Me and My Shadow (38 page)

I shook my head as they left, and said softly to Gabriel, “I don't know that I'm ever going to get used to that.”

“You and me both,” he said with a wolfish grin of his own, and I thought seriously for a few minutes about demanding a nap.

“There is still much we must do,” he said, accurately reading my mind. “But later, once it is done, then I will do all those things you are thinking about. Particularly the one where you are on your hands and knees and I take you from behind—”

I stopped his words with a quick kiss, then straightened my shoulders and entered the sitting room.

Dr. Kostich was there, but he wasn't alone.

“Sally?” My brain, somewhat fried by this point, sluggishly tried to figure out what on earth the newest demon lord in Abaddon was doing in Aisling's sitting room, chatting happily with Dr. Kostich.

“—Mama always said that there's a place for everything and everything in its place, and I always believed that was true, but you know, my time spent in Abaddon has been quite the eye-opening experience. I see now that my dear mama just wasn't right, no, she wasn't. Because honestly, how do you explain portals? If your arcane magic was as strong as you say, why, then, you could just seal portals to Abaddon and no creepy crawlies would ever get through, would they? But they do. Therefore, dark magic has to be the stronger. May! You look horrible, sugar, just horrible. Are you using that salt scrub I recommended?”

Sally ceased patting Dr. Kostich's hand, which was a good thing, since he was staring at her with unadulterated disbelief.

“What are you doing here? How did you get in?” I asked, looking around the room to see if any other demons were in attendance. I knew Drake had some sort of a demon alarm, but it must have been disabled with the attack and subsequent rebuilding.

“Oh, some very nice workmen let me in when I said I was a friend of yours.” She smiled her sharky smile at me.

Dr. Kostich transferred his horrified gaze from her to me. “This . . . woman . . . is your friend?”

“Well . . .” Sally's eyebrows rose.

I cleared my throat, not wanting to cause trouble. “Sally is a demon lord, and she served as Magoth's apprentice for a few weeks. I know her from when I was trapped in Abaddon.”

“I see.” His brows lowered.

“Yes, we did meet there, and we had ever such a lovely time, didn't we, May? We had lots of fun talking about all sorts of girl things, like interesting ways to accessorize spikes, and how to get bloodstains out of leather harnesses, and just exactly what Magoth's penis curse says. But silly chatterbox me, here I'm keeping you standing there when you clearly need to get some rest. I'll get right to the point: I'm here because of Magoth.”

“
Agathos daimon
—he's out?” I asked, trying to figure out how he could have gotten out of the Akasha.

She bent a stern look upon me. “No, and that was very naughty of you to have him banished without telling Lord Bael. He was most displeased when he heard what you'd done.”

“Why would Bael care what happened to Magoth?” Gabriel asked.

“Why? Because May is bound to Magoth,” Sally said just as if that explained everything. “And Magoth was a subservient prince to Lord Bael.”

“The key word there being
was
,” I pointed out.

“Exactly.” She smiled and patted me on the cheek.

I sagged against Gabriel. “Sally, I don't have the energy to play clever word games. Just spit out what it is you want to say.”

“Well, I will, but I have to say I don't much appreciate your attitude,” she said crossly. “You were bound to the demon lord Magoth, yes?”

“Yes,” I said, an uneasy feeling springing to life in my stomach. I leaned a little harder against Gabriel, relishing the feeling of his arm around my waist.

“But Magoth is in the Akasha, and you can't be a demon lord if you're banished to limbo, can you?”

“I guess,” I said warily, the bad feeling growing.

“Magoth is no longer a demon lord, and thus your existence is negated.”

I blinked at her in confusion. “What on earth does that mean?”

“It means, sugar, that you owe servitude to a demon lord, and since Magoth is banished to the Akasha and technically no longer a demon lord, then you must be bound to some other lord. Lord Bael considered this problem for a very long time, and decided that you should be bound to me. So I'm here to take your oath of fealty, after which we can discuss your schedule and duties.”

My confusion turned to outright horror.

