I exploded into Cobalt, surging up with a roar as the guards opened fire. Bullets tore past me, a couple sparking off my chest plates and several punching through my wing membranes. I sent a cone of fire at the nearest guard, and he reeled back, blazing like a torch. At the same time, Ember pounced on another, changing into a dragon midlunge, and St. George closed with a third, grabbing his weapon arm and forcing the muzzle away. Two pistol shots rang out, and the guard crumpled to the ground.

Growling, I turned on the last two guards, who had converged behind the desk and were raising their weapons to fire. Dante was nowhere to be seen, but the open door behind them told me where he’d escaped to.

“Dante!”

With a snarl, Ember reared back and sent a fireball at the desk, where it exploded in a burst of light and heat, causing the guards to reel away and crumple to the floor. Without hesitation, she leaped over the desk and bounded through the door after her twin.

“Dammit, Firebrand. Wait!” With a curse, I followed her, St. George right behind me. The door opened into a narrow hallway, and I hurried to keep up with the red dragon, my talons clicking against the tile.

We burst through the final door into a room much different than the one we’d just left. The ceiling was vast and soaring. A mezzanine ran the length of the opposite wall, a veranda stretching corner to corner twenty or so feet overhead. Directly below the railing, an elevator door slid shut, indicating where the little snitch had disappeared to, but getting to him might be challenging.

At least a dozen humans stood in the shadows of the mezzanine, staring at us as we came in. They were armed with pistols, all pointed in our direction, and wore identical gray uniforms, but that wasn’t what made my skin crawl. There was something else, something...wrong about them. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

It hit me, and a jolt of shock zipped up my spine. The bastards weren’t just wearing identical clothing; they looked exactly the same. They had the same shaved heads, the same faces and blank, empty eyes. They gazed at us, two dragons and an armed human, with absolutely no emotion. No surprise, fear, wonder or anything.

“What in the world...?” Ember growled, stopping as we faced the line of identical humans. “What is this?”

“Ember!”