My suggestion was, I thought, extremely acceptable. “How about Strand Palace Hotel? It has conference capabilities, and their big business suite is available tomorrow.” “Are you kidding? After what happened the last time Baltic came to a sárkány in a hotel?” Aisling’s voice was filled with scorn. “I don’t think so!” “Why, what happened?”
“He tried to shoot everyone present!” “Oh, that. One moment, please.” I covered the mouthpiece of the phone and turned to where Baltic stood glaring at me. “Did you really go to a sárkány recently and shoot the participants?” “Yes.” The answer was given in a grumpy tone, which, given the look on his face, was no surprise.
I took a deep breath. “You do realize how difficult it is to get the wyverns to agree to meet you on neutral ground so we can talk about things, don’t you?” “What the weyr does or thinks is none of our concern. We are outside of them. They do not matter to us.” “They matter to me,” I said.
He continued to glare. “Not as much as I matter to you.” “Of course not, and stop being so insecure. I’ve loved you for over four hundred years. I think you can relax.” “The other you loved me. This you…” He raked me up and down with a wary gaze. “This you is different. You have unnatural desires. My old Ysolde would never have left me to try to position herself between two lovers.” “I didn’t try anything of the sort! I just moved off you and happened to roll exactly where the old version of us was going at it. Again. For a third time in the space of an hour.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You only managed once.” His eyes blazed black fire at me. “I told you to give me five minutes and I would recover enough to pleasure you again! You are the one who stopped me. You did not wish for me to start again!” “Regardless, I did not deliberately roll under the other you and get my jollies from him pounding away. Although I really liked the looks of that little swirl thing he was doing. Do you think we could—” A faint voice in my ear reminded me that I was on the phone. Evidently, my hand had slipped off the mouthpiece.
“—arguing with him. No, not about meeting us, about sex, I think. Evidently he only did things once and she wanted three times. And it sounds like there may have been another couple involved.” “Um,” I said, giving Baltic a glare of my own. “I’m sorry you had to overhear that, Aisling. Baltic drives me a little batty sometimes.” “Only sometimes?” she asked; at the same time he snorted and said, “It is your bizarre fantasies that make me insane.” “My fantasies are not the least bit bizarre!” I said loudly.
“No, of course not,” Aisling said, laughter in her voice. “Although I have to say, you’re the last person I had pegged for a swinger.” I took another deep, deep breath, and managed to hold on to my temper. “All right, a hotel is out.” “Yes. Our house is big enough if we open up the downstairs to make one big room.” I glanced at where Baltic was now pacing beside me, his hands behind his back. He glared at the floor as if it personally offended him.
“I think we’re going to have some objections to the neutrality of that location. How about Hyde Park? That’s large.” “Too public,” Aisling said. “And too many portals there. If the dragons start fighting, things can happen, and I’m not back to full Guardian duties yet. What we need is something private, yet roomy.” “How about Baltic’s house, the one with the garden?” I asked, my spirits lifting just thinking about it.
He raised his eyebrows at the suggestion, looking strangely thoughtful.
“Let me check.” Muffled voices followed that, too muffled for me to make out. “An objection has been raised for that location, as well. It’s been pointed out that you could escape to the beyond there.” I sighed. “Tell May hello.”
“She says hello,” Aisling duly repeated. “May wants to know if they should bring Brom’s and your things, or if you’ll be picking them up?” “If it’s not too much trouble, that would be lovely. I guess that leaves us with only one solution.” “What’s that?”
I kept my eyes on Baltic as I spoke. “You’ll just have to come here. Baltic’s house isn’t huge, but there are ample grounds, and I think everyone would feel better if we held the sárkány out in the open.” “No!” Baltic bellowed, whirling around to face me. “You would bring my enemies here?” “They wouldn’t be your enemies if you stopped shooting at them!” I pointed out.
“And blowing up their houses,” Aisling said. “And trying to steal their mates.” “Yes, and blowing up their houses, and… what was that?” “Stealing their mates. Didn’t May tell you? May, didn’t you tell her that Baltic was trying to steal you with the shard?” “Gargh!” I yelled, and for the first time, I felt Baltic’s fire raging within me of its own accord.
