Dragon 1 Chapter 20 (Patreon)

Morgana paced behind the well lit bar. Colored lights lit up the hundreds of liquor bottles from underneath, coloring them into a vivid red and attention pulling display. Even under the bright lights during the day, the bar was still the centerpiece of the bar.

I gnawed on a bone from the latest rack of ribs that had appeared in front of me. I was sitting up at the bar, watching Morgana as she hung up from yet another phone call. She turned and saw my expectant look.

“You know, you can just get another portion. Gnawing hungrily on a bone will not help your hunger.”

Putting the bone down, I paused, realizing that she was wrong. Gnawing on the bone had been pretty satisfying, though it had been more of a solution to boredom than hunger. I decided not to analyze that too deeply. “Any news on Brent’s pack?”

“No. And that’s the weirdest part. It is like they dropped off the map.”

That concerned me. “Do you think something happened to them? Do packs have hideaways?” I scratched at the scars on my back. Morgana had used some old school medicine, poultices made of crushed herbs. Most of my wounds had healed between my natural ability and her extra concoctions, but they were still crazy itchy. The only wound remaining was the deepest along my right ribs.

“Most of the paranormal have a bolt hole or two. But why would they have gone to ground?”

I thought back to what I’d seen when the drug had hit all of them. Their pack magic had fizzled, dimming. I wasn’t sure what effect it had, but I had a feeling that it was tainted somehow. It wouldn’t be crazy for Brent to take his pack and bring them together, trying to work to clean it up. If he was in danger, he might even bring his daughter with him. She would have been free from the drug locked up in the freezer till it settled back down.

“I have an idea.” I pulled out my phone and dialed Scarlett.

“Didn’t I just see you? Miss me already?” She teased over the line.

“I’m far from getting enough of you.” I saw Morgana roll her eyes, but I ignored her. “And I was a bit messed up the last time I saw you. I wanted to let you know that I’m feeling better.”

Scarlett cut me off before I could say any more. “Good. So look, about what Jadelyn’s father said before the duel…” She hesitated.

I smiled. She was worried I’d bail out. It was cute. She clearly cared about us. “Sounds like something to talk about on our second date.” I tried to give her a bit more certainty that I was still interested, but I was also in a hurry to move on to the reason I’d called.

I could almost hear the smile spread across her face, a relieved breath coming out over the line. “I’d love that. But you should also know that I’ve been strapped down to Jadelyn for the next couple of days. My father says it’s not him meddling in my relationship or trying to prove a point, but I’m not buying it for one minute.” She let out an exasperated sigh.

“But they’re using her kidnapping as justification for her to be under twenty-four seven surveillance. Which will make it hard for me to see you. But if you could swing by the sorority party tomorrow night, you might just find me there with Jadelyn. And we could get a bit of time together while I stay close enough to her and fulfill my duty.” She trailed off on the last words, uncertainty filling her voice.

“Sounds perfect. I’ll be a KPA tomorrow night at 7? What should I wear?”

“Swimsuit and a t-shirt. Bring a spare pair of clothes. There’s a fair chance you’ll get wet.” Based on her voice, she might just be a part of it. I chuckled. It would be just like Scarlett to push me in. There was a mischievous nature in her. But that probably came with dating a kitsune.

“Sounds great! I’m looking forward to it.” I paused, trying to figure out how to pivot the conversation. “But hey, I had another reason for calling, actually. Do you or Jadelyn have Kelly’s number?”

There was a pause. “Moving that fast, eh?”

Morgana must have been able to listen to the phone even from where she stood several feet away, because she burst into laughter.

“Who’s that?” Now Scarlett sounded hurt.

“Morgana. It’s impossible to hide anything I do from her with those pointy blue ears of hers.” I enjoyed the well earned glare I got from the drow.

“Hi Morgana, don’t hit on my man too much.” Scarlett said loudly into the phone. Morgana reeled back like she’d been slapped, shock on her face.

I ignored both of them, instead moving forward in the conversation with Scarlett. “I’m looking for Brent. After what went down at the warehouse, we wanted to check up on him and his pack. We’re having trouble getting in touch with him, so we thought Kelly might be reachable.”

