And Ember lunged in, a black blur across my vision, hitting the soldier in the jaw right below the ear. The human’s head snapped to the side, and he collapsed as if all his bones had turned into string, sprawling facedown in the sand.

I breathed in slowly, as Ember blinked and stared wide-eyed at the fallen soldier, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just done, either. My arms were shaking, adrenaline coursing through my veins. It had happened so quickly; I hadn’t even had time to move before the soldier was unconscious. And my reflexes weren’t slow by any means.

“Firebrand,” I breathed, and she looked at me, almost frightened. “That was…impressive. Where did you learn that?”

“I don’t know.” She backed away from the body, as if afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from doing something else. “I just… I saw him and…” Her eyes darkened, and she shook her head. “I don’t even remember what I did.”

Lilith’s training. This was what the Vipers taught their
students—how to be fast, how to be quick and lethal, and to strike without thinking. To recognize a threat and take it out. Immediately.

“Riley.” Wes’s voice crackled in my ear, wary and anxious. “You okay? What’s going on?”

I shook myself. “Nothing,” I told him, moving toward the fallen soldier. Ember had had to silence him, no question, but we still had to deal with him. Last thing we needed was for him to wake up and alert the rest of the base. “Small problem. It’s been dealt with,” I continued, kneeling beside the human and reaching into a compartment on my belt. “How’s the unlocking the door part coming along?”

“What are you doing, Riley?” Ember asked suddenly, watching me with wary green eyes. “You…you’re not going to kill him, are you?”

I shook my head, showing her the plastic zip ties I pulled from my belt, though I found it a little ironic. Had Ember been a full Viper, I doubted this human would be alive. And I wasn’t going to snap his neck or slit his throat while he lay there, helpless. Even though I hated the bastards, and would gladly blast him to cinders if I had to, I wasn’t a killer. Not like them.

Wes’s voice continued to buzz in my ear. “I can get the door open,” he said as I pulled the soldier’s arms behind him and zip-tied his wrists together. “But if I start blacking out cameras, they might get suspicious. Best I can give you is a thirty-second feedback loop, but you’ll have to get inside before the feed goes normal again. Think you can do that?”