But Tristan knew that if he didn’t return to Aldrich’s with her, it would probably cost Kira her life. She tried to picture his muscular frame, walking slowly down the side of a country road, mind lost in thought and body immune to the damp air. He was out there. He had to be waiting for her somewhere.
“Uh, Kira?” Luke asked. His open, honest eyes looked at her with concern.
“I have to go,” she said and stood abruptly, ruffling the papers by her legs. She needed to leave. No one needed her here any longer, and she had to find Tristan. Things would be better, somehow.
Remembering her manners, Kira turned to Jack and Mary Beth, thanking them and saying how please she was to meet them. Kira told Luke to text her tomorrow, updating her on his progress. And then she was following her feet as they led her to the hallway, out the door and over toward the rickety elevator. Kira pressed the down button and waited while ascending numbers lit up above the door.
“Kira!” Luke careened out of the apartment and walked determinedly towards her. Kira turned and waited for him to keep talking. He stopped a foot away from her and looked down at his feet, jumping on his toes a little bit.
“So I was thinking, I don’t really like being in charge.” He grinned.
“Really? You seemed to have it all under control in there,” Kira said, eying him warily.
“Still,” he said, letting the word drag out as he stepped closer. Kira could feel the heat gathering in the small space between their bodies. “I think it’s high time I do something really stupid.”
“Luke,” Kira said and turned away from him. He grabbed her hand. Kira felt a zing zip up her arm at his touch. She tried to ignore the electric charge spreading throughout her body, flushing her cheeks and setting her nerves on end. Luke gently pulled her around so she faced him and slipped his free hand up to her face. Gently, he rubbed his thumb along her cheek, tilting her head up ever so slightly, forcing Kira to finally meet his eyes. They burned her skin.
“Luke,” Kira said. It came out as a whisper and not in the stern, commanding way Kira had meant it to.
“You can yell at me after,” he said softly and kissed her.
Chapter Twelve
As soon as Luke’s lips touched Kira’s, a torrent of emotions rushed through her body. The barrier she had spent so much time building up crashed, letting Luke’s thoughts flood into her like a tidal wave. Her mind was consumed with his excitement, his happiness, his fulfillment.
It was Luke’s pulse rapidly beating through her veins, his heart bursting with the perfection of the moment, his limbs that tingled with each touch of her hands as they trailed up his chest.
But his feelings were Kira’s. They were one, completely matched in the moment. One of his hands found its way to her back, burning a path along her skin. He pulled her closer, or was it Kira who pulled him closer? Her fingers stretched into his hair, playing with the short, soft strands at the base of his neck. He matched her movement, running his hand up into her curls, bringing her lips even firmer against his.
And then, a feeling settled in her heart, matched by Luke’s surging in her head. She felt light, as though she were floating on a cloud and Luke’s body was the only thing keeping her grounded. Pure gold seemed to pump through her veins, making every touch richer, every emotion fuller. Every outside distraction disappeared and a rush of fire pulsed down her body.
They kept kissing until there was no air left in their lungs and an innate will to live forced them apart to catch a breath. Kira rested her forehead against Luke’s, breathing heavily, and she slowly opened her eyes to find his. The yellows and oranges in his irises seemed to dance they were so bright, reminding her of flickering flames. Kira knew her eyes must be burning a stark blue, but Luke never flinched, never looked away.
She felt a smile tug at her lips, but from the corner of her eyes, Kira saw real flames swirling, burning and sinking into Luke’s skin.
Shocked, Kira pulled away from him, clenching her fists down by her side.
“I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t even realize,” Kira looked away, cursing her lack of control. Luke captured her small hands in his, covering the flames and letting them sink into him.
“You can’t hurt me, Kira.”
But the cool air she was sucking in through her lips had cleared Kira’s head.
“I have to go,” Kira said as Tristan’s wounded face glimmered to life in her mind. How could she have lost control like this?
