Playing With Fire

Chapter Twenty-one

The trail was there on the ground, faint but still visible slightly darkened footprints, as if Cyrene had been walking with wet feet across a dry floor. There were other elemental beings in the area leaving tracks as well-London was headquarters to several Otherworld groups, including a lot of elementalists-but it was easy enough to pick Cyrene's trail apart from the others.
It wasn't until I was three blocks away that an uncomfortable feeling started pricking between my shoulder blades. I spun around to see who was following me, and gawked openmouthed at the man standing immediately behind me. "How?" I asked, poking him in the chest to be sure he was real.
My hand went right through his chest as if nothing was there. "OK, change that how to what? What's going on, Gabriel? How is it you're in the beyond?"
"Beyond, shadow world, the Dreaming... all different names for the same thing," he answered, his dimples showing as I waved a hand through his chest. "I told you that my mother was a shaman."
"You said that's why you could occasionally read my mind. That doesn't explain why you're a... what, shade? Image? You're not really here, are you?"
"No. I'm in Drake's house. Or rather, my body is. I can walk in the Dreaming, but I can't interact with anything. My mother said it was because I was part dragon." He shrugged. "I won't be able to touch things as you can, but I can accompany you."
"Do you see Cyrene's tracks?" I asked, pointing to the ground.
He squinted. "Faintly. You look different in here."
"Different? I do?" I was a bit taken aback. I knew most things looked different when viewed from the shadow world, but I was part of this world-I shouldn't look different. "How so?"
"There is a glow about you. A sort of silver glow." He smiled. "It is the sign you are part of my sept. It pleases me that you manifest that as an aura."
I looked down at my arms. "Good gods, you're right. I'm May the Amazing Glowing Woman. How very odd... but we don't have time to explore my glowiness, I'm afraid. Cy's trail is starting to fade."
He nodded and gestured for me to go on. I did, my heart lightened somewhat by his presence, even if it was an insubstantial presence. We couldn't take a taxi, since it would be impossible to follow Cyrene's trail, which meant we had to cover a lot of ground on foot. About an hour after we started, we finally ran the trail to earth at a grimy hotel hidden in a back street in King's Cross. We'd lost the trail a couple of times because Cyrene had evidently gotten into a car at some point, which made the little splotches of water that dropped off her scarce, but it helped having two of us to follow possible leads.
"Do not go in, little bird," Gabriel told me as I examined the outside of the hotel. It was more of a hostel than a hotel, obviously one used by people whose minds were more absorbed with where their next trick, fix, or bottle was coming from rather than where they laid their head at night. "It could be dangerous, and I cannot help you in this form. You wait outside until I can come to you in bodily form."
"One of the perks of being able to shadow walk is the ability to take a look around without anyone knowing," I told him as I finessed the lock on the door. It gave way with even less resistance than was normal, as if the lock itself had absorbed the miasma of hopelessness that hung so heavy in the air it left an oily taste upon the tongue.
Gabriel wasn't happy, but he said nothing as we slipped through the door and up a narrow flight of stairs. There was a small room off to one side that served as a lobby and reception, although the room was barren of life. The detritus of people who had lost all hope lay scattered on the floor and stairs- empty bottles, fast-food wrappers, crushed cigarette packets and butts, torn fragments of lurid magazines... we picked our way around all of it as we crept up the first flight of stairs. The air in the hotel was foul, stale with smoke and urine and rodent droppings, and other, less-palatable scents that I refused to identify or acknowledge. Cyrene's trail here was sporadic as well, as if she'd been dragged up the stairs. Two clear sets of her footprints stood outside one door on the second floor, however.
I glanced at Gabriel. "Can you go through walls?" I whispered.
He shook his head. "I can't interact with anything, nor can I travel through solid substances. Doors have to be open for me to go through them."
"Then I'll just have to open this one."
"May..." He frowned. "I do not like this. You should wait until I can come to help you. This blackmailer is clearly dangerous. You could be harmed."
His words washed over me with a warm, comforting sensation. No one had ever worried about me when I was out on a job-it never seemed to occur to Cyrene that I could be harmed, and Magoth... well, Magoth didn't particularly care what happened to me so long as I succeeded.
"If you were here, I'd spend all my time kissing you and we'd never get Cy rescued," I told him with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll shadow as soon as the lock is open. This hallway is dim enough to hide me if anyone is standing on the other side of the door."
He didn't react to my light flirtation, just stood watching me with worried eyes as I persuaded the lock to open.
"Well, I guess we were worried about nothing," I said a few moments later as Gabriel straightened up from where he had been kneeling next to the crumpled form on the floor. "Is he dead?"
