Fire and Fantasy: A Limited Edition Collection of Urban and Epic Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  Nothing. No response.

  "Okay. See ya later." And Terrie slammed the door because no one had ever taught her it was okay to shut it gently. "Konstanz, dinner is here!"

  I glanced at Navi, who had relaxed next to me. She smiled and shrugged. No more stiffness or pain when she moved. She bounced out of bed like she'd never been injured and I followed her into the living room.

  Terrie was dropping a takeout box at my spot on the table. "Bryson brought this by because you don't like meatloaf. But he didn't stay."

  Seven

  Bryson

  I didn't sleep that night. Partly because Alec's nightmares were relentless and he woke up every twenty minutes yelling Navi's name.

  But mostly because of Konstanz. I'd been hurt at first, yes. And angry. I'd been nothing but nice to her and how dare she imply…

  Exactly what it seemed I'd been doing.

  Through her eyes, I could suddenly see exactly why she felt that way. And I had no idea how to convince her otherwise.

  Since I didn't sleep anyway, I got up after Alec left and went and got bagels. I sat in her parking lot for an hour, wondering if she would even talk to me. Wondering how to convince her that I was there to see her, not Navi.

  Finally, I gave up trying to make any sense of anything and got out of the car.

  The apartment was loud and Navi passed me on the way in. "I'm going to your apartment. Is that okay?" She looked absolutely exhausted, deep circles that seemed to never leave shadowing her eyes, and she'd lost weight when she'd already been too slender to begin with.

  "Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. Sleep good," I said distractedly. "Is Konstanz up?"

  She smiled, tried to hide it, and failed. "Yeah. She's up. Go on in."

  I knocked, but either the radio or the TV blaring on the other side drowned out my attempts so I pushed the door open. Navi had told me to anyway, right? But there was something dangerous with just walking into an apartment full of girls all getting ready for school.

  Terrie was sprawled on the couch watching TV, and Reese was attempting to drown out said TV with her radio in the kitchen.

  Konstanz was nowhere to be seen.

  "Bryson!" Terrie sat up, smoothing her hair away from her face. They'd said she wanted whatever guy was in front of her. Exactly what Konstanz had said about me.

  That's what she thought I was? The male version of Terrie?

  "Is Konstanz here?" I yelled to be heard over the TV. "I brought breakfast."

  She appeared from the hallway like a wraith from the shadows, her long, light brown hair tumbling like silk across her shoulders and down her back. "Bryson?"

  I raised my bagel box. "I brought breakfast," I said again.

  She padded toward me, eyeing the box in my hand like it might bite her. "Breakfast?"

  "Bagels. With strawberry cream cheese. Because it's your favorite."

  She narrowed her eyes, all light brown and gold. "How did you know that?"

  I inched toward the table, hoping I had indeed gained admittance. "Mary told me."

  "Mary?" Her eyes narrowed further.

  "I—yeah. She—I—" Suddenly I wasn't sure what to do with my hands. "She was giving me inside information because I didn't know where we should go for dinner and she said—"

  "You were talking to her about me?" She looked like she was going to throw up and I looked at Reese for help. Reese, who always seemed to know what to do, didn't seem to now when Konstanz needed her most.

  "You should eat," I said lamely and held up my box again.

  Silently, she came toward me, her eyes only leaving my face to peer into the box when she was right next to it. "They're plain."

  "Yeah. Mary said you like plain. Is that wrong? I can go back." Shit. I'd even messed up the bagels? Mary had said Konstanz would only eat the plain ones. I'm sure she did.

  She looked up, shaking her head, face still unreadable. "Plain is fine."

  "Yeah, otherwise she has to pick all the seeds off or gags and coughs the entire time like her bagel's been poisoned." Reese didn't hesitate, digging in and snatching the strawberry cream cheese. Terrie followed, but Konstanz kept looking from the box to me and back again.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered, but it was so loud in that room I only knew she said it because I read her lips.

  "Sorry? For what?" I had to yell, which was ridiculous this early in the morning. What did their neighbors think? And dear sweet heavens, was she going to push me out the door and reject my bagel peace offering?

