Chasing The Whirlwind (Dragon Within Book 2) Read online

  I went over to the bedroom window. Not much of a view, just the slope of the roof connecting the house to the garage and a tall tree. A narrow indentation ran along the length of the space where the two buildings met. I stared at it a long moment, then turned to the bed to gather up my comforter and pillow. I opened the window and climbed out.

  With my comforter spread out, the indentation made a handy and surprisingly comfortable place to cloud watch. I could even lay close to the edge of the roof and take advantage of the shade offered by an overhanging branch of the tree.

  Snuggled in my cozy nest, I gazed up at the sky. Maybe you would expect me to start thinking about my parents and friends again. It’s certainly what I thought I'd find myself doing. Instead, my thoughts drifted to Zack.

  I'm not the type of girl who goes boy crazy and then can’t think of anything else. I’d had a few crushes, but never anything more serious. Oh, sure, I’d had ‘boyfriends’ the way all little girls do, but no real go-on-a-date-and-kiss kind of boyfriend. Some of it had to do with being best friends with Brandy, I’m sure. It’s kind of hard to get guys to see you when you’re standing next to somebody as gorgeous as my best friend was.

  I can’t blame it all on Brandy, though. Truth is, I was never much interested in dating. I don’t know why. I just couldn’t get into the whole boyfriend thing. And I certainly never spent much time thinking about a boy, even if I was crushing on him. But there I was, watching cotton puff clouds float across the sky, thinking about Zack.

  Zack, who probably already had a girlfriend. Zack, who was too old for me even if he was single. Zack, who rode a motorcycle and was always irritated. Zack, who hated the brother I desperately wanted to get to know better. I sighed. Zack was cute, but he was beyond me.

  It wasn’t as if he liked me anyway. He hadn’t even come by to see how I was settling in. He didn’t care. I was probably the last thing on his mind. He certainly wasn’t moping around thinking of me the way I was thinking of him.

  My hand itched to reach for my cell phone. When my emotions were up in the air this way, the only thing to do was call Brandy and talk it out with her. She always knew what to say to make everything make sense again.

  But I didn’t have my cell phone, it was left behind in my purse after the car wreck. Not that it mattered. I couldn't have called Brandy anyway. You can’t exactly dial up your best friend for a little girl talk when she thinks you’re dead.

  My bottom lip quivered, so I bit down on it hard. I didn’t want to cry again. Crying helped nothing. But I felt so alone. So detached from everyone and everything I had ever known and loved. I was scared at the idea of embarking on this strange new life which lay ahead of me.

  A breeze blew through the tree, shaking the leaves. Something on the branch above my head caught my eye. Frowning, I stood and grabbed the branch to hold it steady so I could have a closer look.

  Words were scratched into the bark. I read them aloud. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. I will face my fear and let it pass through me. Only I will remain.”

  The words were vaguely familiar to me. I was never big on reading, but I was pretty sure the lines were from this old science fiction book my cousin, Curtis, once convinced me to read. I couldn’t remember the name of it though. It was so weird seeing the words scratched there in a tree branch. I wondered who could have done it.

  I traced the words with my fingers and a cold chill rolled down my back. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear I could feel... something in those words. Something which convinced me without a doubt my father had scratched them there. It made no sense at all, but as soon as the thought cross my mind, a feeling of peace swept over me. For the first time since finding out I was adopted, I felt connected to my past. To my parents. Or at least to my dad.

  “Let my fear pass through me,” I muttered. “Easy to say, not so easy to do.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  The compound only had one school where all the kids went from kindergarten on up. It was a large, brick building which sprawled across a grassy lawn. I felt small as Mi Mi and I stepped through the front door, but at least first bell had already rung so the locker lined hallway wasn’t crowded with kids.

  “I’m so sorry I made you late for your first day,” Mi Mi said as we made our way to the admissions office. “I can’t imagine how I slept through my alarm.”

