Page 51 of Monster

Chapter Ten

The following morning…

Drake followed Deacon to several military vehicles being loaded with supplies—weapons, first aid, and another with several cages. He saw Malachi and Bull supervising the whole set-up and tensed.

Bull and he had yet to hash out their problems.

Bull didn’t look too happy he was there, either.

“Why’s he here?”

“You guys wanted a dragon and said it couldn’t be me… so I brought you a dragon.”

“No thanks,” Bull said, stepping away.

“Bull,” Malachi spat. “If he’s willing to lend a hand, we should take it.”

“He’s had zero training, and this mission is dangerous enough, as is,” Bull answered.“No thanks.”

Drake allowed his dragon out a bit, curling up smoke around Bull. The rhino waved the smoke away, cursing the whole time before he realized what it was—and glared at Drake.

“Imagine a whole highway of that,” Deacon said. “Pea soup thick.Or having a man on your crew who can slip through walls.”

Malachi’s brows rose.“I wasn’t aware smoke dragons had all those skills.”

“Air and fire,” Drake murmured.“We’re the best of both worlds.”

Deacon gave him a raised brow.

“Can you blow fire when you’re half shifted?” Drake asked the fire dragon.

Deacon’s brow lowered.“No.”

“I can go ghost… not be able to be seen by humans.Go through walls… into vehicles… into aircraft… in and out like I’m not even there.”

“He goes,” Malachi said, turning to Bull.

“Seems I’ve been vetoed,” Bull said, snarling. He pushed past Drake and started barking orders to the men.

“He’ll get over it,” Malachi said, walking closer.“Just give him time.”

“Yeah,” Drake said, not sure that was the truth.

“Let me run over the plan of attack,” Malachi said.“We can see where you fit in.”

Two hours later and Drake was in place.

He moved closer to the first set of human soldiers in their hiding spot along the old highway, in his mist mode. Drake used his power to create a low rolling fog. Slow and gentle he made it roll in at first, not to give the soldiers any clue.

Within a few minutes, he’d made a smokescreen they couldn’t see through. Before they could react, he picked them off, one by one. When it was clear… he moved on to the next. Lifting a hand to his comms, he sent them all a message.“First location clear.”

“Copy,” Malachi said.“Team one, move in and secure.”

“Copy, team one out.”

The second and the third went just as smoothly. Drake heard chatter over the earpiece he wore. “I have a visual on the transport. Two miles out from my location,” Bull said. “Two Army buses with two Hemis fore, two Hemis aft.And I hear a heli’s rotors in the distance.”

“Let’s get on the human comms—transport will likely be calling to check the coast is clear,” Malachi added.

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