Violet was once again sore, dirty, and exhausted. But she was happy, and she was safe. The battle today had been tough, but it had been well-fought by all the Falcon Cross soldiers. The Redwood Dragons had done well, too, especially Weston. As much as she loved to tease Weston, making wisecracks about how he didn’t know what he was doing, she had to admit that the boy knew how to fight.

There would be no admitting anything to his face tonight, though. Violet felt smug as she and Weston made their way up the stairs to their shared apartment. It was nearly midnight, and she knew they both needed rest. But she also knew she wouldn’t be able to go to bed without at least a few words of “I told you so” aimed in Weston’s direction. Rarely had she had the luck of such a clear cut case of being right when he was wrong, and she wasn’t going to squander the moment.

To her dismay, though, Weston beat her to the punch line.

“I know, I know,” he said, before the front door of the apartment was even fully shut behind them. “You called it. A battle with Saul’s army and his stupid bats was inevitable. I’m sorry. You were right.”

Violet felt a bit deflated. It wasn’t as fun to be right when he was readily admitting to it before she could even say anything. Still, she was determined to enjoy the moment.

“I guess I’m a better soldier than you thought,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.

Weston collapsed onto the couch and grinned up at her. “I never said you were a bad soldier,” he said, then patted the seat next to him to indicate that Violet should sit down next to him. Reluctantly, she did.

“You didn’t trust my judgment,” Violet said, her voice slightly huffy.

Weston gave her a sideways glance and a maddeningly playful smile.

“Don’t make fun of me!” Violet said. “This is supposed to be my chance to rub in your face the fact that you were wrong.”

Weston kept smiling. “I was wrong. Once. Don’t get used to it.”

Violet rolled her eyes, and opened her mouth to make another dig at him. But before she could say anything, she was surprised to find his lips on hers. Her eyes flew to his face, and she pulled back in surprise. Weston raised an eyebrow at her.

“What?” he said. “You don’t want a victory kiss?”

Violet’s face felt hot. She was sure that her cheeks must be turning red, although she wasn’t sure if she was feeling anger or embarrassment. “You’re supposed to be groveling about how wrong you were! Not kissing me!”

Weston threw back his head and laughed. “Dragons don’t grovel,” he said.

“But…” Violet was at a loss for words. She wasn’t sure how she had expected Weston to react, but she hadn’t expected a kiss and laughter, almost as though he was making fun of her.

“What?” Weston asked, leaning in toward her again and then repeating his question. “You don’t want a victory kiss?”

Violet blinked, confused. Did she want a victory kiss? She looked at Weston, who sat looking back at her, patiently waiting for a reply.

This day had been strange, to say the least. Weston had gone from angry at her in the meeting room, to confessing his love for her before battle, to fighting alongside her in the air, to now kissing her instead of letting her rub in the fact that she was right. Part of Violet wanted nothing more than to give in and kiss Weston, and part of her screamed that this wasn’t the right time for romance. Sure, they had won the battle today, but the war raged on. And Saul was going to be angry about his losses today. He was going to regroup and attack again as soon as he was able. Whether that was tomorrow or a week from now or a month from now was anyone’s guess. It seemed irresponsible to think about a future with a man when the future of the rest of the world hung so precariously in the balance. As much as it pained Violet to do it, she shook her head now and scooted away from Weston.

“I think we should save victory kisses for when we actually win the war. We’ve got a long ways to go still.”

Weston’s face fell. “Violet, I know I’m not always the best at showing it, but I really do care about you. When I told you today that I love you, I meant it. I honestly thought there was a good chance I was going to die today, and I didn’t want to go to my grave without telling you how I feel about you. I thought I was going to go out into the heart of Saul’s army and sacrifice my life to this war effort, and I wanted my last words to you to leave you with the knowledge that you mattered so much to me. But since I did survive, I feel as though I’ve been given a second chance at life. I want to spend that life with you, and I don’t want to wait until this war is over to do that. It might be a long time before we see a final victory. Should we really be expected to put our entire lives on hold indefinitely? I mean, look at my clan. Over half of my clanmates have already found love during this war. Why can’t we as well?”

