by Willa Hart
She turned watery eyes on me, an accusation swimming in them. “Couldn’t sleep. You left so early, and I got nervous being all alone in my apartment. After…after what happened… I couldn’t go back to sleep.”
I blanched, my heart ready to beat right out of my chest. “Oh my god. You’ve been here all day?”
She looked every bit the scared schoolgirl when she nodded, her dark curls bobbing. “Shirley said I could stay as long as I wanted, but she had to go shopping. I fell asleep, then…I woke up.” She scowled at the bedspread. “No, I’m still sleeping. Only a dream. Only a dream.”
If she’d come back this morning, that meant she’d overheard pretty much everything. But I needed to be sure.
“What did you hear…I mean dream about?”
I had to lean in close to hear her mumbling description, as if she was still under the effects of the drug. “Dragons…keepers…Titus…elder council…dragons…” She blinked at me, as if clearing her vision. “Only a dream. Can’t be real. Only a dream. Right? Dragons aren’t real. Are they?”
I sat in stunned silence. Shirley had been gone when we all descended on the house after my meeting with Lazlo, and she had yet to return. I didn’t recall seeing a note, but then again, why would she have left one. She couldn’t have known this would happen.
But the question remained, how had I not sensed Zoe was in the house? I could sense random dragon keepers I’d barely even met, but not my best friend? I couldn’t let her think she was going crazy. She’d been my closest confidante since childhood. I owed her an explanation, not that I had a clue where to start.
“I’m so sorry you had to find out this way,” I said, holding both of her clammy hands in mine. “I know it seems insane, but I would never lie to you, Zoe. You have to trust me, okay?”
She searched my face desperately but remained impassive. I had no choice but to press on.
“Dragons are real, Zoe. But they’re not like the ones in Game of Thrones or The Hobbit. They’re very different because they’re also human. They can change from human to dragon at will.”
“Are you…”
“No, I’m human, just like you. So’s Aunt Shirley.” I hesitated, unsure if it was allowed for me to reveal all of the truth, but in for a penny. “Max and his nephews, on the other hand, are all dragons.”
She seemed to take the news well — or at least she didn’t react violently to it — so I continued.
“You see, dragons are kind of temperamental, as you can imagine, and there are these humans called ‘keepers’ who have a symbiotic relationship with them. That’s what I am. My dad was too, but not my mom. When I first got here, I thought I was Uncle Max’s keeper—”
“No!” Zoe shouted, yanking her hands back and tumbling off the bed in her rush to escape.
Jumping to her feet, she shook her head frantically, her hands pressed against her ears and her eyes wild with fear and confusion. And betrayal. That broke me.
I reached for her. “Zoe—”
She screamed bloody murder, then bolted out of the room. I ran after her, calling her name, but before I even made it to the hallway, the front door slammed closed and she was gone. By the time I made it outside, a car engine started halfway down the block, then her little blue hybrid raced past the house and disappeared from view.
Chapter Eight
“The matching principle works with the revenue recognition principle to ensure all revenue and expenses are recorded on the accrual basis,” droned Professor Green as I brushed a gnat away from my ear.
The damn thing had been buzzing around my head for the last fifteen minutes and it was driving me crazy. But not as crazy as the fact Zoe had come in late and grabbed a seat in the front row, about as far away from me as possible. As much as she liked attention, she’d always been a “sit in back of the class so the teacher wouldn’t notice her” kind of student, but apparently not today. I’d saved her a seat, but she hadn’t even looked around the room for me when she’d rushed in.
After Zoe had fled from the house yesterday, I’d called her a dozen times and texted her a dozen more. She hadn’t returned a single one. The revelation that dragons not only exist, but live among us, must have rocked her world. The fact she showed up to class had to be a good sign, though.
