I stepped back, my eyes dry but inside my heart was aching, wanting to cry, wanting this to all just go away. So much stress, so much worry, and now coping with angry dragons on top of the demon threat . . . it was just too much. “Smoky, go and get this over and done with. I’ll be waiting for you.”

He reluctantly let go of me. I followed him out into the living room where his father was impatiently tapping one foot on the floor. Hotlips gave me a triumphant grin like she’d won some major victory over me, and Hyto grabbed my ass and pinched so hard I knew it would leave a bruise. Smoky wasn’t watching and I decided to keep my mouth shut. No use starting World War III right here in the house.

“Let’s get this over,” Smoky said.

Without another word, Hyto reached for his son with one hand, and for Hotlips with the other, and they vanished, out of the living room into the Ionyc Sea. I watched as they faded from sight, wondering if I’d ever see my beloved dragon again.

CHAPTER 7

As I stared at the spot where the three dragons had been standing, Morio, Iris, and Delilah filed into the room. I took a long, shuddering breath and turned to them. “You heard?”

“We couldn’t help hearing,” Iris said. She motioned to the tea tray that Morio was holding. “I made you some Sweet Blossom tea. I thought it might calm your nerves. The gods only know, my nerves are on edge and I was only in the room with them for a bit, and neither his father nor the fiancée spoke to me.”

Delilah slid onto the arm of the sofa. “What will you do if they don’t let him come back?”

I jerked my head around to stare at her. “Don’t even go there. Smoky will come back. I know it. He has to.” I sank into the rocking chair, cradling my head in my hands. “This is just too much. And that father of his is a freak. The way he touched me—I felt two seconds away from being raped. Or being dinner. Or both, in that order. He hates humans. And I get the feeling he lumps all Fae into the same category. The way he looked at me . . .” I shuddered, remembering those cold, lecherous eyes. He could fuck me, kill me, use my bones for toothpicks, and not feel a shred of remorse or concern.

“If he’d made one move to hurt you, I would have been in there. And you know Smoky wouldn’t have let it go that far.” Morio stood behind me, rubbing my shoulders. “He loves you. He’s bound to us and he won’t let us down.”

“Well, Hotlips sure doesn’t love me, and she wants Smoky to herself. I gather she’s a golden dragon and that means . . . well, I don’t know what it means but it’s obviously important to Hyto.” I grimaced. Even saying his name made me feel dirty.

“Relax,” Iris said. “I’ll pour the tea. And yes, you’re right. She’s a golden dragon and they are second rung at the top of the hierarchy. Silvers are the most powerful of all the dragon lords.”

I must have looked confused because she let out a little sigh. “Did Smoky tell you nothing over the past months?” She handed round the tea, then settled on the ottoman, teacup in hand.

“I never thought to ask,” I said.

“Dragons live within a strict caste system. You can marry up or down, but if you’re on a lower rung, even if you marry up you retain less stature than your mate. However, the more sons and daughters who marry higher than your station, the more brownie points you accrue with the council. It’s terribly complex, but then again, they have eons to figure out everything. Anyway, what it boils down to is this: Smoky is part of the highest echelon, among the Emperor Dragons. He can’t move any higher. But his father can gain stature if Smoky marries someone above a white dragon, because that’s the caste his father belongs to.”

“Smoky is part of the Emperor caste?” If silver dragons were among the highest echelon of dragon society, then what he’d said about taking his mother’s status since he was mixed blood made sense.

“Yes, because of his mother’s blood. Children take on the caste of the higher parent’s bloodline. Smoky and any of his siblings through his mother belong to the highest ruling caste. His father hangs out a few rungs lower on the pole. The only dragons to live outside the caste system are the black dragons, and they exist within a hierarchy all their own because of their special abilities.”

I tried to sort out all this information.

“I should have asked before, but it never occurred to me that they’d have such a complicated social system.” I sipped the steaming brew. The fragrance and delicate blush of the Sweet Blossom plant immediately went to work, calming me down. “I guess my mind has been on the demons, not dragon etiquette.”

