Light Dragons 03 - Sparks Fly

Baltic?”
    I walked downstairs with him to where a bag with a few hastily tossed-together items waited. “Because I’m not sure how long we’ll be, and Thala is most likely going to be present. When Aisling was here earlier, she offered to have you stay with her and Drake in their house in Moscow, with Jim as company. I thought you’d like that for a day or possibly two.”
    His expression turned sober as he gave me a long look. “OK, but it’s not going to be like last time, is it?”
    “No,” I reassured him. “Baltic and I won’t be alone with Thala. We’ll have others with us to keep us safe, all right?”
    “OK,” he repeated, and dropped his bag at the door, next to the three others already waiting. “I’m going to go see if there’s any more owl barf before we go.”
    “I want you back inside in ten minutes. Ten minutes!” I yelled after his swiftly retreating form.
    A quick phone call to Aisling later, I was upstairs to inform Cyrene of the plans. “Do you wish to come with us?”
    “To St. Petersburg? Are you kidding? That’s where that slimy, scaly, horrible naiad-hater lives,” she said with haughty grandeur. “I’d rather die than let him think I was chasing after him. In fact, if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave in the morning. I think I need a vacation from all this stress and negativity. So thank you, but no. I will go to the Riviera, instead, and be with nice people, not insane black dragons.”
    I left her to her own plans, and made a fast perusal of my mental checklist of what needed to be done before we left. I was about to go into the kitchen to see if Pavel was there, but a low moan of pain caught the very edge of my hearing, causing me to whirl around and run for the small, damp sitting room. “Brom?” I threw open the door and came to a skidding halt in the middle of the room, my eyes wide with surprise.
    Two people locked together in an embrace on the sofa flung themselves apart with such energy that one of them ended up on the floor.
    “Oh,” I said, trying not to grin as Maura hastily tucked one exposed breast back into her shirt. Savian, on the floor, also had an open shirt ... and lipstick marks down his chest to his belt line, where they stopped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
    “Savian was just ... was helping me with ... He was-” Maura began an explanation that all three of us knew wasn’t going to go anywhere.
    “Give it up, love; she’s cannier than that,” Savian said, buttoning his shirt while winking at me.
    “I suppose it is going to be kind of hard to explain why you had your mouth on my boob when she came in,” Maura said, her face beet red. She finished tidying herself up and cleared her throat. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention any of this to Emile, though, Ysolde.”
    “Really? Why? Is Dr. Kostich that protective of you?”
    Savian rubbed his whiskery cheek and put an arm around Maura. “It’s more that he has a bit of a grudge against me.”
    “You’re a thief-taker. One who works for the Committee. Why would he have a grudge against you?”
    “He found out I was taking jobs on the side for May and Gabriel, and he felt it was a conflict of interest. The truth is ... ” He glanced at Maura. Wearily, she nodded. “The truth is, I’ve been stricken off the thief-takers’ roll. I’m freelance now.”
    “Ah. So he wouldn’t welcome the news that you and Maura ... ” I nodded. “Gotcha. I assume those are your bags out in the hall?”
    “Yes, we’re ready to go,” Maura said, brushing a hand down her shirt.
    “Some of us are more than ready,” Savian growled in her ear.
    “Mmm, well, perhaps you can hold that thought until a more suitable time. We’ll be leaving in about ten minutes. You got all the information you needed from Aisling, I assume?”
    “I did. I think I’ll go see if there is such a thing as bubble wrap in the house,” Maura said, the sentence ending an octave higher than it started when Savian’s hand slid down her back to her behind.
    “Why bubble wrap?” I asked as I pulled out my cell phone.
    She paused at the door and made a little face. “If I have to take a portal to Nepal, which is where your friend Aisling says the aerie is, then I’m going to want a restorative when I get there. If I wrap a bottle of dragon’s blood and hold it tight to my chest, I should be able to bring it through the portal with me.” She looked sadly at Savian. “I just wish you could