Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

woman, who was two inches shorter than her. It was easy to forget that - in part because Grandmother seldom allowed others to stand around her. "Have you got transportation? You said you'd been walking. I might be able to get someone to drive you, but it could be a while."
    For a moment Grandmother didn't respond. Then she smiled, oddly tender, and patted Lily's cheek. "You please me, Granddaughter. All my grandchildren please me, but it has been a special joy to watch you Becoming."
    Flustered beyond words, Lily did the one thing that occurred to her. She bent ever so slightly and kissed her grandmother's cheek. The tingle of magic on her lips was dear, familiar, unique.
    It didn't feel like dragon magic. It felt like Grandmother's magic.
    Grandmother's smile lingered. "You are upset because I did not tell you of your heritage."
    "I... yes. Yes, I am. Your story is your own, but that part, about my magic being from dragons - that was about me, too."
    Grandmother nodded. "Our stories are never completely our own. This is illusion. They are also the stories of our fathers and mothers, our children and ancestors, of all those we brush against for one second, or laugh with, or love, or fight, or kill. Mostly we do not see this, but it is so. This part of my story, which is also yours, belongs to Sam as well. When magic grew thin here and dragons removed to Dis, I did not go with them. With him. I needed a child, which he could not give me, so I remained.
    "He returned me to this form, which was capable of children. This was a powerful working, and cost him much. He did this for love of me, knowing my need. He asked of me one thing: that if I should have a child and if that child, or that child's child, should bear anything of him, I was not to speak of it or allow the child to know. That was his to do.
    "I agreed. He could have asked a great deal more. I would have agreed, for love of him."
    Lily swallowed. This was a Mt. Everest of candor and revelation, and it moved her near to tears. "He expected to return."
    "He knew he would. He did not know when."
    "And he... he wanted to be the one to tell me about my heritage?"
    "You wonder why. I know, as much as one may know such things about another, but I do not speak of it. That is very much his story, and a dragon story, and you are not dragon. You have an inheritance from dragons, but you are not dragon. He will tell you himself, or he won't."
    "Is there... is there more you haven't told me? More I should know, because it's my story, too?"
    Lily saw something rare on Grandmother's face then. Pure surprise. It flashed over her, melding almost instantly into a chuckle. "Oh, you are bright. Yes. There is more, and I will not speak of it today. I have reasons, which may be wrong or right, but are my best judgment. If I should die in the next few days - "
    "Grandmother!"
    "I do not intend it, child. But the Chimei is a formidable enemy, and she longs for my death. If I should die with these other matters untold, it will be left to Li Qin to choose the time and place of the telling."
    "Li Qin? Not Sam?"
    "That part of my story is a woman's story, and not for Sam to tell. Enough." Grandmother's posture changed subtly, yet unmistakably. The time for stories and candor was at an end. She glanced around. "Is there a telephone here?"
    "A telephone?" Lily's mind was in too many places at once. She couldn't imagine why Grandmother - who hated telephones - suddenly wanted one.
    "I require a taxicab."
    "I can get you a taxi." Lily reached in her pocket for her phone. "But you hate them. You say they're all driven by incompetent apes who - "
    "Bah. I have survived things you could hardly conceive. I can survive a ride in a taxicab."
    Lily touched the app that gave her the Yellow Pages - and on impulse, searched for a different listing from "taxicabs." A smile tugged at her mouth. "How about a limo instead?"
    "A limousine." Grandmother's eyes lit with humor and delight. "A very large one."
    "Long and shiny."
    "And black. I do not care for the white ones."
    "Long, shiny, and black. With a uniformed driver."
    Grandmother approved this with a nod. "Your mother," she announced, "will be surprised."
    Oh, God, yes. Was it terrible of her to want to watch?
    It took a few moments to arrange - moments she probably shouldn't have used this way. But Grandmother's childlike delight was impossible to resist. Lily prepaid with her credit card - Grandmother didn't have a purse with her, and there were