Dragon Conjurer 10 -- Chapter 3 (Patreon)

My dragons continued to writhe and twitch with agitation for several minutes. Finally, after I made a silent promise to them that we could go outside after we got back to the estate, they settled down enough to allow me to sit still in my seat.

After they eased up a bit on me, I could really sense how much they had matured in recent weeks. They’d always felt and acted kind of like excited puppy dogs, but ever since the battle with the Hecatoncheires, they’d chilled out a little bit. Griff especially seemed to have really come into his totally badass side, and I had a feeling that saving Lia from becoming roadkill had a lot to do with it.

Ms. Young was waiting for us outside the estate’s front doors when Mr. Walsh pulled up the long gravel driveway.

“I trust you enjoyed your outing,” the brunette assistant said in a pleasant voice.

“We did, thank you!” Steffi said with an excited smile. “London is so cool, and the shops are just the best!”

Walsh walked around to the back of the car and opened the trunk. Ms Young’s eyes went wide when she saw how many bags were jammed inside, and I stifled a laugh.

“It’s a good thing that card has no limit,” Nala teased. “We may have bought more stuff than was strictly necessary.”

“I am sure that Mr. Thomas will be pleased to see you did not shy away from his invitation to the Academy’s resources,” Ms. Young said, and she cleared her throat. “If you wish, I can have the estate staff bring your purchases up to your shared sitting room for you to sort through.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Lia said. “Thank you very much.”

“Of course, miss.” Thomas’s assistant bobbed in a small curtsy and then tapped at her ear. “Smitty, Meyers, Adams. I need assistance at the front door, please.”

“I’ll help as well,” Mr. Walsh offered.

“Very good,” Young said, and then she turned to my ladies. “Your things will be up shortly.”

“Thanks!” Nala said.

“I’m going to let my dragons out for a while,” I told the group. “They need some exercise. I think the chance werewolf encounter got them a little wound up.”

“That’s a good idea,” Steffi said, and she leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss me.

“They should get some recreational time as well.” Ronin kissed me next, and then she bounced up the steps and blew another kiss over her shoulder.

“Enjoy your time” Elisabeth murmured, and she kissed me before she walked up after Ronin.

“Thanks for an awesome day, cutie.” Nala kissed me hard on the lips and then sauntered away.

Lia leaned up to kiss me next, but I took her hand in mine to keep her from running off after my other ladies. I felt like there was still so much to learn about the sexy blonde, and our dragons were a pretty damn good excuse to spend alone time with her.

“Do you want to come with me?” I asked, and I stroked the pad of my thumb over the tender skin on the inside of Lia’s wrist. “We could let our dragons run together.”

“That sounds nice,” Lia sighed, and she swayed a bit closer to me. “Yes, I would like that very much.”

Three broad-shouldered men silently stomped down the estate’s front steps just then and marched over to where Ms. Young and Mr. Walsh were waiting by the trunk of the shiny black car. Their eyes went a little wide when they stepped around the car’s bumper, but then they dutifully started loading the shopping bags over their arms.

“Bring them up to Mr. Cooper’s team’s sitting room, please,” Ms. Young instructed them. “Thank you.”

The men nodded politely and then carried all the loot from our busy day of shopping up the front steps and through the wide doors.

“Come on,” I murmured in Lia’s ear, and I tugged gently on her arm.

The beautiful Russian nodded, and we dashed around the back of the estate to the grassy field that was nicely enclosed by tall trees on three sides.

The weather was lovely this evening. There was a slight breeze that had rushed any wisp of clouds away, and the sky was a clear bright blue overhead. There was just the slightest touch of yellow and orange in the far west. We had plenty of time before the sun would set and leave the estate in the pleasant blanketing darkness of night.

Once we rounded the corner of the estate and were out of sight of the front doors, I tugged Lia around and pulled her in for a tight hug.

“I had a lovely time with you and the others today,” Lia murmured.

“Me, too,” I said. “Even the quick interruption wasn’t that bad.”

“Ooh,” Lia groaned and rubbed at her arms like they were sore from a long session at the gym.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“My dragons are…” Lia paused and chewed on her lip as she tried to find the word. “Vzvolnovannyy. I do not remember the English word, but they are um… they are bothered.”

“Are they twitching and wriggling under your skin?” I asked, and I ran my hands gently over Lia’s upper arms. “Does it feel like they’re trying to dig their way out of their tattoos?”

