The Dragon King Read online

  A wooden railing on the outside separated spectators from the sea lions that had been gathering at the pier for years. That railing was now the only thing preventing them from hitting the water.

  The Entity had detached and lifted – and then turned on its end – the entirety of Pier 39, complete with everyone on it at the time. Eva didn’t have time to ponder the amount of power it would take to do such a thing. There was too much Hell. It had risen and was running loose in the City by the Bay.

  There were permanent outdoor fires burning in the outer dining area of the Wipeout Bar, but those had been extinguished, and their smoke filled the air as it to prove the unholy under city was indeed making its way to Earth’s surface. Alcatraz gift shop tourist items such as packs of cards, sweatshirts, and puzzles, had escaped the shop in a manner Alcatraz’s inhabitants could have only dreamed, and were sliding across the boards like pucks in an ice hockey game.

  On the lower end of the pier, the one that closer to the ocean, items continued to pour into the sea. Clothing such as windbreakers and hoodies decorated the waves like unwilling and colorful buoys. They remained until soaked, then sank with the heavier items into the darkness under the pier. Meanwhile, Ghirardelli chocolates, from pre-packaged bars to massive chunks to chocolate-covered marshmallows and bananas littered the water’s surface, perhaps held aloft by plastic wrappers – or massive amounts of fat.

  It was a scene both comical and horrid, as many traumatic scenes were.

  A spell, Eva thought desperately. We need a spell to stop this. Some sort of… protective force field bubble or mass freezing spell or –

  But just as she was calling up every store of her strength and trying furiously to think back on the spells her mother had taught her years ago, a small child passed between the wood workings of the lower railing and plopped directly into the bay with a small splash, quickly disappearing beneath the surface debris.

  The roars of nearby sea lions escalated, and several of them plopped into the water as well, perhaps scrambling to not be squished by whatever mysterious thing was occurring. Somewhere, a mother’s screams were reaching a desperate crescendo.

  Eva dove from her airborne position. Anything she’d figured out as far as a plan quickly flew from her head, her single concern now saving the little girl who’d just slipped into the icy cold.

  But before she reached the water, the girl was ejected from it with a rush of water, sailing from its depths and into the air like a living fountain. Eva drew up short, watching in stunned fascination as the small girl sputtered and choked, and was hastily floated all the way to the cement of the Embarcadero sidewalk.

  Eva knew what had just happened, but was barely processing it amidst all she was simultaneously seeing. All around her, forty years of progress was tilting madly toward the ocean as if it was all part of some destructive cartoon.

  And then, just as quickly as the little girl had broken free from the bay’s hold, the scene below Eva was once again changing.

  She blinked in wonder as the tilting pier noisily wrenched to a violent stop, jolting several desperate hangers-on into letting go. She dove again as they were forced to relinquish their furious grips on poles or door knobs or bolted-down tables and chairs. But rather than make their way helplessly end over end into the ocean, they stayed put, and merely moaned or trembled, because the wood beneath them had once more settled into a more normal horizontal state.

  “What… the….” Eva couldn’t help but mutter. This kind of magic was impossible. It encompassed too massive an area, affected too many people. It was telekinesis on a ridiculous scale, and she had never seen anything like it. She wondered, for just a second, if she were imagining it, her mind creating the more enjoyable alternative because in reality, terrible things were happening.

  But then she felt the magic’s stream.

  The energy that had taken hold of the pier was like a very powerful thought bubble, and the stem it extended from was off to her right. She looked in that direction.

  On the deck of a neighboring yacht stood a tall, dark figure, the essence of him wrapped in an enigma of legerdemain. He was the epitome of strength, and couldn’t stop her shiver.

  The Great Gray’s eyes glowed a hot and horrible blood red, licking with flame and blazing with potency. An unseen wind whipped through his jet black hair. From his back stretched two enormously long after-images. They were wings, invisible to the humans, but visible to her. They were faded and split between reality and shades of sorts, a hint of the Dragon King’s inner beast, terribly gigantic and ancient.

