Dragon 4 Chapter 4 (Patreon)

As soon as I stepped off the plane, the hot air buffeted me. I had anticipated that the desert in Dubai would have dry air, but I was surprised to find that it actually felt wet, almost sticky.

The city was by water, but the humidity was unexpected in the otherwise arid landscape.

Luckily, the tarmac was free of people, but as I looked up, I could see that all the windows in the airport that faced our plane were packed with people. A few seemed to throw themselves against the windows as security tried to keep order.

“Wonderful.” I muttered to myself.

But then a crash sounded, and one door gave way. The noise of the masses reached us first, the screaming of my fan group echoing out of the airport.

And bodies quickly followed the sound as they poured out of the airport.

The group of people were quickly streaming onto the tarmac, security unable to stop the mass of people.

Many of them held signs, others had their phones out and were recording or streaming. They charged towards us.

My reputation proceeded me. Every one of these people were paranormals and eager to see the new king of dragons. I had become a secret celebrity, normal people at the airport were probably wondering who I was.

I calmly waved at them as Larisa and Chloe stepped forward, providing an imposing presence between the masses and me.

They seemed to project something like my fear aurora, keeping the group of fans at bay as they slowed down and formed a group just short of where I stood.

Jadelyn was beside me, holding my hand. She even seemed a bit shaken at the onslaught of people.

But Scarlett’s frown was what caught my attention. I followed her line of sight to several people in the back; they had huge cameras and were taking shots from far away.

"Who are they?" I asked her as we walked towards the black SUV waiting for us.

"Normals. If I had to guess, you made enough of a stir that several governments agencies have started a manila folder on you while they wait to figure out who you really are and what has led to your fame." She replied.

I did a double take, looking back at them. "Wait, that's a thing? Does the CIA or someone know abou--"

Scarlett stopped me with a glare. "I’m willing to bet they have parabolic mics on us as well. Keep quiet for now; we can talk later. To answer your unasked question, no. Anybody who learns quickly no longer poses a threat."

She shifted her glare to one of them with a little vengeful grin.

I knew Scarlett was a trained assassin, but I’d assumed that was just so she could understand their tactics and be efficient. Now I wondered what she’d done to eliminate threats in the past. My little kitsune had some serious teeth.

"We should have a better talk about this later." I whispered in her ear.

She only nodded, her eyes continuing to scan the crowd as we moved.

We reached the car that had been waiting, and the driver jumped out to open the doors for our party.

All six of us crammed into the back two rows.

I was flanked by the two dragons, and Jadelyn was flanked by Morgana and Scarlett behind us.

"Can we talk now?" I asked, clicking my seatbelt on and giving it a little tug to make sure it was secure.

"Driver, you have the address?" Scarlett asked the man, ignoring me for a moment.

"Yes mam. I know it well. It is an honor to drive you all." He pulled out of the airport and flew down the road, ignoring anything like a speed limit.

Very happy that I had put on my seatbelt, I turned around in my seat to look at Scarlett. "So, spies?"

"Yes, spies. There is a ton of work done at all levels of the government and the paranormal organizations of the world to constantly scrub ourselves from their records." She replied.

Morgana joined her. "It gets harder and harder with technology and how quickly information can travel. A hundred years ago, it was fairly easy to just dismiss anything raised with a well-placed pawn or two. Through technology, privacy is shrinking though. Hell, all the location data on your phone is probably trading hands every second of the day.” Morgana gave a wistful sigh that showed her age. Like someone wishing for the good ol’ days.

“It is a very real problem among the Paranormal Council back home." Jadelyn agreed.

"The dragons have a few people placed high in the government around the world, and they are strong donors to the right people." Chloe whispered.

I hadn't thought about it before, but it shocked me that the paranormal community had kept the lid on the secret from the three letter agencies. "It makes sense, but it’s just sort of incredible. There have to be some satellite images of what happened outside Sentarshaden?"

