Free Dragons Prefer Blondes by Candace Havens

change of—”
    “They’re waiting on the table in the weapons room.” As usual, he’d thought of everything.
    “Great. I’ll be there in a bit.”

CHAPTER 8
    It was predawn in Montreal when I arrived. Going from Madrid to home to Canada had taken me less than five minutes, and that was with a change of clothes and a weapons load.
    Teleporting: the only way to travel.
    I’d landed directly in front of St. Barnabas, which was two hundred years old and absolutely beautiful. While it wasn’t exactly the Notre-Dame Basilica, it came close. Huge spires loomed above the neo-Gothic gem, but I didn’t have time to admire it.
    I turned my senses on full blast. This was near the same church where I’d seen the dragon the other night. There was a slight scent of burned coal, but it was so faint I didn’t know if I could track it. The smoky smell evaporated when I reached the middle of the street. I searched for foot or talon prints in the heavy snow. The plows hadn’t been there yet, but I saw nothing.
    “Scaly bastards, where are you?”
    Using my boots, I shoved snow away from what looked like a manhole, but there was nothing.
    I pushed the comm at my ear. “Where the hell did they go?”
    “They’re off the grid, but they didn’t jump,” Jake’s voice came across. “One minute they were there, just outside the sanctuary, and then poof, they were gone.”
    Dragons don’t poof.
    It took a minute to pick the lock, but I eventually found my way in through the heavy wooden doors of the church. The stained glass windows were dark. It might almost be dawn, but the heavy snow outside made it seem closer to midnight.
    There was no scent in the church, so I moved back outside, locking the doors as I left. That’s when I saw several sets of human tracks to the right. The weird thing was, they went into an alley and then disappeared.
    What the hell?
    I backtracked and followed the trail again. I picked up the lightest scent of smoke, and then nothing.
    I pushed the comm again. “Do you guys see anything?”
    “Negative.” I could hear Jake typing furiously. “Wait. To your—”
    Before he could finish the sentence, a chill slithered down my spine. I sensed them around the corner. Pulling the crossbow from my back, I walked out of the alley and into the street.
    Six beings stood thirty yards ahead, facing me. Two dragons holding on to four human women.
    My brother, Bailey, is a big John Wayne fan, and I’ve been forced to watch many Westerns. As the dragons and I stared down the street at one another, it felt like I was in one of those cowboy movies.
    “That’s a crime punishable by death.” I pointed to the four women they’d shoved to the side.
    The largest dragon was familiar. His long green hair flowed down to his waist, and I recognized him from the day before as one of the Kevans.
    His second-in-command was a gryphon. I could tell from the long talons on his claws. The gryphons weren’t able to transform all the way into human form.
    Lifting the crossbow, I aimed for the gryphon’s brain.
    The Kevan grabbed one of the two blondes and shoved the point of a large blade into her throat.
    “Lose the weapon, or she dies,” the dragon ordered.
    My left eyebrow rose of its own accord. “Collateral damage.” There was no way I’d let the women die, but he didn’t have to know that. “Want to explain to me why you’re kidnapping a bunch of defenseless women?”
    College coeds, if I guessed right. They had that girls-night-out look about them. Correction: girls-night-out-gone-bad look about them.
    “Guardian, stand down.”
    I made a clicking sound with my tongue. “Not going to happen. Listen, you let go of her, and I’ll let you live at least till I get you back to Xerxes.”
    Greenie roared and pulled the woman up by her hair. Her feet dangled in the air, and her shrill screams pierced the silence. I couldn’t blame her—the pain of being held like that had to be excruciating.
    Squinting just a bit