The Dragon Master

by Allyson James

  "I cannot let you out."

  Carol snatched up her desk phone and punched the button that would buzz Francesca. only to find the line dead. She glared accusingly at Zhen. "What did you do?"

  "If I let you go to this meeting, Li Mei, it will be your death."

  "What are you talking about? I'm the one who called the meeting. I have to be there."

  "Have you ever heard of the Order of the Black Lotus?"

  "No. Is it an organized crime gang?"

  Carol loathed Asian organized crime, which some people still called Tongs. They terrorized small business owners, picking on recent immigrants who were often afraid to go to the police. In some countries, the police were just as vicious as the crime gangs, and newcomers weren't yet brave enough to fight back.

  Asian gangs had never bothered Ming Ue's, which Ming Ue attributed to dragon magic. They never bothered her cousin Lumi's bicycle shop or Zhen's junk shop either. Lumi had gotten involved in gangs when he'd been in high school, but he'd quit, and now they left him alone.

  "They guard many secrets, one of which is a Dragon Master. You must not face them, or him, until you are strong enough."

  "Seth said something about a Dragon Master. What the hell is a Dragon Master?"

  "You are. It is also what you will become."

  Carol sank into her fine-tooled leather desk chair.

  "Zhen, if I don't show up to this meeting without a damn good reason, they're going to think I'm a total flake, a ditzy woman, a poor risk. I worked for years for this�Ming Ue's can go national on this deal."

  "I'm sorry, Li Mei, but what you truly are is much, much more important than spreading your small Chinese restaurants across the United States. Your mother, she would have told you all this had she not been killed too soon."

  She looked up sharply. "My mother?" She didn't like anyone talking about her mother.

  "Lian Juan was a Dragon Master. The talent, it manifests from time to time in your family, and has passed from generation to generation for thousands of years. Ming Ue does not have the talent, but it manifested in your mother and also in you."

  You are strong with your power, maybe even a Dragon Master, Seth had said in his dark voice.

  "The talent does not always shine forth," Zhen went on. "When Caleb and Malcolm came to us last year, you showed no sign of blossoming. You had never shown any signs near Lisa or her grandmother either, and they were silver dragons. That did not surprise me as much. Silver dragons are very different." He sent her a faintly apologetic smile. "Your mother might have learned much from her."

  "I wish you'd stop talking about my mother. She's been gone a long time, and I'd like her to rest in peace."

  "What do you know of your mother's death?"

  Carol looked away. The terrified grief of the small child had given way to the anger of the teenager, then the sadness of an adult. Her mother's and father's death had been a waste, and she'd never stopped wishing the past had been different.

  "She died in a car accident with my father. I was in the back seat, but I was only three and don't remember it. I'm glad I don't remember. I survived and Ming Ue took me in and raised me."

  Zhen gave her a sad look. "No, Li Mei, this is only what you have been told. Your father, he died in the accident, but your mother was killed by the Order of the Black Lotus. They pulled Lian still alive from the car they'd caused to crash, and beat her to death. It was terrible, and it grieves me still. And now, Li Mei, the same Order hunts you."

  Seth folded himself into the shadows and watched the men come out of the building Carol had gone into. Their auras were sticky, black and unclean, and made his skin crawl.

  They were demons, but a different kind of demon than he'd ever seen before. He was used to incubi, mindless soul-suckers that fed on dreams, but these were something new.

  Malcolm stood next to him, a steaming paper cup of coffee in his hands. He'd explained coffee to Seth and offered him some, but Seth had taken one sniff and declined.

  The night before, Malcolm had taken Seth all over this strange city of metal and stone, teaching him about it as they went. It was very different from the old villages of wood and mud in the place Malcolm called China�a different world, as he'd indicated.

  When the dawn broke, the city had been drenched in rain, fog collecting around the spires of the bridges that connected the peninsula to the mainland. Malcolm had taken him to the street where he said Carol worked, and they'd arrived just as she emerged from a taxi.

