“Patricide?” Constantine gave a little shake of his head. “I know well the feeling, but in your case, it is foolish even to try. You can be killed—the First Dragon cannot.”
“You do not think that the wholesale destruction of all his children, the generations of his descendants, wiped out instantaneously, will not destroy him?” Bael’s face hardened. “It will destroy him as nothing else could.”
Constantine judged the moment to attack to be a point where Bael would be distracted enough by visions of his own grandiosity into leaving himself open. With a “stay where you are” gesture behind his back at the thankfully silent Bee, he lunged forward, the tip of his sword carving a graceful arc through the air. He was just about to part Bael’s head from his body when a noise behind him sent him spinning around.
At least twenty demons stood in silent formation, Bee held in their center, one of the demon’s hands over her mouth. Her eyes were huge, pleading with him to save her. Or perhaps it was to finish Bael—knowing Bee as he did, he wouldn’t be surprised if she had discounted her safety altogether and wanted him to destroy Bael at whatever the cost.
“So predictable,” Bael said, taking Constantine’s sword from his unresisting hand. “You were thus with the mortal who bore you, too. Do you remember? You sought to protect her in much the same manner, brashly assuming that I would be disarmed enough to allow you to harm me, when all along, I held her life in my hands. And now I hold the life of this mortal.”
Bael stopped, frowned, and examined Bee more closely. “But not mortal anymore, I see. A mate? Well done, my son. Taking her life will be even more of a pleasure than taking your mother’s.”
Constantine snarled and leaped toward Bael, but Bee squawked, and Constantine knew without looking that she was being held as a hostage for his good behavior.
“What is this? Wisdom?” Bael’s voice held a distinctly mocking tone as he strolled nonchalantly over to where Bee was being held by a knife-wielding demon. “Something I did not expect to find in you, I admit. You surprise me.”
Constantine realized at that moment what Bael was doing. He pulled back his fire, which had been threatening to escape, and struggled to present as calm a demeanor as the demon lord before him. It took a minute, but he was at last able to say evenly, “How did you know I have the ring?”
Bael smiled. It was unpleasant at best. “I have my spies. You will, naturally, give it to me for the life of your mate.”
“Yes,” he said without a moment’s hesitation.
“Constantine! Don’t—” Bee’s words were cut off when one of the demons holding her lifted her off the ground by her throat.
Constantine glanced toward them, marking the two demons, but otherwise not letting any expression show. He pulled the ring off his finger and made a show of examining it. “Release my mate. Now.”
Bael gestured toward the demons, who dropped Bee. She stumbled and fell to her knees. Constantine took the few steps to her side, and helped her to her feet. “Are you harmed?”
“Not really.” She stopped, rubbing her throat and making a wry face at the croak that had come out. She proceeded at a whisper. “But don’t do this. We can find a way around it.”
“Give me the ring, and you and the woman may leave,” Bael said, holding out his hand.
Constantine hesitated, then walked over to where his father stood. “My sword,” he said, holding out his own hand.
Bael flipped the sword and presented it hilt first with a little bow. Constantine, without another word, spun around and lopped off the right arm of both demons who had strangled Bee. He wished he could kill them as quickly; he knew full well that they would regenerate their arms in time, but this small vengeance would have to suffice.
They screamed and would have attacked had Bael not silenced them with a command. Constantine turned back to Bael, dropped the ring into his palm, and with a hand at Bee’s back, escorted her out of Abaddon.
Eighteen
“I can’t believe you did that. I mean, now Bael has two powerful tools.”
Constantine hushed me as soon as I spoke, nodding toward the woman driving the taxi we’d caught on the outskirts of Paris. I was so furious, I was tempted to damn the driver and make Constantine discuss the situation with me, but I took a deep breath, reminded myself that I’d taken an oath to hide the dealings of the Otherworld from mortals whenever possible, and sat back to seethe silently.
That lasted for about five minutes, at which point I asked the driver if she spoke English.
