Page 19 of Primal Dragon

Nothing made sense.

And holy crap! He was a dragon shifter. James had talked about them. He had told her all kinds of things that she couldn’t come up with since Henrik was glaring down at her.

“You can’t kidnap someone,” she said.

“We have to, but before you freak out, listen to my plan.” Henrik patted his pocket where he kept his phone. “Oh shit. My phone.”

Quinn jerked back when a burst of light blossomed in the middle of the street growing big enough to light up the night. She squinted through the beams as two figures appeared in the center of the light just before it died out. Then there were two women standing in the center of the street.

“Fucking hell, Sy, are you trying to give people a reason to look out their windows?” Henrik chastised.

“It’s fucking cold,” a woman gasped, wrapping her bare arms around her core.

The other woman who was dressed a little more appropriately just chuckled and shook her head. “I told you, Syrena. It’s Chicago in the wintertime.”

“I’m just dropping you off and then I’m going back to Miami, assuming I don’t freeze to death first.” Syrena wrapped her arm around herself. “Here’s my quick plan. Letty here is game to be your kidnapped dame. Give me your token.” She held her hand out expectantly to Letty.

Letty pulled something out of her jeans pocket and dropped it in Syrena’s palm.

“What’s going on?”

Syrena took in Quinn for the first time. “Who’s your friend?”

“Q, this is Syrena. She’s the witch for the Tourmaline Clan. Syrena, this is Q. He’s a vampire.”

Syrena’s eyebrow cocked up. “No…he’s not,” she replied.

Henrik glanced back at Quinn and then back to Syrena. “How did you know?”

“I can see the glamour. That isn’t dragon witch magic, but it’s definitely witch magic. Who’s your supplier?”

“A friend gave me the glamour in case of emergencies,” Quinn replied.

“It’s good. It even does a good job with the voice,” she said.

Quinn shifted uncomfortably. Could she tell that Quinn was a girl?

Henrik scoffed, “Down to the smell. He’s human. A friend of James’s.”

“Ooo, interesting.” Syrena looked like a kid in a candy store. “That’s a good glamour.” Her eyes narrowed as she examined Quinn more closely.

Henrik cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to rush you, but we’re kind of on a clock.”

Syrena shook herself. “Right. All right.” She turned toward Letty. “Give me your hands.” She held out her own palms up with the token Letty had given her. Letty set her hands atop of Syrena’s.

The words that flowed out of the witch’s mouth were foreign, pretty, like Latin but had none of the same sounds. A glowing pink thread of smoke pooled around their hands and then all of it drew in between their hands were the token was held. Syrena pulled her hands away and all the bright magenta energy was sucked into the small pocketknife. Syrena’s chanting stopped.

She kept her eyes closed for another few moments and then her big green eyes popped open. “Okay, lovies. Here’s how this is going to work. Take Letty to your evil vampire and hand her over. This baby,” she held up the knife, “will act like a GPS for you.” She thrust it at Henrik. He opened his palm and she set it in his hand. “Open up maps on your phone and put the knife on top and it will start working. You can find her wherever they take her. The knife has a return-to-sender spell on it as well. When you save her from her kidnapping, hand her the knife and she’ll be sent to Sea Glass, so she won’t be popping in the middle of Miami.”

“Hang on…” Quinn stepped forward, “this woman is just offering herself over to be kidnapped by a bunch of vampires. How do we know they aren’t just going to drain her dry after five minutes of us handing her over?”

“We don’t,” Syrena said, “which is why I also put a protection spell on her. If someone tries to physically harm her, she’ll be teleported out.”

“What if they have some sort of anti-magic barrier or something?” Quinn asked. “I mean, if everything you just said is possible, then vampires have the ability to protect themselves too.”

“Q, was it?” Letty asked.

Quinn nodded.

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