Riley cruised up beside the van and killed the engine, and we both swung off the bike. Relieved to be able to move around again, I put my arms over my head and stretched until I felt my back pop. Gingerly, I tried running my fingers through my hair and found it hopelessly tangled, as I’d feared. Wincing, I tugged at the snarls and tore loose several fiery red strands while Riley looked on in amusement. I scowled at him.
“Ow. Okay, next time, I get a helmet,” I said, and his grin widened even more. I rolled my eyes and continued my hopeless battle with the tangles. Of all the human beauty traditions, I found hair the most time-consuming and obnoxious. So much time was wasted washing, brushing, teasing and primping it; scales never had this problem. “Where are we, anyway?” I muttered, separating a stubborn knot with my fingers, trying to ignore the dragon beside me. It was hard. Lean, tall and broad-shouldered, clad in leather and chains, Riley certainly cut the figure of a perfect rebel biker boy leaning so casually against his motorcycle, the breeze tugging at his dark hair. He took off his shades and stuck them in a back pocket.
“We’re about an hour from Vegas,” he said, and nodded to the ramshackle Spanish Manor squatting at the edge of the lot. “Wes told me to meet him here. Come on.”
I followed him over the parking lot, up a rusting flight of stairs and down the second-story hall until we came to a faded yellow door near the end. The curtains were drawn over the grimy window, and the interior of the room looked dark. Riley glanced around, then knocked on the wood, three swift taps followed by two slower ones.
A pause, and then the door swung open to reveal a thin, lanky human on the other side, dark eyes peering at us beneath a scruff of messy brown hair. He scowled at me by way of greeting, then stepped back to let us in.
“About time you showed up.” Wes slammed the door and threw the locks as if we were in a superspy movie and there could be enemy agents lurking outside, hiding in the cactus. “I thought you’d be here hours ago. What happened?”
“Had to make a quick stop in L.A. for a few things,” Riley answered, brushing by him. He did not mention the “things” in question, namely, a duffel bag full of ammo and firearms. Both he and Wes ignored me, so I turned to gaze around the room. A quick glance was all that was required; it was small, rumpled, unremarkable, with an unmade bed against the wall and soda cans scattered everywhere. A laptop sat open and glowing on the corner desk, nonsensical words and formulas splayed across the screen in neat rows.
“Riley…” Wes began, a note of warning in his voice.
“Where are the hatchlings?” Riley asked, overriding whatever he was going to say. “Are they all right? Did you find the safe house?”
“They’re fine,” Wes answered, sounding impatient. “They’re holed up near San Francisco with that Walter chap, with strict instructions not to poke one scale out of the house until they hear from you. They’re bloody peachy. We’re the ones we have to worry about now.”
“Good.” Riley nodded briskly and walked across the room to the desk, then bent down to the screen. “I assume this is it, then?” he muttered, narrowing his eyes. “Where we’ll be going tonight? Did you get everything you needed?”
“Riley.” Wes stalked after him. “Did you hear a word I just told you, mate? Do you know how crazy this is? Are you even listening to me?” The other ignored him, and with a scowl, Wes reached across the desk and slapped the laptop shut.
Riley straightened and turned to glare at the human. In the shadows, his eyes suddenly glowed a dangerous yellow, and the air went tight with the soundless, churning energy that came right before a Shift. Riley’s true form hovered close to the surface, staring out at the human with angry gold eyes.
To his credit, Wes didn’t back down.
“Listen to yourself, Riley.” The human faced the other in the dingy light, his voice solemn. “Listen to what you’re trying to do. This isn’t stealing a hatchling away from Talon. This isn’t walking up to a kid and saying, ‘Oy, mate, your organization is corrupt as hell and if you don’t leave soon you’ll never be free.’” He stabbed a finger at the laptop. “This is a bloody St. George compound. With bloody St. George soldiers. One slipup, one mistake, and you’ll be hanging from some corporal’s wall. Think about what that means, mate.” Wes leaned forward, his gaze intense. “Without you, the underground dies. Without you, all those kids you freed from Talon will be helpless when the organization comes for them. And they will, Riley, you bloody well know they will. Do you even care about that anymore? Do you care that everything we’ve worked for is about to go up in flames?” He gestured sharply at me. “Or has this sodding kid got you so wrapped around her finger that you don’t know what’s important anymore?”
“Hey!” I protested, scowling, but I might as well have shouted at a wall. Riley clenched his fists, nostrils flaring, as if he might punch the human or Shift into his true form and blast him to cinders. Wes continued to glare, chin raised, mouth pressed into a stubborn line. Both of them paid absolutely no attention to me.
“What are we doing, mate?” Wes asked softly, after a moment of brittle silence. “This isn’t our fight. This isn’t what we said we would do.” Riley didn’t answer, and Wes’s tone became almost pleading. “Riley, this is crazy. This is suicide, you know it as well as I do.”
Riley slumped, raking a hand through his messy black hair, the tension leaving his shoulders. “I know,” he growled. “Trust me, I know. I’ve been trying to convince myself I haven’t completely lost my mind since we left town.”
“Then why—”
“Because if I don’t, Ember will go without me and get herself killed!” Riley snapped, and finally looked in my direction. Those piercing gold eyes met mine across the room, the shadow of Riley’s true form staring at me. I shivered as he held my gaze. “Because she doesn’t know St. George like I do,” he went on. “She hasn’t seen what they’re capable of. She doesn’t know what they do to our kind if we’re discovered. I do. And I’m not going to let that happen. Even if I have to sneak into a St. George base and rescue one of the bastards myself.”
I swallowed, feeling something inside me respond, a rush of warmth spreading through my veins. My own dragon, calling to Riley’s, like he was her other half.
Wes scrubbed a hand down his face. “You’re both completely off your rockers,” he muttered, shaking his head. “And I’m no better, since it seems I’m going along with this lunacy.” He groaned and plopped into the chair, then opened the laptop. “Well, since you appear to have lost your mind, let me show you exactly what we’re up against.”
Riley turned from me, breaking eye contact. I knew I should go see what Wes was talking about. But I could still feel the heat of Riley’s gaze, feel the caress of the dragon against my skin. I needed to get away from him to clear my head, to cool the fire surging through my veins. Leaving them to talk, I slipped into the small, only slightly disgusting bathroom and locked the door behind me.
Wes’s and Riley’s voices echoed through the wood, low and urgent, probably talking about the mission. Or, in Wes’s case, trying to convince Riley, once and for all, not to go through with this. I sank onto the toilet seat and ran my hands through my hair, letting the words fade into jumbled background noise.
I knew Wes was right. I knew what I planned to do was stupid and risky as hell. I knew I hadn’t considered all the threats, didn’t realize what I was getting into. What I was planning flew in the face of everything I’d been taught, and if I voiced it out loud, it sounded insane, even to me.
Break into a compound of St. George, the ancient enemy of our race, the Order whose sole mission was to see us extinct, and rescue one of their own. Sneak into a heavily armed base full of soldiers, free a sole prisoner who could be anywhere and get out. Without getting blown to bits in the process.
It sounded crazy. It was crazy. It was downright suicidal, like Wes said. I didn’t fault him, or Riley, for being reluctant. They had no stake in