Dragon Heat

by Allyson James

  The silver dragon stepped closer to Lisa, looking at her eye to eye. The two women were the same height, and Lisa saw her own and Li Na's features reflected in the young girl. "I will tell you another secret silver dragons know which might help you later. Magic isn't about power—who has the most, who is strongest. It's about balance. When the elements are in balance, that is the greatest power of all."

  "Balance," Lisa repeated. The word felt good in her mouth, tasting of truth.

  "You'd better be getting back," the silver dragon said. "They will need you." She cocked her head, as though hearing distant voices. "I must as well. Sying is chasing the chickens again. He is my youngest and fascinated with birds."

  "He feels the pull to fly," Lisa suggested.

  "Maybe. Or the pull to drive his sisters and father mad." She grinned then backed away a few steps. "Good-bye."

  Her form flickered into silver, then into lights, and she streamed away and was gone. "Good-bye," Lisa said.

  In his sleep, the dragon Caleb shifted and murmured. Lisa went to him and softly kissed his forehead. "Rest, love."

  Then she narrowed into her silver-and-lights form and streamed back through space and time to the doorway that drew her.

  When she spilled through, her apartment was dark except for white moonlight that poured into the living room.

  She felt a moment of disorientation, not certain how long she'd been gone—hours or days?

  Malcolm rose from the sofa, his leather clothes creaking in the dark. "He's gone," he said without preliminary. "Donna summoned him—he just vanished."

  "Caleb?" Lisa knew they intended for this to happen, but panic lodged in her throat.

  "Yes, Caleb," Malcolm growled. "While you were off doing whatever the hell you thought was so important. And Saba's gone, too. Donna took her as well."

  Lisa felt Malcolm's fury pour from him in brittle waves as she drove her car to Chinatown and Ming Ue's restaurant. In her lap she held the little dragon bowl filled with charms. Malcolm had snarled with impatience when she'd stopped to gather the charms and place them into the bowl, but Lisa silenced him by telling him they needed all the help they could get.

  "Tell me what happened," she said as she navigated the tight, busy streets. "Without shouting and swearing at me. Just tell me."

  Malcolm braced his hand on the dashboard as Lisa careened around a corner. "Donna summoned him, as we thought she would. One minute, he was telling Saba about some asinine television show, the next he was dragged into thin air. I wasn't terribly sorry to see him go, but then Saba started screaming like she was in pain. I tried to hold onto her, but in the end she slid away. I don't know if she's even still alive."

  His rage covered his fear, but only barely. He blamed Lisa, and she blamed herself, too. She should have anticipated this.

  She drew a shaking breath. "I suspect Saba and Caleb are together, and that Donna took them to force our hand. I'm perfectly happy to face her."

  "I have no qualms about killing witches," Malcolm agreed. "Whether you outmagic her or I break her neck, this will be her last night."

  Lisa nodded, glad he was on her side—if he was on her side. Malcolm wasn't exactly tame and obedient.

  They reached the alley behind Ming Ue's dim sum restaurant, and Malcolm leapt from the car almost before it stopped moving. Lisa turned off the engine and followed him inside.

  They found what Lisa expected to find, tables overturned and dishes broken and Ming Ue sitting despondently among the clutter in the light of a single bulb. Carol was shouting through the telephone to an electrician to please come out and fix the lights. Shaiming sat by himself at another shadowed table, quietly drinking tea.

  "He took the orb, Lisa," Ming Ue said as soon as they entered. "There were demons following him, and they tore up the restaurant, laughing. I was afraid they'd hurt Carol, and my magic wasn't strong enough to stop them."

  Lisa laid a hand on Ming Ue's shoulder. "I'm so sorry. Caleb had to come. He didn't have a choice."

  Ming Ue looked troubled and angry. "I know. He explained. But I will have to close, and Carol will scream about how much money we are losing, and fixing the electricity will cost a fortune. I don't think we were up to code in the first place."

  "I will pay for the damage," Malcolm said. "You will not be closed long."

  Ming Ue's eyes widened. "A black dragon would do such a thing?"

