Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

  They died from that. Eventually. But it was a suck-ass decline into insanity the entire time.

  I’m not too keen on that, you know?

  Instead, I hit the rest of the space and listened to their breathing. They sound dead asleep. So freaking exhausted. I can see that. None of them stayed up to masturbate over their new powers. Neither did I. Maybe tonight?

  Instead of doing that, I slip out onto the patio. The sky’s pretty light right now, telling me sunrise is going to be…huh, within the hour, although more than a half hour at a guess. The city feels kinda asleep to me. As I wish I were right now. Instead, here I am standing on the edge of the roof looking down on other buildings, wondering if anyone down there is looking up and seeing my boobs.

  That makes me smile as I back away from the ledge. If I knew how to fly, I could go for a flight around the city. That sounds like a ton of fun. Too bad I can’t quite do that safely yet. I can practice up here, true, I just don’t want to ram my skull into the ground. Again. Better to do it somewhere closer to softer ground than a building or the city street below.

  The cool water in the pool engulfs me as I slip into it.

  “Oh my God, this feels amazing!” My voice sounds sort of sad and forlorn, but I think that’s mainly because I’m trying to be quiet. I don’t feel sad, so I’m hoping I’m not just missing it.

  Thank God I can still swim. That’s something I didn’t forget. That lets me start swimming around and doing laps, luxuriating in the exercise and the feeling of waking up as the cool water gets my brain moving. I shouldn’t feel this good after 50 minutes of sleep, yet here I am.

  I still feel amazing as I climb out after dozens of laps in the huge pool. It wasn’t a full workout, so I’ll have to find a gym at some point. The girls have a better idea of how strong I am, so I don’t have to hide things all that much from them.

  Which calls into question what I have to do for year two. I hid being able to do any magic from pretty much everyone until the trial. I hid how strong I was. How fast. Do I do it? I’m thinking it’s going to be a mix of the two. Do normal things and hide the rest. Let’s see if I can do that.

  My skin dried quickly from the air and a bit of fire magic as I headed back inside. I don’t know when they’re going to wake up, I really don’t, I just don’t think they’ll be up before noon. Maybe not even before 2 or 3. Although maybe.

  That means that I need to eat breakfast. Pretty much right now.

  I know I can order food up from the restaurant, I just don’t want to do that, so my hair gets thrown back in a ponytail and I slip into clothes before heading downstairs. Let’s go find someplace to eat. Maybe I can explore a little before they get up for the day. Then come back and eat with them again.

  All three get a text from me at that point so that they’re not confused by me not being there, then my phone gets put away. I should have brought my tablet to do some reading.

  Oh well, you know what? Skip it.

  The lobby feels asleep when I reach it. No residents wandering around. No one checking in or out. I kinda expected a businessperson or two checking out. After all, it is a weekday. That seemed kinda normal to me for a hotel in the city, yet it’s just a bellhop sitting in a chair barely staying awake and then a young girl behind the check-in counter.

  She looks shocked to see me approaching. “Can I help you?”

  “Any recommendations for good places to eat nearby? I’m staaarving. Someplace used to handling dragons, because I don’t feel like getting questioned about how much I plan on eating.”

  She didn’t react to my dragon comment. She’s a pure norm, at least based on what I’m seeing and smelling, so that’s probably due to dealing with a ton of us. Most people react at least a little. Usually with a slight whiff of fear. “There are a couple? You’re looking for breakfast?”

  “Yeah.”

  She pulled a sheet of paper from behind the counter and put it onto the countertop, spinning it around. “We’re here.” She pointed to the name of the hotel in the middle of the page, “This diner is fantastic. I’ve rarely heard anyone complaining about the food or the quantities. It’s owned by a dragon, so they have a special menu for you.” She changed locations, “This is another diner that’s very, very good. Norm owners, but they like to cater to the mage and dragon crowds when they can.”

  “Anyplace else?”

