by H G Lynch
Sherry, noticing her preoccupation, smiled gently. “He doesn’t do things half-way, does he?” she commented with a wry look in her eyes.
Ember chuckled. “Yeah, I guess not…come on. We’d better get going, before it’s pitch black outside.” She shook herself, tucking the pendant into her t-shirt for safety.
Sherry nodded.
They popped into the living room to call to the boys that they were going out and they’d be back soon. Ricky looked horrified at the thought, and Raphael just almost managed a real frown of concern.
“Wait, you can’t go out there on your own! It’s almost full dark, it’s too dangerous! Ember, you’re already hurt, and there are people out there trying to kill you! Or at the very least kidnap you!” he scrambled to his feet, and Ember wondered for a moment if he would try to physically stop them. Apparently, Ricky seemed to realise at the same time she did that wouldn’t work. He hesitated.
“Ricky, in case you hadn’t noticed, I blew the hell out of some guy not three hours ago. I might be hurt, but I’m not weak,” she said that last with a little more savagery in her tone than she meant. She knew she was trying to convince herself as much as him. Her nightmare was not going to get the better of her again —she wouldn’t let it.
Ricky sighed, looked back and forth between her and Reid, still unconscious on the sofa, his expression torn. He seemed to make a decision. “Fine, but I’m coming with you. You’re not going on your own, you two.”
Ember sent him a glare that stopped him in his tracks, and Sherry tensed next to her. She must’ve looked pretty damn scary then. Good. “You are not going anywhere. You’re going to stay right here and look after your friend,” Ember commanded, knowing it was both what Ricky really wanted to do, and what was best for Reid. He’d want to see Ricky if —no —when he woke up. Ricky slumped back, biting his lip so hard it was a wonder he didn’t draw blood. He cast a glance at Sherry, who drew herself up tall.
“We’ll be fine. I swear. We won’t be long,” she reassured him. He still didn’t look convinced, but he slunk back to the sofa and down next to it.
“At least tell me where you’re going?” he practically pleaded, the fight slowly dripping out of him.
Sherry and Ember exchanged a look, and Sherry took a breath before answering. “No. We won’t be long,” she repeated.
Ricky looked about to protest, but closed his mouth and shook his head, clearly too tired to bother.
Hiro unfolded himself gracefully from in front of the fireplace, and scraped his hair back from his face. “Well, I’m coming then. You know you can’t stop me, and I’m not of any use here. I don’t do the whole hand-holding sympathy thing. Whatever secret mission you two are off on, I’m coming.” He flashed his sharp teeth in a grin, just daring them to tell him to sit down again.
Ember hung her head, groaned. “Fucking Kitsune! Remind me why I let you stay here?” She shot him a dark look.
He shrugged. “You’re an animal lover. You can’t help yourself.”
“Yeah, but you’re not…Oh, whatever. Fine. You can come, but you will keep your mouth shut about what we’re doing. Utter one word, and I’ll set your tail on fire —all three of them then,” she added quickly, seeing his retort coming.
He glared at her through narrowed topaz eyes for a moment, then rolled his eyes, and Changed, falling easily into fox form. Ember briefly wondered why his clothes didn’t fall off when he did that, but then, her clothes didn’t burn away when she went inferno, so…Who knew how these things worked with the supernatural beings? They seemed to have their own law of the universe.
***
As soon as the girls were gone, Ricky sighed, leaned his forehead against the edge of the sofa. He felt a little better since Hiro was going with them, but still. Ember had no sense of self-preservation, at all, and Sherry was just too loyal to stand in her way most of the time. But he was glad he didn’t have to go with them. He wanted to stay here for when Reid woke up.
“I’ve done all I can here. I must return to heaven. I shall return in the morning?” Raphael seemed to be asking a question, so Ricky nodded.
“Sure. Thanks for the help.” He wasn’t sure exactly what Raz had done, but it had involved putting his hand in Reid’s wound and lighting up his whole body like a flash gun going off inside his chest. After that, the bleeding had stopped, at least.
Raphael put a hand on Ricky’s shoulder for a second, a surprising, and oddly comforting gesture, and then he was gone. Ricky sighed. He ran his hand through his hair backwards, tearing at the roots. God, this couldn’t be happening. He’d already seen Sherry die once; He couldn’t watch it happen to his best friend, too. He wouldn’t. There had to be something else he could do, instead of just sitting here uselessly.
