Dragon Within (Book One)

by Kyra Dune

  DRAGON WITHIN

  Book One

  BY KYRA DUNE

  DRAGON WITHIN

  Copyright © 2013 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, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from Kyra Dune.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  SPB Second Edition

  Cover Art by

  Shadow Portal Productions

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Two weeks before the start of the school year, my family and friends gathered together under the tallest tree in Brenner Park to celebrate my sixteenth birthday. Pink and white balloons were tied to a picnic table, in the center of which sat a three layer chocolate cake with pink and white frosting. The numbers one and six, surrounded by little pink roses, were stuck on top. Don’t make faces, my mom picked all that stuff out, not me. I guess she meant well, even if it did look like we were having a party for a five year old.

  Personally, I would have preferred to be at the Pizza Hut. At least they had air conditioning. August in Arizona desert country is hot. Real hot. I was in a tank top and shorts and still pouring sweat.

  “What are we waiting on?” Trudy whispered. Being a newly acquired friend, she was unaware of the peculiarity of the Freeman family.

  “Tradition,” Brandy said, with a roll of her hazel eyes. Her jet black hair was braided and twisted around her head like a wreath. On anybody else, it might have looked weird but when you’re drop dead gorgeous like Brandy Levine, you can wear your hair any way you want.

  On top of magazine cover good looks, Brandy had the highest grade point average in the district and her parents were loaded. Her mom used to be a Japanese super model and her dad was the CEO of a major international corporation with offices all over the world. If Brandy hadn’t been my best friend since forever, I totally would have hated her guts. Since I loved her like a sister I had to settle for a little quiet jealousy.

  “I don’t get it,” Trudy said.

  “Mom insists I blow the candles out at exactly noon,” I said. “Because that’s what time I was born.”

  “Oh.” Trudy’s green eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled. “That’s so sweet. Your mom is awesome.”

  I wasn’t so into the whole tradition thing, but I had to agree that yes, my mom was awesome. Most of the time.

  “What’s with the creep?” Kyle asked as he and Steve joined us.

  “What creep?” Trudy looked around, wide eyed.

  “Over there.” Kyle nodded toward a dark haired guy in a leather jacket who was leaning up against the swing set. “He’s been staring at you guys for like ten minutes already.”

  “You don’t know he’s staring at us,” I said. The guy was wearing dark sunglasses, he could have been looking anywhere. He could have been asleep for all we knew. But once Kyle had pointed him out, I did start to get a creepy ‘somebody’s looking at me’ vibe.

  Kyle draped his arm across Brandy’s shoulders. “He’s staring all right. And what’s with that jacket? It’s like a hundred and ten out here.”

  “If he was staring over here, he would have stopped once he realized we’d noticed,” Brandy said. “And would you please take your arm off me, you caveman? I’m hot enough as it is.”

  Kyle drew his arm away, but stayed close. “Sorry. Guess I get a little crazy when some guy is staring at my girl.”

  “Then you must be crazy all the time.” Steve grinned. “Even a blind guy would stare at Brandy.”

  “There happen to be two other girls here,” Brandy said. “Are you implying Abby and Trudy are not stare worthy?”

  “Not at all.” Steve flashed us a grin and bowed with a flourish. “Begging your pardon, ladies. You are both totally stare worthy.”

  Trudy blushed. “Maybe they are. Not me.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” I said. “You’re cute.”

  “Yeah, but you’re pretty and Brandy is gorgeous.”

  Brandy made a face. “An accident of genetics. And sometimes it can be a real pain. People take one look at your face and assume you don’t have a brain.”

  “That’s not something I have to worry about.” Trudy dropped her gaze to the ground.

  Brandy and I exchanged a look. This was the main reason I wasn’t sure Trudy would last long as a friend. I’m sorry, but I can’t understand the whole ‘down on yourself’ thing, especially when there’s no good reason for it.

  “Three minutes and counting,” mom said, looking at her watch. My parents were standing on the other side of the table, discreetly pretending not to hear anything we were saying. Dad was usually equally as awesome as mom.

  “This is it.” Dad said with a watery smile. “The big one six. This is a major milestone in a young person’s life.” He snuffled. “Today, my little girl becomes a woman.”

  Well, I did say usually. “God, dad, you act like I’m going off to war or dying, or something. Think you could take it down a notch?”

  “Sorry. This is an emotional moment for a father. I didn’t mean to embarrass you in front of your friends.” Only he didn’t look the least bit sorry.

  “This is an important day, Abigail,” Mom said. “Your friends can all tell you that.”

  “Except for me, Mrs. Freeman,” Trudy said. “I don’t hit the big one six for two months yet.”

  Mom smiled. “Well then I hope when it comes you try to be a little more appreciative of the effort your parents go through to make it special than some people are.”

  What can I say? Awesome or not, she’s still a mom. “I appreciate.” I eyed the cake. Mom had baked it herself so I knew it was going to be really good. “But I’m starving and I really want some cake. Do you realize how you torture me by putting it out ten minutes before I can eat it?”

