Dragon Heat

by Allyson James

  * * *

  Chapter Eighteen

  Caleb leaned to look at it, drawn to the softly glistening orb. On Lisa's other side, Malcolm leaned forward as well, reaching a long finger toward it.

  "No," Lisa said.

  Malcolm stopped, glanced at her, and folded his finger into his palm.

  Ming Ue said, "If anyone uses that orb or tries to take it back to Dragonspace, the earthquakes will begin. We have all seen what earthquakes can do to San Francisco, but this would be ten times worse, Li Na said. It would be the end for us."

  Lisa's lashes moved as she flicked her gaze over the small globe that her ancestor had given up her dragon life for. Caleb expected it to pulse with power, but he did not sense much from it, pretty as it was. He felt Ming Ue watching him and looked up. She gave him a faint smile, a wise look on her face.

  Saba leaned forward on her slim arms, regarding Lisa curiously. "Do you remember all that? Coming to China and falling in love with the poet and traveling to America with Li Na's grandfather?"

  Lisa tilted her head, still studying the orb. "I do, and I don't. I remember it, but it's like I'm remembering a movie, something happening to someone else." Her look turned thoughtful. "The first dragon was certainly beautiful. I see her in silk robes with her long black hair hanging to her knees, the white streak lacing back from her forehead. She smiled a lot."

  "Like you," Caleb slid his fingers to cover hers, and she glanced at him, her look almost shy.

  "She was curious, Li Na said," Ming Ue added. "Very interested in human beings. She liked them. They were like children to her."

  "She must have liked them a lot," Saba observed. "To stay here all this time and make all those sacrifices. She could have taken the orb back to Dragonspace and said to hell with Earth."

  "She did not know whether moving the orb would hurt Dragonspace as well, remember," Lisa said.

  "But she might have risked it."

  "She didn't want to." Lisa's eyes softened, as though she saw something in the distance that Caleb could not. "She truly liked the human world. She used her magic to help when she could, she enjoyed life, and she fell in love."

  Malcolm cleared his throat, his impatient look showing that he didn't much care about the silver dragon's interest in humans. "What are you going to do with the orb now, Lisa?"

  "Have Ming Ue keep it," Lisa answered at once. "It is protected here, isn't it? My grandmother saw to that, and Chinatown is a magical place."

  "It's somewhat protected," Malcolm said.

  Saba on his other side murmured to him. "Tell her what you told me about Donna."

  Caleb saw his flicker of annoyance as though Saba had asked him to reveal something he wanted to keep silent about. He might have marked Saba, but the witch was strong enough to think on her own.

  Quietly Malcolm told them all about his visit to Donna's basement and her goal to kill Lisa. "She said the silver dragon that is now Lisa committed a crime against her family. Murder, she said."

  Lisa looked bewildered. "I've never hurt anyone in my life. Not even accidentally."

  "I could not understand what she meant," Malcolm said. "She invited me to join her."

  Caleb's protective hackles rose. "And have you?" Saba watched Malcolm, eyes worried.

  Malcolm's dark brows went up. "Help a witch hunt a dragon? The woman is a fool. I tried to kill her and solve the problem, but her magic was too strong. And it's dark and unclean."

  Caleb remained silent, his warrior instincts flaring. He'd not trusted Donna from the first, and her attempt to send the incubus after Lisa alarmed and infuriated him. Protect Lisa. At all costs. Including his own life, although he'd rather see Donna sliced up on the floor.

  "We need to go to Donna," he said quietly, "and explain to her that she must leave Lisa alone."

  Malcolm caught his gaze, his silver eyes reflecting understanding of what Caleb meant by explain. "First we have to find her. When she threw me off, she disappeared and I could not sense her trail. I set up some of my men to watch her house, but they have reported that she has not returned. I don't think she will."

  "We will lure her out of hiding then," Lisa said. "I've done nothing to harm her family, she is mistaken about that. If it was something the silver dragon did, I have no memory of it."

  "She said it was this silver dragon, the one that is you," Malcolm added.

