by Kyra Dune
“But it’s okay for Brandy to call me a vampire?”
“She didn’t say you were a vampire, she only said you dressed like ...” As I said before, I can be kind of slow. Hannah had a point. Brandy was equally as nasty as Hannah, but I wasn’t coming down on her. “Hannah, I--”
“Whatever. I guess I better go back in the house before I burst into flames.”
“Hannah, wait.” But I was talking to her back as she strode toward the house. I sat on the edge of Derek’s chair and dropped my head into my hands.
“Maybe it’s a good thing we’ll be splitting up soon,” Derek said, startling me.
I swatted his arm. “Faker. I thought you were asleep. Why didn’t you help me out?”
He smiled. “You seemed to be doing all right on your own.”
“Really? Were you actually listening to our conversation?” I sighed. “I was totally arguing on Brandy’s behalf even though she was as guilty as Hannah.”
“She’s your best friend. It’s expected,” Derek said. “Hannah will get over it.”
“What if she doesn’t?” I asked. “Hannah is going to be the one I’m stuck with after Brandy...” My throat tightened up. I couldn’t talk about her leaving. I could barely even think about it. “I’m never going to see her again. Or Curtis. Or my parents.” Tears were building up behind my eyes and I really didn’t want to cry. “I might as well be dead.”
Derek laid his hand over mine. “Don’t say that. Things are bad right now, but it doesn’t mean they’ll be bad forever. You could still go back to your old life someday.”
“Come on, Derek. You can’t seriously believe any of us can go back to our old lives. You, me, Hannah, Zack, we’re all renegades. And I’m a hybrid. Fourteen years didn’t stop them from coming after me as soon as they found out I didn’t die in the car wreck. What could ever make them stop now?”
Derek shook his head. “No. This is not going to be our life forever. We can find a way out of this if we don’t give up hope. I promise you. I will give your life back to you somehow.”
I almost told him not to make promises he couldn’t keep, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Can I see the picture again?”
“Of course.” Derek pulled the worn leather wallet from the pocket of his shorts and handed it to me.
Inside, behind a protective plastic sleeve, a happy family smiled back at me. Alastair told me once I looked like my mother and every time I saw the photo, I could see myself in her. In the ash blonde hair and the angles of her face. But her eyes were dark, like Derek’s. I had my dad’s eyes and his smile.
I had looked at the photo at least a dozen times since Derek first showed it to me, but it still didn’t seem real. I knew those were my birth parents. I knew the kids with them were me and Derek. But I couldn’t feel it. You get what I mean? I still felt like Abigail Freeman, although in all truth I seemed to be getting further and further away from her with each passing day. And I didn’t know who I was moving toward being. Maybe I was becoming the person the little girl in the picture was supposed to have been.
“We look so happy,” I said.
“We were happy.” Derek’s voice was soft and sad.
I hesitated, like I always did whenever I stared at the picture and my mind wished it could wander back into a past I couldn’t remember. But this time I asked the question I had never dared ask before. “What happened?”
Derek didn’t say anything for a few minutes. I waited, wanting to let him decide whether or not he was ready to talk about it. If he wasn’t ready, I was prepared to accept it then. But he’d have to tell me eventually.
“After over a year of living on the run, we’d finally found a place to settle down,” he said. “It was a nice house on a quiet street where we could be a normal family. And for awhile we were exactly that. Then...” He pressed his lips together and looked away.
“What?” I didn’t want to force him to relive painful memories, but I figured it was kind of like a band aid, you know? Better to rip it off all at once. “What happened?”
“Dad came home from work early one day and he was upset. He tried to hide it from me, but I could tell. He left me in the living room to watch over you while he and Mom went to the kitchen. I remember the low sound of their voices, but I couldn’t understand any words. Still, I knew something was wrong. I could feel it.
“When they came back into the living room, Mom was crying and Dad looked like he wanted to cry too, but he was holding it back.” He stared out at the ocean, but I was willing to bet it was a scene from the past he was seeing and not the waves. “I knew, before he even said a word, what those tears meant. The trackers had found us.
“I was so afraid when Dad knelt down in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. He told me he loved me. It didn’t matter to him we didn’t share the same blood, I was his son and he didn’t want me to ever forget it. Then he said he was sorry, but he needed me to be his brave little man and wait there at the house for awhile. He promised somebody would come get me, but he never said it would be him.
“He kissed my forehead.” Derek touched the spot as if he could still feel it. “He stepped back to pick you up and Mom grabbed me. She hugged me so tight, like she never wanted to let go. They...” His voice broke and he had to take a moment to gather himself. “They knew they weren’t coming back. It had to have killed them to leave me, but it was the only thing they could do to keep me alive. It took a few years of me being angry at them for abandoning me before I realized it.”
I’d wondered how he survived the car accident which was supposed to have killed me along with our parents. Now, I knew. The whole story made me sick. “I’m so sorry,” I said, making no effort to hold back my own tears. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d still have your family.”
“Don’t say that.” He sat up and put his arm across my shoulders. “You are my family. What happened to our parents was not your fault. You didn’t ask to be born a hybrid. You didn’t ask to be hated for no good reason, or to be hunted down like an animal.
