The Wolves of London Book 2: The House of Striker
Chapter 20

(Chapter song ‘Killer’ by Seal)

ZEN

I walk into the council room and a standing ovation fills the room.

I chuckle and shake my head. “Alright, smart asses. Sit down.”

I approach Zander’s throne and float my eyes around the royals as they sit back down in their own thrones.

“What? We can’t be proud of our little human?” Dorian grins as he crosses his leg and leans his elbow on the arm of his throne. He smirks behind his curled fingers.

“Ha, ha. I’m hardly little.” I smirk back as I walk to my throne.

Nathaniel definitely wasn't lying. His trick sped up my healing and here I am a week later walking without crutches.

“Well, you’re tough. A blast like that should have killed you. You humans are so cute and fragile.” Krestin grins.

I shake my head. “Thanks, lizard lips.”

He air kisses me and I bat the invisible kiss out of the air.

“Zen. I apologize for not being there when you needed me.” Quaid leans on his chair.

“That’s OK. Your beacon worked. And it didn’t explode this time.” I grin.

“Ugh! One time!” He holds up a finger to me. “One time and you won’t let me forget it.”

I pull down the neck of my shirt. “I can’t forget it.” I scowl as I show him the scar left from his idiot magic. He used a cracked crystal and the magic backfired.

“Yes. Well. We all can’t be humanly perfect.” He sneers.

I lean to him. “I know. I don’t fault you for it.” He shoves me away and I cackle.

“That must have been so frightening.” Darius exclaims.

I shrug. “Not as scary as having a harpy on the hook, but scary enough.”

Cora leans on her throne, rests her chin on her fist, and stares at me.

I glance at her, my lips fall and I double take her. “What?”

“Your travel companion?” She raises a brow.

I suck in a breath and sit back my throne. I look at my fingers and try to keep bad thoughts in check. He’s alive. I know he is. I side eye her. “Yes. He’s back.”

She sits back, crosses her arms and looks at me like my mother. “Go on.”

I feel the seat getting hotter. “That’s it. He’s back. I told him off and now he’s gone.” I fight the lump growing in my throat.

“Did he explain?” She asks.

I look down and play with my fingers. “No. I didn’t give him a chance.”

“Zen. Why?” She flops an arm down on the arm of her throne.

“Why should she?” Krestin interrupts. “The guys a douche. He doesn’t deserve to be heard.”

Cora turns to him. “Humans aren’t as harsh as dragons, Krestin. They do things wrong even if they think they’re right. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be listened to.”

“No. He’s right.” I pipe up.

She turns back to me. “Zen.”

“Cora. He left me. No contact. I don’t care what he has going on, you don’t do that. I just want to move on.” I grumble.

“I understand you’re hurt, but he may have a rational explanation if you care to listen.” She advises.

“I just…” I can’t find the right words to replace the ones I want to say.

“You still love him, Zennie.” Quaid grabs my hand and squeezes it. “You can’t deny that.”

“I can.” I glance at him and look down. “It’s not love.” I lie. “Honestly. I’m glad he’s gone.” Another lie.

“Well, I checked with the underworld, he’s not there.” Cora supplies. “So wherever he is, he’s alive. If you’re curious at all…”

“I’m not.” A wave of relief washed over me when Cora confirmed that Avery hadn’t died in the explosion. But that relief was quickly replaced with hurt at knowing he took my words seriously and left me again.

She holds a hand up. “If you are, hear him out. He wouldn’t show up and risk his life with you if it wasn’t important. You may know him, but I do, too, remember. Avery doesn’t purposely hurt people.”

“I’ll think about it.” I mumble.

“On a lighter note.” Dorian interrupts. Apparently, he needs some attention.

Usually, I call him out, but right now, if it gets the heat off me, I'll take it.

“That girl I was entertaining. I signed the papers last night and I’m am now her official sponsor. She’s apparently moving to London.” Dorian grins as he crosses his leg.

Krestin turns to him. “What happened to it just being a fling?”

“It’s still a fling. Zander needed a favor and I obliged. You have to admit, the perks are fine." He smirks.

“Are you sure that’s wise, Dorian?” Quaid questions.

“Uh… yeah! I’d be a fool to turn this down. If you’ve seen her, you’d agree.” He leans on the arm of his throne.

“Do you ever stop thinking with your genitals?” Demetri says coldly.

“Ok. Mr. As many as I can fit in the sack.” Dorian snorts.

Demetri narrows his eyes. “Lust feeding is not about sex.”

“Oh, it’s about sex. Just…bloody.” Dorian cringes.

“You wouldn’t understand. I can show you if you care to come over one night.” Demetri rubs his bottom lip as he looks Dorian over.

Dorian arches a brow. “Uh… no thanks.” He glances at the vampire a few times, then moves on. “At any rate. I’m immortal. Of course, my pants rule.” He snickers. “It’s not like there’s anything else I can do. I’ve pretty much done it all.”

“Except her.” Krestin adds.

“Precisely.” Dorian smiles and points to him.

“Ugh. Men are boorish creatures.” Cora scoffs.

“I’m not.” Darius holds his hand up and leans around Krestin.

“Present company accepted.” Cora bows her head with a smile.

“Kiss ass.” Krestin says out the side of his mouth.

