Dragon Bites

by Allyson James

  Jamison ignored them and when he pulled away, his dark eyes swam with tears. “You ever want anything, Janet—anything, you got it, all right?”

  “As long as we’re still friends,” I managed, my voice not working.

  “We are.” Jamison squeezed my shoulders with his powerful artist’s hands, then turned around and did the same to Mick. “Hell, yes, we are. Anything you need. I keep my promises.”

  Jamison broke away from us and joined Julie and Naomi waiting at the diner’s door. Naomi smiled at me, and Julie waved, then they departed under the delighted stares of the rest of Magellan.

  I turned to see what Coyote had made of the scene, surprised he hadn’t peppered us with his smart-ass comments.

  He was gone. Coyote, the trickster god, had vanished.

  Mick reached for the crumpled twenty-dollar bill that lay beside Coyote’s empty plate.

  I sighed, shaken by Julie’s frankness and Jamison’s gratitude, and pretended to be nonchalant. “At least he didn’t stick us with his check this time,” I said.

  * * *

  Gabrielle

  Janet woke me in the morning to ream me out. Colby, the traitor, had called her as soon as he got out of bed, and told her what happened.

  Of course I’d planned to call her myself—Janet needed to know about dangerous shit—but at the same time, I hadn’t wanted to listen to her fussing and telling me what to do.

  “Colby can fly you back to the Crossroads,” Janet said in her big-sister voice. “I don’t want you in Vegas if there’s a magic sink—and you’d better believe I’m going to ask the mirror why it didn’t alert me.”

  Because it was in a drawer, I didn’t say. Because I didn’t want it commenting while Colby and I snuggled.

  Not that anything happened between Colby and me. I’d slept hard, and when I’d awakened, he’d been gone. But it had been nice lying against him, aware of him in the night, even as I’d slept.

  “I told the mirror not to say anything,” I said. “No need to bother you when I was fine.”

  “But you weren’t fine! You almost died. Thank the gods for Nash.”

  “He came right away, so nothing to worry about,” I said quickly. “Colby knew exactly what to do. I’ve got a good team. There’s shit going on here, and I need to stay and find out what.”

  “I know there’s shit going on. You need to come back here so we can figure this out, and decide how to fight it if we have to.”

  I pretended to consider. “No, don’t think I will. I’m going to check out the arena where Mick was fighting—if there’s anything left of it—and see if there’s a connection. Besides, I have a job, remember? What would Cornelius say if I ditched out on my second day? I can’t let him down.”

  “You can—” Janet broke off suddenly and started arguing with someone in the background. There was a rattling, then a voice I didn’t expect came over the line.

  “Gabrielle, you will stay there,” Grandmother Begay said. “I will be coming to watch over you.”

  “What?” I jerked upright, pillows scattering “No, no, no. You know where I am, right? Las Vegas. Not really your scene.”

  I pictured Grandmother Begay, gray-and-black haired, wrinkled, and stubborn as hell, leaning on her cane and glaring at everyone in the C’s casino. She’d scare away all the customers.

  “Everyplace in the world is my scene, as you say,” was her reply. “Janet must stay here and interrogate the dragon slayer, but you must not be in Las Vegas alone.”

  “I’m not alone,” I said, my voice rising. “Colby’s here, and Nash, and Chandra … What are you even doing at the Crossroads, anyway? What about Pete and Gina’s wedding?”

  “Gina was happy to see me out from underfoot. She does not say so, but I know. My son feels the same, though he is ashamed at his relief. I am a commanding old woman. Janet cannot leave, and so I will come to be with you. Do not argue.”

  “Are you going to fly?” I demanded, unable to keep the tremor from my voice. “Long way for a crow. What will you do for clothes when you arrive?”

  “I will be there,” she said, not amused. “And then you and I will have a talk. A very long talk.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Gabrielle

  I did not want to wait around for Grandmother Begay to show up and tell me what to do—or more likely, what not to do. I took my free time after I ate my breakfast-slash-lunch and headed out.

