by Kyra Dune
EMBRACING THE INFERNO
Dragon Within Book Five
Kyra Dune
Embracing The Inferno
Copyright © 2016 Kyra Dune
All rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Shadow Portal Books, a division of Shadow Portal Productions, USA.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or taping, or by any information storing or retrieval system, without written permission from Kyra Dune.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Even resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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CHAPTER ONE
Megara stood at the front of the cramped conference room going on and on about what happened in Oregon. How it was all because of two wolves in sheep's clothing, as she liked to put it. I might have found that funny if I wasn't so completely miserable.
I didn't need her millionth rant on the subject to remind me two people I cared about had betrayed us, causing the loss of way too many lives. Including my cousin and best friend. I didn't need a lecture to make me remember the sight of their dead bodies.
What I needed was something to help me not remember. To stop the images from flashing through my mind every time I closed my eyes. Two weeks had passed since we fled Oregon and I felt like I hadn't slept more than a handful of hours in all that time. How was I supposed to get any rest when my dreams were haunted by fire?
Nobody had come right out and said it to my face, but I knew what happened at the bunker was my fault. I was the one who brought Zack and Hannah to that place. I was the one who kept secrets, who lied. All that blood was on my hands.
Megara was trying her hardest to whip us into a fighting frenzy, but I couldn't figure what for. Even at full strength we were never an army, and now more than half our number was dead. Those of us left behind were in mourning. We didn't want another fight. And even if we did, Megara was crazy if she really thought we could take on every dragon clan in the United states. And that's only where she wanted to start.
I'm not saying I didn't get her reasoning, if you've followed me this far into the tangled web my life has become then you know that. Innocent babies shouldn't die for the crime of being born a hybrid. Parents shouldn't be killed just for trying to protect their children. The madness had to stop. On that much me and Megara were in complete agreement. We had the same end goal in mind, but way different ideas on how to get there.
"Abigail, you're not paying attention," a voice with an Irish accent whispered from behind me.
I twisted in my seat to face Jonah. "It's not like I haven't heard it before."
"True, but what she lacks in originality she makes up for in passion." The twist in the words told me he wasn't serious. He was trying to make light of things. Trying to lift me up a little. I appreciated the effort enough to give him a weak smile even though it didn't help. Nothing could ever help lift my guilt.
Jonah couldn't understand that because he was one of the few among us who hadn't lost someone he cared for. I glanced across the room at Luka, who was videoing Megara's speech with Curtis' camcorder. He didn't have my cousin's love of making movies, or his knack for it, but he'd taken to using the camcorder anyway. I think just because it made him feel closer to Cutis. He'd even agreed to help me finish the movie that was supposed to have been a surprise present for my seventeenth birthday. Now, it was going to be a way to end all of this. A way to make Curtis and Brandy's deaths mean something.
Luka had lost his baby sister in the attack on the bunker. He should have hated me for that, but he didn't. Because he didn't know just how responsible I really was. Nobody did. Nobody knew I was the one who told Zack about the secret entrance. Or that I lied to Megara when she asked me if anyone else knew, right before she sent all the kids through it. It was supposed to be the safest escape route. Instead, it led them right to their deaths.
When Megara finally tired of lecturing us, I was only too glad to escape the conference room along with the others. I wouldn't even have gone to any of her little 'meetings', but every time I tried to stay away she sent someone to track me down and drag me in. It wasn't like there were a lot of places to hide in the rundown hotel we were living in.
We were the only ones there, thankfully. I don't know what Megara might have done if any humans were under the same roof as us, considering how she felt about them. The reason we had the place all to ourselves was because she was friends with Malcolm, the guy who owned the hotel. He was a Scottish born dragon who went renegade and came to the States thirty years ago after his clan murdered his son. Another victim of the blind hatred toward hybrids. He was only too happy to let us stay at the hotel after the disaster in Oregon.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Derek asked as he and Stephanie caught up to me in the hall.
I bit my tongue to keep from snapping at him. He meant well, I knew, but I didn't feel like talking. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and try to get as much sleep as my dreams would allow. "I'm tired. Really, really tired."
"I know what you mean," Stephanie said. "Every since... Well, you know. I've been feeling out of sorts too. Run down."
"We're all feeling that way," Derek said. "That's why I can't understand what Megara thinks she's doing with all this war talk."
"Jonah says she's looking for more renegades," I said, finding myself drawn into the conversation. It was either interact or blow them off, I didn't want to do that. "Trying to rebuild her army."
"Army?" Derek snorted. "What army? She thinks she's saving us, but all she's really going to do is get what's left of us killed." He lowered his voice further. "I've been thinking about it, and the best thing we can do is leave. Just the three of us. Go somewhere and find a way to make a real life. No spirit dragon could track us now."
