by H G Lynch
“What are you thinking about?” Reid asked quietly, and she blinked, looking up at him.
“Huh? Oh, nothing really. Just wondering how my life could’ve gotten turned upside-down and back-to-front in only a few months.” She chewed her lip thoughtfully, then realised she still had her hand on his chest. Shaking her head, she dunked the cloth into the water and rung out the blood. The water in the basin was red now, too.
“Do you regret it?” Reid sounded like it pained him to ask that, and when she looked up again, his eyes were a little sorrowful. It made her heart twist.
She thought for a moment, then answered honestly. “No. No, I don’t think I do. I mean, I’m not happy that my grades are failing spectacularly at the moment, but…if it was a choice between passing classes with good grades or having what I have now —my powers, my probable immortality, the excitement…you — I’d choose what I have now. No doubt. I told you before, I didn’t want to live out my life the way everyone, the way society, thinks I should. I’m not looking for a white picket fence and the pitter-patter of tiny feet. I want…I want you.” She smiled, and Reid reached out to pull her closer. Knowing what he was trying to do, she leaned forward and put her lips to his, just briefly.
He sighed, but it was content sound. “That makes me feel just a little less guilty for uprooting your life then.” He grinned, winked at her, and she giggled.
“It wasn’t much of a life before, was it? Not really one that I wanted. Now I have precisely the kind of life I want. I just wish Sherry didn’t have to be involved. But then again, if Sherry weren’t with me, I probably wouldn’t be able to deal with everything.” Hm. Paradox much?
Reid didn’t reply to that; He had his eyes closed, and just lay quietly while she finished cleaning him off.
When she was done, she carefully dried him with a towel, taped a piece of gauze over the wound to make sure it stayed clean, and then draped a thick blanket over him.
Now, she thought, getting to her feet again, I hope Sherry hasn’t finished decorating just yet.
As it turned out, Sherry hadn’t. She and Hiro were standing by the back fence, apparently arguing about something, when Ember stepped into the back garden. Ricky had been sitting in the hallway looking bored and dejected, so Ember had sent him off to look after Reid.
“What’s up, Sherz?” Ember asked, crunching across the snow to where Sherry and Hiro were.
Sherry turned to face her and sighed. “Actually, it’s what isn’t up that’s the problem.” The green-eyed girl cast her eyes upward, and Ember followed her gaze. Up in the overhanging branches, there were white streamers laced through the trees. It was pretty.
“Huh. How’d you get that up there? Fly?” Ember was only half-joking, but Sherry looked like she wanted to hit her head against a brick wall. She exchanged a look with Hiro and they both looked up, comically, at the same time.
“I never thought of that,” Sherry muttered.
Hiro snorted. “No, duh. What the hell kind of faery are you? You don’t even use your wings,” he scoffed.
Ember hit him, and he glared at her.
“What was that for?” he grumbled, rubbing his arm where she’d hit him.
“For being annoying. Now shut up,” Ember commanded, then saw the bundle faery lights lying in the snow at Sherry’s feet. “I take it this is what you need to get up there? No problem.” She grinned and took a step back, picking up the tangle of wires and untangling them. Then she folded them carefully around one arm, and jumped.
She sailed up past the fence, and grabbed the lowest branch. She hoisted herself up onto the branch and straddled it, beaming down at Sherry and Hiro below.
Hiro’s eyes shone with reflected light as he stared up at her, and she heard him mutter, “Freaking vampire.”
Ember laughed. “Half-vampire! But still vamp enough to hear you from twenty feet up a tree!” she called down. Then her temples prickled and Ricky’s voice spoke in her head, bypassing her ears completely.
What are you doing up a tree?
The surprise made Ember wobble on her branch, and she nearly dropped the faery lights off her arm. Ricky never spoke to her telepathically, not without her permission. Reid did it all the time, but that was different.
What are you doing in my head? Go away. She sent back, not wanting him to figure out what they were doing out here.
Sorry. Reid wanted to know what you were doing, Ricky replied, apologetic.
Ember rolled her eyes. Tell him it’s none of his business. And, in fact, it’s none of yours either, Kee. Shoo.
