Part Seven

After a sleepless night of tossing and turning, Dragon pushed open the double doors. Holding her breath, she glided in, every step fluid and graceful so it seemed as though her feet weren't touching the floor. Ethereal as a princess from a child's tale, outwardly aloof; a cold gaze surveying the building. Inwardly, she quaked like anyone might at the thought of the copious amounts of trouble she had landed herself in.

She saw people turn to watch her, saw their eyes fill with horror as they saw the circlet, with the silver hair carefully tousled to hide her horns, and the slinky, figure hugging clothes.

Dragon had never obeyed rules, unless it was to save her life. So she ignored most of what Bella had said, and gone for the gothic look - in silver and midnight blue, shimmering clothes, chunky silver jewellery and boots. Right down to the dark streaks spiralling wildly through her hair, as though someone had thrown ink at her.

Surreptitiously glancing at faces, she saw awe and admiration but mostly fear mirrored there. It didn't take much to realise how afraid they were of her now. She held power over them all. It was no longer the new girl they saw, no facet of her personality mattered. All they saw were the signs that meant she had authority over them.

And Dragon hated it.

Along the hall, people stepped back, eyes showing flares of hate before dropping to their feet. Her eyes met a pair of muddy brown that glowed with approval as she realised it was a coven member. She recognised his endorsing smile for what it was. A pass grade. You passed the test. You are one of us. And *they* know it, his smirk said.

She smiled in heartfelt relief when she saw Jepar and Chatoya waiting by her locker. Finally, someone she could talk to. They were chatting quietly, seemingly unaware of the taut atmosphere when Chatoya looked up over Jepar's shoulder and her eyes widened in disbelief as she paled under her tan. Jepar spun round and did a double take, fists clenching in a reflex he couldn't prevent. This was not going well.

She watched with a sinking feel, a simple premonition, as inevitably Jepar's face hardened and she could sense the anger, disappointment and fear radiating from him. He was afraid of her. Just like everyone else.

He simply glared for a moment, before he snapped out two words. "I see." Ice behind every word. He turned away and strode off down the corridor. Dragon seethed inwardly. He hadn't even waited to see if she had an explanation. Not for the first time in her life she felt like smashing something - possibly Jepar and his attitude - into pieces. In frustration she turned and punched her locker, not even feeling the impact.

* * * *

Chatoya looked at her small friend. Dragon looked so…different with the Doomfire circlet and the clothes. It accentuated her exotic beauty, but also emphasised the ice of her looks. What had she done to her hair? There were blue strips running through it, crowned by the circlet that had what she recognised as quartz sparkling in it.

The witch looked into the 'shifter's face, her feelings much the same of Jepar's and her reaction intending to be quite similar, but what she saw made her feel ashamed of how Jepar had reacted. Terrible loneliness. Anger. But what struck Chatoya most of all was the fear. Dragon was as scared as she was.

"Do you want to talk?" she asked Dragon softly. You need to.

Dragon just looked at her, and Chatoya could see the relief written all over her features. "Yes." But she said in a low, warning tone, flicking her eyes left, to the coven boy watching them with narrowed eyes.

Chatoya tilted her head to one side, thinking how to avoid this latest problem. "I'll meet you outside at lunch. Over by the science block." Sympathetically, she laid a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Don't worry about Jepar. He's an idiot sometimes."

Dragon nodded and slithered away. Gliding in a weird boneless walk that looked very strange.

It was then that Chatoya saw the locker and her mouth dropped open in shock and horror. Dragon had punched through the metal with a mindless violence that made Chatoya wonder if there was more to her witch-shifter friend than met the eye.

* * * *

From then on, the day went from bad to worse. Every lesson, people ignored her, skirting the corridor to avoid her. And every time she met one of the coven members, they smiled knowingly and talked to her in a sinister voice to scare anyone nearby. It was pathetic.

The worst thing was, it actually worked.

But the worst part of the day came in her geography lesson. Right about when she walked in and saw Matt. For an instant, their eyes met and Dragon felt it again. Saw the sparks fly, that weird rainbow light pulling them. Until he looked at her. Really looked. And saw the clothes and the circlet. She saw his eyes widen, surreptitiously read the horrified and disgusted expression on his face. The connection snapped, his strained smile turned on the attractive brunette talking to him. And that hurt.

Somehow, Dragon got through to lunch without exploding, despite wanting to scream with each new shunning. Cougar Redfern turned away, his gold eyes hard. Zara Carmillen, the tiny human, told Dragon exactly what she thought. Finally, She met Chatoya outside, where she found the witch sitting against a wall, squinting in the sun. Chatoya didn't waste time. As soon as Dragon had sat down, she launched into her attack.

"Why did you join?" Chatoya demanded. "And don't give me any excuses. I know you and Bella don't get on. It was written all over you yesterday lunch, even if *she* couldn't see it." She looked at Dragon expectantly. Optimist as ever; but this time, with due cause.

