Dragons 01 dragon heat, p.1
Dragons 01 - Dragon Heat, page 1
part #1 of Dragons Series
JAWS ready.
Dragon Heat
By
Allyson James
Blurb:
Lisa Singleton has an unusual roommate-a fifty-foot dragon named Caleb who has glittering scales and a bad attitude. Little does she know that Caleb is actually a powerful warrior sent to protect her from those out to steal her magic and destroy the world. Or that Caleb can take the human form of a sexy hunk. Now, if he doesn't stop distracting her with those gorgeous bedroom eyes, they may not have time to stop their enemies before all of existence is wiped out. At least Lisa and Caleb will have savored every last minute.
PROLOGUE
Malcolm the black dragon preferred the Internet to television. His own brain functioned much like a microprocessor, allowing him to read hundreds of pages of news in a fraction the time it took broadcasters to tell him what was happening around the world. Even being stuck on earth in human form hadn't impaired Malcolm's thinking ability.
In his apartment on the second floor of a converted house on Octavia Street, he used his
television to watch one show and one show only. He recorded the daily episodes of a food show, Dressing for Dinner ,then replayed the episodes one after another in the background while he prowled the Internet for information.
The woman he sought didn't usually appear on the screen, since her job was behind the scenes, but as soon as Lisa Singleton walked onto the set to hand the hostess a forgotten ingredient, Malcolm paused the playback and fixed his entire attention on her.
He watched, his lips parted, as Lisa stretched out her arm to hand the hostess a bowl of
something or other. Lisa had dark red hair and almond-shaped brown eyes, slim limbs and an
attractive bosom.
But that was not what held Malcolm's attention. The young woman radiated power. Not the
trivial power of witches, like the trio from San Francisco who were trying to block Malcolm's access to Lisa. Lisa exuded white-hot power—it screamed from her, even through the television airwaves recorded on this box in his apartment. Malcolm intended to get that power and use it to set himself free. The witches were trying to keep him from his goal and had even coerced a
golden dragon, a warrior, to watch over her.
Dragons couldn't exist as dragons in the world of humans, not anymore, because people no
longer believed in them. If a dragon wanted to travel from Dragon space to the human world, he had to have a witch from the Earth world stuff him into a human body. Dragons had enormous
power and eons ago had moved freely from world to world doing as they pleased, but times had changed. A dragon had the power of lightning and the brain power ten times a human capacity, and still they'd lost the magic to move among humans at will.
The golden dragon worried Malcolm a little. Golden dragons were warriors, and while they
didn't have the mathematical brains of black dragons, they were very, very good at fighting and excellent killers. The witches had chosen well, and Malcolm would have to watch his step.
But the witches, mistrusting creatures, had not allowed the warrior dragon to cross into the human world, not wanting to let him loose in San Francisco even in human form. Their mistake, Malcolm's advantage.
Malcolm scanned the television for another advantage, someone close to Lisa he could make his slave, someone who would do his bidding and bring Lisa to him. He couldn't mark Lisa, not with that raw power flowing from her and his own power diminished, but he could trick her.
He looked at the rather handsome man on the television screen who stood next to the show's
hostess, the male model who helped boost the show's ratings. Brainless, ambitious, full of
himself. Perfect .
Malcolm smiled grimly. He turned off the television and shut down his computers. Light played on the black dragon tattoo encircling his bicep, his dragon essence. He swirled his black leather jacket over his shoulders and left his apartment to make his way downtown to the studio where the show was taped.
It was only a matter of time.
Chapter One
Lisa was late.
Behind the spare bedroom door, Caleb's dragon rumbling turned to irritated growls. Out there in San Francisco lurked a black dragon, one who stalked Lisa. Every moment she was out of this apartment the black dragon could be luring Lisa to him, coercing her, trapping her, pulling her out of Caleb's reach.
Watch over her, the witches who'd enslaved him had told him. Easy for them to say. Caleb
couldn't move past the door that separated Lisa's apartment from Dragon space, though there was a small area in which he could touch Lisa and she could touch him. If he could get past the damn door Caleb could follow Lisa everywhere and make sure the black dragon, who'd been exiled
here in human form long ago, never came near her.
Black dragons were not necessarily evil, but they were coldly neutral. They were the most
ancient of dragon kind, and because they were old, they were very, very smart. Their intelligence could bend steel, sharpen air, penetrate all things with a single, deadly thrust, because the black dragons knew exactly which tiny part of you was most vulnerable and exactly how to get to it.
No trial and error, they knew . And you had no hope of surviving.
Against this, the three witches had set Caleb as guardian, but wouldn't give him the magic to get through the door because they didn't trust him. Witches had done so much evil to him over the centuries, and now when he actually liked the task they'd given him, they refused to make it easier. He could only mutter and fume while the beautiful afternoon he saw through the windows of Lisa's apartment faded, and still Lisa did not return home.
The sun had set, the June day over, when the key at last rattled in the lock. The heavy walnut door swung inward, bearing Lisa and three bags of groceries.
"Lisa-ling. About time."Caleb growled to hide his relief.
