***
The tunnel was pitch black, making it hard for even the dragons to see. Their eyesight worked best by amplifying the light around them. It made seeing at night easy. In a completely sealed tunnel, it was much harder.
Though many people did not know it, the human body was actually bioluminescent. That is, it glowed in the dark. The light given off was thousands of times weaker than a human could pick up, so nobody really talked about it. A dragon shifter’s eyesight could pick that up, however, and it gave them all enough light to see a rough outline of the tunnel around them along with the other shifters. Ana, he noticed, seemed to be moving easier than any of the others. He wondered if her eyesight functioned differently.
In front of him, the tunnel ended abruptly. He reached back and clasped the next dragon on the shoulder, squeezing twice to let him know they’d arrived. Ferro would be the tip of the spear when they emerged from the tunnel.
Ana had argued violently when he told her she wasn’t following him out, but was instead going to have to wait behind several others. He had wanted her to be last, but had in the end relented, and she was in the middle of their attack line. It still made him uneasy, but she hadn’t been relenting, and none of the other dragons were going to side with him.
Smart ones, the lot of them.
Shaking his head, he waited until he received a two-squeeze reply. Everyone was ready. Ferro took a deep, audible breath. It was their pre-arranged countdown signal. After three seconds, he reached out and pulled the lever.
The wall in front of them simply dropped out of sight, taking a split second to fall as the restraints holding it in place were removed. Ferro charged out through the dust cloud that followed, managing to collide with another figure.
His hands snaked around their neck and he flexed, silencing the guard before he could cry out an alarm.
“Spread out,” he ordered, and the dragons pelted down the hallways, his layout of the building ingrained upon their minds.
The assault on the Order had begun. Following his own command, he crept down the hallway as all around him he heard shouts, often followed by cries of pain as his team got the drop on the Order.
Ana padded along silently behind him as he avoided the main barracks area, where he caught a glimpse of four of his men engaging with an equal number of Order shifters. He passed the window swiftly, not wanting to get drawn into the melee.
Much of the Order were young bloods, dragons who would be superior to any other race of shifter in strength and speed, but would be highly outclassed against his team. He didn’t worry about them.
It was the leader he was worried about.
He paused at an intersection, listening for noise. Behind him he could feel Ana’s solid presence.
“We must be insane,” he whispered quietly.
“What?”
“Look at us. This is the headquarters of a group of very bad people. People that have killed many of my family. Yet, you and I have just waltzed in here to eliminate them. It feels so…surreal,” he said, shifting his stance until his back was against the cold stone wall. Around them oil lamps lit the hallways. Ferro had never bothered to run electricity to the place.
“Are you serious?” Ana hissed. “This was your idea!”
He looked at her. “Actually no, I think it was yours,” he said.
She blinked, her eyes unfocusing then refocusing. “Okay, so maybe it was. But isn’t it your job to make sure I don’t allow us to make stupid decisions like this?”
He shrugged. “They were annoying me too. I have no intentions of turning back, but I just had to say how ridiculous this is.” He met her eyes. “Though I am glad to have you by my side.” He kissed her hard before she could respond, then darted around the corner, knowing she would keep up.
The hallway was empty in front of them. On the right were several doors that led to waiting rooms where Ferro had kept visitors if he didn’t feel like speaking to them right away. The doors were closed at the moment, and they crept past them. Their focus was on the big set of double doors at the end. That was where the throne room was, and where they suspected they would find the leader of the Order.
Ferro raised a finger to his lips, telling Ana to be extra quiet as they passed the first of the doors. She just rolled her eyes at him. He paused just before the opening in the stone wall, listening for anything.
Satisfied, he tiptoed past. There were five feet between doors, and he stopped just shy of the second one, motioning for Ana to follow.
His mate nodded and moved forward at the same moment he heard a noise.
“Back!” he shouted suddenly, but it was too late.
The door exploded outward, catching Ana in the side and sending her flying across the corridor until she collided with the wall on the other side. She slumped down to the floor, unmoving. A huge gash ran from her cheek all the way down to the top of her leg where the door had ripped her open. As he watched, the dark red of her blood stained her platinum hair, killing the luster it had always had.
Ferro’s vision blurred with rage.
The door in front of him crashed open as well and four shifters emerged, two from each doorway. Two of them had the smoothness of motion about them that told him they were experienced enough to give him a problem.
He needed to do something, and do something fast.
“Stay away from her,” he snarled as two of them took steps toward Ana. She still hadn’t stirred from her slumped sitting position against the wall.
Ferro moved to stop them, but the other pair circled around to intercept. He eyed them both critically. There was one young blood, and one older.
