[b][u][center]A Modern Dragon Harem Chapter 5: Next Moves Sponsored by Glyn Wolf By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b] Draconicon tried to carry Veronica out of the parking garage, but when she pointed out – rightly so – that the invisibility ring would make it look like she was floating, he was forced to put her down. They moved slower than he’d like, what with her hobbling and having to lean against the walls [i]and[/i] her cane from time to time, but they were able to get out of the garage before the police came and locked down the skybridge that led across the street. They were in the elevator coming down from the skybridge when the cop cars started arriving, and the dragon shook his head as some of them parked just outside the elevator shaft. “Fuck…” “You have more of those rings, right?” Veronica asked. The dragon shook his head. He hadn’t thought that they’d need more. An oversight on his part, he was finding. Janet was enough of a liability at the moment, and he was just glad that she was able to stay hidden behind him while he carried the unconscious woman. The ring might have made him see-through instead of just impossible to notice. The elevator stopped. He looked down at his old friend, the question about whether she could bluff her way out of this dying before he could ask it. Not because it would be betrayal, but because of the way she looked at him. Or rather, how [i]they[/i] looked at him. He never knew how to describe it, but there were times when it was just one person looking at him, and times where it was several. This was the latter. “…You want me to stay quiet and let you handle it.” It wasn’t a question, and he knew that they knew that. Veronica nodded, stepping around him with her cane in hand, leaning on it a bit more. He sighed. “I haaaaate thiiiiiiiis,” he muttered in a sing-song voice. “I’m the guard dog. And you promised to listen to me. This is what I said I’d do if this ever happened, so let me do my job.” “Alright, alright. I said I’d do that, didn’t I?” “You better.” The elevator doors opened, and the police were gathered in a half-crescent on the other side, just narrow enough to prevent them from shooting each other. It was a ridiculous sort of formation, but nonetheless rather intimidating. He would have been more than concerned, even as a dragon, if he was the one under all those pistols. If she was feeling it, Veronica didn’t show it. She held one hand up as she hobbled out of the elevator, and Draconicon waited til the last second to waddle out of it after her, still holding Janet behind him, upside-down and with his back to the elevator shaft, keeping her from being quite so visible. As he wiggled around to the side of the metal structure, the police started questioning his friend. She was saying something, but he was already just far enough away to have trouble picking it up. For now, he had other problems. [i]Fuck, fuck, fuck, gotta be quick…[/i] Hoping that there were no cameras away from the elevator doors, the dragon laid the unconscious human on the pavement. He spread his wings wide to try and block anyone from seeing the pantsless woman, but even that would only do so much. [i]Unconscious. Half-naked. That’s not too bad. Not like I’m trying to heal injuries yet…[/i] He looked her over, finding himself thankful that she was dark-skinned. The evening shadows would make her blend in a bit more. Idle thought, but still there. Draconicon pulled at his magic, the pool of power at his core responding to the need that was already swirling and taking on definition in the back of his head. Clothes. Clothes first. She could be okay if she was dressed and unconscious, at least for a while. Naked and unconscious would invite a rapist or questions far faster. [i]Clothes. Clothes. Clothes![/i] What came out were tight leather pants rather than the simple security khakis that she had been wearing before. No sound effect to the magic, either, thankfully. The dragon felt drained from the sudden expulsion of power, and he made a mental note that actually creating something actually drained a [i]lot[/i] more energy than enchanting it. He slumped forward slightly, catching himself on the glass. The chatter around the edge of the elevator paused for a moment. “What was that?” one of the cops asked. “What was what?” Veronica asked. “Is something over there?” [i]Fuck.