Kira lifted the lid and sitting inside, gently resting on a white satin cushion, was a tiny golden sun sparkling in the daylight.
“Luke,” Kira said, breathing the word out like a sigh.
“I saw it in a store and thought you might like it.” He shrugged.
“It’s perfect,” Kira said and set the box down on the table. Reaching around her neck, she unclasped the thin chain holding her father’s wedding ring, an heirloom her adoptive mother had given her months ago when Kira had found out the truth about her star-crossed parents. The locket with her family portrait was still with her grandmother back in Sonnyville and the chain had felt uncomfortably light recently.
Kira untied the charm and slipped it through the chain, letting it fall to the bottom where it easily landed inside her father’s ring. The two golden trinkets fit together perfectly, one slightly more aged than the other, but both brilliant against the late afternoon sky.
“So, you like it?” Luke asked quietly. His head was bent toward the ground and he looked at her under hooded eyebrows.
“I love it,” Kira told him and pulled him in for a hug. Maybe things can get better between us, she thought hopefully. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, and breathed deeply into her hair. Kira willed herself to ignore it and not ruin the moment, but when she opened her eyes they met a hard, blue stare and she instantly retreated from Luke.
Kira knew Tristan couldn’t help overhearing. His magnified senses were hard to turn off, but sometimes she wished he wouldn’t listen in on conversations he knew would hurt him. The downturn of his eyes and straight line of his mouth told her all she needed to know, even if they disappeared a moment later when Chloe pulled him back to her toys.
“Food’s ready!” Kira’s mother called from the kitchen.
“The steak is being taken off the grill as we speak,” her father added.
Luke quickly stood and put the apron back on to help her father, and Tristan walked over to take his place. She grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers through his, and pulled him down into the seat next to her.
“Everything okay?” she whispered.
Tristan nodded, turning away from her to smile at her mother who had just plopped a bowl of potato salad on the table in front of him. “Looks delicious, Mrs. Dawson.”
Kira grinned at the formal use of her mother’s name. He was a hundred years older than her, but he still wouldn’t call her by her first name.
“Delicious enough for you to eat?” her mother asked hopefully.
“Not today,” he apologized. “I ate before I came. Special gluten-free diet and all.” Tristan peered at Kira in his peripheral vision, meeting her gaze with a grin. It still amazed Kira that her mother didn’t realize what Tristan was, having grown up around conduits. But it seemed like she had truly blocked out that entire part of her past and was choosing not to notice what was right in front of her.
“One of these days you will eat something I cook, Tristan, one—”
“Mom,” Kira interjected, changing the topic.
“Right, right. Let me run inside to grab the coleslaw.”
“She might force feed you, you know,” Kira joked once her mom was out of earshot.
“I can handle it,” Tristan said and placed his arm around her, hugging her to his chest.
Kira let her head rest on his shoulder. Soon enough, things would go back to normal between them. There was no telling how long they would be in England and some time away from Luke would be good, even if it was in Aldrich’s castle.
She missed being alone with Tristan. He made her feel at peace and helped her step away from the conduits. With Luke it was always about conduits—teaching her how to be one and teaching her about them. He was a constant reminder of the future she couldn’t walk away from—one supposedly full of death and destruction. But with Tristan, even though he was a vampire, she felt human. He let her escape her powers, so that even if only for a small moment in time, she was just a girl with a boy—nothing more, nothing less. And when you’re seventeen, Kira thought, sometimes that is all you need.
But she was eighteen now, and Kira wasn’t quite sure what that meant yet.
Chapter Two
“Go, go! Before they make me hug them again,” Kira said to Luke while she clipped her seatbelt securely into place.
“Relax.” Luke revved the engine to life. He was right. Her nerves were on overdrive right now and she felt jumpy. Maybe it was the note burning a hole through her pocket or the fact that she would be leaving for England in an hour, but Kira couldn’t sit still.
She opened her window to let some fresh air inside Luke’s truck and called goodbye to her family. Sticking her hand outside, she waved one last time before Luke swerved around the bend.
“Lots of memories in this car,” Luke said and Kira knew exactly what he was referring to. Their last drive to the airport had been a little different, more so than Luke realized. Last time, they had been running away together, but this time Kira was running from him. She tried to stop overanalyzing and instead managed a reply.
“At least a hoard of blood thirsty vampires isn’t on our tail.”
“You can’t deny it—that was sort of fun.”
“If you think getting thrown around the bed of a truck is fun…” Kira trailed off, goading him.
“You know what I mean—the rush of using our powers, the thrill of the fight. I know you’ve felt it,” he said, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to look in her direction. “I’m going to talk to the council about letting you join me on a mission this summer—a full-on Protector mission with a team and everything. I know you’re ready.”
“Luke,” Kira said with a strained voice.
“I know you’re a little scared of your powers right now, but you can trust me even if you can’t trust yourself—you’re ready.”
