, but I think that in this case, Gabriel should have it.’’
Drake glared at his mate. She kissed the tip of his nose. ‘‘It won’t hurt you to let something go,’’ she reassured him. ‘‘Gabriel will keep it safe. He won’t use it to destroy Kostya, will you, Gabriel?’’
Gabriel was silent for a moment.
I dug an elbow into his ribs.
‘‘No,’’ he said with a resigned sigh. ‘‘The phylactery was not meant to be used as a weapon of revenge. I will honor it for what it is, and simply keep it safe.’’
I rewarded him with a smile and a little pinch of his thigh. He covered my hand with his, stroking my fingers in a silent gesture of acknowledgment.
It took a few more minutes of persuading before Drake reluctantly agreed to put the phylactery in Gabriel’s keeping. Since there were still several hours to go until deep night, Drake ordered Aisling to rest.
I followed her out of the room, leaving the dragons and Savian to talk.
The hallway held the usual furniture—a couple of chairs, some small tables, a large mirror against one wall. As I passed a small bureau, a telephone sitting on top of it rang. I glanced around for someone to answer it, but Aisling was upstairs, and the hall was empty.
‘‘Hello? Er . . . Vireo residence.’’
‘‘I wish to speak to . . . wait. Is this the doppelganger?’’
I recognized the voice at the other end almost immediately. It held a slightly Slavic accent, and for some reason, made the hairs on the backs of my arms stand on end.
‘‘Yes, this is May. What do you want, Kostya?’’
He chuckled. The door to the room I had just left opened, and Gabriel came out, followed by Drake and Savian. ‘‘The question is more what I have than what I want.’’
My stomach turned to lead for a moment. Had he gotten the phylactery and called to gloat about it?
‘‘I have something of yours, shadow walker. And I am willing to return it to you for a price.’’
Aisling appeared at the top of the stairs accompanied by Jim. ‘‘Was that the phone? Is it May’s twin?’’
‘‘What exactly are you talking about?’’ My eyes went to Gabriel, who immediately took a position next to me, his arm sliding around my waist as he leaned in to listen. Drake went across to another room, picking up the receiver there.
‘‘Are you missing a twin, perhaps?’’
I sucked in my breath. ‘‘If you’ve hurt her—’’
‘‘I do not harm women.’’ Kostya snorted. ‘‘Not unless they harm me first. Your twin is safe. For now.’’
‘‘Who’s on the phone?’’ Savian asked Aisling.
She raised her eyebrows as she watched her husband emerge with a cordless phone. ‘‘Judging by the smoke wafting out of him, I’d say it’s his brother.’’
‘‘Ah. They don’t get along?’’ he asked.
‘‘Something like that.’’ She came downstairs, stopping next to Drake.
‘‘Why did you kidnap her?’’ I asked Kostya. ‘‘What do you hope to gain by this?’’
‘‘I had no need to kidnap her,’’ Kostya told me. ‘‘She came willingly. My motive should be clear. She is in my power, and if you wish her to return safely, you will bring me the phylactery which you so recently stole.’’
‘‘That is not acceptable,’’ Drake started to say, but Gabriel, with a flash of quicksilver eyes, snatched the phone from me and snarled into it.
‘‘I knew you would show no honor in dealing with me, but to use an innocent woman as a hostage for the phylactery is an act unworthy even of an ouroboros like yourself.’’
Kostya spat out an invective, but Drake interrupted before either of them could get into a verbal pissing match.
‘‘Have you so little disregard for your place in the weyr that you would even consider such a dishonorable act?’’ he asked. ‘‘This is nothing short of a declaration of war, brother. To continue will destroy all chances you have of gaining recognition for your sept.’’
‘‘There is no honor in the black dragons,’’ Gabriel growled, ‘‘just as there is no sept.’’
‘‘We will rise again,’’ Kostya promised. ‘‘And we will regain all that was lost to us.’’
‘‘What is he saying?’’ Aisling asked, trying to get Drake to let her listen in. ‘‘Is he being an idiot again? What a silly question, of course he is.’’
‘‘Kostya is going off on a rant about the silver dragons again,’’ I told her. ‘‘Frankly, I’m getting a bit tired of it.’’
‘‘As am I,’’ Gabriel said, clicking off the phone before doing an about-face to march out the front door we had so recently entered.
