“We’ve lost another nest. St. George is moving in.”
Garret
Why am I still here?
I tilted my face to the hot stream of water, letting it pound my forehead and sluice around me, trying to drown the question that had been plaguing my mind for the past three days. The water ran into my ears, muffling all sound, to no avail. I was used to long periods of inactivity, waiting for orders or for missions to begin, but I couldn’t escape my own thoughts.
This afternoon had passed in silence; television had no appeal, and since I wasn’t allowed to leave the floor, I’d leafed through random travel magazines or just lain on my bed, staring at the ceiling. Finally, needing to do something, I’d spent the rest of the afternoon working out in my room, pushing my body to the limits of its endurance, hoping that fatigue, at least, would provide a much-needed distraction. But the second I’d walked into the shower, it returned. The whisper that still haunted me, that nagging sensation of uncertainty and doubt, when before I’d always been so confident. Why was I still here? Why was I, a former soldier of St. George, choosing to remain in the company of dragons? I wasn’t a prisoner; though the rogue dragon hated me—with good reason—he wouldn’t try to stop me if I walked out the hotel door and vanished into the night. On more than one occasion, he’d encouraged me to do just that.
So why hadn’t I?
The obvious answer—because the Order was hunting me—was a stall at best. I was resourceful enough to evade their notice for a while. And while St. George paid their soldiers only a small stipend each month, they also provided us with everything we needed, so I had a sizable amount sitting in an account I rarely touched. It wouldn’t last forever, but it was enough to start over, to begin a new life.
The real question was: Could I pass for normal? I’d lived my whole life within Order walls, only venturing out when there were dragons to be slain. I had little experience of the real world beyond that brief summer in Crescent Beach and, truthfully, with no one giving me commands, telling me where to go, I felt slightly lost. My existence until now had been habit and structure and routine—the life of a soldier—and I’d welcomed that order, knowing exactly who I was. Left to my own devices, I felt I was wandering aimlessly, waiting for something to happen.
But fear, even fear of the unknown, had never stopped me before. I didn’t need a command to walk away, to leave my strange new companions behind, to fade into anonymity. I was a trained soldier, and survival was one of my strong suits; even with a price on my head, I could manage the real world if I had to. What was stopping me?
With a sigh, I placed my palms against the tile wall and bowed my head, letting the water beat my shoulders and run down my skin. I knew the answer, of course, why I hadn’t left. It wasn’t because of St. George, or Talon. It wasn’t because I owed these dragons my life, or that I felt I could fight the Order that raised me. It wasn’t even the guilt, the memories of blood and death that kept me up at night now. It wasn’t any of those reasons.
It was Ember.
I shut off the water, toweled briefly and pulled on my last pair of semiclean jeans, one of two pairs to my name. I’d need new clothes soon. Wes had gotten me the essentials while we were holed up in the abandoned house, waiting for Ember to recover, but I couldn’t count on him or Riley now. Especially since I suspected something had gone down with the rogue’s network; last night, he and Wes had been talking in low, angry voices, and this morning, when I’d ventured out for a soda, Riley had stalked past me down the hall, his face like a thundercloud. He hadn’t looked like he was inclined to share what had happened, and I’d known better than to ask.
Shirtless, I wandered to the window and stared at the glittering sea below. The sun was setting behind the distant mountains, and a haze had settled over the urban sprawl of Las Vegas. Where was St. George? I wondered. What was happening in the Order? Were they still out there, hunting for me?
And what am I supposed to do now?
A sharp rap on my door had me automatically reaching for a gun that wasn’t there. With a grimace, I snatched a
T-shirt from the bed and pulled it on while walking across the room. Peering through the eyehole, I felt a strange flood of both tension and relief wash over me, before I pulled back the lock and opened the door.
“Ha. There you are.” Ember grinned at me, making my stomach knot. She wore shorts and a loose tank top, and looked perfectly normal standing there in my door frame. Like any other human girl. “I was afraid you might’ve snuck out the window or something. Didn’t you hear me knocking last night, or were you already asleep?”
