by Jadyn Chase
Isabel pointed her gun at Mario for a fraction of a second before a strange change came over her, too. Her face distorted in vicious rage. She bellowed deep in her throat and the gun fell out of her hand.
The next instant, she ruptured out of herself and rocketed into the air. She launched as tall as a house and kept on growing. Her blonde hair vanished in a starburst of white and a shimmering alabaster dragon spread her wings for all to see.
She shrieked a challenge to La Muerta, but none of them moved. The dragons stared at her in stunned silence while she thrashed and lashed her neck and tail in all directions. She let off a powerful burst of fire. It sprayed across the heavens to disintegrate in the stars.
I stood transfixed. Of everyone on the field, only Mario and I kept our own forms. He smiled up at Isabel with an expression of beatific approval. He didn’t move until she finished screeching and raging and blasting everyone in sight with gusts of wind off her papery wings.
As suddenly as she shifted, she imploded. Her scales faded and she collapsed in a heap at my feet. Her knees buckled and she folded to the ground. She huddled there panting and sobbing for a minute. Her hair tumbled over her head and concealed her face.
Mario beamed down at her with that glorious smile on his face. He bent over and took her hand. “It’s all right, chica. It’s all right. Come on. Get up.”
She managed to lift her face. Sweat plastered her hair to her cheeks and forehead, and she fought for every ragged breath through bared teeth.
Mario raised her to her feet, but she wobbled so he had to support her. He held her in his arms like a child. “That was your first time, wasn’t it? It’s all right. It will get easier with practice.”
She tried to struggle out of his grasp. “I’m not going back, Mario. I’m not going back to La Muerta. You’ll have to kill me right now. I’m not going back.”
“Don’t worry,” he murmured. “You’re free to do whatever you see fit. I won’t make you go back.”
She caught her breath and stared up at him in silent wonder. A cloud shadowed her face for a second.
Mario nodded down at Diego and chuckled. “He’s gone and good riddance. I didn’t savor the idea of disciplining him. You spared me the trouble. If you really want to go, you’re free. I release you.”
She blinked. Then she shuddered as if waking up from a long sleep. She pushed his hands away and fumbled with something. From where I stood, I tricked myself into believing she couldn’t move very fast, but she made a liar out of me.
She dove her hand into Mario’s belt and pulled a blade from some secret place. The keen edge flashed before my eyes. I felt a cry of protest rising out of my throat, but she didn’t attack.
She stepped back and held out her arm to reveal the skull tattoo. She hesitated and locked her eyes on Mario. Then, without looking down, she dragged the blade across the letters, La Muerta. A trickle of blood rose from the cut and smeared to obliterate the words.
She didn’t break Mario’s gaze. She held firm through it all and lifted the knife to her lips. In front of everyone, she licked the blood from the steel. Mario chuckled again and touched his finger to the blade. He brought it to his lips and placed a drop on his tongue.
The moment it touched his mouth, he turned on his heel and walked away still chuckling under his breath at some private joke. He marched out of the field and disappeared.
I didn’t dare relax. The two phalanxes of dragons still faced off strutting and bobbing their heads from side to side in open hostility, but no one made the first move. How would this end?
One white dragon lifted off the ground and took wing. He circled the field and tilted west. One after the other, the La Muerta dragons levitated into the air. Their wings womped the night and the wind whistled over their scales. That sound sang a song of peace and tranquility until not one white dragon remained.
Isabel gazed after them with her back to me. Ever so slowly, she turned around and those eyes filled me with indescribable happiness. I wanted to cry at the sight of her, but I wound up laughing instead. “Isabel!”
She burst into a glorious smile that said more than words ever could. She was a dragon, and that made her was one of us. No one could ever say otherwise now.
My heart ached just looking at her. I could never stop feasting my eyes on her. She was all mine to look at for as long as I wanted.