“Yes.” Lia smiled. “That is exactly what it is like. Do your dragons get this way?”

“Yeah, they’re doing it right now, actually.” I smirked down at Anya and Vera on my wrists. “I find that when they get like that a good stretch and some running around is exactly what they need.”

“That is a good idea,” Lia agreed. Then she rambled through a long series of foreign words, and all eight of her dragons suddenly appeared in quick succession amidst a rainbow of intense flashes of light.

Lia wobbled slightly as the rush of dragon energy ran through her, and I braced my hand on her lower back to steady her.

“Oh my,” Lia heaved a sigh. “That was very intense.”

“Yeah,” I murmured. “You’ve never called them all out at the same time before have you?”

“Net.” Lia shook her head and straightened back up. “I was never able to trust them all at once before, but now that we have bonded, and they are more obedient, I thought it would be faster this way. I see that is not a wise decision.”

“Not exactly,” I chuckled. “I’ve found that three dragons at once is as much dragon energy as I can handle surging through my body at one time. I try to space them out a little bit to avoid that light-headed rush.”

“I will remember that.” Lia smiled.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Da.” Lia nodded and gestured to my arms. “Go ahead.”

“Exokyzo, Bianxifa, Sokisaseru,” I said.

Ky, Beyblade, and Golide appeared before us in bright flashes of blue, orange, and gold light. They sniffed up at the air and searched around like they expected a target to be nearby.

“It’s okay, guys,” I chuckled. “There were just a few werewolves earlier, but Ronin and Nala took care of them.”

At my words, Ky relaxed and trotted off toward Lia’s blue water dragon. Beyblade and Goldie relaxed but lingered by me, and I knew they were each waiting for their respective mates.

“Coming right up,” I laughed. “Trylle frem, Sárkány.”

Thor burst out of his tattoo in a bright flash of indigo light, and Zofia appeared in her ear-thumping fwoomp of air. Beyblade trotted right over to my mind-control dragon and nudged affectionately against her. Goldie turned around and gently swiped her long pearlescent tail under Thor’s chin. His indigo eyes glazed over for a second, and then the four of them trotted off together like an adorable double date.

“Hmmm,” Lia hummed as she watched my mated dragons walk off.

“Dewch yma, Pridi,” I finished.

Griff appeared silently in front of me, and his muted-orange fox ears twitched around as he listened to the calm evening around us. A second later, Anya and Vera appeared a second later in a blinding flash of blue-green light, and the twin females immediately hopped right up onto Griff’s back and made themselves quite comfortable.

Griff’s ears twitched back toward each of his passengers, and he practically smirked at me with the same kind of smug satisfaction I’d felt when the guy at the jewelry store had nearly choked on his shock at the five kisses I’d gotten. Then my stealth dragon trotted off with his mates, and they joined the thunder of dragons in the field.

“Your dragons have found mates within each other,” Lia sighed as she watched them with wistful eyes. “I did not know that dragons would mate this way.”

“Neither did I until it started happening,” I chuckled.

“I wonder if there will be any mates found in my dragons,” Lia mused.

“Maybe,” I said.

Just then, a plump little woman with dark hair and a white apron strolled around the corner of the estate with a silver tray. Her eyes went a bit wide when she spotted all eighteen of Lia’s and my dragons playing in the field, but she held onto her composure. She bustled quickly over to us and extended the tray out.

There was a silver teapot and two porcelain cups and saucers. There was also a little bowl filled with frosted cookies and a large plate covered in tiny triangular sandwiches.

“Mr. Thomas said you might care for a spot of tea,” the woman said in a gentle English accent.

“Thank you,” Lia said, and she selected a tiny cookie with a perfectly iced flower.

“There are a few tables on the veranda just there.” The woman nodded her round chin toward the back of the estate, and I noticed four small wrought iron tables with two chairs each on the brick porch. “Shall I set the tea service there for you?”

“Yes, please,” I said. “Thank you… Ms…?”

“Mrs. Davies.” The woman smiled brightly at us and then scurried away to place the tray on the nearest table. “If you need anything else, sir, miss, please do not hesitate to ask. We are happy to serve the Dragon Conjurers.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Davies.” Lia smiled and waved at the pleasant woman before she disappeared back around to the front of the London estate. Then she turned to me and held up the perfectly sculpted cookie. “I feel as though I have been dropped into a Jane Austen novel. Everything here is so English, and the staff are so generous.”

“They’ve been taking really good care of us,” I agreed. “Would you like some tea?”

