Dragon 5 Chapter 20

Polydora smirked and stepped up to the freezer door, stabbing her weapon into the frame and using it as a pry bar.

In one fluid movement, she peeled back the metal door.

I paused at the loud noise, bracing for any vampires that might come out of hiding, but nothing stirred.

Polydora ripped the door off and stood to the side.

I called in before I stepped into the doorway. “Agent Tills? We got a call for a Silverwing Mercenary pickup?”

“Fuck. Is that you, Zach?” The agent held her gun out and crept forward, shivering from the cold.

I put myself in the doorway so she could see me. “Please put down the gun. I’d rather you not accidentally shoot me.” Just in case, I covered the parts of my body under my suit in gold scales.

“You wouldn’t believe wh—“ Her eyes went wide as she caught sight of Polydora in her dragon knight form. “Behind you!” She raised her gun and fired off three times at my guard as Polydora was picking the teeth from the fallen vampires.

Thankfully, dragons weren’t bothered by a 9mm round. All three bounced off of Polydora. Polydora glared at Agent Tills.

“Cease your fire before you harm my king.” Polydora slammed a wave of her fear aura into the agent, and I groaned. It felt a little excessive. Agent Tills was clearly already about to pee herself.

Tills stuttered and dropped her gun. “Wha-what?”

I motioned for Polydora to stand down before I walked over and picked up the gun. Removing the magazine and round in the chamber, I handed it back to Agent Tills.

“Please don’t shoot my guard. Poly does good work, and she’d be damn hard to replace.”

The dragonette in question snapped to look at me, tilting her head. She’d noticed that I had shortened her name. And based on her face, she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Guard?” Tills came out of the freezer, and I lifted a hand to create a small magical light.

There was blood splattered over her face and chest, and I quickly did a scan of her body. She didn’t look harmed. “What the hell happened to you?”

Agent Tills looked around, taking in all the dead bodies around her that were somewhat mashed, then refocusing on the glowing ball of magic.

Her eyes grew wider as she went into shock. Her expression became almost glazed as she looked up at me and focused back on my question. “These people moved so fast. One got in the freezer with me. I shot her in the head at point blank range.” She wiped at her face. “It got messy.”

“Don’t touch it.” I was suddenly worried that vampire blood had gotten into her mouth.

“She’ll be fine. It takes a significant reduction in blood before vampire blood can be effective.” Polydora informed me, guessing where my mind was going.

“Vampire blood?” Tills commented, her eyes once again finding the dead bodies scattered around, looking at Poly, and then she just sat down on the ground. “What is all this?”

Poly held up her forklift sword. “I made a mess, too. They were vampires.”

Agent Tills was quiet for a long moment.

“Okay, let’s suppose I believe vampires are real.” She looked up at the bronze dragon. “Then what are you?”

“I’m a dragon. This is my hybrid form; my kind are capable of shape shifting.”

Looking around, I saw no additional danger. “Why don’t we get you back to normal and get out of here? I need to call for a cleanup crew.”

Polydora stabbed her weapon into the ground and shifted back into a naked woman with thick black hair, cut right at her shoulders. “My dress, please?”

I handed it to her, and she slipped the bronze chain dress back on.

Having held it, I could confirm it was indeed made completely of the metal, which now made me appreciate just how well it was tailored to her.

Tills watched with wide eyes. “Dragon.” Then she looked at me. “Dragon king?” Pieces were falling into place for her. Even if she was bombarded with the sudden situation, she was an investigator to her core.

I only smiled. “Come on. You weren’t supposed to know any of this. Whoever made this trap for you broke a lot of rules tonight. Where is your partner?”

“They took her.” Tills said.

I stopped in my tracks. “They took her? I don’t believe it.”

“Why no— oh, she’s something too, isn’t she? That’s how you two know each other.” Tills started seeming to come back together, her mind working through the pieces and making sense of everything.

At least it calmed her down having a puzzle to solve.

“What is Helena?” She asked calmly. She seemed to take all of it much better than Maddie. But she’d seen many types of humanity through her work; she’d likely already come to terms with the monstrosity that humans could become. Now she just had actual monsters.

“An angel, or nephilim, if you wish to differentiate between the two. She was born of a union with a human, which makes her an angel, but she is tied to earth rather than the celestial plane.” I tried to keep my explanation simple as we walked back through the warehouse. Then I pulled out my phone to text Detective Fox, hoping he wasn’t too drunk on fae wine to assist.

I had a feeling this was going to become an enormous case for the police department. What a headache.

“They still took her. There were some that weren’t crazy like the rest.” Agent Tills replied, seeming to be back to her old self.

“Did you get a good look at them?” I got excited. If she’d seen who had set the trap, it could speed along our investigation. “Also, what were you both doing in this warehouse?”

Tills scowled at me. “I’m the one who should ask the questions, and this is an active case.” She hesitated. “But since we just killed a dozen people in there, and you are calling a cleanup crew, we are completely off the reservation, I suppose.”

