Dragon 5 Chapter 22 (Patreon)

I led the group into the coffee shop and got in line for another dragon king special. “They named a drink after me here.” I proudly told my group, wanting a little caffeine in my system as we dug into our research.

Tills snorted. “Wait, are they… something too?” She caught herself.

“Silvani.” Sabrina whispered. “They protect and tend small areas of wilderness. Absolutely magical farmers.”

“And have the tastiest coffee.” I added as we moved up in line.

We were being quiet. The hipsters seemed to have a penchant for eavesdropping, but even then, we were being subtle enough I doubted they’d make any connections.

The line moved forward, and I ordered the dragon king special. It was still trendy apparently. The rest of the group ordered one as well, and we continued over to the station.

“Wow.” Sabrina took her first sip and her eyes briefly glowed.

The barista had given our entire group special beans.

“It can’t be that good,” Tills took a sip and stumbled. She would have collapsed if I didn’t catch her. “Holy shit. I feel like someone just blasted my brain with caffeine.” She shook from head to toe. “Someone else will need to finish it for me. One sip is all I need.”

Larisa snatched it away and took a deep drink. “Fantastic. Really shakes off the icicles.”

Tills stared at the small dragon as Larisa pounded down the coffee. “Are you going to be okay with two of those?”

“Yep.” Larisa drank from her other cup with a big grin. “Normal coffee does nothing to me. This stuff, though, it packs a lovely punch.”

“Are dragons resistant to drugs?” Tills asked while we crossed the street.

“Think of it more like we are ten ton lizards stuffed in a human body. A bit of caffeine is like a drop in the ocean. It just isn’t a big enough dose.” Larisa explained.

“How does—“ Tills started.

I cut her off. “Magic. It’s the simple answer to most of your questions.”

Agent Tills grumbled as she marched into the police station, waving her badge at the front desk.

The door buzzed and clattered open as she jerked it and marched through the bullpen while the three of us kept up. She turned down a hallway to an office with Detective Fox’s name on the door. “He said I was welcome to it.”

“I’m sure he really meant it.” I rolled my eyes.

Ignoring my comment, she sat down and clicked around on the home screen until the badge in the background changed to one matching the one on her waist. Tills continued to log into the portal.

When her desktop background came up, I bent over in laughter.

“What?” She scowled at me. “What’s wrong?”

“Your background is just a flat blue color. No photos?” I laughed. “Not even like your badge or your gun? You have to have something.”

Tills scoffed. “No. This is for work. I don’t need to have anything on my computer. I need to focus.” Her statement sounded more like an excuse than a reason.

“Oh. We could put one of the plushies as her background.” Larisa pulled out her phone and started tapping on it.

“Plushies?” I asked at the same time as Tills.

Larisa and Sabrina looked back and forth at each other until Sabrina sighed. “Jadelyn has been getting all of your harem hopefuls little gold dragon plushies as a sort of welcome gift.” She held her hands up as if I needed a reference for its size.

“Fuck no.” Tills growled, still watching her monitor. “Don’t you even dare give me one of those, or make it my background.”

The way Larisa giggled had me thinking the agent was now almost certainly going to get one.

“Let’s get down to business.” Agent Tills clicked on the screen. “Look at this. Susan Garrison. She’s our girl, and damn is she loaded.” Agent Tills scrolled down through several articles on the woman.

Many of the articles included photos of Susan wearing fancy dresses on the arms of the soccer coach, who was wearing a tux. It definitely rang of wealth.

“She seems pretty well off. If her husband was into something criminal, it doesn’t look like it's for the money.” I replied. “Unless, of course, her money is from her husband’s illegal activities, but then why is he a soccer coach?” I asked no one in particular.

One article directly mentioned her wealth at sixty million and most of it was inherited. I let out a soft whistle.

“If that impresses you, what do you think of your mates’ money?” Tills asked. “I thought you’d scoff at this amount.”

“Hey, I was a kid working and using my meager inheritance to put myself through school recently. Also, I have no actual figure to put on Jadelyn’s wealth.”

Larisa rolled her eyes. “A lot, my king. Then you have Maeve, the Highaen sisters, and Morgana.”

I shrugged. “Not my gold. I only care about my gold.” Doing my best to redirect us back to the case, I thought aloud. “So, we have a wealthy business woman married to one victim. Regardless of how that affects motive, I want to talk to her.”

“Here’s her number.” Tills scrolled to the top of the page again.

Dialing it, I listened as it rang several times, and then the answering machine was full. “Didn’t pick up and couldn’t leave a message. Let’s go to her place and take a look around.”

