by Kyra Dune
I was afraid of my grandfather. I knew he’d sent the trackers who killed my parents. As I knew he’d told Zack to get rid of me as soon as I stopped being useful to him. The man was a monster and I was right there in his house. No more than twenty feet from where he slept. This whole idea had never seemed so stupid as it did right then.
The study was between my room and theirs. Once we were inside and the door was shut, I turned the flashlight on so Curtis could see to boot up the computer. With the glowing screen to guide him my cousin’s fingers were soon flying across the keyboard.
Zack stayed back by the door while I sat in the chair in front of the desk. I fiddled with the flashlight, but it didn’t help to distract me from my anxiety. It felt like it was taking forever for Curtis to break into the computer and get the information we needed.
“Are you almost done?” I asked.
“I’m working as fast as I can,” Curtis said, his gaze glued to the screen. “I’m not exactly a professional, you know.”
I sighed. “How hard can it be? It’s not like you’re trying to hack into the Pentagon or something.”
He shot me a look. “Do you want to try?”
“No.” I sat back and crossed my arms. I knew I needed to ease up on him, but I was too scared. “I want you to hurry up. That’s what I want.”
He muttered something under his breath. I didn’t hear it and I’m pretty sure I didn’t want to. He was scared too, I know, and pushing him wasn’t going to help.
“Got it.” Curtis grinned at me. “I’m in.”
I jumped up and ran around the desk to get a look. “Is there an address?”
Curtis squinted at the screen. “It’s says... Uh oh.”
“What uh oh?” I read the words and yeah, uh oh about summed it up. “Somewhere in the Cascade Mountains? In Oregon? That’s it?” I looked to Zack. “This is what we risked our lives for? How are we supposed to find Megara with no better directions than ‘somewhere in Oregon’?”
“Don’t blame this on me,” Zack said. “I told you Alastair had a file on her. I never said he had GPS directions to her hideout.”
“Great.” I muttered. This was not turning out so well.
“She found you once,” Curtis said. “Maybe if we go to Oregon, she’ll find you again.”
‘Maybe’ was not what I really wanted to hear, but it seemed like we were out of other options. “Okay. So I guess we’re going to the Cascade Mountains. Terrific.”
Curtis shut the computer down and, after I turned off the flashlight, we went out into the hall again. It seemed to me we’d taken a huge risk for so little reward, but I really couldn’t blame Zack. I mean, he had a point, after all. He couldn’t have known exactly what we would find in the file. If he had, we wouldn’t have had to break into the compound in the first place.
We headed back toward my room, our intentions to go out the same way we’d come in. When the hall lights flashed on I was taken completely by surprise. My eyes automatically closed against the sudden glare and before I could gather my wits about me, I was jerked off my feet and slammed into the wall.
I hit the floor with a thud and a groan. Pushing myself up on my elbows, I looked down the hall through my hair across my face. My grandfather stood in the doorway to his bedroom. I can only describe his expression as stormy. But it wasn’t my own safety I was most concerned with in the moment.
I cut a sideways look at Curtis, who was crouched near the top of the stairs. All it would take was a little push and over he would go. I darted my gaze back to my grandfather. He was staring at my cousin and I could almost see my thoughts mirrored in his eyes.
“No!” I jumped to my feet, but I was too late. Wind whipped past me so swiftly it knocked me sideways. I stared at Curtis in horror, certain I was about to see him die.
A solid wall of ice appeared in front of Curtis, effectively blocking the wind. “Run,” Zack shouted. My cousin wasn’t stupid. He didn’t need to be told twice. Without hesitation, he turned and bolted down the stairs.
I moved to stand beside Zack as we faced off against Alastair. My stomach clenched in fear. Killing my grandfather wasn’t exactly on my list of lifetime goals. The very idea made me sick. But I couldn’t walk away. Couldn’t abandon Zack to fight him alone.
