Fire Me Up

  I shook my head. "Not if you mean to challenge him for me. I understand that you said there's some sort of Latin rule that says you can claim another wyvern's mate, but this girl isn't into dragon-swapping. So thanks but no thanks, if you were thinking along those lines, not that I'm saying you were, because we just met, but if you were, I'm not. So don't. OK?"

  He laughed again, and I smiled in response. I had met only one other wyvern, but Gabriel felt different to me. He didn't feel powerful like Drake and Fiat did. His presence was warm, but not overwhelming like Drake's or coolly menacing like Fiat's. "You are charming. I look forward to seeing you at the summit."

  He bowed again and was off down the lawn before I could protest that he wouldn't be seeing me again, at least not at any dragon function. Moa stood as I strolled up to fern, greeting her politely. The last thing I needed was to book like a raving idiot to a potential mentor.

  "Your demon was telling me that you are a wyvern's mate as well as a Guardian," she answered in response to my comment about the lovely evening. She looked me over again, a slight frown between her brows. "Guardian apprenticeship is long and detailed. It is not something to be done in the spare time. A dragon's mate might have the ability to focus on her training, but a wyvern's mate has many more demands on her time."

  I glared at Jim for a moment before turning my attention to Moa. "My demon is a bit confused. Drake is confused. In fact, a lot of people are confused, including, I regret to say, me at times. But I can assure you that I will throw myself wholeheartedly into my Guardian training, and the dragons will not be an issue."

  "Really?" She tipped her head to the side, the long blond hair sliding like a curtain of silver. "But the dragons are having their summit here."

  "That's just a coincidence—"

  She interrupted me before I could finish. "It is being said by all that the summit was moved to this hotel from one in Paris because you, the mate of the green dragon wyvrn, wished to attend the conference. Everyone knows the importance of the role of a wyvern's mate in negotiation, so for you to deny such gives me grave concern about your fitness as an apprentice." She shook her head, saying before she drifted off toward the hotel, "I must give long thought to your candidacy."

  "But—but—" I called out after her, sputtering to a stop when it was evident my protests would serve no purpose. My fingers curled into fists as I glared at the innocent hotel. So Drake, who lived in Paris part of the year, had the summit moved to the very hotel that was hosting the GODTAM convention, did he? And he never once bothered to contact me or tell me that he was going to show up here, obviously expecting that I'd fall victim to his sexy self and do whatever he wanted without saying so much as boo in return? Ha! I marched forward, my jaw set as indignation roiled righteously within me. "Jim? I want you to go out and find me a big, long lance. I'm in the slaying mood, and I know just who I'm going to Saint George."

  "You know, that term has a sexual connotation"— I gave the demon a look—"Right. Not important. Shutting up now."

  J hoisted my purse over my shoulder as I shoved open the door to the hotel. I was armed and ready for battle. Now all I needed was for my foe to show his head and allow me to lop it off with a few well-chosen words.

  6

  One hundred and thirteen.

  "There's just nothing so amusing as a really ticked-off Guardian wannabe in dragon-slaying mode when there're no dragons around to oblige her."

  I snarled something obscene to Jim as I turned and paced past the demon for the one hundred and fourteenth time.

  "You're going to wear a trench in the carpet. Why don't you take a load off for a few minutes, and I'll pace for you?"

  One hundred and fifteen.

  "Man, I didn't know you could make that face. Do you know that one of Amayon's higher demons looks just like that? Only without the flames shooting out the ears."

  "Ack!" I stopped pacing long enough to feel my ears, realized Jim was exaggerating, shot it another glare that should have stripped every last hair off its furry body, and resumed pacing. One hundred and sixteen.

  "Just thought a little levity would help the long, long hours pass until Drake comes back from his date with that Chinese babe."

  A growl welled up within me, but I squelched it along with the spurt of jealousy. I was not jealous of the red wyvern. I was vaguely, mildly interested, that's all. "It wasn't a date. It was a dinner, a business dinner. With a bunch of other people—Drake's men and the red dragons. You can't date when everyone has bodyguards up to their armpits. One seventeen."

  "You know, you should consider switching to decaf. All this nervous energy can't be good for your—oh, boy."