Just then, the Diablos surrounded us on all sides. They jostled and slapped me on the back and mobbed Isabel all shouting and laughing and hooting at once. It took me a minute to realize they were my own people, my brothers, my family.
They hopped up and down and howled to the skies in a paroxysm of surprise and delight over the events they just witnessed. They crushed around Isabel talking so fast I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
She blinked left and right. Then she smiled. She was free. She was Los Diablos. Who cared if she was a white dragon? That scratch on her arm said it all.
Logan wiped tears of laughter off his cheeks. Martín pointed up at the stars where La Muerta flew away. Then his hands flew to his head and he screamed with happiness.
One figure stood still and quiet behind the crowd. Roman eyed me and Isabel closed in a mad swarm of bodies. He didn’t congratulate us or welcome Isabel. He didn’t have to. He only dipped his chin to her once and walked away.
13
Isabel
Light poured out of the warehouse and illuminated the yard. The smoky aroma of frying meat filled the air and formed clouds of dense blue around the lights.
Bouncy music echoed into the neighborhood beyond the fence. A few men patrolled the perimeter, but everyone else milled around and ate and drank and talked with glowing smiles on their faces.
People came up to me and shook my hand. Some of the women hugged me. Los Diablos punched Cisco in the shoulder and told crude jokes until he blushed into his drink.
His eyes shone every time he caught me gazing at him. My heart cracked with emotion watching him with his friends. He was mine and we were together here, in the heart of his club.
How different this scene appeared from last night when Roman and the others told me there was no way they could accept me into their circle. When Cisco first brought me inside, I was an enemy, a stranger. Now I was one of them.
My arm still hurt from the scratch through my tattoo, but a knife wound never felt so good. I was no longer La Muerta. I might be a white dragon, but I would never be La Muerta again.
I still couldn’t believe I was really a dragon like the others. I should have thought of that when I found out my mother belonged to one of these gangs. Now I knew it for certain. The dragon writhed and fumed under my skin. She itched to get out and fly around the city.
I kept a tight lid on her for now, but she wouldn’t stay hidden for long. She would never go back into the cage where she dwelt for the last twenty years of my life. She was part of me, a part that would never be denied.
I wasn’t used to her monstrous energy. It scared the shit out of me. If I let it loose, if I gave myself over to it, I might never come back. I might never be human again. I would go somewhere I couldn’t recognize myself. I might never be me again.
I’d seen enough of these dragons shift into people and back again. I knew perfectly well nothing bad would happen to me if I tried it myself, but I still couldn’t bring myself to take the lid off it. Maybe with Cisco helping me, I would be able to face it.
I went into the warehouse to get another bottle of beer out of the fridge. While I stood with my back to the crowd, I heard the music shut off. Chanting picked up. It increased in a steady crescendo getting nearer. I turned around to see the whole group packed in a cluster. They pumped their fists and chanted, “Logan! Logan! Logan!”
They backed into the warehouse. I flattened my spine against the fridge to keep out of the way of whatever was going to happen, but my heart skipped a beat when I realized they were coming toward me.
A few of them rounded on me with un
flinching eyes. Their calls got louder until I worried they would deafen me. All at once, they halted in the center of the warehouse. The tide parted and I beheld Logan standing in the center.
He held a hand truck in front of him with a motor propped on it. A lump stuck in my throat when I recognized a tattoo machine. Logan cracked a wicked grin at me.
Cisco, Carlos, and Kane stalked toward me with their shoulders swelled out. Cisco jerked his head back and punched one fist into his palm. “You asked for it, chica. Now you’re gonna get it.”
They took hold of my arms. I tried to dig in my heels to stop them dragging me into the crowd, but I couldn’t stand up to all of them working together.
I glanced around for any help, but leering, intent faces closed me in on all sides. Across the warehouse, Roman sat on the couch with his daughter. He laughed and raised his bottle to his lips to take a swig of his drink. He didn’t lift a finger to help me.
