After calming Tristan down and firmly stating that she would be going to England with or without him, he had finally started listening to her. They worked out a plan to get her birth mother back, but it was a two-person plan. And tomorrow Kira would be ditching Luke at the airport to secretly fly to England with Tristan.
Oh yeah, Kira thought, this will go over very well… not!
She had reached for her pen again, ready to finally write a coherent note, when strong arms enveloped her from behind, circling her shoulders and sending a chill down her spine with the suddenly cool touch.
“Hi,” Tristan whispered in her ear as he pressed his cheek against hers and placed a soft kiss on her neck.
“Hi,” Kira said, letting her head fall back against his shoulder. Perfect timing, she thought, thankful for the break from writing this note. A little procrastination never hurt anyone.
“Ready for your party, birthday girl?” he asked.
“Crap—no!” Kira shot up, suddenly energetic with surprise. “What time is it?”
“Almost five.”
Tristan laughed under his breath, not at all surprised that Kira was running late. Never one for shorts, even in the middle of summer, Tristan had on his classic dark blue jeans and a crisp white button-down. Kira didn’t have time to admire how the stark ivory brought out the twinkling blue of his eyes, she was too concentrated on being on time for once in her life.
“No, no, no…” Kira buzzed while pulling her T-shirt off and reaching for the yellow cotton dress hanging on the back of her door. She had been so focused on writing the note that she had completely forgotten about her birthday barbecue—the one happening in roughly five minutes. The only reason she was still at home in Charleston was her birthday, otherwise Luke would have shipped her back to Sonnyville already. Kira knew he was eager to keep training her in order to see what her stronger powers meant. He had already forced her to light the wooden table in his backyard on fire, so she didn’t even want to know what he was preparing back in Sonnyville.
“Don’t worry. No one’s here yet,” Tristan said while he watched Kira tug her shorts off and smooth out her dress. Had Kira been less pressed for time, she may have felt a little self-conscious about changing right in front of her boyfriend, but as it was, she didn’t have any time to be insecure.
“Are my parents outside?” Kira asked and bent over to pull the fuzzy socks off of her feet.
“Your dad is starting up the barbecue, and your mom is setting plastic plates on the table with Chloe.”
“Perfect,” Kira said, yanking one last time on the stubborn sock. Tristan put a hand on her back to keep her from falling over, and she slipped her feet into a pair of sandals. “How do I look?” Kira said while twirling around a few times.
“Beautiful as always,” he said, catching her hand and guiding her toward him. Kira spun right into his arms and quickly kissed his lips, loving how familiar yet exciting his touch was. The slow exploration of her body, sexy in its restraint, made Kira feel delicate—something she direly needed when most of the time she felt too powerful, too uncontrolled, too…everything.
Tristan pulled back, breaking the kiss, to say, “I hear Emma’s car out front.”
“Just when we were getting to the good stuff,” Kira cursed, making both of them smirk. Her best girlfriend was nothing if not prompt.
“I’ll go get everyone to the backyard.” Tristan slipped free of her arms. “You still need to put your contacts on.” Kira grimaced, thinking of the bulky, itchy lenses that had become part of her daily routine. She nodded regretfully and pushed Tristan toward the stairs while she stepped into her bathroom.
Only Luke and Tristan knew about the change in her eyes. On their way home after the ball, Kira bought color contacts and had been using them ever since. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but it was something.
Looking in the mirror, Kira still had trouble recognizing herself. Bright cobalt blue irises stared back at her. Orange-yellow flames danced around the edges, pushing into the cooler color and fighting for a place, but the shockingly saturated blue overwhelmed everything else. Sometimes, Kira liked how the blue popped against her red-blonde hair, but mostly she missed the warm, comforting green that used to be there. Her hair was already over the top with its bright hues and voluminous curls, she didn’t need even crazier eyes to get noticed in a crowd.
