Okay, how was I going to do this? I took a deep breath to slow my heartbeat, and gazed around the room. Despite its vastness, it was quite cluttered. There were a lot of tight quarters and places to hide, where the soldiers would be at a disadvantage if I could get close. In fact, this was a lot like my training with Lilith, having men with guns chase me around a crowded warehouse while I figured out how to “kill” them. Of course, I’d “died” most of those times, too, shot down with paintball guns, as the soldiers had become increasingly aware of attacks from up top.

Up top…

Crouching down, I stripped out of my clothes and left my shorts, top and underwear at the base of a pillar. Any modesty or embarrassment I might’ve felt was swallowed by the need to stay alive, and besides, no one could see me in this darkness, not even Garret. In another circumstance, I might not have worried about ruining my clothes, but I didn’t have my Viper suit on, and if we did make it out of here, I did not want to run through the streets of Las Vegas stark naked.

The soldiers were halfway into the room now, their lights creeping ever closer as they eased forward. Hurrying to the nearest scaffolding tower, I began to climb, feeling cold iron, rust and cobwebs under my fingers and the soles of my feet. When I reached the top, I crept silently along the wooden planks, keeping my head low, until I was almost directly above a pair of soldiers and could peer down at the tops of their heads. I couldn’t see Garret, but I knew he was close, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I would be ready when he did.

As I held my breath, muscles coiling and tingly with the energy right before a Shift, my foot brushed a loose nail on the edge of the wood. It fell and pinged off the cement, a tiny sound that might as well have been a gong in the silent room. The soldiers below immediately swept their beams straight up the scaffolding. My heart lurched, and I ducked down, pressing my cheek to the boards, as my perch was illuminated in light.

“Did you hear…?”

“Yeah.” The flashlight swept back and forth along the plank. I took shallow breaths and thought invisible thoughts. “I think it might be up there—”

A muffled shout rang out from another corner of the room, followed by the sound of a scuffle, a body being slammed against a wall, a burst of gunfire. The light vanished as the two soldiers whirled their guns in the direction of the noise, and I leaped to my feet.

Here we go, I thought, and plunged off the scaffold, feeling my body explode midpounce. I landed on one of the soldiers in full dragon form, driving him into the concrete, and turned on the other with a roar, blasting him with fire as he spun around. He cringed back, tongues of flame snapping around him, but apparently his armor was fire resistant because the flames didn’t stop him from raising his gun and firing. I ducked behind a pillar, sparks erupting around me, and bounded into the shadows. The soldier backed away, firing short bursts and shouting to his companions, his light sweeping wildly back and forth. His armor still burned, though the flames were slowly dying, and he looked like a torch in the darkness.

Something emerged from the shadows behind him, a pistol pointed at his back. My heart jumped as Garret deliberately paused, then lowered the gun and fired once, at the soldier’s legs. The man shrieked and whirled around as he fell, raising his weapon, but Garret darted forward, smashed the butt of the pistol into his face and wrenched the rifle away as he collapsed to the cement.

More shots boomed out, the deafening roar of assault rifles making my ears ring as the rest of the squad converged on his location. Garret dived behind cover as they approached, not seeing me in the shadows.

I snarled and lunged, pouncing on one from behind, clamping my jaws around his leg and dragging him across the floor. He shouted, clawing at the ground, and his friends immediately aimed their rifles at me.

A blur of motion, and Garret hit them from behind, striking one behind the ear with the pistol and grabbing the other’s weapon as he turned. The soldier beneath me tried flipping onto his back to shoot, but I pinned him down and slammed his head into the floor. He shuddered and went limp, the gun clattering to the cement. Tensing, I looked up just as the second soldier swung wildly at Garret and clipped him in the jaw with an elbow. Garret staggered, and the human immediately struck him in the head with the assault rifle, driving him to a knee, then raised the gun to fire.

I leaped with a roar, slamming into the soldier just as he pulled the trigger. He recovered, swinging the muzzle around at me, and I blasted him in the face with fire. Screaming, he reached up, tearing away the flaming helmet and mask…as Garret surged to his feet and punched him in the jaw as hard as he could.

The human reeled back, fell into a pillar and slid to the ground, his head dropping to his chest as he went limp. Silence fell, the echoes of screams and gunfire fading into the black. Still shaking with fury and adrenaline, I looked at Garret, wondering if we had really won. If it was really over.

He stood cradling his hand, gazing at the soldier slumped against the beam, his expression torn between relief and guilt. A trickle of blood ran down his face from his temple, crawling down his cheek, and my stomach knotted. “You’re bleeding!” I exclaimed, jumping over the body of one of the soldiers. My claws clicked anxiously over the floor as I trotted up. “Are you all right?”

He nodded painfully. “Just a cut,” he said, lowering his arm as I reached him. “It’s not serious.” Wincing, he looked down at his hand, clenching and unclenching a fist. “Think I burned myself when I punched the last soldier, though.”

“Let me see,” I said, reaching for his arm. He stiffened, and I froze when I saw my scaly foreleg, curved black talons hovering close to his skin. Claws that could easily rend and tear and rip right through him. His eyes rose to mine, and I saw my reflection in his steely pupils: a huge horned lizard with claws and wings outstretched, looming over him. For half a heartbeat, we stared at each other, dragon and soldier, surrounded by the bodies of his former brethren.

Garret moved first. In the moment before I would’ve pulled back, he raised his arm and held it out to me, placing the back of his hand gently in mine. Heart lurching, I very cautiously curled my talons around his wrist. He didn’t move, didn’t flinch or tense up, though a patch of his skin was red with the telltale shininess of a burn. I swallowed hard.

“Sorry about that.”

“I’ve had worse.” He held my gaze, gray eyes intense. “Besides, it’s hard to be angry at something that saved your life.”