Slayers: Friends and Traitors

by C. J. Hill

  “Too far north,” Dr. B said. “Straighten up.”

  Jesse changed his direction slightly. He saw buildings and cars, sidewalks and trees. No sign of other flyers.

  “They’ve changed trajectories,” Dr. B said. “Veer right and pick up your speed. They’re moving fast.”

  It was frustrating flying this way. Especially since speed worked against him. Twice he’d overshot Tori and Dirk. He’d flown by so fast he hadn’t spotted them darting around trees and buildings. When he went slowly, they pulled too far ahead of him.

  “Do you see them?” Dr. B asked.

  “No.”

  Dr. B let out a sigh. “You and Tori have been out of the simulator’s range for too long. You need to come back and recharge your powers.”

  “We can’t,” Jesse said. “If Tori flies away from Dirk, she’ll never find him again. We need to get him now. Tori?” he said to get her attention. He hadn’t heard from her in a while but figured that was because she was concentrating on Dirk and didn’t want to interrupt Dr. B’s directions.

  Tori didn’t answer.

  Dr. B said, “Tori and Dirk are going to be on foot pretty soon. Tori, in five more minutes you’ll need to stay close to the ground—even if you have to lose sight of Dirk in the process. Don’t fly higher than you can safely fall. Jesse, come back, get recharged, and then when you go to find Tori and Dirk again, you’ll have the advantage. I’m still out in Suitland on the parkway. Fly southeast. Understood?”

  “Understood.” Jesse flipped over and headed back the way he came. He knew Dr. B was right. Still it was aggravatingly hard to turn around when Dirk was so close and Tori needed him.

  “Tori, understood?” Dr. B asked again.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Tori?” Jesse called. The silence filled him with a growing sickness. He thought of all sorts of reasons why she wouldn’t answer her phone, and none of them were good. “Could Dirk have captured Tori and put her watch on something else? A car, maybe?”

  “Cars can’t cut diagonally over streets,” Dr. B said. “Tori’s watch is flying.”

  It didn’t make Jesse feel much better. Wherever Tori was, something was wrong.

  CHAPTER 22

  The wind pushed against Tori, flinging strands of hair into her face every time she switched direction. Which she did a lot. Dirk wasn’t making it easy to follow him. She soared over treetops and streets, past rows of homes, single-mindedly keeping him in sight.

  Dirk flew behind the top of a tall church steeple and then stopped, hovering behind the point. The church below them was empty, the parking lot vacant. No one was around to see the two of them high above the ground.

  He looked casual standing there, unconcerned. He might have been pausing after one of their daily camp jogs. “Aren’t you tired of flying yet?” he called to her. “Let’s take a breather.”

  Tori cautiously flew closer, glaring at him. It was unfair that he still looked the same. Handsome, open, achingly familiar. She kept the steeple between them.

  He watched her and shook his head. “You’re not even going to try and be understanding about this, are you?”

  Understanding? Oh, she understood. She understood that he had just tried to lead her—to lead them all—into his father’s trap. She pointed a finger at him. “You lied to me about everything.”

  He shrugged off the accusation with a smile. “No, I didn’t. I probably only lied to you about fifty percent of everything. Is it my fault you couldn’t tell the difference?”

  That stung. “Do you know what I can tell?” she said. “I can tell where you are. You won’t get away from me.”

  His eyebrows hiked up. “Tori, I have a hundred pounds on you and twice the muscle mass. Do you actually think if you took me on, you’d win?” He moved to the side of the steeple and motioned to her to come closer. “All right, I’m game. Go ahead and try.”

  He was right, and it irked her. She moved in the opposite direction, keeping the steeple between them. “I don’t have to win. I just have to stick to you until Jesse gets here.”

  “Ah, until Jesse gets here.” Dirk’s voice lost its amused tone. “That’s always been my role with you, hasn’t it?”

