Dragons Wild

“And what would that be?”

She sighed and pursed her lips.

“Well, I was going to work up to this slowly,” she said, “but since you’ve asked I might as well cut to the chase. In a nutshell, there’s a faction of the Eastern dragons, specifically the young ones, who want to throw their support behind you. I’m here as their spokesperson to approach you and see if we can work something out.”

Griffen leaned back in his chair and stared at her. Suddenly, the noise of the pool matches seemed far away.

“I…I don’t know what to say, Mai,” he managed at last. “That’s something that had never even occurred to me. I’d have to hear a lot more about what it entailed before I could even start thinking about it.”

“Of course,” Mai said. “In the meantime, though, I have a present for you. Call it a token of goodwill.”

She rummaged in her purse for a moment, then produced a small notebook, which she shoved across the table to Griffen.

“You know how Asians love to gamble?” she said. “Well, here’s a list of local Asians who run various gambling concerns. After I talked to them, they all want to sign on with your organization.”

Griffen blinked at her.

“What exactly are they expecting from me?”

“Just to be included in your network,” she said. “They want to use your spotters to steer tourists into their games…and maybe get included in the police protection you’ve set up. In return, you get a percentage of their action.”

Griffen felt a quick spike of greed. If Mai’s offer was legitimate, then not only would it mean some major monies for the operation’s coffers, it would be a feather in his cap for bringing the new games on board.

“Am I expected to help run their operations?” he said carefully. “I mean, I’ve heard of mah-jongg and fan-tan and pai gow, but I don’t have the foggiest idea of how they’re played.”

“I can teach you enough for you to get by,” Mai said, laying her hand on his arm. “It’ll be fun.”

“Hi, lover.”

Fox Lisa was suddenly standing there. Though she spoke to Griffen, her eyes were locked on Mai.

“Who’s the fortune cookie?”

Griffen rose to his feet, shedding Mai’s hand as he stood.

“Mai, this is Fox Lisa,” he said. “Lisa, this is Mai, an old friend of mine from college.”

“With the emphasis on the ‘old,’” Lisa said, baring her teeth at Mai.

Mai flowed to her feet. To Griffen, it almost looked like a cobra raising its head and spreading its hood. Even though Mai was a full head shorter than Fox Lisa, she suddenly looked larger.

“With the emphasis on the ‘we’ve been lovers for a long time,’” she corrected. “Little girl, you don’t really want to go sideways to me. I don’t mind sharing once in a while…and that could be fun, too…but nobody takes from me. You may have a bit of the blood in you, but you aren’t dragon enough to go head-to-head with me.”

“How about me?” Valerie was suddenly there, looking at Mai over Lisa’s head. “Am I dragon enough to qualify?”

“You must be the sister,” Mai said with a smile. “YouI’ve been looking forward to meeting.”

A hand fell on Griffen’s shoulder, pulling him backward. It was Jerome.

“I need to talk to you, Grifter,” he said. “Now!”

“But…” Griffen gestured weakly at the three women, but they didn’t even spare him a glance.

“Now!” Jerome repeated, leading Griffen the few steps to the bar.

“What is it?” Griffen said, craning his neck to try to watch the confrontation.

The three women were seated now. Mai and Valerie were maintaining an erect posture, eyes locked. Fox Lisa was leaning forward, speaking rapidly.

“Remember what I told you way back when about female dragons?” Jerome said, stepping to block the line of sight. “Well, believe me, Young Dragon, you donot want to be in the middle of that right now.”

“Uh-huh.” Griffen said absently.

“Damn it. Pay attention!” Jerome snapped. “Think of the Chicago fire. The San Francisco earthquake.”

“Yeah. So?”

“So bad things happen when female dragons get together and start quarreling.” Jerome said. “In fact, there’s only one thing I can think of that’s worse.”

There was a sudden burst of laughter, and both men turned to look. The three women were sitting with their heads together now, gri

“Don’t tell me,” Griffen said. “Let me guess.”

“Got it in one,” Jerome said with a sigh. “The only thing worse than female dragons quarreling is when they get together and really hit it off.”

Forty-six

Griffen had started to make semiregular visits to Mose. Part of it was updates and pla

The other part of these meetings was further training and learning about just what it was to be a dragon. After all these weeks, Griffen still had more questions than answers. Though Mose claimed not to have all the answers the young dragon would need, he certainly had more than the young man had. In fact, it didn’t hurt to have Mose around just while Griffen practiced on his own. The older man knew what signs of progress or problems to look for.

Today Griffen seemed more preoccupied than most. Mose had to keep repeating himself to get his attention. It was as if something had been nagging at Griffen, and he just didn’t know how to put it into words.

“So just spill it already,” Mose said.

“Huh?”

Griffen shook his head and realized that Mose had been giving him a piercing gaze for about five minutes. He flushed a bit and shook his head.

“What do you mean, Mose?”

“Well, something sure has you distracted today. New gal in your life?”

“Old one come back again…but no, that’s not quite it.”

“So why don’t you tell me what it is, so we can stop wasting both our time. I swear you haven’t heard half what I’ve said since you came in.”

“You’d probably be right. Okay, Mose. Tell me about glamour.”

It was Mose’s turn to say “huh” and give Griffen another hard look. He gathered his thoughts carefully.

“That’s some random train of thought you’ve got, Grifter. Before I start, though, I’ve got to ask, who you thinking of putting the glamour on?”

“What? No no no, other way around maybe. How do you tell if it’s being done? How do you counter it? That sort of thing.”

“Ah…Well, damn, son, if it will set your mind at ease, I can see right off that no one’s got a glamour on you.”

“You can see it?”

“Yes and no, you can see the change in the person, maybe something in the eye. The heavier it’s been laid, the longer it lasts, the more you can see the signs.”

“Okay, this is a good start. But, Mose, it wasn’t me I was worried about.”

“Damn, that might change things. Okay, let’s start with the basics. What do you know or think you know about glamour?”

“Nothing really. It’s only been mentioned in passing, I’m honestly surprised I remembered the name. From what I can tell, it’s something between supercharisma and the Jedi mind trick.”

“Okay, give me a moment, this isn’t going to be easy.”

Mose leaned back in his chair and half closed his eyes in thought. Every once in a while his lips would purse, as if he were trying on a word for fit. Griffen watched, his curiosity growing. None of his questions so far had required quite this level of thought. He wondered why this one topic was so different.

“Glamour is a tricksie thing,” Mose said finally.

“Tricksie?” Griffen couldn’t help himself.

“Back off, we’re talking about glamour for crying out loud. Just be glad I’m not going to bring elves and fairies into the damn mix.”