He looked up at Reid’s face from his space on the floor, and grimaced. Then he thought of something he could do.
He went to kitchen and got a knife and a glass. Slicing open his wrist, he let his blood flow into the glass. The red liquid stained the clear glass, running down in rivulets to form a gruesome pool at the bottom.
He had to keep reopening the wound when it healed until the glass was full. Then he chucked the knife into the basin in the sink and returned to the living room.
He crouched by the sofa again, and tipped the glass to Reid’s lips. Vampire blood would help him a lot more than human blood. And now Ricky was glad Ember had gone; if she’d seen what he was doing, she would’ve wanted to pitch in. She couldn’t afford any more blood-loss today.
Once he’d made Reid swallow a few gulps of blood, he put the glass on the coffee table and sat back, watching his best friend, waiting for a sign that he was healing.
All his life, he’d known Reid, seen him through his darkest moments. Seen him so angry he’d punched his fist right through two layers of solid granite stone. Seen him in bloodlust so intense he’d seemed half-mad with it, nearly killed a group of hikers he’d come across in the woods. Seen him tearing his hair out in his confusion over Ember when he’d first met her. Seen him losing his mind when Owen had taken her, and when she’d slipped away in depression after what happened to Sherry. Seen him heartbroken when he’d thought Ember was done with him after the fight about Cris. Reid had always swung from mood to extreme mood like a monkey swinging from branches, it was just how he was. He was reckless and dangerous and found almost everything amusing in some obscure way. Ricky had seen him in every conceivable state, from his most arrogant moments, to when he stumbled around the streets drunk off his ass, to when he fought with anyone who looked at him the wrong way. He’d always ended up bloody, injured somehow or other.
But this…Ricky had never seen his best friend like this before. Lying there, his hair tangled over his forehead, his eyes closed, his mouth in a hard line of pain even while he slept. The hole in his chest gaped, red and ragged and angry. If the stake had gone in on the left side instead of the right, there was no doubt he would’ve died. As it was, he was just hanging on.
Reid had never looked so…vulnerable. So defenceless. Reid, the unstoppable, reckless, insane force of nature, had been put out of commission by a goddamned human. God, the boy was going to be sooo pissed about that when he woke up.
Ricky managed a weak smile at the thought, and before he knew it, he was chuckling to himself. Dimly, he realised the laughter was a little crazed, not entirely sane, but he couldn’t stop. That was, until a rasping, quiet voice interrupted him.
“What’s so funny, Kee?” the voice enquired mildly, and Ricky’s head shot up.
He blinked, sucking in a gasp that he nearly choked on.
Reid was awake, looking down at him with tired, pained blue eyes. He had one brow arched expectantly, a very faint, tight smile curving his lips. Ricky let out a breath of relief that sounded half like a sob. He might’ve been embarrassed if it had been anyone but Reid —oh, he knew Reid would want to mock him for being so upset later, but he also knew Reid would be just as upset if the positions were reversed
.
“Oh, thank God, you’re awake,” Ricky breathed, running a hand over his face.
Reid curled his lip in a familiar, arrogant expression. “What the hell has God got to do with it? Somehow, I doubt he gives a toss about a criminal, bloodsucking monster,” he muttered.
Ricky laughed shakily. “Good to see your attitude hasn’t suffered any damage,” he commented dryly.
Reid tried to shrug, hissed in pain and scowled down at the hole in his chest. “Holy hell. Bastard really stuck that hunk of wood in there. Damn! I’ll kill him!”
Typical. Revenge was the first thing on Reid’s list of things to do.
Ricky rolled his eyes. “Sorry, your girlfriend beat you to it,” he said mildly.
“Fine, I’ll kill him again then. He’ll be twice as dead,” Reid grumbled, then his expression softened and he looked around. “Ember’s okay, right? I didn’t really see what happened after the guy pulled out the knife. Did he—” he broke off in a fit of coughing, blood staining his lips. Ricky frowned, stood to go get a glass of water.
When he came back from the kitchen, Reid had stopped coughing, but he looked exhausted and pale. He still grinned weakly when Ricky came back into the room, carrying a cool glass of water and damp cloth.
