Shadow Walker (26 page)

“Your name,” I said. “Hurry.”

Mick pushed me off with a growl, and my hope died. I’d thought that maybe the name would burst from him when he felt a touch of his own, untainted magic, but perhaps the spark wasn’t big enough. I couldn’t reawaken my own magic to amplify what was in the ring, because the
karmii
would strike.

Amplify.

I held up my hand, thrusting the ring into a beam from one of the mirror shards. “Hey, magic mirror. What do you make of this?”

“Ooh, honey,” the mirror said in delight. “
Love
the bling. Think he’d give me one?”

Mick began to growl. His curiosity about what I was trying to do kept his fire at bay for two more seconds, but two seconds was enough.

The mirror grabbed the glint from the silver ring, bounced it across the five or so pieces of itself scattered on the floor, then slammed the five beams together. I grabbed Mick and dragged him straight into that light.

The dragon fire in Mick’s hands burned me to the bone. I grunted with pain but didn’t let go until the beams from the mirror shot into his eyes. Then my senseless fingers lost hold of him, and I folded, groaning, to the floor.

The skin of my hands was gone, blackened and burned, the blood and muscle oozing around the ring, which still clasped my finger. I saw the splinter of bone that had broken sticking through the disgusting mass. I curled up onto myself and whimpered in pain.

Mick roared. I don’t mean he shouted like a human; I mean he roared like a dragon. An earth-shaking, earsplitting, oh-gods-I’m-going-to-die-if-he-doesn’t-stop roar. It went on and on, and rocks began to fall on us, and the mirror shrieked. I couldn’t move my hands to clap them over my ears. I could only squeeze my eyes shut, clench my jaw, and pray.

The roar built and shook, tumbled and spun, rocking the cave and the earth above and beneath it. The shaft that led to the sinkhole exploded in dust as more of the surface fell down.

The sound wound up until I couldn’t take it anymore. My eardrums were about to burst—no, maybe my entire head—when the roaring turned into a string of music so sharp and pure that my heart began to break.

I looked up and saw Mick standing in the light. His fists were clenched, the dragon tattoos writhing up and down his bunched arms. His head was thrown back, his wild hair straggling across his face, but his now-black eyes were wideopen. So was his mouth, and from it issued that sound, the music that sounded of the most beautiful string of chimes, and wind, and ringing crystals.

The music filled the cave and wrapped me like a cocoon. The mirror caught the vibrations and reflected them back, amplifying the music as it had amplified the spark of dragon magic in the ring.

Mick’s name. His true name, the entire beauty of it. My mind drank it in, the music finding the empty spaces in my body and filling them.

Mick looked at me. The black receded from his eyes and blue filled them, the brilliant blue I’d looked up into in that hotel in Las Vegas, when he’d laid me down and made love to me for the first time.

“Janet.” The light played over Mick’s bronzed body, his wide shoulders, the dragons on his arms, his thick phallus, his blue black hair, and the eyes that held the blue of twilit skies. “I give it to you,” he said.

His name. His gift to me. The music flared and flooded me, then it faded, the last notes dying like a breeze whispering through wind chimes.

That was my last thought before the magic mirror’s light winked out. My eyes rolled back into my head, and the cave’s gravel cut what was left of my skin as I fell face-first onto it.

Twenty-six

I swam awake to the sound of Mick’s voice. I felt a warm hand in my hair, and I smelled Mick, the good scent of his human body and the fiery spark of dragon magic.

I opened my eyes and was rewarded by the sight of his face hanging over mine, and his blue eyes. I lay on his lap, which was bare, nothing between me and the warm goodness of Mick.

I couldn’t imagine where we were, and I didn’t care. The place was dark and dusty, and pebbles cut into my legs, but I was with Mick, on his lap, his big hands cradling me, his whispers healing me.

“Hey, baby,” I murmured.

Mick closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were filled with tears. “Janet.” He gently touched my arms, and I hissed in pain. Something had burned me and burned me bad.

“Janet, love.”

