Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

  Then his power filled me as well.

  “Norm!” She came in a rush, tears and wails starting that faltered as more power hit her and I forced her back to her human form, leaving her reeling and confused.

  How long was she reeling and confused?

  Maybe a quarter second before I shifted and literally tore her head off.

  More power drained as I shifted back.

  The last dragon looked up from where his mate was mewling on the ground. “What have you done?!”

  Her head bounced up and down in my hand, then I let it drop to the ground, “I’m sorry, me? what have I done? Is that your question? I think the better question is what have you done.”

  He roared and came in closer, “You pitiful excuse for a worm!”

  “Hey, scaley! Fuck you, you massive bag of shit. I’m walking out of a diner and the four of you assholes attack me? What the fuck is up with that?”

  I didn’t realize it, but three cop cars are in the street with the cops out, guns drawn. They’re so confused about who to point them at. The huge dragon that they can’t hurt, or the girl being attacked by the dragons…that just took out three of them.

  “You killed our son!”

  A smile formed, “Oooooh! Let’s see, so you’re either Russel or Vijay’s parents?”

  “You killed Vijay!”

  He blinked as I snapped my fingers, “Ohhh! Right. Him. Yeah, I did. Want to know why? He attacked me. It was completely justified. So take your anger and go fuck yourself with it. Just like me killing those two assholes and fucking up her world is justified. Have fun having a wife that can’t shift, can’t see, and doesn’t have magic. Unless you’re shifted, it’ll be like fucking a hallway.”

  “I’ll kill you!” Another roar and another blast of ice that I let hit me and not do anything other than cake huge amounts of ice on everything around me. I kept enough magic flowing to melt everything in front of me. When he stopped, he looked shocked and appalled that I wasn’t hurt.

  “C’mon now, seriously? You all tried that together and it didn’t work. Why would you think it would work by yourself?”

  “I will crush you!”

  He came in a rush, nearly tripping as I shifted in an explosion of growth. I’m thinking he missed that like two minutes ago? He wasn’t prepared for me to leap into the air, catapulting myself up with my wings, legs, and some magic.

  Nor was he prepared for me to land on his back.

  His huge head came back around at me and he had a brief moment to see me smiling before I breathed at him, exhaling in a roar of my own that sent a ray of magic out at him. Half of his snout was gone before he managed to turn away. Then the scales of his neck saved him.

  Until metal formed and rammed into him and I pried my way through the protective layer.

  At which point my breath acted like a buzz saw.

  He screamed and screamed, sending magic every which way until my breath severed enough that he started to fall. More magic triggered at that point and his face was crushed into the ground and more magic drained…and then his head was cut free.

  I flapped off of him and landed in the parking lot again and shifted back. I didn’t realize it, but Brody, Tiffany, and Eva are off to the side. They’re watching me with horror in their eyes as I step out of the massive puddle of blood that’s forming. They’re still watching when the cops sweep in and begin questioning everyone.

  Including them.

  They’re also still there when I’m let go. Too many witnesses. Too many videos. Too many truth spells that I let hit telling them that I wasn’t the aggressor. I didn’t start it in any way.

  I didn’t waste much time waiting around before taking off and spending an hour at Alicia’s store. No new grimoires, but we did chat for a while. Then I flew back, only to find fresh rumors about what happened in town.

  And how I was the one that started everything.

  Dammit.

  This probably doesn’t mean that the three of them are my rumor spreader, but it could mean that they’re trying to set me up.

  Fuck.

  Why can’t this just be easy?

  When Friday rolled around, I was sitting in the caf at dinner, just sort of staring at nothing. I was early and got a corner table to myself and finished a while ago. I haven’t been tracking, but I think most people have come through.

  Including poor Kaylee. Someone spent some time beating her again. Not quite as bad as the earlier times, it just looked more thorough somehow. God, I want to talk to her so badly and see if I can help, yet nothing I do seems to calm her down. I’ve heard the rumors again and again how I’m planning on killing her. It’s one of the more prevalent ones that doesn’t seem to die. So far.

