by H G Lynch
Grinning, Ember watched her friend throw another orb of ice at those idiots gathered below her, and heard one of them shriek. Then she turned to face a small gang of more idiots trying to creep up on her. She simply stared at them with her hands on her hips, waiting. It took all of two point six seconds for two of the idiots to turn and run. Ember flicked her fingers after them, and they both burst into flames.
The remaining six humans, holding knives and stakes and one of them carrying some sort of grenade by the looks of it, spread out around her, and she frowned. She could take them all out easily, even with her power weakening —after all, there wasn’t all that much heat in this weather, and this fight had been going for over half an hour now — but the guy with the grenade worried her. If she blew him up, she could well end up blowing herself up and, vampire healing or no, she wasn’t going to take a chance on that.
So, she set to incinerating the other seven, and as they burned, she turned wide, soulful blue eyes on the grenade guy. He stopped, glaring at her suspiciously, ignoring his friends’ death cries of agony. Now, Ember thought, This is going to be painful. And she knew it would be. After all the power she’d used already, throwing a shockwave like this was going to give her one hell of a headache, especially while she kept her flames burning. But then she remembered Benji. She couldn’t look away from the grenade guy, sure he’d throw the thing at her the second he saw the chance, but she could feel Benji crouching in the trees, waiting for her command. Since once he was made, Benji took on a life of his own, more or less, it was easy to forget she had a fiery tiger stalking around the area. He couldn’t do anything without her say so, but he didn’t melt away if she broke focus. He could only dissolve if she deliberately released the heat that bound him. Right now, he was exactly what she needed.
Benji, she called to him telepathically, and felt his ears prick up, Attack any humans who come near me while I compel this guy. She didn’t get a response, of course, but she didn’t need it to know the blazing tiger was prowling out from the trees and slinking over to her. It was so freaking brilliant having a pet tiger.
Closing off the rest of the world, Ember let her mind-limb spill out and stretched it toward the grenade guy’s skull. The invisi-limb bumped against his head, looking for a way in, but he had some sort of warding against compulsion. He didn’t appear to realise, though, that she was trying to compel him. Huh. Gotta be a way around the warding, she thought unhappily. But before she could figure out a way past the special wards around the guy’s skull, her concentration was broken by a roar of pain, and then Sherry screaming in a tiny, high-pitched faery voice.
Whipping her head around, Ember saw Ricky on the ground, and he’d gotten a few more slashes since she’d last looked at him. One of them, the one in his abdomen, looked nasty; Deep and ragged and gushing blood at a steady rate. There were a couple of guys standing over him, one with a sword at his throat, the other with a stake poised over his chest, ready to deliver a killing blow.
At the sound of his friend’s cry of pain, Reid had also turned, and now was gaping in horror at Ricky. He looked like he was about to dash over and rip those guys limb from limb and feed them to Ember’s tiger pal, but he never got the chance.
While he had his back turned, a bulky female appeared from behind a tree, carrying a bow loaded with one of those deadly arrows. Ember saw her quickly and tried to warn Reid, but the female was amazingly fast. She pulled back the string of the bow, and let loose the arrow. It whizzed with blinding speed across the park and lodged, with a sickening noise, in Reid’s shoulder. He grunted, arching in pain, but locked his teeth together to keep from crying out.
Ember, though, screamed. She couldn’t help it. Panic flashed through her, but she forcibly pushed it down. She glanced around, taking in the scene so quickly it was like watching slow motion; Ricky, bloody and pinned in the snow, no possible escape from the guys holding him down. Reid, kneeling on the ground with a lethal arrow protruding from his back, blood seeping from the wound to stain his t-shirt. Sherry, frozen with shock in mid-air, her wings just barely beating enough to keep her in the air. And Hiro, fighting tail-to-tail with her fire tiger, both of them surrounded and cornered by a group of humans with swords and grenades. Benji couldn’t attack the humans without setting off the grenades, and he knew that because it came directly from Ember’s mind, seeing as she was still faced with her own grenade guy —who was, very, very slowly, pulling the pin on his grenade to throw at her. She ignored him for the moment. The grenades wouldn’t hurt Benji, but they’d kill Hiro, so all Benji could do was snarl and stand in front of Hiro to block him.
