Love in the Time of Dragons (12 page)

“Maybe I should go for the tall one. I love me some manly stubble,” one of the girls said, as if she’d read my mind. “He’s just one hundred percent delicious. Hey! Why don’t we see where they’re going, and if they’d, you know, like us to go with them?”

The second girl looked hesitant as she watched the ponytailed man. “I don’t know. Mine looks kind of intimidating, doesn’t he?”

I agreed. He did look intimidating. He also looked sexy as hell. I wished I could indulge in a little illicit daydreaming about him, but I had enough on my plate without dwelling on the lamentable state of my personal life.

My gaze slid to him again, and once more I was struck with a sense of the familiar. It was as if something inside of me recognized something inside of him—a foolish notion if ever I’d had one, and of late, I’d had nothing
but
foolish notions.

To my surprise, the first man stumbled and came to a stop, turning full circle as he scanned the area. He hesitated when he faced us, and the first girl squealed and nudged her friend as she rose to her feet, blocking my view.

“Look! They’ve seen us! Let’s go over to them. Come on, Dee!”

Her friend was slower in getting up. “I don’t know that they’re looking at us, Sybil.”

“Don’t be stupid,” the first girl said, grabbing her purse. “It’s as clear as day! Let’s go say hello.”

The two women headed toward the men. I tried to watch them but my vision started to fog, as if I were suddenly enveloped in a cocoon of cotton wool. I clutched the back of the bench to keep from pitching forward, but it was no use. I fell.

Pain burst to life in my head in waves of red that pounded and pulsed stronger and stronger until I thought it would explode from me.

“Stop!” I yelled, and miraculously, it did.

I opened my eyes and glared at the two men who faced each other over the altar of the cathedral, the echoes of their shouting disturbing the dust motes that danced in the thin sunlight streaming through the lovely stained-glass rose window. I turned to the man on my right. Slightly taller than me, of a thick, muscular stature, with golden brown hair and almost identically colored eyes, he reminded me of one of my father’s prized bulls. “Baltic has done nothing to harm me,
nothing
.”

“He has sworn to destroy all silver dragons who do not submit to his obscene demands,” Constantine Norka said, glaring at Baltic. “Why would he bring you to me unless you were damaged?”

I held up a hand to stop Baltic’s retort, which I knew would be loud and vicious. “He didn’t harm me because he is a man of honor. He swore to take me home, and he did, although”—I shifted my gaze to give him a reproachful look—“I meant my father’s keep, not to be delivered into the hands of dragons.”

“You belong to my sept,” Constantine said, his hands fisted.

“Your
sept
belongs to me!” Baltic snarled.

“For the love of the saints, please don’t go through that again!” I said, rubbing my forehead. The remnants of a headache, caused by listening to the two wyverns circle each other snapping and snarling for the last hour, still lingered. “The fact is that he did as he said.”

“Including spending the nights in your bed?” Constantine asked, his gaze tight on Baltic.

I raised my eyebrows and considered whether I should respond with maidenly indignation, or a more worldly approach. I decided for indignation. “My maidenhead is intact, if that is what you are desirous of knowing. Baltic did not bed me.”

“No? Then why do his men say he was in your cabin every night?”

I thought of the weeklong journey from England to the southern coast of France. It was true Baltic had visited me each night—I had been unable to refuse him, and had, in fact, learned much about what pleased him, and what drove him to the point of losing control.

“I was afraid of the journey,” I said truthfully. The sea was a foreign thing, and I did not trust or like it.

The corners of Baltic’s mouth curved upward.

“It’s true that when we were on the ship he came into my cabin at night, but it was to comfort me.”

That also was true, although more of a half-truth. I would have to seek a confessor in my new home.

Constantine made a noise of disbelief, but I raised my chin and said calmly, “I say again that my maidenhead is intact. If you insist on an examination, I will submit to one.”

“No,” he said, never taking his eyes off Baltic, who was still smiling faintly, an amused look in his obsidian eyes, as glossy and shiny as polished stone. “I will accept what you say.”

“Thank the heavens. And now, I would greatly appreciate it if someone would tell me where my family is. My dragon family. So long as I have been ripped from the only parents I have known, I would like to meet the ones who gave me up.”

