Dragon Fire (19 page)

“What?” asked Anna.

“I can trust them with my life,” Rakan said. “They’d never abandon me. And I’ll never abandon them.”

Rakan looked at Anna’s upturned face, her lips so close to his. They were so ripe, so tempting. Her breath so sweet. He ached to lean forward, to take what was on offer, to forget about fighting and revenge and… “Anna,” he said, hugging her instead. For the first time he realized that he wanted something else than what his family wanted.

* * *

The Blue Rock was already crowded by the time they arrived. Ulf was greeted by nearly everyone, and Ingrid hung to his arm, beaming with pride.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Anna said. She took Rakan’s hand and pulled him away from Ulf and Ingrid. “They’ll probably start playing soon.”

Rakan followed, mentally checking to see who was there and if anyone had weapons. He hated the feeling of so many people in a small space, even if the crowd seemed in a good mood. He knew from experience that humans could turn aggressive quickly.

Anna stopped nervously at the top of the stairs and looked around. Rakan wondered who she was looking for, but she relaxed and led him across the dance floor. It was packed with people waiting for the band to start. They made their way over to June who was perched on a bar stool. Kristin was next to her, looking almost like a child in the arms of a lumberjack sized guy. Rakan scanned him, but he was human. Clueless and weaponless. Rakan scanned him again. He looked like an Old Dragon if you ignored the pale skin and short brown hair.

“Hey, Anna,” June said. “I’m glad you changed your mind.”

“We decided at the last minute,” Anna said. “I should’ve called.”

June smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you’re here. And just in time,” she said, nodding towards the stage. Erling, Lysa and the twins were coming out.

“Hey everyone, how’re you doing?” said Erling. He waved to the crowd and their round of applause. He was dressed in jeans and a white tee-shirt that revealed his athletic build and cobalt blue Maii-a. His blond dreads were pulled back in his usual ponytail. “Tonight is a special night,” continued Erling, adjusting his microphone. “Know why?”

Rakan focused his sight as the crowd yelled back “It’s Valentine’s Day,” and zoomed in on Erling’s eyes. They were identical to June’s. Except that they had hardly any pupils. Rakan controlled a shiver of revulsion.

“Yes it is,” said Erling, answering the crowd with a few strums on his guitar. “But it’s also my true love’s birthday. Happy Birthday, June.” The crowd cheered. “Hope there are a lot of happy couples out there, because tonight is our night.”

Rakan glanced over at June, wanting to ask her how old she was in dragon terms. But she was connected with Erling mentally and oblivious to everyone else.

The music started and Rakan jumped, wondering who to fight first, but no one was attacking. He tried to relax, but couldn’t. The twins were dressed in black jeans, their tattoo-covered torsos a mass of indecipherable symbols. Rakan shuddered as he felt power roll off them and spill around the people in the club. Rakan ran his mind over the crowd. Something had changed. They felt different, like they had been transported to a state of ecstasy. He growled. What were the void-trails doing to the humans? Even Anna. He took her in his arms and felt a flood of happiness flow through him. Rakan immediately blocked it with a shield. His mind-touch hovered over her. Not wanting to shield her without her consent. Anna leaned into him, exuding bliss. He clenched his jaw in frustration. If he shielded her now, she’d feel it. But if the void-trails changed what they were doing, he’d shield her anyhow. He wouldn’t let her get hurt.

Anna’s energy began to vibrate in pleasure, like a kitten purring for the first time. Rakan nuzzled her cheek. Why was she so trusting? He held her closer, trying to understand how the void-trails were manipulating the humans. It was clear they could control the crowd in any way they wanted. Rakan tried to stay calm enough to let go of his normal senses and focus on seeing what the void-trails were doing. But he couldn’t. He needed someone to shield him. He cursed to himself. He’d have to ask Dvara. But he hated asking her for help when he wasn’t being honest with her.

Eventually, he reached out.
“Dvara, I need you.”

Rakan stood stiffly, all his senses tensed to feel if Dvara responded or not.

“You okay?” asked Anna, looking up at him.

“What? Yeah, sure.”

