Page 74 of Robb

With an almost wolfish grin, Anne took a step backward, her eyes trained on his. She raised her arms, and then her whole body shimmered –

And in front of Robb, taking up half the room, was – was –

A wyvern, Robb thought, shock and horror rippling through him. Its scales glittered, deep red under the blazing fluorescent office lights, its tail long and coiling, too long to be easily contained within the space of the room.

Dark green venom glistened on its teeth – as Robb watched, a few droplets dripped from its flashing white fangs, sizzling as they hit the surface of the table and burning straight through it. Robb could smell burning plastic as the deadly acidic liquid ate its way straight through the tabletop in an instant.

And then, the wyvern lifted its head, and roared.

… Oh, shit.

The dingo – for the first time Robb could remember – actually flinched back, terror coursing through it, before it moved forward once more within his mind, growling defiantly. Its fear was obvious, though… and Robb couldn’t say that he blamed it.

A wyvern versus a dingo would always be an uneven fight at the best of times, but when the dingo was stuck in their human form and tied to a chair, the odds were laughable.

This is why I don’t do banter or speeches, he thought with mild despair. Why didn’t I keep my bloody mouth shut?!

On the other hand, at least now he knew what Anne’s shifter form was. It was just about the worst possible knowledge to have, but it was still knowledge, and it wouldn’t take him unawares if she shifted again later on. It meant that he could take this into account with any plan he might make.

He also had to remember that Anne wanted to keep him alive long enough to make Tahnee create enough gold to wake a dragon. If she killed him now, she probably wouldn’t get her gold. And Robb didn’t think that she’d been lying about her plan – it fit in perfectly with the Hargreaves modus operandi.

That being said, he still had to be careful. One wrong move, and he could be getting a face full of wyvern venom – or, even worse, he could get toasted to a crisp. Anne might be willing to dose him up with more antivenom in order to keep him alive, but there wasn’t much anyone could do if he took a sustained stream of venomous wyvern fire.

Anne stretched her gargantuan wings toward the high ceiling, and a distant part of Robb’s mind noted that Anne had probably had this room custom built for her own purposes.

“We will win,” she hissed, and Robb barely managed to keep his surprise from showing. Most shifters couldn’t speak in their animal forms – it did happen, but it was pretty rare. It was definitely a jarring experience.

Lowering herself back down, she came in close, getting right up in his face. The harsh chemical smell of wyvern venom drifted out from between her gigantic, pointed teeth, and Robb had to draw on all his training to keep steady in the face of such a threat.

“We will win,” she snarled again, her strange, reptilian voice echoing off the walls, “and you are a fool if you believe otherwise.” She tilted her huge head, as if considering him. “But we know already that you are a fool.”

“You’re free to think whatever you like,” he said mildly.

“You try to enrage me,” she said, her voice low with repressed anger. “I know your act. You wish to trick me into killing you. But unlike you, I am no fool. I will not jeopardize our plans to wake the dragon by killing you.”

Her mouth pulled back into a rictus of a smile, exposing even more teeth – and even more dripping venom – and released such a pungent waft of chemical odor that Robb’s eyes watered and burned.

“No, I won’t kill you,” she went on. “But I can melt your team of so-called agents into puddles of flesh, one by one, before your very eyes. On the other hand, if your behavior improves, I can allow you the privilege of choosing the one you like least to go first.” Her eyes glowed. “I must admit, that last one you spoke with – I believe it was Agent Rhys Richardson, was it not? – had quite the attitude. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted him gone, in all honesty.”

Don’t react, Robb told himself, even as he fumed. Don’t give her the satisfaction.

“And if that doesn’t work,” she said, “I can allow you to choose which of your mate’s limbs I remove, if you like. Though we have to make sure we keep at least one of her hands, otherwise she can’t help us. Which I know she will, once she understands the situation.” Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Or would you prefer it if I let you choose which human city the dragon decides to make its new home? I hear that there is plenty of wealth in Sydney that it might find attractive.”

Robb let the threats wash over him. He had to. If he let himself give in to rage or despair, then who knew what Anne might do? The wyvern seemed to have less control over its emotions than Anne did, and he could well believe that it might give an order to kill his team that Anne may have kept as only a threat. He wasn’t about to do anything to put them or Tahnee in danger.

Distract her. Get more information.

He racked his brain, trying to think of a way to get her onto another topic that wasn’t too obvious.

A thought came to him.

“How many wyvern shifters do you have on the Hargreaves books?” he asked. “To provide your wyvern venom supplies, I mean.”

He would have said How many wyverns do you keep captive, but setting her off wouldn’t do him any good. Though maybe she would be proud of holding her own people prisoner and forcing them to produce venom to be used as a deadly weapon.

She blinked once, twice, before throwing her giant head back in uproarious laughter.

“Idiot!” she bellowed, once she’d gotten her breath back, and Robb would’ve sworn that she would’ve been wiping tears of mirth from her enormous reptilian eyes if she’d been able. “Do you mean you believed that propaganda? That we keep the poor defenseless wyverns prisoner? Do you think wyverns are so easily held?”