Read Online Playing with Fire by Katie MacAlister - Free Book Online Page A

woman said. She must be Aisling Grey, the demon lord who had wed a wyvern. I glanced at her, unsure of what I should do. I couldn’t get Cyrene out of there without doing more damage to her, but to trust her to strangers . . .
    ‘‘He did wonders for me when I was gutted with a sword,’’ Aisling added.
    I eyed the man kneeling next to me for a moment. Those beautiful mercurial eyes considered me with calm assurance.
    ‘‘All right,’’ I said slowly, scooting back a hair to let him have access to Cyrene. ‘‘But I’ll be watching you.’’
    A slight smile caused his cheek to indent in the beginnings of a dimple. ‘‘I would expect nothing else.’’
    ‘‘What’s going on?’’ A furry black head was inserted between the man and me. Jim the demon was back on its feet, a shocked look on its face as it peered down at the inert form before us. ‘‘What happened to Cyrene?’’
    ‘‘Jim! You’re OK?’’ Aisling asked, hurrying over to it.
    ‘‘Yeah. Uck, what happened to my coat? Oh, man! That’s gonna take forever to grow out!’’
    ‘‘I’m so glad you’re not hurt,’’ Aisling said, hugging it. ‘‘I thought they’d destroyed your form.’’
    ‘‘They?’’ Jim asked, looking from me to Cyrene before turning back to the woman still hugging him. ‘‘You don’t think Cyrene and May did this to me, do you?’’
    ‘‘They didn’t?’’ she asked, giving me an odd look.
    I didn’t pay her too much attention—that was taken up with watching the velvet-tongued healer as he worked over Cyrene.
    ‘‘Nope.’’
    ‘‘We saw them attacking István and Pál,’’ Drake said, nodding toward us. ‘‘The one kneeling bit István.’’
    ‘‘Hard,’’ István muttered, having taken off his shirt to wrap around the arm in question.
    ‘‘Really?’’ Jim’s eyebrows rose as it looked back at me. ‘‘Nice job, May! I couldn’t have done better myself.’’
    ‘‘Nice—Jim, are you insane?’’ Aisling asked, ruffling the fur on the top of its head.
    ‘‘Naw. But you guys are confused. May and Cyrene weren’t attacking anyone. May just wanted to get Cy out of the garden, but I told them about Drake being a gadget freak, so they decided to go out through Kostich’s yard. That’s where we were nailed . . . or rather, I was. Fires of Abaddon, his arcane traps are downright nasty! He owes me a whole bunch of fur.’’
    ‘‘Will she be all right?’’ I asked the man who was evidently named Gabriel.
    He nodded without looking at me, his eyes on Cyrene’s face as his fingers manipulated her neck. ‘‘She has a superficial cut to the scalp, but you were correct that her neck was broken.’’
    My stomach lurched at his words. Cyrene might be immortal, but there was still such a thing as brain damage. If she didn’t get sufficient oxygen and blood to her brain, she would be left in a coma . . . a permanent coma.
    ‘‘It is a good thing she is a . . .’’ He glanced at me, his eyes questioning.
    ‘‘Naiad,’’ I answered.
    ‘‘Ah. That would explain much. Elemental beings do not cope well with injuries to the head. Their center is in their heart, is it not?’’
    Cy certainly thought with her heart more than her head, but I wasn’t about to admit that to the stranger . . . A thought struck me. I looked more closely at him. Like the other men present, he was dressed in evening clothes of a black jacket and pants, but unlike the others he had a gorgeous silvery vest heavily embroidered with fantastical creatures. His skin was a warm brown, like a very dark tan, but his high cheekbones and narrowed nose pointed to mixed ancestry. The shoulder-length dark brown dreadlocks hinted at some African blood, while the narrow mustache and goatee simply drew the eye to his mouth, which seemed to hold an unholy fascination for me. But there was something else, something exotic about him that I found it hard to pinpoint. . . . ‘‘You’re a dragon,’’ I said