"I told you taping would run late." Lisa swung the grocery bags on the breakfast bar, lifted the red curls from her forehead, and kicked off her shoes with a heartfelt sigh. "There were leftover ingredients that would expire before we tape again, so I brought them home."
"Anything for me?"
As he spoke, Caleb wove the musical strands of his thoughts through hers as much as he could, relaxing her and taking the edge off his presence. Because of Caleb's magic, Lisa had easily weathered the idea that reality folded in the spare bedroom of the apartment she'd inherited from her grandmother Li Na, allowing Caleb to look through the door from Dragon space.
The witches had sent Caleb to befriend Li Na before her passing, to see if she knew anything about the elusive dragon orb and to learn all about Lisa. Li Na never mentioned the orb, but she talked much about Lisa. When Caleb finally met Lisa, he already knew her history and what
pleased and displeased her, and it was easy to string his thoughts through hers.
Bags rattled as Lisa emptied them in the small alcove kitchen."Five pounds of shrimp, a couple of rib-eye steaks, five heads of romaine lettuce, a few ounces of foie gras and three pounds of shitake mushrooms."
"I'll take the shrimp."
"No, you won't, glutton. I might invite my grandmother's friend Ming Ue over and cook up a feast."
"Don't give me the mushrooms," Caleb said, disguising his thought-twining with banter. "Why humans eat fungus baffles me."
Lisa laughed with her silver, sweet laughter, folded up the bags, and padded back out of the kitchen. The Chinese wind chimes laced with black and red string in the living room jingled faintly with her passing. "You can have the steaks. I'll save them for you."
Their strands of thoughts connected without Lisa realizing it. Caleb could not read her mind like a telepath, but a part of his thoughts could be part of hers. Except that Caleb never could put his mark fully on Lisa. He did not know why, but a small section of her mind was always closed to him, no matter how much he poked and prodded.
"Good," he said, coiling his tail around him. "Sit down with me now and tell me every detail of what happened to you today."
Lisa moved across the gold and white medallion carpet of the living room, clad in a button-up blouse and a skirt that left her legs bare. Her red hair was gathered in a tail at the nape of her neck. Lisa's mother was half-Chinese and her father was of Scottish descent, a combination that had given her dark, copper-colored hair, almond-shaped brown eyes, and pale skin.
Caleb studied the curve of her legs, an inner part of him reflecting that her body pleased him. He liked watching her move because she did so with effortless grace. He was always surprised that with the pain inside her, she could still smile and be as beautiful as she was.
Lisa sat on the sofa and stretched out her legs, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. "I don't have time for television tonight. I'm going out."
Caleb lifted his head in sudden suspicion. "You have just arrived home, you brought food, and you are tired. Why should you go out again?"
She fixed her coffee-brown eyes on him, the tendrils of her thoughts floating from his grasp.
"I'm going to a restaurant, Mr. Nosy. With a man."
Caleb sensed her sudden increase in body heat all the way across the room. Something was
wrong."With what man?"
"None of your business."
Another bad sign. His dragon magic could make Lisa tell him anything without her wondering
why he wanted to know. "You are my friend, and I am interested in every detail of your lif e.
What is the name of this man?"
Lisa folded her arms, digging her toes into the carpet. "It's Greg Shaw, if you must know, from the show."
Caleb thought about the dark-haired male model who hogged the lights and oozed all over the hostess Hazeltine Conant on Dressing for Dinner. A flicker of fire left his mouth. "Why in the name of the gods would you go out with ton?"
"Oh, he's harmless. It's been a long time since I've been out, and I deserve a little pampering."
She sighed, the bantering tone leaving her voice. "I'm lonely, Caleb."
Her sadness tugged his heart, but Caleb rushed at the chink in her argument. "You can't be lonely. You have me."
She sent him a faint smile. "That's not what I mean. There are some things I need that you can't give me."
"Like what?" He thought a moment, wondering what he could offer a human woman. "In my lair, I have rubies as large as strawberries, diamonds that remember the warmth of the mountains, not like the cold stuff you have here. I'll give you whatever jewels you want."
Her eyes widened, but she shook her head. "That's sweet, but no."
"What can he possibly give you that I can't?" Caleb curled his talons, leaving faint gouges on the hardwood floor. "I provide interesting conversation and companionship, I warm the apartment on cold nights…"
Lisa sprang from the couch, crossed to the space outside his door and reached in to stroke his nose. He liked when she touched him, her hands warm against his scales.
"I know you do. But humans need something more than a pet, Caleb. We need someone who
needs us, do you understand what I mean?"
He tilted his head so she could rub along his jaw and ignored her jab about a pet . "Dragons don't need anyone. We are solitary creatures."
"Uh huh. So why are you always here watching television with me?"
He rumbled under his breath. "I like you."
As she rubbed between his eyes, massaging him where she knew he liked it best, her whole
body moved, loose and sensuous under her human clothes. She smelled of the smoky scent of
cooking and the fresh tang of vegetables layered over her own sweet musk and fine silver scent.
"If dragons are solitary creatures," she countered, "how do you make more dragons?"
