by H G Lynch
“No. I did some laps in the pool and came back here to sleep. Why would I bother leaving?” Reid propped himself on his elbows, wincing as his shoulders protested to the movement. He supposed that extra two hours of practice had been a couple hours more than were strictly necessary.
“Well, um… did anything... you know, weird, happen at the pool?” Ricky hedged cautiously, strolling into the bathroom to change out of his date-clothes.
Reid pretended to think for a moment, and then nodded slowly. “Actually, yeah. Some prick stole my clothes.” Reid rolled his eyes, making it clear by his tone that he knew exactly who had stolen his clothes. There was only one person who would have the nerve to pull that kind of prank on him.
“Really? Well, uh… anything else?” Ricky’s voice was suddenly quick and light, like he was trying not to laugh. “You know, like maybe… you proposed to Steve the lifeguard?” Ricky burst out into laughter, coming back into the room with his eyes bright.
Reid bolted up with a snarl. “What? What the hell are you talking about?” he yelled, flinging himself off his bed. Oh, no, she hadn’t, had she? There was no way that Ember was that good.
Ricky stumbled back a step in his fit of chuckles and tumbled onto his bed. “Just… I just think you shouldn’t leave the room for a while. Like a few days… or weeks,” Ricky gasped, pulling a clean t-shirt on with some difficulty. Reid just gave him an angry glance and stormed to the door. “No Reid, seriously!” Ricky shouted after him as he flung the door open and stepped into the hallway, aiming to make for Ember’s room.
But as soon as he got out the door, he was assaulted by laughter from both sides. He whipped his head around, seeing dozens of students crowded in groups around posters on the walls. With a vicious growl that sent the nearest group of girls fleeing, he stalked up to the closest poster. Then he stared in horror. That little bitch! He glared at the poster; a photo of him, kneeling on one knee by the lifeguard chair - Steve the lifeguard looking down at him with a confounded expression - and holding something glinting up to the light. It looked exactly like Ricky had said. No way. Nobody, not even Ember could be this good. Even he wasn’t this good, and that was really saying something.
“This is going to mean serious payback,” he muttered to himself, tearing the poster off the wall and proceeding back into his room.
“Hey, I warned you!” Ricky exclaimed, trying futilely to hide a grin. Reid tossed the crumpled poster at the window and rummaged in his desk drawers for the necklace he’d put there earlier. He scrambled it out from beneath a stash of firecrackers and shoved it in his pocket, slamming the drawer shut hard enough to make the desk rattle. A bottle of wooden runes toppled over. He didn’t bother setting it right again.
“Hey, where are you going?” Ricky yelled after him as he left the room again, slamming the door behind him. Some of the remaining groups of students jumped and scattered. Reid knew he was giving off waves of fury and menace and he hoped it would keep them from laughing. Despite that, he felt an infuriating blush creep up his face. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d blushed with embarrassment like that. It only made him angrier.
By the time he reached Ember’s door - only down the damned hall - he’d yelled at three kids, almost punched a guy and turned as red as beetroot, both from humiliation and fury. He practically punched the door, slamming it with the side of his fist so hard it shook.
When it finally came open, it revealed a dark room, seemingly empty. But he didn’t fall for it, he wasn’t stupid. “Ember, get your butt out here now!” he shouted, not caring that he could probably be heard on the next floor up. He clenched his fists until his knuckles hurt.
When she didn’t come to the door after five seconds, he took a quick look in the room, ensuring there weren’t video cameras or something set up, and stormed inside. The door whammed shut behind him and he turned, opening his mouth to give the offending demon an earful. But there was nobody there, just an empty space and silence. He was livid, too angry to care about keeping up appearances right now, so he reached out with his mind. He vaguely heard books rattle on the shelves - using magic while he was this angry was generally a bad idea because it could be hard to control. He wasn’t supposed to do it, and Brandon would kill him if found out about this. But, he could feel and pinpoint the bright minds of two girls in the room. One was in the bathroom; the other was under the nearest bed. He could tell by the fire and sparkles in the mind under the bed that it was Ember, and she was finding this all very funny indeed.
