Iona shrugged. “A day, maybe. Certainly by two days they would be completely invisible. With Danna, they will be gone by tonight.”

  Michael leaned forward. “Could you give us some of that to take back to the City?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, flustered. “You would have to ask Dmir, but I don’t see anything wrong in it… Danna?”

  “How can I say?” Danna asked, amused. “I’m not a healer, just a dancer!”

  “Just?” said Aaron, smiling down at her so that she remembered to take back her hand. “Beth’s been telling us about your incredible dancing.”

  “Beth is too kind,” Danna said uncomfortably. Michael had returned to Iona, asking her about her origins and her life among the Dragul. Of course, like drew to like, they were both human. He probably found her, Danna, grotesque and alien… Was he strong enough to have pretended earlier? To make sure she took him to the king?

  With an effort, she brought her attention back to Aaron, returning his conversation, trying to feel consoled by the blatant admiration in his eyes -- and making sure her eyes never turned toward the other group formed by Iona, Michael and Beth.

  In the City, apparently, they danced mostly in places called clubs, where they all danced together without form or story, although in the Dome, they had theatres where dances depicting stories were performed. Some were trying to introduce this form of entertainment to the City. To Danna it sounded oddly soul-less and cold.

  “So when will we see you dance?” Aaron asked, smiling.

  “I don’t know…”

  “I do,” Beth interrupted, grinning, twisting round to look at them. “Aurel’s just told me the king has ordered a garden-banquet for tonight, to welcome our guests. No banquet is complete without Danna the Dragon Dancer!”

  “Tonight!” said Aaron triumphantly. “I look forward to it! And afterward, after your performance, would you dance with me?”

  Now at last, she felt Michael’s eyes upon her, but still she would not look.

  She inclined her head to Aaron. “Of course.”

  “But not immediately afterward,” Michael said. He had a deep, resonant voice, the voice of a storyteller, that sent shivers coursing through her body. Worse, she could see from the corner of her eye that he swung himself out of the chair and walked toward her. “You have to dance with me first.”

  Beside her, Aaron looked irritated. He aimed a kick at his friend’s ankle, but Michael side-stepped it neatly. “Don’t you?”

  It was a mistake to meet his gaze. Intensely blue, it teased and devoured her, and when he smiled, she recognized deliberate seduction. It made no difference. She melted under it like ice in the summer sun. Between her legs was hot and clammy, throbbing with sudden need.

  She swallowed. “On the contrary, I do not have to dance with anyone.”

  “Unless you want to,” Michael guessed, and when she inclined her head in what she hoped was a distant manner, he added, “Do you? Want to?”

  The fire burned brighter. Trying desperately to douse it, she said coldly, “I have already said I am happy to dance with visitors.”

  His lips curved slightly. A faint breath of deprecating laughter escaped them, fascinating her. Inexorably drawn, her gaze slid lower down his broad shoulders and chest until, at eye-level, it encountered the blatant bulge of his crotch.

  A fresh flood of moisture pooled between Danna’s thighs. She knew triumph as well as excitement, for there could be no pretence here. The man was aroused. Very aroused, and judging by the size of the straining bulge, he was certainly worth arousing. It was so close she could lick it, pull down his zip with her teeth…

  Shocked by her own lust, she hastily dragged her gaze back upwards. Their eyes met again, and held, and his, clearly, wickedly aware of her observations, blazed even brighter. His smile deepened, rocking her to her core.

  “How is Eve, Michael?”

  It was Beth, innocent and bland and fooling no one. The smile became fixed on Michael’s sinful lips. The wild light in his eyes died. And yet despite the barriers she had erected against his leaking thoughts, Danna glimpsed profound, numbing pain.

  Abruptly, he broke their eye contact and swung round to Beth. While he answered her, Danna let her breath out in a trembling rush. Of course he had a woman, and she would do well to bear it in mind! And yet in spite of the pain she had glimpsed, he spoke carelessly, as if he was discussing the weather and was slightly bored by the whole thing.