This was more like it. Mick whispering endearments instead of trying to kill me with his fire. I liked this dream.

“Move your arm,” he said.

No. Too comfortable. Moving meant pain.

“Come on, sweetheart. I need to know that you’re all right.”

“Want to sleep,” I whispered.

Mick lifted me. I groaned, every part of me protesting. I stopped protesting when I found myself resting against his chest, the warmth of him against my cheek. Mick cupped his hand around my wrist, which had skin on it again, but the skin was red and sensitive to the touch.

“Ow!” The pain cut through my fogged senses and my mind began to clear.

We were still in the cave, which was lit only by a single shard of magic mirror. That shard was tiny and threw light like that of a pencil-thin flashlight. We all-powerful magic people couldn’t have thought to bring a real flashlight, could we?

Mick was gazing at me not with the cold malevolence of an enslaved dragon but with the fiery concern of the man who’d rescued me six years ago. His healing spells were winding through my body, restoring my hands and arms he’d burned, the ribs that had cracked. Skin covered my hands again, solid, whole, unbroken. But, gods, it
hurt
.

Mick kissed the top of my head. “I want to tell you . . .”

I waited, but he didn’t finish. He kept kissing me, stroking my hair, his body shuddering. I realized, after a stunned moment, that Mick was weeping.

Mick, my bad-ass biker boyfriend who could stand against a horde of demons without flinching, who’d faced my hell-goddess mother Beneath and laughed at his impending death. I raised my hand, touched his face, and marveled to feel tears on my fingertips.

“Not your fault,” I whispered.

“I fought her with everything I had. Everything. And it wasn’t enough. She still made me hurt you. Gods, Janet, I watched myself hurt you, heard the things I said to you.”

“Hey, I didn’t go down so easy.” I brushed a tear from his rough face. “I think I did pretty good, in fact.”

“I forced you down here to kill you. I knew the
karmii
would keep you pinned and stop you using your Beneath magic, the only way you can fight me.”

“I know. It was a good idea.” I lifted my hand, where the ring, miraculously, still clasped my finger. “What did you do to the ring?”

“Put a piece of my aura into it.” Mick touched the silver, which vibrated a little, and I smelled the good smell of dragon fire. “I felt the compulsion spell start on me, so I went to a friend, a Zuni who’s a shaman. I knew I couldn’t fight the spell, and he couldn’t either, but I asked him to help me put a tiny bit of aura into the ring, enough that it might touch you when I was gone. So that you wouldn’t forget me, the real me, no matter what happened.”

“You didn’t give it part of your name, then?”

“There’s no way to do that, and at the time, I still didn’t know what was happening to me. I never remembered meeting Vonda, but then all of a sudden, she was singing my name, calling me. I’m an arrogant dragon, Janet. I never thought such a thing could happen to me, so I never took precautions.”

Mick was so strong I would never have thought it possible either, and I knew he’d beat himself up about it for a while. “So how did the ring bring you back?”

“It held a piece of me that wasn’t wholly enslaved. It allowed me, when the magic mirror multiplied that piece, to release enough of me from the spell so that I could give you my name. Giving it to you, the most powerful magical being around, took it away from her.”

I didn’t feel like the most powerful being around. I felt weak, sick, and magicless. I shifted, rock digging into my backside and thighs. “We couldn’t be talking about this in some nice cushy hotel room?”

“I didn’t want to move you. It’s freezing outside, and I doubt I have the strength to go dragon right now. I don’t even have enough to make a light spell.”

And between the two of us, we had nothing but one pair of jeans, and I was wearing those. “I don’t suppose my cell phone survived.”

“You’re amazing, Janet.”

“Why? Because I’ve broken another cell phone?”

“Because you didn’t give up on me. You could have found a way to kill me, or you could have killed Vonda. Why didn’t you?”

“Why do you think?” I wriggled, trying to get comfortable. “I didn’t want you to die.”

Mick stared at me in surprise. “I made sure you were alone and defenseless. I tried to kill you for her. Why didn’t you protect yourself?”

