Dragon 5 Chapter 21

I was holding copies of the other sketches that had been made from Agent Tills’ description of the vampires with a frown plastered on my face.

They weren’t who I’d hoped to see. If anything, they gave more credence to Deniz’s claim that there was a problem among the vampires, but it wasn’t related to him at all.

In my hand was a sketch of a man that Morgana informed me was Richardo’s number two and Ricardo himself.

That, along with the woman that Deniz had turned, made for a rather unfortunate picture of someone working behind Deniz’s back.

The well connected Turkish vampire certainly had created enough motive for Ricardo. When I explained the situation to Agent Tills, she had said that was enough motive to make him a suspect over Deniz.

I still wasn’t sure how her case of the sex demon attack had brought her to a warehouse full of vampires, but it showed that the two were somehow connected.

As I studied the photos, the rest of the council were being handed the same images.

Sebastian sat down at his seat, taking the copies and scowling over at me. “Let’s get this going. I have important things to do today. It seems we have two major issues to deal with; why don’t we deal with the most important one first.”

I was nodding along with him, but then paused when he didn’t give me the floor.

“A human has become informed of the paranormal. Those who broke the laws that have kept us all safe for hundreds of years were swiftly killed, but now an FBI agent has been brought here with knowledge of who and what we are.” He waved his hands, and one guard brought Agent Tills into the circular ring below us.

She paused and stared around the circle at the shadows arrayed before her. “I am here investigating a case, and I would like to request your help—“

“Silence.” Sebastian snapped. “You do not speak. You have no master, nor are paranormal. You have no voice among those of us here.”

I winced. She had started as we coached her, but the situation had flipped on its head because the elves were too stuck in their ways.

Tills did not look amused at his statement.

Sebastian continued. “She should be executed to preserve our secrecy.”

“No. In this, you are wrong, Sebastian.” I barked, causing a silence to fall over the council. “She’s a federal agent looking into the death of a federal legislator. If you kill her, it will only bring an army of investigators into our city looking into what is already a paranormal crime.”

The elf grimaced. “So, you have failed. Detective Fox has failed to keep the paranormal out of the focus of this investigation.”

“You are going to pretend as if you have no duty among this council to preserve the paranormal? Another building was filled with freshly turned vampires. That was the reason for Agent Tills’ knowledge of paranormals. And also has now led to Helena’s kidnapping, an angel who came to this council for support and was given such.” I reminded him.

I didn’t think Sebastian was working with the vampires, but his bigotry might just end up killing Agent Tills and bringing a bigger headache to my city.

The elf turned his nose up at me. “I don’t see you taking custody of this human.”

“You didn’t give me much of a chance. You hurried straight towards eliminating the threat. Interesting for an elf to be more bloodthirsty than a dragon.” Even as I said it, I knew some of my anger was from the grudge I held. The elves’ choice to duel me to the death on my first day in the paranormal world wasn’t exactly a warm welcome.

“Then, by all means.” Sebastian gestured down to the agent.

I cleared my throat. “Agent Tills. Per our customs, a human can only be a part of our paranormal society if one of us takes them in. Any mistake you make would be on me. Among paranormal customs, you would be mine.”

Her eyes widened. “As in a servant?”

I paused before answering. “This clause was customarily used for servants and wives.”

She scowled at me, but I wasn’t the one who set history. The best I could do was move forward and try to help protect her.

“So, would you consent to becoming my servant in the eyes of the paranormal community?” I certainly would not ask her to become my wife.

“Well, if that’s the only way to stay alive, then I suppose I’ll say yes. I’d hardly call this consent in the legal form, though.” She remarked dryly.

Sebastian hissed. “She already shows disrespect for our laws. I hope that this doesn’t come back to harm you, dragon king.”

“Now that she is under my care, let’s hear what she has to say. Please, Agent Tills, continue.” I urged her.

