Excerpt

Standing on the coast of St. Louis, Jenna Morgan, a fiery redhead in a leather jacket used her binoculars to keep a close eye on downtown. The church sponsored bake sale was in full swing. Woman and children sampled delectable baked goods. Since the Dragon war, people wore simple and comfortable clothes to go about their business.

Labor was hard. Jobs were scarce. St. Louis had been one of the last cities to fall and the last to get rebuilt. Things like running water and electricity, were still new to the small settlement. So, this baked good sale, was attracting a lot of attention. And some even unwanted.

Jenna spied through binoculars a mother and daughter duo with checkered bandanas tied around their hair. Make up for the most part had been outlawed since the war but their cheeks were rosy in and their lips held a glamorous sheen. They stuck out in a crowd.

Funny, shapeshifters usually did a better job of blending in than these two.

"We've got a couple of live ones." She turned to the black van parked behind her to the two men that made up her squad of the New Haven police force. She handed the binoculars through the open window to Dirk, sitting in the back seat.

They had been a team a long time, things happened, hell things that shouldn't have happened did. But when they are working, they were all business. Old grudges long aside.

"Jameson, pull closer to town. Let's tag these shapeshifters and keep a close eye on them, drive them away from the population so no one gets hurt."

Jameson had a blond hair and angular nose. His small handheld computer was cell phone sized and his finger flew across the display. The tech guy, it was his responsibility to update the HQ on all of their actions—and logging where the latest dragon shifters had been discovered.

Jenna took shotgun, she always did, and sat in the front seat, leaving Dirk in the back. When Jenna slammed the door shut and stuck her boots up on the dash, Jameson peeled away from the curb. He threw her a quick glance. "Bake sale, nice touch."

Jenna smiled a crooked wryly grin. "You know shape shifters. Bad ass killers, but they can't resist a good crumb topping."

"Ala mode," Dirk joked from the back.

A lot of St. Louis was still in the middle of being repaired. This was the furthest west you could get before hitting the barrier of the wastelands—the area of the country that the dragons turned into smoldering ash—now nothing but desert.

The East Coast was brimming with activity and almost couldn't tell that had been decimated eight decades earlier. There was trade, fishing posts, but no one dared venture to Europe or anything further east.

Unfortunately, California and the West Coast, had been hit hardest when all the celebrities turned into dragon shifters, thanks to all the chemicals their bodies had been pumped with. Botox, skin lightning, hair straightening, and everything else they did for their youthful appearance when it hit a critical level, they all changed at once. Too bad, and Oscar ceremony had never been quite as exciting as that one.

They drove through the city streets and when they got close to the steeple church that was running the bake sale, Jameson stopped the van beside the curb.

Jenna slipped off her leather jacket, and put on a canvas brown one so not to arouse suspicion. The last thing she wanted to do, was triggered a dragon change in front of innocent people.

"I'll be back in five."

As she glanced in the side mirror, she tried to avoid Dirk's gaze. It was hard, when he was always looking at her like he had something to say like there was something on his mind. There was, and Jenna even knew what, but she didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to hear about it.

At that moment, their cargo locked in the back compartment started to make a ruckus. "Let us out of here. We haven't done anything wrong!"

"Keep them quiet would you? Maybe up their dose," Jenna said.

Yes, ma'am." Dirk banged his fist against the metal barricade. "Don't make me come back there, I will get you to be quiet."

He was such a people person.

Truth be told, shapeshifters weren't people anymore. No laws. No rights.

Jenna slipped out of the van and concentrated to walk like a civilian and not a police officer on duty.

Everyone was nervous around New Haven police, their autonomy. Regular people knew what she was and the shapeshifters, well they were her targets. No wonder they were nervous.

Jenna stepped up onto the curb and pretended to inspect the first pastry table. She loved sweets as much as the next person, the brownies the cakes, all of it looked good, but she was working.

That meant she had little time to buy anything.

The woman wearing a straw hat on the other side of the table smiled. "Fresh as of yesterday. We just got a shipment of actual chocolate chips."

Even though she was older and had lines around her mouth and eyes, there was something beautiful her. People's appearances were more natural now they had been before the war. Jenna watched the vids in school—fake eye lashes, painted on eyebrows, and their complexions shined like they were painted with a poly coat.

What was the appeal with that?

