by H G Lynch
Ember whirled around. “Reid, I swear to God, next time you do that, I’ll break your wrist!”
He just grinned. “You can try it, and I’ll tie you to the bed with silk scarves. Love to see what happens then.” Reid wandered to her bed and rapped his fingers on the headboard, arching his brow in a suggestive expression.
Sherry snickered, and Ember hissed under her breath, feeling her face colour. “Why are you here? To taunt me just for the fun of it? Well, I’ve got enough to bitch about without adding you to my list!” Ember strode up to him and grabbed his arm. Before he could respond, she shoved him down on the bed and climbed onto his lap. His startled expression made her giggle as she straddled him, putting her hands on his chest. The amount of caffeine in her system was making her much more bold than usual, and judging by the darkening of Reid’s eyes, he liked it.
“Maybe I should tie you up,” she whispered with a smile. The burning in Reid’s lovely blue eyes was easy to understand. Ember grinned, placed a chaste kiss on his lips and moved off him. She returned to her pacing, without even glancing back at him, talking to Sherry again.
“So, like I was saying, it’s only fair that I get my addiction. You see what I have to deal with now? Yesterday, I thought my biggest worry would be my mother finding out I’m a mythical creature, but oh no! Now I’ve got a whole bundle of extra problems tagged onto the extra visitor.” Ember was ignoring Reid now, who was staring at her with wide eyes and breathing deeply. He didn’t appear to be listening. Good.
Reid turned to Sherry. “What the hell is up with her? Mood swings I get, but that was a total 180 in less than ten seconds.” He ran a hand through his hair and eyed his pacing girlfriend with confusion.
Sherry nodded to the bottle of Coke sitting by Ember’s bed. “She’s had over two litres of Coke in the past hour. She’s high on caffeine,” she explained, sounding distracted as she tried to process two conversations at once. Then her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth. “So, wait, you’re linked? You can–” Sherry began. Ember knew what she was about to ask, but with Reid in the room, this was not something she wanted to discuss. She didn’t want to tell him just yet about Owen’s odd blood, and especially not about how he’d been dropping into her dreams. He probably wouldn’t like that much.
“No, sex linkage isn’t something you can undo. It’s in the cells. Only goes the one way. The X and Y chromosomes always confuse me.” Ember prattled quickly – not caring that her Biology garble didn’t make any sense, but that was okay because Reid didn’t take Biology, so he wouldn’t know. She shot Sherry a look that meant ‘keep your mouth shut about Owen or I’ll kill you’. Sherry blinked in confusion but nodded.
Reid scowled, baffled. “What? Okay, you two are really confusing me now. God, girls are a pain in the butt,” he muttered, his gaze flicking between the two girls.
“So are you. Literally!” Ember scowled, still feeling a slight sting where he’d slapped her.
Sherry grinned. “I haven’t a clue what she’s on about. Like I said, she’s high. Just go with it and pretend like you know what she’s talking about,” she told him with a giggle, and Ember glared at her.
After a second, Reid just sighed expansively. “Okay. I’m not going to even attempt to work out what you two are up to. I’d rather get payback for your infuriating teasing.” He gave Ember a look that very clearly conveyed what he might have in mind. Ember swallowed, feeling a feather of heat flutter in her stomach. Did he have to look at her like that, like he was starving and she was a buffet? She supposed to a vampire, she kind of was, but still.
“Um, should I leave?” Sherry murmured, looking uncomfortable. She was eyeing the door like she might bolt.
Ember shook her head, pushing away the sudden desire to kiss Reid. She couldn’t afford to get distracted right now. “No. Can we please focus on something for a minute?” Ember turned to Reid. “My mum promised to give you a chance to prove that you’re not an asshole. I know, I know, you are an asshole, but that’s beside the point. It means we can be seen together but,” – she held up a finger as Reid opened his mouth to make some remark – “Respectably. Act like you care about me beyond trying to take my clothes off–”
Reid gave her a disgruntled look, frowning. “Act like it? You think I’d spent this much time with a girl I’m not having sex with if I didn’t care about you?” He smiled innocently, his blue eyes mischievously bright. Ember almost rolled her eyes at him.
