Scales and Flames

by Catherine Banks

  She wanted to turn around and leave, but she couldn’t pull herself away from the wall. She was wracking her brain on how someone had walked through solid stone when she heard a groan from behind her. The sound brought her attention away from the wall.

  “Did he bring you down here on purpose?”

  She turned to look at Erik. He was standing there blocking her path out of the basement. There was no way she was touching him again.

  “What does it matter? He walked through a wall and disappeared.”

  “You can open the wall if you want,” Erik supplied.

  Mako blinked at him, too stunned to speak. It was a wall. She had to be dreaming. I’m going crazy, she thought. There was no other explanation. That frat boy slipped something in her drink last night and it was finally hitting her. She was having a weird trip about diners and dragons.

  “You don’t know how to open the wall, do you?”

  “No. I don’t,” Mako said. She was partly embarrassed. Erik made it sound like this was something she should know, and she didn’t like feeling stupid.

  “If he’s taking you down here, you’re from a dragon family. Has no one taught you the properties of your own heritage?”

  Mako shook her head. How would this half dragon know more than she knew?

  “Then I guess we get to go the long way until you learn about them. Come on,” Erik grinned at her and motioned for her to follow.

  Where else did they have to go? Mako weighed her options and realized she didn’t have anything to lose. She could always leave out the front door, right? If she got through this wall using some kind of magic, there was no telling what would happen.

  Erik led her through the front door and around the front of the building. Mako felt better out in the open air. She was able to think. Was it logical that Akor had walked through a wall? No, it was not. So why was she going the other way to get to him? She needed to leave and find a place to spend the night. The afternoon was fading, and she wanted to avoid the homeless shelter if she could.

  “You’ll like this, it’s my favorite spot,” Erik said with a huge grin.

  What was he up to? Mako looked back at the main road and even walked towards it a couple steps before going any further. The last dragons she had spent any time with were the two brothers in Mexico. They weren’t interested in showing her around. They wanted her out of their territory within a week. She couldn’t fault their hostility. Even after the Red Dragon Council put the human form rule into place, they were still god-king amongst their followers. They were afraid she would ruin their way of life and control over their followers. Akor might be creepy and stand-offish, but Erik wasn’t trying to run her off. What could it hurt to learn more about this odd pair?

  With that thought, Mako moved to catch up to Erik crossing the front of the building to the far side. This was not the same side she had come from initially. If she had gone around this side to begin with, she never would have found the front door. It was a building connected to the wall of the diner.

  When she had come through the alley, she could only see the diner and the one side path around it. There was nothing else connected to it. Now she was seeing that another building was built to connect the two. The front door of the second building was a few feet down from the end of the diner. They had to go out of the diner and to the right of the parking lot. The solid wood door entered into a T-shaped hallway. The hallway seemed to connect the two buildings except the diner was walled off. That wall was where the alcove she hid in would have been. Maybe there had been a door there before? The opposite end of the hallway had a glass door at the end. Through the door, she could see a well-lit, vibrant garden. Where were they going?

  Four

  Everything in here was growing. She didn’t know how, but everything was alive. She knew as soon as Erik opened the door. Mako could feel the fresh air and life flowing from everything inside.

  “What is this place?” she asked, annoyed to find her voice full of wonder.

  “It’s my greenhouse,” Erik answered her.

  “It’s not a greenhouse without glass walls,” Mako accused.

  “So, it’s not a traditional greenhouse. I use sunlamps. I can still grow things in it. Come in. We can get downstairs from here.” Erik stood there holding the door open for her.

  Mako forced down her retort because she wanted to know what else was in this second building. She stepped inside and glanced around. The high ceilings held long tubed heat lamps and some swinging metal lantern looking lights. The walls were normal brick walls. Not even a skylight or window graced their presence.

  Everything in the building had overgrown the troughs they were supposed to inhabit. Trees actually sprung in every corner. Various flowers grew in so many alcoves, Mako quit trying to figure out how many kinds there were. In the center, there was a giant oak tree with rocks surrounding its base. The rocks were big enough to use as a seat.

  “This is incredible,” she said.

  “Like it?” Erik asked, pride evident in his tone.

  Mako just nodded.

  “The trees don’t even bleed into the next building. If you haven’t guessed the diner is for cover. Don’t mind Akor, he’s old and grumpy. He likes to make things challenging.”

  “Why does he want me down there anyway?” Mako wondered aloud. She was still admiring the massive garden before her.

  “I think he has a soft spot for strays.”

  That got her attention.

  “I am not a stray. I have lived my life perfectly fine all by myself for the last few hundred years!” Mako said crossing her arms and glaring at Erik.

  “I wasn’t trying to make you mad. I was a stray and he took me in,” Erik was trying to appease her.

  “I don’t need any help. What else could he want from me?”

  Erik shrugged.

