Dragon 4 Chapter 12

“You disappeared on us.” Morgana commented as I walked into the room, tucking my phone into my pocket.

“I had an urge to call Kelly and hear her voice, Blueberry.” I used Kelly’s nickname for Morgana.

It only made her roll her eyes. “Please do not start using that.”

“Sorry, it was a request from Kelly. Since she can’t be here, I thought it was only fair.” I was coming to terms that I may not be able to keep all of my mates around me for every trip I take.

And the beast viciously fought that realization every inch of the way.

“Good, otherwise we’d need some ridiculous nickname for you too.” Morgana smiled wide enough to show off her fangs. “Well, while you were off flirting with the sisters and playing telephone with the furball, I was doing some actual work.”

I laughed. “Great! One of us had to.” I winked at her and enjoyed the narrowed eyes I got in return. I walked over, pulling her into a hug and kissing her forehead. “Thank you for helping me track down an enemy. I wouldn’t want anybody else on the job.”

She softened slightly, leaning into me for a moment, savoring the contact before straightening and becoming Morgana, the investigator.

“I’ve good news and bad news.” Morgana started off. “The good news is… we’ve eliminated almost every dragon from suspicion.”

“Almost? Who’s left?” I asked.

“Tim’s brother, Herm. He’s refusing to be questioned by either me or his leadership. Tim got involved, and it got a little messy.” Morgana reported.

I knew most victims of murder were killed by somebody close to them, but it still seemed brutal. I was instantly determined to question him. “Where is he? I’ll handle this.”

Morgana pursed her lips and nodded for me to follow her. “We’ve cleared every other dragon, and they are in the process of clearing their harems. But I like this guy for the murder.”

“Yeah, it would be very simple if it were him. And I’m not against simple. We have enough issues at the moment.” I let myself enjoy the thought that we’d solve the murder quickly, but based on my previous experience, it was probably going to get more complicated.

If murders were easy to solve, no one would hire us.

Morgana led me out of the tower, over to the edge of the forest, where Tim was glaring daggers at his brother. His brother was sitting with his arms crossed, refusing to talk as his mother tried to prod him.

“Shit.” His mother said, seeing me approach. “Now you've got the king involved. If you don’t speak now, there’s nothing I can do.” She raised her hands in surrender. The woman looked flustered with her

I stopped before Herm. “Why don’t the two of you give us some space.” I may have been polite with my phrasing, but it was not a question. His mother and Tim both reluctantly walked away.

Turning back to the dragon, I observed him for a moment. He looked like a petulant child, sitting with his arms crossed and his face set with determination not to speak. Something about his mother and brother had made him clam up, but I wasn’t sure if it was the murder.

But silence does wonders when you’re questioning someone.

I looked at Morgana, and she nodded. We had our routine. Her heightened senses made for a fantastic lie detector.

Herm was becoming less comfortable by the moment as we hovered in silence. His legs were jittering as his gaze went from defiantly staring me down to unable to meet my eyes, looking off in the distance as if seeking help.

“Help isn’t coming.” I assured him.

When he set his jaw, I knew he was coming up with the resolve to speak. They always did.

“I didn’t kill her.” He practically yelled. “I could never kill her.”

The way he said it held passion and grief that felt different from that of a killer. “But you know something you aren’t telling us.”

He growled low under his breath. “It’s my fault. I was late to meet her in the healing ward.”

It was everything I could do not to let my surprise show on my face. He was supposed to meet her. That meant they were doing something behind Tim’s back.

Based on what he was saying and that he wouldn’t speak around his mother or Tim, I assumed they had a secret affair. “You were having an affair?” Herm seemed to sink in upon himself as he nodded.

The next question was critical. “Did Tim know?”

Herm startled, his eyes going wide. “No. Of course not. He would go mad with rage if he ever found out. I would probably have a duel on my hands if he did, and it would break our mother’s heart.” Herm looked down at his hands as if there was the solution within them.

I checked with Morgana, and she gave me a sharp nod. He was telling the truth.

“If you were supposed to meet her, and you said you were late, does that mean you saw her before everyone else?” He didn’t say he never showed up.

His hands shook, and he nodded weakly. “I found her when her blood was still warm. I didn’t know what to do. If I reported it, Tim would wonder why we were both near the healing ward together. And I was grieving so deeply. It would have been obvious.” He swallowed loudly and shook his head in defeat.

I felt a headache coming on. I was now satisfied he wasn’t involved, but his reluctance had gotten others interested as well. Tim would want to know the information for himself.

“Do you have any idea who might have done this?” I asked.

He nodded. “If my brother found out, he might’ve the one to kill her himself.”

“Great. I suppose the two of you will have to duel to settle the matter.” While it still seemed archaic to me, it was the dragon custom.

“What? You won’t go after him?” Herm became outraged.

