Soldier (Talon, #3)(56)
In the corner, St. George sighed.
“Yes, there is,” he said, and pushed himself off the wall. His expression was grim as he straightened, his eyes shadowed and dangerous. “We’re not going to wait for the Order to come to us,” he stated, sealing all our fates. “We’re going to take the battle to them.”
GARRET
Two black armored vehicles wound their way up the narrow mountain road.
Perched in the branches of a pine tree, my M4 held loosely in both hands, I watched the Order of St. George approach and took a quiet breath, then let it out slowly. Around me, the woods were silent, my companions nowhere to be seen. Wes was the only one of our party to remain behind at the monastery, and he was probably doing the sensible thing and hiding in the deepest, darkest hole he could find. The rest of the monks, when told what was happening, refused to flee or take shelter, and instead filed into the main hall to meditate. They did not fear death, Jade told a frustrated Riley. They would not cower and hide in their own temple. If the Order came for them, they would meet them with dignity and respect, as they did all facets of life.
Which meant, if we failed here, the entire monastery would almost certainly be slaughtered for associating with dragons.
I shivered a little in the warm sun, realizing what I was about to do, what this ambush truly meant. A line had been crossed today. I was no longer killing my former brothers in self-defense. This wasn’t me fighting my way through the Order to save the very dragons I’d once hunted. This was a calculated decision; I was going to kill the soldiers of St. George, and I wouldn’t stop until the entire strike force was dead or incapacitated.
Abruptly, I remembered Tristan’s face, the contempt in his eyes as he’d tried to kill me, and I desperately hoped he wouldn’t be with this squad. If he was, I’d have to shoot him. He was far too dangerous to ignore, able to kill any of my companions in a single shot. If I saw Tristan St. Anthony through the scope of my rifle, I’d have no choice but to pull the trigger. If he didn’t take me out first.
A heaviness settled over me, and I shook it off, tightening the grip on my weapon. I’d chosen my side. Even if I could return to the Order, I wouldn’t. Not with what I knew now.
The trucks drew closer, the sound of the engines rumbling over the trees. I pressed a button on my phone, put it to my ear and murmured, “Now.”
For a quiet moment, nothing happened. The forest was deathly still. I hefted the M4 and pointed it down the road, training the muzzle on the front windshield of the first car. Curling my finger around the trigger, I held my breath.
A sudden wind rattled the branches of the pine trees, and lightning flickered in the previously cloudless sky. I spared a quick glance up, and my skin prickled.
A dark wall of clouds was rising over the treetops, sweeping across the blue. Wind blasted my perch, heavy with the scent of rain, and the sun rapidly disappeared, turning everything dark. Below me, the truck’s headlights flashed on, as thunder growled menacingly and lightning flickered again, like a strobe light.
With a roar, the skies opened up, and water plunged down in sheets. I was instantly drenched, my clothes plastered to my body, as curtains of rain slammed into the trucks, slowing them to a near crawl. It was suddenly difficult to see anything more than ten feet away, as the storm turned everything into a hazy blur.
There was another blinding flash of lightning, a crack of thunder that shook the trees, as a forty-foot Asian dragon landed on the second vehicle with a roar.
Even though I’d been expecting it, I jumped. And for a moment, I just stared at the dragon that had apparently appeared from a lightning bolt. Jade in her true form was very different from her Western counterparts—long and slender, her body twice the length of Ember or Riley and her tail even longer than that. Her scales were the pale green of her namesake, and a silvery-white mane ran from her horned skull down her coiled neck and back, and past the tip of her tail. She didn’t have wings, but moved through the air like water, and almost seemed to hover, weightless, over the ground. Digging her talons into the roof, she screamed and tore at the truck, lashing her tail against the doors. Glass shattered, and the vehicle rocked from side to side under her relentless assault.
Shouts and gunfire echoed over the rain as the doors of the other vehicle opened and soldiers poured out, weapons blazing. Swiftly, I raised my gun and fired, striking several before they knew what was happening. A few of them turned, peering into the storm, trying to determine where the shots were coming from.
With a streak of crimson and leathery wings, Ember swooped in with a howl, blasting a cone of flame down a line of soldiers. She didn’t stop, but continued into the trees, vanishing through the branches as shots rang out behind her. At the same time, Cobalt descended from the opposite direction, breathing fire onto another group and winging away out of sight.
Confusion broke out through the ranks. Several soldiers scanned the sky with raised guns, expecting another guerrilla attack from swooping dragons. A few hunkered behind the truck to escape the gunfire coming from the forest. But most of the attention was on the large Eastern dragon still savaging the second vehicle. Shots were fired through the roof, missing or sparking off her chest and belly plates, and Jade snarled in fury. Snaking her head through the shattered glass, she dragged a soldier, shouting and kicking, out the window and hurled him into the forest. The body flew through the air, struck a tree with a sickening crack and dropped motionless to the ground.