This time I could not repress a shudder. “I’d prefer not to hear about how you get your thrills.”

Instead of being insulted, Lucien was amused. “I wondered how long you’d hold back.”

I gave him a questioning look, and he chuckled. “I can sense how females react to me, and your aversion is quite strong, even though you don’t know it. It’s actually refreshing to be around females who don’t want me.”

Jordan narrowed her eyes at him. “Poor fellow. I’m sure it must be a hardship for you.”

I didn’t hear his reply because my attention was fixed on the decanter sitting on Draegan’s table. What were the odds of finding a Fae drink at a demon party, especially this one? I’d never tried Glaen, but Aine had assured me that Fae food and drink would have no effect on me. Did that include this drink? I wasn’t eager to repeat my last experience with drinking, but I would take any kind of hangover for Greg.

“I’m going to play,” I announced.

“That would not be wise,” Lucien warned. “Look at you. There is no way you could last against Draegan.”

Jordan pulled me aside. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she whispered. “You don’t know if that stuff won’t hurt your Mori.”

“I had food and drink in Faerie and it didn’t hurt my Mori,” I whispered to her. “This is the best shot we have, and I just have to outlast him. He’s tough, but I have an advantage here.”

Her eyes swung between me and the big demon still sitting at the table. “I still don’t like it.”

“Just stand close to me and catch me if I look like I’m going to pass out.”

“That’s not funny.”

“If you have a better plan, I’m all ears.”

She gave me an unhappy look and shook her head.

I walked back to the incubus who was watching us with open curiosity. “Will you introduce us?”

He sighed. “If you wish, but I agree with your friend. This is a bad idea.”

Draegan bellowed a greeting when we approached his table. “Lucien, glad you could make it tonight!”

“How could I miss one of your parties?” He waved a hand at me. “My young Mohiri friend here wanted to meet you. She would like to play Glaen with you.”

Draegan’s cold reptilian eyes slid over me, and his mouth opened in surprise. Then he threw back his head and roared with laughter. The two demons standing behind him joined in.

“Play indeed,” he rumbled. “Go away, little Mohiri. Who let you out after dark?”

I pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. “But all the fun stuff happens after dark.”

Draegan waved a scaly hand at me. “You’re too puny, and I’ll not have your papa coming after me because you got sick at my place.”

“Or maybe you’re afraid I might win.”

The laughter around us died.

“No one beats Draegan,” said one of his companions.

“Then he shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

Draegan’s thin lips pulled tight and he glared at me. “The ante is five hundred dollars per shot. You don’t look like someone who carries that kind of cash.”

I unzipped a pocket of my jacket and pulled out one of the diamonds I’d brought with me to pay off Greg’s debt. “Will this do?”

Draegan’s eyes widened when he saw the sparkling gem. He swallowed greedily. “That will do nicely, and it’ll look great in the new ring I’m going to have made.”

I laid the diamond on the table in front of me, amazed at how steady my hands were. “Let’s play then.”

He barked at one of the mox demons who ran to get clean glasses from the bar. One of the other gulak demons handed him a wad of cash, and he began counting out five hundred dollars.

I waved away his money. “I don’t want money. I want to play for something else.”

He looked up from his money. “Like what?”

I rolled the diamond around the table, watching how Draegan’s eyes followed it. “You’re holding a debt against a friend of mine. I want it.”

He chuckled, but his eyes were shrewd. “I hold a lot of debts. You’ll have to be more specific.”

“His name is Greg McCoy.”

“McCoy? Ah, the blood debt.” He shrugged as if my friend’s life meant nothing. “What does a Mohiri care for a human’s debt?”

“I just said he was my friend.”

“So you did.” He scratched his scaly chin with a clawed hand. “One little diamond hardly covers a blood debt. I already have a buyer lined up for him, and she’s willing to pay handsomely for a fit young human male.”

Over my dead body. My breathing increased and my control slipped a little in my anger. I struggled to compose myself before I lost it and leapt across the table at the gulak.

“That’s a five carat diamond.” I patted my pocket. “I have two more in here just like it, and I’m sure they will more than cover the debt.”

Draegan’s hungry eyes hovered on my pocket. “Show them, then.”

I shook my head. “I’ll show them if you win.”

The gulak was barely able to take his eyes off the glittering diamond I rolled between my fingers. David had done his homework well. He’d said the one thing Draegan loved more than money was precious stones.