“This is the weirdest damn thing.” Sebastian said falling into step with her.
She appreciated they weren’t standing in her space or James’s, even if they couldn’t entirely tell where their spaces were.
Nash moved ahead of them. He lifted his head like he was trying to catch a scent. He whipped around and Quinn stopped.
“Fucking hell.” Nash’s eyes zeroed on exactly where she was standing.
“How the fuck…?”
“Can you see us now?”
“You’re coming into focus. What the hell is going on?”
“We have to get out of here. Grey had me in custody. James is barely hanging on. I’m not sure he can die like this, but he needs help.”
Sebastian took James’s arm off Quinn’s shoulder and put it over his own. The shifter was able to hold James up much better, and in the dim light of nearby streetlamps, Quinn was able to see just how bad off he really was.
They made it to the car and Nash made sure everyone was locked and loaded before he got into the driver’s side and they tore out of there.
Quinn shifted in her seat so she could look back at James. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He was tortured, Quinn,” Sebastian said. “You need to know, you can’t be around him. No one can. He needs to be checked out. He could be on Dragon Fire or anything else.”
“What?”
Sebastian sighed. “You got away. For all we know, you got away on purpose. These guys, they don’t make many mistakes. You’ll need to be checked out too.”
Quinn’s eyes widened. Could something have happened to her in there without her even knowing? The idea terrified her.
The drive back to the safe house was long. Too long.
“Does Henrik know that I was there?”
“Oh, yeah,” Nash growled.
“Took everything we had to keep him from coming after you. He would’ve done it as a full-fledged dragon and caused all kinds of chaos.”
Quinn cringed. “It was stupid not to ask him to go with me.”
“Why did you go, anyway?”
“I got a text from James’s phone. It was Grey who lured me there.”
Nash growled.
“Easy, Tiger,” Sebastian said.
“You were a real idiot, Quinn.” Nash raised his voice. It was dangerously deep and surly.
Quinn pressed herself back against the door. Nash sounded intimidating most of the time, but to have him lash out at her was so much worse.
“I’ve been trying to save my friend.”
“James is a friend,” Nash said, “but to risk the entire mission for him was selfish and idiotic, and I promise James would agree with me.”
“Take it easy on her,” James muttered from the back. “She’s barely had a glimpse into our world. She doesn’t fully grasp the danger. She’s barely seen what vampires are capable of, let alone anyone else.”
“She should’ve trusted us. We’ve all been telling her she had to wait.”