Dragon Soul Read online

  “Oooh, new people?” Ken asked, peering down. “Oh, they’re not in costume. I hope the captain doesn’t let them join us. It’ll ruin the whole ambiance.”

  A woman led the way to the gangplank, followed by three men, two of whom held armloads of books, while the third staggered along with a wooden table that all but obscured his vision.

  Rowan considered them. “That’s curious. I wonder who they are.”

  “I have no idea. More people to go to the promised land, do you think?” Sophea asked.

  “We wouldn’t have picked them up midway through Duat if that was the case,” he told her.

  “Let us go greet the new arrivals,” Barbie said, nodding toward the door into the ship.

  “And leave the party?” Ken said, looking horrified. “But we just got here! And I haven’t gotten to show everyone my darling costume, let alone join the costume contest, which you just know I’m going to win because honestly, no one else’s costume comes even close to the quality of mine. No one else has a familiar… er… sheep with them.” Ken gave them a bright, and very brittle, smile. “Present company excluded from that comment about other costumes, of course. Yours are excellent, truly excellent.”

  “Come,” Barbie said, jerking Ken forward so that her wig wobbled precariously.

  They moved toward the doorway leading to the inner rooms of the ship at the same moment that a second car pulled up, and two more people emerged, but this time, Rowan was familiar with them.

  “That Barbie is kind of rude… whoa. More people? Oh, it’s them,” Sophea said, noting the newest arrivals. “Your sister and that guy with the long name.”

  “Constantine.” Rowan fought with a spurt of irritation that threatened to blow up into full-fledged anger. “Why are they here interfering? Are they checking up on us? They’ve already seen that we are now dragons—I don’t see why they have to come around bothering us again. Not that I mind seeing my sister, but that dragon she’s mated to is another matter.”

  Sophea slid him a little smile and took his hand, her fingers tight around his giving him a surprising sense of comfort. “Now, now, they haven’t done anything to be so testy about. Although I admit I feel a bit like the dragons are keeping tabs on us, which is annoying at best. But I suppose Gabriel and May have helped a bit with watching Mrs. P.”

  “Let us see if they have any insight as to why those dragons are here.” He turned to call Gabriel over, but froze, staring in mingled surprise and anger at the sight of several men climbing over the railing, water pouring off them. Each was armed with at least two swords, and a couple had knives strapped to their legs.

  Rowan roared a Portuguese oath and leaped forward, pulling out his gun before he realized that it would do not good—even if it was a real gun, bullets did nothing but enrage demons.

  And demons these were. He didn’t have to catch the stink of their origins to know—the way they poured over the rail of the ship and pinpointed Mrs. P and her ladies told him everything he needed to know. He threw away the gun and jerked his whip out of the holder just as the passengers realized that they were under attack.

  Screams filled the night air, drowning out the music until someone, in their desperation to get away, knocked the CD player over the edge into the water.

  The captain took one look at the invasion and shoved Mrs. P at the nearest crew member, pulling from the belt of his Captain Nemo outfit a very real looking scimitar.

  “Get her to safety,” Rowan yelled at the crewman as he hustled Mrs. P past him. “Sophea! Guard her!”

  The whip cracked without him even realizing he’d swung it, and the first of the demons rushing toward him slammed into the railing with a sick snapping sound. He shook the whip free, not in the least surprised to see Gabriel leap past him in a flying tackle, taking down the next demon, wrapping his costume’s tie around the demon’s neck and tightening it mercilessly.

  People stampeded past Rowan to get to safety, but he didn’t risk a glance behind him to see if Sophea was taking Mrs. P away to their cabin. He yelled a native insult he’d learned from a shaman and swung the whip at two demons who rushed toward the entrance to the lower levels of the ship. One of them he caught by the leg and pulled back to where the captain was, his scimitar stained black. But the second one was too fast, and just as Rowan started after him, something whistled past his ear. He paused, staring in surprise at the arrow that projected from the back of the demon’s neck as it fell to the floor.

