Wicked Secrets

by H G Lynch

  She smiled sadly and pulled the ribbon through his fingers slowly. He released it and she balled it in her hand, throwing it onto the dresser. But before he could lower his hand, she slid her hand into his, replacing the ribbon with her own fingers, and he smiled back at her.

  “Hold on to this instead,” Ember said, rubbing her thumb across his palm. She slid onto the bed next to him and he wrapped his other arm around her, not letting go of her fingers.

  “I won’t,” he promised, resting his chin on the top of her head as she curled against his side. He lay back, pulling her down with him, and she used his chest as a pillow, breathing in his spiced-apple scent. His skin was hot against her cheek, even through his t-shirt. His free fingers ran gently through her damp hair, making her sleepy, and she curled her fingers into his t-shirt. She pressed her bare toes against his sock feet and he chuckled into her hair.

  “If you want to sleep, I can go,” he murmured, but she heard the reluctance in his voice, the hope that she’d say no. She smiled, tipping her face up and cracking her heavy eyelids open just enough to see his blue eyes glittering at her through the dimness of the room. She lifted her face a little more and placed a kiss on his jaw. He made a soft noise in the back of his throat, his eyes falling shut.

  She whispered, “No. Stay.” He nodded, and she settled her cheek against his chest again, feeling his fingers stroking through her hair. His other hand was still laced with hers, resting on his stomach.

  “Ember?” he murmured.

  “Hmm?” she sighed without looking up. She was so comfortable like this, huddled against his side.

  He took a breath. “Say it again. Please.”

  She knew what he was talking about, and smiled to herself as she whispered, “I love you, Reid.”

  Though she didn’t look at him, she felt him smiling too. “I like hearing that,” he confessed. She just nodded against his chest. There was a second of silence, and his fingers stilled in her hair. Then he whispered back, “I love you, Firefly.”

  She was sure he heard her heart skip a beat, and she wanted to say ‘I know’, but she was so tired she couldn’t seem to make her mouth work. Instead she made a faint humming sound, and Reid chuckled almost silently, the sound vibrating through his chest. His fingers started moving through her hair again, lulling her closer to sleep with every stroke.

  She fell asleep with her cheek against his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ** Ember **

  “Wait, so why do you think they used a car to transport you out there?” Ricky asked, frowning. He was looking confused, and Reid was…well, he was apparently fascinated with twirling a lock of Ember’s hair round his finger. Again.

  The boys had arrived at the door at just after noon, firing questions about what had happened to the girls when Owen took them. Of course, the girls had still been exhausted, barely awake, and tried to send them away. And of course, they didn’t listen. So, the girls had spent the last hour explaining every detail of their kidnapping and escape to the curious boys.

  Ricky curled Sherry into his lap as she told her part of the story, and he grimaced the whole time. Reid was sprawled across Ember’s bed, while she sat on the floor next to it, letting him play with her hair. It was soothing and it was perhaps the only thing stopping her from bursting into tears as she choked out an explanation about Owen knocking her out, and then him threatening Sherry, and then her uncontrollable rage.

  Then she explained about the fire – that bit freaked the boys out big time; apparently, they’d never heard of anyone or anything having that kind of power, aside from a few types of fae. They asked her question after question about it, even made her show them. She still wasn’t entirely sure how she did it, but if she really focused, she could make a flame spring up on her index finger. Just a tiny flame, nothing like the fiery whip she’d used on the witches, or the inferno she’d summoned out of nowhere. But it was amazing enough to make the vampires stare at her in awe for ten minutes, commanding her to do it over and over again. She clicked her fingers, and the flame died. Clicked her fingers again, the flame sprung up. Click, click, click. By the time they’d had enough, she was exhausted again.

  And then they had more questions about what else happened, and Ember put a hand over her eyes, wishing they’d stop asking questions already. God, it was so much to recall, but talking it out was helping arrange it all in her head. It made it easier to handle. But all she really wanted to remember was curling up against Reid and hearing him whisper in the darkness behind her closed eyes, I love you, Firefly.

