Soldier

“As you say. I suppose we should get down to business, then.” By comparison, the other’s voice was cool and almost smug. “I trust the operation in China was a success?”

There was a creak, as if the Patriarch had seated himself on the bench and leaned back. His voice was begrudging as he answered. “The squad located the temple in the mountains and found the targets inside, just as you said.”

“And?”

“They’ve been dealt with.”

“Excellent. My people will be pleased to hear it.” A pause, and then the faint tapping of keys, as if the stranger was typing something on a laptop. “Another successful raid, and your men have done well. The funds should be in your account by the time you get home.”

My stomach dropped. Certainly not the vision from God the Order would have us believe. Who is this person? Is he even part of St. George, or is he something else entirely?

“You don’t look pleased, my friend,” the stranger went on. “Are you disappointed with our arrangement? Surely the destruction of another nest is cause for celebration, yet you seem unhappy.”

“I am not,” the Patriarch said in a cold voice, “nor will I ever be, your friend.” His voice faded as static buzzed through the headphones, and I carefully adjusted the backpack until it cleared. “...benefits us now,” the Patriarch went on. “But do not think we will ever be allies, and do not think I will change our beliefs. The Order does not bow to the whims of dragons, regardless of loyalties or circumstances.”

What?

“Be that as it may,” the man returned with a smile in his voice, “I’m afraid it is far too late for you to reconsider our arrangement. What would the rest of the Order say, if they knew their Patriarch had sold himself to the enemy? Do you think they would care that one tiny branch of Talon wants to bring down the whole? Do you think St. George would agree that doing business with a handful of dragons in order to destroy the rest is for the good of us all?” His voice grew faintly threatening. “If certain documents suddenly became known to the rest of the Order, what do you think would happen?” The stranger snorted. “Well, you know your people better than I. What is the punishment for treason—for consorting with dragons?”

I was barely breathing now. This...this was unreal. I sat rigid with my back to the tree, listening to the leader of St. George—the man the Order revered above all others—carry out a secret transaction with a dragon. Accept money from a dragon, to eliminate other dragons. And not only that, it sounded like these meetings had been going on for a while. My mind whirled with questions as confusion, disbelief and anger surged to life. How long had the Patriarch been lying to us? How long had he advocated the complete destruction of an entire species, when he himself was in Talon’s pocket?

The Patriarch...is in league with Talon, I thought numbly. No one was going to believe this. I was having trouble believing it myself.

“So, I’m afraid our transactions are going to have to continue, my friend,” the stranger—the dragon—went on in that same cool, smooth voice. “There is too much at stake, for both of us, to stop now. But that’s not the end of the world, is it? After all, you’re still eliminating your enemies. You’re destabilizing the organization. Who cares where the information comes from—as long as dragons are dying, you’re still achieving your holy mission, are you not? Protecting humanity and all that.”

“You mock me, lizard. But I will see your kind extinct. Even if I must make a deal with the devil to see it come to pass.”

“There you go.” The dragon didn’t seem at all perturbed at the Patriarch’s threat. “We have similar goals, you and I. The Order wants dragons dead—we want some dragons dead. And if Talon grows weak in the meantime, how is that a bad thing for St. George?”

The Patriarch’s voice went coldly polite. “I assume you have another lead.”

“I do.” I heard the faint rustle of paper. “And another opportunity for your people to redeem themselves, since they cannot seem to pin down this one dragon long enough to eliminate him.” The stranger’s voice took on a dangerous edge, even though his tone was light. “A pair of dragons waltzes into your chapterhouse, frees a traitor and waltzes out again, right under your noses. I would think finding them would be the Order’s top priority.”

I jerked up, hitting the back of my head against the tree trunk. My heart pounded as I realized he was talking about us, about Ember and Riley and myself, and the night they’d freed me from St. George. I knew the Order wanted us dead. I’d had no idea that it was Talon itself sending them after us.

“Sebastian will be taken care of,” the Patriarch replied, making my blood chill at the sound of my name. “As will the dragons who aided him. We were unaware of how deeply involved he was until they came for him that night. Every chapterhouse in the States is on alert for this traitor and the dragons you described. We will find and eliminate them.”

“Well. Now’s your chance. We’ve uncovered one of Cobalt’s hideouts, an abandoned industrial park about ten miles north of a small town in West Virginia. I’ve marked its location on your map. Our intelligence indicates he is heading there now, possibly with several dragons and the soldier in tow, but I would act quickly. Cobalt is intelligent, paranoid and he’s slipped through your fingers before. Let’s try to avoid that this time.” The stranger’s voice turned faintly mocking. “We don’t want a repeat of Vegas.”

“We know what we’re up against now.” The Patriarch’s voice was brittle. “This time, we’ll be ready for them.” There was a rustle, as if the Patriarch closed the file and rose. “We’re done here,” he announced. “I will contact you once it’s finished.”

“Of course.” The stranger rose, as well. “Always a pleasure, my friend. We’ll be in touch.”

I zipped up the backpack and stood, still slightly dazed but knowing I couldn’t be spotted now. Shrugging the pack over my shoulders, I put my head down and walked away, keeping my back to the bench where the meeting had taken place. I didn’t see the Patriarch, or his mysterious dragon informant, but I wasn’t looking for them. My mind was spinning. The Patriarch, the exalted leader of the Order of St. George, the man who condemned dragons and anyone associated with them, was working with Talon. For the second time in my life, my world had been tipped on its head. I didn’t know what to think anymore.

