Let There Be Dragons (The Children of Ankh Book 3)

by Kim Cormack

  She responded back by thinking, “The lights went out before I got a good look.”

  Zach’s voice spoke in her mind again, “Do you remember what class this is?”

  She recognized the movie the class was watching but she couldn’t recall the name of it. There was a lame battle going on. “It could be Social Studies?” They spent the whole hour watching the movie before the teacher turned the lights on. The girl was sitting a few aisles over. She had glasses that kept sliding down her nose and her black hair was in a ponytail. The bell rang and she startled, dropped her binder on the floor and everything fell out of it. She scrambled to stuff it back inside. Nobody stopped to help her, they just walked around her. It was mortal Kevin but a girl. Kayn knew she wasn’t supposed to do it but couldn’t help herself. She helped the girl pick up her scattered papers. The girl thanked her. Kayn smiled back without speaking because she wasn’t supposed to speak to her. Zach was standing above her shaking his head when she looked up.

  “That was her, wasn’t it?” Zach questioned. He helped her up and passed Kayn the backpack she’d left under her desk. He’d packed up her stuff while she was busy breaking the rules. He was getting the hang of this Handler thing. They strolled out of the room and began searching for their next class. The girl they were there to observe walked out of the bathroom, accidentlly bumped into somebody and they ignorantly shoved her against the lockers. This was painful to watch. Kayn had the overwhelming urge to follow the bitch who’d pushed her and give her an accidental well timed shove.

  Zach laughed and whispered, “We’re supposed to be inconspicuously watching her. Not going all vigilante on everyone that wrongs her. She’ll have to be toughened up to survive what’s coming for her.”

  He had a point but she still planned to arrange an inconvenient accident for that bitch if the situation presented itself. The girl wasn’t in their next classes but they found her at lunch. She was sitting alone reading a book. Her table was the only free one by the time they got through the lunch room line up. They maneuvered their way through the gossiping teens and sat down beside the girl that they weren’t supposed to speak to. Kayn smiled and apologized, “I’m sorry if we’re bothering you. There wasn’t anywhere else to sit.”

  The girl looked up, smiled and stated, “You guys are new here. It probably won’t be very good for you socially if you sit with me.”

  Zach introduced himself, “I’m Zach and this is my stepsister Kayn. It’s our first day and we don’t care about stuff like that.”

  The girl slid her glasses back up her nose and wiped her hand on her shirt as she replied, “I’m Hannah and this books not important. I’m just passing time until the end of the day. It’s nice to meet you guys.” The bell rang. Hannah stood up and explained, “I have to run. I hate being the last one in the door. I guess I’ll see you in class.” She smiled like they’d just made her year and walked away.

  Kayn looked at Zach and declared, “So, we’ve blown our cover on the first day. What now?”

  Her partner smiled and replied, “I guess we’ll just have to go with it.”

  They finished the school day rather uneventfully and now that she knew what they looked like it was going to be difficult to stalk her without being noticed. They saw her walking in the snow by herself so they pulled over and offered her a ride. She happily accepted. They drove her a couple of blocks and dropped her off. She lived in an apartment building. After saying their goodbyes, they drove away. They pulled over a couple of blocks from the girl’s apartment complex and sat there silently for a minute. Kayn glanced at Zach and stated, “We suck at this.”

  He chuckled and agreed, “We don’t just moderately suck. We epically suck. We are horrible stalkers. She’s going to be looking for us now. How do you stealthily watch someone who is actually looking for you?”

  “Should we tell the others we screwed up? Maybe, we can just trade places?” Kayn asked. She looked out the window and noticed someone approaching in the distance. “Shit. It’s her,” Kayn whispered. Zach ducked down in the driver’s seat. Kayn smacked him and hissed, “She knows what we’re driving you tool. Just drive away.” He pulled away from the curb and they took off down the street.

