The Jade Dragon by Rowena May O'Sullivan Page A

know for certain!”
    â€œSo how long does Gregori have left?”
    â€œI’m not sure. Close to two weeks. I think.” Alanna frowned. “But how can I bind with an immortal? I’m mortal. I cut myself, I bleed. I eat something dicey, I throw up. I age, I die. He goes on forever. I don’t get it. I don’t want to be in the same jam as Rosa was with Aden. She went through hell.”
    Beth’s eyes widened. “You’ve heard the bells?”
    â€œNo. And I don’t expect to without any magic to guide me.”
    â€œMaybe because your magic is bound, you didn’t hear them?”
    Hmmmm
. “You think?” Alanna knocked that sentence around in her head for all of two seconds. “No. I felt Gregori break the wards on the Gallery. I’d hear them, I’m sure of it.”
    â€œYou’ve lots of questions you need answers to. We both do. I think we need to speak with Rosa. Perhaps she can do some digging around in Marylebone for us.”
    They both fell silent. Beth stated the obvious. “It’s awfully quiet up there.”
    â€œI’m hoping it’s because they’ve gone.” Alanna walked swiftly into the office and grabbed her purse. “I’m going to get that coffee. You want one?”
    â€œDon’t you want to take a look upstairs and make sure everyone is all right?”
    â€œNo. I don’t.”
    â€œNow look who’s sticking their head in the sand.”
    Alanna gave Beth the evil eye. She slammed her purse down on the counter, took a deep breath and marched to the stairs. Beth’s comment was like waving a flaming rag to a dragon. She gestured to her. “Come on.”
    â€œNo. I’m not going up there.”
    â€œYou’d let me go up there alone?”
    â€œDamn it, Alanna. I’ve no desire to get in the middle of an argument between three Marylebone Dragons.”
    â€œAnd yet you seem to think I should.”
    Beth sighed. “I suppose I shouldn’t let you go up there alone. But don’t expect me to be much use.”
    â€œYou’re bendy from all your ballet practice. It may help.”
    Beth’s eyebrows rose. “Just how do you figure that?”
    â€œIf you get in the way you can duck, tuck and roll away. I’m tall, ungainly, likely to stick myself in the middle and get knocked out for my efforts.”
    â€œStop wasting time. Get up those stairs. I’m right behind you.”

Chapter Eight
    Well, Alanna had expected something, but definitely not what she saw.
    â€œWhat in the name of the Goddess happened?” she asked as she knelt beside Goran. He sat on the floor, propped against the wall, punch-drunk, looking all limp like a rag-doll. Neither Anton nor Gregori were there.
    Somewhere deep in her gut, there was a mild sense of disappointment. Her so-called future mate had deserted her so easily.
    â€œGregori happened,” he slurred. “That’s what.”
    Alanna looked about her small studio, and peeked into her bedroom, the bathroom and kitchenette. Where had they gone? “I thought you said Gregori was too weak to go anywhere. Did Anton capture him?” The stone on the pedestal remained where she’d left it. No change there as far as she could tell so she figured Gregori wasn’t inside it.
    â€œMore like the other way around,” Goran muttered. “I can’t believe we fell for it.”
    â€œWhat did you fall for?”
    Goran lifted his head from the wall, winced and cupped the side of his forehead with a hand. “Gregori is far too wily. We never saw it coming.”
    Beth shot into the bathroom and returned seconds later with a damp cool cloth. She knelt beside him, holding it to his head. “Never saw what?”
    The coldness on his forehead seemed to clarify his thoughts. “He siphoned off our energy. He must have been creating an incantation the entire time we were trying to convince him to