  I spun around, my heart leaping at the hope that Drake had returned, but it was a blond vision of godliness rather than a brunette one that swanked his way across the lobby of the Thermal Hotel Danu toward the small, out-of-the-way corner where Jim sat and I paced.

  Fiat Bin, so gorgeous he'd make a GQ cover model look as if he'd been covered in hideous boils in comparison., paused on his way to the elevator.

  "What is it about the dragon septs that they all take their colors so seriously?" I asked Jim, crossing my arms over my chest as Fiat waved his two blue-suited bullyboys toward the elevator before making a beeline for me. The man himself was dressed in a midnight blue shirt embroidered with an opulent pattern of gold, open almost to his navel, and black linen pants that probably cost more than my entire travel wardrobe. "Would it destroy the whole social structure of the septs if Fiat wore something red and Drake stopped wearing those beautiful Italian green raw-silk shirts?"

  Jim lay down and put a big furry paw over its eyes. "Dragons tend to be very literal, if you haven't noticed."

  "I had," I said, then summoned up a polite smile for Fiat as he stopped before me, making one of those bows all the dragon boys seemed to know how to pull off without looking like a hammy actor. "Hi, Fiat. Fancy meeting you here."

  He took my hand in his, pressing a kiss to my knuckles, his fingers oddly cool around mine. Jim had told me once that the blue dragons' element was air, which left them feeling cooler to the touch than the other dragons. "Aisling, it is my extreme pleasure to see you again. Might I hope you have changed your mind about that rude Drake and have decided to join your considerable talents with mine? You know I would welcome such a union."

  Like the other wyverns, Fiat had a beautiful voice, his with a mesmerizing Italian cadence. I remembered just in time that one of Fiat's skills was in mind reading and quickly imagined myself in a thick-walled tower with shutters clamped tightly shut. Fiat's smile turned a little brittle as I closed him out of my mind. "Are you offering to fight Drake for me, Fiat? You going to challenge him draco ex draco!"

  He froze for a moment, then touched a cool finger to the mark on my collarbone. "I do not seek a mate, Aisling. What I am offering requires less commitment on your part, which, I believe, is something you find attractive. Join with me, and I will see to it that all your desires are fulfilled."

  I gave him a wry smile. "You know, that would sound a whole lot more impressive if your nose wasn't twitching like mad at the gold on my dragon talisman. It's not me you want, Fiat—it's what I represent. So thanks, but I'm going to pass on your generous offer."

  His eyes, a dark blue, glittered at me as he tried to push his way through my mental barriers. Menace, always an undertone of emotion around Fiat, swept off him and over me like I was a marshmallow trying to stop a steamroller. "You would be wise to think most strenuously about your decision to ally yourself with Drake, cam. I have much power. In the days to come I will grow stronger, and I would hate for you to find yourself on the wrong side of that which cannot be avoided."

  "Hyperbole and mystic aggrandizement, you mean?"

  His eyes narrowed slightly as I smiled a perky smile at him. "Your levity in moments of seriousness is known to me. I accept that you do not believe that of which I have spoken. Yet. I can only hope that you accept the truth in time, lest you
, too, be destroyed in the coming battle."

  "I thought you guys were here to discuss a peace accord," I said, a little shiver running down my back at the darkness within his eyes.

  "Peace is a foolish hope held by your mate. He is blind to the truth, but he, too, will learn how dangerous it is to underestimate me. I wish you a pleasant evening, Aisling .. . and hope it will not be the last of its kind."

  I rubbed my arms as Fiat moved off to rejoin his men, more disturbed by his vague threats and innuendos than I wanted to admit. "I'm going to have to tell Drake what he said about a battle."

  "Drake?" Jim asked, sitting up to give my hand a reassuring snuffle. I patted the demon's head. "The same Drake that only a few minutes ago you were muttering about decapitating and disemboweling? That Drake?"

  "Just because I want to kill him doesn't mean I want to see him destroyed."

  Jim just looked at me.

