Slayers: Friends and Traitors (25 page)

“I don’t know. I went by a baseball diamond a few seconds ago.”

Jesse paused. “What direction are you going?”

“Um, toward a big parking lot—I think it’s a hospital. It’s not George Washington University. I’d recognize that one.”

“I meant north, south, east, or west?”

Dirk zoomed down low so he could use the building as a screen. Tori followed. “I don’t know. I don’t have a compass on me.”

“Your watch has a built-in compass, Tori.”

Oh. She vaguely remembered Theo demonstrating that feature. “That’s not one of the functions I know how to use.”

Dirk went around the side of the building. Tori skimmed through the air after him, ignoring the windows she passed. If anyone was looking out, she didn’t want to know.

“Do you see any street signs?”

“I can’t read them from up here.”

Jesse sighed, frustrated. “Are you still in D.C.?”

They were flying fast and D.C. was only ten miles long. “I don’t know. I see a football field in the distance. Does D.C. have those?”

“Tori, how could you live your whole life here and not know…” Jesse took a deep breath. “Never mind. I’ll put Dr. B on a conference call with us. He can tell me where your signal is and what direction you’re going. Don’t try to fight Dirk, just keep him in sight until I reach you.”

“Okay.”

Dirk glanced back and saw her talking into her watch. He twisted midair and missiled toward her. She hadn’t expected that and didn’t dart out of his way fast enough. He grabbed her wrist, tugging at the watchband. “This has got to go.”

She tried to twist away from his grasp, at the same time aiming a kick at his side. Still holding on to her wrist, he jerked away to dodge her blow. The momentum spun them both, somersaulting them through the air for several feet. She noticed the hospital windows then, the patients lying in their beds watching TV. Only one young boy was looking outside. He stared at Tori, openmouthed. Yeah, after he reported this incident, his nurses would probably change his medication.

Tori kicked Dirk again, her anger hot and focused. This time the blow connected squarely in his chest with a powerful thud. He broke away from her with a grunt, ripping the watchband off her wrist as he did. It fell from her arm and tumbled downward, a black spiraling splotch that was her only contact with Jesse and Dr. B. She dived after it, caught it like a falcon grabbing hold of its prey, and then searched the sky for Dirk.

For a moment she didn’t see him and cursed herself for going after her watch. She shouldn’t have let Dirk distract her that way. Then she reached for him with her counterpart sense and spotted him darting over the roof.

She zipped that direction. When she reached the top, she sensed Dirk had gone left and low. She flew that way and spotted him soaring along the street toward some trees.

She slid her watch into her boot so Dirk couldn’t take it again and then tore after him. All she had to do was tail him. Jesse would come. Dr. B and the other Slayers would follow in the van. Although, perhaps Dirk had thought about that, too. He was switching directions so frequently that the van would have trouble turning around and switching roads to follow him.

Tori glided over trees, lampposts, and a continual stream of traffic. It didn’t matter where Dirk flew. She wasn’t going to let him shake her off.

CHAPTER 21

Jesse flew high above the National Cathedral, watching for any sign of Tori and Dirk. They had to be down there somewhere.

“They’ve crossed Rock Creek Park,” Dr. B said through the watch-phone. “They’re flying northwest toward Bethesda. Go north. They’re only a minute or two ahead of you.”

Jesse zoomed that way. He still didn’t see any sign of them.

“They’re almost to Connecticut Avenue,” Dr. B said.

Jesse couldn’t read any of the street signs so he had to rely on Dr. B’s directions.

“Too far north,” Dr. B said. “Straighten up.”

Jesse changed his direction slightly. He saw buildings and cars, sidewalks and trees. No sign of other flyers.

“They’ve changed trajectories,” Dr. B said. “Veer right and pick up your speed. They’re moving fast.”

It was frustrating flying this way. Especially since speed worked against him. Twice he’d overshot Tori and Dirk. He’d flown by so fast he hadn’t spotted them darting around trees and buildings. When he went slowly, they pulled too far ahead of him.

“Do you see them?” Dr. B asked.

“No.”

Dr. B let out a sigh. “You and Tori have been out of the simulator’s range for too long. You need to come back and recharge your powers.”

