Ya will not fail, Daegan sent back, reminding his dragon he had full faith in Ruadh.
They had always healed more quickly in dragon form. Perhaps the time Daegan allowed Ruadh to sit and rest had helped. Though still slow, his dragon made the change back to human form more quickly.
Recalling how he’d been dressed when they found Luigsech, Daegan covered his legs in jeans, his feet in boots, and his upper body in a long-sleeved burgundy T-shirt.
Striding through the woods, Daegan entered the spot where Quinn had the woman turned with her back to Daegan.
She waved her hands as she talked. “You keep askin’ the same thing in different ways. I’ve told you what I know. What makes you and that other idiot think I have any reason to answer your questions?”
Quinn’s irritation dissolved his pleasant tone. “I have no idea how you’re mixed up in all of this, Miss Luigsech, but you are. That is not our fault just as Cavan capturing our friend is not yours, but you have a chance to prove your innocence in all of this by giving us aid we desperately need.”
“I don’t have to prove anythin’,” she balked.
Aching from that harsh change, Daegan would not lighten up on her. She was no faint-of-heart female, but a trained warrior. “Yes, ya do. ’Tis time to be straight with us, Luigsech. To do otherwise will not go well for ya.”
Chapter 18
Luigsech jumped around, fire churning her eyes bright blue. “Stop sneakin’ up on me, Drake.”
Daegan gritted his teeth at the venom shooting through him. “Only the guilty react with such surprise.”
“Says the man who—”
“Entered your home uninvited,” Daegan finished, grinding out each word. One minute, pain surged in his leg. The next, muscles in his back felt as if they flexed on their own. “I have allowed ya plenty of time to tell what know. I tire of askin’ the same questions only to be put off or givin’ half answers. Did ya think I was jokin’ when I warned ya not to push me any harder or would go to a place far from here where I can get those answers?”
She spit out a Gaelic curse. “Threatenin’ me is not the way to gain my aid. If you kidnap me and leave Fenella in trouble, you have no idea what hell will come to your door.”
Just when Daegan thought he had her attention, the feisty woman threatened him?
Quinn even arched an eyebrow at their exchange.
Daegan took a breath, trying to calm his words. “That was instructin’ ya, not threatenin’ ya.”
“Where did you get your vocabulary?” she chided him as no one had done since before he became a man. “Because you don’t have the same definition for those words the rest of the world does.”
Quinn’s gaze had moved from her to Daegan, then to survey the area around them. He sent a telepathic message. If we stay here, we may be attacked. If we keep moving we may be attacked. What do you want to do?
Exhaustion from the difficult shift and lack of rest decided for Daegan. I will cloak us, but we must be still for a bit.
Quinn didn’t question why Daegan had to sit even though he’d been with Daegan when a group of them had moved around with the cloaking. In an unquestioned show of support for Daegan, Quinn suggested, “Until we know more about where you were headed, Miss Luigsech, I suggest we stay here a bit.”
Luigsech wheeled around to him. “I thought you said we should keep movin’?”
“I did, but I have no idea if moving draws attention to us more so than being still. If we remain in one place, I can use my gifts to search for any unnatural being approaching this area. That would reserve our energies.”
“Oh.”
Nodding his thanks at Quinn, Daegan sat at the base of a tree he could lean against. Once Luigsech chose a small boulder to use as a seat and Quinn settled on the ground against another tree, Daegan created the cloaking.
Luigsech looked around sharply. “What just changed?”
Quinn said, “We are cloaked for a short period.”
Daegan’s Maistir had not indicated who had cloaked them, allowing Daegan to keep his ability to do so hidden for now.
Daegan lifted a finger in Luigsech’s direction, but did not point it. Many supernaturals would react badly as some wielded majik with a finger. “If ya do not know how to locate Cavan, then tell us everythin’ ya do know.”
He’d try Quinn’s tactic and see if he could befriend the annoying woman.
Luigsech’s eyes flashed daggers at him, but she huffed a breath and relented. “Cavan left a book for me to translate. I reviewed a few pages only. He was to show up this mornin’ for me to translate a specific passage. He did not show at the centre, nor did Fenella and she’s not answerin’ her phone.”
Once again with a pertinent question, Quinn asked, “Does your friend carry a mobile phone? Is she good about replying to calls?”
“Sometimes and sometimes.” Luigsech rubbed her arm where she’d been scratched running through the woods. “But I lost my mobile phone in the cottage when I had to fight those Imortiks last night.” She shot a glare at Daegan, silently accusing him of being responsible for that attack. “Without my mobile phone, I have no idea if Fenella has tried to call me.”
Daegan sent a message to Quinn. Do not tell her we have her phone.
Understood. Just so you know, there was no alert of a prior incoming call when I first found the phone and none have come in since then.
Daegan lifted his chin slightly to let Quinn know he understood.
She watched them intently as if she sensed they were communicating silently. “Don’t you two feel guilty terrorizin’ an innocent woman?”
Daegan scowled at her. “Ya are not innocent.”
He must have hit a nerve with that. She had no reply. He pushed her again. “Where exactly were ya
