No Such Thing as Dragons : Complete Series Box Set (Books 1 - 5)

by Lauren Lively

  So yes, she was special to me too. And I was still learning from the parting gift she'd left me when her essence had finally ascended to the heavens.

  “She was right when she said she left the badass part of herself for you,” he said.

  “Yeah, I know,” I replied. “And I couldn't be happier or more thankful for it.”

  We rushed back to my apartment before the sun rose and showered. I had to be at work that morning, and I was already exhausted. But thankfully, I only worked three days a week. Three twelve hour shifts at the hospital – which still left a lot of time for hunting in the evenings on my days off.

  That night's hunt had been a special mission, and there was no way I could have missed out on that.

  It was hard being both a hunter of the night and a nurse during the day, but it was well worth it. When Onda left my body, she'd left that part of herself that felt drawn to the night. She also left her knowledge of fighting and her abilities too.

  I knew that I likely wouldn't ever be as good as her because I was still human after all, but I was a damn good hunter just the same. What I lacked in skill, I made up for in passion and a willingness to learn.

  And I'd kept my promise to Onda. I'd stayed by Glyn's side. But truthfully, even if I hadn't made that promise to her, I would have chosen to stay by his side all the same. He just made me happy. We showered together quickly, and then I had to go straight to work. But not before we made one quick stop.

  “I'm telling you, these are the best doughnuts in the world,” I said.

  Glyn didn't look convinced, but I dragged him to Miggy's anyway. As soon as we walked in, Miggy smiled at me. He glanced over at Glyn and raised an eyebrow, his smile growing even wider.

  “Hey Miggy,” I said, grinning from ear-to-ear. “I want you to meet someone.”

  “Mornin' Vanessa,” he said, walking over to the counter and holding his hand out. “And good morning to Vanessa's friend, welcome to Miggy's.”

  Glyn shook his hand. “Thanks, I'm Glyn,” he said. “And it's safe to say, I’m probably a little more than just her friend.”

  “How come you didn't mention that you had a boyfriend, Vanessa?” Miggy said, pretending to be hurt. “And here I thought we'd get married and spend the rest of our lives together.”

  I laughed, shaking my head. “Oh Miggy. That ship sailed long ago. You weren't interested in me, remember?” I said. “Besides, you have Donna now, how's that going?”

  His eyes lit up every time I mentioned Donna – and it was utterly adorable. The two of them had been dating for a few months now, and I heard from Donna about how happy she was quite regularly.

  She'd also happened to gain about fifteen or twenty extra pounds since she started dating Miggy – though, I didn't blame her. I blamed Miggy. There was no way you could date a man like him and not gain weight, thanks to his delightful baking skills.

  “She's the light of my world, Vanessa,” he said and then turned to Glyn. “Did you know your girlfriend is the reason I finally met the love of my life?”

  “I didn't,” Glyn said, looking over at me with a sweet smile. “But I'm not surprised. She has a good heart.”

  “That she does,” Miggy said. “And if I ever hear about you breaking that heart –”

  “Not a chance, Miggy,” Glyn said. “Cross my heart and hope to die. I love this girl.”

  I reached out and squeezed his hand. “He's very good to me, Miggy.”

  “Good, glad to hear it,” he said. “You deserve nothing but the best, mija.”

  Other customers started lining up behind us, and I knew we had to get going. I helped Glyn pick out a donut – chocolate with sprinkles, because who doesn't like sprinkles? – and then we went to pay. As usual, it was a fight to get Miggy to accept my money, but Glyn ended up paying this time anyway. He dropped more than enough for our donuts into the tip jar and we were on our way.

  As he bit into his chocolate confection, I swear I saw his eyes roll into the back of his head.

  “Almost better than sex, isn't it?” I asked.

  He side-eyed me. “Good, but not even close to being better than sex with you.”

  “You know what I mean, silly,” I said, playfully slapping his arm.

