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Authors: C. J. Hill

Slayers: Friends and Traitors (45 page)

BOOK: Slayers: Friends and Traitors

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He didn’t write Tori. That was the nice thing about having her connected to the fledglings. Later on when Tori and he weren’t so tired, he would visit Vesta and then Jupiter and explain in detail why he’d done what he’d done. You couldn’t argue with history. Conquerors always won by using force. You had to get rid of the dead growth in order to have new growth.

Tori could be part of the new growth, part of the new world, instead of being cut down while she tried to protect a decaying system. She had to realize that.

Because she was the last person in the world Dirk wanted to cut down.

CHAPTER 43

Tori was grounded for two weeks. It could have been worse, especially since her parents weren’t amused by all the videos on the Internet that showed her flying around the Washington Monument with Jesse and Dirk.

Tori told them she had rushed out of the Halloween party at the hospital because she’d forgotten she promised some of her camp friends that she would help them with a stunt project they were working on for a film class. They’d rented expensive equipment and had to get the project done right away. Then Tori told her parents that she’d fought with Dirk because he dropped her phone in the reflecting pool and ruined it, which was why she couldn’t answer any of their phone calls. She ended up breaking up with Dirk and was so upset she spent all night talking with her other camp friends.

It was a lame excuse and Tori was lucky that her parents believed it. They spent so much time lecturing her about leaving without permission, and about not letting them know where she was, and about doing things that ended up going viral on Internet, they didn’t ask her a lot of questions about other things. Her parents made several new rules including ones about what sort of videos she was allowed to be in. As if she needed to be reminded not to put on the Supergirl outfit again. Nearly everyone at Tori’s school had left comments on the Internet videos—critiquing her performance, her outfit, and the obvious Photoshopping that had occurred when Dirk and Jesse had wrestled on the side of the Washington Monument.

Really, when had the public become so jaded?

Dr. B mailed Tori her old watch back with a note saying it was now secure and safe to use. She had been hoping that Theo would come up with something new and less tacky, but was glad to have it back anyway. It made her feel more secure to know she had a way to contact the other Slayers. She called Dr. B right away for an update. She hadn’t heard anything in the news about a dead dragon being discovered in the Catskill Mountains and hoped the authorities were just keeping it under wraps.

Unfortunately, Dr. B’s sources hadn’t turned up any news about the dragon being found, either. “Overdrake most likely removed the telling evidence,” Dr. B said, and then after a pause added, “at least I hope that’s it. I hope Overdrake doesn’t have people in our government who are covering up for him.”

It wasn’t a happy thought.

“In better news,” Dr. B went on, “since the other Slayers’ parents think their children are working with the FBI on a secret drug case, I’ve been able to hold several practices. Chameleon and Aspen are coming up to speed quickly.” Aspen? Tori supposed that was Willow. “The group meshes together nicely,” Dr. B added.

“That’s good.” Tori hadn’t meshed so well with everyone when she first joined. And now she couldn’t help but feel left out. All of them were together. Jesse was getting to know his counterpart and Willow.

Perhaps her feelings came through in her tone. Dr. B said, “We wish you could be with us, but of course it’s a little harder to get you out of school.”

“Which team will Chameleon and Aspen be on?” Tori asked.

“We’ll decide later. Right now we’re practicing as one team.”

Tori heard Bess in the background, talking and laughing with someone. Was it Ryker? Willow? Maybe Jesse?

“I need to go,” Dr. B said. “I’ll call you as soon as we plan any weekend practices. Let me know if you hear anything new from the dragons.”

He told her good-bye, and then Tori was alone in her room. Disconnected from the Slayer world again.

* * *

Tori hadn’t meant to drive to the Natural History Museum on the second Saturday of November—her first official day of being ungrounded. In fact, when she thought about the day at all, it was only to reflect how sad it was that she and Jesse couldn’t meet. Still somehow she found herself driving to downtown D.C. that morning.

It was just to reassure herself that Jesse wouldn’t be there, she told herself. It was closure.

She parked her car at L’Enfant Plaza and walked to the museum. It was only eleven thirty, and she didn’t want to stand around looking at the elephant for a half an hour—she’d already done that in August—so she went up to the balcony on the second floor and walked around while she waited. For closure, nothing else.

Jesse came in a few minutes later. He was dressed in jeans and a jean jacket. He was an achingly familiar face in the crowds that flowed around the first floor. He went and stood in front of the elephant display, glancing around the room. Searching for her. Would he look up here?

