Slayers

by C. J. Hill

  Dirk shrugged. It was as good an excuse as any for his tension.

  Dr. B’s expression softened. “The world wants us to believe that we’re not important unless we’re in charge of things. It isn’t true, though. Whatever part we play, whatever position we have on the team, it’s valuable. Even old men with no powers, like myself, are important. You understand that?”

  Dirk didn’t answer.

  “Tori will not only need Jesse’s help, she’ll need your help, too, in order to find her way. You’ll help her no matter what her extra ability turns out to be?”

  Dirk nodded. “Sure.”

  “You won’t let your team play practical jokes on her? No stringing her clothes on the tops of the trees or freezing her belongings?”

  Dirk’s lips twitched, but he suppressed his smile. “Not unless she gets on my nerves.”

  “Dirk …”

  Dirk held up one hand. “Okay, we’ll be good.”

  Dr. B smiled, his mood lightening. “Wonderful. That will help me sleep easier.” He put his hand on Dirk’s shoulder, giving it a brief squeeze. “You know, you can always come to me if something is bothering you. I consider you boys the sons I never had.”

  “And we consider you the medieval studies professor we never had.”

  Dr. B laughed, and the sound of it flowed around the trees as though it belonged to the forest. “I try not to play favorites—Bess would argue that I try too hard. She thinks I ought to throw some favoritism in her direction once in a while. But I will tell you this. You remind me of my brother—your humor and self-confidence. I want you to know that I admire you for doing what’s right.”

  The compliment pinched Dirk like shoes that were too small. It didn’t fit and he couldn’t wear it. “It’s Jesse who believes in always doing the right thing.”

  “I know,” Dr. B said. “You don’t entirely believe it, but here you are doing it anyway.”

  Dirk half grunted to show he didn’t consider himself so admirable, but for the few minutes it took to get to the stables, he believed the compliment and glowed inside. Dr. B admired him. Dirk would do the right thing.

  Later when they parted ways, Dirk only wished he hadn’t been so flippant by answering, “We consider you the medieval studies professor we never had.” He could have said, “And I consider you the father I never had.” It would have been partially true. Because his father was nothing like Dr. B.

  CHAPTER 20

  It turned out Jesse was right; the welder’s helmet was a hassle. Tori had done her hair in a tight French braid before they left for the Easter grounds, tucking the end of her braid under the back of the helmet, but every time she landed from a leap, the helmet jostled on her face and she had to right it again. Plus, it cut into her peripheral vision, which meant she kept getting tackled from the side.

  Finally, she said to Dr. B, “How about we make a deal. You promise not to throw any fireballs at me tonight, and I’ll take off the helmet so I can play the game right.”

  Dr. B smiled, the curve of his cheeks pushing up into his infrared goggles. “Certainly.”

  But Jesse, who stood nearby, took her hand as she reached for her helmet. “Don’t do it. One of the first lessons he likes to teach Slayers is that you can’t trust anyone. If you take off the helmet, you’re asking for a fireball to the face.”

  Tori turned back to Dr. B, who was still smiling. “Jesse has a point,” he said. “You should never put your safety in someone else’s hands. They may not take care of it as well as you’d like.”

  Tori’s mouth dropped open. “You’re our leader. You’re not supposed to lie to us.”

  “You’re a Slayer. You’re supposed to take care of yourself. Which of us will suffer more for our negligence?”

  She didn’t answer. You should be able to trust some people. You should at least be able to trust the people who were training you. She tugged the helmet back down onto her face and went back to the game.

  Tori always chose hiding places close to the boulders. Her only hope of making it around the ring of the boulders was to do it while the A-team’s seeker chased someone else. Tori’s leaps had improved from the day before, but she couldn’t leap from branch to branch like the others.

  When Lilly was the A-team’s seeker, she barreled after Tori right off. Tori tried to jump over her, but Lilly effortlessly leapt up and tackled her in midair. Tori slammed down into one of the boulders, its sharp edges stabbing into her back. She rolled limply to the ground and lay there, hoping the air would eventually return to her lungs. How long could she retain consciousness without oxygen?

