I froze outside the limo. "Being a Guardian isn't foolish, Drake. You're the only one who has a problem with it. And you know full well that I had nothing to do with Moa's death—"

He waved away my protest. "We will discuss it at a Later time."

"No, we will not. There is nothing to discuss." I gave him my best squinty eyes to let him know I meant what I said.

He wasn't at ail impressed. "Come. Join us. We are going to Klub Fekete Halal. You will enjoy yourself."

"Is that a nightclub?" I asked, following Jim into the limo, doubling over into an unattractive crouch as I looked for an empty seat. Pretty much everyone but Fiat and his boys was in the limo, leaving little space for one gigantic Newfie and me. Pal, sitting next to Drake, shifted over a couple of inches. "I'll go with you, but you have to promise to feed us. We haven't had anything to eat since lunch. Um. There doesn't seem to be much space. Maybe I should sit on the floor with Jim—"

Drake stopped my waffling by pulling me half onto his lap, the remainder of me squished up against Pal. I thanked my stars that it was him and not Istvan, who was at that very moment glaring at me, and arranged my arms and legs so that I was not draped quite so much across Drake.

"The police were not abusive to you, were they?" Gabriel asked, leaning forward to scan me for signs of police brutality. "They held you a long time for just a questioning."

"No rubber hoses or hot lights, if that's what you mean, although they weren't exactly hospitable. The reason it took so long was the seven male policemen that fell victim to the amulet."

Gabriel looked amused. "Fell victim? Did they... ah..."

"Throw themselves at my feet?" I nodded. "And not just metaphorically, either. By the time the policewoman who had me brought in got there, things had pretty much reached critical mass. Most of the policemen in the station were trying to get an orgy going, while the policewomen stood around and made what I assumed were snarky comments. Not that I blame them. The men were acting like dogs."

"But they were under the influence of the amulet, and thus they were not responsible," Gabriel argued, laughter lighting his gray eyes.

"Mmm." I rubbed the tip of my still sore thumb. "It ended up all right. The policewoman who spoke English got through with the hotel people and interviewed me, then let us go."

"Good. I worried on your behalf," Gabriel said, sitting back with a dazzling smile.

"You have injured yourself, mate?" Drake's voice, hot with innuendo and desire, swept over me as he examined my thumb.

"Yeah. But it's really that pest Paolo's fault—he predicted it just before the cops took me away. I'm really going to have to have a talk with him the next time I see him."

A wicked light entered Drake's eyes, one that had the parts of me that had never seen the light of day standing up and getting ready to party. "Would you like me to kiss it for you?"

"Hoo," I said on a breath, too tired, hungry, and exhausted to fight the attraction that always flared between us. My brain made a last-ditch attempt to point out that allowing Drake's lips near any part of my body was a bad idea, but I'd simply been through too much to fight him any more.

Luckily for my good intentions, the presence of others kept him from doing more than merely caressing the pad of my thumb with his lips. And tongue.

I don't suppose I need to mention that by the time the limo pulled up outside a tall glass-and-metal building in a chic area of town, I was a mere puddle of want and need laced with great huge dollops of desire.

Here's a little tip for those of you seeking entrance at hip nightclubs: Go with dragons. No doorman in the world will stand in their way. The line that snaked around the block outside the club meant nothing to the dragons, and who was I to complain? I walked next to Drake, his hand warm on my back as we strolled past the waiting crowd as if they weren't even there. I tried to adopt the elegant, powerful movement that was Drake's natural walk, but stopped when Jim asked in a loud voice if I had to use the bathroom.

The doorman took one look at Drake (black silk shirt, black leather pants), Chuan Ren (floor-length glittery dress, split to either hip, stilettos that could put an eye out at five paces), and Gabriel (dark khaki pants, silver net transparent shirt bearing elaborate designs in pale green) and almost swooned with joy. He couldn't get the door open fast enough, waving the rest of the dragon entourage in, including Jim, without blinking an eye. The music from the dance floor swept out and caught us up in its lithe grip, pulling us into a smoky high-ceilinged hall filled with the standard dance club metal pillars, crisscrossed by girders laden with pulsing laser lights arcing above and through the mass of humanity that covered every square inch of the floor.

"Would you like to dance?" Drake asked, his breath skittering down my spine, sinking deep into my blood.

"No, we'd like to eat. As in now." Jim didn't wait for me to answer. It just marched off in a very determined manner to find a table.

I grimaced, then gave Drake half a smile. "Jim's a bit testy because it missed its dinner."

"And you?" he asked, his hands sliding up my arms, his head tipped toward mine so I could see straight into bis beautiful forest eyes. Heat shimmered between us. "Are you testy as well?"

I gasped, looking around nervously, as his dragon fire flickered out to lick my skin. Although we stood on the fringe of the dance floor, the club really was packed. Most of the floor space was taken up by a dense collection of people who bounced, swayed, and twirled in time to the low, pulsing music, but along the outer edges small round red tables and chairs had been scattered. Most of mose were claimed, too.

"Drake, you can't. Not here. Not where someone might notice that you're not exactly human."

"Aisling, this club is owned by a nymph. No one will think anything of us being here." The heat of his desire and need rippled around me, teasing me, touching me just iong enough to awaken the fire that Drake had started in me. which never seemed to go entirely cold.

"Oh. Well, if that's the case—" I threw myself on him. Drake rocked backwards with the force of my body slamming into his, every last shred of my good intentions shriveled and blown away on a wind of arousal that left me breathless even as I sucked the air right out of his mouth. His fire roared to life around us, through us, a shared flame that I not only embraced but celebrated. His mouth and hands were hard on me, softening as I relaxed against him, knowing he loved to dominate and finding little to complain about when I let him have his way. The touch of his tongue on mine drove my temperature even higher, his mouth a heady banquet of sensations that left my head spinning, my body tight and aching, and my soul burning bright alongside his in an erotic conflagration.