Even if he died trying, he would save his mate. Simon Bourne and his dragon hunters were going down.
~~~
Evie looked around her windowless room for the millionth time and let out a sigh. The room, quite simply, was a prison cell with just a bed, sink, and toilet. Oh, and a faulty, occasionally flickering fluorescent light overhead, which made her think of bad horror movies. Hopefully, she’d avoid a similar fate to the victims in those movies.
No one had taken her in or out of the tiny room since she’d regained consciousness. Despite watching the guards and their movements whenever they brought meals, she had yet to find a way to take down the armed guards, let alone devise a plan of escape.
She also had no idea of what had happened to Nikki and Charlie. While Evie didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious after drinking the bitter liquid from the vial back at Bram’s hideout, it wouldn’t be much longer before the effects of the mandrake root and periwinkle wore off the two Protectors. Once Nikki and Charlie could shift, the hunters would drain them dry. If Bram or his Protectors didn’t find them in time, the two dragon-shifters would die.
No. Evie wasn’t about to let the dragon hunter bastards win. At some point, they would question her. When that time came, she would try to find a way out of her prison. It was highly unlikely she could free the two dragonwomen alone, but if she could escape, she could bring help.
The dim fluorescent light overhead flickered right before someone unlocked the outside bolt of her door. Wherever they were keeping her contained, it’s wasn’t a new or very solid building. That would be a major oversight if Bram found her before she managed to escape.
The door opened and she blinked against the bright light in the hall. She could just make out a silhouette of a man. He said, “Stand up. We’re moving you.”
His strong West Country accent marked him as distinct from the other guards who had brought her food. Simon Bourne must be recruiting nationwide.
Being complacent would hopefully lower everyone’s guard, so Evie stood and blinked a few more times until she could make out the large nose, high brow, and balding blond hair of the guard dressed in black. If she managed to escape, she could look through the database of known dragon hunters. Reporting it would probably do bloody nothing, but it was ingrained in her to memorize details.
Once she was close enough, the guard took her arm and led her down a dirty hallway filled with cobwebs and debris. The building hadn’t been used commercially for years and was probably condemned.
After going down one dimly lit hallway and then another, the guard halted them in front of a reinforced door. Unlike back in her cell, the door was new and made of some type of metal.
Before she could think too long about what that signified, the guard rapped on the door. It opened and her ears were bombarded by a weak dragon’s roar.
Her heart squeezed. Oh no. Please don’t let it be Nikki or Charlie.
The guard pulled her into the room and Evie was careful to school her face into a neutral expression. Just in time, too, as they entered a massive cavern of a room. People dressed in either the same all-black outfit as her guard or in white lab coats bustled to and fro. Machines she couldn’t identify, medical equipment, and a bevy of weapons were spread across the room or attached to the walls. Then her eyes reached the far corner and she stopped breathing.
An adult green dragon, female if she were to guess by the size, was locked inside a giant prison cage, a muzzle on her snout and with some kind of band trapping her wings. In addition to the shackles on all four limbs and tail, various hose-like tubes were connected to the main arteries in the neck, forelegs and hindquarters. The dragon struggled to roar above a normal talking voice range. Each one was progressively weaker than the previous.
The sight simultaneously made her want to be sick as well as want to punch every person harming the magnificent creature in the face. What kind of person could put a dragon-shifter through such torture, not even drugging the dragon unconscious to spare her the pain of being drained dry?
She clenched her jaw. Dragon hunters, that’s who. Nothing she’d read in reports in the past could have prepared her for the sight before her. A quick glance told her the smiling and preening hunters in all-black who were watching the struggling beast were enjoying the sight.
Sick bastards. If something wasn’t done soon, the green dragon would die.
Evie tried to recall Nikki’s dragon color, but couldn’t remember it. She had no idea of Charlie’s dragon color, either.
While she wanted to be optimistic, Evie was a realist. Catching a dragon was bloody difficult; the green dragon had to be one of Stonefire’s Protectors.
Each second she stood gawking was lost time to find out what she could about her current situation. While she may not be able to save the green dragon in the cage, there was still a chance she could save the other Stonefire Protector as well as baby Murray.
Tugging on her arm to catch her guard’s attention, she asked, “Why did you bring me here?”
The guard tightened his grip and she resisted a flinch. “Shut it. You’ll find out soon enough.”
After the guard gave one last look at the weakening dragon, he pulled Evie to the corner farthest away from the large beast.
The corner was sectioned off with a light blue curtain. The guard pushed aside the curtain to reveal a glass room. Inside was a sleeping baby with dark hair, in a see-through plastic or glass crib.
Her throat closed up. It was little Murray.
Breathe, Evie. You need your brain or you don’t stand a chance. With one last exhalation, she focused on the details. The room was currently empty of anyone else but the baby. Much to her relief, Murray wasn’t attached to a machine, nor did he have tubes running from his body. She knew his blood was useless at curing illnesses until he reached maturity, yet she had half-expected the hunters to be testing the little one. They still might yet do so, but for now, Murray was alive and even looked peaceful.