Kira turned away from him to look at the trees flying by the open window. She didn’t want to listen to him talk about Sonnyville and all of the plans he had for her—no, for them. Late last night, after Kira had amazingly finished packing and Tristan was fast asleep on her bed, Kira had returned to the note. All of her previous drafts—the pile of trash now below her desk—had been drawn out goodbyes, full of explanations and apologies. But Kira had realized none of it would matter. Whatever she wrote would make him hurt and angry. There was no way to explain her actions on paper, but she couldn’t tell him to his face even if it was the right thing to do.
Instead, she wrote him a short and to the point note saying she was sorry for ditching him, but it was just something she needed to do. When she arrived in England, maybe she would call Luke and try to explain herself. When she was all the way across the Atlantic, Kira might be far enough away that his pain wouldn’t invade her mind and cut through her resolve like a knife.
Worried that her eyes were beginning to water, Kira prematurely rubbed at them. Crying would get her nowhere—she just had to believe that Luke would eventually forgive her.
“Kira? You okay? I don’t think I’ve heard you this quiet since you stopped talking to me in protest of my short-lived popped-collar phase.”
“Oh god, don’t even mention that ever again.” Kira rolled her eyes. Preppy douche-bag was not a good look for Luke. Clean cut polo shirts were fine, but the popped-collar had to go.
Kira shifted in her seat, pulling her gaze from the window to Luke’s side of the car. She needed to act like everything was normal or he would definitely be on to her.
“It’s just these contacts. They’re itching my eyes.”
Luke shrugged. “Take them out.”
Kira eyed him quickly, watching the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed a nervous gulp, before reaching up to follow his instructions. Luke still wasn’t completely comfortable with her new look. But Kira understood it. Her eyes had been the one thing that was exactly the same as every other conduit—the one thing Luke probably considered relatively normal about her.
No going
back now, she thought and popped one lens off of her eye. Once done with the other, Kira flicked the small discs out the window.
“Wait!” Luke called just a second too late.
“What?” Kira asked. She was just following his instructions.
“Aren’t you going to need those in Sonnyville?”
“I have more,” Kira said, quickly covering her tracks. The truth was she wouldn’t be needing them again for a long time. Aldrich already knew her secret—there would be no reason to cover the color in England.
“Since we’re alone,” Luke started and Kira immediately tensed. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
Please, she prayed, nothing too serious. Kira couldn’t handle it now. Any intense conversations and she might just blow her cover. Her palms were already sweating and they hadn’t even reached the airport.
Hesitantly, Kira asked, “What?”
Luke took a deep breath and his tan hands tensed around the driver’s wheel. “Would…” he began but paused to glance at her. "Would you rather fart in front of me or have me fart in front of you?” And then he burst out laughing as Kira shoved him into the door.
“Luke,” she said, totally exasperated. “You scared me.”
“That was the point.” He smirked. “Answer the question.”
Kira wanted to yank his pretty blond hair from his head. A bald Luke—now that would be funny.
“Well, since I’ve smelled your farts, I would rather fart in front of you and give you a taste of your own medicine!”
“Touché,” he said and leaned back into his seat, relaxing with the low-key conversation.
“My turn,” Kira said, following his lead. She lifted her feet to the dashboard and tried to think of an equally annoying question to ask him. “Would you rather… see my grandfather’s old wrinkly butt or accidentally flash our entire senior class?”
“Hey, your grandfather is a fine looking older man—”
“Council suck-up,” Kira muttered under her breath.
“Okay, okay—I’d rather our entire class see me in the nude. My turn again!” he said, and Kira smiled because for the first time in a long time things felt almost normal between them. Strange that having a conversation about her grandfather’s behind would bring their friendship back around.
The two of them continued pestering one another with ridiculous questions until Luke pulled around the airport and dropped Kira off curbside with the bags before parking the car.
Kira took the free moment to check her ticket to Atlanta and the connecting flight to London. She and Tristan had checked in online the night before, and he should already be inside the airport waiting for her. Terminal B, Gate 3, Kira thought, that is where it will all go down.
After memorizing the flight number, Kira stuffed the ticket back into her purse, grabbed her duffle and Luke’s, and walked inside. Checking the flight statuses, she saw the Atlanta flight was on time and boarding in half an hour. She would have to act fast to figure out a way to ditch Luke before security. Last time, the private jet had left from Terminal A—her entire plan hinged on that happening again.
“No need for that,” Luke said, sneaking up behind her and grabbing both of their bags. “Our plane won’t be on the departures list.”
“Are we flying the same one?”
“Kira,” Luke said, turning around to stare at her with a "do you really doubt me?" expression on his face. "Of course we’re flying the same one. Rule number one—okay, maybe not rule number one—but remember, conduits fly in style.”
“Right, cause we’re so secret-agenty,” Kira said while elbowing his side.
“Hey, the name’s Bowrey… Luke Bowrey,” he said and wiggled his eyebrows in what Kira could only assume Luke thought was a sexy way.
“Come on, double-oh-seven.” Kira grabbed his arm and pulled him forward.
They continued walking through the small airport until Kira spotted the pre-security bathrooms. Halting her step, she took a deep breath and realized the point of no return had come. So, right outside the ladies room, she whined to Luke that she had to pee. Throwing her duffle in his direction, she told him to wait for her. Before he could answer, she jumped inside and left a shell shocked Luke behind her.