  Tori wasn’t about to let him sidetrack her with that line of conversation. It wasn’t the point, anyway. The point was innocent people suffering; freedom or war, right or wrong. Frustration made the words tangle in her throat so she hardly knew which accusation to fling at him first. “How can you do this, Dirk? How can you help your father attack your own nation?”

  He didn’t wince, didn’t show even a flicker of guilt. “We’re not so different, Tori. We both have fathers who are trying to take over the country. You help yours, why shouldn’t I help mine?

  “My father isn’t planning on killing people.”

  Dirk slowly circled toward Tori. “You want to talk about our nation? Which institutions are you giving your life to protect? The Congress who’s amassed a debt so huge our children’s children will still be drowning in it? The endless bureaucracies? What?”

  Tori circled the other way, keeping her distance from Dirk. “Our nation has its problems, but it’s still the best in the world. We have freedom—”

  “Oh, it’s the freedom you’re big on.” He stopped, put his hands behind his neck, and leaned back so he looked like he was reclining in an invisible chair. “Let’s examine some moments of freedom in our country’s history. Ever heard about the Trail of Tears? How about the Japanese internment camps? Do you know what went on in Vietnam? The country sent its own sons to fight in a war and then turned its back on them. Do you know how many soldiers they left behind?”

  Tori glided closer to the steeple. “And that makes it okay for you to attack innocent people? That makes it okay for you to betray your friends? You just pretended to care about us—”

  He leaned forward, losing his relaxed pose. “The reason I turned on my father and freed all of you last summer was because his men shot at you. My father promised me none of you would get hurt—especially you. When he captured you, I went back for you. There was nothing pretend in any of that.”

  “Your father’s men are waiting for us in that car dealership right now. How many of us would have been killed tonight?”

  “None.” Dirk held out his hands as though showing her something. “I don’t want to hurt my friends. Not you, not any of them. But the Slayers have to lose their powers. Otherwise they’ll be killed during a dragon attack. You can’t win that fight.”

  “We did once,” she said.

  Dirk shook his head. “Tamerlane nearly killed you in the forest. The only reason he didn’t was because I managed to enter his mind and push him away from you.”

  Tori remembered the dragon diving after her into the foliage. It had been so close she could smell his oily breath. “Tamerlane?” she asked. She couldn’t believe Dirk had actually named the monster.

  The lines in Dirk’s face hardened. He was remembering that night, too, remembering it very differently than Tori did. His voice went low and was tinged with pain. “That was my father’s punishment for turning on him. In order to save the rest of you, I had to help you kill my own dragon. I didn’t betray you then. I watched Tamerlane die. You don’t know what that was like, Tori.”

  The fact that he had done this sparked a flame of hope inside her. He was not completely lost. He helped them before, cared about them before. “You don’t have to betray us now,” she said. “Come back with me. You can help us.” She held her hand out to him, fingers reaching for any little part of loyalty that was still left. “You can be one of us again.”

  Dirk moved closer to the steeple, staying only inches out of reach. “No, Tori. You come with me. You’re my counterpart. Haven’t you realized what that means?”

  She dropped her hand, didn’t answer him. A Slayer and a dragon lord shouldn’t be counterparts. How could it be possible?

  “You’re part dragon lord,” he said. “You have to be. Seeing
what the dragon sees and hearing what the dragon hears—those were never Slayer abilities. Dragon lords have them because they can slip into a dragon’s mind and control it.”

  Tori felt dizzy suddenly, weak. She stepped backward, forgetting that she was hanging in the air and didn’t have to move that way.

  Dirk held out his hand to Tori, beckoning her to come to his side of the steeple. “You’ve been fighting on the wrong side all along and didn’t know it. You’re the one who should come with me.”

  She didn’t take his hand. Her breaths were coming too fast and she couldn’t slow them. “I’m not a dragon lord,” she said. “I’m not.” She moved farther away from him, then looked around the sky. The sun was hovering just above the horizon, making puddles of light in the surrounding clouds. Where was Jesse? Why hadn’t he come?

  “Jesse won’t come,” Dirk said. “He can’t. He’s better at paying attention to details than you are. I led you out of the simulator’s range nearly a half an hour ago.”

