Playing With Fire

Chapter Twenty-two

By the time I finally stood in front of a small office tucked away in a dark street of used bookstores near the British Museum, two hours had passed, I'd been spotted by-and successfully escaped from-three thief takers, and nimbly avoided a demon that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tried to grab me.
"The demon left after I slipped into the shadow world. Thank the gods demons can't go there. I'm hiding in the alley behind the portal shop right now. I think I've given everyone else the slip. How fast can you get here?" I asked Gabriel.
"With the afternoon traffic? Probably half an hour," he answered, the sourness in his voice evident even through the cell phone. "Stay in the Dreaming, Mayling. You are safest there."
"The thief takers can follow me if they know how," I reminded him.
A muted sound of conversation followed before Gabriel's voice spoke into my ear again. "Savian is with me. He does not know how to access it, so it is quite likely the others will not as well. It is an uncommon thing for a mortal to be able to enter the beyond."
"Uncommon, but not unknown. I'll go back there as soon as I hang up. What happened with Porter's body? Did Savian tell the watch about us being there?"
"Unfortunately, he had to, yes."
I made a face at the blank cement wall of the building against which I was crouched. "I suppose it couldn't be helped. Do you trust him, Gabriel? Savian, I mean?"
The silence that followed was hard to interpret. "As a matter of fact, I think I do."
"All right. We're counting a lot on him not setting us up for a big fall. I just wish I knew why Cyrene went to a portal shop. What if she wasn't taking a portal to Paris? What if someone else grabbed her and forced her to who knows where?"
"You have no reason to believe that anyone else is with her, although I agree with your assessment that she was not responsible for the death of the thief taker. Someone else must have done it, but it doesn't follow that he or she coerced your twin into leaving."
I glanced down at my hand. "Well... there's actually something I need to tell you about that. When I followed Cy's tracks to the portal place, I slipped inside to have a look around. Her tracks led right up to the portal room, so I know she took one. But there was something else there..."
Gabriel waited for me to continue.
"Her trail was dusted with dragon scales, Gabriel."
I heard a brief intake of his breath. "You are certain?"
"Yes. I thought dragons didn't like to use portals."
"We don't. We will if it is absolutely necessary, as it is now, but if at all possible, we prefer to use alternate means of travel. Go into the Dreaming, little bird. I will be there as soon as I can."
The portal shop Cyrene had visited was one of two located in England. Portals offered individuals with large amounts of money at hand the ability to travel across the fabric of reality in the blink of an eye. Portals were quirky things, however, and even the best of the portal masters had only a tenuous ability to predict exactly where the summoned portal would open.
I remained hidden in the shadow world until Gabriel arrived, Savian in tow. We wasted no time in querying the portalist, a weaver by the name of Jarilith, about Cyrene, but true to his kind, he refused to shed any light on where she'd gone.
"Can you at least tell us if she was being forced to go somewhere?" I asked Jarilith, exasperated with his refusal to answer our questions.
"It is illegal to portal anyone while they are under duress," he said with a pointed look. "I could lose my license if I were to do so."
"You're going to lose a lot more than that if you don't tell me where my twin went," I said in a low, mean voice.
"Mayling, please. I must insist that you allow me to be the bad cop," Gabriel said as I slid the dagger at my ankle out of its sheath.
"I have never subscribed to the sexist belief that women have to be good cop," I said, twirling the dagger around one finger.
Jarilith's eyes were riveted to it. He didn't look unduly worried about me being armed, but his condescending expression had slipped just a little.
"Nonetheless, you are far more suited to the good cop role," Gabriel insisted.
"I'm going to have to go against popular opinion and side with Mei Ling on this," Savian said, watching us with a delighted twinkle in his eye. "She looks like she knows how to use that blade. What is that, a stiletto?"
"Sicilian castrating knife," I said with a smile at the portal man.
"She wins," Savian told Gabriel.
