Page 63 of Dark Dragon’s Wolf

He gave her a thin smile. “I’ll pass, thank you. And you won’t be bored long. Get up.”

Mayah groaned theatrically. “Why?”

“Because your life is about to get a bit more interesting.”

Four guards came in, all armed with stun guns. They marched her down a hall and then outside, across a courtyard and into another building.

Mayah, before the drugs, had spent a lot of time building a plan of the complex in her mind. This was the central core that housed the power generators, the server room, and the artifact that powered the magical defenses.

She couldn’t imagine how much money had been spent—and how many people had died—to make this place what it was.

They took her into a small room. It was nicer than the last one—like a cheap motel was nicer than a crack den. She’d have to tell Tristan that their Netflix binging was paying off. She knew Earth things. Like crack dens and motels.

Hers had a single bed with a thin bedspread, battered dresser, even a garish print on the wall for decoration.

There was a door that led to a tiny bathroom, with full walls and a door. Whoopee—privacy to pee. And a large mirror over the dresser, which was almost certainly an observation window.

“To what do I owe this luxury?” she asked Johnson.

“I need you perfectly positioned,” he told her.

“For what?”

He smiled, and in that moment he didn’t look ordinary or boring at all. He looked like the evilest person she’d ever seen.

“Because you’re bait,” he said. “I know you’ve been talking to someone on the outside, probably your brother. And when he can’t reach you anymore, he’ll come to get you.”

He didn’t know about Tristan. That was good. “He won’t fall into the same trap you set for me.”

Johnson just smiled that hideous smile.

“No, he won’t. This one’s much, much bigger. He’ll bring your sister, and he’ll tear this place apart looking for you. And when my trap springs, I’ll have them both. The last Draken of the House of Al-Maddeiri will be in my hands.”

He turned and left, the guards marching out after him. The door was solid metal and shut with a despairing clang.

Mayah was left alone. The room was reinforced with magic; she could feel it all around her, suffocating her.

She pounded on the wall, but it, too, was reinforced and didn’t even dent.

This place was a worse trap than the one she’d fallen into. It might even trap all the dragons, not just Kira and Emon. And Tristan and anyone else with them would die, or be captured.

She had to warn them.

She lay on the bed and called out to Tristan in her mind, but there was nothing but silence.

Chapter 29

The team planned to head out at dusk. It was over an hour’s flight from Portland to Gen-X’s compound, and they had to make sure to get there after dark.

Darkness would favor the shifters, who could all see in the dark better than the humans working for Gen-X.

Even better, it would make sure they weren’t spotted by civilians. They couldn’t stay cloaked during the battle—Flynn’s team wouldn’t be able to see them, and neither would the wolves they were trying to evacuate.

But no one wanted to try to explain to a news crew—or the Shifter Council—how ten dragons had managed to get caught on some random person’s cell phone video, burning an office building and research facility to the ground.

“If the Council finds out, I’ll take the blame,” Emon said. “I’ll say it was all my people. They can’t do anything to me. I have my own interdimensional country.”

Xander nudged Flynn. “We need to get us one of those,” he said. “Then we could do whatever we wanted.”