Violet felt her heart wavering, and she knew she had to get away from Weston before she made a rash decision. Quickly, she stood to her feet, shaking her head.

“I’m sorry, Weston. I do care about you, but I can’t fall in love right now.”

Then, before he could say anything more to change her mind, she rushed toward her bedroom and closed the door behind her. The last thing she saw before blocking out the light of the living room was the expression on Weston’s face. He looked shocked, and almost grief-stricken. It took all of her resolve not to rush back out there and rush into his arms. She leaned against the closed door instead, closing her eyes and cursing under her breath. She realized that she had just given up a chance to kiss Weston. She’d been wishing for the chance to be with him for almost as long as she’d known him, so why had she run in the other direction when he finally made a move?

She could tell herself until she was blue in the face that it was because it was better to wait until the war was over, when they had time to focus on things like love. But was that true? Or was it, perhaps, that she was so afraid of losing Weston in the war that she thought it was better not to acknowledge how much she cared for him?

Violet wasn’t sure how to sort out her feelings, and so she pushed them all away. She did her best not think about Weston at all while she took a quick shower and got ready for bed. Of course, it wasn’t an easy task, when every other thought that popped into her head seemed to involve him in some form or fashion. To keep her mind busy, she mentally ran through all of the information she had seen Holden present at the meeting today. She thought about the surveillance pictures and videos, and wondered how many bat shifters Saul had left after the battle today. They had killed so many, but the one thing no surveillance video had been able to show them was how many bat shifters there were, or how quickly, exactly, Saul was cloning new bats. This information could make a big difference in how long it would take Saul to regroup and attack again, but Violet couldn’t see any realistic way to find it out. Finally, she gave up trying and let sleep take over her mind. She managed to fall asleep without pining too badly for Weston, although memories of riding on his dragon back kept pushing their way to the front of her thoughts. They made a good team in battle. Surely, romance would ruin that. Romance always complicated things, didn’t it? That’s what Violet’s girlfriends always said. It had been so long since Violet had a serious boyfriend, though, that she herself had precious little experience with romantic complications.

When Violet did finally drift off to sleep, her mind betrayed her with strange dreams revolving around kissing Weston in the middle of battle. She tossed and turned, fretting and worrying as the troubles she’d tried to bury in her subconscious bubbled to the surface. At one point, she dreamed that Weston was in her room, shaking her and trying to get her attention. She tried to push him away, but the dream persisted. Violet tossed and turned, trying to drown out the sound of Weston’s voice, but the more she turned away from him the more the voice persisted. Suddenly, she woke with a start and realized that it hadn’t been a dream. Weston was actually standing there in her room, shaking her shoulders. Instantly, Violet sat upright.

“Weston! What in the world are you doing? What’s wrong?” As the haze of sleep started to fade away, Violet felt fear gripping her heart. Had something terrible happened? Why was Weston insisting on waking her in the dead of night?

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, his green dragon eyes glowing slightly in the darkness.

Violet’s heartbeat slowly started returning to normal, and she blinked at him in annoyed disbelief. “Are you kidding me? You came in here to shake me awake in a frenzy just to tell me that you couldn’t sleep?”

Weston sat down on the foot of Violet’s bed, and, even in the darkness, she could see him running his fingers through his hair. He was bouncing his leg up and down rapidly as well, causing Violet’s bed to shake slightly from the movement. It didn’t take a genius to see that he was agitated. Violet sat up on her elbow and squinted at him in the darkness.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I think we should go to Saul’s headquarters and destroy his bat cloning operations.”

Violet flopped back down onto the bed and stared up at the blackness of the ceiling. “Really, Weston? You came in here and woke me up just to tell me that, like it’s some sort of giant news flash? Doesn’t everyone in our army think that? I mean, it’s not like anyone is arguing to just let Saul keep his little bat cloning project.”

“I know that,” Weston said, sounding defensive. “I’m not just saying we should stop Saul’s bat cloning in general. I’m saying we should go stop it right now.”

