Read Tesser: A Dragon Among Us (A Reemergence Novel) for Free Online Page A

underneath a winter cap, and the other is shorter, fatter, and has long brown hair and a beard. He too wears a hat, but it has a brim facing to the rear. Because they have set their television to show the words that are being spoken, I've been able to learn many of the words.
    Apparently the words ”shit,” “fuck,” “ass,” “bitch,” and “stoner” are common in the English language. I've used them a few times in awkward, minimalist conversations to no good effect. Clearly, I don't know enough. I'm also trying to decipher how the woman's name at the coffee shop is also a word in regular use.
    It confounds me, but I've already got a working vocabulary of perhaps a hundred words that I am sometimes able to use in very short sentences.
    "Hello?! Are you the dude in that video?" A rail thin blonde dressed in a tight mini skirt and halter-top bleated not five feet from where Tesser sat in the back of the pizza parlor.
    Shit. See, I'm learning already.
    Tesser turned slowly, unsure of what she'd said. He understood that hello was a greeting.
    "Hello," he returned in a friendly but deadpan voice. He forced a smile that was only slightly awkward.
    "Nissa, this is the guy. Come look." The blonde grabbed her friend by the arm and dragged her from the line of people trying to buy a slice of pizza at the late night shop. The brunette friend stumbled over, angry at first, but when she laid eyes on the still disheveled Tesser, her eyes widened.
    "Oh my god! I think that is him. Get your phone. Look up the video!" The brunette stared at Tesser in a way that Tesser had seen before and it confused him. She thought she knew him. She thought she'd seen him before.
    Shit. He continued to smile, still sitting in the bright orange booth in the corner near the television.
    The blonde held up her phone and tapped on the screen rapidly, bringing up a YouTube video. Before long, both girls were squealing with delight. They had recognized Tesser from the ATM video.
    "Is this you?" The blonde thrust her phone practically into Tesser's face. The dragon had to lean back to prevent one of her bright red nails from scratching his skin.
    Tesser watched on the tiny screen as images of his alleyway altercation played out. His face stayed solemn as he watched his own violence. His nakedness caused a tiny, edge-of-mouth smile. It amused him and startled him that his image had been somehow captured, and captured without his realizing it.
    "It's him," said the brunette seriously. Both women were oddly star-struck in Tesser's presence.
    Tesser watched until the video finished playing, then smiled and nodded. He wasn't sure what the words were to agree with the girls.
    They squealed again and squished into the booth with him.
    Tesser sighed.
    Well, at least they are attractive.

Chapter Eight
    Sergeant Henry "Spoon" Spooner

    They aren’t opening up.
    Henry's adrenaline surged. His muscles were taut from head to toe as he stood in a breaching stack with the rest of the SWAT team. Everyone in the line with him was wearing full ballistic armor for the raid. Helmet, full ballistic plate, lap and groin protectors, kneepads and shin guards were the order of the day. Some guys wore more. It was miserably hot in the armor.   It was early in the morning, far too damn early to go kicking in some drug dealer's door in Dorchester, but they needed the extra body and Henry was available. SWAT wasn't his gig anymore, but he said he'd help.
    "Go," said the Sergeant in charge of the breaching team. The warnings had ended.
    Let's do this.
    The man at the head of the stack held a battering ram, and in the dark hallway, he looked the size of a medieval ram all on his own. He brought the steel crash bar back to hammer into the closed front door of the apartment they'd come to raid. Some of these SWAT guys dwarfed Henry. He'd always been the runt of the litter.
    Henry smiled.
    The goliath carrying the battering ram brought the steel cylinder into the door right at the knob