Demon Forged

it, too. “What’s the save-me-from-the-vampire plan while you guys are having your gathering in Caelum?”
    “I’ve scheduled it to coincide with dawn here, tomorrow,” Michael told her. “I realize you will not agree to be locked away in Caelum—”
    “You got that right.”
    “—so I will accompany you to your station and return before sundown. The warehouse will be closed; Lilith, Hugh, and Sir Pup will be guarding Savi while she sleeps. Colin will be with us—he is the only vampire who could possibly harm you during that time.”
    The detective shook her head. “Colin wouldn’t—”
    “Not voluntarily,” Michael agreed. “But if a demon threatened Savi, then I believe he would destroy half the world.”
    “And then we’d have to kill him,” Irena said.
    Alejandro’s gaze lit with his laughter. “Or give him to Rosalia.”
    For hunting and fucking? Irena narrowed her eyes at him and rose from the sofa. “Michael, have you anything else for us?”
    “No.”
    Good. She passed Alejandro. He turned and followed her. When he closed the door behind them, she spun him into the corridor wall. He lifted her. Her legs circled his waist. His mouth found hers, hot. She opened her lips, took him deep. Not enough. She kissed his chin, his cheek, his neck. She needed to touch him everywhere.
    “I have missed you,” she breathed between kisses.
    “Irena.” His fingers clenched on her thighs. “Irena.”
    As if that was all he could say, he took her mouth again. She’d thought kissing him would be a release, but now she wanted more. Here, if she had to, Olek hard inside her, until she came and came.
    Footsteps filtered through the haze of need, followed by Ames-Beaumont’s bored voice. “It is just like the tube in London, sweet. Barbarians copulate in dark corners.”
    The cursed dragon-fucking bloodsucker. Without breaking their kiss, Irena slid her hand from Olek’s hair and extended her middle finger.
    His fangs gleaming sharp in his grin, Ames-Beaumont passed them, his features ridiculously beautiful even half-glimpsed in profile. Then Savi went by, holding her hand like a blinder beside her eyes and shaking with laughter.
    Olek, the stupid ox, had begun laughing, too. When the door to the observation room opened and closed, she leaned back against the wall.
    “I hate this place. There is no privacy.” They could easily find privacy in Caelum, but unless she had no other choice, Irena was not yet ready to use Dru’s Gate. “We will find a roof outside,” she decided.
    He shook his head. “It is raining.”
    She laughed and pulled him down for another long taste. When she heard the observation room door open, and Michael’s sigh, she took Olek’s hand. She didn’t look back at the Doyen, but walked quickly down the corridor toward the common room.
    Her steps faltered when the psychic pall settled over her. Irena stopped, blocked their grief and sent out a sharp stab of anger. The novices looked over at her. Pim and Becca weren’t among them, she saw.
    “Perhaps none of you is old enough to know what a gathering is,” she told them. “But you will not bring this to Caelum. Grief, yes, for she is missed. But you all sit as if you are dead, and the gathering is about her life, not death. If you cannot shed this, stay here.” She opened her shields, so that they would know she meant every word. “Because if you bring this death there, I will hunt you down and skin you all.”
    She felt their resentment, their anger. Good. Better than the dull nothing. Still holding Olek’s hand, she crossed the room.
    He slowed on the stairs, and she glanced back at him. His eyes were alight.
    She frowned. “You laugh? I am serious.”
    “I know. I laugh because you are serious. There is so much of you that amazes me.”
    “I do not understand that.” But her heart did a little jump anyway. “Anyone my age ought to be as skilled as I am.”
    “Yes. But apparently you have not noticed, Irena—no one is your age. And I do not speak of your skills. You would amaze me if the only weapon you possessed was the blunt edge of your tongue.”
    He stopped in the hub, looked in each direction. With a firm step, he started toward the hall leading to the conference room.
    “Do you know, Olek, that it is not just demons who use slippery words? Roman senators—politicians—did as well.”
    “I do know.” He swung open the conference room door. “This must be difficult for you.”
    She shook her head