Me and My Shadow (26 page)

She swung her hands around as she spoke, tearing off little strips of reality.

“Don't forget to focus on where you're going,” Jim warned, ducking as one of her swings went a bit wild. “You have to keep that focus or you'll end up in Timbuktu. Man alive! You almost took off my ear!”

“Sorry. Focusing.” Her face scrunched up as she held an image in her mind. “Now tear?”

“Yeah.” Jim retreated back to where I stood, well out of her reach. “You do know that there's going to be a price to pay for this, right?”

“What do you mean, a price?” she asked, her eyes still screwed tight as she reached out blindly to select just the right possibility, the threads of location that would take us where she wanted.

“Dark power isn't free. You use it, you pay a price.”

“I'm elemental—”

“Yeah, yeah, you can't be proscribed, but you still pay a price.”

One of her eyes popped open as I asked, “What sort of a price? It's nothing dangerous, is it?”

Worry gathered in my belly. Had I just done something extremely stupid?

The demon shrugged. “Won't know until you use it.”

“I'm an elemental being,” Cyrene said with a shake of her head as she reached back out to find the threads she wanted. “There's nothing dark power can do to me.”

“Famous last words, eh?” Jim said five minutes later as it released Magoth's feet. I heaved the upper part of him onto my bed in Aisling's yellow bedroom, and let him drop with an audible grunt.

“And I thought Fiat was heavy,” I grumbled, rubbing my back as I straightened up. Fiat was sprawled, still unconscious, on the armchair next to the bed. I made sure both men were still out before I turned to look at my twin, flinching just a little as the light hit her full on.

Cyrene stared in horror at her reflection in the small mirror next to the door. One hand rose slowly to touch her hair. “It's . . . white. I'm . . .”

“Black,” Jim said, giving her a visual once-over.

She turned to look at me, her expression frozen. “My eyes . . .”

“Orange,” I said, trying to absorb the new look to my twin. “I think you've done a flip colorwise, Cy. All the colors are reversed. Your skin is now very dark brown, your hair is white, and your once-blue eyes are orange. It's an interesting look.”

“That's one way of putting it,” Jim said, its head tipped as it considered her. “It's like you're a negative image of yourself. Fun.”

She blinked at me with those eerie eyes and then opened the door, her face still frozen in shock. “I need water. Lots of water. I'll be in Drake's pool.”

“I just hope Aisling isn't down there giving birth,” I said as she tottered off.

Jim cocked its head. “No screaming. Besides, she was going to do that in the big tub before she changed her mind and decided on some sort of big chair with a hole in the seat.”

“Birthing chairs are very common, I believe. I suppose I'd better go tell Drake he has a guest.”

“Yeah, I'd better check on Ash and let her know we're back. She worries about that sort of thing, and that's probably not too good for her right now.”

I ruffled the demon's head as I followed it into the hall. “Just when I get thinking you're nothing but a pain in the butt, you go and show you're just a big softy.”

“Love ya, too, babe,” it said, rubbing its head on me as we headed down the hallway.

Chapter Thirteen

I knew the second Gabriel entered Drake's house. The air thickened, and seemed to vibrate with energy. I froze, the words I had been speaking drying up on my lips.

“May? Are you all right?” Aisling asked. She was tucked into bed, with Drake lounging beside her, both of them with attentive expressions on their faces as I told them about our adventures with Fiat and Baltic.

I leaped to my feet, every nerve in my body suddenly tingling as I raced out of the room and down the stairs. Behind me, I could hear Aisling asking Drake what was going on.

“Her mate is here.” His voice drifted out after me, but I paid little mind to my bad manners, intent on only one thing.

Gabriel met me halfway up the stairs, a frantic, desperate look in his beautiful eyes. I flung myself off the top of the stairs onto him, knocking him backwards into the wall, my arms and legs wrapping around him as I kissed every inch of him my mouth could reach.

