Scientist Dragon's Assistant (Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Book 9)

by Brittany White

  “Their world?” Nora asked, echoing Ava’s own thoughts.

  “Yes,” Eli said. “Their world. We were right. They aren’t human. They’re not from this planet.”

  “Aliens?” Nora breathed.

  “Yes, aliens. They’re what’s been causing my monitoring equipment to go off.”

  Niall cursed.

  “You’re correct to be concerned,” Eli said.

  Concerned? Ava’s hands shook as she pressed them against the wall. That was an understatement.

  15

  Eli

  Eli had known they weren’t human.

  But he hadn’t been able to figure out what they wanted from him, not beyond what they’d said about investing. But once he’d arrived at the university biology lab, it had clicked.

  They wanted to know about his work to the point of obsession, and now they’d broken into a biology lab in the middle of the night.

  A sick feeling rolled in his stomach. Bile burned his throat.

  “Genetics,” he’d said, barely able to get the word out. “That’s why you came to me.” He wanted them to deny it, to tell him that he was wrong.

  But none of them denied it. “Very astute,” one of them had said.

  “You’re here to steal my work. You want human DNA to take back to your home,” he’d said in dismay.

  Then, he’d grabbed one of them, ready to choke the life out of him, but it hadn’t been as easy as he’d thought. The alien stood upright and he kept a human form, but he had not struggled to breathe as he should have.

  Eli was no fighter, not compared to some of the other shifters. But he had stood with his clan and fought the demons. But he’d had an enchanted blade for that. With these aliens, he didn’t know how to attack. He was not squeamish about fighting them; he would do whatever it took to protect Earth from them.

  Then, they’d threatened him. When that hadn’t worked, they’d had the guts to threaten Ava.

  “We understand how your kind works. Males of your kind cannot stand for their females to be harmed. We know you will give us your secrets.”

  Thank God she was safe with Nora and Niall.

  He hated to drag anyone else into this mess, but he did need backup. He would not call Nora or Niall, and it was clear to him now that Ava was his mate, and no part of him was willing to endanger her, not for any reason.

  But he couldn’t let these assholes use his work against him, or the human race either.

  He’d let go of the alien and pulled out his phone. Before he could overthink it, he texted Owen. He’d just met the guy, but shifters stuck together. Eli wouldn’t hesitate to help another shifter who was outnumbered, and he assumed Owen wouldn’t either.

  Could use your help. Dangerous situation. Galway University, biology lab.

  Before he had his phone back in his pocket, Owen replied, I’ll be there in ten.

  Then, he had been shocked when Niall and Nora burst through the doorway instead of Owen. They looked at him questioningly. “They want DNA.” His fist clenched. “But they aren’t going to get it.”

  One of them smiled. “You’re only partially correct. We want DNA. But we don’t just want human DNA, we want yours. The genetic sequencing of the dragon shifter. With your genetic code, we will be unstoppable.”

  Eli stopped breathing. “No,” he muttered. That thought had not occurred to him. With shifter DNA, whatever creature the aliens created would be stronger, faster, and more resilient than a human. A dragon shifter was taught from an early age to never harm a human, and they kept that vow throughout their lives.

  But if these aliens took their DNA, they could wipe out humans on a large scale.

  “We aren’t creating an army,” one of the aliens said. “At least not to defeat you. We plan to clone humans and then genetically alter them to be compatible with our kind. And add in a little of your DNA to keep them from ever getting sick or injured.”

  That was just as bad. They were going to harvest people.

  “We won’t let you use people that way.”

  The alien shrugged. “They won’t feel any pain.”

  “We don’t clone ourselves, and we don’t clone humans. It’s not going to happen.” Eli took a step closer to them. “We’re going to be escorting you back to your spaceship, and you’re going to leave this planet and never come back.”

  “That’s not possible,” one of them said.

  “There’s not going to be a debate about this,” Niall said. “This is my clan’s territory, and you are not welcome here.”

