Dragon 3 Chapter 2 (Patreon)

“There’s only a half an hour left on the flight; if you need a moment to get cleaned up, please do so.” The pilot announced over the intercom.

I guessed we weren’t very quiet.

Jadelyn was flush in the face and breathing heavily, a broad grin stretching across her face. “Hope I didn’t wear you out.”

“Never.” I threatened to roll back on top of her, but she patted me on the chest. “We are about to land, and we can’t take up much time on the tarmac without getting in trouble.”

“You two.” Scarlett groaned from off the edge of the bed.

I peeked over the side to see my favorite kitsune liberally coated with sweat, semen drying on her breasts. “Us two what?”

“One day, I’m going to learn your secret, Jade.” Scarlett vowed, shaking a fist in the air.

Jade pulled me back from the edge of the bed with a few kisses. “I’m literally made for sex with him now. That and, of course, plenty of practice. Frequent practice is definitely necessary.” She snuggled into me.

Jade could also make enough lubrication that we could have sex under water, and that helped considerably as well. But I let that go unsaid.

Rolling off the bed on the side Scarlett wasn’t occupying, I grabbed my spatial artifact and ducked into one of the two mid cabin bathrooms. I turned on the shower. The water was still heating up, but the cold didn’t bother me. I dipped under the spray and washed myself clean, scrubbing between my legs thoroughly to get off all of Jade’s juices.

Even as my shower kicked off, I could hear the other one running.

Pulling a fresh set of clothes out of the spatial artifact, I got dressed and decided to check on Kelly.

Up in the front of the cabin, Kelly lay sprawled out on an egg-shaped swivel chair. Her pants were pulled down and an empty whiskey bottle was on the floor.

“Kelly, wake up. You can use the shower on the left.” I nudged the horny and drunk werewolf awake.

“Huh? Is it my turn yet?” She asked groggily, before she blinked away her sleepiness and cursed. “You're dressed. That means I missed my shot.”

“There was no shot, at least not right now.” Jadelyn came out of her bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head. “Plus, it looks like you made yourself plenty comfortable.”

Kelly gave her a deadpanned look. “Do you realize how loud the three of you are? Fuck, it drove me nuts.”

Jadelyn just shrugged and pulled a change of clothes out of her bag. She put them on right there, in the middle of the cabin.

I was tempted to take them right back off, but the sound of the landing gear coming out below us reminded me that we were out of time.

It also meant that we were one step closer to finding Morgana, and I felt my adrenaline surge.

Walking over, I settled for a simple kiss on the cheek for Jadelyn and opened the door to the bathroom to kiss Scarlett and remind her. “Might want to get in a seat. I don’t think standing in the bathroom is going to go over well when we land.”

She ducked under my arm, still naked, and dove into a seat, buckling herself in while still drying herself off with a towel.

I joined her. We were all seated in the swivel chairs as the plane bumped down on the runway.

It was far less jarring than I remembered.

“Smaller plane.” Scarlett answered. “And better pilots.”

She unbuckled her seat as soon as we were on the ground and wiggled herself back into a pair of tight jeans and a leather biker jacket.

When the plane stopped, Scarlett held up a hand for us to wait and opened the door, jumping out on her own to do a sweep of the area.

“Thanks for flying with us.” The pilots came out of the cockpit.

The copilot looked at the mess behind us with a strange expression before looking at me in complete disbelief.

I just shrugged and smiled. Dragons have stamina. It lets us keep up with all our women.

“Don’t worry; we have a cleaning service coming.” Jadelyn told them both.

“Do you know when exactly your return trip will be?” The pilot asked.

“Not for a few days. You both are on paid standby for the next week.” She answered the question she knew they’d be asking next. “So kick back for two days. By then, I’ll hopefully have a better understanding of what our schedule will look like.”

The pilot nudged the copilot with a wink. They seemed happy enough with that plan. I was curious what they were going to do with their free time given they looked so excited, but I figured I’d just leave them to it.

Scarlett poked her head back into the plane. “All clear; let’s go.”

I grabbed Kelly’s bag on the way out, slinging the massive thing over my shoulder. “By the way, where are your bags?” I asked Jadelyn.

