Cillian smirked. “It’s time to air the dirty laundry. All of it. If we’re going to come out of this without raging a giant war killing many of the humans in the crossfire, then we all need to be honest with each other.”
“That’s what Olivia said.” Finley spoke softly. “She said that someone had captured her. That the dragons had to pay for what they did. He said it all had to do with Dragon Fire.”
A soft laugh came from the dark corner.
“Have something to offer, Grey?” Another man spoke.
“This human certainly knows a lot. Why are we not suspecting her of being a spy or a plant? Or worse, what if she’s being controlled too. Has anyone frisked her for bombs?”
Finley stepped in front of Olivia. She couldn’t see his face in the shadow, but she could feel his eyes on her, on her sister.
Ash scoffed, “She’s not a plant, she’s my mate.”
“One you haven’t claimed,” Grey growled. “A mistake…”
Finley didn’t like the unfinished sentence dangling in the air. “A mistake?”
“I didn’t claim someone once. It was a mistake. No matter how young.”
Finley swallowed around the lump in her throat. It couldn’t be. If it was him, he was surrounded by his own enemy. No one would believe he was the cause of it.
Would they?
“I was attacked by a vampire when I was a child. I didn’t know it then what was happening. I spent most of my life obsessed with the idea of the supernatural. The vampire who attacked me, he’s the same one who is doing all of this.”
“More rumors.”
“Finley.”
She glanced up at Ash.
“What is Dragon Fire supposed to do? What is it that he’s trying to accomplish?” she asked.
“You think that’s the key?” Ash asked.
“It has to be,” Henrik agreed. “Burning humans from the inside out can’t be the goal. If that’s what he wanted, he’d be doing it all over the place by now. He’s testing it in all of these different places.”
A shrill phone ringing caught everyone’s attention.
Gavin stood and pulled out his phone. “Forgive me, it’s my mate.” He answered it, starting to walk away, and then he stopped. “All of them?” The tension in his voice was enough to call everyone’s attention back to him.
Gavin was already heading for the front door. “We need to get to the hospital now.”
All the men stood at once, Ash grabbed Finley, and Finley in turn grabbed Olivia. As took her car keys and drove them. It was a long succession of cars all the way to the hospital.
They didn’t park anywhere legal and they all headed inside following Gavin. The hospital was eerily quiet aside from a far-off sound of a patient alarm going on.
“Gavin!”
A woman Finley recognized from when she’s been in the hospital.
“Pru.” He gathered his mate in his arms and kissed her fiercely. “What’s going on?”
“It started a half hour ago. They just all stopped.” She took his hand and led him down a corridor.
The dragon conclave followed.
Finley gasped when she saw a doctor just standing in the hallway. The tablet he’d been carrying was cracked at his feet. They came across nurses just standing still, staring into space.