Dragon.That man had called him Dragon.
The door snapped shut and suddenly Raven was alone with Talon. Outside. Where it was quiet. Too quiet. Her pulse was racing, and she couldn’t catch her breath. Fear clawed at her. Vector was inside.
Tears tracked down her cheeks.
She couldn’t stay out here.She had to get back inside.She had to help Vector.
She loved him. She’d rather die than see him get hurt.
The realization hit her like a blow to the chest, stealing her breath. She couldn’t lose him. Not like this. She didn’t care what he was or wasn’t. He was hers.
She turned, bolted toward the door. Talon grabbed her arm, held her back. “No, Raven. You can’t go back in there.”
“I have to help him.”
Talon’s grin made her spitting mad. “He doesn’t need your help. He needs you safe.”
“No. Let. Me. Go!” She tried to shove him, but he was just as brutish, as impossibly strong as Vector. She shoved. Kicked. He didn’t even adjust his stance.
“Are you finished?”
“Let me go.”
“You are not to go inside. Do you understand.”
Reluctantly, she agreed. What could she do anyway? Kick one of those hunters in the shins? She didn’t have a weapon, or training, or the muscle to fight even one of them on her own.God dammit. She was going to sign up for karate or something as soon as this was over.
Talon released her and stepped back. She was still rubbing her arm—which didn’t hurt nearly as much as her wounded pride—when tires screeched against the pavement. A white van sped toward them. Panic surged through her as the side door slid open, and before she could react,four masked men jumped out.
They shot Talon in the chest with what looked like a large shotgun. He crumpled to the ground with a shout. She turned to try to help him, but someone grabbed her from behind.
“No—”
The man’s grip was like a vice as he hauled her back toward the van.
Talon was back up on one knee, head up, looking for her.
She kicked out, struggled, but another masked figure moved in, shoved something sharp against the side of her neck. A knife?
No. A needle. A burning sensation. Then…crackling along her nerve endings.
A static filled haze blossomed in her skull.Her vision blurred, darkened.
Through the haze of fading consciousness, she heard voices—muffled, distorted. Another shot from the gun. Talon shouting. Rough hands shoving her to the side so hard her head bounced off something solid. A boot? The seat? Her eyes were open, but she couldn’t see a thing.
The man who’d hauled her into the van had a calm voice, a soldier calling in a report. “We’ve got it’s mate.”
A second voice, colder, more calculating, responded from somewhere below her feet. “Can’t be.She’s human.”
A beat of silence. Then, a third voice answered, his tone younger, filled with something close to disgust.“We’re screwed if they start breeding with humans.”
“Shut the fuck up and get us out of here before more of them show up.”
The van door slammed closed, and Raven closed her eyes as the van moved, every turn of the wheels taking her farther away from Vector.
CHAPTER 13
The Guild Stronghold
