Hunting Down Dragons (Moonlight Dragon #2) Read Online Free PDF

waves. He'd hated being used as leverage against me, and I sympathized. I would have felt exactly the same way had I been the one up on that wall.
    "Well, they pretty much failed," I told him, which brought his head up, surprise on his face. "When I saw that they'd been torturing you and yet you still looked ready to punch someone in the face that just inspired me to fight them, too."
    He shook his head slowly. "Moody, I didn't want you to fight them."
    "See? Your reverse psychology worked. You were brilliant."
    He opened his mouth, then shut it. "Moody, you're something else." He briefly touched my hip. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you who I was. To me, my family status doesn't matter. Here in Vegas I'm no one special. I'm just Vale."
    "Okay, Just Vale."
    I smiled and he smiled back, looking relieved. But there was no way I was going to forget his status. As an heir to a throne he might have enemies, known or unknown. In fact, I recalled Melanie asking him if he had any, back when we were trying to figure out why he'd become possessed by a demon. He'd given us a guarded denial then, which I'd found suspicious but had consequently forgotten in the stress that followed. Vale wasn't 'just' anything, and I'd do well to keep that in mind.
    For the time being, though, him being a gargoyle prince wasn't something I could bring myself to actively worry about. I had enough on my plate as it was.
    Vale swung his arms gingerly, loosening muscles that still occasionally trembled as if from exhaustion. "The Oddsmakers told me at the end, before they kidnapped you, that I could earn my freedom by convincing you to accept their mission. Though they never told me what it is."
    "They were cagey with me, too," I said sourly. "It makes me want to flip them the bird."
    But Vale grew irritated again. "You can't act out against them, Moody. They let us go tonight because they need us to do something for them. But remember how easily they brought you here. They can do that at any time, no matter where you are. And they don't need to release you. We're among the rare few who have left that place alive."
    I hated that he was probably right. It left me feeling helpless and like a pawn in a game with anonymous online players. Any last hope that the Oddsmakers might be a benevolent council of wise, old magick users who had only the best interests of my kind at heart had been thoroughly incinerated. Those guys were a menace, and unfortunately they were a powerful one and I was caught up in their machinations.
    "I won't do anything too rash," I said, which was the best I could give him, "but I have to tell you: I don't trust them. They told me Vagasso isn't a problem and to go on like he doesn't exist." I gave Vale a skeptical look. "I'm not delusional, am I? Vagasso did summon a dangerous demon in his quest to take over the world, right? I didn't dream that?"
    Vale's mouth thinned. "You didn't dream it."
    "It sounds fishy to me that they want us to lay off him. Do you think they're protecting him for some reason?"
    "I wish I had more answers for you, Moody, but I don't. Trust me when I say it pisses me off." He raked a hand through his seemingly always tousled brown hair. "We need to get out of here."
    I sighed. "If only I could have Lucky fly us back."
    He cocked his head. "But…your familiar is a Chinese dragon. Its form is serpentine."
    "Right. Wings aren't traditional Chinese, but I'm a half-breed." I shrugged. "I guess having my dad's blood has made me and my dragon mutts. Fat good it does us now, though." I squinted across the desert. I couldn't make out a single light that signaled civilization. "You plan to walk all the way back? I know you don't have a phone on you. At least, I really hope you don't since the only place you could be carrying one is..."
    He gave me a dirty look. "You're not the only one with wings."
    "Ah." What he intended sounded nerve-wracking but I couldn’t deny that I was curious to see what it would feel like. "Alright. I’m