Violet sat up on her elbow again. “Right now? As in, right now, in the middle of the night.”

“Yes.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Possibly.”

Violet considered, slowly chewing her bottom lip. What Weston was suggesting sounded like a suicide mission, but she knew that he wasn’t the type of man to run blindly to his death. He was brave, but not foolhardy. So if he was suggesting they rush into enemy territory in the middle of the night without any preplanning, then there must be a reason for it.

“Why now?” Violet asked.

Weston took a deep, shuddering breath, as though somewhat unsure of himself. Not a promising sign. But when he did finally speak, his voice did not waver.

“Saul knows now that we’re here, which almost certainly means that he knows about our bat cloning operations. After today’s battle, he is going to be focusing a lot of energy on boosting his guard around his headquarters in Sandview.”

“Uh-huh,” Violet agreed. No surprises there.

“But, as far as we know, today was the first time Saul realized how large and real the threat of our army is. Think about it. He wouldn’t have sent his bats and wizards to attack today if he’d thought they were going to be defeated as soundly as they were. He underestimated us.”

“Right,” Violet said, still unsure of what point Weston was trying to make here. Everything he was saying seemed to be pretty much just stating the obvious.

“I’d say that Saul is as vulnerable right now as he’ll ever be,” Weston said. “His army took a huge hit that he wasn’t expecting, and he’s had less than twenty-four hours to figure out how he’s going to deal with the loss of soldiers he suffered today. He hasn’t had time to call in any reinforcements from his other far-off bases. And…”

Weston paused, as though he almost didn’t want to say out loud what he was about to say. But Violet was tired and groggy and the suspense was getting on her nerves.

“And what?” she demanded.

“And, while he scrambles to figure out how to defend his headquarters, he’s going to be preparing for an attack by a large army.”

Violet blinked a few times in the darkness, trying to understand what Weston was getting at.

“So?”

“So, he’s watching the sky for a big, dramatic invasion. The last thing he’s expecting is for two lone soldiers to come sneaking quietly into his lair with no backup.”

In an instant, everything Weston was suggesting became clear to Violet. Perhaps they had lost their overarching element of surprise, since Saul now knew that there was a small army of good shifters and wizards in Blackstone. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t still throw a few surprises Saul’s way. If they acted in unexpected ways, they might still be able to gain some victories while Saul was trying to catch his breath from today’s battle.

“What, exactly, are you suggesting we do?” Violet asked.

“We go to Saul’s headquarters, using the underground tunnel. As far as we know, he’s still unaware that the tunnel exists, so we should be able to get pretty close before he realizes we’re coming. We’ll have to use a masking scent so their shifter guards don’t smell us approaching from a mile away. How effective that will be depends on how well trained his shifters are in detecting masking scents.”

“Hopefully not very well,” Violet said, sitting up straighter. Her heart was starting to pound with a mixture of fear and excitement. This mission sounded dangerous, but thrilling.

“Hopefully not, but we can’t be too sure,” Weston said. “All we can do is be as careful as possible and keep our fingers crossed for good luck. Once we get to enemy headquarters, we’ll sneak in under the cover of an invisibility spell and head to the bat cave. Thanks to Nick’s surveillance videos, we know exactly where it is.”

“And once we find it, how do we destroy it?” Violet asked.

Weston shrugged. “Lots of dragon fire? Wizard laser beams? I’m sure we’ll figure out something.”

Violet shook her head, half in amusement and half in incredulity. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe,” Weston said. “But my crazy plan actually has a good chance of working. I’m told that bat cloning is dependent on having one master bat. The master bat is a genetically engineered bat that takes a bit of time and expertise to make. But once that master bat is made, you can clone rapidly from it. The catch is that the bat clones have to stay near the master bat for the first twenty-four hours of their lives, drawing on her energy, or they’ll die. So the master bat is vital to any bat cloning operation.”

“This all sounds pretty farfetched to me,” Violet said, frowning.

