Chapter 5

Chapter Five

OGDEN

My throat was getting sore, but I'd be damned if I stopped singing now. I was a supernatural fucking being and I could do this. My magic would repair any damage I did to my vocal cords, so I was going to keep singing my fucking heart out, damn it. They might have put me in a cage, but they couldn't lock down my spirit.

I was bellowing loud enough to wake up Little Susie when the door at the end of the room clanged again. The little troll was back. She dragged the end of her cattle prod along the concrete floor. The hand and arm I'd zapped were wrapped in bandages. The thing about supernatural healing was that it worked great until a dragon attacked you. Our magic had a way of changing things. I grinned. It'd take her a while to heal.

" I've thought of a way to shut you up." The troll grinned evilly at me as she banged her weapon against the cage next to mine. The cute little unicorn jumped. His curls jolted and bobbed around his face. The happy little rainbow bubbles the unicorn had giggled into existence a mere moment ago were all burst and gone now.

" See this?" The troll held my gaze as she wiggled the prod between the bars of the unicorn's cage. " Shut up or I'll start poking your neighbors with my little toy."

" Oh , that sounds rather dirty. I didn't know you were kinky," I said with a grin. If I didn't get upset at her threat, maybe she'd leave him alone. I doubted that ruse would last for long, though. I needed to save my little unicorn friend, but how?

He was too sweet to torture. He didn't whimper or cringe like most of the other creatures. He just slumped in his cage and stared at the troll like getting tortured was nothing new for him. And I wanted to destroy whoever had taught him that.

I'd start with this troll.

If only I could figure out what to do.

As if anticipating my plan, the troll stood close to the other cages instead of in the middle of the aisle like she had last time. I didn't have a clear shot at her. Damn it all anyway. If I blasted electricity at her from here, I'd hit another cage. The last thing I wanted to do was electrocute the poor unicorn. The electrical currents would zip over the bars and zap him, because he didn't have a choice but to sit on the crate with his bare ass like me.

Wait . I think I'd read about a kink like that. Hmm … Maybe shooting an electrical current through his balls wouldn't be so bad. Maybe the little unicorn would be into something like that.

Then I remembered the smell of flesh burning when I'd zapped the troll earlier and changed my mind. If too much of my electricity ran through the cage and hit the unicorn, things would be bad. No one wanted their family jewels cooked.

But I still had my fire. Could I send it, without its electric sidekick, through the bars in both our cages without hitting the unicorn?

I opened my mouth to try it, when a tingling sensation rolled over me. My toes curled. The hair lifted from my nape. My fingers twitched.

Then the air shimmered and twisted.

What was happening? This was not normal. Was the troll a distraction? Were they piping in poisonous gas?

Oohh .

Could a person feel squishy? Because I felt squishy and rubbery and light. Too light. I hadn't tried drugs since the ‘60s. They hadn't done much to me, probably because I was a supe, so it'd been a rather blah experience. But this was what I'd always imagined it would be. Psychedelic swirls wrapped around me in a way that suggested colors could be tangible. Bright rainbows spun hypnotically in front of me, making me dizzy.

Ooh … I totally understood the word groovy now. Totally groovy. Far out. Ten out of ten. Would recommend.

Then my vision whited out for one long moment before everything—my sight, the weight of my body, everything—rushed back. A tingling sensation coursed through me. I gasped, only to have water rush into my mouth and nose. Water dragons couldn't drown, but inhaling water unexpectedly still made me choke for a moment before instinct took over. My body shifted into my dragon form.

All those happy, pretty, swirling colors vanished. I was one hundred percent sober now. Instantly . How disappointing.

My dragon undulated and whirled through the water. An indistinct tugging sensation dragged me upward to the surface. I erupted out of the water and gulped in the sweet tasting air, letting it fill my lungs. My wings snapped open, and I lifted myself upward into the air, swimming as easily in the air currents as I had through the water.

I didn't understand what had happened, but I was free. No crate. No troll. No cattle prod. It was time to fucking celebrate.

But first, I had to find out why I was here and where here was. The air reeked of magic and after being held in a magically reinforced cage, I doubted this change heralded anything good. As I rose higher, some invisible tether latched on and tugged me back down. I flapped my wings harder, but it didn't work. I couldn't go any further.

What the fuck was going on now?