“Kira,” Luke tugged on her hand, not letting her leave. The elevator dinged opening behind her and Kira wrenched free of his hold.
“I have to go,” she pleaded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” The door slid closed and Luke’s confused face disappeared behind a wall of metal. Kira wished it would be so easy to get Tristan out of her mind. But his features settled in like stone, determined to haunt her.
He had only asked one thing of her, one little thing, to not fall right into Luke’s arms. And though they were open and waiting, Kira still didn’t think she would fly into them so willingly or so quickly. Luke was her best friend, there weren’t supposed to be feelings there. He was her guardian, her protector. But that kiss was seared into her memory—was he right? Was one kiss all it would take? Kira had mistaken his words for typical Luke cockiness, but as her body stirred at the mere thought of what just happened…
But no, she pushed the memory from her head.
She needed to find Tristan. She needed to apologize, even if he didn’t know what she was apologizing for. Because Tristan could never know what just happened. It would kill him, hurt him more than her powers ever could.
They had broken up, broken apart. But that didn’t mean Kira wanted to lose him forever.
When the elevator slid open again, Kira ran to the car and revved the engine to life. The sky started to darken as the sun disappeared behind London’s buildings, sinking into the earth, signaling the night.
She found her way back to the small pond, hoping Tristan was waiting for her to return. Pushing aside the swaying branches of the willow tree, Kira discovered an empty space filled only with sleeping ducks.
As she continued down country roads, her headlights fought with the misty air. Every shadow caught her attention. Every shape in the distance looked like Tristan, looked like a lone walking figure, until she drove close enough to recognize them as a tree or a gateway or an animal. Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes played tricks on her. Every moment of anticipation made her heart race, and disappointment darkened her thoughts the longer she went without finding him.
Kira’s eyes flashed to the GPS. Aldrich’s house was moving closer and closer to her tiny car, or maybe it was the other way around. But Kira felt like it was Aldrich who was creeping up on her, suffocating her and pulling her towards him.
And then, close to the ground, Kira saw something pristinely white through the fog: a t-shirt connected to a still body. She slowed the car, stuttering to a stop. Kira knew it was Tristan. He sat next to the road with his knees bent, head sunk in between them with hands gripping his neck. His shirt was damp from the misty night and it clung to his strong shoulders.
After what seemed like an hour, he slowly lifted his head up. His normally bright eyes were dark, matching the scene around him, barely shining against the flood of the headlights. They looked bloodshot, if that was even possible for a vampire.
Kira turned the car off. She stepped out, hesitantly. He watched her, never taking his sight from her as she approached.
“Tristan?” Kira leaned against the hood of the car, afraid to get any closer.
“Did you find him?” Tristan asked. His deep voice broke through the silence in the air. Kira knew what he was really asking.
“Nothing happened,” she said. The lie burned her tongue. “I didn’t tell him anything.” Tristan’s muscles relaxed and he let out a prolonged breath.
“Did you figure out a plan?”
“Yeah.” Kira nodded.
“Fill me in duri
ng the ride back to the castle,” he said and stood up. Even in misery he was graceful. His movements were fluid, like a panther in the night. But Kira forced her gaze away. Tristan wasn’t hers to admire anymore.
“Tristan,” Kira said when they were both settled in the car.
“Don’t,” he said, “let’s just get through the next day.”
“Okay.”
Kira started the car and pulled back onto the road. For the first few minutes, no one said anything. Tristan stared out the window. Every time her gaze flicked towards him, Kira was greeted with dark hair and the back of his neck.
“So what did you and…” He swallowed. “What did you guys decide?” Kira filled him in—tactical discussions were safe territory. They would go through with the ceremony, trapping Aldrich at his weakest moment. The conduits would come and help with the fight. And Aldrich would run away or Kira would kill him. Those were the only two endings she saw.
“When will we make our move?” Tristan asked, speaking for the first time since Kira started talking. He had been nodding silently along with her words, agreeing to everything she said.