Rakan felt Dvara appear in the empty stairwell. “She came,” he said, relieved.

“Who?”

Rakan pointed to Dvara who was dressed in a slinky vermillion top that plunged into her cleavage. Rakan groaned – she looked like an exotic flower waiting to be plucked.

“I guess she’s feeling better,” Anna said, without much enthusiasm.

“I’ll be right back.” He let go of Anna and walked over to his half-sister who was letting herself be cornered by a drunk guy. He separated her from the man’s groping hands and then snarled at her. “Why do you let them do that?”

“How else am I supposed to get you alone?”

“Anna doesn’t understand when we speak in Draagsil.”

“Yeah, well, Jing Mei would. And in case you’ve forgotten in your zeal to get closer to her, she’s not really supposed to know what we’re doing.”

Dvara’s rebuke hit him square on. June wasn’t the one he needed to hide anything from. “Thanks for coming,” he said, feeling like a hypocrite.

Dvara scanned the crowd. “Why did you call me?” she asked moodily. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“That’s exactly what is wrong. The void-trails are doing something to make everyone happy.”

“I don’t feel anything.”

“No, neither do I. But when I touch Anna I do. I need you to shield me while I try to see what they’re doing.”

Dvara shook her head in annoyance. “You can’t see what they’re doing. You have to feel it. And there isn’t anything to feel except their energy pulsing around us.”

“They’re not dragons, Dvara. They don’t manipulate matter. That’s why we can’t feel what they’re doing even if we can feel their energy.”

Dvara looked at him strangely. “So what do they manipulate?”

“I don’t know yet,” he said quietly. “That’s why I need you to shield me.”

Dvara looked skeptical. “Okay. I can shield you.”

“Behave,” he said to Dvara as they came back to where Anna was standing near June.

Dvara rolled her eyes. “Relax and have some fun,” she snapped. But he felt her shield him, even as she turned to flirt with a guy who was standing nearby.

Rakan stood behind Anna and wrapped her in his arms. “Dvara looks for trouble sometimes,” he mumbled.

“I noticed,” Anna said, placing her hands on his.

He opened himself to her emotions, trying to see how the void-trails were affecting them. He let go, knowing that Dvara was there. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw bits of light, like shimmering reflections on a lake. But they kept disappearing when he would look at them directly. And then Lysa started to sing. Her voice had the soft vibration of gold and it drew him in. He stared at her, transfixed by her pale green eyes that had the intensity of a dragon’s. But they had no pupils. They were just hypnotic orbs of color.

When the song ended, Dvara nudged him. “Pretty good, don’t you think?” she asked, dowsing him in a freezing wave of energy.

“Hey,” Rakan said, retaliating for a split second before he realized that she was trying to help him. He pulled himself back from the void-trails’ net of sound and light. “Uh, thanks.”

“My pleasure,” she said, smiling. “But you’ll have to explain it to me, because I have no idea where you went.” Dvara turned to the guy who was standing next to her. “Let me introduce you to my brother and his girlfriend. Pemba, Anna, this is Haakon. I’ll be right back,” she said and took off towards the bar. Rakan stared at Haakon. He looked exactly like an Old Dragon should, even with his close-cropped black hair. But he felt flat. Like a human.

“Oh, Haakon. I didn’t see you arrive,” Anna said, looking around anxiously. “Was Dvara hitting on you while Liv was at the bar?”

Haakon laughed. “No, she’s just talkative, look – she’s chatting with Liv now.”

“Pemba, this is the Haakon I was telling you about,” Anna said. “Kristin’s brother.”

Rakan nodded and scanned Haakon, but felt nothing. Haakon wasn’t wearing the three-pronged knives that all dragons always wore. He wasn’t even wearing a Maii-a. Rakan reached out warily, but there was no resistance. He was as open as any other human. Rakan pulled back. There was a blandness about Haakon’s energy that he didn’t like. Rakan glanced at Kristin. Anna was right. They didn’t look like brother and sister.

Liv and Dvara came back, and Rakan had to stifle a growl when he realized that Liv was yet another void-trail. How many of them were there? Liv handed Haakon a glass of beer and settled herself against his side. She lifted her glass. “Cheers.” Her electric blue eyes almost glowed.