Alastair’s eyes narrowed and I braced myself for whatever was about to happen. I didn’t expect to see his head snap forward and his body crumple to the ground. I gaped. “What the...”
A large, leather bound book thumped to the floor beside my grandfather’s head. My grandmother stepped out of the darkness of their room. She answered my shock with a weak smile. “Air dragon, dear. You should go, before he wakes up.”
An excellent idea, but even though I was putting us in more danger, I couldn’t go without asking. “Why? Why help me now when you wouldn’t before?”
“I didn’t believe he really meant to let you die,” she said. “Not until after you escaped. I lost your father because I was too much of a coward to act. I don’t want to repeat the mistake with you. I can’t stop Alastair or your mother’s clan from sending people after you. But at least I can give you a head start. Now go.”
Zack grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the stairs. I glanced over my shoulder for one last look at my grandmother. “Thank you.” I don’t think I’ve meant those words more in my life than I did in that moment. I only hoped she wouldn’t pay too high a price for helping us.
Curtis met us at the bottom of the staircase. “What happened?” His anxious gaze searched my face. “Did you have to...?”
“No.” I pushed him toward the front door. “We don’t have time to talk about it now. We have to go.”
We burst out onto the street and raced toward the wall. I kept expecting something terrible to happen at any moment, but it didn’t. Somehow we made it safely through town and past the cornfield. I was so freaked worrying about getting caught at the last second I sailed us all over the wall without even a moment’s hesitation. Fear is a great motivator, apparently.
Zack kept us at a steady run all the way back to the car. By the time we stopped, both Curtis and I were panting for breath. I climbed into the passenger seat and dropped my head back, glad for a moment to rest.
“Let’s never do anything like this again,” I said.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Curtis climbed into the backseat, “it was kind of exciting. And I got some great footage.” He held up his camcorder and grinned.
“Exciting?” I twisted around in my seat to look back at him as Zack pulled the car onto the road. “We could have been killed.”
Curtis shrugged. “But we weren’t. We got what we needed, sort of, and you did more with your air power than I’ve ever seen you do before. Can’t we say it’s all good and try for a little optimism here?”
I started to say something snarky, but changed my mind at the last minute. The kid had a point. “Sure. Okay. Whatever. It’s all good. I mean, who knows,” I settled myself forward, “maybe our luck will change for the better from here on out.”
Harsh, bright light filled the car. I heard a roar and a squeal and someone screamed. My entire body jerked to the right and my head hit the window with a sickening crunch. The world went black.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Pain was the first thing I became aware of in the darkness behind my eyes. Pain like nothing I had ever felt before. It started in the side of my head and radiated down to the rest of my body. The only good thing I could say about it was at least it let me know I was still alive.
“Abby?” I heard my name spoken, but it sounded like it was coming from far away. Like I was down at the bottom of a well. Something soft and warm touched my cheek.
“Abby? Can you hear me?”
I moaned. My brain was scrambling, trying to remember what happened. Trying to figure out what was going on. But I wasn’t having any luck.
“Please, say something. Let me know you’re with me.”
“I’m here.” My voice sounded ha
rsh and dry to my own ears.
“Okay. Try opening your eyes now.”
I really didn’t want to, but my brain was finally telling me who the voice belonged to, so I kind of felt like I had to. Very slowly, though. Things were a little blurry at first, but Zack’s face gradually came into view. He looked worried, crouched there between me and the headlights of a car.
“What happ--” My words cut off in a cry of pain when I tried to turn my head. Bad idea.
“Take it easy.” Zack touched my cheek again. “You hit your head pretty hard.”
I can’t tell you how good it felt to have him touching me. It made me feel safe. “What happened?”
“Humans again. They hit us with their car.” He shook his head. “I can’t figure out how they keep finding us.”
“Oh my god.” Fear flooded my system, helping to dull the pain. “Where’s Curtis?” I tried to sit up, certain something terrible had happened to my cousin. Why else wouldn’t he be at my side the way I would have been at his?