  My outfit today was a multicolored dress in vivid primary colors like Chandra wore, which I ordered from the gift shop while I ate. The skirt was short and swingy so I could fight in it if I had to, and it looked cute if I didn’t.

  I called Amos—I had his card—and asked him to pick me up out front. Colby came with me, hulking and dangerous, and also, to my surprise, Chandra.

  “You keep getting hurt,” Chandra said as she slid into the limo next to Colby, forcing him to move closer to me on the seat. “You need me.”

  “And me,” Colby said. “Same reason.”

  “Fine by me,” I said without hesitation. “How can I lose?”

  I understood now why Janet liked to surround herself with friends—there was strength in numbers. With Colby’s muscle, Chandra’s smarts, and Amos’s loyalty and wheels, I felt powerful. Alive.

  I took a long breath, expanding my chest, grateful for air. The sensation of being buried by crushing dirt had scared me more than I wanted to admit.

  Amos drove us up the Strip to the hotel where Janet, Maya, and I had so optimistically begun our girls’ weekend. I didn’t think the hotel security would be in a hurry to see me again, so Amos drove around to the loading docks and sneaked us in through a back door. He vouched for us with the guys working there—Amos truly knew everyone—and we walked right in.

  The delivery docks hadn’t been touched by our magical hijinks, but the maintenance halls we’d first traversed in pursuit of Mick were a mess. Workmen busily shored up walls and ceilings, their electric saws, nail guns, and hammers making a racket.

  Amos found a bellman who showed us a way around the destruction to the lower floors of the basement. He was good-looking and kept glancing at my legs.

  “We’ll take it from here,” I said to Amos and the bellman when we reached the floor with the arena. I gave them a big smile as Colby and I blocked the way farther down the hall. I didn’t want the two humans following us and getting hurt.

  Amos took the hint and ushered the bellman back upstairs. Colby waited to make sure they were gone before we started looking around.

  The electricity had been jury-rigged back on, the bellman had explained, so repairs could commence. The lighting hadn’t been the brightest in the first place, but we could see the entrance to the arena, which hadn’t been destroyed, and the pile of rubble blocking the way to where Janet, Maya, and I had come down to find Mick.

  “You did that?” Colby asked, studying the impenetrable mound of concrete, pipes, and wires.

  I started to say, of course I did, but that wasn’t quite the truth. “Janet and I did it together. We sent all those poor little demons back home.”

  Chandra regarded me thoughtfully. I couldn’t decide how old she was—if she had a medical degree, that meant many years in school, plus time interning, so she wasn’t in her first youth, but she had a smooth, unlined face and young energy. I sensed wisdom in her eyes that came from long experience. But maybe she’d had to grow up fast, like me.

  “You envy your sister,” Chandra observed.

  I started at her words, and suppressed a dart of anger. “Well, of course I do. She has superpowers. Janet can take a storm and make it do her bidding. Her Earth magic is far stronger than my Beneath magic, though I’d never tell her that. If she could work her storm magic all the time, she’d be unstoppable. I couldn’t stop her.”

  I realized from the way Chandra and Colby regarded me that a simple Yes would have answered the question.

  I closed my mouth, my face growing hot.

  Colby discre
etly turned away. “Arena’s in here?” His voice echoed as he disappeared under one of the arched doorways.

  The darkness inside lit up as he tossed a ball of dragon fire into the air. I entered the arena as the flame rose to the high ceiling and spread out, lighting the room in a brilliant red-orange glow.

  Chandra stopped beside me. “My, my,” she said softly.

  Stone arches lined each level of the spectators’ area, which was about fifty tiers, as far as I could count. Either a very clever design or some kind of magic made it reach that high without bursting into the hotel above it.

  The room was a semicircle, not a full oval, but the architects had designed it to be similar to the famous Flavian amphitheater in Rome, known these days as the Colosseum. Each keystone in the arched openings was carved with leaves and grapes, or heads of gods, or cavorting nymphs.

  I’d noticed a trend in Las Vegas to base hotels and casinos on European models, maybe to make them seem more classy. That explained the small-scale representations of Paris, Venice, Monte Carlo, Ancient Rome, and in the case of the C, Versailles.

