Fire Me Up (7 page)

"I'm not the only one around here who can do something.
You're the one who wants to be a Guardian. So do your thing. Look around you."

I opened my mouth to snap out a nasty comment but closed it
without saying anything. Jim was right (dammit!). One of the abilities I had
discovered the month before was that I could see things not apparent to the
visible eye by opening myself up to my environment, allowing what a very wise
woman in Paris had called "the possibilities" to become clear to me. "Why does
everyone in the Otherworld seem to have a quantum physics degree?" I grumbled as
I straightened up, closing my eyes and trying to calm my distraught mind so I
could really see the world around me.

"What do you see?" Jim asked as I opened the door in my mind
that allowed my mental sight to see reality.

Jim backed away from me as I stood next to the wall bearing
the plaque. Beyond Jim the ruins of the convent shimmered in the night, the
walls stretching and yawning as if they were alive. Before my bewildered sight,
the convent came to life, the broken walls slowly rebuilding themselves, dark
figures moving gracefully down paved pathways, a bell tolling somberly in the
distance.

"Aisling? Do you see Gabriel or that mugger?"

"Uh ..." Two of the dark figures glided toward me, their
heads covered by white coifs. "No. Not Gabriel. I think I'm seeing a memory or
something of the convent."

"Ghosts? Cool. Where? Oh, yeah, the two over by the well, do
you mean?"

I turned my mental vision on Jim. "What do you mean, 'the two
over by the weir'? You can see ghosts? Why didn't you tell me that?"

Jim shrugged. "You never asked."

I sighed and turned to look beyond the convent ruins, my
mind's eye scanning the gardens and tiny forest that curved around the south end
of the convent.

"Ash? The grass is on fire."

"Really badly?" I asked without looking down. One of the side
effects of using my mental sight was that I pulled some of Drake's dragon fire
as a form of power. Unfortunately I didn't have the control he had, and it
tended to get away from me.

"Not bad. Just a ring around you. But it's a good thing those
two nuns next to you are already dead or they'd be barbecue."

I spun around. Two ghostly nuns stood right behind me, their
faces eerily semitransparent ovals in the dark of the evening. As I stared in
horror, one of them stretched a beseeching white hand toward me. "Criminy! Why
didn't you tell me they were right—ow!"

"You're standing in the middle of the fire," Jim said
helpfully.

I jumped out of the four-inch-thick barrier of fire and
stomped my foot in the cool grass to put out the flames that licked the toes of
my shoes. "Dammit, these are new! Why didn't you tell me they were there?"

"I thought you knew."

I eyed the two see-through nuns a bit nervously. I'd never
seen a ghost before. What if they went all ghoulish and crawling with maggots on
me? "Do you think they're here just to say hi? Or are they like sentinels or
something, trying to keep me away from the ruins? Ghosts aren't evil, are they?"

"Who knows, maybe, and what planet are you living on? Ghosts
are ghosts, nothing more."

"Oh, thank you. That's a fat lot of help. What do you think
they want?"

Jim looked at the ghosts. Their images wavered in the heat of
the fire. "Dunno. You could ask them."

"Ask them? You mean they'll talk to me? But I'm a Guardian.
Almost. Can Guardians talk to ghosts, too?"

"You can talk to whoever you want to if you know how," Jim
said with a disinterested sniff. "They probably want you to do something for
them so they can find their rest. That's the usual modus operandi of ghosts. You
going to take care of that fire?"

"I don't have time for ghosts," I said, wringing my hands,
stopping myself when I realized what I was doing. Only Gothic romance heroines
wrung their hands. I was a modern, proficient, professional woman, one whose
life had no room for hand-wringing. "I have to get that stupid amulet back. Then
I have to find the hermit and figure out what this horrible ritual is that I
have to pass in order to find a mentor, not to mention finding said mentor,
figuring out just what the devil Drake is doing here and who that woman is who
slinks around like she has snake hips, as well as why she gets all touchy-feely
with Drake."

Jim snickered.

