Food. I was suddenly ravenous, like a bear coming out of winter hibernation: skinny, starving and cranky. Food sounded wonderful. In fact, nothing else mattered right now except food. Riley chuckled.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. There’s pizza in the fridge and— Whoa, hold on, Firebrand.” He put his hands out, stopping me as I pressed forward. Impatient, I glared at him, and he smirked. “No dragons in the kitchen. The neighbors would have a fit.” I blinked, remembering that I was still in the form that wasn’t supposed to exist in normal society. The one that would cause a panic if seen. I repressed a sigh. It felt so natural to be in my real body again; I was reluctant to Shift back.

“Your clothes are in the dresser behind you,” Riley said. “Get changed, and meet us when you’re human again.” His smile faded, a darker note creeping into his voice. “There are things we have to discuss.”

Riley

Riley

Ember exhaled, sending tendrils of smoke curling around me, and turned away, padding toward the dresser in the corner. I watched her a moment, the sweep of her neck and wings, the way the narrow bars of sunlight glinted off her crimson scales. The urge to Shift was almost painful, burning my lungs and making the air taste like ash. I turned away before it got too tempting and jerked my head at the soldier, motioning him out of the room.

We walked into the hall and shut the door behind us. “All right,” I said, keeping my voice low, so Ember wouldn’t catch it. “You’ve seen her. She’s going to be fine now. Why are you still here, St. George?”

The soldier kept his gaze on the closed door, his voice low and flat. “I have nowhere else to go.”

“Well, that’s not my problem, is it?” I brushed past him into the kitchen, knowing Ember would be out soon and on the hunt for food. Except for a box of leftover pizza, there wasn’t much to be had, and I’d sent Wes out for supplies a couple hours ago. Hopefully he’d be back soon. This wasn’t the nicest neighborhood, miles from the glitz and glamour of the Strip, the stretch of giant casinos Vegas was famous for. If you looked out the back window, you’d see a bunch of small, ugly houses and beyond them, the flat, dusty expanse of the Mojave Desert, stretching away to the distant mountains. Crime and poverty ran rampant here, but that suited me just fine. No one asked questions, no one came poking around, and no one wondered why a white van was suddenly parked in the driveway of a previously vacant abandoned house.

The soldier followed me into the kitchen, sweeping his gaze around the room, like he always did. “They’ll be hunting you,” he stated, making me shrug.

“Nothing new there.”