  His hands were at ease at his sides. He wasn’t casting a spell. This was an inner ability he was utilizing; no words were necessary. This incredible magic came from the man’s mind.

  His mind, Eva thought, befuddled. She’d heard he possessed the power of telekinesis. But on this scale, and in negation of something the Entity had done….

  Snap out of it, Eva! she scolded herself with a disgusted inner yell. Down below, a very big mess had still very much been made, regardless of how quickly and efficiently the situation had been stabilized. People were separated from loved ones, children were crying, parents were calling out. Some of the humans had been injured. Eva could smell blood, which meant there were open wounds, and probably plenty of them.

  She landed beside the now discordant, grindingly turning carousel and moved, still invisible, through the crowd. As she went, she laid her hand on a shoulder or a leg or a head, and allowed her magic to travel from one body to the other. With each person she healed, she grew a little weaker. It was another “balancing” downside to being able to help others.

  One of the injured, she instantly recognized.

  Frisco Fred had broken a leg in two places where a bench in the audience seating had come loose from its bolts. It had clearly slid across the boards to painfully pin him against the center stage. His eyes were closed, and his gray hair was mottled with blood, so it was probable that he’d sustained a head injury as well. Evangeline laid an invisible hand gently on the back of that head, and Fred’s eyes opened. His pupils dilated.

  Her magic worked, mending the bones and the skull fracture before sinking further in to heal the injuries at their cores. Neurons reconnected, gray matter was restructured, and skin mended. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Sorry Fred,” she said softly. “Looks like retirement will have to wait another year.”

  Chapter Ten

  They couldn't see the angel moving through the crowd, lending her power to anyone who needed it. But he could. To them, it would probably seem they’d initially imagined their injuries, confused in the chaos. All was easily explained. But to Calidum, the scene presented great fortune – and an even greater challenge. If there were ever a situation that could illustrate just how both willful and wonderful his fated queen was, this was it. He’d told her to leave, to get to safety. She’d flat-out disobeyed.

  Of course, telling a woman to do something was asinine, and he knew that. But he was a dragon, and even more than that, he was a man. He couldn’t help it. Just as she most likely couldn’t help ignoring him when he did so. That was one of the blessings of a woman: The ability to shrug off a man’s general adolescence when it was absolutely necessary to do so. As it was now.

  Many of these people would have died if it hadn’t been for Evangeline. In that respect, he was as grateful that she’d stayed as they no doubt would have been. But she’d placed herself in grave danger. And to him, and probably to the Table of the Thirteen as well, Eva was far more important than every mortal on that pier put together.

  He considered his options. And then he tossed all but one of them out and moved in.

  Evangeline was very nearly drained to entirety by the time she stood up beside the couple she’d just finished invisibly healing. She swayed ever so slightly and touched her forehead – and Cal wrapped a strong arm around her waist, pulled her back against his chest, and let loose with his magic.

  A transport spell
whipped them out of the here and now and sent them hurtling headlong through a portal. None of it would appear to the humans around them, but for a sudden blast of wind and a few strange sounds.

  At once, Eva struggled in his arms. “What the hell?!” she demanded. The colors around the portal shifted from black and white, then tainted with magenta, a sign that some of Eva’s magic was leaking into it despite her weakness.

  But Cal held firmly to her, his arm easily wrapped around her small, firm waist. He leaned in to speak directly in her ear as she yanked against him. “Don’t bother, Eva. You’re weakened, and we both know it. What’s more, you’re in danger. I’m taking you some place safe.”

  “Like hell you are!” she screamed. Cal refrained from wincing when she elbowed him in the gut and attempted to dig her nails into his arm. He’d expected as much. But when she began to whisper the words of a spell, and the portal fully shifted into a shimmering, opalescent violet, he finally reacted, hastily covering her mouth with his other hand.