“Charming,” she muttered, wandering over and planting a kiss on his mouth gently. He tensed, raising a hand to pull her closer, but she pulled away before he could. He pouted sulkily.
“Tease,” he accused, and she grinned at him, batting her lashes.
“Yup, I am. Now shut up.” She ruffled his hair and danced away. “Just act polite, appropriate and…less…Reid-like.” Ember couldn’t think of a better word to describe his arrogant, sexy, bad boy personality. It was hard to sum up into one word. How did you fit everything that Reid was into one word? You couldn’t.
“Right, so I should be more like Ricky for the next two weeks?” Reid rolled his eyes at her and lounged back on the bed. Sherry, meanwhile, was staring out the window at something intently.
“Yes. Be more like Ricky,” Ember said distractedly, scowling at Sherry’s shoulder blades. “Sherz, what are you looking at?” she asked.
Sherry just glanced back at her and jerked her head toward the window. Ember stepped over curiously, and stared into the dark parking lot. She was surprised to see someone standing there; someone who appeared to be doing nothing but standing there like a statue. It was bizarre. Just then, the person looked right up at Ember. Directly at her, unerringly. It was creepy. And it was a damn witch!
“Oh my God, would they go to hell already! What the hell do they want from me?” Ember hit the glass, making it shudder. The witch reeled back a step as Ember had actually physically hit her. With a shocked expression, the witch whirled, running off into the trees suddenly.
“What was that about?” Ember jumped at hearing Reid’s voice right behind her. She wished he wouldn’t sneak up on her like that, didn’t think she’d ever get used to it.
“Jeez, would you not do that please? You’ll give me a heart attack.” Ember whacked his chest, waiting for her heart to stop smashing into her ribs.
Reid chuckled. “Does it matter? Vamps can’t die of heart attacks,” he said smugly.
“I’m only half-vamp. Pretty sure a dead heart equals a dead Ember. Then who would you argue with all the time?” Ember rolled her eyes and groaned. Reid just shrugged and kissed her forehead lightly.
“I’ve got to go. There’s a meeting soon and Brandon’s been on my case since I told him you were a half-vamp now. He’s not happy I technically Turned you without his permission.”
Ember glared. “Tell him if he wants to come see for himself, I’ll be sure to give him a show.” She was still pissed off at Brandon for thinking she’d seriously run screaming ‘vampire’ through the whole school. Luckily, she hadn’t seen him in a while, so she hadn’t had the chance to throw anything heavy at his head. Yet.
“I’m sure you would,” Reid chuckled. “See you later.” He slipped out, leaving Ember and a bubbling Sherry to talk. He closed the door behind him, and the room was silent for a moment while they waited for Reid to be out of earshot.
“Owen’s a warlock!?” was the first, immediate thing out of Sherry’s mouth after Reid was surely a safe distance away.
“Yes,” Ember sighed.
“And he’s linked to you?”
This was obviously going to take a while. Ember dropped onto her bed and made herself comfy. “Apparently. I can’t sense him but he can sense me. Don’t ask why because that’s an answer neither of us have.” Ember yawned, glancing at the clock. God, it was only quarter to ten. She was exhausted. Coming down from the caffeine rush, she guessed.
“And when you were dreaming about him, he was really there?” The green-eyed girl pulled a
n expression of distaste. No wonder. It really was privacy invasion of the highest order. Ember wasn’t exactly thrilled about it herself.
“Yup, he was really there.”
Sherry sat in silence for a moment. “Well,” she said eventually, grinning, “You really know how to make life interesting Emz.”
Chapter Nine
** Ember **
Ember was having a bad day. In fact, she’d decided she hated all Tuesdays from now on, just because today was so crap so far. She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night due to the hundreds of worries and impossibilities on her mind. She’d gotten up at half seven, feeling sick, and discovered she looked like a zombie – hair unmanageable, skin deathly pale and eyes hazy. She’d pulled on some clothes and gone for a walk outside, hoping it would clear her headache and nausea. Only, it had started raining before she could get back inside.
