‘‘Hear who?’’ Savian asked.
I looked back to Gabriel. ‘‘How can I hear you if he can’t?’’
‘‘You are my mate. He is not,’’ he answered with a growl, his eyes burning as they fixed on Savian. ‘‘Who is this man?’’
‘‘Savian the thief taker, meet Gabriel Tauhou, wyvern of the silver dragon sept,’’ I said, gesturing toward Gabriel. ‘‘Don’t let the fact that you can’t see or hear Gabriel confuse you-he’s in the shadow world, but he’s very much here. Er… sort of.’’
Savian’s gaze rested on me with speculation. ‘‘A dragon in the beyond? Didn’t know it could happen.’’
‘‘This seems to be the day for impossible things,’’ I said, crossing my arms tightly. ‘‘What is it you want? Other than to haul me back to the committee, that is?’’
‘‘Well…’’ He smiled. It was a particularly charming smile, one that held a good deal of humor in it, and I thought for a moment or two that if I’d never met Gabriel, I might have followed up on that smile to see what sort of a man was behind it. ‘‘There is the matter of that little offer you made me.’’
I froze again, this time horrified as the memory came back to me. ‘‘That has nothing to do with anything,’’ I said, glancing at Gabriel.
‘‘Oh, really?’’ His gaze flitted around the room, and I knew for certain what he was going to say before he said it. ‘‘You don’t think propositioning me in order to get me to let you go has any pertinence to this situation?’’
‘‘You’re a rat,’’ I told him. ‘‘That was downright mean.’’
‘‘I know,’’ he said, his smile widening. ‘‘But you have to admit, as rats go, I’m fairly charming.’’
Gabriel’s silver-eyed gaze shifted from Savian to me.
‘‘I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I said that I didn’t actually proposition him in order to get him to let me go?’’ I asked him.
‘‘I believe you,’’ he said without hesitation. ‘‘You are my mate. You would not be so if you did not respect and honor me as I do you.’’
An odd sort of constriction gripped my heart. His words were so heartfelt, they touched deep, dark parts of my soul.
‘‘I did proposition him,’’ I said, needing to admit the truth to him. ‘‘And he took me up on it, but I couldn’t go through with it.’’
Gabriel was silent for a moment, his eyes shadowed. Finally, he nodded. ‘‘I would expect you to try to use whatever method you had available to free yourself. That you did not betray me to do so does not, however, surprise me.’’
‘‘It was a close thing,’’ Savian said with a wicked grin.
‘‘Oh, it was not! I never even unbuttoned so much as one button! I couldn’t! Not when I thought of Gabriel.’’
‘‘You’re not going to start making declarations of eternal, undying love now, are you?’’ Savian asked, glancing at his watch. ‘‘I’m afraid I can only give you fifteen minutes, and then we’ll need to be on our way to catch the plane to Paris.’’
‘‘Do not leave this room,’’ Gabriel ordered.
I turned to him, surprised.
‘‘I will be with you in ten minutes,’’ he said. ‘‘Do not leave the room unless the authorities come. And do not proposition that… that…
I couldn’t help but smile at the indignant look on his face, which faded along with the rest of him.
‘‘I take it that’s a ‘no’ on the declarations of love?’’ Savian asked.
I took the sole chair in the room, unfolded a bit of discarded newspaper onto the stained seat, and gingerly sat down on it. ‘‘I think I’ll pass, thank you.’’
‘‘Ah? The dragon’s gone?’’
I nodded.
‘‘Well, then.’’ He moved across the room and closed the door, giving me a come-hither look that was almost as good as Magoth’s. ‘‘Perhaps you’d like me to show you how I can make you forget your precious wyvern?’’
‘‘I’ll pass on that, too. Why don’t you spend the few minutes it’ll take Gabriel to get here telling me how it is you were lurking around outside the room of a murdered colleague?’’
He leaned against the wall next to the window. ‘‘Oddly enough, I was curious about how you ended up here as well. Shall we exchange stories? I can give you fourteen minutes.’’
‘‘And I can give you…’’ I pursed my lips as I thought. ‘‘I’d say you have about eight minutes before a very angry dragon is going to break down the door, so why don’t you go first, just in case Gabriel gets here before you have a chance to talk.’’
I have to give Savian credit-he didn’t appear to be too worried about having to face Gabriel, although a couple of faint lines appeared around his mouth.
‘‘Although it isn’t the gentlemanly thing to do, I will go first since you so obviously desire it. I am here because I was pursuing a line of investigation, and it led me to this room.’’
‘‘A line of investigation concerning one of your colleagues?’’ I asked.
He shrugged. ‘‘Porter wasn’t so much a colleague as a rival. Thief takers… well, we tend to be a solitary lot, minding our own business and not mingling with one another too much. And Porter was… different.’’
‘‘I’ll say he was. Do you know that he was blackmailing my twin?’’
‘‘No, but it wouldn’t surprise me,’’ Savian said. He rubbed his chin for a moment. ‘‘That might explain some things.’’
‘‘What things? Were you investigating Porter himself?’’
His smile was as cheeky as ever. ‘‘Let’s just say that I was following up a sense of Porter being involved in something he shouldn’t have been.’’
‘‘Would you happen to know whom he was working for?’’
‘‘Alas, I hadn’t uncovered that,’’ he answered, his smile fading. ‘‘To be perfectly honest-something I normally try to avoid, but I’ll make an exception since I like you-I hadn’t found out much about what Porter was up to. He had something going on, and it was something big, but that’s all I could tell. Perhaps you have more information?’’
‘‘Perhaps, but like you, I prefer to play things close to the vest.’’
‘‘Now, now, I showed you my hand-the least you can do is show me yours,’’ he said with a cock of his eyebrow.
‘‘There’s really not much to my hand-he blackmailed me into trying to get something for him, but he didn’t tell me why he wanted it, or if it was for himself, or the dreadlord he said he worked for.’’
‘‘Dreadlord, hmm?’’ Savian chewed that over for a few minutes. ‘‘Interesting. Could be a demon lord, could be someone else.’’
‘‘Exactly. And now he’s dead, which means there’s someone else involved. But why kill him?’’
Savian shrugged again. ‘‘It would be foolish to speculate until we had some answers to our questions. And now, if you would not mind, perhaps you’d care to clarify how it is I found you with the not-at-all-lamented Mr. Porter?’’
‘‘Porter kidnapped Cyrene in order to get me to do something.’’
‘‘Ah.’’ His glance slid down to the dead man.
‘‘He was dead when we got here, and no, I don’t think Cyrene killed him. She couldn’t have.’’
‘‘That’s right, your twin is a naiad,’’ he said, nodding. ‘‘Although it is within the realm of possibility, I agree that it would be unlikely an elemental being such as she would harm a mortal… even one as reprehensible as Porter. It certainly is a puzzle.’’
We stood in silence for a moment before I was driven to say, ‘‘Gabriel isn’t going to let you take me into custody, you know.’’
‘‘I’m aware of that, yes,’’ he answered amiably.
‘‘Then why are you just standing here chitchatting with me while he races to get here?’’ I asked. ‘‘Shouldn’t you at least be making an attempt to try to capture me? Not that I want you to, but it’s making me curious.’’
‘‘Well, it’s like this,’’ he said, scratching the whiskery stubble on his chin. ‘‘When I first saw you here, I thought my luck had turned and I’d be able to bring you in myself. Although I will say I had a moment’s qualm about how I was going to get you to go peacefully. You’re not a pushover.’’
‘‘Thank you,’’ I said politely. ‘‘I’m also not the sort of woman who has to wait for a man to help her, although
