Dragon Heat

by Allyson James

  In the bicycle shop, Lumi put down his phone, sweating hard. "There," he told the girl in gauzy black standing next to him. "Will your master be happy now?"

  "He will," Grizelda said. She patted his shoulder. "Malcolm will reward you well, I promise."

  * * *

  Chapter Twelve

  The diadem was not the only thing Caleb had brought back from his dragon cave. Lying on the sofa in Lisa's apartment was a huge, broad-bladed sword with a leather-wrapped steel hilt.

  "Good lord," Lisa said.

  "It is good to go well-armed if my powers are diminished." Caleb hefted the sword a time or two, then strapped it to his side with a leather belt and sheath he'd brought as well.

  More than one person cast a curious glance at the big man with the big sword as she and Caleb walked the few dark blocks to her parking garage, but their glances never went beyond the curious. It was not always safe in nighttime streets to be too inquisitive.

  Lisa drove to the address Lumi had supplied. It was down in an old warehouse district south of Central Basin within sight of the cargo docks. Huge container ships reared against the night sky, outlined with lights, the enormous cranes used to load and unload them lit with floodlights as they clanked and groaned in their tasks. The bustling activity didn't reach the dark silence of the warehouses that lay empty and abandoned to the west of the docks. The moon, round and full, drifted in and out of dense clouds, bathing the area first in silver-white light, then in inky darkness.

  Caleb sat uncomfortably next to Lisa, his big frame barely contained in her small two-door car. He'd had to stash the sword in the back seat, and he'd ridden with one hand on its hilt while she'd navigated the hills and traffic and side streets of south San Francisco.

  "We are being led to a trap, you know," Caleb said into the silence.

  Lisa jumped, then righted the steering wheel before she drove off the road. "Why do you think that?"

  "Lumi has been marked by the black dragon. I felt it in his voice. A person is different once a dragon has touched him."

  "Then why are we going to a deserted warehouse to meet him?"

  "I want to know what he has in mind. And to rescue Lumi if I can. I like Lumi and do not want to see him hurt."

  Lisa gulped as she turned down the road Lumi had indicated. "Wait a minute. Malcolm is a dragon. He'll know you'll know that he put his mark on Lumi. He'll know you can sense it."

  Caleb chuckled. "Yes, he knows I know. And he knows I know he knows. This will be fun."

  "Caleb."

  "I want to kill him, Lisa. This way I will not have to track him down. Black dragons are masters at hiding themselves when they want to be hidden. They are subtle and cunning. Goldens are much more honest."

  Lisa gritted her teeth as she let the car roll to a halt next to one of the warehouses, parking in a circle of shadow. The light looked more inviting, but she wanted to see what was around her without being blinded before she got out to explore.

  "I hope you're sure," she said.

  "I am sure," Caleb answered, his voice quiet and tight.

  "He'll be ready for us."

  "Of course he will be." Caleb opened the car door. "As I am ready for him. Look, there is Lumi."

  Lumi approached the car, his tall, lanky form unmistakable. Caleb hauled his large body out and stood up as Lumi leaned down and looked in Lisa's open window. "I'm glad you're here," he said. "I wasn't sure what to do…"

  He choked his words off as a wide steel blade rested against his neck. "You reek of lies, my friend." Caleb's voice was soft. "I can smell them."

  Lumi deflated. "I'm sorry, Lisa. She came and told me everything would be all right if I brought you here. I believed her."

  Caleb growled. "Where are they?"

  "Wait a minute," Lisa broke in. "Her who?"

  "Grizelda. He sent her to fetch me and bring me to him."

  Caleb nodded. "The lure of soft skin and lips."

  "Sorry," Lumi mumbled.

  Caleb lowered the sword from Lumi's throat, to Lumi's obvious relief. He laid a brawny hand on Lumi's shoulder. "It is not your fault the black dragon used you. I'm the one who sent Grizelda off with Saba. Though she is probably better off marked with a black dragon than under the power of Donna."

  "I never saw any Donna." Lumi looked around nervously. "They're behind the warehouse, on the dock."

  Caleb tilted his head, seeming to listen to the sounds and silence of the night. On the docks, streets away, containers boomed to the decks of the cargo ships, and far out into the bay a boat blew a foghorn. Around the warehouse there was nothing, not even the hum of moths against the floodlight on the building.

