Demon Lord 5: Silver Crown King by Morgan Blayde

about the shape of the head made me think this was a female.  I wondered if my long-missing mother looked like this, or was still passing somewhere for human.
    A throat cleared. 
    I turned and found the escort I’d anticipated.  A woman with high, firm breasts and flaring hips filled out a turquoise uniform with gold buttons.  Her pants were striped with black.  A cute little hat perched on her head, the kind of hat a stewardess might wear.  The holstered gun on her belt—and the razor-sharp, black-iron claws she wore on her left hand—indicated she was no stewardess.  Behind her were two burley males in the same uniform.
    “Name and species,” the woman asked.
    “Caine Deathwalker, dragon-born.”
    She looked me over with scathing violet eyes that matched her hair.  “You’re a dragon?  Wait, Deathwalker.  I’ve heard that named.”  She took out an e-tablet.  Apparently, the whole city was wired for WIFI.  She made a small Hmmmm sound.  Her eyes widened.  “Royal Clan.”  Her eyes narrowed.  “In disfavor; no permission to be on the dragon world.”  She put her tablet away, letting it dangle on a clip from the back of her belt. 
    While this was going on, my inner dragon stirred, his happiness washing over me, mellowing my mood.  He used my senses to absorb our surroundings.  It’s so beautiful . 
    His electric fire jazzed along my nerves.   I felt heat in my back, my shoulder blades softening like wax, melting, reforming.   I took off my coat and then my shirt, not wanting them damaged by the change I felt setting in. 
    The woman asked, “What are you…”  She fell silent, her gaze raking my dragon-blood tattoos.  Her face paled as she realized the forces I could unleash without ever turning fully to dragon.  I also noticed she and the men were no longer looking me in the face.  That probably meant that my right eye had gone golden dragon, pulsing with imperial magic.  My right eye would should my father’s heritage, glowing inferno red.  My back hurt with an orgy of growth, cells multiplying exponentially, new muscles forming.  Bone spurs thrust from my back, the ribs of dragon wings.  Leathery membranes sheathed them and filled in between.  Fresh blood dripped down my along with other fluids I couldn’t identify by smell.  My family was the golden dragon clan.  That meant my wings were bright yellow.  As they dried, I fanned them languidly.
    That out of the way, I noticed a severe tension in my escort.  What did they think?  I’d come all this way just kill them?
    “That looked … painful,” the woman said.
    “It was.”  Not that I’d let that show in my face or body.  She was projecting.  Full-blood dragons change without pain and fuss.  I wasn’t that lucky.  I think my change pried a little sympathy out of her; she still didn’t look me in the eyes, but her face softened a little.  I didn’t think my welcome party was going to try and shove me back into the portal.
    “Business?” she asked.
    “Family business.  I’m expected,” I lied.
    Her tablet was back in her hands.  She tapped its face.  “I’m approving you for a one-day pass.  Be gone by this time tomorrow.”
    I nodded.  “Understood.”
    They backed away, and when they felt comfortable turning their vulnerable backs to me, they did.  I let them get a good distance away before folding my shirt and coat over my arm and starting toward the city.  Having planned this mission, I knew where I was going, the Red Clan section of the city, one of their schools.  Julia would be in class and definitely not expecting me.   She would be happy to see me though.  Just because her “uncle” Red was being a douche bag, refusing to see and talk with me, didn’t mean she loved me less.  I was the one who’d avenged her murdered mother, who’d taken her off the street when orphaned, finding her a home with
    Red. 
    You defile yourself, you purify yourself.  You offend a friend, you