The Dragon King

by Heather Killough-Walden

  Going with Calidum someplace wholly unknown is dangerous, she thought warily. And then she realized… she didn’t really care. She was too tired, too scared, and too hungry. She took his hand.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The darkness of this new and different portal was absolute. It crowded in around Eva to the point that she was afraid it would suffocate her. She couldn’t even see Calidum in front of her, but she felt his hand, and he was squeezing reassuringly.

  He’s a killer, Eva, her mind chimed.

  I know, she replied shortly. Now was not a time she wanted to be reminded of her savior’s duplicity.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, not only because she wanted to know, but because she wanted him to say something. Anything to dispel the weird impression that she was holding on to a dismembered hand.

  “A safe house of sorts,” he replied.

  “I’m not sure any place will be safe from him,” she said without thinking. Then she wished she hadn’t said it. Admitting how powerful Arach had become was like letting him win. She didn’t want him to have any more victories than he deserved.

  “What did he do to you?” the disembodied voice asked. There was definite tension in that question.

  Eva couldn’t help but think of Arach’s attack; her wrist still hurt. She couldn’t help but remember the distinctly sexual pleasure he took in sinking his fangs into her. She failed in suppressing a shiver. “He’s changed,” she replied simply.

  Quiet greeted the response, but his grip went hard and still around her hand. A few seconds later, the portal at last changed. Its walls slowly lightened, turning the colors of a sunrise in an orange to pink ombré. It was frankly and starkly beautiful. She blinked against the gradual brightness, but watched in fascination.

  “We’re here,” Calidum said. His tone was still tight. She could see him now, but his back was to her, straight and broad, so his expression was hidden.

  The “hole” lightened to the point of white brightness at its far end, then began to spread open as any portal would. A shot of cool, salty air struck Eva, brushing through her brown disguised hair. Beyond the opening was a foggy shoreline. Stones, cliff sides, and mist touched the sea, which churned with a cold depth that promised secrets far below.

  To Evangeline, it was stunning. She had always loved the cold, gray sea. The more troubled it was, the more beautiful. She recognized this beach, though.

  “Glass Beach,” she said softly as they stepped out and the portal closed behind them. Her eyes were immediately scanning the pebbled ground beneath her feet for striking pieces of sea glass.

  “Yes and no,” said Calidum. “It’s attached to Glass Beach. But it’s separate.”

  She gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s parallel to Fort Bragg, California,” he told her. “And so, it’s the same in many ways. But it will never touch it.”

  A… parallel universe? She pulled her hand out of his and touched her forehead. Was that even possible? She knew there were other realms, and even realms between the realms, such as the Twixt. But to move sidelong into an entirely new dimension…. What kind of power did something like that take?

  She swallowed hard as dizziness swept through her.

  “You need to eat,” Cal told her. “Come with me.” He turned and moved to the nearest cliff face. It seemed sheer, sandstone and lava rock, covered in sea grass and moss. But as he neared it, she expected him to slow down. He didn’t. Instead, he moved right through it and disappeared.

  Eva blinked. Crap.

  But Calidum reappeared a few seconds later, stepping through the rock wall to stand just beyond it. He grinned at her, utterly devastating in his dark clothing, dark hair, and dark smile. “Trust me,” he told her.

  Not a chance, she thought. But what choice did she have right now?

  Eva carefully stepped over rocks and driftwood, making her way to where he waited. Then he gestured to the wall, allowing her to go first. She put her hands up, feeling for the solidness of the rock, just as Sarah had done in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. And just as Sarah had found – the wall was not really there.

  Eva stepped through it and into the beyond, entering a whole new world. She stared at it in abject wonder. The ceilings were impossibly high, illogically fitting into the space within the cliffs she’d walked through. Their exposed beams were luxurious, and the chandelier that hung overhead shimmered with either glass or rock crystal. She was betting the latter. A massive hearth was set into one wall, and in front of it sat a sofa set of soft tan suede over a thick, plush rug of snowy white.

