We both froze. To my knowledge, all the hatchlings were asleep and accounted for. Ember and the soldier had left a few hours ago, but I’d received a text from Ember earlier tonight, letting me know she was fine, that she was on her way back and that there was something we had to discuss. That was ominous, but it wasn’t like her to quietly sneak into a room, and I’d heard only one pair of footsteps come in instead of two. I wouldn’t put it past a couple of my hatchlings to sneak out of the house and wander off alone, and a Viper certainly wouldn’t use the front door, but right now, I wasn’t taking any chances.

I drew my gun and, immediately, Mist did the same, pulling a pistol from the small of her back and slipping around behind me. She made no sound as she did, moving like the trained operative she was. I jerked my head toward the staircase, and together we crept down the hall, guns held before us, careful not to make a sound.

At the top of the stairs, I gazed down into the living room. Everything was dark and shadowy, only a faint bit of moonlight coming in through the curtained windows. Carefully, I eased down the steps, keeping my pistol trained on the room, ready to shoot anything that popped out of the darkness and lunged at me. I could feel Mist behind me, doing the same, and weirdly enough, I was glad she was there to back me up.

At the back of the couch, a ripple of movement caught my attention, a shadow moving across the room. Quickly, I pointed the muzzle of my gun at it, feeling Mist do the same. “Hold it right there,” I growled, and the shadow instantly stopped moving. Its features were blurred by shadow, but I was positive this wasn’t a hatchling, trying to sneak back to their room. And it wasn’t Ember or the soldier, so... “You have exactly three seconds to tell me who you are,” I warned in a steely voice. “So if you don’t want a bunch of lead between the eyes, I would start talking now.”

“Barbaric and paranoid as usual, I see,” said a soft, instantly familiar voice, and a lamp clicked on, illuminating the room. I relaxed, exhaling in both surprise and relief as a slender Asian woman met my gaze across the floor. “I am relieved that some things never change.”

“Dammit, Jade.” I sighed, lowering the gun. The Eastern dragon regarded me calmly. “What the hell are you doing here? How did you even find us?”

She blinked. “I received a message earlier from the soldier,” was the cool reply. “He told me where you were and implied that you might need my help very soon. As I had already returned to the States, I came here as quickly as I could.”