Dragon 7 Chapter 27 (Patreon)
Content
Boots pounded on the deck below us as we left the room. Men rounded the stairwell and opened fire and opened fire immediately. The blaze of muzzle fire filled my vision.
Goldie shifted into a riot shield, and I immediately lifted my arm, giving Morgana cover as she fired into the men.
Myself and the other two dragons had our scales out as bullets pelted us. The hits stung, but they did the damage of a BB gun against human skin.
Poly stepped forward, her shotgun unloading right into the mass of men on the stairs.
They fumbled back, the buckshot grazing them. But their bodies were more fortified than normal humans. Smoke leaking out of their eyes told me they too where Iapetus blessed. Bullets wouldn’t be enough to take them down quickly.
But Regina didn’t hold back, firing into them as Morgana also took aim.
Soon the guns clicked empty, and both sides paused for a moment, shocked that nobody had gone down on either side. In that quiet moment, Regina’s top fluttered to the ground, the lone casualty of the shootout.
“Don’t look! This was your!” Regina shouted, leaping forward and shifting into a hybrid form as she caught the first man’s head, crushing it and sending him through the wall into another room of the ship. Her tail made quick work of clearing the stairs before her claws followed, shredding the men.
The red dragon went on a small rampage and covered the stairway in blood.
“That does appear to be more effective” Morgana was stuffing her gun into her bra. “Kind of nice to have more dragons around.”
Poly stepped down the stairs carefully and put a hand on the angry red dragon’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go hunt.”
I rolled my eyes. Regina did not need more encouragement at the moment. Regina let out a low roar and bounded down the stairs amid more gunfire.
I followed them down. There were over a dozen men downstairs, all smoky eyed as they fought the two dragons.
I saw Lopez running deeper into the bowels of the ship and forgot about them, shifting into my hybrid form and barreling through two of the Iapetus blessed men.
“Lopez.” I rumbled, catching a man unaware and ripping his head from his shoulders on my way.
The agent quickly slammed a thick door closed between us and I slammed into it, expecting it to break. But my body bounced off the door.
“This won’t stop me.” My claws scraped at the door. It was smooth enough that I wasn’t finding purchase and had to scratch several times before I was able to sink them in and tear the door apart.
As I finally got a look inside, Lopez shot me in the face with a high caliber rifle.
The hit made my head jerk back, but my scales caught the bullet just fine.
I wiped at my face and continued to pry the door open. “Lopez, you should know better. Bullets don’t do much to a dragon.”
“You’re an actual dragon?” He scoffed.
I smiled. “Yes, I am. Carl learned that the hard way. Pissed himself when I shifted fully.” I tore apart the reinforced door, seeing the mechanical room behind him. “You don’t happen to have the spear, do you?”
“Spear?” Lopez frowned. “What spear?”
I barked in laughter. He really had no clue. “Never mind. It would appear you’ve been used and thrown aside.”
The door gave enough, and I pulled myself through to loom over him.
The girls were all fighting in the hall behind me, this was over. I was going to enjoy this.
Lopez only grinned at me. “Nah. You’re the one who’s done.” He held out his hand. There were explosions behind me before gray smoke hit my back and pushed me into the room. The smoke pooled around me and into Lopez’s extended hand.
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I decided my brute force methods seemed like a good option at the moment. Crossing the distance between us, I sank my claws into his chest.
The look on Lopez’s face was so satisfying. He was shocked at how quickly I could move, but then his face turned into a shiteating grin as the room glowed with a gray enchantment. “Bye fucker.”
The space around me bent in on itself before it pushed and pulled its way back into reality.
Lopez’s body was still on the end of my claws, but we weren’t on the boat anymore. We were in the middle of the woods.
I was about to pull my claws out and look around as something stabbed into my side. I stumbled, suddenly feeling weak.
Morgana’s training kicked in and I whirled, smacking away a bronze spear that looked very familiar. I pulled it out of my side, taking a chunk of my flesh with it.
Lopez held out his hand, and the mass of gray smoke shot out of his hand into Norton’s. It seemed to sink into Norton, his eyes pooling enough smoke that I’d have thought a bonfire was pouring out of them.
