Dragon Born 1: The Shifter's Hoard

by Dante King

  “Are you trying to kill me?” I roared, much louder than I’d intended.

  Carli shrank back in shock from the ferocity in my voice, her red eyes widening like saucers. “I’m just trying to shock your body out of its ordinary frame! The tube is a device that delivers charged pulses of preternatural energy to a potential shifter—”

  Her words rolled off me, incomprehensible.

  I should have calmed down and listened to her, but adrenaline was still pumping through my veins.

  Every fiber of my body screamed get out of here.

  “The thing failed,” I said. “I really wanted it to work, but it’s obvious I have about as much magical ability as a plank of wood.”

  I made it halfway back to the stairs when Carli’s voice followed me.

  “Where do you think you’re going, Derek?”

  “Hunters or no hunters, I’m getting this medicine to my Mom, then I’m going to lay down and pretend none of this ever happened—”

  “Derek.” Something in Carli’s voice had changed.

  I turned around. Carli hit me with her most seductive weapon—her piercing, beautiful gaze. She stared deeply into my eyes, a strange and unidentifiable emotion burning in them.

  “Take off your jacket,” she said.

  I snorted. “Look, you’re hotter than hell,” I said. “I think we both know that. Under different circumstances, I’d absolutely be interested—”

  Carli giggled and shook her head. “No, Derek. Take off your jacket and look.”

  Huh? Look at what? With a shrug, I slipped one arm out from the black leather.

  My eyes nearly fell out of the back of my head.

  Underneath the jacket I wore a simple black T-shirt with the logo of one of my favorite heavy metal bands on it. What should have been beneath the sleeve was nothing but my bare arm, pale and covered in freckles.

  Instead, my arm was covered in thick red scales, going right up under the sleeve.

  Carli was right.

  I was a shifter.

  Chapter 6

  “Interesting,” Carli said, running a hand down my arm. “It looks like you don’t have access to all your Anatomical Forms—just your scales. But those are enough, my man. You passed the test.”

  A wave of dizziness washed over me. I stared at my arm, the unfamiliar sight of scales searing itself into my brain. This had to be some kind of trick. It couldn’t be real.

  Scales? Like some kind of lizard?

  “I wasn’t even aware I was being tested,” I muttered, swaying on my feet.

  Carli steadied me with her shoulder, all too aware that I might be a little unsteady after a revelation like that.

  “What the fuck…?” I groaned.

  “Here, here—come sit.” Carli deftly guided me back to her living quarters and helped me onto a couch that looked like it had come from a thrift store.

  Everything in her hideout looked chosen to be inconspicuous and comfortable, rather than luxurious—the place could have been my first dorm at college. I sank into the cushions, feeling more than a little light-headed.

  Carli left, then came back with a pair of ice-cold beers.

  “Mini fridge,” she explained, handing one to me. “If I had some snacks, I’d give them to you. Your blood sugar is probably going haywire, since this is the first time you’ve transformed like this.”

  I took a sip of the beer. It was a bottom-shelf brand, but I’d never been a choosy drinker, and it tasted fucking amazing right now.

  “Listen, Carli,” I said after I swallowed. “This is all really, really crazy. I’m having a hard time accepting everything as it is. Anatomical Forms? Shifters?”

  Carli took a big swig of her own drink, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “I know just what you mean,” she said, a glint of mirth in her eye. “I was the same as you, you know.”

  “The same? How?”

  Carli scooted closer, our thighs touching. Even through the dizziness and panic of my transformation, I couldn’t help but be keenly aware of how good being skin-on-skin with the beautiful shifter felt.

  “I didn’t have anyone to help walk me through this stuff when I first started to shift,” Carli explained. “Us legendary creatures, we don’t come from shifter clans like the people who turn into wolves or bears or lions do.”

  That piqued my interest. “There are shifter clans?”

  Carli looked a little peeved to be interrupted, but she nodded. “Yep. But people like you and me? We would’ve been normies if it weren’t for the Gods. Or magic, destiny, or some science we don’t understand yet.”