"I'm sorry," I told the two ghosts. I pulled out the planner
notebook from my purse and showed them the entries for the next few days. "I
just don't have room for ghost problems in my schedule. But if you like, I can
mention you to some of the other GODTAM people, and perhaps one of them would
come out here and take care of whatever it is you need taken care of."

The ghosts shimmered sadly, regret and sorrow seeming to leak
out of them and wrap around me.

"Look," I said, pointing to the notebook. "No time, see? Busy
Aisling."

A woeful dirge drifted on the upper reaches of the evening
breeze.

"Maybe they don't speak English?" I said to Jim before
turning back to the ghosts, dredging through my memory for the appropriate
phrase. "Kfiszonjuk, hogy nem dohdnyzik."

Jim began coughing. The nuns shimmered some more, a bit
aggressively this time.

"Well, sheesh," I said, closing my notebook and tucking it
away in my purse. "I'm sorry if my apology—"

"You said, and I quote, 'Thank you for not smoking.' "

"—if my request that they ... er ... not smoke didn't go down
well, but I—I—oh hell!"

"Abaddon."

"Abaddon! Right. I'll pencil you in for Saturday morning,
right after breakfast. I was going to get an herbal massage, but I'll come here
instead. Is that copasetic with you guys?"

The ghostsI figures wavered for a moment as if they were
considering it, then they slowly dissolved into the night.

"I'll take that as a yes," I grumbled as I turned to face the
gardens and stretch of woodland that ran down the island, my mental vision
seeing only shadows of the things not touched by the Otherworld. A flash of
silver slipped through the trees, resolving itself into the figure of a man
walking toward us. It had to be Gabriel. "There he is. Does he look like he has
the amulet?"

"You're the one with super-vision, not me. You going to let
the place bum down or what?"

"Oh." My vision returned to normal as I glanced back at the
ring of fire that was burning merrily. As had happened before when I used my
Guardian abilities to see, a pang of regret whispered through me, leaving me
mourning the fact that the world looked so much drearier and mundane in reality,
"Put it out for me, would you, Jim? I'm going to go see if Gabriel got my amulet
back."

"Put it out?" Jim asked, its voice rising as I loped off
toward the distant figure. "Just how do you expect me to do that without a fire
extinguisher?"

"Pee on it," I yelled over my shoulder.

The last sight I had of the demon was its lifting a back leg
and hopping around the fire. Considering the amount of watering Jim did on
bushes whenever I took it on waikies, I knew it would have no difficulty in
putting out a small fire.

"I realized as soon as I saw you coming toward me that I
don't know your name," Gabriel said as I ran up to him.

"It's Aisling. Did you find the guy who stabbed me? Did you
get my amulet back?"

Gabriel made a courtly bow, white teeth flashing against the
darkness of his skin as he smiled at me. We had met near a stone path that cut
across the island, a streetlamp flooding the ground with a pool of yellow sodium
light. Even with that dim illumination, I could see the flash of molten silver
in his eyes as he held out his hand to me. "It is my extreme pleasure to meet
you, Aisling the mate."

"You found it!" I yelled, relief filling me as I snatched the
crystal amulet from his hand. Overjoyed, I threw my arms around him, pressing a
kiss to his cheek in gratitude. "Thank you so much! Did you have any trouble
with the guy? Who is he? Did you beat him to a pulp? Thank you, thank you, thank
you!"

He chuckled as I hugged him again. Then he stepped away. "I
had no trouble tracking the man, as he carried the scent of your blood. I'm
afraid I had little time to question him about his actions, feeling you would
prefer a return of your amulet to an interview with the attacker. He had two
young companions waiting for him at a dock on the Pest side, so, alas, I was not
able to beat him to a pulp"

"
Three thieves? The one who stabbed me was the same guy who
tried to steal the amulet at the train station."

"Due to the high number of tourists, this area is a target of
thieves. No doubt they followed you to the hotel and have been waiting for
another chance to rob you," Gabriel said, gesturing toward the amulet. "It might
be safer if you wore it beneath your clothing, rather than carrying it."

