Embracing The Inferno (Dragon Within #5) Read online

  Two blocks down, we crossed the street into the park. Have you ever been in a park at night? It's kind of creepy, don't you think? All those swings and slides and things just sitting there. Empty. Almost haunted. Or maybe it was just me. I had so many ghosts in my head, maybe I was seeing them everywhere else too.

  Beyond the park was a narrow strip of woods and a train track. Yeah, you heard me right. A train track. Next to a park. I don't think it was used anymore, because it was all rusted up and overgrown with weeds, but still, who puts a park next to something like that? People are weird.

  Me and Luka picked our way carefully across the tracks. They're dangerous even without a train on them. Way too many places to catch a foot or twist an ankle. Or worse, get stabbed by some old piece of metal. That would be so not good.

  The expression 'the wrong side of the tracks' definitely fit the area of abandoned warehouses on the other side of the woods. Everything was falling apart and covered in graffiti. Even the old mill, or factory, or whatever it was.

  Zack was waiting for us behind the nearest warehouse, standing in the knee high weeds with his arms crossed and probably wishing he had something to lean against. When he saw Luka his frown dropped into a full on scowl.

  "Don't say it." I held up my hand to stop the words I could almost see forming on his lips. "Luka is here for a reason, and I'm going to explain it to you. Sort of. Um... just listen." I turned to Luka. "Okay, let's do this."

  "Whenever you're ready." Luka lifted the camcorder.

  I swallowed hard, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. And then, for a split second, just long enough to blink, I saw Curtis standing there instead of Luka and my heart took a dive down to the pit of my stomach.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. Then another. And another. Trying to calm myself. Thinking about Curtis right then was the last thing I needed to be doing. "Okay," I whispered, then opened my eyes, faced the camcorder straight on, and spoke the words I'd been rehearsing in my head for the last two weeks.

  "My name is Abigail Freeman, and I'm a dragon." God, that still sounded super weird. "I know what you're thinking. No wings. No scales. I don't look much like the dragons in the movies. But that's because those dragons aren't real. I am. And I'm not the only one. There are a lot of us. All over the world. Hiding." I could feel Zack's gaze boring into my back and I didn't dare even glance at him from the corner of my eye or I knew I'd lose my nerve.

  "I used to be normal. I had a normal life and normal friends. I lived in a boring little town where nothing ever happened. Then I turned sixteen and everything changed. Now I'm hated, and hunted, and running for my life. They call me a monster, but I'm not. I'm just a girl, struggling to figure out who I am.

  "What comes next isn't a blockbuster off the big screen. There are no special effects. No Green Screen. No CGI. It's all real." I reached out to the air around a chunk of asphalt and lifted it off the ground.

  "Most dragons can only control one element," I said. "But I'm a little different. I'm a hybrid. I can control all four, and because of that my own kind hate me. Fear me. Want to kill me. My parents died because of it, and there have been others too. Friends. People who just got in the way." I didn't try to hide the pain in my voice. If I was going to make people believe, then I had to show them everything.

  "That's why I'm making this video. Why I'm exposing us all to the world. To save the others like me from dying. But we need your help. We need you to save us. Because we're not monsters. We're people, just like you. And we deserve a chance to live."

  I let the chunk drop and blew out a breath. "How did that sound?"

  Luka gave me a thumbs up. "Curtis would definitely approve."

  "Okay. Good." I pushed the hair back from my face, then turned to Zack. "I guess you get what I'm doing."

  He nodded tightly. "You're completely out of your mind."

  Ouch. "Maybe I am. But what else can I do? I can't run away from this, and I can't be part of Megara's war. So if you have a better idea of how to stop all this killing, I'd love to hear it."

  A war of emotions crossed his face so fast I couldn't hope to read any of them. I had no idea what was going on in his head. "I guess if you're trying to save lives, I'm not exactly the guy to give an opinion."

  From anyone else a statement like that might have been filled with self loathing. Not with Zack. He knew exactly what he was and made no apologies for it. Why should he, when he didn't see anything wrong with the things he 'd done?

