Dragon Born 1: The Shifter's Hoard Read online

  A troll’s blood.

  A big smoking hole lay in the center of the troll’s forehead. It smelled almost like that bizarre scent that had followed me out of the K-Town alleyway, and I realized that ever since that moment, the world had felt slightly off-kilter. As if something in that alleyway had opened my eyes to a world beyond the ordinary one—something buried far beneath our everyday city.

  Okay, I didn’t think about all that right then. But telling you ‘I recoiled in horror from the troll and let out an undignified scream’ doesn’t sound nearly as cool.

  Before I could let out the undignified scream tearing its way from inside my throat, the woman grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me around. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she said, gesturing at the fallen troll. “There’s going to be agents converging on this location any minute now. Come with me.”

  I glanced back at where the troll had been—where its corpse had been—but all that was there was a puddle of blood. What the hell? The thing had definitely been shot, and it had definitely gone down like a sack of bricks.

  “Where did—”

  “Interlopers vanish soon after they’re killed,” the woman said. “One of nature’s ways of helping with the cleanup. Come on. Let’s go.”

  Numbly, I put my hand in hers and let her lead me back out into the light. She looked a little bit like a policewoman, in a smart button-down jacket with a gun holster beneath and a black tie—but no police uniform would have condoned a skirt that short. It swished around her thighs, showing off the fact that she wore a garter belt and stockings underneath. She had shoulder-length black hair, almost as straight and dark as Soojin’s. She—

  She had cat’s ears.

  There was no beanie on her head. This wasn’t some hat that a shopkeeper put on while they listened to their favorite radio program—this woman had actual cat’s ears sticking out from beneath her hair. One of them twitched slightly as I stared at them, as if she’d just heard something on the wind.

  “Another bus is approaching,” the woman said, glancing at me over her shoulder. Her eyes were the deep red of a forest floor in autumn, and her face was the sort of thing men went to war over. “Stick to the shadows until it gets here. We don’t want anyone seeing you like this who doesn’t have to.”

  Like this? I glanced down at my clothes. Oh, shit. More blood covered my jacket.

  “Oh fuck,” I said, pins and needles spreading across my skin. “That was a troll. That was an actual troll and you fucking shot him and his blood’s all over me…”

  The woman tucked her gun back into the holster and put her hands on my shoulders, bringing herself face-to-face with me. She had to stand on tiptoe in order to do it—even then, she was a couple of inches shorter than me.

  “Listen to me,” she said, nodding at me eagerly. “I know right now it probably feels like your world is falling apart at the seams. I get it. I really do, and honestly, I sympathize. But right now, I need you to hold it together just a little bit longer. I promise you we will sit down and I’ll explain things to you until they make sense. But right now, you need to focus and kind of go with the flow. Understood?”

  I nodded. Not because I felt any better—if anything, her speech made me feel even worse. But there was something in her tone that felt like that square of light at the end of the alleyway when the troll grabbed me. Not like an escape hatch, but a way of making sense of the world. After all, I knew by now that my life was not what I’d always believed it to be.

  “Y-yeah,” I said, feeling on firmer ground as I said it. “I can do that. I’ve got to get this medicine to my Mom, though.”

  The woman sighed with relief. I didn’t realize until then that she’d expected me to completely freak out. “I know,” she said. “Soojin told me. Raya will be fine, Derek—we’ll get you back to her before you know it.”

  I was stunned. “You know Soojin?” I asked, struggling to comprehend. “But how?”

  It was too late for questions. Just then, the bus pulled up—a different one this time. I would have liked to have seen the friendly, pudgy bus driver from before, but the person driving this one was thin as a scarecrow and had a face as sour as a lemon.

  “You coming?” he asked.

  “Yep!” The woman brushed her hand over her hair—and the cat ears disappeared. “Just a second!”

  I stepped onto the bus and out of the night, the retractable door closing behind me with an almost inaudible hiss. The woman took me by the hand and led me to a seat as we rolled into the night.

