Page 83 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“I think you’re right, little bird,” he said, nodding, then told Yrian, “There is a vault in the basement, one where artifacts are stored.Drake’s broken into it before, as has May ...but there is nothing of great value held there.Just minor relics, lesser grimoires, etc.”
“What would your brother want with minor relics?”I asked Yrian, one hand on his arm.
His lips twisted.“He wouldn’t bother with something insignificant.There must be something more to draw him.”
“Gabriel is correct.The truly valuable relics—such as the light sword that Kostich took from Baltic—are kept elsewhere.I can think of nothing held at Suffrage House that would interest a demon lord,” Drake said, looking thoughtful.“Unless something was added of late.”
Yrian stilled for a few seconds, then released a long breath.“He put it there.That’s why I didn’t feel its presence in the Duat.He hid it at this Suffrage vault.”
“Hid what?”I asked, then sucked in my own breath at the memory of our time with Allie and Christian.“The blood moon?”
“We leave now,” Yrian said, taking my hand as he headed for the door.
“Others are on their way,” Gabriel protested, following.“There aren’t many silver dragons in Europe, but those that are will be in Paris as soon as possible.”
“There are several of my sept nearby.They are en route now,” Drake said with a frown.“It would be folly to make an attempt on Bael without support.”
“The folly would be allowing him to regain the blood moon,” Yrian said without stopping, going straight for the front door.“With it, he can do untold damage.We are a sufficient number to stop him now, before it comes to that.”
All the wyverns followed, although they didn’t look happy ...everyone but Hunter and Archer, who I knew were itching for payback.A few other men came running from another section of the house, guards appointed to the various wyverns, Aisling had told me when Yrian arrived earlier.
“Thaisa has asked if she should take a portal here, but I told her to stay with her grandmother,” Archer told Hunter as they gathered up the two swords that they’d left in the hall.
“No sense in putting her in danger,” Hunter agreed.
To a man, the wyverns all considered the mates.
“Don’t even,” Ysolde told Baltic, sailing out of the open door with a dark-haired man named Pavel on her heels.
“I’m sorry to ruin Jim’s visit with Amelie and Cecile, but this is more important,” Aisling said to no one in particular.“Effrijim, I summon thee.”
The demon dog appeared with a squeaky toy in its mouth.It immediately dropped it, saying, “Sheesh, Ash!You gotta warn me when you’re going to do that.I was putting on a squeaky puppet show for Cecile.Heya, everyone.What’s going on?Why do the dragon hunters have their swords?Aw, man, you’re going to fight someone, aren’t you?”
There was a bit of a kerfuffle when everyone burst out onto the sidewalk, what with cars having to be fetched.Yrian was beyond impatient, pacing in front of the door while Drake’s car was being brought around.
“This delay is intolerable,” Yrian said to me as he stalked past before turning around and retracing his steps.
“I know how much you want to find Bael, but you’re setting the sidewalk on fire, and I don’t think the mortals who live next to Drake are going to understand,” I said, stomping on the fiery footprints that trailed him.“And before you think about running off to tackle him alone, remember that you said you needed the weyr for this.”
He made a sour expression that quickly faded away, his eyes searching my face.“Do you have a glamour?”
“Several.For whom did you want one?”I asked.
“Yourself.I don’t want Kashi to know who you are.Can you look like you did in the Duat?”
“Sure,” I said, my hands already weaving bits of magic into the appearance.“But I doubt if I’m going to be his focus, not with you and the other dragons rolling up.”
“He would mark your appearance, and seek you out to destroy me, just as he did Amice.”He checked himself, saying, “Rather, as he and Tenite did, since she was evidently part of his plot.”
He must have told the wyverns that after I’d been banished from their meeting, because no one appeared surprised by his statement.
The ride to the large sandstone building sitting on the edge of one of Paris’s small parks was relatively short, although fraught with some argument when Drake, again, pointed out that several green dragons were on their way, and the handful that were in Paris had already set off for Suffrage House.
“What sort of protection does the vault have?”Yrian asked Drake.
“A very strong series of electronic locks that will take some time to work through.In addition to that, there are a variety of magics woven into the material.”
“Banes,” Aisling said.“The wards are easy enough to break, but the banes, songs, and prohibitions are going to take some time—and a whole lot of demons—to break.”
