Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

Tipene?”
    “In Australia, where any sane dragon should be,” he answered, feeling his hair, and smoothing it down to its normal state. “When they found out we’d have to take a portal to reach here, they refused to join us, although they send their regards to you, and compliments to Pavel.”
    “This is going to sound horribly rude, and I don’t for a second mean it to be taken that way, but why are you here?” I asked as Baltic, his eyes narrowed on Gabriel, approached, the air bristling with electricity.
    “Aisling said you-” May stopped at the sight of Baltic, shooting me a questioning glance. I shook my head just enough to warn her against finishing the sentence.
    “Look who’s here,” I told Baltic as he stopped beside me. “It’s May and Gabriel and May’s former demon lord, Magoth.”
    “Ah, the dread wyvern we’ve heard so much about,” Magoth said, giving Baltic a quick visual examination. “Any time you and the so-luscious Ysolde wish to join me in a quick orgy, just say the word.”
    Baltic rolled his eyes, but Constantine said, “Orgies? We’re having an orgy? What sort of an orgy? A bondage orgy? Or just a regular one?”
    “I vote bondage,” Magoth said, waggling his eyebrows at May.
    “Seconded,” Constantine said.
    “No one is having an orgy, bondage or otherwise,” I said firmly, trying desperately to reclaim control of the conversation. “I do have to say I’m a bit surprised to see you here, May.”
    “Aisling said you were going to need some help, so we thought we’d pop over to Russia and see if we could be of assistance.”
    Gabriel looked in surprise at her but said nothing.
    Baltic’s favorite scowl was firmly in place as he faced Gabriel. “We do not need the help of silver dragons.”
    I rounded on him, slapping my hand on his chest hard enough to make him look down in surprise. “That is enough!”
    “Mate, you-”
    “Oooh, she does like rough play,” Magoth said sotto voce. “I like her.”
    “You can’t have her,” Constantine said somewhat prosaically. “If she leaves Baltic, I have a claim on her. She was my mate for about five minutes before he challenged me for her.”
    “So she plays around, then, hmm?”
    I ignored the comedy team to focus on Baltic. “No! It’s enough, do you hear me? Far and away beyond enough. There will be no more slurs made against silver dragons-do you understand? No more! It’s through, Baltic. This war between the black and silver dragons is done, finished, ended once and for all.”
    “I will not forget what they did to us,” Baltic snapped, his fingers tightening.
    “Well, you’d just better learn to live with it, because I have had enough! We are all going to get along if it kills us. Do you hear?”
    “It killed me,” Constantine quipped.
    “They probably can hear you; we could hear you two blocks away, and we had the car windows closed.”
    I spun around to see Aisling climbing out of a car, Drake at her side. I was about to greet them when Aisling added, “Oh no, not you again.”
    Magoth turned to her and to my absolute surprise, leered. “If it isn’t the delectable little Guardian. No longer pregnant? Pity. I like fecund women.”
    Drake snarled something extremely obscene as he took a step toward the man.
    “Is your lovely and inventive mother here?” Magoth asked Drake, rubbing his hands together in a manner that made my flesh crawl.
    Drake shuddered. “Fortunately, she is well out of your grasp.”
    “Do I want to know why he’s here?” Aisling asked May, gesturing at Magoth.
    “Not really,” May said with a weak smile.
    “Well, I’m glad you guys got here in time, nonetheless,” Aisling said before greeting Gabriel. “At least I hope we’re in time. Are we?”
    “Yes. We’ve been here for half an hour, but it took that long for some of us to get over the effects of portalling.”
    Drake gave Baltic and Pavel scathing looks. “Portals are not pleasant, but they are not that disorienting.”
    “They are if you’ve been forced to take three of them in four days,” Baltic replied, sending the scathing look back to Drake.
    “ Three times?” Drake looked incredulous. Gabriel appeared to be sick at the thought. “I withdraw my statement, and offer, instead, my congratulations on surviving with all your limbs intact.”
    “I feel guilty enough; you really don’t need to drive the point home,” I told Drake with a thin-lipped expression I’ve found works well. “The