Page 60 of Talon

Riley

Two dragons were sitting in my living room when I walked through the door.

I frowned at Wes, who was hovering in the foyer waiting for me. “What happened?” I snapped, looking past him to the pair of teens on my couch. Hatchlings, both of them, looking scared, dirty and exhausted as they huddled together on the floral cushions. Naomi, or Nettle as she was called by nearly everyone, was a dark, thin girl with dreadlocks that stuck out in every direction. Remy, a sandy-haired kid with piercing blue eyes, peered at me over the chair back, solemn and grave.

Wes shrugged helplessly.

“I can’t get them to talk, mate. They said they were waiting for you.”

Sighing, I stalked to the kitchen, opened a cupboard and yanked out two bags of chips. Walking back to the living room, I tossed them at the hatchlings, who caught the bags and stared at me, unsure of what to do.

“Eat something first,” I ordered. Hatchlings were, by definition, almost always hungry, as their metabolism required large amounts of food to keep active and healthy. Shifting, too, took huge amounts of energy, which was why we were always ravenous soon after a change. And a hungry dragon was a nervous, restless, irritable dragon, something I did not need right now. If I was going to get to the bottom of this, I needed them calm.

“It’s fine,” I assured them as they still hesitated. “Go ahead and eat. Knock yourselves out, really. We’ll talk afterward.”

Clearly starving, they tore open the bags and plowed through the contents, barely stopping to chew. I left them demolishing the chips and wandered onto the deck, leaning my elbows against the railing.

Damn. Something was definitely up. Nettle and Remy shouldn’t be here. I’d left them both at a safe house in Boulder, Colorado, high in the mountains. What had driven them to find me? Something serious. Something that had caused my other safe houses to disappear. It was probably a good thing they’d showed up when they did. Maybe now I could figure out what the hell was going on.

I sighed, looking straight down from the balcony. Far below, the ocean crashed against the rocks, and the salt-laced air tugged at my hair and clothes. Frowning, I scrubbed a hand over my eyes, trying to dissolve the memories that flickered to life again, but it was no use. For some reason, every time I smelled the ocean, heard the crashing waves and felt the wind on my face, I thought ofher.Of Ember and that brief night of flying the waves. Of racing a fiery red hatchling who called to my dragon, igniting an inferno within. I didn’t understand it. Ember as a human was young, naive, stubborn and impulsive. Ember in her true form was all of those things, but also fearless, defiant and beautiful.

I shook my head, pushing myself back from the railing. This was crazy. I couldn’t be distracted now. Ember was beginning to come around, but things were moving too slowly for my liking. I should’ve told her everything about Talon this afternoon. Unfortunately, I would have to deal with this new problem before I did anything else.

“Riley.” Wes poked his head out the doorframe. “I think they’re ready for you, mate.”

Pushing Ember from my mind, I stalked back into the living room. Nettle and Remy perched nervously on the sofa, two empty chip bags crumpled on the end tables. Wes had apparently gotten them drinks, as well, as a pair of open sodas sat dripping on the polished wood.

“All right, you two,” I said, sinking into the armchair facing them. “Start talking. From the beginning.” They stared at me, clearly not sure where to begin, and I sighed. “What happened to the safe house?” I said to get them started. “And why are you here? Only your guardian was supposed to know of this location. Where is he, anyway? Did you trek all the way up here by yourselves?”

The hatchlings exchanged a glance, then Remy took a deep breath.

“Chris told us to come,” he began in a surprisingly steady voice. “He gave us your location and sent us here.”

I frowned. Chris was the guardian in charge of the Boulder safe house. All the nests had one: a human who knew about us and who’d agreed to look after one or two vulnerable hatchlings until they were old enough to be on their own. Most of the guardians were ex-Talon servants, already living in hiding; if you were a human employed by the organization, you were in for life. As much as Talon despised having their dragons break away, they were even more fervent about not letting their humans go and risk exposing our existence. The few humans who did escape lived with the fear that St. George or Talon could show up on their doorstep any day, so after years of tracking them down and convincing them I wasn’t part of Talon anymore, we’d come to an agreement. I would keep the organization off their backs as best I could, and they, in turn, had agreed to watch over the hatchlings I broke out of Talon.

“Chris sent you here?” I repeated, and they bobbed their heads in unison. “Why?”

“We don’t know!” Nettle burst out, making Remy flinch. Her dreadlocks bobbed as she gestured wildly. “He just woke us up in the middle of the night and told us to pack our things. Didn’t say what was going on, just shoved us into a taxi and ordered us not to come back!”

A chill settled in my gut. I looked at Wes, who nodded and left the room, probably to check the status of the Boulder safe house. I turned back to the hatchlings. “He didn’t say anything to you at all?”

“No.” Remy shook his head. “But he did seem really freaked out. Kept glancing out the window and pacing while we packed.”

I narrowed my eyes. That house had been located halfway up a mountain peak, isolated and virtually unknown. No one was aware of it except me, Wes and a couple other former Talon servants. In fact, all of my safe houses had been, well,safe.I’d had no issues with keeping them hidden before. Why were they being exposed now?

The answer was sobering. I might have a mole in my ranks. With the exception of Wes, who hated Talon almost as much as I did, I really didn’t trust humans all that much. They were too gullible, too easy to sway with promises of wealth, power, status or whatever they coveted. I worked with them out of necessity; our numbers were small and I couldn’t do everything myself, but if Talon offered them something better, I wouldn’t put it past them to betray us.

Which meant we could be in trouble here.

“Riley.” Wes appeared at the edge of the hall, his face and eyes shadowed. I rose and followed him into the spare bedroom he used as his office.

“It’s gone, mate,” he whispered as I crossed the threshold. His laptop sat open and blinking on the desk, and he looked at it as if hoping it would tell him something else. “The Boulder nest has gone dark, and Chris isn’t answering the emergency number.”

I swore. “We had cameras and communications set up so that even if Talon found the nest, we could still contact them, unless the house was completely burned down.” I stared at Wes, hard, and he looked away. “Tell me that’s not the case.”

He rubbed his arm, his voice going soft. “I don’t think this is Talon, Riley.”

The cold spread to all parts of my body, and I shivered in rage and growing horror. “No,” I muttered, staring at the flickering laptop screen. “It’s St. George.”

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