His godson and his mate were already there when they arrived.
“I’m supposed to do the honors of translating for everyone,” Jim the demon informed Constantine when they entered a long sitting room. It was filled with heavily brocaded antiques and dotted with pools of amber light from various lamps. At one end, a fire burned in a grate, lending ambiance rather than warmth.
“Hi everyone! I’m Gary. Oooh, isn’t that a pretty Louis the Sixteenth table. Is that inlaid onyx? Very shiny.”
Constantine set Gary’s ball down on a small half-moon table.
“Hello again,” Bee said, greeting Aisling when she rose.
Aisling’s expression was one of shock, her gaze glued to Gary. “That’s… I’m… is that a head?”
“Cool!” Jim the demon dog said, strolling over to snuffle the giant hamster ball. “Hiya. Do you get motion sickness rolling around in there?”
“Not at all. I’ve always been a good sailor,” Gary told the demon, then beamed at the room in general. “Well, now! Isn’t this nice. A room full of dragons and a demon, and of course Bee, who is the most charming of all Charmers.”
Aisling shook her head, closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them, saying, “You know, I’m just going to go with the flow here, and not even ask.”
“I’m sorry we’re so late, Aisling,” Bee said. “We—I—we got a bit caught up in things, and I didn’t see it was so late. Do you know Constantine? I know you can’t talk to him, but I figured you must have met him since he’s Kostya’s godfather. Oh, hello, Aoife. I didn’t realize you and Kostya were here yet.”
Constantine watched with interest as Bee’s sister, who had been sitting and petting Jim, leaped up and flung herself in front of Kostya, her hands on his arms as if she were restraining him.
“What on earth are you doing?” Bee asked.
“Protecting Kostya from Constantine. We aren’t at G&T, so the curse will make them want to kill each other.”
Bee turned to consider Constantine. “Do you feel like killing your godson?”
“Not at the moment, no.” He made a bow to Aisling. “I will defend myself if he feels obligated to attack, but I bear him no particular hostility. Greetings. I am Constantine of Norka. I do not believe we have been formally introduced.”
Aisling’s eyes grew round as she took the hand that Constantine politely held out. “Criminy Dutch! I can hear you! That is, I can understand you.”
“I can understand him, too,” Aoife said, looking confused.
“As can I.” Kostya set aside his mate and came toward them, frowning. “Why can I understand you? You are a member of another sept. Two septs, if you count that which you formed in order to destroy the black dragons.”
“Again you bring up old history. Very well, this once I will correct you. Baltic was the one who destroyed the black dragons.” Constantine snorted. “I tried to save them, but he—”
“Time out,” Aisling said, rising from the brocade loveseat. “Constantine, I don’t know if you’re prone to lengthy speeches about the glory of the black dragons and how they will rise again, but long familiarity with Kostya leads me to believe that he’s about to go on one of his rampages, and quite frankly, I don’t want to hear it. Well, I can’t hear it, not while the curse is on us, but you know what I mean.”
“What is she saying?” Aoife asked him, obviously unable to understand what Aisling said due to the curse.
He was tempted to tell her that she should be asking her sister that question, but decided, in a rare moment of insight, to forestall such a suggestion. Instead, he gave a summary of Aisling’s comments, ignoring Aoife when she bristled at the slur against her wyvern.
“I don’t know why the curse isn’t affecting me,” he told them all, one hand absently rubbing a spot on his chest. Bee made a distressed noise and moved closer. “It could be that in trying to break it, Bee had some effect on it. Regardless of the reason, I wish to locate Bael. What did your demon find?”
“I think we should discuss the issue of why the curse isn’t affecting you,” Aisling said with a little pull between her eyebrows. “It might be important.”
“It isn’t,” Constantine stated, and made an impatient gesture. “Answer my question.”
“Please,” Bee said softly.
“I do not have time for social niceties. If I am abrupt, it is because I’m trying to save as many lives as possible.”
