Dragon Born 1: The Shifter's Hoard

by Dante King

  More bullets split the night. Each fired with unerring accuracy, taking a mage in the back of the neck or through the chest. More black-clad figures slumped to the pavement, bleeding from fatal wounds.

  The few mages left standing finally realized how outclassed they were. The remaining attackers booked it into the night, literally running for their lives beneath an onslaught of bullets. I watched one figure manage to cast some sort of glowing wall behind them, a magical aura that blocked the last few shots coming from the balcony.

  The mages disappeared around the corner, their footfalls fading out.

  We’d won—without firing a single shot.

  Someone else had done the work for us.

  Who?

  I should have known the moment the mage told me Mom’s energy signal was all over the condo. As it was, I didn’t realize what had happened until a flash of movement on the balcony caught my eye.

  My mother lay slumped against the balcony’s bars, her nightgown wrapped around her like a blanket.

  “Derek!” she panted, sounding like her lungs had been burnt from the inside out. “Soojin!”

  “Oh shit,” Soojin groaned, taking off for the condo entrance at a dead run. Mom doubled over in a coughing fit as I went for her, ignoring the blood and brain matter covering the pavement. Someone would deal with the bodies later—and if the police found them, they’d probably assume from the way the deceased were dressed that some witchcraft freaks had killed each other over a ritual.

  By the time I made it back upstairs to the condo, Soojin had already managed to drag Mom back into the living room. Despite the fact that she looked like death warmed over, a faint smile spread across Mom’s face at the sight of the three of us.

  “I’ve been asking you for so long… to bring a nice girl over…” Mom wheezed, a trickle of blood oozing from the side of her mouth. “And now you bring me two?”

  “Don’t talk,” Soojin warned, cradling Mom in her lap. The apothecary sat cross-legged on the floor, and reached into the pouch at her side for the medicine I’d given her. “Spirits, Raya—you should have sent that boy to me a week ago. I had no idea you let your sickness get this bad…”

  My heart dropped into my stomach. Did Soojin know something about this sickness that I didn’t?

  “It wasn’t… this bad…” Mom whispered, allowing Soojin to sprinkle some of the medicine on a spoon and ease it into her mouth. “Managed to hide from those wolves. Saving you three… took it out of me…”

  “We could have handled ourselves,” Soojin protested—but I could see from the look on her face she was glad Mom had intervened when she did.

  Wait a second. My Mom—my mother, the woman who raised me—had conjured guns out of thin air. She’d killed nearly a half-dozen mages to protect us. Without blinking.

  Which meant she’d done this before. A lot.

  Mom’s gaze turned to me. Her brows furrowed together in pain, but the look on her face as she spoke to me was anything but. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her this proud—probably when I’d managed to bring home straight A’s my senior year of highschool.

  “I saw you save these two from the wolves,” Mom whispered huskily. “Thank you for keeping Soojin safe. All these years, and she still doesn’t know how to keep herself out of trouble…”

  Mom broke off in a laugh, which turned into another one of those awful coughing fits.

  “You hush now,” Soojin said, sounding like a doctor joking with a patient. “Of course you would raise a boy who can turn into a dragon, Raya. You always were an overachiever.”

  “Look, I love that you’re all getting caught up,” Carli snapped, peering through the curtains of the balcony. “But can we please get the fuck back to my hideout before something even worse shows up? Third time’s the charm, you know.”

  “Agreed,” Soojin said gravely. “That shootout’s going to stir up trouble. We need to clear out before it gets here. Even if it only triggers the civilian authorities—”

  “The normies,” Carli said, shutting the curtain.

  Soojin rolled her eyes. “That’s still a lot of explaining we’ll have to do. Raya, I don’t know that you’re well enough to travel, but we don’t have any choice.”

  “I’ll be fine,” my mother assured her. But then again, Raya would have said that even if both her legs were broken. She was just that kind of woman. “I’m feeling better already. I might dance my way out of here—”

  She tried to rise to her feet, but she fell to the carpet. I caught her just before she landed, propping her up against my shoulder.

