The Dragon Lords

by C. J. Hill

  Ryan forced a grin. “Dragon camp. Sounds interesting. What sort of thing did you do? Paint ceramic dragons?”

  He was trying to keep them talking until his backup arrived. How long would Overdrake’s men take? Twenty minutes? Longer? Were any stationed in Georgetown?

  “We did normal camp stuff,” Leo said. “Archery, horseback riding, running around and nearly burning down the forest.”

  They’d also leaped from tree branches and dodged fireballs. Did Leo remember any of that? Jesse would have to ask him later. Right now, he needed to get rid of Ryan and take Leo someplace where he and Bess could explain the situation. If they showed him their powers, maybe they could convince him to leave with them. At the very least, they needed to warn him about Ryan. The guy was being paid to watch him.

  While Leo was telling Ryan about all the jogging they’d had to do at camp, Jesse broke into the conversation. “We should let Ryan get back to his beer pong.” He took one of Leo’s potato chips and bit into it. “Nice meeting you.”

  “I was done watching the game,” Ryan said. “I don’t mind hanging with you guys.”

  Bess smile apologetically. “Sorry, but we need to talk to Leo privately. He can get back to you in a few minutes.” She hooked her hand through Leo’s arm. “Let’s go downstairs.”

  “You can’t leave the party.” Sharpness edged Ryan’s words. “The tenants don’t want strangers roaming around.”

  “We won’t go far,” Bess said, already pulling Leo with her.

  “Seriously,” Ryan said. “Don’t leave the rooftops.”

  Leo glanced over his shoulder at Ryan. “Relax. I’ll be back soon.”

  Not if Jesse could help it. He shadowed Bess as she towed Leo toward the right side of the building. He hoped they’d find stairs there. Otherwise they’d have to use the main catwalk and it was crowded and in plain sight.

  “What did you want to talk to me about?” Leo asked, his pace too slow.

  “It’s hard to explain without sounding crazy,” Jesse said. “but we want you to come back to the Slayers.”

  “You mean camp?” Leo shook his head. “I’ve got to work during the summer.”

  Bess let out a huff. “Leo, you used to have superpowers and you need to get them back.”

  Jesse smiled at her stiffly. “Remember how we weren’t going to sound crazy?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t have the patience for subtlety, and I can’t pretend it doesn’t matter.”

  The music was too loud to hear footsteps following them. Was it Jesse’s imagination, or did he sense them anyway? Jesse looked over his shoulder. People were strolling around, but no one seemed to be directly following them. Ryan was watching them, eyes narrowed. If he had a gun, would he come after them and use it once they went around the side of the building? Even with silencers, gunshots were loud. Probably louder than the music. Might not be that kind of gun, though. Shang had been hit with a tranquilizer. Those didn’t make a lot of noise.

  “We need you,” Bess kept her voice low. “I’ve already fought two dragons. Me. One shielder. Do you have any idea how much we need your help?”

  Leo pressed his lips together and turned to Jesse. “What is she talking about?”

  “And that’s another thing,” Bess said, waving her free hand at him. “You just forgot our entire mission. How could you think that wouldn’t matter? If it was only your life at stake, okay, then be an idiot if you want, but you knew it wasn’t just your life. It was all of our lives. And it was the lives of people across the nation. Why would you do this?”

  Leo shot Jesse another look. “Does she need some medication or something?”

  Bess narrowed her eyes at Leo. “I need you to remember who you are for two minutes.”

  “Bess,” Jesse broke in, “this isn’t helping.”

  They rounded the corner. A walkway wound across the building giving way to narrow metal stairs. A matching set lined the next building over.

  Walking down them two at a time was snug fit, so Bess maneuvered Leo in front and propelled him forward. Jesse followed. Leo went down a half dozen steps, nearly stumbled, then swatted Bess’s hand. “Stop pushing. You’re going to make me fall.”

  “Hurry,” she told him. “We need to get away from Ryan. He’s not who you think he is.”

  Leo planted his feet. “What are you talking about?”

  Bess didn’t keep pushing him. If she had, he might have toppled downward. “Your friend works for Overdrake.”