  "Leave the car, Lisa," Caleb said in a low voice, drawing the sword from the scabbard. "And stay close to me."

  Lisa eased herself out of the car and clicked the door closed, not slamming it tight. She moved to Caleb's left side, leaving his sword arm free.

  Lumi eyed her uncertainly. "Shouldn't she stay here? It might be safer."

  "And have him send someone behind my back to snatch her? No. Be very quiet and follow. No place is safe except with me."

  "Why is he so sure?" Lumi whispered to Lisa as Caleb began walking softly to the end of the warehouse.

  Caleb heard. "I am a warrior dragon."

  "So, you spend your life fighting?" Lumi asked.

  "No, I spend my life avoiding fighting. But when I have to fight, I'm very good at it. Now, no more words. Take me to the black dragon."

  He shouldered his sword, and Lumi, looking glum, started off. Caleb and Lisa followed him quietly around the corner of the warehouse to the side bathed in shadow.

  Six men dressed in black waited for them, training pistols of varying sizes and calibers on Caleb and Lisa when they came around the corner. They didn't take Caleb's sword, but why should they? Lisa thought. They stayed out of reach and could shoot faster than Caleb could swing.

  Beyond them, in the full glare of a floodlight, stood Malcolm, and behind him was a circle of flickering blue light. The girl Grizelda stood inside the light, holding a candle, as did two of Malcolm's men who looked dismayed that they held candles instead of weapons. On her knees in the middle of the circle, her hands outstretched, was a smaller young woman Lisa hadn't seen before, but she assumed she was the third witch, Saba.

  Malcolm, as tall as Caleb, was dressed in black leather, a black T-shirt stretched across his muscular chest. He wore his sleek midnight hair pulled back in a tail, revealing his face of sharp cheekbones and silver eyes.

  "Thank you, Lumi," he said in his quiet, slightly accented voice. "Please take your place."

  Lumi, looking unhappy, trotted across to the circle. The light parted to let him in, then sealed up behind him. Grizelda lifted a candle from the ground, lit it, and handed it to him with a smile.

  Malcolm looked none the worse for wear considering he'd been stabbed through the middle by Caleb only yesterday. Lisa admitted that Saba had done a remarkable job healing him. He seemed good as new.

  Lisa searched for the magic she'd so easily summoned in the antique shop, willing the white nimbus to her fingers, but she felt nothing. Could she throw the lightning before the men could shoot? She had no idea, and she also had no idea where the power had gone. It certainly wasn't coming to her now.

  "You will not hurt him," Caleb growled to the black dragon. "He's an innocent."

  "Lumi?" Malcolm answered. "Of course not, he has been useful. I also thank you for sending Grizelda to me. She was the easiest of all to mark, afraid and wanting refuge from Donna. Lumi couldn't resist her."

  Lisa balled her fists and said nothing. Caleb stood in front of her like a rock, his body unmoving, but she felt anger coursing through him, held back only by his warrior's experience at facing enemies. He would not let go yet, but when he did…

  Malcolm continued. "Everyone has been very helpful. Donna's insistence on recruiting Caleb only assisted me, because it led me to Saba."

  His face soften
ed a moment almost into affection, then the cool neutrality returned. "What I want is simple. Saba will channel the energy of her circle into thinning the way between the universes. Then you, Lisa, will open the door for me."

  "I will?" Lisa asked.

  "You will. Not because I threaten you and those you love, but because you will return me to Dragonspace where I will stay and leave you and yours in peace." His mouth twisted. "Believe me, I want nothing more than to leave this plane of existence and go home."

  The anguish in the last word was palpable. Lisa had no reason to trust him or believe him, but the loneliness in the man's eyes was real. How long he'd been in this world, she had no idea, but she sensed his desperation, his need to try anything to get away. She'd felt much the same during her sojourns away from her family, struggling in career and marriage, but all she'd had to do was drive up the freeway or get on an airplane. Malcolm was stuck.

  Or, perhaps Malcolm was working magic on her so she'd feel sorry for him. "Why do you need to open a door when there is one in my apartment?" she asked. "Why haven't you stormed in there and jumped through?"