Cisco clamped his giant fingers around my arms and shoved me into a chair. He chortled low. “Sit down, girl,”
He grabbed my arm and pinned it to the chair to expose the skull tattoo. Logan’s lips curled in a maddening grin as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves. He unwound his pen and straddled a low stool that brought his face level with my arm.
Carlos gripped my shoulders to hold me in place and Kane stood guard. They pretended to act dangerous, but all of them showed their teeth when they smiled. Their eyes sparkled and their cheeks glowed with fun.
Logan bent over my arm and the needle bit into my skin. He made slow circular drawing motions. Ever-widening rings of blue seeped over the skull and the banner and the cut to obliterate the skull from existence.
I stared down at the image fading from my life forever. Minutes passed. The needle erased the tattoo until nothing remained but an enormous blot of blue ink.
Logan stood up and rotated his head on his neck. “We’ll take a ten minute break and then we’ll start on the other side.”
The audience dispersed—all but Cisco. He eased up to me and slipped a bottle of Coke into my hand. “Are you okay?”
I peered up into his deep black eyes. “Did you know about this?”
“None of us did,” he murmured back. “The Boss suggested it to Logan. We overheard him and it just sort of happened spontaneously. We wanted to celebrate. Can you blame us?”
I blushed and took a drink to hide my embarrassment. “This is too much.”
“Nothing is too much. You’re one of us. We can’t have you walking around with that thing on your arm or people might get the wrong idea.”
I inched closer to him. “Thank you.”
He wrapped one arm around my waist. “It’s me who should be thanking you. I’m sorry you had to be the one to kill that son of a bitch. I should have been man enough to do it for you.”
I let my lips fall onto his dreamy mouth. He filled me with vibrating pleasure and happiness. “You’re all the man I need.”
He rocked me in his arms and my lips danced with his. His tongue slithered into my throat and set my blood on fire. When he pried his mouth away, he whispered low. “We still have a few minutes. What do you say we slip out the back for a minute?”
He didn’t wait for me to reply. He escorted me through a side door to an alley behind the warehouse. The noise and light existed far away through the impenetrable dark. No one could see us here.
The door banged shut and my vision blinked out. The next instant, he attacked me in blinding ferocity. In a fraction of a second, he lifted me off the ground and slammed me against a cinderblock wall. His massive body crushed the life out of me and his mouth stifled my cries.
He plowed between my legs throbbing hard. I gasped at the suddenness of it all, but I didn’t have time to tense up. He grabbed my legs and pulled them around his waist. He ground his pelvis into my sensitive tissues and my desire erupted out of this world.
Fuck, I needed him! I mauled his mouth for every kiss and every lashing stroke of his tongue. I burrowed my hands under his shirt to feel his velvet skin shudder at my touch. I hungered for every inch of him filling me to the breaking point. I couldn’t get enough of him.
He leaned back and dropped my feet to the ground, only to tear my pants open with a dizzying ferocity. Before I could react, he spun me around and pushed me into the wall harder than ever. My face smashed into the bricks, but I was too drunk on lust and giddy with happiness to care.
He tore my pants down to my knees and cinched one thick arm around my waist. Oh, for God’s sake, yes! Oh, please let him take me right now. I didn’t care how.
He brought his brutal mouth close to my ear. “You’re mine forever. Don’t you ever forget that. No one is taking you away from me—not ever!”
I gasped in rapture, but I couldn’t formulate words to answer. I was his. I never wanted anything else.
The next minute, he had me. He hugged my waist with his arms, picked me up, and set me on his shaft. I flopped in delirium while he moved me up and down on his rigid member. I don’t remember the exact moment when I started to climax. It must have started the moment he took hold of me, and it didn’t end until he slid out and set me on my feet.
He had to steady me for a second before I found my balance. I leaned my arm against the wall and panted for breath while he pulled my pants up. Then he turned me toward him, put his arms around me, and folded me in his kiss. Would I ever get used to this soul-shattering bliss? Would I ever come down from this high?
