by Julie Kagawa
Rolling to my back, I stared at the ceiling, already dreading the day. Wonder what fun thing Scary Talon Lady has planned for me this time. Probably another dozen or so rounds of “hunt the dragon,” which was still far too realistic for me to enjoy, even in my real form.
I sat up, throwing off the covers, and my bear tumbled from the mattress to the floor. Smiling, I picked it up, inhaling the faint scent of cotton candy that still clung to the fur, and gave it a squeeze.
Garret won this for me. Just the thought of that, of him, made me smile. That day at the carnival had been amazing, especially the part on the Ferris wheel. The way he looked at me, right before I kissed him, made my breath catch. It was like he was seeing me—seeing me for what I really was—and he didn’t care.
I knew that was a lie, of course. Garret couldn’t know what I was. Our worlds were vastly different. I knew, when the summer ended, I would have to give him up.
But not yet.
“Ember.” A knock came at my door, and Uncle Liam’s voice drifted through the wood. “It’s 5:05. Are you awake?”
“Yes,” I muttered, and the footsteps receded. Rising, I set the bear on my unmade bed and dressed into my old, now-paint-spattered shirt and shorts. I didn’t bother with a shower, knowing I’d come home dirty, sweaty and covered in bright red paint. (My driver had covered the backseat of his car with a sheet so I wouldn’t ruin the upholstery. The sheet now looked like someone murdered a goat on it.)
Dante had already gone ahead when I went down to the basement, and a knot settled in my stomach as I opened the tunnel door. Ever since our fight, my brother and I hadn’t spoken, not about anything important. He’d smiled at me when I came back from the carnival and acted as if nothing was wrong, but it wasn’t the same. Around our guardians, he was still my friendly, teasing, easygoing brother, but ask him anything Talon or dragon related, and his eyes would go blank, his smile empty. He was slipping further and further away from me, and I didn’t know how to get him back.
When I reached the office building, I received a shock. The enormous storage room had been cleared out. Nothing remained of the massive wooden labyrinth except a few crates and pallets stacked in the corner. The floor was empty, except for a square of thick blue wrestling mats in the middle of the cement, making it look more like a gym than a storage room. But that wasn’t the biggest surprise.
Scary Talon Lady stood in the center of the mats, arms crossed, waiting for me. She wasn’t wearing her normal three-piece suit and heels. She was dressed in a sleek black outfit that hugged her slender form and covered her from neck to ankles. Her blond hair had been pulled behind her and swung halfway down her back, free of its ever-present bun. She was, I realized, quite attractive in human terms. Beautiful and stunning. Though her acid-green eyes, watching me cross the room, were the same: flat, cold and subtly amused.
“Something new today, hatchling.” She smiled as I stepped to the edge of the mats. “I think I’ve been too easy on you, letting humans chase you around with paintball guns and fake bullets. I also think you’re depending far too much on your real form to get out of trouble. Sometimes you need to shear through a St. George soldier with claws and fangs and fire. Sometimes it is better to be human. You need to learn to defend yourself as both. Take off your shoes.”
Too easy on me? Like dodging paint bullets and playing hide-and-seek with fully trained soldiers was a fun little skip in the park? I eyed her warily over the mats and kicked off my sandals. “So, what are we doing today?”
“Like I said.” My trainer cocked two fingers forward, and I stepped onto the mat. The plastic was thick and cool against my soles. “I think it’s time to step your training up a notch. Today, you deal with me.”
More than a little nervous now, I walked steadily across the flat surface until I was just a few feet away, watching her across the mats. She regarded me coolly for a moment, then pulled a gun from a back holster, holding it up. I jumped.
“Tell me the easiest way to kill a dragon,” she said, acid-green eyes boring into me. I forced my attention away from the instrument of death in her hand and tried to focus on the question.
“Um.” I racked my brain for the answer, knowing she would expect me to get it right. “When we’re in human form. Before we have a chance to Shift. We don’t have any protection when we’re human.”
