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Chapter 1

It was early in the morning as my team and I walked toward the hangar bay to board our jet to Tanzania. I walked a little slower than usual and felt a little sluggish this morning. The excitement of going to another Academy on another continent wasn’t enough to shake off the lack of sleep, and I was close to running on fumes. The last several days had been intensely full of missions and surprising new information, and I could have definitely used a double shot of espresso to get my brain going.

Less than a day ago, we’d been knee-deep in a swarm of seductive lady spider monsters and their horde of slithering snake soldiers deep in the forest of rural Tennessee, and now we were about to board a flight to the other side of the world.

Almost immediately after we’d returned to AIMM from our mission, my team and I had been summoned to Headmaster Burkhard’s office.

I thought back to our brief meeting with the headmaster last night. He’d informed us there was a displaced monster from our jurisdiction causing havoc in Tanzania. Burkhard had made it clear we were the best-equipped to eliminate the threat. I wondered about the urgency of the mission. We’d been sent to handle the hydra last month because it would have taken AMIE cadets too long to arrive on the scene. Our flight to Tanzania was definitely going to be even longer. Clearly, the threat of the displaced monsters was a big issue, but I guessed it wasn’t an immediate problem.

“You and your team will depart for Africa first thing in the morning,” Burkhard had said.

A quiet hush fell over the headmaster’s office at the news.

“What about us?” Phoenix had finally asked as he glanced around at his fellow Japanese cadets.

“Your headmistress has approved for you and the other MAJK cadets to remain here with us at AIMM for another three weeks to foster continued cooperation between our Academies,” the Headmaster had answered. “I’m sure we will find plenty for you to do while Mr. Cooper’s team is away, don’t worry.”

The Kingpin look-alike had seemed preoccupied and quickly hurried us away to get some sleep after that.

I left his office feeling a little frustrated. I’d tried again to tell him about what we’d found in SEEKR just a few days ago. The information about a long history of possible monster cooperation had plagued me since Ronin and her twin brother had shared their discoveries with us. I knew it could be vital data for the headmaster to have, and I’d been trying my damndest to bring it to his attention.

Unfortunately, Burkhard was an incredibly busy man. Which was to be expected of the person in charge of such a huge multinational institution with the mission to save the world from monsters. I was determined to speak to him about it before we left for Africa, so I’d stopped by his office earlier in the morning. The Kingpin look-alike hadn’t been in there, and I was starting to think I wouldn’t get the chance to speak to him before we left.

On top of that, Dr. Hastings wanted to know more about the Jorogumo queen and her nest, and I was eager to spend as much time alone with the sexy doctor as possible. However, that conversation could wait until after our return from MIA.

I thought about the hectic energy that had hovered around Dr. Hastings yesterday. She’d been excited about the Jorogumo specimen my team had managed to bring back alive for her, and I knew she was plenty distracted by everything else that was always happening around here. It seemed like there was more to it than that, though, and it lingered in my mind.

I’d only been with the Academy for a few months, so I had little frame of reference, but it felt like things were getting worse way faster than ever before. When I’d first arrived, all the cadets seemed to be able to handle missions fairly well. Now, more often than not, cadets were coming back with a lot of minor bruises and cuts, and an increasing number of more serious injuries. Last I counted, there were at least four cadets in various casts, and that didn’t even include the injured team Dr. Hastings had rushed off to help with last night.

There wasn’t much to be gained by dwelling over any of this at the moment, so I shoved the thoughts aside. I turned my attention to preparing for our international mission instead.

“What do you think the African Academy is like?” Nick asked.

My blond best friend was dressed casually for the long flight ahead of us. He wore well-fitting dark jeans, a green t-shirt that matched his eyes, and comfortable-looking leather boots.

“I don’t know.” I turned to look at my best friend. “It’s going to be awesome, though. It’s so cool to see how the other Academies operate.”

“I’m so excited I get to come with you guys this time!” Steffi bounced and clapped her hands excitedly as we walked.

Steffi was a ball of giddy energy this morning. Her cotton-candy-pink hair was half-pulled back into little pigtails behind her ears. She wore black shorts that rode up high on her narrow waist, and a loose-fitting, hot pink sweater hung off her shoulders like a 1980’s pop star.

“Me, too.” Nala smiled brightly and spun a little circle. “Japan was great but it would have been better if you were with us.”

The dark-haired girl wore tan pants that strained across her toned thighs. Her sunny yellow shirt was cropped just above her navel, and it showed off a distracting strip of her taut stomach.

“I’ve never been below the equator before,” Elisabeth said.

The French beauty had tied her long coppery hair up in a braided crown around her head. Little baby hairs escaped the careful knotwork and danced around her face like a halo. She wore simple dark pants that hugged her ass perfectly and a long-sleeve blue shirt with a low wide scooped collar.

“I beg to differ.” I smirked.

“Dylan!” Elisabeth blushed profusely as she slapped my arm playfully.

“Gross, man,” Nick chuckled.

Steffi and Nala giggled at my innuendo as we strolled the rest of the way toward our destination.

“Mr. Cooper, good morning,” Headmaster Burkhard greeted us as we walked toward Silva’s jet in hangar bay three. “May I steal you away for a moment?”

“Of course, sir,” I said with a little surprise.

It was unusual for the Kingpin look-alike to see cadets off on missions, and I wondered if he had more information for us before we left for Africa.

Maybe I could finally tell him about what we’d found in SEEKR.

“Good morning.” Burkhard nodded at my teammates as they walked slowly into the jet.

“Good morning, sir.” Steffi smiled politely.

Elisabeth and Nala nodded, and Nick held his hand up in a casual wave.

“Did you have more information about the mission for us?” I asked the headmaster.

“Yes, Mr. Cooper,” Burkhard said. “Your request to bring Ronin along on your mission has been approved.”

“That’s great.” I grinned at once and then cleared my throat to try and rein in my obvious excitement. “Thank you, sir. She’s an important asset to our team.”

I’d put in an official request late last night to bring Ronin with us. It just didn’t feel right to leave her behind, especially since all of the Japanese cadets would be staying at AIMM for at least a few more weeks. Ronin felt like such a part of our team to me now, and I was really excited she’d be coming with us.

“There is one condition,” Burkhard declared with all the authority he had. “Ronin is an official diplomatic liaison from MAJK. It would be disastrous for our newly-formed relationship with their Academy if she were injured on our watch. I am entrusting her care and safety to you. Do you understand, Mr. Cooper?”

“Yes, sir.” I nodded seriously. “I promise, I will not let anything happen to her.”

“I’m sure you won’t.” Burkhard smirked. “She should be along in a few minutes to join you.”

“Thank you.” I grinned, and then I hesitated.

“Is there something else, Mr. Cooper?” Burkhard asked.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Do you have a moment?”

“Ah, yes. I know there was something you’ve been trying to talk to me about,” the broad-shouldered man began. “I must apologize, my available time has been extremely limited lately, but I do have a few moments now. What was it you wanted to share?”

“My team and I, and Ronin and Phoenix,” I started. “Well, we stumbled onto something in SEEKR’s databases.”

“What was it you found?” Burkhard cocked an eyebrow at me.

“Photos,” I said. “Ancient images of what look like monsters working together.”

“Like the photo you and your team brought to my attention a few weeks ago?” Burkhard looked at me with intense curiosity.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “We assumed you had shared that file with MAJK’s headmistress. Ronin and Phoenix said she’d spread it widely around their Academy just before they came here, and that she’d made sure all the cadets were aware of it and its importance.”

“Yes, I did.” Burkhard nodded.

“Well, after that,” I continued. “They went digging in their Academy’s database computers and stumbled on a bunch of examples of what looks like monsters working together throughout the centuries. I’ve been trying to tell you about it since then, but like you said, things have been really busy.”

“And these files were in the Japanese database?” Burkhard asked.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Phoenix said a few of them had been misplaced in the archives, and he thought maybe that’s why they hadn’t been studied before.”

“Interesting.” Burkhard nodded and absently scratched a hand over his chin. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I’ll get a few of our best scientists on it right away.”

“You’re welcome.” I nodded. “It just felt like something big. We wondered if, maybe, monsters have been working together all along.”

“It very well could be,” the headmaster agreed solemnly. “Ah, here comes Ms. Ronin.”

“Dylan!” Ronin called out.

My Japanese lover was wearing a tight-fitting, white cotton shirt that was perfectly tucked into pleated, navy blue shorts. Black socks came up to just above her knees, and vintage-looking saddle shoes completed the look. Her hair fell down over her shoulder in a single fishtail braid and bounced as she jogged up to wrap her arm around my waist.

“Hey.” I smiled and squeezed her against my side.

“Thank you for letting me go on this mission, sir,” the Japanese girl said to Burkhard and dipped forward in a little bow.

“You’re welcome.” The Headmaster smiled. “Perhaps you can initiate some cooperation between MIA and your Academy as well.”

The bald man looked almost smug at the idea that maybe he could be the starting point of more cooperation between the competitive and secretive Academies.

“I shall represent my Academy and yours with honor, sir.” Ronin bent forward again.

“Very well, off you go.” Burkhard grinned. “I know you will all be excellent representatives of this fine institution.”

Burkhard nodded once more before he turned to walk off and attend to whatever important business required his attention.

“Thank you, sir,” I called after him.

My shout was drowned out as the sleek jet’s engines roared to life behind us.

“Africa!” Ronin whispered-shouted as she clung to my arm. “Oh, this is so exciting.”

“Come on,” I chuckled and waggled my eyebrows at her. “Let’s get on board before Silva leaves without us.”

Ronin and I walked up the ramp and found seats toward the back of the jet.

Steffi was seated toward the front, and Elisabeth had claimed the row behind my fairy-girl. Nala sat across the aisle from my French beauty, and Nick had sprawled out behind Elisabeth. It was a little odd to have so much room for ourselves without Phoenix, Kitsune, Wisp, and Doppelganger to fill in the seats.

“Ronin! You’re coming with us?” Steffi bounced in her seat like a little kid.

“Yes.” The Japanese girl grinned at me. “Dylan made a special request. He said I was a ‘vital asset to the success of the team.’”

Ronin and I slid into the row of seats behind Nala and tugged on our headsets.

“Well, he wasn’t lying,” Nala chuckled. “That’s great.”

“It wouldn’t have been the same without you,” Elisabeth said.

“I gotta agree.” Nick smirked. “You really round us out as an effective monster ass-kicking machine.”

“Thank you,” Ronin said with a polite nod. “I agree with you.”

“Buckle up, kids,” Captain Silva’s voice crackled over our headsets. “We’ve got a long flight ahead of us. There’s plenty of food in the storage compartments, and I threw in some blankets and pillows for you guys, too. As always, thank you for choosing Silva Airlines. I know you have no other options, and if you have any complaints, you can go fuck yourselves.”

“Blankets and pillows?” Nick laughed. “Silva’s getting soft on us.”

“That’s actually really sweet of him,” Steffi said. “It’s a pretty long flight from California to Tanzania.”

“Yeah,” Nala agreed. “It’s going to take probably twice as long as it did to get to Japan.”

“Wow, really?” I groaned. “That was a really long flight.”

“Yeah, but you have to remember,” Elisabeth said. “Japan is only an ocean away. Tanzania is literally on the other side of the world.”

“It’s summer there right now, actually,” Ronin said.

“Oh, yeah!” Nick smirked. “That’s right, that’s so weird.”

“There’s a more detailed brief packet here,” Steffi said and held up a manilla folder. “Should we go over it now, or wait until later?”

“Might as well do it now,” I said.

“Passing it back,” Steffi said in a singsong voice.

My fairy-girl passed the folder over her head to Elisabeth who then passed it back across the aisle to Nala.

“Here ya go,” my curly-haired girl said as she handed the folder over the back of her seat to me.

“Thanks.” I smiled at my ladies. “Okay, let’s see.”

I opened the folder and scanned over the information for a minute.

“Looks like they have an issue with a monster called a Slide-Rock Bolter,” I announced to my team.

“What’s that?” Nick asked.

“It’s an enormous monster that lives on mountain peaks,” I explained. “I learned about them a little bit in one of my folklore classes at Berkeley. They’re huge, like bigger than a school bus huge. They have these weird, hook things in their tails that they use to hang onto the peaks and ridges of mountain ranges. The monsters hang out there for days, even weeks, waiting for animals or people to stumble into their path. Then the Slide-Rock Bolter unhooks its tail and slides down the mountain slope, scooping up anything in its path. They mostly live on really steep slopes, so they can use their immense momentum from one slide to go right up the opposite ridge and do it all over again.”

“What do these things look like?” Elisabeth asked.

“Sort of like a gigantic slug with a mouth like a fish,” I said. “They’re really hideous.”

“And it’s in Tanzania?” Nick asked. “Because MIA is in Egypt, so are we not going there first?”

“No.” I shook my head and glanced over the paperwork again. “Apparently, MIA has a secondary outpost in Tanzania, the Slide-Rock Bolter is on Mount Kilimanjaro, so it makes more sense for us to stay at the Tanzania location while we handle this.”

“Is there anything else in there?” Elisabeth asked.

“Not really.” I shook my head. “But it does say we’ll be going to the main MIA campus to meet with the headmaster after we deal with the displaced monster situation.”

“Sounds good to me,” Nick said. “I’m going to grab a snack, anybody want anything?”

“No, thanks,” I said.

The ladies all shook their heads at the blond nymph as he unbuckled his restraints and walked down the aisle to the storage compartments.

“I’m really glad you got to come with us, Ronin.” Nala turned over the seat to look at us.

“Me, too.” Elisabeth smiled. “You really feel like part of the team.”

“And you’re definitely one of Dylan’s girls now,” Nala giggled.

“That is certainly true.” A soft blush spread under Ronin’s adorable freckles. “It’s very interesting to be part of such a unique group dynamic.”

“I thought so, too,” Elisabeth giggled. “It is unlike any relationship I’ve known before. It feels very… American.”

“Well, Dylan is a special guy.” Ronin smiled softly at me.

“So true,” Nala murmured.

“You girls are the ones who are special,” I said. “I love how we work together as a team, and that you all get along so well. It’s really fantastic.”

“And we love you.” Steffi blushed softly under her pink hair.

“We do,” Elisabeth agreed.

“And we love each other, too,” Nala added as she looked around at Steffi, Elisabeth, and Ronin. “You guys are the best friends I’ve ever had, and I love that we can all share Dylan the way we do.”

“You do?” Amazement washed over me at their words.

Steffi and I had said the three big words a few times, but I hadn’t quite reached that step with my other girls.

“Of course, we do,” Nala murmured and a soft blush spread under her chocolatey skin.

“How could we not love you?” Elisabeth asked like it was as easy as breathing.

I glanced at Ronin, and she nodded emphatically in agreement.

Wow.

It still baffled me sometimes, the way these four sexy, powerful women all wanted me and loved me enough to share me. They even shared each other sometimes, and it was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced in my life. I counted myself incredibly lucky to have the attention of such amazing girls, but it was even more amazing to know I had their hearts, too.

“I love you, too,” I murmured and gazed at my four ladies.

“Aw, are we having a Dylan love fest?” Nick teased as he made kissy faces at us.

“Yes,” Steffi said smugly. “Yes, we are.”

“You know you love him, too,” Nala laughed.

“Yeah, I love you, dude,” Nick chuckled. “But in a totally different way than them.”

We all laughed at Nick’s comment as he dropped an armful of snacks and goodies on an empty aisle seat. Then he lowered himself back into his spot and stretched his long legs out into the aisle.

“I brought extras, just in case,” the blond dude said.

“You know, I could use a little something,” Elisabeth mused as she plucked a bag of trail mix from the seat.

“That dried pineapple is calling to me,” Ronin sighed.

We settled into comfortable conversation for a while as the Atlantic Ocean started to spread out beneath us in an endless swath of bright blue.

“Do you think MIA is having as many intense monster attacks as we’ve been getting at AIMM?” Nala asked idly after a while.

“Most likely.” I shrugged. “I know the multi-monster issue has been going on everywhere.”

“I wonder if they get a lot of displaced monsters, though,” Nick said.

“I wonder if they’ve seen any displaced monsters working together like we had in Tennessee.” Ronin tapped a finger on her too full upper lip.

“We’ll find out soon enough.” I tried to stifle a yawn.

“Looks like Dylan needs his usual mid-flight nap,” Steffi giggled.

“Something about the roar of the engines just puts me out.” I shrugged.

Plus, I hadn’t slept all that well last night, what with a huge, displaced monster and international mission thrown at us so suddenly. I’d laid awake in my bed for hours before I’d finally been able to fall asleep, and the early morning flight was catching up to me.

“Go ahead,” Elisabeth teased.

“We’ll wake you up when we get there,” Nick said.

“He’ll probably wake up before that, anyway,” Steffi said. “We aren’t even halfway there yet.”

“Ugh,” Nick groaned. “Too bad I can’t travel through plankton. I’d just zip right across the ocean and be there in a few hours.”

“That would be cool if you could,” Nala mused. “Do you think it’s big enough for you to phase through?”

“Maybe. I can go through grass blades already,” Nick said. “If I practice more, I bet I could do it.”

I settled lower into my seat and closed my eyes as my teammates debated the benefits of different types of plant life for various forms of travel.

The steady hum of the jet’s engines lulled me into a deep and restful sleep, and for once, I dreamed of my dragons instead of my women.

They pranced around me in a huge open field like happy puppies, and the five of us enjoyed a gentle spring afternoon as I watched Goldie and Thor romp through the wildflowers together.

Then clouds rolled in and shaded us from the bright afternoon sun. A single, intense beam of sunlight streamed down from between the clouds, and the curvy figure of a woman stepped out into the field. Lia, the Russian Dragon Conjurer stood bathed in liquid sunlight for a moment. Then she walked slowly toward me in a long flowing dress of light-blue lace. Her long, golden hair shone brightly as several dragons flew up behind her, and I was about to reach out and slip my hands around her slender waist when something bumped my shoulder.

“Dylan,” Ronin nudged me gently awake.

“Mmm,” I mumbled as I struggled out of the comfortable sleep and intensely vivid dream that had consumed me.

“We’ll be there soon, you should see the view.” Ronin leaned over and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

“Where are we?” I stretched my arms out over my head and groaned as my blood started moving again.

“We’re coming into Tanzanian airspace,” Nala said as she peered out the window beside her. “Silva said we should be arriving soon.”

“Geez, how long was I asleep?” I asked.

“A while,” Ronin said.

“You looked so peaceful, we couldn’t wake you,” Steffi giggled.

“Did you guys get any sleep?” I asked. “And what time is it locally?”

“Yes, we all slept for a while, too.” Ronin nodded.

“It’s late afternoon,” Elisabeth replied with a smirk. “Tomorrow.”

“It’s tomorrow?” I blinked as I tried to wrap my head around the idea.

“Yeah,” Nick chuckled. “Time zones, they’re weird as hell.”

“You said it.” I nodded.

“Poor Silva, he must be exhausted.” Steffi frowned slightly at the closed door of the cockpit.

“I suspect he used the autopilot to catch a few hours of sleep.” Nala grinned.

Nick gathered a stash of protein bars, beef jerky, trail mix, and a few apples from the empty seat beside him.

“Anybody else hungry?” the insatiable nymph asked.

“Ooooh, yeah.” Steffi smiled. “Feed me, Seymour.”

“Comin’ atcha,” Nick replied, and he tossed a packet over the back of the seats.

“Thank you.” Steffi reached up and deftly snatched the bag out of the air.

“Toss me a protein bar and an apple?” Nala asked as she held her hands out to catch the items. “Please and thank you.”

“Jerky, please,” I said.

“Me, too.” Ronin smiled.

Nick tossed snacks out to each of us, and we ate quietly for a few minutes.

“We should be arriving shortly, cadets,” Silva said over the radios. “Sit back and enjoy the views.”

We all turned to look out our windows. Tanzania spread out below us in huge swaths of lush grassland and rolling hills.

I usually imagined Africa as all sand dunes and flat plains of dry, rocky desert, but this part of the continent was beautifully filled with water and bright plant life. A huge lake covered a portion of the scenery on the left side of the plane, and the water spread out like fingers into the marshlands to the south.

“That’s beautiful,” I whispered as the late afternoon sun glinted off the vivid, blue-green water.

“That’s Lake Victoria,” Elisabeth said. “It is the largest body of fresh water on the entire continent, and the ninth-largest lake in the world.”

“Wow,” Nala hummed in appreciation. “It’s such a gorgeous color.”

“It’s green like that because of an invasive species of hyacinth,” Elisabeth explained. “It is a big problem for a lot of people who live in the surrounding areas. It blocks off the lake from some of the smaller rivers and causes many issues with the fishing industry. Their boats get stuck in the weeds.”

“Oh, that sucks.” Nick grimaced.

“Nature is always trying to kill us,” Ronin mused.

“Hey, leave the plants alone,” Nick said with mock offense.

“He has a point,” Steffi laughed. “Animals, natural disasters, disease, and you know, monsters, try way harder to kill us all on a daily basis.”

“I suppose you are right about that,” Ronin chuckled.

The jet took a sudden harsh dip in the air, and a feeling of free-falling horror locked around my gut for a split second until my seat caught me again.

“Fuck,” Nick’s voice rang out.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Something’s happening.” Steffi gripped the back of the seat in front of her until her knuckles turned white.

“That didn’t feel like regular turbulence,” Elisabeth said in a nervous voice.

“Hang on, kids!” Silva’s voice came through the headsets, and there was an obvious strain in his tone. “We’ve got company!”

“Shit,” I muttered, and I reached to tighten my seatbelt. “What is it?”

“Can’t tell,” Steffi called back. “Something with wings.”

“And I’m guessing it’s not a cute little fairy-girl like you?” Nick groaned.

“Nope,” Steffi snickered.

“There it goes,” Nala gasped as she stared out the window.

“Silva,” I spoke into my headset microphone. “What’s going on out there? Do you have a clear visual?”

“There’s a swarm of something, they look like dinosaurs,” the pilot said.

“Did he say dinosaurs?” Steffi screeched. “Silva, what do you mean--”

“I’m taking evasive action, hold on,” Silva called back.

The jet suddenly lurched heavily to the side, and all of our snacks went flying through the cabin as my girls shrieked at the top of their lungs.

“Shit!” Ronin shouted.

A loud banging sound echoed through the jet as whatever was outside slammed into the underbelly of the plane. The impact jolted up through the metal body of the jet and rattled my nerves.

“Fuck,” I grumbled. “Guys, we need to do something about this.”

“Cooper’s right,” Silva said through what sounded like gritted teeth. “There’s no way I’ll be able to land with these things all around us. You kids have to take them out.”

“Did Silva say ‘dinosaurs’?” Nala asked with wide, dark eyes.

“He said dinosaurs!” Steffi whimpered. “Wh-What are they?”

I unbuckled my harness and held on tight to the cushioned headrest of the seat in front of me as I stood and made my way toward the ramp.

“Let’s find out.” I smirked. “Silva, open the doors.”

“You got it,” the captain replied.

An intense gust of wind blasted through the cabin as the jet’s ramp lowered and opened into the high altitude. I gripped one hand firmly around the handrails beside the ramp and braced myself against the rush of air.

Nick and the girls had stood from their seats and carefully walked over to join me at the open ramp, and we all scanned the sky through squinted eyes.

Then a dark shape flashed past the jet’s opening so quickly, I hardly got a look at it.

A second later, a pterosaur-like creature flew past the open ramp more slowly and screeched at us. It had enormous, leathery wings that easily spanned fifteen feet across and connected down to small, lizard-like feet. Its skull was strangely elongated, and its mouth held hundreds of tiny razor-sharp teeth in two rows. Its maroon body was smooth and leathery, and a long, thin tail that extended out from its spine ended in the shape of a wide, flat, spade.

“What the fuck is that?” Nick grimaced.

“Shit, it’s a Kongamato!” I shouted over the rushing winds. “But at least it’s not displaced!”

“It’s an African monster?” Nala yelled as she held on tight to the handrail.

“Yeah, they’re mostly found in the Congo and Angola.” I nodded. “Silva’s right, we’ve got to take them out before we’ll be able to land. They’re territorial, and I bet they’re pissed about us stumbling into their hunting grounds.”

“What’s the plan here, Dylan?” Nick asked.

“Get them out of the sky,” I said. “If we can knock them back enough that they leave us alone, that’s great, otherwise take them out. Nick, are you ready?”

I tugged at my collar to expose the top of Beyblade’s head on my chest.

“Hell yeah, I’m ready!” My best friend smirked and made his way carefully toward the open air.

“Bianxifa!” I called out.

My Chinese fire dragon appeared in a burst of orange light and immediately strode to the end of the ramp and looked back at Nick like he didn’t even need a debrief of the situation.

Beyblade was ready for some fucking action.

My blond best friend climbed expertly onto the dragon’s back, and they glanced over at me for their orders.

“Clear the way for us!” I instructed the pair.

“We’re on it!” Nick called back before he and my red dragon disappeared out of sight.

“Steffi, give them some cover fire!” I told my fairy-girl.

Steffi spread her dragonfly wings out from her shoulders and reached up to press a quick kiss to my lips.

“You got it.” My pink-haired girl said and fluttered out into the intense winds.

Elisabeth began to shift her body, and long, dark brown feathers sprouted all over her skin. Her finely angled nose stretched out into the sharp beak of an eagle, and her green eyes faded to yellow and grew large and round.

“Perfect, fuck them up.” I nodded at my French lover.

“What about me, Dyl?” Nala asked as she twisted her hands nervously. “I’m not a whole lot of use this high up from the ground.”

“Stay here.” I frowned. “I know you want to help, but I think you’re right, we’re too far from any rock, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Okay.” Nala’s brow knitted together as she nodded.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance with the Slide-Rock Bolter.” I tucked a dark curl behind her ear and pressed a kiss to her lips.

Then I turned back to look at Ronin.

The Japanese warrior had covered her curvy body in her astral armor, and she glowed like an angel. She held a bladed staff in her hands and looked like she was ready to take on the world.

“Damn, that’s hot.” I smirked as I stepped up beside her.

Ronin shrugged and looked over the long-handled weapon she projected into her hands. There was a two-foot-long blade of astral light on either end of the staff.

“I thought I might try something new,” the Samurai warrior said.

“I like it, are you ready?” I asked.

“Hai.” Ronin nodded once.

“Exokyzo!” I shouted over the roar of the wind.

My sapphire blue dragon flashed into life before us, and a subtle chill raced through the air. Then Ky flapped his enormous wings and hovered expertly twenty feet below the end of the ramp.

“Let’s go!” I hollered.

Ronin took hold of my hand, and we jogged down the ramp together before I tugged her close in front of me and leapt into the open air without a moment’s hesitation.

Time for some air-born monster fighting.

Chapter 2

I wrapped my arm around Ronin’s narrow waist as we dropped into the open sky, and a second later, we landed on Ky’s back. Then I quickly settled my legs astride my ice dragon’s spine, and the Japanese girl squeezed her shapely thighs on his scaly back as she balanced in place in front of me.

“That was fun!” Ronin shouted over the rush of the wind in our ears.

“Fun’s just getting started!” I hollered back, and I silently ordered Ky to move away from the jet so we could get a good look at the situation around us.

The lush green land spread out some thirty-thousand feet beneath us as a half dozen Kongamato circled around the steel jet. The pterosaur monsters slammed their elongated heads intermittently against the body of the plane like they wanted to knock the whole jet right out of the sky, and they ranged widely in wingspan, with the largest easily spanning fifty feet across.

The largest beast clamped its huge mouth on the right wing and clenched down hard, and the sound of razors scraping on steel ripped through the air and sent a chill down my spine. Thankfully, the beast didn’t seem to cause much damage aside from some scrapes to the jet’s paint.

Nick rode comfortably on Beyblade’s back as they soared among the flock of Kongamato. The blond guy aimed his tranquilizer gun at the smaller monsters that passed by them, but based on his rapid rate of reloading, it took more than a few shots to have any effect at all. The heavy sedatives served well to slow down the monsters, but they didn’t appear to put them out completely.

Then my fire dragon blasted out powerful bursts of flame at the leathery wings of the largest Kongamato.

The prehistoric-looking monster screeched with rage and sped away from the flames.

Steffi fluttered elegantly nearby Elisabeth’s dark feathers. My fairy-girl provided cover fire in the form of glowing balls of golden energy, and she launched the attacks at the Kongamatos’ wings and narrow limbs. Her brow furrowed as she focused on the ball of energy between her hands, and as I watched, she reshaped the golden light into a sharp spear and condensed the energy particles tightly together until it was almost opaque. Then she flung the energy weapon straight into the belly of a mid-sized Kongamato.

The flying lizard creature screamed as its eyes rolled back in its skull. Its wings fluttered desperately once more before it dropped dead out of the sky.

“Damn, Steff!” I called out. “That was amazing!”

“Thanks,” Steffi breathed heavily as she wiped the sweat away from her face.

Elisabeth soared gracefully nearby Steffi as she lashed out with her sharp talons at the eyes of a smaller Kongamato. The French girl easily blinded the beast, and it flapped erratically for a moment. Then Elisabeth circled around and sank her talons into the creature’s neck, and she tore flesh from bone in one unforgiving pull.

Dark red blood spilled down the maroon body of the Kongamato as it screamed in pain, and after a moment of heavy bleeding, the movement of the beast’s leathery wings grew weak and erratic. It started to fall from the air despite its last attempts at staying airborne, and as the river of blood from its neck slowed, the pterosaur monster shuddered and went limp.

“Dylan!” Ronin cried out in front of me.

A huge Kongamato rushed toward us from the side, and it got well past Ky’s reach in a split second.

Ronin braced her legs on Ky’s back as she pivoted her body to the side and extended her double-bladed staff to cut right through the pterosaur’s thin neck. The muscles in her arms bunched from the force of the beast’s impact on her astral blade, but I locked my hands around her thin waist to help anchor the Japanese girl in place.

The Kongamato was skewered on Ronin’s weapon, and it flapped its thin wings erratically for a moment before it went completely still.

“Ew.” Ronin grimaced as she pulled her astral staff back to its original length.

The pterosaur slid off the end of her blade with a sickly wet sound, and as it dropped through the air, a sudden image of the splattered mess it would make on impact flashed through my mind.

“Good job,” I said to Ronin.

But she didn’t get a chance to respond because another Kongamato made the fatal mistake of darting close in front of Ky’s mouth.

My ice dragon snatched it easily out of the air with his huge teeth and snapped its body like a toothpick. Then a low rumble of distaste emanated from Ky’s throat as he opened his mouth and let the monster fall to join the others far below on the ground. The dragon’s large tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth for a second, and I could feel his huge body shudder beneath me.

“They don’t taste good, huh, buddy?” I chuckled at my dragon.

Ky let out a snort of chilled air in response.

Another smaller Kongamato dashed nearby us on the right side, and it stared straight ahead and screeched as it soared past us. That’s when I realized the beast was on a direct path to chomp its huge jaws around the swishing tail of my fire dragon.

“Ronin, there!” I pointed at the beast heading straight for Beyblade’s tail.

“Hai.” Ronin braced her legs and posted up on Ky’s back like an expert equestrian rider.

Then the Samurai warrior swung her double-bladed staff over her head as she extended the astral weapon fifteen feet out in front of her. The bladed end of the astral weapon connected with the pterosaur’s narrow neck, and it lopped its elongated head clean off its body.

The Kongamato continued to fly for a few seconds like a chicken with its head cut off before its muscles finally realized the brain was gone. Gravity took hold of the lizard-like beast a split second later, and it started its free-fall to splat on the ground somewhere far below.

Only the largest Kongamato remained now. Its maroon body was slightly charred at the edges of its wings from Beyblade’s multiple attacks, and it circled around us like a cheetah stalking its prey.

“Steffi, Nick, give us some cover fire!” I pointed at the pterosaur that was nearly as large as Ky.

It almost looked like the Kongamato understood my words, because it began to dip and swerve aggressively to evade Nick’s tranquilizer darts and Steffi’s energy orbs.

“Ronin, can you get a good shot in?” I asked.

“No!” The Japanese girl in front of me shook her head. “It is moving too erratically, and we’re not close enough for a precise attack!”

“Right.” I nodded. “Ky, do your thing!”

My ice dragon practically smirked back at me and flapped his enormous wings to move in closer to the final Kongamato. Then he took a deep breath in, and after his scaly back had expanded fully beneath our legs, he blasted out a steady stream of ice at the flying monster.

The beast’s muscles went rigid as frost spread over its leathery wings. The Kongamato’s eyes went wide as the ice encased its head and torso, and the maroon color of its skin turned purple from Ky’s frigid breath. Then the entire beast turned into a frozen block of ice before it plummeted from the sky.

“Woo!” Nick threw his arms up in celebration.

“That was awesome!” Steffi called out as she spun a little pirouette in mid-air.

“You girls get back on the jet,” I hollered above the wind. “Tell Silva we’ll fly down on Beyblade and Ky.”

“Okay!” Steffi nodded.

Then my fairy-girl and eagle-Elisabeth flew over to the jet’s ramp and disappeared inside.

Nick, Ronin, and I watched as the jet’s ramp closed up behind them.

“Looking to make a big entrance, huh?” Nick laughed.

“It makes more sense than trying to fit these guys into the jet.” I patted Ky’s scaly hide and laughed. “But, yeah, maybe.”

I had to admit, at least to myself, I liked the idea of arriving at MIA’s secondary outpost on my dragons. Maybe I was finally starting to enjoy the fanfare that came with being the world’s only male Dragon Conjurer. If people insisted on being eternally impressed by my existence, why not give them a little bit of a show?

My four girls certainly seemed to love when I leaned into it.

The jet maneuvered slightly to the east and started to descend slowly as the impressive peak of Mount Kilimanjaro rose up in the distance. I spotted a campus of low buildings the color of sand sprawled out on a wide campus as we gradually lowered closer to the ground.

“That must be MIA’s outpost.” Ronin pointed down at the acre of stone buildings.

Then the jet tilted to the right and angled toward a long black stretch of runway on the southern side of the campus.

I could see a small crowd had started to gather outside the wall of glass on the building beside the runway. As we dropped further in altitude, more and more people gathered in the group. They came into better focus as we dropped closer to the ground, and I could see most of them wore a lot of bright colors and vivid prints, and about half of them wore white lab coats. Several of the people below pointed up at my dragons, and I could have sworn I saw Beyblade stretch his neck up to make himself look even bigger.

The jet roared down the runway and came to an efficient stop a hundred yards away from the gathered crowd of about thirty people. The sounds of impressed conversation finally reached my ears as the engines died down, and I silently ordered my dragons to land between the jet and the building.

Beyblade circled around once more and slithered into a smooth landing in front of the plane’s nose. Then Ky flapped his enormous wings and sent a rush of air over the crowd as we dropped straight down to land beside Beyblade.

“A mighty entrance, Dragon Conjurer!” A tall, dark-skinned man who looked to be about my age clapped his hands as he approached us.

He was well over six feet tall with a leanly muscled physique, and his dark face split in a friendly grin that showed off a row of straight white teeth. His head was shaved bald, and he wore simple brown pants, black boots, and a tan, short-sleeve, button-down shirt. A military-style pin was attached to the left side of his shirt, and it was black with four small, gold stars in a horizontal row.

“Well, we had a bit of a situation to deal with before we could land,” I explained with a shrug, and then I slid off Ky’s back and helped Ronin down as well. “My name’s Dylan Cooper.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Dylan,” the dark-skinned man said in a thick, Kenyan accent. “My name is Lethabo, but you may call me Bo. I will be one of your liaisons during your time here in Africa.”

“Hi, Bo.” I shook the friendly guy’s hand. “This is Ronin, she’s been visiting from MAJK to build cooperative relations between our Academies.”

“It is very good to meet you, Ronin.” Bo grinned at the petite Japanese girl.

“Konnichiwa,” Ronin murmured and dipped forward in her usual little bow. “It is a pleasure to be here.”

Nick finally hopped off of Beyblade’s back and jogged over to join us as the jet’s ramp descended.

“Let me introduce the rest of my team,” I said and gestured to my best friend. “This is Nick.”

“An excellent arrival, my new friend,” Bo said to Nick as he shook the blond nymph’s hand vigorously.

“Thanks, it’s sort of how we do things,” Nick boasted.

Steffi, Elisabeth, and Nala walked down the ramp and made their way over to us.

“Hey, guys. This is Bo,” I said to my ladies as they joined us. “Bo, this is Steffi, Nala, and Elisabeth.”

“Hello.” Steffi grinned and gave a little wave.

“Hi, it’s great to meet you,” Nala said.

“Hello.” Elisabeth smiled and nodded.

“Ah, you are not American, either?” Bo asked the red-haired girl.

“Elisabeth is a long term ambassador from AMIE,” I explained.

“Fascinating.” Bo grinned. “I did not know we would have cadets from so many Academies joining us. This is wonderful. Binta will be very excited to meet you all.”

A sudden ripple of impressed laughter came from the group of cadets and staff who still gathered near the wall of windows on the building nearest us.

I looked over my shoulder and found Beyblade had sauntered a little closer to the group, and he pivoted in a tight circle and lashed his tail out in a flourish.

Ky sat proudly where he’d landed and held his head high in the air, and he glanced smugly at the crowd from the corner of his huge eye and let a puff of frost out from his nostrils.

A wave of “oohs” and “aahs” flowed through the crowd and was followed by a smattering of applause and laughter.

“They’re showing off.” Nick smirked at my dragons.

“If you’re not careful, they’ll get egos as big as this one,” Nala joked as she cocked her head at the blond nymph.

“Hey,” Nick gasped playfully. Then he turned to me and laughed. “She’s right, though.”

“Come on, guys,” I said softly to my dragons. My voice was so quiet I didn’t think they could actually hear me, but they obeyed nonetheless.

Ky turned and waited patiently in front of me, and Beyblade did a final swish of his tail before he bounded over to stand beside my ice dragon.

“Epistrophi, Fanhui,” I murmured with a grin.

My ice and fire dragons disappeared in bright flashes of blue and orange light, and a pleasant shiver ran down my spine as their chill and heat seeped back into my body as they curled up under my skin.

“Fascinating,” Bo gasped. “Come along, Binta is waiting for us in the dining hall. I expect you are hungry after your long journey and exciting arrival.”

“I like this guy,” Nick laughed and clapped a hand on Bo’s shoulder. “Food sounds amazing right now. Lead the way.”

“One moment,” Bo said as he gestured at the crowd that waited for us at the entrance of the building. “Move along, everyone, there will be time later to harass the Americans with your questions and compliments. Go on, shoo!”

The crowd of MIA cadets, scientists, and staff members murmured quietly and slowly dispersed into the building. A group of four girls stuck around to point at my tattoos, though, and they leaned their heads close together as they giggled.

They wore brightly-colored outfits with poufy sleeves in lightweight fabrics that fluttered in the gentle breeze. Two had vivid green-and-yellow patterned scarves wrapped around their heads, another wore long, thin braids that fell down around her shoulders, and the fourth girl’s hair was cropped close to her head.

The four girls continued to linger even after the rest of the crowd moved on, and Bo finally walked up to them.

“Go on, ladies,” the tall guy said. “They’ve been on a plane for many hours and deserve a chance to rest before you bombard them with your chattering.”

“You are absolutely no fun at all, Bo,” the girl with the braids said in an Ethiopian accent and pouted at our guide.

The two in the headscarves smiled at Nick and waved their fingers at him, and the girl with the short hair smiled at Elisabeth.

“Hi, ladies,” Nick waved and smirked from their attention.

The four girls giggled again and turned to leave together as Bo shooed at them with his hands.

“I am sorry about that.” Bo grinned apologetically and waved for us to follow him. “Your arrival has caused a bit of commotion, it is not often we have new people come to our Academy, and we have never had visitors from any of the other Academies before.”

“It’s okay, we’re sort of used to it,” Nala said as she smirked at me.

“It’s all part of the package deal of working with the Dragon Conjurer,” Steffi giggled.

Our tall guide smiled as he led us through the glass doors of the building and down a wide corridor that was brightly lit with fluorescent lights. Every twenty feet or so there was a large painting displayed on one side of the hall, and they depicted various classic monsters. I recognized most of them as creatures like werewolves, imps, and trolls, and there was even a painting of Kongamato amongst the collection.

We followed Bo down the hall, and the familiar sounds of a cafeteria echoed toward us. Steffi strolled beside me and laced her fingers between mine, and Ronin and Elisabeth walked together in front of us with their arms looped together. Nick and Nala chatted lightly behind me, and I could hear them discussing the artwork on the walls.

“They are magnificent beasts, your dragons.” Bo grinned over his shoulder at me.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Wait until you see Thor,” Nick called from the back of the group.

“Thor’s great,” Nala quipped. “But Goldie is just gorgeous.”

Bo turned around and began to walk backward at the front of our group and his eyes went wide.

“Thor and Goldie?” he asked. “Do you mean to tell me the two dragons you came in on are not your only ones?”

“Dylan has four dragons,” Steffi said proudly.

“My goodness,” Bo murmured, and he rubbed a hand absently over his bald head.

Then the Kenyan guy pushed open a pair of double doors at the end of the hall and held it open for us.

The dining hall of the outpost was much smaller than the cafeteria at AIMM, but this was to be expected. Three dozen square tables were placed evenly throughout the white space, and a long row of buffet tables lined the entire back wall. Eight wooden folding chairs sat evenly spaced around each table, and most of them were filled with cadets and scientists.

But the friendly chatter of conversation halted for a moment as everyone’s heads turned to look at us.

I glanced at Bo, and our guide narrowed his eyes with authority at the entire room. Then the conversation suddenly picked up again, and the tall guy turned back and grinned at us.

“Let us get you all something good to eat,” he chuckled.

“Bo!” a girl called out and stood from her seat.

She was roughly my height, with a short, afro hairstyle around her pretty face, and small gold hoop earrings bounced merrily as she waved us toward her. She wore a flowy, blue cotton blouse that accented her dark skin beautifully, simple tan shorts, and brown leather boots that came up to the middle of her muscular calves. On her shirt was a pin very similar to the one Bo wore, and it was a thin, black rectangle the length of a credit card with four gold stars across it.

“This is Binta,” Bo explained as he looped an arm around the tall girl’s waist and pressed a loving kiss to her cheek. “My girlfriend.”

“Yes, love.” Binta grinned at him and then smiled at me and my team, and she spoke with a Nigerian accent. “But I am also your other guide for your time here in Tanzania.”

“It’s wonderful to meet you.” Steffi smiled up at the tall girl. “I’m Steffi.”

“Hi, I’m Nala,” my curly-haired girl said.

“My name is Ronin.” The Japanese girl bowed slightly.

“I’m Elisabeth.” My red-haired girl smiled brightly.

“Hey.” My best friend threw up his hand in a little wave. “Nick.”

“Which means you must be Dylan.” Binta smiled at me with perfectly straight teeth. “The Dragon Conjurer. It is great to have you here.”

“Thanks, we’re really excited to be here,” I said.

“Mmm, something smells amazing,” Nick said with an entirely obvious glance at the rows of tables piled high with steaming food.

“Come, let us eat.” Bo grinned.

Bo and Binta led us through the line, and we piled our plates high with fresh steamed vegetables, barbecued meat with some kind of dark sauce, and broiled ears of corn on the cob. Then we returned to the empty table Binta had been sitting at when we arrived, and we sat down together.

The chatter in the dining hall had returned, but I caught more than a few heads turned our direction to stare. Most of the faces looked friendly or curious, and I didn’t catch any hostile glances from wanna-be Bruces.

“So, we know Dylan is a Conjurer,” Binta said a few minutes later. “But what do the rest of you do?”

“I can fly, and I have fairy energy magic,” Steffi said. “And I can speak to fairy-like creatures.”

“I control and manipulate earth.” Nala smirked. “And I can sense vibrations through rock and stone, sort of like echolocation.”

“An earth bender.” Binta nodded.

“I’m a shapeshifter,” Elisabeth said as she flipped her copper hair over her shoulder. “I can turn into different animals.”

“I can summon astral energy to create armor and simple weapons like swords and staves,” Ronin said.

“These are very cool powers you all have.” Bo grinned that bright white smile of his. “What about you, Nick? What are your abilities?”

“I can phase through plants,” Nick explained. “And I’m starting to be able to read through them like Nala can do with earth.”

“Fantastic.” Binta smiled brightly. “Bo has telekinetic powers.”

“Like Professor X?” Nick’s eyes went wide with excitement. “That’s so cool.”

“Yes, but only the ‘moving things with my mind’ part,” Bo chuckled. “I cannot hear thoughts or manipulate the minds of others.”

“That’s really impressive,” Nala mused and a soft smile spread across her chocolate cheeks. “It must be great to be able to pick up anything with your mind. Sometimes after missions or training sessions, I find myself trying to pick up random things like I can with rocks.”

“It can have its advantages.” Bo grinned and aimed his fingers at the buffet table. A small stack of napkins levitated smoothly from the table and floated over to land precisely in the middle of our group.

“Thank you, my love,” Binta murmured and picked up a napkin to dab gently at the corner of her mouth.

“So convenient,” Nick sighed and snatched a napkin as well.

“What do you do?” I asked the tall girl.

“Binta controls light,” Bo said as he gazed lovingly at the woman beside him.

“That sounds cool,” Nick said. “Like you can make it darker or brighter?”

“Yes.” Binta nodded. “I can create bright lights, and I can also bend light to create camouflage and illusions.”

The dark-skinned girl lifted her hands and closed her eyes. Then she took a deep breath, and suddenly, the dining hall faded away, and a beautiful field of wildflowers appeared around us. The harsh fluorescent lights above us morphed into a bright blue sky, and the linoleum floor around us became a field of knee-high grass and purple flowers with a splash of yellow in the center.

“Woah, that’s fucking cool,” Nick breathed in amazement.

“Thank you.” Binta opened her eyes slowly, and the illusion faded away.

“How do you do that?” Elisabeth wondered with wide eyes.

Binta held her hand up in front of her, and a small globe of rainbow light formed in the palm of her hand.

“If you can control light,” Binta said, and she rolled her fingers around the light until it formed into the shape of a champagne glass. “You can control what people see.”

“That’s incredible,” Ronin breathed.

“It is nothing.” Binta folded her hands delicately in her lap. “It is not nearly as useful in offensive situations as many other talents are.”

“You underplay your value, my darling,” Bo murmured.

“Thank you, love.” Binta blushed under her chocolate complexion.

“So, would you tell us more about MIA?” I asked. “I’m really curious about how things operate at your Academy.”

“Is that part of your ranking system?” Nick asked as he pointed at the four gold stars on Bo’s shirt.

“Yes.” Binta nodded. “MIA ranks cadets on a five-star level. Bo and I are both four stars currently.”

“I know my love will earn her fifth star soon,” Bo said. “She will be the first five-star cadet at MIA in a generation.”

“There aren’t any five-star cadets right now?” Elisabeth asked.

“No.” Bo shook his head. “The last cadet to earn a five-star rank retired twenty-five years ago.”

“Are you not going to tell them who it was?” Binta smirked at her boyfriend.

“It was my mother,” Bo said with a softly proud smile.

“Your mom was a MIA cadet, too?” Steffi asked with surprise.

“Yes.” Bo nodded. “She chose to retire from the Academy when she met my father, and I was born two years later.”

“That’s so sweet,” Nala hummed. “What did she think when your powers manifested?”

“She said it was the proudest moment of her life.” Bo glanced away with a self-conscious smile before he lifted a forkful of barbequed pork to his mouth.

“Until you earn your fifth star, that is,” Binta teased.

“How many four-star cadets are there?” Ronin asked.

“There are six others besides ourselves.” Bo cleared his throat. “The majority of MIA’s cadets are three-star, and there are several two-star as well. It is customary for incoming cadets to be given a single star until they have an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities, then most of them stay two-star for many years.”

“That’s cool,” Nick said. “AIMM’s ranking system is done with colors, so…  blue, green, yellow, orange, and red is the highest. Then each color has five numbered levels within it.”

“For example,” Steffi said as she jabbed the steamed green beans on her plate with her fork. “I’m an Orange Four, Elisabeth is a Yellow Two, and Nala is an Orange Three.”

“I’m a Yellow Four,” Nick said proudly. “And my man, Dylan here, is the only Red rank at AIMM. He’s a Red Three.”

“With four dragons, I would expect nothing less,” Bo laughed. “It seems that AIMM has sent us their very best team.”

“They have.” Nick nodded smugly.

“Ronin, what is your rank?” Binta asked as she nibbled delicately at her corn on the cob.

“Oh, Ronin is from MAJK,” Bo smacked himself lightly on the forehead. “I forgot to mention that. She is visiting AIMM to build diplomatic relations between their two Academies.”

“Yes, MAJK ranks our cadets differently,” Ronin explained. “We have two levels, named and unnamed. I was given the name Ronin when I earned my rank.”

“Unnamed cadets are identified by their dorm rooms,” Nick added.

“That is very interesting.” Bo nodded.

“It is,” Binta agreed. “And if we are all finished eating, Bo and I shall show you to your dormitories here.”

“That sounds great.” Nala smiled.

“I did not sleep very well on the plane,” Ronin agreed. “I believe I will make it an early night.”

“Yeah, sounds like a plan to me,” Nick said around his last bite of food.

“Lead the way,” I said.

We all stood from our seats as we followed Bo and Binta’s lead and picked up our trays. The MIA cadets led us over to a trash station by the double doors of the dining hall. We cleared away our garbage and stacked the dirty trays and dishes on top.

