Rock Bottom (Dragon Within #4) (2 page)

    
Yes, I
did. A big, enormous, hugely, major problem. “Of course not. But you know,
maybe he’s into Brandy. They have been spending a lot of time together.” Now
there was an idea I could get behind. They would be great for each other.

    
“
Aww
, come on, don’t crush all my hopes,” Hannah said. “With
the way you have things set up my only shot is with Curtis and no way could I
go there.”

     
I could
have told her he wasn’t an option either, but my cousin had sworn me to secrecy.
Not that Hannah would have cared, obviously, but if he didn’t want anybody
knowing than that was his business.

    
“Why not
Curtis?” I asked, because I knew she would never even if he might have been
into it. “There’s only four years between the two of you, same as you and
Derek.”

    
“Curtis
is fourteen,” Hannah said. “Sixteen is my cutoff point. Besides, I think of him
like a little brother. It would be too weird.”

    
Curtis
tended to have that affect on people. He was sweet and cuddly, like a teddy
bear. Though I’m sure it would have mortified him had I ever said as much to
his face. “You make a good point.”

    
“Hannah
made a good point and I missed it?” Brandy asked. She and Derek were coming in
the backdoor and we hadn’t even heard them. She set the two jugs of water she
was carrying on the counter next to the sink. “There’s an opportunity unlikely
to come around again in this lifetime.”

    
Hannah
flipped her off.

    
Brandy
smirked. “Another painfully witty comeback. How
do
you do it?”

    
“Guys.” I
injected a hint of warning into my tone. I swear they made me feel like a mom
trying to keep two unruly kids in line. “Don’t start.”

    
Hannah
crossed her arms. Brandy rolled her eyes. Neither of them said another word.

    
Derek put
his jugs down next to Brandy’s and then crossed the room to look out the front
door. “What are they doing out there?”

    
“Probably
watching the video of me training,” I said. “Zack is being really cool about
this whole ‘movie’ thing. I thought he’d get irritated and make Curtis quit it,
but he hasn’t so far.”

    
“That’s
good for Curtis, I guess,” Derek said. “Keeping busy makes it easier to not
think about things.”

    
I glanced
over at him. Something in his voice made me think he wasn’t really talking
about Curtis. Fresh air and hard work had done wonders for him since we left
California. He’d gained weight and a nice tan. But his eyes were still haunted.
I guess being locked up in a corn cellar and nearly starved to death kind of
sticks with a guy.

    
“Speaking
of keeping busy,” Brandy said. “It’s time someone went out looking for Megara
again.”

    
“And I
can bet you mean anybody besides you, right?” Hannah asked. “God forbid you
should get a little dirt under your nails.”

    
“Excuse
me,” Brandy said, “but I don’t recall you jumping up to volunteer going down to
the pond for water. Too busy wasting our dwindling supply of funds in order to
maintain your bride of Dracula look.”

    
“Better
thank your--”

    
“Hannah!”
I slapped my hands on the table. “Don’t say it.”

    
“Whatever.” She shoved back from the table, and then pushed past Derek
out the front door.

    
Brandy
shook her head. “Why is she even here? She contributes nothing to our current
situation.”

    
Yeah,
that’s really how Brandy talked. All the time. It could get kind of annoying,
sure, but she couldn’t help it. She was a genius. And gorgeous. And rich. And
okay, maybe I was the tiniest bit jealous. If she hadn’t been my best friend
since practically forever I probably would have hated her guts.

    
“Hannah
is here,” I said, “because she’s my friend.” She was also the reason I wasn’t
still chained to my bed back at the compound. And the reason Derek wasn’t dead.
“I don’t know why you have such a big problem with her.”

    
“She is
equally as antagonistic toward me as I am toward her.”

    
“But you
started it.” I said. “You
always
start it.”

    
Brandy
sniffed. “Always is a presumptive word. No one
always
does anything.
It’s impossible for me to have started every argument Hannah and I have had
since the day we met.”

    
Have I
mentioned that I love Brandy like a sister? I just want to throw that out there
so you’ll excuse me for wanting to smack her upside the head. “Fine. Maybe you
don’t start
every
fight, but you didn’t like her from the moment you
met. You never even gave her a chance. Why?”

    
“Something about her is off putting,” Brandy said. “It isn’t all the
black or the dog collar, though it certainly doesn’t help. She has an attitude
problem. It was clear right from the start. I don’t like it. But it’s more than
that. I... I don’t know how to explain it.” She made a face, as if saying such
a thing left a bad taste in her mouth.

    
And it
probably did. Because Brandy was talking, I think, about a gut feeling and gut
feelings aren’t logical. If it wasn’t logical, then Brandy
LaVine
wanted nothing to do with it. Kind of funny, really, seeing as how she was
surrounded by dragons. Not that she liked it much.

    
Zack and
Curtis chose that moment to come inside, so I decided to let the Hannah thing
drop. Whatever it was Brandy thought she felt about Hannah was obviously wrong
because nobody else felt that way. I’d never known Brandy to go with gut
instinct before. They were really different kinds of people and that’s all it
was. Nothing I could say was going to make them friends.

    
Curtis
looked from me to Brandy and back again. “What’s going on?”

    
“Nothing,” I said. “We were talking about going to look for Megara
again.”

    
“Oh.” He
frowned a little, like maybe he didn’t believe me. “How can we be sure she
doesn’t already know we’re here? You don’t think she can find
you
like
she did last time?”

    
Derek
shook his head. “We don’t even know how she managed to find Abby in the first
place. We can’t sit around hoping she’ll come to us. Time is running out. The
trackers will hunt us down eventually.” He cast a sideways glance at Zack.
“It’s what they do.”