A telepathic chuckle was her only reply, and she sighed. Then she got to work, unwinding the bundle of faery lights and hopping from branch to branch, stringing them up securely.
When she was done, she tossed down the extra-long plug cable, and Sherry caught it, plugged it into the super-extension lead that wound like a pale snake through the snow from the house. Luckily, since it was white, you could hardly see it.
Hiro had gotten bored while she was up the tree, and was padding around the garden in fox form, sticking his nose into random mounds of snow. Ember watched him with some amusement, wondering if there was some way to make him stay as a fox. It’d be so much easier on all of them.
“Are you coming down some time tonight, Emz?” Sherry asked, her head tipped back at what must’ve been a painful angle, to look at Ember still on her branch.
“Nah, I think I’ll sleep up here tonight,” she called back, grinning.
Sherry laughed.
Standing up carefully, Ember balanced on her branch, held her arms out to the sides. She took a few tentative steps forward to the end of the branch, and it shuddered with her weight, but didn’t snap. With a little smile to herself, she bounced on the end of the branch like it was a diving board, then sprang forward, rolling into a succession of very fast tumbles.
The air spun past her at a dizzying rate, whipping her ponytail around. Then the ground approached, and she untucked from her ball, and landed neatly in the snow just a couple of feet from Sherry. She raised her hands over her head like a gymnast finishing a flip, and beamed at Sherry, who was laughing at her and clapping.
“Nine points,” she said, pretending to hold up a number board.
Ember pretended to be offended.
“Only nine!”
Sherry shrugged. “Would’ve been ten if you hadn’t nearly given me a heart attack at the same time.”
Ember chuckled and clapped her friend on the back. “Sorry. But you should know by now that a fall like that wouldn’t keep me down for more than maybe a couple of hours, even if I snapped my ankle.”
Sherry just rolled her eyes. Hiro make a small noise an awful lot like a snort and Ember bent to scoop up a handful of snow. She lobbed it at the fox, who dodged it with a squeak. The girls laughed, but Hiro lifted a paw and batted the snow like it personally offended him, making them laugh harder.
It took five minutes for them to calm down again, and eventually, Ember gasped. “Is that— is that everything set up?” she hiccupped.
Sherry looked around with her hands on her hips, nodded approvingly. “Almost. Just the finishing touches.”
“Okay, well I’ll set up that, if you go and get the guys. Hopefully Reid can at least walk to the door.” Ember spied the remainder of their special decorations sitting in the last plastic bag by the steps into the house.
Sherry took off into the house to get the boys, and Ember grabbed the ‘final touches’ from the plastic bag.
***
“Hey, guys!” Sherry bounded into the living room, and saw Ricky crouched by the sofa. Reid was sitting up with a glass of blood in his hand. They both whipped around to look at her as she bounced into the room.
“Whoa. If you get any more excited, Sherz, you might pull something,” Reid chuckled.
Sherry smiled, genuinely glad to see he was okay. He was all cleaned up — Ember’s doing, no doubt — and had a bandage taped over the hole in his chest. The ragg
ed, bloody t-shirt they’d cut off him was gone, and he was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, unbuttoned.
“Yeah. Me,” Ricky replied with a grin.
Both Sherry and Reid looked at him in amazement. Ricky very rarely made jokes like that —well, at least, in front of other people.
He shrugged at their startled expressions. “What? It’s true.”
Well, yeah, it was. Sherry blushed anyway and folded her arms across her chest.
“If you’re done making jokes, do you want to see what we’ve been up to all evening?” she beamed, and both boys nodded enthusiastically, obviously burning with curiosity. Sherry laughed.
Ricky turned to Reid. “Are you okay to—”
“I’m fine, Kee. I got staked, not kneecapped. I can walk,” Reid cut him off, rolling his eyes.
Ricky sighed. “Fine, but if you fall over, I’m not helping you up,” he replied.
Reid snorted and carefully got up off the sofa. He winced slightly and put his hand to the bandage on his chest lightly. “Damn, that feels weird,” he muttered, then shook his head, and grinned at Sherry. “Why was Ember up a tree, by the way?” he asked.
Sherry shook her head. “You’ll have to come and see. And you should probably put on a jumper. It’s cold.”
