Holy Smokes Read online

  “Aisling, are you sure this is wise?”

  I paced past where Rene was sitting on the couch, sipping a gin and tonic.

  “I don’t see that I have a choice. It’s either Fiat or us, and I’ll be damned if I let him destroy Drake or the sept. In this case, Gabriel is the lesser of two evils.”

  “I do not know,” he said slowly, frowning into his drink. “You said you did not trust him.”

  “I don’t have to trust him to pump him for information,” I pointed out.

  “This is true. But is there not someone else you can ask for help? What about that man the Guardian mentioned who could help you with the proscription?”

  “Dr. Kostich?” A little chill skittered down my back at the memory of my one and only meeting with the man, a few months before in Hungary.

  “Yes, that is the one. He is on the committee, no?”

  “What committee?” Uncle Damian asked from the depths of one of Drake’s deep leather chairs.

  “It’s the governing body of the Otherworld. And yes, Rene, Dr. Kostich is very powerful and likes to scare the crap out of people when he’s annoyed. But he’s an archimage, and I doubt if he knows enough about dragon history to help with Fiat—what is it, Suzanne?”

  István’s girlfriend, a lovely woman who acted as our chef, gave me a wry smile. “It’s your stepmother.”

  “I thought she went shopping?” I asked Uncle Damian. “Didn’t you say Paula went out?”

  “Yes. I urged her to. I figured you’d rather not sit through another lecture.”

  I threw him a grateful smile as Jim piped up from where it was lying in front of the gas fireplace. “I thought Ash was going to throw everything to Abaddon in a handbag when Paula hit her with that last one.”

  “The dark power is nothing to joke about, but I admit, I thought about it for a second or two,” I said, shuddering at the mention of the lecture Paula had felt necessary to release upon me when we returned from the blue dragon function. It had started with a demand that I call everyone who had been invited to the wedding with an explanation, and a new date and time of the ceremony, and ended with a general summary of what happens to women who are unable to bring a man to the point of marriage. “What’s going on with her now, Suzanne?”

  “She can’t find her husband. Evidently she parked him at the British Museum, and he’s wandered off somewhere.”

  I sighed and looked at the clock. “Like life isn’t complicated enough as is…Rene, will you tell Gabriel I’ll be back as soon as possible? Hopefully we’ll be able to find David quickly—”

  “You stay here and have your talk,” Uncle Damian said as he got to his feet. “I’m the least important person here—I’ll go.” His bushy gray eyebrows beetled meaningfully at Rene. “I’m sure you’ll be safe enough here, with Rene and that thing.”

  “Hey! I’m not a thing! I’m an extremely handsome, if cruelly starved, demon,” Jim complained, rolling over on its back. “Wanna rub my belly?”

  Uncle Damian rolled his eyes and paused in front of me. “I told that man of yours I’d keep you safe while he was gone. He seems to think you’re unable to take of yourself. I know better.”

  I smiled and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for the vote of confidence.”

  “It seems to me that you’ve done some foolish things lately, Aisling,” he continued, my smile fading at the stern look he bent upon me. “I taught you better. And I expect you to not shame me by doing anything else stupid.”

  “So much for confidence,” Jim said, sniggering slightly.

  I sighed. “Pregnant does not mean made of glass, nor does it mean stupid. I’m not going to do anything to endanger myself or the baby. Or anyone else, for that matter.”

  “See that you don’t,” he said with another piercing glance, then nodded his head curtly at Rene and left.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to get through another six and a half months of that sort of behavior,” I said, grabbing a couple of tissues from a nearby table, using them to mop up Jim’s slobbery flews. “No more belly rubs; you’ve had enough already. What did you do with your drool bib?”

  “Pfft,” it answered, standing up and shaking when the doorbell rang. “Looks like your boyfriend is here.”

  “Boyfriend?” Rene asked, looking surprised.

  “Ignore Jim. It was raised by sewer rats.” I slapped a polite smile on my face as Suzanne ushered Gabriel into the room.