“If she died because of domestic affairs between you and your brother, then that is between the two of you to sort out.” I certainly was not going to get in the middle of it.

“But my brother will tear me apart.” Herm objected.

I understood some people couldn’t stop love. However, I had very little sympathy for a brother cheating on another.

Morgana tugged on my shoulder and stood on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear. “I don’t think it was either of them.”

“Then who else is left to question?” I grumbled.

“The dragons need to go through their mates.” She reminded me.

Something else occurred to me. “Did you question the injured black dragon?” I asked, imagining she would have been an easy one to miss.

“Said she slept right through whatever it had been.” Morgana confirmed.

I clicked my tongue, trying to think of another option. “Fine. Herm, go talk to your brother before this gets even messier. Maybe you two can bond or something since you both lost someone last night.”

Herm dipped his head low and refused to meet my gaze.

But my dragon was furious with him. He violated matehood by cheating with his brother’s wife. Just the idea of it made me want to go smash something with my big dragon paws.

“We’d never be with another man.” Morgana said, sensing my rising emotions.

“Damn right.” I shot back as the beast slammed itself forward. My eyesight shifted, and I knew my eyes had just gone dragon.

Just the mention of one of my women being with another had my possessive instincts flaring to the point I was half tempted to pin Morgana to the ground and reclaim her openly.

She let out a soft whistle. “Do I need to get Jade to calm you down?”

I grabbed Morgana and pulled her close, nuzzling her neck and taking in her scent. “No. Just feeling very possessive. Mine.” I declared as I traced the thin silvery scar on her shoulder.

“You can bite me again, if that would—“

The crackling of my jaw interrupted her as I latched onto her collar with dragon teeth and branded another bite on her shoulder. Though this one wasn’t magical.

Surprisingly, it made me feel quite a bit better.

“Ouch.” Morgana said as my jaw shifted back. “In fairness, I bite you all the time, though. Feel better?”

“Much actually. Is it me, or am I a little more possessive than the rest?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “Probably just younger; less used to hiding it. Vampires are like that, too.”

“Oh? How so?” I clung to the change in conversation. I needed to stop thinking about one of them cheating.

“We are always thirsty. It gnaws at vampires in a strange way. You can see it with the young ones in how they often lick their lips or have odd nervous twitches around people and fresh blood. The older you get, the more those smooth out, either by acceptance or by hiding them deep down in their psyches.”

“What’s your nervous tick?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, her red eyes became even more intense for a moment, almost like they glowed.

“Organizing.” She replied.

It struck me as something so mundane that I echoed it back to be sure I had heard her right. “Organizing?”

“Yep. Haven’t you noticed? The cars, the armory at my place, my room that you snooped in and stole a bra pad because you missed me so much… it is all immaculately organized and you never see anyone else in them.”

I rolled my eyes at the bra pad comment. She would never let that go.

But I pushed past her accusation of being a pantie stealer. “I always figured you had a secret cabal of vampire workers.”

“I mean, I do.” Morgana shrugged. “But I organize all of those myself. It’s soothing, and it helps with the cravings. As you get older, you get more set in various ways. Although my body still has many of the same cravings and urges as a twenty-something woman. It is all very strange at times.”

Morgana had been opening up more and more to me. She truly was putting her trust and love in me, and it meant the world. I needed to get back to the conclave, but I wasn’t going to rush the moment with her.

“Sometimes the age difference makes you wonder, you know?” I pointed between the two of us. It had been a point that had bothered me initially, but she never seemed to care.

Morgana rolled her eyes. “So much of age is the shift in perception of your life as you go through the various stages. It’s so… human to think that age has to define your actions. You and the rest of us that will live for a very long time are going to go through many stages of our lives.”

My mind swirled with all the possibilities. “What were some of your stages?”

“After the war with the church, I went nuts. I was high on life and determined to live it to the fullest. I bathed in blood, went to any celebration I could, and danced under the stars as high as a kite. But that only lasted for so long before the thrill wore off and I wanted more meaning in my life. So I changed course. I went into business, drudged through the challenges to amass quite the capital. It’s somewhat a way to have more control, more protection.”

I nodded along with her. “That sounds much like how we grow up.”

“But I didn’t age.” Morgana clarified. “I didn’t hit my human forties. My hips and back didn’t start breaking down, making me have to slow down my activity. I could jump right back into partying without feeling more hungover or having my body struggle. I didn’t really age.”

“Huh.” I never thought about how much of the change in humans as they grew older was driven by biological changes, more so than any actual passage of time. “But you are more experienced. You take things a little more in moderation now.”

“There’s that. But even these millennia old dragons were doing shots last night and enjoying the party. They haven’t aged either. They are just in more control of themselves and make fewer childish mistakes.” Morgana wrinkled her nose.

My heart sank a little. I was still young and prone to mistakes. “Do my ‘childish’ mistakes bother you?” It came out harsher than I intended.