  The other campers didn’t even stop the game to see if she was okay. Somewhere in the forest Jesse called out, “Get up and walk it off. You’ll be fine!”

  It was touching how he looked out for her like that.

  Luckily, not much later, Dr. B ended the games for the night. He tallied up the score—Team Magnus was still down fifty points. Then he ended the evening by giving the Slayers a pep talk about concentrating on the task at hand, even if they were grieving for their missing teammates. “In battle, you might see one of your friends killed in front of you. You’ll have to go on, no matter how hard it is, just as you have to go on now.”

  When his lecture ended and everyone moved toward the trail, Tori took off the welder’s helmet. Even though she knew her hair hadn’t gone anywhere in the last few hours, she ran her hand over the braid, glad for its length.

  Dr. B came up behind Tori. “I saw a marked improvement in your abilities tonight. You’ll give the rest of the Slayers a run for their money soon enough.”

  It wasn’t heavy praise, but it did make her feel better. “Thanks,” she said, and joined Bess and Rosa heading down the trail. Before they’d gone far, Jesse’s voice came from above them. “Rosa, do you need a lift?”

  Rosa smiled up at him. “Sure.” She held her arms out and Jesse flew down, picked her up around the waist, and the two of them soared upward. Tori watched them disappear into the treetops.

  So, Jesse was compassionate, but only toward Rosa. If Rosa had smashed into the boulders he probably wouldn’t have told her to walk it off.

  Tori thought about this as she kept pace alongside Bess. She knew she had no reason to resent Jesse for picking Rosa. He’d told her yesterday that he flew all the girls around. They would undoubtedly all have a turn in his arms before he thought of Tori again.

  Yet it did bother her. Last night when Jesse had taken her in his arms and they’d flown lazily through the trees, the stars glowing wild and fierce above them, it had seemed so personal. But apparently it hadn’t been. She’d just been another passenger to him—well, probably not even that. She’d been a problem to solve. And he had. He’d convinced her to stay.

  Jesse hadn’t even looked at her tonight when he’d scooped Rosa up. He certainly wasn’t thinking about her now, with Rosa in his arms.

  Tori felt used, though she couldn’t say why. It was flying, not kissing.

  Bess was talking about how it always took her a day to get the feel of everything again, but after that, using your powers was like riding a bike—you didn’t forget. Tori nodded, but was only half listening. Mostly she was reprimanding herself for feeling things she shouldn’t.

  And then a familiar whooshing sound came up behind Tori. Familiar and frightening. The sound of a fireball heading toward her.

  It took her a split second to make the decision. Last time she’d tried to jump away from the danger. It hadn’t worked, so this time she dived for the ground. As she fell, a searing ball slammed into the back of her shoulder. The fire took hold of the material on her jacket; animallike, clinging to her, ready to sink its teeth into her flesh. Almost before she could process what happened, she rolled onto her back, smothering the flames so they couldn’t spread. She waited for the pain. She could feel the heat of the scalding material against her skin. But the throbbing sting didn’t come. She vaguely remembered hearing that if burned badly enough, a person didn
’t feel the pain because their nerve endings were destroyed. It must be bad then.

  She sat up and ripped her jacket off. It now had a hole in the back, and when she twisted her head to see her shoulder, she saw a matching hole in her shirt. Melted pieces of fabric stuck to her skin, along with dirt and dried leaves. But there wasn’t a wound. Only a red, irritated patch.

  “Alyssa!” Dr. B called running up to Tori with the flame gun still in his hand, “Hurry!”

  Tori gingerly ran her hand across her shoulder. It should have been oozing and bloody. She should be writhing in pain. Thank goodness her skin had extra strength now. Still, she glared at Dr. B as he knelt beside her. “Why did you do that?” she demanded. “The games were over.”

  “The games are never over. Not here, and not when you’re at home.” Dr. B bent down to examine her shoulder. “Now you’ve learned two things tonight. Don’t trust others with your safety, and always be prepared for an attack.” He examined her shoulder, gently moving the hole in the shirt to find the wound.

  Alyssa trotted over and dropped to her knees beside Tori. “How bad is it?”

  “Amazing,” Dr. B said, and moved away for Alyssa to see.