“Mate,” he growled, his normally lovely voice rough with need, dragon fire running high within him. His mouth burned mine, literally burned it, when I dug my fingers into the familiar soft dreadlocks and sucked his tongue as it did an enticing little dance in my mouth.

“Good evening, May,” a male voice said gently.

It was an effort, but I managed to stop kissing Gabriel's face long enough to greet his second bodyguard. “Evening, Tipene. Maata's in the attic. Nice to have you back.”

He bowed, struggling to keep his face straight as I returned to kissing Gabriel, the scent and feel of him filling my mind to the exclusion of everything else.

“Fiat's here,” I said in between kisses, squirming against his body when his hands stroked down over my behind. “Aisling hasn't had her baby. Cy has Magoth's demon lord powers. I need you.
Right now!
”

“I need you, too, mate,” he growled, his eyes scorching me as I gave myself up to another one of his breath-defying kisses, the dragon shard humming to itself as it made suggestions, trying to force me to shift.

I groaned when Gabriel bit my ear, his ragged breath the sweetest music I'd ever heard. His body was tense and hard, and I knew he was just as aroused as I was. Dragons, I remembered, had an overwhelming need to claim their mates when they had been separated, a policy I wholeheartedly embraced. I tried to peel myself off Gabriel so we could at least go to my room, but his scent, that woodsy, earthy, primal scent that made my soul sing, set me alight. I reared back, my legs still wrapped around his waist, and ripped the black raw-silk shirt right off his body.

“I missed you so much,” I almost sobbed, kissing a hot line across his chest. He moaned, his fingers digging into my behind as I took one adorably pert little nipple in my mouth, and breathed fire on it.

The dragon shard demanded I give in to it, to do things to him that would be impossible in human form, but I was determined to be in control.

“Mate, you must stop or I'll take you right here on the stairs,” Gabriel managed to say, his voice almost hoarse with desire. His body was urgent against mine, a thousand little touches speaking wordlessly of his emotions, of his needs.

I unlocked my legs and slid down his body, panting with the effort, allowing my eyes to feast on him. He was so beautiful, so uniquely wonderful, it made me want to weep with joy. He was mine, all of him, every last little bit of him, everything from those glittering argent eyes to mobile lips that were the sweetest on earth, right on down his body, every single part of him made to satisfy me.

“I must have you now,” he said roughly, picking me up and leaping up the stairs. “I can't wait, little bird. You were taken from me—I can't wait. Which room are we in?”

“Third floor,” I started to say, then remembered that although Drake had removed Fiat to a secured room downstairs, he had left Magoth lying across my bed. “Dammit! Magoth is there.”

Gabriel paused at the head of the stairs, turning first one way, then another. “There must be a room we can use. Sitting room?”

“Too public. Jim tends to wander at night.”

“Drake's study.”

“Drake is often up at all hours fetching something for Aisling.”

His fingers tightened on me. “Kitchen.”

“István and his girlfriend sleep right off the kitchen. They'd hear anything we did there—”

He growled, actually growled. “There has to be somewhere!”

“There's the pool, but I think Cyrene is going to be there for a very long time.”

“Gah!”

I slid out of his arms, the emotions and images pouring out from the dragon shard finally too much for me. I took a step back from him, my fingers curling into fists, the sharp claws biting into my palms as I looked away for a moment, trying to gather the strength I would need.

“I will ask Aisling,” Gabriel started to say, but as he walked past me, I slid a hand down his back. He froze, half-turning toward me, his eyes so bright they warmed my soul.

I leaned toward him as if I was going to kiss him, pursing my lips to blow a breath on his mouth, instead.

His eyes widened as he realized what I was doing. “Mate?”

I turned my back on him, walking to the stairs, the dragon shard cheering within me.

“Mate,” he said again, his voice an octave lower, the word so full of sexual intent I almost climaxed right there.

Halfway down the stairs I threw a look over my shoulder. He was still standing in the same spot as if rooted there, his body taut, his eyes aglow, a small ring of fire around his feet. I smiled.

He sucked in his breath.

“I love you,” I told him just before I spun around and leaped down the last of the stairs.

