Dragon 2 Chapter 23

As we reached the lobby, the hotel was a wreck. It had been throughly destroyed.

But the area was silent, except for the moans of several injured magi, who were being tended to by paranormals.

I looked around. I’d expected to find trolls and magi fighting.

“Morgana, do you hear anything? Trolls make a lot of noise. We should be able to hear them.”

“Nothing on this floor or the next. I can hear voices further up though.” She tilted her head. “They sound panicked, but I don’t hear any trolls.”

At this point, outside the hotel, I could see a police blockade down the street, but they were letting through a truck and a few other vehicles. I had a feeling the council had been called in and was managing the crisis at the moment.

“Let’s go see what’s up.” I headed over to the nearby doorway, with the door torn away from the opening, taking the stairs two steps at a time.

Sabrina, Sir Benifolt, and Morgana followed me. Jared had never appeared from the basement. He was likely licking his wounds, but I knew that the tabard he’d been wearing would have him healed back up in no time.

Sabrina was back to her plain looking self, her demonic nature hidden back under wraps of an illusion.

We paused at each floor, listening for any sign of noise. It wasn’t until the fourth floor that we found people. Or at least, partial people.

Magi were crowded around, and a handful of them had their lower halves mutated into swampy green flesh.

“Oh, thank mana. Can you help them?” A man ran up to me, looking at the sword over my shoulder.

The sword seemed to have a reputation. I wondered if they thought I was with The Church.

“I need you to take a deep breath and tell me what has happened.” I tried to keep my voice calming, like I’d learned as an EMT. Being panicked never helped situations where lives were on the line.

“Okay.” The mage breathed deeply, slowing himself down. “We woke up to screaming. When we went to investigate, we found trolls making a mess of the lobby. We tried to stop them, to fight back, but they just kept regenerating! Like, we’d hit them and seriously hurt them, and then before our eyes, they’d start reforming.”

I held up my hand to stop him. “I know about the trolls. What I don’t know is what has caused that.” I pointed to the girl laying on the ground in shock. Her legs stuck out far thicker than the rest of her, covered in swampy green troll flesh. It looked like somebody had split her and pieced her together with a troll.

“Right. Okay. So, we fought the trolls, but then some of the magi… they started to change, like the trolls were infecting them.” He swallowed a lump. “We freaked out, and we couldn’t figure out what to do. But then one of the infected people couldn’t get out the front, so they ran up the stairs, and that’s when we found out that if we went higher in the building, it would stop. So, we’ve been trying to… to…” He was starting to break down, and he turned back to the girl.

I looked at Morgana, but she shook her head. She hadn’t seen anything like this before.

I worked to triage the situation. It looked like whatever was causing the mutation was at least paused, so it was at least contained for the moment. I needed to make sure the troll issue was resolved. “Everybody here seems partially mutated. Was anybody fully mutated? Where are the trolls?”

“They all disappeared. A big red flash happened, and all the trolls and transmuted magi disappeared. Only those that were partially changed remained. Please, can you help her?” He begged.

“There’s nothing I can do right now. But the paranormal council is down below, and I suspect the Order of the Magi will come out here soon enough. I have no doubt they’ll put their heads together to see what they can do.” I tried to console him. But I wasn’t sure what could be done.

Sir Benifolt bent down and poked at the woman’s lower half, his finger drawing a small enchantment on her leg. “I hope that will at least stabilize her for now. Take her to rest, and I’d like to see her later.”

The young man’s eyes went wide. “Sir Benifolt. It’s an honor.”

“No. It’s a shame. What they did here tonight was despicable, and I’ll do what I can to right that wrong.” He looked back at the girl, and I wondered if he blamed himself for what had happened. Charles might have been his former apprentice, but it seemed the old wizard had a weight on his conscience.

“There’s nothing more for us to do here.” Morgana put a hand on my shoulder. “Let’s head back downstairs. I’m sure the council will be here already.”

