Dragon Soul(16)

All three men watched with interest as I dug through her bag, finally  pulling out a silver lighter, the old-fashioned kind that people in  black-and-white movies used. With the lamp tucked under one arm, I  screwed up a room service menu and lit one end on fire.

"Fire," I told Rowan, nodding toward the two hoodlums. "Now I'll make it rain on them."

"I look forward to seeing that," he said politely.         

     



 

I eyed him for a few seconds wondering if he was being sarcastic, but he  just looked tired, so I figured he was being supportive in a  non-obvious way. I turned to face the two men, held out the burning  menu, and tried to force the fire onto them.

It just burned down the paper.

"Well, crapballs." I gnawed my lower lip as I watched the fire, strangely captivated by it.

"Allow us to show you our rain of fire," Mr. Kim said.

"Maybe I'm doing something wrong with it …  wait, what? Your rain of fire?"

Mr. Kim smiled, and out of nowhere, little balls of fire began to fall  from the ceiling onto me. I shrieked and dropped my lamp to slap the  fireballs when they hit me, feeling both relieved when they didn't burn  me and confused as hell.

"You're a dragon, too?" I asked Mr. Kim, picking up my lamp with the fire stopped falling.

"We are demons, servants of Lord Bael, the premier prince of Abaddon. We  have dragon blood in our veins, but we are demons first and foremost,  and now you will give to us the ring that the thief stole from our  master, or we will kill you right here and now." As if to prove he meant  it, both men pulled long, wickedly sharp daggers from sheaths strapped  to their thighs.

I looked over at Rowan. "Are they telling the truth?"

"Unfortunately, yes," he said, strolling over to stand next to me.

"They're demons."

"Demon-dragon hybrids, to be exact."

Quickly, I ran through my options. I didn't like the way that Mr. Kim  was lovingly caressing the blade of that dagger, and I had little hope  that there were such things as good demons around. Which meant I had to  do something to save Rowan and me.

"We tire of your games," Mr. Kim, said, gesturing to his friend. "Elton,  slit the mortal's throat. I'll take great pleasure in separating this  mate from her head, and then we will search the room for the ring."

"I don't like them," I told Rowan. "I don't think they play nicely with others."

One corner of his mouth quirked up, and I had the worst desire to kiss  it. That shocked me out of my sense of befuddlement, which is why no  one, least of all Mr. Kim and Elton, were expecting me to rush forward,  lamp held forward with one hand, and my burning menu in the other. To my  surprise, just as I thrust the menu forward, a ball of fire shot from  it and hit the two men, sending them staggering backward to the window.

"Scarlet dragons to the rescue!" I yelled, and whacked Mr. Kim over the  head with the base of the lamp. It shattered into a bazillion pieces of  ceramic, but I didn't wait to see how he handled that: I whipped around,  and with a kick that I had no idea I could do, planted my foot squarely  on Elton the demon's chest, and sent him tumbling through the window.

Mr. Kim roared in fury and lunged at me with his dagger in hand, blood  pouring out of a jagged cut on his forehead, but before I could try to  coax another fireball from my almost-burned menu, Rowan was there in  front of me, knocking the knife out of Mr. Kim's hand and kicking his  knee, causing him to crumple. Rowan grabbed Mr. Kim by his shirt collar  and, twisting it viciously, dragged him over to the window. "I've had  about all I'm going to take from you. The next time you bother us will  be your last."

Mr. Kim tried to spit out an oath, but Rowan's stranglehold was  effective enough to keep him from doing anything but making garbled  noises. Rowan heaved the upper half of the man out of the window, and  added, "Tell your master the ring is lost," before shoving the man's  legs out with the rest of them.

"Tell me that we didn't just murder two people," I panted, dropping the  menu when the flame finally hit my hand. I stamped it out and sidled  toward the window, both shocked that I could kill a person so easily and  thrilled that I was as badass as I had hoped.

