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Cripes. She was right. Smoky was good about not swiping it from me but other dragons might not be so circumspect. I lifted up my skirt and unbuckled the garter that held it strapped to my leg. “Hide this. Please. I don’t want to take any chances.”
Delilah took it and gave me a nod. “I guess you’d better get in there.”
I steeled myself and marched back into the kitchen. Smoky gave me a nod of approval as he cast an eye over the clean clothes and my tearless face.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, as I looped my arm through his. Morio patted me on the butt as I passed by and I tossed him a wan smile. This wasn’t the way I’d envisioned meeting the in-laws, but then again, nothing in our lives ever seemed easy. Taking a deep breath, I allowed Smoky to lead me into the living room, right into the dragons’ lair.>“Return to the elements, return to the void, return to the core of the universe to be cleansed and renewed. Go now, let the life force drain from you, let the power of breath flow out of you, may your sight dim, may your passion fade, may you rest in the arms of your ancestors—”
Lunging at me, the goshanti was a whirl of claws and energy. She could hurt me since I was partially linked on the astral, but I dodged her attack and she overshot, spinning around when she realized she’d missed me. She took stock of the situation, eyeing Morio, but shying away from another attempt. I could see the fear in her eyes but there was no place for her to run.
“Mordente reto, mordente reto, mordente reto despera.”
I raised my voice to match his, holding fast against the onslaught of energy that poured out of the Netherworld, through him, through me. A whirlwind of black and white, a vortex of death and annihilation, it shook me to the core.
“Rest now, sleep forever, dream deep and do not awake. Venture to the sweetness of oblivion, sink into the darkness, join the brilliance of the stars—to the void we cast you, to the void we send you, to the abyss we guide you, give over—let go, be one with the world and be no more!” As I forced out the last three words, the goshanti shrieked and then slowly coiled in on herself, the colors fading as she grew smaller and smaller and then, with one last whimper, vanished.
“It’s done.” Morio sucked in a deep breath. “She’s gone.”
I stared at the spot where she’d been. There was no room for remorse, no room to wonder if we’d done the right thing. I turned back to him and placed my hand on his chest. He lifted it to his lips and kissed each finger softly.
“She’s gone,” I said, exhausted and wanting only to rest in a warm chair, with a blanket and a cup of tea.
I motioned for Delilah to join us. Wide-eyed, she edged over in our direction, holding up her cell phone.
“You can tell Chase that he and his men can get in here now. We’ll purify the rest of it later, but they should be okay for now.”
“Good. There’s a call for you. It’s Iris. She said she’d wait until you were done, so it must be important.”
Immediately thinking that something had happened with Trillian, I grabbed the phone and answered. “Iris? Camille. What’s up?”
She was whispering, which was strange enough in itself, but she also sounded like she’d swallowed some sort of frog. “You need to come home. Now. We have visitors.”
“Who? Trillian?” My heart leapt in my throat. Had he gotten away early and come home without warning me to surprise me?
“No,” she said, sounding both amused and wary. “Smoky’s father is here. And he’s brought someone with him.”
Smoky’s father? I paled, dropping to the ground, not paying attention to the fact that I ended up in a mud puddle. “And just what the hell does Smoky’s father want?” I asked in a low voice. If Smoky was powerful and ancient, his father had to be terrifying.
“Apparently Smoky . . . well . . . there’s someone else here, too. A woman—a female dragon. She says she’s Smoky’s fiancée and he’s not disputing her claim.”
I stared blankly at the phone, unable to comprehend what I was hearing. Standing, I motioned toward the car. “We have to go home. Get the stuff and let’s go. Now.”
Iris heard me and whispered a quick good-bye. I flipped the phone shut and tossed Delilah the keys. “You drive. You’re never going to believe what I’m about to tell you. Hell, I don’t know what the fuck to think.”
But as we packed up everything and headed out toward the Belles-Faire District, I knew exactly what I was thinking. Smoky was mine. He belonged to me and to Morio.
Like it or not, a jealous streak rose up—a feeling I wasn’t all that acquainted with, and one I didn’t like. But I was seeing red, and the only thing I could think about was that I needed to get my ass home so I could beat the crap out of the bitch trying to lay claim to my husband, to my soul mate. Trouble was, how the hell was I going to convince a dragon to get her claws off my man?
“Very carefully,” a little voice inside me said. “Very carefully.”
CHAPTER 6
As I burst in the door, Iris took one look at my face and hustled me off to the kitchen where she pushed me into a chair.
“You cannot go in there half-cocked. I know you,” she said. “I know what your mouth is capable of and you do not want to make a mistake right now. We have three dragons sitting in our living room, and none of them seem happy. That should be enough to scare the hell out of you, but I can see that you’re beyond reason.”
Beyond reason was right. All the way home, all I could think about was why the hell Smoky hadn’t told me he was engaged, and how that was going to affect the Soul Symbiont ritual we’d performed. I had never been jealous, never been one to worry about my lovers having other partners. I just wanted to be their primary. But knowing there was a female dragon in my living room who had come to sink her hooks into my husband, well, that little fact had triggered off a latent tendency. Embarrassed at my feelings, and angry, I tried to calm down.
A moment later Smoky entered the kitchen. I glanced at him, not saying a word. He motioned to Iris and Delilah and they withdrew with Maggie to Iris’s room. I didn’t know what to say so I did the next best thing for once. I kept my mouth shut and mutely stared at him. Morio knelt beside me, holding my hand. He knew better than to interfere but I was relieved that he wasn’t in a hurry to leave me alone with this mess.