My heart beat faster as I faced that familiar smile. She was a dragon, I reminded myself. Not evil or soulless as I’d once believed, but an alien creature nonetheless. Not human. I stifled the urge to touch her, to reach out and ease the worry in her eyes, the exhaustion she was trying to mask. A memory of another room, another time when it had been just the two of us, rose up to taunt me. I ruthlessly shoved it back.
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t hear you. But I might’ve been in the bathroom.” Truth was, I hadn’t slept at all the night we’d arrived, and only a couple hours since. Not that I’d expected to. I’d been trained to survive on very little sleep, but more important, it was difficult to relax when there was a price on your head. And since the rogue dragon had all the weapons and I was currently unarmed, sleep was out of the question.
Ember looked at me expectantly, green eyes shining beneath her bangs. I sighed and took a step back. “Do you want to come in?”
She beamed and scurried across the threshold, gazing eagerly around as I closed the door and locked it out of habit. I heard a snort, imagined her shaking her head.
“Jeez, Garret. Two days, and your room doesn’t look like it’s been touched. Are you making your own hotel bed? You do know there’s a maid service here, right?”
I managed a tired smile as I turned around. “Where I come from,” I told her, “if they ever discovered you let an old lady clean up your mess, you’d never live it down.”
“Whatever. I’ll take any excuse not to clean my room.” She hopped onto one of the neatly made beds, rumpling it nicely. “If I can see my floor through all the clothes, I consider that a win. Besides, didn’t you know, Garret? A messy room is a sign of genius.”
“I’ve never been inside your house,” I reminded her in a grave voice, “but if that’s true, I have the feeling I’m talking with the smartest person on the planet.”
She reached back and threw a pillow at me. I dodged, hearing her laughter ripple up, wicked and bright and cheerful. A strange lightness filled my chest, and I found myself smiling, too. Snatching the pillow from the floor, I prepared to hurl it back.
And caught myself, a cold chill driving away the amusement.
Too easy, I realized. Too easy to relax around her, to slip back into that role I’d adopted over the summer. A normal civilian, unguarded and carefree. Which was extremely dangerous, because this situation was anything but normal. I could not afford to drop my guard, even for her. Perhaps she’d come here to escape, to forget the reality of our situation. Maybe she wanted to pretend everything was normal for a while. But I couldn’t be that person she wanted, that ordinary boy from Crescent Beach. I was a soldier of St. George; I’d killed too many, hunted her kind with the sole intention of driving them to extinction. My hands were stained with the blood of countless dragons. No matter what my feelings, I could never escape that.
Stone-faced, I replaced the pillow, not looking at her. “Why are you here, Ember?” I asked. “Did you need something?”
“Actually, yes.” I looked up and found her watching me with a certain maniacal glee in her eyes. “You can come downstairs with me,” she announced. “Right now. I swear, if I have to watch one more pay-per-view, I’m going to set something on fire.”
“Downstairs??
?? I repeated, and she nodded eagerly. “To the casino? Why?”
“Because it’s Vegas!” Ember exclaimed, throwing up her hands. “Because we’re here. Because I’m literally going to start climbing the walls if I don’t get out and do something.” She raised her chin, and her eyes glinted. “And because I went to Riley’s room to see if he has any new information on Talon and St. George, and he had already left.”
I straightened quickly. “He’s gone? Where?”
“No idea. I tried asking Wes, but he just said Riley had ‘important things to do’—” she put air quotes around the phrase, rolling her eyes “—and wouldn’t tell me what. Of course, he left without telling us, or leaving any hint as to where he went or when he’ll be back. So much for trusting me, I guess.”
With a sniff, she hopped off the bed, grinning up at me. “So, come on, Garret. We’re in Vegas, the night is young and we have fake IDs. Even you must realize what we could do with those.”
“We aren’t supposed to leave the floor.”
