Embers

by Karen Ann Hopkins

  “Hey, Ivan, how’s it going?”

  “It is going well,” he spoke in a hushed tone, focusing his gaze on the plate in front of him that was overflowing with food.

  “What’s the deal with your obnoxious friend?” I said tartly.

  “He felt bad afterwards,” he said, pushing the peas around with his fork.

  I studied Ivan for a moment. His eyes were downcast and his shoulders slumped. I suddenly felt very sorry for him. He seemed so alone. “Do you want to come over and sit with me and my friends?”

  “Oh, no, it is nice of you to offer though. But I prefer to be by myself.”

  I looked at him for a few more seconds. He’d made it clear that he didn’t want any company, so why couldn’t I just walk away and forget about him?

  Because he’s sad and lonely, even though he’s trying to pretend he isn’t.

  I finally rose and said, “Okay. Well, I’ll see you around.”

  He nodded curtly, but didn’t look up, making me feel even worse.

  I had a difficult time being social after the encounter with Ivan, but I tried my best to keep up appearances. The talk was all about homecoming. Maddie and Lindsey informed me that I had to go to the game. I didn’t like being told what to do, but their eagerness softened my agitation somewhat. There was even a chance that Randy and Maddie would be homecoming king and queen, which I guess was a big deal.

  My excuses fell on deaf ears and in the end, I surrendered.

  The plans were all made. I’d be spending the night at Maddie’s after the festivities so that I wouldn’t have to drive back up the mountain late at night. As long as it was all right with Ila that is, but I was betting she’d be fine with it. She’d probably view it as a wonderful opportunity for me to spy on my classmates using the Watcher sense or to just be a normal kid.

  I was a fraud, forcing myself to do something I had no interest in with a group of people that I could do without. Guilt nipped at me that I’d never caved when Piper had begged me to go to ball games, dances or just hang out at the mall.

  Before I’d arrived in the mountains I was more stubborn about things. Now, I was open to the regular experiences that most teens looked forward to. Maybe it was because of Ila’s pestering, or maybe I was just curious. The reason didn’t matter much. I had my doubts about having fun anyway.

  After school when I walked to my truck, I glanced around for the black Hummer. Not finding it, a hollow feeling of depression settled over me. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but inwardly I had to admit that I’d been anxiously anticipating another encounter with the Demon. I had spent much of the day planning what I would say to him if he tried to talk to me again. But after all my inner soliloquies, he never even appeared.

  Since I didn’t have any stops to make in town, I headed straight for the mountain road. There was a threat of rain in the dark clouds overhead. The air was cool and breezy. The hint of autumn in the wind lifted my spirits a little as it whipped my hair around from the open windows of the truck. My favorite time of the year was when the leaves changed colors and the crisp weather arrived.

  I hadn’t reached the fort yet when my truck started feeling funny. The wobbling beneath me made me hold my breath for a few seconds. Then I heard the sound I was dreading; the thump, thump of a flat tire. I pulled off the road into the shrubby grass and parked.

  Squatting beside the flat tire, I sighed loudly. I’d never make it to Ila’s cabin. I would have to change the tire here, by myself.

  The problem was that I’d never actually done it before. Dad had taken the time to show me the whole process in our driveway the day after I’d passed the driver’s test, just in case, he’d told me. I was now sorry that I hadn’t paid more attention to what he’d been doing.

  I stood and stared at the tire for a few minutes, willing it to fix itself, but nothing happened. Setting the tire on fire wouldn’t be helpful. Physically, there was no reason I couldn’t do it, and I was certainly intelligent enough to figure it out.

  Pulling the manual out of the glove box, I began reading the Changing a Flat Tire section. Before I got very far into it, the rumble of an engine coming up the road interrupted me. Dust billowed around the vehicle when it rolled to a stop beside me.

  When the window lowered, I groaned at Sawyer’s smugly smiling face.

  “Do you need some help?” he asked, way too politely. For a second I studied his face, searching for the boy from my dreams, but he was gone or hidden away deep inside the difficult young man before me.