Inside the restroom, Kira splashed a little bit of cold water on her face and pulled her cell phone free of her purse to text Tristan.
“In the bathroom—phase one is complete.”
A second later, she got his reply. “I’m sitting outside the gate with all of our stuff. Love you and see you soon. Good luck.”
“Love you too.” Kira texted back and clicked her phone off. She took one last look in the mirror, trying to will the nerves away. Then, like in an old Victorian era movie, she pinched her cheeks to bring some color back to her face before drying her hands.
You can do this, Kira told her reflection, you are strong and you have to do this.
“Your turn,” Kira said to Luke when she emerged. “I’ll watch your stuff for you.”
“I don’t really need to, you know, go.” He shrugged.
“Just get inside,” Kira said and pushed him in the direction of the men’s room. Luke looked at her with raised eyebrows, but slipped through the door anyway.
Quickly, Kira knelt down and unzipped his bag. Pulling the letter from her pocket, she dropped it through the opening and shut his duffle. Her hands were shaking the entire time, and Kira forced herself not to envision the crumbling of his face when Luke discovered the note. Breathing deeply, Kira stood up and pushed her shoulders back, trying to display a calm exterior even though her insides roared.
No turning back now, she thought as Luke reemerged.
“Okay, ready to go?” he asked, shouldering their bags once more.
“Actually,” Kira said in one drawn out syllable, “I had another idea.”
Luke cocked his head to the side impatiently, and Kira sensed that he was starting to realize something was going on. Thankful that the airport was compact enough that all of her excuses were in the same place, Kira pointed to the newsstand.
“I could really use some gossip magazines and candy. Why don’t you go ahead and make sure the plane is all ready to go, and I’ll stock up on munchies for the trip?”
“I could use some Good’n’Plenty’s,” Luke murmured and Kira wrinkled her nose at the mention of that candy. Black licorice… even as a chef she didn’t understand why Luke adored the stuff. “Okay,” he finally said, “See you in ten minutes?”
“Perfect!” Kira said. He turned to leave, but suddenly stopped and dropped his bag.
“Wait!” Kira jumped on the zipper to keep him from opening it. His hand was trapped below hers, and Kira’s heart began to thud in her chest. Was it his touch or the precarious moment hanging in the air? Kira blamed the fear of discovery and looked into his warm green eyes, praying he wouldn’t notice her rapid pulse.
“What?” he asked, looking at her like she was a mental patient, “I need to give you your ticket. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”
“Yeah, of course.” Kira shook her head to refocus. “I’ll grab them.”
“It’s fine,” Luke said and freed his hand from hers. The sudden cavity created by his absence felt cold against Kira’s palm, but Luke continued talking, completely unaware of her tumultuous thoughts, “I kept all my personal stuff in the side pouch.”
He opened the side pocket to pull out her ticket. Letting a heavy sigh escape her lips, Kira sat back on her heels and accepted the piece of paper. Keep it together, she cursed.
Luke stood up, smiling at her and shaking his head. In that instant Kira knew he had no idea what was about to happen. He knew she was acting a little strange, but he never once imagined she was about to leave him. Why did the nice guys, the trusting ones, always seem to be the ones who got hurt? Kira asked herself, but quickly stopped that line of thought. It would only lead to the one question she didn’t want to answer—why did she need to hurt him in the first
place?
“Thanks.” Kira finally stood up. “See you in ten!” Cheerily, she waved goodbye and turned around to continue her cover by walking into the newsstand.
Once inside, Kira held her hands out in front of her and watched the tips of her fingers twitch uncontrollably. She tried to breathe, pulling resistant air into her lungs, and fell back against the wall for support. The hard part was finally over. Soon, the lie would be up and she would just have to deal with the consequences. Now all she had to do was make it to the plane on time.
Kira pulled out her phone and texted Tristan. “Luke is gone. I’m on my way.”
Her phone buzzed almost immediately. “Handicap passengers just boarded. Get over here quickly.”
Peeking around the entrance, Kira surveyed the hallway that led to the security for Terminal A. There was no one in line, which had to mean Luke was already through the check and headed for the gate.
“I’m sorry,” Kira whispered, almost afraid her voice would fail her. Something about staring down that empty, sterile hallway felt like the end—the end of what, she didn’t know, but definitely an end. “Goodbye,” she said one last time, trying to ignore the shell encasing her heart. Luke would never trust her the same way again. She had abused his faith in her, she had used their friendship as a weapon against him, and there would definitely be a cost to that. But growing up meant making choices and she couldn’t always please everyone.
Kira flipped her body in the opposite direction and made for Terminal B, ready to start her journey with Tristan and ready to finally retrieve the answers about her mother, the ones that had so long eluded her.
The walk was short, but each step felt heavier and heavier until her shoes practically dragged along the floor. When Kira reached the line, only one woman was waiting in front of her. After a minute, a security guard reached out for Kira’s passport and scanned her ID before waving her through. She piled her handbag on the conveyor belt, took off her shoes and waited. A new security guard signaled her over to the x-ray machine, and Kira lifted her foot to step through, but a voice stopped her dead in her tracks.
The Complete Midnight Fire Series Page 41