Slayers: Friends and Traitors (40 page)

Dirk shielded her with his body, feeling the tingle of the fire on his calves as more of his jeans went up in smoke. Time to get out of here before Bridget was scarred by the dragon fire or by witnessing her brother’s clothes burned off alltogether.

Dirk turned on his side, cut a corner, and pushed out toward the middle of the room. He zoomed right toward the observation room window. Jupiter followed, snarling and determined. Good. The harder Jupiter concentrated on catching him, the better. Dirk’s father always said dragons, like horses, had to be broken. You had to show them who was boss, who was smarter.

Dirk reached the observation room window. Holding tightly on to Bridget’s waist, he turned like a swimmer at the end of a lane. He kicked off from the wall and shot up over the dragon.

Jupiter didn’t have the room or the experience to turn as sharply. In fact, he didn’t seem to remember the window was even there. Until he slammed into it. Then he slid downward, flapping his wings feebly. A good crash always took the fight out of dragon for a few minutes.

Dirk didn’t even check to see if Jupiter was all right. He flew to the door, commanding Vesta to run to it, too. He landed, opened the door, then dashed out. Vesta followed him, thrashing her head from side to side as though pulling against an unseen leash.

When Bridget heard the door click closed, she opened her eyes again. Then she gasped. “Vesta got out.”

“I know,” Dirk said. “I’ve got control of her.”
Lie down
, Dirk commanded the dragon.
Don’t move, and whatever you do, don’t relieve yourself out here.

“She’s not supposed to leave the nursery,” Bridget said reprovingly. His sister had picked a fine time to start obeying the rules.

Dirk flew over to the second door, still carrying Bridget. He didn’t want to let go of her. Ever. “We named the dragon Vesta,” Dirk said as he opened that door, “because she’s allowed in vestibules.”

Bridget kept her eyes on the dragon. “Nu-uh. We named her after the Roman goddess of fire.”

Dirk should have known Bridget wasn’t old enough to get the joke. He shut the door firmly behind him and walked to the computer. “I have to keep Vesta away from Jupiter until I put their wall up again. If they fight, they’ll hurt each other.”

Bridget didn’t seem any more eager to let go of Dirk than he was to let go of her. She kept hold of his neck while he clicked through the computer controls. The wall went up. Music filtered back into the nursery. Jupiter folded his wings, turned his back on the observation room, and sullenly ignored them.
We will not speak of this again
, the dragon seemed to be saying.
You never saw me crash into the window, because I’m too dignified for that sort of behavior
.

Dirk needed to put Vesta back into her part of the nursery. He didn’t move, though. That could wait. Vesta would behave as long as Dirk was still linked to her. Right now it was more important to rest his head against Bridget’s hair, to reassure himself that she was safe and in one piece. She smelled of smoke. He would have to make sure she took a shower before she went to bed. He would also need to wash her clothes and throw his away.

“I’m never going inside the nursery again,” Bridget announced. “Vesta is mean. She kept hissing.”

Dragons are always mean
, Dirk nearly said.
They’re vicious, bloodthirsty, killing machines
. Bridget didn’t need to hear that right now. Instead he shrugged. “All girls hiss. It’s a prima donna thing. Anyday now you’ll start hissing, too.”

Bridget lifted her head from his shoulder, her fear finally fading away. “I will not.”

Dirk pushed a strand of brown hair away from her face. He held her gaze to let her know that what he said next was serious. “We can’t ever let anyone know what we did tonight. If you think those dragons wanted to rip us apart—wait and see what happens if Dad and Cassie find out you snuck through the door and I let you go into the nursery with me.”

Bridget’s chin drooped in a guilty manner. “They’ll turn into Mr. Mean and Mrs. Grumpy Face.”

“They’ll turn into You’re-Grounded-for-the-Rest-of-Your-Life Face.”

Her chin drooped lower. “I won’t tell.”

Dirk lifted her chin so he could see her eyes again. “You can’t tell about the things I said to Tori either.”

Bridget’s eyebrows drew together as she remembered that detail—Dirk had gone into the nursery to tell Tori she was in danger. “Is Tori okay?” Bridget asked.

He forced a smile. “Yeah, she’s fine.” The words felt tinny in his mouth, wrong. He had no idea if Tori was even alive.

