Me and My Shadow

  “Why would Bael care what happened to Magoth?” Gabriel asked.

  “Why? Because May is bound to Magoth,” Sally said just as if that explained everything. “And Magoth was a subservient prince to Lord Bael.”

  “The key word there being was,” I pointed out.

  “Exactly.” She smiled and patted me on the cheek.

  I sagged against Gabriel. “Sally, I don’t have the energy to play clever word games. Just spit out what it is you want to say.”

  “Well, I will, but I have to say I don’t much appreciate your attitude,” she said crossly. “You were bound to the demon lord Magoth, yes?”

  “Yes,” I said, an uneasy feeling springing to life in my stomach. I leaned a little harder against Gabriel, relishing the feeling of his arm around my waist.

  “But Magoth is in the Akasha, and you can’t be a demon lord if you’re banished to limbo, can you?”

  “I guess,” I said warily, the bad feeling growing.

  “Magoth is no longer a demon lord, and thus your existence is negated.”

  I blinked at her in confusion. “What on earth does that mean?”

  “It means, sugar, that you owe servitude to a demon lord, and since Magoth is banished to the Akasha and technically no longer a demon lord, then you must be bound to some other lord. Lord Bael considered this problem for a very long time, and decided that you should be bound to me. So I’m here to take your oath of fealty, after which we can discuss your schedule and duties.”

  My confusion turned to outright horror.

  “That is out of the question,” Gabriel said firmly. “I have never heard of such a thing, and I will not have it.”

  “I assure you there’s provision made for this situation in the Doctrine of Unending Conscious, and since May was bound to Magoth, and he was governed by those laws, then they apply to her now.”

  I looked up at Gabriel, a horribly hopeless feeling gripping me. I didn’t want to be bound to Sally. I didn’t want to be bound to anyone anymore other than Gabriel.

  Gabriel’s lovely eyes narrowed. “What would happen if Magoth were returned to the mortal world? Would May still be considered bound to him?”

  “Yes,” Sally answered, picking at a fingernail. “But Lord Bael would not be happy about that. He truly would not. And you know, May and I would have fun together. I would greatly enjoy having her by my side as I made my mark here.”

  I shuddered. “Here? Here as in the mortal world?”

  “Why, yes, sugar!” Her smile widened until I could see every last one of her teeth. “Didn’t I tell you? Lord Bael feels I’m just the person to reinstall the concept of hell on earth to the mortals. He is such a doll, isn’t he? Imagine me as the supreme overlord of all mortals? It’s enough to give a girl goose pimples!”

  I looked at Gabriel. Gabriel looked at me. Dr. Kostich swore.

  “I’ll have him brought back,” I said wearily.

  Gabriel nodded, looked thoughtful for a moment; then slowly a smile curled his adorable yet manly lips. “Yeees, I think that will work quite well.”

  “What will work?” I asked, watching him closely. “What brilliant plan have you concocted?”

  His gaze touched on Sally for a moment, speculation replacing amusement.

  “Magoth has no way to contact the world beyond the Akasha, isn’t that so?” he asked me.

  “No way whatsoever.”

  “Then you will have to go back there, little bird. You will present him with an offer—he will be returned to the mortal world, but only after he pays a price.”

  Enlightenment burst into glorious being.

  “Oh, you don’t want to do that,” Sally said, finishing with her cuticle examination. “Lord Bael would not like that, and you don’t want to cross him. He’s not happy with you as is, and if he was really annoyed? Noooo, not good at all.”

  I began to chuckle.“Bael’s happiness is not my concern anymore. Especially if I’m no longer bound to Magoth.”

  “But how—” She frowned until she, too, realized what Gabriel had first hit upon.

  Dr. Kostich looked thoughtful. “Clever. Very clever. But no concern of mine. I must go find my apprentices so that we can return to lay charges against this dragon.”

  He left the room as I kissed Gabriel very gently. “Sexy as sin, dimples to die for, eyes that could melt ice, and a brain. You, sir, are one fabulous dragon.”

