Dragons weren’t known to be gossips, per se, but they did share information. As did dragon riders. We had to share information in order to be able to stay alive.
Otherwise the fucking Purists, our enemies for lack of a better word, would get the upper hand, and God knew we couldn’t give the Purists too much of a leg up; they’d run us into the ground and exterminate our entire race in a matter of days.
Over my dead body, would I ever allow that to happen.
Standing up and stretching stiff muscles, I connected to Declan.
Have you seen where my mother went? I asked him.
No. But your little firebug is getting restless, he answered. Come.
I have one more stop to make, I informed him.
Then I went to my brother’s room, knocked loudly on the door, and explained where I was going.
Nikolai was in his usual attire of gym shorts and nothing else.
He had his glasses on top of his head, as if he’d forgotten them there when he’d gotten up, and his hair was a mess, almost as if he’d been running his fingers through it all night.
“You can’t bring her here! I haven’t figured out how to bypass the shield yet! You could blow her head off when you pass through!” Nikolai started to panic slightly.
I snorted.
“You know you can do it. You’ve got less than an hour. If nothing else, bring the shield down when I get close, then we’ll figure out what to do from there. However, I don’t think we’ll have to do that. Just get it done. I have faith in you,” I said to him.
Then without another word, I turned on my heel and headed down the hall, being sure to tuck the book into a safe place, before heading outside to find out just who, exactly, ‘my firebug’ was.***
I wound up at the same apartment building that I’d dragged Farrow out of not even twenty-four hours before.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” I asked Declan.
Yes, master. I’m more than sure. You’ll find her on the second floor. You’ll remember the minute you see her, I promise, he informed me, giving me a small push with his tail.
I fell forward, not able to catch myself, and face planted into the dirt.
Oops, Declan laughed lightly. I’ll have to remember you can’t take that anymore.
I snarled as I got up. “Thanks, I’ll remember you said that.”
Somehow I doubted he’d hold back. In fact, I fully expected him to push me again.
When Declan and I had first bonded, he’d been a right bastard.
Hell, I’d been nothing more than a punk myself, so I could see how it would be unappealing for him to be paired with a cocky, know-it-all young guy for the rest of his days.
But we prevailed, Declan and me. We had a lot of work to do to get where we are now, but after we got used to each other, and the fact that we would spend the rest of our lives as one, we more or less got over it.
That wasn’t to say that he didn’t try to push every once in a while, but then again, so did I. It now meant that we were able to let shit go when, in the beginning, we’d been too busy testing each other to see the irony of any situation.
Fine. Wish me luck. Then I stopped. Do you at least have a name?
Blythe.
Blythe? What kind of name was that?
Probably the same kind as Keifer, Declan sniped.
Wow, it seemed I’d hit on a sore spot. Declan liked the human. Which was surprising. Declan didn’t like anybody. Dragon rider or human alike. Hell, he barely even tolerated me!
Funny, I growled, peeling myself up off the ground and heading in the direction of the apartment building.
Luckily the door was unlocked. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get in without buzzing a tenant and asking them to let me in. I didn’t think the girl, Blythe, would be willing to just open the door without a little bit of an explanation as to what I was doing there.
And I sure couldn’t use my abilities to get in like I’d done yesterday afternoon.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I made it onto the second landing within seconds.
Just because I used magic didn’t mean that I wasn’t in shape, or that I couldn’t fight.
In fact, I was a pretty skilled fighter. I had to be. Especially with the Purists making sure that I was constantly on guard by attacking all of my dragon sanctuaries.
The moment I found the woman’s door, I knocked, wasting no time in getting this over with.
Then the door was set on fire, and I had to take a hasty step back.
“Shit!” A woman’s frantic voice yelped. “Oh my God! I’m a menace to society!”