Jadelyn rubbed her forehead behind me. "That one even made some ripples in things we work on. But the Highaen were quick to fix the problem. The satellite's imagery was 'lost' because of a malfunction. Anyone who had seen the images got a visit by an elven mage or were given certain drugs to blur their recent memory."

I let out a low whistle. "Am I going to have to manage these types of things for the dragons?"

"Not directly." Chloe replied. "The chromatic seats manage most of that."

I nodded, remembering my lessons. The dragons were divided into two groups, the chromatic and the metallic. Each had five seats, one for the leader of each species of dragon. Each species was called a flight.

Our driver stopped at a stoplight, and Scarlett spoke up. "Driver. We are being followed."

He looked in the rearview mirror. "Which one?"

"The white sedan. Three back on the left." Scarlett reported. She had switched to that terse tone she used when she was body guarding.

"Wait, can I deal with this?" Chloe asked.

Scarlett hesitated. "Sure, if you can do it without harming them. We don’t know their intentions."

Chloe turned in her seat and her throat shifted as she spoke several draconic words, pushing her hand forward.

I shifted my eyes so I could watch the lightning-like mana dart out of her palm and into the car that Scarlett had identified. It happened outside the spectrum of human vision.

There was no change for a moment, but then the hood of the car started smoking and our light turned green.

We continued forward, but that car was dead, smoke billowing out of it.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Displaced electrical discharge. I was hoping to just ruin the system. Modern cars can’t run without them, but I think I set some oil on fire." Chloe was pleased with herself none the less.

I patted her leg. "Well done. I must admit, I'm not great at magic yet. Explosions I can do, but subtlety isn’t my strong suit."

"Really?" Larisa asked.

I nodded. "I've only known I was a dragon for about seven or eight months. And most of that, I was learning to just shift."

"You hold yourself so well and you put out such a dominant aura; it can be hard to remember that you weren't born into this." Chloe smiled. "There are many among us that have a focus on magic. We should teach you a few new spells, especially since you will have all five metallic colors."

I almost wanted to correct her, but I held my tongue. I could feel my mates behind me, watching me for what I said next.

"So I'll have lighting, ice, fire, earth and death?" I repeated the different dragon types back to them.

"Exactly so. Our father will be more than willing to teach you his lightning magic, and our mothers would probably fight for the opportunity to teach you their magic. The greatest problem will be learning fire magic." Larisa said, her voice becoming soft and somber.

Fire belonged to the red and the gold dragons. Both flights currently had empty seats in the dragon conclave.

"Well, I'll just have to figure it out myself. Besides fire, I seem to be most attuned to frost." I told them.

"And you never once mentioned this when we were back in Philly? I could have spent months with you coaching you on it. But now that we are here, I'm afraid getting that much of your time will be difficult. We'll just have to work on it when we head back to Philly." Larisa concluded.

I didn't miss how she had just invited herself back, that or she’d assumed she would be coming back.

"We can work on helping you connect and use your lightning magic. It can be tricky." Chloe picked up on Larisa’s strategy and jumped on it as well.

"Teaching him magic will have to wait. We are almost there." Scarlett reported.

Jadelyn bounced in her seat. "I wonder what his palace is like! I've never been."

"We won't be in the palace for long. Once everyone is there and settled, we'll head over to his island." Chloe replied.

I frowned, pulling out my phone and looking at the map. "Is this the island, or do the palm tree things count as islands?"

"It isn't on the map. But..." She pinched on my phone and swiped it into the sea. "It's about here." She dropped a pin.

"Huh. A secret island?" Didn’t know you could do that.

"Yup. You can pay to have something like that removed from most apps." Chloe said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

The bronze king likely had an absolutely enormous wealth. The beast rose up in my chest and agreed with me, greedily thinking about clawing a chunk of it away for himself.

"There’s his palace." Chloe and Larisa pointed to a long drive in the middle of the city that was lined with palm trees and had a huge sandstone ornamental arch at the front.