“Oh, got it. Hold on.” The line went quiet as she likely talked to somebody else. A few seconds later, the background sound came back. “I have Jadelyn here.”

“Scarlett said you were looking for Kelly?”

“Yeah. Technically looking for Brent, but I figured Kelly might be our best bet to get in touch with him.”

“Alright. Got something to write it down with?” Jadelyn asked. Morgana was already grabbing her phone out to take down the number.

“Go ahead.” I confirmed, and Jadelyn read off a number. Morgana nodded along. “Alright, thank you, ladies.”

“No, I wanted to apologize.” Jadelyn cut in. “I mean, I wanted formally to apologize for the duel. It was my fault that you were in that mess, and I didn’t do enough to get you out of it. Not only that, but it seems like I keep dragging Chad around you and making things unpleasant, like dinner. If you need anything, know that I owe you a big favor. Anything.” She repeated.

Scarlett snickered in the background.

“What are you laughing at?” There was something I was missing, not being there in person.

She jumped to respond. “I swear. I haven’t told her what you are.”

I frowned, wondering why she would feel the need to reassure me of that. However, I just rolled with it.“Okay. I’ll see you two tomorrow. We have a pack to find.”

“Good luck.” They both said, and there was a bit of fuss before the phone clicked off.

I hung up the phone and looked up to find a smiling Morgana. “She likes you.”

“Of course, she’s my…” I pulled back before I said girlfriend. “We are going out.” I corrected myself, but Morgana held her smile with a knowing smirk, like I was missing something.

Then it clicked. “You mean Jadelyn?”

“Yes, I think our little siren princess is quite smitten with you. She just can’t show it, given her situation.”

“You’re nuts. I didn’t know vampires were such romantics. There’s nothing between me and Jadelyn. And it needs to stay that way. I don’t need more werewolves to worry about.” She and I were just friends. That’s all we could ever be with her being engaged to Chad.

Morgana’s eyes bore through me like I was in denial, and maybe I was, but I really didn’t want to process any of that at the moment.

Wanting to change direction from the current conversation, I focused us back on the pack. “Read me off Kelly’s number?” I held my phone ready and dialed the head bitch of Chad’s pack as she read it off.

It rang five times before finally Kelly picked up breathless, likely from sprinting to the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey Kelly. This is Zach,” But before I could introduce myself further, there was snarling in the distance that sounded like there might be a fight happening. “Kelly, is everything okay?”

“Great.” She sounded anything but convincing.

She was in trouble. “We are looking for your father, Kelly. After seeing what the drug did to the other wolves, I wanted to check up on him.”

The moment stretched out. I knew she hadn’t hung up, because I could still hear the snarling in the background. But she didn’t say a word for a long time. After a deep breath, she finally spoke. “My dad isn’t well. His pack is keeping him contained though.”

“Kelly, about the other wolves I saw taking this drug... their pack magic looked like it was sick. I don’t know if containing him is going to make it better. Can you tell us where you are?” If he was still being affected by the drug, it was more than just a drug. Given his power and werewolves’ ability to heal, he should have it all out of his system by now.

Kelly’s voice was a bit more bristly when she spoke again. “Look, I appreciate you wanting to help Zach, but this is pack business.”

Morgana had come around the table and pressed her head up to the other side of the phone. “Kelly, this is Morgana. We are handling council business in checking up on your father.”

I heard Kelly’s hesitation given that new information, and for a brief moment I thought she might tell us where they were, but then there was a loud bang and the sound of metal falling in the background. The snarling I’d heard before doubled in volume. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” Kelly cursed. “I have to go.”

“Kelly, where are you?” I made one final pass, knowing she was likely about to hang up.

“Shit. This is such shit!” More clanging rang in the background. “Fine. Here’s the address.” She rambled off the address of a warehouse outside of the city limits. Morgana entered it into her phone as Kelly talked, and in no time, I heard the app chirp and start giving directions.

“Thank you. We are on our way.” I told Kelly and hung up.

Morgana’s face was scrunched up in worry, but shifted to neutral resolve. “Let’s go.”

