Dragon 5 Chapter 31 (Patreon)

Maeve and my honor guard rode me to the fae battle ahead of us. I was curious to see this eternal battle between the seasons for myself.

And it didn’t disappoint. The battle from above it was awe-inspiring. The two forces seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon on either side.

But news of Winter’s fall spread; every winter fae could feel her weakened state. They quit the battlefield and retreated as one.

But it seemed organized. The Summer fae allowed their retreat if only to push their battle line forward and regain another half mile of the field.

“Fighting will start at dawn again tomorrow,” Maeve said as she stood over her mother. “We’ve done what we can.”

When we landed, five prominent fae healers had rushed to come to Winter. One had been killed by Maeve for supposedly trying to kill her mother.

Fae were notoriously conniving.

“I thought fae were always trying to climb higher,” I questioned. “Surprising that you’d expend so much effort to help your mother recover.”

Maeve snorted. “I’m not ready to be queen. It’s not just about the strength my mother possesses. I still want to live life without those burdens. For a fae, I’m not that old.” She chuckled, grinning to herself.

I didn’t know how old she was, and I doubted she was going to tell me. “Are you going to be okay if I leave you here?” We needed to get back and clean up the park, as well as the broader mess of the city.

Maeve was still for a moment as she stared at her mother.

Taking a chance, I stepped up behind her and wrapped her in a hug. “It’ll be okay, and I need you to come to me if you need any help.”

The proud fae lady leaned her entire weight on me. “Okay. I’ll keep you to that.”

“Besides, apparently, you already have a plushie,” I joked, as if the little golden dragons were binding.

“Yes. I do, but I have a feeling I’m not going to make it in time for your grand wedding thrown by the Summer Queen.” She pushed herself into my chest like she was trying to bury herself in my arms.

I didn’t have an answer for her besides holding her in my arms for a moment longer.

Polydora cleared her throat after a minute. “My king, we need to get back and help return the city to normal.”

“She’s right.” Maeve pushed herself out of my arms. “Go, deal with the problem, but maybe come back? I’ll be out in a few days once things stabilize here. The healers said that she’d wake up soon.”

Maeve turned towards the area where Summer had gained ground. “But get ready for a hot summer,” she added.

I wanted to stay. Despite her strong appearance and her words, I could tell that Maeve needed support.

“If you need anything, please send for me.” I kissed the top of her head, making her blush. Evelyn, who was never far from Maeve, was grinning from ear to ear. “That goes for you too, Evelyn. Come running if you or her need help. I’m counting on you in case Maeve is too stubborn.”

The Fall Lady stuck her tongue out at me. “Shoo. Go clean up your mess, Dragon King. The Winter fae are hardy. We’ll be fine. Tell Jadelyn that I sent you back without stalling you too long, and put in a good word with Scarlett for me.”

“Will do.” I nodded to her and walked out of the tent, parting the frosty blue material amid the war camp for the fae.

I kept on moving towards an empty field, ignoring stares of many of the fae. When I reached an open spot, I didn’t hesitate. I stripped out of my clothes and put them and my honor guard’s clothes in my bracer before we shifted and headed back to the portal.

“My king. I worry about you getting involved in the fae war,” Trina commented, flying up beside me.

I nodded. It was a natural risk of being closer with Maeve. “We’ll see. So far, I’ve been trying to split my attention between the two, as to not openly favor a side. But that might be changing. And I’m concerned about Winter. She was so weak.”

“A fae queen is strong,” Polydora tried to reassure me, but I still had this feeling that her weakening might have kicked off a cascade for the fae.

We flew further into the frozen land of the winter fae until the palace came into view, and I dipped back down into the familiar woods, shifting down to fit through the portal.

Coming out the other side, I let myself return to my dragon form, complete with my multicolored scales.

“Alpha-alpha!” Taylor cheered for me amid a scene of absolute carnage.

I shouldn’t have worried. Wissahickon park was a mess of charred, bloody bodies. Wolves were already working to clear it. But at Taylor’s shout, many of them turned to see me return and cheered along with her.

Even after everything that happened, they were uplifted by my return.

“Alpha-alpha. Can I call in that rain check yet?” Taylor bounced her eyebrows.

Kelly came up behind her and had to go on her tiptoes to smack the back of Taylor’s head. “Quit being so forward with my alpha.”

