Dragon Heat

by Allyson James

  He had a way with people that went beyond his dragon magic, she thought as she watched him. Charm was what she'd call it if he were human.

  And he's charming me. But he was a dragon, for crying out loud—he'd change back into a being with golden scales and sharp teeth and fly away into Dragonspace to live out his long life. His stay here was temporary.

  She said I could be human until you are safe, he'd told her. Then he'd go away, forced back to Dragonspace by the witches, and she'd lose not only this gorgeous man she was just getting to know, but the friend she'd come to trust.

  Lisa was full of dumplings and tea by the time Caleb paid his last extravagant compliment to Ming Ue and announced he was ready to go to the bicycle shop and consult Lumi. He unfolded himself from the chair and reached down to help Lisa to her feet.

  She looked up at him as his warm hand closed over hers. His blue gaze was on her as usual and as watchful as usual. When he caught her studying him, he gave her a little smile with the corners of his mouth and led her out of the dining room.

  In the alcove, Lisa said good-bye to Carol then waited for Caleb, who had gone back to talk to Shaiming. Shaiming listened to him, head bent, then to Lisa's amazement Shaiming flashed Caleb the biggest smile she'd ever seen. Caleb laughed and clapped the man on the back. Shaiming returned his attention to the cart, grinning and shaking his head.

  "What did you say to him?" Lisa asked as they walked through the narrow alley back toward the street.

  "That I knew he had a little magic, too. That it keeps the cart wheel squeaking on purpose, to drive Ming Ue crazy."

  Lisa stopped, astonished. "The old devil."

  "He enjoys it very much."

  Lisa burst out laughing. Caleb watched her, his head tilted.

  Still chuckling, Lisa took his arm and steered him out of the alley, making for Sacramento Street and Lumi's bicycle shop.

  * * *

  Chapter Seven

  Caleb studied Lisa walking beside him, enjoying the way her body brushed against his as they went arm in arm back to the busy street. Her hips moved in rhythm to her stride, her blouse parting at the top to give him glimpses of the woman inside, the charms clinking.

  He thought about how he'd opened the front of her dress last night, and how she'd frowned at him when he'd ripped the fabric. The reward had been lovely, her breasts in black lace, soft flesh beckoning his hand. She smelled good, she tasted good, and he wanted to discover so much more of her.

  Waking to find her snuggled against him, her bare legs entwined with his and her bottom pressed against his inflated cock had been heady and wonderful. He'd lain still, so not to wake her, savoring the time with her as the sun slid across the bed and bathed her skin in golden light.

  When he was a dragon looking into her life, he'd wanted to cross over to be with her. Now that he was here he wanted to be nowhere else. But if he'd known what confused emotions would churn through him while simply walking next to her, watching her red hair in the sunshine, he might have stayed home. Caleb, who hadn't had a complex emotion in his life, was staggering under the weight of them now. He'd not be able to stay with her forever and that thought stirred sorrow and regret.

  Lisa led him from the street thronged with cars and shoppers down another alleyway where the buildings seemed to close in overhead. Lines and awnings crisscrossed above them, casting shadows.

  Lisa moved confidently down the narrow alley and around the corner before stopping in front of a shop as unpretentious as Ming Ue's dim sum restaurant. Bicycles both new and old crammed the single front window, and inside hung from the ceiling and lined the walls and took up nearly every inch of floor space.

  Lisa opened the door, letting a string of bells ring sweetly against the glass. Caleb paused in the doorway, touching his fingers to the lintel, closing his eyes to feel the lines of the place. They were straight and clean, not brushed with dark magic. He whispered a dragon word and opened his eyes to find Lisa staring at him.

  "What are you doing?" she asked.

  Her eyes were so beautiful. The brown depths of them held an almost golden fire, pulling him to her. He leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth.

  "Making sure no evil has crossed the threshold."

  Lisa slanted him a look that stirred his desires. He leaned to her again, and she smiled into his kiss and slid her arms around his neck.

