Conjuring Dragons by Chante Francis (tools of titans ebook .TXT) 📖

took a deep uneven breath before turning on his heel and running out the house. With Octavia on his trail. I turned and walked back up the stairs to my room quietly listening to the aching thump of my black hole. I got to my room, opened the door and found it empty. Rather than search the house for my sister, I walked over to the bed and fell on it, turning my head away from the door to stare at the paint on the walls. I stayed like that, not moving and trying hard to breathe for hours. My mind completely blank, my mouth wired shut and my eyes glazed over just staring at one spot on the wall.

Many times I heard someone approach my room just to hear them turn and walk away at the last second. Of course my sister and the adults came to visit continuously, but when I gave them no response they just seemed to stop.

At some point, I heard whining and muffled voices, it sounded like someone wanted to come into my room but they were being held back. Two minutes later I heard the pitter patter of little feet in the hall and then my door flying open.

"Jypsie lets go swimming!" For the first time since I climbed into my bed today, I turned toward my now opened door to see Priscilla and another little girl standing there in their bathing suits. "What's wrong?" Cilly asks me while dragging her friend along further into my room. I don’t answer, I just look at them, "We don't have to go swimming today if you don’t feel okay." She says standing in front of me. “We went over to Olivia’s house to play for a while before coming here so we’re kind of tired too.”

I sigh and get up, "No. I made you a promise, one I plan on keeping. Just give me a minute to change into my bathing suit okay?"

"Okay!" She says cheerily, "This is my best friend Olivia!"

"H-h--hi." The other girl, Olivia, says shyly as she hides behind Priscilla.

"It’s nice to meet you Olivia." I travel over to the closet where whoever washed my new clothes stashed everything. Putting on my bathing suit slowly, I use the time to push today’s events to the back of my mind. I’ll have to deal with it all later, right now I’m going to go work on my tan and have fun with my future little sister. I walk back into the room and head towards the door expecting both girls to follow.

"Wait!" Priscilla screams as she runs into the closet with her friend right behind her. I hear a quietly mumbled conversation before they both break out and run towards me with a thin white dress and black flip flops. "Put this on over your swimming suit. Olivia chose it, it matches!" She says to me with pride. I take it and slip it on thanking them both before walking out of my room and towards the stairs.

I stop for a few seconds and survey the room full of boys and girls watching football. My eyes stop on Carter and Veronica for a bit and she nods at me, before I continue and stop on Phaedron with Octavia sitting in his lap. Damn she moves fast. I see Alec with a blushing Silvana sitting on his lap and a few other people that look familiar but I don’t know. There’s one girl sitting in the corner by herself looking like someone I used to know, but it can’t possibly be her because she died. It’s still so out of place though that I can’t seem to get it out of my head for a while.

Priscilla and Olivia walk ahead of me towards the pool in the courtyard. Now it’s my turn to follow after them. I know if I look up things will come back to me, so I walk looking straight ahead, focusing on the slapping of my flip flops on the linoleum. Everyone turns around and starts checking me out, who knows what’s going through their heads. With great effort on my part, I ignore them keeping my mind on the prize. The pool.

"Jypsie." Slap. Slap. "Baby please..." I don’t hear anymore as I step through the sliding doors and head over to the lawn chairs.

The rest of the day goes by uneventfully as I watch the girls play in the pool, and then help bathe them for dinner. Olivia gives me a hug before she leaves with Phae and her sister. I walk back to my room and slowly start getting ready for bed finally dealing with today’s events.

I got in a fight and won. I exposed my powers and my sisters, but I don’t feel guilty. I got suspended from school and for once I regret it, because I won’t see my new friends as much. I got my heart ripped out, stomped on, grilled, barbecued, sautéed and flambéed. All over a guy I don’t even love. I could have loved him though, I can feel something there. Between us.

"Jypsie." I turn to see Jason standing in front of our bedroom door.

"Get out. I don't want to see you right now." My voice is so sharp I wonder if I can actually use it to carve him a new one. I wonder if I can use it to make him feel how I do; I want him to know my pain. “You can sleep in the guest room tonight.”

"We have to talk."

"I don’t want to."

"I don’t care as long as you hear what I have to say."

"Forget this. I'll just sleep in one of the other rooms if you’re not going to leave this one." I move to walk past him and out the door.