Taylor only gave her a wide grin in response. “He’s my alpha-alpha, and he didn’t say no to my date. I’m perfectly happy being a mistress as long as he fills me with pups.”

Her words brought me back to Yev, and an overwhelming need to see her and know that she was okay filled me. The dragon in me grumbled that I had more to clean up first, but I could at least tell through the mark that she was okay.

“We’ll talk about it later, Taylor,” I grumbled as the other dragons came through the portal but remained in their dragon knight forms. “I assume the council is gathering?”

“They are up on the hill where the elven tents were set up.” Kelly pointed. “Give a girl a lift?”

I dipped my head, and Kelly sprang up on my head before I climbed out of the small valley in the park.

My big red and gold head rose over the ridge, and I paused before going further. The council wasn’t far away, and at my appearance, they had turned and were coming my way.

There were many familiar faces, and some I hadn’t expected. Tills and Helena were present along with Maddie, whom Morgana had a protective arm around.

“The bloodlord has been dealt with, but he used this opportunity to attack the Winter Queen and her court. She’s gravely injured, and many of her fae were bled,” I summarized the events for them.

But several of them seemed to have trouble not staring wide eyed at my dragon form.

I was most amused by Tills’ reaction. Something about the look on her face made me think she was playing through all the insults and jabs, maybe regretting them just a smidge. I snapped my teeth at her in gest, and she let out a nervous chuckle.

Maddie just had eyes that were nearly popping out of her head as I climbed a little higher, and more of my dragon form was visible.

“So, the threat of the vampires is over?” Detective Fox cast a nervous look over his shoulder towards T and the small army of skeletons with him.

“T, thank you for your help in clearing up the danger in the city. The threat is gone, and I’d ask that you dismiss your forces,” my voice rumbled over the crowd.

The old elf did a slight bow. “You are very welcome. I’m excited to see that you are even more than I had expected, Dragon King.”

As he rose from his bow, the skeletons lost the light in their eyes, and they fell to the ground in piles of bone ash.

“If you don’t mind, I need to get back to my barber skills. Come by when you want another haircut.” T waved at the crowd and turned back.

There was a murmuring among the council. Many were talking about my red and gold nature, wondering what it meant. Only those with longer histories were putting it together.

Sebastian glared daggers at me. “You brought a lich into this?”

“I did. And I’d say he was a tremendous help eliminating the problem here. I trust T. If you have a problem with his actions, you can lay them on my shoulders.” I took responsibility, confident I had made the right decision.

The elf leader snorted. “You can be sure that I will. But for now, we have a much bigger problem to solve.” He looked over towards the city.

From my vantage, I could see that the city was still dark and without power. “Do we have any control over the ISPs to control communication going out?”

The council shook their heads.

“A few of the gnomes are embedded in the local offices, but nothing at this scale.” Tilly waved his little arms to get attention as he spoke.

I turned my attention to the rest of the group. “What options do we have?”

A few side conversations developed as everybody tried to come up with a plan.

Helena took the moment to step forward with Agent Tills. “We’ve wrapped up a plausible reason for some of it that we can address within the FBI, but so much has happened. It complicates our story.”

“We’ll start the news spinning up stories as soon as the power comes back,” Rupert offered. “That’ll help control the narrative.”

I was still frowning. There was no way there weren’t hundreds of people who caught video of the vampire’s rampage through town, or saw it and now would be more paranoid as they moved around town. We had to do something.

“We could try to read in someone higher at the FBI?” Tills offered.

I shook my head.

“They would inform their superiors, and it would go all the way up to the white house and congress. We self-govern in the middle of the states; there’s no way that doesn’t end up in a power struggle,” Rupert spoke up first. “We keep our involvement with agencies to lower levels.”

“The best thing we can do is let the story ride out with nothing to follow it up,” Grim, the leader of the dwarves, said with his arms crossed. “A single night of strangeness will bring some people to investigate, but it won’t splash on national media.”

I hoped his reasoning was right, but I wasn’t sure.

“Fine. Do what we can. Let’s clean up here and everyone goes home. What’s the story?”

Rupert scratched his head. “There was a death cult in our city. They went wild and crazy, thinking it was the end of the world. Military rolled in to stop it, but it took some time to get a lid on it. Thankfully, the lich kept a cloud of darkness around himself while in the city, so any videos out there will just be vampires going crazy and our jeeps mobilizing.”

