Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

  I didn’t wait for a response from him before running from the bench and diving over the edge, free-falling towards the ground for second after second before shifting and catching the wind maybe 50 feet above the ground.

  He needs to think.

  I need to think.

  I’m not sure how this changes things for me and interacting with him. I can see his attacks getting worse. I can see them getting better. I can see them slowing. So many options, none of which should be necessary in a world where we stop shit like this from happening.

  If only that would happen.

  Chapter 20

  Shockingly, no one stopped me when I landed and headed into my room. I got plenty of looks for being naked, but no one tried to tease me about it. That actually shocked me a little, but whatever, it’s all good. I’m honestly more weirded out that no one asked why I flew away with Levi and came back without him.

  I have no idea how to explain why any of that happened, although I can easily say that he’s back at the cliffs. It has the added benefit of not being a lie.

  Eva is in the room when I arrive, scowling at me as I come in naked. She’s seen me naked quite a few times before and after showers and things, yet she still acts like I’m being a freak.

  “Great, I have to stare at your tits again.”

  “Well you don’t have to.” Was I wrong to caress myself, then pinch my nipples until they were hard? “That’s also not the only thing you can see.” My hands went lower, and I’d just started touching myself when she turned away. Too bad for her I can smell that she’s turned on now.

  “Would you stop it! I’m not into girls!”

  Ugh, “Okay, you know I can smell a lie, right? Tiffany had to tell you at least that much about her.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She’s sulking, refusing to look at me.

  That gets me dressed, kinda sad that I wrecked that outfit. “Please, don’t even. You have to know that much about us. There’s no way you couldn’t. I can smell that you’re lying. I know you and Tiffany have been going at it.” She stiffened, “Just stop! Damn, man, why humans have a hang-up about stuff like that is beyond me. I don’t care if you two are having sex. You could be having sex in here right now and it wouldn’t bother me. So you may not be into me, I get it. But you’re into her even if it’s not fully romantic. Even if it is? I do not care. As for seeing my tits? You’ve seen ‘em. You see your own. No difference in the slightest.”

  “Would you stop!” She turned at last, hair lighting up, “I don’t want to see you naked!”

  I looked down, then back up again, “Good thing I’m dressed then.”

  She turned away, “I don’t fucking believe this garbage.” Her voice is so low that I can barely hear her, “I feel like I’m gonna fucking crawl out of my skin and she shows back up here?”

  Fiiine. I headed for the door, “I’ll be back at some point after dinner. Save a seat for me!”

  “Go fuck yourself, freak!”

  My laughter was low enough that she couldn’t hear me as I headed a few doors down and knocked. Samantha answered, looking both ways in the hallway. “What do you want?” We’ve talked quietly since coming back, and we’re going to try to keep up the not enemy but not ally thing. I can see in her eyes that she’s worried that that I’ll take her seriously.

  That got my posture to change quickly, giving her a sign she should be able to pick up telling her that I’m okay. “Is Tiffany in?” I can smell that she is, so asking is just a formality.

  “Uhh, yeah? She stepped to the side, opening the door wide. Tiffany is in her desk chair, looking up with annoyance on her face.

  “What do you want? Why would you be looking for me?” She definitely sounds more annoyed.

  “If you’re up for it, Eva’s horny as hell back in our room. She got pissed at me for showing up, so I told her I’d be back after dinner. If you want to go relieve some stress and calm her down, go for it? She should be okay with it at the moment since I told her I’d be away.”

  She sat up straighter, squinting a little, “How do I know you’re telling the truth and you won’t come back to embarrass her?”

  “You can smell me if you want?”

  She didn’t respond at first before slowly getting up and coming over. That got me to put my arm directly beneath her nose.

  “I have no plans to go back to the room until after dinner. I have no intention of showing up early and embarrassing her. Maybe if she gets laid, she’ll calm down a bit.”

  She sniffed along my skin as I talked, then nodded at the end, “You have no plans now, but what if your plans change? You could easily say that and come barging in. She’ll never be able to handle that happening.”

  “It’s just before 4. I promise not to go back before 7. So go get a piece of ass and calm her the hell down. She smells like she’s gonna explode.”

  She smiled at my words and pushed past me without responding. Samantha and I clearly heard them talking after she entered our room. I swear, Eva has no idea how well we hear, because every dragon within three rooms of there can hear her right now. Lord did she want to get laid, because they’re already naked.

  And there goes the silence spell.

  Samantha smiled at me, keeping it small, “Your good deed for the day?”

  “What can I say? I’m a giver, and that girl really needs some orgasms.”

  She looked up and down the hallway again, pitching her voice even lower, “How’re you holding up?”

  “Good so far?” My voice matched hers, “You finding more allies?”

  “Testing the waters? You okay with that?”

  “I’m more than okay with that.”

  “How about you? Anyone?”

  “Kaylee doesn’t seem interested. I haven’t seen her with anyone else, but something’s going on there. I just don’t know what. I haven’t asked anyone else and no one has approached me. We’ll see if that changes after today’s shifting. I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or a bad thing when people see me.”