  “Who’s Overdrake?” Leo asked.

  “A terrorist,” Jesse said.

  “Right,” Leo said with a scoff. “Is this some sort of joke?”

  Bess turned to Jesse. “Should I carry him?”

  Before Jesse had a chance to answer, the sound of clanging footsteps echoed below them.

  Ryan’s backup couldn’t be here already, could it? One glance confirmed Jesse’s fears. Three guys were on the bottom floor, rushing upward. He doubted they were students in a hurry.

  In a few minutes, he and Bess would have two fronts to contend with. If they ran back to the terraces, Overdrake’s men could spread out, attacking them from even more directions. And these guys would definitely have weapons.

  Bess drew in a sharp breath. “Let’s go to the rooftop catwalk.”

  The stairs leading down from there were their best bet of escape. They didn’t wind through the complex like these ones did. She took hold of Leo’s arm to tug him upward.

  He tried to shake off her grasp, oblivious of danger. “You couldn’t carry me if you tried.”

  A noise sounded near the top of the stairs. Footsteps. Jesse turned to see Ryan rounding the corner. He looked down at them, smug and self-assured. “I told you that you weren’t supposed to leave the party.”

  He sauntered over to the stairs, hands behind his back. Was he carrying a weapon? Jesse hesitated before telling Bess where to put her shield. If she put it in between Ryan and them, she would block their escape.

  Leo glanced from the men running up the stairs to Ryan questioningly. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m getting a bonus.” Ryan swung his arm forward, pointing a gun in their direction.

  “Plow him,” Jesse told Bess.

  Instead of keeping her shield stationary, Bess pushed it into Ryan, fast and hard. He fell to the ground like a bowling pin and the gun clattered from his hand.

  Jesse gestured at the staircase on the adjacent section of the building. “We’ll use those stairs. I’ll take Leo.”

  Leo had frozen, gaping open-mouthed at Ryan. Bess jumped onto the railing and then leaped the ten feet separating the staircases. Leo’s mouth fell further open. “What the—”

  Jesse hooked his arms underneath Leo’s and sprung into the air, half leaping, half flying across the gap. Leo let out a startled scream of protest. When they landed on the other staircase, Jesse released Leo. He nearly fell forward, not because he didn’t have footing, but because his knees gave out.

  Leo grabbed hold of the side of the building for support. “I can’t believe you did that! Next time you want to risk your life, don’t drag me with you!”

  Jesse, Bess, and Leo were at the next section of buildings—closer to the stairs at the rooftop catwalk, but far from safe. Ryan got to his knees and was crawling to the gun. In a moment, he would shoot at them. Bess could only protect against gunfire until Overdrake’s other men came up behind them.

  Bess bounded up the remaining stairs, taking them three at a time.

  Jesse couldn’t leave Leo, not with Overdrake’s men closing in. Ryan had dropped his façade and openly pulled a gun. Leo might not be safe from him anymore. Maybe Overdrake’s men would think he’d seen too much.

  Jesse grabbed his friend by the middle, flung him over his shoulder, and flew up the remaining stairs. When he reached the top, he put Leo down, but only so bystanders wouldn’t think he was kidnapping someone. He took hold of Leo’s elbow and yanked him into a run. “People will
start shooting at us soon, including your buddy Ryan. If you don’t want to be hit, move faster.”

  Leo stumbled along next to Jesse, glancing over his shoulder. “Why would he—what’s going on?”

  Bess darted around some lawn chairs. “We were trying to tell you before, now we don’t have time.”

  They were almost to the end of the terrace, almost to the catwalk. “You’ll just have to trust us,” Jesse said.

  That’s when his attention was drawn to the far end of the catwalk. On the right, two police officers had emerged from the elevators.

  Jesse should have felt relieved. Dr. B had called the police and now they were here. Overdrake’s men wouldn’t shoot into a crowd if police could return fire. But the relief didn’t come. Instead Jesse’s adrenaline ratcheted up a notch. It took a moment for him to realize what his senses were telling him. Something wasn’t right. One of the policemen was walking at a normal pace—looking at the students like a father who’d caught his children up past their bedtime. Disapproving, but not alarmed. The other was hurrying, trying to get around people.