Tills scowled. “We were tracking our case and for whatever reason, the congressman had visited this warehouse several times. He also had a major stake in the business. We came to investigate.”

I frowned. Politicians were often businessmen before they took office. “What’s so odd about him owning a food warehouse?”

“It wasn’t in his declaration. And when we tried to call them, no one answered. So we drove out here, noticing that it looked recently abandoned.” Tills explained.

“Then you went in and bam, vampire ambush.” I simplified, not needing to hold back as a growl rumbled in my throat like a jet engine starting up.

The agent watched me closely. “That was far too loud to be you.”

“Oh. I get a hell of a lot bigger when I’m pissed off.” I couldn’t help the smile that broke out across my face. “You won’t like me when I’m angry.”

“Did you just—“

I held up a hand to cut off the agent. “So, the vampires attacked. What happened to Helena?”

“Well, we were walking through, and suddenly the wild ones came out of the metal racks. And then two men and one woman just appeared. You said they’re vampires? Does that mean super speed? They were just a blur, and then they were there.”

“Supernatural speed. We aren’t in a superhero movie. But yes, they do. And the ones you call wild were recently turned and likely were starved to set that warehouse up as a trap.”

We stepped out into the light, out of the warehouse as I prompted Agent Tills to continue. “So you had three, and they managed to get Helena on their own? An angel is very strong, especially one tuned to earth like Helena.”

“You sound like you know from experience.” Tills stated with a raised eyebrow.

I scratched the back of my head. “We may have gotten into a few tussles over a situation in Switzerland. She’s pretty freaking tough; I threw her through a lot of walls.”

Tills just blinked several times, seeming to not know what to say. “Okay. But they still held her and bind her before hauling her off. I don’t know how they did it. Magic maybe?”

I grunted, deciding not to show off my lack of magical knowledge. “We’ll figure this out. If I get you in front of one of Detective Fox’s sketch artists, can you get me a sketch?”

“Definitely.” She replied, her detective voice back in full force. But then she noticed the limo for the first time. “So, did I interrupt a party?”

“Sort of.” I grinned, and Polydora stepped ahead to open the door.

My mates were lazing about inside, restoring their energy for when I got back. The limo clearly smelled of sex, and more than a few of them had their dresses askew.

“Ah.” Tills commented dryly.

“The dragon king has a responsibility to sire many children.” Polydora stated proudly, as if that explained everything.

“Agent Tills?” Scarlett sat up quickly, her tails disappearing.

“It’s okay Scar, some vampires let that cat out of the bag.”

Scarlett nodded as her ears, and tails popped back into existence. “Shit. What happened?”

“We can get into that later.” I crawled into the limo, snatching Tyrande off her seat to put her on my lap before turning back to Scarlett. “Text your dad to have a sketch artist ready tomorrow morning. Tonight, I’m taking my mates back to my hoard for some much deserved fun.”

Polydora scooted Agent Tills to join the rest of the dragonettes in the limo while I pulled my mates around me.

***

We were sitting in the Scalewright’s main parlor. Breakfast was well underway, and I was on steak number five, after a few plates of waffles, of course.

“Rounder face and a little sharper nose.” The agent directed the sketch artist. She glanced over at me with a strange look.

Tills had been doing that all morning after Poly essentially held her under house arrest in Morgana’s room.

I was unsure if it was the amount of food I ate or my weary mates, but something had made an impression on her.

The sketch artist made the changes and showed it to her again. “Yes, that’s her face. And then she had hair down to about here.” She pointed at the paper.

Tills returned to watching me.

Scarlett shifted uncomfortably in her chair, and that took my attention away from the agent.

“Everything okay, Scar?”

“Yeah.” She scratched at the base of her tails. “Just so itchy. I haven't been this itchy since I grew my second tail.”

“When do you normally get your third?”

“When I’m thirty, so a while. Maybe I need to go see a doctor.” She grunted and scratched at the base of her tails again.

I looked over at Trina, who was standing in a line with the other Dragonettes as they surveyed the area. Jadelyn’s security team always made them try to act a little more official.

But before I could call her over, Detective Fox walked into the room and smiled at me. “The emergency council meeting will begin in half an hour.”

“What do I do about her?” I pointed to Tills.

“The council will decide her fate.” He said low enough that the agent didn’t hear.

I nodded and raised my voice. “Is the sketch done?”

“Yes, sir.” The sketch artist was a siren, and he raised the clipboard to show us a woman.

I gasped. “I know her. She was the woman at Deniz’s club that he fed on for his little sex show. Get the other two sketched out. Maybe we can nail Deniz.” My excitement built.

“Let me see.” Trina came off her position by the wall and grabbed the clipboard. “That’s the woman. So, she’s been turned since the show.”

Detective Fox rubbed at his stubble. “That changes things. We’ll present this to the council. Though Deniz will probably show up and contest this.”