As she continued to scan the room for weaknesses, the guard said, “The boss wanted you to see what we do here. The dragon baby is safe for now.” The guard squeezed her arm tightly, and Evie looked at his face. He continued, “Next, I’m taking you to an interview. Remember the brat and the dragon in the corner. If you want the baby and the other dragon to live, nod that you’ll cooperate now.”
She wasn’t about to give up and tell the hunters everything they wanted to hear, especially since they’d betray her at the first opportunity. But, for the time being, Evie bobbed her head to buy herself some time.
The guard turned her away from Murray. “Right, then let’s go.”
As they walked back toward the same door they’d entered, Evie caught a glimpse of the green dragon in the corner. She was barely making any noise at all now, nor was she struggling.
Evie fought back tears. The beautiful dragon, who had most likely been sent to protect her, was dying.
Right then and there, she made a promise to the green dragon. I’ll find a way to expose these activities to the world. Your death won’t be for nothing.
The dragon caught her eye and she swore it nodded at her, almost as if she could hear Evie’s thoughts. However, before she could do anything else, Evie was back in the dark rundown hallway again.
As they walked in the opposite direction to her cell, Evie’s heart pounded in her chest. She’d been angry before, but the sight of the green dragon had made her furious. No living thing should be put through such torture. If the DDA didn’t know about these activities, she would make sure they did once she was free.
And if her supposition about the DDA assistant director, Jonathan Christie, was correct and he was allowing the dragon hunters to carry on with little to no oversight, then she’d reach out to the media. Something needed to be done.
They stopped in front of an old, slightly rickety door and Evie pushed aside her anger. She needed a cool head for the ‘interview’. If she let her temper out, Evie wouldn’t be
able to help anyone, let alone herself.
Chapter Six
After two bloody days of planning, researching information on Evie’s laptop, which they’d found tucked away in his hideout, and scouting the area around Carlisle, Bram and Kai were ready to make their move. As much as Bram’s dragon wanted to fly in and deal with the threat as it came, Bram wasn’t about to risk Evie, Murray, or his two captured Protectors. He owed it to his people to bring everyone back alive, not just his mate.
Yet keeping his inner beast in check became harder with each passing hour. The incessant roaring inside his head was not only irritating, but also signaled how close Bram was to losing control. No amount of scolding, let alone reasoning, had been able to silence his inner beast.
As such, Bram would be infiltrating the hideout while still in his human form.
Looking up to the night sky, he could just make out the shadows of his clan members flying in the air. To the average person, they might hear the beat of wings and dismiss it as the wind. Bram, however, knew there were two wing formations of dragons circling as quietly as possible in the sky above.
He hoped they were quiet enough to avoid notice by the hunters.
Bram signaled to his team of five dragon-shifters in human form to wait. Once two dragons swooped down and gently landed on the four-story abandoned building in the distance, he nodded at his team and moved.
Surveillance and tapping their local contacts had confirmed the Carlisle hunters were still using one of the two tunnels reported in the DDA’s reports. That was how Bram and his team would try to enter the hideout.
Bram crept through the bushes hiding the entrance until he found the branches concealing the door. Picking up a stick, he pushed aside the branches and held his breath, but he didn’t see any sort of alarm or keypad. Simon Bourne and his hunters were clever enough to have silent alarms, but Kai and Bram had earlier decided to risk it. After all, Bram’s break-in was a decoy meant to divide resources.
Raising a hand to signal for everyone to be ready to fight, Bram rammed his shoulder against the wooden door. On the second try, the old wooden frame splintered. The door gave way and he barreled inside the dark tunnel.
The blackness was no match for his keen dragon-shifter eyesight. With each step, his dragon pushed harder against the wall inside his mind. Bram’s patience with his dragon was nearing its limit. He took what few precious seconds he could spare to say, You can help me soon. I need my human half for the plan to work.
Let me out. I will make you stronger.
When the time comes, I’ll do that. For now, stop with the bloody roaring. You’re acting like a two-year-old who didn’t get the sweets he wanted at the shop.
His dragon huffed. I’ll give you ten minutes of peace. If you don’t use me by then, I’ll find a way out of this prison.
Bram could just make out a door at the end of the tunnel. He quickly instructed his beast, Wait for my signal.
Slamming up the partition in his mind again, Bram stopped in front of the new door and put his ear against the cool, metal surface. He could hear more than a few pairs of footsteps on the other side as well as the shuffling of equipment and muffled shouts. Chances were the hunters knew the tunnel had been breached.
Good. If they were occupied with Bram and his team, they wouldn’t notice the other dragons’ approach.
He conjured up Evie’s dark blue eyes and red hair. Using her face to focus, Bram shoved against the door, but the metal didn’t give. Unable to shift, he’d brought along a gun. Taking it out, he flicked off the safety and shot the lock three times. With another shove against the door, it gave way and he burst into a giant room of chaos.
People were running about, picking up supplies. On the far side of the room, a large group of human men and women dressed in black formed a protective circle around a smaller group of humans in white lab coats. Before he could try to guess what they were moving, the white coats escaped the room via the exit on the far side.