  She frowned a little, “Those two stand out the most.” She pointed to five in quick succession, “I’ve eaten at these as well. Good food. I don’t know how they’ll react to the amount you want to eat, though.”

  Hmm, “How much of a kickback do the other two give you?”

  She looked up, brows coming together, “None? I’ve never even met the owners in either of them, just heard about them through other people or various articles.”

  She smells one hundred percent honest. That gets me sliding her a hundred bucks, “Thank you. If they’re good, I’ll give you more when I get back.”

  That got her eyes to light up something fierce, “Thank you! You don’t have to do that!”

  “You’re welcome. Thank you for your help.”

  “You’re welcome. Good luck?”

  “Thanks.” I left her behind and hit the street. Let’s hit the dragon place and see if it’s any good. I don’t care if people question how much I eat, I really don’t, I just don’t feel like dealing with it.

  That’s something that mages don’t need to deal with. They eat more than norms do, just not too much more on average. Dragons, though? It’s another thing that makes us stand out as not being human.

  I’m coming to find that a ton of dragons feel the same way. That we’re not really humans. Mages are humans with magic. We’re something else that happens to have a human form.

  I don’t think of myself as that, yet that could be because of the integration we went through. Now that we’re not us, we’re me, that could very well change things pretty heavily. Which is yet another way that I’m a freak to the others.

  Makes me wonder if I can change my scent so that I register as a dragon to people. I doubt that I can do something to really smell like that, but can I come up with a spell that does it for me? Given what I’ve learned about magic, I might be able to do it. Yet that makes me worry. Spells to hide the stripes in our hair and how it lights up when using magic don’t seem to work. Unless you hide your head entirely. You can’t hide your eyes with glamour. It just doesn’t work. So, you can wear a wig to hide your hair or glasses, yet even something as simple as contacts tend to fail. They’ll literally fall out. I’ve heard of cases where they kinda disintegrate, which is just weird to me. Something about our magic eats it away until it’s gone.

  What the fuck is up with that?

  I’ve heard of people shaving their head and trying to go bald, but then the follicles will light up. I kid you not. I saw a video of that on the drive down from Montana. I had asked about that as a possibility and Parece remembered seeing it. All of us have had the same thoughts at one point or another it seems.

  It was funny as hell to sees spots lighting up on his head. Since the color in our hair grows in stripes, many people think that it’s the same color in a line. That’s not the case, and the video showed that pretty well. You could see spots on his head that were like an inch wide. That’s where the hair grows from. We’re not carnival tents with stripes like that.

  What’s even funnier and something I didn’t know? There’s no male pattern baldness for mages and dragons. If we get something like that, the regular hair will recede or fall out, but the colored hair? Nope. That stays in. So, you get a guy that goes almost entirely bald? He’ll have hair in those spots left.

  Makes me wonder if they wear wigs as a routine thing or just shave so that it matches unless they’re doing magic. If that happened to me, I think I’d just shave. Either that or grow it out and gel it like a punk rocker and have long spikes coming out at different angles.

  Honestly, either approach sounds go
od to me and makes me want to find a razor to see how I look bald.

  The diner smells amazing before I reach it. Thank God I’m downwind from them, because that gets me seriously in the mood for food by the time I arrived. I only thought I was hungry before. Now, though? Holy hell, I’m getting desperate for food.

  There’s a younger guy at the counter when I step through. He’s a norm and looks…17 or so? Maybe my age. If he is, then he should be in school, right? Wait, no, summer vacation for him more than likely.

  He grabs a menu as soon as I enter and freezes for a second when he catches the white in my hair. Then does it again when he sees my eyes. “Umm…one?”

  “Yes.” I nearly added a please to that, then didn’t due to his reaction. Not because he paused, but because he immediately smelled like he wanted to laugh at me.

  He didn’t say anything as he brought me to a table and left me with a menu. My blood began to simmer as he reached the front of the place and apparently talked into his phone, “You won’t believe this shit. Some girl walked in here pretending to be a mage, but she fucked up. She’s got white in her hair and white contacts. So fucking stupid.” He’s texting, at least based on the sound I just heard.