“Calm down.” Zack put his hands firmly on my shoulders. “Curtis is a little shaken up, but not hurt. He’s in the car.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. But it was short lived. “What about Brandy and the others? If the humans found us here, they might have gone to the hotel.”
“Everybody is fine,” he said. “I used your phone to call Brandy while I was waiting for you to wake up. No sign of the humans there.”
I let my body relax a little. “You can be really handy to have around sometimes, you know?”
“Yeah, well,” a smile lifted one corner of his lips, “I have my moments. How’s your head?”
“Hurts. Is...” I swallowed. “Is it bad?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I pulled you out of the car so I could check your head. It was bleeding a little, but it already stopped. I didn’t want to put you back in the car until you woke up though. Just in case. I didn’t tell Brandy you were hurt.”
“Smart.” I licked my dry lips. “The humans?”
His expression hardened. “I took care of them.”
I didn’t have to ask what he meant. “We have to get out of here. If Alastair wakes up and sends trackers looking for us it could things could get bad real fast. And I don’t think I’m any condition to help.”
Zack’s jaw twitched, but how could he deny my logic? Killing humans was one thing, facing off against other battle trained dragons all on his own was another. “Can you stand up?”
“We’ll never know until I try. Help me?”
He took hold of my arm and up we went. The world spun violently around me, pain blasted my nerves, and I came dangerously close to puking all over the boy I was totally in love with. I tried to stay on my feet, I really did. But my knees had other ideas. Zack saved me from falling by scooping me up into his arms. I rested my head against his shoulder. The moment would have been much sweeter if only I hadn’t been so miserable.
“Curtis,” Zack called out. “Open the door.”
My cousin did as he was told and started to slide out of the car.
“No,” Zack said. “Stay back there. You need to keep Abby as still as possible until we get to the hotel, okay?”
Curtis nodded, his face so white he looked like he was the one about to pass out. Zack carefully slid me into the backseat until my head rested in my cousin’s lap. This was not a painless experience, I promise you, but I didn’t scream. I didn’t want to freak Curtis out more than he already was.
I winced when Zack slammed the back door shut. Then I tried to smile for my cousin’s sake. “Hey, kid,” I said.
His smile was as shaky as mine felt. “Hey yourself. How are you doing?”
“Okay.” Major lie. I’d never felt so terrible in my life. “I think I might close my eyes and take a little nap.”
“Don’t you dare,” Zack said as he started the car. The vibration of the motor felt like an earthquake. “Curtis, you keep her awake.”
“Are we going to the hospital?” Curtis asked.
“We can’t.” Zack hit the accelerator and I swear for a second there it felt like my brain popped clean out of my skull. “They’d ask too many questions.”
“But she’s hurt.”
“I’m okay. Really.” Even I noticed my words starting to slur a little. My eyelids fluttered. “Listen to Zack. He... he’s real smart.” The sound of a car horn had my eyes snapping open again. Adrenalin rushed through me, bringing me fully alert. “What was that?”
“Me,” Zack said. “I can see you in the rearview mirror. No sleeping. Come on, Curtis, we both have a job to do here. I have to drive and you have to keep Abigail awake.”
“How?”
“I don’t care how,” Zack snapped. “Just do it.”
So Curtis talked all the way back into the city. He talked about books and science fiction movies he liked, about school, about other things too, I think. The words all kind of ran into one another. I couldn’t tell you anything specific he said because I can’t remember. But I do remember him pinching me every time I started to doze off. By the time we got to the hotel I had a dozen little bruises on my arm, but I was still awake.
Zack came around to open the back door and I was only too happy to let him pick me up again. And not only because I was still feeling pretty weak. It was nice to have him acting all concerned instead of surly for a change. I knew it couldn’t last, so can you blame me for wanting to take advantage of it?
