"I'm going to talk to Aisling for a few minutes," I told Gabriel as we headed to our room to pack our things for the trip to Paris. "It's just girl talk, nothing important."
He frowned as I went straight for the bag Istvan had so recently brought me. I had taken only one or two things out of it, so it was easily repacked. "Girl talk? Are you injured in some intimate manner?" He put his hand on my belly as if to feel some sort of internal problem. "Has our mating been too rough?"
"No, it's nothing at all like that."
"May, I am a healer in addition to being your wyvern," he said with a serious expression. "You must tell me if you are having any sort of physical problem, no matter how embarrassing you find it."
"Honestly, it's nothing-"
"Take off your clothes," he said, nodding toward the bed. "I will examine you to make sure all is well."
"Agathos daimon! I just want to have a little girl talk with Aisling, Gabriel! I don't need a gynecological exam! Besides, if I take off my clothes and get on that bed, you'll end up with yours off, too, and we'll never get to Paris."
"When's the last time you had your period?" he asked, a frown furrowing his brow as he ignored the playful little nibble I gave the tip of his nose.
I went to the door and cast him a look fraught with dignity. "We are not having this conversation. And if you even think of following me, I will... I will... well, I'm not quite sure what I will do, but you can rest assured that it will not be pleasant. My bag is packed, by the way."
He didn't say anything to that, but I felt his gaze on me as I headed down the hallway to knock on Aisling's door.
I paused for a moment before Cyrene's door, giving a quick tap before opening it. The room was empty. "Have you seen Cyrene?" I asked Pal as he hurried past me bearing two large suitcases.
"A few minutes ago, yes. She said she had something to do, and left."
"She left? What on earth...?" I pulled out my cell phone and punched in her number.
Drake left his room bearing another suitcase. Through the open door I could see Aisling gathering up a few books to tuck into a book bag.
Jim wandered out. "Funny time to call someone."
"I'm trying to get hold of Cy." I waited a few seconds before hanging up, a cold, clammy hand gripping my stomach. "Voice mail. She's not answering. I have a horrible feeling I know where she is."
"Where who is?" Aisling asked as she emerged from the room.
"Cyrene. I think she went to tail Kostya. Silly, stupid... He won't hurt her if he sees her, will he?" I asked Drake as he came upstairs again.
He paused to consider the question. "He has no cause to. The only reason he held a knife to her before was because he thought she was you, and he will not make that mistake again."
I relaxed slightly. "I don't know why I'm worrying- she's never followed anyone before. I'm sure Kostya will realize immediately that she's shadowing him, and won't waste any time shaking her. I just hope she has enough sense to go home rather than to try to follow us to Paris."
"I have a friend in town who I'll call to check on her if it'll ease your mind," Aisling said, turning back to her room. "Thanks, sweetie, that's everything, I think. I'll be down in just a minute."
Drake nodded and went downstairs. I followed Aisling into her bedroom, standing uneasily as she called a number and left a message.
"Nora's out right now, but I'll try her again in a bit, all right?"
"Thank you. It'll make me feel better knowing someone is keeping an eye out for Cy. Er..." I bit my lower lip. "Do you have a minute? I wanted to talk to you really quickly, without being overheard."
She looked mildly surprised but sat down on the end of the bed and nodded toward a chair. "Of course."
Jim ambled over, plopping itself down at her feet.
I glanced at the demon. "Er..."
"Jim, shoo," Aisling said, correctly reading my thoughts.
"What? I'm not doing anything!"
"You're making May uncomfortable. Go see what the boys are doing."
"Whatever it is, it won't be nearly as interesting as this," it answered.
"Oh, it doesn't matter, I guess," I said with a tight smile. "Jim might have some helpful insights as well."
"I'm all over helpful insights, sister," it told me with an oddly endearing grin. "What's the problem? You can tell Dr. Jim. Is it something in the romance department? Need some advice on how to handle Gabriel?"
"No, thank you-"
"Ah. Then it's the sex, right? Fiery, animalistic, dragon sex too much for you?"
It was difficult to keep from rolling my eyes. "Thank you, my sex life is not open to-"
"What's the silver dragon element? Earth?" Jim's face screwed up as it thought. "Oh, man, that means he's gonna want to do it outdoors all the time. Buck naked in the wilderness. My advice is to take sunscreen and bug spray. And maybe a spatula or something to dig the sand out of your butt crack, in case he takes you to a beach."
