Ophelia moaned softly. One of the blue dragons was patting her on the back as she clung to his shoulders and sobbed into his chest.

"Sorry, Ophelia, I didn't mean that to sound callous, but it is summer, and… er … without getting too gross, things are going to start going stinky really soon if we don't get some ice or something."

Fiat said something I didn't understand to Drake. Drake answered in the same language. They both turned to look at me.

"What?" I asked, looking from one to the other.

"We agreed that you have a point," Drake said. He lifted his head, and Pal snapped to attention. "I own a butcher shop not too far from here, one that has ample cold storage. We can move the body there until such time as it can be turned over to the police."

Pal nodded and slipped out of the room, pulling a cell phone from his pocket as he left.

"You own a butcher shop?" I couldn't help but ask him. "Isn't that a long way away from gold and jewels?"

Drake grinned. My knees tried to melt, but I locked them in place. "I like meat," he told me.

"No wonder Jim loved your house." A sharp zing of pain went through me at the mention of my furry little demon. I pushed down the desire to pull an Ophelia and sob all over Drake's chest, instead concentrating on what I had to do next. "I'll take Ophelia home."

"No," she wailed, wiping her nose on the blue dragon's shirt. "You can't! Not yet! Not until you…" She gave me a meaningful look before shifting her gaze to Drake.

"Oh, right. Um. Ophelia and I need to have a few min-utes of quiet time. Girl talk," I said, taking her arm and steering her past the guys at the door.

"Thank you, Aisling," Ophelia whispered as I escorted her down the hallway. "I knew you meant what you said when you swore you'd see Drake pay for killing Perdita."

"I'll need you to help me with the wording of the chal-lenge. Are you sure you're up to that?"

She dabbed at her nose with the handful of tissue clutched in her right hand. "Yes. To see justice done for poor Perdy, I can do anything."

"Right." I paused by the women's room and made a little grimace. "I'm a bit… uh … I need to freshen up a bit. I'll be out in a minute. You find a table and get started on the challenge."

She nodded and I hurried into the bathroom, wonder-ing just how much stranger my time in Paris was going to get.

Why do I even ask such silly questions?

"Look what the cat dragged in," a familiar voice came from the vicinity of Ophelia's lap when I returned and ap-proached the table where she was sitting. "Hey! That's a dragon's mating mark on your chest. You didn't wait for me before you did the nasty with Drake?"

"Jim!" I yelled, and threw myself at the big black shape that was leaning against Ophelia's leg having its ears rubbed. I hugged it, quickly running my hands over its legs and back to make sure it was whole. "Are you all right? What happened to you? Where have you been? Don't you know I've been out of ray mind with worry about you? Why do you smell like a compost heap?"

"It's Eau du Dumpster, and I'm glad to see you, too. You think you could stop strangling me now?"

I let go of the hold I had on its neck and hauled myself up to a chair. Ophelia gave us a watery smile. "I'm so happy your demon is back."

I stared openmouthed as I realized just what she said. "You knew about Jim? Before it spoke?"

"Yes, of course we knew. You don't think we wouldn't notice a demon in our house?" She shook her head and clicked her tongue against her teeth, giving a damp sniff. "Perdita recognized it first. Since you seemed so fond of it, we did not want to make you give it up."

"I'm sorry—I feel terrible having deceived you like that, but I'm kind of stuck with Jim. I didn't think it would hurt if I hid the fact that it was a demon."

'That's the cover story," Jim said confidently to Ophe-lia. "The truth is she's gaga over me."

"I might be delirious with joy to see you," I said as I ruffled its ears, "but that doesn't mean I can't command you to silence. Now, where have you been, and why were you in a Dumpster?"

"The blue dragon's men spotted me when Drake threw me out into the street. I took off and they followed. They're trackers, you know, and it took me half the day lo shake them. I ended up in a Dumpster behind a restau-rant, and decided I might as well have some dinner, before coming home."

"Next time, call me and let me know you're all right," I said, realizing just how stupid that sounded.

Jim rolled its eyes, but gave my hand a quick snuffle.

"Right, well, now that the prodigal demon is back,

let's get to business." I filled Jim in quickly with the de-tails of the last couple of hours.

"I made a rough draft of the challenge," Ophelia said, pushing a piece of note paper toward me. "I'm not sure of the wording…." Her lower lip quivered for a moment as her eyes swam with unshed tears. "Perdy

would have known it for sure, but I don't."

I gave her hand a squeeze and took the paper, reading it over.

"Is that what you wanted?" she asked, a worried cast to her eyes.

"It's perfect. I don't have to change a word. You said everything I wanted to say. Now, how do I do this?"

She dabbed at her eyes, bravely blinking back the tears. "You must make an announcement to as many members of the Otherworld as is possible. I would sug-gest you use the microphone."

I looked to the red-lit area where a band normally played. Tonight there was recorded music, but the sound equipment was still set up from the last gig. Drake and Fiat came into the room; Fiat in an elegant stroll, Drake with a sexy, coiled-power sort of glide that made various dark, secretive places in my body want to stand up and cheer.

"Looks like everyone is here. I'll just go get their at-tention."

"Let me, let me," Jim asked, almost dancing. I made a face, which it took for permission because it ran across the club, snaking in and out of people until it jumped onto a tall, high-backed chair in front of the mic.

I excused myself through the crowd, offering apolo-gies to those people whose drinks Jim had spilled in its mad dash, finally making it over to the band area. Just as I arrived, Jim figured out how to turn on the cordless mic.