Playing With Fire

by C. J. Hill

Jacob brightened with excitement.

  Aaron pointed at an empty recliner. “Jake, see if you can pick that up.” In a confidential whisper, he added, “I threw the other one across the room.”

  Without hesitation, Jacob strode to the chair, took hold of its sides, and hefted it into the air. He held it above his head like he was lifting weights. Light weights. “This is so cool.” He grinned and turned to his mom. “How long does it last?”

  She stared back, unspeaking.

  Dr. B ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry,” he told Bianca.

  Jacob set the chair down, letting it drop the last couple inches to the floor. “What about flying? How does that work?”

  Tori answered because she didn’t think Bianca or Dr. B would. “Your powers will only last for a half an hour after we leave, and you have to be in range of a dragon or a simulator for them to turn on again. Flying is tricky at first. Usually those powers don’t kick in unless you’re in danger.”

  Bianca took Jacob by his shoulders. She’d grown pale again. “You’re not to put yourself in danger. Do you understand? You’re not to have anything to do with Slayers or dragon lords.” She turned to Aaron. “The two of you go upstairs. I’ll talk to you later.”

  It was like watching Ryker’s parents all over again, although Tori doubted Bianca would relent the way his parents had. Not with Aaron and Jacob being so young. Not with Overdrake being Aaron’s father.

  The boys hesitated, looking as though they wanted to ask more questions, but they headed up the stairs anyway.

  After they’d gone, Bianca sank back down on the couch and put her head in her hands.

  Dr. B sat next to her, fingers steepled across his knees. “If you want to protect your sons, help us defeat Brant.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You do want to protect your sons, don’t you?”

  Her gaze went to Dr. B’s eyes and stayed there. “If I tell you what I know, you’ve got to promise you’ll never tell Brant about my children.”

  “Agreed,” Dr. B said. “We don’t want Overdrake to know about them any more than you do.”

  Bianca took a deep breath and held it as if it were a note in a song. “When Brant was teaching Dirk to connect to a dragon, Brant said to take the part of his mind that saw what the dragons saw, picture it as a door, and walk through it into the dragon’s mind. Once there, his consciousness would join the dragon’s.”

  Tori nodded. The time she’d gone into the dragon’s mind, she hadn’t thought about how she’d done it, but Bianca’s description made sense—follow the link Tori already had and put herself on the other side of it.

  “Dirk was supposed to find the dragon’s control center, imagine the dragon’s will as an object, and turn it into a shape he could grasp.”

  Turn it into an object? How was Tori supposed to do that?

  Bianca paused, remembering. “Brant always turned the dragon’s will into a knife he could wield, but Dirk didn’t like that. I’d told him not to touch knives.” She paused again, forcing herself to leave her memories and return to her instructions. “Once Brant controlled the object, he controlled the dragon.”

  But how specifically was it all done? Tori felt like she’d been given clues, not instructions. “How do I find a dragon’s control center?”

  “I don’t know.” Bianca shrugged. “I never heard that part. Brant went into the dragon’s mind with Dirk and showed him how to find it.”

  Of course he did. Parents didn’t teach a child to ride a bike by telling them about it. They put their kids on bikes and made them pedal. Tori’s hopes for easy answers sputtered and sank. She would not only have to figure out how to ride the bike, she would have to find it too.

  Dr. B frowned as he considered Bianca’s answer. “What else do you know about controlling dragons?”

  She ran her fingers across her lips, thinking. “When a dragon first hatched, Brant had to see the dragon to connect to its mind, but before long he could keep control of a dragon even when it was miles away.”

  “How many dragons does Brant have?” Dr. B asked.

  “We brought Kiha and Tamerlane with us to America. Brant planned on leaving Khan and Minerva in St. Helena where it was safer. He used to go back there a couple of times a month to exercise them. After a year, that became too much trouble, so he brought them to the States too.”

  “We killed Kiha and Tamerlane,” Dr. B said. “But new eggs hatched last September.”