  Tori glanced reflexively at her wrist. Her watch was gone, lodged in the side of her boot. She could have fished it out or looked at the cell phone in her pocket. It wouldn’t have done any good, though. She had no idea when they’d flown out of range or even what time it had been when they’d jumped off the Lincoln Memorial.

  She looked down at the parking lot. It didn’t seem like she was up that high—which went to show she’d become used to flying at high distances. Logically she knew a fall at this height would kill her. Still, if she moved to the ground, she’d lose Dirk.

  She stayed put. “It hasn’t been a half an hour.” It couldn’t have been more than twenty or twenty-five minutes since they’d flown away from the monuments, and they were in range of the simulator then. They didn’t move out of range until they went over five miles away.

  Dirk glided closer to his side of the steeple, closer to her. “Tori, you know you’ve always been lousy at keeping track of time. That’s why last summer I always had to yell at you to get your Diored butt out of your cabin.”

  For a moment Tori worried he was right. She was in front of the highest part of steeple, with nothing to hold on to or break her fall if her powers vanished. She should move so she was over the roof. That way if she suddenly plunged downward, she’d at least have a chance of stopping herself before she rolled off the pitched roof. But moving to the other side of the steeple would put her within Dirk’s reach.

  He waited and watched her, not moving from his spot. “There’s lots of room for you in the parking lot.”

  He was only trying to get rid of her. She would hold her ground, or rather—her place in the air. “It hasn’t been close to a half an hour, or you wouldn’t be up here.”

  “The reason I said you were part dragon lord,” Dirk said as though they’d been discussing that topic, “is that you have some Slayer tendencies too—like losing your powers after a half an hour. Dragon lords, we don’t do that.”

  “You’re lying so I’ll leave.” Her heart was beating faster now. She wasn’t sure.

  “Tori,” he said slowly. “I think we’ve already established that you can tell when I’m lying. Well, at least most of the time.”

  As soon as he said the sentence, she realized what else he’d lied about. Another wave of dizziness hit her. “The dragons,” she said, horrified. “They’ve hatched, haven’t they?”

  Dirk tilted his chin down in frustration. “Dragons aren’t evil. They’re just dangerous when they’re not controlled.”

  They were alive all of this time. They were already growing, would be ready to fight in less than a year. That wasn’t enough time. She didn’t have enough training. She couldn’t take on Dirk, let alone his dragons.

  The wind ruffled his hair. He looked so calm as he glided closer to her. “You’re one of the few people who could be around them and be safe.” His eyes had an intensity to them now, a sort of pleading. “You weren’t born to be their slayer; you were born to be their caretaker. Will you at least promise me that you’ll think about what I’m telling you?”

  “Where are the dragons?” she demanded.

  He let out a discouraged sigh. “You need to get to the ground. Your time is running out.”

  “How many eggs were there? Two?”

  “Tori…”

  “Four?” It infuriated her that Dirk knew this information and was keeping it from her. She tried to sense the answers from his reactions. “Will your father—”

  She didn’t finish. Dirk hadn’t lied about how long they’d been out of the simulator’s range. Gravity took effect, sucking her downward. She screamed. The church roof flashed by her in a blur of color. She was going to die, all because she was lousy at keeping track of time.

  CHAPTER 23

  Jesse flew along the 395 heading toward the Slayer van. Dr. B was monitoring his progress and would tell him when he was within five miles of the simulator. He had to be close now.

  “Tori?” Jesse asked into his watch-phone. He didn’t know why he bothered. She hadn’t answered the last ten times he’d said her name. His phone said he was still connected to hers, but it was hard to hear much while the wind whistled around his ears, and traffic constantly swooshed down below him. Every once in a while he heard muffled voices. He wasn’t sure if that was Tori or the people in Dr. B’s van.

  Dr. B had said that Tori’s signal was staying in the same spot now. He thought she had landed and was waiting for Dr. B to find her. Which might be true. Tori probably had no idea where she was or which direction Dr. B was.