[/i] Desperately, Draconicon threw himself flat on the ground, smothering the human under him with his body. She squirmed slightly, not enough to make him shift, but very much enough to make him aware of her. [i]Do your job, ring, do your job, ring…[/i] Two police officers glanced around the side of the elevator shaft. Draconicon held his breath, waited… And then they shook their heads, getting back to questioning. He didn’t dare breathe for another few seconds, waiting until they dismissed Veronica, telling her to move along. The dragon let out a long, slow hiss – “Mmmph…” And then Janet groaned. He froze again, but the cops seemed to be busier setting up a perimeter around the stairs and elevator than they were with him. Waiting until they weren’t looking, he gradually rolled off of his driver. She sat up instantly, forcing him to grab her and cover her mouth. He shushed her quietly, whispering. “Police. If they see you, they’re going to question you.” “…” “I’m still invisible. I’m going to carry you [i]around[/i] the perimeter, then set you down out there. Do. Not. Talk. Understand?” Janet slowly nodded. He nodded back, then pulled his wings around her, forming a cloak that rested around his shoulders and chest as he held her against him. Beyond thankful for the new muscles that the dragon’s body possessed, he stood up and carried her, carefully and quietly, to the sidewalk. Veronica was waiting for him there, standing by the bus stop. Probably disguising herself that way, making it less obvious that she was waiting for someone. The dragon stepped into the shelter of the bus stop, leaning against the plastic-backed wall of the shelter before turning around. He slowly put Janet down where it wouldn’t look like she’d popped out of nowhere, then sat down on the bench. “That…was too close,” he muttered. “Too close?! I lost my car up there!” Janet hissed. “Better the car than your life. Or his.” Tobias growled softly. “Don’t be so careless.” “Careless?! I’d like to see you deal with what Master’s pheromones make you do.” “Master?” He winced, particularly as he watched his friend turn. The tiniest twitch at the corner of Veronica and Tobias’s mouth told him that they were not happy with this particular information, and he couldn’t entirely blame them. “There was…a bit of a thing when I fucked her,” he admitted. “…Define ‘a thing.’” “This would probably be better in private.” “…Fine,” Tobias said with a definite snarl. [i]…I’m going to get it for this one,[/i] he thought. [i]And I probably deserve it.[/i] “There’s a hotel just up the road,” he said, nodding at the Clarion. “I’ll get us a room and we can talk there.” “How are you going to do that without giving the whole thing away?” Janet asked. “Can you not smell me right now?” “…Good point.” # After a short ‘bath’ in the hotel’s pool, his pheromones were out in full force. The cologne no longer stopping them, Draconicon had no difficulty convincing the guy at the front desk to allow him to have a room for the night – two rooms, for that matter – and to make sure that they weren’t disturbed. The guy was so slap-happy from the scent that he was more than willing to give it up without any sign of compensation. He would have felt a bit guilty if it wasn’t for the fact that he felt like he deserved it after a day like this. He returned to Janet and Veronica, giving them one of the room cards and keeping the other for himself. Veronica took it before Janet could touch it, and they were quick to make their way into the hotel. Well, quick as someone with a cane could make it, at least. The dragon sighed, looking up at the sky. It felt like this was the first moment of quiet that he’d gotten since Draconicon had appeared in his life and given him the dragon’s powers. For all that it was humorous bordering on annoying to have pheromonal mind control powers, and for all that the magic he had could be an amazing tool, he still hadn’t had the chance to let it all settle in. It was still very new to him, and more important – perhaps most important – it was still a danger to him and those around him. That text before Veronica had called should have been a clue. It had come out of nowhere, and it was just as ominous as it was cheesy. [i]What do you want?[/i] He would have dealt with that then and there, but then she’d called and it had been driven right out of his mind. That call had to be connected to the bombing, but how, he didn’t know. Looking up at the evening sky as it faded from faintly lit to fully dark, the dragon wondered how he was going to make this work. He wasn’t human anymore, and so far, he didn’t know how to transform back. Maybe that would be something he could do in the future, but something felt wrong about trying. After all, he had the power to start changing the world, didn’t he? Draconicon – the real Draconicon – had said that this was his chance to start writing his own story. To take his ideas and apply them, now that he had the power to do so. He had a friend that would be more than willing to help drag him towards the finish line, and there were other people out there that would be just as willing. He didn’t even have to find the first batch; he just had to get to them. All that hope and idealism, however, was running up against the brick wall of reality. He could still see the smoke rising from the parking garage by the airport, and he knew that the police would have completely sealed off the area by now. They’d be checking security recordings and more, trying to figure out what happened, seeing who was in the area. The only thing that made them safe, for now, was the fact that the garage had a serious shortage of security cameras. The city had been complaining about that