“But of course!” She smiled, her gap teeth giving her a quirky look. “I drive around many English, you know? But not so many actors, like you.”
“Ah. Just so,” I said under my breath, giving Constantine a sidelong look. He’d used the excuse of being a sword-bearing actor on the way to a reality TV shoot, but he wasn’t looking out of the window as I expected. Instead, his gaze was directed inward.
Another five minutes slipped by before I asked him in Latin, “Why did you do it? The whole reason we went through the fealty ceremony was so that I wouldn’t be vulnerable to Bael.”
“Oooh, you speak the Latin, too?” the driver asked, watching us in the rearview mirror with a big smile. “It is not many people who speak it, is it not? Mostly it is written, but me, I have a penchant for languages.”
Constantine sent me a warning look, but said nothing.
I fretted for another ten minutes, creating and discarding statements varying from details about why it was the sheerest folly ever to give a power ring to a ruthless man who already had more power than anyone liked, to an acknowledgment of just how wonderful I thought he was for sending all of the other dragons out of danger so he could deal with Bael alone.
And it was that last thought that led me to the realization that Constantine wasn’t just a typical arrogant dragon, one who did whatever he wanted because of who and what he was. Constantine was… nice. The word resonated in my head, making me want to smile despite the desperate situation. He was not at all what I had pictured when I thought of the ideal man for me; he wasn’t even technically alive, although his dragon fire kept him warm just as if he were.
He was thoughtful, and concerned about others, but it was more than those traits that captured my fancy. I couldn’t decide if it was his quirky nature, or the way he shared both trials and joys with me, or if it was the fact that his eyes turned to molten gold when he looked at me. Possibly it was all of that and more, but I knew at that moment that I simply did not want to spend my life with any other man.
It didn’t hurt that the sight of him striding into Asmodeus’s ballroom with that big herking sword in hand was like something out of a Highlander movie—and it sent delighted chills down my arms just thinking about it.
“You’re a hero,” I said softly, causing him to send me another glance. I put my hand on his where it rested on his thigh. “My hero. And I’m very proud of you.”
He set the sword aside, turned and pulled me against him, his mouth finding mine in way that made me sigh with happiness. His kisses were sweet and hot and spicy all at once, and I was about to demand he give me his fire when I realized that my fingers in his hair were alight. I tamped down so the driver wouldn’t see (and I wouldn’t set the taxi on fire), whimpering more than a little when Constantine broke off the kiss.
“Change of address,” he told the driver, and gave her the street for the brothel.
“What—”
He kissed me again, shutting me up completely, but I wouldn’t have complained even if I could have talked. I didn’t even blush when the driver giggled and made a comment about lovers who couldn’t wait. In fact, I ceased to be aware of anything but Constantine—the feel of him under my hands, so warm and strong and very, very different than me. His fire threatened to swamp us both, but I kept it down during the length of time it took to get to Constantine’s rooms. It was a close thing, though.
He flung money at the cab driver, who laughed even harder when we bo
th raced into the brothel. I was so inflamed by both my passion and a need that I felt deep in Constantine, I didn’t even stop to chide him about the fact that we should be meeting with the other dragons to give them the bad news and not racing to get between the sheets.
And a race it was, although at least I didn’t have to worry about keeping Constantine’s fire from sight in the brothel. As it was, we left a scorched trail behind us as we made our way to his room. He slammed the door shut and turned to me, but I was on him in an instant, pressing him against the door. “Dear goddess, I need you. Like, right now!”
“That is because you were taken from me,” he murmured in between kisses. I kept moving, trying to get him out of his clothing as quickly as possible, so he ended up kissing my temple, my cheek, and my left ear before he growled, “Cease tormenting me and stand still so I can kiss you as right and proper.”
I giggled. “Only a dragon could make kissing sound like it has rules.”
“I am a wyvern. Everything I do is of a superior nature,” he said, whipping my shirt off over my head before diving for my breasts. He nuzzled them, cupping my bra-clad breasts in his hands before blowing a line of fire between them.