  "I would be pleased to. Make as many refurbishments to your restaurant as you like. I'll enjoy myself taking it out of golden dragon hide."

  Lisa was already rushing outside again, passing Carol who watched her over the phone with wide eyes. "Hurry," Lisa called to Malcolm.

  "She has the orb by now," Malcolm pointed out as he slammed into the car. Lisa stomped on the gas pedal and the car hurtled through the alley. "Caleb took it to her. It's only a matter of time before the earthquakes start."

  "No, he didn't," Lisa said, pulling onto California Street, narrowly missing a high-speed taxi. "The orb he took her isn't real. It's a decoy Li Na gave to Ming Ue to draw attention from the real orb."

  Malcolm swiveled in the seat to stare at her. "How the hell do you know that?"

  "When Ming Ue first showed it to me, I didn't sense the power from it that I expected. It has some power, but it's false. Ming Ue knows, I think. But when Donna discovers it's not the real orb, who knows what she'll do?"

  "She'll kill Saba, you mean."

  "Yes," Lisa said reluctantly. "I didn't know she'd snatch Saba, too."

  "Because you had to go enjoy yourself time-traveling in Dragonspace."

  "It wasn't for enjoyment." Lisa swung the car around another corner and raced it down a hill. They bounced across the intersection at the bottom and tore down the next street. "It was important, and I learned things."

  "What things?"

  "Nothing I can explain right now. Hold on." The light at the next intersection had turned yellow. Lisa floored it, screaming through, the car bottoming on the edge of the next hill down.

  Malcolm gripped the dashboard and the handle above the window, muscles flexing under his jacket. "If Saba dies, you will pay for it. I don't care if you are an all-powerful silver dragon."

  "Do you love Saba?" Lisa asked Malcolm.

  Malcolm started to answer, then she felt the weight of his silver gaze. "No." The word was emphatic, more so than necessary.

  Lisa squealed around another corner, toward the area the needle had started to indicate on the map before the backlash of the counter-spell. She could faintly sense the threads she and Caleb had entwined when last they'd made love, but she wished she had a more specific direction than a feeling of "this way."

  "Not much farther," Lisa said. "I hope."

  Malcolm turned his head to look out the front window, his mouth set in a hard line. He said no more as Lisa pulled the car to a halt in a narrow space underneath the Bay Bridge. No streetlight flooded this black space, and the moon did not penetrate the darkness. It was magic darkness, and it crawled over her skin like oil. "Here," she said softly.

  "Yes," Malcolm answered. "I feel her. Saba. She's still alive, lucky for you."

  "The question is where?" Lisa clutched the bowl with the charms tightly as she and Malcolm approached the car again. They'd walked up and down under the bridge but seen no one and nothing to indicate anyone had ever been here. Barges and ships outlined with lights floated through the bay, and cars roared onto the double-decker bridge above them, reinforced since the disastrous '89 earthquake. Considering the homeless population in San Francisco, Lisa was amazed to see no one down here. If people desperate for a spot to lay a blanket avoided this place, something bad must be going on.

  Malcolm lifted his gaze to the dark water where Treasure Island, once a naval base and still partly closed off, perched. "There, perhaps. Or Alcatraz or Angel Islands."

  "Too many tourists," Lisa said. "She could never hope to be unseen all the time, and I think a witch with demons would stand out. But she's close,
and she has Caleb. I sense it. I scent it."

  "Golden dragons do stink," Malcolm bantered lightly, but she could tell he said the words out of habit.

  "Remind me again why I'm helping you?" Lisa shivered, hugging her arms to her chest. "Come on, they have to be somewhere."

  Almost at the same time, the two of them swiveled their gazes to a long, low bulk that floated into the glare of the city's lights and just as quickly out of it. Lisa had only seen it for a moment, but that was long enough.

  "That barge," she said, pointing.

  "Yes," Malcolm agreed tightly. "How do we get there?"

  "We fly. Hold this." She thrust the bowl with the charms into his hand. "Whatever you do, don't drop it."