  “Aisling, what a delight it was to receive your message,” Gabriel said, taking my hand and kissing the back of it. All the dragons—except the female Chuan Ren—had lovely old-world manners, something that would have seemed pretentious on anyone else, but on them looked perfectly natural.

  “Thank you for coming over. I appreciate your willingness to overlook my brusqueness at our last meeting. Do you remember Rene Lesueur?”

  Gabriel made a little bow to Rene, who had moved over to stand next to Jim in front of the fireplace. Rene inclined his head, but his normally dancing dark eyes were watchful.

  “Hey, Gabe,” Jim said, wandering over to snuffle his pants. “He’s clean, Ash. No guns or nuclear weapons strapped to his legs.”

  “Oh, for god’s sake…go sit over there!” I said, pointing to the fireplace.

  Jim grinned and retreated.

  “I’m sorry about that. Jim knows better than to examine people without being so ordered.”

  “It is nothing. I half expected to be frisked coming into the house,” Gabriel answered.

  “It’s not necessary. You know how Drake is about gadgets. He had a millimeter-wave imaging system built into the foyer. It scans everyone who enters for weapons. If you’d been armed, you wouldn’t have gotten inside the house,” I said, waving him to the couch as I sat at one end.

  He sat next to me, his dimples visible. I examined him for a minute, searching his face for any signs of deception. Gabriel was of Australasian and African descent, with brilliant silver eyes, long black hair swept back in cornrows, and a smile that could melt the coldest heart. He exuded a sense of warmth and friendliness that I had trusted until he’d proven he wasn’t all that he seemed. His dimples deepened as I sat silent, trying to put into words what I wanted to know without giving away too much of the current situation.

  “I won’t bite, you know,” he said with a distinct twinkle in his eyes. “Unless you ask me to.”

  “I’m pregnant,” I blurted out, my mouth temporarily overriding my brain. “Oh, god. I’m sorry. That came out a lot more abrupt than I meant.”

  He laughed and took my hand again, giving my fingers a squeeze. “I know. I am very pleased for you. Drake must be ecstatic.”

  “He is. I just wanted you to know…before, last month, before all the nastiness, you made a reference to you and me…to lusus naturae…to us…oh hell.”

  “Abaddon,” Jim corrected. I glared. “Sorry. Lips zipped.”

  “I told you before that the possibility of a pregnancy changed the situation,” Gabriel said, his fingers stroking mine. “I don’t say that I wouldn’t have challenged Drake for you, but not now. I am many things, Aisling, but I do not break up families…unless I am driven to do so.”

  I searched his face again, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “That sounded remarkably like a threat.”

  “It wasn’t meant as one. It was simply a warning that I, too, have limits. As wyvern, I must do everything within my power to protect my sept.”

  I glanced at Rene. The conversation wasn’t going at all along the path I wanted. Rene shrugged. Evidently he didn’t understand what it was Gabriel was alluding to, either.

  “As it happens, I didn’t ask you here to discuss the unfortunate events of last month. You said yesterday that you wanted to help me.”

  “The proscription,” he said, nodding. “I thought you might be interested in that. The history of the silver dragons is not long—you know, perhaps, that my sept was formed when a splinter group left the black dragons?”
r />   “Yeah, Drake told me a little about it. Something about a group of black dragons not being happy with the wyvern?”

  Gabriel nodded, his eyes darkening a little. “Baltic. One of the bloodiest and most dangerous dragons ever to rule. When the first silver wyvern pulled our people from the black sept, Baltic cursed us.”

  “He cursed the wyverns to not have a mate born to them?”

  “No. He cursed all members of the sept—no mate is born to any silver dragon. It will stay so until a black dragon is made wyvern, which will never happen, no matter what Baltic hopes.”

  I stared at Gabriel. “Hopes? Present tense? This Baltic guy is alive?”

  “I can’t help you with the proscription itself,” Gabriel said, looking away as he withdrew his hand. “But I can tell you who helped our member. There is an archimage on the L’au-delà committee—”

  “Wait a second,” I interrupted, not buying his change of topic. “The dragon who cursed your sept is still alive? Wasn’t that whole thing around the Middle Ages?”