Swiftly, Ember counted the remaining members of The Society, and was stunned. There were still nearly two dozen of them, though Ember was sure their side had taken out over four dozen already. There were nearly forty bodies scattered around, in pieces as well as whole, and Ember had cremated a fair number of them. So there must’ve been more of them hiding in the trees than she had first guessed.
Her mind tossed ideas at her almost faster than she could dismiss them. There were no good options left here. Whatever she did, someone on her team was going to die. She didn’t have enough power left to incinerate twenty people at once. She was just too weak.
Then, a bright idea —and possibly her only hope — lit her mind.
Abruptly, everything started to speed up again, and she opened her mouth for one yell. “RAPHAEL!” she screamed, so loudly, that the grenade guy in front of her flinched and nearly dropped his grenade.
Raphael appeared at her side in an instant, and took in the scene in the blink of an eye. Then he looked evenly at her and said, “I shall take care of them. You might want to cover your eyes.”
She did as instructed, shielding her eyes with her hands, and then she felt an enormous blast of pressure like a shockwave. Blinding light seared her eyes even through her closed lids. A fierce wind whipped her almost off her feet, throwing tiny pieces of biological debris and snow at her. It was like being caught in a hurricane of snow and blood, and she toppled to her knees.
And then it was over. The blinding light and thunderous wind vanished, cut off so suddenly that without the pressure of wind blowing against her, Ember fell forward and nearly face-planted into the snow. Gasping and aching, Ember threw her head back and looked up at Raphael, who was standing over her as calmly as if they were meeting here to go to lunch or something. Not a hair was out of place, not a single rip in his jeans or t-shirt. The only thing that gave him away was the pair of huge, gleaming bronze wings spread out from his back. The wings were breath-taking, and they looked so, so soft. She almost wanted to reach out and touch them, but she refrained.
Instead, she took Raphael’s offered hand, and he helped her to her feet. Looking around, Ember gasping in astonishment. The park was pristine. There wasn’t a single body on the ground, not a single member of The Society crouching in the trees, not even a stain or scuff in the snow. There were only her friends, looking around in bewilderment. Ricky was still lying on the ground, cut and bleeding, and Reid still had an arrow in his back. Sherry was slowly floating to the ground, getting ready to grow back to her proper size. Hiro was standing out of a pouncing position in the far corner of the park, and Benji had disappeared. Ember couldn’t feel the tiger, so she figured she’d let her magic slip altogether. Or she was too worn out to keep hold of enough of it to bind her fire tiger together. Whatever. Didn’t matter now.
She looked at Raphael. “Th-thank you,” she stuttered breathlessly, her sides heaving as she tried to get enough breath. Every muscle felt like jelly, but she stayed standing by sheer force of will.
Raphael just nodded to her, and said serenely, “It’s my job. I am glad you are safe.”
Ember frowned and felt tears sting her eyes. She was fine, but her friends weren’t. Reid and Ricky were both seriously injured, and judging by the monster-fox’s awkward limp, Hiro was too. Thankfully, Sherry didn’t look to be hurt, at least.
Ember
turned wide, tear-filled blue eyes on Raphael, not bothering to hide her pain and desperation. “I-I know you’re not supposed to protect them, but…isn’t there anything you can do for my friends? Please. I…I can’t lose them. And this was all my fault. They never would’ve been hurt if it wasn’t for me.” Tears spilled down her cheeks and her voice cracked. She looked away, rubbing at her wet eyes.
Raphael was silent for a long moment, and then sighed. “I can do nothing for the Kitsune, as he is bound to you by a magic I cannot touch. But for Reid and Ricky, I can help. Normally, I would not. But as they are your greatest protectors, it would be foolish of me to leave you without their security. As I have said, I am here to protect you, and I see that to do that, I must return your friends to their healthy conditions…” Raphael paused and she felt him staring at her, so she looked up. His face showed mix of very human emotions, and he smiled gently down at her. “Also, I feel compassion for these vampires. And a sense of responsibility. I suppose I think of them as…perhaps my friends, too. So I cannot let them suffer.” He very briefly, touched Ember’s shoulder, and then went to kneel by Ricky.
