Dragon Fire (17 page)

“Did the twins hurt you?”

“Pemba, stop. Please.”

Rakan stiffened at the use of his code name.

“You’re here. That’s all that counts,” she continued as if he was the one who needed reassuring. “I’m fine.”

“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he said. He wrapped his arms around her. She had no idea how defenseless she was. Or how much danger he was exposing her to.

“I know. Just don’t disappear again. Please.”

Her fear ate into him. Rakan wrapped her with his mind-touch, wishing he knew what had happened. She relaxed. And responded with her own gentle mind-touch, sending a jolt of energy through him. He crushed her against his chest, choking on his desire to morph and possess her. No matter what the consequences. “Anna,” he said, because he couldn’t say anything else.

“Meet for lunch?” Her warm breath teased him, making him want to stretch and thicken… “Pemba?” Her lips were warm and soft against his neck.

“What?” he asked, trying to understand what she was saying as he stifled his desires.

“The bell rang,” Anna said, pulling herself together. “We have to go in. See you at lunchtime?”

Rakan nodded. When they reached the second floor, he watched her walk down the hallway to her classroom. She had undeniable courage. His rök ached to claim her. To meld with her. To feel their minds merge until they became one. But she was human, he reminded himself. She’d never be able to do that. Even if he mated with her.

She waved goodbye as she entered her classroom. He ran up the stairs four at a time. He needed to find the strength to stay away from her. It was bad enough that T’eng Sten had erased her memory once. But it would be so much worse if his mother or Nima’kor decided to intervene.

Rakan slid into his seat, forcing his rök to calm down. They needed to leave Tromso and then Anna would be safe. But to do so, they’d need to figure out who Jing Mei was. If she was Paaliaq, they’d kill her. And if she wasn’t… The idea of his mother taking June’s rök was unbearable. As was the idea of one of his mother’s cronies taking Dvara’s. Rakan’s rök vibrated frantically. He blocked everything out and focused on June’s trail. It was normal. Or as normal as it could be with a triple twisted strand running through it. His mind ran over her and she pushed him back immediately. He smiled. At least that was normal dragon behavior. He poked at the shield she had put up, trying to get her to react again. June’s energy crackled in annoyance. As much as he had hated it when she changed her trail, he wanted her to do it again. He needed to analyze it to prove to Dvara that it wasn’t the same as the void-trails’ trails. She was a dragon and they weren’t.

When the bell rang for lunch, June slammed her book closed and stomped over to his desk. “What’s wrong with you?” she said, leaning forward.

“I was just playing,” he answered. “What’s wrong with that?”

“You send the coach to the hospital with your idiotic games and you ask me what’s wrong with that? Are you kidding me?” June kept her voice low even though she was shaking with anger.

“The ball wasn’t supposed to hit her. Dawa—”

“—it doesn’t matter who did what. How can you play with people like that? Don’t you realize how much those girls care about their game? Haakon’s right, you’re both just unruly puppies.”

“Haakon? Who’s Haakon?” asked Rakan exasperated.

“The guy who was sitting right behind you during the game.” June waved her arms in disbelief. “Don’t you even pay attention to who’s around you? Didn’t anyone teach you anything?”

Rakan remembered everyone who had been in the sport hall and even what they had been wearing. And no one had been sitting behind him. The place had been empty.

June leaned forward over his desk, her cobalt eyes flashing. “I’m sorry I tried to help you the other day,” she hissed. Her energy snapped at him like sparks of electricity.

Stung to the core, Rakan watched June stalk out of the room. “June, wait.” Rakan ran after her, unable to control himself any longer.

“Go away and grow up, Pemba. I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” She pushed him away. “And you had better not be playing with Anna. Because if you are, I’ll have your hide. Stop messing with people. Life isn’t a game.”

Rakan watched Jing Mei stomp down the stairs. A tremor of excitement pulsed through him. She cared about the humans. Her emotions had been thick and clear. She wasn’t Paaliaq. She was a New Dragon like they were.

