Page 52 of Guardian's Dilemma

“I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re not one ofthem.”

“I don’t know how many of them there are.”

“A lot.”

“You’ve known all this time? And tried to fight against it?”

Douglas nodded.

I went tense as my mate moved towards the older man. His voice was low, almost intimate, and it made me want to growl and stake my claim. I was incredibly restrained and didn’t, though. Not that Kingsley seemed to appreciate it.

“I’m sorry, Douglas. I didn’t know. I never understood why you wouldn’t let me- well, I didn’t understand. What will you do now?”

“One of us has to stay. I’ll try and find the good ones left and then, maybe, we can do something about the way the Council are leading us. We should be protectors, not hunters.”

Damn, if Douglas kept saying things like that, I was actually going to start to like him.

He gave the two of us an assessing look. “You know, I’m going to have to report this. And the fact that Leonard and his team were killed.”

“I know.”

“It’ll look much better for me if there’s a fight.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Are you asking me to hit you?”

Douglas snorted. “I had something else in mind.”

Something about the way he said it made my blood start pumping. I was going to like it, whatever it was.

Sure enough, Douglas was fast becoming one of my favourite people. He knew where theridirehad their secret stash of dragons’ blood but he couldn’t destroy it himself without being thrown out. It seemed a shame for Kingsley to leave theridireandnotdo a little destroying on his way out.

We arranged it quickly and Douglas wished us well. He even included me in those good wishes. I told him he was my second-favouriteridire, and he snorted while Kingsley glowered.

Kingsley and I walked out of his office and I shimmered into the corners of the room as we walked past aridire. He was on his way to Douglas’ office; he’d been summoned there and he was about to be told to arrest Kingsley. After all, Douglas needed a rock-solid alibi for what was about to happen.

My mate led me through the corridors swiftly until we reached the room where the blood was hidden. It was a store room, perfectly innocuous from the outside. I slipped inside first, just in case something was amiss.

Nothing happened, no traps were sprung, no alarms sounded. When I met Kingsley’s eye, I saw him draw a deep breath. He was about to burn all his bridges.

He pulled the fire alarm and it blared out. Around us, I could hear the sound of running footsteps. It had put everyridirein the training grounds on alert.

That alarm would do two things; firstly, it would ensure that everybody was out of the building, which we wanted, since we were about to burn it down.

Secondly, it would give us a large audience as we left.

“Here it is.”

Kingsley’s voice was thick with disgust at the sight and I glanced over, then wished I hadn’t. There was a small compartment hidden behind some shelves and it was filled with vials of dark red liquid. There must have been fifty vials there.

I slid out of my clothes and, even in the gloom of the cupboard, I saw my mate’s cheeks heat at the sight of me, which was nice.

The cupboard was small and there were flammable liquids all over it.

“Stand back,” I said.

Kingsley backed out of the room and I shifted. Even though I was auasaland lean for a dragon, I filled the space and felt the cold shelves press against my sides. Taking a deep breath, I felt my belly fill with fire. Felt the heat begin to course through my veins, warming me from the inside out.

When it filled me to bursting, I opened my mouth and let the fire out in a rush, sending long tongues of flame bursting from my mouth.

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