Holy Smokes (9 page)

You did not use me when you had the chance…but all is not yet lost.

My teeth ground at the voice in my head. It was the dark power’s fault. It seduced me. It had persuaded me to use it when I had no idea of what it was. It had used me for its own purpose and destroyed part of my life without any qualms whatsoever.

Rage crashed through me, fury at the dark power for using me, which spilled over into anger at the crowd of people who circled me. “You’re so quick to judge, so quick to condemn,” I ground out, the hot, thick power seeping into me. “Is your world so black and white that you can’t see shades of gray any longer?”

“Aisling,” Drake said at the same time that Jim, looking worried, whispered, “Ash, that’s not a good idea.”

I allowed the dark power to fill me, ignoring the smugly satisfied sense of triumph that went with it. “No? What do I have to lose? I’m proscribed already, remember? It doesn’t matter to these people, these fellow Guardians sworn to protect people, that I was tricked into the proscription. They don’t care to even
try
to understand my position, let alone to find out the least little thing about me. Rather than work with me, help me, let Nora train me, they’ve done everything they can to keep me from fulfilling my destiny.”

Power crackled off of me like black static electricity. Instantly, a good dozen wards were drawn, binding me with invisible chains.

“Do not make matters worse by doing something that will make your path irreversible,” Drake warned, stepping close to me.

I laughed as I opened the little door in my head that allowed me to use my Otherworld powers. “They’re afraid of me, Drake. Can you feel it? Fear is thick in the air around us.”

“Seriously, Drake is right. You really don’t want to go there,” Jim said, touching its wet nose to the back of my hand.

The dark power seeped into every pore, a blackish blue corona surrounding me, as if I was standing in the middle of a plasma ball. It wasn’t the burning power of Drake’s fire, but much, much more insidious…and stronger.

“I could wipe you all out,” I mused out loud, watching with a wicked sort of amusement as the wary expressions turned to fear as the people gathered together in the room realized the truth in my statement. Over their heads, I could see people packing the hallway, all eyes on me. “I could wave one hand, and destroy you all, destroy everyone in this building.”

“Aisling, you must not do this.”

I ignored Drake, smiling as I allowed a little tendril of power to snap at the nearest person. He leaped backwards, his eyes black with fear.

“Jeez, Ash, you can’t—”

“Silence!” I roared, silencing Jim with the wave of a hand. Rene stepped forward, his eyes dark and unreadable.

I shot him a look that knocked him backwards three steps. Drake stood silent next to me, his face an impassive mask, his eyes dragonish as they watched me carefully.

The air flashed bright with the wards that were drawn on me, layer upon layer of binding holding me into place where I stood until I felt as if I was buried beneath tons of concrete. Several of the Guardians glanced at the small man in the business suit. He shook his head, his eyes curious as they watched me.

I flung wide my arms, smashing the wards bound to me, startling the Guardians into cries of surprise.

“No more would you trouble me with your petty policies and intolerance!” I yelled, my voice taking on a timbre I’d never heard. “You would be under my rule, my dominion! And the torment I could bring upon you would encompass a level of suffering unimaginable to your pitiful minds! You would worship me even as I destroyed the very fiber of your beings!”

The building shook as I closed my eyes and imagined the possibilities. Darkness seeped out of me and filled the room, dimming the lights as if a haze of dense black smoke obscured the vision. The people in the room held their collective breaths as the walls seemed to tremble and lean inward, the building itself poised on the verge of imploding.

“Yes,” the man in the suit finally said. “I believe that you could do that. But will you?”

Triumph sang in my veins. With one sweep of my hands, I could take charge of my life again. I could eliminate those who opposed me, and right every wrong ever done. I could fulfill the destiny that lay before me like a glittering, tempting smorgasbord of power.

Now you’re singing my song!

A slow smile curled my lips as I let my arms drop, releasing the dark power. It ebbed from me slowly, leaving me weak and shaking. The thick blackness of the air dissipated as everyone breathed once again.

Noooo!
echoed in my head.

“No,” I said, meeting the gaze of the man before me. “You’re quite right. I wouldn’t.”