“Good,” my trainer said, though there was no praise in her tone. Her expression was hard as she continued. “The soldiers of St. George know this, too. Which is why secrecy is so important to our survival. If they knew our true identity, they’d have no qualms taking us out with a sniper round to the head from a thousand meters. You wouldn’t even know what hit you. If you are ever in a life-or-death situation with St. George, know this—they are not so stupid to engage a dragon in one-on-one combat. If they can, they will shoot you from afar, before you have the chance to get close.”
I nodded. Scary Talon Lady held up the gun. “With this in mind, there are times where you might be in close quarters with someone who wants to kill you. And there are times when it is impossible to Shift into your real form, in urban areas or among witnesses, per se. Learning to defend yourself as a human is just as crucial as defending yourself as a dragon. So, the most important thing to remember if you’re staring down a loaded gun, or any weapon, is this.”
She pointed the gun right at me, the muzzle inches from my face, and I went rigid.
“Don’t freeze. If you freeze, you’re dead. Just like that.” Without warning, she pulled the trigger. It clicked, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. My trainer smiled.
“Not loaded, hatchling. Make no mistake, though, it is real. And it is exactly what you might be facing one day. Now...” She flipped it around, holding the pistol out to me. “Take it. I’ll show you the disarm.”
I took the weapon gingerly, like I would a poisonous snake. My trainer rolled her eyes. “Stop being twitchy. I told you it’s not loaded.” She took a step back. “Now, point it at me. Like you intend to shoot me, right through the heart.”
Gripping the stock, I raised the gun...and my trainer’s hands moved faster than I could see, tearing the gun from my grasp. A half second later, I was staring into the muzzle, now pointed back at my face.
My trainer’s cold green eyes stared me down over the gun barrel, her lips curled into an evil smirk. “Did you catch that?”
“No.”
“Good. Neither should they.” She motioned me forward again, and I took a reluctant step toward her. “I’ll show you again in slow motion, and then you’re going to try it yourself.”
For the next few minutes, I watched her technique as she broke down the disarm step by step. How she angled off to the side when she moved in, making her body a much smaller target for the gun. How she never put herself directly in front of the muzzle. How she forced the barrel up and away before turning it on the opponent. In slow motion, it made a lot of sense; put together at full speed, it happened before you could blink.
“Now it’s your turn.” Scary Talon Lady took the gun and stepped back a pace, watching me. Nervous and eager at the same time, I took a breath and tried to relax, to stay loose and flowing as I’d been taught. My trainer smiled, holding the gun loosely at her side. “And remember, you must stay focused on your opponent if you want to live. Do not allow anything to distract you. Are you ready?”
I sank down, balanced on the balls of my feet. “Yes.”
“Very well. So, how was your trip to the carnival?”
What? I faltered, my stomach turning over, and my trainer’s arm came up, bringing the gun to my face. The sharp click of the trigger being pulled echoed through the room.
“And you’re dead.” Lowering the gun, she shook her head in disgust. “What did I tell you about not being distracted? By anything?”
“How...?” I thought back to my date with Garret
, and the strange feeling of being watched in a crowd of hundreds. Indignation flared, and gave way to anger. “You were the one following me!” I accused, my voice bouncing off the walls. “I knew someone was watching us.”
“It’s my job to keep tabs on my student,” Scary Talon Lady said, unrepentant, and raised the gun again. This time, I dove aside as it clicked behind me, but I didn’t have enough time to lunge forward. “When they’re distracted by useless human things, I become concerned.” She lowered the gun and circled around me on the mat, eyes narrowed to slits. I circled with her, staying light on my feet, ready to dodge out of the way.
“I thought we were supposed to fit in,” I argued as she circled me like a shark. My dragon instincts growled, annoyed with this game of cat-and-mouse, wanting to pounce and claw and bite. But that wasn’t the point of the exercise, and I wasn’t going to let her beat me again. She wasn’t using real bullets, but she would definitely inform me if I wasn’t fast enough, if I was shot. “Observe, blend in with society, learn to act like a human—isn’t that why we’re here?”