  “The black dragon sept does not exist,” Gabriel said, meeting my gaze with one that was flat and uncompromising. “It destroyed itself centuries ago.”

  “But dragons don’t die so easily. Surely some of the members must have survived.”

  Gabriel just looked at me, all hints of a smile long since gone. “Your mate was the last member born to the sept. If you wish to know more about their destruction, I suggest you ask him.”

  “I will.” I shook away my mental confusion and refocused on what was important. “I got off topic. I didn’t actually want to ask you about the proscription—I’ve got a referral to Dr. Kostich already, but thanks for mentioning him—what I want to know about is the blue dragons.”

  Gabriel’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “If you don’t mind me asking, why? And would not Fiat be the best person to ask for history of his sept?”

  “Fiat and I are a bit on the outs,” I said with a rueful smile. I chose my words carefully, not wanting to lie outright but wary of giving Gabriel too much information until I knew if he could be trusted. “The blue dragons are going to side with Chuan Ren against Drake. Fiat can’t be reasoned with, but perhaps the members of his sept can. I was hoping to get some information about them so I could see what would be the best way to approach them.”

  “Ah,” Gabriel said, nodding. “I will tell you what I know, although I have not interested myself in them overly much.”

  I bit my tongue to keep from retorting that he could be perfectly chummy with Fiat when it served his interest, instead listening as he ran over the main points in blue dragon history. Most of it was unexceptional, with the usual power struggles of members to become wyvern, and the odd assassination or two.

  “Most of the sept was destroyed during the Endless War,” Gabriel said, staring into the fire as he dredged through his memory for tidbits.

  “Endless War?”

  “Yes. It was started by Chuan Ren, but driven in large part by Baltic, who desired to rule all five septs. The resulting war went on for centuries. With his destruction of the bulk of their sept, the blue dragons withdrew from the weyr while they regrouped. They stayed mainly to themselves for the next few centuries, until they reemerged in the late eighteenth century. Did you know that it was a blue dragon who created the recipe for dragon’s blood?”

  “No, I didn’t, although he should get some sort of an award for that. It’s the best drink I’ve ever had.”

  Gabriel laughed. “Spoken like a true mate. Fiat took over the sept in…let me think…the early 1920s, I believe.” He paused a moment.

  “And?” I asked, sensing something in his hesitation.

  “There was a bit of an incident when he took over,” Gabriel said slowly, an odd look on his face. “Tanistry dictated that his uncle Bastiano be named the next wyvern, but he disappeared somewhat mysteriously, and Fiat came forward to claim the position.”

  “Fiat took his uncle out of the running, you mean? That wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “No,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “At least, I do not think Fiat had him destroyed. It was said at the time—I was just a young man, you understand, and not yet deep in the politics of the weyr—that Fiat claimed his uncle was insane and had him locked away in a remote village in the Italian Alps.”

  “Sounds like something Fiat would pull. I assume the uncle wasn’t actually insane?”

  “I have no idea, but I had never heard he was before that time. As I said, I am not very conversant with the history of the blue dragons, but frankly, what knowledge I do have of them does not lead me to believe that you will stand much of a chance to convince the members to go against their wyvern’s will.”

  “It can’t hurt to try,” I answered, thinking furiously.

  Gabriel remained for another half hour, during which time we chatted lightly about non-dragon topics. He seemed relaxed and open, making it very difficult for me to remain on my guard with him. I had always liked Gabriel—until he betrayed Drake and me—and I wanted to like him again. But the memory of the prior month was still stark in my mind.

  “Thanks for the information,” I told him a short while later as I escorted him to the front door, crossing my fingers against the little white lie I was about to tell. “I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with it, but it is helpful nonetheless.”

  Gabriel shot a quick glance over my shoulder to where Jim and Rene stood silent in the doorway to the living room. “It saddens me that you no longer trust me, sweet Aisling.”