Reid gave her a derisive look. “You’re as bad as your boyfriend here. Hello, vampire? I don’t feel the cold.”
Sherry exchanged a glance with Ricky, who shrugged. “Fine, whatever. Just come on. You’re going to love this,” Sherry yipped, and ran off down the hall again.
She skidded excitedly into the back room, nearly tripping over Hiro as he wandered round in circles. She shot him a dark look, which he ignored, then ran outside.
“They’re coming. Is everything set?” she asked Ember, who was standing a little way away from a small, controlled bonfire in one corner of the garden. Three more mini-bonfires were lit at the other corners, lighting and warming the garden. The snow around the bonfires was melting, but most of the garden was still coated.
“Yup. Everything’s good to go. Now we just need to wait,” Ember replied, rubbing her hands together though she couldn’t have been all that cold.
Sherry nodded, and the girls moved to flank the glass doors for when Reid and Ricky strolled out.
***
Reid, after pulling on his hoodie as commanded, followed Ricky into the back room, and out through the glass doors. And stopped. Ember and Sherry stood on either side of the door, grinning, and beyond them, the garden was a winter wonderland. Twinkling faery lights and yellow-and-white paper chains and streamers were hung from the trees —Ah. So that’s why Ember had been up a tree — and the fence and the edge of the roof of the house. Four tiny bonfires blazed, orange and gold, in the corners of the garden, casting an amber glow over the glistening snow and scattering rippling shadows between the iced plants. The patio chairs were cleaned off and padded with dry cushions, and the table was topped with various bottles of alcoholic beverages, and an elegant bottle of champagne —and, he saw, a bottle of Coke. Of course. To top it all off, in the centre of the garden, sticking out of the snow like colourful little pillars, were fireworks.
This was a party set up!
He whipped round to gape at the girls, and Ricky did the same. Hiro, pouncing down the steps, looked up at them with a smug expression —how the hell did a fox manage to look smug?
“We’re celebrating?” Ricky asked, looking around the garden in awe.
The girls glanced at each other, then nodded enthusiastically. “It’s Hogmanay! We’ve got to celebrate!” Ember beamed, excitement shining in her eyes.
“Hog—…wait, New Years? It’s the 31st?” Ricky looked stunned, and Reid almost laughed, except…well, he hadn’t realised the date either.
The girls were nodding again. “Yes, it’s the 31st! And we refuse to bring in the new year by moping around and looking anxious. If some members of The Society come along, they can join the freaking party. I don’t care. We’re celebrating.” Ember had that determined tone in her voice that meant that no amount of arguing could dissuade her. And that was okay with him. He didn’t want to argue. It had been a painful week, and an agonising day, and a party with fireworks sounded like a great idea.
Ricky looked a little more apprehensive, but Reid nudged him. “Oh, come on, Ricky. Nothing wrong with a bit of fun. The girls are right, we can’t just sit and mope.” He grinned.
Ricky sighed but nodded and smiled. “Okay, I guess so. But…” he shot Ember a cautious look, “careful with the fireworks please.”
At that, everyone laughed and Ember brought a dancing flame to life in her palm. “No problem, Kee. I can light them all at once from ten feet away. We’ll be safe.”
Ricky didn’t look convinced.
They all took seats at the patio table and Reid and Ricky took a bottle of beer, Sherry picked up a small bottle of Smirnoff ice, and Ember, as per usual, had a large glass of Coke.
“Where’s your party spirit, Emz? Always with the coke,” Reid teased, tipping the beer bottle to his lips.
Ember gave him a sly look and smirked. “It’s got vodka in it. I’m not a total bore,” she said, taking a gulp from her glass.
Reid grinned at her, chuckling. Sherry giggled, then hiccupped. Ricky was clasping his girlfriend’s hand under the table, Reid could just tell. Hiro was pacing up and down the steps to the house, looking extremely agitated. Reid arched a brow in the direction of the unhappy fox. He wondered what was up with him, why he wasn’t joining them all. Sure, Reid didn’t much like the guy, but it was cruel to leave him out.
“Hey, Hiro!” he called over, and the fox paused in his pacing, looked over with perked ears. “Why don’t you lose the fur and come over here? The more the merrier.”