He reeled his magic back in and, with superhuman speed, whipped the mattress off the bed to reveal Ember, curled up and shaking with silent laughter. Until she realised she’d been found. Then her laughter became audible and she crawled out from under the bed, tears rolling down her cheeks. He was almost too angry to care that he could feel his fangs extending impulsively, but the key word ‘almost’ meant he kept enough sense of mind to retract them. With some effort. What would it hurt her if he drained just a little blood? Maybe planted some bizarre notion or urge in her brain while he was at it? Make her dive into the outdoor pool naked or confess her love for him in front of the whole school? It would feel good to make her embarrass herself like that, and it’d be exactly what he wanted most right now: Revenge.
“I guess you saw the posters?” Ember gasped between fits of giggles, bringing him out of his devilish plotting.
Now that he was really looking at the giggling girl, he knew he couldn’t mess with her head that way; he couldn’t control her like that. If he hadn’t been who he was, he might’ve thought he felt guilt at the idea. But, really, his mind supplied a much more likely answer; Brandon would find out if he compelled Ember, and then they’d get into another big argument and… God, who could be bothered. Surely she wasn’t worth that stress, even for revenge.
“Next time you play a prank on me, you might want to make sure you don’t lose anything!” Reid snarled, holding up her necklace, crushing the chain in his fingers. Ember was slowly sobering, and she reached out to snatch the necklace from him. He raised it above his head and watched her expression become sour in an instant. Her jaw was set and her eyes were cold.
“Give me my necklace, asshole,” she hissed, clearly unhappy with his keep-away technique.
“I’ll give you it if you can reach it,” he smirked, feeling his calm arrogance returning as she got angrier with him. Well, well. Good to know what really got to her. The most childish of actions - such as playing keep-away with her belongings - could really rattle her temper. And here he’d been trying to think of complicated plots and traps to get his retribution.
Ember sighed, but it was more like a sharp hiss. Her blue eyes glinted with growing fury, and her little hands were curled into fists. Reid thought it might’ve been the first time he’d ever expected a girl to honestly punch him. For some reason, the idea intrigued him. “Is this your revenge? Acting like a twelve-year-old?” she asked, her voice deadly.
“Oh no, not even close. This is just giving me an idea is all,” Reid replied with a shrug, still holding her necklace over his head. She glanced up at the dangling chain and then at him. The briefest of smirks flashed across her lips, a dark flicker in the depths of those blue eyes.
She darted forward, her leg swinging out to kick him where it would really hurt. But he was faster, grabbing her leg behind the knee and flipping her against the wall. She huffed sharply and lashed out with her hand, aiming for his face. He dodged neatly, pinning her to the wall with one hand while his other hand clasped her knee. As for the necklace… he wasn’t sure where it had gone, but it didn’t matter. He hitched her knee up on his hip, leaning close so she couldn’t fight. Oddly, his own pulse quickened at the contact.
“Déjà vu? And this time Joseph isn’t around to save you,” Reid whispered, listening to her heartbeat racing. He wasn’t sure whether that was fear or something else driving her insane pulse but either way, it worked in his favour. And as for Ember’s expression, well, she loo
ked utterly murderous.
“Let go of me. Now,” she spat, but he noticed she didn’t make a move to escape.
“Now why would I do that? I’m rather enjoying this. I know you just hate to be overpowered… and right now, you radiate discomfort. Or maybe it’s not discomfort as such… Maybe it’s something else entirely?” He leaned in further, testing, teasing. And he watched her pupils dilate, pooling out to leave just a ring of sapphire in her eyes. Interesting.
“Like what? Why don’t you just let go of me? Get out! Get off me!” she shrieked, getting louder as she continued. But it wasn’t going to work this time. Last time, he’d been caught off-guard, but now he was ready for her to scream and shriek as loud as she liked and he wasn’t going to let go.
