Immersion (Apalala Clan Book 1)

by Dzintra Sullivan

  Ladon put his hands up in a surrender pose, watching Jo’s head move as if not attached to the rest of his body looked freaky. “Relax man, save your energy for when it’s needed.”

  “Not everyone is a lazy sack of shit, Ladon. One is enough for any family, and you already have that position filled.” Jo’s voice was low and dangerous, he knew it wouldn’t take much to tip him over the edge.

  “This coming from the big bad dragon who just killed a defenseless and unarmed desk.” Ladon smirked as he walked off.

  Jo’s brain was spinning like a whirlpool, the dark thoughts had wrapped around his feet and was dragging him down into the abyss of no return. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to just stand by and wait for some weird ass signal from above, springing them into an evil defeating team of warriors. This was not a story, and he wasn’t a superhero. If you wanted to remove a threat, you had to go and seek it out before it got to you.

  Proactive, not reactive, that was Jo’s mantra. It was tattooed down the inside of his weapon holding arm.

  Standing up straight Jo flicked the whip over his right shoulder at the exact angle he had practiced for years, the tail of his whip clicked into this links perfectly as Jo clicked the handle between his shoulder blades. This had taken many years, and many slices of his flesh, from missed attempts to be able to perfect the lodgment of his weapon.

  “I am not waiting around,” Jo said to himself, walking over to his weapons cabinet against the wall. Opening it, he started placing a few extra small daggers in the compartments located at the base of his leathers nestled into the concave of his ankle. “My brothers might be happy to sit and wait like the proverbial goldfish in a bowl, but not this dragon.” Closing the cabinet with a firm push to engage the locking system, Jo made a decision.

  “This dragon is going hunting.” He walked out his room, but instead of going left into the main living area he turned right, and followed the corridor out to the emergency escape door.

  Volos clicked the end button and tucked his cell into his back pocket. Wyvern had taken note of the name and was going to investigate, he had mentioned that the name sounded familiar, but couldn’t remember where or when he’d seen it. Volos had left it with him, reminding him of the strict instructions to talk to him first above anyone else if he found anything.

  Volos walked around the corner, the C.O.D.E. office coming into view. He could see Kylee waiting in a small garden near the front. When she saw Volos, she nodded and walked directly over to him.

  “Payton has asked me to pass you a message,” she said getting close enough to be within speaking distance, only a slight annoyance at being made a messenger girl.

  “Mmm…” Volos said. He stopped walking, waiting for the fulfillment of Payton’s request.

  Kylee sighed. “Payton has asked if you would mind waiting outside, your presence the other day in here caused quite the stir amongst the management, and she would prefer to avoid a massive conflict if it’s at all possible,” Kylee said with all the monotone glory of delivering a sixth grade memorized speech on the benefits of a solar powered nation.

  “Oh…” was all that Volos had said when Kylee turned and walked back inside the building.

  Volos wasn’t sure if he understood or was offended. He hadn’t caused a stir back at the Ministry office, if anything he’d provided a brilliant distraction. A memory flashed as if fate was reminding him of something important, the snapshot of a man when his brother and himself had met with Payton at the office. The set of eyes that looked down upon them from above, he saw danger flickering brightly in them, the power radiated with enough thrust to bounce around the room. He wasn’t sure if that was just for his benefit, or if there was more to him than met the eye.

  Volos turned his head to the sound of tires screeching as they stopped abruptly for a small dog that had run onto the road, a woman screaming and crying as she scooped the small animal into her arms and scurried off. Volos didn’t know if it was hit or not, he was more interested in the coffee shop directly behind the incident.

  If I have to wait, might as well get caffeinated, Volos thought to himself and walked over to the small quirky looking shop with the brown and green banners. Taking a seat in a vacant booth in the far back corner, he ordered a double shot and the ‘slice of the day’ with a waitress that was appearing to have trouble focusing on anything but the size of his upper arms.