  “Well, we started walking at around noon, and we walked almost non-stop to get back here, following a road the whole way, and we didn’t get back until about midnight, right? So that’s a hell of a lot of walking. And there’s no way Owen could have dragged me the whole, what, maybe twenty-five miles? Even with the witches, it’d be pretty damn difficult, and the witches weren’t there because they were off kidnapping Sherry. So, common sense allows a logical option; that option being a car.” Ember hoped her own logic sounded as reasonable to them as it seemed in her head.

  Ricky looked suitably convinced, nodding with a serious expression plastered to his fine face. “But the witches must’ve used a different car to bring Sherry in, and left it in the forest somewhere before making her walk the rest of the way, right?” he said, absently stroking Sherry’s blonde hair as he spoke, his aqua eyes fixed grimly on Ember. If she looked close enough, Ember could see the flicker of accusation in his eyes. She knew she deserved it. It was her fault, whether or not she could’ve foreseen or suspected the foul play, that Sherry had been dragged into the whole mess. It was her fault, and the guilt was eating at her, no matter how many times she’d apologised to Sherz already – fifty-three. She’d apologised fifty-three times so far. She’d been counting.

  It hurt to see the faint bruise marring Sherry’s cheekbone, even though it was fading quickly due to a little dose of vamp-blood from Ricky. Ember winced inside whenever Sherry looked at her. Sure, she could burn a group of witches to ashes without a second of regret, but seeing the bruises she’d caused – inadvertently – to her best friend? Now that guilt could kill her.

  “Okay, so after you fried Owen and the witch hoard, what did you do?” Reid spoke from behind her, flicking her hair. Until he spoke, she hadn’t been sure he was even listening to the conversation.

  “Passed out,” the girls said simultaneously, and then laughed, though it wasn’t really funny. Ricky’s frown deepened until it looked like his face might be permanently set that way.

  Ember wished he’d stop looking so grim – it was making her feel more and more anxious all the time. They’d survived, they were fine; the witches wouldn’t be coming after them again. It was good news. They should be happy.

  “We didn’t wake up for a while. Then we started off the way Sherry was dragged in, and eventually found the road. We walked for forever before we came to…a little…petrol station,” Ember said slowly, and then paused as she remembered exactly what happened at the petrol station. Whoops, she thought uneasily, biting her lip. She kind of wanted to laugh, but decided it would be kind of cold to laugh. She’d bitten a guy, a total stranger, and left him lying unconscious on the floor. It shouldn’t have been funny – but it sort of was.

  She could feel Sherry’s green gaze on her and looked at her friend with what she hoped was an apologetic expression. “Um, yeah, about all that stuff that happened, can I just say that I didn’t want to do that. It just happened. I needed it. I promise I won’t do it again.”

  Sherry just rolled her eyes, unimpressed by Ember’s apology, but Ricky was eyeing her cautiously. “What happened?” he asked carefully. Ember looked away from his annoyingly honest eyes, aware that Ricky would probably be about as amused by her roadside snack experience as Sherry had been – which was to say, not very.

  When she didn’t answer, Reid flipped off the bed behind her and wandered arou
nd beside Ricky to gaze at her questioningly. “Emz, what happened at the petrol station?” he asked. The blonde boy arched a brow at her expectantly.

  Ember bit her lip, and then sighed in defeat, knowing he’d keep asking until he got an answer. “I may have…possibly…drunk a guy’s blood,” she said, cringing. Reid and Ricky stared at her with identically blank expressions, and she cringed back further, shrugging her shoulders up to her ears. “I couldn’t help it!” she said, “I was tired and hungry and it just hurt so much I couldn’t stand it, and I could see his pulse beating in his neck, and…” Ember stopped, waiting for someone to say something like ‘it’s okay, you didn’t mean to hurt anyone’ or ‘it happens; it’s not your fault’. But nobody said a word.

  Unnerved by the vampires’ unfathomable gazes, she got defensive. “I erased his memory afterward! And it’s not like I hurt him!”

