The whipcrack of my tail as it hit him was followed almost immediately by the sound of Jim whistling. “That’s got to be an Olympic record right there. Nice going, May. I think you knocked him out.”

Magoth’s unresponsive body tumbled from the tree to the ground, hitting with a muffled thud.

“I’ll go rescue lover boy, shall I?” Savian said, giving me a long look as he headed off to where Magoth had fallen into a thick patch of what looked to be poison ivy.

“Mayling, tell me what you feel,” Gabriel said, his hand on my neck again.

I looked deep into his eyes and let my emotions show.

“No, not that.” His dimples threatened to burst to life. “I know that. What do you feel about this place?”

I sighed and tried to clear my mind of the lustful images of me twined around Gabriel in an erotic dragon dance. “It’s . . . right. It’s a good place. I feel happy here.”

“Do you feel happy, or does the dragon shard?” he asked.

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, allowing the two to merge for a moment before I brought my tail down onto the rocks with a force that knocked the people around backwards several feet just as if they were made of paper. The stones crashed inward with a muffled explosion, dust and debris swirling around me in a whirlwind that blocked my vision for a moment. As the air cleared, a black, gaping hole slowly became visible at my feet. The dragon shard celebrated, the teasing, heady scent of gold drifting out of the darkness. “Right now I feel great.”

Gabriel was first to his feet, but Kostya, with a snarl, flung himself forward over the hole into the lair. “It is mine!”

“Gold,” I crooned, stretching sensuously at the thought of it.

“Mine!” Kostya bellowed.

“We outnumber you,” I pointed out.

Cyrene, who had been grumbling as she dusted herself off, hurried over to stand with Kostya. “Oh no, you don’t!”

“We have Jim and Savian,” I pointed out as Gabriel, his eyes lit with familiar lust, took a step toward the hole, his breathing deepening. I knew the gold scent had hit him, as well.