  Kayn looked at her equally inept partner in crime and suggested, “I have an idea. Why don’t we trade vehicles with the others each day after school?” She took her cell phone out of her pocket and texted Melody. Mel gave her directions to the hotel they were staying at and she was mortified to find out it was the same one she’d stayed in with Frost. Of course it was. She’d have to sneak in and out of the damn place.

  Zach knit his brow and enquired, “Is something wrong?”

  She met his eyes and responded, “I know how to get to the hotel. Drive back out to the highway.”

  He stared at the road ahead and made a valiant attempt to keep a straight face for a minute or two. Then with an enormous shit eating grin he blurted out, “Please tell me it’s the same hotel. It’ll make this gong show of a day, so much better.”

  She mumbled, “Yes, it’s the same hotel. I guess there’s a big hockey tournament and there were no rooms in town.”

  He started bouncing around in his seat like a sugar cranked child. Zach became still and prodded, “Tell me we’re staying in the honeymoon suite? Say this is happening.”

  This was going to be so awkward. Once again, she’d like to welcome everyone to the all humiliation Kayn show, otherwise known as her life. He already knew the answer by her lack of response and he started to giggle. This day was only going to get worse. She pointed out the hotel and he pulled into the parking lot.

  Zach stared out of the window at the building and exclaimed, “Frost is my new hero.”

  Kayn socked him in the arm like five times, as hard as she could, while he laughed and pleaded with her to stop. She looked at him and said, “Now, how in the hell am I supposed to get up to the room? I just stayed here with my husband, for my honeymoon.”

  Zach rubbed his wounded arm and replied, “Your family is in town for your reception and all of the rooms have been booked for that hockey tournament. I’m your step brother.”

  She shook her head at him as she grabbed her bag and got out of the car. When they entered the hotel, she was relieved to see that it wasn’t the same man at the front desk. As they got into the elevator and she thought of Frost. He was going to piss himself laughing when he found out where they were staying. The door opened to the floor they’d stayed on and there was the little gold plaque on the door that read, ‘Honeymoon suite.’ Let the humiliation begin.

  Zach walked into the room. He parted his lips in awe as he announced, “Wow. This is an unbelievable room. Frost has some serious game.”

  Astrid gave her arm an apologetic squeeze as she explained, “We’ll only be here for one night and then we have a room downtown. I’m sorry, this was just how the search for a room played out. We’ve already made a pact to not say a word about it while we’re here.”

  While we’re here. Now there was the smooth little loophole in the pact. She noted that they’d brought up a few cots. She’d sleep in one of those.

  Haley sat down on the king-sized bed and bounced around a little. She sprawled out and sighed, “I wish someone had done something like this for me.” She peered up at Kayn and quickly apologized, “That was the last comment, I swear.”

  On the bright side the food had been unbelievable. She looked at the others and suggested, “Let’s order an early dinner and have a couple of drinks. The food here is incredible. I can just pretend I’m somewhere else if you four let it happen.”

  Melody smiled, grabbed the menu and said, “Alright, let’s eat. What do you all want?”

  Kayn replied, “I’ll have Steak Neptune.” The others started to order as she wandered over to the mini bar, grabbed some tiny bottles of vodka and climbed into the completely empty, enormous bath tub. She lined the tiny bottles up on the edge. Astrid, Haley and Zach joined her while Melody called down for room
service. She joined them as soon as the order was in and they all sat in the empty bathtub, talked about life and drank every one of the tiny expensive bottles of booze from the mini bar. Not one of them uttered a word about the subject that was taken off the table. They had a wonderful dinner. Their little waterless bathtub party had quite successfully numbed the anxiety over the room they were staying in and Kayn was feeling quite relaxed as she wandered over to the washroom and closed the door behind her. She sat down on the edge of the tub, took her phone out of her pocket and texted Frost, “It snowed and we had to get a hotel room. There’s a hockey tournament going on and there are no rooms in town. Guess where we’re all staying tonight?” She stared at her phone for a minute and no response. He was on a job. He probably couldn’t answer. She got up and took a look at her reflection in the mirror. Her hand warmed and she looked down at it, knowing what that meant. Crap. She took off her little white leather fingerless glove just as her hand flashed a couple of times. That was two flashes and there were five of them. She knew she couldn’t fight against the Dragon instinct with logic. Her pulse began to race. Fight it. She had to fight it. There was nowhere to go. She was in the bathroom on the sixth floor of a hotel. Nobody could see her like this. Her blood scalded her veins with each pump of her heart. She clutched the sides of the sink and looked down at her hands. Her veins were already brilliant green and clearly visible. One ability would surely set off the other and she hadn’t even thought about feeding the Conduit ability since Frost left. The headache began and she knew how this all was going to go down. They were going to have to subdue her. She heard a knock on the bathroom door and she grabbed the glove out of the sink. Her glove was in her hand as her palm lit up for the third time. Three down. Kayn opened the door, looked into her Handler’s concerned eyes and ordered, “You’re going to have to restrain me, right now, while you still can.”