“This way to the dormitories.” Binta waved her hand over her shoulder.

The tall Nigerian cadet led us through another long hall like a well-paid tour guide.

“Down this way are the classrooms,” Binta said as she pointed down a wide corridor lined with several doors. “And over this direction are the training rooms. We only have two here, but the main MIA campus has more than a dozen.”

“Are they tangible holograms?” I asked, and I took a second to peer through the door that led to the training area.

“Yes.” Bo nodded. “I expect they are very similar to your facilities in America.”

“How are your teams split up?” Steffi asked. “At AIMM we have regular teams of five.”

“Well, it used to be four,” Nala pointed out.

“Until Dylan, Nick, and Nala came to visit MAJK,” Ronin continued. “In Kyoto, we have teams of five, and cadets rotate through different groups based on the parameters of the mission.”

“So, you do not always work with the same teammates?” Bo asked as he turned to walk backwards down the hall.

Binta led us through a pair of simple double doors that led down a much quieter corridor. The floor was lined with the kind of carpet I’d seen in elementary classrooms, and it was a muted rainbow of hues designed to camouflage as many stains as possible. The kind of carpet that was meant to last.

“No.” Ronin shook her head. “It fosters a sense of community and cooperation between all cadets and limits the likelihood of egos getting in the way.”

“And at AIMM, you have teams that you always work with?” Bo asked me.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I was assigned to Steffi, Nala, and Nick’s team when I first arrived. After we went to Japan, I suggested to our headmaster about the ‘teams of five’ thing, so when Elisabeth got permission to stay indefinitely, she joined our team.”

“How do you guys do it here?” Nick asked as he peeled an orange.

“We work in regular teams of four for a few months at a time,” Binta explained. “Then we rotate and work with a new team. Often, two teams will be sent on missions together. This way, we all get to know each other well and build trust and cooperation among us all.”

“It keeps life interesting.” Bo smiled. “And keeps us, what is it? On our toes?”

“That’s really neat,” Nala mused. “It sounds like the best of both AIMM and MAJK’s philosophies on the matter.”

“We find it works very well for us.” Binta smiled as she stopped between two plain wooden doors. She pointed at them and the two identical ones across the hall. “These will be your rooms during your time here.”

“We will let you get settled in,” Bo said. “I am certain you are all tired from the long journey. We will see you in the morning.”

“Thanks, Bo,” I said and shook the tall guy's hand.

“Please, let us know if you need anything.” Bo grinned.

“Have a pleasant evening,” Binta said.

The tall couple wrapped their arms around each other and strolled off to the end of the hall.

“They're so sweet,” Steffi mused as she watched Bo and Binta disappear around the corner.

“They are.” Nala smiled wistfully. “They're a really cute couple.”

“Come on, let's check out the digs,” Nick said.

I opened the first of the four doors Binta had indicated and searched briefly for a light switch. I flicked the switch, and the room glowed with a soft yellow light.

There were two full-sized beds that were made up with simple tan blankets and pristinely-white pillows. The walls were bare, and the carpet was the same as in the hallway. On the opposite wall was another wooden door I assumed was a bathroom. Another door to the left looked like it led into the next bedroom over, and our bags were on the floor in the middle of the room.

“Not exactly homey, is it?” Nick joked as he looked around the sparse space.

The blond nymph stepped over and opened the door to the left, and when he found the light switch, he illuminated an identical room on the other side.

I walked through the simple bedroom and pushed open the door on the far wall before I turned on the light.

The bathroom was long and connected to both of the bedrooms. A row of shower stalls with frosted plastic sides and doors filled half of the space along the back wall, and another row of toilet stalls filled the rest. Two porcelain sinks were built into a Formica counter that took up the length of the wall on both sides of the bathroom. Simple oval mirrors hung above each sink, and the ceiling was dotted every few feet with fluorescent lights. A row of built-in shelves was filled with fluffy white towels and extra rolls of toilet paper, and there were even tiny travel bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and soap.

“Looks like we’re sharing rooms again,” Nala said.

“At least, some of us are,” Steffi agreed and smiled at the curly-haired girl. “Roomies?”

“Just like old times.” Nala smirked.

“Ronin, will you share with me?” Elisabeth asked.

“I would enjoy that.” The Japanese girl nodded.

“That means we get our own rooms, dude,” Nick chuckled. “Which is probably a really good thing.”

“Yes.” Steffi smirked. “Definitely a good thing.”

“We’ll take this room,” Elisabeth said and pointed at the floor.

Nick picked up his bag and jogged into the next room over and plopped comfortably down on the bed.

“Cool, I’m over here,” my best friend called.

“Then we’ll go across the hall, and Dylan, you’ll be next to us,” Steffi murmured.

“Sounds good to me.” I nodded and glanced at Nick, Elisabeth, and Ronin. “You guys good?”

“Yes, I think we will be just fine,” Elisabeth smiled at me.

“Peachy. Thanks, babe,” Nick teased from his room.

“Alright,” I chuckled. “Let’s get some sleep so we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”

Nick stood up from his bed and waggled his fingers at us as he closed the door.

“Good niiiight,” the nymph said.

“Night,” I laughed.

“Good night, mon amour,” Elisabeth murmured softly.

My French girl stepped over and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips before she turned to pick up her bag and walked into the bathroom.

“Good night, Dylan,” Ronin said as she leaned up to kiss me.

“Good night.” I smiled at my foreign lovers.

Steffi and Nala grabbed their bags and stepped out into the hallway together, and I followed a step behind them.

“I’m going to get cleaned up and comfy,” Steffi sighed.

“That sounds good.” Nala grinned. “I would love a hot shower right now.”

“Enjoy.” I smiled and kissed both of my girls, and then we all stepped into our rooms and closed the doors behind us.

I tossed my bag down on one of the beds and kicked my boots off before I fell in a tired heap onto the other bed.

It had been a very busy day. Two days? I wasn’t sure, it was hard to keep track of time when we flew literally halfway around the world all at once.

What an arrival we’d had, too. If the sudden appearance of the Kongamato had been any indication, our time here in Africa was going to be jam-packed with missions.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as the comfortable bed soothed my tired muscles into a pleasantly relaxed state.

The sound of running water seeped through the door of the shared bathroom, and a moment later, Steffi and Nala’s voices drifted softly toward me. The door muffled their words, but their tones were comfortable and relaxed.

I settled back on my pillow as I unbuckled my pants and shoved them away. The soothing sound of my lovers’ voices and the steady rhythm of the showers lulled me quickly to sleep, but not for long.

“Dylan?” Steffi whispered softly.

“Mmm,” I hummed as her voice pulled me only slightly from my deep sleep.

My fairy-girl padded silently from the bathroom door and knelt gently on the bed beside me.

“Dylan?” Steffi murmured again. “Are you awake?”

“Mmmaybe,” I sighed as I struggled against the claws of sleep. “If you feel like waking me up?”

“Okay,” my pink-haired girl giggled quietly.

Steffi grazed her fingers softly over my chest as she leaned forward and peppered my cheeks and neck with hot kisses. Then she moved up to flick her tongue along the shell of my ear.

“Don’t mind me,” Steffi purred softly.

I kept my eyes closed as a smirk spread across my face, and heat raced over my body.

I was wide awake now.

“Mmm, okay.” I decided to play along with my fairy-girl’s mischief.

Steffi gently lifted one perfect thigh up and straddled across my hips as she tugged my shirt up to my chest. She pressed burning hot kisses all along Beyblade’s exposed tattoo, and she made sure to flick her tongue teasingly on my skin as she went.

“Aaah,” I sighed as liquid fire seeped out from my fire dragon and dripped along my veins.

My dick grew instantly stiff from Steffi’s kisses, and I felt her shift her hips suggestively on top of me.

“Hello,” Steffi cooed.

“Hi,” I whispered back as I opened my eyes to finally gaze up at her.

Steffi’s pastel hair was still damp from her shower, and she sat on top of me completely naked.

“I’ve been thinking about you all day,” my pink-haired girlfriend admitted.

“And what have you been thinking, sweetie?” I asked playfully.

“Oh, just about how much I want you to fuck me,” Steffi purred.

The door to the bathroom opened before I could respond, and Nala’s dark curls appeared in the swath of bright light from the bathroom.

“Mind if I join you?” the earth-bending girl asked as she stepped into the room completely naked.

Chapter 3

I stared entirely mesmerized by Nala’s still damp skin in the light of the bathroom, and Steffi tugged my boxers off.

My fairy-girl wasted no time in tossing my underwear aside and wrapping her pink lips around my shaft.

“Of course, we don’t mind,” I gasped softly.

“Good.” Nala smiled and sauntered over to join us on the bed.

Heat spread over my skin as I enjoyed the sway of Nala’s naked hips and the drops of water that clung to her shoulders like freckles.

My earth-bending girlfriend sat her perfect ass on the mattress beside me and pressed her palms flat on my chest. Then she leaned down to kiss me, and her tight nipples grazed along the middle of Beyblade’s tattoo.

A wave of molten gold raced down my nerves from my fire dragon, and I already knew my dragons were going to give off the same sex-heightening energy they did when I fucked Ronin and Elisabeth in the training room.

Nala kissed her way along my jaw, laved her tongue down my neck, and then moved up to breathe heavily into my ear.

“You taste so good,” Nala whispered.

Chills raced down my spine from Nala’s words and the soft moan she threw in for good measure. My blood drummed heavily through my veins and dragged consuming waves of pleasure through my body.

My cock twitched against Steffi’s tongue as she bobbed her pink head up and down on my shaft.

“God, that feels so good,” I moaned, and I couldn’t help but rock my hips up against her sweet mouth.

Steffi gagged a tiny bit on one of my thrusts, and she pressed her hands down on my hips to keep me in place.

Nala grabbed hold of the bottom of my shirt in her delicate fingers and pulled at the fabric, and I lifted my shoulders off the bed to help her remove the piece of clothing.

“You’re so sexy,” Nala moaned as she leaned forward to kiss me hotly.

Then my curly-haired girl took hold of my wrists and brought my hands up to cup her gorgeous breasts.

The delightful weight of Nala’s body in my hands while Steffi lavished my cock with her mouth was powerfully seductive, but then Nala traced her hands gently from my collarbone down over my biceps.

Goldie and Ky sent out rippling waves of icy wind that raced along my body, and goosebumps rose up all over my skin and sizzled away as Beyblade responded to another touch.

“Fuck,” I moaned as the sensations grew so intense that it was almost too much to handle.

Steffi pulled her sweet mouth away from my dick and wrapped both her hands around my length.

“Dylan, you taste so good,” my fairy-girlfriend hummed.

“I wanna taste,” Nala purred as she leaned down over my chest and moved to straddle my waist.

Her full breasts swayed deliciously, and her nipples grazed slightly across Beyblade’s tattoo.

“And I want to taste Steffi,” I growled back, and then I stared down at my pink-haired lover. “Get that pussy up here.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Steffi giggled as she stood and stepped closer to my chest.

Nala lifted her hips off my stomach and scooted down to brace herself across my thighs. She cupped one hand around my base and teased her coffee-colored lips over the head of my dick, and then her hot tongue poked out as she licked a drop of pre-cum off my tip.

At the same time, Steffi gripped the simple wooden headboard with both of her hands, and she swung her creamy thigh over my head to kneel on either side of my face.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” Nala sighed as she gripped her fingers tighter around my dick. Then she lowered her lips back down and took as much of my length into her mouth as she could manage.

I felt my cock touch the back of the curly-haired girl’s throat, and I shivered with pleasure for a moment before I turned my attention to the fairy-girl above my face. I reached up under Steffi’s thighs and cupped her perfect ass with both of my hands, and then I stared up at her as I flicked my tongue teasingly over her clit.

“You’re delicious,” I whispered and dove into her slick pussy lips like a starving man.

“Oh, Dylaaan,” Steffi moaned, and her head fell back as she gripped harder on the bed frame. “Your mouth feels so good.”

I massaged my fingers into the muscles of her firm ass and rocked my hips up slightly into Nala’s face.

Nala sucked hard on the tip of my dick every time she bobbed her head up, and she constantly pulsed her hot tongue along the underside of my shaft. A fire burned steadily deep in my gut as Nala worked her magic, but I forced myself to remain focused so I could satisfy Steffi, too.

I wrapped my hands over the tops of Steffi’s thighs and held her firmly in place as I ate her pussy, and I licked my tongue all the way up her dripping pussy lips and circled it around her clit.

“Oh, fuck,” Steffi moaned.

“Shit,” Nala hummed as she stroked her hands up and down my length. “Dylan, I need you inside me.”

“Then get up here,” Steffi sighed as I wrapped my lips over her clit. “Oooooh.”

Nala didn’t hesitate. She straightened up and moved so her hips were anchored firmly on either side of mine.

From my limited viewpoint deep in Steffi’s groin, I could see my pink-haired girl turn to look over her shoulder. Then Nala’s chocolatey hands reached up to cup the other girl’s pale tits, and she tweaked Steffi’s nipples lightly between her fingers.

“Aaah,” Steffi moaned as we spoiled our fairy-girl with attention. “Oooh, shiiiit.”

Nala continued to play her fingers over Steffi’s nipples as I felt her dripping hot folds hover just over the tip of my eagerly waiting dick. Then the dark beauty moaned as she impaled herself on my cock in a single motion, and she started to move slowly on me.

I could feel Steffi start to tense and knew she was close to climaxing, so I flicked my tongue more forcefully through her wet folds.

“Are you going to cum for us?” Nala purred as she squeezed her fingers hard around Steffi’s nipples.

“Yes, yessss!” Steffi moaned loudly as her hips started to rock erratically against my face. “Yeeeeeees, I’m cuuuming.”

Every muscle in my fairy-girl’s legs tensed as her orgasm took hold of her, and a fresh wave of Steffi’s sweet juices flooded over my chin.

“Fuck,” Nala breathed as she rode me with a torturously slow rhythm. “You’re so hot, Steffi.”

“Mmm,” the pink-haired girl hummed.

“Aaahh,” I moaned as I thrust my hips up and pounded harder into Nala’s tight tunnel.

Steffi quickly stood from around my head to turn completely around until she faced our teammate.

Steffi’s fingernails scraped down Beyblade’s tattoo and sharp sparks of heat licked out from my chest and down my spine. The heat and pleasure added to the churning pool of fire low in my gut.

“Dylan, put your fingers inside me,” Steffi begged as she cupped Nala’s face with both her hands.

“Fuck,” I moaned.

I complied instantly and slid two fingers deep into Steffi’s wet heat as Nala continued to ride me.

My two lovers reached up with their hands and began to play with each other’s nipples as I fucked them both, and I massaged deep in Steffi’s pussy with one hand and reached around her hips with my other to circle my fingertip over her clit. At the same time, I worked my hips up into Nala’s dripping pussy at the same pace as I finger fucked my fairy-girl, and both girls started whimpering with pleasure.

“Fuck, Dylan, right there,” Nala gasped as she massaged her hands into Steffi’s ass.

I thrust harder and faster with my hips and my fingers as pleasure blazed along every one of my nerves. The simple wooden bedframe started to creak ominously as we began to lose ourselves in the frenzy of sensation, and I felt myself getting close to release as the girls’ moans echoed around me.

So, I curled my finger in Steffi’s tight pussy and massaged forward into her g-spot to work her over the edge.

“Fuuuuck, yeees,” Steffi cried out, and her pussy instantly clamped tight around my fingers as she tumbled into another shuddering orgasm.

“Shit,” Nala gasped as she ground herself down on my pelvis. “I’m gonna cuuuum, toooo.”

Nala followed Steffi into oblivion, and the rippling waves of her pleasure dragged me along after them. Ecstasy spiked through my brain and down my spine as the girls came around my dick and fingers. A long, slow wave of scorching heat seeped out from Beyblade as Steffi ground down on my hand and rubbed her thighs over his tattoo.

“Fuuuck,” I groaned as I thrust upward and filled Nala’s tight tunnel with my seed.

The mind-numbing pleasure crashed through my limbs and all the way into my toes as I kept pumping more and more hot cum into Nala. My cream spilled out of her hot pussy and dripped down my balls as my chocolate-skinned girlfriend shuddered once more, but she didn’t stop riding my dick until I’d finally come down from my own intense climax.

“God, that was so good,” Nala cooed as her ragged breaths started to slow.

“It’s always so good with you guys.” Steffi grinned back at me, and she looked a little love drunk.

“You two are incredible,” I hummed as the dizzying pleasure finally started to ebb from my brain, and I stifled a heavy yawn.

“I love fucking you both,” Steffi sighed. “And now I’m ready for bed.”

Then she climbed off my chest, and I could see her juices drip down her creamy thighs in the light from the bathroom door.

“Yeah, I’m exhausted now,” Nala giggled as she stood from my bed.

Steffi leaned down to kiss my lips that were still covered in her juices.

“Mmm.” My fairy-girl licked her lips. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I smirked up at Steffi’s hazy, heavy-lidded eyes.

“I love you, too, too,” Nala giggled as she leaned forward to kiss me.

“And I love you, too,” I chuckled. “Get some good sleep. I know I will.”

“Good night, Dyl,” Steffi laughed.

My two girls waved at me as they walked back into the bathroom, and the room grew pitch black as Nala pulled the door closed behind her.

I sighed heavily and tugged the blanket out from under me, and I shook my head at the wild turn the night had taken. I didn’t think I’d ever get totally used to having all my gorgeous and strong girls in love with me, but I smiled at the knowledge that they all loved me enough to share me, and to share each other. I didn’t know what I’d done earlier in my life to earn this kind of karmic reward, but I knew I wasn’t going to waste it.

I fell asleep quickly and enjoyed a long, restful night interspersed with the occasional sexy dream. Sometimes Steffi was alone when she came to me, and sometimes Nala or Ronin was with her. By the early hours of the morning, all four of my ladies came to me in my dream and lavished me with all their attention, and I basked in every dreamy second of it.

“Everything a Dragon Master deserves,” Dream Elisabeth cooed as she drizzled her fingers over my skin, and I came all over her creamy tits one last time before everything faded to black.

I woke on my own for the first time in what felt like weeks. Confusion bubbled softly in my brain for a second as I glanced around the unfamiliar and empty room. Then I remembered our arrival in Tanzania and the events of the night before, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the intense turn my life had taken these last few months.

I stretched and climbed out of bed, and then I pulled fresh jeans and a t-shirt out of my bag and walked into the bathroom. The mirrors were still fogged from the girls’ showers this morning, but the room was empty. I turned the hot water faucet and waited a moment for the water to heat up, and I pulled a towel and a few soap bottles from the shelves before I stepped into the steady stream of water.

The hot water felt amazing, and I took my time to enjoy a leisurely shower. I lathered my hair and scrubbed my nails across my scalp. Something about the dry heat of Tanzania felt like it lingered in the fibers of my hair and deep in the pores of my skin.

I turned the water off and dried myself before I pulled my clothes on. Then I walked over to the sink and brushed my teeth quickly, but I could hear Steffi and Nala chatting quietly in the next room. I walked back into my room and sat down on the bed to pull on my boots, and only a few seconds later, there was a knock on my door.

“Dude?” Nick’s voice called from the hallway. “You awake?”

“Yeah, man, come on in,” I answered.

Nick opened the door and poked his blond head in. “We’re heading over for breakfast, you wanna come?”

“Sounds good to me.” I nodded. “Let’s go.”

I stood from my bed and followed Nick out into the hallway. All my girls stood chatting comfortably in the hall already, and they turned to smile at me in unison as I pulled my door closed behind me.

“Good morning, ladies.” I smirked at my girls.

“Hey, cutie.” Steffi smiled and bounced over to kiss me.

“Bonjour,” Elisabeth murmured.

Nala and Ronin smiled sweetly at me.

“Okay, breakfast,” Nick announced.

“Let’s feed Nick before his stomach eats him,” Nala laughed.

We headed down the hall toward the double doors that led back to the dining hall, and then I pushed the doors open and found Bo and Binta locked in a passionate embrace on the other side.

“Oh,” I gasped and looked quickly away. “I’m sorry.”

The tall couple broke suddenly apart and smiled apologetically at me.

“Good morning, Dylan,” Bo said cheerfully.

Binta quickly straightened her clothes as the rest of my team joined us in the corridor.

“Good morning.” Nick smirked at our MIA guides.

“We were just on our way to breakfast,” Steffi chuckled. “Have you guys eaten yet?”

“We were waiting for you,” Bo answered with a shrug.

“Let’s see what this place has to offer, then,” Nick said as he started walking.

“Did you have a pleasant sleep?” Binta asked us conversationally.

“Yes, the rooms are very comfortable, thank you,” Ronin said.

“I am glad to hear this.” Bo grinned.

We followed Nick into the dining hall and quickly assembled plates loaded with perfectly fried eggs, roasted potatoes, and succulent sausages. There was also a table filled with pitchers of freshly squeezed orange juice and freshly brewed coffee.

“Is there any tea, perhaps?” Elisabeth asked.

“I believe I can find you something,” Binta said as she held up one finger. “Give me a moment.”

The tall girl disappeared through a heavy metal door in the back corner of the dining hall as Bo led us to an empty table nearby.

“I didn’t mean to be a bother,” my French girlfriend said a moment later when Binta still hadn’t returned. “It’s only that I do not like coffee.”

“It is no trouble,” Bo assured her. “Binta is friends with all the kitchen staff. Ah, here she comes, now.”

Binta called something I didn’t understand to the ladies in the kitchen. She stood in the half-open door to the kitchen and laughed with the staff a moment longer before she made her way to our table.

“Would you prefer Earl Grey or English Breakfast?” Binta offered the two types of tea to Elisabeth.

“Earl Grey.” The coppery-haired girl smiled. “You are too kind, thank you.”

“It is no trouble at all.” Binta smiled.

“So, what’s the plan for today?” Nick asked before he took a huge bite of his sausage and sighed with pleasure. “Oh, this is so good.”

“Our chef is very talented.” Bo grinned and lifted a bite of egg to his mouth.

“I thought we could show you the rest of our facility here,” Binta said. “Perhaps we can have a training session as well.”

“That sounds awesome,” Steffi said.

“Hell yes,” Nick said through a mouthful of breakfast. “Let’s show off a little bit.”

“I could use a little ass-kicking time,” Nala agreed.

“Unfortunately, that may need to wait.” Bo looked toward the doors of the dining hall and frowned.

Two thickly muscled men in tan shirts and dark brown pants marched toward us. They were dressed completely differently than the Men in Black at home, but they managed to walk with the same air of emotionless authority.

“Dylan Cooper,” one of the men spoke in a heavy accent I couldn’t place.

“That’s me.” I raised my hand.

“The displaced monster from your jurisdiction,” the other man said in a gentle South African accent. “It is time to take care of it.”

“Right.” I nodded and looked at my team. “Let’s get going.”

“Are we to accompany Dylan and his team?” Bo asked the pair of men.

“Yes, you will both go with them.” The first guard nodded. “Your briefing is on the helicopter.”

“Thank you,” Binta said politely to the two men.

The men turned on their heels and stomped off toward their next assignment.

“Are you all finished with your meals?” Binta asked my team.

“Yeah, we’re done.” Steffi glanced at Nala, and they nodded.

“Yes, I am finished, as well,” Ronin said as she swallowed her last bite of breakfast.

“Indeed, we've got a monster to take care of.” Elisabeth finished her tea and stood from the table.

“Well, I’m not done eating, but yeah… let’s get going, then.” Nick smirked and stood up.

The rest of my team and I rose to our feet as we picked up our trays.

“Lead the way,” I said to Bo.

Our tall MIA guides strode quickly to the tray drop off where we piled our trays up. Then Bo pushed the double doors open and held them for us as we filed into the hallway.

“MIA will have prepared mission clothes for us,” Bo explained. “We will change before we board the helicopter.”

“I’m glad,” Ronin chuckled. “This isn’t exactly mission-appropriate.”

The Japanese girl gestured at herself. She wore a white crop top that showed her smooth, flat stomach, and a black, pleated skirt that fell to her mid-thighs. Opaque black tights fit snugly across her thighs, and chunky, black leather ankle boots completed the look.

“Maybe not,” I said. “But you look amazing.”

“He’s right, Ro,” Steffi agreed. “That skirt is fierce.”

“You all look gorgeous today.” I smiled at my ladies.

And this wasn’t just talk.

Steffi looked as beautiful as Ronin, and she’d even drawn the tiniest line of teal blue at the corner of her gold eyes to make them pop. She wore a white cotton shirt with pastel rainbow polka dots, cut-off jean shorts, and black Converse sneakers.

Nala wore a dark green t-shirt that hung loosely over the band of her high-waisted jeans, and she’d cuffed the bottoms to expose her soft ankles and the laces of her dark, high-top sneakers.

Elisabeth’s long, coppery hair fell loose around the sharp collar of her light-blue polo shirt, and the simple gray slacks she wore would have made anybody else look frumpy, but on the elegant French girl, they were entirely high fashion.

“Come on.” Nick rolled his eyes playfully. “Let’s get ready to kick this displaced monster’s ass.”

Bo and Binta led us back toward the huge room with the wall of windows, but they stopped in the corridor just before and turned to look at my team and me.

“The ladies’ locker room is on this side.” Bo gestured at a door on the left and then pointed to a door beside him. “And the men’s room is here. You will find mission clothes waiting for you inside. They will be labeled with your names.”

“We will meet you boys back here when we are ready,” Binta said and leaned in to kiss her boyfriend.

“Hurry back, my love.” Bo smiled lovingly at his girlfriend.

Our guide pushed the locker room door open and held it for Nick and me as we walked inside the brightly lit room.

Three piles of earth-toned clothing sat on the bench in the middle of the room, and a small scrap of paper rested on top of each pile with our names scribbled on them.

Nick picked up his clothes and immediately stripped off his My Hero Academia t-shirt and jeans. Then he tugged the muted olive green cotton t-shirt over his head and stepped into the light-brown cargo pants.

My clothes were similar, with a dark, forest green shirt, and dark brown cargo pants. There were professional-looking hiking boots on the floor beneath the bench, and they had bright stripes along the sides, but mine were red, and Nick’s were yellow. I wondered for a second if MIA chose them based on our AIMM ranks.

Bo’s muscular frame filled out his dusty red shirt well, and his black cargo pants were almost a hair too short for the tall guy. I noticed his hiking boots had a white stripe where ours were colored, and he pinned his four-star rank carefully on his chest and checked his appearance quickly in the mirror.

I finished lacing up my boots and ran my fingers roughly through my hair.

“Are we ready?” Bo asked.

“Yeah.” Nick smirked. “This thing won’t know what hit it.”

“I’m ready.” I nodded.

“Let us go wait for the ladies,” Bo chuckled. “They will surely not be ready yet.”

“I like this guy,” Nick laughed.

The three of us walked back into the hallway to wait for the girls. Bo leaned his shoulder casually against the wall, Nick pulled an apple from somewhere and started to eat, and I braced my feet comfortably on the floor and let my eyes wander around the corridor.

All in all, the facility reminded me of every elementary school I’d ever seen in the United States. The fluorescent lights filled in squares between the Styrofoam tiles of the dropped ceiling. The walls and floor were done up with institutional paints and linoleum, like the kind a company could buy at wholesale prices and do a huge building without breaking the bank. While the building lacked character, it was well-maintained, and I hadn’t spotted a single fleck of chipped paint or cracked foundation.

I also noticed the cadets here didn’t have uniforms and wore their own clothes. I wondered if that was how MIA did things, or if it was a little more lax here at the secondary outpost than the main Academy. I had begun to notice the black star pins on the shirt fronts of the cadets, too, and mostly I’d spotted three-star ranks, but I’d seen a few two-stars as well. Maybe the star pins were the extent of their uniforms, and there was just a dress code to adhere to. I made a mental note to ask Bo about MIA’s stance on uniforms.

The ladies’ locker room door opened a moment later, and Binta stepped into the hallway. She wore a blueish-gray t-shirt and tan cargo shorts that came down to her mid-thighs. Binta had pulled her black socks up a few inches above her hiking boots that had white stripes like Bo’s.

Steffi walked out into the hall next. She looked incredible in a reddish-brown tank top that allowed room for her wings to come out. Her cargo shorts were black, and her hiking boots had a bright orange stripe along the sides. Steffi had pinned the sides of her hair back away from her face, and it allowed her golden eyes to shine in the harsh light of the hallway.

Ronin came out of the locker room a second later, and I raked my gaze over her exotic frame. She’d twisted her long black hair into an elaborate braided crown around the back of her head, and a few wispy hairs fell down around her freckled cheeks. Her ample chest strained against the muted orange fabric of her t-shirt, and it looked like Ronin had cuffed the bottom of her dark brown shorts a few times. They rode up much higher on her thighs than the other girls’, and her black socks were pulled tight several inches above the tops of her hiking boots, which had a bright white stripe like the MIA cadets’ boots.

Elisabeth was dressed similarly, in a pleasant, sandy-tan shirt and dark brown shorts that fit snugly around her curves in all the right places. She’d looped her belt around her waist and tugged it tightly into place. Her hiking boots had a yellow stripe along the sides, and she’d pulled her coppery hair into a high ponytail.

Nala entered the corridor last, and her chocolatey skin glowed against the soft yellow of her t-shirt. Her tan cargo shorts strained against the toned shape of her thighs, and her hiking boots bore a bright orange stripe on the sides. Nala’s dark curls seemed to have a little extra bounce this morning as she walked over to join us, but I had a feeling this was because she’d caught me staring at her delicious curves for a few seconds longer than I intended.

“Are we ready?” Steffi asked the group.

“I think so,” I murmured as I glanced around at everyone. “Yeah?”

“Let’s do it,” Nala said as she punched her fist into her hand. “I’m so ready to fight a rock monster.”

“This is totally your kind of mission, Pipsqueak.” Nick smirked.

“It really is,” Steffi chuckled. “Come on, what are we waiting for?”

“Absolutely nothing.” Bo grinned and turned to lead us through the double doors.

We followed our tall MIA guides through the enormous room of windows we’d entered through yesterday and out into the bright morning sun. A large military-style, green-camo helicopter waited on the tarmac for us. A middle-aged woman with toffee-colored skin sat in one of the pilot seats, and a man who was rather thick around the middle waited for us beside the chopper.

“Good morning, cadets.” The man grinned cheerfully at us.

“Good morning, Zabdi.” Bo reached out and shook the man’s hand, and then he turned to gesture at me and my team. “These are our guests from AIMM.”

“Mr. Zabdi, at your service.” The heavy-set man smiled brightly at us.

“Good morning,” Steffi said with a friendly tone.

Ronin offered her little bow, and Elisabeth smiled.

“Are we taking the helicopter all the way to Mount Kilimanjaro?” Nala asked.

“Yes, miss,” Zabdi said. “It is not far from here as the crow flies. Please, climb aboard, and we will be on our way.”

“Thank you.” Binta smiled and stepped up into the helicopter as the engines rumbled to life.

The rotors began to turn very slowly as the rest of us piled into the twenty-seat helicopter. We strapped into our seats and pulled our headsets down from the ceiling to place them over our ears.

Mr. Zabdi climbed up front as the middle-aged woman began flicking switches and checking gauges.

“What kind of helicopter is this?” Ronin asked through the radio’s static.

“It is an Atlas Oryx,” Bo answered. “It is the largest helicopter we have here in Tanzania.”

“It’s pretty sweet,” Nick said as he glanced around.

The seats were well-cushioned and comfortable, and I leaned back as the rotors picked up speed and began to lift us off the ground.

“We will arrive shortly,” Zabdi’s voice said through the radios a moment later. “It is not far from here to your drop point.”

“Drop point?” Nick cocked an eyebrow.

“Yes.” Zabdi turned over his shoulder and grinned. “We will take you to the mountain peak where the Slide-Rock Bolter is, and you will drop down.”

“He’s near the secondary peak, Mawenzi,” the female pilot explained. “There is a mission brief in the pocket behind Zabdi’s seat.”

Binta reached forward and pulled a small packet of pages from the pocket. She flipped open the packet and scanned the page for a moment.

“A Slide-Rock Bolter is an American legend first discovered by lumberjacks at the beginning of the nineteenth century.” Binta flipped through the pages. “This one has been identified by our satellites as being at least fifteen meters long.”

“My goodness,” Elisabeth murmured.

“Fifteen meters?” Nick puzzled. “That’s what? Like forty-five feet?”

“It is closer to fifty, my American friend,” Bo chuckled.

“Yikes,” Steffi said.

“What else does it say?” I asked.

“The Slide-Rock Bolter perches at the top of a peak awaiting its prey,” Binta continued. “When a suitable meal stumbles upon its path, the Slide-Rock Bolter releases its hold on the mountain top and accelerates down the steep slope, consuming its prey and demolishing the landscape along the way.”

“Then they use the momentum from the slide down to rush all the way back up to the next peak.” I nodded. “They have no way to move without the use of gravity, so we might want to try and halt it at the bottom of its slide.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Nala said.

“Is there anything else of note in the briefing?” Ronin asked.

“No.” Binta shook her head. “There is information on its earliest sightings, but nothing that will prove useful for our mission.”

“We are approaching our drop point,” Zabdi’s voice crackled through the radio. “We will get as close to the mountain as we can, but there will still be quite a drop for you.”

“Get ready,” the female pilot added.

Steffi unbuckled her restraints and pulled her tank top straps aside to allow her dragonfly wings to flutter out.

I leaned toward the side of the helicopter as Bo reached over and slid the door open. Wind rushed in and roared in my ears as I gazed down at the mountainside.

An enormous, gray-blue, slug-whale-looking creature laid with its huge head facing down the mountain peak. The Slide-Rock Bolter was at bare minimum fifty feet long and laid at a steep downward angle. It had gigantic, yellow eyes on either side of its massive head that were as large as the tires on an eighteen-wheeler, and its gaze flicked lazily from side to side as it waited for decent prey to stumble across its path. Its huge mouth was slightly open, and a long row of stubby fangs sprouted out unevenly. The dolphin-shaped tail of the Slide-Rock Bolter was hooked over the sharp rocky edge of the peak, but before I could finish studying the strange-looking beast, another movement caught my eye.

A small group of miniature antelopes wandered out of the tree line some hundred yards below the gigantic slug creature.

“Those are dik dik.” Bo pointed down at the short deer.

My team and I watched in fascinated horror as the beast narrowed its huge yellow eyes and lifted its tail from the rocky edge.

Then the Slide-Rock Bolter picked up momentum like it was greased all along its bottom, and it slid down like it was on a smooth sheet of glass rather than uneven rock. The beast quickly reached highway speeds and charged quietly at the herd of small deer, and I shook my head as I imagined how this would end.

The dik diks’ ears twitched, and they looked up suddenly at the school-bus-sized slug that raced down the mountainside toward them, but it was too late.

The Slide-Rock Bolter opened its huge maw and swallowed the dozen dik diks in a single pass.

Then its intense momentum carried the enormous beast a hundred yards back up the next peak as dust settled behind it.

“Shhhhit,” Nick murmured in horror.

Chapter 4

The Slide-Rock Bolter hooked its massive tail over a new peak and wriggled its huge body to face back down into the valley again. The dust from its attack drifted slowly to the ground as its enormous tongue poked out and licked at the corner of its fish-like mouth. The Slide-Rock Bolter blinked slowly and began to flick its enormous yellow eyes slowly back and forth at the valley below, and it settled in to wait for its next meal.

The small herd of dik diks was gone, and not even a trail of blood marked where they had stood only seconds ago. They were just gone, as if they’d never been there at all. Now, only a wide path of disturbed rock and demolished trees arched from where the slug monster laid, all the way back the few hundred yards to where it had begun.

“We need to come at this thing with everything we’ve got,” I shouted above the noise of the chopper’s engines and the rush of wind. “Everybody ready?”

My team and the MIA cadets nodded their heads at me.

“Nick,” I called to my best friend as I tugged my collar aside. “Ready?”

“You know I am.” The blond guy smirked.

“Bianxifa!”

Beyblade burst out of my tattoo in a flash of orange light and hovered in the forceful wind from the blades below the landing skids of the chopper.

“Coming atcha, buddy,” Nick shouted as he grabbed a twelve-gauge shotgun from the weapon’s rack, and then he dropped out of the helicopter.

The blond nymph landed gracefully on Beyblade’s back before he slung the gun’s holster over his shoulders, and the two flew off together.

The Slide-Rock Bolter spotted them immediately and started to lash its enormous body side to side in an attempt to catch Beyblade’s long tail in its uneven teeth. Rocks began to shake free from the mountainside and tumble dangerously in all directions.

“Nala!” I called. “Do your thing.”

“I’m on it!” The curly-haired girl smirked, and she reached out with both hands to mentally grab hold of a large flat rock that shook loose from the mountain peak.

Then Nala jumped out of the helicopter as she brought the rock up to meet her feet, and she rode the boulder down to the ground like a surfboard.

“That is brilliant!” Bo shouted, and then he turned to Binta. “Come, love, we will join in the fight.”

Binta pulled off her straps and moved closer to Bo, and he wrapped his thickly muscled arm around her waist as we hovered over the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Then Bo copied Nala’s move and used his telekinetic powers to bring a large, flat stone airborne. The dark-skinned couple jumped from the helicopter together and landed gracefully on the rock a second later.

“Elisabeth.” I looked at the French girl.

Elisabeth nodded next to us, and then she began to reshape her body into the graceful form of a Philippine eagle. Her arms stretched into beautiful wings covered with long brown feathers, and her delicate nose elongated into a sharp beak. Then she spread her wings wide and launched herself into the air.

“Ronin, let’s go,” I called to my Japanese girlfriend. “Exokyzo!”

Ky appeared in a flash of icy-blue light and flapped his enormous wings as he waited for us to drop down.

Ronin nodded at me as she formed her white astral armor all over her body.

I looped my arms around my Samurai warrior’s narrow waist. Then I held tight to Ronin, and we jumped from the helicopter and landed expertly on my ice dragon’s back. I glanced back up and saw Elisabeth’s eagle body soaring easily over the mountain peak.

The rushing sound of the wind died away as Zabdi and his co-pilot maneuvered the craft away from the scene.

I took in the scene for a moment in order to assess any possible weaknesses this beast might have.

Large, lopsided walls had started to accumulate further down the slope from the steady onslaught of debris the monstrous slug knocked loose.

Nala had anchored her feet firmly in the rock bed well out of the Slide-Rock Bolter’s reach. The earth-bending girl focused her attention on redirecting the huge boulders that the monster knocked loose from the mountain.

Steffi fluttered nearby and used her energy shields to protect Nala as she worked. My fairy-girl blasted the occasional golden ball down at the Slide-Rock Bolter’s huge yellow eyes.

The beast blinked uncomfortably at the balls of golden light, but Steffi’s attack did little to deter the monster.

Then the Slide-Rock Bolter breathed deeply and thrust an impressive amount of its sluggish body up into the air. It chomped out at Steffi’s feet as the front half of its massive body hung in the air for a split second.

“Fuck!” Steffi cried out and darted up away from the monster’s row of uneven teeth.

The earth shook as the Slide-Rock Bolter crashed back to the ground.

“Steffi, are you okay?” I cried out.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” My pink-haired girl sighed heavily with relief as she fluttered higher.

“Everybody, this thing has way more reach than we thought,” I called out to my team. “Stay clear of it!”

Bo nodded from his location opposite Nala. He’d crafted a small platform of stones on the other side of the monstrous slug. His hands were raised, and his muscles bunched with the tension that ran through his body, and he stared hard at the Slide-Rock Bolter’s huge tail.

Binta stood beside him and took a deep breath and raised her fingers, and the air wobbled like a desert mirage around the slug monster’s gigantic face.

The yellow irises of the Slide-Rock Bolter grew narrow as its pupils dilated to a disturbing size.

I glanced back at Binta and saw the focus clear on her face. I realized she was using her light-bending power to blind the monster with an illusion, like the field of grass and wildflowers she’d shown us yesterday.

I watched from above as Elisabeth soared low over the creature’s thick body. She tucked her wings close to her body and darted swiftly down as she stretched her taloned feet out in front of her. She stretched her wings out forcefully to halt her momentum as she reached the monster’s side, and then she tried to rip and tear its flesh with her huge talons, but the Slide-Rock Bolter’s skin was too strong, and all she managed to do was piss it off.

The monstrous slug roared in annoyance, and its scream sounded like an avalanche of stone. It lashed suddenly from side to side in an effort to swat Elisabeth away like a horse swatting a fly. Then the creature snapped its huge mouth at Elisabeth and tried to swallow her whole.

The French girl pivoted abruptly and flapped her wings hard to get clear of the displaced monster’s teeth.

“Aaaarrrhh,” Binta cried out suddenly in frustration and propped her hands on her knees as she breathed heavily from the strain of her illusion. “I cannot control its sight when it moves like this.”

I glanced back at the Slide-Rock Bolter, and its pupils shrank back to a more normal-looking size. Its yellow gaze locked hard on Nala, and it heaved its slug-like body in another attempt to eat my teammates.

Nala thrust her hands up in an instant and quickly forced the section of earth she stood on into the air. The curly-haired girl formed a wide, tall pillar to escape the monster’s chomping mouth.

“Bo!” I called. “Hold it as still as you can. Nala, help him out, use the earth to wedge it in place.”

“Yes, my friend.” Bo nodded and focused on the displaced monster.

“Right!” Nala dug her feet deeper into her earth pillar and raised her hands in an upward motion.

Huge slats of jagged rock jutted up all along the Slide-Rock Bolter’s massive body. The beast roared again, but its writhing body was trapped by Nala’s earth walls and Bo’s powers.

“Elisabeth,” I shouted. “Take its eyes out!”

The French girl cried out a piercing eagle scream and tucked her brown wings close to her body as she dove straight at the monster’s enormous yellow eyes.

The Slide-Rock Bolter must have caught sight of Elisabeth’s eagle form coming straight at it. The monster renewed its efforts to break free, and it tried to writhe frantically from side to side as its pupils grew huge.

The sickening squelch of ravaged eye tissue turned my gut as Elisabeth sank her long talons into the displaced monster’s left eye. She ripped the globe to shreds without mercy, and dark greenish fluid oozed in buckets from the beast’s skull.

“Yeah!” Nick shouted.

Steffi continued to throw up energy shields to protect the rest of our team from flying debris as the slug creature thrashed in agony.

Rocks still went flying everywhere, and Nala moved her arms like a juggler as she caught and redirected the larger boulders Steffi couldn’t deflect.

“Hurry!” Bo cried as sweat broke out across his dark forehead. “I cannot hold it much longer!”

Elisabeth shrieked out a response with her beak and darted over to sink her talons into the Slide-Rock Bolter’s remaining eye.

“I think I can cut its tail off,” Ronin said suddenly.

“Yeah?” I looked at my Samurai warrior in front of me with amazement.

“Get me closer, and I will try.” Ronin nodded with determination, and a long-handled astral axe appeared on her lap.

It was the kind of axe I’d used in many medieval-style video games, and a weapon only the largest barbarian characters were allowed to wield. Its blade curved at a menacing angle, and a harsh spike extended out of the back side of the handle.

It was perfect for lopping off enemy heads.

Or, in this case, tails.

I silently commanded Ky to get us in closer to the displaced monster’s tail, and I told him to be ready to get out if this went badly.

My ice dragon nodded and swooped around to lower himself close to the peak where the Slide-Rock Bolter’s tail hooked over the edge.

“Here’s your chance,” I told Ronin. Then I raised my voice for the rest of the team. “Get ready, everyone!”

Nala and Bo braced themselves on either side of the beast. My earth-bending girl blasted up a fresh wall of stone as Bo reaffirmed his hold on the monster’s huge body.

Binta stood back a step behind her boyfriend, and she braced her palms flat on Bo’s back to lend him added support and balance.

Steffi hovered nearby overhead and held her hands up as soft golden light glowed around her fingertips, and she got ready to throw them out in whatever form we needed.

Elisabeth soared around in elegant circles above us, and Nick perched on Beyblade’s back as they slithered through the air together.

Then Ronin posted up on Ky’s wide back and extended her axe out further than I’d ever seen her do before. She raised her weapon over the thinnest part of the Slide-Rock Bolter’s dolphin-like tail, and she hesitated a split second before she slammed the glowing astral blade straight down.

The displaced monster roared loud enough that its screams echoed through the mountains like a domino effect of rock slides. Dark green blood poured around the Slide-Rock Bolter’s body in rivers and down the peak as Ronin’s blade chopped through the top half of the beast’s tail. It thrashed wildly in rage and pain, and the skin on its gaping tail wound ripped further from its jerking movements.

I glanced over at Nala and Bo and saw they were both close to losing their hold on the massive monster. Nala breathed heavily as sweat dripped down her face, and Bo dropped to his knees as he tried to control the wild, twisting body of the Slide-Rock Bolter.

“Again!” I shouted.

The muscles in Ronin’s back and shoulders bunched under her t-shirt and astral armor as she focused her energy on raising the enormous astral blade.

“Aaaahh!” Ronin’s war cry rippled through the mountains as she cleaved the beast’s body the rest of the way from its anchoring tail.

The Slide-Rock Bolter screamed like a million tons of gravel scraping across glass as its body raced wildly down from the mountain peak. A dark green trail of soft tissue and blood smeared across the slope behind the monster.

Nala dropped her walls around the beast and threw up a huge barricade of solid earth just past the deepest part of the valley.

The Slide-Rock Bolter barreled down the slope at a terrifying speed, but it crashed face-first into Nala’s barricade and didn’t get very far up the other side of the mountain.

The creature was effectively trapped in the valley.

Beyblade landed right above the hideous slug monster and blasted an intense burst of flame at the beast’s side. The fire didn’t seem to have much effect beyond turning the Slide-Rock Bolter’s bluish-gray skin a darker gray and blackening the ground beneath it.

Nick hopped off my fire dragon as he pulled the shotgun from his back. The blond nymph stomped closer to the monstrous slug’s face, and he lifted the shotgun to his shoulder.

The deafening boom of his shots ripped through the air as the lead slug embedded itself deep through the ripped tissue of the displaced monster’s eyeball.

The Slide-Rock Bolter roared again and opened its huge jaws of uneven teeth as it thrashed violently to the side. The beast’s mouth came within inches of Nick’s shins, and my stomach dropped just before my best friend was suddenly hurled backward.

“Nick!” Bo shouted, and his hands were raised and curled toward his chest.

Nick landed hard on his butt a few feet in front of the MIA cadet, and his eyes were wide as he looked around.

I realized the Kenyan guy had forcefully hauled my best friend away from certain death, or at least certain dismemberment.

“Woah,” Nick gasped with horror. “Thanks, dude.”

“You are welcome, my friend,” Bo said as he walked over to help Nick off the ground.

“Everybody, stay alert,” I shouted to my team. “This thing still has a lot of fight left.”

“Hold on,” Nick crouched down and phased his hand halfway through a nearby scrub bush. “Shit, is that…”

My best friend’s eyebrows knitted together in concentration as he looked up at me.

“We’ve got another problem, Dylan,” Nick said and then disappeared into the brush for a second before he reappeared several feet away in the roots of a small pine tree that clung on for dear life.

“What is it?” I called.

“There’s a group of hikers nearby,” Nick called back. “They’re coming this way.”

“Shit,” I murmured. “We can’t let them stumble into this mess!”

“Summon Goldie,” Nick shouted as he jogged over and climbed back up onto Beyblade’s back. “Binta, Bo, and I can divert them away.”

“That’s a great idea,” I agreed. “Stay out of sight!”

“Oh, definitely,” Nick chuckled and patted Beyblade’s scales.

I silently ordered Ky to hover a safe distance from the still-bleeding tail of the Slide-Rock Bolter, and then I lifted my shirt sleeve slightly.

“Sokisaseru,” I said.

Goldie burst forth in a glorious flash of white light and swished gracefully toward the ground. My wind dragon gazed up at me and nodded once as if she knew exactly what was happening. Then she lowered her front shoulders enough to allow Bo and Binta to climb onto her back.

“Follow Nick’s orders,” I commanded my white dragon in a hushed tone.

I knew she could hear me even over the rush of wind and the continued roars of the displaced monster in the bottom of the valley.

The sound of Nick’s voice as he directed Goldie toward the group of unfortunate hikers hummed low in my ears through the connection with my dragon, but I shoved his voice and the sounds of rushing wind aside to refocus on the task at hand.

“Steffi!” I cried out. “Keep covering us as best as you can!”

“Right!” my fairy-girl called back, and she blasted another golden shield up to divert a falling tree.

“Elisabeth, can you drop smaller rocks on this ugly motherfucker?” I shouted.

Elisabeth responded with a sharp eagle screech and a quick nod of her feathered head. Then she soared over and scooped up a football-sized stone in her talons.

I knew it wouldn’t do much damage to the Slide-Rock Bolter, but maybe the battering of small stones would disorient the beast enough to allow us the advantage we needed.

“Nala,” I called. “Take a breather for a second and get ready for a huge attack.”

“Okay, Dylan,” Nala answered.

My curly-haired girl bent forward to lean on her knees as she sucked in a few deep, steadying breaths.

“Ky, it’s our turn,” I said quietly.

My ice dragon practically smirked back at Ronin and me, and his huge sapphire lip curled over his long teeth.

“Let’s show this fucker how to chill out.” I grinned.

