In the same instant that his mouth brushed against her skin, the door behind Kira flew off of its hinges.
"Aldrich!" Tristan bellowed, but Aldrich was gone. He disappeared out the window and into the night.
Tristan ran to Kira and embraced her, pulling her hard against his body. Kira hugged him back, throwing her arms over his shoulders. It was only after her hands met at the base of his neck that she realized there was a small paper stuck to her palm.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He pulled her back and examined her face.
"No. I'm fine. I promise. We were just talking," Kira said. Quickly, she stuck her hand in her back pocket, dropping the little paper there for later. Curiosity was almost killing her. She needed to know what Aldrich had written.
"Come on." Tristan tugged on her hand. "Luke is meeting us outside. They're going to blow the house apart, we need to leave now." Kira let him pull her along until they reached the window.
The note would have to wait until she had time alone. No matter what it was, neither Luke nor Tristan could be involved, at least not yet. Kira knew exactly how powerful Aldrich was and if she couldn't handle him, then neither could they. She still wanted to find her mother, but if this night had taught her anything, it was that sometimes patience was a virtue. Not one Kira currently possessed, but one she needed to work on.
Tristan slid through the window first, preparing to catch her. But right when Kira lifted her foot to step over the windowsill, her eyes caught a strip of metal that reflected her image back at her.
Stunned, Kira tripped over her own foot and fell against the wooden floor. She looked around for a mirror and saw a large metal plate hanging on the wall. She ran over to it, ripping it from the wall and holding it in front of her face.
The boys had said her eyes were blue, but Kira still wasn't prepared for what she saw. Whereas before her eyes had been a rusty orange in the center, leaking into a deep olive green with flecks of yellow, they were now bright blue. Not a turquoise or aqua or navy, but a bright cobalt blue that alarmed her.
The perfect royal blue started at her pupils, extending to almost the edge of her iris where a small ring of red-yellow waves pushed their way in. Those looked like her flames, fighting and struggling to stay with her, reminding her of her fight and her power. But now she didn't recognize anything else or any part of her when she looked in the mirror. Her new eyes changed the entire look of her face, and she didn't like it.
Blue was for vampires. It was a color without heat and without spark. Despite the saturated hue, there was no life. Blue was the color of death. It was the pale gray that crept along the body as blood slowly stopped pumping, the color of frost as it covered a forest floor and stopped life in its tracks.
More than anything, Kira wondered what it meant. What had happened to her in there that had so fundamentally changed who she was? She didn't feel different, not really.
"Kira!" Tristan yelled from out the window. She dropped the plate, suddenly jolted back to reality. But before walking to the window, Kira couldn't resist pulling the note from her pocket. Slowly, she unrolled the crinkled paper. In elegant, loopy script were the words, "If you want to see your mother, visit my castle any time. Kindly bring Tristan along." Written below was an address in England.
Kira let her back fall against the wall while she thought. Of course she would go. She had to now. Her mother would never be living there willingly, not with someone so evil. Something else was going on, Kira had to believe it.
And maybe it was a trap. Maybe Aldrich did have plans for her like he had said, but what kind of person would she be if she didn't go? Just because she feared him didn't mean she wouldn't fight him.
Maybe something had changed within her—maybe something had awakened inside of her. Regardless, Kira knew one thing—no more playing by other people's rules. She had gone to Sonnyville because of the council. She was stuck in that hotel room for a week because of Luke and Tristan. She had been playing referee between them and trying to keep everyone from being hurt. But now, Kira was going to do what she wanted when she wanted to, and there would be no stopping her.
If her destiny was to turn into a mindless killing machine, there was only one way she could think to stop it—to do what she felt was right instead of driving herself insane trying to please other people.
"Kira? What's wrong?" Tristan asked again and jumped back up, poking his head through the window.
"Nothing," Kira said and stuffed the note back in her shorts. Nothing at all was wrong. For tonight, everyone was safe and she had gotten exactly what she wanted. Diana was dead and her mother was alive.
Everything was exactly as it should be, which was why Kira felt perfectly comfortable diving out the open window. She knew Tristan was there to catch her. In his arms, Kira felt safe, and he carried her away from the house, only putting her down when they reached the edge of the forest. Kira peered through the branches and searched for the tree she had sat on before.
When she found it, Luke was there waiting for them both. She sat down next to him and Tristan sat down beside her, sandwiching Kira between them.
"Are you okay?" Luke asked without turning to look at her.
"I'm alive, aren't I?"
"That doesn't necessarily mean you're okay though."
"I am." Kira sighed and tried to decide how much to tell them both. "Aldrich never tried to hurt me, he really just wanted to talk—about Tristan mostly but also about my mother."
"You can't believe a word he says, Kira, you can't trust him," Tristan urged.
"I know. He's gone anyway," she said. "Aldrich vanished and any hope of finding my mother went with him."
