by Rachel Rener
It therefore came as no surprise when a few moments later my own phone rang. Lo and behold, Robert’s suspiciously cheerful voice was on the other end.
“Aiden, m’boy! Sorry for the late call. I was just telling Evie that it’s been a few days since we last spoke and—”
“And a little bird just happened to tell you that I’m acting uncharacteristically irritable and pyromaniacal,” I interjected, giving Aspen’s backside the stink-eye as she abruptly hastened out of the kitchen and skittered toward the bedroom. “Right?”
“Well, it wasn’t quite framed that way…” Robert started, sounding somewhat abashed.
“I see.”
After Evelyn’s muffled interjection and a hearty throat clear, he added, “Well, I’d like to help if I can. What seems to be the trouble?”
Using the edge of my thumbnail to scrape at a charred splinter in the floorboard, I gritted my teeth. Oh, just the inevitable collapse of the Asterian Order, my fiancée’s forthcoming world tour with a besotted admirer and a deranged psychopath, and the very real danger that you and Evelyn might be caught in the crossfire of an all-out Elemental war.
Instead, I replied, “It’s nothing that can’t be discussed once you’ve returned from your trip.”
“Aiden—”
“Please give my love to Evelyn,” I interrupted, scooping up my soggy sweater from the ground. “And before you ask, I have those updated annotations on the Greenland Norse settlers, the ones you never got to finish. I’ll send ‘em to you by the end of the week. ‘Night!”
I hung up before he could protest further. Our professional friendship had certainly evolved into something resembling a surrogate father-son relationship in recent years and I was profoundly grateful for it – save for moments like this. A solo interrogation I could handle, but as a united front, Evelyn and Robert were more brutal than the Spanish Inquisition. Besides, why ruin his first and only retirement celebration with news of an impending global catastrophe?
On that note, the sounds of opening and shutting drawers let me know that Aspen had already begun packing, her decision made. Tossing my silenced phone on the arm of the couch, I finished cleaning up the burn marks and puddles of water I’d left on the living room floor, then made my way to the bedroom. With crossed arms, I leaned my bare shoulder on the doorframe, only now beginning to warm up from the exertion of cleaning up my own mess. I didn’t see Aspen but watched as various articles of clothing flew through the air and landed on the growing mountain of clothes that had been accumulating on our unmade bed.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked, not moving from my spot.
Aspen’s disheveled head popped out of the closet. Despite the chill in the house, she was clad in only pajama shorts and a thin white undershirt.
“Oh, good,” I smiled. “And here I thought we had some sort of garment goblin hiding in the closet. A telekinetic Pants-a-mancer, if you will.”
Emerging from her cave, she folded her arms in indignation while a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I really don’t think now’s the time for jokes, Aiden. I have to leave first thing in the morning and I have no idea what to pack. Or how long I’ll be gone. Or where I’m going, for that matter.”
“Well, that answers my next three questions,” I replied dryly. With a heavy sigh, I stepped into the bedroom. “What can I do to help?”
She glanced around the room, an utter lack of enthusiasm for the task at hand stooping her shoulders.
“Tell you what – I’ll go get our suitcases from the shed while you continue to relegate the entire closet to the top of our bed. When I come back maybe we can try to guess where we’re going so we can pack accordingly.”
Her eyes widened. “We? You mean… you’re coming?”
I shrugged. “The last time you went traipsing around the globe without me, I told you I’d never let you do that again. And I seem to recall you readily agreeing.”
Aspen’s eyes flashed almost imperceptibly. “To be fair, I was rather distracted when I agreed to those stipulations.”
“So you do remember.” I took another step into the bedroom. Aspen took another step away from the closet.
“I remember that it had been a solid five weeks since we last saw each other,” she answered, openly surveying my bare torso.
“Mmhmm,” I replied, leisurely making my way towards her.
“And we hadn’t had a moment alone since I accidentally set fire to our hotel room a couple of months before that…”
We met toe-to-toe in the center of the room, facing one another at the foot of the unkempt bed. “What else do you remember?” I asked, stroking my finger along her flushing cheek.
