by H G Lynch
Curiously, she went to the kitchen, and found it also empty of a captive.
Returning to the living room, she gaped at Hiro, who was rearranging his scruffy crimson hair in the reflection of the empty TV screen. “Where did you send them?” She just wanted to know he hadn’t dropped them in the Pacific Ocean with their hands still tied.
“Manchester,” Hiro said nonchalantly, not turning from the blank TV screen until he was satisfied with his hair. In this light, his skin was almost golden.
Ember was going to ask him why he sent them to Manchester, realised she didn’t really care, and didn’t bother opening her mouth.
After fifteen minutes of Sherry struggling to get the chairs to melt, they finally got the living room back in order. It wasn’t until they were all about to go to bed that they realised Reid hadn’t been helping. He was still lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, clearly asleep.
“Oh, Dear God. Ember, you’d better wake him up. Best not to leave him there, just in case. I’m going to bed. See you in the morning.” Ricky gave her a wave and went off down the hall to bed.
Sherry, yawning, followed him. Hiro Changed, and padded off down the hall as a fox.
Ember sighed and turned back to Reid, putting her hands on her hips. He looked so comfortable, it was a shame to wake him. But Ricky was right. If there was another attack, it would be bad for Reid to be sleeping through it here on his own.
She was just about to go over and wake him when someone tapped her on the shoulder. With a gasp, she spun, instinctively lashing out at whoever it was. Raphael caught her wrist before her hand made contact with his throat. She didn’t relax when she saw it was him, but she did snatch her wrist back hastily. Raz gazed at her steadily with those interminably dark eyes, and before he could say a word, she said one. “No,” she said bluntly.
Raz blinked. “Excuse me?” He almost sounded confused.
She shook her head violently. “Whatever you’re here for, no. Not tonight. It can wait until morning. Right now, I’m going to wake up my boyfriend and go to bed and get some goddamned sleep.” She glared up at him, her jaw set stubbornly.
Raphael’s eyes widened marginally. “But—” he began, for once sounding almost like a normal person.
“I said, no. I don’t care if you’re here to announce the apocalypse. It. Can. Wait.”
Raphael opened his mouth, eyes pleading, but it seemed even her guardian angel didn’t want to mess with her when she had that tone in her voice or that look on her face. He sighed elegantly.
“Very well. I shall return in the morning. When you are more willing to listen.”
Ooh. That was the closest thing to an attitude he’d shown all week. Then he vanished.
Good.
With a groan, she went and knelt by the sofa, and laid a hand gently on Reid’s shoulder. “Reid. Reid, wake up,” she whispered. He twitched, frowning. “Reid, come on,” she drummed her fingers impatiently on his arm.
He blinked his eyes open slowly, and she saw the blue was hazy and dark in the dimness. “What are you doing?” he murmured, confused.
Ember almost laughed. “What am I doing? You’re the one sleeping on the sofa.”
He woke up a little more at that, a line forming between his furrowed brows. “Why? Did we have an argument?” He looked adorably puzzled.
She smirked at him. “We always have arguments, but that’s not why you’re sleeping on the sofa. Come on. I don’t want to sleep in that bed on my own.” She hadn’t meant to admit that, but it seemed that the gateway between her mouth and her brain had broken down.
Reid gave her a gentle smile and rolled off the sofa.
Back in the guest room, she was glad to note that the smell of burning hair hadn’t lingered, and the only thing she could smell as she cuddled up to Reid in the darkness was his lovely scent of pine-needles and spiced-apple.
***
“Mh, we shouldn’t. There’s too much to do today. We need to get up.” Ember only half-meant the words, because Reid was being extremely persuasive in trying to convince her that an extra half-hour in bed wouldn’t bring the world to an end. He kissed her, long and slow, before pulling back and sighing.
“Why do you always have to be so…” He paused, kissing her again.
When his lips moved to her jaw, she finished for him. “Responsible?”
Reid chuckled, his breath shuddering on her throat. “I was going to say, hot.”
