Summer and the Dragon (Redwood Dragons Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Summer and the Dragon

  The Redwood Dragons, Book 2

  By Sloane Meyers

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Sloane Meyers. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Thank You For Reading!

  More Books by Sloane Meyers

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Vance Pars glanced around the dark Chicago bar as he slowly sipped his whiskey. The place was nearly empty on this rainy Tuesday night, which made eavesdropping a bit more difficult. Luckily for Vance, his dragon hearing allowed him to hear conversations clearly even when he was sitting several feet away from someone.

  Right now, he was sitting as close as he dared to a pair of gnarly mountain lion shifters. The two men were a half dozen barstools away, talking in hushed tones and glancing suspiciously up at Vance every now and then. Vance was careful to avoid eye contact with them, but he kept his ears perked to listen to their conversation.

  They didn’t know Vance was a shifter. He’d used a carefully blended masking scent that made him smell like a full human. His clan mate, Myles, swore by the stuff, but the first time Vance had tried the masking scent, he’d been afraid that it wouldn’t work. That was a few weeks ago now, though, and the masking scent had been holding steady for the entire time Vance had been in Chicago. Hopefully, it would only need to hold steady for one more night, and then he could go back home to the Redwoods of Northern California. Most of the time, Vance loved his work, but he hated missions that took him to big cities. He needed space to breathe, and the crowded streets of Chicago were beginning to feel like they were closing in on him.

  Vance had been tracking these two mountain lion shifters for two weeks, but this was the first night he’d actually laid eyes on them. The two men were secretive and suspicious of everyone, but since Vance seemed like a normal, disinterested human, he was getting away with eavesdropping—and that eavesdropping was telling Vance exactly what he needed to know. The mountain lions were discussing, in hushed tones, an old spear that was currently on display in the Art Institute of Chicago. The museum’s curator believed the spear was just an old Native American artifact, but the mountain lions had learned that it was actually a spear used by the ancient dragon clans. They were planning to stage a robbery of the spear, and then use the spear and its supernatural powers to overthrow the leaders of their own clan.

  Vance let a wry smile pass over his lips as he listened, casually taking another sip of his whiskey. It was a story he’d heard dozens of times over the years, in various forms. A shifter would discover the existence of a powerful, ancient artifact, and then decide that they would be able to gain power just by using the artifact. But time after time, Vance and his clan mates had dashed the hopes of would-be tyrants by snatching away the artifacts before those tyrants had a chance to use them. Vance, along with nine other dragon shifters, had dedicated his life to preventing the unauthorized use of ancient shifter artifacts. Much of Vance’s time was spent traveling across the country and the globe, recovering artifacts and bringing them back home to his clan’s base camp, deep in the Redwood forests. Once the artifacts were safely in the Redwoods, Vance’s clan of dragon shifters guarded them fiercely. No artifact had ever been stolen from them once it had been recovered and brought to the Redwoods.

  Vance was more than ready to be back in those forests now. It was June, and already the humidity and heat in the city of Chicago was getting under Vance’s skin. He was looking forward to the cool, fresh air of home. All he had to do was not screw things up tonight, and he would be back in his own cabin by tomorrow evening.

  When the two mountain lions stood and left, Vance forced himself to wait a respectable amount of time before standing and leaving as well. He wasn’t worried about finding them. These two, for all their suspicious glances over their shoulders, were terrible about hiding their tracks. They left a clear scent trail everywhere they went, which Vance’s shifter nose easily picked up. He sighed as he followed their trail slowly toward the Art Institute. It was getting late, and the streets of Chicago were becoming less and less crowded, especially as Vance followed the scent trial through the business district of downtown. Here, the only signs of life that remained were lights in office windows here and there, indicating that some poor soul was stuck working instead of enjoying the warm night with the rest of Chicago.

  Vance moved carefully, doing his best to stay out of sight of the two shifters ahead of him. They seemed like just the type of cowards to call off a mission if they had the slightest hint that someone was following them. The last thing Vance wanted right now was for them to wait another night or two to break in to the museum. If they did, he would have to wait even longer to get home.

  Vance didn’t blame the men for being nervous. Often, treason in a clan was punishable by death. Any shifter caught betraying his clan was sure to be expelled from the clan, if not killed. Vance’s eyes darkened with anger as he watched the men. Traitors deserved to be punished. Loyalty was the highest virtue in Vance’s eyes, and he had never understood how someone could betray their own clan members. No amount of money or power in the world could have tempted him to betray the Redwood Dragons. They were his brothers, and he would give his life to defend them in an instant.

  Vance sighed. Treason shouldn’t surprise him anymore. He saw it on nearly every mission he worked. It still made him angry, though. Vance figured that would never change, even if he recovered a hundred thousand artifacts.

