by W.J. May
Chapter Nine
A ringing phone woke Kira the next morning. Her eyes were swollen, and she was dehydrated and dizzy from the days before. When she turned over in bed, she felt a cool chain roll across her skin and she pulled the locket back over her heart, cupping it in her hand. At least it was something, Kira mused. She had photographs and stories, some little tokens to remember them by. Love will prevail, she thought. It was comforting to know her parents loved each other enough to risk it all to be together. She hoped she could do the same if the time ever came.
The incessant ringing sounded in her ear again and Kira reached under her pillow to grab her cell phone. She looked at the caller ID—Luke. Was she ready to get out of bed and face the world? No. But, Kira realized, she would probably never feel ready to start moving onto her new life in a new world she had yet to figure out. She flipped open her cell.
"Hello?" Kira’s voice came out scratchy and hardly loud enough for her own ears to hear.
"You sound like crap."
"Thanks." She rolled her eyes at Luke, wishing he could see her reaction, some sign she was at least alive enough to make fun of him again.
"Get out of bed, get dressed and be downstairs in ten minutes. The gang and I are on the way."
"Good lord. Couldn’t you have given me some warning?" Kira asked, jumping out of bed and running to her closet. Ten minutes was not nearly enough time for her to start looking like a human being again. She needed to shower and she needed some caffeine.
"Ah, sorry. I totally forgot you’re a girl. Emma said I should have called you earlier."
"Tell her I said thanks. See you soon."
Kira hung up and used both hands to search her closet for jeans and a super comfortable, oversized sweater to wear. She might be venturing outdoors, but she still wanted to feel as though she was lounging in her pjs.
Five minutes later Kira heard a beep outside and cursed Luke for of course being early. She peered out of her window while quickly buttoning her jeans and saw Emma kick Dave out of the front seat of her small convertible. He sheepishly jumped into the back with the boys and Kira decided to hurry up before he tried to steel shotgun again.
"Hey!" Emma waved from the driver’s seat as Kira walked outside. Kira smiled back.
"So, what’s the mystery event today? Luke didn’t give me any information over the phone."
"Well, it was my idea," Emma began while fiddling with the radio and shushing the boys’ complaints when Taylor Swift came on.
"Shopping?" Kira guessed from the glimmer in the other girl’s eyes.
"Costume shopping!" Emma seemed positively giddy as she pulled away from the curb and eased onto the empty street. She stepped on the gas and the car sped down the road. Kira liked feeling the wind in her hair and the roar of the other cars when they turned onto a busier street. It drowned out her thoughts and part of her felt like a normal girl about to spend a crazy afternoon with her friends.
"Halloween is in two weeks and we have nothing to wear! It’s a travesty!" Emma infused feigned sadness into her voice; well, at least Kira thought it was feigned. "We need to get costumes now before all of the good ones are taken. And, I figured we could all plan some sort of theme together."
"Not this again." In the back seat, Miles scrunched up his face, making his glasses slant sideways.
"Oh please, it’ll be fun!" Excited, Emma released both hands from the wheel to make her point. Kira jumped forward and grabbed it before the car could swerve out of control. Emma flashed her a sheepish smile.
"I’m with Miles. I refuse to dress up as a Ken doll," Dave added, almost under his breath, but loud enough for Emma to notice.
"It was only an idea…" Emma let her sentence trail off. Kira laughed picturing the boys as Disco Ken with sequined blazers on.
"I’ve got it!" Luke chimed in from the back seat. Everyone but Emma, now making the effort to concentrate on driving, turned to look at him. "Power Rangers."
Kira groaned. "I refuse to wear a yellow jumpsuit. Never happening. No way."
"You could wear the pink one…" Luke trailed off, anticipating a slap. Instead, Kira turned around in her seat and simply rolled her eyes at him. He laughed it off, but held her eyes for an extra second. She nodded subtly, trying to let him know this was exactly what she had needed and that she was finally feeling a little better. The bickering that constantly seemed to befall their little gang was making her forget all about the other thoughts churning in her head.
