Light My Fire (13 page)

“Oh, good. That means you guys are either going to
talk relationship or get naked. Either of which should dis
tract me while my steak is being cooked.”

“You’re having a chicken sandwich, not a steak. And
just remember what the phrase ‘Effrijim, I command thee’ can do.”

I swear Jim grinned at Drake. “She’s crazy about me.”

“I can see that,” he answered dryly, turning his atten
tion to the menu when a waiter slipped into the room. I
gave an order for Jim and myself, toying with my iced-tea glass while Drake grilled him about the freshness of
the salmon. There were so many things I wanted to say to Drake, so many questions I had, so many wicked, wanton
acts my tongue wanted to engage in with him
...
but my
brain, that ever-trusty organ, reminded me where those
sorts of urges had led me in the past and warned me to
make my way cautiously. Drake had broken my heart twice. I knew it couldn’t survive a third time.

“Jim, when I order you not to listen to me, what ex
actly do you do? Hear the words but just don’t pay atten
tion? Don’t remember anything?”

The demon sighed. “I knew you were going to do that.
I can’t hear anything when you do that. It’s an order, and I can’t violate an order. So the words just aren’t there for
me to hear.”

“Oh. Good.” I set down my glass. “Effrijim, until fur
ther notice, you are not to hear anything Drake and I say.”

Jim groaned and laid its big furry black head on its
paws, giving me a nasty look. I ignored it. “We have
some things to talk about. I dearly want to know what’s
up with that Dmitri guy, but first things first.”

Drake leaned back in his chair, an obstinate look on his
handsome-as-sin face. “Yes, first things first—what did you mean when you told Pal that you’d been pushed in
front of a train?”

I hate it when Drake pulls the rug out from under me,
conversationally speaking. “Oh, that. He asked why I was
favoring one side when I had said I wasn’t hurt in the car
crash. There’s not much to it—someone tried to kill me.
Or rather, you, since no one would benefit from my
death.”

“You think not?” Drake’s eyebrows rose a little, but he
didn’t explain. He just gestured at me to continue.

“No, there’s no reason for anyone to want me gone un
less it’s to try to get to you. To be honest
...
oh, man, I
don’t know what to think. Gabriel was there, right next to
me, so he could have been the person to push me. But
he’s my friend!”

“Gabriel?” Drake frowned to himself as he thought
that over. “Describe to me exactly what happened.”

It took a good ten minutes to go over everything.
Drake asked several questions about who was standing
next to me on the platform and how Gabriel had suddenly
appeared.

“I have always thought of him as an ally, it is true,”
Drake said at last. “But he is the wyvern of another sept.”

“You really think he pushed me?” I set down the piece
of bread I’d been toying with. “But why? He’s always
been so nice to me. I
like
him.”

“I am merely exploring the possibilities, not stating it
as a fact,” Drake answered, his voice the teensiest bit censuring. “I have had no indication that Gabriel means to do
anyone harm.”

“Well, then, who did it? I didn’t fall, Drake. I know the
difference between a fall and a push. Someone slammed
into my back, knocking me down in front of the train. If
it wasn’t Gabriel, then it had to be Fiat. But if that’s the
case, why did he save me right after I fell? And why
didn’t Gabriel say anything to me afterwards? He must
have seen Fiat push me. You’d think he would have some
thing to say about that.”

“It has been many decades since I have understood the
way Fiat’s mind works,” Drake said slowly. “The blame
does not necessarily fall on him, however. The red drag
ons take the status of war very seriously, and I have no doubt whatsoever that they will make several attempts to harm you in an attempt to make me yield. I suspect they
are the ones behind the hit-and-run accident, as well.”

“Great, that’s all I need—the red dragons on my back.”

“You need not fear on that score,
kincsem”
His eyes
glittered at me with restrained heat. “I will allow no one
to harm you. What else did you have to discuss with me?”

I shifted my mental gears from murder attempts to
more intimate matters. “Something a bit more personal. I
want to talk about what happened in Budapest and what
it means to us now.”

“Ah.” He sat back, giving me a long look. “I take it
you’re about to lambaste me again for your lack of fore
sight.”

I took a deep breath. No other man—no, no other
person—in the entire world left me simultaneously frus
trated, enraged, and so much in love it made me giddy with joy just to look at him. “No, I’m not going to lam
baste you again for anything. I realize now that I went
into this arrangement blind, and although it would have
been nice to have someone tell me what exactly was
going to be expected of me as a wyvern’s mate, I am will
ing to take my share of the blame for not asking enough
questions.”

A light flared for a moment in Drake’s eyes, dying al
most immediately. “If only you had been this reasonable
in Budapest.”

I carefully set down the table knife I’d been gripping. “You’re not going to bait me into an argument, Drake. I
want to talk to you about what’s going on, but if you have no desire to participate seriously in a discussion about the
possible future of our relationship, then this is a waste of
time.”

He was silent for a moment, his fingers drawing lazy circles on the tablecloth. I shivered a little, knowing the
sort of fire those fingers could stir within me. “You wish
to negotiate?”