“Oops. I take that as a no,” Aisling said softly. “Oh dear. I think I set Ysolde off—” “You tried to take May?” I yelled, clutching the phone so tightly, my knuckles were white. The pressure built within me, and I spat out a fireball the size of a grapefruit that slammed against his chest, rocking him backwards. “You tried to claim another mate?” Baltic looked stunned for a moment, then worried. He absorbed the fire, his hands spread in placation. “Chérie, it wasn’t like that at all—” “Don’t you chérie me, you scaly-skinned monster! You wanted May! You never really wanted me, did you? I was dead, so you looked around for the first piece of dragon ass you could find, and you tried to take her!” “I wanted the shard, yes. I wanted it so that the dragon heart could be re-formed. I never really wanted the silver mate—” “Then why did you try to take her?” I spat out another fireball, this one a little larger. He caught it before it could slam into him, extinguishing it as he slowly came forward, hesitantly, as if I were a dangerous animal.
I narrowed my eyes and wished I could switch into dragon form.
“My intention was to remove her from the silver wyvern, not to claim her for my own mate. He should never have had a mate in the first place.” “Oh, really? Why not?”
He looked disconcerted and waved away the question. “That is a matter for another discussion.” “I don’t think so!” I held the phone back up to my ear. “Aisling, are you still there?” “Er… yes. Ysolde, I’m sorry, I had no idea that you didn’t know about—” “Why shouldn’t Gabriel have a mate?” I asked, ruthlessly interrupting her.
“Ysolde, you will not question others when I am here to answer anything you wish to know,” Baltic said arrogantly, but I shot a bigger fireball at him, one that knocked him back a couple of feet, onto the couch. He dropped the arrogance and went straight for seduction. “My love, you distress yourself unduly over a minor incident.” “He cursed them to never have a mate born to them,” Aisling said succinctly.
“Please hold. A curse, Baltic?” I asked, wrapping my fingers across the mouthpiece again.
“You were dead! Constantine killed you! That damned Kostya was trying to hack off my head! I had to curse someone, and Constantine ripped my life from me by killing you. Of course I cursed them!” A memory of the pain he suffered when I was killed shimmered in his eyes and effectively squashed my ire. “You’re going to have to lift the curse, you know.” His expression darkened. “I do not have to do anything, mate.” “You cursed the silver dragons because their wyvern killed me. But I’m not dead any longer.” “You are also not the same Ysolde you were.” “I do not have strange sexual kinks!” I yelled, slamming the phone down on the table. I poked him in the chest because I knew it would irritate him. “Things just conspire to make it look that way! By the rood, Baltic! Just because a little guy-on-guy action isn’t objectionable to me, you think every little peccadillo is some majorly perverted desire on my part! Oh, hell.” I looked down at the phone, picking it up carefully. “You heard that, didn’t you, Aisling?” A muffled laugh followed. “I’m afraid we all did, thanks to the invention of the speakerphone.” “Oh, god.” I closed my eyes for a moment, overcome with embarrassment. “I will give you directions to the house.” “You will not tell them where we live!” Baltic ranted behind me.
“I trust you will continue to honor the agre
ement regarding Jim. Once the sárkány is over, I will turn it over to you.” “Your turn to hold,” Aisling said, but she had an actual hold on her phone. A slight humming noise filled the earpiece.
“Mate! I forbid you to do this!” Baltic said, grabbing my arm.
I set the phone down, turning to face him, sliding my hands into his hair, gently removing the leather thong. “I love you, Baltic.” “I will not allow — er…” His tense jaw relaxed as I nibbled along it, gently biting his lower lip. His hands, which had been gripping my arms, moved around to cup my behind, pulling me tight against him.
“I love you more than anything in the world, but I would like us to live in peace with the weyr. Please do this for me. For us.” I sucked his lower lip into my mouth and tried to summon his fire, but it seemed to be banked. “Fire?” It roared through me as he claimed my mouth properly, his tongue being every bit as demanding as he was. Just as I was seriously contemplating wrestling him to the floor and indulging in a few acts I’d seen my past self perform, the door opened.
“Fires of Abaddon, they’re still at it? Brom, my man, you don’t want to see this.” “Don’t want to see what? Oh. Sullivan is kissing Baltic.” “Father,” Baltic said, breaking off the kiss to inform Brom.
