by H G Lynch
“Since when is it our job? Just because we’re the only supernatural beings around, doesn’t mean it’s our problem. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re taking a break from that jazz for a while. By we, I mean Ember, Ricky, Sherry and myself. If you wish to recruit Cris and Hiro, you’re welcome to try, but I doubt Hiro will do anything for you — He only likes Ember so don’t take it personally — and Cris is better at research than fighting. So good luck.” With that, Reid tried to slam the door closed, but Brandon held it open, shoving his foot between the door and its frame.
That was about when Ember lost patience with him and, yanking on her top hastily, marched to the door. She threw it open and glared at Brandon. “Brandon, do you like having your organs inside your body?” she asked, in a lethally sweet voice.
Reid took a step back. Ember only used that voice when she was severely pissed off and about to seriously injure someone.
Brandon just stared at her blankly.
When he didn’t answer, Ember continued. “If you don’t get out of my face in the next five seconds, I’m going to make flame-grilled liver and chop it up for Hiro to snack on later,” she said, the air around them suddenly getting colder. Meaning, Ember was sucking up the heat in preparation for her magical cooking lesson.
Brandon’s serious expression wavered, but ultimately, he seemed to think Ember was issuing an empty threat. He obviously didn’t understand how much Ember really disliked him — Or how much she really hated being interrupted in the middle of doing important things with her boyfriend.
“Okay, dude. Your funeral.” Reid shrugged and stepped back a few paces more, which clearly made Brandon uneasy. From here, he couldn’t see Ember’s face, but judging from Brandon’s abrupt shift in expression, she had dropped the sugar-sweet act.
“Please, just listen to me! Come on, Ember, just a few minutes. If you still think this isn’t something you should be involved in, then fine. But just hear me out,” Brandon wheedled, holding both of his hands up in defense, his eyes darting anxiously to Reid.
Reid just shook his head and mouthed, ‘She warned you’.
Ember was silent for a long moment, and Reid waited curiously to see what she would say. He folded his arms and made a mental note to kick Ricky’s ass later — Why the hell had he gone and told Brandon about what happened at the lake? Was he really that stupid?
“Five minutes,” Ember said at last. “No longer. And just to let you know, I don’t even have to take your liver out of your body first to cook it. Keep that in mind.” She turned sharply away from the door.
Brandon’s expression loosened, his shoulders slumping as he sighed in relief.
Reid smirked to himself. It was funny to see that his five foot two, petite girlfriend had the power to scare the crap out of a five foot ten, full-blooded vampire guy — especially when that guy was Brandon.
With a sigh of his own, Reid dropped down onto Ember’s bed next to her, and twirled a lock of her hair around his finger, making it clear to Brandon that he had no interest whatsoever in anything he had to say.
Pacing the room nervously, Brandon clasped his hands behind his back as he spoke. “Like I said, two boys went missing at that lake you were at yesterday, and one of them has turned up dead. Ember, Ricky said you lost a grip on your power and didn’t know why, is that right?”
Ember grimaced and shook her head. “Not exactly. I didn’t lose grip of it. I just couldn’t transfer the heat into the water. Something kept pushing it out. My connection to the heat in the water just dropped out,” she explained.
Pretending he wasn’t listening, Reid drew his fingertips up and down her spine as they talked. Honestly, he had wondered a dozen times since yesterday what sort of supernatural occurrence would cause Ember’s magic to drop out like that. But, he’d come up with no good ideas, and figured it was irrelevant beyond his own curiosity, seeing as he’d be damned if he got drawn into another supernatural mystery. If he wasn’t already damned, being one of the undead. That little myth was currently being debated in the supernatural community.
“Hmm,” Brandon said thoughtfully, pausing in his pacing for a just a moment before beginning to move again. “Well, that’s bizarre, I have to say. And something grabbed you, pulled you under the water? You’re sure you didn’t just get your foot caught in some plant life and slip?”