“We can’t,” Jesse said. “If Tori flies away from Dirk, she’ll never find him again. We need to get him now. Tori?” he said to get her attention. He hadn’t heard from her in a while but figured that was because she was concentrating on Dirk and didn’t want to interrupt Dr. B’s directions.

Tori didn’t answer.

Dr. B said, “Tori and Dirk are going to be on foot pretty soon. Tori, in five more minutes you’ll need to stay close to the ground—even if you have to lose sight of Dirk in the process. Don’t fly higher than you can safely fall. Jesse, come back, get recharged, and then when you go to find Tori and Dirk again, you’ll have the advantage. I’m still out in Suitland on the parkway. Fly southeast. Understood?”

“Understood.” Jesse flipped over and headed back the way he came. He knew Dr. B was right. Still it was aggravatingly hard to turn around when Dirk was so close and Tori needed him.

“Tori, understood?” Dr. B asked again.

She didn’t answer.

“Tori?” Jesse called. The silence filled him with a growing sickness. He thought of all sorts of reasons why she wouldn’t answer her phone, and none of them were good. “Could Dirk have captured Tori and put her watch on something else? A car, maybe?”

“Cars can’t cut diagonally over streets,” Dr. B said. “Tori’s watch is flying.”

It didn’t make Jesse feel much better. Wherever Tori was, something was wrong.

CHAPTER 22

The wind pushed against Tori, flinging strands of hair into her face every time she switched direction. Which she did a lot. Dirk wasn’t making it easy to follow him. She soared over treetops and streets, past rows of homes, single-mindedly keeping him in sight.

Dirk flew behind the top of a tall church steeple and then stopped, hovering behind the point. The church below them was empty, the parking lot vacant. No one was around to see the two of them high above the ground.

He looked casual standing there, unconcerned. He might have been pausing after one of their daily camp jogs. “Aren’t you tired of flying yet?” he called to her. “Let’s take a breather.”

Tori cautiously flew closer, glaring at him. It was unfair that he still looked the same. Handsome, open, achingly familiar. She kept the steeple between them.

He watched her and shook his head. “You’re not even going to try and be understanding about this, are you?”

Understanding?
Oh, she understood. She understood that he had just tried to lead her—to lead them all—into his father’s trap. She pointed a finger at him. “You lied to me about everything.”

He shrugged off the accusation with a smile. “No, I didn’t. I probably only lied to you about fifty percent of everything. Is it my fault you couldn’t tell the difference?”

That stung. “Do you know what I
can
tell?” she said. “I can tell where you are. You won’t get away from me.”

His eyebrows hiked up. “Tori, I have a hundred pounds on you and twice the muscle mass. Do you actually think if you took me on, you’d win?” He moved to the side of the steeple and motioned to her to come closer. “All right, I’m game. Go ahead and try.”

He was right, and it irked her. She moved in the opposite direction, keeping the steeple between them. “I don’t have to win. I just have to stick to you until Jesse gets here.”

“Ah, until Jesse gets here.” Dirk’s voice lost its amused tone. “That’s always been my role with you, hasn’t it?”

Tori wasn’t about to let him sidetrack her with that line of conversation. It wasn’t the point, anyway. The point was innocent people suffering; freedom or war, right or wrong. Frustration made the words tangle in her throat so she hardly knew which accusation to fling at him first. “How can you do this, Dirk? How can you help your father attack your own nation?”

He didn’t wince, didn’t show even a flicker of guilt. “We’re not so different, Tori. We both have fathers who are trying to take over the country. You help yours, why shouldn’t I help mine?

“My father isn’t planning on killing people.”

Dirk slowly circled toward Tori. “You want to talk about our nation? Which institutions are you giving your life to protect? The Congress who’s amassed a debt so huge our children’s children will still be drowning in it? The endless bureaucracies? What?”

Tori circled the other way, keeping her distance from Dirk. “Our nation has its problems, but it’s still the best in the world. We have freedom—”

“Oh, it’s the freedom you’re big on.” He stopped, put his hands behind his neck, and leaned back so he looked like he was reclining in an invisible chair. “Let’s examine some moments of freedom in our country’s history. Ever heard about the Trail of Tears? How about the Japanese internment camps? Do you know what went on in Vietnam? The country sent its own sons to fight in a war and then turned its back on them. Do you know how many soldiers they left behind?”

