Burning in a Memory

by Constance Sharper

  “You’re crazy,” he laughed.

  “And you’re being lame. Live a little!”

  “I didn’t say I wouldn’t get in,” he added but didn’t budge.

  She knew that like her, he had no suit. The time had come to see how shy Adam actually was, she realized. Adelaide struggled with the urge to catcall at him.

  “Just for the record, I don’t want you telling anyone that this was my idea,” he commented.

  She didn’t answer at first, opting instead to watch him pull the tee over his head. The distinction of his muscles from rock-climbing extended beyond his arms and to his abdomen. The muscles were defined from real labor and not iron pumping at the gym. His pants ran low on his hips. She averted her eyes politely when he got the shirt over his head. He pulled off the khakis and hopped into the water before she could sneak a peek.

  “Oh, I’m definitely going to tell them I was swimming around half naked with you,” she said and shook her head at the thought.

  “Could you imagine what would happen if the twins got a hold of that information? I wasn’t kidding about the lack of privacy in this house. ”

  She waded backward and enjoyed the feeling of warm water. Adam had chosen his corner, but if she moved freely, he might follow in suit.

  “It’s been ten years since my coven owned this place and I’ve never swam here before,” he confessed. His attention drifted up to the break in the tunnel over their heads. She followed his gaze but couldn’t see the stars.

  “We’ll work on you being a little bit more spontaneous then. This was a good first step,” she commented.

  “Okay,” he laughed. She beckoned him to swim closer. He did, but still stayed farther away than she would have liked.

  “Sorry my coven was giving you trouble about that earlier. Asking about whether or not you had a boyfriend.”

  She snapped her fingers in the air.

  “I knew there was a rumor going around.”

  “They just like to gossip. I won’t lie and say I didn’t entertain it a little because I was wondering why you didn’t have a boyfriend. I thought it was both awesome and strange that you could just pick up and come here for the weekend.”

  She glowered. She hated that question but always had a good answer.

  “If it’s so weird that I don’t have a boyfriend, then why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

  Adam never should have found it difficult to find a woman. Tall, built, and handsome, the fact that he had a sweet personality beneath it was almost overkill.

  “It’s hard to find a girl who can understand the fact that I’m a mage with shades out to attack me. I can’t count the girls on two hands who have run away after finding out how I live.”

  He sounded overly morose about it so she gave him a blinding smile.

  “Well it’s okay, because I’m not going to run away.”

  Adam went quiet for a moment.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” he insisted.

  “Hey, your family already went off on me and I’m still happy to be here. It’s amazing in this place. Nice water, moonlight, complete and spontaneous freedom…”

  Adam clearly wasn’t buying it. He sunk under the water for a minute until he resurfaced for air. Shaking the water from his hair, he splashed Adelaide even half the pool away. Suddenly finished with the distance between them, she swam closer. By the time he turned from his task, she already grabbed his shoulders and drew him closer. Holding onto him to stay above the water, she left barely half an inch between them.

  “Did I mention spontaneous?” she whispered.

  Adam cupped her face.

  “Adelaide, I don’t know,” he said.

  She gave him the cutest pout she could manage.

  “You know you want to kiss me,” she drew out the last two words to an obnoxious length, but once she said it, she knew she was right. Adam set his back against the pool’s wall and twisted his arms around her waist. The skin-to-skin contact set her nerves on fire and generated heat between them, contrasting the water. He kissed her lightly on the chin, dodging her lips.

  “I do,” he said. With a single kiss on the lips, he broke away again. “I would love to...” He kissed her cheek this time. “...but I don’t want to make it difficult, all things considered.”

  Frustrated of his dodging, she planted her lips on his and effectively silenced him. She placed her hands on his hips where the fabric of his boxers did little to conceal the ridges of his body. Adam broke away again.

  “I’m serious. I think we should slow down until my life normalizes a bit,” he said.

