“AmIokay? Shouldn’t I be askingyouthat? You’re the one all covered in cuts and scratches.”

Looking down at herself, Addie realized it was true. The whole front of her body was scratched and sliced and bloody all over—also she was naked. What had happened to her?

Slowly her memory began to come back. Drago’s Drake coming out and roasting Sheelash, then killing Ls Prissa and Lx Sambla as well…then taking flight and ramming right through the skylight, causing the shards of glass to come raining down on her head.

“It…it was your Drake,” she said slowly.

“Ithoughtso.” His face went grim. “Goddess damn him!”

“No, it’s not like that!” Addie hurriedly tried to explain, but he only shook his head.

“Look, I’m really sorry about what happened but I don’t want to talk about it now. I’m so fucking weak I’m about to collapse. We need to get into the ship before that happens.”

Addie felt a surge of guilt.

“You’re probably weak because I took so much of your blood,” she said in a low voice. “I’m so sorry, Drago—I just couldn’t stop myself. But at least the fangs are gone now—see?” She bared her teeth for him and he gave a cursory glance and nodded.

“Yeah, fucking great. C’mon—I need to sit down before I fall down.”

They made it into the long-range shuttle and Drago went at once to the pilot's seat and collapsed into it. Then he looked up at Addie.

“Can you look in the second compartment in the fresher? There’s a med kit in there. Hopefully it has some rapid blood growth pills.”

Addie went quickly to the cabinet and found what he was asking for—a bright red, metal box with many different medical supplies inside. Searching rapidly through them, she found a tiny pill bottle with the wordsBlood Replenishmentprinted on the side.

Before she left the fresher, she wrapped herself in a towel—she didn’t like going around naked and the long black cloak she’d been wearing must have blown away during her dragon flight. She took a cursory look at herself in the 3-D viewer mounted on the wall and noticed in passing that though her fangs were gone, the spider web on her back was still there. Crap—was she going to have itforever?She wondered if it might be possible to remove it somehow, like you could remove a tattoo with laser treatment.

But that was a problem for later. Making sure she was securely wrapped in the fluffy white towel—which was already smeared with her blood from the many scratches and cuts all over the front of her body—she made her way back to the bridge.

"Here you go." She handed the bottle of blood replacement medicine to Drago, who dry-swallowed four of the tiny red pills inside at once. Then he leaned his head back against the headrest and sighed deeply. Addie thought she had never seen her Protector looking so weary.

“Okay, how much damage did my Drake do this time?” he rumbled at last. “Tell me everything and don’t hold back—I need to know.”

“Well, he broke through the skylight when he was flying me away from the palace,” Addie said. “And he fried Sheelash to a crisp. Oh, and I’m afraid he also burned Ls Prissa and Lx Sambla alive, too.” She shivered. “I couldn’t watch—it washorrible.”

“I’m sure it fucking was. I’m sorry, Addison.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, as though trying to drive off a headache. “Gods, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Last time he came out he burned an entire village to the ground. Now we can add murder to his list of sins.”

“But everything he did was to protect me!” Addie protested. “You can’t blame him for that!”

“I don’t—I blame myself,” Drago growled tiredly. “First I couldn’t protect you from that damn spider—then I couldn’t even protect you from my own Drake! This whole situation is all my fault.”

“No it’s not—it’smyfault!” Addie exclaimed.“I’mthe one who insisted on coming to Crimson Moon in the first place.I’mthe one who was completely fooled by Lx Sambla’s smooth talk—you saw through him right away. I should have listened to you.”

He shook his head.

“Don’t try to take this on yourself, Addison. No matter where you decide to go, it’s my job to protect you. A job I failed at miserably this entire fucking mission.”

“Don’t say that! You can’t—” she began.

But just then there was a noise from outside. It sounded like muffled shouting to Addie.

“What the fuck?” Drago growled and turned on the viewscreen.

They were immediately treated to the sight of an angry mob of Vargans storming out of the palace and towards their ship. Many of them were screaming and crying and several had shaved off the Sheelash. White parts of their hair, which gave a kind of bizarre reverse-Mohawk effect.

“Oh no!” Addie put a hand to her mouth. “They must be upset about your Drake killing Sheelash!”

“We’ve got to get the fuck out of here,” Drago growled. He sat up and began working the controls. “Can you call the Mother Ship?”