  He gave her a thin smile. "The witches made that fold for Caleb, for your protection. No other dragon can use it, and there is so much magic in your home it makes me sick to go near the house, in any case. I have tried. Caleb was not even supposed to come through the door. He had to have additional magic for that, courtesy of Saba."

  Lisa glanced at the circle. The young, slim witch in jeans and black jacket sat back on her heels, her eyes on her altar. In front of her was a chalice and a black-handled knife, candles, and a heap of crystals. Through the mark that bound her to Caleb, Lisa could sense Saba's power, melding with the blue magic of the circle. Lisa felt only a flicker of such power from the Goth Grizelda—the black dragon had pinpointed Saba as the most powerful, and Lisa agreed with him.

  "My Saba can get me home," Malcolm said. "But only with your help."

  "What about the dragon orb?" Lisa demanded. "I thought that was your holy quest, to get your hands on this orb and use it to destroy our world."

  His silver eyes flickered with impatience. "No, I wanted to use it to take me out of here. I cared nothing for what it did otherwise. But with your magic and Saba's, I don't need the dragon orb. Powerful magic can create a door without harm, and with you and Saba together, I will have that magic. I no longer care about the orb, nor do I particularly want to bother destroying this world."

  "But you might destroy Lisa," Caleb rumbled. "If creating the door needs such magic, you will drain them dry, Lisa and Saba both."

  Malcolm's gaze slid back to Lisa. "Saba is powerful, and Lisa is so protected, that I think this will not happen. I did not realize how much raw power Lisa had until I saw her in Chinatown yesterday."

  He reached a broad, brown-skinned hand toward her. Instantly, Caleb's equally strong hand clamped to his arm. The two dragons eyed each other, predators sizing each other up.

  "Kill him," the black dragon said clearly to his men.

  "No." Lisa put herself between them. "Leave him be, and I'll help you."

  Caleb's eyes swam with flecks of light. "Lisa."

  "If I am strong enough, we can be rid of him," Lisa said, trying to keep her voice calm. "If all he wants is a door to another world, then we'll make one for him and shove him through. End of problem." She glared at Malcolm. "Don't let the screen door hit you on your way out."

  Malcolm smiled at the idiom. "You are a wise woman, Lisa Singleton. As was Li Na. I enjoyed my many talks with her."

  Lisa's heart beat faster. "Funny, she never mentioned you."

  "She would not have. Protecting you was her greatest concern."

  "Why did you wait, then?" Lisa asked. "Why wait so long before you tried to use me if you knew about me all along?"

  "Because when I found Li Na, you had not come into your powers. You did not inherit them until your grandmother died, and she was anything but vulnerable. I knew I'd never best her." He smiled. "But she enjoyed bantering with me. I miss her."

  Lisa bristled. "Please stop talking about my grandmother like you were friends. Can we get on with this?"

  "Lisa, it might kill you," Caleb argued.

  "I don't think it will, somehow. I don't know how I know that, but I think it will be all right." She took Caleb's warm, broad hand in hers. "If you anchor me."

  Caleb's anger poured from him in waves, his dragon power nearly knocking her over. "He is lying. Black dragons twist the truth for their own use, and he is twisting it."

  Malcolm broke in. "So you like seeing a dragon in thrall to witches? I thought you of all dragons would spit on the witches to release another dragon enslaved." He stepped close to Caleb. "You let me get away from this hell, and I'll have enough power to help you release yourself from the witches. You can't move against them, but when I am back to my full dragon self, I will be able to. Dead witches can't use your true name."

  Caleb's gaze flicked to Saba and Grizelda in the circle. "They are innocents. Donna used them and now you are. You would kill them, their use over?"

  "I said I'd take care of your problem. The method, I'll keep to myself."

  Caleb grunted. "This is why black dragons are not to be trusted."

  Malcolm gave him a grim smile. "This is why golden dragons are thickheaded. If you can't eat it or screw it, you don't bother to understand it." To Caleb's look of anger, he said, "I swear to you, Caleb, I'll help you. It's the least I can do."

  Caleb remained stubborn. "It is too risky to Lisa, and if you do not care about that, I do."

