Sophea stopped following them, and turned back to the table to scribble on the half-burned check.

“You might take it a little easier on her since it’s apparent she really did have no idea who she is,” Rowan said softly to the old woman.

She allowed him to open the doors to the elevator before entering it. “If I did so, she would never accept the truth. And we will never make it across the Duat if she is not prepared.”

He looked at her, wondering just what it was she was up to. “How did you steal a ring from someone so powerful as Bael?” he asked before he could stop himself.

“Ha!” She gave a short bark of laughter and poked him in the chest with a knobby finger. “That was the easy part. What is to come is the challenge.”

“Did you know this cousin of her late husband who she seems to be unable to remember well?”

“He must have used a glamour,” Mrs. P said thoughtfully. “One intended to make him unremarkable in her memory. That was smart, don’t you think? That would keep her from asking questions.”

“Who are you talking about? You do know the man, then?”

Mrs. P lifted a package of mints from his pocket, popping one in her mouth before tucking the rest away in her purse. “I’ve met her husband, but not any of his kin. The red dragons always kept themselves to themselves.”

Sophea joined them at that point, and Rowan said no more. He wanted badly to think about the things that the thief had told him—as well as consider Sophea, his feelings about her, and the ramifications of her new self-awareness (not to mention how the last item would affect his job)—but his brain seemed to stop altogether, and refuse to do anything more.

“Nightcap?” Sophea offered when he walked them to the door of their room.

“No, thank you.” He gave her a wan smile. “I’m a bit tired and sore.”

“Oh, yeah.” Her gaze wandered around his face, no doubt taking in the cuts and abrasions from the fight with the demonic dragons. “I wanted to ask you about that, but I guess it can wait until tomorrow. We will see you again, won’t we?”

His gaze slipped over her shoulder to where Mrs. P was taking the pillowcase off of a pillow and stuffing it into a side pocket of her suitcase. “You can count on that. You can definitely count on that.”

Five

Rowan’s lips were hot, but mine were hotter.

“Oh, yes,” I moaned when he took one aching nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue in a manner that had me floating off the bed, my body curling around his.

“I want to make love to you, Sophea.”

“That sounds perfectly wonderful.” I breathed the words, my toes curling when his mouth moved lower, to caress my belly.

He looked up at me, his eyes changed. No longer the grayish-green, now they were brown, with bright gold and red flecks, just like a pretty stone.

Thunk.

“Tell me you want me, too,” he said, his voice rubbing against my flesh like the finest velvet.

I pulled him up to where my body floated, rubbing my hand up his thigh to take hold of his penis. It was erect, silken flesh over hot steel. “I’ve never wanted anyone more than you, Rowan.”

Thunk.

“Take me,” I cooed, twining my leg around his, snaking my foot down his calf, and arching my back so that my breasts were thrust up at him. “Take me now. Make a dragon out of me.”

His eyes glittered in the darkness, the passion in them making them glow.

THUNK.

My eyes shot open even before I was awake. I lay in the hazy dark, my entire body tingling with the highly charged erotic dream I’d been having, wisps of it clinging to my brain and making it hard for me to distinguish reality from the dream world.

The dark room was lightened somewhat by the glow around an almost-shut bathroom door. I listened with my breath held.

Had I heard a noise from out in the main room? Or was it a remnant from the dream?

Part of my brain boggled that I had fallen asleep at all, given the events of the day and amazing revelations of the evening. The other part instantly wanted to return to Rowan with his strange eyes, delicious tongue, and tempting body.

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.

“Right, that is definitely a noise,” I whispered to myself, and slid out of bed as silently as possible. I’m not normally a heroic person, but the idea of Mauritius Kim and his unwholesome buddy trying to harm Mrs. P had me snatching up the lamp nearest the door and whipping the cord out of the wall. As quietly as possible I slid open the door and peered out into the living room section of the suite.

It was dark and silent. Just as I was telling myself that I must have imagined it, I heard a faint whisper of a sound, almost so quiet it didn’t even register, the merest swish that wasn’t what one expected to hear from the room of a sleeping elderly lady.

“Mrs. P? Are you okay in there?” I asked, opening the door to her room, my lamp held high.

The room was just as dark as the outer one, and just as empty.

“Mrs. P?” I flipped on the light next to the door and frowned at the unoccupied bed. The sheets hadn’t even been rumpled. “Mrs. P, are you okay? Did your dinner disagree with you?” I tapped on the closed bathroom door, but after a moment of listening at it, I opened it and found that the bathroom, too, was sans one old lady.

“Well, hell, she’s given me the slip,” I said, going back into the bedroom, the lamp cord trailing behind me. That’s when I noticed that something was not right. Instead of sitting on the luggage rack, where I’d left it, Mrs. P’s suitcase was on the floor. “What the—” I started toward the suitcase, but at that moment, there was a sibilant hoosh from behind the curtain, and I knew without a doubt that someone had just opened the window from the outside. Quickly I glanced around, trying to find a hiding spot. Under the bed? Not enough room. The bathroom? Too obvious. The armchair wasn’t big enough to hide me, but next to the room door was a large wardrobe, its doors spread wide to either side like a giant wooden moth. Perhaps I could hide behind one if its doors long enough to ascertain who was breaking into the room.

The thought flitted through my head that a lamp wasn’t much protection against an intruder as I ran to the farthest wing of the wardrobe, but that evaporated into nothing when I scurried behind the door… only to find the space was already occupied.