  Her tenderness never failed to stun him. Dragon procreation was fast, dangerous, and best avoided. Humans took their time, building affection day by day.

  "You taste nice," he murmured.

  "Hot mustard." She deepened the kiss, and he cupped her elbows in his large hands and pulled her close.

  "Uh, excuse me?" a young male voice said. "Lisa?"

  Blushing, Lisa broke from Caleb and faced the tall, black-haired young man who'd come toward them. "Hey, Lumi. How are you?"

  "Just great." He grinned. "You want some privacy?"

  Lisa's blush deepened. "Sorry. This is Caleb. I brought him to talk to you about something."

  Lumi was thin and wiry, his face a little gaunt, but his dark eyes were lively, his smile wide. He looked as though he had once been robust but had struggled with some illness and was just beating it back. Caleb put him at about twenty-five human years old, the same age as the young woman at the dim sum shop. Cousin, Carol had called him. He'd heard people refer to cousins on television, which meant sons and daughters of aunts and uncles.

  Caleb found complex concepts of family fascinating. Dragons moved to their own solitary territory as soon as they were large enough to fend off predators and never saw their siblings, or uncles or cousins for that matter.

  "Carol called and told me," Lumi said. "Come on in the back. I have coffee unless you're already drowning in grandmother's tea."

  He signaled them to follow him through the shop. A narrow aisle snaked through the chaos of bicycles to the back counter, and behind that was an opening into an even dimmer back room. Bicycles in every stage of repair filled the space, as did wheels, pedals, gears, chains, and various other bicycle parts. Caleb noted, however, that everything was neat and clean, tools hanging from hooks or lined up on the workbench as though Lumi knew exactly where everything was and could put his hands quickly on whatever he needed.

  In the corner, a staircase led upward into more darkness, probably to an apartment where Lumi lived, and a narrow, open back door led out to a tiny alley. Caleb quietly observed everything while Lumi and Lisa carried on their conversation.

  "Really, Lumi, how are you?" Lisa asked. She looked at him anxiously, as though worried about the answer.

  "I'm fine. Honest to God. I'm completely off all that stuff, and I'm glad. Almost dying at twenty-four isn't what I had in mind as a great life. I'm clean, I'm out, I'm done."

  "Good," Lisa said warmly. Lumi only nodded, but Caleb could see he was pleased by her approval.

  "What did you want to see me for?" Lumi's smile came back. "To buy a bike?"

  "Afraid not. I know you don't like to talk about your old life, but Caleb needs to ask you about some things."

  Lumi instantly became wary. "What? I don't hang out with those guys anymore, but I'm not going to rat them out, either."

  Caleb wondered what rat them out meant, but felt the ripples of the young man's distress filling the room. He quickly encased the crazed emotion in his dragon music, easing it and letting it dissolve.

  "Someone bad is here," Caleb said. "If he's true to form, he'll try to mark as many people as he can. Do you know of anyone behaving strangely—maybe worshiping a new god or something?"

  Lisa watched Lumi, as though expecting him to answer in the negative and looked surprised when Lumi grimaced. "I thought something weird was going down."

  Lisa fingered a small hexagonal tube on the workbench. "Like what?"

  "Like secret meetings and rumors of a new boss, but no one sees him. Guys are disappearing, but not dead, you know what I mean? They're just not where they usually are."
>
  "And you have no idea where they go?" Caleb asked.

  "No," Lumi said. "I'm out of the loop, you know? But I hear things."

  "Will you listen more closely for me?" Caleb asked. "It is important that I find out what he is doing—to protect Lisa from him."

  Lumi's eyes widened in appropriate fear. He seemed to understand the danger even if Lisa and her friend Carol did not. "Lisa, you don't want to be involved in this shit."

  "So far, I don't know what this shit is," Lisa said. "But I'm willing to believe I don't want to be involved."

  "These are bad people I'm talking about," Lumi said.

  "For the most part, I'm happy they're disappearing, but some of the ones disappearing are good guys. You know, they're loyal and watch your back and help when they can. But the others—they'd shoot you in cold blood for a quarter. If they're massing in some kind of new gang, we're all in trouble."

