Legion

  “If this goes spectacularly to hell,” he told him, “I’m blaming you. You realize that.”

  The soldier just smiled grimly.

  Ten long, tense minutes later, Riley blew out an explosive breath and reached for the door handle. “Okay,” he announced far too brightly. “Let’s go see if our Eastern princess has managed to eat anyone.”

  We cautiously entered the hotel and made our way through the long aisles toward room 318. Along the way, a maid stepped out of one of the rooms, pushing a cart, and Riley quite literally ran into it. He tumbled to the floor with a yelp, and the poor maid began a string of rapid apologies, rushing over and asking if he was all right, while Garret and I looked on in confusion. Riley, picking himself up off the floor, suddenly switched to perfect, fluent Spanish, making soothing motions with his hands and, from what I could tell, assuring her he was fine. He said something that made her laugh, and then she thanked him and walked away, pushing the cart down the hall again. I stared after her, then at the rogue, who seemed very pleased with himself.

  “What the hell was that?” I demanded. “I’ve seen you move, and there’s no way that was an accident. You ran into her on purpose, didn’t you?”

  Riley grinned, dusted off his pants and then held up a card between two fingers.

  “I was going to say I left my key card in the room and could she please open the door for me,” he admitted as we quickly moved toward the elevators. “That’s always worked in the past. But I figured this might be faster.”

  “Risky,” Garret remarked. “What if you couldn’t lift it without getting caught?” Riley smirked.

  “I don’t get caught, St. George. Now, let’s get to Miranda’s room before anything else happens.”

  We took the elevator to the third floor and easily found room 318. The hallway was silent, and no sounds or light came from the room beyond the door. Riley cast furtive glances over his shoulder, making sure no one was around, and raised the card he took from the maid.

  “All right,” he said in a low voice. “Here goes. Let’s see if that Eastern dragon actually did what she said she could.”

  He slid the key into the slot. It beeped green, and we pushed the door open.

  The room beyond was empty.

  Riley let out a breath, and beside me, Garret relaxed. I slumped in relief, letting muscles that had tensed up for a fight uncoil. “Okay.” The rogue nodded, shutting the door behind us. “I don’t know how she did it, but I’m not complaining. Let’s find that evidence and see if we can discover what Talon is up to. But remember,” he warned as we stepped farther inside. “Try not to disturb anything. We don’t want Miranda knowing we were here. Let’s find what we’re looking for and get the hell out.”

  That sounded like a good idea. The hotel room wasn’t large, and we did a sweep of the place fairly quickly. There was nothing in the main room or the bathroom, but when Riley pulled open the closet door...

  “Dammit,” he muttered, gazing at several cardboard boxes stacked neatly in the corner. They were taped, sealed shut, with shipping labels stuck to the sides. “Well, here’s the evidence, but we can’t get inside to look at it. Not without Miranda knowing we were here. Where are they sending these? I wonder.” He pulled one of the boxes toward him and looked at the address on top. “NewTech,” he growled, and shook his head. “Son of a bitch, there’s another lab. Firebrand, grab me a piece of paper or something, would you? Looks like we to need to check this place out. Maybe Wes can find something on them.”

  I hurried to the desk in the corner and reached for the complimentary notepad sitting beside the phone, then hesitated. The Chameleon’s laptop lay open and dark on the surface of the desk, a mug of coffee cooling beside it. As if she might have been working on something and had to rush off before she could complete it.

  I reached for the touchpad and jiggled the screen to life, bringing up a page with an unsent email across the surface.

  Mr. Hill, the top line read.

  My stomach turned to ice. I sank into the chair, scanning the rest of the message as the cold spread to every part of my body.

  I have arrived on scene, the email read. Per Talon’s orders, all evidence at the “crash site” has been gathered and logged accordingly. The human officials are all too willing to accept the cover story, as they have no idea what they are dealing with. They know something unnatural happened, but so far their posited explanations range from the mundane to the absurd. I believe the organization to be in no danger of discovery. As you requested, the first boxes of evidence we have taken from the site will be sent to the specified location today. Expect their arrival in no less than twenty-four hours.