  She shrugged, “I’d go with good thing. Good luck? Let us know if you find anyone.”

  “I will. Stay safe.”

  “I’ll try. You too.” She pitched her voice back to normal, “You can leave now.”

  “I can. You ever want me to set up some time for you to get laid, just let me know?”

  She snorted, “As if I need privacy for that.”

  We both laughed, which is good. Then I headed down the hallway away from our room. Seriously, I don’t get the need for privacy for something like that. At all.

  Being a dragon is kinda weird. It really, really is.

  Levi was at a table of one when I arrived. Ryan is at a table with three other people halfway across the room. He gives me a confused look when I motion to Levi. I’m guessing they’re not connecting again. Instead of staking out another table or trying to sit with someone, I headed for his table and sat across from him. He looked up in shock, eyes widening. He looks kinda ragged, just not like he’s been crying. “What do you want?”

  It’s my day for that question. “I’d like a fun little car to drive around in. I’ve only had my license for three months and don’t have a car yet, but I’d love something small and fun. Maybe a convertible. I’m thinking about finding one at some point. Maybe keeping it in town. Renting a garage or something like that.”

  He so didn’t know how to respond to that as I started eating. Finally, he got out, “You really are that fucked up, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question.

  “I’m just answering your question honestly. Now, if you meant what I wanted by sitting here? I told you in class that I’d do it. So here I am. We don’t have to talk. We’re just eating.”

  He looked past me at the dozens of eyes that I can feel digging into my back. “With your back to everyone?”

  “What can I say? I’m hungry. Now…what’d you do after we lost you in Florida?”

  He didn’t respond until I was
at least halfway done my food, then he slowly started eating again. I think his hunger happened to get the best of him and basically forced him to do it. I can smell his agitation something fierce, and I bet he’s so freaking close to getting up and walking away. I don’t care to make any bets that he’ll be less antagonistic after our little conversation. I don’t know that he’ll change. I’m doing this because I said I would. Plus, I have to stay away from the room for a bit so Eva and Tiffany can ride faces.

  I thought I was gonna jump out of my skin when he finally spoke again, “I had no idea where you went to. I couldn’t find you, any of you. I saw you all the night before and tracked you. When I went back the next night, none of you were there. It took me until close to midnight to realize your place was empty and there were only scents leaving. That’s when I checked the spells, and they were gone.”

  “I take it you didn’t cast them yourself? Otherwise you shoulda felt them being broken.”

  “No. Charm.” He ate more. “I looked everywhere. Checked every hotel. I shifted and flew all over the damn place trying to find you.”

  “How long did you search?”

  “A month.”

  Oh my fucking God. “Are you serious? A month?”

  He nodded. “By that point I’d scoured all of Florida and Georgia. Or at least enough of them. Never saw you. Never caught your scent. Nothing. Where’d you go?”

  “Key West first. Hung out there for a bit, then headed back north. Up the coast. Through New York, then headed west to here.” More eating. “What’d Samantha’s parents do when you lost track?”

  That’s a real smile. Small, but real. “They were livid. She stopped using her cards and her phone. I knew you had replacements, but they could never find them to track that way.”

  “They get into the other cards?”

  “They made it sound like they almost got into Parece’s cards and things to track that way, but I don’t know that I believe them. Nothing on you.”

  That’s too funny. Maybe I can go back to my original phone? Then again, using the second one lets me talk to the girls without others knowing about it. We’re set up as different names in the phones so that others finding them won’t connect the dots too easily.

  “Huh, and now that we’re back here, it makes me wonder when they’ll show up. Or the other parents. Or someone they hire.” Tilting my head, I sniffed him, “Unless they hired you?”

  He straightened up, looking almost as haughty as normal, “No. They offered. I turned them down.”

  “Why?”

  “Believe me or not, but because accepting money for that isn’t something I’d do.”

  I’m in an odd position of believing him. “So that means they’re either hiring a ringer or coming for me. I assume not the others?”

  “The blame falls directly on you. They hate you.”

  “You guys should create a club or something. You can sell ID cards. Send out a newsletter or something like that.”

  “We should. Secret handshake? We can get a Pinterest board set up. Or Instagram or something.”

  His humor caught me flatfooted. I’m not sure if I’ve heard him say something funny that wasn’t a dig at me. I’m sure my choking on my food wasn’t very ladylike, but I’ll take it. This is the first meal without threats from someone, and that means things are looking up. Even if only a little.

  We spent the rest of the meal not talking. There are a ton of comments from others, making me think I need to not sit with Levi. As much as I want to rile him up, I get why he’s pissed. I also don’t want to make things harder on him with others if I can help it. I know, right? Being nice to my main bully and the person that seems to hate me the most? What’s the world coming to?

  My little quiet reverie was shattered by loud thumps out front and shocked voices rising up from people that had left or are near the doors. Why am I not shocked to look out and find two semi familiar gold dragons flaring their wings wide, with a massive water dragon next to them. He’s positively ginormous, looking like he’s a good 75 feet, about 15 longer than the average for his affinity.

  That’s not good.