Tori glided closer to the steeple. “And that makes it okay for you to attack innocent people? That makes it okay for you to betray your friends? You just pretended to care about us—”

He leaned forward, losing his relaxed pose. “The reason I turned on my father and freed all of you last summer was because his men shot at you. My father promised me none of you would get hurt—especially you. When he captured you, I went back for you. There was nothing pretend in any of that.”

“Your father’s men are waiting for us in that car dealership right now. How many of us would have been killed tonight?”

“None.” Dirk held out his hands as though showing her something. “I don’t want to hurt my friends. Not you, not any of them. But the Slayers have to lose their powers. Otherwise they’ll be killed during a dragon attack. You can’t win that fight.”

“We did once,” she said.

Dirk shook his head. “Tamerlane nearly killed you in the forest. The only reason he didn’t was because I managed to enter his mind and push him away from you.”

Tori remembered the dragon diving after her into the foliage. It had been so close she could smell his oily breath. “Tamerlane?” she asked. She couldn’t believe Dirk had actually named the monster.

The lines in Dirk’s face hardened. He was remembering that night, too, remembering it very differently than Tori did. His voice went low and was tinged with pain. “That was my father’s punishment for turning on him. In order to save the rest of you, I had to help you kill my own dragon. I didn’t betray you then. I watched Tamerlane die. You don’t know what that was like, Tori.”

The fact that he had done this sparked a flame of hope inside her. He was not completely lost. He helped them before, cared about them before. “You don’t have to betray us now,” she said. “Come back with me. You can help us.” She held her hand out to him, fingers reaching for any little part of loyalty that was still left. “You can be one of us again.”

Dirk moved closer to the steeple, staying only inches out of reach. “No, Tori. You come with me. You’re my counterpart. Haven’t you realized what that means?”

She dropped her hand, didn’t answer him. A Slayer and a dragon lord shouldn’t be counterparts. How could it be possible?

“You’re part dragon lord,” he said. “You have to be. Seeing what the dragon sees and hearing what the dragon hears—those were never Slayer abilities. Dragon lords have them because they can slip into a dragon’s mind and control it.”

Tori felt dizzy suddenly, weak. She stepped backward, forgetting that she was hanging in the air and didn’t have to move that way.

Dirk held out his hand to Tori, beckoning her to come to his side of the steeple. “You’ve been fighting on the wrong side all along and didn’t know it. You’re the one who should come with me.”

She didn’t take his hand. Her breaths were coming too fast and she couldn’t slow them. “I’m not a dragon lord,” she said. “I’m not.” She moved farther away from him, then looked around the sky. The sun was hovering just above the horizon, making puddles of light in the surrounding clouds. Where was Jesse? Why hadn’t he come?

“Jesse won’t come,” Dirk said. “He can’t. He’s better at paying attention to details than you are. I led you out of the simulator’s range nearly a half an hour ago.”

Tori glanced reflexively at her wrist. Her watch was gone, lodged in the side of her boot. She could have fished it out or looked at the cell phone in her pocket. It wouldn’t have done any good, though. She had no idea when they’d flown out of range or even what time it had been when they’d jumped off the Lincoln Memorial.

She looked down at the parking lot. It didn’t seem like she was up that high—which went to show she’d become used to flying at high distances. Logically she knew a fall at this height would kill her. Still, if she moved to the ground, she’d lose Dirk.

She stayed put. “It hasn’t been a half an hour.” It couldn’t have been more than twenty or twenty-five minutes since they’d flown away from the monuments, and they were in range of the simulator then. They didn’t move out of range until they went over five miles away.

Dirk glided closer to his side of the steeple, closer to her. “Tori, you know you’ve always been lousy at keeping track of time. That’s why last summer I always had to yell at you to get your Diored butt out of your cabin.”

For a moment Tori worried he was right. She was in front of the highest part of steeple, with nothing to hold on to or break her fall if her powers vanished. She should move so she was over the roof. That way if she suddenly plunged downward, she’d at least have a chance of stopping herself before she rolled off the pitched roof. But moving to the other side of the steeple would put her within Dirk’s reach.