by H. M. Gooden
Cat agreed sadly. "Yeah, I guess so. Still, I wish we could do more."
They continued to watch without speaking until the director finally called an end to the shoot. There was the usual post-shoot milling around and conversation and initially the guys didn't even notice they had an audience. It was Dustin who looked over and noticed them first. He smiled and waved when he saw the girls, causing the other guys to turn as well. The moment Jake saw Mai was priceless, with both their faces starting the same visible slow burn they had the previous day.
Vanessa and Cat smiled at each other, then Evelyn stood up.
"Come on, girls. We should go say Hi and see if these two lovebirds can plan a date with our help."
Mai looked at her, stricken with nerves but Evelyn smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry, I'm here to facilitate for you, remember? Do you want to try a double date first? I could probably arrange something with Dustin, if that makes you more comfortable? I mean, it'll be a sacrifice, having to talk to that fine hunk all night, but I'll do it to help you out."
Evelyn licked her lips and smiled, causing Cat to snicker.
Mai nodded apprehensively. "Yes, I would like that. I do not feel ready to be alone with him, yet."
Evelyn nodded and winked. "Done."
Evelyn turned and sashayed over to the boys while Cat watched. She saw Evelyn run her hand lightly over Dustin's biceps and squeeze, which made Cat roll her eyes. He seemed to appreciate it though, flexing before saying something in response. Evelyn threw her head back and laughed, then waved the girls for the girls to come over.
"Hey, Dustin says that there's a good movie on tonight that he's been wanting to see, a new blockbuster." Evelyn widened her eyes pointedly as she looked at Mai. "Doesn't that sound good, Mai? Weren't you just saying that would be something you were interested in?"
Mai flushed, looking shyly at Jake, before nodding her head. Jake's face split into a wide smile.
"Yes! That would be so great. I can pick you up at six tonight, if that works for you, Mai."
Jake came to stand beside Mai, with his eyes only on her as he entered the conversation. Cat wondered if he even knew that Cat and Vanessa were there, with how enraptured he appeared.
"Oh, shucks. Tonight? Actually, I think Vanessa and I promised we'd hang out with my parents tonight. They just miss her so much, now that she's moved out. Isn't that right, Vanessa?"
"Oh, yeah. That's right. Damn guys, it sounds like a super fun night, but duty calls. You'll have to tell us all about it tomorrow. But it looks like they're setting up for my shot now, so I have to jet. Talk soon!"
Vanessa ran with Cat's excuse, ending the conversation in one smooth move. Cat envied her sister's suaveness. To be so good with people that they didn't even mind getting turned down. Not that the guys even noticed, as they had two very interested females who'd accepted their offer. Cat followed Vanessa over to her shoot location while Evelyn and Mai finished making plans. When they joined her later, Cat couldn't help but feel a little jealous at their excitement at the night ahead.
DUSTIN KNOCKED ON THE door promptly at six and was greeted by a vibrant and somewhat bouncy Evelyn.
"Come on in, I just have to grab my coat. Did you want a drink first, or should we go?"
Dustin shook his head. "As much as I'd love to come in first, the movie starts in thirty, so we have to leave now if we want to be on time." He looked past her shoulder. "Is Mai ready?"
Evelyn turned around in surprise. "Hmm, she was just here a second ago. Let me go look. Be right back."
Evelyn went back in to the living room, finding Mai looking at herself with worried expression in the hallway mirror.
"Oh, honey. You look great. He's so far gone he won't notice if anything's off anyways."
Evelyn gave Mai's shoulder a reassuring squeeze and Mai exhaled shakily.
"Thanks, Evelyn. This is so scary. I want him to think good things about me, but I do not know how to accomplish that.
"Just be yourself, sweetie. You're perfect just the way you are. Now, let's go." Evelyn guided Mai out, waving a quick goodbye and following Dustin down the stairs.
This left Vanessa and Cat behind, looking at each other in amusement.
"So? Dinner and a movie, my sexy sister?" Vanessa asked drolly, wiggling her eyebrows at Cat suggestively.