for a long time, so he was pretty sure that none of them had been caught on tape either leaving the car or returning to it. At least, that was his hope. If not, things were going to get very complicated tonight. His phone pinged, and he knew that it had to be either Veronica or Tobias pushing him to come to the room. Sighing, he turned away, waiting for the next guest to enter the hotel to follow them in. # As soon as he opened the door, a pillow flew right at his face. It poofed against the end of his snout, hanging there for a moment – CLANG! Only to be followed by an iron. The dragon stumbled back into the doorway, catching himself before he could tumble out. He wobbled back and forth, the iron and the pillow falling off his face. “…Okay…good to know you didn’t want to seriously hurt me…” “You are a dragon. That means you have [i]some[/i] protection.” “Hello again, Tobias,” he muttered as he shut the door. “I’m guessing that you and Janet – oh.” Janet had her shirt off, the mark of a dragon’s footprint at the small of her back standing out painfully obviously. He’d expected that the two of them would start talking in private, but he hadn’t expected them to get that far. “You marked her.” “…Not intentionally, but yes.” “No. You [i]marked[/i] her. You took her choice.” “I can’t deny that. And she already kicked me in the balls over it.” “Did she?” Tobias turned, his eyes sparkling. There was a slight smile at the edge of his mouth, too. “Heh. Good girl.” “I deserved that.” There was a softening at that point, a slight shift of the hardness around the corner of the eyes, and Veronica was back. She was a bit [i]less[/i] stern looking, but she still didn’t look particularly happy. “I guess you didn’t deserve the iron if she already kicked you. But hey, at least I muffled it.” “I’m a dragon. I’m pretty sure I could eat bullets right now if I had to.” “That was the reason we felt safe throwing it. But still…” She shook her head. “If we had all the facts, we wouldn’t have reacted that strongly.” “I know. Can I come in now?” “Yes.” Shutting the door, finally, he entered the room. Janet was pulling her shirt back on, shaking her head, while Veronica was in the midst of arguing with herself. He took a seat on the end of one of the queen-sized beds, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m still figuring out the magic. I’m going to put that out there right now. Most of it’s still a mystery, and I’m trying to figure out how to use it without dicking people over. Like…with her.” He gestured at Janet, who blushed. He wondered if she was thinking back to what they’d done to get her marked, or if she was thinking of something else. Whatever it was, he could tell that she wasn’t entirely angry about it. “I’ve been kicking myself ever since I did it. It wasn’t meant to happen, and I think I’ve figured out how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” “You better. She wasn’t supposed to be marked. Or marked first,” Veronica said. “First?” “You were supposed to mark Nic first.” That was more correct than he wanted to admit. Nic, Anya’s real name, had been his girlfriend – then fiancée – for months. Even with an open relationship, going out and marking someone else as ‘his’ that way was not exactly good manners. “And then me second,” she added. “Why am I not surprised?” “Hey. You knocked me down the line by being horny-stupid. I’m allowed to be grumpy.” “…What is wrong with you two?” The dragon and his guard dog turned back to Janet. She looked at them like they were completely nuts, like they’d been talking in a different language. “We’re crazy,” Veronica said before he could answer. “We just own it. And I owe him.” “Yeah, but…you’re talking like he [i]owns[/i] you.” “And?” “That’s illegal. He made me do it with magic but – the fuck? The fuck? Why the hell are you doing it like…like…” [i]Well, this was going to happen sooner or later,[/i] he thought. Rubbing his forehead, he sighed slowly. “Janet?” “What?” “If you stick around, you’re going to find weirder things than this. I mean, you’re in a room with a dragon that makes people obey him just from how he smells, for crying out loud.” “…But…this is like, you know…slavery.” “Yes.” And that was one thing that he was going to have to deal with. While not everyone he knew would be interested in becoming a slave, a lot of the people that would be willing to join in and help out were on the submissive end of the sexual spectrum. Most people he knew, most people that were ‘devoted’ in some way were devoted to the Draconicon dragon as a sexual sub first, and as everything else second. Not all would be slaves, but most would want him to take charge, to be the one to decide things. They’d call him master, and they’d act differently than most people would feel was acceptable in this day and age. Janet’s reaction was a preview of how most people would see that sort of life. “I’m not setting up a slave state. That’s not me, and I don’t want it to be me. [i]But[/i] there are people that need a leash, or more. There are people