"Jim!" Aisling said, wrapping her hands around the demon's muzzle. She shot me an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry. It knows better than to offer unwanted sexual advice."
"Just trying to be helpful," it said in a muffled voice.
"Well, you're not. And you can just be quiet unless you have something of importance to offer to the conversation," Aisling told it as she released its muzzle. "Go on, May. Tell me what it is you want."
"It's about demon lords," I said softly, glancing toward the open door. No one was visible, but I wanted to avoid Gabriel overhearing us.
"Oh, that's right-your twin said you were bound to one," Aisling said, nodding. "Are you having a problem with... er... which one is it?"
"Magoth."
She thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "I don't believe I've met him."
"You'd remember if you did," I said with a little laugh. "He's very attractive."
"If you like the smoldering, sensual, silent-movie-actor type," Jim said with a sniff as it licked down the fur on one paw.
"He looks like a smoldering, sensual actor?" Aisling looked somewhat startled.
"He was a silent movie actor, but that was only a phase he was going through."
Aisling mentioned the name of a famous actor of the 1920s.
"That was him. He was always a ham. But that's not the issue. My problem is..." I checked the hallway quickly. It was empty. "Is there any way for someone to disobey a direct order you give? A demon, that is."
Aisling blinked a couple of times.
Jim's mouth formed an O. "You're gonna defy an order? You're going to go dybbuk?"
"What's dybbuk?" Aisling asked.
"In terms of folklore, it's a wandering soul that enters a living body," I said slowly.
"In Abaddon terms, it means a demon who's gone rogue." Jim's eyes were grave. "Dybbuks are usually destroyed by their masters for insubordination, although I have heard of one or two who survived in order to be perpetually tormented. Fires of Abaddon, May-lots of demons talk about it, but I never heard of one who was actually thinking about doing it."
"I'm not a demon," I pointed out, biting my lower lip nonetheless.
"No, you're not," Aisling said in an abstracted voice. "Defying an order... hmm. That's tricky. Maybe it would help if you gave me the specific circumstances."
I hesitated for a moment or two, unsure whether I wanted to entrust something so potentially dangerous to her. In the end, I decided that I had little recourse, and she was my best resource of information about demon lords. "Magoth ordered me to retrieve the dragons' phylactery for himself. He plans on using it to bring the dragons to rein."
Aisling's eyes opened wide. Jim gave a low, long whistle.
"A direct order?" she asked.
I nodded, misery making my gut grumble. "I can't do it. I just can't do it. Even if I wasn't mated to Gabriel, even if I didn't give a damn about the dragons, I still wouldn't do it. It has the potential for just too much power."
"But... he must have had you steal powerful items before," she said. "How did you get around those? Or did you?"
I shook my head. "He's never asked me to steal anything quite so important before. Magoth is..." I made a vague gesture. "He's a bit of a flibbertigibbet, if you want to know the truth. He always has a hundred different projects going, and flits from one to another without following one through to the end, which, I have to say, I encourage."
"It keeps him from becoming dangerous to the mortal world?" she asked.
"Yes. All the other things that Magoth has made me steal for him over the past eighty years weren't nearly as important as this phylactery. Although I don't like being forced into the role of thief, it eased my worry somewhat to know that the things I was taking weren't really going to matter, if you know what I mean. He was just too unfocused, too easily distracted."
"Not the brightest bean in the Crock-Pot," Jim said, nodding in agreement.
"Exactly. To be honest, I think he has a form of demonic attention deficit disorder. But this... this is different. He seems much more focused on the phylactery, and that worries me greatly. I can't let him have it. But I can't see a way out of obeying a direct order."
"Sometimes when Ash gives me an order, there's wiggle room," Jim said. "What did Magoth say exactly?"
"He told me to bring him the phylactery. There's no wiggle room there that I can see."
Aisling looked thoughtful for a moment. "What that means is that if you physically have the phylactery in your possession, you must give it to him."
"Ye-es," I said slowly, not seeing where she was going.