  "Lisa will not face her alone," Ming Ue vowed in her small, strong voice. "We will fight to protect Lisa from this witch woman."

  "You won't, Grandmother," Carol said in alarm. "You're not fighting anybody."

  Ming Ue scowled. "If you did not have your nose so buried in your balance sheets, you would know that it is necessary to fight for some things. No matter whether you are old and small, or young and strong."

  "Grandmother," Carol tried.

  "I will help Lisa," Ming Ue said stubbornly. "We all will help."

  "You are a brave warrior, Ming Ue," Caleb said. "I thank you." Ming Ue looked somewhat mollified.

  Lisa gazed at the orb for a time. The restaurant's fluorescent lights and the steam of tea reflected on its bright surface. "Ming Ue, will you keep this for me a while longer? I promise you can give up the burden soon."

  "I kept it for Li Na," Ming Ue said proudly. "I hid it from all eyes, even yours, black dragon."

  Malcolm made a little bow in her direction. "I commend you," he said. "I was never the wiser."

  "But he is now," Caleb observed. He itched for his sword.

  Lisa looked at the black dragon. "Malcolm is coming home with us, and I'm keeping an eye on him until this is over."

  Malcolm opened his mouth to argue. Lisa held his gaze for a long time, though what passed between them Caleb could not see.

  Malcolm uncurled his lip. "Who am I to defy the power of a great silver dragon?" He put his hands on the table and rose to his feet. "I'll wait outside. I need some air."

  He turned away without saying anything polite to Ming Ue, or anyone else for that matter, and strode out of the room. Saba moved in her chair, and Caleb sensed her fighting the urge to run after him.

  When Lisa turned away to continue speaking to Ming Ue, Saba quietly rose and slipped from the room. Lisa saw her, but said nothing.

  "Tell me more," Lisa said. "Caleb says the silver dragon is very magical and able to do all kinds of things."

  Ming Ue nodded, her eyes watchful. "Li Na was powerful indeed. I think there is little you cannot do."

  Lisa glanced at Caleb out of the corner of her eyes. "Caleb mentioned that the silver dragon can move through time as well as space. It would solve many problems if I could go back in time and find Donna before all this started. Come to think of it, why didn't the original silver dragon move back in time to stop the original witch from making the orb?"

  Ming Ue shook her head. "No one can change that which has already taken place. Not even the gods." She sipped her tea, taking her time, setting down the cup, and dabbing her lips with a napkin. "Li Na told me this as well. The silver dragon can return through time but not for long stretches and only to watch. She does not truly exist there, you see. She can observe, but not touch the people she is with, and unless they are of highly magical persuasion and looking in the right place at the right time, they cannot even see her."

  "Hmm," Lisa said, absently turning her empty cup on the tablecloth. "It might help me find out exactly what Donna is up to though."

  Ming Ue shook her head. "The need to travel in such a way must be great. Not simply to observe what happened the day before. That magic works the same way as the magic that brings the silver dragon forth in each woman. The need must be compelling, Li Na said. It is not a frivolous thing."

  Lisa kept her eyes on her teacup as though only half-listening to Ming Ue. Lumi and Grizelda and Carol had gone utterly silent on their end of the table, watching the others uncertainly.

  Shaiming gently put the lid over the orb in the bowl and lifted it back to the cart. "We keep it safe, Lisa."r />
  Lisa looked up at him, starting out of her reverie. She had something in mind, Caleb didn't know what, but he was certain he would like it even less when he found out. He sensed her closing even further to him.

  When Lisa and Caleb finally took their leave from Ming Ue and emerged from the restaurant, they found Saba and Malcolm leaning against Lisa's car, which Lumi had driven here. Saba held, point downward, the large sword Caleb had brought back from Dragonspace. She and Malcolm stood close but not touching, not talking.

  Saba pushed herself away from the car and handed Caleb the sword without a word. Caleb stepped back, hefting it. Then feeling wicked laughter welling inside him, he swung the sword around in a perfect arc and settled the point at Malcolm's throat.

  Saba gasped. Malcolm eyed him malevolently but made no move, while Lisa watched and waited.