Ky flapped his enormous wings and soared in a loose circle high above the Slide-Rock Bolter’s fifty foot long body. The steady stream of dark green blood from the displaced monster’s tail slowed to a dribble, and its eyes scabbed over like a disgusting crust of dried-out glue and play-doh layered between scraps of yellow tissue paper.

My ice dragon sucked in a huge breath, and his sides swelled under our legs for a moment as we took a straight-on approach toward the Slide-Rock Bolter. Then Ky began to shoot out a thick, steady stream of ice as we rushed over the length of the slug beast’s body from its snout to the remains of its severed tail.

I held my arms tight around Ronin as I turned over my shoulder to watch the ice rapidly spread across the displaced monster’s bluish skin.

The creature’s huge mouth gaped open, and its ice-covered tongue froze to the rocky earth. One last, low roar like tires on gravel seeped from its throat, but Ky flew over the Slide-Rock Bolter’s mangled tail and spit out a final burst of his ice breath.

Then he circled gracefully around and landed beside the hideous monster.

Steffi fluttered over to join us and landed like a ballerina beside Ky, and Elisabeth soared once more in a wide circle over our heads before she perched on a tall boulder nearby and let out a sharp eagle screech.

“Well done, Ky,” Ronin praised my dragon as she patted his neck affectionately.

Another low rumble came from the Slide-Rock Bolter’s frozen form. A shallow fissure spread out along the thick layer of ice that encased the beast’s slug body.

“Fuck,” I grumbled.

“It’s not dead?” Steffi’s eyes went wide.

“I guess not.” Nala shook her head.

“We need to destroy this thing.” Ronin’s brow furrowed with determination.

“Nala.” I turned to my earth-bending girlfriend. “How much rock can you bring down on this bastard?”

“Enough to crush it like a bug.” Nala smirked.

Elisabeth let out another screech and jerked her head at a weird angle.

I gazed at her a moment to puzzle out what she was trying to say. Her golden eagle eyes narrowed, and she flapped her large wings in the direction Goldie and the rest of our team had flown.

Realization dawned on me.

“Wait a second.” I held a hand up and turned my focus to the connection I shared with Goldie and focused on the sounds that came through her ears.

I could hear Nick’s voice as he whispered something quietly to Binta. The low, friendly conversation of the hikers as they chatted nearby faded slowly as I listened for another moment, but based on what I heard, I couldn’t tell if they were clear of any possible landslides Nala was about to set off.

“Nal,” I turned back to my curly-haired girl. “Check the earth first, make sure Nick and the others aren’t in the path of your landslide.”

“Right,” my earth-bending girlfriend said.

The chocolate-skinned girl bent down and placed both of her palms flat on the ground. She closed her eyes and focused on the vibrations in the stone for a moment before she looked up at me.

“Goldie just took off,” Nala said with a smile. “I can feel the group of hikers. They’re going in the opposite direction and headed down a trail well out of the way.”

“Well done, Nick,” I murmured. Then I looked at my ladies. “Steffi, El, you two get clear. Ronin, stay with Ky. I’m going to summon Thor so Nala and I can get clear, too.”

“Sounds good to me,” Steffi said.

Elisabeth screeched again and flapped her wings to take off into the air.

“Be safe.” Ronin turned over her shoulder to kiss me.

“I will,” I assured her.

I gave her one more squeeze before I lifted my leg over Ky’s back and slid down to the ground. I walked up and patted my sapphire dragon on the neck and leaned in close to his face.

“I know you’ll keep her safe, buddy,” I murmured softly.

Ky stared right at me with his big blue eyes and tilted his head in the slightest nod.

Another gravelly rumble came from the fifty foot long slug beside us. Between the Slide-Rock Bolter’s body heat and the ambient temperature around us, Ky’s ice was rapidly melting at this point. Another large crack shuddered down the length of the slug.

“Steffi,” I called out. “Get going.”

My fairy-girl took off immediately into the air. She and Elisabeth flew up and far enough away to be safe from the landslide of rock and stone Nala was about to unleash.

“Trylle frem!” I shouted.

Thor burst forward into the mountain air in a flash of crackling indigo light. He seemed to know exactly what the plan was as he crouched forward on his front legs to lower his head for us.

Nala and I climbed up onto Thor’s back as the ice that encased the Slide-Rock Bolter’s head started to fail.

We quickly settled ourselves on my storm dragon’s spiny back, and then Thor worked his huge wings and took off from the ground.

The monster began to thrash wildly from side to side and let out an enraged scream that sounded like a million tons of stone crushing together.

“Shit,” I cursed. “Ky, blast it again, give us some more time.”

My ice dragon circled sharply back around and sucked in a deep breath. He blasted a dense stream of ice directly on the Slide-Rock Bolter’s face.

At the same moment, the displaced monster broke through the ice that encased its severed tail, but it was too late for him.

“Nala, finish it off,” I ordered.

“Gladly.” Nala gritted her teeth in concentration and raised her hands up in front of her.

Chapter 5

The earth and stone above the Slide-Rock Bolter started to tremble under Nala’s powers. A huge crack split up to the mountain peak in a jagged line, and the jagged rock faces started to give way.

I glanced at my curly-haired girl.

Nala’s face screwed up with the effort she exerted on the ground below, but she didn’t break her concentration for a second, and the mountain started to crumble like crushed potato chips to tumble down the slope.

The slug monster thrashed with fear and rage and managed to break free of the last restraining layers of Ky’s ice, but Nala used her stone avalanche to squash the displaced monster like an ant under her boot heel.

A split second after the slug freed itself, the entire mountain peak cascaded like a river of stone and crushed its massive weight down on the Slide-Rock Bolter. The deafening crash of boulders shook down my spine as the rubble and debris tumbled down around the displaced slug monster.

A horrible splatter-squish sound echoed under the crash of earth, and once the huge cloud of dust settled, I could see a pool of dark green blood flowing freely from under the massive pile of rocks.

Steffi fluttered higher up as the huge cloud of dust puffed up from the crashing boulders. She twirled a pirouette in the air and laughed, and Elisabeth circled above us and screeched into the wind.

“Yes!” Ronin cheered from her place on Ky’s back.

The earth finally settled a few moments later as the last of the dust drifted back to the ground. The mountainside was completely ruined and was unrecognizable from the landscape we’d arrived at not long ago.

Thor landed heavily on the ground beside the enormous pile of boulders that was now the Slide-Rock Bolter’s tomb.

Ky landed beside my black dragon, and Ronin hopped down as her astral armor slid away.

I climbed down off my storm dragon’s back, and then I reached up to help Nala down.

“Is it dead?” I asked my curly-haired girlfriend. “Can you sense a heartbeat or anything?”

Nala dropped to one knee and laid her hands flat on the rocky ground. She closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side as she felt for any vibrations.

Elisabeth landed gracefully on the ground close by and shifted back into her human body while I waited, and Steffi fluttered over and joined us as well.

“Guys, be still.” Nala screwed her face up in concentration.

Steffi shrugged remorsefully and mouthed a silent apology.

The three girls and I stood quietly and watched Nala as she refocused on the ground beneath her feet. After another moment, she opened her eyes and smiled.

“No, it’s dead,” Nala confirmed as she stood up.

“We did it?” Elisabeth laughed.

“We did it!” Steffi declared.

“That was amazing,” I said as all four of my ladies rushed toward me. “You all did awesome!”

The girls laughed joyously as they surrounded me in a tight hug.

I knew Goldie and Beyblade would be returning soon with the rest of our team, so I allowed the connection with my wind dragon to fill my ears. Now, I could hear Bo and Binta chatting appreciatively about the view and the wonder of flying on a dragon.

“It is incredible,” Bo laughed.

I grinned to myself as I pictured the tall guy throwing his arms out wide with joy.

“It is unlike anything else,” Binta agreed.

“I gotta say,” Nick chuckled. “Flying with Beyblade is a pretty decent perk of being friends with the Dragon Conjurer.”

I gave my ladies another good squeeze and started to pull away.

“I can see someone’s enjoying themselves,” Nick’s teasing voice reached me through Goldie.

“Nick and the others are almost back.” I smirked.

“There they are.” Elisabeth pointed up to the sky and Beyblade’s scaly red body.

Goldie flew gracefully beside my fire dragon and angled off in a wide circle before she landed a short distance from us. Then my wind dragon trotted up beside Thor and nuzzled her head into his scaly black shoulder.

Bo hopped down from Goldie’s back and reached up to help Binta down. Then they walked over to where my girls and I waited.

“Dylan, your dragons are glorious,” Binta laughed lightly.

“Thanks.” I smiled. “Everything go well with diverting those hikers?”

Beyblade slithered onto the ground between Ky and Thor and bumped his head playfully against my blue dragon.

“Of course,” Nick laughed as he hopped down from Beyblade’s back. “You know how I get shit done.”

“Yeah, we know,” Nala teased.

Nick stuck his tongue out at the petite girl and poked a finger at her ribs.

“Our mission was successful,” Bo confirmed. “We redirected the hikers down a different path and out of harm’s way.”

“It was nothing.” Binta smiled.

“There were eight people, and they were pretty determined to head straight for disaster when we first got there,” Nick said as he patted Ky’s neck. “I thought I was going to have to tranq them for a second. But then Binta had a pretty genius idea.”

“Oh, yeah?” Steffi asked.

“Yeah.” Nick nodded. “She threw up one of her illusions, just a little bit at a time.”

My ladies and I glanced at the tall MIA cadet.

“I find a full-frontal attack can sometimes lead a person to panic.” Binta shrugged.

“Right,” Nick went on. “So, she started to move the position of some trees enough to get the hikers to have to turn away from the peak and make their way back down the mountain instead.”

“I was worried they would notice our deception and become confused,” Bo added.

“But then my darling used his powers in a very sneaky way.” Binta grinned brightly at her boyfriend.

“He held onto their feet just enough to make moving harder work.” Nick smirked. “Like they were walking through mud or something, I guess, and then they started to get really tired.”

“That’s genius.” Steffi grinned at the telekinetic guy.

“You would’ve been so proud of us, dude,” Nick said to me. “We were super covert and everything. They never even saw us coming.”

“That’s great news,” I laughed and clapped my best friend on the back. “You guys did great.”

“I see you didn’t do so bad yourselves.” Nick waggled his eyebrows as he looked around at the greatly-altered landscape.

“We also ‘get shit done,’” Ronin teased.

“It looks like you have done a lot of the heavy lifting.” Bo grinned at Nala. “This is very impressive work.”

“Thanks.” Nala blushed under her chocolate complexion.

“Bo’s right, Nal,” I said. “You really killed it.”

“Literally,” Steffi laughed.

“That’s true,” I chuckled.

“Tell us about it,” Nick said.

“Well, after you guys left,” Steffi began. “Ky blasted the Slide-Rock Bolter with ice.”

“We thought it was dead at first,” Nala continued.

“But the beast began to break through the ice!” Ronin exclaimed.

Bo and Binta were completely enthralled by the story as my girls went on, but Nick just smirked with the same pride I felt glowing in my chest.

We were such an incredible team, and it felt so amazing to defeat everything the monster world had thrown at us so far.

And we were only getting stronger.

“Then Dylan summoned Thor so we could all get out of the way,” Steffi continued. “And Nala crashed down the entire mountain on top of the monster!”

“It was extraordinary.” Ronin gave an impressed nod.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.” Nala waved her hand dismissively and smiled.

“No, it was a huge deal!” Steffi countered.

“At least a few hundred-thousand tons of a deal,” Elisabeth giggled.

“I mean, yeah, sure,” Nala laughed. “It’s the most rock I’ve ever moved before.”

“Stop selling yourself short, Shortie,” Nick teased as he leaned his arm on Nala’s dark curls.

“Thanks,” my earth-bender girl laughed and playfully shoved Nick.

“Speaking of your total badassery,” I said to Nala. “Do you think you have it in you to drop this thing’s corpse a little further into the ground? We don’t want anybody stumbling upon it by accident.”

“I think I’ve got a little more in me.” Nala smirked.

“Would you like a helping hand?” Bo offered gallantly.

“Sure, that’d be great. Thanks.” Nala nodded.

“Alright, everybody else out of the way,” I said and motioned for the rest of our team to move back. “Ronin, Nick, Binta, pick a dragon. El, it’s up to you how you want to fly.”

“I think I will go with this beauty.” Elisabeth walked over to Goldie and petted her affectionately under her chin.

“I will join you.” Ronin smiled and joined the French girl by my wind dragon.

Nick hopped up on Beyblade’s back without any hesitation.

“You know I gotta go with my boy,” the blond nymph said.

“I will go with Nick,” Binta decided. “I am curious about the way Beyblade flies.”

“Great.” I nodded as I climbed up onto Ky’s back. “Steffi, wanna come with me?”

“Sure, cutie,” my fairy-girl giggled.

Steffi fluttered over and landed behind me on my ice dragon’s back before she wrapped her arms tight around my waist.

“Bo, Nala!” I called out. “Why don’t you two hop up on Thor? I don’t want either of you to get caught up in any unstable ground.”

“That is a wise plan, my friend.” Bo nodded.

The tall guy approached my storm dragon slowly like he was introducing himself to a skittish stallion.

“Hello there,” Bo murmured softly. “I would like to be your friend. Is that okay?”

I watched Thor with curiosity as his proud face softened slightly at Bo’s respectful approach.

Nala stood slightly beside the telekinetic cadet and raised her eyebrows at me with impressed surprise.

“You are a glorious being,” Bo said to my storm dragon. “Might I have a ride?”

Thor blinked appreciatively and crouched down on his forearms.

Then Bo climbed up onto Thor’s back, and Nala climbed up behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders to hold on.

“He likes you,” Nala mused.

“I like him, too,” Bo laughed.

“Alright everybody,” I called out. “Let’s clear out, and then we’ll call Mr. Zabdi for our ride outta here.”

“He will likely suggest we meet a little further down the mountain,” Bo said. “This is not good terrain for landing the helicopter.”

“And I probably won’t have enough energy left to make a landing platform and collapse it again.” Nala frowned slightly.

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “We’ll have Zabdi scout out a clear spot and meet him there.”

“Very good.” Bo grinned. “Now, let us entomb this beast.”

At that, my dragons took off from the ground. A few excited gasps escaped from the group as Ky and Goldie circled around the top of the mountain. Beyblade slipped away toward the south, and Thor hovered over the pile of boulders that covered the Slide-Rock Bolter’s smashed body.

“Whenever you’re ready!” I called out to Nala and Bo.

Bo smiled and nodded at Nala and rotated his upper body to raise his arms straight out in front of him.

Nala took a deep breath and matched the tall guy’s movement.

I watched in fascination as their eyebrows furrowed, and their jaws clenched with focused effort.

The ground slowly began to shake, and tiny rocks rattled as clouds of dirt and dust puffed up from the suddenly opening ground.

The pair broke open a fissure in the rock, and it reminded me of the final scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when that Nazi girl fell into the bottomless pit.

A crashing, screeching sound filled the air as the chasm opened wide, and the Slide-Rock Bolter’s corpse collapsed into the ground along with thousands of tons of stone and rock.

“Bye, bye,” Steffi said in a sing-song voice as the dust settled.

The ground looked oddly undisturbed, and even though it was clear that a landslide had happened here, Bo and Nala managed to make their efforts look natural.

“Well done, my friend!” Bo laughed and offered a hand out to Nala.

“Thanks for the help.” Nala smiled brightly and shook the MIA cadet’s hand.

“Great job, everyone,” I shouted to my team. “Another displaced monster taken care of and more lives saved. Now, let’s get outta here.”

“I will radio Mr. Zabdi,” Binta called from her spot beside Nick. Then she pulled the little radio from her belt. “Zabdi, we are ready for pick up.”

“We hear you loud and clear, Binta,” Zabdi’s voice crackled through the radio. “There is a level spot a short distance down the south side of the mountain. We will pick you up there.”

“Copy that,” Binta replied. “We will meet you there momentarily.”

I nodded at the light-bending girl and silently commanded my dragons to head in the direction Zabdi indicated.

Thor flew almost lazily over the peak, and then he zig-zagged down the mountain as Bo and Nala perched comfortably on his back.

Goldie soared elegantly and reminded me of an enormous swan the way she led with her long white neck, but Beyblade slithered a little more erratically, and I wondered whether it was my dragon or my best friend who was showing off.

I chuckled and shook my head at the pair.

Beyblade and Nick flew together almost as often as I flew with Ky, and they were becoming quite a cooperative team. My best friend had instinctually begun to pick up on my fire dragon’s body language and mannerisms. Nick was pretty easy to read, too, and I knew Beyblade had always been able to understand the somewhat fidgety nymph.

It made me smile to know they were forming their own bond of friendship with each other.

“Flying like this is so different,” Steffi murmured softly into my ear.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s incredible.” Steffi pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I can feel how powerful Ky is from the stroke of his wings through the air, and the stretch of his muscles.”

“He is pretty amazing.” I smiled.

“Plus, it’s nice to relax and enjoy the view,” Steffi giggled.

“That’s fair,” I laughed.

A moment later I spotted the clear area Zabdi had described and started to give the silent command to my dragons, but they were already angling themselves to land gently on the area.

I wondered if my connection with them would become so strong I wouldn’t even need to think the words anymore. Maybe my dragons would begin to hear and obey my thoughts before I could even form them into coherent words.

“I love flying with your dragons, Dylan,” Elisabeth giggled as she climbed down off of Goldie’s back.

“They’re so beautiful,” Ronin agreed as she hopped down to the ground.

Nick slid off Beyblade’s back and patted his neck as Binta joined him on the ground.

“This one seems to like to show off a little more,” Binta laughed as she patted Beyblade’s red scales.

“Yeah, he’s got a big personality.” Nick smirked.

“Just like someone else I know,” I teased as I hopped down from Ky’s back.

Steffi spread her wings out and fluttered gracefully to the ground, and Thor landed a moment after the rest of us.

“Dylan!” Bo’s voice sounded unusually strained.

I looked up quickly and saw that Bo had turned around to try and support her weight, and he held his hands firm around Nala’s arms as her eyelids fluttered slightly.

“I think she overdid it,” Bo said.

The tall guy scooped Nala up in her arms and hopped down to the ground with her, and I rushed over and laid a hand on Nala’s forehead.

My curly-haired girl’s face was clammy, and her color was pale under her coffee skin.

“Nala?” I asked softly.

“I’m okay,” Nala whispered faintly. “Just lightheaded.”

“She needs something to eat,” Nick said. “She overdid it, and her blood sugar is crashing.”

“Do we have any snacks?” Steffi asked as her hands fluttered nervously around the dark beauty’s face.

“‘Do we have any snacks’ she asks,” Nick scoffed, and he produced a granola bar, a packet of dried fruit, a cheese stick, and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup from his pockets. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

“Finally,” Steffi laughed. “Your bottomless pit of a stomach serves a purpose for the greater good.”

“I highly recommend the Reese’s,” Nick said with authority. “The peanut butter and sugar will get you back to normal fast. Plus, you know, yum.”

Nala nodded, and then my best friend began to unwrap the candy.

“Thanks, Nick,” Nala said with a shaky voice as she took a peanut butter cup from the blond nymph.

“Dylan, Mr. Zabdi is approaching.” Binta pointed up at the helicopter.

“Right, thanks,” I said.

I glanced once more at Nala as she chewed the sugary treat, and her color was already starting to return to normal.

“You okay?” I asked my earth-bending lover.

“Yeah.” Nala nodded. “Nick was right, I overdid it a little. I guess I didn’t have enough breakfast, and then I did too much during the mission.”

“We’ll get you a good meal when we get back.” I smiled at my girl as I gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. Then I turned around to my patiently-waiting dragons. “Come on, guys. Epistrophi. Fanhui.”

Ky and Beyblade disappeared in flashes of blue and red light, and their heat and chill rippled over my nerves as they curled up under my skin.

Goldie stretched her head down to look at Nala where she still sat on the ground.

“It’s okay, beautiful.” I patted my white-and-gold dragon comfortingly on her scaly neck. “Nala will be okay, I promise.”

Goldie turned to look at me and tilted her huge chin down at me before she stood up straight again beside Thor.

“Moduro, Komme Tilbake.” Goldie and Thor disappeared in flashes of white and indigo before they curled up under my skin with my other two dragons.

Then the heavy rush of wind from the chopper’s rotors blasted the branches of a few nearby trees, and I looked up at Mr. Zabdi and his copilot and waved them forward with my arm as I stepped back to clear the space. I crouched low and duck-walked back to my teammates as the helicopter slowly descended to land on the flat area.

“Feeling better?” I said to Nala.

My curly-haired girlfriend had moved to sit up straighter, and her color had returned to normal.

“Yeah.” Nala smiled and nodded at me. “Much better.”

“You had me worried,” Ronin said with a relieved smile.

“Me, too, girl,” Steffi said.

“I, too, was worried,” Elisabeth said, and her eyes shone slightly with unshed tears. “Do not do that to us.”

“I gotta say,” Nick chuckled and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I didn’t like it, either.”

“I’m okay, guys,” Nala laughed a little. “I promise. I feel a lot better now. I’ve just never used my powers that much before.”

“You were hella impressive, though.” Nick smiled.

“You were not even present for her biggest move,” Ronin giggled. “I bet Nala could have brought down the entire mountain if she wanted to!”

“You’re probably right,” Steffi laughed.

“Guys, come on.” Nala blushed slightly.

“It’s about time someone else gets all the praise.” I smirked.

“Sheesh,” Nala sighed playfully. “Is this what it’s like?”

“Yes,” Steffi and I said in unison.

We all laughed as the helicopter’s skids landed on the earth several yards away from us.

“Let us go back.” Bo grinned. “We have all earned a good meal.”

“I’m totally down,” Nick laughed. “Pipsqueak here ate my secret PB stash!”

Nala blew a raspberry at the blond guy.

“Come on.” I stood up and held my hand out to Nala, and we walked together over to the chopper and loaded in.

“A very impressive mission, Mr. Cooper.” Zabdi nodded at me as we strapped into our seats and pulled our headsets on.

“Thanks.” I grinned.

“Is everybody ready to head back?” The female pilot’s voice crackled over the radio as she flicked a few switches.

“Yes, ma’am,” Binta replied. “Let us return.”

“Very good,” the middle-aged woman said. “We will be back soon. Sit back and relax.”

The flight back was pretty quiet as we all leaned heavily into our seats. Our fight against the Slide-Rock Bolter had been a pretty intense battle, and it seemed like we all just wanted to relax for a bit.

I thought back over the mission as the sound of the helicopter’s engines roared in my ears. There had been a few close calls today. I wondered if my team was getting a little too much ego, and maybe today was a good reminder that even we weren’t invincible. It was important to keep our guards up. We never knew exactly how a monster would react or behave.

The moment the Slide-Rock Bolter had launched half of its body high into the air proved that sometimes our expectations would be dead wrong. None of us anticipated the displaced slug monster would be able to move like that, after all, it didn’t have any limbs.

Regardless of the surprises the hideous beast had thrown at us, I was proud of my team for how they’d handled the situation.

A few minutes later the helicopter tilted slightly as we began to descend down to the tarmac. We all straightened up in our seats a little and shifted restlessly as we waited for the helicopter to land. Then the chopper jolted slightly when the skids touched down on the ground, and the roar in my ears died out as Mr. Zabdi and his copilot flipped switches and pushed buttons.

“Welcome back, everyone,” Mr. Zabdi said.

“Thank you.” Bo grinned.

We all unbuckled our restraints, removed our headsets, and stood from our seats.

“It’s good to be back,” Nick said. “I’m starving.”

“I’m really hungry, too,” Nala chuckled. “Is this what you feel like all the time?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Nick laughed.

“I am actually quite famished myself,” Ronin agreed.

“Lunch does sound great right now.” Elisabeth nodded.

“What will the dining hall have today, Bo?” I asked.

“I believe today’s menu is roasted chicken, seasoned rice, couscous, and there is always freshly-sliced fruit,” The tall guy said. “We shall enjoy our meal, and then we will report to Ms. Kunene to debrief about our mission.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” I said.

We hopped down from the helicopter and started to walk toward the huge wall of glass windows.

“Meal first, then debrief?” Nick asked. “I could really go for a shower, but my stomach would murder the fuck out of me if I don’t eat real soon.”

“And roasted chicken definitely sounds amazing,” Steffi hummed.

“I’ve actually never had couscous before,” Nala said. “What is it?”

“It is much like pasta,” Binta explained. “But it is made with crushed durum wheat semolina rather than the flour you will be used to.”

“It is lovely, I think you will enjoy it.” Bo grinned. “We will get it with tender lamb cuttings for you.”

“That sounds great!” Nala smiled.

Nick pulled open the door for us as we all filed inside.

“It is early still,” Binta said. “Perhaps we will get ahead of the lunch rush.”

“Sweet,” Nick said as we strolled down the hall toward the dining area. “My stomach is starting to touch the back of my spine.”

“I actually know what you mean today,” Nala chuckled.

“Oooh, it smells delicious.” Ronin closed her eyes and sniffed delicately at the air.

I had to agree, the smells that wafted from the dining hall were mouth-watering, and my stomach rumbled audibly as we pushed through the double doors.

“Excellent, the rush has not yet begun,” Binta said.

“Time’s a-wastin’!” Nick picked up his pace and made his way over to the start of the buffet line.

I chuckled lightly as my girls, the MIA cadets, and I followed Nick at a slightly more leisurely pace.

We filed one-by-one down the line and loaded our trays with the succulent options MIA had to offer. I guessed we took at least four whole chickens between the eight of us, and enough couscous to fill a gallon bucket. Then we sat comfortably around an empty table toward the front of the dining hall and began to devour our meals.

“Ooooh, this is so good,” Nick moaned around a mouthful of roast chicken.

“I definitely need to eat.” Nala nodded as she loaded her fork up with more rice.

“I must agree,” Ronin said. “All of the Academies seem to have very excellent food options.”

“That’s true,” I agreed. “Is the food this good at AMIE, Elisabeth?”

“Yes.” The French girl nodded. “They take turns providing delicacies from all over Europe, so the cadets can enjoy a taste of home on a regular basis.”

“That sounds great,” Steffi said. “I love Italian food, I would probably be in total heaven on Lasagna Day.”

We savored our well-earned meal as the dining hall slowly filled around us. By the time the other tables were mostly filled, we had finished our meals, and Nick had snuck away for a second plate.

“Feeling better?” I asked Nala.

“Yes, much.” The curly-haired girl smiled. “Thanks, Dyl.”

“Good.” I grinned. “I’m glad, you had me worried back there.”

“Me, too,” Steffi agreed.

“I’m sorry, guys,” Nala said. “I didn’t expect to exert so much energy today, or that I could even control so much earth all at once.”

“You’re getting stronger,” I pointed out.

“And with great power,” Nick said with excessive gravity. Then he grinned. “Comes great hunger.”

“That is funny!” Bo laughed. “I like you, Nick, you are a funny guy.”

“Finally!” Nick smirked. “My humor is appreciated as it should be.”

“Stop it,” Binta teased her boyfriend. “You will inflate his ego even more.”

“Is everybody done eating?” Bo asked as he stifled another laugh. “We should report to Ms. Kunene on our mission.”

“Yeah, we’re done,” Steffi said as she nodded at Nala.

“Yep,” Nala agreed.

“I am finished,” Elisabeth said.

Ronin nodded her agreement.

“Hang on,” Nick said before he dashed off to the dessert table. The blond guy snagged three chocolate chip cookies, and then he jogged back to join us. “Okay, ready.”

“Follow me,” Binta said in her tour-guide voice.

We fell in line behind the tall girl and quickly sorted our trays at the clean-up station. Then Binta led us through the double doors and down the hall toward where she’d said the classrooms were.

“Come along.” Binta led us like a mother duck to the pond. “Ms. Kunene’s office is at the end of the hall.”

Bo looped his arm around his girlfriend’s waist the rest of the way down the brightly-lit hallway. They walked a few paces ahead of us until we came to the end of the hall, where a simple door with a small nameplate was located.

The tag read “Elna Kunene, Head Administrator of MIA Tanzanian Outpost.”

Binta politely knocked twice on the door.

“Yes?” a woman called from inside the office. “What is it?”

“Ms. Kunene,” Binta said as she turned the knob and pushed the door open. “Do you have a moment for our mission debriefing?”

“Yes, Ms. Okoro,” the older woman said. “Please, come in.”

The tall girl held the door open for us, and we filed into the spacious office.

The room was large and fairly empty. A wide wooden desk that was cluttered with stacks of loose papers and thick manilla folders stood toward the back wall, and two coffee cups sat forgotten on a pile on the left hand corner. A large industrial floor lamp shone brightly in the corner of the room and cast a harsh triangle of light onto the middle of the desk. A sleek computer sat on a small, glass-topped table off to the side, and its monitor glowed softly with a rainbow ribbon screensaver.

An older woman, probably in her mid-sixties, sat behind the desk. She had fair skin, and her golden hair was streaked heavily with gray and pulled back in a ponytail. Soft wrinkles spread out at the corners of her brown eyes, and she wore a simple blouse, and a silver beaded chain dangled from the cat-framed glasses that were perched on the end of her nose. The older woman leaned forward over her desk as she scribbled frantically on a page in front of her with an old-fashioned fountain pen.

“Just…” Ms. Kunene murmured in a gentle South African accent. “One… moment…”

“We can come back…” Bo hesitated.

“No, no.” The older woman rapidly finished her sentence and marked the period at the end so forcefully, ink flew from her pen and splattered over the back of her hand. “Let’s see. Ms. Okoro, Mr. Abdi, and the American team from AIMM, yes?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“I am terribly sorry, I have an atrocious memory for names.” Ms. Kunene smiled sweetly at me.

“Cooper,” I provided. “Dylan Cooper.”

“Yes,” the older woman chuckled nervously. “Thank you. You and your team came to Tanzania to handle the displaced monster situation at Mount Kilimanjaro, is that right?”

“That is correct, Ms. K.” Bo grinned. “A Slide-Rock Bolter, as it was.”

“Wonderful,” the gray-haired woman said. “Well, how did it go?”

“Dylan.” Binta gestured at me. “Perhaps you should provide the details…”

The older woman turned to look at me and pushed her glasses up her nose.

“Uh, sure.” I nodded. “Well, the Slide-Rock Bolter was causing a lot of damage up on the top of the mountain. When we arrived, it took out an entire herd of, what were they, Bo?

“Dik diks,” the tall guy said.

“Thanks.” I nodded and continued. “My team worked to control the monster. Ronin cut off its tail to keep it from maneuvering up and down the mountain.”

“Very impressive,” Ms. Kunene murmured as she pulled a manilla folder open and laid it flat on the desk. “Go on.”

“Then Nick discovered some hikers in the area,” I said. “So, Bo, Binta, and he went to discreetly redirect them away from the area.”

“Good, good.” The older woman nodded as she jotted down a note in the file in front of her.

“Then Ky, my ice dragon, froze the Slide-Rock Bolter to the ground,” I said. “And Nala finished it off with an avalanche of boulders.”

“Excellent, Mr. Cooper.” Ms. Kunene pulled her glasses off her face and let them hang from the beaded chain. “Do we need to send a team to cover up any evidence?”

“No, ma’am.” I shook my head. “Bo and Nala buried the Slide-Rock Bolter’s corpse deep into the mountain and sealed it up.”

“Well done, everyone.” The older woman nodded as she glanced between the tall guy and my curly-haired girlfriend.

“Thank you, Ms. Kunene.” Binta smiled politely.

“Mr. Cooper,” the older woman said. “Now that you and your team have handled the displaced monster from your jurisdiction, you will relocate to the main MIA campus in Egypt. Your flight leaves tomorrow morning. Headmaster Mahrous eagerly awaits your arrival.”

“Tomorrow?” Steffi asked with excitement.

“So soon?” Nala grinned.

“Awesome,” Nick smirked and pumped his fist in the air.

Chapter 6

“I must say,” Bo said. “I have enjoyed having Dylan and his team here with us. They are remarkable to watch and to work with. His dragons are impressive creatures and it has been a joy to get to know them.”

“That is good to hear, Mr. Abdi.” Ms. Kunene smiled sweetly. “Because you and Ms. Okoro will accompany Mr. Cooper and the rest of his team back to MIA tomorrow.”

“We are going home?” Binta smiled.

“Yes, Ms. Okoro.” The MIA administrator nodded. “You have completed your rotation here at the Tanzanian outpost, and it is time to return to the Academy. New cadets will rotate to fill your posts within the week.”

“Thank you, Ms. K.” The tall girl’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“It was not my doing.” Ms. Kunene smiled. “I am simply obeying orders. I will greatly miss your presence and your leadership among the other cadets.”

“We will miss you as well,” Bo assured the older woman.

Even after such a short time here, I could tell Ms. Kunene was a kind woman who was well-liked by our MIA guides, and I liked her, too. The woman was sweet in a genuine way that reminded me of my grandma. She seemed like the kind of older lady who would knit me a sweater because I looked chilly.

“Very well.” Ms. Kunene swiped at the corner of her eye. “Off you go.”

“Thanks, ma’am.” I smiled kindly.

We filed out of the older woman’s office and started walking back down the hallway.

“She seems so sweet,” Steffi said after a moment.

“Ms. K is the best.” Bo grinned. “I have known her my whole life. She often worked with my mother when she was still a cadet.”

“Oh, that’s so cool,” Nick said. “She has magical abilities, too, then?”

“Yes.” Binta nodded. “Ms. K. can mimic the appearance of other people.”

“Like Mystique?” Nick gasped. “Awesome!”

“Yes, precisely.” Bo nodded. “Unfortunately it is not a power that proved to be overly useful when battling monsters. Ms. Kunene has worked primarily in the administration areas during her three and a half decades with MIA.”

“That makes sense,” Nala said. “Doppelganger’s powers are a little more helpful in that regard.”

“What is Doppelganger?” Binta asked.

“He is a cadet from MAJK,” Ronin answered. “His power allows him to mirror the appearance and ability of a monster in his vicinity.”

“That is interesting,” Bo chuckled. “What if there is more than one monster nearby?”

“He cannot choose which he transforms into,” Ronin said. “In my experience, his body tends to take on the likeness of the more powerful of the options.”

“Yeah,” Nala agreed. “When we battled with the Jorogumo and the Tsuchinoko, he took on the lady spiders’ form.”

We followed Bo and Binta down the hall, and after passing through the double doors, they turned down the corridor toward the dormitories and led us to the end. Our MIA guides turned left at the end of the hall and kept walking.

“Lady spider?” Bo’s dark eyebrows raised high on his face with curiosity.

“Jorogumo are a Japanese monster,” Ronin explained. “They appear as beautiful women to lure men into their lairs.”

“But really, they’re hideous spider monsters,” Nick said with disgust. “They have six eyes and these huge spindly spider legs that come out of their backs.”

“They were our last mission before we came here,” Steffi explained.

“They sound very unpleasant.” Binta shuddered.

“My love is afraid of spiders.” Bo smiled softly at his girlfriend.

“They are creepy,” Binta pouted.

We reached the end of the hallway, and Bo pushed open a new door.

“This is our community recreation area,” the tall guy said. “Because we will have no more missions this evening, I thought it would be nice to relax and enjoy some free time.”

The room was large, with several seating areas of squishy-looking couches and armchairs. There was a pool table off to one side where two guys casually chatted together in a language I didn’t recognize. Three separate flat-screen TVs were mounted on the back wall in front of the couches. A group of girls played Mario Kart on the first TV, another group was watching a movie on the second TV, and the third was free. In the far corner of the room sat two vending machines with sodas and snacks as well as a long table with a dozen folding chairs. Two bald guys with identical faces sat across from each other over at the table, and they each shuffled a thick stack of playing cards in their nimble hands.

“Oh, awesome,” Nick said as he gazed around the room.

“MIA has provided us with a pleasant variety of recreational activities,” Binta said in her tour-guide voice as she pointed at the three TV stations. “We have a PlayStation 5, an Xbox One, and a Nintendo Switch.”

“Billiards,” Elisabeth said excitedly as she eyed the pool table at the far end of the room.

“Do you play?” Bo asked the French girl.

“I have been known to line up a shot or two.” Elisabeth smirked.

“We will have the next game,” Bo challenged. Then he walked over to the guys at the table and greeted them. “Hello, Khairi, Gyasi.”

“Good afternoon, Bo,” a much shorter guy with jeans and a plain red shirt said. “How are you today? Hello, Binta.”

The guy was heavily muscled and about Nala’s height, and he had to tilt his head far back to look at Bo. He leaned lightly on a pool stick as his companion leaned over the table to line up his shot.

The other guy was of average height and build. He wore khaki shorts and a white t-shirt, and his hair was braided into tiny rows.

Binta walked over to loop her arm around her boyfriend and smiled at the two male cadets.

“Hello,” Binta said.

“We are very well, thank you.” Bo grinned, and then he glanced back at us. “My new friend and I would like to use the table when you and Gyasi are finished with your game.”

“We are nearly done,” Khairi said as he frowned at the pool table. “What are you doing, Gyasi?”

“I am going to kick… your…” Gyasi breathed as he pulled the stick back and knocked it forward into the cue ball. “Ass.”

The cue ball rolled slowly forward and grazed along the side of the 7-ball where it had balanced precariously on the edge of the side pocket. The solid maroon ball tipped gently into the side pocket, and now only the 8-ball and blue-striped 10-ball remained on the table.

“Oh, come on,” Khairi sighed heavily.

“Finally met your match?” Binta laughed.

“He is cheating,” the short guy whined.

“8-ball, corner pocket.” Gyasi smirked as he walked to the opposite side of the table.

“Looks like we arrived just in time to see the end of an era,” Bo chuckled and clapped the short guy heavily on the shoulder. “Come, friends, and watch history in the making.”

My ladies, Nick, and I walked over to join our guides.

Gyasi took a long moment to inspect his last shot from every angle before he leaned over the far corner of the table and lined up his stick with the cue ball. Gyasi stared up at the short guy as he slid his cue stick forward over his knuckles and knocked the 8-ball perfectly into the corner pocket he’d indicated.

“I win.” Gyasi grinned brightly.

“I demand a rematch,” Khairi chuckled. “Next week?”

The two guys walked around the table and shook hands good-naturedly.

“Same time.” Gyasi nodded. “As always.”

“The table is all yours,” Khairi told Bo. “Perhaps you will have better luck than I.”

“Surely you will make an impressive comeback,” Bo laughed and turned to the redhead. “Elisabeth, are you ready?”

“I am.” The French girl smiled.

“We will see you later, Bo,” Gyasi said as he and his short friend waved.

“Enjoy your evening.” Bo waved back.

Gyasi and Khairi walked out of the rec room together.

Then Elisabeth grabbed the rack off the wall, and she began to pull the colorful balls out of the pockets to deftly line them up inside the triangular frame.

Bo picked up the balls from the pockets on the other side of the table and rolled them across to the copper-haired girl.

“Did you know El played pool?” Steffi whispered to me as she wrapped her arm around my waist.

“No.” I shook my head and idly placed a kiss on the top of my fairy-girl’s pink hair. “Do you think she’s any good?”

“Five bucks on Bo,” Nick whispered behind his hand.

“I’ll take that bet.” Nala smirked. “Five on El.”

Ronin laughed as my best friend and the curly-haired girl shook hands on the wager.

Elisabeth finished rearranging the colorful balls in what looked like an intentional order with the 8-ball in the middle of the triangle and the solid yellow 1-ball at the front. She slid the rack forward once swiftly and then lined it up and carefully pulled the wooden triangle away from the balls.

“Would you care to break?” Bo offered as he gestured at the row of pool sticks on the wall.

“Thank you,” Elisabeth said and pulled a stick from the wall.

She picked up a small blue cube of chalk and rubbed it liberally over the tip of her stick.

“I have not noticed, is there a community recreation area at AIMM?” Ronin asked.

“I don’t think so.” I shook my head and glanced between Nala and Nick for confirmation.

“Not really, no,” Nala said. “I mean there’s this little room at the other end of the hall from our suite with some card tables and folding chairs, but you have to provide your own games and stuff.”

“Yeah.” Nick nodded in agreement. “I’ve seen some guys playing Magic in there sometimes, but it’s nothing like this.”

Elisabeth leaned over the end of the table as she expertly shot the cue ball into the triangular formation and sent the colored balls rolling all across the table. Two solid-colored balls and the striped purple 12-ball sunk into various pockets before the rest of the balls came to a stop on the green felt.

“Impressive.” Bo cocked an eyebrow at the French girl and waved his hand in invitation. “Your choice, stripes or solids?”

“Stripes.” Elisabeth smiled and lined up her next shot. The French girl sank two more balls before she missed her third.

Bo grabbed the blue chalk as he walked around the table in preparation for his shot.

“If AIMM does not have a recreational area like this,” Binta asked. “Then how do you and your fellow cadets build community?”

“We mostly stick to our own teams, really.” Nick shrugged as he intently watched Bo sink his first shot. “Nice.”

“Thank you, my friend.” Bo grinned and lined up another shot. “Do you get much free time at AIMM?”

“It varies,” Elisabeth said as she leaned on her pool stick. “Between classes, missions, and training sessions, we seem to be pretty busy most of the time.”

Bo sank three more balls in a row before he dropped the cue ball into a pocket on his next shot.

“Scratch,” Elisabeth gloated slightly. “My shot.”

“Indeed.” Bo grinned and gestured over the table.

Elisabeth quickly sank her remaining three striped balls into various pockets, which left only Bo’s solid orange 5-ball and the 8-ball on the table.

“8-ball in the side pocket.” The French girl carefully lined up her shot and struck the stick into the cue ball.

The white ball rolled rapidly across the table and grazed lightly across the edge of the black ball. The 8-ball inched forward and knocked into the corner of the pocket and bounced back into the middle of the table.

“Ooooh,” Nala groaned softly.

“Five bucks, here I come,” Nick chuckled quietly.

“You are a talented player,” Bo said as he sank his solid orange ball into a pocket. “But it seems not to be your day.”

“Perhaps,” Elisabeth sighed.

Bo eyed the only remaining balls on the green felt of the pool table for a moment before he walked around the far corner.

“8-ball,” Bo said and raised his hand to point at the corner in front of me. “Corner pocket.”

“Binta,” Steffi said. “You said there are training rooms here, and even more at the main MIA campus. I’d love to get in a training session with you guys after we arrive in Egypt.”

“Of course, Steffi.” Binta smiled kindly as she watched her boyfriend lean over the table. “Bo and I will show you all around the campus tomorrow. There is a lot to see, the main campus is much larger than our outpost here in Tanzania.”

“May I have silence for a moment please, ladies?” Bo smiled as he glanced up at us.

“Sorry, my love.” Binta grinned.

“Come on, man,” Nick said. “You got this.”

Bo lined up his shot a final time and slid the stick over his knuckles to slam into the cue ball with a force that sent a soft crack of sound through the room.

We all watched with bated breath as the white ball rolled forward and slammed into the black ball. The 8-ball rolled forward, but Bo’s angle had been slightly off. The black ball knocked into the bumper to the left of the pocket and ricocheted back across the green felt.

“Damn,” Nick grumbled.

“Yesss,” Nala whispered.

Elisabeth smiled as she walked around the table to line up her second chance at winning.

“8-ball, corner pocket.” The French girl pointed at the pocket diagonally across from us.

Steffi and I took a step back as my copper-haired girl leaned forward over the table in front of us. Her pants stretched seductively across her shapely ass as Elisabeth carefully lined up her shot, and heat rippled softly down my spine at the sight.

My shapeshifting girlfriend took a deep breath and slid her stick forward with a fluid motion. The cue ball rolled forward in what felt like slow motion to nudge the 8-ball perfectly toward the corner pocket, where it plunked in to seal the win for Elisabeth.

“Yes!” Steffi cheered.

“Way to go, girl,” Nala laughed.

“Shit,” Nick grumbled as he pulled a wrinkled five-dollar bill from his pocket.

“Thank you,” Nala gloated as she took the money from my best friend.

“Excellent game,” Bo chuckled and extended his hand toward Elisabeth.

“Thank you,” my French girlfriend said. “You play very well.”

“As do you,” the tall guy replied.

“So, does the main MIA campus have a rec room like this?” Steffi asked.

“Yes.” Binta nodded as she kissed her tall boyfriend. “It is much larger, actually. There are many more games.”

“I wish we had a place like this at AIMM,” Nala mused.

“Maybe Dylan can ask for one when we return,” Ronin suggested. “It appears Headmaster Burkhard takes your suggestions into consideration fairly often.”

“I’ll try to slip it into a conversation at some point,” I chuckled. “Great game, guys.”

“I wonder what MIA is like,” Steffi mused.

“I look forward to showing you around the campus tomorrow.” Binta smiled.

“What are the training rooms like?” Nala asked.

“They are the most advanced piece of equipment we have at MIA,” Bo said. “The training rooms are a remarkable holographic system.”

“Yeah, that’s what ours are like, too,” I said.

“You are only partially correct, my love,” Binta said to Bo.

“I am sure you are right, but about what, my darling?” The tall guy asked as he pulled his girlfriend into a loving embrace.

“The training rooms are only the second most advanced equipment MIA has.” Binta smiled and pressed a kiss to Bo’s cheek.

“So then, what’s the most advanced?” Nick asked as he began to pull the billiard balls from the pockets and set them into the rack.

“The Brain.” Binta smiled.

“What is the Brain?” Ronin asked.

“Anybody wanna play?” My blond best friend racked the balls and selected a pool stick from the display on the wall. After several head shakes from the group Nick shrugged and continued to chalk his stick.

“The Brain is MIA’s supercomputer,” Bo said. “It runs all the systems at the Academy.”

“Oh, it’s like SEEKR.” Nick nodded as he broke the starting formation of balls. “That’s cool. Is Brain, like, an anagram?”

“Acronym,” Steffi laughed.

“Whatever,” Nick chuckled. “Does Brain stand for some longer, fancy-sounding name?”

“No,” Binta laughed. “It is only a nickname the cadets have adopted. The system’s full name is Satellite and Biometrics Information Collection and Analysis Network.”

“Yeah.” Nala smirked. “SBICAN doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.”

“No, it does not,” Bo laughed.

“So the Brain runs all the systems at MIA?” Steffi asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, it oversees the satellite monitoring systems that alert us to monster activity,” Bo said. “It runs the training programs and simulation rooms, it operates the security systems on campus, and allows for seamless communication between the Egyptian campus and the secondary outposts. It also archives and stores all of the information MIA has gathered about monsters and monster activity over the decades.”

“That’s so cool,” Steffi said.

“There was recently a large overhaul of the systems,” Binta said. “A large team of technical specialists spent weeks entering old paper records into the digital archives. Files that had not been opened in decades have now been entered into the Brain and are finally at the tips of our fingers.”

“Wow.” Steffi’s eyes glowed like a little kid who just found an unmanned candy shop. “Is the Brain’s archives open to cadets?”

“Bo and I have access to it as four-stars.” Binta nodded. “Any cadets with at least a four-star rank have access to the systems.”

“That’s amazing,” Steffi murmured.

I was impressed. SEEKR wasn’t readily available to the cadets at AIMM, we’d only gotten a chance to investigate it twice because the girls had managed to sweet-talk the librarian, Ms. Wright, into letting us in. I knew Steffi would have given up at least a few toes to be able to access SEEKR’s databases whenever she wanted.

“Do you think you can show us the Brain?” Steffi clasped her hands together and smiled sweetly.

“Certainly.” Bo grinned. “We shall add it to our tour of MIA tomorrow.”

“Does MAJK have a similar system, Ronin?” Binta asked.

“Yes,” the Japanese girl said. “We do not have a clever acronym, either, nor do we have a clever name for our system.”

“I bet you and Phoenix could come up with something cool,” Nick said as he idly took a practice shot at the yellow 1-ball.

“Is your system open to high-ranking cadets?” Bo asked.

“Yes, only named cadets may use the database, and we need to request permission beforehand.” Ronin nodded. “But most people use it to prepare for missions if time permits. Very rarely, in my experience, do the cadets dig deeper into the archives.”

We chatted for a while in the rec room as Nick practiced his billiards game, which wasn’t great. My best friend missed more shots than he made, and my girls and I told Bo and Binta about the other Japanese cadets who had come from MAJK with Ronin.

“They sound like they do not know how to enjoy life.” Bo grinned.

“They’re really pretty uptight,” Nick laughed.

“Doppelganger especially,” Nala agreed.

“He seemed to finally warm up to us after Dylan started to show off with his dragons,” Steffi said.

“Well, who would not be impressed by that?” Elisabeth smiled.

“I think they just realized we weren’t all fun and games,” I chuckled. “It felt like Dop and the others thought we didn’t take things seriously.”

“Which we don’t,” Nick laughed.

“Until it really matters,” Nala corrected with a grin. “Then we’re all business.”

We were all laughing like old friends by the time Nick’s stomach started to complain audibly.

“It must be dinner time,” Elisabeth laughed.

“Just about.” Nick smirked and patted his flat stomach.

“Let us return to the dining hall,” Bo chuckled. “We will likely arrive just in time to have the first pick.”

“Sounds perfect,” Nick laughed as he quickly returned his pool stick to the rack on the wall.

“I’m really hungry again, too.” Nala stifled a yawn.

“Tired, too,” I teased my curly-haired girl.

“Yeah.” Nala smiled. “Today really took it out of me.”

“I’m pretty tired, too,” Steffi admitted. “I think I’ll make it an early night.”

“Sounds good to me.” Nala nodded.

“I think dinner and an early bedtime will be the perfect reward for our job well done today,” Ronin agreed.