  She responded, but I didn't hear her. Frustrated, I yelled, "You guys get enough?"

  Reese and Terrie nodded. I slammed the bagel box shut and scooped it up, grabbed Konstanz's hand and dragged her outside, down to my car and swung open the door. "Where are we going?" she asked as she slid into the seat. As she slid into the seat. She didn't hesitate.

  Something warmed my half-chilled soul.

  "Somewhere quiet."

  We drove to the beach, which was only a few miles away. Navi hated the beach, or was terrified of it or something weird, so Konstanz never went, either. Neither of us spoke the short ride there because even though I wanted, needed, to know what she said in the apartment, I was also afraid. Maybe she wasn't apologizing for flipping out the day before. Maybe she was apologizing because she was kicking me out of her life. If it was that one, I wanted to be able to focus completely on changing her mind, not driving.

  I grabbed a blanket out of the back and she brought the bagels. We walked silently through the sand to just above the waves and settled onto the blanket. The beach was abandoned this early in the morning, but the waves crashed viciously against the shore like they'd fought the entire night long. "I'm sorry."

  I looked away from the waves, bracing myself. "For?"

  "For what I said yesterday. I just—I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm all…" she waved her hands around her head like a crazy person, so adorable it made me ache. "I was the nice one once."

  I leaned back on my elbows, careful to give her space. In the long hours of the night, it had finally occurred to me what Konstanz had been saying the entire time. I came on too strong. I fell too fast, too hard and expected them to do the same. Navi was in love with Alec and even his horrible words hadn't stopped that and Konstanz I'd just scared off.

  But I could fix that. I'd been unsure at first, but here she was, sitting on a beach with me. I just had to slow down. My whole life, thanks to my father's money and power, I was used to women falling all over themselves to climb into my bed. No one knew who I was here. It was terrifying. And refreshing. I didn't know what I was doing but at least I knew where I stood. "You're still the nice one. I just push your buttons."

  She shook her head, spreading her cream cheese across her bagel and staring out at the ocean. "You don't." She tipped her head to the side, considering, and her hair caught the weak light and shimmered like gold. "You did. But not anymore. Something changed."

  Yeah. She'd barreled into my heart like a wrecking ball.

  "I'm sorry for what I said. That wasn't right."

  I shrugged. "I can see why you think that. It's not true, but I can see why you said it."

  "It's not true?"

  "No. I think with Navi, it was more that I was competing with Alec. I thought I could be better than he was and it consumed me. It had very little to do with Navi herself."

  "You two are horrible roommates."

  "Yeah. So much worse than Reese and Terrie," I shot back. She hid a grin and brushed sand off her feet. "You guys have never fought over a guy?"

  She rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. I mean, not me and of course not Navi, but Reese and Terrie do it all the time. They're so volatile for each other and yet, they balance each other out. Terrie needs Reese's control and Reese needs Terrie's wildness. Can you say that about your house?"

  "No. We don't spend enough time together to balance anything. Even before Navi showed up, Alec worked all the time and I had different friends. We just share an apartment."
/>
  "Alec and I used to be really close in high school. I was the one who introduced him to Navi. I thought I was the greatest friend in the world. Until I wasn't." Her face fell, pain tightening her eyes.

  "Hey." I brushed her hair off her shoulder and waited until she looked up at me. "You saw what you saw. What were you supposed to believe?"

  "Navi," she said softly. "I should have believed Navi."

  Alec had told me about that night, how he knew Navi was with many different guys, almost every night. How he'd finally dragged Konstanz with him because he was praying someone would tell him he was wrong. And she hadn't been able to. That was when they'd broken up the first time. History had repeated itself recently but this time, Konstanz was firmly on Navi's side.

  I didn't know what to think. Navi didn't seem the type to hook up with random guys multiple times a night. But she was gone so much and Alec had been adamant about what he saw. And Navi had refused to defend herself.

  Which almost made her seem more innocent in my eyes, but what did I know?

