by Bob Dattolo
I did feel good, so my voice was kinda dreamy, “How the hell can you three be so calm about what we just drove through?”
Samantha snorted and pulled into a driveway looking thing, “I’ve lived in this area my entire life. This is normal for me. Sucky, don’t get me wrong, but normal.”
Parece continued rubbing, “I’m from Pittsburgh, so another city, although nothing like this. I’ve been in LA enough visiting and things like that, so it’s not a shocker to me.”
“What about you, Angelica?”
“Atlanta has traffic, just not like this. I’ve visited enough times too? Then again, I’m not in a particular rush, so why fret? We have three months before we have to be back. There’s enough stress waiting for us with that mess that I don’t need to invite any more into my life if I can help it.”
Holy crap. That’s a fantastic point.
Parece smacked me on the head and sat back, “Great, now she’s tense again. Way to go, Angelica.”
“What? What’d I say?” She giggled.
“What’d you say? How about mentioning the academy?”
Samantha interrupted by opening her door as a guy approached. “Can I help you ladies?”
She undid her belt, “Yeah. We have some bags we need to get, but I need this put into Penthouse parking?”
His steps froze for a moment, “I’m sorry? You are…?”
“Samantha Rodriguez.”
He nodded, “Hold a moment? I’m sorry, I need to verify that.”
“Go for it. We’ll be right here.”
He scurried away, and she turned back to us. “Okay, let’s grab everything we want? We can always get other things later, but why bother? We can get a cart and have someone carry everything up if we want it.”
Instead of doing that, we piled out and proceeded to grab every bag that we brought. Our empty cups and things stayed put, as did a few other random odds and ends, but everything else got added to our pile. Thank God we’re strong. Also thank God that we didn’t bring everything they had at the academy. That’d be way more clothing than we can easily lug around.
Except for me. Everything I own was repeatedly shredded the last week before our trial, so I have one bag of things that I picked up so I didn’t go tits to the wind for the trip. I would have, too. Gotta love dragons for their lack of body modesty.
The guy practically ran back, outright sweating, “I’m so sorry, Miss Rodriguez, I’ll park your truck right now.”
“Thank you.” She handed him some money that I missed her pulling out, and he disappeared in the truck like we planned to kill him.
“Umm, is that normal? Why was he acting like that?”
The others gave me a look before Parece nudged me towards the door.
“Nuh-uh, get with the talking, why did he act like that?”
Samantha took pity on me, “Because I’m a rich bitch kid that owns the penthouse of this building on top of being a dragon? Any one of those could get him fired for not knowing who I am.”
“Have you ever been here before?”
“Yeah. A bunch of times. Obviously, not since school started.”
“Oookay? Would you really have him fired or something like that?”
“Me? No. He doesn’t know that, though. Plenty of others might.”
Parece kept moving me along, “You got that right. My parents would have started demanding he get his ass fired the moment he didn’t bow and scrape and offer to lick the dust off of their shoes.” She frowned, “I’m not entirely joking with that, although I am a little. Somewhat.”
“What the hell, man. Am I broken that I’m not a pretentious bitch?”
Shrugs from the girls, “Broken? Or just that you lost the training you had when you were young and that would have been pounded into your skull the past nine years?” Angelica gestured back towards where he disappeared, “My parents aren’t that bad, but pretty bad. You heard what I said. If I’m not powerful enough, they’ll kill me themselves. Just like they did my sister. It’s not good enough that I survive and make it through the trials. That’s not good enough. I have to test well enough in the ascendant trial for it to matter to them. If I don’t? Then they’ll kill me just like they did her and try again with another kid until they have one that fits their idea of good enough. So, they wouldn’t have gone after a norm for what he did. After all, they’d be okay with someone making sure we’re who we say we are and no one else is parking in our spots. But, and this is a big but, if we showed up later or tomorrow and he didn’t remember us? It wouldn’t just be getting fired he’d have to worry about.”
“What would they do?”
“Spells do all sorts of things. Probably not kill him, but there are plenty of other things they can do to make his life miserable.”
“What the hell, man. That’s…that’s so freaking wrong.”
“It’s our world.” Samantha passed through the doors to the gorgeous lobby, smiling as she took it in. “Damn, it feels good to be here after being at the academy.”
“Fucking hell, it really does.” Parece stopped pushing me to stretch, “Okay, now I feel like I’m unwinding at least a little bit.”
“C’mon, let’s go check in. We’ll get four keys and all of that.” A bellhop tried to intercept us and get us to drop our bags onto his little cart, but she let her hair glow, and he backed off with a slight eep sound. The other girls snickered and kept walking.
There’s a guy at the counter that…hmm, he’s a norm. He has stripes in his hair, making him look like he’s a mage or a dragon, but he has human eyes. Unless he has contacts in? No, no, no smell from him. Why the hell would he have stripes? So weird.
He smiled at seeing us and clearly recognized Samantha. “Ahh, Miss Rodriguez. I saw from the system that you were checking in?” His nametag notes him as Mike Drummond, the hotel manager.
“Hey, Mike. Yeah. Any issues with that?”