  He turned to look behind him. Sophea had already nocked another arrow and adopted an archer’s stance, her eyes narrowed as she sighted another demon who was about to run him through.

  The bow sang, and the demon went down with a squawk. Rowan stormed over to her, not seeing Mrs. P with her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

  “Shooting demons.” She quickly pulled out another arrow and fired it off. Behind him, Rowan heard a demon scream. “I have to say, this is the best outfit ever. I mean, I thought the Xena one was good, and it did a whole lot for my boobs, but this bow and arrow is just pure awesome. Duck!”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but instead moved to the side just as she shot down another demon. This one did a perfect swan dive over the deck into the water, the arrow projecting from the side of its head.

  “Where did you learn to shoot like that?” he asked, shoving her to the side and snapping the whip at the demon who was charging them with a sword held high. He caught the man around the neck, and with a jerk, slammed him into the navigation room wall. The demon fell back and feebly staggered toward them.

  “College. Had to take athletics to graduate. I hate sports, so picked archery as the least obnoxious.”

  “Where’s Mrs. P?” He leaped on the back of a demon that had the poor judgment to run too close, sending them both crashing to the ground, whereupon he pounded the man’s head into the floor until he went limp.

  The bow sang twice in quick succession. “May is protecting her. Damn. I’m out of arrows.”

  Rowan picked up a chair and walloped a demon with it, sending him tumbling over the rail. “Go help her. This is no place for you.”

  “Ha! I’ve killed more demons that you. I just need more arrows…”

  “Go away,” Rowan roared, hefting the table, and using it to bash two more demons against the wall.

  “Why? I’m holding my own.” She pulled out a tactical combat knife, and with a yell, stabbed it into the ankles of the two demons he’d just downed, severing their Achilles tendons. One of the demons slashed out with a sword, just catching the outer edge of her arm.

  Blood rolled down her arm, causing her to gasp in pain. Rowan screamed an oath and lunged at the demon, twisting its head until the neck snapped. “Get below!” he ordered, his voice an unrecognizable snarl. “You’re not safe here.”

  “I’m fine. I just didn’t realize he wasn’t as hurt as I thought he was.” She glanced behind him, looked around, and plucked her bow from her back, swinging it like a club. It connected with the head of a demon with an ugly noise. The demon dropped.

  “Just do what I say!”

  “Look, I’m helping,” she argued. “Give me one good reason why I should leave when I’m taking down demons.”

  “Because I love you, damn you!” he bellowed, slamming together two demons with a force he had no idea he possessed. Both fell to the floor with a whump, black demon blood making the deck slippery. “I couldn’t live if you were killed, all right? Take yourself off now so that later I can peel those shorts off you and caress the glorious globes of your ass, and your breasts, and lick every inch of—”

  A demon threw itself on his back, sending him careening forward. He twisted in an attempt to get the demon off, feeling the sting of metal against his flesh as the demon tried to cut his throat, but before he could break the man’s arm, Sophea stabbed her blade into the man’s wrist, causing the demon to howl and drop his sword.

  Rowan flipped him to the deck, stood wit
h his foot on the demon’s hand, and said, “Tell your master that his tricks are useless,” before snatching the knife from the wrist and jamming it into the demon’s heart.

  Sophea stood next to him, panting. Rowan turned to locate the next demon, and beheld a deck scattered with black blood and bodies. At the far end, the captain was wiping his scimitar on the shirt of one of the dead demons. Two more, their bodies broken, tried to crawl to their weapons, but Gabriel kicked them overboard, and then tossed the demons after them.

  Rowan caught sight of the blood on Sophea’s arm and was instantly filled with rage anew. How dare someone harm his mate? He snatched up a napkin from one of the destroyed tables and tied it around her wound. “We will find the ship’s doctor. He must see to your hurt.”

  “My what? The scratch?” She shook her head and pulled the napkin from her arm in order to use it to press to his neck. “That’s nothing compared to you. Sit down. You’re losing a lot of blood, and I don’t want you to get excited or you’ll just bleed more heavily. Can you do that healing thing? Gabriel?”

