Light Dragons 02 - The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

and lick off every square inch.”
    He pursed his lips, obviously thinking it over. “Very well. I will be magnanimous and just this once allow you to have your way, but no more, Ysolde. You have had your way too long. Our relationship will return to what is right and proper.”
    I smiled to myself and stirred the caramel.
    “All dragon septs have an element that is sympathetic to them. Water is the element of the green dragons; thus I do not enjoy it.”
    “But I love to swim and take long baths, and I was a silver dragon before I met you and became a black dragon. Why do I like water?”
    “You were reborn human with a dormant dragon side. Humans, I understand, like water.” He looked meaningfully at the bowl in my hands. “That will change once the dragon inside you awakens fully.”
    “Hmm. What was the black dragon element?”
    “Energy.”
    “Ah.” I thought for a moment. “Like electricity?”
    “No. It is more akin to the energy found in elemental magic.”
    A little tickle of a memory flitted through my mind. I closed my eyes to better focus on it.
    “Are you going to use that, or should I reheat it?” Baltic asked, nudging my hands again.
    “One moment. I’m thinking. There’s a memory just . . . Ah, got it.” I shivered as a sudden cool earthiness seeped into my pores. I opened my eyes to find that I was kneeling on a dirt floor, Baltic spread out naked next to me, an annoyed expression on his face.
    “You just cannot leave the past in the past, can you?” he asked me, nodding toward something behind me.
    I turned to see myself coming down a narrow stone passage, a small branch of candles in one hand, the flickering light from them casting eerie shadows on the rough-hewn stone walls.
    “Here,” a male voice said.
    I got to my feet as the other Baltic came into view, gesturing toward the wall.
    “That’s stone,” the past me said, holding the candles high.
    “It appears that way. I have hidden the door to the lair. You must learn how to access it, and how to use your power to hide it when needed.”
    “What power? Dragon fire, you mean?”
    “No, the power that fills all living things. It flows around us. Open yourself up to it and use it. No other dragons can do so but us. It is unique in the weyr. It is why our lairs are so hard to find—we use the power that only we can harness to hide them from other eyes.”
    Behind me, Baltic sighed and got to his feet, brushing off his behind, pausing to cast a look of admiration at the old Ysolde as she examined the wall. “I always loved it when you wore nothing but a chemise.”
    I stopped eyeing the past Baltic, clad in a pair of leather leggings and boots, to notice that the candles he now held made Ysolde’s form visible through the thin material of the chemise.
    “You know, it’s really hard to be jealous of yourself, but if you keep ogling her, I may just manage it,” I told him.
    He grinned. “You wish to bed me. The other me. Where is the difference?”
    “I do not! I mean, I did wish to, and we did make love, but the present me doesn’t want the past you.” I glanced over to where the past Baltic was showing Ysolde how to open the hidden door. “Well, all right, I wouldn’t turn him down if he showed up in my bed, because he looks really sexy in those leggings.”
    Baltic said something rude under his breath.
    “Oh, come on! Just look at yourself!” I said, gesturing toward the memory. “Those leggings and boots and bare chest . . . it’s just so . . . rawr ! I want to rip the clothes right off of him. You. Past you! And your chest . . . I’ve always loved your chest. . . .”
    Baltic moved to block my view, his expression black as he gestured at his current self. “You will love this chest, mate! You will welcome me in your bed, not him!”
    “Oh, I do love your chest,” I purred, rubbing myself against his body, making sure to stroke a hand down the silky flesh that covered the steely muscles of his chest and abdomen. “I love every inch of you, Baltic. I always will.”
    “More than him?” he asked, jerking his thumb toward the other version of himself, one that was now, I was interested to see, pressing Ysolde up against the wall to kiss her breasts and neck.
    “Good lord, we really did go at it like bunnies, didn’t we?” I murmured, quickly pulling my attention back to Baltic at the outraged noise he made deep in his chest. “Of course I love you more. Present you wins every competition. You’re