My father-in-law looked exhausted. He had a lot of work ahead of him to keep it all under wraps.

“What about satellites?” Tills pointed up in to the sky.

“The fae have provided protections for the park for ages,” Sebastian said. “We don’t have to worry about Clifford the big red dragon showing up.”

I laughed, completely not expecting the joke from the curmudgeonly elf. “Okay, if we can get through putting this under wraps, then we can talk about what we do with vampires from now on. They must feel the anger of the other paranormal at the risk their kind brought to our doorstep.”

Morgana raised her hand to get everyone’s attention. “I will be reaching out to the Wallachia though Deniz.”

That made me groan. “Deniz is dead. The man we met was someone else. I never got a name, but the man claiming to be Deniz was behind it all. Please reach out to the Wallachia, and make them aware. I will inform the dragons of what transpired in our city.”

“Sentarshaden will know as well,” Sebastian agreed.

“As will El Dorado,” Grim agreed. “We need to tell everyone of this. Pressure must increase against the vampires, and they must take accountability. Even if we came out the other end okay, this was too close.”

I nodded. “Then it sounds like we all need to get to work and then get some rest. It has been a long day.”

Pulling myself up over the ridge, I let my body shrink back down so that I stepped on the grass as a naked human. Kelly hopped off mid transformation and let her eyes rove over my naked form for a second.

“The pack will finish cleaning up and then head back. I’ll see you in your hoard later.” She winked. “Oh, and don’t encourage Taylor too much. At least, not until you give me my first pup.”

I pulled out clothes from my bracer and got dressed. Then I took out my phone and texted my mates waiting in the hoard. “Yeah, she’s persistent. But for now, you’re my only wolf I want to put pups in.”

Kelly cracked her knuckles. “Excuse me then. And here comes Blueberry anyway.” She raised her voice so that Morgana heard her use the nickname.

“Shoo, Furball. You have a pack to take care of. I’ll keep our mate company.”

Maddie was looking back and forth between the two, bewildered by their play. “They really don’t mind sharing you? Even when I know vampires exist, it’s still hard to wrap my head around harems existing.”

I went to respond, but she just continued on. “Also. Holy. Shit. You are like a legit dragon! Huge!” Maddie stretched her hands as far as she could, like she could stretch to the point and give me a reference. “Also, hoard? Can I see all this gold?”

“Where’s Frank?” I asked, realizing he wasn’t with her.

She looked away. “He needed a moment after everything. He’s back at Bumps with an open tab. I think what is really getting him is that he can’t be my sole blood source. Somehow, the idea of me feeding on anyone else bothers him.”

I scratched my chin. “We’ll figure something out. Maybe we can help teach him to use magic. The magi I’ve seen have a higher capacity for mana and could work.”

“Really?” Maddie was all smiles. “He’d fucking love that.”

“Do you guys have anything to wrap up before we leave?” I looked at Morgana and extended the question to Sabrina, Tills, and Helena, who were nearby.

Helena snorted. “Who says I’m going anywhere with you?”

“Tyrande will be there. I thought you could finally give her that apology you promised.” My expression was sharp.

And I also really needed her to apologize to Tyrande. I was going to be in such deep shit the second Tyrande saw that Helena was marked. But if Helena made amends, it might turn out okay.

“We can head back. But I’d rather not sleep under house arrest again.” Tills crossed her arms and tapped a finger against her arm.

“Of course not. You are welcome to rooms in the Scalewright manor. I’d like to wrap up tonight and discuss things in the morning. The two of you should consider relocating to Philly’s field office.” Before they objected, I added, “You could do a lot of good here where you are in the know of the real problems.”

Helena surprised me with a quick nod. “That makes a lot of sense, actually.”

Tills only let out a small noise, acknowledging that she’d heard me. She was still upset about the status that the council had thrust on her.

Sabrina’s arm slipped in mine. “I’d like to solidify this mark. I also used up a lot of energy today and need a little refill.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

Tills wrinkled her nose while the others laughed. “Let’s go. We’ll drive separately.”

“Don’t want another show, agent?” Polydora called after her with a laugh and turned back to us. “Here I thought she enjoyed the show in the limo. Oh well, more dragon king for us.”

I chuckled. “Let’s let the poor agent process all she’s seen today. Come on, ladies, let’s go home.”