* * *

Anna warmed up with the rest of the team. They hadn’t played since the coach had broken her ankle, and Anna was itching to get back into gear. But she stopped in her tracks when she saw Ulf come out of the men’s locker room with a whistle around his neck.

No. Not that. Not this. Not. Anna stared in disbelief.

“Oh my God, is he our new coach?” asked Randi as all the girls watched Ulf strut across the court.

“Look at his legs.”

“Look at his butt.”

Anna clenched her fists. “I hate him.”

“How can you hate a guy who looks like that?” asked Dawa.

“Isn’t that your mom’s boyfriend?” asked Siri.

“Yes, and I wish he wasn’t,” Anna answered.

Randi laughed. “You’re just jealous.”

“What are you girls waiting for?” said Ulf. “I only said I’d help out because I thought you were serious about your game.” Ulf strutted over to where they were standing. “You should be warmed up and ready to go by the time I get here,” he said, tapping Dawa playfully on the butt. “Let’s go.”

Ulf took them through an intense workout, focusing on their offensive game and drilling them through wave after wave of fast break attacks.

Anna sullenly followed the giggling girls into the locker room after practice. As much as she wanted to hate everything about Ulf, she had to admit that he was a good coach. Except that he touched the girls whenever possible. Which was bad enough, but what really got to her was that the girls responded like kittens wanting more.

“He’s good,” Siri said to Anna. “And you have to admit he’s hot.”

“He’s too hot,” said Randi, fanning herself. “Have you ever tried to see him in the shower? Like you just walk in – ‘oops didn’t know you were here’? I would…”

“I wouldn’t,” said Lysa flatly. “He doesn’t seem real.”

Anna smiled at Lysa.
Thanks.

“Who cares?” said Randi. “His body is real. That’s enough for me.”

“Looks don’t mean anything,” June said.

“That’s easy for you to say,” replied Randi. “You’re dating a guy who models.”

Anna blocked the rest out, hoping that Ulf wouldn’t be waiting to drive her home.

* * *

“We seem to be enjoying each other’s company, Pemba,” said Ulf, coming out of the men’s locker room. “We keep running into each other.”

As Rakan hesitated between answering him, punching him or ignoring him, Dvara appeared by his side.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve made a mistake,” Dvara said, glancing at Ulf. “I didn’t think it was my brother’s company you wanted to enjoy.”

Ulf laughed. “You are most decidedly more… enjoyable,” he said in a half whisper before switching to a matter-of-fact tone of voice as Anna and some of the other girls came out. “You have talent. It’ll be a pleasure to teach you a few things.”

Rakan turned away in disgust. “I’ll walk you home,” he said to Anna when she joined them.

“There’s no need,” said Ulf. “I’m driving there anyway.”

“I’d rather walk,” Anna said coldly.

“I’ll accept the ride,” Dvara said, glancing at Ulf. “That is, if you don’t mind?”

Rakan glared at his sister, but she ignored him and smiled sweetly at Ulf.

Ulf’s eyes slid down Dvara’s chest. “My pleasure.” He looked back at Anna. “See you at home.” He flashed his perfect teeth. “For dinner.”

“I’m not your daughter,” Anna shot back.

“Don’t worry, I never thought you were.”

* * *

Rakan shifted back to their rooms as soon as he had walked Anna to her door. “Why did you ask Ulf to drive you home?” he asked Dvara who was reclining on the couch.

“Because every time you see Anna, you forget why we’re here,” Dvara snapped. “This way, I knew you’d come home.”

“I know why we’re here. I just don’t think that Jing Mei is Paaliaq,” Rakan said. He sat in his favorite window perch and watched the trails below. “She’s a New Dragon.”

“Rakan,” Dvara said, taking a deep breath. “We’ve been through this before. Yarlung said that both Yuli and Nima’kor are certain that none of the Old Dragons left the Fragments long enough to have had a child. Even with the time differential taken into account.”

“What if her parents have never been on the Fragments?”

Dvara stared at him like he had grown two heads. “You think Paaliaq and Haakaramanoth are her parents?”

