“This is helping him think?” comes a snarky response from the fallen in the corner who, whenever I look over, keeps pulling blades from more places and showing me them in a threat. What an amusing man he is.
I am in a bad mood, though, mainly because I got here too late and my dragon wants to kill people. Right now he is pacing around in the cage in my head, snarling at me and blowing darkness. I really need to feed him, to keep him calm enough so we can think of a plan to get our mate back.
Our mate.
I knew she would have others, she was too strong not to, so I don’t care about that as long as they are honourable men. These men…I guess they will do. One is clearly insane with a strange blade obsession and a wall covered in other images, the other watches us both, cataloguing everything. He is powerful, but also soft. I guess it will be up to me to save our mate.
“I’m hungry,” I tell them, looking over. “I require sustenance or I will end up ripping the souls from everyone and eating them instead.”
“Fucking hell,” Griffin snaps and leans forward. “Fine, your fucking majesty, we will feed you, and then when we come back you will help us get our mate.” Each word is spit like it hurts to say.
“Thank you, I appreciate the title as well, but I am no longer a king. Sir will suffice.” I nod at the fallen, and he throws himself forward with a snarl, but he’s thrown backwards into the wall by the forest god who points at both of us.
“Behave,” he warns, his voice filling the room like a banshee roar.
I frown. “I am confused, why is he angry?”
The forest god rubs his head as if it pains him. “Why me?”
We file out of the house and I stare at the metal contraption which is lower than the one Jean Claude provided for me. “We will not all fit in that.”
“Then fucking fly, you dragon prick.” Griffin throws his hand in the air and clicks something, then lights flash and a beep sounds. I start to change to protect us before the forest god stops me with a look and opens the back door.
“Get in, dragon.”
I snort. “I ride in the front.” I open the other door and try to cram myself in—my knees are up by my head, which is bent due to the low angle.
I grumble as the car rumbles to life and we take off into the city. I reach out and start pressing buttons on the dash, music blares out, changing every second as I flick between things. Griffin starts to slap my hand away, so I slap him back, and I hear Nos sigh in the backseat.
“Little Monster, can I kill them?” he mutters, before he raises his voice. “Children, stop, or there is no food for anyone, and when we get Dawn back I will tell her.”
A forest god telling our mate on a dragon and a fallen. How amusing.
We end up at a place where the fallen explains they make burgers, whatever that means. I am led inside, and there are children everywhere, screaming and running around in maddening circles as parents ignore them.
“Sheep,” I mutter.
“Finally, something we agree on,” Griffin mumbles, and then shows his teeth to a little human girl who stops before him. She grins at him and he huffs and pushes past her, but she follows after the fallen.
He leads us over to a white machine. “Order here,” he snaps at me, and crosses his arms, glaring at the child who stares back.
I look at the contraption and clear my throat. “I require food, meat.”
Nothing happens, so I try again in a louder voice. “Meat.”
Frowning, I look at the fallen, but he is still glaring at the child. “Squire, I require meat, lots of it, please.” I tack on the last part, remembering my manners. The fallen sighs and presses something, and I nearly jump back as what looks like items of food scroll down the screen.
“Meat, I require meat!” I yell at the machine, but all it does is blink, scrolling through a list of items, something called a salad. “Confusing device, give me meat!” I roar, shaking the machine and ranting.
When I am done, I look over to see four humans in funny little hats gaping at me from behind a counter, and then a child starts to cry and it is followed up by more and more of them.
“Someone get the man some meat,” the fallen drawls, “before he has a tantrum and kills everyone.”
The servers jump into action, and in under a minute a plastic tray is offered to me with shaking hands piled high with meat. “Many thanks, squire.”
“Y-You’re welcome,” he stutters. “How would you like to pay?”
I blink at him and then smile. “Fallen, pay the man,” I call, and then turn away, finding a table away from as many people as I can. All the adults glare at us openly, but the children have finished crying now. I have to squeeze myself into a slippery seat, then I rip into the meat. “Delicious, so much better than a chargrilled goat,” I mutter.
Nos sits opposite me, snacking on something that looks like leaves. He places a tray of the same before me and then Griffin who slips in beside him.
“Eat it, it’s good for you,” Nos instructs us, his eyes on the fallen. Griffin throws it in the bin, while I simply throw mine at the fallen who snarls and narrows his eyes on me.
I go back to eating, but notice a small human near my table looking at my food with big eyes. I lean my head down and growl, my dragon mostly in charge now. He squeals and runs away. “Dragons don’t share food,” I mutter.
“Fucking hell, only I could get stuck with a tree lover and dumb shit over there,” Griffin grouses.
“You are dumb.” I sniff, lifting my head.
“Brilliant, dragon, truly brilliant come back, did your momma teach you that?”
“My mother tried to eat me.” I frown.
“What a way to kill a conversation.” Griffin laughs.
“I did not kill anything, yet, but I will gladly. Starting with you,” I snarl.
Nos leans forward. “No killing each other over food, remember why we are all here and together.”
“Dawn.” I nod.
“Fucking mate of mine.” Griffin rolls his eyes and I narrow mine on him. “Don’t worry, I only tried to kill her once,” he retorts, and that is how we end up getting kicked out of what Griffin called a fast food place as I try to murder him for hurting my mate.
The dragon almost made me crash my car on the way home, and when we get back to my house, he plops himself on the sofa and goes back to watching the shitty sheep’s show. Nos and I share a look and he sighs, then he stands in front of the TV, blocking the dragon’s view.
“We need a plan and to start finding Dawn, anything could be happening to her right now.”
His words hit us all and the dragon finally gets serious. “I will change and rip the souls from everyone in the city until we find her.”
“Your plan is rubbish, no wonder dragons are almost extinct,” I scoff, and spin in my chair, turning off the TV. “Now, here is what we are actually going to do. We go to Victor, get all the information on The Others we can, then we put an alert out to all other supes. Nos, contact your people again, see if they have anything else for us. We suspect the council, yes? Well, I have a way in, I am their good little servant, after all, so I’ll check that out.”
“What will I do?” the dragon asks, watching us.