  She finished writing it on her small pad of paper, tucking it into the pocket of her olive-green apron that matched perfectly with the brown tones of her uniform shirt and skirt. The waitress leaned over to him. “Do you work out, hun?” She looked again at the definition of his muscles, he knew they were accentuated in his warrior vest.

  Just get my coffee, huh, he thought.

  “They certainly aren’t handed out on the street corner.” He smirked inside his head as the voices chanted, coffee, coffee, coffee.

  “If they were, I’d be buying a set for my boyfriend, because man that’s sexy.” She winked and swirled around with an extra pizazz to the sway of her hips as she ventured off toward the counter. Volos sat still in the red fake leather booth, his size making it look extremely small, but he still squeezed his larger than the average frame into it. Within a few minutes the waitress had reappeared and placed his caffeinated ‘black gold from the gods,’ in front of him, next to it on a small white plate was a slice of red cherry pie. Volos nodded in thanks and she disappeared to go service her other booths.

  Volos took the cup in his hand, raising it up to take a mouthful, the hot strong liquid rolling it around his tongue and down his throat. It was rare that he had a few minutes to spare long enough to enjoy a mug as it was normally consumed on the run. However, he had to stay near Payton, she was busy and as per her request he was waiting.

  As his brain slowed slightly to enjoy a small reprieve, the hustle and bustle of the coffee shop sounds came to the surface. With his dragon side, hearing like most things worked at a higher level than that of a human. He could hear the heavy breathing of an overweight short order cook out the back as he prepared the limited menu items. He could hear the women in the third stall of the ladies bathroom call out in hopes someone might pass her some toilet paper.

  What really caught his attention was a group of three men sitting on the other side of the shop, they were of generic look for human males, graying hair put the trio in their mid-sixties, the heavy-set middle they seemed to share spoke of not only their love of coffee and donuts but perhaps some amber liquid refreshments after five p.m. daily.

  “I shit you not, Max, I saw it with my own eyes.” The man in the gray shirt spoke in a whispered tone.

  “Fuck off, Jerry. How much did ya drink last night?” blue shirt man replied as he laughed off the validity of what was being discussed, as he popped the last of his donut into his mouth. “Sal said she saw you staggering out of the pub about midnight.” He spoke and ate at the same time, causing Volos to look away for a second so he didn’t gag on his own food.

  “Sal’s full of shit. Whatever she said it’s fucked. She was busy giving old Bob a head job last time I saw her,” gray shirt retorted. “Fucking lucky old Bob.” He took a mouthful of his coffee, shaking his head in envy.

  The man in a stained mustard colored shirt spoke up, “Sal would give a head job to a pole if it told her she was pretty. That woman is nasty, wouldn’t let her anywhere near my Johnson if the world was ending.”

  Volos was about to tune out of this mundane conversation when something caught his attention and he kept listening.

  “Nasty or not, she’s full of shit. I saw some weird shit over at that big black eyesore last night. Must have been easily ten huge black hummers, and the number of bodyguards roaming around was crazy.” He spoke in a hushed tone and with an urgency. “Something was going on. I saw them carrying out large human-sized black bags.”

  “Bullshit, ya crazy drunk bastard,” yellow stained shirt man said dismissively.

  “Fucking don
’t believe me then, Gus.” Gray shirt gave him the finger. “When it’s your body being shoved in their black bags, I ain’t fucking saving you.”

  “Whatever, Jerry.” Shaking his head, the man with the yellow stained shirt got up and walked away.

  “You believe me, don’t cha, Max?” the gray shirt man said with a need to be heard evident in his tone.

  The man in the blue shirt looked at him with a serious crinkle to his already heavily creased forehead. “I dunno, Jerry…” shaking his head with a tilt to the left, “… big cars, big security and big body bags? I know that oil place is a weird one… but body bags?” the man in blue struggled to find anything he could latch onto and believe.

  “Then how do you fucking explain this?” The man in gray pulled something out of his satchel and slapped it down on the table. “Dropped from one of the bags.”

