by H G Lynch
“Dear God, I hate doors that groan,” she muttered, and the surprised faces of Brandon and Perry stared at her from the other side of the door. Well, I guess they’re here after all. The looks on their faces might’ve been comical if she hadn’t remembered why she was here, and felt raw anger flare up again.
“Uh, Ember? What’re you—I mean, why are you here? Reid isn’t here,” Brandon said slowly, watching her carefully like she might spring and tear his head off at any moment. As tempting as that idea was, payback sounded better.
She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah, I know that,” she said, planting one hand on her hip and staring at them. Perry’s expression of surprised melted away into his usual grin and he gave her a wave and a wink. He looked like he was about to say hi, but Brandon shot him a silencing look, which Ember sneered at. She waved back at Perry despite Brandon’s obvious discomfort.
With a frown, Brandon asked, “Why are you here then?”
She chewed her lip for a second, then shrugged. “I want to help you with the lake killings,” she said simply. She supposed that maybe she had gotten bored lately, without monsters chasing her. It had only been a couple of weeks, but she had a short attention span, and having Lia around certainly wasn’t helping to steer her away from her craving for danger.
“Uh, does Reid know you’re here?” Brandon asked warily, glancing around behind her as if Reid might crawl out of the nearest cupboard or jump up from the floorboards.
Ember felt a strong surge of the same irritation she’d felt at the man by the road when he’d asked if her boyfriend knew she had his bike. She placed both hands firmly on her hips and glared at Brandon, whose eyes widened as he realized he’d pissed her off.
“I don’t need Reid’s permission for everything! He’s my boyfriend, not my keeper!” Ember growled.
Brandon and Perry exchanged a coded glance, which only succeeded in making Ember yet more irritated. She had the urge to slap them both, and curled her hands into fists to stop herself.
“Maybe we should call Reid and just—” Brandon was muttering to Perry, but Ember snarled, cutting him off.
“Reid doesn’t want me here,” she snapped. It was true. He’d wanted her to stay out of trouble, stay out of this from the start, and he’d reiterated it yesterday after he’d come home from that achingly long meeting. If he didn’t want her here, this was exactly where she wanted to be, and if it distracted her from what he was doing when she wasn’t with him, all the better. She sighed, glowering at Brandon. “Look, you’re the one who wanted my help. Why can’t you just accept it?”
Brandon eyed her levelly. “Because you insisted you didn’t want to help.”
“I changed my mind.”
“If you’re just doing this to get back at Reid for whatever he’s done—”
“So what if I am! My motives are irrelevant. Do you want my help or not?” She pinned Brandon with her coldest glare and he looked very much like he wanted to slam the door in her face and lock it behind him.
He squirmed uncomfortably, then sighed. “Fine. I guess we could use your help. But if Reid asks, you came to us. He’s going to rip my head off when he finds out about this.”
Ember smiled sweetly, her most dangerous smile. “Then let’s not tell him.”
Brandon looked unhappy, but he stood back to let her in, then closed the heavy metal door behind her with a resounding clang. Ember followed him and Perry down the long, winding stone steps, lit with cozy firelight from the candles on the walls. It was chilly inside all this cold stone, but it didn’t affect her much.
Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, the beautiful room she’d only seen once before, the room the boys called the ‘Meeting den’, spread out before her and she took a seat at the far wall. Nervously, Brandon took his seat across from her. Heavy, leather-bound books were open and spread around his seat on the floor, and there was pen and pad of paper resting on Perry’s seat. He picked them up before sitting down, looking far more at ease than Brandon. Leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, Ember put on her serious face. As much as this was about going behind Reid’s back to spite him, she was going to do this properly. Something evil was killing people, and it had become a specialty of hers to figure out who and what was waiting in the shadows for human prey.
With a grimace, she met Brandon’s serious hazel eyes, a shade darker than Liandra’s. “So, what have you got so far?”
*****
The next day, Ember decided to go to Onyx Lake and check it out for herself. Sherry was gone when she got in from Biology – probably off with Lia somewhere – and Ember didn’t feel like hanging around to find out if Reid was with them. She got in, got changed, and went straight to the lake.
