Dragon 1 Chapter 13 (Patreon)

“What’s wrong with my eye?” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and flipped the camera around to see myself.

“Your eye is a slitted pupil.” She said, but I barely heard her as I looked at the phone. Staring back at me was exactly what she said. My eye looked like a serpent’s eye. It was a dark, nearly black iris, with a faint gold outline that pulsed in time with my heartbeat.

“No way.”

“Way.” She chuckled behind me. It was a strange sound mixed with her bones healing back together with clicks.

“Do magic again.” I insisted.

Morgana gave me a brief glare at the commanding tone I’d taken with her. She took her sweet time, clearly wanting me to understand she was doing it of her own free choice and in no way because I’d told her to do it.

Eventually, she held her hand up, and the little black motes of magic swam around it. But they were only there for a moment before they faded.

“Huh? It stopped working.”

She nodded. “Your eye has gone back to normal. It would seem that while a partial success, you still need far more practice to control it.”

“I can see magic though.” Excitement bubbled out of me. This was progress. I had a feeling that could come in handy in the para world.

“Yes, and it would be wonderful if you could control it. So far, it just seems that angering you is the best way to draw out aspects of your dragon.”

I wanted to tell her she was wrong, but even as the fight ended and the excitement of combat faded, I could feel myself slipping further away from the beast. “Damn it.”

“It’s okay. It takes a vampire years to learn to control it all.” Morgana got to her feet, her injury already healed. There was an understanding look on her face. “We’ll keep drawing out your anger if that’s what it takes for you to learn control.”

“All that was just to make me angry?”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t lie to you. If you went to Dubai today, he’d tear you apart and curse your parents for raising such a weak whelpling. You aren’t human, Zach Pendragon. I do hope today’s events help you convince yourself that you are a dragon. I can see that part of you rejects it.”

“You don’t understand.” I started, before wishing I’d never said that. In truth, I knew little about Morgana and her past. She had lifetimes of experiences.

“I think I understand plenty of rejecting yourself. My transformation into a vampire was not a willing nor pleasant experience. As many of my fellow elves disbelieve that it is possible, I too clung to that idea like a drowning rat.” She scowled with a mixture of disgust, but I knew it wasn’t meant for me.

“How’d it happen?” I asked gently, not wanting to push her but interested in learning more.

“Old story. To summarize, I was young and stupid, believing I could weather the church’s inquisition in the 17th century.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “But the bigger story is a topic for another day. For now, we need to be focused on making you stronger and solving our problem with the drug ring. Thoughts on what we do next?”

I wanted to ask more, but Morgana had made it clear it wasn’t something she wanted to talk about, at least not now. I decided to let her get away with changing the topic. Maybe I’d be able to pull more out of her next time we spared.

“We both ran up short, so I guess we wait for them to step out of line again.” I wasn’t exactly a private investigator. “Maybe we figure out what they need next?”

She sighed. “I put out some of my people and a general warning in the local vampire community. If these guys want to make more of this, they’ll need vampires. We took away their supply.”

That… that made perfect sense. “But the next question becomes who is doing this and why?” I tried to get ahead of the direct problem and dig into the source. “Money is always a reason, but they could deal with normal drugs to get that. Hell, that pack of omega wolves could just crush the local drug dealers if they wanted. Why make this new V-phoria?”

Morgana smiled. “That is an excellent question. Why indeed did they start dabbling with vampire saliva to make this drug?”

“Is it different from a bite?” I asked, not exactly wanting to try the drug.

She stood up, and I noticed in the corner was her duffel bag from last night. She pulled out a brick of the white powder. “Do you want to try the two?” She smiled, showing off her fangs.

“I think I’ll pass.” I shuddered slightly, knowing the warning she’d given me about a vampire bite before.

“Correct answer. Though, once you master your… beast… you should be able to shrug off most poisons. Vamp bites and drugs included.” She stabbed the brick with her nail and pulled out a dollop of the powder, raising it to her nose.

I watched wide eyed as she snorted the drug. Her eyes rolled back momentarily and her blue lips hung open, like she was having the best orgasm of her life. But the drugs quickly faded in less than a few seconds, and she came back down to earth looking at the brick.

“Yes, this is interesting. It is similar to a bite, but people have tried to preserve their saliva and dole it out to their favorite feed in the past. This is a powder and far more stable than those attempts.” She put the brick down and tapped at her lip for a moment in thought.

“That means you have someone with the smarts to make the drug. And funds to be able to support the research to create it. There wasn’t much research or chemistry equipment in the warehouse, so either they moved it, they made it somewhere else, or it’s a simple process. But it still leaves the question of why.” I tried to work through it.

“Someone could have been an addict of the bite, and tried to make the drug to ween themselves off?” Morgana worked out the question aloud.

