She scrambled to her feet, holding her side, and staggered into the darkness. I watched until she slipped down an aisle and vanished, then I slumped to the cool cement.
“Ow,” I whimpered, wishing I could just lie here and not move for a few minutes. I hurt all over, but at least I had won. I’d actually won a fight with a trained Viper. A small Viper, but a Viper nonetheless. I guess I should be thankful I was alive; Lilith’s prize student certainly wouldn’t have spared me if the situation were reversed. She didn’t know how close she’d come to beating me, that I wouldn’t have been able to kill her if she hadn’t surrendered. I guess I’ll never be a proper Viper after all, I thought, and felt nothing but relief at that notion. And if Faith had realized that, I don’t think I would’ve won. But I didn’t have to worry about her now. My bluff had worked. She was gone.
Though Mist was still out there. And Riley.
My stomach turned over. Setting my jaw, I pushed myself upright and started to limp back down the aisle. Find Garret, find Riley, deal with Dante. Those were the items I had to focus on now, in that order. And not passing out before we could leave; that was on the list, too.
A sibilant chuckle behind me froze me in my tracks.
“Oh, Ember,” Faith crooned, as the ripple of a Shift went through the air. “Haven’t you learned anything? What did Lilith teach you about showing mercy to your enemies?”
I spun painfully, knowing I wouldn’t be fast enough. The Viper was already in midleap, jaws gaping, talons fully extended to tear me apart.
A shot rang out, slamming the dragon aside. The Viper collapsed to the cement and rolled into a pile of crates, screeching in pain as she came to a halt. Heart pounding, I looked over to see Garret, pistol raised, step out of the shadows between aisles, keeping the dragon in his sights. His eyes were hard and dangerous, his expression a flinty mask as he aimed the gun at the fallen Viper.
Faith screamed in rage and defiance. Tail thrashing, she tried clawing herself upright, but a second shot followed the first, jerking her to the side. The Viper struck the crates and crumpled to the floor, leaving a bright crimson smear across the wood. Her wings twitched, frantically at first, then growing slower and slower, as a trickle of red seeped over the floor from her body. Her jaws gaped, gasping for breath. Her eyes glazed over in pain and fear.
“No,” I heard her whisper. “Not yet. Not like this. I can’t die…like this.”
I felt sick. My legs wobbled, and it was uncertain whether they could hold me up much longer, but I gritted my teeth and staggered toward the dying dragon. She was a Viper, she’d been sent to kill us, but she was still part of my race, someone who had been just like me, once.
The Viper stared vacantly as I stepped up beside her, trying not to glance at her heaving sides. At the two round holes seeping blood right behind her foreleg. A perfect shot to the heart, from someone who knew exactly how to kill a dragon. Faith blinked, and I caught my reflection in one golden eye that was slowly turning to glass.
“I wanted…to be her best student,” she whispered, as a thin line of red trickled from her nostril. “Her…only…student. I wanted to make her proud. To prove…I could be like her.”
A lump rose to my throat, and I swallowed hard. “You are,” I told her, my voice a ragged whisper. “You were a true Viper. Lilith would’ve been proud.”
Faith didn’t answer. Her wings had stopped moving, and her gold eyes stared up at me, fixed and unseeing. She was dead.
And the soldier who had killed her was standing right behind me.
Garret
I lowered the gun, watching as Ember stepped away from the body, feeling some of the tension leave me as I gazed at the dead dragon. It was over. She was the last; the others, the Talon agents, were scattered behind me in the warehouse. They had fought stubbornly and persistently, down to the last man. As if they had nothing to lose. Maybe they didn’t. Perhaps Talon’s policy was return victorious or don’t return at all. Regardless, it didn’t matter. No one would be returning to Talon tonight.
Abruptly, Ember staggered, catching herself with a grunt, and my alarm flared up again. Holstering the pistol, I hurried toward her, scanning the lithe, scaly body for wounds. Her crimson scales made it difficult to see if there was any blood, though by the stiff way she was moving, I suspected she’d been hurt. I’d never witnessed a full-on dragon fight, but I had seen firsthand what their claws and teeth were capable of, able to crunch through bone and rip doors off vehicles. Their scales might be fireproof, but I imagined two warring dragons could still do a lot of damage to each other.
My hunch was confirmed when I drew close and saw the glimmer of open wounds on her back, four long claw marks that had been raked across her scales. But the edges around the narrow cuts looked burned, blackened around the edges, the flesh inside a raw, painful pink.
“Ember,” I said, lightly brushing a wingtip as I circled around. More wounds came to light, all in the same condition, claw marks scored by flame. The faint scent of smoke and chemicals lingered in the air, seeming to come off the limping dragon, and I frowned. “What happened?”
“Bad decision that seemed a good idea at the time.” Her voice was tight, and she turned to face me fully. Four thin, seeping gashes scarred her muzzle, red and painful looking, and my stomach clenched. “You killed her,” she whispered, not quite accusing, but her eyes gleamed angrily. “You didn’t have to kill her.”
“Yes, I did.” I met the dragon’s gaze, saw my reflection in those slitted green eyes. They narrowed sharply, but I didn’t feel one inkling of fear. Strange now, that I could stand this close to a furious, wounded dragon and know, beyond any doubt, that she would never hurt me. “I had to use lethal force,” I told her. “You know that. She wouldn’t have stopped until you were dead.”
“I know. Dammit.” Ember slumped, glancing at the lifeless body against the wall. A pained expression crossed her face, and she let out a gusty sigh, smoke curling from her jaws. “She was still one of us,” Ember murmured. “She was like me, once. Who knows what she might’ve been if Lilith and Talon hadn’t gotten their claws into her.” A shudder went through her, and she turned her head, closing her eyes. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
I reached out and put a tentative hand on her neck, feeling warm scales under my palm. My heart jumped, still thrilled by the idea of touching a dragon. “We need to take care of those,” I said, mentally assessing her wounds, wondering how serious they would be in human form. “Can you Shift back?”