It wasn’t a long walk, but she kept having to catch her scarf as it tried to wriggle away in the wind. By the time she reached the lake, her ears were nipping and she was glad she’d worn gloves. Even half-vampires could get cold sometimes.
Onyx Lake was misty today, fog rolling in through the trees, and it added that extra eerie touch. The trees whispered and the silvery water murmured and the wind howled around her. It felt like everything was alive and warning her to stay away. Even the clouds, grey and thick and churning, seemed to be forming a sort of smoky danger sign in the sky. There was a faint, but distinct, buzz of magic in the air. She could hear it and feel it, and wondered how long ago the wardings had been set up. If they were strong enough that she could feel the magic just by walking close enough, they must’ve been pretty fresh. She knew they hadn’t been set up when she and the guys had come for a private Jacuzzi party last week, or else they’d never have been able to get in.
Ember wandered around the edge of the lake, holding her hand out over the water, feeling the magic steaming up from under the surface. None of the vampires could feel magic like this, and Cris wasn’t strong enough to feel out weak spots or holes in the wards. Brandon and Perry had filled her in on what they knew so far, which wasn’t much. They’d thought at first that it was a group of nymphs, but the killings had continued after they’d tainted the lake with holy water and blessed beads. Then they’d thought it was a kelpie gone rogue, but none of the signs matched up. So now they were clueless. There were strong wardings on the lake that kept everyone, supernatural or mortal, out and boys kept turning up dead in their underwear. They were thinking it was a female at work, but there were so many possibilities as to which species she was, it was impossible to narrow it down. Ember didn’t know enough about the various supernatural creatures to suggest anything, so she’d spent a few hours yesterday going through the old, dusty books in the meeting den with Brandon and Perry.
Having walked around the edge of the whole lake, and incapable of walking on water to check out the wardings further in, Ember settled on the bank. There were no holes or weak spots that she’d found, though Brandon had insisted she check for that when she’d mentioned last night that she’d take a visit. He was going to be disappointed. This warding was airtight…or was it? Brandon had said that the vampires had gotten zapped when they touched the water, but her mixed blood might confuse the wardings enough that she could slip in. After all, Cris hadn’t gotten zapped when he’d checked for the wardings in the first place. It was worth a try.
Hesitantly, Ember leaned forward and took off one of her gloves, rolled up her sleeve past her elbow, and touched her fingers to the surface of the water. She instantly felt the wardings fighting her, buzzing and tingling against her skin. Little electric shocks shot up her nerves and she snatched her hand back. Frowning, she tried again, this time dipping her hand in to the wrist. The water was freezing, so cold she had to grit her teeth, and it brushed against her skin with icy fingers, raising goose-bumps all along her arm. The magic gave off a loud, angry buzzing and sparks stung her fingers. The area of water around her hand was lit up blue, and she could see the crisscrossing lines of the warding just below the surface. They were bending and converging around her wrist, and now he
r arm was going numb, so she pulled her hand out and stared at her hand for a moment. Little red burns and welts were melting away into her skin and she scowled. Ouch. Son of a bitch. That was a pain in the ass. She’d figured that maybe being part witch would’ve protected her from getting magic burns. They stung like hell. But, thankfully, they healed quickly and disappeared before her eyes, leaving her skin tinted pink from the cold but not sore.
There was nothing else she could think of to test, didn’t really know what else to look for, but she felt like she hadn’t accomplished anything yet, so leaving was out of the question. Plus, if she went back to the dorms, it was likely she’d come across Lia and want to rip her head off, so chilling by the lake seemed like a good idea anyway. For a long time, she just sat by the lake and stared at it as if the monster might reveal itself from the depths if she just waited long enough. It was a peaceful place, despite the blood in the water.
It occurred to Ember, after a long while daydreaming with her chin on her tucked-up knees, that she’d become the girl in her drawing ‘Abandoned’, sitting by the lake all alone, staring out at the water sadly. It wasn’t a comforting thought, and she abruptly stood up. She brushed wet grass off her jeans and gloves, and was just about to leave when she caught sight of a glimmer of something just below the lake surface. Frowning, she peered closer, leaning over the edge of the lake to get a better look.
