by H G Lynch
There wasn’t much he could do about the stain, but since there was already a nice, ragged hole in the denim, he decided to simply tear the bloody fabric out. There. No more bloodstain, and after he ripped a similar hole in the knee of the other leg, it just looked like he had a thing for ratty jeans. It maybe wouldn’t help Carol’s impression of him, but it’d freak her out a lot less than a patch of bloody denim on him.
Heaving a sigh, he swung himself off the bike, and shoved the keys in his pocket. He wandered up the icy, concrete steps to the front door, sucked in a deep breath, and knocked. For a moment, he couldn’t hear anything beyond the front door, but eventually, there was the noise of a chain sliding from its holding and the door swung open to reveal Carol Jennings.
Now, Carol Jennings, much like her daughter, was rather short, but, unlike her daughter, she had a sharp face and even sharper green eyes. That alone wasn’t particularly unsettling, except for the way those eyes fixed on him like lasers, as if she might try to fry his brain by simply glaring at him. But no, her appearance wasn’t what unsettled him so. It was the fact that Ember clearly got some of her ferociousness from her mother —though he’d never tell her that, or else he’d likely end up with burns in some rather nasty places. Carol Jennings was intimidating, partly because she was his girlfriend’s mother, and mostly because she was tough as Ember was. And being under her glare made him feel like a little boy caught doing something naughty, like kissing a girl behind the school sheds —which had actually happened on more than one occasion.
“What do you think you’re doing coming here, you little punk? Ember isn’t here. Go away before I call the police,” Carol threatened, and Reid refrained from asking just what she’d tell the police; that there was an attractive teenage boy on the front step looking for his girlfriend? Yeah, they’d really rush out in a hurry for that one.
“I’m not here to see Ember. I’m actually here to talk to you—” he started in as polite and charming a tone as he could manage, but Carol cut him off with a harsh, abrupt laugh.
“Has my mother been speaking to you? Because it seems an awful coincidence that just after she calls to tell me I need to listen to what you might have to say, you show up at my front door with something to say. Well, tough luck, kiddo. I’m not letting you near my baby girl again, and I don’t care what you have to say. Next time I see you, I’m getting a restraining order put on you.”
Uh, even to him, that seemed a bit extreme, and a lot harsh. But he wasn’t giving up. He braced his palm flat on the door as she tried to slam it closed.
“Mrs. Jennings, if you would please just listen to me for a minute—”
The woman made a sound close to a hiss, and her glare would’ve made a four-hundred pound gorilla back off.
Reid gulped, and tried not to flinch. He’d made a promise to Ember’s grandmother, and, he supposed, to Ember too, and he was determined to do this no matter what.
“Mrs. Jennings, please. Just listen to me for one minute. Just one minute of your time. I know you don’t like me —okay, you probably hate me really — but I’m here to talk to you and I’m not leaving until you listen to me.” He kept the door open still, firmly holding her piercing gaze.
She glowered at him in silence for a long moment, and then jerked her head in a sharp nod. “Fine. One minute,” she said.
With an inward sigh and an external inhalation, he made sure to choose his words carefully. “Look, I know you probably won’t believe me when I say this, but, I love your daughter. I truly do. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, and I’m no good at impressing parents or being an example of perfect boyfriend material. I know I’m not good enough for Ember; she’s a brilliant, smart, incredible girl, and she deserves everything she wants in life. She could get it, too. But what she wants right now, whether you like it or not, is me. And she’s more special to me than anything else on this planet. I’d do anything for her, which is why I’m here now. Ember thought I’d be on a suicide mission coming here, and I thought she was most likely right, but I came anyway because I know how happy it would make her to have her mother supporting her first serious relationship. If there was even the slightest chance that I could get that for her, I had to try. I might not be your ideal choice for your daughter, and I can accept that, but if I have a single redeeming quality, it’s this: I love Ember. I love her enough to come here and risk having you call the police on me. I’d spend a night in jail and just come back again and again until you believed me on that. And what’s more…” He couldn’t believe he was about to admit this. He hadn’t said it out-loud to a single person but Ember herself before, but he’d swallow his pride and say it for her sake. “What’s more is, I need her. I need Ember. Without her, I feel like…like someone’s plunged their hand into my chest and injected my heart with ice water. I need her to keep that coldness away. And…she’s making me a better person. It sounds clichéd, I know, but it’s true. If anyone in the world can turn me into respectable boyfriend material, it’s her,” he concluded, smiling despite himself. Every word had been the truth. He just hoped Carol could believe him.