Iris snorted. “Trust me, girl, you haven’t heard the tip of it, yet. When I lived in the Northlands, I learned more about dragons than I ever wanted to, especially white dragons. They’re thick as thieves there, and it pays to know just who you might run up against. Now silvers—like Smoky’s mother—have a sense of honor and generally keep their promises. They’re not as dangerous—at least not until you do something to piss them off. Come to think of it, even though they don’t live in the Northlands, the golden wings and the greenbacks are like that, too. But whites—and the indigos and reds—happen to be another matter.”

“So not all dragons live in the Northlands,” Delilah said, pulling the basket of fruit over to her and pawing through it. Iris was on a health kick, trying to curb my sister’s frantic junk food habit, but it wasn’t going to take. Sure enough, Delilah wrinkled her nose and shoved it away. “I guess we’re out of cookies?”

Iris let out a long sigh. “I’ll make some later. Girl . . . oh, never mind. But to answer your question, no—redbacks and golden wings live in the Southlands, and the indigos and greenbacks—well, I’m not sure where they harken from. Black dragons exist mainly on the astral.”

“And white dragons are dangerous,” I said, grinning at Delilah’s dejected look as she gave the fruit basket another once-over and shook her head.

“White dragons are the most volatile, that’s for sure, and the most grasping,” Iris continued. “That’s why I took my time to assess Smoky’s demeanor when I first met him. Mixed bloods can favor either—or both—parents, just like the Fae. But Smoky has proved himself time and again. His mother’s blood shines through, even if he has a roguish way and tends to be self-centered.”

“He told me that he’d found a way for me to have his child,” I blurted out.

Morio and Delilah stared at me like I was crazy.

Iris swallowed her tea, set down the cup, and folded her arms. “I so need to hear more about this.”

I could tell they were all waiting for me to continue, but having burst out my little secret, I had no idea what else to say. For one thing, I was clueless as to what I was planning to do about the matter.

Just as the silence was getting a bit thick, the door burst open and Vanzir rushed in, followed by Roz. They both looked like they hadn’t slept in days.

“Yo, dudes, where have you been?” I jumped up, eager to change the subject. Right now the whole Smoky-dragon-father-fiancée-children conversation was starting to give me a headache, and the demon twins provided a handy excuse to exit the subject, stage left.

“Where else? Looking for clues to Stacia’s whereabouts.” Vanzir dropped onto the sofa next to Delilah and leaned back, his legs spread wide. Why did all guys have to act like their nuts were the size of tennis balls?

But he was cute, in a David-Bowie-as-Jareth-the-Goblin-King sort of way. His hair was short and spiky, bleached so blonde it was jarring, and he wore leather pants tight enough to show off every curve of his goodies. I blinked. Maybe he did need to sit with his legs that far apart. Whatever woman—or man—Vanzir set his sights on, was going to be a very happy camper, all right.

Roz was wearing his duster cum armory. The flasher from hell, I thought, as he slid off the heavy coat and hung it carefully over the back of a chair. Considering the firepower—both magical and technological—he had in there, I was grateful he took pains not to make anything go boom by accident.

He sprawled out in the chair next to mine, jeans black as night, mesh tank showing off nicely defined abs. Oh yeah, leave it to an incubus to find the perfect bad-boy look. He noticed me staring and slowly winked, then glanced around nervously. “Where’s Smoky?”

I grinned. “Why, afraid he’s going to beat the crap out of you again?”

Roz growled, but I wasn’t going to let him live down his claim to fame. A few months before, Smoky had made Roz his whipping boy and the incubus spent two weeks with bruises that covered his body. But most of all, he’d nursed a wounded ego and learned a severe lesson in restraining his wandering hands. At least around me.

“You’re setting me up, aren’t you?” He gave me one of those pleading basset-hound looks and I relented.