“You know me,” Nick said. “I can go to sleep with the sun, and I’ve got some reading I can catch up on in the meantime.”

“This sounds like a good plan,” Bo said with a grin. “Let us head to the dining hall. We have an exciting day before us.”

“We do indeed, my love,” Binta murmured. “It will be good to get home after these long months away.”

We filed out into the hallway together and started down toward the dining hall.

“How long have you been here?” Ronin asked.

“Three months,” Bo answered. “I look forward to returning to campus and our usual rooms.”

“Nothing much like sleeping in your own bed,” I agreed.

“Indeed.” Binta nodded.

We arrived at the dining hall a few minutes later to find it empty aside from the kitchen staff. Half a dozen older ladies in light-blue dresses, white aprons, and hairnets carried heavy-looking trays from the kitchen to lay them on the chafing dishes of the buffet.

The smells that reached us made my mouth water, and I suddenly realized how hungry I was. My stomach rumbled as we walked over to the beginning of the buffet line.

“Good evening, Bo,” one of the older ladies said in a heavy accent I couldn’t place.

“Hello, Imani.” Bo gave the woman a friendly smile.

“How are you, my boy?” Imani asked sweetly. “Binta, dearie, how are you?”

“We are very well, thank you,” Binta said and leaned in to kiss the older woman’s cheeks. “We return to MIA tomorrow.”

“Oh, that is good.” Imani said. “But we will miss you.”

“We will miss you, too.” Bo grinned.

“Enjoy your dinner, dears.” Imani nodded kindly at all of us. “And have a safe flight tomorrow.”

We filled our trays with mouth-watering steaks, baked chicken breasts, steamed green beans, and crisp salads. Then we selected a table at the far wall near the windows. The sun had started to sink low against the horizon, and it looked like we would get a great view of the sunset while we enjoyed our last dinner in Tanzania.

My team was unusually reserved at dinner, but I chalked it up to the intense and exhausting battle with the Slide-Rock Bolter that morning and the anticipation of traveling to Egypt tomorrow. The food was as delicious as always, and we savored our plates in comfortable silence.

“This is really good,” Nala mused after a while.

“The kitchen staff here is very talented,” Bo agreed.

“I’m getting another plate,” Nick said. “Anybody else?”

“No, I’m stuffed,” Steffi giggled and leaned back in her chair.

“Enjoy, my friend,” Bo chuckled.

“I’ll come with you,” Nala said and stood from her chair. “I could use a little dessert.”

Elisabeth sat quietly across from me, and I wondered about the tension in her shoulders as she toyed with the remaining salad on her plate.

“I gotta say,” Nick said as he and Nala returned to the table. “I’m gonna miss the cookie selection.”

“Wait until you experience the dessert options at the main campus,” Binta laughed.

“Is everybody done with dinner?” Steffi asked a bit later through a soft yawn.

“Yes, I am fading quickly as well,” Ronin sighed.

“Why don’t we call it a night?” I suggested. “We can all enjoy some quiet downtime and a good night’s sleep before we head off to Egypt tomorrow.”

“Sounds good to me,” Nala said.

“I’ve got a stack of Rick and Morty comics calling my name.” Nick smirked as he shoved a raspberry cheesecake cookie into his mouth.

“You brought comics with you?” Steffi laughed as we all stood from the table and began to slowly make our way to the clean-up station.

“What?” Nick asked. “Sometimes I like to read before bed.”

“I enjoy reading before sleep, as well,” Binta said. “It helps to soothe my mind away from the chaos of the day.”

“Sometimes, I meditate before bed,” Ronin said with a slight shrug.

We walked out of the dining hall together and made our way down to the dormitories. Nick pushed the doors open as we filed into the corridor toward our rooms.

“Good night, my new friends,” Bo said when we arrived at our doors. “We will see you in the morning.”

“Sleep well.” Binta smiled and wrapped her arm around Bo’s waist.

“You, too,” Steffi said.

Ronin stifled an enormous yawn and waved her fingers at the tall couple as they walked away down the hall.

“I’m completely exhausted,” Nala sighed as she reached up to kiss me. “Good night.”

“Sweet dreams, cutie.” Steffi kissed me and pushed open the door to hers and Nala’s room.

“Good night,” I said to my girls as they stepped into their room and closed the door.

“Good night, man,” Nick chuckled, and he disappeared into his room.

“Sleep well, Dylan,” Ronin murmured softly and placed a kiss firmly on my lips.

“See you in the morning.” I smiled at my Japanese warrior.

Elisabeth lingered in the hallway as the rest of our team disappeared.

“Are you okay?” I asked my French girlfriend. “You seem off.”

“I-- uh…” Elisabeth hesitated a moment as tears started to shine in her eyes.

“Hey,” I soothed my redhead as I pulled her into my arms. “What’s up? Talk to me.”

“I guess the mission shook me up more than I thought,” Elisabeth sighed heavily and pressed her cheek against my chest.

“Come on,” I said as I pushed my door open and flicked on the light. “What about it shook you?”

“I guess… I just…” Elisabeth fumbled for words as she walked over and sat down on my bed. “I guess I felt like I couldn’t do anything to help. The monster was so powerful, and it nearly ate me.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I murmured as I sat beside my French girl and stroked my hands soothingly up her arms. “Not every monster is going to be the same, and not every mission is going to need the same skills. You were a huge help with the Jorogumo and the Tsuchinoko, remember? You were slashing those snake things left and right. It was super badass.”

“I suppose you are right,” Elisabeth sniffed delicately and dabbed at the corner of her eyes.

“Exactly,” I said. “We all have our own strengths and weaknesses, and we work together, we help each other out, and support each other, no matter what. Besides, you were a big help today, the way you tore that thing’s eyes out?”

Elisabeth giggled and blotted away a few tears from her cheeks.

“That was sickeningly awesome.” I nudged Elisabeth’s chin up with my fingers until she looked at me. “That was really helpful. Binta couldn’t keep the thing blind with her light control powers, but you? You did. You blinded it completely, and that gave us a huge advantage.”

“Yes, I guess I did,” Elisabeth sighed.

“Don’t sell yourself short, sweetheart,” I said softly.

“I am too hard on myself sometimes.” Elisabeth frowned and agitatedly twisted her fingers together in her lap.

“And it’s okay to be hard on yourself,” I said as I trailed my fingers slowly down her forearm and into her hand to lace her fingers with mine. “But not when you’re doing a good job.”

“Thank you, Dylan,” my French girl murmured as she leaned her head against my shoulder. “I feel much better now.”

“Good.” I smiled. “I’m glad.”

We sat silently for a few minutes and enjoyed each other’s presence. The smell of Elisabeth’s hair sifted lightly through the air and the warmth of her hand in mine seeped up my arm and through my body.

I let my fingertips dance slowly up Elisabeth’s arm, and I caressed gently inside her elbow.

My red-haired girlfriend’s breathing kicked up a notch, and her hand wandered up my thigh.

“Dylan,” Elisabeth sighed as she turned her face up toward mine. “Put your hands on me.”

“That’s right where my hands belong,” I murmured, and I complied instantly.

I grazed my palms up Elisabeth’s sides and massaged my thumbs into her body gently through the cotton t-shirt she still wore from our mission this morning. Then I nudged the copper-haired girl to face me more directly and lowered my mouth over hers.

“Mmmm,” Elisabeth moaned softly and sank into my touch.

My French lover opened her mouth to me and poked her tongue out to dance with mine as her arms came up to loop around my neck.

I gripped my hands around Elisabeth’s waist and pulled her onto my lap, and then I held her down on my hardened length and rocked my hips up gently into her.

“Dylan,” Elisabeth gasped for breath as her head fell back.

I reached up with one hand and dug my fingers into her coppery hair. I tugged at the elastic until her ponytail came free, and Elisabeth’s hair cascaded down her back like a river of silky fire.

“You’re so gorgeous,” I hummed, and I leaned forward to capture her mouth again.

Elisabeth kissed me with a passion that burned through our clothes and into my skin. She caressed her hands down my shoulders and over my arms, and shivers raced down my spine as Ky and Goldie reacted to Elisabeth’s touch.

I grew painfully hard as my dick pressed up against the fabric of my pants, and feeling the heat between Elisabeth’s legs only taunted me more.

“Oh, Dylan,” my French shapeshifter moaned as she sucked in a desperate breath. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I cupped Elisabeth’s cheek in my hand and stared into her pale green eyes.

My French girlfriend delicately grabbed hold of the bottom of her cotton shirt and tugged it free from her belt, and then she pulled the shirt up over her head. Her long red hair swished like waves of liquid copper over her shoulders, and a soft blush colored her chest and stomach a lovely shade of pink that matched the bright magenta lace of her bra.

“Gorgeous,” I groaned.

I leaned forward and placed a string of hot kisses across Elisabeth’s exposed skin and up to her throat, and I flicked my tongue against the spot on her neck where her pulse thrummed at a rapid pace.

“Ooooh,” Elisabeth moaned and tilted her hips against me.

I felt like I couldn’t get enough of my red-haired lover. I wished I had another two hands so I could touch her all over at the same time, and I finally reached up behind Elisabeth and unhooked her bra.

My hands circled around her ribcage, and I cupped the perfect weight of her breasts. Then I grazed my thumbs firmly over her nipples until they pebbled up into tight buds.

“Yes, touch me,” Elisabeth cooed.

The copper-haired girl arched her back to push her tits more firmly into my hands as she ground her crotch on my dick, and she sucked in a deep breath and tilted her chin to look at me as she bit down on her bottom lip. My French lover’s delicate fingers tugged insistently on my shirt, and she quickly pulled the obstructive piece of clothing over my head and tossed it aside.

“I want you inside me.” Elisabeth pushed on my shoulders and knocked me back onto my pillow.

“I think we can accommodate that.” I smirked and enjoyed the view as my fiery girl’s fingers plucked at my belt and popped the button on my pants.

I lifted my hips slightly off the bed as Elisabeth pulled my pants down my thighs and tossed them carelessly away, and then I folded my arms and tucked my hands under my head as my hard cock stood at attention for her.

My foxy French girl stood beside my bed and teasingly pulled her belt free from its loops.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” I hummed as I let my eyes trace every dip and curve of the redhead’s figure.

The flush over Elisabeth’s fair skin deepened more as she popped the button on her pants and peeled the tight fabric slowly down her shapely thighs.

“You are one to talk,” Elisabeth teased as her gaze caressed every inch of my body.

“Get that perfect ass over here,” I growled.

Elisabeth smiled coyly as she dipped her fingers into the elastic waist of her lacy pink thong.

“Leave it.” I winked at her.

“Yes, Dylan,” Elisabeth breathed, and she obeyed.

My French girl leaned one knee on the edge of my bed and elegantly swung the other over me to straddle my hips.

I grazed my fingers lightly up her creamy thighs as Elisabeth hovered over my waiting cock, and as I gripped her hip firmly with one hand, I hooked my middle finger into the front of her thong and tugged the wet fabric to the side.

Elisabeth angled her hips just right as I nudged the tip of my dick against her dripping entrance. She braced her palms on my chest, and a flash of fire spiked out through my body from Beyblade.

“Fuck,” I growled as I pulled Elisabeth down and impaled her on my shaft in one hard thrust.

“Merde,” Elisabeth groaned slowly as her body stretched around me.

I took hold of the pale beauty’s hips and helped lift her slowly away from me and then pulled her forcefully back down onto my length. Our moans bounced off the walls around us as I repeatedly lifted Elisabeth up and bounced her on my cock.

The fiercely sexy girl curled her fingers slightly and dug her short nails into the muscles of my chest, and Beyblade twitched with excited energy and flashed short bursts of heat throughout my chest and limbs.

The fire drizzled over my nerves and pooled low in my gut as I watched Elisabeth’s perfect tits bounce with the rhythm of my thrusts. Then I reached up with one hand and pinched her nipple between my fingers, and her body trembled with pleasure.

“Ooooh,” Elisabeth moaned as her head fell back.

The long waves of Elisabeth’s coppery hair fell down to her ass and tickled the tops of my thighs.

I felt the muscles in Elisabeth’s thighs tighten, and her juices dripped down my balls as her movements became more erratic, and her breathing came in ragged bursts. Then my French girlfriend collapsed forward onto my chest, and as her lips grazed against my ear, the harsh sighs of her breathing sent forceful surges of pleasure down my spine.

I was nearly undone when Elisabeth nipped gently at the hollow under my ear with her teeth.

“Fuck,” I growled.

I gripped her hips as I rolled her over and pressed her down into the mattress.

“Oh!” Elisabeth gasped in surprise as I looked down on her.

I hooked my hands under the backs of her knees and bent her legs up to rest wide around my torso. Then I angled my hips forward until my shaft slid completely inside her hot pussy. I leaned over Elisabeth and braced myself above her to pound deep inside her wet heat, and I set a rhythm that was fast and hard.

“Oooh, yes, Dylan,” Elizabeth cried out in pleasure, and her dripping pussy hugged tight around my length. “I love the way you fuck me. Sooo hard and deep inside my pussy.”

Then Elisabeth reached up under my arms and scraped her short nails down my back, and an intense current of hot electricity rippled out from Thor all along every one of my nerves.

“Aaaah, fuuuck,” I groaned.

“Ooooh, I’m gonna cuuuum,” Elisabeth moaned.

Her hot body clenched in waves around my cock as my French girlfriend quivered in pleasure, and I reached between our hot bodies and rubbed my thumb rapidly over her clit to push her over the edge.

“Fuucckkk.” Elisabeth’s entire body shuddered as she tumbled into a crashing orgasm. “Cum with me. Fill me upppp…”

My French lover wrapped her legs tight around my hips and pulled me hard into herself as she rode out the lingering waves of her pleasure.

“Aaahh, yessss.” I thrust into her as I pumped my hot cum into her tight pussy, and the tongue-numbing pleasure spiked through every inch of my body.

Thor’s electricity flashed behind my eyes like fireworks and shot down to my feet as Elisabeth dug her fingers into the muscles of my back. My toes went numb as I filled her tight tunnel to overflowing with my hot seed, and I nudged my cock inside Elisabeth’s dripping pussy a few more times as the white-hot pleasure slowly receded from my mind.

“Oh, Dylan, you are amazing,” my satiated redhead purred.

I placed a loving kiss on the curve of Elisabeth’s neck.

“You’re amazing,” I whispered as I leaned to the side and collapsed beside her.

“Thank you,” Elisabeth sighed and stifled a huge yawn.

“For what?” I asked. “Giving you what you needed?”

“Yes,” Elisabeth giggled softly. “But also for listening and making me feel better.”

“You’re welcome.” I kissed the French beauty’s neck again and curled her up into my side. “Get some sleep, baby, we’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

“Mmm,” Elisabeth hummed sleepily as she nuzzled against me.

I listened to my French lover’s quiet breathing until it grew slow and deep, and I knew she was asleep already. Then I carefully pulled myself away and padded across the sturdy carpet to flick the light off, and I climbed slowly back into bed with my foxy, redheaded girlfriend and wrapped my arms around her.

“Dylan, I love you,” Elisabeth mumbled in her sleep, and then her breathing deepened again.

“I love you, too,” I whispered.

I closed my eyes and quickly joined Elisabeth in a deep, restful sleep, and soft, pastel-colored dreams wafted slowly through my mind.

My four lovers came to me and wrapped their arms around me all at once, and they placed soft kisses on my body and filled me with all their love and affection. It felt like the most comfortable hug enveloped me all night long, but then a sharp knocking at the door pulled me from the pleasant cocoon of sleep.

“Dylan, my friend,” Bo stuck his head in through the door and then quickly disappeared into the hall as he laughed. “I am sorry, I did not realize you had company.”

“It’s alright,” I told the tall guy. “What’s up?”

“Our plane will be leaving soon, it is time to greet the day,” Bo said as he peeked back into the room and glanced conspicuously at Elisabeth.

The red-haired girl breathed deeply beside me, and she wasn’t awake just yet.

“Okay, thanks, Bo,” I said.

“You are welcome. I will leave you to, uh…” The tall guy cleared his throat and stifled a laugh. “Attend to your company… but I would love an explanation.”

Chapter 7

I gently shook Elisabeth awake.

“Mmm,” my sleepy French girl groaned and plopped my pillow firmly over her head.

“Come on,” I murmured, and I tickled Elisabeth gently. “It’s time to get up. We’ve got a flight to catch.”

“Darn,” Elisabeth grumbled and threw the blankets aside.

“Yeah. I want to stay in bed with you all day, too.” I laughed and walked over to stick my head into the hallway.

“Hmmm,” she sighed longingly.

“The hall’s empty,” I said over my shoulder.

Elisabeth had wrapped my blanket around herself and scooped up her discarded clothing from the night before into her arms.

“Thank you,” my French girlfriend said and leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss me. Then she walked into the hall and quickly disappeared into her room with Ronin.

I smiled and closed the door before I walked into the brightly-lit bathroom.

“Hey there, sexy pants,” Steffi giggled as I blinked in the harsh light of the bathroom.

“Or should we say ‘sexy no pants?’” Nala laughed and hung her bathrobe on the hook before she stepped into the shower stall.

“Good morning,” I chuckled and turned on the water to the third shower. “How did you two sleep?”

“Like a fucking rock,” Nala said as she sighed under the steaming water.

“Really well.” Steffi smiled and pulled her oversized t-shirt off and dropped it on the floor. My pink-haired girl propped her hand on her luscious hip and smirked at me a moment before she stepped into the shower. “How did you sleep?”

“I slept hard,” I said.

My two girls burst into giggles, and as they eyed me up and down, I felt my ears get hot.

“Sooo hard, I bet,” my fairy-girl purred.

“And deep,” Nala snickered.

“But which of your lovely ladies is filled with your cum today?” Steffi blinked politely, but a cheeky smile refused to leave her lips.

“Elisabeth,” the dark beauty immediately guessed. “He’s got that ‘I fucked a sweet little French girl’ glow about him.”

Steffi and Nala burst into giggles all over again, and I smirked at their dirty expressions.

“I probably do,” I snorted, and I stepped into the shower and quickly washed all the sweat, dust, and sex from the previous day off my body.

The heat soothed the sleep gently from my muscles, and I stretched my head from side to side until my neck popped. By the time I was done brushing my teeth, Steffi and Nala still lingered in the showers. I shrugged to myself and wrapped a towel around my waist.

“I’ll see you two in a bit,” I said as I walked across the damp tile floor.

“We’re almost done.” Steffi poked her head out around the curtain and smiled at me as her hair dripped on the floor.

“Yep, and I’m so ready for breakfast,” Nala agreed.

“Okay,” I chuckled.

I quickly dressed in my favorite jeans and a simple black t-shirt. Then I tugged my boots on and laced them snuggly before I threw the rest of my stuff into my bag. Then I hesitated a moment because the MIA staff had brought our bags from the jet to our rooms, but I didn’t know if we were supposed to bring them back to the jet ourselves.

I figured it didn’t make much difference either way, and I slung the duffle bag over my shoulder and stepped out into the hall.

Bo stood in the corridor and leaned one shoulder against the wall. He was dressed comfortably in tan shorts and a black polo shirt.

“Good morning, again.” Bo smirked.

“Hey,” I said to the tall guy. “Where’s everybody else?”

“Nick said he was almost ready,” Bo explained. “He was just gathering the rest of his things.”

“And the girls?” I glanced at Ronin and Elisabeth’s door.

“Nick said they were in the bathroom.” Bo shrugged with excessive nonchalance.

“Steffi and Nala will be ready in a few minutes.” I walked over and raised my hand to my other girls’ door. “I’ll check to see how long Ronin and Elisabeth will be.”

I rapped lightly on the wooden panel and waited a moment.

“Good morning.” Ronin smiled at me when she opened the door.

She wore her pleated black shorts that showed off her toned legs and a well-tailored short-sleeve blouse in a joyful shade of pink that brought out the cute spray of freckles across her cheeks. The Japanese girl had pulled her hair into two low pigtails, and she looked both sexy and adorable today.

“Hey,” I said. “I was just seeing if you guys would be ready soon.”

“Yes, we will be ready in a few minutes.” Ronin nodded and smirked at me. “Elisabeth had a slow start this morning.”

“Right.” I grinned. “No hurry. We’ll wait for you before we go.”

“Thank you,” Ronin said and slowly closed the door between us.

“They’ll, uh… they’ll be ready in a bit,” I said as I turned back to Bo.

“Dylan…” the tall guy began and then shook his head slightly.

“Yeah?” I said. “What’s up?”

“Perhaps I misread something,” Bo chuckled, and he lowered his voice conspiratorially. “I thought you were with Steffi, but I am quite certain that it was Elisabeth I spotted this morning in your bed.”

“Oh, uh--” I chuckled. “Yeah, it’s complicated.”

“I do hope you are not leading the ladies along.” Bo frowned at me.

“No, not at all,” I assured him. “They all know about each other, sometimes we, uh…”

Bo’s eyes went wide as my words lingered in the air.

“What?” I asked.

“It sounds like you are saying it is not only Steffi and Elisabeth you have relations with,” Bo mused.

“Uh, yeah.” I rubbed my hand over the back of my neck. “Um, I’m kind of dating all four of the girls.”

“‘All four?’” Bo shook his head with wide-eyed amazement. “Truly?”

I just shrugged and laughed.

“And I thought your prowess on the battlefield was impressive,” Bo laughed boisterously and slapped me hard on the back.

“I swear,” I chuckled. “It just sort of happened.”

“What are you two laughing about?” Binta asked as she strolled forward and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend. The tall girl wore a brightly-colored skirt that flowed around her knees, a white shirt with a scooped collar that showed off the elegant length of her neck, and large gold hoops dangled from her ears.

“Oh, nothing,” Bo said. “It merely seems that Dragon Conjurers have all the fun.”

“That’s definitely true,” Nick agreed as he opened his door. “Hey, Bo, are we supposed to bring our bags with us?”

Nick held his duffel bag up in his hands as he stood in his half-open door. He had dressed much like I had, in worn-out jeans and an anime t-shirt.

“No, you may leave them in your rooms,” Bo answered. “The staff will bring them onto the jet for us.”

“Okay.” I opened my door and dropped my bag back inside the room.

“Thank goodness,” Binta said casually. “There is no way I could carry all my belongings by myself.”

“Indeed, my love.” Bo kissed his girlfriend lovingly on the cheek.

The door next to mine opened, and Steffi and Nala walked into the hall laughing about something. They quickly glanced at me and then each other, and I caught a soft blush race up Steffi’s cheeks.

Steffi wore sexy denim shorts that were so heavily frayed around the bottom, it looked like she’d cut them with a pair of rusty kitchen scissors. A white-and-green-striped tank top with thick straps hugged her breasts alluringly, and she’d tucked it neatly into the chunky, brown leather belt at her waist. Steffi had also drawn a black wing shape across her eyelashes that flicked out at the end, and it really made her golden eyes sparkle.

Nala wore comfortable-looking black yoga pants that were so tight, they looked like they’d been painted on. They hugged her shapely legs down to just below her knees, and a thin stripe of bright pink mesh material spiked up from the hem to her thighs. She wore a loose black t-shirt and had pinned her dark curls in little twists across the top of her head.

“Good morning, everyone,” Steffi said as she cleared her throat.

“Good morning.” Binta smiled.

Ronin opened her door and stepped into the hallway, and she nodded her greeting to the rest of us.

“Did I hear we should leave our bags here?” Elisabeth asked.

The gorgeous redhead stepped out into the hallway in olive green trousers that she’d cuffed up to reveal her ankles. Her short-sleeve, white shirt was decorated with tiny blue stars, and each star was connected with thin lines to form the constellations of the night sky.

“Yeah.” Nala nodded. “Bo said the staff will bring them to the jet for us.”

Nick dropped his bag on the floor just inside his room and pulled it closed behind him.

“Excellent,” Nick said. “We have time for breakfast, right?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Binta frowned apologetically.

“But the kitchen staff will have provided food for the flight.” Bo grinned.

“Perfect,” Nick chuckled. “I don’t really care where I eat, as long as I eat.”

“I can vouch for that,” Steffi laughed.

Bo and Binta started down the hall, and my team and I fell into line behind them. We walked comfortably down the corridors toward the hangar where we’d first arrived, and then we stepped out into the bright morning light.

“Do you think Silva is still here?” Nick asked.

The snarky pilot appeared as if on cue.

“What?” Silva asked. “You think I’d just dump you kids here and go back home?”

“Of course not,” Steffi said teasingly. “Who would tell us to go fuck ourselves if you weren’t here?”

“That’s right,” Silva laughed as he pointed a finger at us. “Come on, you lazy bums, get on board already.”

Nala and Ronin laughed as they strolled up the silver jet’s ramp and disappeared inside, and Steffi looped her arm through Elisabeth’s before they followed my other girls inside the jet.

Nick lingered at the bottom of the ramp as he gazed a little nervously back toward the building.

“They’ll bring our bags, right?” the blond nymph asked.

“Yes, my friend,” Bo laughed. “Do not worry.”

“Come on, dude,” I said. “I’m sure they’ve got it under control.”

“It’s just,” Nick pouted slightly. “I’ve got variant covers in there.”

I chuckled at my best friend, but a moment later, several MIA staff members in light-blue, button-down shirts, and tan slacks filed out of the building. They carried a bag in each hand and marched stoically over to the jet’s cargo hold.

“Here they are,” Bo chuckled.

“There you go,” I patted Nick on the shoulder. “Feel better?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.” Nick smirked. “Okay, let’s see what those lovely ladies in the kitchen packed for us.”

Nick practically bounced up the ramp into the jet, and Bo looped his arm over Binta’s shoulders and strolled up the ramp with me.

The girls had settled into the front row of seats and chatted quietly with each other. I caught the words “foundation” and “falsies” and quickly tuned out their makeup talk to focus on the Styrofoam boxes that filled the last row of seats.

“Is this the food?” Nick asked.

My best friend pulled the top off the box nearest to him. The smell of fried eggs and crisp bacon immediately filled the air around us.

Silva marched up the aisle and dipped his hand inside the box to snag a plastic bag of bacon before he continued toward the cockpit.

“Strap in, everybody. We’re taking off in five minutes,” the pilot announced before he stuffed a slice of bacon into his mouth. “Mmm, this is good.”

Nick gathered several items from the Styrofoam boxes and plopped into the seat behind Steffi.

I took it upon myself to pass breakfast items out to everyone else, and by the time Silva was firing up the engines, we were all happily snacking on eggs, bacon, freshly baked blueberry muffins, and sliced fruit.

I strapped into the seat between Nick and the aisle, and Binta slid into the seat across the aisle from me. Bo wedged his body in beside her, and his long legs stuck out into the aisle.

“This is Captain Silva speaking,” the captain’s voice crackled over our headsets. “I’d like to extend a special welcome to our newest passengers. I know you have no other choice in your airlines, and if you have any complaints, you can go fuck yourselves.”

Bo laughed boisterously at Silva’s usual greeting.

I lowered my muffin to my lap while we raced down the runway, and I felt the ground drop away beneath us a moment later. Once we leveled out, and Silva made his announcement that we were free to move about the cabin, I finished my muffin and settled more comfortably into my seat.

“You’d look stunning with a glittery eyeliner, Steff,” Nala said.

“You don’t think it would be too much?” Steffi asked.

“Just a touch of sparkle would be exactly enough,” Ronin giggled. “I never feel like I can do bright makeup like that.”

I smiled to myself about my ladies and leaned my head back against my seat as I closed my eyes.

The roaring hum of the engines and idle chit-chat of my team lulled me into a comfortable half-awake state. I was vaguely aware of the conversations around me as Silva flew us north toward Egypt, and I wondered if we’d be near Cairo, or if we’d get to see the pyramids. I hadn’t thought to ask where MIA’s main campus was located, and at this point, I figured I might as well just wait and see.

Compared to our flight from California to Tanzania, our flight to Egypt was over very quickly. It felt like no time had passed at all when Silva’s voice came over our headsets to tell us to strap in because we’d be landing shortly.

“No interesting welcome party this time, I guess,” Nick chuckled.

“Not this time.” I smirked.

My ears popped, and my heart thudded in my chest as the jet’s landing gear connected with the ground, and we sped toward a large brownstone building with huge windows.

“Ah, it is good to be home,” Binta said as she gazed happily out the window.

“Welcome to MIA, my American friends,” Bo announced merrily. “First, we will need to meet with Headmaster Mahrous, and then Binta and I will give you a tour around campus.”

The jet came to an abrupt stop a hundred yards away from the building.

“Alright, kids,” Silva said over the radio. “We’re here.”

“Sounds good to me,” Nick said as he pulled his seatbelt off and stretched his limbs.

“Where in Egypt are we?” I asked as I gazed out the window.

All I could see was a seemingly endless expanse of flat earth, and I stood from my seat and crossed to the other side of the jet. From here, I could see a wide stretch of calm, dark blue water, and beyond it were more desert plains.

“We are near the southern border,” Binta said as she stood from her seat and stretched her arms. “That is the northern tip of Lake Nasser. Further south it leads back into the Nile River.”

“Sudan is only about fifty kilometers further that way,” Bo said, and he pointed past the lake.

“Are we anywhere near Cairo?” Nick asked.

“No,” Steffi giggled. “Cairo is on the other side of the country.”

“Bummer.” Nick shrugged and scooped up another muffin from the Styrofoam boxes.

We filed down the aisle behind my best friend and walked down the ramp to the tarmac.

Four tall men in light-gray uniforms stood at attention between the jet and the building about a dozen yards off the end of the ramp. They wore reflective aviator sunglasses and shiny black boots.

“Looks like MIA has their own Men in Black agents,” I murmured softly.

“Yeah, ‘Guys in Gray,’” Nick joked.

“Mr. Abdi, Ms. Okoro,” one of the guards said. “Welcome back to MIA.”

“Thank you,” Bo said with a polite reserve that sounded incredibly odd from the usually jovial guy. “This is Dylan Cooper and his team from America.”

“Headmaster Mahrous is waiting for you in his office,” another guard said without inflection.

“Very good.” Binta smiled politely. “Thank you, we know the way, we will show the cadets from AIMM.”

The tall girl’s words had an odd effect on the guards. They obeyed her like she had actual authority over them and turned immediately to march into the building.

“Friendly guys,” Steffi murmured.

“I think they were born without any genetic predisposition to humor,” Bo chuckled.

Binta grinned at her boyfriend and laced her fingers through his as she began to walk forward into the shiny glass double doors of the building.

“This way, everyone,” the tall girl said in her tour-guide voice.

Binta led us through the enormous space of the airplane hangar. It was a huge room, and our footsteps echoed off the four-story steel and glass ceiling as we walked through. The space stretched back a few hundred yards, and there must have been a dozen small planes stored inside, as well as two helicopters like the one we’d taken to Mount Kilimanjaro.

“This is our hangar bay, as you can see,” Binta said.

“It is so… open,” Elisabeth said with awe.

“We have an abundance of land here to work with,” Bo explained. “The Academy is the only facility for almost two-hundred kilometers in every direction. So MIA is spread wide across the land.”

“The climate is not very comfortable,” Binta laughed. “But it is a good place to hide an enormous secret academy.”

Binta definitely had a point about the climate.

The air was hot and dry, and it felt like the sun was right on top of us. I felt a little bad for Nick since I hadn’t seen a single tree or even any shrubs around the Academy. It felt like the kind of place where my plant-loving best friend would whither long-term.

We followed Binta through another pair of fancy doors into a long hallway that reminded me of the skyscraper office buildings I’d seen in TV shows about Wall Street investors. The tan hardwood floors were polished to a mirror-like shine, and the crisp, clean walls were decorated with masterful art pieces of various monsters in brushed steel frames.

“The classrooms are down this way,” Binta said, and she gestured through another pair of glass doors and down a long corridor.

I caught sight of a few young people walking down the corridor before we strode past.

“The library and the Brain are that way,” Binta continued in her tour-guide voice. “And down that way are the dormitories. The training facility is in the next building over, and there is a sky bridge that connects to it from the second floor of the dormitories. The entire facility is laid out like a strange capital B. The hangar, where we came in, is at the top, and all the hallways loop back around. So, if you find yourself lost, just keep walking until you find something you recognize.”

“That’s pretty ingenious, actually,” I said.

“It was not the original plan,” Bo said as he turned to walk backward down the hall. “When new expansions were built in the 1980s, the headmistress at the time decided it would be fun to mimic the shape of her initials.”

“Her initials were BB?” Nala asked.

“Yes, Bejide Buhle.” Bo grinned. “She was headmistress when my mother was a cadet.”

“She really left her mark on the Academy.” Steffi smirked.

“Headmaster Mahrous’ office is at the end of this hallway.” Binta smiled softly at us. “And then we can explore the facilities more.”

“I’d love to do a training session with you guys,” Nala said.

“Sounds good to me,” Nick chuckled. “I’ve got some excess energy to burn.”

“I’m up for a session.” I felt my dragons twitch with excitement at the idea of a training session.

“We shall go there next,” Binta said. Then she gripped the sleek handle of a large glass door at the end of the hall and pushed.

I glanced at the nameplate beside the door, and in large gold letters it said, “Thatmose H. Mahrous III Headmaster of the Magical Institution of Africa.”

“‘Thatmose H Mahrous.’” My tongue struggled to shape the name. “The third?”

“Yikes,” Nick said quietly as he grimaced at me.

I stifled a laugh as we filed into the bright office.

The room was just as beautiful as the rest of the building we’d seen so far. The wall opposite where we stood was an entire picture window that gazed out over Lake Nasser, and the mid-morning sun filled the space with plenty of natural light.

A huge, sleek, metal desk sat perfectly in the middle of the room, and it was quite the antithesis of Ms. Kunene’s desk. Files were stacked perfectly on the desk, and exactly three slim ballpoint pens stood straight up from a small pen holder at the edge beside a very modern LED lamp.

There was a comfortable-looking set of plush, leather armchairs to the left side of the room, and between them was an elegant antique wood table with a snifter of amber liquor and two crystal glasses on a silver tray.

The other wall of the office was lined with bookshelves filled to the bursting with a wide variety of titles, and I scanned the books quickly and spotted several I recognized.

There was George Orwell’s 1984, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems, and even the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Dozens of the other titles were in languages I couldn’t read, and many of the books were bound in worn leather.

Thatmose H. Mahrous was a handsome man of about fifty who sat behind the desk. He had thick black hair that was slightly tousled and peppered with streaks of silver. The man’s piercing hazel eyes twinkled merrily in his olive-skinned face, and a finely-trimmed mustache curled up slightly at the corners of his mouth. He wore a well-tailored white suit shirt and a cerulean blue satin tie that he’d pulled loose at the top. Beneath the open steel legs of the desk, I could see he wore navy blue pinstripe suit pants, and his black leather dress shoes had been shined to perfection.

Headmaster Mahrous was on the phone, and he spoke in what I guessed was Arabic. The headmaster held up a single finger to tell us he’d only be another minute, and then he nodded and gestured vaguely around the room as if to say “have a look around.”

Binta sat down in one of the four chairs that sat in a row in front of the man’s desk. Nala and Steffi lowered themselves a little more cautiously into two of the other chairs, and then Steffi patted the remaining chair and smiled at Elisabeth. The French girl smiled and sat down in the last chair, and Nick and Bo stood casually just behind the ladies.

Ronin wandered over to inspect the headmaster’s personal library with me, and we exchanged silent smiles for a second.

A thick and very worn-out leather tome caught my attention. It was so large that it had been laid horizontally, and it still took up nearly half the height of its shelf. The title was inscribed on the spine of the book in elaborate, faded, gold-leaf lettering, and I stepped closer to try and make out the letters, but they were so faded that I couldn’t read them.

“That’s Sanskrit,” Ronin murmured softly beside me.

“Sanskrit?” I asked. I’d heard of the language before, but I knew nothing about it.

“Yes, it’s--” Ronin began, but the audible click of the phone stopped her.

“I must apologize for that, cadets,” Headmaster Mahrous said in a friendly, Egyptian-accented voice. “A headmaster’s work is never done.”

Ronin and I turned and walked over to join the rest of our team in front of the well-dressed man’s desk.

“Ms. Okoro, Mr. Abdi, welcome back,” Mahrous said as he tugged the Windsor knot of his tie back into place. “It is good to have you home again.”

“Thank you, sir,” Bo said.

“It is very good to be home.” Binta smiled.

“And this must be Dylan Cooper,” Mahrous said as he stood up and reached over his desk to clasp Nick’s hand in both of his.

“What? No, no, I’m not--” Nick stammered as he tried to point at me.

“It is an honor to welcome the Dragon Conjurer to our fine Academy.” The Headmaster released Nick’s hand and sat back in his plush leather office chair.

“Sir…” Bo said softly, and he laid a hand gently on my best friend’s shoulder. “This is Nick Walters.”

“Oh, oh, dear. Terribly sorry.” Mahrous frowned slightly and turned to me. “Mr. Cooper?”

“Yeah.” I shrugged slightly. “That’s me.”

“I am so sorry,” Mahrous blushed under his olive complexion, and his eyes darted to the tail ends of the dragon tattoos that stuck out from my t-shirt sleeves. Then he reached up to straighten his tie and tapped a finger at his temple. “Sometimes, the things in my head get a little muddled. There’s just too much in here.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled. “It must be a lot to run an Academy of this size and… luster.”

“Yes, well…” The headmaster grinned at my praise, and the awkward tension in the air dissipated. “Welcome to MIA, and thank you for coming all this way to handle the situation with the Slide-Rock Bolter. I understand your team was able to dispatch the creature without much trouble?”

“Yes, sir,” Steffi said politely. “Nala really put that displaced monster in its place.”

“Very good, Miss …?” Mahrous smiled.

“Foster, Steffi Foster,” my fairy-girl said. Then she gestured one by one at my other girls. “This is Nala Jefferson. Our long-term liaison from AMIE, Elisabeth Bernard. And Ronin is currently on a diplomatic mission from the Japanese Academy.”

“Wonderful.” The headmaster rubbed his hands together happily. “We have all the Academies represented under our roof. This has never happened before.”

“All…?” I murmured, but the headmaster rapidly continued before I could point out that the Russian Academy wasn’t represented in this room.

“We are very pleased to welcome you all to Egypt,” Mahrous said. “It is good to have the extra support right now. Things have become increasingly concerning as of late.”

“How so, sir?” Steffi asked with concern in her voice.

“More attacks, more displaced monsters, greater numbers of monsters…” Mahrous trailed off absently, and his brow furrowed as his eyes grew distant. He reached up and straightened the perfectly aligned papers on his desk. “Anyway, nothing we can’t handle with the fine cadets we have here, and now the Dragon Conjurer to help.”

“I’ll do whatever I can to help,” I said hesitantly as I tried to identify the strange tone in the headmaster’s voice.

It felt like he was trying to bury his worry under a forced calm and the assertion that he had things under control. I got the feeling that maybe Headmaster Mahrous was in a little over his head, and that he was doing his best to stay afloat. I wondered how severe the situation in Africa had gotten, and I thought about the secondary outposts.

Cadets were actively being posted across the continent, which made me think that maybe the need for a fast and regular response was needed at a wide range over the many countries in Africa.

I made a mental note to ask Bo about the situation later, but the headmaster’s voice drew my attention once more.

“Ms. Okoro and Mr. Abdi will continue to be your liaisons and guides during the remainder of your time here at MIA,” Mahrous said. “Oh, and I have designated the eastern courtyard for use by the dragons. It remains open to all cadets, but they have been notified to keep a respectful distance. Headmaster Burkhard insisted that your team be accommodated properly.”

“Thank you, sir.” I nodded at the man and looked at him more closely.

There were dark shadows under his hazel eyes, and his hair was not as perfectly tousled as I first thought. Over all, I got the impression that Mahrous was under a lot more stress than he wanted us to see.

“Very good,” the headmaster said as he nudged his shirt sleeve up and checked the time on his gold watch. Then he tugged idly at the corner of his mustache. “Uh, if you’ll excuse me, I have some matters that require my attention.”

“Yes, headmaster.” Bo smiled and offered his hand to help Binta from her seat. “We will show the American cadets around the facilities and to their dormitories.”

“Excellent, thank you, Mr. Abdi.” Mahrous pulled the knot of his tie loose from his neck and sucked in a deep breath as if the length of satin was slowly trying to strangle him. “Off you go.”

We filed quietly out of the sleek office and began to walk back down the hallway toward the training rooms.

“He seems…” Nick murmured as he searched for the word.

“Stressed?” Elisabeth offered.

“Yeah.” Nick grimaced a little.

“Yes.” Binta nodded. “Headmaster Mahrous does not like to admit it, but things have been getting a little out of control the past several months.”

“Is that why the secondary outposts were established?” Ronin asked.

We continued down the hall, and Bo turned around backward to look at us as we walked.

“It is,” the tall guy said. “There have been many monster attacks in Tanzania, Nigeria, and South Africa, so Headmaster Mahrous and the other high-ranking administrators modified some storage and refueling locations into the secondary outposts about two months ago.”

“Is that why the Tanzanian campus was so sparsely decorated?” Elisabeth asked.

“Yeah, there weren’t a whole lot of things there,” Nick agreed. “It was like the bare minimum.”

“Yes,” Binta acknowledged. “They only hung those paintings in the hallways a few days ago because you were to arrive soon, and they wanted to make a better impression.”

Binta led us through a pair of double doors that, unlike all the other doors I’d seen, had no windows. This corridor was just as fancy as the main hallway but had a colder feel to it.

“The training rooms are here,” Bo said. “At this time of day, we are likely to be the only ones here.”

“Awesome,” Nala said. “What kind of monsters do you guys have?”

“What would you like to train with?” Bo grinned. “We have a wide variety from which to choose.”

“Something native to the area?” Elisabeth suggested.

“Yes,” Ronin agreed. “I would like to experience something from your part of the world.”

“I have an idea,” Bo chuckled as we walked into the first training room.

Binta headed over to a row of lockers and opened the first one. She pulled out a small piece of black leather and checked the label before she tossed it to Steffi.

“What’s this?” Steffi asked.

“Our training rooms require body sensors to operate properly,” Binta said. “The suit is filled with tiny microchips that communicate with the Brain to provide a more realistic experience. They will also simulate contact with the monsters through a mild surge of electricity.”

“Woah, fancy.” Nick smirked as he caught the uniform Binta tossed at him.

Binta checked a few more labels and tossed uniforms out to the rest of my ladies before she walked over and placed one in my hands.

“The changing rooms are over here,” the tall girl said as she pointed to a small area off the side of the main training room. “Bo will finish programming the simulation for us while we change.”

“Sounds good to me,” Nala said.

My four ladies followed Binta through a door marked “Ladies,” and Nick and I walked through the “Gentlemen” door.

The locker room was only about ten feet by ten feet with two long benches down the middle of the space. A row of narrow lockers was anchored to the far wall, and two sinks hung at the end.

“This is… interesting.” Nick smirked as he held up the uniform.

“We’re about as far from home as we can get, dude,” I laughed and pulled my shirt off over my head.

We quickly changed into the training uniforms and jammed our clothes into the lockers. The light and flexible leather uniforms had no sleeves, so my tattoos of Ky and Goldie were on full display. The black material fit snugly over my chest and zipped up the front, but the pants only reached halfway down my thighs, so I felt like a swimmer from the 1930s.

I glanced over at Nick as he tugged at the shorts in a futile attempt to pull them out of his crotch.

“These are tight,” the blond nymph grumbled.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “But Binta must have just guessed at our sizes, maybe she got them wrong.”

“I guess.” Nick frowned.

“Come on,” I chuckled at my best friend. “You’ll survive.”

I patted Nick comfortingly on the shoulder as we walked back out of the locker room to wait for the girls.

“The simulation is ready to go,” Bo said as he jogged into the locker room to change. “I will be right back.”

I nodded at the tall guy, and we stood around to wait for the girls.

A moment later, Steffi stepped out of the locker room, and Nala followed right behind her. The ladies’ version of the MIA training uniform reminded me of the uniform Nala had worn during our visit to the Japanese academy.

The top struggled to contain the ample busts of my ladies and hugged close around their narrow waists. The swim-suit style bottom curved high up over their hips and showed off a distracting amount of skin, but I certainly didn’t mind the design in the slightest.

Then Elisabeth, Ronin, and Binta stepped out from the locker room, and I had to force my eyes away from the creamy skin of my foreign lovers’ thighs before I embarrassed myself in my own skin-tight uniform.

“Radio comms,” Binta said as she passed out small earpieces to everyone.

“Thanks,” I said and wedged the little black radio into my ear.

“These are interesting,” Elisabeth giggled as she brushed her hands nervously over her torso.

“Yeah, but at least my wings have a full range of motion,” Steffi laughed.

“I feel like the leather is trying to make friends with my kidneys,” Nick grumbled a little.

“Come along,” Binta laughed and waved us forward into the training room.

“Are we ready?” Bo asked as he joined us.

“I think so,” Ronin said, and she projected her astral armor all over her body.

The white light of her energy obscured the delicious curves of her body only slightly, and the strange glow and tight bodice made her look like some kind of Japanese superhero.

“At least this should stay in place when I transform.” Elisabeth smiled at herself.

“So, what are we fighting today?” Nala asked.

“Popobawa.” Bo grinned.

“What’s a--” Nick began, but before he could finish his sentence, the room’s gray tiled walls and floor began to fade away.

The white, snow-capped peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro rose up in the distance, and a grassy plain with the occasional tree and stretches of bushes cropped up around us. The sky turned dim as the simulated sun appeared low over the horizon.

“Sunset?” Ronin asked.

“Yes, the Popobawa is a nocturnal monster,” Binta said.

“But what are they?” Nick tried again.

A sharp screech like nails down a chalkboard ripped through the holographic evening air. Then a huge, man-sized bat creature suddenly flapped down from one of the larger trees nearby.

The beast was ugly as sin, with enormous, leathery wings, and one red eye in the middle of its face. The monster landed on the grass a few feet in front of us and screeched again, and its body was covered in a thin layer of wiry black hairs while long, lean muscles covered its arms and legs. The creature’s flaccid penis dangled disturbingly between the Popobawa’s thick legs as he stepped toward us, and I cringed a little at the thought of fighting this guy with his business just swinging out in the open.

Then another dozen or so Popobawa lurched out of the trees and swarmed toward us as their screams scraped inside my eardrums, and limp dicks were everywhere.

Chapter 8

The dozen Popobawa stepped toward us with their horse-cocks swinging back and forth in the gentle evening breeze.

“What the fuck…?” Nick breathed.

“I concur,” Elisabeth said with disgust.

“The Popobawa are known for their penchant of sodomizing their victims,” Bo nearly doubled over with laughter.

“Oh, Bo,” Binta chuckled. “You mischievous man.”

“Yikes.” Nick grimaced, and then he started to laugh. “Well played, Bo. Well played.”

“I look forward to destroying these beasts,” Ronin declared.

The first bat monster screeched again as he flapped his enormous wings, and he took off into the air with his dick swinging the entire way. They were truly hideous monsters, and I shuddered to imagine what an attack by these beasts was really like.

I took a step back and caught sight of Elisabeth as she swiftly transformed into a large grizzly bear. Her nose stretched and widened as long canine teeth grew out from her mouth. Her silky copper-colored hair shrank down to her scalp as thick brown fur sprouted out all over her body. Elisabeth growled and roared as she stood up on her hind legs, and her hands stretched out into paws the size of dinner plates.

Steffi spread her dragonfly-shaped wings out and fluttered up above the trees as she formed thick golden balls of energy around her fingers. My fairy-girl launched a golden ball at the lead Popobawa as it flew up toward her.

The golden ball of light connected with the bat monster’s wing and knocked him off balance, but he quickly adjusted and swooped around to come at my best friend instead.

Nick disappeared into the lush grass and popped up suddenly on the other side of our battlefield. He hesitated, half-buried in the brush, and stared hard at the Popobawa before he dashed off again into the trunk of a nearby tree.

I watched with curiosity as my best friend stalked swiftly around the edge of the battlefield, but I couldn’t figure out what his goal was, so I turned away to check on my other teammates.

I glanced over at Elisabeth in her grizzly bear form as she swiped at a nearby bat monster. Her huge claws slashed out and tore through the leathery skin of the one-eyed monster’s left wing.

The Popobawa screeched angrily as the tattered flesh blinked in bright pixels at the edges. He tried to fly away, but the French girl had done so much damage to his wing that she’d effectively grounded the beast, and he was forced to stumble back on foot.

Elisabeth roared and lumbered after the hideous creature, and it managed to stay just out of reach for a moment. Then the French shapeshifter crouched back on her powerful hind legs and launched herself in a fierce attack at the Popobawa. Her enormous claws tore through the monster’s flesh as she knocked the beast to the ground and landed on top of it. A moment later, a spray of bright pixels flew out from underneath Elisabeth’s furry body.

“Well done, El!” I said into the comms, and bear-Elisabeth growled back.

Then I glanced over to check on the MIA cadets.

Bo was in a touchless wrestling match with one of the Popobawa. The tall guy held his arms tensely in front of him and curled his fingers like Darth Vader choking out a disappointing lackie.

The Popobawa screeched and tried to thrash in Bo’s telekinetic hold, and I grimaced as the monstrous bat’s gross dick slapped back and forth between his legs while he tried to pull himself free.

I spotted Nick’s blond head suddenly poke out of the branch of the tree just beyond where Bo struggled with the bat monster. My best friend took hold of a dried-out limb and struggled with it for a moment. Then he readjusted his grip and ripped it free from the tree before he dropped it to the ground just behind the Popobawa that Bo telekinetically wrestled with.

