With an effort, I pushed down both the sick feeling of despair that roiled within me whenever I thought of the events of the afternoon and the worry about how I was to find an unknown murderer who was targeting someone equally unknown, and focused instead on summoning a known entity.
Twenty minutes later a thin eddy of grayish brown smoke trickled into the room from under the doorway, cohering into the familiar form of a brown-haired, brown-eyed naked man,
"Oh, good, focusing on you works! Hi, Jacob," I said as his body became solid.
He jumped back when I .stood up, his body immediately becoming hazy.
"No, there's no dragon! You don't have to leave," I said hastily, waving my hands around to indicate the dragon-free environment. "See? Just me, a friend, and my demon."
Jacob's body solidified again as he looked curiously at Nora. "There are two of you."
"Yes, that's Nora. She's a friend of mine. She's also a Guardian."
"Eh," he said, looking disconcerted for a moment. Then back went his shoulders, and out puffed his chest. "I can handle a threesome. I am a most virile and strenuous lover."
I walked over to where I had filched one of the hotel's navy blue terry bathrobes. "I'm sure you could, and I don't doubt that you are, but tempting as that offer is, I'm afraid we're going to have to turn it down. Nora was assaulted last night, and I've had an awful day. Here, why don't you put this on?"
He stared at the bathrobe I held out for him, eyeing it as if it was made up of slugs. "Why do you want me to wear that garment? Is it part of a game? Will it excite you if I do?"
"It'll make both Nora and me a lot more comfortable if you wear it," I answered, shoving it into his hands. To my relief, he donned it, although he didn't tie the belt very tight, so the front part gaped enough to give anyone who cared to look a view of his prime real estate.
"You do not wish for me to make love to you both?" Jacob asked, still clearly confused. He sat down on the edge of the bed. "It is because you have heard stories of this other one? I told you last night, I will make you forget him."
A little shudder went through Nora. I shared her sentiments. "We don't want sex. We just want to talk to you."
His eyes widened in horror. "You do not want me to service you? To pleasure you unlike you have ever been pleasured? To bring you to the highest peaks of ecstasy?"
"No servicing, no pleasure, no peaks, just answers."
He thought for a moment, then he stood up. "I am an incubus of the House of Balint. I have pleasured women for many centuries. I do not answer questions."
I leaned to the side to look around him. "Nora?"
She got to her feet and before Jacob could so much as blink, she had drawn binding wards surrounding him in the four compass points.
"A ward," she said in an instructing tone of voice as she pointed to one of the wards thai glowed blue in the air, "is only as good as the person drawing it. You must have belief in your own powers for the ward to draw with any success. If you doubt yourself, or if you draw a ward you have seldom used, it will be weak and ineffectual."
Jacob, looking around himself in disbelief, tried to move but couldn't, the four wards flaring to life with his attempt. "What is this? What have you done to me?"
"I believe it is because you have little to no experience drawing wards that the ghosts you met earlier gave you a binding spell. They must have known that you would not be able to hold a strong incubus with wards hastily learned. You can see, however, that once you have gained experience with wards, they are a fast and effective means of controlling many beings."
"I do not wish to be controlled! You will release me at once so that I may make love to you."
"Yes, I can see that," I said, ignoring Jacob's outbursts. "'I like how the wards glow bright whenever Jacob tries to break them. How long will they last?"
Nora returned to her chair. "As long as I desire."
"Pen!" Jacob exclaimed, and struggled against the wards again. It was hopeless, of course. Nora was no slouch at ward drawing. Eventually Jacob grew tired of yelling demands to be freed, and he slumped down onto the bed again, the wards allowing him a certain range of motion so long as he didn't try to break free. "You wish to play dominate. I will be submissive, although I am best when I am allowed to be virile and manly."
"Question-and-answer time," I said, kneeling before him. "If you play along with us, we'll free you so you can go seduce hundreds more women."
"You really do not wish me to make love to you?" He seemed to be having a hard time accepting that fact.