  “What’s gotten into you? You can’t be serious,” she tried to laugh but Adam pushed back a bit. This time she paid more attention to his face. His chin tilted down, his eyes averted from her, and a frown tugged at his lips. She stiffened and Adam let her go. Forced to swim backward, she reached the opposite wall and held onto it.

  Far away from him now, the heat spell between them was broken. Able to think clearly now, she watched him carefully as he spoke. He looked less and less comfortable by the second.

  “You’re awesome, Adelaide, but I think we should wait. You’ll be leaving soon and I don’t know when I’ll be back in Denver. I don’t know when my life will be normal, and you won’t want to put up with this chaos every day. If my life is okay, one day, then we can try it then and I think we’ll be in a better place to make it work,” he said so quietly that she barely heard him.

  Adelaide took a breath and carefully calculated her answer.

  “You’re making this overly complicated. Let happen what may and if it’s meant to work out, then it’ll work out.”

  He hopped out of the water and she officially lost him. She swam to the edge where he perched but he got up and grabbed their clothes.

  “I wish you could have met me at a better time. I wish you could have met my brother,” he said.

  Adelaide nailed her fingers on the ledge as she grabbed for it. Wincing, she forced herself to slow down.

  “Your brother?” she asked, desperate to sound simply curious.

  “He was the unquestioned leader of our coven. When he was around, we were always safe. We had lives, we had dreams, and we all got along. When he left we didn’t really know what to do and were back in danger. That’s why Tony and I bash heads so much—we can’t figure out how to work together. He’s trying to control the coven. That’s why he hates you so much—you’re here against his wishes and that means he’s not in charge.”

  He returned to the side of the pool and handed her clothes. She accepted them long enough to set them back on the damp floor. Adam met her gaze again as if he was desperate for her to understand. She tried.

  “But what happened to your brother exactly? If you don’t know where he is, then why did he leave?”

  Adam shook his head disapprovingly.

  “He likes to run free. He won’t come back until he wants to, despite how many times I’ve asked him to do so. When he comes back though, I’m convinced things will be good again.”

  She climbed out of the pool, completely aware about how the light hit her now. She wrung out her hair but left her body wet and the clothes ignored. Taking a few small steps toward him, she smiled.

  “I believe you. I’d love to stick around and meet him. Then we can make it work.”

  When he backpedaled, she slipped forward and leaned into his chest again. His dry shirt would now be wet all over again, but she didn’t care. He felt hot in the cold breeze. Adam held her only for a second.

  “You can’t wait that long, Adelaide. You have to get the rest of your life back… Besides, Charlotte is already coming here in a day and a half to pick you up.”

  What he said equated to the one thing she was more concerned about and that was being able to stick around in his life. Then he let her go.

  “No, she shouldn’t! It’s dangerous. I thought it was dangerous enough for your coven to have to be out here.”

  “Weaker m
ages have weaker auras and aren’t big targets. It will be the only time she’s coming. That’s why you have to leave then.”

  Her blood pounded in her ears so loudly, she struggled to hear him.

  “Let me stay longer,” she said. “I don’t want to go home or I might never see you again. Don’t let that happen—just let me stay longer.”

  His expression turned to steel.

  “Come on, let’s go back to the house,” he said.

  Adelaide whirled to face the opposite wall. Her emotions threatened to spiral out of control so she distracted herself by throwing her clothes back on. They hung awkwardly and she trailed water, but she didn’t care. When she turned back to Adam, he held his hand out as an offering.

  “I’m sorry, Adelaide.”

  Hearing the waver in his voice made her accept his hand. They walked back to the house in silence.

  Thirteen

  The red hues of sunlight raked along the ceiling as dawn broke. Despite being exhausted, she couldn’t sleep with her nerves riding so high. Rolling over in bed, she buried her cheek against the feather pillow, finding her efforts unsuccessful. The incident in the tunnel refused to leave her mind and she hated herself for it. Adelaide was better than that. She should have been better than that. She should have had the perfect words, the perfect smile, and the perfect thing to convince Adam to allow her to stay.

