Light My Fire

by Katie MacAlister

  His answer startled me right out of opening the mental door to my powers. “You…you admit you’re stalking me?”

  “Not so much stalking—just trying to find the opportunity to speak with you once more before I return to Paris,” he laughed, but the laughter did not reflect on his face. It was as if he wore a mask, shielding his thoughts and feelings from humanity.

  “I’m glad to hear it’s not a stalking, because my boyfriend is rather possessive, and I don’t think you want to tangle with him. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked, knowing it was probably the same thing he’d wanted last time.

  “You need not look so wary—this is merely a courtesy, not a plea for your help again. My contacts in Paris inform me that since no serious contenders for the position of Venediger have come forward in the duly allotted time, and as you are determined to refuse any nomination should that eventuality materialize, I am assured of victory. I wanted you to know that I appreciate you stepping aside in order to allow me to take the role for which I was intended.”

  I opened my mouth to tell him I was not stepping aside in order to help him when it occurred to me that he was just too pat, too slick. I had the distinct feeling that for some bizarre reason, he was manipulating me into opposing him. “Good luck with the job,” I said, biting back all the responses I had wanted to make. I swung open the door in my mind and took a good long look at him before saying good-bye and walking out to the park across the square.

  Peter Burke looked exactly the same as when I had seen him in Paris—utterly the same, in fact. It finally dawned on me what was wrong with that.

  “I don’t understand what the problem is,” Rene said five minutes later as he returned from the garbage can where he’d dumped Jim’s offerings. “Why is something bad with this mage?”

  “Everyone looks different somehow with Guardian vision,” I said slowly as we headed back to the parking garage. Nora walked alongside me, frowning slightly. “Everyone, with no exceptions. Usually it’s just an aura, but sometimes you can see hidden features or entities tied to a person.”

  “I, for instance, look a hundred times more handsome, especially now that I have this tooth fixed,” Jim said, charging forward at a lull in the traffic. We followed.

  “How do I look different?” Rene asked as we turned in the parking garage.

  I smiled. “You’ve got a slightly golden aura around you. I never thought much about it before, but now…well, now I know.”

  He winked to let me know he understood what I wasn’t saying. I had no idea whether Nora had heard the guard at the Guardians’ Guild say that Rene was immortal, but I wasn’t about to spill his secret if she hadn’t. “Nora has a rose-colored aura. Drake and the other wyverns are surrounded by coronas of dragon’s fire.”

  “So when this man, this mage who would be Venediger, does not look different at all…” Rene cocked an eyebrow at me.

  “It means something is up with him. I just wish I knew what.”

  “Does it really matter, if you have no intention of interfering with matters in Paris?” Nora asked as we approached the car.

  “I suppose not. It’s just something odd, and I have enough oddness in my life right now. I’d like a little normalcy for a change.”

  “Speaking of the oddness—you did not tell me what you intend to do with the demon lord who wishes you to join him.” Rene unlocked the car doors for us.

  “Ugh. Him. Keep stalling, I guess. I’m great at stalling. I’ll just keep putting him off until he gives up on me and goes on to something else.”

  Nora looked worried. “If he has gone to the trouble of locating you twice, he probably is serious in his desire for you to join your power to his.”

  “Well, that’s not going to happen. Trust me, I know people. If you stall them enough, eventually they give up. Since demon lords were once human, he’s bound to be the same.”

  “Hmm.” Nora didn’t look convinced. My attention, however, was on other things.

  “I’d say I’m sorry again about everything, but you’re probably sick of hearing it.” I gave a decidedly wry smile. “But as it is, I am really sorry about everything. What do you think the chances are of an appeal?”

  “I’m not sure. No one has ever had to appeal this sort of thing before.”

  “At least you were not pushed out from the guild, eh?” Rene said, obviously trying to look on the bright side of things. He held the door open for Nora and Paco. “And Aisling, she was not forbidden from joining?”