Once she’d gotten back to her room, soaking wet and shivering cold, Sherry had been gone already, leaving Ember on her own when she could’ve used some company to take her mind off things.
Later, she’d run into her mother, who had merely pissed her off. Ember had ended up smashing her favourite perfume and a picture frame once her mother left. She’d spilled coke on one of her books, lost her MP3, and bashed her already-throbbing head when a dizzy spell hit her and she toppled down next to her bed. And she hadn’t moved from where she’d fallen in the past twenty minutes.
Overall, she was feeling damn awful and she figured that if she didn’t move, today couldn’t get any worse at least. She was wrong. She was just lying on the floor next to her bed, trying futilely to ignore her pounding headache and the rolling nausea in her stomach, when a knock came at the door.
“Emy, can I come in?” It was Owen, of course. Perfect, she thought bitterly.
“No. Bugger off,” she spat at the door. Regardless, the boy opened the door and stepped in, shutting it behind him. Ember sighed.
“Hey, you don’t sound so…um, where are you?”
She couldn’t even see him but she had a feeling his expression right now would bug her. Probably that politely over-worried expression that was total bull because she was sure he’d shown up for his own cruel purposes. She could’ve lived her whole life without knowing Owen was a warlock, without dealing with the reality of her damned dreams, without having the extra complication. He was here just to throw a bloody spanner into the workings of her already-crazy life – but then again, she was incredibly paranoid today, so maybe she was over dramatising?
“I’m not here. Bugger off,” she repeated, wondering if he’d take the hint when things started rattling. Hopefully, he would.
“Ember, you don’t sound good. What’re you doing down there?” Owen appeared at the foot of her bed, peering down at her with those soft amethyst eyes and his mouth tilted in a concerned frown. It was like he was her boyfriend or something, how concerned he was and persistent too…oh, wait, he was here to replace her boyfriend. On her mother’s command. And to add more stress to her life.
“I’m playing hide and seek with my imaginary friend. What does it look like I’m doing?” She glared at the boy, who simply rolled his eyes.
“Come on, you’re sick. You’d be better in your bed than on the floor. Why are you really down here?” Owen smiled and crouched, holding out a hand to help her up.
“How’d you know I’m sick?” she snapped. “Maybe I just like lying on the floor.”
“You always get bitchy when you’re sick. You’ve been that way since you were born, Emy. Plus, you look like crap. Now, why are you down here?” he repeated the question for the third time, so obviously he wasn’t giving up until he got a real answer. She refused to get up so he sighed and grabbed her wrists to forcibly haul her to her feet. She groaned, but he was stronger than he looked, so she couldn’t really resist.
“I kind of collapsed here. I got dizzy and fell over and didn’t see the point in moving,” she muttered sulkily. Owen yanked her to her feet in one swift movement and she whined at him. He ignored her protests, and sat her down on the end of the bed while he pulled back the duvet.
“You need to sleep then. Have you eaten today?” he asked. She nodded, lying. It was hard to eat when you felt like puking. “Fine, lie down. I know I’m probably pissing you off here; you’re thinking I have no right to treat you like we’re good friends, but I never stopped worrying about you, Emy. I always wondered if you were okay, even after you walked away from me. Especially when I found out I could sense you.” Owen folded the duvet over her and sat on the end of the bed, running a hand through his dark hair. He was talking shite, and she knew it. And the last thing she wanted to think about was his damned witchy powers.
“Whatever. I’m in the bed now. I suggest you leave before I bite your hand off,” she threatened, suddenly feeling tired enough to sleep.
“Fine, will I send someone to look after you?” That was a very stupid question.
“I’m not a freaking baby. I can take care of myself. Go away and I’ll go to sleep.” She felt a now-familiar tingle in her nerves, and heard something on the nightstand shake.
Owen noticed and pursed his lips. “Okay. You haven’t gotten hold of your powers yet. Come see me tomorrow and we can work on that. I can help you; show you how to control it. And now, I’ll go before you kill me.” He actually chuckled as he stood up. Asshole, she thought to herself, though she knew he actually wasn’t – not now anyway.
She waited until the door clicked shut, and snuggled down into the cosy duvet. It seemed no time at all until she finally fell into a peaceful sleep.
