by S. E. Duncan
He watched as she stood up and saucily promenaded over to their discarded clothes. Settle down, he told himself. He listened to her side of the conversation. Normally he would have been able to hear the person on the other end of the line perfectly clear, but Ella had turned her volume down to a very low setting, which was more comfortable for her since her awakening. Ella didn’t say much; whoever was on the other end of the line was doing most of the talking. He didn’t know what was going on, but whatever it was she wasn’t happy about it. He got up to get dressed himself as she started jerkily pulling her clothes on.
“What’s wrong?” he asked before pulling his shirt over his head.
“Remember that little problem about where I was going to live while I worked as an intern?” Ella turned in a circle looking around. “Where the heck’s my other shoe?”
“You mean where you were going to tell your Aunt Rachel you were going to live?” He picked up his wet shorts and saw Ella’s – now soaked – shoe. “Oops” he muttered as he handed it to her.
“Yes.” She took the shoe, grimaced, and then put it on. “Well anyway, that problem has been solved for me.” Ella stomped off through the woods towards the house.
“Wait a minute,” Burke called. He hurriedly tied his boot and ran after her. “What are you talking about?” he asked when he caught up.
“My aunt was concerned about where I was going to live while I worked at your office. That was her on the phone calling to tell me about her exciting solution. My cousin Jeremy went to school for a couple of years at the community college close to our house. His grades in high school weren’t that great and he needed to get himself together. Well, he just finished his associate’s degree and guess what? He’s been accepted to the university here. Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ben talked it over and decided it would be less expensive to rent a small two bedroom apartment for Jeremy and me rather than pay for us to live on campus, not to mention solve the summer housing dilemma. Jeremy got a summer job here in town so it’s all set. He’s moving his things as we speak, and Aunt Rachel has been looking for me all afternoon.” Ella kicked a small pile of leaves.
Burke grabbed her hand to stop her and spun her around. “You can’t possibly be serious?”
“Oh, I’m serious.”
“So where exactly are you going now?”
Ella turned and started walking again. “To meet my family at the apartment, get the key, and make a show of unpacking my things.”
“Then what?” he called, trotting to catch up with her.
“Then, I guess I’ll be sneaking around Jeremy. Luckily he’s awesome and more than a little sneaky himself. I just hope he doesn’t start any of his protective bullshit.”
“Protective bullshit?”
“You know, big brother stuff – towards you. How old do people think you are anyway? You’re a medical examiner. Doesn’t that take at least twelve years of school? After your bachelor’s, there’s med school, then a four year residency program in medical pathology. Not to mention you’ve been with this department how many years?” Ella narrowed her eyes in thought as she talked.
“I know, I know, don’t you think I have to take all of that into consideration with my youthful good looks?” Burke laughed, trying to make Ella feel better. “Here’s the official story: I am a genius. I graduated high school at sixteen with over a year of dual credit classes and CLEPped out of the other gen-ed crap. I had my BS by eighteen, was done with med school by twenty-two, did a three year residency instead of four, and I’ve been with this department for two and a half years. That would make me twenty-seven. I actually work for Carl, though you’d think it was the other way around.”
“People actually buy that?” She looked at him sideways.
“I told you before, love, I have paperwork and references to support it. We’ll see how creative you are in about a hundred years when you look like you’re thirty.” He spun in front of her and gave a little bow.
“Hopefully it won’t come up anytime soon,” she said, ignoring his last comment. “But if it does, I guess a seven year age difference isn’t that big a deal. Especially with you being so accomplished and all.” she smiled and then curtseyed – not wanting to be a complete stick in the mud.
Burke pulled Ella into his arms and held her close. “Is it official then? Are we together?”
Ella was taken aback for a second. Then she gave him a quick kiss before shoving him away. “Don’t push your luck,” she laughed.
“No seriously,” Burke pulled her to him again. “With all of this ‘I’m at a little bit of a disadvantage with you knowing so much about me and me knowing so little about you’ stuff you mentioned yesterday. I want you to know I am neither seeing any one other than you nor attached in any way.”
