Smoked

by Mari Mancusi

  “Step away from the dragon!” one of them yelled.

  “Stand down or we will open fire,” another suggested.

  “Not on your life!” Trinity shouted back. Then she patted Emmy on the neck. “Your move, girl,” she whispered. “Show them what happens when you mess with a dragon.”

  Emmy didn’t hesitate. Her mouth burst open, blasting a river of fire straight at the guards. In an instant, the entire platoon was on the ground, screaming and writhing as the flames consumed them. Trin fought back the nausea rising to her throat at the sudden smell of cooked meat permeating the air.

  Emmy turned and gave Trinity a guilty look, probably assuming her Fire Kissed would not approve of the violence. But Trin only shook her head and patted her neck. “You did what you had to do,” she assured the dragon, echoing Connor’s earlier words. “You very well might have just saved the world.”

  The dragon seemed to nod before pointing her snout to the sky. More fire shot from her mouth, torpedoing upward. The ceiling burst into flames, and Trinity and the others had to cover their heads with their hands to avoid the fiery debris raining down on top of them.

  And then suddenly, they were flying, soaring, Emmy’s wings crackling in the air like thunder. As they shot through the burning ceiling, the fire singed Trin’s hair and skin, but she held on tight, and soon they were flying above the government lab.

  Free.

  “You did it!” Trinity cried to the dragon, pride and happiness rushing through her like the wind at her ears. “Emmy! You did it! You got free!”

  Tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks. It had worked. This time, it had actually worked. She sucked in a shaky breath, not sure she’d been breathing the entire time they were making their escape. Then she turned to Connor and Scarlet with excited eyes.

  “Let’s go meet up with everyone at the rendezvous point,” she declared. “They’re going to be so excited!” Her voice was filled with laughter and exhilaration. “Oh, Emmy, you’re going to love where we’re living now! We’ve got the best dragon lair ever all set up for you. And—”

  To her surprise, Emmy seemed to pause at this, slowing her speed until she was simply hovering in midair, flapping her wings to keep elevation. At first, Trin assumed she was just waiting for the promised directions. But then, to her surprise, the dragon dipped her nose downward and started shooting back to earth. Trin’s brow furrowed.

  “Emmy, what are you doing?” She turned back to look at Scarlet. “What is she doing?”

  But Scarlet only shrugged helplessly. And a moment later, they found themselves coming in for a landing. Emmy hit the ground hard, stumbling a bit before regaining her balance. Then she turned and looked at them.

  “Did you need to take a rest?” Trin asked, fear and confusion mixing in her veins. “I mean, that’s fine if you—”

  She oomphed as the dragon reared up on her heels, unceremoniously knocking them from her back. As Trin hit the ground hard, she looked up, trying to figure out what Emmy was doing. The dragon gave her an apologetic look. Then, before Trin could speak, she pointed her nose back to the sky. A moment later, she was shooting up into the air, leaving the three of them behind.

  “No!” Trin cried. She scrambled to her feet, running after the dragon. “Emmy! Please! No! Come back!”

  But the dragon didn’t come back. And soon she had disappeared from the sky altogether.

  Chapter Three

  “Here we are…home sweet home.”

  Scarlet rubbed her bleary eyes, struggling to regain consciousness. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was, the bright light streaming through the truck windows nearly blinding her with its brilliance. Then her eyes fell on Connor, sitting beside her in the backseat of the truck, and it all came rushing back to her.

  They had escaped. She was free.

  She squinted at the truck’s dashboard clock. While it felt as if she’d only dozed off for a minute or two, evidently hours had passed since the truck had picked them up in the desert; she must have slept through most of the trip. And who could blame her, really? It was the first time in forever she could allow herself to close her eyes and not worry about who would be waking her up…and what they’d want to do to her once they did.

  She peered out the grimy window, trying to take in her surroundings. They’d pulled off a narrow desert road and had entered the dirt parking lot of what appeared to be an abandoned airfield, tucked away in the middle of nowhere. There was a single runway, a small terminal with boarded-up windows, a few hangars, and a couple of broken-down prop planes that had seen better days.

