by Kyra Dune
Two people I had never seen before entered the clearing. A man and a woman maybe three or four years older than I was. Lance and Crystal. Had to be. I froze, my body so rigid every muscle was locked in place.
Lance limped across the grass, his left leg soaked in blood. Crystal stayed close to his side, a bundle of blankets clutched to her chest. Her face was a mask of terror.
It was Lance who spotted me first. His cold, grim gaze fixed on mine and I shrank back into the seat, wishing I could disappear. A soft mewling from the blankets distracted his attention to Crystal.
“Is he okay?”
She nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. “But I don’t know how much further we can run.”
Lance’s gaze shifted back to me. “You, come out of there.”
I thought about refusing, then remembered he was a fire dragon who could charbroil me alive inside the helicopter. I quickly scrambled out, my hands trembling as I stood to face him.
He looked me up and down, frowning and tense. “How old are you?”
“Fifteen.” I lied. Spirit dragons could track a dragon with powers two weeks after their sixteenth birthday, but I was well beyond that and hoping if they thought I hadn’t come into my powers yet they might not view me as a threat. Not that I was much of a threat. Some part of me knew I should be acting to defend myself, but I didn’t know how.
Some of the tension drained from his shoulders. “What are you doing here?”
“Observing.”
Lance’s lips curled in disgust. “Oh, so you’re a junior tracker, huh? Come to learn how to hunt people down for trying to escape cruel and vicious laws?”
“Stop.” Crystal laid her hand on his arm. “Can’t you see she’s scared?”
“So am I,” he snapped. His expression instantly softened at the hurt look on her face. “Oh, baby, I’m sorry.” He touched her cheek. “I didn’t mean to...” He sighed, running a hand back through his lanky hair. “This is all wrong.”
“Yeah, it is.” She smiled through her tears. “But at least we’re together.”
Are you confused yet? I sure was. These people didn’t look dangerous to me, they looked scared and exhausted. And I was almost certain the mewling creature wrapped up in the blankets Crystal clutched was a baby. Which meant she was probably pregnant when they ran away from their clan.
I tried to tell myself they had run away because their parents didn’t want them to be together. But another, darker thought was invading my mind. As I understood it, spirit dragons weren’t supposed to be able to tell what a baby was going to be until after it was born. But maybe it was different if it was a spirit dragon who was pregnant. Maybe Crystal had discovered something about her baby which had forced her and Lance to go renegade.
Can you guess where my thoughts were going with this? I was looking at Lance and Crystal, but I was seeing my birth parents. My mind rebelled against the thought. Hannah couldn’t be right. Could. Not. Be. But much as I wanted to deny what I was thinking, it wasn’t working. I might not be a genius like Brandy, but I’m not stupid.
“What are we going to do?” Crystal asked.
“I have to think.” Lance pressed his hand to the side of his head. He was so pale, his skin wet with sweat, and blood was pooling around his foot. The look he gave me was filled with a wild desperation which turned my knees to jelly.
“Come here.” He motioned me forward.
I shook my head. I couldn’t have moved even if I wanted to. Fear had me rooted to the spot. Lance limped over to me and grabbed my arm. “You’re going to be my hostage.”
“No, Lance you can’t.” Crystal shook her head, making her blonde curls bounce around her shoulders. “She’s only a kid.”
“I have to.” His voice was firm, but his grasp on my arm was weak. “They’ve left me no choice.”
I looked into his brown eyes and saw he knew what I had only started to guess at. He was standing right there beside me bleeding to death as we spoke. Dying, but still willing to fight to protect his family.
He pulled me over to stand beside Crystal. “Stay.” He walked around us, creating a ring of fire.
I inched closer to Crystal and peeked into the blanket to get a look at the baby. Such a tiny little thing. “What’s his name?”
She smiled, pulling back one corner of the blanket so I could see better. “Toby.” The baby blinked at me with his father’s eyes.