  Wow, I really want to bust some heads open. I shouldn’t be this upset about someone saying something that’s kinda normal to think. Yet I am.

  A girl that looks maybe 20 approaches. She has bronze stripes in her hair and turns out to be the bronze dragon that I smelled when I came in. She catches my hair and eyes and squints a little but doesn’t say anything before reaching the table, “Hey, I’m Missy and I’ll be taking care of you this morning. Do you know what you’d like? Or should I give you a minute?”

  Something on the menu caught my eye and made me salivate, “I’ll take a coffee. Extra-large. I need to look through the menu first, but can I get the Gotta Eat Now app before I snap and tear the guy that sat me into tiny pieces?”

  Her scent changed to curiosity, “I’m sorry? The guy that sat you?” She looked to the front, “Did he say something to you? And that app? It’s raw bacon. You can get sick from that.”

  She froze at my smile as I took on a posture of dominance and confidence, “I know it’s raw. I’m starving right now and breaking him in two and eating the pieces is a serious contender whenever someone laughs about me into their phone when they text someone about me coming in here. Tell him he’d better thank fucking God I’m not taking him somewhere dark and hurting him.”

  She sniffed, “Umm…you…he…”

  “I may not smell normal to you, but I’m very much a dragon.” I lit my hair up for her to see it, “I’m also starving, and he’s conveniently made of meat. So please, for my sake, for his sake, get me the app while I figure out what else I want to eat. I fought a challenge with four others last night and had to deal with the cops until 4am and was up at 5, so my ability to hold off the rather exceedingly violent urges running through me is running thin.”

  She whirled and hurried off, coming back in less than a minute with a platter of uncooked bacon and huge coffee, then hurried off again. I didn’t watch her leave, but I wasn’t shocked to have her head to the front without me being able to see her and pull the guy aside. She liberally tore into him, which made me smile as I chowed down on the bacon while looking through the menu.

  Good. Now maybe he won’t fuck up with the wrong person that’s not willing to let things slide. That was very nearly me this morning, and I seem to be more relaxed than a ton of others out there.

  She came back a few minutes later, shocked to find the app gone, “Do…do you know what you want?”

  “I do.” I ordered two cheese omelets with hash browns, toast, and sausage, then a southwestern omelet with more of the same.

  No response before she left.

  Too funny.

  My time there seemed to shift into high gear, and I entertained myself on my phone reading various sites, then with filling my cavernous stomach. I was pleasantly full when I was done, left a decent tip for her, and then left the freaked-out front desk guy behind. He smelled rather like terror as I walked past him. Just to add to it, I let my hair light up as I debated hitting him with something. Maybe a spell to make him poop? That could be fun.

  Nah, she already talked to him. Let’s head back to the hotel.

  There are distressingly few places open this early, so I did some window shopping without actually being able to head in. I was more than okay with that, though. We’ll have time to head back out again. Maybe even later today.

  Samantha’s place was quiet still when I arrived, finding the three of them just as knocked out as before. So not shocking. That means it’s time to break out my tablet and do some reading. Maybe out on the patio. The sun’s been up for a bit, so I can greet the new day with a book? Sounds like a plan to me!

  My adventure in lying out and reading lasted for hours and hours. I broke things up with times in the pool, visits to the bathroom, trips to refresh my water, and then generally wandering the ledge of the building and watching LA come alive.

  I swear, the vague memories of where I lived didn’t have stuff like this. I don’t think I lived in the mountains. I don’t remember any scenery like that. What I do remember is weird, though, since the spell fucked with that to stop me from being able to figure out where I lived.

  Which tells me that what I would have seen as a normal part of things would have helped me narrow down where I lived. At least that’s what I get out of it.