  “Yeah, it's damn good,” he said. “Actually, it's probably the best donut I've ever had.”

  “See? I told you?” I said as I looked at my phone. “Oh God, I'm late. I'll see you later, sweetie.”

  “Still on for tonight?” he asked.

  “Always. Just let me get a nap in first,” I said.

  “Great,” he said. “I'll be at your place around ten. We have some hunting to do.”

  “Yes, yes, we do,” I said, kissing him again. “Love you.”

  “Love you too, my little badass.”

  I drove to work feeling like the luckiest woman in the world – I had two jobs I was passionate about, an amazing man in my life, and I actually was a badass. I smiled as I took it all in – life was most definitely good.

  THE END

  Book 4 – Married to a Dragon

  Chapter One

  Deyro

  “You're making this too easy,” I laughed and spun away from the Shongtal fighter.

  The Shongtal lurched forward, clumsily thrusting a sword at me. I knocked the blade to the side and danced away, laughing and playfully smacking him on the backside with the flat of my sword. Glancing to my right, I watched as my “partner” was engaged with three Shongtal fighters of her own.

  I had to admit that she was skilled. Very skilled. She was almost as good as a Dragonborn Ranger. Almost.

  “How are things going over there, Alex?” I called. “We having fun yet?”

  She shot me a look, an expression of irritation on her face. She spun to her right and brought her curved blade across in a murderous arc. The silver steel sliced through the neck of the human husk the Shongtal was inhabiting, separating it from its body completely. I watched with a morbid fascination as the head spun through the air, landing on the ground with a meaty thump.

  Alex cast a look over at me, almost as if daring me to do better. Like I couldn't. She was human. I was Dragonborn. And although she was very well trained, I'd been trained by the best. I'd been the best in my Ranger class and I was determined to be the best Ranger – and eventually Warden – to ever come out of Chondelai.

  I felt the Shongtal approaching from behind, so I knew it was time to make my move. I crouched down and quickly jumped, executing a perfect backflip over the three creatures who were lumbering at me. Landing upon the concrete floor of the old warehouse, I was up, sword at the ready in a heartbeat.

  A small smile touched my lips as I swung my blade in a wide arc. The silver bit into the flesh of the Shongtal's neck, drawing a pained hiss from its mouth. My sword passed through the flesh like the proverbial hot knife through butter and the head of the creature – of what used to be a human being – fell to the ground, rolling to a stop at the feet of the other two.

  The Shongtal were dark spirits born in Chondelai – spirits who inhabited the body of a human host. Once a human was infected with one of the dark spirits, that person was as good as dead. The Shongtal drained their life force – literally hollowing them out from the inside, leaving little more than a dried up, withered husk of flesh. And when the host body was of no more use to the Shongtal, they discarded it and moved on to the next.

  They came to the world of man long ago – a result of the madness of one power hungry King who'd unleashed them upon humanity. It was that sin – the sin of infecting the world of man with the plagues of our world – that prompted the formation of the Wardens and Rangers. Our mission clear – protect humanity from the dark creatures of our world and theirs.

  It was a duty I took seriously. My vows meant the world to me. But I also really enjoyed what I was doing. Ridding the world of one more evil creature – what's not to like about that? And it just so happened that I was good at it. Really, really good.

  �
��You're going to die, Dragonborn,” one of the creatures – a pudgy, middle-aged man – hissed at me.

  I laughed. “Seriously,” I replied. “You couldn't kill me if I let you tie my hands behind my back. You lot are pathetic.”

  The creatures let out a strangled scream and rushed me at once. Idiots. I sighed and spun to the side, allowing their momentum to carry them past me.

  “This is getting boring, guys,” I said. “Got any new tricks up your sleeves or anything?”

  With an outraged shriek, the pudgy middle-aged man sprinted straight at me. I didn't even have to do anything other than lift my sword hand. The stupid creature ran its face straight into the tip of my blade, the silver biting deep and passing straight through the former human's skull. The Shongtal hung there, halfway down my sword, its body limp and lifeless.

