by Candy Crum
She shrugged. “Meh… That’s nothing a lighter couldn’t fix.” She flashed a sarcastic grin. “There doesn’t need to be a Vampire in it for me to set it on fire. That just seems to help things along.”
Aeric disappeared from her sight in an instant. Without any warning, reappeared behind her and had both her wrists locked in one of his strong hands behind her back. His other hand was placed carefully around her throat, tilting her head back.
“You would regret it,” he said low in her ear. She could hear a devious smile in his sexy, accented voice.
“Is that a fact?”
“Oh, I’d make sure of that,” he replied in the same seductive tone.
“You’d like to think that you could try.” She couldn’t stop herself from taunting him.
A low laugh escaped his throat. “Unfortunately, beautiful, we don’t have time for me to demonstrate every tiny way I’m stronger than you. Instead, I have to teach you to use your completely irrational and still very weak abilities.”
“Weak?” Her voice only revealed a portion of her instant anger.
“Oh, you aren’t? I’m sorry, I was under the impression that you were still completely human. I mean, you certainly smell that way,” he said as he gently traced the length of her throat with the tip of his nose, inhaling deeply as he moved.
She grunted loudly as she twisted her head away from the hand that was wrapped around her throat. Her head moved towards his elbow, before weaving under his arm to break the loose grip on her. She quickly locked her arms and dropped to her knees, using the firm grip that he had around her wrists to double him over.
In the same movement, she quickly moved a step back between his legs and stood violently. Though it wasn’t as perfectly executed as she’d hoped, it still resulted in him letting her go and flipping over her to land flat on his back. She smiled with her victory as he righted himself.
“Very good!” he said excitedly.
“Thanks. I saw it in a movie,” she said flatly, still slightly irritated.
“Ah, I should have known you weren’t really that coordinated,” he said with another one of his mischievous grins.
Brett had been right. Aeric could really bring out a rage in her that she’d never felt before, and it flooded through her right then. She took a few exaggerated steps toward him.
“You can’t let me have anything can you? I kicked your ass!”
Her irrational emotions took hold again, even though she knew he was doing it on purpose. He wanted to annoy the hell out of her. He wanted to piss her off. A pissed off Kailah was a powerful Kailah, and he knew all the buttons to push to make her strong.
But she just couldn’t let that go…
Suddenly pushing him off the waterfall was the only thing that would satisfy her need to hurt him. She knew it wouldn’t kill or seriously hurt him, which justified the violence in her mind.
He’ll be fine, she thought.
Kailah had lost sight of how irrational she was and somehow forgot Aeric’s attitude was obviously all part of his plan. It was exactly the reason she’d been paired with him in the first place; his ability to get a rise out of her. She forgot that he was trying to teach her control—not only of her powers, but of her emotions.
She was too far gone to notice the soft, light blue glow of the aura on her hands. It should have warned her of what was about to happen as she thrust them toward his chest, but she was far too angry over something so small to control or stop it.
As soon as her hands made contact with his body, the black tank top he was wearing ignited into flames as he was thrown from the edge of the waterfall. Instant regret flooded through her as she realized what she’d done. She dropped to her knees as fear ripped through her.
“Aeric! Aeric!”
A black flash suddenly leaped into the air and over her head. Her heart raced in her chest as she spun around to see Aeric land gracefully, kneeling on one knee a few yards away from her. He slowly stood, and she saw the burns she’d inflicted to his bare, once-flawless chest and stomach.
“If you wanted me to take off my shirt, you could have just asked,” he said with a grin.
Her eyes involuntarily widened as her mouth opened in shock. “Ugh! Are you serious right now? I was actually worried! I almost killed you!”
“Yeah, thanks for that, by the way,” he said with another grin as he made his way over to her. “Now you can see why I chose a place with a lot of water—and why I took off my other shirt. It’s my favorite.”
“You knew that was going to happen?” Kailah accused, still more than a little upset.
“Of course, I did, but I was prepared for it, so it’s okay. Here comes the fun part,” he said.
“The fun part?” She didn’t like the sound of that.
Aeric’s eyes narrowed, and that dreadful smile crept back on his beautiful face. “We’re going to play a little game,” he said.
She immediately hated whatever he had planned, knowing it was going to be at her expense. “I don’t think I like the sound of this.”
“I’m going to challenge you to use a power, and if you fail, you have to answer a question for me.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Nice try! I’m not answering anything. Because if you’re making a big deal out of it, it’s not going to be ‘what should I pull out of my Romanian cookbook next?’ It’ll be something ridiculous. No way.”
“No sense of adventure! Come on. Let off some steam. You’re still a slave to your emotions. Your powers are still controlling you. I’ve seen some of Sayen’s visions of you, so I know how calm and levelheaded you are—even at times when a saint would have lost his fucking mind. I’m trying to help you, but it’s going to look like I’m being an asshole until you can control yourself. I’m going to have to keep poking and prodding that Kailah hates Aeric button. But this isn’t that. This is fun. Interesting.”