“Yes,” my trainer agreed, and continued to stalk, keeping the gun pressed against her leg. “It is. Learn to act like a human. You must never forget that, first and always, you are a dragon. You are not one of them.”
“I know that.”
“Really? What’s the boy’s name?”
Startled, I almost didn’t react quick enough when she shot at me again. Dodging to the side, I rolled into a crouch and found myself staring at the gun muzzle again. She didn’t pull the trigger, however, just watched me down the barrel with narrowed, poison-green eyes.
“His name,” she repeated.
“Why do you care?” I challenged, not wanting this woman to know anything about Garret. He was the part of my life that wasn’t bound to Talon and training and all their crazy expectations. When I was with Garret, I could almost forget Talon’s stranglehold on my life. I could almost forget...that I was a dragon. “He’s just a human,” I told my trainer, still aiming the gun at my face. “What’s one human to you?”
As if she could hear my thoughts, my trainer’s expression went cold and frightening. “Exactly,” she said in a steely voice. “He is just one human. One mortal among billions of unimportant, short-lived mortals. You are a dragon. More important, you are a dragonell, a female of our race, which makes you even more precious to the organization.” She finally lowered the gun, though she still glared daggers at me. “Your loyalty, first and always, is to Talon. Not the humans. They are unimportant. We walk among them, act like them, live with them, but we will never be one of them.” She gestured sharply with the weapon. “They’re a cancer, hatchling. A virus that spreads and corrupts and obliterates everything in its path. The human race is weak and self-destructive, and the only thing they know how to do is destroy. You are part of something far greater than these mortals can ever hope to achieve, and if I ask you a human’s name, you had best give me the human’s name and not question it!”
She raised the pistol, shockingly fast, but this time, I was ready.
Surging upright, I angled to the side like she’d taught me and lunged in. My hands hit the barrel of the weapon from underneath, forcing it up and twisting it out of her grasp. A second later, I stood before my trainer with the pistol pointed back at her, stunned that I’d actually pulled it off.
“Garret,” I muttered as my trainer seared holes into my forehead with her stare. “His name is Garret.”
She smiled.
“There, that wasn’t difficult, was it?” she said, and I had no idea if she was talking about the disarm or admitting the human’s name. Taking the gun from my limp fingers, she stepped back and gave me a hard, assessing gaze. “Yes,” she mused, as if coming to a decision in her mind. “I do believe you are ready.”
“Ready for what?” I asked, but she spun and walked swiftly from the room, beckoning me to follow. I trailed her back to the office, where she pointed to the chair in front of her desk. I dropped into it warily, noticing on the desk’s polished surface a manila folder with my name printed at the top.
Scary Talon Lady didn’t sit, but regarded me over the desk, her fingers resting lightly on the folder. I couldn’t keep my gaze from straying back to it. My name, in red. What was inside? What did it say about me, and my future with the organization?
“This is a big day for you, hatchling,” Scary Talon Lady announced, making me even more nervous. “As you may know, we have watched you from the time you were hatched, assessing your skills, your behavior, what type of position you would excel at. You’ve completed phase one of your training. Now, we move on to phase two—honing the skills that will serve you in the organization. From now on, you will come to training wearing this.”
She tossed something at me, a dark, full bodysuit made of light, stretchy fabric. It seemed to cling to my hands when I caught it, and for a split second, I thought it was alive. Shuddering, I held it away from me. It looked like a normal bodysuit, but it felt almost slimy, and warm. I realized it was the same type of outfit my trainer wore, though I couldn’t imagine sliding into this thing.
“This is a very special outfit,” my trainer explained as I resisted the urge to drop the creepy thing on the floor. “It’s far too complicated to explain, but suffice it to say, your suit will not rip or tear when you Shift into your real form.”