“I remember you laying me down on the couch and making love to me for the first time.”
My fingers brushed against the edge of her jaw and down the side of her neck. She closed her eyes as I traced the ridge of her collarbone.
“Where you go, I go,” I whispered against her parted lips.
Her eyes blinked open, wide and full of disbelief. “Even though Ori drives you crazy?”
“Yes.”
“And we’ll have Savannah as a tour guide?”
I did my best not to grimace. “Yes.”
“And I have no idea what the next few weeks will entail?”
Sigh. “Yes.”
“I don’t deserve you,” she whispered.
I blinked, taken aback. She didn’t deserve me? In one quick movement, I scooped her into my arms, eliciting a small yelp. Laying her across the bed, mound of clothes and all, I crawled on top of her, resting my elbows on either side of her head.
“Don’t ever say that again,” I half-growled, our lips millimeters apart.
She met my eyes with a surprisingly steady expression. “Or what?”
My brain reminded me that this wasn’t the time for lovemaking. We needed to pack, to plan, to fill in our families and say our goodbyes. But the thin, clingy material of her tank top left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Goosebumps spread across her chest, making the thin material even less effective. My fingers twitched, longing to slide beneath her shirt and squeeze those perfect breasts. When she bit her lip, the hunger rising in my throat made my entire body shudder.
Screw logic.
My mouth dropped to hers, my lips crushing against her parted lips. The touch of her tongue against mine was like striking a match to gasoline. A deep growl rumbled from my chest. With a gasp, she wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me against her, the fervor of her kiss matching mine. My pelvis pressed against her hips and she wrapped her legs around my back, arching her body to grind against me. The heat simmering between my legs was rising, throbbing and pulsing with desire.
Entwined as we were, we somehow managed to tear each other’s clothes off, adding to the crumpled pile surrounding us. Braced on my elbows, I gazed down at her naked form – her milky white skin, the dips and curves of her waist and hips, the perfect mounds of her breasts. My mouth found the side of her neck and my tongue slid across her skin, leaving a fresh trail of goosebumps in its wake. Her hands fisted in my hair and she arched her back, inviting me in – but I wasn’t ready. I was relishing the taste of her skin, the feel of her body responding to my touch. My right arm curled beneath the small of her back as I kissed and sucked on her breasts, gently tugging on her firm nipples. She cried out in pleasure, her legs constricting around me, drawing me toward her. My grip beneath her back tightened as I slid my arousal between her thighs, entering her with ease. She let out a soft gasp and tilted her head back, taking me in full.
My hand slid across the fullness of her hip and back down her thigh as I slowly thrust in and out, long slow strokes that made her moan in pleasure. Her fingers raked down my back pulling me deeper inside of her. That, right there, almost ended me. I sucked in a deep breath to refocus, releasing a shuddering moan that shook my entire body. She gripped my hips in response, pulling me as deep as I could go. We writhed and puls
ed in harmony, breathing as one, our bodies moving faster and faster as the heat between my legs simmered hot and deep.
Faster and stronger, hotter and deeper – I almost couldn’t take it anymore. As Aspen tilted her head back and let out a cry of pleasure, the throbbing heat in my core erupted, sending shudders of pleasure across my entire body. With a groan, I nestled my face against the side of her neck, panting as I depleted myself of every last drop of ecstasy. She hooked her arms beneath mine and held me, the quickened rise of her chest perfectly synchronized with mine.
We lay there for a long moment, catching our breaths and clutching one another tightly, as though tomorrow might indeed rip us away from each another. After a few minutes, I rolled over on my side and took her with me. With a contented sigh, she curled herself against my body, nuzzling her head beneath my chin as I wrapped my arms around her. Eventually her breaths slowed and the muscles in her body relaxed. As I gently traced my fingers across the dip of her waist and hip, careful not to wake her, the endorphins began to fade and reality set in once more.