Bo released his right hand’s telekinetic hold and mentally reached out behind the Popobawa to grab the fallen tree branch. The telekinetic guy lifted the improvised spear and hurled it forward into the hairy back of the one-eyed creature.

The jagged, broken end of the branch ripped through the Popobawa’s torso until it stuck straight out from the middle of his chest, and the bat monster’s single red eye blinked once before he looked down at the foot-long piece of tree limb that protruded from his body. The Popobawa screeched once more before it blasted out into a million pixels, and Bo chuckled with pride as he sent Nick a thumbs up.

My best friend pumped his fists into the air and then disappeared into the tree once more.

Binta stood nearby with her gaze held steady on another monster, and I could tell she was using her light bending powers to alter the vision of her opponent. The air wavered slightly in front of the creature’s huge eye as her long fingers danced gracefully in the air, and I could only guess at what she’d made the beast see.

Then, a split second later, he screeched and launched himself at another Popobawa nearby.

A fist fight the likes of any good tavern brawl broke out between the two illusion-blinded bat monsters. The first knocked his entire body weight into the second, and they tumbled head over heels together in a tumbleweed of clawing, scratching, and screeching.

I watched with slight amusement as the two monsters traded powerful punches to each other, but after a moment of scrambling, they managed to get back to their feet, and one of the Popobawa jammed his thumbs into the other’s huge red eye. The injury to the beast’s vision must have knocked Binta’s illusion away, because the Popobawa shook his head and screeched in the direction of the tall MIA cadet.

Before the bat monster could move in Binta’s direction, the other launched himself forward and locked his hands on the clear-headed monster’s throat.

Elisabeth pounded forward and rammed her bear body into the pair to knock them to the ground. She tore into the blinded Popobawa’s neck and nearly ripped his head clean off as the other one screamed. Before the second beast could drag himself out, Elisabeth stomped down with her huge paw and crushed through the monster’s huge red eye and straight into his squishy brains.

Both monsters blasted away into nothing in a huge spray of pixels.

Ronin looked a bit pale as she turned quickly away from the sight and slashed out at the nearest Popobawa with her extra-long astral katana. Her white blade easily sliced one of the beast’s wings clean off at the shoulder, and the one-eyed bat monster screamed in rage as it lumbered awkwardly toward her.

Without skipping a beat, Ronin pivoted like a ballerina and angled her katana easily to lop the beast’s other wing completely off. Then she shortened her astral blade back toward her body before she projected it straight through the monster’s hairy chest.

The Popobawa gurgled slightly before it exploded into a flash of pixelated light, and I grinned and turned back to check on Nala.

My earth-bending girl had raised herself up on a wide platform of stone a few feet off the ground. She’d formed a make-shift barricade of stone pillars around herself to keep the monsters at bay.

Three Popobawa hovered around her as they tried to reach through the bars of Nala’s self-made cage, but I got the feeling that was exactly what my curly-haired girl had hoped for.

Nala smirked confidently as she slammed the rock bars of her cage together and crushed the arms of one bat monster.

The sickening sound of crunching bone mixed with the Popobawa’s screams as it raked down my spine. Then Nala formed a thin spear of rock straight up and skewered the beast from the bottom up.

“A little taste of your own medicine,” Nala cackled at the monster.

The shish kabobbed Popobawa wriggled like a worm on a hook for a few seconds before he shattered into pixelated death.

“Nice one,” Steffi laughed.

“Thanks.” Nala smirked.

Two Popobawa still tried to grab Nala through her stone barricade, so she raised some huge, flat boulders up on either side of them and flattened the monsters like flies. A sickening squelch sound and a thin spray of bright pixels spewed out from between the stones as the holographic monsters met their end.

A few feet away, Elisabeth roared at a Popobawa and slammed her paw down on one of the beast’s feet before he could escape into a nearby tree, and the monster’s huge red eye widened with shock as Elisabeth’s grizzly bear teeth tore into the muscles of his upper leg. Then the shapeshifter tore her claws across the Popobawa’s narrow throat.

Blood bubbled out of the monster’s gaping neck and dripped from his open mouth for a second before his hideous body burst into a million bright pixels.

“Shinjimae!” Ronin screamed suddenly.

I whipped around to see the gnarly hands of a Popobawa on my Japanese warrior’s shoulders. Before I could even form the thought to lift my foot in her direction, Ronin slashed out expertly with a short astral dagger.

Ronin’s new blade sliced the Popobawa’s limp dick clean off at the base, and it plopped comically on the ground between his feet.

The bat monster looked down at his weapon of choice where it laid useless on the ground, and then he sucked in a deep breath.

Ronin didn’t give the ugly fucker the opportunity to screech. Instead, my Samurai girl pointed her dagger at an upward angle, and she extended her astral blade clear through his torso and into the neck of another Popobawa a few feet behind the first. Then Ronin flung her arm to the side and ripped her astral dagger clear out the sides of both monsters, and the two bat creatures exploded in a shower of bright pixels.

“Kuso yarō,” Ronin spat.

My freckle-faced girl turned toward me, and I raised my eyebrows at her.

“What?” Ronin smirked.

“Remind me not to piss you off,” I said.

Ronin blew me a subtle kiss before she pivoted around to slice through the wings of another Popobawa that was aggressively stalking Nick through the brush. She forged an astral spear and extended it to pierce precisely through the back of the Popobawa’s skull, and the white energy blade jutted out from the monster’s red eye for a second before it succumbed to his pixelated death.

“Dylan!” Bo called to me through the comms. “Will you show us how you would dispatch these beasts?”

The tall guy held one Popobawa firmly in his mental grasp beside another that Nala had pinned down by his wings with an enormous boulder.

Steffi fluttered high overhead and launched a rapid flurry of small energy shots at the feet of a bat monster whose wings had been shredded by Elisabeth’s claws. My fairy-girl made the monster dance as she fired golden balls at the beast’s feet like a bad guy in an old cowboy movie. Then Steffi redirected her target closer to the two Popobawa that Nala and Bo had captured.

“Go on, show off a little bit.” Steffi smirked.

“Alright.” I shrugged and tugged the zipper of my uniform down a little way to reveal Beyblade’s tattoo on my chest. “Bianxifa.”

My Chinese fire dragon flashed out in a bright burst of orange light. He slithered forward a step and glanced slightly from side to side as he instinctively looked for Nick.

The blond nymph must have seen my dragon searching because he appeared out of the grass to stand beside Beyblade in less than two seconds.

“Right here, buddy,” my best friend chuckled.

I patted Beyblade on his scaly shoulder and silently instructed him to destroy the three remaining Popobawa with his fire breath.

Beyblade practically smirked at me as he bounded a few paces over to the three limp-dicked monsters. Then my red dragon sucked in a huge breath and blasted them with his flames.

The hairy bat monsters’ screeches scraped in my ears for a second until they died away, but I noticed a subtle ripple of vibration raced under my leather training uniform as my fire dragon incinerated the last of the ugly monsters.

The beasts didn’t even have a chance to burst into pixelated death before Beyblade’s scorching heat turned them into piles of ash on the grassy ground.

“Oh, my,” Bo breathed. “I have never seen the programming struggle to keep pace with the destruction of a target before.”

The tall guy stared in amazement for a second at the piles of ash before they disappeared in a rather anticlimactic blink of pixels.

“Yes, that was very impressive,” Binta agreed.

Bo and his girlfriend strolled over to admire the charred spots of grass where the Popobawas had stood a moment before.

Elisabeth sauntered over on all fours to join us, and then she raised up on her hind legs as she shifted back from her grizzly form. Her long red hair flowed down her back once more as her bear snout returned to the beautiful, foxy face that I loved so much.

“Impressive?” Elisabeth said. “These suits are impressive. Even when I was shifted I could feel the feedback.”

“Yeah,” Nala said as she ran her hands over her flat stomach. “It really helped me feel more connected to the program.”

“I have to agree.” I nodded.

“It was like that rumble in a good game controller.” Nick smirked. “I love a good rumble.”

“Wonderful.” Binta smiled. “I am glad you enjoyed our training session, even if my love did cause a little trouble with his selections.”

“Who?” Bo grinned innocently. “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Ronin laughed. “Those Popobawa were very unpleasant.”

“I have to agree with Ronin.” Elisabeth grimaced. “And when Binta made the one Popobawa attack the other?”

A harsh shudder ran down the French girl’s back.

“That was really brutal,” Steffi said, and her color was a little more green than normal.

“Much like Nala said,” Binta laughed. “I wanted them to have a taste of their own medicine.”

We all laughed at that as Bo strolled over to shut down the simulation. The beautiful sunset over the grass plains of Tanzania faded away and the cool tiles of the training room returned around us.

“Come on, Beyblade,” I coaxed. “Fanhui.”

Beyblade disappeared in a burst of bright light and slithered back under my skin. He twitched a little restlessly, and my other three dragons wriggled with agitation, but I mentally soothed my dragons.

I know, guys. I know you didn’t get as much time as you really would have liked.

Ky shot a spike of cold down my arm that tingled like frostbite in my fingertips for a second, and Thor sent a shock of electricity down my spine that made my toes feel like pins and needles.

“Understood,” I said through slightly gritted teeth.

“Lunch time, anyone?” Nick suggested and rubbed his palms together in anticipation.

“Lunch sounds great,” Steffi said.

“I could definitely eat,” Nala agreed.

“Wonderful.” Bo grinned. “Let us change out of these uniforms, and Binta and I will show you to the dining hall. I think you will be very pleased with the selection of food they offer here.”

Ronin and Elisabeth nodded as we all started to walk back out to the locker rooms.

The ladies disappeared into the ladies’ room, and then Nick, Bo, and I walked into the men’s to change. We dressed quickly and walked back into the hall to wait for the girls, but I was a little distracted as Goldie wriggled with agitation under my skin. Then Thor zapped me with a fresh wave of electricity just as the girls stepped out from the locker room, and I decided I really did need to address my dragons’ needs.

“Everybody ready?” Nick asked without delay as he sucked in his stomach and hunched forward dramatically. “I’m wasting away… need lunch.”

“Alright.” Nala rolled her eyes. “Let’s keep this one from starving.”

“You guys go ahead,” I said as we filed out into the hallway. “I’m going to check out the grounds Headmaster Mahrous said I could use for my dragons.”

“Certainly.” Bo nodded and pointed down the hall. “Take the large double doors down the hall, and they will lead you straight to the courtyard.”

“The boys getting a little antsy?” Steffi asked as she stroked her hand over Ky’s tattoo.

My ice dragon wriggled restlessly under Steffi’s touch, and a fresh spike of frost raced down my arm to my fingertips.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I think they’re a little ticked that they didn’t get to enjoy the training session with us, and they haven’t had time to really romp around since we left AIMM.”

“You should tend to their needs, then,” Ronin said. “They need training as much as the rest of us.”

“Ro’s right. Take care of those beauties. We’ll see you later.” Nala leaned up to kiss me.

“I’ll catch up with you guys in a little while.” I bent down to kiss my other ladies before I turned down the hall where Bo had directed me.

I silently soothed my dragons as I walked down the elegantly decorated hallway. About a hundred yards down the corridor, I spotted a small sign that said “East Courtyard” with a little silver arrow. I followed the arrow down a short hall that ended in two huge glass doors, and then I pushed out into the dry air to find a gorgeous oasis of well-maintained gardens.

The outdoor space was huge and at least the length of two football fields, and a wide variety of flowers, trees, and decorative hedges filled almost every square foot as far as I could see. Walking paths were laid out in cream-colored limestone, and I could see several wrought-iron benches placed in strategic spots under the wide branches of various trees.

I picked a path at random and started walking.

The landscaping was gorgeous, and there were roses, poppies, lilies, lotus flowers, orchids, jasmine, and several other exotic-looking flowers I’d only ever seen in photos. As I made my way further down the winding paths, I came across a few stone fountains that bubbled merrily with fresh clear water.

Despite the intense heat of summer and being this close to the equator, the atmosphere of the courtyard was rather comfortable. Something about the flowing water and the bright rainbow of plant life tempered the dryness of the Egyptian air, and I wondered briefly about what portion of the Academy’s budget was spent on landscaping. The water bill alone must have been astronomical to upkeep this amount of greenery in a desert climate.

Maybe that’s why they’d built the Academy near Lake Nasser. I knew the lake was man-made to extend the reach of the Nile River out to more areas, and I wondered how intertwined the construction of the lake and the Academy were, and which had come first.

The light-tan stone of the building bordered the entire perimeter of the garden oasis, and a large portion along one side stood three stories high. I suspected that was where the dormitories were.

As I strolled further into the huge courtyard, I noticed the quiet buzz of bumblebees, and I glanced closer at the flower bushes nearby and spotted a small swarm of the chubby little insects. I couldn’t help but smile as the small bugs flew around like tiny, drunk, college dudes as they bumped around from blossom to blossom.

Thor wriggled impatiently on my back and sent a painful zap into my spine.

“I know, buddy,” I said quietly. “I’m going.”

I kept walking back toward the large open area of the courtyard, and I noticed a large open archway in the back wall. The stone arch was beautifully constructed, and each block was carved with the image of a different monster.

The archway led out toward the open plain between the Academy and the still waters of Lake Nasser. The earth spread out before me in a smooth swath of tan and blue, and I realized the only time I’d ever seen this much of the planet in front of me was at the beach when the Pacific Ocean was spread out at my feet. It really was incredible that AIMM gave me the chance to see so much of the world like this, and I stood for a minute as I grinned at the expanse of Egyptian landscape before me.

Then I turned back toward the courtyard with a moment of hesitation.

As delightful as the garden was, there really wasn’t all that much open space for my dragons to roam around in without doing some serious damage to the landscaping.

I sighed and had just started to walk out toward the open area when a sudden movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention.

One of the beautiful sheets of jasmine that hung down over a wooden trellis nearby withered quickly, and the small white blossoms dropped to the ground. Then a fresh array of tiny blooms sprouted and instantly aged and withered away, and the cycle continued a few more times until the ground below was covered with so many fallen flower petals, it looked like snow.

I was completely baffled as I looked around for the cause. I must have looked like an idiot as I spun around trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but then I walked back up the path toward the jasmine to investigate more closely.

The beautiful white flowers hung down both sides of a wooden trellis beside the path. I couldn’t see anybody around, so I walked further up the limestone walkway, and on the other side was a wrought-iron bench with a large display of yellow roses.

A girl sat on the bench with her back to me. She had long, silky hair that was a brown so dark it almost looked black, but in the bright sunlight, I could see the deep hints of rich chocolate tones as it hung down her back in a thick braid. She waved her tanned hand in the air, and as she did, the flowers bloomed and died over and over again.

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

She was controlling the life cycle of the jasmine. She had plant powers.

I’d fucking found her.

Nick’s dream girl was at MIA.

I grinned like a jackass as I watched her manipulate the plants around her. She wasn’t conjuring them, she was controlling the life cycle of plants that already existed around her.

Then the girl turned slightly to stare off into the distance, and I got my first look at her face.

“Holy shit,” I said barely above a whisper.

The girl had drawn a smokey gray shadow around the almond shape of her hazel eyes. Her nose was fine and straight, and it turned up just the tiniest bit at the end above her full lips. A small mole accentuated the natural upward tilt at the corners of her mouth that gave her the appearance of a permanent smile, and her eyebrows were strong and just a shade blacker than her hair.

She was perfect. She was gorgeous.

She was looking right at me.

Shit.

“Can I help you?” Nick’s dream girl asked in a vaguely irritated American accent.

Wait. What?

She was American?

“Hoooly shit,” I croaked again.

Chapter 9

“I, uhhh, I just…” I fumbled dumbly for words, but my mind was still reeling.

Nick’s dream girl was right here in front of me. She was gorgeous, and she had plant controlling abilities, and I could hardly keep my shit together right now.

The beautiful Egyptian-American girl stood up from the bench and turned to face me. Her long, black-brown braid swung down to her waist as she propped one hand on her cocked-out hip. She had the narrow waist and slender curves of a model and was almost as tall as me, and she held herself like her body didn’t weigh a thing. It was the kind of effortless strength ballerinas perfected for the stage, but she wasn’t dressed anything like a prima ballerina. She wore light denim jeans and a faded Flip Flappers t-shirt that depicted two super cute anime girls in short schoolgirl uniforms with bright pink and periwinkle-colored hair. On the right side of her shirt was a black pin with one lonely gold star on the left side.

I frowned a tiny bit. Either this girl was brand new to her powers, or she was not all that powerful. But I had a gut feeling she was probably just a new recruit to MIA, because based on the minimal display of her powers I’d seen, I thought she had the potential to be a lot more powerful.

I’d never seen the anime from her shirt myself, but I’d spotted these characters as small figures on Nick’s shelf. Either way, she was into anime, which just seemed to scream “Nick’s Girl!” at me.

My vision practically tunneled out.

“Are you a jerk?” The girl narrowed her hazel eyes at me with annoyed confusion. “Or just an idiot?”

I shook my head and mentally slapped myself. I was making a terrible first impression.

“I’m sorry,” I said with just enough sincerity to feel real without being obnoxious. “My name’s Dylan Cooper.”

“Zahra Mohsen-Williams.” The beautiful girl squinted her eyes slightly at me but relaxed her stance. “What are you doing here?”

“My team and I came to MIA to handle a displaced American monster,” I said. “We’re staying here for a while to experience how this Academy does things before we go back home to AIMM.”

“Yeah, I know why the Dragon Conjurer is here in Egypt,” Zahra said with a slight roll of her eyes. “What I mean is, what are you doing out here, in the courtyard?”

“Oh. Uh…” I shrugged and glanced around. “Headmaster Mahrous said I could use the grounds to let my dragons get some exercise. They’re a little restless this afternoon, so I was going to let them out to play for a bit.”

“‘Out to play?’” Zahra cocked an eyebrow at me and laughed a little. “You say it like you’re letting your dogs out to run at the park.”

“Well,” I chuckled at that. “It’s not a terrible analogy, they’re kind of like huge puppies sometimes. Huge puppies that could tear your head off…”

“Right…” Zahra continued to stare like she didn’t know quite what to make of me.

“So, you have plant-based powers?” I tried to subtly divert the conversation back to her. I wanted to know more about Zahra Mohsen-Williams. I got the feeling she was nicer than her first impression suggested, and I thought, maybe, I had just caught her off guard.

“Yeah.” The slender girl’s smile softened a degree. “I can’t conjure plants or anything, but I can manipulate them.”

Zahra raised her hand up at the yellow rose bush beside her and curled her fingers in toward her body. The bright blossom pulled back in on itself and shrank into a baby bud, like someone had hit rewind on its life timeline. Then she opened her hand as she gestured slightly closer to the flower, and it burst back into a brilliant, full bloom.

“Wow,” I breathed. “That’s really impressive.”

“Thanks.” Zahra graced me with a bright smile. “I’m still working on controlling it. That’s why I was out here alone.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” I apologized. “And I didn’t mean to bother you.”

“It’s okay.” Zahra waved her hand dismissively at my words. “You just surprised me is all. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“Hey, no worries,” I chuckled. “I guess I was just really surprised to see someone with powers like yours.”

“What do you mean by that?” Zahra asked, and her brow furrowed self-consciously. “Are they weird? Am I weird? Ugh, I thought… never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“What?” I frowned. “No, they’re not weird at all, they’re amazing, actually.”

“I don’t know,” Zahra mumbled and pulled her long braid over her shoulder to twist her fingers around the end. “Sorry, I just don’t…”

“What?” I asked kindly.

She seemed kind of sweet, but I got the feeling Zahra felt out of place here, and I wondered if that was why such a beautiful and interesting girl was out here all alone rather than hanging out with friends.

“I just don’t feel like I fit in here, that’s all,” Zahra admitted as she stared down at the yellow roses.

The bright blooms wilted slightly as she looked at them, and their color dulled like they were just as sad as her.

Fuck, Nick was going to lose his mind over this cuteness.

“But you’ve got magical abilities,” I pointed out. “The Magical Institute of Africa is pretty much exactly where you belong.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Zahra flipped her braid back over her shoulder. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t mean to pry,” I hesitated. “But you sound like you’re from the U.S.”

“Yeah.” Zahra shrugged. “My dad’s from Pennsylvania, I kind of grew up going back and forth between Philly and Cairo.”

“What?” I was completely baffled. “Why…?”

“My dad’s an archeologist,” Zahra chuckled. “He met Mum on an expedition to the Valley of the Kings back in the nineties, and they fell in love, so I’ve basically split my entire life going back and forth between both countries so I can ‘experience both aspects of my heritage.’ Or at least, that’s what my dad says.”

“Wow,” I said. “That must have been a really interesting way to grow up.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Zahra murmured. “I mean, I got to experience a lot of culture and stuff all through my childhood, but it was also a lot of instability. I was always homeschooled, so I didn’t really ever have a lot of friends because I never spent enough time in one place to build long-term relationships.”

“That must have been really tough.” I frowned, and it sounded like Zahra’s life experiences had come with a heavy price of isolation. No wonder she was out here all alone. “That must have changed when you came to the Academy, though, right?”

“Not really.” Zahra forced lightness into her laugh. “I’ve only been here a few weeks, so I don’t really know anybody beyond my teammates. I mean, they’re nice and all, and they include me in training, but they kind of stay to themselves when we’ve got downtime.”

“So, you still feel pretty isolated,” I concluded. “That sucks.”

“It’s nothing new.” The beautiful Egyptian-American girl shrugged.

“So, how did you end up here instead of at AIMM?” I asked to change the subject.

“I was visiting with Mum’s parents when my powers manifested,” Zahra explained. “The next day, Headmaster Mahrous showed up in a limousine and told me about the Academy, and now here I am.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what happened to me, too,” I chuckled as I thought back to the first time I’d met Dr. Hastings. “I’ve only been with AIMM for a couple of months.”

“Really?” Zahra asked with surprise. “The way people were talking about the Dragon Conjurer, I figured you’d had your powers for a long time.”

“That’s wild,” I laughed. “I mean, Ky, my first dragon, I conjured him pretty much by accident in October. Things just kind of, escalated pretty fast from there.”

“Wow,” Zahra mused. “People talk about you like you’re a rock star, like you’re some kind of super powerful and really skilled warrior. I have to admit, I was a little curious about you.”

“I have a girlfriend,” I instantly blurted out. “Many.”

“What?” Zahra instantly looked irritated again, but I couldn’t help saying it.

There was no fucking way I could leave any room for this gorgeous plant-girl to be interested in me. Not when I needed her to fall in love with my best friend.

“Yeah, I have four girlfriends, and--”

“Why do you think I would even care?” Zahra snorted. “You just assume I see a Dragon Conjurer and get all swoony? Don’t tell me you’ve already let this dragon stuff go to your head.”

“No, I just--” I fumbled.

“I hate tattoos,” Nick’s dream girl curtly informed me.

“Oh, good,” I sighed heavily. “Sorry, I just… wanted to make that clear, and… yeah, I have a lot of tattoos. All over.”

“Gross.” Zahra smirked, and I chuckled at her sassy expression.

“It kind of comes with the dragon territory,” I explained.

“So…” Zahra hesitated. “How many dragons do you have now? Sorry, maybe that’s a rude question.”

“No, it’s fine,” I laughed. “I have four.”

“That’s pretty cool.” Zahra smiled.

“It has its moments,” I agreed.

I realized I was still smiling way more than usual, but I couldn’t help it. I liked this girl, she was sweet and totally not stuck-up like I first thought. I got the feeling that years of social isolation had taught her to put up a wall of snotty attitude to protect herself, but deeper down she was a real sweetheart who wouldn’t want to date a tattooed guy.

She really was perfect for Nick.

“I think your powers are super cool, too,” I said in an attempt to divert the conversation to my ultimate match-making goal. “My best friend, Nick… he can phase through plants, and sort of communicate with them and through them. It’s hard to explain, but he always kind of joked about… well, it’s not important. I just think he would think you’ve got the coolest powers ever.”

“Really?” Zahra’s hazel eyes shone with interest. “That’s pretty sweet, too. I sometimes feel like I can sense something from the plants, like their emotions or something. I swear they get sad when I push them too far. I’m not sure, though, I’m just feeling things out right now, but I want to connect more with my powers. See how much I can learn from the plants.”

“Yeah, I think you’d like Nick,” I said with a firm nod. Then I gestured at her faded Flip Flappers shirt. “He’s really into anime, too.”

“He’s got good taste, then,” Zahra laughed.

“We’re going to meet up later for dinner,” I suggested. “You should join us, I think you’d like the rest of my team, too. I mean, if you don’t already have plans… with guys or… girls.”

“I don’t.” Zahra smirked and cocked another sassy eyebrow. “That sounds nice, actually. I’ve been eating mostly by myself. I usually bring a book with me just so I don’t have to sit there like a total loser.”

“We’d love for you to join us,” I assured her. “Our MIA guides, Bo and Binta, they’ve been away at the Tanzanian outpost for the last three months, so I guess you won’t have met them yet, but they’re so great, and I think you’ll really like them. I bet they can help you feel more comfortable here.”

“Okay,” Zahra said and glanced down at her watch. “Shoot.”

“Everything alright?” I asked.

“Yeah, sorry.” Nick’s dream girl smiled apologetically. “I just didn’t realize what time it was. I’ve got a class in five minutes, but I’ll meet you guys for dinner later.”

“Great.” I grinned. “Have a good class, Zahra.”

“Thanks.” The beautiful girl reached down to pick up her backpack. “It was nice to meet you, Dylan.”

“You, too,” I said. “See you later.”

“Later,” Zahra called over her shoulder as she jogged up the limestone path.

“Holy shit!” I half-squealed. “That went so well!”

I took a deep breath to steady my excited nerves, but half of me wanted to sprint right off and find Nick and tell him all about his dream girl. I could just imagine how fidgety and bug-eyed he’d get, but as I took a step up the path, Thor wriggled suddenly on my back, and Ky blasted ice down my arm. Beyblade rippled a heatwave over my skin, and Goldie’s wind scraped over my nerves.

“You guysss,” I groaned. “You don’t understand, this is Nick’s dream--”

A raging wave of dragon energy pulsed through my core, and I hissed as I stumbled a little from the shock.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “I’m sorry, you’re right. Dragon time first. Let’s go.”

It looked like Nick would have to wait just a little bit longer because there was no way my dragons would tolerate another delay in their romping. I’d probably end up a spazzing mess on the floor if I tried to explain anything with all this energy buzzing in my veins anyways.

I sighed as I turned away from the limestone paths and walked out through the archway into the open expanse of flat earth between the Academy and the glittering waters of Lake Nasser.

Three steps later, my four dragons shot out more blasts of their elemental energies in unison, and the sudden intensity of it nearly dropped me to my knees.

They were becoming so powerful, but I took a deep breath and rebalanced myself as the energies surged through my body.

Now that I was prepared for it, the strength of my dragons raced under my muscles like a powerful current, and as I relaxed into the sensation, I felt completely energized by it instead.

Ky’s ice still bit at my fingertips with subzero temperatures, and Thor’s electricity tingled uncomfortably down to my toes as Beyblade’s fire made my skin hot. But mixed pleasantly with the discomfort was a feeling of strength that was mildly intoxicating.

I wondered if I could learn to tap into my dragons’ powers while they were separate from my body, too.

“Exokyzo, Bianxifa, Sokisaseru, Trylle frem,” I said quickly.

All four of my dragons immediately burst out of my skin together and appeared in a rainbow of bright light.

Thor and Ky quickly trotted off toward the huge lake, and Beyblade blinked at me before he slithered into the air and flew just above the ground to join my ice and storm dragons.

Goldie leaned her pearlescent head down and nuzzled her face into my hand for a second before she raced after the boys.

I couldn’t help but smile at the playful way my dragons ran off toward the water. It reminded me of a kindergarten class being set loose for recess.

The chill in my right hand and the zap of pins and needles in my feet edged away, and the feverish heat of Beyblade’s fire ebbed as my dragons wandered away to romp in the open space.

I walked after the four of them as I steadied my breathing, and I tried to stow away my excited thoughts of the amazing discovery of Nick’s dream girl.

That epicness would have to wait.

I turned my focus to the surge of power and strength I felt when my dragons acted up under my skin. I tried to tune into the memory of the energy and see if I could connect to that strength while my dragons splashed at the edges of the lake.

It was difficult, but I forced my mind to hold onto the lingering sizzle of Thor’s energy in my spine first since this was the most prominent. I imagined the energy like a ball between my shoulder blades and visualized the indigo energy growing and expanding under my skin.

I wasn’t sure if I was just imagining it, or if I was really making it happen, but the surge of strong energy flashed quickly under my muscles. I forced myself not to lose concentration and maintained my focus on the energy, but it felt like trying to stretch out a clump of wet tissue paper.

As I continued to concentrate, I kept my breathing slow and steady, and Thor’s power slowly spread out like a tiny, delicate spider web between my mind and my muscles. Excitement laced through my gut, and the spider web trembled, so I tamped my excitement down and took another steadying breath.

Stay with me, buddy, I softly pleaded with my storm dragon.

If I could hold onto this surge of power and strength, I could be more useful on the battlefield. I wouldn’t have to just stand back and watch as my team and my dragons did all the heavy lifting. Maybe I could even learn to use a bladed weapon eventually, that would be so badass. I mentally scolded myself for my wandering thoughts, and I dragged my attention back to the task at hand.

The indigo threads steadied slightly as I continued to drill every ounce of my focus and energy into the delicate web of strength. I maintained my concentration and focused on solidifying the threads and anchoring them deep in my muscles where Thor’s tattoo usually was. I pictured the ends burrowing deep into the muscles of my back and was rewarded by another ripple of strength.

The power surged slowly through my body as I forced my breaths in and out in a steady rhythm. A few minutes later, the web of surging power felt almost stable. I could tell it was still delicate and entirely dependent on my complete, unbroken concentration, but it no longer felt like trying to hold air in my hands.

I decided to test the extent of the connection.

With my eyes still closed tight against the bright Egyptian sunlight, I relaxed my mental hold slightly on the indigo web of power. The delicate threads wavered a little, but they held, and the strength and energy from my storm dragon continued to pulse steadily through my muscles.

I took it another step and slowly started to open my eyes.

The tenuous web of power shuddered like a sheet in hurricane-force winds, and I immediately slammed my eyes shut again.

Then I sucked in a deep breath and willed the trembling threads to steady, and I mentally rechecked the anchor points and pushed them further inside my muscles. As I did, the surge of indigo-colored power vibrated along the nerves in my spine while I breathed deeply and sank my mind deeper into myself, and I shifted my feet a little further apart and relaxed the tension in my shoulders.

After a moment, the shuddering indigo threads slowly became more stable. I spent a few minutes focusing on maintaining the web as it was while I took several long, deep breaths, and the threads solidified again and became stronger as I forced my body to relax.

A feeling of confidence began to crawl frustratingly slowly along my muscles, and the trembling slack between the indigo threads began to tighten. I could tell the web was becoming steadier and stable the longer I remained relaxed.

I decided to try and open my eyes again, but first, I knew I needed to hold onto the calm rhythm of my breathing I’d established. I took a few more deep breaths, and then I slowly released the tight hold on my eyelids.

The steady strength of the indigo web of surging energy between Thor, my mind, and my body fluttered slightly, and I sucked in a long, slow breath. The mental turbulence shook the delicate threads for a few seconds, but then it stabilized, and I was able to open my eyes completely.

The rush of power that flowed through my muscles as I stood watching my dragons romp in the shallow edges of Lake Nasser was a high unlike anything else I’d ever felt in my entire life.

I wanted to laugh out loud and throw my arms up in the air, but I forced myself to remain calm and relaxed. It seemed that my connection to Thor’s power and strength while he was separated from my body was entirely dependent on me staying calm and focused.

At least for now.

I figured with time and practice, it would become easier and more natural, like the auditory connection I shared with Goldie. I took a moment to pat myself on the back for the progress I’d made so far, and then I closed my eyes again to see if I could make a mental connection to another of my dragons’ strengths.

I focused on the silvery tether that connected me to Ky and took another deep breath. It felt like the best way to go about this was to try and spread the connection beyond an awareness of his physical location to encompass my ice dragon’s power itself. I cleared my mind and focused on the tether, but my concentration shattered instantly when I heard a sharp rumble from Thor’s throat.

I opened my eyes and found my storm dragon instantly.

Thor stood maybe fifty yards away from me and seemed oddly tense. The muscles in his huge shoulders bunched, and he turned his head from side to side with agitation.

I quickly glanced around at my other dragons.

Ky and Beyblade stood casually in the shallow waters at the lake’s edge, and Goldie laid sprawled out on the sandy shore. Her pearly-white scales glittered beautifully in the bright sunlight, and I had to shield my eyes with my hand to look at her.

Thor rumbled again and sidestepped out of the water.

At first, I couldn’t tell what was putting my storm dragon so on edge, but then a black Chinese dragon appeared in the corner of my eye.

I turned to my right and stared at the shadowy beast.

It was very similar in body type to Beyblade, but its scales were an inky-black that practically absorbed the intense sunlight, and it definitely wasn’t a dragon of mine.

“What the…” I breathed.

I stood totally frozen with shock for a moment until a blood-red dragon walked up to join the black one, and suddenly, an emerald green one trotted over to join them.

I glanced back at Thor as he snarled slightly at the intruding dragons, and Ky and Beyblade were on edge now, too. They stepped out of the shallow waters and stood on either side of Thor, and even Goldie sat up from her relaxed position to stare at the newcomers.

I looked back at the mysterious dragons, but as I stared, I realized there was something vaguely familiar about them. Almost like I’d seen them before, but that was impossible. I shook my head and cocked it to the side as I tried to figure out this puzzle.

Then the beautiful, blonde answer walked out between the inky-black and emerald green dragons.

Lia’s golden hair shone in the intense midday sunlight, and my jaw unhinged.

Chapter 10

“What the fuuuck…” I mumbled under my breath.

I shook my head and stared at the Russian Dragon Conjurer. I half-expected her to vanish like a mirage. After all, I was pretty close to the equator in a vast, dry desert.

My feet felt cemented into the ground as I watched the gorgeous girl, who’d haunted more than one of my dreams over the last few months, wander aimlessly between her black, green, and red dragons.

After a minute or two, another two dragons trotted up behind Lia’s dragons. They were gorgeous shades of golden-yellow and ocean blue, and they wandered idly around the large open space. Then another dragon came up behind the yellow and blue ones. This one was slightly smaller than the others, and it was a dull greenish-gray color.

I quickly did a mental count.

Six, no… seven dragons. My jaw nearly hit the ground as a seventh, sand-colored dragon slithered up behind the others.

“Seven?” I breathed.

The Russian girl walked slowly in the midst of her colorful beasts, and she hadn’t seemed to notice me or my dragons nearby.

“It’s okay, guys,” I whispered under my breath to my dragons. “It’s just Lia.”

Their scales had risen slightly along their spines, and I could practically feel the tension course through their bodies as the Russian Conjurer’s unfamiliar dragons drew nearer.

Her dragons were beautiful and proud. They trotted around with their heads held high and their snouts in the air like they owned the place, or any place they found themselves in.

It reminded me of the most popular girl in my high school. Maggie had always thought she was so much better than any of the rest of us, or even the town we lived in. Lia’s dragons held themselves with the same level of self-proclaimed superiority.

I grimaced slightly at the pompous air surrounding her dragons and turned my attention to the beautiful blonde Russian girl instead.

Lia was as gorgeous as ever, and her long golden hair flowed loose around her shoulders and shone in the bright afternoon sunlight. It looked like she’d chosen her clothes specifically to endure the intense heat of Egypt, and a delightful amount of her creamy skin was visible. The Russian beauty wore light-brown shorts that were cuffed so high that I imagined the curve of her cute ass would peek out of the bottom. She also had on a plain gray tank top, and it dove down into a deep V that displayed a generous amount of her ample cleavage. The hem of her tank top barely touched the waist of her shorts, and a smooth strip of her taut stomach appeared with every movement the Russian girl made.

I dragged my eyes away from her sexy figure to her beautiful face. It was then that I noticed the dark circles under her piercing blue eyes, and the general fog of exhaustion that lingered around her shoulders.

The Russian Dragon Conjurer looked completely worn out underneath the facade of her natural beauty. Things must be getting really bad all over the world if Lia was looking this exhausted, even with seven dragons at her disposal.

I thought back to the body cam footage of the fight we’d seen between Lia’s team and the Ninki-Nanka. Lia had six dragons back then, and the giraffe-crocodile monster had still crushed her team and sent them away battered, bruised, and defeated.

How bad were things in Russia if, even after Lia added another dragon to her team, she was still looking this worn down?

I stood silently for a while as I continued to watch her.

Lia’s dragons trotted around her without much care, and they hardly seemed to even acknowledge their Conjurer’s presence. The greenish-gray dragon nudged into her randomly as it bounded around in the open space, and the beautiful Russian girl frowned heavily as she struggled to keep her balance.

A second later, Lia was steady on her feet again, and she grumbled something in Russian at the dragon who’d knocked into her. Then she sighed and walked away from the enormous beasts as they continued to trot around.

I still hadn’t moved from my spot, and my dragons had practically turned into statues where they stood in the softly lapping water.

Then Lia finally looked up and caught my eyes. The Russian Conjurer stopped dead in her tracks for a second as she stared at me and squinted in confusion.

I could see Lia’s huff of irritation in the way her shoulders rose and fell before she turned slightly and walked over toward me.

My leaden feet finally lifted from the ground, and I walked over to meet the beautiful Russian girl half way.

“Lia, hi,” I said, and I felt completely flustered all of a sudden. “What, uhh… what are you doing here?”

“You are the other Dragon Conjurer,” Lia said in an irritated Russian accent.

“Uh…” I fumbled. “Yeah, my name’s Dylan? Dylan Cooper. We met in Mexico--”

“I do not care.” Lia turned her nose up at me.

“Right,” I grumbled a little. “What are you doing here in Egypt?”

“My team and I were dispatched to Africa to handle a displaced Drekavac,” Lia said. “What are you doing here, Dragon Conjurer?”

Now that the beautiful girl was closer, I could see that she looked a little too thin. Her clothes hung just slightly off her narrow shoulders. She was still absolutely gorgeous, and she didn’t look unhealthy exactly, but the little bit of extra shape and curve I’d admired about her figure when we’d happened to run into her on my first mission was gone. Lia had the appearance of a professional athlete who’d been working just a little too hard and not sustaining herself the way she needed to.

I could tell she was still plenty strong, and I certainly wouldn’t want to go up against her in a hand-to-hand sparring session, but a thread of concern spiked through my heart as I looked at the Russian beauty. I wanted to give her a huge double bacon cheeseburger and a chocolate shake just to get some calories in her, and then maybe send her off to sleep for a week.

“We had a displaced monster situation to deal with, too. A Slide-Rock Bolter, it was wreaking havoc on Mount Kilimanjaro,” I explained, and I turned over my shoulder to grin at my dragons. “But we took care of it.”

Thor had taken a bit of a defensive stance where he stood at the edge of the water. Beyblade stood beside my storm dragon and looked like he was ready to back up his friend no matter what Thor decided to do. Ky sat back a little, but his huge blue eyes stared hard, and I could tell he was fully aware of every little movement of Lia’s dragons. Goldie laid off to the side, just a bit closer to Lia’s dragons than the others, and she generally seemed unimpressed by the newcomers.

“Is it only four you have?” Lia smirked a bit as she glanced at my dragons before she smiled cockily at the sand-colored dragon in her own group. “I’ve just summoned another dragon this week. It is very powerful.”

I glanced over at the desert-looking dragon.

It had a narrow body and moved in a very snake-like manner. Something about the width of the tan dragon’s body indicated it was male, and I could just tell the same way I’d known the sex of each one of my dragons. He had long, thin horn-like spikes that flared out behind his narrow head, and he was the dusty tan color of a rattlesnake. His neck was long and wound down into a lean body, and his tail curled back up toward his back, sort of like a scorpion.

“He’s really impressive,” I said as I turned back to look at Lia.

“Yes.” The Russian girl narrowed her eyes slightly at me with confusion. “He is.”

The way she said those words, almost suspiciously, surprised me. I stared harder at the mysterious Dragon Conjurer a moment before I turned to look at the sand-colored dragon again.

I was pretty confident it was male, and I only got more sure as I watched the desert dragon slither close to Goldie. He lowered his head and swished his tail in a showy flourish.

“That’s probably not a good id--” I started, but I didn’t get another word out.

Thor immediately snarled at the intruder and bared all his teeth as he pushed his large black body between Goldie and the desert dragon. Then Thor snapped at Lia’s newest dragon and growled low in his throat.

It looked like the desert dragon was trying to court Goldie, and it was obvious that Thor was having none of it.

The sandy dragon swished his tail rapidly side to side and flicked his narrow, forked tongue out at Goldie. He tried to move around Thor to get to my wind dragon, and that was apparently the last straw.

Thor pounced immediately and landed his huge front feet on the desert dragon’s narrow chest and shoved him.

Lia’s dragon stumbled back and finally turned to look at Thor for the first time. The sandy dragon’s gold-brown eyes flicked up and down my black dragon’s much thicker body. Then a third eyelid slid over his narrow pupils before he snarled at Thor.

“Shit,” I muttered, and Lia crossed her arms beside me.

My storm dragon clearly took all of this behavior as an insult, because his black scales rippled with a sudden spark of electricity before he launched himself so forcefully at the other dragon that they went tumbling across the flat earth.

The ground shook beneath their enormous bodies as Thor and Lia’s dragon tumbled head over heels. They lashed out with their claws at each other and snipped with their huge teeth, and after a few moments, the two dragons rolled back onto their feet. They’d tumbled a good distance away from Goldie, Ky, and Beyblade, and Lia’s other dragons hadn’t moved any closer to them, either.

So, they had a wide space in which to confront one another.

Thor and the desert dragon faced off once more in the middle of the expansive area of flat ground between MIA’s courtyard and the shores of Lake Nasser.

My storm dragon took a defensive stance and roared loudly at the interloping dragon, and Lia’s sandy dragon took a half step back.

Then her other dragons finally began to slowly move forward.

The second Ky and Beyblade caught sight of the other dragons moving closer, they launched into the air and landed on either side of my black dragon. My ice, fire, and storm dragons stood like a chivalrous wall of male energy between Lia’s dragons and Goldie, and I chuckled slightly and glanced back at my wind dragon.

My only female dragon watched Thor intently, and I had to admit, I was pretty proud of my boys at the moment.

They certainly didn’t take any shit where Goldie was concerned, and I didn’t really like the look of this sandy dragon, anyway.

The sand-colored beast flicked his oddly-curled tail, and a wall of sand suddenly blasted out in front of him and smacked straight into the faces of my three male dragons. Then Lia’s other six dragons stepped a little further forward and moved to flank the desert dragon on both sides.

“Uhh, Lia,” I said as I shifted my weight. “Things could probably go very wrong here.”

“Are you worried your dragons will fail?” the Russian beauty challenged.

“What?” I scoffed. “No, I just give a shit about my dragons--”

Thor’s scales rippled with indigo light, and as tiny arcs of electricity jumped across his back, I knew it was too late. My storm dragon sucked in a deep breath and flicked a relatively mild bolt of lightning out that crackled across the desert dragon’s scaly hide.

Then all hell broke loose.

Everything happened so fast, it was hard for my eyes to track all the movements.

All the dragons launched themselves into a full-frontal assault on both sides, and my boys were wildly outnumbered until Goldie jumped into the fray.

Apparently, my pearlescent dragon wanted nothing to do with the boys’ pissing contest, but when things ramped up, she wasn’t going to let her team down.

Lia dashed forward by a few paces, and she screamed at her dragons in Russian. Her fair skin turned bright pink as she shouted, but her dragons ignored her completely.

Thor and the desert dragon rose up on their hind legs and locked their front feet together. Their necks twisted out wildly as they each tried to get the upper hand.

None of the other dragons seemed to want to use their elemental powers. Ky, Beyblade, Goldie, and all of Lia’s dragons went for brute force attacks and blocks in an effort to keep anyone else from interfering with Thor and the desert dragon’s scuffle.

It was like an old-fashioned duel between gentlemen. They both shot out short, mild attacks of lightning and sand, but they were clearly using enough restraint not to seriously injure one another.

Nevertheless, the ground shook beneath my feet as the enormous, winged beasts fought, and my heartrate shot up as I stared at the epic dragon battle before me.

Then the desert dragon’s tail whipped out behind him and narrowly missed swiping Lia’s feet from under her.

I lunged forward and caught the Russian beauty before the next swipe of the tail could reach her, and I dragged her a few feet back and helped her stand up.

“Are you okay?” I checked, but Lia didn’t respond.

She just brushed the dust from herself as she tried shouting again at her dragons to stop, and I threw my hands up at the stubborn Russian.

The two dueling dragons tumbled together like WWE wrestlers for a moment longer before an especially hard turn sent them rolling away from one another. Then Thor and the sand-colored dragon faced off once more.

My storm dragon shot out tiny flashes of lightning at Lia’s offending dragon, and the desert dragon responded by blasting out sheets of sand. The two elements met in the middle in flashes of bright light, and they rained down to the ground as little shards of glass.

The sandy dragon reared up on his hind legs and slammed his front feet into the ground so forcefully that a mushroom cloud of sand burst up in front of the beast’s snout.

“Dostatochno!” Lia screamed at the top of her lungs, and she dashed in front of her desert dragon.

I could tell the beast wasn’t listening to her. I glanced at Thor and saw he was preparing for another attack, and I knew that even his reduced lightning strikes would be incredibly dangerous for the Russian girl.

“Thor,” I called quietly but firmly, and then I mentally ordered him to stop and fall back.

My storm dragon obeyed immediately. He released his deep breath in a harmless puff of wind, and the arcing electricity sizzled into nothing along his black scales. He snorted one last breath of irritation at the offending dragon and turned to trot over to me.

Then I silently ordered Ky, Beyblade, and Goldie to stand down as well. They also obeyed without hesitation and trotted over to my side.

Thor parked himself firmly in front of Goldie and just to my right. Ky stood proudly on my left, and Beyblade slithered up beside my ice dragon. All four of them had turned to face Lia and her dragons, but they stayed obediently by my side.

Lia’s desert dragon snarled at Thor and turned to storm off to lick his metaphorical wounds and battered ego.

Despite the fact that I had ended the confrontation, it was clear that the desert dragon was truly no match for Thor. I knew if my storm dragon wanted to, he could have swiftly defeated the other male, or possibly even killed him, but I was impressed that Thor had the decency to go easy on the smaller opponent.

Lia continued to frantically shout at her dragons for a moment before they seemed to lose interest by themselves. The Russian Conjurer’s other six dragons snorted and turned to wander away from me and my four seated dragons.

The beautiful blonde girl ran her fingers through her long hair with frustration before she glanced over her shoulder at me. She turned to face me and cursed in Russian as she stomped over to where I stood.

Thor’s scales bristled at Lia’s approach, and I reached up to give him a soothing pat on his black shoulder.

“How did you do that?” Lia demanded as she flipped her hair aggressively over her shoulder.

“How did I do what?” I asked, and I stroked my hand idly down Thor’s scaly hide.

“How did you train your dragons to do…” Lia gestured vaguely around us. “That?”

“Train them?” I repeated. I was completely confused. “I didn’t train them to do anything. I just told Thor to stop.”

I shrugged as I stared up at Thor’s dark face, and my storm dragon glanced down at me like a well-behaved guard dog before he narrowed his indigo eyes at Lia.

“Don’t you have a similar connection with your dragons?” I asked. “You can’t just tell them what to do? I mean, you’ve got twice as many as me, and you’ve had a lot longer to bond with them than I have.”

Lia’s eyes grew wider as I went on, and her mouth fell slightly open with surprise.

“It’s just…” I hesitated because the Russian girl’s reaction was really confusing me. “I’ve seen them obey you before. In Mexico, and then in that video. Do they not… always obey you? I guess I just assumed you’d have a really strong bond with your dragons.”

Lia’s fair eyebrows screwed up with frustration and confusion as she just stared at me for several long seconds. She opened and closed her pretty mouth a few times like she couldn’t decide what to say to me. Finally, she propped her hand on her curvy hip and jabbed one perfectly manicured finger in my face.

“You understand nothing, Dragon Conjurer.” Lia turned away and quickly shouted a series of foreign words at her dragons.

They must have been her summoning words, because the dragons quickly disappeared in bright flashes of light.

I caught sight of the sandy dragon and the greenish-gray one curled around to the backs of Lia’s long legs as she stormed off into the courtyard, and Lia didn’t spare me another single glance.

But the stomp of her feet as she disappeared through the stone archway basically told me I could “fuck right off.”

I stood staring after the beautiful Russian girl in a state of complete shock. I couldn’t even think about anything other than the entirely confusing response to what I’d thought was a pretty simple question.

My entire world felt upside down. Maybe Lia was right, maybe I didn’t understand anything about dragons.

The Russian girl had been conjuring dragons for much longer than I had, she had twice the number of dragons as me. Who was I to think I knew more about being a Dragon Conjurer than her?

Then again, actions did speak louder than words, and I’d never seen my dragons disobey me like all of Lia’s group had just done.

Ky nudged my shoulder gently.

I looked up at my four scaly companions, and I found that none of my dragons had moved from their slightly defensive positions around me in the few minutes since Lia stormed off.

