“You don’t understand now,” Dante said. “But you will. Once you come back with me, you’ll understand everything, I promise.” His voice softened, turning almost gentle. “We belong with Talon, Ember. It’s our destiny. Once you come back, you’ll see why.” His attention shifted to the guards standing around the room. “Bring me the girl,” he ordered, taking a step back. “Kill the rest.”
I exploded into Cobalt, surging up with a roar as the guards opened fire. Bullets tore past me, a couple sparking off my chest plates and several punching through my wing membranes. I sent a cone of fire at the nearest guard, and he reeled back, blazing like a torch. At the same time, Ember pounced on another, changing into a dragon midlunge, and St. George closed with a third, grabbing his weapon arm and forcing the muzzle away. Two pistol shots rang out, and the guard crumpled to the ground.
Growling, I turned on the last two guards, who had converged behind the desk and were raising their weapons to fire. Dante was nowhere to be seen, but the open door behind them told me where he’d escaped to.
“Dante!”
With a snarl, Ember reared back and sent a fireball at the desk, where it exploded in a burst of light and heat, causing the guards to reel away and crumple to the floor. Without hesitation, she leaped over the desk and bounded through the door after her twin.
“Dammit, Firebrand. Wait!” With a curse, I followed her, St. George right behind me. The door opened into a narrow hallway, and I hurried to keep up with the red dragon, my talons clicking against the tile.
We burst through the final door into a room much different than the one we’d just left. The ceiling was vast and soaring. A mezzanine ran the length of the opposite wall, a veranda stretching corner to corner twenty or so feet overhead. Directly below the railing, an elevator door slid shut, indicating where the little snitch had disappeared to, but getting to him might be challenging.
At least a dozen humans stood in the shadows of the mezzanine, staring at us as we came in. They were armed with pistols, all pointed in our direction, and wore identical gray uniforms, but that wasn’t what made my skin crawl. There was something else, something...wrong about them. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
It hit me, and a jolt of shock zipped up my spine. The bastards weren’t just wearing identical clothing; they looked exactly the same. They had the same shaved heads, the same faces and blank, empty eyes. They gazed at us, two dragons and an armed human, with absolutely no emotion. No surprise, fear, wonder or anything.
“What in the world...?” Ember growled, stopping as we faced the line of identical humans. “What is this?”
“Ember!”
Dante appeared on the mezzanine, a pair of creepy twin humans flanking him, and gazed down at us imperiously. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” he said as Ember tensed at the sight of him. “I’ve sealed this floor,” he added, making me tense. “None of you are getting out. Ember, I’ll give you one last chance to surrender without violence. Return to Talon, and I swear you won’t be punished. We can be together again, as it should be. But if you stay with that rogue, I can’t protect you from what’s to come. Please.” He gripped the railing, his gaze only for the red dragon. “Come back to Talon with me,” he said, his voice quietly desperate. “You don’t know what’s coming, and if you’re on the other side when it hits...” He shook his head. “You’ll be swallowed whole with everyone else.”
“What’s coming, Dante?” Ember called as something cold settled in my gut, making me shiver. “What is Talon planning?”
“I can’t tell you that,” was the answer. “Not here. Once you return to the organization, though, you’ll understand everything.”
“And what about Riley and Garret?”
Even from here, I saw the gleam of hatred as the other hatchling looked at me. “Cobalt is the most wanted criminal in the organization,” he said, venom dripping from his words. “And the other is a soldier of St. George. I cannot imagine how you think Talon would spare either of them.
“But,” he added before either Ember or I could speak. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and looked at Ember once more. “If you promise to come back with me tonight,” he said in a grave voice, “they can go. They can walk out of this building at least. I can’t promise anything beyond that.”
“Don’t strain yourself, Chameleon,” I sneered, unable to simply stand there and take his insults. “What would Talon say, if they discovered you let the infamous Cobalt slip right through your slimy fingers?”
“They wouldn’t be happy,” Dante replied, not to me but to Ember. “But bringing you home is more important. Nothing matters more than that.” A pause, and then he added, in an even softer voice, “I miss you, sis. I want things to be like they were before. You don’t know...you have no idea how important you are. Not just to me, but to all of Talon. It’s not my place to explain it, but you and I are special, and not just because we’re siblings. Come back with me, and you can see for yourself.”
“Dante,” Ember said in a strangled voice. She had crouched down, tail and wings pressed tight to her body, and was trembling. “I don’t—”
“You don’t belong with them,” Dante insisted. “You belong with Talon. It can be how it was before. We can be a family again.”
“I...” Ember hesitated a heartbeat more, then raised her head, glaring at her brother. “No,” she said in a firm, clear voice. “I have a family. Right here. You and I are siblings, but the brother I knew wouldn’t slaughter a whole town of humans just for the good of our race. You’ve changed, Dante. You’re not my brother anymore. And if you want to kill Riley, or Garret, or anyone I care about, you’ll have to fight me, too.”
For a moment, the Chameleon stared at her, disbelieving. Then his eyes glowed with anger, and he took a step back.
“If that’s your decision.” His voice had gone cold and slimy again, and he raised a hand, sweeping it over the humans below. “Then you leave me no choice. You will see the power of Talon, and why our enemies stand no chance against us. Vessels!” he called, and the row of identical humans raised their heads. “Initiate!”
The humans started to change. To Shift. Almost as one, they swelled, stretching and growing as wings tore through their backs and scales covered their bodies. In the space of a heartbeat, over a dozen identical, metallic-gray dragons stood where a human mob had been moments before.
My spines bristled as I stumbled back a step. What the hell? This was even worse than the humans. They were all dragons—hatchlings, judging by their relatively small size—but they stared at us with that same blank, emotionless gaze that made my insides recoil.
Soulless. The word popped into my head, and I shivered. They look soulless, completely empty. There’s nothing behind their gazes, nothing at all. They look like machines. Like fucking robots.