The five hours of sleep Jude had gotten hadn’t helped the scratching feeling in his eyes. He couldn’t rest. He needed to figure out this weird language the State were using. What were they planning that they wanted no one else to hear about?

His hair was still damp from the shower as he made his way to the canteen. He grabbed a coffee from Juliet, turned, and bumped into Arlo.

Arlo had an arm wrapped around the waist of his dragon hybrid mate, Juniper Firestar. Their relationship was new, and you could tell. They were rarely out of each other’s arms.

“I heard about the Dinnorm language you picked up.” Arlo grabbed two bowls of oatmeal and handed one to Juniper.

“It’s what we think it is.” Jude walked back to the door, keen to get to the comms room.

“Kade played us a recording of it.” Juniper’s eyes flashed purple for a second. “I’ve never heard it before. This must be a new State trick.”

“It’s hardly a surprise,” said Arlo. “Now we know what they are, they need not be so circumspect.”

“I’m heading to the comms room to listen in some more,” said Jude.

“We’ll join you,” said Arlo.

Jude shrugged. He didn’t want company. He wanted to be on his own. He was still frustrated that Octavia had once again sidestepped his offer of help and turned him down. How many times could a guy get rejected before he took the hint? Jude smirked to himself. He’d probably keep on trying until his last breath left him.

Arlo slung an arm over Jude’s shoulders. “Anything wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

Arlo grinned. “Let me guess—it has to do with a certain sexy DJ who’s playing hard to get?”

Jude struggled to make sense of his thoughts as they walked along the gray corridor to the comms room. “I don’t get why she doesn’t want to be here. It’s safer.”

“Juniper was just the same with me,” said Arlo. “She pretended like she wasn’t interested. She claimed she wanted her independence. She thought she was better off without me. Ouch!”

Juniper jabbed Arlo in the ribs. “Ignore him. Octavia is right to be wary. I understand why she is. We’re just voices over a communications channel.”

“She knows us,” said Jude. “Well, she knows me. I’m more than a voice to her.”

“It’s adorable. This guy is so in love,” said Arlo. “You couldn’t put him off if she arrived and had two heads, scales, and a forked tongue.”

“She’s not a dragon,” said Jude. “But even if she was, it wouldn’t put me off. Besides, you’re a fine one to talk. You’ve been dragon whipped.”

Juniper punched him in the arm. “I’m right here.”

Arlo grinned at her. “I love being dragon whipped.”

Jude shrugged, and grinned at Juniper. “I meant it in a good way. You’ve helped my brother become less self-destructive.”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Arlo grabbed hold of Juniper and kissed her.

Jude liked seeing his brother so content. It hadn’t been many months ago that Arlo had been edging closer and closer to self-destruction. Finding Juniper had changed all of that.

“Whatever Octavia’s problem is, we need to solve it,” said Jude. “The State are up to something and we need to figure out what it is, and fast.”

“Let’s listen to this message they’re broadcasting,” said Arlo as they walked into the comms room.

Jude placed his coffee down and opened a channel. The babble of incomprehensible words began instantly.

They all listened for several minutes.

“Does it mean anything to you?” Jude asked Juniper.

“It’s nonsense,” said Juniper. “But I never heard much dragon language. I can only speak the basics.”

“Same here,” said Arlo. “What does Kade think?”

“He’s sure it’s a language,” said Jude. “We need to figure out what the hell they’re talking about.” Out of habit, he flicked on Flame radio. The song playing was fading as he settled in his seat.

“In case anyone hasn’t checked their messages recently,” said Octavia, her voice sounding unusually tight, “you might like to take a look. There could be something of interest.”

Jude froze. Was that message meant for him? He accessed his secure message system. Only a handful of people knew how to contact him through it. Octavia was one of them.

There was an unopened message. It was from her.

He clicked it open. A smile crossed his face.

“What are you so happy about?” Arlo peered over Jude’s shoulder. “Has Octavia finally agreed to go on a date with you?”

Jude couldn’t keep the smile from his face. “It’s better than that. She wants to meet.”

***

OCTAVIA SOMETIMES WISHED she drove a souped-up, three-liter pussy wagon, rather than this piece of tin held together with soldering and wishful thinking. She loved her van, but she’d be at the meet-up point Jude had sent through earlier by now if she had more power. Instead, she had another ten miles to go. It was torture.

