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"No, no, no. D-r-a-g-o-n, dragon. Meaning no names, got it?"
She clapped her hand to her mouth. "Oh… oh! Yeah, got it."
Dragons were cunning, and as much as I was beginning to like Smoky, it wouldn't do us any good if he had our names.
"You're a harsh-hearted woman, my little Witchling," he said, leaning down to plant a faint kiss on my forehead. I almost swooned under the swirl of energy as his lips met my skin but managed to backtrack from that thought quick enough to keep it from getting me in trouble. The edges of a grin played around his lips as he motioned to Delilah, who was staring at us with an incredulous look on her face. "You—girl—help him up. He can't hurt me, and he won't hurt you."
Delilah looked at me. I nodded. She reached down and grabbed Georgio by the elbow, helping him up. As he tried to smooth his wannabe chain mail, she helped him shake out the armor. Chase had reached us by then, and as he reached for his gun, I shook my head.
"Not a good idea," I said, giving a little jerk of my head in Smoky's direction.
Smoky took a long look at Chase and flashed him a wide, beguiling smile. "How do you do. You must be—?" He let his voice drift. It was a charming voice, an inviting one, one that made you want to spill your guts to the person speaking.
Chase started to open his mouth, but I grabbed his arm and yanked him off to the side, reaping an "Ouch" for my troubles.
"I'm sorry, I know you must still be hurting, but trust me, you do not want to give that man your name. And whatever you do, don't address any of us by name in front of him. Remember the dragon we were talking about? Welcome to his world."
"Dragon?" Chase's look changed from confused to Oh God, not again.
"Yes, I said dragon. And a powerful one at that. Smoky may look all man, but trust me, under that gorgeous hunk of man flesh is a pure, fire-breathing dragon. And if he learns your name, he can use it to control you."
Chase glanced at Smoky, then back at me. "Gorgeous, huh? He doesn't look like a dragon, although I'll admit he has an arrogant enough stance to him."
"Yeah, well, an hour ago he was big enough to squash your house."
"You mean dragons can change shape into humans?" He groaned. "Oh great, so I may have talked to a dragon say… oh… twenty years ago and never known it?"
"That about sums it up," I said. "Though most of them don't make a point of meandering through the city streets chatting up humans. They tend to… well… to eat them instead. Or enslave them."
Once again he flashed me a dry smirk that held just enough fear behind it to tell me that Chase believed me. "Say," he said, so casually that I knew he was putting up a front. "You don't think Delilah thinks he's cute?"
I repressed a snicker. "Chase, dude… get real. Do you drool after supermodels? Heidi Klum? Tyra Banks?"
For once he blushed and stared at the ground. "Uh… uh…"
"Yeah, that's what I thought. So just deal with the fact that Smoky's a supermodel to the Faerie world. Gorgeous, sexy, and as alpha-male as you can get. He makes Trillian look like a Boy Scout, and trust me, that's hard to do." Once again, the thought of my Svartan lover hanging between life and death choked me up, but I managed to push the thought to the side. Grief later. Take care of business now.
Chase grimaced. "Okay, okay. So, who's the dude on the ground?"
"Georgio Profeta, our mysterious visitor who had the picture of Tom Lane in his notebook. By the way, we've found out something about Tom. He's actually Tam Lin of legend. He was ensnared by the Faerie Queen's spell centuries ago and has been living a series of well-planned lives since then, though he doesn't remember who he was originally or how old he is."
"Oh, this is just getting better and better," Chase said, groaning. "So he's like some sort of Highlander character?"
I frowned, then understood the reference. A movie that Chase had recommended some time back. Delilah and I'd watched it but had been relatively unimpressed except by what a great voice Christopher Lambert had.
"Well, not exactly. Tom's not going to end up ruling the world, and he's not immortal, though he's probably one of the oldest humans on record, thanks to some well-timed nectar of life."
"Nectar of life?" Chase's eyebrows did a little dance. "We really have to have a long talk at some point. Okay, so what do we do? Have the demons been out here? And what do we do with veggie-girl, who's still tied up inside?"
I frowned. By all rights, we should return her to Otherworld for questioning. "We'll take her with us, which means making sure she's bound and gagged all the way. This is turning into a real joyride, isn't it? I'm going to go question Georgio and find out just what he was doing outside our house. Why don't you take Delilah and Morio inside and truss up Wisteria for traveling?"
Chase glanced at Smoky. "Will you be safe with that thing?"
I grinned. "Yeah, I think he likes me. Whether or not that's a good thing, I'm not entirely sure. Go on, we want to get out of here before Bad Ass Luke et al. return. I'd sure like to have Smoky on my side when they do."
Chase motioned to Delilah and Morio, and they took the steps two at a time. Tom sat down, digging at the ground with the heel of one boot. Smoky gave me a veiled look that I could barely decipher, though what little I could made me nervous.
Dragons sometimes took human form to lure in mates—they were all as lecherous as they were powerful. While no children were born of the unions, it could be a bizarre and frightening match. Not that I'd ever experienced it, mind you—though looking at the tall, lean, absolutely beautiful form Smoky had taken, I understood the temptation.