Cat laughed. "Well, I'm always up for food. Why don't we find a nice sushi place? Do you want to ask Mom and Dad to come? After all, we did use them as our excuse."
Vanessa thought about it, then shook her head.
"Nah, but we'll let them know where we're going. I don't want to have to protect them if we do run into someone like Kevin, or worse."
Cat nodded. She was always worried that something might happen to their parents. The memory of their pale empty faces in the emergency room after Declan had attacked them last year flashed through her head. She forcefully brushed aside the image and stood up.
"Let's go now then, I'm hungry."
They grabbed their purses and left the apartment, locking the door and walking down the street with their arms linked, appearing as though they had no cares in the world.
They headed to Maru sushi, a restaurant Vanessa had been before. It had decent sushi, but most importantly, it wasn't expensive and was close to the apartment. Their parents were happy to be left out, as neither cared much for sushi. The city streets were quieter than normal, which they assumed was due to the holidays. There almost seemed to be a hush over everything. The restaurant wasn't full, so they ordered quickly and ate to the point of being overfull. Cat found herself getting queasy as she sipped her tea, her stomach straining to hold everything she'd eaten and she had to push back from the table.
"Oh God, I ate too much."
Vanessa laughed at her. It didn't happen often, but watching Cat overdo it in any way always amused her. They slumped in the Asian style pillow seats without their shoes and let their food digest for a few minutes while they chatted and people watched together. Cat passed the time looking at the auras around her, as it was, after all, a reconnaissance mission, but nothing struck her as abnormal. There were merely lots of happy people out for food with friends or family.
By the time they got the bill, they felt able to walk again. They wandered around the area beside the restaurant, but soon got too cold and headed back to the apartment. It was a quiet night in the end, with no abnormal auras or suspicious characters lurking. They checked in with their parents, watched an old movie together, then decided to call an early night. They'd just gotten up from the couch to head off to sleep when they heard the scratch of a key in the door, followed by quiet giggles in the kitchen. With a 'this is going to be good' look at each other, they sat back down on the couch and waited for their friends to walk in.
Mai was almost floating and her aura shone brighter than ever before. Evelyn looked pleased, but otherwise normal. Mai lightly dropped onto the couch beside Vanessa and hugged a pillow. Evelyn smiled smugly and sat down on the lazy-boy.
"Soooooo?" drawled Vanessa. "What was your evening like?"
Evelyn shrugged nonchalantly.
"It was nice. The movie was okay, a typical shoot 'em up deal which the guys loved, of course. Dinner was nice, drive-through with lots of conversation. But I think the walk after was the most...er, educational, I guess you could say. First off, Dustin is fantastic kisser, although that's probably not super important to our situation. I think Mai had a really good evening though, which may be a little more interesting to discuss. Mai? Do you want to tell them?"
Evelyn looked pointedly at her friend, who was still swooning on the couch. Mai snapped back to attention, looking embarrassed.
"Yes, I can tell them. Well, it was as Evelyn said. The evening was very nice and the movie was interesting. He spilled his drink, which made me wonder, but it was the walk that was...amazing..."
She sighed, then continued speaking reluctantly, obviously wanting to remain in the memory.
"They
were complete gentlemen." She paused, then looked at Evelyn disapprovingly. "They were gentlemen, but Evelyn is a little more forward than I am used to being appropriate for a woman."
Evelyn smiled proudly at the censure while Cat and Vanessa snickered. Evelyn had definitely never been accused of being a shrinking violet.
"While we were walking, we spoke of many things. Evelyn and Dustin went ahead so that we could have some privacy. Jake opened up and told me more of his life. It was a nice conversation and he made me feel so comfortable that I mentioned his aura was blue. I thought I had blown it, that he would think I was crazy, but when his face turned red, I took a chance and asked if he had an affinity for water. He looked at me with such amazement and wonder that I had to sit down on a nearby bench. He sat down with me, held my hand and I could feel his blood calling to mine once again. The yearning was so intense that when he looked at me and came closer, I couldn't help myself and I let him kiss me."