  Four dragons to contend with. Tori had suspected as much. Dirk told her once that there were enough dragons for her to have one too, and they came in pairs.

  Bianca’s mouth fell open. “You killed two dragons? How?”

  With a chain, an assault rifle, and a lot of luck.

  Dr. B wasn’t as specific in his answer. “Overdrake set the dragons on us. The Slayers simply did what they were trained to.”

  Bianca’s eyes flickered in surprise, although Tori couldn’t tell whether she was surprised Overdrake had set dragons on teenagers, or that they’d managed to defend themselves.

  “So there are four dragons,” Dr. B said grimly.

  Bianca shook her head. “No. Dragon lords can force dragons to lay more eggs than they would in the wild. Before I left, Brant had four eggs from Kiha, two from Minerva, and he also planned on mating Minerva with Tamerlane. She was his favorite for breeding because she was the biggest. She could have laid another four by now. And Kiha could have laid another pair as well.”

  A chill raced across Tori’s spine, and her mouth went dry. Too many dragons, so many that fear made it hard for her brain to add the figures and come up with an exact number. Fear and math weren’t compatible. She forced herself to concentrate. Twelve eggs, four adults, but the Slayers had already killed two.

  Dr. B reached the number a moment before she did. “Fourteen? That’s madness. How does Brant expect to take care of that many dragons?”

  Bianca lifted a hand in explanation. “He planned for the nation to become a different place, a place where he didn’t have to keep them hidden. And he thought he’d have more sons to help.” She sent a look in the direction of Aaron’s bedroom.

  “When will they hatch?” Tori asked.

  Bianca shut her eyes, doing the calculation. “If Kiha’s first set hatched in September, Minerva’s first clutch will probably hatch within a year, and then more dragons could hatch every year or two.”

  Tori felt ill. How could the Slayers ever fight that many? They couldn’t. They’d be killed. And if they didn’t stop Overdrake, he would mate the hatchlings as well. “He can’t think he’ll control that many,” Tori said numbly. “He must be planning on releasing them into the wild.”

  But there weren’t that many wild places anymore. Most livable land was populated. Would that matter to him?

  Bianca let out a bitter laugh. “I doubt he’d ever give up control of the dragons by releasing them. He knows some of them will be killed in combat, and he’s making sure he always has a supply.”

  Fourteen dragons. More dragons than Slayers. Tori’s mind wouldn’t let go of the number, and her heart pounded in fear, in worry. The Slayers would have to find a way to destroy the eggs before they hatched.

  Fourteen.

  “Who is working for Overdrake?” Dr. B asked. “Where is he getting his army?”

  Bianca shifted uncomfortably on the couch. “If he finds out I helped you, he’ll kill me.”

  Dr. B leaned toward her, his eyes full of sympathy. “Remember what happened to Nathan. Then think of Jacob’s safety. When he’s old enough, Jacob will be drawn to fight the dragons whether you like it or not. How formidable of a foe do you want him to face?”

  Bianca drew a sharp breath. “Venezuela,” she said. “He’s made deals with some of their leaders. He also has men inside the US government. People who give him information and will help him disable things when he attacks.”

  “Who are his men in the government?” Dr. B asked. “And what sort of thin
gs will they disable?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Military things. He never told me specifics, just that he had sleeper agents installed in key positions. He’s been planning this takeover for two decades.” She raised her hands in a gesture of frustration. “That’s all I know.”

  Dr. B nodded. “Thank you for your help.” He stood to go, then hesitated. “Aaron and Jacob would be safer if they learned how to use their powers. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last five years: teaching children to use their powers.”

  She didn’t glance at Dr. B, just shook her head. For all her earlier bravado, she looked small somehow, sitting on the couch and trembling with emotion. She needed protection as much as her children did, but she was refusing Dr. B’s help.

  “If you change your mind,” he said, “you know how to reach me.” He motioned for Tori to follow him, and they left the house for the second time that night.

  Chapter 11

  On the ride to the airport, the other Slayers couldn’t stop talking about the extra dragon eggs—guessing where they might be and when they would hatch. Tori sat silently staring out the windows, feeling defeated.