“Are you my nurse now, Kee?” he teased.
Ricky shot him a look as he handed him the glass. “In your dreams.” He watched the blond boy sip at the water, then handed him the cloth to wipe the blood off his mouth. Reid lay back, tracing the rim of the glass with one fingertip.
“Actually, in my dreams, Ember’s my nurse. Sexy uniform and all. You think I could get her to wear that?” he smirked, but there was an edge to it.
Ricky snorted. “As if. She’d probably smother you with a cushion for even suggesting it,” he said, folding himself back on the floor.
“Ah, well. I’ll just have to imagine it then.” Reid’s smirk dropped and he frowned, still watching his own finger tracing the glass. “You didn’t answer me before. Is she okay? Where is she? That bastard didn’t…he didn’t hurt her, right?” Reid’s voice shook, his hand trembled, and he stopped tracing the glass, curling his fingers into a fist. Ricky couldn’t see the other boy’s face properly because he’d tipped his head down, and his hair —which was getting kind of long — fell over his eyes.
“Yeah, she’s alright. She’s fine. She just went…” Ricky hesitated. Oh, shit. If he told Reid he’d let the girls go out, even with Hiro for protection, he’d go ballistic. And he certainly wasn’t going to mention Ember’s knife-wound. Not a chance. “She went to help Hiro and Raz get rid of the body. She’s safe with them around.” Ricky hated to lie to his best friend, especially right now, but it was just because he knew how much Reid would freak, and really, the boy couldn’t take any freaking out right now. He needed to relax and rest. Not that Ricky would dare tell him that; Reid would, undoubtedly, take it as a challenge. It was just how he was. Stupid, stubborn idiot.
“Maybe with Raz, but I don’t trust Hiro. I don’t care that he hasn’t done anything wrong —yet. It’s just a matter of time. I don’t like the kid, and anyone who just wanders in here the day before everything starts to go to hell raises my suspicion. You’d better keep an eye on that fox-boy, Kee, I’m telling you.”
Ricky sighed. He didn’t really trust the Kitsune either, but he was giving the kid the benefit of the doubt. After all, he had helped them out so far. And he seemed to have attached himself to Ember, like a real pet —which was probably part of why Reid didn’t like the kid.
“So. How long was I out?” Reid asked quietly, settling into the sofa a little more.
Ricky shrugged. “Just a few hours. We weren’t expecting you to wake up at least until morning,” he knew he sounded a little guilty, and Reid’s eyes narrowed. Then flicked to the glass of red fluid on the coffee table.
Reid closed his eyes, sighing. “That’s not human blood, is it?” Reid asked, sounding resigned to the answer he knew was coming.
Ricky just shrugged again.
“Ah. Were you really that worried? It’s not terribly serious, Kee,” Reid was lying, and Ricky knew it. He knew that ragged wound had to hurt like a bitch. He wasn’t going to let Reid shrug this one off, though.
“Reid, it is that serious. You could’ve died! If the stake had gone in on your other side…” Ricky shook his head. “Why do you insist on doing reckless things? Huh? I heard what was going on before I came outside. You didn’t have to taunt him, you didn’t have to lose it and smack him into the cement. If you hadn’t done that—”
“He still would’ve staked me, Ricky. And then he would’ve gone after Ember. Just like he did anyway. It wouldn’t have mattered. Only the fact that I was keeping him pinned down stopped him from going for Ember sooner,” Reid argued, his fingers tightening on the glass of water. Ricky worried distantly that he might smash it. It would be his own fault if he got glass shards in his fingers.
Getting frustrated, Ricky opened his mouth to argue back that seeing Reid getting staked had nearly gotten Ember killed. Oh, yeah, he’d seen the way she’d frozen up, all the blood draining from her face like someone was sucking it out of her slowly. She’d looked terrified. But he couldn’t tell Reid that. For two reasons: One, he’d be admitting Ember had gotten hurt. And two, Reid would kick himself all over. There was no point in making the boy feel guilty, not while he was still so badly injured. That’d be like kicking a dog when it’s already down.
“Just…you should be more careful.” Ricky sighed.
Reid relaxed a bit. “You’ve told me that a thousand times. You should stop wasting your breath.”
