Sparks Fly: A Novel of the Light Dragons (22 page)

He looked thoughtful, but shook his head. “You do that regardless of whether I answer your unimportant questions. I will make love to you now.”

“How about this—” I said, squirming to the side as he started to rub his cheek against one breast. “For every question you answer, I’ll let
you
bring
me
untold, immense sexual gratification.”

“You receive that pleasure regardless, as well.”

“Yes, but this time,” I said, sweeping my hand up his
chest and purring at him, my leg sliding along his. “This time I’ll let you be in control all the time. You’re always telling me you don’t like me being dominant—although heaven knows you don’t seem to mind it once you stop complaining and let me get on with things—but this time, it’s all you. One question earns you one minute of mindless lovemaking with you in the driver’s seat. Do we have a deal?”

He smiled, one of those “I am the man, and you are the merest puddle of goo in my seductive hands” sorts of smiles. Unfortunately, I knew I
would
be a puddle of goo in his hands, and I quickly sorted through all the questions I had, deciding which ones to ask while I could still speak with any sort of coherence.

“I agree to your bargain. But tell me,
chérie
, just how many questions do you believe you will be able to ask me?”

“Oh, I imagine about ten or tweeee!” The last word ended on a gasp of surprise and pleasure as Baltic suddenly dipped a finger into very sensitive flesh, using his thumb to torment me into instant insensibility.

His fingers stilled. I glared at him. “That was not at all fair. You have to answer a question first, then you can…er…do that again. As many times as you like. And maybe just a smidgen to the right.”

“What is your question?” he asked, bathing me in a light wave of fire.

“No fire!” I said quickly, slapping out the flames on the blankets around me. “We haven’t dragon-proofed the bedding yet. At least, you can, but confine it just to me, and not anything else.”

“Your question?”

“Why did the First Dragon say you were responsible for your mother’s death?”

His head dipped to take one of my nipples in his mouth.

I gasped again. “Gently, my darling. Oh yes, just like…Wait, Baltic, you’re supposed to answer first.”

He released one extremely happy nipple to cock an eyebrow at me. “The First Dragon claimed that my refusal to take Chuan Ren as a mate made her lose face, for which she retaliated. He also claimed that she believed the only way to hurt me was to destroy the one person who loved me. He was wrong. Chuan Ren was searching for a reason to war, and knew I would not suffer the murder of my mother without appropriate action. It had nothing to do with saving face.”

Even now, I felt the pain deep inside him at the loss of his mother, and I knew that despite his claims, he did feel guilty. I slid my hands into his hair and pulled him down to kiss him. “Your father is an ass.”

He chuckled as he turned his attention to my other breast. “So my old Ysolde said on many occasions. I have never had the desire to argue otherwise. What is your second question?”

“Is that why the First Dragon wants me to restore honor to you? Your mother’s death is the death of the innocent he was talking about?”

“I have no knowledge of what passes through the mind of the First Dragon,” he said with obvious evasion that I instantly forgot when he laved my belly with his tongue, his fingers dancing in and around me in a manner that left me squirming on the bed, desperate for the feel of him. “You will have to ask him if that is what he meant.”

“Typical…oh yes, right there, my darling…typical dragon answer.”

He slid down my body, hooking my legs over his arms, a wicked smile on his lips as he looked over my pubic bone. “You have time for one more question, mate. I would advise you to make it a quick one.”

I clutched the sheets with both hands, trying desperately
to remember what I was going to ask. “About your talisman…Why would Thala want to take it from your lair? I assume it’s something that only you can use if your father gave it to you to mark you as one of his children, so why would she—”

Never a man with much patience, Baltic had run to the end of his. He dipped his head and filled me with fire, making me arch off the bed at the sensation of all that heat in very sensitive areas, my hands scrabbling for a hold on the sheet when he added his tongue into the proceedings.

By the time he finished tormenting me and slid upward, rocking against me with urgent movements that sent me flying, I knew my time was up. I reveled in the sensation of him moving against and inside me, holding him tight when he found his own moment of exquisite pleasure and cherishing not just the feel of him, but also the knowledge that until the end of my time, his heart was mine.