"So that means we simply don't let you touch it. If you don't have it in your possession, you can't turn it over to him, right? Easy as pie-you may be a renowned thief, but the green dragons are no slouches when it comes to stealing things. And Drake is especiallygood at it."
"I thought of that," I said, despair digging into me with sharp little jabs. "The L'au-dela vault is sure to be heavily protected. It will surely be beyond the means of even the craftiest of dragons to enter it... but I can get in places where no one else can. It will be up to me to locate the phylactery. And if I'm that close to it without anyone else around who might conceivably oppose me, it would constitute a dybbuk if I did not take it into my possession. I just don't see a way around it-that's why I thought you might have an idea about defying an order."
"I'm afraid I am just as helpless," she said with genuine regret. "Jim?"
The demon shook its shaggy head. "Nada. Dybbuk is the only thing I can think of, and I wouldn't advise it. Magoth may be a few dinner rolls short of a smorgasbord, but he's no idiot. He'll be bound to make an example out of you for the rest of his minions."
I swallowed back the hard lump of fear and guilt that made my throat ache.
"I take it you haven't mentioned this to Gabriel?" Aisling asked, casting a quick glance toward the door.
"No. It's hard enough to keep him from going after Magoth directly-I really don't want to inflame his desire to free me of my bondage."
"I'll talk to Nora about that, too," she said, looking determined. "She's my mentor, and she knows all sorts of things about what Guardians can do. I know it's difficult, but stop worrying, May. Between us all, we may be able to find a way for you to end your bond to Magoth."
"Trust Ash on this-she knows Abaddon. She managed to get herself kicked out, after all," Jim said.
Aisling tried to look humble. "It's my job-"
"-she's a professional," the demon finished.
"Sorry!" I said less than an hour later, breathing hard as I raced up the narrow stairs of a small jet. "I assumed we'd be taking a portal rather than a plane."
"Drake won't let me," Aisling said with a smile at the dragon in question as she adjusted her seat belt over her expansive stomach. "He says they aren't safe for pregnant women. Of course, he says the same thing about airplanes, but I really feel there have to be some perks that go along with being immortal, and one of those is being able to fly while preggers."
"Ah. Well, I do apologize for us holding everyone up. It's my fault, not Gabriel's-I wanted to call a doppelganger who lives in Paris to see if she could help us with the L'au-dela vault, since it's bound to be extremely well protected. It took me forever to track down her number, but she doesn't seem to be at home."
"Ophelia?" Aisling asked, causing me to gawk slightly.
"Yes, that's her name. Do you know her?"
A little smile graced her lips. "Yes. Amelie, a friend of mine in Paris, said she's left the country. Her... er... twin was banished to the Akasha, you know. Ophelia suffered from depression after that, but last I heard, she was in Africa devoting herself to charitable works."
The pilot flashed on the seat-belt warning while Aisling was talking. I dug around in the comfortable leather chair for the seat belts, wondering what the doppelganger's twin had done to leave her banished to the Akasha.
My phone rang before I could ponder much. "Oh, sorry," I said as the pilot, a dragon who had been in conversation with Drake, frowned over at me. "I'll turn it off. I just... Oh, thank the gods." I was about to turn off my phone, but the caller ID number blinking at me was a familiar one. "Cy? Where are you?"
"Oh, Mayling, good, you haven't left yet..." A loud roar from what sounded like a truck drowned out the rest of her sentence. "... kidnapped me, which was just about the most... me of all people!"
"What? Cy, I can't hear you. Where are you? And what's that about a kidnapping?"
I held the phone a few inches away from my head as a loud truck horn threatened to deafen me. The pilot and Drake both glared at me.
"I'm sorry, May, but you will have to turn off your mobile phone," the latter said.
"What's wrong?" Gabriel asked at the same time, cleverly picking up on the fact that all was not well.
"I don't quite know. It's Cy, and she's evidently standing in the middle of some horrible traffic trying to tell me something... What's that?"
"... the blackmailer! Can you hear me now? He's..." More sounds of engines cut off what she was saying. "... horrible man! I tried to fight him off, but... please, I'm begging you..."
"Where are you?" I yelled into the phone, hoping she could hear me.
"Is it Kostya? Has he attacked her again?" Gabriel asked, half rising out of his seat.
