Me and My Shadow (7 page)

“I did not know you were here,” she continued, her voice a blatant invitation.

I don't remember moving, but somehow, I found myself standing in front of Gabriel, my hands clenched as I thought for a few seconds of how nice she would look unconscious on the entryway floor. “Hello. I'm May.”

“This is my mate, Catalina,” Gabriel said, laughter obvious in his voice as he snaked his hand around my waist, gently pulling me over to his side. “Mayling, you have heard me mention Drake's mother, yes? This is doña Catalina de Elférez.”

“Mate.” She said the word as if it were rancid, her dark eyes scrutinizing me for a moment.

I am no stranger to piercing looks, or the importance of presenting a placid expression even when my brain is screaming to run away, so it was not much of an effort to smile at her. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

Her expression changed from hostility to wariness. “You have a mate. Is she . . . ?” She hesitated for a moment, then gestured vaguely toward me. “Is she mentally damaged?”

I gaped at her in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”

She leaned close toward Gabriel, her gaze resting on me with obvious curiosity, as if I was some sort of a bizarre sight she'd never come across. “Resurrection, if not done properly, can often lead to damage of the brain.”

“Resurrection?” I gaped a little more before turning to look at Gabriel.

His dimples were fighting to show, but he merely tightened his arm around me, and reassured Catalina that I was not the equivalent of a mental squash. “I did not resurrect her in order to bypass the curse.”

“No, no, I would never suggest that you did such a thing, since we both know that resurrection without sanction is very much disallowed in the weyr.” Her gaze was still wary on me as I mustered up once again the same smile that had soothed many of Magoth's temper tantrums. “But, my darling Gabriel, you must take some steps to cover up this horrible tragedy. Just look at her. Look at that grimace. That is not a grimace of a sane person.”

“It's a smile,” I said through my teeth, holding on to the blasted thing for all I was worth. “I'm smiling, not grimacing.”

“Yes, of course you are smiling,” she said loudly, patting my arm as she gave Gabriel a sympathetic look. “You are very good to stand by her despite the failure of your experiment. I will, naturally, not breathe a word to anyone what I have noticed about her. Your secret is very safe with me.”

“I have not been resurrected!” I said rather louder than was probably necessary.

She waved a hand toward a mountain of black leather luggage that a driver was still bringing in. “I have some pretty toys I brought for my grandchild, but your poor, sweet mate shall have her pick of them. They will no doubt amuse her, and keep her happy for many days. Now, my darling Gabriel, you must promise me you will do everything in your power to rescue my innocent grandchild from that she-devil's clutches. Do you know that my Drake refused to allow me to be here when the child was being born? It was
her
doing, naturally, but I am nothing if not an excellent mother, and I did as he bade me, no matter how cruel it was.”

She snaked her hand through Gabriel's other arm and tugged him away from me, toward the room we'd just left.

I looked at René. He grinned at me.

“The baby is not yet born,” Gabriel said, casting me a look over his shoulder, part embarrassment, part reluctance, as she dragged him toward the sitting room.

“No? Well, there is time for us to save the poor little one before it is tainted by that demon lord my darling Drake insists on calling mate. Come, now, tell me all that has happened since I have last seen you, although naturally we will not discuss the tragic result of your attempt to find a mate.” She paused and glanced toward us, then inclined her head to him. “Will your mate be all right if she is left alone? She does not have suicidal tendencies? I knew a resurrected mage who seemed perfectly normal, but any sound of a bell would set him to rending his clothing and pulling out his hair. It was very tragic. Your mate will be fine left alone? Yes? Excellent. You must tell me everything while my rooms are being made ready.”

The door shut behind them, leaving René, István, and myself alone in the hallway, Catalina's taxi driver having deposited the last few cases before he hurried out.

“Drake's mother,” I said to them.

István made a face. “She was not supposed to come. Drake told her not to come. Aisling will not be happy.”

René gave another of those loose shrugs and said, “There is no use in trying to tell Catalina anything. She does as she pleases.”