“From the red dragons, you mean?” Kostya took a seat in an armchair, while Aoife perched herself on the arm of it. “They have not been seen in Paris, and all dragonkin are watching for them. We would have had word if they were going to strike.”
“Golly!” Gary said, turning his eyes to Constantine. “Red dragons are after us, too?”
Constantine felt as if the weight of the world had settled on his shoulders and was slowly but inevitably crushing him into the ground. “It is not the red dragons I fear, but their master. What did the demon find out?”
“I have a name, you know. It’s Jim. Well, Effrijim really, but that’s awfully girly, so I’ve always gone with Jim. At least I think I have,” the demon dog said, pursing its lips thoughtfully. “I lost my memory for a bit, so I don’t remember anything before Eefers here ran me down.”
“Eefers?” Bee asked before shaking her head. “Aoife is pronounced EE-fuh, Jim, not eefers.”
“Ignore Jim, please,” Aisling said, giving her demon a stern look. “It’s in one of those moods because the trip to Abaddon was pretty hairy.”
“Hairy with big fat warts on it,” Jim said, nodding.
“I hear you on the full name versus nickname thing,” Gary told Jim. “I’m actually a Gareth, but no one seems to be able to remember it.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot ignore the demon. Not so long as it has information to give, which I request for a third time,” Constantine said, fast losing his patience. Now that he was committed to stopping Bael, it seemed to him that everyone was unconcerned. Did no one else realize just how much time they were losing with the inane conversations? Were they all unaware of the danger that Bael posed? Was no one but Bee interested in stopping the massacre that was sure to happen should Bael continue unchecked?
Bee must have sensed his rising fire, for she moved closer and brushed his hand with hers until he gave in and took it, the touch giving him an odd sense of contentment. For the first time in longer than his memory spanned, he felt as if he was not alone.
“I don’t understand why you are involved with the Charmer,” Kostya said, his gaze on Constantine. “You can no longer go into spirit form, so you have no special abilities used in finding the talisman. I don’t see why you should be here—”
“Cease this mindless babbling!” Constantine roared, releasing Bee’s hand to stomp into the center of the room.
The silence that followed was pronounced.
“Do none of you care that the most dangerous being who ever lived is now free again?” he demanded to know.
“Of course we care,” Aisling said, glancing toward Kostya. “But really, our focus is on breaking the curse.”
“We want the curse broken, too,” Bee said. “It’s just that Constantine has issues with Bael being out and about, and we’d like to locate him in order to make sure no one is hurt.”
“Issues?” Kostya eyed Constantine suspiciously. “What issues would you have with a demon lord?”
The urge to run was strong, but he knew that he could never again turn away from the responsibility that had plagued him for so long. He was silent for a few minutes, picking out what he wanted to say, grateful that Bee was giving him the opportunity to speak or not speak, as he chose.
“Bael is no ordinary demon lord,” he finally said.
“You can say that again,” Gary said with a little giggle. “Asmodeus was terrified of him, although he’d never let on to anyone. But oh, how he used to check that Bael was still in the Akasha, and not out where he could mess with him. Asmo, that is.”
>
“Who are you?” Aisling asked before shaking her head and answering herself. “No, never mind, I said I wasn’t going to go there, and I’m not. But I will say that we all know Bael isn’t a normal demon lord. For one, he’s a tricky bastard, and for another, he managed to place a curse on all of the dragons while he was still confined to the Akasha. You have to have some pretty big chops to pull off that sort of thing.”
“He does have big chops, as you call it,” Constantine answered her. The room was silent as he spoke the words that weighed so heavily on him. “As a son of the First Dragon, he was born with abilities beyond the understanding of most beings.”
Twelve
“Bael’s what?” Aisling exclaimed at the same time Kostya burst out with, “He’s another son? You are wrong. He can’t be.”
“Glorioski! That’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming,” Gary told Jim.
