Page 70 of Dragon Unleashed

Suddenly, I’m dropped. My legs refuse to take my weight and I topple sideways, head cracking off the sidewalk. Hazily I watch feet dancing in and out of view, closer, then farther. It’s almost beautiful it’s so graceful. The grunting and straining of fighting echoes off the grimy walls.

Get up, Lorelei. Move.

A body drops to the ground, inches from where my face is still pressed into the cold tarmac. The guard’s head flops back and sightless eyes stare straight into mine.

Two more thumps in quick succession are followed by an eerie silence. Straining against my uncoordinated limbs, I try to sit up. To get away from the body. From the man that’s surely dead. My head thumps savagely, and I retch.

Small hands under my armpits pull at me, relentlessly. I wrench myself away from my new attacker.

“Either get up and walk, princess, or let me drag you. The Fates know I can’t carry you.”

Silas.

I’d recognize his cranky voice anywhere. He found me. He saved me.

I’m in so much trouble.

I must black out for a moment because I come around to a high-pitch screeching. I’m propped against a wall and someone is very, very angry. A female someone. A stiletto flies past my face and I jerk back, nearly knocking myself over.

“You leave her alone. Disgusting old man!”

A chorus of voices join in. Long thin legs step in front of me, then another pair and another, until the butts of five women are lined up in my face. Butts with very little clothing.

“Your old, wrinkled dick ain’t going anywhere near this gal,” another woman shouts.

“Old pervert!”

The hooker who stopped to ask if I was okay leans down and pats my face. “Hey, babe, you’re okay, we’ve got you.”

I peek past the row of legs to find Silas, arms in the air, utterly nonplussed.

“It’s okay, ladies. The old man helped me. He beat up the real assholes.”

It takes some persuasion before the women reluctantly leave me with Silas and my pounding headache.

“Old man,” he mutters, as we limp toward the portal, my arm slung over his shoulders. “Theoldmansaved your ass.”

We reach the portal, and he pats me down until he finds his pass. With a grim look he takes it back, swipes it, and drags me through.

My legs don’t hold me up when we hit the grass on the other side. I land on all fours with a grunt of pain.I’m meant to be tougher than this.Silas hauls me up and drags me on in silence.

It takes all my strength to climb the stairs to my dorm. I’m physically and mentally exhausted. I’m barely inside my room when he rounds on me.

“What were you thinking?”

“Clearly wasn’t.”

I’m not about to make excuses. I brace my arms on either side of my mirror and stare at myself. My hair is bedraggled, blood oozes from my right nostril, and my tits are fully on display. Embarrassment creeps up my neck and I tug my shirt shut.

“I’m sorry, Silas.”

“For what? For stealing? For sneaking off? For putting yourself and the idiot who went to save you in danger? For not telling anyone where you went?” He pauses and takes his phone out of his pocket. I can see over his shoulder what he texts, slowly and painstakingly with one finger.

Silas: I got her. She’s safe.

He turns back to me.

I slump on my bed. “All of it, I guess.”

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