Page 10 of Captured By the Dragon Warrior
He petted my fingers and nodded, his eyes wide and frightened.
“Ready?”
Quincy nodded again and held my arm out straight. I extended my claws and dug them into my shoulder. I was fairly certain both of us screamed as he pulled.
CHAPTER 6
QUINCY
That was going to live in my nightmares for the rest of my life. I understood that removing Ram’s arm had had to happen, that the fire was going to burn through him and never stop, but just…Fuck. That had been thoroughly and disturbingly gruesome.
At least it was an appendage? If it had been center mass, he’d be dead. I had so many questions about why his body reacted like that, whether his clothes were always fire-retardant, and if everyone knew that fire could do this to him. But he’d passed out just after I’d…I’d pulled his arm off. All I really knew was that his arm was across the room and slowly turning to ash. I’d literally put it in the old fireplace so it couldn’t catch anything else on fire by accident. I was trying to ignore it, but I could smell the way it was cooking itself, and ignoring that was damn near impossible.
Ram hadn’t bled for more than a few seconds, a testament to his rapid healing abilities more than my skills. I’d wrapped his shoulder with the old tablecloth—offered up a prayer that he wouldn’t get an infection—and secured the cloth around him as best as I could. I was hoping he’d wake up soon and tellme it hardly hurt at all. What I really wanted, though, was to get him some professional help.
The temptation to head out to a distribution center was strong. I could tell someone who worked at one of those what was going on, right? They were supportive people and would jump on getting help for Ram’s arm and his overall situation. Send in the cavalry and all that.
I was held back from leaving by the possibility that those four dumbasses could still be out there looking for us. I didn’t want to leave Rampon alone now that Murray and his crew knew fire could make Rampon scream. They might not know how bad it could get, but they knew something.
I’d checked the news and local social media to see if a car chase, crash, and fight with a giant lizard had gotten any notice. While it had, it was all focused on who Rampon was and why he was hurting people. A rogue alien, they called him. Like Murray and Rex were the victims. Nobody was saying anything about them being in custody, so I had to assume there was a possibility that they were still driving my truck around and trying to find us.
I couldn’t believe they’d stolen my truck. Could I even report the theft without going into all the other details surrounding it? Hell. Probably not. That would have to wait, then.
I checked my watch yet again. It was going on twenty minutes since Ram had passed out from the pain. I couldn’t blame him at all, but it was starting to worry me. Should I wake him up? Let him sleep? He seemed comfortable, breathing fine, big heart thumping away. Maybe being unconsciousness was part of his recovery process? I didn’t want to mess that up for him.
Leaning against Ram’s good shoulder, I closed my eyes andtried to chill. With my cheek pressed to his scales, I was reminded of waking up on top of him not so long ago. I’d had plenty of one-offs with random guys ever since I’d figured out what my dick could do, but sleeping in with someone? That had been new. It was still blowing my mind that we’d fucked, but I also felt really safe with him. Trusted him.
When he’d gone after Murray and the rest, I could tell Ram was trying not to kill them. Knock them out, yeah. Incapacitate, hell yeah. But he’d held back and let them live. I think I might’ve fallen for him right then. He could do a lot of damage with those claws of his, but he chose not to. That was hero-level stuff.
And my goal was to get Ram back to his people. Hand him over and walk away. Because what? He’d visit me on the weekends? Fly down for a booty call in one of his shuttles? Please. We were in this conflict, and then we’d be out of it and go our separate ways. End of story.
That fucking sucked.
I heard a small noise and opened my eyes only to bang my head on the back of the booth as I gasped. Less than six feet from me were a pair of lizard aliens, claws out, fringes flared, and snarls on their lips. One held a baton with electricity crackling on the end pointed at me. I put my hands up so fast I nearly smacked myself in the face.
“What have you done?” the unarmed one hissed at me.
I shook my head. “Wasn’t me. I mean, I helped, but he needed me to.”
“Explain.”
I gulped and tried to calm the fuck down. “There was a guy with one of those kitchen torches. A little handheld thing. He got Rampon with the flame right where he’d already been shot. He told me he had to amputate to stopthe burn from spreading.” I kept my hands up but pointed toward the fireplace. “His arm’s still burning over there.”
The one with the baton didn’t even blink, while the one questioning me barked something and got an answer. I risked looking and saw— Fuck me, a whole damn company of soldiers had found us! There were lizard aliens everywhere. I was a shit Marine; I hadn’t heard a thing until they’d had me surrounded.
“Get up,” the interrogator ordered.
I did, hands still in the air. The one with the baton grabbed my right arm down and hauled me out of the way. I wanted to explain everything else, prove my innocence, but the crackle of electricity was beside my temple, so I kept my mouth shut for the moment.
The other alien sort of scanned Rampon with a little device attached to something bigger and a voice spoke from it. I had no idea what they were saying as the alien spoke back to the device, but the tension seemed to leave their broad shoulders after a while. The one holding me might’ve chilled some, too, since the baton wasn’t right up next to my face anymore. Maybe it was letting them know Ram was going to be okay.
“Take him.”
I gasped because that was Ram’s voice. I watched his eyelids flutter before they closed again. Now I was relieved, too.
Except… Take who? Me?
Oh, shit. Yep, that was what they thought he meant because someone else grabbed my hands and locked cuffs on my wrists behind my back. Which was fine. Really, it was understandable that they’d want to get out of here with an injured comrade and take with them the one person whocould explain everything. Just a little detention. They’d debrief me, and eventually Ram would let them know I was cool. It was fine.