  Alyssa ran her fingers across Tori’s skin. “How did you manage not to get burned? Your shirt’s destroyed.”

  “Slayers have extra strong skin,” Tori said, but her gaze bounced between Alyssa and Dr. B, trying to figure out their surprise.

  Alyssa examined the ruined edges of Tori’s shirt. “Not this strong. You should at least have a huge blister.”

  She’d been lucky somehow, then—probably because she’d dropped to the ground and rolled right away. The thought didn’t bring her a lot of comfort. Tomorrow she might not be so lucky. Tori stood up and wiped the dirt from her hands. The cold night air brushed up against her bare shoulder, making her shiver.

  Alyssa and Dr. B stood up, as well. “Is your shirt flame retardant?” he asked.

  “It’s Versace. I don’t think those come in flame retardant.”

  By this time Lilly, Shang, and Kody had joined them. “Perhaps your skin is more resistant to fire than the other Slayers,” Dr. B said. “The only way to tell for sure—”

  “No,” Tori said. “You’re not burning me again to experiment.”

  “—is to wait until the next time you’re caught unaware by the flamethrower.” Dr. B pulled out the clipboard where he kept the team tallies. “Which reminds me, minus ten points to Team Magnus, because I caught Tori in a surprise attack.”

  It wasn’t fair, and Tori hated the smug look that Lilly sent to Alyssa.

  Her eyes narrowed at Dr. B. He had told her that she’d learned two things tonight. Actually, she’d learned three. She’d learned that her camp director was a sneaky, sadistic—well, she was too well-mannered to say it all out loud. She couldn’t even complain to Bess about it. Dr. B was her father. Without another word, Tori picked up her jacket, tied it around her waist, and jogged down the trail.

  When she reached cabin 27, Rosa and Jesse were sitting on the porch steps, talking in low voices. Rosa’s eyes were red and swollen, a sign she’d been crying again. Tori felt guilty then for ever being angry that Jesse had flown with Rosa. She obviously needed the comfort. Tori walked past them, loosening her jacket and contemplating how many more pieces of clothing would be torched before the month was over. When she reached the door, Jesse asked, “What happened to your shirt?”

  She waved her scrunched jacket in the direction of the trail. “After the games ended, Dr. B launched a fireball at my back.”

  Jesse let out an aggravated breath. “How many points did it cost the team?” he asked.

  Tori let her jacket drop and grabbed hold of the doorknob. Jesse hadn’t been worried about her—only the team’s tally. “I don’t care about the stupid points.”

  “You’ll care when we have to clean the bathrooms and the stables.”

  She wondered, but didn’t ask, how many points it would cost her if she hurled objects at her team captain. Instead, she walked inside and slammed the door behind her. She snatched up her pajamas, towel, and caddy.

  As she did, she heard Rosa softly say, “You’re being too hard on her. You don’t have to be a team captain all of the time. Sometimes you can just be a friend.”

  Jesse lowered his voice. He probably thought Tori couldn’t hear him. “We can’t baby her. If anything, we need to be harder on her than Dr. B is. She has one summer to learn things that took us years to learn.”

  “Jesse …” Rosa laced the word with meaning.

  “This isn’t a game she can quit when she doesn’t like the rules,” Jesse said. “If she’s not prepared she’ll get hurt, maybe killed.” His voice dropped even lower. “I don’t want that.”

  That made two of them. Tori pushed open the door and pounded down the stairs without speaking to Jesse or Rosa.

  CHAPTER 21

  After Jesse finished talking to Rosa, he went to find Dirk. “You want to raid the kitchen?” he asked. That was their code for talking privately. Back during Dirk’s first year at camp, they actually had raided the kitchen one night while everyone else slept. Dirk knew how to pick locks—had practiced it the same way he’d practiced martial arts. They’d broken into the kitchen, taken a couple ice cream sandwiches from the freezer’s stash, and sat on the floor talking for half an hour.

  It had become a tradition after that. Once every summer, they broke in, and despite the ice cream sandwiches that went missing, they’d never been caught.

