Nearly missing a step, Bram brushed that thought aside. There was maybe a five-minute walk between his cottage and where the Protectors of his clan kept any prisoners and Bram needed to think of what he would ask during his interrogation. The dragon hunters were a growing pain in his arse, to the point that Bram had become more involved with the prisoners instead of merely letting Kai and his team handle them.
From right after Tristan had been shot down by the Carlisle hunters nearly eight months earlier, the Carlisle dragon hunters had grown bolder with each attempt at either capturing one of his people or sneaking onto his land. If he didn’t know his people as well as he did, he might think he had a spy in his midst. There had to be another way they were getting information.
Remembering Evie’s words about the hunters killing DDA inspectors, he wondered if the two were connected. He’d have to look into it and find out.
Reaching the two-story brick building with walls of reinforced steel, Bram put on his take-no-shit expression and walked through the door.
The young injured Protector-in-training, Nikola, sat in a chair just inside the place. Bram glanced to her bandaged arm and shoulder and then back to her dark brown eyes. “Still trying to prove yourself worthy of your fame?”
The young dragonwoman shrugged and then hissed at the pain as she clutched her arm. She finally managed, “People will always treat me special, so I figure I need to do something to earn that regard.”
Nikola—or, rather, Nikki to most of the clan—was the child of the first human sacrifice sent to Stonefire twenty-five years ago. Despite her best efforts to discourage it, many of the older dragon-shifters showered her in affection and extra attention; to them, she was their first hope of one day repopulating their numbers to what they had once been.
Frustrated with the unwanted praise, Nikki had decided on becoming a Protector. So far, it hadn’t changed how the older dragon-shifters treated her.
Bram, on the other hand, treated her like any other young dragon-shifter. “Well, you can’t earn anything if you’re dead. Next time, don’t be daft.”
“How do you know I was daft?”
He raised an eyebrow and the female dragon-shifter sighed. “Right. You’re a bloody mind reader, that’s why.”
“It’s my secret power. Now that’s settled, give me the update. Has Kai found out anything?”
Waving a hand to the closed door down the hall, she said, “He’s been in there with the hunter ever since he rung you. Kai did say that he’d prefer you do the special knock to announce your presence rather than just barging in.”
The request was reasonable. “But before I go, you’re going to tell me how you were injured.”
While no one liked to share their failures, most especially a Protector-in-training, Nikki knew better than to try to withhold information from him. After standing up, she met his eyes and said, “While tackling our current prisoner to the ground, one of the other hunters shot me.”
“With a regular gun?”
She nodded. “Yes. No one has yet seen the laser-type gun the hunters used on Tristan all those months ago.”
No doubt, the hunters were saving it for a special occasion. “Since you’ll be out of commission for a while because of your injury, I may have a job for you.”
Usually Bram wasn’t the one to give her assignments, but if Nikki was confused, she didn’t show it. “As long as you clear it with Kai first, sure, I’ll do whatever you need.”
“Good.” He looked toward the door. “Keep the same rules in place while I’m in there with the hunter. Only those with high-level clearance are allowed to disturb me. In addition,” he turned back toward Nikki and said, “I need you to call Arabella MacLeod and give her my order to go to my cottage and watch my guest.”
The dragonwoman frowned. “What guest?”
“Evie Marshall, the DDA inspector.”
Nikki looked confused, but she merely bobbed her head.
With that, Bram headed toward the door at the far end of the hall. Arabella would seem a strange choice to most of his clan since the dragonwoman still hated all humans except for her sister-in-law Melanie, but Bram didn’t trust another male to be in the same room with Evie. If she pulled out her seductress charms, she could probably find out all sorts of information he didn’t want made public.
No, Arabella not only preferred men and would be resistant to those charms, she would be skeptical and he needed that to give him the peace of mind to focus.
Of course, he tried not to think about how quickly he didn’t want other males in the same room with the DDA inspector. The human female was going to be nothing but trouble if he did take her on as his mate.
But a good kind of trouble. It will be fun.
Ignoring his dragon, Bram increased his pace. The sooner he finished interrogating the dragon hunter bastard, the sooner he would see if he would have a female of his own to fuck. Yes, to fuck. He wasn’t about to hope for more, especially when he had no bloody idea whether he could trust the lass or not.
Chapter Five
Evie squinted at the words on the computer screen, but it didn’t help make the letters any clearer. If not being able to see properly wasn’t bad enough, her blurred vision was giving her a bloody big headache. Astigmatism, combined with slight farsightedness, was definitely not her friend tonight.