  My secret allies gave me signals when they sat to eat. I know that Samantha and the others have some fun things planned, I also know that I can’t join them. Not without giving up and letting everyone know that we’re still connected.

  So freaking frustrating.

  Levi coming through the door jostles my thinking and brings me back to the room a bit more than I have been. I haven’t lost everything entirely; I just haven’t really been here. If that makes sense.

  Why am I paying more attention? Because Jason was literally the only person that talked to me directly. Granted, in a crazy whisper and slathered with silence spells, but he still did.

  And now Levi’s here. He didn’t seem to pay much attention to me until he turned from the food counter. Then he headed straight for me.

  Listening spells fired up from around the room that promptly died when he sat at the table and fired up a silence spell. A pretty brutal one, too. One that I don’t recall him using before. Someone’s been studying. And practicing.

  He didn’t say anything before starting to dig in, which gave me a chance to watch him.

  He’s not the biggest guy in school this year, but he’s the most…defined, maybe? The water guys are larger, but he’s physically large and has massive muscles that a normal human would kill for. The scars on his face don’t stand out to me any longer, making me wonder if I can heal them for him. I healed eyes, so you’d think I might be able to do that. Somehow. I’m just not certain it’d be a good idea for people to know that I can do that. Assuming I can.

  His eating slowed after a solid five minutes of cramming down way more food than seems possible. At least for a norm. “So…when are you gonna do it?”

  “I’m thinking this weekend. I have the down payment set aside and the realtor is waiting for my signature on the offer. I bought the web site name already. By this time next month, I’ll be the premier destination in the US for fly-fishing and holistic chakra and colon cleansing. The secret for the cleanse is a coffee infused tea tree oil and warm water. Not too hot, it’s going in a tender area.”

  His eating slowed to a stop in the middle as I stared at him.

  “Ooooor, you can start over and fill me in on the parts that I’m lost on? Unless it’s fly-fishing? Of which I know nothing. Same with chakra cleansing. Now, colon cleansing? I have three published papers in Rectums Quarterly, so I’d like to think I know assholes pretty well.”

  Slow blink. I’m not sure he’s fighting a smile, yet I think he is.

  Finally, a slow nod. “When are you going to attack me? Kill me?”

  Not quite what I was expecting, “I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. I have no plans to attack you or kill you. I could have done it in the trial when we fought and didn’t do it. Why would I backtrack now and try to go for you when you haven’t done anything to me?” That had me leaning forward, “Unlike all of the rumors that are floating around out there.”

  He cocked his head, “How I’m planning on attacking you?”

  “Attacking. Killing. In my sleep. In dragon class. At any of the meals that we sit together. On flights. In town. During games of D&D, which is one I don’t get since I’ve never even been close to playing the game before.”

  “What about the one where
I’m planning on asking you out and doing it on our first date?”

  “That’s a pretty good one.”

  “Or the ones where I’m trying to destroy the things in your room?”

  “Heard it. I don’t think that’s you, though.”

  Cocked head to the other side, “Why not?”

  “Because you were a prime suspect last year. Earlier this year too. Yet I set a trap on things, and you were never caught by it. Not that I can tell who was, but I’d bet almost everything that you’re not responsible for those attempts.”

  “Huh, good, you’d win, too.” He smells completely honest. “You’re really not planning on killing me?”

  “Nope. No plans. Like I said, I want to get the fuck out of here. Graduate. I know this place went nuts with the rumors of the attacks in town, but I can get you the police reports. I wasn’t the aggressor. They attacked me without warning. Never even said a word before all four of them attacked at the same time.”

  He snorted, “I already have copies of the reports. You know she’s fucked now, right? Blind and magicless?”

  “Yup. I know that.”

  “Did you know that she can’t even be forced back to human form?”