  Ut ominous sergimus.

  Miranda Kent.

  “Ember?” Garret’s voice echoed softly across the room, wrenching me out of my daze. I might’ve gone a little pale, because his gray eyes were worried as they met mine. “What’s wrong?”

  “Dante,” I whispered, and both he and Riley jerked up at the name. “Dante is part of this. He’s behind the cover-up. This message is to him.”

  Both boys came to my side immediately, peering over my shoulders at the laptop screen. “Well, shit,” Riley growled in my ear. “Then we definitely need to visit this ‘specified location’ and see what the hell is going on.”

  I stared at the screen, seeing only my brother’s name, standing out from the rest. Dante. All the feelings I thought I’d repressed—hurt, dismay, anger, betrayal—surged up again, making my stomach turn. Why are you involved in this? What the hell are you doing?

  The words on-screen seemed to mock me. I was vaguely aware of Riley grabbing a scrap of paper and scribbling something down. “All right, that’s it,” he announced, straightening quickly. “I think we’ve found everything we can. Let’s get out of here before her guards come back.”

  I shook myself, following Riley to the door with Garret close at my back. Now was not the time to dwell on traitorous siblings. I would think about my brother, and his role in this whole sordid mess, later. When we were away from the hotel and shady Talon agents who could return at any moment.

  But as Riley opened the door and peered out, voices echoed down the corridor, making him jerk back. Through the frame, I saw two people walking toward us down the hall. One was a large man with a thick neck and chest, one of the guards we’d seen with Miranda. The other, walking beside him, was a small, slender woman with long black hair...

  ...dressed only in a towel.

  For a second, my brain stuttered. It was Jade, I could see that, but the woman walking toward us with the guard was as different from the poised, elegant Eastern dragon as a swan was to a chicken. Snatches of conversation drifted to us, with Jade thanking the guard for escorting her back to her room, and how silly she felt for locking herself out. Her voice was high-pitched, giggly and slightly slurred, and she swayed a bit when she walked, as if very drunk. Of course, the guard wasn’t paying any attention to his surroundings, being distracted by the beautiful Asian woman in nothing but a towel. But we were still trapped. They were still coming toward us, and if we tried to leave now, the man would definitely see us.

  Jade looked up, and for a moment, her eyes met mine through the crack in the door. Slowing, she reached out and snagged the guard’s sleeve, tugging him to a halt in the middle of the corridor. The guard turned, frowning, as Jade rambled on, asking him questions and talking so quickly it was hard to understand her.

  Now’s our chance. I nudged Riley and he nodded, silently pulling open the door. But as we stepped into the hall, the guard, apologizing to Jade, started to turn back toward the room. For a second, my heart lurched, knowing he was going to see us. There was nowhere we could hide.

  Jade dropped the towel.

  My eyes bulged. Riley froze. The guard turned back instantly, his attention definitely not in danger of landing on u
s anymore. As Jade’s high-pitched giggles rang out in the stunned silence, Garret, his cheeks as red as a tomato, immediately took advantage of the distraction and began walking away. I glanced at Riley, saw him staring wide-eyed at the scene in the center of the hall and punched his arm. Hard.

  He jerked, giving me a sheepish grin, and we fled the floor, ducking into the elevators and out of sight.

  * * *

  Jade rejoined us in the parking lot fifteen minutes later, fully clothed, sliding into the passenger seat as if nothing had happened. Her serene expression remained unchanged as she shut the door and began putting on her shoes and earrings, not noticing, or choosing to ignore, the stunned silence from the rest of us.

  “Well?” she said, finally turning around. “I trust you found what you were looking for, yes?” As she glanced at Riley, her lips curled in a faint, defiant smile. “Please tell me you were able to acquire what you needed from the Talon agent’s room. I would hate to have given you a show for nothing.”