  By the time the men arrived at the museum, they seemed to be getting even more careless. Their suspicious glances over their shoulders had decreased, and they were instead becoming giddy with excitement at the prospect of the potential power they might soon hold in their hands. Vance resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he found a spot to hide a short distance away from the back entrance of the museum, where the two shifters were now standing in the open like big idiots.

  “Don’t screw this up, guys,” Vance said. “I want to go home tonight.”

  The shifters, although perhaps not the smartest guys in the room, had at least made a rough plan for stealing the spear. Vance had overheard them reviewing the plan one last time before they left the bar. They would break into the back door using brute force, then shift into mountain lion form to confuse the guards, who no doubt would be expecting human intruders. In the midst of the chaos, they would quickly make their way to the display on the second floor where the spear was not very well guarded. The museum’s security team did not think the spear was one of the higher value items in the Art Institute, and would surely be surprised that a duo of intruders went straight for it during a break-in. Once the spear was re
covered, the shifters planned to run out, still in mountain lion form with the spear held between their teeth. They would sprint to a nearby parking lot where they had parked a getaway car, shift back into human form, and speed away. Their human faces would never even appear on the museum’s security cameras.

  Vance chuckled. They needed to be more careful, if they didn’t want their human faces on camera. They were awfully close to the back entrance of the museum right now, and if they moved a few feet in the wrong direction they would be well within range of the cameras. Their plan was a haphazard, brazen attempt to use their shifting abilities to recover the stone. But, again, Vance had seen dozens of attempted robberies like this over the years. Shifters tended to think that the ability to shift gave them the ability to easily steal whatever they wanted. More often than not, their audacious attempts failed, and they were caught by the authorities. That didn’t matter that much to Vance, though. He could care less whether or not they were caught. The only thing he cared about was that they got the spear out of the museum before they were caught. Then Vance could swoop down in dragon form and grab it, flying away before anyone realized what was happening.

  The shifters had finally quieted down, and were gesturing toward each other silently in the dim light. Vance had a feeling they were about to make a move, and a few moments later he saw that he was right. One of them pulled a black ski mask over his face, pulled a giant axe-type tool with a foldable handle out of his bag, and ran toward the back door they had been staking out. The man unfolded the handle so that he now had a full length axe, and then he started beating against the door with all his might. Even though it was a thick, metal door, the strong shifter was quickly able to break through. Alarms were sounding off like crazy, but the men ignored them as the one holding the axe threw it aside.

  Two large pops rang out as rushes of energy burst from the men’s bodies, and they morphed into mountain lions. Guards were running toward the door now with guns drawn, but they stopped in confusion as they looked at the mountain lions running into the building.

  “What the heck?” one of them yelled out before bounding into the building after the mountain lions. The other guards seemed unsure of what to do, and they looked wildly around outside, trying to find the human who had knocked down the door.

  Vance knew it was time for him to shift himself. He was pretty far away right now, but the guards would be doing a thorough search of the area. The last thing Vance wanted was for the guards to catch him and think he was responsible for hacking down the door. Vance backed up as quickly as he dared, putting even more space between himself and the museum. And then, with a sudden loud pop and whoosh of energy, he shifted.

  Instantly, he grew in size and his hands and feet began morphing into the scaled arms and legs of a dragon, complete with razor sharp claws. His head became the fierce, horned head of a dragon, with sharp teeth, and wisps of smoke rising from his nostrils. Wings sprouted from his back, growing long and powerful. A long tail ending in sharp spikes extended behind his dragon body, which was now completely covered in iridescent scales that went from green to purple and back again in the dim light.

  The guards, who had heard the loud pop of energy, started running toward where Vance’s dragon now stood. But before they could even rub their eyes to see whether they were actually seeing a dragon in the middle of Chicago or were going crazy, Vance had vanished from their view.

  Vance was using a chameleon trick to blend into his surroundings. It was a difficult skill to learn, but any reptile shifter could do it. Being able to disappear into thin air was a highly useful trick, so all of the Redwood Dragons had taken time to perfect it. Vance watched carefully as the guards who had come running ran in confused circles nearby, looking for the source of the loud rush of energy. None of them said anything about seeing a dragon, and Vance figured none of them wanted to sound crazy. After a few moments, half of them went back to the museum while the other half continued searching the outside perimeter. In the distance, Vance could hear the sound of police sirens coming closer. He wished the two mountain lion shifters would hurry things up.

  After a few more minutes which seemed to stretch into eternity, Vance heard loud roars as the mountain lions came back into view, one of them holding the spear in his mouth. Chaos ensued, as the guards tried to stop the mountain lions by threatening them with their guns, yelling at them and each other. Policemen were arriving on the scene now, and it was hard to see what was happening in the midst of the dozens of guards and officers who were now trying to trap the mountain lions against the back wall of the building.