She shot me an eye roll before continuing. “My partner, Helena, and I were attacked last night when entering a warehouse for the case. I’m told my partner is an angel. I watched as she was captured by the vampires in the sketches that have been distributed. I was forced to lock myself in a freezer to survive, and then I called Zach to see if he could get me out.”

I picked up the conversation. “Two of the three vampires are likely known to many of you. Ricardo and his right hand. The woman was last seen as a human being fed on by Deniz. Ricardo may have turned her after that feeding, or she could have been turned by someone else. We don’t have that information right now.

With no objections, I continued. “Agent Tills will work with Detective Fox and I as we try to locate Ricardo and his associates.”

“Am I late?” Deniz trooped up into the council meeting. He ripped the sketches from the gnome leader, Tilly’s hands. “What is this?”

“Ricardo was seen at a warehouse full of freshly turned vampires last night.” I decided to provide as few details as possible. “He is currently the subject of this meeting.”

“I have not seen him for a few days. I figured he was licking his wounded pride at losing his role in the city.” Deniz shrugged. “Is he the one responsible for the current mess?”

Kelly snorted. “You tell me. Aren’t you the one working on investigating it yourself?” She was rightfully pissed and glaring at the vampire.

The rest of the council was waiting for his response.

“We have only just started.” Deniz shrugged. “I was not aware it was this bad. But as the investigator on the case, I would have thought I would have been pulled in as soon as such a finding occurred, and not at the council meeting.”

Rupert cleared his throat and spoke calmly, trying to keep the peace. “It would seem that Ricardo’s actions have attracted the attention of the FBI. To prevent further investigation, we need to solve this with the agent below. She is now the servant of Zach Pendragon. Using his connections, we can hopefully prevent a larger investigation.”

Deniz looked between the agent and me, frowning. “I see. I will have my people look for Ricardo.”

Kelly scoffed again. “I would like to suggest that the entire council put in their efforts on actively tracking down all vampires in the city. We need to act swiftly. Cordon all vampires off to safe spaces and purge the rest of the city of vampires.

“We cannot be sure there aren’t more of these buildings stuffed with starving vampires.”

“What?!” Deniz spun back on her.

“Keep your people in your club and nothing bad will happen to them.” Kelly said without an ounce of remorse. “Anything outside your club becomes fair game. This needs to be solved quickly, and an investigation risks more trouble. The werewolves would be willing to participate in a clean sweep of the city.”

I cleared my throat. “That may be extreme, but we can plan that for the near future, Kelly. Allow me at least another day to investigate this and solve it with a little less force. But everyone should be on the lookout for Ricardo.”

My werewolf mate was blood thirsty today.

“If it is not solved by the end of tomorrow, I vote we sweep the city.” Rupert offered.

Several others among the council agreed to the motion. Deniz stepped over, bickering with Kelly as Rupert motioned me over.

“We’ll delay my party because of this mess. We shall have it in three days. My wife would not be pleased to have it overshadowed.” He grimaced.

I nodded. “Probably for the best. Either way, we’ll hopefully have an answer by then. Either we sweep the city or we find the source.”

The old siren pressed his lips together. “Yes, let’s hope we don’t have to sweep the city. It can be dangerous for everyone involved. But we must preserve our secrecy.”

This situation was definitely reinforcing with me the need to keep abilities and magic under wraps. Little by little, our secret was unraveling.

I looked over and noticed Trina was walking up the steps with Agent Tills in tow.

The agent was not pleased as she crossed her arms and glared at me. “So, do I call you ‘Master’ while batting my eyelashes now?”

“It wouldn’t hurt, but you don’t have to.” I couldn’t help myself, enjoying the fire that sparked in her eyes.

Chuckling, I focused back on the issue. We needed to hurry. “Agent, I’m as invested in solving this as you are. We need to track down these vampires and your partner. I’m concerned about why they would want her. Do you have any theories?”

Tills stopped being so prickly about the new status the paranormal council had thrust on her and focused back on the case. “Well, we have this representative, who I know assume was killed by paranormal means?”

