He snorted. “I am a wyvern. I am above mere pain. So you wish to spurn my offer?”

“Yes,” I said firmly, ignoring that part of my brain that sent up a cry of dismay at the loss of carnal fun. “I am spurning your offer of sex. I do, however, want to talk to you, as I’ve said several times now. I think we have some things to discuss.”

“Sexual things?” he asked, a hopeful look in his glittering eyes.

“Curse things,” I corrected, and sat down on the green couch. “Most specifically, what I can do to get you to change your mind about helping with breaking the curse. I know you don’t want to have to hunt down Bael, and that’s actually taken care of. But I could use a hand getting an artifact from him, and you are the best choice of person to do so.”

He looked around the room for a moment as if seeking insight, cocked his head for the count of six, and then finally gave it a little shake while saying, “No.”

“Don’t you dare walk out on me again,” I warned, prepared to go all sorts of medieval on his (very attractive) butt if he even thought of stomping off for a third time.

“Come,” he said simply.

“I beg your pard… oh. Come with you, you mean. I thought you were making a risqué… never mind.” I took the hand he offered, and allowed him to escort me out of the sex shop.

Ten

There were a surprising number of people out on the street. I thought at first it was people heading home, but most of them were dressed up, as if they were going to a club. Constantine plowed through them at a pace easy for his long legs, but less so on my shorter ones.

“Are we out for a job, or are you intent on exhausting me so you can ply me with nipple turtles?”

Constantine, paused, his face expressing puzzlement. “I am not jogging.”

“You’re doing a damned good impression of it, then,” I said a bit breathlessly, whapping him on the arm. “Okay, we’re out of the sex shop. What is it you have to tell me about the curse that you don’t want anyone to hear? And don’t get that obstinate look on your face, the one that says you don’t want to talk about it. You volunteered to help your people, and you can’t do it alone. Spill whatever it is you’re thinking. Oh, man, now I have a stitch in my side.” I doubled over, one hand on my side, the other on my thigh as I tried to ease the sharp pain digging into my ribs. “Can we go somewhere that we can sit down to talk about what’s going on?”

“Always you want to talk,” he said with a noticeably martyred look. “I have never met a woman who wishes to discuss my thoughts so much.”

“The only reason I’m pestering you about them is because you hardly ever tell me anything. If I didn’t ask you questions, I’d sit around wondering what was going on, and why you were being the way you were, and if there’s one thing I live by, it’s not sitting around wondering something when the answer is right out there.”

“Dragons do not like to answer questions,” he said simply, just like that was that. “We ask, we do not tell.” And with that, the damned man turned on his heel and walked on.

“I never thought I’d see the day when I saw a dragon who was afraid of anything, let alone a little conversation,” I said loudly as he walked away.

He stopped, his shoulders twitching a couple of times before he poked his elbow out.

I smiled to myself, and strolled up to him, sliding my arm through his.

“I do this under protest,” he said, a thin little stream of smoke drifting out of one nostril. “And only because if I do not, you will continue to yell out on the street every thought you have.”

“Not every thought. Just the ones concerning dragons.”

“Have you never heard of circumspection?”

I pinched his arm, ignoring the snickers of the passersby as they streamed past us and up the steps of the mini-church. “You drove me to extreme acts. Where are we going?”

“To a place where we can talk without being overheard.”

“We were in a private room,” I pointed out. “Although I admit a sex shop isn’t the most comfortable location for an in-depth discussion.”

“Just because you could not see anyone there did not mean we were not being monitored. Here.” He stopped on the far side of the church, and opened an innocuous door that was partially hidden by a column. “It is not well lit. Be careful on the stairs.”

“Is this part of the church?” I blinked a couple of times once I entered the building, squinting to make out the stairs in front of me that led upward. A mass of black to the right indicated stairs going downward into an abyss of nothingness. Cautiously, I climbed the stairs, aware of the faint sounds of music coming from above, and a distant hum of conversation. The air itself had a closed-in feel to it, as if the building didn’t have adequate circulation, with faint overtones of a spicy incense, chalk, and, oddly, disinfectant.

“This is not a church,” Constantine corrected me, stomping up the stairs right behind me. “It is the Hôtel du Monde au Balcon.”

I stopped at the landing and peered down the hallway. It contained a couple of wooden chairs and doors leading to a half dozen rooms, but nothing else. “This is the brothel you’re staying at?”

“They have excellent room service,” Constantine said, moving past me to the far end of the hall, where he stopped and unlocked a door. “And I know the owner. She does not allow magic within the building. We will be able to speak in confidence.”

I hesitated for a couple of seconds while I weighed the idea of being in close quarters alongside the far-too-tempting Constantine against the need to discuss the situation and engage his help. In the end, I decided that I had a better grip on my own desires than I had confidence in Aisling and her demon dog.

The truth was, I needed Constantine. We need his help, one part of my mind corrected, while the other part giggled and thought lascivious things about him.

“Bee!”

I stopped just inside the door, looking around at the available tables for where Gary had been set, glancing down in amazement when a buzzing noise grew louder.

“It feels like it’s been forever, and it’s only been a few hours, really, but they do say time flies, and I believe that’s so true, don’t you? Do you like my new digs? I think they’re just awesome.”