Kira stuck her hand in her pocket to feel the slip of paper hidden there, thinking of the address he had written. She might not be able to trust Aldrich, but she did believe that he had her mother. The look in Diana's eyes at the end when she confessed, when she was terrified to die and begging for her life, that was what told Kira it was the truth. She would never forget Diana's haunted expression—staring death in the face and knowing it was too late to stop its approach. Kira could read in her eyes that Diana knew it was her own fault, that if she had told the truth Kira probably wouldn't have been able to gather the strength to kill her. Aldrich was too smooth and too controlled to believe, but Diana in those last minutes had been completely truthful.
Kira fingered the note again and decided to keep quiet. The boys hadn't seen what she had seen. It would take time for them to understand.
"How's it going in there?" Kira finally asked, realizing that all three of them were just staring straight ahead at the mansion. The windows were broken and glowing orange from the conduit flames.
"We got about half of them, maybe fifteen vampires, definitely more than I expected. They're draining the blood right now, weakening all the vampires so we can transport them to an interrogation house. And then," Luke said with a wide smile, "we're blowing the place apart!"
Kira laughed at his enthusiasm. "The grand entrance was your idea too, right?"
"That was pretty legit, you have to admit. Breaking through the windows with flames a-flying—couldn't have planned it any better."
"As one of the people thrown up against a wall, I beg to differ," Tristan said from her other side.
"But the timing was perfect, you have to admit," Kira said, giving Luke his victory.
"I know," Luke said with mounting excitement. He started talking even faster, letting his hand gestures grow slightly wild. "That blonde woman came in to warn them and Aldrich was like, 'don't interrupt me you insignificant fool', and she was like, 'but but', and then the conduits bust in like, 'too late—you're all fools!'"
"And the look on Bronson's face…" Kira giggled, unable to continue talking.
"No, Aldrich, he was the best. I swear he looked like a little kid playing with a jack-in-the-box for the first time—totally shocked and freaked out. It was great!"
"But Bronson," Kira challenged, "he was so c
onfused. I swear he was looking around like a fish out of water, like 'conduits are not supposed to be here, they weren't invited.'"
"I think it's safe to say he'll never be hosting a red or white rose ball again," Tristan added.
"Yeah, well let's hope no one will," Kira said, instantly feeling a little sorry for bringing the mood back down.
"It's inevitable, though. Conduits and vampires have been fighting for thousands of years. I don't know what would ever stop it." Tristan shrugged.
Us? Kira asked silently, letting herself believe it could be true for a moment.
The fire in the mansion died down, and in the moonlight Kira saw conduits carrying the lifeless bodies of drained vampires out the windows.
"Won't be long now," Luke said quietly.
"And why again are we blowing up the house?" Kira asked.
"Because Luke is a pyromaniac," Tristan responded with a grin.
"While that is totally true," Luke said, also smiling, "it's just standard procedure, at least I think. This way the vampire has to start over. They have no home or supplies to go back to."
At the word home, Kira sighed and thought of her family in Charleston. When she got back she would make pancakes. Chloe, Kira imagined, would come running into the kitchen because of the aroma. Then Kira would turn on the coffee machine, easing her parents awake and dragging them out of bed to a fresh cooked meal and caffeine. Just a normal Sunday morning for the Dawson household, something that hadn't happened for a while and something Kira desperately missed.
"I can't wait to get home. All I want is a huge bowl of ice cream, a whole pint maybe. Sweet, creamy Ben and Jerry's Super Chocolate Chunk," Kira said, salivating at the thought.
"You're such a girl," Luke chided and leaned back on his palms, thinking of his own family. "I just want a home-cooked meal, some of my mother's warm and delicious beef stew. Real meat for a real man."
"Oh god," Kira said and rolled her eyes. She turned to Tristan, waiting for him to add something before realizing why he remained silent. He was alone in the world except for Kira. He didn't have anyone or anything to go home to.
"Look," he said instead and motioned to the two last conduits coming out of the house.
They ran under the cover of night to the edge of the forest, a few feet in front of Kira, Luke, and Tristan. One of the conduits pulled out the remote trigger and pressed a button.
After a few completely silent seconds, as if the entire forest were holding its breath, a corner of the house exploded, engulfing the entire building in flames and sending broken pieces everywhere.
Kira watched the wild movements of the flames, felt the wave of heat hit her face, and heard the crackling and crashing of wood as the uncontrollable fire consumed it. The power inside of her responded, gathering in her heart and warming her insides as if the two fires were friends trying to reconnect. Her powers ached to be released, ached to join in on the chaos before her, but she squelched it. Was she like the fire in front of her? Wild and uncontrolled?
But the more she looked at the undulating flames, swishing back and forth and lighting the night sky, the more she saw the beauty in it, like the brilliant golden hues of the flames and the soft glow permeating the yard.
Something had undoubtedly changed in her this night. Like a switch flipped to the on position, her power churned inside of her. But Kira didn't fear it. Killing Diana and breaking through the immunity had given her a taste of her real potential. The hot smoldering burn of her power was a comfort. She didn't fear her strength. There was a purpose for it, something more than all of the killing. She just wasn't sure what that was yet.
And, even though a little voice in the back of her head told her that it was a bad idea, Kira knew Aldrich held the answers. Her gut told her going to his home would solve all of her problems. Finding her mother wasn't the end goal anymore, finding the truth about herself was.
