Ember (The Ember Series)

by Carol Oates

  “Woof,” Lofi responded sarcastically.

  Ivy chuckled, and for a fraction of a second, Ananchel’s cool exterior dropped—she was positively enraged.

  “Later, pup,” she snapped.

  “Hmm, if I’m a pup, I guess that would make you a bitch, wouldn’t it?” Lofi bit back with a smirk.

  “I shall enjoy getting to know you,” Ananchel purred toward Candra and ran her tongue lazily across her top lip. “Make sure to send my love to Sebastian,” she added to Lofi before she sashayed away, her hips gracefully snaking side to side.

  They watched her retreat and disappear around the corner. The sea of blue uniforms had shrunk to a slow trickle, and Father Patrick looked like he was debating making his way over. Lofi blew out a gust of air from her pursed lips before turning around.

  “Are you both okay?”

  Candra glanced over her shoulder to see Ivy nod, her mouth slack, clearly confounded about what had just transpired.

  “Okay? Now you have to tell me what’s going on,” Candra demanded strongly.

  Lofi’s eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.

  Candra’s stomach twisted into what was beginning to feel like yet another tight knot. “I’m serious. I want to…what are you wearing?”

  Lofi spun as gracefully as a ballerina, modeling the Saint Francis uniform she was proudly sporting. “Do you like it? I wasn’t sure about the color on me, but I think it works.”

  Father Patrick was almost within speaking distance.

  “No, I don’t like it,” Candra replied curtly. “And what’s it doing on you?”

  Candra was still body blocking Ivy, who stood on her toes to look over Candra’s shoulder. “I’m Ivy, by the way.”

  Lofi smiled widely and curtsied, holding the edges of her skirt. “Lofi. It’s my first day.”

  Candra suspected Lofi exaggerated the movement just because she knew it would rile her.

  “I guess you like the uniform then,” Ivy commented with a teasing smirk.

  “For what? School? You can’t be serious.” Candra was aghast, thinking this whole thing was slowing turning into a nightmare and she was being stalked from all angles.

  “Are you planning to join us today, ladies?” Father Patrick asked sternly. As soon as Lofi turned her attention to him, his light blue eyes sparkled. Father Patrick’s eyes never sparkled. He was the hardest of all the priests and nuns teaching at Saint Francis. After working in foreign mission during his early life, he had no time for what he blatantly referred to as cosseted students attending private college. “Ah, you must be Lofial Duarte,” he stated rather than asked.

  Lofi’s lips spread to a shy grin as she swayed side to side, still holding onto her skirt. Candra compared it to a six-year-old putting on a display of politeness for an elder, or a newly acquired stalker enjoying getting under her skin. “Yes, Father, I was on my way in when I met my friend, Candra.”

  Candra shot daggers in her direction only to be nudged by Ivy, who had clearly already been won over.

  “Lofial…an unusual name.”

  “Yes, Father.”

  He studied her appraisingly. “Let’s hope you live up to it.”

  Lofial? Where have I heard that name before? Candra asked herself.

  “Okay, ladies, don’t dawdle. And Candra, since you already know each other, maybe you could show Lofial around today.”

  “What?” Candra muttered.

  “We both will,” Ivy added, linking her arm through Candra’s and then Lofi’s.

  “Yes, well…” Father Patrick didn’t need to finish saying what he was thinking about leaving Lofi in Ivy’s hands. Ivy and Candra both knew it had to do with her ungrounded reputation as a bad girl; Ivy was as innocent as new snow.

  Her family didn’t have as much money as most of the kids attending Saint Francis, but they wanted the best for Ivy. Candra and Ivy had become friends during their first day of school. A couple of kids that thought of themselves as “mean girls” had stolen Ivy’s crayons, and she’d been crying. Candra had seen what happened and had stomped right over there, snatched the crayons, and told the girls that if they wanted Ivy, they’d have to go through her first. They hadn’t liked someone standing up to them, but she hadn’t been afraid. She’d given Ivy back her crayons and taken the seat beside her. They’d been best friends ever since then.