  “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” I blurted without thinking.

  Carli blinked. “Arthur C. Clarke,” she said, sounding pleased. “Nerd.”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  “The point is, we were chosen. Maybe chosen at random, sure. But we didn’t grow up with these powers. They just manifested one day. Giving us the ability to inherit the mantle of shifter.”

  I tried to imagine the first time Carli had grown cat ears and a tail. It must have been a terrible shock.

  “That’s crazy,” I said. “So you used to be a ‘normie’ after all, Carli?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe. Never in my heart of hearts, though. I’m a Raiju shifter—and you, Derek, appear to have been chosen by the Dragon. That’s a hell of a powerful form to have at your disposal.”

  I looked down at my arms. Part of me still recoiled at the sight of the red scales where my skin used to be. But Carli’s words touched something deep inside of me, too.

  “The Dragon,” I whispered, flexing my fingers into a fist. “You’re saying I can transform, like you can.”

  Carli nodded. “Yep. Wanna see what you’re capable of?”

  Suddenly I really, really did.

  “It doesn’t involve getting back in the tube, does it?” I asked with a sideways glance at the machinery. A faint mist still drifted from the open glass door.

  Carli’s merry laughter echoed off the cavern walls. “No, Derek. No more prodding and shocking. That sort of thing can activate your powers whether you want them to get turned on or not—which is useful for determining whether you actually are a shifter, but not for giving you control over your powers. Trust me, it took a long-ass time before I had full control over my Raiju form, and I still have a few more Anatomical Forms to acquire just yet.”

  My eyes widened. I could lose control? I tried to picture myself getting cut off in traffic, giving a guy the finger only for it to turn into a massive dragon’s claw. What kind of things might I be capable of when I got pissed off?

  I definitely needed to be able to control my shifter powers. Until I could, I was a danger to myself and those around me.

  And Carli had to face this completely alone, I thought.

  I was really, really glad she was there—and not just because she was so hot.

  Carli could see my worried look. “Don’t worry—until you get more control over yourself, it’s unlikely that you’ll go full Dragon mode in front of a bunch of normies. For most shifters, it’s a struggle to make your animal form appear, not to make it go away.”

  That made me feel a little bit better. “Good.”

  Carli downed the rest of her beer and tossed the empty bottle across the room. It flew with unerring accuracy, hitting the back rim of a nearby trash can and dropping in like the bottle had slammed against the backboard of a basketball hoop.

  “Whoop!” she cried, grinning from ear to ear. “Alright. Let’s give this a try.”

  I was tempted to make my own throw, but before I could, Carli turned to the side and put her hands over mine. This put them in my lap, where I’d become painfully aware of how close to me this beautiful part-cat, part-woman was sitting. I felt a strong urge to cross one leg over the other and resisted it.

  “You got the scales,” Carli whispered happily. “That’s a start. Let’s see how much of the D
ragon you can summon, Derek. Squeeze my hands and concentrate.”

  She wants me to Enter the Dragon? I thought, closing my eyes. Well, I’m not Bruce Lee, but I have seen a lot of kung fu movies…

  “Keep your eyes closed,” Carli teased, her fingers sliding up to my wrists before coming back again. “And don’t even think about copping a feel.”

  “Yeah, only you get to do that,” I said wryly. “My eyes are closed, Carli. What’s next?”

  Slowly, she guided me through the forms. It all sounded like a lot of mumbo-jumbo to me—‘opening yourself to the Beast within’, that sort of thing. Mostly it involved clenching my muscles in turn and thinking of dragons, which I was more than happy to do but didn’t feel particularly useful.

  “This isn’t doing anything,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m just wasting time—”

  Wait a second.

  Why did my head feel so heavy all of a sudden?

  I opened my eyes to Carli’s laughter, though the shifter’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “Holy shit, Derek—you should see yourself! Isn’t doing anything my ass!”