At that, Reid looked up and scoffed. “Yeah, the pondweed grabbed her ankle and dragged her down seventeen feet under water. Maybe someone carelessly dumped nuclear waste in the water and now we have rogue, mutant plants in the lake.” He sat up, propping himself on one elbow.
Brandon was clearly not amused, and glared at Reid.
“Brandon, I had to dive under the water and yank her out myself. There was definitely something pulling her down. And whatever it was, it was pretty damn strong,” Reid said seriously, remembering the resistance he’d felt as he’d pulled Ember upward to the water surface. It hadn’t been any kind of match for a vampire like him, but it had been enough that he’d felt it. That made it, whatever it was, stronger than a human at least.
Brandon’s expression turned yet more serious — if that was possible — and his grimace deepened. His dark eyes showed a concern much too exaggerated, Reid felt, for the current situation. The boy was so freaking grim all the time. Buzz kill. Reid had tried dozens of times over the years to lighten Brandon up, tried to hook him up with girls, tried to get him to do something fun and impulsive, but it never worked. Brandon was the dullest vampire on the planet.
Rolling his eyes, Reid let out a loud huff, earning a glower from Brandon. Ember distractedly plaited a lock of her hair, watching the boys with an expression of mild amusement.
“Reid, this is serious—”
“You say that about everything,” Reid cut in before Brandon could start raving at him. Brandon’s eyes narrowed further and his fists clenched at his sides. Reid wondered why Brandon bothered getting angry with him anymore; it never did him any good because Reid simply found it entertaining.
“There is something in that damned lake, Reid, and it’s killing people. Whatever it is, it has some sort of magic, and, you said it yourself, it’s strong. We can’t just leave something like that alone, wait for it to kill more people!” Brandon threw up his arms angrily, his bronze skin flushing over his cheekbones. Unfazed, Reid just arched a brow petulantly at him. Brandon growled low in his throat. Ember sighed, clearly getting tired of Reid’s game.
She turned to him and put a hand over his mouth, looking him firmly in the eyes. “Can you please just stop winding him up for a minute? You’re so antagonizing sometimes.” She sighed.
He mumbled behind her hand, “Only sometimes? I’ll have to up my antagonism levels then.”
Ember ignored him, as she’d learned to do when he was being particularly obtuse. She turned instead to Brandon, keeping her hand over Reid’s mouth. “We get it. There’s something bad in the lake. But can’t you and Perry handle it? I mean, you’re two full-blooded vampires. And I’m sure if you asked, Cris and Hiro would help,” she implored, but Reid could hear the desperation lacing through her tone. She really didn’t want any more trouble.
He made a mocking noise behind her hand, and she cast a glance at his arched-brow expression. “Okay, Cris would help. Hiro probably wouldn’t but you could try anyway. Maybe if I asked him, he’d do it. Just…why do we need to get involved? Sherry’s dealing with her new powers, and she needs Ricky to help her. Reid and I have dealt with way more than we should’ve had to lately, and I, for one, am sick and tired of all this crap. Please, can you just…just try to handle it without us?” Ember pleaded quietly.
Reid knew how much it stung for her to beg like that, especially to Brandon. But if anything was going to get through Brandon’s determination, it was going to be a distressed girl — and Ember played the part to perfection. Reid suspected, though, she wasn’t acting this time.
He thought about it. Ever since she’d gotten to Acorn Hills, Ember had
been swamped with troubles. He’d started it, and Kara had picked it up. Owen and the witches. Haunting Harry and Gabriel. The Society and her nightmares. And now this? It wasn’t fair on her, not in the least. In the past five months, Ember had barely had more than a week of relaxation at a time. Now, guilt was eating at him for that.
Apparently, Brandon felt a twinge too, because he met Ember’s eyes, and sighed. His shoulders slumped and he nodded. “Yeah, I guess we could handle it without you guys. You deserve a break. I guess I just thought that you’d be the best for the job. You’ve handled witches and ghosts and god knows what else lately. It’s impressive. But, you’re right. You’ve done enough. I’ll speak to Cris and Hiro.” Brandon started for the door, and paused in the doorway, hand on the door handle. He turned back and smiled gently at Ember. “You know, I know you think I don’t approve of you, that I don’t like you. But, I do. And I’m glad Reid found you. Really. It’s time he grew up a bit. I’m happy for both of you.” With that, Brandon turned and left, closing the door behind him.