"Yeah, but how did they know I was here?"

Gabriel shrugged "It wouldn't be difficult for them to follow
you if they thought you were worth their effort."

That didn't seem very likely, but then again, how likely was
it that someone would randomly pick me out to stab?

"Regardless of why they picked on me, I owe you more than I
can say."

"Indeed," he said, with a sudden flash in his bright silver
eyes. I wondered at il for a moment but let it go in favor of more important
concerns.

"I hope they didn't give you any trouble." I ran my eyes
over him quickly, worried that he might have been injured as a result of his
chivalrous act. As a dragon, he was more or less immortal, but even a wyvern
could be killed. It just wasn't easy.

"Nothing I am unused to," Gabriel said, laughter rich in his
voice.

"
I can't tell you how much I appreciate this," I said,
looking at the crystal amulet. "My uncle would kill me it I lost another one."

"You have lost an amulet before?"

He walked with me as I started toward the ruined convent
where I had left Jim. "Not an amulet, no. Drake stole an aquamanile that I was
transporting last month, A gold aquamanile."

"Gold," he said, an avaricious light glowing in his eyes. I
swear he all but licked his lips at the word. He paused, putting his hand on my
arm to stop me so I faced him, his chin tilting up as he scented the air. "Ah, I
thought so. You are wearing gold."

"Just a tiny bit," I said, pulling away from him. I ilipped
the amulet's chain over my head, tucking the crystal down beneath my peasant
blouse so it rested next lo the tiny green jade pendant that hung between my
breasts. "It's a jade talisman given to me as protection against dragons. It has
tiny little itty-bitty gold touches on it. That's all. Drake himself said it
wasn't valuable or worth his time."

"I do not necessarily share Drake's opinions," Gabriel
said,
his hand on my arm again as he halted me.

"Oh, for heaven's sake—here! See? Just a jade dragon.
Minuscule amounts of gold. Happy now?"

The dimples that had been hinted at in the slight
indentations in his cheeks flared to life as he grinned at me. "I would not take
it even if it was made of solid gold, Aisling. It is yours. I am not a thief."

"You wouldn't?" I didn't want to come right out and say I
didn't believe him, but I had some experience with dragons. Gold was
irresistible to them.

"No. Did I not just return to you a most valuable piece of
what looks to be fifteenth-century jewelry? I am not a thief like your current
wyvern. I am a healer, first and foremost. I am interested only in benefiting
mankind— and womankind."

Healer? Uh-huh. Charmer, that's what he was—full of charm and
suave sexuality that I could feel even though I was not man-shopping. Or
dragon-shopping, for that matter. Subtlety was obviously not his forte. Like I
didn't notice that "current wyvern" he'd thrown in his reference to Drake?
"Valuable?" My voice was a bit squeaky. I cleared it, licking my lips
nervously. "What makes you think the amulet is valuable?"

He gently pushed me forward, leaving his hand resting on the
small of my back. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, but I was very aware of his
nearness. I couldn't help but wonder if he was trying to put a move on me, or if
he was just one of those touchy-feely sorts of people who like to maintain
physical contact. Or maybe he felt all manly and protective because there were
amulet thieves lurking behind every tree?

Or better yet, maybe my feminine allure was just too much for
him, and he was smitten with my many charms. I fluttered my eyelashes as I
peeked up at him.

"You are employed to transport an object to a man in a
different country. There is much expense involved in such an act. Thus, the
object itself must be worth a great deal of money."

Then again, he could just be keeping me within arm's distance
so he could snatch the amulet and run.

I felt a little fudging was necessary. I would not lose
another antiquity to a dragon. "That would make sense if the only reason I was
here was to deliver the amulet, but I'm here to attend the GODTAM conference. I
told my uncle I'd bring the amulet so he wouldn't have to go to the expense of
shipping it." Not the truth, but not quite a flat-out lie, either, so it didn't
really count.