  The man’s aggression, fear, and adrenaline were too high. He wasn’t here to help. He was on the hunt.

  Overdrake had at least one man in the police department. He’d known Dr. B had been a professor at Georgetown. Maybe he’d concentrated men here because of that. Jesse didn’t like the other explanation that came to him—that Overdrake had men planted in all the cities surrounding DC.

  Bess slowed. “Police on both sides. Where do I put my shield?”

  Jesse caught sight of the second pair of policemen on the left side of the catwalk, both calm. Didn’t matter if those were legitimate cops, as long as one of them was crooked, Jesse and Bess were in trouble. Clusters of people were standing on the catwalk, blocking the policemen’s path, but that wouldn’t last long. Already, students were moving out of the way.

  “Put the shield behind us,” Jesse said. “We’re going straight.”

  “Straight?” Leo repeated. He dragged his feet, refusing to move.

  “I’ve got him,” Jesse told Bess. “Go.”

  Leo tried to break Jesse’s grasp. “No way, man. You’ll break our necks.”

  Leo shouldn’t have worried so much. The roof below them wasn’t that far down.

  Bess streaked forward, and Jesse ran after her, dragging Leo along. People stumbled out of their way, muttering angry exclamations. More and more heads turned to watch them. As Bess hurdled over the railing, a collective gasp went up from the crowd.

  “Stop, stop, stop!” Leo cried and kept repeating the word as Jesse propelled him to the railing. Jesse leaped into the air, hauling Leo with him. They landed on the roof below, sliding on the gravel that peppered the roof. Leo pitched forward and almost fell. Jesse didn’t let go of him. They had more terraces and roofs to run across before they made it to the street.

  A whooshing noise came from behind him, something spinning through the air. Two dark objects smacked into Bess’s forcefield.

  “Come on!” she called. She stood at the end of the roof ready to jump down to the terrace below.

  Jesse ran, forcing Leo forward. He wanted to fly, but at this point, a dozen students were probably videoing the event. It was better to pretend he was a normal person or at least a normal person with good leaping skills.

  They landed on the terrace and Jesse kept pulling Leo. His protests had subsided into gurgled moans. Another leap. As they ran over the next roof, Leo panted out, “Now what are we going to do? We’re stuck.” The roof was two stories high, too far to jump down.

  They only had one choice. “We’re going to fly.”

  Jesse dragged Leo—who was now cursing and trying to yank his arm free of Jesse’s grasp—to the side of the building where Bess waited.

  She took hold of Jesse’s back and he grabbed Leo around the waist. “Don’t scream.”

  Leo didn’t listen to this piece of advice and screamed not only as Jesse leaped over the edge but the entire time they sailed to the sidewalk. Fortunately, no one was on the street to see them, and they were close enough to the building to be shielded from view from of anyone watching from the top, so Jesse continued to glide along toward the parking lot. Not the most comfortable way to travel, but it was faster than forcing Leo into a run.

  Leo stopped screaming and clutched Jesse’s arm, gaping at the ground that slid by under their feet. “How is this happening?” he demanded, and then immediately added, “Someone slipped something into my drink, didn’t they? None of this is real.”

  “It’s real,” Bess said. “And it’s not even the first time you’ve flown this way.”

  Leo shut his eyes. “I’m never going to another college party,” he muttered.

  Dr. B’s truck came into sight. He sat behind the wheel, motor running. “I’m dropping you off with Dr. B,” Jesse told Leo. “He and Bess can explain things to you.” The sooner they all left the better.

  Jesse deposited Leo on the ground and Bess him. As Jesse turned to go to his car, Dr. B opened the door for Bess and Leo to get in. “It’s good to see you again,” he said to Leo as though he were making a polite social visit. “Do get in. We’ve things to discuss.”

  ***

  Half an hour later, Jesse was sitting with Dr. B, Bess, and Leo at a café in DC. Leo’s hands shook as he took sips of coffee. Dr. B had ordered sandwiches and fries for all of them, but most of it sat on the table untouched. Jesse wasn’t hungry. Bess was only playing with her fries.

