protest, beating on his arm to let go of me. "Stop your bitching or I'll stop it for you! Here." He thrust an identification card at a customs official who hurriedly backed out of the way.
"Help!" I yelled, trying to simultaneously claw the man's grip off my wrist and twist myself free. "I'm being kidnapped! Someone help me! He-"
The last thing I remember before a white pain exploded in my head was the man turning toward me, his fist raised. After that, blissful darkness claimed me, welcoming me with a familiar comfort. I wandered the pathways of the shadow world for a bit, that place between realities that few can reach, and fewer can leave once they get there. It was a dreamworld, a place of sanctuary for those for whom reality had become too much, and I was tempted for a few moments to just remain there, safe from the pain and strife that made up my world. But the image of Gabriel's bright eyes rose in my mind, the memory of his burning kisses stirring the slumbering embers of my desire.
A cold shock of water dragged me out of the shadow world and back into my body. I sputtered and choked, rolling off my back and into a sitting position as I wiped water from my face. "Agathos daimon!"
"You will please to come to the chamber," a voice said with a complete lack of emotion. I shook the water from my eyes well enough to see the slight young man speaking.
"Who are you? And where am I?"
"I am Tej, apprentice to Monish Lakshmanan. This is Paris."
"Paris," I groaned, getting painfully to my feet. The laser burns had long since healed, but my wrist was still sore and discolored. The scene with the thief taker and the dark-haired brutish man rushed back. "What happened to the thief taker?"
"Porter? He's claiming his reward. You must please to come this way."
I staggered out of the small room, taking quick glances around me to look for an escape. Our footsteps echoed down a long hallway dotted with occasional chairs and small tables. "Where exactly in Paris?" I asked my escort.
"Suffrage House," he answered.
My spirits dropped. Suffrage House was the mansion of a long-dead suffragette, bought by the L'au-dela, and now used as their headquarters. Although I'd been locked in a small, dark room that was clearly used as a holding cell since it contained no furniture whatsoever, I had to admit that I'd been in much worse places.
"Who's Monish Lakshmanan?" I asked, sliding an appraising glance at Tej. He appeared to be Indian, his soft brown eyes watching me warily as we walked down a long gold and white hallway.
"Monish is an oracle, and a member of the watch."
Oh, wonderful. The watch was the police force of the L'au-dela, and their members were not people with whom I ever desired to cross paths. "I hate to do nothing but ask questions, but where are we going?"
"The almoner's chamber. You must make a phone call, yes?"
He threw open a door to what appeared to be an office containing four desks, three of which were occupied by women who bore all the appearances of secretaries.
In front of the nearest one, a familiar man stood arguing. "-after which he stole her from me. Porter has no right to claim the reward when I did all the hard work and caught her to begin with."
"Stop your bellyachin'," the nasty dark-haired man snarled from where he stood to the side. I followed Tej into the room and took the chair at the empty desk that he indicated. "You know the rules as well as I do-he who brings in the suspect gets the reward. I'll take that voucher for the benefaction now."
"That only applies if the suspect escapes one thief taker, a fact you know very well," Savian said, slamming down his hand on the table. "The fact is that you stole her from me. You didn't pick her up after I left her; you stole her from me. As if that wasn't enough to disqualify your claim on her, there's the little fact that you were about to conduct an illegal search upon her person when I found you."
"An illegal search?" The woman at the desk frowned.
"What sort of illegal search?" I asked, sick to my stomach at the thought of the man named Porter touching me while I was unconscious.
"You keep your nose out of what doesn't concern you," the nasty man (evidently named Porter)