  He laughed and pulled me to his chest, kissing me until I stopped listening to Sally protest behind us. When we finally came up for air, Sally was leaving the room.

  “Who are you?” Gabriel called to her as she went through the door.

  She froze and looked back at him, her face a mirror of confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Who are you?”

  Sally smiled as she tipped her head toward me. “Perhaps he’s not quite as bright as you think, sugar.”

  It occurred to me then what Gabriel was asking, and why. “You’re not really a demon lord, are you?”

  “I assure you I am,” she said smoothly. “Lord Bael himself appointed me.”

  “No, I mean that you’re not really demon lord material. You’re a bit wicked, and I think you’re enjoying all this greatly, but you’re not . . .” My hands fluttered for a moment. “. . . not evil.”

  She looked insulted.

  “You haven’t really done anything truly reprehensible,” I pointed out. “Oh, you talk the talk, but your actions speak louder than that.”

  “Name one good thing I’ve done,” she said, straightening her shoulders with a belligerent glare at me. “Just one!”

  “I can name three.” I ticked them off my fingers. “You saved me from the thief taker in Paris.”

  “I told you then—they were the good guys. I don’t do good guys,” she said huffily.

  “Uh-huh. Then you pointed out to Magoth that, with me as a consort, he could leave Abaddon and enter the mortal world.”

  “I hardly see how unleashing a demon lord on the mortal world is a good thing,” she said with an acerbic sting in her voice.

  “One who is effectively stripped of his powers? On the contrary, that was very clever,” Gabriel said. “And it allowed May to return to me.”

  I nodded. “I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you were the one pushing Bael to expel Magoth for good, which ended up with him permanently out of commission, powerless and ineffective.”

  She looked away, but I could have sworn I saw the tiniest hint of a smile. “That was just an unfortunate consequence of a really excellent plan to stab you both in the back.”

  “And now here you are, warning us that unless we do something, Bael will claim my bondage to Magoth, with the end result that we see a way clear to freeing me from him forever. An evil person wouldn’t do that.”

  “You think not?” She made a little face. “You’ll have Magoth hanging around your neck for the rest of your lives. If that’s not evil, I don’t know what is.”

  “Annoying, but not evil. I can live with Magoth whining at me so long as I’m no longer bound to him,” I said quietly.

  “So who are you?” Gabriel asked, taking a step closer to her.“You can’t be from the Court of Divine Blood. Bael would recognize that taint to you. You aren’t a Guardian. You aren’t even immortal—or you weren’t until you became a demon lord. Who, then, does that leave?”

  Silence fell for a few seconds while she looked at him, really looked at him. Her gaze was sharp as a whip, but amused. She said nothing, just smiled, then went through the door.

  “What do you think?” I asked Gabriel when we heard the front door close. “Could it be a glamour to confuse us?”

  “No.” He rubbed my back absently while he thought. “I don’t know who she is, but I do know this—she has been a true friend to us, and I will not forget that.”

  “I’ll go see if Nora is up to sending me to the Akasha,” I said, heading for the door. “I think I’m really going to enjoy this visit.”
r />   It took almost five hours to accomplish our goals of sending me to the Akasha and negotiating my freedom from Magoth. Aisling, Gabriel told me later, had wanted to be there to watch Nora conduct the banishing and resummons, but Drake refused to let her out of bed, and I doubt if she argued that point too much.

  Gabriel was waiting for me when Nora resummoned me. I fell straight into his arms, clinging to him while I tried to forget the miasma of despair that filled the Akasha.

  “Little bird,” he murmured into my hair, his hands busily checking to make sure all my pertinent parts were where he had last seen them. “You are shaking?”

  “Just with happiness,” I said, letting him fill me with dragon fire.

  He stiffened, and I felt a cold whoosh behind me.

  “It’s about time,” Magoth snapped, glaring at the three of us. “Where is this foul document I must sign?”