Constantine’s hands flexed, but at last he stepped away from the altar, finally turning his gaze to me. In the distance, the song of the monks could be heard as they prayed in a smaller chapel. “It grieves me to tell you this, but your parents are dead, Ysolde.”

“No,” I said, stopping when he tried to take my arm and lead me out of the cathedral. “They can’t be. I came all this way to find them.”

“I’m sorry. Your father died in battle with your
savior
.” His words and expression were bitter as he nodded toward Baltic. “Your mother did not long survive him. They were a very devoted pair. I did not know you survived—your mother told us you had drowned. I don’t know why she placed you with mortals rather than her own kin, but we rejoice that you have been returned to us.”

A deep sense of sadness leached into my heart, filling me with a black despair. I lifted my gaze to meet that of Baltic. He was waiting for me, his eyes guarded, his face devoid of emotion. “You killed my father?”

“We are at war,” he said. “Lives are lost during wars, Ysolde.”

I nodded, tears filling my eyes, my heart so heavy I couldn’t speak.

“Come. I will take you to your mother’s family. They will welcome you,” Constantine said, one hand on my back as he escorted me down the aisle of the cathedral, his guard falling in behind him.

I paused at the great double doors and looked back. Kostya and Pavel had joined Baltic at the altar. All three watched me. I wanted to thank Baltic for honoring his word to me, even when it meant he had to meet with his most hated enemy. I wanted to tell him how much pleasure he had given me in our nights together. I wanted to tell him that I was no longer angry that he took me away from the only family I’d known.

I said nothing. I simply looked at him, then turned and accompanied Constantine out of the cathedral and into my new life.

“You will be cherished now, Ysolde,” Constantine reassured me. “We have much to teach you, but you will learn that by-and-by.”

B
y-and-by
, I thought, my heart filled with so much sadness I knew it must shatter into a hundred little pieces.
By-and-by
.

By-and-by? No, that wasn’t right.

“I said hi. Hello? Howdy? Hidy ho? Hi hi hi?”

I blinked, the fog evaporating into nothing, the back of the bench once more solid under my hand. In front of me sat a large shaggy black dog, panting in the sunlight, long streamers of drool dribbling from his slobbery lips. I looked around for the dog’s owner, but no one was there.

“There you are. Ysolde, right?”

My eyebrows raised, I looked down at the dog. The voice was coming from him.

He tipped his head to the side and I swear he winked at me. “Wow, you look like hell. How ya doing after that header you took into Ash’s marble coffee table?”

“Er . . .” My jaw sagged slightly. “Do I know you?”

“Yeah. We met at Aisling and Drake’s house during the big birthing hullabaloo. I’m Jim. Effrijim, really, but that’s way too girly for a butch guy like me. You look kind of funny. You didn’t see me when May ordered me into human form, did you? Because that would explain why you look like you’re seeing a three- headed alien dance
A Chorus Line
.”

“Human form,” I repeated stupidly. “No, I was . . .”

I was dreaming. In the middle of the day? Panic gripped my stomach with clammy fingers. Now the dreams were coming to me while I was wide awake? “Dear god, the shock treatments are going to be just around the corner if my brain keeps going at this rate!”

“Ya think?”

I stared at the dog; my thoughts panicked.

“Ouch. You look like you’re gonna pass out or hurl. If you’re going to do the latter, can you aim away from me? This magnificent coat takes forever to dry after a bath.”

“I’m all right,” I said, managing to get a grip on my errant emotions. “You’re a dog, but you can use human form?”

“I’m a demon. Sixth class, so it’s OK. I’m not going to rip your entrails out and drape them over a tree or anything like that. Besides, Aisling would lop off my package if I did that. She’s always threatening to lop off my package. I think she’s got a secret genitalia fetish, if you want to know the truth, but she’s a nice enough demon lord otherwise, so I don’t make a big deal about it. You sure you’re OK? Hey, put your head between your knees or something—you’re as white as Cecile’s underbelly fur.”

I did as the dog—demon—suggested, wondering where I knew him from. Before I could even complete that mental sentence, I corrected myself. Demons, I remembered hearing one of my mage instructors say, were always referred to by means of gender- neutral pronouns. Why, I had no idea; it just was. “You said I know you?” I asked after a couple of minutes of trying to get a little blood back into my brain.