    
“Are we
so sure Megara is the answer?” Zack asked. His eyes narrowed. “She could kill
us as easy as a hunter would.”

    
Oh, no. I
didn’t need the two of them getting into it on top of everything else. I really
hated playing referee. “If Megara wanted me dead, then she could have killed me
the last time we met. But she didn’t. I think...” I knew he wasn’t going to
like this, but I felt as if I had to say it anyway. “I think last time she was
actually trying to protect me from you.”

    
Zack’s
jaw tightened. I can’t even tell you how much I wished I could take my words
back. I hadn’t said them meaning to hurt his feelings, but it was a stupid
thing to say anyway. Reminding him that when we met he was part of the plot
that was meant to end with me dead was not a good way to show how I felt about
him.

    
“I didn’t
mean--”

    
He walked
out the door. I sighed, propping my elbow up on the table and resting my head in
my hand. “Is this day over yet?”

    
Derek
rested his hand on my shoulder. “You look exhausted. Why don’t you go take a
nap?”

    
“Yeah,
maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea.” And maybe when I woke up it would be a
better day.

    
The
cabin’s bedroom didn’t actually have any beds in it, so some of the first
things bought in town were sleeping bags which we had laid out in a row on the
floor. Not the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements, but it wasn’t like we
had much of a choice. I still felt bad about Brandy stealing money from her
parents but I don’t think we could have survived if she hadn’t.

    
I crawled
into my sleeping bag with every intention of taking a nap. Instead, I found
myself staring at the wall and thinking of things I’d rather not think about.
Like Kyle, dead in California. Like Trudy and Steve, who, even if they had made
it back to Arizona, could be in a world of trouble right then. And the ones who
were still with me weren’t much better off. It was like everything I touched fell
apart.

    
The
bedroom door opened and I closed my eyes. Hopefully whoever it was would think
I was asleep and go away. No such luck.

    
“Abby?”
Derek spoke my name with soft hesitation. “Are you really sleeping? Because if
you aren’t, then I’d like to talk to you.”

    
I rolled
over onto my back. “I’m awake.”

    
Derek
came over to sit beside me on Brandy’s sleeping bag. “Things were a little
tense in there.”

    
“I know.”
I turned my head so I was looking at the ceiling rather than him. “Brandy and
Hannah can’t be in the same room for five minutes without going at it.”

    
“Abby.”

    
“What?” I
asked, even though I knew it wasn’t Brandy and Hannah he was talking about.

    
“You can
talk to me, you know,” he said. “Maybe we haven’t known each other all that
long but I am your brother and I want to look after you the way a brother is
supposed to. So if Zack said something, or did something...”

    
Yeah, he
kissed me and then acted like it never happened. “Like what?”

   
 
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking. I don’t
understand why he’s here. He hates me, and he has a right to after what I did,
but he doesn’t seem to like anybody else any better. So why is he doing this?
Why is he helping us? Why go renegade and throw his life away for you? I don’t
trust his motives. Hannah I get. She’s a little crazy and she thinks this is
some kind of adventure. But not him. He makes no sense.”

    
I latched
on to him mentioning Hannah to steer the conversation away from Zack. “But you’re
wrong about Hannah. She isn’t here for the adventure.” I bit my lip. I was
about to give away a very dark secret that wasn’t mine to give and all for the
most selfish of purposes. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway.

    
I looked
over and met Derek’s gaze. “Her little brother was a hybrid. When she was
eight, she watched them drown him in the bathroom sink.”

    
“Oh,
god.” He ran a hand across his face. “This thing with the hybrids is so sick.
If they would give them a chance instead of letting themselves be ruled by
fear--”

    
“Then we
wouldn’t be here trying to find somebody who probably wants to kill us,” I
said. “And our parents would still be alive.”

    
Derek
stared down at his hands. “So would Zack’s mom.”

    
I laid my
hand on his leg. “You can’t beat yourself up forever about that. It was an
accident.”

    
“But
she’s just as dead.” He heaved a sigh. “Hey, I thought you said you didn’t
believe Megara wanted to kill you.”

    
“What do
I know? Maybe it’s wishful thinking, hoping she’ll help. Maybe it won’t even
matter if she does. I can’t see any light at the end of this tunnel. Not when
both sides of my family think I’m some kind of freak that deserves to die.”

    
“Those
people aren’t your family,” he said. “We are. All of us right here.”

    
“Right.”
I laughed. “A lovely, dysfunctional little family like on a sitcom. Yippy.”
Man, this conversation was getting depressing. “Speaking of our 'family,'
what’s up with you and Brandy?”

    
“Me and
Brandy?” He frowned. “What are you talking about?”

    
“You guys
are spending a lot of time together,” I said. “I know Brandy can be wound a
little tight and she’s still dealing with what happened to Kyle, but if you
guys are... I don’t know... If you like each other, then I want you to know I’d
be more than cool with that. You’d be good for her.”

    
“No. No,
it’s not like that,” Derek said. “I feel bad for her is all. We’re friends.
Nothing more. I mean... She’s sixteen. A kid. Besides, and I wasn’t really
going to tell you this right now but I guess I kind of have to, I’m
engaged.”
 

    
“You’re
what?” I sat up so fast I would have knocked heads with him if he’d been a few
inches closer. “Why didn’t you tell me before? What’s her name?”

    
“Her name
is Stephanie,” he said. “And I didn’t say anything because... I guess because
it didn’t seem all that important in light of everything that’s going on. She’s
the reason I found out you were still alive.”

    
“She’s a
spirit dragon?”

    
“Yeah.”

    
My heart
sank. “And you left her behind with your clan so you could come and find me.”

    
“She
understood,” he said. “She knew how important it was to me to get you safe.”