by Lola Gabriel
She opened her wardrobe and looked at the clothes hanging there for a moment. She wanted something that wouldn’t slow her down or interfere with her movements, and she settled on a pair of stretchy jeans that fit her like a second skin and a black vest top. She pushed the Ure sword down the leg of her jeans and pulled her top over the handle. She checked her back view. The sword was just visible, but it wouldn’t be obvious to anyone who wasn’t particularly looking for it. She pulled her hair back and secured it with a bobble. Then she slipped back out of her room and headed to Logan’s room.
Logan’s face looked serious, strained, as he let her in. He was wearing the same jeans and shirt from earlier, and Raina couldn’t help but notice his pecs through the fabric.
“Don’t look so worried. You’re making me nervous,” she said as Logan handed her a glass of soda. He shook his head.
“I am worried. Raina, this is too dangerous. Why don’t we call Brandon and have him get over here and hand Chester over to him?”
“Because that’s not my style. Brandon has had every opportunity to put a stop to this, and he’s chosen not to,” Raina said.
“I’m just worried something will go wrong and I won’t be able to protect you,” Logan admitted. Raina smiled and stroked his cheek. Her face changed, becoming set with determination.
“Look, that’s sweet and all, but I know what I’m doing. Don’t start pulling this bullshit alpha attitude of women needing protecting,” she said.
Logan shook his head. “It’s not like that, Raina. I know you’re a capable woman, and I’m not one of those sexist guys who thinks women are less than men. I’m not afraid because you’re a woman. I’m afraid because I love you, and the thought of losing you is killing me inside.”
“Good answer.” Raina stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Logan full on the mouth. “I love you, too,” she said. “But you’re not talking me out of this.”
A loud knock on the door startled both Raina and Logan, and she knew that even if she wanted to back out of this and call Brandon, it was too late. Chester was here. She glanced at her watch. It was ten to eight; early enough to show he respected Logan as a buyer, but not early enough to make it look like he was worried about the deal falling through. Raina thought he was actually plenty worried, though. If he really wanted to show his nonchalance, he would have turned up at ten past eight.
She darted to the small hallway that led off the lounge and pulled the door almost all of the way shut. She had a good view of the room from here through the crack in the door, and if they moved out of her line of sight, she could shift and peer around the edge of the door. She gave Logan a thumbs-up around the door, letting him know she was ready. She pulled her Ure sword out and gripped it with both hands, her feet a couple of inches apart, her body in fight mode. She wasn’t going to be caught unawares if anything went wrong. She was ready for this. Adrenaline was just beginning to course through her body, making her skin tingle with nervous excitement.
Bring it on, she thought to herself with a tight smile. She watched through the crack in the door as Logan strode to his room door and pulled it open.
“Logan Prince?” a voice confirmed.
“Yes,” Logan said.
Raina heard a loud whistle, and she worked out what was happening. The man at the door was a spotter for Chester, making sure he had the right address before he brought the girl out. Logan waited at the door. Raina saw the muscles in his back tighten up, and she assumed Chester had come into sight.
“Thank you, Aaron,” she heard him say. “Your services are most appreciated, as always.” After a pause, presumably to let Aaron leave them alone, he said, “Logan! A pleasure to finally meet you. Chester Dunbridge.”
Raina saw Logan extend his hand and stand back from the door, beckoning Chester inside. Chester was tall, a good head taller than even Logan was. He was well built and quite good looking, with purple colored eyes and a strong jawline. Raina couldn’t believe she was seeing one of the infamous Dunbridges in the flesh.
Her awe soon left her: Chester stepped further into the room, and Raina saw who he was dragging behind him. A short woman, no more than five-foot-four, with curvy hips and large breasts. Brianna, no doubt. Her hands were bound with rope in front of her body, her ankles shackled together by more rope giving her just enough slack to shuffle forward. A brown sack was placed over her head and tied loosely at the throat. Even from this distance, Raina could hear the small whimpers of terror coming from the girl.
