by C. J. Hill
Aaron kept trudging up the steps. “Is this like good cop/bad cop, and you’re the good cop?”
Dirk chuckled, then stopped himself. “Sorry for laughing. I’ve just never thought of myself as the good cop sort.” He landed on the steps beside Aaron and resumed climbing the stairs with him. “You’ll be staying at the dragon enclosure for a while. Once my dad,” he paused amending the term. “Once our dad feels he can trust you, you’ll move in with the rest of the family at the house.”
“Who’s the rest of the family?”
“Cassie is our stepmother. Bridget, our half sister, is seven, and we’ve got a baby brother on the way. How about your family? Do I have any half siblings there?”
Aaron didn’t answer the question. He didn’t want to tell the truth and worried Dirk would be able to tell if he lied. He glanced around the stairwell. Cinderblocks lined the walls. The whole place had the atmosphere of a penitentiary. The sooner he figured out exactly how things were going to work here, the better. “How are you going to keep me from leaving? Is someone going to be guarding my room?”
Dirk shook his head. “You’ve already forgotten the point of today’s lesson. Dad is in charge and if you cross him, there will be consequences.”
“So he’ll hurt me if I try to escape?”
“You’re too valuable for that. He’ll find other ways.”
“What do you mean?”
Dirk scoffed. “Do you have to ask? Look, I’m ticked at my mom for leaving me when I was a kid. I won’t pretend I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I want to see her hurt. So do both of us a favor and don’t give our father any reasons to track her down to make his point in a bigger way, okay?”
Aaron’s stomach lurched and a feeling of dread pressed into him. He held his chin steady, though. He didn’t like being threatened. “He won’t be able to find her.”
“Please. He’s got your cell phone with her number in it. Do you think he can’t figure out a way to get to her? He’s probably already noticed that none of your contacts have South Carolina area codes. Where are you really from, North Carolina?”
Aaron didn’t answer, just grit his teeth and followed Dirk down the hallway. He should’ve thought to erase his contacts.
Dirk exhaled slowly, and Aaron could feel his sympathy mixed with concern. “None of this will be as bad as it seems right now. I’ll give you some advice for dealing with Dad. Don’t bother fighting him. He’ll make sure he wins. The best way to sway him is to bargain. What do you want—well, besides a new dad and a plane ticket home?”
“I want to call Mom.”
“Okay. So tell Dad you’re willing to stay as long as you get to call home once a week and he buys you a Ferrari.”
“I’m twelve. I can’t drive.”
“That doesn’t matter. Ask for a car anyway. He’ll buy one for you because he understands people who can be bought. It’s the ones that can’t who make him nervous.”
A Ferrari would be cool. “Any other advice?”
Dirk glanced over at him with a sad smile. “Yeah, next time I tell you to run, make sure you do.”
That advice had come too late. Aaron swept a hand along the cement walls. How far below the surface were they? This whole place made him feel claustrophobic.
They reached a metal door. Dirk opened it and motioned for Aaron to go inside.
Instead of cement, the walls were a dull gray metal that blurred his reflection. A simple bed, dresser, and desk sat in the room. No windows. Amazing how much a bedroom looked like a cell when it didn’t have sunlight. An alarm clock perched on the dresser and small TV hung on the far wall. A doorway stood in the back. A bathroom?
“This is where you’ll live until we decide we can trust you.” Dirk pointed out a plate of food on the desk: a sandwich, chips, apple, and a bottled water. “Cassie left some stuff for you in case you’re hungry. Don’t stay up too late. Dad believes in being an early riser so you’ll start training at seven every morning.”
“Is there some reason all the walls are metal?”
“They’ll keep the dragon signal from reaching you so your powers will wear off. Otherwise you’d have too much energy to sleep.”
The metal walls probably also made the place harder to break out of. Real cozy.
Aaron wandered over to the bed. A crayon drawing lay on his pillow.
“That’s a welcome gift from Bridget,” Dirk said. “A self-portrait.”
