She lunged, a streak of darkness over the cement. I snarled and leaped forward to meet her, lashing out with my claws as she got close. Like quicksilver, she sidled away, leaving a stinging gash along my neck as she did. I turned, lowered my head and plowed forward, pursuing her across the floor. She dodged and twisted away, slashing me with her talons, trying to fall back. I took the blows, gritting my teeth with every gash and cut ripped across my scales, and slammed into her like a bull.

My horns struck her chest, bowling her over with a startled gasp. She hit the floor on her back and instantly kicked out with her back legs, catching me in the stomach and ribs with her back claws as I pounced, tearing me open. I ignored the pain and went for her throat. Snarling, we rolled across the floor, tails and wings lashing, trying to pin the other down.

Shrieking with fury, we rolled into a pair of steel drums in the corner, tipping them over with a crash. Liquid spilled everywhere, sharp and acrid, stinging my nose and burning my eyes. I was instantly drenched, choking on the fumes that rose around us, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the Viper beneath me. As the drums clanged to the concrete, there was a split-second hiss…

…and a firestorm erupted around us. Flames shot into the air, running up my back, spreading over my wings. It engulfed the Viper, surrounding her with fire, until she looked like a snarling, bat-winged demon from the pits of hell. Shrieking, she raked her claws down my neck, then slapped me across the muzzle with a flame-wreathed talon. Before, the gashes had merely stung; now it felt like a hot poker was being jammed up beneath my scales, then doused with acid. Pain exploded behind my eyes, snapping the final threads of clear thought, and I roared.

Pinning the Viper to the floor, ignoring the claws that slashed at me, I bared my teeth and aimed for that slender neck. My jaws clamped shut on the dragon’s throat, right below her chin, and Faith screamed, thrashing wildly. All four talons beat and slashed at me, back legs kicking my stomach, front claws trying to shove me off. I closed my eyes, braced myself and began to squeeze.

“Stop!”

I paused, jaws still clamped around the slender throat, as the dragon’s frenzied cry rang out, echoing off the rafters. “Wait, please!” Faith went on, her voice strangled. “Don’t kill me! Stop!”

Relief, swift and sudden, spread through me, making my legs tremble. I hadn’t really been planning to kill her, not like this. Viper or no, I couldn’t stand here and ever-so-casually tear someone’s throat out. No matter what Talon said, I was not Lilith, and I never would be.

I eased up a bit, though not enough to let go. “Why not?” I growled through my teeth. “Why should I trust anything you say?”

She writhed helplessly, tail beating frantically against my legs. “Because I’ll tell you about Dante,” she wheezed. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just let me live.” She swallowed hard, wings trembling. “Let me Shift back to human form,” she offered. “I can’t hurt you like that, right? And I won’t be able to run. I’ll Shift, and then I’ll tell you whatever you want. Your brother, Mist, Riley. Anything.”

I thumped my tail, as if I was considering a moment longer, then sighed. “All right,” I muttered, and carefully opened my jaws, letting her slump to the concrete. I needed that information on Riley and my brother, and I didn’t have the will for any more fighting. Not that I would’ve killed her anyway, but it was getting hard to move without sharp stabs of pain shooting all up my body. Turned out fire in open wounds was a bad idea. If she ran now, I didn’t think I could catch her, even as a human.

Faith crawled out from under me and, as the flames around us burned low, started to shrink. Tail and neck retracted, scales disappeared and wings pulled into her body, until only a human in a black Viper suit remained sitting on the floor. She hugged herself and gazed up at me, looking like that scared, innocent girl I’d first met, though I knew better now. I folded my wings and sat down, clenching my jaw to keep from hissing in pain. No showing weakness in front of the trained Viper assassin. The last of the flames had finally flickered out, burning off with whatever flammable goo was in those drums, and now that the adrenaline was gone, I ached. Badly. The outside of a dragon might’ve been fireproof, but the numerous gashes I’d taken blazed with agony, burned and seared around the edges.

Great. I’m probably the only dragon in history who will ever suffer from third-degree burns.

“Riley,” I said, my voice a low, dangerous growl. “Where is he? Why were you sent for us? Tell me everything you know.”

Faith took a deep, shaky breath and exhaled slowly. “Mist and I were commissioned by Talon to find you and the rogue,” she began. “My orders were to bring you back alive and kill anyone else involved. Mist was to go after Cobalt, extract certain information from him and then dispose of him. Divide and conquer, then return to Talon with our objectives, that was the plan.”

I felt ill, but tried not to show it. “What information do they want from Riley?”

“I wasn’t privy to that part of the assignment,” Faith replied, and shrank back as I curled a lip at her. “Mist was the only one with that information,” she added quickly. “I had my orders. That’s all I was required to know.”

“So you have no idea where Riley is right now. Or what Mist is doing to him.”

“No.”

I growled in frustration, scraping my talons across the cement. The girl flinched, but I ignored her. Still no information on Riley, where he was, if he was still alive. We were no closer to finding him than we were when we left the hotel. Mist and Faith had set us up perfectly.