  She gave a low whistle. “Toto, I don’t think we’re at the old McCormick place anymore.”

  Connor nodded as the boy he’d introduced as Luke put the truck in park and popped open his door. “Yeah, we’ve pretty much outgrown anything in the residential market these days,” he informed her. “There are at least two dozen of the Potentials living with us now. Plus, the three Dracken kids come by whenever they can get away from school and their families.” He counted off on his fingers. “Then there’s me, Trinity, Trinity’s father…”

  He trailed off as Luke pushed his seat forward to allow him to jump out of the truck. Scarlet watched him go, feeling glued to her seat, an icy worry prickling down her spine as she waited for him to finish his roll call. Waited for the one name she hadn’t heard yet—the one she was desperate to hear.

  In truth, Caleb’s name had been on the tip of her tongue since Connor and Trinity had first stepped into her jail cell back at the government lab. But she hadn’t managed to muster the courage to speak it out loud, too fearful of what she might learn. She thought back to the last time she’d seen him—lying unconscious in the back of the government truck, his body weak, his face pale, his mind locked in another world—an alternate reality known as the Nether—unable to escape.

  Connor held out his hand to help her out of the truck. “Oh, and Caleb too, of course,” he added, as if it were an afterthought.

  Scarlet’s breath let out in a rush of relief. She grabbed Connor’s hand and leapt from the vehicle to solid ground. Then she turned to him anxiously. “So he’s…okay?” she asked. “Caleb’s okay?”

  She waited, heart in her throat, as Connor shot an uneasy glance up at Trinity, who was still sitting in the front passenger seat, her eyes glued to the sky above, looking as if she were barely holding it together.

  When Luke had first picked them up, Trinity had insisted they drive around to try to track Emmy with the car. But they’d driven in circles for hours to no avail. Even Scarlet—who still had some connection to Emmy through the blood bond they shared—could not seem to pinpoint the dragon’s location. Perhaps it was because she was so drained of spark after all she’d suffered. Or perhaps Emmy was purposely blocking her—there was no clear way to tell. In the end, Connor had called off the search, saying they needed to get back and regroup before heading out again. Trinity had argued, then given in. And she hadn’t said a word since.

  Scarlet sighed. She’d tried to warn them. But she supposed she understood why Trinity hadn’t wanted to listen.

  Scarlet turned back to Connor. “Well? Is he okay or not?” she demanded, unable to take the suspense any longer. She was worried about Emmy too. But Caleb… Her pulse quickened.

  Connor sighed. “He’s alive, if that’s what you mean,” he said. “But he’s been a total vegetable for the last six months. He can eat and drink—and sometimes he even opens his eyes and seems to look at you. But it’s all on autopilot. He can’t talk. He can’t react to anything. His mind is locked in the Nether.” He gave a helpless shrug. “I’ve seen it before. Back home and with Trinity’s mother too. People—well, they get to the breaking point—where the Nether is more real to them than their real lives. Their conscious selves fuse to the other reality, and what’s left behind is just an empty shell.”

  Sc
arlet cringed. She thought back to the last time she’d seen Caleb, deep in this other world. The words they’d spoken, the kiss they’d shared. It was true that Caleb had been helpless, that he had been lost. But, she told herself, he hadn’t been broken. He was more than just a shell.

  He was a fighter. A survivor. Just as she herself was. She hadn’t let the government break her. And she knew Caleb would fight just as hard. Her words came rushing back to her.

  Will you stand with me, Caleb? Will you help me fight the monsters?

  I want to. God, I want to.

  “He’ll come back,” she stated fiercely, as if she could make it happen by sheer force of words. “I know he will.”

  Connor gave her a pitying look but, to his credit, didn’t try to argue. Instead he turned back to the airfield, making a sweeping gesture with his arm.