He shook his head immediately, “No, Ma’am. Everything gets checked every other day, so everything should be in order.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He cleared his throat, “Will your parents be joining you this visit?”
She froze a little, head tilting. I swear her dragon nearly stepped in to drive, then held off at the last second, “No. No plans for that. It will just be me and my friends. We’re on break between years at the academy.”
I smell sweat from him, although his face is dry, “Wonderful, I always knew you would get through the trial!”
He smells nervous but didn’t lie. That’s good.
“Thank you for saying that. Honestly, it was touch and go. Our class was…bloodthirsty.”
His face paled, “I see. I haven’t heard any reports yet. I believe they’ll release the numbers in the next week. How many did you lose? Ten percent?”
“60 percent.”
Now he stinks of fear. “Oh my…that’s…”
“Right? So, we’re here to spend a little time. We have three months before we have to go back, so we thought we would drive around and see the sights. Visit places. Relax.”
It took him more than a minute to respond, “How long do you plan on staying?”
“No clue, honestly. It could be the entire time, or we could be gone tomorrow. Although I doubt that. I’m thinking less than a week would be shocking.”
“I understand.” He straightened up, “Would you like me to coordinate some spa visits? We can have them come to your floor again?”
“That sounds good. I’ll talk to my friends and let you know?”
“Thank you. I’ll wait for you to reach out.” He then started typing on the computer in front of him. No idea what all he’s typing so furiously, but it sounds like he’s assaulting a beach or something. I would not be shocked to find out that he’s just hitting keys and it’s gibberish. Finally, he pulled out four keycards. “Here you go? A keycard for each of you? I do need to track names of your guests, though. I apologize for that, it’s a new req
uirement since your last visit. Not ours, either. It’s being forced by the county.”
She shrugged, “That’s fine.”
Parece pulled her license and handed it to him, and he started entering things like crazy. Then Angelica. When he took mine, he paled again. Here comes the smell of fear, too.
“I’m sorry, Miss…Stricken?”
“Yes?”
He looked between the card and me, “Why would…your last name is Stricken?” Two other people behind the desk looked over, clearly hearing the question.
“It is.”
“Why would your parents…why would you…”
Tilting my head to the side, I let some of my humanity slip away. He caught it immediately and the smell of fear shot through the roof, “Why, Mr. Drummond, would I have the last name Stricken? That would be because it was required by law once my parents pounded mortmagi into my eyes.” I turned my head a little, drawing his attention to my scars, “As you can see? They’re gone now, leaving only the scars behind. You may not be able to see it, but I’m a dragon as well. So, while my last name is Stricken, I, myself, am not. So, before you ask any other personal questions or manage to insult me, at which point I will have to fight my very angry, very violent reaction, perhaps you can enter me into your system so that we can get on our way? A few days ago, I killed a shifted dragon by ramming my arms into his eye sockets. You can imagine how on edge I am still from that?” He nodded quickly, “Wonderful. Then perhaps you could…” I raised my eyebrows and nodded towards the computer.
He typed even faster than before.
I also smelled a splash of pee.
He handed my license back, “Miss Stricken? I offer you my most humble apologies for questioning you. I reacted out of astonishment and did not mean any disrespect. Miss Rodriguez? My apologies to you as well. I did not intend to insult you or your guest.”
Samantha handled responding, “We understand, Mike. Don’t think we don’t. She’ll get over her snit, probably during a massage or something like that. She won’t blame you for your completely obvious questions.” She gave me the stink-eye. “Will you?”
It was work to pull back on the homicidal stare I had going, “Massage?”
The girls laughed and she snagged my arm and started pulling me away, “C’mon, let’s get upstairs. We have to get you more clothes, so we should eat and then head out and see what we can find.”
Behind us, Mr. Drummond sighed and slumped, the scent of his relief clogging our noses. I’m frankly shocked that none of them laughed at the scene until we were nearly at our floor. Bravo to them for not wanting to upset him.
Chapter 4
It took until we reached our floor for me to calm down enough to really enjoy the elevator. It’s gorgeous, by far the nicest I’ve ever been in. That I know of.
Parece pushed me out once the doors opened, “You back again?”
“Umm, yeah? Sorry about that.”
The three of them laughed, “No worries.” She continued pushing me towards the doors just ahead of us. There are only two doors here. A single door that says EXIT and another door that has two doors in it. We headed for that one. Obviously. “I wasn’t sure you weren’t gonna tear his head off. You weren’t, were you?”
I know they smelled my embarrassment as I shrugged, “Not intentionally? It was…kinda close? It’s like I couldn’t even stop it from happening.”
Samantha swiped the door and pushed it open, “Now you’re getting why the other guy acted like he did. Mike asked some innocent questions which you know people will be asking, and you were instantly set on kill and destroy. For the other guy? Who’s to say what doesn’t piss us off royally? It’s worse that there are four of us and we’re young.”
“Umm, why would that be?” My mind started to wander at seeing the space for the first time.