I gaped at her. “Really?” Intrigued now, I stared at the fabric, trying not to be repulsed by the way it sucked at my bare skin. “So, if I’m wearing this thing when I Shift, I won’t have to worry about running home naked?”
She pointed out the door. “Go try it on,” she ordered. “Make certain it fits, then report back here. Go.”
I retreated to the bathroom and slipped into the suit, holding my breath as the fabric sucked and oozed over my skin, almost like paint. At first, it was warm and disgustingly slick, but after a few moments it smoothed out, molding to my body until I could barely feel it.
Creepy.
I returned to Scary Talon Lady, who gave a tiny nod of approval and gestured to the seat again. “Good,” she announced as I perched on the stool with my normal clothes in hand, feeling almost naked. “It fits. I want you to wear it for the rest of the day, so it gets used to your shape and body type. You can put your regular clothes on over it.”
I frowned, not entirely certain I’d heard correctly. “Wait, you want me to keep it on tonight, so it gets used to me?”
My trainer nodded, as if that was a perfectly normal explanation. “Yes, hatchling, but don’t worry. After a few minutes, you won’t even remember you have it on.” She smiled tightly, as if from personal experience. “Only certain members of the organization receive this special clothing,” she continued as I squirmed, “so consider yourself lucky. The suits are very valuable and very expensive to make, so do not lose it. It will be your training uniform and, later on, it will be your work uniform.”
I was still trying to wrap my head around the thought that my suit had to get used to me, like it really was alive, but something about that last sentence caused everything inside me to go still. “Work uniform?” I asked quietly. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions, but I felt the only reason you needed a suit like that was to Shift from dragon to human quickly and quietly. It was, for all intents and purposes, a ninja suit. A magic ninja suit that clung to your skin like it was alive and molded to your body, but a ninja suit nonetheless. And there was only one position in the organization I could think of that came close to that type of “work.”
My trainer smiled her most evil smile yet, and pushed the folder at me, flipping it open. Swallowing hard, I looked down at the first line.
Subject: Ember Hill.
And below that...
My heart stood still, my veins turning to ice. I stared at those five letters, willing them to go away, to be something else, anything else.
“Congratulations, Ember Hill,” Scary Talon Lady mused over the desk. “Welcome to the Vipers.”
Garret
I was finishing a report to Lieutenant Martin when there was a knock at the door.
On the couch, Tristan straightened and shot me a puzzled look. Two empty pizza boxes already sat open and nearly empty on the counter, so it wasn’t the delivery boy. And the Order always called if they were going to show up. There was no reason anyone should be at our apartment at this time of day.
Warily, Tristan pulled his 9 mm and slid into the hallway, gesturing for me to get the door. I reached for the Glock that always sat close by and eased across the room, ready to bring the weapon up if the door flew inward. The knock came again, four rapid blows against the wood, but it didn’t sound like whoever was on the other side was trying to break down the door. Hiding the gun against my leg, I reached for the knob and opened the door until the chain caught it, then peered through the gap.
Ember’s brilliant green eyes met mine through the crack, and my heart leaped. “Hey, you,” she greeted softly. A bike leaned against the wall beside the door, tires firmly inflated this time. “I was, um, just riding around the neighborhood, and I saw your apartment and thought, ‘Hey, Garret lives there! I wonder if he’s home now?’ And...that sounded pretty bad, didn’t it? Lexi told me where you were staying—she’s good at finding those things out. I’m not stalking you, I swear.” She rubbed her arm, looking tired and subdued, unlike her normal self. “Well, maybe a little. Can I come in?”
“Hang on.” Shutting the door, I quickly stowed the gun in a closet and closed the laptop, as Tristan vanished down the hall into his room. Unlatching the chain, I opened the door and stepped back. “Are you all right?” I asked as Ember came inside and gazed around curiously. “What are you doing here?” Not that I wasn’t pleased to see her; I was, unexpected visits aside. But Tristan would not be happy with a potential target roaming around our base, seeing things she shouldn’t see.