He stopped in front of me, not touching me, waiting for me to finish my thought.
“Of those three, I think the warrior is strongest in you.”
Eyes of midnight searched my face. “I am a dragon first and foremost, Ysolde. Dragons are warriors. We always have been. Nothing has changed.”
“No,” I agreed. “Nothing has changed. You might wear modern clothes, and drive a car, and use a laptop, but at heart, you’re still the same man you were five hundred years ago. You still make decisions for me. You still shut me out of certain aspects of your life. You’re still a warrior.”
“I protect you when necessary, yes. I cannot do otherwise, mate. I existed once without you, and I will not do so again. Were the events of the past to be repeated and Thala resurrected me again, I would not continue living. You are life to me, Ysolde. I will not live without you.”
I moved into his arms, kissing the pulse point in his neck. “You make it really hard to lambaste you for doing things you know I won’t like. I love you, too, you frustratingly wonderful man.”
“Dragon.”
“And while you may not have changed, I have. I understand that you need to protect Brom and me, and I’m grateful you do. But protecting doesn’t mean keeping me utterly in the dark. You can tell me about threats or things of importance like that. I really don’t like feeling as if I can’t be trusted with the truth.”
“There is nothing with which I don’t trust you.” His breath was hot on my neck and ear as he nibbled a spot that he knew turned me to mush in his arms.
“Did Thala know about Fiat’s threat to kill Brom and me?” I slid my hands under his shirt, stroking the muscles of his back, breathing in the scent of him. It was a heady experience, leaving me simmering with desire.
“Yes. Do you remember the time we were in Venice and you thought to hide behind a mask and test me?”
I stopped unbuckling his belt, prodding hard at the big black chunks of my memory. “No. A mask? Hmm.”
“It was during a festival. You pretended to be a woman of no morals who desired my body, and tried to test my fidelity to you.”
“Still not ringing any bells. Why don’t you do whatever you did to prompt a vision before, so I can relive it?”
He unzipped my jeans, sliding his hands over my hips as he pushed them down, tossing them onto a chair along with my underwear and sandals. “I would prefer not to.”
“Why not?” I shucked my shirt and bra at the same time I tackled his belt, suddenly frantic to get him out of his clothes so I could rub myself all over him.
“You did not believe me when I told you that I knew it was you from the moment you neared me.”
Buttons went flying as I yanked his shirt off while he was trying to take off his pants.
“Does that mean that you let me seduce you, then told me you knew it was me?” I moaned softly as I stroked the heavy muscles of his chest, waiting impatiently for him to get his shoes off. The second he stood up, I flung myself on him, biting his shoulder as I wiggled against him, relishing the sensation of hot, satiny flesh covering steely muscles.
“Yes. You could not wait for me to take you to our bed. You demanded that I make love to you on the balcony of the villa we’d taken.”
“Balcony, eh?” I stopped licking his neck long enough to look speculatively around the room.
“On a table.” His voice was rich with the promise of fulfilling the intention so obvious in his beautiful onyx eyes. “Like the one behind you.”
Cold wood met my behind as he picked me up and set me on the small writing desk, sweeping the accoutrements onto the floor as he took both my breasts in his hands.
“Oooh. New position. Kinky,” I said, squirming as he gently tormented my breasts. I dug my fingers into his hips, sliding them around to his behind as his mouth claimed mine, his fire sweeping through me.
“You particularly enjoyed it when I did this,” he said, dropping to his knees.
I swear my eyes rolled back in my head when he blew dragon fire along my thighs, following it with the even hotter sensation of his mouth as he kissed a serpentine path up toward the source of so much pleasure.
“I bet I did,” I said in between pants. His mouth closed on me, licking and gently biting, and doing wonderful little swirly things with his tongue that had me grasping the edges of the desk. “By the rood, Baltic, your tongue ought to be outlawed, doing things like that. Do that again! No, the other thing!”