  Caleb chuckled. "Just so we know where we stand. Ready to go?"

  Lisa was surprised she still remembered how to drive. But her feet knew where the gas and brake pedals were, and her hands steered the car between the lines and those drivers whose grasp of "between the lines" was more erratic.

  Flying had been so much easier, she reflected, and such a joy. She'd had no idea how to fly, and she had the vague idea that small dragons needed to be taught. But her dragon body had seemed to understand. She'd shimmied through the air, weaving between molecules to shift through space. She remembered how her body had honed itself to a string of misty lights that arrowed to wherever she wanted to go. It had been a lovely, lovely feeling.

  "Lisa," Caleb said in alarm. Saba was staring over the back seat, eyes round.

  She looked down and realized that her body was translucent and shimmering, filling alternately with color and bright white light, and her feet had slipped from the pedals.

  A car darted in front of her. Lisa solidified into herself and slammed on the brakes, sending them careening sideways. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic on this street and the other driver sped on his way, snarling foul words.

  She gulped. "Sorry."

  "Perhaps Saba should drive," Malcolm said in his mild but hard voice.

  "No, it's all right." Lisa dragged in a breath. "I'll be fine."

  Hands shaking, she steered the car into the street again and drove home slowly, concentrating on keeping herself solid and human. She saw Malcolm in her rearview mirror watching her with his silver eyes and felt Caleb's equally watchful blue eyes fixed on her.

  She parked the car in her lot, and the four of them walked the few blocks home. Lisa's legs shook, but she found it easier to remember who she was with her feet on the ground. Caleb carried his sword over his shoulder, earning a few startled glances from passersby, and Malcolm and Saba followed, waves of their uneasiness flowing over her.

  Caleb slid his hand in hers, his strong grip an anchor, reminding her that she was Lisa and that she was in love with him. She'd never dreamed Mr. Right would be a fifty-foot dragon with glittering scales and a bad attitude, but he was.

  For how long, she couldn't tell. When Caleb went back to Dragonspace, Lisa would remain here to look after the orb. She understood now the compelling pull back to this world when she'd been in Dragonspace—the silver dragon had known she needed to return to be with the orb.

  Protecting the orb would count more with the silver dragon than being with Caleb, and Lisa felt now the burden of that responsibility. As much as she didn't want such a burden, she knew she could never be the cause of the world's destruction or allow someone like Donna to cause it.

  The personal price would be high—Lisa would lose nothing less than herself, not to mention her newfound love for Caleb. Sacrifice, Ming Ue had said. Caring that went beyond personal happiness. Ming Ue and Li Na had always seemed so wise and serene, and Lisa could only hope to find such serenity. Right now she felt like a hole had been ripped open under her feet and she was falling and flailing.

  When they reached the house, Malcolm walked slowly through the front door, as though having to force his feet to do it. He tilted his head, studying the large open hall, the sofa with its chocolate-colored upholstery and the wide staircase with the lift between its curves. "The whole place reeks of golden dragon."

  Caleb casually brought sword around in his competent hands, but Lisa stepped between them. "Play nice," she admonished.

  They mounted the stairs, not bothering to see if the lift worked. Malcolm slowed as they reached Lisa's apartment, clearly uncomfortable. He'd said it had made him physically sick to try to approach the house with Li Na's protective magic, and Caleb's had been added over that. Dragons, Lisa realized with her new insight, didn't approach another dragon's territory lightly because a fight to the death was likely to ensue. Malcolm's nostrils flared, but he squared his shoulders and let Lisa usher him into her lair.

  "Everything's so pretty," Saba said in delight as she looked around the living room. She studied the painted Chinese scrolls, the river rock, the bowl with the dragon on the bottom that held the charms. "These must be worth a fortune."

  Lisa joined her to study the painting of sharp mountains with deep folded valleys. "My grandmother kept them so well, and they're such a part of her that I don't have the heart to sell them or give them to a museum."

  She felt a sudden yearning toward the mountains in the painting, and realized it had likely been painted by one of her ancestors, a silver dragon woman longing for the razor-pointed mountains of Dragonspace.

