Her vision swam before the world went black.
Chapter Five
Bram sat down across from Olivia, whose hands and feet were chained to the metal desk in front of her. Her restraints were made of hardened steel. If she were to shift, the steel would break her human wrists before eventually snapping. Despite her daft move of working with Neil Westhaven, the lass was clever enough to stay in her human form. With the entire Protector team on the watch, she would never escape with broken arms and legs.
He studied her a second. Her heartbeat was only slightly faster than normal and she wasn’t fidgeting. Given the female had been quite temperamental as a young adult, he had no doubt the change was because of Neil.
Bram reached out to his dragon. Help me question her. I need our dominance combined to make both halves submissive.
It will be difficult. Olivia’s dragon is strong for a female. I will try.
You’re supposed to be oh-so-strong, cocky one. Just help me.
His dragon rumbled a not-quite-happy yes. Bram fixed his stare on Olivia and said, “Tell me about Neil.”
Olivia merely replied, “No.”
Bram channeled his inner dragon and forced every bit of dominance into his voice he could muster. “I’ll ask one more time, lass, before I alert the clan about your activities. Your parents wouldn’t take kindly to everyone knowing their daughter is a traitor.” Olivia’s posture gave way a bit. At least, she still cared for her parents. He continued, “You were found near Carlisle when you were supposed to be in Wales. Tell me why.”
“I want guaranteed protection first.”
The idea of protecting a traitor didn’t sit well with him, but Bram forced aside his disgust in order to do his job. “I need something to go on first, Olivia. And I won’t ask again.”
As they stared at one another, Bram allowed his dragon to come and go into his mind. His eyes flashed between slits and round pupils. Olivia’s bravado faded as her shoulders slumped further. She was about to give in.
He raised an eyebrow and the female said, “I was supposed to meet Neil, but the Protectors found me before he arrived.”
“Why were you meeting him?”
Olivia shook her head. “I gave you something. I want guaranteed protection. The dragon hunters will hunt me down once they hear I was alone with you.”
“You’ll just turn your back on Neil, without so much as a backwards glance?”
“Neil was offering me power I could never obtain here, and that’s no longer an option since I’m sitting alone with you. Simon Bourne will see it as a betrayal and a threat to be eliminated. My life is more important than protecting Neil’s.”
Olivia’s words pretty much confirmed the suspicion about a traitor in the clan. Bram didn’t like Bourne taking such an interest in Stonefire.
Eying the dragonwoman across from him, he needed to proceed carefully. He wasn’t about to pamper a traitor, yet he wasn’t about to lie to her, either. He said, “Even if I grant protection, you’ll still be kept under house a
rrest.”
“Again, I will be alive.”
And she’ll bloody try to find a way to escape. Still, every minute he spent garnering meaningless reassurances from Olivia was another minute the dragon hunters could be harming wee Murray.
Bram folded his arms over his chest. “Fine, you will be guarded but just know if you shift and try to escape, you’ll be taken down and handed over to the DDA. Come to think of it, step a fraction out of line and I’ll hand you over to the DDA. I don’t give second chances to traitors.”
Olivia nodded. He had a feeling she’d break that promise before long, but he merely said, “Then tell me about Neil’s connection with Simon Bourne.”
She hesitated a second before she answered quietly, “Neil has formed a tentative alliance with Simon Bourne and the Carlisle hunters. He feeds them information in exchange for money and protection from the local human authorities. It’s how he’s remained off the radar since you banished him last year.”
He nodded. A dragon-shifter without a clan was usually taken into custody by the DDA until a clan would accept him or her into their fold. “What was your role in all of this?”
“In exchange for information about what was happening here, I received payments. My goal was to relocate to Romania, where dragon clans have more power over the local authorities.”
His dragon piped in. She wishes for the old days, but the old days were filled with death. Controlling humans only makes them want to kill us more. Working together is better.
Bram agreed, but didn’t have time to argue dragon-shifter history with his inner beast.