Dragon 2 Chapter 7 (Patreon)

I was still sporting a wide grin as Kelly and I pulled up to Bumps in the Night.

“Could you stop smiling?” Kelly pouted. Her last several attempts to startle me into shifting had completely fizzled.

“Nope. I’m looking forward to your complete surprise when you find out what type of shifter I am.” I smiled as I slid out and into the club. The dinner portion of the club was open, and the warm, dimly lit front room was filled with well-dressed couples out on dates.

Grabbing Kelly’s hand, I pulled her to the side and around the screen towards the back, where Morgana’s club stretched further back than should be possible, given the building’s size. Morgana’s unique spatial magic was able to stretch the space.

One of the servers got a good look at me and bowed before heading off to find Morgana. I made myself at home by the bar in the empty club area. Grabbing something fancy looking from the top shelf and two low ball glasses, I showed Kelly the bottle.

“I’m actually more of a tequila girl,” Kelly replied as she stared at the bottle in my hands.

“Let me see what I can do.” I looked back, grabbing a shot glass and a bottle of tequila. Coming back around the bar, I held it up for her approval.

“That’ll work.” Kelly took the shot and the bottle, knocking back several shots before settling with a single glass she was going to sip.

“Careful, we still are going out tonight to hunt trolls.” I took the bottle back and put it on the shelf.

“Werewolf metabolism. I’ll be fine in thirty minutes. Plus, I’m not the one hunting trolls.” She sipped at the shot.

I only poured myself two fingers to enjoy. I didn’t want to lose my edge.

As I poured it, Morgana sauntered around the corner, her hand running against the wall as her hips swayed. She often kept to the shadows or at night in her club with the black lights came on, I’d seen her dance on the stage with no one realizing her skin was blue.

But around the club, she kept herself distant from other men. It had only taken one time for me to understand why.

She had danced with me and Scarlett once night only for me to come crawling over her. Morgana could handle herself and warded off dozens of men, but at the same time, it had to be exhausting.

“Grab me a flute, and there’s a bottle of sparkling red in the fridge.”

By red, Morgana meant blood. Well, what she really meant was champaigned blood. It was her special drink of choice.

I opened the fridge and let my eyes shift so I could see in the dark behind the other bottles. Spotting my target, I pulled out a fancy gold encrusted bottle.

While vampires might be low-key about many things, when it came to their favorite blood, they were not. Pouring Morgana a flute, I put it back to keep it fresh and raised my glass. “To another night of hunting trolls and making gold.”

They clinked their glasses, and we all took a sip.

“Am I getting gold?” Kelly asked.

“No.” I replied, maybe a touch too quickly. It had been instinctive when it came to splitting my gold.

Morgana swirled her glass with a look of idle thought. “I don’t know. Maybe we should take a cut out of Zach’s portion to pay for your time. That only seems fair.”

I let out a low growl.

“I’m missing something.” Kelly said.

“Yes, you are.” Morgana smiled. “This one is a little touchy about his gold. Doesn’t even cash it in. He just sleeps on it.”

I froze; Morgana was dropping far too many hints. But Kelly didn’t seem to figure it out, simply sipping on her drink.

Kelly replied, “I just think it is cool to have real freaking gold.” She slugged back the rest of her shot and put it on the counter for another. “Hit me, barkeep!” Turning back to me, she added, “My dad always kept a stock of gold. Rainy day funds and all.” Her eyes seemed to zone out as her voice trailed off, and I had no doubt it was bringing up sad memories.

I poured her another glass, working to change the subject before she went too deep down memory lane. “Morgana, any news on the trolls?”

Her eyes slid off Kelly with a cocked brow. “Nothing yet.”

“I’d expect something soon.” Kelly added. “Dad always said when the restaurants started throwing out their scraps, trolls seemed to pop up all over, hungry.”