It was then his eyes fell on the green, unmoving dragon in the corner. The restraints and tubes told him what had been done to Charlie, and his inner dragon howled with grief.
The female Protector was dead.
Bram growled. The grief and sadness would have to wait. More than just about anyone, Charlie would understand the need to focus on saving the living before grieving for the dead. Channeling some of his inner dragon’s anger, Bram gave the signal and rushed toward the twenty or so black-clad humans still inside the large room.
It was time to give Kai the distraction he needed to save the others. Bram refused to believe Evie, Nikki, or Murray were also dead. No, if he had any say, no more of his clan members would die in this building at the hands of the hunters.
~~~
Evie had been abandoned to the dilapidated conference room for about twenty minutes. There was a guard outside her door, so escape wasn’t an option.
After a quick check of the room and not finding any real faults, she sat down. Rather than processing everything she had seen in the last half-hour, the silence had brought back memories of the dying green dragon. A dragon who was most likely dead.
First, human sacrifices had died because of her. After today, a dragon’s death would also be on her head.
For someone who had joined the DDA in hopes of protecting life, Evie saw more death than she liked. Even though she’d saved more lives than not, it was still difficult to digest.
Only remembering what she told Bram, about how she survived the two human sacrifices, helped with her guilt about the dragon. She would analyze what had caused the dragon’s death later and find a way to prevent it from happening again. Evie refused to believe this old building full of dragon hunters and scientists would be her final resting place. Somehow, some way, she’d escape and find help.
The door opened behind her. The sound sharpened her focus, although it took everything she had not to ask what had taken so bloody long.
She turned to see a male dragon-shifter in human form swagger into the room. The dragonman’s hair was longer and he sported a short beard, but there was no mistaking the eyes, the tattoo, or the slightly crooked nose of Neil Westhaven.
Instead of screaming “murderous traitor,” Evie merely raised an eyebrow and asked, “What do you want?”
The dragonman flipped around one of the chairs and sat with the back facing his front. “I’m guessing by your nonchalance you’re either quite calm in stressful situations or you’ve seen my face before.”
“Both, but I’m more curious about you. They’re killing a dragon in this facility for their blood, yet you don’t seem to care.”
He shrugged. “Stonefire interfered in my private life. When they chose to protect the human sacrifice over one of their own, I stopped caring about them. I left and made sure the human female got what she deserved. The only good thing to come of it all is the child has secured my position here.”
His tone was almost bored, the bastard. Punching him in the face won’t accomplish anything. You need information, Evie Marie, or you’ll never make it out of here.
Right, then. With a deep breath, she forced her voice to remain neutral when she said, “So they’re starting a blood farm here, aren’t they?”
Neil didn’t so much as blink an eye at her question. “Clever human. I’m not sure how you found out about that piece of information, but it proves you might be more useful than the other DDA inspectors.”
Evie clenched her hand into a fist under the table; otherwise, she would punch the dragonman in the nose. “If you’ve been working with Simon Bourne this whole time then you know it’s only a matter of time before he discards you, too.”
Neil waved a hand in the air. “You know nothing of my deal with Bourne.” The dragonman leaned forward. “Now, enough chit chat. It’s time for you to answer some questions.” Evie opened her mouth to reply but Neil cut her off. “Don’t try to bargain or use your wits to outsmart me. You do anything daft and we’ll drain the other Prote
ctor. Her life is in your hands.”
She gritted her teeth. “What do you want?”
“You’re going to help me take down Bram Moore-Llewellyn.”
Un-bloody-likely. “And what makes you think I can do that?”
“Don’t play coy and waste my time. The only reason Bram would carry you to a secret hideout himself is that you mean something to him.” Neil’s nose scrunched up. “I reckon he wants to take you as his mate, not that I understand why he would choose a human female willingly.”
Yes, her urge to punch him was growing harder to resist.
Luckily, her time down south with Clan Skyhunter had prepared her for dealing with dragons of the arsehole variety. “Listen, we can waste time while you make your snide, passive-aggressive remarks, or we can get to the point. Take your choice.”
Neil’s jaw clenched and she resisted a smile. The dragonman said, “Only because I’m not allowed to kill you will I let that slide, human. Now, tell me the truth: Does Bram intend to take you as his mate?”
Since Neil knew about Bram taking her to the cave hideout, Bourne’s spies were probably everywhere. Lying would be pointless. The truth might just give her the time she needed. “Yes. But before you make a snide comment about how I stink or Bram must be desperate, tell me why you think Bram will trust me if I miraculously walk out of here and back to Stonefire?”
“Male dragon-shifters are careless when they think with their cocks.”
“Are you speaking from experience?”
Neil growled. “I’m the one who will ask the questions from here on out. Bram will trust you. That’s enough. So if you want the other captured dragon to live, you’ll cooperate. Understand?”
Evie didn’t want to make a blanket promise, but she was running out of ways to stall. The dragonman’s eyes had flashed to slits a few times. If she wasn’t careful, she would provoke the inner beast. Unlike Bram, she didn’t think Neil would restrain himself. There was a lot he could do without killing her.
Seducing the Dragon: Part Four Page 5