His back was to her, so Ember couldn’t see exactly what he was doing, but a bright light flared up from Ricky’s body. She blinked, and the light was gone. Raphael stood and walked to Reid. Ember peered closer at Ricky, and saw his cuts had healed. His shirt was torn and there was blood caked on his skin, but the gashes were gone. Sherry saw it too and, back to her normal size, rushed over to throw herself in Ricky’s arms. Ember looked away to give them their moment of privacy. But that meant her eyes could fix on only one other thing: Reid.
Raphael was crouching next to him, saying something Ember couldn’t make out, and Reid nodded. Then Raz took a hold of the arrow in Reid’s shoulder, and Reid clenched his teeth. Ember looked away quickly, realising what was about to happen. She slapped her hands over her ears, but she still heard Reid shout in pain as Raphael yanked the arrow out of his back.
She turned back around in time to see the bright light fading from around Reid, and Raphael stood up. The bloody arrow was lying in the snow next to Reid, and Ember used what little energy she could muster to set it on fire. It burned to ash in less than ten seconds. But that was the last of her energy gone. Even her impressive, stubborn will couldn’t keep he legs from collapsing under her.
“Ember!” three voices called at once, along with one distinctly concerned whine from Hiro.
She lay in the snow and closed her eyes, too tired to care that she was cold and wet and bloody. I’ll just take a nap here. I’ll get dry later, she thought, exhausted.
But someone prodded her shoulder, whispered in her ear, “Ember? Ember, are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay. You’re not hurt are you?” It was Reid.
Of course. His warm breath tickled her cheek and she tried to smile reassuringly at him, still with her eyes closed. “Mh fine. Just…tired,” she sighed. She heard him chuckle, felt him stroke her hair off her face.
“No wonder. You were amazing, Firefly. Utterly astonishing,” he murmured.
“He’s right. You were totally kick-ass, Emz,” Sherry pitched in, clasping her hand. She knew it was Sherry holding her hand because Sherry’s hands were tiny and, right now, ice cold.
“We should get her inside. She’s going to freeze out here,” Ricky said quietly in a concerned tone.
Then she was being lifted into Reid’s arms, and his lovely spiced-apple scent flooded her nose, making her mouth water. He was so warm, too. She snuggled against him, burying her face in his shoulder as he carried her.
Chapter Nineteen
She must’ve fallen asleep for a couple of minutes because when she opened her eyes, she was sitting on the bathroom floor, with no recollection of how she got there. There was, though, a sense of déjà vu.
Reid was kneeling by the bathtub, with the taps running full blast. The steam rising from the hot water filing the bath was making his hair curl behind his ears, and fogging up the giant mirror above her. It reminded her of when he’d saved her from drowning in a river, even though they’d been having the biggest fight ever, and then he’d put her in the shower in her underwear because she couldn’t be bothered showering on her own —and since they were fighting, she didn’t really feel comfortable with him seeing her naked. Was that silly? Maybe. But it actually added up to a pretty funny memory. Aside from the drowning thing.
“Oh, you’re awake again. Good. I didn’t really want to put you in the bath while you were unconscious. I figured you might slip under and drown yourself.” Reid turned, and grinned at her.
That was when she noticed he was shirtless, and there were patches of blood dried on his skin in various places, including where the arrow had gone into his shoulder blade. She grimaced, and lifted one hand.
Confused, Reid crawled over to her and watched while she tentatively touched a spot of dried blood on his chest. He looked at her with tender blue eyes. “I’m okay. It was just a scratch,” he said quietly. When she just kept staring at the blood, he touched her face lightly. “Ember, I’m fine. I swear,” he said, his hand warm on her cool skin.
But tears filled her eyes as she raised them to his, and he caught his breath.
Before she could say anything, he pulled her into a hug, and whispered into her hair, “Oh, Ember. Shh. Don’t cry, please. Please. You know what it does to me when you cry.” He held her against his chest, and she wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could.
