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  “Your clothing is sufficient. Come. We will see if the Venediger is present.” He rose and took my hand, which made my inner girl give happy little squeals.

  “Can’t we just call her and ask her about Charmers?”

  “The Venediger handles requests in person only.” He made a wry face. “It is easier for her to exact payment that way. Also, she has forbidden dragonkin from entering G&T. Naturally, we will disregard that, but until—” He froze in the doorway and snarled. I dropped his hand and hustled around in front of him, blocking him from lunging into the hall where Drake was still standing with Aisling, Rene, and Jim.

  “We’re off to G&T,” I called over my shoulder to them, trying to shove Kostya back but doing no more than keeping him from moving forward. “Can we get through, please?”

  “Of course. Aisling apologizes and says that they will accompany you.”

  Drake tried to shoo Aisling into a room.

  Rene, thoughtful of our situation, continued to narrate. “Ah, I am mistaken. Drake says she will stay at home, and he will go to G&T to make sure that you are not attacked.”

  Aisling gave Drake’s shoulder a shove and sauntered past him.

  “And now Aisling has told him that he is insane if he thinks that she will allow him to treat her as if she is made of glass simply because she is enceinte again.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know she was expecting. Please pass along my congratulations.”

  Rene did so, watching with interest as Drake intercepted Aisling on the way to the door, pointing to the stairs.

  “Drake now informs Aisling that she will remain home if he has to lock her in a room.”

  Aisling gasped and began speaking extremely quickly. Drake’s face had the same scowl that Kostya so often wore. I leaned against the latter. “This feels vaguely voyeuristic, and yet, it’s as fascinating as a soap opera.”

  “Aisling has now threatened to set Drake on fire while he is next sleeping. He is now attempting to use reason on her, but she is having none of it.”

  “Heh,” Jim said, grinning when Drake tried to pick up Aisling. “You left out the part where she threatened to nip his noogies if he ever spoke to her again like that. Now he’s trying to tell her that he just wants to protect the baby and that he has full confidence in her abilities, yadda yadda yadda. Oh man, this isn’t going to end well.”

  Aisling, obviously furious, snarled something at her husband, made a symbol over his chest, and escaped his hold in order to stride up the stairs to the floor above.

  Drake tried to go after her, couldn’t move, and began yelling at Aisling’s back.

  “What on earth?” I asked.

  “Binding ward,” Jim said, snickering as he got up to follow Aisling. “He went too far. Heh heh. I’m going to like being bound to her.”

  “Right,” I said, slapping my hands over Kostya’s eyes. “It’s time for us to give them a little privacy to work out their issues. You’re going to walk forward and not try to remove my hands, okay?”

  “I don’t need to be blinkered!” Kostya protested, pulling down my wrists. The second his eyes settled on Drake, he snarled and spat fire.

  I raised one eyebrow at him.

  “Fine,” he said through his teeth. “But only until I am past Drake.”

  Between us, Rene and I managed to get Kostya by Drake (who lunged and tried to grab his brother) and out the door. Luckily, Rene’s cab wasn’t parked far, so in no time we were zipping through Paris, on the way to Goety and Theurgy, infamous Otherworld nightspot.

  Sixteen

  “This is ridiculous.” I tried to get through the open doorway that led into the G&T club. “There’s nothing here, and yet it feels like there’s an invisible sheet of rubber stretched across the opening that just will… not… let… me in. Gah! Kostya, what is this?”

  Kostya, ever vigilant, was busily scanning up and down the street. There wasn’t much to look at—the club was located on a short avenue lined with small, dark shops that looked like they had been there forever. There weren’t a great many people out and about, just one or two ladies with string shopping bags who hurried past, their minds obviously on the tasks of the day.

  I waited until the nearest one passed us before prodding Kostya on the arm. “Earth to Kostya. Do you read me?”

  “Read what?” he asked, still watching the ladies with bags.

  “I was being funny. Or rather, trying to.”