“Shipped to my place in Sentarshaden.” She replied. “I just keep a few things on the plane.”

“Damn.” Kelly looked at her bag. “Here I am, traveling with everything like a pleb.”

“Don’t worry, I have all of my stuff with me, too.” I said.

Kelly looked me up and down and then back at the plane. “Where?”

“Right here.” I pulled the spatial artifact from my pocket.

“Is that a bra pad?” Her jaw nearly dropped. “Perv.”

“No.” I waved my hands to stop her. “It’s a spatial artifact.” I corrected her.

“That also happens to be a bra pad.” Scarlett snickered as she led us across the tarmac to a black SUV that had been waiting.

The driver stepped out of his car in a thick coat and held a sign that said ‘Golden Boy’. “Are you Golden Boy?”

Scarlett looked back at me, waiting for me to answer. The joy in her eyes told me she was enjoying that moment.

I sighed, deciding it was best to play along. “Yep, that would be me.”

“Great. Then come on in. I’ll get you all to the train station.”

The four of us piled into the back two rows comfortably. I had a momentary pause, realizing that if the group of girls I surrounded myself with got much larger, we would have to start taking more than one car.

“So, what are you guys doing in beautiful Switzerland?” The driver tried to make conversation.

“Vacation.” Scarlett answered quickly. She shot me a look, and I nodded at the unspoken communication. The driver didn’t know about paranormals.

“It is beautiful this time of year.”

Everything but the roads was coated in a heavy snow. The homes were picturesquely decorated in the white powdery snow.

“It really is.” My breath fogged up the window, and I had to rub at it to keep it from hindering my vision.

The world was different to me now. Rather than just fields of snow, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a paranormal out there enjoying it. I wondered if Yetis were an actual thing, but I couldn’t ask the girls in front of the driver without sounding crazy.

Another thought hit me, but I’d have to ask the girls later. If this was a city of paranormals, what were the chances there was another dragon in the city?

I knew there weren’t many dragons, but it seemed likely a big paranormal city would have at least one. One that, unlike the Bronze King in Dubai, might try to keep a low profile like me.

I was still doing my best to keep my powers under wraps. I wasn’t strong enough to hold my own against the kind of groups that would want to use my body parts.

I shivered at the thought.

“Hey Kelly, with you out here, who’s stopping the rest of your pack from spilling my secret?” I suddenly asked.

“Uh…” Kelly stalled. “I don’t know if I could have stopped them all, even if I was there. Sorry, but two hundred college kids are like a gossip machine.”

I had already realized that they were a massive flaw in my ability to stay under the radar, but I couldn’t bring myself to kill all of them.

“It had to come out eventually.” Scarlett reminded me, shrugging. “Plus, random rumors without some solid support to back them might just fade away.”

“Yeah. We’ll run damage control when we get back.” Kelly jumped on Scarlett’s idea, agreeing and trying to comfort me.

I nodded. Now that I could shift, I felt far less vulnerable, but I was sure that there would be consequences when my secret got out.

At least I was getting used to change. I’d managed to go from a geeky kid pursuing med school to a mercenary in the paranormal world. And I was getting better at taking on what came my way. I’d even managed to take down a god with a bit of extra help.

I tried to pump myself up, so I’d focus less on the massive threat of my secret getting spilled.

But as I looked at my two beautiful women, and thought about the third I was about to hunt down, I only wanted to press forward into the paranormal world. I’d just have to handle what came at me.

“We’re here.” The driver announced as he pulled up to a large concrete building.

“Thank you.” Jadelyn handed him a hefty tip. “Have a good day.”

“You too.” He said excitedly before fishing around in his coat pocket. “If you need a driver anytime, just call me.”

“Will do.” Scarlett took the card for Jade.

Closing the door behind Jade, who was the last to get out, I looked up at the extensive building with a fancy concrete arch welcoming us to Switzerland.

“Come on, we better hurry.” Scarlett checked her phone for the time. “Next train is in fifteen minutes.”

“How often does it run?” I asked, walking briskly to keep up with her tiny legs as she hurried.