“Don’t sweat it. Smoky was called away for a while.” As quickly as I’d smiled, I sobered. “His father came to get him. Apparently there’s some unfinished business Smoky ran out on. His father is a freak of nature and not to be trusted. Smoky had no choice. He had to go. He’ll be back as soon as he can.”

“The lizard has parents? Parents who can make him behave?” Roz shuddered. “I wouldn’t want to end up on their shit list.”

“I already am,” I muttered. “So, what news on the Bonecrusher?”

“Not much more than we had before. The information we had was correct. She can shift into human shape, meaning she could pass for a very tall, muscled FBH woman. She’s obviously passing right now, keeping out of sight and we can’t seem to get a lead on her.”

I had the feeling when we actually ferreted her out, we were going to be facing her natural form. And her natural form was truly creepshow fodder. Tales from the Crypt scary. Otherworld scary. When she was in natural form, her torso and head were female—very human, but her body was that of a twenty-foot-long anaconda, with all the crushing power of the giant snake.

Vanzir accepted a cuppa from Iris. He balanced the saucer on one knee and took a slow sip from the steaming tea. “Carter has feelers out everywhere. He seems to think we’re getting closer, but so far she’s managed to elude us. She’s either got one hell of a safe house going, or some innate ability to cloak against anybody scrying for her. And none of the scouts has been able to ferret her out.”

I bit my lip. “Not good. And nothing on the half-demon wizard who gated her in?”

“Again, a dead end. All the demons who’ve come over are accounted for—at least the ones who run in the network. Somewhere out there is a half-demon who managed to sneak Earthside and set this all up. Carter’s got scouts on that trail, too.”

Frustrated, I set down my cup. “We have to know where she is and what she’s up to. If she’s allowed to run around loose too long, we’re going to see a body count rack up.”

“Do you think she might have something to do with the ley line energy that’s been shifting?” Iris asked, sitting next to Roz, who gave her a long, slow wink. The incubus had tried getting every one of us women in bed. He’d only succeeded with Menolly at this point.

“I think it’s a possibility.” Morio paced over to the window, staring out. “Stacia Bonecrusher is a lamia, which means she’s more powerful than Karvanak was. And we know what a chore it was to bring him down. We almost lost Chase and Zach to that skirmish.”

“Does anybody know what kind of magic she wields? Or does she even wield magic, other than whatever she has up her sleeve naturally?” Delilah hopped up and dashed into the kitchen, and we heard the sound of cupboard doors quickly slamming open and shut. She returned with a bag of Cheetos and settled down on the sofa with her treasure.

Roz shrugged. “That’s another thing we don’t know.” He turned to Vanzir. “Do you think Carter has anything on her magical abilities?”

“I imagine he would have told us if he has, but I’ll give him a call. Wait here,” the demon said and headed into the kitchen.

Delilah, whose fingers were already orange from the cheese crisps, glanced at the clock. “When are you leaving for Dahnsburg?”

I closed my eyes, resting my head against Morio’s shoulder as he settled back down next to me in the overstuffed chair. “I want to leave tonight, after Menolly’s awake. Delilah, you’re in charge here until we get back, and I’m not sure how long it will take. We’ll portal hop once we’re there. We certainly don’t have the time to travel by ground.”

The thought of making a trip back to Otherworld both thrilled and terrified me. We didn’t have time for vacations, not with the lamia in town. And now with Smoky off in the Northlands, I was worried about being a man down. But I’d been instructed to go to OW near the equinox to meet Trillian, and I desperately wanted to bring him home.

“You’ll be in charge of Maggie,” Iris told Delilah. “You and Menolly. I’ve got some things to attend to in OW and I might as well go with Camille and Morio. It’s just safer that way. Roz and Vanzir will be here. Shamas, too, and Chase if you can get him free of that job of his.”

“I wish Zachary was out of that wheelchair,” Delilah said. “I can’t believe how long he’s been laid up. Karvanak almost broke his back.”

“Karvanak may not have broken his spine, but he did break enough bones to keep Zach out of commission for a while, and that’s not easy when you’re dealing with a werepuma. I’m just grateful he survived,” I said.