  Seth had watched her long, sleek legs as she'd climbed out of the car and slammed the door, the rainy street reflecting the shadow of her umbrella and blotch of yellow taxi. He'd liked watching Carol last night, with her eyes wide, her hair mussed, and her naked body warm under the silken thing.

  Not long after Carol had gone inside the demons had come out. In their black suits, umbrellas popping open against the rain, they looked no different from other men on the street, but the stink of them fouled his throat.

  He and Malcolm exchanged a glance, and Malcolm nodded. Malcolm dropped his cup of coffee into a trash can, shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket, and strode up the street in the direction the demons had gone, head bent against the rain.

  Seth joined a group of people streaming into the building, and scanned the crowd for more men with demonlike auras.

  The inside gleamed with glass and polished stone, and the air smelled stale and flat. A slab of granite rose from the middle of the floor, and a neatly groomed woman behind it looked Seth up and down, taking in his T-shirt, jeans, and calf-length raincoat.

  "Can I help you?" she asked coolly.

  "Carol Juan, where is she?"

  The harsh echoes of his voice rang back to him, and the woman raised her brows. "If you mean Juan Enterprises, perhaps I could call for you. Your name?"

  "Tell her that Seth has arrived."

  The young woman half turned from him and spoke into a device hooked to her ear. When she turned back, her eyes held uncertainty. "The receptionist says would you please go up right away. Fifteenth floor. The elevators are behind me," She waved impatiently at them and turned to bathe someone else in her cool stare.

  Malcolm had showed him elevators the night before, and he barely flinched when the metal doors closed and the box rose swiftly upward. When he reached the fifteenth floor, he strode through narrow passages until he found juan enterprises painted on a glass door.

  "Are you Carol's friend?" a woman with red glasses asked as he entered.

  "Yes, where is she?"

  "In her office." The woman came around her tall desk and hurried to a smooth wooden door. "She won't answer the phone or open the door. An old man was waiting for her in there. I thought it was a family thing because he's Chinese, but she missed her meeting, and I was about to call security�"

  "Carol is in here?" Seth put his hands to the door, sending thought threads through and encountering�nothing.

  "Yes. I've been knocking, but I can't hear anything." She wrung her hands in agitation. "But if what she's talking about is important enough for her to miss her meeting, she'd never forgive me for interrupting."

  "And if she is dying or dead, I will never forgive you."

  "Dying?" she repeated in alarm. "But wouldn't the old man call for help?"

  "Unless he is the one who hurt her."

  "He's about eighty, looks like he couldn't pick up a paperclip without straining himself."

  "Size is deceiving in a mage." Seth sent a spurt of his dragon fire into the handle and shoved.

  The door fell open in a splinter of wood to reveal Carol standing behind a desk, her face ashen, and an old man sitting stiffly in a chair.

  The woman rushed in. "Carol, are you all right? Should I reschedule the meeting?"

  Carol "Yes. Yes, do it now. Tell them I had� a family emergency."

  "What happened?" Seth demanded.

  "What are you doing here?" Carol shot him a glare filled with anger and grief. "How did yo
u get here?"

  "Malcolm brought me."

  "Why? Francesca, stop standing there and get on the phone. Get them back as soon as you can. I'm fine."

  Francesca nodded, shoved her glasses up her nose, and scuttled out of the room. Carol switched back to Seth.

  "What do you want? Where did you go last night, and why did you come back?"

  The Chinese man broke in excitedly. "He is a fire dragon, Li Mei. You drew him to you." He made a gesture at the outer room, and Seth felt magic flow to the phone Francesca had picked up. Francesca stared at it and started rattling buttons.

  "The phone is dead," she called.

  Carol muttered something and pushed past Seth and out of the office. She snatched the phone from Francesca, then turned an accusing stare to the old man who had followed her. "Stop doing that."

  "You must not meet with them," the old man said in a pleading voice. "I have told you."