Dragon thought about how to get through this. The best defence was to attack. So maybe the best way was the truth. Or part of it anyway. "Toya, why do you think I'm here?"

"Huh?" Obviously the witch hadn't expected that.

The 'shifter repeated the question, absently twining locks of blue and silver hair together.

Chatoya was caught off guard. "I - I… aren't you checking all the branches? You know, making sure we're not secretly meeting with the Nightworld or something?" She shrugged. "It happens every so often."

Dragon rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. Shadow wouldn't come all the way here himself just for that. Look, I'm here on an assignment. That being to destroy Bella, her chokehold on this town and Circle Doomfire."

Chatoya's jaw dropped.

"You're catching flies." Dragon snapped tartly. Was it really such a shock? It was the most obvious reason why she was here; let's face it, the valley was a long way from anyone and anywhere. It was hardly the ideal holiday spot.

Chatoya got a grip. "Are you telling me you are here to get rid of Doomfire?"

Dragon nodded with exaggerated patience.

"And how do you plan to get rid of Bella Majwiel? You can only kill in self-defence, remember?"

"WHAT?" Dragon shouted. "Bella *Majwiel*? I'm going to kill her. Goddess, that bitch has been running round murdering Nightpeople and no one *stopped* her? What are you playing at?" She was furious. That little…witch was descended from those murdering creatures that had killed her father. Tried to kill her. And now she was killing more people. ~ I'll kill *her* if it's the last thing I do. ~

Now she realised why Shadow kept evading all the questions about who the leader was. Bastard. She had a right to know. Though - and her eyes narrowed for an instant - why would he have brought her here in the first place if he knew about the witch? She dismissed the question, but the uneasiness stayed with her.

Dragon started planning. She had to get rid of Bella before the next 'ceremony'. Four days. Not much time. She was going to need some help; smart, strong help. She had better go and explain to Jepar. See if him and his friends would help. Then, when she had caught them…she was going to make that Majwiel witch suffer. Everything she had done to the 'sacrifices' Dragon was going to do to her. Only slowly. And with a little more creativity and a lot more pain.

"Dragon?" Chatoya's voice was tentative. "Um…what's with the name Majwiel?" She was leaning away from Dragon, the 'shifter realised, looking at Dragon like she was insane. Which was probably how she had looked.

Half her mind was still working out Bella's imminent demise. "I guess you want the to know the truth."

"It might be nice, for once." The sarcasm showed Chatoya was not as calm about all this as she seemed. Dragon hoped she wasn't going to leave if she didn't like what she heard. So she'd better not lie. Chatoya had one hand closed around some sort of stone. Lapis lazuli, she guessed, the stone of truth. If Dragon lied, Chatoya would know. What trust she showed! Still, the dragon knew that she hadn't exactly been honest lately.

"Okay." You asked for it. "I'm a dragon."

"Sorry?" The witch looked blank. Dragon rolled her eyes. "Are you saying you are a *dragon*?" Chatoya stared suspiciously at the dark blue stone in her hand. Goddess, when was it going to sink in?

"No, I'm a human. Of course I'm saying I'm a dragon." ~ If Chatoya doesn't believe me this time, I swear, I'm going to break her neck. ~ Chatoya looked even more bewildered, though Dragon supposed it wasn't surprising; her breed were supposed to be long gone, buried in the catacombs of earth, hopefully forever..

"But…you're a witch." Chatoya's eyes fell to the bracelet round Dragon's wrist. The foxglove stood out on it clearly. "Oh."

"Yes. Half dragon, half witch." Dragon watched Chatoya's face carefully, ready to move at the first sign of any witch fire flying her way.

"That's not possible…is it?" Despite the fact Dragon was sitting in front of her, she was telling her it wasn't possible. Witches!

"Obviously it is."

"But how?" the witch was stammering. This had definitely upset her. Chatoya looked…off-balance. Completely shell-shocked. Her face was troubled and her free hand was nervously plucking at the grass.

"I was born about thirty thousand years ago. I was put in deep sleep. But my father - the dragon - never made it into sleep." Dragon felt, as always, tears of sadness and anger in her eyes. "The Majwiel witches killed him."

Chatoya seemed to have accepted it now. She was listening eagerly. "What about your mother?"

Dragon blinked back the tears. "She put me to sleep. Later she married another witch. She started the Amidefeu family."

"Amidefeu? I've never heard of them." Chatoya looked thoughtful. Then gently, she said, "I'm sorry about your father. But I can't say I'm surprised it was the Majwiel line that killed him. And he *was* a dragon."

"He wasn't like the others." Dragon said miserably. "He didn't like killing. It was horrible then though. There was always fire. There was no night, because of everything blazing. There weren't many humans then, though. Just a few, living in caves. They were hard to hunt. The witches protected them." She saw Chatoya's expression and guessed the witch hadn't thought that Dragon would hunt, too. Chatoya was a lot like Lanaka in some ways. "Every time a dragon walked, it shook the earth. There were volcanoes everywhere. The worst thing was, they didn't care at all. Not one of them, except my father. And he was the one dragon that died." She sat silently. Eventually she remembered the rest of the question. "The Amidefeus live as humans, but they are all trained. The youngest witch, Lanaka, woke me. She's an Angel too, but she just does research, finds the missions. She isn't that involved."