That wasn't precisely true, but I couldn't tell him that. Not without breaking a promise to a friend. That's the trouble with secrets, sometimes they can be deadly. "What about all the innocent kids waiting to be born just so they can die?" I asked. "Or did you forget why we're here in the first place?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't care about that right now," Derek said. "All I have in this world are you and Stephanie, and I mean to keep you safe. Going to the bunker was a mistake. This entire thing is a mistake. You can't change the world, Abigail. All you can do is die trying. What's the point in that? It's time to stop walking around with your head in the clouds and come back to reality."
"How can you say that to me?" The air in the hall stirred around us, warning me I was letting my emotions get out of control, but I couldn't help it. After everything that had happened, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"You want me to stop? Now? And let all of this be for nothing? Brandy and Curtis..." My breath caught in my throat and I found myself on the verge of tears. "I couldn't live with myself if I did that."
"You're barely living now."
"Stop it." Stephanie laid her hand on Derek's arm. "Abby has lost people she loves, can't you give her a little space to breath?"
Derek ran a hand across his eyes. "I'm sorry. I really am. I know how hard this has been for you, But I'm afraid. How do we know for sure Zack and Hannah were the only traitors? There could be others. They could be reporting back to Alistair as we speak."
"There are no more traitors here." Megara's voice cut thr
ough the air like a knife. Also from Ireland, her accent was much the same as Jonah's. "We'd have had no traitors at all if not for you." Her green eyed gaze was fixed on me. "Stupid girl, falling in love with a tracker."
"Don't talk to my sister like that." Derek stepped between us, which considering we were both hybrids was not a very good place for him to be. "None of this is her fault."
"And how do you figure that?" Megara asked. "Did she not bring those two snakes into our den?"
God, I wished she would quit with the animal metaphors. Although, she did have a point. "I know I'm responsible, okay? If I could make it right somehow, I would."
"So you say, and yet you sit around here doing nothing." Her voice dripped with such disdain I flinched from it. "You won't participate in the planning for our future. You won't help hunt down Zack. You won't even train. How, exactly, do you figure on making amends? When it comes time fight again, you won't be ready."
I shook my head. "I don't believe fighting is the answer. I know there's another way." In fact, I had already started on a plan for that other way. But I couldn't tell her that. I couldn't tell my brother, or Jonah, or anybody else. Only Luka knew I was planning on exposing the dragons to the world. Anybody else would have tried to stop me.
"I don't know how you can think a war is still the answer." I stepped around Derek, not liking talking from behind him like I was scared. Like I was hiding. Okay, so yeah, I was afraid of Megara, but that didn't mean I couldn't pretend I wasn't.
"You can't win," I said. "No matter how many renegades you gather up, it won't be enough. We are not enough. And even if we were, I'm not going to be your soldier. I'm not going to kill for you."
Megara stared at me like I was something nasty she'd found on the bottom of her shoe. "You of all people should understand what I'm trying to do. Our kind are being exterminated, and I mean to save us. I'm not for burying my head in the sand, like some people. I'm not afraid to fight."
I almost told her she was an idiot. The words were right there on my tongue. But I bit them back. I didn't want to push her too far and besides, it was pointless to argue. No words from me were ever going to change her mind.
"You got no fire in your guts." Megara strode up to us, causing Derek to tense, then brushed right past me. "You're of no use to me or anyone else."
Ouch. That stung. It probably shouldn't have, not coming from her, but it did. I had no reason to care what she thought of me. I was doing the right thing. Or so I hoped. It was so hard to tell. I thought the same thing back in Oregon, and look how that turned out.
"Abby, don't listen--"
"Stop." I held up a hand to cut off Derek's words. "I just want to go lie down for awhile, okay?" I could tell I'd hurt his feelings and I was sorry for that, but I was too worn out to deal with my own emotions, let alone his.
Maybe talking to someone would have helped, but much as I had come to care for my brother, I didn't really know him that well. He wasn't someone I could share my deepest, darkest feelings with. The only people I had ever been that close to were Brandy and Curtis. Losing them had left a hole in my heart I didn't think could ever be filled.
My room was upstairs and it felt like it took forever to get there from the conference room. And once there I still couldn't lie down because someone had slipped ahead of me and was sitting on my bed. I bit back a groan. "Hey, Luka."
"Hey. That was some speech our fearless leader gave, huh?" As he spoke he fiddled with the camcorder and it was such a Curtis thing to do it made my heart ache.
"Yeah." I dropped into the room's only chair. I hoped whatever he was going to say, he'd be quick about it. "Did you need something?"
"I, uh..." He cleared his throat, looking at the wall to my left instead of at me. It was so weird. Luka wasn't usually the shy type. "My birthday is in six weeks."
A cold stone settled in the pit of my stomach. Six weeks. No, not even six weeks, because his clan's spirit dragon would be able to track his growing powers two weeks before his actual birthday. So four weeks. We had four weeks until our little hideaway was blown wide open. Again.