I went with her down to the parking lot and pulled out a handgun from the foam rack, checking the chamber and magazine before grabbing two spare ones that looked the same. I turned to head to the car, wondering which we’d take this time.

“Really? The van?” I saw her opening the ugly things car door.

Morgana only shrugged as she unzipped, checked, and rezipped several bags. “I already had it packed. Plus, you wrecked the jag.” She turned to narrow her eyes at me. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to let me forget that for a while.

“Fine. But I need to start packing puke bags in this thing.” I joked. I’d been fine, but her driving was insane.

She was less than amused. “You puke in one of my babies and I’ll never forgive you.”

I held back my comment about how her driving could improve to lessen those chances, but she was about to be behind the wheel. The last thing I needed was for her to be annoyed with me and take it out on the road.

Sliding into the passenger seat, I buckled in and tugged it a few times to make sure it was working. “Let’s get out there.”

***

We pulled up to the warehouse an hour later. During the drive, I realized that I’d missed three classes in the chaos of the day. But I’d just have to make them up later. My professors might not understand my absence, but I was pretty confident that making sure a local pack of werewolves didn’t go crazy was more important. School had become trivial by comparison.

The warehouse was a newer building, made entirely of concrete slabs painted white. It was odd seeing them try to pretty up a warehouse. It was still a big concrete cube in the end.

Paw prints covered the surrounding area, and minor details didn’t make sense. Flood lights sat on the corner and it had a few too many cameras. The docks were too clean, too fresh looking.

“This isn’t really a warehouse.” I said, as Morgana came to a full stop.

Her eyes scanned over the structure. “No, it’s a bunker. Those doors are reinforced.” She pointed to the dock doors. “And they are missing the chains to pull them up; they might not even be real.”

Now that she pointed it out, I saw what she meant. The dock doors were a facade. “Think the front door still works?” I was already getting out of the van, my shoes disturbing the paw prints in the dirt.

My leather jacket had the two spare magazines in it, and Morgana had even insisted I carry a grenade from her bag.

She said it wouldn’t explode, just create a bunch of acrid smoke. Apparently, they did wonders against werewolves.

I’d use my strength where I could, but I didn’t mind having my hand gun tucked into my belt. I was learning the savageness of the para world. It wasn’t about the beauty of how you fought or killed; it was about winning and using what you had at your disposal.

At least I knew enough now to check the gun again and make sure the safety was on. Feeling prepared, I looked up at the door.

I was only going to crash a party with an alpha wolf needing containment in a bunker. What could go wrong?

“When there are a lack of options, often simplicity is the answer.” Morgana took the lead and walked up to the one door we believed was real. I waited to see what badassery she was about to unleash. But my mouth fell open as she simply reached up and pushed the buzzer.

“Who’s this?” A voice on the other end barked. “We aren’t expecting any deliveries today.”

“We are here to see Brent, on council business.” Morgana added the second half like an afterthought.

I looked up at one of the cameras, feeling like somebody was watching us.

“Come in.” The speaker clicked off, and the door buzzed as a heavy bolt smacked open.

“They really haven’t skimped on security.” I pulled the door open and let Morgana lead. She could survive having her neck snapped, so it seemed only fair that she took the lead.

Following in after her, I entered a small room with a second reinforced door. I took back what I’d said before. They’d definitely gone overboard with security. What were they so afraid of?

To the side of this room was a room with bars and plexiglass separating us from a man that looked like he’d come from a typical office job. “Welcome. IDs, please.”

Morgana pulled out a plastic card and slapped it against the barrier for him to see.

I was more than a little curious about what she was holding. It looked like a driver’s license, but there was no way Morgana had one of those. She’s blue!

“Alright Miss Morgana. Please head in. Someone will come see you. I’m afraid that you may not be able to talk to Sebastian, but we’ll let you see him.” The second door was just like the first.

“Come with me.” A woman in a cardigan and a short skirt stood on the other side, turning and immediately moving before we responded. She headed down a set of stairs to the side. She was more petite than I’d expected, and her outfit looked like she’d just come off a tennis court. She did not scream werewolf.

Looking over her shoulder, she commented, “Welcome to the pack’s den.”