“Right, that did it!” I yanked my bra off over my head without even bothering to unhook it, all but ripped his jeans off, and dug my fingers into his butt cheeks in order to pull him closer to me. We stumbled over to the bed, both of us trying to get the last few items of clothing off while at the same time touching, licking, and kissing all exposed body parts.
We fell onto the bed with Constantine on the bottom, clunking our heads together painfully.
“Ow,” I said as I sent my tongue on a foray into his mouth.
He twisted around me, pulling off his shoes, socks, and the jeans that had gathered at his ankles before assisting me with my undies. At last we were both naked, panting, and coated with a light sheen of fire.
I straddled his hips, looking down on him with bemusement. “I don’t know what’s going on, or why I’m so crazy wild to make love to you when we should be adulting and telling the others what happened, but I am crazy wild, and evidently so are you—honestly, Constantine, did you get bigger? I don’t remember you that… erect… before—so I’m not going to waste time talking and asking questions, and instead will go wild all over your ass.”
“Again with my ass,” he said, trying to capture one of my nipples in his mouth. “I am beginning to think it is an obsession with you. You may admire my ass. You may touch it. You may even rake your fingernails across it, because that is pleasing, and does not make me uncomfortable. However, that is all. Please accept the fact that I do not desire any further action therein. And while you’re at it, stop squirming so that I can love you the way I wish to.”
“Arrogant wyvern,” I said saucily, and took his penis in both hands, an act that had him freezing beneath me. “You are so in my power now.”
“Yes, yes I am,” he fervently agreed, his eyes oh, so hopeful.
I smiled a slow, wicked smile, and leaned down to take just the tip of him into my mouth. He moaned, clutched the sheets, and writhed around in absolute, utter ecstasy. Although I’d never much been one for oral sex, there was something about Constantine that made me ache to taste him. And where other men tasted like… well… men, Constantine tasted like he kissed, all spicy sweetness, like a red-hot candy that sent a burn throughout my body. I wanted him, desperately wanted him, not just in a purely sexual way, but I wanted him in my life. Every day. I wanted to wake up to see him lying on his stomach next to me, and I wanted to fall asleep each night in his arms. I wanted him when he was grumpy, or bossy, or making me laugh with some silliness. I just wanted him, and it was at that exact moment I decided that even if he wanted out of the temporary mate arrangement we’d agreed to, I was going to fight to remain by his side.
“I’m falling in love with you, you irritating, annoying, incredibly wonderful man,” I told him, my voice quavering a little when I admitted the truth, but if there was one motto that held true, it was not to live my life in fear. It was the reason I’d become a Charmer. “And if you think you’re going to get rid of me once the situation with your father is over, you’d just better think again.”
He stopped writhing, lifting his head up to glare at me. “You’re stopping?”
I pinched his hip. “Dammit, I just told you I loved you! Is that all you’re going to say? You’re supposed to react to my statement! Appropriately, I might add.”
“You did not say you were in love with me; you said you were falling in love with me. There is an important difference. Tell me when you are fully in love with me, and then I will react appropriately.”
“Argh!” I yelled.
“Are you not going to finish?” he asked, looking pointedly at his penis, now waving at me quite happily.
I wrapped both hands around the base of it, and made the meanest eyes I could at him. “If you ever want to see this penis again, you’ll tell me you love me.”
“I love you.”
“You can’t say it like that—I want you to say it like you mean it!” I slapped my hands on his belly. His wonderful, smooth, sexy belly. “Seriously, Constantine? Is this all I mean to you—sex? Steamy, red-hot sex?”
He sighed then, the true sigh of a martyr, and pulled me upward so that his mouth could tease mine. “Do you think that I would take a mate if she didn’t hold my heart?”
“We did the mate thing because you were trying to make me immortal,” I protested, a lovely warm glow spreading inside me despite my protest.
