Inside the Fire Book One in the Warden's Series

by Heather Glidewell

  When I woke up Wesley was not in the bed with me anymore, I struggled into a sitting position and looked around my dark room he was nowhere in sight.

  The house was quiet. I reached for my phone and winced as pain spread through my rib cage. My index finger sparked, and I cursed, of course now everything seemed to be functioning normally.

  It was 3am, I grumbled as my bladder protested. I got up and penguin walked into the bathroom, moving slowly as each step sent sharp pains through my body. Nobody was in the house I could sense it. I suddenly felt fear send prickles up my spin. I sniffed the air but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  It hurt even worse to use the bathroom, I felt like my insides were going to come out. Never had a cried over relieving my objecting bladder.

  “Dawn?” I jumped at my mother’s voice.

  “Yeah.” My voice cracked, my heart was pounding, and I had somehow caught the toilet paper on fire.

  I put out the flames and pulled myself up and shuffled out of the bathroom and into my mother’s warm hug.

  “I talked to your father.” She said putting her cheek to my forehead. “I told him I could take care of it.” She whispered softly. “I got permission if I need to do it.” She sighed. “Where’s Wesley? I asked him to stay with you.”

  “I don’t know I woke up, and he was gone. I assumed that you had come home, and he left.” I said softly willing the pain to cease.

  “His car isn’t here.” She said pulling away from me. “I’m sure he’s fine, he has to deal with what happened in his own way.” She looked at my face and helped me back to my room.

  I laid down as she put the covers over me. “I will stay with you tonight.” She promised taking my hand in hers.

  She started to sing a sad song in Italian, one she used to sing when I was a child. I always loved my mother’s voice; it had a healing power making everything seem as if it would be alright. I closed my eyes and in an instant was back asleep.

  ****

  I don’t know what time she fell asleep, but she had perched herself next to me her head resting against the wall her chest rising and falling as she breathed. It was light outside now. I had managed the last few hours of sleep to be dreamless so I felt a bit more rested after the constant nightmares in the hospital. My mother moved and ran her fingers through my hair.

  “Merry Christmas, my Dawny.” She said softly.

  I smiled at her and welcomed the soft warm hug she gave me before sliding out of bed. I reached over and painfully grabbed my phone I had a missed message from Wesley’s dad.

  Greg: How you feeling?

  I winced, pain shot through my whole body and a blood boiling scream escaped my lips and my body burst into flames.

  “Vater! Es brennt in hier Vater!”

  Another scream ruptured my lungs as my ribs begin to throb, pain like none other seared through my body. My mother came running grabbing my face through the fire pleading for me to make eye contact, willing me to take her hand to let God’s warmth run through me.

  I could hear her I could feel her but I could not do as she demanded. I was frozen the pain had me contorted and crying. Suddenly everything went black!

  “Merry Christmas, Raven Princess. What did you think of my little Christmas present?” That menacing voice with no face.

  "What do you want from me?" I demanded.

  "I want your soul on a platter. I want my Wesley back." She hissed through my head.

  "He will never be yours again." I said my body hurting.

  "Oh but he already is mine again." She laughed.

  My eyes shot open and my mother was holding my hands, the pain was subsiding and I was feeling more and more relaxed. She smiled slowly.

  “Thank God!” She exclaimed her eyes were milky white. They slowly turned back to normal, and she released my hands. “You were calling for your father, screaming how much it burned. I didn’t know what to do once you went out, so I just held on to...” She was interrupted when there was a knock on the door.

  She held up a finger and left the room. I could hear muffled voices from the living room but couldn’t make out the words. I just laid there staring at the ceiling letting the calmness take me. I heard footsteps and suddenly a little twelve year old face appeared at my bed side. Her eyes were shining and on her face was a huge smile as she put a box down on the bed beside me.

  “Melissa.” I breathed so happy to see her. If I could have hugged her I would have got up from my death bed and wrapped my arms around her.

  I looked at the box and reached for it, wincing a little, even though my mother had eased some of the pain she hadn’t eased all of it.

  “I made it.” She stated proud of herself as I ripped the paper from the box. Inside was a charm bracelet.

  I glanced up at her and painfully started to pull it from the box. On the each of the charms was a picture of the three of us, each one depicting another milestone in mine and Wesley’s relationship. I felt warm tears come to my eyes remembering that we had been so happy before all of this shit started to occur. I struggled to put the bracelet on after a few tries I was finally successful.

  “It’s amazing Melissa.” I said reaching for her hands.

  “We are all here. Dad said that since you couldn’t come to our house for the holidays this year we would come to you. Your mom and my dad are putting up a tree right now and Wesley is bringing in all our gifts. We didn’t open them this morning.” She was so giddy just like every girl should be on Christmas morning.

  I heard a cough at the head of my bed and Melissa’s eyes shot up, her smile faded and in its place was an annoyed frown.

  “I know! I know! I have to get out now.” She grumbled as she left the room and my boyfriend appeared in her place. His face looked guilty and the way he walked made me wonder what it was that he had done.

