Watching Ragal and his brothers shift into the startling forms of their dragon bodies was at once unsettling and incredible. Prepared for it this time, the transformation struck my scientific mind with amazement. Ragal’s great, black, shimmering form as he rose into the air before the flames, racing to save my workers, was more magnificent than terrifying.

He turned, looking back at me, and when I looked into his eyes, they were his eyes, not those of a monster. Shocking as it was to witness his body change, I realized he was still the man within. It felt like the ground quaked beneath me as my perspective shifted the same way his body had.

He had claimed to be immune to heat and fire, but still, watching him enter the flame-devoured building, I realized I was trembling with fear. He went forward, disappearing into the red and orange glow of the blaze like some kind of god of fire.

Zaruv, Karun, and Pavar followed him. It was a spectacular image and it felt like a moment of unreality.

I waited, feeling helpless and anxious, needing to know that Ragal was all right and bracing myself over the fate of my researchers. If anyone lost their lives over this, I knew I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. Even with the limited knowledge I’d had throughout this ordeal, I was still responsible for these people. They relied on me and the burden of their safety landed squarely on my shoulders.

Worry also nagged at my mind. I had heard that laugh too. It sounded too high pitched and resounding to be human. It wasn’t just the fire that Ragal would have to contend with. What if this was some kind of trap? The idea that he and his brothers were being hunted by such creatures, that they were infiltrating Vaxivia, it was just so much to process, and part of my mind resisted what the scope of all this meant.

So much was happening, I felt like the events were speeding past me and I was struggling to find a grip and hold on.

They ferried a handful of people out through a small side entrance shortly after entering the building, but then nothing else happened. Unease settled in as we all waited. Jennifer ran to assist the emergency personnel seeing to the first survivors, who were coughing from smoke inhalation. I ordered staff to focus their efforts at the entrances, which had been overtaken by the fire.

Finally, I saw the giant bronze form of Zaruv burst through the roof, exploding with force into the air, smoke streaming out behind him. He was the largest of the brothers, at least in dragon form, and his bronze body reflected the glow of the furnace below him, giving him an otherworldly look.

They began shuttling more survivors out, and, in the mayhem, I watched with amazement and gratitude as my researchers were carried to safety—injured, but breathing and alive.

I ran to Yolanda, a talented nanotechnologist who was heading a team studying Pod A. I wrapped her in my arms, hearing her tell Ragal about the Infernian perpetrator. He seemed to understand what she said and flew away, back into the building.

I squeezed her tight, a sense of relief rushing through me, until I heard her scream in my ear, the sound deafening and terrifying. I went to pull back, to see what was wrong—and something sharp bit into my shoulders and wrenched me off the ground.

Before I realized what was happening, I was already fifty feet in the air, looking down at the burning building and racing away from it. I began to struggle, panic setting in. I saw several people draw weapons and aim at us, but no shots came as I was dragged carelessly through the air.

Looking up, I saw my captor and she saw me, her beady eyes, gold with vertical black ellipses, like a snake, stared coldly back at me. I beheld her in all her awful glory, and, even transformed as she was, I knew her to be the woman I had called my friend. It was Tadisha, as hideous in her natural state as she had been beautiful in her disguise.

Covered in iridescent green and black scales, she bore two small black horns at her crown. Her hair coiled and moved like writhing tentacles about her face. Two delicate mint green wings beat rapidly like those of a small anxious bird, lifting us higher and higher into the clouds of smoke that wafted into the sky.

She laughed at the terror in my expression. Her voice held a shrill pitch that raised the hairs on my neck.

The wind rushed past us, stinging my face and eyes as we headed south, along the LCC Industrial Campus. Finally, we began to descend, aiming directly for the low corner building at the end of the campus. The Engineering and Development Experimentation Nook, EDEN for short.

Security was normally high, as the building was where we kept all our experimental and potentially dangerous assets, but the fire had drawn almost everyone out. I tried to scream to warn the guard rushing out to confront us, but Tadisha fired her gun at him, and I watched in horror as his lifeless body fell to the ground.

As we got closer, I realized we weren’t slowing. Instead, she flew past the entrance a good ten feet off the ground and dropped me, sending me into a painful roll.

I clutched at what felt like a dislocated left shoulder and started to stand, when I felt the hard prod of her firearm against my back.

“Alone at last! Should we paint our nails first or braid each other’s hair?” She snickered, pushing me forward, into the building.

