Rock Bottom (Dragon Within #4) (9 page)

    
“So
what?” Hannah flopped onto the sofa, throwing one leg over the armrest. “Who
died and made you the queen of this conversation?”

    
“So,
Abby,” Derek broke in loudly, “how was your first day of training?”

    
“Ugh.
Don’t even ask.”

    
“That
good, huh?” Hannah asked. “Well come on and give us all the grisly details.”

    
I made a
face. “I spent most of my time flat on the ground and all I have to show for it
is a throbbing head and bruised wrists.” I lifted my hands. A thin, blackish
brown bruise circled my wrists.

    
Derek’s
lips dipped into a frown. “How did that happen?”

    
“It
doesn’t matter.” I dropped my hands to my lap. “My grandfather was crazy to
think I could ever be a match for her in a real fight. She’d kill me before I
could even think about attacking her.”

    
“That
could change now you have somebody besides Mr. Freeze training you,” Hannah
said.

    
I pressed
my tongue against my teeth to keep myself from saying something snarky. “What’s
he been up to, anyway? Do you know?” I was trying to act like it hardly even
mattered to me, but judging by the expressions on Derek and Brandy’s faces I
wasn’t pulling it off. I’m sure they were real happy Zack hadn’t been around
and didn’t much appreciate Hannah for bringing him up.

    
“Jonah
says Megara has him battle training some of the dragons,” Hannah said. “I hear
it keeps him real busy. That and cozying up to our fearless leader. Guess he
was worried she might kick him out if he didn’t make himself useful.”

    
Zack was
spending time with Megara? I’m sure you can guess how I felt about that. I
mean, sure, she was about ten years older than he was, but she was very pretty
and intense, and she had complete control of her powers. She was way more impressive
than I was.

    
“Do you
know where his room is?” The words came out of my mouth before I had time to
think better of saying them. If I was going to ask a question like that I should
have gotten Hannah alone first.

    
“I don’t
think that’s a very good idea,” Derek said. “You really need to focus on your
training right now.”

    
“What
does that have to do with seeing Zack?” I asked.

    
Derek and
Brandy shared a look. It was too much like the look parents share when their
kid wants to do something they don’t want her to do and they’re trying to
figure out how to talk her out of it without starting a fight. You know the
look I mean.

    
“Zack is
an unnecessary distraction,” Brandy said. “And you need to focus on more
important things. Besides, if he wanted to see you he could have come here. He
hasn’t. That should tell you something. It isn’t as if he doesn’t know where
you are.”

    
How do
you like that? Kind of a low blow coming from someone who was supposed to be my
best friend. Hot tears blurred my vision. Her words hurt more because they were
true. Some part of me was certain whatever had happened between me and Zack was
all in my head. But that didn’t mean she had to point it
 
out to everyone.

    
“I’m
going to take a hot shower and lay down.” I got up and headed toward the
bedroom. “My head is killing me.”

    
“Wait,
Abby.” Brandy started to follow me. “I’m--”

    
I didn’t
slam the door in her face, but I did shut it firmly enough that she couldn’t
possibly misunderstand. To her credit, she didn’t come in anyway like I
probably would have. I held it together fine until I was in the shower with the
water spraying me in the face. Only then did I let myself break down and cry.

                                        
CHAPTER SEVEN

    
Bright,
warm sunshine filtered down to us through the leaves of the trees. I took a
deep breath of pine scented air and sighed. It was so good to be outside again.
It felt like I’d been cooped up in the bunker forever already.

    
“Why do
you keep this to yourself?” I asked, as Jonah and I walked down the dirt path.
“I bet everybody would love a chance to get outside once in a while.”

    
Jonah
shook his head. “If Megara found out about the hidden entrance to the bunker
she’d close it off for sure. She has to have complete control of the comings
and goings. Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I can’t bear to lose my only bit of
freedom. I’d go mad.”

    
It didn’t
seem fair to keep such a secret, even though I understood where he was coming
from. But I’d made a promise and it was one I intended to keep. No matter how
guilty I felt about it.

    
At the
end of the path, a bubbling stream cut through a small clearing. Jonah hopped
up on a mostly flat topped boulder beside the stream. “Are you ready to start?”

    
“I guess.
What is it were going to do, exactly?”

    
He
smiled. “Have you ever meditated?”

    
“Are you
serious?”

    
“I’ll
take your answer as a no, then. I told you part of my training was to center
myself. Nothing does that better than meditation. So yes, I’m serious.”

    
“Okay.”
Kind of weird, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. “So what, do I sit cross legged
and chant or something?”

    
Jonah
chuckled. “Or something. Sit however you feel most comfortable.”

    
Not so
easy to do seeing as how I had nowhere to sit but on the ground. I chose a nice
grassy spot and sat with my legs crossed at the ankles and my hands draped over
my knees. “Now what?”

    
“Close
your eyes and clear your mind.”

    
Right.
“How do I clear my mind?”

    
“Focus on
the sounds of the world around you,” he said. “The song of the birds. The
gurgle of the stream. The sigh of the wind through the trees. Let yourself
relax.”

    
I closed
my eyes and listened. I could hear all the things he’d mentioned. The way of
the world talking to itself. But it didn’t take long for thoughts and worries
to creep in and push all that away. How was I supposed to relax when I had so
many things on my mind?

    
“It’s not
working.” I looked up at him. “I can’t do this.”

    
Jonah
laughed, but in a soft kind of way. He slid off the rock. “You can’t expect it
to happen so quick as that.” He came over and sat down in front of me so close our
knees were nearly touching.

    
I found
myself looking around, as if I was afraid of being caught at something. “What
are you doing?”

