Her story shut me up for a moment. Dima's life had sucked, but it was not my problem to fix. I had no intention of letting anyone in on my Vampyre blood secret. Ever. However, I did have a few pertinent questions.
"What’s with the crossbreeding?" I asked.
"The crossbreeding thing is utter bullshit. A few rogue idiots trying to take over. From what I understand they were taken out…" Her look to me was questioning. "It was you?"
I nodded curtly and she smiled with satisfaction.
"Outstanding. You will be very helpful."
"Let's get something straight here, Dragon. We are not working for you. If you behave and drink your medicine we might let you tag along," I informed her coldly.
"Does he speak?" she asked, referring to Hank.
"He's a man of few words," I replied.
"Nice," she purred as she looked him over from head to toe. "I like a man of action."
"While that's incredibly awesome to know," I said in a voice that drew her startled eyes right back to me, "he's taken. His mate is wildly jealous and occasionally unstable. If you so much as touch him you'll lose a body part… starting with your hand, followed by your overly inflated left boob. Afterwards his mate would probably rip out your entrails and shove them down your throat. She wouldn't kill you… she'd play with you. Once a limb or knocker started to grow back she rip off three more body parts to compensate. You understanding where I'm going with this?" I inquired politely.
"Got it," Dima choked out and avoided Hank completely.
"That was appetizing," Angela said with a chuckle and a gag. "Back to business."
"You actually think we're going to take directives from you?" I asked as I gathered up all the weapons and handed half to Hank.
"Um… yes?" she answered hesitantly.
"Wrong," I snapped as Dima laughed and Hank grinned. "You are not in charge here. I need the names of the Council members who know the details of this mission."
"That's not protocol," she said indignantly.
"I can assure you that you don't want to know what Essie will tell you to do with your protocol. Certainly after her description of what touching me results in… I'd think twice about making her unhappy," Hank said with a deadly smirk on his face. "Spit out the names or I'm quite sure you'll be choking on your protocol for days."
"Months," I added. "And your throat is not the only place I plan to shove them."
"Aramini, Gades, Weterman and Dahn," Angela offered quickly.
"Breakdown on how they side on the reveal?" Hank demanded.
"Aramini and Gades want the reveal. Weterman and Dahn do not."
"Was that so hard?" I asked sarcastically.
She shook her head in defeat, reached into her pocket and retrieved a piece of paper. "I'd suggest you memorize this and then eat it," she advised as she held it out to me.
"What the hell is it with people wanting me to eat paper lately?" I asked as I took it from her slightly shaking hands. "What is this?"
"I'll eat it," Dima volunteered.
"Um… okay," I said as I scanned the typed information.
It was names, addresses and habits of the alpha Dragon's homes and businesses. I handed it to Hank.
"Isn't this information Dima already knows?" I asked my boss.
"Well, yes… but since she can't defend herself I'm not sure how long she'll be around. And I wasn't sure if she would willingly give you the correct intel," Angela explained.
"Well, isn't that special," Dima ground out through clenched teeth.
"And yet you thought it was a brilliant idea to pair someone you clearly don't trust with us," I said so quietly Angela had to lean forward to hear.
"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds awful," Angela groused and yanked on the little bit of hair she had left.
"Look, it's a bad idea all around," Dima stated the obvious. "But you need me and I need you."
"Who did I screw over in a former life to deserve this?" I muttered as I committed the information to memory.
"The sun god?" Angela suggested.
We all gaped at her. She simply shrugged, pulled her flask from her cleavage, and took a healthy swig.
"Open up, Dragon," I instructed as I aimed the squirt gun at her very full and redonkulously pouty lips.
"You're really going to do this?" Dima asked with narrowed eyes and a disgusted shake of her head.
"I am really going to do this," I replied with a wink.
She had no clue what my experience with Dragons had been thus far and I wasn't keen on informing her. I was slightly uncomfortable leaving her completely defenseless, but she could earn her weapons back as she earned our trust.
"Where are you staying?" I asked the Dragon as she choked down the vile solution.
"Wherever you are," she replied with an evil little grin and a very unladylike burp.
The burp almost made me like her, but her words… not so much.
"How about no freakin' way?" I yelled. "You are not going to… "
"Oh thank god, are you guys Wolves?" a stressed out female voice called to us.
"Um…" I stammered as she and her husband and about fifteen large children approached us like a freight train that had run off the tracks.