Light My Fire (3 page)

“Oh, man. He’s going to pork you right here in front
of me, isn’t he? Jeez, and they say dogs have no shame.”

“Demon, silence. And close your eyes,” I ordered, unable to see whether Jim followed my command because Drake chose that moment to claim my mouth. He was a
naturally arrogant, dominant man, and those qualities
showed in his kisses. He wooed with a passion that left
my knees weak and my toenails steaming. His entire
body entered into the kiss he gave me, one hand sweeping up to cup my breast, the other sliding down my back
to grab my butt, pulling my hips tighter against his.

Fire flamed to life in him, dragon fire, the familiar heat
of it as welcome as manna as it roared through me, igniting my soul. My heart, my poor abused heart, wept with
agony at the feel of us joining together in a manner that was so much more elemental than mere sex. It was as if
our souls fit together, one completing the other, the two
of us forming one brilliant, glorious being that would
burn together for all eternity ...

“No!” I cried, pulling my mouth from his. “You are
not going to seduce me again! Dammit, you broke my heart, Drake. You can’t piece it back together with glue made up of a few kisses and mind-numbingly fabulous
sex! Over means over! I will honor my vow to the sept. I will present myself as your mate at the weyr and sept
meetings. I will support your dragon decisions in any way
I can. But I will not allow you to destroy me again!”

One of his long, sensitive fingers pushed aside my
shirt to trace the rounded sept emblem that he’d branded
into my flesh, marking me as a wyvern’s mate. The emer
ald fire in his eyes slowly banked as he spoke. “You are mine, Aisling. You are mine today, tomorrow, and five hundred years from now. You will always be mine. I do
not give up my treasures,
kincsem.
You would do well to
remember that.”

He stepped away, leaving me quivering against the
door with so many emotions, I couldn’t begin to separate them. I clutched my arms around myself as he left, want
ing to sob out my pain, wanting to follow him and fling myself in his arms, wanting everything to be the way it was before he had stomped all over my heart.

That’s how Nora found me a few minutes later, glued
up against the door, slow, hot tears leaking from my eyes,
dragon fire licking my feet.

“Hello, everyone. We’re back a bit early. The kobold
attack turned out to be a false alarm—Aisling? Oh, dear,
you’re on fire again.” Nora set down the dog carrier she used to transport Paco. She squinted, adjusted the bright
red glasses that perched so jauntily on her nose, and
touched a finger to my shirt as I stamped out the last of
Drake’s fire. “Dragon scales.” Her eyes lifted to mine,
considering me in the cautious, thoughtful way she had. “A dragon visited you? A
green
dragon?”

I swallowed back a big lump of unshed tears and
pushed myself away from the door, staggering over to collapse on her couch, my pounding heart slowly return
ing to normal.

Nora looked from me to the door, tipping her head to
the side to examine it. “Judging by the Aisling-shaped
outline that appears to be scorched into the door, I’d say
it was
the
green dragon who visited you. How is Drake?”

“As stubborn as ever. Oh, Nora. I thought I was past
this!” Both Jim and Nora watched me as I slumped into a
giant wad of misery. Paco, released from his confine
ment, ran over to wrestle with my shoelaces, as was his
wont. “I am so ready to move on. Here you are, poised to
start my training—oh, that reminds me, there’s something I need to tell you about that—and whammo. Two
minutes with Drake and I’m a mess. How am I ever sup
posed to get over him?”

Nora sat down next to me, her dark eyes watchful as
they peered at me out of her glasses. “Perhaps you are not
meant to get over him,” she said simply.

“Huh? Not get over him? Nora, do you have any idea
how crazy that man . .. dragon . . . whatever he is—do
you have
any
idea how crazy he makes me?”

“You know, normally I just can’t get enough of you
whining about Drake, or crying over Drake, or ranting about Drake, or any of the other gazillion ‘about Drake’
things you constantly do because you’re obsessed with
the man but refuse to admit it, but since you insist on
starving this fabulous form I’ve taken simply because I’m
a few pounds over the standard Newfie weight, I just
don’t have the strength for it today.” Jim turned around
and marched off to the room Nora had turned over to me.

She raised an eyebrow at the retreating demon.
“What’s gotten into Jim? I know you and it have a spe
cial relationship, but I’ve never heard it be outright rude
before.”

“It’s mad that I won’t take it to Paris because Drake is
there ... although he’s not there; he’s here. So I guess
there’s no reason not to go visit Amelie, except now I
have this dragon thing to go to.” I sighed and slumped
even more, feeling far from the confident, self-assured person I so desperately wanted to be. “Nora, do I talk constantly about Drake? I don’t sound obsessed, do I? I
just sound .. . weary, right?”

Paco pounced on the paper that had fallen from my
hand. Nora got it away from him before he did any dam
age to it, smoothing the sheet over her knee as she sat
next to me. “Well.. . since you asked, I’m afraid I’m going to have to agree with Jim.”

“What?” I shrieked, sitting upright in order to glare. I
didn’t, of course—for one thing, Nora was my friend, not
just my mentor, and for another... well, there was a
pesky little voice in the back of my head that was whis
pering its agreement with both Nora and Jim. The roots
of denial, however, were strong and difficult to dig out.
“You think I’m obsessed with him, too?”