“We can’t just—“

I stopped her with a glare. “Welcome to not being exactly law enforcement. That and paranormals normalize killing. If things get messy, don’t hold back.”

Tills checked the gun at her hip. “Okay. This is just your jurisdiction, so we’ll do it your way.”

If that was how she wanted to justify it, then that worked out well for me. As long as she wasn’t going to have a crisis of consciousness part way through this, we’d be okay.

“I’ll drive. My car is still here at the station.” Agent Tills sighed, pulling a pair of keys from her pocket and tossing them in the air.

***

I took in the quaint suburban area as Agent Tills drove. It was idyllic. Kids were playing in sprinklers, people were out walking their dogs. We only passed a few cars as we made our way along the large homes.

All the lawns were a vibrant green and mowed in a crisscross pattern that was for old men with too much time on their hands, framing in pristine houses. Not a shutter was out of place and the cars had absolutely no damage, not even some dirt.

It was almost uncomfortably perfect compared to the city.

“Just down here.” Tills pulled into a lane that changed the landscape. Rather than houses one after another, there was more space between them, and the houses were set back further from the street.

Agent Tills pulled up into one driveway. It was a large home with peach colored bricks and a complex roofline. “So, what do you do if someone’s home?”

I turned to Sabrina in the back. “Can you check it?”

The succubus smiled at me. “Already was working on something. Let me see if this works.” She had a wooden hoop. It looked like a hoop somebody would use for needlepoint.

She held it up, the etching she’d made into the hoop glowing as it activated. An image formed inside of it.

“How long will that last?” I asked, curious and thinking about my twigs.

“Twenty minutes, give or take.” Sabrina replied, twisting it around and giving us a view inside the home.

Larisa bent around the succubus to get a look at the enchantment itself. “That’s impressive. Very detailed.”

“Thanks.” Sabrina’s eyes pinched together as she continued to sweep the first floor of the home and into the garage. “We have a car, but I don’t see anyone home.”

“Three-car garage. Looks like it might be a spare or a kid’s car.” Tills commented.

That was enough for me. “Keep looking around with that. I’m going in.” I needed to find something to open up this case.

We had time pressing in on us before everyone came out in force and cleared the city of any threatening vampires. While the vampires weren’t my favorite of the paranormal, I knew it would only lead to more trouble.

I had a feeling it was all tied together. If I could solve this case, I could likely find the vampire that turned Maddie and rescue Helena.

Anxious to move, I darted out of the car and up to the door to the garage.

Twisting the handle, I applied enough pressure that it snapped. A feeling of satisfaction ran through me as it gave under my strength, swinging open easily.

“My king.” Larisa was running behind me. “Don’t rush without your guard.”

The other two were getting out of the car, but as the air in the garage reached my nose, it wrinkled.

Something stank. It smelled like a rodent had died in the corner.

Larisa smelled it as she followed me into the garage, and her hands sprouted large scaly white claws. “My king, there’s been something dead here.”

“It doesn’t smell that bad. Maybe a squirrel came in and got trapped.” But even as I said it, I realized that would mean that the home had been unoccupied for a while.

I got to the door to the home, and it was unlocked, but the second I opened it, I stumbled back and covered my nose. “Fuck. That’s not a dead squirrel.” I tried not to gag.

Tills and Sabrina came in. With their less sensitive noses, they didn’t pick up the smell until they took a few steps closer.

“Oh, that’s awful.” Tills covered her nose and mouth.

Meanwhile, Sabrina shrugged it off. “I’ve smelled worse.”

We all looked at Sabrina.

“Plague demons.” Was all she said and refused to elaborate, turning off her little magical mirror. “Pretty sure no one is home.”

“Yeah… someone’s dead in there.” I said, shifting my nose. The dragon’s sense of smell was better, but it also was easier to deal with the stench because it was almost analytical of the scents rather than reactionary.

Tills’ voice was high pitched and nasally from pinching her nose. “Multiple dead people. A single body doesn’t stink this much.”

That was intriguing.

I pushed in through the home, not bothering to take off my shoes.

Everything seemed pristine on the main level, nothing askew or broken. In fact, it looked like it was right out of a magazine.

The only thing out of place was the stack of unpaid and overdue bills on the counter. That was certainly a reason for them to get involved in illegal activities. Things weren’t so perfect in suburbia.

“Nothing here.” I called back and went to check the rooms.

“The smell is coming from downstairs.” Larisa called from down the hall and disappeared into a doorway.

I grumbled and hurried to follow her down the stairs.