“You owe me an answer,” I told him sometime later, when I could restart my brain and utter things other than moans of purest ecstasy. “I’d make you answer it now, but that performance has earned you some rest, so you have a pass until tomorrow morning. Really, Baltic, I swear you’re getting better at this. I didn’t think it was possible, but you are.”

He grumbled as he pulled me against him, one leg draped protectively over mine, his breathing soft against my head as he fell asleep.

There were so many things to worry about, so many concerns that nagged me. I examined them all as I lay in his arms. Prioritizing them, I decided which ones demanded my attention, and which could wait.

“At least we’re all together again,” I said softly, snuggling into Baltic’s chest. “Brom is safe. Holland and Savian are recovering, and Constantine is going to help
make everything right again. I guess there’s nothing more I can hope for.”

“Go to sleep,” Baltic murmured against my temple, his arm tightening around me as he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You are tired. You need rest.”

I glanced up at him, wondering…then shook my head, and did as he said.

“Y
solde, you insult me.
Again
.”

I gave my hair an annoyed flip while passing Baltic, who was seated in the chair in the hallway, a newly purchased laptop on his knees. “You’re the only one who thinks that checking on Brom is insulting to you.”

“I will not allow harm to come to my son again.” He looked up from the laptop and leveled a frown at me. “The first time you checked on him was forgivable. This is the third time.”

“I’m a mother. I worry. It’s what I do best, all right? You’re just going to have to learn to deal with it.”

“You will trust that I will protect you and Brom, and return to bed where you should be,” he announced, his gaze once again on the laptop screen. “And you are incorrect.”

“I am?” I hesitated at the door to our room. “About what?”

A little smile curled the edges of his mouth, although he didn’t look up. “Worry is not what you are best at.”

I blushed at the heat in his voice and returned to bed, intending on going over again the plans for Constantine, but despite my nagging need to repeatedly check that Brom was safe, sleep once again claimed me until morning.

It took some doing to get Savian up, washed, and dressed, but we managed it in the end.

“Of all the embarrassing, annoying things I’ve ever had to do,” Maura grumbled as she climbed out of the bathroom window, tucking her shirt into her jeans.

“Look, you wanted privacy, and having one of us stand right outside the window while the other does her business is the best we can do. It’s my turn now, so I’d appreciate it if you turned on the radio, because I have an extremely shy bladder.”

“Mind your owies,” I told Savian as he hoisted himself up and into the bathroom. “They look much better, thanks to the healer’s attentions, but you’re not fully healed up yet.”

He gave me a stern look down the long length of his nose. “I am not Brom, Ysolde. I do not have
owies
.”

“My apologies. Just mind your wounds.”

He inclined his head in acknowledgment, and with a glare at Maura, pushed the window down until it was just wide enough for her arm to dangle inside.

“Radio!” we heard him bellow.

“How about I talk to her instead?” I yelled back.

“All right, but no stopping to listen. My bladder can’t take it.”

Maura rolled her eyes, a little giggle escaping her. “Just when I think I can’t stand another minute of it, and I’m ready to kill him, he says something funny.”

I laughed. “I know the feeling.”

“I’m sure you do, although…this may sound rude, and I don’t in any way intend for it to be so, but Baltic has such a sinister reputation. I’ve heard him referred to
my entire life as the ‘dread wyvern Baltic,’ and yet he doesn’t seem that bad to me. I mean, a man who would sit up for half the night just so that you wouldn’t worry about your son doesn’t scream badass to me.”

“He isn’t bad, but he can be very protective.” I thought for a moment. “How did you know he was sitting up for four hours?”

“Eh? Oh.” To my surprise, she blushed. “I…er…He came to check on us once. Er…” She cleared her throat, not meeting my gaze.

“Why would he do that?” I asked, sensing a mystery. I loved mysteries! “I told him before he went to relieve Pavel that Savian had fallen right asleep when I tucked you in for the night.”

Her blush deepened. “Savian was making…noises.”

“What sort of noises?”

“Just noises! Does it matter what sort of noises? A noise is a noise is a noise!” She took a deep breath.

