Page 48 of The Black Dragon
Amusement filled Justin. “You have noidea.”
The elderly Mage swirled the tea in his glass. “I’m glad you came back, Ariel. You’re always welcome here. Even if your pa avoidsus.”
Her brows knit together. “My father always told me your community banishedhim.”
Vern sighed. “Not exactly true. He banished himself, and you withhim.”
But when Ariel pressed for answers, Vern changed thesubject.
“Nice to see a dragon again in these parts,” Vern said, glancing at Justin. “Dragons and Mages have always had good relationships. We need eachother.”
More confused looks from Ariel. “My father told me dragons and Mages areenemies.”
“Some believe that. Some that had bad experiences in thepast.”
Then the old man shut up and wouldn’t talk about it anymore, saying he needed to return to his latest work inprogress.
They left Vern to return to the studio and went outside to walk around the neighborhood. Children playedhopscotch on the street. A car approached, and instead of beeping at the children to move, it lifted into the air and went abovethem.
Incredulous, he stared. Ariel laughed. “Now you know why I like this place. They’ve harnessed the magick of flight. They can make objects fly for a short time, only in this neighborhood, though. They did it to protect thechildren.”
“How?”
Ariel frowned. “That black dragon Vernmentioned.”
“Does anyone know who itwas?”
“No. They’re all mysterious about the dragon. All anyone will tell me is that years ago a black dragon endowed the community with magick. She was friendly with the Mages and it made her sad to see the neighborhood was dying off. No one wanted to live here anymore because there were no jobs, no sourcesof income and the artistic spirit hadwithered.”
Some dragons weren’t generous with their magick, preferring to hoard power much as they hoarded gold. “How exactly did she give her magick to the community? Did anyoneelaborate?”
Ariel reached for his hand. Her palm felt warm and soft, and he recalled her hands skimming his scarred back last night as they’d madelove.
“I thinkit had to do with transference of crystals. Crystals were placed in areas around the community that became like powersubstations.”
If this was a Mage community that welcomed dragons, maybe he could stay. Justin felt torn between wanting to head back to his Harley and ride off into the sunset, dragon on the run, and staying with Ariel. Beautiful, whimsical Ariel who adored flying and laughedwhen she climaxed in hisarms.
Making a home, a real home, for both ofthem.
They came to a house where a father stood outside on the lawn, watering it, as children frolicked in the spray. Glitter shot from the hose. Fascinated, Justin watched the blades of grass turn rainbowcolors.
Ariel laughed with delight as she ran her hand beneath the colorfulspray.
“I saw themdo that last week. I loved watching the kids trying to catch thecolors.”
Justin grinned. He could understand her longing to be part of this community. Peace and harmony radiated from these homes, a sense of real serenity he envied. No complications of dragon politics or dragons with twisted senses ofrevenge.
Or Mages with warped minds like her father. Perhaps that was why Leo hadbeen banned from this community. He doubted they would tolerate her father’s methods of extractingmagick.
After walking down the sidewalk a while, they came to a neighborhood park. Justin sat on the bench, watching the children play on the swing sets and the slide. An older man held a baby in a pink dress at the top of the slide. The air shimmered with magick, then the baby floated downthe slide, gurgling with delight and clapping her hands. The father beamed at her as if she’d accomplished an amazingfeat.
“Ariel, you’re here. I stopped by to visit and you were gone. You should have told me you were cominghere.”
Justin turned and saw a tall, thin young man wearing glasses and an earnest expression. His good mood vanished as if someone poured ice water on him.He disliked that proprietary tone of voice, as if Ariel belonged to thisman.
“Parker?” Ariel paled. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Seattle with myfather.”
“I arrived yesterday.” He peered at Justin. “Who’sthis?”