  “No, but only because they can’t refuse admittance because my application was accepted before they had any anti–demon lord rules in place. Oy. What a nightmare.”

  “It’s not as bad as it seems.” Nora patted my hand as I climbed into the taxi and sat next to her. “Yes, I’ve had my mentor status stripped from me, but as Rene said, I wasn’t kicked out of the guild, and there is always the appeal process. I have no doubt that once I have made my case, the guild will have no choice but to reinstate my title.”

  “I hope so. I think it’s pretty evident to everyone that I need as much training as I can get. How long do you think the appeal process will take?”

  “Up to two years,” she said calmly as Jim jumped into the front seat next to Rene.

  “Two years!”

  Her smile was surprisingly calm and without a shred of accusation or disapproval. “Don’t look so appalled. We will continue as we are, Aisling.”

  “But…you could get kicked out of the guild.”

  “Perhaps. But that’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

  “But…”

  “No, no buts.” She laughed at the look on my face.

  “Aisling, I’m paying you the highest compliment I know, and you’re looking at me as if I’ve asked you to suck lemons. Stop worrying about things beyond your control, and focus on the job you must do.”

  I wanted to argue with her that I wasn’t going to let her take a fall for me but reminded myself in time that I was there to learn from her. She was a big girl. If she didn’t think there was a problem with continuing to teach me, then I needed to trust that she was right. I took a couple of deep breaths to calm my agitated brain. “OK. I’ll let that go for now. And you’re right; I need to focus. I can do this. I’m a professional.”

  “You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and dog-gone it, people like you!” Jim said in its best Stuart Smalley impression.

  “Only the fact that I’m going to ritually sacrifice you in a half hour is saving your butt,” I told it. “Can we reopen that topic of discussion?” Jim asked.

  “’Cause I’m really not comfortable with the whole idea. It’s like something Lucy on crack would think up. The only thing missing is the demented chocolate-making assembly line.”

  Nora and I ignored Jim to go over once again our plans for the imps.

  “You’re sure this ward is going to be enough to protect me against a mass attack?” I asked a short while later as we tromped over a partially wooded field on Hampstead Heath and headed for a culvert that led to an underground lair. I stood in front of the opening, which was about four feet high, and fretted. A lot was riding on this—not just an end to the imp attacks, but I needed to prove that I could handle myself in a situation where Nora would not be available to back me up.

  She shook her head at me. “Aisling, Aisling, Aisling…I’ve told you—it’s your belief in the ward that creates the magic, not mine. You must believe in your power to protect yourself.”

  Well, that I had no trouble with. I was a relatively tough chick. I’d kissed a wyvern and lived to tell the tale. I’d breathed fire. And I’d been skewered and still managed to carry on as usual. It was just all the other things out of my control I worried about.

  “OK. I can do this.” I drew the protection ward across my chest, satisfied when it glowed silver in the air for a few seconds before melting away.

  “Are you sure you do not want us with you?” Rene asked, squatting on his hee
ls to peer into the culvert. Dirt and debris had been washed out of it, but it looked relatively clear. An occasional flicker of movement indicated rodents, but those didn’t cause me any grief. “I will watch your back. As you said, I am the sidekick extraordinaire.”

  “I’d love for you to come along, but Nora says it would never work. The imps are bound to be touchy about this whole thing, and they won’t negotiate if anyone else is there. So wish me luck, and if I’m not out in an hour, send in a whole platoon of Drakes, please.”

  Nora gave me a thumbs-up as I stepped into the culvert. Rene wished me bonne chance. Jim peed in three different spots, tried to convince me it was going to throw up a hairball, and finally, reluctantly, shambled after me as I hunched over and crab walked my way into the belly of the imp kingdom.

  The last bit of daylight winked out as the big drainage pipe turned a corner. Before I could switch on the flashlight Nora had thoughtfully provided, a small herd of imps bearing tiny, little torches descended upon us.