I squirmed again; the damn cave floor was too hard. “Because I love you, you idiot. Vonda’s the enemy, not you.”

Mick kept looking at me, his eyes so blue, even in the darkness. I’d seen tenderness on his face before, but what I saw now was more than that—a deep joy, sudden understanding coupled with astonishment.

“Janet.” His voice was clogged with emotion.

I wanted to see where that emotion led, but we couldn’t relax yet. “By now, Vonda will have realized she’s lost her dragon. I hope she packs up Ted and runs off, but I’m thinking she won’t.”

Mick nodded, still watching me with that awe. “She’ll try to take another dragon. Drake or Colby, maybe.”

I sat up suddenly, wincing when my head pounded. “Drake. Crap. His deadline.”

“What deadline?”

Fighting, nearly dying, and excruciating pain had distracted me from the fact that Drake was about to call the dragon council and have them round up an army of dragons to hunt and fry Mick. “Drake gave me twenty-four hours to free you. He’ll be coming to kill you.”

“No, he won’t.”

“Why not? How do you know?”

“The magic mirror,” Mick said. “It broadcasted into the dragon compound. They’ll have seen our fight, seen me break from the spell.”

“But now the council will know your name too—not to mention Drake and Colby. And so will the magic mirror. This is so not good.”

Mick shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. I didn’t tell you my name; I
gave
it to you.”

“While they listened.”

“You didn’t hear it with your ears; you heard it inside your head. They just heard me screaming.”

“Oh,” I said, relaxing. A little. I remembered Mick’s long, drawn-out roar of pain, and I felt his body shaking even now. Vonda had reduced him to this, and for that, she’d pay.

“We have to deal with the witch,” I said, my voice strengthening.

I started up, made it an inch, and fell back against Mick. I couldn’t deal with a hangnail right now.

Mick held me in arms that felt so good. “Not yet. You need to get better before we leave. We’re safe enough down here.”

“With no light, and petroglyphs that can freeze me to death.”

“Hey, darling, I’m here.” The magic mirror’s voice from the inch-wide shard sounded tiny and shrill, as though it had breathed helium. “At your service.”

“The
karmii
will alert us to any danger,” Mick said. “That’s what they were made for, to protect the shamans who came down here to capture the magic of the stars.”

I looked up at the walls. Comets and star clusters danced in the light from the mirror. Under these stars I lifted up, wound my arms around Mick’s neck, and kissed him.

Mick made a raw noise in his throat. I pulled him closer, deepened the kiss, sliding my tongue into his mouth. It had been too long since I’d touched him, too long since I’d held him and taken comfort in his body.

He kneaded my back, pulled me up into him. Our lips brushed and bruised, the kiss awakening our hunger instead of slaking it.

I knew Mick wouldn’t push me, because he worried about hurting me. He always worried about hurting me. I opened my jeans myself and wriggled out of them, and Mick’s hands landed, warm, on my thighs. I wrapped my legs around him, touching him with hands that were whole and healed, thanks to him.

“Wait,” he said.

Mick’s eyes were black again, but the sparks in them bore the red of fire, not the white of shadow magic. Mick got to his feet and pulled me up with him. Both of us were coated with dirt and sweat and spattered with blood, and half my hair was singed. I didn’t care. Mick lifted me in his arms, and our mouths sought each other, the warm kissing turning to craving.

“Ground’s too rocky,” Mick said between breaths.

I nodded, not really hearing him. Mick was hard and ready, and I was open, and all my pain went away as soon as he slid into me. I threw my head back and shouted for the pure joy of it.

Mick leaned me against the smooth cavern wall, the stone cool on my back. He cushioned me with his arms so I wouldn’t get scraped, considerate of me even in the madness of passion.

We’d never been quiet lovers, and we saw no need to hold back now. I knew the magic mirror was listening, but it was tiny and pointed at the ceiling, so anyone watching would see only the ancient glyphs. They’d hear us, yes, but let them eat their hearts out.