  There were no seats in this arena—those who came to watch the combat had to stand. The first row hung twenty feet above the arena floor, which was covered with sand.

  I moved down to the front row and leaned over the stone wall that kept the spectators from falling down to the combat area. Arched openings below let the competitors enter, but I saw that those keystones were decorated with demons rather than nymphs, many of them stabbing one another with pitchforks.

  Why were demons so often portrayed with pitchforks? I’d never seen a demon actually wield one. Pitchforks are farm tools for lifting and spreading hay—maybe artists back in the day couldn’t think of anything more evil than a symbol of backbreaking work.

  I needed to go down there. I could look for the elevator we’d used to descend to the cells, but I was pretty sure the way to it would be blocked by rubble. Janet and I had been zealous.

  I didn’t want to wait to find Amos and ask his friend to show us another way around, so I vaulted over the balcony and used a burst of magic to slow my descent to the ground.

  Both Chandra and Colby called out when they saw me leap, but I landed easily and brushed off my skirt.

  I looked around, though there wasn’t much to see. The arena floor was covered with about a foot of sand, which rippled out to lap the walls. The better to soak up the blood, I supposed.

  I was proud of what Janet and I had done. We’d stopped the dragon slayer and sent the poor beasties he’d coerced back home. I hoped my snake demon had found her way to her children.

  When I turned around again, Colby and Chandra were next to me. I blinked at them in surprise, but Colby pointed to one of the dark arches opposite the one we’d come in through. “Stairs.”

  “Sure, do it the easy way.” Warmth suffused me as I studied him, remembering how fine it had been to lie against him last night.

  “Place gives me the creeps.” Colby shivered. “The dragon slayer must have chosen it for a reason.”

  “I wonder what …” I mused as I looked around again. “The Earth-magic sink? Is it here too? Hang on.” I opened the tiny red purse that went with my outfit and extracted the shard of mirror.

  I glanced at Chandra, who’d moved to the far wall in the huge arena, examining it on her own, before I held up the mirror and turned in a circle to show it the entire arena. “What do you think?” I whispered to it.

  “Ooo, hot guy. Love those tatts.”

  Colby scowled as a glint of reflected firelight fell on him. “Do you have to let it talk?” he rumbled in a low voice.

  “Unfortunately, yes. Focus, Mirror. Whatever your name is.”

  “You can call me Sexy. In fact, sweetheart, you can call me anytime.”

  I growled under my breath. “I know why Janet keeps threatening to melt you. Do you sense anything?”

  The shard moved in my hand. “Deep magic. Strong.” Its usually obnoxious voice went somber. “I haven’t felt anything like this since …”

  It fell silent, while Colby and I waited. I was about to shove it impatiently back into my purse when the mirror let out a piercing scream.

  “What?” I whispered frantically at it, but it continued to scream without pause.

  Colby was cursing, and Chandra clapped her hands to her ears and doubled over. I stared at Chandra for a stunned moment then marched to her and dangled the mirror in front of her face.

  “You can hear it,” I said over the shrieking. “You can hear this. Loud and clear.”

  “Loud.” Chandra kept her hands over her ears. “Yes, that is a good word.”

  “Why can you?” I demanded. “I know you have a little magic in you, but you have to be very magical to hear more than a hum.”

  The mirror’s screams finally died to sobs, and Chandra straightened, gingerly lowering her hands. “Yes, I have much magic,” she said in her quiet voice. “But as with my medical degree, I do not use it anymore.”

  “Magic isn’t like a degree,” I snapped. “It’s part of you, what you are. So what are you?”

  Chandra shook her head. “Nothing you would understand.”

  “Because you’re from Africa? Try me. What kind of magical creatures do they have there?”

  “Very bad ones.” Chandra shuddered, something dark flashing in her eyes. “I feel safer here.”

  “Here in America?” I persisted. “Or here in Las Vegas? Where you no longer practice medicine, but nurse rich people in a hotel? Who the hell are you hiding from?”

  Chandra wouldn’t meet my gaze, or Colby’s. Studying the sand on the floor, she said, “Let me say I will not bring danger upon the ones I love.”