  "Oh, right, yes, I know." I answered the look with a wave of my hand "That doesn't make any sense. Stop picking on me. I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. That last double-shot latte didn't do me any good/'

  The lobby was empty as we made OUT way up to the room on the twelfth floor. In fact, we didn't see anyone but a couple of maids skittering around bringing extra pillows and towels and such. I knew from speaking with the people I'd met at dinner that the bar in the basement of the hotel was the place to go to meet and greet, but the jet lag had caught up with me, and even though it was early evening, I decided to hunt Guardian mentors tomorrow, when I wasn't babbling like an idiot and clearly out of control of my emotions.

  "If Drake thinks he's going to come to me in a dream tonight, he's insane," I remarked to Jim as I crawled into the double bed. "I'm wearing the dragon talisman. That ought to keep him at bay."

  Jim snorted on the bed of blankets I'd made it next to the open window. "Like that's worked in the past."

  "I haven't been this pissed before," I answered, clutching both the dragon talisman and the amulet which two attempted thefts had left me deciding was safer around my neck where no one knew where it was. "He'd just better watch out. I'm not in a mood where I want any man in my bed, especially a sexed-up stud."

  I woke up two hours later to find a man in my bed, murmuring sexed-up studly sweet nothings in my ear.

  "Dammit, Drake, you just can't take no for an answer, can you?" I mumbled groggily as I struggled to extricate myself from both the sheets that had twisted around my legs and the embrace of the man who leaned over me. I was about to punch him where I knew it would really hurt when something filtered through my sleepy anger. This man didn't smell right. I knew Drake's part woodsy, part spicy scent, and this wasn't it. Which meant. .. "Jiiiiiiii-iim! Rape! Help! Demon, I command thee to attack this man and rip his balls right off and—"

  "That's not a man, Aisling."

  Jim's voice, also sleepy, came from the other side of the bed. The man rolled off me as I freed a hand and clicked on the bedside lamp. I looked at him. He was a stranger, a nice-looking man with aubum hair and a cleft in his chin, but still, a stranger. A naked stranger. A naked, aroused stranger. In bed with me.

  The man smiled as he stretched. All of him.

  "Uh ... Jim, I may not have been around a lot, but I know a naked man when I see one, and I'm seeing one. Just who the hel... Abaddon are you, and what the devil do you think you're doing here?" The last question was addressed to the naked man. His smile wasn't the only thing that got bigger as I clutched the sheet to my chest and scooted over to the edge of the bed, wishing like the dickens that international security regulations hadn't required me to leave my pepper spray at home,

  "My name is Piotr. I am here to pleasure you."

  I stared at the man. "I beg your pardon?*'

  "I am here to pleasure you. I will bring you many delights if you allow me."

  Oh, great. I had a Slavic gigolo in my bed. I glanced at the clock. It was only II:I4 P.M. Could this day possibly get any worse?

  "Don't believe it, Aisling. That's not a man. Doesn't smell like one."

  I made a tentative sniff in Piotr's direction. Jim was right. He didn't smell like any man I'd ever met. He smelted smoky, as if he'd been standing around a bonfire. "Look, I don't know you, and I don't want you in my bed, and I certainly don't want you giving me any delights, so why don't you just get the many expletives deleted out of here and don't ever come back!"

  Piotr drew a finger down my uninjured arm. "I will bring you the most erotic pleasure you have ever known, Aisling."

  I jumped out of the bed, taking the sheet with me. "Right. That's it. You have three seconds to get the hell out of here, and then I'm calling hotel security. One!"

  Piotr stood up slowly, allowing me to get a good long look at his attributes. Which, I had to admit, were worth admiring.

  'Two!"

  He smiled again and spread his hands wide in a gesture of obedience, "If you wish for me, all you need do is call."

  I wrapped the sheet more securely around me, marched over to the door, and flung it open. "Three!" I shouted as I pointed out the door.

  Piotr was gone.

  stood openmouthed by the door for a few seconds,

  then closed both before spinning around to face Jim.

  "Where'd he go?"

  made a thoughtful face. "Disappeared in a puff of

  smoke."

  "He wftatT

  "Disappeared in a puff of smoke. You know, kind of like that Barbara Eden babe on / Dream ofJeannie, only without the blond wig and wiggle hips."