“If you do not get out of my way,” he said slowly, his voice low and threatening. “I will move you myself. It will be the last time you ever move. This I promise,” he finished.
The younger one opened his mouth.
“Should have done as I said,” Ferro told him regretfully. Then he moved.
His open-palmed strike hit connected with the younger one’s nose, driving it back and into his brain, killing him instantly before he even knew what was coming.
“I am done playing nice!” Ferro roared, ducking below the strike from his second opponent. He was moving with the motion of his fist, however, so he used that to his advantage. Hands snapped up and around his foe’s outstretched arm. Ferro planted his front foot and turned, hurling the attacker over his head.
Shouts of surprise from the other two sounded as he snapped his arms backward, breaking the arm he held in his grip. He stomped down on the other hand of his first attacker, crushing bones as he propelled himself upward, leading with an elbow that connected with the jaw of the third shifter looming over him.
The man’s eyes glossed over and he went limp like a marionette whose strings had just been cut, falling to the floor in a heap.
Ferro turned to face the last shifter. To his surprise, there was no fear in the man’s eyes as he set his position, backing slowly toward the doors that led to the throne room.
“Running away will not save you,” Ferro said, keeping his eyes on the final attacker as he ensured the other two stayed down. Permanently.
Instead of looking scared or unsure, the last of the four ambushers did something even more unexpected. He smiled.
Ferro felt ice form in his stomach as the doors opened behind the man.
“They said you were dead,” Ferro said.
A booming laugh that was incapable of coming from a human throat echoed down the hallway.
“Oh, they did, did they?” The words had a slightly sibilant hiss to them.
It was only natural, as a dragon’s lips had a hard time speaking flawless English.
“Why?” Ferro asked, as behind him Ana finally stirred, a low groan assuring him she would be okay, if he could stall for time.
The fully shifted dragon, whose head was visible through the grand doorway, laughed once more. “Oh you must be kidding. After all this time, can you still not figure out why?”
Ferro shrugged. “I must admit, I expected it from Luthor. Then again, everyone did. He was never happy with the changes. He pined for the ‘old days’ constantly, and did his best to live them. Karthorax, he was too lazy to care. But you,” Ferro’s head dipped in disappointment. “I never saw it from you.”
Parlanah, third of his eldest children, and his only daughter, rolled her eyes.
“That’s because I hid it from you, Father,” she said sarcastically. “I bided my time. I raised my children and made allies. It took me longer than expected, but what’s an extra thousand years when you live forever?” she asked with a laugh.
“You will not live past this night,” Ferro said sadly, shaking his head. “I will not allow it.”
Parlanah laughed again, dust raining down from the ceiling as she slammed a large, taloned claw into the ground, shaking the building.
“You won’t allow it? Oh my, do you have any idea how arrogant you sound?” The dragon snorted. “But I suppose that’s just like you. You bring us into this world and then abandon us for centuries, wreaking havoc yourself and setting an example for us to follow. Then one day, all of a sudden you become righteous and expect the rest of us to just follow suit?”
Ferro stared at his daughter stone-faced, letting her tirade wash over him. It didn’t matter. He had given his children a choice that day so very long ago. It had been a simple choice. Join the Dragon Council and set aside your warring, plundering, and tyrannical ways. Or die.
All of them had chosen life. Ferro had known some, like his now-deceased son Luthor, had done so simply to preserve their own hides, even if they hadn’t believed in what he was trying to do. But Parlanah had been one of his biggest supporters and advocates. He had never expected her to betray him like this.
“We were running human civilization into the ground,” he said bluntly. “There was too much death and destruction caused by our hands. It had to stop.” He took a deep breath. “Just like it must stop now. You are bringing our species to the brink of civil war,” he pleaded. “The humans have been content to let us deal with this on our own for now. But if you continue, they will escalate. And it will not be pretty,” he promised.
Parlanah wasn’t listening though. “Oh please. I would like to see them try,” she scoffed. “They are but ants to my boot.”
“I doubt you will feel that way after they drop a nuclear warhead on this place,” he said dryly. “We may live forever, but we are not invincible,” he reminded her.
“Excellent point,” Parlanah snarled.
He heard her inhale sharply.
“Please,” he said, even as he saw her lungs swell. “Do not make me do this.”
The remaining ambusher, who until then had been standing between Ferro and the open doorway, tried to run inside to get out of the way. But he was too late. Parlanah’s head filled the opening, blocking his escape. The shifter was no imbecile; he took off running, flying past Ferro, who let him go.
Perhaps seeing that his leader didn’t care an ounce about his life would shift his support away from the Order.
“I am sorry,” he said, as Parlanah opened her mouth, fire vomiting out and down the length of the corridor toward him and Ana.