The thing flashed silver, and she took another step, balancing precariously right on the bank. She cranked up her senses, trying to catch a whiff of something, or a whisper of a voice, anything. If she tilted her head a little, she could almost make out the shape of the silver thing. It was bigger than she’d first thought, longer and it appeared to be moving, coming toward her like a streak of mercury under the icy blue surface. With wide eyes, Ember tried to take a step back, heard a wild, girly laugh ring out, bouncing off the rocks and trees around her, and then the silver thing shot up and grabbed her ankle, yanking her into the water.
It all happened so fast, she didn’t see anything as she fell backward, hitting her head hard on the frozen ground and slipping into the icy water, spots dancing in front of her eyes. The shock of the coldness of the water left her breathless as it encased her body, soaking her and chilling her to the bone. It sucked her under while she was still too stunned to react, and water filled her nose and ears, flooded her mouth through her parted lips, and she choked. Her eyes stung, her vision blurred so that all she could see was the darkness as she was pulled further and further under the water, the silver thing hooked into the laces of her trainer. The urge to scream bubbled up inside her, but it was hopeless. She pressed her lips together, swallowed the water still in her mouth, and tried to stop the wracking coughs attempting to expel the water in her lungs. She was feeling dizzy, couldn’t tell which way was up, but she kicked and thrashed all the same. Her lungs and throat burned, her head pounded, and her muscles were starting to cramp from the ridiculous cold but, as it always did in life-threatening situations, her fire saved her.
Acting on its own will – Ember couldn’t have formed a coherent thought, let alone pulled her magic together to help her – her magic sucked the remaining heat in her body downward, down toward her toes. She felt it slipping away down her body like a sheet sliding off her, leaving her so astonishingly cold it made her muscles spasm over and over, trying to create friction to form heat. She was convulsing, getting deeper and deeper under the water. The heat transferred itself from her body, into the silver creature trying to kill her. Instantly, there was hollow scream inside Ember’s head, an echo that reverberated through the water in a strange, impossible way. The silver thing tore away, burned by Ember’s magic heat, taking her trainer with it, and Ember floated for a moment, lost in the watery underworld, confused and slowly sinking into the blackness enveloping her mind. She was so, so cold, and so, so tired. If she just closed her eyes for a moment…
Then something wrapped around her arm firmly, gripping so tight it hurt, and a flash of terror sprinted through her, kicking her heart rate up a few notches, but she was too exhausted to maintain that draining fear and simply let the thing drag her. Which way it was dragging her, she wasn’t sure, but the hand grasping her arm was hot, tipped with claws that pricked at her skin through her sodden jumper. She felt the water, now a mild indistinct temperature to her numb body, swirl around her, flowing along her limbs and floating her hair around her face and shoulders.
She must’ve blacked out for a bit because the next thing she knew, she was lying down on solid ground, and something slammed into her sternum. Water came rushing up from her lungs, burning like fire, and spilled out her mouth as she choked. Her eyes flew open and instantly tried to sit up. Her weak muscles allowed her only to roll over onto her side, where she proceeded to cough and retch up all the water in her lungs and stomach. Her eyes streamed and stung and her throat felt as raw as it had when she’d had that operation and had had a plastic tube down her throat when she was nine.
Once her lungs were clear, she gasped and gasped, the fresh air somewhere between agony and bliss as it rattled in her torn throat. She flopped onto her back and stared up at the grey sky, her chest heaving, blinking in an attempt to stop her vision blurring. Her limbs felt like aching noodles. It wasn’t until she felt a hand, burning hot, on her neck that she realized she was freezing, and shaking. Two fingers pressed to her neck, just under her jaw, taking her pulse. Then a bright face, full of concern, leaned over her and she saw the mouth move but couldn’t make out the words. There was a muddled rushing in her ears. Forcing herself into a semi-sitting position, helped by her savior, she whacked at her ears until the pressure bubbles popped and she could hear what Hiro was saying.
