Ivette clenched the back of her office chair, fighting the desire to break another annoying protocol, summon her most powerful magic, and turn Dinah into a heap of smoking flesh.

The other woman leaned back in the chair across from Ivette’s desk and raised an eyebrow, her expression cocky. “Do you need me to repeat that?”

“Do we honestly think anything Werner Scholtz says is reliable? His magic is unnatural. He probably sees the dugga everywhere he looks. Nero Tassinari might be a high-ranking member of the Asar Nergal, but he’s not the dugga. Everything we know about the dugga says he wouldn’t go after a human himself.” But Ivette knew the moment she’d said it, Dinah would have a defense for Scholtz’s sanity. This was the woman’s chance to prove Ivette had screwed up by letting Rebecca Scott escape and using Scholtz as bait. She was aiming to take Ivette’s job and was smart enough to know she needed something solid, not just the hearsay of a crazy man.

“He’s far from crazy. Final analysis of Glenn Lewis’s shielding magic indicates he’s been putting barriers in his mind and the minds of those closest to him to protect them from going insane. It explains why Glenn has been so cooperative and forthcoming about Becca Scott’s connection to the dugga. He’s sane enough to know he should be terrified of the Asar Nergal.”

“That doesn’t confirm Nero is the dugga, and it doesn’t explain why Scott was clearly losing touch with reality.” There were holes in Dinah’s argument, and Ivette was going to find all of them before her backstabbing co-worker took control of the facility.

“Glenn claims his power doesn’t— didn’t work on Rebecca, but was working on Werner.”

“Still, doesn’t prove anything.” Which meant Ivette hadn’t lost control and wouldn’t. Dinah had no proof of anything, and even if she was right, Ivette just needed to be smart about this, keep in control, especially when they’d completed the evacuation and transition to the new facility. If Dinah was going to make her move, that was when it would happen, during the peak of the chaos incited by an ancient black dragon showing up on their doorstep.

She relaxed her grip on the chair and turned her back on Dinah, keeping an eye on the woman in the reflection in the floor-to-ceiling windows. The facility move was almost complete. The servers had been loaded into a van and were in transit to the new location, all of Dinah’s precious experiments had been transferred, more than half the facility had been wiped clean, and the highest priority subjects were about to be sedated and moved to cells with newly activated null magic to secure them.

Outside, the city was blanketed in darkness, dawn still a few hours away, but traffic was returning to the streets. In February, the workday didn’t start with dawn. It started when the alarm clock blared. And for Ivette, yesterday’s workday hadn’t ended. The last twelve hours had been a disaster she was determined to turn around, and a part of her grudgingly hoped Dinah’s information was correct and Tassinari was the dugga of the Asar Nergal.

If he wasn’t, she was almost back where she’d started before learning about Becca’s direct mental connection with the dugga. Her incompetent security team had killed Scott and failed to capture Tassinari, and while they had Scholtz back in custody, that didn’t get her any closer to achieving her goal of taking the dugga’s magic so she could hunt down and kill every last member of the Asar Nergal.

The only positive thing to the situation was that Tassinari knew about the facility. Without a doubt, he’d return. The fight with her security team outside the building, along with the presence of two human mages, would be enough to force the dugga to send someone, likely more than one dragon, to investigate, depending on what Becca Scott had revealed — and Ivette wasn’t going to start trying to figure out why Tassinari had been with Scott when she’d gone to meet Scholtz. All Ivette needed to do was wait, maybe slow the move to the new facility to ensure she had a reason to keep a full security squad here, and she’d have her opportunity to apprehend one or more of the dragons tasked with murdering humans.

Her gaze slid back to Dinah’s reflection in the window. She couldn’t let the other woman know what she planned. In fact, it would be best if Dinah left and plotted her futile takeover at the new facility.

“If Tassinari is the dugga, then it’s imperative we keep security high until we’ve completed the move to the new facility,” Ivette said. “We’ve almost managed to save everything. Just a little longer and you can continue your work.”

A hint of relief flashed across Dinah’s face. “We should also requisition surveillance teams for Tassinari’s Newgate and Rome residences.”

“Of course.” Requisitioning men was Ivette’s purview. Dinah was the medical and experimental researcher. Ivette turned to her computer. “You should get back to overseeing the move or disposal of the remaining subjects.”

“I’m just waiting on word that the null magic on the cells has been fully activated.” Dinah stood. “I’ll also want a security team to move Scholtz.”

“I won’t be able to spare extra bodies until we’re cleared out. We can’t risk Tassinari or other dragons arriving before the move is complete.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t want to try to explain why we chose to move instead of destroying the facility.”

“It won’t come to that.” A message popped up on her screen. “The subject transport van is standing by. I suggest you take this load and make sure everything at the new location is ready.”

“This trip shouldn’t take more than an hour. Make sure the next batch to go are sedated in thirty minutes.” Dinah strode to the door. “I want to make sure they’re fully unconscious by the time we need to move them.”

“Everything will be ready.”

“Let’s just hope we can get out of here before Tassinari returns,” Dinah said, and she left.

“Let’s hope.” Not. Ivette opened the top desk drawer and drew out the folder containing the spells she’d spent the last two decades building. The first, a series of many pages, designed to take the dugga’s magic and give it to her, and the second — actually many copies of the second — small sheets the size of her palm with a spell to recognize the dugga. If Tassinari was the dugga, she’d know, take his power, and then kill the monsters who’d been terrorizing her family and friends for centuries.