I winced in pain but limped on. “So, it’s true then. You’re the real monster,” I said, feeling my bitterness rise.

“Baby doll, your little boyfriend probably hasn’t even told you the half of it.” She laughed as she grabbed my hair and kept the weapon at my back, guiding me through the halls of offices and into the honeycomb of labs.

“I could have killed you a hundred times, and you cannot even begin to guess how badly I wanted to. But, instead, thanks to your meddling dragon bastard, I had to make do with Albert. I wanted to gut him slowly, after all the time I had to spend pretending to be his pathetic lackey.”

“Albert is dead?” I heard myself ask.

“Well, unless he knows of a way to survive without his intestines or heart, I’d say he is pretty dead,” she said, gleefully enjoying my shock. “You know, if he were an Infernian, I might have enjoyed all the times I sucked his little dick off. He was quite the sadistic freak, little Albert. But don’t worry, I’ve got some friends who will make sure you don’t feel left out.”

We wound through different labs, and she seemed to be grabbing things as we went. Finally, Tadisha pushed me into a large open hangar attached to the labs, full of experimental aircraft.

“All right, I’ve got places to be and Dragselians to fuck up.” She pointed the weapon directly at my head. “You’re going to prep one of these and pilot it off Vaxivia, or I’m going to peel all that pretty skin right off your face and shove it down your Dragselian-cock-sucking throat. So, unless you want to join dearly departed Albert, let’s get moving, shall we?”

Looking up at her, I swallowed my disgust and gave her the reaction she wanted. I let tears cloud my eyes as I pretended to cower, bringing a sick smile to her leathery face.

My mind raced as I scraped together a plan. I looked around the room, quickly running through the specs of each vehicle until I found my prize. I limped toward the close-range fighter ship we had named the Malus T93.

It was sleek, handled well, and, most importantly, featured a self-destruct mechanism that allowed for pilot ejection. It was a spy vehicle concept that had originated during the struggles of previous occupation attempts.

I didn’t know if she was familiar with the vehicle, so I tried to distract her attention while we climbed in and I started turning systems on.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked her, making my voice as meek as possible.

A look of joy spread across her face. “You’ll see… or maybe you won’t. We’ll see how long you last. It’s going to be glorious. We’re joining the Infernian fleet. It’s magnificent, there has never been anything like it, thanks to your father.”

My heart stopped.

“He was easy to manipulate and confuse once we infected him with the nanites. Oh! Silly me, did I forget to mention that?”

Rage burned my cheeks. “You? You’re the reason he’s dying?”

“I realize your pathetic little brain has a hard time keeping up, but if you’re going to survive as an Infernian slave, you’ll need to do better than that. LCC has access to some of the largest mines of iridium in the galaxy. Thanks to LCC’s mining operation and Albert’s financial maneuvering, we built an armada of spacecraft right under everyone’s noses, and it’s ready to obliterate Dragselia.”

“Albert was a part of this?”

“To a certain extent. Of course, no one knew who I was,” she said, smiling proudly, “not even those filthy Dragselians. Pathetic idiots. They’re not fit to rule our homeland.”

My mind was reeling. I didn’t realize she had walked forward to the panel. Looking down, she took stock of the controls and turned on me.

Grabbing me by the throat, her sharp talons biting into my neck, she hissed at me, “Why you littlebitch! I’d say you’re going to regret that, but you won’t live long enough.”

She raised her other hand, the sharp claws sprawled, ready to strike at me, but the sound of ripping metal startled us both.

Looking out through the glass of the cockpit, we both watched as Ragal came thundering in through a giant opening, where he had ripped off most of the sheet metal wall. He seemed to smell the air, scanning for something and letting out a deafening roar. Tadisha dropped me and scrambled out of the vehicle.

“I’ll play with you later, baby doll,” she said, her voice dripping with menace.

Ragal took notice of her immediately, and roared again.

“Come to join the fun, have you? Good. I was hoping I would get to tear one of you apart before I left.”

They squared off, Ragal rising up and beating his massive, sprawling wings. Tadisha quickly flitted this way and that.

Suddenly, she charged at him, moving so fast I could barely register the motion. In one instant, she was hovering above him, and in the next, she was on his back, tearing at his scales.

Ragal flipped over and crashed to the ground, catching Tadisha beneath him, but, to my horror, she weaseled out, seemingly unharmed.

I held my breath as I watched them collide in midair once more, knowing so many innocent lives hung in the balance of this battle.