“You have no jurisdiction over me, and that asshole can suck a fat one,” I snapped as I flipped back on my telepathy. It might hurt, but I needed the answers and fast. I glanced around and locked gazes with a dragon I kind of knew from the Diaz’s area. “Get people back. This is going to get ugly. Contact who you can and let them know Berman is making a play to abduct me.”
“You’re being unreasonable, and we’re not here to do that,” the guy snapped as he took a threatening step towards me.
I had my barrier up in a flash and held up a hand to Ray. “Stay out of this. They’re not screwing around. This will end up with you at your council, and I don’t want that. Call who you can and get help here. They must have planned this for when we wouldn’t have the right people here.” I nodded when I heard that in their thoughts, seeing it in their eyes. “Yeah, this is legal, my ass.”
“It is,” he snarled trying to grab me even with the barrier.
“It’s not and we both know that,” I sneered. “I’m not a dragon. But here’s what I don’t get—how do you see this playing out for you? You nab me for Berman, and he knows this will start huge shit. He won’t take the fall for that. He won’t admit he sanctioned this. No, he will disavow all of this and lay it at your feet. All of this will be some coverup of you guys going rogue.”
Everyone froze, even the guy trying to get in my barrier.
My eyes went wide as I heard his thoughts. “You never considered that did you? You never realized what came next. I have alliances with all the dragon royals and powerful people. They’re not going to just let this go because Berman pulls some shit while Edelman and White aren’t here, who he sees as his only obstacles.”
As if to argue my point, there was more to worry about on campus, Craftsman came racing towards us. “Tamsin!”
“I’m fine,” I called over. “Don’t get involved. Berman’s going nuclear and filing grievances with councils over this. I’m not sure how he can do that when he can’t legally take me, but this guy is absolutely sure that it will happen, even if Berman’s going to deny having me.”
The head guy gave me a shocked look. “How—you—we’re wearing…”
I smirked at him and pointed to his telepathy blocking charm on the ground. “You mean you’re wearing that? You lost it when you came for the barrier. Not used to wearing charms and accidentally ripped one off? I hear that happens. I suggest high collar shirts so they don’t swing around when you’re going to be moving a lot. Idiot.”
It was hard not to laugh when someone moved lightening fast and scooped up the charm before the guy could retrieve it and block me again. I’d have put money on Darby.
“Leave campus now,” Craftsman ordered them. “You have no authority here over any student other than the dragons of Africa only. You are not of the dragon council or—”
“This is on behalf of all supe security, and she is coming with us,” the guy snarled. “Anyone who gets in our way will be seen as a direct threat and handled as such.” “If we fail, the Alpha will kill us and our families. We might be the fall guys for this, but we don’t have a choice. Gods forgive us, but we don’t. The castles are out of juice, and we made our beds siding with him.”
Oh fuck.
“No!” Craftsman bellowed as he realized what I was going to do.
I flipped the barrier from protecting myself to keeping the eight dragons of Berman’s inside with me. I did keep up a wall between us for the moment as I got myself ready for what I had to do.
“Tamsin, no, don’t do this!” Craftsman begged, banging on the barrier.
“Get help here, Doc. They’re all in. They’re willing to take anyone out to get to me, so it’s this or the nuclear option.”
“Let us help,” Ray snarled. “They have no reason to send us to our councils. It’s bullshit.”
It was and for Ray, I believed that… But Craftsman was a different story. He had ties to me and they wanted me. They would jump on this bullshit just for the chance to use him against me, even if he had the protection of the dragon royals.
No, this was my fight.
My hair was already up for training, I was wearing clothes for it as well, and the slip-on shoes on my feet were fine. I set my stuff down and smirked at them as I opened my training bag and pulled out my sword.
“You cannot be this stupid,” the first guy balked at me, the others blinking at me as I stretched out my arms. I was already pretty loose from my morning workout and raring to go.
“You’ve made the faulty assumption that the worst opponent you had on this campus was Edelman because you’ve only seen me beat Blake Ward. You see a weak woman who beat another weak vampire woman, and you don’t take any of that seriously, even if a Rothchild trained me. You won’t even register Trigger Rothchild is my sword trainer.”
“Because you’re friends with his daughter,” he snapped as he pulled his sword from the sheath on his back. “Don’t injure her. Catch her quickly and knock her unconscious. We need to get out of here fast before the people they called arrive.”
“Yeah, that’s how orders go when not an abduction,” I chuckled darkly. I let out a slow breath and met each of their gazes. “I’m sorry you’ll lose your lives for his insanity. May the gods forgive you, but I know you do this today