“When are they human, besides after we knock them out? I feel like they are in their shifted state more than most paranormals.” I turned to Morgana, “Also, we are bringing tranquilizers this time.” Before I forgot, I wanted to guarantee that for my own safety this time.

I’d managed to wrestle the single troll, but two or even three would be a train wreck.

“Pretty much anything sets them off.” Kelly explained. Apparently, the pack’s history in dealing with this had taught her a few things. “Anger, hunger, anxiety, heck, even just a bunch of flashing lights can overwhelm them and send them into a rage. That’s why we get them down to Florida, where they can enjoy soaking in their swamps for the rest of the winter.”

Morgana nodded and her phone chirped. “You asked for this. Just remember that.” She pushed off the bar and raised her glass. “Bottoms up.”

I drained my glass and smacked it on the counter. “Where to?”

“Butcher shop. Looks like it’s a fancy one, but luckily it is para owned, so they called it in when they found two trolls eating in the alley garbage.” Morgana tapped on her phone as she headed deeper into her club and out to the parking garage.

“Sweet mother of god.” Kelly gasped as she walked through the door into Morgana’s garage.

I remembered my first time seeing Morgana’s cars. Row after row of cars that were worth six figures could really shock your system. “Yep. But we’ll take that van.”

“Van?” Kelly scoffed. “Why would you take a van?”

Pulling a tranquilizer revolver from the armory, I snagged a kit of darts and the little loading tool. “First off, the van is the most expensive car down here. Second, most of these don’t have the trunk space for a troll.”

“Do I at least get a gun?” She eyed the armory of guns resting on the wall.

“Nope. You are just here to teach me, right?” I fired back what she’d said earlier as I dragged her away from the armory down the row of Jaguars, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and other beautiful cars, ending up at the van.

The van was a beat up looking old minivan with now both side doors mismatched from the rest of the paint job. The first was already there when I started working with Morgana. The second was a result of a drunken minotaur we had wrangled a month ago. He didn’t appreciate our help and kicked out the other side door.

The van had a top of the line engine and drive system, and it needed it. Under the rough exterior was armored plating; the van was the next best thing to a tank. But it was heavy and drove like a runaway bull.

“Buckle up.” I got in and secured myself.

Kelly had yet to experience Morgana’s driving. She was in for it.

Kelly shrugged and hooked her seatbelt. “Not like a car crash would kill me, anyway.”

The way Morgana drove, I thought it might, but I’d let her experience the pleasure of Morgana’s driving herself.

Morgana chose that moment to floor it, sinning out of her spot, jostling me as she ground the gears, the car still in motion and gunning it forward as we flew recklessly by millions of dollars’ worth of cars.

Taking a peek in the rearview mirror, I caught Kelly already looking a little green and bracing herself against the door.

Morgana tore out onto the streets, and it was a miracle that she wasn’t pulled over a dozen times as she gunned it through the city streets, using signs and road rules as suggestions.

***

When Morgana finally screeched to a stop in front of the butcher shop, Kelly scrambled out of the car and puked in the gutter. “Who taught you to drive?”

“I taught myself. Back when cars had steam engines.” The drow vampire reminded us both of her age. “But I don’t have a license, if that’s what you are asking.”

“No wonder.” Kelly grumbled before picking herself up and checking to make sure she didn’t splatter on herself. Satisfied, she turned back to us. Her ear twitched as a metal clang rang out. It sounded like a dumpster being turned over.

Pedestrians were still walking down the street, and more than a few pointed and gawked at Morgana. “Amazing costume, can I get a picture?”

She waved him off. “No, I have to get going.”

He looked disappointed but rejoined his group, and I heard the distinct click of a phone camera. Rude.

“I bet you are going to be on the front page of some cosplay website, Morgana.” I led the way, ducking into the alley next to the butcher shop.

There was a sharp intake of breath as a rotund man startled as I entered the dark alley. Further down, there were two trolls trying to fit into a dumpster at the same time, and not succeeding. They banged it against the brick wall of another building.