  She may have been weak, but she was half Nomad, and whatever magic her body and mind possessed could probably, even unconsciously, cause him severe amounts of trouble. “Eva, stop.” Cal hissed. He told himself to keep cool, to keep his head, until he got them both where they were going. But his ears were ringing with the horrible things her mind was hissing at him, and a mixture of hopelessness and frustration were beginning to seed in his gut.

  Her skin began to heat up beneath his touch, and he knew her inherent dragon abilities were beginning to take over, protective instincts where her conscious attempts were failing. Her fury, and perhaps her fear, were overriding her weakness. He swore internally and thanked his lucky stars when the end of the portal came into view. It would lead to the Dragon Realm.

  But before he could move forward and take them both through the opening – another tall, dark figure stepped right through the portal wall and directly into his path.

  Shock went through Cal. No one was supposed to be able to move in and out of his portals but him. And even for him to do it was rare and powerful.

  Arach smiled at Calidum a split second before he said, “Thanks, your majesty. I’ll take it from here,” and raised his hand, releasing a hard and hot bolt of some twisted, terrible magic. Cal had no time to react in any way but to turn with Eva in his arms, shielding his queen from the impact.

  Of course, Arach had known he would do this. He’d obviously planned on it.

  The bolt hit Cal square in the back between the shoulder blades, and searing torment erupted along his spinal cord, paralyzing him instantly. He bellowed in pain, and as he did, lightning crackled in his lungs and vocal chords.

  Eva was taken from his grasp. He could do nothing to stop it. He was physically stunned as agony rode through him, frying each of his nerve endings to a crisp and causing his vision to white-out in sizzling despair.

  Further protests and a few choice, furious words from Eva were drowned out by the sound of something burning, and of magic being overridden. Cal forced his eyes open, realizing he hadn’t even noticed he’d closed them. By the time his surroundings came back into focus through the haze of pain, Evangeline and Arach were gone. The Traitor had taken her.

  The end of the transportation portal no longer spread open to reveal the Dragon Realm beyond. Instead, it seemed to be on fire. Flames the color of emeralds licked upwards and inwards from the ring of what had once been the opening. As they grew stronger and rose higher, the portal drew to a close – and the fire spread.

  Cal came to several fast conclusions. The fire was going to consume the portal completely, and him along with it, in a matter of seconds. His second conclusion was that whatever Arach had become, he was already flexing his new muscle, because something everything he’d just done should have been absolutely impossible. His third conclusion was that Eva wouldn’t stand a chance against Arach in her current state – especially with Arach in his current state.

  And Cal’s final conclusion was that this had obviously been the point of the attack on the pier all along. They’d counted on the two dragons to use their power, especially Evangeline. It had given Arach a distinct and devastating advantage.

  Calidum shelved his emotion, stifled his fury, quieted his pain-filled rage, and thought fast. He spun in the portal, straightened, and used whatever magic he could call to fore in his current state to open a second exit in the transport portal. That, too, wasn’t supposed to be possible. But he was the Great Gray. He could do a lot of impossible things. Six before breakfast, his maddened mind chimed, semi-quoting Alice in Wonderland.

  The fresh exit swirled hastily open, broadening to its widened point mere split-seconds before Arach’s fire reached the second ring and began to engulf it. Calidum wasted no time jumping through the opening, barely managing to escape the tunnel of death before it was entirely consumed by Arach’s green flames.

  The portal made a terrible sound behind Cal as he hit the ground and rolled, the pain of the impact not even registering in his already tortured nervous system. He heard what sounded like an explosion, felt some kind of heat at his side where he stopped rolling, and then there was silence.

  It was night. Darkness spread behind his closed lids. The air was cool.

  The Legendary Great Gray dragon remained there on the ground in an unfamiliar place for a long, contemplate moment, and just breathed.

  Chapter Eleven

  Yelling and screaming at her captor would do no good, and Evangeline knew that, so once he’d taken her out of Calidum’s portal, she reined herself in and shut her mouth. She was already drained from healing humans at the pier. Wasting any further energy would only have served to make the situation worse. And Arach had always scared her anyway.