CHAPTER 39

Tori flew toward the dragon. It had righted itself, and Jesse still had a hold of Overdrake’s rifle. The two were struggling over it. Ryker flew up on the dragon’s other side, his blade out. He was going for the straps. Tori hadn’t seen Overdrake unbuckle himself from his chair, but he must have. He stood up to give himself leverage, then swung the rifle so that he flung Jesse into Ryker. Ryker tumbled backward, away from the dragon. The motion had given Jesse a better grip on the rifle. He nearly yanked it out of Overdrake’s grasp.

The dragon turned its head and looked over its shoulder. It blinked its golden eyes and the next moment fire spewed from its mouth at Jesse and Overdrake.

Lilly and Bess weren’t fast enough to stop the flames from reaching Jesse. Neither of them could have expected it—that the dragon would fry its own master. By the time Lilly extinguished the flames, they had already engulfed Jesse.

He toppled from the dragon’s back, his body armor smoldering. Parts had melted away. He ripped at his chest where the steel plate inside the armor must have heated to an unbearable degree. Tori sped through the air toward Jesse. He couldn’t right himself. She wouldn’t reach him in time and he was going to crash.
No, no, no, no
, she repeated helplessly, and sped faster.

Before Tori could reach him, Ryker swooped down. He caught Jesse and zipped into the trees toward Rosa.

Tori turned her attention to Overdrake, expecting him to be burned, too. He wasn’t. His suit smoldered, charred away in several places. It must not have heated to an unbearable temperature, though. Overdrake sat down on his saddle again, self-satisfied, and aimed his rifle at her.

In that moment two thoughts hit Tori. The first was that Overdrake’s body armor was way better than theirs. They needed to figure out who his supplier was and buy from them. The second was that she was in between Kody and Overdrake. Kody couldn’t send a shock to his rifle without hitting her first.

She dropped downward. Overdrake swung his rifle in that direction, still aiming at her. Then the rifle jerked sideways. Kody was taking care of her. Good. Unfortunately, there was still a dragon to deal with.

It roared and dived toward her. She shot straight up, hoping the dragon would glide by underneath her. It didn’t. It turned and went up, too. Tori kept flying higher, darting slightly left one moment, then right the next. She wasn’t sure what else she could do. If she turned too far in either direction, the dragon would catch up with her. It was gaining on her, anyway, would be on her in a few more minutes.

She should have told Dr. B when she first came to camp that attacking dragons was the stupidest thing anyone could do. Oh wait, she had. She had told the Slayers that they were training for short, quick deaths. But then Jesse had convinced her that her country needed her.

Somehow Tori didn’t take much comfort in those words right now. She didn’t really see how her country would benefit all that much from her being chomped in half on this lonely mountainside. See, this is what she got for being taken in by Jesse’s brown eyes. Attractive guys always got you in trouble.

Tori felt a pang of guilt then, remembering that Jesse was injured. She hoped Rosa could heal all of his burns. At least while the dragon was chasing her, it was leaving them alone.

Ryker, she noticed, was flying up behind the dragon. It wouldn’t make any difference. He wouldn’t be able to cut the Kevlar straps. Not while Overdrake was sitting there. He was facing Ryker and taking aim at him.

Which meant he wasn’t watching what Tori was doing. She needed to take advantage of that, even if it would momentarily put her within reach of the dragon’s mouth. She did a flip in the air, letting gravity help speed her flight back downward. The dragon snapped at her. Missed. It hadn’t expected the sudden switch in direction. Her legs missiled straight toward Overdrake. His rifle was lifted and he shot off to the side a bit—the result of one of Kody’s pushes.

Tori plowed into Overdrake’s shoulder, knocking the rifle into the air. It turned end over end as it fell. Overdrake cursed and plunged off his chair to retrieve it. Ryker dashed after it, too. If Overdrake had the rifle, it would only be a matter of time until he shot some of them. The dragon stopped chasing Tori and dived after Overdrake, no doubt obeying some unheard command.

Good. It gave Tori a few moments. She flew after the dragon, shadowing its back. It was hard to position herself near a strap while the dragon tore through the air. She kept pace, did her best to catch the edge of a strap with her knife. The Kevlar was hard to cut through. Seconds went by without much progress. She wanted to yell in frustration. Even if Ryker managed to get the rifle, in another moment the dragon would catch him. Then it would turn on her. She wouldn’t have time to cut one strap, let alone both—and they would still need to take care of the chains underneath the straps.