  "So, does that mean you're with me on this?" I asked.

  "I think it's a bad idea, but... yeah, I'm with you."

  I don't think I'd ever heard sweeter words in my life. It was like some of the heavy weight I'd been carrying around was lifted off my shoulders and shifted on to his. And it was definitely a load I needed help carrying.

  "So, you guys want to show the camera some action?" Luka asked.

  "What!" I spun around, my face flaming red.

  Luka lowered the camcorder, his expression the picture of innocence. "You know, some dragon stuff. What did you think I meant?"

  "Nothing," I snapped. He wasn't fooling me. I could see him biting the inside of his lip trying not to smile. As if I wasn't nervous enough, he had to go and get me all flustered. "I'm not a circus monkey, I don't perform on command. Besides, we have plenty of video of me training."

  "From when?" Zack asked. "Did Curtis video you at the bunker?"

  I shrugged, wondering why he even cared. "I don't remember."

  "No," Luka said. "The last time was outside that cabin you guys were living in."

  "How do you know that?" I asked.

  Luka shifted his gaze away. "I, uh... I've been watching the video."

  Oh. I'd given it into his safekeeping so I wouldn't be tempted to do just that. I didn't think I could stand seeing my friends alive again that way. Not yet. "What does it matter?" I asked Zack.

  "If you insist on doing this," Zack said. "Do it right. Show the camera your fire."

  I licked my lips. No way could I do that. Even using my air to lift that asphalt had my heart racing. I couldn't use my fire. It was too dangerous. "It's late. Me and Luka should be getting back to the hotel."

  Zack gave me this knowing look I absolutely hated. "When are you planning on sending the video out?" he asked.

  "Soon. Before Luka comes into his powers."

  "What do you actually think is going to happen after you expose us?"

  That was a question I really, really wished I could answer with any kind of certainty. Not knowing the possible consequences was the hardest part of this whole thing. "Anything has to be better than the way things are now. Right?"

  I wanted him to say yes so bad, even if it wasn't true. But I should have known better. "I hope so. Because you'll be putting a lot of lives at risk."

  As if I needed him to tell me that. "A lot of lives are already at risk. Who knows how many hybrids are out there, waiting to be born just so they can die. This is not just about me."

  "I know you're intentions are in the right place," Zack said. "But you know what they say about good intentions, right? Besides, once you do this Megara is going to be furious. And you're not ready to take her on."

  Another thing I didn't need to hear. "You think I need to train."

  "I think you need to be able to use your powers the way a dragon should. All of them." He gave me a pointed look. "As long as Megara still thinks you're on her side, take advantage of it. It's the whole reason we came here in the first place."

  He was right, of course. The only reason we travelled to Oregon instead of running as far as we could in the opposite direction was so Megara could teach me to be a hybrid. Even though Jonah had really helped me way more than she had.

  "We really should go," I said, even though I didn't want to. I'm not ashamed to admit I was terrified he might up and disappear on me again. But I guess Zack wasn't bothered by those kinds of thoughts, because he just nodded and walked away. No goodbye. No
idea of when I would see him again. Part of me wanted to run after him and.... God, I don't even know. But I wasn't going to do that with Luka watching.

  Luka and I made our way back across the railroad tracks, and as we passed through the park, he stared at the swing set. I wondered if he was thinking about Bailey. "Are we going to be okay?" he asked. And he sounded so young and so scared.

  It was weird really, because I wasn't even a whole year older than him, but I felt like I was the adult and he the kid. You get what I mean? I felt ages beyond sixteen, like I'd lived a whole lifetime since Arizona.

  When I didn't answer Luka, he clutched the camcorder more tightly to his chest and stared straight ahead. "Serene has nightmares. Sometimes when she's awake."

