Playing With Fire

by C. J. Hill

  Dirk stood and grabbed hold of Aaron’s arm. “It’s too late to run now.” His voice carried both disappointment and pity.

  Aaron tried to jerk his arm away. “Let me go!”

  He couldn’t budge his arm from Dirk’s grip. He yanked harder, putting all of his strength into it. He didn’t manage to so much as pull Dirk a step forward. “Let me go, you freak!” he yelled.

  “Do you really think I’m a freak?” Dirk asked with mock offense. “Because if you do, I’ve got bad news. You’re just like me.”

  “I’m not!” Aaron meant it. He stepped forward and swung at Dirk’s throat.

  Dirk lifted his free hand, effortlessly intercepting Aaron’s strike and stopping it. “I’d let you go,” he said, “But in about twenty seconds, you’re going to pass out. If you’re running, you might give yourself a concussion.”

  His words were already sounding blurry and far away. Aaron blinked at him. His face was beginning to waver.

  Everyone said they looked so much alike. Aaron could see a resemblance, although not as much as other people claimed. Dirk’s face had sharper lines, a bigger jaw, and a harder look to his eyes.

  They weren’t the same at all.

  As blackness closed in, Aaron thought of his other brother.

  He and Jacob might not look alike, but Aaron was much more like him. Aaron held on to that thought like it would carry him through the darkness.

  He was more Slayer than he was dragon lord and always would be.

  The end of book three.

  Note to the reader: As you can tell, this is not the ending of the story. And yes, I can hear your frustrated scream all the way from my house. When the manuscript reached seven hundred pages and still wasn’t finished, I knew I had to break it into two books. Seven-hundred-page paperbacks are only a good thing if you happen to need something hefty to throw at marauders. Otherwise, they tend to fall apart when you read them. I don’t want people to pay for a book that doesn’t last.

  The fourth book, Slayers: The Dragon Lords, will be out January 2018. The concluding book, Slayers: Into the Firestorm will also be out in 2018. Trust me, no one wants the series finished more than I do. Really. True story: My youngest daughter just read this book. I heard her scream twice, then yell, “Mother! Bad author! Bad!” And I knew she’d reached the end. So yeah, she is here in your behalf, making sure the book gets done.

  Thanks for your patience.

  Want to read more? Enjoy this sample from Son of War, Daughter of Chaos

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  When your chance for getting into college and your date for the prom are all on the line…

  Samantha Taylor is used to having things go her way. She’s head cheerleader, has all the right friends and a steady stream of boyfriends. But when she tanks the SATs, her automatic assumptions about going to college don’t appear to be so automatic anymore. She determines that her only hope for college admission is to win the election for student body president. Unfortunately, with her razor wit, she’s better suited to dishing out insults than winning votes.

  When she brashly bets her classmate Logan that she can go two weeks without uttering a single insult, Samantha immediately realizes that she may have bitten off more than she can chew. And when her current boyfriend dumps her, less than three weeks before the prom, it couldn’t be a worse time to be forced to keep her opinions to herself. Finding a new boyfriend will be a challenge now that Logan shadows her every move, hoping to catch her slipping back into her old ways. Samantha is determined to win the election and find a date for the prom, no matter what it takes. After all . . . all’s fair in love and war (and high school!).

  For any book to succeed, reviews are essential. If you enjoyed this book please leave a review on Amazon. A sentence or two can make all the difference. Please leave a review of Slayers!