"I believe so. I can detect no signs of life, although I would have to be able to touch him to know for certain if he could be resuscitated."
Unwilling to touch the body, I used my foot to nudge it over onto its back. "Agathos daimon! It's Porter."
"The thief taker?" Gabriel asked, frowning down at the twisted face of the dead man on the floor. The handle of a knife emerged from his chest.
I avoided looking at the grimacing face and examined the handle as best I could without touching it. It was silver, carved with runes I couldn't identify. Something about it tickled the back of my mind. "I think I've seen this before."
"Where?"
"I don't remember. It just looks... familiar." I steeled myself and laid two fingers across the man's neck. The body was cool to the touch. "No pulse."
"If he's dead, then where's your twin?" Gabriel asked.
I rose and looked around the room with him. One corner held a grimy bed, a chair, and a three-legged table. A filthy, rust-stained sink hung crookedly off the wall on the other side of the room, below a mirror that was missing most of its glass. "That is a very good question."
I had come out of the shadow world to examine the body of the thief taker but slipped into it again to look for signs of Cyrene.
"There," Gabriel said, pointing at the window.
"Why does no one ever use doors to exit rooms?" I grumbled, moving over to the window to examine it. It was pushed down, but not latched from the inside. Sure enough, there was a footprint on the windowsill. "Looks like we're going out onto the fire escape."
"I hate to contradict a lady, but alas, there are times when duty must take precedence over manners," a voice said from behind me.
I spun around to find Savian the thief taker in the doorway. His gaze swept around the room, pausing on the body of Porter for a moment before continuing its perusal. "I see you've had a bit of excitement, Mei Ling. Why don't you step out of the shadows so we can have a little chat about it."
I froze. Although it was daytime, the room was dark enough that unless I moved, Savian wouldn't see me.
Before I could think of how to respond, he leaped across the room, straight for the window... and me.
"What's this? Leaving? You wound me, Mei Ling, you truly do," he said, grabbing at me. This close, he could no doubt see a shadowy image of me. "I thought we had something special between us."
I deshadowed, snarling something rude under my breath as I jerked my arm away from him.
"Take your hands off my mate!" Gabriel bellowed. He rushed at Savian, forgot he was insubstantial, and zipped right through the thief taker.
Savian looked momentarily disconcerted. "What was that?"
"I am not a what!" Gabriel snapped, stalking over to Savian to stand before him, glaring. "I am the silver wyvern, and you have just touched my mate."
I raised my eyebrows a smidgen at Gabriel's show of possession. For some reason, it amused rather than annoyed me. "I didn't know you were so volatile when it concerned me."
"Volatile?" Savian repeated the word, his brows scrunching up together. "Was that intended to be a compliment about my virility?"
My gaze shifted from Gabriel to his. "You can't hear him?"
"Hear who?" Savian asked.
I looked back to Gabriel. "How can I hear you if he can't?"
"You are my mate. He is not," he answered with a growl, his eyes burning as they fixed on Savian. "Who is this man?"
"Savian the thief taker, meet Gabriel Tauhou, wyvern of the silver dragon sept," I said, gesturing toward Gabriel. "Don't let the fact that you can't see or hear Gabriel confuse you-he's in the shadow world, but he's very much here. Er... sort of."
Savian's gaze rested on me with speculation. "A dragon in the beyond? Didn't know it could happen."
"This seems to be the day for impossible things," I said, crossing my arms tightly. "What is it you want? Other than to haul me back to the committee, that is?"
"Well..." He smiled. It was a particularly charming smile, one that held a good deal of humor in it, and I thought for a moment or two that if I'd never met Gabriel, I might have followed up on that smile to see what sort of a man was behind it. "There is the matter of that little offer you made me."
I froze again, this time horrified as the memory came back to me. "That has nothing to do with anything," I said, glancing at Gabriel.
"Oh, really?" His gaze flitted around the room, and I knew for certain what he was going to say before he said it. "You don't think propositioning me in order to get me to let you go has any pertinence to this situation?"
"You're a rat," I told him. "That was downright mean."
"I know," he said, his smile widening. "But you have to admit, as rats go, I'm fairly charming."
Gabriel's silver-eyed gaze shifted from Savian to me.
"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said that I didn't actually proposition him in order to get him to let me go?" I asked him.
"I believe you," he said without hesitation. "You are my mate. You would not be so if you did not respect and honor me as I do you."
An odd sort of constriction gripped my heart. His words were so heartfelt, they touched deep, dark parts of my soul.
"I did proposition him," I said, needing to admit the truth to him. "And he took me up on it, but I couldn't go through with it."