“Huh?” my son asked, eyeing me as if I were one of his experiments. “How come your hands are on her butt?” “I like her butt,” Baltic said, giving the object in question a little squeeze. I bit his chin. “You will refer to me as ‘Father’ henceforth.” “But your name is Baltic,” Brom pointed out.
“Hey, is that Aisling I hear squawking on the phone?” Jim asked as it wandered over to where I’d set down the receiver. “Ash, babe, you there?” “Oh, damn, I forgot her again.” I turned in Baltic’s arms, but he didn’t release me.
“It is not fitting that you refer to your parents by their names. It does not show respect. You will therefore refer to me as ‘Father.’ I will leave it to your mother to decide if she wishes to tolerate you referring to her by her surname.” “No, it’s cool,” Jim said, plopping down next to the table, its head lying next to the phone so it could talk and hear. “Pavel made sage-roasted game hens for lunch, and I had a whole one to myself. He needs to give the recipe to Suzanne because it was seriously yummy. And Ysolde said she was going to brush me later. No, they stopped kissing, although Baltic’s hands are almost on her boobs. Right in front of the kid, too.” Baltic’s hands, which had indeed been moving up from my stomach, froze.
“I don’t like ‘Father,’ ” Brom said, his brown eyes serious as they considered Baltic.
“Papa?” I suggested, placing my hands over Baltic’s and leaning back into his chest. Despite the worry of the upcoming sárkány, I felt aglow with happiness. That Baltic cared so much about how Brom referred to him was a good sign. Brom would have a real father at last, one who cared about him.
“Yeah, yeah, but you’re overreacting, Aisling. I’m fine — no one’s hurting me. Ysolde keeps giving me scary mom looks, but I don’t think she can help it. Besides, it’s wild seeing Baltic being all lovey-dovey with her. How the mighty can fall.” Brom wrinkled his nose. “I’m nine, Sullivan, not two. How about ‘Dad’? The others at the mage school call their fathers Dad. Most of them. There’s that weird kid who calls everyone Carrot, but no one pays much attention to him.” Baltic’s fingers twined through mine. “You sent my son to a mage school?” “Dr. Kostich thought he might have some talents in that direction, so I enrolled him in it. Unfortunately, he seems to have inherited my lack of abilities when it comes to things arcane.” “Ixnay on the ecretsay ummonsay,” Jim said, casting a worried glance my way. “Oh, great, now she’s giving me another of those looks, the kind that says I’m going to be sent to my room without supper.” “You will if you don’t give me the phone,” I told it.
“Gotta go. Pavel said he’s doing goulash for dinner, and he promises it’ll be almost orgasmic.” “What’s—” Brom started to ask.
“Out!” I told the demon, taking the phone from it. “Brom, Baltic will be happy with ‘Dad.’ You go practice saying it somewhere else, please. And Jim, so help me god—” “I know, you’ll skin me alive or some other heinous act if I explain to Brom what ‘orgasmic’ means. I didn’t actually mean to say that in front of him. Sometimes I forget he’s only a kid.” “That’s all right,” Brom said, patting Jim on the head as the two of them exited the room. “Sometimes I forget you’re a demon. You want to play catch?” “Naw. Let’s go play on Pavel’s Xbox. He’s got a road-racing game I love.” “Aisling?”
“Still here. And you have my permission to yell at Jim. I can’t believe it’d say something so inappropriate in front of a child. Honest to Pete! It knows better than that! Drake, stop trying to take the phone away from me! I’m not done.” “I take it we’re off speakerphone?”
“Yes, I thought after that last argument, it would be better. Drake wishes to speak with Baltic, but I did want to remind you that should anything happen to Jim, I will rain down destruction as you’ve never seen it. Not that I think you’d do anything to it, because you seem very maternal, and we moms have a sense about those things, but I feel obligated as its demon lord to say that. Fine! You can have the phone. Sheesh, pushy dragons…” “Oh, Aisling?” I said, smiling to myself.
“Yes?”