"Er..." Jarilith said, his expression starting to slide into worry.
"I am a wyvern! I can do far more to this man than merely remove his genitalia," Gabriel answered in an outraged tone, a little tendril of smoke emerging from between his lips as he spoke.
"Eh..." Jarilith said, taking a step backward.
"Hmm. He's a weaver," Savian said thoughtfully as he examined the portalist. "Those are immortal, aren't they? So he could survive a castration, but the question is would a dragon barbeque be enough to finish him off?"
"Absolutely," Gabriel said. He smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"Threatening a weaver is strictly prohibited by law," Jarilith said indignantly, but the fight had gone out of him. His gaze was flickering back and forth from Gabriel to Savian to the dagger I held casually. "I could have the watch on you for what you're saying!"
"Oh, please," I said with a dramatic roll of my eyes.
"Just about every thief taker in this hemisphere is after me. I've already been sentenced to banishment to the Akasha. You think one little murder is going to make that any worse? Not likely."
Jarilith's eyes widened.
"It's true," Savian said. "The price on her head has already gone over six figures."
The color washed out of the portalist's face. "Erm..."
"Mate," Gabriel said sternly. "I must insist that you refrain from slicing and dicing this man."
Jarilith nodded quickly. "Listen to the dragon."
"It is my place to destroy those who stand in your way," Gabriel continued, the pupils in his eyes narrowing as he turned to the now hastily backing away Jarilith.
"Let's not lose our heads, here," the latter said in a rush.
"I don't think it's your head the lady has in mind," Savian said as he looked pointedly at the portalist's crotch.
Jarilith's hands hovered protectively over his fly. "Such an atrocity would constitute torture. You wouldn't do that to an innocent man, would you?"
"What makes you think I'd stop at the castration?" I twirled the knife around my fingers again. "This little jobby fillets, as well."
"She went to Paris," Jarilith said quickly as he dashed for a door to a back room. "I don't see the harm in telling you that as you are related to the lady. Your portal is ready in room number three. Have a pleasant journey..."
His voice trailed off as he bolted.
I turned a frown on Gabriel. "You really wouldn't have let me be bad cop? I'm very good at it, as you can see."
"I'm sorry," he said, his dimples belying the grave look he was trying to maintain. He gave me a gentle push in the direction of the room containing our portal. "Wyverns have some standards to maintain with their mates, and one of them is always being the bad cop. Although I do admit that you have a particularly effective manner. Would you really have castrated him to get the information about your twin?"
"Would you really have burnt him to a crisp for not answering?" I countered.
Gabriel grinned. I smiled back at him.
"Such a bloodthirsty little bird," he said fondly, giving my butt a little pinch.
Savian stood still for a moment, giving us an odd, disbelieving look before shaking his head and following. "You two are the strangest couple I've ever met. And I have to tell you-I've met some real weirdos."
It was early evening by the time we made it to the house that Gabriel said was Drake's home away from home while in Paris. The portal we'd taken had ended up dumping us in a slaughterhouse, which I am horrified to admit caused me to behave in a manner that no doubt embarrassed Gabriel by the quality of dramatics I felt necessary.
"Ironic that you'd react so strongly to a little pig's blood given that you just threatened to cut off someone's balls," Savian's voice said over my head as I hunched over a railing and vomited up my last meal.
I heaved again, scrabbling at my ankle sheath, blindly waving my dagger in his direction.
"Shutting up now," he said. He laughed as he said it, though, the rat.
"There is a mortal saying about those who live by the sword," Gabriel started to say.
I wiped my mouth on a handful of tissue and straightened up enough to glare at him. "Not the time, dragon."
"So I see," he answered, his dimples trying hard to emerge.
"I wouldn't if I were you," I told them with a black look.
He laughed and rubbed the small of my back. "Are you better now?"
"Moderately." I looked down at myself. "Ugh. I'm covered in animal blood. I need a shower, a toothbrush, and a fresh change of clothes. I don't suppose you keep a house here, too?"
