Dragon Knight

by Jayne Hawke

  They were a thorn in my side and had been since the New Era began. Their god was a master of finance, and that put him in direct competition with my kind and our businesses. This particular cluster of Hades god touched had been systematically working to hinder my businesses and remove my reach around the world. Thus far, they hadn’t achieved much bar irritation, but now that they were in London the risk of their doing something truly harmful was far higher.

  I paced around the dark room, having chosen to leave the lights off and enjoy the beautiful view outside. My thoughts turned to Iona. There was an undeniable connection between us. A quiet hope had formed in the back of my mind when I had seen her on the balcony at the ball. I had seen many beautiful women in my life, but none had caught my attention quite the way she did.

  Could she be the one to lift the curse?

  Sighing, I re-focused on the task at hand - the Hades god touched and their plans. They had been digging into the story of the dragon knights, of me and my brethren, for the last year. I had gotten ahead of them and removed as much information as I was able, through proxies to hide my identity. The fact they had turned their attention there made me suspicious.

  I was the last remaining dragon knight, a protector cursed to change into a dragon at the strike of 1:00 am. My twelve brothers had been killed by those who believed dragons to be monstrous beasts. Grinding my teeth, I swore that the Hades god touched would not remove me from the earth. I would die when I was good and ready, and not a moment before.

  Walking to the floor-to-ceiling window, I exhaled slowly and focused on the skyline. A smile came to my face as I thought about running across those rooftops with Iona at my side. The thought had never occurred to me before I saw the sheer glee in her eyes when she had spoken of it. Perhaps I would be able to give her the freedom she so desperately craved.

  THIRTEEN

  Iona

  I fell out of bed and into my leathers reluctantly, my body working on autopilot. I craved a nice big hot cup of coffee, but that was never allowed before training. Sister Analise believed in the importance of being able to go from sleeping to fighting in the blink of an eye. I was going to fail her that morning. I’d lain awake thinking about Evander and dreamt of running across the rooftops with him. The books I’d brought back with me had been carefully stowed away in the small lockbox beneath my bed.

  “Come, you’re needed!” Sister Analise barked as I made my way down the stairs with Sienna and Nicole.

  Suddenly, I was awake and adrenaline was surging through my veins. We were only needed when we were hunting.

  “Stormchild, Fireborn, Lightfoot, you’re to hunt down the shifter that savaged innocent humans this morning. Go now before the morning rush begins,” Sister Analise said to Sienna, Nicole, and me.

  My stomach growled in response, earning me a stern glare from the Sister. She handed Sienna the details. We glanced over it as we made our way to the front door. I saw another trio of sisters had already been sent out into the city. Something had stirred the supernaturals up last night.

  The wolf shifter had last been seen in Clapham Common. Given the woodland there, it was likely that he was still there. The wolves preferred to hide in the woods when given any sort of option. There had been moves to bring in a law to stop shifters from living in the built-up areas at all, but it had been deemed unfair to reduce their earning potential like that.

  We jogged along the quiet street heading towards the common. There was a bus stop that would take us directly to the common if we were quick. The buses didn’t like lingering very long and had no sympathy to those who didn’t get there in time.

  “It must be a witch cursed,” Sienna said as she glanced back down at the paper.

  There were different types of shifters, most chosen by gods like Fenrir. Fenrir’s wolves were savage and rarely went near civilisation. Odin’s wolves were vicious but were more sociopathic and prone to slaying people in business. Odin is a god of war and knowledge, and he imparted that into his wolves. The cursed shifters come from bloodlines that had been cursed by a witch or fae during the ancient times when such things roamed the world freely.

  The cursed were the most civilised of the shifters, although that depended on the bloodline. Sometimes the curse twisted and warped, which produced something like the being we were running to deal with. The scribbled notes said that the wolf was far larger than a natural wolf, with blood-red eyes and a penchant for human blood.

  The bright-red bus pulled up just as we reached the stop. We climbed on board and flashed our transport passes before taking three of the empty seats in the middle. There were only two other passengers on the bus, and they didn’t look like they were awake.

  “We’ll need to rip open its throat or gouge out its eyes,” Nicole said casually.

  “If it is witch cursed, its hide could be tougher than a normal shifter, making our blades too dull to make a clean cut,” Sienna added.

  Some of the cursed shifters were created to act as guardians for the one who cursed them. As was the way with these things, the shifters quickly parted ways with the one who created them. It was always a bloody and brutal affair when it happened, and yet people still tried on occasion. People just didn’t learn.

  “The moonstone knives should go through the hide,” I said.

  We were each given a variety of knives and daggers. That included a knife with a moonstone in the hilt. The stone had some sway over the magic that made the shifters what they were. It gave the knife the ability to cut through the hide of a guardian bloodline. In the case of weaker shifters that were trying to change form, a cut with the moonstone knife could help the shift.

  “Did you know that some of the old fae, the ones who’re five hundred years or more, have soul mates?” Sienna said casually.

  She was still thinking of the lord she’d met at the ball. I couldn’t entirely blame her, given Evander was on my mind far more than he should have been.

