Playing with Fire (25 page)

‘‘I believe I will start a clothing-optional hotel on the southern coast,’’ he said with studied nonchalance. ‘‘I find the human form so much more pleasing when it is not hidden away behind garments.’’

I slapped his hand away from where it had crept toward the knot of the blanket. ‘‘That depends on the body in question. I prefer to remain clothed, thank you.’’

‘‘Sweet May. Sweet, adorable May. Does my form please you? I have thought of changing it, but there is no other which can match the original, don’t you think?’’ He waved a languid hand to indicate his body.

He clearly hoped to shock or frighten me. In an effort to deny him any satisfaction on either account, I forced myself to glance over him with what I prayed indicated indifference. ‘‘It’s very nice, as you well know, given the number of women you’ve seduced, enthralled, and damned to eternal torment.’’

‘‘ ‘Torment’ is such a harsh word for it. I prefer ‘enlightenment.’ ’’

My curiosity, always bothersome, got the better of me. ‘‘You said this was your original form . . . did you have to beat the women off you with a stick when you were mortal?’’

His lips quirked. ‘‘From the time I first grew hair between my legs, women have chased me. Few have resisted me when I have set about to charm them. You are one of my failures, but even you are not, I think, immune to me?’’ He gestured toward his bare chest with a wicked glint to his eyes. ‘‘Perhaps you find my body not to your taste? My chest is too broad for you?’’

‘‘It’s fine, although a little hirsute for my tastes,’’ I answered, clearing my throat. He wasn’t turning the full power of his charm on me, but just being this close to him—naked—was reminding me that even a mate to a dragon could be susceptible to his power. The key was to keep him from feeling he had to prove a point. ‘‘I know other women like a furry chest, though.’’

‘‘And my belly. No—abs. That is the current trend, is it not? My abs are rock hard, are they not?’’

‘‘Six-pack,’’ I agreed, nodding at the body part in question.

‘‘I can do things with my cock that would make you faint with pleasure,’’ he said with half-closed eyelids. ‘‘What do you think of it?’’

I bit my lip and gazed upon his privates. His penis was enlarged, bobbing gently in the breeze. ‘‘It looks pretty much like any other male genitalia, although I doubt if many men would tolerate having their penises tattooed.’’

‘‘That was not my choice,’’ he said with a shrug. ‘‘It was the first curse bound to me by a very jealous diviner years before I rose to power. If you trace out the words of the curse, they will glow,’’ he added with a leer.

‘‘I think I’ll pass on the opportunity to see a glowing penis curse. Is that it, or would you like me to admire your legs, as well?’’

He sighed in a highly dramatic fashion. ‘‘I do my best to please you, and still you spurn me. Tell me, did you enjoy the bestial act with your dragon?’’

‘‘Very much so,’’ I said, refusing to rise to the bait. ‘‘But you didn’t summon me here to discuss my love life, did you?’’

He wrapped his fingers around my neck and started pulling me down to his bare chest. ‘‘You wound me with such harsh words. Let us kiss and make up, and then I will discuss just why I have summoned you before me.’’

‘‘Do you really want to invoke Gabriel’s displeasure over something so trivial as a kiss?’’ I asked slowly, hoping he would stop and think before he did something rash.

He paused, his eyes thoughtful. I used the opportunity to slip out of his grip, edging away slightly.

‘‘This dragon of yours . . . he is jealous of you?’’

‘‘He is a dragon. They are extremely possessive.’’

‘‘Interesting.’’ He leaned back again, his thoughts masked as he watched me for a few seconds. ‘‘I wonder how far he would go to reclaim his mate?’’

I shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the thought of Gabriel going up against someone as powerful as Magoth.

‘‘Tell me of this second rumor, sweet May,’’ he continued. ‘‘Did a thief taker finally catch up with you?’’

‘‘Yes. I was arrested, tried, and sentenced to imprisonment in the Akasha.’’

‘‘And yet you are here, in the glorious flesh,’’ he said, his gaze dropping to my breasts.

‘‘Gabriel helped me escape.’’

‘‘Again the dragon,’’ he mused, a little smile playing around his lips. His eyes were as cold as ever, though, coolly calculating. ‘‘I did hear that the thief taker caught you robbing the lair of another dragon. Tell me, minion, what did you take from him?’’

