by Bobbie Rayne
“No one said anything suspicious?” Zale asked.
Az shook his head. “Nothing.”
“What about Uncle K? Did you talk to him?” I asked.
“I did, but I haven’t told him anything.”
“Why? He’s family.” And also the Chieftain of the Brotherhood. I frowned.
Az met my gaze. “I don’t think we can bring anyone else into this right now. If Uncle Kazimir says something to the wrong person, he could put himself in danger as well as us. I’m not risking it until we gather more information.”
“Fair enough,” Malachite said.
“Alright, enough shop talk for now. Let’s go in and enjoy our dinner,” Doc said, ushering us back inside.
Throughout dinner, I was pretty quiet, running things through my head and trying to remember if I’d read anything about the calma plants in one of the books in our library—we had so many problems right now that couldn’t be solved overnight, so I decided to focus on the one I actually had a chance of helping with. But I was still coming up empty-handed.
2
Slash
Finally, last period, which meant music. At least it was my favorite class of the day. The one time I could let loose and be me without worrying about anything. Mrs. Karasel smiled at me as I walked in. She and Mrs. Eldrid, the school counselor I’d been assigned when I moved here, were the two adults I’d spent the most time with in the last few years. They’d made my transition to a new school a little easier. Not only were both of them sympathetic to what they believed my situation to be—since I couldn’t actually tell them, I couldn’t tell anyone—but they always encouraged me, assured me that I had this thing called life whether I felt like I did or not. And unfortunately, I did not, but I couldn’t afford to not at least fake it. My sister Kyla needed me; I was the only person she had left that she could depend on, and I wouldn’t fail her.
Settling into my chair, I pretended I didn’t notice Eeli staring at me. The guy had always given me side-eyes for no reason. It had been obvious since day one that he thought he was better than me; truth be told, I was pretty sure he thought he was better than anyone. It rankled that I had two classes with him, even worse was that one of them was first period. He curled his nose up each day when I walked in late, but it was none of his business, and I didn’t owe him or anyone else an explanation. It was excused by the school and that was all that mattered. In a couple more months, I was sure Mr. Brainiac would be off to whatever superior school he’d managed to get into, and I’d be stuck here training with Mr. Udine at MJ Supermarket. Not that I wasn’t thankful, it was a stroke of luck that my first job was with someone who saw potential in me no matter how surly my attitude had been when I first moved here.
Blowing out a deep breath, I tried to get lost in the music. This was my time to block out the shitstorm that was my life and feel, get totally lost in my emotions in a way I couldn’t afford to any other time. As I started to relax into the selection Mrs. Karasel’s picked for today, I couldn’t help but notice that Eeli—okay, let’s be honest, I’d have noticed Eeli anyway; he was kinda beautiful for someone so completely self-absorbed—was doing that ants-in-his-pants wiggle thing he’d been doing lately. What was wrong with this guy? He may have been ridiculously intelligent, handsome in that scholarly, preppy kinda way, with a voice that I’d love to have read me to sleep at night—and had possibly heard in my dreams more nights than I was comfortable with—but he seemed like he’d developed an issue. Maybe he needed to be on meds or something. I didn’t notice him doing it when I was far away from him, you know, if I happened to observe where he was when he ate lunch, or when he was in the hall in front of me, but in class he sure had started twitching a lot. Especially in this class, which was odd.
“Slash,” Mrs. Karasel said when we were done. “Your voice sounds as beautiful as ever.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled back. I appreciated how attentive she tried to be to me, but it was embarrassing when she made comments in front of the whole class. I just wanted to be invisible. Of course, I caught Eeli’s put-out expression and his eye roll. Perfect. I slid down in my seat and tried to nonchalantly turn it so I wouldn’t be able to see him out of my peripheral anymore. This time was important to me, and I wouldn’t let him steal it from me.
After class, I waited until everyone else left before I approached Mrs. Karasel’s desk where she waited for me. This was a daily ritual, one I counted on. “Hey, Mrs. K. I like that piece you chose. It’s kinda haunting.”