that feel safer, better, when they have that sort of relationship with the person in charge.” “But…why?” “All sorts of reasons. Some of them good, some of them bad, but…” He looked down at his hands. “I have power. I [i]am[/i] the persona that I created. And that means that I have the power to make things safe for people to be what they want to be, to be [i]who[/i] the world tells them that they shouldn’t be. When I find them, or they find me, that means that they’ll want the chance to be that person. “I don’t owe it to them…but with this capability, why should I just turn my back on that? Why should I stick my head in the sand and ignore it? They’re my friends. More, in some cases,” he said with a nod towards Veronica. “I’ve known most of these people for years. I care for them, and they care for me. Why not make the impossible possible?” “Because…because…” Janet couldn’t think of a good reason, obviously, and he wasn’t about to stick around and let her sputter at him. He needed time to think, and more, he needed time to figure out his magic. If he was going to change things, he needed to know how to do it right, and for that, he needed to test it properly. “Let me explain things simply for you,” Veronica offered. “[i]Slavery[/i],” and she cast a glare at the dragon, “is [i]wrong[/i]. What happened to you was [i]wrong[/i], but… some people find it a better thing to have someone they are accountable to, outside of the sexual stuff.” She rolled her eyes at that. “In case you hadn’t noticed at this point, I am not exactly legally sane, and I can’t always trust myself or what my mind or feelings tell me. I also would not be telling you this if you were not someone I think I’m going to have to deal with for a good while, because you may have noticed I am also extremely paranoid. But you [i]need[/i] to understand that he isn’t like that. I understand that this was an accident, reprehensible, but an accident. And how you feel is not at all how most of those who allow him to lay claim will feel.” The dragon got to his feet. While Janet continued to grumble, he walked over to his guard dog. He leaned down until they were on a proper level, wrapping his arms around her. “Thank you for coming. All of you. Stupid as I was, I need you here.” “Yes, you do…and we need you…” She didn’t squeeze, but he felt her tense up slightly. “You’ll fix our body?” “Soon as I figure out how.” “Good…” She hesitated. “Can we stay with you?” “After I get a few things done. I need some privacy for a bit.” “Okay. Call when ready.” “Will do.” He left the room, shutting the door just when Janet managed to find her voice again. # Draconicon didn’t go far. What he wanted wasn’t too far from the hotel, after all. Near the airport, many different businesses tended to pop up that didn’t always succeed everywhere else. There were hotels, of course, and many restaurants. There were also casinos, loan operations, gadget shops, and, of course, prostitutes. The young Hispanic man that he ‘hired’ was probably barely into his twenties, and he’d been walking in sandals up and down the street about eight blocks from the airport. It was a bit of a pit out there, nothing outright bad, but not much good, either. It was basically a strip mall that had a few other not-quite-legal businesses in the buildings, as well as little pockets of whores if you knew where to look for them. This guy had been more than willing to come down an alley once the dragon had his attention. Draconicon rubbed his fingers under his balls as the young man approached, and as soon as he was in reach, he shoved his fingers under the human’s nose. The sight of the prostitute’s eyes widening, then relaxing, was all he needed to know that the pheromones had taken effect. Probably the human had gotten used to the human smells by now, so the shock that would have saved other people had done nothing to help him. The dragon shook his head, pulling his fingers back to give his new whore a better look. The human was clean-shaven, no beard or mustache, or even any facial hair, for that matter. He wore a tight white shirt, one that either laborers or gym rats would be eager to wear, and it clung to him with a thin layer of sweat that made it a bit more see-through than it normally would be. Darkened skin flexed with a thin layer of toned muscle, too, running right down to a pair of leather pants that were clinging all too tight to his hips and ass. [i]And crotch,[/i] the black dragon thought, taking in the obvious bulge that the human had, one that was growing bigger by the second. He shook his head. [i]If I were needing satisfaction…[/i] He was tempted, and more than a little tempted, for that matter, to actually go through with using the human for his ‘intended purpose.’ The idea of just taking his satisfaction and then leaving was something that this dragon had done more than once in the stories that he’d written, and he’d always gotten away with it without harming the person involved. At the same time, that wasn’t a story anymore. Actions had consequences, and he had to remember that, no matter how tempting it would be to bend the human over and just…fuck him. Rut him… Draconicon shook his head. [i]You have Nic. Anya. You have Janet. Depending on how things go, Veronica and the others might still be interested, too…[/i] Assumptions. He had to stop making assumptions. This was not a story anymore. This was real life, and he [i]needed[/i] to treat it that way. Even with his dick saying that he could just do it this once. The prostitute looked up at him with hazy eyes, a small smile on his face. He was waiting for the answer to a question, one that the dragon hadn’t quite heard. “Sorry, what was that?” “Heh, what do you want, big guy? Some kinda costume fuck?” “Maybe in a minute.” He shook his head. Costume, heh. If only the prostitute knew. “I’d like your help with something. You’ll be paid, and we might have some fun after. Sound fair?” “Yeah, I guess. Heh…man, that smelled good, though…” “You can get more of that, too.” “Alright. What do I gotta do?” “Just stand there, for now. What’s your name?” “Miguel.” “Well, Miguel, just…stand there.” The black-scaled dragon glanced at the edge of the alley. The rest of the prostitutes that gathered around the shopping center either hadn’t noticed Miguel walking off or weren’t bothered by it. Maybe they regularly had clients down the alley between the two halves of the center, or maybe they just didn’t mind losing some of the competition. Whatever the reason, he needed to make sure that he didn’t end up dealing with more than just this one guy. He could deal with one person at a time, but he didn’t know his magic well enough to actually take care of the others if they started making problems for him. [i]Privacy. Security. Safety.[/i] He pulled at those needs, and with that, he started forming the conditions in his head. The magic had gone haywire at the checkpoint, and he knew from working with Janet that it would be far harder, far more painful to create something out of nothing. A wall was out of the question, but even if he didn’t ask for it, the magic might create something if he just let it loose randomly. [i]Quiet. Safety. Invisibility.[/i] He kept pulling at the need, slapping on qualities that the magic needed to fulfill in order to satisfy the order. Bit by bit, it took shape, creating the idea of an illusion, a thing that would keep sound and sight from the alley in the alley, and everything else outside it. A mirror, in a way, that only he could see through. When he released the spell, the dragon braced himself for the sudden loss of energy. Surprisingly, there was very little expended, and he blinked as he realized that he had only spent a portion of what he had to make sure that Janet stayed clothed. [i]Maybe it’s how much magic disrupts physics?[/i] he thought. [i]Fucking with the physical world, creating matter or disrupting it, that’d do a lot, but just deflecting notice only messes with the neurons in the brain, or…[/i] He wasn’t a scientist, and he wasn’t even a magician. Not yet. He needed to experiment more to figure out how that worked, and he doubted it would ever be as easy as he had written it out to be. Not unless he had thousands of years to work it out the way that Draconicon had done. [i]…Let’s not even go there. Let’s not even think about how your life span might have been fucked with here…[/i] But they were in private, now. Private enough for him to focus on Miguel again. “Okay, Miguel. Do you believe in magic?” “Heh. I think of magical nights with some of my clients…” “Guess that answers that question…Have you ever had any…fantasies? Ever wanted something different?” “Like what?” “I don’t know. Like anything. Something that would make your job easier, maybe, or…I don’t know. Anything.” “Heh. Hard question, man.” Dreams. People too often didn’t have much in the way of dreams, and that was making the whole genie act more than a little difficult at the moment. The dragon grumbled to himself, rubbing his face as he tried to figure out a way around this. The pheromones probably weren’t helping, either. “Heh, maybe I’ll be able to think of something if you let me have another sniff of that stuff, huh?” “You want – fine.” Shaking his head, the dragon opened his robe, allowing his cock to flop out. It was the first time that he’d let it free since he’d fucked Janet, and as soon as it dropped over his balls, he felt the huge, fleshy thing starting to rise up, the night air already making him firm and hard. He stiffened quickly, his cock rising up and twitching as it did. Miguel grinned, the human getting down on his knees in front of the dragon. Hands that might have been a bit small on a normal rod and sack were tiny to him, both hands required to handle his balls and his cock flopping right over the human’s face. He saw Miguel’s nostrils flare, sucking in the scent, and the human’s tight pants seemed to get all the tighter as he appreciated the dragon’s scent. “Fuck, man. You smell good…like, fucking good…Never had a customer that smelled like this.” “You aren’t going to for a while, I think,” he said, trying to keep his head on straight. As the prostitute dug his nose into the dragon’s balls, though, his cock kept getting harder, rising up and throbbing, stiffer and stiffer. He bit his lips. “You said you might have an idea if you got more of the smell.” “Man…I want to have this thing in my ass…” “Maybe later.” “Come on…do I gotta wish for you to fuck me, man? Bet it won’t mess up the costume much. Feels so real…” [i]I had to get a real whore for this, didn’t I?