“Four times a day. We’ll wait for hours if we don’t hurry.” Scarlett kept up her fast pace, and I snagged Jadelyn, helping her keep up.

Kelly had no problem speeding through the area, bouncing beside us with her massive pack over her shoulder.

***

The massive stone archway welcomed us into the train station.

Beyond the old arch, the station was actually quite modern. Crowds passed us by as we pushed our way into the station. Everybody was in a rush, working to get where they needed to go.

“So, where is this secret station?” I asked, looking around and not seeing the obvious answer. There wasn’t even space between stations 9 and 10.

“Secret station?” Kelly asked. “Like H—“

“Exactly like it.” Jadelyn interrupted her and smacked Scarlett as she opened her mouth to once again tell the story of little Jadelyn.

Jadelyn then pivoted to look at Kelly. “Have you never been to Sentarshaden?”

“Nope. My dad was a local kind of guy. We drove to any vacations.” Kelly hugged her bag tighter at the mention of her old man.

She still needed time for that wound to heal.

Wanting to leave that conversation as quickly as possible, I nudged Scarlett forward, and she took the lead once again.

“Just follow me.” She took a big step forward and started her charge across the station.

An idea came to me, and I pulled a pair of sunglasses from my spatial artifact. I put them on to hide my eyes as I shifted them. Everything came into a higher clarity, and several people walking around lit up with magic on their person. But what surprised me most of all was that the wall at the far end of the station was an illusion. And it was what Scarlett was charging towards.

“Can you see it?” Jadelyn asked, peeking around my glasses.

“Yeah. We just walk through it?”

“You have to take it at a run or you’ll bounce off it.” Jadelyn informed Kelly and I.

Kelly squinted her eyes at Jadelyn. “You first.” I laughed. It would be like Jadelyn to get Kelly to charge into a wall.

“I‘ll go first.” I said. The wall was only about five paces away when I kicked into a jog. Despite seeing the magic with my dragon eye, I still closed my eyes, bracing for impact.

But the impact never came. I ran right through the wall.

Kelly came barreling behind me, knocking me over and landing on top of me. “Oops.” But she said it in a way that didn’t sound like a mistake.

Grabbing her and rolling both of us to the side, I stood before Jadelyn and Scarlett trampled over us.

“That wasn’t so bad.” I dusted off my coat.

“What keeps people from seeing everyone run at a wall?” Kelly asked.

“More magic and wards. The station has paranormals in the management, so the cameras don’t catch the right angle either.” Scarlett explained.

I broke from the conversation and looked at the platform.

A werewolf was just standing there on the platform, partially shifted, its gray fur on full display.

“Some of us are more comfortable showing what we are.” Jadelyn said by way of explanation. Her mermaid ears had come out, and I could see scales peeking out of the collar of her coat.

Scarlett’s ears and tails popped out as she stopped covering them with illusions.

I looked over at Kelly, watching as she let her wolf ears pop out. But otherwise, she stayed human.

“You could just take off your sunglasses and show those eyes of yours. No one will realize what you are.” Jadelyn encouraged me.

It was a very strange moment for me as I pulled the sunglasses down and let my paranormal flag fly for the first time.

I was different, and… no one cared.

Nobody stared at me. Not the werewolf, the vampire or even the elf waiting on the platform spared our group another glance as we walked up to wait for the next train.

“This is…”

“Awesome.” Scarlett filled in for me, smiling. “I know. I hate hiding my tails. Everything feels so much better when I can let them out.”

Her soft fluffy tails batted at my chest, absorbing some of the mana I was giving off. As a dragon, I was one of the few paranormals that actually produced mana rather than just consuming it.

Mana was a vital resource for the world and paranormal kind. It gave most paranormal creatures their various abilities. Which meant that dragons were an openly protected species, as the world was being depleted of mana. But it also meant that we were valuable and could be hunted. Since our bodies were flooded with mana day and night, that made me and the rest of dragon kind precious. Our bodies were literal treasure troves.

When I visited T, he was giddy over just a few nail clippings and bargained for a lock of hair.

