Chasing The Whirlwind: Dragon Within, #2

By Kyra Dune

It isn't easy to start a new life. To leave behind everything you know to go to a strange place full of strange people. Especially when you're sixteen and everyone you love thinks you're dead.

My name is Abigail Freeman and this is exactly the situation I found myself in after discovering the shocking truth about my heritage. Before Zack came into my life, before I knew anything about dragons and powers and secrets, I thought I was an ordinary girl. No different from my friends and family. Once I discovered the truth, everything changed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shadow Portal Books
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386068211

Kyra Dune

Shadow Portal Books is an ebook publisher offering full publishing services at no outright cost to the author. We also offer paid services to self published authors.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

I’ve been nervous lots of times in my life. Like in second grade, when I had to get up on stage in front of a crowded auditorium to recite my lines for the school play. I only had three, but I was so scared I would get them wrong and everybody would laugh at me.

Or the time at a friend’s twelfth birthday party where I was teased into playing Seven Minutes In Heaven and ended up in a broom closet with a boy I barely knew. A boy who, I am most happy to report, was no more interested in kissing than I was.

But nothing had ever twisted me up inside like the moment the airplane carrying me to my new life touched down on the little runway which serviced the compound. However, my anxiety was not only for myself. I glanced over at Derek, stretched out across two chairs on the other side of the narrow aisle.

He whimpered, not in his sleep, but in a drug induced haze which barely seemed to dull his pain. His skin was ashen and spotted with sweat. I couldn’t understand it. I broke my arm when I was seven, and I didn’t remember it hurting me as badly as his was hurting him. Of course, it was possible his fight with Megara had done more damage than we could see, I knew this, but I didn’t want to think about it.

It took us three days after facing off with Megara before we could find a small plane to rent. We couldn’t go back for Rick’s plane because it was broken down and we were too afraid she might find us there before it could be repaired.

Three days with no treatment for Derek’s injury but the mild painkillers in the first aid kit and Zack’s jacket as a makeshift sling to try and hold the arm still. If you’re wondering why we didn’t take him to a hospital, well, it’s kind of complicated. You see, I was supposed to be dead and it would have been hard to explain to the police why I wasn’t. Dangerous too. My faked death in a truck stop fire was to protect my family and friends from Megara, I couldn’t risk the truth being found out. Not even if cost Derek his life. Maybe that’s sick and horrible, I don’t know. I can’t be objective about it. I’ll let you decide.

Anyway, nervous as I was at the idea of starting my new life, I was relieved when we reached the compound where Derek could finally get some real help. The airplane taxied to a stop and Alice hopped up from her seat, her magenta ponytail swinging.

She opened the door and turned to smile at me. Come on, Abigail, Zack will take you to meet your grandparents.

I stood, wiping my sweaty palms on my blue jean shorts. What about Derek?

Rick and I will get him to the hospital. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.

Zack brushed past me and stomped out the door. He hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words since the fight, which I figured was all because I had insisted we bring Derek with us. Even before I met Derek, Zack had made it plain he hated the guy. What wasn’t so clear, was why.

Zack and I walked In silence from the airport down a paved road into a small town not much different from the one I grew up in. I don’t know exactly what I had expected the compound to be like, but I certainly hadn’t thought it would so normal.

The only weird thing I could see was what I didn’t see. Cars. I saw people walking and biking and even a few kids rollerblading, but nothing with a motor. You don’t have cars? I asked, unable to keep the shock from my voice.

Only Council Members have personal vehicles, Zack said. There are also communal trucks and buses for use outside the compound. Within these walls, most of us walk.

So, is your motorcycle a communal vehicle? The words felt weird on my tongue. Communal vehicle was not a concept which had ever crossed my mind before.

Zack made a face. No. It’s personal.

Are you a Council Member? I found the idea strange, and not only because of his age. Zack didn’t seem the type to be on some council discussing things. For one thing, he hardly ever talked, and for another he seemed more like the kind of guy who would break a rule, rather than enforcing it.

You’re full of questions, aren’t you? He was scowling again. This seemed to be his default expression, so I took no offense.