  Ivy nudged Candra, bringing her back to the present, and they walked toward school with Father Patrick close behind.

  Candra grunted under her breath toward Lofi, who was practically skipping toward the door. “This is stupid. What are you doing?” Her voice was a pitch higher than normal because of the situation. “You must be what twenty-two, twenty-three? You’re too old to be a student here.”

  Lofi stopped skipping immediately, and her expression shifted toward wounded. “There are thirty-year-olds playing students in the movies these days, and you don’t think I pass for eighteen?”

  Candra’s eyebrows came together in a scowl. The sadness on Lofi’s face seemed wrong somehow, as if it were unnatural to her, and Candra groaned, reluctantly giving in.

  They passed through the door, back into a sea of blue, and made their way to the lockers, where Father Patrick left them, continuing down the hall. Lofi opened the locker next to Candra’s.

  “I’m not even going to ask.” She rolled her eyes and thought about the mousey little thing that previously owned that locker.

  Lofi beamed a smile. “That’s the attitude.”

  Once they had gotten out their books—which little to Candra’s surprise, Lofi already seemed to have mysteriously available to her—Candra reached over and closed Lofi’s locker door. “Just one question: why are you really here?”

  Lofi hesitated, biting the inside of her cheek. “It’s all girls here.”

  Candra scrutinized her guarded expression, but she didn’t appear to be giving anything away. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”

  “Sebastian asked me to. He’s worried for you.”

  Candra nodded slowly; there was no way she was going to believe that. “Right…so worried he ran when trouble showed up.”

  The bell chimed, signaling the time they had to move toward their first lecture. Candra started to move toward the hall, but a hand with a cast iron grip locked around her upper arm, stopping her. Her head spun to see Lofi looking unusually serious and up close, no more than three inches from her face. Lofi’s eyes flashed with gold sparks when she blinked. She was beautiful and fierce, a real force to be reckoned with.

  “Don’t be so harsh on him, Candra,” she began gravely. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “You know what Ananchel is capable of, except she didn’t hold back with Sebastian the way she did with you. It really messed with his head.”

  Candra gulped, and her cheeks flamed a burning red. Her throat constricted, cutting off every word she could think to say. The tingles, the fingers brushing tantalizingly under her skin, the euphoria so sweet she passed out…that was holding back? She couldn’t help wondering what Ananchel had done to Sebastian.

  “Oh,” Candra groaned, realizing it was probably more a case of done with rather than done to.

  “You have no concept of how far Sebastian has gone to keep you safe, or how far he is willing to go. Ananchel would have taken him down just for kicks. He couldn’t help you; that doesn’t mean he didn’t want to.”

  Ivy bounced up behind them, and Lofi released Candra, seeming herself again, although Candra was still a little stunned. Smiling brightly, Lofi fell into step with them to their first lecture together.

  “This will be such a novelty. It’s been an age since I’ve been to school,” Lofi gushed.

  Lofi stayed glued to Candra’s side all morning, despite never offering her a satisfactory explanation for being there, and protested that school was “so much fun” whenever Ivy or Candra complained about a lecture or even homework.

  “That’s going too far,” Candra scolded her during lunch. “You can�
�t possibly like homework.”

  The cafeteria was crowded with students huddled and chattering at small round tables and eating from the self-service buffet.

  “Why not? I get to read, write reports, and figure out puzzles. What’s not to love?”

  “Puzzles?” Ivy asked, bemused, while pushing cubes of cucumber around her plate. Her eyes flickered up and glanced at Lofi, whose eyes never strayed far from Candra.

  Candra knew Ivy was watching Lofi watch her and was still trying to figure out what was going on. Candra couldn’t help with an explanation; Lofi was as evasive as Sebastian and Brie had been over the last few days. Any questions about why they were here or what was going on were met with questions about school, music, books—anything to distract from the original subject.

  “Calculus,” Candra offered Ivy, looking up again from the newspaper where she was reading about the escalating rate of muggings in the city.