  Dr. B and Bess had explained everything to Leo on the drive here, but he seemed too stunned to take it in. So they had reiterated most of the information again while watching Leo drink coffee.

  He set his cup down with a clank. “I’m just supposed to believe that my memories have changed? How is that even possible?”

  “Memory isn’t like a photo,” Dr. B steepled his hands on the table. “It isn’t like a computer file that remains unchanged. Memory is a complex process of encoding, a journey of senses to the medial temporal lobe that involves the entire limbic system: Neurons firing in the hippocampus, the amygdala—”

  Bess leaned forward. “Don’t get him started on the limbic system. Trust me on this one.”

  “The point is,” Dr. B said, ignoring Bess, “our brains reconstruct our memories every time we retrieve them, very often changing them in subtle and not so subtle ways. The hippocampus must exactly recreate the original pattern of neurons firing in order for you to remember correctly. When something interferes with that process, it interferes with your memory.”

  Leo didn’t comment about that. Probably didn’t completely understand what Dr. B had said. The man could throw around enough brain terminology to confuse a neurologist.

  “We need to decide how to best protect your safety,” Dr. B said. “Even though Overdrake probably doesn’t see you as a threat, you’re still a potential liability to him. And now that you know of his existence, he might not be so willing to leave you alone.”

  “I don’t know of his existence,” Leo said with frustration. “I only know what you’ve told me, and I’m not sure how much to believe about that.”

  Why was it so hard for him to believe? “I flew with you down on the street,” Jesse said. “You saw Bess’s shield knock into Ryan. How can you doubt what we’re telling you?”

  “Okay, granted,” Leo held up a hand, “I saw you do some weird stuff. But I’ve also seen magicians saw women in half and make people disappear. Just because I can’t explain it, doesn’t mean you’re telling me the truth.”

  Bess folded her arms. “I can hit you with my shield again if you’d like.”

  He glared at her. “Don’t do that anymore. It’s annoying.”

  Again? Apparently, a few things had happened at the restaurant before he got here.

  “You saw Ryan pull a gun on us,” Jesse said. “Doesn’t that tell you something?”

  Leo picked up a fry and took a bite. “Maybe he was trying to protect me because the
two of you were dragging me off somewhere. I know him a lot better than I know you. You’re completely different people than I thought.”

  Bess let out a long breath. “You do know us, Leo. We’ve been your friends for years.”

  “According to you, the friends I knew from camp weren’t the friends I actually remember. You expect me to believe I had a completely different forgotten life.” He finished the fry and took another. “How much food do you need to have in your stomach to dilute the effects of alcohol?”

  “I don’t know,” Bess said, “but I think you’ve had enough coffee. You’re shaking.”

  “The caffeine isn’t why I’m shaking.”

  “We need to discuss your safety,” Dr. B said, gently turning the conversation back to his original topic.

  Leo made a sound that was half grunt, half laugh. “I’m supposed to trust you with my safety? You’re the ones that were running from the police and jumping off rooftops.” He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. “Man, am I going to be charged with fleeing from the police?”

  “I doubt it,” Jesse said. “There’s probably video to show that you weren’t acting on your own accord.”

  Dr. B’s gaze circled the room, then returned to Leo. “We can move your family and provide you with a new identity so that Overdrake won’t know how to find you. However, you’ll have to break ties with everyone you know. As we’ve seen from Ryan, some of them could be operatives for Overdrake.

  Leo lifted his hands, protesting the idea. “You want me to give up my whole life?”

  Pretty much, Jesse thought. That’s the cost. That’s what we’ve all had to do. But confirming this wouldn’t make Leo feel better.

  “I want you to give up your life,” Dr. B said, “in order to protect it.”

  Leo pressed his lips together, far from convinced. “Until you showed up, I was protecting my life just fine.” He held his hand out, palm upwards, to Dr. B. “Now if you give me my phone back, I’ll call for a ride home.”

  Dr. B. reached into his pockets, taking Leo’s phone from one and the battery from the other. He handed them both to Leo. “Once you’ve had some time to think about what we’ve told you, we’ll contact you again.”