The praise brought a smile of pride to Clyde’s lips. “Thank you, Maistir. I’ll alert the kitchen to prepare food for everyone.”
“Leave us out,” Evalle called over. “We’re not far from home. We’re leaving once Storm shifts and puts on clothes.” Then she turned to Quinn. “Before you bring it up, don’t fuss about the sunlight. Storm will cloak us to get home if we don’t walk out into a downpour based on that thunder I’m hearing. I need to talk to you before I leave.”
Nodding, Quinn ushered the rest of the team up three floors to a level available twenty-four-seven for Beladors in need. Clyde directed the management leader to provide everything necessary for the team.
With that handled and no one around to listen, Quinn told Evalle, “We have not found Tristan yet, but we have leads. I sent a mobile phone to our tech team. They’re currently going through it searching for something Daegan needs. He’s still in Ireland and I plan to return as quickly as I can. I may ask you to continue as an interim Maistir to free me up.”
“Understood. While I’m not as experienced as you, I’m okay to keep doing it.”
“You are performing just fine, Evalle.”
She scoffed. “You’re the one who showed up and broke us into groups. I’ll remember that for a future situation, though.”
Quinn could see her developing into a strong and strategic leader with just a little guidance. “That’s as much catch-up as I can give you at the moment.”
“Got it.” She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from leaving. “While you’re here, you may want to talk to Reese.”
“I do want to speak with her, but I don’t have time to teleport back and forth to Treoir at the moment.”
Evalle stretched her neck in a move to delay speaking. “She’s at her apartment.”
“What?” Quinn ground out.
“Yep. Phoedra and Lanna are still in Treoir, according to Edward.” She referenced the Belador working as a doorman at Phoedra and Reese’s apartment. “I spoke to him when I passed by her apartment on patrol. Edward said he was surprised to see Reese back when he hadn’t heard from you. I told him I’d let you know if I saw you first.” Evalle had that I-don’t-like-being-the-messenger look.
Bloody hell. What was Reese doing here?
And who teleported her back to Atlanta without telling him?
Storm’s jaguar nudged Evalle’s leg. She said, “I know. I’m telling him.” Taking another breath, she said, “You noticed the number of demons at VIPER, right?”
“Of course. Trey mentioned an influx of them in the city. Where are they all coming from?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. I’ve never seen so many in the city and no other areas in the south are reporting anything like this. I hate to say this, Quinn, but they started showing up after Reese returned. Edward told me he widened the protective area around her apartment. We mapped sightings and killings over the past twelve hours. Those spots were in a five-to-six mile radius around her building. More are showing up every hour.”
Chapter 3
Tristan’s body dangled thousands of feet off the ground from claws the size of his head. A dark scarf wrapped around his face blocked his view. Cold air battered his body clothed in medieval furs and leathers, none of it comfortable.
All of it soaked and cold as shit.
Brynhild’s dragon would freeze Tristan’s nuts off if this flight went on for much longer.
She almost managed to do it once before.
He’d have nightmares for the rest of his life, which might not be very long.
All he did was try to talk to this damn dragon shifter to make friends while they were both stuck inside Cathbad’s cavern.
Because friends helped friends escape, right?
Not this lunatic. She took offense at his attempt to flirt and lost her ever-lovin’ mind.
One minute Brynhild was listening to him, and the next, she snapped. She started shifting into the massive iridescent-blue dragon now flying him who knew where and roared furiously. Her power had expanded and slammed across the cavern. The pond water boiled into a churning sea and huge chunks of ice shot up into the air.
When the crazy dragon fully formed, she pulled her spiked head back with jaws open to snap his head off. In that split second, Tristan had one last idea to save his ass.
He yelled, “I can teleport!”
Her dragon’s head whipped forward.
He braced for the attack.
She swung her head to the side instead and unleashed a quick blast of fire.
It burned a hole in the rock wall.
Tristan would have ended up a pile of ashes.
No regenerating from ashes.
When he’d stopped breathing like a horse run to ground and realized he’d dodged a fire bullet, he repeated, “I. Can. Teleport.”
He’d wanted to be sure she got that part.
Seeing her spew fire brought back the conversation he’d had with Daegan about a red dragon filmed burning forests in two countries.
Daegan contended that could not be a true red dragon. The fire had been confined as if shot through a tube where Daegan’s dragon fire spread out for maximum damage.
Brynhild’s fire had blasted out in a narrow stream for seconds, then fizzled.
Right after the fire, she blew a stream of frozen water across the ceiling of the cavern. Had her dragon done that to clear the smoky taste from her mouth?
When that giant dragon head swung around to face Tristan, brilliant blue eyes with elongated black irises stared at him. Her dragon had a smoother voice than Daegan’s. “What did you say about teleporting?”
Tristan finally exhaled the air from lungs filled to capacity. “I can teleport. We can get out of here.” He hadn’t wanted to give up his ace so soon, but it would have done him little good to die with that information.
“I do not believe you.”
He jumped at the chance to convince her before he faced Brynhild-the-Terminator part two. “I can prove it if you remove these manacles.”
“You think to trick me?” her dragon roared.
Damn woman.
Tristan’s hearing would never recover from that ear-crushing sound so close. “What would be the point in tricking you when I want out of here as much as you want freedom? It should be worth your time to give me a chance to show you what I can do. Don’t you want to live without a tether to Cathbad?”
Yep, he had gone all in on escaping.
Her dragon had eyed him for a bit then walked away, hopped, then took flight around the cavern.
Tristan had to close his eyes to keep flying pieces of ice that broke loose from blinding him. Her wings sent ice of all sizes airborne. He had cuts on his face, arms, upper body. Thankfully, he’d still had jeans on protecting his lower half. The air dropped twenty degrees.
As she flew in her tight little airspace, her dragon blew out long streams of ice. She circled again and again, but the constant turning and flapping clearly burned up energy. When her dragon landed, Brynhild changed back to her human form.
She did it quickly and clothed herself in the same battle armor. Walking toward his hanging body, she had the swagger of a warrior who had known victory more than once. In addition to that black armor with silver emblems, her hair wove itself into tight braids, half of which were pulled back and tied with a leather thong by an invisible hand. The rest fell loose.