“Oh.”
He laughed again, his breath against her collarbone now. He was sliding slowly down her body, planting tiny kisses all the way to the low collar of her vest-top. Ember knew they had to get up, knew she should stop him before it became impossible to think clearly, but before she could even form a sentence, his mouth was back on hers, warm and soft and insistent. His fingers brushed through her hair, and in return, she wound her own fingers into his silky golden hair. He smiled against her lips, his other hand gliding down to her hip. She locked her legs round his waist, pulling him closer, and the intensity of the kiss ratcheted up six levels. The idea of stopping was becoming quickly less important, until…
“Hey, lovebirds. We’ve got a guest, so you might want to put some clothes on.”
The cheeky, amused voice made Reid and Ember jerk apart in surprise, and Ember felt her face flame. Reid looked severely unhappy at having been interrupted, and glowered at Hiro standing in the corner.
“You’re supposed to knock. Not cool, man. Get out,” he commanded.
Hiro just shrugged. “I didn’t come in through the door. And if I leave, how can I be sure you two won’t start up again?” he teased, looking far more amused than he had any right to be.
Ember sat up, hastily fixing her top. “If you don’t leave, you can be sure you’ll have a fire on your hands. Literally,” she threatened, sparking a flame on her fingertip. Hiro looked like he had something else he wanted to say, but instead he rolled his eyes and did that annoying disappearing thing.
Ah. So that’s what he meant by ‘I didn’t come in through the door’. Stupid Kitsune.
“I really hate it when he does that,” she grumbled, rolling out of bed, her face still burning. Reid cast a wry glance at her.
“You mean when he interrupts us in the middle of having fun, or when he pops out of thin air like a frickin’ genie?”
In the middle of picking out clean underwear from the drawer in the bedside table —she’d unpacked a few things for the sake of convenience — she sent him a scowl and threw a sock at him. “The latter, moron.” She rolled her eyes.
Reid chuckled, and threw the sock back. Before it could turn into sock fight, Sherry knocked at the door.
“Guys, um, Raphael’s here, so if you’re not up, you’d better move it. He says he’s got important news,” Sherry called warily through the door.
Ember guessed Hiro had commented on what exactly Reid and Ember had been doing when he’d interrupted them.
“See, that’s how someone is supposed to get your attention. Knocking. Not magically appearing in the damn room,” Reid whispered to Ember, and she giggled, tossed the sock on the bed to look for its partner.
“We’ll be ready in a minute, Sherz. Offer the angel some biscuits or something in the meantime,” Ember called back, and heard Sherry snort delicately.
“Yeah, like he eats biscuits,” she muttered, and then her footsteps faded as she wandered off back down the hall.
Ember found matching socks, and went to get dressed, giving Reid a ‘we’ll-finish-this-later’ kind of look.
He replied with a grin.
“Okay, Razzmatazz. What’s so damn important you had to pop in here at three a.m. last night?” Ember sighed as she dropped into an armchair.
Reid, Ricky and Sherry were already settled in chairs, and Hiro was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Ember wondered if he sat there because he felt like being apart from the rest of them, or if it was because his fox-self just liked sitting on the floor better.
Rap
hael was standing in front of the coffee table, and it took Ember a moment to recover from the shock of seeing the guy in jeans. Actual denim jeans, for God’s sake! And a white t-shirt. His long hair was tied back again, too. He looked…well, human. It was a little freaky.
“He was here last night? When?” Ricky looked stunned, apparently upset to have missed this.
Ember shrugged. “Just after you went to bed. He showed up to try and tell me something, but I was too tired to care, so I told him to come back in the morning. And…” she waved a hand elegantly at the angel standing in front of them, “voila.”
“Yes. You were quite adamant that sleep was more important than saving humanity,” Raphael said dryly.
Everyone in the room looked stunned, except Ember, who, after last night, had suspected Raz was getting an attitude.