Nothing else had physically changed about her since the night of the ball, but something stirred inside Kira, making her feel stronger. Luke and Tristan had no explanation for her new eye color, and Kira didn’t want to harp on it when there was so much more to worry about. She had barely used her power since that night, only practicing when Luke forced her. She was more in control of her body and her fire, but the flames she commanded had changed. It was more than just the difference between her softer Protector powers and her rage-filled Punisher flames. Everything was stronger. All of her fire burned brighter, scorched hotter, and practically exploded with heat. When Luke had challenged Kira to light his wooden table on fire, it had come easily, like flipping a switch. The destruction was almost too welcome, too natural to her.
A high-pitched screech pulled Kira from her thoughts.
“Kira!” Her younger sister Chloe yelled from the bottom of the steps, “Where are you?”
“Yeah, Kira, where are you?” A deeper voice laced with mirth called after. Luke, Kira thought, hearing his laughter mix with Chloe’s a second later.
“Coming!” she yelled and quickly pulled on her eyelid to slip in one contact. More squeals echoed down the empty hallway, and Kira followed the sound after quickly putting in her second contact.
When she looked down the steps, Kira saw the source of the noise. Luke had trapped little Chloe in his arms and was tickling her mercilessly while she giggled and squirmed to get away. Kira raced down the steps two at a time to free her sister.
“Kira!” Chloe yelled again before bursting into a new round of giggles. Kira smiled to herself. She knew exactly what to do. Reaching for Luke’s stomach, she squeezed her hands against his abs and gave him a taste of his own medicine.
“No!” Luke laughed against Kira’s attack and released Chloe, who followed Kira’s lead and jumped on Luke to tickle him. He fell to the ground in mock surrender, chuckling helplessly and begging Chloe to stop.
“I win!” she screeched and raced out the back door, leaving Kira and Luke alone. Suddenly, Kira didn’t know where to look. Between his confession of love the night of the Red Rose Ball and her plan to go to England behind his back, things were more than a bit strained. At least, it felt that way to Kira.
She offered her hand, doing her best to ignore the electric jolt his touch caused, and helped pull Luke to his feet. He dusted his khaki shorts off and tugged his navy T-shirt back down below his waist.
“Happy birthday,” he said after a moment.
“Thanks,” Kira responded, briefly glancing at his disheveled blonde locks and slightly strained gaze.
“So, Sonnyville tomorrow? I challenge you to get through an entire meeting with the council without burning their completely wooden dais to the ground,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Yeah, can’t wait,” Kira hurriedly replied before heading for the door. She couldn’t stand lying to him. At least that would end tomorrow. Even if he hated her for it, at least the lying would finally end. “Everyone’s waiting, I better get out there.” Kira nodded in the direction of the kitchen window.
Luke followed her gaze to the spot where Dave, Emma’s silent but lovable boyfriend, and Miles, their geeky on-his-way-to-Harvard friend, stood next to her father around the grill.
“Yeah,” Luke agreed and walked outside behind her.
“Happy birthday!” everyone shouted when Kira stepped into the sunlight. It was a small party, but it was perfect. Kira smiled at the streamers hanging in the trees surrounding her backyard and the freshly painted sign wishing her a happy eighteenth birthday. Chinese lanterns hung from
the porch railing, ready for the sun to set so they could sparkle in the darkness, and raspy strains of the local radio station struggled to be heard from an old boom box sitting on the table.
“Thank you!” Kira smiled and stepped lightly down the porch stairs, practically dancing with her movements.
“Now, Kira, we know you’re the chef in the family but tonight the men are making steaks,” her dad said while standing beside an already smoking grill. Even though Kira knew he was really just her uncle, not even related by blood, the familiar image of him behind their family grill made it seem like old times, before Kira had known anything about the conduits or her real parents. “Luke, did you grab the aprons?”
“Got 'em, Mr. D!” Luke said, stepping past Kira to rush over to the grill.