  He blocked the door and whispered, “I won’t have to if I can get through to you. Listen, we’re not their backup. Markus, Jenna and Orin are there with them. This isn’t our fight.”

  Her stomach knotted into a ball of excruciating pain. She dropped to her knees, groaned and hissed, “Do it now!” Agony was radiating through her entire body in spasms. “Take me out! Heal me when it’s over!”

  Zach grabbed ahold of her and tried to give her a pep talk, “You can fight against this. They don’t need us. This feeling will pass. Just breathe with me. Take a deep breath.” He slowly inhaled some air and then exhaled.

  She glared at him as her hand flashed for a fourth time and another surge of adrenaline rippled through her body. Her chest tightened and she grabbed his wrist, squeezed it and ordered, “Do it now!” The veins on her arms were swollen teal ridges on her skin and her breathing had become labored. Her Conduit ability had reared its ravenous head. She growled, “Get away!” She felt the energy addicted predatory part of her switch on. They were no longer things she needed to protect. They contained sustenance and they were blocking the door.

  Melody stood in her path and asserted, “You know we can’t let you leave.”

  Kayn was trying to stop herself but she couldn’t. Kayn met Melody’s eyes and darkly urged, “You know what you have to do.” She took one step, felt a sharp pain in her neck and the lights went out.

  Lesser Evils

  She felt the sand beneath her fingertips and the warmth of the sun beating down on her bare shoulders as she opened her eyes. She was relieved. One of them had killed her. Kayn scrambled to her feet and smiled. It felt like it had been a long time since she’d come to the in-between. It had only been three months since her Testing but it felt like years. So much had happened in such a short period of time. She strolled through the vast clean slate of the welcoming desert and revelled in the warmth of the silken sand as it slid between her toes with each footstep she took. Kayn couldn’t recall the exact number of her clan that were killed but they were unable to pass through the hall of souls due to the mark of Ankh so they’d remain here until they were healed. She could find them if she wanted to. Instead, she chose to stroll through the wondrous warmth that enveloped her skin and filled her with a feeling of bliss. The scenery around her exploded with glorious light. There was a time when she would have felt the urge to cower in reaction to this light but she was far past her fear of the unknown. When the heavenly glare ceased, she found herself standing in a glorious field full of buttercups with brilliant orange flowers, fluffy dandelion heads and bumble bees. As she took her first step, every orange flower in the field took flight and she realized that the flowers were monarch butterflies. They grouped together, hovering about twenty feet off the ground. The butterflies in the Testing had been an ominous presence but not here. Not in this place. This was different. She raised her hands and a few of them fluttered down and landed on her. She watched them strutting a ticklish path with their tiny feet on her skin. As she took another step, they fluttered away as one magnificent cloud into the horizon. She smiled. The last time she’d come here, she’d been so angry. This time she felt nothing but peace within her soul. There were things to look forward to, beautiful wondrous things such as love and companionship. Most importantly, she felt hopeful. This time she was careful to avoid the bumble bees as she wandered through the meadow. She inhaled the wondrous fragrance in the air and felt the gentle caress of the grass underfoot. Kayn laid in the grass to observe the bumble bees for a little while. She watched the furry little creatures as they darted from flower to flower with their tiny legs coated in yellow pollen. With her chin rested in her hands, she witnessed their magical dance and became lost in the timeless moment. She felt someone there and glanced over. Beside her in the grass was a familiar being. It was creepy black spandex guy. She’d met him after her Correction and to be quite honest, he’d been a bit of a dick. He’d frozen her solid and messed with her mind by placing her in various terrifyingly macabre situations for his own amusement. Kayn knit her brow as she patiently enquired, “What do you want?”

