Men in costume carried long rippling dragon bodies behind huge dragon heads, dragons whirled from poles, dragon flags waved in the mid-February breeze. One dragon float rolled by, and rolled by and rolled by, two hundred feet of golden, glittering scales, fire and smoke belching from its nose and mouth.
"The best in the parade," Caleb's voice rumbled behind Saba. She looked up to see his form towering over her. Lisa, babies in arms, stood by Ming Ue, who feasted her eyes on the children.
"It is the longest dragon in the parade," Caleb went on over the crowd. "And the best and has won the prize for floats. A golden dragon, of course." He smiled hugely.
"And the one with the biggest head?" Saba shouted up at him.
Caleb nodded in all seriousness. "Indeed. Where is Malcolm?"
Saba decided to cease teasing him. "Somewhere in the parade, if he made it back from Dragonspace today. Ming Ue's float hasn't come by yet."
"He will be here." Caleb gazed at the golden dragon retreating down the street, then at the acrobats running and tumbling after it. From time to time he glanced worriedly at where Lisa and Ming Ue cooed over the babies. Shaiming smiled at them, his teeth gleaming.
"They'll be all right," Saba assured him. "I think they are the strongest children in the world with Lisa's magic in them, not to mention yours. The cold won't bother them."
"It isn't that," Caleb said. "Severin is too young to understand not to turn into a dragon in front of people. I don't think I could explain why my son suddenly sprouted wings and tried to flap around his father."
Saba laughed. "He can't change around people who no longer believe in dragons."
"But so many people here tonight do. Dragons are lucky, especially this night, and he feels that power."
Saba felt it, too, the collective seeking of luck and good fortune for the coming year. These people wanted dragons. And here was Saba next to a real golden dragon with a silver dragon in the background and a black dragon who wanted to marry her and have children with her. "I must be the luckiest girl in the world," she said ironically.
Caleb clapped her on the shoulder with staggering strength. "You are indeed. Look."
Lumi and his cousins started to cheer. Carol and Ming Ue craned to look, and Shaiming silently watched, eyes shining.
A huge piece of black silk trimmed with silver wound up and down the street, snaking behind a large dragon's head. The dragon had silver eyes and snarling teeth, and beneath the massive head were the unmistakably long, strong legs of Malcolm.
Dancers in red and cymbal players ran along beside the carriers who toted the black cloth along on poles. Ming Ue clapped, pleased, and the small crowd inside her roped-off area shouted and waved.
The black dragon swiveled and ran right for them. Grizelda screamed in delight, but the black dragon made straight for Saba. At the last minute it turned aside, but Malcolm's hand snaked out and dragged Saba under the canopy with him.
She heard Caleb roaring encouragement, and Ming Ue saying in her chortling voice, "Black dragons are very lucky."
"Malcolm," Saba gasped.
He was stronger than she was and enclosed her in his arms that held the dragon's head. She had to run with him to keep from falling and being trampled by the enthusiastic dragon carriers.
His voice rumbled in her ear. "You wanted to be with a dragon."
"This isn't exactly what I meant."
"But you do want to be with a black dragon, do you not? For the rest of your life?"
"We discussed marriage, yes." The giddy conversation they'd had in his cave in Dragonspace seemed long ago and far away.
"I have arranged it," Malcolm said. "For tomorrow at the courthouse. We must sign the license then."
Saba struggled to maintain her footing, panting at the frenzied pace. "You need to learn a thing or two about proposals, Malcolm."
He enclosed her in one arm, his other keeping the dragon going, showing her once more how incredibly strong he was. "I love you," he breathed in her ear. "Marry me, my witch."
"Well," Saba said, giddy. "If you put it that way…"
He put it that way again later that night after the New Year's celebration at Ming Ue's restaurant when they all stuffed themselves with dim sum and champagne, a combination Saba had never tried before. Malcolm, as solemn as the others were rowdy, stood up and announced the engagement, the marriage, and his hope that Saba carried his child.
After a stunned silence, the room filled with shouted congratulations, more champagne corks popping, Saba surrounded and hugged by Lisa, Grizelda, Mamie, Carol, Ming Ue, Lumi, Axel, and a crushing embrace from Caleb.
In the small hours of the morning, they were home again, Saba wanting very much to call her parents in Berkeley, but reasoning that they'd want to be woken with the news after the sun was up. She didn't have much chance to use the phone, in any case, because as soon as they entered the apartment and locked the door, Malcolm lifted her and carried her to the bedroom as she'd wanted him to days before.
He carefully stripped off her clothes, laid her down on the bed, kicked out of his own clothes, and made love to her in pure dragon frenzy. When they lay exhausted several hours later, Malcolm kissed her tired lips.
"You will not change your mind?" he asked.
"I don't think so."
He raised up on an elbow, his strong hand trailing across her body. His eyes were intense, gleaming with dragon power. "How can you be certain?"
Saba touched his face. "Simple. Because you told me you loved me. While we were under the dragon float."
"I did." He tried a smile, which died, his eyes still questioning.