  "There was very little that was Asian at my house," Saba said, oblivious of Lisa's revelation. "My parents are ultramodern—in decor, that is. In everything else, they're extremely old-fashioned. My father expected me to grow up a quiet, obedient Japanese girl ready to marry the husband he picked out for me. They haven't quite come to terms with my choices of computer programming, tattoos, and witchcraft."

  Lisa smiled with her. Saba was smart and talented, she'd sensed that when she'd first seen her in the circle at the warehouses. She also sensed a young woman who had grown up in a protective world and was now trying to fit into an unprotected one. Malcolm had easily twisted his mark on her, which added to Saba's confusion about what she truly felt about anything.

  Caleb leaned on the doorframe to the kitchen and watched Malcolm pace restlessly around the apartment. Dragons didn't like to be in close proximity to each other, she understood, especially in an enclosed space. Caleb watched Malcolm with the expression of a cat watching a new cat enter his domain. They could either ignore each other and coexist peacefully, or teeth and claws could erupt at any moment.

  Malcolm studied the door of Caleb's bedroom. "Is that the portal?"

  Caleb nodded, arms folded across his broad chest. Malcolm's leather coat whispered as he put his fingers on the doorknob and pushed open the door to reveal the small, plainly decorated bedroom.

  "It won't open for you," Saba said. "It was created for Caleb."

  "Lisa used it," Caleb pointed out.

  "Lisa is a silver dragon," Malcolm answered. "Silver dragons can open portals anywhere they like." His eyes swam with dark sparks. "Why do you think I tried to steal her magic? With silver dragon magic in addition to Saba's magic, I could open a gate and go home."

  "I'll send you if I can," Lisa promised. "But I'm asking you to stay here for a time. We need you if Donna makes good on her threat and tries to kill me."

  "You don't need me at all. You could make short work of her."

  "Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know how powerful she is or when and where she'll strike. A black dragon at my side would be extremely helpful."

  "A black dragon with little power except the ability to mark," Malcolm corrected her. "Donna easily thwarted my attempt to hurt her. I'd say I'm useless to you."

  Lisa tilted her head and looked him up and down. "Black dragons are smart and cunning and powerful, no matter how stripped of powers. I like the odds of winning better if you stay."

  "You're good at flattery, silver dragon," Malcolm said, a hint of growl in his voice. "You might ha
ve Caleb wrapped around your finger, although it's not hard to bamboozle a golden."

  Caleb shifted against the kitchen doorframe. "Black dragons live so long because it takes them hundreds of years to think of insults."

  Lisa held Malcolm's gaze, as she had in Ming Ue's shop. She saw in him a man tired and desperately lonely, ready to do anything to end the pain of his exile. He'd moved beyond feeling, although she sensed he'd begun an affection for Saba that he did not quite understand. Saba should be his enemy—a witch like those who'd trapped him here—and yet he'd become protective of her.

  At last, Lisa gave him a nod. "All right. I'll send you back, right now."

  Before Malcolm or Caleb could answer, she turned to the open door of the bedroom. Lisa had no idea how to open a portal to Dragonspace, but she let the silver dragon take over, and the silver dragon just did it.

  Silver fire sprang from her fingers and cut a long slit in the air. The wind chimes jangled and danced and a clear note of music spun around them. A hot, dry wind blew through the doorway, followed by the scent of heat and pine and juniper.

  Malcolm's face changed, a wild hope springing to his eyes. He inhaled the breeze pouring through the opening, and the wind chimes behind them shivered and tinkled.

  "Do not tease me," he said. "It's cruel."

  Lisa motioned to the doorway. "Go on. Hurry up. You might want to leave your clothes behind."

  He stared at her, waiting for her to reveal that it was all a trick. Lisa merely watched him.

  Saba made a faint noise in her throat, and Malcolm looked back at her. Lisa saw a flicker of regret in his eyes, but the beckoning of Dragonspace was too strong for him.

  He shed his coat and handed it to Lisa, then he stripped off his clothes without embarrassment and stepped, nude, to the door, the dragon tattoo stark on his arm.