A challenging roar echoed through the house as I raced down the darkened hallway, driven by the urges of the dragon shard, but for a change fully in control of it. It wanted me to play with Gabriel, to treat him as if I were a dragon, to initiate love play, and so I would—but on
my
terms. Dragon play, I had learned over the last few months, involved chases. Females fled; males pursued. It was all very chauvinistic, my modern mind thought as I dashed through the hall into a pitch-black kitchen, searching frantically for an exit—but it was the way of the dragons, and Gabriel loved it. He loved hunting me, and I loved being found. Usually the dragon shard overwhelmed me, forcing me into dragon form for the chase, but this time, I had it firmly in control.

“You cannot hide from me, little bird,” I heard Gabriel call. He was close, too close. I caught a brief hint of his scent, and raced through the door that led to the outside of the house, pausing for a moment to consider the layout of the area.

“You wish to toy with me? To drive me insane with desire for you? You do not have that far to go, Mayling, which you will realize once I find you.” His voice was rich with both promise and passion. I shivered in response.

I had to find a spot for us, somewhere with privacy, somewhere we both could give vent to the emotions running so hotly through us.

“Park,” I said softly to myself, remembering that there was a large park just a few blocks away, one with a small lake, a boathouse, and several beautiful garden areas. Most important, it would be closed at night, providing a silver-eyed dragon and his mate room to play.

I leaped over the trash cans and ran around the side of the house toward the street, where late-night traffic droned softly in the background, Gabriel's voice calling out over it. “Do you think to lose me in traffic, mate? Do you think you will get away from me?”

I smiled to myself as I ran as fast as I could, dodging the pedestrians and cars, ignoring both the odd looks and occasional blasts of horns as I dashed across the streets, heading for the bulky black outlines of trees that I could glimpse between buildings.

“You have never been able to get away from me before. I have always found you, and I will do so this time, as well.”

As if I wanted to get away from him. Happiness sang in my ears, mingled with a healthy dose of my libido as I raced toward my goal.

“There will be retribution for this act, you know. Grave retribution.” Laughter was in his voice now, laughter and a tension that bespoke his enjoyment of the play. I just hoped I'd be able to last long enough to see the chase through to the end, rather than flinging myself upon him as I wanted.

I found one of the gates to the park at last. The locked gate gave me no trouble, not just because I didn't stop to unlock it. I simply swarmed up the wrought iron fence, leaping off the top to land on my feet on the other side, taking a moment to get my bearings before I set off toward what I remembered was a traditional English garden located in the southeast corner.

“Wise little bird. A park. Very fitting. There will be no witnesses to see what it is I will do when I catch you.”

A little ripple of pleasure went up my back at the velvet edge of his voice. Behind me, I heard the sound of metal on metal, just as if someone else was climbing the gate. I smiled again, and dashed past the boathouse, suddenly spinning 180 degrees to run alongside the boathouse, wading into the water as quietly as I could. It was cold against my now-fevered flesh, and momentarily took my breath away. I held it for a moment, not wanting Gabriel, with his heightened hearing, catching the sound of me gasping, but after what seemed like an interminable amount of time, I grew accustomed to the cold. I swam out under the dock connected to the boathouse, clutching a pillar as I peered around it to see what Gabriel would do.

I had to wait only a few seconds to see. The moon was not full, but gave enough light for me to see the silhouette of a man as he raced past the boathouse. I held my breath again, not wanting him to hear even the slightest hint of sound.

He paused, obviously scenting the air for me. “Where are you, little bird?” he asked, slowly turning around toward the direction he came. “You are near, I know. I can feel my fire in you. The breeze whispers your name, so you must have just passed by here. Show yourself to me, and I will take mercy upon you.”

I grinned. I knew his idea of mercy would involve endless rapture for me, but I also knew just how much he enjoyed anticipating that time. Silently, I dived under the water and swam close to the shore. He had moved a few yards away, taking hesitant steps away from me, but he obviously realized it was the wrong direction.