Kostya snarled something that had Drake lunging toward him. I held him back, saying, “Sweetie, it’s not really the time or place, remember? Let’s get out of here, then we can discuss what to do with this thing.”

My words were punctuated by the dim sound of a siren.

Drake swore and grabbed the phylactery, wrapping it back up in its bit of cloth and replacing it in the wooden coffer.

“I assume you have some sort of an escape plan?” I asked.

“Yes. Come.”

“What about him?” I asked, nodding toward the still-sputtering Kostya.

“Release him.”

I hesitated. “I don’t like having to say this, but…well…he seems to feel this thing is his.”

“He is my brother,” Drake said with a long look at Kostya. “I trust him.”

I erased the ward on Kostya reluctantly. Drake took my arm and hustled me out of the room. I glanced back over my shoulder at where the others were following.

Drake might have faith in his brother’s loyalty…but I didn’t feel nearly so confident.

23

“Drake, I would like you to repeat the following oath: I, Drake, take you, Aisling, to be my wife and companion, my friend in life. Together we will bear the troubles and sorrows life may bring us, and celebrate the good and joyful events with which we are blessed. With these words, and with my heart, I bind my life to yours.”

I yawned. I couldn’t help myself, I was so tired after a sleepless flight home from Italy, I was having trouble staying awake.

The man performing the ceremony stared in horror at me. To my left, Paula gasped.

I was instantly contrite. How rude is it to yawn at your own wedding? Rummy though I was from lack of sleep, I had enough wits about me to know I had to rectify my apparent gaffe. “Sorry. I’m so tired I’m having a bit of trouble focusing. We had a horrible flight from Italy. It just seemed to go on and on and on. You ever have one of those flights? First we were delayed at the airport because of some weather issue, which was scary enough, because there were dragons after us and they might have found us if I hadn’t done a few brain-pushes on some guys to forget they’d seen us, and then there was a mechanical problem, and we had to get off the plane and wait around a couple more hours before they got that fixed, and you know how impossible it is to sleep in an airport. You know, sweetie, I think we should get our own plane. Nothing big like a rock star, but something cute that we can zip around in. One with a bed in the back,” I told the man standing next to me. He was as handsome as sin, with mobile black brows, a lovely nose, and the most delectable mouth I’d ever seen. And his eyes, oh, his eyes. I stared at them for a few minutes, wondering if our child would get his eyes. I sure hoped so. “Your eyes are so gorgeous, I could just suck them right out of your head.”

“Aisling!” Paula gasped again.

“I’m sorry, we were talking about planes, weren’t we?” I felt bad. I had shocked Paula with my lust for Drake, but to be fair, I couldn’t help lusting after him—he was so deliciously lustworthy. “I do love him, you know,” I told her, tugging on her sleeve so she’d know I was being sincere. “I really, really love him. Honest! I don’t just want to suck his eyeballs, and oil him up and then lick him off, although to be honest, that sounds pretty good to me right about now. I can’t wait to do it again with his fire, because that makes all the difference. But we couldn’t because there was no time in Italy, and then when we got home, Paula was there waiting for us to go get married…oh, wait, you are Paula, aren’t you. Drake?”

Tears burnt behind my eyes as I took two steps and wrapped my arms around him, a horrible presentiment claiming me at that moment. “My brain doesn’t seem to be working right. I think I may have said something embarrassing.”

His voice rumbled above my head as he said, “I’m afraid this is going to have to wait for another time. Aisling is not herself at the moment.”

The words danced in my brain as I snuggled into him, sighing with happiness at the feel and scent of him. Then I frowned, what he’d said finally sinking in.

“Wait!” I said, pulling back. I looked around, confused for a moment. Paula and David were standing to my left. Behind them Uncle Damian stood watching me with a frown. On Drake’s other side were Pál, István, Kostya, and Jim.

I waved at Jim, giving it a secret wink to let it know that I knew why it wasn’t talking. “Good job, Jim. I know it’s hard for you because you’re such a chatterbox, but you’re doing great. Keep it up, ’K?”

Jim blinked at me.

“I’m getting married,” I told it, because clearly it was confused about what was happening here. “This is it, the big day. And it’s kind of my last chance, so keep up the good work!”

“Kincsem, we will do this another time. You are too tired,” Drake said, pulling me away from where I was patting Jim on its head.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked, recoiling in horror. “Paula will skin me alive if we don’t go through with this wedding. Oh! Hi, Paula. Um…I seem to be having momentary lapses of judgment, but I’m fine now, just fine. Better than fine! Let’s kick this shindig into high gear.”

Paula slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes huge as I smiled brightly at the guy marrying us.

“Sorry, I interrupted you. Please go on. Is it my turn to say something? Because there are a lot of things I’d like to say to Drake, and no, I know you’re thinking I’m going to go on and on about his eyes, but I’m not going to, so there. Ummm…where were we?”

“We were leaving,” Drake said firmly, taking my hands in his. “You are too tired, Aisling. We will delay this ceremony a day until you are rested.”

“Paula’s going to be pissed,” I told him as he gently pushed me toward the door. “Will you break it to her for me? I hate to make you do that because it really is my problem, but you know, I’m just a skosh tired, and maybe she won’t yell if you tell her. Oh, look, a demon. I’m sorry, the wedding is off for another day. Can you come back tomorrow?”

The demon—and it was a demon, even my sleep-deprived brain recognized the fact that the man standing in front of us in a zoot suit that would have been better suited to a 1940s movie was, in fact, a demon—looked confused for a moment before it said, “You are summoned by Lord Bael.”