Five

I assumed that even a spirit dragon would be familiar with the most famous nightclub in all of Europe—at least so far as denizens of the Otherworld went—but I was sadly mistaken.

“What are we doing here?” Constantine silently read the curved text over the door. “Goety and Theurgy.”

“G&T is a club, yes. It’s the club for the Otherworld, and is the home ground of the Venediger—the woman who more or less polices all immortal activity in this area of the world—and is the most neutral meeting place in Europe. All of that is why we are here.”

Constantine glanced around, sending piercing looks up and down the street. It seemed that he didn’t like what he saw because he left me to stroll a few yards down the road to where he subjected an intersection to further scrutiny. This section of Paris had few mortal visitors, despite its appearing to be nothing more than a slightly eccentric neighborhood.

I tried not to notice how the slight breeze rippled Constantine’s shirt against his chest, or how the little hairs on his arms gleamed golden in the late afternoon sun, and how the same gold threads glittered in his shoulder-length mane of hair.

Worse yet, I could still remember the feel of that kiss he had planted on me in Seville. I badly wanted to believe that he had taken me by surprise, and that’s why I’d allowed it to go on as long as it had, but my father had made sure that both Aoife and I knew how to protect ourselves from unwanted advances and, unfortunately, the thought of self-protection hadn’t even entered my mind when Constantine had kissed me.

All I could think about was how hot his mouth was, and how much hotter I wanted him to make me feel. I shook that thought away, and tried to focus on the here and now.

I spent a few minutes trying hard to not watch him, since he wasn’t a man, but a dragon, the most arrogant, alpha, and annoying of all the races. “And I should know,” I said softly, refusing to let myself dwell on the way his jeans fit (sinfully tight). “It took me three years to wash Ben Fong out of my hair.”

“Who’s Ben Fong?”

I turned at the whisper behind me, and peeked into the cage that I’d set next to the door. “Oh, hello, Gary. I didn’t realize you were awake.”

“I just took a little catnap while you got Constantine set to rights after going through the portal. Are we where we’re supposed to be?” He tried to look past me, but just in case there were any mortals on the street, I dropped the edge of my sweater, which I’d wrapped around his cage.

“Yes, but I’d appreciate it if you’d keep quiet until we’re inside.”

“So, who’s Ben Fong?” he repeated.

I sighed, and with my eyes measuring the width of Constantine’s shoulders, answered dismissively, “Just an old boyfriend.”

“A dragon boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

“Did he kiss you like Constantine did?”

“For heaven’s sake, Gary! That’s none of your business.”

“Maybe not, but I was right there when you and Constantine went at it, and it looked like it was a really good one. You were moaning and squirming against him, so I figured it must have been awfully nice.”

“I did not squirm!”

“Okay, wiggled. Your derriere definitely wiggled with happiness.”

“For the love of—look, it was just a kiss, okay? Unexpected, but nothing more than a little peck.”

Gary heaved a sigh of pure longing. “If Constantine kissed me like he did you, I would have yelled about it from the highest mountain.”

I peered into the cage just long enough to give him a good glare. “I repeat: none of your business. Now pipe down until I uncover you.”

Constantine turned back toward me, a half-frown pulling his golden brown eyebrows together. Just as I refused to notice how nice his butt looked in his jeans, now I told myself that it didn’t matter in the least that the man was built like an Adonis and had the lips of an angel. A sexy angel.

Dragons were trouble, pure and simple.

“I see no demons, but that doesn’t mean they have not followed us here.”

“Yes, but G&T is the one place in Europe where it doesn’t matter if they do know exactly where we are.” I opened the door and stepped into the cool darkness, a handful of memories of my time with Ben threatening to swamp my brain. I refused to let them, just as I refused to acknowledge that Constantine might be just as irritating and arrogant and intolerable as the next dragon, but he was also chivalrous. And honorable. And maddeningly interesting.

Dammit, I was perilously close to going against my no-dragons rule of boyfriends.

“Why do you say that?” he asked, and for a moment, I thought he had read my mind.

“Say what?” I cast my mind back a few seconds. “Oh, that G&T is the one safe spot? Because demons can only enter the premises if they are summoned by someone. And that someone would be under the control of the Venediger while in the club. It’s something to do with the original magic used centuries ago. I’m not quite sure what the original mage who built the place did to it, but it sure works. Hello?” The last word was called out into the darkness. My voice echoed unpleasantly.

“I was told the club had been destroyed,” Constantine said, moving Gary to a stack of wooden packing crates. He glanced around, clearly unimpressed with the interior. “I see that information was accurate.”

“It’s in the process of being rebuilt. Hello? Jovana?” I made my way through a maze of packing crates, chairs wrapped in plastic, and a several pieces of new bar-related equipment stacked against one wall. Overhead, lights dangled by electrical cords, obviously awaiting further installation. The room had a naked, unsettling ambiance heightened by the fact that apparently no one else was present. “I can’t imagine that she’d leave the place unattended. Oh, hello.”

A nondescript middle-aged man hurried from the area that used to hold the back offices of the club. In his hand he held a clipboard, while a cell phone was clamped between his ear and shoulder. “—paid to have the lights properly installed, not just hooked up and dangling, dangling they are from the ceiling. No, you’ll finish them today. I don’t care if you have other work—” The man stopped when he saw us, his eyes widening when Constantine, who had been peeling my sweater off of Gary’s cage, stepped forward. “Dragons! Oh dear, the Venediger won’t be happy about that, no she won’t, she won’t be happy about that at all. What? No, next week will not suffice. You will finish installing the lights today, or a blight will descend upon your testes. Do you hear me? It will descend with all due vengeance. Good day.”