She wondered briefly what would have happened at this point if Logan had still thought he was simply arranging a marriage of convenience with a willing mate. With everything she knew about him now, she didn’t think he’d have gone through with it. Would he have attempted to fight Chester? Or would he have just paid the money and set Brianna free? Raina didn’t have long to ponder it. She had to keep her focus firmly on what was happening in front of her.
“Here she is, in the flesh,” Chester said warmly, talking to Logan like there were old friends.
It made Raina’s skin crawl to hear him making idle conversation with poor Brianna still bound up beside him like that. Did he have no compassion at all? Obviously, he didn’t, and that thought made her hate Matchmakers even more. And the fools who used them. She could imagine Chester and a client sitting down for a glass of brandy and a cigar, ignoring the girl he had taken, treating her like nothing but cargo.
“Yes. I was starting to think it was never going to happen,” Logan replied coolly.
Chester laughed. “Yes, this one proved rather difficult to catch, as it turns out. But that doesn’t matter now, does it?”
“I suppose it doesn’t,” Logan conceded. “How did you get her up here like that without anyone seeing you?”
Raina frowned. Quizzing Chester most definitely wasn’t part of the plan, but she had to admit that she was curious to know the answer all the same.
“I used the service entrance and elevator,” Chester said. “I have an arrangement with several porters across immortal-friendly hotels in the city. Aaron is my contact here. He’s extremely accommodating. For the right price and the threat of me slaughtering his family if he crosses me, of course.”
Raina felt her anger at Chester go up a notch. He was nothing but a bully. Her nerves were melting away now, and she found herself almost excited to go out there and end Chester once and for all. Logan nodded casually, as if he approved of Chester’s methods. He even laughed and clapped Chester on the shoulder. Raina knew his laugh was fake, but Chester bought it.
“Should we get down to business, Logan?” Logan nodded and stepped towards Brianna. Chester stepped neatly in front of her. “So eager. Before you get the goods, though, there’s the small matter of my fee. Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars, I believe we agreed on?”
“You’ll get your money. But first, I want to examine the girl. Make sure she is the same girl from the pictures. And check that she hasn’t been hurt,” Logan replied.
“I assure you she hasn’t been hurt. It wouldn’t do my business much good to be delivering damaged goods, now would it? But I appreciate your caution. I am a rather cautious man myself. So how about you show me the money, and then you can examine the girl?”
Logan paused, pretending he was considering the offer. He nodded after a few seconds. “Okay. That sounds fair.”
He turned away from Chester and Brianna and went to the safe that was hidden in the wall behind a piece of modern art. He lifted the art down, opened the safe, and pulled out a briefcase. He spun the combination locks until the briefcase clicked open. He held the case up for Chester to see. Chester nodded approvingly. He would need the combination to access the money, so there would be no point in him snatching the case and trying to run.
Raina didn’t think he would try that; Logan was a convincing actor, and Chester had no reason to believe he would double cross him. It reassured her to some extent. Chester’s willingness for Logan to examine Brianna before he had the money
told her that he hadn’t hurt her physically.
Logan placed the now closed case on a table behind him and came back to Chester, who was already untying Brianna’s feet. Logan approvingly watched him move on to her wrists. Raina tensed up. If Brianna made any sort of move now, she could blow the whole thing and end up getting herself hurt or killed. However, she didn’t make any attempt to move. She had clearly been threatened and was too afraid of what Chester would do to her if she made trouble for him. She looked like she was almost paralyzed with fear. The only movement she made was to let her hands fall loosely to her sides when the rope came off.
It made Raina wonder what Chester had done to her. Logan’s words had ensured she wouldn’t be harmed physically, but there was no telling what she had endured mentally. Raina remembered too well how Freya had tortured Chessa with mind tricks.