“Our parents loved you. So much so they were willing to give up everything to try and keep you safe. I would do the same. Abby,” he tipped his head until our foreheads touched. “I can’t tell you how it felt when I found out you were still alive. You are my sister. I love you. And I will make sure nobody ever hurts you again. I swear it.”
I couldn’t say a word, my throat was so tight. This guy didn’t know me, not really. We hadn’t had a chance to spend much time to get to know one another, but he loved me anyway. Because I was his sister. And he was my brother. And it meant something. It was a powerful feeling.
I rested my head against his chest and he wrapped his arms around me. It’s amazing how safe I felt with him, considering I was terrified of him when we first met. It was a really great moment and I didn’t want to ruin it, but my brain insisted on thinking about the situation we were in. I didn’t want anything to happen to him, or to any of the others, because of me.
“We can’t do this alone.” I was remembering what Hannah had said and how much sense it made. To me, it went hand in hand with what Derek had said about this not being our life forever. I knew he wasn’t going to like it, but I had come to a decision. “We need to find Megara.”
“What?” Shock was clear in his voice. “You can’t be serious.”
I sat back, wiping a hand across my eyes. “Megara is a hybrid and she’s managed to stay alive a long time. She can help us. Maybe she could even teach me how to control my powers.”
Derek was shaking his head the entire time I was speaking. “No,” he said. “Not Megara. She is not the answer. My god, Abigail, the woman blew up a truck stop trying to get at you. She killed people. Innocent people. And never even thought twice about it. She’s dangerous. Why else do you think your clan was hoping you could kill her? Because nobody else can stop her.”
I held his wallet out to him. “Who is going to stop the trackers? Can you tell me that? How are we g
oing to keep from ending up like our parents?”
“I...” He took the wallet from me. “I don’t know. But even if we knew where Megara is, we can’t be sure she would help. She might kill us outright.”
“Maybe.” I stood, suddenly feeling tired and out of sorts. I didn’t want to argue with him, or point out Megara could have easily killed me the last time we met and yet she hadn’t. She ran when Zack and Alice showed up. I had to wonder, if she was so deadly then why did she run? Why not fight? Why not try to kill all of us? I didn’t have the answers and it really bothered me. I felt as if something more was going on. Something I knew nothing about.
“I think I’ll go inside,” I said. “I’ve had about all the fresh air I can stand.”
“Hey.” Derek caught hold of my hand. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s not anything you said or did, I... I have a lot on my mind is all.”
“Okay.” He reluctantly released my hand. “Try not to worry so much. Enjoy being here with your friends for now. We can deal with all the other stuff when we have to.”
“I’ll try.” But I knew it wouldn’t do any good. How was I supposed to hang out with my friends like a normal teenager when I was about as far from normal as a person could get? I was a freaking dragon. A hunted dragon whose powers were completely, and possibly dangerously, out of control. Peace of mind was not something I could easily find.
When I entered the house, my first thought was to hope Hannah wasn’t in the kitchen. Not a nice thought, I know, but even though I liked her and considered her a friend, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her at the moment.
So I was relieved to find the kitchen empty. Silence from the living room told me she wasn’t in there either. Good, I was ready for a little me time.
The tile was cold beneath my bare feet, but it felt nice after the heat of the sand. I started toward the fridge, planning on getting a snack and taking it up to my room, when I heard a thump above my head.
I went to the bottom of the stairs and looked up. Like you, I’ve seen dozens of horror movies and I too have groaned at the sight of some girl wandering off on her own to check out some strange noise. Especially when the noise was coming from upstairs. I’m sure you’ve said to your friends how stupid the cliché is because no real girl would do that. Right? I’ve said the same thing myself, over and over. And yet there I was in a classic horror movie situation, and what did I do? I climbed the stairs.
You don’t have to tell me what a stupid move it was. I know, believe me. But at the time I didn’t even think twice about it. I walked right up those stairs, my hand trailing along the banister. And if I could have seen my face I’m sure it was wearing the signature confused but not yet scared look all horror movie victims wear right before the axe murderer pops out of the closet.
“Hannah?” Yeah, I really did call out her name like she was the only person in the world who could possibly be upstairs. A creepy crawly feeling was working its way up my spine but did I listen to it? No, I did not. Not even when I got no reply in return.
When I hit the second floor landing I paused at the top of the stairs to call out Hannah’s name again. Still, no reply. The house was big, sure, but not so big she shouldn’t have heard me calling out to her.
So what did I do next? Walked down the hall. Go ahead, roll your eyes. I deserve it. You would think a scared person would want to retreat from the thing scaring them instead of going toward it, but apparently I needed to see what was scaring me. Or maybe I didn’t want to believe I had anything to be sacred of.
I stopped to knock on Hannah’s door. “Hey, are you okay in there? I thought I heard a weird noise.” Nothing. I opened the door a crack and peeked in. “Hannah?”
The room was mostly dark, except for some light coming in through the curtains, and clearly empty. Or so I thought.
