Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,82
or Nin’s magical ones would pierce Dob’s hide, but I owed it to Willard to try.
Once I’d re-holstered Fezzik, I caught myself gazing toward an alcove between two banks of computers. It was dark, and I could barely pick out an open door there. Had that door been open when we’d first walked by it?
The urge to investigate it came to me with startling intensity. I would find something in there. I was sure of it.
I started to tell Zav that I would be right back, but he was busy trying to disarm that ward. I shouldn’t disturb him.
I frowned because that thought seemed to come from somewhere else. It wasn’t like me—I had no problem disturbing Zav with my big mouth. But I found myself climbing back onto the walkway without warning him, my feet turning down that side path and toward the alcove and the door.
My heart thudded in my chest, far faster than made sense given my minimal exertion. It was afraid. And I was too. But for some reason, my feet kept walking, leading me to that open door and the dark chamber beyond. I tried to stop myself—the hand gripping Chopper shook from my effort—but I couldn’t.
This was similar to the time that Zav’s compulsion had almost driven me to fling myself into that chamber of dark elves in order to get his artifact. Dob was here, and he was using his magic on me. That was the only thing that made sense.
Even knowing that, I couldn’t break the hold. It was too strong. He was too strong. Chopper’s protection wasn’t enough. Dob was either more powerful than Zav—I’d feared that all along—or Zav had intentionally made his compulsion less strong. Maybe Zav hadn’t been truly trying to get me killed. This guy was another story.
I entered the lightless chamber. Soundlessly, the door shut behind me. And locked.
As my treasonous legs took me deep into the dark chamber, farther and farther from Zav, I envisioned myself ending up gouged and disemboweled and strung up next to the goblins. I tightened my grip on Chopper, hoping I could overcome the compulsion for a few seconds when I needed to and attack the bastard.
Laughter rang in my mind. My hand lifted against my wishes and sheathed Chopper in the back scabbard.
A yellow light started glowing nearby, gleaming off whitewashed walls. I squinted, pain lancing through my head because the night-vision charm amplified the existing light so much. Thankfully, the charm detected the illumination level and turned itself off. As I blinked at blurry spots in my vision, Dob came into view.
This time, he wasn’t a dragon. A male elf with flowing silver hair, wearing a green V-neck tunic and loose gray trousers, strolled toward me, a smug smile on his handsome face. Despite the guise, there was no doubt this was Dob. He had the same silver-blue eyes he’d had as a dragon, and that black onyx stone gleamed from the flesh below his collarbones. As my memory had suggested, it didn’t hang on a necklace but appeared embedded. Too bad. Maybe I could have found a way to knock off a necklace.
Not that I could move a finger. I was rooted to the cement floor, Chopper put away and Fezzik in its holster. My fingers were a scant inch from the gun’s grip, but they might as well have been a mile away.
Dob stopped in front of me and smirked as he looked me up and down. “He doesn’t know you’re gone.”
My mouth wouldn’t move to answer him, so I thought my words, figuring he was as telepathic as Zav. How’d you detect me through my charm?
I have useful trinkets of my own. He touched his throat, then slid his fingers down to the black onyx. This close to him, I sensed a hint of his aura, but I couldn’t sense the stone at all. It had to be what was cloaking him. And unlike some dragons, I’m not too proud to use external assistance to defeat my enemies.
Dob prowled around me, his gaze probing.
The first time I’d been in Greemaw’s valley, Zav had done something similar, but Zav’s gaze had been professionally assessing. Dob touched me a few times, and his eyes held sexual interest. He lifted the hem of my duster, checking out my ass, brushing his fingers against me, cupping me. I didn’t let myself shiver in horror or flinch away, not that my body could have moved anyway.