Page 13 of Seducing the Dragon
Leaning back in her chair, she closed her eyes to clear her mind of Bram when there was a knock on the door. Evie opened her eyes and debated whether she should answer it or not when a muffled female voice sounded from the other side of the door, “Open up, human. Bram sent me to babysit you.”
Great. Bram didn’t even trust her to stay in a cottage and type without causing trouble. She hoped the rest of her life wouldn’t be this way, with a guard watching over her nearly every second of every day.
With a sigh, Evie stood up and moved to the door. Not a complete idiot, she opened the door a crack in case she needed to close it quickly and was greeted by the sight of a pair of woman’s breasts encased in a t-shirt. Looking up, it took everything she had not to gasp at the woman’s disfigured face.
The scar running down from the woman’s right temple, across the bridge of her nose, to her left ear as well as the healed burns on her neck, told Evie the woman’s identity; or rather, the dragonwoman’s identity. She said, “You’re Arabella MacLeod.”
The dragonwoman raised an eyebrow. “Great to see I have a reputation. Now open the fucking door before I kick it open.”
Evie had to somewhat put up with Bram’s bullshit for a chance to stay safe, but she didn’t have to put up with Arabella MacLeod’s attitude. “If you’re going to try to intimidate me, you have a long way to go before you even start coming close to Marcus King’s level. How about we cut the tough act and converse on a level footing?”
Arabella crossed her arms over her chest. “So, the DDA inspector has a backbone.” While waiting to see what the dragonwoman would do, Arabella kicked the door hard enough to send Evie flying backward on her arse.
Not even her squishy bum could save her tail bone from crashing against the floor. She glared up at the dragonwoman. It was on the tip of Evie’s tongue to quote DDA regulations about accosting an inspector, but Evie kept quiet since those laws wouldn’t protect her from the dragon hunters if Bram cast her out on her own.
Evie slowly stood up, ignoring the pain in her backside as she said, “Feel better now?”
The dragonwoman blinked. “What?”
“Your capture and resulting torture just over ten years ago is well-known inside the DDA. It’s also well-known that you hate humans, so if knocking me on my arse helps to calm you down, then go for it. But if all you’re going to do is use me as a punching bag for your hatred, then you can glare at me from across the room. I have shit to do.”
Arabella studied her a second and then said, “You’re not like the other DDA inspectors.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“No.”
Evie rolled her eyes. “Glad to see the dragonwomen can be as monosyllabic as the dragonmen. Now, excuse me, I’m going to work on the aforementioned shit I have to do.”
Just as she moved to walk, Arabella grabbed her arm and asked, “Why are you here?”
Had Bram already spread her story to all the dragon-shifters? She’d thought better of him than that.
Looking over her shoulder, she answered, “Look, I don’t know what Bram told you, but if I don’t type out as much as I can before he returns, I might end up in the hands of the dragon hunters. You know what that’s like, and no matter how much you might hate my being human, I’m guessing you hate the dragon hunters more, to the point that you wouldn’t want them to get what they want.”
“And they want you.”
Okay, maybe Bram hadn’t told her anything. However, it was too late to take it back, so Evie nodded. “Yes. I’m trying to put together some information for Bram, information about the Carlisle hunters. You holding me up and wasting my time is hurting your clan, so let me go so I can finish my task.”
Evie never broke her gaze, and after what seemed like minutes, Arabella surprised the hell out of her by releasing her arm and nodding. It seemed her time working with Skyhunter had prepared her well for dealing with Stonefire’s overabundance of alpha personalities.
Before the dragonwoman could change her mind, Evie rushed to the laptop, sat down, and started typing again. She was so engrossed in her work that it took her a second to realize that Arabella MacLeod was standing right behind her. Not wanting to waste any more time, she ignored her.
Since Evie could only guess how much Arabella hated the dragon hunters for what they’d done to her all those years ago, she hoped the dragonwoman wasn’t going to use the information Evie was typing about the Carlisle hunters for some kind of half-arsed revenge. Especially since, if Evie’s memory served her, it had been the Carlisle hunters who’d killed Arabella’s mother.
Bram’s ireat the dragon hunter remaining silent for the entire interrogation vanished as soon as he approached his cottage. Despite the darkness of the night, his vision was keen and he could see one of the hinges of his door was hanging on to the doorjamb by one screw. Someone had broken in.
Fuck.Had the captured dragon hunter been a decoy?
His dragon snarled.Check on the human female. The hunters want to hurt her. We must protect her.
Bram was on the same page, but instead of wasting time talking to his dragon, he sent a quick text message to Kai before he crept up to his cottage and took a closer look.
The light still glowed from the two front windows, neither of which was broken. Taking a deep inhalation, he didn’t scent blood in the air, which was also good. Since his cottage was soundproofed to keep delicate clan matters away from supersensitive dragon-shifter ears, he couldn’t hear anything. He needed to check the inside.
Dragon-shifters rarely used guns, and Bram was no exception. His dragon’s reflexes had never failed him before, and he would trust them now.
Gripping the doorknob, he twisted it bit by bit until the latch clicked softly. On the count of three, Bram inched open the door and was greeted by the sound of Evie’s voice. “The rivalry between the Carlisle and Edinburgh hunters is something to keep an eye on. Pitting them against each other might help loosen their defenses enough to attack.”