He shook his head as he escorted me away from the railing, Savian trailing behind us. "No. Our clothing will be at Drake's house. We will go there and see what he has found out."
Luckily, it didn't take long to get to Drake's house. I eyed it as Gabriel paid off the cab that had dropped us at its door. "Are all you wyverns loaded like this?" I whispered as we entered the house.
Gabriel's lips curled. "Do you fear I won't have enough resources to keep you in the style to which you have become accustomed?"
"Hardly," I said with a snort. "My apartment consists of one room, three bookcases, and a bathroom I share with two girls next door."
"There you are. We'd almost given up on you," Aisling said as she caught sight of us.
"I don't suppose anyone has heard from or seen Cyrene?" I asked once Savian was introduced and a brief explanation had been given of our past few hours.
"No, we haven't seen or heard from her. Do you think something happened to her?" Aisling asked.
"All we know is that she left London for Paris in the company of a dragon." My gaze flicked over to where Drake stood.
"Kostya?" he asked Gabriel.
"We do not know for certain," he answered carefully. "Although it crossed my mind."
"Why would Kostya want to come to Paris with Cyrene?" Aisling asked.
I shook my head and trudged wearily up the stairs to the room she had given us. I puzzled over that very question while I washed off the effects of the afternoon. It didn't seem to make sense at all-even if Cyrene had done the impossible and caught up to Kostya after leaving Porter... or rather, Porter's remains, why would he want to accompany her?
A thought occurred to me as I was brushing my teeth. I stared in surprise at the empty mirror as my brain chewed over the possibility that Kostya killed Porter.
"It's a tenuous connection at best, but it's still a possibility," I told the mirror. "Cyrene did set off to follow Kostya, and later, they were together at the portal shop. So who's to say they weren't together the whole time?"
If I'd been able to cast a reflection, it would have been shaking its head at the last of my words. I'd forgotten that Cyrene said Porter had kidnapped her, which meant she couldn't have been with Kostya then.
I didn't have an answer by the time I trotted back downstairs, but I didn't have much chance to mull it over before Gabriel whisked me away to Suffrage House.
"You're sure they won't have some sort of spell to catch me shadow walking?" I asked Savian. He stood with Gabriel and me across the street from Suffrage House. Drake and Aisling and their two guards were already inside the building, doing their part to reconnoiter.
"I've never heard of anything. People who could do damage to anything housed there would not have access to the beyond or shadow walking." He grinned at me. "I guess they didn't think about doppelgangers."
"We're not normally at odds with the L'au-dela," I pointed out, then shadowed and made my way across the busy street without being struck.
Gabriel and Savian strolled past me into the building ahead of me. I took my time to make sure that there were no traps or wards at the doors, but evidently Savian was correct-nothing stopped me as I made my way down to the basement. Our plan was simple-Gabriel and Savian would poke around the security offices as best they could. Drake, with an acute sense of smell when it came to treasure of any sort, would conduct an unobtrusive search for any locations other than the vault where valuables might be stored. My job was to assess the vault itself, which meant I needed to get past the security present outside it.
A half hour later, we were regrouped at Drake's house.
"Shall we start with the easy stuff first?" Aisling asked. "Drake and I hunted high and low, and there's no secondary vault anywhere. Drake said the only thing he smelled was in the basement."
"Which is where the vault is," Savian affirmed. "According to my friend in the security office, the evening shift takes over at the onset of deep night. The shift change takes place then because it's when most people are at their lowest energy, so they want fresh eyes on the job."
I smiled. "How nice it is that those of us who were born of shadow find deep night our peak performance time."
"I thought you'd like that," Savian said with a cheeky grin.
Gabriel, sitting next to me on the couch in Drake's living room, narrowed his eyes at Savian in a show of jealousy that I'm ashamed to admit utterly delighted me.