Tomorrow, we would be leaving, embarking on a long journey that would ostensibly take us across the world with one of our best friends – a man who loved my future wife – and one of our worst enemies – the woman I’d prayed I would never have to see again – to find powerful strangers who may or may not be happy to see us. Where we would be going, how long we would be gone, I wasn’t sure even Ori could say. As my chest constricted at the thought, my arms tightened around her sleeping form.
Perhaps she thought it was her duty to protect the world; perhaps that was true. But it was my duty to protect her. As much as I dreaded the coming days, my mind had also been made up. The only thing to do now was steel myself, because of all the challenges I’d faced in my lifetime, keeping my composure tomorrow morning was going to take all of the restraint I possessed – and then some.
Chapter 5
re you sure it’s absolutely necessary for Savannah to accompany us?” I asked for the third time since breakfast.
Aspen grimaced. We were standing side by side in the living room, staring at the two over-stuffed duffle bags sitting on the couch in front of us. Not knowing exactly where we’d be going, we’d packed everything from shorts to down jackets.
“I mean, isn’t Mei the least bit concerned that she might try to kill us or sabotage the mission? Or both?”
“Um, well… I guess Mei has complete confidence in her. She says that Savannah was one of Barish’s few trusted allies and that she was perfectly competent for years… until she went a little cuckoo in the end.”
“Oh, well, that’s nice,” I replied, fiddling with the overworked zipper on Aspen’s bag that was threatening to burst open. “I feel much better now. I mean, it’s not like the woman hired a Pyromantic convict to stab a syringe in your neck and kidnap you or anything heinous like that.”
She chewed on her lip anxiously. “To be fair, there were a lot of factors at play back then. I mean, Barish did more or less use her to get to me, using some pretty crappy methods as motivation. And she’d been hiding a substance abuse problem for a while…”
“Well then, that makes everything she did perfectly alright,” I muttered.
A rap on the door let us know Ori had arrived. I straightened, absentmindedly cracking my knuckles as I did.
“Aiden.” Aspen gave me a pointed look.
“Yes?”
“Please be nice to him.”
“Why would I be anything but nice?” I asked, doing my best to push last night’s uncomfortable revelation about him from my mind.
“Before Ori and I left, my mom took me aside and, um…” trailing off, she glanced at the door but didn’t move. “Well, she thought she may have detected some fairly negative feelings coming from you last night.”
“Oh?” I asked. “And did she mention any interesting feelings seeping from Ori? Or was I the only one under a microscope?”
She frowned. “She wasn’t—”
The front door burst open and a disheveled Israeli burst inside.
“Jacob, Noah, and Moses, do you know how cold it is outside?” Ori blustered, rubbing his mittened hands together. He shut the door with his hip, snow clinging to his wool coat and scarf as he leaned against the door frame. Then, shaking the snow from his hair, he shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it on a chair.
“Hey, Ori, make yourself at home,” I muttered. Aspen nudged me with her elbow.
“Thanks, achi,” he replied, oblivious to my tone. “So, Aspen! Are you all packed up?”
“Yep,” she replied, smiling tightly. “We both are.”
“Both?” He raised an eyebrow. “Aiden, you don’t have ‘Professoring’ to do? Dark Ages, the collapse of empires that don’t exist anymore – you know, all those timely and relevant topics that are crucial learning for America’s youth?”
My eyes narrowed. “First of all, the collapse of empires is highly relevant given the flagrant neglect of social contracts by notable world leaders and the sharp rise of globalization. And secondly—”
“He’s on winter break, Ori,” Aspen interjected. “We both are, for another two weeks. So let’s hope we can wrap everything up by then. Doctor Shirvani wasn’t exactly pleased with me last night when I told him I didn’t know when I’d be coming back to the program.”
“Did you tell him that you were going on a mission to save the world?”
“No, I just said—”
Before she could finish that sentence, the door burst open a second time and Eileen rushed in, nearly plowing into Ori as she did.
“Eileen!” Aspen gasped. “I thought we were meeting you at the airport!”
“And let you three have all the fun in the meantime? Not a chance!” she grinned, punching Ori in the arm. “Hey, Mr. Future Prime Minister! It’s terrible to see you!”