Dirk had told Aaron that they had a little sister, but she hadn’t seemed real until now. He had no idea how to treat sisters or seven-year-olds. Did they cry easily? Throw temper tantrums?
Aaron picked up the drawing. It showed a dark-haired girl smiling and reaching her stick figure arms up into the air. To Aaron was written on the top. “Is she doing yoga or surrendering?”
“She’s reaching out to hug you.”
“Oh. Good.” Aaron looked around the room again. “I wasn’t sure what the norm for your family was. Glad yoga’s not expected.”
Dirk laughed and shook his head. “I can tell you’re a lot like me, which means we’ll probably get along.” He put his hand on Aaron’s shoulder. It was a friendly gesture until he fixed him with a penetrating gaze. “But I need to tell you one more thing. If you ever do anything to hurt Bridget, I’ll know, and I’ll make you suffer.”
Aaron dropped the picture back on the bed and stepped away from Dirk’s grip. “Give me a break. I wouldn’t hurt a little kid. What sort of person do you think I am?”
“I think you’re fine which is why I’m willing to let you go near Bridget.” Dirk paused as though realizing he’d forgotten something. “I should have clarified that the last message was Cassie’s that she wanted me to pass on to you.” He shrugged in apology. “She’s pregnant so she goes through frequent periods of hormonal snippiness.” Dirk casually slipped his hands into his back pockets. “You don’t want to know what I’d do to you if you hurt Bridget.”
Aaron held up his hands. “I won’t even talk to her.”
“You’ll have to talk to her. She’d be crushed if you didn’t. She also loves to play Uno and Wii, so plan on getting drafted into several games a day.” Dirk smiled and then walked to the door. “If she likes you, she might let you win sometimes.”
Chapter 3
Overdrake glided from the enclosure, humming with satisfaction. Such good news. He had another son. A boy with strength, intelligence, and bravery. A boy who would grow up to be every bit as tall and handsome as Dirk. Perhaps Overdrake was foolish to take so much pride in his sons’ appearance, but why not? Their good looks were more proof that he fathered superior children.
He flew across the property that separated the enclosure from his house, still humming. Later he would let himself feel the fury of Bianca’s betrayal. Right now he would bask in fortune’s generous gift to him. Aaron was old enough to be of real use and yet still young enough that he could be molded. And Overdrake would train him right, wouldn’t make the mistakes he’d made with Dirk. Sending Dirk to the Slayer camp, for all its advantages, had been an error. Dirk’s friendship with the Slayers had made him soft, soft and reluctant to do what needed to be done.
He didn’t worry that Tori might have heard the scene between Aaron and Khan play out. She was linked to Vesta. He knew this because he’d checked the time stamps from Tori’s messages to Dirk with the door logs at the dragon nursery. Whenever Dirk had been in the enclosures during their conversations, he was always with Vesta—even though Overdrake routinely switched Vesta’s and Jupiter’s locations. Hatchlings couldn’t be left in the same place for too long or they became overly territorial.
Overdrake had even tested his theory of Tori’s connection to Vesta. He’d fed a dog to the dragon while warning Tori that if she crossed him, her family would meet the same end. Tori had heard him just fine.
Dragon lords felt the presence of whichever dragon was closest but could choose to stay linked to any dragon they were familiar with, even if that dragon flew
hundreds of miles away. So whether Tori consciously knew it or not, she was choosing to stay joined to Vesta unless one of the other dragons came much nearer. Most likely, Vesta’s signal was the one that turned on Tori’s powers when she was a baby. She went to that dragon by default.
Still, Overdrake would take precautions while he trained Aaron. He’d limit Aaron’s exposure to Vesta and only give him information outside of all the dragons’ hearing.
As Overdrake went into the house, he pulled Aaron’s phone from his pocket. Finding Bianca’s number wasn’t hard. He scrolled through the contacts until he came to Mom. By the time he sat down in his den chair, he had it memorized. He used his computer to make the call. It automatically rerouted his IP address through a dozen cities in countries around the world, making the call untraceable.