"So what about the big job?" Aisling asked, looking at me. "Is it doable?"
I nodded. "Quite doable. There's the usual run of electronic equipment, and two guards, one who roams the basement corridor, the other who wanders from above stairs to below. They may add a third for nighttime, but I doubt it. Between the guards and electronics, they seem to have everything covered."
"What about the vault itself?" Gabriel asked.
"Warded, with arcane spell protections and a couple of prohibitions. The latter concern beings of the dark powers, so I couldn't get too close to eyeball the other wards, but they didn't look like anything out of the ordinary. I assume you'll be able to remove them?" I asked Aisling.
"It shouldn't be a problem at all."
"The vault itself must be huge-it appears to take up most of the basement. But once the door is open, I should be able to shadow walk inside and disable any alarm systems within so Gabriel can enter safely."
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as Drake and Gabriel locked gazes.
"I believe the decision of who will retain control of the phylactery has yet to discussed," Drake said.
Gabriel's eyebrows rose. "Do you have reason to believe I would abuse such an honor?"
"No." Drake hesitated. "But Kostya will not be so certain, and he will not stop at anything to regain it if he knows it is in your possession."
"I'm quite able to keep my treasures safe even from your brother," Gabriel said dryly.
"That is not my point. If you were to retain the phylactery, Kostya would continue to attack you and your sept to get it."
"It seems to me he's pretty much doing that anyway," I said.
"If he knows I have the phylactery," Drake said, "Kostya won't be happy, but he won't have cause to continue to fight you. It might even do much to keep him in line."
Gabriel frowned. "You had it once, and lost it to him. I am not comfortable knowing that it could again fall so easily into his hands."
Drake's eyes glittered emerald, but they were no match for the brilliant quicksilver fire that burned in Gabriel's.
"Do you imply that I cannot hold my own treasure?" Drake asked with a clear warning in his voice.
"Sweetie." Aisling put her hand on Drake's arm to get his attention. "Defluff those hackles. Gabriel wasn't insulting you any more than you were insulting him. I know you want to have the phylactery to keep it safe, but I think that in this case, Gabriel should have it."
Drake glared at his mate. She kissed the tip of his nose. "It won't hurt you to let something go," she reassured him. "Gabriel will keep it safe. He won't use it to destroy Kostya, will you, Gabriel?"
Gabriel was silent for a moment.
I dug an elbow into his ribs.
"No," he said with a resigned sigh. "The phylactery was not meant to be used as a weapon of revenge. I will honor it for what it is, and simply keep it safe."
I rewarded him with a smile and a little pinch of his thigh. He covered my hand with his, stroking my fingers in a silent gesture of acknowledgment.
It took a few more minutes of persuading before Drake reluctantly agreed to put the phylactery in Gabriel's keeping. Since there were still several hours to go until deep night, Drake ordered Aisling to rest.
I followed her out of the room, leaving the dragons and Savian to talk.
The hallway held the usual furniture-a couple of chairs, some small tables, a large mirror against one wall. As I passed a small bureau, a telephone sitting on top of it rang. I glanced around for someone to answer it, but Aisling was upstairs, and the hall was empty.
"Hello? Er... Vireo residence."
"I wish to speak to... wait. Is this the doppelganger?"
I recognized the voice at the other end almost immediately. It held a slightly Slavic accent, and for some reason, made the hairs on the backs of my arms stand on end.
"Yes, this is May. What do you want, Kostya?"
He chuckled. The door to the room I had just left opened, and Gabriel came out, followed by Drake and Savian. "The question is more what I have than what I want."
My stomach turned to lead for a moment. Had he gotten the phylactery and called to gloat about it?
"I have something of yours, shadow walker. And I am willing to return it to you for a price."
Aisling appeared at the top of the stairs accompanied by Jim. "Was that the phone? Is it May's twin?"
"What exactly are you talking about?" My eyes went to Gabriel, who immediately took a position next to me, his arm sliding around my waist as he leaned in to listen. Drake went across to another room, picking up the receiver there.
