“I'm all disgusting and filthy,” she offered as a weak protest, but honestly, the presence of anyone she knew and trusted was too good not to soak up.
Making a sound of dismissal, Blade kept his hold on her, and she turned her head to see that her almost rapist was now the one on the ground. Dragon was above him, his fists slamming into the unmoving man over and over again while Thunder stood and watched.
Neither Thunder nor Blade made any move to stop Dragon, as if they understood that his sanity depended on this. But they were wrong, Dragon might need an outlet for the rage that had been simmering inside him since his childhood, but he didn't need to keep beating on what even she could tell was an already dead man to let it out.
“Dragon,” she called. As much as she was reassured by Blade’s presence and knew she was safe with him and he wouldn't let anyone hurt her, he wasn't who she needed holding her right now.
Immediately, Dragon’s head snapped up, his fist paused in the air above the man’s head. There was an emptiness in his expression that scared her. He’d succumb to the anger, and if he let it, it would consume him and he might never be able to fight his way free of its hold.
“Please,” she whispered, allowing her emotions to seep into her words. “I need you.”
Like a switch had been flipped, he shoved to his feet. His chest was heaving with each breath he took, but she knew it wasn't from the exertion of beating her assailant to death. It was finally allowing his tightly controlled anger out of its box.
“I need you,” Cassandra repeated.
Still in somewhat of a haze, Dragon closed the short distance between them. For a long moment, he just stood there andstared, not reaching for her, and she forced herself to stay still, to meet his gaze, to let him find whatever he needed to see in it.
Then he grabbed her, yanked her against him, his face buried in her neck as he held her clutched tightly against him. Pain throbbed through her body, but it had shifted once again to the good kind. The kind that said she was alive, Dragon was alive, and for now, they were safe. That was all that mattered.
“I hear sirens,” Blade suddenly announced.
With another ragged breath, Dragon pulled back a little. “How badly are you hurt?”
“I have no idea,” she answered honestly. There was still too much adrenaline and drugs in her system for her to identify the sources of her pain.
“Did he …?”
“Started in the van, but I threw up all over him, then I think I broke his nose and ran,” she replied. There would be time to process that later, but it wasn't now. Not when they were still out there and vulnerable.
“I wish I could kill him again,” Dragon said with such seriousness that she almost smiled.
“Dead is dead,” she reminded him. “Is Rose okay? He drugged us both, but I think maybe he only had the one syringe since he was after me, so he didn't have enough for both of us, and she got more. She was unconscious when I ran. I didn't want to leave her behind, but I needed to get help. I should have run to the building, tried to find you all, but I wasn't thinking clearly, and I didn't know if you were all alive.”
“You did the right thing,” Dragon assured her.
“And Rose is fine, just sedated,” Thunder added.
“Someone else is out here,” Blade said, his head cocked to the side as he stared off into the distance in the direction she’d been running.
“You think whoever set the explosives and had the place cleaned out?” Thunder asked.
“Either that or a partner,” Blade replied.
“If he had a partner, they would have been waiting at the van,” she reminded the guys.
“She’s right,” Dragon agreed.
“Then it has to be the mystery woman, someone working for her, or someone working for Dr. Gardner,” Blade said. “Regardless, we can't let them get away.”
The man was already moving when Thunder stopped him. “Wait, I’ll come with you.”
“No. You need to go with them just in case there is another threat out there,” Blade insisted. “Get back to the van, get Steel and the others, and get out of here. We don’t want to be here when the cops show up. We can't let this opportunity pass by. Whoever is out there, I’ll find, no way they can escape me. Once I have them contained, I’ll let you guys know.”
“You want us to find somewhere to hide out while we wait?” Thunder asked.
“No, get Cassandra and Rose home. I’ll call when I know something,” Blade answered before taking off into the forest, which quickly seemed to swallow him whole.
“Will he be okay on his own?” she asked, exhaustion crashing at the corners of her mind now that she knew she was safe.