"I was kind of hoping you meant it."
He rolled over onto her, obviously not yet tired. "How can I help but love you, my Saba? You are damned beautiful, stubborn, magical, and you make me forget all about mathematics."
Her eyes widened in mock surprise. "Oh my, you must be serious."
"I am." He held her close, and whispered savagely in her ear. "Don't ever make me almost lose you again."
"I don't think I'll be doing any more hard magic for a while. I might light a candle and do a chant to the moon, but that's it." She traced his cheek, then kissed him, and they made love again, this time slowly, both of them tired and languid.
Saba drifted into sleep after that and began to dream. She was in the teahouse again, dressed in a yellow and red silk kimono, facing Malcolm over the table, the water in the kettle just starting to boil. Malcolm, in a dark kimono with silver embroidery, watched her expectantly.
Saba folded her fukusa with nary a slip, then lifted the ladle in a perfect motion and poured water into the bowl. She wet the whisk at the same time so the bamboo wouldn't crack, and whisked water and tea together.
Malcolm watched intently, his gaze on the patterned ash in the brazier. This time it stayed ash, no morphing into snakes of darkness to devour her. She laid down the chasen, bowed politely, turned the bowl in two perfect turns, then lifted it and offered it to him. "Hai, dozo," she murmured.
Malcolm took the bowl. Their hands made contact for a moment and something flared in his eyes, love and wanting all mixed up. "Domo arigato gozaimashita," he said, using the most formal version of thanks, then he drank the tea.
She waited, slightly worried she hadn't made it right, then he lifted his gaze over the bowl and broke into a sunny smile.
The sight of the smile, showing white teeth in a handsome face, startled her. Then she smiled back, her heart warming.
He laid down the tea bowl, bowed formally, then stood and hauled Saba up and over the table. Violating every rule of tea ceremony and teahouses, he lay her on the tatami and rolled himself on top of her. As her kimono miraculously disappeared, she gave in to the dream and let it happen. If she was going to have an erotic tea ceremony dream, why not enjoy it?
Unseen by either of them, a god called a Baku shimmered into existence near the alcove with the single iris in a vase. It morphed briefly into Axel, stared at the two
on the floor, chuckled, and became the lion-headed, winged Baku again.
"Hmm," he said. "I love a happy ending."
He reached to the table and grabbed the tea bowl, drained it, and wiped his mouth. "And a good cup of tea," he said, then he popped out and left them to it.
* * *
EPILOGUE
Five years later
Malcolm awoke suddenly in the night. He knew what had awakened him, a muffled cry from the bedroom down the hall that had been converted into the room every little girl wanted. Every little girl who was half-witch, half-dragon that is. Instead of ruffled canopies and dollhouses, she had stuffed dragons and Chinese lions and a strange little fold in time and space, created by Aunt Lisa, where small Adara could learn to fly.
The cry came only once, so tiny that Malcolm's dragon hearing barely caught it. Saba half-heard, as every mother sensed her child calling out in the night, and stirred.
"Shh, rest," Malcolm breathed, wafting his dragon magic over her.
Saba murmured something in her sleep, then sank down. She had been tired lately between her new job as supervising manager at Technobabble and taking care of two spirited children.
Malcolm slid out of bed and pulled on a black silk robe. He padded down the hall, stopping to first look into the baby's room, where his son, two years old, snored happily.
Malcolm drifted to him and touched his hair, feeling the odd pull on his heart that he knew meant love. His son, his, that he would watch grow up and teach what it meant to be a black dragon.
His son slept on without dreams, and Malcolm moved to the next room, which housed his daughter. He heard her faint laughter from inside, and then she clapped her hands. "Do it again!"
Malcolm eased open the door in time to see the lion-headed Baku do a backflip and blink out of sight. Adara clapped again, her round cheeks pink with smiling, her brown eyes, so like Saba's, shining in delight.
Malcolm crossed the room and sat down on the bed. Adara launched herself into her father's arms, holding him in a hard hug he never got tired of.
"Papa-chan," she said proudly. "I called the Baku, and he came to eat my nightmare. Just like mama-san said he would."
Malcolm smoothed his daughter's black hair. "You had a nightmare?"
"Yes, but it's all gone now. The Baku ate it."
Malcolm held her close again, kissing her cheek. He loved her, this sweet daughter that he and Saba had conceived in the high mountain meadow in Dragonspace, the gift Lisa had given to them. Malcolm hadn't been certain they would have more than one child until Saba had announced to him with a smile two years and nine months ago that she was pregnant again.
There were four of them now, and Saba had a gleam in her eye these days as though she had a secret she was saving up to tell him. Malcolm had the feeling they'd soon have to expand their living space.
He lifted his daughter and balanced her on his knees.
"The Baku?" he said, his voice admiring. "It isn't everyone who can see the Baku, Adara-chan. You will grow up to be a very wise woman, a very wise woman, indeed. Just like your mother."
* * *
Don't miss the first book in the series
DRAGON HEAT
Available from Berkley Sensation!
The Black Dragon Page 28