  “I’ve got you, Mom,” I told her, meaning it. “Listen to Soojin, okay? You’re not well right now. We’re going to get you somewhere safe.”

  Mom gave me a strange look. “Oh, hush up, young man,” she said, beginning to laugh. “When did you become such an adult all of a sudden?”

  “Since your life was in danger,” I said, in no mood for jokes.

  Soojin gave Mom a serious look. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” the apothecary said. “You ought to listen to him.”

  I was listening—but inwardly, I cringed. Had Soojin put just a touch more emphasis on the word head, like she wanted to remind me of what happened in the shower? I wouldn’t put it past her, even with everything else that was going on.

  Calm the fuck down, Derek, I told myself. You’re just hearing things. You horny bastard…

  Carli swooped in, throwing Mom’s other arm over her shoulder. “I’ll help you out,” the shifter said, giving Raya a little nod. “I’m Carli Weber, by the way, Miss. Friend of your son’s—and a friend of Soojin’s, too.”

  Mom nodded as if she’d expected all this. “Please, call me Raya. I insist. Are we going back to your place, Carli?”

  Carli nodded. “I’ve got a hideout in the warehouse district. We should be safe there. And Soojin can brew you up another dose of that medicine, since you don’t really look like you should be walking around unassisted just yet.”

  Mom looked like she wanted to protest again, but another one of those hacking coughing fits wracked her body. When she turned away, I couldn’t help but notice that she’d coughed small droplets of blood all over the condo wall.

  Shit, I thought. This is serious…

  No mages waited to ambush us in the parking lot. Carli and I loaded Mom into the backseat, then I climbed in with her to make sure she stayed safe. Soojin took the other side, a spoon and the packet of medicine at the ready, while Carli drove. The apothecary didn’t look terribly happy to be handing someone else the keys, but under the circumstances, she didn’t have much choice.

  “Drive carefully,” Soojin said from the backseat. She spooned another mouthful of green herbs into Mom’s mouth, watching as she swallowed it. “I’m still making payments on this car. If my premiums go up because of you, we’re going to have words…”

  “I’ll take good care of it,” Carli assured us, watching Mom from the rearview mirror. Her color had improved a bit, but she looked far from being out of the woods. “You just relax back there, Raya. We’ll have you somewhere nice and safe soon.”

  Mom didn’t look interested in being either nice or safe. She lifted her head weakly, her gaze traveling over my body as a realization set in.

  “You’re a mage,” Mom whispered, chuckling a bit.

  “And a shifter, too,” Soojin added, readying another spoonful of the medicinal mixture. “You must be one proud parent, Raya.”

  Mom smiled faintly and nodded. “I am. Proud, yes. But…”

  Her expression was shot through with worry.

  “But also terrified,” Mom whispered, taking hold of my hand. “This is bad for you, Derek. Very, very dangerous…”

  Tell me about it, I thought, remembering the way that wolf shifter’s rib cage had buckled inward like a collapsing bridge.

  How the fuck could I ever go back to having a normal life after a thing like that?

  The mage’s smug little wh
isper echoed in my skull: you don’t.

  I clutched Mom’s hand tighter as Carli drove us out of the parking lot. That much, at least, I could count on.

  Chapter 11

  “Alright,” Carli said, pushing a few buttons on her console. “Doors are locked, the security system is on, and Soojin’s car is parked four blocks away in the back of the Target parking lot. That’s about as safe as we’re going to get for now.”

  Despite all of Carli’s precautions, I didn’t feel particularly safe or sound. The whole way back to the hideout, my attention had been divided between Mom’s raggedy coughing and the back window of the sedan, watching for any sign of more mages or shifters traveling through the night. According to Soojin, we’d kicked up one hell of a hornet’s nest back at the condo, and as much as I wanted to believe the battle was over for now, part of me was still on edge.

  A big part, as it turned out.

  I was still thinking about the danger when I felt Carli’s hand on mine.