"I’m with Kira. No way. Even I can’t look sexy as a Power Ranger."
"I beg to differ," Dave chimed in from the back. Kira saw Emma flash him a smile through the rearview mirror.
"What about the Scooby gang?" Kira tried to contribute to the debate.
"There’re only four of them." Miles said from the back.
"I know. Luke can be Scooby-doo!" Everyone laughed, except for Luke who just claimed he was too tall to pretend to be a dog.
They pulled up in front of the mall, and Emma slid her car into a parking spot. As they jumped from their seats and headed toward the front doors, a peace treaty was figured out. Everyone would come up with a theme later, and after fifteen minutes of walking around, they would choose the best one—the end.
The mall was crowded and Kira immediately tensed up. She couldn’t help but imagine how many of those people held deathly secrets or how many might try to kill her.
Children laughed as they played on the jungle gym set up where Santa’s workshop would be constructed in two short months. Their parents gazed on from the sideline. A group of preteen girls gossiped in the corner, and, opposite them, were a group of Goths Kira recognized from school. Everyone was harmless, she reassured herself. She had to believe it.
The sun seeped through the skylight and, for once, Kira was truly grateful for the lack of artificial lights at this mall. She instantly felt warm all over and calmer.
Luke came up to put an arm around her shoulder. She realized the rest of the group had left them behind to walk toward the costume shop at the other end of the mall.
"Are you okay?" Luke asked, pushing her down the walk a little. Her feet fell instep with his and she started to break from the trance.
"Yeah," she nodded. "What’d you tell them? No one commented on my slight mood."
"Nothing really, just that you were going through some family stuff right now. Emma really wanted to call you yesterday to check in, but I told her to leave it alone and that you didn’t want to talk about it."
"Thanks." Kira nestled into his arm a little further. "I still just don’t know what to do. I spoke with my Mom and she told me the whole story, all about my parents. And she gave me this." Kira pulled the locket and ring out from underneath her sweater. She opened it and showed Luke the picture. He squeezed her shoulder, comforting her before she even realized she was holding her breath to keep the pain from seeping out.
"Come on," he said, picking up the pace. "No more sad thoughts. It’s time to let Emma dress you up like her very own life-sized Barbie doll." He smiled cheerfully as Kira whimpered and involuntarily walked into the Halloween shop.
The first things she noticed were the life-sized animated skeletons and ghouls that were speaking and had electric light up eyes. Spiderwebs were knotted all over the ceiling and gruesome bloodied hands and heads lined the floor. A mechanical spider dropped from the ceiling, landing on top of her head, and Kira let out a loud yelp before realizing it was fake. A five-year-old little boy laughed at her from the other side of the store. Annoying little kid, she thought while looking for her friends who all seemed to have disappeared.
"Kira!" Emma waved her over to the back wall, which was lined with costumes and thankfully lacked the gore of the entrance. On the way to the female costumes, Kira spotted the boys huddled in a corner all holding different swords and speaking in hushed tones. She didn’t like the look of it.
"Which one?" Emma asked holding up a pirate costume and a princess costume. Each one was short
with barely any fabric, and Kira knew it would leave little to the imagination.
"Um…" Kira said, not knowing how to answer. She wouldn't be caught dead wearing either one out in public.
"Okay, Okay," Luke came up behind them. "The boys have come to a decision: superheroes, super villains or pirates. Girls, take your pick." Kira noticed he still had a saber looped through his belt hole, making him look more like a little boy than ever.
"Oo!" Emma ran off without answering. She looked like she was in the middle of a eureka moment. Luke just glanced at Kira with a raised eyebrow and she shrugged. Dave and Miles sauntered over, looking out of breath.
"Swordfight," Dave exhaled.