Ember collapsed back against Reid and looked up at him. “What the hell was that about?” she asked, frowning.
Reid shrugged, looping an arm around her. “Guilt probably,” he answered simply.
With a delicate sigh, Ember snuggled against him, burying her face in his shoulder. Her warm breath tickled his neck.
“Well, hopefully that means he really will leave us alone. I want some semblance of normalcy for, like, a couple of weeks at least,” she murmured.
Reid smiled tenderly, though she couldn’t see it. He stroked her back lightly. “If you want it, we’ll have it,” he whispered in her ear, and knew she smiled in response.
*****
** Ember **
The next day, Ember was half-dead with boredom, listening to Mr. Waysworth droning on about the deeper meaning behind one of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems. The teacher was scribbling notes on the chalkboard at the front of the class.
In the row in front of her and Sherry, Reid had his chin propped on his hand, and was doodling away on a piece of lined paper. On either side of him, Perry and Ricky were looking about as bored as she felt. Even Brandon was slouched, staring unenthusiastically toward the front of the room. Sherry and Cris, next to Ember, were whispering animatedly about some movie Ember hadn’t been inclined to go and see.
“So, you see, the use of the word ‘booted’ gives emphasis to the sharp, brutal action of the kicking,” Mr. Waysworth continued his lecture, verbally examining each line of the damn poem in turn.
Ember wished he’d give it a rest and assign them an essay already.
“If he doesn’t shut up soon, I’m going to boot him right out a window,” she muttered to herself, yawning between words.
Reid snickered, obviously having heard her, and the corners of her mouth tilted up ever so slightly.
Just then, something white slicked through the air over Ember’s head, and glided carelessly to the front of the room, where it hit the chalkboard and clattered to the floor. It was well-constructed paper airplane. And it had barely missed Mr. Waysworth, just bouncing off the chalkboard next to him. Several people started giggling and chuckling, but the teacher whirled round, and everyone shut up quickly. He glanced down at the crumpled paper plane on the floor by his feet and bent to pick it up. He unfolded it, and there were more snickers of anticipation, waiting to see what, if anything, was written inside.
The teacher’s grey eyes scanned the wrinkled page briefly, and then he raised his glare to somewhere over Ember’s head. Presumably to the person who’d constructed the paper plane. She wondered if the troublemaker had been stupid enough to sign their name on the thing? Didn’t everyone know not to do that? It was basically classroom-banter 101.
“Liandra Lewis,” Mr. Waysworth said in a cold, steady voice, peering up at her over the rims of his glasses.
Everyone in the room turned to see who Liandra was, and how she would react to being called out by the teacher. Ember was sure she’d never heard of Liandra in the school before, but then again, she didn’t pay much attention to anyone outside her circle of friends.
But when she saw the girl, three rows behind her, she was certain the girl was new. She would’ve remembered seeing a girl with spiky green hair and purple-glossed lips before. Liandra was clearly the punk type, her eyes heavily lined in black and purple glitter, her choppy hair styled outlandishly. For all her eccentricity, the girl was kind of pretty. You could tell she had nice features under all that punk and the sour attitude she was pulling with folded arms and a spiteful grin.
“Yeah?” Liandra answered the teacher defiantly, chewing gum. She tapped her multi-ring-laden fingers on her arm, arching one black brow at Mr. Waysworth.
“You are new here, Miss Lewis, so I will excuse you this once, but behavior like this is not tolerated in my classroom. And I suggest you get rid of that chewing gum before the end of class, or you may find yourself in detention.” Mr. Waysworth had turned a nasty shade of red, his eyes sharp behind his glasses.
As soon as the teacher turned his back, Liandra gave him the finger, and rebelliously blew a bubble from her gum, popping it with a snap of her teeth. Then she looked around her at everyone staring, and shrugged. “Take a photo. It’ll last longer,” she barked.