She crept the van along the road, keeping to a steady ten miles an hour. Debris littered the road, pieces of metal and rock making for a treacherous route. If she hit one of those at the wrong angle, she could crack a wheel arch or bend the axle.

It wasn’t just the danger of traveling that worried Octavia. She was meeting Jude. After she’d sent the message to him, she’d considered retracting it. She was getting by without anyone’s help. Did she need this complication in her life?

But this was bigger than her hang-ups about the way she looked. Octavia needed to work with Jude and the others at the bunker to figure out what the State were doing.

She swiped her sweating palms down her pants. She wore the cleanest clothes she could find. Octavia had two changes of clothes. She alternated between navy khakis and a black shirt, and combat pants and an olive green long-sleeved T-shirt. When one set of clothes stank or were too covered in dirt, she’d use the valuable washing soda she had and venture out to get her clothes clean.

The same went for her underwear. Two bras, two pairs of socks, two pairs of knickers. Wear them for as long as was bearable, then flip them over and get another couple of days out of them, before getting them clean. More recently, she’d been going commando. It was easier that way. Octavia found it liberating.

She wanted to look as good as possible for Jude. She hissed air through her teeth. Who was she kidding? She was being ridiculous. Semi-clean clothes would not hide the mess she was in. They wouldn’t hide the scars on her face and how thin she was.

But she wanted to make a good impression. She didn’t need Jude to think he’d made a mistake getting to know her. Octavia needed him to like her.

She felt like a teenage girl going on a blind date. This was crazy. She was almost thirty. She knew how to handle herself when it came to guys. She’d always had the upper hand in the past. It helped that she had curves and blonde hair. Guys went crazy for that. Overall, they weren’t complicated creatures. You winked at them, gave them the promise of something more, and they were yours for the taking. She’d used that to her advantage on numerous occasions when working undercover.

Octavia didn’t have her looks or her power anymore. Her relationship with Jude had grown out of their conversations. She knew him and loved what she knew. He was smart and funny, and when he was tired, his voice grew husky and sexy, making her insides warm.

It felt like such a big gamble, meeting him in person. If she saw even a hint of disapproval or disappointment in his eyes, it would kill her.

“Get a grip,” she growled to herself as the van edged closer toward Jude. “He’s just a guy. We’re meeting to work together. There’s nothing more to this.”

If that was true, then why had Jude’s reply sounded so excited? He’d put two smiley faces at the end of his last sentence and two kisses. That wasn’t like him. He was looking forward to meeting her, he had to be. He had to feel something other than friendship after everything they’d shared late at night when it was just the two of them.

“You’re reading too much into this.” She caught her reflection in the rearview mirror of the van and grimaced. She looked like death warmed up.

The road curved in a loop, moving her closer to the city. She was getting into increasingly dangerous territory. Traveling at night removed some of the risk, but the closer she got to a city, the more hazardous it became. She stuck to small towns and rural areas. The State were less interested in small places. They focused on where the most people were, and where they needed to maintain control. They only ever ventured into small towns or villages if they knew there were dragon hybrids that needed rounding up.

Octavia had music playing on autopilot in the background and the State comms channel open so she could hear the garbled messages as she drove. Every hour that passed without figuring out what they were saying made her queasy.

She had to keep focused on this. This was the reason she was making the journey. To figure out what the hell they were planning and put an end to it. Meeting Jude was a bonus.

Another channel was also open, automatically scanning State messages. Octavia was on alert for any sign she’d been seen. She needed as much warning as possible in case the State spotted her and she had to find an escape route.

Her wireless mesh net was operational, and she’d maximized a wide signal spread of her comms. She was almost impossible to trace. But there was always that tiny percentage risk that someone would lock onto her.

“You’re fine,” she muttered. “You can do this in your sleep. Stop hunting for excuses.” Octavia headed on to a wider road. A tiny part of her, the cowardly part, was looking for a reason to avoid this meet-up. If the State noticed her, she’d have to abort. Jude would understand.

These roads were clearer than the smaller side roads she usually stuck to. They were used for private State travel or by auto taxis taking people on State-authorized journeys. She’d be unlucky if she encountered one this late at night.

Her gaze flicked up, and her heart slammed in her chest. There was a red light in the sky. Octavia stamped on the brakes and came to an abrupt stop. It was a State drone.