  Other titles by Janette Rallison

  Adult romantic comedies

  How I Met Your Brother

  Masquerade

  A Longtime (and at One Point Illegal) Crush

  What the Doctor Ordered (under pen name Sierra St. James)

  YA fiction

  Son of War, Daughter of Chaos

  The Girl Who Heard Demons

  Just One Wish

  My Double Life

  Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws

  Playing The Field

  The Wrong Side of Magic

  My Fair Godmother

  My Unfair Godmother

  My Fairly Dangerous Godmother

  All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School

  Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards

  Revenge of the Cheerleaders

  Fame, Glory, and Other Things on my To Do List

  It’s a Mall World After All

  How to Take The Ex Out of Ex-boyfriend

  Slayers (under pen name CJ Hill)

  Slayers: Friends and Traitors (under pen name CJ Hill)

  Slayers: Playing With Fire (under pen name CJ Hill)

  Slayers: The Making of a Mentor: A Tor.Com Original (under pen name CJ Hill)

  Erasing Time (under pen name CJ Hill)

  Echo in Time (under pen name CJ Hill)

  If you like audio books, try:

  Just One Wish audio book

  My Fairly Dangerous Godmother audio book

  SYNOPSIS

  Brant Overdrake’s family had kept dragons on the remote island of St. Helena for generations. He was a dragon lord, a man able to connect to a dragon’s mind and make the dragon do whatever he wished. His family always cared for the dragons in secret, but Brant had greater ambitions. He planned to use the dragons’ electromagnetic pulses as weapons. When dragons screeched, they sent out an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that destroyed electronics, rendering cars, phones, computers—most technology—useless. He moved to Virginia and started laying the groundwork for a future takeover of America’s government.

  When transporting a pair of dragon eggs, his wife had unexpected early labor and he was forced to make an emergency detour to an airport near DC. (Labor comes at inconvenient times. If you don’t believe this, ask me about my last labor, which lasted eighteen hours. It was quite inconvenient. And painful.) While the dragon eggs were at the airport, the general population was exposed to their signal.

  This was unfortunate for Overdrake because the dragons had a natural enemy—Slayers. Slayers were descendants of the knights who killed dragons in the Middle Ages. If a person with Slayer genes came in contact with a dragon or dragon eggs while in utero, the person’s genes were activated, turning them into a Slayer. The child then grew up with an innate interest in dragons and inborn athletic skill.

  The summer before her junior year of high school, Tori Hampton, a senator’s daughter, enrolled in Dragon Camp in the hopes of understanding her obsession with dragons. (She was a socialite, yes, but not a spoiled girl, despite what the hardcover book flap of Slayers claims.) Jesse and Dirk, the blessed-with-good-looks captains of the camp teams A-Team and Team Magnus, introduced themselves at registration and took her to the camp’s secret secondary location. (I’m not kidding about the good looks part. I based Dirk on Dirk Benedict. If you don’t know who that is, google his pictures from Battlestar Gallactica. You see what I mean?) At the secret camp, Tori met six other teens, all close to her age. She found out that they were actually training to fight real dragons and that she herself was a Slayer.

  When Slayers came within five miles of a dragon (or the dragon simulator that Dr. B developed to help the Slayers train and complete missions) their powers turned on. The Slayers always had highly attuned senses, but when their powers were triggered they had extra strength, night vision, and the ability to leap ten to fifteen feet in the air. They also had an individual skill. Jesse could fly, Bess threw shields up, Kody could throw both free
zing blasts and fireballs, Dirk saw what the nearest dragon saw, Shang and Lilly extinguished fire, and Rosa and Alyssa healed burns.

  Slayers who had the same skill set were counterparts, which meant they could read one another really, really well. Also, when in the same vicinity, Slayers could tell where their counterparts were without looking. It was a skill that helped while fighting and made the group more tight-knit.

  Two days into camp, Tori discovered she could hear what the nearest dragon heard. It seemed like a useless and disappointing skill as dragons didn’t generally hear much that would help the Slayers fight them. She also found out that she was counterparts with Dirk. Their skills weren’t exactly the same, but close enough to give them the counterpart abilities.

  Dirk developed feelings for her; she developed feelings for Jesse. (I did mention that Jesse was hot too, didn’t I?)