  “How you feeling?” He asked taking a seat next to me.

  “Would have been better if you had been here this morning.” I tried to smile but I couldn’t.

  “I’m sorry I had to deal with some things last night and laying here looking at you and listening to your breath coming out so raspy I just had to get away.” He reached up and touched my cheek. “It was stupid I know. I could only think of was how I could have lost you.”

  “But you didn’t lose me! I’m right here.” His pitiful me speech was enough to make my blood boil and my fingers spark. “I seem to recall that I did not leave your side after we found you beaten bloody in the forest. No matter how much I wanted to run away from the damage it had done to you I stayed.”

  “I know. It was stupid of me to leave you like this last night.” At least he understood that he was being stupid.

  I struggled to sit, to attempt to put my lips to his to let him know that I had forgiven him for his moment of stupidity. He saw me struggling and met me half way cradling me in a way that it was impossible for me to feel any pain.

  When his lips met mine my whole world floated away all I felt was him and me just one spirit, one soul and I felt like nothing else could go wrong.

  ****

  "Dawn!" My mother called as I threw a sheet of wrapping paper at her.

  "What?" I winced as I felt the tenderness in my arm tighten.

  "Here." She handed me another present, and I looked at it with an odd expression.

  My mother and I have a deal every Christmas. We knew the meaning of it and the reason for the season but our deal was that we would do something for the other any time during the next year. We had the money to purchase all sorts of magical gifts. However, neither of us were very materialistic. I never had the need for a Christmas wish. My parents had always taken care of me over the years.

  "What is it?" I asked looking at her.

  "It's something that I thought you would like." She grinned, and I ripped at the paper.

  Inside the small box was set of ruby earrings shaped like skulls. I actually let out a laugh as I showed them to Wesley. He smiled and helped me put them in my
ears.

  "Let me see!" My mother said excited as I painfully posed for her pictures.

  Just when I thought everything was said and done Wesley handed me a box. He had already given me so much over the last few months there was no need for him to do anything else additional. I looked up at him and smiled. Opening the box slowly. Inside was a silver choker. The lettering on the choker is what got me. Wesley+Dawn=Forever.

  Laugh if you must. The gift would be considered quite cheesy for everything going on in my life at this time. However as I have mentioned before I have never been in love before. Every little thing he did for me was something new. Nobody before him had ever done it so I had nothing to compare it to. The gesture was sweet.

  My mom and his father got up to get lunch ready leaving me and him sitting on the couch my legs over his, him holding my hand. Even the thought of moving sent searing pain through my body.

  "Tell me about Miranda?" I asked looking at him. I don't know why I asked honestly this just seemed the best time to do it.

  "How do you know about her?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

  "Your sister managed to give me the name." I squinted at him.

  "Well not much too really tell. She was my girlfriend up until my mother passed away. After that she got all weird on me. Broke up with me for not being on the same level as her. I didn't care though. Honestly she had some massive issues." His eyes shot around the room and his lips kept quivering.

  "What kind of issues?" I asked. I didn't want to push anything.

  "She wanted to rule me not be with me. Caused a lot of problems." His voice faltered. "Why do you suddenly care about my ex? I don't recall ever asking you about any of yours."

  "No reason to get defensive Wesley. The difference between my ex and yours is that mine isn't trying to attack you in your sleep!" I bit down on my lip. I had said too much.

  "Wait what?" He looked at me.

  "That's who's been attacking you." I said softly.

  "You're telling me that Miranda was in my head?" He didn't look too convinced.

  "She's in both our heads." I said softly.

  "What makes you think this?" He demanded defensively.

  "My mother was able to pull images from me but not from you. Not to mention the nightmares that I have been having." I sighed.

  "What nightmares?" He was still defensive but at least he still cared enough to ask.

  "She tells me that you are hers in my dreams." I frowned and looked towards the window directly behind the couch.

  "Well I'm not." He grabbed my hand. "Dawn I'm never going to leave you. There is a reason that we are on this Earth. A reason that we are supposed to be together." He looked at me and though his eyes were still angry he meant the words that he was saying.

  "You say that now." I smiled at him. "What happens if you change your mind?"

  "I will never change my mind. I love you more than a man could ever love a woman and I'm not going to let some red head demon princess get in the way of that." His face was red and his hand was clutching mine tightly.

  "If you say nothing will change. I will believe you." I smiled at him and winced. Something made my heart hurt.

  Chapter Twenty

  Betrayal

  By the end of our break I was able to move about with little to no pain. The bruises had faded quickly and my ribs had healed well. The only visible damage left was marks on my face, especially my broken nose. Wesley never stopped blaming himself for the incident at the club. Slowly it was distancing him from me, he was afraid to touch me in any way.

  His nightmares were still abundant. He would still wake up screaming still not remembering what was after him. He had not grasped what I had told him that Miranda was in his head as well. My nightmares had increased as well constantly plagued by the dark haired demon. The only resolve was that as soon as he started to scream he would pull me from mine. Sometimes it was before my soul felt violated and sometimes after. Either way he had a way of making my nightmares seem so much less than his.