Gabriel was silent for a moment, his eyes shadowed. Finally, he nodded. "I would expect you to try to use whatever method you had available to free yourself. That you did not betray me to do so does not, however, surprise me."
"It was a close thing," Savian said with a wicked grin.
"Oh, it was not! I never even unbuttoned so much as one button! I couldn't! Not when I thought of Gabriel."
"You're not going to start making declarations of eternal, undying love now, are you?" Savian asked, glancing at his watch. "I'm afraid I can only give you fifteen minutes, and then we'll need to be on our way to catch the plane to Paris."
"Do not leave this room," Gabriel ordered.
I turned to him, surprised.
"I will be with you in ten minutes," he said. "Do not leave the room unless the authorities come. And do not proposition that... that... mortal again!"
I couldn't help but smile at the indignant look on his face, which faded along with the rest of him.
"I take it that's a 'no' on the declarations of love?" Savian asked.
I took the sole chair in the room, unfolded a bit of discarded newspaper onto the stained seat, and gingerly sat down on it. "I think I'll pass, thank you."
"Ah? The dragon's gone?"
I nodded.
"Well, then." He moved across the room and closed the door, giving me a come-hither look that was almost as good as Magoth's. "Perhaps you'd like me to show you how I can make you forget your precious wyvern?"
"I'll pass on that, too. Why don't you spend the few minutes it'll take Gabriel to get here telling me how it is you were lurking around outside the room of a murdered colleague?"
He leaned against the wall next to the window. "Oddly enough, I was curious about how you ended up here as well. Shall we exchange stories? I can give you fourteen minutes."
"And I can give you..." I pursed my lips as I thought. "I'd say you have about eight minutes before a very angry dragon is going to break down the door, so why don't you go first, just in case Gabriel gets here before you have a chance to talk."
I have to give Savian credit-he didn't appear to be too worried about having to face Gabriel, although a couple of faint lines appeared around his mouth.
"Although it isn't the gentlemanly thing to do, I will go first since you so obviously desire it. I am here because I was pursuing a line of investigation, and it led me to this room."
"A line of investigation concerning one of your colleagues?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Porter wasn't so much a colleague as a rival. Thief takers... well, we tend to be a solitary lot, minding our own business and not mingling with one another too much. And Porter was... different."
"I'll say he was. Do you know that he was blackmailing my twin?"
"No, but it wouldn't surprise me," Savian said. He rubbed his chin for a moment. "That might explain some things."
"What things? Were you investigating Porter himself?"
His smile was as cheeky as ever. "Let's just say that I was following up a sense of Porter being involved in something he shouldn't have been."
"Would you happen to know whom he was working for?"
"Alas, I hadn't uncovered that," he answered, his smile fading. "To be perfectly honest-something I normally try to avoid, but I'll make an exception since I like you-I hadn't found out much about what Porter was up to. He had something going on, and it was something big, but that's all I could tell. Perhaps you have more information?"
"Perhaps, but like you, I prefer to play things close to the vest."
"Now, now, I showed you my hand-the least you can do is show me yours," he said with a cock of his eyebrow.
"There's really not much to my hand-he blackmailed me into trying to get something for him, but he didn't tell me why he wanted it, or if it was for himself, or the dreadlord he said he worked for."
"Dreadlord, hmm?" Savian chewed that over for a few minutes. "Interesting. Could be a demon lord, could be someone else."
"Exactly. And now he's dead, which means there's someone else involved. But why kill him?"
Savian shrugged again. "It would be foolish to speculate until we had some answers to our questions. And now, if you would not mind, perhaps you'd care to clarify how it is I found you with the not-at-all-lamented Mr. Porter?"
"Porter kidnapped Cyrene in order to get me to do something."
"Ah." His glance slid down to the dead man.
"He was dead when we got here, and no, I don't think Cyrene killed him. She couldn't have."
"That's right, your twin is a naiad," he said, nodding. "Although it is within the realm of possibility, I agree that it would be unlikely an elemental being such as she would harm a mortal... even one as reprehensible as Porter. It certainly is a puzzle."
We stood in silence for a moment before I was driven to say, "Gabriel isn't going to let you take me into custody, you know."
"I'm aware of that, yes," he answered amiably.
"Then why are you just standing here chitchatting with me while he races to get here?" I asked. "Shouldn't you at least be making an attempt to try to capture me? Not that I want you to, but it's making me curious."
"Well, it's like this," he said, scratching the whiskery stubble on his chin. "When I first saw you here, I thought my luck had turned and I'd be able to bring you in myself. Although I will say I had a moment's qualm about how I was going to get you to go peacefully. You're not a pushover."