  "But you can die here," Malcolm pointed out. "If my men shoot you, your thin human flesh will be full of bullets, and you will bleed and die. I imagine it hurts, if the agony of having a sword through the stomach is similar."

  "You are perfectly all right now," Lisa said.

  "Saba healed me." Again, Lisa saw the flash of almost affection. "She is amazing."

  It was his affection that swayed her. Lisa agreed with Caleb that the black dragon was manipulative, cunning, and a liar. But she somehow believed that when he said Saba would not be harmed, he meant it. The look in his eyes, the softening of the cold, was real. Affection was not something a man like him would readily show, and he possibly did not even know Lisa could see it.

  "Let me try," she said to Caleb. "Stay beside me, and I'll be all right."

  Caleb did not soften, but he held her hand. "I don't want this, but I, too, would like to see the back of him. If there is the slightest hint that you are being hurt, I will stop him."

  "Fine with me," Lisa said. "I'll stop him, too."

  Malcolm's eyes flickered with brief uncertainty, then his confidence returned. "Thank you," he said.

  "Malcolm." Saba's voice floated to them. She and the circle were surrounded by a thick nimbus of blue, and her voice filled the air solidly, as though she spoke through an amplifier. "I need you."

  Malcolm gave her a nod, his eyes softening, then he held out his hand to Lisa. "Shall we?"

  Lisa took his hand, feeling his fingers warm and strong around hers. Caleb had her other hand, his anger still rippling from him. She sensed the incredible power of the two dragons on either side of her. Even subdued in this universe, they were formidable. What would it be like, she wondered, if the two of them had their full dragon powers? She imagined flying between them, two powerful males soaring through the heat of Dragonspace, the world unfolding beneath them. She drew a long, shuddering breath. It would be…

  "Glorious," Caleb whispered in her ear. "I long to fly with you, Lisa-ling."

  "But I can't fly," Lisa started to say, but they'd reached the circle.

  Saba rose. She looked small and vulnerable despite the power radiating around her. Her hands were bathed in blue, and electric sparks swam from her fingers to join the magic of the circle. She was shaking, her face white, her almond-shaped eyes burning with dark intensity.

  "Malcolm, I don't think I can do this."

  "You can," the
black dragon answered. "You are far stronger than you know."

  Saba did not look reassured. She glanced at Lisa and Caleb, and an expression of envy crossed her face.

  "I'll help you," Lisa promised. "Once he's gone, you will no longer be bound by him."

  If anything, Saba looked sadder still. "I'm almost ready."

  She turned back to the altar. Lisa watched her tense her shoulders, ready to draw the energy of the circle and those who stood at its quarters into herself before releasing it.

  She lifted the chalice and then the knife, using the tip of the blade to trace small patterns that Lisa couldn't decipher into the air. Lowering the knife, she laid it back on the altar and began to chant a rhyme asking the Goddess to enter into the circle and help with her magic.

  Then she closed her eyes, clenching her fists. Lisa saw tendrils of magic seep from Grizelda, the candles, the altar, and the statue, and slither into Saba's body. Saba's muscles tensed, her form jerking as magic began to fill her. She made a noise like a small moan, and Lisa saw Malcolm take a step toward her as though ready to interfere.

  Then Saba opened her eyes. They were hot and black, swimming with white sparks. The blue energy from the circle suddenly flowed directly into her, and she lifted her hands high and drew a sharp line in midair. Power flowed swiftly out of her blazing fingers, lighting a bright crease through the night sky.

  The other four in the circle suddenly fell to their knees, candles guttering. Saba cried out in pain.

  "Lisa," Malcolm said, urgency in his voice.

  Lisa clung to Caleb's hand. "Hold onto me," she whispered. She focused on the slit in the sky, drawing all the energy inside her she could muster, bringing a little from Caleb. She lifted her hand and pointed it at the bright slit.

  Nothing happened. Lisa felt emptiness inside her, not even the barest surge of the magic. Caleb glanced at her, blue eyes filled with concern. Lisa ground her teeth and tried again.

  Still nothing. She'd thought that if she wanted and needed the power enough, it would come. She certainly wanted to rid the world of this black dragon—she was willing to risk making herself sick again to do it.