  “She’s going to be okay,” the Raiju shifter purred, batting her eyelashes up at me. “Soojin’s one of the best healers I know, Derek. Don’t let the customer service smile fool you—she’s a shark when it comes to the field of medicine. Your Mom is in the best hands she could possibly be in.”

  Carli didn’t know the half of it. But she was trying to be nice, and I appreciated it.

  “Thanks,” I said, glancing at the console behind her. It showed a half-dozen security cameras, some of which had been watching us as we’d made our way into the warehouse for the first time. I hadn’t even noticed they were there—they’d been that carefully concealed.

  “Any time,” the shifter said, turning away and unbuttoning her top. “How about a fucking drink, Derek?”

  Worry still shot through me. As soon as we’d arrived, Soojin took Mom to a back room near the edge of the furnished section of the hideout. Something about the air in the caves not being the best for Mom, and her needing to be in a cool, dry space for the medicine to work. It meant Mom wouldn’t be bunking down anywhere near the rest of us—not until she was better, in any case.

  It felt wrong to celebrate while Soojin was still working on Mom. But Carli had already moved into the kitchen, bending over as she fished in the mini-fridge for two beers. Her skirt slid up her thighs, exposing her black garter belt and panties as she fished out the drinks and cracked them open between her teeth.

  “Shit, that was close,” Carli purred, handing me a drink. “You never really think about that until you’re back home safe and sound, you know?”

  I knew. It still seemed impossible what we’d gone through—first the wolf shifters, then the mages. If Mom hadn’t intervened when she had, would the three of us have been able to fight off those mages by ourselves? I didn’t want to think about it.

  “Now, I know you must have about a billion questions,” Carli said, gesturing toward her leather couch. “Have a seat, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Once Sooj comes back, you can ask her any mage-specific stuff you want to know—she understands that stuff better than I do.”

  I plopped down heavily and stared at the spot between my feet. I took a long draw from the bottle, feeling the cold beer work its way down my throat. The slight buzz felt good; I wanted more of it.

  “This is all just a lot to take in,” I said, meeting Carli’s eye. “Mages, shifters, it’s all crazy. Yesterday, I had no idea any of these things existed.” My fingers traveled to my lips. “I can’t believe I ate a piece of paper in front of all of you!”

  Carli laughed, leaning back against the cushions. Unlike me, she looked perfectly at ease, as if she’d been living a life of danger for years now. Given the kind of work she did, that just might have been true.

  “It wasn’t just a ‘piece of paper’,” she teased, pursing her lips. “It was a scroll. And I was just as shocked as you were, because I had no idea you were a mage on top of everything else. That’s super, duper rare, Derek.”

  I was starting to understand that. “I can’t believe people get stronger by eating pieces of paper, though. Could you really write something on a receipt, have me choke the thing down, and use it to get stronger?”

  “What—like my number?” Carli asked, waggling her eyebrows. “It doesn’t work that way, Derek. You need to use a very specific kind of paper—”

  “Kept by the Spellscribes.”

  Both of us turned to the back of the room. Soojin closed the door behind her, bumping it with her rear as she brushed back her long, dark hair. “The scrolls are written by monks known as Spellscribes, who live in secret monasteries known only to the mage elite. It’s a point of contention among the mages themselves, believe it or not. Pretty much everything is.” She let out an audible sigh, the lines on her face smoothing with relief. “Raya is resting comfortably, Derek.”

  That same relief flooded my bloodstream at her words.

  “That’s great,” I said, springing from the couch and taking her hands in mine. “Is she going to be okay? That was a lot of blood coming out of her mouth…”

  “It was,” Soojin said, paling noticeably. “I’ll need to go back there in a few minutes, and spend most of the night by her side. But she should make a full recovery. It will, however, take time. Not to mention a little food and tea.”

  Her last line was a joke, only it took us a few moments to realize it.

  “Take whatever you need,” Carli said, rising from the couch to join us. “Can I make you something?”