  I waited a moment and watched as red light flared from the eyes of the husk and then fell dark – the spirit inside of the human was dead. As was the human, of course. Unfortunate, but unavoidable. Even if there were a way to evict the spirit, the body would be ravaged by its presence. Killing the human who'd been infected was a mercy.

  “Die, Dragonborn scum!”

  The hissing voice of the Shongtal drew my attention. It was rushing at me, a long dagger in its hand. There was no way I was going to be able to get my sword un-stuck from the human's head and up to defend myself in time, so I let the body – and my sword along with it – fall to the floor of the warehouse.

  I dropped down quickly and lashed out with my leg. My booted foot made solid contact with the knee of the Shongtal-infected man. The knee buckled, collapsing backward in an unnatural position, and spilled the man to the ground. It roared in outrage, unable to get back to its feet – its knee completely shattered.

  I stood and walked over to the creature as it managed to climb back to its one good knee. Delivering a vicious kick to its face, it fell over on its back.

  “Like I said, you lot are pathetic,” I said. “And you're making my job too easy.”

  “Screw you.”

  I shrugged and wrenched my sword free of the other creature's skull. The Shongtal looked at me with wide eyes, its breathing ragged and labored, knowing its time was coming to an end. He gave me a predatory looking grin though and I knew what was coming.

  “Oh, no you don't,” I said.

  As the creature opened its mouth to allow the dark spirit to flow out, I jumped forward, driving the point of my silver blade straight down through the chest of the man the dark spirit had been inhabiting. The Shongtal's eyes grew wide and the familiar red light flared briefly before the man's head fell back and the light faded. The creature was dead.

  “You almost lost one,” she said.

  I turned around to find Alex squatting down next to one of the bodies of the Shongtal fighters she'd killed. She was wiping her blade off on the shirt of a young man who looked like your stereotypical pothead. She was looking at me, an expression of combined amusement and irritation on her face – a look that one would assume was impossible to pull off, given the contradictory natures of the emotions, but one that looked entirely natural on Alexis Vargas.

  “But I didn't,” I said, grinning at her.

  She shook her head and finished wiping down her blade, sliding it back into its sheath as she stood. Alex was all business when it came to hunting and fighting. When we engaged a creature – or group of creatures like these half dozen Shongtal fighters – Alex immediately went into warrior mode, hacking, slashing, slicing and dicing, until the last body hit the ground. She took no joy in the job. No particular pleasure. She was simply, a killing machine.

  “You're not going to be so lucky one of these days,” Alex snapped. “Keep showboating like you do and one of these things is either going to escape, or they're going to get the drop on you and cut your damn head off.”

  I laughed. “Please, these idiots couldn't get the drop on me if I were in a coma,” I said and ran a hand through my long, dark hair theatrically. “And besides, I'm just too pretty to die.”

  Alex shook her head, the look of irritation on her face deepening. She looked at her watch and walked away.

  “We need to get back to the training house,” she called over her shoulder.

  I looked around at the bodies scattered about the warehouse. Not bad for a night's work. Still, there were a lot of them. The activity of creatures like the Shongtal – and others – was increasing. Things were getting a little hairy in the streets of LA and I wasn't sure why. Then again, I was still relatively new to life as a Ranger, so maybe this was just part of some natural cycle. I'd have to ask Warden Quint about that.

  I hurried to catch up with Alex, who wasn't waiting for me. Together, we made our way back through the streets of Los Angeles, back to the training house.

  Chapter Two

  Alexis

  I didn't speak to him the entire walk back to the training house. What was the point? It's not like we were friends or anything. I respected him as a warrior – he was beyond skilled with a blade. He was simply, one of the best fighters I'd ever seen in the seven or eight years I'd been involved with this life.

  The trouble with Deyro was that he knew just how good he was with a sword in his hand. He knew just how gifted he was as a fighter. And it made him cocky. Arrogant. It made him do stupid things. Take ridiculous chances. He liked to showboat rather than just put the creature down and be done with it.