She blew out a slow breath. “Sometimes. You aren’t perfect. But I’m not either. And I haven’t really tried a relationship like this, so I’m going to make some mistakes there too. But I’m pretty sure we’re stuck with each other.” She traced my mark on her body.

“Yes.” I growled, staring at my mark.

I was glad to have finally discussed our age difference. It had always nagged me a little. I loved her, but I wondered what it felt like to her. “Thank you.” I told her.

“Anytime, love. Now, if you don’t want angry conclave dragons, you might want to get back to your job. Sometimes being king isn’t easy.” She had been saving that phrase for the right moment based on the way she tried to fight off a smile.

“King.” I scoffed. “Oh well. At least that’s better than other things you almost call me.” I teased her, knowing it would make her happy.

“Yes, I have a few in mind. The Bra Pad King? Oh King Pantie Stealer?” Her smile cracked into a throaty chuckle.

I sighed and played my part. She did it to get a reaction out of me. “It was the functionality that I wanted. If you had used anything else, I would have taken that too.” My hand reflexively went down to the bracer on my arm, the one she had actually made for me.

“I’m more careful with my underclothes now.” She said with a smile, still tugging at the corner of her lips.

Rolling my eyes, I headed back into the tower and to the conclave.

“My king.” The dragon leaders all stood and bowed with a hand shifting on their shoulder. They were all there. Even Tim, who had a scowl fixed on his face.

Sometimes being king and having clout was great. “Sit. I want to discuss everyone’s findings.”

The dragons looked up and down, seeming to declare a spokesperson when they all looked toward the white dragon leader. I couldn’t remember his name, and we were too far into the conclave to ask.

“We’ve reached out to our contacts. Given her expected flight path, we went through those countries and poked to see if they did it or knew of the engagement in their airspace.” He paused, waiting for me.

“Great. What did you find?”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “It happened in Northwest Turkey, deep in vampire country.”

All of them were some mix of uncomfortable and angry. “I’m missing something. What’s the relevance of that?”

“They think it was perhaps a hunting attempt.” Thuun answered me first. “We’ve been hunted by various races for a long time. Vampires and elves are among the two most common to try. They are just a little too greedy.”

I snorted. Dragons calling someone else greedy was ironic, but I clearly didn’t read the room based on the confusion on faces. “Sorry. Dragons can be quite greedy on their own.” I explained. “So, we know where, but who? I’m guessing there are no leads?”

The white dragon shook his head. “The government in those areas is locked down tightly by the vamps. We have a few lower-level informants, but getting that sort of concrete detail is going to be difficult.”

I leaned back on my gold throne and pursed my lips as I steepled my fingers. I felt a little like an evil overlord in the big throne, but I tried to ignore that and think through our next move.

There was one person who might be able to help get information out of the vampires if they would talk to Morgana.

As far as I could tell, she had purposefully stayed out of vampire politics. I wasn’t sure I wanted to thrust her back into it.

I’d at least discuss it with her. She’d be mad if I didn’t give her the option. “Fine. I’ll talk to my mate and see what Morgana can do. We won’t be able to take any actions on it until after the conclave anyway, when we lower the enchantment. But based on what we found, we believe the paranormal secret is safe?”

They nodded, and I let that one problem go, telling myself that at least we didn’t have an apocalyptic revelation of dragons to the world. But a dragon being shot down would not end well.

“Great, then onto our next topic. I believe I’ve heard the latest regarding our interviews. The dragons have all been cleared, which leaves everyone going through their harems.”

There was a grumble of agreement from the dragons.

Tim, however, glared at me across the table. “My brother is clear?”

“Yes, though I suggested he talk to you. He had reason for not wanting to answer your questions, but it isn’t a matter for me to handle. It’s between the two of you.” I waved it off, not wanting to be involved in the messiness.

My problem was the dead dragon, murdered by someone in the conclave. Something I couldn’t work on right this moment, so I shifted topics.

“Then shall we return to dragon business? I believe we were talking about territory rights in Africa? If the reds come back, that’s the ideal place for them, but it’s pretty crowded, from what I understand.”

When nobody objected, I added, “After that, I would like to propose we talk about relationships with the human magi. Given how much they worshiped dragons at the conference I attended, it would be interesting if we couldn’t exert some control there.”

My suggestion caught a few of them off guard, but others were already diving into the African territory dispute.

“We can’t just give up land. It’s our land.” The copper dragon beat his fist on the table. “Besides, golds will need a warm environment too.”

“The king will keep them close for many years. We are making space for him in America. The golds can wait, the reds cannot.” Thuun declared. “Besides, Tiamat is coming. It would be better to deal with us before you have to deal with her.”

I worked to keep from reacting to his statement. I wasn’t ready to reveal my abilities yet, not when they thought it would doom us. But I knew it would get harder. They’d be looking and waiting for Tiamet’s heir in the years to come.