And yet the magic refused her call.
Malcolm snarled at her. "Do it. She cannot stand much more."
"I can't. I don't know why."
Around her, men trained their weapons on her. They must be heavily under Malcolm's influence, she thought fleetingly, if seeing Saba and the crack in reality didn't faze them.
Lisa tried again. She remembered how she'd felt when Donna and Grizelda had attacked Caleb by singing his true name, the surge of fury that they would try to hurt him. She remembered her urgent anger when Malcolm had lunged at Caleb in the antique shop in Chinatown, and her instinctive impulse to stop him. She tried to reach deep within her to find that fury, but though her anger had not abated the magic fizzled as she attempted to touch it.
"Do it," Malcolm demanded again. He strode to Lisa and grabbed her by the hair. "It's killing her."
"I don't know how," Lisa gasped.
Caleb seized Malcolm by the throat and ripped him from Lisa. "You have to make them stop."
Malcolm twisted away. "I am getting the fuck out of this dimension, whatever it takes."
"I don't know how to help you," Lisa said frantically. "I don't know why I could use the magic before and I can't now."
Malcolm regarded her with narrowed eyes. She sensed the cold dragon logic behind his gaze, the clicking of thoughts that several thousand years had honed to sharpness. "I know why," he said coolly.
He backed up, standing almost in the nimbus of the circle, and pointed at Caleb. "Shoot him," he ordered.
The men, obedient to his will, moved pistols to Caleb.
"No!" Lisa screamed. She tried to push Caleb out of the line of those pistol barrels. He wouldn't budge, but at least Malcolm's men held their fire.
And then one of the men did fire. She heard the retort of the pistol a split second before the bullet entered her body. There was a brief spurt of pain, then strange numbness, as though nothing had really happened. She heard Caleb's roar of rage, like a beast in a trap, and wondered if he'd been shot, too. She heard Malcolm's voice promising terrible things, and Saba's scream of anguish which died to sobs.
The circle's blue light crackled, then vanished, leaving them in a silent, empty parking lot within a wavering circle of yellow floodlight. Lisa sagged in Caleb's arms, the world blurring before it went gray.
* * *
Chapter Thirteen
"Lisa." Caleb gently lowered her in his arms, fingers touching the wound where the single bullet had pierced Lisa's chest. She was still alive, her breathing fast and shallow, her eyes half-closed, gaze fixed and unseeing.
He heard Malcolm shouting at the gunman followed by a crackle of bone. The man who'd shot Lisa crumpled to a groaning heap. Behind Caleb, Saba lay flat on the ground, unmoving.
"Someone call 911," Lumi said, panic in his voice.
Caleb sensed the others gather around, Grizelda open-mouthed, Malcolm's men still numbly holding their guns. Malcolm dropped to one knee, leather coat swinging, and reached for Lisa. Lumi, guilt heavy in his eyes, knelt on Lisa's other side, trying to help Caleb hold her.
"There isn't time for an ambulance," Malcolm bit out. He looked up at Caleb, sliver eyes losing their coldness, pain haunting their depths. "This isn't what I meant to happen. We can't lose her."
Caleb could barely think. Lisa's hands were growing so cold. She was drifting away from him, farther than she'd ever been even when he was on the opposite side of the door. "Black dragons are healers."
"Not here, I'm not," Malcolm answered, voice harsh. "I have limited powers here."
"Your witch healed you. Make her heal Lisa."
Malcolm's gaze darted to Saba's limp body, the wind from the bay stirring her dark hair. "Saba is spent. It would kill her to try. You have to take Lisa to Dragonspace."
It made sense. In a magical world like Dragonspace, even human bullets could be rendered harmless by the right magic.
"Find a black dragon called Balin. Tell him I sent you."
Caleb gave him a short nod. Black dragons, for all their distant coolness, knew the secrets of healing, and he'd heard of this one and knew where to start looking for him.
"Lumi," Caleb ordered. "Drive Lisa's car. Get us to her apartment."
Lumi wiped tears from his face and nodded. Gently Caleb touched Lisa's jacket pockets until he found the jingling keys that would run the car and open the apartment's door.