She actually growled at me. “If you want to stay here and mope and be boring, I can’t force you to come,” she said. “But I am going downstairs. The hotel is safe enough. Riley said so himself. Talon and St. George don’t know where we are, and even if they see me, they’re not going to shoot me in the middle of a crowded casino with guards and cameras and people everywhere.” She bounced past me, heading toward the door. “I won’t be long. I just need a change of scenery before I go completely nuts. If you see Wes, tell him I’m looking for Riley.”
I grimaced. “Wait,” I said, and caught up to her in the doorway. This was not a good idea, and I knew this wasn’t a good idea, but I didn’t want Ember to be alone down there. If something went terribly wrong, at least I would be there to help.
She grinned as I exited the room, and I shook my head. “Just for the record,” I told her as the door clicked shut, “this is the exact opposite of the term ‘lying low.’” She shrugged, waving it off, and I followed her down the hall. “Doesn’t gambling cost money?” I asked as we neared the elevators. “How are you going to pay for anything?”
“I have a little cash,” Ember replied. “Enough for penny slots, anyway. It’s not like I’ll be playing roulette or poker with the professionals, not unless I score really, really well. But who knows?” Her eyes sparkled as the elevator doors opened and we stepped inside. “Maybe I’ll get lucky.”
Riley
I was not in the best of moods.
The taxicab reeked. Badly. Normally, I didn’t mind the smell of smoke, but the patron before me had either lit three or four cigs at the same time or had been wearing a cologne called Essence of Ashtray. It smelled, it was annoying, and I was already tense enough. Of course, the irony of a dragon nearly gagging on smoke was not lost on me, but it didn’t make me any less irritable, either. The memory of last night, when Wes had announced that yet another nest was gone, made me want to punch something. Dammit, what was happening? Who was giving us away? And could I find them before my entire underground was lost?
A guy in nothing but a Speedo, openly carrying a beer bottle, distracted me through the window and made a lewd gesture with his hips. I gritted my teeth, imagining what would happen if I set his Speedo on fire.
Clenching a fist against the door handle, I watched the lights of downtown fade in the rearview mirror and wished the cabbie would step on it. I hoped Ember was okay. I didn’t like leaving her alone, especially with St. George close by, but I had no choice. This meeting was important and, like it or not, I had to follow through. Griffin had sent me the information an hour ago, saying the contact wanted to meet face-to-face, away from prying eyes, and had refused to come to the hotel. Which meant I had to go to him, and, annoying as that was, I couldn’t say no. Nor did I want the other three trailing along while St. George was in town. Better for me to go alone; I was used to this type of thing, and if the Order jumped me, at least it was just my neck at risk. I’d told Wes to keep an eye on both the girl and the soldier; he was instructed to contact me immediately if he suspected there might be trouble.
I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
The taxi pulled up outside a skeevy-looking diner several blocks from the glittering brilliance of the Strip. The sidewalk wasn’t well lit, and a couple thuggish-looking humans argued with each other near the entrance. Keeping an eye on them, I wrenched open the glass door and stepped inside.
The interior of the diner was dim and smelled like grease, smoke and too many humans packed into a small space. A couple Hell’s Angels eyed me as I made my way across the floor, and I hoped my boots and leather jacket wouldn’t offend them enough to pick a fight. I wasn’t here to toss bikers through windows, amusing as that sounded. I needed to find that contact.
A dark figure in a corner booth caught my eye, and a thin hand twitched in a beckoning motion. Easing around a waitress, I walked over and slid into the seat across from him, trying not to curl a lip. The human was pale and unnaturally thin, with sallow cheeks and lank, greasy hair hanging to his shoulders. The huge sunken eyes, glazed over and unfocused, told me everything I needed to know.
“Griffin said you’d be able to hook me up.” The human’s voice was a raspy whisper, greedy and hopeful. He feverishly scratched at his arm, like he had spiders crawling on it. “Fifty bucks to tell you what I know, that was the deal.” He scratched his other arm, leaving thin red welts down his skin. “You got the cash?”