  “I’m perfectly fine on my own,” Soojin said, her hips swaying as she walked into the kitchen. “I wouldn’t mind a little help locating the proper instruments, though.”

  As the two women busied themselves in the kitchen, I set about asking Soojin more questions. “What’s wrong with Mom? How long do you think it’ll be before she’s up and walking again?”

  “I should know more soon,” Soojin explained, smiling through her weariness. “I’m gearing up to perform an operation on your Mother—nothing serious, you understand. Just some old apothecary’s rituals. It should help bring her healing about faster.”

  “We appreciate it,” Carli said. “Really, we do.”

  I wanted to ask more about Mom’s illness, but Soojin cut me off with a smile.

  “I believe you were asking about Spellscribes,” the apothecary said, grinding tea leaves together in a way that instantly made me think of her making medicine at her shop. “And how they give mages their power?”

  “I’m not really all that interested in that,” I said, shaking my head. I wanted to ask more about Mom.

  “Really?” Soojin looked surprised. “It’s of practical importance, considering you have the gift of magic.”

  I caught myself. “Go right ahead,” I said, wiping my forehead. “Sorry. I’m a little out of it…”

  “We all are,” Soojin agreed with an indulgent smile. “Unlike shifters, who learn how to control their powers via their clan—or by themselves, in the event of a legendary shifter like our Carli—Mages operate in a strictly top-down command chain. The sacred sect of mages known as the Spellscribes are the only ones capable of writing the scrolls that give mages their power—which means that at the elite level, Mages control the means of production. No one knows where the Spellscribes operate—most people assume they’re tucked away on another plane of existence, toiling away endlessly for the good of magekind.”

  “If you’re thinking that sounds like the shittiest job in the universe,” Carli said with wry humor, “you’d be right. Half the reason shifters dislike mages is because of shit like that. We’re about freedom and family—not rigid control. If we needed an elite group of shifters to give us our powers, we’d at least make sure they got to go on vacation and got laid every now and then!”

  I wasn’t so sure about that. Those wolf shifters might have been a family of a sort, but they were no family I’d have wanted to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with.

  Soojin didn’t rise to Carli’s jibe. In fact, she l
ooked like she was thinking about something else entirely. A faint frown spread across her face as she continued. “There’s been rumors lately about a schism from within the Spellscribes, actually. Even in K-Town, which is about as far from the center of mage power as it’s possible to be, gossip spreads. Thicker than flies.” Soojin crossed her arms beneath her breasts as the water began to boil. “I wonder if that has anything to do with the current unrest.”

  I’d been thinking that from almost the beginning of her lecture. “It seems like a pretty big security hole,” I admitted. “Why wouldn’t someone just capture one of these ‘Spellscribes’ and put them to work pumping out magical edibles for the whole population? Or writing super-powerful spells for one particular mage so they could take everyone else out?”

  Soojin looked offended. “That would never happen,” she said firmly. “Spellscribes are treated with the utmost respect.”

  Geez, I thought. How could a woman so clever in other matters be this naive?

  I could picture a dozen ways Spellscribes could be perverted to some wicked mage’s corruptive ends. When it comes right down to it, people are hungry for money and power. Anything that can give them the advantage over others is something they’ll take—and the whole time, they’ll justify it by saying someone else would do it if they didn’t.

  “Even by shifters?” I asked, thinking about those wolves tearing up Mom’s condo.

  “They don’t go against the decrees,” Soojin said quickly. Too quickly. “The truce between mages and shifters—”

  “It seems to me, all you’d need to do is take out these monks,” I said, trying to seize the thread of the discussion. “No magic paper means no more mages—which means that eventually, shifters would win out for good. Since shifters don’t need anything to gain access to their powers other than to be born a shifter, right?”

  Carli shifted in her seat. “It’s a little more complicated than that,” the shifter admitted. “But yes. And despite what Soojin says about mutual respect and admiration, most shifters would take that bargain in a heartbeat to remove the threat of mages off their back once and for all.”