  When Tori overheard vets near a dragon give information about the dragon eggs location, she realized her skill was not as useless as she first imagined. She and the other Slayers planned a surprise attack on the location in order to destroy the dragon eggs. Because, as the old saying goes, it’s easier to kill your dragons before they hatch. Okay, that isn’t actually an old saying, but it should be.

  Where was I? Oh yes, telling you about the ill-fated surprise attack. It was a surprise, although mostly the Slayers were surprised because they were ambushed. If you haven’t read the first book (and you should, because it’s awesome) I’m going to have to disappoint you here and tell you that Dirk is actually Brant Overdrake’s son, a traitor who was sent to camp to spy on the Slayers.

  However, as the Slayers were being ambushed, and were trapped in Overdrake’s enclosure, Dirk had a change of heart about betraying his friends. He then double-crossed his father by helping Tori save the others. At this point Tori found out she could also fly.

  It was a surprise to her, but not to Overdrake, because he already knew what readers won’t learn until the second book—that Tori is actually part dragon lord. Her ability to hear what the dragon hears—that’s not really a Slayer skill, it’s a dragon lord one.

  This, by the way, was supposed to be the big reveal in Slayers: Friends and Traitors. And would have been quite a surprise to many people if the publisher hadn’t given away that plot twist on the back blurb. Which they did. Yeah, authors generally don’t have any control over what goes on the back of the book.

  Anyway, I keep getting off track. So after the Slayers escaped, Overdrake set a dragon on them. Dirk’s dragon. He had to help his friends fight and kill it in order to save their lives. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Overdrake isn’t a very nice person.

  In book two, camp ended and the Slayers went back to their homes. Tori heard the eggs hatch, got together briefly with Dirk, and had her father search for Ryker, the missing Slayer.

  I haven’t mentioned him yet, even though book one starts out and ends with him. (Hey, it’s hard to summarize hundreds of pages down to three.) When Dr. B first told Ryker’s parents that their son was going to be a Slayer, instead of letting Dr. B train him, Ryker’s parents moved without a forwarding address. Well, you can’t blame them really. Would you let your son fight huge, flying carnivores that breathe fire?

  Tori’s father was able to track down Ryker’s address, because he worked for the government and let’s face it; you can’t disappear from the government. They know where you are.

  On Halloween, Overdrake kidnapped Alyssa as a way to lure the Slayers into another ambush. He knew they’d go after her. As the Slayers met for the mission, Tori let Dirk know that her father had tracked down Ryker and she told Dirk that Ryker lived in Rutland, Vermont. While Dr. B prepped the Slayers for the mission, Tori sensed Dirk’s anxiety about the mission—he was plagued with guilt for betraying his friends—and she figured out who Dirk was.

  What follows is an awesome chase scene through DC, which you really should read sometime. Plus, you should visit DC because it’s a cool place. (And when you go to the Jefferson Memorial, you can imagine me stepping off the area between the columns to see if a dragon would fit through them. This is the sort of dedicated research authors do.)

  The Slayers retrieved Alyssa, although sadly her memories and powers were gone. Slayers had an Achilles heel, so to speak. If they were drugged to the point of unconsciousness, the pathways in their brains that gave them powers were destroyed. The Slayers not only lost their powers, they didn’t even remember being Slayers.

  It was a very sad and yet funny scene because Alyssa thought they were all crazy.

  Moving right along. Tori realized she had put Ryker in danger by revealing his address to Dirk. This is probably a good example of why you shouldn’t trust hot guys. Just saying. The Slayers then flew to Vermont to find and convince Ryker to join them. Overdrake’s men reached Ryker’s house at roughly the same time and a fight ensued. When you read that scene, please appreciate it because I had to rewrite it like, six times.

  The Slayers found out that not only was Ryker a Slayer, but his cousin Willow was too. Their addition was especially good news because the Slayers numbers had been dwindling. They just lost Alyssa, and in the backstory of book one, they’d lost two other Slayers, Leo and Danielle. You need to know about them because they come into play in book four. At this point, you may be wondering if I regret writing a book with so many characters. Yes. I mean, of course I don’t—although I will never ever write a series with so many people in it again. The poor audiobook reader had such a hard time doing different voices for them all.