  “Fuck me,” was all the man in blue could say.

  Volos looked over and saw an amber colored feather that would have at least been three-foot-long. He’d had it bent in his bag, but when he unfolded it, it was longer than the table surface. Within a tick of a second’s hand, Volos was up and out the shop’s front door, he needed to get to Payton immediately. Who knew where or what that feather had come from but she was in mortal danger, as were they all.

  Payton was coming out of the front door as Volos came rushing up, only just stopping a few inches from slamming straight into her. His breathing was heavy and fast as he visually ran his eyes up and down her body, making sure she was unhurt.

  “As much as you checking me out is kind of a turn on, is now really the time?” Payton questioned with a cheeky grin.

  “What happened in there? Did he hurt you? Are you okay?” His questions flew fast, his brain still processing the feather he’d just seen. He only knew of one creature with feathers like that and it wasn’t a nice one.

  Payton frowned with confusion. “I’m fine… had a meeting and Mr. Embah understood and popped a forty-eight-hour temporary stop on the application approval.” She walked around him and over to Kylee’s car. Volos looked and saw Kylee waiting in there already, her expression clearly showed she thought he’d lost his mind. “You will have to learn to trust in my epic abilities to persuade people, Volos. I am a lawyer after all, it’s my job to be persuasive.”

  “But… stopped?” Volos questioned with a slow building feeling of unease.

  Nodding, Payton paused as she was about to get into the car. “Yup. Now I have some information to find to stop it permanently, but I can do that with far more privacy at home than here at the office.” She flashed a smile at him. “It’s good news, V. I told you I had this covered. Now you coming with? Or will you meet me later?”

  Volos thought for a second. “I’ll hang for a few, might call Wyvern.” He nodded. “I’ll be at your place within the hour.”

  “See you then.” She winked.

  Volos watched them drive away, the pit of his stomach was bubbling with unease. There was no way under the deep blue ocean Payton would be able to stop this so easily. Something was wrong, very, very, wrong. If he was right, they were all about to get fucked up, and he could promise there would be no orgasm to make it fun at the end.

  Jo exhaled with a feeling of power as his wings burst forcefully from his back, it was almost as good as sex, almost. He took a few seconds to pulse his wings forcefully in the water, seeing his large wing span wave powerfully in the ocean made Jo feel indestructible. Like his eyes, his wings were very different to that of his brothers. The majority of his wings were of a clean white canvas, small black splashes of what looked like ink started at the join on his back, and increased both in the intensity and size as you traveled out further to the tip, which was entirely covered. His wings looked like someone had taken a pitcher of black ink and dribbled it along the ridge, causing the drips and lines to run down the scales. The stark contrast of the black on white was both beautiful and dangerous. He was unable to vanish through the art of camouflage, leaving him to rely completely on his ocean smarts for survival.

  Across his chest and venturing lightly down his arms were scales of black and silver, where the black and white had blended together. Jo had been very mindful of his tattoos when he ordered each one. He saw himself as a one in a million dragon, might as well embrace it. Jo had made sure of that, whether he was in human form or in full dragon form, he was covered in inky patterns from head to toe.

  A sideward glance back to the emergency escape he had just used to leave the Oasis and Jo was gone, with wings as powerful as his, he would be at the surface within minutes.

  When he took off, Jo knew it was going to be getting dark, but as he broke the surface to an almost pitch black sky, he marveled at the speed at which the winter was approaching and how quickly the sun has been setting. Looking around, he could see he was still a fair way from shore. He knew where he wanted to go, and with the number of cameras his brothers had reported, getting in undetected would test his abilities.

  Jo felt a surge of defiance at his brothers sitting back and doing nothing. He knew he could get inside, he knew he could eliminate the problem, he didn’t need anyone. Ducking back under the surface he gave a powerful flick of his wings and he was headed up to the shoreline. He had a favorite spot which was protected and would allow a dragon to come ashore without fear of being seen.