“And do you think I could not have removed you from Bael’s presence if all I wished to do was protect you from harm?” He shook his head. “A wyvern by himself is strong, but one with a mate at his side is stronger. And while some may think that love makes for weakness, I have always believed that it makes us stronger. Together, we can face anything.”
“Oh, Constantine,” I said, melting all over him. I kissed the corners of his mouth. “That was lovely. And I wholeheartedly agree—we are stronger together.”
He smiled, his eyes downright molten with desire. I sat up, looking down at this man of mine, a man who was so much more than just a drool-worthy body. He was thoughtful, he was caring… and he was mine.
“So are you going to go back to what you were doing?” he asked with a nod toward his groin, a crooked smile on his lips.
“Demanding, bossy… tsk.” I slid downward, taking him in my hands again, allowing my fingers to do some exploring. “If I knew what I’d be letting myself in for…”
“You’d still have accepted me,” he said, gasping as I hit a sensitive spot. And just as I was bending down to swirl my tongue around that very spot, he moved, flipping us around so fast, I wasn’t aware I was on my belly until he spread my legs and positioned himself.
“Constantine!” I squealed when he thrust inside. I swear the sensation of him deep inside me made my eyes cross, and it took several seconds before I could speak again. “I wanted to be… oh, gods, yes, that is sooo good… I wanted to be on top this time.”
“Later. First I must claim you as a dragon does his mate.”
“Really, you mean—hoobah!” I don’t know what Constantine did to kick into high gear, but whatever it was, it had my wholehearted approval. And best of all, he unleashed something in me that had me bucking beneath him, wanting nothing more than to touch him, and hold him, and even bite him. And when he bathed my back with fire, it pushed me over the edge, causing my entire body to arch like a bowstring. Muscles I didn’t even know I had clenched with ecstasy, sending Constantine into his own version of paradise.
He collapsed down onto me, and time as I knew it just kind of drifted past us, leaving us in an eddy of sated happiness, not bothering to disturb us until my brain started working again. I tried moving my arms and legs, not absolutely certain they’d still work, but happily, Constantine hadn’t sexed me right out of functionality.
“Christos,” he swore, rol
ling off me.
“You can say that again.” I scooted over until I was draped partly on top of him. “That was—man alive, Constantine! I’ve never heard of anyone being loved to death, but I’ll be damned if that didn’t come close to it.”
“It was nice, wasn’t it?” He looked smug as sin, but given the pleasure he’d just fired between us, I figured he was due it. “That is the way of dragons. Now that we are mated, I can teach you many things.”
I lifted one of his hands. At the end of each finger was a long, curved, ivory-colored claw. “This is about as dragony as I like you. I hate to discriminate against your dragon form, but your human form is sexy enough for me. And speaking of that, did you notice that we had a perfectly lovely time without any of your toys?”
He grinned and gently dragged one of the claws down my spine, making me shiver in response. “I did notice. And I have nothing against enjoying you and you alone, but you must admit that variety is nice as well.”
“Hmm,” I said, swirling my tongue around a slightly salty nipple. “Perhaps. You may have to work at convincing me on that subject, though.”
“Happily,” he said. “I will add that to my list of things I wish to show you.”
We lay in silence for a few minutes, me trying to gather my still somewhat scattered wits and lazily drawing patterns on Constantine’s chest.
“What are we going to tell the others?” I asked at last.
I think he had been about to drift off into sleep, because he jerked beneath me. “About the ring?”
“Yes.” I sat up, looking down on him and wondering how much he had changed my life. “They’re not going to be happy with us.”
“Do you believe they would have thought it would turn out any other way than it did?”
I frowned. “Are you saying you knew how this was going to turn out? You knew that Bael was going to lop off Asmodeus’s head—which, incidentally, will give me nightmares for years—and that his men would sneak up behind us and hold me hostage?”
“No. But I knew it would not be easy defeating Bael, and we were going into his presence with a ring that he very much coveted. I knew that such an outcome would be possible if I was not very lucky.”