They’d become almost like my children since I’d summoned them, and my dragons were such a part of me that I couldn’t imagine my life without them now. I loved them all like family as well as teammates.

Beyblade and Ky glanced at me expectantly, as if they were asking for my permission to lower their guards. Thor still stood at the ready as he stared at the stone archway into the courtyard, and Goldie sat slightly behind him.

“We’ve got some time, you guys go play for a while,” I murmured absently. “I need to think…”

Ky and Beyblade didn’t hesitate to turn and romp back over to the water’s edge. My sapphire blue dragon bounded through the shore and froze the water into ice as it splashed up around his feet. Beyblade followed just behind Ky and breathed out thin streams of fire at the vertical sheets of ice as he chased my blue dragon.

Goldie lovingly nudged my shoulder before she trounced off to join the boys, and Thor turned his head to watch as Goldie strolled away. Then he narrowed his eyes and gave one last snarl to the empty stone archway before he trotted off close behind my female dragon.

I watched my dragons play joyfully together for a few minutes before my thoughts wandered back to the beautiful Russian girl.

Lia’s seven dragons had seemed, at best, unimpressed by her, and at worst, even defiant of her commands.

“Seven dragons…” I murmured with an impressed surprise.

I couldn’t believe she had so many dragons, it was wild to think of having that many, but the Russian Conjurer didn’t seem to have any control over her dragons at all. She’d tried, unsuccessfully, to rein in her beasts throughout the majority of the fight between her desert dragon and Thor.

I wondered how she controlled them during battles, since she clearly didn’t have the kind of silent mental connection that I had with my dragons. I hadn’t for a long time, either, but with so many dragons around, I imagined it would be hectic if she had to summon many at once.

Maybe in the midst of a life-threatening battle, it was in the dragons’ best interest to follow her lead. Maybe this particular situation had been mild enough, in their opinions, that they saw no benefit in listening to anything Lia had to say.

The dark circles and general sense of exhaustion that had hovered around the gorgeous blonde picked at the edges of my mind again. Maybe the lack of control Lia had over her dragons was adding to her stress levels in general. I couldn’t imagine going up against a really tough monster and not having my dragons be as much of a cohesive part of my team as they were.

Even while my mind wandered, I could hear the low, steady beating of Goldie’s heart in my ears, as well as the playful splashing of her feet in the edges of Lake Nasser.

The silvery physical tether to Ky was now ever-present when my ice dragon was out of my skin. Most of the time, he was close enough to me that I didn’t pay much attention to the tether, but at the moment, my blue dragon was a few hundred yards away, and I felt him more than I watched him. A slight vibration rippled across the tether with each of his playful steps, and I felt a stronger nudge on the thread when Beyblade tumbled into Ky.

Goldie caught my attention as she sashayed in a large circle and flicked the end of her tail gently under Thor’s chin. Her pearlescent scales shone in the bright sunlight, and she seemed to be paying Thor a bit more attention than usual.

I’d always gotten the idea that those two had a stronger bond with one another than either of them had with Ky or Beyblade. I used to think the bit of infatuation was rather one-sided, but now, after Lia’s desert dragon had so clearly tried to attract Goldie’s attention, it looked like she was finally returning Thor’s advances.

I chuckled to myself as I watched Thor and Goldie prance around each other like enormous exotic birds in a beautiful mating dance. After a little bit of circling and head nudging, Thor and Goldie nuzzled their necks together in a way that reminded me of Bo and Binta. It was adorable and made my heart warm.

Thoughts of Lia rose unbidden in my mind as I watched my two dragons embrace each other.

Despite how tired and worn out she looked, Lia was still incredibly gorgeous. I hadn’t been able to keep myself from sneaking a peek at the delicious curve of the tops of Lia’s thighs, and that enticing spot where they met the underside of her ass at the bottom of her very short shorts.

A wave of aroused heat caressed slowly over my skin as Lia’s sexy figure came to mind. I couldn’t deny that my hands itched to touch her and discover for myself if her skin was as soft and smooth as it looked, or where exactly all those tattoos began and ended.

Beyblade drew my attention when he suddenly jumped and landed with an enormous splash that immediately rippled up in a cloud of steam from his hot breath. Then the fiery dragon sent me an almost sassy look, and as I wondered if he was actually arching a dragon eyebrow at me, I was smacked in the brain with the memory of a similarly sassy face.

Zahra. The plant-powered, beautiful, anime-loving dream girl of my best friend.

Here I was, wasting time thinking about a girl who lived on the other side of the world, who didn’t seem to even tolerate my presence, while I was sitting on the discovery of Nick’s dream girl.

A stupid-happy grin spread over my face as I raised my arm into the air to call my dragons back in.

“Come on, guys!” I hollered. “We’ve got to tell Nick about his true love.”

Beyblade trotted over happily, and the smirk-like expression on his scaly red face made me think he might have been as excited as I was to deliver the good news.

“Fanhui,” I said with a grin, and Beyblade disappeared with a flash of orange light before he slithered under the skin of my chest to settle in patiently.

Ky trotted over to me next and obediently waited for me to say the word.

“Epistrophi,” I said, and Ky curled up on my right arm with a slight shiver of ice.

Thor and Goldie lingered a moment at the edge of the lake, and I had to mentally call them again.

Impatience bubbled like carbonation in my throat.

“We gotta go tell Nick,” I chuckled at Thor’s clearly unimpressed face when they finally reached me. “Moduro, Komme Tilbake.”

Goldie and Thor disappeared in a breezy zing of gold and indigo light, and they curled up under my skin.

I was already walking back toward the stone archway before my last two dragons fully settled in, and by the time I had made it through the courtyard, I was having trouble not flat-out running. My feet slammed against the ground as I half-walked, half-jogged through the glass doors and into the corridor.

It wasn’t until I was entering the hall that housed the dormitories that I realized I had no idea where our rooms were.

“Shit,” I mumbled under my breath.

The corridor stretched out before me, and I looked around at the dozens of nondescript doors that lined the walls.

I started power-walking down the hallway with the slight hope I might run into someone I knew. Lady luck must have been on my side, because when I rounded the first corner, I spotted Nala coming out of a door halfway down the hall.

“Nal!” I called.

The earth-bending girl’s dark curls bounced around her face as she turned at the sound of my voice.

My excitement started to peak again as I jogged down the hall toward Nala.

“Hey, Dylan,” the dark beauty purred. “Did your dragons have a good time?”

“Yeah,” I panted. “Where’s Nick? I have to tell him something.”

Nala quirked a dark eyebrow at my frantic energy, but she jabbed her thumb at the door she’d just come out of.

“He’s in the common room,” Nala said.

“Thanks.” I slammed a quick kiss on Nala’s cheek before I shoved the door open so fast, I nearly fell head first into the room.

Nick and Bo were perched on the very edge of the couch in a comfortably-sized common room. The two guys were in the middle of some intense, digital battle that played out before them on the huge hi-def TV that hung on the wall.

Steffi, Ronin, and Elisabeth were seated in the other comfy chairs around the TV, and Nala walked in to perch on the arm of Steffi’s chair.

I barely even looked around the rest of the space before I rushed over in front of Nick.

“Dude!” Nick jerked wildly to the side to look around me at the TV. “Move!”

“Ah-ha!” Bo cackled and threw his arms up in the air. “I win!”

“That’s not fair,” Nick groaned. “There was interference! I demand a rematch.”

“Dude!” I nearly shouted despite how out of breath I was. “I found her!”

“Found who, exactly?” Nick leaned back on the couch and frowned at the TV screen.

“Her,” I emphasized. “I found your dream girl!”

Chapter 11

I couldn’t help but laugh at the comical display of emotions that played across my best friend’s face. He slowly sank even further back into the cushions of the couch, and the game control clunked onto the floor from his limp hands.

First, his entire expression was blank, then he screwed his eyebrows up in confusion as his mouth opened and closed. I could practically hear the gears turning in his head as my words finally sank in, and his eyes went completely round.

“You…” Nick breathed, and his jaw hit the floor. “She…”

“Yep, that’s right.” I grinned like an idiot. “I found her, and she’s here at MIA.”

My girls all exchanged intense glances with each other and then turned to look at me with expectant eyes.

“Well, tell us about her, Dyl,” Steffi giggled impatiently.

“What is her name?” Ronin asked.

“Is she Egyptian?” Nala asked.

“Is she pretty?” Elisabeth asked.

“Or downright gorgeous?” my fairy-girl checked.

“Or cute in that quirky way that makes you go ‘aww?’” Nala tossed out.

“Ooo, or both?” the French beauty mused. “That is intriguing.”

“Hmm, I like the last option.” Ronin nodded stoically. “That would be nice for Nick.”

The rapid flurry of questions came at me all at once, and my head spun for a second, but I glanced over at my best friend to see his reaction to my news.

Nick’s eyes had glazed over with shock and wonder, and his mouth worked, but no words came out. My best friend gestured vaguely with his right hand, and it looked like he was trying to tell a story, but someone had pushed the mute button on him.

“I-- I-- you…” Nick finally croaked in complete shock.

Clearly, he was having trouble processing the amazing news, and I couldn’t help but snicker at his dumb-founded expression.

“Her name is Zahra,” I announced to the room in general.

“Zahra?” Binta hummed. “I do not believe I know her. What does she look like?”

“She said she’s only been here a few weeks,” I explained. “Her powers manifested really recently. She’s got long brown hair, and really sharp eyebrows, and a cute little mole at the corner of her mouth.”

“Aww… that does sound cute,” Steffi squealed.

“Plant powers?” Nala asked excitedly.

“Of course.” I smirked. “But she’s not a Conjurer like those Japanese cadets Ronin told us about. Zahra’s powers are more like yours, Nal. She can control and manipulate plants that are already around her. She was making a wall of jasmine run through its life cycle over and over again when I found her. Then she pulled a rose bush back from full bloom to a tiny bud and pushed it forward into a huge blossom again. It was really cool!”

“Plant powers…” Nick breathed. My best friend looked entirely hypnotized, and I wasn’t sure any of the details I was giving were getting to him through the fog.

I guessed it must have been a wildly different idea to think about his dream girl in a totally hypothetical sense. Now that she was here, so nearby, and within his grasp, it was a huge paradigm shift. This was clearly going to take a little getting used to, and I could tell Nick was going to need some help to get there.

I knelt down in front of the blond nymph and tapped my finger three times on the top of his knee.

“Nick?” I asked. “Are you okay, dude? Are you still with us?”

“Zahra…” Nick sighed, and the most love-sick smile I’d ever seen spread all the way across his face until his surgically pointed ears twitched a little bit. “She’s beautiful.”

“Oh, geez,” Nala laughed and rolled her eyes.

“You haven’t even met her yet,” Steffi chuckled lightly.

“I mean, he’s right, though.” I grinned. “She is gorgeous.”

“Hey, watch it,” Nala pouted playfully at me.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” I consoled my curly-haired girl with a smirk. “I made it very clear I’m spoken for by all four of you. Actually, I kind of blurted that part out in a slightly panicked state, and she thinks I’m kind of weird, but… it all worked out.”

I glanced at my ladies, and my face warmed up as I remembered the way I’d told Zahra about my current relationship status in the most word-vomit way possible. She’d been entirely unimpressed, and I got the feeling that, tattoos or no, I really just wasn't her type. Which was obviously quite fine with me. I had four amazing, sexy ladies already. I didn’t know if I even wanted any more.

I quickly corrected myself on that. I definitely wanted Lia, too, she was so gorgeous, and I was dying to know more about her. I also couldn’t stop my thoughts from turning to Dr. Hastings and the weird flirtatious way our interactions usually went.

But after that… I would probably be settled on the lady front.

“Good.” Nala grinned and drew my attention back to the conversation at hand.

Ronin and Elisabeth giggled, and Steffi lovingly rolled her eyes at me.

“Tell us more about Zahra, Dylan,” Bo said as he stretched his arm around Binta’s shoulders.

The tall girl cuddled closer into her boyfriend’s side and watched me with expectant eyes.

Nick still sat on the couch in a state of love-struck shock, and I proceeded carefully just to make sure he could keep up with everything.

“Well, she’s American,” I began. “And she’s got a hyphenated last name, Something-Williams.”

“American?” Ronin asked. “What is she doing here at MIA, then?”

“Sometimes Academies will snatch up whomever they can from their jurisdictions if the opportunity presents itself,” Elisabeth pointed out.

“She’s half-American, I guess,” I corrected myself. “Zahra said her dad is from Pennsylvania, and he’s an archeologist or something and met Zahra’s mom on an expedition here.”

“Classic love story,” Nala mused. “Boy digs up dead people, boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love.”

“It’s beautiful,” Steffi laughed. “So, her family lives in Egypt?”

“Sort of,” I said. “Zahra said she was here visiting with her mom’s family when her powers started manifesting, and MIA scooped her up, but I kind of got the feeling that she misses the U.S.”

“You said she was American?” Ronin asked.

“Yeah, she’s got an American accent.” I nodded. “And her dad’s definitely from the U.S. She said she was home-schooled, I assume because of her dad’s work, and that she spent a lot of her childhood hopping between the United States and Egypt. Apparently, it was important to her dad for Zahra to spend time with both sides of her family and experience both parts of her culture.”

“That’s really interesting.” Ronin smiled.

“Yeah, but she seems kind of lonely.” I frowned a little. “I guess that kind of childhood doesn’t make it easy to make friends.”

“Zahra,” Nick whispered her name like a prayer.

I glanced back at my best friend with surprise. He looked like he was finally coming out of his trance, and I smirked at him. Then I sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of the blond nymph.

“You with us, man?” I asked.

“When do I meet her?” Nick’s eyes were bright with excitement. “Where is she? Is she in the hall?”

Nick bounced off the couch and started to pace around the room nervously.

“Shit,” my best friend grumbled. “What do I wear? What do we talk about? What if she doesn’t like me? She’s my dream girl, but am I even her dream guy?”

Nick stopped dead in his frantic pacing and glanced around at all of us.

“How’s my hair?” Nick asked suddenly as he raked his fingers through the blond locks, and the action made them stand up in every direction like he’d gotten an intense electrical shock from Thor.

“Dude,” I chuckled and rose to walk over and laid my hands on Nick’s shoulders. “Deep breath, and don’t worry so much. Just be yourself, and she’ll have no choice but to love you.”

“Do you think so?” Nick chewed on his lip a moment and wrung his hand nervously. “I mean, I’m not cool or anything. I’m not crazy-powerful, hell, she met the Dragon Conjurer, how am I supposed to compare to that?”

“One, she hates tattoos,” I said with a grin. “Two, you didn’t see the way she got excited when I mentioned your powers. She said they were really cool.”

“Really?” Nick glanced back up at me, and as I saw a spark of hope ignite in his green eyes, I nodded.

“And I haven’t even told you the best part yet,” I teased. “Three, she was wearing a Flip Flappers shirt.”

“What?” Nick shouted with amazement. “Oh, my god, she really is perfect! Holy shit… fucking Flip Flappers.”

My best friend practically swooned, and we all laughed.

“Dude, chill out,” Nala chuckled.

“Did you really think Dylan would lead you wrong?” Steffi asked. Then she turned to glance at me. “She really does sound perfect, Dyl.”

“Annnndddddd she’s going to meet us for dinner.” I glanced around the room to watch the reactions from my team as the last bit of my news settled in the air.

Bo and Binta grinned at each other as they leaned back in the corner of the couch, and the tall guy placed a loving kiss on his girlfriend’s cheek.

Steffi clasped her hands in front of her chest and smiled like she was watching her favorite romcom, and Nala smirked and blew me a kiss as if to say “well done.”

Ronin and Elisabeth smiled up at me from where they sat squished together in a comfortable-looking armchair, and the feeling of love was thick in the air, almost as if the haze in Nick’s love-struck mind was spreading contagiously around to contaminate the rest of us.

“I need to shower!” Nick suddenly shouted.

I snorted as my best friend dashed to the side of the room. Then he ripped his shirt off over his head and disappeared through a wooden door to my right.

Steffi stood up from her seat and walked over toward me.

“Good job, sweetie,” Steffi said as she leaned up to kiss me.

“It sucks that she’s here in Egypt, though,” Nala pointed out.

“Yeah, I know,” I grumbled lightly.

“But she has family in the United States,” Ronin said. “And it sounds like she may have dual-citizenship.”

“Ronin’s right,” Elisabeth agreed. “Maybe, now that the Academies are building more cooperative relationships…”

“Maybe Zahra could become a long-term liaison.” Ronin nodded.

“Hell, maybe she could just transfer to AIMM and become a full-time cadet with us,” Nala said.

“What do you guys think?” I asked the tall couple on the couch. “Do you think MIA would be up for that kind of thing?”

“I’m not sure,” Binta said, and a small frown wedged itself between her eyebrows.

“I have never heard of such a thing happening in the past,” Bo said. “But we have also never had such open relations with the other Academies before.”

“I think you have made a good impression on the headmaster,” Binta mused. “And that will be a great boon toward our Academies working together.”

“So, it’s at least possible.” Steffi smiled.

“That’s good,” Nala chuckled. “It would totally suck if Nick found his dream girl, and then they had to be on opposite sides of the planet from one another.”

“Possible, yes.” Bo frowned. “But I have also known Headmaster Mahrous to like holding onto the cadets that make him look good.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I kind of got the impression that appearances are really important to the guy.”

“You are not wrong about that, my friend.” Bo gave me a lopsided grin.

“Oh, shit,” I gasped and smacked myself on the forehead. “I almost forgot about the other weird-ass thing that happened.”

“What happened?” Nala asked.

Steffi tugged me down to sit on the couch with her. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and took a moment to arrange my thoughts about Lia.

“Do you guys remember Headmaster Mahrous’ weird comment about all the Academies being represented under the same roof?” I asked.

“Yeah, that was strange.” Steffi nodded.

“I thought so, too--” Nala gasped and turned to look at me with wide eyes. “Oh, my god, no way!”

“Way.” I smirked.

I glanced around the rest of the room, and even though I didn’t expect Bo or Binta to catch on, I really thought Steffi would have figured it out.

“I don’t get it,” Steffi said as she looked back and forth between Nala and me with confusion.

“AIMM, AMIE,” Elisabeth said slowly as she pointed at me and then herself. Then she turned her finger toward Ronin and finally Bo. “MAGK, MIA…”

I could see the wheels turning behind her piercing green eyes, and I nodded at my copper-haired girl.

“Go on,” I urged.

“RMA?” Elisabeth asked with disbelief.

“Woah, woah, woah.” Steffi threw her hands up as if she could stop the conversation. “Are you trying to tell us you saw Lia?”

“I am.” I nodded.

“Lia?” Bo asked. “Who is Lia?”

“She’s the only other Dragon Conjurer in the entire world,” Nala explained.

“And she is from the Russian Academy, I suppose,” Binta said.

“Yeah, we met her once,” Steffi said. “On our first mission with Dylan, actually. Both our teams ended up going after the same monsters in Mexico.”

“Lia is here, in Egypt?” Ronin asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “And get this, she has seven dragons now.”

“Seven?” Elisabeth gasped.

“So many,” Ronin breathed.

“What’s a group of dragons called?” Nala pondered.

“A flock?” Binta suggested.

“A school?” Nala laughed. “Like fish?”

“I read this fantasy series when I was a kid that referred to a group of dragons as a ‘flight,’” Elisabeth said.

“In Japanese, the word most commonly used is ‘tatsu,’” Ronin said. “Roughly, it translates to ‘stand.’”

I laughed. “I think flock makes more sense. Like birds.”

“What about a ‘wing of dragons?’” Bo offered with a wide grin.

“I bet there’s a way cooler word for it,” Nala mused for a second. “Like a murder of crows?”

“What about ‘thunder?’” Bo cackled.

“I kind of like that,” I laughed. “A thunder of dragons. That’s cool, and if a large enough group of them were moving together, I bet it would sound a lot like the rumble of thunder.”

“So, where did you see Lia?” Steffi asked and brought the conversation back on track. “And what happened? Tell us about it.”

“Well, it was when I went out to the courtyard to let my dragons run around,” I said. “I was focusing on my connections with Thor and Ky, and I didn’t see her until Thor started to growl.”

“What? Thor was growling at Lia?” Nala asked.

“Not exactly.” I shook my head. “Lia was just out walking with all of her dragons, and I guess it made Thor a little nervous. So, he got kind of defensive and started to snarl at Lia’s dragons.”

“Uh-oh,” Elisabeth breathed.

“I bet that didn’t go over very well.” Steffi grimaced.

“Not really,” I chuckled. “But Lia saw me then, and she came over. She said her team was here to deal with a displaced Russian monster, just like us. Then she got a little snarky about how many dragons she has, and she bragged about how she summoned the newest one just this week.”

“I can’t believe she has seven dragons.” Nala shook her head. “That is kind of brag-worthy.”

“It is very impressive,” Ronin agreed. “She must be very powerful.”

“Yeah, but they didn’t listen to her,” I said. “Like, at all.”

“What do you mean?” Elisabeth asked.

“Well, her new dragon,” I said. “He started getting too close to Goldie, and Thor wasn’t having any of that.”

“That’s so cute,” Steffi giggled. “Thor got jealous?”

“He did,” I laughed. “It was a full-blown, testosterone-fueled pissing match. He tried to defend Goldie, and it turned into a huge drunken bar fight basically. Thor attacked Lia’s new dragon, and then her other ones joined in. So of course Ky, Beyblade, and Goldie moved to back up Thor.”

“Yikes,” Nala murmured.

“It wasn’t very pretty.” I nodded. “It was super impressive, don’t get me wrong, that much dragon power in one spot was really something. But for the most part, all the other dragons just kept each other at bay so Thor and Lia’s new dragon could sort things out. And even they kept their attacks really mild. It felt like a battle of honor rather than a fight to the death.”

“Dragons are so fascinating,” Ronin said with a thoughtful tilt of her head. “I like that they have some semblance of honor. It seems to set them apart from other monsters.”

“I like that, too,” Steffi decided. “Dylan’s dragons have always seemed powerful, but respectful at the same time.”

“So, what happened?” Bo asked with intensity.

I glanced around the room at my team and the MIA cadets who were all perched on the edges of their seats.

“Well, Lia kept yelling at her dragons,” I continued. “I have no idea what she was saying because she was shouting at them in Russian, but it was clear they had no intention of listening to her. Thor was about to strike out at her dragon again, but Lia had run up in front of him as she tried to stop her own dragon. So, I called out to Thor and told him to back off.”

“And he listened,” Ronin surmised.

“Of course, he did,” Steffi said as she stroked a finger up my back and caressed Thor’s tattoo gently. “Because he’s a good boy.”

“They’re all good dragons,” Nala giggled.

“They are,” I agreed as a soft zap of electricity rippled through my spine. “Anyway, Thor obeyed immediately, and all four of them came over to me. Lia’s new dragon got a little huffy and wandered off, then her other ones did, too.”

“What happened then?” Bo sounded like a little kid listening to his favorite bedtime story.

“Lia stormed over to me,” I chuckled. “She looked pretty pissed, and she was really confused, too. Then she asked me how I trained Thor to listen to me like he did.”

“What?” Ronin asked and confusion knitted her dark eyebrows together. “Train them? Like dogs?”

“I know.” I nodded. “I told Lia I didn’t train them to do anything, I just told him to stop. Then I asked her if she had a bond like that with her dragons. I said I figured she would’ve had a stronger connection with them than I did because she’s been working with her dragons way longer than I have.”

“Right.” Steffi nodded. “I thought she would have figured out the bonds with her dragons, at least the ones she’s had for a while. Like the hearing bond you have with Goldie.”

“Yeah, I thought so, too,” I said. “She didn’t answer my question at all. She just told me I didn’t understand anything, and then she stormed off.”

“That is very rude.” Ronin frowned.

“I mean, Lia never seemed like the friendliest person.” Steffi grimaced slightly. “But… yikes. She can’t even pretend to be polite?”

“Maybe she’s just really overwhelmed right now,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Nala asked.

“I don’t know.” I frowned. “She looked really tired.”

“That seems to be going around lately,” Elisabeth said. “All the cadets at AIMM have been looking rather worn out recently.”

“It felt like more than that,” I murmured. “I don’t know… She looked like she’d lost a little weight, like she’d been working herself way too hard, and like she hasn’t been sleeping well.”

“The RMA team was sent here to handle a monster from their jurisdiction,” Ronin said. “I bet the monster situation in Russia has been getting worse, as it has been here in Africa and in America.”

“It sounds like the situation across the globe is becoming more serious,” Binta said.

“It’s really weird that Lia’s dragons didn’t listen to her, though,” Steffi said.

“Dylan!” Nick suddenly stuck his head out from his door. “I need you. Please!”

“I’m coming,” I chuckled.

I gave Steffi a quick squeeze and then stood up from the couch and walked over to my best friend’s dorm room.

Nick’s room looked completely torn apart, which was really impressive considering we’d only arrived in the country that morning.

“Woah,” I whistled as I quietly closed the door. “What happened in here?”

The room was comfortable, with a full-sized bed done up with cream-colored blankets in the far corner. A sleek metal lamp sat on the small bedside table. The floor was finished with the same highly-polished wood of the Academy’s corridors, and the walls were painted in a soft, heather gray. A heavy wooden dresser stood against the opposite wall from the bed, and a serene painting of Lake Nasser at sunset hung over the bed’s simple wooden headboard.

Nick’s bag laid open on the bed, and every article of clothing he’d packed had been thrown around the room in a wild tornado of fabric. His stack of comics had been placed carefully on the top of the dresser, but the entirety of the rest of the room screamed with chaos.

Nick stood in the middle of the room with a thick white towel wrapped around his lean waist. His blond hair was still wet from his shower, and he had a death grip on a red t-shirt and one random black sock.

“What do I wear to meet the girl of my dreams?” Nick pleaded with the kind of heaviness I might have expected from someone in the midst of an existential crisis.

Which I supposed was exactly what my best friend was in the middle of.

Nick threw the shirt and sock over his shoulders and picked up a pair of well-worn jeans and a black anime shirt. He stared at me with wide eyes as he held the pants up to his chest and the shirt at his waist.

“Uh, well, not that,” I chuckled and gestured at the comically misaligned items of clothing in his hands.

Nick looked down at himself and groaned. Then he threw the items down onto the bed.

“Why didn’t I bring that green shirt?” my best friend berated himself. “The one that makes my eyes sparkle?”

“Sparkle?” I snorted. “Is that what you’re going for?”

“My eyes are my best feature,” Nick informed me. “I think? Shit, what if they’re not?”

“Okay…” I said, and I picked my way across the floor like a field of landmines. “Slow down and take a deep breath, man.”

“Right.” Nick sucked in a huge breath and let it out in a slow shuddering of his shoulders. “I’m just so nervous.”

“I know,” I chuckled. “I can see that, but you need to relax a little bit.”

“Dude,” Nick moaned. “This is like, the most important day of my life right here.”

“Possibly,” I allowed. “But I’m going to help you through it. I promise, I would never let you look bad to meet your dream girl. We’ve got this.”

“Okay.” Nick screwed his face up and took another deep breath. “Will you help me figure out what to wear? That’s the current dilemma.”

“Of course, I will.” I smiled at my best friend. “Let’s see what your options are, yeah?”

Nick nodded at me.

We spent the next several minutes scooping up my best friend’s flung-around clothes. Nick definitely hadn’t packed with the intentions of meeting his dream girl, but things weren’t nearly as hopeless as he thought.

Thankfully, the nymph had managed to bring his best pair of dark-wash jeans. They were a light enough denim that he wouldn’t die from the oppressive heat of Egypt, and they fit him better than any other pair of pants he owned. Then we debated over what shirt was best for a few minutes.

“But I gotta show her I love anime, too,” Nick argued with me as he held up a fairly ratty-looking Hell Girl shirt, where the main character stared out from a black field with slightly creepy, red eyes.

“Zahra already knows you’re into anime.” I grinned and tugged the hole-riddled shirt from his hands. “I told her you were, and this is not going to do anything for you.”

“But-- but…” Nick stared longingly at the worn-out shirt like a child whose security blanket was snatched away. “Ugh, fine. So, what do I wear, then?”

“Gimme a sec,” I said, and I rifled through the pile of clothes on the bed. I pulled out a simple cotton V-neck in a deep reddish-brown color. “This. This is perfect.”

“Really?” Nick shot me a look of disbelief. “Mud brown?”

“No,” I chuckled. “I mean, yeah, it’s a muddy kind of red, but it’s also the exact contrast color of your eyes.”

“It is a really comfortable shirt,” Nick conceded.

“And it will make your eyes sparkle,” I said, and I waggled the shirt in the air. “Win-win.”

“Eeerrg,” Nick grumbled with indecision.

“Dude, trust me.” I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Do you think I would lead you wrong?”

“No, you have four girlfriends,” Nick mumbled. “You probably know about this shit. Okay, gimme that.”

My best friend grabbed the shirt and quickly tugged the red-brown V-neck over his head. Then he started to tuck the shirt into his belt, but he hesitated at the last second.

“In? Out?” The blond nymph raised his eyebrows at me. “What do you think?”

“Out.” I nodded confidently. “Definitely out.”

“Thanks, man,” Nick sighed with relief. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Seeing as I’m the one who found Zahra,” I chuckled, “I think you’re exactly right about that.”

“Har, har.” Nick shook his head at me and grinned. “Okay, how do I look?”

I took an appraising glance at my best friend. His hair had grown a little longer around the edges since I’d first met him, but it worked to his advantage in a casually ruffled kind of way. The blond locks curved out in subtle, natural waves around his surgically pointed ears, and Nick’s green eyes looked intense and piercing in contrast with the slightly muted adobe-colored shirt. The dark wash of his well-fit jeans gave just a hint of polish to the look, and all in all, I’d say he looked pretty damn set.

“You look good, man,” I said. “You look put together without looking like you’re trying too hard.”

“And that’s a good thing, right?” Nick asked.

I could hear the little tremor of nerves that had crept back into my best friend’s voice.

“Yes, it is.” I patted the nymph’s shoulder reassuringly. “Come on, it’s almost dinner time, and I bet you’re way hungrier than your nerves are letting you feel.”

Nick’s stomach rumbled audibly as if on cue, and we both laughed.

“You’re right.” Nick grinned. “I’m definitely hungry. But… holy shit, what if this girl doesn’t like food?”

“Let’s go,” I sighed. “No more overthinking. I’m pretty excited to introduce you to the girl of your dreams, and you should be, too.”

“Holy shit,” Nick breathed, and I half-hauled him out of the room.

Chapter 12

My best friend took one more deep breath, and then we walked back out into the common room together.

The girls and our MIA guides were still gathered around the TV. They chatted casually about one of Bo and Binta’s classes at MIA.

“Professor Hasan is my favorite,” Bo said. “He really makes monster biology interesting.”

“Woah.” Nala whistled teasingly as she looked up at Nick. “You clean up pretty good.”

“Thanks,” Nick chuckled. “I look okay?”

“Yeah, it’s good.” Steffi smiled kindly and nodded.

“And no short comments?” Nala pretended to gasp with shock. “Who are you, and what have you done with Nick?”

My best friend stuck his tongue out at the curly-haired girl.

“That’s more like it,” Nala laughed and crossed her arms with satisfaction.

“You look really nice, Nick,” Ronin said sweetly. “How do you feel?”

“Are you excited to meet your true love?” Elisabeth asked in a wistful tone.

“I feel like I’m going to puke.” Nick grimaced. “But yeah, I think so.”

“I think you’re just really hungry,” I said. “And nerves on an empty stomach are never pleasant.”

“Come, let us go meet Nick’s destiny.” Bo grinned brightly.

The tall guy stood and held his hand out to help Binta off the couch as my girls rose from their seats, and then we all walked back out into the hallway together.

“Is the food here as good as it was in Tanzania?” Nala asked as we walked down the hall.

“Yes,” Bo replied. “I have missed the excellent dishes here during our time in Tanzania.”

“The food at the secondary outpost is very good,” Binta agreed. “But MIA has employed world-class chefs to run the kitchens here.”

Nick walked in unusual silence toward the back of our group, and I had a feeling he was practicing what he was going to say in his head. I watched him until he finally looked up at me and offered me an incredibly nervous smile, and I shot my best friend a reassuring grin.

“Any idea what’s on the menu tonight?” I asked a moment later.

“I do not know,” Binta said.

“But it will surely be delicious.” Bo grinned.

We walked the rest of the way down the long hallways in comfortable silence. The mouth-watering smells of garlic, steamed rice, and chili sauce greeted us as we came around a final corner to a pair of glass double doors. A small plaque to the right of the doors indicated we’d arrived at the dining hall.

Bo held open the door for us and waved his arm in invitation as we filed into the enormous room.

MIA’s dining hall was at least as large as AIMM’s cafeteria, if not a little bigger. The room was filled with large round tables, and each one had eight chairs spaced evenly around them. There was a long line of buffet tables with crisp white tablecloths along the further wall. At the far left was a table filled with trays, fresh plates, silverware, and stacks of white napkins. Shiny chafing dishes, glass bowls filled with crisp salads, dinner rolls fresh from the ovens, and freshly cut fruit were lined up on the row of buffet tables.

Bo and Binta started to weave us through the half-filled tables toward the food line. Several cadets grinned and waved at our tall guides as we walked across the large room.

“Binta, you’re back!” a pretty girl with olive skin said in an elegant accent I couldn’t place.

“It’s good to see you, Evie.” Binta smiled at the girl. “I will see you later.”

Evie grinned at us with curious eyes as my team and I followed Binta toward the buffet line.

“Excellent,” Bo sighed as he scanned a clean, white menu that had been tucked into a plastic frame behind the table of plates and silverware. “It’s kushari night!”

“And rabbit mulukhiya,” Binta laughed joyously. “My favorite!”

“It is like Chef knew we were coming home today,” Bo laughed.

“It all smells amazing,” Nala said.

We lined up and grabbed the simple wooden trays, plates, and silverware. I loaded my plate high with the rice, spaghetti, and a vegetable mix that Bo identified as the kushari. It smelled deliciously of garlic, vinegar, and chili.

I glanced over my shoulder at Nick, who appeared to load his tray on complete auto-pilot, and he kept glancing around nervously. The blond nymph added an unnecessarily large side salad topped with croutons, and then he drowned the whole thing with vinaigrette dressing. By the time we made it to the end of the line, there wasn’t a square inch of empty space on Nick’s tray.

“Where do we sit?” The blond nymph asked me with suddenly wide eyes. “How will she know it’s me? Was I supposed to wear something, like a rose, like in old movies?”

“Deep breath,” I urged Nick. “I’m your rose, remember?”

Nick immediately furrowed his brow, and I snickered in agreement.

“Yeah, never mind, that sounds off,” I snorted. “Just… Zahra knows who I am, alright? Relax.”

I turned to gaze around the crowded dining hall and scanned across the dozens of unfamiliar faces in search of Zahra.

“Trying to figure out where to sit?” Nala asked as she walked up beside me.

“I think Dylan’s looking for Zahra,” Steffi said softly.

“I’m gonna puke,” Nick moaned quietly, and he gripped the edges of his tray so hard, his knuckles turned white.

“Breathe, Nick,” Ronin said calmly. “Just breathe.”

I turned my focus back to the room at large and scanned for another few seconds before I spotted her.

Zahra sat alone at a table off to the side of the room. She’d pulled her hair from the loose braid I’d seen earlier and let it fall in glossy waves down around her shoulders. The orange light of early evening slanted in through the wall of huge windows beside her and made the brown hues of her long locks shine. The beautiful Egyptian-American girl glanced nervously around the crowded dining hall as she twisted the tips of her fingers through the ends of her hair, and an untouched tray sat in front of her.

I wondered if she’d been too nervous to eat, or if she was waiting for us to arrive.

Zahra had changed out of her Flip Flappers shirt and put on a wide scoop-neck shirt that hung slightly off her right shoulder, and I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself when I realized the fashionably-oversized shirt was a very similar shade of reddish clay as the shirt I’d insisted Nick wear.

I turned my head to look at my best friend as his eyes darted rapidly back and forth around the dining hall. I hadn’t told Nick much about what Zahra looked like, and I really wasn’t sure how much of it he’d even heard through his trance-like state, so I watched his face carefully.

“I found her,” I said with a wide grin.

Nick’s green eyes went as wide as dinner plates, and his knuckles gripped so tightly on the edges of his wooden tray, I worried he might snap the thing by accident.

“Where?” Nick whispered.

“By the windows,” I said. “Come on.”

I started to walk over toward Nick’s dream girl and glanced over my shoulder to make sure my team was following me. Binta and my ladies filed behind me like my own personal entourage, and I chuckled a little at the sight we must have been to all the MIA cadets in the room.

More heads turned to stare at us as we walked, and I caught sight of more than a few fingers pointing rather conspicuously at the edges of Ky and Goldie’s tattoos where they stuck out from under my short sleeves.

Nick stood like a statue for a second until Bo nudged him gently with his elbow. Then the blond nymph’s eyes came back into focus, and the tall MIA cadet grinned at him. Nick seemed to have grown leaden feet, and I silently thanked Bo for stepping in and helping my best friend find his footing again.

“Hey, Zahra,” I said as I approached the girl’s otherwise empty table.

“Dylan, hey.” Zahra smiled at me, and her shoulders relaxed.

“Mind if we join you?” I asked.

Binta, Steffi, Nala, Ronin, and Elisabeth offered friendly smiles and quiet “hellos” as they filed up to the table beside me.

“Uh, yeah, sure. I mean, of course.” Zahra shook her head at herself and laughed nervously. Then she scooted her chair over a little bit to make room for us all.

I laid my tray down on the table and quickly grabbed a spare chair from a nearby table to cram it in. The round tables each had eight chairs, but with Zahra added to our group, it was going to be a little bit tighter than usual.

My ladies all took seats, and I noticed they left the chair on Zahra’s left side empty, and Nala sat down on her right.

“Hi, I’m Steffi.” My pink-haired girl grinned brightly. Then she gestured at our curly-haired teammate. “This is Nala.”

“Hey,” Nala said.

“And this is Elisabeth and Ronin,” I continued. “El is a long-term liaison from AMIE, and Ronin’s from MAJK.”

“Konnichiwa.” Ronin smiled and dipped her chin respectfully.

“Bonjour,” my copper-haired girlfriend said warmly.

“Bonjour,” Zahra said to Elisabeth with a gentle lilt, and then she said something else in French that I didn’t catch.

Elisabeth’s foxy face split into a huge smile, and she spoke rapid French to Zahra who replied happily in the beautiful language.

“Woah,” Steffi chuckled. “You speak French, I take it?”

“Yes,” Zahra laughed. “My dad insisted I learn a language from every continent. I also speak Arabic, and I was starting to learn Korean when my powers manifested.”

“Korean is a beautiful language.” Ronin smiled. “I have picked up a little from my fellow cadets at MAJK, but I am not very good.”

Nick and Bo finally reached our table, and Bo quickly parked himself beside Binta, which left only one chair open for my best friend to choose from.

“Nick,” I said as I pointedly looked at the empty chair to tell him to sit down. “This is Zahra, Zahra, this is my best friend, Nick.”

“Hi,” the dark-haired girl said softly. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi,” Nick choked out. He lowered his tray very carefully onto the table and sat down in the chair.

I silently watched Nick’s brain misfire a few times before he glanced back at me with nervous eyes, and I mimed taking a huge breath and gave him a subtle nod. Then I gestured at the MIA cadets who had been our guides during our time in Africa.

“Zahra, this is Binta, and Bo,” I said. “They’ve been away at MIA’s secondary outpost the last few months.”

“It is very nice to meet you, Zahra,” Binta said with a friendly smile.

“Thanks,” Zahra smiled as well, and her eyes darted nervously to glance at Nick beside her.

“Welcome to MIA.” Bo grinned. “Are you enjoying the Academy?”

“Um, sort of.” Zahra offered a lopsided smile that made the little mole at the corner of her mouth twitch. “I mean, the Academy is absolutely beautiful, and I definitely feel like I’m starting to get a handle on my powers, but I haven’t exactly made any friends yet.”

“That changed today,” Binta said in a friendly tone.

“Exactly, you have us now,” Bo agreed and looped his arm lovingly around his girlfriend’s shoulders.

“I’m really glad,” Zahra said.

“Dylan said your dad’s an archeologist?” Steffi asked as she delicately picked at her salad.

“Yeah.” Zahra nodded, and her eyes bounced back to glance at Nick again.

My best friend was lifting forkfuls of his dinner into his mouth slower than I’d ever seen him eat before, but his death grip on his fork seemed to loosen with every bite.

“Um, Dad’s always been fascinated by the history of Ancient Egypt,” Zahra continued. “Specifically the Valley of the Kings. Dad said he fell in love with the country in elementary school when they learned about King Tut and why it was such a monumental discovery for archeologists.”

“That’s so cool,” Nala said. “And he met your mom on an expedition here?”

“Yep.” Zahra smiled, and I could tell my girls’ natural friendliness was helping her feel more comfortable. “My siido, my mum’s dad, owned this little cafe in town that my dad liked to stop in every morning for his coffee. Mum worked there, and that’s where my parents met.”

“That is so sweet,” Elisabeth mused as she sipped her ice water.

Nick appeared to have finally found his brain thanks to some food, and he smiled at Zahra.

“Dylan said you’ve spent a lot of time going between the U.S. and Egypt,” my best friend said. “I’d never really been out of the country until I joined AIMM. That must have been cool.”

“I guess,” Zahra laughed lightly, and a slight blush spread across her tanned cheeks. “I mean, I don’t really know anything else, so it’s just normal for me. But I remember really loving flying when I was little. I liked looking out the window and seeing the whole planet below me, it made me feel like a superhero or something.”

“That’s my favorite part of flying, too,” Nick laughed. “I spent a lot of time camping with my dad and uncle growing up, so being able to look down on the forests like a bird is really fun.”

“Dylan said you have plant powers, too?” Zahra asked, and her eyes darted away slightly.

I got the feeling these two were both really curious about each other and dying to know more, but neither one knew quite how to go about it. I decided that I would step in to nudge the conversation whenever they needed a little help, but it felt like Nick and Zahra were going to figure it out by themselves.

“Uh, yeah,” Nick laughed, and I could see his confidence spark. “I can phase through plants and use them to get around. I’ve also been working on, sort of, seeing through them? Communicating with the plants.”

“Cool.” Zahra smiled and shifted slightly in her seat to face more directly at the blond nymph. “What’s that like?”

“It’s tricky.” Nick smirked. “I use the natural vibrations of the plants, in their leaves and roots, to sense movement and stuff. I got the idea from Nala, actually.”

“Really?” Zahra glanced to her other side. “Do you have plant powers, too?”

“No,” Nala laughed. “I’m basically an earth-bender.”

“Like Toph?” Zahra asked enthusiastically. “That’s so cool!”

“You like Avatar?” Nick murmured, and I could almost see the hearts flying out of his eyes.

“Who doesn’t?” Zahra laughed. “Toph is my favorite character.”

“Well, we’ve got our own Toph on our team,” Nick boasted a little. “Nala can see through the earth like the great metal-bending master.”

“That’s awesome!” Zahra grinned at Nick. “And you figured out a way to do it with plants?”

“Yeah.” Nick smirked. “I have to be phased with the plants to do it, but I’m getting pretty good at seeing monsters and other people, even the terrain, with almost anything from huge trees to little clovers and even moss.”

“This is going really well,” Steffi whispered happily beside me.

“I told you she was perfect,” I quietly murmured back.

I caught Bo’s ecstatic look from across the table and grinned back at the telekinetic dude. He and Nick had formed a quick friendship, and I knew the MIA cadet was as happy for our friend as I was. Bo and I both understood the joy the love of a good girl could bring, and it was clear on his face he approved of Zahra.

“So, what are your powers like?” Nick asked as he dug into his plate with his usual level of enthusiasm.

“I can force plants through their life cycles,” Zahra said. “It’s not always super helpful with some plants, like little wildflowers, but vines and trees can be really useful.”

“That’s so cool,” Nick said through a mouthful of rice. “Can you grow a plant right out of the dormant seeds in the ground?”

“Huh.” Zahra thought for a second as she took an unladylike bite of her rabbit mulukhiya. “I never thought to try that, but it’s a really good idea.”

“O-m-g,” Steffi giggled beside me as the Egyptian-American girl shoveled food into her mouth. “She even eats with the same intensity that Nick does.”

I tried to hide a snorting laugh with a harsh cough, and I lifted my glass to sip at my ice water.

“Sorry,” I said as everyone at the table turned to look at me. “Wrong pipe.”

My girls smirked at me, and Steffi giggled quietly behind her hand.

“You should definitely try it,” Nick said as he launched right back into his conversation with Zahra. “There are millions of little seeds buried in the dirt, I bet if you can harness their power, it’d be like in Fern Gully when Krista makes everything bloom.”

“Ohhhh,” Zahra moaned as if she’d taken a bite of the most deliciously decadent cake. “I looooove Fern Gully.”

“Right?” Nick laughed. “It’s such a classic.”

My girls, the MIA cadets, and I listened quietly for a while longer as Nick and Zahra gushed back and forth about their favorite plants and which animes were the most underrated. It was obvious to anyone that these two were truly meant to be together. They were adorable, and now that they’d both gotten over their initial nerves of meeting one another, I suspected it was going to be a real challenge to get them apart.

A short pang of sadness flashed through my heart as my mind stubbornly reminded me that, sooner or later, we’d have to return to AIMM. I argued back at myself that Zahra was American as well as Egyptian, and that I’d do whatever I could to foster a transfer for her to AIMM, even if it took forever.

She’d said herself that she missed being in the U.S.

After a little while, the pair’s conversation shifted away from the pros and cons of early Death Note versus the later episodes and the Netflix version, and then they began discussing the current status of monster attacks at MIA.

“I didn’t expect things to be this… intense,” Zahra said.

“We have not gotten all of the information while Binta and I were away in Tanzania,” Bo said. “What has been going on here?”

“Well, I’ve only been here a few weeks,” Zahra said with a slight frown. “So, I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but other cadets have been coming back with way more injuries than I would have expected when Headmaster Mahrous first brought me to MIA.”

“That is not how it usually goes.” Binta nodded. “Monster attacks have been ramping up lately.”

“It seems like there have been a lot of attacks in the same couple of spots, too,” Zahra said.

“What do you mean?” Ronin asked.

“I keep hearing the same names whenever a mission comes up,” Zahra explained. “Harat in Libya, Port Ghalib, and a lot in Eritrea. I guess I expected things to be more… spread out? More isolated? But the attacks keep happening in the same areas.”

“Almost like there are targeted areas…” Steffi pondered quietly.

“What’s that?” Nala asked as she nibbled on a double chocolate chunk cookie.

I smirked and gestured to my own lip to let her know she had melted chocolate on her mouth, and the dark beauty smirked back before she slowly dragged her tongue across her bottom lip. I swallowed hard and chugged half my water glass down, and as Nala snickered a bit, I cleared my throat and focused back on my fairy-girl.

“I was just thinking…” Steffi mused. “It sounds like the monsters are targeting specific areas. I wonder if there’s a link between these locations, either in their geography, or topography, or the kinds of resources in the area. I don’t know… it was just a thought.”

“I think it is a thought worth thinking about,” Elisabeth said.

“Yes.” Ronin nodded. “You may be on to something.”

“I agree, monsters seem to be attacking the same few locations,” I said and glanced around the table to confirm my thoughts. “Is that a new occurrence around here?”

“It is,” Binta said. “As far as I am aware, MIA has never noticed any kind of pattern before in monster activity.”

“It has always been rather random in the past,” Bo agreed.

“Then, if things are changing like that…” I said. “There’s probably more to it.”

“Maybe you should ask Dr. Hastings about it when we get back to AIMM,” Nick suggested with a wink. “You said she wanted to see you, right?”

“Yeah.” I smirked at my best friend. “She wanted to know more about the Jorogumos’ nest and the queen.”

“Then you should ask about a pattern of attacks.” Steffi nodded. “Now that I think about it, I wonder if there’s been any kind of hot spots for activity in the States.”

“That is a good question,” Ronin agreed.

“I hadn’t really thought about it or paid any attention to where attacks were,” Steffi said as she twisted a pink lock of hair around the tip of her finger. “But I also never really pay attention to where the other teams are sent. We’re always so busy running around for our own missions.”

“It definitely sounds like it’s worth looking into,” I said.

I glanced over at Zahra and Nick to find they had delved back into their own conversation. Nick had angled his chair toward the Egyptian girl, and Zahra had turned her entire body to face toward my best friend. The dark-haired girl had pulled her legs up onto her chair to tuck one underneath her, and she’d pulled the other leg close to her chest.

I tuned into the conversation for a moment just to check how the nymph was doing.

“Dahlias are way prettier than irises,” Nick said with confidence.

“They’re both really pretty,” Zahra agreed. “But neither of them is more useful than a thorny rosebush.”

“Can you make flowers grow a lot bigger than they’re supposed to be?” Nick asked with wide eyes. “Like could you make a rose grow to the size of a mammoth sunflower?”

“I don’t know,” Zahra laughed. “I’ve never tried before.”

“You should definitely try it.” Nick nodded.

“We could go out to the courtyard… I mean, if you want?” Zahra blushed slightly.

“Yeah.” Nick smiled. “That sounds really good.”

Nick glanced around the table and caught my eye, and he grinned at me like a love-sick puppy.

“Is everybody done with dinner?” I asked the table in general.