  Gabriel gestured toward the table. Magoth swore a colorful variety of oaths as he read over the emancipation papers. He gritted his teeth, but he signed them, snatching the knife Gabriel held out, and making a small cut on his thumb. He pressed a bloody mark next to his name, and threw it at me. “There. I am free of your ingratitude at last.”

  “Not quite yet,” Gabriel said, and slid another paper toward him. “There is this you must sign, as well.”

  I craned my neck to see what Magoth was supposed to sign. “A divorce decree?”

  Gabriel winked at me. “May will be my wife, and no other’s.”

  Magoth rolled his eyes, but signed the document with only a few testy words.

  “You don’t have to do that, you know,” I murmured to the love of my life. “I’m not a mortal who holds with such conventions as marriage.”

  “I know. I just don’t like him referring to you as his wife,” Gabriel said. “Besides, my mother wishes us to be married in front of her people, and this will make everything easier.”

  “Done,” Magoth snapped, slamming down the pen and knife. “Now you owe me one thing.”

  “We just gave you your freedom. What could we possibly owe you now?” I asked.

  He growled. “You will tell me where that betrayer Sally is. She will pay for her perfidy—of that I swear. Tell me her whereabouts that I may exact my lengthy and incredibly unpleasant revenge upon her.”

  “I think she said something about going to Los Angeles,” I said without once blinking my eyes. I looked at Gabriel. “Didn’t she say Los Angeles?”

  “Yes,” he lied, also without the slightest hesitation. “That is what she said.”

  “Then that is where I will go,” Magoth declared, his face tight with intensity. “Los Angeles! The City of Angels will weep by the time I am through tearing it apart to find her! Good-bye, former wife. I will return to deal with you once I have meted out justice to Sally.”

  He was gone with a dramatic flourish that would have done a Shakespearean actor proud.

  Nora had been silent during the entire conversation, but she looked thoughtfully at the door now, and said, “I’m afraid to ask, but why is he so angry at the demon lord Sally?”

  “Probably because I told him Sally was behind everything, including convincing us to banish him.”

  She regarded me from behind her red-framed glasses, her eyes unreadable. “But that is not the truth.”

  “No, but it gives him a focus for his wrath.”

  She looked slightly puzzled. “You said that you consider Sally your friend.”

  “We do.”

  “And yet you would set Magoth on her?”

  “Not really, no. We told him she was in LA. She’s not. She said something earlier about going to Germany.”

  “But won’t he simply realize she’s not there and turn elsewhere to find her?”

  “I highly doubt if he’ll even think about her once he hits LA. He really is the biggest ham at heart. He’ll get out there, be smitten all over again with all the Holly-wood glitz and glamour, and will fling himself back into the world of acting. He really did love his years there, you know. I have every expectation that in a few years we’ll see him back on the silver screen.”

  It took her a moment, but at last she smiled. “That was very smart of you. Congratulations on both your freedom and your upcoming nuptials. If you have no further need for me, I believe I will go see if Aisling needs anything. She’s a bit lonely now that Jim is in Paris with Cecile for a few days, and I must reassure her that it was quite happy when I delivered it there.”

  “Life,” I told Gabriel after she left, kissing his nose to emphasize my point, “could not be better.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Did you see the little ones?” René asked several hours later when I entered the now-tidy sitting room. “I aided Aisling to birth them, and I can tell you that, with the exception of my own, they are the two most perfect bébés in the world.”

  “I haven’t seen them yet. My appointment is for”—I glanced at the card that István had given me—“half an hour from now. Don’t you think it’s a little odd that Drake made up an appointment schedule to see the babies? Is that normal?”

  “Eh.” René shrugged. “He is a new papa and very protective. To him, it makes sense.”

  “But to go so far as to don surgical garb when visiting them? My card says I have to be outside Aisling’s room five minutes early so I can pick up sterile clothing.”

  “He is a little overprotective.”

  “And then there’s the baby-holding training class he made us take after lunch. I thought that instructor was rather rude implying that just because Cyrene and Kostya and Gabriel and Nora and I didn’t have children, we wouldn’t know how to hold a newborn.”