The arch expertly blocked the view of the actual building, no doubt designed that way until we pulled through the drive.

But as we moved down the drive, it was hard to miss the colossal structure.

The large blocky building was putting out enough light that it seemed somehow brighter than even the daylight as white light poured out of it.

I shifted my eyes, and the amount of magic wrapped up around the building nearly blinded me. Even Sentarshaden might not compare to it.

"This is our home." Larisa said as the driver pulled around the circle drive and hopped out.

Three figures stepped out of the front door, almost perfectly timed with our entrance.

"Mother." Larisa put her hand over her shoulder and shifted it to have white scales as she gave a half bow to her mother and father.

Chloe did the same, only with blue scales.

Both of their mother's simply put a hand on their chest and nodded while it shifted.

They had coached me on this greeting. I was supposed to show my authority over the bronze king at this moment, but I found the short man quite imposing. Getting off on the wrong foot would make all of this difficult.

"Greetings." I put a hand on my chest, shifting gold scales on the back of my hand, giving him a nod, even though that was more than I’d been coached to do. I wasn’t sure how to handle the transition of power, and I respected the man standing in front of me. I wanted him as an ally.

"My King." Brom put his hand on his shoulder, and I already knew he was about to bow low, but I hadn't expected him to nearly sweep the floor with his face.

Both of the women on either side of him mirrored his greeting.

"Please, rise. I will be relying on your teachings these next few days."

Brom lifted his body. "Ah, but what my wives said is true. You are far more than a gold dragon."

I stiffened at that, wondering if he had some of the answers I hoped to find.

"But come. Join us inside. Most of the dragons are here waiting for a few stragglers. I swear the black have no sense of time." He grumbled good-naturedly.

"Good job." Larisa leaned in and whispered.

Jadelyn trailed behind me, her head on a swivel as she took in all the surrounding details. It wasn't often that I saw her impressed by anything.

But the Bronze King, known as Brom, had an absolutely gorgeous palace.

Inside, everything was made of bronze that was so well polished that I could see myself on every surface.

The floor was one massive mural that seemed to tell a short story of a dragon, and it continued, winding up the twin staircases.

Up on the second floor, people were gathered, chatting and sipping on cocktails, seeming to make the idle chitchat of a typical party.

It reminded me of some of the society events that I’d attended with Jadelyn.

Brom banged on the banister as he got to the top. And it was like he'd hit a gong. "Everyone. The Gold King has arrived, but we must amend that name. He is the Metallic King."

There were gasps throughout the crowd and a pause. The entire party had frozen while he’d spoken those words, and I was curious what it meant.

Well… guess that’s how the title of king is handed off. A little less ceremonial than I had been expecting, but effective.

Larisa and Cleo flanked me on either side eagerly with smiles of their own.

People, or dragons and their harems, clapped excitedly and even a few whistles sounded out.

There were well over two hundred people present and a very large disparity between genders.

All sorts of scents mixed in the air. There were many dragons, but also other paranormals.

The few male dragons would all have harems and even some of the female dragons paraded around with a small trio or quartet of men.

I could sense marks on many women, like little flares telling me they were taken and by whom.

Some women seemed to have small harems of their own, but it didn’t look nearly as common as I scanned the crowd.

"Brom, you are going to have to explain some things to me." I said once the volume of the party rose once more. But I could tell those nearby were all carefully listening to what we said and keeping tabs on my location, hoping I’d swing by and join their group.

"You are powerful, and you will only grow more so. These people have come a long way and many will want to talk with you. Join them. Once we leave for the island, I can answer questions. I know you have many."

Nodding to Brom, I turned towards the crowd and strode in among them to the first group, who stood around a tall table with drinks and polite finger food.

They quickly parted to make room for my mates and me.

Larisa and Chloe were absconded by their mothers before we could reach the table. I had a feeling they were about to be interrogated for information.

"So, what do you do?" A woman decked out in gold and jewels asked, and the whole table seemed to lean forward.

