"You don't know anything about our relationship, so stay out of it," Tristan threw back.
"I know it's completely asinine and destined to fail. You know, that whole part where you guys are mortal enemies and all. Or, I don't know, the fact that you're immortal. Or maybe it's that whole blood drinking thing that freaks me out. Take your pick." Vanessa leaned back in her seat. She might be even more vocally opinionated about this than Luke, Kira thought with surprise. What she wasn't at all surprised with was the gleam in Luke's eyes. At least he was keeping a smirk off of his face.
"No one said being in love is easy." Tristan grinned at Kira. They had talked about all of those things for hours. The jabs were nothing new, and definitely nothing Luke hadn't tried to convince Kira of before.
Vanessa turned her attention from Tristan and aimed it at Kira instead. "This guy? Really? Over my brother? I just don't get it."
"Fortunately, you don't have to." Kira coated her words with sweetness.
"Actually, I kind of do. You see, I saw what happened in the town square yesterday. Ten more seconds and this would have been a completely different conversation." Crap, Kira thought. Those words were as good a blackmail.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kira tried to play it cool, but she grabbed Tristan's hand again, squeezing it. His eyes were questioning and full of confusion. This wouldn't go away any time soon.
"I think you do," Vanessa threatened.
"Enough." Luke cut her off before she could continue. "We have more important things to talk about, like what we're going to do when we reach Orlando. We need to think of a plan."
Out of the corner of her eye, so Tristan wouldn't notice, Kira watched Luke. She didn't quite understand why he stopped his sister. Wasn't Tristan finding out about the almost kiss exactly what Luke would want? A way to break them up? She couldn't decide if he was really just that focused on the mission or if other doubts made him stop Vanessa. For her part, Vanessa sat with arms crossed and a smug look on her face. Kira tried to ignore her.
"The plan," Tristan said, "is that Kira and I will scope out the head vampire's estate — it's right outside the city — and you three will do whatever conduits normally do to look into a vampire situation."
"Split up?" Luke asked Tristan. "I'm not sure about that."
"I agree with Tristan," Kira chimed in, "why not split up and cover more ground? We can all take care of ourselves."
Luke sighed. He had had enough fighting for one day. "Fine. Tristan, let me know where to drop you off when we get closer."
With that, Luke reached out to turn the radio on and the silence in the car was drowned out with music, country of course. Tristan wrapped his arm around Kira's shoulder and she leaned against him, letting her head rest on chest. Half of her listened to the twang-filled voices and the other half listened to the steady beat of his heart as it pumped foreign blood through his veins. After a while Kira's eyelids began to shut and she let herself fall in and out of sleep for the next hour or so, until she felt Tristan's body tense up with anticipation.
Sitting up was difficult in her relaxed state, but Kira peered with sleepy eyes out the window. She saw a few houses. Clearly the group had finally reentered civilization.
"How much longer?" She asked, still feeling a little groggy.
"Maybe five minutes," Tristan said.
Kira nodded and stretched her hands high above her head, attempting to bring her body fully out of sleep mode. She looked around and saw Vanessa practically drooling and Casey with eyes closed in the front seat. Luke was still driving, but he glanced back when she woke up. He and Tristan had been the only two people awake, Kira thought with sudden clarity. She didn't want to even think about what they may have talked about. She was stressed out enough as-is.
"Luke, you can pull up over by that bend on the right side of the road," Tristan said and slid his arm free of Kira's body. The car slowed down to a stop and Tristan quietly slid out.
"Kira?" Luke said before she could get out of the car. Kira turned back to her friend. "Be safe, okay?"
She nodded. "I'll call as soon as we find something out."
Tristan reached a hand out to help lift her from the car and she took it gladly. With a tug, he pulled her to her feet and they shut the door together. After a moment's hesitation, the black car slid off the curb and back onto the road, disappearing from sight.