He waited with his heart thudding in his chest, something caught in his throat that was making it hard to breathe, though he didn’t need air. He couldn’t tell what the woman was thinking as she kept her sharp green eyes locked on his face.
After what felt like a short century later, though, she finally answered. “You have one chance, Reid. You blow it, and you’ll never see my daughter again. Got it?” the woman snapped.
But it was enough for him. It was approval —of sorts.
“I understand. I won’t blow it. I swear,” he said honestly. His heart was hammering away while a little voice in his head cheered in victory.
“You’d better not. Now go call Ember and take her back to Ellon. Finish your holiday, but be warned, I will be checking in on you lot.” And with that ominous promise, she slammed the door.
Still, Reid couldn’t help but grin to himself and he held that grin all the way back to Ellon, forgetting about the earlier assassination attempt completely.
Chapter Seventeen
Ember pounced on him the minute he came through the door, bouncing up to him like a demented bunny rabbit with big, blue eyes. “What happened? What did she say? Did she try to hit you with a frying pan? I thought she might try to hit you with a kitchen accessory.”
Reid realised immediately that Ember had been worried about him, and had drowned her worries in a bottle of Coke. Now, consequently, she was a demented, hyper bunny rabbit with big, blue eyes. Which was both adorable and very amusing.
“No, she didn’t attempt to kill me with kitchen devices.” That was when he remembered that someone else had tried to kill him —though, admittedly, not with anything you’d find in a kitchen…Then again, the knife…
“So what did she say?” Ember squealed, bobbing up and down on her tiptoes, making her hair fly about over her shoulders.
He smiled smugly at her, and she slowed her bouncing, but didn’t stop altogether; He guessed she was probably physically incapable of staying still at this stage. Waaay too much caffeine in her system.
“She said I had one chance. If I blow it, she’s going to pull out a restraining order on me,” he told her, grinning. Then came the thing that made it all worthwhile, all the stress and nerves and even the getting shot at with arrows; Her pretty eyes lit up like twinkling, crystalline lights.
Just to see that, he would’ve crossed a desert and the Alps and swam through shark-infested waters and faced a whole horde of magical-arrow-shooting, rune-marked-knife-wielding, homicidal maniacs. It made his heart do funny, warm things to see her smile like that.
Ember threw her arms around his waist, her head barely coming up to his chin, and she giggled. “You did it! You made her believe you! And you didn’t use any compulsion…Did you?” She pulled back to look up at him, but he could see in her eyes she already knew he hadn’t.
He shook his head anyway
. “Nope. Not even a touch of it. It was all words.” He smoothed her hair back from her face as she beamed up at him, his blood bubbling behind his ribs in an achy, sweet way.
Reaching up on her toes, Ember kissed him hard, her fingers lacing behind his neck to hold him there. Gladly, he kissed back, feeling sparks running from his lips to his toes and back up again. Ember was projecting her thoughts in her jittery excitement, and it was really screwing with his control. If she didn’t tune it down, he’d—
Then Ricky and Sherry interrupted the moment. “Um, what’s all the squealing about?” Ricky asked.
Ember sprang away from Reid with wide eyes and a childishly guilty expression.
It was so cute that he wanted to bundle her up and kiss her again until she melted against him. Instead, he turned his gaze on Ricky and Sherry, standing in the living room doorway with amused expressions.
“Where’ve you been? And what happened to your jeans?” Ricky asked, eyeing him askance, “Did the squirrels finally gang up and attack you or something?”
Reid glanced down at his jeans, having forgotten he’d torn holes in them, and frowned. “I went to see Ember’s mother—”
“Ah. That explains it,” Sherry giggled.
