Me and My Shadow - Katie MacAlister [14]
“I’m sure you’re being well paid for the chances you take,” I said, getting off the bed. “And as for your grievous injuries, they are mostly healed, and will be completely so in a few hours. You’ll be just fine to go back to Latvia.”
His eyes shot open at that. “Back to Latvia?”
“Of course.” I smiled at Gabriel, who took my hand and curled his fingers through mine.
“We must have the shard,” he told Savian. “And it’s obvious that we can’t wait for Kostya to get around to finding it. We will have to take action.”
“Get the shard ourselves, you mean?”
Gabriel nodded.
“I suspect Kostya isn’t going to be happy at the idea of us poking around his lair,” I pointed out.
“Then we will bring him with us.”
“You don’t think he already has it?” I asked.
Gabriel shook his head. “Not now. The question of the bind runes aside, for there to be so great an effort made at concealing Dauva itself tells me the lair must still be there, and intact. There would be no other reason to hide the ruins otherwise. And according to your experiences with Kostya’s lair, he uses a different type of protection altogether.”
“Yes.” I remembered the bane drawn into the door to Kostya’s lair. It was exactly what I expected to find—theurgistic in origin. “That’s a very good point. So off to Latvia we go.”
“I’m too weak to travel anywhere,” Savian protested as I smiled at him. “I was almost killed!”
“Almost, but not quite. Get your rest,” I said, patting the blanket-clad foot nearest me before allowing Gabriel to draw me out the door. “We’ll leave for Latvia in the morning.”
Chapter Three
“Heya, István. Miss me? Has Ash popped yet? I don’t hear any screaming. She’s not gushing out baby juice and blood and guck, is she? ’Cause I’m going straight back to Gabriel’s pad if she’s in labor.”
“Jim,” I said, feeling obligated to chastise the demon dog even if it was my charge only temporarily. “That’s not very supportive. I’ve heard that childbirth can be a very frightening time for a woman. I’m sure Aisling would appreciate your empathy rather than your burning desire to escape what is an exciting time for her and Drake.”
“Lawdy, Miz Scarlett, I don’t know nuthin’ about birthin’ babies, and I don’t want to know, either,” Jim answered, marching past István, one of Drake’s personal guards, as he stood holding the door for us.
“That’ll be enough out of you, prissy,” I said, frowning at the demon. “And no more Gone with the Wind DVD. I take it everything is all right?”
The last question was addressed to István, who nodded as we entered the house. “Aisling threatened to go home to her uncle to have the baby. Drake swore he would tie her down to a couch if she kept insisting on doing things like walking and moving around. Nora and Pál had an argument over whether Aisling should be allowed to go to the bathroom by herself, and they aren’t speaking to each other. René has been teaching Aisling how to swear in French, which she does with frequency.”
“So all is normal,” Gabriel said with a little flash of his dimples.
“As normal as it gets around here,” István said with a wave toward doors that I knew led to a large sitting room. “Me, I’m staying out of Aisling’s way. She put a binding ward on Drake this morning that left him mad enough to burn down half the master bathroom before he escaped it.”
“Oh, man, I missed seeing that? Sucksville.” Jim’s eyes narrowed in speculation. “What did he do to piss her off so much, and do you think I could get him to do it again?”
I pulled out a small piece of paper from my pocket and showed it to Jim. “I have here the exact steps needed to banish a demon within my command to the Akasha. Would you like to go now, or later?”
“Geez! I was just teasing! No one can take a little joke anymore! Man, Gabe, I don’t envy you a life spent with a doppelganger without a sense of humor.”
“Now would be good,” István said from behind us.
Jim cast the dragon a look over its shoulder as it opened the door to the sitting room. “Et tu, István? Hey, Ash! Lookin’ good there, babe. Wow, I didn