Soldier (Talon, #3)(63)

Wes rolled his eyes. “Called him an ‘upstanding young man’ before she left, which I find hilariously ironic. Considering we’re about to break into this place and rob it blind.” He eyed the elevator like it was a tiger getting ready to pounce. “Into the belly of the beast, then?” he said with overstated cheerfulness. “Where there’s no possible way out if we’re discovered? Fabulous, who wants to go first?”

“We go together,” I said, shrugging off the backpack as I stepped forward. “And from here on, we have to move quickly. At the bottom of the elevator is a guard station you have to pass through to get to the Vault, and the guards there are all Talon loyalists. There’ll be no sneaking around, no talking our way through, nothing like that. Once those doors open, the guards will know something is wrong. They’re not going to escort us out, inform us that we’re trespassing, or call the police. They’re going to try to kill us.” Reaching into the pack, I pulled out my gun, shoved it into the waistband of my jeans and tossed the soldier a pistol. “So you know what you have to do.”

St. George caught the gun and racked the slide with a metallic click. “Lead the way.”

“Wes? Cameras?”

“They’re all on a playback loop,” the human replied. “You could dance naked in the elevator box and the guards won’t see a thing. Not that I’d recommend it. For all our sakes.”

I glanced down at Ember, who looked troubled but determined, and lightly touched her arm. “You ready for this, Firebrand?” I murmured as her gaze flickered to mine. “You know what you have to do?”

She nodded. “Yeah,” she said without hesitation. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

We crowded into the elevator. It wasn’t large; St. George and I pressed into the corners and Ember made herself very small in the center. Wes stood over the panel, swiped the card through the scanner and pressed a series of numbers once it lit up.

The doors slid shut and the elevator began to move.

I breathed a sigh of relief. We were in. On our way to the Vault, and whatever secrets lurked in the depths of Talon’s underground. My heart pounded, and I glanced at Ember, standing quietly in the center of the box. I was putting her in danger, again. The last time we’d ventured underground into a shady facility, we almost didn’t make it out. At least this time I knew what to expect, up to a point, but everything beyond that was unpredictable and dangerous as hell.

The elevator continued to descend for several minutes, before it slowed and came to a stop with barely a bump. In the two seconds before the doors opened, I was aware of several things at once. Wes, cringing against the panel, as far away from the door as he could get. St. George, pistol in hand, raising the gun to aim through the opening. And Ember, standing in front of the doors, muscles tensing as her eyes glowed a brilliant emerald green.

Then the doors opened, and a ripple of energy went through the box as Ember roared and lunged through, becoming a bright red dragon as she did and sending a cone of fire roaring down the hallway. Screams rang out, followed immediately by gunfire, and everything dissolved into chaos.





EMBER

The final few seconds before the doors slid open, I was terrified.

This was the part of the plan that I’d been dreading. Not the sneaking into yet another highly secure enemy base. Not having to time everything perfectly to make it through the doors and into the elevator room. Not even the knocking out of a random Talon employee and stealing his key card to get down to the Vault. That was all fine. Everyone, from Garret to Riley to Wes, knew what they were doing. Wes would be able to hack into the security system. Garret would be able to distract the clerk to let Riley and me sneak into the back. Riley would be able to get the key card, and Wes would be able to figure out the code.

But passing the final barrier to get into the Vault—the guard station at the bottom of the elevator—was up to me. Or, at least, I had to cause a big enough distraction for the boys to take out the guards. Armed guards, who would certainly try to kill me as soon as they saw a small red dragon burst through the doorway. More fighting. More killing. I was sick to death of it all, but I knew we had to succeed here, or even more of us could die. The hallway was too narrow for two dragons to be there simultaneously, and being smaller than Cobalt, I could maneuver better in cramped spaces. Plus, Garret and Riley were better shots, and I could easily Shift between human and dragon thanks to the Viper suit. It made sense that I would go in first, but that didn’t make it less terrifying. Hopefully, the element of shock would give us enough time to eliminate the threat quickly.

I let out a roar as I lunged through the doorway, blasting the air before me with fire, not even knowing what I was aiming for. I heard a scream, and a body lurched away, flailing wildly as flames engulfed him. Two others at the end of the hall pulled guns as I turned on them, shouting something about intruders and sounding the alarm. Gunfire boomed through the corridor, and something sparked off a chest plate, making me snarl and recoil in pain. At the same time, Garret and Riley stepped out of the elevator, guns raised. Their pistols barked, and the two guards jerked away, collapsing to the tile.

I winced, but then Garret lunged past me, heading toward an open doorway on the side of the corridor. A large window stood beside the frame, looking out on the hall, probably the guard station where they viewed all the security footage. The soldier ducked through the frame, and a second later gunshots rang out from inside, making me wince. Garret emerged, a grim expression on his face as he joined us.