Dragon 7 Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Kelly flipped off the bleachers and not in a graceful way.

Blood sprayed into the air as she took a bullet. They had to be a fantastic shot to thread through all the werewolf bitches surrounding her.

A dozen more shots rang through the stadium, tearing through the other women with me on the bleachers.

One even hit me, but I rolled with the force and grabbed the bullet, where it was sure to leave a bruise.

It was a big sucker, flattened against my side, a scale had popped up to protect me.

“Everyone get down. Larisa, Regina, kill them.” I rolled up to my feet under the bleachers and scrambled to get Kelly where she fell under the bleachers, caught up in the bracing. She was a mess of blood, but the wound in her chest was healing and she was breathing.

The pack went into a panic. Betas rushed over to their ladies blocking them from taking further damage with their bodies.

There were a few screams as people fled.

The stands always had a few onlookers, parents, students, maybe a few talent scouts.

That was why they weren’t shifting and most of the antics were kept down to the field.

But those that had been here innocently, were fleeing and with Kelly down, Taylor took charge. “Betas. Get up in the stands and get those guns—“ She took a round to the chest.

It was a huge exit wound, bigger than a fist as one of the betas caught Taylor and the rest took off into the stands. No one was shifting though.

Kelly blinked up at me, and looked at where the wound was. “Shit, they blew my tit off.”

“You know I was more worried about the heart and things like that.” I joked.

She scoffed. “Don’t lie, you like my tits more than my heart.” Kelly coughed up blood. “Okay. I’m gonna fuck someone up.” She kicked her feet and caught part of the stand to push herself out of where she was stuck in the bracing and rolled backwards, landing on her feet before striking a pose that had to be muscle memory from cheerleading.

“Coming?” She teased as she ducked under more of the structure hitting a four legged running pose as her clothing ripped and she filled in with fur.

Guess she wasn’t holding back.

The rest of the pack saw that and those betas climbing into the stands started to shift as well.

All around the stadium men with guns were taking pot shots at the mass of cheerleaders huddling under the bleachers and the betas that were trying to protect them with their bodies.

They were spread out and organized, but some had bigger worries as shifting betas clawed after them or the two poor souls that were shooting Regina, and only slowing down the pissed off red dragon.

I was out from under the bleachers and chasing after Kelly as she kept packing on mass. It had been a while since I’d seen her wolf out. She was a hell of a lot bigger than I remembered.

Kelly sas easily as big as I remember her father and Chad being, if not bigger.

She threw herself up into the stands, her claws scratching up the concrete steps as she loped after her first target.

When he stood up from behind the low concrete wall that separated the first tier of seats from the second, I realized he had on the tan uniform of a sheriff as his rifle took another chunk out of Kelly.

But she didn’t even flinch, catching him and throwing him over the wall down into the first section of seats and pouncing on him.

What surprised me, was he fought back, punching Kelly’s big head hard enough to turn it.

“Die fanger.” I heard him yell before he pulled out a knife and started stabbing her.

She let out a whining howl before her claws tore at him. The first few swipes didn’t do more than tear his clothes, but then she got him and he turned into a gory mess by the time I got up to her.

Kelly had a big lupine frown on her face. “He was far too tough.” Another round hit her and she raised her head as her ears pinned themselves back and she growled.

Not just at the shooter, but at what I saw too. Her betas weren’t doing well. They were actually getting tossed around by these humans.

“Iapetus.” I reminded her. “Drag them down to the field. You or I can take care of them.”

Kelly let out a howl that the rest of her pack picked up and then they started following what I’d told her, though they were getting chunks blown out of them, they were wrestling the shooters down to the field.

I ran over the stands to the closest set of betas wrestling with a man in camo.

“Alpha-alpha.” One shouted seeing me and the beta disengaged with the man.

He turned on me with those gray smoky eyes and shot me point blank with his rifle.

It felt like a solid punch to the chest, but I grunted and shrugged it off before I caught the front of his rifle and bent it. “Those hurt, you know that? You should be careful where you point that.”

He let go of the gun and ripped a knife out of a holster on his belt coming for me.

I blocked with his rifle and pushed him back. “Guys, go get the others down to the field. We’ll take care of them.” I threw the rifle aside, and flicked my wrist, Goldie forming into a gold long sword.

“What the fuck are you?” The hunter frowned at my new sword before resolved settled back into his eyes. “My buddy died earlier this year. You guys did this.”

I shook my head and swung my blade at him.

