Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,84
Dob pulled off the harness, he tugged off my duster. My limbs moved enough to let him do so, but they still wouldn’t respond to orders from my own brain. I felt like a doll being manhandled. He dropped the duster on the floor, then surprised me by putting the sword harness back on me.
“He would be suspicious if you returned without your weapons.”
Right, because me walking up and kissing him wouldn’t be at all suspicious.
Dob prowled around to my front again, eyed my chest, and lifted a finger. A long claw—or was that a dragon’s talon?—sprouted from it like a macabre press-on nail for Halloween. He sliced it down the front of my shirt. Not the whole way, but enough to show my bra and the tops of my breasts.
“I do not get paid enough for this bullshit,” I growled, refusing to show any fear.
“Ah, that’s enough talking.” He patted my cheek, the claw clipping my ear and drawing blood. “I don’t want you doing anything but kissing that righteous bastard.”
A warm drop of blood ran down the side of my face. He smiled, leaned in, and licked it off. My stomach roiled. What would happen if it tried to vomit while none of my muscles were working?
“No clues to let him know you’re anything but the eager concubine he’s been working with all day.”
At least it was clear Dob hadn’t been spying on us all day. Eager concubines didn’t promise to shove swords in their masters’ butts.
He circled behind me again, swatted me on the ass, and whispered, “Go to him,” in my ear.
Where will you be? I wanted to ask it out loud, but as he’d promised, I couldn’t move my lips again.
Poised to take advantage of his distraction. He chuckled into my mind.
My legs started moving, taking me toward the locked door. As it unlocked and swung open, I saw bodies wedged behind an equipment console. They hadn’t been visible to me when I’d been walking in. My heart sank even further. They wore the uniforms of the staff. Dob had killed everybody here, aside from the few he’d left alive to distract Zav.
And I was going out to distract him further. I shouted obscenities in my mind. Zav had warned me this could happen if I didn’t let him put a mental compulsion of his own on me. I’d been too proud to even consider it. Now that choice might get us both killed.
24
The door opened, and I walked back into the main room. The cool air stirred gooseflesh on my bare arms and made me wish I’d chosen a sweater to wear under my duster, not a tank top. I couldn’t sense Dob behind me, but then I’d barely sensed his aura when he’d been standing in front of me, shredding my shirt.
On the other side of the walkway, Zav knelt, a hand on the shoulder of one of two people lying on the floor beneath him. They wore grimy, damp exercise clothes. A puddle and a trail of water showed a spot where the third person might have been hauled up before walking—or running—out. I chose to believe that rather than that the third person had been lost to the current.
The grate was open—no, Zav had torn it off and tossed it across the water channel—so I could tell nobody was left in the canal. I sensed him using his magic, healing the two men. Had Zav noticed I was gone? He must have.
He glanced back at me as I approached and frowned. “Where did you go? You shouldn’t have wandered off in here.”
Wandered off? He thought I’d decided to roam of my own accord?
One of my usual sarcastic responses rose to mind, but what came out was, “I thought I saw something. I checked on it. I don’t think he’s here anymore.” My tongue felt thick in my mouth, but the words came out sounding normal to my own ears, and my shoulder twitched in a shrug.
Zav’s first glance had been quick and dismissive, but he looked longer the second time. “What happened to your clothes?”
His gaze didn’t linger on my chest the way Dob’s had, but even the brief perusal sent a flush of hot desire through me. When his violet eyes met mine, that heat turned molten. My hips swayed as I drew closer.
As if I ever walked like that. Would my puppeteer move my limbs for me for all of this?