  "You're the most loyal friend I've ever met, Konstanz. You can't judge yourself based on what you did in high school. We all made stupid choices as teenagers. What matters is how you act now, and I've never seen a better best friend."

  She blushed, tracing patterns in the sand. "I'm trying."

  "We're lucky to have you, Konstanz. All of us."

  Her eyes widened as she raised her head and dammit, I knew I'd decided to take it slow but it was like my body moved toward her and my brain started to object but failed. Failed miserably. "If I kiss you, are you going to run away again?"

  So close. Her lips, soft and full, parted as if to answer, but no words escaped past them. Only a soft sigh that nearly made me weak. So weak. I brushed my forehead across her forehead, against her cheek, my mouth dangerously close to her long, slender neck. "Konstanz—"

  If she told me to stop, my entire body might implode, but I would respect that. For her, I would.

  I smoothed her hair back with my fingertips, relishing the softness against my fingers. Softer than the waves that lapped at our feet. "Konstanz," I said again, breathing her name. Still, she didn't deny me.

  So afraid I'd scare her away again that my hand shook, I tipped her chin up and my mouth met hers. I'd meant to be gentle, but an urgency, an electricity I hadn't expected rode through me and my lips devoured hers. Time froze, the waves slid back, and I kissed her for minutes, hours, I didn't know. I just knew I didn't want to stop.

  My tongue parted her lips and I delved into her mouth, heart thundering in my chest. I slid my arm around her and laid her back into the sand, cradling her head in the palm of my hand. Her fingers slid up my arm, tracing patterns against my skin and sending heat flaring through me with every touch.

  I was lost.

  The waves enveloped my feet, soaked my shoes, tugged at our blanket but I barely noticed. Nothing existed but Konstanz. Her lips, her skin, her touch. It wasn't until her phone buzzed in the sand next to her that I was broken from the spell she'd put me under.

  "Oh crap. School! I have class in five minutes!" She sat up, nearly toppled over reaching for her phone, and shut off the alarm. "Can you take me to school?"

  I wanted to beg her to skip class, to stay with me and continue what we'd started, but she worked too hard for that. "Of course," I said instead and pulled her to her feet. She landed against my chest and her entire body swayed toward me as she rose on her toes to meet my lips again. My arms tightened around her, holding her there, molding her soft curves to my body.

  "I really have to go," she murmured against my mouth with her eyes still closed.

  I made some unintelligible noise and held her tighter.

  Her phone buzzed, more angry than usual and she sighed, leaning back to eye it in annoyance. "Reese."

  Of course it was Reese. The woman ran their apartment with an iron fist.

  "Why aren't you on campus yet? I saved you a seat but you've got, like, two minutes to get here."

  Konstanz broke away from me and started gathering our things and I helped not because I wanted her to leave, but because I didn't want her to do it alone. "I'm on my way. I might be a bit late."

  "Fine. Hurry up."

  Konstanz hung up and peeked up at me through her hair. "I don't know what just happened."

  "I do. Reese barreled in and destroyed paradise," I tried to joke but it came out weakly.

  "Yeah but—but I don't—I'm scared, Bryson."

  That I hadn't been expecting and I nearly dropped the blanket I was holding. "Scared?"

  "I don't want to get hurt," she whispered. "Boyfriends seem to equal pain."

  I almost, almost stupidly pointed out that just because I'd kissed her didn't mean we were together. But I'd made that mistake before with the falling for her thing and it hadn't ended well, so I just took her hand and brought her knuckles to my lips. "Then we'll take it slow while you figure out what you want. You won't have to claim me until you're ready, okay?"

  Her mouth twitched and one eyebrow raised. "Claim you?"

  "As your boyfriend. I'll wait. I'm patient."

  Konstanz laughed. "I didn't know patient was even in your vocabulary."

  Eight

  Konstanz

  I dumped my bag on my bed and eyed Navi dubiously. "Whatcha doin' there?"