The pressures of his job were many, as were the frustrations, but being a dragon lord did have a few perks, and he planned on savoring this one: crushing your enemies.
Bianca picked up immediately. “Hello?”
“Hello Bianca,” he said. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
She gasped and didn’t speak for a moment. “Who is this?”
“It hasn’t been that long. You recognize my voice. Don’t say you don’t.”
“Where’s Aaron?” she demanded. Even when she was upset, her voice had that melodic, feminine tone.
“He’s with me, that’s why I rang you up.”
“Where are you?” A tone of desperation made its way into her voice. She knew, yes, she already knew she’d lost. “Let me talk to him. Please.”
He leaned back in his chair. “You hid him from me. That was unwise.”
“Brant, please.” Her words became shaky. “We can work out some sort of arrangement. Where is he?”
Overdrake had planned on letting her grovel for several minutes before he hung up, had looked forward to it as one of the spoils of the war, but her voice pulled at his sympathy. That was his problem. He’d always had a weak spot for her. Apparently, it was still there. “He’s fine. That’s all you need to know.”
“Don’t do this,” she pleaded. “You already took Dirk from me.”
He gripped the armrests, leaving imprints of his anger in the fabric there. “I didn’t take Dirk from you. You can’t take something that is already rightfully yours.” He ended the call with a sharp, final keystroke.
He’d done her the courtesy of letting her know where Aaron was. That was more than she’d done for him. This was so typical of the way their marriage had been—he’d always done more for her, and she’d never appreciated it. She’d never understood family loyalty. But his sons would.
Chapter 4
Dr. B called Tori at six on Sunday morning. She picked up her watch from her nightstand and answered it, groggy from a lack of sleep. “Yes?”
She’d already called him last evening and confirmed that Overdrake had Aaron. She’d heard it all play out in Khan’s enclosure—the fear in Aaron’s voice and then the anger. It felt like she’d lived it with him, not just the first time, but a dozen more times as she lay in bed trying to sleep.
Had she made the right decision to send him? Did “rightness” even matter if it ended badly? Overdrake hadn’t sounded as though he trusted Aaron. Or even liked him, for that matter.
Really, what sort of parent threw a child in with a dragon and then calmly waited around to see if the child could defend himself? Was that what Overdrake had done to Dirk when he was younger?
The thought made her ache for Dirk as well as Aaron.
Dr. B’s voice came over Tori’s watch speaker. “Brant called Bianca last night to gloat. As you can imagine, she’s quite distressed.”
“I’m sorry,” Tori said automatically, but then felt a pinch of anger toward Dr. B. He’d taught the Slayers how to make decisions but hadn’t ever taught them how to deal with the guilt that came with those decisions. Guilt had thick, cold spikes that embedded themselves in your chest. Ones that felt as though they would never go away. Perhaps the only way to deal with them was to wait until all feeling left you, until you were hard enough inside that the spikes couldn’t stab you as much.
“Bianca wants to know if you can contact Dirk and ask for his help to get Aaron back home.”
If Aaron was in danger, that might be their best option. But was he? Overdrake knew he was a dragon lord now. If Aaron wasn’t being harmed, it would be a shame to abort the mission before they gave it a chance to work.
Dirk might not realize Tori knew about Aaron’s kidnapping. He didn’t know she had any contact with Bianca, and if Tori hadn’t been connected to Khan, she wouldn’t have heard Overdrake take Aaron into a dragon enclosure. Perhaps it would be easier to get information from Aaron if the other dragon lords didn’t know she knew his whereabouts.
So many angles to consider.
“Asking Dirk for help won’t do any good,” she pointed out. “He either changed his mind about involving Aaron and told his father about him, or Overdrake has a way to spy on my messages to Dirk. If the first is the case, Dirk won’t help us. If the second is the case, Overdrake will see my request and make sure Dirk doesn’t help us.”
