My belly flipped over and over with nervous excitement as River explained the mission to Cole and me. Was he serious?

“All right, are you confident with this one?” River asked me, and I nodded, trying not to look too damn excited. I’d been a professional thief for four years; you’d think the appeal might have worn off by now. But what River was proposing—stealing from the heart of the very organization he worked for and that my dad owned—well, that was just too much fun to pass up.

We were shrouded in shadows, pressed against the exterior of a building some distance from the Omega housing building. Our black clothes helped blend us into the darkness, and I had my red hair tightly braided to try and hide, or at least minimize, its flame-bright color. Normally I wore wigs or hats to disguise my identity, but neither had been within the suitcase of stuff delivered to our apartment.

“Obviously, I don’t need to impress upon you both the importance of this mission,” River murmured, eyeing us both sternly, and I didn’t bother hiding my grin. Stern River was beyond sexy.

“Yes, sir,” we both responded, and his gold eyes flared in the moonlight.

“Get on with it, then. Be quick, quiet, and above all else, do not get caught. I’ll be waiting.” He wound his hand around my braid, pulling me to him for a rough, possessive kiss that left me panting, then disappeared into the night like he was made of smoke.

“You ready?” Cole asked, running his palms down my arms and making me shiver.

“Born ready.” I smirked, leaning into his touch briefly. “Let’s do this.”

Grabbing hold of the fire escape ladder beside me, I scaled the side of the building quickly, with Cole tight on my heels. When we reached the roof, I stayed low and rolled swiftly into the shadows near the roof access door.

Typically, I found the roof of any structure to be the weakest point in any security system, and the Omega medical wing was no exception to this rule. Sure, the security was better than just about all of the buildings I’d broken into previously, but nothing was impossible.

“Remember, cameras will stay on. We need to avoid being caught on any screens.” Cole breathed the words so quietly I couldn’t have heard them if I’d been an inch further away.

“I know, silly. Don’t stress; between us we have got this.” I gave his fingers a quick squeeze, then retrieved my lock picks from my pocket.

On our run earlier we had discovered that Cole’s newly developed supernatural-ness had given his similar speed to me and strength that far outclassed mine now. So dodging security cameras should be a walk in the park.

A few small clicks and pings later, the door handle turned freely, allowing us three seconds to get inside and the door shut again before the alarm would be triggered. Easy.

“This speed thing is definitely going to come in handy,” Cole murmured in the pitch blackness of the stairwell we found ourselves in. “Can you see?”

“Not a damn thing,” I huffed, blinking rapidly like it would magically make light appear.

“Huh, I can,” Cole commented, then paused. “I wonder if I could...” He trailed off and dropped my hand.

“Could what?” I prompted after a moment’s silence, when it became apparent he wasn’t finishing his sentence.

“Hmm, guess not.” He took my hand in his once more and began confidently leading us down the stairs. “I was just wondering if maybe I could create that blue flame while I was in this form. To give you some light.”

“That’s cute of you,” I replied, and he paused on the stairs, making me run into him.

“Did you just call a badass, dragon shifter, ex-fighter, secret agent, cute?” His smoky voice in the darkness was part offended and part amused, so I just snickered in response.

“Come on, Cutie,” I teased. “Let’s get this job done before River sends for the cavalry.”

He grunted and continued on down the stairs but muttered under his breath. “So not cute.”

When we reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs, we reached another locked door, and I picked the lock by touch and muscle memory. Piece of cake.

This time when we slipped through the door, we made sure to press ourselves into the corner directly below the security camera where we knew there would be a dead zone.

“ All right. This needs to be a really quick in and out,” I whispered. “You ready?” I glanced up at Cole, and he just raised an eyebrow at me suggestively.

“Oh right, and I thought my sex drive was going nuts.” I snorted a laugh. “Let’s go. Three... two... one!”

On one, the camera above us had just completed a swivel, and to reach the next dead zone, we had the small window of time that it would take for the camera to pan back the other way. Impossible for any human to do, even if they were an Olympic sprinter or something. But shockingly easy for myself and a sinfully sexy dragon shifter.

We repeated this process several times over until we reached the location we were aiming for: a normal looking laboratory near the center of the building with a locked refrigeration unit. Getting in there, unlocking the fridge, finding the blood samples, and then replacing them with the ones we’d brought was going to be a bit harder than it had been simply dodging the cameras.

Because it was Omega Headquarters, any sort of camera feed interference would have been noticed immediately, which was why we were going old school and not using Wesley’s mad hacker skills.

“Okay, camera is in this corner to our left, immediately as we enter the room,” Cole said quietly. “As soon as you open the door, I’ll slip in and bump it by just a fraction of an inch. It’s not perfect, but it’ll take them longer to realize something is wrong than just cutting the feed.”

“Got it, Cutie,” I whispered back, deftly flicking the lock tumblers with my delicate picks.

Like a well-oiled machine, I slid the door open, Cole darted in and stretched up to knock the camera off alignment, and I dashed over to the fridge. Another split second lock pick, and I was in.

“Uh, Cole?” I whisper-yelled over to him. “There are a lot in here. This might take a minute.”

“Make it a quick minute,” he whispered back, and I rolled my eyes. My fingers flew through the neatly stacked tubes of blood, checking each label for the ones I recognized.

“Bingo.” I grinned, locating one labeled Drake. “Found yours!” I quickly switched it out for one of the spare tubes I’d brought with me, filled with the same blood type but from a random blood donor.

Continuing my search, I eventually found the other three I’d been looking for: Alpha, Viper, and Crow.

Despite me not having used my healing on River, we had thought it wise to replace his too. Just in case.

The mere fact that Jonathan had requested blood samples from the guys sort of confirmed my fears that there was something shady going on with him, and the last thing I needed was for their blood to suddenly register as anything other than human.

“Got them all,” I confirmed for Cole, then hesitated as I was closing the fridge back up. On a lower shelf, a plastic bag containing a wad of sapphire-blue fabric caught my eye, and I bent to pick it up.

“What is it?” Cole rumbled, and I could tell he was growing impatient. The idea had been to move the camera back into alignment before the security office noticed anything was off about it, but the longer we took, the less likely we were to get away with it.

Making a snap decision, I tucked the bag of fabric inside my leather jacket and zipped it closed to hold the contraband in place.

“Come on; I’ll show you outside.” I snapped the lock closed on the fridge and rejoined Cole near the door. “Good?”

Cole nodded, having just realigned the camera, and the two of us retreated out of the building the same way we had come in. Within minutes, we were back in the open and making our way toward River’s shadowy form waiting below a tree.

“That was quicker than I’d given you two credit for,” our stoic leader commented as we rejoined him, and all three of us casually wandered back toward the housing building. Nothing screamed suspicious like running or creeping after you’ve left the scene of the crime. Nope, we were just three people out for an evening stroll, dressed in black. Given it was still the tail end of winter, that wasn’t the craziest thing to see.

“Successful mission?” he asked quietly, and I nodded while linking my arm with his good one and cuddling in for warmth.

“What was the other thing you grabbed, Vixen?” Cole murmured, keeping his voice low and soft.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure; that’s why I grabbed it.” I chewed my lip, pressing a hand to my chest where I could feel the plastic packet inside my jacket. “But I think it’s the dress I was wearing the night I healed Vali.”