“The next time you have Drake alone, ask him about a small inn in Paris called the Hangman’s Balls. Mention the year 1699.” “All right,” she said slowly. “I will. Here’s Drake.” “A moment, please,” I told Drake when he asked for Baltic. I held the phone to my chest. “You will be polite.” “I am a wyvern,” he said airily.
“You will not say rude things to Drake no matter what he says to you.” “You may leave. I will speak with the green wyvern by myself.” “We are trying to establish a relationship with these people. Please remember that.” He tried to take the phone. I hung on to it. “You may leave now, Ysolde.” “Not until you promise to be good.”
“I’m always good. Give me the phone.” “Just remember what I’ve said, that’s all.” “I am not a child who needs to be schooled in matters of weyr etiquette,” he answered, trying to pry my fingers off the receiver.
“You’re also notoriously short-tempered, don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks, and have a chip on your shoulder approximately the size of Rhode Island.” “Mate,” he said, a warning light in his eyes.
“Yes?”
“Do your many and varied sexual kinks run to spankings?” “I don’t have sexual kinks, and no — you wouldn’t!” I gasped as he tried to pull me over to the chair. “All right, I’ll leave, but if you mess things up after I’ve worked so hard to straighten them out, I will make your life a living hell — just see if I don’t!” As I closed the door I heard him say, “What? Yes, it worked. I recommend using the threat of it as a method of controlling an unruly mate—”
Chapter Sixteen
“By the rood, they can’t be early, can they?” I paused on my way through the French doors in the sitting room to peer out of the glass next to the front door. A car was pulling to a stop. “I’m not ready! We don’t have all the beverages out to the field yet, let alone the canapés!” “I can help you with the canapés,” Jim said, licking its lips as it emerged from the kitchen hauling a large basket. “Oooh, visitors?” “If your demon lord came early just to catch us by surprise — oh, no!” “Who is it?” Jim asked, peering around me. Its eyebrows rose. “Heh. This ought to be fun.” “What is Savian doing, telling everyone in the Otherworld where I am?” I muttered as I set down the tray of cut glass crystal goblets and opened the door. “Good afternoon, Dr. Kostich.” “Tully,” he said, inclining his head toward me. “I trust you will excuse my unannounced arrival. I have matters of great import to discuss with you.” “Actually, I’m a bit busy today. Could you come back another time? Say, next year?” The look he gave me said much, and none of it was in my favor. He strolled past me into the house, casually tossing over his shoulder, “I assume you
have the von Endres blade by now. I have come to collect it.” “Oh, lord,” I swore, looking heavenward for a moment. “Why me?” “What’s going on… oh man. Greetings, your eminence,” Jim said, almost groveling toward Dr. Kostich. I didn’t wonder that the demon, normally the most flip of beings, had adopted a respectful air. Clearly it had come into contact with Dr. Kostich before.
I turned slowly back to the foyer, trying to think of a diplomatic way to explain to the head of the Otherworld that I would not be stealing Baltic’s sword.
“What are you doing here?” Kostich asked, staring at Jim where it sat in the center of the narrow hall.
Jim dipped its head again in a doggy bow. “Ysolde’s making me be a pack mule. I didn’t know you were going to be here, though. Not that there’s anything wrong with you being here,” it added quickly as it backed up a few steps.
“I dislike demons,” Dr. Kostich told it, his eyes narrowing and his fingers twitching as if he might cast a spell.
“Ysolde!” Jim almost yelped, hurrying over to press into my leg. “You promised Ash to keep me safe! Don’t let him do anything to me.” “You’re a demon,” I told it, patting it on its head nonetheless. “He can’t harm a demon. No one can but a demon lord. Not permanently, anyway.” “Wanna bet?” Jim peeked out around my leg at my former employer.
My eyebrows rose. “You can harm a demon? Not just its form, but the demon itself?” Dr. Kostich just smiled.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone harm you,” I said meaningfully. “Jim is my guest, Dr. Kostich.” The demon moved out a few steps. “Hostage is more like it. Ysolde demon-napped me. Not that I mind, because she’s cool and all.” “I can’t imagine why she would want to do that—” The words dried up on his lips as Baltic emerged from a back room. He paused at the sight of Kostich. The two men stared at each other.
“Uh-oh,” Jim said, backing up again.
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