  One of the aliens cracked his neck to the side. “Very well. We had hoped not to do battle with you. We would really prefer you intact and unharmed, but you have left us no choice.”

  Eli glanced over at Niall, who was getting ready to shift, and at Nora, who was crouched, holding her arms out, a dagger clutched in both hands.

  He nodded at them both, and then he let the change flow over his body. He roared in a primal rage as his clothes were shredded to pieces and scales rippled down his arms.

  The aliens did not cower. Instead, one of them clapped his hands together. “Excellent! We cannot wait to claim these traits for our future generations.”

  Like hell, you will.

  Eli roared again and he leaped toward the alien, clamping his jaw around its thin arm.

  The alien screamed, a high-pitched whining sound, but it stayed upright. It raised its free hand and pushed back against Eli’s chest, emitting a high-voltage electric shock.

  Eli was fire-proof, so electricity wouldn’t kill him, but it sure as hell hurt. The electricity surged through his body, lighting up every nerve until it felt like his teeth would rattle out of his head.

  He let go of the alien and tried to come up with another plan. Next to him, Niall had two of the aliens cornered, but they were all at a standstill.

  Nora had one of them pinned against the whiteboard at the front of the room. With her arms outstretched, it seemed to be taking all of her strength to hold him in place. “I can bind him,” she shouted, “but I can’t move away from him.” She took a deep breath. “If you two can get the others over here, I can hold them.”

  Eli looked at Niall and opened his mouth. They couldn’t speak like this, but they could still think and communicate. He wondered if a little fiery heat might affect the aliens since his sharp dragon teeth weren’t enough.

  Niall nodded. He understood. They were both planning to breathe fire at the aliens. In the brief moment they’d taken to communicate, the aliens had changed their forms. They had grown bigger and stronger as well. They’d lost the look of pale, waif-like businessmen, and now looked like professional athletes, but with purple-hued skin and white eyes.

  All four of them seemed to be able to emit shocks, but Nora still had hers pinned and her magic had rendered him helpless.

  Niall and Eli both breathed fire, aiming it right at the aliens. The aliens screamed in pain, but their skin didn’t burn nor did they retreat.

  One of them jumped on Eli’s back, and he thrashed his tail, knocking the alien off. The alien hit the lab table, knocking it over. The wooden base cracked and the plumbing of the sink ripped out of the floor, spraying water.

  He watched in horror as two of them teamed up to shock Niall. The electricity was so powerful that Niall thrashed, hitting the floor.

  With her mate down, Nora nearly lost her focus. “Niall!” she yelled, turning her head away from the alien she had pinned.

  He transformed back to human, quickly scrambling to get up off the floor. “I’m fine!” he yelled back. “I’ve had much worse.”

  “Yeah, when you were brainwashed!” she shouted, but she kept her hands up and kept the alien where he was, not letting him escape. “That does not make me feel better.”

  Niall rolled his shoulders and turned back into a dragon, this time letting the full force of his fire hit the alien.

  Eli did the same, but there was still one alien at large who was able to get away from them
and attack with his electrical force.

  Distantly, Eli felt Owen arrive. He felt him get closer, and then he came crashing into the lab, still in human form. “Holy shit,” he said.

  Then, Owen stripped his shirt off and let his dragon take over. Now the fight was fair; it was one-on-one. With Owen, they were each able to breathe fire on the aliens, pushing and shoving them until they were all close to Nora.

  Once she had them near her, she was able to expand her field of magic and hold them all. “I’ve got them,” she said.

  16

  Ava

  Ava had no words to express what she felt when she watched her boss, who was, more importantly, her boyfriend, transform from a handsome man into a large dragon.

  It had happened right in front of her eyes, but she still couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

  She’d watched, horrified as the aliens had grown larger and turned purple. Then, they’d attacked Eli. She’d screamed when the electric pulse hit him, but no one had noticed. He’d fought back, pushing through the electric shocks so he could breathe fire along with Niall.