  “Apparently, the pair feel an instant attraction to each other, and there’s a sense of belonging there. Being close to each other physically is supposed to make them happy. Over time, a deep protective instinct kicks in,” Sienna said as she looked out of the window.

  I remembered the way that Evander made me feel, and how natural it was to lean into him when he had his arm around my waist. I mentally rolled my eyes at myself for even considering it. The idea was likely ripped from a romance novel and had no grounding in reality.

  Everyone on the bus lurched forward when it stopped at our stop. We jumped off the bus and looked around at the flat area of green before us. There was a good two acres of mown grass between us and the woodland. The shifter was going to have the advantage as he saw us approach.

  Assuming he was still there.

  FOURTEEN

  “We go right at him,” Sienna said.

  We stood looking over the green expanse spreading away from us to form a triangle. There was a thin line of trees along the right-hand side, but the left side was grass butting up against a sidewalk.

  “I’m with Sienna. We’ll give a display of force to those who’re watching, to show them there are protectors. He won’t be able to resist three fit and able women striding across the grass. We’re walking meat,” Nicole said.

  I had to admit I couldn’t think of a better plan. If he was in the frenzied state we believed, then he wouldn’t be able to resist trying to take us down. It was better that we drew him out than a jogger or dog walker did.

  “Ok. We’ll jog towards him,” I said.

  It had never suited me to act as the prey and draw the predators to me, but we did what we had to. There were times when we could stalk through the shadows, and times where we had to play weak and innocent.

  We set off at a casual jog towards the woodland while keeping our eyes peeled for any sign of movement. We were halfway across the grass when I saw him. Blood-red eyes glared at us from between two of the larger birches. Slowing a little, we watched him, waiting for him
to emerge.

  Joggers were beginning to start their routes behind us. This needed to be ended and quickly.

  “Nicole, look injured,” I said.

  She curled her lip but cried out in fake pain before stumbling forward. Sienna and I stepped back and looked around wildly for someone to help us. The shifter stepped out from the treeline, his intense gaze focused on Nicole, who was sitting on the floor whimpering.

  I ground my teeth, hating his caution. Joggers were getting closer, entirely unaware of the danger they were in. Finally, the shifter exploded forward. Only he wasn’t heading for us. He’d spotted a tired-looking girl who was talking on her phone while tugging at her short black skirt idly.

  We took off across the short grass, and I was thankful for the training Sister Analise had put us through. No human would ever be as fast as a shifter, but we were fast enough to cut him off and block his access to the bartender. My muscles barely burned, and my breathing settled back into its resting rate within a few steps.

  Our moonstone knives were in our hands as we closed in on the shifter. His shoulder came up to the bottom of my ribs. Thick black fur coated his muscular form, and blood-red eyes watched us with human intelligence. He was still in there somewhere. Someone might have tried to save him, someone with magic and patience. We were neither. He was a threat to innocents, and we were there to protect them.

  The wolf bared his teeth, revealing long sharp teeth which were liberally coated in blood. How many lives had he taken that morning?

  People were beginning to stop and gather on the sidewalk to our right. Such was human nature. Nicole moved slowly around to the left while Sienna moved to the right. I held its attention and planned on plunging my knife into its eye. I told myself that it was a mercy killing. Surely no one would be able to live with themselves after slaughtering people the way he had.

  The wolf lunged at me. My heart stopped in my chest as I saw its gaping maw coming at my head. Two decades of training buried the fear before it could slow me down. I stepped forward and slipped my blade between his ribs. A gurgling baritone roar came from deep inside the beast’s throat.

  He dropped to the ground and gasped for air while trying to right himself. I slammed my heel down on his throat and crouched down to drive my knife into his eye. He died quickly, and I hoped with little pain. It wasn’t the clean kill I’d hoped for, but no more people would die that morning.

  Sister Analise had been notified, and we had been told to remain with the body until the pack arrived to remove it. Sienna paced and muttered about needing coffee and sugar.

  “We’ll swing by the coffee shop on the way back home. Sister Analise doesn’t need to know,” I said.

  Caffeine was very much needed. The adrenaline was wearing off, and we still had to deal with the politics of the pack. It was never easy when we had to take down a shifter. I hated when Sister Analise made us speak with the pack of the deceased. It was a necessary evil, we couldn’t leave the bodies for anyone to find, but still.

  If we did, witches would likely pull the body apart to use in spells. The magic lingered within a shifter for up to 24 hours after they died. Some of the more animalistic fae would have liked to dine on his flesh, as well. Red caps weren’t beyond such things.

  A muscular woman with short-cropped straw-blonde hair loped across the grass towards us. Her steely grey eyes flicked from the body of the wolf to us and back again. She bared her increasingly sharp teeth, and a deep growl rumbled in her throat. I raised an eyebrow and held her gaze. Alpha or not, I wasn’t going to back down.

  “You killed him,” the alpha snarled.

  “He slaughtered innocents this morning,” I said coolly.

  The alpha exhaled slowly. Two men in their late twenties circled around us and crouched by the body.

  “The curse took him,” she said to the men.