  “Why do you think we do it?” dad asked.

  Mom swatted his arm. “Now, where’s your cousin with the camcorder?”

  “There he is.” Steve pointed toward the sandbox, where Curtis was crouched with the camcorder focused on the ground.

  “Curtis,” mom called. He looked up and she waved him over.

  “What were you filming?” I asked when he joined us.

  “Ants,” he muttered, looking down at his sneakers. “Just ants.”

  “Why would you want to film ants?” Kyle asked.

  Brandy shot him a look. “I’ve seen some of Curtis’ films and I’ve no doubt he could make even ants interesting.”

  Curtis smiled shyly at her and Kyle scowled. As if he had anything to fear from my cousin. Kyle was six two and a hundred and eighty pounds of pure muscle. He was also the football team’s star quarterback and the best looking guy in school. My cousin was fourteen, looked twelve, and Brandy treated him like he was her little brother. She wouldn’t think of dating him anymore than I would.

  Before I could think of anything to say to Kyle to let him know how much I didn’t like him look
ing at my cousin like that, mom said, “Everybody take your places. It’s almost time.”

  I took my position in front of the cake while everybody gathered around to sing a round of happy birthday, to which Steve enthusiastically added a bunch of nonsense after everyone else was silent. I pulled my ash blonde back in one hand, leaned over the cake, and watched my mom watching her watch because apparently some great calamity was bound to occur if I blew my candles out half a second early.

  “And...go.” Mom chopped her hand through the air like she was signaling the start of a drag race or something.

  I blew, putting out both candles in one go. Mom clapped her hands, then hugged me and planted a loud kiss on my cheek. “Happy birthday, baby.”

  “Thanks, mom.” Parents can be such dorks sometimes, you know?

  “All right.” Steve rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. “Let’s eat some cake.”

  Dad cut everybody a nice big slice while mom got the ice cream and chocolate chip cookies out of the ice chest. Like the park, the numbered candles, and the twelve o’clock thing, the cookies were another of my mom’s traditions. If you think she was weird about birthdays, you should have seen her at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

  We all settled in eating, talking, and laughing. Cards were read, presents opened, and a generally good time was had by all. Your typical, average birthday. I would have paid a little more attention if only I’d known that day was the start of my brand new and not so wonderful life.

  Wondering about the guy in the leather jacket? Well, by the time we’d finished eating I’d forgotten all about him. And why not? At that point, he was nothing to me but some random guy. I had no reason to think he would soon be playing a major role in the total upheaval of the world as I knew it.

  After the cake was all gone and the presents secured in the back of the van, my parents went for a walk. ‘To stretch their legs’ they said, but I knew it was really to give us a chance to hang out without parental supervision. See, equal parts awesome and dork. Dorksome? Awesork? Anyway, Kyle and Steve went to toss the football around, Curtis went off to film something. Always on the shy side, Curtis had really withdrawn into himself and his movie making hobby since his parents were killed the year before. Mom called it a coping mechanism and said he’d come out of it eventually.

  Us girls spread a blanket out on the ground and sat under the tree. Trudy fanned her face with a paper plate. “I don’t know how you guys stand this heat. No offense, but I wish my dad’s company could have waited until winter to transfer him.”

  “Yeah, this isn’t the greatest place to spend the summer,” I said. “I bet you wish you were back in Oregon, huh?”

  “Kind of. Everything is so green there and the air is...I don’t know fresher, somehow.” She gazed dreamily up at the sky. “Of all the places we’ve lived, Oregon is my favorite. I’m thinking about trying to go to college there.”

  “What do you plan to major in?” Brandy asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know.” She plucked a blade of grass and twirled it between her fingers. “I haven’t decided yet.”

  Brandy pursed her lips. “You should be giving it serious thought. College is only a few years

  away, after all.”

  “Don’t mind her.” I leaned closer to Trudy. “Brandy has had her entire life carefully plotted and mapped since she was like three and she thinks everyone else should be as obsessed with the future as she is.”

  “Better to be obsessed than completely unconcerned, like some people.” Brandy gave me a pointed look.

  “Just because I don’t know exactly what I want to study doesn’t mean I’m unconcerned,” I said. “I’m simply leaving myself open to possibilities.”

  “All you’re leaving yourself open to is a future career where your main concern is asking people if they want fries with that.”

  “Hey, don’t knock the good people who work the burger joints,” Steve said, dropping down beside Brandy. “We can’t all aspire to be rocket scientists like you, Miss Brandy.”

  “Biochemical engineer,” she said. “Not a rocket scientist.”

  “Whatever. Like I know the difference.”

  “What are you doing after high school, Steve?” Trudy asked.

  Steve cleared his throat and straightened the lapels of an imaginary jacket. “You happen to be looking at the future lead anchor for Fox News.” He grinned, relaxing back on his hands. “I plan on majoring in telecommunications with a minor in broadcast journalism.”