My attention span was shit. Between Zoe’s silent treatment, Max’s disappearance, the confusing relationships with the guys, losing track of my backpack, and the goddamn gnat that wouldn’t leave me alone, I couldn’t concentrate on the day’s lesson. For some reason, accounting practices seemed irrelevant at the moment. Thankfully, Dr. Green took pity on me — unknowingly, no doubt — and finally ended the class.
Slamming my laptop closed, I swept it and my books into my arms as I shuffled down my row, pushing people out of my way to reach Zoe before she could escape the classroom. But I barely made it halfway to the aisle before Zoe disappeared into the exiting throng.
“Zoe!” I shouted over the heads of everyone, but she was already gone. “Shit.”
A guy stepped in front of me, blocking my path, his eyes glowing with interest.
“Hey, Favor.”
“Hi Brent. If you’ll excuse—”
“Want to grab some coffee? There’s a little place—”
“Sorry, Brent. Gotta run.”
Good lord, couldn’t a girl chase after her bestie who’d just learned dragons existed without getting accosted by randos? I shoved past him and picked up my pace, knocking a couple people into their tables. When I reached the main aisle, Yazmin and Alisha were waiting for me, glancing between the door and me, then at each other.
“Favor, is something going on with Zoe?” Alisha asked, worry written all over her face. “I texted her several times yesterday, but she never replied.”
“Is she still recovering from… You know.” Yazmin grimaced, as if she couldn’t stand thinking about what had happened to our friend, much less speak the words.
I loved Alisha and Yazmin with all my heart, but I didn’t have time to explain. Not if I wanted to catch up with Zoe, and that was definitely my top priority. Besides, what would I have said? “Oh, she discovered dragons exist and is a little freaked out by it.”
Um, no.
“She’s fine, we just had a fight,” I blurted as I edged past them into the main aisle. Now that my path was relatively clear, I couldn’t waste time coming up with fake excuses. “Gotta go make it right. See you later!”
I was out the door in a matter of seconds and turned toward the parking lot. Up ahead, the mass of bodies parted like the Red Sea as a tiny dark head blasted through. I ran after her, but no one seemed interested in moving aside for me, so I dodged and weaved until I burst outside and was blinded by the brightness of a Southern California sun. On a normal day, I’d have turned my face up to the sky and basked in its warmth, but today wasn’t a normal day. I couldn’t remember the last normal day I had.
Zoe darted across the street without looking, causing a crappy Corolla to screech to a stop inches from her and lay on the horn. She barely noticed. Damn, she was flying. If she made it to her car, it was all over. I pushed harder and jumped out in front of the Corolla before the driver had recovered from the scare. Thank god I was wearing jeans and tennis shoes.
Zoe had reached her car, but I’d gained ground on her. Longer legs, I guess. Regardless, she couldn’t escape from me now. She glanced over her shoulder as she frantically pressed her key fob to unlock her door. Her trunk popped open instead.
“Dammit!”
“Zoe!” I cried, as I jogged up to her.
Dropping the hand with the keys in defeat, she turned to face me. At least she didn’t bolt, but I wasn’t buying the fake smile she plastered on her face.
“Hey,” she said brightly, as if she hadn’t run from me. “What’s up?”
“Are you serious?” I panted, grabbing her car for support as I caught my breath. “You’re as winded as me.”
“No, I’m not,” she lied, resisting the urge to wipe a bea
d of sweat trickling down the side of her face.
Ignoring the deception, I gave her a soft smile. “I wanted to make sure you’re okay after yesterday.”
“What are you talking about?”
I shook my head, trying not to be frustrated and failing miserably. “Can we not? Okay? We need to talk about…” I glanced around us to make sure the coast was clear. “Dragons.”
She laughed, this time pressing the correct button on her fob. The locks on her car shot up with a thunk. She busied herself with putting her stuff in her car as she did everything in her power to avoid looking at me.
“That? That was only a dream, Favor. Probably another side effect from that roofie. No big deal.”
“Are you telling me you dreamed bruises onto your arms?”
She spun around wearing a snotty expression. “Apparently. Look.”
