“Very well. I shall be back momentarily with your answers.” Rene bustled off, the door closing soundly behind him.

“Sounds like a lot of trouble,” I said, eyeing the bed. I had to admit that the lack of sleep was catching up with me and wondered if Kostya would be all right if I went to bed early.

“It is, but until the curse is lifted, there is little we can do.”

“Think I’m about to hit critical mass,” Jim said with a scrunched-up thoughtful look.

I stopped picturing myself snuggled into the bed. “Fine, I’ll take you out for a walk. But we are going to have a long talk about you taking yourself next time.”

Frowning, Kostya blocked my way when I was about to go out the back door. “You cannot go out.”

“It’s not my idea, trust me.” I pointed at Jim. “He needs to go for a walk, and no, evidently it can’t wait. Besides, it’s going to be dark soon, so better I get this over with now.”

“It’s not safe,” Kostya said, giving Jim a look that would have scared off a few years on anyone else. “The demon will just have to wait.”

“I’m gonna blow soon, Slick,” Jim said, doing an impatient little dance. “I have like maybe a minute at best, then blammo! You’re all going to be seriously sorry you didn’t get me outside.”

“The red dragons could have heard of our flight from Sweden,” Kostya told me when I pushed past him to the door leading into the kitchen and immediately began rustling through the drawers in search of a garbage bag, or plastic grocery sack, or something of that ilk. “They will know soon enough that we are in Paris, and they will follow.”

“Yeah, well, they can’t possibly know where we are this soon, and unless you’d like to show Jim how to use the toilet, or clean up that very nice room, one of us is going to have to walk Jim.”

“Very well,” Kostya said, grabbing Jim by the collar and dragging him to the door. “I will do so.”

“Help!” Jim yelped, and immediately started retching. Kostya released him, stepping back when the dog hacked up a spitball. “Fires of Abaddon, you can’t choke the poop out of me! Well, okay, you probably can, but it’s not going to be fun for either of us.”

“Kostya, stop!” I said at the same time, letting him see my exasperation. “There’s no need to strangle him. You stay here and deal with Rene and your brother, and I’ll pop over to the park that Rene said is a block away.”

“No,” Kostya said. “You cannot go out without protection. You are too valuable.”

I wanted to ask him if he meant me, personally, or the ring, but decided that my ego didn’t need the boost if it was the former or the blow if it was the latter. But before I could argue with him any more, there was a tap at the kitchen door as it opened, and the woman I’d seen out front put her head into the room and said something.

Her words sounded familiar but were garbled. A little chill ran down my back at the realization that I was seeing the effects of the curse in person. Which proved that I was really and truly Kostya’s mate, but like almost everything else, that wasn’t something I had time to think about.

The woman, who I assumed was Suzanne, gave us a wry smile, walked into the room, giving Kostya a wide berth, and pulled open a drawer that held a number of plastic bags. She set some on the counter and turned to call out a word.

Kostya tensed when one of the redheaded men who was at the airport in Sweden entered the room. The two of them watched each other warily, but I was relieved to see that neither of them leaped into immediate attack mode.

“That is Istvan, one of Drake’s elite guards,” Kostya said, his body language showing contained energy.

“Ah. Gotcha. Hi, Istvan,” I said, giving him a little wave.

Istvan bowed in return, then gestured toward Jim, before pointing behind him.

“Is he offering to take Jim for walkies?”

“It would appear so,” Kostya said, his stance relaxing slightly. “That would solve our problem.”

“What? You want me to go with some strange dragon? I don’t know him! I can’t poop with him watching me!”

“It doesn’t really matter who takes you, Jim,” I said, feeling slightly guilty at passing off the responsibility of Jim onto Istvan.

The demon gave me a hurt look. “It may not matter to you, but I have tender sensibilities. You’re my demon lord—if anyone has to be with me when I unload, it should be you.”

I rolled my eyes but said, “Fine, although really, I could do without the scatological honor.”

“Aoife, I just told you that it was dangerous—Rene, you are back already?” Kostya interrupted himself when Rene appeared, his manner excited. “You were not gone long. Did you not read my plans to Drake?”

“Yes, yes, and he has many things to say, not all of which I would repeat in front of Aoife, you understand, but I did as you said and made notes of the most important. Here, let me show you—”

Kostya slid a glance toward me.

“I’ll take Istvan with me for the walkies, okay?” I said, shooing Jim out the door. “We shouldn’t be gone long, since Jim is evidently about to explode.”

“Do not stray from Istvan’s side,” Kostya said, giving me a worried look, but evidently he realized that he was being overly cautious, for he accompanied Rene into the bedroom, where I could hear Rene explaining some objection or other that Drake had.

“We’re down to about thirty seconds before Poopocalypse rains down upon us,” Jim warned, his expression now pained. “Say your prayers and make your amends, because it ain’t gonna be pretty when it hits.”

“Right, let’s get you to the park,” I said, snatching the plastic bags from Suzanne’s hand and rushing Jim past Istvan, who must have realized what was up because he had the front door open even before we reached it.

Luckily, we made it to the park before Jim excused himself into a long line of rhododendron bushes.

Istvan—who stood next to me, and was doing a fairly good impression of Kostya with the way he was scanning everything and everyone around us—said something, pointed in a circle, and then gestured to the ground, which I assumed meant he wanted me to stay in the area.

“You’re going to patrol the area, gotcha,” I told him, even though he couldn’t understand me. I nodded to let him know I was with the program, and he took off at a fast walk.