“That is out of the question,” Gabriel said firmly. “I have never heard of such a thing, and I will not have it.”

“I assure you there's provision made for this situation in the Doctrine of Unending Conscious, and since May was bound to Magoth, and he was governed by those laws, then they apply to her now.”

I looked up at Gabriel, a horribly hopeless feeling gripping me. I didn't want to be bound to Sally. I didn't want to be bound to anyone anymore other than Gabriel.

Gabriel's lovely eyes narrowed. “What would happen if Magoth were returned to the mortal world? Would May still be considered bound to him?”

“Yes,” Sally answered, picking at a fingernail. “But Lord Bael would not be happy about that. He truly would not. And you know, May and I would have fun together. I would greatly enjoy having her by my side as I made my mark here.”

I shuddered. “Here? Here as in the mortal world?”

“Why, yes, sugar!” Her smile widened until I could see every last one of her teeth. “Didn't I tell you? Lord Bael feels I'm just the person to reinstall the concept of hell on earth to the mortals. He is such a doll, isn't he? Imagine me as the supreme overlord of all mortals? It's enough to give a girl goose pimples!”

I looked at Gabriel. Gabriel looked at me. Dr. Kostich swore.

“I'll have him brought back,” I said wearily.

Gabriel nodded, looked thoughtful for a moment; then slowly a smile curled his adorable yet manly lips. “Yeees, I think that will work quite well.”

“What will work?” I asked, watching him closely. “What brilliant plan have you concocted?”

His gaze touched on Sally for a moment, speculation replacing amusement.

“Magoth has no way to contact the world beyond the Akasha, isn't that so?” he asked me.

“No way whatsoever.”

“Then you will have to go back there, little bird. You will present him with an offer—he will be returned to the mortal world, but only after he pays a price.”

Enlightenment burst into glorious being.

“Oh, you don't want to do that,” Sally said, finishing with her cuticle examination. “Lord Bael would not like that, and you don't want to cross him. He's not happy with you as is, and if he was really annoyed? Noooo, not good at all.”

I began to chuckle.“Bael's happiness is not my concern anymore. Especially if I'm no longer bound to Magoth.”

“But how—” She frowned until she, too, realized what Gabriel had first hit upon.

Dr. Kostich looked thoughtful. “Clever. Very clever. But no concern of mine. I must go find my apprentices so that we can return to lay charges against this dragon.”

He left the room as I kissed Gabriel very gently. “Sexy as sin, dimples to die for, eyes that could melt ice, and a brain. You, sir, are one fabulous dragon.”

He laughed and pulled me to his chest, kissing me until I stopped listening to Sally protest behind us. When we finally came up for air, Sally was leaving the room.

“Who are you?” Gabriel called to her as she went through the door.

She froze and looked back at him, her face a mirror of confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

“Who are you?”

Sally smiled as she tipped her head toward me. “Perhaps he's not
quite
as bright as you think, sugar.”

It occurred to me then what Gabriel was asking, and why. “You're not really a demon lord, are you?”

“I assure you I am,” she said smoothly. “Lord Bael himself appointed me.”

“No, I mean that you're not really demon lord material. You're a bit wicked, and I think you're enjoying all this greatly, but you're not . . .” My hands fluttered for a moment. “. . . not evil.”

She looked insulted.

“You haven't really done anything truly reprehensible,” I pointed out. “Oh, you talk the talk, but your actions speak louder than that.”

“Name one good thing I've done,” she said, straightening her shoulders with a belligerent glare at me. “Just one!”

“I can name three.” I ticked them off my fingers. “You saved me from the thief taker in Paris.”

“I told you then—they were the good guys. I don't do good guys,” she said huffily.

“Uh-huh. Then you pointed out to Magoth that, with me as a consort, he could leave Abaddon and enter the mortal world.”

“I hardly see how unleashing a demon lord on the mortal world is a good thing,” she said with an acerbic sting in her voice.

“One who is effectively stripped of his powers? On the contrary, that was very clever,” Gabriel said. “And it allowed May to return to me.”

