Holy Smokes (24 page)

“Congratulations,” I said.

The dragons in the room looked at one another, those of them who weren’t bound to silence clearly unwilling to say anything.

I took a deep breath and mustered a smile as I faced them. “As mate to the wyvern of the blue dragons, I formally recognize you as wyvern, welcome you to the position, offer my good wishes for a lifetime of peace and prosperity, and am confident the members of the sept will do the same.”

The members of the sept turned their disbelieving gazes on me. Fiat twitched one last time, then went still.

Bastian came forward, his face still blotchy from the near throttling. He put a hand on my head and pushed down. Obligingly, I knelt before him. “Aisling Grey, I refute you as mate. You are hereby stripped of all rights and powers as such, and as of this moment, are expulsed from the sept.”

“Woohoo!” Jim said, doing a little happy dance. I knew just how it felt, but didn’t want to offend any of the blue dragons by celebrating my expulsion from their ranks.

“Thank you,” I told Bastian softly.

He nodded as I got to my feet. “It was the least I could do. I will never be able to fully express to you the full depth of my gratitude, but know that I am in your debt.”

“What are you going to do about him?” Uncle Damian asked, prodding Fiat’s body with the toe of his boot.

Bastian smiled again, a smile at once so similar to Fiat’s, and yet so different. “He’s had a hard time of it lately, don’t you think? He needs a rest. I know just the place where he will have nothing but quiet and peace, and time to contemplate his sins.”

“I’m glad you’re not going to…er…destroy him,” I said, hesitating to put into words my fear. “I don’t have any fondness for Fiat, but I’ve never been a proponent of the death penalty.”

“Liberal,” Uncle Damian scoffed.

“Politics has nothing to do with it. I just don’t think that a challenge should end in death.”

“I have seen too much bloodshed during my lifetime,” Bastian said, nodding. “I will not add to it unduly. Besides, there is a certain amount of ironic justice to be had in Fiat’s incarceration in the prison he created for me. I am certain that with time, he will appreciate that irony.”

“You better just hope no one rescues his butt like we did yours,” Jim warned, sniffling Fiat’s inert form. It cocked an eyebrow at me.

“No,” I told it. “We will be gracious in our triumph. No peeing on the loser.”

“Man, you’re just no fun anymore. How about the chick with the potty mouth?”

Marta’s eyes widened as Jim sauntered over to her.

I smiled.

“…perfect opportunity to pee on someone—which, let me tell you, doesn’t happen that often—and you go all ‘dignity at all costs’ on me. Sheesh. Like that Italian she-witch didn’t have it coming to her? A demon’s gotta have some fun, you know!”

“Aisling? Is that you?” Paula appeared at the door to Drake’s study, her hands on her hips, her lips compressed into a straight line.

“Uh-oh,” I said, offering her a weak smile. “Did I miss another appointment?”

“I don’t know why you told me to arrange a wedding for you if you refuse to attend any of the planning meetings! Honestly, Aisling, I’m at my wit’s end with you, and I’m this close to just washing my hands of the whole situation!”

“Oh, Paula, I’m sorry—”

“Do you know how many wedding planners I’ve been through in the last week? Five, Aisling. Five!”

I flinched. “I’m really sor—”

She tossed her hands in the air. “Do you have any idea how in demand these people are? Or what it costs to try to have a rush wedding?”

“No, but I’m sure—”

“The situation is intolerable!” she yelled, gesturing wildly as she paced a circle around me. “It’s only for the sake of your father and late mother that I’m still trying.”

“And I really appreciate it—”

She took a deep breath and pinned me back with a look that would have stripped paint off a battleship. “Since it’s obvious that you are not capable of handling even the tiniest of responsibilities, I have taken it upon myself to arrange a ceremony for you. It will be simple, just immediate family and whatever friends you still have.”

I sagged with relief. “That sounds fine, Paula. I know this hasn’t been easy on you, but there are mitigating circumstances—”

“There will be no reception. There will be no banquet, no dance band, no decorations.”

I tried to summon up a smile. It didn’t work. “OK.”

“If you had any conscience, any conscience whatsoever, you would return each and every wedding present you received from guests who took the time and effort to attend your first wedding.”