“So glad of you to join us, Dragon King.” Aurora, the Spring Lady, stepped into the area, pulling down her hood as she stood next to Norton. “Keep him alive. We need him.” Aurora told Norton.
The FBI agent moved faster than before. Either he’d gained speed or I was growing weaker and couldn’t track him well enough.
His spear slashed down towards me, and Goldie turned into a sword as I blocked, but the spear bent itself in half and cut into my shoulder.
Norton pressed down on me, and I could feel myself growing weaker with each passing moment.
My leg came up, catching Norton in the chest and sending him back.
Scales shrank back into my body as it became harder to control my hybrid form.
“That’s a nice spear.” I nodded at Norton.
Even if the spear drained me, with each heartbeat, I could feel my mana restoring itself.
I was a fucking dragon, a living powerplant of mana. I just needed to avoid more hits from the spear.
An explosion came from my side and I shifted Goldie to a shield as I tried to block the explosion, but it lifted me off my feet and tossed me to the side.
“Not much without your dragon, are you?” Aurora snapped her finger, and another three explosions sounded off around me in order, tossing me around before I landed with my ears ringing.
My foot found purchase in the soil and I pushed off, lunging for The Spring Lady. Goldie became a long sword as I tried to cut her. It was clear that she was the mastermind.
A thin saber appeared in her hand, and based on her stance, she’d been trained in how to use it properly.
I moved to attack her her, but she blocked each attack and parried anything I put my dragon strength behind. In the short span of several seconds, she deflected a dozen attacks, and it became clear that in my weakened state, I’d have trouble taking her down.
During one of my stronger swings, she turned my blade and momentum enough that I overextended, and I found a spear driven through the back of my calf, pinning me to the ground. I let out a deep grunt, pain coursing through the limb.
Aurora’s foot connected with my jaw, and I stumbled to a knee. “You aren’t half bad.” She mocked.
I spit out some blood to the side rather than answer the bitch.
“I haven’t fought a war for two thousand years for nothing.” She scoffed, rolling her eyes.
I tried to draw enough mana into my body to breath lightning at her, but nothing came out except a wheeze.
“Works better than expected.” Norton said, leaning on the spear and keeping me pinned with it.
“You’ll have to be careful. He’ll get his strength back. Keep pricking him with it. And we should get moving. His mates will be scouring the city in moments.” Aurora stepped away, and I looked at the forest around me.
“We are in the park.” I realized.
Norton slapped on a pair of cuffs around my wrists and jerked my arms behind me, holding onto the cuffs and giving himself leverage over my whole body with them. Leaning down, he ripped the spear out of my flesh, taking most of my calf with it. “Move.”
I didn't even bother trying to move. The missing flesh was making that impossible, and I really wasn’t feeling motivated to help them.
“Drag him. We need to hurry.” Aurora led the way down to the fae portal.
“Are his mates really that bad? He was the dragon king, and he wasn’t that hard.” Norton dragged me along the ground. The man was hopped up on multiple Iapetus blessings to the point that cracks were forming around his eyes and more smoke billowed out like his body was at its limits. “Fanger.” He mocked me.
“You don’t want to wait around. We caught him in our trap because he underestimated your officer.” Aurora explained as they walked through the portal together, dragging me.
“Now Lopez is dead because of all of this. This better work.” Norton grumbled.
Aurora nodded. “He’s a beacon for the paranormal. His death will spell the eventual downfall of all paranormals here on Earth. Earth won’t be able to sustain them without dragons.” She explained patiently. “Then they will all have to come to The Faerie or another realm and swear to their rulers.”
Norton frowned. “He’s a real dragon? Or are they another type of shifter?”
“Real dragon. When he gets angry, he becomes larger than a building and eats people whole.” Aurora smirked at Norton as his face turned to disbelief.
As if her reminder spurred him, he pricked me with the spear again, and I felt my mana disappear.
But, not all of it disappeared.
My fae magic tickled at me as we moved through several portals.
Like a little spark running up and down my spine, stepping through the portals was exciting Ikta’s magic, and with my dragon magic being drained, it spread quickly throughout my body.
I smiled.
Focusing forward, I opened a portal underneath Aurora’s feet as she took a step.
But she didn’t land in it. Instead, a gust of wind lifted her up and she spun. A glamor smacked me in the face and turned the world into a nightmarish landscape devoid of green or water, all red, dead land covered in bones.