"Thank you," I said politely. "I'm also not the sort of woman who has to wait for a man to help her, although I'm not one to turn down the offer of help if it's made."
"I completely understand. Just as I understood that when you mentioned the wyvern was present in spirit form, my chances of convincing you to come along peaceably were pretty much nil. As were any ideas of forcing you."
"Smart man."
"I try," he said with a wry twist to his lips. "The answer to your question is simply that I am hoping your scaly boyfriend will make it worth my while to not make trouble."
"He's not scaly, and if I'd known you could have been bought with something other than my body," I said, musing on the sense of humor fate seemed to have when it concerned my life, "I would have bribed you in a more traditional manner."
"But your way promised so much more fun," he said with yet another of his wickedly sinful grins. "Are you sure-"
"Quite sure. Gabriel is..." I stopped for a moment, not sure how to put my tangled feelings into words. "He's warm. And strong. And concerned about people. He's very grounded, if you know what I mean-very much of this earth. I'm not elemental like Cyrene, but I am created from her, and to me, Gabriel feels right. He's also very urbane and elegant, not in the least... oh, I don't know, primitive. There's a sort of raw, dangerous feeling about the other wyvern I've met, but Gabriel is much more sophisticated than that. I could see him on the cover of GQ, if they'd ever let a dragon on it."
Savian's smile got a bit broader.
"He's also arrogant about some things, is overly confident in his abilities to control the world, and has a single-mindedness that I suspect is going to cause a lot of friction between us," I added, sure that Gabriel had appeared in the doorway behind me.
"Only if you let it," the man himself answered, moving up to stand next to me. He was a little out of breath, as if he'd run the whole way. "You left out the part about my possessiveness," he added with a warning flash of his eyes at Savian.
"You're a dragon-that goes without saying," Savian said with a shrug and a quick glance at his watch. "Shall we proceed? Time is passing."
"How much?" Gabriel asked.
"Right to the point. I like that. You know what the standard payment is for a thief taker?"
We shook our heads.
He named a figure that would keep Cyrene in bath salts for an entire decade.
"I'll triple it," Gabriel said immediately, without so much as blinking an eye at the fact that he was talking about an amount in six figures.
"That's a lot of money," I said in a low voice. "More than is necessary, I think."
"On the contrary, that's exactly the sum it would take to get me to tear up the order for your arrest," Savian said.
"Done," Gabriel said, and shook the hand Savian offered. "Send your information to the Weyr Bank and I'll have the money transferred to you."
Savian inclined his head in acknowledgment. "I feel obliged to warn you that other thief takers won't be so accommodating."
"Other thief takers? There's more than just you and Porter after me?" I asked.
"Oh, yes," he said with some amusement. "You are the first person to escape Suffrage House in... come to think of it, I think you're the first person to escape, period. The committee is not pleased with that fact. When you add Dr. Kostich's benefaction in with the large sum of money the committee is offering for your recapture, you will no doubt understand why every thief taker available is even now descending on Europe in order to find you."
I groaned and plopped down on the edge of the windowsill. "Great. Just what I need-even more people after me."
Gabriel looked grave for a moment, but suddenly his dimples appeared. "It's somewhat ironic, then, that Mayling will be in the last place anyone expects to find her-Suffrage House itself."
"I have to get there first," I said darkly.
He paid no attention to my black mood. "Come, little bird. As the thief taker noted, time is passing, and we must find your twin soon."
"I seldom offer my help without recompense- busman's holiday and all that-but as I find myself at a bit of a short end with regards to my current case, and as I am the best tracker in all the L'au-dela, I might be willing to help you locate your twin."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed. "What would you want for helping us?"
"Oh..." Savian looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling at us both. "Let's just say that all I'll ask is a favor to be granted at a later time."
"What sort of favor?" I asked suspiciously.
"I have no idea until the time comes," he answered.
Gabriel and I exchanged glances. He made a little shrugging movement that I took to mean he wasn't overly concerned about the thought of owing a favor to Savian. I was less certain as to the wisdom of putting ourselves in his debt, but there didn't seem to be much I could do about the situation.
"Very well," I agreed. "We'd be happy for the help. Cy's trail is starting to get very faint."
Gabriel nodded toward the body. "I don't suppose you are responsible for that?" he asked Savian.
"No, although I would have liked to have been. He wasn't much of a credit to the watch."
"What are we going to do about him?" I asked, nodding toward Porter's body.
"He is of no matter to you now," Gabriel said, dismissing both the body and the issue it presented.
