Page 12 of Scout’s Honor

“Dallas!” Dakota yelped.

Noise and crackling of light exploded behind him. He whirled around in time to see Aven be pulled into the room by swirling blue light. The door slammed and the hallway was left strangely silent.

After a moment, it reopened and Dakota stood there, wearing a pink robe, still tying the tie. “Hey big bro,” she gushed.

Dallas shook his head slightly, not speaking for several long moments. “I broke my everweft,” he finally said. “Can you give me a new one?

Dakota relaxed and leaned against the wall. “Uh yeah… but let me practice on Aven first. In the morning?”

Dallas grunted affirmative. Ready to hit the sack, he headed back to his room, eager to erase all thoughts of Dakota and Aven’s extracurricular activities from his frontal lobe.

The next morning, just before noon, Dallas headed through the quiet house, past the massive fireplace, to Aven and Dakota’s room. He’d slept for six hours, shaved, showered, put on his leg, eaten breakfast, and now he had two hours until he was supposed to meet Maze. He was doing okay. His leg was swollen from all the activity the night before, but it wasn’t too sore, and he was only limping slightly.

Listening for any signs of life, he prowled down the dark hallway. As he drew close to Dakota and Aven’s room, he realized the rumbling noise he heard was Aven snoring. A note on the door read:

I’m in the training room on the third floor.

Dallas headed back the way he had come, down the long hallway, through the hotel lobby-sized living room, to steps leading upstairs. The glass walls showed Dakota doing pullups in a workout room filled with weightlifting and sparring equipment. She wore a gray physical training uniform from her days in highway patrol, and her blue glow was strong, illuminating the walls and equipment.

Dallas made his way inside. Dakota hopped down as soon as she saw him. She grabbed a gym towel and wiped her face. “Hey,” she said, smiling, heading right for a punching bag.

“Hey,” Dallas said. He found a chair and sat, watching his sister go absolutely apeshit on the punching bag for several minutes.

“How long did you sleep?” he asked.

“No sleep yet,” she grunted, shaking her sweaty hair out of her face. “Aven passed out an hour ago, so I came up here.”

“You’ve been up here for an hour with no sleep?”

“Yeah,” she said, coming in front of him, bouncing side to side like a boxer. “Wanna fight? Or run?”

Dallas considered, then shook his head. “Not today, I’ve got ‘Cause’ business in less than two hours.”

Dakota grinned wide. “So you’re staying?”

Dallas nodded, then shrugged. “Yeah, seems like it.”

Dakota smiled, a genuine smile that made Dallas smile back. She hadn’t been too thrilled with him lately.

“Hey, ah, sorry for telling Jameson you’d never shifted,” he said.

She waved her hand and blue sparkles flew across the room to disintegrate against the wall. “It all worked out.”

“I’ll try not to be so overprotective.”

Dakota shrugged. “Eh, it’s in your blood.”

Dallas nodded. “Speaking of which, Mom glowed too...” he said slowly, watching his sister’s face. “Did you ever…?” The surprise on her face let him drop the question. No, she’d never seen their mom’s glow.

“She glowed… like me?” Dakota looked down at herself. “I mean… I don’t glow right now, do I?”

Dallas nodded. “Like a light bulb.”

“Blue?”

“Yeah, blue, but Mom glowed white.”

“What does that mean?” Dakota asked.