She stopped and thought for a moment. He was right. She was normally a pretty fun individual, even if she was a bit introverted. Everything happening lately had turned her into a feral cat, ready to pounce at all times.
Kailah sighed and nodded. “What is it?”
He smiled. “You have to tell me about the dream you had of me.”
Brett would have been so much easier. “There’s no way in hell I’m winning this bet. That’s unfair.”
Then again, if she could focus hard enough, maybe she could. Maybe she could turn it all around in her favor. Water seemed to calm and center her. There was certainly enough of it there for her to use to her advantage.
Whatever it would take to keep her from telling him about the disturbingly erotic dream she had about him. God, I hate him.
Chapter Ten
Kailah had been so worried about the possible outcomes of her match with Aeric she’d totally neglected the fact that she could turn things around on him. She didn’t know what she would tell him if she failed, and she refused to think that way.
Kick his ass… put him in the hot seat. “Fine, when I don’t fail, then you have to answer to me.”
“What question do you have?” he asked with a playful and curious tone.
“Oh, no. I said you would have to answer to me. I didn’t say that you would have to answer for me. If I pass your little test, you have to show me something,” I said.
Hey laughed. “Ah, so you want me to show you something, do you?”
Kailah shook her head, exasperated, but she actually found him amusing—sometimes. “You, sir, are a perv.”
He looked to the sky for a moment, attempting to look thoughtful, before nodding and smiling once again. “Only with you. You make it fun and oh-so-easy to torment you. Besides, I’m a hundred and fifty years old. I get bored easily.”
“You’re a hundred and fifty years old?” she asked.
He nodded proudly. “Well, I’m a hundred and fifty years old in Vampire life. I was twenty-seven when I was turned.”
“A hundred and seventy-seven then. Damn, you�
�re an old man.”
He laughed. “You must like older men since you find me so irresistible.” He took a few steps around her, lowering his mouth to her ear again as he lightly placed his hands on her hips. “Having fantasies about me in the hallway with you wearing nothing more than a very sexy satin robe. Dreaming about me later the same night. Admit it; tell me what the dream was about.”
She rolled her eyes and ignored his games before stepping out of his grip. “Not a chance. It’s you that’s going down, and then you’ll have to show me the real you. I saw a little the night we met, but I still see you as human, as ridiculous as that sounds. So, when you lose—and you will—you’re going to show me the real you, or I’ll light you up again and coax it out of you.”
“Oh, my. Threatening now, are we? Since I know I’m going to be the one winning this little wager, you can bet your ass that your questions will get worse. Much worse.”
Kailah had no doubts of that. The wager would definitely be interesting. Aeric spent the next hour and a half showing her a few things—mostly meditation. He showed her how to completely calm herself and clear her head, so she could think and process whatever was happening around her calmly.
In that time, he never challenged her once. He said it would be unfair if she had absolutely no idea what she was doing. She was shocked he thought so.
“I think you have a pretty good grasp on things. I’m not going to cheat, and I promise to give you a fair shot, but I’m not going to go easy on you either. It would be an insult. Just remember what I said—focus on the elements. They center you. Water seems to be especially calming to you, so make sure to use it. Oh, and one more thing. Taima was instructed by Sayen not to help you.”
That last part was quite a game changer, but she knew it was fair. Her great-great-grandfather had helped her several times, and he used their deeper connection to cheat her inability to use her powers. While she didn’t exactly like it, she knew that was very fair.
Kailah trusted that he would be honest. To her surprise, she felt pretty confident. She figured he’d teach her just a few bare essentials and then turned her loose to lose the bet, but he didn’t. He made certain she knew and understood what she was doing before moving on to the next step.
Now, she was fairly sure she could actively use her sensory abilities instead of relying on her body, which had been notably unreliable lately.
“I’m going to leave you be for a few minutes. I’m going to try to mask my aura. If you’re strong enough, it won’t work. I’m going to sneak up on you, and even though you know that, I can promise you won’t know where I’m coming from or what I’m doing.”
“Unless I’ve figured all this sensory stuff out,” she said.
He nodded. “Exactly.”
“If you’re giving me a few minutes, maybe you should use the extra time to hunt down a squirrel or something. You look very pale today.”
He looked down at the backs of his hands before shrugging. “It’s no big deal. I’ll get something later. It’s go time. Focus!”
Aeric all but disappeared, and she was left alone to her thoughts. She wished he would take the time he had alone to hunt for something, but it was obvious he didn’t care nearly as much as she did. His pallor still bothered her.
Taking a deep breath, Kailah sat in the shallow water. She placed her hands flat against her crossed legs and tilted her head back to let the little bit of sun trickling through the trees warm her face and calm her. The breeze gently blew her hair, and she understood how the elements could be so calming.
She imagined the light wind physically blowing away her worries, and she relaxed. The cool water enveloped her lower body and cradled her. She imagined the stream washing away her fears, and she felt safe. The rocks and earth beneath stabilized her. The heat of the sun gave her energy and made her feel awake and aware of her surroundings.