"Demons are immortal," he replied, and stuck his head out of the window.  I edged up behind him, not wanting to see the result of a fall from a  third-story window, but reminding myself that the men had planned on  killing us. To my surprise, there were no bodies on the sidewalk, only  black smudges.

"They're gone? Did they walk away?" I asked, prepared to be amazed.

"No. You can destroy a demon's form, but it will simply return to Abaddon to get a new one."

"Abaddon?"

He closed the window and surveyed the room. "It's what mortals think of  as hell. It's where the demon lords and their minions reside. Do you  know where the ring is?"

"What ring? You keep talking about one, but I have no clue what you're going on about."         

     



 

"Mrs. P has a ring. It is very valuable."

"I don't doubt that she does, since she obviously has a ton of money." I  zipped closed the suitcase and got to my feet. There were shards of a  broken drinking glass on the desk that I swept into the tiny waste bin  before gesturing toward the door and following him out to the main room.  I frowned as a thought struck me. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm on my way to Cairo, just like you."

"No, what are you doing here. In this room."

His gaze dropped to my mouth.

Instantly, I wanted to kiss him again. And more …

"You're not some sort of a jewel thief, are you?" I couldn't help but ask once I wrestled my mind out of its smutty meanderings.

A flash of amusement passed over his face. "Not in the least. I'm just …   interested …  in unique items, and I heard that Mrs. P has one."

"Good, because if you think you can buddy up to me in hopes that I'll  help you steal from Mrs. P, you're sorely mistaken. Stealing is one of  those things I don't do. I may not have a ton going for me-although now  I'm a super kick-ass dragonette who can push demons out of windows and  play with fireballs-but I don't steal. Or lie. I was going to add murder  to that list, but I think I just killed a demon, so sadly, I'm not as  righteous as I'd like to be."

"You needn't be worried that the destruction of a demon's physical form  will stain your soul," he said with a pained twist of his lips. "It  won't."

"You speak like you have experience in this matter. How many demons have you offed?"

"None before tonight." He hesitated, then added slowly, "Why aren't you worried about Mrs. P's whereabouts?"

"That was a really excellent change of subject."

"Thank you." He made another of those little bows that looked incredibly sexy, rather than silly as I'd expected.

"I'm not worried because I fully expect to find her in the embrace of  Edvard. Or at least trying to seduce him. She's quite the character.  I'll Google demons to see if what you said is true, you know."

"I'm sure you will. Do I need to apologize?"

"To Mrs. P for rifling through her things and breaking a hotel glass?  Probably not. I'll put things back the way she had them, and she  doubtless won't even notice. I'm forever taking the things she lifts  from her bag anyway."

"No, I meant for that kiss. I didn't intend to do it. I just-you're so-and we were there. Together."

I smiled. Slowly. "I enjoyed it, actually. You're quite the kisser."

"So are you." His voice seemed to have roughened. He cleared it and made  an embarrassed gesture. "I enjoyed it as well. Perhaps another time we  could do it again."

"That sounds like a lovely plan," I said, just as if he'd casually  mentioned getting together for coffee. I don't know what possessed me  then. I can only attribute the fact that I walked over to him and  planted my lips on his to the fact that I'd been woken up out of the  most erotic dream of my life, coupled with the adrenaline rush of having  dealt with murderous demons.

If anyone was due a little distraction, I figured it was me. Especially  now that Jian had given me his blessing to move beyond what we had  together. I smiled at Rowan, feeling that it was somehow right we should  be together at that moment.

It was as if fate had brought us together …  and I was never one to take fate for granted.





Six




"Sophea … " Rowan cupped my behind, and pulled me against his hips,  groaning into my mouth when I parted my lips for him. "We really  shouldn't."

"Why not? We're both adults. I assume you're not involved with anyone  and I know I'm not, and great Caesar's gizzard, do I want to see if you  live up to the dream. Besides, Jian said at the séance that he wants me  to move on, and I assume that includes finally being with another man."