Still holding her hand, Tristan led the two of them off the road and into the dense forest in front of them. Why are we always in the woods? Kira asked herself and wished she had worn boots instead of these sneakers, which already had a layer of mud on them.
"Where are we going? I thought we were going to some house?" Kira asked.
"We're stopping right here." Tristan halted in the middle of a slight clearing. Kira looked around but couldn't see any markers, or anything really, except for trees.
"Here? Why?"
"Oh nothing, just this," Tristan said and Kira caught the mischievous glint in his eye. With no warning, his hands were around her waist, pulling her close, and his lips were on hers.
Kira knew they should probably be concentrating on the mission, but she couldn't keep from tilting her head back to deepen the kiss. Bringing one hand around his neck while the other clutched at his arm, Kira let their bodies mold together. A perfect fit.
Dizzy with excitement, Kira let Tristan lead her back against a tree trunk. He put his arms on either side of her head, trapping her within his body, but Kira never felt anything but safe around him. Excited nerves danced around her stomach, sending shivers from her fingertips to her toes, and she started to smile against his lips. He felt it and widened his as well, as if the two of their mouths were strung together. Breathing heavy, Tristan pulled back. Their foreheads touched while the teasing distance of an inch separated their lips.
"I thought you deserved a proper hello," he said with a grin. Kira brushed her thumb over the dimple that appeared on his cheek.
"It's okay, I know that you find me completely irresistible," Kira joked.
"That I do," he said earnestly and searched her eyes. Kira wasn't sure what he was looking for, but a moment later he pulled back with a sigh and reached out his hand. "Come with me, we need to find the estate house." Kira latched onto his hand and let Tristan direct her through the forest.
He wasn't speaking. Kira knew by his slightly scrunched eyebrows that something was on his mind. He was acting distant. After that kiss, the last thing Kira wanted was distance, so why was he pulling away?
After a few minutes, he finally broke. "What was Vanessa talking about before?" Tristan asked, his voice soft and hesitant, almost as though he feared what the answer might be.
"Nothing, I promise," Kira replied, hoping it didn't sound like as much of a brush off to him as it did to her. You have nothing to hide, Kira reminded herself. Nothing happened. But somehow, it felt like she had cheated on him. Not physically, but for the first time, there was something she couldn't talk to him about.
"It doesn't sound like nothing. I want to believe you, but I know better. The strain in your muscles, the slightly higher octave of your voice and the rapid jolt to your pulse; it all tells me you're hiding something."
Stupid hypersensitive vampire senses, Kira cursed silently. Tugging against his hold, Kira forced Tristan to stop walking. Some things were more important than their mission. Kissing in the woods? Maybe not. Making sure the person she loved knew he could trust her? Definitely worth the time.
"Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?" Kira asked, not liking the cloud of hurt that shaded his eyes.
"No."
"Then trust me when I tell you nothing happened, nothing that matters to me anyway. I promise I'll explain everything later, but right now we have bigger issues at hand."
"Alright." He nodded, accepting that explanation for the time being. But lingering doubts were still etched into his features.
Sometimes, Kira found it too easy to forget that Tristan wa
sn't quite as strong as he pretended to be. Around other people, like with Vanessa in the car, he put on a tough act, one that was cocky and occasionally rude. But, Kira had seen those walls come down. She had seen his insecurities, the self-loathing and the sweet nature that was too sentimental to show in a vampire's world. Even Tristan needed her reassurance sometimes, a promise that she wouldn't run away.
Kira cupped his cheek. "I love you," she said, placing extra emphasis on the 'you' and urging him to understand she was in it for the long haul. He had never done anything to make her change her mind or doubt her decision to be with him. She wouldn't let anything, no mind reading and no best friend, change that.
He smiled, a wide teeth-revealing smile. "Let's go," he said, walking forward and reaching an empty hand back behind him. Kira clasped it and moved with him towards the estate.