  René couldn’t really argue with that, especially since Drake had made him, the father of seven, attend the class, as well. “He is very overprotective,” René finally said.

  “And the blood tests and retinal scans to verify our identities?”

  “He is doing blood tests?” René asked, interested. “I did not have a blood test.”

  “You will. Pál is wandering around the house jabbing everyone like some sort of bizarre dragon-vampire hybrid.”

  “But what is the test for?”

  “No idea, but honestly, retina scans? Does Drake seriously believe someone is going to go to the trouble of trying to pretend they’re any of us just to go in and see his children?”

  René sighed, and gave a short little laugh. “He will learn, I think. Aisling will not allow her children to grow up coddled in the wool of cotton. You must give Drake a little time. And you, how do you fare now that you have found yourself?”

  “I wasn’t aware that I had been lost,” I said carefully.

  “Ah. Then I am mistaken.”

  Silence fell for about a minute. René softly hummed to himself and looked out the window at the workmen who were busily rebuilding the front entryway.

  “You’re talking about the dragon heart, aren’t you?” I asked, unable to keep quiet any longer.

  He smiled. Just smiled.

  “You fates can be very annoying sometimes,” I said, softening the insult with a smile of my own. “As it happens, yes, I found myself.”

  “Did you tell your Gabriel?”

  “Yes.” I thought for a moment. “But he didn’t believe me. Or, rather, didn’t understand.”

  “That is the way with dragons,” René said sagely. “But you will show him, hein?”

  I lifted my hand and watched as the fingers curved and elongated into scarlet claws, the skin shimmering into silver scales that swept up my arm. I smiled. “Yes, when the time’s right, I’ll show him.”

  “He will be happy. But will you?”

  “Yes, I think I will be. I realize now why the dragon shard chose me,” I said, letting the scales slide back into human flesh. I flexed my fingers. “It wanted me to stop being a shadow of someone else, and start being myself.”

  “And that can only be a good thing.” René glanced at the clock and tsked.
“But I am making you late for your baby visit. I will be quiet now, and let you go see the adorable little ones. I must pick my wife up from the train station in a short while. She has come to see the bébés, as well.”

  I said nothing more as he bustled out of the room, and followed more slowly as I savored the feeling of relief. I was free from Magoth at last. Nothing would ever take me from Gabriel again, and I was happy with who I was—not strictly a doppelganger, not strictly a dragon, but something in between, something unique.

  Gabriel emerged from Drake’s study, giving Maata approval on the house she found for us to rent. “Tell them we will take a lease for a year, but only upon May’s approval,” he said before catching sight of me. He gave me a rueful smile as I moved automatically to his side, his fingers immediately seeking mine. “Are you ready for the foolishness?”

  “Not really, but I do want to see Aisling and the babies. Did you have the blood test?”

  He sighed, our fingers entwined as we mounted the stairs. “I would say Drake had lost all his reason, but it is common for male dragons to be very protective of their spawn. Drake is most likely overreacting because of all the people in the house.”

  “No doubt. We’ve been so busy with Magoth, it’s totally slipped my mind, but what will happen with Thala?”

  He shot me a curious look. “I do not know, little bird. Kostya has claimed her as a prisoner of war, but whether Drake will release her to him is in question. She must answer many questions to the weyr.”

  “Baltic will be back for her.”

  “Possibly. But I do not think he will find it so easy to free her,” Gabriel said dryly as we arrived at the room that had been given over to racks of sterile surgical wear. We quickly changed our clothing, and presented ourselves and our appointment cards to István, who stood guard outside Drake’s bedroom.

  “We haven’t seen the last of him, you know,” I said in a whisper when István went in to check if Drake would clear us for the visit.

  “No. The weyr will meet to discuss the issue he presents. We cannot let him continue destroying dragons. He will have to be stopped.”

  “Do you think he’ll seek revenge for us keeping the dragon heart out of his reach?”