Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

nab her sister. It’ll be a hundred times harder to catch either of them if Ruth raises some liches to do her bidding.”
    The men hesitated, then with a nod, dashed off toward the graveyard. I turned on my heel and ran toward the audible sounds of fighting that came from the other side of the church. “I’m not proud of that, but it’s better than turning her into butter. That leaves us with just one crazy woman to go.”
    As I ran around the north side of the church, it was evident that Team Baltic was getting the better of the ouroboros dragons.
    It was clearly time to stop the bloodshed and take charge of the situation. “All right, I’m here, I’m armed, and I have the power of butter behind me! I want everyone to stop fighting and settle down!”
    No one, of course, paid the slightest bit of attention to me. Drat them all.
    “I’m getting sick and tired of everyone always fighting around here,” I yelled as I stomped my way toward the mass of dragon bodies engaged in full battle. I paused at the sight of Magoth, now stark naked, his face painted blue, as he twirled a sword in one hand and leaped on the back of one of Thala’s dragons before immediately beating him on the head with the flat side of the sword. “Where on earth did you find blue paint?”
    “Ysolde!”
    “I’m fine,” I answered Baltic, who paused in the act of slashing at a dragon who was foolish enough to think he could take my darling dread wyvern. I raised the wooden handle of my morning star. “I picked up a toy.”
    He nodded as he handily backhanded the dragon before turning back to where Thala was fighting Gabriel and István. I gave myself a moment to admire the fact that he was actually dual-wielding swords, one in each hand as he flung himself on her. His face and upper chest were covered with blood, but I could see by the light in his eyes, and the spiral of dragon fire that wove around him, that he was having a fine time. “We really have to find you a hobby,” I said to myself as I searched the crowd for Constantine.
    “You OK?” Pavel asked as he danced past me, parrying a thrust from a green dragon. He, too, was armed with a sword. I gathered that as the ouroboros dragons fell, our people were picking up their weapons.
    “Annoyed, but unharmed. Have you seen Constantine?”
    “Over by the hole,” he grunted, leaping high into the air when the dragon tried to cut off his legs. A roar of anger ripped through the night, followed by a black shape as Pavel shifted and attacked the green dragon.
    I hurried over to the blasted wall, leaning inside it to bellow, “Constantine!”
    “Holy Mary, you needn’t yell, I’m right here,” came the disembodied answer. “I think you deafened me.”
    Constantine’s form appeared, somewhat transparent, but solid enough that I could grab his sleeve. “Come on. We have to stop Thala. Baltic’s been using arcane magic and he’s run out of steam, and she’s not wearing out at all. Time for you to do your thing.”
    “What thing is that?”
    “The shade thing that you can do to stop her. Come on! Stop dragging your heels.”
    “What will you give me if I help you?”
    I stopped and turned to stare at him. “ What did you say?”
    He brushed his wrinkled sleeve and looked down his nose at me. “What will you give me as a payment for my assistance with the archimage’s deranged daughter?”
    Damned dragons and their intense need to bargain! “You said you’d help me because you loved me!” Outrage poured through me, igniting my own fire.
    “I changed my mind,” he said with a sniff. “I’m allowed to change my mind. I got you the shard, after all. I think I should have something for all my hard work.”
    I hefted the morning star, tempted to tell him exactly what I was going to give him, but reason tempered that desire. “What do you want?” I snapped.
    He stroked his chin in a contemplative gesture. “I want you.”
    “Well, you can’t have me.”
    He stroked some more. “Then I want a sept.”
    “You challenged Kostya and lost, remember? You can challenge him again, but the same thing will happen. You’re dead, Constantine. You’re a spirit. You can’t be a wyvern and be a spirit. How do you expect to protect your sept if you run out of power every couple of minutes?”
    He grimaced. “If I can’t have you, and I can’t have a sept, then I want to be with you in your sept.”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You want to join the light