She was right. The smell grew even more pungent as we moved down the steps. And as we reached the bottom, it was easy to see why.

Blood was everywhere, splattered and sprayed over the walls. Nearby, a pile of dried out corpses was stacked in the corner.

“Looks like someone had a party.” I commented, trying to lighten the morose atmosphere with a little humor. The scene really hit home.

If we didn’t solve this case soon, this would be what Philly would become. The sight before me was disgusting, and it felt like a warning.

Tills came down the stairs after me with a stoic mask on her face. These weren’t her first dead bodies. “Okay. So, this woman is a suspect.”

“Understatement of the year.” Larisa snorted. “There’s at least a dozen dead.” She stepped up and got a closer look at their clothes. “They were wearing basically rags.”

“Human trafficking then.” I looked to Tills for her confirmation.

She nodded in agreement. “Seems likely, given the state of them. But why ship them in just to feed them to vampires? Are there some sort of feeding rules that make them need to import fresh people?”

I scratched my chin. “No, not really. They basically have free rein unless they get local law enforcement’s attention. Detective Fox would clean it up, and then the council would resolve it, and not in a fun way.”

“Then why?” Tills pushed again.

Looking over the bodies, I scratched at my chin. “They were recruiting? Bring in people, give them a choice? Maybe then the ones who are okay turning are given the others to feed on? This just doesn’t feel like a mature vampire to make such a mess. Most of the ones I’ve met take pride in being neat.”

I tried to think about why they would kill them here, though. That just seemed even sloppier.

No, this was a one-time thing. Susan Garrison didn’t seem like the type to get her hands dirty and her home ruined every time.

“It does feel very sloppy.” Larisa agreed. “So, they recruit from out of the city because they don’t want to make waves.”

“If they are recruiting out of the city for vampires, why not demons too?” I added. “The demon could be brought in as additional security. Take out anybody moving against them.”

Larisa raised an eyebrow at me, and I realized what they might need a demon to take down.

I pointed at myself. “Me? I mean, they are as tough as angels, right? Those weren’t too bad.”

“Those were angels under the archangel of justice. My king, I have the greatest respect for you, but dragons have their vices and you seem… susceptible.” Larisa was quiet on the last word.

I still frowned. “Doesn’t make sense to me. Even if they tied me down, the city has the Fae Queens here. You’d need someone of… shit.” They’d need someone strong who could take a beating to stand up to the fae.

And we knew one. One that just went missing.

“What is it?” Tills asked.

“Helena. She was tough enough to take a beating from me in Sentarshaden. I might be stronger now, but I bet she could at least stall a fae queen.” Turning to Sabrina, I raised an eyebrow. “Can they force her to fight for them?”

“No… maybe? It depends on what exactly is in town. Helena is going to have some natural defenses against any demons or angels, but I can’t be sure.” Sabrina thought through it out loud. “We can’t rule it out.”

I thought as much. “So then, the target is the next question. The fae make the most sense, but it could also be the dragons. Both of us make for tempting targets. And we’d both get in their way of ruling over this city freely.”

Tills raised her hand to get my attention. “If I gauge this right, the dragons seem like far more isolated targets than the fae. They’d be strategically easier.”

“The portal between earth and the faerie realm functions as a bottleneck.” Larisa added. “If the vampires could hold it, they could wage a war against them, but they’d need someone to stop the queens.”

“Couldn’t these people do something like take his women and force him to help them?” Tills pointed a thumb at me.

I let out a low growl that made the windows vibrate. “Mine.”

Larisa was already pulling out her phone and texting the other dragonettes.

“If they dare go after them.” I stated, my dragon instincts taking over at the mere thought of my mates being held hostage.

“Calm down. We have a guard on the vulnerable ones around the clock.” Larisa chided me as she continued to type. I noticed her fingers moved faster.

“Vulnerable ones?” I asked.

“We aren’t wasting a guard on Morgana or Kelly.” Larisa clarified, chortling.

I nodded. But even thinking about somebody touching my mates was making me see red. “Get them to my hoard now.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Deniz’s club. We were about to have words.

AN - Hey, I welcome comments on things you like or dislike. But please don't spam. I read everything unless you are commenting on a really old chapter (those get lost in my like 200+ notifications). You'd be surprised how many authors recommend that you never read comments. But I try to be as interactive as my schedule allows and the spamming just makes me want to not interact as to not encourage it. So please, feel free to discuss and banter, just don't repeat the same topic continuously.

Also if this one is late too, let me know. I double checked the release schedule, but if there's an issue I'll bring it up with Patreon's support.