Lisa never moved as Caleb drew out the keys and handed them to Lumi. Caleb's fingers were stained with blood, Lisa's life-blood.
Lumi sprinted around the warehouse, and after a moment Caleb heard the roar of the engine. Lumi squealed the car around the end of the building, through the open gate in the huge chain-link fence, the smell of exhaust overriding the acrid smell of spent magic.
Lumi screeched to a halt next to Caleb and Lisa, and Malcolm helped Caleb lift Lisa into the car, resting her on Caleb's lap in the front seat. Lisa didn't respond as they laid her against Caleb's shoulder. Malcolm touched her face, his silver eyes still, as though he tried to call up his powers of healing but could not. Caleb regarded him narrowly. When he returned from Dragonspace, whether Lisa lived or died, he'd make Malcolm pay for what he'd done.
Malcolm slammed the car door, Lumi jammed his foot hard on the gas pedal and the car shot away. They turned out of the warehouse lot and raced down the dark corridor between buildings, back to lighted and well-trafficked roads. Caleb bounced back and forth on the seat as Lumi swerved and swung the car, and he cradled Lisa tightly, trying to keep her from being rocked too hard. Her face was cold and gray, color draining from it by the moment.
"You have to go faster," he told Lumi.
"I'm flooring it. If I smash us in the car, it won't matter."
Caleb didn't argue, but his insides churned with impatience. Dragons could move by slip-sliding through space, but plodding was all these creatures could do here. They had to build machines which were far from safe to fly. They risked death every day, these, humans, for the sake of speed that was still far too slow for Caleb.
Lumi swung around a corner then onto a crowded freeway heading north, the glittering lights of downtown spreading before them like jewels on black velvet. Lumi swerved back and forth through traffic, then dove off onto streets again, the hills and other cars slowing him down as they zigzagged through the city.
Caleb realized that Malcolm had ordered him shot not so much because he wanted Caleb dead, but because Malcolm had figured out that Lisa used her magic only when Caleb was in danger. In Chinatown she'd acted as a dragon would, protecting what was hers, turning magic upon those who would harm what she loved.
Malcolm had assumed she'd use the magic to stop his men shooting Caleb, and then he'd have absorbed that magic into the spell, opening the door to Dragonspace. But Lisa hadn't known how to call the magic even when needed, and so she'd done what humans did—tried to push the loved one out of harm's way. For her instinct, she would die.
He held her close, knowing he took a risk taking her back to Dragonspace. She might not be able to survive the transition—she was not a witch, and even then only the strong witches were able to cross. She had strange magic, but might it work against her in Dragonspace? And could he find this black dragon in time to heal her?
He had to try. It was either that or watch her be taken to a hospital and hooked up to all kinds of machines that he'd seen on television shows, while her life slowly drained away. Magic couldn't help her there.
It took far too long before Caleb began recognizing tall houses and shops near California and Arguello Streets'—the grocery store he and Lisa walked by on their way to the bus or to fetch her car, the restaurant they'd eaten in earlier tonight, its lighted windows showed serene couples lifting bites of food to their mouths.
Lumi slammed both feet to the brake, and the car skidded to a halt, half turned toward the curb in front of Lisa's apartment. Other cars screeched around them, horns honking, rude words sailing from open windows.
Caleb
kicked open the door and got himself and Lisa out, lifting Lisa as gently as he could. Lumi, his long-legged stride quick, reached the door of the house first and yanked it open.
Fortunately, they met no one inside. Caleb sprinted up the stairs, not bothering to see if the lift was in order, to the door of Lisa's apartment. Lumi fumbled with the keys, taking an exasperatingly long time to find the right one. Finally, he unlocked the door, and Caleb carried Lisa in, his heart pounding, unashamed tears wetting his cheeks. Lisa's breathing was ragged, her half-closed eyes remained glazed, and she was so cold.
Caleb shoved open the spare bedroom door. He looked down at Lisa, her face white against his arm. "I hope this works," he whispered.
"You hope?" Lumi echoed.
Caleb held out his arm. "Take the armband off me. It's under my shirt."