  Niall was also a dragon, apparently. And Nora wasn’t a dragon, but she was something. She had some powerful skills, maybe the most powerful out of all of them. She even glowed. She was able to trap one of the aliens and lock him in place. Once she had him, he never moved.

  As Ava had stood there gaping at them, another man came crashing through the doors of the building, wild-eyed. “Where are they?” he’d asked her, but he hadn’t waited for a response. He’d gone barreling right into the room with them, and then he’d turned into a dragon, too.

  At one point, Eli let out a deafening roar, a roar so powerful that it rattled the windows in the lab. She was surprised there was even a window left. They’d smashed up most of the lab, but now the fight had wound down.

  She stared straight ahead, speechless as the three dragons nudged and shoved the remaining aliens closer to Nora, who scooped them all into her spell.

  Once she had them secured, she reassured the dragons that she had it under control. One by one, they shifted back, pulling on the remnants of their clothes. Both Niall and Eli had extra pants, but Owen didn’t. He tied a lab apron around his waist unselfconsciously, though, and he moved to stand with the other two men.

  One of the aliens sneered. “You may have us for the moment, but no one knows you’re here. I’ll get free, and we’ll kill you all. It will be written up as an unfortunate lab accident.”

  She wasn’t going to stay in the hallway any longer. She couldn’t fight them, but maybe she could help now. She walked into the room, holding her head high. She wasn’t going to let herself be intimidated for being the only human in the room.

  “Ava!” Eli shouted. He started to rush toward her, but she shook her head. He needed to keep his attention on the aliens.

  “You’re wrong,” she said to the alien who’d spoken. “I know they’re here, and I’ve just called the Garda. They’ll be here soon, and if you still look like that,” she gestured to their purple skin and white eyes, “then you’ll be exposed.” She held up her phone. “I don’t think you want that. Our earth governments are notorious for looking for alien life forms to experiment on.” She hadn’t actually called the police, but they didn’t know that.

  One of the aliens bared its teeth, but it was unable to escape. Over the next few minutes, all four of the aliens shrank back to their previous sizes.

  She came to stand beside Eli, and he quickly wrapped his arm around her.

  Then, he spoke to the aliens again. “We’re part of a large group of supernatural creatures that live all over the world.”

  That was also news to Ava, but she wasn’t going to interrupt.

  “We have some heavy hitters in our group with the capacity to destroy your ship. Then, you’d be stuck here and we’d turn you over to our military.” He scowled. “And they aren’t nearly as patient as we are.”

  “What do you want from us?” the alien asked.

  “You’re going to leave and never come back. You’re going to abandon any ideas you have about cloning living beings and using them for your own purposes,” Niall said.

  Eli chimed in. “And I’ve tracked your ship to the Arctic Circle. I know where you’re located, the exact coordinates. So, we’ll escort you back there, and you’ll leave. No tricks,” Eli said. “Or we call our witches and wizards in to lay waste to your ship. And then we’ll kill you.”

  “No tricks,” the aliens agreed.

  “Good,” Eli said. “We’re all going to walk to my car now.”

  Niall and Owen stepped up. “We’ll come with you.”

  “Nora, would you stay with Ava?”

  “Of course,” Nora said. “But you don’t want me to keep this hold on them until they’re on their ship?”

  “No, but I do want you to enchant a few weapons for us. That will be enough to get us there.”

  “I can do that,” she said. “We have access to one of Kellan’s jets if you’d like to use it.”

  “I can fly you there,” Owen said.

  Eli glared at the aliens. “Perfect. The fewer humans we involve, the better.”

  Ava had no idea what they were talking about. She didn’t know who Kellan was, and she didn’t know who this new guy was who’d just offered to fly them. She’d thought she knew Eli, but maybe she hadn’t known him at all.

  They waited in the lab for Nora to enchant three large knives for them to take, and then they all escorted the aliens out to Niall’s SUV.

