Chapter Seven #3
His eyes focused on her, warmed by the concern written on her face. She offered him the cup again, and for a moment, he embraced the fire of the wine before struggling to sit up. He didn’t have time to sit around and admire her. “No. But I will live. Where are my trousers?”
“They didn’t seem to come through,” she said, her gaze flickering to his lower half for a few seconds. “You have really nice legs. Oh goddess, that was inappropriate, wasn’t it? I’m sorry.”
He looked at the limbs in question. “They are just legs.”
“You may think so, but your thighs are ...” She coughed and cleared her throat, standing and offering him her hand. “Sorry again. I’m not normally so obnoxious. I’m going to blame the portal. Let’s get you up.”
The portal attendant, a round woman in a hot-pink jumpsuit, moved in on his other side to help right him.
“Dragons always do have troubles,” the woman said in a German accent. “But you made it with all your arms and legs, and that is always good, yes? I will go look in the found-objects box to see if there is a pair of trousers to fit you.”
Yrian wobbled for a few seconds as he stood up, but another—much longer—drink of wine had his mind clearing and his body ceasing its screaming objections.
Five minutes later they exited the shop, and Becket directed them to a car that was waiting.
A man and a woman stood next to it.
“We made it,” Becket told them as she approached.
“So Aisling said,” the woman answered, eyeing him. He studied her for a moment, then transferred his gaze to the man next to her. “Hello, Yrian. I’m Allie. This is Christian. He’s the head of the Moravian Council.”
“Dark One,” Yrian said, giving him a curt bow. He would have made a proper one, but he had a horrible suspicion that should he try, he might end up toppling forward.
The vampire bowed in return. “It is our pleasure to welcome you to Brno, but I believe it would be safer for Becket if we were to get her off the street.”
“Have Candy and Andy returned?” she asked, her normally silky voice now pinched as she climbed into the back seat of the car.
“No, but we’ve caught three other demons lurking around the area,” Christian said as he and his mate entered the car after them.
It was of the style that had facing seats, just like one his brother had made available for him, but that vehicle had been defective and ran into various road signs, barriers, and occasionally buildings before Yrian deemed it unusable.
“Their forms were destroyed, but the Guardian we brought in to help says they all belonged to the same demon lord.”
“Kashi,” Yrian said, nodding, then stopped himself. “No, my youngest brother says he uses another name since the First Dragon stripped him of kinship.”
“Bael,” Christian answered, his lips twisting in a grimace.
“That is it, although I cannot think of him as anything but Kashi. Baltic said he was confined to the Egyptian underworld. Has he escaped?” Yrian absently cracked his knuckles, his mind fighting its way through the haze caused by the portal to focus on what needed to be done.
After he saw to it that Becket was protected, that is.
“I believe not. The dragon progenitor implied he was still confined to the Duat,” Christian answered.
“Looks like everyone is flying back this way,” Allie said, having studied her phone for a few minutes. She glanced up at them. “Since it’s probably not safe for either of you to hang around an easily accessible hotel, we’d be delighted to have you stay with us at the castle.”
Yrian slid a look toward the Dark One. He looked anything but delighted. Yrian realized with amazement that the odd sensation in his chest was the urge to laugh. He was scandalized by the very idea.
“What’s wrong?” Becket asked, leaning in to ask in a whisper. The Dark One and his mate were distracted by something on his phone, so he answered just as quietly. “I am Yrian Shadowsworn. I do not laugh.”
Becket’s eyebrows rose a fraction. He liked her eyebrows.
They were a dark russet, darker than the coppery hair that she liked to hide with a glamour, just as she hid her freckled skin.
He really liked her freckles. He had the worst urge to cover her face in kisses, just to see how those freckles tasted.
“OK,” she said, then added, “That’s a shame, really. I think a sense of humor is an attractive quality in a man. Sexy, even. Are you going to answer the vamps?”
“Dragons do not seek aid from Dark Ones,” he told her, loud enough to be heard by the others. He inclined his head toward Christian. “I appreciate the offer of succor, but I have no need of it. I do not fear demons, wrath or otherwise.”
“Bully for you,” Becket all but snapped at him before turning to Allie. “And here I’d always heard dragons had impeccable manners. If your offer extends to me again, Allie, I’d be thrilled to the tips of my toes and back to stay with you. Yrian may not worry about demons, but I definitely do.”
