by Marie Harte
Dedication
To the Nailiim, and what your future holds
Chapter One
“There’s no way I’m paying you when you haven’t proven a damned thing. I mean, come on.” Eve Sinclair crossed her arms and scoffed at her older brothers through the haze of smoke covering the dark, crowded bar.
James eyed Duncan and grinned, then took a large swallow of ale, staring at Eve over the rim as he drank. With a loud thunk, he slammed the glass on the wooden slab of a table and sighed. “Never thought I’d live to see the day that our little Evil Evie welshed on a bet.”
Eve scowled, not amused. Others had leaned closer when James raised his voice, and in just a few minutes the entire pub would be rumoring about her “cheating ways”. Not a great way to ingratiate herself into the community, and James, damn him, knew it. She turned her glare on Duncan, who met her stare with a shrug.
“Truth be, Evie. When have we ever failed to deliver as promised? You owe us, and you know it.” His blue eyes crinkled with laughter, mirroring his twin’s. And without meaning to, hers smoked with heat. “There’s our Evil Evie coming to the fore. Now pay up, sis. I want the redhead in the corner, and James prefers the blonde.”
“The man or the woman?” she snapped, seeing the pair he referred to speaking quietly in the hazy corner of the taproom with a blond man.
“Good point.” Duncan turned to James with a wicked grin.
Instead of rejecting any interest in the male, James appeared thoughtful. “You know, I’ve been thinking of expanding. Why not try both?”
“Sure, why not? Just shut up, James.” Eve felt the heat burning behind her eyes. Her brothers, those jerks, riled her on purpose, constantly needling the youngest Sinclair with the least amount of control. She blinked down at the napkin on the table, and it started to smoke.
Shit. That’s all she needed, to foster another tabloid report. “Demons Invade Conshy,” News at Eleven. And wouldn’t that piss off her father even more than he already was? Her father’s number two rule—blend in with the human populace and never, ever invite attention to the demon world. She’d violated that rule once…once more than she planned to ever again. Memories of the pit swam heavily in her mind.
She took a deep breath and waited for her inner fire to recede. “I’m not welshing on a bet since I didn’t lose.”
“Yes, you did.” Duncan leaned back and nodded.
“No, I didn’t.”
Duncan waved a hand at their waitress, who zeroed in on him despite the crowd. Red hair streaked with blue, brow piercings and a studded tongue accented a face garish in black make-up. Finishing the package, a tribal tattoo raced across one breast, up her neck and over one cheek.
“Dark and slutty, much more your type,” Eve muttered, wishing her brother would just once lose his temper. But he never did. The most easygoing demon in all of Philadelphia.
Duncan ordered another drink and winked at the waitress, sending her into a tailspin and causing her to trip on her way back to the bar. “Come on, Evie. You know I can’t approach the good girls. All I need is for you to bring them here, let them make their own choices.”
“Right.” She didn’t bat an eye. “I bring them here and you and James charm them into bed. Then I’m double-damned to eternal punishment. You think Dad won’t know who helped you break the covenant yet again?”
James pursed his lips, considering. “That may be, but you lost the bet, fair and square. And we want that group in the corner as payment.”
“Okay, let’s just nip this one in the bud, shall we?” She leaned closer. “You didn’t steal one of Carmaron’s eggs. Because if you did, the lower realm would be buzzing with the news. And it’s not so easy to hide a dragon egg in the Ordinary world, now is it?”
James smirked. “It is if you know where to hide one. Valley Green, sis. Mile marker six by the first small cataract. The egg’s on the other side of the trail buried in demon flame. And if you hurry, you just might find it before it hatches.”
Eve froze, staring at her brothers in shock. “You’re telling me you actually stole an egg from the freaking queen of the dragons, a viable, spawn-producing offspring?”
“Yep. And in another few hours, that little sucker is going to hatch wanting mommy. I’m afraid if you don’t hurry, it might even, gasp, die.”