“Yes.” I nodded.
Negotiate
was as good a term as any,
and one to which Drake responded well. “Things got out of hand in Budapest. I’m the first one to admit that and to
admit that I was as much to blame for it as you were.”

I waited to see whether he’d object to that, but he
didn’t say anything, just inclined his head for me to
continue.

“But I’ve had some time to think, and sort things out, and really work through what it is I want from life.”

“You wish to be a Guardian,” Drake said, his face im
passive. I was instantly suspicious.

“I
am
a Guardian. There’s nothing anyone can do
about that now. I may not be formally trained, and I may not ever be recognized officially as one, but I’ve made my
peace with the fact that I was put on this earth to wrangle
demons and watch over portals to Hell.”

“Is that so?” Drake asked in a deceptively soft voice.
He was silent again for a moment, but there was a banked
fire in his eyes.

I opened myself up to it for a moment, embracing that
dragon fire that seemed so natural to me, watching with
amazement as my fingernails burst into flame. One by
one I doused the dragon fire by dipping my fingers in my
water glass.

“I take it you believe there is another reason for my
existence?” I smiled to myself as I sipped my iced tea. I
knew exactly what he was going to say.

“Do you know how wyverns are born?” he asked, causing me to choke on a piece of chipped ice. That’ll
teach me to be smug wherever Drake was concerned.

“You said that dragons are born in human form,
not. . . er.. . hatched or anything, so I assume it’s the
normal human way.”

He shook his head, sipping from his glass of dragon’s
blood. “I did not mean literally. A wyvern is born, not created. He has one dragon parent and one human. Wyverns
ascend to their positions by right of tanistry, so they are
not necessarily the direct descendant of a wyvern.”

“You have a human parent?” I asked, stunned by that
revelation. “You’re only half-dragon?”

“No, I am completely a dragon,” he answered, looking
slightly annoyed. “Dragon blood is dominant, always.”

“No surprise there. So
...
a wyvern is the most impor
tant person in the sept. Why don’t the sept members want
a full-blooded dragon at the helm?”

“Human blood is required for a wyvern because long ago it was proven that the mixture of dragon and human
brought about the best attributes in both species, but most
importantly, it heightened the dragon qualities so they
stood out above others.”

“So...” I sat back and allowed the waiter to place
before me a plate of sesame chicken salad, waiting until
he’d placed Drake’s and Jim’s lunches down and left the
room before finishing up my thought. “Basically, you’re
saying that diversity strengthens the gene pool?”

“That is a gross oversimplification of a complicated
genetic situation, but it is in effect true.”

“Gotcha. What has this to do with me?”

Drake speared a piece of chilled marinated steak. “I
am a wyvern. I have a human parent. You are a human. It is against the rules of nature for a wyvern to take a human
mate.”

“Why?” I asked, wondering if that was the rule Dmitri
had referred to.

“Because too much human blood can dilute the dragon
genes. Diversity is one thing—dilution to the extinction
of dragonkin is another. Thus, for you to be my mate regardless of this fact indicates that we were intended to be
together, no matter what the consequences.”

“You’re talking about children, aren’t you?” I asked,
setting down my fork, annoyed that even Drake would bring up this silliness. “Look, I don’t know what Pal told
you he overheard, but I’m not pregnant. I’ve never been set-your-calendar-by-it sort of reliable, so if everyone
would lighten up about this, I’d be . . .” The words dried
up on my lips at the sight of the emotions that passed over
Drake’s face: incomprehension, surprise, followed quickly
by a fierce expression of utter and complete possessive
ness that made me realize that until I’d opened my big mouth he hadn’t the slightest inkling about that whole
pregnancy business.

“You’re pregnant,” he finally said, a little wisp of
smoke escaping from his nose.

I slapped my hands on the table on either side of my
plate and stood up. “No, I’m not. I just said I’m not! Why
does no one believe me?”

“We mated several weeks ago,” Drake said, his eyes narrowing on me, but I had a feeling he wasn’t really see
ing me. I could almost hear his brain working as he cast
his mind back over the last month. “We had unprotected
sex. Frequently. If you were in the middle of your cycle . . .
yes, it is possible.”

“Possible is not the same thing as probable. Anything
is possible, as Amelie is always telling me. But this is not
happening, Drake. So wipe that pushy, going-to-tick-Aisling-off look right off your face. Yes, we didn’t use birth control. But it was only for a few days, and since I
was newly mated, my body probably hadn’t changed over
to mate yet.”

Drake just looked at me, the only sound being Jim as
it snored its way through its postlunch nap.

“It doesn’t work like that?” I asked.

He shook his head.

I sighed. “Great. Now I have to go get an at-home
pregnancy kit before the breakdown gets a good grip on
me.”

“That will not do you any good,” Drake cautioned as I
pushed my plate aside and grabbed my purse. My ap
petite was gone, shriveled into nothing in the sudden,
gripping worry that everyone was right and I was wrong.

“Why? Jim, wake up. We have to find a pharmacy
right away.”

“Huh?” Jim asked, its voice sleepy as it shook itself
awake. “What’s up?”

“The chemicals that a human test uses to determine
pregnancy are not relevant with a mate,” Drake answered,
standing when I headed for the door.