  With a flick of his short spiked black hair, his wings vanished effortlessly back under his skin. Jo walked up onto the sand and out into the black nightscape that was the town. Raising his wrist to look at the band, he had preset the coordinates of the building he had wanted before he left. This minimized the amount of time he wasted. Jo wanted to get in, rip some heads and get out without any attention.

  Standing in the shadows, Jo had found a spot that was angled to be perfectly invisible from the cameras pointing at the red parking garage. He stood in silence and let his ears open to fully hear the surrounding sounds. Shutting his eyes he closed off the sound of a rat sorting through a rubbish bin on the corner, he tuned out a feline rumble that was happening a couple of blocks to the left. He only wanted to hear what was going on inside the large mirrored black building that stood directly in front of him.

  The back suddenly swung open and out thudded a very heavy set male, slung over his shoulder was what Jo had initially thought was a roll of carpet. But as the male turned to talk to someone still inside the building, Jo could see it was a large black bag. He couldn’t see what was in it, but it sure did look heavy.

  “How many we got tonight, Ken?” The male spoke in a hushed tone, but the night was very still and the sound was traveling clearly.

  “I think the boss said six,” the reply came from behind the open door.

  Six what? Jo asked himself. His head looked up and saw only one way to find out. He could see a huge number of cameras all around the perimeter of the building, but they were all pointed down. Jo shrugged. What’s the bet they haven’t thought about watching the roof? He asked himself. Shrugging again and replying to his question, Only one way to find out, Jo. It’s been a while, but surely, it’s just like riding a bike.

  Jo silently went backward out of the alley, he needed to find a darker more secluded space. A few streets back he found exactly what he needed, no windows above it, and the back portion was entirely bathed in a thick black shadow. Jo vanished from sight as he walked into it. Once he was sure he was unable to be seen, he removed his clothes and stashed them behind a dumpster right in the very back corner of the alley.

  It had been many moons since Jo had let his beast entirely free, but he couldn’t see any other way of achieving what he wanted. Jo closed his eyes and lowered his heart rate, only when it reached a rate that would render a human on the verge of death, could he will the change to flow over him. His wings were the most used of his true form, and sprung from his shoulders with a gleeful spark of electricity through his body. The ripple of energy brought forth by his wings leaping from his back caused his energy to flow
freely. Jo was pushed forward onto his hands as a large tail started to form from the middle of his spine, a ridge from his tail up to his wings and continuing up and into his hair, caused him a little pain as he hadn’t done this since he was a child.

  In a matter of a few minutes a large dragon stood where Jo had been. He was easily the size of the largest dodge ram they built, longer if you took in his powerful tail. Volos had always made fun of him as a child for looking like a Dalmatian puppy with his black and white markings.

  Jo hated dogs.

  Jo hated Volos.

  Jo tilted and stretched his elongated neck as all the final adjustments came into place to complete his change. His forehead had extended to be a large bone plate on which his horns sat proudly. His mouth grew out to match his nose and formed a muzzle from which a few scale covered tassels hung, like a dragon goatee.

  Jo was very present in his mind whether he was in dragon or human form. The dragon was not separate from his soul, they were one, only dependent on which clothes they were wearing at what time. Taking a deep breath, Jo snorted and with a single beat of his massive wings he shot straight up only leaving a cloud of dirt and papers that kicked up in the downdraft.

  Jo roared with a rush of power at having the clouds around him, this was freedom for him. Twisting and turning his large body over the peaks and dips of air currents that came off the ocean and hit against the mountains behind them, Jo saw the building and went down silently. He let the up flow catch his weight, softening the impact of his feet on the tarred roof.

  Sitting silently still in form, he could see there were no cameras. What fucktards, he thought to himself, only an imbecile could think to protect yourself only looking down. A soft rumble of laughter went to bubble up along his chest but froze in his throat as the door to the roof from inside the building flung open.