I turned my back on the young magi huddling together in fear, hating that we were at another dead end.

Morgana was right about the council. As we got to the bottom of the stairs, we found Rupert, Detective Fox, Sebastian, and the Summer Queen. The Summer Queen looked like she’d come straight from bed, dressed in a silver nightgown. But she stood comfortably with the others, talking with a few old magi.

Detective Fox looked up from the group and saw me over the Summer Queen’s shoulder, his face shifting immediately to a scowl. “What are you doing here?”

The others paused, turning to see who Detective Fox was speaking to. All eyes were on us.

“You hired us to deal with trolls. We’ve been tracking the troll attacks, and that led us here. We’ve done what we could to help contain the situation.” Ignoring his continued glares, I continued. “Let me tell you what we know.”

Florita, the sorceress from the convention, narrowed her eyes at me. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be hunting magi.”

“Like I said, I was hunting trolls. That happened to bring us here.” I shot back. “How do you even know what happened here?” I was on edge, and her sudden accusation had me ready to fight.

“We received a message spell.” The old wizard clarified. “It would seem your troll problem and our warlock problem are one and the same.”

I could see the moment of realization on Detective Fox’s face. He arched a brow as he looked between Morgana and I.

I focused on the old wizard, not wanting to deal with Detective Fox. “It would seem so. When we arrived, there were multiple trolls assaulting the lobby. We dealt with those that we could safely, but I detected a larger magic working in the basement and went to investigate.” I paused. “Has anyone seen Jared?”

A few of their eyes fixed on the silver sword over my shoulder, questions burning in their eyes.

“Yeah, I borrowed the sword.” I smiled, not going into further detail. “Jared was last in the basement, injured but safe. He fought alongside us to try to stop the warlocks turned shamans that were working magic down there. He was injured in the fight with one of them.”

I left out the part about how he attacked me, and I took his sword in punishment and instead went into what we’d just seen. “Based on the accounts of those upstairs, it looks like the shaman triggered something that was able to convert the magi close to the basement into trolls. There’s a number of partially changed magi up on the fourth floor, so any magi on the first three floors were at risk.”

My short explanation was met with wide eyes and a few gasps.

“Where are these shamans?” The group was looking around, clearly on edge and wanting to attack something.

“Gone. Morgana and I killed two of the three warlocks involved, but Jared failed to kill the third. The third one used some enchantment and disappeared, taking the two that were dead.”

“Impossible. Teleportation at that scale is impossible. This was a ploy by the paranormal to attack magi.” Florita declared it loudly enough that I worried a few more ears outside this conversation might take up her accusation.

Luckily, Sir Benifolt spoke up from behind me. “The boy speaks the truth. Though, I’m unsure if Jared saved lives by preventing them from finishing their work, or if he doomed them by breaking the circle recklessly. We may never know. But the damage is done, and we need to move forward. Both of our communities are under siege by a cabal of warlocks and an old god. This is not the time to cast accusations and divide ourselves.”

“Nat’alet.” Sabrina provided. “That’s the god they mentioned.”

“Yes. That one.” Sir Benifolt gestured dismissively. “These warlocks used his power to draw trolls to the hotel and were performing a great ritual in the basement.”

Florita didn’t seem pleased with that explanation. “It sounds like someone used a few stupid magi to attack their own.” She reinterpreted.

Really it was a paranormal, using magi to attack paranormal. Sort of a stupid shell game if you asked me.

Either way, I could already see it was going to cause problems.

Rupert grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me away as the others started bickering. “You look like shit. Go home and get cleaned up. There will be a council meeting in two hours. You and Morgana would be a welcome voice to discuss what you saw here tonight.” He let me go before following up. “Oh, and call the girls. They were worried. And they keep bugging me for an update.”

I frowned and fished into my pocket for my phone, finding that what had been my phone was now a crushed pile of electronics. Great.

“I’ll get a hold of them.” I promised, knowing that once I got my phone restored, it was going to be filled with missed messages.

