Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,80

this what you desire?”

“No. I would have stayed with Thad if that were what mattered. He does well for himself.”

“You have been mated before?”

“If by mated, you mean married, yes. I don’t need a man with money, but a man who pays for something he destroys would be nice.”

He returned to studying the route ahead. “I am not a man.”

“But you say you gave yourself all the anatomical parts.” I arched my eyebrows. I wasn’t sure what I was angling for. I didn’t truly expect him to pay off the loan, especially if dragons didn’t have money, but an apology would have been nice.

It was interesting that he hadn’t objected when I called us allies. I’d assumed that, no matter what he’d agreed to when we’d finalized our deal, he still considered me nothing more than bait to be used to lure in his enemies. Like a wriggling worm on a fish hook.

“You have acquired another conveyance,” Zav said, rather than commenting on his anatomy.

“It’s a loan from my boss. I need to pay off the wrecked one before I can afford to take out another auto loan.”

He gripped the dash and leaned forward as a locked gate came into view with the large treatment facility beyond that. Two city utility trucks were parked in the small lot. Everything looked normal from here. Maybe the goblins had been playing a trick on me.

“I can open that with my charm.” I nodded to the locked gate as I slowed, intending to get out.

Zav looked at it, and the lock fell away. The chain-link gate rolled open.

“Never mind.” I parked next to the trucks and got out, eyeing the concrete walls, metal roof, and large timber supports at the front of the building. It was more architecturally interesting than I would have expected.

As we walked to the front, where glass walls and two glass doors showed off a large, empty foyer, Zav waved at my weapons. “I should be able to handle Dobsaurin—the main reason he is a challenge for me is that he will use battle methods that kill innocent beings and destroy cities, whereas it is my duty to protect these things. Out here, I do not think that will be an issue. But stay close to me, and if you see an opportunity to even what he would doubtless try to make uneven odds, do so. Your gun will be useless on him, but the sword may injure him.”

“You’re certain he’s in there?” I glanced at the foyer visible through the glass doors. “I thought everything looked normal.”

“I sense people in pain inside.”

“Maybe they don’t like their jobs.”

“No.”

I waved for him to go in, the flutters intensifying in my stomach. I was always nervous before a battle and tried to tell myself this wouldn’t be any different from usual. It didn’t work.

The front doors weren’t locked. As soon as we entered, I joined Zav in believing something wasn’t right. The only light came through the glass doors. The wall sconces weren’t on, and when I found a switch and flipped it, nothing happened.

Without hesitating, Zav strode toward a metal door that led deeper into the facility. I hurried to keep up, and we entered a vast chamber full of tanks and pipes, with catwalks barely visible in the shadows overhead. In here, there were no exterior windows, and the lights were also out, though the walls of computers and machinery were working, their colored LEDs glowing in the darkness.

I drew Chopper and thought about using my new Dwarven word to brighten its dim glow, but drawing upon power might alert Dob that we had entered. Instead, I activated my cloaking charm and my night-vision charm. There had been too much daylight to use that one in that forest cave, the trinket designed to work in complete darkness, but the red and yellow computer LEDs weren’t bright enough to interfere.

Zav paused and looked back, and I almost bumped into him. I took that to mean I’d disappeared from his senses.

That one is effective, he murmured directly into my mind.

Because he worried Dob was out there to overhear us?

Good, I replied silently.

If Zav couldn’t sense me, Dob shouldn’t be able to either. That would make it easier for me to jump out and make a sneak attack.

Should I get Sindari too? If I’d been walking in alone, I wouldn’t have hesitated.

Your choice, but even when he’s using his magic to camouflage himself, I can sense him when he’s within about twenty