“You own the butcher shop?” I asked the man who held a cleaver low, as if it would do anything to protect him from a troll.

He nodded, and his eyes went wide when he spotted Morgana and Kelly, who filed out behind me. “Thank god. Can you take care of them?” His focus was on Morgana, but she pointed her chin at me.

“He’s going to take care of them. It might get a little messy though. Why don’t you head back in. We’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you. Thank you.” He quickly sputtered, ignoring Kelly and hurrying back into the back door of the butcher shop. I shot Morgana a questioning glance.

“Vamp. He collects the blood for sale.”

I paused. That was the first fat vampire I’d ever seen. I thought there was a rule they all had to be thin and broody looking. “Okay, then let’s deal with these two.”

Morgana eyed me as I pulled out the tranquilizer pistol and loaded it from the bandoleer. “That isn’t how you are going to figure out your shifting.”

“Well, I was thinking that maybe we shouldn’t let them cause a mess tonight. I take lefty, you take righty.”

The girls shared a look.

“What? There will probably be another one tonight. If it is in a less risky spot, I’ll fight them.”

Kelly turned to Morgana rather than talk to me. “We could get some hotdogs from the butcher, I bet. Lure these guys somewhere else.”

“Hello. Not the plan. Plus, we are in the middle of a shopping area with a ton of pedestrians out on a Friday night. No way we can just lure these two dumb trolls around with hotdogs.”

Kelly’s eyes shifted over my shoulder, and I could feel the back of my neck prickle. Acting on instinct, I ducked, and a whoosh of air sounded above me. A trash bag sailed just over my head, nearly hitting me. “Duck.” Kelly said late. The smirk on her face told me that she might have done that on purpose.

“Thanks for that.” I turned and faced the two big green problems that had spotted me and were now coming my way. Dart guns hadn’t exactly been a focus in Morgana’s shooting range, but I at least knew the basics. Thankfully, swamp trolls made big targets.

Squeezing the trigger several times, three red puffy darts found their way into the troll's chest.

But it didn’t take it down. The troll was still coming, taking a big sloppy swing at me as it tripped over its own feet.

Ducking inside the swing, I came up on its side and landed a sharp punch in its kidneys. The already wobbly troll took two steps to the side as it overreacted to the hit.

I knew an opportunity when I saw one. With it leaning away, I dove into a tackle and took the huge troll down before I rolled away just in time for its meaty hands to slap its own chest.

“Want to put a few more in it for good measure?” I called out to Morgana, who already had her rifle at the ready, and shot a dart longer than my hand into the troll. The mixture T had come up with was potent, but it was better safe than sorry. I don’t want one of these waking up in the trunk of the van on the way out of the city.

“Careful. Here comes the second.” Morgana warned.

The other troll was pulling itself up out of the dumpster, an old moldy hunk of meat hanging from its mouth as it turned to appraise us, still chewing. Its eyes really didn’t seem to hold much of a spark of intelligence. They were like two little beady black marbles, lifeless. But they managed to see the other troll on the ground and its neanderthal brow furrowed.

It took a lumbering step to square itself against me, and I popped out the cylinder of the revolver, seeing three more of the darts still ready. Popping it back in, I looked up at the troll. I had it.

This troll was a little more cautious as its dumpster dinner date lay passed out on the ground, shifting back into its human form.

“Kelly, you want to get that one out of the way?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the active troll. This one was acting differently; the previous trolls had all been impulsive and animalistic.

While this troll very much looked like a troll, it seemed to be more intelligent. It looked at the gun in my hand and grabbed the lid to the dumpster, ripping it off and sending the dumpster grinding along the alley. Then it held up the lid like a shield.

“Oh, great.” My little darts, while full of potent tranquilizer, weren’t going to punch through that. So instead of shooting, I set off at a run towards the troll as it brandished the shield in front of it.