Eve stuttered, not knowing what to say. James had always been more mischievous while Duncan reveled in vengeance. But neither ever sought to permanently harm the innocent. To kill a creature for want of a bet just didn’t seem in character for either of them.
“We’re kidding, Evie.” Duncan chuckled, relieving her. Suddenly, the redhead from the corner passed their table, and Duncan paused to make eye contact. She blinked and looked twice, then visibly sashayed, invitingly, toward the rest room. “Oh, no, not about the dragon egg,” he said when he noted Eve’s obvious relief. “The egg’s sitting in a safe, warm nest on the other side of the Wissahickon River. It’s nowhere near death. It probably won’t even hatch for another few days. Right, James?”
James nodded absently, still taken with the blond couple waiting on the redhead. “Screw the rules. I’m going to just say hello. And if they invite me to stay, so be it.”
“You two have to be the biggest assholes this side of hell.” Eve huffed a stray lock of dark hair from her face and stood. “Tainting innocence is not going to please Dad, let alone the angels hanging around what they consider their territory.”
“Conshohocken?” Duncan raised a brow and chuckled. “Right. Maybe Amish country, but Evie, Philly and the burbs are ours.”
“Desperate housewives and all that,” James agreed.
She wanted to bash them both over their rock-hard skulls. “I’m not just talking about those idiots.” She waved to the corner. “The dragon egg is unborn, pure as snow, and more dangerous than Dad on a rampage. Carmaron isn’t that happy with us at the moment as it is, not since one of the water demons tried to seduce one of her females. And we have enough to deal with having the angels in a tizzy over your last stunt with the now-damned Sister Margaret.”
“But that’s the beauty of it.” Duncan leaned close, James following. “We made it look like the angels took it. And it’s a real looker, Evie. The egg’s blue and gold, with lines of red bursting through it. I’m sure it’s royal. And won’t Carmaron be pissed when she thinks Michael stole it?”
He had a point, and the hell of it was that their father would no doubt laud them for their creativity. Incriminating the angels and all that.
“The point is that dragon babies don’t belong here. The Ordinary needs to stay ordinary.” She mentally planned her route to recover the egg. Her brothers would be more a hindrance than a help, and she had a feeling she’d be blamed for the hassle at the end of it all. Somehow, she always ended up in the middle of their messes, left holding the bag. And now wasn’t the time to push her father any further. She just had to find a way to return the egg before Carmaron knew it had been stolen. “When did you take it?”
“This morning. So forget it, Evie. She most likely knows it’s been stolen by now.” James cocked his head and smiled. “Oh yeah. Did you hear that?”
Eve focused and heard an angel’s cry and what sounded like a dragon’s snarl beneath the clamor within the bar. Angel cry could be heard for miles to those of the Ethereal. And though the pitch was too high to be heard by the humans within, the dogs outside immediately began howling.
“A bet’s a bet, Evie. We have a dragon egg, here in this realm. Now pay up.”
She gaped, unable to understand how they could both be so casual about the situation. “You’ve started another war with the angels, interfered with
the dragons, and might have seriously injured a dragon’s young. I’ll pay up, all right,” she growled, “just as soon as I’ve taken care of the egg.”
She flew out of the bar, the patrons instinctively making way for a snarling woman—a demon in a fury.
“Think we should have told her the whole of it?” James stood and stared hard at the two in the corner. The woman raised her head and met his stare, smiling in invitation.
“Why? And ruin her chance to save the universe one dumb creature at a time?” Duncan shook his head. “That desire to save the world is what got her in trouble in the first place. No, let her stew in her juices for a while before we take it back. Besides, it’ll do Gabriel and his boys good to knock around with the dragons. They’ve been getting soft on all that redemption crap.”
“True.” James turned back to Duncan and snickered. “But I’d still like to see the look on Evie’s face when Ranton shows up with that fiery sword in his claws.”
Duncan paused. “Ranton? I thought you said you’d worked out the details with Teban. I didn’t tell Ranton about this. I told Teban.”
