Free Touch of the Fire God [Scions of the Ankh 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Toni L. Meilleur Page B

stiffened. “You cannot go to the city.” His tone was suddenly stern.
    “I am not your child, Ralabos. I can certainly handle myself.” Rene’s spine stiffened as well. He had no right to order her about. Just where did he get off thinking he could?
    “It is dangerous in the city.”
    “It is dangerous in the bathtub if you slip,” she retorted, stomping her way to the dining hall. Ralabos had no trouble keeping up with her strides with his long, muscular legs.
    “Then let me accompany you,” he demanded.
    “No! I don’t like your attitude, Ralabos. You cannot just go around issuing orders!” She stopped mid-stride and turned, almost colliding with him. “Last night, was—er, well, last night. But you don’t get to order me about.” She turned smartly, dismissing him; at least she was trying to.
    “If you don’t take me with you, you will not go!” His voice was rising, and Rene could swear the hall was getting hotter. “You will listen to me in this. I do this only for your well-being.” His eyes glittered like hard gray stones as he pointedly bore his gaze into hers.
    “You can’t stop me!”
    “This is my house as well. I will order every servant, especially the driver, not to give you access to anything,” he countered, his face in a full scowl.
    “Well I’ll call a cab with my cell phone!” Rene shot back.
    “Cell phone?” He seemed momentarily puzzled before he remembered the small communication devices. He could certainly fix that. He telepathically located the small device attached to her hip and sent it enough of a heat pulse to disable it. “You would not dare,” he challenged her, barely holding a smirk in place.
    He watched the defiant woman whip the phone off her delicate, well-formed hip and flip it open. She frowned when the device seemed to not function.
    “Well?” he prompted, chiding her.
    “I’m not getting any reception.” She snapped it closed and cursed silently to herself. “I’ll find a way, Ralabos,” she snapped at him.
    “Well just so we are clear, you may not use the telephones in the house. If you don’t take me with you, you don’t go at all.”
    With that, he strode for the dining room double doors and opened one, gallantly holding it and gesturing her inside. His ears almost burned at the curses he plucked from her mind. No matter, he would have to teach the little hellfire that she couldn’t outwit him.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Where is she?” Ralabos demanded of Thoth and Hathor, bursting into the study as the two pored over books. It was after breakfast, and Rene was nowhere in sight; his temper however, was clearly visible.
    “I do not know,” Jonathan murmured, running a spell over in his mind. “I’ve been preoccupied with reinforcing the protection barrier by centering it just on the property and a few miles around it. That means that we must keep Rene on the property or she’ll be detected.”
    “She isn’t in the house,” Ralabos declared. “The little minx is angry with me, and that anger is blocking me from mentally connecting with her.”
    “She was quite angry with you, Ralabos,” Hathor commented, laying a hand on Thoth’s shoulder. “She called you a few choice names, some I dare not repeat.” Hathor smirked to herself, remembering the human’s tirade.
    “You spoke with her?” Ralabos squinted at Hathor; women talking together, no good ever came from it.
    “Yes, she asked to borrow my cell phone.” Hathor had picked up the much-loved human female habit of shopping, and the phone was among her many purchases.
    Ralabos took a deep breath before he asked her another question. “Did she call this cab thing to take her away?”
    He was really frowning now. The realization that his little hellfire might have outwitted him was dawning rather unpleasantly.
    ”I don’t know. She went to another room to use the phone. Oh no, if she’s in the city...”
    “Seth can detect her,” Thoth finished for her. Before he spoke