“It would explain why Jing Mei has blue eyes instead of Paaliaq’s green.”

Dvara shook her head. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I think Paaliaq found a way to change her eyes and is pretending to be a whelp.”

“So why does she care about humans? She’s not using them. She’s trying to help them. Remember how she took the shield off Anna after I had manipulated it?” he said, not wanting to talk about the argument with June that had convinced him she wasn’t Paaliaq.

“She could take the shield off so that you would start to trust her, or believe that she really was clueless. And she hasn’t morphed once since we’ve been here, has she? How could a puppy who seems as young as Jing Mei not morph for that long? It’s not possible. She can’t be as young as she seems. And besides, if she really was Paaliaq’s whelp, her mother wouldn’t let her roam Earth pretending to be a human. Even with the protection of four other dragons.”

“They aren’t dragons. Why can’t you accept that?” insisted Rakan, facing Dvara.

“You’re the one who can’t accept the facts. You felt June hide her trail like the others do. Why do you need more proof than that?” Dvara held up her hand to stop him from answering. “Whatever. Dragons or not, they’re protecting her.”

“Maybe Paaliaq is already dead,” Rakan said. “We’ve only ever come across one Old Dragon’s trail. Not two.”

“It doesn’t matter what either one of us thinks, Rakan. We need proof. One way or the other. And we need it now. Yarlung is starting to manipulate the other Kairöks to determine which one she’ll promise me to.” Dvara paced around the living room. “I’ll have to accept him. And then T’eng Sten will kill him and…”

Rakan slammed into the punching bag. “But Jing Mei isn’t Paaliaq. We can’t kill her.”

“We can if she’s Paaliaq’s daughter.”

“It would be killing an innocent dragon.”

“No, it wouldn’t. It would avenge Kraal’s death. Blood for blood. You know the Code as well as I do.”

Rakan glared at his sister. “The Code doesn’t say we have to kill her. Only that we can. There doesn’t have to be blood for blood.”

“You drive me crazy, Rakan. You know Yarlung won’t let the other dragons settle on Earth until she has revenge.” Dvara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s the only way to be free. Her death or the death of the Draak. Can’t you understand that?”

Rakan sank to the couch. He wouldn’t let them kill June.

Dvara took his silence as acceptance. “If Jing Mei is Haakaramanoth’s daughter we can lure him out by getting her to trust us and then trapping her. If Paaliaq is dead, he’ll do anything to get her back. And if she isn’t… we’ll finally meet her.”

Rakan stared at his hands, wondering how he could protect June. “Okay,” he said slowly. “I can work on getting closer to her.” And then he could warn her. Against his own family.

“That’s probably best. I’ll figure out how to trap her.”

Rakan nodded. Sick about his duplicity.

Dvara sat next to Rakan and nudged him in the shoulder. She sent him a wave of warmth. “I know you hate the idea of manipulating someone, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Rakan returned the wave of energy, but he didn’t dare look at his half-sister. He stood abruptly and walked back to the window. He watched the trails undulate across the street and around the town, weaving back and forth in an intricate dance. If Dvara found out that he was protecting June, she’d never forgive him. And he’d lose the only friend he’d ever had.

Rakan stared blankly out the window.

It was a risk he’d have to take.

* * *

“Why do you always ask me out at the last minute?” asked Anna. She stood stiffly on the porch in front of her house. “My mother cornered me yesterday and made me accept a babysitting job for one of the other nurses.”

Pemba looked confused. “We don’t make plans, at home. We just… do things.”

“Well, here we make plans.” Anna looked down. “Maybe we can get together tomorrow?” Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day.

Pemba leaned back against the wooden railing on Anna’s porch and crossed his legs. “I guess so,” he said. He picked at the hard snow. He shaped the ice-like snow into a smooth ball with his bare hands and threw it effortlessly into the trees on the other side of the parking lot. “So what do we plan for tomorrow? I can teach you how to keep warm.” He took her hand and slid off the glove that hid her Firemark. “I said I would.”