I nodded. “I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you were the one pushing Bael to expel Magoth for good, which ended up with him permanently out of commission, powerless and ineffective.”

She looked away, but I could have sworn I saw the tiniest hint of a smile. “That was just an unfortunate consequence of a really excellent plan to stab you both in the back.”

“And now here you are, warning us that unless we do something, Bael will claim my bondage to Magoth, with the end result that we see a way clear to freeing me from him forever. An evil person wouldn't do that.”

“You think not?” She made a little face. “You'll have Magoth hanging around your neck for the rest of your lives. If that's not evil, I don't know what is.”

“Annoying, but not evil. I can live with Magoth whining at me so long as I'm no longer bound to him,” I said quietly.

“So who are you?” Gabriel asked, taking a step closer to her.“You can't be from the Court of Divine Blood. Bael would recognize that taint to you. You aren't a Guardian. You aren't even immortal—or you weren't until you became a demon lord. Who, then, does that leave?”

Silence fell for a few seconds while she looked at him, really looked at him. Her gaze was sharp as a whip, but amused. She said nothing, just smiled, then went through the door.

“What do you think?” I asked Gabriel when we heard the front door close. “Could it be a glamour to confuse us?”

“No.” He rubbed my back absently while he thought. “I don't know who she is, but I do know this—she has been a true friend to us, and I will not forget that.”

“I'll go see if Nora is up to sending me to the Akasha,” I said, heading for the door. “I think I'm really going to enjoy
this
visit.”

It took almost five hours to accomplish our goals of sending me to the Akasha and negotiating my freedom from Magoth. Aisling, Gabriel told me later, had wanted to be there to watch Nora conduct the banishing and resummons, but Drake refused to let her out of bed, and I doubt if she argued that point too much.

Gabriel was waiting for me when Nora resummoned me. I fell straight into his arms, clinging to him while I tried to forget the miasma of despair that filled the Akasha.

“Little bird,” he murmured into my hair, his hands busily checking to make sure all my pertinent parts were where he had last seen them. “You are shaking?”

“Just with happiness,” I said, letting him fill me with dragon fire.

He stiffened, and I felt a cold whoosh behind me.

“It's about time,” Magoth snapped, glaring at the three of us. “Where is this foul document I must sign?”

Gabriel gestured toward the table. Magoth swore a colorful variety of oaths as he read over the emancipation papers. He gritted his teeth, but he signed them, snatching the knife Gabriel held out, and making a small cut on his thumb. He pressed a bloody mark next to his name, and threw it at me. “There. I am free of your ingratitude at last.”

“Not quite yet,” Gabriel said, and slid another paper toward him. “There is this you must sign, as well.”

I craned my neck to see what Magoth was supposed to sign. “A divorce decree?”

Gabriel winked at me. “May will be my wife, and no other's.”

Magoth rolled his eyes, but signed the document with only a few testy words.

“You don't have to do that, you know,” I murmured to the love of my life. “I'm not a mortal who holds with such conventions as marriage.”

“I know. I just don't like him referring to you as his wife,” Gabriel said. “Besides, my mother wishes us to be married in front of her people, and this will make everything easier.”

“Done,” Magoth snapped, slamming down the pen and knife. “Now you owe me one thing.”

“We just gave you your freedom. What could we possibly owe you now?” I asked.

He growled. “You will tell me where that betrayer Sally is. She will pay for her perfidy—of that I swear. Tell me her whereabouts that I may exact my lengthy and incredibly unpleasant revenge upon her.”

“I think she said something about going to Los Angeles,” I said without once blinking my eyes. I looked at Gabriel. “Didn't she say Los Angeles?”

“Yes,” he lied, also without the slightest hesitation. “That is what she said.”

“Then that is where I will go,” Magoth declared, his face tight with intensity. “Los Angeles! The City of Angels will weep by the time I am through tearing it apart to find her! Good-bye, former wife. I will return to deal with you once I have meted out justice to Sally.”