Yeah, I guess I am. This is all kind of new to me, you know.

He glanced at me. I have the motorcycle because I’m a tracker.

What’s a tracker?

What does it sound like it is?

Snappy much? I mean, jeez, I was only asking a question. He was so hard to talk to I probably would have given up on him already if he wasn’t so cute. Oh, don’t look at me like that, I bet you’ve put up with plenty to get closer to somebody you’re attracted to. Besides, it wasn’t only his cuteness which attracted me, he was also a mystery. A sullen, hot tempered, kind of dangerous mystery, all wrapped up in long, lean muscles, with dark, wavy hair and the kind of eyes a girl could... Sorry, lost my train of thought. What was I saying? Oh yeah, right, Zack was being snappy and rude.

You don’t have to bite my head off, I muttered. If you don’t want to talk you could just say so. The words barely left my mouth before he replied.

I don’t want to talk.

I shrugged and pretended to be fascinated with the stores we were passing. Fine with me. It wasn’t, really but what could I do about it? It’s not like I could make him talk and anyway, I didn’t want to irritate him. I seemed to be good at it.

We turned down a tree shaded side street into a neighborhood of elegant homes much like the one my best friend Brandy lived in. I saw more people on foot, some talking on their cell phones, some walking their dogs, some seeming to be enjoying the day. It was all so normal it felt like a dream. Why, you might ask? The answer is simple. All these seemingly normal people walking around in this seemingly normal town, were dragons.

Yeah, you heard me right. Dragons. No, I’m not crazy, but I don’t blame you for thinking so. I certainly thought it was crazy when Zack first told me. But it’s true. Only it’s not like you imagine. Not like the stories and the movies with the big flying, fire breathing lizards. No. Wrong. Dragons are people. People with certain powers. They’ve always been people, but being different, being not ‘normal’, made them the target for a lot of hatred.

All this stuff about scales and wings and destroying villages are nothing more than stories which were made up long ago to turn dragons into fearsome beasts. It got so bad they had to go into hiding, which was why my clan lived here at the compound.

My clan, you may ask? Yeah, that’s right. I’m a dragon too. Only I didn’t know until my sixteenth birthday rolled around and I came into my powers. As you can imagine, I was pretty freaked out by the whole deal. From that moment on, my life was forever changed.

At the end of the street stood a two story, white house with a pillared porch. I swear it looked like something straight off the set of some pre-Civil War movie. It did not look like it belonged in southern California, barely thirty miles from Los Angeles.

As I followed Zack up the steps, I half expected the door to be answered by a woman in a flowing white dress who would welcome me home in a soft, southern drawl. Zack rang the bell while I stood behind him chewing on my lower lip. What were these people going to think of me in my cut offs and tank top, with my blonde hair a mess, and a big bruise on my forehead from when Derek made me wreck my car?

The woman who answered the door was around sixty with graying hair pulled back into a loose bun. She was not dressed like a southern belle, but in tan slacks and a paisley blouse. She was smiling until she saw me. Then her blue eyes widened as she pressed a hand to her chest.

Oh my god, she breathed out. I silently prayed she wasn’t about to have a heart attack or something Abigail, is it really you?

Uh, hi. I lifted my hand in a feeble wave. I know, lame, right? Yeah, well, I would like to see you do better under such circumstances. It was a miracle I could talk at all when my mouth felt as dry as the Sahara Desert.

Alastair, the woman called out, her gaze never leaving my face. Alastair, come quick. She’s here.

I shifted my feet, wishing she would stop looking at me like I was her long lost granddaughter. Even though I was. It’s weird to have someone you don’t even know looking at you all teary eyed and it made me uncomfortable.

Footsteps echoed from inside the house. Alastair came to a stop behind the woman and he stared at me too. Have you ever read a book and come to a part where it said someone was beaming? I have, and I got to say until that exact moment, I had no idea what a ‘beam’ was. But I was pretty sure I was looking at one of the face of my grandfather. It was a smile all right, but stretched too wide. It looked kind of painful, like it was one quick twist away from being a grimace.

Alastair stepped past his wife, past Zack, and before I knew what to do, he