  That made me smile, “I had a feeling. It still takes her magic to shift, and without that…”

  “Right.” He nodded again and pushed his empty tray away before sipping some of his soda. “The rumors are going crazy again. They’re better, less grasping, than they were.”

  “I noticed that. The few that reach me.”

  “Yet you’ve heard rumors about me?”

  “I’ve heard rumors about a bunch of other people, but the ones about you seem to be stronger.”

  “Which do you believe?”

  “Believe? That’s a strong word. It really is. I’d like to think that none of them are true, but the reality of being here keeps ramming me in the face to realize that every rumor just might be true. When allies plan to kill each other if given the opportunity or they’re attacked, that means that even someone you trust just might swing for you if they can.”

  “True. All of us knew it last year.”

  “I know. I just…I hate it. I hate all of it.”

  He sniffed, “I can tell. Unless you’ve managed to figure out how to change your scent?”

  “Oh, I did.”

  His face went ashen.

  “Deodorant. Perfume. Pretty cool stuff. I smelled one the other day that smells like suntan lotion.”

  The tension drained out of him. “Damn, man, don’t do that!”

  He smiled after I did, “Sorry. No, I can’t change my scent. I haven’t even really tried, so maybe I could figure something out or have one in my grimoires. It’s not something that strikes me as amazingly useful most of the time, so it hasn’t been a real thing to shoot for.”

  “What about a spell to be able to lie to truth spells?”

  “Same. I’ve tried hard, so freaking hard, not to lie since coming here. Not only can people smell it, but…I’ve told you about my life. I don’t remember much up to age nine. Then with Jean? It was just the two of us and I was blind. There wasn’t a thing from me that she didn’t see or know about or was there for. Granted, I don’t care now that I’m a dragon, but it’s kinda awkward not realizing someone is there when you start masturbating and you’re 10.”

  He snorted, “Yeah. I can see norms having an issue with that.”

  “Then with Reggie? Please. The things he would have done to me if I lied to him? The most I could do with him was to prevaricate, yet even that was limited. Crazy limited. He owned me, and I lived it to my best ability.” No response. “Now you?”

  “I have total plans to kill you during a game of D&D.”

  I laughed when his scent came through. “You’d mess up my epic dungeon crawl? I have a three-armed monk that specializes in hand-to-hand fighting, and I’m so close to defeating the lich king.”

  Another laugh from him, “I swear, it’s like you script this crap ahead of time.”

  “I do. I have a book of them that I write down and just trot them out when they’re needed. I only have one more on D&D, though, after that it’s free form or nothing.”

  More laughter. “That’s too much. Now, as for me? No. I’m still struggling with things, but I don’t have any plans to attack. In your sleep. During meals. Dragon class. At all. No plans to hit you with magic. I’ve never tried to hit your room with magic. I think I know a spell now that might be able to mess with things, I just haven’t really thought about doing it? It requires being able to see your target, so I couldn’t do it unless your door was open.”

  Pure honesty from him. No magic flaring, either, telling me that he’s not manipulating his scent.

  “And what about asking me on a date?”

  Silence for the longest time, “Let me put it this way. Out of everyone here, you are the only person that knows what it was like to have my parents’ attention. The only one. Yet we did not start off in a good place. As you said, this place breeds suspicion and all of that? I would never expect you to believe me if I suddenly showed a change of heart and asked you out.”

  Hmmm, something hit me that I just had to ask, “Then…why did you kill Joel in Florida?”

  Pure confusion washed over his face and his scent changed to match. “Uhh…who?”

  What the hell? “Joel Stringer? In Florida? The last place you had us tracked down to? He was killed by a dragon and the police were given my name?”

  His eyes cleared up, “Oh! Umm, I didn’t? Why would I have killed him? I caught the two of you together and followed him until he got back to his place. I left him there and went looking for you again, but you were gone. When I got back to his place, I smelled blood like crazy. I didn’t think about trying to call the cops and set you up for a few hours after that.”

