Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,66
switched over in time to catch Willard’s call.
“It’s about time,” she said.
“I like to keep people waiting so they’re extra eager to talk to me when I pick up.”
“You weren’t sleeping, were you?”
“No, I was talking to my mom. Her dog misses your cat.”
“Really. Nobody’s ever said they missed Maggie before.” A screech sounded in the background—it was either Maggie complaining about something or Willard had adopted a cranky baby in the last week.
“Rocket is a golden retriever. They like everyone—and everything. It’s in the genes.”
“I have bad news for you.”
“You’re sending me after the dragon, aren’t you?”
“How’d you guess?”
“My fate seems inextricably intertwined with dragons these days.”
Mr. Hairy Legs was listening to my conversation and raised his eyebrows at this. I resisted the urge to threaten him with a weapon and instead walked over to the window and spoke more quietly.
“Inextricably intertwined?” Willard asked. “Nice vocabulary words. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you went to college.”
“I read books now and then.”
“From what I’ve been able to dig up, the silver’s full name is Dobsaurin of the Silverclaw Clan.”
“He introduced himself to me as Dobsaurin the Most Magnificent.”
“I’m sure. According to my informant, his family is reputed to rule over the second most powerful clan among the dragons. None of my snitches have any idea why he’s here on Earth. Do you? And do you know for sure if he kidnapped those joggers?”
“I don’t know that for sure, but he seems to be here to harass Zav. Maybe even kill Zav.”
“So why kidnap kids and joggers?”
“To irk him. Or lure him into a trap, maybe. I have a map of some possible locations of caves where Dob might be staying. I can go out today to look for them.”
I’d been hoping Zav would return so we could do that together. It wasn’t as if I could take down Dob alone. But who knew when he would be back? Maybe I could find the lair, sneak in and rescue the kidnapped people, and then point Zav to Dob when he returned. Then they could fight it out in a dragonly way, mano a mano.
“Good. Do that. This Dobsaurin was caught on a video yesterday evening. I’ll send you the footage. He swooped down and killed four horses and riders near Kathryn Taylor Equestrian Park in Redmond. Right on the Tolt Pipeline Trail.” She hesitated. “It’s grisly.”
“I’m used to grisly.”
“I know. The dragon isn’t in the video—this was taken by the police in the aftermath—but two witnesses saw him and confirmed the scales were silver. They ran into the woods to the side of the trail when the dragon showed up. Others who were interviewed said they couldn’t see him, just people being torn to shreds, seemingly by nothing.”
“Zav said that only those with magical blood can see dragons unless the dragons want to be seen.” I pulled up Kathryn Taylor Equestrian Park on my map, and a weird knowing feeling twisted my gut. “It’s not straight east from the spots where the joggers were picked up, but it’s very close. Just a little jag to the southeast. I’ve been theorizing that he’s got a cave out in the woods east of Duvall. For some reason, all of his kidnapped joggers were on an east-west line from there. Maybe he likes to take a morning dip in Lake Washington.”
That was a joke, since there were plenty of rivers and lakes closer to where I thought he was staying, but Willard said, “Maybe, or maybe he fishes there in the mornings. There’s a big variety in there, I’ve heard. Do dragons like fish?”
“Zav said they eat fish and meat. He was skeptical about the lavender chocolates I gave him.”
“You’re giving him chocolates? Val, it works the other way around. The man gives the woman chocolate.”
“I’m trying to get him to believe humans don’t suck and that there are some good things on Earth.”
“By wooing him with chocolate?”
“I’m not wooing him.” I must have spoken too loudly, because the eavesdropper was looking my way again. Either that, or my half of this conversation was the most interesting thing going on this morning. I scrutinized him briefly, making sure he didn’t have any magical blood. The last thing I needed was some spy from the Northern Pride giving the brothers another location to bomb. “I didn’t even buy it. The people I helped on the peninsula gave it to me, along with a case of wine.”