“Why are you angry with me?” he couldn’t help but ask her, trying to puzzle out why she was suddenly as bristly as an aurochs’s tongue.
“Dude!” she answered, shooting a fast look at the others before settling a frown upon him. “I realize you’ve been out of the mortal world for almost two thousand years, but surely even in your time there was such a thing as common courtesy?”
“I thanked them,” he said, pointing at the Dark One, who was now, he noticed, wearing a nobly martyred expression. His mate had a hand over her mouth to obviously contain giggles. “I was courteous.”
“Your idea of courtesy and mine differ greatly,” was all she said before she crossed her arms and looked pointedly out of the window.
He was annoyed with being so ignored, but couldn’t think of a way to demand she stop refusing to look at him without appearing in a bad light. To his surprise, the Dark One, after a few minutes’ study of both Becket and him, gave him a sympathetic look.
Before he could try to figure out what that was about, they arrived at a massive castle that sat atop a low hill. In the fields below, several tents, trailers, and stages lurked, with throngs of people streaming into and out of the venue.
“When do you sing?” Yrian asked Becket when they alighted at a magnificently carved stone door.
She glanced at her phone. “Our rehearsal time is in an hour, but our next actual performance is going to be later tonight. Christian had it moved back in case it took longer to get you out than we anticipated. Why?”
“I wish to see you sing,” was all he said before he followed her into the castle.
He realized that although he would prefer to keep Becket away from the vampires—solely for her protection, of course—their domicile would be likely to have some form of security, and since he had to split his time between protecting her, finding the wrath demons that threatened her, and figuring out what Kashi was up to, it was better that she stay in the castle.
Accordingly, he said to Christian, “I have changed my mind. I will accept the succor you offer to Becket and me. I may have to follow the wrath demons, and it would ease my mind to know she is safe here.”
“We’re going to have a little chat about you being Mr. Bossy Boots, but right now, I need to get changed and get my behind down to the practice stage. Am I in the same room, Allie?”
“You are, minus my children, who have been forbidden to bother you.” She slid a glance toward Yrian. “And Yrian, of course. Let me show you to your room. It’s just down the hall from Becket.”
He shook his head. “I will stay with her. I can’t protect her if I am not present.”
“You are so not going to make decisions for me,” Becket said in a voice that seemed to be made up of sharp, stabby bits. “The First Dragon said that you guys would take care of Candy and Andy for me, not that you would become the Dictator of Becketsville.”
“And if the wrath demons made it into your room in deep night, would you be able to defeat them while I was asleep in another room?” he asked, wondering that such a intelligent woman wouldn’t see how necessary it was that she remain at his side.
“I doubt if a wrath demon could make it inside,” Allie said as her mate, with a roll of his eyes, headed off in answer to a call. “Christian has the castle protected every week by a professional mage service, in addition to which a Guardian comes out every ten days to refresh the wards.”
“These wrath demons are not like others,” Yrian told her. “They could get past your protections. Becket? Would you be able to protect yourself?”
Her jaw worked a couple of times before she said, “Not as well as I could with you there. All right, I admit that you being in the room is going to be safer, but I really dislike being told what to do.”
Allie looked worried. “Is there something else we should do to protect the children?”
“Yes. Place guards at all the entrances,” he answered. “Where is our room? I wish to ascertain how easy it will be to defend should an attack come tonight.”
It was obvious that neither Becket nor Allie liked what he said, but they duly showed him to a pleasant, well-lit room dominated by a large bed.
He ignored it to check the window protections, seeing three different wards on it to guard against beings of dark magic.
The door was also protected, although not as heavily.
Given that they were two floors up, he judged the windows safe, but pointed out the door could use more protection.
“I’ll have our Guardian friend add in extra wards tonight,” Allie assured them, pulling out her phone as she hurried out of the room.
Becket looked at him.
He looked at Becket.
They both turned to look at the bed.
“I’d like to point out that this is my room, and you’re just a guest in it, but since I’m also a guest, and you’ll be protecting me from Andy and Candy, I guess you can have the bed,” she said with a half smile. “I’ll sleep on the window seat.”