“Ember? Ember, Jesus, say something! Are you okay? What happened? Come on, talk to me!” His voice was about three octaves higher than usual, strained and shaky. His caramel skin had turned a sallow yellow and his amber eyes were dark and wide. He was dripping wet, his scarlet hair a tangled mess. Jumbled emotions choked their loyalty link; Fear and panic and relief. It was not helping Ember’s own erratic heart rate and confused headache. She put one hand to her head and closed her eyes.
“Ugh, Hiro relax, please. You’re going to make my head explode,” she grumbled, and regretted talking immediately. Her throat spasmed and her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. She wanted to throw up again, but there was nothing left in her stomach. She settled for crawling onto her hands and knees and letting her body convulse some more until it realized that there wasn’t even bile to expel. Slowly, the pounding, overwhelming emotions coming from Hiro calmed down, whether because he was relaxing a little or because he was trying to shut off their link, she wasn’t sure.
“Are you okay? Do you need to go to a hospital? ‘Cause just say the word, and I’ll get you there in a heartbeat, I swear. Can you breathe okay? Did you hit your head? You’ve got a lump on the back of your head. You might have a concussion. I should probably get you to a hospital, right?” Hiro spoke so fast she couldn’t get a word in, and she would’ve laughed if she’d been able to. Instead, she just barely had the energy to wave a hand dismissively at him.
“I don’t need a hospital,” she croaked breathlessly. “I hit my head, yes — but I’ll be fine — in a minute. I thought I saw something — so I leaned over the water and it — grabbed me and pulled me in,” she explained through her gasping. Her stomach tried again to twist itself into knots and push non-existent contents out of her body. Her mouth was on fire, her gums aching so much she was sure they must’ve been bleeding, but when she raised a hand to them, she realized the problem. Her fangs were out, sharper and longer than usual, throbbing in time with her rapid pulse.
Hiro seemed to realize what was wrong at the same time because his eyes suddenly got doubly wide and the color which had started seeping back into his face bled away again. He looked abruptly, absurdly panicked and Ember was about to tell him not to worry, she wasn’t going to eat him or anything, but he vanished in
to thin air before she could say a word. Damned Kitsune.
But she only had time to mentally utter a curse before he reappeared, carrying a blood bag in one hand. It was the kind of squishy bag you saw in hospitals, full of red liquid, and marked with a label that proclaimed the blood to be AB negative. Hiro raised one finger and a claw sprung from the tip, which he used to slash a hole in the blood bag. The smell instantly hit Ember like a train, honey and vanilla. All blood had a different smell, and most blood smell like something edible to vampires to make it more palatable.
Ember snatched the blood bag from Hiro and tipped it to her mouth, the thick red stuff pouring onto her tongue. It was cold and a little too sludgy, but it was still blood and a warm energy spread through her body as she swallowed mouthful after mouthful of it. A tingle of heat sparked in her sensitive places, the normal side effect of drinking blood, but it was a severely weak sensation since this was human blood and she wasn’t drinking straight from the source. Supernatural blood was better, especially from the source, but Reid’s blood was the best. His blood tasted like melted chocolate with a spicy edge and it gave her body the kind of throbbing heat that could floor her.
Once she’d finished the blood, Ember dropped the empty blood bag and sighed in relief. Her throat and lungs stopped burning, her jaws stopped aching and her stomach quit trying to rip her apart from the inside. Full of new, refreshing energy, she pushed to her feet and Hiro eyed got up too, eyeing her cautiously. His hands twitched at his sides like he was ready to reach out and steady her if she should stumble. She cast him a half-smirk.
“Relax, Hiro. I’m okay now. I swear.”
He nodded sharply but didn’t look convinced.
Ember just rolled her eyes. “So how did you know where I was?” she asked, just to distract him.
He shrugged. “The link told me. It tingles when you’re in trouble and I just followed it. Teleportation is seriously handy when I’ve got to be your bodyguard. You always seem to be in a life-or-death situation.” He attempted a grin, but it was wobbly, and he ran a hand through his wet hair.