Puzzled, Lumi slid Caleb's sleeve up and yanked the gold band down Caleb's arm. At the same time Caleb leapt through the door, feeling the wings sprout and elongate from his back, his hands curving into talons and his legs expanding with muscle. His human clothes tore away and he sprang from the pebble-strewn ledge, his wings propelling him upward. He cradled Lisa safely against his warm, scaled chest.
Behind him Lumi said, awe in his voice, "Holy shit. You really are a dragon."
Caleb flew. His wings created downdrafts like mini-tornadoes, scattering scrub and dust far below him. Wild cattle streamed before him, panicked at the predator that had appeared from nowhere. Caleb left them alone and slipped through space, emerging high above a dense forest that climbed foothills to mountains. Waterfalls cascaded down cliffs, cool air wafted upward to chill his underbelly. He shot fire to keep the air warm, to create thermals on which to float ever northward toward the mountains of home.
He had to search out the black dragon to heal Lisa, and the best place for Lisa to rest while he hunted for him was Caleb's own cave. His magic permeated it, his hoard was warm with it, and its magic would keep Lisa alive until he could find the healer.
Caleb's wings split the air as he drove himself higher, fifty-feet of dragon and a hundred feet of wingspan propelling him forward and up. His shoulders ached, but he could not stop to rest. His very sensitive talons felt Lisa's life essence beneath her skin, faint and growing fainter by the minute. Here in Dragonspace, Caleb was mighty and powerful and magical, and still he was helpless to save her.
He dove between a crevice in the mountains and at last, lighted in a shallow cave in a cliff face—home. His magic raised orbs of light that fell across a floor covered in gold. A narrow opening led into an inner cavern, a huge room stretching hundreds of feet outward and upward, stalactites hanging from the ceiling far above like stone chandeliers.
The light followed Caleb in and burst into a glitter of gemstones, precious and semiprecious, that covered the floor and piled high along the walls, interlaced with gold and silver coins, necklaces, rings, cups, plates, and ornaments. The jewels and gold flowed into one another in interlocking patterns, melded after so many centuries, remembering life under the mountains. A dragon's hoard radiated magic, the more powerful the dragon, the more powerful the magic.
Caleb laid Lisa in the very center of this hoard, raking his talons through the jewels to pile them on either side of her. She looked so small and vulnerable as she lay on the makeshift bed, her human skin fragile and soft. He drew his talon gently down her front, splitting the clothes that bound her, revealing her pale naked body, her chest stained with blood. Her human flesh hadn't been able to stop the bullet, the tiny bit of metal that could take a frail human life.
Caleb touched the end of his nose to Lisa, wishing he could kiss her. Dragonspace was vast, dragons were solitary creatures, and finding the black dragon healer would be difficult even though he knew where to start, but he would try until he died. Leaving Lisa to the care of the jewels and his gold, Caleb left the inner cavern, sprang from the cliff face, and flew rapidly away.
As soon as Lumi sped off in the car, Malcolm lifted Saba in his arms and carried her across the parking lot to her own car. He would not speak to the others who waited for him to tell them what to do. Saba was unconscious and though she looked unhurt, her skin was cold to the touch.
He arranged her on the passenger seat, then got in the other side, having taken the keys from her coat. He'd learned to drive during his time in exile, and he easily started the car and drove away.
He did not take Saba to her tiny apartment in SoMa. Instead, they went to his own luxurious flat in an apartment house on Octavia Street. Malcolm could come and go here unnoticed if he wanted to because he'd extended his dragon mark throughout the house and all along the park opposite it. The magic of the mark protected the residents of the neighborhood and also gave Malcolm privacy when he needed it.
He carried Saba inside the house and up to his corner apartment on the second floor. The house had been built in 1870 by a railroad baron who'd spared no expense in architectural details, moldings, staircases, and flooring. The result was a place with rich walnut paneling, soaring ceilings, thick doors, and large rooms. The house had been restored, so the luxury that the railroad baron enjoyed was now savored by tenants who had the money to live in splendor. Malcolm, for his part, had chosen it for its convenience, maid service, and the fact that everyone pretty much left him alone.
