Page 3 of Primal Dragon

She shook her head emphatically. “No. It’s never felt like this before. What are you going to do?”

“Nothing heroic, I swear. I just need to look into some things.”

“Ugh.” She shoved him again. “I’m so sick of your I’m-a-vampire-and-have-to-be-super-vague-about-everything-because-I-think-I’m-so-cool.”

“Oh, I know I’m cool.” He grinned at her, the cocky air of the vampire back for just a minute before he reached into his coat pocket. “But, before I forget, there’s something I want you to have.”

James pulled out a wooden box and handed it over.

“Okay, what is it?”

“Some things I’ve been collecting for you. Just in case. Something’s going on, Q, and whether I end up mixed up in it all or not, I want you to be prepared.”

She opened the lid to see several small vials and other objects that something told her were probably imbued with magic. “James, what is going on? Prepared for what?”

“Nothing I can’t handle. But I’m not going to leave my favorite human unprotected. There are too few good ones out there, and I don’t want to find a new best friend.”

“You going to tell me what any of this stuff is?”

“We’ll do some vampire training when I get back. I’ll teach you some more cool tricks.”

“I do love it when you go into lecture mode,” she said dryly.

He squeezed her hand. “It’ll be all right, Q. You don’t have to worry over me.”

“May not have to, but I still will.”

Quinn let it drop, and the afternoon continued on, relaxed and casual. She knew that it would probably be a couple of weeks at least before she saw him again, but she couldn’t get rid of the gnawing sense that something was wrong.

* * *

Quinn wasthree hours into her emergency veterinary clinic shift when the storm started. Lightning in the middle of a snowstorm seemed particularly ominous. And, of course, the night when the other to ER doctors called in sick was the night everyone had an emergency.

Luckily, her favorite vet tech was working, and they managed to get through the worst of it before two o’clock.

Around three, the sliding doors opened, allowing a large gust of freezing cold air and a ton of snow. A giant beast of a man charged in with his arms curled around himself. It took Quinn a second to realize he was carrying something alive in those thick muscular arms.

The man was decked out in a pair of thigh-hugging black jeans that fell over his combat boots. His grey Henley clung to his body, with snow sticking to it and dusting all of his dark hair. His bright green eyes found her and stomped right to the counter.

“I need to see a doctor right away.” He had a surly baritone voice that demanded attention.

“What happened?” she asked.

The man dropped his arms enough that she could see the tiny calico kitten in his arms. “A couple of kids super-glued her to the street.”

Quinn gasped and her eyes widened. “Right this way.”

She didn’t need to look back to see if he was following her. Between his heavy footfalls and his overwhelmingly masculine presence, she knew he was hot on her trail. She opened the door to the nearest exam room.

Quinn went straight for the gloves and grabbed a couple of things from the drawers she knew she would need. When she turned around, she was completely blown away by the impact he had on her once again.

In the small room, he seemed twice as big as he did out in the waiting room.

“I’m Doctor Thompson.”

“Henrik.”

“You can set her down here,” Quinn said.

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