Page 71 of Dragon's Code

“They need to understand that we will protect ourselves. If they’re a little more scared of us, then they’ll try to avoid us.”

“Krys, I love you. But I can sense you’re skating around the real point you want to make. So make it.”

She gives me a playful shove. “Don’t be such a know-it-all.” She sighs. Whatever she’s about to say, it’s going to be big.

She meets my gaze and then turns to Jerrick. “We need to take Las Vegas.”

“Take Las Vegas?” Darius repeats with a thread of disbelief in his voice.

“We need a homebase to finish this war. We need to build our army. We need to keep humans away from us. Vegas has a ton of power, food, rooms, and space. Plus, the mayor of Las Vegas is one of us. She’s a fire fae.” Krystana pulls out her phone. “Mayor Smith sent me the schematics of the strip, including all sorts of things the humans don’t know about. She also pointed out some key areas.”

We all hover over her phone while she shows us a few of the points the mayor suggested.

“She’s sending some help too. She knows quite a few of our kind that are in the city too. She’s calling in favors.”

“How the hell did you meet the mayor?” I ask.

She chuckles. “Aw, big brother. Mom was teaching me plenty. She made me learn who was in office, every office. Mayor, governor, congress, senate, FBI, CIA, and officials in the Pentagon. I know which ones are human and which ones aren’t. I know each and every one of them. She made sure that I met them at certain parties or if we went for a trip she introduced me to them personally.”

“All those lunches with mom?” I ask.

She nods. “Yep.” She hits the “p” hard. “Did you really think we were just having lunch and shopping?”

“I didn’t, no. But I had no idea that our mom had so many connections. Her and Dad acted like they didn’t talk to anyone but dragons and only Tourmaline dragons if they could help it.”

She shrugs. “They taught us that because that’s the way the tables were turning and they wanted us to be prepared. Neither of them knew that this would happen, but mom planned for the worst.” She smiles, and not for the first time, I see our mother in her face, see the strength she passed down to her daughter. “Mom was always the leader. She let Dad lead because she knew the rest of the clan would be more accepting. So many antiquated dragons, thinking about the old ways. That ends now.”

“Yes, it does,” I agree.

“We’re going to take the city.”

“Not the whole city. That’s too many people and too wide spread. The strip and the surrounding areas and the airport though, we’ll take those.”

“You’re sure they’re not just going to carpet bomb us?” I ask.

“Mayor Smith said she’ll work with the governor. He’s human but she says he’s a good man and we’ll be able to work with him. He’ll keep the US government at bay for now. We’ll take the city, send the humans out, and figure the rest out from there,” Krystana says.

Jerrick sighs. “We’re going to need more dragons.”

“They’re coming. For the time being, we’ll take the strip. The rest will come in and help us secure the rest.”

“They have a lot of guns and a few tanks down there. Dragons aren’t bulletproof,” Khalid states.

“That’s what the distraction is for. If we’re meeting with them, they’re not going to send a bomb in the middle of their own group. We’ll be able to take them out one by one until they’re outnumbered and can’t get to their big guns. We’ll have to dodge some bullets, I’m sure,” Krystana says, pointing at the map where she wants the initial distraction and discussion to take place. “But most weaponry isn’t designed to permanently take down a dragon. We’ll heal.”

Jerrick glances at me and then around at the women. “I think the six of us should go out there and let the women be the surprise. You should go in pairs, to help each other. And the only ones who should go are the ones comfortable with killing, if that’s what it comes down to.”

“We’re all willing to kill if we have to,” Anya says.

Jerrick growls but gives her a curt nod.

I can only imagine how pissed off his dragon is that his pregnant wife might have to fight.

“We should do this right after the sun goes down,” Krystana says. “Our time is up a couple of hours after that.”

“All right, then we should get everyone armed up and decide who is going where,” Darius says.

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