  I didn't believe Jim. Men—naked, aroused men— didn't just appear and disappear in a cloud of smoke. I searched the room, examining the side of the hotel immediately outside my open window (no ledge and a twelve-floor drop to the glass ceiling of one of the thermal pools) before finally conceding that maybe Jim was right after all.

  "OK, so what sort of creature appears and disappears on smoke?" I asked the demon as we settled down in our respective beds.

  "Lots. You're not asking the right question."

  I peered over the edge of the bed to where Jim was flaked out on its blankies. "You know, you could just volunteer the information for once. I could do with a lot less aggravation in my life right now."

  "I told you before, that's against the demon-demon lord rules. You have to ask the right question in order for me to answer."

  I sighed and lay back down on the bed, irritably readjusting the sheets so they weren't twisted around me. Although my nightwear was not heavy—a pair of thin cotton sleeping shorts and tank top—I was hot and sweaty lying in bed, the air-conditioning unit having been deemed earlier in the evening more or less worthless. There was more of a breeze coming in from the open window than I had with the AC cranked up high. "I hate demon rules. You know that, right?"

  "Yup."

  "Good. So. What sort of a being shows up naked and wanting to play bed games and later disappears without a sign?"

  "Would that be a male or a female being?"

  I slapped both hands on the bed. "For heaven's sake, Jim—"

  "Incubus or succubus, depending on the gender. Incubi are men, succubi are women. Unless you're gay, and then they're vice versa. I think. I'm not too sure. I haven't had a chat with a succubus in a long time, so I'm not hip with where they all are on the alternative-life style issues.I'

  "Incubus?" I sat up and stared at the demon. "Incubus? The ... the ..." My hands waved wildly as I tried to think of a description of an incubus.

  'The nudie boy toy spirits who come to women in the night and want to jump their bones? Yes. That sort of incubus."

  "But they aren't real!" I sputtered, finally able to articulate again. "They're just a myth, aren't they?"

  Jim shot me a knowing look. "Kind of like dragons and ghosts?"

  I slumped against the headboard. "Good point. Incubus. I've never seen one before. It wasn't quite what I expected. He looked perfectly normal, and he certainly felt real."

  "He was real, at least in th
at form he was. Incubi are dream lovers. They can turn to smoke, entering a room through the tiniest crack, then take a more substantial form. I've heard that some of them, the really old ones, can carry their mortal lovers away with them. A couple hundred years ago in the north of Italy, there was a rumor going around that women were being spirited off on clouds of dense smoke, never to be seen again."

  "Good lord! What on earth did this one want with meV

  Jim sniggered.

  "Get your mind out of the gutter. I know what he wanted. He almost put my eye out with his manly bits. I meant why me? I’ve never had an incubus visit me before. Do they hang around hotels and stuff?"

  "Not that I know of."

  "Huh." I mused on the question of why a spirit bent on engaging in sexual relations would pay me a visit, toyed with the idea that I was suddenly irresistible to men, but sadly discounted that theory. No one but the male wyverns seemed to find me anything but barely interesting, and that was because I evidently had some sort of genetic wyvern mate marker that made me look like hot stuff to them.

  Some of them. Mostly just Drake, Although Gabriel seemed to like me ...

  Despite the jet lag, it took me an hour to fall asleep again, even with the bedside lamp on to keep the monsters away. To my surprise, Drake didn't visit me in my dreams, as I had half hoped, half feared he would, but I did have one of the most erotic dreams of my life. It started with my dream version of Drake licking my ankles, slowly working his way up my legs to my thighs. Just as he gently parted my legs, I woke up.

  To find it wasn't a dream after all.

  "Gawk!" I squealed, the sight of a man's blond head lounging around my crotch area more than enough to leave me momentarily without the power of coherent speech. "Wha"? Get off!"

  "I am Gregory. I will bring you—"

  I brought both knees up and kicked the man as hard as I could in his noogies. He grunted and rolled oft' the side of the bed, clutching his privates. I jumped to my feel right there on the bed and screamed at Jim, the bed springs squeaking as I did a little dance of fury, 'incubus! Incubus! Incubus! Jim, I command you to wake up!"