“He is. He knows the plan. Backup is here. Well, almost all backup.” Roth dragged a hand over the center of his chest. “Time to play.”

Wispy black smoke floated out from underneath Roth’s shirt, spilling into the air beside him. The shadows shifted into thousands of little black dots spinning in the air, like minicyclones.

Bambi was the first to come off his skin and take form. The giant snake immediately slithered her way over to Zayne and I.

Three shadows formed from the spinning beads, dropping to the ground—black, white and a mixture of both. Above them, I saw iridescent blue and gold...scales that appeared along the belly and the back of the dragon.

Holy crap, it was the dragon I’d heard about. Excitement filled me, because dragon.

My eyes widened as deep red wings sprouted, along with a long, proud snout and clawed hind legs. Its eyes matched Roth’s, a bright yellow.

But...but it was, like, the size of a small dog.

I looked down. Three kittens toddled about, one all white, one completely black and a third that was black and white. The white one pounced on the black-and-white kitten, knocking it over and falling over onto its back in the process. The black one jumped, sweeping at the baby dragon’s tail.

Slowly, I lifted my head to Roth. I’d never been more disappointed in my life.

“They don’t get out much,” he said with a shrug.

“Kittens?” I whispered. “And a baby dragon? Seriously? You brought kittens and a baby dragon as backup? Are they a snack for Bambi?”

The black kitten hissed at me.

“Just wait,” Layla said as Bambi slid over my foot, lifting her diamond-shaped head. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be waiting for as Bambi nudged my hand, obviously wanting pets. I patted her head, my hand freezing when the white kitten stretched out its teeny, tiny paws and yawned.

Actually yawned.

“Nitro’s just getting warmed up,” he said as Dez and Nicolai stared.

“Do you think they can speed this up?” Zayne said under his breath. “Because this is getting awkward.”

The little fluff of fur mewled as the fur stood up along the center of its back. It opened its mouth again, and I swore to God, if it yawned once more, I was just going to kick Roth.

In the face.

And then grab the little guys and hide them before they ended up getting trampled to death.

Except what came out of it was a meow that rose and deepened into a guttural growl that raised the hairs all over my body. The black one let out a snarl that didn’t match its body, and the black-and-white one hissed like a very large, very angry predator.

And then they changed.