She turned her kind smile on me and it warmed me on the inside. I tried to smile back, but it had been a long time since I’d genuinely smiled, but I managed a small grin for her. It was almost hard to talk to her sometimes. She reminded me so much of how my own mother had been—forties, hippy-style dress, no makeup, long, kinda-wild hair. If she’d had blonde hair and green eyes instead of being chocolate brown with brown eyes, they could have been sisters. “I’m so pleased you like it. I heard it and thought, this is perfect for Slash.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant by that, so I kinda let it go and stood and talked to her for another fifteen minutes about whatever. She never pushed me about how we were doing, but asked me little things about my day and my job. It was nice, and it was also enough time for the school parking lot to empty of most of the kids who drove and the buses to be gone before I walked across the back grounds to the middle school where my sister would be waiting for me. We could have ridden a bus to school, but we tried to stay off the radar with the other kids as much as possible.
When we’d first moved to Dargum’s Cove to live with our Uncle Larry, I’d noticed it wasn’t the smallest town, but it wasn’t the biggest, either. My parents had told us stories of my uncle’s exploits, and we didn’t want to draw attention to the fact we lived with the town drunk. They’d always told us about the troubles he’d had, and I’m sure they wouldn’t have been happy that the state had stuck us with him, but he was our only remaining family member. I knew the only reason he’d taken us was the meager amount of money that had come with us. It may not have been a ton to most people, but for an alcoholic who couldn’t hold a job, it was a goldmine.
“Hey, sis,” I yelled out when I was close enough to see her hovering in the doorway where I met her each day.
“Christian, you’re never gonna believe what I got on my book report.” She bobbed up and down on her toes, her vampire red hair glistening around her.
“Hmmm… I wonder. I bet you got a C; am I right?” I teased her.
She pushed at my arm as I walked up beside her. “You know it isn’t even possible for me to get a C with you helping me with my language arts homework. No, I got an A+! My teacher said that my understanding of the book was wise beyond my years and that my argument in favor of the author’s point of view was compelling.”
“Nice, sis!” I grabbed her backpack from her and threw it over my shoulder. It was bumpy and awkward carrying both of ours home like that, but it was a bit of a walk and there wasn’t a lot I could do for her. Our parents had died right as she was going into middle school. My mom hadn’t been around for her to talk to about boys or to teach her how to put on makeup, and Dad wasn’t there for her to lean on like I’d had him, so I did my best to fill the void of their absence.
“What else happened at school today?” I asked her as we strolled home. I had a couple of hours before I had to be at the grocery store, so we could take our time.
“Nothing really.” She shrugged, her shoulder turning into her body. It was hard watching my sister, who’d had so many friends until we moved here, not having anyone to hang out with. She’d just gone and gotten her nose pierced with my mom before Mom died, which in our old school wouldn’t have been a big deal. We were known for having the cool parents who let us do wacky things. All of my sister’s friends, even their parents, had thought Kyla’s dainty diamond piercing in her nose was adorable on her. That was our way. I’d had mine done in seventh grade and no one had been sh
ocked since my dad had gauges in his ears that were half an inch.
Unfortunately, moving to a new town and being the new girl, it had been hard for her to make friends. She’d immediately gotten a reputation for being wild since she went into middle school with a nose piercing, which she certainly wasn’t. It didn’t help that the day we moved, before we’d ever left the house, I’d also dyed her hair a vampire red and mine a violet-black I’d found at a beauty supply. We’d needed a new look, and while the one we had I hoped would keep anyone from recognizing us, it didn’t ingratiate us to new people.
“Oh, I know something funny that happened today,” she said, startling me out of my negative thoughts.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“These two boys got in a fight in the cafeteria. It was hilarious, Christian. You should’ve seen them. Neither one of them actually knew how to fight, but they were both trying to look tough in front of everybody. I swear the bigger one was trying not to cry by the time the teachers separated them and dragged them out of there.”