My hope was in vain. I could hear Cy attempting to speak over the noise, but couldn't make out the words. Suddenly, the connection went dead and all was silence.
Everyone in the plane was looking at me. I ignored them to turn to the one person to whom I knew I wouldn't have to explain. "No, it's not Kostya. Cyrene needs my help with something else, a personal matter."
His silver eyes searched mine. I was torn between the need to help Cy and the urgency presented by the situation with the phylactery, but with Cyrene's plea for help still echoing in my head, there was only one thing I could do.
"I'm very sorry, Gabriel, but I can't go to Paris." I grabbed the small backpack I used as a purse and rose.
Gabriel's face was a study in emotion as frustration, anger, and irritation all took a turn, but as he nodded and stood, concern was all that was left. "I understand. Your twin must come first."
"You go to Paris. I'll use a portaling company to get there as soon as I find Cyrene."
Regret filled his lovely eyes for a moment before it was blinked away. He turned to Drake. "We will join you as soon as possible. I assume you will do everything in your power to keep the phylactery from falling into Kostya's possession again."
Drake's lips quirked. "You would trust me with it?" he asked.
Gabriel was silent for a moment before giving him a sharp nod. The pilot had opened the door and lowered the stairs; Gabriel and I hurried down them, heading toward the nearest hangar.
"You don't have to come with me," I told him as the plane taxied off.
He said nothing until we were in the back of a cab.
"Where is she?" he asked as we got in.
"We should go to Drake's house. That's where she was last."
He gave the instructions to the driver before sitting next to me.
"Gabriel... you don't have to do this."
"Your twin is in danger. That must take precedence over the phylactery," he interrupted.
I looked at the strong planes of his face, the high cheekbones sculpting lines that made my stomach tighten with happiness. The brown, elegant slashes of eyebrow set off his eyes so that they just about glowed with emotion. The phylactery was everything to Gabriel- if Kostya regained it, I knew without the slightest doubt that he would use it against the silver dragons. It was of tantamount importance that we get to it before he did... and yet Gabriel was willing to set aside his need to protect his people in order to help me with Cyrene.
My heart heaved a little sigh of resignation and allowed itself to do what it had wanted to do from the very beginning-I fell in love with Gabriel.
"I think that is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me," I said once I could manage to speak around the lump in my throat.
He gave another short nod, acknowledging the fact that I recognized his sacrifice.
"Would it upset all sorts of dragon etiquette if I was to kiss you silly in a taxicab?" I asked him.
One dimple started to show despite his serious expression. "Not in the least."
"Good. Because I don't think I'm going to be able to stop myself," I said, smiling into his mouth. The second my lips touched his, fire swept through me. Mindful of the surroundings-and not wanting to have to explain to a startled cab driver why the backseat of his vehicle was engulfed in flames-I controlled the dragon fire, allowing it to pass back into Gabriel.
"You taste so good," he murmured, his hands hard on my hips as he tried to pull me over his lap. "You taste of the cool water that hides deep in a stream. You taste of the night air, soft and scented and mysterious. The taste of you drives me wild. I want to be with you, be inside you, shout to the world that you are mine at the same time I want to keep you hidden where you will exist only for me. You make me feel invincible, little bird."
"You are invincible," I whispered, nibbling his delicious lower lip. "You are my dragon in shining armor who will slay that pesky Saint George for me."
His dimples deepened even though he sighed with frustration as, aware the cabby was watching us in his rearview mirror, I settled back down on the seat next to Gabriel.
"Saint George?" he asked.
"Well, his name is Porter, and he's not a saint, but I can tell you that he has stepped over the line and done something very foolish."
"You think the blackmailer kidnapped your twin?"
"Can you think of anyone else who would do something so crazy?"
Gabriel shook his head. "No. It does seem to be an attempt to manipulate you by holding Cyrene hostage."
"Exactly. I guess he figured I needed a little push into stealing the phylactery back for him."
"You should have told me about this from the first. I would have taken care of him for you," Gabriel said with smug self-assurance that grated.
The look I gave him should have, by rights, left him babbling in apology. "Certainly not! I'm insulted you think I'm so feeble I can't deal with one little blackmailer on my own. I didn't mean you should actually slay him for me, you know. I can take care of that all right."
Gabriel grinned at the annoyed expression on my face. "Such a fierce little bird."