“I don't look deranged, do I?” I asked, touching my face and wishing for the millionth time I could see my reflection.

“You look worried, but not deranged,” René told me kindly.

“Thank you,” I said, not much buoyed, but willing to take what I could get. I cast a glance toward the closed door to the sitting room. “I think I'll go fetch Jim from Aisling. I'm sure Drake has calmed her down by now, and Jim is probably making a pest of itself.”

The demon wasn't, in fact, in the way, but only because it had evidently been kicked out of Aisling's bedroom. I found it lying on the floor on its back.

“You can talk now,” I told it, averting my sight from its nether regions.

“Geez, hanging around Magoth really taught you how to torment demons, didn't it? I thought you'd never come up here to get me!” Jim rolled over and got to its feet, shaking itself in a way that left a corona of black hair on the floor around it. “Gotta be dinnertime. Let's go eat.”

“Is everything OK in there?” I asked, nodding toward the door.

“Yeah, yeah, Drake started in with Ash about how he can't survive the ages without her, and all that crap, and she fell for it just like she always does.” The demon shook its head disgustedly as it marched past me toward the stairs. “Women. Can't live with 'em, can't live with 'em.”

“I'm sure I can see to it that you don't live at all,” I said sweetly, which merited an annoyed look from Jim as it went down the stairs. “By the way, Drake's mother has arrived.”

Jim did an about-face. “Fires of Abaddon! You almost let me get within blasting range! And me just getting my coat to maximum fabulousness. Sheesh, May. I expected better of you.”

“Where do you think you're going?” I asked as it headed back toward Aisling's room.

“Gonna go warn Ash. She's going to hit the roof, and I want to be there to see the fireworks.”

“Effrijim—” I started to say.

“Oh, man!” it whined, slumping to a halt. “Not you, too?”

“By the powers vested in me by your true overlord, I hereby charge, demand, and otherwise order you to leave Aisling alone unless she expressly desires your company, or if her life is in danger.”

Jim hesitated at the door.

“A visit from her mother-in-law does not constitute a threat to her life,” I warned, knowing exactly what it was thinking.

It raised an eyebrow. “You don't know Catalina very well, do you?”

“Come on,” I said, gesturing toward the stairs. “Let's go wait for Kostya to arrive. I'm sure, given his temper, there will be fireworks aplenty when he sees Gabriel and me.”

“There'd better be! That's all I'm sayin'!”

In that belief, I was wrong, and evidently I had my twin to thank.

“Mayling!” Cyrene squealed when Jim and I arrived in the hall after spending an hour paddling around Drake's basement pool. Since the silver dragons weren't overly fond of water, it not being their element, they tended to view things such as showers as merely unpleasant experiences to be endured as quickly as possible. Although Gabriel's house in Manukua had a pool, it was more or less for visitors, which made it difficult to find time for a pleasure swim. As Jim and I padded up the stairs from the pool, Cyrene spotted us and rushed across the hall, where Kostya was being greeted by his mother, with Gabriel and Drake in a wing formation behind her.

“You've been swimming?” Cyrene's pupils dilated slightly, as was common whenever water was mentioned in her presence. As a water elemental, she had an affinity for freshwater sources such as springs and lakes, but she loved any form of water, and was known to take hour-long baths. “Drake has a pool?”

“Yes, but it's not polite to arrive at someone's house and demand to go swimming,” I said, grabbing her as she started past me toward the stairs to the basement. “You should at least say hello to Aisling.”

“Drake said she's resting and will be down later,” Cyrene said, pouting just a bit before turning a smile on me. “You look happy. Has Magoth stopped hitting on you?”

“Oh, like that could happen,” Jim said, snuffling Cyrene's hand until she fondled its ears and scratched its neck. “The day he stops hitting on babes is the day I give up being a demon and go back to spriting. Oh yeah, baby, right there.
Urng.
”

Jim's eyes rolled up a bit as Cyrene's long fingernails found a particularly itchy spot.