"Well, I'm a student. I’m currently studying chemistry." I leaned out of the way as a server came by and gave each of us a full glass of white wine. He handed Morgana a dark red beverage that, I suspected, was blood.

Though I noticed, the rest of them had completely ignored the server and I felt a little silly.

My wives flanked me, almost like a shield to keep some of the other dragons away.

I'd chosen this table in particular because there were two male dragons here. None of the other tables had two. I hoped that meant they were friendly, or at least as friendly as two dragons could be.

But standing next to two other male dragons affected me more than I expected. It felt like I was brushing up against a thorny bush.

"A student. We had heard you were young, but still in school?" One man frowned.

"Dear brother, everyone must grow up. Do not judge the new king. I know you can feel his power just as I do." The other man spoke before bowing deeply. As he bowed, his hand shifted, becoming covered in dark brass scales.

"Pardon my rudeness." The first bowed, showing off copper scales. But there was a twinge of decay in the air around him that made me twitchy.

It reminded me of the skinwalker that had attacked Jadelyn once. I had to work to control myself. Larisa had taught me that copper dragons had a breath that could decay anything it touched and magic over death. It made sense that a similar scent would come from him, but it still put me on edge.

"Thank you for your introductions." I put a hand on my chest and shifted it to show off my gold scales, but this time I didn’t move my head an inch.

"Where are my manners? I am Cynthia, and these are my two boys. Timoleon and Hermeocrates." One of the female dragons put a hand to her shoulder and bowed, showing me her dark blue scales. She was apparently the dragon mother of the two men at the table.

The very old and very Greek sounding names surprised me, but I didn’t let it show.

"Pleasure to meet both of you." I did my best to put forth a warm smile.

"Timoleon, that's ancient Greek?" Morgana picked it up without a beat. "It was the name of a famous general." She probed.

"Please, most people just call me Tim now. And I was a general for many years, ruled briefly in the 300's." The friendlier of the two clarified.

"Herm works for me. Sorry for giving you a hard time. It isn't often we get a new male among dragons. And unheard of for them to be the new leader of the metallic." He hid his slight bitterness behind a smile.

Cynthia wasn't to be dissuaded, though. "I've given birth to two of the male dragons, more than any other woman here." She gave me a suggestive bat of her eyelashes. The other dragons at the table were wearing Tim or Herm’s marks.

I felt no mark from her, meaning she wasn't lumped into any of the male harems, but I wasn't sure what would happen to a mark if the dragon died.

"Mother, the whole conclave knows. The least you could do is not throw yourself at the new whelp." Herm grumbled into his ball glass.

"I'm sorry. I should probably know this, but she's chromatic and you two are both different metallics?" The question had been bothering me.

"Different fathers." Tim answered quickly.

Cynthia smiled wistfully. "Wonderful men. Both died during the sixteen hundreds. But to answer your question, the dragon mates often pair between metallic and chromatic. The relationship is often more balanced that way."

"Neither descend into chaos or become so rigid that you could shove them up someone's ass to fix a broken spine." Tim filled in for me with a slight chuckle. "Come, we'll introduce you around to the other men. Try not to be prickly. I know it's hard as a male dragon to be around so many others."

"You feel it too?"

Tim laughed. "I want to bow to your presence, but I also want to fight you because you make me feel the need to bow. Controlling those urges makes us better than the monkeys that became humans."

I raised my brows at the harshness of his words, but nobody else around us seemed to react. They just nodded in agreement. I was in far deeper waters than I could have prepared for.

"Then lead on." I gestured, but as he went to take a step, there was a loud crash outside and the ground rumbled.

"Who would dare attack the conclave?" Brom roared, and I could feel his aura wash over me.

I cursed. He was insanely terrifying, and I was glad he was on my side. Throwing my mates a glance and seeing they were fine, I charged forward, ready to put myself between the threat and them.

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I was ready to take it head on.