#9 DRAGONS ARE PEOPLE, TOO - YA Contemporary Fantasy

Name: Sarah Nicolas
Title: Dragons Are People, Too
Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy

75 word pitch: 

Sixteen-year-old Kitty is a Chinese weredragon and an operative for the US government's Draconic Intelligence Command, or as she likes to call it, DIC.

When her entire race is exposed to the public, the other dragons are imprisoned, and the President’s son is kidnapped, she sets off on a break-neck mission, uncovering betrayal at every turn. When she discovers the truth, Kitty must choose between obedience to her country and allegiance to dragonkind.

First 500 words: 

Well, crap. Mission Intelligence got it wrong. Again. 

I mean, seriously? Heat sensors? When your operatives have a core body temperature of 142 degrees, that should be the first thing you check for. Deep breaths, Kitty. I daydream about ripping Simon a new one as I scale up the three stories of crumbling stone. 

So now I cling to the east wall of the Lebanese embassy in DC with a diplomatic document pouch hanging from my belt. 

I'm overly conscious of the two security cameras aimed at my back, despite the full-body black catsuit with matching ski-mask that Draconic Intelligence Command (or, as I like to call it, DIC) requires me to wear. Sirens blare, telling me security already knows we're here, but I still can't let them see my face. And, more importantly, I can't let them see me change.

Beside me, Wallace scrabbles, then loses his balance and falls twenty feet to the ground, hitting the wall at least twice in the process. Rookie. His breath comes fast, but he's uninjured. He could probably fall from three times that height without a scratch.

"Kitty." Even his whisper has a British accent. He lies sprawled on the immaculate walled lawn of the Embassy and slowly makes his way to his feet. "I can't make it without changing."

"No!" I yell, then catch myself and lower my voice to something more like a hiss. "Absolutely not. Do you have any idea how many cameras are on you right now? You can make it."

His hooded head flicks toward the cameras mounted around the lawn and back to me. I can't see his face through the black cloth, but something in his body language betrays his panic. I may only be sixteen, but this is Wallace's first mission and I have been training since I was four. Though he's thirteen years older than me, I am the senior field agent; I have to get him through this. Thank the Gods it's not his dragon half that's panicking, just the human half. It's bad, but it's at least manageable. And, you know, not catastrophic.

I soften my voice and mimic the tone my mother uses when she convinces me to do something I don't want to do. "I'm almost to the top. I'll lower a rope when I get there, OK?"

His head snaps up and down in something resembling agreement. I almost feel sorry for him. We had all told him his first mission would be a piece of cake. It should have been, anyway, if it wasn't for those freaking heat sensors. 

It doesn't help that English dragons aren't exactly the ideal operatives for a stealth mission. They are too big, less agile than Chinese or African dragons, and they don't like any situation they can't bully their way out of. But if you need fire power or brute strength, they are definitely the dragons for you.