“I would.” Lia nodded, and she gazed at the cookie longingly. “This looks delicious. but it is so pretty I can hardly bear to ruin it.”

“Even the most beautiful cookie does no good unless you eat it,” I said. “I bet it’s the best cookie you’ve ever had.”

I led Lia up to the brick patio and pulled out a chair for her to sit down as she debated whether or not to bite into the cookie. Finally, a craving for something sweet won, and she bit delicately into the colored sugar icing.

“Mmmmmm,” Lia hummed with satisfaction as her eyes closed. “Oh, it simply melted away. Dylan, you must try this.”

“Okay.” I grinned as I sat down across from Lia. I picked up a cookie and shoved the whole thing into my mouth at once. It was only about the size of an Oreo, and it was heavenly. “Oh, that is really fucking good.”

We enjoyed a few of the sandwiches in comfortable silence, and Lia poured a cup of tea for each of us. I gazed out at our dragons and smiled as I watched them romp around together for a moment.

Saph and Ky were exploring each other’s powers together. Saph would send up a short stream of water high into the air, and Ky would blast it into a hundred icicles with a single burst of frosty air. Then they watched the icicles shatter on the ground as their tails twitched like mischievous cats.

Goldie and Thor were enjoying a tumbling wrestling match that was much more play than competition. Goldie wriggled out from under Thor’s grasp and pinned him down before she nudged her head lovingly against Thor’s neck.

Beyblade seemed to be having a bit of competition with Lia’s fire dragon, Alex, and I suspected he felt a desire to show off for Zofia. My fire dragon shot a long, thin stream of bright orange flames into the air, but Alex matched it perfectly. Then Beyblade made a much wider fan of flames that Alex also matched. It was like a game of HORSE, and the two fire dragons were very well matched.

Several of the others were watching the playful games of our water, ice, and fire dragons. Onyx and Griff were investigating each other a bit more closely when Lia’s black dragon let out a beam of black magic. Griff and my Kamikaze twins on his back disappeared into full stealth mode as the black beam struck out at a large boulder on the edge of the grounds. The boulder split down the middle and then shattered into a dozen large chunks.

“Wow,” I breathed.

“I have never felt so spoiled before,” Lia murmured as she nibbled on another cookie, and she was clearly more focused on the delicious treats than how our dragons were playing. “I feel as if I were royalty.”

“They have been spoiling us a bit, haven’t they?” I smirked and picked up one of the little sandwiches to inspect. It was layered with lettuce, a thin slice of cheese, and a slice of fried ham. There was also a bit of some kind of white spread that smelled delicious. I took a bite and found it was just as good as everything else we’d been offered during our stay at AMIE. “I wonder if some of the staff were kept on from the previous owner of the estate.”

“Hmm.” Lia pondered the idea. “I suppose that would be advantageous with a household as large as this. It would require much planning and organization. It would have been a chaotic mess to hire a brand new staff. Not to mention all the previous employees who would have been let go. I get the feeling that AMIE would have kept on as many staff members as they could manage without risking the secrets of the monster world to the public.”

“Well, however they got their positions here, they’re doing an amazing job.” I stuffed another tiny sandwich into my mouth.

“I am going to spend some time with my dragons now,” Lia said and stood up from the table.

“That’s a good idea,” I agreed. “I want to get to know Anya and Vera a little more. I always like to spend some one-on-one time with my dragons when they’re brand new… or one-on-two this time.”

Lia grinned at me and bounded playfully down the stairs onto the grass. I stood up and followed her more slowly down the brick steps. I reached out with my mind to call for my blue-green twin dragons, and they responded immediately.

Anya and Vera appeared out of nowhere as they took off from Griff’s back and soared over to me. My stealth dragon dropped his camouflage away and trotted over after his little mates.

“Hey girls, how are you doing?” I asked my Kamikaze twins as they landed on the grass before me and trotted closer on all fours. I crouched down and held out both of my hands to them.

Griff circled twice on the grass nearby and then plopped down to watch us.

The twin females nuzzled their little heads into my palms and blinked up at me like curious cats. Then they both darted away in opposite directions and rushed around behind me before they took off into the air.

“Oh, you wanna play, huh?” I laughed at my new dragons and stood up to watch them soar in playful circles above my head.

The blue-green pair blinked down at me with bright yellow eyes and then darted away toward the trees at the edge of the grassy field.

I didn’t mind them being playful, so long as they could follow directions, too. I figured now was a good time to explore where their level of play met with obedience.