He blocked with his knife and tried to out muscle me. His strength was surprising, but not at the level of Norton or Lopez from what I’d seen of them.

However, Iapetus was giving his blessings, this one wasn’t as strong.

So naturally, I pressed him down with my Goldie sword. "We didn't do anything. Those that hurt your friend earlier this year are already dead."

The hunter stared back at me confusion painted on his face. "No." He said the word as if he could force it to be true.

"Did two FBI agents set you up to do this?" I asked, even as I pressed him down to his knees.

He nodded eagerly, maybe he saw that he might be able to get out of this. "The night my buddy was killed was that strange night. The one where there was a giant fire in the park. Later, agents came and asked me questions when I reported him missing. This week two suits showed up to follow up on those questions. They told me and everyone else here all about fangers, even had a live one. Then they gave us the power to do something about it."

At this point the man was crying, even with the power he'd gotten from Iapetus he was no match for my strength.

He had to know that he was about to die.

I even was wondering if there was a way to save these people, they had been misled and weaponized against the paranormal in their grief.

But even as I wondered that a wolf down on the field shrieked about her baby. I knew then that the damage they had done was too great to seek forgiveness.

"Please." The man begged.

I forced his head down before my sword swung, shattering his bones and tearing through his chest.

The only clear line of justice here, was that these people had attacked a pack of werewolves that were doing nothing wrong just for what they were. Just because they were misled didn’t make them right.

Kelly howled as he threw another man out of the stands onto the field and then pounced on him before tearing him apart and splashing the Astroturf with blood.

The betas had taken her previous command seriously and had stopped trying to kill the Iapetus blessed men and instead of fighting with them, they were dragging them out of the stands and onto the field.

I raced down the concrete steps and easily hopped the last barrier landing on the field to assist Kelly in taking these men apart. Larisa and Regina were joining us in the field but on the other side to help the betas kill these men.

But the one thing I noticed was that none of these men were in suits. They wore office casual, uniforms, or rags, but none of them were FBI. I didn't see Norton or any of the other former FBI agents.

I tore apart another Iapetus blessed man in anger knowing that Norton had successfully forced me to kill these men.

Now that the betas were working to get them down to the field, we were able to make short work of the remaining men.

Kelly panted as a giant werewolf her eyes glowed a vibrant orange, and her furry shoulder was missing a patch, where my mark remained even with her shift. “Zach.” She growled.

“I know. Settle your pack.” I wiped blood off of Goldie before having her revert into a bracer. “This was Norton, sending these people after your pack.”

Kelly shook her lupine head and shifted back into a cute, plucky college cheerleader. “Everyone role call. Get the injured over here, we have help coming.” She nodded at me.

I pulled my phone out of my bracer and quickly dialed Morgana.

“Zach? What trouble did you get into now?” She teased.

“I’m at the football stadium. We need a cleanup crew.” I kept my tone serious.

Morgana stopped playing around. “How bad?”

“Two dozen men came and started firing into Kelly’s pack.” I couldn’t keep a growl from my voice. “They are dead and we have wounded wolves. I think a few of the girls lost their babies.” I looked over where Kelly was sitting with three distraught girls. “Bring the dragonettes and let the council know. Tell Detective Fox to help smother the police reaction. There were some normal people here when things started, I bet there’s a…” I heard sirens in the distance. “Fuck. Morgana. I have to go.”

“Pixie.” I shouted for the nymph. “You alright?”

Her pink hair popped out of a mass of werewolves. “I’m fine.”

“Come here.” I waved her over not quite wanting to join the sorrow of those wolves morning their dead children.

She bounded over, her pink curly hair bouncing with her movement. “Yes, my king?”

“Can you get a hold of Summer somehow?” The fae queens weren’t exactly carrying cell phones.

She gave me an odd look. “No one really calls on Summer or Ikta like that.”

I frowned and went back to my phone swiping until I found Maeve and dialed. It rang, which was a good sign and on the third she picked up. “Zach?”

“Is Summer with you?” I asked.

“No. What do you need her for?” She almost sounded a little like she’d been challenged.

I sighed. “Police are coming to the football stadium, it’s a mess and I need a big ass glamor to cover it.”

Maeve clicked her tongue. “I’ll do it. Ikta said you claimed your fragment of faerie, give me a portal.”

I chuckled nervously. “Maeve, I’m not great at this.”

“Sounds like you don’t have an option.” She said and there was noise on the other end of the phone like she was hurrying somewhere. “I’m in the kitchen. Give me a portal.”

