My eyebrows rose. “You can harm a demon? Not just its form, but the demon itself?” Dr. Kostich just smiled.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone harm you,” I said meaningfully. “Jim is my guest, Dr. Kostich.” The demon moved out a few steps. “Hostage is more like it. Ysolde demon-napped me. Not that I mind, because she’s cool and all.” “I can’t imagine why she would want to do that—” The words dried up on his lips as Baltic emerged from a back room. He paused at the sight of Kostich. The two men stared at each other.
“Uh-oh,” Jim said, backing up again.
“You!” Kostich said, pointing dramatically at Baltic. “It is you!” Baltic shot me an irritated glance.
“I didn’t tell him where we were,” I answered the look. “Savian did.” “Now you will pay for your crimes against the L’audela!” Dr. Kostich announced, and began to cast what I knew was a morphing spell.
“I really should have killed you when I had the chance,” Baltic snarled, holding out his hand. The light blade materialized in a burst of blue-white light.
“No!” I yelled, running to stand between them. “I will not have this! Not now! Not today! Not when I haven’t made the lemon sorbet yet!” Baltic, in the act of raising the sword over his head, presumably to strike down Dr. Kostich, paused and frowned at me. “Lemon sorbet?” “For after the sárkány. I thought a little lemon sorbet and some ladyfingers would be refreshing.” He lowered the sword, his lips tight as he turned to face me. “This is not a party, Ysolde!” “Lemon sorbet does not constitute a party,” I pointed out.
“Regardless, I will not feed my enemies!” “Might I interject a note of seriousness into this bizarre conversation—” Dr. Kostich started to say.
“Don’t think it will do any good,” Jim answered as I pushed my way past Dr. Kostich to face Baltic.
“They are our guests, and I will be damned if I have it said that people came to my house and I did not offer them common hospitality.” “Sorbet is not common hospitality,” he argued. “It’s dessert.” “I thought people would like something to cleanse their palates after the canapés!” I said, slapping my hands on my thighs. “Pardon me for being civilized.” “Canapés? Now you have canapés?” His face was beginning to flush, always a sign his temper was slipping. “What next, champagne?” Pavel emerged from the door leading to the basement, a cardboard box in his hands bearing the name of a famous brand of champagne. Baltic looked at him in disbelief before turning a scowl on me. “That’s my vintage Bollinger’s!” “It won’t hurt you to share.”
“With people who want me dead!” he yelled.
“I completely understand their feelings,” Dr. Kostich said. “About the von Endres sword—” “That’s it,” Baltic said, raising the sword again. “I’m killing him; then I will deal with you, mate.” Dr. Kostich took a step back, his hands going through the intricate twists and turns of a morphing spell.
“You will not hurt him! I will never forgive you if you hurt him!” I told Baltic.
He glared at me, his eyes sparking onyx, his jaw tight with tension. “You are pushing me too far, woman!” “I just want everyone to get along!” I yelled, so frustrated I could… well, yell. “Why can’t people stop trying to kill each other and steal things from each other and so help me god, Dr. Kostich, if you complete that morph spell, I’ll slap you with one myself!” My former employer lifted his nose, his fingers dancing in the air as they drew near to completing a particularly detailed morph spell that would turn Baltic into some other form. “You are under an interdict. Your magic does not work.” “Wanna bet?” I snarled, and pulled hard on the dragon fire within me, letting my own fingers do a little spell casting.
A banana materialized out of the air and fell to his feet.
He stopped his morph spell. Everyone stared at the banana.
“Um. That was supposed to be a slavering tiger,” I said, prodding the fruit with the toe of my shoe. “I guess the interdict is making my magic wonky.” “Understatement time,” Jim said, sniffing it. “You want me to pretend I’m a tiger and stab the archimage with it?” We all ignored Jim.
“You should not be able to even cast a spell,” Kostich said, giving me a long look. “It is not possible that you can do so with the interdict placed upon you.” “My mate is not a normal woman,” Baltic said, hauling me into his side with his free arm. With the other, he waved the sword at Kostich. “She is a light dragon. She is beyond your understanding.” “You!” Kostich snapped again, glaring at Baltic as he gathered up arcane energy into a bluish white ball.
“Here we go again,” Jim said, taking the banana to the bottom step of the staircase. “At least I have snacks for this show.” “Don’t you dare!” I told Kostich just as he released the arcane ball. Baltic parried it with a flash of his light blade.
“Very Wonder Woman,” Jim said, its mouth full. “How are you with bullets?” “Oh!” I yelled, glaring at the mage, rolling up my sleeves. Baltic hauled me back as I was about to pounce on my former employer. “Let go of me, Baltic! No one throws arcane magic at my man!” “Dragon,” Jim corrected.
“Move out of the way,” Kostich warned, pulling on his power to form another arcane ball. “I shall smite the dragon where he stands!” I twisted in Baltic’s grip, shoving him hard to the side. Kostich’s ball of power shot past us and hit a vase standing on a pedestal, exploding both into a bazillion tiny pieces.
“Steeeerike!” Jim said, tossing the now empty banana peel onto the floor in front of Kostich.
“What the hell are you doing?” Baltic asked as I continued to shove him toward the drawing room. “Leave me be, mate! I must attend to that deranged mage once and for all.” “I am not deranged!” Dr. Kostich bellowed, turning as he pulled together yet more power, forming it between his hands into a sphere that glowed blue. “Now stand still, damn you, so I can smite you!” “Oh, no, he’s not deranged,” Jim said, cocking an ironic eyebrow.
“Stop it!” I shouted as Baltic yanked me sideways, out of the path of the ball of power. It went through the window, shattering the glass along the way.
“You are so going to pay for that window!” I said, storming toward Kostich.
“Mate, will you get out of the way so I can kill the mage?” Baltic snarled, his blade flashing from side to side as Dr. Kostich, muttering imprecations under his breath, quickly threw tiny little sparks of light at him one right after another.
“No one is killing anyone — you bastard!” I gasped as Dr. Kostich, whirling around when the wind caused the door to close loudly, sent a blast of arcane power into the tray of leaded crystal goblets. “Those were for the après-sárkány lemon sorbet! Right! That’s it! No more Miss Nice Whatever-the-hell-I-am!” “Dragon,” Dr. Kostich said at the same moment Baltic said, “Mate,” and Jim added, in not nearly a quiet enough voice, “Crazy lady?” I snatched up a small Chippendale chair with a cream and pale blue striped seat, and lunged toward the mage with it held out before me, as if I were a lion tamer and he were a particularly obstreperous lion. “Back! Back, I say! You can’t have the sword! You can’t have Baltic; he’s mine! Go away, and don’t bother us again! Er… do I get paid for the last two weeks even though you put the interdiction on me? Because I haven’t seen my paycheck deposited yet, and I promised Brom he could pick out a large dehydrator for his birthday, and that’s only a couple of weeks away.” A burst of whitish blue light flared in front of me, the chair I held disintegrating as the arcane power blasted it to smithereens. I stared in surprise first at my hand, which held one surviving leg of the chair, then up to Dr. Kostich. “You aimed that at me!” I said, aghast.