He chuckled at my demand, his fingers curled up inside me as his tongue did a particularly effective dance against hidden parts of me, causing me to fall back on the desk, my muscles tightening painfully around him in a spasm of purest rapture. “You were always easy to please, mate. I am glad that has not changed about you.”
I lifted my head to glare at him. “You did that to me and didn’t tell me you knew it was me all along? No wonder I was pissed!”
He made a face. “It was three weeks before I convinced you that I knew it was you all along.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You don’t mean to say that I didn’t reciprocate?”
We both looked at his penis, clearly waiting for its turn.
“You did. But you were angry. I could tell.”
I allowed him to pull me into a sitting position. “Friends don’t let friends give angry oral sex, Baltic. If I made sure you were happy, I wasn’t angry.”
“You were.” Without any further ado, he wrapped my legs around his hips and slid into my body. “You used your teeth more than was seemly.”
I was in the middle of a groan of ecstasy when he spoke, making me hiccup in a few giggles, which in turn caused him to frown down at me as he stroked in and out with long, smooth moves.
“Honestly, Baltic, you’re the only man I know who can frown during sex. Kiss me—my mouth misses yours.”
He obliged, sharing his dragon fire with me, murmuring something in my ear about withholding it until I could access my own, but I was too busy being aroused all over again to pay much mind to his threat. The table protested his increased vigor with a rhythmic squeak that I prayed wasn’t audible outside the room. By the time I flexed my muscles around him, squeezing a nonstop stream of groans from his lips as his hips moved in a way that damn near brought me to tears, I was on the edge of another orgasm, just waiting for him to push me over.
The muffled sound of the front door, situated next to the small room, as it slammed shut had me grasping Baltic’s hips with desperation.
“She’s back,” I moaned, sucking hard on his tongue. “Hurry!”
“You must go first,” he panted, his mouth hot and sweet and endlessly fascinating.
“I had my turn. You go, and that’ll do it for me, too,” I said, my own breath ragged and irregular.
“You . . . first . . .”
I knew that Thala would see lights on and come to investigate, so I didn’t waste time arguing. I simply tightened every muscle I had around the hot invasion of his penis, gripping him with a fierceness that had his eyes opening wide for a moment before he roared his pleasure into my mouth. Like I predicted, that was all I needed, as well, as his last few convulsive thrusts sent me flying.
“Baltic, did you find someone to locate the sepulcher? If you cannot find someone with the appropriate tracking skills, we might think about hiring a blue dragon—” The door to the hallway opened, revealing Thala. Baltic spun around, screening me from sight, but I wasn’t any too happy about the fact that she was getting an eyeful. I snatched up my shirt from the floor, and still behind him, held it in front of his groin, all the while peering around his shoulder to send a potent glare at the intruder.
“I might have known you would be here,” she growled, seeing me. Her gaze went back to Baltic. “Did you at least accomplish what we discussed before your woman distracted you?”
“I grow weary of telling you to treat Ysolde with respect,” he replied, his arms crossed. “She is my mate. You will refer to her as such.”
“Did you?” she prompted, ignoring his demand.
His lips tightened, but after a moment he answered. “Not yet. I will locate one tomorrow.”
“We need someone at the sepulcher as soon as possible, not whenever you get around to it.” She took a deep breath. “You seem to be more concerned about your mate than you are my mother’s sword!”
“Ysolde is everything to me,” he said simply, which just made me melt all over his back. I licked his shoulder blade. “I will regain the sword, do not fear. But I will do it in a manner I choose. Kostich is more powerful than you credit him, and I will not risk Ysolde’s well-being to regain the sword.”
“He would not harm her,” Thala argued. “You said she was his apprentice.”
“Kostich has used her to obtain his ends before, and he may do so again,” he answered. “The sword is mine, but I will claim it in a way that will not allow him to threaten her. I will find a tracker in the morning to locate the sepulcher.”