  “Eve? Well, of course. Still in the Dome. She imagines she can change things there from the inside. I’m beginning to think she just likes it there. You don’t talk to her?”

  “I don’t talk to anyone unless they insist.”

  “Sorry,” said Michael, not sounding in the least apologetic that he had, apparently, insisted. “You pulled a big stunt without any warning.”

  “Sorry,” Beth said gruffly -- and she did sound it. “I couldn’t get Aurel to come with me to the City unless we met only my parents.”

  Michael threw himself back down in the chair he had recently vacated. “Ah, Bethy, Bethy,” he mocked. “How the mighty have fallen -- under a man’s thumb after all.”

  “Go to hell, Michael,” Beth said dangerously.

  “Assuredly,” he grinned.

  Danna? Can you dance tonight? It was the king’s voice in her mind, impersonal and polite as he always was, drawing her inexorably out of their world and back to her own.

  Of course. In fact, it was a relief to have an excuse, to be able to stand up and leave. Iona, sensing her discomfort, hugged her as she made her farewells. Beth grinned, and Aaron gallantly kissed her hand.

  Michael, the dark one, only nodded distantly, as if his blazing lust had never been.

  Chapter Three

  It was Beth, not Aurel, who took them to the king, so the introductions were predictably informal.

  “These are my friends, Michael and Aaron, from the City. Guys -- King Vasil.”

  The king, a dark and impossibly handsome Dragul in a scarlet tunic, inclined his head with dignity. “You are welcome in the Dragul Kingdom. I am pleased to meet the son of David and Katia.”

  Michael blinked. “You know my genealogy?”

  “We are naturally aware of those who brought back the sun. We did not have the technology to reach so far into the atmosphere. Your parents first found the tether, and Beth’s used it. They are all in our stories.”

  “Wow,” said Aaron. He’d been saying that a lot since they’d got here and it was beginning to grate on Michael’s nerves. To cover his irritation, he looked around the lush gardens. There was no sign of the dancer, though Iona, the healer’s assistant, was tripping happily toward them. She paused a respectful distance away, until Beth stepped back to murmur something quietly in her ear.

  The king had turned now to Aaron, with equal civility. “Aaron, you are also most welcome.”

  “Though lacking famous parents?” Aaron said with ill-timed humor.

  The king, however, smiled faintly, though it didn’t much lighten his profoundly dark eyes. “Human foster-son of the lupi,” he said surprisingly. “Your fame is your own, a living symbol of unity for your City.”

  Michael regarded the king with unexpected approval. To be valued for himself was a great thing for a man who had grown up in the shadow of his younger, gifted friends.

  Michael said, “Thanks for your hospitality. We’re grateful to be able to see Beth. And, hopefully, to talk with you.”

  The king’s eyes came back to him, and it struck Michael he would not really like this being as an enemy. “We welcome you to our hospitality -- and to talk, since you took the trouble to rescue one of our own. However, to save time and future misunderstandings, I must tell you now that no further visitors from your City will be welcomed here.”

  Straight to it! “Thanks for your directness.”

  The king’s eyes gleamed brief amusement, but he said only, “Tomorrow, we will talk. Tonight is for fun. Enjoy.”

  He turned away, the “audience” clearly over, and fell back to listen to two Dragul who hovered near him.

  Beth linked her arms in Michael’s and Aaron’s and dragged them with her. “You heard the king. Enjoy yourselves!”

  “You weren’t kidding about the isolationist bit, were you?”

  “Nope.”

  They were in the big, grassy square which had been transformed by plants, vast numbers of flowers, glittering streamers and brightly coloured balloons without strings that hovered in the air and bounced away when you reached for them. Several Dragul children chased after them, laughing uproariously, and celebrating wildly whenever a balloon was actually caught.

  Close to the palace building, a gate opened up into a more formal garden, where, among bubbling fountains, tables had been set with bowls of fruit and colourful glass goblets. It was toward this that Beth now urged them.

  Iona came too. Michael heard her saying curiously, “You were fostered by mutant humans? Did you grow up alone among them?”

