“Well, it’s not going to happen again! Ever!”
“Of course it’s not.” But Gabriel’s smirk said that he thought otherwise.
Winthrop called out from the hallway. “Sir, your father wishes to speak to you post-haste!”
“Winthrop, get away from that doorway now or I will set you on fire!” Gabriel bellowed. “I’ll come down when I’m good and ready.”
“Very good, sir, I’ll let him know.” Even through the door, Winthrop’s voice carried a note of disapproval.
“What if it’s an emergency?” Kelly yawned and stretched.
“It’s not an emergency. It’s just my father. When an idea pops into his head, he needs to express it immediately.”
She looked up at the big railroad-station-style clock on the wall, which said 8:30 a.m., groaned and ran her hands through her sleep-rumpled hair. The sun was streaming through the massive window, and dragons flew by outside. They weren’t just awake already, they were flying already.
“Does everyone get up at the crack of dawn around here?” she asked.
He snorted. “This is the crack of dawn? I gather you’re not an early riser?”
“Not voluntarily, no.” She stretched and yawned, then saw that he was eyeing her body appreciatively.
“Stop that,” she said nervously, and crossed her arms over her chest to hide the fact that her nipples had immediately hardened under his caressing gaze.
“I know how to make waking up each morning a delight,” he said with a wicked grin.
Her face flamed red with embarrassment, and she stifled a whimper of desire. “Stop that,” she ordered him again, her voice rising.
“Your wish is my command. Don’t forget that; you can use it against me in all kind of inappropriate ways. I’m going to go shower now. There’s room for two, by the way.”
“In your dreams!” she snapped.
“Oh, those were fulfilled last night.”
He slid off the edge of the bed and started to walk towards the bathroom, then turned back and looked her in the eyes. “Tell me something. If you didn’t believe that I was a thief, would you be willing to marry me?”
She thought about the way he looked at her. The way she felt when she saw the desire in his eyes. The way he stuck up for her when her mother insulted her. She thought about the way Emerson looked at Tabitha, still so much in love with her after all these years, and wondered if it would be like that for Gabriel and her. She imagined waking up in bed next to him every morning, his fingers trailing over her stomach...
“Ah, well, I…I mean…”
“Thought so,” he said smugly, and sauntered off.
* * * * *
Teresa had also spent the night at the castle.
However, Kelly found out when she went downstairs for breakfast that Teresa had been caught sneaking around at two a.m. trying to get into areas that were closed off. She’d accidentally set off an alarm that had sent the castle guards swarming all over her, according to Gabriel. Kelly would have given her favorite Prada purse to see that. Well, her only Prada purse.
Teresa, who had a competitive streak as wide as Texas when it came to Kelly, had obviously been trying to find the Dragonsblood Ruby on her own.
As if Gabriel’s family would have just casually left it lying around, Kelly thought scornfully. True, Teresa also had empath powers – she and Kelly had both inherited them from their dad – but they were nowhere near as sensitive as Kelly’s, and she had very little chance of finding the ruby even if she was in the same room. She’d have to be within five feet of it.
“I’ve assigned Winthrop to shadow her twenty-four hours a day, out of spite,” Gabriel told Kelly cheerfully as they ate breakfast in the garden behind the castle.
“Hmm. Sadistic. Which one of them are you spiting?”
Gabriel just winked at her and finished his coffee.
After breakfast, Gabriel took Kelly on a tour of one of the wings of the castle, which contained their art gallery and library.
Teresa insisted on going along, and Winthrop stayed at a distance of about ten feet from her, his gaze dutifully fixated on her at all times. Kelly wasn’t even sure if he was blinking. Now, there was a man who was dedicated to his job.
Gabriel had told her about that whole tradition thing with Winthrop’s family, who had worked as valets for his family for hundreds of years. Kelly didn’t understand it. If it had been her, and she’d been working for a family who drove her crazy, she would have handed in her notice in a heartbeat.
“Is that a Rembrandt?” Kelly asked, pausing by a painting.
“Yes, and in case you’re wondering, we didn’t steal it. He was a friend of the family. It’s a portrait of one of my great-great etcetera grandfathers.”
Kelly peered at it. He was telling the truth; she could see the family resemblance. She could even see the roguish glint in his eye.
They were the kind of family that hobnobbed with famous painters – and had been, for centuries. Why did they steal jewels? Kelly wondered. They were already obscenely wealthy. Part of it was the typical dragon lust for jewels and precious metals, she was sure, but she also suspected part of it was boredom. They seemed like the kind of family who’d crave the thrill of adventure.
“I suppose you already called and told mother that I got busted last night,” Teresa muttered to Kelly, glancing resentfully at Winthrop.
“No, Teresa, I’m not you,” Kelly snapped back.
“And thank God for that,” Teresa said haughtily. “At least mother has one decent daughter who can abide by the rules.”
“Yes, and she sure shows her appreciation for it, doesn’t she?”
Teresa flushed and shot a murderous glare at Kelly before shoving her hands in her pockets and stalking off. She was the recipient of their mother’s verbal abuse just as often as Kelly was, which infuriated her.