“A tracker?” I asked, having managed to slip into my jeans and bra while he and Thala were arguing. I picked up his pants and moved in front of him, blocking Thala’s view. “You mean someone who’s good at finding hidden things?”
“Yes.” Baltic donned his pants, pausing when he saw the smile I just couldn’t contain. “Do you know of one?”
“Oh, yes.” My smile grew as I looked at Thala. I’d heard the tale of what happened the night May re-formed the dragon heart. “I know of one who is quite good. In fact, when I was staying with May and Gabriel, he’s the man I was going to hire to help me locate you.”
“I will contact him in the morning,” Baltic said, wrapping an arm around me. “We will go to bed now.”
Thala moved aside as we left the room, her expression too placid for my peace of mind. I couldn’t wait to tell Savian Bartholomew, official thief-taker for the L’au-dela and part-time rogue, that he would have the chance to work with the woman who had come very close to killing him.
Chapter Fifteen
“You know, Ysolde, Dr. Kostich and I . . . well, we’re not the best of friends.”
Jim rolled its eyes as Aisling rose from her seat in the lobby of the hotel my former employer favored when he stayed in London. “Maybe that’s ’cause you more or less told him you could take him down if he got in your face?”
“I never said that!” Aisling whapped Jim on the arm. “I just said that I bet I could give him a run for his money. And he got all bent out of shape because I zapped Caribbean Battiste that one time, which is silly because Caribbean wasn’t upset with me. Well, not after I apologized and swore that I’d never again turn him into a simulacrum. And paid for a new suit, since his was ruined. And then Drake had to pony up some money for the Elderly Guardians’ Home, but that’s a worthy charity, so he didn’t really mind. Much. Anyway, the point is that Kostich and I have a bit of a rocky history, so I’m really not sure how well he’s going to take to my being there with you.”
“Good morning,” I told her, smiling at her protestations. “I’m well aware that Kostich has no love for you, but since he has even less for me, I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a powerful wyvern’s mate and Guardian there to remind him that we’re no pushovers.”
“No, we’re not, but he’s also a whole lot more powerful than most people realize,” Aisling told me as we entered an elevator. “Er . . . do you know what room he’s in? Shouldn’t we let him know we’re coming for a visit? What if he’s not here?”
“He always stays in suite 1818, so I know where he is, and honestly, I’ve found it’s better if I don’t announce my visits. He usually forbids me to enter if I do.”
“Oh, that sounds good,” Jim said with ominous portent. “At least I have my cell phone and can get video footage of him when he comes unglued.”
“Hush, you,” Aisling said as the two other people in the elevator gave us odd looks. A few minutes later as we stood outside the suite, she said, “You sure you want me for this, Ysolde?”
“I’m sure. I’m out of ideas of what to do for Jim, and Dr. Kostich, as you pointed out, is the most powerful mage around.”
“You never met Bael when he was masquerading as a mage,” Aisling said with a grimace. “He was no lightweight either.”
I decided I’d ask her about that later, mentally girded my loins, and hit the bell next to the door.
A familiar redheaded man opened the door.
“Jack!” I said in happy surprise.
“Tully! No, wait, it’s something else . . . Isabel?”
“Ysolde, but you can call me Tully if you like. I answer to both names. I had no idea you were in London. I thought you went to Cairo.”
The freckled, sunny-faced young man grinned. “Finished my training there in record time, so the master had me return. But what are you doing here? I thought you were off being the mate to that dragon mage who attacked us.”
“I am, but there’s a little situation that’s come up, and I need Dr. Kostich’s help. This is Aisling Grey and her demon, Jim.”
“Hiya,” Jim said. “I remember you from the day the spawn were born.”
“Er . . . hi.” The smile faded as Jack cast a quick glance over his shoulder. “You don’t have an appointment, do you?”
“No.” I touched his arm, dropping my voice. “I need to see him, Jack.”
His face was filled with sympathy. “You know he doesn’t see people if they don’t have an appointment.”