“He’s beautiful.”
“Yeah.” As Crystal looked down at Toby, her face lit with the wonder of love. “He’s perfect.” She sniffed, looking up at me. “It’s not his fault, you know? He’s only a baby.”
I swallowed, not sure I wanted the answer to the question I was about to ask. “What’s not his fault?”
The crunch of running footsteps sounded from within the woods. Lance looked up, his face so gray I thought it was a miracle he hadn’t passed out yet. “Stay behind me,” he said, stepping in front of Crystal. He grabbed me and pulled me close in front of him. He wrapped one arm around my waist and pressed the opposite hand against the side of my head.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his breath hot against my ear. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”
I gritted my teeth to keep them from chattering. I was terrified, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. Desperation and love can make people do crazy things.
Zack burst from the woods into the clearing. He skidded to a stop when he saw us. Never before in my life had I seen such a look of rage on anyone’s face. He glared at Lance. “Let her go.”
Lance pressed his hand a little harder to my head. “Stay where you are, tracker. You make one move and I’ll fry this girl’s brain like an egg.”
A whimper escaped my lips before I could stop it.
Zack’s hands clenched into fists. “You’re dead already, your body just hasn’t realized it yet.”
“Maybe,” Lance said. “But I think I still have enough left in me to kill her. You willing to take the chance?”
“What makes you think I care?” Zack’s gaze flicked to mine so briefly I could almost have imagined it. “My priority here is to stop you. If somebody else gets hurt in the process...” He shrugged. “It happens.”
Lance’s grip around my waist loosened in his uncertainty. His energy was draining fast and I felt, at his heart, he wasn’t really the kind of person who could kill me in cold blood. I think Zack knew it too. Hoping I had read his look right and wasn’t about to get myself killed, I rammed my elbow back into Lance’s stomach.
He gasped, his already weakened hold on me loosening further. I slipped out of his arms, way too aware he could blast me with fire before I could get three feet away from him. A shot rang out and Lance fell.
Crystal screamed, and the next thing I knew her panicked face was right up next to mine and she was shoving Toby into my arms. “Don’t let them kill him.” Before I could even think to reply, she spun away from me and ran through the flames toward the woods.
She didn’t make it far before she was lifted off her feet and thrown into the side of the helicopter with an audible crunch. She crumpled to the ground, her neck at an impossible angle. Rain fell from a clear sky to douse the fire. Not a drop touched me where I stood holding the crying baby. I couldn’t move, could barely even breathe.
Lance moved. I jumped back, but he was paying no attention to me. His pain filled gaze was fixed on Crystal. Digging one hand into the grass, he pulled himself in her direction. His blood flecked lips parted and I saw them form her name, though he made no sound.
My stomach lurched. I wanted to shut my eyes, to turn away, to stop seeing what I was seeing. But I couldn’t. Zack strode over to us, a three foot icicle gripped in his hand. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, Zack plunged the icicle into Lance's back with such force it burst through his chest and pinned him to the ground.
With his eyes wide open and his hand still reaching out for Crystal, Lance expelled his last breath at my
feet. I started to shake, bile rising up in the back of my throat. Toby cried louder, waving his fist in the air.
Zack looked at me over Lance’s body, every muscle in his face rigid. “Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head. I didn’t have a voice to speak with and besides, I was afraid if I opened my mouth I would throw up.
Alice and Rick entered the clearing to our right. Alice came over to us while Rick checked to make sure Lance and Crystal were dead. As if it wasn’t obvious.
“Do you want me to take the baby?” Alice asked, smiling at me. Smiling, as if two people weren’t lying dead in the grass. As if what had happened was no big deal.
I flinched away from her. “No. I’ve got him.” I looked down at Toby so I wouldn’t have to keep looking at her smile. I gently rocked him, making shushing noises and trying not to cry. I wasn’t really sure what to do for him. My experience with babies was extremely limited.