And Overdrake would most likely use the information to set some sort of trap for them.
“Granted,” Dr. B said, “you couldn’t plan anything without hearing Dirk. You’d have to make sure he was telling the truth…” Dr. B’s voice drifted off in thought.
Tori waited. Dr. B didn’t speak. It was unlike him to be unsure about what actions to take, unlike him not to plan out options as though life was a chess game and he’d already thought through every possible move.
Dr. B sighed. “I was on the phone with Bianca for an hour last night. She was practically hysterical. I told her I would ask for your help. I need to offer her some hope.”
Spikes of guilt again. It was more important to comfort a worried mother than to hope for an advantage by pretending ignorance of Aaron’s capture. “Fine, I’ll message Dirk and find out how Aaron is doing. That way you’ll at least be able to reassure her.”
“Good. Let me know when you hear something.”
Tori pushed her covers off. No point in trying to go back to sleep now. “Did you tell the other Slayers what Aaron and I did?” She’d expected to get a barrage of messages on her watch phone last night but they hadn’t come. The silence was almost worse, the waiting. She’d spent half of last night wondering if the other Slayers were still speaking to her.
“I told them,” he said. “They were, of course, upset that you acted without their input or consent, but on the whole, they understand your motives.”
He was probably minimizing their reaction. Lilly, A-team’s fire quencher, hardly trusted Tori because she was part dragon lord—and that was after Tori had fought with the Slayers and helped kill two dragons. Lilly wouldn’t be happy about anything that could end up benefitting Overdrake.
“I informed them of your probation,” Dr. B continued, “and emphasized that we need to move on from this incident. Infighting will destroy our team.”
“You told them not to message me about it, didn’t you?”
“I decided it was best if they cooled down before they spoke to you.”
Oh. It was that bad. What had Jesse thought? That realization hurt the worst—that he might think less of her because of this.
Dr. B’s voice softened. “They know you meant well. They’re still your friends.”
Hopefully he was right about that.
After Dr. B hung up, Tori pulled herself out of bed and switched on her light. Time to figure out what to write to Dirk. If she hadn’t planned on Aaron being taken and then heard Overdrake threatening him in the enclosure, she’d be mad about it, outraged. She had hoped Dirk would have a nice chat with his brother, and instead, Aaron was missing and his mother was devastated.
As Tori sat down at her desk, she groaned in aggravation at herself. Last night she’d been so torn up with guilt and worry that she had
n’t been thinking straight. She should have messaged Dirk right after she heard Aaron in the enclosure. That would have been her natural reaction. When she’d thought Overdrake had fed her dog to a dragon, she’d texted Dirk right away.
So she ought to pretend she hadn’t heard it. But then, what explanation would she give Dirk for knowing Overdrake had Aaron?
She had to tell him something. Bianca was waiting.
Was it safe to tell Dirk that his mother had contacted Dr. B? Or would that be as good as admitting that the Slayers had talked to her?
Tori sifted through the options and implications while she opened her phone and went to the site where she messaged Dirk. A note was already there waiting.
Dirk had written some small talk about the weather getting colder and then added: I’ve got a sore throat. The medicine isn’t working. I’ll have to try some more later.
The last three phrases were Slayer code that meant Don’t try to talk to me. I’ll contact you when we need to communicate again.
She knew what this most likely meant. When Overdrake decided to kidnap Aaron, Dirk had figured out his father spied on the site and now he was warning Tori against using it.
Either that or Dirk had figured out that she’d sent Aaron to spy on them and he didn’t want to talk to Tori again. Aaron might be worse at keeping secrets from a counterpart than Tori had hoped.
Was there anyone she knew who wasn’t mad at her right now?
She stared at Dirk’s words as though they would change, as though they might tell her something different. After a minute, she exited the site. Closing it seemed so final, like shutting a door to your only escape route.
She left her desk and lay back on her bed with a thud. She couldn’t assure Bianca that Aaron was all right. And worse, she had no way to contact Dirk.