Tori moved behind one of the columns that stood on the balcony. She stayed there for a couple of minutes, until Jesse had time to scan the ground floor and the balconies, too.

Then she peered around the column again. Jesse was still standing in front of the elephant display, his hands thrust into his jacket pockets. He looked like he was reading the information on the elephant placard, but she knew he wasn’t. He was waiting for her.

It would be so easy for her to go down the elevator and walk over to him. He would smile, hug her, and then they’d hold hands while they decided where to go for lunch.

Tori wasn’t supposed to do that. She had told herself she wouldn’t. The nation needed her. A-team needed her. If she was strong enough to give up what she wanted most right now, it would mean she had enough self-control to fight the way she was supposed to. To be logical. To do what needed to be done.

A foreign couple stood on one side of Jesse, snapping pictures of themselves with the elephant in the background. Farther down the display a group of teenage boys were pretending to throw spears at it. Jesse stood there, unmoving.

Tori watched him for another few moments, drank in the sight of him, and told herself it would have to be enough. She couldn’t have a relationship with him while they both had dragons to fight.

Tori couldn’t leave the building, not while Jesse stood between her and the only exit. She walked a few steps down the balcony until another column blocked her view of Jesse. Even if he looked up now, he wouldn’t know she was here. She would watch the doorway until she saw him leave.

Minutes went by. Instead of feeling strong or proud of her self-control, she just felt sad, like a plant that had wilted. Self-control was way overrated. She wondered how long Jesse would wait for her, how long she would have to stand here silently, withering.

“Tori.” It was Jesse’s voice, right behind her.

She spun around, surprised. He was inches away. Rugged, handsome, and smiling at her.

“How did you know I was here?” she asked. “You couldn’t see me.” She half hoped he would tell her his counterpart sense knew where she was.

He stepped even closer to her. “I couldn’t see you, but the three guys a few feet away from me could. They couldn’t keep their eyes off someone up here. I figured it had to be a really beautiful girl.” He gestured to her with a sweeping motion. “And here you are.”

“You’re making that up.”

“I’m not.” He fought a smile. “Although I will admit that it helped when one of them said, ‘Hey, isn’t that Tori Hampton? You know, the chick from the Supergirl video.’”

Tori let out a sigh. “I hate the Internet.”

“Your dad is running for president. You can’t really be anonymous anymore.” His smile won out then. He put his hands on her shoulders and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Where do you want to go for lunch?”

She didn’t move. “You know, I was trying to do what you did. I was testing my resolve and being self-sacrificing. At this moment things are looking bad for the nation.”

He slid his hand into hers. “If we stayed away from each other right now, would it really make you care about me less?”

She remembered how she’d felt when the dragon wrapped her tail around Jesse. Tori had known she should shoot through the chains. Instead she connected with the dragon’s mind in an attempt to make Kihawahine let him go. “I guess not,” Tori said.

“Then let’s get lunch.” Jesse tugged at her hand, leading her toward the elevator. “We don’t know how many more moments like this we’re going to have. We might as well enjoy them.”

Tori gave in and walked with him. “I thought being self-sacrificing was what we were supposed to do. Now you’ve muddling my thinking. Apparently one of us is a bad influence on the other. I’m just not sure which of us it is yet.”

Jesse stopped in front of the elevator and pressed the button. “Maybe you were right all along when you told me we shouldn’t break up.”

She smiled over at him. “So you’re saying I’m the one who’s the good influence?”

The doors slid open. “I’m pretty sure I’m the good influence.” Jesse sidestepped a woman with a stroller coming out, then towed Tori inside. “For example, I’m about to remind you that you really shouldn’t be wandering around downtown D.C. by yourself when you know Overdrake is trying to kill you.”

Tori pushed the button for the ground floor. “Do you think Overdrake comes armed to museums and I might run into him?”

Jesse tilted his chin down and gave her a look that said she was missing the point. “You’re the only one of the Slayers that didn’t pack up and disappear two weeks ago. Overdrake knows where you live. What’s to keep him from stationing people outside your neighborhood to tail you?”

“Besides the fact that I watch for that sort of thing now?”

“He’s probably just waiting for a time when you let your guard down. I think you should take one of your father’s security agents with you whenever you go out.”

Tori could have pointed out that she had better senses than her father’s security agents, or that having one along today would have made the moment when Jesse kissed her really awkward. Instead she raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you going to keep lecturing me? I thought you wanted to enjoy these moments.”

He sighed, smiled, and took her hand. “I do.”

She squeezed his hand. “Good, because so do I.”