Finally, Chester reached up for Brianna’s hood. He pulled it off with a flourish, like a head chef revealing a dish he was particularly proud of. It turned Raina’s stomach once more to see the glee on his face. She ran her eyes over Brianna, and when she saw how pretty the girl was, she had no doubts that Chester could easily have sold her on if Logan had cancelled the deal.
Her sleek black bob fell back into place with ease, not a single strand of hair pushed out of place by the hood. The Sanmere protein in her blood made her valuable anyway, but those full red lips and sparkly emerald eyes would have made her all the more desirable. She would have fetched a higher price than a less attractive girl. The look in Brianna’s eyes was absolute terror. They were too wide, the whites almost twice the size they should be. They darted around the room, searching for help but not really seeing anything. In her mouth was a dirty looking rag, gagging her.
Chester reached around to the back of her head, his hand on the knot there. “Scream, and I’ll make sure you never get to make another sound,” he said in a low, menacing voice.
Logan took a step towards him, and Raina could see the tension in his muscles. Chester smiled at him and then gave a soft laugh.
“So protective already,” he said. “But use some common sense, Logan. If she starts screaming, how long do you think you’ll have before someone comes to investigate? And if that happens, how do you think it will go down when there’s a girl here screaming about being abducted? People will get hurt, and I don’t think either of us want that kind of attention drawn to ourselves.”
Logan reluctantly stepped back again. Chester was right. If Brianna screamed the place down, someone would come looking to see what was happening. They would most likely end up dead. Even if Brianna escaped in the chaos, how long would it be until Chester’s people hunted her down again? A day? Two days?
Brianna nodded her understanding that she wasn’t to utter a scream, tears standing out in her wild eyes. Chester pulled the knot open, and the gag fell to the ground. True to her word, Brianna didn’t scream, although her frantic whimpers became slightly louder. Chester ignored them and focused on Logan.
Raina tensed her body, ready to attack at the first moment she was given a chance. That moment was almost upon her. Adrenaline flooded her body now, racing through her veins, leaving a coppery taste in her mouth and her heart pounding a little too fast. She was breathing so fast she was almost afraid Chester would hear it. Her bear was going mad inside of her, growling and demanding to be freed, but Raina kept herself in control, keeping her bear down.
“Go to him,” Chester said to Brianna.
She didn’t move. Fear had paralyzed her completely. Even her frantic eyes were still, focused wholly on the ground between her feet. Chester rolled his eyes and shoved her hard towards Logan. She stumbled, and Logan reached out to catch her, glaring at Chester. He held Brianna out at arm’s length and released her, pretending to study her. The waiting was killing Raina. Logan nodded curtly.
“She looks good to me,” he said. As he spoke, he grabbed Brianna and pushed her to one side, moving in front of her. Fur began to spring up over his body, and his claws began to extend.
This was Raina’s moment, and she didn’t waste a second. She sprang out from behind the door and started to run across the room, the Ure sword held above her head. That was when she saw the fatal flaw in their plan: she was too far away. Chester had seen her coming, and he had seen Logan starting to turn. He was going to be ready for the attack by the time Raina reached him.
He didn’t waste a second. Raina was still only halfway across the lounge area when Chester’s eyes turned to yellow, reptilian slits. Bright orange scales exploded across his body as his clothes vanished. His face changed, becoming the elongated, beautiful yet terrifying face of a dragon.
Raina stopped in her tracks when he roared, sending a plume of flames across the room. They danced over the seating area and the bar, taking hold instantly and starting to burn the furniture. Thick black smoke billowed up from the couch, and Raina’s eyes began to sting.
She leapt back into action when Chester turned to face Logan, who was fully in bear mode now. Raina ran at Chester, bringing the sword down. She aimed for the spot between his ribs. It wouldn’t be a kill shot, but it would slow him down so she could get in a good shot at decapitating him.