  Magic triggered, making the ground tremble and some of the other students call out. Headmaster Anderson arrived on the scene, which means he was here for some reason in the second-year buildings. Victor roared, getting people to cover their ears through it, then yells, “Where is the little whore that dared attack us!”

  Attack them? Hmm, I stayed put. After all, that’s not me, right?”

  Maria cuts short my fun by following suit and yelling, “Maddie! Come out and face your death!”

  Every eye near me turned towards me, getting me to smile back. “Wow, aren’t I just the popular one?” No one laughed at my comment, although I think it was pretty good.

  Instead of waiting around, I headed out, approaching the huge dragons as the towered above me, “Hey, Victor! Hey, Maria! Love what you’ve done with your faces! I know that chicks dig scars, so I have to salute your willingness to really go for it.”

  More roaring. I used magic to block the sound from my ears. Well, to lower it. Making myself totally deaf would be kinda stupid.

  “There you are! You dare attack us and then run away?!” Victor’s huge head came down.

  “Me?” I couldn’t control my laughter for the longest time, “I attacked you and ran away? You attacked me and ran away. Not the other way around. Get your story straight before you come here and look like even more of a fool.”

  “Enough!” He snorted a burp of plasma, “You ran from us. You ran across the country! You hid! Like the vermin you are! Now you can’t hide from us. Thomas?”

  The massive water dragon lowered his head and smiled at me, “I see you, tiny strange girl with the white eyes. I smell you. You smell delicious.”

  “Hey, unknown water dragon. You’re freaking huge, you know that?”

  He pulled back, spreading his wings and blotting out the sun, “My name is Thomas, and I’m your death!”

  “Awesome, that’s awesome. You said that with conviction. I have to think you’re an actor or something? I can’t place you, but you have to be with that kind of line.” My magic is pushing my voice to everyone. “At some point you have to monologue and tell me about your machine of death and the self-destruct button. But before we do that? Can you be quiet and practice your audition lines while I talk to the scared little children that flew all the way from LA to talk to me?”

  I turned back to Samantha’s parents and inhaled to speak when he came down and roared at me. I anchored myself to the ground with magic, otherwise I’d have been blown over. My spell dulled his roar, too, or I’m pretty sure I’d have fucked up eardrums until they healed.

  There were screams from my fellow students, but no one drew attention to themselves.

  “I’m sorry for the interruption. You were saying? You came all the way out here to apologize to me and to pay me 50 million dollars for not hunting you down and killing you for attacking me? That’s really, wow, that’s sweet. I can’t thank you enough. I’d be more than willing to accept your apology for that kind of money. I really would.”

  “Are you insane, girl! We aren’t apologizing to you, you’re stricken. You’re ours to play with. Ours to own. Ours to kill.”

  My slow clap made their eyes go wide, “That was really, really good. Were you getting lessons from Thomas on that? Your delivery? Spot on for the megalomaniac psycho. I could really feel your commitment to the role. They need to get you in an Avengers movie or something, because you and Thanos? Perfection!”

  A scalding spray of steam came in from the side and rammed me into the ground. I hadn’t been ready for it, so wasn’t anchored with magic. People think steam and they picture what comes out of a tea kettle. Dragon steam is hot enough to melt metal. It eats through almost anything with enough time.

  It’s also deadly as fuck against a dragon when they’re not shifted. Or anyone.

  When the breath stopped, I could he
ar a loud, “What have you done!” I just can’t tell which of Samantha’s parents said it.

  That’s when I jumped out of the expanding cloud of steam, already shifted, and landed on fuckhead’s shocked face and tore it to hell and back.

  I made sure to stay away from his eyes, though. Those are mine.

  He roared in horrified shock and tried to pull away, only to lose me as both parents tried to yank me off with their mouths. They succeeded in biting him, which I’m more than fine with, because that let me get onto the massive dragon’s back.

  I have to think that pulling a turkey wing off of a cooked bird is far easier than what I’m planning, but I’m gonna give it a go. He had no clue where I was or what I was doing until I rammed my hands into the massive joint where his wing connects to his body. I lucked into reaching the huge ball at the base of the wing, then tore at it as my magic went crazy, pulling and yanking at him and generally hindering his ability to stop me.

  His massive wing was torn apart and fell, with my claws severing the membrane entirely.

  He’ll never fly again. Even if he heals, this wing will never come back

  That’s just about when his huge head came back around at me, leading with another gout of steam as he roared out his agony and terror. The mass of steam blocked me from everyone as he basically rammed himself onto my arms, claws digging through his eyes and into his brain. I drained his magic in a screaming convulsion, then tore my way out of the rising steam directly at the shocked adults.

  He was a free target because he attacked me.

  They’re free game because they attacked me before and coordinated this.

  Spells went off one after another around them, hiding the action from everyone as lights and darkness began warring and they screamed.

  She never imagined the pain of having a wing torn away.

  Or of him biting her and crunching her spine when he caught sight of me and tried to stop me.

  At which point I went for him, getting both of his off.

  What can I say? He pissed me off by managing to get his teeth into me. Plus, she couldn’t help him from the damage from her loving husband’s teeth.