  Navi sat cross legged on her own bed, two dummy swords and what I could only assume was a dummy axe spread out in front of her. She grinned despite the exhaustion and practically bounced, which seemed to take too much of her very little energy. "Ready for your training?"

  Oh, right. My training. Because she said the streets were dangerous and instead of a gun or a stronger Taser to defend myself, my best friend thought swords would do the trick.

  More proof that she was, in fact, a monster hunter, although in every TV show, movie or book I've ever read, monster hunters are taller than 5'4".

  "Sure…"

  She wrinkled her nose at my lack of enthusiasm and I could see why she had guys falling at her feet. Yes, Navi was gorgeous, with those huge brown eyes and thick mermaid hair, but she was adorable, too. Gorgeous caught their attention, but adorable held them there. "It will be fun. You're always saying you need more cardio and —" She froze, eyeing me. "What happened?"

  "What? When?" I pulled my hair up because it seemed like long hair would get tangled in my sword and that didn't sound good for my hair health at all.

  She pushed herself off the bed and stalked toward me, searching my face. "Something happened. Something changed. Who did you kiss?"

  I squeaked. Damn, but her instincts were insane.

  "What—what makes you say that?" I stammered, turning my back on her so I could search for an elastic on my dresser.

  "Bryson? Did Bryson kiss you?" The pitch of her voice rose with each word. "I knew it! I knew he wasn't such a player!"

  "I think him kissing me proves that he is, in fact, a player," I grumbled. When I turned back to her, the aforementioned brown eyes were sparkling.

  "No. Only if he ran out and kissed someone else. Which he didn't because he was at his apartment while I was sleeping and he was organizing his CD collection the entire time."

  I raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

  Navi shrugged, picking up the swords and hefting them in her hand like it was a completely natural thing to do. "I couldn't sleep. Who does that, by the way?"

  "Not sleep? Insomniacs."

  She rolled her eyes. "Organizes a CD collection for three hours straight."

  "Bryson. Remember that first night we were there?"

  Navi snickered. He was very particular about his music. Some might say OCD, but I wouldn't go that far. Although he'd just spent three hours on it, so…

  "My point is, he's not a player."

  "I don't think that necessarily cuts him out of the player category. We need more time."

  There was a knock at the door which startled us both. I dropped the elastic I held but Nav
i caught it—with the tip of her sword.

  While I gaped at her, she grinned and skipped off, swords and axe in hand, to answer the door. "Bryson," she said loudly from the other room. "What a nice surprise. We were just talking about you."

  My pulse sped up and I hurriedly finished tying my hair up. One kiss and this was how I reacted? I hadn't been able to focus in class. I might as well have stayed on that beach and kissed him for the rest of the day.

  I would have enjoyed that.

  "Hey, Navi. Is Konstanz here?"

  His voice sent delicious shivers up my spine and I cursed myself for being an idiot at the same time I nearly killed myself trying to get out to the living room without tripping over Navi's swords. "Navi!" I sputtered. "We don't leave weapons in the middle of the hallway!"

  There's a sentence I never thought I'd say.

  She managed to look half-sheepish. "Sorry. I thought it would be weird to answer the door with an axe in my hand."

  Bryson met my eyes, a smile playing around his mouth and my whole insides turned to mush.

  One kiss.

  I mean, it was a long kiss, but still.

  "Hey."

  "Hi," I responded brilliantly because my head was swimming and little imaginary hearts were floating around my face.

  "So. Training?" Navi asked, swinging the door shut behind him. "Bryson, it would be good for you to know, too."

  "Training?" Bryson finally dragged that light blue gaze off me and it felt like it left a trail of fire across my skin.

  Well. This was just ridiculous.

  "Yes." Navi swooped down and scooped up the swords. "Konstanz promised."

  I wasn't entirely positive I'd promised, but I'm pretty sure I had agreed. When Bryson turned incredulously toward me, I could only shrug. "It's a dangerous world out there."

  "Then get a gun!"

  "Guns won't do anything," Navi said solemnly. "It has to be swords."

  Bryson shook his head in confusion as he met my eyes again. "What kind of bad guys are we fighting?"