Reid shook his head. “I got her to give me a chance at least. But on the way there, I…I think I got sniped at by some seriously old-school assassins.” He touched his thigh through the hole in his jeans, right where the knife had sunk in. The flesh was as firm and smooth as ever. Not a hint that there had ever been a gouge there, made with a magical knife.
The tension in the room shot up nine levels, and Ember’s bubbly excitement fizzled out. She stared at him with unconcealed alarm.
“What? What happened, Reid? Who was it?” Ricky asked tensely.
Reid snorted. “I didn’t see who it was, hence why I said ‘sniped at’. They were hiding in the trees by the side of the road. They flung some sort of knife into my leg, and when I pulled over, they started shooting at me with charmed arrows. Burned my damn hand when I caught one. I threw the knife back and got one of them, but I couldn’t see any of them. They must’ve been wearing concealment charms or something. And I’m guessing they were highly trained members of The Society, because I’m pretty sure there’s nobody else trying to kill us at the minute. Unless I’ve missed something while I was gone?”
Ricky and Ember’s expressions said they didn’t appreciate his nonchalance. Honestly, although he was kind of anxious about the vampire-killing weapons, it was a rush to come across something new for a change. And being shot at with arrows was definitely new for him. He’d been shot at with three different kinds of gun, including a shotgun, stabbed with six different types of knife, had everything from rocks to various fruits to a baseball bat thrust at his head, but he’d never been shot at with arrows before.
“But…you’re okay, right? They didn’t get you with the arrows?” Ember asked in a small voice, all her exuberance from a minute ago having drained away. It made him wish he hadn’t opened his mouth about the attack. She looked pale and scared all of a sudden.
“I’m fine. They underestimated vampire speed and eyesight. I saw the arrows coming in time to dodge them, but there was some serious mojo on those arrows. Weird runes and definitely some sort of charm or curse. Those arrows were meant to kill vampires, or at the very least incapacitate indefinitely,” he said, only now starting to absorb the danger he could’ve been in if one of those arrows had hit the mark. He frowned.
Ricky was staring at him with narrowed, chilled eyes, his mouth in a tight line. He was not happy to hear that The Society had vampire-vanquishing weaponry. Reid couldn’t blame him; He wasn’t thrilled about it himself.
“This is bad. Very bad. If they’re taking this to open-fire levels, it means they’ve given up on the kidnapping plans. From now on, we’ll be in danger any time we’re alone. Any time we’re even outside the house or back garden. It does mean they aren’t likely to try any more break-ins, seeing as the wards won’t let anyone with harmful or homicidal attempts past the threshold, but we’ll still have to be on high alert. Patrolling the area every other hour; they might decide to hide out in the trees and wait for one of us to take a walk. Nobody goes outside after midnight, and nobody leaves at all if they’re alone. Groups of two or three. Girls, you don’t go anywhere without either Reid or myself with you.” Ricky sounded like an army sergeant.
Reid could already see that that last command was not going down well with the girls, particularly Ember.
Her fear had vanished as quickly as it had come around, and now, she was glaring squarely at Ricky. Defiance was written in every nerve of her body language. “So that’s your plan? Lock us all down. Oh, and we’re just supposed to let the vampire lads take care of everything?” She laughed spitefully. “Until when, Ricky? In case you forgot, there’s going to be some sort of attack tomorrow. You will not keep me out of that fight. This is my fight. And by the way, what about Hiro? You plan on keeping him behind with the girls? I’d feel safer leaving the house with him than with you—”
Ouch!
Ricky winced at that, drew in a breath so sharply it was almost a gasp. Reid was about to step in and try to cool things down before they escalated, but Ember turned on him, knowing what he was about to do.
“Oh, no. Don’t even think about it, Reid. You won’t keep me out of this either. Nobody will. And you know that vampire macho bullshit won’t work on me. I have more power than the two of you put together, and you bloody damn well know it. Yes, I know I’m the friggin’ target here!”
How did she know he was going to point that out?