Darius' lips shrink as he blinks at the Dragon.

“And you call yourself a bear.” Krestin sits smugly and Darius continues to stare at him.

“We have a huge problem!”

We all turn to the door as Zander walks in with Ricky behind him.

“Good morning, council…” Dorian begins.

Zander throws up a finger to him. “Don’t start. My sword’s still sharp.”

Dorian shrinks back and closes his mouth. The room snickers as Zander and Ricky stand side by side.

“What's going on?” Demetri asks.

“That’s a question for Krestin.” Ricky turns to the dragon.

Krestin smirks and adjusts himself in his chair. “Me… What?”

Zander leans an arm on the back of his throne. “You mind explaining why there’s a dragon terrorizing the Midwest US?”

He sits up. “Excuse me?”

“Not only that…” Ricky walks over to a monitor on the wall and turns it on. She types on the tablet in her hand and pulls up video. “It’s one of yours.”

We all watch the red dragon attack a sheep farm. It roars then pukes up lava all over the field around it.

“Disgusting.” Giovanni mutters. He’s been rather quiet this whole meeting. Usually, he’s complaining about something. He seems distracted.

“What the hell?” Krestin gets up and walks to the screen. He points to the screen and turns to us. “Uh… I left that guy at the office this morning. He’s a dork. He wouldn’t attack a farm.”

“I think you need to do a wellness check on your dork, there king. From what we see, something’s snapped upstairs and the president would like a word.” Ricky crosses her arms and raises a brow.

Krestin turns back to the paused video. “I know he wanted a raise, but to kill sheep. That’s a little aggressive, and no way to impress the boss.”

“A little?” Zander questions.

“You can fix employee morale later. Right now, we need to shut him down before he creates a real problem.” Ricky instructs.

“Dragons are already a real problem.” Demetri scoffs and Krestin squints his eyes at him.

“So… What do we do?” Cora stands and joins Ricky and Zander.

Krestin scratches his forehead. “Red and Black are equally matched. He’s not threatened by fire. To shut him down, we need to contain him and I’ll take it from there. I would rather not take this to the air. The fight could last forever.”

“Agreed.” Zander states.

“Question.” I stand and saunter over to the Supernaturals. “How in the bloody hell are we going to contain a lizard the size of a duplex?”

They all look at each other and shrug. Even Krestin was blank.

“Pardon me.” Quaid stands. “But… is that a forest I see?”

Ricky looks at the video. “Yes.”

He looks around the circle as the corner of his lip ticks up. “I think I might just have what we need.”

****

We pop out of the shadows in the woods Cora closes the tunnel and we are hit with the sounds of liquid sounding roars and gunfire.

We run to the tree line and stop.

In the middle of the field, the Dragon sits on its back legs and stretches its massive wings out. At the base, farmers and local authorities fire at him.

His stomach waves and glows orange red. The light travels up his chest and into his neck. The Dragon lands on his front legs, his head lowers, and he opens his mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. He makes a few gagging, gargling sounds and red hot magma spills from his throat and pools out across the ground. The grasses catch fire and the men run out of the way.

“God. I hate these things.” Krestin says in disgust.

“Nice.” Cora crosses her arms.

“What? That’s the equivalent of a hairball in the Dragon world. If you were a dragon you’d say the same.” He scowl as Cora just blinks blankly at him.

Zander looks over the situation, then turns to us. “Quaid. What’s the plan?”

He places his hands behind his back and looks around the trees. His red coat gently brushes the ground as he walks in a circle. “This forest is old. It’s roots go deep. I want to borrow them.” He turns to Krestin. “The mouth must remain closed, yeah?”

“Yeah. Snap him shut, he can’t puke without giving himself major heartburn and they’re complete babies when it comes to that.” Krestin informs.

“My proposal, ladies and gentlemen.” He stops. “Is to enchant the root system in this forest. We lure the beast as close as we can and the roots take it from there.” He lifts his chin and waits for questions.

“Will that work?” Zander asks Krestin.

“It’s not as good as my plan, but yeah. It should work.” He shrugs.

“What was your plan?” Cora asks.

“Kill him, take his hoard and his mate, and live happily ever after.” He shrugs.

“Dragons.” She groans and shakes her head.

“Ok. Quaid. Get moving. Zen. Get the people out. Krestin…” Zander orders.

“Kick his ass. I know.” He smirks.

“Don’t kill him.” Zander points to his nose.

“No promises.” Krestin raises his hands.

“Cora. Where’s Nathaniel?”

Cora looks up. “He should be crossing the sky… Now!” She holds the communicator in her ear and I hear chattering.

We look up and I smile when I see the daring man with black wings soar across the clouds.

“Nathaniel, we need a distraction. Care to oblige?” She puts the communicator on speaker.

‘Will do! He's… um… big.’ Nathaniel responds as he banks around and stops in front of the Dragon. His wings hover him as rhe red dragon raises his head. He tries to bite at Nathaniel and the angel swoops out of the way. ‘Easy, big guy. We just want to stop you. Be a good dragon.’

“He’s not talking to a poodle. What the hell?” Krestin groans.

“He’s an angel. What do you expect?” I side eye him.

“A little less kindergarten teacher would be nice.” He raises a brow.

“Ugh. Get going.” Cora growls and pushes him out of the trees.

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