Reid could feel Ember and Ricky staring at him in surprise, and ignored them. Except, the fox looked stunned, too. Seriously? Did they all think he was a complete tosser?
Hiro vanished inside, presumably to Change and get some warm clothes. Ember reached over and squeezed Reid’s hand, and he turned to look at her. Her blue eyes were very dark and very pretty in this light, her skin pale and shimmering, her hair a gleaming curtain of gold around her face. “That was…nice,” she murmured quietly.
He just shrugged, but Ricky was giving him a knowing look. Sherry just smiled.
Starting to feel uncomfortable, he was actually glad when Hiro came back out of the house in his green fleece jacket, and lounged in another of the patio chairs.
After that, conversations and banter resumed, all light topics and jokes and the occasional sniping contest with Hiro just for the heck of it. A little over two and a half hours later, Ember was most definitely tipsy —her coke and vodka drinks had been increasing in the vodka content — and she was perched cosily on Reid’s lap, careful not to lean on him too much. Sherry and Ricky were tangled together, though still in their own seats. Hiro looked comfortable and genuinely happy, with a bottle of beer in his hand, and his crimson hair falling into his strange eyes.
“So, how exactly did you get a hold of alcohol and fireworks, you two?” Reid asked, twirling a lock of Ember’s soft hair idly around his finger.
The girls grinned at each other, and Ember shrugged. “Feminine charms,” she said secretively.
“Liar,” Reid accused, meeting her eyes.
She sighed, giggled. “I might have used a teeny tiny bit of compulsion to make the shopkeepers think we were old enough to buy them.” She held up two fingers about an inch apart to show the ‘teeny tiny’ amount of compulsion she used.
Reid arched a brow. “Criminal,” he said mildly, amused.
Ember shook her head. “I’m not a criminal…Well, maybe only a little bit. But what’s the point in being half-vamp if I can’t have fun with it?” She had a good point.
He pulled her a little closer, and ran his fingertips down her face, admiring the way the light made her sort of…glow. It was odd how she looked so different in different lighting.
In the warm glow of a crackling fire, she looked dangerous, ferocious. Lethal. But in this pale, sparkling light, she looked like a gentle princess, all soft colours and tenderness.
“You’re so pretty, you know that?” he whispered, so low he knew the others couldn’t hear. Ember did, though, and she blushed. Even the pink tint to her cheekbones looked delicate.
He stroked his fingertips down her spine, and felt her shiver delightfully. She bit her lip, knowing what he was doing, and met his mischievous gaze with shy, innocent eyes. Oh, that was just too lovely.
He tipped his head up, and reached up to cup the back of her neck, very lightly. She leaned in and kissed him, her soft, sweet lips warm on his. He kissed her gently, feeling a slow warmth spreading through his limbs and chest. Her nimble fingers touched the nape of his neck, warm despite the fact she wasn’t wearing gloves, and a spark shot down his spine.
He broke away regretfully, and she smiled sweetly at him. He mentally cursed the boy who’d staked him, knowing without a doubt that Ember would not let him do anything really fun tonight while he was injured. Damn.
As if she could tell what he was thinking, she leaned down to whisper in his ear, “Sorry cowboy, but them’s the brakes.” She giggled, and the sound teased him.
Grrr. Stupid bloody stake.
Then Ricky, looking up at the sky for some bizarre reason, spoke up. “Do you think Raz would join us if we asked?”
Everyone looked at each other, and Reid shrugged. “Maybe. But I doubt he’d drink. He’d probably just sit and brood at us,” he smirked.
“We should invite him anyway. If he hadn’t warned us about the prophecy, we’d probably all be dead by now,” Ember said quietly.
Sherry nodded in agreement. Hiro…looked like he didn’t give a toss one way or the other, but at least he wasn’t being snarky.
So, with a vote of three for and two ‘don’t care’s, Ember tipped her head back to look up at the clear sky, and called out, “Raphael! Raz, come join us down here!”
Nothing happened.
Not, Reid thought, that I’d expected it to. Like a giant burst of light to explode from the night sky and Raz to just drop down with angel wings.