  Even softer throws of easy hues had been tossed here and there over the backs of the furniture for comfort and appearance, and the coffee table was already set with a gold-etched tea pot that literally steamed, hot and ready. It was accompanied by a containers of sugar, honey, cream, and milk. Two tea cups waited beside the set. A few inches away on the coffee table rested a tray of treats, all of them Eva’s favorites.

  When she heard Calidum join her from behind, she turned to glance at him. “How the hell did you manage this?”

  He stepped around her into the grand space of what was effectively a mansion. “I’m a Legendary, Eva. I’ve had time.”

  The reminder that he was a Legendary made Eva think of her father. Which made her want to tell him not to call her “Eva.” But there were issues of far more importance at the moment than her immature insistence at keeping a personal distance from the Great Gray. One such thing of importance was Arach.

  “Arach has managed much the same without nearly so much time,” she told him as he made his way through the living room.

  He approached the hearth against one wall. It was massive, composed of dark carved rock, and its surface was etched with tiny, intricate symbols of immense beauty. Eva could have spent hours perusing their details, but she was becoming dragangry. As Mimi would put it.

  “Please sit down, Eva,” Calidum said as he waved a hand over the logs in the hearth and they burst into pleasant, perfect flame.

  He said please, she thought whimsically.

  “I will get you something more solid to eat.” He looked back up at her, pinning her with those eyes that were just as dark and intricate as the carvings. They made her feel funny inside. Uncomfortable. And not in an entirely bad way.

  I’m losing my mind, she thought with an inner sigh. Stockholm syndrome or something.

  Eva didn’t argue with him, not only because she wanted to sit down – she was so weary – but because she knew it wouldn’t do any good.

  She made her way to the sofa that was closest to the fireplace and sat, pulling the throw off the back of the couch to wrap it around her shoulders. Then she started in on the pastries, all the while wondering why she felt it was safer to eat these offered treats and not the ones Arach had offered her.

  Stockholm syndrome, she told herself again with a mental shrug.

  Around a full bite of baklava, she asked, “How did you know Arach was going to be in that portal at that time?” Never mind how he’d managed to step through it and into Arach’s path. She was getting used to Calidum’s impossible acts, from the way he’d straightened the toppled pier to this equally impossible living space. He was a Legendary, as he’d said.

  Calidum replied from somewhere in the adjoining kitchen, which was just as gorgeous as the living room. “I wasn’t certain on the time, but I knew the direction. I knew he would go after Mimi,” he told her as he pulled ingredients from cabinets and cupboards and began cooking.

  “It was simple. Arach wants your obedience.” He glanced up at her with a darkly meaningful look. “You wouldn’t give it to him, of course.” He looked away again and continued to go through the motions of preparing a meal. He looked well practiced at it. Eva found that drop-dead sexy. “Hence, he would feel the need to punish and threaten you. However, he isn’t going to do anything to you that will cause you lasting damage, and you’re too headstrong to be overly impressed
with such threats anyway. The logical conclusion? Threaten someone else.”

  He stopped talking for a moment as he lit the fire of the gas stove and placed a pan atop the flames. “Mimi was the obvious choice. She’s a dragon, so Arach knows of her existence. He knew the two of you were friends. And best of all, she’s a child.” Again, he pinned her with a dark gaze from across the room. “Which makes any punishment he inflicts on her extra juicy.”

  Suddenly, Eva felt simultaneously sick and hungry. It was a disconcerting dichotomy. She couldn’t bear to think of Mimi on the other side of that parallel dimension, alone and unprotected, where Arach could get to her. But whatever Calidum was preparing smelled really, really good.

  She was horribly torn.

