Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

Samantha

I hiss as the doctor dabs another one of my wounds with disinfectant. On hospital beds beside me, Granger, Aydan, and Evander all sit, being tended to by the doctors. We're all exhausted and dirty. We don't know if our bodies heal better with the help of the doctors, but we'd decided it certainly couldn't hurt our rapid healing to get cleaned up a bit.

My gaze moves to Granger. He's the only one of us without healing abilities, but at least it looks like he's just bruised and dealing with the after effects of the cold. Still, he handles it like a champ, staying tough no matter how the doctors check him over.

His gaze meets mine and gentles. "Are you okay?"

I attempt a smile. "Already healing."

Aydan flexes his arm where shallow scratches are already closing. "This is pretty damn cool."

"Still hurts though," Evander adds, staring at the slashes on his bare chest.

The door opens and Dr. Duncan comes running in. He's out of breath, and a shade paler than he usually is. "Can we talk?" He looks us over like he's not sure we can handle it.

"We can talk," I tell him, even though I just want to eat and go to bed.

He takes a deep breath, then looks back at the tablet in his hands. "What color were the dragons you faced today?"

It's a weird question, but I'm sure he has a point to this. "Brown and green," I say.

He winces. "That's what I thought."

When he turns to go, Granger stops him. "What's wrong?"

Dr. Duncan stiffens, back to us. "We can discuss it later."

"I think we'd rather discuss it now," Granger says. When Dr. Duncan looks back at him, he adds in a more respectful voice. "It's better that we have all the information. There's no point in trying to protect us from knowledge."

He gives a slow nod. "Well, here's the thing. Our satellite images, they, uh, caught sight of a blue dragon around the place you fought the green and brown dragons."

"What does that mean?" I ask.

He hesitates, and Evander answers, "If the green dragon has recruited both a brown dragon and a blue dragon, we might be in trouble."

Aydan shakes his head. "There's no way the three of us can take on three Awakened Dragons."

Silence swallows the room. The doctors move more carefully as they tend to us, and I get the feeling everyone is trying to work out their own thoughts. The problem is that all my thoughts are going to the fact that we truly don't stand a chance against three dragons. We can't possibly take them down, but they'll be coming for us before too long. That I'm sure.

"What do we do? Run?" I ask.

"We can only run for so long," Evander says, sounding frustrated.

Dr. Duncan continues. "Everything you explained to us, about the green dragon taking Granger as bait, about the way they attacked… they're smarter than we thought. Less animal and more human. That tilts the skills even more. What we're dealing with are incredibly powerful, intelligent enemies."

Granger rubs the back of his neck, looking thoughtful. "Female dragons have existed for as long as male dragons have existed. There has to be a way the females can be safe. There has to be some kind of weakness we haven't figured out. Something to exploit."

Dr. Duncan nods. "You're right. We're doing everything we can with our test results, but trying to piece together the way an entire species functioned on limited information, and in a limited amount of time, is tricky. We have no way of knowing when the dragons will return for Sam."

"Damn it," Aydan murmurs.

He continues. "What's more, the dragons are causing enough trouble that the government is going to have to do something about it. They're unlikely to get involved with the three of you flying over private land, because Specter Inc. wouldn't allow it, but they're going to get involved outside of this. And when they do, it's not going to be pretty. Not for anyone."

"Fuck," Evander says. "I'll make some calls. I'll make sure it's understood that the gold, silver, and red dragons are not to be touched. It'll require some paperwork combined with bullshit to make us ‘property' under Specter Inc's control, but we can make it work."

I pull my legs up to my chest and wrap my arms around myself. Three dragons are out there. Three dragons that are coming for me. And as far as we know, we don't have any idea how to stop them.

What are we going to do?