"Are you missing a twin, perhaps?"
I sucked in my breath. "If you've hurt her-"
"I do not harm women." Kostya snorted. "Not unless they harm me first. Your twin is safe. For now."
"Who's on the phone?" Savian asked Aisling.
She raised her eyebrows as she watched her husband emerge with a cordless phone. "Judging by the smoke wafting out of him, I'd say it's his brother."
"Ah. They don't get along?" he asked.
"Something like that." She came downstairs, stopping next to Drake.
"Why did you kidnap her?" I asked Kostya. "What do you hope to gain by this?"
"I had no need to kidnap her," Kostya told me. "She came willingly. My motive should be clear. She is in my power, and if you wish her to return safely, you will bring me the phylactery which you so recently stole."
"That is not acceptable," Drake started to say, but Gabriel, with a flash of quicksilver eyes, snatched the phone from me and snarled into it.
"I knew you would show no honor in dealing with me, but to use an innocent woman as a hostage for the phylactery is an act unworthy even of an ouroboros like yourself."
Kostya spat out an invective, but Drake interrupted before either of them could get into a verbal pissing match.
"Have you so little disregard for your place in the weyr that you would even consider such a dishonorable act?" he asked. "This is nothing short of a declaration of war, brother. To continue will destroy all chances you have of gaining recognition for your sept."
"There is no honor in the black dragons," Gabriel growled, "just as there is no sept."
"We will rise again," Kostya promised. "And we will regain all that was lost to us."
"What is he saying?" Aisling asked, trying to get Drake to let her listen in. "Is he being an idiot again? What a silly question, of course he is."
"Kostya is going off on a rant about the silver dragons again," I told her. "Frankly, I'm getting a bit tired of it."
"As am I," Gabriel said, clicking off the phone before doing an about-face to march out the front door we had so recently entered.
"Where are you going?" I asked, looking between him and Drake, who was arguing with his brother, Aisling and Savian sharing the phone Gabriel had tossed down.
"Out," he said without stopping.
I hurried after him. "Why?"
"I have had enough of this. That Kostya would attempt to harm me, I accept. That he would strike at you, I expect. But that he would take into his hands the life of someone not related to the sept in order to blackmail me-no. Tipene and Maata, I understand. They are part of the sept. But your twin is not. This must stop now."
"I'm with you so far as that goes," I said, taking his hand. His fingers tightened around mine in an almost painful grip as he strode down the street to a busy intersection. "But how exactly are we going to stop him?"
He hailed a cab and waited until it was under way before answering me. "We go back to the portal's exit, and you follow his trail. I will end it once and for all."
I didn't like the look of unadulterated rage in his eyes, but there was little I could say that would persuade him not to take the present course of action. Besides which, I was more than a little annoyed with Kostya's ridiculous persecution of Gabriel and the silver dragons. That didn't mean I had to blindly follow Gabriel, however.
"There must be a way to end things without you indulging in the sort of violence I have a feeling you're thinking of unleashing."
"I will not give him the phylactery," Gabriel swore, his fingers tightening on mine.
"Good gods, no, I didn't mean that!" I shuddered to think of what would happen if Magoth found out I used the phylactery to save Cyrene. He'd likely destroy both of us. "I just meant that there has to be a way other than the all-out war that Drake warned him about. You can't want that."
His fingers tightened even more until I made a little wordless noise of protest. Immediately he relaxed his hold, stroking my fingers and bringing the tips to his mouth to kiss. "I'm sorry, little bird. I do not mean to take out my frustrations on you."
"That's what I'm here for, isn't it?"
The look he gave me contained no smile. "You are my mate. You are part of me now, part of the sept, but that does not mean I should unduly burden you."
