“Okay, let me put you on speaker phone.” Probably completely unnecessary, but whatever… Morgaine pushed the button marked ‘speaker’ and said, “Go ahead.”
“Well, first off, don’t go getting’ all rattled right away. It takes a bit of explainin’.”
Morgaine took a deep breath. Whenever Gwyneth began by telling her not to get upset, it meant shewasgoing toupset her. “Uh-oh. What happened?”
“Well, nothin’ yet, but I went to Nathan hoping he could fix it, but, well, he couldn’t.”
“What is it? If there’s a plumbing problem or something, that’s what the super is for.”
“It ain’t no leaky faucet, Morgaine. Apparently, our new neighbor, Lily, is a she-dragon.”
“That’s not a very nice thing to say about someone.”
“No, I mean, she’s a real-life, actual dragon. She needs sex to blow off steam.”
Sly sat up and Morgaine sensed sudden tension coursing through him.
“She used to control it by being a call girl in San Francisco. Now that she’s moved here, she ain’t got no clients yet. I tried to get Nathan to sleep with her and, well, he refused, sayin’ he was in love with someone else. So, that’s how I discovered—”
Sly interrupted. “Gwyneth, skip to the problem at hand.”
“Well, to make a short story shorter, if she don’t have sex, she sneezes fire. It’s some kind of weird allergy to abstinence or somethin’. Her whole apartment is scorched. If she don’t get sex pretty soon…”
Sly jumped off the bed. “She’ll burn down the building.My daughter’sbuilding. Jason could shift and fly to safety, but Merry… Morgaine, start packing. We have to get home, now!”
“Just a second. Gwyneth, have you told Jules?”
“Well, no. I didn’t want to get Lily in trouble. She’s a real nice girl and t’ain’t her fault she was born a dragon.”
“Youhave totell Jules! He’s responsible for everything that happens there. Besides, do you want our home to go up in flames? For Goddess’s sake, Gwyneth!”
Sly shouted, “Shit, thestill!That would turn any fire into an inferno.”
“Okay, okay. That’s why I called, dagnabbit. I thought you might come up with somethin’ other than tattlin’ on her. But if I have to tell Jules, I’ll just tell him.”
“Tell him now. We’ll be back as soon as we can but promise me you won’t do another thing until you talk to Jules.”
The phone went dead.
“Gwyneth?”
Sly tossed their clothes and toiletries into Morgaine’s suitcase so fast he whirled like a tornado. “Come on, we have to go.”
“Gwyneth? Are you there?”
No sound from the other end.Holy shit. Did she take me literally, drop the phone and run to the super’s apartment or did a fire just eat through the electrical and phone lines?
“Fuck. The line’s dead.”
Sly had zipped up Morgaine’s suitcase, then picked her up off the bed, tossed her over his shoulder, and grabbed one of the two cases of vampire wine. “If I have to carry all of this and you out of here, I will.”
“Put me down. I’ll help carry the stuff.”
“Then hurry.”
“No! Youcan’tevict me. Please! I have nowhere to go. No one…”
Jules didn’t want to toss his beautiful new neighbor out on her keester. But when Gwyneth from upstairs said Lily had been setting small fires in the apartment right below hers… Well, what was he to do?