Chatoya said, a little shakily, "That's…it's unbelievable! But I guess its true. And I thought-" The witch stopped, but Dragon knew what she had been going to say. And I thought you were betraying us and joining Circle Doomfire. The witch looked guiltily at her. It's always good to have friends who believe in you, the 'shifter thought resignedly.

"Don't you feel kind of guilty?" The witch's question startled her.

"Guilty? For what exactly? I can't see that having a conversation is something to give me anxiety attacks." Dragon wondered if Chatoya had taken too many herbs.

"About the dragons. Pretty much every 'shifter I've met feels that way. Except maybe Jepar, but he's always different."

Dragon looked at her in faint disgust. "I have no reason to feel guilty. So the dragons tried to destroy the world. They didn't succeed, did they? Besides, what about the Night Wars? They weren't exactly a bundle of laughs." Chatoya looked surprised at her outburst. But it was the truth. Dragon didn't feel guilty. Just sad, because of her father's death. And angry too.

Then Chatoya looked at her and Dragon saw that she looked almost scared. "But Dragon, you were asleep during the Night Wars. How could you know about them?"

Ah. She'd forgotten about that. Still…she had said she would explain. "I'm part witch, right? Visions and dreams run very strong in my family. All the time I was 'asleep' I saw what happened in the world. Simple as that."

"Oh." Dragon would not have liked to be Chatoya then. First, having to deal with the fact her friend was thirty thousand years old and a dragon. Then finding she lacked the guilt all the 'shifters had. Then finding she knew all the Nightworld history almost firsthand. It was probably a shock. She seemed to be coping with it okay, though. She saw Chatoya glance down at her hand in disbelief. That was the one holding the truth stone. The witch looked up, realised that Dragon had noticed. Tentatively, she uncurled her hand and held out the stone to Dragon. "Do you know what this is?" she said apprehensively.

Dragon took the stone and tossed it in the air, catching it easily. She decided to make Chatoya squirm a bit, for not trusting her. "No. Go on, enlighten me," she said, putting as much ice as she could in her voice, making her stare hard. Dragon knew exactly how she looked now. Like an ice creature. She sat perfectly still, holding herself upright, cold silver-white eyes fixed unblinkingly on the witch, hair falling down her back like an arctic waterfall.

Chatoya blushed. "Um…it's a lapis lazuli. Witches call it a truth stone. With it we can, um, tell if anyone is lying." She finished quietly, hanging her head.

"Thanks for your trust." Dragon muttered, but she stopped glaring at Chatoya, seeing how upset she was.

Then Chatoya's head lifted, and she said angrily, "Well, you haven't exactly been honest, have you? Letting us believe you were just here to check up on us."

Dragon winced. All of that was true. Still, she had her reasons. But somehow she didn't think telling the witch that was going to calm her. "I'm sorry." She said, smiling wryly. "What can I say? I guess I should have told you, but I didn't know you then."

"Well, you're going to have to tell Jepar. And Matt Wolff." Chatoya was watching her closely.

"You what? Jepar, fair enough, but why should I tell that vermin anything?" She felt pretty guilty for calling him vermin, but then Dragon wondered why. He was vermin. He was a Daybreaker. Two of the things she despised most. Or at least that she should despise. Truth was, Dragon liked humans. Liked and respected them. A lot of them were pretty brave. She'd seen a man, who'd been faced with three 'wolves and a few vampires thrown in., while he was being rescued. He'd joined in the fight and broke a few bones.

True, some humans screamed and cried and basically collapsed in useless heaps. But they were usually facing certain, slow death from strange creatures they'd never imagined. She even had a certain amount of respect for the vampire hunters. Most of them had suffered from things the Nightworld had done.

In fact, the only people she really hated were her own. The dragons. Tiamat. Azhdeha. Hashteher. A thousand different names, all for the same thing. Destroyers. Real live demons. The dragons.

Then before Chatoya could jump in, she said, "Fine, I'll talk to them both."

"Good. But I'll explain to them about you." Well, that made things easier on Dragon. Though she had the feeling Chatoya wouldn't be complaining about talking to Matt. She was more than a little surprised at the pang of envy she felt. Envy? Why? She barely knew him. All he was to her was a guy who she had to protect.

Yeah sure. You know he's more than just vermin, a little voice said. Oh, for Goddess' sake, get lost, Dragon thought tiredly. She had worse things to worry about than that. Like the Majwiel witch. Her eyes gleamed with an unholy light as she resumed her planning. She was so involved that she didn't even see Chatoya leave, a troubled and thoughtful expression on her face.