Wild Fire

by Heather Glidewell

  *****

  “So when we going to go and find this girl?” Adam asked rummaging through the extensively stocked refrigerator.

  “Nick said she works at a tattoo parlor in Deep Ellum. Personally I think that is pretty vague. I was thinking we could start with the closest parlor and work our way further out.” I had changed into one of the dresses my mother had bought me and pulled my hair back into a neat ponytail.

  “You thinking about getting some ink?” Adam looked overjoyed as he pulled out the high priced meats and cheeses and began making him a sandwich. I think the boy could live on them if he wanted to and the fact that we had more than just bologna made him increasingly happy.

  “I don’t know. What about you?” I eyed him.

  “I was thinking maybe the element signs on my back.” He brought his plate around and sat down on the couch next to me.

  “You are really getting into this whole thing aren’t you?” I poked him and he glanced at me with a half-smile on his face.

  “So you googled it yet? Where is the closest place to here?” He swallowed.

  “Yeah about a mile away, we can walk there in about twenty five minutes or so.” I had actually looked it up in the bathroom when I was changing but I wasn’t going to tell him that. There was silence before Adam spoke again.

  “So I said I wasn’t going to ask but what happened before we came here?” He looked at me chewing.

  “Well it’s pretty cool actually.” I started fidgeting. “You were chosen for a very big job.”

  “Chosen by who?” His mouth was full so I had to guess at what exactly he was saying.

  “Heaven apparently.” I was becoming uncomfortable.

  “Huh?” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. I wondered if he saw the paper towels by the sink.

  “Ok so you see there are humans that fit into this whole biblical thing. So you see when Heaven finds someone worthy of a quest or some sort they grant them these powers.” I watched as his eyes lit up.

  “Do I have super speed? Sonic hearing? The ability to swing from buildings using spider webs?” There was an excitement to his voice that was making me want to laugh.

  “No silly. Ramiel said it will make you faster, stronger, and more agile; but you are still human.” I leaned my head back and looked up at the ceiling. “He also said that if for any reason you feel that you cannot live up to the expectations then you can always give it back.”

  “I don’t even know what it is why would I want to give it back without trying it first?” He laughed stuffing the last bite of the sandwich in his mouth and getting up to put the plate in the dishwasher.

  “Well I don’t know what it did for you. I didn’t notice any changes.” I stood up and looked at the clock on the wall. It was nearing eight. If we were going to do this we needed to get going now. “You ready?” I grabbed my debit card and driver’s license and stuffed them in the side of my bra. Adam looked at me like I lost my mind.

  “You could have just given it to me I would have carried it for you.” He said as I walked up to him.

  “It’s cool at least one of us won’t get pick pocketed.” I stood up on my tip toes and kissed him on his cheek.

  “So we going to try this couple thing?” He suddenly asked looking at me confused.

  “If you want.” I was starting not to understand what was going on. I thought that we had pretty much showed that we wanted to be together, he seemed resistant to the idea of being with me. Was it my blood?

  “Dawn, I know I said we needed to talk about this. Do we know what we are doing?” He stepped away from me towards the entry way.

  “No, and I think that is what makes this so amazing.” I sighed. I knew we were going to have this talk I just wasn’t sure if I wanted it now.

  “It seems so surreal to me. We cannot go back to just friends. That fine line has been stepped over.” He stuffed his hands in his back pocket and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling.

  “You know Helen sensed something awhile back.” I stepped towards him and he looked down at me his brown eyes were glistening.

  “She did?” He didn’t looked convinced just hopeful.

  “She told me there was something going on weather I chose to accept it or not.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and he smiled down at me.

  “Well good. I thought you were too good for Aaron as it was.” He laughed pressing his lips to my forehead.

  “Let’s just see where this goes. Worst case scenario I die in battle.” I tried to make that sound like a joke but there was a coldness that burst through my heart. I could really die in battle.

  “I don’t even want to think about that.” He cringed. “You want to go with the flow, so we will do just that and see where we go. We don’t have to be exclusive now we can just casually date.”

  I laughed. “Casually dating means you can see whomever you want.”

  “Well I may have to take this new girl out for a date or something to get her to trust me enough to talk to me.” He poked my side and I jumped.

  “I don’t want to think about that.” I said through clenched teeth. Sadly though I knew he was telling the truth.

  We walked hand in hand down Houston Street to Olive then over to Akard which turned into Ervay right before Commerce and there it was. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to open myself up to anything. I had felt an increase in power when Helen showed up at Adam’s this last April. An uncontrollable want to hug her, and on most occasions in the beginning punch her in the face for touching Adam. I felt nothing, not even a cold chill. I looked at Adam and shook my head, the first place we went was a bust.

  He pulled out his phone and pulled up Google Maps trying to locate the next closest location maybe we would have a better chance with a second choice. “The next place is not even a mile up the road. He pointed to our left and frowned.”