Pulling up the sleeves of her blouse, she rotated her forearms right in my face. I couldn’t believe what I saw, which was a totally unmarked pair of arms. I set my stuff on her trunk, grabbed one of her arms and rubbed to make sure she hadn’t covered the bruises with makeup. It was as clean as it was unbruised.
“See?” she chirped, jerking back her arms as if my touch was too hot to bear. “Only a dream.”
I stood there in shock as she finished putting her things in the car. Not a single mark remained on her arms, even though some of them had already started bruising when I first saw them. Maybe she was right. Maybe we’d had one of those shared dream experiences or something — I’d certainly had a lifetime of weird dreams — but in my heart, I knew that wasn’t the truth.
“Gotta run,” she said, opening the driver’s door and climbing in. “Big audition.”
I only needed my keen observational skills to know she was lying. Grabbing the doorframe before she could close it, I leaned in.
“Zoe, wait.”
Dammit! That gnat had followed me outside! Gross, it must have been stuck in my hair. I batted at my ear, but it only grew louder. It almost sounded like whispers.
“What?”
Her angry tone snapped my attention back to her. She looked as irked as she sounded.
All I could manage was a wimpy, “I’m sorry.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re sorry. Sure. Fine. Whatever.”
“What?” I asked, honestly perplexed by whatever point she was trying to make.
“Can you just leave me alone, please? You take plenty of time for yourself. Well, now it’s my turn.”
She pulled the door out of my grasp and pressed the button to start the car. When her window slid down, I thought she wanted to talk more, but the look on her face told me she only wanted to let some hot air escape.
“Zoe, what’s going—”
Favor.
I jerked around to see who’d said my name, but no one was remotely close enough for a whisper like that to register. Zoe’s snort drew me back to look at her again, and she did not look happy.
“That’s just like you these days, Favor. Always distracted. Always something more important to pay attention to than your best friend. Why don’t you…” She shook her head and started backing out of her parking spot. I grabbed my books and laptop before they fell to the asphalt. As Zoe drove off, she said, “Why don’t you go have fun with your cousins. I know that’s what you want anyway.”
Before I could formulate a response, she was gone, leaving me standing in the middle of the parking lot, utterly devastated. Zoe was more like a sister to me than a friend. I knew one day I’d probably have to tell her about all this dragony stuff, but I hadn’t really been prepared for it when the time had come. Now I was faced with the very real possibility of losing her entirely. Worse yet, I had no idea how to fix it.
Favor…hear me…meeting…
I spun around again, and again no one was anywhere near me. But this time the voice was louder, almost recognizable. Moving into the shade of a big tree, I closed my eyes and concentrated. Kellum’s face appeared, wobbly and wavering, but definitely there. Like a photograph. Then his voice grew louder in my head.
“Kellum?” I asked, but not with my mouth.
Favor! Can…hear…
I leaned against the rough bark of the tree for support when my knees threatened to buckle out from under me. Hearing voices was one thing, but when they answered back… I was pretty sure I wasn’t turning into a raving lunatic. Max had said my dragon keeper powers were growing, and maybe this was one of them. I concentrated on envisioning everything I could recall about Kellum. The way his short, dark brown hair was always styled to perfection. How he always used an immaculate Windsor knot on his ties. The firmness of his hands on my body. How he felt inside me. Only when I felt completely enveloped in everything about him did I try reaching out to him again.
“Kellum, are you talking to me or am I stroking out?”
I can hear you better now, he said, his voice growing louder and more clear inside my head. Where are you?
“School.”
Bizarre! We were having a conversation like we were talking on the phone, but the how of it all escaped me and left me reeling.
Wow, this is crazy.
Kellum was the leader of Max’s nephews — authoritative, competent and knowledgeable. To throw him off guard like this was a special moment for me, so I decided to have a little fun with it.
“What, you haven’t been communicating telepathically all your life? Totes no big deal.”
Very funny.
