Salvatore glanced up.
'I did not mean to sleep so long, Senor Jake,' he said.
'I'm just kidding, ' Jake said. The big man ruffled his hair. 'Let's find you something to eat. You were up almost all night.'
'The dragon is gone,' Salvatore said. 'When I woke, it was gone.'
'Snake has it,' Jake said. 'He didn't show it to any of us. He wants to see you after you get some food and something to drink.'
A few moments later, Salvatore sat at one of two old wooden kitchen tables with a sandwich, a glass of milk, and a chunk of cheese. He ate quickly and without talking. Jake slid into the chair on the far side of the table and watched him. Outside the window, night was falling. Through the windows they could see the flames of torches, candles, and the bonfire out back. Salvatore barely noticed. He could not remember ever having been so hungry. When the food was gone, he washed it down with the milk.
'Kind of takes it out of you, doesn't it?' Jake asked softly. 'I know you ate a lot after you painted my jacket. Martinez told me.'
Salvatore nodded. Now that he was done eating, he felt out of place and nervous. He glanced around the kitchen. The Dragons kept it clean and simple. There were a couple of old refrigerators along one wall, a stove, and the two tables. Despite its simplicity, it was almost overwhelming after the bare, drafty interior of his shack.
'Snake wants you outside in a bit,' Jake said. 'Martinez will be there too — and the dragon.'
'You've seen it?' Salvatore asked. He watched the big man's face.
'No one but Snake has seen it. He said he came in, found you about to pass out on the floor, caught you, and then took it. He won't talk about it, but…you should have seen his eyes, Sally. I'd swear, if I didn't know it sounded crazy, that they glowed. They glowed red, and when he passed by me with that rolled up flag, I didn't recognize him at all.'
'It is the same for you, Senor Jake,' Salvatore said. 'When you first saw your dragon — when you wore it — you changed. Do you not feel it?'
'Oh, I feel it, Sally,' Jake said. 'I feel stronger, faster — everything is clearer than it's ever been. With Snake, it was different. He's stronger, yeah…but a little scary. You know what I mean?'
Salvatore stared at the table for a moment and collected his thoughts. Then he raised his head and met Jake's gaze.
'His dragon is very powerful. It did not want me to finish the painting. There is another place — a city — I see it when I paint. I think his dragon is very important there. When I painted…it tried to take me. The paint — the red paint that Martinez made for me — it was different. I would very much like to see the dragon.'
'I think we're all going to see it soon enough,' Jake said. He studied Salvatore's face, as if there was something he knew, or saw, that he couldn't quite bring to the surface. 'Martinez will be here soon. Snake is going to talk…and we're going to act. Most of the others don't want to go. They've heard what happened last time, in Santini Park. They've heard what Los Escorpiones did to Vasquez. They want to move on — find a new place. Snake wants them to fight.'
'It will not be the same,' Salvatore said, ' not sure why he spoke, or how he knew that his words were true. 'You have changed. Snake…'
'I know,' Jake said. 'He's changed. The fight will be different. We might even have a chance at winning. The question is, what do we win? What's really at stake here? If it was just this clubhouse, and this town, I'd be with the others. I'd say, let's get the hell out of here and find a new place without a war in progress. It's more than that, though. I feel it, Snake feels it — I think Martinez knows it too. We're fighting against something that's not going to stop at taking over the Barrio, or Santini Park. We might be the only thing between some weird ancient darkness and the rest of the world. It's a screwed up feeling, but at the same time, it makes me want to fight. It makes me want to be a hero.
'You think that's crazy, Sally?'
Salvatore held the big man's gaze. What he saw took him far away, to that strange dark city on the coast of an ocean he knew did not touch any beach in California, or on Earth. He thought carefully about his words, and then he spoke.
'I do not believe you are crazy,' he said. 'I believe that you are a hero. I believe that Martinez has seen what might come, and that he brought all of us together to stop it. He's known me all of my life, but until now he paid very little attention. He gave me some food, and he listened when I had something to say. He brought me chalk and pencils when he found them. Now it is different. He saw something in my pictures and I am here. He saw something in you — and in Snake — and you are here. On our own, none of us could stand against Los Escorpiones — not with Anya Cabrera at their side. Together? Maybe we are all heroes.'
Jake reached out and messed up Salvatore's hair. The big man smiled, and Salvatore could not help but return it. A knock at the door broke the silence, and Jake turned.
'That must be Martinez,' he said. 'I guess it's show time'
He rose and left the room. Salvatore carried his empty milk glass to the sink, rinsed it, and then stepped back into the main room. Martinez had entered, and the old man smiled and nodded at him. Without a word, Jake led the two of them out through the clubhouse and into the yard beyond, where Snake stood in the center of several rings of gathered Dragons.
As he stepped into the firelight and caught Snake's gaze, Salvatore felt a sudden heat on his cheeks. He had to fight the urge to shield his eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The yard behind the clubhouse danced with shadows. Torches and candles flickered on poles planted in the ground and on every horizontal surface. In the center there was a larger fire; Snake stood alone beside it. He stared at the back door of the clubhouse, and as Salvatore stepped through, the two locked gazes, just for an instant.
All around that central fire, the Dragons stood in rows. There was a passage open from the back door of the clubhouse to the center, but it seemed as if every other square inch of ground was occupied. Where there were no men, there were shadows and flickering light. Salvatore tried to ignore them.
Jake had a hand on his shoulder, and the big man escorted him through the crowd toward the fire. Salvatore was glad for Jake's presence, but he wasn't frightened. Something in Snake's gaze drew him forward, and he felt a sense of purpose he'd never experienced — a sense of belonging. Martinez walked at his side. The old man said nothing. He looked neither to the right nor the left. He held his head high. This was Snake's moment, but it also belonged to Salvatore, and to Martinez. Salvatore felt a great many things converging, coming together in that clearing and binding them all.
They gathered by the fire. Snake stood very still. He barely acknowledged their arrival. Jake took his place behind Snake, and Salvatore stood beside Jake. Martinez stepped a little off to the side, but not so far as to seem separated from the group. The crowd drifted and covered the trail that led back to the clubhouse. Salvatore stared out into the flickering torches and candlelight. He saw shadowed faces. Eyes glittered, but he could not make out the features on their faces.
Snake began a slow circuit of the fire. He stared out into the gathered Dragons. He met their gazes, and, at last he came back to stand at Salvatore's side. Snake didn't move like he had the last time Salvatore had seen him. He seemed taller, quicker and stronger. His eyes glittered even when there was no light to cause it.
He stepped closer and took Salvatore by the arm. Salvatore detected no unity among those gathered, though they stood so closely packed it was difficult to tell where one ended, and the next began. There was fear in the air, some of it directed at Snake, and some of it beyond the yard and the clubhouse into the night. There was nothing holding them together but the iron will of the man they called Presidente and the presence of the crazy old man, Martinez, at his side.
Jake stepped forward and handed a long pole to Snake, who slammed the base of it into the ground at his feet. Salvatore saw that the canvas he'd painted on had been wound around the top of that pole. He stared at it, mesmerized. He knew what was to come, or thought he did, but he couldn't imagine the effect it might have on the gathered Dragons.