Morgana fished hers out of her bra and handed it to me. “Go ahead. They’re likely sitting around fretting and working themselves up right now.”

“Thanks.” I balanced the sword on my shoulder as I took her phone and started walking out to the car. The Council was here. They could deal with the magi bullshit.

Using Morgana’s phone, I tapped out a message to Scarlett. ‘I’m fine. A troll crushed my phone. Heading back to my place in the Atrium to clean up.’ I paused. What a weird life I lived.

After hitting send, the three dots popped up immediately as Scarlett texted back.

“So, two hours.” Morgana repeated as we reached the van. “Rest up. We’ll likely have to deal with council bullshit all night.”

“Can we charge them more?” I joked, but Morgana looked like she was taking it seriously.

“This is going to take up the time I had planned for your bachelor party.” Morgana angrily shifted the car into gear. “Your wedding is tomorrow.”

To say it wasn’t freaking me out would be a lie, but the draconic part of me was extremely content to lay a permanent claim to my mates. It felt right.

I nodded. “I’ll have another wedding. Or we can push it back and do it before the ceremony her family is going to plan. This is just a private affair.”

Morgana hummed to herself as she drove. “Sure. We can do that. Not like I can’t use some strippers for other things.”

“Really?” I asked. “Strippers?”

“With silver hair wigs even.” Morgana smiled. “Don’t worry, it’ll be great when it does actually happen.”

I wasn’t too concerned. There were enough beautiful women in my life that strippers didn’t spark much of an appeal. Though, a distraction from the growing nerves in my gut would be nice. Between the wedding and the fallout from tonight’s event, I had a lot of tension riding on my shoulders.

“What do you think is going to happen with the troll situation?” I changed the subject.

“The council and the magi are going to come to an agreement to hunt down this Nat’alet. Of course, that will only be after tedious hours of arguing about who does what.” Morgana grumbled.

“Who do they send to take on a god?” I knew we had some heavy hitters, but somehow the Faeries didn’t seem like the types to involve themselves in these types of affairs.

Morgana was quiet a moment. Just a hum of her engine and the wind rushing past provided any noise. “No one will go after the god himself, just his warlocks. Unless you want to volunteer. Do you want to try your hand at a god? He’s no longer worshiped and just a powerful paranormal.”

I swallowed. That sounded like a big leap. “What do you think our odds are?”

“Depends. If he’s really forgotten, he’s going to be weak. In which case, he’s not outside the realm of possibility for you, but it isn’t going to be easy.”

“When is it ever easy?” I chuckled, pressed myself back into the seat. Going up against a god didn’t sound like a great idea, but he also couldn’t be let to continue attacks like what we’d just witnessed. “If I say no, who takes care of it?”

“The council can’t. Or at least, they won’t risk enough to go head to head with Nat’alet. They will probably struggle with him for a short period of time and then they enter some sort of negotiations. He hasn’t gone after any of the big groups, so it will be hard for the council to rally the support and resources they’d need. If he had hit that elven gated community, we’d be having a different conversation.”

“The faerie?” I asked, hoping they might do something.

“Not unless he goes after them, which he won’t unless he’s just as stupid as a swamp troll.” Morgana stared out the front window as the street lights strobed over us. “Sometimes there are entities in the paranormal world that you don’t just get rid of. You have to work with them.”

I thought about what she’d said. Despite the trouble that this Nat’alet had been causing, Morgana seemed hesitant to go after him.

But that didn’t sit well with me.

He’d attacked my city, harassed my mate, and now he just terrorized a hotel of magi. No doubt that would have larger ramifications. Even if we stopped his followers, he could just regrow in power and influence. I liked to crush problems, not let them fester in a weakened state.

“If we have the option, we go after him. Nat’alet mucked around in Philly. I won’t let his status cow me.” People throw around the term ‘god’, but that’s just a paranormal that has been worshiped. There had to be a weakness, not to mention from what I’d gathered he had lost much of his power in his obscurity.

