Free Moon Dragon by J. R. Rain Page A

hadn’t a clue. But I was going to find him and talk to him, dammit.
    A handful of students milled about, some alone, some walking with friends, others standing around and making plans for the weekend. Some lights were on in some of the buildings, but for the most part, the place was closed for business.
    Anthony and I stood at the library’s front entrance, whose automatic doors normally whispered open. There was no whispering now. Inside, through the smoke glass, the place was dark and empty, save for a dim light hanging over the help desk inside.
    “So, Jacky thinks I’ll be ready soon...” continued Anthony. My boy had been talking non-stop since we’d left his practice session with Jacky.
    “Uh-huh,” I said and led him around to the side of the massive structure. Anthony trotted along, pretty much oblivious to his surroundings, so wrapped up was he in his story.
    “But he says I gotta keep practicing my footwork.”
    And to show me what he meant—or just to get some extra reps in—he did just that. His sneakered feet moved rapidly over the wet grass, crossing and scissoring. As they moved, my son moved his shoulders, too, dodging an invisible assailant, moving faster than he had any right to move.
    No, I thought, he has every right.
    He was, after all, now acting as his own guardian angel.
    Craziness, I thought. All of this.
    We were now standing under a floodlight next to the library, where no mom and son belong. So, before anyone spotted us, I grabbed hold of his juking and jiving shoulders—which was no easy feat—and led my son out of the light and over into the shadows.
    “Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” he said, still moving his feet this way and that.
    “I’m going to sting your butt like a bee if you don’t keep it down,” I said, whispering.
    “But Mom...”
    “Don’t ‘but Mom’ me,” I said. “We’re going to break into the library and I don’t want any backtalk.”
    “But...wait, did you say we’re going to break into the library?”
    “I did,” I said, then knelt down and turned around. I motioned to my back. “Climb on, kiddo.”
    “But I’m almost as big as you.”
    “Anthony...”
    “Fine, but if I break your back, then that’s on you, not me.”
    As he climbed on, I considered leaving him here in the shadows...but then shook my head sharply. Hell, no. Meeting the King Creep had freaked me out completely and totally...and I needed more answers, and I needed them now.
    “Hang on,” I said, standing.
    And with my son’s long legs dangling down on either side of me, I took hold of the drainpipe and started climbing.
    Rapidly.
     

 
    Chapter Eighteen
     
    Twenty seconds later, we slipped in through a third-story window that had been left cracked open. I cracked it all the way open. There was no fire escape or ledge, and whoever had left it open hadn’t expected someone to climb three stories up a drainpipe. With her son hanging off her back, no less.
    “This is cool, Mom!” said Anthony, when he slid off and found his feet.
    “Shh!”
    “Oh, right. Sorry.”
    We found ourselves in an administrator’s office, complete with a blinking monitor and a glow-in-the-dark keyboard and mouse and a small, gurgling fountain that was presently running. Wasteful.
    “Come on,” I whispered.
    The office led to a hallway, lined with many doors. The halogen lighting above was off. The floor was polished vinyl squares. I led the way down the hallway toward an “Exit” sign hanging over another door.
    I already knew that my son hadn’t inherited my night vision, which was, apparently, primarily a vampire and werewolf trait. The angel had only bestowed upon him great strength, agility and quickness.
    Good enough, I thought.
    I paused at the door at the far end of the hallway and pressed my ear against it. Nothing. I was fairly certain the door would lead to the main library on the third floor. I turned the knob and cracked the door open a smidgen...
    I heard a door