  “Stop!” I yelled in my most forceful voice, putting my belief of my power behind it as Nora had warned. The imps swarmed around me, some of their torches coming dangerously close to my clothing. The ward glowed brightly in the air for a moment, though, causing the tiny little beasties to pause in their attack. “I am Aisling Grey!

  I am here to negotiate with your monarch. I bring to him the true slayer of”—I had to stop to take a quick glance at the name I’d written on my hand so I wouldn’t forget it—“Mehigenous the Fourth. Behold, the imp-killing demon Effrijim!”

  “You’re loving every minute of this, aren’t you?” Jim muttered as the imps held their collective breaths for a moment, then with a bunch of high-pitched squeaks, ran over to surround Jim. It bared its teeth and snapped at a couple who got too close.

  “Do not touch the demon!” I bellowed in the same pushy voice. “I am here to negotiate the sacrifice of it with your monarch. Take us to him!”

  Jim rolled its eyes as the imps gathered together in a clutch for a moment, their squeaky yip-yips making my teeth itch. “You couldn’t think up a more original version of ‘take me to your leader’?”

  “No. And hush. You’re supposed to be repentant, remember?”

  “Yeah, right, and imps could fly out my ass. Hey! There’s an idea!”

  “I’ll make it a command if you can’t keep your lips zipped,” I whispered.

  Evidently I had done the demanding bit right, because the imps turned en masse and escorted us deeper into the culvert. It took another five minutes of crab walking, sometimes almost crawling, to get through to their main living area, but with the imps on one side pulling, and me behind shoving, we managed to get Jim’s bulky body through a very narrow opening and into a large, open area.

  “Welcome to imp central,” Jim said, licking a patch of dirt off its shoulder.

  I don’t know what I was expecting—some sort of cavern with grubs and rats—but the imps’ main headquarters wasn’t anything like my expectations. The walls were curved, like a tunnel, but tiled. The floor was cement and relatively clean, although awash in imps. Forerunners from our escort had warned the main assembly that we were coming, for they had a path cleared for us to walk up to a small pedestal with a stone garden bench, upon which sat a blue imp slightly larger than the others.

  It held up two of its four hands, and the yip-yips that had broken out at our appearance silenced.

  Mindful of Nora’s advice, I made a show of bowing before the monarch. Do not show weakness, she had said, but be respectful. I decided a little buttering up wouldn’t hurt, either. “Greetings, oh mighty imp king. I am Aisling Grey, Guardian, wyvern’s mate, and demon lord. I come to you in the spirit of cooperation to make amends for the death of Mehigenous the Fourth.”

  The imp king’s eyes narrowed. It squeaked something at me.

  “Um. I didn’t quite catch that.” Oh, great. Why had none of us thought about the fact that I didn’t speak imp?

  The imp king gestured, and from behind his stone throne a small green being emerged. It was the size of a small child, but horribly malformed. “His Majestic Majesty, Mehigenous the Fifth, sovereign of all imps, bids you to explain why you insult him by bringing the slayer Effrijim into his presence.”

  “I am here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities between the imps and myself. I am no enemy to imps.”

  The king stood up and shouted at me—at least I assume the aggressive noises it made were shouts. I know it shook three fists at me in a menacing fashion. The imps surrounding us leaped up and down and yipped their opinions as well.

  “You are demon lord to the slayer! You must be destroyed as well as it.”

  “I am no enemy to imps,” I said firmly, looking the king in the eyes. “I have much power. I could wage a war the likes of which you have not seen for many millennia. Instead, I come in peace to bring the demon, and offer to sacrifice it myself to appease the heinous crime it has committed.”

  “You should be on a soap opera; you really should,” Jim said almost inaudibly over the noise of a couple of thousand yipping imps.

  “Silence,” I roared, startling Jim as well as the imps. I lifted my hand in a dramatic manner and pinned back the imp king with a firm gaze. “See within my hand the silver dagger of death? I will destroy this demon once and for all before your very eyes. With its death, there will be peace between your kingdom and me. Is that agreed?”

  The king thought for a moment, consulted with a couple of what were probably advisers, then gestured for the green being.