  "They're forming a cult of the black dragon," Caleb said. "The black dragon can draw disciples to him who will do anything for him. Your tongs and organized crime gangs are nothing compared to a black dragon army. They can swallow the world."

  Lumi sent Lisa an "Is he crazy?" look at his mention of the black dragon. "A gang worse than the gangs I already know about? That's not good."

  "He wouldn't try to recruit Lumi, would he?" Lisa asked.

  "Of course he would. He will try to recruit as many as he can. He will go for those already in the underworld, because they are used to working covertly, but he'll recruit more as time goes on, until he's ready to strike. Every person who joins his army gives him more power, and he wants your power most of all. So it makes sense he'd try to recruit those close to you."

  "Great," Lumi muttered.

  "But he won't succeed," Caleb went on. "I won't let him."

  Lumi did not look reassured.

  "How do you know so much about the black dragon's methods?" Lisa asked curiously.

  "What is all this talk about dragons?" Lumi broke in. "You're starting to sound like my grandmother. She believes in dragons."

  "She believes in them because they are real," Caleb said. Lumi gave him another right look. "Black dragons are best at manipulation. If I were a black dragon, what he is doing is what I would do. He is extremely cunning and will know what kind of people are easy to control, but once he is finished, he won't protect them any longer. He wants to leave this world and return to Dragonspace and won't care who dies behind him. Black dragons have no love for humans. Before I met Li Na and Lisa, I was the same, especially about witches."

  Lisa raised her brows. A lock of fire red hair escaped its confining ponytail and brushed her cheek. "I'm glad we could change your mind."

  He moved the satin lock of hair with the end of his finger. "You are different from what I thought humans would be."

  Lisa leaned to his touch, their thoughts tangling. "What did you think we would be?"

  "All the same. Cruel. Stupid. But when I met Li Na, she just laughed at me. She knew what would happen when I met you."

  Lisa's lips parted, red and soft. He moved his finger to them, stroking warm smoothness.

  Lumi cleared his throat, and Lisa jumped, her cheeks pink. She seemed embarrassed by her reaction to Caleb, but her desire for him was clear. He could scent her wanting, pheromones drifting from her to encase him.

  "Was Li Na the first human you'd ever met?" she asked hurriedly.

  "No." He shook his head. "There was a knight, long, long ago, who made his way to Dragonspace thinking he'd slay a dragon and carry it back home to impress his people. I caught him easily, but I wasn't hungry, so I trapped him in the corner of my cave. He was interesting. Every morning, noon, and evening, he would go through a series of sword exercises, honing his skill to perfection, even though his puny sword would never harm me. He was so devoted and went through the rituals so precisely that he fascinated me. Dragons like precision." He glanced approvingly at the tools lined up on Lumi's worktable.

  "Did you ever eat the knight?" Lisa asked.

  Caleb shook his head, straightening a wrench on the table a fraction. "I let him go. I gave him a few rubies to take with him for keeping me interested. Those probably made him more famous in his kingdom than a dead dragon would have. Not that he could have killed me."

  "Your boyfriend's nuts, Lisa," Lumi muttered. "Did you know that?"

  A smile pulled at Lisa's lips. "Is that how you escape a dragon? Entertain him?"

  "It is one way." Caleb gave Lumi a nod, touching him with another wisp of magic. "Do you know where the dragon orb is?"

  Lumi looked blank. "Dragon orb? Is that a club?"

  Caleb smiled at him. "No. Thank you, Lumi, for your help."

  "No problem," Lumi said, shaking his head as Caleb slid his arm around Lisa's waist and led her out of the shop.

  Caleb expressed interest in the cable cars, so Lisa led him toward Powell where they could pick up the line. She'd take him all the way to the top and Fisherman's Wharf if he wanted, since he seemed to relish tourist attractions.