  He gave me the one-eyebrow-up look. I made a face at him. “All right, it wasn’t a big success, but at least I tried, and you can’t complain because you weren’t even listening to me when I was telling you about the invisible rubber thing across the door.”

  He frowned at the door. “You cannot enter?”

  “No. It’s like something’s there stopping me, but I don’t see anything.” I waved a hand through the doorway. “See? There’s nothing there when it’s just my hand, but when I try to step through…”

  I smooshed up against an invisible barrier that distorted my body when I tried to enter the building.

  Kostya squinted at the door for a moment, then breathed fire on it. For three seconds, a symbol lit up gold in the doorway, an intricate design that looked somewhat like a Celtic knot, but with a few extra twiddly bits. “Protection ward. She’s keeping out the dragonkin.”

  I waggled both arms through it. There was nothing there, not until I tried to lean in with my torso. Through the open door, I could see chairs stacked neatly on tables, evidently waiting for the club to open.

  “Why doesn’t she want you going inside?”

  “She believes we’ll bring the war to her patrons. That is foolish, because she has enough power to keep G&T neutral. We could not war inside without the most extreme of repercussions.”

  “Extreme, how?” I couldn’t help but ask, my curiosity piqued by the idea of a woman who had enough power to keep the dragons from attacking each other.

  “Death,” he answered succinctly, turning to look behind me. “Rene should have parked his car by now. I will have him call the Venediger and ask her to allow us in.”

  I eyed the door again. “You said Aisling used to be a Venediger. Could she help us get through it?”

  “Yes, but I will not ask her to risk the welfare of her child to help us.” His eyes scanned the street, clearly looking for Rene.

  I looked down at my hand. “I wonder,” I said softly to myself. The ring had protected me against Asmodeus… would it do so against the bit of magic keeping us out? I made a fist and held it out to the door.

  Nothing happened.

  Well, obviously, I told myself. You have to will it to do things. Accordingly, I closed my eyes and thought about what I wanted. I thought about Kostya, and how he filled my thoughts, and how my life was now bound to his. That didn’t seem to do much for the ring, so I thought about how nice it would be to have the curse taken off so the dragons could talk to one another without murderous thoughts, but again, the ring didn’t seem to be impressed. I moved on to the altruistic intention of keeping it out of the hands of Asmodeus and his demon horde.

  Still nothing.

  “Oh, screw this!” I snapped, my patience at an end. “Let me in the damned place so we can talk to this chick and find a stupid Charmer. NOW!” I bellowed the last word at the same time I charged forward, and evidently, the ring decided to cooperate, because the next thing I knew I was running into the wall across from the door.

  Kostya whirled around and stared at me. “How did you do that?”

  I held up my hand. “I got pissed, and the ring listened to me. Let’s see if it works for you.”

  It took a good five minutes for me to figure out that it wasn’t so much getting angry that triggered the ring to heed me, but any strong emotion.

  “Arouse me,” I demanded, having gone through the door to where Kostya stood and wrapped my arms around him.

  His surprise almost made me laugh, but I licked the tip of his nose instead and wiggled my hips against hi
s. Instantly, his eyes adopted that look that I thought of as smoldering, and he grabbed my butt, his fire twisting itself around us. I slid my hands into his hair and kissed him, allowing the fire to burn deep within me.

  He was just getting into the kiss, his tongue going all bossy on mine, when I started moving backward, pulling him with me. He was about to break the kiss, no doubt to ask me what I was doing, but I bit his lower lip and sucked it into my mouth while continuing to back up. By the time I was out of breath, we were inside the club.

  “Emotion,” I breathed onto his lips, giving him one last kiss before stepping away from him. I knew I had to put a little distance between us or else I’d simply wrestle him to the ground right then and there and have my way with him. “That’s what the ring responds to. It likes me emotional.”

  He blinked a couple of times, then tamped down on his fire and looked around. “Ah. Just so.”