  I seriously thought about refusing, but Ivan was already out of the car standing next me. “Yeah, that would be nice,” was all I could manage to say in a weak voice.

  Sawyer took his time getting out of the vehicle. He wasn’t in a hurry if the leisurely way he went into my truck and got the jack out from behind the seat was any indication.

  I guess if you’re a Demon who may be hundreds of years old, there was no need to rush around.

  Or, he was just being a jerk.

  “I didn’t see you after school.” I directed my question to Ivan who was intently watching Sawyer jack the truck up.

  “I had to spend a while longer in my final class. My teacher says my writing is not very good; that I need to work on it after school.”

  “I’d be happy to help you sometime,” I said a little too eagerly, checking myself. “I mean if you want me to.”

  Sawyer paused from his work for a moment, waiting for Ivan’s reply.

  “That would be nice. I would like that.”

  I wanted to test the waters. I followed up with, “Maybe I could come over to your place sometime to study with you.”

  The reaction was unexpected. Sawyer and Ivan both said “No,” forcefully at the same time.

  Sawyer composed himself first, saying. “The people who live with us are very private. It wouldn’t be a good idea for you to come over—ever. You two will have to do your studying somewhere else.”

  He went back to changing the tire. I nodded my head in understanding. So, they didn’t want me going into the compound and getting murdered for my soul. That was nice of them.

  The silence was deafening, the only sound being a bug zipping around my head and the birds chattering. This was my opportunity to find out more about these supernatural creatures that I didn’t even know existed until yesterday. I wasn’t going to waste the chance the flat tire had given me.

  “Ivan, do you ever go hiking around here?”

  He looked suspiciously at me. “I spend much of my time in the woods.”

  “I’ve been out on the trails around my aunt’s place, but I’d like to go exploring sometime.”

  “There are many beautiful sites on this mountain. In particular, there is a large waterfall in the forest not so far away,” he said with more enthusiasm.

  “I’d love to see it.” I wasn’t faking my interest.

  “It’s called Raven Branch Falls and takes about a thirty minute hike to get there from the trail head—there.” Ivan pointed up the road about five hundred feet to a place where the trees gave way to a narrow opening. You could barely tell it was there with the waist high dry grass and low branches in the way.

  “We could take you there today, if you want.” Sawyer stood up and looked me straight in the eye, challenging. Was he trying to do something to my mind again? I tried to feel my instincts, but nothing strange or menacing touched me. The only thing I felt was the bubbling desire to show the Demon that I wasn’t afraid of him.

  “Sure, that sounds like fun,” I quickly answered.

  Ivan turned to Sawyer. “Do you think that’s a good idea, Sawyer?”

  The Demon looked at Ivan and replied, “It’ll be fine. They never go that way.”

  That seemed to satisfy Ivan, and he nodded in agreement.

  “When I finish with the tire we’ll pull our vehicles up the trail a little ways and park them in the woods. They’ll be out of sight that way. We don’t want anyone breaking into them.”

/>   It was amusing to think of a Demon worrying about someone stealing from him. Sawyer stared at me for a few seconds, confused. I guess he was wondering why I almost broke into a laugh. He shook his head before returning to the tire.

  I blew a strand of hair out of my face, watching him finish up with the tire. It was hard not to notice his muscled back and slim waist. His butt was a nice proportion too. I glanced away when heat burned my face. Staring at the wilted blue chicory flowers at the side of the road was definitely safer than looking at him.

  It took Sawyer a minute more to lower the truck and roll the damaged tire around to the back. He tossed the tire in to the truck bed as easily as if it were a pillow.

  He caught my surprised expression and distracted me swiftly. “You should pick up a new tire the next time you’re in town. And don’t put it off—you need a good spare driving up and down a road like this,” he said in a bossy voice.

  I didn’t like him treating me as if I was an idiot, but it was good advice. I grimaced, thinking that I should have been paying more attention to how he changed the tire, instead of drooling over his backside.

