Pain lashed through me with sharp precision. I doubled over, clutching myself against it. ‘‘Sweet May. Lovely May. It would be such a shame to lose a servant as devoted as you.’’

He lifted me up, his eyes blazing as he pulled me against his body, but for once, there was no erotic intent in his expression. ‘‘Do not fail me, May, lest I be forced to recall you to Abaddon, where you will remain until the end of your days.’’

‘‘—too early to do anything. I haven’t had my breakfast yet!’’

‘‘You’re just going to have to wait, Jim. Finding May is more important than feeding you. Gabriel, are you sure she didn’t say anything before she disappeared?’’

The voices reached me even before I fell through the rip in reality that Magoth’s minion had created. I hit the floor, disoriented as I always was when shoved through a tear in the mortal plain.

‘‘Speak of the devil. Ouch. Looks like you’ve been to Abaddon and back,’’ Jim said close to my ear. I felt a faint moist sensation on my shoulder. ‘‘Oh, yeah—hellfire and brimstone. Well, back safe and sound, that’s all that matters. Now can I have my breffy?’’

I hadn’t shaken the dizziness from my head before I was yanked upward and slammed against a hard surface . . . a warm hard surface, one with arms that tightened around me, which smelled like heaven, and tasted even better. Gabriel didn’t wait to ask me what happened—his mouth took possession of mine with a need that demanded all. I let him plunder away, ignoring my guilt for a moment in order to give him everything I had.

His lips and tongue pulled away from me with violence, his eyes literally scorching me as he looked down, his face set in hard planes. ‘‘I need you,’’ he said in a low, intimate growl.

I blinked for a moment in surprise, glancing to the side where Drake stood next to Aisling. It would appear the demon had dropped me off in Drake’s kitchen. Behind the two of them, Drake’s men, and a woman I remembered being introduced as István’s girlfriend, stood watching with silent interest. Surprisingly, Cyrene wasn’t present. ‘‘Er . . . right now?’’

‘‘Yes.’’ Gabriel didn’t hesitate—he simply scooped me up in his arms, blanket and all, and headed in long strides toward what looked to be the back stairs.

Aisling glanced at her wyvern. ‘‘I know it’s none of our business, but does May look to you like she’s up to the sort of activities Gabriel is clearly planning?’’

Drake leaned down and kissed her. ‘‘She has been taken from him and returned. It is the way of dragons, kincsem.’’