“But that’s all the more reason for me to handle this fight. I’m probably the safest of you all! They’ll have permission to shoot any of the rest of you on sight, but they won’t dare spill my blood on the battlefield. And if Sherry wants to join in,” Ember cast a glance to her friend, and Sherry, looking determined and serious, nodded once, “then she can do as she pleases. I won’t stop her, and neither will either of you, if you know what’s good for you. Got it?” Ember planted her feet apart, hands on her hips, and met Reid and Ricky’s glares unflinchingly. Her eyes were burning with a sudden battle lust that just about took his breath away.
Reid wanted to shake her and yell at her until she understood that Ricky was right, that she needed to stay out of this one for her own safety. He wanted to wrestle her into a chair, tie her to it, and lock her up in the study to keep her safe. But at the same time, this was the most volatile he’d seen her since this mess all started. He wondered if this was an act put on by her pride, and really she was terrified inside, or if Ricky’s condescending plans had finally sparked some of that reckless fire in her. He knew there was no arguing her out of this, not now. If he locked her up, she’d just escape, and then she’d be really, really pissed at him for trying to keep her out of the fight.
Part of him was ecstatic and roaring in delight at her returning stubbornness, her courage and utter insanity. And a little part of him —the primal, all masculine part — wanted to sink his fangs into her.
Pushing that train of thought aside —for the moment at least — he tuned back into the argument. Ricky was ‘strenuously objecting’ to Ember getting involved in the coming fight. He didn’t give her a flat ‘no’ or tell her there were no ‘ifs ands or buts about it’ like Reid might’ve, had he been taking Ricky’s side. Ricky was smart enough to see that saying either of those things would be potentially suicidal right now. Ember was fuming.
“I just don’t think you should be out in the open, fighting this time. You’re at serious risk—”
“I already told you! I’m the safest one here! They won’t kill me on the spot!”
“Maybe not, but they could grab you and run while the rest of us are distracted—”
“Give me some damned credit, Kee! I think I’d see or hear a bunch of armed maniacs coming to get me!”
“And what if you didn’t? If you were fighting, you�
�d be distracted, too and—”
“Ricky, I swear to God, you are so dense sometimes. What part of ‘I can incinerate the entire fucking field’ aren’t you getting? It’ll hardly be a fight, no matter what kind of special weapons they have! I can burn them all alive from twenty feet away!”
Okay, Reid decided it was time to put an end to this before Ember grew claws and ripped Ricky’s face off. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Everyone just shut up for a minute!” He stepped between Ricky and Ember, putting out his hands to keep them apart —mostly for Ricky’s benefit. Ricky wouldn’t attack, but Ember would be likely to lunge if she was given the chance. It was a dangerous place to put himself, but he was counting on Ember’s love for him to keep her from cremating him where he stood.
As it was, she snarled up at him, fangs flashing dangerously. In his head, a little voice let out a low whistle, but whether it was a whistle to say ‘Holy crap, she’s really damn mad’ or to say ‘Holy crap, she’s hot when she’s really damn mad’ he couldn’t be sure. Either way, Ember was really damn mad.
“Reid, if you plan for the next words out of your mouth to be anything to do with me staying out of this, I will break your wrist and set fire to your t-shirt,” Ember hissed.
And, Oh boy, he believed her. He rarely heard Ember make a threat she didn’t fully intend to carry out, not anymore.
“I’m not going to say that. I’m taking your side here. It’s your fight, and you’re right; you’ve got a crap-load of power, and enough insanity to take out a whole friggin’ army if you choose to. But—” Ooh, he didn’t like the flash in her eyes at that ‘but’. He pushed on regardless, “But, Ricky’s right too. It’s going to be dangerous, and you’ll have to be on your guard. Crank the vamp-senses to eleven and don’t let anyone within eight feet of you, okay? I don’t want them within grabbing distance of you. No hand-to-hand combat if you can avoid it; Stick with the flames and compel any sucker who slips past and gets too near. Got it?” He stared her in the eyes, waiting for the little quiver of the blue that told him she was going to accept his rules.