“Demon or angel.” I informed her. “They feed off of someone through their emotions.”

“Like Helena?” Tills blinked.

“Yes, though she’s bound to earth, not another plane. I was under the impression she didn’t need to feed to recover her mana as a result. But she might be capable of it.” I hadn’t thought about that before.

In Sentarshaden, I’d learned she was the daughter of the archangel of love. So I had to assume she had such abilities.

“Are they common?” Tills asked.

“Not at all. Sabrina is the only registered demon in the city, but there very well could be another. The angels were either sealed off or went to ground this winter.” I explained, once again a bit stuck without many threads to pull on.

“Why did they go to ground?” Tills asked, her investigative nature once again coming into the discussion.

“Because they became my enemy. I destroyed one of their large strongholds and sealed the celestial plane. With Morgana’s help.” I added. “What about this business? Were there other owners?”

Tills nodded and pulled out her phone to swipe through it. “There were, but none of them flagged when we looked into them.”

“What about our accountant and soccer coach? Did they have any relation to this business?” I pushed her.

“What was the soccer coach's last name?” She asked, looking at her phone.

“Garrison.” I remembered from the folders.

She typed for a moment and then held up the screen for me to see. There was an email with the list of major shareholders and the congressman was highlighted. “Think he has any relationship with Susan Garrison? She’s another large shareholder of the warehousing company.”

“The accountant. Any shares?” I realized this could be the connection.

But Tills shook her head. “But he could be doing their books. Actually, I’d bet on him being their bookkeeper.”

The circumstances certainly were lining up. This company was missing from the representative’s declaration, and the soccer coach’s wife had a large stake in. “What do you think this business was for?”

“Who knows? Drugs, money laundering, smuggling, or even human trafficking are all open with a warehouse.” Tills rambled off a list.

“Helpful.” I said dryly. “Let’s head on down to the station and see what we can figure out about Mrs. Garrison before we pay her a visit.”

Looking around, I collected Sabrina, and Larisa fell into line behind me.

“What kind of dragon is the pipsqueak?” Agent Tills asked. The white dragon was barely breaking five feet tall, but she was the second oldest of the dragonettes.

Larisa glared daggers at her. “You’d barely fill the gaps between my teeth. Remember that before you call me small. I’m a white, and I have no problem turning you into a popsicle for me to munch on.”

“Wouldn’t be very tasty.” I commented. Dragons loved the taste of mana, and Tills was the epitome of human.

My guard snorted. “Be thankful that my king wants you around for now.”

Tills raised an eyebrow at me for her attitude. “And the demon?”

“She’s great with magic.” I said honestly. Even though we had a few dragons around, none of them really seemed to have Sabrina’s academic expertise.

“Thank you.” Sabrina blushed a deep scarlet and looked down at her feet as she followed along. “Not many people think of that first.” She mumbled under her breath.

I frowned, trying to understand what she meant.

Reaching out my arm, I pulled her a little further ahead of Tills and Larisa as we left the council chambers and moved down The Atrium towards the coffee shop.

Waving a hand behind me, I gave Larisa the signal that I wanted a moment of privacy with Sabrina.

“What did you mean, people don’t think of that first?” I asked the blushing succubus. “You are amazing at magic. It’s no wonder that Sir Benifold took an interest in teaching you.”

The British wizard was supposedly one of the most brilliant minds among human magi. He took in the succubus as an apprentice before I met her.

“Yeah. There you go again. You are talking about my brain, my skills and not — not my nature.” She couldn’t meet my eyes as she stumbled over the words.

“That you’re a succubus?” I pushed to the heart of the issue. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Sabrina stared up at me through her glasses, which she used to suppress her sex demon nature. “Because my succubus nature is all anyone ever sees.”