  “What is the meaning of this?” A woman strode out from what must be the back room of the club, a seriously pissed look on her face as she moved around the tables with the upturned chairs. She wore a beige power suit, had sun-streaked blond hair done in a short bob, and was followed by a nondescript middle-aged man who held a tablet computer. “Guillaume, examine the ward. It must be weak in order to allow dragons inside.”

  “Jovana,” Kostya said, bowing low to the woman when she stopped in front of us. “I assure you that we do not enter with any intention of violence.”

  “It is not your intentions I have argument with,” she snapped, giving me a visual once-over. “Who is this?”

  “Her name is Aoife. She is with me,” he answered before I could do so.

  “Your mate?”

  I rubbed my arms against the chill of the darkened club and smiled at Kostya. He looked uncomfortable and was about to answer when the guy named Guillaume returned from his visit to the front door. “The ward is intact, Venediger. It is not weakened so far as I can tell.”

  Jovana’s eyes narrowed on us. “How did you get through it? Is the Guardian outside? I have strictly forbidden her to tamper with my protections, and if she has disobeyed that order—”

  “Aisling is at home,” Kostya interrupted. “She has not aided us in entering the building. We are here, as I said, not to conduct violence but to get information. You are the Venediger; you are familiar with all the denizens of the Otherworld in Europe. We seek the services of a Charmer, preferably one located nearby.”

  She held up her hand to stop him, marching over to look at the door herself. “I do not understand how you got through the ward if no one was helping you. You will tell me how you achieved entry.”

  Worriedly, I curled my fingers into a fist and slid a glance at Kostya. He crossed his arms and looked bored, an act that made me want to cheer. I loved the fact that he wasn’t in the least bit intimidated by this apparently all-powerful woman. “That is not pertinent to my request. Do you know of a Charmer who is reasonably close to Paris?”

  “I know of two, one of whom has been in Lyon on assignment, while the other is in Seville, but their information will not be given to you until you satisfy me regarding this door,” she answered, gesturing toward it.

  Kostya raised one of his eyebrows at her. “We seek aid in ending the dragon war. You, yourself, have stated that you desire it to end so that you need not fear repercussions on the Otherworld. Our means of entry pale in consideration of that goal. What is the name and phone number of the Charmer in Lyon?”

  “You will answer my question!” Jovana snarled.

  “I am a wyvern,” Kostya said, nostrils flaring in outrage. “I do not take orders—I give them.”

  “Not to me,” she said, biting off the end of each word. She made an odd sort of gesture with one hand over another, and to my amazement, a blue-white fuzzy ball of light appeared in her hand. She flung it at Kostya.

  I grabbed his arm to pull him out of the way, but he stayed put, reaching up to catch the ball of light just as casually as if she’d tossed him a softball. The light faded as the ball turned to dragon fire, which he then threw down to the floor. It spread in a pool around us.

  “I am a black dragon,” he said with a little smile. “Of all the dragonkin, we are the only ones who have an affinity with arcane magics.”

  She swore in a very scatological manner that had the prude in me pursing her lips. “Guillaume!” She made an imperious gesture. “Take them to my office. I will get the answer to my question there.”

  “Like hell you will,” I said, and pulled hard on Kostya’s fire, fully intending on using the ring to get us out of there.

  Kostya kept his eyes on her but turned his head slightly in my direction as he said softly, “Do not, Aoife. It is what she wants.”

  “She wants us to get the hell out of here?”

  “No. She seeks to know the source of our power.” He stopped when Guillaume approached hesitantly, obviously not wanting to get into it with Kostya but unwilling to disobey his boss. “We are content speaking to you here, Jovana. You must take my word for the fact that our ability to circumvent your ward has nothing to do with our intention to break the curse affecting the dragons and end the war that Asmodeus has declared upon all dragonkin.”

  She smiled, and for a moment, I wondered if she was related to Asmodeus’s two demon bouncers. “I would not be a very effective Venediger if I believed everything that was told to me.”