“I think you’re in love with him, yes. And despite the
differences you have, I believe you are meant to be together. Further, I believe that you know this but are too
stubborn to admit it to yourself.”

There’s nothing like a bit of plain speaking to knock
the wind from your sails.

“But... but. ..”

She shook her head, picking up the paper to glance at
it. “I was going to address the issue with you in a few
days, when we begin your training proper. A Guardian’s strength comes from within, Aisling. To deceive yourself
is to weaken your power.”

“He betrayed me,” I said, wanting to scream the words.
“He broke my heart!”

“He betrayed your trust, yes. But you betrayed an oath
to him. You both have to learn how to make compromises
in order to happil—what on earth?”

The fury in her voice yanked me from the dark mus
ings about my life. “Oh! I’m so sorry! That’s what I was
going to tell you, but then Drake came in and distracted
me. A man named Mark Sullivan was waiting when Rene
dropped us off at the door. He said he’s with the committee, and he’s slapping a restraining order or something on
you that says you can’t teach me because there’s an inves
tigation going on.”

Nora nodded, her lips moving slightly as she read the
letter.

“Rene?” she asked, looking up, a finger marking a spot
on the letter. “You saw Rene?”

“Story for another day. Does the letter say what this is
all about?”

She went back to reading, her face impassive. I hadn’t known Nora long—it had been about a month since we’d
met in Budapest—so I wasn’t too good at reading her
body language. There was no way to mistake the anger in
her ebony eyes, however. They positively flashed black
sparks as she crumpled the letter up and threw it on the
ground for Paco to bat around.

I waited impatiently for her to say something. When
she did, my eyebrows rose in surprise.

“The fools. The bloody ignorant fools. I’ve half a mind
to curse the lot of them.”

“I know how you feel. I was shocked when Mark said
you were not going to be allowed to teach me. Why are
they doing this?” I gave her arm a friendly pat as she
looked blindly at her hands.

“It’s Marvabelle, of course,” she answered.

“Marvabelle? O’Hallahan?” I asked, even more sur
prised by the name she’d mentioned. “The Marvabelle
who was in Budapest? The one with the wimpy oracle
husband? The one who used to be your roomie when you
were studying to be a Guardian? That Marvabelle?”

“One and the same.” Nora jumped from the couch, striding across the living room with her chin high. She
turned and paced back. “She’s had it in for me ever since
we were recognized for stopping the Guardian killings.
She warned me then she would not stand around watch
ing me have glory she felt she deserved.”

“She
deserved! She did nothing to catch the mur
derer!” I got to my feet and stomped around in sympa
thetic indignation, keeping a tight rein on my anger lest it
manifest itself again in dragon fire. “We did all the work!
We figured it all out. All she did was get in the way.”

Nora stopped pacing in order to grab my sleeve as I
stomped by her. “To be honest, you did all the work, and
you figured it out. But I thank you for your outrage on my
behalf.”

‘That doesn’t matter,” I said, waving away her thanks.
“What does matter is that Marvabelle thinks she can mess with you. Us. I didn’t know she had this sort of clout with
the committee.”

“Neither did I.” Nora picked up a stuffed toy and man
aged to exchange it for the letter Paco was gnawing on.
She smoothed it out and read it again. I peeked over her shoulder, my eyes narrowing at the officious language mentioning a complaint against Nora and the investiga
tion that would hitherto follow.

“In concordance with the precepts of the code of the
Guardians’ Guild, you are hereby ordered to cease and desist with any form of Guardian training until otherwise notified, pending the outcome of this investigation?
I read
aloud. “Oh, that is such bull!”

Nora nodded, folding the crumply letter and setting it
in a basket that held her correspondence. “I agree. But don’t let it upset you. I have nothing to hide, and I have committed no violations of the Guardian’s code. This is just a minor setback, and not worthy of our concern.”

“Not worthy? It’s utter crap, and I for one don’t intend
to sit around while ...” I stopped at the determined look
in her eyes. This was her profession, her life that we were discussing. Just because I wanted to punch the committee
in the nose for believing Nora could do anything unethical didn’t mean I could act on those desires. “OK. Just a
minor setback. Gotcha.”

“We will begin your training tomorrow, as planned,”
Nora said firmly as she deposited Paco’s carrier in a
closet. “Hopefully it will have the side benefit of helping
you control Drake’s fire.”

“Er
...
I don’t mean to question you, but didn’t that
letter say—”

“I do not intend to allow one spiteful woman to waste any more of our time than she has,” Nora answered. She
pulled a book out of the floor-to-ceiling bookcase that
lined one wall and held it out for me. “Although it grieves
me to do anything against the committee’s dictates, in
this I know they are wrong. We will proceed as planned.”
She paused in the doorway to the kitchen. “Unless you
have had a change of heart?”

I laughed so hard tears wet my eyelashes. “Nora, I’ve broken just about every rule there is. I don’t know why
you’d think I’d balk at breaking another one.”

She smiled, warmth glowing from behind her glasses. “I didn’t think you’d mind. I’ll make an appointment with
Mark to discuss the issue. Now, as for your problems
 
with Drake—why don’t we have a nice cup of tea and
talk it over?”