As the sword swished through the air, Chester turned gracefully. He nimbly stepped to one side, avoiding the blow, and Raina stumbled, the momentum of her swing carrying her forward. Chester roared again and swung out with his front leg. Raina saw the attack coming, but she was still stumbling forward, unable to shift her course. She felt fiery agony bursting through her side as Chester’s claws raked down her ribs. He hit her with such force that she flew into the air, lifted off her feet like a rag doll. She kept her grip on the sword even as her arms pinwheeled, scrabbling for purchase that didn’t come. She saw the wall coming towards her, and she tried to get her legs in front of her so her face wouldn’t slam into the wall.
She was too late, and she only managed to get one leg up. Her foot hit the wall, and she felt a bone in her lower leg snap with an audible crack. She screamed in agony and then coughed, smoke filling her lungs. She could feel herself falling now. She slammed onto the ground with a bone shaking impact that made her side and her leg pulse with agony. The sword fell from her hand with a clatter, skittering across the floor and out of her reach.
Raina was held in place by the pain in her body, her breath gone from slamming to the ground so hard. She could only watch on now, willing her body to heal fast, which had no effect on the healing process whatsoever.
It would take time to recover from injuries so severe. She found she could breathe again, and she sucked in a big, rattling breath that sent white hot pain through her side. She could feel the blood running freely from Chester’s claw marks, and she risked a glance at her side. Hot bile filled her throat when she saw the mess there. Her shirt had been torn to shreds, and beneath it, she could see the white of her rib bones through the too bright red of her ripped skin and flesh.
Her head began to spin, and if she succumbed to the dizziness, she would pass out, and it would all be over. She clung desperately to consciousness and looked away from her wounds, trying to work out what was going on in the room. Hopefully, Logan had used Chester’s attack on her to his advantage and had managed to do some damage to him while he was distracted.
She saw Brianna first, huddled on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chin, her arms wrapped around them. She rocked back and forth, making a keening sound so full of fear, Raina could almost feel it herself. Chester and Logan were back in human form, circling each other. They both ignored the smoke and the flames, but from the burning in her lungs, Raina believed they didn’t have long before the smoke became the biggest threat to their lives.
She looked across the floor, searching for her dropped sword. She made a low moan when she saw how far away from her it was. She would have to wait until her leg healed before she could get to it. Her moan caught the attention of both Logan and Chester, and at the same exact second, they saw the sword and dived for
it.
14
Logan could feel Raina’s pain inside of himself, coupled with the most intense anger he had ever felt in his life. When he had seen Chester swiping Raina to one side with his claws, he thought that was the angriest he could get, but when he had heard her leg break as she struck the wall, he had seen red.
His bear had threatened to overwhelm him, and he had almost let it. The only thing that had stopped him from turning was the knowledge that if he succumbed to it when the call was this strong, he wouldn’t be able to come back to himself. He would be a bear forever. And then he would lose Raina.
Chester was human again, too, and the pair of them stood facing each other for a second, both of them trying to judge the best moment to attack the other, waiting for their opponent to make a mistake and let their guard down. Logan didn’t take his eyes off Chester’s but he was aware of Raina lying on the ground, her back against the wall to his left, trying to heal, and Brianna to his right, terror overwhelming her and leaving her rocking back and forth, unable to process what she was seeing.
As Logan and Chester continued to eye each other, tensed up and waiting for just the right moment, Logan grew more and more on edge. Smoke was fast filling the room, and although the fire wasn’t spreading as quickly as he had feared it would, it was still becoming a major problem. Chester didn’t seem in the least bit fazed by it, since it wasn’t affecting him in the way it was affecting the others. It would still burn him if he got too close to it, but his respiratory system was different to theirs, the system of a dragon, allowing him to breathe in the smoke-filled air as easily as if it were clean, fresh air. Logan’s situation was more precarious than Chester’s. Time was on Chester’s side. He didn’t really need to attack Logan. He just had to keep him at arm’s length until the smoke made him pass out. The smoke wouldn’t kill Logan or Raina, but if they were unconscious, Chester could easily escape.