…and a firestorm erupted around us. Flames shot into the air, running up my back, spreading over my wings. It engulfed the Viper, surrounding her with fire, until she looked like a snarling, bat-winged demon from the pits of hell. Shrieking, she raked her claws down my neck, then slapped me across the muzzle with a flame-wreathed talon. Before, the gashes had merely stung; now it felt like a hot poker was being jammed up beneath my scales, then doused with acid. Pain exploded behind my eyes, snapping the final threads of clear thought, and I roared.
Pinning the Viper to the floor, ignoring the claws that slashed at me, I bared my teeth and aimed for that slender neck. My jaws clamped shut on the dragon’s throat, right below her chin, and Faith screamed, thrashing wildly. All four talons beat and slashed at me, back legs kicking my stomach, front claws trying to shove me off. I closed my eyes, braced myself and began to squeeze.
“Stop!”
I paused, jaws still clamped around the slender throat, as the dragon’s frenzied cry rang out, echoing off the rafters. “Wait, please!” Faith went on, her voice strangled. “Don’t kill me! Stop!”
Relief, swift and sudden, spread through me, making my legs tremble. I hadn’t really been planning to kill her, not like this. Viper or no, I couldn’t stand here and ever-so-casually tear someone’s throat out. No matter what Talon said, I was not Lilith, and I never would be.
I eased up a bit, though not enough to let go. “Why not?” I growled through my teeth. “Why should I trust anything you say?”
She writhed helplessly, tail beating frantically against my legs. “Because I’ll tell you about Dante,” she wheezed. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just let me live.” She swallowed hard, wings trembling. “Let me Shift back to human form,” she offered. “I can’t hurt you like that, right? And I won’t be able to run. I’ll Shift, and then I’ll tell you whatever you want. Your brother, Mist, Riley. Anything.”
I thumped my tail, as if I was considering a moment longer, then sighed. “All right,” I muttered, and carefully opened my jaws, letting her slump to the concrete. I needed that information on Riley and my brother, and I didn’t have the will for any more fighting. Not that I would’ve killed her anyway, but it was getting hard to move without sharp stabs of pain shooting all up my body. Turned out fire in open wounds was a bad idea. If she ran now, I didn’t think I could catch her, even as a human.
Faith crawled out from under me and, as the flames around us burned low, started to shrink. Tail and neck retracted, scales disappeared and wings pulled into her body, until only a human in a black Viper suit remained sitting on the floor. She hugged herself and gazed up at me, looking like that scared, innocent girl I’d first met, though I knew better now. I folded my wings and sat down, clenching my jaw to keep from hissing in pain. No showing weakness in front of the trained Viper assassin. The last of the flames had finally flickered out, burning off with whatever flammable goo was in those drums, and now that the adrenaline was gone, I ached. Badly. The outside of a dragon might’ve been fireproof, but the numerous gashes I’d taken blazed with agony, burned and seared around the edges.
Great. I’m probably the only dragon in history who will ever suffer from third-degree burns.
“Riley,” I said, my voice a low, dangerous growl. “Where is he? Why were you sent for us? Tell me everything you know.”
Faith took a deep, shaky breath and exhaled slowly. “Mist and I were commissioned by Talon to find you and the rogue,” she began. “My orders were to bring you back alive and kill anyone else involved. Mist was to go after Cobalt, extract certain information from him and then dispose of him. Divide and conquer, then return to Talon with our objectives, that was the plan.”
I felt ill, but tried not to show it. “What information do they want from Riley?”
“I wasn’t privy to that part of the assignment,” Faith replied, and shrank back as I curled a lip at her. “Mist was the only one with that information,” she added quickly. “I had my orders. That’s all I was required to know.”
“So you have no idea where Riley is right now. Or what Mist is doing to him.”
“No.”
I growled in frustration, scraping my talons across the cement. The girl flinched, but I ignored her. Still no information on Riley, where he was, if he was still alive. We were no closer to finding him than we were when we left the hotel. Mist and Faith had set us up perfectly.
And then, I remembered something else.
“Where is Dante?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the other dragon. “You said you had his number on your phone. Or was that another lie?”
“It wasn’t.” Faith rubbed her arm. “Dante…is the one in charge of this operation. He and the rest of the board are standing by. I’m supposed to check in with him as soon as I take care of you, one way or another.”
My stomach dropped to the pads of my toes. “I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you want.” Faith’s gaze didn’t waver. “But Dante was the one who set this whole thing up. This was part of his test, coming up with the plan to bring you back to the organization.”
My throat was suddenly dry. “And if I refused to come?”
“Then I had orders to kill you.”
Reeling, I shook my head, still unwilling to believe. Dante had truly done this? My own brother had sent a Viper after us, with orders to kill me if I didn’t return? That couldn’t be right. He wouldn’t do that to me. We might’ve argued, fought, disagreed on a lot of things, but Dante wouldn’t give the order to take me out if I refused to cooperate.
Or would he? Was he so invested in Talon’s doctrine that he’d really believe he was doing the right thing? I remembered something Riley had told me once, and it made my stomach twist. Talon has him now. He’ll betray his own blood if they give the order.
Faith curled an arm around her side, her face creasing with pain. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked in a tight voice.
I stood up, wincing as the movement pulled at the charred, blackened cuts on my body. The Viper flinched, as if expecting a sudden attack, but I was just about done with this. My mind was spinning, I ached and I felt nauseous in more ways than one. “Take a message back to Talon,” I growled at the Viper. “And Dante. Tell them to stop sending people after me. They’re just wasting their time. I’m not coming back.” Faith still eyed me warily, like I might pounce on her as soon as she moved, and I bared my fangs. “Get out of here!”