by H G Lynch
Ah, clever. She didn’t want to get blood in her hair.
The guy in the chair obviously had the same thought, because his thundering heart rate took a leap, and he began pleading in a broken voice. “No, please no! I can’t tell you! They’ll kill me! Please, they’ll kill me!” he screamed.
Reid hoped the neighbours couldn’t hear. The last thing they needed now was the police knocking on the front door.
“And what do you think we’re going to do, biscuit? Have a tea party?” Ember used that same sugar sweet voice, yet somehow, it sounded sharp and cold as glass.
The guy looked horrified, as if he hadn’t truly believed she’d do it until just then. Reid almost laughed.
He did crack a smile. “Ah, my poor man. This is why your little organisation is going to fail. Whatever your plans are, your underestimation of Ember will ensure that you are the only ones who will die.” He grinned, leaning close to the boy to murmur conspiratorially in his ear, “You see, she’s really quite the lethal little firecracker. You don’t want to get on her bad side. I’ve seen her do things even horror movies would be afraid of.” He chuckled, and moved away from the boy.
The poor guy looked ready to have a heart attack, he was sweating and sobbing and shaking all over. Reid almost felt sorry for him. After all, he was just a lackey, doing his job. Too bad his job really sucked. At this point, quite literally.
“He’s all yours, Emz.” Reid sat back in his chair to watch the show.
She raised her brows. “You don’t want some? I don’t mind, honestly. It’ll make a nice change from squirrels and blood bags.” She ran her finger down the side of the boy’s neck, and watched him shiver.
The guy wriggled, straining to lean away. He was more likely to break his wrist doing that.
“Actually, I ran across a paedophile in the park yesterday, before you called me back about Raz. I must’ve forgotten to mention it. He tasted awful anyway, bitter and sour.” He pulled a face to show his disgust, glanced at the boy, who paused for a second, then resumed struggling.
Ember shrugged. “Well, let’s hope this guy tastes better. I hate the bitter ones.” She drew her lips back, and her dainty, lovely little fangs sprang out, pearly white against her rosy lips.
He had to admit, it gave him a little shock every time he saw her like that — A good shock, of course. She looked wild and sexy. Her eyes took on a metallic shine, like the surface of a still lake.
The boy gasped and gurgled, and she cast him a distasteful look.
“No! NO! Please, I’m begging you! Please, don’t! PLEASE!” the guy screamed, his eyes darting around the room, skipping over Reid, assuming quite rightly that he’d be no help, and landing on Hiro. Reid had forgotten the Kitsune was still in the room. Right now, his caramel skin was dark, his eyes narrowed, his head tilted quizzically. The guy pleaded with the Kitsune. “Please! Don’t let her do it! Please, man, stop her!” Tears ran down the boy’s face, and Ember sighed.
She looked at Reid, clearly exasperated. Her voice chimed in his head, I hate it when they cry. I pity them.
He chuckled. Hiro was still staring intently at the boy. Then he groaned and ran a hand through his red hair, messing the spikes. “Fine! I can’t believe I’m going to do this,” he muttered, seemingly to himself, then he looked at the boy again, who looked like relief was crushing him. “I’m going to make a deal with you. I’ll save you from her, in exchange for one little thing,” Hiro’s eyes glowed reflectively.
Reid couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How did this kid think he could save anyone from Ember? It’s wasn’t exactly his place to do anything.
Ember was frowning, but she looked intrigued. Curious as ever.
The boy nodded vigorously. “Anything. You can have anything. Just don’t let her hurt me!” he yelped.
Hiro nodded calmly, moved toward the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll save you, and in exchange, I want just three years of your life,” he said casually, as if he were asking to borrow a bowl of sugar.
The boy’s eyes widened. Ember tilted her head in confusion.
Reid snorted. He should’ve guessed. Damn Kitsune.
“Don’t you have to kiss him to take that?” he asked, part honestly curious, part mocking.
Hiro shot him a glare. “I don’t discriminate in these situations,” he answered shortly.