Weston laughed at her. “Says the girl who does magic. Cloning is all based in science, you know. It has perfectly logical explanations, whereas this hocus pocus magic stuff you do does not. It’s just weird shit.”

Violet grinned sheepishly. “Fair enough, I guess. So your plan, I’m assuming, is to destroy the master bat.”

Weston nodded. “If we can do that, Saul’s bat cloning operation will come to a grinding halt. It will take quite some time and energy for him to get another master bat. Even if he does decide to try again, we’ll have a period of time we’re he’ll be unprotected by his obnoxious little bat army.”

Violet considered all of this. “I get what you’re saying about now being a good time to catch Saul off-guard. But even so, this is still going to be really dangerous.”

“I know,” Weston said. “But it’s a calculated risk. There’s a good chance we’ll be killed, but there’s an equally good chance we’ll pull it off.”

“Have you told Knox and Peter about this plan?” Violet asked, even though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

“Um…” Weston said. Violet rolled her eyes. He had not.

“You know they’re going to be furious with us if we go without telling anyone and get ourselves killed.”

“So what? If we destroy the bats they will be happy enough that they’ll get over being angry pretty quickly. And if we’re dead then who really cares if they’re angry at us.”

Violet sighed. “You’re out of your mind.”

“I know,” Weston said. “So what do you say? Are you coming with me?”

Violet peered at him through the darkness. She could only see his outline, but she didn’t need to be able to see his face to know that it had a hopeful, mischievous expression on it right now. She took a deep breath, trying to figure out what the right thing to do here was. She knew that what Weston was suggesting was risky, but she also knew he wouldn’t ask her to go if he didn’t think she was up to the task.

She was still feeling badly about the way things between them had gone yesterday. She knew they had both just been standing up for the course of action that they each believed in, but she still didn’t like the strain that had filled the air between them since yesterday. Perhaps this secret mission was a good way for them to get back on the same page. They worked well together in the heat of battle, and this had the potential to be their greatest battle yet—a secret battle, intended to take down those horrid bats that Saul seemed so intent on using in his disgusting, evil war.

Besides, Violet could not deny the way her heart beat faster whenever Weston was around. Even when she was angry with him, she couldn’t hold back the desire to be with him. It was almost as if they were magnets, drawn toward each other. There was some sort of weird connection between them, a pull that Violet could not escape. She craved the sound of his voice, the casual touch of his hand on her skin, and the sight of his handsome face crinkling up in a smile. If he was going to face danger, she wanted to go with him. Perhaps she was a fool to agree to run straight into enemy territory, but if Weston was going, she sure as hell was going with him. In her heart, she knew that they could do anything together.

“Alright,” Violet said, before she could change her mind. “I’ll go.”

Weston let out a whoop. “Yes!” he said. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down. I know we’ve had our differences over the last couple days, but you and I make a pretty kickass team.”

“Yes, we do,” Violet said, a smile crossing her face at Weston’s excitement. “So when are we leaving?”

“As soon as possible,” Weston said. “Let’s get dressed and then meet in the living room in ten minutes. We’ll go over our plan and then get moving. It’s already almost three in the morning, so we shouldn’t dilly dally. The middle of the night, with its darkness, gives us an advantage for sneaking in. I don’t want to wait too long and be caught in the light of day.”

“Alright,” Violet said, already pushing back the covers and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. “I’ll get dressed and then come meet you for a powwow.”

Her mind screamed at her that she was crazy, but she pushed the thought away. She was getting pretty good at doing that, considering all the crazy things she’d done lately. Love and war both required you to act in ways you normally didn’t, and if Violet wasn’t caught up in the middle of a battle these days, she was caught up in a confusing mess of emotions regarding Weston. There wasn’t a whole lot of space in her mind left over for rational thought.

Perhaps that’s why, when Weston leaned in to kiss her again before heading out of her bedroom, she didn’t pull away. This time, in fact, she might have actually kissed him back.

Her lips tingled and her heart sang as she rushed to put on her military uniform. One way or another, she had a feeling that this was going to be a night to remember.