  I didn’t see a mirror anywhere in Carli’s lair, so I turned to the great glass tube and tried to see my reflection in it.

  Instantly, I realized I no longer looked human.

  My round, average-looking face now had a distinctly reptilian cast. My nose and chin had lengthened like a snout, and scales covered every part of my face and head save for around my eyes and mouth.

  Most disturbing of all were the great curved horns sticking out of either side of my head.

  “What—how did I do that?”

  My fingers grazed my cheek. I felt scale on scale—with a start, I realized my hands had changed as well.

  My palms and the backs of my hands were covered in those same red scales, and my fingers had one more knuckle than was normal.

  My fingernails had lengthened to glossy black claws, as sharp as straight razors.

  “Hmm,” Carli said, sizing me up. “No wings, no tail. Not that I expected much else from a normie giving it his first try.”

  “Wings!?” I blurted. “A tail!?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Carli snorted, rolling her eyes. “You’re a Dragon shifter, Derek. Once you get your powers under control, you ought to be able to transform into a dragon.”

  The very idea of it shocked me to my core. There were about a thousand questions I could have asked Carli in that moment, but only one occurred to me.

  “Will I be able to fly?”

  “Oh, definitely,” Carli said with a wink. “I’m looking forward to riding you.”

  Ignoring the obvious double entendre in that statement, I turned back to the glass tube.

  “This is really freaking me out,” I admitted, holding my hands up in front of my face. They shook slightly.

  “Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Carli gripped my shoulders, then hugged me from behind. She was right—having her right there made it a little bit more okay. “Alright, let’s get you back in your normie form for now, Derek. We can practice the full Dragon shift later, once you pick up a couple of the Anatomical Forms.”

  I wanted to ask Carli what those were, but at that moment, I wanted to get back into my normal human body even more.

  My hands gripped Carli’s as she had me close my eyes and push away the Dragon form, filling my mind’s eye with the image of myself as an ordinary human guy.

  When I opened my eyes, I was Derek again. A quick glance at the glass tube confirmed it.

  “What’s an Anatomical Form?” I asked, rubbing my now all too human cheek. The transformation had even cleaned up my stubble—the five o’ clock shadow I’d been sporting ever since heading out to pick up Mom’s medicine was now gone, and my cheeks were nice and smooth.

  Carli was happy to explain.

  “It’s a type of Shifter form you get once you gain access to a powerful magic called a Sigil,” she said, settling back on the couch. I could have used another beer after that shock, but I wasn’t about to ask for it. “If we were in a clan, they’d bestow them upon us one by one, as part of your rites of passage upon becoming an adult in the group. ‘With great power comes great responsibility’, that kind of thing.”

  “Yeah, I saw Spider-Man too,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “So I guess as legendary shifters, we have to fend for ourselves? That seems a little unfair.”

  “It is what it is,” Carli explained with a shrug. “There are a few ways to fast track the process, though. One of which you’ve just happened to luck into by running into me!”

  My confused look met her grin. Why did I just feel like I’d been handed a jack in the box and asked to turn the crank until it exploded in my face?

  “What’s that?” I finally asked.

  “Uniting with another Legendary shifter,” Carli said thickly, wiggling her eyebrows in a way as suggestive as it was silly. “Care for another drink, Derek?”

  Unite?

  Holy shit. Did that mean what I think it meant?

  Clearly Carli wasn’t talking about clapping our hands together and doing the Fusion Dance from Dragon Ball Z. This was the kind of ‘uniting’ they talked about in the Bible—the ‘becoming one flesh’ kind.

  Carli rose from the couch and moved back into the kitchenette, humming to herself as she grabbed another pair of drinks. She leaned down super low to rummage around in the mini-fridge, causing her skirt to ride up even further than usual across her smooth thighs and curvy ass. I caught a flash of the black panties Carli had put my hands on back on the bus, and I had to stifle a groan.