Reid held up his hands in defence. “Hey, just wondering. You go ahead.”
Ember looked caught between laughter and bafflement.
Reid slid closer to her and whispered to her, “Remember how I said some Kitsune feed on a person’s spirit. When they do that, they take years off the person’s life. And they usually need some sort of…intimate contact. It can be sex, but kissing works just as well,” he explained in a hushed voice.
Ember’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t decipher her expression.
“Do you agree?” Hiro was asking the boy, “Three years off your life, and you get to live another sixty.”
The boy gulped, his face was ashen, but he nodded. “Sure, okay,” he agreed.
Hiro grinned, took the boy’s face in one hand, and tipped it up to his.
Reid looked away. He didn’t have a problem with homosexuals, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed watching guys kissing. Not his thing.
When it was over, Hiro sighed and stepped back, licked his lips. “Delicious,” he said with a smirk.
The guy in the chair wasn’t struggling anymore, but he did look like he might throw up. Ember was staring at him with the sort of fascination he’d seen her watch nature documentaries with. Then he remembered something she’d said once, or rather, something she’d thought. About him and Ian Somerhalder. He frowned at her. She must’ve felt his eyes on her because she looked at him and blinked.
“What?” she asked innocently.
He shook his head.
She stared at him for a moment, then something clicked behind her eyes and she grinned. “Don’t worry. I never actually meant that. Guy on guy doesn’t do it for me,” she assured him.
“Pity. And here I was hoping I could get some dirty feeling out of you,” Hiro muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
The poor boy in the chair was slumped forward, making odd whimpering noises.
Ember looked at Hiro with a shine in her eyes. “By the way, just how do you plan on stopping me from killing him?” she asked quietly.
“Actually, I don’t. I just assume you won’t want to kill an innocent guy after he tells you everything you want to know.” He shrugged, plonked himself down into one of the armchairs shoved up against the wall.
Reid narrowed his eyes at the Kitsune. “And you think you can make him talk, when we couldn’t?” he enquired, sceptical.
“I know I can. He’ll have no choice.” Hiro nodded, then sighed at their uncomprehending looks. “Okay, it’s one of my powers. You know, the ones I didn’t want to tell you about. Some Kitsune have the ability to make people tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I happen to be one of them. Lucky for you, huh?” he smirked smugly.
Reid blinked. Huh. He hadn’t expected that. Not at all. But, yeah, it could definitely come in handy. He was starting to like this Kitsune after all. He didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him, but he didn’t hate the fox so much.
“Don’t tell me, you just need to threaten to kiss him again?” Reid joked, grinning.
Ember shot him a reproachful look, which he ignored.
Hiro glared. “Ha ha. Asshole. No, I just need to touch his temples, and he’ll tell you everything he knows about The Society, down to the last detail — But it might not be much. This guy’s probably just the lackey of a lackey of a member. Nowhere near the top of the food chain.”
It was exactly what Reid had been thinking himself.
He nodded. “Any information is better than what we’ve got now, which is exactly zip,” he said mildly.
“But we can’t take everything he says as gospel. He wa
s told I’d been kidnapped. If he’s been lied to about anything else…” Ember made a good point. But still, anything this boy had to say would help.
Hopefully.
Hiro got up and went to stand behind the boy’s chair. Just then, Sherry and Ricky reappeared. Sherry was looking less pale, and Ricky had a half-fearful expression on his face, as if he was scared of what Reid and Ember might’ve done to the living room. After a moment of examining it, seeing no blood on the walls and the guy in the chair still breathing, he visibly relaxed.
“Did you get anything out of him?” he asked cautiously, frowning at the slumped boy, who was muttering something to himself under his breath.
Reid made a disgusted noise, and looked at Hiro.
Hiro shrugged. “The more the merrier,” he said with a careless wave of his hand.
“We were just about to actually. Seeing as scaring the hell out of him didn’t work, Hiro made a deal with the little bastard. And he was just about to give us a show of his incredible fox powers.”