  The red headed bitch hadn’t made her way into my head since Christmas morning. I was starting to become concerned that she was plotting something far more sinister than an attack on my subconscious. At the same time I had a feeling she knew what was already in my head and was leaving me to live out that night over and over again as a reminder that Hell cannot hold all souls that it has been given.

  When we started back to school rumors had already begun. That is one of the cons of living in a small town, anything that happens is automatically known by everyone else. Nobody had the balls to say anything to me to my face, but I heard the rumors, none the less, coming from the lips of the students in the hall.

  Some of them were sympathetic to the whole ordeal just didn’t know how to show it towards someone that scared them. Others, on the other hand, had some horrific sympathy’s for the demon that violated me. Those were the ones that I had to fight not to turn into ashes on the high schools hall floor.

  Wesley didn’t fare so well with the accusations that it was a consensual meeting wound up in the principal’s office after an altercation with another student in his Physics class. Apparently the boy had, for the most part, called me a whore. There was some vulgarities said that nobody wanted to repeat. In response to the boy’s filthy words Wesley had thrown the first punch and continued to beat the Hell out of him.

  I had been called to the office to give a statement on what had actually happened that night during break. I suppose so that they could justify the punishment that they were going to give Wesley.

  “What did they say?” I asked as I struggled to keep up with his long stride.

  “They are just sending me home for the day to cool off.” He grumbled at me fumbling with his keys.

  “Do you want me to go with you?” I asked him my legs were burning.

  “No, I need to be alone.” He snapped at me.

  I stopped walking and stared after him

  Was he blaming me?

  He walked away, for the most part, with just a slap on the wrist. It was enough though for him to leave me standing in the parking lot of the school alone as he sped away.

  ****

  I didn’t see Wesley that night, I stayed up as long as I could gripping my phone tightly in my hand willing it to ring or buzz.

  Something for Pete’s sake!

  I wound up falling asleep at midnight plagued by the horrible nightmares. My mother woke me up only a few hours later to tell me that she had spoken to his father and that he hadn’t made it home. She tried to track him the best she could, but she got nothing, not even the slightest glimmer on where he could have gone. It was like there was a big black hole out there and it was blocking her from viewing where he went.

  At five am I received an odd text from a number I did not know. The only word in the message I could make out was “Mine” the rest was code or gibberish that I could not break no matter if I was able to decipher languages or not.

  My mother, being the woman that she is, told me not to worry about it that it was probably just someone texting the wrong number. I though, being an eighteen year old female, decided that I would find out who it was and dialed the number.

  The phone picked up on the second ring but nobody spoke. Instead I heard two people in a muffled conversation.

  “Oh god what the Hell, turn that shit off.” I recognized the male voice. It was Wesley.

  “You act like you have to get up or something. I say you blow off class and just spend the day in bed with me.” The other voice I did not know at first until I recognized the broken English.

  “As much as I would love to, I do have to get to school today. But I will be back tonight.” He had a familiarity to his voice as if this was somewhere he wanted to be.

  My Wesley had been with the red headed bitch all night. I suddenly felt my heart break, and I hung up the phone. Anger hit me hard, and I threw my phone across the room.

  How could he betray me this way? After everythin
g I have done for him.

  I felt a prickle in my heart and I reached up to touch my chest.

  Logic is not something that I come by well. I have always jumped to the worst conclusion. For all I knew she was a friend that he went to for comfort.

  Yeah a friend that he was sleeping with!

  However, that voice, it had been ingrained in my head. I knew her accent well both in English and German she was Hell bent on taking him from me. Now there he was with her when he should have been with me all along.

  ****

  I sat in the parking lot at school long after the first period bell rang waiting for him to show. I had the speech all laid out in my head on what I would say. I would give him a chance to come clean. If he didn’t I would know he was lying because like my mother I could sense a lie a mile away. Of course I wasn’t sure what I would do if he did come clean. Would I be able to stay with him or was I going to have to break my own heart more than he already had?

  He never showed that day. I sat in that damned car half of the day and he never showed! Finally I gave up and started my car. It was too late to go in now. I was already considered absent.

  I pulled out onto the road and decided it best to stop by his place on my way home, just to see if his car was parked in the driveway. To my surprise there it sat. I pulled in behind his and cut the engine. Walking around the corner of the house I was not prepared for what I was coming face to face with.

  The two of them were standing on the back porch their arms wrapped around each other his lips pressed to hers as he feverishly kissed her. I stopped dead in my tracks as he pulled away and looked at me in fear. The girl turned around and there I was face to face with the red head bitch, for once not surrounded by flame or smoke, or some magic protection. We were standing there as mortal women, only difference was I was standing there with a scowl of hate and all she did was smile this triumphant smile.

  Wesley just stood there dumbfounded staring at the two of us. I could see his pulse throbbing through the veins in his neck and could smell fear that was radiating off of him.