"That's great. Who doesn't like a good chocolate rush?"

The woman laughed and Jenna moved on. Positioning herself behind her target— the mother and daughter wearing matching bandannas and matching red and white polka dots skirts. They might have paired them with running shoes, but you definitely could tell how they held themselves and how they turn their heads that there was something off about them.

Jenna went up and stumbled into them, slipping the paper thin tractors against their skin. "Excuse me. I'm so sorry."

The mother laughed nervously and the daughter, who couldn't be older than thirteen, clung tighter to her mom. "Oh, it's no bother!" The mother swallowed hard. "No bother at all. Right honey?"

The daughter nodded and buried her face into her mother's stomach. The mother for her part just patted the girl's head.

Jenna's ear crackled as Dirk came through loud and clear. "Their vitals are off the chart. Nervous, heart slowing down. Blood pressure plummeting. Sure signs they're dragon shifters."

Funny, most humans blood pressure went up when nervous, but not a shapeshifting dragon.

"My van broke down over there." Jenna pointed her thumb behind her shoulder. "Can you give me just a quick second of your time? I could really use the help."

The mother's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. "Oh…really…I'm afraid we need to be getting home. Good luck to you…"

"Momma…" The little girl cried as her body shook with fear.

Jameson sighed into her comm. "There's no way she's getting them to the van. Damn Jenna, you need to work on your performance."

"I'm on my way," Dirk said.

Jenna was happy for the backup. Her pair of dragon shifters turned and started away. Jenna followed after them. "Excuse me! I said excuse me!"

Oh, what the hell. Jenna grabbed the mother by her shoulders and spun her around, leveling her with a punch.

The little girl stood in the center of the street. All around people turned and began to take notice as the little shifter screamed in horror and her skin morphed to a radiant blue color. Blue, Jenna always thought those ones were prettiest.

But the girl's bones broke and started to rearrange, her face held the beginning of a snout. This was as close as Jenna got to a dragon transformation in two years. As the little girl began to flap her wings, Jenna pushed a button on her bracelet. A harness shot out and wrapped around the little girl's neck.

Her body was pulsed with electricity and the little girl gagged, grabbing at the harness and fell to the ground in a heap. The shock stopped her change and turned her back into what appeared to be an adorable, thirteen-year-old girl. But she was a shapeshifter.

Just like her mother.

Jenna turned around and tugged the harness, forcing the prisoner to crawl after her. The mother crumpled on the ground, shook her head. "She's just a baby. She's just a…"

"Monster?" Jenna offered as Dirk secured his harness around the woman's throat. "A mutant dragon creature who was responsible for destroying the world?"

"That wasn't me. That wasn't her. The blood lust is gone now. We only want to live like you."

"Except you're more beautiful than anything I've ever seen and you live forever. On blood. Human blood."

The woman gazed down at the pavement and Jenna was done talking with her. She turned her attention back to Dirk, strapping on his New Haven police uniform. "Thanks for having my back."

"That's what the team's for."

They walked to the back of the van and Jenna ignored the people at the bake sale staring at them. Dirk opened the prison compartment of the van and helped the little girl inside. Cramped as it was, she got a spot on the bench. Dirk cuffed her harness to the overhang bar that would keep her in place.

Grabbing a tube that hung down from the rafters, Dirk attached it like an IV into her hand. Immediately blood flowed into her. The little girl swayed and a small smile graced her lips.

They all wore the same dopy expression. New Haven drugs could really do a number on someone.

Jenna shoved her prisoner into the van and wasn't delicate about it. The mother's face smashed into the metal floor. "Hook her up, will you? Got a long drive if we're going to deliver these dragon bastards for reconditioning by tomorrow night."

Dirk nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

Good. Jenna returned to the van and took her seat beside Jameson. He gave her a glance, but didn't say anything.

"What?" Jenna asked.

Jameson shrugged. "Nothing."

Jenna sighed and grabbed the New Haven Police cap sitting on the dash. She slouched in her seat and used it to cover her face. She tried to ignore the crying she heard coming from the back. Damn, she hated the crying and how human they could all look.

They were the enemy. Mutants, dragons, shifters—whatever you wanted to call them, they started the war. Humans ended it and the shapeshifters were lucky to even be allowed to live.

Time to make tracks for New Haven 56.

Seven new dragon shifters going home.