Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,2

the humans are under our protection.

Rann’s lips pulled back in a silent snarl as the team crept forward in the shadows of late twilight, hopping from cover to cover as they approached.

He frowned and motioned to Jacen, the team member on his left, urging him to push out wider, around the far side of the junction control box that sat between two sets of rails. The box was large enough that several figures could easily hide in its shadow and go unseen if the dragons passed on the near side.

Jacen responded without question and pushed out wider, while Rann and Pietro closed from their original angles. Rann breathed a sigh of relief at that. Usually, their team leader, Kladd, put Pietro in charge when the team had to split up, but recently Rann had been assigned that position. Although he felt comfortable, and in fact was actively seeking more of a leadership position both on the team and in clan Atrox as a whole, he was still unsure how his orders would be received in the field.

The team swarmed across the rail yard as they closed. Rann spied movement on the far side, but it was Trent, another member of the team. That meant Kladd’s team was in position. Another ten seconds went by as they waited for Jacen to clear the junction box and crouch down behind an abandoned flatcar.

Everyone was ready. Now they just had to wait for Kladd’s signal and—

A burst of fire as bright as a miniature sun shot up from behind the building as Kladd gave the order for the team to storm the building.

They went in hard, merciless, and cold, scales of a variety of colors rippling out from under their skin to coat the dragons in an armor harder than steel and stronger than Kevlar. Fire, frost, and lightning gathered in palms as Pietro reared back and blew the nearest door in, stepping back to recover his balance while Rann followed the door inside, eyes scanning the room to ensure that it was clear of enemies.

Vampires could hide in the slightest of shadows, wrapping themselves in the darkness, but the fire in Rann’s palms shone bright into even the deepest corners, removing any potential hiding spot.

“Clear,” he growled as the rest of his team filed in after him and they spread out through the old concrete and stone building.

“Clear,” Jacen echoed as he burst into a side room, lightning running up and down his arms, clearing the area of any shadows.

They proceeded room by room, working as a smoothly oiled machine, until they came up short around a corner where Kladd and his half of the team were standing in the hallway.

“Anything?” Kladd asked.

“Nothing,” Rann spat. “I don’t get it. This place doesn’t even look like anyone but the demo crews have been through.”

The building was condemned, deemed too unsafe to use, and at some point soon, it would be brought down. It was the perfect spot for vampires to make a nest, but as far as Rann could tell, they had never been here. There was no evidence anyone had lived here.

“What did your contact tell you?” Kladd asked, his voice holding back the anger visible in his eyes.

Rann faced his team leader. It wasn’t the first shoddy piece of intelligence that had come their way, and it wouldn’t be the last. In their desperate search to find the vampires before they grew stronger, the dragons had to follow up every bit of information that came their way. If they didn’t, and the vampires were able to increase their strength, eventually they would be able to challenge the dragons.

And that would be bad for everyone, especially the humans who would inevitably get caught in the crossfire.

“One of my informants, Jed,” he rumbled. “Bit of a transient, but not off his rocker. I’ll follow up with his boss, see what the hell they were talking about.”

“Good,” Kladd said tightly. “Because this stinks.”

Rann frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, he obviously imagined what he was seeing. Nobody has been living or plotting out of here, that’s for certain. We didn’t miss anything that obvious, and we searched every room.”

“So did we,” Rann confirmed.

“And no evidence of activity, vamp or otherwise.”

“Just the demo crews,” Rann said with a shrug and then paused.

Kladd came to the realization at the same time.

“Were we set up?” Rann hissed. “Did they send us here on purpose?”

Kladd jerked upright. “Everyone out!” he barked.

The team scattered instantly, everyone coming to the