“Yeah, well, I’m not convinced my death would destroy humanity. It might result in a few dead humans, and a few dozen failed freak experiments, but killing humanity? Nah.” She crossed her arms and leaned back, a defiant expression on her face. She could just see it starting to irritate Raz. Maybe she could make him crack? He couldn’t kill her, not if he really believed this crap about her saving humanity, so it’d be a challenge with no real consequences. Except making Raphael more human himself.
Raz didn’t say anything, but she could’ve sworn she saw a muscle tick in his jaw.
She grinned.
Raphael’s eyes narrowed, and he turned away to fix his glare on the wall above the fireplace.
“Can we please find out what he’s found out, instead of tormenting the poor guy?” Ricky said, shooting Ember a pointed glance.
She stuck out her tongue at him, and Reid stifled a chuckle. Sherry giggled, but tried to hide it.
Ricky sighed. “Raphael, what did you find out?” he asked patiently, his tone damn near sympathetic.
Ember gave Ricky the finger, but she got the impression, from the way his mouth tightened briefly, that he saw her.
Reid snickered, and leaned over to whisper in her ear, “You know, he’ll give you a lecture about polite behaviour in company later. You’d better run.”
Ember winked. “Trust me, he won’t lecture me, or I’ll—” But she never got to tell him what she’d do, because Raphael finally spoke up in that damnably serene voice, his control clearly restored.
“I found where The Society is working from. Their…base of operations, if you will.”
If he wasn’t so freaking scary good at being expressionless, Ember would’ve said he looked smug. Stupid angel.
“You…what? You mean, you know where they are!” Ricky sprang out of his seat, amazed.
Ember tried to think of something witty to say, failed, and kept her mouth shut.
Reid leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his knees. “You’re telling me, we know where these suckers are at, where they perform their sick experiments, where they, most likely, plan on taking Ember to kill her…and we’re still sitting here, why?” He got to his feet too, raring for action as always.
Even Sherry looked excited. Ember felt a little dizzy.
“We’re still here, because if you go anywhere near that building, they will kill you on sight. Somehow, they know what you look like. Are you sure you properly erased the memories of the ones you captured?” Raphael sounded doubtful.
Reid’s excitement dropped a notch. “Yes, we’re sure. Don’t start with that, ‘you’re just a vampire, I’m an all-powerful angel’ crap, ‘cause I swear on the Covenant, I will kick your ass,” he warned in a low voice.
Raphael, honestly, rolled his eyes. Now that was a very human reaction.
Ember smirked. “We’re growing on you, Raz. You’re losing some of your seraphic stone exterior,” she teased, but she knew her tone wasn’t quite right. She was still a little stunned over Raphael’s news. What were they supposed to do with that information? Keep an eye on the place? Go charging in, guns blazing (metaphorically, of course)? Sneak in and spy on The Society? Watching the building would probably tell them who some of the members were. Spying would put them at serious risk of being killed, but they could find out who the members were, maybe who The Professor was, what experiments they were doing…hell, they might even find out what they wanted with Ember’s blood —you know, aside from power that would, supposedly, somehow destroy humanity. And going in, guns blazing…would most likely just get them killed.
“…Could interrogate them until they tell us who The Professor is,” Ricky finished saying something, but Ember hadn’t been paying attention. Reid was nodding, clearly enthusiastic. Sherry was watching Ember with an unreadable expression. That’s when Ember remembered what she’d told herself she was going to do today, no matter what. And she wasn’t breaking that vow, even for this breaking news.
“You guys go ahead and get yourselves killed. Sherry and I have things to do,” she said firmly, her eyes still on Sherry. Sherry’s green eyes widened, and Ember felt every other pair of eyes in the room turn on her with either shock or disapproval —the disapproval mainly being from Raz, of course.
“I told you I’d help you out, so I’m going to help you out. The world can burn for all I care; If you need my help, you get it,” Ember said softly to Sherry, who smiled gently.