"It was awesome! We need to be pirates." Miles added and Luke looked crushed that they dared do something so amazing without him. But Emma came rushing back at that exact moment and thrust something that looked vaguely like black pleather into Kira’s hand.
"Put it on!" She squealed and ran into the dressing room behind her. Kira rolled her eyes, afraid that she had already guessed what it was, and followed suit.
When she closed the curtain behind her, Kira unfolded the costume, looked in the mirror and sighed. A Catwoman outfit. Of course.
Kira didn’t want to be caught dead in the thing, but knew she had to appease her friend. With a loud exhale, she stripped off her clothes and tried to squeeze into the skintight suit.
When she was ready, Kira took a quick peak into the mirror, and she had to admit, she looked good. She had never worn skin-tight leather before, but it definitely looked hot. Kira held the whip in her hand, put the mask on over her eyes and smiled. She looked nothing like herself, but she kind of liked it. The faux cat scratches up the side of her leg definitely looked really sexy, and she tried to push aside the part of her head that started to wonder what Tristan would think. She couldn’t let herself go there.
"Kira, come out! I bet you look awesome." Emma called from the other side. Kira peaked around the curtain and saw that a few feet to the side Emma was dressed in a Poison Ivy costume. The boys looked appreciative and were at the moment fighting over who got to be Batman if the theme stuck. Kira slid open the curtain and the boys dropped their jaws, halting the fight mid-argument.
Kira smiled. It felt good.
"Wow," was all Miles said, scrambling to right his glasses, which had tilted during the argument. The other two boys remained silent, still slack jawed.
"Perfect!" Emma walked in front of her and beamed with joy. "These are the perfect costumes. We are going to look amazing at the party."
"Party?" Kira immediately felt her heart sink. It was one thing to dress like this in front of her friends, but another thing entirely to dress like this in front of the whole school.
"Yes, the party. The Halloween party? I thought you knew about the school dance. I’ve only mentioned it a hundred times." Oh, that party, Kira thought to herself.
"Right, right." Kira tried to recover. She could never let Emma know she didn’t pay attention to half the things she said during lunch. The girl spoke at a rate of about one hundred miles per hour.
"You do like the costume, right?" Kira saw the hopeful look in Emma’s eye, saw how excited the boys were and sighed.
"Yeah, I love it."
"Excellent!" Emma practically skipped back into her dressing room.
Kira pushed the curtain aside, step back into her room and would have screamed, except a hand closed over her mouth and Tristan pushed her up against the mirror, holding her so tightly she couldn’t move. He closed the curtain tightly with his other hand.
Kira felt her body begin to heat immediately. She wasn’t sure if his was his proximity or her powers, but she couldn’t stop the flush that rose to her cheeks or the slight fear that crept into her eyes.
"Please, please calm down. I’m not here to hurt you. Please, don’t be afraid." She saw the pleading glint to his eyes, and knew he would have already hurt her if he wanted to. She tried to swallow her fear and felt her body relax into his. Tristan freed her mouth and dropped his arms down to his sides.
"Hey," he said, smiling so slight dimples formed on his cheeks. He shrugged. Kira started to smile in return, but stopped it, mentally shaking herself. She couldn’t just forgive him. She forced herself to walk around Tristan’s body and slide down the wall to sit on the floor. The image of him licking his lips clean of her blood rose to the forefront of her thoughts, and Kira remembered the desire and repulsion that ran across his features. She looked away from him, unsure of how to act, what to say, and mostly what to feel. There was anger of course, but there was also sadness. She had missed him. She had tried not to, but Kira couldn’t hide the bit of joy she felt at seeing him again.
"Please, say something." Tristan knelt down to sit next to her, keeping his voice barely above a whisper. She looked at him, at his pale skin, shaggy black hair and somehow warm blue eyes. He was evil beneath it all. She had to remember that, or else she would keep falling deeper under his spell. She didn’t understand, looking at him now, why she couldn’t have fallen for Luke instead. It would have been so much easier. But here she was, wishing he would sit a little closer and explain to her that none of it was true.
