by H G Lynch
“Okay, so basically, before I was just another meal. But now I’m caffeine, cocaine and a fine steak rolled into one. Great,” Ember muttered sarcastically and sighed.
Reid nodded. “Yup, pretty much. Plus, you’re delectably hot.” He grinned suddenly, mischievously, and Ember shook her head at him even as she blushed.
“You’re such a guy,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes.
“I think that’s been established long ago. But if you need to be convinced some more, I can–”
“Uh, no. Not…right now.” Ember pressed her lips together, feeling her blush deepen. He just winked at her, and she looked away. Blowing out a breath, she said, “Can we just get back to the testing of my magic powers please?”
Reid was the one to roll his eyes this time. “Fine, magic powers it is,” he said, sounding disappointed. “Speed ought to be easy enough to test.” He stood and flitted to the other side of the room so fast he was just a blur of movement. He darted back to her, and she felt his lips touch hers for a fraction of a second, and then he was on the other side of the room again, grinning.
Ember cursed. She crawled out of her cosy bed and stood up, shifting her weight from foot to foot nervously. “It’s easy, just like normal running. Just try taking a–” Reid started instructing but in a flash she shut him up, shooting across the room and wrapping herself around him, clinging onto his back with her legs around his hips. It was just like running normally, only everything seemed to slow down around her as she moved.
“Yes? You were saying?” she whispered in his ear and felt him shiver. She bit her lip on a smile. Good to know she could still surprise him.
“You got lucky because you took me off guard. Next time you won’t have it so easy,” Reid muttered.
“Oh really?” she said, her lips against his ear.
“Yes,” he murmured, “Really.” And then, somehow, her back was against the wall and he had her arms pinned and his fangs were an inch from her neck. How the hell did he do that? Ember thought, her head spinning from the quick, disorienting movement. And from Reid’s cool breath spilling across her neck, raising goose bumps. He leaned in, his lips brushing her throat. Her breath caught. He leaned into her, sliding his knee between her legs, and she closed her eyes. Oh my God, she thought, oh God. Her thoughts scattered to a dozen different places – places they shouldn’t have gone to – and it took her a long moment to recollect them.
“Okay, you’ve made your point. Now let go,” Ember said quietly, her voice uneven. There was a flutter behind her ribs. Reid chuckled, sending a shudder of heat down her spine, and then released her.
“Just as long as you get the message. I’m still faster than you. I will always be faster than you,” he murmured with a smug smile. She glared at him. He just shrugged and let her traipse back to her bed. She slumped down and tucked her legs under the covers so he wouldn’t see the goosebumps on her skin – goosebumps he’d caused.
“Is there anything else we should test? I already know my hearing and eyesight aren’t much improved, and I make things rattle when I’m angry. So unless you’re going to say I might be able to turn invisible or something, I want to take a nap,” Ember said, lying. She wasn’t in the least bit tired, but she really needed Reid out of the room for a while. Prolonged contact was driving her crazy. Plus, she really needed to have a shower, and she just couldn’t be naked with him in the next room. She couldn’t.
After a moment’s hesitation, Reid nodded. “Well, we’ve got the basics down and I don’t think we can test for any other powers that you may or may not have, so yeah, I think we’re done for now. If anything else happens, like you suddenly grow five inches or a horde of gremlin minions appear, let me know.” Reid chuckled.
“Yeah, ha, ha,” she grumbled sarcastically. “Now shoo.” Ember made shooing motions with her hands but he caught her wrists and leaned in swiftly to press a soft kiss onto her lips. Delicious tremors slid around inside her, reinforcing her decision to make him leave.
His mouth turned up slightly at the corners. “I’m glad you feel better,” he mumbled into her lips. And then he was gone, the door clicking shut quietly behind him. Ember sighed and rolled off her bed.
“What’re you doing?” Sherry asked, watching her as she pulled open the wardrobe doors and reached up for a towel on the top shelf.
Yanking down a towel, Ember said, “I’m going for a shower.”
