“I can’t. May and I tried, but mates can’t talk to other mates any more than dragons can talk to other dragons. It’s all part of the curse. There you are! Kostya’s on the phone. Well, Kostya’s girlfriend. Her name is Aoife.”

“I’m not his girlfriend,” I corrected, looking over at Kostya. He sat on the edge of the examination bed in Dr. Ek’s room, wincing when he moved his shoulders. Dr. Ek had gone into a back storage area to find some elastic bandages, which he said would help Kostya with his broken collarbone. “Drake is your brother, right?”

“Yes. Is he there?” Kostya got to his feet. I offered him the phone, but he shook his head. “I can’t hear or understand him. The septs haven’t been able to communicate since the weyr was destroyed by Asmodeus’s curse.”

“I didn’t get to him yet.” I gave Kostya a potent look. “We’ll get to just who this dude is who cursed you, and why, just as soon as I’m done talking—What? Sorry, I was distracted. Yes, Kostya is here, and he’s fine, although beat up a bit. He says the collarbone should heal up in a few minutes. I guess dragons have some super-healing thing.”

“She knows that,” Kostya said, moving over to stand next to me. “Ask her why Jim was unbound. And tell her about the red dragons.”

“I said I would, just give me a minute. And sit back down. You look like you’re about to fall over.”

That made him straighten his shoulders, which caused him to wince again. He snatched up his shirt and carefully inserted an arm into it. “Stop fussing over me, woman. I will be whole again shortly, and then you can resume ogling me and desiring my body.”

“Oh, you wish,” I muttered.

“He hurt his collarbone,” I heard Aisling repeat to her husband. A low masculine rumble followed. “I don’t know, Aoife hasn’t told me yet. No, I don’t know that either. Honest to Pete, Drake! The important thing is that he’s okay, and Jim is there. I don’t know—she hasn’t told me that, although frankly, I’m amazed she’s said as much as she has given that you and evidently Kostya are grilling us both to the point where we can’t talk to each other.” Her voice became stronger and louder as she returned to the phone. “Sorry about that, Aoife. Wyverns! Let me get the important details before Drake bursts.”

There was a male protest in the background.

“I can’t listen to her and you at the same time,” Aisling said. “Now, Aoife—”

“What is she saying?” Kostya demanded, having gotten his shirt onto his back.

“Nothing. And if you don’t stop distracting me, I’ll never be able to ask the stuff you want me to ask. Go sit over there and stop flaunting your chest at me.”

“I am not flaunting anything at you, least of all my chest!”

“You haven’t buttoned up your shirt,” I pointed out. “Clearly you want me to admire your naked chest. Go on, admit it—as much as you make a fuss over me ogling you, you secretly love it!”

“And you love doing it,” he countered. A tiny little curl of smoke emerged from one nostril. I suddenly felt very warm.

“Of course I do. I’m a perfectly normal woman with a perfectly normal libido, and you happen to be an incredibly handsome man.” I took a step toward him at the same time he took one toward me. I could feel the heat in him, which I realized with a start was his dragon fire. It roared within him, but somehow he managed to keep control of it.

That didn’t explain why it made me feel hot, though.

“Cease tempting me, woman,” he growled, the tiny little silver lights in his black eyes glittering at me.

I turned around to face the door. “Fine, you want to be all chesty at me? I just won’t look. Tempting you, my ass. Hello? Are you still there, Aisling?”

“Yes,” she answered, laughter evident in her voice. “I was just waiting for you to be done looking at Kostya’s chest. It is a very nice chest. Ow! Drake! There’s no need to pinch me; Kostya is your brother, and he is a very handsome man. Honestly! Talk about jealous… Where were we, Aoife?”

“What is she saying now?” Kostya demanded. “Why are you laughing? Are you mocking me? Is she?”

“I’m not mocking you in the least, but I can say this—your brother is evidently just as big a pain in the butt as you are. Sorry, Aisling. I didn’t mean to be rude about your husband.”

“—can’t possibly carry on a conversation with you peppering me with questions like that. I know you’re concerned about him—I’m just as worried—but he’s evidently all right, because Aoife doesn’t seem like the sort of person who would lie to me about that. What?”

Silence fell. I pulled the cell phone away from my ear to double-check that I hadn’t dropped the connection. “Aisling?” I asked into it.

“Uh…” Her voice had an oddly strained quality to it. “Aoife, I’ve been requested to ask who you are.”

“I told you who I was.”

“Yes…” She hesitated. “Drake wishes to know if Kostya has named you as his mate.”

“That again?”

“What?” Kostya asked, moving around so that he could see my face.

“Aisling wants to know if you called me your mate.” I made a face.

To my surprise, a dull red tint flooded his face. “I have not named you as mate, and you can tell her that.”

“He says to tell you that I’m not his mate.”

“Hmm.” She sounded thoughtful. “But you are romantically involved—Drake, I can’t possibly ask that list of questions. It would take an hour or more. No. She says she’s not. I don’t know! How am I supposed to know the answer to that? I’m not there! Here, you want to ask her? You go right ahead.”

There was a moment’s silence; then a man’s voice came on the phone, a voice similar to Kostya’s but with a slightly different, more European accent. “This is Drake Vireo. You are the woman with my brother?”

“Yes.” I eyed Kostya. His brother sounded just as officious.

“Where are you?”

“In a doctor’s office.”

“No, what country. You are American?”

“Yes, but we’re in Sweden.”