  Riley gave a bark of laughter, as if he couldn’t help himself, and shook his head. “I think I’ve been dethroned.” He chuckled as the Eastern dragon raised a brow at him. “The king of BS is dead. Long live the queen.”

  GARRET

  “Are you bloody serious?” Wes exclaimed later that night. “You’re going to try to sneak into yet another Talon facility? Is our life not exciting enough, or do the lot of you just have some sort of mutual death wish?”

  It was late evening, and the four of us were back in the cabin, having explained to Wes what we had found at the crash site. Riley stood in the center of the living room, arms crossed, while Wes watched him from the kitchen counter. I leaned against the far wall, and Jade sat peacefully in an armchair, watching everything in silence. The only one not in attendance was Ember, who had retreated to her room as soon as we’d arrived, claiming that she had a headache and wanted to lie down. She had been quiet and withdrawn ever since we’d left the hotel, probably brooding over her brother and his involvement with Talon. I worried for her; Dante was the one person who could get under her skin and make her question everything.

  Riley sighed. “It’s not like it’s a heavily armed secret compound, Wes,” he said. “You researched it yourself. It’s an office building, certainly owned by Talon, but in the middle of a city. There’s not going to be guards with machine guns walking around.”

  “You hope,” Wes shot back. “This is Talon. I wouldn’t put anything past them, and you should know better, too, Riley. You could be walking into a death trap.”

  “You’re the one who wanted us to uncover what Talon is up to.”

  “Bloody hell, I realize that! But I didn’t think we were going to be waltzing into Talon itself.”

  “This is necessary, Wesley,” Jade said in her cool, unruffled voice. “This only proves that Talon is planning something, and we must discover what that is before it is too late.”

  “And you know you’re going to go along with it,” Riley added. “So can we just skip the whining and get to the part where you actually start helping?”

  “I could do that,” Wes said, scowling at him. “But then, who would tell you what an absolute wanker you are?” He sighed and opened his laptop, then bent over the keys.

  I rose and slipped quietly from the room toward the hallway where the bedrooms were located. Riley watched me leave over the back of Wes’s stool, but he didn’t say anything as I continued into the hall and walked to the door at the very end. Light glimmered through the crack at the bottom, and I tapped on the wood.

  “It’s open,” came the muffled voice beyond the frame.

  I pushed the door back with a squeak. Ember sat on her bed with her back against the headboard and one leg drawn to her chest. She had changed out of the black suit, which lay in a crumpled pile at the foot of the bed, and now wore jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, though I could still see the slick material of the Viper suit poking up through her collar. I knew she rarely went without it anymore, just in case she needed to Shift into her real form, either to escape or to attack. Her hands rested in her lap, one of them curled around an item I couldn’t see.

  “Hey, Garret.” Green eyes rose to mine as I entered the room, and she offered a tired smile. “Shouldn’t you be out there plotting our next move with Riley? Or should I say, secret agent man?” The smile widened the tiniest bit. “I meant to tell you earlier—you look good in a tie. You and Riley both. I think we should pretend to be government agents more often.”

  I smiled as I closed the door, though my mind wasn’t on clothes right now. “Good luck with that. I think Riley changed out of his suit even before you did.” Walking to the bed, I gazed down at her, feeling that odd heat start to spread through my insides. “You all right?” I asked softly.

  She nodded, scooting aside to make room for me on the mattress. “Yeah,” she admitted as I settled carefully beside her, leaning back against the frame. “Sorry I wasn’t out there. I was...distracted.”

  Her arm brushed mine, and my pulse stuttered. Gently, I reached for the hand pressed against her knee and turned it over to see what she was holding. A small quartz crystal lay in her palm, glimmering softly in the light as her fingers uncurled. Ember smiled as she gazed down at it.