'That's right. We just want to talk to you."
"Ai," he said, his shoulders drooping as his eyes closed. Slumped there in resignation, he looked like a totally different man. "It is so tiring, this constant love-making. At last I have found someone who does not wish for me to be the stallion."
I stared at Nora in surprise for a moment, then looked back at Jacob. "Wait a second—are you saying you don't want to have sex?"
He nodded, his eyes still closed.
"But. . . you're an incubus. That's what you do. Ifs your whole reason for being, isn't it?"
"It is," he agreed, then suddenly sat up straight and opened his eyes. "It is my doom! My curse! I do not wish to be the muffin stud, every night fulfilling the endless fantasies of the women who summon me. And always, they summon me, demanding I give them pleasure after pleasure. For centuries I have been cursed to be the foremost lover in my house, but now"—he sighed and slumped down again—"now I just wish to live quietly and raise horses."
"Horses," I said, knowing control of the situation was slipping away from me, but unable to grasp it. ""You want to raise horses."
He looked up, his eyes lit with warmth. "Yes. They are magnificent creatures, are they not? They are strong.
They are beautiful. They allow you to ride them, and they never, ever ask to ride you in return."
Jim snorted. I shot it a look, having earlier ordered it to silence when the incubus showed up. "I don't think I'm going to touch that. Moving on—I have a couple of questions for you. First of all, do you know of any incubus at your house who has murdered women he served?"
"No.II
I glanced over to Nora. "How do we know if he's telling the truth? I know a demon can't lie when I ask it a direct question, but does that work on an incubus?II
"I don't believe so," she answered slowly.
"I do not lie," Jacob said, his shoulders straightening. "I have no reason to lie to you. You do not wish for me to make love to you. You are my friends.II
"That's right, and friends help each other. You said you don't know of someone at your house, but what about other houses?"
He made a halfhearted shrug. "There are no other houses in Budapest."
"OK, but what about incubi who come here from other houses?"
Jacob looked at me with an expression of mild amusement. "Incubi cannot leave the domain held by their houses. The House of Balint holds domain over Budapest and the surrounding area. No other incubus can cross into our territory."
"Really?" My gaze met Nora's for a moment. I rubbed my forehead. Something was niggling at the back of my mind, but I couldn't pin it down. "So that limits us to just the members of your house. How many are there?"
"Twenty-five?' he said. "Twelve brothers, twelve sisters, and the morpheus."
"The morpheus? The god?"
"No. It is a title for the head of the house."
"Ah. Well, that's good. That limits the numbers of in-cubi to just eleven, twelve minus you."
I raised an eyebrow at Nora. She rose and sat next to Jacob on the bed, He looked at her curiously, recoiling as far as the wards would allow when she suddenly leaned into him and pressed her nose against his neck.
"No, it was not him," she said, resuming her seat, her cheeks an ashen parody of their normally warm color.
"Good. Eleven to go. If you don't mind, Jacob, I want you to tell us about all eleven of your brothers. Give us their names, wha
t they look like, and whether or not they have ever expressed any desire to hurt a^Guardian."
It took three hours, but at long last I felt like we'd picked Jacob's brain clean of information about his incubus brothers. Unfortunately, we weren't any closer to finding out who was killing the Guardians, nor did I have even an inkling of who might be the murderer's target. There were some three hundred Guardians at the conference—any of them might be the intended victim.
"Thank you for all your help," I said to Jacob after Nora released the wards. "I appreciate it. If you can think of any of your brothers who have been hanging around the hotel the last couple of nights, I'd appreciate you letting either Nora or me know."
He shrugged out of the bathrobe, not the least bit bothered by his nudity. "Many brothers come in the night, but only because they are summoned. Only a few visit during the day."
I froze in the act of taking the bathrobe. "What? What do you mean, during the day? T thought you guys were tied to a sleep or meditative state. You mean you can come out during the day, too?"