    
“Trying
to help you relax,” he said. “I know you have a lot to think about and worry
over. Your friend, Hannah, she’s a talker, that one, and she’s told me a bit
about what you’ve been going through. I thought I had gotten a raw deal but
it’s nothing compared to what you’ve been handed.

    
“When I
first came here all I could think about was how unfair it was that I had to be
different from everyone else. That I had to be sent away from my home and my
family. I was afraid, but more than that, I was angry.

    
“It took
awhile for me to get over that, but finding I could help people, I could give
them a chance at some kind of life, brought me around to an understanding. I
could take what was given me and use it to find a purpose for my life, or I
could drown myself in misery. I chose the former. Now, I want to help you. I’m
not sure I can, but what you said was right. I can try. And you can try. But I
think it might help if we were friends first. I want to tell you something.
Something I haven’t told anyone. Not my parents. Not Megara. Not
anyone
.
Can you keep a secret?”

    
As if I
didn’t have enough secrets to deal with already. “Lately it seems to be what I
do best.”

    
“It’s a
big secret. Much bigger than me showing you the hidden exit out of the bunker.
Lives could hinge on you keeping this to yourself.”

    
I sighed.
How could he think pushing something else onto my shoulders was going to help
me in any way? “Why do you want to tell me, of all people? We barely know each
other.”

    
“After we
talked yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking on how my training as a spirit
dragon might help you,” he said. “Somehow, that got me to thinking of other
things. I’ve been here with Megara for a little over five years. I was the
first dragon she brought to the bunker after she and Malcolm got it up and
running again.

    
“And in
that time, I’ve not been the help to her I could have been. Aside from you,
I’ve only been responsible for bringing in one other hybrid. Not because I
couldn’t do better, but because I was
afraid
to do better. Megara
frightens me. She frightens me badly. Her radical ideas are going to get
everybody here killed. I didn’t think I had any hope of changing that. Until
you.

    
“I wasn’t
sure about telling Megara you existed. I fought over it in my mind for years,
weighing the possible benefits against the dangers. But in the end I decided
seeing as how you’d been raised up, if I didn’t tell Megara about you before
some other clan found you, you were good as dead. So I--”

    
“Wait a
minute. I need you to explain something to me.” In case you don’t remember,
spirit dragons can only sense other dragons at three points in their life; when
they’re born, two weeks before and after they come into their powers, and when
they die. “You were in Ireland when I was born. You couldn’t sense me from
clear across the ocean. Could you?”

    
He shook
his head.

    
A weird
sort of feeling was growing inside of me. “So what are you talking about,
years?”

    
“That’s
my secret.” Jonah took both of my hands in his. “I don’t know for sure and
certain how far I can sense other dragons so far as miles and such go, but when
I came to Oregon, I knew you were in Arizona.”

    
“No.
That’s impossible. I was only eleven. My powers weren’t active. You couldn’t
have sensed me.”

    
He slowly
nodded. “I could then, and I can right now. Do you understand what I’m saying
to you?”

    
“Oh my
god.” The implications made my head spin. “You can sense hybrids all the time?
But... but why not tell Megara? How many lives could you have saved by now?” I
wasn’t thinking about my parents or Hannah’s brother. They died long before
Jonah left Ireland. I was thinking about a family I met while I was staying at
the compound. Lance, Crystal, and their baby boy, Toby. A family I tried not to
ever think about because it hurt too much.

    
I saw
Lance and Crystal die. Not Toby. But I knew what happened to him anyway. Because
he was a hybrid. If Jonah had sensed me, he must have sensed Toby too. They
could have lived. They could have been here, safe in the bunker. I shouldn’t
have cared because I didn’t know them but only for a few minutes. But when you
see someone die the way they did, I think it creates a kind of intimacy between
you. It was almost like, if only they could have lived it somehow would have
made up for what happened to my parents. Crazy, right?

    
Jonah
grasped my hands more firmly. “Don’t you think I know? I feel them die. So
small. So helpless. All that potential snuffed out. It eats at me. I’ve held
this secret in my heart because I fear what Megara might do with it. She would
go after them. And how many would die then? You know as well as I she cares not
for those who are innocent. She would burn through anyone to get at what she
wanted.

    
“The
hybrids, Abby. The hybrids are all she wants. All she cares for. The others are
here as a way to pay Malcolm for his help. She doesn’t care about the
renegades. She doesn’t care about your friends. If I told her what I could do,
she’d run me all over this world looking for hybrids. And we’d leave nothing
but death in our wake. Can you understand that?”

    
My mind
flashed back to the empty eyes of the waitress at the truck stop. “Yes. I
understand. It... it’s hard is all. To think of...” I shook my head. “But, no.
You’re right. Telling her would be a mistake. I wish you hadn’t told me.”

    
“I’m sorry,”
Jonah said, and in his eyes I could see he truly meant it. “I know you don’t
need this on you right now. But I was thinking last night that maybe me and you
could do something to stop the madness.

    
“Megara’s
way is all wrong. You don’t change the world by killing everyone who doesn’t
agree with you. You change it by taking the blinders off their eyes and making
them see the truth. She’s everything they fear a hybrid will be, but you
aren’t. You’re what happens when a hybrid is allowed to live and grow without
being hunted down like a rabid dog. We can make the world see that.”

    
I tilted
my head back and looked up at the sky. Did he know what he was doing to me? How
much harder he was making all of this? “I just want to go home.”

    
“Abby.”
He tugged on my hands to make me face him again. “You can’t go home and you
know it.”

    
Tears
slipped from the corners of my eyes with no warning. “I don’t want to know it.”
Then I was crying. I mean, really crying, and I hated to do that in front of
someone I barely knew.