It was refreshing to hear her giggle. It used to be annoying how much she laughed, so free and easy. But she was a lot like my mom who’d laughed constantly. Not being able to help myself, I threw my arm around her shoulders and squeezed her into my side, awkward backpacks and all. She snuggled in without complaint as we finished our trek home.
It was a relief when we got to the apartment complex to not see my uncle’s junky little car in the parking lot. If he was already gone, he probably wouldn’t be home for hours. As much as I hated leaving Kyla alone while I went to work, I despised when he was still home with her even worse. She walked straight to the refrigerator as soon as I opened the door and let us into the apartment. “There’s still no food,” she said glumly.
“Didn’t you eat lunch at school today?” I asked, concerned. My Uncle Larry very rarely remembered to provide food for us, and I got what I could when I got paid, but I tried not to buy very many things that would need to go into the refrigerator since he would eat it all. Most everything we had was processed food I could hide in our room and make when he wasn’t home. It was hard on both of us because my dad had been a chef status, gourmet cook and we’d eaten fresh vegetables and meats almost every night.
“No.”
“Kyla, why haven’t you been eating lunch at school lately? The whole reason I filled out the free lunch form online was to make sure that you ate breakfast and lunch, at least. I don’t get paid until tonight so it’ll be tomorrow before I can restock our supply of bread and stuff.”
She sank onto the couch but averted her eyes. “Don’t worry about it. We still have some peanut butter left. I’ll have a couple of spoonfuls. I’ll be fine.”
“Kyla, what’s going on? This doesn’t work if we’re not honest with each other. I can’t fix it if you won’t tell me.”
Her shoulders sagged again, making her appear older than she was and as tired as I felt. “One of the lunch ladies was telling me I had to put money on my account a couple of weeks ago when I was at the register. She was new and didn’t know. I was trying to quietly tell her that if she scanned my badge she’d see she was mistaken, but… anyway, the old lunch lady, remember the one I told you is older than dirt and half deaf?” I nodded my head at her. “Well, she yelled up from back where the food line is across the whole space that I got free lunch and to let me by.”
I crossed the room and sat down next to her, grabbing one of her hands in mine while tilting her chin with the other so that she had to look me in the face. “Have kids been making fun of you since then?”
Tears filled her eyes. “Yeah,” she whispered. Then she reached up to rub the silver heart charm my parents had given her when she’d turned five. She’d worn it on a bracelet when she was little, but as she got older, Mom had transferred it to a braided leather cord necklace that matched the bracelet I wore. Her rubbing it or holding onto it had been the tell of when she was upset since she was little.
Trying my hardest not to let my anger show, I said, “You know lots of kids have to get free lunch, right?”
She nodded and one lone tear rolled down her face. “I know, but most of them have friends, too. I don’t know. It was like one more thing, you know?” She reached up and wiped the tear away. “I already feel like I stand out. The freak, you know? It’s like it doesn’t even matter that other girls have their noses pierced now, or even this one girl at school dyed her hair all different colors.” With the faintest tilt to her lips, she said, “It’s kind of cool. It looks like a mermaid tail or something. But it’s like none of that matters. I’m still the weird, new girl three years later. The one who sits alone at lunch and…”
I checked the time on the wall clock and saw I had half an hour before I had to leave for work, and my sister would lock herself into our room until I got back. I had homework to do, but my sister needed me, so I wrapped both arms around her and leaned back into the couch with her head tucked under my chin, giving her the only thing I could—my love.
3
Eeli
Grabbing the bottle of oil, I poured a small amount over Bodhi’s wyrmling-sized body, then began rubbing it in. The calma oil we used on our dragons came from a special plant that originated in the dragon realm—or so I was told. We rubbed our dragons down in their smaller size to help their scales when they transformed into their huge warrior size. Without regular oil, Bo wouldn’t be able to shift.