  “It’s okay.” Actually, it was more than okay, because I was almost certain Mi Mi had made us late on purpose so I wouldn’t have to wander into a sea of kids. I was liking her more and more all the time, despite her bad habit of evading unpleasant conversations.

  A short, brunette lady rose from behind the desk as we approached. She smiled pleasantly at my grandmother. “Good morning, Mi Mi.”

  “Good morning, Bess. I have a new student for you.” She laid her arm across my shoulders and drew me forward.

  Bess’s gaze slid across my face to focus on a point beyond my left shoulder. The smile was still in place, but it seemed less friendly when turned in my direction. “Well, you must be Abigail. Welcome. It’s so lovely to have you here.”

  Have you ever heard someone say something, and you can tell they mean the exact opposite? That’s the vibe I was getting from Bess. She might have been happy to see Mi Mi, but she was not happy to see me.

  “Thanks.” I glanced at Mi Mi to see if she was picking up on it too, but if she was then she was ignoring it. No great surprise there.

  “You’re already in the system,” Bess picked a piece of paper up off the top of her desk, “so all you need to do is drop your things off at your locker and head to your first class.” She held the paper toward me, now looking over the top of my head. “This is a list of your classes and your locker combination. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to bring them to me.” Her hand trembled, causing the paper to rattle.

  I took it from her. “Okay.” Before I could even think of saying anything else, Mi Mi firmly gasped my shoulders, turned me around, and steered me into the hall.

  “I should get going,” she said. “No teenager wants an old woman hovering around her on her first day of school.” Her smile was strained.

  I laid my hand over hers to stop her from pulling away. “Is something wrong?”

  An expression I didn’t understand passed through her eyes. Her lips parted as if she meant to say something, but then she only shook her head and gave me one of those fake smiles. “Of course not. Everything is wonderful. You’re going to love it here.” She hesitated, then surprised me by leaning forward to kiss my forehead. “I’ll see you after school.” Then she walked away, the sound of her high heels echoing off the walls.

  I looked down at the paper in my hand and my stomach sank. It was nothing but a list of numbers. How was I supposed to find my classes, let alone my locker? It looked as if they intended to have me wandering around the school by myself without so much as a map. I don’t know about you, but it didn’t seem right to me.

  “Okay,” I muttered. “It can’t be that hard to find a locker.”

  “Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity, you know.”

  I lifted my head as a girl maybe a year or two older than I was stepped out of the shadows by the nearest lockers. I hadn’t noticed her before because she was dressed all in black. Seriously. Black shirt, black pants, blacks boots, even black hair. She wore a dog collar around her neck. A real one, not one of those necklace things. I can tell the difference even though it’s a long way from my style.

  I like to think of myself as open-minded and tolerant. I try not to judge people by the way they look because I know it rarely has anything to do with who they are. So I’m both embarrassed and ashamed to admit her appearance scared me.

  I took a step back, wondering if I screamed if Bess would come running from the office or pretend she didn’t hear.

  “Chill out, girl,” she said. “It’s not like I’m going to whip out my switchblade and steal your lunch money.” She looked me up and
down. “You must be Abigail.”

  The mention of a knife hadn’t done anything to help set me at ease. “How do you know my name?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “It’s kind of a small town, in case you didn’t notice. Everybody knows Zack and Alice went to find the head honcho’s long lost granddaughter. And here you are, back from the dead.” The words were heavy with sarcasm, but there didn’t seem to be any meanness lurking behind them. At least, not so far as I could tell.

  “So... You were waiting for me?”

  “Yeah.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “I figured they wouldn’t stick anybody with helping you find your way around, so I decided to volunteer. I’m Hannah, by the way.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, though I wasn’t yet entirely sure if that was true.

  “Here, let me see.” Hannah took the paper from my hand and looked it over. “Okay, your locker is right down here.”