I eyed her, wondering what was going on, but decided now was not the moment to press her. Not when I had other things to discuss. “He wasn’t in pain, was he?”

“Not in the way you think.” The words sounded as if they were being ground through her teeth. How very intriguing this was. “What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

I let her change the subject, making a mental note to ask Baltic later about what he heard. “You’re not going to like it.”

“What else is new?” she said with a slump of one shoulder.

“It’s about Thala….I know you’re probably going to resent my questions, and I think you know me well enough now to be aware I wouldn’t wish to cause you undue distress, but my son’s welfare is at stake here, as well as everyone else’s. I know full well that you are bound in loyalty to Thala and the other dragons in your
tribe. I’m not trying to undermine the sense of camaraderie or friendship that you feel with them. And I know it’s going to be a difficult thing for you to go against everything you swore to uphold with the tribe, but I really have to ask if you know where Thala is right now, and if she has any intention of trying to harm Brom or the rest of us.”

“Ysolde, I don’t—” Maura started to say, but I lifted a hand to interrupt her. I knew she wouldn’t betray her tribe unless I gave her a very good reason to do so.

“Let me just add that I am well aware that there is a price on your head, and that if something doesn’t change very soon, thief-takers the world over will be looking for you and the rest of your tribe of ouroboros dragons because you guys broke into the L’au-dela vault in Paris.”

She blinked in surprise. “You know about that? How—oh, Emile.”

I nodded. “Actually, it was your mother who mentioned it, but your grandfather was very angry with her for telling me about it. She had to, though, in order to bring me up to speed if I wanted to help you.” I looked thoughtfully at her. “Which I failed to do, but loyalty to Violet prompts me to again make the offer of assistance I made two months ago in Ziema: I will help you return to your family, and I can just about guarantee that if you promise to leave Thala and the tribe, Dr. Kostich will remove the bounty for your capture that he swore he was going to put into place if you didn’t return the things your tribe stole.”

“Ysolde, I think you—yeouch!” Maura’s arm was jerked painfully against the windowsill, causing her to glare at the window, the privacy glass making it impossible to see in. She slapped a hand on the glass. “Hey!”

“Sorry,” came the reply. “I normally use that hand to—never mind.”

“Thank the saints you can heal bruises quickly,” I
commented when she rubbed the abused part of her arm.

“If he thinks he can get anywhere with that sort of treatment—what? Oh yes.” She stopped grumbling to herself and gave me a long look. “What I was going to say is that you’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick.”

“I do?” I stopped considering her and Savian as a couple and wondered where the flaw in my reasoning lay. “How so?”

“I am not beholden to Thala. I do not feel a sense of obligation to her, or loyalty, or, in fact, any of those things you mentioned.” My disbelief must have been obvious because she gave me a weak smile. “I’ve split from the tribe. I’m no longer a part of their plans—at least not in the sense you think—and have nothing to do with whatever it is Thala is now up to. And no, I don’t know where she is right now, although I suspect…” She hesitated a moment, her expression thoughtful as her gaze drifted over my shoulder.

“You suspect what?”

“I suspect she’s going to Russia.”

“You said that earlier.” That was uncomfortably close to Latvia, and Dauva. “Whereabouts in Russia? Moscow?”

Maura shrugged. “I don’t know. Wherever the sepulcher is.”

“The light sword,” I said softly, my mind whirling with a thousand things to say to Baltic. Part of me wanted to demand we leave the country immediately and go somewhere safe, but I knew that if I did get him to take Brom and me elsewhere, he’d return to oversee the building of Dauva. Not even the pain of temporary separation would keep him from that. And that would only leave him exposed to whatever foul plans Thala had for us. “Far better for us to stay together,” I murmured.

“Safety in numbers,” Maura agreed.

My gaze slid back to her. “If you’re no longer working for Thala, then why were you in the Spanish
castillo
with her tribe of dragons?”

She glanced at the window, slapping her hand on the glass again.

“What?” Savian responded with annoyance.

“How much longer are you going to be in there?”

“I’m trying to shave. Stop moving your arm or I’ll cut my throat. And don’t say what you’re going to say, and yes, I know you’re thinking it.”