Someone honked in the lot and my eyes flew open to make sure I wasn’t about to get run over. Nope, just some jerk in a hurry to zip behind someone else trying to back out of a space. I closed my eyes again.
“Where are you?”
The response crackled and buzzed, exactly like when I thought his voice was a bothersome gnat. I focused on his face again, then his words became clearer. Sort of. They still seemed as if they were passing through a sieve before reaching me. Like only the most essential meaning of the conversation was being transmitted.
“Kellum, can you hear me now?”
That’s better. You went away for a second.
“Seriously, though, how…why…”
I needed to talk to you.
“Why didn’t you call?”
Tried, no answer. Honestly, I didn’t think this would work.
Right. I’d turned my phone off for class and had been too busy with Zoe to remember to turn it back on.
“What’s up?”
Did you forget our meeting with Lazlo?
“Shit!”
Language, he teased, sounding too much like Aunt Shirley for my taste.
“Fuck off,” I joked. “On my way.”
I pulled my phone from my back pocket and turned it on as I hurried over to the Caddy. Four missed calls, six texts, all from Kellum. I checked the time. If I hauled ass, I could make it in time for the meeting, barring any traffic. My head throbbed from the strain of chatting with Kellum telepathically, so I popped a couple ibuprofen before taking off for downtown.
Driving while distracted could be fatal in L.A., and even though I wasn’t talking on my phone or texting, I was certainly distracted. Too much had happened in the course of the last few minutes and I was having trouble unpacking it all.
Zoe hated me. Or at least didn’t like me much at the moment, and that broke my heart. As crazy and fun and wild as she was, she’d also been my rock for most of my life. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her intentionally. Ever. What a fucking disaster. The best I could hope for was that she’d eventually come to understand why I never told her about dragons.
Then there was the unexpected discovery that Kellum and I could chat with our minds. Did that also mean he knew what I was thinking? I tried reaching out to read his mind but came up blank. That gave me hope I was safe in my own head. But how the hell did it work? It had to be connected to how I could sense them when they were near, but beyond that, it was a mystery.
The bigger question was why now?
It couldn’t simply be because I was hanging out with dragons. I’d lived with one for the last five years, and other than being able to sense when he was lying, I’d never had any sort of telepathic connection with Uncle Max — or his other nephews, for that matter. What made Kellum so special?
“Oh, duh,” I muttered, wanting to bash my forehead against the steering wheel.
Kellum and I had slept together. It was the only thing that differentiated him from the others. Why I’d be more capable of mind-melding with a lover still made no sense, but until Max showed up and explained, I’d have to live with the uncertainty. My mind naturally wandered to the question of whether I’d be able to mentally talk with any dragons I might happen to sleep with — four in particular.
A chill rippled across my skin, despite the sun beating down on me, and it had nothing to do with my new powers. Or at least, I didn’t think so. But as the sensation settled on me like a spotlight, I realized I’d actually been feeling it for a few minutes.
I was being followed.
My hands jerked involuntarily but not enough to smash into the car next to me. The guy at the wheel flipped me off and sped up, probably in case I was drunk or high. Whatever, go with god, fella. I had more important matters to focus on. Such as who was tailing me, and why. I thought back to Max’s training in the ways of a good P.I.
“Stay calm,” I mumbled, then took five nice deep breaths to settle my nerves.
“Watch your mirrors.” I checked all three and cataloged the cars behind me, paying attention when one turned a corner or dropped behind.
“Use side streets.”
I told my phone to take me to Drakonis avoiding Pico Boulevard, the main thoroughfare, and took the next right. I knew the area well enough that I could take a sudden turn — ignoring the phone’s urgent commands to make a U-turn — and get back on track after a few blocks.
After fifteen minutes of worming my way toward downtown L.A., that creepy feeling still made my flesh crawl, even though no one appeared to be following me. I’d driven through several residential neighborhoods without anyone behind me at all. If someone had been tailing me, they weren’t anymore. I must have been suffering from residual jitters.