Shifters: Blood of Dragons (Editing,I promise!)

Chapter 13

The next day was a frenzy of packing food,weapons,tools,and figuring out which cars to take. I was driving my charger,but four was it’s comfortable capacity,so Mom and Dad were trying to figure out another vehicle to take. it wasn’t until just before we left that i ran into Cassidee. “Did you know?”she asked, stopping me.

“know what?”

“Mark. he’s a dragon. no,i know you knew that,”she added,forestalling me. “but did you know he was...mine?”

“what do you mean,yours?”

“not actually mine. I was a nest mother years ago. not for very long,too much distrust. but long enough to have my nest raided and half the eggs taken. one of them...my brother.”

“whoa,wait,”I looked around at the bustle around us and then grabbed her arm and dragged her around a corner where we were less conspicuous. “your brother? you have a brother?”

“yes. he was just old enough to learn human form when we were raided.”

“wait,but that means--”I scoffed. “Mark’s a Magma?”she nodded. “he thinks he’s a Blaze.”

she snorted. “he’d be the most powerful Blaze in history,then. the only occasions when a Blaze had that much power,they turned out to be Magmas.”

“Have you told him?”

she didn’t meet my eyes. “he has a family. he has a brother,and parents. what is he going to think if i tell him his mother is trying to kill you? and, until recently,I did,too.”

“yeah,but,Cass,he has to know.”

“don’t tell him. Please,”she persisted. “I’m not ready for him to know.”

“fine. I’ll leave it to you,but you have to tell him eventually.”

“maybe.”

“you will.”

a blue pickup drove by and Ryder honked from the driver’s seat. “Mary,Cassidee! let’s get!”

“come on.”as we walked out towards the car,Maya came walking up with Larissa in hand and Angel following. “I figured you’d want to say goodbye.” I knelt in front of Angel,who came forward boldly to sniff me. i ran my hand down her short,soft mane and kissed her nose,which made her shake her head and retreat. then i stood and put a hand on Maya’s shoulder. “I’ll be back soon.”

in the car,I was leaning over to buckle the seatbelt when Dylan held something out to me. I took the piece of photo paper and looked at it. Jean clad legs with boots on the feet, and four chestnut legs with knee socks were displayed behind the small bay filly and the girl kissing her nose. I smiled. “where’d you get a Polaroid camera?”

“gift shop.”he grinned and i laughed. then i looked at the picture. my eyes were closed in the picture and I looked totally relaxed. “do you still have it?”

“the camera? sure.”he handed it over. I looked it over,then put my eye to the focus and snapped a picture. Dylan flinched and blinked. “what was that for?”instead of answering,i tucked the resulting picture into my pocket along with the one he’d given me. then i gave him back the camera and put the car in drive.

several long hours later,when it was getting dark,we pulled to a stop in what used to be the parking lot of the House. when i got out,I took a deep breath,feeling that warmth that always came with being close to Valgoth. “he’s here. I can feel it.”

“he’s under the mansion?”Dylan asked,getting out.

“this place was built for the purpose of protecting him.”Mom said. “it was a family home. it only became a Hunter House after the fire. then your father started bringing in recruits and hiring veteran hunters to train the younger ones.”