How to Lose Your Dragon (The Immortality Curse Book 1)

kitchen and into what I lovingly referred to as the “living room.” It had a small two-person couch that was covered in stains along the back wall and a semi-decent gaming chair situated near the TV, which had the latest gaming consoles hooked up to it. Hey, splurge on the finer things in life, right? Gotta live somehow.
The whitish, slightly dingy walls were bare - no paintings or family portraits for me. I’d never been sentimental like that, but their lack at the moment with Lao standing there, glaring at everything, made it feel wrong somehow.
Lao inhaled sharply as he took in the surroundings, holding his head up slightly as he looked at the messy pile of discs and plastic game boxes next to the consoles. A rather large, brownish stain stuck out from underneath one of them. I think it was from root beer, but honestly, I couldn’t remember.
All I knew for sure was I was never getting the deposit back, but that was neither here nor there.
“Won’t you please sit down?” I offered, pointing toward the gaming chair. It had sleek black armrests and was in far better condition than anything else in the room.
Lao sniffed the air slightly and shook his head. “You honor me, Li Xiang. But I think I’ll stand.”
I smiled weakly at him. I couldn’t blame the guy. He likely didn’t want to sully his robes. Couldn’t blame him there, either.
“Of course,” I said with another bow. “You don’t mind if I sit, do you?”
Lao shook his head again. “Go ahead, child.”
I squirmed past him and slinked into my gaming chair. The well-known grooves in the fabric that had become accustomed to my shape greeted me, and I instantly felt a little more comfortable. But just a little.
The elder seemed lost in thought for a moment. “How is your mother, Li? I haven’t seen her in a few years, and I worry for her safety.”
“Oh, she’s fine.” I waved a hand dismissively. “I talked to her a couple weeks ago. She’s back in China for the Dragon Boat Festival I believe.”
Lao nodded. “Wonderful. It is heartwarming to hear she is well. Please send her my regards when our business is finished.”
“Of course.” I flashed him another grin, but his face remained stoic.
“And your brother and sister? How do they fare?”
I had to keep from rolling my eyes. Asking about family health and welfare before moving on to business was an ancient Chinese tradition. I should have expected the pleasantries, but it had been a long time since I’d been exposed to them, so they came as a bit of an annoyance.
“Just great,” I told him.
In truth, I hadn’t heard from either of them in a couple years, but I was sure they were doing just fine. The last I’d heard, my brother was in Africa trying to cure the latest plague affecting the youth there, and my sister was in Bolivia trying to end the political unrest and upheaval that had rocked the country in the last year or two. She was a renowned diplomat of sorts.
Yeah, I was definitely the black sheep of the family.
“They’re doing well,” I added. “And how about you? Is your family doing well?”
It was a bit of a mechanical response, but I still winced a bit as I said it. Of course his family wasn’t well. Mei had been kidnapped. But just how much did he know about that yet, anyway? He must know something, or he wouldn’t have come here.
“My family is well,” Lao said, his head hanging low. “They are weathering the current tragedy as well as can be expected.”
I had to stop myself from snorting. Tragedy? Mei was an outcast to them. She consorted with humans too much for their liking, and as such, she wasn’t well regarded in dragon culture. Maybe that’s why the two of us got along so well. We were both outcasts in a way.
“That’s… good to hear,“ I said.
Lao nodded once, and he paced around in the small space a bit. I caught his eyes darting over to the kitchen, then back away just as quickly. I could only imagine what was going through his head as he looked over my messy place, but it’s not like I’d had a long time to clean up or anything.
“Indeed,” he said, the words floating off his tongue.
The whole conversation was exasperating. I cut to the chase. “Look, what can I help you with? Why did you come to me?”
The elder balked a little and seemed taken aback. He wasn’t used to people dispensing with small talk, I supposed. But I wasn’t any more comfortable in this meeting than he was, and besides, I’d rather be out there spending my time looking for Mei than in here talking to him any day.
“Forgive me,” Lao said with a slight bow. “Of course, you must be worried as well.”
I nodded. “Indeed.”
He turned his back to me, his hands clasped together behind him, the billowing sleeves of his Hanfu almost covering them entirely. “I need a favor.”
This time I did snort. “A favor? From me? What could you possibly want?”
I hadn’t expected that. It was well known exactly what the dragon community thought of people like me. I was the reason Mei had “strayed from her path,” according to those types. I’d corrupted her. In a sense, I was the lowest of the low.
Lao turned to face me, his expression grim. “As you are no doubt aware, Mei has gone missing. She did not answer any of my calls this morning.”
“Yeah, no bull,” I said, snorting again. “I was there when she was taken.”
There was a slightly-perceptible shift in Lao’s demeanor. A widening of his eyes, perhaps. Then it was gone as quickly as it had come, replaced with the typical stoicism.
It brought a smile to my lips. So, he wasn’t completely infallible after all.
Lao nodded. “Yes,” he said slowly. “Such an… unfortunate occurrence.”
“Unfortunate?” I’d had enough. I shot up out of my seat and got