  They sighed and began wrapping a pale-grey cloth around the body.

  “You may leave us, huntresses. His body will be given the funeral rites,” the alpha said.

  We each gave a small nod of respect and left at a casual walk. To run, or even walk quickly away from a wolf in an emotional state was begging for blood to be let.

  FIFTEEN

  Something was wrong when we returned home. Sienna and I shared a look and reflexively put our hands on the sheathes of our knives. Nicole led the way through the narrow doorway into the dimly lit entrance. The house was too quiet. It should have been full of the sounds of breakfast, or at least sparring from the courtyard.

  Surely no one had attacked the sisters, that would have been suicide. No one had any reason to do so, either. We were careful in whom we brought down. Only those with a clear argument for having caused harm and danger to the wider society.

  “Finally,” Sister Analise said.

  “We had to wait and deal with the pack,” I said cautiously.

  She appeared to be herself. I couldn’t feel any magic on her.

  “Come along, we’re all waiting,” the Sister said as she ushered us into the dining room.

  The tables had been pushed back against the wall, and the chairs sat in neat little rows all facing the front of the room where a strange man stood. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties with snow-white hair falling in gentle waves down to the middle of his ears. He watched with me icy blue eyes, his thin lips curved upwards into a cold smile.

  “Sit,” Sister Analise said to us.

  I went to sit in the chair next to Nicole, only to have the sister take my elbow.

  “No, this is for you, Stormchild,” Sister Analise said with a sweeping gesture of her arm.

  My throat constricted. This felt wrong.

  The sister guided me to the front of the room. All eyes were on me as I reluctantly walked behind the sister towards this strange man. No men had entered our home before.

  “Good morning, Iona, I’m Mr. Anastas,” the man said with a fake smile.

  I inclined my chin towards him and looked him over for weapons. The close-cut silver suit didn’t appear to have anywhere to hide weapons upon the slender man. He bore the duller bone structure of a human. The only oddity about him was the white hair.

  Sister Analise nudged me to turn and face the room full of my sisters. Whispers echoed around us but were soon stopped by a stern glare from Sister Analise.

  “I am very pleased to announce that Mr. Anastas is helping us with our duty to the city and the larger world,” Sister Analise said with a genuine smile.

  A large cold stone formed in my stomach. This sounded ominous.

  “He is helping us pinpoint who the dragon is. And Iona Stormchild has been given the honour of slaying the winged beast,” Sister Analise said.

  The room fell silent. My heart thudded against my ribs. It was all too surreal. I’d dreamt of this moment for years, ever since it was announced that we would rid the world of the dragon. It was the greatest honour to be bestowed upon a huntress. My mouth went dry. Everyone was waiting for me to speak, and the words stuck to my tongue, refusing to budge.

  I finally managed to say, “Thank you.”

  Mr. Anastas was watching me very closely. There was almost a reptilian edge to him. It sent a shiver down my spine, and I looked away.

  A slow round of applause spread around the room. I noticed that it was Nicole who had started it. Emma crossed her arms and stared daggers at me. This should have been her hunt.

  When I succeeded, and I would succeed, I’d be free. I could run along all the rooftops and wander the world as I saw fit. Slowly, the room seemed to become a little brighter as excitement and hope filled me. It was really happening. I’d been chosen to hunt the dragon.

  Sister Analise’s office seemed far smaller than it had done previously when the strange man entered the room with us. He had a large presence, far larger than his looks implied. He couldn’t have been a shifter; Sister Analise would never let one of their kind cross our threshold.

  “The dragon has been a danger to this plane for centu
ries now. I’m sure you heard the story of how he and his brethren razed an entire village when they first arrived,” Mr. Anastas said, watching me.

  “I’m familiar with the dragon, yes,” I said stiffly.

  I remained as far away from him as I was able without drawing Sister Analise’s ire. She had pulled out the expensive bottle of scotch and had placed three glasses on her desk. A grin was spread across her face, and I wondered if she and the man had shared a private moment on that desk while we were out in the city.

  “We’re sure that the dragon is a fae lord within the city,” Mr. Anastas said.

  It made sense. The dragon had been able to hide his humanoid form for centuries. The other twelve of his kind had been killed a century back, but this one had somehow thwarted our attempts to hunt him down. Every night he flew across the city, patrolling, looking for innocents to consume. No one knew why the dragons had come to this plane, but we all knew that they were monsters who needed to be destroyed.

  Sister Analise held out a glass for me to take.

  I politely took it before taking a few steps back to increase the distance between myself and the man who was watching me so closely. It was beginning to make my skin crawl.

  “You are the brightest huntress I have had the pleasure of training in a long time, Stormchild. You will bring great honour upon us and our sisters. Your blades will drip with dragon blood, and finally the city will be free,” Sister Analise said.

  I took a sip of the scotch and found it to be smoother than I had expected. The oak flavour slowly evolved into something buttery with a hint of fig. I’d never had a good scotch before, only the cheap stuff that burned away your taste buds.

  “Do not fear, Iona. Myself and my men are quite well connected; we’ll make sure that you have your kill within the month,” Mr. Anastas said.