“If the information is good,” I replied, thinking I was going to kill Griffin when I got back. How in the hell was this a “reliable contact”? “Let’s hear what you know, and I’ll decide if it’s valid.”
“No way, man.” The human shook his head, making his hair whip back and forth. “That wasn’t the deal. Cash first, then info. Take it or leave it.”
“Fine.” I stood, dusting off my hands. “I don’t need info this badly. Enjoy your nothing. I’m gone.”
“Wait!” The human half rose from his seat, flinging out a hand. I paused, glancing back with cool disinterest. “All right, all right,” he hissed. “I’ll tell you what I know. But I’m not crazy, okay? I know what I saw.” He squirmed, casting wary looks around the diner as if someone was listening to us. No one was; the whispered rambles of a junkie in a dark corner didn’t merit a second glance here. I sat down, waiting silently, while he assured himself no one was lurking in the shadows in the next booth. Finally he hunched forward across the table, his eyes even wilder than before.
“My buddies and I, we have this squat several miles past the Strip, right? One of those big, half-finished hotels that was abandoned when the recession hit. It’s been empty for years, and we don’t bother no one, okay?” He sounded defensive, as if he thought I would care what he and his friends did on other people’s property. I didn’t say anything, and he dropped his head, his voice becoming a harsh whisper.
“So, a couple nights ago, we come back to find these two chicks in our squat, right? Pretty ones, not from around here. We thought they were runaways.”
That piqued my interest. “How old were they?” I asked, making the guy flinch.
“Um.” He scratched at his arms. “Fifteen? Sixteen? It was hard to tell, man. It was dark. Plus, they bolted when they saw us. We, um…followed them to the upper floors.” He must’ve seen the fury in my eyes, because he jerked back, holding up his hands. “Just to talk. Hey, they were in our room, man. Two chicks show up unannounced in your squat, you wanna know why. If they in trouble with the cops, you need some sort of insurance to keep them hidden, you know?”
I took a furtive breath to keep from incinerating this lowlife on the spot. “So what happened?”
The human blinked glazed brown eyes. “Uh, right. So, anyway, we followed them to the top floors. To talk to them.” He emphasized talk. “You know, because it was dangerous up there, all unfinished and shit. We didn’t wa
nt them stepping on a nail or falling off the edge, right? We were worried they’d get hurt.”
Right, I thought furiously. And I’m a were-newt. “You’re wasting my time,” I warned, glancing at the window as if I was bored. “And not telling me anything worthwhile. You have about five seconds to make this interesting. Four. Three.”
“Chill, man, chill. I’m getting to that part.” The guy’s face turned the color of old glue, and he leaned forward, his voice a reedy whisper. “So, we went up there, looking for those girls,” he rasped, while I contemplated how satisfying it would be to break his nose. “And we were poking around these half-finished floors. It’s like a maze, right, but we knew they couldn’t have gone far. But then, we looked up into the rafters and…” The human trembled. Shook violently, like he was in desperate need of a fix. The water glass on the table rattled, and the utensils clinked together until the guy took his arms from the table, putting them into his lap.
“And?” I prodded.
“And, I swear to God, man. There was this big, scaly thing looking back at us.”
My stomach dropped, but I fixed a grimace of contempt on my face and leaned back in the booth. “This is the info Griffin promised was reliable?” I sneered. “Some user’s drugged-out hallucination?”
“Man, it wasn’t no hallucination!” Flecks of saliva spattered the table between us at the outburst. “I swear there was this fucking huge lizard in that room. Or maybe not a lizard, but something, okay? It was big, and black, and made this hissing sound when it saw us. I even think smoke came out of its nose.”
“What did you do?”
“What do you think we did? We pissed our pants and ran. Haven’t gone back since.”
“Huh.” I quirked a brow at him, though my heart was racing. “Sure you didn’t see a big scary bat and think it was a monster?”
“Whatever, man.” The human scratched his arm, glaring mulishly. “I know what I saw.”