That was, until something hit him in the head from behind, causing him to jerk in surprise and lose his grip on Ember’s knee. Damn it! He’d forgotten the roommate was hiding in the bathroom. Why was this girl never alone when he needed her to be? Reid turned, dodging a fierce kick and ducking to avoid a hard slap, and then looked down at what had hit him; a hardback book and a good thick one at that. Ouch. And Sherry, green eyes glowing indignantly, glared at him with another book in hand. Ember ducked round him and picked up the one on the floor, handling it carefully like it was some precious object, gently smoothing out a bend in the cover.
“Get out,” Sherry said only those two words, but her voice was hot with fierce protectiveness for her friend. Reid knew he couldn’t win this one. After all, he didn’t want a war with both girls - just with the little demon.
“Fine,” he shrugged, sending a wink to the little blonde girl, who was shaking with fury. Then he slouched out of the room, ignoring the sniggers and glances he got on the way back to his room. It didn’t matter. He’d noticed the way Ember treated her books, almost with reverence, and it had given him the perfect idea for revenge. That girl would learn what it meant to mess with Reid Ashton.
Reid groaned when he got into his room, closing the door behind him.
“Reid! Why were you using magic? You know not to use it when you’re pissed off! You could’ve exposed us all!” He was met by Brandon’s furious expression.
“Yeah, well I didn’t,” he retorted fiercely, brushing past Brandon and Perry to collapse on his bed.
“Reid, I’m serious…” Brandon started again, persistently angry over nothing.
“You’re always serious. It’s part of your problem,” Reid grumbled, not bothering with his taunting grin for once. Brandon sighed and Perry shifted to sit on the floor by Ricky’s bed. Ricky himself was looking sheepish, obviously having been the one to tell Brandon what was going on. Reid shot him a dark glance and Ricky shrugged defensively.
“Okay man, what’s going on with you lately?” Perry yawned, glancing at the digital clock that told them all it was after two am. Reid looked at him questioningly, not sure what he meant. “Oh come on Reid! You’ve been tense and hung up for two weeks now. I can’t remember the last time you ditched a class, and not to mention you’ve been doing swimming practice instead of doing girls!” Perry chuckled half-heartedly, but there was worry in his dark eyes, which Reid didn’t understand. So what if he was behaving for once? Shouldn’t Brandon and his lapdog be happy about it?
“He hasn’t conquered the blonde demon yet. Hence the posters,” Ricky chipped in, looking smug and unfolding the crumpled poster from the windowsill. Brandon and Perry glanced at the piece of paper briefly. Both boys then burst into laughter. Reid wanted to punch all three of his friends at that point.
“Now I know why you nicknamed her the demon.” Perry was clutching his ribs.
“This is brilliant. The first girl you haven’t been able to charm. It could be good for you.” Brandon sounded truly impressed, his laughter dying down. Reid hissed, and pulled a pillow over his face. “She’s certainly different isn’t she? You wanted her just for the thrill of messing with yet another girl. But now… you want her because she’s unique. Right?” It appeared that Brandon was thinking out loud. Reid had half a mind to throw the pillow at his face and hold it there. Not that that would do any good, seeing as none of the vampire boys needed to breathe. But still. It might shut Brandon up if he was coughing up pillow feathers for a while.
“Why, Reid, are you starting to actually like this girl?” Brandon sounded pleased by the idea, and Reid pulled the pillow off his face just enough to see Brandon’s grin spread to the other boys. Reid shot up angrily, the pillow flying across the room and hitting Brandon in the gut - Which got him a dirty look, but no retaliation.
“No, I don’t like her! She’s just a girl! I’m still messing with her, and I’ve got a plan already for ultimate revenge. She’s just another girl!” The words felt wrong and clumsy coming out of his mouth, and left a hollow tingling in his throat. Brandon and Perry looked at him with suspicion and disgrace, while Ricky hid his expression by flopping down onto his pillows. Brandon slumped, pinching the bridge of his nose, sighing.
