Page 23 of Love Bites Extra Hard

I tucked the scale back in my pocket and slid my fingers across the surface of it. It was smooth, and warm. Calming, even.

At least I wasn’t a weirdo for collecting them, since everyone did it.

If I remembered, I’d ask Stella for more information about the fallen scales. He seemed to be losing an excessive amount of them. Surely no one collected eight to ten scales a day, every single day. They would be overrun by scales after a while.

I tried to memorize the route as we made our way down to the prison. I also tried to come up with a plan as far as Sylvester went, but that would really come down to whether or not the dragons let me in his cell to try my hand at seducing him. If I could hit him with the force of my magic while I was touching him, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to resist shifting for me.

It was only a theory, though. A dangerous one. Which was why they wouldn’t let me try it.

If we attempted enough other things and still couldn’t get anything to work, I’d just have to figure out a way to sneak in on my own.

Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

Stella was in the middle of a discussion with two male dragons when we made it down to the prison. There was an extra camping chair down there, too.

Talon blocked my body with his when we approached.

“Hey, Talon,” one of the guys said.

The way the guy spoke to him made me think he reallywasn’ttheir king. Not in their eyes, at least. To the rest of Mistwood, he was.

“Where’s your siren?” another guy asked.

I stepped around the big, protective bastard and waved. “Right here. And I’m not his.”

I didn’t even know why he was being protective. He’d only bitten me casually. Fed me casually. Gotten me off casually. Brought me socks and a hoodie casually.

All because he needed me to try to take down the scaly asshole in his prison. He was protecting me as a tool he needed, and nothing more.

But I obviously wasn’t in danger with the dragons. He’d said himself that the worst they would do to me was try to proposition me.

Both of the guys were hot, and they both grinned at me. Talon stiffened at my back, but I ignored his reaction, stepping past the guards and flashing Stella a quick smile. “How’s the fucker?”

“Still alive and kicking, unfortunately. The effects of your magic faded as soon as you were gone, and he went back to his normal thing.”

I stepped up to the bars over his cell’s window again, and I studied him as he did nothing.

“Do you think he knows you have a siren?” I asked.

“I think he’s been in there so long that he doesn’t trust his own mind anymore. Whatever sanity he possessed is probably long gone. I think hitting him with your magic every day will throw him off,” Stella said.

I grimaced. “It sounds like torture.”

And yeah, he deserved to suffer and die for what he’d done, but I didn’t know if I could really stomach that.

“Your magic isn’t painful. The bastard will be lucky to feel it. It’s his mind that we’re trying to break,” she countered.

I didn’t think breaking someone’s mind was all that different from torture, but what was the alternative? Let him stay in the prison until he figured out a way to escape and hurt more people?

Obviously, that wasn’t an option.

“Can we stay when you use your magic?” one of the guys I didn’t know asked.

“No.” Talon’s voice was sharp.

“That’s fine,” I countered, shooting Talon glare.

His eyes flashed in warning, but he reluctantly agreed. “At the far end of the hallway.”

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