Dragonrider Academy: Episode 1

good to be back, even though I couldn’t really remember the last time I’d been fully immersed in the lake. A small part of me rang a warning bell in my head, reminding me that Max couldn’t be trusted, and even if I was pretending that everything was okay, I had suffered a great trauma here, one that Julie had just ruthlessly reminded me of.
I don’t know if it was the alcohol, or just my own fatigue with myself, but I pushed all of those feelings aside and twined my fingers through Max’s, going deeper and deeper into the waters until I couldn’t touch the bottom anymore. I let him slip his hands around my waist and hold me close as we lingered behind his buddies who were now seeing who could swim out the farthest.
“Do you think that’s safe?” I asked, noting that it was hard to keep aloft in the water, but Max could still touch the bottom so I wrapped my legs around his waist and held on.
He took my movements to mean something else, apparently, because his fingers ran up my lower back as he hovered his lips over mine. “They can get themselves killed, for all I care. You have me rethinking all of my plans right now.”
“Plans?” I whispered as he drew in nearer, his lips threatening to close the distance between us.
“Hey!” one of the twins shouted. “No kissing the enemy!”
Max chuckled and secured me against him, his hand running low across the curve of my bottom. “You let her wrap her legs around you and you’ll change your mind too, Kevin.”
“Change your mind about what?” I asked, lucidity coming back to me as the cold waves splashed in my face. I tried to untangle myself from the track star who had brought me into some sort of hormone-induced lull, but his hard grip wouldn’t let me go anywhere.
“You’re going to tell us what your mom has on the resort,” Kevin’s twin snapped, his blue eyes rivaling Max’s with their brilliance.
I froze. “What?”
He released a long sigh. “You’re such a downer, you know that, Michael?”
Henry waded over and grabbed me on the arm, threatening to rip me off of the track star but fear made me dig my ankles in.
Max chuckled. “See? She has the hots for me, and hey, if I had realized what kind of body she had under those layers, I would have tapped her sooner.” He grabbed me hard and pulled me in close, slamming his mouth over mine as I attempted a scream.
No. This wasn’t right. This couldn’t be right. Every alarm bell in my head went off all at once and my heart pounded in my chest.
I managed to shove Max off of me and I kicked hard, launching away from him and into the water.
The one problem with having avoided the lake all my life meant I was a poor swimmer. I immediately went under and water closed over my ears, engulfing me in an aquatic roar of sound that blocked out my ability to form a single thought. Instead, my panicked senses rolled over me all at once.
Is Max going to hurt me?
They want information on my mother?
What’s this all about?
Am I going to drown?
The last fear struck a cord and I began to kick, but strong arms hauled me out of the water. I coughed and sputtered and tried to call for help, but I was dunked again.
Just when my lungs started to burn, I was pulled up and met Max face-to-face. Gone was the whimsical guy who seemed to have an understanding with me and kept his distance. Alcohol and my stupid signals had turned him into an evil creature with no kindness left in his glassy blue eyes that had somehow turned dark with the night.
“You don’t want me? Fine. I’m not going to force myself on you, but you are going to tell me what your mother has on the resort. She’s trying to pin ten years in prison on my dad and I’m not going to tolerate this sort of attack on my family all for a pathetic jab at revenge.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I seethed, only to be dunked underwater again. When Max pulled me back up, black spots sprinkled my vision.
“Hey, Max, I think she’s had enough,” Kevin said.
“No,” Max growled, throttling me by the throat. “If we don’t get what we need out of her, my family is ruined, and I didn’t work this hard just to watch my whole future be destroyed.”
I saw the fear in his dark eyes and I realized what he meant. If his father went to prison, his family’s business would pass on to someone else and the disgrace would force him to leave Oakland High. He’d lose everything. His friends, his standing, and his scholarship for when he graduated.
“I told you I don’t know anything,” I snarled, not having the energy or patience for this.
“Then why did you want me to take you to your dad’s old office, hmm?” he growled as he pulled me in close. He hand shot under the water and secured me by my hip, making me freeze as he dug his fingers into my flesh. “You aren’t wearing much, so you were trying to distract me from your real goal, was that it? Well, maybe Julie was right and you want to play the slut now.” He slipped his fingers through my bikini strap. “Let’s see if she’s right.”
Cold fear ripped through me when I realized that Max had just crossed a line, one that would have a terrible end I didn’t even want to imagine.
I screamed and clawed at his face, making him cry out when I caught his eye. He roared and dove over me, plunging me underwater.
Kicking, I managed to get away from him and I went in the only direction I could go.
Down.
IT DIDN’T OCCUR to me that diving into the lake’s depths might be a bad