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“Geez, hanging around Magoth really taught you how to torment demons, didn’t it? I thought you’d never come up here to get me!” Jim rolled over and got to its feet, shaking itself in a way that left a corona of black hair on the floor around it. “Gotta be dinnertime. Let’s go eat.”

“Is everything OK in there?” I asked, nodding toward the door.

“Yeah, yeah, Drake started in with Ash about how he can’t survive the ages without her, and all that crap, and she fell for it just like she always does.” The demon shook its head disgustedly as it marched past me toward the stairs. “Women. Can’t live with ’em, can’t live with ’em.”

“I’m sure I can see to it that you don’t live at all,” I said sweetly, which merited an annoyed look from Jim as it went down the stairs. “By the way, Drake’s mother has arrived.”

Jim did an about-face. “Fires of Abaddon! You almost let me get within blasting range! And me just getting my coat to maximum fabulousness. Sheesh, May. I expected better of you.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked as it headed back toward Aisling’s room.

“Gonna go warn Ash. She’s going to hit the roof, and I want to be there to see the fireworks.”

“Effrijim—” I started to say.

“Oh, man!” it whined, slumping to a halt. “Not you, too?”

“By the powers vested in me by your true overlord, I hereby charge, demand, and otherwise order you to leave Aisling alone unless she expressly desires your company, or if her life is in danger.”

Jim hesitated at the door.

“A visit from her mother-in-law does not constitute a threat to her life,” I warned, knowing exactly what it was thinking.

It raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know Catalina very well, do you?”

“Come on,” I said, gesturing toward the stairs. “Let’s go wait for Kostya to arrive. I’m sure, given his temper, there will be fireworks aplenty when he sees Gabriel and me.”

“There’d better be! That’s all I’m sayin’!”

In that belief, I was wrong, and evidently I had my twin to thank.

“Mayling!” Cyrene squealed when Jim and I arrived in the hall after spending an hour paddling around Drake’s basement pool. Since the silver dragons weren’t overly fond of water, it not being their element, they tended to view things such as showers as merely unpleasant experiences to be endured as quickly as possible. Although Gabriel’s house in Manukua had a pool, it was more or less for visitors, which made it difficult to find time for a pleasure swim. As Jim and I padded up the stairs from the pool, Cyrene spotted us and rushed across the hall, where Kostya was being greeted by his mother, with Gabriel and Drake in a wing formation behind her.

“You’ve been swimming?” Cyrene’s pupils dilated slightly, as was common whenever water was mentioned in her presence. As a water elemental, she had an affinity for freshwater sources such as springs and lakes, but she loved any form of water, and was known to take hour-long baths. “Drake has a pool?”

“Yes, but it’s not polite to arrive at someone’s house and demand to go swimming,” I said, grabbing her as she started past me toward the stairs to the basement. “You should at least say hello to Aisling.”

“Drake said she’s resting and will be down later,” Cyrene said, pouting just a bit before turning a smile on me. “You look happy. Has Magoth stopped hitting on you?”

“Oh, like that could happen,” Jim said, snuffling Cyrene’s hand until she fondled its ears and scratched its neck. “The day he stops hitting on babes is the day I give up being a demon and go back to spriting. Oh yeah, baby, right there. Urng.”

Jim’s eyes rolled up a bit as Cyrene’s long fingernails found a particularly itchy spot.

“Have you ever known Magoth to not have sex on his mind?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” Cyrene surprised me, nodding. “But only when he’s torturing someone. And even then . . . well, we won’t go into that. At least he hasn’t been granted his powers.”

“No,” I said slowly. “And that actually worries me. I would have thought that as soon as Bael tossed him out of Abaddon, he would have given