  “I was the only non-lupi,” Aaron said cautiously. “But my foster-siblings never treated me as anything but a brother. Their parents were mine in every way that mattered. And my grandfather used to visit a lot before he died.”

  “Died… I suppose you will die too.”

  “I suppose I will,” Aaron said dryly.

  “As will I,” Iona said sadly.

  Beth spoke over her shoulder. “Aaron, tell her she doesn’t look sixty.”

  His attention caught at last, Michael stopped to stare at the human girl.

  “Sixty?”

  “Are you mutant too?” Michael asked.

  “No, I’m told not -- why?”

  “Must be something in the air,” Aaron said, gazing at her. “As an unchanged human, I would guess you to be under thirty. Would you mind if I examined you sometime?”

  Iona blushed.

  “In a medical capacity,” Aaron added hastily. “I’m a doctor!”

  “I know you are,” Iona said faintly. Michael caught Beth’s eye and grinned. Leaving the other two, they wandered on to a table and helped themselves to apples and raspberries.

  “Do they treat her?” Michael asked abruptly.

  “Iona? I don’t honestly know. I don’t think so though. It may just be something to do with the purity they bring to the air and the water.” She glanced at him over the rim of her glass. “You’re thinking of your father. I wonder too if it would help my mother to live longer… Or Aaron, or any other humans in the City. It just seems hardest on the partners of those who do not age… Maybe I’m one of those partners. After all, who knows which way we mixed-race children will go? Aaron should talk to Dmir.”

  “I’ll make sure of it,” Michael said grimly. “Would it be rude to have a spot of blood right now?”

  “There will be better opportunities later,” Beth said vaguely. Following her gaze, he saw she was watching a group of children dancing to the music of a melodic, harp-like instrument. And with them was Danna, leading them, teaching them.

  Smiling and relaxed as she had never been around him, she spread her wings and bent gracefully at the knee. The children copied her, like a flock of exotic birds. It was charming, and Michael was enchanted.

  Unexpectedly, her gaze moved and found him. The smile on her lips froze and died, and Michael turned away without acknowledging her. For the first time in his life, he forgot to smile when kicked.

  * * *

  The children danced and sang and ran around shouting and laughing like all children do. Musicians played, everyone socialized with good humor and gentle charm, welcoming the visitors and inviting them to join complicated board games or conversations. In spite of himself, the time passed quickly for Michael.

  As night began to fall, the children disappeared, along with the balloons and the board games. Torches were lit among the tables, which began to fill up with adults radiating anticipation and excitement. This then, Michael thought, is where the real fun begins…

  At that point, Aurel appeared and led them to the table where the king already sat. So did Beth, who turned from her conversation with him to grin at her friends.

  Placed with obvious honor between the king himself and Aurel, the Keeper of the Laws, Michael realized the tables were set out around a kind of grassy arena. To the sound of music, three Dragul juggled glittering glass balls without ever touching them.

  “Neat trick,” Michael observed, reaching for a peach and then laying it down on the table. Fruit was all very well, but he’d begun to ache for blood. The curse of his mother, the vampire. Perhaps it was the darkness adding to the atmosphere, but with heightened sensitivity he could hear the beating hearts around him, smell the warm blood they pumped.

  And yet, surprisingly, he found he still enjoyed the conversation around him, the mixture of familiar -- Beth and Aaron -- and the unfamiliar Dragul who seemed to put City learning and knowledge to shame. But then, they had been around for…

  “How long have you been around?” he asked Aurel.

  “The Dragul? As long as the Earth. Or so the stories say. This Kingdom? Since your war emptied the land here and gave us the opportunity to return in peace.”

  “And isolation,” said Michael. A smile flickered in the Law Keeper’s eyes.

  “You are curious about that. Let us tell you.”

  Unexpectedly, the Dragul rose to his feet and walked toward the arena. The harp stilled, the entertainers vanished. The buzz of conversation rose, and then fell away to an expectant hush. All eyes, all attention turned to Aurel.

  And he was an impressive specimen, Michael had to admit; he had commanding presence, and the voice to carry it off.

