Me and My Shadow - Katie MacAlister [28]
I tried to sort through the emotions that swamped me, picking out those sensations that were native to me. “It’s the shard. It likes it here.”
Gabriel and Kostya exchanged glances; then both turned to look at a rocky outcropping that was about ten yards away. The rocks jutted out of the earth like angular, flinty fingers, softened over the centuries by moss and plants and the detritus of the forest around them.
“The lair?” Gabriel asked Kostya.
He nodded. “Has to be.”
“What do you mean, the lair? We found the lair already,” Cyrene said. “Or we found where it should be. It’s over there.” She pointed to the south.
“It’s a false entrance,” Kostya explained.
“Set up to fool anyone who was searching for it,” Gabriel added, nodding to himself. “Very clever. I would have done the same, although I’m not sure I would have gone to the trouble of rune binds.”
“You have to admit it was convincing,” Kostya said as both men strolled toward the rocks.
Savian emerged, dragging a limp Magoth. He deposited him in a heap, looking over at Gabriel and Kostya as the two men climbed over the outcropping, clearly searching it. “What did I miss?”
I hummed to myself and tapped my claws on the ground, visions of Gabriel chasing me through the woods keeping the dragon shard occupied. “They think this is the entrance to Baltic’s lair.”
“You’re kidding. This?” Savian looked around, his eyes carefully searching the outcropping of rock. He shook his head. “I don’t see it. Where?”
“I’d show you, but I’m currently occupied,” I said.
He pursed his lips as he glanced back at me.
“I’m keeping the dragon shard distracted while I try to shift back,” I answered the question in his eyes. “If I get near Gabriel, it will demand I jump him, so I’m letting it have all sorts of fantasies about being chased through the woods. Ooh. That one was really good.”
I was distracted for a moment by the vision the shard provided to me, but gently eased myself out of it, focusing my attention on my body as I slowly, inch by inch, urged the dragon form to withdraw back into my normal one. Savian nodded, and went to help the others examine the rocks for the entrance.
“Half-babe, half-dragon, and me with no camera,” Jim sighed as it plopped its big hairy butt down on Magoth’s still form. “Life sucks. There’s just no two ways about it.”
“He’s not dead, is he?” I asked, nodding toward Magoth.
Jim snuffled Magoth’s dirt-splattered face. “Naw, just knocked out.”
“Good.”
“May, we need you,” Gabriel called.
“Sorry, can’t right now. I’ve only got one leg done, and almost a whole arm,” I answered, waving my mostly human arm at him.
“We need you in dragon form.”
“You do? Why?” The shard stopped imagining hot, steamy, dragon-form sex with Gabriel under a moonlit sky, and focused on him again.
“There she goes. Bah. Nothing exciting about seeing a dragon in its natural form,” Jim said with a disgusted snort.
“The shard you bear was Ysolde’s. She has a tie to this place because of her relationship with Baltic. If you are in dragon form, you will be able to utilize the power of the shard easier.”
I let the shard take over as I marched over to Gabriel. “You’re both dragons. Why can’t you do whatever it is that you want done?”
His grin warmed me to my toes. “Ah, but we don’t have the same delectable dragon shape as you.”
I gave him a look.
He laughed. “Neither Kostya nor I can detect the opening of the lair, but the shard might let you find it.”
“It is well hidden, even from me,” Kostya agreed, scowling at the stones.
“I still say you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’d feel it if this was the opening to a lair,” Savian said, shaking his head.
“Fine. But if I can’t shift back, and end up staying like this, I’m not going to be happy,” I grumbled as he stepped out of the way so I could scramble up the rocks.
“How do you feel?” Gabriel asked, watching me carefully.
The dragon shard wanted to dance with happiness.
“Right now?” I paused for a moment, gathering my inner strength, both my own and the strength of the dragon within me,