Susannah Scott - Luck of the Dragon

Inside the vault, Lil locked the steel door. Bolts engaged and electronics and metal swished closed. When they were alone, Lil took a deep breath and released it slowly. Her brawny frame seemed to deflate with released tension.

“You like it in here?” Lucy stepped to the first case. A gold breastplate studded in colorful jewels rested against black velvet. It had to be Mayan with the crude studding on the edges. The next case held a 15th century Venetian diamond necklace.

“I like it that you’re safe in here.” Lil sat on the second step leading to the balcony.

Lucy’s head buzzed with frustration. Enough with all the innuendos.

“Truth time.” Lucy stopped in front of her. “Why are you wearing a sword? Why do you think I’m not safe out there? What is this thing on my hand?” She turned her wrist in case Lil had forgotten the stamp.

Lil smiled a genuine smile. It softened her features and made her appear like she could be someone’s friend. “You’ll have to ask Mr. Gerald those questions. He’ll be here soon.”

Lucy gritted her teeth. Lil’s response only made Lucy more determined. She was programmed for the ready response of Google, not slow microfiche basement searches. “Am I really in danger?”

“I believe you are.”

“Why?”

“Mother Superior is jumping the gun.” Lil smiled at pun. “I like the Beatles too.”

Lucy put her hands on her hips, but couldn’t help a smile. “Are you calling me a nun?”

“Happiness is a warm gun.” Lil held up her hands. The gesture would have been playful, if it hadn’t made the vein on her bicep bulge and the sword scrape across the stair.

“That doesn’t tell me why you’re carrying a sword—a real sword. I know my metals. That is non-alloyed steel. That sword is old. Very old.”

“Lucy, let it go. I can’t tell you more than I have.”

The door beeped. Someone was entering the exhibit.

Lil jumped up, pulled her broadsword, and pushed Lucy behind her. They stood for the space of several seconds while the bolts disengaged and the door slid wide.

Gino ran through the gap, carrying a wicked-looking curved blade. At his feet, the two exhibit guards lay unconscious, bleeding.

“Gino!” Lucy yelled, aghast to see him. “What are you doing here?”

“You know Ambrogino?” Lil cast a shocked look back and forth between the two of them.

“No. Yes…” Lucy fumbled her response. “He’s bad.” It was a silly statement, but it covered the basics.

“You don’t say.” Lil opened a storage door under the balcony stair and pushed Lucy inside. “Stay there.”

Lucy crouched in the dark space with her knees to her chest. She should be out there, telling Gino to back off, leave them alone. Tell him she wasn’t going along with his plans anymore. She peeked through the crack in the door. Lil approached Gino and said something in the strange language, but Gino backhanded her, knocking her to the ground.

“Lil!” Lucy opened the door and stepped out. This was all her fault. She shifted from right to left foot, trying to override her desire to get back under the stairs and hide.

Gino laughed. Suddenly, he changed into one of the theater beasts. A brown dragon with red lining its eyes, tail ridge, and wing tips. Spiraled horns grew from its head and fangs protruded from its mouth. Lil jumped to her feet and swung her sword at the creature.

A dragon? In here? Lucy’s body trembled, her breathing grew ragged, and her eyes couldn’t accept what see was seeing. Had Gino somehow joined the Cirque du Soleil show? Her mind skipped over the unbelievable data.

The brown dragon flew a figure-eight pattern near the rafters and roared so loudly, the glass of the jewel cases rattled. Lucy’s heart jumped a beat and her palms left sweat marks on the front of her pants. This was crazy.

Lil jumped on a glass case and swung her sword into the belly of the dragon. Ice seemed to come out of the end of her sword. She was good, like Bruce Lee with a blond braid.

The dragon roared. Blood gurgled off its chest, and it screeched and landed on the ground. It stretched its talons toward Lil, trying to grab her. When Lil swung upward with her sword, the dragon knocked her down. Her head hit the corner of a jewel case, and she crumpled to the floor, not moving.

Above them, the cloth draping on the ceiling burst into flames and fell to the floor.

Heat gusted over her face, tightening the skin. It was a real fire.

Holy Mary, Joseph, and Peter.

The dragon picked up Lil in his claws and shook her like a rag doll. Still Lil did not move. This was too much. Smoke hit Lucy in the face and she coughed.

“Hey, stop this!”

The dragon pivoted his head. It dropped Lil to the ground and trudged toward Lucy. Its spiked tail swung behind it like some crazy dinosaur animation. Jewelry cases shattered into piles of glass and steel.

“That’s enough!” Lucy yelled. Flaming curtains and brocade paper crashed to the ground. Ceiling sprinklers turned on and water poured from the ceiling like a torrential storm.

The dragon stopped a few feet from her. Its lips pulled back to show yellow fangs and black gums dripping with saliva. It inhaled deeply and then blew out, coating her in a foul liquid that smelled like rotten eggs and stale smoke.

The steel door beeped and swished open. Alec and a small army of black-clothed guards rushed inside.

“Lucy!” Alec called.

Lucy wiped water from her eyes and stared at the brown dragon, disbelief paralyzing her.

The dragon opened his mouth and lunged at her. His teeth sunk into her shoulder and he lifted her off the ground. Pain exploded through her body. She saw Alec’s furious face before the floor slammed into her body.

A bigger black dragon came out of nowhere, pinned the brown dragon to the floor, and shook him by the neck. Lucy was so close, she could see the half-circle shaped scales of the black dragon flexing. The brown dragon shrieked, but the black dragon held on, squeezing the other dragon’s throat until it stopped moving.

The brown dragon’s head thudded to the floor next to her. Its pupils dilated to the edges of pink irises and took on the unmistakable mask of death.

This was too real to be fake.

Lucy pushed herself up on her arms and looked around the destroyed room. Her shoulder throbbed. She was hurt. Really hurt. Smoke trailed upward from charred fabric and material, gone soggy with the sprinkler water. Priceless jewels scattered on the floor.

Lil was unconscious.

Could they be real dragons?

She stared at the black dragon. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. The dragon walked forward on all fours, watching her. In a shimmer, he changed into a man.

Alec.

One minute it was a dragon, the next minute it was Alec. Beside her, the brown dragon shrank and turned into a bloodied man.

Gino. Dead.

She scooted to the edge of the stairs.

Alec stepped toward her as if he approached an injured animal, uncertain if she would bolt. His hand reached for her, palm up. She remembered him touching her in a caress. It was the same hand, the same man.

“You’re a dragon?” she whispered the words.

“Yes, I told you so.”

Alec’s face wavered in front of her. In her mind, she heard a rushing sound. A black tide crashed over her, tugging her out to sea. She closed her eyes, welcoming the unknown over the evidence of dragons.

…

Alec picked up Lucy and cradled her to his chest. “See to Lil first,” he told Leo. “Then transfer all the jewels to my private vault.” Alec opened the steel door.

“What about Ambrogino?” Leo asked.

“Burn him so that he can’t regenerate.”

In the hall, gamblers watched Alec carrying Lucy with wide eyes. Lucy was pale, and her breathing was choppy. The three puncture wounds on her right shoulder had to hurt like hell.