Free Tesser: A Dragon Among Us (A Reemergence Novel) by Chris Philbrook Page B

He then went to Facebook, where he had prior success.
    He was rewarded almost immediately.
    Abe's Facebook feed was filled with the same nonsense and drivel that every 25-year-old kid’s was: fresh-out-of-college assholes having babies, women screaming about how excited they are to be engaged or pregnant, ten thousand pictures of pets, and the obligatory smartasses posting social commentary via captioned pictures. Abe definitely belonged to the latter category.  
    Earlier in the week, Abe had made specific effort to friend about three dozen young local girls in an attempt to enter a social circle that might yield results. Basically, he wanted to be friends with people who were obsessed with spreading rumors and gossip.  
    College bitches.
    He chose a handful of girls from each of the major colleges in Boston. Boston College and Boston University were at the top of the list. They were large and in the Back Bay. Right below that were Tufts and Emerson. He then made sure to track down a few girls from Northeastern and Berklee, but he had a suspicion that Northeastern girls were too high a caliber and Berklee girls were all too into music to yield any results. He kept those friend adds to a minimum.
    He finally hit pay dirt with a BU connection.
    Charlene Kearns, a junior at Boston University that had brown hair with blonde highlights, bright blue eyes, and an ass to die for posted that she'd seen “the naked hobo kick more ass."
    Oh, this might be helpful.
    Abe clicked on the video in her status and immediately knew he was on to something. She'd put up a cell phone video that had been taken late at night in a pizza shop. Two men, a few years younger and a lot dumber than Abe, got into a very short fistfight after calling each other's colleges horrible things.
    Fucking apes.
    The girl, Charlene, had her camera in a great spot to capture the man with the golden eyes as he approached the two fighters. He loudly barked out a single command that froze the entire place. Charlene's hand trembled at the force of the word, and even through the shitty, smudged video, Abe could feel the magical power exuded from the man raising his voice. It was less a command to stop and more of a magical compulsion to do so. Had the men been deaf, they likely would've stopped fighting regardless. Abe's hair stood on end from the power of the word.
    Who is this guy? He's got serious game.
    Of course, stupidity is hard to compel, magically or otherwise, and the man with the golden eyes had to go hands-on. The college kid who threw the punch was wrapped up in a lightning fast and largely pain-free restraint and ejected into the street by the stranger. The man who had been punched quickly went to the bathroom with his girlfriend after speaking to the unique bouncer. The video cut out a few seconds after that.
    Well then. That certainly settles the question of whether or not this guy is magical in some way, doesn't it? Mr. Doyle is going to shit a crumpet and a whole pot of Earl Grey tea when he sees this.
    Abe's heart raced faster and faster as he restarted the video, looking for some sort of clue as to which of the umpteenth pizza shops in Boston the video could’ve been showing. The only worse scenario would've been if the video were taken in a shit Chinese restaurant. He looked for a menu on the wall, and paid special attention to the moment when the phone's view turned to the front of the pizza shop. When Abe saw the street view outside, he paused the video, and within a few seconds of looking at details in the background, he knew exactly where the shop was.
    I could be there in five minutes. Ten tops.
    Abe powered down his laptop and grabbed his wallet and keys.  
    Should I tell Mr. Doyle? I should tell him where I'm going. If this guy is dangerous, I'm royally fucked. I've never cast a single defensive spell successfully, and I guarantee I can’t outrun the fucking guy.
    Abe debated and then left it alone.
    Confident and assertive, right? Time to