The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,37
closer to Levi, with Deep at her back, her senses tuned to everything around her, just as her brother had taught her. Only they were dealing with black dragons, known for their stealth, and the hills had eyes. The feel of them on her was like walking through spiderwebs. Her dragon could sense them, too. She kept pacing in Lyndi’s head.
They rounded a bend, breaking out of the trees to find what appeared to be a small town at the bottom of a short, easy slope, the creek meandering off to the side of the group of buildings.
A ghost town by the looks of it. Not a single light on at only ten o’clock at night. No way.
“Where are they?” Lyndi asked.
“They’re here. We can’t afford to live inside a mountain like others do. Our group isn’t subsidized by our clan.” No missing the sneer to his voice. “We live here by the sweat of our own brows. There are sentries posted along the creek. They knew we were coming and warned the others.”
How they would have done it were they in the same situation, Lyndi bet. Which was probably why Levi and Deep didn’t comment.
The black dragon—compact and all muscle in human form with eyes that glittered in the night—nodded. “They’ll be more likely to hear you out if—”
“If you show vulnerability,” a higher-pitched voice sounded in the night.
Still, it took a moment for Lyndi to locate the woman standing in the shadow of the tallest building. With mahogany-deep skin, jet-black hair, and glittering black eyes, she was almost impossible to make out in the shades of night.
Levi glanced at Lyndi and Deep, then back to the woman. “Are you in charge here?”
Lyndi turned her head to stare at him and her world narrowed and focused on a set of copper-colored eyes, dead serious, not even a question mark floating above his head in a thought bubble. He’d asked that question like it was normal. Like women often led groups of dragon shifters. Which they didn’t.
Even so, he didn’t flinch.
Except, something was off. Lyndi knew about Levi’s opinion of women dragons. The first time they met and the way he’d acted had cemented that truth in her mind. Plus, all the times he indicated that a woman shouldn’t be part of the team, or go out alone, or do anything that smacked of man’s work…
His actions and attitudes didn’t line up in her head.
The woman flicked Lyndi a glance. “Maybe.”
Not good enough. Maybe she’d be more open with a fellow female. Lyndi took a step forward, slightly ahead of Levi. She almost expected him to jerk her back or take another step himself, but he didn’t. “We asked your man to bring us to you so that we could talk,” she said. “And maybe help.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Help? Your people took…one of our mates.”
“Not our people,” Lyndi countered. “Whoever took your mate wasn’t on the Huracán enforcer team.”
Hooded, dark eyes glanced between them. “How do I know you are?”
“When you moved here, one of our team should have been in touch to introduce us. He also should have given you a safe word. Did the other men claiming to be us use it?”
Still the woman didn’t budge, no give in her. “I didn’t ask.”
“Divine is the word.”
The woman seemed to consider that. “Assuming I believe you…what makes you any different from the men who took Bree?”
Levi and Lyndi both looked to Deep who grimaced. “Is there a place we can speak…” He glanced up to the sky then back at her. “…frankly?”
Perfect eyebrows winged up. “Interesting.” She paused, staring hard at each of them in turn, searching their expressions for the gods knew what. “Follow me.”
She led them between various buildings which had been erected with no roads connecting them and no particular design. They also still appeared empty, though Lyndi knew they weren’t. The prickles at the back of her neck told her so.
Dragons were watching.
They followed the leader to one of the more innocuous buildings. Smaller than the others, it reminded Lyndi of an ice-fishing shack she’d visited once in search of one of her orphans in Montana. Inside, however, told a different story. Soundproof. Including the thick door that closed behind them.
“Talk.”
“What’s your name?” Lyndi asked quickly.
The question earned her a guarded stare. “Shula.”
Lyndi nodded. “I’m Lyndi. This is Levi and Deep.” She waved at the two men now standing to either side of her. Deliberately she left off last names, because hers tended to