He looked away, his jaw still tight. My belly ached at the unspoken rejection. I considered pushing it away, deep and dark into the depths of my own psyche, but something inside me rebelled, some newfound sense of... oh, I don't know, togetherness, I guess. I had spent my life alone, bound to Cyrene, bound to Magoth, but never having anyone with whom I could share things. Gabriel charged into my life with a flash of his molten silver eyes, and made me a part of something bigger, something... us.
"Gabriel, don't push me out. I've spent my lifetime alone," I said.
He turned a surprised look on me. "I have not pushed you out, little bird."
"You want to. I can tell you want to protect me by keeping me away from this, but you said I was your mate, and I accepted the job. That means your burdens are mine to share, and by the twelve gods, I'm going to share them."
He looked taken aback for a moment before he suddenly grinned. "I begin to see more and more why Drake puts up with Aisling's ways."
"You'd better believe-wait... was that a compliment or an insult? If it was the latter, we're going to need to have a long talk. If it was the former, I'll kiss you until you can't think straight."
"Former. It was definitely the former," he said quickly.
"I'm never going to be a proper wyvern's mate at this rate," I said as I flung myself across the seat to kiss him.
"I'm beginning to think the rules regarding proper etiquette are vastly overrated," he murmured as I licked his bottom lip. Gabriel allowed me to take charge of the kiss, his hands warm on my ribs as I lazily explored his mouth, the embers of desire quickly igniting under the taste and feel and scent of him. An idle part of my mind wondered for a second what it was about him that had me willing to risk everything just to be with him, but that thought didn't last long. He was what he was, and that was all I wanted.
"I'm still thinking straight," he murmured a few minutes later. His fire roared through me, seemingly setting my blood on fire, but reluctantly, I kept a tight rein on it and returned it to him lest we inadvertently set the cab alight.
"Are you, now," I purred, sliding my hands down his chest. His eyes widened as I shifted so that I was sitting astride his thighs, my body blocking the cab driver's view of him. "Let's see if you're still thinking after I do this..."
His nostrils flared as my hands slid lower, fingers deftly undoing both his belt and his fly. I leaned in to kiss him again, my hands busily touching and stroking and teasing, even as my tongue did the same.
"I don't know about him, but I'm definitely losing concentration," the cab driver said.
I released Gabriel's lip and peered over my shoulder at the man. I'd deliberately arranged myself so that he couldn't see exactly what we were doing, although I suspected he had a good idea. He winked at me in the rearview mirror, and added, "That's your address ahead of us. Would you like me to go around the block a few times?"
I glanced down at Gabriel. His eyes were hot enough to leave scorch marks. "No, I think I've proven my point," I said with a little smile as I restored order to Gabriel's clothing.
"You will pay for this torment, little bird," he promised with a deliciously wicked smile.
"Deal." Reluctantly, I slid off his thighs and pulled my mind from where it was dwelling with loving detail on the image of Gabriel wearing nothing but whipped cream, and tried to focus on the matter at hand.
"You'll pay for that, too," he murmured a minute later as he turned back to the cab to pay off the driver.
Fortunately for us both, Cyrene's trail was still visible just outside the portal's exit point, so I didn't have to go back into the horrendous slaughterhouse. There wasn't much traffic in the area, thankfully, which allowed me to slip into the shadows immediately.
"It's here," I told Gabriel as I returned to the mundane world. "Faint, but visible-both Cyrene and a dragon."
"Check in every fifteen minutes to tell me where you are. I'll follow you that way," he said, checking his cell phone to make sure it was on.
I nodded and prepared to move into the shadow world.
"Mayling."
"Hmm?"
His eyes glittered brightly. "Remember that you are my mate. I know you wish to rescue your twin, but you are important to me. I would not like it if you were harmed in any way."
I smiled and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss. "You would be a very easy man to love, Gabriel."
His eyes searched mine for a moment, but he said nothing. I slipped away from him into the beyond, my attention locked onto the dim trail that was growing dimmer with each passing moment, but my heart... my heart was busy with other matters.