I cursed under my breath. She was right, there weren’t many options.

Okay, okay. Portal. Draw on Ikta’s power, connect it to my fragment of the Faerie. Imagine a portal, one that walks through the wild ways of the Faerie and opens in my kitchen and here before me.

My eyes pressed close as I tried to imagine it.

There was a resistance and I remembered the arches that normally these portals had. Refocusing, I tried to make it in the doorway to the kitchen and the entrance to the locker rooms here.

Something snapped into place and I cracked my eyes open.

Maeve hopped through the portal and good thing because it cracked and shattered a moment later. She looked back at it. “Okay. You are bad at that.” She walked over in her tight white pants.

“You were the one that told me I had to.” I panted and felt a unique kind of exhaustion from using that portal. Like a muscle that I’d never really used before.

She came up and gave me a cool kiss on my cheek. “Yes, well we know that unless you are pressed for things, you rarely seem to work on your magic.”

I wanted to refute her but she glared at me, daring me to.

The sirens were getting closer and Maeve glanced in their direction, as red and blue lights danced on the lip of the stadium.

“Kelly, keep everyone quiet. I’m sorry. We will deal with everything in a moment.” I said.

She shushed the ladies and Maeve cupped her hands in front of her, the ring on her finger gave off a cold glow that echoed in her hair and her eyes as the surroundings dropped several degrees and a ripple of magic came out from her.

A second ripple came and all the blood disappeared, the third ripple made the bodies and the fourth hid all of us.

Only when I shifted my eyes could I see everything.

Cops came charging into the stadium decked out in full riot gear, only to stop and look around confused.

Those that were coming behind them bowled over the front row that had stopped and it was an absolute disaster as they fell over, someone’s gun went off and they struggled to get themselves upright.

There was shouting from further back. “What’s wrong?”

“Captain. There’s no one here.” One shouted back.

They managed to quickly sort themselves out and pull each other up as a man in more decorated uniform stepped out his hands resting on his belt as he surveyed the stands. “What the fuck.”

I was only about ten yards from him, along with over three hundred werewolves, but he couldn’t see us as Maeve concentrated on a large scale glamor.

“We had eight reports of multiple shootings there.” The captain spun around looking at the otherwise pristine football field and stadium.

“Maybe it’s another mass hallucination?” One officer in riot gear suggested.

The captain let out an exhausted sigh. “Another one, eh? How many does that make around the school? I’m more likely to believe those nuts that say there are things that go bump in the night.” He kept turning and looking around the stadium for some sign of the attack reported.

“Capt, FBI is here.” Someone shouted down the line.

“Great, let them see this for themselves. They seem to be sticking their nose in everything. I’d like them to see this for themselves.” He kept his hands on his belt.

Helena and Agent Till came out onto the field and I let out a huge sigh of relief it wasn’t another set of agents.

“What are you two doing here?” The Police Captain asked.

“Multiple shooters attacking a football team. Flagged up as possible organized terrorism. We were in the neighborhood.” Agent Till pulled out her badge for him to check.

He shrugged. “We just got here, as you can see. Absolutely, fucking nothing.” He shook his head.

Despite everything being fine, he knew that something wasn’t right.

I glanced over at Maeve, whose face was strained as she maintained the glamor.

We needed this to hurry up. She was at her weakest in the summer.

Chewing my lip for a moment, I tapped into my fear aura that I had accidentally used back in Switzerland. Since then, I’d really only used it as a weapon, but here I tried to open that aura up and just let the barest amount leak out.

Just enough to make him uncomfortable and leave.

The Police Captain’s brow pinched down and stepped back. Agent Till, she had the opposite reaction and instead looked towards where I was hidden.

Helena looked directly into my eyes with a small smirk. “Well, there’s nothing here. Standing around isn’t going to fix that, just make us stay late as we fill out more damn paperwork.”

The captain grunted in agreement. “Alright, boys. Pack it up and head out, we’ll figure everything out at the station. Call it in as a hoax. Tell you boss about this so he doesn’t flip my station upside down for answers that don’t exist.”

They turned back and Helena waved at us, before whispering to her partner and following the police out.

As soon as they exited, Maeve let go of her glamor and Pixie jumped into action putting up a small glamor just at the entrance.

“Thank you Maeve.” I rubbed her back.

She let out a few heavy breaths. “No. That was good, really good for me to pull off here during the summer.” She rubbed the ring on her hand with a face of worry.

“Later. We need to help clean this up.” I shifted my focus to Kelly and the three wolves she was comforting.