Ricky’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Huh. Do explain.” He sat down on the sofa that was pushed against the legs of the dining table, and Sherry sat with him, her hand clasped tightly in his.
“Better yet. I’ll show you. Sit back and enjoy the show, people.” Hiro grinned, gestured for them all to take their seats.
Reid scooted his chair back and Ember sat on his lap, flashing a smile at him. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist, and she relaxed into him. Her hair tickled his throat, light and soft as silk. That sumptuous scent of grapefruit and sandalwood teased his nose, warming his lungs. Any doubt he’d had about her earlier freezing act had vanished. She might be incredible, but she was still human — So to speak. She could still get scared. Hell, he’d seen her fear for him before, and he was damn near impossible to kill, if he did say so himself.
“Okay, pay attention people, and take notes if you must, ‘cause I’m only going to do this once,” Hiro announced.
Everyone waited in silence, watching him.
He took a deep breath and put his fingertips to the temples on either side of the guy’s head. To start with, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the air changed. It seemed heavier, thicker, like fog. Hiro’s closed eyelids flickered, his mouth drew into a thin line. He looked like a statue carved from copper, standing there, barely breathing. His red hair glowed with an unholy halo of fire.
Suddenly, the fragile skin at the boy’s temples turned blue — Bright, electric blue. Reid almost gasped, but sealed his lips. Ember, though, did gasp, putting one hand to her mouth. A look of pain flashed across Hiro’s face, but it was gone in an instant, his expression smoothed out again to careful emptiness.
With an abruptness that made everyone in the room flinch, the boy’s head snapped up, his eyes wide and blank as white marbles. His lips were a very pale blue, complementing the blue at his temples. Hiro’s mouth was moving, just barely, but Reid couldn’t hear or make out words. The boy, unseeing and clearly under some sort of very powerful control, spoke in a dead, lifeless voice,
“I was told by my group leader, a man who calls himself Zero, that our group had to watch the university campus and if the Elemental girl showed up, we had to rescue her from the vampire kidnappers. He said the knife wouldn’t hurt the vampires much, but if any of us got close enough to the Elemental, the vampires wouldn’t attack, for fear we might cut her throat. We were not to actually harm her in any way, especially not spilling her blood, as the consequences would be disastrous. When the Elemental arrived on campus, Zero got orders from The Professor, which he relayed to us through earpieces. He said our task was near at hand and if we failed…there would be consequences. If we were captured, we were not to divulge any information, not a word, even on threat of death. We had been given an experimental mixture to prevent compulsion. Few people know who The Professor is, beyond that he is the head of the whole operation. He is working on some sort of top secret project that requires the blood of the Elemental. Only the girl. No other would do. She is special, with extraordinary powers…” The boy finished speaking and fell forward so suddenly that he probably broke at least one bone in his wrist.
Hiro let out a half-strangled sigh, stumbled, and toppled to the floor.
Ember leaped off Reid’s lap and went to him. “Hiro? Hiro, are you okay?” She put her hand gently on the Kitsune’s shoulder.
Reid stood and paced to the boy in the chair, tipped his chin up. He was unconscious again. Good. That would make it easier to erase his memory of this whole thing. Ricky helped Ember heave Hiro onto the sofa, and Sherry muttered that she was going to get a glass of water, before vanishing out of the room. She returned a moment later with a glass of water in hand, and knelt by the sofa. Groaning, Hiro came to, blinking open his odd eyes. Sherry handed him the glass and he gave her a weak smile.
“Thanks, Chickadee.” He took a sip of the water and put a hand to his head. “Jesus, I forgot how much doing that hurt,” he grumbled.
While everyone tended to the fallen Hiro, Reid touched the unconscious boy’s forehead and began carefully erasing memories, leaving as much as he could afford to. It’d be a shame if the boy woke up and thought it was still November. It took several minutes and a little mind twisting, but eventually, he was satisfied that the boy wouldn’t be screaming vampire, or returning to The Society any time soon. He’d have a hell of a headache though. Reid sighed, swept hair off his face. It had been a busy day. He left the others to look after Hiro, and decided to go for a walk. He could use some fresh air and quiet time.