  Dirk said, “Sure,” but instead of walking toward the main camp, they went into the forest behind their cabins. These days, they broke into the kitchen only near the end of the month. After a few minutes, the two found a sturdy tree and went up it. Jesse flew and Dirk half climbed, half jumped up the branches.

  Jesse always felt more relaxed, more in control, when he was up high. He could see the world spread out beneath him, like a chess player looking down at the board.

  After they were both situated on branches, Dirk asked, “What’s up, besides us?” Then he leaned back against the trunk while raising his eyebrows. “Let me guess. You want to talk about Tori.”

  Jesse did want to talk about Tori, but that’s not why he asked for this meeting. Besides, he wouldn’t have known what to say about her. In the short time she’d been here, she’d mostly managed to frustrate him. Although if he was being honest, she also made him feel guilty because he knew he was being hard on her; and he felt worried because he was afraid her training would be too little too late. And he had other feelings, ones he shouldn’t have because he was a fellow Slayer. And her captain.

  “It’s not about Tori,” Jesse said. “I found out something you should know.” He gazed down at the ferns that grew like miniature fountains over the forest floor.

  “What?” Dirk asked.

  It was hard for Jesse to betray Dr. B’s confidence. Two years earlier, he wouldn’t have done it, but now, well, Dr. B always told them to think for themselves. All last summer Dr. B had emphasized that the Slayers—especially the team captains—had to make decisions on their own. Dr. B couldn’t be in the thick of things, fighting the dragons with them. They had to take charge.

  So Jesse had been mulling over the matter all day. “Dr. B can trace our phones from his laptop. If Overdrake got hold of it and broke through the passwords, he could find any of us. Dr. B doesn’t want the other Slayers to know. He’s afraid if they do a Leo and Danielle, they could inadvertently leak the information. But I thought you should know. At some point, the phones could be a liability.”

  Dirk nodded, his expression growing serious. He didn’t speak for a few moments, but Jesse hadn’t expected him to. Neither of them were the type to work through things by talking a lot.

  “It probably won’t ever come to that,” Jesse said.

  “But you never know,” Dirk answered.

  That was one of the main problems of second-guessing Overdrake—they didn’t know nearly enough
. After a few more minutes, Jesse and Dirk slipped down from the trees and walked silently back to cabin 26.

  CHAPTER 22

  Tori took a short shower, so short that the other girls were just making their way to the bathroom when she finished. Her sight hadn’t faded yet, and she made her way back to the cabin without a flashlight, which was a good thing, since she’d forgotten to bring one again.

  Jesse no longer sat on her steps. She glanced over at cabin 26, then told herself to stop it. There was no point in having any sort of feelings for him. He didn’t see her that way. He hardly even saw her as a girl. She was just a team member he had to bring up to speed.

  Tori lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders. She would show Jesse how quickly she could catch up to the rest of them. If it meant hard work, fine. And fireballs? Well, at least she could hear them coming.

  She walked inside her cabin, picking up her iron from the floor where it was propping the door open again. She set it back on her dresser, braided her hair so the extensions wouldn’t tangle while she slept, then read one of her books until the other girls came in. Lilly and Alyssa’s blow-dried hair flowed down their backs in straight blonde curtains. Rosa had a towel wrapped around her head and chided Bess for leaving her wet hair uncovered. “You’ll catch a cold,” she said sternly.

  Bess flipped her hand through her short curls. “I never get sick. I laugh in the face of germs.”

  “I’ve had colds before.” Rosa turned to Lilly and Alyssa for support.

  “I’m as healthy as a horse,” Lilly said.

  Bess nodded with an air of seriousness, which made her look like her professor father. “And that’s just one character trait she shares with our equine friends.”

  Lilly narrowed her eyes. “Like you would know, Elspeth.”

  “Elspeth?” Tori asked.

  Bess flopped down on her bed with an exaggerated sigh. “Yeah, medieval scholars really shouldn’t be allowed to name children.” She put her feet up so they rested against the footboard. “Technically, my first name is Elspeth, but no one calls me that as I tend to rip the limbs from the people who do. I’m only making an exception in Lilly’s case until we kill the dragons. Then she’s going to be completely limbless.”