  That was when he’d only been the Dragon King. Now it was clear he was something a good deal scarier.

  He’d moved them so fast through some sort of sideways, and dark portal, she literally hadn’t had a chance to react in any intelligent manner. It came to an end with unbearable speed, and he was stepping them out of it as if he were stepping off a sidewalk. She, however, stumbled a little. Arach caught her easily and righted her.

  He laughed softly as he finally released her, and she wasted no time putting distance between them. It wasn’t a lot of distance, however. Their surroundings were dark. It was not an unnatural darkness; wherever they’d gone, the sun had already set. They’d traveled far. But it was dark enough that she didn’t want to trip over anything or bruise her shin running into something low-lying.

  Eva was standing in a very large room, and most of what was in the room, she couldn’t make out just yet. Her dragon vision needed to adjust. But on the other side of the room, vast windows scaled one entire wall, affording a view of a brilliant and fairly famous skyline beyond. It was Tokyo.

  Far, indeed.

  Eva could hear her breathing, ragged and uneven. She was scared, and she hated that it showed in any manner. But she was too frightened to hate it that much.

  “No need for such terror, my love,” said the former Dragon King. She whirled to face him, or at least face the direction from which is voice had come.

  “I’ve no plans to cause you any permanent harm.” His voice had changed. It was deeper somehow, more resonant. There was a different scent to him, too, as if something like sandalwood or… night… had been infused in his blood. For some reason, she had the feeling he could hear her heart hammering away. She just had the sudden impression that he was that powerful.

  He flicked a switch, and soft lighting flooded the area. Eva blinked a few times. She hugged herself as she slowly turned in place, taking in the details of her surroundings. It was a well appointed home, modern with clean lines. The floor was smooth white marble, and the ceiling literally seemed to be the same, with recessed lighting in long rows, perfectly parallel, shedding just the right amount of light. The living room led directly to the kitchen, open and spacious, and beyond the all-glass walls, Evangeline saw that a courtyard of sor
ts sported an Olympic-sized infinity pool that seemed to drop off into what must have been hundreds of feet below.

  An apartment like this would have cost a fortune anywhere. But in Tokyo, it must have been over-the-top. She had no idea what to think.

  Was this his? Another gift from the Entity? Or from Amunet? And most importantly, was Eva expected to stay there now?

  “Is this to be my prison?” she asked softly, loathing the way her voice shook ever so slightly. She finished turning her circle and faced him, her eyes locking on his. Arach’s were even greener than they’d been before. And when she squinted, she could see that something ringed them now, something darker, a brown of some kind, or perhaps a red. They were striking… and wrong.

  “That depends,” he said calmly, gracefully taking a seat in one of several equally modern and expensive leather seats across from the gray suede sofa and coffee table that completed the living room set. He raised his right hand, and a glass of scotch appeared in it. He swirled the few pieces of ice in the glass a few times, never taking his eyes from hers.

  Then he smiled and took a drink, just as casual as can be.

  “On what?” she asked, her gaze narrowing.

  He lowered the glass, now half empty. “Please, Eva.”

  “Evangeline,” she corrected him, not at all ready to allow him the luxury of shortening her name.

  His smile was back. “Eva,” he continued, undaunted, “You must be starving. I can sense your hunger from here. And I know how hungry dragons can get.”

  “There’s absolutely nothing you can offer me that I would want.”

  He laughed now. Against all odds, it was a pleasant laugh. She would have expected everything Arach did to be grating, but it honestly seemed like he was tickled by her statement. “I have no doubt you feel that way, at least presently,” he admitted, his too-green eyes sparkling. “But I can guarantee the sentiment will change.”

  He set down his glass on the side table that she hadn’t even noticed was beside the expensive chair. Then he gracefully stood, again displaying a fluidity that was rare even for dragons.