Rolling his eyes, Ricky took the glass of water from him and switched it for the blood. Reid made a face, but drank some of it anyway. He handed the glass back and Ricky saw his fangs indenting his lower lip. “Ugh. Nowhere as good as Ember’s,” Reid commented, then frowned as if he’d just realised he’d said something wrong.
Confused, Ricky was about to ask him what was wrong, but the front door swung open, and Hiro came padding in, covered in snow.
The little fox slunk to the fireplace and shook off the snow, then settled down. He noticed Reid was awake, yipped, but didn’t Change. Ember and Sherry stumbled in the door, shivering and carrying plastic bags, and vanished down the hall without even glancing into the living room, or stopping to take off their snow-laden shoes and jumpers. He wondered what the hell they were up to, but knew better than to go take a peek at whatever they’d brought back.
“Hmm. I must have whacked my head or something,” Reid commented mildly, eyes on Ricky.
Ricky frowned, confused. “What?”
“Well, you lied to me, and I couldn’t even tell. That’s generally a very bad sign. Where were they really?” Reid asked, not sounding happy to have been lied to.
“I don’t know — No, really, I don’t. They wouldn’t tell me. They kind of made me stay here, I didn’t really have a choice. Hey, don’t look at me like that—” Ricky said, seeing Reid’s derisive expression, “— You know what Ember’s like! If I’d tried to go with them, or stop them, she would’ve burned a hole in me. But Hiro went with them. They were safe…” Ricky shut up.
Reid was glaring at him, so intensely that Ricky shifted back a little from the sofa, just to be safe. He might’ve been seriously injured, but he didn’t doubt Reid could still do a lot of damage if he was pissed off enough. Which he seemed to be.
Then Reid turned his glare on the fox. “You, little fox-boy, had better have been careful with her. If I find out you didn’t check every shadow and alley and treetop for danger on the way to and from wherever you went, I will chain you to a lamppost in the snow. Got it?”
The fox nodded, then started blurring, vibrating. He was Changing.
In under a minute, Hiro the boy, rather than the fox, was sitting on the floor, looking offended. His caramel skin showed pink splotches on his cheeks and nose from the cold, and his cats-eyes glittered unhappily. “I know you th
ink I’m just some weasly little kid, or at best, a useless supernatural who can’t be trusted, but, dude, I wouldn’t have bothered going with them if I didn’t intend to keep them safe. Both of them. I might seem like I don’t care, but…I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t.” Hiro looked like it pained him to admit it.
Reid was still glaring, but then, he sighed and lay back again.
Hiro stood up and walked to the door. His clothes were damp and hung on his skinny frame. “And by the way…” he paused in the doorway, looked over his shoulder at Reid, “I’m glad you’re alive. Even if you are still an asshole.” And then he wandered off down the hall, either to change his clothes or to help Sherry and Ember with their secret plan.
Ricky didn’t care which.
Reid chuckled, then winced and groaned. “I’ll give him this, the kid’s got attitude.” From Reid that was almost a compliment.
Ricky smiled and handed the glass of blood back. “You need to keep drinking. If you don’t heal, you’re not getting any sympathy from me.”
***
In the back room, Ember and Sherry laid their shopping bags on the sofa, and started unpacking it. Hiro wandered in, human again, and plonked down on the floor with a sigh.
“What’s up with you?” Ember asked distractedly as she pulled an endless white-and-yellow paper chain decoration out of one bag.
Hiro yawned, shaking his head. “Nothing. Tired,” he muttered, dropping his head onto his knees.
“Well, too bad. You’re going to help us decorate,” Sherry said, grinning down at the boy on the floor.
With an arched brow, Hiro glared up at her. “What makes you think that?” he asked coolly.
“Hey, you wanted in on the secret. Now you’re in on it, and that means you have to help.” Ember threw a handful of long, white ribbons at him, which landed on his head like streams of milk poured over his red hair.
He made a disgusted noise, shook loose the ribbons. “Fine. I am never getting involved in your secret plans again,” he grumbled, climbing to his feet, and picking up the ribbons. “Oh, and by the way, Cutie, your boyfriend’s awake,” he added casually, but his glinting eyes were fixed on her.