“It’s simple.” She grabbed my hand and tugged me in. It’s freaky that she’s more than a foot taller than my 5’2” and slathered in muscle, yet she’s just as girly as Angelica, who’s the next shortest at 5’5”. “It’s very simple. Dragons are iffy. People with power are iffy. Young people? Some of us are chill, but that’s the rarity, honestly. You don’t remember it, but I’d bet money Angelica and Parece experienced this. When we meet other rich people? The girls and guys our ages are total dicks for the most part. Acting like they have the money when it’s their parents that do. Acting like they’re the ones with power. Toss in us really having the money and the power, and it just makes things even riskier.”
Angelica laughed and moved past me, “You got that right. I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve seen fired at resorts for doing something that wouldn’t even get someone to blink otherwise.”
“What? Like what?”
She shrugged, “I was in Paris when I was…shoot, 14, maybe? A table of girls to my right were served the wrong drinks. They changed seats, and the server didn’t realize that. Fired on the spot. Another where the room cleaner was fired for not using the preferred window cleaner spray. It varies like crazy.”
“I’ve seen the same.” Parece looked around the space, “This is crazy nice. When did you buy this?”
“Couple years ago? I lucked into finding out the hotel was looking to sell it. They still maintain it, but they wanted to get a dragon in here to boost their visibility. I found out and bought it before anyone else knew about it.”
“Holy crap, that’s insane!” They let me move in a circle, looking around the massive expanse of space. “I can’t believe you own something like this.”
She patted my back, “C’mon, let’s drop our bags off. I’ll show you the layout. Then we grab some food? Look for clothes for you?”
General agreement as we followed her.
“This is the living room. Obviously.” It’s huge, being a solid 40 feet by 40 feet. The furnishings are amazing. There are three TVs, each larger than the other one. No idea how you’d watch all of ‘em at the same time.
The kitchen was next and is decked out for partying. Huge equipment that I don’t know how to use. An overabundance of space. “My God, this is insane!”
“Thanks? I had the kitchen redone before heading to the academy. I also had a theater put in.” We continued the tour, finding the laundry space, even though the hotel will do it for us, a game room, a study, an office, the theater, which seats 40 people, and then six massive bedrooms.
“Feel free to pick whichever bedroom you want? I’m not against all sleeping in together if you want? The master bed is colossal.”
The others looked interested in that, although I didn’t say anything.
We dropped our bags and kept walking as she headed for a huge expanse of glass doors, “There’s a deck around the entire space up here. Then both pools.”
“What? You have two pools?” Neither of the other two seem all that shocked
She nodded, “Yeah? C’mon.” The massive patio space is to die for. “The outdoor kitchen is cool. They can send someone up to cook for us if we ask ahead of time. Then there’s the space for the spa people.” She indicated an area that looks ready made for massage tables to be set up. “This is the lower pool.” It’s huuuge.
Our steps took us up a wide staircase, only to find a second pool and another massive deck area that’s the size of the living space below. “What the fuck? What’s up with all of this?”
Parece patted one of the huge metal things near the edge of the building. “Perches. This part up here is for if we wanted to shift. We can hang out. That’s why the decking is so strong. That’s why the pool looks like it does. We can use the perches to take off. To land. All of that.”
“What the fuck? You expected something like this?”
Smiles from them. “Yeah? It’s not too uncommon for high-end hotels.” Angelica patted the huge thing, “You have to remember, these kinds of places cater to the rich. Not every mage or dragon family is rich, but way more of us are than are not. Even a weak dragon when it comes to magic is way more than
a norm. Same for a mage family. There are plenty of poor of both of us, but the percentage? Wow, so low.”
Samantha snorted, “You got that right. We may be vicious dicks to people, but we tend to look after our family. When we don’t kill them for stupid shit.” Grunts from the girls. “So this? Yeah, the weird thing here is that this isn’t open to the rest of the hotel. This is part of my space.”
“Damn, I can’t believe you own this. That’s crazy.”
“Right?” She sniffed a few times, going so far as to visit each of the perches and sniff them again and again. We followed her through that, then back down to the space again, where she picked up the phone. She didn’t dial anything, but it rang anyway. “Hello again, Miss Rodriguez, how can I help you?”
“Hey, Mike. Question? Have you been having issues with dragons landing on the perches and hanging out in the pool again?”
“None in the past month? I have an accounting of all visits that we have been able to track. It’s in your email, although I doubt you have been able to see it.”
“Anyone get onto the main floor at all?”
“No. The upgraded spells have protected us from that. Only three tried, and when they were questioned, they said they were just trying to use the bathroom.”
“I see. At least we’re trending in the right direction?”
“We are. And, I didn’t mention it before, but we have had no attempts to rent your space since the last time we talked and no visits from your parents or any others claiming to be family.”
“Huh, okay, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Anything else?”
“No, thank you. That’s it for now. We’ll be heading out to get some food here in a bit.”
“Wonderful. Would you like your truck brought up?”
“No, thank you. We’ll be walking I think.”
“Please let me know if there is anything I can do? Perhaps a table at a restaurant?”
She looked at us and the other two shrugged, “No, not at the moment. This isn’t any kind of special meal.”
They ended the call, with me looking back out at the lower patio, “I don’t get it? Dragons will come and…what, try to break in?”
