Bas’s blood iced over, and he hung onto her arm, even as he lifted his phone to his ear. “Val. 911. It’s got Bridget.” He hung up. “You are going to want to get out of my mate, creature.”
“Why should I? I like it here. Her mind is delicious and her imagination even more so. Do you know she’s been dreaming of a life with you? Shame that will never come to pass,” the Brollachan mocked.
Bas wouldn’t panic. Couldn’t. He wasn’t going to shift in the middle of the street. His dragon was writhing inside of him in fury.
“You get out of her, maybe I can be convinced not to kill you,” Bas said, trying to keep his voice even.
The Brollachan pouted with Bridget’s lips. “I think you’re a liar. You haven’t even told this girl that she was your mate. She’s going to die, never knowing.”
The roar of a motorbike cut through Bas’s fear, and Valentine pulled up on the footpath beside him.
“Need some help, little brother?” he asked.
“It’s got her, Val. We can’t shoot it.”
The Brollachan laughed. “Shoot me? Do you think a little bit of lead can stop me? All you will do is damage this meat suit I am in.”
Valentine pulled out some cuffs from his jacket pocket. “Whatever we do, we can’t do it here.”
The cuffs were silver and etched in rune marks and sigils. The Brollachan saw them and started to struggle. Bas clung to Bridget’s body as it wriggled and fought. Quick as lightning, Valentine cuffed Bridget’s hands, and the Brollachan screeched.
“It’s okay, everyone. I’m a police officer,” Valentine said to the crowd of onlookers. “Be about your business.”
Bas sent an illusion spell curling about them, making the pedestrians look the other way. A car pulled up, and Cosimo waved at them from the driver’s seat.
“You called Dad?” Bas asked.
Valentine shook his head. “He was with me when I got your call. Getting here on the bike was quicker.”
“Get her in here so we can take her home, boys,” Cosimo called.
The Brollachan hissed and spat, but Bas ignored it. He took Bridget’s arms, and Valentine took her legs, and they secured her into the sedan’s back seat.
“I’ll see you there. But in case you need it.” Valentine took a wooden box from his pocket and placed it on the front passenger seat.
“I’ll see you at home,” Bas grunted. He knew Valentine was being practical, but he didn’t want to look at that damned box, let alone consider using it on his Bridget.
“Talk to me, Basset,” Cosimo said as they wound through Temple Bar and back to the Greatdrakes mansion.
“I don’t know what happened,” Bas replied from his position. He was lying on Bridget to stop the creature from thrashing about. He didn’t want it to hurt Bridget’s body. She was going to be needing it back in one piece. “We were walking on the river, and she said she felt weird. Then she’s running down a set of stairs to a dock, where she freezes, lifts a foot off the ground, and then faints. The fucker jumped her, and she almost went into the river.”
“Ohhh, she’s gone much further than into the water, magician,” the Brollachan mocked before it tried to bite his face.
You’ll get her back. You’ll get her back. You’ll get her back.Bas chanted over and over. There wasn’t anywhere that Bridget went that his dragon wouldn’t be able to find her.
Taranis was waiting in the garage when they pulled in. He helped Bas up.
“You okay, my boy? You are looking a little wild about the edges.”
“It’s got my mate,” Bas said, the words coming out in a horrified sob.
Taranis’s eyes glowed. “Breathe, Basset. There you go. In and out. We can get it out of her. This is a house of magicians, is it not? Possession is child’s play.”
Bas nodded, and then, after a few more breaths, they got the Brollachan out of the car and down into the cells below the garage. They were dusty from misuse, but the magic in them was still strong.
“Burning, burning,” the creature hissed, writhing back from the bars.
Bas was going to be sick, but he still pushed it into one of the chairs in an empty cell and cuffed it down.
