“My uncle Malcolm lit a cigar just by blowing on it,” Griffen said.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that some can do that,” Mose said. “Of course, Mal is a half blood. Folks like Jerome and me who are lesser bloods don’t have as many powers.”
He picked up a cigarette lighter from the coffee table, lit it, then held his hand in the flame as he continued.
“I’ve always been good with fire. I could hold my hand here all day and it wouldn’t burn me. I’d feel some heat, but it wouldn’t hurt.”
He extinguished the flame.
“Dragon skin is one of the secondary powers that pops up in varying degrees. I don’t burn and I don’t bruise. Now, if you was to stick me hard with a knife, I’d bleed like a human…but even then, it wouldn’t penetrate too far. It would be like trying to stick a human through a thick leather coat. You could get through, but not as easily as if you were just dealing with bare skin.
“Some say that the closer to pure-blood you are, the tougher your skin will be. I’m not sure you could get through Mal’s skin with a knife at all. A true pureblood is supposed to be able to shrug off bullets. Of course, even though the skin doesn’t break, I’m not sure what it would do to the bones underneath if you got hit with a big enough caliber.”
While he was considering trying the flame trick, Griffen mentally decided holding off testing whether or not he was bulletproof for as long as possible.
“There are all sorts of things some say dragons can have as secondary powers.” Mose continued. “Dragon skin and breathing flame are both pretty well-known and documented. Size changing and shape-shifting are talked about, but you don’t actually see it very often.”
“How do those work, exactly?” Valerie said. “I mean, is it like the Human Torch from theFantastic Four ? Do you say ‘flame on’ or ‘shape-shift’ to trigger it?”
“As I understand it, it’s kind of like your voluntary muscles,” Mose said. “I mean, the dragon skin, if you get it, will always be with you. As to the others, once you discover you have it, you have to train it and learn control.”
“How do you do that?” Griffen said.
“Like I say, it’s like a muscle you just learned you have. Imagine if you were just learning to use your arm. With a little practice, you can learn to make it reach out without thinking of exactly how you’re doing it. You also learn how far it reaches, how fast, and how strong it is.”
“And with exercise,” Griffen said, “you can make it stronger.”
“To a degree,” Mose said. “But it’s more complex than that. Sticking with the arm example, if someone hits you unexpectedly, your arm will flinch away without your thinking. Boxers and karate artists learn to control that reflex. If you develop some of the stronger secondary powers, you have to learn to control them as well. An unthinking flinch with a secondary power can not only be noticeable to the humans around you, the actual immediate effects could be disastrous.”
“I can see where that could be a problem,” Griffen said, winking at his sister.
Mose leaned back in his seat and looked at them both.
“It’s no laughing matter,” he said. “Now, I want both you young dragons to listen to me real close. I’m answering your questions about primary and secondary powers as best I can because you’ve asked and I don’t want you to think I’m holding back on you. The truth of the matter is that, for the most part, the various powers don’t mean squat. It’s how you handle yourself that counts. People should do what you want them to because they’re convinced you’re right, not because they’re afraid of what you’ll do to them if they don’t go along. Sure, dragons have powers to some extent or other, but mostly it’s frame of mind.”
Griffen frowned.
“Please excuse me, sir. I didn’t mean to act like I’m taking all this lightly. It’s just that it’s all so new to me that I automatically drop back to old defense patterns…like laughing…to keep from showing how confused I am. Some of this stuff you’re telling me I just don’t understand.”
“Like what, for example.”
“Well, like what you were just saying. I understand that one doesn’t use these powers without a good reason, and even then only use them very carefully. It’s just…well, I keep being told I’m getting this generous offer because of my power potential, but then you say it’s a frame of mind, not the powers. If it isn’t the powers, or potential powers, and just a state of mind, then what do you need me for? What is it exactly that you expect me to do?”
Mose heaved a sigh and ran his hand through his hair.
“That’s a fair question,” he said. “It’s the answer that’s not so easy. Let me try to cover this in pieces. First of all, as you say, you’re new to all this. Part of why I wanted you down here is because I’ve got some things I can teach you.”
He held up a restraining hand.
“Let me get through this. I know what you’re thinking. How is that different from what Mal offered when he asked you to sign up with him. Well, the big difference is that you don’t have to be subservient to me to learn. This is going to be your operation. We’re joining you, not the other way around.
“As to what you’ll be doing, first of all we have to teach you the operation. I understand from Jerome you’re no stranger to betting or bookies, but I don’t think your real familiar with the ins and outs of how it all works. It’s going to take you a while to learn what we do and to meet the people who do the day-to-day work.”
“Once you get the feel of things, though, you probably won’t be that involved in the actual work. You’ll be management, and most of what you do will be setting policy and making decisions.”
“If I can interrupt for a moment,” Griffen said, “could you elaborate a bit on what it is I’ll be deciding?”
“I’ll give you an example,” Mose said. “Something that’s just come up that I’m trying to decide how to handle. There are some poker games around town that aren’t really a part of our group, but that pay us a percentage to operate. Now one of them that’s run by a young kid named Gris-gris has decided to stop paying us that percentage. It’s up to me to decide how to react. If it were you in my seat right now, Young Dragon, what would you do?”
“Me?” Griffen blinked, taken aback. “I…I don’t know. I guess you’d have to arrange for some kind of punishment to make an example of him.”
Mose threw back his head and laughed.
“I can see what Jerome means that you truly love your movies. Well, in part you’re right. But if you’re thinking of roughing him up or shooting up his game, you couldn’t be more wrong. We just don’t do that kind of thing. The kind of punishment we deal in would be to cut him off from the network.”
“The network?” Griffen said.
“That’s right.” Mose nodded. “You see, we have a whole network of people all through town who operate cabs or work at the hotels. When tourists or conventioneers are looking for a game, these folks check them out to be sure they aren’t the law, then send them along to one of our games with an initialed business card to show they’re clean. That’s where we get a lot of our business and most of our new regulars. If Gris-gris wants to operate independently, his game gets dropped from the spotters’ list and he has to make do with locals. That’s the kind of punishment we usually deal in.”
“That’s all?” Griffen said. “I guess it makes sense. I was just expecting something a little more dramatic.”
“Uh-huh,” Mose said. “Well, it can be a bit more tricky once you really get into it. Like in this case, Gris-gris has been shooting his mouth off about how he’s going independent and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Now, whether he stays with us or not I figure is his business, but talking that kind of trash is disrespectful. That’s a whole different issue to be settled.”