Back inside, the club gathered around the chair. This time, though, none of them chanted or cheered or shouted bawdy jokes back and forth. A reverential silence fell over the crowd as Logan took his seat in a fresh pair of gloves.
Roman wandered over to observe. Cisco towered over me, but he didn’t force me into the seat this time. He, Carlos, and Kane stood guard and waited until I made up my own mind to return to the chair of my destiny.
All the rest of the club stood back and gave me plenty of room. A clear walkway blazed a trail for me to get to the seat. No one stood in my way. No one blocked me. If I really wanted this, all I had to do was sit down. It was that simple and that hard.
I gulped and advanced through a sea of eyes all trained on my face. My cheeks burned and sweat sprang out on my back, but I forced myself to advance. I pivoted and sat down. Logan waited until I extended my other arm in front of him. Then he went to work.
He lathered my forearm with soap and shaved off the hair with a disposable razor. He dried it and then rubbed deodorant on the surface. My heart pounded in my ears waiting for the moment of truth.
After what seemed like ages, he took out a sheet of tracing paper and laid it carefully over my arm. He patted it into place and left it there for a few moments while he fiddled with his machine. He cracked a new vat of ink and replaced the needles before he swiveled around and locked his eyes on me.
With one swift motion, he peeled back the paper. A stenciled tracing of tribal dragon design with the words Los Diablos written across the top. Now that was me. I was the dragon. If I took this mark, I would be Los Diablos for life.
Logan bent over my arm and the motor buzzed to life. The needle cut into the ink lines. Pain seared my brain, but something deeper happened inside my soul. I became one of them, forever.
14
Epilogue
“Make way! Make way!” I wheeled around just in time to jump clear of Kane and Martín carrying a long roll of carpet into the house.
They marched to the living room and dropped it on the bare plywood floor. They immediately started kicking it into place and fitting it into the corners.
I stepped into the room. “What the fuck is this?”
Martín waved me away. “Get off, Ese! Look at your boots.”
I glanced down at my mud-encrusted boots and obediently retreated to the threshold. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like we’re going,” Kane fired back. “We’re putting in the carpet.”
“Yeah, bu
t….” I started to protest, but before I could get the words out, another voice hailed me from behind.
“Stand aside, vato! Coming through.”
I dove out of the way as Jackson and Logan came trucking up the walk with a mattress suspended between them. José followed behind with a box spring balanced across his shoulders.
They inched through the door calling instructions to each other and disappeared inside. I gaped after them in astonishment, but I didn’t get a chance to say anything before Tina, Maria, Rita, Christina, and a bunch of other women herded past me.
They all carried bowls and plates loaded with food. Then came ten more people ferrying plastic tubs into the house. Through the transparent walls, I caught sight of pots and pans, dishes and towels, sheets, blankets, and a thousand other things.
Tina squeezed by me heading outside again. She patted my cheek on her way and arched an eyebrow at me. “What are you waiting for? Get in there and get yourself something to eat before the others clean you out.”
I spread my arms on either side. “Hey! What the hell is going on around here?”
“Don’t you know?” she called over her shoulder. “This is your house-warming party.”
“How can it be my house-warming party when the house isn’t even finished yet?” I bellowed.
“It looks finished to me,” she called.
She walked across the street to a white, unmarked van. She slid the side door back to reveal a bunch of brand new furniture. She took out a lamp and a chair and carried them inside.
The minute she disappeared into the bedroom, Roman materialized from somewhere inside the house. He parked himself in the entry well out of the way of the new carpet and unclipped the carpenter’s belt from his waist. He set it in the corner and kicked off his boots. He didn’t show the slightest sign of surprise at the activity going on around him.
I blinked into the kitchen where a dozen women buzzed around all chatting at once. Roman followed my gaze and nodded. “Hey, aren’t you going to get something to eat? You’ve been at it all day.”