  “Broken trust is hard to overcome,” I said slowly. “I’m aware that you may have had a reason I don’t know or understand for doing the things that you did, but it’s hard for me to just forget them and carry on like nothing happened.”

  He was silent for a moment. “I have always considered Drake a friend—insomuch as another wyvern can be a friend. I thought the same of you. I regret that my actions seem to you to be a betrayal of that friendship, but you may wish to consider what Fiat would have done if I had refused participation.”

  A chill knot formed in my stomach and spread slowly outward. After the day’s experiences with Fiat, I was in no doubt that his actions would have been just as devastating, if not more, acting on his own. It could well be that Gabriel thought he was tempering Fiat, acting as a buffer and safety net combined in case Fiat went too far in his plan to…I shook my head. I still had no idea of what Fiat was up to.

  Gabriel sighed. “I’m sorry you do not believe me, Aisling.”

  “No, it’s not that—” I put my hand on his arm to stop him from leaving. “I was shaking my head at myself, not you. Whatever else, I am grateful you were present at that horrible day. I’d be dead or worse if you hadn’t saved me, and Drake…well, I don’t like to think about what would have happened to him. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m willing to give our friendship another chance.”

  He smiled, warmth shining from his eyes as he kissed my hand again. “You have given me much joy, Aisling. I cherish that.”

  “Fwah. You’re not actually buying that big ham’s Mary Sunshine act, are you?” Jim asked a minute later after the door closed behind Gabriel.

  “You’re always pointing out how much there is I don’t know,” I answered, giving it a pointed look. “Well, maybe Gabriel is right. Maybe he was acting as best he knew how. Maybe he knew it was inevitable that Fiat was going to try to destroy us, and he joined forces with him to keep him from going totally bonkers.”

  “Yeah, and maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt, but I’m not going to buy any bananas on the chance they will.”

  “Rene, you’re a fate; you must know whether or not Gabriel is telling the truth. I’m sure there’s some sort of a rule saying you’re not supposed to interfere, but can you at least tell me if he’s being honest with me or not?”

  Rene donned an inscrutable look. “A daimon is not a mind reader or a seer, mon ami. I know no more than you whether or not Gabriel is to be trusted
. For that, you must trust your own instincts. Me, I think you’re right. I think that perhaps there is more here than we first assumed.”

  “That’s reassuring to hear,” I said, marching back into the living room. “Jim, is there any way for me to transport myself and others to another location without using the dark power?”

  Jim shook its head. “Not unless you’ve got Captain Kirk in your pocket.”

  “Very funny. Right. I guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way. Traci, I summon thee.”

  Traci appeared before us, stark naked, wet, and covered in bubbles.

  “Oh, jeez, I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to interrupt your bubble bath. Here, take this blanket…”

  The look the demon gave me as it snatched a small cashmere lap blanket from my hands was one that could have curdled an entire dairy full of milk. “Is it too much to ask that you warn me before summoning?” it snapped.

  “Sorry. I didn’t know that…er…demons bathed.”

  Its eyes opened wide in indignation. “Of course we bathe! I’m a demon, not a barbarian.” Traci took a deep breath and visibly calmed itself. “I apologize for the tone of my voice, my lord. I assume you summoned me to discuss the situation in Paris.”

  “What situation in Paris?”

  I thought Jim had a long-suffering look down pat, but Traci’s expression put Jim to shame. “The situation about which I have been trying to talk to you for some time. The one concerning the role of Venediger, which you so…graciously…inflicted upon me.”

  “What about it? I haven’t heard anyone complain about the job you’re doing, so you’re obviously doing something right.”

  “I am referring to the challenger to the position,” Traci all but snapped, clearly at the end of its rope. “I have sent you faxes and e-mails about it, not to mention copious voice mails, but you have not responded!”

  “Someone wants to take the position over? Is it someone evil?” I asked with a little stab of guilt at the fact that I’d been avoiding dealing with anything but the most pressing of items.

  “Not that I am aware. The challenger is a mage by the name of Jovana.”