  Chapter 3

  “Psst,” the woman said, leaning over in her seat. “Here’s a handkerchief. Clean up some of that blood, chief—the normies are starting to stare.”

  Her words snapped me out of my trance. I’d been staring out the window ever since we pulled away from the bus stop, but I hadn’t really been seeing the city at all. I’d been thinking about that troll, watching as his massive gray body slammed to the concrete. It replayed in my mind, over and over again. Each time, I remembered how he stank, and how he sniffed me like I was a loaf of fresh-baked bread.

  I needed some fucking answers.

  I took the handkerchief and wiped at the front of my jacket, doing a terrible job. Across the aisle, three elderly ladies sitting next to each other stared openly at me, whispering to each other like they were debating whether or not to call the police. I grinned back at them, which made all three turn away and grow very still all of a sudden.

  “A little better,” the woman said, tucking away the stained fabric. “You’re lucky most normies have cell phones these days. They’re too busy staring at social media or a game to notice a guy covered in blood riding the bus…”

  I nodded, but inside I felt nothing but terror. I wondered if I’d actually gone into shock from my encounter with the troll—but I guess it didn’t really matter. Just like the woman said, I had to go with the flow.

  “What’s your name?” I asked, turning my attention back to the woman sitting next to me. “You know mine, apparently, so it’s only fair that I know yours, too.”

  She looked a little taken aback at my directness. “Carli,” she said, putting her hand in mine and shaking. “Carli Weber. And I know more than just your name, Derek.”

  “Obviously.” I put a hand to my forehead, checking to make sure I didn’t have a fever. “You know Soojin, you know my Mom—hell, you probably know more about my Mom than I do.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Carli purred, glancing away. “She did raise you, after all…”

  I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “What the hell is this?” I demanded, clutching her fingers harder than I’d intended.

  She pulled away, rubbing her wrist. “It’s my hand,” she said dryly.

  I was in no mood for games. “Don’t fuck with me,” I snapped, shaking my head. “I just saw a goddamn fairytale monster try and sniff me to death!”

  Carli snapped a hand over my mouth before I could say more. “Shhh! You want to freak out the normies?” She glanced over her shoulder at the elderly trio, who were now doing their best to pretend neither of us existed. “They can’t handle shit like that, Derek. The truth fries normie brains. They’re like babies—no critical thinking skills or object permanence. You jingle your keys in front of their face, they’ll forget whatever they were thinking about.”

  “That’s pretty harsh,” I said, a little taken aback by her frank estimation of humanity. “Most people aren’t like that at all. They’re capable of thinking about things.”

  “Oh yeah? I’ll prove it to you.”

  Carli put her hand on top of mine and gave it a gentle squeeze.

  Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, she slid it between her thighs and beneath her skirt.

  I gasped.

  My fingers grazed the fabric of Carli’s panties, which were warm and slightly wet.

  My cock throbbed to life in my boxers, roaring to full mast as Carli tugged my hand deeper into the valley betw
een her thighs.

  “Taking down an interloper always gets my blood pumping hot,” Carli purred, sounding more and more like a cat the more she spoke. “It’s the adrenaline. You feel like you’re going to die—and then you feel like you wanna live. You ever feel like that, baby? Like you wanna live a little?”

  Was Carli propositioning me?

  Fuck, if she was, the answer was an enthusiastic yes.

  Cat ears or no, she was the cutest girl I’d seen in a long ass time—and I’d begun to think the cat ears had been just a trick of the light, anyway. After all, they weren’t there anymore.

  “Yeah,” I grunted, guiding her hand to the growing bulge between my legs. “Fuck, I want that…”

  Carli giggled, then shoved my hand away. “See?”

  Frustration filled me. Huh? “What?”

  “All that so-called trauma,” Carli said, making air quotes with her fingers on the last word, “goes right out the window the second a cute girl puts your hand on her panties. One feel of my soft little kitty and you hardly even remember getting attacked by that tee are oh ell ell. Jingly keys, baby. Jingling the keys.”