  “I’m not complaining or anything,” I said, falling in beside her as we walked down the hall, “but if nobody told you to show me around then won’t you be in trouble for missing class?”

  “Yeah, probably. But it’s not like it would be the first time.”

  It surprised me she would be so open with the information. I’m no saint, but I had never skipped a class in my life. My mother would have killed me. And it certainly wouldn’t be something I would brag about to a perfect stranger even if I did.

  Hannah leaned up against the locker next to mine while I put my stuff inside. Form this angle, I could see a small, silver stud in her nose. Made me wonder if she had any tattoos. Yeah, this was definitely not the kind of girl I would have normally chosen to hang out with.

  “Oh,” she said, “you got Alice for training. Lucky you.” Again with the sarcasm.

  “I like Alice.” I shut my locker door. “She’s nice.”

  Hannah snorted. “Yeah. Whatever.”

  “Am I in any classes with you?” Maybe she wasn’t exactly what I would have looked for in a friend, but she seemed okay for the most part. Just because she made a habit of skipping class didn’t mean she was a troublemaker.

  “Nope. I’m a senior. It’s my last year in this hole.” She laughed drily. “Thank god.”

  “Oh. So I guess I won’t be seeing you around then.”

  “This school isn’t as big as it looks.” Hannah handed the paper back to me. “We’re bound to run into each other every now and then. Like today, at lunch. Most of the older kids eat outside.”

  I smiled. “Okay.”

  “Come on.” She stepped away from the lockers. “I’ll show you to your science class. You shouldn’t have any problem getting around from there. Once you can find your grade section, it’s a breeze.”

  When we reached the class, I peered through the little window in the door at the kids inside. My stomach did a flip flop. Most of those kids had probably grown up together their whole lives. Maybe even trained together. I was an outsider and worse, an outsider who had little control over her powers. I was never going to fit in.

  “Good luck,” Hannah said.

  I turned to say ‘thanks, I’ll need it’ but she was already walking away. I took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Every eye fixed on me as I walked into the room. It was like the nightmare I sometimes had about walking into a classroom stark naked. Only this was worse than a nightmare. This was real.

  I stepped up to the desk. The teacher’s smile wobbled at the edges as she looked up at me. Her gaze wouldn’t quite meet mine, but settled somewhere in the vicinity of my nose. “H-hello. Can I h-help you?”

  She was scared, like Bess. But of what, I wondered? Me? The idea seemed ridiculous at the time. “Uh, hi,” I said. “I’m Abigail Freeman, your new student.”

  “Y-yes, of course.” She indicated the seats. “Please sit wherever you like.”

  I turned back to the class and now nobody was looking at me. Nobody. Not one single person so much as glanced up from their work. Somehow, this was even creepier than the stares. I took a seat at the back of the room, feeling even more out of place than before.

  It was the same thing all morning at each of my classes. In between, in the halls, kids actually moved away from me as if I had a disease they were afraid they might catch. When I got in line at lunch, the kid ahead of me stepped up so fast he bumped into the person in front of him. The other kid turned with an angry look, caught sight of me, and quickly faced forward again without saying a word. Behind me, a girl a little younger than I was made sure to keep a good distance between us as we moved ahead.

  After I got my tray and started across the lunchroom, I started to pick up this really weird vibe. Most of the kids were going on about their business, but in a forced kind of way. You know what I mean? It was like they were making an effort to pretend I didn’t exist, as opposed to actually not noticing me. A number of younger kids stared and even pointed their fingers at me.

  I rushed toward the door so fast I’m sure I would have bumped into or tripped over somebody if they all hadn’t been in an equal hurry to get away from me. By the time I made it outside, my vision was swimming with tears.

  Kids my age and older were spread out across picnic tables or sprawled across the ground, laughing and talking. Until I showed up. Dead silence fell over the yard. Nobody was looking at me, but they weren’t even trying to pretend it wasn’t intentional.