A few lefts turns and a ton of snapped twigs later, they stopped and looked through the leaves at a two-story house complete with oversized pillars and a wrap-around porch that seemed right out of the Civil War era. White-washed with black shutters and a bright red door, the house seemed asleep. No movement stirred in the windows, most of which were opaque from curtains. No cars were parked in the driveway, no people could be heard moving in the gardens and the place seemed completely deserted.
"Are you sure we're in the right spot?" Kira whispered. This seemed about as far from a head vampire's estate as you could get. Where was the staff? If vampires were congregating in Orlando, surely they would check with the city's leader first?
"Definitely the right place. I've been here before, just a few years ago, but things were far more active then."
He stretched an arm out in front of her to keep Kira from stepping any closer.
"Wait here. Something is wrong."
Tristan dashed through the open yard, a mere blur to Kira's human eyes. He reappeared against the outer wall of the house, crouching below a window. Slowly, he extended his body so his eyes were at the level of the window. With a leap, he latched his hands onto the second floor windowsill and pulled himself up to look through that glass as well. Kira didn't mind the view. Seeing her boyfriend as a human spider was a little strange to say the least, but the muscles bulging under his shirt were a lot more interesting than the creepy quiet of the grounds.
Dropping back down, Tristan disappeared around the backside of the home to continue the search. What was that saying — sad to watch him go but love to watch him leave? Kira mused, letting her thoughts provide a distraction from the waiting.
Eventually, she would need to tell Tristan about the mind reading and the almost-kiss. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. But, if Vanessa had seen, then Kira needed to make sure Tristan heard the full story from her and not a skewed version. Luke's thoughts had confused her and that was the only reason anything came close to happening. It had to be—
A hand grabbed Kira by the mouth, catching her scream and pulling her against a hard body. Another wrapped around her waist, holding her arms at her sides in an iron grip. A vampire. Kira knew it in an instant. That was the only thing that could attack her so silently and swiftly.
"Not a good place to get lost," the vampire whispered into her ear and then laughed in a shrill, hyena-like way. The cool touch of his breath and screech of his voice sent fearful shivers down her spine. Sharp teeth practically grazed her neck, just one small movement from piercing her skin. But before Kira let the fear take hold, she made fire explode from her hands and encircle the both of them. The arms released her and recoiled against her light, but she tried to hold on to the vampire's body to keep him from fleeing. He could have information. She used her Protector powers to trap him in place, surrounding him and holding him still without killing him.
"Tristan!" Kira screamed when she knew she was losing control. Boils sprouted all along the vampire's skin, turning once milky arms into puss-filled craters and his brown hair started to singe. He would burn soon, but if she stopped, he would be gone before she could blink, just like when Diana had slipped her grasp so many months ago.
"I've got him," Tristan said from behind her and Kira winked the fire out. Tristan caught the injured vampire before he had a chance to run and forced him to the ground.
"Where'd they all go?" Tristan asked. A wild cackle was all he got in response. The vampire wasn't paying any attention to his captor. Tristan may have hold of his hands and a relentless grip on his throat, but the vampire's eyes stared only at Kira. The blue of his irises, almost neon in their intensity, bored into Kira.
"You're her," he said with wide eyes. He laughed loudly and carelessly, like a mental patient finally finding freedom. "You're her!"
"She's who?" Tristan said, trying to play dumb to get more information. He clenched the vampire's throat until he gurgled with choking, but nothing made any difference. Not a punch to the gut or the slam of his face into the ground. The vampire went on shrieking, giving Kira goose bumps. Vampires didn't scare her anymore, but this thing was deranged. It had lost any last semblance of humanity long ago.
"They went to find her and here she is."
"They who? They went where?" Tristan continued questioning him, trying to make sense of his almost drunken ramblings.
"They left me behind. They said I couldn't come. And I found her!"
Kira looked away, she couldn't take the stare anymore. She had never seen eyes so empty of feeling. Even Diana's had held emotion — anger, hatred and jealousy, but still emotion.