Ember blew out her cheeks and sighed, turning back to face the front of the class. Reid, still facing backwards in his seat, looked caught between admiration and disgust. Ember snapped her fingers in front of his face and he blinked, his gaze focusing on her.
He grinned crookedly. “What? Did I do something?” His eyes glittered and he dropped a wink at her, before turning around in his seat.
Ember rolled her eyes and flicked the back of his head. “You’re going to fail this class, you know that right?” she muttered to him, and he chuckled, shrugging.
“So?”
She flicked him again, scowling at the back of his head. “So, you’ll get detention too if you spend every class doodling in your notebook. The teacher’s going to see that eventually, and then you’re screwed.” She reached down a hand over his shoulder, pointing to a crude drawing he’d done of Mr. Waysworth taking an arrow through the head. It was scrappy, but anyone could tell who it was meant to be holding the bow on the other side of the page. “You shouldn’t draw yourself in those, you knows,” she mumbled, pulling her hand back.
Reid caught her wrist, and turned in his seat so that he could glance mischievously at her sideways. Holding her wrist lightly, he placed a kiss to the thin skin there, and it took a lot of her effort not to shudder at the feeling of his soft lips and warm breath brushing her tender skin.
She pulled her wrist back carefully and shot him a glower, which he returned with a smirk. Exasperated, she made a threatening strangling gesture, then whispered for him to turn around. He did so reluctantly.
After that, the rest of the classes of the day were uneventful, and Ember was grateful when the final bell rang, signaling to everyone that they could get the hell out of there now.
*****
She was in the dorm building, making her way to her room, when she bumped into Reid, lounging against the wall around a corner, clearly waiting for her. His face lit up when he saw her, and he instantly slung an arm over her shoulders. Ember sighed, but didn’t bother shrugging him off, more focused on not dropping any of her textbooks. Flipping her hair out of her face, she saw Reid giving her an odd look.
She frowned. “What?”
He shrugged, a light smile touching his mouth. “Just reminds me of the first day we met.” He nodded toward the pile of textbooks she was carrying. “You looked so sweet and innocent and corruptible. Then, you ditched me at Santos, took off without a word.” He shook his head, as if he still couldn’t believe it.
She laughed as they turned another corner, heading into the hallway where her room was. “Yeah, you learned fast after that that I’m not a little angel,” she smirked.
He placed a kiss on her forehead as th
ey walked. “Nope. You just look like one.”
She rolled her eyes but really, her heart gave a little flutter, as it always did when he said something sweet — or as sweet as Reid ever got when other people were around to hear him.
Reid was still chuckling when they turned the final corner onto the right hallway, and walked right into someone. Ember, jostled by the other person, dropped her textbooks in a welter of paper and confusion.
“Oh, crap,” she muttered, bending to retrieve her books, frowning at the bent pages.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!” an oddly familiar voice snapped.
Ember looked up from where she was crouched on the floor, collecting her books. The person she’d bumped into happened to be the green-haired, punk girl from English class. Great, she thought sarcastically. Just what she needed: A new enemy. After she’d just gotten rid of Kara.
Getting to her feet, with her textbooks piled clumsily against her chest, Ember glared at the other girl. “Sorry, I mistook you for a tree. Didn’t expect you to move,” she retorted acidly.
The green-haired girl – Liandra – scowled like a thundercloud, looking like she was going to say something vicious back, but Reid cut in neatly, stepping in front of Ember – more for Liandra’s safety than anything else.
“Whoa there, ladies. Let’s not start a cat fight in the hallway. You’ll have every guy from the surrounding area in a frenzy.” Reid smiled charmingly.
Ember fought the urge to roll her eyes at him.
But Liandra turned to look at him, and her hostility drained away like water down a plughole. A slow, sensual smile crept across her face, and she batted her lashes.
Ember felt her cheeks get hot with anger, clenched her fists against her now-battered textbooks. How dare she look at Reid like that! Couldn’t she tell he was clearly taken? Or did she simply just not care?