Chapter Seventeen

‘‘I haven’t taken anything from Gabriel,’’ I said, purposely misinterpreting his statement in order to give me time to think. Why was he interested in the dragons? I ran my mind over the items I’d seen in Kostya’s lair again. Could the golden dragon amulet be valuable after all? It certainly wasn’t anything else in the unlocked chest, which meant it had to be the amulet or something in the locked ones that piqued Magoth’s interest.

A horrible thought came to me—what if Porter was working for Magoth? Was this some sort of a test? Was I about to be replaced? I dismissed the notion almost immediately; if Porter was in Magoth’s employ, he would certainly know exactly what I was. His threat of the dreadlord killing me if I mentioned the amulet just didn’t fit.

None of which explained why Magoth was so interested in the contents of Kostya’s lair.

‘‘You play games with me, and yet, they are not the games we can both enjoy,’’ he said in a light tone, but the undercurrent of menace was enough to turn my blood cold. ‘‘Answer the question,
servant.
’’

The word stunned with the force of a lash. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, but I could not refuse to answer a direct question. I could, however, censor out any information not specifically questioned. ‘‘I didn’t have much time to spend in the dragon’s lair. I took only one thing away, a gold amulet in the shape of a dragon.’’

‘‘An amulet?’’ He frowned, sitting up. I was pleased to notice that his erection had ceased being quite so rampant. ‘‘What sort of an amulet? Describe it to me.’’

‘‘It was nothing special,’’ I said, relieved that he hadn’t asked me either what I’d gone there to find, or who had sent me to take the amulet. It was far, far better that he think Gabriel had sent me to rob another dragon than to hear of the phylactery. ‘‘It was about so big, made of gold, but not made very well, as if it was a child’s toy.’’

He froze. ‘‘Describe it.’’

‘‘I just did.’’ Why was he so interested in the amulet? I shook my head at his odd reaction. ‘‘It’s just an amulet. Gold, shaped roughly like a dragon, very primitive and quite honestly, not attractive in the least sense. It was in the
unlocked
chest, so it can’t be worth much to anyone.’’

‘‘The Lindorm Phylactery,’’ he murmured, his gaze filled with disbelief and confusion.

My jaw just about hit the floor at his words. ‘‘The . . . the
what
?’’

‘‘Could it be?’’ His eyes narrowed as he thought about it. ‘‘I had not heard of it surfacing. It was in an unlocked chest, you say? That does not seem right, not right at all.’’

‘‘The phylactery? Are you saying that ugly little lump of gold was the
phylactery
?’’ I shook my head. ‘‘It can’t be. It’s not at all like the Gulden Phylactery you made me take from that oracle in South Africa. That was a lovely crystal vial. The thing I’m talking about is an amulet, a primitive-looking amulet of a dragon.’’

I hurriedly scooted out of the way as Magoth rose from the chaise, mindlessly pacing back and forth as he thought out loud. ‘‘What would a dragon be doing allowing the most valuable artifact of his kind to sit in an unlocked chest? It does not make sense, and yet the description matches.’’

‘‘It doesn’t make any sense at all. I might not have a great knowledge of dragons and their society, but from what Gabriel told me—’’ I stopped in horror of what I’d said, one hand going to my mouth.

Magoth spun around, his gaze so intense it slammed me backward a good six feet to the wall. My ears rang with the blow, giving me a moment of disorientation.

‘‘The wyvern spoke to you of it?’’ The temperature of the room dropped ten degrees as Magoth took a deep breath. I’m not a cowardly person in general, but at the look of unabated fury on his face, I crumpled into a ball on the floor, covering my head with my hands. And not a moment too soon.

‘‘You were sent to take it!’’ Magoth roared with a fury I’d never heard, loud enough to shatter every bit of glass in the room. Glass shards from the windows, pictures that hung on the wall, light fixtures, and assorted other sources rained down to the floor, several pieces piercing my skin.

I stayed curled in a protective ball until the worst of it was over, then carefully lifted my head and eyed Magoth.

His eyes were lit with a glow that left me terrified. ‘‘Where is the Lindorm Phylactery, May?’’

‘‘I don’t have it,’’ I said quickly, my gaze darting around the room for a possible escape.

Magoth eliminated that idea by simply grabbing my neck in one hand and lifting me a good two feet off the floor. ‘‘Where is the Lindorm Phylactery,
servant
?’’

‘‘I don’t know.’’

He shook me as effortlessly as if I were a dish towel. I clutched at his hand, trying to ease its grip enough to allow air into my lungs. ‘‘Where?’’