  “Don’t worry about Mimi,” Cal told her as if reading her thoughts. “She’s in good hands.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dannai Caige sat bolt upright in her bed. The night was thick around her, claustrophobic and impassable. Her breathing was ragged and loud in the stark silence. Sweat trickled from her hairline and threatened her left eye. The air conditioner must have crapped out again. Their power had been iffy ever since Byron, Lucas’s brother, had come to visit for their birthday party. Never get a man drunk when he can control electricity.

  Dannai closed her eyes as images from her dream flashed before her mind. She wiped at her damp forehead impatiently and glanced to her right, where two small raised cribs held her twin infants. She could barely make out their outlines in the night, but she could see the very faint glow of the medallions they wore.

  Gifts from their grandfather, Dannai’s father – the god, Amon Re.

  He had sacrificed his own powerful essence to make the necklaces.

  Dannai swallowed hard and looked to her left, where her husband slept soundly. She hadn’t awoken him with her fussing. That was strange. He was a light sleeper, alert and ready for a fight at the slightest provocation. It was part and parcel to who and what he was, an alpha werewolf with a difficult past and a wife she knew he didn’t think he deserved.

  She smiled at that thought. Then her smile slipped as more images skirted through her memory. Horrible things. Hateful things. She closed her eyes, rubbed her hand over her face, and finally felt Lucas stir beside her.

  “Hey, you okay?” she heard him say.

  She dropped her hand and opened her eyes to look over at him.

  Lucas was gazing at her through glowing blood red eyes. His fangs were out, sharp, hard and white. His smile was wrong.

  It was evil.

  Dannai’s eyes widened as dread rolled through her like a strong wave of nausea. She opened her mouth as if to scream – and woke up a second time.

  She sat up in the bed, her breathing choked and labored.

  This time, Lucas was up with her, immediately on full alert. He sat up beside her, switched on the lamp on the bedside table, and cupped her shaking face. “What is it, Danny? What happened?”

  “B-bad dream,” she said, not at all sure she could trust him. The images of him in full werewolf mode, filled with hate and malice, was still very fresh in her mind. She couldn’t stop quaking in the bed; her body was not under her control. And she felt like crying.

  She pulled away from him and glanced at the babies beside the bed. They’d come awake with her as well, and both were now beginning to cry. But the medallions on their tiny chests still glowed gently with protective magic.

  “It felt so real….”

  Lucas softly grasped Dannai’s chin and turned her face back toward him. For a split second, she expected to see the face she’d seen in her dream. But he was just Lucas – gorgeous, dark, strong. Her werewolf.

  “Danny,” he said, “What happened, baby?”

  “I dreamed of evil,” she said. She was no seer, so why she would be dreaming of something like this, she had no idea. This was Lily’s territory.

  But then she turned back to look at her children, and her eyes fell on the medallions again. And suddenly, she knew what the dream meant.

  “Oh my God, Lucas,” she whispered shakily. “My mother is awake.”

  *****

  Arach raged. But it was a silent rage. It was a scheming rage that built and planned as he stormed back and forth in long strides, pacing out a pattern of vengeance on the ground beneath his feet. As each boot lifted, cinders still smoldering smoked away to nothing in his path.

  The windows of the shops on the main street had shattered as he’d moved by. Car windows had crashed outward, windshields splintered, alarms set off at full blast. Animals had scurried further into the shadows, and loose bricks in building walls had come away to tumble to the ground below.

  His fury was leaking out of him. He was new at this. New at this level of power. But there was a steady and strong direction in his head. He knew what he wanted. He knew who he wanted, now more than ever.

  He stopped in his tracks and ran a hard hand through his hair, closing his eyes against the darkness of the alley around him. Those eyes were burning in his skull, red no doubt, or perhaps they’d changed into some strange mixture of colors again. Hell, yesterday he’d caught them actually shedding yellow light as if they were lanterns. There was a difference between eyes that glowed – and eyes that became a veritable light source.

  Find her, Arach.

  He opened his eyes again, and went still. Solid, steady conviction rolled through him, a part and of the power he’d been gifted. His pupils dilated. His back straightened. Slowly, deeply, he filled his lungs with air – and the tiny fires his boots had left in the ground around him went out.