"Not directly so, but if he was asked to employ me, then we've still got to deal with whomever he was serving."
Gabriel made a face. "We will deal with that situation after we retrieve the phylactery."
"We can't just leave him here," I pointed out. "I may not have liked him, but that doesn't mean we can just stumble over his body and not say something to someone about it."
Savian sighed and pulled out a cell phone. "Can you still see your twin's trail?"
I slid into the beyond and moved over to the window. Outside it was a frail-looking fire escape. I came back to reality with a little nod. "Just barely."
"You and the wyvern start following it. I'll call the watch and let them know about Porter, and be with you as soon as I can."
"How will you know where to find us if the trail is gone by then?" I asked.
He grinned at me. "Her trail will be gone... but not yours. I haven't followed you around for nothing, Mei Ling."
Gabriel made a low growling noise that secretly delighted me. I didn't want him thinking I was a weakling who needed constant protection, however, so I ignored it and lifted the window sash, gingerly climbing out onto the rickety fire escape.
Gabriel was right behind me as I made my way down to the ground.
"I can't follow you now, Mayling," he said when I had tracked Cyrene's footsteps to the street and popped back into our reality to tell him what I found. "You must walk alone. But you will call me when you find her destination."
That was a command, not a question. I nodded, wanting badly to kiss the very breath out of him, but was cognizant of the fact that we were standing on the sidewalk of a busy, if rundown, street. "Do you know what I'm thinking right now?" I asked.
His silver gaze focused on me for a few seconds. "Yes. And the feeling is mutual, although I favor honey over whipped cream. It's stickier, and requires more licking to remove it."
"A dragon with a sweet tooth-I'll have to remember that," I said, glancing around before finding a suitably empty, darkened doorway in which I could slip into the shadow world.
"You are the sweetest morsel I have ever wanted," he murmured and, ignoring propriety, pulled me into a kiss, pushing me hard against the wooden door behind me, his body aggressive and unyielding. I got the feeling he was deliberately trying to overwhelm me with his presence... and he was doing a damned fine job of that.
"You think I am not dangerous and primitive?" he growled into my mouth, his hands sliding down my hips. I moaned into his mouth, rubbing myself against him, the want that never left me building to the point where all I could think of was joining myself with him.
He growled again, jerking me away from the door before he kicked it open. I had a glimpse of two startled faces of the employees of an adult video store before Gabriel shoved me through a side doorway, slamming the door behind us.
We were in a dark storeroom of some sort, nearly full of boxes and broken furniture, but that was all that registered in my consciousness before Gabriel had me pinned to the door, his fingers hard on my hips as he ground me against himself.
I didn't hesitate, didn't stop to point out that now was not the time and place. I did a little shimmy as I kicked off my jeans and underwear, lunging at him even as he grabbed me again, his body a burning brand against my front, the door a cold presence on my back.
"You underestimate the true nature of a dragon, little bird," Gabriel said, his lips burning a trail along my jaw. Sharp pinpricks touched my flesh as he grabbed my legs from behind, parting them wide around his hips. I moaned again, and hurriedly undid the buckle of his belt, desperate to get to his zipper. He was hot and hard and burned in my hands even as I knew he would burn within my body. "You think me so sophisticated that I am above base needs? I may look human, Mayling, but never forget I am a dragon first. And you, my delicious morsel, are my mate."
He slammed into me, making the door reverberate as I welcomed the intrusion. His mouth was everywhere, kissing, biting, and burning me. My heartbeat drowned out all but the sound of his rasping breath as his hips flexed again and again, his penis a molten brand that should have scorched parts too delicate to stand up to such abuse, but the contrary was true. I was already teetering on the brink of an orgasm, my body tightening around him as he pumped hard and fast and deep. This was a mating, pure and simple, an act of need so basic, our bodies moved in a violent rhythm that was as old as time. It was hard and fast and there was no softness, no tenderness... and yet it was a joining that was just as profound as any of the others. My spirit soared as Gabriel bit my shoulder, the skin of his neck as soft as silk. Gabriel roared his pleasure, his teeth as sharp on my shoulder as the burn of fire that seared my skin. That's all it took to push me over the edge as well, and as I gave in to the climax, I knew with a soul-shaking certainty that I would not be able to exist without him.
Pounding on the other side of the door slowly returned awareness to me. I pulled my face from the crook of Gabriel's neck, smugly pleased that he was breathing just as heavily as I was.
"That was..." Words failed me. He slowly slid me down his body until I was standing on my own again. "That was..."
"That was something to remember me by while you're shadow walking," he said, his eyes as molten as mercury as he bent to retrieve my clothes.