“Are you sure he’s one of the First Dragon’s sons?” Aisling asked, and although it took time they did not have, Constantine briefly recapped his history.
“For the fourth and final time, what did your demon find out about Bael’s location?” he asked when he finished.
Aisling looked like she wanted to say something else, but in the end, she waved a hand at Jim. “Go ahead. Tell Constantine what you overheard in Abaddon.”
Jim stood up and made a gesture with one paw that would have been a salute on any other being. “Aye aye, mon dragon capitain. At first, I didn’t think I was going to find out much about Bael. For one, no one seemed to know he’d been released by Eefies.”
“Unintentionally!” Aoife protested.
“Ha!” Bee said with a snort. “I’d say that was worse than being caught sneaking around Abaddon.”
“But then I caught wind that all of Asmodeus’s wrath demons were out of Abaddon, and in the mortal world hunting.”
“Hunting for what?” Kostya asked.
“Well, that’s the interesting part. Once I heard that all the wrathies were out in a hunting party, I figured they’d be looking for Bael, and they were, but it also turns out they were searching for some chick named Thala.”
“Who?” Bee asked.
Constantine’s gaze settled on Kostya. “Baltic’s Thala?”
Kostya looked thoughtful. “I assume so. You know why he’d seek her, yes?”
Cold, hard fear filled his stomach. “I do.”
“Well, we don’t, so enlighten us, please,” Bee said, glancing between Aisling and Aoife. “Who is Thala?”
“And why would Asmodeus want to find her?” Aisling asked.
“She holds a valuable weapon,” Constantine said, his mind assembling and then discarding any number of scenarios that would explain Bael’s actions. “A light sword. Baltic used to possess it, but it was stolen by Thala.”
“So you think that Asmodeus wants this sword? Why?”
“Not Asmodeus—Bael. With it, he’ll be able to remove Asmodeus from the throne of Abaddon.”
“That makes sense,” Bee admitted. “But that’s not going to help us find out where Bael is and where he is living. We still need to get some kind of talisman from him to break the curse.”
Constantine looked pointedly at the demon dog. “Did you find out where Asmodeus’s demons were searching?”
“Yup, that and a whole lot more. One of the gatekeepers in Asmo’s palace says that he heard that three of the demons went to England, to a small town called Piddlington-on-the-Weld where Bael has set up camp, while the others were sent off to scour Paris for Thala.”
“She’s here?” Aisling asked.
Jim’s lips curled. “According to my gatekeeper buddy, they tracked her from Asia to Italy and then to Paris, but they lost her a few weeks ago. That’s what some of the lesser demons are saying, but I wouldn’t like to vouch for how accurate it is. You know how it is with those junior demons.”
“No, how is it?” Gary asked, donning a fascinated expression.
Jim cocked a knowing eyebrow. “They love to gossip, and if they don’t have anything to gossip about, they’ll make stuff up.”
“Really? No one but Asmodeus’s wrath demons were allowed into his private chamber where I lived, but they were always very factual. Sometimes too factual, if you get my drift.”
“Nothing a wrathie likes more than to talk torture methods,” Jim agreed, nodding. “What were your demons’ faves?”
“Oh, it was ghastly, simply ghastly!” Gary said with great relish. “They loved to take a traffic cone, you know, one of those orange and white plastic things, and then grease it up really well—”
“And that’s about enough,” Bee interrupted with a fierce look at Gary.
“You can tell me later,” Jim told the head sotto voce. “And I’ll tell you what Ash does when she gets PMSy. Bet you my tales beat the pants off of yours.”
“I don’t know,” Gary said hesitantly. “It’s pretty bad if someone inserts a greasy traffic cone into—”
“Right, that’s the end of my patience,” Bee said, picking up the hamster ball and sending it rolling out of the room and into the hallway. Gary’s screams followed.
“Where were we?” Bee asked. Everyone stared at the doorway with a shared shock expression.