"Yes, of course. When we take human form, we are as humans. We are not vampyr, you know," he said, a bit scornfully, "Sunlight does not bother us. Many of my brothers visit hotels such as this during the day, for how else will they know which summons to answer if they have not first seen the women who appeal to them?"
"Oh. I thought you guys had to more or less come when called."
The look he gave me really was scornful. "We are not attendants to be called with the press of a bell. The only one who can come of his own will is the morpheus, but he has shut himself away, shunning contact with mortals."
"Right. Sorry. No slur intended. So you guys can go anywhere you like in daylight. Are you only in human form in daylight? I mean, can you do the smoke thing during the day, too?"
"Of course! Although once we are in human form, we are indistinguishable from a mortal," he said, rolling his eyes just a little. "It would not make sense to be able to change form only at night. Many people sleep during the day, do they not? We provide twenty-four-hour service."
"Just like a good towing company. Huh. Well, thank you again, Jacob. I appreciate you being so cooperative. And about what we talked about—you really should think about breaking free from your house and moving to the country. There's no reason you need to be a stud if your heart isn't in it."
A wistful expression stole over his face before he dissolved into smoke. The smoke snaked out under the door, leaving behind nothing but the faintest smoky residue.
"Towing company, Ash?" Jim, released from its silence by the disappearance of Jacob, shook its head. **Man, I'm so glad I got a really quality Guardian as a demon lord."
"What do you think?" I asked Nora, sitting down on the bed, clutching the bathrobe, which was still warm from Jacob's body.
She was silent for the count of five. "I think we are going to have to wake up a great many Guardians tonight and warn them of the possibility of attack."
"You don't think they're going to be on their guard after the news of your attack this morning?"
"I think it is better to be safe than sorry," she said, her eyes thoughtful. She glanced at me. "What did you think of what the incubus had to say?"
My fingers smoothed over the bathrobe as I mulled over the miscellaneous bits of information that tumbled around in my brain. There didn't seem to be a pattern, anything I could grasp to unravel, nothing tangible to use to figure out the problem. But there was a nagging sense of familiarity, of something someone had said that was important. Damned if I could think of what it was, though. I rubbed my forehead again, then set the bathrobe aside. "I think you're right—we're going to have to wake up a bunch of Guardians. We'd better split up. The sooner we start, the sooner we can get some sleep."
Two hours later I slipped through the door into Drake's bedroom, still stinging from some of the comments received from irate Guardians I’d woken. At least we'd done what we could for the night. Nora asked to sleep in Drake's spare room again, and since I knew it wouldn't be in use, I told her she could, ordering Jim to sleep in the room with her.
Jim acquiesced, muttering something about finally being able to get a decent night's rest without snoring or squeaking bed springs. I wished Nora a quiet night and went off to make whatever amends I could with my fire-breathing dragon.
The room was dark, but the slight rustle of the sheets told me Drake was in bed. I peeled off my clothing, carefully navigating my way around to the side of the bed I'd claimed as mine, sliding beneath the sheets, hoping against all hope that Drake wasn't so wounded by what had happened earlier that he'd snapped my head off.
"You come at last."
His voice was chilly, but at least he was still speaking to me.
"I'm sorry it's so late, but Nora and I felt we had to warn all the Guardians present to be careful." I slid a little closer to his warmth, unsure of whether he wanted me to comfort him, or if he wanted to be left alone. I fervently hoped it was the former, because just the scent of him was making secret parts of me grow damp with desire. "Drake, about this afternoon—I can't begin to tell you how sorry—"
"No," he said, rolling over on top of me, his body hard and aggressive, his mouth stripping the words from my lips. "We will not speak of this tonight. This night belongs to us only, no one else."