There was a pause, and then Sherry said, a smile in her voice, “If you wanted me to leave so you could be alone with him, you could have just said.”
Over her shoulder, Ember gave her friend a withering look. “Get your mind out of the gutter,” she said, closing the bathroom door between them. Now, if she could just get her own mind out of the damn gutter. Reid was definitely a bad influence on her.
Chapter Five
** Reid **
“Hey, how’s my little…” Reid wandered into Ember and Sherry’s room, and stopped dead upon seeing the empty bed. Sherry was standing by the wardrobe, folding towels, and Ember was nowhere to be seen. Sherry glanced up at him as he came in and gave him a rueful look. “Where is she?” Reid asked, frowning.
Sherry shrugged. “Don’t know for sure, but she was gone before I even got up. I’d say she’s probably where she always is when we can’t find her. She never learns.” She smiled and shrugged, piling a stack of towels onto the top shelf of the wardrobe.
Reid grimaced and sighed. “Well, no, she really doesn’t. Thanks anyway. Oh, and Ricky said to tell you he’d be by in an hour or so. He’s busy with Brandon and Perry just now.” Reid passed on the message and saw Sherry’s face light up. Dear Lord, the girl was certainly infatuated. Not that Reid himself could say much on the matter, seeing as he’d been pretty obsessed with Ember from the moment she first turned down his request for a date. Apparently being a vampire didn’t meant he wasn’t susceptible to human feelings.
Sherry nodded and murmured, “See you.”
Reid slipped out again and closed the door behind him. He stood in the hallway for a moment, wondering whether his girlfriend was brave or just mentally imbalanced. He decided it was probably a bit of both, and went to hunt her down before she got herself into more trouble.
** Ember **
Ember was sitting in her tree. She’d been here since eight o’clock this morning, too excited to sleep. She’d decided that being part-vamp and part-witch could be pretty cool, no matter if it made her some supernatural freak. It’s not like she was really normal to start with, and now she had funky awesome powers, too. She still wasn’t sure if she needed to drink blood, but she hadn’t had a craving for it yet. Any hunger that popped up was easily sated by a bar of chocolate and a glass of coke. If she started getting the urge to drink the red stuff…well, she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.
The only thing she worried about was where her innate vampirism and witchiness had come from. There was no way in hell her mother or father were of the blood-sucking or spell-casting variety. The magic or whatever it was must have skipped a few generations, or maybe it was just dormant in her mother or father. The witch in her at least, she suspected, was from her mother’s side of the family. Her grandmother, her mum’s mum, had always told her stories of having visions as a little girl, had mentioned once that their family had ties to the witch trials in Scotland in the 1600’s.
Or, maybe Ember was adopted. That wouldn’t surprise her all that much, actually. She was nothing like either of her parents. Or her brother, either, for that matter.
Shaking her head, Ember pushed the thoughts away. She didn’t want to think about it just yet. What she was doing right now was just playing with her powers. She felt like a little kid with a fancy new toy or something. She sat on a low branch and lifted a leaf up to her. She found she could move light objects like leaves and feathers and twigs with relative ease, and it didn’t hurt her head enough to distract her from the awesomeness of being able to levitate objects with her mind. ‘Cause serious
ly, who wouldn’t find that cool?
She watched the crisp, orange leaf hover up in front of her and then whirl like a spinning top. She laughed like an overexcited little child, and felt her invisible extra limb shake with her laughter. And then she felt a sharp pressure building at the back of her head so, with a sigh, she let the leaf float back to the ground, her mind-limb dissolving.
“Stupid girl…going to get herself killed…what am I going to do with her?”
Ember heard a familiar voice grumbling through the trees, and she grinned. She’d assumed yesterday that her hearing hadn’t been any improved because she hadn’t been able to hear Sherry’s heartbeat or birds chirping in the forest outside, but when she’d stepped into the trees today, she’d discovered she was wrong. Her hearing was improved, just a tiny little bit. She could locate where a specific bird’s chirp came from, could pick up whispers of squirrels in nearby trees and, apparently, she could hear Reid cursing her as he trudged through the leafy undergrowth.
