Page 34 of Primal Dragon

“Oh god,” she murmured.

“Q.”

She snapped out of the horror and followed Cillian down the narrow passage between the cages. There were three levels of cages, almost all of them had at least one woman inside if not two or three. They found Letty near the end. Cillian had been breaking locks and opening the cages as they went.

Letty looked a little rundown since the last time Quinn had seen her, but she was relieved to find her in good condition.

“All right, ladies,” Cillian said above the murmurs, “Here’s the deal, you’re going to follow out my associate, Q. He’ll lead you out. Do not make any noise and move as quickly as you can. Those who can’t keep up, I’ll be behind you. You will not get left behind, but we need to push ourselves. I can only carry one or two of you at a time. I understand you’re scared, but we’re almost out of this.”

Quinn and several the women jumped at the roar from outside.

“Oh, and there’s a dragon outside, but rest assured, the dragon is on our side and will not hurt you.”

“A dragon?” one of the women gasped.

“He won’t hurt any of you, I promise,” Quinn said trying to sound reassuring.

“Why the fuck should we trust you?” another woman barked.

Quinn squeezed her eyes shut and she tugged off the ring on her middle finger. The glamour fell away. She pulled off her hat. She shined the light on herself. “Ladies, I promise, we’re just here to get you the fuck out of here. The longer we dilly dally, the more likely this will all blow up in our face. Let’s move. Do as Cillian says. Please.”

“You were a dude,” a woman said.

“It’s complicated.” She shoved the ring back on. “I can explain once we’re all at the safe house.”

Letty clapped her hand onto Quinn’s shoulder. “Come on, ladies, let’s do as she says.”

There were no more arguments. Maybe confusion was a riot stopper, who knew? She headed for the door, ready to lead them. The vampire Cillian had thrown into the yard was still lying there unconscious.

Memo to self, she thought,don’t piss off Cillian.

The coast seemed to be clear. She pushed open the door and started hustling all the women out. They rushed toward the street up the hill.

There was another loud roar. Quinn spun around to see that Henrik was on the ground battling three vampires at once. That was when she saw that he was anchored to the ground with a chain. They were tying him down.

Cillian rushed toward her with the remaining women.

“Let’s go, Q.”

“You go. Get them out of here. I’m going to help Henrik.”

“I’ll help the dragon; you take care of the women.”

Quinn was already charging down toward Henrik. She heard Cillian curse, but he kept the women moving. They needed to be protected by someone who could handle all of them. Henrik needed her. She could help him.

She kept to the shadows just like Henrik had when they came through the first time. She didn’t run into any guards. They were clearly all focused on Henrik. Finally, she was along the perimeter of where they were fighting.

There was nothing in the immediate area that looked like it would be helpful. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sneak up on any of them. She wasn’t about to underestimate an ancient killing machine like a vampire. That was suicide.

She doubled checked her ring was in place and then swallowed a deep breath. Quinn stepped out of her hiding place. The vampires were still fighting Henrik as she moved toward the one that had his back to her. She grabbed her one weapon and try to remember what James and Cillian taught her about staking a vampire.

She hadn’t taken some doctor oath that she would do no harm, but she didn’t want to hurt anyone, even a bunch of vampires that were hurting her dragon.

“Hey.”

The vampire directly in front of her turned around. She used her legs to come up with the stake and wedge it into his chest. The vampire screamed in her face and backhanded her. She flew back into the solid steel of a shipping crate and fell hard to the ground.

Quinn laid on the ground, gasping for air. Her vision grew fuzzy as she groped for her lungs to work again.

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