The old alchemist was wanted by all elven kind and was a friend of Morgana’s. I trusted him in general, but I was still antsy about what he was going to do with the bits of me he was collecting.

Scarlett bumped my hip. “You’re staring.”

“Oh.” I quickly looked away. I had been staring at an elf while I had been thinking.

“She’s a cute one. High elf for sure.” Jadelyn said from my other side.

“How can you tell?” I wondered what set the elven races apart.

Morgana had been a bit of a dead giveaway with her blue skin, but the elf here had pale skin that would have blended in with any of the other switzerlanders in the middle of the winter. She had blond hair and pointy ears that poked out of her hair.

“The eyes.” The two of them said together.

Careful not to seem like I was staring again, I looked back and realized with a shock that her eyes were an almost magical violet and blue. The colors swirled together like they were alive with some undercurrent.

“Yep, there are a lot of high elves in Sentarshaden. The ruling family are high elves, after all.” Scarlett continued to give me details about the city.

I nodded, absorbing the information. “What kind of elf is T?”

They looked at each other.

“I’m not really sure.” Jadelyn said first. “He certainly isn't a dark elf, but he barely opens his eyes, so I’m not sure if he is a high elf either.”

“What other options are there?” I pushed for more information.

“Wood, mountain, desert, high and drow.” Scarlett quickly ticked off a list on her fingers. “Desert are super tan, and drow are blue. High, wood and mountain are all more normal skin tones. Though wood often have a golden tan to them, and they generally have green hair.”

I nodded, keeping track of their differences. “So, do mountain elves have any defining characteristics?”

“Short. The rest are kind of tall and lanky, but not the mountain elves.”

Glancing down the platform, I waited to see if I could spot any of the other elven varieties. There was one green-haired man a ways down; I assumed then he must have been a wood elf.

I smiled, happy at the new information I’d already gotten.

While I was busy scoping out the platform with all its oddities, a heavy plume of smoke trailed towards the platform and a heavy red and white locomotive careened into the station.

“Jadelyn, that thing looks like it isn’t going to stop.”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s something you need to get used to. Here, paranormal kind can actively merge technology and magic.”

I stared at the train barrelling towards the platform. It had to be going a solid eighty miles an hour at full steam when it made it to the platform. But when it reached, it decelerated smoothly, without the screeching of metal.

It stopped, perfectly aligned to the platform.

“That was…”

“Incredible.” Kelly finished for me. “What made that work?”

“Magic.” Jadelyn answered with a laugh, like she’d been holding that one in.

It didn’t matter what made it work; I was thoroughly impressed. And I was excited. I had a feeling that Sentarshaden was going to provide a wealth of new experiences for me.

People poured out of the train cars in an assortment of clothes, looking like everyday travelers.

So many of them were shifting their hair to hide their ears, putting on illusions or shifting back to fully human as they crossed the platform and streamed back out into the regular portion of the station.

“Come on, stop staring or you’ll miss the train.” Jadelyn hooked her arm around mine and pulled me into the now empty train.

I could tell she was excited too as she pulled me through the doors and down a little hallway where each of the cars was lined with eight small private rooms.

I knew this wasn’t new for her, so I tried to figure out what was exciting her so much. But then I figured it out. “Jade, how often do you travel without guards?”

She paused, smiling up at me sheepishly. “Never. My mother only let me go with just you and Scarlett because of what you are. She’s sure you’ll keep me safe.” Jadelyn gave me a winning smile, and she dragged me down to sit in the seat with her.

Scarlett narrowed her eyes at me as she slid into her seat across from me. “So no running off. You need to keep Jade close to keep her safe. Same goes for you, wolfy.”

Kelly stopped looking around, marveling at the train. “Not a problem. Keep Jade safe. I can do that.” She nodded to herself, as if something else had just occurred to her.

Stuffing her bag in the space over her head, Kelly sat down with a big grin. “If I save Jade, does that make me valuable enough to keep around?” Kelly pointedly asked Scarlett.

My lovely Kitsune mate’s tails thrashed angrily behind her. “We’ll see. Let’s just hope no one recognizes her.”