Mai blushed, but the sparkle in her eyes didn't signify embarrassment this time.
"When he kissed me, I felt myself flash ahead, into an image of the future. I saw a dragon, but it wasn't me. It was a golden dragon and when I opened my eyes, I saw Jake's golden eyes glowing steadily into mine. We just looked at each other and I knew. It was a knowing from deep inside my soul. He was a dragon too, the one who would be my mate."
Cat felt her mouth drop. She'd known there was a connection there, but had no idea that Jake was a dragon. Did dragons mate for life? She tried to think back to other fairy tales she remembered from childhood and thought maybe they did.
"What did you say to him? What happened next?"
Vanessa had leaned all the way in, her chin resting in her hands, completely enthralled by Mai's recounting of the night.
"He asked if I was a dragon. I said yes and he laughed. He said that he had been told this city was where he would find his other half, his yin, and that he had been waiting for a long time. We talked about everything. He knows about the earthquake and I told him about turning to stone. He told me about his people in the far north. We are going to meet again soon, but for the first time I feel like I have found my home. Strange, is it not? That I find it a century later and a continent away from where I began?"
Cat nodded, Evelyn looked pleased and Vanessa was still in awe.
"Did you tell him about Dub?"
Mai nodded, becoming serious. "Yes. He has sensed something coming as well. Neither him nor Dustin like Kevin as a person and normally don't hang out with him, except that they wanted to spend time with us and they knew of the party that night. Normally, they stay far away from him. Jake says that Dustin has no abilities and is a normal human, but he is a good judge of people. Even he says that Kevin is a bad person."
Evelyn nodded in agreement. "That's pretty much what he told me. Dustin thinks Kevin's an asshole and he's waiting for a stripper to end up dead in his vicinity. So he doesn't want to be associated with that. But yeah, Dustin is as solid and as human as they come."
Evelyn almost purred the last bit and Cat smirked.
"Well, that's good news, I guess. It's nice to know others can sense that Kevin's bad, even without otherworldly abilities. But all of the events this week are making me suspicious that things are unraveling faster than I thought they were going to. I don't think that we'll be going home after this holiday Evelyn, at least, not without confronting Dub first."
Evelyn looked at her, frowning slightly. "What do you mean?"
Cat shrugged. "Things feel like they're moving too fast, like they did right before the play last year. I don't think it's going to happen on the spring equinox. I don't think Dub will let it. I think we'll meet with him around New Years. That's the next big day for the old religions, right?"
Vanessa looked at her curiously. "But won't there be too many people nearby? Shouldn't we keep things more on the down low?"
Cat agreed. "Yeah, that'd be great. But looking at how things have gone for us in the past, I think he's going to use the opportunity to create a lot of chaos and steal a lot of souls. What better time to cause destruction than a night when everyone is out, drunk or high and generally being stupid?"
The girls thought about it and Cat watched their faces sink. No one wanted this New Years to be their last New Years, especially Mai and Evelyn, who were in boy-heaven. A last New Year's kiss gone horribly wrong was not an appealing thought. Still, Cat found herself getting excited, mostly because she was tired of waiting for something to happen. Maybe they could create a situation themselves and force Dub into a fight before he was ready, at a time he wouldn't be expecting it. With the girls all finally coming into their powers, and the addition of a dragon to the party, they stood a better chance at beating him.
"So, what do you think? Are we ready for this? Mai, do you think Jake would be willing to help? I know things between you two are really new, but if he's a dragon and has the same kind of power as you, we could really use his help."
Mai looked at Cat with some trepidation, but nodded.
"I can ask. I will be seeing him again tomorrow, after shooting is done. He should be done by lunch and is going to pick me up after that. We can talk then. I'm scared, Cat. I don't know if I'm ready for this."
Vanessa patted her shoulder. "None of us are ready, Mai, but we've got each other. We'll get through it one way or another."
"We have four slightly crazy girls with superhero powers and maybe a new boy dragon," said Evelyn, with a sassy snap, then stopped to smile at Mai's persistent look of concern. "Let's face it, sweetie, there's no way he's going to let you face a big bad evil without wanting or needing to protect you. I'd feel sorry for Dub, if I wasn't so eager to take him down for good."
