Tesser: A Dragon Among Us (A Reemergence Novel) (8 page)

They were gold. Despite the fact that the video was black and white, the man's eyes shone through as pure flecks of gold.

Just like the seventh stone.

"Fuck yeah."

Chapter Ten

Tesser

I appear to be a bit of a celebrity. I'm somewhat accustomed to this. As a dragon, everything ran before me and told tales of my coming, my generosity, and my anger. In my human form, they told tales of my prowess in war, my skill as a leader, and my… virility.

This is very different. Now, I appear to be a bit of a cultural attraction. Dare I say, some think of me as a form of hero. When the two young girls came into the restaurant several nights ago, they brought a large amount of attention my way. They bought me some of the pizza served here, which was very tasty, and then took several pictures of me using their cell phones.

Cell phones. Delightful devices that use science to transmit both voice and images through the air. It is a tremendous thing to see a non-magical means to communicate over vast distances. Apparently these devices are able to transmit entire conversations across oceans and continents, requiring only the effort of a few movements of a thumb.

The owner of the pizza establishment has granted me a job. I work for him keeping his patrons safe from eleven in the morning until he closes at 2 in the morning. I am able to do this because I've learned how to tell time. Humans have created clocks and watches that can monitor the passage of the sun and moon without actually seeing the sun or the moon. Jerry, the owner of the pizza shop, bought me a wrist-mounted clock called a 'watch.' It has a large face with a yellow man made of sponge, who goes by the name Bob.

I find it charming.

He has also given me permission to stay in the back of the shop overnight to rest. I don’t really need to sleep every night, but I am choosing to do so. It is what the humans have always done, and when I am with a species, I match their habits. It allows for the most amount of consistency and I stand out a bit less.

Keeping the patrons safe has been an easy task. For the majority of the day, I stand or sit near the front entrance and have my picture taken with women. I don't need to ask them to leave with my shitty English; they are simply delighted to be in my presence. I've decided to not have sex with any of them.

Yet.

The nights have been a bit livelier, though primarily for the same reason.
 

Fermented beverages. Beer, wine, and liquor. I've had beer before, or at least what the humans would've called what they drank then beer. Wine, or fermented grapes, has a history almost as old as I am, and I enjoy a sip or two when I can. Liquor is a newer innovation. Fermented grains and strange fruits concocted to be much more powerful than beer or wine in terms of intoxication.

Many humans act like complete assholes when they drink these beverages. Some nights, it seems like all of them are assholes.

I've learned enough English to understand that most of what they say is nonsense when they are drunk, and that most of what they do is also utter bullshit.

I like that expression: bullshit. It doesn't actually refer to male cow feces; it means to be flagrantly wrong or false. For example, saying that I am a mere human is bullshit. I am actually a dragon. Humans call this kind of humor sarcasm.

I think I will use it extensively. Sarcasm. I like to laugh.

When the drunkards come in later in the night, I need to be a bit more aware of what is happening. I've had to intervene in several fistfights in just the few days I've been doing this task, and while relatively easy work, I need to be very careful to use minimal strength. Human bones are very strong, but I am a dragon and breaking bones comes very easy to me.
 
I still don't want to play my hand too early.

The women, drunk or sober, all seem to want me sexually. Almost every female that comes in either has already seen the video from the alley, and knows what my naked body looks like, or they can simply sense that I am the alpha male in the room. It's part of who and what I am. Life, in all its forms here on this lovely world, has come from or been sculpted by dragon kind in some form or another. But that's a very long story for another time. Tonight, I protect the young college kids who are trying to get their late-night pizza slices.

College is an interesting development. Organized learning. Organized higher-learning. It astounds me the level of investment humans have put into education. It certainly explains why they've advanced their understanding of material sciences. Technology they call it. Magic appears to have been forgotten in the shuffle, but this is still quite fascinating. When I was last in their society, creating reliable fire and making boats was the pinnacle of their achievements. They've come so far.

"Hey gold eyes, you have a name?" A cute brunette with short hair that framed her face asked Tesser.
 

Tesser smiled and watched her cock her head to the side teasingly. She was yet another girl who wanted to flirt.

Another adventure in spoken conversation. Here we go.
"My name is Tesser. What's yours?" He replied.
 

I still haven't got the accent quite right.

"Katelyn, but you can call me Katie. Or just call me later?" The girl extended her fingers with a small slip of paper pressed between two of them.
 

That’s a piece of a menu. Shame she tore one up. Jerry spends good money to have those printed for his businesss, I'm sure.

Tesser smiled and took the slip from her. "I don't have a phone yet."

The girl looked overly sympathetic. "You're getting back on your feet, right? You were homeless before?"

Tesser nodded, understanding the basic idea of what she was getting at. "Yes, I am not from around here."

"Where
are
you from? You sound European," Katie asked pleasantly as she rolled her head to the other side in a calculated gesture. A stray lock of her hair drifted across her cheek.
 