‘‘Where are you going?’’ I asked, looking between him and Drake, who was arguing with his brother, Aisling and Savian sharing the phone Gabriel had tossed down.
‘‘Out,’’ he said without stopping.
I hurried after him. ‘‘Why?’’
‘‘I have had enough of this. That Kostya would attempt to harm me, I accept. That he would strike at you, I expect. But that he would take into his hands the life of someone not related to the sept in order to blackmail me—no. Tipene and Maata, I understand. They are part of the sept. But your twin is not. This must stop now.’’
‘‘I’m with you so far as that goes,’’ I said, taking his hand. His fingers tightened around mine in an almost painful grip as he strode down the street to a busy intersection. ‘‘But how exactly are we going to stop him?’’
He hailed a cab and waited until it was under way before answering me. ‘‘We go back to the portal’s exit, and you follow his trail. I will end it once and for all.’’
I didn’t like the look of unadulterated rage in his eyes, but there was little I could say that would persuade him not to take the present course of action. Besides which, I was more than a little annoyed with Kostya’s ridiculous persecution of Gabriel and the silver dragons. That didn’t mean I had to blindly follow Gabriel, however.
‘‘There must be a way to end things without you indulging in the sort of violence I have a feeling you’re thinking of unleashing.’’
‘‘I will not give him the phylactery,’’ Gabriel swore, his fingers tightening on mine.
‘‘Good gods, no, I didn’t mean that!’’ I shuddered to think of what would happen if Magoth found out I used the phylactery to save Cyrene. He’d likely destroy both of us. ‘‘I just meant that there has to be a way other than the all-out war that Drake warned him about. You can’t want that.’’
His fingers tightened even more until I made a little wordless noise of protest. Immediately he relaxed his hold, stroking my fingers and bringing the tips to his mouth to kiss. ‘‘I’m sorry, little bird. I do not mean to take out my frustrations on you.’’
‘‘That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?’’
The look he gave me contained no smile. ‘‘You are my mate. You are part of me now, part of the sept, but that does not mean I should unduly burden you.’’
He looked away, his jaw still tight. My belly ached at the unspoken rejection. I considered pushing it away, deep and dark into the depths of my own psyche, but something inside me rebelled, some newfound sense of . . . oh, I don’t know, togetherness, I guess. I had spent my life alone, bound to Cyrene, bound to Magoth, but never having anyone with whom I could share things. Gabriel charged into my life with a flash of his molten silver eyes, and made me a part of something bigger, something . . . us.
‘‘Gabriel, don’t push me out. I’ve spent my lifetime alone,’’ I said.
He turned a surprised look on me. ‘‘I have not pushed you out, little bird.’’
‘‘You want to. I can tell you want to protect me by keeping me away from this, but you said I was your mate, and I accepted the job. That means your burdens are mine to share, and by the twelve gods, I’m going to share them.’’
He looked taken aback for a moment before he suddenly grinned. ‘‘I begin to see more and more why Drake puts up with Aisling’s ways.’’
‘‘You’d better believe—wait . . . was that a compliment or an insult? If it was the latter, we’re going to need to have a long talk. If it was the former, I’ll kiss you until you can’t think straight.’’
‘‘Former. It was definitely the former,’’ he said quickly.
‘‘I’m never going to be a proper wyvern’s mate at this rate,’’ I said as I flung myself across the seat to kiss him.
‘‘I’m beginning to think the rules regarding proper etiquette are vastly overrated,’’ he murmured as I licked his bottom lip. Gabriel allowed me to take charge of the kiss, his hands warm on my ribs as I lazily explored his mouth, the embers of desire quickly igniting under the taste and feel and scent of him. An idle part of my mind wondered for a second what it was about him that had me willing to risk everything just to be with him, but that thought didn’t last long. He was what he was, and that was all I wanted.
‘‘I’m still thinking straight,’’ he murmured a few minutes later. His fire roared through me, seemingly setting my blood on fire, but reluctantly, I kept a tight rein on it and returned it to him lest we inadvertently set the cab alight.
‘‘Are you, now,’’ I purred, sliding my hands down his chest. His eyes widened as I shifted so that I was sitting astride his thighs, my body blocking the cab driver’s view of him. ‘‘Let’s see if you’re still thinking after I do this . . .’’