Kira thought about his question. When would be the perfect time to attack? Aldrich and her mother had told her most of the process to becoming a vampire. Aldrich would need to bite her, drink some of her blood. Her neck was the best spot—close to her heart and a major artery—but Kira wouldn’t be offering anything more than her wrist. Then everyone would wait a few seconds for her blood to pass through his heart and circulate through his veins, mixing with the already vampiric blood, blending into his system until it started turning. It was the blood, they said, that turned and gained qualities of a vampire. Blood always had to change first.
And when Aldrich felt Kira’s foreign blood transform to match his, he would cut his own hand and press it against the open wound in her wrist, forcing his blood into her body. Then, like a virus, the vampirism would enter and begin to turn her normal blood. When all her blood had changed, the rest of her body would start to follow.
Kira shivered at the thought, but knew what she had to do.
“When he starts to flood his blood into mine, that’s when you need to attack him. Go for the kill right away,” Kira said. “He’ll expect me to struggle, but not you. Aldrich will be caught completely off guard.”
“You sure you want to risk that? Letting him go so far in the process?” Tristan asked, trying hard to keep any bitterness from his voice.
Thinking of Luke’s steadfast denial that conduits could turn, Kira nodded. “I can fight the change, I know it,” she said softly, trying not to hurt Tristan any more than she had to.
“Then there’s nothing else to talk about.”
“I do have one more thing,” Kira said quickly, before he had time to shut her out again. “Pavia, I need to talk to her again. She’s hiding something, something that might help us.”
“What do you mean?” Tristan asked. His cloudy mood cleared a bit as genuine interest colored his words.
“I think,” Kira started talking, not really knowing what she meant. But then the realization hit. “I think Pavia must have stolen my mother’s memories. When I met her, she showed me her power, just the flash of an old memory. But it makes perfect sense. If Aldrich ever did have my mother, Pavia could have taken her memories and given them to this other vampire woman, the one who looks like my mother. That must be how she knows so much, so many personal details.”
“Yeah,” Tristan tapped his fingers against his knee, thinking, “yeah, that makes sense. But I still don’t understand how she looks so much like her.”
“Me neither,” Kira said and shook her head. One more mystery for her to solve. “But maybe Pavia does. You need to distract Aldrich tomorrow, distract him long enough for me to sneak back into those tunnels.”
“Right after breakfast, I’ll pull him away and tell him we need to talk in private. I’ll make sure to give you as much time as I can, but I can’t promise more than an hour or he may realize we’re up to something.”
Kira nodded, opening her mouth to discuss their plan a little bit more.
“We’re about a minute away from Aldrich’s hearing distance,” Tristan interrupted.
Knowing time had run out to really make things better, Kira reached her hand across the car, latching onto Tristan’s. “I’m so sorry. You know that, right? I wish things could be different, that we could be together.”
Tristan kept hold of her hand, but didn’t respond. Kira turned her attention back to the road and tried not to listen to the seconds tick by in her head. They seemed long and drawn out, passing too quickly but also not fast enough.
And then suddenly, Tristan looked at her and said, “Kira, I know that Luke is upset, but does he have to call you every five minutes? What is his problem? He lost. He’s got to let it go.”
They had passed the line of Aldrich’s hearing. The show had begun.
“I know Tristan,” Kira said, looking at the hurt in his eyes even though his voice sounded like that of a champion. “I told him I’m changing, that I wouldn’t be able to see him again. It’ll just take some time for that to sink in, I think.”
“Well, he has a day to get it together if he ever wants to apologize for the way he screamed at you.”
“A day?” Kira asked, following the plan she and Tristan had thought up. Aldrich was expecting the change to happen tonight, but they had decided that that was too fast to put the entire plan into action. The conduits needed a day to regroup and Kira needed a day to get her feelings under control. They wanted Aldrich to believe the delay was completely organic, not a rallying day.