  It seemed so easy to change herself, so easy to call the magic. Lisa felt the glow within her strengthen, first becoming shimmering light, then solidifying into glimmering silver, taking her dragon shape. Her muscles hardened, and huge iridescent wings unfolded from her back.

  As the light from her body flashed through the darkness beneath the bridge, the moon suddenly shone through the roiling clouds, caressing her silver scales with white light.

  She gripped Malcolm securely in one of her talons and pushed herself up and out across the water. Her wings caught, the moon flashing on them in a blaze of silver sparks.

  "They won't see us coming or anything," Malcolm said.

  "Donna expects us," Lisa answered, not needing her mouth to form words. "And the people of San Francisco will think I'm fireworks."

  Malcolm did not answer, but she felt his belligerence still radiating from him. At the same time he'd taken a leap of faith, trusting her. Lisa could so easily open her talons, letting him fall down into the dark waters of the bay where he'd quickly drown and he knew it.

  Lisa landed on the deck of the barge. It was a large one, with at least two hundred feet of deck space. A four-story building crowded on the back of it, windows bathed in a faint white glow. Otherwise, the barge ran with the minimum of lights necessary to keep other craft from running into it.

  The barge stank of DIESEL, a huge engine grumbling under their feet. Barges like this crossed San Francisco Bay all the time and slid out into the Pacific to move up and down the western coast. This could be an ordinary barge with just the crew inside the deck house, heading back to the docks for their next load of cargo. Except Lisa knew it wasn't.

  She elected to change back into Lisa to walk toward the deck house. She took the bowl of charms that Malcolm had carefully carried and strode with him across the dirty and oily surface of the empty barge.

  "You didn't have to bring clothes," Malcolm observed.

  "What?"

  "When you shift to and from your dragon form, you don't remove your clothes or put them back on."

  Lisa looked down at herself, eyeing her denim skirt and white blouse as though surprised she wasn't naked. Malcolm and Caleb had been naked each time they emerged from their dragon forms. "I don't know why. I just didn't think about it."

  "Hmm," he said, as though making a note to himself.

  They said nothing more until they reached the entrance to the stern cabin and walked inside.

  The barge was definitely not ordinary. Inside, all the floors and inner walls had been removed, so the building was one huge, empty room with windows climbing to the top. The bridge with its controls for running and steering the barge still existed on a platform high on the wall, reached by a series of stairs and catwalks. Exposed pipes ran down all the walls to disappear into the floor, and the strong stench of oil and DIESEL hung over all.

  Saba sat in a corner on the metal floor, her knees drawn to her chest, a red nimbus surrounding her. Caleb leaned against the wall nearby, chains wrapping his large body. A tall man with long white hair handled the controls high above. He wore nothing to cover his very white skin. Two men identical to him flanked Donna on the floor below. Lisa stopped, her hackles rising as she recognized one of them as the incubus who had invaded her dreams.

  Beside her Malcolm hissed, "Demons."

  Donna had forsaken her soccer mom clothes. She dressed in robes, dark velvet and probably costly, but they weren't ancient—Lisa had seen something much like them for sale on an Internet site.

  As soon as the door clanged closed behind Malcolm and Lisa, a small missile shot toward them. They dove apart, and the orb that had been in Ming Ue's restaurant crashed against the metal bulkhead and shattered.

  "Bring me a toy, will you?" Donna said, her voice clear and ringing. "I want the real one, Lisa, or I'll kill the little witch. Caleb I'm going to kill anyway, so I won't offer his life as a bargain."

  "Sorry, Lisa." Caleb shifted, chains clinking. "I'd squash her if I could."

  The golden threads that meant Caleb caressed her, and she twined them with silver music. Don't worry, she tried to signal to him.

  Donna ignored them. "I know how sentimental the silver dragon is about humans. You'll give me the orb so I won't murder this girl, even though you've barely met her. You can let the black dragon fly her off to a meadow somewhere to pick daisies together."

  "I'm not giving you the orb," Lisa replied evenly. "Get used to the idea."

  "You murdered my sister," Donna said. "I couldn't stop it, and I couldn't stop you going back to do it, but I can make you pay. You got your vengeance, now I am taking mine for my sister. Give me the orb and I might be merciful and do it quickly."