  The dragon Calidum had gotten the drop on him. He was good, that one. Very, very good.

  When Arach had been king, he’d spied Calidum on the sidelines, radiating just a touch too much power to be fully ignored. Arach had locked eyes with him once or twice and known he had an enemy in the man. Calidum was filled with secrets, a red dragon who seemed… more.

  But until now, he hadn’t realized how much more.

  There was a familiarity to him…. And suddenly, just like that, Arach realized what it was.

  He smiled. Then he began to laugh. The sound traveled through the alley like dark, insidious magic, a nearly visible cloud of black, contagious vapor that would send chills across the flesh of anyone it touched. All at once, Arach was in a good mood. Because then and there, as he stood in the alley and calmed his inner gale, he understood just exactly what he was dealing with.

  He was dealing with not only one Legendary… but two.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lilith McLaren looked steadily into the mirror, memorizing the features of her new body. She’d chosen the form of a human again. She was sentimental, she supposed. Her last form had been that of a snow white cat, but that had become tedious. No one took animals seriously anymore, not like they once had. So she’d run out in front of a van and moved on.

  She had been so many races in so many realms over the years. The fairies of the fae realms, for instance, were waiting for her to return to them and had been for some time. But she supposed they would have to wait a little longer.

  Lilith was who she was now.

  Her hair was different. Lalura’s hair had been light brown when she was a young woman. Now her hair was blonde, and rather than the waist-length tresses Lalura had grown accustomed to pinning in a loose bun over the years, Lilith’s hair seemed to be cut in thick layers. They were still long. But they were different.

  It was always different.

  Every time she did this, she felt disconnected. And a touch forlorn. There was no mourning time afforded her, not really. Because between each existence, there was only darkness and nothing. And then boom – there she was again, in a new form. Always moving. Always traveling.

  Like the Nomads that shared her name.

  Her nose was a little smaller this time around; she was happy about that, she supposed. But her chin was smaller too. She’d grown used to having a strong chin. Now it was pointed an
d dainty. She was dainty all over really, what one might call petite. She couldn’t have stood much taller than five-foot-three or four.

  She turned a little in the mirror, studying her posture. At least that was good. She wasn’t slouching. She never could stand a slouch. But she supposed that was Lalura talking. The old bat had been brutal about some things.

  Lilith chuckled, and when she did, she looked up into her eyes. They were further apart and wider than Lalura’s. But they were the same shade of vivid, stark blue. Like always.

  She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Well,” she said, “that’s that, then.” She nodded to herself like Mary Poppins on a mission and pulled a red suede jacket from the closet, slipping it on over her small frame. Adjustment period was officially over.

  She moved to the door of what was apparently her apartment, grabbed what was clearly her purse, and fished her keys out of her jacket pocket. At least they were there, where she’d always kept things like car and house keys. Thank goodness some things never changed.

  Because she had work to do.

  *****

  “Mr. D’Angelo.”

  Roman went still at the sound of the voice behind him. It wasn’t one he had ever heard before… and yet, it felt immediately and infinitely familiar. He slowly turned around.

  The note he’d received was one of the strangest messages he’d ever encountered. It was a single folded piece of paper that smelled like lavender and was tucked neatly between the most worn pages of his favorite book. He’d turned to the book in a moment of admitted anxiety – the world was falling apart right now. And when he’d cracked the spine, he’d smelled the flower.

  He’d blinked down at the note. Then he’d read it.

  It told him to be here, on this pier in Seattle, at this exact time.

  At 4:00 a.m., the docks in Seattle were all but empty. A few drunks or homeless people yet remained in tents or asleep in the corners of lots or on park benches. But otherwise the night was empty, and the sound of water lapping up against the boardwalk was lonely. So there was no one around to see Roman smile a sad smile, shake his head, and fight with all his might not to literally shed tears.