‘‘The L’au-delà has it!’’ I cried as wavering black blotches appeared before my eyes. ‘‘They took it from me. It’s in their vault.’’

He opened his hand, allowing me to plummet to the floor. I lay stunned for a few seconds, rubbing my neck as I dragged in huge, gasping breaths. Before I could do anything else, he jerked me onto my feet, his eyes boring twin holes into me as he spoke.

‘‘You will find the phylactery and bring it to me.’’

My voice came out as a croak. ‘‘You can’t possibly want it. It’s a dragon artifact—’’

‘‘You will find the phylactery and bring it to me,’’ he repeated, but this time, the power he put into the words stung my skin like a million little snakes.

‘‘Why?’’ I cried, ignoring the pain.

He released me, strolling back to the chaise, where he took up a reclining position. He didn’t answer for a few minutes, but finally he turned his head to me and gave me his usual sardonic smile. ‘‘I want it.’’

‘‘It has no power you can use,’’ I said, still massaging my neck. ‘‘It can have no value to you.’’

‘‘It does not have power over mere mortals, true . . . but it is the basis of all power to dragonkin.’’

I shook my head, retucking the blanket that was wrapped around me. ‘‘If that’s so, the item I saw wasn’t it. I would have been able to feel something with that much power in it, and I’m telling you that this lump of vaguely dragon-shaped gold did not have any sort of emanations other than age.’’

‘‘You are not a dragon.’’ His eyelids dropped halfway, shielding his gaze. ‘‘It has no power for you to feel because it is not connected to you as it is to them.’’

‘‘All right. Let’s say for the sake of brevity that the gold blob was the phylactery—not that it looks anything remotely like a vessel—’’

‘‘It is a vessel,’’ he interrupted. ‘‘It is part of the dragon heart, that which holds the essence of the first dragon. Your wyvern didn’t tell you that when he ordered you to steal it for him?’’ He shook his head in mock sorrow. ‘‘Regardless of what you think, it is of value to me.’’

My head was still reeling from the last few minutes, leaving me feeling particularly stupid. Now it made sense why Porter had wanted me to steal the amulet, but it didn’t explain why Kostya would keep something so precious in an unlocked chest. Nor did it explain why Magoth wanted a dragon relic when it held no power over mortals—over whom he was always trying to gain control—or over any other beings in the Otherworld. Other than the dragons, of course . . . The light dawned at last. ‘‘You’re going to use it against the dragons,’’ I said, horror mixing with bile in my gut.

The long, slow smile he gave me would have stripped a few decades off the lifetime of a mortal.

‘‘You can’t control them,’’ I said quickly, fear bitter on my tongue. ‘‘They’re dragons, Magoth. They do not bow to Abaddon. They never have.’’

‘‘Never before has a demon lord held the Lindorm Phylactery,’’ he said in a soft, sinister voice that left me sicker than ever. ‘‘With it, and with the other pieces of the dragon heart, the weyr will come to heel . . . and I will have the chance to establish a presence in the mortal world.’’

My legs gave out. I fell to my knees, sick to the very depths of my soul with what he was saying.

‘‘Bring me the phylactery, sweet May.’’

I shook my head, knowing full well he might strike out for such insubordination.

‘‘Bring me the phylactery, and you will be rewarded.’’

‘‘There is nothing, nothing you can give me that would make me betray the dragons in that manner.’’

His fingers tilted my head up, forcing me to look into his obsidian eyes. What I saw there scared me to the depths of my being. ‘‘Not even your freedom?’’

I looked at him, unable to speak.

His mouth curved in a wicked, knowing smile. ‘‘If you bring me the phylactery, I will grant you a temporary rescindment of your bondage for . . . shall we say a century?’’

A century. A hundred years of freedom from Magoth and his demands. A hundred years of happiness with Gabriel, untainted by the stain of Abaddon that clung to me. A lifetime of servitude for the dragons.

I couldn’t do it. There was nothing he could offer me that would induce me to betray Gabriel and his sept, of all the septs, in that way. ‘‘No,’’ I said softly, bracing myself for a blow.

Pain lashed through me with sharp precision. I doubled over, clutching myself against it. ‘‘Sweet May. Lovely May. It would be such a shame to lose a servant as devoted as you.’’

He lifted me up, his eyes blazing as he pulled me against his body, but for once, there was no erotic intent in his expression. ‘‘Do not fail me, May, lest I be forced to recall you to Abaddon, where you will remain until the end of your days.’’