Kira was more than happy to let the men do the work tonight. She loved cooking, but on her birthday she was allowed to relax. Especially since all she had been doing since she got home was make food—cooking was a serious stress reliever and all of the lying had her pulling her hair out. The Dawson family fridge was currently full to the brim with praline pecans, chocolate mousse, patience-trying risotto, and one of Kira’s favorites, homemade spaghetti. Her fingers needed the night off.
Kira turned toward the foldout table her adoptive mother had put up in the backyard. She was really her aunt, her birth father’s sister, but Kira tried to forget that sometimes. Especially on a day like today, with everyone around, Kira wanted to feel happy, not anxious about how much her life had changed in less than a year. She had gone from being a normal teenager to a mystical half-breed conduit who could potentially mean the end of the world. And the recent events at the Red Rose Ball had changed her again—she felt that in her bones even if she didn’t know what it meant yet.
A moment later Kira blinked, pushing old memories to the side to look back at the table where Emma was setting out the silverware and her mother was arranging a vase filled with fresh flowers. She stepped forward to help.
“Luke, you didn’t!” Kira’s mother gasped and put a hand to her mouth to cover her laughter. Kira stopped walking and turned just in time to see Luke finish tying an apron around his waist—the apron no one in her family ever used, the one her mother bought her father as a joke years ago, the one that had a life-sized photograph of Michelangelo’s David… in the nude.
“Luke,” Kira whined with a grimace, but the semblance of a smirk tugged at her lips.
“Just trying to get this party started.” Luke grinned. He reached for the raw steaks and started dropping them on the grill.
Kira shook her head, but couldn’t shake the small curve of her smile.
She looked around for Tristan, noticing he wasn’t grill-side with the other men, and spotted him at the far side of the yard with Chloe. The two of them sat in the middle of a ring of Barbie toys, and Tristan was pretending to listen intently to whatever Chloe was trying to explain about her dolls. He looked up, as if sensing Kira’s gaze, and flashed her a dimple-filled grin followed by a roll of his eyes.
“Should we go save him?” Kira’s mother whispered in her ear, but Kira shrugged.
“Let him suffer.” She laughed and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tristan shake his head at her. He had definitely overheard. Good, Kira thought, let him know I’m totally calling the shots. But her brief moment of power passed when a wad of napkins was shoved in her face.
“I’m going inside to work on the potato salad and coleslaw. Can you girls finish setting the table?”
“Sure, Mom,” Kira said and took the napkins from her mother’s arms before walking over to Emma.
“How is it possible that I’m wearing a dress and you’re not?” Kira asked, eyeing her blonde friend’s relaxed shorts and polo shirt attire.
“You’re allowed to out-dress me one day a year—consider it my gift to you.” Emma smiled and sat down in one of the vacant seats around the table. Kira sat next to her and dropped the napkins onto an empty plate.
“Want to learn how to fold these?” Kira asked. Years of working in a restaurant had taught her this nifty trick, and she quickly folded the first napkin into a simple, yet elegant, pyramid. Kira spent a few minutes showing Emma the steps, but it became obvious that there was something on her friend’s mind.
“Is everything okay, Emma?”
“Of course,” she said, but Kira didn’t buy it.
“Really?” she pressed.
“Yeah… I was just thinking about how sweet it was that everyone came back for your birthday. I mean, Tristan came all the way back from backpacking around Europe just for the weekend—talk about dedication! I’m going to miss this…you know, having the gang together.” She ended softly, concentrating on her napkin rather than the people around her. Kira pulled the linen from her friend’s fingers, forcing Emma to concentrate on her words.
“I thought we got all of that talk out at graduation! We’re still going to be ‘the gang’ no matter what.”
“I know, but it won’t be the same. You and Luke were only gone for what? Three weeks? And still, things felt off. Sometimes I just don’t want things to change, you know? Like I don’t really want to grow up.”
You’re telling me, Kira thought but quelled her inner monologue. Emma was almost never like this. Sure, she was emotional at times. But normally she was the calm, collected one—not the vulnerable, nervous one. Only one thing would bring this side out in her.