All the stories about the now-extinct Beings of Light, the so-called Elythia, who were the antithesis of the Draak, came tumbling back at him. They were said to have had no pupils and no rök of their own since they weren’t made of matter. “I’m Pemba,” he said to Liv, challenging her to take his hand. He’d know if she was made of matter or just a complex illusion if he touched her.

She smiled and shook his hand. “I’m Liv, June’s host sister.”

Rakan felt her hand solidly in his and relaxed. It was made of flesh and blood. And she had pupils. Small ones, but they were there. She wasn’t an empty shell of light. Her hand had been slightly warmer than most humans, but other than that, it had been no different.

Ingrid came up with Ulf to find Anna. “I have to go to work now,” she said, “but Ulf is staying, so he can drive you home.”

“But—”

“No buts, Anna, or you come home with me now – oh, hello Dawa. You look lovely. Are you enjoying the show?” Ingrid turned to Ulf. “Maybe you can drop Dawa and Pemba off on your way home?”

“As you wish, darling,” Ulf said, smiling. “I’m easy.”

Ingrid kissed Ulf and waved goodbye to everyone else.

“Can I buy you a drink?” Ulf asked Dvara, before Ingrid had even disappeared down the stairs.

“After this one,” Dvara said, nodding to the guy who was next to her.

“No, I think I’d rather not be after,” said Ulf, slipping a hand around Dvara’s waist. “Not when firsts look like this.”

Dvara giggled and twisted out of his grasp.

Anna pushed herself between Dvara and Ulf. “Knock it off.”

“Why?” Ulf leaned towards her. “Are you jealous?”

Rakan pulled Anna back and faced Ulf. “Leave her alone.”

“Tsk, tsk. Such a quick temper, Pemba,” said Ulf casually. “Hope he doesn’t always blow his fuse so quickly – for your sake, Anna.” Ulf offered Dvara his arm. “Come, we can speak more freely downstairs.”

Dvara giggled and wobbled downstairs with Ulf.

Rakan cursed under his breath. Haakon and Liv were gone. He tried to follow Liv’s trail, but it was fainter than the other void-trails and he lost it. And Haakon’s was so generic it blended in with all the others’. June was still sitting on her stool, in a trance-like state, watching Erling. Rakan wished he could send her a cold wave and knock her back to her senses. Her rapture wasn’t normal.

“How can my mom be so blind?” asked Anna.

“What?” Rakan said, looking at Anna. “About Ulf you mean? I don’t know. But I wish Dawa wouldn’t do things like that.” He took Anna back into his arms. “We’ll find them on the way out. Right now I’d rather not think about it.” Dvara was still shielding him, and pretending to be a little drunk probably made it easier for her to do it without being noticed.

Anna sighed. “I’d rather never see him again.”

“I could arrange that, if it’s what you really want,” Rakan said quietly.

Anna looked at him inquisitively. “And how would you do that? People can’t just disappear into thin air.”

Rakan shrugged. Maybe not thin air, but something close enough. “Do you really want to know?” There were hundreds of ways he could kill a human without leaving a trace visible to the human eye. Many of which he and Dvara had tested as part of their training. Before he had decided it wasn’t right to use people as target practice.

He felt a tremor of doubt go through her, but he didn’t look away or try to make it seem like a joke. It was who he was.

“Sometimes I feel like we’re from different worlds,” she said. “I can’t even tell if you’re joking or not.”

“What do you want, Anna?” Rakan unleashed his power and let it roll over her as the band played another love song. If his power scared her away, it would be better for her anyway. Rakan braced himself for the movement of fear or revulsion that humans always had when they felt his dragon nature.

Anna smiled and hugged him closer. “You. Without your contacts. They give your eyes a funny color.”

Rakan pulled her in and held her tightly. She hadn’t run away. He closed his eyes and it felt like they were standing on a bed of wild chrysanthemums. His hand found her ponytail and he groaned in frustration at not being able to undo her hair and let it flow through his fingers. But he wouldn’t be able to control himself if he did.