Page 28 of Red and Her Dragons (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 4)

Marcus looked around us, seeming to understand the hidden meaning in my words. He nodded. “Let’s make this quick.”

I gestured for him to lead the way. “I’ll try to make it as quick as possible. However, you may want to cancel your plans once you hear what I have to say.”

“I’ll make that decision once you’re done,” he said.

Minutes later, we sat in the war room as I tried to find a way to start. I was still having a hard time coming to terms with everything I had seen.

“Jax, whatever it is, you need to tell me,” Marcus said. He sounded strained.

I settled my gaze on him. He wasn’t strained. He was exhausted. He must not have been getting enough sleep with everything going on. I couldn’t blame him. I nodded. Words wouldn’t come, though. At least none that made sense. But after several minutes, I gave up and just dug into my news.

“I found camps. Human ones. All of them were stationed in various parts of the forest within the region. And I only happened upon them by accident.”

“What do you mean?” He narrowed his gaze on me.

I huffed. “They aren’t using light. At least no obvious, typical forms of light. But the movement of shadow was what led me to them.”

“Where did you find them?” Marcus asked.

I picked up some red-tipped tacks and headed to the map of our territory. I started placing pins into the paper, marking where I had found the camps. Dozens of them were scattered throughout the entire region. How so many of them existed didn’t make any sense. Once I placed the fifteenth tack into the map, Marcus stopped me.

“I get the point,” he said.

“And that’s not all of them.” I turned and faced him. “It gets worse.”

“Yes. You mentioned you stumbled upon them by accident…” Marcus said.

I nodded.

“And they aren’t using a source of light?” he asked.

I nodded again.

He took the information and withdrew into his thoughts for several minutes. “That makes no sense. Humans can’t see in the dark.”

“No. They don’t. At least, not until now.” I shook my head. “I can’t explain it. None of it makes sense.”

Marcus nodded. “Troubling, indeed.”

“Well, it’s not all bad,” I said. “I scared off a couple of groups of them. Not many. Certainly not enough to make a dent. But there were dozens of others I wasn’t able to scare off. And I’m sure many others I wasn’t able to find, but I’m positive they are out there.”

“How many are we talking about?” he asked. “Give me your best estimate.”

“At least fifty groups, and I am unable to tell you how many are in the groups themselves. The numbers varied depending on the group, and that was only from what I could tell. One had ten people. One had five. Others had more,” I said and shook my head. “Hundreds, by my estimate. And that’s not taking into account any groups I didn’t manage to find or any other variables we haven’t taken into account.”

“Fuck me,” he muttered. He ran his hand through his hair and stared at the map where I had pinned locations for all the human camps I could find. But I wasn’t done delivering my news just yet.

“The most concerning part about this news is how close they are getting to your friend’s house,” I added.

Marcus's eyes settled on me. He stiffened and huffed. “Of course, they are. Any idea on when they may get there?”

“A few days if not sooner,” I said.

“We’re out of time,” Marcus said. “Call for Bret. He needs to be here.”

I nodded and went to do my bidding. With hope, and a good dose of luck, we can get on the other side of this mess before too many more lose their lives. Once I made it to the door, Marcus stopped me.

“You were right,” he said.

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