Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,61

compartment of her truck was hush-hush.

I endured the police questioning with a minimal amount of sarcasm. It wasn’t their fault they had shown up late. The sorcerous dark elf had been the problem, and it worried me more than a little that she’d been working with the Pardus brothers’ thugs.

Tomorrow, I vowed, I would figure out how to deal with them. One way or another.

17

As soon as I left Wilmot Gateway Park in Woodinville, jogging along the trail toward the section looking across the river to the Pardus brothers’ mobile-home park, I activated my cloaking charm. A bicyclist heading in my direction swerved, face screwing up in confusion as I seemed to disappear to his eyes, but shrugged and continued past. I ran to the side of the paved trail so I wouldn’t be in anybody’s way.

Freeway traffic zipped by to my right, but my attention was focused to the left, across the water. I hadn’t wanted to risk driving through the neighborhood—the charm would only camouflage me, not my Jeep—and this would make it more difficult for the shifters to give chase if they somehow detected me. They would have to come after me on foot and go for a swim first.

As the house came into view, half hidden behind brush and trees in the little lot’s back yard, I sensed the auras of the brothers and… eight more magical beings. My shoulders slumped. What were they doing? Running an Airbnb for shifters?

After last night, I ached to take those two jerks down, but I couldn’t fight that many shifters, and definitely not on their own turf. By now, the brothers had to expect me, and they’d likely added magical fortifications.

I could still sense the aura of a magical being in the mysterious basement that shouldn’t have existed, but it seemed weaker now. The memory of the plaintive call for help came to mind, and I longed to go over there and rescue whoever was down there. If I’d spotted a window or entrance to the basement, I might have tried sneaking in, but there wasn’t anything visible to indicate there even was a basement. The entrance had to be in the house.

A spotted leopard wandered out the back door and onto the unkempt lawn. I didn’t know if he’d been assigned patrol duty or was going out to take a leak, but the shifter’s presence deterred me from thoughts of rescues. At least for the moment. I had to figure out a way to even the odds first.

The spotted feline, easily three times the size of a normal leopard, wandered to the river’s edge and sniffed the air. I wasn’t moving, but I stood even stiller. The charm should mask my scent and hide me from view, as well as camouflage my aura, but it was always possible someone would see through it someday. I was encouraged that it had worked on Zav that day we’d first met in the wyvern cave, but there were all sorts of magical tools and trinkets scattered across the realms. I might one day run into someone carrying one that nullified stealth magic.

The leopard scanned the trail, eyeing a couple ambling along and pushing a stroller. They were oblivious to the potential threat across the river.

I dropped a hand to Fezzik, ready to attack if the shifter decided it would be worth getting wet to prey on a couple of humans. I wished he would. Then I would be justified in attacking him, in whittling away the brothers’ houseguests one by one, until I only had to face them.

The leopard crept closer to the bank, eyes focused on his potential prey.

Do it, I thought, as if I could telepathically send the message. I pulled Fezzik from its holster.

The leopard’s tail swished and he crouched, preparing to spring. He was in the shadow of a tree. The couple didn’t see him. But I did. I leveled my gun at his eyes.

Someone called from inside the house—it sounded like Kurt’s voice. The leopard’s tail stopped swishing and he glanced back. He looked torn, his gaze turning back to the couple.

My sights were focused on his head. It would be easy to shoot, to take him out before he could return to the house. If I were to tell the authorities that he’d been in the middle of attacking the couple, who would know the difference? A clean shot could end his ability to tell anyone otherwise.

The leopard, no doubt communicating telepathically with Kurt, rose