The girls laughed, although the humour was brief and of the darker sort. The next few days would be full of hard work for everyone. Vanessa stuck on set, trying to find time to practice her element, Evelyn trying to find out what would happen next by going back into her dreams, Cat searching the crowds for any more dark auras, and Mai working getting to know Jake. With only four days until New Years Eve, it seemed both too far away and much, much too close.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Peter and Mindy kissed the girls goodbye and Mindy sniffed once before patting her cheeks dry.
"You better do this right, do you hear me? I'm going to be really upset if you don't wipe this jerk off the planet. And drive safely, okay? I'll be really ticked if we take the bus and you end up doing something to the car. It's here strictly to make sure you get back to school on time. Cat? Evelyn? Do you understand?"
Mindy tried to glare sternly at them, but it was obvious by her white knuckles and the tightness around her eyes that she was scared for her girls. Peter patted Mindy on the shoulder, adding his two cents with a more serene smile.
"Knock 'em dead, girls. I know you can do it."
He kissed both Vanessa and Cat on the cheek, then gave Evelyn and Mai tight hugs. The girls, keeping it as light as they could, pretended that the adults were being silly fuddy-duddies. But they hugged back just as hard, including Evelyn and Mai, who'd already adopted the McLeans as their own. Cat smiled.
It's amazing how close you get with people when you're in the trenches with them.
They dropped the McLean's at the station and waited for the bus to slowly pull away before they turned to leave. Cat tended to keep her eyes in aura vision all the time lately, paranoid that someone would get the jump on them. Vanessa and Mai were also on a hair trigger with their powers. Heaven help anyone that startled them. They'd be at risk of getting a blast of wind, rain, or fire.
As expected, Mai and Jake had bonded deeply after only a few days. When she'd explained to Jake what Cat thought would happen, he'd been more than willing to accept her words as truth and joined them without hesitation. By mutual agreement, he'd kept the information from Dustin, hoping that what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him and not wanting to try to explain the other side of the world to an average guy, who'd likely think
Jake was high on something.
The guys' original plan for New Years had been to go to a local house party, but they managed to convince Dustin that an event over by the Bay Bridge would be the place to go instead. It was near where Evelyn thought she'd seen the battle take place in her vision and hopefully would have a large enough crowd that they'd be able to lose Dustin while he partied, safe from worry or injury. Vanessa talked the event up at work, getting another ten or fifteen people to buy tickets. The plan was to go as a big group, with safety in numbers and more fun as the endorsed end goal.
With their pre-war preparations as ready as they could be, the girls practiced what they could over the days following their parents' departure, coming up with a battle strategy of sorts. Finally, with December 31st upon them, the girls dressed with killer style. Vanessa was a sultry goddess with her long dark hair and flashing sapphire eyes, wearing a long slinky sky blue torch singer dress. She'd done Mai's hair and makeup and she also looked stunning, with her shimmering blue-black hair falling as smoothly as a waterfall over a gauzy azure coloured dress that hit her just above the knee. Evelyn, going all out to impress Dustin and every other man at the party, wore a ruby-red mini dress that highlighted her muscular runners legs and beautiful medium-brown skin tone.
Cat hated the idea of dressing up but had bowed to peer pressure, letting her sister pick her outfit for the first time. It was a tight, above-knee gold sequinned throwback to the days of disco. Cat was dubious about the look, but went along with the oohs and ahs the others threw her way. She didn't really care what she wore as long as she was mobile. She threw a pair of booty shorts on underneath, eternally practical and mindful of the possibility of a battle where her underwear might be on display. Cat was happy when Vanessa said she could wear her black knee-high boots with it. Heels were something she'd so far managed to avoid at all costs and luckily, Vanessa agreed that boots were more practical for running. Appropriately impressed with their beauty, the guys arrived on time to pick them up in the party wagon and chauffeured them to the blowout New Year's Eve Galla.