“Likewise, Madam Aggregator! By the way, I saw your recruitment stats last month. Badass! You’re setting records left and right!”
“Well, duh,” she beamed. “No one can resist my charms.”
“Sure, sure,” he grinned as he ruffled her platinum blonde hair. “Hey, what happened to the cool green streaks you used to have?”
“Oh, dude, check it out!” she replied, gathering her shoulder-length hair into a messy ponytail. Her entire under-layer of hair had been dyed bright green. “Isn’t that sweet? Sophia did it for me a few days ago.”
Ori whistled approvingly.
“What about you, man?” She poked his chest. “Have you been working out ahead of your election tour? Because I’m seeing some major muscle definition underneath that skimpy little white sweater of yours. Let me see!” She snatched the hem of his shirt and pulled it up, exposing surprisingly defined abs.
Ori let out a yelp. “Are your fingers made of ice?” he gasped, wrestling his sweater from her hands. “Leggo, evil snow pixie!”
Eileen took a step back, blinking in surprise. “Ori, what the hell? When did you get ripped??”
I glanced over at Aspen, who had also been brazenly gawking at his stomach. When she noticed my expression, she changed the subject with a hasty cough. “When’s Sophia coming?”
Eileen held up her index finger. “Hang on, I still haven’t solved the mystery of suddenly-sexy Ori. She reached up to grasp a lock of his hair between her fingers. “Dude, is this pomade? Who are you?”
“This pomade brought me this close to a threesome last month,” he grinned idiotically, holding his thumb and forefinger a hair’s width apart. “And seeing as I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks with the most beautiful girl in the world—”
“Here we go,” I muttered.
“—and her slightly-cute-in-a-Disney-ice-queen-kind-of-way friend—”
“Ori,” Aspen interjected.
“—I figured, hey, a tiny chance is still a chance!”
“Ori!” Aspen and Eileen yelled at the same time.
I don’t quite remember my thought process at that exact moment, b
ut before I knew it, I had crossed the living room in three strides, my hand reaching out on its own accord to grab the collar of Ori’s sweater. His eyebrows stopped mid-wiggle, freezing halfway up his forehead.
“You and me, outside,” I growled, yanking the door open with my free hand. I shoved him backwards and through the doorway and didn’t let go until the door slammed behind me, leaving the two of us alone on the front porch.
“What the hell!” he stammered, straightening the stretched-out neckline of his designer sweatshirt. I couldn’t help but hope it had been expensive.
I held a finger in the air. “Ori, so help me God, if you make one more comment like that about Aspen, I will swiftly and cheerfully singe those eyebrows straight off your face.”
His surprised expression quickly morphed to incredulity. “You can’t be serious.”
I snatched the lighter from my pocket, sparking a white-hot ball of flames as I did. “Try me.”
His eyes grew dark. “Ahi, I gave you a free pass earlier. Don’t push me.”
Though I had no intention of actually attacking the chucklehead, the flames in my hand surged alongside my mounting anger. As fast as lightning, Ori’s hand shot out, grabbed my wrist and twisted it painfully. As the lighter clattered to the porch, he caught it with the toe of his boot and kicked it upward, catching the lighter with his free hand like a damn hacky sack.
I staggered backward, both stunned and livid. Where the hell had he learned that?
The front door burst open. As quickly as I’d conjured it, Aspen extinguished my Fire with a flick of her wrist. She stood between the two of us, her eyes flashing with anger.
“What is wrong with you?” she snapped. For a moment, I thought she was directing the question at Ori… until I realized she was glaring at me.
My own eyes widened in surprise. “Me?”
“The four of us – sorry, five of us, including Savannah – are about to embark on a very long, tedious, possibly dangerous trip. And the last thing we need is in-fighting! So, both of you,” she said, turning her glare to Ori, “need to get past whatever the hell this is—” she gestured her hand between us angrily “—and cut it out. Eileen and I are going to go meet with Savannah in a few minutes, so the two of you—”