The disorientation broke my portal, and a swift kick to the face broke my concentration completely.
“Games. Don’t mess with Fae magic. It’s not yours to use! My mother will fall, shortly followed by Winter. With Iapetus’s claws in her, she’ll die sooner rather than later. Maeve will mourn you, of course. Hopefully she mourns long enough that I can crush Winter and rule all of Faerie.” She spat.
“Then, you’ll control all of the fangers? Bring them here and keep them out of humanity’s way?” Norton sounded like he was reminding her of their deal.
Aurora smiled. “Of course. That is a given once he dies.”
“Then why aren’t we killing him right now?” Norton pricked me with the spear again.
“Because. We need him to get my mother to agree to a duel. She’ll agree to fight me in a stonehenge if he’s here and weakened.” Aurora had a little pep to her step as she spoke, clearly feeling good about her chances.
I frowned and bided my time and my strength, using what little dragon mana I was generating to heal my leg.
When we paused at the next portal, I glanced behind as Aurora stepped through. I made a quick fire in the shape of the enchantment I needed to summon Pixie. Stamping it on the ground, I added a touch of my magic before being pulled through.
I hoped that would give her enough to find me.
“You seem very sure I’m going to ruin your chance to be queen. Why?” I asked. If she was feeling chatty, I might as well take advantage of it.
“The prophecies. A dragon not yet seen kept appearing in ones that lead to an end to the wars. The end of the queens.” She looked into the distance, lost for a moment. “That can’t happen. We will win the war to end it.” Aurora’s eyes burned with conviction.
“War?” Norton asked.
I sighed. “You really know nothing. Have you thought about why she’s keeping you ignorant?”
“Stab him.” Aurora demanded, and he did it without even a moment of hesitation. “Stop trying to talk to him.” She looked up. “We are here. Chain him to the stone and keep stabbing him.” Aurora snapped her fingers, and a gown much like Summer’s appeared around her, complete with a glamor of the Queen’s crown.
Norton hauled me to a stone that stood outside of the hedge, with iron chains dangling from the top of the stone, as if they were there all the time.
***
Jadelyn was swimming under the boat, waiting impatiently for them to throw someone over so she could boom-pow, one-two them in the water. Show her mate that she wasn’t weak.
Certainly not when they were on a mission in the water.
But no one was coming overboard.
She grumbled and swam close to the boat, maybe she could just poke some holes in it and when it sank she could save her husband.
Before she could do anything, the boat imploded.
The hull cracked and sank inward explosively as bubbles flooded into the river. That large of a hole, the ship titled heavily and started to sink.
YES!
Jadelyn didn’t hesitate for a second shooting in through the hole.
Men were fighting Morgana and the dragons, but she was a siren in the water.
She grabbed the leg of a man at the edge of the rising water.
He let out a little surprised scream before the water made a plop and he sank down into the river with Jadelyn dragging him.
She pulled him all the way to the bottom of the river.
He tried to kick her and put up a struggle, but she just dodged each of his pitiful attempts to hit her in the water.
Jadelyn swam away knowing that he wouldn’t be able to see her well under water and then shot back at him, her fist plowing into his chest faster than a torpedo and driving all of the air from his lungs only to quickly replace it with water.
Next was a brutal but effective spell that all siren’s practiced.
Jadelyn ripped the water from his lungs. On dry land, it was a wonderful way to save someone, underwater though…
The man froze, the human chest cavity wasn’t meant to be under that heavy of a vacuum.
She shot away from the dead human that was slowly sinking to the bottom of the river.
Back at the boat she popped her head up at the edge and grabbed two more men, disappearing them under water before returning to see the dragons and Morgana edging down the hall to avoid the water.
“Where is Zach?” Jadelyn asked.
They all blinked at each other.
“We thought you had him?” Morgana asked. “Wait, don’t tell me.” She let out an exhausted sigh.
Jadelyn slowly shook her head. “No. I just came in after the bottom of the boat imploded. There was nothing there, no sign of my husband.”
“If there was nothing, then it was all moved.” Morgana rubbed at her forehead. “Do we have the Golden Plushie Society Tracking setup?”