“Why the fuck would you do that? Teban can barely hold a thought in his horny head. He’s normally too busy screwing anything that moves.”
“And he’d play along with us because he loves annoying his mother and his brother to no end. He’s not bad, for a dragon. But Ranton has no sense of humor, especially not when it comes to Carmaron’s bidding. Why do you think she has her youngest in charge of the legions instead of Teban? Because Ranton lets his sword do the talking.”
Both Duncan and James realized their sister was in serious trouble and raced out of the bar…only to find Uriel, Zhephon, and a half dozen pissed off angels waiting with clenched fists.
“Talk about utterly stupid,” Eve muttered as she sped on her Harley toward Valley Green Park.
She loved her brothers, but honestly, they played too much when they should have been taking inventory of the souls needing saving. Their particular job, in the hierarchy of the Ethereal, was to assess and beguile those on the brink of Decision. To test those whose souls who teetered between eventually going to heaven and going to hell. Existence in either plane was the goal, because living in limbo screwed with the balance of everything.
Though no one soul was ever wholly good or wholly evil, one temperament or the other weighed predominantly in every creature. Even in the self-possessing dragons.
She grimaced and increased her speed. The dragons, like many of the mythical creatures purported to exist at one time or another on Earth, were, in fact, real. They lived buried in the deeper recesses of the world—in the lower realm near the demons—closer to the Earth’s core which provided the necessary heat for their precious eggs to survive.
Unlike the humans, dragons knew about the realities of hell and heaven, and remained free to live in whatever realm they chose. Many often took the form of humans to roam above ground, in the middle realm—in the Ordinary. Like her brothers, they lived for mischief, and for anything that glittered. Partial to gold, they also had appetites far exceeding that of a normal human. They took what they wanted when they wanted, and answered to no one, that she knew of.
And the angels thought they were the favored race….
That her brothers had whisked the egg away from its nest, from its precious heat, meant one of three things. One, they had misjudged the egg’s ability to survive without its birthing fire. Two, they had seriously conned her—which didn’t mesh considering she’d heard that dragon’s angered roar in the bar. Three, and this option seriously sucked, they knew something she didn’t, like that the egg had already hatched.
Imagining a baby dragon making a meal of the greater Philly area, she whipped her bike onto one of the main graveled parking lots of the park and made a left down the wide running/biking trail. Luckily, the lateness of the hour, as well as the steady drizzle of rain, had forced many outdoor nuts inside. The few that still ran stared at her in disbelief as she roared by.
Great. Now she’d have to hurry the rescue so the police wouldn’t be on her ass. So unfair. And all to right a wrong.
Huffing and cursing her brothers again, she stopped when she saw a marker denoting the number six.
She parked and leapt off the bike, swearing when she realized she still needed to cross the river. Not deep, it would nevertheless be cold despite the late summer night. Seeing a ridge of rocks, she raced across the slippery surface with the preternatural agility of her kind and hurried into the woods on the other side.
Once there, she stilled, listening, and felt a pulse that didn’t belong in the Ordinary.
Climbing several feet over the small finger of land, she found a tiny, contained blue glow, and within, a round object with the blue, gold and red markings described by her brothers. This egg, however, was the size of an ostrich egg, much, much smaller than the typical dragon eggs she’d seen.
“What the hell?”
Staring down at it, she cocked her head, hearing a strange, haunting sound. Unearthly welcome and a powerful joy sent shockwaves throughout the woods caging the small egg. Trees creaked, wind howled, and the water near them swirled, rising in direct proportion to the rising volume of dragonsong.
Enamored and utterly moved, Eve slowly dropped to her knees and took the egg in her hands, dousing the small fire with a nod. The minute she touched the egg’s smooth, polished surface, her body lit with ecstasy—a feeling not unlike that she received when she’d made a successful sway.
I’m keeping you.
She felt it, heard herself think it, realized she meant it…and knew she was utterly screwed. Demons and dragons didn’t mix. And what the hell was she thinking wanting to keep Carmaron’s precious young? Dragons weren’t pets. They were malevolent, vicious killers with an appetite for destruction. Pleasant, to her way of thinking, but they had a thing against siding with Ethereal forces.