Much to my surprise, he quieted right down, sticking his fist into his mouth and looking up at me with those big brown eyes. I felt like throwing up all over again. I turned away from Alice and Zack and carried Toby to the helicopter. My legs had started to tremble and I knew I needed to sit down before I fell down.
I sat rocking Toby in my arms while Rick and Zack loaded his parents into the helicopter’s narrow cargo bay. I shuddered to think of riding back to the compound with their bodies so close, but I supposed it was better than leaving them in the woods like slaughtered animals.
We took off and for awhile nobody spoke, which was fine with me. I kept my gaze focused on Toby, watching his eyes slowly close as he drifted off to sleep. His eyelashes were so pale they almost disappeared against his skin.
“I know that couldn’t have been easy for you to see,” Alice said, speaking loud to be heard over the rotor blades. “But we had to kill them. We had no other choice. They would have done the same to us.”
“They didn’t kill me,” I muttered.
“Only because you made a handy shield,” Zack said. His tone was more hostile than I had ever heard it. “That was a stupid move, Abigail. You never should have let him put his hands on you. Why didn’t you use your power to defend yourself?”
I glared at him. “I guess I’m not a cold blooded killer like some people.” The look of hurt which crossed his face before he looked away didn’t satisfy me as much as I thought it would.
“It wasn’t cold blooded,” Alice said. Her placating tone was riding my last nerve. “What we did is no different than what a police officer would have done when dealing with a dangerous fugitive.”
“Dangerous?” I could hardly believe what I was hearing. “Lance was half dead on his feet. And what about Crystal? You said yourself she had no active powers and she wasn’t holding a weapon. Why did you have to kill her?”
“Letting her live would have served no purpose,” Alice said. “The penalty for going renegade is death.”
I drew in a sharp breath. “What?”
Alice paled. “Oh, no, sweetheart.” She reached out to touch my arm. “I didn’t mean--”
I flinched away. “Don’t touch me.” My heart was racing. “Is that why Alastair won’t let me see Derek? They... they killed him?” The thought made my insides twist. I barely knew the guy, but that was beside the point. He was my brother. And besides, if they would kill people for something like leaving their clan without permission, then it wasn’t a great leap to believe they would kill hybrids at birth.
“Derek is not dead,” Zack said. “Alastair kept him alive for you.”
“Why should I believe you?”
His brown eyed gaze met and held mine. “Because it’s the truth.
And coming from him I did believe it. “So why can’t I see him?”
“I already told you,” he said. “He’s dangerous.”
“Alastair is afraid of what he might say to you,” Alice added. “He’s worried Derek might try to turn you against us.”
“Why would he?” I was asking Zack, but he looked out the window without answering.
“I don’t know,” Alice said. “Maybe for the same reason he made you wreck your car and then kidnapped you. He’s not a stable person.”
I stared at the side of Zack’s face, his jaw tight and his gaze fixed firmly on the sky beyond the window. Somehow, I got the feeling more was going on here than what Alice was saying. But I knew pressing would get me nowhere, so I let the conversation slide into silence. For the moment.
When we landed on the airstrip, Alice turned to me and held out her arms. “I’ll take the baby now.”
Crystal’s last words flashed through my mind. “What are you going to do with him?”
Alice smiled. “We’ll contact his parent’s clan and they’ll send someone to pick him up, of course. His family will be happy to have him back.”
I looked to Zack and our gazes locked for a second before he jerked the door open and jumped out. The truth was there in his eyes, so clear I couldn’t help but see. And that was the moment I knew Hannah wasn't lying. Everything she's told my about what happened to hybrids was real.
“Abigail?” Alice gave me a curious look. “The baby?”
I looked down at the little boy sleeping in my arms. A little boy whose parents gave their lives to save him, like mine did for me. And in my heart I knew what would happen to him, but I handed him over to Alice anyway. What else could I have done? That’s a question which will haunt me for the rest of my life. So don’t look at me like that, you can’t possibly be more disgusted with me than I am with myself.