  Ryker and Jesse were already conferring about new fighting approaches, busily discussing how to best battle multiple dragons at a time.

  “It doesn’t matter how many dragons Overdrake has,” Kody said, leaning over his seat to talk to them. “He can only control two at a time.”

  “Possibly three,” Ryker said. “If Aaron joins him.”

  “Overdrake doesn’t have to control the dragons,” Jesse said. “He could just let some loose on a city while he controlled others in a coordinated attack at another location. He’ll want to spread us thin.”

  Right. Which was why they shouldn’t attempt to fight on multiple fronts. Tamerlane and Kiha had both nearly defeated them. And those fights had been all of the Slayers pitted against one dragon. Against fourteen? No way. Why didn’t the others realize that killing that many was impossible? What was it about Slayer genes that made her friends want to keep fighting when doing so was obviously hopeless?

  Maybe it was just her. Maybe she wasn’t as brave as the rest. Or maybe she was just more sensible. Aaron had accused Slayers of being obsessed with killing dragons. She was beginning to think he had a point.

  Jesse gazed over at her, seeming to remember she was A-team’s captain. “What’s your input on this? Do you want to come up with some plays?”

  She shook her head. “I’m still considering options.”

  The best option she could see was hanging up the superhero gear and moving to some nice, safe island. But she couldn’t say that, and she couldn’t walk away from her friends and leave them to fight fourteen dragons alone.

  As Tori mulled over the problem, one thing became clear. To have any chance at success, the Slayers needed a completely new strategy, one that involved Tori learning to control the dragons. It was the only way she could save the Slayers. Dirk wouldn’t teach her, not when he knew she wanted the information to defeat him. So how could she learn?

  How?

  She asked herself the question fourteen times.

  Chapter 12

  Aaron paced across Jacob’s bedroom, his mind going in a dozen different directions. A lot of weird things had happened tonight. People broke into his house, he got extra strength from something called a simulator, and a teenage girl who his mother recognized told him she was his counterpart. The girl could tell where he was and if he was lying, so apparently being a counterpart was like being a mother on steroids.

  He’d also found out he was half Slayer and half dragon lord, which meant he had powers, or at least would when he was near a dragon or the mysterious simulator.

  But all of that wasn’t as weird as what happened now when he shut his eyes. Instead of seeing the normal back-of-his-eye-lids darkness, he saw the inside of a cavernous room with boulders, ledges, bushes, and a pond. As though that wasn’t creepy enough, a couple of times, other things flashed into his sight—a swishing clubbed tail armored with red scales and huge reptilian front legs with claws at their end.

  A dragon. Or at least, part of one. It was massive, scary, and Aaron had no idea why it was in his brain now. Or rather, why he was in its brain. That’s what he was seeing, he realized—whatever the dragon saw.

  His mother had mentioned that dragon lords could connect with a dragon’s mind. That’s what this must be, but he didn’t like that it was happening and he didn’t know how to make it stop.

  Jacob was sitting on his bed, twisting a fork into some obscure shape. He’d tested out his strength on other things first. He’d thought it was hilarious to stack Aaron’s dresser and desk on his bed. Aaron had been in the process of putting Jacob’s furniture in the bathtub when their mother came upstairs and demanded, in a less than patient voice, that they put everything back in its place. “The two of you need to learn to think about things before you act,” she told them. It was one of her standard lectures. “Just once assess something before you do it.” Then she went to make phone calls.

  After that, Aaron and Jacob had jumped off Jacob’s bed in an attempt to fly. Aaron had leaped the length of the room, and would have gone even farther if the wall hadn’t been in the way. He’d smacked it hard enough that his hands went through, creating two jagged holes. Assessment fail. The crash made so much noise, their mom came upstairs again. She told them, even less patiently, to stop destroying the house and go to sleep.

  Right. Aaron wouldn’t be able to sleep for a long time, and if his mom wanted Jacob to sleep, she should have left him over at the neighbors. He’d been with one of his friends, but as soon as the Slayers left the first time, she called him home.