“I can’t wait to see how he tries to weasel out of this.” His head would look nice on a platter, maybe one made of gold.

“You cannot go killing people unless they are guilty, my mate.” Scarlett rubbed my back, trying to calm me down.

Grumbling, I leaned back in my chair. “We watched him feed on this woman. The vampires completely shifted their behaviors when he came to town.”

“It’s not enough.” Agent Tills spoke up. “That’s barely even circumstantial. You need much more than that to be sure he’s guilty.”

“I didn’t ask you.” I growled at the agent, annoyed at her logic.

She tossed her hands up and rolled her eyes. “Well, excuse me for being practical. I thought you were some kingly big shot around here. But you must just want to surround yourself with beautiful little fuck dolls and, yes men.”

The next thing I knew, Tills was rocketing across the room and crashing into the wall.

“I threw you softly.” Amira said, straightening her clothes and walking over to a groaning Tills. “Don’t act like a baby.”

“Amira.” I narrowed my eyes at the black dragon.

“She is welcome to say what she wants, but to insult you is not something I’ll tolerate. She’ll just have to find another way to criticize you.” The black dragon shrugged off my glare.

Tills rolled over on her side. “Fuck. Okay, I take back the fuck dolls.”

Amira hoisted the agent off the ground with one hand as if she weighed nothing. “I wish to be the king’s fuck doll. Do not take that one away.”

Tills only looked at me with a bewildered expression. “Help?”

I tried not to laugh.

“Lay on the couch.” Amira hustled the agent back on the couch and then her hands glowed a dangerous looking purple as she pushed magic into the agent.

“Oooh. That’s worse than being thrown.” Tills let out a sharp cry.

“Healing is often worse than getting injured.” Amira agreed. “I like to think it makes the lessons more pronounced.”

Satisfied that the agent would be okay, I replayed what she’d said, trying to figure out if it was true.

Was I really surrounded by so many people eager to please me that I wasn’t getting valuable information anymore?

There was a moment of uncertainty before I felt confident she was wrong. My mates were more than willing to spare my feelings and tell me the truth. What Agent Tills saw was their more submissive side in public.

“Agent. I guarantee that my mates and the dragonettes are quite capable of bringing me back to reality, though they do so in private. Among my people, I am king, and among the paranormal community, my people are respected. As you can see, my honor guard is more than happy to defend me, so please choose your words more wisely.”

Tills rubbed her head as Amira stepped back. “I’ll take that under advisement. Are you going to go all murder-dragon on Mr. Wallachia?”

“My course of action is still to be determined. But Deniz is a vampire, and he comes from an area that recently angered dragonkind.” I gave her the shortened background.

“So, it’s personal. That means there’s even more reason to be absolutely sure before going after him.” Agent Tills said. “Can vampires kill a dragon?”

I grew a little angry even thinking about it. “They can with an enchanted fighter jet when the dragon was traveling a long distance to an important gathering.”

Tills just made a round ‘O’ with her mouth. “Right. Magically enhanced fighter jets are the level of munitions required to take a dragon out.”

“The king would require far more.” Polydora interjected. “Thalia, though older, was less than half the size of our king.”

Tills' curiosity was passing the professional line. “How big exactly is your king?”

Some of the girls giggled, and Detective Fox decided it was time to leave. “I’ll come get you when the council is gathering.” He muttered over his shoulder.

“Thank you, Father-in-law.” I quickly shot back before he left. “Now Agent, despite your amusing curiosity, there are two more sketches you need to finish before our council meeting. We can discuss everything else later, if there is time.”

My mates were still snickering as I went back to my food and the agent worked with the sketch artist again.

“So, Zach, there is a little rumor going around from the dragonettes, that you have an elemental living in your hoard. I did not see it last night.” Tyrande started up a conversation.

I nodded. “The gold I collected with my adoptive father might have something to do with that. It disappeared, and Herm believes that it might have collected enough mana to become an elemental of gold. It would match the description of what I saw.”

That caught more than a few girls’ attention.

“A gold elemental?” Yev asked, her eyes glittering. “I want to see it!”

“We can go search for it later; the council meeting will start soon.” I replied, my dragon desperately wanting to hunt with its mate through the gold.

“And we all know that if we let him go play in his hoard, we’ll have to drag him out to get to the council meeting. The meeting he called.” Jadelyn gave me a knowing look, her lips pursed in amusement.

I shrugged. “I like my gold as much as my mates.”

Kelly frowned at me. “I’m unsure if I’m supposed to be offended that he likes gold as much as me, or honored that a dragon likes me as much as gold.”

“Honored.” Trina piped up. “There’s nothing a dragon loves as much as gold. That you are on the same level means that he really loves you all.” She managed to keep any bitterness out of her tone.

AN - Finished first draft at 33 chapters, touching up editing tomorrow and it's off to the editor! I'm excited to get back into SSV and I also have a little time now for my Manga project :)