“Why don’t you go home and lay down?” Alice cradled Toby in her arms. She was still smiling. “You look as though you could use a good rest.”
I nodded numbly and climbed out of the helicopter. I looked around for Zack, but he was already gone. So I walked home alone, each step heavier than the last. The trees lining the road to my grandparent’s house cast sinister shadows across the pavement. And there, about halfway to the house, stood Hannah. She was leaning up against a tree with her arms crossed.
I stopped. “Are you waiting for me?”
“Yeah.” She pushed away from the tree. “I heard Alice and Zack took you hunting renegades, so I thought I’d look you up when you got back to see if anything you’d seen might make you want to talk.”
I hesitated, looking up the street toward the house. But I couldn’t go there with my thoughts in turmoil as they were. Couldn’t face Mi Mi and Alastair. Not without some answers. I nodded. “First, tell me how you know about renegades.” I had a feeling it was more than simply something she’d heard. Maybe it was wrong of me to press her to talk, but I wanted to see if I could really trust her.
“Okay. Let’s go for a walk.”
We walked in silence for a time, the anxiety building up in my chest with each passing moment. I wanted to hear the truth, but I didn’t want to know the truth, get what I mean? I was terrified of what it might do to me.
A cornfield grew along the compound’s western perimeter and as we walked alongside the stalks, Hannah finally spoke. “Ten years ago, my mom and stepdad had a baby.” Her voice lay flat and emotionless, her eyes unreadable. “His name was Michael. Mom went into labor at our apartment in the middle of the night. She was about a month early, otherwise she already would have been at the hospital. You know, no cars and all.
“Anyway, dad called the doctor and he came, but the spirit dragon was already with another family and it wasn’t like we could wait. The doctor barely even got there in time for the delivery. My brother was in a hurry to be born, I guess.” Her voice caught and she cleared her throat before continuing.
“It took the spirit dragon three hours to get to us. By then, my parents had already named Michael. Mom had nursed him, dad had held him, and I had sung him to sleep. I was sitting beside his cradle, holding his hand, when the spirit dragon finally got there.” She lifted her hand and looked at it.
“He woke up when the spirit dragon took him out of the cradle. I
t was the last time I ever looked into his eyes.”
My throat was so tight I could hardly speak. “He was a hybrid.”
“Yeah.” Hannah lowered her hand back to her side. “When the spirit dragon told my parents, they were horrified. Mom cried. I couldn’t understand what was happening really, I only knew it was something bad and I was scared. Then my mom, she...” Hannah gritted her teeth as tears sprang to her eyes.
“My mother told the man to get rid of it,” she said. “Those were her exact words. Get rid of it. Like my brother was trash or something.”
I laid my hand on her arm. “It’s okay. You can stop. I understand.”
“No. I don’t want to stop.” She turned to face me. “I’ve been holding this inside of me for ten years, because I’ve never known anyone I could talk to about it. If I can’t ever let it out, it’s going to kill me.”
I pressed my lips together to hold in my emotion and nodded. If she needed to talk, then I could be the person to listen.
Hannah took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The spirit dragon took my brother into the bathroom. I heard water running. My brother started to cry, but the sound was cut off. And even though I didn’t know what was going on, some kind of instinct inside told me my brother was in danger.
“I ran into the bathroom and I saw... I saw the man holding my brother in the sink, under the water.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I yelled for him to stop, but he ignored me. So I attacked him. I hit him,” she smacked her fist into her open palm, “and hit and hit him. Finally, he took a step back, lifting Michael out of the water. My brother shrieked. The sound... I can’t even describe it. It was a primal kind of thing, you know? He was too little to know what was happening, but like me some part of him understood the danger.
“I will never forget the sound. It was so full of bewildered pain and fear. I still hear it sometimes. In my head.” She pressed her fist to her temple. “In my dreams.