She frowned when I didn’t seem to get it. “They see my chest, my body and what it can do, but they never see me as someone with a brain. Zach, a low level succubi like me in hell is not treated much better than a fuck doll, a prostitute at best.” She met my eyes, searching them for something. “Even when I became a wizard, when people found out about it, once again I was viewed as sexual and nothing more.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t see you that way. And we are certainly not in hell.” I offered. “And I’ll bet you managed to leave hell with your brain, not your charms.” I had noticed that her baggy clothes had been getting slightly tighter the last few days and her skirt was now above her knee. While she didn’t want to be seen purely sexually, she was getting more comfortable showing her body.

Sabrina smiled beautifully. “I did. A horny teenager summoned me into his dreams, and I led him to make a summoning circle amid an area rich with mana. I structured it so it should last a very long time. Then I came out and made it as permanent as I could.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Summoning circle. Does that mean that there’s someone out there with power over you?”

“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “He died.” Her eyes became saucers as she realized how it sounded.

“But not by me! It was gang related violence. And he had no control over me, anyway. After I was summoned, I wanted to stay here. I’ve been working on more and more complex magic. It’s just so fun to take a magical puzzle and work through it. Every time a piece fits perfectly into place, there is this rush. I—I just can’t explain how great it feels.”

The nerdy succubus couldn’t stop grinning as she thought about practicing magic.

It was infectious, and I smiled back at her. “Then I’m glad you are the one teaching me. One day, I bet you’ll be the best wizard out there.” I made sure to emphasize that she was a wizard and not a succubus.

Sabrina paused and put a hand on her glasses, lifting them slightly off her face. Horns appeared above her brow and her skin was dusted with a slight pink tone.

I was sucker punched by a desire to pin her up against the wall and rut her through it, making her moan and scream my name endlessly.

But I reined that in and clenched my jaw, forcing myself to meet her pink eyes as they drew me in like two pools of overflowing lust.

“I am a succubus, though, Zach.” She reminded me.

Grunting, I kept myself in check. “Well aware. But I might suggest not doing that if you don’t want a bite mark on your neck. It seems I’m a little susceptible to you.” My body was rigid as I tried to stay in control.

“You are overflowing with lust.” Sabrina studied me as she put a hand on my chest. Her breath was a faint pink fog that seemed to push everything else out of focus and make her beauty crystal clear. Her curves magnified to the point I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to touch them.

She smiled as I pushed my lips to hers.

Sabrina was so sweet it made my body ache. I wanted more.

Pushing her up against the wall, I began running my fingers over every inch of her as I rubbed myself against her.

Her mouth pried mine open, and I felt a whoosh of relief and ecstasy rip itself from every inch of my body.

The rigidness faded, and I relaxed, still completely enamored with the succubus in front of me. But this time, I wanted to savor her for decades rather than crush her with my desire.

She pulled away, a thin gold stream coming from my mouth to hers.

“Feel better?” She asked.

“Much.” I blinked several times. Now, even when she was still a succubus, I was able to resist and control myself. “What was that?”

Her eyes had little gold flecks in them now, and she blushed a deeper pink. “I wanted to taste you directly. W-was that too much? Oh no, I fucked this up.” She pulled at her hair, clearly in distress.

“It was fine. A wonderful kiss.” I used my hand to push her glasses back up on her face. “But maybe I’d like to kiss this Sabrina.” Then I kissed the nerdy succubus again. She still sucked on my lust, but there wasn’t the overwhelming need to rut her into the wall.

She looked stupefied. “You don’t like me as a succubus?”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand this. I like both forms, and definitely am turned on by your succubus form. But if you do that again, prepare to be marked by me. This Sabrina is brilliant on the streets. But if you ever want to let loose in the sheets… you have my permission.” I teased her as she blushed even deeper pink and gave me a small nod with a smile lingering on her face.

“I’ll hold you to that.” She breathed.

Tills cleared her throat, reminding me of their presence, only to be smacked by Larisa. “Do not fucking ruin it. That was hot as hell, and I for one, want the succubus to make my king fuck her until she’s pregnant.”

Tills looked flabbergasted, and I jumped into the conversation. “The moment is over. Let’s keep going.”