"Does Megara know?"
Luka nodded. "She keeps a good track on our birthdays. I think... I think she's looking forward to it. Like... she wants them to come here." He shifted his head so his gaze met mine. "I'm going to run away."
"What? No. You can't do that." I leaned forward and probably would have grabbed him if he'd been a little closer. Okay, so maybe I was overreacting a little. Maybe the panicky feeling fluttering around in my guts was kind of crazy. I mean, I barely knew him. The only reason we even spent any time together was because of Curtis. We had nothing else in common and we weren't exactly friends.
And despite all that, I really did not want him to leave. "You wouldn't last ten minutes on your own."
He shrugged. "At least I wouldn't get anybody else killed. I already lost Bailey and Curtis, I can't lose anybody else."
Wow. It was like he plucked those words right out of my head. Maybe we had more in common than I thought. "You have to promise me right now that you will not run away. That's not the answer."
I was being selfish, I know. But I had suddenly realized why the idea of Luka leaving had me so freaked out. He was my tether. Half the time I felt about five seconds from just floating away. Giving it all up. But every time I saw his face I thought about Curtis and remembered why I couldn't let myself go.
"Okay," he said. "I promise. But what are we going to do?"
"I don't know," I said. "But we have a whole month. We'll think of something."
Luka nodded, even though he didn't look any more convinced of that then I felt. After he left, I lay on the bed for a long time, staring up at the ceiling. I couldn't sleep with all these thoughts chasing each other around inside my head.
So much had happened since Zack first told me I was dragon. So much had changed. I had changed, and not just because I came into my powers. It hadn't even been a year since my sixteenth birthday and it already felt like a lifetime.
My life had been torn apart and put back together so many times it looked like a patchwork quilt. Dipped in blood. Okay, so maybe that's a little morbid, but with all the death I'd seen can you blame me for having a darker outlook on things?
I used to believe a day would come when I could go home and everything would be normal again. God, was I naive back then. Too much had happened for me to ever go back to the person I was before. That girl was dead. She died in a fire of her own making. And I wasn't sure who was rising out of her ashes.
CHAPTER TWO
I must have slept eventually, because the next thing I knew someone was knocking on my door. I had to blink my eyes a few times before I realized I couldn't see much because it was dark in my room. The sun was setting and I hadn't turned on a light.
"Come in." I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed.
Derek opened the door and a patch of light from the hall fell across the floor. He hesitated, peering in at me. "Did I wake you?"
"No," I lied. "I was just... thinking. What's up?"
"Stephanie and I are going across the street to grab some dinner. Do you want to come?"
I really, really didn't, but I couldn't miss the undercurrent of worry in his voice. And even though I wasn't the least bit hungry, I had to eat sooner or later. "Sure."
I tried to put on if not a 'happy face' then at least a 'not completely miserable' one for my brother's sake as I stepped out into the hall. Stephanie grinned at me. "I'm so glad you're joining us for dinner." She linked her arm through mine like we were best girlfriends instead of practically strangers.
I mean she was engaged to my brother, but I knew even less about her than I did about him. Still, I got what she was trying to do. She was trying to make everything seem normal, like this was any average ordinary day and the world wasn't crumbling around our heads. So I let her. It was nice of her to try. Nice of both of them. But even though I had vowed to myself I wouldn't stop living, I was fin
ding it a lot harder to do than I had imagined.
We didn't see anybody else as we left the hotel and crossed the two lane street to the diner. It was all lit up with neon lights and decorated inside like something straight out of the nineteen fifties.
We settled into a red leather booth by a window and the middle aged waitress came over to take our order. "What'll it be, kids?"
"How about burgers and fries all the way around?" Derek looked at me and Stephanie.
She grinned. "Sounds good to me."
"Me too." I tried to match her smile, but couldn't quite manage it.
After the waitress left, we sat there in this awkward silence. You know the kind I mean, right? When there are a thousand things you should be saying, only nobody wants to be the first to say them and it's too hard to make idle chatter, so you just don't say anything at all.
Which was fine with me. I was so not in the mood to talk. I stared out the window, wondering if this heavy feeling in my chest was ever going to go away. If I ever could do anything to make up for all the blood spilled because of me.
A car drove by and when it stopped at the light the screech of its brakes sounded almost like a scream. And for just a split second I was back in Oregon, watching Hannah slip below the quicksand I had created. My chest tightened and my breath caught in my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth. No way was I going to have a panic attack right there in the middle of the diner. It was one thing to do that alone in my room, and something altogether different to do it in front of people.
The panicky feeling bubbled up, that pump of adrenaline screaming at me to run when there was nowhere to go to escape what I was feeling. No air. No air to breath. I ground my teeth together harder and got a firm grip on myself. It was easier to do that in the brightness of the diner lights than the darkness of my bedroom.