  She was enjoying showing off her city to him. He viewed the sights in wonder and curiosity, drinking in the newness of it without cynicism. He liked everything, including the tourist shop selling earrings shaped like tiny Coit Towers, which he insisted on giving her. Lisa had to laugh at him and then to pay, because he didn't understand that they weren't free. Caleb looked offended at the clerk who handed them to her and told Lisa again that he would bring her any jewels she wanted, she only had to ask.

  Lisa took the package and kissed Caleb briefly, liking the glow of dragon magic that touched her. She wished she could have watched his transition from beast to human, watched the gold flow down to become two human legs, trunk, torso, arms, the face shifting from long and pointed to flat and human. She wished she could have seen the scales shift to skin, the spines on his neck become the golden hair that looked unruly even after he combed it. He'd pulled his hair into a tail for convenience, and it hung long to the hollow of his back. The T-shirt and jeans outlined his gorgeous, tight body, making her realize that Caleb the dragon must have been in fantastic shape.

  He leaned down as they walked and spoke into her ear. "I like how you look at me."

  "How am I looking at you?" Lisa asked, trying to sound innocent.

  "With desire in your eyes."

  Lisa's face heated as she realized how obvious she'd been. "You're a dragon."

  "Today, I am not."

  She knew the truth of it. He might be Caleb the dragon inside himself, but outwardly, he was a sexy man, and Lisa was a woman who'd too long been alone.

  What might have become of the embarrassing conversation, she didn't know, because at that moment, Caleb turned his head to look into an antique shop, one that carried Chinese rosewood and lacquer furniture, Coromandel screens, and antique swords. In the middle of the shop, a man rested his hands on a glass counter, studying whatever contents were under it. The Chinese woman proprietor spoke animatedly with him, obviously pointing out the assets of the wares.

  The man was tall like Caleb and wore a black leather coat and black leather pants that stretched over his firm body. A tail of long black hair flowed in a sleek wave down his back, sliding over his coat when he bent his head to examine the goods under the glass.

  Caleb stopped, going from moving to standing still so suddenly that Lisa went on a few steps before his iron-strong hand pulled her back. At the same moment, the man looked up and around as though he'd sensed Caleb behind him in the street.

  The two men's gazes locked. The black-haired man's eyes were silver—not gray, but a misty silver—almost glowing in his face, cold like ancient ice.

  Caleb released Lisa, growling, "Stay here," and strode into the store.

  Lisa hurried in after him, not about to obey. As soon as she passed the threshold, she felt it, the black dragon's mark draped over the store as Caleb had draped his over the dim sum shop. The mark was dark, made of night and shadows and the dark face of the moon.
It was not evil, exactly, but it contained compelling power. Lisa knew that if she were not already under Caleb's spell, she'd have quickly succumbed to the mark.

  That the man in leather was the black dragon she had no doubt. He had the dragon litheness, the power, the eyes, the confidence that he dominated everything around him.

  Caleb snarled as though he, too, felt the mark, but he didn't let it stop him. Moving faster than thought, Caleb snatched a black-handled sword from a rack near the door, swung the blade around and pressed the tip against the hollow of the black dragon's throat. The sharp sword made a pinprick cut in the black dragon's skin, and a trickle of blood stained the bright steel.

  The black dragon's eyes flared silver. If he and Caleb had been in dragon form, they'd have been circling each other, talons extended, warning shots of fire flung from mouths of razor-sharp teeth. Their human bodies limited them, but a physical fight still could leave one or both of them dead. And the black dragon's magic floating over this shop might mean that the dead one would be Caleb.

  Wait, Lisa wanted to scream, but her lips would not move.

  The black dragon looked down the length of the sword, contempt filling his silver eyes. "I thought I smelled a golden's stench on the streets."

  The proprietor, who'd gone white-faced and wide-eyed when Caleb burst into her shop and held her customer at sword-point, tried to slip quietly toward a curtain at the back. She'd call the police, Lisa knew, and they'd arrive in time to find the black dragon-man stuck through with a sword and blood everywhere. They were a long way from Lisa's apartment, and she'd never get Caleb back to it in time for him to escape to Dragonspace.