  Sophea strong-armed him into a chair that was still standing. “I’m fine,” he protested. “Stop fussing over me and let me attend to your injury.”

  “Someone’s hurt?” Gabriel asked, his eyes widening a little when he saw the front of Rowan’s shirt. Rowan glanced down. It was soaked red, from his collar to his belt. “Ah. Just so. If you will let me examine it, Sophea—I am a healer.”

  “Are you? Like a doctor?”

  “Like a doctor,” Gabriel agreed, taking the napkin from her. He examined Rowan’s neck. “This isn’t too bad, although you got off lucky there. He missed your jugular. You should be able to close the wound yourself, but if it gives you trouble, let me know and I can put a little healing salve on it.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Rowan protested again. Sophea was making little worried noises when Gabriel stood up. “Check her arm. She was cut.”

  “Scratched,” Sophea corrected him, but she suffered Gabriel to look at the wound. Amusement filled his eyes as he gravely pronounced that Sophea would suffer no ill effect from the injury.

  “See? Now you sit right there and concentrate on that wound,” Sophea said, and gave a little shout of annoyance when he started to get up. She plopped herself down on his lap. “You annoying dragon man! Sit here and heal!”

  He looked at where her breasts swelled enticingly beneath her tight shirt, and felt an answering swelling in his trousers. “There’s no way I can possibly concentrate on my neck with you sitting there tempting me into doing things that I doubt you want me doing in public.”

  “Oh. Good point. Sitting on you makes me want to kiss you and touch you and nibble on your ears, and… and… yeah. Point taken.”

  She got up just as the captain strolled past them, pausing to raise an eyebrow at Rowan. “Do you need assistance?”

  “No. It’s not a deep wound, and it should heal,” he answered.

  The captain nodded and continued past, giving orders to his crew to clean up the mess once the demon bodies disappeared.

  He turned back to them, adding with a wave toward the shore, “We are ahead of schedule. Maat has come on board and will proceed with the third challenge shortly. The journey is now at an end, and your trials will soon be over.” His black eyes moved from Rowan to Sophea and back. “Let us hope the ending is one you seek… and not a punishment.”

  Eighteen

  “Boy, he really is a little ball of sunshine, isn’t he?” I commented as the captain hurried off to greet the goddess Maat and her entourage. “Wait, don’t answer that. You probably shouldn’t talk or move until your neck is healed.”

  Rowan came perilously close to rolling his eyes, but instead clearly decided to heed my advice and closed his eyes, his face filled with concentration.

  “That really is amazing to watch,” I said, marveling at the way the cut flesh stopped bleeding, then began to seal itself up into a raw, red scar. Judging by his hand, I figured even that scar would fade away. “I wonder if you can teach me to do it.”

  “I will try,” he said, his eyes still closed.

  I looked down at him, this man who had come into my life and shaken me to my core. “Are you—did you mean what you said?”

  His eyes opened at that, confusion fading into understanding, which melted away under the onslaught of little sparks of golden fire in his eyes. “Yes.”

  “Oh,” I said, my breath catching a little.

  “Oh?” His lips thinned. “Is that all you have to say? ‘Oh’? Not even a ‘how nice,’ or ‘golly, that’s great,’ but ‘oh’?”

  “I’m sorry,” I apologized with a giggle. “I don’t really say golly. I’m more a ‘great Caesar’s ghost’ sort of girl.”

  He rose and took my arms in his hands, giving me a gentle shake. “Woman, now is the time for you to tell me just how madly in love with me that you are, and how you cannot conceive of living your life without me, and how you want to spend all of your days with me, and more, all of your nights. Not this ‘oh’ business that leaves me feeling vulnerable and angsty.”

  I laughed out loud at that. “I never thought I’d hear you admit you were angsty over anything.” I tipped my head back, and said against his lips, “I do love you, you know. It scares me to admit that because I loved Jian, too, and he was taken away from me before I really got to know him, and I don’t want to lose you. Promise me you won’t leave me, Rowan. I really don’t think I could go through losing a second husband.”