Silent tears streaked her cheeks, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was that she could’ve lost Reid tonight. If it weren’t for Raphael, that arrow would’ve killed him; there was no way in hell he could’ve survived. She’d seen the runes on that arrow. Those runes were meant to poison slowly and kill the vampire in an agonising death.
Eventually, she gathered herself together enough to stop clinging to Reid, and he let her go, watching her carefully as he swiped tears off her face. “I-I’m okay. I just…God. I was really scared for a minute there. I really thought you…I thought…” She couldn’t finish, but she knew he understood.
He frowned. “But I didn’t. I’m okay. Thanks to your guardian angel. I’ll have to thank him for that later. But right now, you need to get in the bath. You’re cold as ice, and I’m pretty sure Elementals can still get pneumonia. So in you go.” He nodded toward the bath, a smile quickly replacing his frown.
She smiled back weakly, and sighed. “Can’t I have a bath like this?” she echoed her words from the night he’d saved her from drowning, and he realised it; He chuckled and shook his head, grinning. His blond hair flopped into his eyes, still damp from the fight in the snow.
“I suppose you could. Do you want to have a bath in your underwear?” He played along and she grinned at him.
She nodded, even though she was still fully clothed. Of course, that didn’t last long.
Reid helped her out of her clothes, leaving her in her clinging, black underwear. She couldn’t find the energy to be embarrassed that her legs were deathly white from the cold.
Reid let out a low whistle, eyeing her up and down. “Even after a bloody battle, you look sexy.” He flashed a smirk at her, and she felt heat flood her cheeks.
She looked away from him shyly, and he rose to his feet in front of her.
“Come on then, if you really want to have a bath in your underwear. Though I can’t see why this time, besides re-enacting another night where you nearly died.” He traced a line down her arm with his fingertips, and she shivered. That shiver had nothing to do with the cold. In fact, she was warming up more every she second.
She shook her head. “I didn’t nearly die tonight. Everyone else did. I was fine,” she muttered.
“Yeah, I guess. I saw a guy hold a knife to your throat. Your method of getting rid of him was both amusing and totally genius.” He chuckled, and Ember smiled a little. Then he drummed on her shoulder with his fingers. “Okay. No more stalling. Into the bath. Hop in,” he directed her to the ba
th and sat down to watch her slip in.
She stepped down into the bath, and felt hot water encase her feet. Her skin immediately started itching and crawling, but the heat was a sweet pain. She sat down in the water, thinking of how funny it was to be sitting in a bath in her underwear. But since this time she wasn’t arguing with Reid, and the material on her skin had become scratchy since it was wet from the snow, she unclipped her bra and tossed it to the floor with the rest of her clothes. She hid a smile at the look on Reid’s face, and slid under the water up to her neck. It was blissful, despite her skin cells screaming that it was too hot. They soon shut up and she relaxed, watching beads of condensation sliding down the mirror.
After a while, her eyes strayed to Reid, and she frowned again. Beckoning him closer, she sat up in the bath and told him to pass her the wet cloth from the edge of the sink.
Reid grabbed the cloth and crawled to the edge of the bath, one brow arched curiously as to what she was doing. Ember soaked the cloth in the hot bathwater and set to scrubbing the blood off him.
Reid chuckled when he realised what she was doing. “I could do that myself, you know,” he muttered.
Not looking away from the blossom of red on his chest that she was gently swiping with the cloth, she put a finger to her mouth in a silent gesture for him to be quiet. With a sigh, he did as she commanded, and sat patiently while she washed the blood off him.
Once she was done, she felt much better, and tossed the cloth back up into the sink. Reid grinned at her, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he just shifted back to his space against the wall, and let her soak for a little longer in peace.
That night, Ember went to sleep feeling more confident about facing her nightmare than she had felt since this all started. And she knew she’d have the nightmare again; it was inevitable. But this time, maybe she could change the outcome. As silly as she knew it was, she felt that if she could change the outcome of her dream, she could ensure Reid’s safety in reality.