  “What is that?” I asked Jim in a whisper.

  “The translator? That’s a boggart. Sort of the poor relation to the imp world. Nasty little things. Don’t turn your back on it.”

  I hadn’t planned on it. The boggart fixed its cold black eyes on me, gesturing toward the imp king. “His Benevolent Majesty, Mehigenous the Fifth, graciously accepts your offer of peace. You may proceed with the sacrifice.”

  I knelt before the king, dragging Jim down onto its side at the foot of the throne.

  “If this doesn’t work, you’d better find me a body just as good as this one, or I’m going to make your life a living Abaddon,” it warned me as it scrunched its eyes closed, its face in a grimace of imagined pain.

  “What makes you think you haven’t already?” I pressed Jim’s paw quickly before lifting the dagger overhead with both hands, opening up the doorway in my mind.

  “By this act, I avenge the death of Mehigenous the Fourth. By my hand, I sacrifice this demon to its origins in Abaddon. By my voice, I command thee to leave this existence and return to that where I send you!”

  I plunged the dagger into Jim’s inert body just as the last words were spoken, throwing down at the same time a little ball of dragon fire. The flames hit the stone floor and burst upward, then back down in an impressive shower of sparks that had the imps within a thirty-foot radius screaming and slapping at themselves.

  When the smoke cleared, I bowed again to the king, held up the dagger to show the blood on it, and made my way out of there as quickly as possible.

  Rene was perched on a rock smoking a cigarette, staring up at a few clouds dotting the sky. Nora paced past the opening, Paco trotting obediently at her heels. She spun around when she saw me. “How did it go?”

  I tipped my head toward the culvert. I wasn’t certain the imp patrol hadn’t followed me, but I didn’t want to take any chances. “I destroyed Jim before them all. Come on, I need a bandage. I forgot to get one before we left, and this dagger is sharper than I thought. My hand is stinging like a son of a gun.”

  18

  “Murderous imps down, murderous red dragons and equally homicidal demon lords to go,” I announced as we returned to the house.

  Drake walked out of the library to where we stood in the hall, looking from me to Rene, Nora, and Jim. One of his delicious eyebrows rose in the way that never failed to make my legs go all melty. “I am delighted to hear of your success. H
ow did you achieve it?”

  “I sacrificed Jim. Is there any lunch left? I know it’s late, but I’m starving, and I know Nora and Rene must be just as hungry.”

  Drake considered the very real form of Jim for a moment. “I’m sure we can appease your hunger in some manner. If I could have a word with you for a moment, first?”

  “Of course,” I said, noting the fire visible in his eyes. Either he was annoyed with me about something or aroused. Either way, it was better to have no witnesses to whatever it was he wanted. I entered the library and leaned against the desk, watching as he moved toward me. Drake didn’t so much walk as prowl, almost stalking like a big cat. It was a fabulous interplay of muscles and sinew, and I had the worst desire to ask him to take off all his clothes so I could watch his body move as he walked, but I knew full well that if he took his clothes off, I’d pounce on him.

  “Looks like Ash is going to get her hunger appeased, all right,” Jim said before the door closed behind Drake.

  I tipped my head a little and did my best to bat my lashes as the light of my life approached. “You wanted to see me?”

  “I have a challenge tonight.” He stopped in front of me, not touching me, but close enough that I could feel the heat of his body. I leaned toward him, intending on kissing the breath right out of his mouth, but the meaning of his words sank through the miasma of passion.

  “The challenge from Dmitri? I thought you settled that. Isn’t that why he was here yesterday?”

  The irises in his eyes narrowed a bit, making him look even dragonier. “He was here yesterday to settle the terms of the challenge, not to dismiss it.”

  “Hmm.” I perched on the edge of the desk and considered the gorgeous hunk of dragon in front of me, a little glow of happiness that he was mine warming my insides. “You know, I like this whole I-ask-a-question-and-you-actually-answer-it thing. I could get used to it.”