I wrapped my legs around Mick’s hips, held on to his shoulders, kissed his throat. My mouth fastened on his neck, me suckling him while he loved me hard. I could tell Mick was entirely free of Vonda because he took joy in every moment.

I gasped in sudden release, too quickly, Mick groaning right along with me. I had no memory of finishing, only me falling, landing on Mick in sudden and blissful exhaustion, and the shard of magic mirror crooning, “Oh, lovers, that was
good
.”

Colby was still at the hotel. His frown filled the small shard of mirror, his light blue eyes angry under dark brows.

“No one’s here but me and Drake.”

“No one?” I asked in alarm. “Where’s Maya? I told her to stay with you.”

“Probably in New Mexico. She and that wolf-girl took off out of here not long after they got back. With Maya driving. Your grandmother and your cook went with them. It was their idea.”

“
What?
And you let them?”

“ ‘Let’ isn’t the word for it. Your grandmother snuck out the back while I was trying to keep Maya from going out the front. The Changer woman started fighting me, and Maya made a run for it. I couldn’t run after them because I’m under the effing binding spell. I can’t leave the hotel without Drake, and I can’t shape-shift. I tried to contact you, but you were . . . busy. Take a bigger piece of mirror next time. I couldn’t see a damn thing.”

“What about Drake? Why did he let them go?”

“They’re not dragons, so he couldn’t be paid to care. Drake called off the vendetta on Mick, but not on Vonda. Drake’s on his cell right now, conference calling with the dragon council. They’re debating what to do. That should take about five years.”

Or five minutes. When dragons decided to act, they acted swiftly. I didn’t mind the dragons taking down Vonda, but my grandmother and Maya and everyone I cared about were with her. And as Colby said, Drake couldn’t be paid to care about anyone but dragons.

Mick took the mirror from me, and I paced the cavern, trying to keep my Beneath magic from flaring out in my rage and panic.

“Hey, Micky,” Colby said. “You look like your old self.”

“I am my old self. Get Drake off the phone and tell him I’m using my dragon lord status to call dragons to converge on the site in New Mexico, but they are not to engage until my command. Understand? Do
not
engage. We have civilians involved, plus a witch who is an expert at dragon enslavement. And we’ll need someone to pick us up at the rock cave on the S.J. Ranch. Got all that?”

“Fine. Only, don’t keep me in the dark—let me see what’s going on.” He growled. “I
hate
being out of the action.”

“I’ll buy you a beer,” I promised.

“Yeah, yeah. Good hunting.”

The mirror went dark, Colby gone.

“You trust the dragon council?” I asked. “How do you know they won’t use whatever dragon army you call to burn down the casino?”

Mick looked up at me from where he’d stretched out on the cavern floor, calm and quiet even though the rocks must be cutting his backside. “Using my status means the council is honor-bound not to override my orders. I’ll hold them to that.”

Damned dragon honor. Mick fully believed the council would do as he wished, and I knew enough now to believe it too. Even Colby, who bent rules to suit himself when he could, wouldn’t violate dragon honor.

“Why did you tell Colby to have someone pick us up? We can’t wait. My grandmother, my cook, and my best friend are rushing into the arms of an all-powerful witch.”

Mick got to his feet, easily, casually, as though we had all the time in the world. Dragon arrogance. “I can’t become dragon yet. Notice that I still can’t conjure a light spell.”

“You healed me.”

“I did, and it took the last bit of magic I had. But I’d have been compelled to heal you, even if I hadn’t wanted to. Now that you have my name, I’m honor-bound to help you. And you me.”

He turned and made his way to the rockslide we had to climb, his tattoos looking normal again. No more shivering.

My mouth went dry as I watched him go, his last words ringing in my ears. I had the feeling this was going to get complicated fast.

Deputy Paco Lopez picked us up in a sheriff’s SUV. He averted his eyes when he saw Mick stark naked and me topless under the jacket I’d retrieved, and I knew he was adding this incident to his list of weird things he knew about Janet Begay.