He nodded and turned, the people in the hallway parting behind him as he left the room. “I believe I will make time in my schedule to speak with you.”

“Thank you,” I said politely, more than a little amused by the stunned expressions surrounding us. “Oh, sorry, Jim. You can talk.”

“Fires of Abaddon, Aisling! You could have given me a heart attack!” Jim sputtered. “Why don’t you warn me when you’re about to pull something like that?”

“It wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if I had,” I answered, fondling its ears before turning to Rene. “Are you OK? I didn’t mean to scare you, but—”

“You had a point to make, yes,” he said, nodding his head as he came forward. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Like Jim, I wish you had warned me of what you were planning, but eh. It is done, yes? And you have driven home the point you wished to make most dramatically.”

“You’re the daimon,” I said softly as we were escorted down the hallway after the man in the suit. “You should know better than anyone what fate has in store for me.”

“I do not make the path you follow, only help you find it,” he reminded me, taking my hand and pressing a swift kiss to the back of it. “But you get ten out of ten for style.”

Double doors at the end of the hallway were thrown open. I shot Drake a quick glance as we were swept through the door into a large, open room dominated by a curved, light oak desk.

“Did I worry you?” I asked him quietly.

“I was concerned that the others in the room did not know you as I did, and thus would not realize that although you might be a demon lord, you do not have it in you to be evil.”

I smiled, my heart warmed by the words. The feeling lasted until I saw the nameplate on the doors as they were closed behind us.

“You’re Caribbean Battiste, the head of the Guild,” I said to the dapper man.

He bowed slightly before sitting behind the big desk. “I have that honor. And you present the Guild with a very difficult situation, Aisling Grey.”

“I’m sorry. And I’m sorry about all of that business out there, but I knew I could tell you guys I’m not bad until I’m blue in the face, and you wouldn’t believe me.”

“So you thought you would prove to us that your intentions are pure?” Caribbean asked, steepling his fingers. “But now that you admit it was all a charade, can we not say that you are simply trying to lull us into a false sense of security, and that the danger you pose remains?”

I held his piercing gaze. “The power I could yield is beyond anything I have as a mere Guardian, or even as a wyvern’s mate. That I do not choose to use it has to show my true intentions.”

He bowed his head in acknowledgement. “There is that.” He glanced at the screen of the laptop sitting on his left side. “I’m afraid that much as I would enjoy conversing with you, I am very limited in time. What do you wish me to do about the Guardian who banished you?”

“Nothing. She’s not the problem, nor are any of them—they’re only doing their jobs. What I want from you is help.”

The tips of his fingers tapped against each other. “What form would this help take?”

I glanced at Drake. He nodded.

“I want to end the proscription. Drake has done what he can to find out information about how to end it, but with no luck. Today, another wyvern mentioned to me that he knew a way possible to do that. If
he
knew that, then the Guardians’ Guild must know as well. I’m not a bad person, Mr. Battiste. I was drawn into the situation partly through my own incompetence, but also through trickery and adverse circumstance. I want to be a Guardian again. I want to kick demonic ass, not have them work for me. I want to just be the simple demon lord, wyvern’s mate, and Guardian that I used to be.”

Jim snorted.

“Simple?” Caribbean asked.

“You know what I mean—demon lord to just one little demon. But most of all, I want this damned dark power to go away and leave me alone!”

I will never leave. I am as much a part of you as you are a part—

“I want to be me again!” I said loudly, drowning out the voice. “Can you help me? Please?”

“No,” he said.

My heart dropped. My hopes, dreams, everything that was anything to me—Drake excepted—crashed, burned, and turned to ash.

Caribbean Battiste pressed a button on his desk and stood up as the doors behind us opened. “But I know someone who can.”

T
here were dragons everywhere, green dragons, members of the sept gathered to celebrate our still-unachieved marriage. The nightclub that held the party had been reserved just for us; it was owned by a friend of Drake’s, an ilargi (reaper) named Traian, a man with a sweet smile that was at odds with his rather sinister job.