Ember laughed silently and climbed further up her tree, planning to surprise him. As soon as Reid came into view through the boughs below, Ember coiled herself on the end of her branch, which was maybe twelve feet off the ground. It wasn’t all that far a fall, and even if she broke something, it would heal quickly.
With a grin, she waited until Reid was right under her branch, and then leaped into the air. She planned on landing silently in a crouch behind him, but she accidentally let out a squeal as she fell, and Reid glanced up. It was strange how she had time to think as she fell, like everything was slowed down a bit, or maybe her mind was just moving extra fast. But she did think of how she wasn’t going to be able to land this very well, as she struggled to right her feet under her.
Luckily, she dropped down into Reid’s waiting arms, with an oomph at the impact. She turned her head and grinned up at him happily. “Hi,” she squeaked, planting a tiny kiss on his jaw. She wriggled out of his grasp and stumbled on her feet. She felt a little dizzy from the fall. Maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
Reid looked at her like she’d gone crazy and chuckled. “Were you trying to commit suicide, or were you just really sure I’d catch you?” he asked with a grin.
“Neither,” she said. “I was going to try and scare you but…well, I think I need more practice at falling.” Ember beamed, and Reid scoffed, shook his head despairingly.
“No, I think you’ve done enough falling. Or at least you’ve hit your head plenty of times.” He rolled his eyes, but then his grin faded and he scowled at her with concern. “Don’t you ever learn? What’re you doing out here…aside from obviously acting like a lunatic?” He ran a hand through his blonde hair in frustration, ruffling the silky strands.
Ember shrugged. “When you fall off the horse, you get back on. No point in avoiding this place forever just because I had a couple of bad experiences. I won’t let the witches run me off,” she said, but her mind wasn’t really on the conversation. She was too busy admiring how tight his t-shirt was today. She couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen him wear it before, but it looked good on him. And his jeans were riding low on his narrow hips, showing just a thin grey line above the waist that she guessed was the waistband of his boxers. A little part of her knew she should be listening to him, not admiring him, but she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off that strip of grey.
“But you didn’t fall off a horse,” Reid was protesting, oblivious as she ogled him. “You got attacked by a bunch of vengeful witches, who completely changed your life and had you nearly comatose for three days. You shouldn’t be out here alone when…” He paused and sighed. “What’re you looking at?” Reid sounded exasperated as he stopped ranting, realising she wasn’t listening. Ember looked back up to his face, realising she’d been caught, and smiled impishly.
“You, obviously,” she almost purred. She was startled by the soft, intimate sound of her own voice. But she couldn’t bring herself to be embarrassed.
Reid picked up on her tone, his eyes darkening a little as he realised where her mind was at. He gave her a searching look through narrowed eyes and mumbled, “You didn’t try that jumping thing again before I arrived and hit your head on the way down, did you?” He was fighting a smile as he said it.
“Nope. Why? Am I not allowed to look at you?” Ember pouted, but the pout broke into another smile as Reid chuckled huskily. God, she liked that sound. She liked making him laugh like that. It made butterflies flutter in her stomach.
“Oh, it’s not that,” Reid said, “It’s just that you seem…umm…” He bit his lip thoughtfully, searching for the right word, and Ember felt a slow burning beginning inside her. When he chewed his lip like that, she wanted to kiss it.
So she did. She didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence; she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He was momentarily stunned, not expecting it, and Ember pulled back to watch his reaction. His eyes were wide and his lips slightly parted in surprise.
“Um…okay…not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?” A line appeared between his brows as he looked at her in puzzlement. She smiled brightly at him.
“Just because you’re hot,” she said boldly, and Reid’s eyes flashed. She brought her mouth back to his eagerly, feeling heat sweep through her body. She could feel the hardness of his body under her hands where they rested on his chest, and she pressed closer. She wanted to feel his warmth. Her lips parted under his, and as their tongues twined, Ember felt her pulse quickening. Her stomach was in hot, achy knots.
