Playing with Fire

‘‘It’s fine, although a little hirsute for my tastes,’’ I answered, clearing my throat. He wasn’t turning the full power of his charm on me, but just being this close to him-naked-was reminding me that even a mate to a dragon could be susceptible to his power. The key was to keep him from feeling he had to prove a point. ‘‘I know other women like a furry chest, though.’’

‘‘And my belly. No-abs. That is the current trend, is it not? My abs are rock hard, are they not?’’

‘‘Six-pack,’’ I agreed, nodding at the body part in question.

‘‘I can do things with my cock that would make you faint with pleasure,’’ he said with half-closed eyelids. ‘‘What do you think of it?’’

I bit my lip and gazed upon his privates. His penis was enlarged, bobbing gently in the breeze. ‘‘It looks pretty much like any other male genitalia, although I doubt if many men would tolerate having their penises tattooed.’’

‘‘That was not my choice,’’ he said with a shrug. ‘‘It was the first curse bound to me by a very jealous diviner years before I rose to power. If you trace out the words of the curse, they will glow,’’ he added with a leer.

‘‘I think I’ll pass on the opportunity to see a glowing penis curse. Is that it, or would you like me to admire your legs, as well?’’

He sighed in a highly dramatic fashion. ‘‘I do my best to please you, and still you spurn me. Tell me, did you enjoy the bestial act with your dragon?’’

‘‘Very much so,’’ I said, refusing to rise to the bait. ‘‘But you didn’t summon me here to discuss my love life, did you?’’

He wrapped his fingers around my neck and started pulling me down to his bare chest. ‘‘You wound me with such harsh words. Let us kiss and make up, and then I will discuss just why I have summoned you before me.’’

‘‘Do you really want to invoke Gabriel’s displeasure over something so trivial as a kiss?’’ I asked slowly, hoping he would stop and think before he did something rash.

He paused, his eyes thoughtful. I used the opportunity to slip out of his grip, edging away slightly.

‘‘This dragon of yours… he is jealous of you?’’

‘‘He is a dragon. They are extremely possessive.’’

‘‘Interesting.’’ He leaned back again, his thoughts masked as he watched me for a few seconds. ‘‘I wonder how far he would go to reclaim his mate?’’

I shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the thought of Gabriel going up against someone as powerful as Magoth.

‘‘Tell me of this second rumor, sweet May,’’ he continued. ‘‘Did a thief taker finally catch up with you?’’

‘‘Yes. I was arrested, tried, and sentenced to imprisonment in the Akasha.’’

‘‘And yet you are here, in the glorious flesh,’’ he said, his gaze dropping to my breasts.

‘‘Gabriel helped me escape.’’

‘‘Again the dragon,’’ he mused, a little smile playing around his lips. His eyes were as cold as ever, though, coolly calculating. ‘‘I did hear that the thief taker caught you robbing the lair of another dragon. Tell me, minion, what did you take from him?’’

Chapter Seventeen

‘‘I haven’t taken anything from Gabriel,’’ I said, purposely misinterpreting his statement in order to give me time to think. Why was he interested in the dragons? I ran my mind over the items I’d seen in Kostya’s lair again. Could the golden dragon amulet be valuable after all? It certainly wasn’t anything else in the unlocked chest, which meant it had to be the amulet or something in the locked ones that piqued Magoth’s interest.

A horrible thought came to me-what if Porter was working for Magoth? Was this some sort of a test? Was I about to be replaced? I dismissed the notion almost immediately; if Porter was in Magoth’s employ, he would certainly know exactly what I was. His threat of the dreadlord killing me if I mentioned the amulet just didn’t fit.

None of which explained why Magoth was so interested in the contents of Kostya’s lair.

‘‘You play games with me, and yet, they are not the games we can both enjoy,’’ he said in a light tone, but the undercurrent of menace was enough to turn my blood cold. ‘‘Answer the question, servant.’’

The word stunned with the force of a lash. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, but I could not refuse to answer a direct question. I could, however, censor out any information not specifically questioned. ‘‘I didn’t have much time to spend in the dragon’s lair. I took only one thing away, a gold amulet in the shape of a dragon.’’

‘‘An amulet?’’ He frowned, sitting up. I was pleased to notice that his erection had ceased being quite so rampant. ‘‘What sort of an amulet? Describe it to me.’’

‘‘It was nothing special,’’ I said, relieved that he hadn’t asked me either what I’d gone there to find, or who had sent me to take the amulet. It was far, far better that he think Gabriel had sent me to rob another dragon than to hear of the phylactery. ‘‘It was about so big, made of gold, but not made very well, as if it was a child’s toy.’’

He froze. ‘‘Describe it.’’

‘‘I just did.’’ Why was he so interested in the amulet? I shook my head at his odd reaction. ‘‘It’s just an amulet. Gold, shaped roughly like a dragon, very primitive and quite honestly, not attractive in the least sense. It was in the unlocked chest, so it can’t be worth much to anyone.’’

‘‘The Lindorm Phylactery,’’ he murmured, his gaze filled with disbelief and confusion.

My jaw just about hit the floor at his words. ‘‘The… the what?’’

‘‘Could it be?’’ His eyes narrowed as he thought about it. ‘‘I had not heard of it surfacing. It was in an unlocked chest, you say? That does not seem right, not right at all.’’

‘‘The phylactery? Are you saying that ugly little lump of gold was the phylactery?’’ I shook my head. ‘‘It can’t be. It’s not at all like the Gulden Phylactery you made me take from that oracle in South Africa. That was a lovely crystal vial. The thing I’m talking about is an amulet, a primitive-looking amulet of a dragon.’’

I hurriedly scooted out of the way as Magoth rose from the chaise, mindlessly pacing back and forth as he thought out loud. ‘‘What would a dragon be doing allowing the most valuable artifact of his kind to sit in an unlocked chest? It does not make sense, and yet the description matches.’’

‘‘It doesn’t make any sense at all. I might not have a great knowledge of dragons and their society, but from what Gabriel told me-’’ I stopped in horror of what I’d said, one hand going to my mouth.

Magoth spun around, his gaze so intense it slammed me backward a good six feet to the wall. My ears rang with the blow, giving me a moment of disorientation.

‘‘The wyvern spoke to you of it?’’ The temperature of the room dropped ten degrees as Magoth took a deep breath. I’m not a cowardly person in general, but at the look of unabated fury on his face, I crumpled into a ball on the floor, covering my head with my hands. And not a moment too soon.

‘‘You were sent to take it!’’ Magoth roared with a fury I’d never heard, loud enough to shatter every bit of glass in the room. Glass shards from the windows, pictures that hung on the wall, light fixtures, and assorted other sources rained down to the floor, several pieces piercing my skin.

I stayed curled in a protective ball until the worst of it was over, then carefully lifted my head and eyed Magoth.

His eyes were lit with a glow that left me terrified. ‘‘Where is the Lindorm Phylactery, May?’’

‘‘I don’t have it,’’ I said quickly, my gaze darting around the room for a possible escape.

Magoth eliminated that idea by simply grabbing my neck in one hand and lifting me a good two feet off the floor. ‘‘Where is the Lindorm Phylactery, servant?’’

‘‘I don’t know.’’

He shook me as effortlessly as if I were a dish towel. I clutched at his hand, trying to ease its grip enough to allow air into my lungs. ‘‘Where?’’

‘‘The L’au-dela has it!’’ I cried as wavering black blotches appeared before my eyes. ‘‘They took it from me. It’s in their vault.’’

He opened his hand, allowing me to plummet to the floor. I lay stunned for a few seconds, rubbing my neck as I