  With another miserable groan, she spied the clock in her room. It was still close to five a.m., an ungodly hour for anyone, but she wasn’t going to make it until a more appropriate one. When Adelaide sat up, she still couldn’t think of anything to say to Adam. She didn’t know how to convince him without blowing her cover. If she didn’t convince him, she’d blow her only chance.

  The neon blue lights of the digital clock clicked over another digit. Then she heard the footsteps in the hall. Struggling to hear better, she held her breath. The footsteps continued, padding up the rugged stairs, until they reached the third floor. She threw the sheets to the floor and freed her legs.

  Her nightgown was sheer and transparent but she didn’t care. The footsteps arrived in the hall and, without another moment of hesitation, she rushed to the door and yanked it open. The overhead lights in the hall were dim and only the sunlight from the window illuminated the place. She saw him standing in the corner.

  “Adam,” she called. “I need to talk to you.”

  She didn’t know about what, but the dread in her mind lessened when she spoke to him. He stayed quiet. Her fingers fumbled for the light until she pounded the switch closest to the door. The fluorescents flickered above her head.

  He stood there without his trademark dimples, without his smile, and without a familiar face. She did a double take. He looked so much like Adam, but then he wasn’t.

  “Hi, I’m glad to see you,” he said.

  It struck Adelaide hard. She fell back a step and froze in place. She sized him up again. Adam didn’t stand in front of her. With a lankier body, thinner physic, and more hollowed face, it never could have been Adam. He was similar enough, though, that she could mix up the two in a sleep-deprived haze. Leon Colton stood in the hallway and for all the time she looked for him, Adelaide couldn’t remember how to react.

  “I’d love to talk. It’s been so long. But there’s a nasty shade downstairs, and I don’t want to leave him alone,” he said.

  He bounded down the hall. When Adelaide remembered how to move, she grabbed madly for her egg-shaped pendant. Clasping it to her chest, she nearly broke it when the crash sounded from downstairs. The entire building frame trembled.

  “Damn it, five minutes! Five minutes is too much to ask for, huh?” She heard Leon call.

  Adelaide forced her body to move. The hall was empty, meaning Leon was already downstairs. Her fingers curled around her pendant again and she took a deep breath. The crashing continued and the deafening sounds finally drove her forward. She reached the stairs and dashed down the steps.

  The second sight of Leon made her freeze again, just like the first. Her bare feet slid on the last step so she grabbed the banister to stop. Feathers and torn red fabric littered the ground along with the glinting of broken glass. Few lights illuminated the bottom floor, but the glow successfully lit the main foyer.

  Leon breezed into the room and his boots crunched loudly over the broken glass. Instead of taking him in the second time, she noticed instead the limp figure he carried over his shoulder. Her heart dropped into her stomach. Leon walked down the hallway connected to the living room and disappeared. Her feet started to move before her courage caught up, and she followed him down the hall. At the end of it, an open door revealed a set of golden-lit stairs and a basement floor.

  “Stop moving, stop moving, stop moving,” Leon kept repeating the same mantra.

  Adelaide followed his voice straight into the basement. Leon stood in the corner but never acknowledged her presence. The other figure had been mounted on a chair, and the man regained some dexterity. He threw the mad mat of his hair back out of his face and revealed the pale skin beneath.

  Adelaide recognized what she was looking at. The porcelain skin defined by cracked marks, the shadowed eyes, and the subtle red coloring around the iris. Horror seized her when she realized she was looking at a shade.

  “He’s bound, don’t worry, he won’t be getting up!” Leon suddenly announced.

  The shade shifted, yanking at his restraints as if to confirm Leon’s theory. After a long minute, the shade finally settled down and stared up at them instead. Leon left the corner and almost skipped over to the steps. Adelaide backpedaled to put a berth between them, but never ran from the basement.