"I may be little, but I pack a hell of a punch," I said, nodding toward my ankle where the dagger was strapped.
"I have no doubt of that, just as I have no doubt that so long as I am around, you will never have need to prove that. What do you plan to do about the thief taker Porter?"
"I hadn't thought beyond making sure Cyrene is safe. I guess we'll have to deal with him now."
"I will take care of him for you," Gabriel said calmly. "We will rescue your twin, and then see to it this thief taker does not bother you again. After that, we will be free to move on to more important matters."
"About that..." I took his hand in mine. "I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me that you'd be willing to forgo the phylactery in order to help my twin, but there's a little problem-"
He brushed his thumb across my lips. I bit it.
"There is no problem. I am not giving up the phylactery."
"You're letting Drake go off to Paris without you. He'll get to it first-hopefully-which means he'll probably keep it. I know he won't use it against you like his brother would, but I assumed it would rankle somewhat that Drake would get it rather than you."
"It is not yet noon," he answered with a smile.
"What does the time of day have to do with it?"
"The vault of the L'au-dela lies within Suffrage House, the same building in which you were imprisoned. It is closely guarded, as you might expect, but there is added protection during the day in the form of all the employees who conduct routine committee business."
"Ah. So you weren't going to try breaking in during the day?"
He shook his head. "It would be folly to even try. We will attempt it this evening-which means I have a few hours that can be spent taking care of the problem with Cyrene."
A smidgen of the guilt roiling around inside me eased, but what I had to say next canceled any feelings of relief. "I'm afraid that wasn't the only problem I had in mind. Gabriel, I'm-oh, here we are."
The taxi pulled up outside of Drake's house. I used the few seconds while we got out and Gabriel paid off the driver to work out what I was going to say.
"Gabriel, you know that I'm a doppelganger," I said once the taxi pulled off. He had tried to gently push me toward the front door, but I resisted.
"That point hadn't escaped me," he said with a flash of his dimples.
"I don't know how much you know about doppelgangers-not much, I suspect, since there are only a handful of us around-but there's more to doppelgangers than shadow walking."
"Is there?"
"Yes. We can also enter the shadow world."
Gabriel's eyebrows arched. "Shadow world?"
"That's the doppelganger name for it. It's a sort of separate plane that coexists with our reality, rather like an overlay. It's hard to describe what it looks like, but things in it are slightly... off."
"Ah, you're talking about the beyond." Gabriel nodded. "I thought that was the realm of elves and the fey."
"They make up the larger population of inhabitants. As a doppelganger, I'm one of the others who can also enter it, despite the fact that I'm bound to Magoth."
"I understand, but what does that have to do with this situation?"
"I don't know where Cyrene is. I couldn't hear nine-tenths of what she said, which means I'm going to have to track her down."
Bright man that he is, Gabriel instantly guessed where it was all going. "And you can only do so while you are in the beyond?"
"Yes. And I can't take you with me."
His brows arched. "You just said others can enter the beyond."
"Some people can, yes. Elves act as kind of a conduit- they can bring people into it, but doppelgangers..." I sighed. "We're just shadows ourselves, really, so we can slip into and out of it easily, but we can't take anyone with us. The best I can do is to track down Cy and call you when I've found her. I don't mind saying I'd like to have you with me to deal with the blackmailer, but I'm afraid I don't know of any other way."
"How will you trail her?" he asked.
"How? Oh... she's an elemental being. She leaves a faint trail wherever she goes. It's not visible in our world, but in the beyond, faint traces linger for a few hours. So I should be able to track her from here to wherever she is, so long as too much time hasn't passed."
"Interesting." He looked curious. "Do dragons leave signs, as well?"
I smiled. "Yes. Dragon scales glitter like... well, glitter in the beyond. And much as I hate to offend you..." I ran my hand down his bared neck, showing him my palm. The faintest iridescent sparkle showed on it. "You shed. Quite a lot, actually."
"I don't know whether to be offended or to make a suggestive comment about rubbing my scales all over your naked body," he said with a flash of his silver eyes. "Proceed, little bird."
I glanced around. No one was near us on the street. "I'll call you as soon as I find her, I promise."
He said nothing, just watched as I slipped into the shadow world and set off down the road.