  “Anyway, this place used to be a small regional airport, mostly private planes coming in for the big desert racetrack a few miles from here,” he explained as they walked toward the terminal. “But the track got abandoned after they built a new one north of Vegas about five years ago and there was no use having an airfield this far from any towns. So they closed it down and left it to us.” He gave her a half smile. “Wait till you see. It’s a pretty cool setup, actually. Trin’s father hooked up a couple of generators for electricity, and there are plenty of rooms for people to sleep in. There’s even an old restaurant where we meet up to eat meals. And it’s so far off the beaten path, we really don’t have to worry about being found.”

  “Nice,” Scarlet said, and she meant it. “And that hangar will make for a perfect dragon cave if we get Emmy back, right?” she added, gesturing to the large building a few yards from the main terminal.

  “You mean when.”

  Scarlet whirled around at the sudden voice slicing through the air. She found Trinity standing too close behind her, arms crossed over her chest, her eyes red and burning. She must have gotten out of the truck when Scarlet and Connor were talking—so silently neither of them had heard her do it.

  Scarlet nodded, feeling her face flush. “Yes, of course. When,” she corrected hastily. “I meant when.” But Trinity only glared at her harder, as if she blamed Scarlet for everything. And maybe she did.

  Scarlet sighed. The two girls admittedly hadn’t gotten off to the best start—which Scarlet knew was mostly her fault, even though she’d had the best of intentions. She’d thought she was doing a good thing, breaking in and freeing Emmy from the dark, lonely barn back in her hometown. Instead, she’d inadvertently set all of this in motion. Because of her, their hideaway had been compromised, Trinity’s grandfather had been killed, and they’d been forced back on the run. Not exactly the best way to inspire a beautiful friendship.

  That said, hadn’t Scarlet more than made up for it since then? After all, she’d rescued Caleb from the Dracken, not to mention willingly walked into a six-month prison sentence to save Emmy. Shouldn’t all that pain and suffering count for something?

  Not judging by the way Trinity was staring at her now. And suddenly Scarlet wondered if the girl would have even bothered rescuing her if she hadn’t needed her to find Emmy.

  “Easy, tiger,” Connor interjected, stepping between them. He reached out to Trin, his face filled with sympathy as he tried to put a comforting arm around her waist. But she only jerked away, turning on her heel and retreating back to the truck, slamming the door behind her. Connor watched her go with a troubled expression. Then he turned back to Scarlet.

  “Sorry,” he said. “This whole thing has been so hard on her. I mean…” He gave an apologetic shrug. “Not as hard as it’s been on you, I know. But God, she loves that dragon so much. And to get this close only to have Emmy take off on her…” He shook his head slowly. “Flecking hell,” he muttered. “I don’t know what that stupid creature was thinking!”

  “I told you,” she said slowly. “Emmy’s changed. The things they did to her…” She trailed off, shuddering. She could feel Connor’s blue eyes boring into her, and she turned away. “Hell, if I were her, I’d never trust another human being again. Any human being.”

  Connor opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue that point, but at that moment, the doors of the terminal burst open, and a rowdy group of teens poured out, rushing them as they all tried to speak at once. The Potentials, Scarlet recognized with a little uneasiness, led by Rashida—the same group of kids with the weird psychic powers who had once tricked her into helping them, only to turn her and Caleb over to the enemy. What were they doing here? Were they now fighting for the home team? She remembered how, just before being taken away, she’d done a little psychic push of her own, sending Rashida a vision of the Dracken’s true mission. Had that worked to change their minds—and loyalties? Helped them realize who the bad guys really were?

  Connor put his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly. The group fell silent. “I’m sorry. There’s been a slight…complication,” he told them. “But I assure you, we’re not giving up.” He began to give a rundown of the day’s events.

  Scarlet took the opportunity to slip away from the crowd, unnoticed. After all, she’d already lived the story firsthand, and now she had other priorities. Heading over to the terminal, she pushed open the front doors and stepped inside.