His nostrils flared as my hands slid lower, fingers deftly undoing both his belt and his fly. I leaned in to kiss him again, my hands busily touching and stroking and teasing, even as my tongue did the same.
‘‘I don’t know about him, but
I’m
definitely losing concentration,’’ the cab driver said.
I released Gabriel’s lip and peered over my shoulder at the man. I’d deliberately arranged myself so that he couldn’t see exactly what we were doing, although I suspected he had a good idea. He winked at me in the rearview mirror, and added, ‘‘That’s your address ahead of us. Would you like me to go around the block a few times?’’
I glanced down at Gabriel. His eyes were hot enough to leave scorch marks. ‘‘No, I think I’ve proven my point,’’ I said with a little smile as I restored order to Gabriel’s clothing.
‘‘You will pay for this torment, little bird,’’ he promised with a deliciously wicked smile.
‘‘Deal.’’ Reluctantly, I slid off his thighs and pulled my mind from where it was dwelling with loving detail on the image of Gabriel wearing nothing but whipped cream, and tried to focus on the matter at hand.
‘‘You’ll pay for
that
, too,’’ he murmured a minute later as he turned back to the cab to pay off the driver.
Fortunately for us both, Cyrene’s trail was still visible just outside the portal’s exit point, so I didn’t have to go back into the horrendous slaughterhouse. There wasn’t much traffic in the area, thankfully, which allowed me to slip into the shadows immediately.
‘‘It’s here,’’ I told Gabriel as I returned to the mundane world. ‘‘Faint, but visible—both Cyrene and a dragon.’’
‘‘Check in every fifteen minutes to tell me where you are. I’ll follow you that way,’’ he said, checking his cell phone to make sure it was on.
I nodded and prepared to move into the shadow world.
‘‘Mayling.’’
‘‘Hmm?’’
His eyes glittered brightly. ‘‘Remember that you are my mate. I know you wish to rescue your twin, but you are important to me. I would not like it if you were harmed in any way.’’
I smiled and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss. ‘‘You would be a very easy man to love, Gabriel.’’
His eyes searched mine for a moment, but he said nothing. I slipped away from him into the beyond, my attention locked onto the dim trail that was growing dimmer with each passing moment, but my heart . . . my heart was busy with other matters.
Chapter Twenty-three
‘‘Show me,’’ Gabriel said about an hour later.
‘‘It’s two blocks away. I had to come here to hide because I think someone from the committee saw me when I was checking out a dead end in Montmarte. At least I assume it’s someone from the committee— few mortals unconnected with the Otherworld would be able to follow me when I’m in the shadow world, and I’ve seen the same woman three times in the last twenty minutes.’’
‘‘I am with you now,’’ he said matter-of-factly, as if that made everything right, and damned if it didn’t.
‘‘I’m not sure why, but Cyrene’s trail has gone, yet the signs of the dragon remain,’’ I said as we moved cautiously down a relatively quiet street in Ménilmontant, a working-class area in the Parisian suburb of Belleville. ‘‘I guess it just has something to do with dragon scales lasting longer because they’re tangible, as opposed to signs that an elemental being passed by.’’
‘‘Just so you’re sure it’s Kostya you were following.’’
‘‘Well, it’s the dragon who was with Cyrene at the portal shop. Unless he had someone else meeting them there, it’s got to be him.’’
We stopped in front of a small bakery. Above it, curtained windows bedecked with tiny window boxes indicated modest apartments for the residents of the area.
‘‘That’s it. I didn’t go in, but I did search for signs at the exits. I didn’t see anything that said the dragon who went in has left.’’
‘‘Good work, little bird. You will please remember that Kostya is mine to deal with,’’ he said as he angled his body to block the view of any passersby. I persuaded the lock to open, allowing us both to slip into a narrow, dim hallway that ended in a flight of stairs leading upward.
‘‘
Agathos daimon,
’’ I muttered to myself as I shadowed.
‘‘What is it?’’
‘‘It’s what’s
not
—the trail. It’s gone cold.’’
‘‘It does not matter. If Kostya is here, I will find him,’’ Gabriel said grimly.
I climbed the stairs slowly, examining them carefully for signs of dragon scales. Here and there I found a faint glimmer of a scale, but for the most part, the trail was gone. ‘‘Before you go bursting into all the apartments, let me look at their doors.’’