Page 69 of Talon

“Welcome to my humble abode.”

“You live here?” I gasped, and he chuckled, swinging off the bike. “Okay, my entire perspective of you just got flipped on its head. I guess rogue dragon-ing pays better than I thought.”

He raked his dark hair back and grinned. “Don’t be too impressed, Firebrand. It’s not mine. We’re just...borrowing it, while we’re in town.”

“We?”

“Yeah, ‘we.’ Come on.” Jerking a thumb toward the massive front doors, he started up the walk. “I have some people I want you to meet.”

The inside was just as massive and sprawling as the outside, and definitely inhabited, judging by the amount of Red Bull and Mountain Dew cans scattered everywhere, the piles of dirty dishes in the sink and the empty pizza boxes on the counter.

A gangly human emerged from a back room, shirt rumpled, brown hair hanging in his eyes. He noticed me standing in the foyer but didn’t seem surprised, giving Riley a weary look when he came in.

“This her, then?” he asked with an English accent. “The girl we’re all risking our lives for? Oh, sorry, the girlyou’rerisking our lives for?” He eyed me from beneath shaggy bangs, arching a brow. “Have to say, I’m not that impressed, mate.”

I scowled. “If you’ve got something to say to me, I’m standing right here.”

“You’ll have to excuse Wes,” Riley said. “He has the bad habit of being a jackass.” The human didn’t even blink, and Riley’s voice turned solemn. “Where are the other two?”

“Still downstairs. Where they’ve been all morning, probably sulking because I chased them out of the swimming pool. Why?” His eyes narrowed, maybe sensing the nervous tension in Riley’s demeanor. “What’s going on?”

Riley shot me a glance. I saw him hesitate, wondering how much he should reveal, if he should trust me. I met his gaze head-on.

“You promised me answers,” I reminded him. “You said you’d tell me everything about Talon and the Vipers and what they do. I’m not leaving until I know.”

“Vipers?” Wes’s voice, no longer bored or smug, climbed several octaves. He stared at me with wide eyes, then looked at Riley, dropping his voice to a hiss. “Did she just say bloodyVipers?”

Riley sighed. “Lilith is in town,” he said quietly. Wes blanched, then shoved away from us, rattling off an impressive list of swearwords. “Keep it together,” Riley warned as the human stalked back, his eyes a little crazy. “She doesn’t know we’re here yet. At least, I hope she doesn’t. But she’s not here for us.”

“Of course she’s here for us!” Wes was not doing a great job of keeping it together, I thought. “Why else would a bloody Viper be here? She’s bloody well not on vacation!”

“She’s my trainer,” I said, hoping to calm him down. It did not have the effect I wanted. The human’s eyes bulged even farther, and he swung a wild glare at me.

“Riley, what the hell! Are you off your rocker? You brought the snake’s new apprentice right into our house? How do we know she’s not a plant? She could run off to tell the bitch exactly where we are.”

“She won’t,” Riley said calmly. “I trust her.”

Wes shook his head, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “I hope you know what you’re doing, mate. I really do.”

“Go find the other two,” Riley ordered. “Tell them we’ll be leaving soon. Get them ready to move out. Remember, we don’t want any evidence that we were here. Leave everything as we found it. That means the alarms need to go, too.”

“Bollocks,” Wes mumbled, turning away. He walked out of the room, still muttering, and I looked at the rogue.

“Still confused as hell over here, Riley.”

He nodded wearily. “I know. Come on.” He motioned me into the living room, gesturing to one of the sofas, but I was too keyed up to sit. Riley continued to stand, as well, gazing out the window with arms crossed to his chest, seeming to gather his thoughts.

“What do you know about Talon,” he asked at length, “and the Vipers?”

I shrugged. “Only what they tell me, which isn’t much. I know the Vipers are some sort of special operatives that Talon sends out when things get really messy, but I don’t really know what they do. I tried asking my trainer, but she never tells me anything. I didn’t even know her name.”

“Her name,” Riley said, turning to me, “is Lilith. And besides being the most evil bitch to set foot out of Bitchtown, she’s the best Viper Talon has. Which makes itveryinteresting that they chose her to train you.” His eyes narrowed, appraising me across the room. “That means Talon is very invested in your education—they wouldn’t send their best operative to train a hatchling unless they were planning to use you for something big.”

“Is she really that important?”

He snorted. “You have no idea. Lilith is sort of a legend in the organization. Even St. George knows about her. And if you’re such a badass that even those genocidal maniacs sit up and take notice...” He shrugged, but he didn’t have to say anything else.

“So that’s why Wes freaked out. He thinks Lilith was sent here to bring you back to Talon.”

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