Light My Fire (40 page)

“You know,” I whispered, mindless of everything but
him. “You know I used dark power.”

“Weapons are so vulgar.” Fiat gave a delicate shrug.
“Why do we not settle this in the mortal fashion? By fists.
That should provide a true test of strength.”

“Very well.” Dmitri adopted a boxing stance, his hands
up. “I am ready.”

Drake’s fingertips swept a strand of hair off my face,
me touch so gentle it made my knees go weak. “It is evi
dent what you have done, yes.”

“I’m damned forever.” I wanted to cry at the look of
regret in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to use it, I really didn’t.”

“I know,
kincsem.
Your heart is pure. But you cannot risk tainting it, and that is what will happen if you con
tinue down this dark path.”

Beyond us, the two men fought, Dmitri grunting a lit
tle as Fiat danced around him.

“I only want to fix things,” I told Drake.

“You wish to destroy Dmitri.” Drake shook his head.
“You have not used the dark power for anything harmful,
but this is different. It is dangerous. I cannot allow you to
do that. You must trust that in this, I am right.”

I almost smiled. There was my bossy dragon, telling
me what I could and could not do.

He is wrong. How can using power for good be
dangerous?

I pulled my hands from Drake’s, releasing the power, letting it wash from me. I felt weak but righteous, under
standing at last what Drake was saying. He was right. I
couldn’t use power to destroy someone. Banishing a
demon lord couldn’t in any conceivable light be consid
ered bad, but destroying someone for my own gain was
entirely different.

“All right, I’ll trust you. But it’ll be a cold day in
Abaddon before I’m his mate,” I said loudly, nodding to
ward where Dmitri was trying to block a punch from Fiat.

The latter stopped. “I’m in complete agreement.”

Before our stunned eyes, Fiat pulled out from his
pocket a small gun and shot Dmitri in the face.

₂₄

“Funky eyes and tears of blood aside, you’re looking a
bit odd,” Jim said.

I dragged my gaze from the form of Dmitri spread out
on the floor, a pool of blood beneath his head, to my
demon. I was literally struck speechless.

Not so Jim. “Stuff always happens around you. Never a dull moment and all that. It’s better than TV.”

I shook my head, trying to clear my befuddled mind.
There was just too much to take in.

“Gabriel?” Drake asked, nodding toward Dmitri’s body.

“If his brain is destroyed, we won’t be able to bring
him back to consciousness,” Gabriel answered, taking a
step toward Dmitri.

“No,” Fiat answered, holding up a hand that stopped
Gabriel in his tracks.

The latter didn’t like that. “Fiat, stand down.”

“I think not. You made an excellent point. Dmitri
could well recover from a single bullet to the head.” Fiat
glanced down at the man at his feet for a few moments,
then cold-bloodedly shot him a couple more times.

I screamed and lunged forward to stop him, but
Drake’s hand shot out and caught my arm, reeling me
back in until I was flush with his body.

“That, I believe, will dispense with any question as to
whether or not Dmitri is still wyvern.” Fiat bowed to
Drake, who stood stiffly beside me. “You have your sept
back. I hope you do not abuse it again.”

“You shot Dmitri!” I all but yelled, unable to believe
my eyes.

Fiat’s attention turned to me. His face wore its usual
pleasant, unperturbed expression, as if nothing at all untoward had happened. “I believe the evidence would be
impossible to deny,
cara.”

“You just up and shot him!”

Gabriel directed a narrow gaze at Fiat, walking around him to kneel next to Dmitri. I turned my head away, sick
both physically and at heart over what had happened,
feeling as if for some reason, the fault for Fiat’s actions
lay directly on my shoulders.

“Yes, I did. You may thank me for saving Drake’s sept
for him.”

“Thank you!” I exclaimed, outraged.

“Yes, thank me for returning to Drake that which he would not have regained without a battle,” Fiat snapped,
his blue eyes icy with disdain.

“You forced him to sacrifice the sept in the first place!” I shouted.

“There are powers at work here that are beyond your comprehension,” he answered. “Do not make judgments.

In the end, Drake has back what he lost. Well. . . almost all. I assume now that Dmitri is incapable of serving as
wyvern you will claim the post again?”

“Yes,” Drake answered, his voice steady. I could feel
the tension in him, however.

Fiat inclined his head. “I trust your people will have no
problems in accepting you in the role again.”

“Drake will always be our wyvern,” Pal said, his voice
filled with pride. “The sept loves him.”

“Indeed. Lucky sept, then, to avoid the power struggle
that would have ensued had Dmitri retained his position.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “That doesn’t make sense. Why did you go to all the trouble of kidnapping
me, poisoning me, almost making me a vegetable, to put
Dmitri in power, only to effectively kill him a few min
utes later? Why, Fiat, why?”

“Lusus naturae,” Drake said slowly, his eyes on Gabriel
as the healer bent over Dmitri’s unresponsive body.

Gabriel looked up, his normally light eyes shaded and
disturbed.

“Odd,” Drake said in a distracted tone, almost as if he
was talking to himself. “I always assumed it would be
you who challenged for my mate, not Fiat.”