  No surprise there. The horror of what happened in Oregon was something I could barely handle, and Serene was only a little kid. After seeing her baby sister die right in front of her it was a wonder she could function at all. I wanted to tell Luka she would get over it. She'd be fine. We'd all be fine. But I couldn't get the words to pass my lips. They felt too much like a lie.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Training was not something I really wanted to do, but after a mostly sleepless night of tossing and turning, I decided Zack was right. It really didn't matter what I wanted. I needed to train for two very good reasons. One, I needed to learn to control my powers so I didn't hurt anyone by accident. My little episode at the cafe had shown me that. And two, I didn't want Megara freaking out and locking me up. Or worse. I didn't like to think of what she might do if she decided my refusal to train made me a threat to her. Besides, it would give Luka more video for the movie.

  That's how Megara and I ended up in the old saw mill. I looked around the rotting boards, the busted windows, and the dust motes floating in the sunbeams falling through the holes in the ceiling and didn't feel terribly encouraged.

  "Are you sure this place is safe?" I asked, mostly worried about Luka somewhere upstairs videoing us. "It looks about ready to collapse."

  "Safe enough," Megara said offhandedly, like the possibility of a building caving in on us was no big deal to her. And I don't know, maybe it wasn't. I sometimes thought she was a little crazy.

  Before I could worry any further, a gust of wind swept up and slammed into my chest, knocking me off my feet. I hit the concrete floor. Hard. It was my fault really, by then I should have known it was a bad idea to let myself get distracted around Megara.

  I didn't even have a chance to catch my breath. A fist of air punched me in the gut, driving all the air out of my lungs and pinning me to the floor. I gasped, tears springing to my eyes. Knowing she wasn't going to let up unless I forced her to, I reached down into the earth and called it up, cracking the concrete in a straight line right under Megara. Seeing her surprised expression as she fell on her butt was the highlight of my week.

  But what was really amazing to me was how easy the power had come. Dragon power is a tricky thing. To make it work, you have to concentrate on what you're doing without actually concentrating on it. Confused yet? Imagine how I felt. I'd always had good luck taking control of the air without thinking about it, but this was the first time earth power had come to me so easily.

  I closed my physical eyes and dropped into that special, wooded place in my mind. The place Jonah called the well spring of my powers. In the middle of the woods was a pond with water a shade of blue no water in the real world could ever be. I let myself fall toward the pond, closing my mental eyes and opening my physical ones before I actually hit the water. I had only let myself do that once, and it ended in fire and death.

  I got to my feet maybe three seconds before Megara. But those three seconds gave me the time to snap out a whip of air and grab her ankle, tripping her up. Only this time she didn't hit the floor.

  She called up a cushion of air is my best guess. I couldn't actually see it, but I could definitely see her floating in an awkward, almost sitting kind of way. She bounced up and lobbed a fireball at me. I ducked out of the way, pulling moisture from the air as I went.

  I threw a water ball at Megara. She knocked it away with a brush of wind at the last possible second. "I'm surprised to say it, but losing two weeks training hasn't slowed you much. In fact, I think you might be a touch faster than you were in Oregon. Seems Jonah taught you a thing or two after all. Well, I've seen air, earth, and water, now show me some fire."

  "No." My flat out refusal surprised me as much as it did her. Time was I wouldn't have had the nerve to stand up to her, but it seemed Oregon had changed me in more ways than I knew. "I'm not using my fire in a fake fight. It's too dangerous."

  "I gave you an order," Megara said. "I expect you to follow it."

  "An order?" My heart was thudding against my chest. "I know you think of yourself as some kind of general, but I already told you, I'm not your soldier. You don't give me orders."

  Megara's brows raised. "You think because of your little fire show back in the woods you can suddenly talk to me however you want? I could squish you like bug."

  "You could try." I had no idea where this was coming from. It didn't even sound like me.

  And then Megara did the last thing I expected her to do, she smiled at me. "Now see, this is what I like to hear. Pain and anger, they do good for us, don't they? Loose someone you love and it either breaks you or makes you stronger. I was thinking you were a lost cause, but it's good to see I'm wrong. A broken hybrid is of no use to me, but one who has that fury in her guts is something I can work with. Come here, let me show you something."