  In a rare moment of communication, Beth spoke inside his head. “Be prepared, Michael -- this is overwhelming the first time. I know.”

  Exactly how one man’s words were meant to overwhelm him, Michael didn’t ask. The Law Keeper began to speak aloud.

  And Beth was right. Aurel’s incredible stories unfolded vividly in his mind, providing a far deeper understanding than that of mere words. And by the end, he knew why the Dragul would not share their land with innately prejudiced and fearful humans, whatever their city or political beliefs. And why the Dragul around him were all so young. They were the young rebels who had left their elders underground to make a new kingdom above and wait for the light. The light that his parents and Beth’s had eventually made possible, and that was told too.

  It was astonishing, peculiarly moving to see his young parents as they discovered the tether and went hand in hand inside the wrecked carriage. Unknown to them, the Dragul, perhaps Aurel himself, had seen them.

  He felt a moment of helpless rage, of grief, that in the intervening years his father had aged so beside his unchanging mother. Because he would age more and inevitably die.

  Would he, Michael, die? No one knew what would happen to the mixed-race children, himself and Beth and Eve…

  Hazily, he became aware that Aurel was holding out his hand, and that walking toward it from the far side of the arena was Danna the Dragon Dancer.

  His heart beat faster. So this was it. Finally, he would see her dance.

  But she danced with Aurel. While Aurel told a story of love that ordinarily Michael would have ignored as some silly fairytale, Danna danced it.

  With her hand in Aurel’s, she began slowly, her movements subtle, yet profoundly graceful as she turned around him. Gradually, the words and the dance became one in his mind, the actual visual feeding the one in his head while he began to feel what Danna danced.

  Helplessly, he became lost in her emotions, in her desires. When she spun her body into Aurel’s and laid his hand on her breast, he felt her pleasure, her ache, even while part of him raged that Aurel could touch her when he could not. And yet along with Danna’s arousal, there was his own, hot and heady. He wanted Aurel to caress her, to give her the pleasure she craved. He wanted to watch. He wanted to feel. He wanted to kill Aurel.

  Their bodies pressed together in graphic simulation of sex. Danna thrust her hips around him, into him, gyrating while her face revealed her ecstasy. Michael felt her ecstasy, wanted it for her and himself, and when she threw her head back and arched her back in climax, only jealousy prevented him coming in his own pants. Aurel’s hand covered her breast, his hips seemed glued to hers. Wildly, Michael wondered if he was actually inside her, if her pleasure were real.

  Christ, what wouldn’t I give for that dance!

  She straightened, throwing her head forward onto Aurel’s shoulder. Aurel bent slowly and placed his mouth on her bare, entrancing neck. Michael gasped aloud, along with everyone else, as he felt the bite of Aurel’s teeth on the dancer’s flesh, the joyous rush of blood flowing from her to him.

  They’re vampires! My God, they’re vampires…

  Stunned, Michael let the knowledge wash through him, along with all the emotions and pleasures consuming his mind and body. But he was a man of action, and he knew he had to act. Desperately, he stumbled to his feet, determined to save the dancer…

  For myself!

  No! At least maybe -- I wouldn’t take much, just a taste of that sweet, sweet blood…

  “Michael, sit down!” It was Beth’s voice, urgent in his mind, her hand on his arm, pressing him back to his seat. “It’s a ritual and doesn’t harm her…”

  Dragged out of his pain- and pleasure-filled daze, Michael stared at her. “They’re vampires. Like us. What’s all this ‘oh my God, you kill for blood’ crap?” Later, he was glad he’d spoken silently. At the time, he didn’t care if his words echoed round the whole town.

  “Nothing dies to give them life. They only take blood from each other… it’s the energy that feeds them, not the nutrients. They don’t drink it cold from a cup like we do.”

  “Like I do… you never drink.”

  She was silent, wrestling with some inner demon. Then: “I drink from Aurel,” she confessed. “And he from me.”

  Michael stared at her. “A lover’s caress? How can you stand it?” He meant the play between Aurel and Danna, and she knew it. But she only smiled and shrugged.