  The wicked little being grinned at her, tilted his head and questioned, “Do I have to want something?”

  His presence irritated her. He was wrecking her happy place.

  The obnoxious thing tossed a handful of grass at her face and chuckled, “Now, that’s not fair. What if this is my happy place too?”

  She recalled his ability to hear her thoughts. Kayn scrambled to her feet. Fine, if he wasn’t going to leave then she would just relocate her little moment to somewhere he wasn’t. He started to follow her. Kayn turned around and asserted, “Listen, I just want a few moments of peace. Leave me alone. Go bother somebody else. I’m sure there’s a ton of new souls for you to traumatize” She spun around and walked away but she could hear his footsteps rustling through the grass behind her. Kayn ignored him for a while, hoping he’d lose interest if she ignored him but he continued his irritating pursuit. She paused without looking back and sighed, “Why are you still here?”

  He replied, “I may have been a little bit insensitive when we first met. What can I do to get a clean slate?”

  Clean slate? Was this tool serious? She was a Dragon. She didn’t have to put up with this shit. Kayn smiled, thought of a boulder and it appeared in her hands. Bigger. It definitely needed to be bigger. She grinned as it tripled in size. Kayn turned around to face him with an enormous boulder in her hands.

  The treacherous little man grinned, intrigued by the hostile turn of events, he questioned, “Will throwing that rock resolve your feelings of hostility towards me?”

  Kayn grinned and sparred, “It’s a start.”

  He shrugged, remained standing there and sighed, “Fine, if you must.”

  She launched the boulder directly at him and he didn’t even attempt to move. His head exploded in a blast of bloody chunks and his body slumped into the grass. Why didn’t he just move? She walked over, gave what was left of him a little boot with her foot, shrugged and walked away. Problem solved. That was strange. Kayn carried on walking for a little whi
le. She knew what she wanted to do. It was something she hadn’t had a chance to do in quite a while. The scenery exploded with brilliant light once again and she found herself standing barefoot in the forest. It was time for that trail run she’d been dying for. Kayn leaned against a tree and got some annoyingly sticky tree sap on her. She grimaced but didn’t bother to try to wipe it off. She knew better. She’d have to just tune it out. It wasn’t really there anyway.

  A voice behind her sang, “Are we all better now?”

  Seriously. This guy was as irritating as tree sap. You happened to touch it and can’t get rid of it until you get home. No matter how hard you try. She explained, “Listen, I really want to go for a quick trail run before I heal and I’m dumped back into my body. I haven’t had the opportunity to do this in months.”

  The creepy being responded, “Fine, you go for your run and we’ll continue this conversation at a later date.”

  Kayn shook her head and agreed, “Sounds good. Have a lovely afterlife.” Without looking back, she sprinted down the path. She needed this so badly. Kayn darted through the woods strategically missing each root underfoot. She’d only just begun when she felt something peculiar. She stopped running and looked at her hands. Her fingertips were tingling. They disintegrated into dust, followed by the rest of her essence as it blew away on the light breeze that travelled through the trees.

  In the time it took to exhale, Kayn opened her eyes and she was in her body, back in the land of the living with her head resting on Zach’s lap.

  He stroked her hair and whispered, “Sorry about that. We couldn’t exactly have you roaming the hotel all covered in veins, ready for a murder spree.”

  Kayn smiled, sensing it was the middle of the night and it was necessary to be respectfully quiet, she gave a hushed reply, “I’m fine now. Perhaps, that’s the only way around that ability related glitch.”