  Aaron kept pacing while Jacob bent the fork as easily as if it were a pipe cleaner. He’d gathered all of the stray silverware and wire hangers in his room and had already made a bat, a truck, and a blob he claimed was a lion.

  Aaron paused in front of his brother. “Do you see anything when you shut your eyes?” He didn’t expect that Jacob did. Only Aaron had the dragon lord genes, but he still had to ask.

  Jacob tilted his chin down, and gave him a look that said he thought the question was the ultimate in stupid things to say. “No. Because that’s the whole point of shutting your eyes. You don’t see anything.”

  Aaron went back to pacing in silence. He didn’t want Jacob to think he was losing his mind.

  Jacob twisted the handle of a spoon into a snake lifting its head. “Where do you think we could get a simulator?”

  “I don’t know.” Too bad he hadn’t asked the Slayers more questions.

  From the time Aaron was little, his mom had told him that Slayers hunted dragons and the dragon lords who took care of them. That was one of the reasons he couldn’t tell people who his real father was.

  When Aaron was younger, Slayers had seemed like goblins or werewolves, creatures lurking in shadows when the sun went down. He’d stopped believing in them years ago, stopped believing all of it. He’d thought the dragon scales were fake, made by someone to take money from gullible people.

  Really, the whole situation was his mother’s fault. If she hadn’t also told him stories about Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny, maybe he would have believed her about the rest of it. But flying reindeer and dragons had the same credibility problem.

  Now that the Slayers had broken into his house, the line dividing bedtime stories from truth had disappeared altogether. As incredible as it seemed, his father really was a dragon lord hiding out somewhere with a bunch of dragons. Jacob was a Slayer, and Aaron himself was part Slayer. He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around that. His mother had always described Slayers in a way that made him picture sword-wielding ninjas obsessed with dragons and driven to pursue them.

  But Aaron wasn’t obsessed with dragons. Sure, he thought they were cool looking, and in a mythological fight, he would bet on them to wipe the floor with unicorns and mermaids, but he wasn’t obsessed.
And neither was Jacob.

  “I hope we can buy a simulator,” Jacob said. He’d started a new creation, and was twisting forks and a knife onto a spoon. “Because that way if your dad comes looking for me, I can punch him through a wall.”

  Aaron wished Jacob hadn’t heard the parts about Overdrake trying to get rid of all the Slayers and possibly checking on their family.

  “We’re moving,” Aaron said. “He won’t find us.” Their mom had been talking to Realtors on the phone all evening.

  Aaron expected Jacob to be relieved. Instead, his brother’s expression darkened with anger. He kept twisting metal. “Overdrake is the one who should hide from the Slayers. I don’t see why we have to move. That’s like lions moving to get away from a gazelle.”

  Aaron stopped pacing. “We’re moving because you’re eleven and stupid enough to want to punch a dragon lord. Hello, he’s an adult with weapons and huge, flying hench-creatures. If you punched him, we would never find your remains.”

  “You’re only saying that because he’s your dad.”

  Aaron couldn’t bring himself to respond to that. Overdrake wasn’t his dad. Wesley was his real dad. At least, he had been until the separation four months ago. Jacob still belonged to Wesley, but Aaron didn’t.

  When Aaron had moved Jacob’s dresser, a book fell off the top and slid halfway under his bed. Now Aaron’s foot caught the edge of the book. He picked it up, ready to toss it on Jacob’s bookshelf, but the title caught his eye: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dragons.

  Jacob had a ton of books in his room. Their mother kept buying them, either in the hopes of turning Jacob into a reader or because she thought books looked good lined up on his shelves.

  Jacob had never cracked open most of them. The dragon encyclopedia, however, was worn, and its pages were bent from use. Aaron used to give Jacob a bad time for liking dragon stuff, for encouraging their mother’s stories, but Aaron thought his brother had outgrown that sort of thing years ago. The worn book said otherwise. It had been on Jacob’s dresser. He’d been reading it lately.