  Mako glared at him willing her power to do its job. The only problem was that she was standing in this beautiful garden and it was distracting her…. Very badly. She was able to feel the fact that her draconic energy wasn’t reaching out to him at all. Mako tried to ease her breathing. She decided it had to be because the garden was his domain. Erik was a half dragon. His resistance to her power was possible. She had never had a chance to use persuasion on a half dragon, though.

  “Let’s go meet him,” Erik said. “He probably has something in mind if he already invited you into his shop.”

  “You mean you’ve been in there? What’s in there?”

  “All sorts of creepy stuff. I don’t like it down there. That’s why I have this place.”

  “He won’t hurt me?” Mako was ashamed of her admission. She didn’t want to have to rely on Erik for any kind of information to begin with, much less concerning her own weakness. Her self-preservation was more important than her pride at the moment though. She had to know.

  “Akor? No,” Erik said. “He’s intimidating, but he means well.”

  “I’m sure he does,” Mako muttered under her breath. She wasn’t going to tell him, she didn’t trust the guy as far as she could throw him.

  Mako couldn’t tear her eyes away from the oak tree. There was something so beautiful about it. The whole tree being inside was an anomaly in itself. There was no way anyone outside could tell that such a thing existed within these four walls. She needed to figure out how Erik did it.

  “This way,” Erik motioned from the other side of the tree.

  Mako suddenly had an urge to climb it, but immediately put it out of her mind. Shaking her head wistfully, she refocused on her guide. Erik was motioning her around the back of the tree. She had thought she should feel trepidation as she moved around the back of the tree. Instead, all she felt was a sense of building excitement.

  Behind the tree was a wooden trap door with a metal circular handle on one side. It was so obvious that she wasn’t sure why he was standing there in front of it. It was as if he was waiting for something. Mako gave him his moment. Maybe it was rigged, or someone else wa
s coming out of it. Either way, she wasn’t going to be the one to grab that metal handle first.

  “What are we waiting for?” she finally asked. Logically she knew they’d only been standing there a minute. That was a minute less she had to get to any kind of shelter once the sunset. She did not want to be stuck here with Erik and Akor overnight if she could help it.

  “If you can open it you can go in the back door. A human isn’t supposed to be able to open it.”

  “What about a half human?” she asked.

  “Oh, I can. I want to see if you can.”

  “You could have said that,” Mako muttered. Thankfully Erik seemed to be ignoring her comments.

  Mako rolled her eyes at him and reached for the handle. It was cool at first but grew steadily warmer as she lifted it. If she held onto this thing for long it could possibly leave a burn. This had to be another trick like the floor in the basement.

  The door came out of the ground easily. And Erik beamed.

  “See, I had a feeling you could do it!” he exclaimed.

  “I am a full blood dragon,” she retorted. She was trying not to snap at him because he was being nice. It irked her how both of these guys thought they knew more about her than she did.

  Plain wooden stairs descended from the greenhouse back towards the diner. It made no sense. She could see the runner lights along the rails on the wall. If this kept going straight she would be back in the basement at this angle, and right back in front of that stupid wall.

  “You ready? I’m sure he has something planned if he put up the wall, he wanted you to find a way inside.”

  “He’s going to know you helped me, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he is, but you would have wasted so much time on that wall if not for me. I don’t mind helping.”

  “I gave up on the stupid wall,” Mako grumbled. Erik laughed, and she fought the urge to smack him.

  “Akor has his ways. You’d have been back here tomorrow. And the next day and the next. Trust me.”

  That was the problem. She didn’t trust either one of them. Yet here she was, walking down some barely lit wooden staircase back into a building she left.

  “How does he hold so much sway over you? He can’t make you do anything he wants. That’s not fair.” If she wasn’t so annoyed at him, she would have laughed at the irony.

  “I stay here because I want to, not because I have to. I haven’t met many dragons that are willing to put up with a half dragon.”

  “I’ve heard there’s not many of us left.”

  “Akor said something like that, he hardly gets any visitors, but he’s an old grump.”

  Mako couldn’t disagree with him. She followed him down the stairs. They were now where the basement should be. Yet there was no door. And they were still going down. How were they still going down?

  “Not much further. The door is locked down here too. I don’t know how to open this one, though, since you wanted me to tell you the first time.”

  Mako stopped behind Erik at the bottom. She was trying to decide exactly how much further down than the basement next door, they were. This place had messed with her head enough for one day. She was going to figure it out.

  “According to Akor this door is tailored to whoever is opening it. I’ve tried opening it before, but it didn’t work. Now that there’s another dragon here, maybe you can? He probably keyed it to you, so you have to open it.”

  “How would he even know that I was coming here in the first place?” she asked.

  “Cause he’s old so he knows a lot.”

  “How old?”

  “I don’t know. At least a thousand I’m sure, but he’s got some issues.”

  “Fine, I’ll try and open the door,” she said. If Akor was as old as Erik said he was, maybe he did know some dragon secrets. She hadn’t met any of her own kind willing to share any kind of extra information.

  The staircase was so narrow that they couldn’t fit side by side. Erik attempted to flatten himself against the wall to let her pass. Even with his wiry, muscled frame, she was going to touch him to get past. Mako took a breath and steadied herself.