  "I've already said no. I didn't kill your sister, her own foolishness did. The dragons she drained got their own back."

  "Which would never have happened if you hadn't weakened her."

  Lisa's dragon ire rose. "She murdered Caleb's son in a cruel and brutal way, and I could not let that go."

  Caleb rumbled in rage. "Her sister did that?"

  "Yes. I tried to help you. I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

  The music of Caleb's thoughts whispered with sorrow. "I would never blame you. I blame witches who can't leave dragons in peace."

  Donna glanced at the nimbus surrounding Saba. "Enough chitchat. I really will kill her." The light flared a sudden, bright blue, and Saba screamed.

  "Stop!" Malcolm grabbed the bowl from Lisa. "She can have the fucking orb. I say to hell with this world. Saba and I are leaving."

  He started to stride forward, but Lisa said calmly, "Malcolm, wait."

  Malcolm swung around in fury. "She'll kill her, and it will be your fault."

  "I have no intention of letting her kill Saba, or Caleb, or even you. Do you trust me?"

  "No," he said sharply, but he remained where he was.

  Donna said, "You are so stupid," and turned her magic on Saba. Saba screamed.

  Lisa skimmed over the floor, her body nothing but light, and blocked Donna's path to Saba. Immediately the blaze of magic died, absorbed and neutralized in Lisa's body.

  Donna gave her a deprecating look. "Ah, the silver dragon. Ever the defender of humankind."

  Lisa, human once more, cocked her head. "You have much power. So does the silver dragon. I am not afraid of finding out whose is greater."

  "I shouldn't if I were you. Unless you know how to steer a barge." Donna smiled.

  "What's that got to do with anything?" Malcolm growled.

  "We've turned and started heading back toward the city. This barge, if not properly steered, will ram itself straight into Fisherman's Wharf and all the tourists indulging themselves on their one week off a year. I'm aiming for a nice big shopping center with all kinds of restaurants and little places humans like to go. So many deaths. You give me the orb and come with me, and your friends can save them all. Won't that be nice?"

  Lisa met her gaze. "Let Saba go and release Caleb from his enslavement, and I might be nice."

  "You've heard my terms," Donna snapped. "Give me the orb, and let them bravely save everyone. Don't, and a lot of people will die. That would break the silver dragon's sweet little heart, wouldn't it?"

  Lisa gave her a sunny smile. "What makes you think I came
here to bargain with you?"

  For the first time, a flicker of uncertainty crossed Donna's features. "You can't use the dragon orb against me. You know what will happen as well as I do."

  "Just kill her, Lisa," Caleb said, his dragon rage palpable. He might be human and strapped in chains, but that didn't mean he wasn't dangerous. "She's boring me."

  Lisa gently pried the bowl from Malcolm's still fingers and walked toward Donna in slow steps. "If you willingly give Caleb and Saba their freedom, I might go easy on you."

  Donna smirked. "You think yourself so smart, that you tricked me into revealing myself. You thought you'd come down here, scold me, and send me off somewhere to punish me, didn't you? Did you never bother to think that I was trapping you? I wanted the orb and the silver dragon, and now I have them both."

  She snapped her fingers. The door behind Lisa and Malcolm opened and about a score of white-haired demons poured through. More came in through the upper windows, leathery wings hissing as they floated to the floor. The problem with these demons was that they all carried automatic weapons.

  Donna went on. "I, of course, took the precaution of bringing in backup. I don't need magic to hurt your friends, you know." She smiled, large and white-toothed. "Demons just love to kill people."

  Malcolm growled, a feral rumble that rivaled the engine for strength. Demons covered the floor, looking like ultra-handsome men but in truth mindless beings who lived on death. They were rather like the sharks who were no doubt circling the barge even now, waiting for the frenzy of the kill.

  Lisa knew she could keep bullets from doing herself harm as the silver dragon, but Caleb and Malcolm were as mortal as Saba. If the demons shot them, they'd die.

  "Leave them out of it," she began, though she knew what Donna's answer would be. "Let this be between you and me."