An appetite for destruction…. When the sky suddenly darkened and a shadow covered her, she didn’t flinch, expecting the worst.
Cradling the egg against her chest, she glanced up. What looked in shadow like a winged angel suddenly showed itself for a furious, fire-breathing dragon. In a human male’s body with large, expansive black wings, Ranton, commander of the dragon legion, made an impressive entrance as he lowered to the ground.
He wore black jeans and boots and a clingy black T-shirt through which his wings commandeered wind. His dark black hair and blazing red eyes sat in a face that any woman would consider handsome. Roughly hewn cheekbones and a strong nose complemented thickly lashed eyes and a stubborn chin. He could have passed for a giant human, save for the fifteen-foot expanse of wings and the red flames of anger burning in his gaze.
Seven feet of enraged male glowered down at her, more ferocious than even the demons of war. “I’ve come for what’s mine,” he growled, flame curling in his eyes, in his hands and sputtering from his mouth. His fingers elongated into talons as his flesh hardened into black scales, obscuring his clothing. Impressive, beautiful even, but for the fact he meant to do her some serious harm.
Don’t do it. The egg’s safe now, give him back. But Eve found it impossible to listen to her inner voice of reason. She sighed as she pooled her power, prepared to defend her tie to the new life against her chest with her every fiber of her being. To the torturous bowels of hell, or, God forbid, the starry heights of heaven. “Of course you have. Well, Ranton? Bring it on. I’m ready.”
Chapter Two
Ranton blinked in confusion, thrown by the small demon’s statement. Ready? Ready for what? To die, or to fight for the precious life she cradled so tenderly against her chest?
His eyes narrowed, staring at her chest, and at the egg glittering with a strange contentment. That the small life inside had recognized safety confused him. Demons, by nature, were cruel. And this female seemed typical of the race. A true beauty, with blue-black hair and ice blue eyes. The demons never chose to appear physically distasteful in human for
m. They were very much like the dragons in that respect.
“Where did you get that?”
His voice echoed in the night, but she sighed, appearing not at all threatened. Again he stared, bemused at her calm acceptance of his presence. Angels and demons alike quaked when Ranton charged. Yet this female held her ground, ready for what, exactly?
“A pretty bad prank was played on the dragons, with no ill-intent toward the egg. I’m afraid someone played a joke at my expense.” He frowned and she added quickly, “Look, none of this is my fault,” pleasing him that she’d sensed the precariousness of her position. With one well-placed swipe, he could send her on a painful return to the lower realm, sans body. “I was planning on returning the egg to Carmaron.”
“With no one the wiser,” he guessed.
She nodded, her eyes glowing, her body throbbing with energy as she readied for his attack. Oddly, her defensive posture stoked a need to press forward, to taunt her into flight. And he wondered at his sense as he pondered the idea of stalking and taking the little thief as his prize.
“If not your fault, then who stole the egg from its rightful place?” he asked softly, hearing her indrawn breath. The egg told him she spoke the truth about not stealing him from his nest. But she knew. The demon knew who’d stolen a precious egg, his charge. By damn, she’d tell him the truth. And the irony of his thought wasn’t lost on him.
“Tell me, demon, who stole the egg?”
“I don’t know.”
“Liar.”
“Look, I’m going to return it. Does it matter who took it?”
Ranton clicked his talons together, and the female watched them as if mesmerized. “It matters that my warriors are wasting their time kicking angel ass. It matters that one of my kind was tampered with by the unclean.”
“Unclean? I’m as clean are you are, jackass.” Her eyes swirled, red mixing with the bright blue in anger. The fury he felt from her made him dizzy with…lust?
He blinked several times and lowered his hands, curling his wings against his back. “Did you just call me a jackass?” No one, no one living, had ever referred to him as such. And much as he wanted to spank her ass for daring to insult him, he couldn’t help admiring her spirit.