“You don’t have to—”
Ember held up a hand to cut off Sherry’s protest. “Yes, I do. We’ve got other things to do before we even think of going near that building — Raphael, do not tell those boys where the building is or I will personally burn your fancy wings off,” she added, pointing at Raz without looking at him. She sensed him tense, ready to dispute her wishes, but Reid and Ricky both shook their heads at him.
“Dude, you do not want to argue with her on this one. If she’s got to help Sherry, she’s going to do it first and foremost, even if meteorites rain down on the Earth like hail,” Reid chuckled, but something in his tone made Ember wonder just how accepting he really was.
“Ember’s right. This is more important. We can wait until we know more about the mirror and maybe once we’ve set up some wards around the house to stop another break-in incident…But for right now, Sherry’s more important.”
Well, hell, she and Ricky finally agreed on something completely. Ember grinned at him gratefully, and returned her attention to Sherry, who was looking more than a little nervous.
“Come on, Sherz. We’ll go outside and leave the boys to plot. Guys, you might want to check the email. Cris might have found something.” And with that last tip, Ember took Sherry by the arm and led her out into the back garden, where they wouldn’t be disturbed —if the boys knew what was good for them.
Chapter Ten
Apparently, Hiro didn’t know what was good for him. Not twenty seconds after the girls stepped into the snowy, chilled back garden, Hiro came plodding out in fox form, the snow coming up almost to his little fluffy white belly. He raised his muzzle and sniffed the air, then retreated to the snow-iced bench in the corner of the patio to watch.
Ember shot him a stern look. “You interrupt us, and you will lose an ear, fox-boy,” she warned.
Hiro made a cute yelping noise and settled down on the bench, despite the freezing white bed that seemed to want to swallow his tiny, orange body.
Turning back to Sherry, Ember grinned. “Okay, I said I was going to help you learn to control your new power, so that’s what I’m going to do. First things first, can you feel the weather right now, predict it?” she asked, still smiling, but utterly serious. You couldn’t mess around with this sort of thing. That would be both dangerous and idiotic.
Sherry closed her eyes for a second, frowned, and shrugged. “All I feel is cold, but we’re outside so that makes sense,” she said, shoving her hands into her pockets.
Ember nodded.
She tried to think of how she’d learned to control her fire ability, but it was kind of like remembering how you learned to ride a bike. Once you learned, you couldn’t forget, so it made explaining it to someone w
ho couldn’t ride a bike a little tricky. It seemed so easy and natural to Ember now, using her power, that she barely thought about it…although, there was that weird incident with the old lady…She’d never used that much power before, hadn’t even known she had that much power. It had been like lightning and fire put together, and throwing that massive orb of destructive force hadn’t been intentional.
Frowning, she shook the thought away, knowing it wasn’t important right now. Instead, she focused on drawing in her power to make a flame, feeling each step in the hopes of explaining it to Sherry.
First, she focused her mind on simply not thinking. Then, slowly, her mind-limb stirred and slunk out of her skull like water through a semi-permeable membrane. The super-sensitive mental arm brushed against all the particles in the air, feeling the hot ones and cold ones and the different gases; Oxygen and Nitrogen and Hydrogen… Then, with a single thought, she could make the invisi-limb stretch out like a net and capture the warm air particles. The cold particles slipped right through the net, strengthening her comparison to a semi-permeable membrane. Some things could pass through and some couldn’t.
Once all the particles were bound together, she pulled the mind-limb back into her skull, sucking the particles in with it. The particles instantly flowed to her hands, like they knew that was where they were supposed to be, and her palms tingled like she was holding them up to a crackling fireplace. Then, all it took was the friction of her skin sliding across skin, like snapping her fingers or quickly spreading her fingers out from a fist, and all the heat was released into a tiny flame.
“Huh. God, that actually takes a lot of effort. I never even realised how hard that could be if you had to learn from scratch. I guess when I first got my fire ability, it was kind of…instinctive, like it was in my blood…which I guess it is.” Ember watched the little yellow flame flicker on her fingertip, then closed her hand to smother it, feeling all the warm particles flow out of her skin.