We went in the back door and up the stairs to our floor. I was nervous once we got out of the stairwell, worrying somebody in the hall might see us. But the hall was deserted and we made it to the door without anybody asking us why I was being carried around like a sack of flour. Curtis used his key to let us into my room.
Nobody was there, something I was grateful for. At least for the moment. Zack laid me down on the bed and then turned to Curtis. “Go get the others.”
Curtis left the room. And then Zack and I were alone. He sat beside me on the bed and brushed the hair back from my face. He had this look in his eyes. A kind of look that made my heart skip a beat. The kind of look that made me wish I wasn’t laying there with a head wound. Why was it he would only look at me like that after something bad happened?
“Thank you,” I said.
“For what?”
“Being here,” I said. “It seems like every time I turn around, there you are, rescuing me again. You must be getting pretty tired of having to do that.”
“It’s not your fault. And you shouldn’t thank me.” He looked away, his shoulders hunched. “I’m the reason your life is such a mess.”
“No you’re not.” I sat up, even though my head and my stomach protested the action. I laid my hand on his shoulder. “You’re the reason I’m free. If it hadn’t been you Alastair sent after me, it would have been some other tracker. And maybe he, or she, would have been better at following orders.”
He turned his head so our gazes met. “I was set to follow my orders. Before I met you, before I came to know you, I was more than prepared to kill you. It’s what I do. Doesn’t that bother you?”
I looked back into his eyes and realized it didn’t matter. Maybe it should have, but it didn’t. “No. I accept you exactly the way you are.”
“Why?”
He looked so vulnerable in that moment. So open. “Why did you decide not kill me? Why did you become a renegade? Why are you here?” I could almost see the words forming on his lips. Lips so close to mine. Eyes so warm with deep emotion.
“Because I–”
“Abby, thank god you’re all right,” Brandy said as she rushed into the room. “We were so worried.”
Zack got up off the bed and moved away to make room for my friends. They crowded around me, all talking at once, wanting to know what had happened. They cared about me, I know, and I cared about them, but I would have given anything to make them all disappear right then. It took all I had not to scream at the top of my lungs as I looked at their
faces.
“Guys, calm down.” I raised both hands to stop the chatter. “We had a little trouble on our way back from the compound, but it’s okay. We’re okay.”
Brandy hugged me to her, her hand touching the back of my head. I drew in a sharp breath before I could stop myself. Brandy pulled back. Her nose wrinkled. “Do I smell blood in your hair?”
“I hit my head. No big deal.”
“Must have been more than ‘a little trouble,’” Hannah said. And I swear I could have smacked her.
“What happened?” But Derek wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to Zack. Zack, who had his wall up again and that familiar scowl on his lips.
“Humans caught us after we got out of the compound,” Zack said. “They rammed us with their car and Abigail hit her head on the window. She was unconscious for about ten minutes, but as you can see, she’s fine now.”
“She needs a hospital,” Brandy said. “She could have a concussion or a spinal injury.” She glared at Zack. “You should not have moved her.”
“We were too close to the compound,” Zack said. “I had to get her and Curtis out of there before trackers showed up and killed us all.”
Brandy tsked at him before turning back to me. She took my face in her hands and stared into my eyes. “Is everything working the way it’s supposed to? Your hands? Your feet? Can you see me all right? Do you know what year it is? The name of the President? Your name? My name? Do you--”
“Stop it.” I batted her hands away maybe a little harder than I needed to. “Aside from the migraine you’re giving me, I’m fine. I’m not dying or anything. It’s only a bump on the head.”
“That a girl,” Hannah said. “I knew you were a tough chick.”
“Are you sure?” Trudy asked. “You don’t look so good.”
“You could be in shock,” Brandy added.
I started to shake my head, only to feel a little twinge which made me think twice about it. “I’m not in shock. I’m scared.” I looked at each of them in turn. My friends. My family. “I could have died tonight. Curtis could have died. And Zack.” I glanced at him, but I couldn’t catch his eye.