“Absolutely,” I said meekly, taking a couple of steps toward the stairs, wondering if I dared make a break for it.

She took three steps toward me, literally pressing me against the banister. “The wedding is scheduled for tomorrow at four p.m., in the office of the only individual in the whole of England who was willing to be bribed into making room for you. If you do not make this appointment, your father and I will leave immediately. Do I make myself absolutely clear?”

I nodded frantically. “Perfectly clear.”

She snorted as she gave me one last piercing glare, then turned on her heel and stalked back to Drake’s study.

As soon as the door closed, the one across the hallway opened. Drake peered out. “Is she gone?”

I nodded weakly and sagged against the banister. “She’s in your study.”

“I know. It seemed better to let her occupy it. She’s in a bit of a mood,” he said, coming over to me.

“That’s putting it mildly. She scared the crap out of me.” I transferred my limp form from the banister to him, wrapping my arms around him as he tilted my head back to examine my face. “I think I need massive kissing to restore my strength. And then if you wouldn’t mind mating me again, I’d be very appreciative.”

“Jeez, Ash! Just ask him to boink you right in front of me!” Jim tried to look appalled, but failed.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I was simply trying to tell this handsome hunk of dragon that I am no longer the mate of the blue wyvern, and if he would be so kind as to offer me a lifetime of undying love, affection, and steamy, sweaty lovemaking, I’d be gracious enough to accept.” I nibbled Drake’s lower lip as I spoke the last bit, expecting him to sweep me off my feet and make mad, passionate love to me before offering me matedom.

Instead he looked troubled, his eyes more human than dragon. “I’m afraid it’s not quite as simple as that.”

“Why not? Is there some sort of re-mating ritual we need to do?”

Drake cast a quick glance at the closed door of his study and pulled me into the living room. “We will talk in here.”

“Oh, yeah, talk, that’s a new name for it. Hey! Don’t I get to wa—” Jim started to ask.

Drake shut the door on it.

“I’m getting a little sick and tired of people doing that!” it bellowed, audible even through the door. “Just because I’m a demon doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings!”

I opened the door and narrowed my eyes at it.

“And I thought your stepmom was scary,” it muttered as it took itself off to another part of the house.

“All right,” I said, closing the door and leaning against it as I looked at Drake. “What’s the problem? Does the sept not want me back?”

“The sept would be delighted to have you back. They accepted you as my mate, and they will not forswear that allegiance.”

That warmed the cockles of my heart a bit. I slid my arms around him and bit his chin. “Then what’s the problem?”

His hands were warm on my derriere, his eyes shuttered. “The problem is that you are not available to be my mate.”

“Ah. I see the confusion is bogging us down. You didn’t know that Bastian beat Fiat and took over as wyvern. Well, he did, and his first act was to de-mate me, so I am, actually, available, and if you play your cards right, I can be yours.”

He didn’t smile at my teasing tone. He didn’t even look remotely happy, two things that surprised me.

“I know about the challenge,” he said, his hands sweeping up my back. I shivered a little, his touch stirring the desire that was always simmering.

“You do? How? Uncle Damian went off to see some of his friends, and Nora had work to do, so Rene took Jim and me straight here after we left Bastian. Did someone call you?”

He nodded.

“Who? Bastian?”

“No. Fiat.”

I stared at him for three seconds before swearing profanely. “Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ!
Fiat
called you?”

“Yes.” He pulled me close, nibbling a spot behind my ear that made me turn into a big old blob of goo. “I’m sorry,
kincsem
. Fiat apparently escaped Bastian’s custody shortly after you left. He claims he is still the blue wyvern, and you are his mate.”

“How can that be?” I wailed. “Dammit, Bastian beat him at a challenge! We were there! We saw it!”

He sighed into my neck, his arms tightening around me. I wanted to cry again, not sure if it was the pregnancy hormones stirring my emotions, or just the frustration of never seeming to catch a break that drove me to the brink. “There is a bit of a situation. Fiat is claiming that the challenge was invalid because Bastian did not present the terms of it before the challenge started.”

“You mean he cheated by getting a jump on Fiat? But Fiat did the same thing with Dmitri…oh, hell.”

“Abaddon,” drifted in faintly from the hallway.