“Did something happen with Dave?” Kira asked, taking Emma’s hand to comfort her. Dave and Emma were the perfect couple—they were classic southern sweethearts and they would both be going to college in Texas come fall. Kira couldn’t even imagine them apart.
“No…I don’t know. I’m just nervous I guess. People always say that when you grow up you grow apart, but what if I don’t want that to happen?”
Kira couldn’t suppress a sidelong glance at Tristan, who was still trapped by her sister, Chloe. She couldn’t deny that her birthday had made her think the very same question—for her and Tristan, growing up literally meant growing apart.
“If you don’t want to grow apart, you won’t,” Kira urged, turning her attention back to Emma and leaving her own thoughts for another time. “Nothing will change if you don’t want it to. I mean, Dave is head over heels for you! You’re all he ever thinks about and that won’t change.”
Both girls took a moment to look toward the grill where all four boys—yes, including Kira’s fully adult father—were taking turns dropping lighter fluid into the flames to make them explode. Definitely Luke’s idea, Kira assumed. “Well, when he’s not playing with lighter fluid, all he does is think about you…”
“I know that,” Emma said, “it’s just that we’ll be going to different colleges… they’re only two hours away from each other, but still, it’ll be different. And people always say that high school relationships never last, that they are sort of your first taste of love before the real thing comes around.”
A sudden tingle stirred at the base of Kira’s neck and she knew, before shifting to meet his gaze, that Tristan was watching her. His eyes were hidden beneath the shadow of his hair, but the tense muscles in his neck told Kira he was listening—waiting to hear what her response would be. She loved him and he her, but both of them had sensed the change in their relationship. He was a vampire. She was a conduit. They were supposed to be enemies, and the more prominent Kira’s powers became, the more impossible their future seemed. That wasn’t enough for Kira to give up on them and forget her feelings, but it was enough of a crack for a few small, almost imperceptible doubts to seep through.
“I don’t believe that,” she finally answered her friend. “Love is love, no matter how old or young you are.”
“You’re right,” Emma said and let a slow smile spread across her face, lighting her features. She broke her long stare in Dave’s direction, ready to tackle napkin folding again, but saw the gloomy expression on Kira’s face. “Oh god, I’ve totally ruined your birthday! I don
’t know what came over me!”
“You haven’t ruined anything,” Kira said, casually waving the air away. “It’s my party and I can cry if I want to!”
“Cry?” Luke’s voice interjected from above Kira’s shoulder. Kira spun in her seat, completely forgetting the apron Luke had on, and came face to face with the exact part of a nude male she did not want to be staring at.
Quickly shielding her eyes, Kira muttered, “Can you take that thing off? I can’t take you seriously.”
“You never take me seriously.” Luke laughed, stepping even closer to Kira, who leaned further away. Do not blush, she thought, do not blush.
“Luke.”
“Fine, fine. Ruin my fun,” he said and untied the apron before slipping it over his head. “I came over here to talk anyway.”
“And that’s my cue,” Emma said, ducking out of the way and over toward Dave and Miles by the grill. Luke took her vacant seat and Kira instantly felt the space around them thicken. Her throat tightened and she took a deep breath, letting the air out slowly to calm her speeding pulse. She felt nervous around him—something she had never felt, not even since the first time they had met.
“What’s up?” Kira said, hoping her voice had come out calm and strong.
Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box decorated with a white satin ribbon. “It’s not much, but I got you a birthday present,” he said and clumsily shoved his arm in her direction.
Slowly, Kira reached out and lifted the box from his hand. Using the power Kira had only discovered a few weeks before, she skimmed his thoughts, unable to stop the impulse to dip into his mind. The buzz of his nerves calmed her. His mind was hesitant, stopped on a breath and waiting. An expectation hung in the background, surrounded by a glimmer of hope and a tinge of excitement. But Kira could tell by the bright green hint in his eyes that he was energized—she didn’t need the mind reading for that, and she retreated from his thoughts to tug the ribbon free from its bow.
The Complete Midnight Fire Series Page 40