Hungrily, she pushed Reid backwards until he fetched up against a tree, and she let her fingers roam the collar of his hoodie before slipping them to the zip and pulling it down. She could feel his fingers clutching her waist, and she wanted him to grip harder. Gingerly, she bit his lip and he groaned against her mouth. Ember’s breath caught, her body reacting to the noise. Her hands slid up under his t-shirt, feeling every inch of his smooth skin, the hard muscles, the way his chest rose and fell with every quick breath.
Ember didn’t realise her fangs had extended until an unbridled sweet-sharp shock shot from the tips of her oversensitive canines straight through the rest of her body, like lightning. The sensation nearly knocked her breathless, and her nails dug into his sides.
“Whoa, Ember,” Reid murmured, breaking the white-hot kiss. He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away gently, and she almost whined at the loss of body contact. “What’s gotten into you? This isn’t like you. Is there something going on here that I don’t know about?” he asked, all seriousness. His eyebrows pulled together over his darkened eyes.
Ember stared at him in astonishment. Since when did Reid Ashton say ‘stop’ in a situation like this? Wasn’t this what he'd been wanting from her all along? She couldn’t believe he was holding out on her now! She wanted him, right here, right now…and he was saying no.
“Nothing’s gotten into me,” she said. Chewing on her lip teasingly, she batted her lashes at him. She could see his eyes were bright with lust, and his mouth trembling with want, but still he refused to move. Why!? The heat was almost unbearable, like nothing she’d ever felt, an inferno in her gut, an aching through her gums, and it was driving her crazy.
Impatient, she tilted her head to look at him. “Why are you doing this? I know you want this as much as I do…” She paused, and felt a mischievous smile cross her lips as she looked up at him from under her lashes. She pressed close and whispered, “I can feel it.” And with those words, she surprised him by reaching out and stroking her hand down his flat stomach to the tender area just below his belt. He drew in breath sharply and pushed her away hastily, more in shock, she thought, than repulsion. She stumbled but quickly righted herself.
She couldn’t understand why he was pushing her away. It stung. She scowled and felt her eyes fill a little, but Reid’s expression was hard. He wasn’t going to be seduced, no matter how hard she tried. It was a first, as far as Ember knew. She stared at him,
trying not to be hurt by the rejection – by being rejected by the guy that every girl in school had slept with.
Slowly, she felt the heat in her body dying away, replaced by a trickle of iciness. The ice penetrated the warm, pink haze that had descended over her mind, and rationality hit her like a slap to the face. Blood slowly flooded her face in a scorching blush. Oh my God, did I seriously just do that? she thought, horrified at her own lack of self-control. She felt her fangs retract and her lips parted in shock and humiliation. She put a hand to her mouth, refusing to look up at Reid. She’d never, never done something like that before. She wasn’t a tease, not normally. She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her.
Feeling a little sick and dizzy, she put her head in her hands, shaking it like she could shake away what she’d just done. She’d just acted like a total slut. Where did that come from? She thought desperately. She’d never felt anything like that before – that irresistible, magnetic pull to him, the burning heat that left her breathless. That was new. I need therapy, she thought vaguely, and probably medication, too.
After a few moments with her head in her hands, she turned in one fluid motion, and made to run off. She wasn’t sure she could look Reid in the eye right now, sure she’d see disgust on his face. But, of course, he wasn’t going to let her leave just yet. He grabbed her wrist gently, and she froze, not turning back to look at him. “Please let go,” Ember whispered, hearing the quiver in her own voice.
“No–” he answered but she didn’t let him say more.
“Please. I-I think I need to lie down. I don’t feel so good,” she muttered, not entirely lying. She didn’t exactly feel great, while she was flushed with embarrassment and slightly dizzy.
Reid ignored her protests. “Ember, that wasn’t like you–”
Again she cut him off; she didn’t want to have this conversation. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s over. It happened. Now, I want to go and lie down.” She tried to break his grasp by twisting her wrist and yanking at it, but it didn’t work. He didn’t even flinch. Even with her slightly improved vamp strength, he was still much stronger than her.
