The Fawx Bite

VII.

I wandered down the hall towards the kitchen area. If I was going to have to train – again – later, I needed some coffee. I paused when I saw Director Momsen and Dr. Grimm whispering to each other near the entrance of the kitchen. Dr. Grimm said something and Director Momsen began walking down the hall and turned the corner. I waited as Dr. Grimm checked her phone before following. I counted to ten before cautiously following the duo, making sure my sneakers didn't squeak but when I rounded the corner, there was only a wall. And no one else.

Startled, I turned around on myself but there was nothing. There must've been another secret door that the duo had slipped through. I understood that they had secret business but there must've been some reason as to why they had bailed so quickly. And for some odd reason, I just felt unsure with the entire situation.

I wondered if I was acting irrationally. Just because Dr. Grimm's first name was Sophie. Just that name was enough to be wary of. But that didn't give me any actual reason to suspect foul play. I close my eyes and silently cursed myself before heading back towards the kitchen to find some food.

After Echo had made sure that not only I would be thoroughly sore the next morning but purple and blue, I showered and asked Marek to join me for a stroll outside. I hadn't seen him all day, and I actually had missed him. Which surprised me. I wanted to walk next to the ocean, but we weren't incredibly close. I had a feeling that I couldn't exactly hop into a car and drive the five minutes to one, but walking along the near vacant road was enough. And there were trails that we could walk along that hid us from any unsuspecting eyes.

The temperature had dropped to a low seventy, bordering on sixty. Coming from Arizona, this was near winter weather and I couldn't stop shivering. But I didn't want to go back to the house yet, so I dealt with it. Marek feet plodded against the soft ground, his scales glittering a stunning shade of amethyst in the dimming sunlight.

"What did you do all day?" I asked him, tying my hair up into a bun on the top of my head.

"Trained," Marek huffed a puff of smoke into the air. "They have an area not too far from here that I can do flying acrobatics at and so I went out there and just did drills. It was nice, being able to stretch out a bit. Feeling the burn in my muscles. You?"

"Echo attempted to kill me," I muttered. Nice? To feel a burn in your muscles? No, the only good kind of burn was Indian food. Or spicy Mexican food. Like hot and burning and deliciousness. What were these freaking people – and creatures – on?

"I'm sure she didn't actually try to kill you," Marek admonished.

I pulled up my skirt to reveal the yawning bruise on my thigh. "Look at that! She kicked my there, over and over, as an 'example' of how I should kick."

Marek snorted, "Showing by example is the best way of teaching."

"That's not fun though," I whined, finally giving up on trying to walk and just sitting down on a boulder. Marek flared his wings, parting his jaws as he released a stream of smoke into the air. With a groan he shook his head and walked over to sit down next to me, the weeds and grass hissing their protest as his tail swiped over them.

"It's not supposed to be fun," Marek voiced what I already knew in my head.

I stared up towards the sky, the stars peaking through the dimming sunlight. Their brilliance winking to life by the minute. I sighed heavily, feeling the weight spill over my shoulders and over my body. Those silly heroin fantasy books never warned about this, the overwhelming burden that your entire life had changed in just a second. That whatever path you might've been on before was shot to complete shit. And of course there was no warning. Why would there be? Authors wanted you to keep reading, not run from it. And right now, that's all I wanted to do. Run. Even if the tests came back negative and said that there was no way Marek and I were bonded, I was still in danger. I had seen too much, come to know too much. And my only safe place would be within this Unit and that would still separate me from my sister. Still separate me from the world in general. A world that I had desire to be a apart of, in my own strange way.

"This isn't something I desired either," Marek said quietly, interrupting my churning thoughts. "But we have to figure out a way to work through it, to be a team and get through all of these struggles that we will now be faced with. Because if we are not a team, then those that want to hunt us down, the dangers that we will face will ultimately overtake us and we can't let that happen. If we are not bonded, we will still be at risk, as I have come to know too much of a world that is outside the dragons. And you have come to much of the fantastical world that had only be confined within the pages of a book. And if we are bonded, we will be in great danger. As there will be those that want to take advantage of us, that will want to tear us apart to find out how, why, what. We must stick together, we must train, and we must fight. As a dragon rider, though you feel fear, you must feel the fierce desire to cut through any and all obstacles."

I nodded.

"Then fight," Marek growled.