  She felt the static charge start to build as soon as she was within touching distance of Erik and steeled herself for the lightning spark. It was there. Just like before but dulled this time. Erik must have felt something this time though. His green eyes locked with hers and she couldn’t look away as she brushed against him. He was stunned into silence. He blinked when she stepped backward to the door, seeming to snap out of the thought he was having.

  “What was that?” he breathed.

  “You didn’t feel it before?” Mako asked.

  Erik shook his head. “Has that ever happened to you before? Did Akor shock you when you touched him?”

  “Me? No, you are the first person I’ve ever touched who’s shocked me. He must have done something to you. You’re not a lightning dragon, are you?” Erik shook his head. Mako’s temper flared. “Look! I don’t even have to be here at all! You are the one who brought me down here! Are you going to tell me how to open this door or not?” she snapped.

  “I don’t know how he needs you to open this door. It has something to do with your draconic nature. Different dragons have different powers,” Erik explained.

  “I know that,” Mako yelled.

  “Sorry,” Erik shouted back.

  If he was a normal human, she would have been annoyed that he wasn’t backing down to her shouting. She couldn’t explain the calming effect his words had on her. The lightning that arched between them was ebbing to a numbing static. It was disconcerting. Years of living on her own helped her to keep a straight look on her face. She had to maintain that she was absolutely livid with him or she would lose her nerve. Then all the bravado she was attempting to establish with him would disappear. He only knew more about her kind because Akor told him.

  “How do I open it?” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

  Erik, to his credit, did not back up. His eyes met hers and he was still so calm it was aggravating.

  “Different dragons have different….” he started and then thought better of it. “It has to do with your specific dragon heritage or your powers. Something that only you can do will open it. Akor said it had to do with the proud heritage of one of the great dragons, but I can’t seem to remember what he said the name was…” Erik said drifting from his memory.

  Mako narrowed her eyes. He had to be joking. This little half dragon couldn’t be related to anyone of note. They would want to keep their male sons as close to them as possible. How else was the great dragon heritage going to continue? Unless…. He was cast aside because he was a bastard son, hidden to cover infidelity. She knew of some of the Red Dragon clan doing that, especially once the human spell was put into place. That had to be it. Still, he hadn’t been able to open the door. As far as she knew, she was from a dragon family in South America. She wasn’t old enough to care who her ancestors were when the conquistadors invaded. The human priests from the temples helped raise her. They didn’t know much about dragon heritage. They explained that she aged slower than humans because that’s what dragons did, but they didn’t understand why. She could persuade people to do things but had to figure out the details on her own. Their knowledge was limited.

  “My dragon heritage is the key to opening this?” she asked doubtfully.

  “I guess so. It feels like forever since I’ve taken another dragon down here who opened this. I can’t remember how it happened,” Erik said.

  Mako turned to face the door. There was no handle or keyhole, so it must push open right? She gently touched it with her fingers. No shocking. That was good. Pushing with her whole palm, she found that the door didn’t budge an inch.

  “Don’t get aggravated at it,” Erik piped up.

  “I’m not,” Mako snapped.

  “But I can see that you are.”

  Mako spun around to pin him with her glare again. “What? How
?”

  “Akor told me dragon power reacts to emotions, sometimes causing a visible glow.”

  “You can see a dragon’s energy?”

  “Among other things. Only a few dragons have ever come to see him, and I’ve never seen my own. I don’t know why.”

  Mako groaned. This was not helping. “So, your powers are growing things and seeing dragons glow when they get pissed off?”

  Erik shrugged.

  “That’s straight up not fair. You probably grew something and made it lock this stupid door,” Mako turned back around and kicked it with her foot. Still, the door stood there.

  “I’m proud of my garden. I didn’t know I had any special abilities until Akor showed me. What’s yours?” Erik grinned at her.

  “Persuasion. Not that it does me any good since it doesn’t work on dragons. I can’t persuade this door to open through the sound of my voice, can I?”

  “Probably not.”

  Erik sounded as defeated as she felt.

  “Are you sure the wall wouldn’t be easier?” Mako asked.

  Erik was about to answer her when something in the center of the door lit up. The light was bright enough both of them shielded their faces against the sudden brightness.

  Mako hissed. Erik grabbed her arm and pulled her back. The light spun in a slow circle for a moment before focusing into an orb. Now that it was smaller she could both barely make out the fact that there was something inside the light.

  Mako glanced back at Erik, and he shrugged.

  “Try to not let anything happen to me,” she said. She didn’t like relying on anyone and she felt awkward. She told herself it was necessary. Mako made a grab at the orb of light. Her hand passed over it and for a second, she was afraid that it was going to fall through. Instead, the center of the light turned to glass when her hand hit it. She pulled a small glass orb out of the light. The bright light faded to an amber pulsing oval that fit comfortably in the middle of her palm. Again, she looked at Erik and he shrugged.