  The door to the street opened, and sunlight streamed inside, making little motes of dust whirl and swoop in an intricate dance. Used to the darkness of the club now, I blinked at the bright sunshine, the light giving a stark look to the chairs and tables in its path. A strange noise followed the opening of the door, along with a blobby black shape that suddenly popped forward with an audible sucking sound.

  “Fires of Abaddon!” the black shape swore, shaking himself before turning back to the door. “Man alive, Aisling! Is it going to be like this any time we go out? Because my fur is seriously rumpled, and I’m going to need a prolonged brushing to get it back to what it was.”

  “Jim!”

  Jovana spun around at the entrance of Jim, her frown almost as potent as those normally worn by Kostya. “I thought you said that the Guardian was at home? And yet here it obviously is, complete with her demon, and you know well that I do not allow demons in G&T.”

  “Yo,” Jim said, giving his shoulder a lick. “You don’t have to talk about me like I’m some sort of genital wart. Aisling tells me I’m a good demon. I used to be some sort of a sprite or something, but I got booted out of the Court of Divine Blood—”

  I nudged Kostya.

  “The Court is what mortals think of as heaven.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “—and somehow ended up as a demon, although she wasn’t very forthcoming about that bit because she said it was probably better if I didn’t know all the shenanigans I used to get up to. Heya, Eefables. Heya, Slick. Aisling said you’d probably need some help. She’s trying to keep Drake in the car, although I just bet that noise you hear now is him arguing with her and not doing as she said.” There was another movement at the door, and Aisling popped through, followed by Drake.

  I jumped in front of Kostya, my hands on his shoulders to keep him from lunging at Drake, but to my surprise, he didn’t even tense up.

  “Sorry, Pal, Istvan. I’m going to have to rest a bit before I pull you guys through. It really takes a lot out of you to push past a ward,” Aisling called out the door; then she addressed Drake. “Sweetie, I told you that Kostya was going to be here and that it’s just going to cause endless trouble if you come inside where you both can see each other.”

  “Hey,” I said to Kostya, looking up into his face. He looked mildly interested at the newcomers. I released his shoulders and poked him in the arm. “How come you’re not trying to kill your bro—”

  I stopped and spun around to stare at Aisling. She was staring back at me. “I heard you,” we both said at the same time.

  �
�What the hell?” I added.

  “Abaddon,” Jim said, snuffling Guillaume’s shoes before plopping down next to him.

  “How—” Aisling turned to Drake. “How is this possible?”

  “I strictly forbade you to force your way through the wards guarding the premises!” Jovana finally found her voice and marched over to where Aisling and Drake stood. “And what do you do? Exactly that!”

  Aisling visibly straightened her shoulders at the same time that Drake took a protective step forward. “Hello, Jovana. I’d say it was nice to see you, because I’m a polite person, and I believe that it pays to be nice to people, but evidently you not only don’t believe that, but you also forgot just who gave you the job of Venediger to begin with!”

  She did a little head bob while she was talking that made me giggle.

  “Oh, boy,” Jim said, giving an excited wiggle. “Cat fight! Wish I had some popcorn.”

  “I have not forgotten,” Jovana said, her voice cool. “That fact has no relevance here, whereas you disobeying my orders regarding dragons in G&T—”

  “I’m a wyvern’s mate,” Aisling interrupted, clearly getting irritated. Drake murmured something and was about to step forward again, but Aisling held him back. “You don’t have any right to give Drake or me orders. You can request that I do something, and I will—”

  “You are a member of the Guardian’s Guild!” It was Jovana’s turn to interrupt, and she did so with vehemence. “Thus you are bound to the rules of the L’au-dela, and that includes honoring my dictates.”

  I sighed softly to myself and asked under my breath, “What’s a L’au-dela?”

  “It is the formal name for the Otherworld.”

  “Why can’t people just call things by one name?” I complained, but gave up my grousing to watch Aisling deal with the situation.

  “You tell her, babe,” Jim said, nodding his support. “Also, ask when the grill is going to open up, because that so-called lunch you had Suzanne give me isn’t going to do the job, and I’m going to need my strength if you’re going to want me to take down the mage.”