  When Eli got to the car, he pulled Ava into his arms and kissed her forehead. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I owe you an explanation.” He looked into her eyes. “Can you forgive me?”

  She could forgive him, but she didn’t know if she could get over all the things he’d kept from her. That was a pretty big ask. “I do forgive you.” She kissed him right on the lips.

  She wasn’t going to send him off with these four lethal aliens without letting him know she still cared about him. As to whether they had a future…she had no idea. “We’ll talk when you get back.”

  Once the guys were gone and the aliens, too, she stared at Nora. “Should we go in and clean up?”

  “No, I’ve already called some close friends and they’re going to come handle it.”

  “Friends? Those are good friends to help you clean up a busted lab. Are they like you? Or like Eli?”

  “Davi and Carolina are more like family, and yes, they’re like Eli. They’re called dragon shifters.”

  Dragon shifters. That was a new one for her. “And you’re not a dragon shifter.”

  “No, I’m a witch.”

  A witch. Ava had to actually close her mouth with her hand. She’d never thought of herself as particularly naive, but at that moment, she felt like a child.

  “Come on.” Nora put her arm around Ava. “Why don’t we go back to my house?”

  “Did Eli ask you to take care of me? Is that why we’re not cleaning up?”

  Something passed over Nora’s face. “Eli didn’t have to ask me. I know how he feels because Niall would feel the same way if it were me. And I just spent forty-five minutes using my magic on a very unpleasant task, so I’m ready to get back home, too.”

  “Oh. Right. You must be exhausted.” Nora had expended a lot of energy, and her husband had been in danger, too. Ava had stood there and watched, and she felt beyond drained just from that. A thought occurred to Ava. Nora and Niall had an adorable baby who was around one. “Oh my God. Your baby. Where is he?”

  “The friends I mentioned live close by. They came over to be with him. They’ll leave as soon as we pull in. And I am exhausted,” Nora said. “Do you mind driving?”

  “Not at all.” She put her hand on Nora’s arm. “I’m sorry I took your car without asking.” And she felt guilty that she’d pulled this sweet couple away from their young child only to rope them into a deadly confrontation.

  Nora smiled over at Ava. She was so cal
m. “It’s okay. I don’t care much for driving anyway. And you were worried about Eli. I understand that.”

  Nora was right about that. “Have you done that before? Fought aliens?”

  “Aliens? No, I didn’t know they existed.” She looked down at her hands. “But I’ve fought before. Many times,” she said quietly.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up a painful memory.”

  “It’s always on my mind. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She collapsed her hands together. “It’s always been with me.”

  “Eli’s never mentioned anything like that.”

  “I think that his life has been very different from mine.” Ava took a second to glance at her. Nora’s eyes glittered in the dark. “I’m glad it has, though.”

  Ava got the hint—Nora didn’t want to talk about it. That was understandable. They’d only just met.

  “Do you love him?” Nora asked.

  “Yes, I do.” Ava hadn’t told Eli that yet, of course. They’d barely begun to date.

  How could she love him? He was everything she’d ever wanted. Except this—the dragon. This was something she’d never accounted for.

  “And how do you feel about the part where he’s a dragon shifter?”

  “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet at all.” She rubbed her face with one hand. “I’m a scientist. And yet I know what I saw from all of you.” She put both hands back on the wheel and held on tight. “It just doesn’t seem possible.”

  “I don’t have any advice. I can’t imagine not knowing,” Nora said. “My mother was a witch, too. Everyone I knew was a witch. I don’t have any idea what it’s like to be normal.”

  “You seem normal enough.”

  Nora huffed. “I could never be. The coven I grew up in was cruel and power-hungry. My mother was responsible for the death of nearly every member of Niall’s clan.”

  Ava couldn’t hide her shocked gasp.

  Nora held up one hand. “See? I have that with me all the time.”

  “I’m sorry.”