[/i] he thought to himself. [i]God, it’d be fun…[/i] He could see that muscular ass waiting for him, probably with a well-practiced hole. A little magic would probably even make it so that his ass could take a dragon’s cock, too. Probably would ruin him for just about everyone else, though. Not to mention that he would have given himself to someone else before he got Nic out to see him… [i]Ugh![/i] He allowed the whore to sniff at his cock and balls for another minute, huffing his pheromones the way that an addict would have huffed cocaine. By the time that he pushed Miguel back, the young man was completely out of it, his cock so hard that his pants might as well have been painted over it. “Alright, you had your sniffs. My turn.” The young man was definitely out of it, barely able to nod as he reached down and groped himself. However, it was worth noticing that he seemed to be out of it to the point where the smell had pushed him right into the need to rut, to be fucked, and… Well, it basically seemed like a heat. If his pheromones could do that, if having it so strong like that would reduce someone to that point, then it was worth knowing. He made a mental note to put a tracking spell on him, too. “Let’s get started. Let’s see just what my magic can do…” # The dragon returned to his hotel room two hours later, longer than he had intended to be gone. He was far more tired, too, having spent a great deal of magic in experimentation on Miguel before he was done. He stepped into the hotel room and flopped on the base of his bed, grumbling into the sheets. His fingers curled into fists as he thumped his head into the blankets again and again. “Fucking…fucking…fucking sex drive…” The dragon dragged himself further into bed, rolling onto his side. His cock was throbbing hard to the point where veins were popping out along the sides, and he swore that he was losing his mind from how needy it had become. Every time that he tried out a spell on Miguel, the prostitute had tried to tease him, either pulling off some of his clothes or trying to get another breath of the dragon’s scent. It had gained him something, though. There were different types of magics, or rather, there were different channels that he could force his magic through. The raw will that he had been using was the least specific of them, allowing for any number of things to happen, but it also tended to require the most energy to accomplish. However, once he found out that he could use rhyming couplets… [i]I’m a wizard, not a bard,[/i] he complained to himself. It opened up the doors of possibility, at least, which was better than nothing. He still had to figure out how it all worked, but it meant that he had the chance to start working out the different means by which magic could be channeled. [i]Ritual circles next, I think…or at least, ritual symbols,[/i] the dragon thought, rolling onto his back and folding his hands over his belly, feeling his cock throb right over them. [i]See if there’s a way to channel the different power into little sigils or something. Find out what each individual piece means before starting to make rituals out of them…[/i] He’d written Draconicon as a person that could figure things out through his ability to adapt them to his own style. In a way, that was what he was doing, but he wished he knew how the dragon had done the adaptation thing in general. Something about channeling his magic through an already existing spell, getting an imprint of it, but that didn’t work if spells weren’t already – He blinked. “Wait…wait a second…” Rooting through his robes, he pulled out the ring of invisibility that he’d made. An already existing spell…combined with that adaptation thing… [i]Could I…[/i] Ring ring, ring ring. His phone. Veronica. Draconicon groaned. He pulled it out, opened it up. “You can come over now.” Click. Knock. Draconicon walked over to the door, pulled it open. Veronica looked up for permission, and he gave it. Leaning her cane against the wall, she slumped into his arms, and he hugged her gently, half-leading, half-carrying her to the bed. “Not gonna happen all the time,” she muttered. “I know.” “Nic’s place. Not mine.” “I know. But you’re still welcome.” “Thanks. Need it tonight.” “And you have it.” He laid her in bed, his focus finally off his cock, and fell in with her. He held her, and she pressed against him, sniffing softly until she fell asleep. Of course, he took much longer to fall asleep, but eventually, he did. [b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]