  My jaw hit the floor. “You… how dare you?” I whispered, unable to believe the shamelessness of this woman. “You got me all turned on just to fuck with me?”

  “No,” Carli said with a shrug. “I did it to prove a point. And because you’re pretty cute, and I wanted to see what your fingers felt like between my legs. Oh hey, this is our stop!”

  Before I could say another word, Carli reached up and tugged the cord hanging from the bus’s ceiling. It stretched all the way to the driver’s seat up front, and as soon as the scarecrow-thin man got the signal, he pulled the bus to a stop, his sour face looking even more sour than normal.

  “Here?” I glanced out the window. “This isn’t home. This is just the warehouse district…”

  “Come on,” Carli said, rising from her seat. “You want some of those answers you’re so keen on? Just follow me.”

  When I didn’t get up immediately, Carli paused in the center aisle, a naughty smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Or if you just wanna feel me up again, you’d better follow me for that, too.”

  I tried my best to glare at her, but neither of us could keep a straight face for long.

  “Fine,” I said, doing my best to ignore the stares of the other passengers as I followed her down the aisle. “But it’s not because you’re jingling keys or whatever else you want to call it!”

  “Sure thing, normie,” Carli said, winking at me over her shoulder. “Have a nice night, Mr. Bus Driver Man!”

  Mr. Bus Driver Man did not look like he was having a nice night. The moment we were on the curb, he slammed the bus door closed and took off like a rocket, disappearing without a trace.

  Carli sniffed and smoothed down her skirt, glancing around the empty street like she’d just entered her own living room.

  “Great,” I grunted. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere. How the hell are we supposed to get home?”

  Carli let out a laugh. “We are home. My home, at least. Come on.”

  Without waiting for me, she moved between two of the warehouses, scanning the street as she did so to ensure no one was watching her as she disappeared.

  With a shrug, I stepped into the darkness behind her.

  The warehouse Carli had chosen to approach wasn’t as bad as the one the troll had decided to stake out, but it was getting there.

  Most of the windows were intact, and a few flickering lights from somewhere inside let me know the place still had power.

  Carli went right to a door next to a loading dock and tapped in a keycode, unlocking it.

  “This is your warehouse?” I asked, dumbfounded.

  Carli snorted. “Of course not. You think I can afford to own real estate in this economy? I rent. Come on, it’s cooler inside.”

  It was indeed.

  The air was cool and dry, which felt good after how sticky and humid the streets had been after the storm. The chill air made me glad I was still wearing my jacket.

  Thinking about my jacket made me think about the medicine I’d picked up for my Mom, and I reached into my pocket to make sure it was still there. Thankfully, the troll hadn’t managed to dislodge it.

  The warehouse was practically empty, other than some bare shelves that looked like they’d once held building equipment or something else that was really heavy.

  As Carli picked her way between the aisles, I looked down at the cloth pouch full of herbs. On impulse, I leaned down and sniffed them. They smelled earthy, and spicy too—if you’d put them on food, I probably would’ve eaten it.

  Was that what the troll had smelled? That would make a certain kind of sense—but in that case, what was with all the fantasy talk?

  “What’s a shifter?” I asked Carli’s back.

  The woman stopped in her tracks, then turned around slowly.

  I figured she was more amused than upset by the question, despite her posture. Just from the small amount of time I’d spent with her, I got the impression there wasn’t much that really got to Carli. She let things roll off her, either by joking about them or declaring them ‘for normies’. Carli definitely didn’t think of herself as a normie—but from the look on her face, she hadn’t yet decided whether I was one or not.

  Carli crossed her arms underneath her breasts. The motion made me acutely aware of just how much she was packing beneath that businesslike jacket, and I had to clear my throat.

  “Where would you have heard a term like that?” Carli asked innocently.