Kelly knew what Teresa was thinking. She was the good daughter; why didn’t her mother love her more than Kelly? Or at least dislike her less?
They finished their tour after a couple of hours. Unfortunately, Kelly hadn’t really been able to appreciate all the exquisite antiques and beautiful tapestries. As they’d walked around, she had concentrated ferociously and used her mental energy to sweep the rooms for any sign of the Dragonsblood . She’d never had to focus her powers for so long before, and she had a pounding headache now.
“What about the rest of the castle?” she said, massaging her temples.
“The castle is too big to tour in one day,” Gabriel said. “We’ll spend the next week or two going through the different parts. You’re starting to look a little pale; do you feel all right?”
“Maybe I’ll lie down for an hour,” she said weakly. It was just as well that they were taking a break; if her headache got any worse, she might end up puking in the nearest Ming vase.
She went back to her room and sent an email to the Allied Jewel Insurance agency’s office manager, letting her know that she hadn’t found anything but would update them if and when she did. She deleted the seventeen messages from her mother, all of which had subject lines like, “Answer this email now, you incompetent ingrate!”
Then she popped a couple of aspirin and lay down on the bed.
Chapter Nine
That afternoon, Gabriel took her to visit his family’s store, Kingsley Jewels, which was located in South Lyndvale. South Lyndvale was the section of town where the fire dragons lived. The ice dragons lived in North Lyndvale. The two species were notorious for clashing with each other.
They’d managed to sneak out and ditch Teresa, which definitely improved Kelly’s mood. Spending the day with her sibling ranked somewhere between “root canal without anesthesia” and “cleaning out a used latrine with a toothbrush” on the fun-meter.
Kelly suspected that Teresa would spend the day wandering around the castle annoying people and searching for the Dragonsblood, which was fine with her. Unlike her sister, she wasn’t competitive. She just wanted
the damn rock found and returned – she didn’t care how.
When Gabriel had parked in front of the store and climbed out, he opened the trunk and took out a canvas bag full of small wrapped packages, but he refused to tell Kelly what it was for.
“Perhaps I’m also a drug dealer,” he suggested when she tried to press him.
“Fine, be that way.” Just to be sure, she did a quick mental scan of the packages, which were entirely jewel free.
And then they walked through the door of Kingsley Jewels, past two burly security guards, and her breath was temporarily snatched away in awe and admiration.
Kingsley Jewels was world-renowned, and as she entered the cool, faintly perfumed space, she could see why. The interior looked like an underwater grotto, with different rooms carved out, each featuring different jewelry designers. There were customers from all over the world there; eavesdropping was like wandering through the United Nations.
The jewelry was exquisite; each piece was a tiny work of art worthy of display in a museum. Each section was dedicated to a different designer; there were about a dozen. Whatever style of jewelry design you wanted, you could find here. Art nouveau, industrial chic, nature-inspired, holiday-themed, wedding rings of every description…
Wait, why had Gabriel steered her towards the wedding ring section?
She gave him a dirty look, and he rewarded her with a charming smile.
“What?” he said innocently. “You should search the entire store. Every single section. For all you know, the Dragonsblood Ruby might be tucked in amongst the wedding rings. You should look very carefully through all the display cases.”
She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that a heart-shaped ruby the size of a baseball would be pretty hard to hide in a wedding ring case.” She watched him carefully as she said that, to see how he’d react.
“Don’t be ridiculous. When I stole the Dragonsblood…” he paused dramatically as her eyes widened in shock “…I quite clearly remember it being diamond-shaped, and the size of a football.”
Oh, very funny. The Dragonsblood was the size of a golf ball, and it wasn’t diamond shaped, it was spherical.
Of course she couldn’t trick him that easily.
“Your face right now.” Gabriel chuckled. “I wish you could see it. Oh, there’s a mirror – do you want to look?”
“I hate you,” she informed him loftily, and stalked off to search the store.
“There’s an excellent selection of rubies in the room off to your left!” he called out after her. She refused to dignify that with an answer; she just raised her middle finger and held it high. Customers were staring at her and murmuring; she didn’t care.
Gabriel headed for the door, carrying his canvas sack, and gave her a friendly wave. “I’ll be back soon,” he said.
Seriously, what the heck was he up to with that sack? she wondered. She wandered through the store, opening her mind and letting the energy of the jewels flow through her body.
It wasn’t that she thought he’d be insane enough to have the ruby on sale in a display case in his family’s store, but he certainly might have it somewhere here in a safe. There were security guards in the store, video cameras, an alarm system…it would be as safe here as anywhere.
A thorough sweep of the store didn’t yield any results.
There were, however, several jewels in the display cases that she was surprised to find there. There were some small healing rubies set in a bracelet that she would have thought would have been sent off to a dragon clinic for use, there was a pair of malachite earrings that would be extremely dangerous if they got into the wrong hands, because they could amplify dragon aggression…
As she moved through the store, she was even more surprised to see a man she recognized, who was standing there talking to a sales associate. A human. Marvin Ackermann. He was tall and lean, with pale skin and thick shock of dark hair. He had changed since she’d last seen him a few years ago – he used to wear his hair close-clipped, and he also used to wear glasses. And he’d shaved off his goatee and mustache. It was his expression that caught her attention; sour and disapproving, as if he’d just sucked on a lemon.