Ella kissed Burke’s neck. “Thank you for telling me,” she whispered.
They started walking again, only this time they were holding hands.
“Speaking of telling me things - do I have a photographic memory?” Ella asked after they’d walked a little ways in silence.
“I don’t know, do you?” He looked at her quizzically. Where’s she going with this?
“Well I never did before, but since the awakening it seems like I can remember everything with incredible detail.” She told him about the things she had remembered and experienced while she was tracking him, and about how she discovered her mind could manipulate the images like with the rock and maple tree. She left out the fact that she’d gone a half mile out of her way. “But it’s only memories from after the awakening. Since that hasn’t been very long, I was wondering the extent of it. You know, fifty years from now will I be able to recall things from today with the same clarity?”
“I certainly hope so,” Burke suggestively wiggled his eyebrows up and down.
“Can you be serious for five seconds here?” Ella asked, teasingly shoving him.
“What you’re describing to me isn’t something that all warriors can do. Sometimes - though it’s rare - a warrior or healer will awaken with an extra gift or talent. Your memory sounds fascinating and highly useful. Only time will tell the extent of it.”
“I guess I’ll never lose my keys again,” Ella joked taking his hand again. “I was trying to focus in on the Demon’s face from the library, but like I said I can’t remember things from before the awakening with that much clarity.”
“It wouldn’t matter anyway. I’ve seen him many times through other people’s eyes, remember? When he takes a victim he can use some of that energy to change his appearance if he wants to. He doesn’t always look the same, though so far he’s always been male, about five foot ten inches tall, and I’d say a hundred and sixty pounds. It’s his face that changes.”
“My God, Burke, you should have told me! This makes everything even worse somehow. Crap! What are we going to do? How are we going to even find him, let alone kill him?”
“We’ll figure it out Ella.” Burke let go of her hand and rubbed her neck. “I don’t think he goes around changing his appearance at will; it has to be right after a killing. You know, after he takes the energy into himself. He’s going to make a stupid mistake and then we’ll find him. Once we do, I don’t care if we have to cut him into tiny pieces and set fire to the lot. Everything has a weakness, everything dies, and everything can be killed.”
Ella’s cell phone chimed, indicating she was receiving a text message. “It’s from Sarah,” she said. “She wants me to come by the dorm room before meeting my family at the apartment. I guess I’d better get a move on.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No, let me take care of this. I don’t think these are the most appropriate circumstances to introduce you to them. Do you want to run back to the house with me though?”
“Nope, if it’s all the same to you I’ll just lag behind and enjoy the view as you leave.” Burke smiled as he gave Ella’s derriere a squeeze.
~~
Thirty minutes after Ella had shower
ed and changed into yoga pants and a comfortable t-shirt, she gave a friendly tap on Sarah’s dorm room door before proceeding to barge in anyway. Sarah had all of Ella’s things packed, organized, and waiting for her on her bed.
“Geez,” Ella said, “I feel like you’re throwing me out.”
“Nonsense, I thought this would be faster” Sarah waved her hand in the air to erase Ella’s negative comment. “Now I figure I get at least twenty minutes of your undivided attention.”
“Great, I sense a round of fifty questions,” Ella mocked.
“Don’t be flippant!” Sarah narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at Ella. “I covered your ass this morning. Your Aunt Rachel called me when she couldn’t find you and asked if you’d slept here last night. My best friend intuition told me to say yes.”
Ella’s eyes widened in horror. “Which you did, right? You told her I was here?”
Sarah crossed her arms and paused for effect. “Yes I did,” she finally said smugly.
“Thank you.” Ella rolled her eyes. Sarah could be such a drama queen.
“You’re welcome; now where the hell were you? I was scared shitless!” She put her hands on her hips then stamped her foot.