  Ivy switched her attention to her smoothie, sucking it up with a slurping noise that made the uptown girls glower in her direction. She ignored them completely and stared down at Lofi with raised eyebrows. “Candra’s right. You’re going too far now. No one likes calculus.”

  “I do,” Lofi countered, curiously examining one of the lumpy French fries from her lunch by holding it in front of her face between two fingers and prodding it with her fork.

  “You are seriously out there.” Ivy laughed humorlessly.

  Lofi dropped the fry and lifted her face to Ivy. “Thanks.” She flashed her usual full grin, taking Ivy’s comment as a compliment.

  Candra laughed at Ivy’s mystified expression, thinking maybe it wouldn’t be so bad having Lofi around after all. At the very least it would be amusing.

  The rest of the day passed quickly. Lofi wasn’t challenged by any of the subjects they covered—at least as far as Candra could see—only curious. She raised her hand more than anyone else to ask questions, and a couple of times to correct the lecturer.

  “You’d think she’s never been to school before,” Ivy observed quietly to Candra before she left them at her usual corner to go home.

  Lofi addressed Candra’s concern before she even had a chance to verbalize it. “She’ll be fine. There will be someone looking out for Ivy. Ananchel won’t get anywhere near her.” Then, to her utter surprise, Lofi turned away to cross the street. “And I haven’t been to school in a while, not for a long while actually.”

  “Hey, where are you going?” Candra called after her.

  Lofi passed a group of four young men hanging out outside a comic book store and muttering among themselves. One of them winked, acting all cocky until she winked back making him back down, looking downright shy. She had an odd effect on men, Candra observed without any real surprise.

  “Day shift is over. The evening shift has arrived,” Lofi answered happily.

  “Evening shift?” Candra echoed to herself, watching Lofi practically dancing away.

  Candra didn’t know if she was supposed to go somewhere. Or was she supposed to wait? There wasn’t much around: the avenue she was on was mainly older residential. The only business on the tree-lined street was from the comic book store, the small coffee shop, and a doctor’s office with a loudly squeaking sign hung outside, directing patients into the basement of one of the tall houses.

  Despite it being one of the nicer areas, she wasn’t about to stand around and end up a victim of one of the muggers she had been reading about earlier. Or even worse, what if Ananchel showed up again? At least with a mugger she could fight back. She turned around, deciding to head for home, and crashed straight into Sebastian’s very solid chest.

  “Hello.”

  Candra was knocked so breathless it was a struggle to manage a muted “hi.”

  Sebastian’s eyes lowered, and she followed his line of sight to his chest where her hands were pressed against his white T-shirt, her fingers slightly bent. She could feel heat of his skin radiate through the thin fabric and penetrate her fingertips. Still, it took a couple of seconds before she could move. Sebastian had that effect on females, much like the effect Lofi had had on the guys a few moments ago.

  “Sorry.” She cringed when he had to wrap his long fingers around one of her hands and then the other to remove them from his body. “I didn’t see you.”

  “You’re not very observant, are you?” he quipped dryly.

  Candra flinched away from the touch of his bare skin on hers and the tingles it made erupt in the pit of her stomach. “I’m plenty observant. Thanks.”

  Sebastian let out an exasperated sigh. “Hmm, yeah, whatever. It wasn’t a conversation starter.” He took her bag from her shoulder without asking and added it to his with one hand. In the other he carried a faded brown leather jacket clamped between his fingers. He didn’t tell Candra to follow him or even check to see if she was still with him when he walked away; he seemed to simply presume she would be, and she was.

  “Where’s Brie?”

  “A meeting,” he replied without looking at her.

  “A meeting?”

  “A meeting,” he repeated.

  “With who?” Candra had to take some quick steps to keep up with his long strides. She wanted to see his face when he answered.

  “An old friend,” he said, taking her by the elbow to cross the street, looking up and down for traffic before guiding her the way a grown up would do with a child or an old person.