Without needing Aeric to fully explain it, she understood what the four elements meant to her—to an Immortal.
Everything around her felt different. The wind slightly changed its direction. The sun felt a little less warm, though it still shone on her face. The water seemed to slow its course downstream, and she could feel a light trembling of the earth beneath her.
She was in touch with everything at once, and she could feel the elements reaching out. It was the spirits around her controlling each one, using them to warn her of her impending attacker.
Aeric was coming.
Kailah opened her eyes and looked over her left shoulder. She saw Aeric crouched low on a rock hanging over the water about fifteen feet away. She’d sensed him coming without sensing his Vampiric aura.
The elements had given her warning of his approach. It felt as though she had complete and total control of the world around her, like she could move any of it that she chose to.
“I’m proud of you. I was only gone for fifteen minutes, and you were able to use senses you didn’t know you had to find me. That’s a wonderful start,” he said.
She smiled at his excitement. It made her feel good to do something right and to grow. Every time someone brought up a weakness—including herself—it only made her want to learn more.
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. “I have what may be a stupid question.”
“I highly doubt it’s a stupid question, but please ask.”
“How much control do I need to move the elements?”
He thought for a moment before answering. “You have far more control over yourself and your surroundings than even I’m aware of. You’re advancing at a rapid pace. From what Sayen has told me about your heritage, Immortals take decades, sometimes centuries, to conquer what you have in the last fifteen minutes.
“Because they have an eternity to learn their gifts, it sometimes takes a while to learn the patience and gain the intelligence for an Immortal to touch even the most basic of powers. The only thing I can suggest is to test it. Don’t set goals too high; simply try.” He jumped down and made his way toward me. “Are you ready for your first challenge?”
She sighed. She knew it was coming soon. It had been a while since they’d made that bet, and she’d learned quite a lot in the short time afterward.
“Yes.”
He smiled, but he still seemed serious. “You already know a little of where your powers come from. The power to control spirits was passed down to you. Other than Sayen, and a couple of others like Wendy, these spiritual powers have never been used for good. Spirits can control the elements, but they don’t just control them. Spirits draw energy away from them.
“Every element has its own energy. You can draw on that to create a barrier to protect yourself. This skill is one of the most important skills you’ll ever learn. This power will save your life without your control, but it can be even stronger with it. The last time you tried with Sayen, it didn’t go well. But I have a feeling it will today. You’ve learned to sense the elements, and you did it on your own. I want you to put a barrier around yourself. I’ll test its strength myself.”
That certainly sounded dangerous. Barriers were raw spiritual energy. Vampires could touch any other element, but if the Immortal called spiritual power, it would burn their enemies. If she successfully created one, he could be injured if he planned to test it.
Then again, he survived a direct hit from her earlier, so he probably felt confident he could do it again. Still, she felt bad he was risking his life to help her, to give her exactly what she’d asked for.
So far, the only way she could successfully use her powers was to get pissed off to the point she wanted him dead. But she hated doing that. She stood there, rapidly running different scenarios through her mind until she realized the anger was unnecessary. Everything finally clicked, and she understood what everyone had been telling her.
Her body wanted to react in a certain way, but it couldn’t. Not without cooperation from her mind. In order to make things work, her power would trigger anger and hostility until she wanted to hurt or
kill the other person. That was how it controlled her.
She didn’t have to want to hurt him if she could just learn to focus on his negative energy and trigger the exchange herself. She felt a bit foolish for never thinking of it sooner, but with her emotions always so out of control, it was hard to think straight.
When they’d begun talking, Kailah had lost her calm and peaceful state. She felt anxious, and she knew that needed to be rectified quickly if she stood a chance at winning.
“Just… breathe,” she whispered to herself.
Kailah turned her back to Aeric and walked several feet away. She once again thought of every individual element and how they made her feel. Calm. Collected. Peaceful. Fearless. Strong.
Though she couldn’t see them, she could feel the presence of the spirits. They were all congregating in one specific area. She had no doubt that was where Aeric stood. With her eyes closed, she could feel his energy, and his aura flashed to life in her mind. She could see through the spirits everything around her. It was blackness mostly, but in the center was a glowing red mass.
Aeric. Her eyes opened as she smiled.
The wind blew against her face, and the trees parted as the sun shone down on her skin. A cold chill began in her feet in the cool water and crept up her body. Once again, she was aware of everything around her, including the positive energies given off by the elements. Aeric’s energy was dark and negative, despite being a good person. He stood out like blood on snow, and she knew she could sense him whether her eyes were opened or closed.
For this challenge, however, she decided to make it harder. She closed her eyes again and faced the stream below.
The earth shifted once, and then she felt nothing. The wind changed its direction, telling her Aeric was airborne. She felt for his aura and found him. Without opening her eyes, she knew he was standing on top of the bridge.
Something shifted again, and there was a change in the water. She felt a slight deviation, only a hiccup in its course. He was standing in the stream about ten feet in front of her. He was toying with her, testing to see if she was aware of his movements.