“I am not a bowling ball!” came an objection from the hall. “Great, now I have a nosebleed.”
Bee closed the door. “Constantine?” she asked, appealing to him for help.
He pursed his lips. “I hope you didn’t break his nose again. He’ll be hell to live with if you did. It’s bad enough I had to have it fixed once today.”
“I’m sure I didn’t.” Bee bit her lower lip, and with a muttered curse, opened the door and fetched Gary back. “I said I was sorry! No, your nose isn’t broken, that’s not even blood. The juice box that Constantine tucked into your little home is leaking, that’s all.”
Everyone stared at her. She coughed and set Gary down on the half-moon table again. Gary gave an injured sniff and looked noble for a few minutes.
“I’ve totally lost the thread of what we were talking about,” Aisling said, choking a little when Constantine took a few tissues, popped open the lid of the hamster ball, and wiped off the juice before getting Gary settled again.
Bee’s shoulders slumped.
“Thala,” Aoife said, obviously trying not to laugh. “We were talking about Thala being in Paris. And where Bael might be.”
“England,” Aisling said, nodding.
“Paris,” Constantine corrected.
“Because of Thala?” Bee asked.
“Yes. Thala’s sword must be at the top of his list.”
“That makes sense to me. If I were Bael, seeking instruments of power would be my priority,” Kostya agreed.
Bee looked like she wanted to argue the point. “But that takes us back to the question of why he wants a sword that offers power only to a mage. Why would he want that?”
Constantine didn’t answer until Bee poked her elbow into his side. He turned to face her then, hesitating to tell her the truth. He had a sudden, overwhelming urge to protect her, to keep her from continuing with the task of Charming the curse. He wanted her safe, tucked away somewhere peaceful where she would wait for him, greeting him with open arms and laughing eyes. He bowed his head for a moment as blackness blinded him to their surroundings. Arms, warm and solid, slid around his waist. He blinked when he realized it was Bee embracing him, the scent of her driving away the dark thoughts, instantly making him hard with desire.
“If you don’t want to tell everyone,” she whispered, her breath as soft as a feather against his ear, “you don’t have to. You’ve done enough soul baring for one day.”
“Oh, so it’s like that, is it?” he heard Aoife say.
Bee stiffened in his arms.
“It’s all right,” he told her.
“What is, them knowing about your father or my sister being a jerk?”
“Both,” he answered, and kissed the top of her head before turnin
g to face the others, one arm comfortably around Bee. “Bael seeks the light sword not because of the power it offers him, but because it has power.”
“What are you thinking?” Kostya asked, his expression as black as Constantine’s thoughts.
“Bael was overthrown before he was banished. His leagues of minions were broken up and divided amongst the other demon lords, and the power he used to maintain control of Abaddon was lost to him. Now that he has been freed—” He paused to give Aoife a look. Kostya growled at him in response. “Now that he is free to move about the mortal world, he must gather power unto him again. He is basically repeating what he did when he first became a demon lord.”
“Which is what?” Bee asked.
“He made the Tools of Bael, and imbued into them a good portion of his power. They then focused that power, and allowed him to overthrow the current prince of Abaddon, taking his place and subjugating all the other demon lords.”
“I think I heard that the Tools were destroyed,” Bee said, frowning in concentration. “There was a rumor going around that they were used to banish Bael.”
“I assume something like them must have been used,” Constantine said, nodding. “It must have taken extraordinary circumstances to banish him. Logically, then, if the Tools are no longer available to him, he must seek new ones.”
“The sword,” Bee said, enlightenment dawning in her eyes. “He plans on using it to… what, make a new Tool?”
“I can’t think of any other reason why he’d want a mage weapon.” Constantine’s gaze held hers. “He must not get it.”
Her cheeks paled a little. “I can see him getting a hold of it would be very bad. You mean to stop him, don’t you?”
“I have to.”
“You don’t. It’s not your responsibility, but I see why you feel like you must do something.”