  Candra stared up at the vein standing out from the lightly golden skin on his neck as they crossed. She supposed tension or anxiety caused it and surmised from it that something was bothering him. Her eyes tightened. “You don’t have meetings with friends. You have lunch dates, dinner dates…coffee.”

  His lips pressed together in a hard line, and his shoulders tightened. The muscle in his jaw flexed. “Do you really need to go on?”

  “I could,” Candra snapped defiantly.

  “I’m sure.”

  “What is it about me that you don’t like?”

  They had come to the gates of the small park she always cut through to get home from college.

  “What makes you think I don’t like you?” Sebastian didn’t as much as glance at her sideways when he spoke. “Or that I think one way or the other about you at all?”

  “Call it women’s intuition,” Candra said dryly.

  “Women’s intuition?” He snickered. “You’re not exactly what I’d call a woman, little girl.”

  Candra bit her tongue, choosing to ignore the bait. There weren’t many people around the park; it was mainly used as a shortcut through a city block. There weren’t even any trees inside its boundary fence, just a few bushes, one of the many angel monuments scattered across the city. The nearest one to them had its hands clasped in prayer and looked to the sky as if it was waiting for something. A narrow pathway wound through the grass and past a collection of boulders that didn’t look like they belonged there. They could have been some trendy form of modern art, except they had been there so long some of the stone had been worn smooth from people sitting on them.

  Candra took a deep breath, hoping she wasn’t starting a conversation she couldn’t take back. She wanted answers so badly she could taste them, but at the same time, somewhere in the back of her mind, she considered the possibility Sebastian could tell her things she didn’t want to know.

  “In the hospital, I thought you were dangerous. I thought you were there to hurt me, but it wasn’t like that at all, was it?”

  It took a moment for her to notice Sebastian wasn’t beside her anymore. She turned around to see he had stopped dead about five steps behind. He was doing that thing again, where he made her feel he wasn’t looking at her, but rather he was looking through her, as if he could look into her mind and dig out whatever she was thinking. It was unnerving the way his brown eyes darkened intensely. She felt exposed, and she had to fight an urge to cross her arms over her chest, except she refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he could affect her. Unfortun
ately, she couldn’t shake the feeling he already knew.

  He didn’t answer. He wasn’t even moving apart from his impossibly long eyelashes fluttering when he blinked.

  “I make you uncomfortable, don’t I? That’s why you don’t like me,” she suggested in a hushed voice.

  Still he said nothing. An old couple walking past on the pathway had to step around them to get by. The woman glared at both of them in turn, clearly disgruntled by their lack of manners. Candra mused over what they must look like to outsiders: her in her Saint Francis uniform and him looking moody and modelesque, like he’d just stepped off a movie screen and into real life.

  Finally she approached him, bringing herself so close she was looking up to his face. He was taller up close, at least a head over her, so she couldn’t meet his eyes when he looked straight ahead of him, but she tried.

  “Tell me who I am,” she demanded.

  Sebastian looked down to her then, gold and amber flickered in his eyes blazing like a hot coal fire. Candra could see her own reflection in the deep blackness of his pupils and knew she had asked the right question.

  “We didn’t fool you for a second, did we?” Sebastian kept his fiery gaze on her.

  Candra guessed he was about to inadvertently spill the beans on everything. All she had to do was play along.

  “No, you didn’t,” she stated coolly.

  They were so close now she could feel the heat rising from his body. Her heart sped until it was galloping along, and her temperature shot up, mingling with his heat between them. A small muscle twitched at the side of his mouth, and his hand came up to rest on her shoulder. She couldn’t breathe. Even through the cotton of her school shirt, Sebastian’s touch burned her skin.

  Then he did something Candra didn’t expect—not in a million years. Candra couldn’t move. Sebastian was going to kiss her, and she was amazed to realize she wanted him to. All of a sudden her blood was like acid burning through her entire body, and her head felt clouded. She was putty under his hands. It wasn’t like she had a choice; she had to kiss him. Her lips parted in anticipation, her head tilted back, and without conscious decision, her eyes closed.