I did know one thing. Ember was in danger. She and Riley had no idea that Talon had set St. George on them. Right now, they were walking right into a trap. And though I knew the two dragons were more than capable of handling themselves, I also knew that, this time, the Order would go after them full force. Because they were also looking for me, a traitor who had turned his back on his brothers to side with the enemy. Who knew far too much about the Order of St. George.

Once free of the park, I stood on the sidewalk for a moment, fighting with myself. I knew I should keep digging, discover just how far the Patriarch’s involvement with Talon went. This was possibly the largest conspiracy in the history of Talon and St. George, one that would throw everything into chaos. I needed proof; without some kind of hard-core evidence, neither St. George nor Talon would ever listen to me.

But I knew what I was going to do now, and it wasn’t follow up on the Patriarch. Not when my mind was consumed with worry for Ember. I had no way of contacting her, Riley, or Wes; the number she’d given me was no longer in service. If I’d been thinking clearly that night, I would have talked with Wes, arranged some way of contacting them if I needed to. But I’d thought I was done with that group. My walking away was supposed to be a clean break; I hadn’t thought I would ever see them again. I hadn’t thought I would ever see her again.

That was foolish of me. This was war. Talon and St. George were still trying to destroy each other, and Ember was in the center of it all. As long as those two organizations existed, her life would be in jeopardy. Taking myself out of the picture wouldn’t change that.

And now, St. George was closing in. Across the ocean, Riley, Ember and Wes were walking into a trap, because Talon itself had set them up.

Unless I could get to them first.

I called the airlines on the drive back to the hotel and booked the first available flight back to the States, then returned to my room to grab my belongings. As I slid the key through the slot, my nerves prickled. Warily, I glanced around the hallway, then opened the door and stepped through.

A woman rose from a chair in one corner of the room, a grim smile on her face. She was small and thin, dressed in dark jeans and a jacket, with straight black hair and solemn eyes. “Here you are,” she greeted as I stopped short. “You certainly are a hard man to track down.”

Before I could back out, the door swung shut, and a shadow moved from behind the wood. I started to turn, to block whatever was coming, but the last thing I felt was a blow beneath my ear, and the world went black.

EMBER (#ulink_d3ba2107-0896-53c3-aa3f-9c3eab3ce2bc)

“All right,” Riley sighed, flipping on the hotel light. “We made it.” Glancing back at the parking lot, he narrowed his eyes, golden and intense. “The Viper could still be out there, so everyone stay alert. Ember, I need you to pack up. We’ll be leaving soon.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, and my voice shook at the end despite myself. Thankfully, Riley didn’t seem to notice.

“I don’t know yet. I’ll tell you as soon as Wes deciphers the coordinates Griffin gave us. It shouldn’t take long, right, Wes?”

“Trust me, mate,” Wes replied, stalking past him to the table. “We just survived watching a man’s head get exploded—we can’t leave soon enough.” He glanced up at Riley, eyes shadowed. “What I want to know is why the bloody Viper didn’t take either of your heads off. It had the shot, you were all sitting there like ducks, nice and lined up in a row. Why didn’t it kill you, too?”

Riley scrubbed a hand through his hair. “It’s pretty hard to cap three heads at the exact same time with a rifle. Maybe it had to decide between us, and Griffin was its official target. Maybe there was too much commotion, and it had to leave the area before the police arrived. I have no idea why it didn’t shoot us.” He blew out a shaky breath. “But, it didn’t. That’s all I care about right now. Looks like we got lucky.”

“Unlike Griffin,” Wes muttered.

Riley sighed. “Dammit, Griffin,” he growled, dropping onto the bed. “He was a traitorous greedy bastard, but I knew him. I’ve known him for years. Or I thought I did.” He rubbed his eyes. “Fucking Talon. No one deserves to go like that.”

My stomach curled, and I dug my nails into my palms. “I’m...gonna go pack,” I said, backing toward the exit. Riley looked up at me in concern.

“You okay, Firebrand?”

“Yeah.” I nodded and forced a grin. “I’m fine. Be right back—it won’t take long.”

I slipped through the door, feeling Riley’s worried gaze on my back, and crossed the hall to my own room.

As the door clicked shut behind me, I began to shake. Not bothering with the lamps, I walked to the bathroom and flipped the switch, meeting my gaze in the mirror.

My insides heaved. My cheeks and forehead were covered in dried red spatters—Griffin’s blood. I remembered the human, smug and confident, talking to me across the table. Alive and perfectly fine one second, lying facedown in a pool of his own blood the next.

With shaking hands, I wrenched the faucet to hot, then began scrubbing the sticky dark mist from my face and hands. The water in the basin ran red for a while, then became clear. But no matter how hard I scraped, I could still feel his blood on me, and my movements became harder and faster as my anger grew. Faces filtered through my mind; Griffin, Faith, Dante, Garret. All gone. All taken away, either by Talon, St. George, or the war itself.

No, I thought, as my thoughts settled on one face in particular. The one that had been plaguing me ever since he left. That’s not entirely true. You drove him away. Don’t blame Talon or St. George. He’s not here now, because of you.

With an inner roar, I raised my fist and drove it into the face of the girl in the mirror. She fractured, shattering into pieces, dozens of accusing green eyes glaring at me over the sink. Gone, I thought in despair. They’re all gone. Garret, Dante, almost everyone I care about. How many more will I lose? How many more will I watch die right in front of me?

“Hey! Ember, stop.”