  "If you mean the demons, I saw them come out," Seth said. "I don't know what they were, but they are something evil and dangerous."

  The old man nodded. "She is not yet strong enough to fight the Order, or the Dragon Master."

  Seth's eyes narrowed. "What Dragon Master? There is another?"

  Carol slammed down the phone and swung to face them both. "Will you two stop talking about Dragon Masters?"

  Seth sent his fiery red thought threads to her, and she jerked her focus to him. Then, as she had the night before, she pushed back.

  He softened his touch, making it soothing, not intrusive. He'd never in his life touched another being with tenderness, but with Carol he thought he'd never tire of weaving his threads through hers, saying her name with his dragon music.

  "Carol, do you want me to call or not?" Francesca broke in. "I'll use my cell or go downstairs."

  "What? Oh hell, it doesn't matter. Forget it, I'll have to start all over again."

  Her eyes were wet. She wiped them with the heel of her hand and came around the desk. "I'm going out."

  "You have another meeting at eleven," Francesca said quickly.

  "Cancel it. I don't know when I'll be back."

  She snatched up her coat and marched out the door. Seth followed two steps behind her, catching up to her at the elevator.

  "I want to be alone," Carol said without turning around.

  "No." Seth followed her in and the doors closed behind them.

  "Do you mean no, you won't leave me alone?" Carol asked, an edge to her voice.

  "Not with demons hunting you."

  Carol wouldn't look at him, and they rode to the ground floor in silence. She slid into her coat as they exited the building, then she walked quickly along the sidewalk, climbing a steep hill.

  Seth strode next to her, his hands in his pockets.

  Houses and buildings lined the road, blocking them in like cliffs. Seth looked back down the hill and saw rain-soaked streets flowing behind them to meet a gray sheet of ocean. One of the bridges rose to their right, a dark weight against the rain.

  Seth liked watching Carol's body move, liked watching her hair glisten in the light rain. His thought threads still wove around her, and the fact that she'd stopped pushing them away pleased him.

  He could tangle for a long time with this woman, so different from any he'd ever known. Her body was lithe and strong, and he'd seen a sweet glimpse of breasts in the gap in her blouse as they rode down the elevator.

  After a time Carol turned a corner and walked across a paved flat space with a statue in the middle. A large number of people milled about despite the wet, but a quick scan of the crowd showed none of the demonlike humans Seth had seen come out of her building.

  The rain slackened, a wind coming from the ocean to break the clouds. Carol walked to the middle of the square and sat down on a bench, easing her feet out of her tiny high-heeled shoes.

  "I should have changed these." She wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke the matter-of-fact words.

  Seth crouched in front of her, thighs stretching the fabric of his jeans. He closed his big hands over her slender foot and lifted it to his lap.

  He liked the feel of her fine-boned foot under her thin stocking, her toes forming a gentle curve. He drew his thumbs along the arch and massaged her heel, then he leaned down and gently bit her ankle.

  She jerked away with a gasp. "You can't do that in the middle of Union Square."

  "Why not?"

  She gave him a confused look. "I don't know. I'm sure there's an ordinance."

  "Dragons don't have ordinances, whatever they are." "Please don't talk about dragons right now." Her black threads of rage and grief spun around him, touching him with sorrow. He released her foot and sat on the bench next to her, lacing his arm around her shoulders. She went stiff, but her body needed the comfort and began to relax against him as though she was unaware she did so.

  Seth was very aware of her pressure on the planes of his chest. As a dragon he'd never mated; as a human, his body seemed to know what it wanted.

  He drew his thumb under Carol's chin and turned her face up to his. She gave him a startled look before he touched his lips to her open mouth.

  He tasted the dark spice of her tongue and the soft cushion of her lips. He deepened the kiss, and Carol responded to him, her breath hot and sweet.

  "You have to stop," she whispered.

  He nipped her lower lip. "Why? Is there an ordinance?"