“Look, Reid. I’m not going to keep lecturing you for using magic. You know it’s stupid, and it’ll be your own fault if you get caught. Just try at least to keep it from the girl. Whether or not you like her, it’s safer for everyone if the secret stays secret. Whatever it is you have planned for Ember… just don’t emotionally cripple the girl.” Brandon’s voice was tired, and he was obviously giving up the fight for tonight.
Perry got off the floor and stretched. “Cripple her? Reid wouldn’t do that,” he muttered sarcastically, giving Reid a quick three-fingered wave before following Brandon out the door.
Ricky groaned into his pillow and glanced up at Reid.
“They would’ve seen the posters anyway. The only reason they didn’t before I showed them was ‘cause they came in the window,” Ricky muttered defensively, seeing how pissed off Reid was.
“Whatever Kee. I don’t care. Can we just drop it?” Reid groaned, using Ricky’s hated nickname and retrieving his pillow from the floor and tossing it onto his bed again. It had been a long night, and he just wanted to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be hell, thanks to Ember, and he’d need time to refine his revenge plans.
Ember
“Did you hear? Apparently it was that new girl, Ember, who stuck up the posters.” Some random girl was whispering in the row behind her in English.
“Yeah, I know. Someone told me that she slept with him, and he told her she was just another one-night stand, and she got pissed off so that’s why she took the pictures.” Another girl was whispering back. Ember groaned inwardly, cursing whoever invented rumours. Being as short-tempered as she was, Ember whirled round in her seat.
“I did not sleep with that asshole. I’d rather gouge my eyes out with a burning fork. And yes, I took the pictures but it was because I hate the guy and wanted to humiliate him. Got it?” She knew her voice was dangerous, and the girls who’d been chatting looked honestly shocked. Ember turned back to her desk, Sherry giving her a knowing look and a nod.
It was the third time today Ember had had to quash the start of a rumour. Everyone knew it was her who’d put up the posters, but they were speculating wrongly as to why she’d done it. Maybe she’d have to make an outright statement to the whole school before they got the message.
And, by all hell’s demons, who should walk into the room right at that moment, but the blonde hottie of the hour himself. He looked rough today, his face drawn and dark circles under his eyes. His soft mouth was pinched and his brows pitched down in an angry, tired expression.
She almost felt sorry for him as the whole class burst into quiet giggles. His eyes immediately flicked to her, fixing on her without hesitation. It was really kind of creepy the way he did that - and the blue depths were icy and dark. She watched him hand a late slip to the teacher and start up the stairs toward her. Please don’t sit near us, please don’t sit near us! She prayed silently.
Unfortunately karma was not on her side today, and her prayers went unanswered. Reid sat down in th
e empty seat right in front of her. Crap! She hissed mentally. There were murmurs and chuckles and called-out comments to Reid. “Hey Reid, Where’s your fiancé today?” and “A womaniser is a gay in denial!” were among the more civil slurs. Reid was apparently ignoring them all. The only thing he seemed to hear was Ember’s whisper to Sherry. “If he wasn’t such an ass, I’d feel a little bad for him right now.”
At which point, Reid turned round and met her startled gaze. “You should feel bad. Because you have no idea what kind of mess you’ve gotten yourself in to. You’re going to regret this,” he almost snarled the words, his lovely face contorting viciously. For just a second he looked… almost inhuman. Ember flinched back and watched a satisfied smirk spread across his mouth.
Before she could reply, he turned round, grabbed his stuff and stormed out of the room thirty seconds before the bell rang. What was the point in him even coming to class so late? Idiot.
“Oookay. I think he’s nuts,” Sherry muttered, shoving her notebook into her bag.
“Yeah, I’m with you there,” Ember agreed, slinging her own bag on her back. But there was something bothering her about the way his eyes had glinted and his teeth had seemed… too sharp… just for that single split second. Stop being stupid, she told herself. Maybe I ought to stop reading so many vampire books.
It wasn’t until after school, stepping into their room, that the girls realised just how nuts Reid might be. Ember knew something was off the second she stepped into the room. Hadn’t she left one of her books on the nightstand? And why was the top drawer of her dresser half open? That was her underwear drawer and she always made sure she shut it properly, just in case.