  My chin quivered. I was bewildered. I was upset. I was going to cry in front of all these people I didn’t know and die from the humiliation. Then Hannah was beside me with her hand on my arm, steering me around the side of the school.

  I managed to hold my tears in check until we were out of sight. When they started to fall, I turned away so Hannah wouldn’t see. I sat my tray on the ground and bit my lip to hold back a sob. I knew it was crazy to be so upset, but I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t only the way I was being treated, though it was a big part of it. Mostly, it was because I didn’t understand why.

  “Wow, bad day, huh?” Hannah asked. “I guess I should have warned you, but I didn’t think you would believe me. I didn’t know it was going to be this bad.”

  “Warned me about what?” I wiped my hands across my cheeks before turning toward her. “Do you know why everybody is treating me like I’m a leper or something?”

  “They’re afraid of you,” she said. “Having you here is like having the boogeyman come over for dinner.”

  “What?” I shook my head. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re a hybrid.” Hannah sighed at my clueless expression. “Did it ever occur to you to wonder why you’re the only one?”

  “I’m not the only one.” Something I knew well. Even thinking about Megara made my chest tighten as if I were still wrapped in bands of air.

  “Megara. Right,” Hannah said. “Okay, so one of two. In the whole world. That doesn’t seem a little strange to you?”

  I hadn’t thought of it before, but now someone was saying it right to my face it did seem kind of odd. “What are you getting at?”

  “Something you don’t want to hear.” Hannah crossed her arms. “But I’m going to tell you anyway, because nobody else will. Hybrids are monsters. They’re what mommy and daddy dragons scare their kids with to make them behave. So what do you think ‘responsible’ adults do when a spirit dragon tells them the newest addition to their little society is a living, breathing, boogeyman?”

  The words scared me with their implications. I had a feeling Hannah was about to tell me why my birth parents went renegade and I was no longer so sure I wanted to know. Before I could make up my mind, she was speaking again.

  “They drown them,” Hannah said. “Like mongrel pups. Kill them. And they would have killed you too, if your parents hadn't run away.”

  I took a step back, feeling as if all the air had been knocked from my lungs. She was lying. She had to be. “No.” I shook my head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You were too young. You can’t r
emember my parents. You can’t know why they left.”

  “Oh, yeah I do.” Her tone turned bitter. “I know.”

  “I don’t want to hear this.” I pressed my hands to my ears. “You...you’re a horrible liar and I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Go away.” I’m aware of how I sounded, but surely you can understand why I was kind of freaking out. My brain was on information overload and I couldn’t handle any more.

  “Okay. Fine,” Hannah said. “But when you decide you’re ready for the truth, look me up. We’ll have a talk.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The rest of the school day was a blur. I did manage to get to all my classes all right, but I couldn’t tell you a thing I learned in any of them. I didn’t see Hannah again, but her words chased each other around inside my head. By the time last bell rang, all I wanted was to go back to my grandparents' house and crawl into bed. But I still had my first training session with Alice to deal with.

  “Hello, Abigail.” Alice smiled at me as I walked across the baseball field. The first time I saw her, I thought she was about twelve years old. Her head barely came to my chest, and I was by no means tall, and she had no kind of figure at all. Maybe that sounds catty but it’s only the truth. A long braid of magenta hair and her habit of wearing jumpsuits didn’t do anything to add an air of maturity. Only her face gave away the truth of her age, which was about twenty-five.

  “How was your first day of school?” she asked.

  My gaze flicked to Zack, who was sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers behind Alice. The look he gave me in return was dark and unfriendly, so I quickly shifted my gaze to my sneakers. “It was fine.”

  “Really?” Alice tilted her head to one side. “You look a little upset.”

  Heat flooded my cheeks. I’d checked my face in the bathroom mirror before leaving school and couldn’t see any signs I’d been crying. “It takes a little getting used to, that’s all.” I forced myself to meet her gaze and smile. “You know, strange place, strange people, but I’m fine.”