  Vance knew he had to hurry up and make his move before things got even crazier. He grabbed his backpack firmly with one of his strong dragon feet. Then, as silently as he could, he started flapping his wings and rose into the air. He let his chameleon disguise go, and he became visible against the Chicago skyline. He hated to allow the large group below him to see that there was actually a dragon here, but it couldn’t be helped. Maintaining invisibility through the chameleon trick took quite a bit of concentration, and Vance needed to concentrate on other things right now. Like getting that spear.

  A shout sounded out as one of the startled police officers noticed Vance’s dragon coming toward the fray. More shouts and screams ensued, and the mountain lions themselves looked up, their cat eyes widening when they saw that another shifter had joined them. Vance breathed a huge stream of fire into the air, hoping to confuse and scare the group into inaction, at least for a few precious moments. Then, with a swoop as swift as an eagle’s, he dove straight toward the mountain lions. He reached out one of his strong dragon feet, and used his sharp claws to grasp the spear firmly. The mountain lion tried to resist, holding so tightly to the spear with his teeth that he actually rose a few feet from the ground before dropping back down in agony. The second mountain lion roared and tried to leap up to attack Vance, but his teeth and claws merely scraped against the thickness of Vance’s scales.

  Before anyone else on the ground could react or even process what was happening, Vance had the spear firmly in his grasp and was rising high above the city, turning northeast to fly over Lake Michigan. He glanced back one last time to see how the scene below was playing out. The guards and policemen were pointing up at him, shouting and confused. The mountain lions were slowly slinking away, all but forgotten now that a dragon had been sighted.

  Vance was tempted to let out another stream of fire, just for the heck of it. But his clan leader, Knox, was always yelling at him that he needed to be more subtle. So, with a slight puff of smoke, Vance turned his head back to the north and started flying as quickly as he could. He was heading to a suburb north of the city, where the Redwood Dragons kept in touch with a guy who owned a rental car shop. The guy was friends with the owner of a rental car shop near the dragons’ home base in California, so Vance knew he could trust him. Vance would get a car and drive home as fast as he could, probably only stopping to refuel and get food. Ordinarily, Vance liked to fly home on a commercial airline. But he would never be able to get the spear he now held through security, so driving was his best option.

  Vance turned his head to look behind him one more time. The tall buildings of Chicago’s downtown area were starting to grow smaller, and the noise from the city was becoming quieter and quieter as Vance rose high into the air. He was thankful that it was dark, so that his dragon form would not be as obvious against the dark night sky. With any luck, he’d be home within forty-eight hours.

  He’d be exhausted, but he’d be home. And he’d mark another “successful mission completion” notch on the bedroom wall of his small cabin.

  Vance smiled as he pumped his wings harder and rose higher into the air. He’d worked hard, and he deserved a nice break. It was time for summer to really get started, and there was no place he’d rather spend his summer than the Redwoods of Northern California.

  Chapter Two

  Lily Tarkett tapped her toes anxiously on the floor of the smal
l rental car office, fidgeting and looking out the window every few seconds. She didn’t realize how much she was squirming around until the grumpy store owner sitting behind the counter looked up at her, glaring.

  “Wearing out a hole in my floor with those shoes isn’t going to make anyone show up any faster, you know?” he said. “But it is keeping me from being able to concentrate on my paperwork over here. Do you mind?”

  Lily mumbled an apology and forced herself to still her bouncing feet. It wasn’t easy to keep still, though. She hadn’t been filled with this much excitement since her first day on the job at the Advocacy Bureau in Falcon Cross. That had been nearly two years ago now, and a lot had changed in those two years. A year ago, Lily’s roommate, Bree, had done the unthinkable and defied a High Council order saying that wizards were prohibited from letting shifters know of their existence. For hundreds of years, shifters had been convinced that wizards were extinct, and the wizards had been happy to keep things that way. Wizards had feared that shifters would attempt to destroy them if they became aware that many wizard clans were still alive and well. But when a powerful ancient dragon stone was in danger of falling into evil hands, Bree had claimed that the assistance of the shifters was necessary to save the wizards. She had contacted the shifters, asking them to help her.

  It turned out, Bree had been right. Almost overnight, Bree had become a celebrity in Falcon Cross. The High Council had pardoned her for defying their order, and had allowed her to move to Northern California to live with Knox, the dragon shifter she had fallen in love with.

  Bree had begged Lily to come visit her in the Redwoods, and now, Lily was finally getting the chance to do so. Lily had been instructed to wait at this rental car office in a tiny town near the edges of the Redwood forest where the Redwood Dragons lived. Bree would be coming with her lifemate, Knox, and another one of the dragon shifters to fly Lily deep into the forest.