Ugh, Ella didn’t know how much information she wanted to divulge at this time. She decided it was best to be mostly honest. “I was with Burke.”
Sarah snapped her fingers. “I knew it! You’ve been with him this whole time! Since he showed up here and practically kidnapped you, I mean.”
Ella sighed and blew a strand of hair out of her face. “It wasn’t kidnapping but yes, I’ve been with him since Friday. Except that I went home to Aunt Rachel’s Tuesday on my birthday.”
“Oh yeah, happy birthday, your present’s over there,” Sarah pointed to a gift bag on the bed with the rest of Ella’s things. “But don’t change the subject. Who is this guy? Wait a minute. Before you answer that, are you better? You were pretty frickin’ sick.” Sarah plopped into her cushy chair, getting comfortable for what she hoped was going to be a juicy story.
“Yes, I’m fine. Never felt better, actually.” Ella stretched out on the floor leaning her back against the bed.
“Great, now who is Burke?”
“Believe it or not, he’s a doctor. I met him when I was looking for a summer internship. He’s a medical examiner, and he asked me out for lunch. You know how I hate hospitals; he took me to see a friend of his from med school who has a private practice. It turned out I had the flu. Burke took care of me. I’m better now.”
“Hmmmmm, a medical examiner. How old is he?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Are you dating him?”
“We’ve gone out a couple of times.”
“Are you having sex with him?”
“Sarah!”
“Whatever, Ella. Are you?”
“No.”
“Mind if I have a go?”
“Yes, I mind.”
“I figured! Anyway, I too am seeing someone new,” Sarah smiled mischievously.
“Anyone I know?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. Now don’t wig out,” Sarah held her hands up as if to ward off evil. “But it’s Jeremy.”
“Jeremy? As in my cousin, Jeremy?”
“Yes, your cousin Jeremy and I are dating. See what happens when you fall off the face of the Earth for five days? You officially become out of the loop.” Sarah rotated her finger in the air making a circle.
“Wait just a minute. How and when did this happen?”
“Remember last month when I went home with you to your Aunt and Uncle’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary party? Well Jeremy and I talked and flirted and just kind of hit it off in general. We exchanged numbers and have been talking and texting and he drove here once on a weekend to take me to dinner and a movie and now, as you know, he’s moving here so there you have it.” Sarah took a deep breath. There, she’d gotten it out.
“How did I not know any of this?” Ella shook her head. Sarah and Jeremy – wow – was it awesome or awful?
“Because it all only happened in the past month, and you had been feeling like crap and lying around tired and headachy and moany, and I didn’t want to bug you. As a matter of fact, the day your prince charming kidnapped you - yes I’m sticking with kidnapping - I was going to take you out to lunch and spill my guts.”
“Do Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ben know? I mean, just so I don’t let any unknown information slip.”
“Not really. You’re the first to know. We’ll tell them, but right now it’s no big deal. It’s still new; we’re not shopping for rings or anything. Have they met Burke?”
“No, but like you said, still new, no big deal, not shopping for rings.”
“Okay, now that we’re all caught up let’s get you over to that new apartment of yours! It is sweet!” Sarah sprang to her feet.
Ella and Sarah started lugging what few belongings Ella still had left in the dorm room they had shared down to Ella’s car. It felt good to be hanging out with Sarah again; it felt normal. Ella didn’t realize how much she missed normal. Not that Burke wasn’t amazing - because he definitely was. But the Demon situation - not so much.
Sarah tagged along with Ella over to the apartment. As luck would have it, the apartment was located directly across from the city park about half way between the school and the road to Burke’s house. This part of town was rather upscale, and it had a beautiful view. Ella couldn’t help but be a little surprised. She was beginning to question Aunt Rachel’s claim that this was going to be less expensive than Jeremy and her living in the college dorms. She parked her car in the designated space, and she and Sarah each grabbed an armload of things from the trunk and proceeded up the stairs to the second floor.