She’d gone to school with him at the Gemological Institute for Empaths.
“Marvin?” she said. He gave her a startled glance, then turned and hurried to the back of the store and vanished through a door. She wasn’t surprised that he didn’t want to be seen by her; it was illegal for him to be working there, at least in the capacity of an empath, and why else would he be there?
Human law forbade empaths from working for dragon shifters; humans didn’t want dragons to be able to gain control of power gems. Human-dragon relations were always uneasy, and humans did everything that they could to keep dragons from gaining any more power.
She began asking the sales associate to look at various items of jewelry, including the ones that she knew had power. That way, she could warn Gabriel about them without him figuring out that she’d sensed their powers without touching them.
After a little while she took a break, sinking down into a velvet-covered sofa near the front of the store. Her head was starting to hurt again, and she massaged her temples until it stopped. All this gem-searching was exhausting.
Gabriel strode over to her, and he no longer had the canvas bag full of packages, she noted.
“Did you see anything you like?” he asked her. “Just say the word.”
Argh. He was offering Kelly her choice of the achingly gorgeous jewels here. And, assuming that his desire to marry her was sincere, he was also offering a lifetime of hot sex. All she had to do was completely abandon her scruples and live with the fact that he was a thief who deprived other people of their treasured and beloved possessions.
“Having scruples sucks,” she muttered under her breath.
“What’s that?”
“I said you have a gem empath working for you,” she said, standing up.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not what you just said. Ready to go to lunch?” he asked.
She let him lead her out of the store.
“You’re changing the subject, by the way,” she said as they strolled down the street. It was a gorgeous downtown, with coffee shops and restaurants and clothing stores and old-fashioned lantern-style streetlights with carved metal dragons on the top of them. I could get used to this, she thought.
Gabriel reached out and grabbed her hand, and for a minute she let him fold his hand around hers and they walked down the street as if everything was right with the world. I could live in this town, I could wake up in Gabriel’s arms every morning…
Then her phone rang, and it was the ring-tone indicating that her mother was calling. She quickly turned her cell phone off, but the spell had been broken. Gabriel reached for her hand again, but she pulled away.
No. No. Focus.
“You’re trying to distract me,” she said to him. “I recognized Marvin. I went to school with him.”
He shrugged. “I’m not saying it’s him, I’m not saying it’s not. But it’s not illegal for us to employ him unless he’s working in the capacity of a gem empath.”
“Isn’t he?”
Gabriel smiled. “That would be hard to prove. He’s also a regular gemologist. I was thinking Italian for lunch, what about you?”
“When you hired him, you may not have gotten what you think you did,” she said.
Gabriel gave her a puzzled glance, but before he could say anything, she saw him look across the street. A scowl creased his brow. There was a group of people standing there and staring at them, and they looked decidedly unfriendly. One of them, she realized, was Pandora. And they were crossing the street now and heading their way.
“Who are those people with Pandora?” she asked Gabriel.
“Pandora’s parents, Roger and Maura. Roger is a used-car salesman.”
Kelly burst into laughter. “Shut up, he is not.”
“True story. A used-car salesman who gets sued
all the time. And the fat guy in the police uniform is Quinton Teague, the head of the Tri-Valley dragon centurions. He’s like a police chief, but his title is Vigiles Principe. He’s an ice dragon, which means he automatically has it in for me. He’s got two centurions with him. So he’s expecting some kind of confrontation.”
The group crowded onto the sidewalk in front of them and blocked their path. That drew a warning growl from Gabriel. Gabriel’s eyes flashed red and his pupils went vertical, and smoke began drifting from his nostrils.
The two centurions stepped forward, and their eyes also turned red.
Pandora’s father glared at Gabriel. “How dare you parade her around in public?” he demanded, pointing at Kelly, his finger shaking with rage.
Shoppers who’d been walking by them on the sidewalk paused to stare.
“You mean my wife-to-be?” There was an edge of steel to Gabriel’s voice.
“I mean this criminal.” Roger gestured dramatically at Kelly. “She drugged my daughter and impersonated her!”
“Think very carefully before you bad-mouth Kelly. I hear third degree burns are quite painful. Especially when they cover your entire body.” Smoke drifted from Gabriel’s nostrils, and the air around him rippled and grew warm.
Roger poked Principe Teague in the arm hard, causing Teague to glare at him. “Are you going to let him stand there and threaten me? Do your job!” he snapped.
“Don’t touch me like that again,” Teague said coldly, and Roger folded his arms and scowled.
“They’ve filed a complaint about Kelly drugging Pandora and impersonating the Fair Maiden,” Teague said to Gabriel, his eyes gleaming with malice. “We’re going to have to take her down to the station for questioning.”
Claws curved from Gabriel’s fingers, and he let out a blast of flame. “Over my dead body,” he snapped.
Teague’s eyes turned ice blue and his pupils went vertical, just like Gabriel’s. “My pleasure. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.” When he spoke, an icy cloud of vapor rolled from his mouth. The chief stepped forward towards Kelly, his centurions by his side.
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