“Stop listening at the door!” I bellowed. “And that’s an order!”

The sound of toenails ticky-ticking on the tile floor faded away to nothing.

I looked back at Drake. Regret was stark in his face. He nodded, brushing his thumb over my lower lip. I bit him.

“I wondered if you would remember that challenges for a sept always follow the formal challenge, while challenges for a mate are pretty much anything goes.”

“So Bastian didn’t really win control of the sept?” I asked, my heart breaking into a dozen little pieces.

To my surprise, his frown eased somewhat. “Actually, that isn’t quite clear at the moment.”

“What do you mean? Either Bastian is wyvern, or Fiat is. They can’t both be wyverns…can they?”

“Not of the same sept, no,” he answered, his hands getting busy.

I grabbed his wrists as they swept along my hips, heading for higher ground. “Trying to get a straight answer out of you is like trying to ride a greased weasel.”

“Would you like to ride me, instead?” he asked, his eyes alight with interest.

“You are utterly shameless. Luckily, that’s one of your charms,” I told him, pushing myself away from him in order to keep from jumping him right then and there. “Spit it out, Drake. What’s the deal with Bastian?”

“I’d rather talk about you riding me,” he answered, his dragon fire building inside him.

“You can seduce me after you tell me what I want to know.”

He simmered at me. He positively simmered, his eyes molten, his body a temptation that I had to steel myself to ignore. “I can think of other things I’d rather do, naked things, than talking about the blue dragons.”

I rubbed my head. My body was demanding I give in to him, but my brain wanted answers.

Sometimes brains are overrated.

“Please, Drake,” I said, teetering on the verge of desire. “I hate being kept out of things. Please just tell me, and then I promise I’m all yours.”

“You’re all mine right now,” he growled, pouncing on me with his usual feline grace. His lips burned mine for a moment before he kissed a fiery path to my collarbone, his tongue swirling around the sept brand he’d burnt there. “The situation isn’t clear because Bastian is by right wyvern. Fiat never formally challenged him for the sept.”

I shivered again and pulled his shirt out of his pants so I could slide my hands under it, my fingers dancing along the long, strong lines of his back. “Which would mean that Bastian wouldn’t have to challenge Fiat, because he was already wyvern? Hallelujah! But why is Fiat still claiming to be wyvern then?”

“His claim is that Bastian wasn’t formally named wyvern. Aisling…” Drake pulled back enough to look me in the eye just as I was nibbling on his delectable earlobe. “Fiat has many followers in the sept. This will likely divide the sept between those members who are loyal to Fiat and those who are loyal to Bastian.”

“Oh, no. That would be horrible. Those poor people. Is there anything we can do to help Bastian?”

He shook his head. “No. Intra-sept struggles are beyond my reach. It must be for them to resolve.”

“But Fiat has so much power, and he’s been around the last hundred or so years, so everyone is more familiar with him than with Bastian. If we don’t help Bastian, I’m going to be stuck with Fiat!” My voice rose on the last few words, despair my companion again.

“I will not allow that.
Kincsem
…it has not been easy for me, this last month. I have not liked involving myself in sept business without you.”

I nuzzled his neck, holding him tight against the pain that stung within me. “I know. It hurts.”

His lips were hot on my flesh. “I would not hurt you for all my treasure. And now that I know what the situation is with Fiat, I will take action.”

“What sort of action?” I asked, nibbling his jaw, unable to resist the lure of his sexy self. “Are you going to challenge him for me?
Lusus naturae?
”

“No.”

The word pierced my heart like a dagger.

“Do not look at me that way,” Drake said, pressing his forehead against mine. “I am not betraying you, Aisling. But a challenge with Fiat would not serve the purpose. He would take extreme steps to ensure that he did not lose you, and I am not willing to risk him harming you.”

The pain eased as I acknowledged the truth of what he said. Fiat wouldn’t hesitate to destroy me utterly if he thought Drake stood a chance of winning me back. “What are you going to do if you can’t challenge him?” I asked, ashamed of the pathetic tone of misery in my voice.

Drake smiled. His lips curled up, and his eyes went dragon as the smile grew in a way that made me thankful he was on my side. “I am wyvern of the green dragons.”