Page 63 of Talon

“Why do you care?” I challenged, not wanting this woman to know anything about Garret. He was the part of my life that wasn’t bound to Talon and training and all their crazy expectations. When I was with Garret, I could almost forget Talon’s stranglehold on my life. I could almost forget...that I was a dragon. “He’s just a human,” I told my trainer, still aiming the gun at my face. “What’s one human to you?”

As if she could hear my thoughts, my trainer’s expression went cold and frightening. “Exactly,” she said in a steely voice. “He is just one human. One mortal among billions of unimportant, short-lived mortals. You are a dragon. More important, you are adragonell,a female of our race, which makes you even more precious to the organization.” She finally lowered the gun, though she still glared daggers at me. “Your loyalty, first and always, is to Talon. Not the humans. They are unimportant. We walk among them, act like them, live with them, but we will neverbeone of them.” She gestured sharply with the weapon. “They’re a cancer, hatchling. A virus that spreads and corrupts and obliterates everything in its path. The human race is weak and self-destructive, and the only thing they know how to do is destroy. You are part of something far greater than these mortals can ever hope to achieve, and if I ask you a human’s name, you had best give me the human’s name and not question it!”

She raised the pistol, shockingly fast, but this time, I was ready.

Surging upright, I angled to the side like she’d taught me and lunged in. My hands hit the barrel of the weapon from underneath, forcing it up and twisting it out of her grasp. A second later, I stood before my trainer with the pistol pointed back at her, stunned that I’d actually pulled it off.

“Garret,” I muttered as my trainer seared holes into my forehead with her stare. “His name is Garret.”

She smiled.

“There, that wasn’t difficult, was it?” she said, and I had no idea if she was talking about the disarm or admitting the human’s name. Taking the gun from my limp fingers, she stepped back and gave me a hard, assessing gaze. “Yes,” she mused, as if coming to a decision in her mind. “I do believe you are ready.”

“Ready for what?” I asked, but she spun and walked swiftly from the room, beckoning me to follow. I trailed her back to the office, where she pointed to the chair in front of her desk. I dropped into it warily, noticing on the desk’s polished surface a manila folder with my name printed at the top.

Scary Talon Lady didn’t sit, but regarded me over the desk, her fingers resting lightly on the folder. I couldn’t keep my gaze from straying back to it. My name, in red. What was inside? What did it say about me, and my future with the organization?

“This is a big day for you, hatchling,” Scary Talon Lady announced, making me even more nervous. “As you may know, we have watched you from the time you were hatched, assessing your skills, your behavior, what type of position you would excel at. You’ve completed phase one of your training. Now, we move on to phase two—honing the skills that will serve you in the organization. From now on, you will come to training wearing this.”

She tossed something at me, a dark, full bodysuit made of light, stretchy fabric. It seemed to cling to my hands when I caught it, and for a split second, I thought it was alive. Shuddering, I held it away from me. It looked like a normal bodysuit, but it felt almost slimy, and warm. I realized it was the same type of outfit my trainer wore, though I couldn’t imagine sliding into this thing.

“This is a very special outfit,” my trainer explained as I resisted the urge to drop the creepy thing on the floor. “It’s far too complicated to explain, but suffice it to say, your suit will not rip or tear when you Shift into your real form.”

I gaped at her. “Really?” Intrigued now, I stared at the fabric, trying not to be repulsed by the way it sucked at my bare skin. “So, if I’m wearing this thing when I Shift, I won’t have to worry about running home naked?”

She pointed out the door. “Go try it on,” she ordered. “Make certain it fits, then report back here. Go.”

I retreated to the bathroom and slipped into the suit, holding my breath as the fabric sucked and oozed over my skin, almost like paint. At first, it was warm and disgustingly slick, but after a few moments it smoothed out, molding to my body until I could barely feel it.

Creepy.

I returned to Scary Talon Lady, who gave a tiny nod of approval and gestured to the seat again. “Good,” she announced as I perched on the stool with my normal clothes in hand, feeling almost naked. “It fits. I want you to wear it for the rest of the day, so it gets used to your shape and body type. You can put your regular clothes on over it.”

I frowned, not entirely certain I’d heard correctly. “Wait, you want me to keep it on tonight, soitgets used tome?”

My trainer nodded, as if that was a perfectly normal explanation. “Yes, hatchling, but don’t worry. After a few minutes, you won’t even remember you have it on.” She smiled tightly, as if from personal experience. “Only certain members of the organization receive this special clothing,” she continued as I squirmed, “so consider yourself lucky. The suits are very valuable and very expensive to make, sodo notlose it. It will be your training uniform and, later on, it will be your work uniform.”

I was still trying to wrap my head around the thought that my suit had to get used to me, like it really was alive, but something about that last sentence caused everything inside me to go still. “Work uniform?” I asked quietly. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions, but I felt the only reason you needed a suit like that was to Shift from dragon to human quickly and quietly. It was, for all intents and purposes, a ninja suit. A magic ninja suit that clung to your skin like it was alive and molded to your body, but a ninja suit nonetheless. And there was only one position in the organization I could think of that came close to that type of “work.”

My trainer smiled her most evil smile yet, and pushed the folder at me, flipping it open. Swallowing hard, I looked down at the first line.

Subject: Ember Hill.

And below that...

My heart stood still, my veins turning to ice. I stared at those five letters, willing them to go away, to be something else, anything else.

“Congratulations, Ember Hill,” Scary Talon Lady mused over the desk. “Welcome to the Vipers.”

Garret

I was finishing a report to Lieutenant Martin when there was a knock at the door.

On the couch, Tristan straightened and shot me a puzzled look. Two empty pizza boxes already sat open and nearly empty on the counter, so it wasn’t the delivery boy. And the Order always called if they were going to show up. There was no reason anyone should be at our apartment at this time of day.

Warily, Tristan pulled his 9 mm and slid into the hallway, gesturing for me to get the door. I reached for the Glock that always sat close by and eased across the room, ready to bring the weapon up if the door flew inward. The knock came again, four rapid blows against the wood, but it didn’t sound like whoever was on the other side was trying to break down the door. Hiding the gun against my leg, I reached for the knob and opened the door until the chain caught it, then peered through the gap.

Ember’s brilliant green eyes met mine through the crack, and my heart leaped. “Hey, you,” she greeted softly. A bike leaned against the wall beside the door, tires firmly inflated this time. “I was, um, just riding around the neighborhood, and I saw your apartment and thought, ‘Hey, Garret lives there! I wonder if he’s home now?’ And...that sounded pretty bad, didn’t it? Lexi told me where you were staying—she’s good at finding those things out. I’m not stalking you, I swear.” She rubbed her arm, looking tired and subdued, unlike her normal self. “Well, maybe a little. Can I come in?”

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