Who was I to complain? I slid my hands down his back, kissing him with just as much passion as he was sharing with me. His fire leaped between us, and I almost laughed with the joy of it. This time it was my fingers that trailed fire as I gently scored his back, sucking his tongue when it got bossy with mine. He growled a low, deep growl from the depths of his chest, the sound of which simultaneously raised goose bumps on my flesh and fanned the flames of the fire within me. Without further ado, Drake kneed my restless legs aside, settling himself between my thighs, his mouth a hot brand on mine. [ screamed a scream of absolute ecstasy into his mouth as he thrust into me, hard and deep, my breath stripped not only by the fire he breathed into me but also by the feel of him so deeply embedded in me.
Mindless to everything but the pleasure he built within me, I wrapped my legs around his hips and gave him everything I had, matching each one of his thrusts, claiming his breath as he claimed mine, my fingers digging into the heavy muscle of his behind in an attempt to pull him closer, deeper, hotter until my body went up in a blaze of rapture that set even my soul afire as I gave myself to the power of our joining. I shouted Drake's name into his mouth, his eyes glittering so brightly with heat and desire they glowed in the darkness of his room. His hips lunged forward, pistoning his body into mine, the strength of his force so great it triggered another orgasm. It swept over me just as he arched backwards, his weight braced on his hands, his beautiful chest slick with sweat, and just as he climaxed, his body changed, shifted, and for a breathless moment I beheld the long line of glittering green and yellow scales stretched across a muscular, decidedly not-human chest. Heat blossomed deep within me as he came, filling me with his passion and fire combined, searing the little bit of me that wasn't already alight.
He collapsed onto me, his body warm and wet and human, and I knew at that moment that we truly were bound together. It was more than just a physical attraction, more than an emotional engagement. Our souls were bound together, tied by something I didn't understand, nor was I sure I wanted to.
[ nuzzled his damp neck, my hands resting on the heaving planes of his back as he struggled for breath, A deep longing came over me, a wish that we could stay just as we were at that moment, safe, protected, just the two of us with no outside connections, no commitments and responsibilities and demands on our time.
But we did have responsibilities and commitments, both of us, ones that no amount of wishing would make go away. While I lay there holding Drake in my arms, his body still joined intimately to mine, the heavy warmth of him a welcome weight, the familiar little niggle in the back of my mind obligingly trotted to the fore and let me take a good long look at it
.
I was so startled that I almost shouted aloud.
Drake dragged his head from my shoulder, shifting slightly to roll onto one elbow in order to peer backwards.
Light from where the door was aflame flickered along the beautiful, sleek muscles of his arms and chest.
I touched his cheek. He looked back at me, his eyes still glowing, bathing me in a sea of emerald.
"Life is going to get easier from here on out," I promised him. "I have a plan, two of them, actually, and you know, I think they might just work."
26
Jim and I walked into the suite the following day to find two workmen removing the blackened door to Drake's bedroom.
I avoided looking at it, just as I ignored the smirk on Istvan's face when he saw me blush. So I had dragon fire control issues! Was that any reason to grin like a baboon? "Where's Drake? I thought he wanted to see me?"
"He is with wyverns. He tries to talk to them again. He is angry at you."
"So what else is new?" Jim asked sotto voce, only not nearly sotto enough. I flicked my finger against its head. "Ow! That's demon abuse!"
"When is he supposed to be back? And I don't know why he's angry. All I did was tell the other wyverns I would resign the post of mate if they would reconsider canceling the negotiations. They all seemed to think it was a good idea, although that rat Fiat said it didn't change anything. But if Chuan Ren and Gabriel swing over to Drake's side, it won't matter."
Istvan shook his head. "You do not know our ways. Drake would never allow."
"He's not going to have a choice in the matter. I know how much peace means to him, to all of you. If the problem holding everything back is me being his mate, then I will tender my resignation and that will be the end of it." I glanced at the clock on the end table. It was getting late. Due to the fact that I hadn't gotten to bed until a little after three in morning, I'd slept in until almost noon. Now it was a little after two, and although I had walked Jim and spoken briefly to each of the three wyverns, I still had to find Nora. Time was quickly running out. I had less than twelve hours to find a murderer. "Shoot, I have to go. If Drake comes back, tell him I'll be back this afternoon."
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