  I’d bet serious money that I didn’t live in the city, even though that’s where I was left. Or at least not in a city. And sure as hell nothing like LA. I don’t remember any mountains other than when we’d go skiing. I somewhat recall travelling to get there, though. It wasn’t close. Hmm, swimming and the beach was closer, I recall that and spending a ton of time in the ocean.

  Okay, so then maybe what I would have seen and being near the ocean really would have narrowed things down for me?

  I’m thinking it would. I need to think about that more.

  My phone alarm let me know that it’s lunch time, which made me realize I’m kinda hungry again. Not raw bacon urgent kinda hungry, though, so I’m okay to wait to see if the girls wake up again.

  Two huge thumps from the floor above got me up out of my chair, catching a pair of golden wings before they pulled back and I lost sight of them. Oookay? We have at least one gold dragon up there and I’m in the penthouse of a gold dragon.

  Fuck.

  I didn’t rush, but I did head in, aiming for Samantha’s space. She and Parece are still out of it, but this seems like a good time to wake at least Samantha.

  Dammit, do I tap her? Will she wake up fighting? I’ve heard of people doing that, what with the whole my roommate could kill me at any moment mentality of the academy.

  In order to fight that, I cleared my throat. Then again. Nothing. “Samantha?” No response to my whisper. You know what? Fuck it. “Samantha!” I didn’t yell, but I made it pretty freaking clear I was here and trying to get her attention.

  Both of them sat up, eyes wide and looking for trouble. I had my hands up by the time they caught me, “Sorry to wake you, but it’s a bit after noon and a gold dragon just landed upstairs along with another that I didn’t see. I thought I’d wake you since, you know, these could be people you know.”

  She rubbed her face, “Fucking hell. What time is it?”

  “12:20.”

  “Dammit. When did you wake up?”

  “Just before 5.”

  “You gotta be fucking kidding me.” Parece’s horrified voice was nearly broken up by her yawn.

  “Nope. Now, I’m perfectly fine dealing with whoever just got here, but since I was already picked at by the guy at the diner this morning, I’m not feeling all that level if they tear into me for some stupid shit.”

  She slid out, still rubbing her eyes, “No, it’s okay. Thank you. This could very well be my parents.”

  “What are the chances of t
ha…”

  A loud voice interrupted, “Samantha?!” I won’t say he sounds pissed, but he kinda does. He sounds like he’s used to instant responses, too.

  Samantha tensed, eyes jerking up to look past me.

  A female voice came next, “Samantha? Get out here. I smell you, so we know you’re here.”

  A quiet, “Fuck,” escaped her, but I knew it didn’t go past me for her parents to hear her. She didn’t say anything else before straightening out, at least a little, and heading out. Parece was behind her, taking obvious deep breaths. Probably to calm her nerves, which I can somewhat smell from her.

  While I feel at least a little nervous, I’m not anywhere near what I would have expected. That put me in the rear as our little line headed for the adults. Angelica exited her room, running her hands through her hair like she’s trying to get extra blood flow moving. She mainly smelled confused as she fell in next to me.

  Samantha’s parents are…wow. She’s big, but her parents are just as big. Her mom’s maybe an inch shorter, but she has just as much muscle as my friend. Her father is a couple inches taller and looks like he ate his Wheaties growing up. And the serving for the neighbors. And possibly the neighbors as well. He also looks vaguely familiar. I’ve seen him before; I just can’t place it. He’s got a Latino vibe that Samantha doesn’t have, but I think that’s because she takes after her mother instead.

  They caught us approaching, as you’d think for uber predators.

  Her father looked her over, then at the rest of us, nose working like crazy. “There you are. Why did you come to town and not tell us? Your room is still open!”

  “Hi, Dad. Mom. I have my friends with me from the academy. We wanted to do our own thing and don’t really have any firm plans to stay here for very long. We’re looking to head over to Florida at some point and then maybe up through New York before heading back to the Academy for second year.”

  “And that means you don’t tell us?”

  I was somewhat shocked that she didn’t go up and hug either of them, “You would have cross-examined everyone, and I didn’t want to go through that!”