Which was why we’d been giving some of our supply to Davis’s clan. Since he mated with my brother Zale, we’d been trying to help his old clan’s dragons and their riders. Their calma plant was dying and no one knew how to bring it back to life, so we’d been sharing our oil with them and any tips we could find. That meant our supply was low and we had to use it sparingly, but I was happy we could help other dragons in some small way.
Bodhi loved being oiled down since she basically got a massage every time. And I liked having this time with her, too. Your scales are shining.
Pretty?
Beautiful.
She preened, and I continued rubbing it into her skin until I’d covered her entire body. As soon as I finished, she shifted into her warrior form.
“You ready?” I asked Bodhi, and she nudged my shoulder with her giant snout in response.
Ready. In this form her head was probably bigger than my entire body, and her purple scales were glistening in the fading sunlight. She was truly breathtaking, and definitely the prettiest of all the dragons, if I do say so myself. Thank you, Eeli, ma’cordhe. Every time she called me ma’cordhe it warmed my heart. I had no idea what language it was, or where that endearment came from, but it was something she called only me, her little heart. It was her version of calling me her bonded rider, but with so much love behind it, I felt it in her words and through our bond.
With a nod and a huge grin on my face, I climbed onto her back and grabbed her spikes on the back of her neck as she walked to the edge of the cliff. Before we could take off, Azaran called out, “You doing alright?”
Holding in the eye roll, I said, “Yes, we’re fine.” Then I leaned forward and said to Bodhi, Let’s go before he catches up.
I like this plan.
I chuckled as she leapt from the cliff and opened her wings up, catching the air beneath them. She flapped them twice to gain some air, and then we were soaring over the open water. Flying was one of my favorite things to do, and I was beyond happy that Bodhi and I could fly on our own now. Before my eighteenth birthday, we’d had to catch a ride with one of my older brothers—she could fly in wyrmling form, but I couldn’t go with her and we couldn’t cover the great distances we could now. Since Bodhi and I had bonded, we could go anywhere we wanted, anytime we wanted to.
Flying was the one place where Bo and I thrived together as a team. It was everything else that seemed to not fit well.
There were a few ships out on the water, but I wasn’t worried about them seeing us because we were cloaked in dragon magic and una
ble to be seen by the human eye. We flew for over an hour, just enjoying the freedom and the feeling of the wind in our faces, but I knew we needed to practice a few things, so I pet Bodhi’s neck and asked her, Do you want to practice drops?
Okay, she replied, but didn’t sound too sure.
What’s wrong?
She hesitated for a moment. What if I’m not fast enough?
We’ve done it a million times, and even if you don’t catch me, we’re over water. I’ll be fine, Bo. I didn’t mention that falling from this height, even water would likely kill me. Or at the very least, break some bones.
I’m ready.
I smiled as I stood on her back, balancing carefully with my arms out. Taking a deep breath, I dove off her back so I was free-falling through the air. Wait a couple of seconds, I reminded her, not in the least bit perturbed as I plummeted toward the ocean. Actually, I kind of liked it. She was anxious, but I wasn’t worried. She was quick and would easily catch up to me. After a few seconds, she dove after me, and since we had enough room, instead of catching me in her talons, she flew beside me, so I grabbed her spike, then pulled myself onto her back before she swooped down and brushed her talons across the water.
I yelled in victory. “See? I knew you could do it!”
She growled a little in excitement, and I stroked her neck, then hugged her as best I could in this form.
Let’s practice some catches, I suggested.
Okay.
She and I spent the next hour doing drills; I jumped from her back and she practiced catching me in different ways; I slid down to her tail and practiced holding on while she flew; she held me in her arms with a wing covering my body while she practiced navigating with one wing; and on and on. We did all kinds of drills because you never knew what was going to happen in battle. But the drills never really felt like work because they were so fun. Bo and I loved jumping around, having her throw and catch me, and practicing different flying techniques. Bo loved to play, so it worked perfectly that practicing was like playing for us. We loved it, and I was sad to go home, but I needed to eat and get ready for bed since I had school in the morning.