“Good. I was hoping you’d step up. And hey, at least now we know you won’t run out of big bad guys to go up against now that you’ve figured out your shifting.” Morgana turned the van into her garage.

“The way I see it, what’s the point of having all this power if I don’t use it for a good cause?” I looked at the sword in my hand. It had believed me worthy. I needed to live up to that. “Besides, I want to keep pushing myself. You suspected that I might be more than just a dragon. Gotta live up to my family name.”

Morgana smiled and patted my thigh. “Rest up and I’ll meet you at the council meeting.”

“Thanks. First stop - figuring out the perfect spot in my hoard for this baby.” I held out the sword as I got out of the car, careful not to scratch the neighboring Ferrari.

“Are you really not giving it back? That could cause issues.”

I understood what she was saying, but the possessive dragon within me clamped down. I felt my knuckles pop as I held tightly to the sword. “No. I think it belongs in the hoard.”

Morgana laughed, her hips swaying as she led the way through the club, which was thumping with people. We walked past them and into the quiet Atrium.

As soon as we entered the Atrium, I noticed Scarlett leaning against the wall by Morgana’s personal wing.

“I’ll see you later.” Morgana winked, walking on ahead. Few people had access to her wing, but she had extended that access to me, giving the stone door a bit of my blood to recognize me.

Scarlett jumped into my arms the moment Morgana was gone, peppering my face with kisses. “We were so worried. First there was the report of the massive troll attack, then we couldn’t reach you.” She grabbed my face and pulled it to face her before she pressed her lips to mine.

I pushed her up against the wall, her legs wrapping around me and her hands digging into my hair. The sword clattered to ground, Scarlett was the greater prize.

Growling, I pushed her back against the wall. “I thought we were on a sex break. Don’t rev me up like that.”

“I’m a big girl.” She kissed my neck. “But maybe we should go into your place.”

Snagging the sword and stepping through the stone door, I looked down the branch that went to Morgana’s quarters, but she was already gone. I took the other direction and found the room that Morgana had given me when we had first started working together.

It was ornate, and almost everything in the room was decorated with a dragon motif. It was Morgana’s idea of a joke.

Propping the sword inside the door I focused back on the lovely fox wrapped around my chest.

I plopped Scarlett down on the bed and nuzzled her neck, kissing her and getting a nose full of her cinnamon and clove scent. “I love you. I’m sorry we haven’t spent much time together the last few days.”

She stretched out her neck, offering it to me as she held my head. “I know. It’s been a busy couple of days. I haven’t had much time for anything except security around the convention.”

I nodded, pulling back slightly to look into her eyes. We hadn’t talked much since I’d met her and Jadelyn’s moms, and a lot had developed since then. I knew it was a conversation we should have before I devoured her.

She looked up at me, heat in her eyes, waiting to see what I had to say.

Running my hand through her hair, I asked. “You gave me the all clear with Jadelyn, but that was before my relationship with her progressed so quickly. So I need to hear it again.”

I stared into her eyes and let my dragon instincts pick her apart.

“Yes.” Her voice sounded certain, but I saw a flicker in her eyes as she looked away and then looked back. She was hiding something.

“No, you aren’t.” I pushed off of her and sat back.

Scarlett glared at me, clearly wanting me to drop it. But I wasn’t going to let anything come between us. She reached out, trying to pull me back to her. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“But…”

She rolled her eyes. “But I’m a little jealous that you are taking a step forward with her before me. I— I worry that I’m going to be left behind.”

“No.” I pinned her to the bed. “Mine. Forever.” A growl slipped out.

She heard the possessiveness in my voice and gave me a heartfelt smile. “I know. Just…”

I pushed off the bed and lifted my mattress to the side, my hand reaching and searching through the spatial vault Morgana had made for my hoard. I searched around, pulling out a bullion of gold.

“What are you doing?” She asked, sitting up and watching me.