***
Sherry shivered under the duvet, pulled it up higher over her shoulders. She was still cold. Freezing actually. She’d been cold all day, but this was ridiculous. Even Ricky’s body heat couldn’t warm her. She shivered again, curling her toes in their socks. She didn’t usually wear socks to bed, or gloves either, but for some reason, her internal thermostat seemed to be broken. Okay, actually, she knew exactly why she couldn’t warm up. She was freezing because it was minus two degrees outside —which meant she was minus two degrees. She wondered if her lips were blue.
“Sherry?” Ricky’s voice was a bare whisper in the blackness. His fingers touched her arm lightly, and the pressure melted a little of the ice on her skin. He didn’t seem to notice her insanely low body temperature though. How could he not feel that she was like a block of ice?
“Sherry, are you okay? You’re shaking.” He slid closer, his breath brushed the back of her neck. She shook her head, knowing he could see it in the pitch dark.
“I-I’m not sh-shaking. I’m shiver-ring. I’m freez-zing,” she stammered, nearly biting off her tongue as another sharp shudder ran through her.
Ricky shifted, and she heard him fumbling for the lamp, then the click of the switch, and light flooded the room. She uncurled herself and sat up, hugging the duvet to her chest. Ricky was looking at her with worried gem-like eyes, his chocolate brown hair rumpled from sleep. He looked gorgeous as ever anyway, his chest bare and his skin gleaming even in the dim light. He put out a hand and stroked her arm, a puzzled expression on his face.
“You don’t feel cold,” he said, not as if he were accusing her, but just stating a boggling fact. His eyes flickered down and he frowned. “You’re wearing gloves. You’re really that cold?”
She nodded, teeth chattering. “I’m wearing socks too,” she said quietly.
Ricky’s frown deepened. He just looked at her for a moment, then slid out of the bed. She was about to ask him where he was going, when he opened the closet in the corner of the room, and pulled down a thick tartan blanket from the top shelf. He came back to the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders. It helped, just a tiny bit. He slid back in beside her and gave her one of those really intense, probing stares that made her tingle all the way to her toes.
“What’s really going on, Sherz? I know there’s something, so don’t try to shrug it off. You’ve been acting oddly all week.”
Damn. He
was so good at reading her. It made it impossible to lie to him.
She sighed, looked down at her fingers curled around the edges of the tartan blanket. “It’s just…ever since I…came back, I can sometimes, like, feel the weather. Like before it rains, I can feel rain on my skin, even when I’m inside. When it snows, I can feel it brushing my neck and arms. And when it’s really cold outside, I feel really cold. It’s awful.” She shivered again and clamped her teeth together. Ricky looked thoughtfully at her for a long time, his mouth drawn down at the corners. Then something lit up behind his eyes and he blinked.
“Huh,” he muttered.
“What is it?” she asked, half-hoping he knew what was wrong with her and how to fix it.
“Well, what if you feel the cold like you do, not just because it’s cold outside, but because you’ve got Ember’s blood in you,” he said.
Sherry just looked at him, uncomprehending.
He shook his head. “I mean, think about it. She’s a Fire Soul. She basically controls heat. And somehow, her blood got twisted with your human blood when you…when you died. So what if, some of her blood’s effects got reversed when it passed to you. Instead of controlling heat, what if you can control the cold. Maybe, because you don’t know how to control it yet, it translates into you feeling the weather.” His turquoise eyes were bright and glittering with fascination and excitement.
And what he said made sense. Sort of. It still left one problem though…
“But, how do I learn to control it?” She frowned, rubbing her arm, half-surprised there wasn’t gooseflesh crawling over her skin.
Ricky grinned, his perfect teeth startlingly clear in the dimness.
“You ask an expert. Luckily, you happen to have an expert on such subjects as a best friend.”
His eyes sparkled and she felt a smile creep helplessly across her lips. It was hard not to be sucked in by his magnetic enthusiasm. Ember would surely be glad to help, and probably just as excited as Ricky.