“Now you’re all red,” it said, giving its shoulder a lick. “You don’t remember me?”

“I don’t remember anything,” I said with more honesty than I liked.

“Yeah?” Its eyes narrowed on me. “That looks like an interdiction on you. Kostich kick you out of mage’s camp?”

I looked down to my chest where a faint blue swirly pattern glowed. “I’m not even going to ask how you know that, because frankly, if I have to listen to one more bizarre thing today, I’m just going to curl up in a little ball and pretend I’m a hedgehog, and then where would Brom be?”

“Who’s Brom?”

“My son.”

“Oh, man! You have a son? Does Baltic know about it? If he doesn’t, promise me I can be there when you tell him, because he’s going to go totally psycho dragon. Well, more psycho dragon than he already is, which I gotta tell you is pretty wacked out.”

I took a deep, cleansing breath of the grass-scented air. “For the sake of my sanity and my son, I shall now pretend you aren’t saying anything. In fact, you’re not even here. I’m all alone. And now I’m going home.”

“Where’s home?” the demon asked, getting up as I gathered up my purse and started off toward what I hoped was the street. It didn’t seem to take the slightest offense to my comments, but on the other hand, it also didn’t seem inclined to leave me alone.

“Barcelona.”

“That’s gonna be a hell of a walk.”

“I’m staying with some people in town.”

“May and Gabriel, yeah, I heard Ash dumped you off on them because you’re Baltic’s long- lost love. What’s it like doing the humpy-jump with a crazy dragon?”

I glanced down at it as I walked. “You are the single most strangest demon I have ever met.”

“Face it, babe—I’m the best, aren’t I?” it asked, cocking a furry eyebrow at me. Catching sight of someone, it yelled, “Hey, Suzanne! Look who I found!”

A small blond woman hurried over, a leash and a plastic bag in her hand. “Jim! There you are! I thought I’d lost you. Oh, you’re Ysolde, aren’t you? Hello.”

“My name is Tully,” I said. “Although to be honest, I’m about ready to give up and change my name because no one listens to me.”

“Ysolde’s feeling crappy,” Jim told her. “I think we should take her home. Wouldn’t want her to turn into road pizza because no one was here to watch her.”

Suzanne glanced at her watch, but agreed.

“That’s not necessary. I’m quite fine on my own. I’m just a little insane, not bad enough I would do something crazy like take off all my clothes and dance on Nelson’s Column.”

“Damn,” Jim said, looking disappointed.

“I think perhaps we should accompany you,” Suzanne said, giving me an astute look. “You seem somewhat distraught.”

“Distraught . . . insane . . . it’s really a moot point by now.”

They came with me as I strolled toward Gabriel’s house, my thoughts a jumbled mess that I didn’t want to examine. Jim chatted nonstop all the way, insisting on accompanying me inside.

“If you want to pay back my chivalry with belly scratches, go right ahead,” it said, rolling over onto its back at my feet when I collapsed bonelessly onto a leather couch in a green-and-brown-toned study.

I complied silently, my thoughts still tangled around the vision, Gareth’s cruelty, and my newly granted membership in the Club of the Mentally Bewildered.

“Suzanne says you’re not feeling well?” May said, coming into the library with Gabriel on her heels. “Jim, really! Do we need to see that?”

“Can’t have belly scritches without barin’ Jupiter, Mars, and the really Big Dipper,” Jim answered, its back leg kicking slightly in the air as my fingers found a particularly itchy spot on its stomach. “Oh, yeah, baby. I really dig chicks with long nails.”

“Time to go,” May said, prodding the demon with the toe of her shoe. “Thanks for bringing Ysolde back, Suzanne. We’ll take it from here.”

“But I want to stay!” Jim complained as it followed Suzanne out of the room. “I never get any excitement anymore, what with Drake not letting anyone in the house unless he has five references and a comprehensive background check. . . .”

The door closed on the demon’s voice. Gabriel knelt next to me, tipping my chin up to look into my eyes. I let him look, feeling mentally battered. “What has happened to you?”