"Woman!" He snaps at me and my eyes widen. I’ve never seen him this pissed in the 30 hours or so that I’ve known him. It's quite the turn on. "Sit your ass down on the bed and listen to me. I’m tired of this avoidance shit you’ve been pulling! You’re damn wrong if you think I’m going to just let you walk away from me again!"

I obediently walk back and sit on the edge of the bed looking him up and down in surprise. "Nothing is going on with me and Octavia anymore. She and her dad came over like 5 minutes after we got home, she was nervous about being near you again so we turned on the TV to calm her down. We didn’t want any more fights breaking out because the furniture was not cheap. When she was ready we were going to call you downstairs. Then we started fighting over what channel to watch, she took the remote from me and I was just trying to get it back. That’s when you suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs looking completely void."

"Are you saying you've been downstairs watching TV since we came home?"

"Yea. Why? Were you looking for me?" My whole body freezes. If he was downstairs the entire time, who was that in the guest room? "Jypsie?"

My hands get clammy and my mouth goes dry, "You said suddenly appeared at the stairs, you didn’t hear your mom call me?"

"She was watching us and cheering Octavia on. No one had called you yet Jyps." My breathing gets off track and he notices, "What is it? Baby what's wrong? You okay? Shit! Do you have asthma?!" He's throwing his hands all over my body trying to find where I’m hurt, trying to figure out what’s wrong with me. "Veronica!" he yells panicked.

As if on cue, she glides into my room looking bored. "Fix her!" He yells and moves to sit next to me on the bed. My vision starts going and I see black dots, every breath hurting more than the last as my lungs try to give out. I’m vaguely aware of Veronica walking towards me and helping me stand from the bed. She hugs me and whispers, "What’s wrong baby? You look like you’ve seen a ghost." She licks my cheek.

I snap to and shove her so hard she falls to the ground with a smirk. Just as the real Veronica runs into the room with everyone behind her. She walks over to me having the same reaction I did as she grabs my hand tightly. "Didn’t think you'd get away from me that easily did you my love? Have you forgotten that we share a bond? I will always find you." The figure on the floor says to us before laughing maniacally as it transforms back into its true face. We watch in quiet dread as the person, the boy, turns into a liquid tar like substance and drips into the carpet, then ultimately through the floor boards below it. Gregory, Matthew and Rebecca all run down stairs to see if he’s there, but I know he isn’t.

Veronica and I sink to the floor where we are and start sobbing uncontrollably before we're lifted away from each other. Jason absent mindedly, cradles me while all kinds of thoughts are probably flying through his mind.

All the adults that left return back to the room with confused and scared looks, "What the heck is going on?" Rebecca asks clinging to Gregory.

"The better question would be who the hell was that?" They file into our room and take seats around us.

"That was a mistake." Veronica whispers, "A huge mistake."

 

Chapter 13: Armed and Dangerous

Chapter Thirteen

 

 

 

"Keep talking."

"It's a long story." I whisper.

"We've got time." Everyone finds a comfortable spot in the room surrounding Veronica, Carter, Jason and I. I see both moms trying not to stare at the half naked women on the walls and notice Jason’s slight blush.

"Um--"

"Wait!" My mother jumps up, "Let me go get you two something to drink, I'm sure your parched." She waddles out of the room with her husband on her heels. Not sure if that creature is still in the house or not, they don’t want anyone moving around alone. Rebecca and Gregory go to check on Priscilla and end up brining the sleeping child back with them. After a while Gianna finally returns holding two glasses, her husband with a large pitcher of liquid. She hands us each a glass, and he pours the liquid into our cups. We wait until everyone gets comfortable, quietly sipping our drinks, before we tell them our tale.

"What is this?" Veronica asks.

"It’s kind of strong don’t you think?" I say looking in the cup and swirling its contents around curiously.

"Yea but it tastes pretty good."

"It’s a specially blended iced tea with a few extra leaves of some edible calming herbs mixed in." My mom says with a small mischievous smile. “It’ll help you not only get the story out, but it’ll help you remember the details of it as well.”

"Never had iced tea like this before..." I say as I continue to drink it. "It makes me feel a little funny, must be the herb." Jason takes the cup from me and I can't help but frown as he drinks some of the delicious liquid.

"This tastes like..."

            My mom cuts him off, "So girls, I believe you were about to tell us what’s