Why did I go into the room when I had no reason to think Hannah might be in there? I have no idea. I walked through the doorway, even though the crawly feeling was getting stronger. The whole time I told myself I was being silly. I had nothing to be afraid of.
A hand clamped over my mouth. I screamed against rough skin and tried to pull away, but an arm snaked around my waist to pin my arms to my side. I tried to kick, but whoever had hold of me simply lifted me off my feet as if I weighed nothing.
“Easy kid,” a deep voice spoke into my ear. “My orders are to bring you back alive, but I have permission to use any necessary force in doing it. Don’t make me have to hurt you.”
I stopped struggling. The guy was clearly way stronger than me and I was scared to try and use my power because I wasn’t sure what might happen with us so close to each other. Besides, I didn’t know what kind of dragon he might be. I’d had a taste of battle training thanks to Zack and it wasn’t pleasant, even coming from someone who wasn’t trying to hurt me
“I got her Hal,” the man said. “You can come out.”
A second man, around forty and built like a tank, came out of the bathroom with Hannah hanging limply in his arms. He dumped her onto the bed and she bounced a little. Lifeless. My heart raced. A whimper escaped my lips. What if she was dead?
“Keep it cool, little dragon,” my captor said. “She’s not dead, only unconscious. You should be grateful. It’s well within our rights to kill her, seeing as how she’s a renegade.”
“Why don’t we kill her, Mitch?” Hal pulled a pistol from the waistband of his jeans and pressed the barrel against the side of Hannah’s head. “It’d be a whole lot easier.”
I swear I came so close to fainting right then. Maybe it sounds kind of lame, but I’d never seen anybody point a gun at somebody and threaten to kill them. And Hannah was my friend. I so did not want to watch her get her brains blown out.
“You know how I feel about killing kids,” Mitch said.
“She don’t look like a kid to me.”
“Then you know how I feel about killing females.”
Hal sighed, drawing his pistol away from Hannah and slipping it back into hiding. “You know, with the line of work we’re in you sure have a long list of people you don’t like to kill.”
“What can I say?” Mitch shrugged. “I have a high moral standard. Get on your walkie and see how the others are making out.” He turned and stepped through the door like hauling me around was no big deal.
I seriously considered biting his hand. It was only the uncertainty keeping me from it. I couldn’t decide which was worse, to fight back and risk getting killed right there, or to let these men take me back to the compound. Because I had no doubt my grandfather sent them after me.
Mitch carried me to the staircase and held me so my feet dangled over empty air. “You keep right on behaving yourself and don’t give me no trouble, or else I’ll go against my morals and my orders and let you take a little tumble down the stairs. You don’t want me to do that now, do you?”
I shook my head. My mind was racing trying to think of a way out of the situation without getting myself or Hannah killed. If only Derek or Zack were there. Derek could handle himself in a fight if he had to and I’d seen Zack kill. Having either of them would have made me feel a whole lot safer. And braver too.
Hal cursed as he came out of the bedroom with Hannah slung over his shoulder. “Target two is approaching the house.”
“Can Sil get a shot?”
“Negative.”
Mitch blew out a breath. “What about target three? Shelby and the boys take him out?”
“No. They were tracking him but then... well, he sort of up and disappeared on them. They ran into some others though and, uh...” Hal cleared his throat. “Trish shot one of the civies.”
“This is not going well, Hal.” Mitch started down the stairs. “Not well at all.”
“I told you Trish was too trigger happy for this job,” Hal said, following us down. “I’m not surprised she shot somebody.”
“Fatality?”
As you can imagine, I was as e
ager to hear the answer as Mitch was. Maybe even more so. I wasn’t sure what a civy was, but since they had come to the beach looking for me, I could pretty well guess he was talking about one of my friends.
“Affirmative.”
I may not be as smart as Brandy, but even I understood enough to know that meant one of my friends was dead. It was way too heavy a thought to handle. I started to breathe hard as my muscles tightened. I was about to do something stupid, I could feel it. But panic had its claws deep in my guts and I was powerless to control myself.
“Sorry kid,” Mitch said. “It wasn’t supposed to go down like this, but it’s the risk a person takes running around with the likes of you.”
We had reached the bottom of the staircase and I was about to do something, anything, when Mitch suddenly let me go. I stumbled in surprise, and before I could regain my balance something came down hard on the back of my head.
I fell to the floor, stars dancing across my vision. The blow left me woozy, but with enough presence of mind to close my eyes and pretend I was unconscious.
“Heads up,” a male voice said from the walkie talkie. “We got a police patrol cruising by out front.”
“Ten four,” Hal said. “Okay, Mitch, you’re the boss. What now?”
“Check on target two.”
“Sil, what’s the status on target two?”
“Three meters and closing slow. In a couple seconds I can get a clear shot. Want me to take it?”
“Mitch?”
“No,” Mitch said, much to my relief. “We’ll go out the back to avoid the cops and get target two to come along with us peacefully.”
Hal relayed the message to Sil, then said. “How do you figure you’ll manage to get him to come without a fight?”
“Because we have his baby sister,” Mitch said. “He went renegade to get her back, he won’t let her die now.”