  I'm sure you can understand why I was more than a little reluctant to get anywhere near her. I expected her to be mad, not to grin at me like I just scored the winning goal or something. It was creepy. Way creepy.

  "Don't act like a child." She held both hands out to me. "Do you want to learn to ride a tornado, or not?"

  You bet I did. I'd been wanting to try that ever since I first saw her do it. "In here? The building really will fall down."

  "If you tried it on your own I've no doubt it would, but my control is a bit better, now isn't it?" She made an impatient gesture. "Come on now, nothing ventured, nothing gained."

  I should have been worried by how not vile she was being towards me, but I was too giddy at the idea of finally getting to ride a tornado. I stepped forward and took her hands. "What do you want me to do?"

  "Just pay attention and follow my lead. First thing you do, is pull the air around you in a circle." The air kicked up, spinning around us faster and faster until it started to pick up dirt and bits of rock from the floor.

  "Now, to levitate," Megara said. "Five feet should do for a start. Think you can manage that?"

  I nodded, a little nervous flutter in the middle of my chest. I'd levitated people before and a lot higher than five feet, so I didn't have any trouble using the air beneath our feet to lift us.

  "Then you add a little direction," Megara said. We shifted to the side, pushed by a rush of air.

  I have to tell you, it was way cool. I was getting this excited, nervous, almost sick kind of feeling in my stomach. You know, like the way you do riding a roller coaster. I grinned as I thought of how this must look to Luka.

  Megara's hand tightened around mine, her expression hardening. "What are you smiling about? You think this fun? You think it's a game? You're still a fool girl, that much hasn't changed. Our powers are a weapon, not a toy. If you can't learn that lesson and learn it well, you get hurt."

  She released my hands, shoving me backward as she did. I didn't even have a chance to scream before I was sucked into the whirling air. Twisted and turned, the breath stolen from my lungs, skin stinging from being pelted by bits of stone, I felt like I was about to be pulled in two.

  I was flung free and sent sailing through open space. I gulped in one desperate breath before slamming into the wall. Something snapped. I tasted blood on my tongue. Then everything went black.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Loud voices. That was t
he first thing I noticed as I started to wake up. Didn't take too long for the pain to jump in, though. Most of it came from my arm, but the back of my head was throbbing pretty good too. I opened my eyes a crack and was hit with a blinding light that quickly had me squeezing them shut again.

  "Stop it!" Stephanie's voice rang out over the others. "I think she's awake." A gentle hand touched my arm. "Abigail, can you hear me?"

  "Yeah." My voice croaked, bouncing off the insides of my head.

  "Thank God," Derek said. "can you open your eyes?"

  "Light. Too bright."

  "I'll get a lamp," Jonah said. "Turn off the overhead."

  A few minutes later, the light went out. I opened my eyes cautiously, bracing myself for pain that didn't come. The lamp was far enough away so it didn't bother me, but it was still bright enough to see that I was lying on the table in the conference room surrounded by friends. And Megara.

  "Hey there." Derek brushed the hair back from my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

  "My head hurts. My arm too." I looked down and immediately regretted it. My arm lay beside me in a curvy kind of way that your arm is not supposed to do, and my shoulder was jutted out of place. I groaned.

  "Try not to move," Stephanie said. "Your arm will hurt a lot worse if you do."

  "Forget her arm," Derek said. "I'm more worried about the lump on the back of her head. Can you see all right? How many fingers am I holding up?"

  "Three." I licked my dry lips. Where was Luka? Did he manage to slip away without Megara catching him? If she saw that video... But no, she must not have seen it or she wouldn't be standing over there looking so calm. As if she had a right to be there at all. She let me go on purpose. She could have killed me. I didn't say anything though, because I didn't want to make Derek mad. He was nowhere near as violent as Zack, but if he knew Megara hurt me on purpose he might do something stupid.

  "Okay, so you can see." Derek lowered his hand. "But I still think we need to take you to a hospital. Like you," he glared at Megara, "should have done in the first place instead of bringing her here."