"Hotel?" Luke asked when the fire died down to smoke, and the house was charred beyond recognition.
"Hotel." Kira nodded.
"Hotel," Tristan agreed.
All three of them stood at the same time as though tied together with a string. And maybe they were, Kira thought—maybe they were tied together for some inexplicable reason. She watched the last spark of the fire, saw embers drift through the smoke like fireflies, and waited for one of the boys to make a move.
Luke reached out his hand, tanned and freckled, inviting her to follow him.
On her other side, Tristan reached out his smooth white palm, asking her to move with him.
Kira stared for a moment, looking at the choice before her, small and unimportant, but at the same time symbolic of so much more. She was stuck. Something that had seemed so obvious a choice only days before was somehow difficult now. It was almost as if she were two different people. And like she was cut in half, Kira's hands acted on their own, each taking hold of the hand before them.
On one side, she grasped a hand that was cool and comfortable, a hand she had held a thousand times before, one that enveloped hers and made her feel safe.
On the other side, she gripped a hand that was warm and welcoming, a hand she had held before but never in that way, never with excitement and a twinge of the unknown.
The night may have awakened more than just her powers, Kira realized. She was taking charge of her life. She wouldn't wait for the boys to come up with a plan. For the first time, she stepped forward and pulled both of them behind her, forcing them to follow her lead.
And at that moment, walking through the smoke-filled forest, all Kira wanted to think about was a hot shower and a warm bed—no boys, no conduits, no parents, and no vampires. Just one night to herself, completely free of worry, because the fire inside her was heating up and, like that house, Kira knew she was about to explode.
###
Blaze
Midnight Fire Book Three
By
Kaitlyn Davis
Description
“Kira gulped, unable to stop the growing sense that everything in her world was about to change.”
With Aldrich’s note burning a hole in her pocket, Kira is off to England to finally reunite with her birth mother. But what begins as a dream quickly turns to a nightmare, and Kira is left questioning everything she has ever known. Can she be the conduit Luke wants her to be? Can she be the rebel Tristan needs her to be? Or is she something else? Something no one, not even Aldrich, ever saw coming…
###
Chapter One
Kira ripped another page from her notebook and crumpled the thick paper between her fingers. Frustrated, she threw the ball into her wastebasket.
Quite the collection, she mused as she glanced down at the paper pyramid by her feet. Kira had been sitting at her desk for nearly an hour, but still the right words had eluded her. How could she explain it to Luke, her best friend and ever-faithful protector? No matter what, he would be angry. No matter what, he would feel betrayed. But it was the only way to keep him safe from Aldrich.
Kira sighed and leaned back in her chair, slowly swiveling it from side to side as she thought back a week and a half ago to the night of the Red Rose Ball. Kira could still picture it perfectly—the fear on the vampire Diana’s face when she realized she was about to die. The way both of Kira’s arms lit entirely on fire, pushing her power further than it had ever gone in order to break through Diana’s immunity. The moment Tristan’s maker, Aldrich, burst into the room only to be interrupted by a swarm of conduits exploding through the windows. The minutes Aldrich spent calmly evaluating her without any hint of fear, knowing his power to move objects with his mind was unbeatable. And of course, the feel of his hand when he slipped her a note with his address, promising that her birth mother would be there, waiting for the daughter who had been taken away from her more than seventeen years ago.
Kira remembered watching the mansion collapse in on itself after the conduits had set it on fire, remembered holding both Tristan and Luke’s hands while the t
hree of them observed in silence. She remembered how the note Aldrich had given her seemed to burn a hole through her pocket and the moment a plan popped into her mind. Most of all, Kira remembered the moment she had decided to act on it.
After destroying the mansion, the conduits retreated to a safe house to question the vampires they had captured. Luke followed, but Kira stayed behind feigning exhaustion. True, she had desperately wanted a shower and a soft bed, but the promise of a few hours alone with Tristan was what she had really needed. That night, while Luke was off on official business, the lie had begun—the lie that made this letter to Luke so difficult to write. Kira and Tristan were going to fight Aldrich, and they were leaving Luke behind.
Kira dropped her pen and glanced at the photo of her and Tristan that sat on the corner of her desk. Taped to the back, hidden behind the blue plastic frame, was the note Aldrich had slipped her before he had escaped. Kira didn’t need to look at it to know what it said—she had the address memorized by now. Her mother was waiting in some cold castle in England, and Kira needed to find her. But it wasn’t that simple.
When she first told him, Tristan had been furious. It was the night of the ball and they had just gotten back to the hotel room after ditching Luke. Kira tried to casually let it slip that his maker, Aldrich, had invited them to his castle, but Tristan wasn’t fooled by her light tone. His eyes had flashed an ice-cold blue that stabbed at Kira’s heart and he yelled at her for the first time. Kira knew it was his own fear and insecurities that fueled the outraged response—his own issues with Aldrich—but Kira suspected Luke’s response wouldn’t be any better, which was why she had decided to keep it a secret.
The Complete Midnight Fire Series Page 39