  "I don't know. My life has just gone to hell�I don't want to think about kissing."

  "Why has it gone to hell?" He stroked her neck under her hair and kissed her one more time.

  "Not because of the meeting." She wiped tears from her eyes again. "Not only that. The Junk Man told me ..."

  She trailed off, her attention moving across the square to the elderly Chinese man tapping his slow way toward them.

  "He told me that my mother didn't die in a car accident like I've believed all my life." she said hollowly. "He told me that this Order of the Black Lotus, whoever they are, had her taken from the car and beaten to death."

  * * *

  Chapter Four

  Carol didn't know why she felt better blurting out the horrific tale to Seth, but Seth's arm was solid and steady around her, his hand on her neck soothing.

  "They always told me paramedics rescued me and called my grandmother," she went on. "But Zhen says he took me before the fire department and police got there, so this Order wouldn't know I survived."

  Music played through Carol's head like faint chimes as she spoke. It brought the sound of wind and water, the chill of high mountains, the pungent smell of pine.

  "I am sorry, Li Mei."

  Carol raised her head to see Zhen standing on the pavement in front of her, gazing at her in sorrow.

  Her anger flared. "If you've known all these years about my mother, why didn't you tell me?"

  "Because it was terrible knowledge. The talent didn't manifest in you, and we thought that if it never did, you'd never have to know. Now that your talent has arisen, you need to be warned of the danger."

  "Does my grandmother know?"

  By Zhen's hesitation, she knew what he would say. "Ming Ue thought it best we kept how your mother died a secret."

  Carol balled her fists and got to her feet. Seth rose beside her, as though he didn't want her to move an inch away from him.

  "So you and my grandmother decided what I'd believe."

  The old man looked even more sorrowful. "My warning is not enough. I must train you to resist the Order when they come for you. They will want to use you for� many things."

  "It didn't help my mother, did it?"

  "Your mother, she did not want her heritage. She wanted her husband and you, a real life, she called it. But your family is not usual, Li Mei. Your ancestors were powerful Dragon Masters, and you are, too. You can see and speak to the dragons, you can call them to you as you called this one." He stabbed his cane at Seth.

  "And I keep telling you, I didn't call him. I wouldn'
t know how."

  "The other Dragon Master summoned him," Zhen said. "When he did, the mage in you awoke and pulled the fire dragon to you instead."

  "That is why I can't put my mark on her," Seth rumbled as though understanding something. "I can't mark one who enslaves me."

  "Are you back to the slave thing? Even if this were all true, I wouldn't enslave anyone."

  Zhen shrugged. "And yet, he belongs to you."

  "He's not a stray kitten." she snapped.

  Definitely not. Wherever he'd been all night with Malcolm, Seth had obviously shaved and cleaned up at some point. His sleek red hair no longer lay in an unruly tangle, though it wasn't completely tame. Damp red strands curled across his forehead and down his neck, dark now with rain.

  She had a sudden and vivid image of him standing before her naked and wrapped in chains. In the vision he faced away from her, his hands manacled in front of him and a chain hanging from a collar down his back. He looked over his shoulder at her with a sinful smile and wickedness in his eyes.

  Carol gasped and shoved the picture from her mind. Carol Juan never thought of things like that. Sex to her was done discreetly with the lights dim after a dinner in the finest of her restaurants. Mutual pleasuring, then sleep, then both of them saying over breakfast, Oh, I have to go, need to be in the office by nine. Perhaps there would be another encounter, perhaps not.

  She had the feeling that sex with Seth would be nothing like her previous affairs, not that there had been many of those. With Seth it would be basic and raw, with sweat, noise, and the bed torn apart, then drowsing in a pool of sunshine afterward. While part of her backed rapidly from that, another part of her whispered, Wouldn't it be nice ?

  She dragged in a breath of mist-soaked air. "Let me think about one thing at a time, all right?" She turned to Zhen. "Leave me alone for a while. I need to be alone."