“I will start immediately,” Drake said with a nod and got up from the table. “I’ll call for help from local green dragons.”

“I think I’ll contact my mentor,” Aisling said, “and just warn her that her talents will be needed shortly.”

“We are leaving,” Constantine said, his hand on my back. He tucked Gary under his arm, and gave me a little push toward the door. “We have much to do, and little time to do it in. Drake, do not dally raising sept members to help you. We must have the talisman before dawn.”

“Why then?” I asked, allowing him to herd me toward the door.

The look he gave me was enigmatic, which just irritated me. “It won’t take Bael long to find the sword, if he hasn’t already.”

I waved at Aisling, who lifted a hand in response before Constantine hustled us out of the house. I waited until I was on the motorcycle, tucking my hair into the helmet to say, “You sound like you know where the sword is.”

“I do.”

He started the engine of the bike, making it difficult to hold a conversation, but that didn’t stop me from yelling in his ear, “You do not!”

“I do,” he bellowed, and the bike lurched forward just as he added, “As do you.”

I waited until we were stopped at a traffic light to speak again. “Are you crazy? I don’t know where the light sword is. I don’t have any idea where it could be, or Thala, or for that matter, Bael. I’m just a Charmer, Constantine, just a simple Charmer.”

“You’re anything but simple,” came the muffled comment from the region around my stomach, where Gary was wedged between Constantine and me. “Don’t be afraid to blow your own horn, Bee. If you don’t do it, who will?”

Constantine said something, but it was lost when the motorcycle bucked and we zoomed off into the night again. At first I thought he was returning us to his accommodations, but when he passed the street the brothel was on, and turned down a familiar block, I realized what he was doing.

“How do you expect to get inside?” I asked some three minutes later when Constantine left his motorcycle in a small area containing trash bins, and walked us around the perimeter of the building that was Goety and Theurgy. “You know full well that the Venediger is likely to be angry with us, and probably all dragons. She won’t let us in. And speaking of that, why are we here?”

We were about to round the corner of the building to the front when Constantine held out his hand and stopped me from proceeding forward. I peered around him and gasped silently at the sight of a handful of people guarding the front entrance.

“Who are they?” I asked in a whisper.

Constantine tipped his head back and sniffed a couple of times. “Demons.”

“Hellbeans,” I swore.

“Abaddonbeans, I think, would be more apropos,” Gary said softly, whistling as he did so. “Those are Asmodeus’s wrath demons. I recognize three of them.”

“What are Asmodeus’s demons doing here?” I asked, obediently turning and following Constantine when he retraced our steps to the rear of the building. “They can’t get in, can they? I thought the Venediger had the building protected from demons unless they are summoned there.”

Constantine slid me a look, stopping next to a window. Due to the light from the building next to us, half his face was in shadow, giving him a dangerous appearance that sent a little jolt of adrenaline through my body. What did I really know about him? my brain demanded to know. He was a dangerous being, a wyvern, a man who was used to fighting and killing for what he wanted. His eyes glowed with an inner light that, for a moment, had me fighting the urge to flee into the night, but then the smart part of my mind, the part that remembered how gentle he was with Gary kicked in, and I stood where I was.

“You have answered your own question” was all he said before pulling off his jacket and shirt, and wrapping the latter around his hand.

“He’s not going to do what I think he’s going to do, is he?” Gary asked, his voice high with excitement.

I moved back a few feet. “I think he is. Close your eyes in case any shards go flying and crack the hamster ball.”

“All right, but I don’t want to miss anything good. This is the most exciting thing I’ve seen since the behemoth ate my body!”

The tinkle of glass that followed Constantine punching a hole in the window seemed inordinately loud to my ears, but there was no reaction to it from within. Judging by the placement of the window, I guessed that Constantine had chosen a small storeroom, a guess that was validated when he brushed off the glass, raised the broken window, and climbed inside before offering me his hand.

“Keep quiet,” I told Gary when I gave Constantine the ball, then hoisted myself up and over the window into the room. The door to the room was closed, although large, bulky, black shapes could be made out from the light coming in through the alley. I caught my breath, standing still next to Constantine as we both listened intently. A distant rumble of voices warned that we were not alone in the building.

Constantine waved at me in what I assumed was a silent warning to stay put. I made a face at his back when he opened the door and peered out into the lit hallway, moving up immediately behind him.

“Hey!” Gary whispered loudly. I shushed him. “What about me? Don’t leave me behind.”

“Keep quiet, then,” I said, and tucked him under my arm before hurrying out of the door that Constantine had left barely open.

Blood splattered the walls, dribbled on the floor, and even arced onto the ceiling. It was empty of people, however. I covered my mouth to keep an audible gag from being heard, as I tiptoed to where Constantine stood peering around a corner to a second hallway that crossed the first. It must have run parallel to the main body of the club, with a small garden space in the center.

A long, gruesome smear of blood led to a closed door at the end of the hallway, the room that had held the Venediger’s safe.

“I don’t think I want to know what’s in there,” I whispered to the back of Constantine’s head.

“Stay back,” he growled softly.

“No, sir. We’re safer with you.”

“You are nothing of the sort, not so long as you bear the ring.”

I curled my fingers into a fist and said nothing, but stuck close to the back of Constantine as he walked quietly down the hallway, avoiding the blood smears. He paused at the door, listened for a moment, then made an almost noiseless exclamation, and opened the door.