  On the other hand, Jesse couldn’t forget that counterpart senses worked both ways. Dirk had a hard time hiding from Tori, but the same was true in reverse. And Dirk was bigger, stronger, and faster. What was to keep him from capturing Tori, chucking her watch somewhere, and toting her off to wherever his father was keeping Alyssa?

  The more Jesse thought about it, the more likely the second scenario seemed. Why else wouldn’t Tori be answering her watch? He never should have left her. He should have told her to stop chasing Dirk. What had they been thinking to let Tori tail him?

  Over his watch, Dr. B said, “You’re within range now.”

  Good. His powers were recharged. He flipped in the air and headed back toward Gaithersburg, streaking through the sky. He was going so fast he could hardly see through the wind clawing at his eyes. He had stopped worrying about capturing Dirk and just wanted to make sure Tori was safe.

  That’s when Jesse heard the scream from his phone. Tori’s scream. Long and panicked. Jesse flew faster, even though he knew it was no use. She was miles from here and he was too far away to help. Then the scream abruptly stopped.

  CHAPTER 24

  In Tori’s fright, she didn’t sense Dirk until he put his arms around her. He grabbed her around the middle, slowing her speed and transferring their momentum sideways. They flew along the parking lot and then back upward. Once Tori stopped screaming, she gulped in deep breaths and held on to Dirk’s arms.

  She had almost died. Those last moments had nearly been the end of her life. And the worst part was knowing that the media would have spent weeks speculating on how she mysteriously fell to her death, and everyone would know she died while wearing a Supergirl costume. How completely tacky.

  Okay, that wasn’t the worst part of nearly dying, just the first thing that came to her mind.

  Dirk soared past trees and houses, kept going higher to get out of sight of anyone on the streets who might look up. “That’s the third time I’ve saved your life. Most people would say thank you at this point.”

  “Thanks,” she said, and then after a moment added, “although you wouldn’t have had to save my life last summer if you hadn’t endangered it first by leading me into your father’s trap.”

  “A technicality,” Dirk said. “Danger comes with superhero work. You should know that.”

  Even with Dirk’s arms around her, the air rushing against her skin felt freezing. She had expected him to put her down on the
ground somewhere, but he didn’t. Of course he didn’t. He wanted to capture Slayers tonight and now he had. Her.

  “Let me go,” she told Dirk.

  “You don’t really want me to do that. It’s a long way down.” And getting longer every second. Civilization was shrinking underneath their feet.

  “Put me down somewhere safe. Please.” She knew he wouldn’t. How could she have been so stupid to let herself be caught like this?

  “Where is your watch?” he asked.

  “I dropped it.”

  “Right. I can tell that’s a lie even without being your counterpart. You were expecting Jesse to find you, so you must have it on you somewhere.”

  An eight-lane highway came into view, the beltway that ran around the D.C. area. Rows of cars were slowly making their way in each direction. Dirk followed along above it.

  “Where are you taking me?” Tori asked. She trembled and this time it wasn’t from the cold. She couldn’t fight Dirk. Not when he had superpowers and she didn’t. She was completely at his mercy. “You’re going to drug me, aren’t you?” The thought hit her with surprising dread. She would be useless, unable to help the Slayers or anyone else, and she wouldn’t even remember that it had happened to her. Everything she experienced over the last summer, everything that she’d become—it would be blotted out from her mind.

  Dirk held on to her tighter. “I don’t want you to lose your powers or your memories.” The words were spoken softly. They would have been lost in the rush of the wind if Tori’s hearing hadn’t been so good. “When you came to see me in Winchester, I told you I wanted to be with you. Do you know why you couldn’t tell I was lying?”

  “Because you’ve had a lot of practice lying?”

  “Because I wasn’t lying. I told my father not to hurt or drug you. When all of this happens, I want you on my side.”

  All of this? Was that how he thought of attacks on cities, attacks on people—as if it were some sort of chess game? How could he think she would ever help him do those things? She shivered again.