  “The troll,” I said, thinking again of the radio in Soojin’s office.

  Rabid sewer troll heading southbound.

  All I knew about rabies was that there was no cure for it, and the only way to prevent it was to get a big needle straight through your belly button. I was pretty sure it could only be spread by a bite—and the troll hadn’t bit me. Still, I was covered in the thing’s blood.

  “Was it really rabid, by the way?” I asked.

  Carli’s eyes widened like saucers. “You’ve been listening to hunterwave!” she hissed.

  “I’m not sure if I have or not,” I said, spreading my arms. “I’m familiar with vaporwave, though I’m not really a big fan of it. I didn’t know you were into weird music, Carli…”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Where did you pick up a hunterwave set? And if you knew a rabid sewer troll was in the area, why on Earth did you stick the fuck around?”

  “I didn’t know the troll was real,” I said, not having to lie. “I thought the whole thing was bogus. A publicity stunt.” I reached for the word Soojin had used. “A podcast or something.”

  “A podcast,” Carli said, shaking her head with a snicker. “For fuck’s sake.”

  “Was it really rabid, or not?” I asked, my voice growing hard. “If I need to go to the hospital and get a shot, I’d appreciate the head’s up before I start foaming at the mouth!”

  Now it was Carli’s turn to spread her hands. “Geez, calm down! No, the troll didn’t have rabies the way they talk about it in the normie world. You’re not going to die, Derek. Okay? Now settle down and help me move this shelf aside. There’s something behind it I need to get to…”

  “Shifter,” I said, trying to hide how relieved I felt that I didn’t need to worry about rabies. If I bent that much, Carli would start thinking she could lead me around by the nose the way she had on the bus, with my hand between her thighs. “What is it?”

  Carli had paused next to a shelving unit larger than the others, covered in beige boxes.

  The section of wall behind it looked pitted and bubbly, like the popcorn ceilings they install in cheap motels and offices sometimes.

  “He wants to know what a shifter is,” she muttered to herself. “I don’t suppose you’d forget the whole thing if I jingle my keys in front of you again, would you?”

  “If you want to take your clot
hes off, I’d love to see it,” I said, feeling bold. “But I still want answers.”

  Carli sighed explosively, rolling her eyes. “Fine. But first, tell me—where did you hear that term? Even on hunterwave, they’re careful not to say things that’ll blow too many normie minds.”

  I realized I hadn’t gotten the chance to tell her—I’d been cut off before.

  “The troll,” I explained. “When it attacked me, it kept… sniffing me. It was really gross.”

  “Eww, yeah it was,” Carli said, wrinkling her nose. “What the fuck?”

  “The troll told me I smelled like a shifter,” I said, repeating what I’d heard. “Then he told me I also smelled like a mage. Like I’d been bathing in the blood of one.” Saying that made me glance down at the blood still on my jacket with a scowl. “A mage is a magician—I know that, but that doesn’t make what the troll said make any sense. He said I was both a mage and a shifter.” I held out the package Soojin had given me. “Do you think he was smelling this? It’s the medicine for my Mom.”

  Carli stared at me like I’d grown a second head.

  “No,” she said, her jaw dropping open. “No, I don’t think he was smelling the medicine, Derek. You’re absolutely sure he said you smell like both?”

  “I’m telling the truth,” I snapped. “He also kept calling me ‘little fish’, which totally creeped me out, but I don’t think that part’s as relevant.”

  “It’s not,” Carli said, running a finger along her chin. Then she sighed. “Fine. You want to know what a shifter is? I’ll show you—but once I do, you’ve got to help me move this shelf. That’s the deal. You help me, I’ll give you answers.”

  I looked at the shelf and shrugged. “Sure. Deal.”

  Carli smiled. As she did, a glimmer of light covered her body, like someone had secretly set up a spotlight on the ceiling just above her and waited until that moment to switch it on. She looked like an actress taking the stage—but even more than that.

  This was magic. I knew it in an instant.