  “What?” Sawyer asked.

  He was pretty observant.

  “Nothing, we better get going. I don’t want to get home too late.”

  “You should bring a jacket if you have one. It looks as if it’s going to rain,” he suggested before he stepped up into the Hummer.

  I followed him with my truck into the thick brush, cringing each time I heard the branches scraping its sides. Once we were off the road a distance where we wouldn’t be noticed, we parked. We were hidden so well that I could barely get out of the truck for the saplings pressing against it. I swatted them away, trudging through nature’s barrier to get to where Sawyer and Ivan were waiting for me.

  Sawyer nodded to my truck, “Red isn’t good camouflage.” He snorted and walked by me.

  No, really? A dozen comebacks shot through my head, but instead of speaking, I stretched my legs and hurried to catch up with his long stride. I was on a mission.

  It was hardly a trail, more like a deer path. The leaves and branches of the plants along the way reached over to hide its existence. We had to maneuver around fallen limbs and rocks every few feet.

  Ivan went on ahead, but I could still see him. He was moving quicker through the undergrowth than an average person would. He zigzagged off the trail the exact way Angus always did. He seemed to be checking scents the same as any other canine.

  I wanted to stop for a second and focus on the forest myself to see what I could sense among the trees, but there was no way that I was going to ask Sawyer to slow down. Besides, how would I explain to him what I was doing? Gee, Sawyer, I’d like to use my extra sense to take a look around. I smiled at the imagined conversation.

  Several silent minutes passed and I found myself beginning to struggle to keep up with the pace Sawyer was setting. I was in good shape, but this was ridiculous. Anger heated my insides. At him, or me, who knew, but my temperature was rising. I took a deep breath to control my temper.

  I caught a glimpse of Ivan directly parallel to my position, high up on the wooded hillside. How did he get there so quickly? He was even faster than Angus.

  Thunk—I smacked right into Sawyer’s hard chest. He must have stopped in the trail waiting for me. I looked up and he was only inches away. My stomach flipped, and my heart went crazy. His gaze travelled deliberately slowly over my face and then down my body. In response, a warm flush fanned my cheeks and across my neck. Why did this stupid Demon affect me this way? I avoided his penetrating gaze by glancing up to where Ivan had been. Only now he was gone.

  Sawyer started back up the trail at a slower pace. Did he now want me to keep up with him?

  “That kid has a lot of energy,” he said gesturing to the opposite ridge from where Ivan was a moment ago.

  “You’re not old enough to be calling Ivan, a kid,” I pointed out, knowing full well that he could be extremely old.

  Maybe I could trip him up. After a few minutes of tramping through the ferns, with no response from the Demon, I knew he wasn’t taking the bait.

  I’d have to be bold then.

  “How old are you, Sawyer?”

  “How old are you?” he shot back.

  “I asked you first. But I don’t care to tell you that I’m seventeen,” I replied.

  He seemed satisfied with my answer. “I’m nineteen.”

  Yeah, I bet you are. Then I remembered something he’d said earlier. “What did you mean when you said, they never go that way?”

  He hesitated. “Some of the others in the compound go squirrel hunting in the woods. Ivan was concerned that we might accidentally get shot. You don’t have to worry your pretty head though, they never cross the road.”

  That was the second time he’d referred to me as being pretty. Did he really mean it or was he just playing some game? It was definitely forward of him to say such a thing, and twice to boot. I suddenly wished Piper was here. She’d know for sure what Sawyer’s intentions were. Not only had she been good at reading me, but she was always right-on with the guys too. I wasn’t completely sure, but I guessed that she wouldn’t approve of me hanging out with a wolf boy and a Demon though.

  I shifted my attention to the large tree that had fallen over the trail. It was a Hemlock and its long, needled branches were everywhere, except conveniently, right at the place that covered the trail. I would have to climb over the thing, or hike all the way around into the Rhododendron bushes to continue.