"Why you?" The two words escaped her lips before she even realized she had spoken. Hurt filled his eyes. She felt the morning’s joy quickly seeping from her, like a receding tide.
"I’m sorry," he started to stand, shaking his head more at himself than anything else.
"Wait," she lightly touched his arm, but it was enough to make him sit back down again. "I didn’t mean it. It’s just…it would have been so much easier to hate you." She let her eyes fall to the ground, counting the feathers and sequins that had fallen off the many costumes that had been tried on in the small room.
"I know."
They passed the next few moments in silence.
"What do you want?" She asked, daring to speak first and glance at him.
"I saw you and Luke walking over, and I just had to talk to you. I need to explain what happened. You know I would have never hurt you, right?" She nodded, hoping it was true.
"I was going to tell you. I swear. But then Diana interrupted and we started fighting and before I knew it things were spiraling out of control. And then there was the whole part where you almost killed me…" He laughed a little, stealing a peek at her through his lashes.
"Sorry about that." She smirked at him in return.
"We’ll call it even." A little shred of hoped seemed to light his features.
"Why, were you almost going to kill me?" The hope vanished, but Kira had to ask the question. He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated.
"That was their plan." Kira sucked in her breath. "But, even before I met you, I never would have let them go through with it," he hastily spoke, "I’m not like that, I swear. I don’t kill people. I know you might not believe me, but it’s the truth."
Kira knew she shouldn’t, but somehow she did believe him. She started to say so, but heard Emma from the other side of the curtain.
"Are you okay, Kira?" Crap, she thought. The dressing room really wasn’t the ideal place for serious conversations.
"Yeah," she fumbled for an excuse. "Just having a little trouble with the zipper. No big deal."
"The boys are all in their costumes. Poke your head out."
Kira glanced at Tristan and stood up. She stepped over his outstretched legs, suddenly remembering she was in a leather pantsuit. She could feel his eyes taking in her outfit and immediately felt embarrassed. She tried to quell the blush threatening her cheeks as she slid her head around the curtain.
Kira barked out a laugh at the sight of Dave as Batman, Miles as Robin and Luke, of course, as the Joker.
"Perfect." She said, meeting Luke’s eyes and ignoring the questioning concern they held.
"I know. We’re going to make quiet an entrance next week," Emma said. Kira noticed she was already dressed in her normal clothes and held a shopping bag in her hand. How l
ong had Kira been in the dressing room?
"Okay, I’ll be out in a moment." She ducked her head back behind the curtain and glanced at Tristan as he jerked his head back from a position that seemed precariously close to one someone would use to check out her behind.
"I have to go." She stated into an awkward silence, not sure how to get changed with him in the room.
"Can we talk later? Will you meet me somewhere? There are so many things I still want to say." Kira wanted to say yes. She wanted to let him explain everything, wanted the fake mistletoe and stolen kisses one more time. But, she couldn’t.
"I’m not ready," she said, even as her heart screamed at her. "I don’t know if I ever will be. I know you didn’t mean to ever hurt me, but that doesn’t change anything. What you are, what I am…" She let that last thought linger. There was still so much keeping them apart, so much she didn’t know about him and wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.
Kira turned away from him and looked out past the curtain. All the boys were still comparing costumes.
"Close your eyes." She needed to get changed and he still couldn’t leave. He put his hands over his eyes, but Kira noticed the slight opening between his pointer and middle finger. "Come on, close them." She said, making him stand up and forcing him to face the curtain while she changed behind his back.
After a few excruciatingly quiet moments, she was back in her comfy jeans; happy she was free of the skintight cat suit.
"Hide, okay?" He nodded. She started to pull the curtain aside, but he quickly grabbed her hand, making her turn around.
