Dragon Soul

Chapter 5

5

The annoying hold sound blaring through my headset broke through my day dreaming. I answered the call, my mouth forming the words I'd been taught to say whenever a customer called. So all day, every day. Working in a call centre was an experience in repetition, that was for sure.

Pete's words floated through my mind.

No. I had to ignore those. He didn't really want me to run away with him. Even so, I'd resisted the temptation to log back into Realms&Rebels last night. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say to him so I felt it was better for me just to stay away completely. He couldn't break my heart that way.

I settled the phone in the cradle, yet another customer sorted. There seemed to be a lot of electrical faults this time of year which meant a crazy amount of calls for us. The phones were ringing off the hook on every other desk too. Checking the time, I flipped on the do not disturb option so I could go for my lunch and a cup of coffee. It had been too long since I'd had a drink.

The staff room was empty, as it normally was at this time. It was one of the reasons why I took the late lunch option. I didn't want to talk to people. Friendships were dangerous when I could find myself in Africa in two weeks time. Though I'd have hoped my parents would have prepared me if that was where I was heading. Then again, I doubted they'd be bothered by something as small as me having to hand in a notice.

"Janet?"

I looked up to find a beautiful dark-haired woman in front of me. I recognised her. We'd worked together long enough and it wasn't like I could miss the only other dragon in the office.

"I prefer JJ," I responded.

"JJ then. Can I take a seat?" She indicated to the chair opposite me and actually waited for me to respond.

"Sure." I frowned. We'd not spoken before, at least, no more than a muttered hello in the corridors as we passed, so I wasn't sure what she wanted with me now.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked softly.

"Talk about what?"

"Your upcoming wedding."

"How do you know?" I almost snapped.

"It's not hard to work out. You're about the right age and you're starting to get the visibly troubled look I've seen a lot of us get around wedding time."

"There's not much to say."

"Is he cruel? Or do you just not get on?" she prodded.

Interesting. Not an Earth Dragon then, or she'd know we weren't given the name or even the gender of our mate until it was our wedding day. I'd only heard whispers about the other wedding ceremonies but it was enough to know they worked differently.

"I don't know him at all," I replied honestly. "That's not our way."

Shock flitted past her features.

"I have a friend, I met him through the game, how I feel about him is complicating things." I wasn't sure where the admission came from, maybe it was just me wanting to do something as simple as tell someone. Or maybe it was something about her. She had a calming presence, one that reassured me in a way I'd never experienced before.

"And you think he might be your mate instead?"

I laughed bitterly. "I doubt it. That's not how it works for our kind."

"Wouldn't you want to be sure though?"

I considered for a few moments. "Yes," I whispered. "Though I have no idea how to even make that happen. Or where."

She glanced around nervously, before pulling a business card out of her pocket and pushing it across the table.

"Dragon Soul?" I asked, reading the golden words on the card.

"Its a bar for our sort. I've not been, but I've heard from a reliable source that they're very discreet. If you want to meet your friend, you can here."

"Where is it?" I flipped the card, searching for an address.

"Not far from here. But if you want the address, you'll need to ask on the Realms&Rebels forum, I've heard that's the safest way."

I nodded. "Why are you helping me?"

"Let's just say my marriage wasn't a happy one. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. It might not help you at all but I owe it to you to try." She smiled sadly and got up to leave, picking up her mug too.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"You're welcome."

She turned to leave, which was when something struck me. "Wait, I don't know your name?"

"Mariah James," she responded.

"Thank you, Mariah."

"You're welcome, JJ." This time, she actually left, her lunch break probably up.

I stared at the card. Other than the bar's name and a tiny golden dragon, there was nothing on it. No indication that it was anything more than just a pretty picture. Yet, if Mariah was to be believed, there was a secret dragon bar in the very city we worked in. Now all I needed to do was to decide if I could really invite Pete to it.

I checked my watch and groaned. My lunch break was almost over and the timer didn’t wait. If I didn’t clock in after twenty-five minutes, the extra time would alert my boss I was slacking. Despite the mind-numbing work, I couldn’t afford to be fired.

I shovelled my salad down, pretending it wasn’t the third day in row I was eating kale. At least the coffee washed it down nicely.

With only an extra minute to spare, I left the staff room to take my next call. From across the floor, I watched the dark-haired woman. Mariah. We hadn’t talked much before, but I never really talked to anyone. I liked keeping to myself and apparently, so did she.

I stared at the golden card again. Dragon Soul. I never heard of a bar for dragons, let alone all kinds of dragons. At least, I assumed that was what Mariah meant. Our sort.

Even if I didn’t arrange a get-together with Pete, it’d be nice to have somewhere to hang out. If my new husband didn’t like my gaming habits, I wouldn’t have Realms&Rebels to escape to and this bar might just be a good place to get some alone time.

The phone rung and the line clicked open.

“Hello, this is JJ from Tech Turnip, how may I help you today?”

A stream of complaints and random shouting rambled down the speaker and I let out a long sigh. Lovely. Another person who thought I was solely responsible for their defects. This was going to be a long day.

I played with the curled cable as I zoned out. I knew from experience that interrupting or trying to reason with the customer wouldn’t actually help. Instead, I’d just have to let them rant and wait for them to hang up in anger.

The golden writing on the card caught my eye again and I couldn’t deny I was curious. I scanned the floor to see if my manager was around and found him in the glass conference room. From the looks of it, he was raging down on one of the newbies. Poor guy. Getting called into the glass cubicle on Fire Five Friday was never a good thing.

Confident that my manager was preoccupied, I pushed my phone onto my desk and clicked open the Realms&Rebels forum. I’d gone there for questions and quests, but never to find a bar. It seemed ridiculous that something like that actually existed. A bar where all dragons got along? Unlikely.

I typed the name into the search bar and scrolled through all the results. No sign of an actual bar, but there was a quest with the same name. Maybe Mariah was pranking me?

Then again, she seemed like the serious type. What could she possibly gain from playing tricks on me?

I scrolled further down until the name of my city caught my eye. A pop-up blocked me from opening the topic which was weird. Nowhere did it say this was a locked topic.

Username and password_

I frowned. I already logged in on the forum, why did it require my credentials again? Were they going to hack me or was this just extra protection to make sure nobody accidentally wandered into the bar?

The phone crackled and I was pulled back to the venting customer. A couple of quick apologies and the promise to transfer him through to someone higher up, finally silenced him. With the line empty again, I checked if my manager was still in his cubicle and logged on.

An unknown address on the other side of the city popped up and I quickly scribbled it down. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was something. But it was worth checking out.