  Feeling a presence right behind me, I whirled around to see Ivan’s smiling face. He was in his element and totally at ease. I smiled back as he slipped in front of me and held out his hand to help me over the obstacle. I took it, letting Ivan pull me up and over the trunk with little effort on his part. Sawyer watched us before he vaulted over the trunk in a fluid motion.

  Ivan fell in beside me, holding his pace to mine as we moved quietly along the would-be path. Here the forest was darker, with shards of light speckling the ground intermittently. The trees were larger and the canopy above us rustled in the stiff breeze that promised rain. Occasionally, I caught sight of the swiftly moving clouds, but mostly now the sky was green.

  Among the quiet trees, I could relax. I took a deep breath and found that I could not only smell the forest floor and the bark on the trees, I could also breathe Ivan’s faint wolfish smell. There was a unique muskiness to him that I knew I would always remember.

  I practiced, smelling deeply again. This time I caught Sawyer’s scent. It was that same woodsy smell I’d encountered before, but with a definite manliness mixed in. It smelled good. Way too good.

  Ivan spoke with an excited voice. “Do you hear it, Ember?”

  I tilted my head and listened. It was faint, but there was a low rumble in the distance. As we walked forward the sound grew.

  “Yes. Is that the falls?” I asked.

  He nodded his head. “We’re almost there.”

  Soon the noise was a deafening roar, vibrating in my ears. When we stepped out of the cover of the trees, I was astonished. Raven Branch Falls was much larger than I expected. The water dropped from nearly seventy feet into a dark pool. Giant boulders jutted out below the pool to create smaller falls that led into a rapidly flowing rocky creek bed.

  My gaze was drawn to a tree leaning out from the side of the falls where a large grey owl was partially hidden in the foliage. There was something familiar about its eyes, and the way it was looking at me gave me the distinct feeling that I knew the bird. Could it be the same owl I saw racing through the air the day of my arrival?

  Ivan grasped my arm and tugged me closer to the falls. He held my arm tightly as we stepped onto the boulders beside the deep water hole. Spots on the enormous rocks were wet and slippery from the spray of the falls and I was grateful for his help. He led me out to the farthest point we could go, where a carpet of soft moss blanketed the surface of a particularly large boulder. Ivan gestured
for me to sit, which I did, and then he bounded off, climbing along the boulders until he was a little ways downstream.

  I watched him go, thinking what a nice boy, or wolf, he was.

  Without looking, I knew Sawyer was behind me. The movements of my stomach and heart gave him away. He sat down very close.

  “Where did you come from?” he coaxed softly.

  He was close enough that his warm breath tickled my skin. For a second I saw the boy from my dream.

  The breath caught in my throat. I gazed at him.

  He doesn’t seem evil to me.

  It was funny the way he’d asked the question, as if I was from another planet. He lifted an eyebrow at my smile, and at that moment, he was the boy from my dream.

  Somehow I found my voice, but I could only manage a whisper. “I’m from Oleander, Ohio.”

  His laughter drowned out the falls and shook me to my core. I had seriously amused him, for some reason that I couldn’t imagine. Sawyer’s face brightened. “What a small world. I’m from Maysville, in northern Kentucky. It’s a town east of Oleander, along the Ohio River. Have you heard of it?”

  “I’ve been there. It was a few years back. I went antiquing with my parent’s one Saturday afternoon. We stopped in Maysville and had lunch at a quaint little soup and sandwich café. We walked down main street, did some shopping. It was a pretty town.”

  He was genuinely pleased with my answer. The faraway look on his face was hopeful in a way. All too soon, his eyes were probing again. I turned away unable to think straight when he stared at me with such intensity.

  “So why did you move here, to the wilderness?” he asked in a velvety voice.

  I made sure to keep my eyes locked on the water foaming at the bottom of the falls as I talked. I didn’t want him to see the tears in my eyes, which had suddenly emerged from nowhere.

  “My parents were killed in a car wreck a few months ago. It was in their Will that I was to come live here with my Aunt Ila.” I paused searching for the owl again, but it was gone. “So here I am.”