I silently asked them if they could come back to me, but I thought it in a way that was more a casual request than a straight command, so I wasn’t really surprised when they flicked their tails at me and kept flying toward the trees.

I noted the interaction and tried again with a firmer mental tone and no question in my mind. I phrased it as a direction instead of a request and was pleased with the response of my blue-green Kamikaze dragons.

Anya and Vera banked hard to the outside of their two-dragon formation and circled back around toward me. They flapped their wings hard three times and then landed quickly at my feet. The narrow and broad-faced pair looked up at me with patience as they awaited my next instructions.

“Good girls.” I knelt down and patted them affectionately on their little backs. I scratched under their chins, and Vera’s hind foot thumped slightly on the grass like a dog thoroughly enjoying a good belly scratch. “I wonder if you have any other powers besides your dive-bomb attack.”

Anya blinked up at me and tilted her head to the side, and then she turned away and took a deep breath. She opened her small mouth and breathed out a puff of warm air over the grass beside me.

I was a bit horrified and amazed to see the grass wither and die in front of me as the smell of ionized air fizzled inside my nostrils.

“Holy shit,” I gasped. “Well, that’s fucking cool.”

I suddenly remembered the mushroom cloud-style smoke that rose up after their Kamikaze runs, and I realized they were a lot more like atomic bombs than I thought. It seemed that my Kamikaze dragons were a bit radioactive, and my mind spun with all the ways this could come in handy in monster battles. I wondered if Anya and Vera could irradiate the flesh right off of monsters, or breathe ionized air into their lungs and kill them from the insides out.

I knew just enough about radiation to know that there were more possibilities than I could grasp at the moment, and I decided I would do some research into radiation when I found the time.

“Excellent job, girls,” I said, and then I mentally told the blue-green twins that they could go off and play some more.

The yellow-eyed pair darted happily off and landed on Griff’s back a second later. Then Griff stood up, and the three of them disappeared with my stealth dragon’s camouflage power.

I shook my head at the new mated trio and felt a sudden pang in my heart when I spotted Ky blast another of Saph’s water streams into one huge spike of ice.

I’d Conjured two new female dragons, and both of them had attached themselves to Griff, which left Ky the lone male of my thunder of dragons. I watched him for a while as he blew out a long and gentle breeze, and a flurry of big thick snowflakes fluttered to the ground all around him. Then he circled around and laid down in the soft bed of fluffy snow like a damn king.

Still, I wished there was something I could do for my ice dragon. He was my first, and I felt a little bad that he was now the only one of my dragons that was still flying solo.

I consoled myself with the fact that Ky never seemed to be bothered by the fact that he had no mate, though.

My ice dragon was cool and collected down to his core, and he had a bit of an aloofness to his personality. He always seemed above the more romantic interactions of my other dragons. Half the time I could swear he’d rolled his big blue eyes at the others’ antics.

And besides, there was still enough room around my calves for more dragons, and my lower back if I ended up with one on my ass like Lia’s white dragon.

I chuckled to myself at the idea of a dragon on my butt and turned my attention to the incredibly subtle scurrying sound that was reaching me through Goldie’s ears.

I searched around until I spotted my pearlescent dragon stalking through the tree line. Thor was a few paces behind her and on a hunt of his own, and I strolled over closer to them to see if I could spot what they were hunting.

The noises coming to me from Goldie’s ears were a small scratching and rustling sound. I pictured a rabbit, or perhaps something like a gopher, hiding in the fallen leaves.

I was several paces away when Thor turned around and started to stalk his prey back toward me. He crawled as stealthily as a twenty-foot dragon could through the low brush beside the trees. Thor’s lips curled back over his teeth, and he let out an eerily quiet growl from deep in his throat.

I stepped back from the tree line to give Thor some space, but an unexpected buzzing in my shoulders locked all of my muscles in place. My lungs clenched as a sudden surge of intense electrical current built up in the indigo web of connection to Thor between my shoulder blades.

It felt like the same taser connection I’d been working to develop between me and Thor over the last several weeks, but it was way more intense.

My ears were buzzing, and as Thor took another step closer to me, he was near enough that I could have reached out and touched his scaly side.

The lightning built up instantly in my spine, and I gritted my teeth against the powerful surge to keep it from exploding through my limbs in every direction.

“Fuck.” I clenched my fists tight against the unexpected surge, and I nearly saw lightning flash behind my eyes.