“I know, but there’s really no other way. I’m doing a job for him, but if I made an appointment, he’d be sure to ask if it was related to that, and you know how impossible it is to lie to him. The man has a built-in lie detector.”
The corners of his mouth went up. “I guess you get that being the most powerful archimage of this age.”
“Exactly. So if you could just look the other way and let us in, I’d be eternally grateful.”
An interesting parade of emotions passed over Jack’s face, everything from regret to obstinacy, finally ending with a mischievous twinkle that I prayed boded well. “It may cost me my position, but I’ll do it.” He stepped back, holding the door open for us.
“If it would help, I can tell him that Jim overpowered you,” Aisling offered as we entered the suite.
“Rawr,” Jim said, flexing his muscles.
“Er . . . no, I think I’ll just take my chances with the fact that Ysolde’s now an important personage,” Jack said, waving a feeble hand toward the room I knew Kostich used as his office. “You won’t mind if I don’t announce you?”
“Not at all. Thanks, Jack. I really owe you.”
He nodded, and disappeared into a side room, obviously not wanting to attract any of the wrath that I suspected would be flowing free as the wind in a few moments.
“I really hate it when I’m right,” I told Aisling three minutes later as Dr. Kostich stormed around the room, ranting to no one in particular about the arrogance of people who should know better than to disturb their superiors.
“It’s a curse, isn’t it?” she said with sympathy, giving my arm a little pat as I took a deep breath and stepped forward to stop the tirade.
“I’ve already apologized twice for interrupting your work time, and I will do so again if it makes you feel better, but this is a serious matter, and although it doesn’t have anything to do with the task I’ve undertaken on your behalf, it does have an impact on me, and as such, I am forced to seek assistance from the only one who is powerful enough to help me.”
“Nice oiling of the squeaky hinge,” Aisling said in an undertone.
Dr. Kostich wasn’t immune to being buttered up, but neither was he overly impressed by flattery. He stopped stomping around the room and marched over to face me, his scowl almost as fierce as Baltic’s. “You ask for much, dragon. First you demand the interdiction be lifted, and now you seek my aid with a bungled spell? Give me one reason why I should not have you and that troublemaker thrown out,” he demanded, pointing at Aisling.
“Hey,” she said, rising from the couch where she’d been sitting, and lifting her chin. “I’m a professional Guardian, thank you, recognized and duly authorized by the Guardians’ Guild. I am not a troublemaker.”
Kostich shot her a potent look that had her sitting back down.
“You’re the only one who has the ability to figure out what’s going on with my magic,” I said, counting on the challenge of my situation to offset his reluctance to get involved.
He glared at me for the count of seventeen, then with an annoyed noise, sat at his desk and gestured toward Jim. “Have the demon shift.”
“Effrijim, I command thee to take thy preferred form,” Aisling said, sitting on the edge of her seat as Jim stood and looked to her for instruction.
The human form shimmered and compacted itself down into that of a shaggy black dog. Dr. Kostich watched with steepled fingers, narrowed eyes, and a sense of intensity that I knew meant he was focusing his full attention on the problem.
“I get to stay like this for anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two,” Jim said, and sure enough, as soon as it spoke, the form shimmered again and returned to the human version.
Kostich’s eyes narrowed even further as he rubbed his chin. “Again,” he commanded.
Aisling and Jim obliged.
“Do you want to know what spell I used?” I asked when Jim was once again shifted back.
“The spell is immaterial,” he answered dismissively, gesturing toward a penholder on his desk. “Change that pen to a vase of flowers.”
“All right.” I focused my energy, recited the most basic of transmutation spells, and watched with resignation as the pen, rather than re-forming its matter to that of the requested vase of flowers, turned into a bowl of spaghetti.
“Lunch!” Jim said with a brightening of its face.
“It’s like my magic is all backward. It’s been that way ever since you put the interdiction on me, only now it seems to be—”
We all stared in surprise as the bowl morphed into a pigeon that blinked back at us.
The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons Page 21