Licking her dry teeth with her tongue, she waited. Her fingers clutched the steering wheel. She’d be okay. It won’t have spotted her. She had no lights visible. She was a shadow sliding through the night.

The red light vanished. Octavia let out a slow breath. The blood stopped pounding in her ears. She was safe; it hadn’t seen her.

The red light blinked back into view, now much closer.

“Sneaky little drone.” Sliding from her seat, Octavia headed to a short stepladder that sat over her bed. It led to a roof hatch. On top of the roof was a mounted gun, ready for just this inconvenience.

Octavia flipped the hatch open and climbed onto the roof. The drone was closer now, its red light scanning the road. It was looking for her. It had to be.

The drone’s light slid from side to side, inching closer. Setting her feet onto the foot pads by the gun to keep herself steady, Octavia lined up her shot. “Come closer, sweetie. Let me show you what I’ve got.”

The light of the drone hit the front of her van.

She fired. “Dammit!” The shot clipped the right side of the drone, spinning it out of control.

It righted itself, its red light still operational.

Before Octavia lined up her next shot, the drone moved away.

“Stay where you are!” Octavia fired again, but the drone was out of range.

Disabled drones reported their damage to a central control. That meant militia would come out to see who was shooting at their drones. That was punishable by death.

“No, you don’t.” Octavia jumped through the hatch and slid down the ladder. Her pulse raced as she stamped on the gas. There was no way in hell she could let it get away. It had to be destroyed.

Narrowly avoiding slamming into an abandoned car on the side of the road, Octavia turned the wheel. She could still see the drone’s red light flickering. It was going slowly. There was still a chance she could catch it.

She lowered the driver’s window, grabbed the pulse laser she kept in the door compartment, and fired off several shots. It was too difficult to get an accurate aim when moving, and they went wide, skimming past the drone.

Octavia flung the weapon onto the seat and concentrated on getting closer to the drone. The music she’d been playing on the radio had ended. Listeners would be hearing nothing but static. She hated leaving people with nothing to keep them entertained. She imagined there were a lot of folk out there with nothing to cling to other than her words and music.

And that meant this drone had to die. If she didn’t stop it from returning to base, Flame radio would be over.

The drone suddenly dropped lower and skirted the tree line.

“That’s it, ground yourself, you little shit. Give me one clean shot. That’s all I need.” Octavia slowed the van, her gaze not leaving the flickering red light of the drone.

It hovered in place. Maybe it was relaying a message to the militia. Whatever the hell it was doing, Octavia would not miss this chance.

She grabbed the pulse laser from the seat and jumped out of the van. Her boots slammed along the tarmac, her gun raised. This was good enough. She could take it out from here.

Octavia planted her feet and aimed at the drone. She fired off three pulse laser shots one after the other. The drone exploded in mid-air.

“Got you,” she breathed out.

A curl of dread wrapped around Octavia’s spine. She was too exposed. She was fifty yards from the van. Anyone could get her out here. Quickly checking the ominous shadows around her, she retreated to safety. The drone was dead. And, if she was lucky, it hadn’t reported its location before she’d shot it out of the sky.

Only when she was back inside the van, her shaking hands wrapped around the steering wheel, did she let out the breath she’d been holding.

“That was too damn close,” she muttered. She sat there for another minute. This was too dangerous. It was too much of a risk.

She twisted the steering wheel, meaning to turn around and go back, find the safety of some tiny out-of-the-way town and stay there. Coming out in the open like this was too big of a gamble. That encounter with the drone had just proved that.

Octavia released the brake and turned the van around. It was better this way. She would let Jude know what had happened. He would understand. He wouldn’t want her to put her life at risk.

“Stop being a coward.” She stepped on the brake, and the van stopped. “You have to do this.” She looked at herself in the rearview mirror. Even in the shadowy light of night, she saw her scars.

Ever since she’d been disfigured, she’d felt less than whole. These scars had done more than mess with her external appearance. She couldn’t face people looking at them and judging her. They would think she wasn’t acceptable. They would reject her.

Octavia tilted her head back and closed her eyes. She’d been hiding for too long. She had to stop thinking about herself.

Slowly, she reversed the van, turned it around, and continued on her original path. She ignored the tear that slid down the damaged cheek. This was the right thing to do, no matter how painful it felt. She was more than just her scars and her hang-ups. Jude needed her.