“Yeah, I’m done,” Nala said as she licked a bit of chocolate from her fingertips.

“Me, too,” Steffi said in a singsong voice.

“It was truly delicious,” Ronin said with admiration. “The chefs here are superb.”

“I agree,” Elisabeth said. “Excellent food, and wonderful recipes I have never had the pleasure of experiencing before.”

“I am glad you enjoyed it.” Binta smiled.

“I will be sure to tell Chef that the Dragon Conjurer and his team enjoyed the meal.” Bo grinned.

A bubbly giggle burst from Zahra’s lips, and I turned to look at my best friend as he leaned in close to whisper something to the dark-haired girl. A smile of pure elation spread over his face as Zahra leaned back and nodded enthusiastically at Nick.

“We’re gonna go out to the courtyard and try out a few things,” my best friend said. “With the plants, I mean. Uhh… yeah.”

Nick shook his head, and Nala cackled at him.

“Okay, have fun.” I smirked. “We’ll catch up with you guys later.”

The new couple rose from their seats with their fingers intertwined, and Nala’s jaw practically hit the table top, but she recovered quickly enough to appear absolutely casual about this.

“It was great to meet you all,” Zahra said, and she walked off with my best friend happily trailing beside her.

We watched the two walk away together as they leaned in close to one another, and I knew I’d done really good.

“Ohhhh, my god,” Nala giggled after a moment. “Did Nick just bag a girl that gorgeous in a single date? They were holding hands already!”

“He’s pretty smooth when he wants to be,” I chuckled.

“They’re so stinking cute!” Steffi squealed.

“I am happy for Nick.” Ronin smiled softly.

“They make a really cute couple,” Elisabeth agreed.

“I hope Mahrous has a soft spot for true love,” Bo chuckled.

“How could anyone with a heart break apart such a perfect match?” Binta mused.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I suggested. “They just met, let’s… let those two figure out what they’re up to, alright?”

“But the haaaands,” Nala groaned. “Dylan, I never imagined Nick holding hands with a girl, but now I can’t unsee it. It’s too cute.”

“You’re such a romantic,” Steffi snickered.

“Am not,” the dark beauty scoffed, and she forced a careless expression as she patted her dark curls. “I’m just saying… go Nick.”

“Come on, let’s clean up and head back to the room,” I laughed, but I was secretly trying not to fanboy as much as Nala right now, and I felt rather smug about the whole thing. “I think I’ve had about zero time to relax all day, and I could really use some chill time.”

“Sounds good to me,” Steffi mused. “Maybe we can watch a movie or something.”

“MIA has a server filled with all kinds of movies and TV shows you can choose from,” Bo said. “I can show you how to access it.”

“That’d be great,” Steffi said to Bo.

“Yes, thank you,” Ronin agreed.

“No problem.” Bo smiled. “Our rooms are actually very close to yours, so it is of no inconvenience.”

We stood from the table, and I followed Bo and Binta’s lead and left our trays on the table, and I figured the main Academy had kitchen staff that would come around and clear up the dishes, unlike the secondary outpost in Tanzania. Then we strolled through the dining hall together.

Ronin slipped her hand into mine as we walked down the long corridors toward our rooms, and she stretched up on her tiptoes as far as she could to reach me.

“I want you,” my Japanese girl whispered to me.

My skin got hot, and my dick went immediately hard as I glanced down at Ronin.

The Samurai warrior smiled up at me with mischief clear in her dark eyes as she bit down on her bottom lip.

“What should we watch?” Steffi asked as we filed into the common room of our temporary dorm.

“I want something funny,” Nala said. “And I’m gonna make popcorn!”

I finally looked around the common room for the first time and saw that it was similar in size to our suite back home at AIMM, but instead of a full kitchen, there was just a mini-fridge, a small shelf of snacks, and a microwave along the back wall. There were five separate doors that led out of the main common room, and I guessed there were four bedrooms and a shared bathroom.

“A comedy sounds lovely,” Elisabeth agreed.

“There is a great comedy selection on the server,” Binta said as she claimed the squishy loveseat to the right of the couch.

“I cannot possibly sit through an entire movie and be expected to keep my hands off you,” Ronin murmured quietly to me.

“Which room?” I asked her softly. I assumed she was sharing with one of my other girls again like they’d done in Tanzania.

“This way,” Ronin purred as she grabbed hold of my hand.

The Japanese beauty practically dragged me behind the couch and to the left of the room before she shoved open a door and yanked me inside.

I heard a distinctive wave of giggles from Nala, Steffi, and Elisabeth as Ronin kicked the door closed behind her. Not that it mattered, they would have known exactly what Ronin and I were up to.

Then someone in the common room turned the volume of the TV up a little more than necessary, and I could hear the thunderous opening music of 20th Century Fox playing.

“You have not given me the attention I deserve since we left America, Dylan,” Ronin said with a teasing pout. “I am very cross with you.”

So… it was going to be a playful night with my Japanese girl. I could roll with that.

“I’m so sorry, babe,” I said with as much mock regret as I could muster. “Things have just been so crazy.”

“You will just have to find a way to make it up to me,” Ronin teased as she dipped her fingers into the waistband of her black shorts. Then she placed her hands firmly on my shoulders and shoved me down onto the bed.

I leaned back on the comfortable bed and settled in to enjoy the show, and my petite Japanese girl slowly popped the buttons on her pink blouse and slipped the soft fabric down over her pale shoulders.

“God, you’re so sexy,” I murmured as a rush of heat flashed over my skin.

Ronin’s full breasts were barely contained in the lacey cups of her pastel pink bra. She moved her slender fingers down from her shoulders and caressed them softly over the smooth skin of her stomach toward the single button of her shorts. Then the Japanese beauty quirked an eyebrow teasingly at me, and her fingers stalled on the button.

“You tease.” I grinned at Ronin’s extra playful mood tonight.

“I thought, since you have made me wait,” the dark-haired girl cooed. “I should make you wait, too.”

“I suppose that’s only fair,” I murmured as I raked my eyes down every inch of creamy skin I could find.

Ronin smiled sweetly, and she finally popped the button on her shorts and tugged the zipper down at the speed of molasses in the dead of winter. The Japanese girl bit down on her lower lip as she dipped her fingers into the waistband and started to push the black shorts down her luscious thighs.

Liquid fire flowed down my spine and pooled low in my gut as I watched the sexy Samurai slowly strip for me. My cock pressed painfully against the front of my jeans, and I had to force myself to stay where I was on the bed.

“I have been thinking about this since the flight from California,” Ronin purred, and she stepped out of her shorts to stand before me clad only in her lacey pink bra and panties. She kicked her shoes off as she moved closer to the bed, and then she crawled over my body on all fours.

“What were you thinking about?” I asked softly, and I raised my hands to caress up the smooth skin of my Japanese girl’s sides.

“Your hands on my ass,” Ronin whispered in my ear. She braced herself on one hand as she danced the other across my body, and she made sure to linger a little where Beyblade curled up on my chest.

Intense waves of pleasure coursed out from my fire dragon and raced through my veins, and I reached up to take hold of Ronin’s shapely hips to bring her down to me. I stifled an animalistic groan as her slight weight finally settled on my groin, and my hips tilted up involuntarily against her heat.

“Are you asking for a spanking, you bad girl?” I leaned up to whisper in Ronin’s ear, and I nuzzled my nose into her long, glossy hair. “You smell so good.”

“I am a very naughty girl,” Ronin sighed, and she arched her lower back. “I need you to straighten me out.”

“I can do that,” I growled low in Ronin’s ear. Then I gripped her hips tight and pulled her down harder on my crotch once more before I picked her up and deposited her back on her hands and knees on the bed. “I’ll spank that ass until it’s bright red.”

“Mmm, yes, please,” Ronin moaned as she looked back at me over her shoulder. Then she wiggled her hips invitingly at me and chewed seductively on her bottom lip.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath.

Ronin was so goddamn sexy, and I already felt like I was at the edge of my sanity with arousal. My dick ached with the thumping pulse of my heart as I tugged my shirt off over my head, and Ronin watched me with heavy-lidded eyes as a pink blush spread across her adorably freckled cheeks.

Then she folded her arms on the mattress and leaned her shoulders down so the perfect globes of her lace-covered ass stuck up in the air for my appreciation.

I kicked my shoes off and stepped forward to lay my right hand gently on the small of her back, and I leaned forward to press my hardened length against the curve of her ass as I caressed her back lovingly. Then I shifted to the side and moved my left hand away only to slap my palm hard against the creamy skin of her cheek.

“Yesssss,” Ronin moaned, and the sound of skin on skin bounced around the room. Then the dark-haired girl turned over her shoulder to look at me again. “Another? Pleeease?”

“Whatever my girl wants,” I murmured as I reared back for another swing. “My girl gets.”

I slapped my palm hard against her ass in the same exact spot twice more until her ass was bright red and the shape of my hand was clear on her porcelain skin.

Ronin moaned with every spank, and her breaths kicked up in a harsh rhythm. Her shiny black hair fell down around her shoulders like rivers of satin as she leaned her head back in pleasure, and I raked my gaze over the feline shape of her.

“Your hands feel so good on me,” my Japanese girlfriend moaned. “And my pussy is so wet.”

“That’s fucking hot,” I breathed, and I slid my left hand around the curve of Ronin’s ass cheek to the crotch of her panties. I was not disappointed, and I found her pink panties were soaked with her sweet juices already. “Oooh, babe, you’re so wet.”

“Touch me, Dylan,” Ronin gasped and nudged her hips back against my fingers to beg for what she wanted.

I held her in place firmly with my right hand as I tugged her wet panties a bit to the side, and I slid my middle finger teasingly through her slick folds.

“Oooooh, yeeeessss,” Ronin groaned, and she arched her back in search of the friction she so desperately needed. “More, pleeeease?”

“You’re so hungry tonight,” I hummed. Then I leaned over her as I sank my finger completely into her tight tunnel and gripped her hip harder with my other hand.

Ronin pressed her ass harder against my hand, and I slid another finger into her dripping tunnel. Then I coaxed my fingers against the front wall of her pussy and massaged into her g-spot, and I moved my right hand around to the front of her thighs and found her clit.

“Aaah, Dylan,” Ronin gasped when I started to move my fingers together on and in her wet heat. “Just like that, yeeesss.”

I teased my Samurai girl with both of my hands and placed gentle kisses and nibbles across her shoulders and down her spine until she was writhing underneath me. I could feel Ronin getting closer with every flick of my fingers, but I held her just away from the edge. My Japanese girl’s pussy started to tighten even more, but I wasn’t ready to give her relief just yet, so I pulled my fingers away from her clit and stilled my movements for a second until she groaned in frustration.

“Dylaaan,” Ronin pleaded. “I want to cuuuum.”

“Say please,” I growled.

“Pleeeeeeeasssse,” Ronin begged and nudged her hips in a desperate plea.

“Good girl,” I purred, and I started to play with her again.

I finger fucked Ronin as I moved my finger in tight little circles over her clit, and I leaned down over her more completely.

“Cum for me,” I ordered.

“Fuuuuck!” Ronin cried out as her entire body clenched with pleasure.

I didn’t slow down as her tight tunnel rippled in waves around my fingers, and her hips bucked back against my hand. I could practically taste Ronin’s pleasure as she writhed with wanton abandon underneath me. Then she collapsed forward on the bed, which only pushed her ass more perfectly into my grasp, and I slowly eased my rhythm down as she crested over the wave.

Ronin’s breathing started to slow, and the pulse that pounded behind her ear finally evened out.

“Good lord,” my Japanese girl sighed, and then she arched her back as I gently pulled my fingers from deep in her trembling pussy.

“You’re so fucking hot.” I braced my hands on the bed to stand up and strip my jeans off.

Ronin flopped gracefully to the side and stared up at me with ecstasy-fogged eyes.

“I’m not done with you yet.” I smirked as I pulled my boxer-briefs down, and my cock sprang forward to point at its target.

“Gooood,” Ronin purred as she rolled onto her back and spread her knees wide for me.

My Japanese girl’s tight pussy glistened with her juices, and my dick twitched with anticipation at the sight. I took another moment to appreciate the gorgeously sexy woman stretched out on the bed in front of me before I stepped between her widely spread thighs. Then I gazed down at the expanse of flushed skin and reached out to pluck at the front clasp of her lacey bra.

“I want to see all of you,” I murmured as Ronin’s ample breasts spilled out from the pink lace.

I grazed my finger slowly down her taut stomach to the waist of her wet panties. Then I hooked my finger into the waistband and peeled the scrap of fabric down Ronin’s toned thighs.

My foreign lover giggled lightly and lifted her hips to allow me to pull her panties away from her hot body.

Once Ronin was completely naked before me, I felt my self-control start to crumble, and the buzz of arousal was deafening in my ears. I hooked my hands under my petite girl’s knees and yanked her to the edge of the bed, and as I sank my cock deep into Ronin’s tight pussy, I thanked my lucky stars that MIA had chosen bed frames that were the absolute perfect height.

“Ohhhh, yessss,” the Japanese beauty moaned and wrapped her toned legs around my hips to take me in deeper.

“Fuck,” I growled. “You’re so tight.”

I used the last of my resolve to stay still for a moment as I felt Ronin’s tunnel stretch to accommodate my girth.

“Dylan,” Ronin cooed, and she gazed up at me with dark eyes and flushed cheeks. “Fuck me, please?”

I growled like an animal and pulled away only to thrust my cock hard back into Ronin’s wet heat, and I quickly set a demanding pace as I fucked my dark-haired girl fast and deep.

Ronin’s breaths came in sharp gasps and moans as I pounded into her welcoming pussy hard enough to knock the bed against the wall with a rhythmic thudding.

A small part in the back of my mind knew the rest of my team could definitely hear us, but I didn’t give a fuck. I knew Steffi, Nala, and Elisabeth would get all hot and bothered knowing I was in here giving Ronin the fucking of her life, and thinking about their pussies getting wet just turned me on more.

I wrapped my hands more firmly around Ronin’s hips to hold her in place as I slammed my cock into her dripping pussy over and over again. Then the dark-haired beauty’s legs clenched tighter around me as she arched up off the bed to take me in even deeper, and I knew she was getting close. Liquid gold drizzled through my veins as my own pleasure started to peak.

“Dylan, I’m going to cuuuum,” Ronin moaned.

“Yes, babe, cum for me,” I breathed. Then I leaned my head down to take one of Ronin’s nipples between my teeth, and I nibbled gently on the dusky peak. “Cum all over my cock.”

“Ooooh, god!” Ronin cried out as I pushed her over the edge into blissful oblivion. Her pussy rippled around my cock, and I followed Ronin happily into the abyss.

Lightning flashed behind my eyes as the tongue-numbing, brain-tingling ecstasy ripped through my nerves. I thrust erratically as I rode out the steep waves of my orgasm and pumped my hot seed into Ronin’s tight tunnel. My cock twitched with the final rush of pleasure through my limbs, and my hot cream dripped out of Ronin’s pussy when I’d finally filled her to the brim.

“Fuck,” I sighed, and I collapsed just to the side of my sweet Japanese lover so I wouldn’t crush her with my weight.

“Mmmmm,” Ronin hummed as her beautiful face relaxed with complete satisfaction. “Hmmmm.”

“I love you,” I murmured and placed a gentle kiss on Ronin’s freckled cheek.

“I love you, too,” my dark-haired girl sighed.

We cuddled close to each other for a few moments and just lingered in the pleasant hum of excellent sex. Then Ronin nuzzled her face into my chest, and her jaw stretched in an enormous yawn.

“Little tired?” I chuckled as I cuddled Ronin closer to me.

“Sleep.” Ronin nodded her dark head like a little kid.

I laughed softly and scooped her up as gently as I could to lay us the right way on the bed, and I tugged the blankets around us and kissed the silky black waves of Ronin’s hair.

“Sleep sounds perfect,” I whispered, and I settled my sleepy girlfriend comfortably against my chest.

“Mmmm,” Ronin hummed quietly, and then her breathing started to even out in the deep rhythm of satiated sleep.

I smiled to myself and reached over to the bedside table and pulled the lamp’s string to sink the room into peaceful darkness. I breathed in the comfortable smell of lilies and lavender that lingered in Ronin’s glossy hair. Then I settled my head deeper into the pillow and quickly followed my girl into a restful sleep.

Neither of us even moved until the next morning when an insistent knocking on the door dragged us forcefully from the depths of unconsciousness.

“Dylan, wake up,” Nick called from the other side of the door.

“Mmmrrrggg,” I grumbled and pried one eye open to look around. “What do you want?”

“Dude,” Nick stuck his head into the room, and the excitement in his eyes made me groan.

“You can tell me about your sexy times with Zahra later,” I chuckled.

“No, I mean, yeah…” Nick laughed, and then his tone grew more serious. “But that’s not why I’m here.”

“What is it?” I asked as my brain quickly woke up. If my best friend wasn’t waking me up to boast about his sexual endeavors, then it must have been something more serious.

“There’s a big ass monster attack,” Nick said with an urgency that got my adrenaline going. “They need us to handle it.”

Chapter 13

“Okay.” I flung the blankets aside. “We’ll be ready in a minute.”

Nick nodded at me and then backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.

“A mission?” Ronin asked as she stretched out completely naked on the bed.

“Yes, and it sounds urgent.” I leaned down to drop a quick kiss on Ronin’s lips. “Come on, we gotta go.”

Ronin hopped out of bed and glanced around for a second.

I followed my Japanese girl’s gaze and realized she’d shoved me into my own room last night. My plain duffel bag waited on the floor at the foot of the messed-up bed.

“Your stuff’s in another room, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes,” Ronin laughed and pulled the blanket around herself before she crossed the room. “I will see you in a few minutes.”

I chuckled and shook my head as the second girl in as many days hijacked my bedclothes and left me naked in my room. Then I glanced around the room and noticed a second door opposite from the one that led out to the common room. I tugged the door open and was a little surprised to find a private bathroom on the other side. Much like the dorm room in general, it wasn’t quite as lavishly featured as my bathroom back at AIMM, but it was gorgeous and convenient.

I moved at top speed to shower quickly, brush my teeth, and get dressed. I pulled on a pair of comfortable brown cargo pants, a light-gray t-shirt, and my boots before I walked out into the common room.

Nick stood behind the couch as he chomped down a few pieces of Cajun-flavored beef jerky. He had chosen well-worn cargo pants, a black t-shirt, and tightly laced hiking boots.

All four of my girls were dressed and ready to go, and I gave Ronin an appreciative nod at her haste. The girls were seated around the couch and plush armchairs, and they were dressed very similarly to me and each other.

Ronin had chosen a deep-green t-shirt, black cargo shorts that barely went down to her mid-thighs, and her tall brown boots.

Steffi wore a brick-colored tank top with thick straps that fit well and allowed enough room for her wings to stretch out from her back. Dark brown pants and sturdy hiking boots completed the outfit.

Elisabeth had twisted her hair up into a braided bun that was pinned snuggly at the back of her head. She wore a dark blue shirt, black pants that were as tight as they always were for missions, and hiking shoes with thick treads.

Nala’s muted orange shirt was cropped at the hem and hung loosely around her high-waisted brown cargo pants that were cuffed to perfectly meet her leather boots.

“Alright, let’s go,” Nick said with a bit of a rush that reinforced the urgent feeling in my gut.

“How serious is this situation?” I asked.

We walked rapidly out into the hallway where Bo and Binta waited for us with the same kind of restless energy that hovered around Nick.

“I’m not sure exactly,” Nick answered.

“We should hurry,” Bo said with an unusual seriousness in his tone.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We have a situation happening in the desert,” Binta explained as we continued to walk quickly down the halls, and I recognized the way toward the hangar.

“Two teams were sent out earlier this morning to handle an Aigamuxa attack.” Bo grimaced slightly. “The teams came back a short while ago with fairly serious injuries. Some of them had been knocked unconscious, and there will be more than one concussion among them. Many of them had serious lacerations, and one was rushed to the medical bay with serious bleeding. One cadet was a bit hysterical, she claimed there were dozens of other monsters involved.”

“Either way,” Nick continued. “The Guys in Gray said they needed the Dragon Conjurer, that we were the only team that could handle an attack of this size.”

“So what’s an Aigamuxa?” I glanced between Bo and Binta as we pushed through the double doors that led through the hangar area.

The room was chaotic as Guys in Gray, scientists, and cadets raced around. A few medical stretchers were set up in the corner of the space near the entrance we’d walked through, and groans of pain emanated from the area as we rushed past.

“An Aigamuxa is a humanoid monster,” Bo said as he led us out onto the tarmac. “They are reported to be nine feet tall and weigh as much as two-hundred-and-fifty kilos.”

“What’s that in pounds, dude?” Nick asked.

A large helicopter that was very similar to the one we’d taken to Mount Kilimanjaro sat waiting for us on the tarmac. The engines were starting to rev, and the rotors began to slowly turn, and we instinctively ducked lower to climb inside the chopper.

“Two-hundred-and-fifty kilos is well over five-hundred pounds,” Elisabeth said.

“Yes, the Aigamuxa appear as very large men, and they will wander the desert waiting for prey!” Bo shouted as the rotors began to pick up speed.

We strapped into our seats and tugged our headsets on to continue the conversation.

“There should be a briefing file…” Binta searched the pockets of the seats. “Here it is.”

The tall girl handed the file to me, and my entire team turned to look at me expectantly.

“We will arrive shortly,” the pilot announced through our headsets before he turned back to his controls.

I flipped the file open and read the information quickly as the rotors hit speed, and the helicopter lurched into the air.

“Okay…” I took a deep breath. “Like Bo said, the Aigamuxa is a very large man-like monster, with the biggest difference, aside from its height, being that its eyes are on the bottom of its feet?”

“Weird,” Steffi said. “Do they have, like, super hearing or some other way to track prey?”

“No.” I shook my head. “It says here they’ll stop in pursuit and stand on their hands to look around.”

“That’s so menacing,” Nick chortled.

“Their main diet is humans,” I read from the file. “And it uses its ‘extremely elongated feet’ to eat with. Ew.”

“Such lovely manners.” Elisabeth wrinkled her nose.

“Anything else we should know about these things?” Steffi asked.

“Not really. There’s a lot of background about how the legends come from the Khoekhoe people… they typically hunt at night,” I chuckled as I read the next line of the file. “There’s a story here about a man called Jackal who used tobacco dust to irritate the Aigamuxa’s eyes so it couldn’t see him. He got away because of his clever thinking, and his tobacco addiction.”

“Very clever,” Ronin agreed.

“And the cadets from the first two teams said something else was out there with the Aigamuxa?” Steffi asked.

“Yes.” Bo nodded. “There was not any confirmation about what the monster was, but I overheard something about a spotted crocodile walrus.”

“Crocodile walrus…” I breathed. That pinged a memory buried deep in the recesses of my mind.

I had a flashback to an incredibly boring afternoon in one of my world lore classes at Berkeley. Professor Hanes had been droning on for at least an hour when she instructed us to turn the pages in our textbook to an illustration of a horrifying amalgamation of animals. For some reason, the image of the monstrous leopard-crocodile-walrus had burned into my brain, and I’d never been able to forget it since.

“What is it?” Nala asked me. “Do you know what this thing could be?”

“Maybe… it sounds like a Dingonek.” I scraped my fingers through my hair. “Which is an enormous hodgepodge of African animals, sort of like how a Gryphon has the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and the tail of a snake sometimes. The Dingonek has been described as having the body of either a crocodile or an armadillo, the face of a leopard, tusks like a walrus, and it’s supposedly as wide as a hippopotamus. They’re supposed to live in jungles, but it’s not like we haven’t seen displaced monsters before. At least it’s on the right continent.”

“How enormous are they?” Steffi asked, and her eyebrows knitted together with concern.

“At least fourteen feet long,” I answered. “My professor said they were called ‘The Jungle Walrus’ for good reason.”

“That sounds awful and awesome all at the same time.” Nick screwed his face up.

“The one image of a Dingonek I saw in college was definitely intense.” I nodded. “They’re supposed to be really aggressive and territorial creatures. They’ll defend their land like those Grunch we dealt with in the jungles of Central America.”

“Those things were kind of cute,” Elisabeth mused. “But they were very short, I cannot imagine that level of territorial ferocity would be at all pleasant in the kind of creature you described.”

“No,” I agreed. “If the cadets saw Dingoneks with the Aigamuxa that would definitely explain why things got so out of hand and they needed us to handle this.”

A general hush fell over us as the gravity of the mission settled in. I wasn’t sure if the intensity of this monster attack was as severe as it felt based on the limited amount of information we had going into it, or if the African teams were simply not powerful enough to handle it. Either way, I felt the pressure of being the Dragon Conjurer as the loud chopping sound of the helicopter’s rotors marked out the seconds.

I could tell we were flying west from Egypt, but I didn’t know how far we were going. The lush blue-green waters of Lake Nasser disappeared in the distance, and the earth spread out below us in an endless expanse of flat, packed desert. After a short while, the topography grew more ragged, and I spotted increasingly jagged outcroppings of craters, and the landscape was dotted with zigzagging cliffs and ridges.

“We will arrive shortly.” The pilot’s voice crackled through our headsets.

“We should be ready for a fight as soon as we land,” I said to my team, and they responded with serious nods.

“Any chance MIA sent any guns with us?” Nick asked nonchalantly.

“Yes, my friend.” Bo offered a lopsided grin and pointed to the back of the chopper. “There will be tranquilizers in the cabinets at the back.”

“Awesome.” Nick smirked.

“We need to take these things out however we have to,” I reminded my best friend. “If we can capture any of them, great, but the first priority is to contain the monsters.”

“Right.” Nick nodded without hesitation.

“Hey, how did things go with Zahra last night?” I asked.

“Oh, man, sooooo goooooooood.” Nick’s whole face lit up with the mention of his dream girl, and he threw a chef’s kiss into the air. “She is absolutely, completely fucking perfect.”

“I told you.” I smirked. “What did you guys do?”

“Oh, you know I don’t kiss and tell,” Nick said as he casually propped his hands behind his head, but then he burst into laughter. “No, that’s not true at all. It was fucking amazing, we went out to the courtyard and played around with our powers for a while. Then we sat on a bench and just talked for hours. Literally. Hours. It was like some shitty romcom, but I dug it because it was my shitty romcom, you know? She even grabbed my arm when she laughed, and no shit… my heart skipped a beat several times.”

“That’s so cute,” Steffi giggled.

“I’m glad you’re happy.” Nala smiled.

“We’re coming in for a landing,” the pilot announced and interrupted my digging for details.

“I want to hear more later,” I said, and my best friend nodded and winked at me.

Binta grabbed a small black bag from somewhere and passed out the same tiny earpieces we’d used in the training room.

I pulled my headset aside to jam one into my ear, and then I leaned over to gaze out the window at the uneven terrain below.

The helicopter’s rotors kicked up every bit of dust in a fifty-yard radius as we touched down, and all I could see around us were the huge, dark silhouettes of the crocodile monsters.

“Everybody, out, now!” the pilot shouted at us as the dark shadows of the creatures started to lurch toward us. “Move, move, move!”

We all pulled our headsets off and quickly freed ourselves from the seatbelts, and then Bo yanked the helicopter’s door open. The rush of wind from the helicopter rotors slapped me in the face, and I had to squint against the spray of dust.

“Keep your eyes open,” I said to my team as we jumped out of the chopper one after the other. “We don’t have all the information about what’s out here.”

Ronin formed her white astral armor over herself as she hopped down to the ground. Then she projected a very classy-looking cutlass in her right hand and a dagger that was almost the length of her forearm in the other.

Steffi stretched her golden wings out and fluttered quickly into the open air. She hovered low to the ground until she was well out of the reach of the chopper’s racing blades and immediately started blasting golden balls of energy out at the Dingoneks around us.

Nala raised her hands, and a little hill of earth rose up beside the helicopter that my earth-bending girl rode like a wave out into the jagged landscape. A trail of dust and weirdly-levitating rocks the size of soccer balls followed the dark-haired beauty. A moment later, one of the stones flung forward over Nala’s shoulder and slammed into the roaring open mouth of a crocodile-walrus monster.

Elisabeth hopped onto the ground, and in the middle of her first step, her body began to elongate into a heavily-armored freshwater crocodile. The French beauty’s fierce nose stretched out into a flat snout filled with two-inch long teeth, and her arms shortened and thickened as she lowered down onto all fours. A long, thickly-scaled tail stretched several feet out from Elisabeth’s backside as she started to gallop out into the battlefield.

Bo took hold of Binta’s hand and telekinetically lowered them both to the ground, and then I jumped down behind them, and Nick followed quickly after me.

The wind of the helicopter intensified for a few seconds before it died out slowly as the pilot maneuvered into the air just in time to narrowly miss being chomped on by a Dingonek’s enormous tusks.

“Bianxifa! Trylle frem!” I shouted.

Beyblade appeared in a bright flash of orangey light, and Nick didn’t hesitate to hop up on the fire dragon’s back as he checked the tranq darts in his gun.

Thor appeared beside Beyblade in a burst of indigo light and took a powerful step forward as he quickly took stock of what we were dealing with here.

“Come on, buddy,” I said to Thor as I started to move forward to better assess the situation at hand.

My team was already hard at work battling the Dingoneks, and that’s definitely what these monsters were. The lizard-like monsters were larger than any crocodiles I’d ever seen before, and their front legs were a fair bit longer than their stubbier hind legs. They raced across the uneven terrain easily like beetles scuttling on the ground, and their long, forked tongues slipped out like snakes sniffing the air. The Dingoneks had tusks that were easily as long as my entire arm which they bared aggressively at my team.

I looked over and watched Ronin extend her cutlass out toward the armored chest of a crocodile-walrus monster. The Samurai warrior braced her feet wide apart, and she defended herself with her extra-long dagger as the Dingonek lunged and parried at her with its enormous lizard claws.

Steffi hovered well out of reach from the eight foot tall leopard-spotted lizards as she blasted golden balls of energy in a rapid flurry of sparkling light. The fairy-girl absently threw up a round shield on Nala’s side to block a harsh spray of sand and small rocks thrown up by the lashing movement from the spiked tail of a Dingonek.

“Thanks for that,” Nala said through the comms.

“You’re welcome,” Steffi called back.

Nala shaped a rock into a more aerodynamic form and flung it straight into the open mouth of a tusked monster a dozen feet away from her.

The Dingonek’s beady eyes went wide as it began to choke on the football-sized stone, but then it hunched its shoulders and slammed its tusked jaws down on the rock so forcefully, it exploded into a thousand little shards.

Elisabeth used her surprisingly agile crocodile body to scurry rapidly between the legs of a Dingonek, and she tore at the inner ankles of the beast with her snapping jaws on her way through.

The Jungle Walrus roared with anger and lowered its head down to watch as Elisabeth galloped away between its hind legs.

The gurgling death scream of another Dingonek caught my attention, and I spun quickly to see Ronin spin in an artful attack as she sliced through the thick, armored hide of the monster. Her white astral blade cut clear to the bone and flayed the beast’s flesh open as buckets of inky-black blood poured down and stained the uneven earth at its feet.

Thor snarled at my side, and I turned back to find three of the enormous leopard-spotted monsters approaching.

The Dingoneks were a few heads taller than me and bared their white tusks aggressively as their forked tongues flicked out at Thor.

I felt an almost imperceptible mental nudge from my storm dragon as he flicked his indigo eye at me for his orders.

If we hadn’t been in the middle of an intense and dangerous mission, I would have been baffled by this return of my mental communication with Thor, but my battle instincts were in high gear.

“Do it,” I practically whispered.

Thor sucked in a huge breath, and indigo electricity arced across his back as little sparks began to snap out of his nostrils.

The approaching Dingoneks paused in their movements, and the smallest of the three took a half-step away from Thor’s menacing stance, but it was too late.

The air crackled as Thor released the billions of joules of energy from his mouth in a blinding flash of indigo lightning. The energy sizzled into the mouth of the lead Dingonek and jumped out of the beast’s beady eyes to hop into its two companions.

All three of the crocodile-walrus monsters seized, and their bodies twitched violently as the extreme electricity coursed through their muscles, their organs, and out their feet to disperse into the ground below, and the beasts collapsed onto their bellies.

The lightning had wounded them severely, but they weren’t dead just yet.

“Finish them off,” I told my dragon.

Thor pounced forward and snatched the lead Dingonek up in his razor-sharp teeth, and he crushed the monster’s vertebrae like a toothpick. Then he let the beast’s corpse fall to the ground like a ragdoll where it landed with a dull thud.

My storm dragon quickly finished off a second Dingonek by tearing its long neck right off its shoulders. At the same moment, Thor sent another smaller burst of lightning into the face of the remaining Dingonek that still struggled to regain its footing.

“Keep it up, buddy,” I patted Thor on his shoulder and turned to survey the battlefield.

The chopped-up, electrocuted, battered, and generally mangled bodies of the SUV-sized monsters laid in various states of death all around the craggy earth around us.

I turned around in a small circle and searched for the Aigamuxa, which had been the start of this mission, but it was nowhere to be found. All I could see was a seemingly unending mob of the Dingoneks streaming out from the craters in the near distance.

They scurried rapidly toward us, but my team was fighting them back as quickly as they came and dropping their numbers one by one.

Bo struggled in a touchless wrestling match with one of the Jungle Walruses, and the tall guy got the upper hand by mentally lifting a huge boulder and slamming the stone down right on the monster’s head. A sickening crunch echoed out amidst the crashing sound of rock on earth as the Dingonek’s skull was crushed like a peanut shell under the boulder. The beast’s back foot twitched a moment longer before its body finally went entirely limp with death.

Binta stood close behind her tall boyfriend as she wavered her fingers out toward two of the spotted crocodile-walruses.

I could only imagine what the light-manipulating cadet was showing the monsters, all I knew was that it was working.

The two Dingoneks tore violently at each other with their clawed, lizard feet. Black blood sprayed out in every direction as the beasts ripped each other to shreds, and large chunks of flesh plopped onto the ground around them. In less than a minute, one of the Dingoneks’ gutted bodies shuddered as it finally succumbed to death and dropped to the ground in a heap of ripped flesh and shredded muscle.

“Well done, my love,” Bo breathed heavily as he struggled with another lizard beast.

A blast of orange fire in the distance caught my attention, and I turned to watch Nick and Beyblade incinerate a row of smaller Jungle Walruses. My best friend plugged the Dingoneks with a single tranq dart, which wasn’t enough to take them down, but it made them clumsy. Then Beyblade blasted the stumbling creatures easily into charcoal.

The dead bodies were starting to pile up, but I still hadn’t seen the Aigamuxa. I wondered for a moment if the swarm of Dingoneks had driven the humanoid monster off.

I glanced around the battlefield again, and a swell of pride at my team’s strength surged through my chest.

Thor was electrifying Dingoneks like serial killers in an electric chair, and Beyblade and Nick worked as an impressively cohesive team to take out the walrus lizards.

Nala rained down a hailstorm of softball-sized stones on a pair of Dingoneks, and as their bodies were mashed and bruised like apples under her assault, I smiled at my earth-bending girl’s prowess.

Suddenly, my ears twitched with a strange rasping noise.

I turned around and tried to find the source of the weird croaking, rumbling sound, and I mentally ran through all the sounds I could identify in search of the cause.

I could hear Thor’s roaring and snapping electricity, the crash and thunder of Nala’s rock assaults, the rush and sizzle of Beyblade’s flames, the smooth slice and whoosh of Ronin’s astral blades through air and flesh, the roars and snarls of the Dingoneks, and the general heavy breathing and grunting sounds of battle.

The croaky noise continued, though, and I finally recognized the tone and inflection of a voice.

I looked around again for the source, and I knew it didn’t belong to any of my teammates and certainly wasn’t any human language I’d ever heard before. I focused on the sound and started to walk slowly toward the noise, and Thor instinctively stayed by my side and cleared the way when it was needed.

A gangly-looking Dingonek strutted out in front of me, and Thor quickly eviscerated the scrawny monster. As the beast’s thin body dropped to the ground, I finally caught sight of the Aigamuxa.

“Fuck,” I muttered to myself.

The monster looked much like a normal, dark-skinned man, except for the fact that he was close to twenty feet tall and as wide across the shoulders as two refrigerators put together.

More importantly, it was way larger than the brief had prepared us for, and it was doing a handstand.

The massive Aigamuxa wore scraps of tan fabric wrapped lazily around its huge torso, and its face was oddly human except for the blank patches of dark skin where its eyes should have been. The man-beast’s biceps and shoulders bulged with the strength it exerted to stand on its hands, and the Aigamuxa angled its legs around to survey the battlefield with the disturbingly human eyes that were located on the bottom of its feet.

I watched with dawning horror for a moment as the monster’s rasping, croaking voice began to make sense in my ears.

“Evade the black lizard,” the Aigamuxa said with authority. “Destroy the dark humans.”

A group of the spotted, crocodile monsters moved to surround Bo and Binta, and before I could even think the words, Beyblade banked sharply and angled straight for the pair.

Nick lurched slightly to the side as my fire dragon redirected instinctively to follow my unspoken orders and defend our MIA guides.

Then Beyblade sucked in a huge breath and blasted a river of fire out at the Dingoneks as they scurried toward the tall couple.

Their armored bodies shriveled and collapsed in quick succession under the consuming heat of Beyblade’s fire. Then their incinerated skin turned to ash and fluttered away in the wind, and the monsters’ corpses laid in the bright desert sunlight as their charred skeletons poked out from their destroyed bodies.

“Good job, buddy,” I murmured quietly, and I turned back to see the Aigamuxa’s reaction to Beyblade’s attack.

The giant man-monster bared its teeth in frustration and ordered another wave of Dingoneks to go after the other human females.

“Nala, Steffi, Ronin, watch out,” I warned my ladies. I knew Elisabeth would not be a target in her current crocodile form.

Steffi turned and fluttered higher above the ground as a swarm of the lizard monsters ran toward her and the others. My fairy-girl blasted out a rapid flurry of blindingly bright energy balls into the attacking creatures’ eyes.

Nala quickly erected a tall pillar of stone under her feet and rose herself well out of the reach of the monsters. Then she pierced long stone spikes straight up underneath the tender underbellies of the tusked crocodiles and skewered them up into the air.

Ronin spun and danced around like a ballerina of death as she slashed with her astral blades and chopped through the limbs and necks of the Dingoneks that made it past Steffi and Nala. Then Elisabeth ran up beside Ronin and began to chomp and tear at the feet of the Jungle Walruses.

Together, my four ladies plowed down the Aigamuxa’s second attack, and pride spread through my chest as I glanced back up at the twenty foot tall monster. Then a shudder raced down my spine at the hideous grin that spread across the Aigamuxa’s dark face.

A crooked row of pointed yellow teeth flashed as the Aigamuxa began to laugh.

“Corcotta,” the giant crowed with maddening laughter.

Confusion bounced around my brain for a second, and I wondered if I’d stopped being able to understand the monster. I turned back to glance around the still-roiling violence that spread across the battlefield.

The sheer number of Dingoneks had thinned out a bit, but they seemed to be getting desperate, and the lizard monsters fought with renewed ferocity.

The little baby hairs on Nala’s forehead were plastered to her face with sweat as she continued to launch intense volleys of rock and stone at the Dingoneks.

Steffi’s shoulders were hunched slightly as she worked to balance between offensive energy blasts and protective shields around herself and our teammates.

Ronin’s astral blades intermittently flickered ever so slightly at the edges, and her movements had become less flashy as she continued to cut down the Dingoneks with extreme prejudice. Beside the Japanese warrior, Elisabeth’s crocodile eyes appeared to droop a little with the exertion of tearing at the creatures’ legs.

Bo and Binta were still working back to back with each other to blind, confuse, and restrain the spotted crocodile monsters, and there was a large sweat stain clear on the back of the tall guy’s shirt. Bo’s entire face contorted as he reached toward the elongated throat of a Dingonek, and the beast’s neck visibly contracted under the MIA cadet’s telekinetic hold.

Thor was zapping the Dingoneks that moved within his reach where he stayed defensively by my side, and Beyblade, with Nick on his back, worked the perimeter of the battlefield. Together, my best friend and my fire dragon herded the Dingoneks back toward the killing spree of our team or turned them into charred husks where they stood.

I knew that if things maintained a status quo like this, we could beat the monsters back before much longer, but my team would be totally worn out by the end. I hadn’t seen any more Dingoneks approach the field of action, and I figured it wouldn’t be long before we had the situation well in hand.

Then a sudden, steady, rumbling sound of hundreds of feet stampeding on the ground reached my ears as a herd of what looked like wild hyenas raced toward us.

“Corcotta,” the Aigamuxa laughed in its croaking voice.

“Shit, we’ve got incoming!” I announced as I took in the lion-sized desert dogs.

The Aigamuxa cackled and croaked out orders to the literal monster armies under his command.

“What are those things?” Ronin huffed and slashed out at another Dingonek.

“Corcotta,” I answered in a dread-filled tone.

I guessed there were at least a hundred of them, but there were way too many moving way too fast to even try to get an accurate count.

Their wolf-like bodies were heavily layered with muscle and thick hair speckled with dark spots, and the herd of hyena monsters raced at us at top speed and launched immediately into the attack against me and my team.

I knew we needed reinforcements.

“Exokyzo, Sokisaseru!” I quickly called out.

Ky and Goldie burst forward in bright flashes of blue and gold light, and I immediately jumped up onto Ky’s back as he stretched his wings out. A second after I balanced myself on my ice dragon, I gave him a subtle nudge with my heels and told him to go.

Goldie joined in the fray without hesitation and began to snatch the Corcotta up in her mouth to crush them easily between her strong jaws.

The battlefield erupted in a chaotic clash of noise, elemental attacks, flesh, and fur.

Flames, ice, and lightning burst out in every direction as rocks and boulders of every size were flung through the air. White astral blades and golden energy balls flashed between the armored bodies of the Dingoneks and the furry bodies of the Corcotta, and as I surveyed the battle below, Ky flash-froze the monsters to the ground.

But I could tell this was not going well.

There were only eight of us, and even with the addition of all four of my dragons, we’d been heavily outnumbered from the start. Now, we were practically overwhelmed.

Nala cried out as a Corcotta snapped at her ankles, and she speared the desert dog monster through the stomach on a long pike of stone.

Bo and Binta had been surrounded by the hyena creatures, but Nala had erected two large stone pillars side by side. The telekinetic cadet reached out with his mind and flung the Corcotta away as they tried to scramble up the pillars.

Meanwhile, my earth-bending girl crouched on one knee and raised her arms above her head as she opened a cavernous hole below, and the dozen dog-monsters that Bo was fighting fell into it.

“Dylan!” Steffi said through the comms. “I think we’re in trouble here.”

“I know.” I grimaced.

Steffi was right. As things stood, I didn’t know how we were going to get out of this one.

I looked around at my exhausted team and my dragons who were struggling to keep up with the sheer number of monsters around us. Then I caught sight of Thor as he blasted a blinding fork of lightning through the hearts of two Dingoneks, and I knew what I had to do.

I raced through the bits and pieces of foreign languages that were hidden away at the back of my mind for possible summoning words. I didn’t even know if this would work, but I knew we needed to try, or we’d be forced to retreat with our tails between our legs.

I was the Dragon Conjurer, and I wasn’t ready to give up.

I closed my eyes and picked a language at random, but as I drew a deep breath and prepared to speak, a spark of intuition whispered through me, and an image of Thor appeared in my mind’s eye.

“Sárkány!” I shouted with every bit of force I could muster.

It felt like the air was sucked right out of my lungs as a deep fwoomp sound slammed into my eardrums.

Then a huge dark dragon appeared as if it expanded like a balloon out of nothing in front of me.

The dragon had a long, narrow body that was a gloomy, dark eggplant color with double-pointed horns on either side of its narrow head. Huge, leathery wings spread along the dragon’s lean front legs like a bat, and something about the long, lean muscles and the sharp point of the dragon’s nose told me it was female.

The dark purple dragon looked up at me with eerily piercing red eyes as if she eagerly awaited my orders, and a shiver of adrenaline pulsed through my veins.

I’d summoned yet another epic dragon.

But as I looked over the spooky-looking dragon’s lean strength, I was at a complete loss as to what she could do. It had been easy to tell with my other dragons what their abilities were because they’d each arrived in a burst of their elemental powers.

I went with my gut again, and I pointed my hand at the horde of monsters gnashing their teeth all around us.

“Attack!” I commanded my new dragon with as much confidence as I could manage.

The dark purple dragon lurched her head awkwardly forward as her intense red eyes began to glow like eerie beacons, and her entire body began to vibrate. The dragon didn’t move aside from the almost violent shaking of her entire body, and I looked around anxiously at the battlefield to figure out what the fuck was going on.

Then I realized all the Corcotta and Dingoneks were stumbling around with confusion.

Chapter 14

I looked around as the Corcotta and the Dingoneks stumbled around like idiotic, drunken frat boys, and then I turned my gaze to the Aigamuxa and watched with shock as the giant man monster’s balance failed.

The dark-skinned creature wobbled as the brown eyes on its feet turned inward in an unfocused haze of confusion. Then the humanoid monster tumbled to the ground with a heavy thud.

The dark purple dragon’s scaly body stopped vibrating a few seconds later, and she blinked her red eyes as the intense glow faded away. Then the herd of monsters regained clarity and began to attack my team once more with the same intense ferocity as before.

My jaw went slack as I stared hard at my new dragon.

“Did you do that?” I asked her as I glanced around at the chaos that was returning to the battlefield.

My beautifully spooky new dragon stared right at me as her third eyelid blinked quickly over her red eyes, and she looked at me as if to say “you bet your ass I did.”

“You can confuse enemies,” I murmured with awe.

“What did you say, Dylan?” Steffi’s voice huffed through the comms, and I could tell how exhausted she was getting.

“Listen up, everybody,” I said to my team. “This new dragon uses some kind of mind confusion attack.”

“That’s so fucking badass!” Nick declared.

“It seems to last for about a minute,” I said. “So let’s take as much advantage of the sixty seconds as we can.”

“That should give us a big enough window to plow down most of these assholes,” Nala grunted as she lifted another enormous boulder and slammed it down on three of the hyena monsters.

“Exactly,” I agreed. “But the Aigamuxa has been commanding the Corcotta and Dingoneks.”

“Commanding them?” Bo asked with shock. “What?”

“I heard it giving orders to the rest of them,” I reported.

“You heard it?” Binta gasped.

“Dylan can understand monsters,” Steffi explained quickly, and then she twisted erratically away from the open jaws of a Corcotta that jumped ten feet into the air to snap at her toes.

“Whatever we’re going to do, we should hurry,” Nala said in an exhausted tone.

“Agreed.” I glanced at my new dragon to check if she was ready to go again, and she blinked her red eyes at me confidently. “Everybody ready? We’re gonna go again.”

“Let’s do it!” Nick said. “Shit, I mean let’s kick this… fuck it, I can’t focus! Let’s go!”

“We are ready,” Bo announced, and I looked over to see Binta and Nala nodding their heads beside him.

I stared at my new dragon for a moment to navigate my way toward the beginning of silent communication with her, and to my surprise, it worked faster than I expected.

Her consciousness felt like a firm cushion that pressed at the edges of my mind already, and I figured her mind-control powers could be a huge benefit to establishing a strong mental connection with her.

Then the sharp scream of a baby grabbed my focus, and I whipped my head around to find the source.

“What was that?” Steffi asked with horror clear in her voice.

“It sounded like a baby!” Nala practically screamed.

We all rapidly looked around in search of a baby, and Steffi fluttered quickly around the battlefield with her head turned down toward the ground. Beyblade flew a little slower than normal as Nick hung dangerously to the side, and his eyes were glued to the ground.

The terrified scream of a small human child scraped down my nerves again, and I nearly gave myself whiplash as I turned in a flash toward the sound. Relief flooded my entire body as I located the source of the bone-chilling scream.

One of the Corcotta was seated in the middle of a defensive circle of other hyena monsters. Its muzzle was raised into the air like a wolf howling at the moon, and the muscles in its throat worked as it perfectly mimicked the cries of a human child.

“It’s fake!” I quickly alerted my teammates. “The Corcotta can mimic human sounds!”

“Are you sure?” Ronin asked, and her voice was heavy with worry.

“Yes,” I assured her. “I found it, it’s definitely one of these hyena monsters.”

“Thank goodness,” Steffi sighed with immense relief.

“What a horrible noise,” Nala’s voice shuddered with emotion.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if these things can mimic all kinds of other sounds, too,” I warned. “Don’t trust your ears. Be very wary of anything that doesn’t come through the comms.”

“Right,” Nick agreed. “Let’s get this done, I don’t like these things at all.”

“Are you ready, girl?” I asked my new dark purple dragon.

My unnamed companion tilted her sharp head in the slightest of nods, and I gave her a firm nod back.

“Everybody, get ready,” I said to my team. “Remember, we’ve only got about sixty seconds here, so make the most of it.”

“Please let us know when it is about to begin,” Bo said, and he took a deep breath.

“Sure.” I nodded, and then I looked at my gloomy dragon, and she blinked slowly and then took a deep breath. “Now!”

I watched with awe as my spooky-looking dragon’s entire body began to vibrate like the tail of a rattlesnake, and her eyes went wide with a bright red light.

The Corcotta and Dingoneks instantly started to stumble around in complete disorientation, and my dragons and my team didn’t waste a single second.