  This woman wanted me. Sure, maybe she wanted me solely to increase her own power. But hell, I’d take it. I didn’t mind getting ‘used’ a little bit if it meant hopping into bed with a hottie like Carli.

  I still had to ask.

  “So all that about how cute I am, and putting my hand between your legs on public transport—all that was about power, huh?” I grabbed the beer from Carli and took a sip.

  Two was usually my limit before I started to feel the effects of the alcohol, and I wanted to be mostly sober for what was coming next.

  Drunk sex was fun for a one-night stand, but there was no way I wanted what Carli wanted from me to only happen once.

  The shifter gave me a strange look.

  “What, you fishing for a compliment?” she purred, plopping down next to me on the couch. “You are cute, Derek. So yeah, I’m thinking about Anatomical Forms when I look at you—but I’m also thinking about your Anatomical Form, if you catch my drift.” She grinned from ear to ear and leaned back on the couch. “What do you think of mine?”

  “Your what?” I asked, suddenly struck dumb by the sight of her preening.

  God damn, this girl was gorgeous.

  “My figure,” Carli panted. “My body. Don’t fucking lie to me, Derek. You want this kitty—even before you knew I was a kitty.”

  “Are all shifters as shameless as you?” I asked, running my hands up her thighs. I wanted to see her in nothing but that garter belt and panties—then I wanted to see her in nothing at all.

  “Nope,” Carli said, shaking her head with a giggle. “You hit the jackpot with me, stud.”

  Yeah I did, I thought, pulling her to me. I really, really did—

  An alarm began to sound somewhere in the cave.

  “Damn it!” Carli snapped to attention immediately, leaping out of my arms and pacing across the room. “Hold that thought, Derek. It’s probably just a bat—damn things get in from the surface all the time. These caves cut underneath most of the city…”

  One of the consoles in Carli’s hideout beeped frantically in time with the alarm.

  Leaning over, I saw the words INTRUDER DETECTED flashing across the screen. That could have meant a bat or some other creature making its way through the caves—but it also could mean trouble.

  “This shit always happens when I’m about to get laid,” Carli muttered, slamming a fist against the side of the console. “Come on, yo
u stupid thing! Where’s the intruder…”

  The door to the hideout slid open.

  “Uh, Carli?” I pointed toward the square of light next to the stairs. “I’ve found the intruder.”

  The shifter whirled around, reaching for her gun. “Shit! We were followed?”

  A figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted against the harsh light of the stairs. They took a step forward into the apartment, revealing themselves with a smirk.

  We had been followed into Carli’s hideout. But it wasn’t someone from hunterwave, or a friend of the troll looking for revenge. Nothing like that.

  It was Soojin.

  Chapter 7

  “Carli Weber,” Soojin said, striding into the hideout as the door closed behind her. “I heard you were entertaining a handsome stranger tonight.”

  The proprietress of the Dragon’s Hoard Apothecary Shop couldn’t have looked more different than the last time I’d seen her. Back in her store, she’d been relaxed, dressed in a casual uniform and more focused on listening to her radio than watching out for customers.

  This woman, on the other hand, was like a freaking ninja.

  She wore a form-fitting navy blue robe with what looked like black yoga pants beneath. Knee-high boots hugged her legs like a second skin. Soojin looked comfortable, but also like she could scrap if it was absolutely necessary. The knobby staff strapped between her shoulder blades amplified the impression.

  “Soojin!” The corner of Carli’s mouth curled in a smile. “Who, this? Derek’s not a stranger! Though I was definitely looking to get a little strange before you showed up…”

  If such a bold declaration shocked her, Soojin didn’t show it.

  “I apologize for the interruption, then,” the middle-aged apothecary said with the same short bow she’d given me behind the counter of her shop. “Trust me when I say it was necessary.”

  “So why’d you interrupt my soiree?” Carli asked. “Not that it’s not good to see you, of course, Sooj. Can I get you a drink?”

  “Unfortunately,” Soojin said, making a face, “we won’t have time.”