“No. Nyske has been stalling.” Jadelyn grumbled, her lips at the edge of the water blowing bubbles. “Come on. I’ll get you all back to the boat.”
Jadelyn shot underwater and let out a piercing scream of frustration.
The dragons and Morgana splashed into the water and Jadelyn grabbed their hands towing them back to her Yacht.
Stupid husband always getting lost. Nyske was going to put that tracker on his bracer.
She got back to the boat and dropped off her dragons and Morgana before her mother leaned over the side of the boat. “Everything okay honey?”
“Zach is gone. But we are going to get rid of this boat.”
“Let me help.” Her mother threw off her shift and dove into the water.
Three more splashes accompanied her mother as several sirens working the boat joined them.
“We are going to stuff some bodies in the boat and then tow it out to the ocean before authorities find it.” Jadelyn told them, surging forward through the river.
It didn’t take long for them to collect the few bodies and prevent them from floating on the surface, before the five sirens grabbed railings that had gone under and together they pulled the whole of the smaller yacht underwater and worked as a team to haul it well out of any search party’s path.
“What now daughter? This is exciting.” Her mother asked, squirming under water. “I haven’t felt this young in ages.”
Jadelyn glared at her. “Now we find my husband. Who undoubtedly is in some significant trouble.”
***
Summer sighed as she looked at the leaves in her tea. She was no fortune teller, but she felt ominous intent coming from them.
Her daughter wasn’t on the front lines, nor had she spent much time in the battle fields lately. It meant that Zach was likely right. Her daughter was behind this. Now the question of what to do about it as both a mother, a lover and a ruler weighed on her.
She’d hoped to find answers in her tea, but again she wasn’t a fortune teller.
“My Queen.” An officer in gleaming armor stepped into her tent. “There’s a message for you.”
Summer frowned and poured her tea out. She clearly wasn’t going to get the chance to enjoy it. “I think it’s the kind of message you don’t want to be the messenger for.” She told the officer who dropped the letter and bolted.
The wind rustled the tent flaps and Summer curled her finger, drawing the wind to pick up the letter and float it into her other hand.
A letter opener appeared in her hand. She sliced along the edge and unfolded the paper.
Dearest Mother,
She barely needed to read the rest; she already knew what would transpire. But she couldn’t stop herself from reading the heartbreaking words.
The note was simple. Her daughter would save the gloating for when they were face to face.
With a flick of her wrist, the letter burst into flames and scattered on the wind.
Zach was too important for multiple reasons. She had to respond. It seemed her daughter had moved fast and taken many options away from her.
Summer grabbed her dress and pulled at it as she stood. The meeting location was well known to her. It was where she had killed her own mother, a mercy killing for a woman who had gone mad with power.
Summer had taken after her father, but her daughter had the same madness that seemed to habitually infect the Summer Queen line.
Tears ran down her cheeks at the thought of what her mother had done, and what her daughter was about to force her to do.
Power corroded even the surest of minds in time. It was possible she’d succumb to it one day.
It was part of what drew her to Zach. Relative to him, she could be weak. He could strip her of some of that power driven ego, helping to keep her in check and more humble.
Summer’s steps were swift. The wind and sun pushed at her back, Faerie giving her every advantage as she moved at a pace that even the most thoroughbred horses would die of exhaustion under.
But she was in her element, the height of her power.
She hoped her power would feel the same after she gave herself to Zach. The man had no idea the nexus of power he represented. Titans were fighting over him, because he had broken one of the great patterns. His life had already set new events into motion.
The prophecies even suggested that he could break the great pattern of the faerie wars.
Oh, how she longed for them to end, for Faerie to focus once again on the arts of song, dance and carpentry. Not war.
Restoring a focus on the arts would make her father proud of her. She’s learned to be so much more than just a queen from her, but how to be a loving parent and enjoy all that life had to offer.
Before she lost him too.
Summer was lost in the anger of that moment for too long, the wind whipping through her hair.
But it didn’t last, she had too much control of her emotions, letting go of the past.
She pushed forward, rushing to where she knew her daughter would try to kill her. And knowing she’d be at the disadvantage, because she’d defend herself, but she couldn’t kill her daughter.
Maybe Aurora would see reason once she was exhausted. A mother could hope.