Ember looked at me expectantly, green eyes shining beneath her bangs. I sighed and took a step back. “Do you want to come in?”

She beamed and scurried across the threshold, gazing eagerly around as I closed the door and locked it out of habit. I heard a snort, imagined her shaking her head.

“Jeez, Garret. Two days, and your room doesn’t look like it’s been touched. Are you making your own hotel bed? You do know there’s a maid service here, right?”

I managed a tired smile as I turned around. “Where I come from,” I told her, “if they ever discovered you let an old lady clean up your mess, you’d never live it down.”

“Whatever. I’ll take any excuse not to clean my room.” She hopped onto one of the neatly made beds, rumpling it nicely. “If I can see my floor through all the clothes, I consider that a win. Besides, didn’t you know, Garret? A messy room is a sign of genius.”

“I’ve never been inside your house,” I reminded her in a grave voice, “but if that’s true, I have the feeling I’m talking with the smartest person on the planet.”

She reached back and threw a pillow at me. I dodged, hearing her laughter ripple up, wicked and bright and cheerful. A strange lightness filled my chest, and I found myself smiling, too. Snatching the pillow from the floor, I prepared to hurl it back.

And caught myself, a cold chill driving away the amusement.

Too easy, I realized. Too easy to relax around her, to slip back into that role I’d adopted over the summer. A normal civilian, unguarded and carefree. Which was extremely dangerous, because this situation was anything but normal. I could not afford to drop my guard, even for her. Perhaps she’d come here to escape, to forget the reality of our situation. Maybe she wanted to pretend everything was normal for a while. But I couldn’t be that person she wanted, that ordinary boy from Crescent Beach. I was a soldier of St. George; I’d killed too many, hunted her kind with the sole intention of driving them to extinction. My hands were stained with the blood of countless dragons. No matter what my feelings, I could never escape that.

Stone-faced, I replaced the pillow, not looking at her. “Why are you here, Ember?” I asked. “Did you need something?”

“Actually, yes.” I looked up and found her watching me with a certain maniacal glee in her eyes. “You can come downstairs with me,” she announced. “Right now. I swear, if I have to watch one more pay-per-view, I’m going to set something on fire.”

“Downstairs?” I repeated, and she nodded eagerly. “To the casino? Why?”

“Because it’s Vegas!” Ember exclaimed, throwing up her hands. “Because we’re here. Because I’m literally going to start climbing the walls if I don’t get out and do something.” She raised her chin, and her eyes glinted. “And because I went to Riley’s room to see if he has any new information on Talon and St. George, and he had already left.”

I straightened quickly. “He’s gone? Where?”

“No idea. I tried asking Wes, but he just said Riley had ‘important things to do’—” she put air quotes around the phrase, rolling her eyes “—and wouldn’t tell me what. Of course, he left without telling us, or leaving any hint as to where he went or when he’ll be back. So much for trusting me, I guess.”

With a sniff, she hopped off the bed, grinning up at me. “So, come on, Garret. We’re in Vegas, the night is young and we have fake IDs. Even you must realize what we could do with those.”

“We aren’t supposed to leave the floor.”

She actually growled at me. “If you want to stay here and mope and be boring, I can’t force you to come,” she said. “But I am going downstairs. The hotel is safe enough. Riley said so himself. Talon and St. George don’t know where we are, and even if they see me, they’re not going to shoot me in the middle of a crowded casino with guards and cameras and people everywhere.” She bounced past me, heading toward the door. “I won’t be long. I just need a change of scenery before I go completely nuts. If you see Wes, tell him I’m looking for Riley.”

I grimaced. “Wait,” I said, and caught up to her in the doorway. This was not a good idea, and I knew this wasn’t a good idea, but I didn’t want Ember to be alone down there. If something went terribly wrong, at least I would be there to help.

She grinned as I exited the room, and I shook my head. “Just for the record,” I told her as the door clicked shut, “this is the exact opposite of the term ‘lying low.’” She shrugged, waving it off, and I followed her down the hall. “Doesn’t gambling cost money?” I asked as we neared the elevators. “How are you going to pay for anything?”

“I have a little cash,” Ember replied. “Enough for penny slots, anyway. It’s not like I’ll be playing roulette or poker with the professionals, not unless I score really, really well. But who knows?” Her eyes sparkled as the elevator doors opened and we stepped inside. “Maybe I’ll get lucky.”

Riley

I was not in the best of moods.

The taxicab reeked. Badly. Normally, I didn’t mind the smell of smoke, but the patron before me had either lit three or four cigs at the same time or had been wearing a cologne called Essence of Ashtray. It smelled, it was annoying, and I was already tense enough. Of course, the irony of a dragon nearly gagging on smoke was not lost on me, but it didn’t make me any less irritable, either. The memory of last night, when Wes had announced that yet another nest was gone, made me want to punch something. Dammit, what was happening? Who was giving us away? And could I find them before my entire underground was lost?