  “See,” Brandy said. “I’m not the only one planning for the future.”

  Kyle sat down on Brandy’s other side. “What are we talking about?” He used the back of his arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

  “The future,” Trudy said. “You know, like what we’re all going to do after graduation. What do you plan to do with the rest of your life?”

  “Don’t make him strain his brain.” Steve leaned around behind Brandy and laid a hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “Once a football player, always a football player, right buddy? That is, unless you blow out your knee or take one too many knocks to the head.”

  Kyle shoved him away. “Yeah, like it takes a whole lot of brains to stand in front of a camera and read from a Teleprompter.”

  “Whoa, what you been doing, getting your girlfriend to teach you some big boy words?”

  “I’ll teach you something if you don’t shut it.”

  “Ah, now there’s the caveman we all know and love.” Steve ducked as Kyle took a swipe at him with the football.

  “Will you two stop it?” Brandy snapped. “Or else take it somewhere away from the rest of us. Preferably downwind.”

  Steve gasped, pressing a hand to his chest. “Why Miss Brandy, are you implying we smell less than pristine?”

  “I’m implying you stink.”

  Steve laughed, then turned to me and said, “Hey, I was thinking of doing a video interview when I get ready to start shopping for colleges. Do you think Curtis would shoot it for me? I could probably give him fifty bucks.”

  “You’d have to ask him, but I bet he’d say yes.”

  “See, this is exactly what I meant,” Brandy said. “Everyone has a plan for college except you two.” She pointed at me and Trudy. “Even Curtis likely has plans to go to some sort of film school. You’re falling behind.”

  “Maybe you guys are overachievers,” I said. “Did you ever think of that? You’ll all be gray and wrinkled with worry before you’re twenty.”

  “I don’t know,” Trudy said. She looked genuinely worried. “Brandy might be right. Flipping burgers over a hot grill all day is not what I want out of my life.”

  I shook my head. “Guys, it is way too hot to be stressing over college right now. Besides, it’s my birthday and I am formally declaring no more serious talk is to be allowed. Somebody think of something fun and frivolous to say.”

  Not surprisingly, Steve was the first to speak up. “Okay, so what did you wish for when you blew out your candles?”

  “She can’t tell you that,” Trudy said. “If she does, it won’t come true.”

  Steve laughed. “You are definitely a welcome addition to our little group. Oregon’s loss is Arizona’s gain, I say.”

  Trudy blushed prettily. Right then and there I decided she and Steve would make a great couple. If only she would take my advice on guys more seriously than Brandy did. Not that I didn’t like Kyle, I mean he wasn’t a bad guy or anything, I just didn’t think he and Brandy fit together. Of course, if Steve and Trudy did get together, then it would leave me out as the fifth wheel and I wasn’t sure I liked the idea. Curtis didn’t count because he rarely hung out with the rest of us.

  “I can tell you one thing,” I said, “what I wish I would have wished for is some wind. My grandparents live in Alabama, down on the gulf, and the wind coming off the ocean there right before a storm is so cool and fresh, kind of like Trudy was saying about Oregon.” I leaned back on my elbows and closed my eyes. “I wou
ld sure like some of that right about now.”

  I pulled up a memory of such a wind in my mind. A memory so strong I could actually feel a cool breeze brush my skin and smell salt in the air.

  “Whoa,” Steve said. “What’s up with that?”

  I opened my eyes to find the reason I could feel the wind was because it was actually blowing. Then, quick as it had come, it was gone, leaving the air feeling even hotter than before.

  “That was...” Trudy looked around at the rest of us with wide eyes. “...weird.”

  “Really weird,” Steve agreed.

  Brandy brushed a few loose strands of hair from her cheek. “Not so weird. Stray gusts of wind are not unheard of. Even on a day like today.

  “But it was cold,” Trudy said. “And was it just me, or did it smell like, well, like the ocean?”

  Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been.”

  “I didn’t smell anything,” Brandy said. “I think you must have imagined it, Trudy.”

  “No.” Steve shook his head. “I smelled it too. It was like saltwater. How about you, Abby? Did you smell it?”

  I couldn’t find the words to answer. The absolutely absurd notion I had somehow made the wind blow simply by thinking about it was lodged firmly in my mind and I couldn’t shake it.

  “Abby, are you okay?” Trudy asked.

  When I didn’t reply to her either, Steve leaned forward and waved his hand in front of my face. “Earth to Abigail, are you in there Abigail?”

  I let out a shaky laugh as I sat up. “Weird wind. Yeah, right.”

  Brandy gave me an odd look. As well as she knew me, it was no wonder she could tell something was off. But she didn’t ask, which was good since I couldn’t exactly tell her what I

  was thinking anyway. Trudy, maybe. She seemed like the open minded sort. But little miss facts and figures? She would never understand.

  My parents came back, and it was time to load the rest of the stuff into the van, saving me from any further discussion. I hoped Brandy would simply forget about it, but since I knew her as well as she knew me, it wasn’t a very strong hope.