My ice dragon and I soared above the ragged landscape and turned any of the monsters in our path into statues of solid ice, and as we took them down in groups of three, I watched the battle ramp up in intensity below.

Nala lowered Bo and herself to ground level, and the pair began to lift large boulders from the ground to smash them down on the confused heads of the monsters around them. I was glad to see that Binta stayed raised on her pillar above the chaos, because while the monsters were disoriented by my new dragon, there was very little the light-manipulating girl could do to help.

Steffi battered tiny and extremely dense energy balls straight at the hazy eyes of a Dingonek until the beast’s beady orbs pushed deeper into the monster’s skull. Blood began to drip slowly down the Dingonek’s spotted face until the crocodile monster’s eyes burst from the pressure, and black blood splattered out in every direction. Then my fairy-girl threw several more jawbreaker-sized balls of golden energy straight into the monster’s eye sockets and into its brain, and its brain-dead body collapsed to the ground.

Ronin raced past the monsters that wandered around in a fog of confusion, and her white astral blades lashed out gracefully on either side of her body. She efficiently lopped heads off of the Corcotta and sliced deep enough into the Dingoneks’ throats to make them bleed out everywhere, and the Samurai warrior left a trail of corpses behind her as she sped through the battlefield.

Nick shouted encouragement to Beyblade as my fire dragon turned a baffling number of monsters into overcooked pieces of meat, and the nymph snickered with pride while he continued on his killing spree with renewed enthusiasm.

Goldie stomped through the crowd, and she worked in two ways to help mow down the overwhelming swarm of monsters. My wind dragon forced a few of the hyena monsters closer to my team members and my other dragons, and in-between gusts of hurricane-force winds, she ripped the heads right off of the shoulders of the monsters. Then Goldie flung the decapitated heads away quickly only to tear into the throats of more beasts around her, and blood spilled down her pearly-white maw.

Close by, Thor struck out at another large group of hyena and crocodile monsters with heart-stopping bolts of lightning. Their bodies seized and shook as the horrendous smell of singed fur rose up to mingle with the disgusting odor of burned flesh and the sharp tinge of gallons of blood.

In the painfully short span of sixty seconds, my team and my dragons decimated the mob of hideous monsters that just minutes before were close to sending us running with our tails between our legs. The mind-controlling powers of my new dragon had given us a window large enough to turn the tides in our favor, but as I glanced back down at my spooky purple dragon, I could tell our minute was almost up.

“We’re just about out of time,” I announced to my team through the comms.

Almost the second I got the words out of my mouth, the last few Corcotta started to shake their heads like a dog with water in its ears. It looked like there were only four of the hyena monsters left alive, and I spotted just one more of the enormous crocodile walruses beside the Aigamuxa.

Ky came in for a graceful landing a dozen yards away from the Aigamuxa, where it had blinded itself by returning to the more stable position of standing on its feet.

The giant humanoid monster shook its head aggressively as my new dragon’s attack faded away, and then it flipped back up onto its hands to look around. The Aigamuxa’s jaw opened wide with rage as it realized how quickly my team had dwindled its numbers into single digits.

“Lizard Man!” The Aigamuxa roared as it angled its feet to stare right at me.

“Who, me?” I asked with a level of sass that I knew would make Nick very proud.

I slid down from Ky’s back and strode confidently toward the Aigamuxa, and a frigid blast of ice instantly shot past me and struck the last Dingonek directly in the face.

Ky’s ice immediately turned the beast into an enormous popsicle, and the last four Corcotta backed up defensively between me and the Aigamuxa while the spotted fur along their spines rose straight into the air.

Thor trotted up to flank me opposite Ky, and the hyena monsters growled as my dragons and I stared the monster down.

“Abominations,” the Aigamuxa growled at me as the eyes on its feet flicked nervously between Thor, Ky, and me.

Then a nervous shudder raced down the monster’s huge body, and his eyes flicked directly to my newest dragon as she joined us.

I followed the Aigamuxa’s gaze, and I could tell my dark purple dragon was getting tired, but then I remembered she was brand new. I had very little idea of how her powers worked, but it seemed like we’d nearly reached her limit.

Do you think you’ve got one more in you, girl? I silently asked my gloomy dragon.

Her dark purple head lowered in a barely perceptible nod, and her red eyes narrowed with determination.

Great, just one more, and we can get this done.

“Defend me,” the Aigamuxa’s raspy voice ordered its last handful of guards. Then the Aigamuxa’s muscles tensed to flee, and the remaining Corcotta sank back onto their haunches in preparation for one final attack.

“Not so fast,” I declared and gave my new dragon the go-ahead.

My mind-control dragon’s eyes glowed bright red, and her entire body began to tremble.

The final four Corcotta’s eyes rolled back in their heads as the confusion spell overtook them, and the Aigamuxa teetered wildly for a second before it toppled onto its back.

My team moved quickly forward as the sixty seconds began to tick down, and Ronin easily lopped the heads off of two of the hyena monsters. Then Nala and Bo moved simultaneously to crush and spear the other two with a large boulder and an elongated blade of stone.

My dragon’s last efforts didn’t last the full sixty seconds, but it was plenty of time to accomplish our goals. We moved to stand around the twenty foot tall beast just as my dragon’s attack ended.

The Aigamuxa began to come around from its disorientation, and it looked up at us as we stood around the gigantic man-beast.

“Lizard Man!” The Aigamuxa spit the words out as it leaned back on its hands to look at me. “You will not win, tiny humans.”

“Pretty sure we already did,” I chuckled.

“The war is not over,” the giant growled and tried to rise up from the ground.

“Bo, lock him down.” I nodded at the Aigamuxa’s feet.

“Of course,” Bo said and locked his telekinetic hands around the giant’s ankles to anchor them onto the ground.

The monster roared and struggled with all of its might as a fresh line of sweat broke out of Bo’s face.

“Ky,” I commanded.

My ice dragon spit out a small stream of ice that locked the Aigamuxa’s feet onto the ground, and it was both trapped and blinded now.

“Nice,” Nick chuckled.

The giant raged and tried to rip its feet free from Ky’s ice, but it was no use.

“You may have bested me,” the Aigamuxa hissed. “But you will not win.”

“Put it down,” I said to my best friend. “I want to bring it back to MIA.”

“You got it, man.” Nick smirked and pointed his tranq gun straight at the Aigamuxa’s leanly-muscled chest. Then my best friend plugged four darts into the beast without a second’s hesitation.

The twenty-foot tall man-beast’s mouth grew a little slack, and his thrashing slowed a little, but I could tell those four doses weren’t enough to put it out.

“Again,” I said to Nick.

“Yeah,” the blond nymph agreed and plugged four more darts into the beast’s thick thighs.

“We will not be…” the Aigamuxa slurred like a drunk college girl. “Defeated.”

Nick plugged the beast with two more darts, and it finally flopped backward onto the ground as its jaw went slack.

The Aigamuxa mumbled incoherently for a second before it finally fell silent.

“Ugh,” Steffi groaned. “This guy seems like a real asshole.”

Suddenly, the Aigamuxa roared as it shot upright and reached out toward us.

“Ahh!” Nala screeched.

Steffi threw herself into the air and raised bright balls of golden energy in her hands, and all of my dragons roared in unison, but then the Aigamuxa flopped back down on the ground once more.

“Shit!” Nick cried with adrenaline-induced irritation. “What the fuck was that?”

“I guess it wasn’t totally out just yet,” I said, and I kicked the Aigamuxa’s legs tentatively to see if it was really out this time. “Give it one more dart, just to be safe.”

“I have zero problems with that,” Nick grumbled and plugged three more darts into the beast’s bicep.

“Dude.” I rolled my eyes at my best friend. “I said one, we still want it alive.”

“Oops?” Nick smirked at me with the worst display of innocence I’d ever seen as he shrugged one shoulder.

“I believe it can handle it.” Binta frowned down at the Aigamuxa’s even breathing.

“Think we can get this asshole back to MIA with the chopper we used to get here?” I asked the MIA cadets.

We hadn’t planned on bringing any specimens back to the academy with us, and I wasn’t sure if there was room on the helicopter for the Aigamuxa even without the rest of us on board.

“I will radio the pilot and tell him to rush a transport to us.” Bo nodded. “It will likely delay our return to the Academy.”

“That’s okay,” I said and narrowed my eyes at the drugged-up monster at our feet. “It knows something…”

“What makes you think that?” Ronin asked as her astral armor slid away.

“Something it said…” I murmured as the words replayed in my head. “‘We will not be defeated,’ and something about a war.”

“How long have you been able to speak with monsters?” Binta asked with cautious curiosity.

“I’m not sure exactly.” I shrugged. “Dr. Hastings, one of the lead scientists at AIMM, thinks it’s related to my connection with my dragons.”

“Yeah, and your DN--” Nick began but stopped short when I nudged him in the ribs. “Aaaanybody else hungry?”

I rolled my eyes at my best friend’s subtle attempt to cover his own stumbling words.

“I’m starving,” Nala said quickly and slipped me a sly wink.

“I will radio the pilot and relay our situation,” Bo chuckled and pulled a pair of protein bars from one of his pockets. The tall cadet tossed the snacks to my best friend, and then he pulled the radio from his hip.

“Thank yooouuu,” Nick hummed as he snatched the bars out of the air, and he passed one to Nala beside him and began to peel the wrapper away from the other.

My newest dragon drew my attention where she still stood patiently beside Thor. She looked around like a new kid in school and seemed a little shy as Thor glanced over her dark purple scales.

“That new dragon is incredible, Dylan,” Ronin said.

Elisabeth let out a hiss of agreement as my red-eyed dragon’s head and shoulders relaxed, and the glow receded from her irises. Then the French beauty shifted her body from the hard scales of her crocodile form and stood back up tall as her lithe figure returned.

“He really is,” Nick said.

“She,” I corrected as I gazed appreciatively at my dragon as the vibrations began to slow.

“She?” Nala asked. “Good, it’s about time Goldie got a little more girl power in the group.”

“Hell yes,” Steffi agreed.

“Yeah.” I nodded at my newest dragon as she looked up at me like a nervous puppy. “I think she’s a little shy.”

“She’s really cool,” Nala said as she looped her arm through mine.

“We’re going to have to think of a name for her,” Nick said as he reached up to pet her scaly shoulder.

The spooky-looking dragon leaned away from Nick’s touch just a little bit, and her red eyes flicked up at me for reassurance. I nodded comfortingly at my new dragon, and she held still and allowed Nick to place his hand gently on her scaly hide.

“Wow,” Nick murmured up to my dragon. “You’re gorgeous.”

My unnamed dragon’s narrow tongue flicked out toward Nick like a snake smelling the air, and then she leaned down toward my best friend.

“Hello,” Nick chuckled as my dragon nudged him firmly with her double-horned head.

“She is a beautiful creature,” Ronin murmured.

We slowly gathered more closely around my newest dragon to introduce ourselves to her and allow her to become acquainted with each of us.

“What language did you use to summon her?” Elisabeth asked.

“Hungarian,” I said. “I know I totally destroyed the pronunciation.”

I thought back to the seconds before I summoned her. I’d been ready to call out the Finnish word for “come” when Thor had nudged into my mind, and then I’d had the gut feeling about the word that brought this dragon to me. I wasn’t even sure what Sárkány translated to in English, but from my limited knowledge of Hungarian, it wasn’t the usual type of summoning word. I silently resolved to look into the word when I had the chance, but then that train of thought brought me to another minor problem: what was this dragon’s call back word?

“Hungarian?” Ronin mused. “That is very interesting.”

“It wasn’t really my idea.” I shrugged.

“What?” Nick’s face went blank with confusion as my entire team turned to look at me.

“I think it was Thor’s idea,” I said, but before I could try to explain further, Bo returned from relaying our situation to the helicopter pilot.

“They have dispatched a cargo transport, it will be here very shortly.” The tall cadet wrapped his arm around Binta’s shoulders. “We are to wait with the specimen until it arrives.”

“Awesome,” I said. “Thanks.”

“She still needs a name,” Steffi reminded me as she stroked a hand lovingly under my new dragon’s chin.

“What about Zofia?” Elisabeth suggested.

“That’s really pretty.” Nala smiled.

“It is a Hungarian name,” Elisabeth said. “It means wisdom.”

“That feels really appropriate,” Steffi laughed.

“And it’s a little bit dark and gloomy just like her,” Nala cooed as she petted my new dragon.

“Zofia.” I tested the feel of the name, and then I turned to my dark purple dragon. “I like that. What do you think?”

Zofia blinked sagely at me and flicked her snake-like tongue out.

“Okay,” I laughed. “Zofia it is.”

“Welcome to the team,” Nick said.

“You really came through for us today, Zo,” Steffi praised my new dragon.

“Already giving her nicknames?” I chuckled.

“Maybe!” Steffi grinned.

We all watched quietly as my four dragons began to introduce themselves to Zofia.

Thor blinked slowly at Zofia and then trotted over to Goldie and nudged his head affectionately under her chin. Goldie had held back a little bit so far, and I wondered if she was a little put off by having a new female in the group. I suspected Goldie liked being the only girl in the bunch, but she relaxed a fair amount after Thor made it clear he still had a sweet spot for my pearly-white dragon.

After confirmation about Thor’s affections, my wind dragon took a step toward Zo and lowered her head slightly in greeting. In return, my mind-control dragon flicked her forked tongue out, and there was a relaxed air about her shoulders.

Ky stepped around me and sniffed lightly at Zofia, and my new female dragon watched him with curious eyes. Then my ice dragon lowered his head slightly and wandered off to allow Beyblade a chance to introduce himself.

My fire dragon stepped forward more hesitantly, and the bit of nervous energy around him reminded me of Nick’s twitchy behavior when he’d first met Zahra.

I wondered for a moment if I had another dragon couple on my hands, and my pondering was confirmed almost immediately.

Beyblade pulled his lips back in what could only be described as a smile, and he turned in a sudden flashy twirl of his bright red scales.

I laughed out loud as Zofia pulled back with a bit of surprise, and then she turned her head to the side and looked at Beyblade from the corner of her red eyes. My dark purple dragon stepped slowly toward my fire dragon and mimicked his showy twirl with her own sassy swish.

“Oh, no,” Steffi laughed.

“Love is in the air,” Elisabeth sighed with hearts in her eyes.

“Beyblade’s got good taste, at least,” Nick said with a smug grin. “Proud of you!”

“Speaking of good taste,” I said and punched Nick lightly on the shoulder. “Tell me more about Zahra while we wait for the choppers.”

“Ooo, yeah!” Steffi squealed.

“What do you want to know?” Nick chuckled.

“Tell us everything,” Nala declared.

“Okay.” My best friend ran his fingers through his blond hair. “Well, she’s got a younger brother, he’s in the states with their dad right now. I think he’s twelve. No, thirteen. Anyway, she said she really misses him and her dad, too, that she really wants to go back home.”

“Egypt doesn’t feel like home to her,” Ronin surmised.

“No.” Nick shook his head. “Zahra said that even though she’s got family in the country, the U.S. is her home, and that’s where she feels most like herself.”

“Hmm…” I muttered, and I silently vowed to do whatever I could to help encourage a transfer from MIA to AIMM for Zahra.

Burkhard usually took my suggestions into consideration, and I wasn’t above playing the Dragon Conjurer card, not just for my best friend’s love life, but for the overall well-being of a sweet girl like Zahra.

“Did you guys try out your powers together?” I asked.

“Yeah!” Nick lit up like a neon glow stick. “Oh, man, it’s perfect. Zahra tried accessing the dormant seeds in the ground, and she had a lot of trouble figuring out where they were and what kind of plants they were at first, so I phased into the grass a little and helped her figure out how to read the seeds a little more. Zahra’s got a long way to go, she’s only a one-star rank at MIA, but with practice, I bet she really will be like Poison Ivy.”

“She has only been here for a few weeks,” Elisabeth agreed. “I could not even shift into more than two animals that early on. Zahra has incredible powers, and I believe she has barely touched the tip of the iceberg of what she will be able to do.”

“I think El’s right.” I nodded. “I mean, I never thought I’d have five dragons, but here we are.”

I looked over and found that my fire and mind dragons were dancing across the uneven terrain together.

Then Beyblade walked up next to Zofia and nuzzled her neck with his, and my red dragon looked at me with a pleased smirk that clearly said, “Thank you for her.”

“You’re welcome, buddy,” I chuckled at my sassy fire dragon and his new girlfriend. “Geez.”

“That is too funny,” Nala laughed and glanced around at all five of my dragons. “I love you guys so much.”

The steady thumping sound of helicopters began to reach us from a distance, and I looked up to see two large choppers approaching from the east.

“Nala, do you think you can level out the ground a little for them?” I asked as I glanced around at the brutally uneven terrain.

There had been a fairly level space when we’d first arrived, but after such an intense battle, there were huge cracks, rocks, and boulders all over the place.

“Sure thing.” Nala nodded and raised her hands out in front of her. My curly-haired girl’s forehead creased a tiny bit with concentration, and the ground rumbled as she sank the boulders into the earth and closed up the gaps around them. “There we go.”

“Thanks,” I said and pulled the earth-bending girl in for a quick kiss. Then I turned to my dragons. “Alright, guys, time to go.”

Ky trotted right over to me and sat patiently to wait. Thor and Goldie followed right behind him and sat very close to one another. Beyblade’s eyes lingered on Zofia a moment before he obeyed and walked slowly over to sit beside Ky. Then my newest dragon followed suit and settled in beside my fire dragon.

“Exokyzo, Sokisaseru, Komme Tilbake,” I said.

Ky, Goldie, and Thor disappeared in bright flashes of blue, gold, and indigo light. A general sense of calm and mild exhaustion flooded through me as my dragons curled up under my skin. They’d gotten a good workout today, and none of them had any complaints about returning to me.

“You, too.” I smiled at Beyblade. “Fanhui.”

Beyblade flicked his eyes to get one more look at Zo before he disappeared in a flash of orange light and curled up comfortably on my chest.

“Do you have any idea about Zofia’s word?” Ronin asked with curious eyes.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted as I stared at my new dragon.

Zo looked down at me with patient, red eyes, and I mentally reached out to Thor to see if he had any more inspiration for me, but there was nothing.

I suspected my storm dragon was resting comfortably after such an intense battle. I chewed on my lip for a minute as I wracked my brain for any Hungarian words that I thought might work. The only one that came to mind was the word for “farewell,” and I figured it was worth a try.

“Sorry for my pronunciation,” I said to no one in particular, and I grimaced slightly as I tried to shape my tongue around the foreign word. “Búcsú.”

Zofia blinked slowly at me, and a second later she appeared to collapse in on herself with the same air-sucking fwoomp sound she’d arrived in.

A mild, soul-chilling feeling wriggled down my spine as Zofia wandered over my body and finally settled in around my right thigh.

“Woah.” I shuddered a little at the new sensations of my mind-control dragon. “Oh, that’s new.”

“Does she feel different from your other dragons?” Elisabeth asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “You know, Ky gives me chills, Beyblade gives me hot flashes. But Zofia…”

I shook my head and tried to figure out how to describe the short wave of dragging that rippled through my mind. The odd sensation was gone as soon as Zofia settled around my quad, and it didn’t linger which was nice.

“It feels kind of like…” I fumbled for words. “It’s sort of… sad and confusing?”

“Like a dementor,” Nick said with an authoritative nod.

The helicopters were almost upon us, and the intense force of wind whipped my hair around my face as the choppers hovered overhead and began to descend to the flattened area Nala had made.

“Yeah, sort of!” I shouted back as the helicopters lowered. “It was really quick. I don’t know, it was just so different from my other dragons.”

Ronin opened her mouth to say something, but the wind carried it away before I could catch her words.

A crew of four Guys in Gray hopped down from the second helicopter with enormous shackles in their hands. The heavy steel chains that hung between the cuffs were easily as thick as my forearm, and I watched as the guards locked them firmly around the Aigamuxa’s wrists and ankles.

“Let’s load this bastard up!” I shouted to my team and gestured at the Aigamuxa that laid unconscious on the ground.

Bo used his telekinetic powers to help the Guys in Gray, Nick, and me to load the twenty foot tall monster into the cargo helicopter. There were no seats in the large aircraft, just a large flat space with heavy-duty anchor points in various places on the floor. We laid the giant’s body in the middle, and the guards efficiently locked the shackles to the anchor points. They even wrapped a large collar around the monster’s neck and bolted it down to the floor, and I was pretty confident that, even if Nick’s tranquilizers wore off before we got back to MIA, this asshole wasn’t going anywhere.

“Well done, Mr. Cooper,” one of the Guys in Gray called to me with a thick accent.

“Thanks.” I nodded at the guard and gave one more glance to the humanoid monster before I hopped back down to the ground.

Bo and Nick followed me, and we crouched low as we jogged away from the spinning rotors.

Wind kicked up as the cargo helicopter lurched unevenly into the air and quickly sped away to the east.

“Let us go home!” Bo shouted as he looped his arm lovingly around Binta’s waist. “It is well past lunch time!”

“Hell yes,” Nick laughed.

We loaded up into the other helicopter and sank heavily into our seats before we pulled our headsets on.

“Great job, everyone,” I said through the headsets as the chopper rose up into the air, and we headed back to MIA.

“That mission was crazy,” Nick said with a deep sigh as he settled deeper into his seat.

“I thought we weren’t going to be able to do it,” Steffi admitted.

“Honestly, me, too,” Nala said with a frown.

“I was a bit worried for a moment.” Elisabeth nodded.

“But then Dylan brought out the big guns,” Nick chuckled and threw out some finger guns. “Zofia is an awesome addition to the team, dude.”

“She’s pretty great,” I agreed and felt a small wriggle of pleasure from my right thigh.

We fell into a tired silence for the rest of the flight back to MIA, and my thoughts turned back to my new dragon.

Zofia was so different from my other dragons, and I was really curious to learn more about her. I wondered how her mind-control attacks worked and whether they were a general area attack or if Zo could isolate specific targets.

I focused my thoughts on the dark purple beauty that was curled up around my right thigh, and I nudged her very gently with my mind.

Zofia responded immediately and nudged back at me with a firm and warm mental pressure. The dragging sadness that had flashed through me when I called her into her tattoo was absent now, and I wondered if, much like some people, her mental defenses would lower when she was tired.

Now that Zofia had gotten some time to rest, was she better able to control the way her powers affected me?

It also made me wonder if she had other types of mind-control attacks. Maybe she could send out mental waves of other emotions besides confusion.

Zofia nuzzled under my skin happily as my mind wandered and not much later, I felt the pit of my stomach drop as we rapidly descended toward the ground.

The helicopter touched down with a firm thud, and the pilot flicked a bunch of switches before he announced that we could remove our seatbelts.

My team and I tugged our headsets off and removed the restraints as the chopper’s engines died and the rotors slowed. We hopped down to the ground one by one, and I looked around for the other aircraft that had transported the Aigamuxa back to MIA, but it was nowhere in sight.

“Does MIA have a large area for housing monster specimens?” I asked.

“Yes,” Bo said. “There is an underground facility that spans nearly the entire campus. It houses hundreds of monster cells, examination areas, and testing facilities. The Aigamuxa will be properly contained.”

“That’s good to know,” Nick said, and then he began to whine. “But can we get lunch now?”

“Momentarily, my friend,” Bo laughed. “We must meet with Headmaster Mahrous first.”

“Ugh, fine,” Nick moaned. “Sorry, stomach, you’re just going to have to eat yourself for a little while longer.”

“Come along,” Bo cackled and waved at us to follow him.

We walked slowly through the posh corridors toward the headmaster’s office, and when we arrived, Binta gave two firm knocks with her knuckles.

“Come in,” the mustachioed man called.

We filed into the perfectly ordered office to find Headmaster Mahrous standing behind his desk. He was staring out the large picture window at the beautiful scenery, but I got the feeling he didn’t see any of it. His hands were knotted behind his back, and his salt-and-pepper hair stuck up in wild disarray like he’d been tugging at it restlessly.

“Well done, Mr. Cooper,” Mahrous said when he turned over his shoulder to look at us. “You have completed a mission my cadets were unable to.”

“Binta and Bo were a huge help,” I said firmly. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”

Binta smiled at me, and Bo gave me one of his huge grins.

“Indeed,” Mahrous said dismissively. “And a new dragon to boot? Very impressive.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said.

“It is too bad you cannot stay with us a while longer, Dragon Conjurer.” The headmaster twisted at the corner of his mustache with his fingers as he lowered himself into his desk chair. “But alas, Headmaster Burkhard has requested his prized team return without delay.”

“We’re going home?” Steffi asked.

“Quite.” Mahrous frowned heavily. “Yes, your team will return to AIMM tomorrow. But before you go, Mr. Cooper…”

“Is there something more I can do for MIA, sir?” I asked.

“I have been informed that you can speak with monsters,” Mahrous stared hard at me. “Is this accurate?”

“Yes, it is.” I nodded, and I had a feeling I knew exactly where he was going with this.

“Then I have a favor I must ask of you.” The headmaster narrowed his eyes at me.

Chapter 15

“You want me to see if I can get any information out of the Aigamuxa,” I said, and there was no question about it in my voice.

“Yes.” Headmaster Mahrous wrung his hands together, and a faint pink spread across his face. “It may be our only chance to gather any useful intelligence from the monster.”

“Of course.” I nodded.

“Wonderful,” Mahrous sighed with relief. “The creature is being settled into a cell in the monster containment facility. When I last checked with my team, the beast was still unconscious from the tranquilizers, but our scientists are working on bringing it around now. It should not be long before they have the beast properly contained and conscious once more.”

“Okay,” I said. “Do you think we have time for lunch while we wait?”

“Yes, please.” Nick tried to rein in his whine, but I could tell my best friend was on the edge of falling into a hunger-induced fit.

“Certainly,” the headmaster said. “I will send for you when the creature is ready, Mr. Cooper.”

Nick silently mouthed an emphatic thank you to me, and I nodded at my best friend before I turned back to the headmaster.

“Thank you, sir,” I said. “If there is nothing else, we are pretty hungry.”

“Very good, off you go, then.” Mahrous leaned back in his office chair and fidgeted with an already perfectly straight stack of crisp papers on his desk.

My team filed back out into the corridor, but I lingered in the headmaster’s office a moment.

“Is there something else I can do for you Mr. Cooper?” Mahrous asked with a touch of impatience.

“I was just curious about something…” I hesitated as I wondered if this wasn’t the right time to ask about Zahra and a transfer to AIMM. I knew I wasn’t likely to get another chance, and I knew I didn’t want to push, so I decided I would try to plant the seed of an idea in the headmaster’s mind by playing to his ego. “My team and I have learned so much from visiting your fine institution, and the Japanese Academy, too. I was thinking… it would be a shame for us to waste the opportunity for such experiences. I was wondering about some kind of foreign exchange student situation, you know, to allow your cadets a chance to show us how you do things here, and we can share what works for us as well back at AIMM. I mean, now that relations are more open between our Academies and everything, I think we could only benefit from learning from you.”

“Hmmm,” Mahrous wound the curled tip of his mustache through his fingers, and a smug grin began to spread across his face. “Mr. Cooper, that is a very interesting idea. I shall take it into consideration.”

“I would just hate to miss out on learning from all the talented cadets you have here,” I said to give the man’s pride one more little stroke.

“Quite right,” Mahrous forced a nonchalance onto his features, but not before I caught the grin that fought to be seen. “Off you go, I have many important things to attend to.”

“Of course.” I nodded politely. “Thank you, sir, for everything.”

Headmaster Mahrous nodded as I stepped out into the hall, and I heard a gleeful little chuckle as I closed the door between us.

“Everything okay?” Nala asked.

“Yeah.” I grinned. “I just had a suggestion for the headmaster.”

Steffi raised her eyebrows at me, but nobody said anything as we started to make our way down toward the dining hall. My team and the MIA cadets chatted casually about what the menu would offer us today, but my thoughts lingered with the headmaster.

On the surface, he looked very put together, and he had everything in its place and a calm face at all times. I got the impression that was a carefully constructed facade to cover up the intense clutter and anxiety that swirled in his mind, and I wondered for a moment if he had a touch of OCD. There were some nervous ticks I’d noticed about the man during our two very short interactions, and I wondered how that affected his ability to run the Academy efficiently.

“Ugh, I’m so hungry,” Nick moaned and drew my thoughts away from the headmaster.

“Me, too,” Nala agreed. “I learned my lesson after the mission with the Slide-Rock Bolter and how exhausted I got when it was all over, so I had a protein-heavy breakfast this morning, but I’m really running on fumes at this point.”

“I must admit,” Elisabeth said. “I am quite famished as well.”

As we walked down the halls, the French girl reached up to pull the pins from her hair and let the thick, copper-colored braid fall down the middle of her back. Then Elisabeth pulled the braid over her shoulder and tugged the locks loose so they cascaded around her shoulders like fiery satin.

“I’m definitely going to miss the food here,” Steffi declared as we approached the double doors of the dining hall.

“Nick!” Zahra’s voice called to us.

We all turned to find Nick’s dream girl running toward us from the end of the hall, and Nick jogged a few steps forward to meet her.

“Hey, baby,” Nick murmured sweetly as the exotic beauty ran straight into his open arms. My best friend scooped her up off the floor and held her in a tight hug.

“Awww,” Steffi gushed, and she nearly fluttered off the floor with all the little cartoon hearts coming off her.

“That is so sweet, I’m getting cavities.” Nala smirked.

“You two make a very handsome couple,” Bo agreed with a huge grin.

“Good afternoon, Zahra.” Ronin said.

“Hey, everybody,” the Egyptian-American girl said as she glanced at us over Nick’s shoulder. Then she nuzzled her nose into the crook of his neck. “How was your mission?”

“It was a little rough, but we were victorious,” Elisabeth said.

“Dylan summoned a new dragon,” Nick boasted.

“Really?” Zahra asked, and her hazel eyes went wide. “That makes five, right?”

“Yeah, we named her Zofia,” Nick said as he finally set Zahra back on her feet, but he still kept her tucked against his side. “She’s super cool.”

“I think Beyblade’s got a bit of a thing for Zo,” Steffi laughed.

“Oh, definitely,” Nala agreed. “They make a really cute couple.”

“So do Nick and Zahra,” Elisabeth giggled quietly to Ronin.

“Indeed, they do,” Ronin stifled a laugh.

“What are you two snickering about back there?” Nick asked as he looked over his shoulder at my foreign girlfriends. The blond nymph’s arm was wrapped tightly around his new girl’s shoulder, and he looked just as smitten as Beyblade had.

“Nothing,” Ronin and Elisabeth said in synchronized singsong voices.

Nick smirked and rolled his eyes, and then he laced Zahra’s fingers through his as we turned to walk into the dining hall.

“Tell me about your new dragon,” Zahra said. “Nick told me your dragons have elemental powers, what can Zofia do?”

“She has mind-control powers, it was incredible,” Nala gushed.

“Zo really saved the day,” Ronin agreed.

“Mind-control powers?” Zahra laughed. “What does that mean?”

“She can confuse enemies,” I explained. “Zo put the monsters into some kind of super drunken state of disorientation.”

“They were just wandering around like a bunch of lobotomized idiots,” Nick chuckled.

“Their befuddlement was their undoing,” Ronin declared.

“Seriously,” Steffi agreed. “Once they were all confused like that, it was almost easy to mow them down like overgrown weeds.”

“That sounds super helpful,” Nick’s girl mused as she leaned in closer to my best friend.

Nick pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her dark hair, and I caught the little hand-squeeze the two exchanged as well.

I chuckled at how quickly Nick and Zahra had become attached to each other, it really was adorable, and I was so happy for my best friend. They stayed linked together as we filed through the buffet line and loaded our wooden trays with all the delicious offerings of MIA’s world class chefs.

A few minutes later, we settled around the same table we’d eaten at the night before. We were crammed a little tighter than the table intended, but there was enough room to squeeze nine chairs in..

The mission that morning had been intense, and our conversation stalled for a few minutes as we dug into our meals.

“Tell me more about the mission,” Zahra said after a little. “I heard two other teams came back injured before they sent you guys out.”

“Have there been any updates on the condition of the injured cadets?” Binta asked.

“Not really.” Zahra shook her head. “I know everybody is stable, and they had to give at least one blood transfusion to a guy who had some pretty serious lacerations, but not much else has been shared.”

“I’m not surprised, things were crazy this morning,” Nick said around a mouthful of roasted chicken.

“What kind of monster was it?” Zahra asked as she sipped at her ice water.

“It wasn’t just one monster,” Steffi said. “I swear there were at least two hundred altogether.”

“Two…” Zahra’s jaw nearly hit the table. “Hundred? What!”

“She’s right,” Nala agreed. “Between the Dingoneks and the Corcotta, the numbers were high.”

“And that does not even count the Aigamuxa,” Ronin pointed out, and she turned to me. “There was only one of him, but it was in charge, was it not?”

“Yeah, it was definitely in command of the rest of them,” I confirmed.

“Holy shit,” Zahra whispered and then slapped her hand over her mouth as if she’d realized what she’d said. “Sorry.”

“Did you just apologize for saying ‘holy shit?’” Nala laughed. “That’s so cute.”

“We kind of swear…” Nick chuckled at his girl’s confused expression. “Like, a fucking lot.”

“Oh,” Zahra giggled. “Okay, Mum’s family is super strict about using polite language, but sometimes I slip.”

“You never have to worry about that with us.” I grinned.

“So how do you know that the Aiga-whatever was in command?” the exotic beauty asked.

“He was giving orders,” I said, and when Zahra’s jaw almost hit the table again, I explained further. “I can kind of understand more sentient monsters.”

“Just another perk of being Dragon Conjurer, I suppose?” Nick’s girl smirked.

“Yeah,” I laughed. “More of the territory, I guess, but it can be pretty useful.”

“I hope to get to hear more about it in the future,” Zahra said slyly as she watched Nick from the corner of her eyes. “Or even see you in action sometime.”

“You know I’m going to Skype you every damn day, baby,” Nick murmured and pulled Zahra close into his side.

“You might not have to for very long,” Zahra teased.

“What?” Nick asked with genuine worry, and I could tell Zahra’s playful tone had gone right over my best friend’s head.

“Calm down,” the exotic beauty laughed. “I’m going to ask Headmaster Mahrous about transferring to AIMM.”

“Oh,” Nick sighed with immense relief. “Oh, that’s awesome!”

“It would be so great to have you!” Steffi clapped her hands with excitement.

“Hell yes!” Nala agreed. “I was not looking forward to a perpetually lovesick Nick.”

“Neither was I,” Elisabeth laughed.

We dug into our delicious meals, and we shared more about our individual powers.

Steffi showed off a little bit by spreading her golden dragonfly wings out, and a collective gasp rippled out in the dining hall around us.

Binta demonstrated her light-manipulation powers for Zahra, and it was fun to watch the exotic girl’s tanned face switch from shock to bemused awe.

“Oh, that’s so beautiful,” Zahra exclaimed.

“What did you show her?” I asked Binta.

The tall girl smiled and waved her hand at me. Then the crowded dining hall faded away, and a lush jungle appeared before my eyes. There was a gentle waterfall that cast a bright rainbow of light as it descended down into a huge pool of crystal clear water. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the jungle training simulation Steffi and Nala had programmed for Elisabeth, Ronin, and me before our mission in Tennessee.

“Wow, that is gorgeous,” I agreed. “Do you use real life places, or do you go more with your imagination for these kinds of illusions?”

“It depends,” Binta said as the opulent jungle faded away from my vision. “For lush landscapes such as this, I tend to think of it like a painting. I used to paint with watercolors when I was younger, so this is a fun extension of that talent and hobby.”

“My love is an extraordinary painter,” Bo murmured with admiration clear in his voice.

“Thank you, darling.” Binta smiled and leaned her forehead against her boyfriend’s.

We chatted casually for a while longer as we indulged in our delicious meals. Nick went up for a second plate, and Zahra joined him, but a short time later, two Guys in Gray marched in perfect unison through the dining hall’s double doors and approached the table.

“Looks like I’m up,” I said.

“You want some company?” Steffi asked.

“No, you guys finish lunch,” I said, and then I crammed a huge forkful of chicken into my mouth.

“You sure?” Nala stared up at me with love in her eyes.

“Yeah.” I leaned down and kissed my curly-haired girlfriend. “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

I worked my way around the table to kiss Steffi, Elisabeth, and Ronin before I turned to the guards.

“Lead the way, boys.” I gestured forward and tossed a sly wink at my ladies before I followed the silent Guys in Gray.

“I guess Dylan wasn’t kidding when he said he had four girlfriends.” Zahra’s awe-struck voice reached me before the noisy chatter in the dining hall drowned out my team’s conversation.

I caught a round of laughter from my table before the double doors closed behind me, and I couldn’t help but smile. Then I followed the stoically silent Guys in Gray for a few minutes as they led me down the hallway and to an elevator I hadn’t noticed before.

After the elevator doors closed, they turned a pair of keys simultaneously on the button pad and pushed a button labeled B3. It seemed like MIA kept the monster containment facility more secure than AIMM, and I wondered if it was a safety concern for the cadets.

The elevator doors opened into a brightly-lit hallway of cinder block walls painted in a very soft gray. The floors were tiled with an institutional white linoleum with tiny flecks of green and blue.

My guides marched out of the elevator and turned left down the hall, and we walked in uncomfortable silence for another minute. Every twenty feet, there were thick metal doors with heavy-duty padlocks at the top and bottom, and each door had tiny name plates that might as well have been written in ancient Egyptian. I couldn’t understand the coded names on the doors, and I wondered what, or who, was behind them.

The Guys in Gray stopped at the end of the hall at a door labeled “A5C21,” and I assumed the A was for Aigamuxa, but that was really just a wild guess. The two guards unlocked the double padlocks on the door simultaneously and then stepped away to either side of the door.

“Uh…” I hesitated. “Do I…?”

“Just a moment, Mr. Cooper, if you please.” A woman’s voice echoed down the hall to me.

I turned around to see a pleasant-looking woman of about sixty walking toward me. The woman was plump around the middle and had a general Mrs. Claus vibe about her with little wire-rimmed glasses on the end of her nose, and white hair pulled back into a low bun at the nape of her neck. She wore a simple gray dress and carried a metal clipboard tight to her ample chest. An official ID with her picture hung on her white lab coat below a black pin with five gold stars on it, and this drew most of my attention as her sensible shoes clacked across the floor.

“Hello,” I said politely, and I couldn’t help but glance at her five-star rank. I hadn’t noticed ranks on any of the other administrative staff, and I wondered what the doctor’s powers were.

“Hello, Mr. Cooper,” Mrs. Claus said, and I picked up a soft South African accent. “I am Dr. Etiename, but you may call me Dr. E., I find many people have a difficult time with my name.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. E.” I liked this woman, she was sweet, and I immediately felt like I could trust her.

“It is very nice to meet you as well.” Dr. E. smiled at me. “I am the lead scientist for sentient monster affairs here at MIA, and I must tell you, it was a lovely surprise to hear that you and your team had captured the Aigamuxa alive and uninjured.”

“We’re glad we could help,” I said.

“And I hear you may be able to offer more help,” Dr. E. continued. “Is it really true? You can speak with monsters?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “Dr. Hastings thinks it’s linked with my connection to my dragons.”

“Oh, Emma,” the white-haired woman mused. “She and I spent some time together at university many years ago, how is she doing?”

“Uh, she’s good, I guess,” I laughed a little nervously. “She’s really good at her job.”

I didn’t know what else to say. Any time I thought about the sexy cougar, my brain got a little muddled with the memories of her hand lingering on my thigh or those little winks she’d throw at me.

“Excellent.” Mrs. Claus seemed satisfied with my answer and nodded curtly at the two Guys in Gray beside the door. Then she smiled at me and opened the door. “If you please?”

“Right.” I walked into the dimly-lit room.

The huge room had to be at least a hundred square feet with a thirty-foot ceiling, and it was divided into two sections with a thick wall of glass. The space on our side was pretty large, even though it was only about one third of the entire space, and it had only two simple metal chairs and a wide metal desk like a police interrogation room.

On the other side of the glass divide, there was a plain room lined with steel walls. Flat LED lights dotted around the space, and against the far wall there was a huge pile of what looked like foam padding.

On top of the pile laid the Aigamuxa.

It’s feet were pointed directly at the door Dr. E., and I had just entered, and it’s humanoid eyes popped open as the doctor closed the heavy metal door.

“Lizard Man.” The Aigamuxa sat up slightly on the bed of foam padding and frowned at me.

The room brightened some as Dr. E. adjusted a small lever beside the huge room’s only door.

“Go on, Mr. Cooper,” the white-haired woman encouraged. “Do not be shy.”

I nodded at the jovial woman and stepped closer to the glass wall that divided the monster containment room.

“Tell me what you know,” I said to the Aigamuxa.

The humanoid monster laughed in that raspy voice and laid back on the foam padding.

“You said there was a war,” I tried again. “A war with whom?”

“Advance, retreat, human meat.” The Aigamuxa waggled its huge hands in the air to the beat of its singsong voice.

“What do you know?” I asked again more firmly.

“Little creatures with ugly features,” the monster’s yellow teeth flashed in the bright LED lights of the room. “Tiny brain, war will rain.”

The Aigamuxa laughed maddeningly and stared straight at me with the oddly normal eyes on the bottom of its feet.

“What does that mean?” I demanded through gritted teeth.

“You will lose everything,” the Aigamuxa practically whispered the words and then roared with laughter. “You cannot win!”

“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath.

“What is it saying?” Dr. E. asked quietly as she stepped up beside me.

“Nothing useful,” I said. “It’s talking in riddles. It keeps saying something about a war, and how we can’t win. Out in the desert it said something about how we’d defeated it, but we would not win the war.”

“That is rather ominous.” Dr. E. scribbled notes on her metal clipboard.

“Yeah.” I frowned at the man-beast as it continued to cackle like a mad-hatter at me.

I could feel my temper starting to rise at the sheer insanity of the beast’s laughter.

A subtle wriggle from my right thigh pulled me back from my anger, though, and I took a deep breath. Then Zofia wriggled again like an impatient puppy, and I felt her nudge at my mind like she had just after I’d summoned her.

I figured calling out my mind-control dragon was worth trying.

“Dr. E., would it be alright if I summoned one of my dragons?” I asked politely.

“Oh!” The white-haired woman’s kind blue eyes went wide. “Um, yes, if you think this space is big enough?”

“If I move these to the side there should be plenty of room,” I said and gestured at the metal table and chairs. “If that’s okay?”

“Certainly,” Dr. E. said and gestured at the metal furniture with her hand, and they slid swiftly across the room and out of the way.

“Woah,” I breathed. I hadn’t expected to find out what Dr. E.’s powers were, let alone get to see them first-hand. “Telekinetic?”

“Electromagnetic, actually.” The older woman smiled and readjusted her wire-rimmed glasses on her nose.

“That’s really cool.” I grinned, and I promised myself to tell Nick about this real-life Magneto later.

“Oh, it is nothing, really.” Dr. E. smiled, and a light pink blush spread across her plump cheeks, which only added to her Mrs. Claus appearance. “Certainly not as impressive as being able to conjure a dragon.”

I chuckled at the sweet older woman as she stepped back and watched me with expectant eyes.

“Sárkány,” I said softly.

A resounding fwoomp bounced off the walls and into my ears, and Zofia appeared before us in all her gloomy darkness. Thankfully, the room was large enough that my new dragon didn’t have to duck her head at all.

Zofia gazed down at me with patient red eyes, and I walked up to stroke her scaly neck.

“Hey there, beautiful,” I murmured.

“Oh, my,” Dr. E. breathed and stepped cautiously forward. “What a magnificent creature.”

“This is Zofia,” I said. “She’s my newest dragon, and she has the ability to confuse minds.”

“My goodness,” the doctor gasped and scribbled notes on her clipboard quickly. “Fascinating. How do you know this dragon is female? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I don’t mind, and I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I just kind of get a feeling with them.”

“Brilliant.” Dr. E.’s pen raced across her clipboard again. “It seems as though it may be a part of these connections you have with your dragons. I wonder if you have a natural connection with the entire dragon species.”

“Huh,” I mused. “Maybe…”

I thought back to when I’d met Lia’s desert dragon, and how I’d gotten the same feeling about his sex. I shrugged and logged the information away to explore later, and then I turned to look at the Aigamuxa and found that the beast’s eyes were trained hard on my new dragon.

The beast’s obnoxious laughter had died away, and it had leaned up onto its elbows. It rotated one foot to gaze at me, and I could tell I had the monster’s attention now.

“Are you listening to me?” I asked as I pointedly stroked a hand down Zofia’s shoulder. “Do I have your attention now?”

“Tiny humans cannot defeat him,” The Aigamuxa growled.

A small flicker of success sparked in my chest at those words.

Maybe I could get something useful out of this ugly bastard.

“Defeat who?” I demanded.,

“Retreat. Defeat. Repeat,” the Aigamuxa said, and then a harsh shudder of fear shook across his twenty foot tall body as a low snarl rippled out from Zofia’s throat.

I looked up at Zofia and gave her the tiniest nod, and a split second later, her red eyes began to glow, and her body started to vibrate.

“Nooo,” the Aigamuxa moaned as its eyes rolled back in its feet.

“Tell me,” I demanded again. “What war?”

The Aigamuxa groaned and shook its head.

I patted Zofia on the shoulder, and the glow from her eyes faded away before the minute was up. Then I glanced back at the giant humanoid monster.

The beast’s chest rose and fell heavily as the Aigamuxa dragged in ragged breaths. Then its eyes flicked open, and it watched me with weariness as I stroked Zofia’s shoulder.

“Tell me what you know,” I said with quiet menace.

“You will never defeat the Great Scaled One,” the Aigamuxa whispered. “He is a thousand steps ahead of you, Lizard Man.”

“Scaled One…” The words knocked around my head with a heaviness that grated on my nerves. “Who’s the Great Scaled One?”

“He will defeat you tiny humans.” The humanoid giant’s low laughter rumbled deep in its chest. “For centuries, the Great Scaled One has planned.”

“Centuries?” I gasped. “Tell me more.”

“Another commander will take over this territory,” the Aigamuxa murmured menacingly. “The Great Scaled One has thousands of soldiers. I have failed, He will not!”

“What territory?” I demanded. “You were in charge of Africa?”

“The Uneven Desert was mine!” The Aigamuxa cried, and it sat up from the foam padding and hissed its next words. “You have taken it from me, Lizard Man, but the Great Scaled One will take it back!”

“I’d like to see him try.” I glared right back at the beast, but under my facade, I realized I was probably going to regret saying that.

“You will see nothing,” the Aigamuxa laughed, and I could tell the cloud of confusion from Zofia had completely worn off at this point. “You will not see, not for thee, it is destiny.”

“Great, more riddles.” I rolled my eyes and patted Zofia on the shoulder. “Give it one more, let’s see what else is in that twisted mind.”

My dark purple dragon’s red eyes glowed with intensity, and her body began to shudder once more.

The Aigamuxa groaned in pain a moment and then started to claw its jagged fingernails across its arms and chest. The humanoid beast tore at its own skin as it laughed with utter madness.

“Too late!” The Aigamuxa cackled in a singsong voice. “It’s fate! Too late, it’s fate! Toooo laaaate!”

“Where is the Great Scaled One?” I demanded, and I could hear the desperation clear in my voice.

The giant’s laughter died away, and it blinked its human eyes at me once before it burst into a fresh wave of cackling and began to mumble nonsense sounds mixed with an occasional “too late.”

I watched with disgusted horror as the twenty foot tall monster leaned its back on the wall and started to knock its skull hard against the cinder blocks. My gut wrenched as I came to the conclusion that Zofia’s mind attacks may have pushed the Aigamuxa a step too far. It looked like the beast’s mind was entirely shattered as the monster muttered complete nonsense and continued to slam its head against the wall until a small smudge of dark blood appeared on the stones behind it.

This guy had officially cracked, and I could tell it wouldn’t be any more help. I could only hope that most of what he’d said wasn’t complete bullshit. For all I knew, the Aigamuxa could have been with it enough to give me false information.

I replayed the interaction in my head and analyzed the monster’s tone and body language, and I wasn’t so sure it had been playing with me.

There had been a tinge of fearful reverence every time the Aigamuxa mentioned the Great Scaled One, and I didn’t think even an Oscar-winning actor could have faked it that well after one of Zofia’s attacks.

“Shit,” I muttered, and I turned back to Dr. E.

The Mrs. Claus look-alike was standing at the back of the room with her mouth open and her eyes wide.

“What did it tell you?” The white-haired woman regained her composure.

“Not much,” I admitted. “He kept talking about a ‘Great Scaled One’ like he was some kind of king… or god.”

“Perhaps even monsters have legends and religion,” Dr. E. mused with a touch of horror.

“It felt more like a tangible creature.” I shook my head. “Like someone this asshole was taking orders from. It mentioned territories…”

I thought back to what Zahra had told us about monster attacks recurring in specific areas, and things began to click together in my mind like puzzle pieces.

What if this Scaled One was the leader of the monsters, and he was organizing attacks on a continental scale?

Fuck.

If there was some kind of omniscient monster out there pulling the strings of these lower level monsters, we could all be in huge fucking trouble.

And if what the Aigamuxa had said about centuries of planning was true, it could already be too late.

End of Book 6

End Notes

Thank you for reading Dragon Conjurer 6! I hope you really liked it. I’ll start working on the next Dragon Conjurer novel as soon as this book has 100 reviews, so leave a review right here!

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 by Eric Vall