“Of course, idiot. You think I’d be here if it wasn’t?” Griffin rose, tugging his suit jacket into place. “Give me a couple days,” he said. “I’ll see what I can find. And for God’s sake, don’t try to contact me until then. I’ll call you.”

I smirked. “Don’t keep me waiting too long. Wouldn’t want some cocky lizard sitting down at your table and ruining your perfect game, would we?”

“You’re a bastard, Riley.” Griffin gave me his most brilliant smile yet and turned to leave. “Thanks for the drink. Tell Wes I said hello.”

I paid for the drinks and wandered back upstairs, hoping nothing had exploded while I was gone. And that a certain stubborn redhead had stayed put, or at least out of trouble.

Apparently, that was too much to hope for.

As the elevator doors opened and I stepped into the hallway, I caught sight of Ember’s lean, slight form slipping across the hall and into the room on the other side.

Ember

Ember

Nice place. Too bad it was driving me nuts.

The room was too quiet, too empty and still despite the paintings of naked Greek people on the walls and the bust of some square-jawed guy staring at me from the corner. Now that we could finally slow down enough to breathe, there was nothing to keep me distracted, no life-threatening situations to divert my attention. I flipped on the television, just for the noise, but that didn’t stop all the images shifting around in my head. Memories I couldn’t shut out. Everything that had happened in the past two weeks flooded my brain in a rush, pounding against me like waves. I could see the red dragon hide hanging on the wall of the St. George office, a lifeless trophy that had once been a hatchling like me. I remembered the look in Garret’s eyes as he’d stared at me through the bars of his cell as if I were a ghost. The memory of his skin under my palm, his fingers curled gently around my wrist. The flight across the desert with him on my back, and that red-hot blaze of pain as the bullet had slammed into my body.

The enemy soldier, crumpling to the floor of the abandoned house, glassy eyes staring back at me. And Lilith’s voice, telling me I was born to become a Viper, a killer like her.