** Reid **
Reid had just finished doing an hour of laps in the pool and was on his way back to his room, whistling as he went. His hair was still damp and smelling of the shampoo he’d used to get the chlorine out of it, and he was in a fine mood, pondering what to do for the rest of the afternoon. Ricky was out with Brandon and Perry, hunting down information about the witches from a gnome source, and Reid had stayed behind at the school in case of a supernatural emergency – he had pointed out to Ricky that he wasn’t likely to be much help in an emergency, seeing as he was usually the one causing such situations. But Ricky had countered that if there was to be an emergency of the supernatural sort, it would likely involve Ember. Reid hadn’t been able to disagree. So, Ricky had won that argument, and Reid had stayed behind.
Now, he strolled down the hallway, passing a couple of girls loitering in a doorway. They giggled when he walked past, and one of them – a bold brunette – winked at him. He pretended not to notice, long used to it by now. Everyone knew he was with Ember now – they just didn’t expect it to last. He couldn’t exactly blame them. The longest relationship he’d had with one girl was three weeks. He’d been fifteen; she’d been seventeen. Her name was Alice or Alex or something like that. He’d already had a bit of a reputation by fifteen, though he had to admit now that most of it had been unfounded at that time. Unlike now, when every rumour was basically true – except the one about the threesome with Kylie Johnson and her boyfriend, Steve the lifeguard. Nobody was ever getting over the posters Ember had stuck all over the school of him and Steve.
But, for three weeks, he and Alice (he was almost sure it was Alice, not Alex) had been the hottest topic of conversation – total scandal, a senior going out with a minor. But, like he said, he’d had a bit of reputation even then, and she’d been curious. So, she brought him to a few of the senior parties – where he discovered that he could drink most of the older guys under the table, and that pot had absolutely no effect on a vampire – and he had shown Alice that just because it was technically illegal, sex with a minor didn’t feel any less awesome. Yeah. His particular talents had blossomed early. Ricky had not approved. He’d waited until he was sixteen and legal to jump on that party wagon.
Anyway, Reid and Alice had had a good thing going…until she found him making out with her roommate. He could still remember the shock on her face when she walked into the room, and
he had his hand under her roommate’s t-shirt. God, she’d about screamed the place down, she’d been so pissed off. Alice had thrown a real fit, and her roommate had gotten assigned a new room, and that was about when Reid had started to really get a reputation.
That rep had served him well for the last two years – it was better than Compulsion sometimes. He never got carded at bars or clubs, and thanks to a fling with a very young police woman last year, he occasionally managed to avoid a DUI. Of course, not everyone was impressed by his large…reputation. Ember wasn’t the only girl to ever spurn his advances – she was just the only one he’d been interested in.
There had been that one girl from Ireland who’d been with every guy in Ireland. She’d heard about him and wanted to see if he was as good as everyone said, and…well. That was the first time – and as of yet, the only time – a girl had ever left his room unsatisfied. He’d been damn glad when she moved back to Ireland. Bitch put a dent in his five star rating.
Blinking, Reid came back to the present and realised he was standing in the middle of the hallway like an idiot. Thankfully nobody was around to see him, though. Well, until Sherry came whizzing around the corner. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of him, and the panic on his face had him instantly alert, and instantly worried.
“Oh my God, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” she cried. He blinked, momentarily surprised. She raced down the hall toward him and grabbed his wrist, tugging him with her as she ran back the way she’d come. Reid didn’t resist, keeping up easily, though Sherry was out of breath like she’d run all over the school in search of him.
Anxious about her panic, he asked, “Sherry, what’s wrong? What happened?”
Sherry glanced at him over her shoulder, not slowing down. Her grip on his wrist was surprisingly strong, but he could see she was shaking slightly. “It’s Ember. Something’s wrong with her,” Sherry said, gasping. Reid came to a dead stop, pulling Sherry to a halt with him. She whirled around, staring at him. She opened her mouth to, presumably, tell him to get a move on. He darted forward, scooping Sherry up, and ran much faster than her human legs could ever carry her, not really caring if he was seen.