  Back to the storyline. Dirk realized that his father was going to attack the Slayers’ plane. As they were flying home, he warned Tori. The Slayers were able to jump out of the plane before the dragon ripped the thing apart. One more author’s note here: I wanted to make that scene as authentic as possible, so I went skydiving. If you read that book, imagine me thousands of feet above the ground trying to convince the skydiving instructor that I’d changed my mind and didn’t want to jump after all. They don’t listen to you at that point. You’re strapped onto them and they just pull you right out of the plane. But I digress.

  Anyway, another fight ensued and in this one, Tori was briefly able to enter the dragon’s mind. She couldn’t control the dragon. Overdrake had too firm a control on the dragon’s mind, but he was angry that she tried and told the dragon to ignore the rest of the Slayers and kill her.

  As you may have guessed, the dragon wasn’t successful. Because if the dragon was, the book would have ended very badly, and I would have gotten angry emails from readers. I’d rather not get those.

  So, that pretty much should bring you up to speed. Oh, one more piece of information you need. Dr. B lived on St. Helena with Overdrake. In fact, his father worked for Overdrake. His younger brother, Nathan, was a Slayer who was killed by Overdrake’s father. (You can read the novella for free at http://www.tor.com/2013/10/08/slayers-the-making-of-a-mentor/ )

  Want to read more? Enjoy this sample from "Son of War, Daughter of Chaos"

  Chapter 1

  I was used to watching for the enemy; I’d done it my whole life. But I didn’t want to do it now, while Dane Breckenridge was on his way to our house. Despite evidence to the contrary, I wanted him to think we were a normal family.

  My dad stood in front of the blinds in the family room, lights off, surveying the street. Dad could be intimidating when he wanted. He was tall, lean, and worked out every day. If it weren’t for the wrinkles around his eyes and the receding line of his dark hair, people wouldn’t have realized he was nearly fifty.

  I walked past him on the way to the kitchen to put some stray dishes in the sink. “What are you looking for?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Dad said. “I’m just checking for anything abnormal . . .”

  We hardly ever had visitors. Dad frowned on it. He didn’t think it was safe to give people access to our home. He was afraid they might be doing reconnaissance.

  I was more worried about the clutt
er in the house—my shoes kicked off by the front door and the dirty dishes my brother, Roark, had left on the coffee table. I picked up my things, dropped them into my room, and went back for the dishes.

  Dad hadn’t moved. On my way to the kitchen, I said, “Do you really have to do that? Dane is one of Roark’s friends, and I see him every day in my World History class. He’s okay.”

  “You’re sure about that, Aislynn?” Dad didn’t look away from the window. “You’ve checked him for the signs?”

  Some kids grow up keeping watch for Santa and the Easter Bunny. I spent my early years looking for people whose eyes flashed green, whose heartbeats were abnormally slow, who seemed immune to cold weather, who were exceptionally strong, or could fly. Dad also wanted me to report anyone who asked too many questions about us. Watching for the enemy was a major concern of his, especially since Roark and I had always gone to public schools.

  When I was in elementary school, I was diligent in searching schoolmates and strangers for the signs and then reporting back to my parents. I never found anyone whose eyes flashed green, or who flew—although I regarded the Tooth Fairy and Santa’s reindeer with mistrust for a few years. I had no idea how to check for a slower than normal heartbeat, and I got in trouble in second grade for pinning a boy to the ground during recess while I tried to check his. As far as being immune to the cold weather? The only people who seemed to fit that category belonged in my family. I never got cold during Montana winters, or Montreal winters, or wherever else my parents had moved us to that year. I attributed our ruggedness to the number of times my father dragged us up to the Arctic or Antarctica on one of his expeditions. Idaho snow drifts just didn’t hold a lot of umph after trotting around glaciers.