  His breath was hot in my mouth, his tongue hotter, and his fire hottest of all. It wrapped around us like a blanket of desire, causing the heat building in me to burst into an inferno of need and wanting… and love.

  “We’re on fire again,” Rowan said, nibbling on my lower lip, his hands drawing intricate patterns on my behind. I had slipped my own hands under his shirt, and was stroking the muscles of his back.

  “You got that right,” I answered, doing a little nibbling of my own.

  “The captain will not be happy if we scorch the deck.”

  “Screw the captain,” I said heedlessly.

  Rowan swung me up in his arms, obviously ready to carry me down to our room where I very much hoped we’d engage in wild, steamy sex. “I’d much rather screw—”

  “Ah, these must be the dragons you spoke of.” A woman’s voice interrupted Rowan’s statement and my smutty thoughts.

  Rowan turned to face the newcomers, setting me down in the process. “Er… hello.”

  The woman was dark-skinned, petite, and had wild, curly shoulder-length hair and a wide, genuine smile firmly affixed as she bustled forward. Behind her came the three men, followed by the captain and a couple of his officers. After that, the deck filled up with returning passengers, all of whom chatted excitedly.

  “The captain told us you two championed both challenges,” the woman said. I figured she had to be Maat, especially since there was a feather tucked into her springy curls. “Well done. Duat needs champions like you. If you choose to remain here, we will be most happy to find you a position in our court.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was speaking for her three lackeys, who were even now setting up a table with the stacks of books, or if she was using the royal we.

  “Thank you,” Rowan said, making her a bow that made my stomach go tight with pleasure. “We will take your offer under consideration.”

  My shiny pink behind we will, I thought to myself, but didn’t contradict Rowan in front of the others.

  “Now then, shall we form an orderly line?” Maat said, turning to face the rest of the passengers. She clapped her hands for silence and repeated her request. “You will approach me one at a time, making sure your Ka is in your possession, and then I will weigh it against my feather. If it is lighter than my feather, you may pass on to the divine realm or your choice of destinations. If your Ka fails or you do not have possession of your Ka, then you must remain in Duat. In that case, we will send you to Osiris, who will
find employment for you. Is everyone ready?”

  Enthusiastic cheers answered her and people jostled and jockeyed to get to the front of a straggly line.

  Mrs. P, I noticed, scanned the three men, disappointment sharpening her expression. Her shoulders sagged a little as she took up a place at the railing.

  “Hello, hello. I’m sorry I’m late. I was dead, you see, and I had to travel back to the ship, and my, that was a journey, let me tell you.” Gilly materialized out of nothing, her face expressing happiness. The other priestesses greeted her with calls of welcome. “Oh, is it the third challenge already? I’m so glad I didn’t miss it.”

  “Where on earth have you been? Wait, you were dead?” I asked, staring at her. She looked perfectly normal.

  “Yes! Hullo, Aset. You look pretty in that outfit. Yes, Sophea, I was dead. Someone pushed me over the edge of the railing, and I hit my head underwater, and the next thing I knew, Osiris was greeting me and telling me to get back to the ship. It was all very exciting, although I do wish I’d been asked if I wanted to be a spirit.”

  Rowan’s body tensed as she spoke. I glanced around to see if there was a threat that he perceived, but I saw nothing other than Ken and Barbie moving over to the other side of the deck, standing together and speaking quietly.

  Gilly drifted off to join her priestly sisters in line.

  “Is anything wrong?” I whispered to Rowan.

  “I think very much so, yes,” he answered, and he glanced across to where May and Gabriel were greeting Constantine and Bee.

  “About…?”

  “Everything,” he said, annoyingly mysterious.

  “Where can he be?” Mrs. P sighed, gripping the railing and staring out onto the shore. “He knew I would be here. He knew I had the shiny for him.”

  “Your boyfriend?” I asked her, and without thinking, said, “Where exactly is the ring? You’re not wearing it that I can see.”

  Her brow was lined with worry. “I hope Isis has not tried to stop him… hmm? Oh, it is here.” She gestured toward her stomach.