“Hold on.” I looked around the room for something I could use for what I needed, finally spotting it. Snatching a little kitchy ceramic bowl, I wasn’t sure what it was meant for, probably for keys or something. I brought it back over to the bed, pleased with it.

Hunkering over the clay bowl, I cupped the small hunk of gold in my hands, but kept an opening between them. The beast rumbled in my chest, liking what I was about to do.

Scarlett crawled over, leaning over my back and shoulder to see what I was doing. I felt her chest press into me; the beast rumbling harder.

“Might not want to get too close. It’s about to get very hot.”

She still clung to my back, peeking over, and I knew her curiosity wouldn’t be stopped, so I continued onwards, careful about how I started it.

Breathing deeply, I let out a small, tight jet of flame into my hand. I had melted concrete with my breath; I was pretty sure I could melt gold.

Sure enough, the gold glowed bright red as it turned into the consistency of clay in my hand, and I upped the heat until it was pooling between my fingers. I used the little ceramic bowl to catch the liquid gold as it spilled out.

Something about firing it in my dragon’s breath felt right instead of leaving it in its original state.

Scarlett sighed into my back, and I felt little kisses along the back of my neck. She knew exactly what I was doing. There were very few things a man would do with gold to show his dedication to a woman he loved.

The hunk of gold melted into the bowl, and I stood. Scarlett clung tight enough to my back to hold on. Her weight didn’t bother me as I took the bowl into the bathroom and put the plug into the sink drain before filling it with water.

The ceramic was a dull red from the gold. Thankfully, the trinket hadn’t been secretly made of plastic and was able to withstand the heat. It melting would have made a mess.

With the sink full, I dipped the ceramic in, not letting water come up over the edge.

The sink water hissed angrily, and my bathroom suddenly steamed up like I’d just taken a long shower. But I could see the gold rapidly dim back down to a more manageable temperature.

Going back to the bed, I cracked the ceramic and picked away the pieces until I was holding a disk of gold. “Finger please.”

Scarlett’s hand shot out, her left ring finger extended. “Is it still too hot?”

I prodded it, trying to get a sense of how hot it was, but to me it just felt slightly warm. “Can you feel the heat coming off of it?” I held it up to her hand, but didn’t touch it to her.

“Yeah, shit. Don’t put that on my finger.” Her hand hesitated for a moment before she pulled it back. She actually had considered if it would be worth it. I tried not to laugh.

Taking the disk, I shifted my pointer finger into a razor sharp claw, and with some application of force, I peeled off a strip from the outer edge. It curled off as a thin wire. “Finger again.” I said, waving the wire in the air to cool off far faster than the disk of gold.

This time Scarlett put her hand back out without hesitation, and I curled the wire around her finger to size it, twisting the two ends into a loop before setting the wire down on the disk and using that razor sharp claw of mine to carve out an engagement ring.

She waited, eagerly giving me her ring finger each time I asked for it to size the ring just right. It took some time for me to slowly, and carefully, cut away the gold into a smooth ring. But I couldn’t have it be just a plain band. I used my claw to carefully etch a scaly pattern.

Finally satisfied, I pulled Scarlett off of me and got down on one knee, but she didn’t even let me say the words.

“Yes!” she squealed and tore the ring out of my finger, shoving it on her hand and admiring it. It was like a tiny gold dragon wrapped around her finger.

I was stunned as she stood there, admiring it for a moment. Her face shone with happiness, and she was even more radiant than usual.

But I didn’t have long to admire her before she was latched back onto me, kissing me passionately and then fumbling with my pants. I glanced at the clock and cringed. We didn’t have time. “Scar… there’s a council meeting.”

She looked at me, determination showing on her face as she leaned down. “Then I guess we’ll have to make this quick. Jadelyn told me it was different, and I want to see for myself.”

Before I could ask what she meant, two illusion Scarletts were kissing me, and I felt Scarlett take me in a mouthful.