He was acting as bartender for the evening, Drake obviously not wanting to trust the job to anyone else from outside the sept at a dragon gathering. He nodded to me as I drifted down the bar, smiling at everyone as I hunted for the one man who filled my thoughts.

Music pulsed in the background, loud enough to mute the conversation around me, but not so loud that it dominated the scene. I smiled to myself as various dragons exited and entered the doors at the far end of the club, the atmosphere inside completely smoke-free. Drake had no doubt given an order that those members who smoked do so outside.

The main part of the club was given over to the dance floor. Like the rest of the décor, it was black with little twists of silver through it. Along the sides of the dance floor, curved alcoves made inky pools of shadows that made the occupants all but invisible. I shimmied through the crowd of dancers, unintentionally moving to the time of the pulsing music, smiling and nodding at people as they greeted me, but searching the whole time for one person, one man, the one being on this planet to whom I was willing to give everything I had.

Occasional sounds and glimpses of movement from the alcoves alerted me to the occupants, but none of them had the right feel. It wasn’t until I had shimmied my way to the end of the club that I saw an emerald glimmer from the last alcove.

I smiled and strolled slowly toward the man waiting there, skirting the small table to stand in front of the dark figure that all but blended into the shadows.

“Enjoying yourself?” I asked, brushing back an errant tendril of ebony hair that had fallen over Drake’s forehead.

“Not until this moment,” he answered, his voice smoky with desire. It sent a little shimmer of arousal up my back and arms.

“Dance with me?”

He shook his head. There was a candle glowing dimly on the table behind me, throwing just enough light on him for me to see the planes of his face, but his eyes were bright with passion, shining in the darkness like beacons that drew me closer. “We’ve already done that.”

“What do you want to do, then?” I asked, my skin flushing as his gaze roamed over me. I was wearing a dress he had picked out for me, black, slinky, and backless. The neckline plunged down to my waist, the material clinging to my body in a way that seemed almost to caress my flesh.

His face was all hard planes, not a line of softness to be found anywhere from the black slashes of his eyebrows, to his arrogant, aquiline nose, and the stubborn line of his jaw. The expression in his eyes, however, was unmistakable. “Do you have to ask?”

“I suppose not,” I answered, taking the hand he held out. He pulled me forward onto his lap so I was sitting astride him, the material of his pants rough against the flesh of my inner thighs. It was a rather risqué position in public, but I trusted that the shadows were deep enough that no one could see us. I let my fingers dance along his skin as I unbuttoned his silky shirt, reveling in the feeling of him. His hands slid up my bare thighs, curling into my hips to pull me closer to him, until we were nestled together in an intimacy that was only hampered by our clothing…and the environment.

Drake’s mouth burned along my neck as he kissed a path down my chest, nudging aside the clinging material to reveal my breast.

“Sweetie,” I said, squirming when he took my nipple in his mouth, laving his tongue over the tip. “Not that I want to stop you, but this is a public place.”

“No one can see us,” he answered, allowing his dragon fire to lick along my flesh. I arched my back against the sensation, my entire body tightening, as if poised to explode.

“Someone could come back here to talk to you—”

“There is no one else. There is only you and me.” His eyes all but burnt my flesh, his pupils narrow little slits against the glittering green.

My fingers curled into the thick muscles of his shoulders as he slid his hands under my dress, quickly snapping the minuscule satin straps of my underwear, his mouth taking possession of my nipple just as his fingers danced along my sensitive flesh. I sucked in my breath, arching my back again as his fire swept over me, his touch driving the tension within me to a breaking point.

Around us, people danced, drank, talked…and for all I knew, made love in the darkened alcoves just as Drake was making love to me with his hands and mouth.

“It’s too much,” I moaned, stopping him just long enough to pull his shirt off, moaning again when I leaned against him, my exposed breasts brushing against the soft hairs on his chest, breathing in the wonderfully spicy dragon scent of him that seemed to sink deep into my bones.

“There is no such thing as too much when it comes to you,
kincsem
,” he murmured as I stroked the wonderful muscles in his chest and arms. I wanted to touch him, all of him, with my hands and mouth and body, my passion driven by the desire to give him as much pleasure as his still-dancing fingers were giving me.