I cocked an eyebrow at his naked butt as he strode over to his clothing, snatching up a towel from a nearby stack. “OK. It’ll take me a few minutes to get ready, but I can put on makeup in the car.”

“You cannot attend the chevauchee, kincsem. It is a ritual cleansing for the combatants only. There is no need for you to hurry—Istvan will remain behind to bring you to the fencing club.”

“You’re holding a challenge in a fencing club?”

“Yes. Is there something wrong with that?” He pulled on his black pants and the heavy silk green shirt I loved for him to wear because the material seemed to caress his skin.

No, it’s just kind of an incongruous place to hold something so serious as a challenge, isn’t it?”

He finished with his shoes, grabbed another towel, and shook it out for me. I made sure Pal still had his back to me, hurrying out of the pool to clasp the towel around me.

“It is no less incongruous than holding a challenge in a bar.”

I smiled. “Yes, but my challenge to you wasn’t serious. I hope you’ll notice that I’m not freaking out about this at all. I haven’t even asked you how good you are with a sword.”

“I noticed.” His mouth burned on mine for a moment, his fire being shared between us as his tongue twined around mine in a fiery—albeit brief—dance. “You are learning to have faith in me as is proper between a mate and her wyvern.”

“No, I am learning to ask around. Pal told me earlier today that Dmitri had picked swords and that you were pleased because you were some sort of master swordsman a few centuries ago. You’d better not have forgotten anything.”

Pal peeked at me out of the corner of his eye, his grin not too obvious. Drake pinched my bare behind as punishment for my saucy tone. “I never forget. Istvan will drive you when you are ready. The challenge is not for an hour. Do not be late.”

“Happy chevauchee-ing,” I called, feeling remarkably happy.

Pal hesitated at the door. “There was another phone call for you, but I thought you were resting.”

“Phone? Who was it?” Just about everyone I knew on this side of the world was in the same house as me.

“Apparently it was the demon lord Ariton.”

I sighed. “Him again. What a pest. Did you take a message?”

“Yes. He said if you will not come to him, he will come to you.” Pal’s eyes were dark as he considered me. “You are not in some sort of trouble?”

“Just the usual stuff.”

“Ah. Should I inform Drake?”

“Naw. I’ve got Nora to help me if Ariton gets bossy. Thanks for covering for me, though.”

Pal left with a cheery smile that I wholeheartedly shared. Life was finally starting to come together for me. Oh, there were trouble spots, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I just had a demon lord to placate, and a dragon war to end, and the Guardians’ Guild to convince. “No big deal, really,” I said aloud as I walked over to the bench.

Behind me, glass tinkled to the stone floor. Before I could turn to look, something stung my back, right between my shoulder blades.

I was out even before I hit the floor.

19

The voices around me were not speaking English. For some reason, that grated on my nerves. “It’s very rude to speak in a language that people can’t understand,” my voice said.

I frowned at the sound. I wasn’t aware I’d given my mouth the order to speak, but then, I didn’t quite understand why I was drifting somewhere on a gently rolling dark cloud of oblivion, or who was standing near me talking in a lyrical foreign language.

The voices stopped.

“Cara, you are with us again?”

I frowned again. That voice was familiar, as was the brush of cool fingers across my neck. My shoulder twitched in response. “Goddamn it, Fiat. What have you done to me? Why can’t I see? Do I have a blindfold on? Did you cast some sort of blinding spell on me?”

His voice was filled with dry humor. “Nothing quite so drastic. Your eyes are closed, cara. You will see again if you open them.”

“Oh.” I thought about that for a moment, wondering why something so simple seemed to take such an exaggerated amount of time to be processed in my brain. The answer came a few seconds later. The sting on my back! He’d shot me, and I was in shock!

“Do you need help?”

The cool fingers were back, this time gently pulling one of my eyelids upward. My eye rolled up and took its time focusing on the blurry figure in front of me.

“And now the other one.”

“I can do it myself,” I grumbled, slapping at his hand. I got my other eyelid opened, and my gaze focused, but it took far longer than it should have. “You drugged me or something.”

“I regret that is so. There was no other way to get you out of Drake’s house.”

That filtered through the drug-induced haze in my mind. A thought formed right after that, a good thought, a welcome thought. I opened my mouth to give voice to it. “Effrijim, I summ—”

A hand slapped over my mouth. “I do not believe we need your demon along for the evening’s events,” Fiat said. I realized then that I was lying on my side along the seat of a car, which explained the rolling motion. I propped my head up to glare at Fiat, but it swam so badly, I let it fall back to the seat.

“You will feel the effects of the drug for a short while yet, I’m afraid. If I have your assurance that you will not try to summon your minion, I will release you.”

I was very aware of Fiat’s cool fingers on my mouth. It was not a pleasant sensation. I thought about what he was saying, tried to figure out any reason he had for kidnapping me from Drake’s house, and decided there wasn’t much I could do in the current circumstances. I gave a sharp nod of agreement.

“Excellent. Now, you no doubt—”

“Effrijimlsummonthee,” I said at warp speed the second his fingers left my lips.

Fiat sighed as the familiar furry black shape of Jim formed and solidified in front of me.

“Wow. You’re naked, Ash. Hi, Fiat. Hi, Renaldo. We’re going for a ride?”

Carefully, so as not to dislodge the towel I still wore wrapped around my torso—and, more important, to give my head time to cope with movement—I sat upright in the seat, glaring at both Fiat and Renaldo, his bodyguard, who sat next to him blatantly ogling me.