The demon who had come running in response to an alarm call skidded to a stop at the sight of all the dragons filling the square, and would have turned and run had Kostya not grabbed him by the back of his collar, dragging him forward.

“Who dares declare war on us?” Constantine demanded to know.

The demon, in the form of a smallish man with gold-rimmed glasses, squeaked incomprehensibly until Drake picked him up by one arm and shook him. “Where is my mate?” Drake growled, fire pouring down his body, stretching out into all points of the compass.

“I don’t know! I swear to you, I don’t know—”

The buildings were now all alight. Drake tossed the demon to Baltic, saying, “You are the best at torturing. Slice off bits of him until he sees fit to tell us what we want to know.”

“Asmodeus!” the demon began to babble, his eyes wild as he watched the flames lick up the buildings surrounding the square. “Asmodeus sent his demons out to search for the ring because he heard Lord Bael was back. That’s all I know, I swear to you upon his unholy soul—”

There was another squeak, a crash of glass, and then another cheer from Gary. “Right through the window! A fiery bull’s-eye, Baltic. That’s got to be worth twenty points, don’t you think?”

Constantine leaped down from the cart and with the other dragons proceeded to cut their way through the attackers until they were at the gate of Asmodeus’s palace. The guards at his door were easily dealt with. By the time Constantine led the way to the ballroom where he had been taken before, all the dragons were singing along with Gary.

Constantine had a moment of feeling kinship, a warm fuzzy emotion that he hadn’t ever expected to feel again since he had been demoted to the role of simply a sept member, rather than its wyvern.

“This reminds me of that time when we were young in Ankara. Do you remember?” he said to Baltic. “We went up against that Mongol warlord who’d made a deal with one of the demon lords.”

Baltic stopped singing long enough to smile in reminiscence. “We destroyed many demons that day. It was one of the finest battles we ever fought.”

“You almost lost your right leg,” Constantine pointed out.

“And as I recall, you did lose a good part of your scalp.”

Constantine touched his hair with a hand black with the blood of the demons who had tried to stop them. “My part has never been the same since. Ah. There he is.”

His voice turned cold with fury when they entered the room that now held Bee and the other women, as well as Asmodeus and a number of wrath demons. Constantine strode forward, the other wyverns falling into formation alongside him.

“There, you see? I told you they were here.” Ysolde smiled at Baltic, a fact that Constantine didn’t particularly mind. His eyes were on Bee, checking first her face, then the rest of her to make sure she hadn’t been harmed. His heart had leaped at the sight of her, giving him an odd feeling of both contentment and arousal.

The wrath demons instantly surrounded the women, but at a command from Asmodeus, they left them to form a protective circle around the demon lord.

“Are you injured?” Constantine asked, approaching Bee. Just the sight of her made his spirits lighten. “Have you been harmed in any way?”

“Hi, Bee! Look at the cool battle armor Connie made for my truck! I’ve run into ever so many demon ankles.” Gary zipped past them to make a sweeping circle.

“Not harmed,” Bee said, her eyes glowing with an inner light. “But we do have to talk.”

He thought to himself just how expressive her face was—it was as if he was seeing into her soul. Her light and joy shone like a beacon that drew him with silken bonds. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to scoop her up in his arms and find the nearest bed where he could pleasure her to the tips of her adorable pink toes, but first, he had to attend to the man who had tried to steal her from him.

He turned to face Asmodeus, aware of Bee as she pressed up to his side. “Asmodeus.”

The demon lord, barely visible in the circle of wrath demons, all of whom were armed with swords, watched the dragons with a blank expression. “Why do you invade my palace, dragons? What right do you have to slay my legions?”

As he was about to answer, he felt Bee take his hand, but rather than twining her fingers through his, she slid the ring onto his smallest finger.

He turned to glance down at her.

“We have to get the others out of here,” she said softly, her fingers holding tight on to his hand. “Aisling is pregnant, and there’s no reason they should suffer because of our actions.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her to what action she was referring, but Asmodeus continued in a voice that belied his annoyance. “I have no argument with dragonkin. You have attacked my minions without justification.”

“You stole our mates,” Drake said, his arm around Aisling. “I call that justification of the highest degree.”

“A simple mistake,” Asmodeus said, spreading his hands. “A miscommunication, if you will.”

“A miscommunication that will cost you your life,” Baltic answered, stepping forward with his sword held at the ready. “No one steals my mate and lives to tell about it.”

Asmodeus rolled his eyes. “Who would I tell? I have just explained that this was a mistake. It was the mortal bearing my ring I sought, not any dragonkin.”

“Regardless, you took them, and we will have our revenge,” Kostya declared in a dramatic manner that reminded Constantine of Kostya’s father.

“Did I ever tell you about Toldi, Kostya and Drake’s father?” he asked Bee.

She gave him a look that plainly said she thought he was crazy. “No. Is it important right at this moment?”

“He was dramatic, too,” he said, nodding at Kostya. “Everything was fodder for excessive declarations. He couldn’t be merely hungry, no, he was starving, nigh unto death. If he was happy, the world was a paradise laid out for his pleasure. If he was sad, then all life had ceased to be important.”

“Sounds like he was manic depressive.” Bee frowned a little and leaned into him. “Why are you mentioning this?”

“It is keeping me distracted.”

She gave him an odd look. “Why do you have to be distracted?”

“To keep from killing Asmodeus. He dared to take my mate. No being, mortal or immortal, will survive that.”