  “Ooookay? That’s…shocking.”

  His eyes clouded, “You thought…you really thought I could kill a norm that easily?”

  My heart broke at the sound of his voice, “Easily? I knew you were angry. Livid. That you wanted to kill me. I figured it wasn’t that big of a step for you to kill my unknown half-brother since I killed them.”

  His jaw fell open and his scent changed again and again.

  “Fucking hell, you didn’t know that he was my brother?”

  “No!” He hit the table, “What the fuck? How did that happen? What the fuck…what happened in Florida?!?”

  I told him the story of what I had been thinking and finding his site and then what he said to me before he left. When I was done, he didn’t talk for a bit.

  “That’s…that’s fucked up. Your father had a mule with a norm?”

  “So it seems. Or, maybe with a dragon? No clue. Based on what Joel said, I have to think his mom was a norm, though. Especially since the articles I found on her didn’t mention her being a dragon in any way.”

  “I don’t even know what to say. I didn’t know he was your brother. Or half-brother. Or even related. I missed that in the conversation. I couldn’t hear for shit and only really saw you together before he freaked and left.”

  “Dammit, then who killed him?”

  “I don’t know? I smelled dragon over the blood, so it had to be one of us. Given what he told you, it could have been anyone pissed at him for his blogging. Since your parents were mages, I doubt it was them somehow.”

  “Damn…that kinda sucks. I didn’t like the idea of it being you killing him, but having it be someone else just makes me wonder what the fuck is going on.”

  He didn’t respond for the longest time until he sighed and rubbed his face, “One of these days we’ll either be graduated and beyond this or dead…and beyond this. Some days I don’t give a damn which it is.”

  “You and me both.”

  Was it weird that we shared a moment? It was to me. I did not ask him if he felt the same way.

  Chapter 35

  Classes were weird as hell today. Yet again. I feel like we’r
e racing towards the trial. It’s just not a controlled race. At all.

  I’m still struggling with the mortmagi. Even with the charms. I’ve tried variations of the charms to see if I can come up with something, anything, to help us get them out. I have six variations of the turbo charm, or had before I destroyed them, and they all failed. Three of them would have straight-up killed someone with weaker magic, and I was lucky that I tried them out when I was with Alicia and not at school. Those were…ugh. So freaking brutal.

  We did manage to get mortmagi out of Cindy, so that was good. It also nearly took me to strain territory, so we called it a day. That was yesterday. Last night, actually. I got a text after class ended that Alicia couldn’t get the healing to work the way we had hoped for, so the things are out but Cindy’s still blind.

  She’s ecstatic about that, don’t get me wrong, but I want her healed. I’m just not certain I can do it today. I’m not saying no, but…like I said, things have been weird, and it’s getting to me.

  Rumors for the past bunch of weeks have been changing. I had high hopes that things would calm down by freaking May, yet here we are. The off-the-wall rumors? They’re pretty much gone. Whoever’s spreading them has backed off on the devil worshipping and the ones that are crazy farfetched. They’re better, almost as if they’re hitting their stride in some way.

  My hidden allies are still there. Still hidden. We backed off more between me, Cleo, Cesar, and Stacey. No sense pushing things there.

  Eva, Tiffany, and Brody are still there. Still poking and prodding. Yet even that’s backed off. I’ve said it before, but it’s like they’re doing it because that’s just what they do. Like a habit.

  That’s good, right? I’ve been taking it that way.

  Yet damn, the rumors suck. I just want a normal kinda day here, you know? Talk to people. Have friends, even if they may try to kill me at some point. Just be normal. Like everyone else. Instead, it’s a day like today.

  I can’t even point to anything in particular standing out that made today suck. We’re working on our spells in magic class, just like normal. This week has been around shielding, which has been interesting. In affinity class we’ve been working on walls, essentially. Walls of metal. Earth. Wind. That sort of thing.