  “I was really hoping that we would be able to find her on the first chance. You know like maybe I had some Warden intuition that would tell me where she is.” I took his hand in mind winding my fingers in his.

  “Maybe you will. Who knows what will happen with the next place.” He squeezed my hand and we kept walking towards the next address.

  “Do you really think this is going to work?” He asked me.

  “I don’t know. All I know is that if I feel her she’s going to feel me.” I sighed this was turning out to be much harder than I thought.

  “How about this when it comes into sight I will go in and take a look. You said she has red hair right?” We were getting close to the next location I could see the sign from where we were.

  “Yeah. That’s all I know about her though.” I groaned. Nick had been incredibly vague about this whole thing. We pretty much went in on blind intuition hoping that there would be a sign or something to tell me we were in the right direction.

  “How about you go in first and I will follow behind you. Maybe if I act like I can’t feel anything she won’t be so apt to run.” I gripped his hand tighter I didn’t want to have to let him go.

  “Alright but at some point I have to look available.” He laughed as I unwilling dropped his hand and let him cross the street to the tattoo shop with me biting my bottom lip. I was going to give him ten minutes and if he didn’t come back out I would go in.

  “Hey pretty thing.” A man with more piercings in his face than I could count said stopping near me. “Never seen a thing like you around here before.”

  I rolled my eyes and looked at him. “I’m sixteen.” I lied. The last thing I wanted was for some perv to hit on me while I waited.

  “Age is just a number.” The man said stepping closer. I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Yeah, I think right at this moment that is exactly what he was thinking.

  “Ever heard the saying ‘Sixteen will get you twenty’?” I groaned.

  “If you are willing I’m willing.” He
was circling me. I was getting tired of his slurred speech. It was taking everything in me not to set him on fire.

  “Trust me it would not be willing.” I moaned clenching my fists.

  “Well that can be arranged too.” He made one major mistake. He touched me.

  My left arm shot out grabbing the man by the throat. I spun around and threw him into the wall behind me holding him off his feet by the throat. My eyes burned and I saw the fear form on his face. “My suggestion would be for you to leave me alone.” I hissed clenching his throat just a little tighter and he coughed, squirmed and blinked.

  “Ok.” He said as I released my fingers from his throat and lowering him to the sidewalk. “What the hell are you?”

  “Your worst nightmare if you don’t get the hell out of here.” I bit not taking my eyes off of him until he was safely around the corner.

  “You know next time just use pepper spray.” I heard a female laugh and I turned to look at her blinking a few times. When our eyes met there was electricity and I felt like the fire was going to explode from my skin.

  “You’re her!” I screeched a smile on my face.

  “I could be. Come on you can come in the shop for a bit. I work across the street.” She took me by the shoulder and led me inside the shop. Adam looked up at me and smiled, I waved shyly at him and mouthed that this was her.

  “Oh you two are together huh.” She said looking between the two of us.

  “Yeah. We weren’t sure which shop you worked in so I came in first to find out.” Adam said standing up and walking towards us.

  “Yeah Mike here called me to let me know I had a customer.” She laughed. “So how did you hear about me?”

  “A friend.” Adam choked.

  “Great!” She looked back at me. “Your girlfriend here is quite the muscle woman. But by the looks of you he’s lucky he got the girlfriend.”

  Adam looked at me and blinked. “She’s not my girlfriend.” That seemed to perk her attention and she looked back at him. I felt a pain in my chest but I knew that this is how it was supposed to be.

  “I’m sorry I just assumed.” She said laughing. “So who’s going first?” She asked looking between the two of us.

  “Dawn? How about you go.” Adam said looking at me and narrowing his eyes. He was giving me time to talk to her

  “You have something in mind Dawn?” She asked as we all walked back to a booth with a bunch of pointy objects. I never liked needles.

  “Wings.” I said longingly. Krista and Helen both had wings. If I couldn’t have the real ones I would settle for a pair drawn on my back.

  “Wings huh.” She looked at me quizzically.

  “Yeah.” I smiled.

  “I think that is a great idea.” Adam said behind me. I turned and looked at him, he was beaming.

  “Where do you want them?” She asked taking a seat and getting her stuff together.

  “On my back between my shoulder blades.” I felt like my skin was going to fall off my bones just to avoid being penetrated by the needles. I looked at her arms tattooed all the way up to her shoulders. They were exquisite. “Did you do those?”

  “Some of them yeah. Others I had done by coworkers.” She held them out for me to see. Out of all the intricate drawings it was the two on her wrists that got my attention. A praying angel with a halo was on one and a kneeling demon on the other. This had to be her there was no question.

  “Well then I need you to undo the top of your dress and lower it to your waist.” She said noticing my intent stare at the two tattoos. She lowered her arms and rubbed her wrists. “Can you close that curtain behind you?” She looked at Adam.