“I’ve killed him!” Bee wailed. “I didn’t mean to! Constantine, you know I didn’t mean to, right? It was an accident! I thought he was a demon, and I had a plan, and was going to yell for you after I bashed the demon on the head, but now I’ve killed Kostya, and oh gods, my sister is going to murder me!”

Constantine shot her a pointed look, wondering if Bee did not see the irony of the situation, and debated pointing out that she was acting much the drama llama, but decided that on the whole, it would be better not to point out her obvious failing.

“No one is going to murder you,” he started to say, but just as he did so, a smallish woman emerged from the room, one with long brown curly hair and clear gray eyes. She looked from him to Bee, then her eyes widened when she saw Kostya.

“What have you done to him?” The small woman leaped at Constantine, her fingernails raking down his front. “You’ll pay for this!”

“Aoife, wait!” Bee tried to pull the woman off him, jerking her back by both arms. “Constantine’s chest is all hurt from the curse striking back. Besides, he’s not the one who beaned Kostya, I am.”

The woman called Aoife—who Constantine remembered was the name of Bee’s sister—released her hold on him and spun around. He thought for a moment she would attack Bee, but she simply snarled something quite rude before hurrying over to where Kostya was leaning drunkenly against the wall. “I might’ve known you’d feel free to bash Kostya’s brains in.”

Bee jerked back, rubbing her arms, her sister’s words obviously cutting deep. Without considering the action, Constantine put his arm around Bee and pulled her to his side, saying, “She did not attack Kostya intentionally. She thought he was a demon, although I am unsure of why she came to that conclusion.” He turned to Bee. “You have a reason for this?”

“Yes, of course I do.” Bee, who was still rubbing her arms, leaned into him for a moment before realizing what she was doing, after which she dug her elbow into his side until he released her. Tipping her chin up in a manner he was coming to enjoy, she added, “He crawled in through the window. What was I to think but that he was a demon trying to break in?”

“Ah. That is a good reason.” Constantine eyed the woman who was still fussing over Kostya.

“Good reason, my ass. You could have looked before you hit him,” Aoife snapped. She gave him a frosty glance. “And just who are you?”

“Constantine,” Kostya answered for him, the former reclaiming his wits at last. His voice was rough, but he reached up to stop Aoife from dabbing at his wound and pushed himself away from the wall. “That unfortunate being is Constantine Norka, once a member of the black dragons, and later the traitor who wrought their destruction.”

“That is old history, and has no pertinence to the present,” Constantine said with a noble lift of his own chin. “You are Aoife, sister to Bee? You do not look like sisters.”

“Aoife takes after our father, while I seemed to get most of my genes from our mom,” Bee said, biting her lip. “I am sorry, Kostya, I really am. It’s just—the demons are after us, and we have the ring, and then I Charmed the curse, but it backlashed against poor Constantine—well, I just kind of assumed that you were a baddy.”

“Why did you think that a demon would be trying to get in?” Kostya asked, frowning.

“Because Constantine got the talisman from Abaddon.”

Kostya transferred his frown to Constantine. “I might have known he’d have something to do with the situation. Everything he touches turns bad.”

There was a word on the tip of Constantine’s tongue, but before he could utter it, Bee hurried on. “It wasn’t Constantine’s fault. Not that part, anyway. Gary blabbered everything, and Asmodeus put the rest together, and Constantine says he let us escape so that his demons could follow us. Asmodeus’s demons, not Constantine’s. Ugh, I’m sounding just as confused as you look.” Bee put a hand to the back of her head. “I got hit in the head, you know.”

“You need not explain further,” Constantine told her, wrapping his arm around her again. This time, she sagged into him without rejecting the embrace. “Kostya is clearly in an argumentative frame of mind, and will not benefit from your time. What are you doing here, godson?”

Kostya flinched at the last word. “If it was at all possible to have you removed as my godfather, I would do so, but the last time I broached the subject with my mother, she lectured me about the sins of my father.”

“Toldi was quite mad at the end,” Constantine agreed. “That does not change the fact that you have not answered my question.”

“The front door was blocked. We had a call from the Venediger’s assistant saying that the curse was going to be Charmed without us, and we rushed here to make sure that all was well.” Kostya’s eyes lingered on Constantine’s chest for a few seconds. “I was going to say I assume it ended well, but that looks as if it is a curse.”

“The curse wasn’t destroyed, I’m afraid,” Bee said sadly, and Constantine was pierced with a need to assuage the guilt he knew she was feeling.

“It was not your fault,” he said without thinking. “The curse is a powerful one. Asmodeus is a demon lord of much knowledge and skill. Or perhaps it was the talisman—perhaps it was not personal enough to him to act upon the curse as you desired.”

“I wish that were so, but it really was my fault,” Bee said, turning to face him. The look in her gray-green eyes stabbed deep in his belly. “I’m the Charmer. I’m the one responsible for breaking it. I should have known that the talisman wasn’t right—”

“One moment,” Kostya interrupted, glancing at Aoife. She was silent, but stood close to him as if she drew strength from the contact, and for a moment, Constantine felt a sense of quiet satisfaction that his godson, his namesake, had found a mate. Then he remembered the many times that Kostya had tried to kill him, and he brushed aside the silly sentiment.

“Did you say Asmodeus’s curse?” Kostya asked, his eyes narrowing on them.

“Yes. Look, I can try again. Maybe I didn’t study the curse long enough before trying to Charm it—”

“But it’s not Asmodeus!” This time it was Aoife who interrupted.