“Have you ever known Magoth to
not
have sex on his mind?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” Cyrene surprised me, nodding. “But only when he's torturing someone. And even then . . . well, we won't go into that. At least he hasn't been granted his powers.”

“No,” I said slowly. “And that actually worries me. I would have thought that as soon as Bael tossed him out of Abaddon, he would have given Magoth back his powers in order to unleash him on the mortal world. But he hasn't done anything, yet. Magoth has petitioned him to be reinstated, but Bael hasn't even responded to that except to say it's under consideration.”

“Well, you have bigger things to worry about than that,” Cyrene said with blithe indifference to the idea of a demon lord being free to run amok among the mortals. “Kostya needs our help.”

My gaze moved from her to the man in question. Although Kostya was Drake's older brother, a weird quirk of genetics had left the two men wyverns of different septs . . . or it would have, if Kostya was recognized by the weyr as such. “What does he need help with now? I thought he had the requisite number of black dragons to formally apply for recognition? Isn't that what the meeting is all about?”

“It is, but not everyone supports sweet, adorable Kostya.” Her eyes narrowed into little sapphire slits as she looked at Gabriel.

“Sweet, adorable Kostya has tried to kill Gabriel more than once and, until the last month, has been hell-bent on destroying the silver dragons by forcing them to join his sept, so you'll have to forgive us if we're a bit jaded,” I pointed out.

Cyrene waved away the survival of the silver dragons as trivial. “Oh, that's all in the past. He's been the model of dragonhood since you came back from Abaddon.”

“That, I'm afraid, has less to do with the fact that he's seen reason, and more because he realized he is going to need friends should Baltic take it into his head to reclaim his sept.”

“That is
not
Baltic,” Kostya said loudly, interrupting his mother. I had forgotten for a moment how good dragons' hearing was.

“Hello, Kostya,” I said politely, summoning up a brief smile.

To my surprise, he bowed. The dragons, I'd found, habitually used what I thought of as old-world manners, including being able to make bows that, on them, escaped looking silly and just looked elegant and courtly. Even Gabriel, whose manners were more open and casual than the other wyverns', could summon up a really world-class bow when he felt the need. I wondered for a moment if it was something genetic in dragons. “I beg your pardon. I am remiss in greeting you in my haste to speak with my mother. You look well, May.”

I wanted to goggle at his change in attitude.

“Thank you,” I said, a little stunned. By this point, I expected Kostya to be screaming for vengeance, or ranting about the past as he was wont to do.

“I trust the shard is not giving you any grief?” he inquired politely.

My eyes widened as I glanced toward Gabriel. He grinned at me and winked.

“Er . . . not unduly so, no. Thank you for asking.” I was prompted by the knowledge that formalities must be preserved even in informal situations to add, “You are well?”

“I am,” he said, inclining his head. “Cyrene and I took a little trip to my homeland. It is most pleasant at this time of year.”

“I'm sorry,” I said, finding the whole conversation too bizarre to let pass without comment. “Are you chitchat-ting with me?”

“Yes, he is. Isn't he doing it wonderfully?” Cyrene asked, blowing him a kiss.

Gabriel laughed and moved over to stand next to me, his arm loosely around my waist. “It is quite amazing, is it not?”

Kostya smiled at Cyrene, and for a second, I was aware on a primal level of the charm that had attracted her to him. But although my acquaintance with Kostya had not been of a lengthy nature, it had been violent enough to leave me wary of such a benign appearance, even despite the dragon shard's interest.

“Incredibly so,” I said, knowing my twin would completely miss the sarcasm in my voice.

Jim didn't. The demon choked. I eyed it, about to forbid it to speak if it looked like it was going to say anything inappropriate. Catalina leaned toward her el dest son, whispering furiously as she gestured an elegant hand toward me. He looked at her for a minute before turning an astonished gaze on me.

“I am not mentally deficient,” I announced, just in case he believed his mother.

Jim snorted again and opened its mouth to speak.