"You looked really hot, by the way." She smiled shyly. "See you at the dance," he winked and Kira quickly bolted out of the dressing room, trying to keep her heart from beating right out of her chest.
Kira practically ran to the cash register and bought her costume, telling everyone she would wait for them outside. She found a bench, curled her knees into her chest and let her thoughts wander. What was she going to do?
He drank blood for crying out loud. How was she still attracted to him? Kira could never tell Luke, and maybe couldn’t even tell Emma. Would she risk it to see if she could love Tristan?
Kira fingered the gold ring that now hung around her neck. Did she have the courage?
"Penny for your thoughts?" Luke sat down beside her and she quickly let go of her necklace. Kira had realized one thing, she needed to learn control. When Tristan had grabbed her, she could feel herself start to explode. If it had been Diana or Jerome or John, she might have accidentally killed one of them in the costume store. Or, they could have killed her. She needed to learn more about herself and her abilities.
"I need to start training with you, don’t I?"
Luke stared at her thoughtfully, probably wondering what brought this about. "Yeah, at some point you need to start learning who you are and how to use your abilities to protect yourself."
"Can at some point be like at some point next week?" She lifted her lashes to view him better.
"Whenever you want."
She nodded. "Let’s do it."
"There’s one more thing I need to tell you." Kira waited, hesitant. "I need to start sending reports back home. I haven’t told them anything important about you, not yet. But, if we start training, I need to let them, the council, know you have abilities. I don’t think anything will change, at least for a few months. But, I thought I should tell you."
"Thanks," Kira replied and thought about it. Once he sent that report, there would be no turning back. The Protectors would know the threat she represented. The whole conduit community would probably learn about her, her powers and the danger she represented. All the more reason to train and to show them she had control. She had to prove to them that they hadn’t made a mistake by protecting her all those years ago.
Kira nodded in understanding, silently letting Luke know it was okay, as their friends finally approached.
"Sorry, I got distracted." Miles looked sheepish as he apologized.
Emma rolled her eyes. "He challenged a ten year old to a lightsaber duel. I swear Miles, I hope you get into Harvard, because aside from us, those nerds will be the only ones who accept you."
"Hey," he started, but then paused as if realizing the truth in the statement. "I sent in my early decision application finally. Did I tell any of you?"
They all congratulated him, and Kira prayed he would get in. They all loved him, it was true, but unlike Luke who pretended to be really childish, Miles really seemed to be a little boy sometimes.
A few hours later, Kira finally pulled open the front door of her home and climbed the stairs to her bedroom. Shopping had utterly drained her, and she was happy to finally soak in the steaming hot water of her shower and let the stress of the past few days melt away.
Wrapped in a soft, fresh towel, she slipped into her room and practically passed out on her bed.
"What’s this?" Chloe appeared from under her bed, scaring Kira half to death.
"What’s what?" Kira asked, pulling her little sister on to her lap, loving the fact that nothing had changed in that relationship. She still loved Chloe with all of her heart, and they would always be sisters.
Chloe shoved a piece of paper at Kira. "It’s pretty." Chloe smiled and Kira took the paper, sucking in her breath when she saw a drawing of her as Catwoman and a note that read: Can’t wait.
"Where’d you find this?" Kira asked, finally finding words.
"On the bed, silly," her sister tried to take the paper back, but Kira pulled it out of her little arm’s reach. Tristan had been here, in her room?
Chloe slid off her lap and tugged on Kira’s arm.
"Make me hot cocoa," Chloe ordered. Kira laughed and tried to get out of Chloe’s grip while still holding onto her towel.
"Let me get dressed first." Chloe pouted, but let go of her arm and rushed downstairs to wait in the kitchen. Kira stared at the drawing for another moment before walking over to her bookshelf and slipping it in with Tristan’s other drawings that she had hidden in her jewelry box.
She tried in vain to ignore all the questions creeping into her mind and quickly got dressed to appease the four-year-old terror downstairs.