Her Uncle must have seen Ella pull up, because she didn’t even get a chance to knock before he opened the door. “Here sweetheart, let me help you,” he said taking her duffle bag from her. “Hello there, Sarah, good to see you again,” he added when he saw her behind Ella.
“Wow!” Ella exclaimed. “Have you guys been here all day?”
“Just about,” Jeremy said good naturedly sneaking a wink at Sarah, “and as usual you show up when the work is almost done.”
“Did this apartment come furnished?” Ella asked.
“No,” her Aunt Rachel said coming out of one of the bedrooms, “and if you would have been easier to find you would have had more of a say as to what went into it. As it is, we went with neutral things. If you don’t like it you can blame your cousin.” She walked over to Ella and hugged her.
“It’s perfect,” Ella said.
The front door of the apartment opened into a living room with a galley kitchen. It was small but comfortable. There was an overstuffed blue denim couch and matching chair facing an entertainment center. Ella recognized Jeremy’s television and DVD player from home. Two tall beige director’s style chairs were pushed up to the kitchen bar. There were several framed Ansel Adams prints on the walls. Ella smiled; that was surely Jeremy’s doing. He had a passion for photography. Rachel was putting some plain red pottery dishes in one of the glass fronted kitchen cabinets on a shelf below the heavy clear drinking glasses.
There was a single door on each side of the living room. Looking first in one and then the other, Ella saw that they were identical bedrooms each with their own bathrooms. Her Aunt had furnished them simply with full sized black wrought iron beds, a simple black nightstand with a single drawer, and a tall black chest of drawers topped with a matching black framed mirror. Jeremy had already laid claim to the room on the right, and Ella saw that her uncle had put her bag in the one on the left.
“I brought my bedding from the dorm room,” Ella told her Aunt, “but that’s for a twin bed.”
“I figured as much. Just put it by the front door and I’ll take it home with me. Come on girls. Let’s go see if we can find Ella some bedding.” Rachel grabbed her keys and headed toward the door.
“Thank you so much Aunt Rachel, b
ut I feel like you guys are going overboard with the furniture and everything,” Ella said. Sarah pinched her and mouthed don’t be stupid.
“This is your first apartment, Ella. Be excited. Besides, I went with good strong traditional pieces that you’ll be able to use for a long time after college. And believe it or not, this really was the more economical way to go with both you and Jeremy living here. Besides, I have a feeling you’ll be sticking around and getting your master’s degree at least, if not your doctorate, and this way you can keep an eye on Jeremy for me.” Rachel laughed, but Ella knew she was only half joking.
~~
They pulled into Linens and Things. Ella chose a simple white down comforter with white sheets and pastel colored throw pillows. They also picked up a black and white damask print shower curtain, a white bathmat and white towels.
“The utility and rent bills will be coming directly to your Uncle and me, so you and Jeremy don’t have to worry about any of that. I’ll give you each one hundred dollars a week for gas and groceries. Be smart and responsible - make it last. But of course if you need anything or have anything unexpected come up just let us know. Everything sound okay?”
Ella hugged her aunt. “It’s more than okay. I hope you know how much I appreciate you and Uncle Ben.”
Rachel’s eyes became watery. “I love you so much, Ella. I’m also very proud of you, and your parents would be too. All right now, let’s get this stuff back to your apartment. I want to get home before it gets too late. I have to be at the shop early in the morning.”
~~
Just over an hour later Jeremy, Sarah, and Ella were lounging around the apartment. Rachel and Ben had left and everything was put away. “What now?” Jeremy said.
“I have an early class,” Sarah told him. “Can you drive me back to school?” She batted her eyelashes.
“Sure, are you going to hang out here, Ella?” Jeremy asked.
Oh brother. Ella rolled her eyes. “You guys don’t have to run away and make out in the car like a couple of sixteen year olds. I’m going to meet someone for dinner anyway. I’ll pick up some groceries tomorrow. Jeremy, if you want anything special just leave a list on the bar. Do we have a washer and dryer?”