“Yeah, I think we need to push it off for a few hours,” Tristan said, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. “I don’t want our new life together to start while I’m angry at Luke. I don’t want anything in my head but love.” His words sounded sincere, but Kira saw the slight glisten to his lashes.
“Me neither,” Kira said, trying to keep the sadness from her voice. “Why don’t you relax for a little while, we’re almost back to the castle.”
Tristan nodded, turning on the music in the car to drown out the silence. They had planned to talk more, to explain more in the car for Aldrich to overhear. But it was too much so soon. Both of their feelings were too raw, and Tristan leaned back in his seat to close his eyes.
Kira hummed along with the songs she recognized and kept going over the plan in her head. Much too soon, the now familiar driveway appeared around the bend. Kira turned in and Tristan pretended to wake to the sound of crunching gravel as Kira approached the castle.
It was eerie how similar the trip was to the first time Kira pulled in, so similar and yet so different. The ruins to the side of the castle, with their twisting and turning shadows, still frightened Kira. The castle loomed over them, still menacing. The thought of Aldrich still pierced just a little. Kira couldn’t quite cut the fear that he was onto them, that any minute he would walk out enraged and ready to fight.
The only difference was that Kira felt alone in her fight. Tristan was beside her, helping her, but they weren’t a team—not anymore. And Luke, Kira didn’t know what to think about it. Last time she drove to this castle, she was afraid Luke would never speak to her again. Now Kira was frightened because speaking to him, just talking, might not be enough.
And like the first time, Aldrich had heard them. As soon as the car stopped, both doors popped open on their own. The front door swerved open, revealing a silhouetted figure in a dark suit.
“How was the trip?” Aldrich cheerfully called to them.
“Difficult,” Kira said, not needing to lie at all. Aldrich would know if she were lying. The next day would be all about hard to discern half-truths. “But I did what I needed to do.”
Tristan circled around the car and put an arm around Kira, kissing her on top of her head as he did it.
“And how did Lucas take everything?” Aldrich asked.
“As well as could be expected,”
Kira said with her thoughts focused on Tristan. “I think it came as quite a shock.”
Aldrich laughed. Kira fought the urge to kick him for finding even the pretend idea of Luke in pain funny. “As long as he doesn’t come around with a false sense of chivalry, trying to save his fair maiden.” Aldrich’s eyes flicked to Kira with a hard look, a warning Kira thought. But maybe she was seeing things…
“Luke definitely doesn’t have any false ideas,” Tristan said with a grin. But he squeezed Kira’s arm at the word ‘false’ and she knew what he was really accusing.
“Yeah, he’s totally out of the picture,” Kira returned the squeeze. Two could play at that game. She may have technically done the breaking up, and she may have technically done the one thing Tristan had asked her not to, but that didn’t mean she was okay with biting remarks. They had twenty-four hours more of the charade, and it was way too soon for bickering innuendos.
Aldrich stepped inside, looking over his shoulder at Kira. “And how are you, Kira?”
She thought about the next day, the battle that was about to begin. “I’m ready,” she said and meant it. Kira was ready for answers, ready for the fight, and ready to take Aldrich down.
“As am I,” Aldrich responded. Flashes of icy blue pierced his nearly black eyes, giving away his excitement. “As am I,” he repeated, this time with a note of finality, just a hint of victory. He blinked and the expression was gone, almost as though it never happened.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to wait a day though,” Aldrich continued speaking. Tristan and Kira were hoping for this. Aldrich had overheard them and was pretending that he wanted to delay things. As Kira assumed, Aldrich was being very accommodating. He didn’t want to scare her off.
“Why’s that?” Tristan asked, pulling Kira up against his body, trying to let Aldrich see he didn’t necessarily want to wait.
“My dear wife,” it took everything Kira had not to flinch at that word, “has gone to bed. Her excitement got the better of her.”
Blaze (Midnight Fire Series) Page 15