“Fair thought, but doesn’t give reason to mass produce and sell it like a drug. There’s something we are missing.” I shook my head. I couldn’t puzzle through it here. We needed more information.

Seeing my look, Morgana nodded. We were stuck until we got a new lead.

“Then let us hope someone bags a vampire that we can follow.” Morgana grinned and threw the brick back in the duffel bag. “Before more people get hurt.”

I nodded. As we headed to the door, I decided to pick her brain on a new topic. “Morgana, how do I get more in tune with my beast? You said vampires go through something similar?”

She looked over, nodding. “We practice meditation, learning to control our urges at times and become them at others.” She paused, checking the time. “We still have a bit of time left. Sit, we’ll work through some practices that I was taught.”

***

“Man, you have been in this aisle for like the whole trip. Decide already.” Frank leaned over the shopping cart, giving me a look of pure exasperation.

“Blueberry, or cinnamon raisin?” I held up the two boxes of muffin mix. “Blueberry is just so boring, but I know breakfast isn’t supposed to be desert.”

“Blueberry.” Frank said as soon as the options left my mouth. He was ready to move on.

Ah, screw it. I threw both into the cart.

Frank rolled his eyes but wheeled the shopping cart out of the aisle. When I’d gotten home, Maddie was making her feelings on no food in the apartment clear to Frank. She was threatening to not stay over, and he’d given in.

So, Frank and I quickly found ourselves out grocery shopping soon after. And Jadelyn had given me an idea, and I wasn’t really a bake from scratch man, so muffin mix it was. Well, and a bunch of frozen pizzas.

Morgana’s buffet the other day had put my stomach’s strike on hold, but I could feel it creeping back up, and I needed to have some emergency supplies on hand.

I snatched a big box of crackers off the shelf as we passed and threw it in the cart.

“How much are you going to eat this week?” Frank stared at the cart in shock.

“A lot. I feel like I’m putting on some muscle mass; I’ve got to eat to satisfy that.” It was an easy excuse. I had bulked up in the past few days.

“If that was how getting buff worked, do you realize how many ripped people there would be in our country.” But he ended that comment with a squint at my body. “But I swear you are filling out.” I paused a bit, hoping he wouldn’t ask too many questions, but he seemed to shrug it off. “Eating all this and looking more fit. Not fair.” He muttered, picking out his items and throwing them on the conveyor belt for the overworked lady to scan.

The blips of items running over the scanner faded into the background as I felt another text from Scarlett. I felt a twinge of guilt as I texted her back another witty reply. I’d been spending so much time with others like Jadelyn, when I should be spending more time with Scarlett.

“Hey Frank, I met this girl. She’s taken by an asshole and doesn’t want to be in the relationship. What do I do?”

Frank looked shocked that I’d actually asked for dating advice. “This isn’t Scarlett, is it?”

“No, we are going out tomorrow night. This is another girl.”

Frank’s gasp of shock might have been genuine; I couldn’t tell. “Another girl? Zach, are you dying? Has an alien taken over your brain? Come here. Let me check for a fever.”

I chuckled. “Calm down. She’s just a new friend in a tight situation.”

“Friend. Right. Is she hot?” My look must have given away the answer, because Frank’s smile grew.

“Perfect. Solution is just to bang her.” Frank shrugged, stepping forward to pay for his portion of the food.

I rolled my eyes at his oh so subtle solution. “Her guy would kill me. And not in a kidding way. I’d be dead in a ditch somewhere.” Though the beast grumbled in my chest in disagreement. It seemed to think the other guy would be dead in the ditch.

“Don’t make things too complicated. First, go on your date with the lovely Scarlett. Then, talk to this other girl, see if she’s really interested. If she is, you should be selfish. Let’s be honest, nice guys really do finish last. You need to be a bit of an ass here. It would be good for you to get out and date more.” Frank started bagging the groceries and unceremoniously dropping his bags back into the cart.

I winced when he started with the eggs on bottom. Poor eggs, it was nice knowing you.

“So just go for it?”

“Why not? You and Scarlett aren’t exclusive yet, are you? Play the field man.”

I pulled Frank’s eggs out of the bottom of the cart and laid them on top while I put some of the heavier items in the cart. “I don’t know. What if that messes things up with Scarlett? I’d hate to do that.”

“You only live once, Zach. Live a little. And you haven’t even been on a first date with Scarlett; it’s not like you’re in some deep relationship.” I paused at his statement; I guess I was getting a bit ahead of myself, but I really felt connected to Scarlett.

Frank had continued on while I was thinking. “Ask the second one out on a date for Monday. No girl asks for a second date the next day. That makes them seem desperate. So your schedule should be clear to pursue this other girl then. Do I get a name to go with her yet?”

