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"Don't worry, sweetheart. I won't let anything happen to you." He leaned to kiss the top of her head.
"I know." She turned to bury her face in his shirt and continued crying.
If only he could lend her some of his rage, maybe it could burn away her tears, but he couldn't.
Frankie was strong, and Dagor had no doubt that she would find her own coping mechanism.
"Can you guide us to where they are being held?" Kalugal asked his mate.
Nodding, she took the amulet from him. "I will use this thing to find the girls, and once they are safe, we will drop it in the middle of the ocean." Her face twisted with disgust as she lifted the chain and let it dangle from her fingers. "It derived its power from all the people who were sacrificed in the other chamber. I will use it to save the lives of these girls but for nothing else."
For a moment, Kalugal looked like he wanted to argue with her, but then he nodded. "Let's move out. There is no time to lose."
Dagor ran soothing circles over Frankie's back as she continued sobbing quietly against his shirt. "Negal and I will fight by your side, but we need to get Frankie and the other ladies to safety first. We can give them one of the vehicles, and they can return to the ship."
"I'm not going anywhere," Jin hissed. "I will tear those monsters' throats out with my fangs, and before I do that, I will gouge their eyes out with my claws."
Her ferocity was a song to his ears, but it was also shocking to see her elongated fangs. Had the immortals mutated over time? Or was she a descendant of the Kra-ell?
"I'm not going back either," Mey said. "I can fight humans. Besides, those girls will need to see women coming to their rescue. After what was done to them, they will be terrified of men." She glanced at Frankie. "I'm sorry, but we can't give you one of our three vehicles so you can return to the ship. You'll have to come with us."
Frankie nodded. "I want to help in any way I can."
Mey smiled. "The best way for you to help is to stay in the truck and hide while we take care of business."
Kalugal nodded. "I agree." He turned to Dagor. "Your job is to keep Frankie safe. The rest of us can handle the cartel and the rescue operation."
"I'm a god," he protested. "I can freeze them in place with one mind command."
"So can I," Kalugal said. "I know that you have military training, but we are not going to fight an army, and the Guardians are well trained for precisely these kinds of operations. Your abilities will be best utilized protecting Frankie."
Dagor's jaw clenched. The need to avenge the lives lost and destroyed was burning in his soul, but he also needed to protect Frankie, and Kalugal was right.
Besides, Negal could fight on the immortals' side, and he was a more experienced trooper than Dagor.
"I'll shroud our convoy," Yamanu said. "They won't know what hit them, and it will be over before it started."
Max bared his elongated fangs. "That sounds like a letdown. I want them terrified and peeing in their pants; I want them to experience what these innocent villagers did when they attacked them out of the blue, and I want to tear their throats out and watch them bleed."
"Gross," Frankie murmured against Dagor's shirt. "But I totally approve."
If Dagor wasn't already in love with her, he would have fallen for her right then and there.
Wait, what?
He loved her?
Right now wasn't the time or place to panic because he had feelings for the girl, but he would revisit that disturbing revelation after the mission was executed, the cartel monsters were dead, and the girls were on their way to safety.
Frankie
As they retraced their steps through the labyrinthine passages of the caverns, Frankie's heart pounded with a mix of fear and resolve. Thankfully, Kalugal's chalk marks had not been erased by the many footsteps that had passed over them, and they carefully navigated the traps without triggering them on their way out.
She kept close to Dagor, his solid body and protective presence a comfort against the sheer magnitude of what Jacki had seen and what they were about to do.
The most dangerous thing Frankie had ever done was fighting off a horde of shoppers at the semi-annual Nordstrom sale, and even though they had been vicious, none of them had carried machine guns.
Emerging into the sunlight, she squinted and pulled out her sunglasses. Next to her, Dagor did the same.