The vampire continued rambling about people leaving him behind. They had gone without him. They left. They disappeared. They'd be sorry.
Maybe they had gone to Orlando and left him behind, Kira thought, catching onto to what the vampire was getting at. Or maybe they...
Kira reached for her phone and called Luke immediately.
"Hello?" He picked up. By the honks in the background, Kira knew he was walking the city streets.
"Have you seen anything?" She asked with a sense of urgency. A thought was forming in the back of her mind — one she desperately hoped wasn't true.
"Nothing yet. It's weird. All the spots we usually search — the clubs, the blood banks, the abandoned buildings — all of them are empty."
Her heart sank. The wheels in her head were turning rapidly. Luke had said they would never even dream — that it wasn't possible.
"I found her. I found her!" The shrills continued to pierce her thoughts. Tristan looked at her in confusion. He couldn't comprehend what the lunatic was screaming about. But Kira knew. She understood.
"Luke, get back here immediately to pick us up."
"But, we haven't—"
"Just do it and fast. Tristan and I will be waiting."
Kira hung up and looked back into the wild eyes of the vampire in front of her. This beast was too crazy to let go: too dangerous to free.
"Tristan, on my count step out of the way. One, two.... three!"
Tristan jumped to the side and Kira encased the vampire in a blanket of her fire. Wave after wave rolled over his soon-to-be-corpse. The cysts that had started to recede in the past few minutes were bursting open like gysers. His skin cracked dry in between them. Deep ravines broke through the surface showing walls of cells and veins. But, there was no blood. That had vaporized in the heat and boiled the vampire's body from the inside out.
Kira almost dropped her power. She had never seen what happened to her victims in such a slow-motion way. The whole process was monstrous — both for the vampire and her. But Kira held on, thinking of the humans she might be saving, until finally, in a silent explosion, the entire vampire turned to ash.
"Kira, what is going on?" Tristan asked from a distance.
"The vampires," Kira said while turning and running over to grab his hand, "they're headed for Sonnyville."
Chapter Eight
The car ride back was tense. Tristan and Kira had waited for what seemed like hours for Luke to pick them up. When the jet-black car careened around the bend, they jump
ed in and Kira blurted out her fear that the vampires were moving in on Sonnyville. Almost immediately, Luke pushed the pedal down to speed through the mostly deserted roads that led back home.
Luke tried to calm her. Vanessa and Casey did too. Sonnyville was prepared. The town had incredible defenses. All the inhabitants, even the children, knew how to fend for themselves. But then why was Luke driving so fast and why was there a slight shake to his voice? No one, not even vampires, was stupid enough to attack an impenetrable town. They had to have something, some tool or idea that the conduits didn't know about.
Kira looked out the window, but all she saw was her grandmother's soft and caring eyes, crinkled on the side from years of smiling. A blink and her grandfather appeared, hard as rock and stoic but still her family. Another blink and Kayla, the little girl who reminded her so much of her sister, was laughing and shooting sparks of fire with the other children.
They had to be okay.
Thoughts of vampires running through people's homes, stealing and killing children were hard to keep at bay. And these were Protectors; they couldn't kill the vampires with their powers. But maybe Kira was underestimating them. They had to have lethal defenses for this exact reason.
Without warning, Luke slammed on the breaks, which screeched in protest as the tires smoked against the pavement.
"Tristan, jump out now!" He screamed while the car swerved uncontrollably towards the front gate of Sonnyville. Knowing from the tone of Luke's voice not to question him, Tristan opened the door and leapt from the car in less than second. Kira was about to yell at Luke for kicking him out when the car careened through the open gate.
An overwhelming sense of heat and calm passed through her body, making her nerves tingle in the same way as when she absorbed another conduit's power. She filled to the brim with sunlight, letting it warm her senses and heal any wounds she may have. A brilliant smile lit up her features and she looked over at Vanessa to see the same reaction. Her hair stood on its tips, static from the sudden rush of energy.
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