“Den?” I asked.

“Because we age slower than most humans, we often ‘leave’ wherever we were living every five or ten years. Most of the time, we come to the den and hang out for a few years. After all, the packs sticks relatively close. Then we reinvent ourselves and come back a few years later. But the den also doubles as a safe place for the pack. Many of us are back here today because of Brent.” Her voice dipped as she talked about her alpha.

“I saw what that drug did to the omega wolves; it made their pack magic dirty.”

“You can see it?” She turned with a look of shock.

“Zach is a unique para.” Morgana smiled at the woman and nodded for her to keep going.

“Right.” She spun on her heels and kept forward. “He’s not well. Having spats of rage. The pack pulled back and are hoping to help him while this gets out of his system. After all, he’s our connectedAlpha. If something were to happen to him…”

I had been hoping to get more information. “What would happen?”

She sighed. “We’d become omegas. The pack would dissolve without Brent.”

They’d be in a similar position to the other wolves. A few more dots began to connect. If I had a pack of omegas, it would be in my favor to have more candidates to join my pack.

Despite Kelly’s claims before that omegas couldn’t be part of a pack, the ones I had seen clearly had formed a pack. I still wasn’t sure how they were doing it, but it seemed plausible that it had been intended that the drug affect Brent like it was. “The wolves that fought Sebastian were omegas, but they had pack magic. Do you know how that is possible?”

“No. That’s impossible. We leave our parent’s packs in our teens and form packs in the new generation in our early twenties. It takes a few years for the pack magic to settle over, and the alpha to establish dominance, but once the pack magic settles, the bond is forever. Once broken, it is like a severed arm, or so I’ve been told.”

I winced at the comparison. “Can you feel your bond with Brent? Has it changed?”

A pained look flashed across our host’s face. “Yes. We can feel him across the bond. I think your description of dirty is correct. It’s like a rage is muddled in my bond with him. It makes me want to lash out, claw someone.” Her voice got quiet. “It is another reason we are all here, to protect us from doing something we’d regret.”

She led us down a spiral stair well that emptied into a large open space. It was simple painted concrete walls and bland linoleum flooring. Long tables with benches like cafeteria tables filled most of the room. It felt almost militant.

Down below, it looked like the aftermath of a battle. Blood was everywhere and wounded werewolves were being patched up and scraps of what I guess used to be a table were being cleaned up. Deep under the bunker, there was a cell block, each equipped with large iron chains.

What caught my attention was a cell that looked utterly destroyed, like something had exploded out. And in one of the other cells was a naked and unconscious Brent.

Nearby, several wolves were hauling a chain big enough to be the anchor line for a barge.

“What happened?”

“He got out.”

I looked at the carnage. Three dozen wolves were heavily injured. “He did all this by himself?” I’d gotten a glimpse of him in action at the drug operation, but this was violence to a substantial degree worse.

There was pride in her voice as she spoke next. “Of course. He’s our alpha. We are a decent sized pack, and we’ve been around for almost fifty years. Sebastian is amazingly strong.”

The subject in question was being wrapped in more of that anchor line. They were using heavy looking fasteners to clamp it to itself and around the bars of his cell. That anything could break out of that was mind boggling.

“Zach, is there anything you can do?”

I wanted to look at what was going on with his pack magic, but I wasn’t able to summon it at will. I needed to get riled up, get my blood pumping. At least, that’s all that had worked so far.

As I thought about asking for a few of the wolves to fight me, I felt my dragon stir, this time more helpful than when I battled Simon.

The world grew into perfect clarity as the lights became almost painfully bright and details exploded around the bottom of the bunker. So much information came at me at once that my head felt like someone had stabbed my head with an ice pick.

Morgana put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

“Is he going to be okay?” Our host asked.

“Oh, he’s doing great.” I didn’t even need to turn around to know Morgana was smiling enough to show her fangs.

It felt like I could see everything. Reflections off of the metal were in such perfect clarity that I could see all around the room. Strangely, my spatial sense was several times what it had ever been before, and I just knew where things were around me. It was like being in a familiar room in the dark; I knew what to expect. But most importantly, I could see Brent’s magic.