Part 21

It had been right in front of her. Sephra wondered how she could have missed it. The girl had been distinctively creepy and weird. Not normal.

^She doesn't know^ Sephra thought. She turned her gaze away from Caprice, focusing on her work. It was very unnerving to be sitting next to a dragon who didn't *know* they were a dragon.

From what she'd heard the girl had been labelled a freak and outcast most of her school life. She'd just *accepted* she was different. Her powers had never been released.

Sephra didn't know how Caprice had done that. She wouldn't be able to stand being a pariah. She had always liked to be part of a crowd - or rather, in charge - of a crowd.

There had to be something going on to keep her interested.

Now she had ultimate power within her grasp. Dragons had ruled over the world back in their day. Had the power to shapeshift into *anything*. Who knew what else?

What she wouldn't give to be like that...

She didn't see Leandra until lunch. She couldn't wait though another *two* boring hours of classes with her news. ~I know who the dragon is~ she said to Leandra, settling for telepathy.

~What?!~ The loud, shocked sound of Leandra's mental voice inside her head nearly knocked her off her chair. Caprice glanced at her oddly.

~You heard me, I know who the dragon is. She was right here under our noses the whole fucking time, we just never put two and two together.~

~I don't fucking believe this~ Leandra sounded disgusted. ~It's Caprice, isn't it?~

~She's got *horns* on the back of her neck, under her hair. We never saw them.~

~I never knew they were horns. We saw them once when she had her hair tied back and thought they were just gross deformities.~

Sephra could almost see Leandra's nose wrinkle. ~That's why you call her freak.~

~That, plus she's just weird period. Now what?~

Sephra didn't know. She couldn't exactly turn to Caprice and say you're a dragon. She didn't know what type of reaction it might provoke.

Did dragons look like they did in the fantasy movies? It was hard to imagine seeing one in a modern world.

~I don't know. But we have to be careful. We can't arouse her suspicions. We don't know what she's capable of.~

She had a feeling that Caprice might already be a little suspicious. The bell rang and everyone flooded out the room. Sephra lost sight of Caprice.

She *didn't* however, loose sight of the guy who claimed he'd killed her. In another life, maybe. The thought was dismissive, but then Sephra thought again. Past lives weren't stories. There were such things. Old Souls, people who just kept being reborn again and again.

But not vampires. It didn't happen to vampires because vampires didn't have souls. So how was a past life possible for her? She didn't exactly belong in the soul-moral camp.

Lucifer Draigh would require some investigation.

~I know!~ It was Leandra again. ~We'll send Ash to kidnap her. She won't recognise him~.

Sephra sighed. Why did she have the feeling that Leandra's plan was almost inevitably going to go horribly wrong?

* * *