Caleb answered while he tried again to tangle the music of their thoughts. "A female dragon wants a male only when she's ready to mate. When she gives her mating call, the male dragon is compelled to answer. And then, it's a week of constant mating. In the air, on the ground,
everywhere. Nothing but continuous, tail-banging mating. The male dragon nearly always dies.
And if he doesn't die, the female dragon turns around when she's done and kills him."
"Golly," Lisa said, eyes wide.
"I have mated twice and survived both times. Females will always pursue a golden, because we are the strongest, the handsomest, the most virile of all dragon kind."
"Yes, I know, you've told me about twenty times. But do you understand what I mean? You need to be with dragons sometimes, and I sometimes need to be with a human."
Caleb nudged her with his nose to urge her to continue with the rubbing. The more he thought about what she said, the more he didn't like it. Envisioning a human male wanting to mate with his Lisa—touching her body with his hands, kissing her mouth, skimming her clothes from her—
made the rumble inside him build to full-blown anger. There was something about the anger he didn't recognize and that puzzled him. He only knew he considered Lisa his, and he didn't want a man pawing at her.
"Television is better," he growled.
"It's not the same for humans, Caleb," she said, sounding sad. "We spend much of our lives looking for someone to be with, and we don't always get it right. Maybe I need someone to take me to a fancy restaurant in a fancy car once in a while. I need something for me."
Caleb had heard the story, in detail, of Lisa's divorce: how Lisa had come home early one
afternoon after getting fired from a food editor job to find her husband Philip in bed with their young landlady and her best friend. The three of them had been licking each other's skin, and when Lisa froze in the doorway, Lisa's husband had said, "What's the matter with you? Take off your clothes and join us."
She'd refused and run out of the house, then returned later to find a note from Philip explaining he was tired of her stuffy attitude and that he'd left her.
Lisa had cried when she got to that part of the story. She'd rested her head against Caleb's broad forehead, while he'd woven his music around her aching heart, trying to ease it. He knew all about the betrayal and the pain of loss.
"You do not need Greg Shaw," he said now. "I like you, and if I were human, I would mate with you. Now, sit down and stay with me. It's almost time for Cops ."
Lisa laughed, her sad look suddenly gone. "And that should be good enough for me?"
"Yes."
She leaned in and placed a kiss on the gold scales on his nose. "You're a sweetheart, Caleb.
Thank you."
Caleb tried to brush her thoughts again, but tonight more than ever, she shut him out. He
definitely didn't like that. "Don't go, Lisa," he said softly.
She straightened up, patted his neck, and backed away. "I have to. I've talked myself into it, now I'm going."
She laughed again, half at herself, and spun away into her bedroom. Caleb watched her go,
thinking even through his worry and pain that her laughter was worth his exile in this place.
The date with Greg went pretty much as Lisa expected. He picked her up in a long gray Lexus with a driver in front, Greg's model good looks making him drop-dead gorgeous in his suit. At the restaurant the maitre d' fawned over them, hoping Greg's minor celebrity presence would bring good publicity. They got half the meal free, and the waiters brought them extra tidbits like sorbet between courses and mango tarts at the end of the meal.
Throughout the evening, Lisa listened as Greg talked about Greg. How Greg got started in
television, how Greg wanted to get into movies. How Greg's modeling days began and ended,
how Greg had caught the eye of Hazeltine the Dressing for Dinner hostess, how reviewers praised Greg's style and delivery.
Lisa nodded or said, "Oh, how interesting," at appropriate intervals, but she could not put aside the feeling that something was wrong, something more than Greg's overwhelming ego. Greg
watched her while he pretended not to, his eyes swiveling to fix on her position almost as though someone else controlled them.
She thought of the long argument she'd had with Caleb when she had asked him to please not be in her apartment if she brought Greg back. He could go fly around in Dragon space or
something. He'd done it before, and the slit in reality had closed, and her spare bedroom with its Murphy bed and bookcase of dusty paperbacks had reappeared.
Caleb had resisted with more than usual Caleb stubbornness. When she'd said in exasperation, fine, she'd go to Greg's condo instead, Caleb had suddenly reversed course and told her that if she was going to be with Greg, it should be here. Li Na's apartment was lucky and filled with magic, and with Greg Lisa would need all the luck she could get.
Caleb knew how to spoil a mood. Lisa had taken a long time to talk herself into going out with Greg, and now she was second-guessing herself like crazy. Greg went on and on, watching Lisa with an intensity that was very un-Greg-like, and her thoughts drifted to Caleb again.
Caleb was annoying, he was interfering and nosy as hell, but at the same time he was always interested in her and what she had to say. She admitted it was good to have a friend, even a snarky dragon.
Lisa was careful never to tell Caleb how beautiful he was because he was already the most
conceited being she'd ever met. He gleamed gold from nose to tail, shimmering like sun on
water. She'd never seen him fly, but he had great golden wings that were surprisingly soft and warm, and sleek spines on his neck that narrowed into ridges across his back and down his long tail.
His head itself was free of spines except ones that looked like eyebrows. He had a broad
forehead tapering to a narrow nose and a long mouth. Each of his teeth were bigger than Lisa's hand and sharp as saw blades, and he had sarcasm to match.