Once Inside his flat, Malcolm carried Saba into his bedroom and laid her on the four-poster bed. He stood looking down at her as she lay unmoving, her face white and drawn. He knew the humans' beliefs about his kind—their legends said dragons felt no guilt or remorse, nor deep love or affection. Black dragons especially were sharp-minded, intelligent beings who looked at the world through calculating eyes and had dismissed emotion long, long ago.
"I wish that were true," Malcolm whispered. He touched Saba's dark hair, damp with sweat, smoothing it from her forehead. He leaned down and kissed her temple, feeling her pulse flutter beneath his lips.
He had to get her warm. He stripped the boots and her thin lace socks from her feet, then peeled away her jacket, blouse, and bra. He unzipped and slid her jeans from her legs, then hooked two fingers under the waistband of her bikini underwear and pulled it off. She lay naked on his pristinely made bed, body still and limp. He skimmed back the covers on the other side of the bed, laid her on the sheets, and pulled the quilts over her.
After settling her, he prowled his house as he always did, checking that not only physical locks were in place, but also the marks around his windows and doors to warn him of intrusion were undisturbed.
His heart burned. He'd nearly killed Lisa trying to use her for his own benefit, and in retrospect, that was probably why her magic hadn't worked. Malcolm knew the secret of her existence—so did Donna—but Caleb and Lisa herself were ignorant.
By trying to harness beauty and power, Malcolm had almost destroyed it. Being trapped here had made him insane with wanting to get away. That insanity had led him to ignore his cool logic and act on anger and desperation, which led to stupidity. He'd hurt Saba, who had done her best to help him. He'd put his mark on her, but he felt beneath it her true pity for him and a willingness to help him no matter what the danger. He'd been so eager to throw her humble offer away.
Saba stirred and murmured in her sleep. Malcolm slid off his coat and let it fall to the floor, then he stripped off his own clothes. He clicked off the light, the brightness of the moon illuminating the stark lines of the black dragon tattoo around his arm. He walked naked to the bed and got in, gathering Saba's cold body against his. He pressed a kiss to her hair, then remained there, holding her, for the rest of his sleepless night.
Lisa's first thought as consciousness swam back at her was, It itches. Her hand moved between her breasts and she scraped fingernails across her skin, sighing as the tingling abated the slightest bit. She cracked open her eyes and instantly shut them again, blinded by brilliantly colored light.
She was lying on something hard and sharp, and the air of the room was cool and somehow vast. Th
e last thing she remembered was dining with Caleb on California Street, trying to explain to him what shallots were, her eyes widening when he gave her the beautiful jewels.
No, that wasn't quite right. She remembered urgency, fear, haste, a worried voice on a phone saying, "Something's going down."
Kissing Caleb on the stairs, his mouth slanted over hers, his broad back under her hands. Driving quickly through dark streets, Caleb's thigh brushing hers, a bright sword slung across the back seat.
After that, everything blurred. Who had been on the phone, where had they driven, and where the hell was she now?
Lisa pried open her eyes. The brilliant light returned, and she realized that it came from all around her. Lamps, or at least clear spheres that hung from nothing, radiated yellow light. The red, blue, purple, gold, and white brilliance came from a sea of glittering jewels and gold flowing across the floor, layers upon layers of it, a carpet of riches beyond imagining. The gems and gold pulsed with power, but softly, like a mother's gentle heartbeat.
"Good God," Lisa whispered. She sat up, her naked body shifting in the pile of jewels. "Dragon treasure. But which dragon's?"
The whisper of the gold vibrated on the same frequency as the musical strands of thought Caleb put into her mind. Was this place Caleb's? She knew nothing for certain, not where she was or why or how she'd arrived, or what had happened after she'd stopped the car in front of the dark warehouse. She remembered that much, at least: sitting in the still car while Caleb stood and hefted the heavy sword with grace and ease. When she tried to remember more, pain welled up inside her, shutting the memories into darkness.
A sudden rush of air made her ears pop, a vibration of something huge entering the cave beyond this one. She heard the sound of claws on rock and then gold light filled the room, radiating from the dragon who emerged into the cavern. Music filled the air, the same music he'd woven around her the day she'd met him. The gold on the floor sang back to him.
Dragon Heat Page 15