  Very noble of her. I wanted to know more, much more, but I did feel a twinge of sympathy. “I understand,” I said, trying to soften my tone. “I have family I want to protect too. At least in my case, I have to protect them from me. I don’t know anyone more evil than I am, so I make sure I don’t hurt them.”

  Chandra raised her head and looked at me, her eyes holding surprise. “You are not evil, child. Who has told you this?”

  “Everyone.” I flapped my hand at Colby. “Even he thinks so. That’s why he likes me.”

  Colby’s cheeks reddened. “Hey, now, I never said that.”

  “It’s all right. I know exactly why I’m intriguing. My mother is a goddess so evil there isn’t a name for how horrible she is. I’m half human, but all her crazy Beneath magic went into me. Janet and her grandmother are trying to help me control it, because we all know what will happen if I let it get out of hand.” I made a big circle with my arms. “I’ll destroy everything in sight.”

  Chandra continued to watch me in amazement. “They have said this? These people who are your family?”

  “Sure.” I spoke brightly. “They’re right. I’m unpredictable and dangerous. Have to be kept in check at all times.”

  Chandra gave me an allover look as she had when she’d checked me for injuries. “I sense nothing evil in you, Gabrielle. You are very powerful, yes, but the magic in you is neutral—neither good nor bad. It just is. Some magic is dark, as in what runs through Nightwalkers or skinwalkers, but not you. The magic you have is only as good or evil as you make it.”

  My hand closed tightly around the magic mirror, and I winced as it made a tiny slice in my palm. “So the magic isn’t evil—I am?”

  Chandra actually laughed. “When I say there is no evil in you, there is none. I’d know it. If you are dangerous, it is because you believe you are a destructive force. You have not put a rein on what you can do because others have made you believe it will do no good to try. That you are hopeless.” She shook her head. “They are fools. Do not listen.”

  The cut on my hand drew blood. Colby came to me and gently took the shard away. He dropped it back into my purse then extracted a package of tissue from it and started to clean my palm.

  I stood there and let him, unmoving. I wasn’t evil? What
was she talking about?

  Chandra didn’t know me. She didn’t know how I’d wished my father dead and then watched him die without stopping it. How I’d hated Janet because she’d usurped me, how I’d tried to kill her, how I’d tried to capture Nash and take him to my mother, because she wanted his null magic. How much I’d wanted to destroy everything in the world because I hated it, and myself.

  Of course I was evil. I didn’t want to be, but I was my mother’s daughter.

  Crap, now I was starting to cry. I yanked my hand out of Colby’s grasp and swiped at my eyes.

  “We can’t be standing around talking,” I said, trying to sound stern, like Grandmother Begay. “We have a lot of work to do. Does this place have anything to do with that weird Earth magic? The kind that makes me feel like I’m being buried alive?”

  Chandra ignored me. “If you are so evil, Gabrielle, then kill us. Right now. We are alone with you here—who would know what you did? You can bring down the walls on us, and it will be a long time before anyone finds our bodies.”

  My mouth popped open.

  I expected Colby to say something like, “Speak for yourself,” and get ready to fight, but he folded his arms and regarded me calmly. His tattoos were vibrant under the light of his fire, his black braid a streak of midnight against his gray T-shirt.

  “I could do it,” I said in a shaking voice. “Easily. You couldn’t stop me.”

  Chandra only gave me a wise look. “I know. Colby knows. If you are truly evil, you will need no reason to kill us. Or maybe it would be for the enjoyment.”

  “Killing isn’t fun,” I said in amazement. “It’s awful. I fight to kill only when I’m afraid. You know, like when demons and Nightwalkers and other nasties attack.”

  “As would most people,” Chandra said. “This is known as the fight-or-flight response. In your case, instead of running away, you stay and face the danger, knowing it is your best chance of survival.”

  For some reason, her calm explanation made me very angry. No, not angry, scared—worried she was right. It was much easier to believe I did the things I did because I was evil incarnate, made so by the evil goddess who’d hatched me.