“I intended to,” Gabriel said, avoiding my eyes. I stiffened, my hands fisted. How dare he? “But after last night,
when you told me Aisling would be having a child, I
changed my mind.”

“Is there anything you can do for Dmitri?” I asked
him, deciding I couldn’t deal at that moment with the im
plications of his statement.

“No, I’m sorry.
There is too much damage to the brain.
He will live, but he will not be”—Gabriel gently touched
the side of Dmitri’s face—”cognizant.”

Retribution can be yours,
the voice said.

I ground my teeth, holding back both hot-tempered
words and the bile that was raised by the violence of the day.

Revenge these sins.

I leaned into Drake to absorb some of his heat, turning
away from the persuasive voice within me.

Right the wrongs.

“I will not do it!” I shouted out loud, startled by the
sound.

Everyone in the room looked at me.

“Whoa, meltdown warning,” Jim said, its voice flip,
but concern visible in its eyes. “Everyone may want to
stand clear.”

I ignored Jim to glare at Fiat. There had to be a way to
do this without using the dark powers.

“I spoke with a demon lord today. Two, as a matter of
fact. I thought they were the coldest, most evil sentient beings I’d ever met, but I was wrong. You are, Fiat. And
if there is any way I can bring you to justice for the
crimes you have committed today, I will do so.”

Fiat brushed off my statement as if it were a piece of
lint. “Are you aware of how much your desires play a role
in my plans for the future?”

“No.” I frowned, confused even more. “How much?”

He didn’t bother to look at me when he answered.
“None whatsoever. Renaldo, Pietro, we depart. A pleas
ant evening to you all.”

Fiat gestured toward the door. His bodyguards fell into
place behind him as he started for it.

“Do something!” I demanded of Drake.

He raised both eyebrows. “What would you have me
do? I am in control of the sept again. Dmitri will be taken care of the rest of his life, but he poses no more of a threat
to us.”

Jim shook its head. “Missing the obvious, man.”

And how. I frowned up at Drake. “Yes, you’re the
wyvern again, but perhaps it’s escaped your attention that
Fiat challenged Dmitri for me, which, unless I’m con
fused about all those bizarre and outdated dragon laws,
means I’m now a blue dragon.”

“You are mine,” Drake said, his eyes blazing. “You
will always be mine. You belong to the green dragons. Nothing Fiat can do changes that. This is merely a polit
ical move on his part to gain leverage over me, nothing
more. He does not expect you to fulfill any duties as the
mate to the blue wyvern.”

Fiat, for a change, said nothing. But he smiled.

It made my skin crawl.

“Don’t think I’m going to let this situation pass with
out correcting it,” I called after Fiat as he opened the door to the hall. He paused and glanced back over his shoulder
at me.

I smiled a grim little smile of my own. Drake’s arm
tightened around my waist, giving me strength. “You may
think I’m a pawn in this horrible game you’re playing, but
you’re wrong. I have a whole lot more going for me than
you can possibly imagine.”

The condescending look on his face made my hand
itch. “You have power,
cara . . .
but you are too pure of
heart to use it.”

The pressure of Drake’s hand on my side kept me from making wild threats. Evidently I was back in the business
of being politically correct.

“That does not mean you never will, though,” Fiat
added, his mind brushing against mine.
I have high hopes
for your future.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” Nora said what
seemed like an eternity later, as she opened the door to
Drake, Pal, me, and two of the green dragons who in
sisted on escorting us home. “Someone attacked Istvan,
but he’s going to be all right. Rene is with him now. Jim
was here briefly, but it disappeared before I could ask
what was going on. I was just leaving you a note and was
about to find you ...”

“Drake!” Catalina stood at the top of the stairs and
glared down at us as we trooped in the doorway. “Where
have you been? This woman here, this Guardian I do not
know, has been giving me orders. Me! Make her leave.”

I wrapped my arms around Drake and buried my face
in his neck, allowing him to just hold me. The events of
the day had taken away most of my strength, leaving me
weak and boneless.

“She would not help with Istvan,” Nora said in an
apologetic tone. “I was a bit sharp with her, I’m afraid. I
apologized, but it didn’t seem to do much good.”

“Make her go away! She is rude to me. I don’t like
her.”

“Mother, cease.” Drake’s voice rumbled in his chest. I
melted against him, breathing in his delicious scent, filled
with so much love it almost drove out the horrors of the day.

Almost.

“I will not be spoken to this way in my own home,”
Catalina huffed, twitching herself by Nora as she ap
proached us.

“This is my home—mine and Aisling’s. You will not
insult our guests.”

“She has bewitched you,” she said, frowning at Drake.
“She has cast a glamour on you to make you believe she
is right for you, but we all know that is not so.”

I sighed into Drake’s neck and lifted my head to look
at my future mother-in-law. “Boo!”

She gasped, a hand at her throat as she took a couple
of steps backwards. Quickly she crossed herself.
“Madre
de dios!
You are marked by the evil one!”

Nora’s startled intake of breath quickly followed, her eyes huge with horror behind her glasses. “Aisling! Dear
god. What have you done?”