  The place was sparse and had certainly seen better days, but it was clean and well kept, and she could tell some effort had been made to bring it to a livable level. There were several tables and chairs spread out across the main room, covered with puzzles and board games and computer tablets, and a foosball table was set up at one end. To her right was the restaurant Connor had mentioned, and Scarlet breathed in deeply, rejoicing in the smell of pizza being baked in a brick oven. It’d been a long, long time since she’d had a slice of pepperoni, and her mouth was watering.

  “Well, hello there.”

  She looked up to see a middle-aged man step out from the restaurant. He was tall and thin, with wild salt-and-pepper hair and dark eyes that crinkled at the corners. He came around the counter, walking with a pronounced limp.

  “Hi,” Scarlet replied, feeling shy all of a sudden.

  “You must be Scarlet,” the man said. “I’m Cameron, Trinity’s father.” He gave her a kind smile. “Are you hungry? Can I make you something?”

  The offer was more than tempting. The pizza smelled ridiculously good. But she knew she wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy it. Not yet.

  “Do you know where Caleb is?” she asked instead, her heart thumping in her chest.

  Trinity’s father gave her a curious look. Then he shrugged. “He’s down the corridor,” he told her. “Third door from the left.”

  Scarlet nodded wordlessly, then forced her feet to move, one after another, in the direction he pointed. As she walked down the hall, her heart started beating faster and faster in her chest. By the time she reached the third door, she could barely breathe.

  She paused for a moment, sucked in a breath, then pushed open the door and stepped inside.

  The room was sterile. Cold, almost, with no furnishings save for a hospital-style bed in the center and a metal folding chair set up beside it. The walls were white and blank, and the windows were boarded up. It was bleak. Depressing. But what did it matter? she asked herself. Caleb’s body might be here, but his mind is elsewhere. He could be in the most luxurious palace right now, and he wouldn’t even know.

  She turned to the figure on the bed, and her breath caught in her throat. He looked so still, his eyes closed, his skin pale. Like a sleeping angel. Her heart squeezed.

  “Oh, Bad Seed,” she whispered, using her old nickname for him. She stepped forward until she reached the bed, dropping to the chair by his side. Reaching out, she took his hand in hers, horrified at how clammy and cold it felt, how translucent the skin. She stroked his fingers, trying to warm them, while peering down at his face, searching for some sign of
life. Some hidden spark, deep down, that told her he was still in there, still holding out, waiting for her to return.

  But she saw nothing. Just a deathly pallor that chilled her to the bone. She bit her lower lip, feeling the tears leak from her eyes. Could Connor be right? Was he really gone? Was this only the shell of the boy who had held her in his arms and kissed her as she’d begged him to help her save the world?

  No. She frowned, brushing the tears away with an angry swipe. She refused to believe that. Let the others think what they would—she knew he was still in there somewhere, still fighting to get free.

  “I’m here now, Caleb,” she whispered, still holding his hand. “I’m back and I’m not going to leave. I know you’re in there somewhere, and I’m not going to give up on you.”

  On impulse, she leaned down. As her lips brushed across his cheek, she heard the clearing of a throat behind her. She jumped out of her seat, startled, dropping Caleb’s hand like a hot potato. When she turned around, she saw Trinity, silhouetted in the doorway.

  “Oh. You scared me,” Scarlet said with an uneasy laugh. Her heart pattered nervously in her chest. How long had she been standing there? How much had she heard?

  Trinity didn’t smile back. “What are you doing in here?” she asked instead.

  “Nothing.” Scarlet felt her face heat. “I was just… Your father said he was here…and…”

  “And…?” Trinity raised an eyebrow.

  “And I wanted to—see him,” she stammered, now feeling completely flustered. “That’s all.”

  It was then that she remembered that Trinity would have no idea what had gone down between her and Caleb in the Nether. Of course she would be questioning—for all she knew, Scarlet barely knew the guy. She wondered if she should come clean, inform Trinity that she and Caleb were basically a couple now. But something in the girl’s black eyes caused the words to stick in her throat.