  It also made him dismissive of those who weren't up to his skill level – at least, up to his skill level in his own estimation. But then, Deyro was convinced nobody was up to his skill level – which is where his arrogance came from.

  He was an annoying and entirely frustrating man.

  “I could teach you, you know,” he said as we walked down the alley that led to the door of the training house. “How to flip and do some of the acrobatics. It could prove useful.”

  I shot him a look that I hoped conveyed the depth of the irritation I felt in that moment. It wasn't anything he necessarily said or did – he didn't say or do anything out of the ordinary for him. But for some reason, it was just striking me differently. It was more grating. More irritating.

  “I'm not saying you're not good,” he went on as if I were actually listening. “I'm just saying, there are some skills you don't seem to have in your arsenal that could come in handy.”

  I punched in the code for the electronic lock, opened the door to the training house and stepped inside, letting the door swing shut behind me. Deyro caught it before it closed and followed me in.

  “Why are you so pissed off, Alex? I'm only offering to help.”

  Our training house had once been a large warehouse used for storage. But instead of machinery and crates, now there were sparring mats and rings. In one corner, there was a state of the art gym, with every type of weightlifting equipment you could imagine. A second floor had been built that housed the dormitories for the fighters who'd been taken in – those with no other place to go.

  Even at nearly two in the morning, there was plenty of activity in the gym. People were sparring with one another, lifting weights, taking instruction – those of us who'd dedicated ourselves to this life took it very seriously. This life, of course, being fighting the monsters that lurked in the shadows and preyed upon humanity. We fought to defend the people of this city from those things that went bump in the night – monsters that most people had the luxury of not knowing even existed.

  “Hey,” Deyro said and put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

  Reacting without really thinking about it, I grabbed Deyro's hand and bent it backward at a sharp angle. At the same time, I spun around and drove my foot into his sternum. The power behind my kick sent him stumbling backward. His momentum carried him into the door where he hit it with a hard thud and fell onto his ass, gripping his midsection and wheezing. He looked up at me with a mixture of shock and anger on his face.

  “Don't you ever put your hands on me like that again,” I hi
ssed at him.

  “What's going on?”

  I turned and felt the heat rush into my cheeks when I saw Quint, the Warden of Los Angeles standing there, looking at us, a dark, annoyed look upon his face. I quickly cast my eyes down to the floor.

  “Look at me, Alexis,” he said, his deep voice booming.

  It was then that I noticed all activity in the gym had ceased and all eyes were focused on us, deepening the color I knew was in my face. Reluctantly, I raised my eyes and looked up at Quint. I had no idea why I had such a hard time looking him in the eye. Quint was a good man who'd been nothing but good to me. And yet, I still had difficulty meeting his gaze.

  Behind me, I heard Deyro get to his feet and step up beside me. “It was just a mis –”

  Anger flashed in Quint's eyes as he turned his gaze to the Dragonborn Ranger. “I asked Alexis,” he said. “Not you.”

  The normally brash and cocky man fell silent and lowered his own gaze. Quint was about the only person I'd met who could get that sort of reaction out of Deyro. The Warden was the only one who the cocky young Ranger showed any sort of deference to. He respected Quint, that much was obvious. If only he had half as much respect for anybody else.

  “Alexis?” Quint asked, his tone softer, yet still firm.

  I shot Deyro a withering glare but then looked quickly back at Quint. “Just a misunderstanding, sir.”

  Quint looked between us a moment, his gaze narrowing. He was a physically imposing man. Somebody who just looked – scary. But I'd seen a different side of Quint in my time with our Alliance. I'd seen how loving, how caring, and how kind he was with his girlfriend, Astrid. I'd gotten to spend a little time with Astrid and liked her enormously. And she most definitely did a lot to soften Quint's rough edges.

  “A misunderstanding?” Quint asked.