An angry sort of hopelessness filled her. They needed a better strategy, better weapons, some way to slow the dragon down. And then Tori realized she did have a way to slow the dragon down. She was carrying it around on her back.

Instead of working on the strap, Tori unhooked her parachute, looped it around one leg of the saddle-chair, then pulled the rip cord. White nylon shot from the pack, opening up until it looked like a giant jellyfish. The dragon jerked backward, slowed by the drag.

It turned its head and shot flames at the parachute. The flames never reached the nylon though. Lilly had been expecting the fire this time. She extinguished it as soon as it left the dragon’s mouth.

Tori went to work on the strap farthest from the parachute. She forced her knife into the middle of the strap and pulled toward her, ripping the fibers. The dragon turned its head and lunged at the parachute. When it couldn’t reach the nylon circle, it turned like a dog chasing its tail. As Tori stabbed her knife into the remaining part of the strap, she glanced down to check on Overdrake.

He and Ryker both held onto the rifle and they somersaulted through the air as they fought over it. Overdrake kicked Ryker hard in the chest, ripping the rifle from his hands. While Ryker spun toward the ground, Overdrake zoomed upward, aiming at Ryker—or at least trying to. Kody pushed the barrel sideways with one of his blasts. The shots streamed out into the forest.

Tori kept slicing through the cord. She was almost through it. She wondered why Bess hadn’t put her force field between Overdrake and Ryker—until Overdrake smacked into the force field while he sped toward the dragon. Overdrake bounced backward several feet, dropping the rifle again. At camp, Tori had run into Bess’ shields enough times to know how it felt. The faster you were going, the more it hurt.

Unable to bite the parachute, the dragon swung its tail at the offending circle. The straps made a pathetic popping sound and the nylon circle fluttered downward, deflated and ruined.

It had given Tori the time she needed, though. The strap gave way to show a chain underneath. She swung her rifle forward, aiming so intently, she didn’t see the dragon’s tail coming at her until it was too late. It swung into her side with the force of a battering ram, sending her reeling through the air.

The impact left her breathless and disoriented. She plummeted head over heels until she smashed into a tree. A second wave of pain went through her. Branches jabbed into her. Bits of bark rained down and a couple leaves fell off and landed on the front of her visor. She slid and bumped downward, then stopped, stuck in a tangle of branches. She caught her breath and took stock of the situation while extracting herself from the branches.

Ryker now had Overdrake’s rifle. Overdrake sped toward him in one direction, while the dragon wheeled toward him from the other. Ryker fired at Overdrake’s legs, attempting to disable him without killing him. The bullets didn’t pierce his body armor. Overdrake kept coming at Ryker.

The Slayers
so
needed to get some body armor like that.

Ryker dashed downward, away from the nearing dragon. Jesse was back in the air again, healed and wearing what was left of his body armor. He held a parachute pack in his arms. He must have seen her strategy and decided to adopt it.

Bess threw a force field between Ryker and the dragon. It gave Ryker a couple seconds’ lead before the dragon pushed the force field away and went after him again. Ryker dived lower and headed toward Jesse. As though they had coordinated it, Jesse flew higher and moved to intercept the saddle. With quick strokes, he attached the pack and pulled the rip cord.

The parachute ballooned out, tugging the dragon backward. While the dragon turned to see what had a hold of it, Jesse went to work on the second Kevlar strap. Overdrake saw what happened. He hung in the air for a moment as though he would turn and go after Jesse, then must have decided retrieving his gun was more important. He rocketed after Ryker again.

The dragon snapped at the parachute, snarling, then swung its tail to break the cords. It had figured out how to get rid of them pretty fast. Still, anything that slowed down and occupied the dragon’s attention was a good thing. Tori sped toward the nearest Slayer. “Kody,” she yelled, “throw me your parachute!”

He took the pack from his back and flung it toward her. It sailed through the air, going higher and faster than she’d expected. She had to fly up several yards to catch it.

Once she had it, she zoomed toward the dragon, circling it so she could approach it from behind. Free from the second parachute, the dragon swung its tail at Jesse. He jumped over it, and went back to cutting the strap.