Jumping, I used the shield as a step, launching myself up and over the troll as I twisted and tried to get a line on it.

But the troll spun with me, keeping the dumpster lid between the two of us as it grinned victoriously. It stomped and charged, even before I hit the ground.

I couldn’t do much mid air to change where I was going to land. So, I was forced to watch as the troll caught me on his makeshift shield and carried me forward, plowing me into and over the lip of another dumpster. The dart gun clattered to the alley floor as I wheezed for breath.

“Yuck.” Glaring at the troll from inside the dumpster, I tried to figure out a plan.

But I didn’t have long to think, because the troll grinned as its big meaty hands grabbed the sidewalls of the dumpster. Its shoulders bulged with effort and the troll’s tongue popped out like some sort of piston under too much pressure as it used its hands to crumple the side walls inwards. They groaned as the metal bent in towards me.

Oh, hell no. I wasn’t about to get trapped in here like a bug inside a wrapper. But the problem with being thrown in a dumpster, aside from the stink, is that you don’t really have any solid ground to get traction on.

To be able to get myself out, I had to flail my arms and half crawl, half swim across the trash bags to get to the lip of the dumpster that was already closing in around me.

As I got my hand on the lip, the troll smashed down the lid of the dumpster on it. It was everything I could do to not scream and pull the hand back. “Listen here. Get out of my city.” I growled angrily.

My comment only pissed off the troll further. It picked up the dumpster and started to shake it.

I clung on to the lip of the dumpster.

One garbage dragon shaken, not stirred, coming right up.

I felt like I was in the middle of a drink mixer, being mixed in with the garbage. I was definitely getting thoroughly coated in the stuff while he did it. “Morgana. About now would be a great time to put a few darts in this guy.” I called from inside the dumpster mixer.

Either she didn’t hear me, or she was content to let me work this one out on my own. I was so going to give her a big stinky hug after this was done, then go sit in her precious van to stink it up.

Thoroughly mixed, the troll set the crumpled dumpster back down and opened the lid to take a peek.

I had held on through the whole thing, so as soon as I saw that lid lifting, I threw my dizziness and aches aside. This was my chance.

Throwing myself up and out of the dumpster, I clung to the troll’s face, grabbing his chin and throwing my body weight to the side.

His head snapped to the side, but its over developed lats bulged and prevented me from breaking his neck.

I groaned, annoyed that it hadn’t worked. I just couldn’t catch a break.

Getting a firm grip on its chin and digging my knee into its shoulder for leverage, I put my full strength behind it and twisted hard.

This time, the troll’s neck made a satisfying wet snap as all the tension left its body and it tumbled to the ground.

It lay there, not breathing, but I could already hear the crackle of its neck healing. It would be fine.

I shot a glare at Morgana. “Thanks for the assist.”

Walking over, I grabbed her gun out of her hands and shooting the troll point blank with a large dart. Then I handed the gun back to her. “Do you two think this is a joke? That thing could have really hurt me.”

Kelly wrinkled her nose. “You reek. But besides that, you are perfectly fine. It was the right call.”

Whirling on Kelly, I fixed her with a stare worthy of a pissed off dragon. “You are supposed to be here to help me figure this shit out.”

The only warning I had was the groan of sheet metal before the sound of something big flying through the air behind me caused me to spin back around just in time to see a dumpster flying my way.

Fuck this. Fuck them. Fuck trolls. Anger rolled through me at having to deal with even more troll shit. It was time to put this idiot down for good.

I snatched the dumpster out of the air with one hand, my claws sinking deep into the metal frame as I took a single step backwards to brace myself. The dumpster came to a halt mid air in my grip, though the contents continued forward and spilled out behind me.

I hoped they both got a trash shower.

But as I thought that, I paused, my eyes trailing over to my right arm, which had not looked like that a moment ago.

Evil author cackle. We'll pause there, have two MH this weekend and be back with DJ on Monday :)