Seducing the Dragon: Part Four (6 page)

A sinking feeling gathered in his stomach. Kai was usually calm and collected under pressure. The worry on his clan member’s face meant something awful had happened.

The instant Bram shut the door behind him, Kai said, “Evie and the others have been taken.”

Bram’s dragon pushed to the forefront of his mind.
I told you we should have protected her. We must find her.
 

I need information first.
After shoving his beast aside, Bram said, “Tell me what happened, and quickly. My dragon is not happy at the moment.”

“Well, Nikki reached out via the secure line, supposedly because Evie had found something in the data. But before the human could come on the line, there was a mini-explosion, some fighting, and talking. Since the phone line was still connected, one of my Protectors was able to decipher the faint conversation.”

Bram put more pressure against his dragon’s invisible prison to keep him restrained and bit out, “And?”

“Evie was a clever human, and she tricked the attackers into admitting they were Carlisle hunters.”

His clever lass. “Olivia didn’t give me anything about the location of Bourne’s headquarters, and I doubt she’ll be able to. Has Zain found out anything new from the dragon hunter we captured?”

Kai nodded. “Yes, he managed to extract some locations in exchange for protection for the hunter. Everything is already in motion. Since Evie is your mate, I need to know if you want to come with us when we leave.”

Bram’s dragon roared.
Of course we will go. I will channel my anger to rescue her. The hunters won’t stand a chance.

Unless they bring out the laser guns.

I will be careful.

Bram focused back on Kai. “Let me call Tristan and a few others first so the clan isn’t leaderless when we finally leave. I’ll meet you in my office in twenty minutes to hash out the details. Also, find someone you trust to take Olivia’s statements. If she refuses to cooperate, lock her away and call the DDA once all this mess is sorted.”

Kai nodded and left Bram alone in the hallway. As much as he wanted to roar along with his inner beast, he forced himself to remain calm. Anger would hurt Evie. He needed his brain to save her.

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.