  “Dante gave this to me,” she admitted, “years ago, when we were just kids. He knew I liked shiny things. He did, too, actually. Maybe more than I did.” She chuckled, though it sounded a little sad. “That’s one thing the stories get right—dragons love treasure. We each had our own little hoard that we hid from each other. I knew he wanted to keep this.” She tilted her palm so that the crystal gleamed under the lamps. “But he gave it me instead. It’s the only thing from Crescent Beach I’ve been able to take with me.” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, besides the damn Viper suit. Everything else I’ve lost or had to give up, but I still have this.”

  Her eyes were shadowed. Reaching down, I took her hand, curling my fingers over hers. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I know you miss him.”

  “What is he doing, Garret?” Ember whispered, closing her eyes. “I keep going over that email in my mind, from every possible angle, and coming to the same conclusion. I thought I knew him. I thought Talon was just deceiving him, lying to him like they do to everyone else. I was sure that if Dante really understood what they were about, what they really did, he would never have stayed with them. But...” She opened her eyes, and her expression was tortured, making my insides knot. “If he was involved with the cover-up, then he knew what was going on, what Talon was doing. He knew that they...killed everyone there, massacred an entire community like it was nothing.” She curled her fingers around the quartz again, making a fist. “What’s happened to you, Dante?” she whispered, and her voice was almost accusing. “How could you have been a part of that? Dammit, if I ever see you again, what am I supposed to do now?”

  “Ember.” Reaching out, I gently pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her. She was quiet, curled up against my side, the hand that clutched the quartz trapped between us.

  “I thought I could save him,” she whispered at last. “I wanted, so badly, for him to be with us. I thought that if I could just make him see what Talon is really like...” She trailed off, pressing her face to my chest, making my heart thump in my ears. I said nothing, just holding her, feeling the heat pulse between us, until she let out a ragged sigh and drew back. “I guess I was fooling myself,” she went on, her voice harder now. “He’s one of them now. I think I’ve always known, especially after what happened in Vegas. Dante has always been one hundred percent Talon. I just didn’t want to believe it.”

  “Don’t give up just yet,” I told her, running a thumb over her cheek, making her blink at me. “I know it feels like he’s betrayed you, and now it’s us against him and Talon. But you can’t lose faith that, someday, you’ll be able to make him see the trut
h. That he’ll realize what he’s doing, what the organization is really about, and he’ll leave. Turn his back on the entire thing.”

  “I don’t know, Garret.” Ember half closed her eyes, circling my wrist with her fingers. “How long can I keep hoping? How long can I afford to believe that he’ll somehow just abandon everything Talon has taught him?” She sighed, running her palm down my arm, making my skin tingle. “I know how stubborn Dante is. And now, he’s further within the organization than ever before.” She shook her head. “I don’t know him anymore, Garret. Even if I could get to him, could I ever change his mind?”

  “You changed mine.”

  She opened her eyes and peeked up. I gave a half smile. “It’s because of you that I’m here,” I told her. “That I’m fighting Talon and St. George, and trying to save the rogues. I want to make up for my past, but it’s more than that.” I took her hand, holding her gaze. “Ember, because of you, I have to believe that I can get through to Tristan. And Martin, and the entire Order of St. George. To convince them that we’ve been mistaken this whole time, that some dragons aren’t soulless killers that deserve death. I think we have a chance to someday end this war, and to stop the fighting for good. To finally have peace.” I pressed a palm to her cheek. “I believe that...because I met you.”

  She blinked rapidly. I ran my fingers gently through her hair, brushing it back. “So don’t underestimate yourself, Ember,” I murmured. “If you can convince a soldier of St. George to completely abandon the Order and start fighting for dragons instead, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

  Rising to her knees, she laced her arms behind my neck, leaned forward and kissed me. I sighed and slid my palms up her back, pulling her close. Her lips were gentle but insistent, and I parted my own slightly, feeling my blood heat as her tongue teased mine. A fire seemed to ignite in the pit of my stomach, crawling up toward my heart, which thumped faster in response.