  “Little bit of magic I learned from the last time these suckers got me. I’ll have to teach you sometime,” he said with a laugh. Leon’s hand came out as if to offer her assistance down to the floor. Adelaide didn’t accept it. Arms wrapped around her abdomen, she stayed put.

  Leon blinked a few times as if he questioned her inaction.

  “You didn’t miss me? I missed you,” he said more quietly.

  “Leon Colton?” she suddenly asked. She’d never met him before, never seen his face in person, or heard his voice before—outside the resemblance of his brother. Yet he spoke with excitement and absolute conviction. He held his hand out again, as if she hadn’t seen it the first time.

  “Do you know who I am?” she asked this time, and her voice came out surprisingly steady.

  “How could I forget you?” Leon said and abruptly closed the distance between them. She hurried to get up the stairs but he seized her arms and pulled her back to the floor. And then he kissed her.

  She barely felt it. He suddenly released her.

  “Don’t you remember me?” he asked as soon as he pulled away. Clear conflict overwhelmed his face. She mustered the courage to speak.

  “We’ve never met before, Leon,” she said more calmly than she felt.

  He erratically blinked. He dropped back a step. Then in seconds, he whirled to face the corner of the room.

  “Kathy?” he whispered.

  “My name is Adelaide. Did Adam tell you about me?” she asked.

  Leon’s hand slapped his own forehead hard and he muttered incoherently. When she couldn’t understand, Adelaide’s first impulse was to run. The shade barely sat a few feet away and twitched every other second. Her nerves rode high, but she suddenly steeled herself. She realized she stood here with Leon alone. No one else in the coven had made an appearance or even threatened to do so. She hadn’t pictured it like this but it fell in her lap like a miracle.

  “I don’t know,” Leon suddenly moaned. He turned on her again and his chin dropped. “You’re bleeding.”

  Adelaide twitched. She felt her feet sting as soon as he said it. Her face dropped to the bloody scratches all over her feet. Broken glass glinted as it had embedded in her skin. Leon returned to her side and, quicker than he looked, he seized her elbows again. He led her to a chair and she plopped down into it
without a fight.

  “You need to wrap this,” Leon said, falling onto his knees. She stared at him and watched every tiny movement he made.

  “Where is everyone else? Did you do something to them?”

  Leon flinched violently at her question. That’s when the clatter from above answered it both for them. Adam and Tony bounded down the stairs with a thunderous boom. The shade hissed from the center of the room, but Tony went for Leon first. He tore him back by the shoulders until they both stumbled back. Adam crashed into Adelaide next and she lost sight of the others.

  “Come here,” he said as he grabbed her around the waist. Adam lifted her with ease and hurried upstairs. He kicked open a door in the hall and loosened his grip. Her hands met his chest and she pushed hard enough for him to drop her. Finding her own footing, she braced herself and held her arms out.

  “What’s going on?” she yelled. “What was that?”

  “Please, just wait here,” Adam blurted. He slipped passed her enough to open a door. “Wait in my room, please.”

  “Adam,” she demanded, unmoving. All of his muscles visibly taunt, his aura flailing mad colors, she knew he was equally as tense. Stealing a desperate breath, she curled her arms around her chest.

  “Am I safe, Adam?” she finally asked.

  His face flashed with hurt.

  “I’ll make sure you’re safe. I just want to make sure my brother is okay. I know it’s hard to understand right now but he’s been very sick. He hasn’t been himself.”

  She nodded without much convincing, having seen the evidence with her own eyes. It didn’t quash the anxiety, but she let Adam go. He left without another word and she obediently stayed in his room.

  Dropping onto the bed, Adelaide lifted her bloodied feet to get a better look at them. She felt the distinctive burn, but the visible observation of the scrapes didn’t look as severe as they felt. Spotting a pile of towels stacked on the dresser, she picked out the darkest color and wrapped her feet in it. The makeshift bandage might not have been tight but it would keep the blood from staining the carpet.