Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,46

to disappoint. If you give me more than three hours, I can dig more up. I didn’t know I was on such a tyrannical deadline.”

He looked thoughtfully at the sky. “We will go to see her.”

“Greemaw?” The only lava golem I’d met had been on the trip to Oregon to see my mother. “And what do you mean we?”

“Greemaw. Yes. You will come with me to speak with her and give her the information you have gathered. Together, you may more effectively pinpoint Dobsaurin’s location.” He squinted at me. “Assuming you have gathered information. Have you?”

I glared at him. “I told you I had. I’ve got the points on a map where three joggers were kidnapped, and I have some ideas about where his lair might be.” Granted, it was all supposition. I didn’t even know for sure that Dobsaurin had been the one to kidnap the joggers.

His face smoothed. “Yes. Yes, I remember. You do not lie. Good.”

Not strictly true, but I knew what he was talking about. The conversation I’d had with Greemaw while he’d been hiding behind a wall and listening in like some police interrogator.

“How about you fly down there and ask her about it yourself? That’s a long drive for a human. No wings.” I was pleasantly surprised when my hip didn’t hurt when I stepped away from the wall to make flapping motions with my arms.

“Your ground conveyances are slow.”

“Sorry, I haven’t renewed my pilot’s license in a long time. Mostly because I can’t afford a plane.”

“You will fly with me. Come.”

“Uh.” I raised a finger to protest—was he saying what I thought he was saying?—but he’d already leaped up to the rooftop of the building, as if he were some comic-book superhero.

I sensed the ripple of power as he shifted into his dragon form.

Come, he spoke into my mind.

I looked up at the three-story building and rolled my eyes. “Sure, I’ll be right up.”

Even though I had reservations, I found a drainpipe I could climb and shimmied up it like a burglar. My hip didn’t hurt at all. Man, I wished I could bottle his power and keep a stash in my kit for emergencies. Dragon essence: pour directly on injury for instant healing.

Maybe that was what the dragon blood did in alchemical potions. If so, no wonder Zoltan had been so delighted to get some.

Zav waited on the roof, his great black body taking up the entire top of the building. Scales gleamed in the sun, as sleek as fur over the powerful muscles of his legs and arms. He hadn’t spread his leathery black wings yet—if he did, they would stretch out over the street and the alley.

“How is it that people aren’t noticing you left and right?” I glanced toward an apartment building across the street, one that rose six stories and had rows of windows overlooking us.

Only those with magical blood can see a dragon, unless he wishes to be seen.

“You think so? I’ve seen video footage of you on the internet.” I walked to his side, wondering how I was supposed to get on, and if that was truly what he wanted. Maybe he intended to hold me in his talons and fly hundreds of miles with me dangling helplessly.

Video footage taken by people with magical blood.

“I think anyone can see you once they’re uploaded.”

His big reptilian head canted like a dog listening to a strange sound. He didn’t have ears, not that I could see from down below, but I assumed he could hear. It is possible the technology thwarts the natural magical camouflage. I have spent little time in this world, and I am uncertain how such things work.

Which was likely the reason he’d asked me to do his research. It was better to have use, I supposed, than be useless, though if I was of no value to him, maybe he would leave me alone.

But who would have healed my wound then?

Get on my back.

Before I could ask if I was supposed to climb, my feet grew light and I dangled in the air. Levitation. I’d never seen a magical being capable of doing that, but my mother said the legends about elves proclaimed that some of them could.

My skin started tingling again as I came closer, settling onto his back. His power was even more noticeable now. When he was in human form, it was electrical against my skin, raising gooseflesh and even feeling appealing. Like I had the urge to step closer and