Shit.

"You probably haven't heard of where I'm from," he replied.

"Try me. I'm an anthropology major." Katie smiled again as she traced a finger on her cheek to tuck the hair behind her ear. Another decision made to arouse.

Behind Katie, two men started to raise their voices at one another. Tesser's golden orbs twitched past her and watched them as their fingers balled into fists at their sides. Jerry paid him for moments just like this.
 

"Excuse me," Tesser said with a smile. He gently moved Katie out of his way and walked over toward the two men.

"Fuck you, dude. BC over BU everyday!" One moron exclaimed.

Male pride.
Tesser sighed.

"The only major they offer at BC is smoking dick, faggot!"

Well that should be enough to get the other man to-

A punch came out. The thinner man who was freshly insulted put all four knuckles of his fist into the teeth of his adversary, sending him stumbling backwards into a crowd of patrons. Many other voices leapt into the fray, and a massive scuffle was only moments away.

Dammit.

"STOP!" Tesser bellowed. He reached deep, further into his chest than any normal man could've, and his voice carried a note of authority that was superhuman. It was the trumpeting of an elephant on the African plains, the roar of a tiger in the Indian jungle. A primal bellow. The entire crowd of pizza eaters and preparers froze solid and went silent. A popular pop song played in the background, sounding lonely somehow in the absence of the human buzz.

The man who threw the punch turned, several of his knuckles bloodied by the teeth of his victim. His pain and anger overrode his good sense. "Who the fuck are you?"

Tesser remained calm and took the last few steps towards the drunken college boy. "I am Tesser. It's my job to keep the people here safe. And you must leave. Now." Tesser kept out of arm's reach.

I don't want him to throw a punch at…

The man threw a punch at Tesser, but it didn’t land. Tesser saw it coming long before the man was able to wind up to full power, and the dragon-in-human-form caught the punch in his hand like he would an angry child's.

"Tsk tsk." Tesser grinned and twisted the man's hand forcefully.
 

"Ahh!" He screamed as Tesser continued to ply force onto the man's wrist, moving him about as if it were a rudder. Before two seconds had passed, Tesser had the man's arm behind his back at a 90° angle and was walking him out the door.

"Eat shit and live, BC cock-smoker!" The punched man taunted through a bloody mouth.
 

Tesser let the attacker go with a bit of a shove into the still busy late-night street and turned to face the man who had tossed out the final taunt. "You, sir, are next, and I will not stop him from punching you outside of this restaurant."

The man with the bleeding lip shut his mouth abruptly as a young woman put her arm around him.
 

"Good choice. Do not taunt anyone anymore, Mr. Cock-Smoker, or I will ask you to leave. Or much worse." He leveled his golden eyes at the college student. The man was taller than Tesser, but he shrank under the dragon's challenge. When he said nothing in return, Tesser nodded and walked past him into the pizzeria. The couple turned and walked away towards the bathrooms in the rear of the restaurant, face and pride injured.

I'm not sure that was a correct usage of the term cock-smoker.

"Whoa. You're a tough guy, aren't you?" Katie asked him as he returned to where she stood.

I don't know how to answer that question either. This girl has a skill for confounding me.

"I think that's hot," she said, dragging her expertly painted nails down the front of one of the three shirts Tesser now owned. She leaned in and pressed her young body against his.

I wonder what she'd think if I told her how old I really am.

"I think that's reason for a few questions," said a man behind Tesser.

Hmm?

Tesser turned and assessed the man who'd made the statement. Katie remained against him. He was far shorter than Tesser but carried his body with poise. He had strong, dark eyes, and light brown, closely cropped hair. He wore a buttoned shirt that was tucked into pants Tesser knew to be slightly fancier than those worn by the average man. He seemed professional and very out of place in the late-night pizza joint.

"My name is Sergeant Henry Spooner with the Boston Police Department. I'm investigating the alleged attempted rape that occurred several weeks ago near the Pandemonium nightclub. I have some questions for you if you have the time."

Katie shrank away into the crowd like a shadow fleeing from sunlight.

Well, shit.

Chapter Eleven

Tesser

"So you are the man who came to Ms. Blake's aid that night?" Spoon asked Tesser as he put his badge away.

The two had moved outside the pizza shop and down the street to a quiet overpass. No one was listening to them on their guardrail perch.

Tesser's knowledge of the English language was being tested powerfully.
 

This man could make my life very difficult if he suspects something is amiss about me. I must tread very carefully.

"I helped the woman, yes."

Spoon nodded. "Excellent. She has expressed a great deal of appreciation to the department regarding your timely appearance, despite your lack of clothes." The cop added a friendly grin.

Tesser understood most of that. "I've only recently come to Boston."

"You said your name was Tesser, right? What is that? Russian? French?" Spoon fished out a pack of cigarettes and a disposable lighter. He fired the cancer stick up and took a drag.