“No.” I answered, maybe a little too quickly. Frank grinned and pushed the cart out of the store. “I want to meet them both. Just not at the same time, preferably. I may not be able to wingman you out of that.”

“No duh sherlock. I’m not that big of an idiot.” I said, but then I remembered some of what Morgana had told me about other dragons. Though part of being a dragon apparently was bringing them at the same time. I still hadn’t wrapped my head around how juggling multiple women was supposed to work.

Scarlett texted again, and I pulled out the phone, only for it still to keep ringing. “Hello, this is Zach.”

“They took the bait. I’ll come snag you. Where are you?”

I paused, trying to figure out how to explain this to Frank. Noticing me pausing, he turned halfway to the car, “What’s up, man?”

I squeezed my eyes closed. “I’ll be at my apartment in fifteen minutes.”

“No, where are you now?” Morgana repeated while Frank eyed me and started loading the groceries into his car.

“The grocery at 5th and Meadow.” I said, feeling odd, with Morgana coming to get me. She would stick out like a sore thumb.

“What’s going on?” Frank asked, and I started to help him load up the car.

I fumbled for a moment on how to explain it. “A friend says she needs me, wants to pick me up right now.”

“Holy shit, do you have a magic cock now or something? Midday booty call…” Frank trailed off, shaking his head.

“That is not what it is. It’s… work.” It was the closest I could come to telling him the truth..

“No problem, man. I owe you for wingmanning all those times with Maddie. I’ll put the groceries away. So, is this number 2?”

Before I could answer, a silver jaguar flew into the parking lot and spun in front of us. I could only see the outline of Morgana through the heavily tinted front window as she spun, tires screeching.

“Get in.” Her Swedish accent shouted as the passenger door opened. The car was low enough that I had to bend over to see more than her leather pants from where I stood.

Frank just whistled. “No way, this is number 2, this is definitely number 3.” He chuckled and started to bend down to look in the car, but I couldn’t have that. He’d definitely notice she wasn’t exactly human looking and ask more questions.

I grabbed my roommate in a hug to stop him from bending down. It was the most awkward hug of my life, but I still tried to play it off. “Thanks for getting the groceries! I’ll see you later.” I slipped into the car and Morgana gassed it, the door slamming shut from the momentum of her acceleration.

“What’s the nine alarm fire? Couldn’t it have waited fifteen minutes?” I was a little miffed at how abrupt Morgana was being. It was going to be hard to keep a normal life and keep my friends out of the para world if she kept making me drop everything at a moment’s notice.

But Morgana didn’t even turn to look at me, keeping her eyes forward as we went over curbs and scraped the bottom of her beautiful car. Her face was set in a serious line, and I realized it must be serious. “Two vampires were bagged in the last half an hour, only a couple of blocks from each other. White painted van with a red dripping faucet on the side. If we get over there now and it is still circling, looking for more, we can follow it. This is serious Zach.”

I pushed down any annoyance I had. She was right. There were vamp lives at stake and many more human lives if this drug kept getting pumped into the city.

Morgana’s phone vibrated in the center console. “Can you get that?”

Given how she drove, I was surprised that was where she drew the line. Recklessness seemed like her norm. “This is Morgana’s phone.” I answered.

“Ah, you must be the young man that was with her. Are you able to accept a job on her behalf?” The voice was a boisterous male voice. It reminded me a bit of Jadelyn’s father’s voice the other night, but phones could make voices murky.

Morgana nodded, her pointy ears twitching and reminding me she could probably hear him. “Yes, I can. What do you need?”

“My daughter has been kidnapped. A white panel van with a red symbol, and blue letters on the side.”

That sounded super familiar. “A red leaking faucet?”

There was a muffled conversation on the other side of the line, like he was covering the receiver while he confirmed with someone else. “That could very well be what the image was. Dare I ask why you knew that?”

“We are currently on the trail of a van matching that description that had kidnapped a vampire. We believe it to be in connection to the drug bust last night.”

The other end of the line was silent.

“Hello? Did I lose you?”

“No, you did not. I’ll offer Morgana double her normal rate to insure the safety of my daughter on top of her job to flush out this new drug and its makers.”

I looked at Morgana, and based on the giant smile that spread across her face, the job had just become ridiculously lucrative.

I was curious what her rates were. Given her garage, they were pretty darn good. “She agrees to that.”

“Good. Then good day…” He paused, not knowing my name to finish his sentence.

“Zach.” I left off my last name.

“Good day, Zach. Get my daughter back in one piece, and I’ll owe you a debt.” He hung up as soon as he finished, not waiting for a reply.

Morgana spoke after I hung up. “A debt from him is valuable. Don’t waste it while we rescue your princess.”

I felt my cheeks burn. “She’s not my princess. Wait! Is that the truck?” I pointed down a street we just passed.