  Ricky frowned at her, but it wasn’t a disapproving kind of frown; just one of his thoughtful frowns that kind of bugged Ember because she didn’t really understand it. Reid, on the other hand, simply grinned. “Why is it funny, Reid?” she asked wearily, putting a hand to her head. She needed about four more hours of sleep – or four days of it.

  “You ate a guy,” Reid said, far more amused by this statement than he should have been. He laughed, and she scowled at him, slightly tempted to hit him with something.

  “I didn’t mean to,” she said pathetically, pouting. For some reason, this just made Reid laugh harder. Ember could still feel Ricky’s irritating gaze on her as she glared at Reid.

  Then, finally, Ricky spoke. Quietly, he said “It’s okay, Ember. You’re new. You couldn’t control it. You have no reason to feel guilty.” He smiled his small, reassuring smile, and Ember let out a breath of relief. She’d been worried he’d think she was a monster, because she didn’t feel guilty. She probably should have, but then, she should also have felt guilty about killing five people. She didn’t. She wondered if that meant there was something missing inside her, if it made her an evil person, or if was justified.

  “Anyway,” Ember said, ignoring Reid, who was still chuckling. “After I…fed on the guy, we cleaned up a bit and started walking again. Then we got back here and, well, you know what happened after that,” Ember concluded with a shrug. Reid looked at her then, his grin softening, and she looked away before she started to blush.

  “So, we’re all alive and kicking, and the evil witches are dead. We don’t have anything else to worry about. For now at least,” she added cheerfully, enthused by idea of having a few stress-free days over the remainder of the October holidays. She intended on spending them sleeping…or making out with Reid. She could alternate between the two things she loved most: her bed and her boyfriend. Or, a little voice in her head giggled, you could indulge in both at once.

  That thought was a very, very bad one, and she pushed it away before it became a temptation – and before Reid could pick it out of her head. Nope, she thought, desperately clinging to the shreds of her good sense that still remained, bed and boyfriend stay separate…for now. She felt her face getting hot and casually flopped back, grabbing her pillow to hide her face before anyone saw.

  “Um, hate to burst your bubble, but your mother’s still here,” Ricky pitched in, instantly deflating her new-found good mood and her less-than-innocent stream of thoughts. Damn it. She’d forgotten about her mother. What the hell was she going to tell Carol about Owen? Ugh. She could say he’d gotten in a bad accident in the forest when they’d gone camping, and died. But Mrs. Jennings would probably find a way to accuse Reid of, well, murder essentially – Ember was positive that her mother wasn’t beyond that; she really hated Reid. Oh, God, she could just imagine the scene her mother would cause.

  Ember groaned in despair, sitting up and holding her hands to her face. “Crap! I am so screwed!” she grumbled. She sensed more than heard Reid’s indrawn breath, obviously about to make some crude remark about her ‘being screwed’ and she pointed a finger at him accusingly. “Don’t. Even. Say it,” she warned.

  His eyebrows rose indignantly. “Hey! I wasn’t going to…okay, yeah, I was…” He rolled his eyes, unashamed, as she glared at him with a dark, yes-you-damn-well-were expression. She didn’t need to read his mind to know what he was thinking.

  With a sigh, Ember looked at Sherry, who was, annoyingly, trying not to laugh at Reid’s comment. “How am I going to explain Owen being gone to my mother? She’s going to lose it, big time. She’ll probably blame Reid. And she might even take me away from the school. God, she’s going to freak out.” Ember clutched at her hair, staring at Sherry expectantly. Sherry was usually good with giving advice. But this time, Sherry just looked back at her sympathetically. Ember slumped. Fabulous, I’m doomed, she thought. She should probably just start packing right now. She could kiss goodbye to Reid for the rest of her teenage life – she’d be grounded till she was twenty.

  “Well, there is one option,” Ricky said abruptly, interrupting her mental panicking. He looked a little sheepish as Ember turned desperate, pleading blue eyes on him. Very evenly, he suggested, “Compel her. Use your Compulsion to make her forget about ever bringing Owen. I know it doesn’t solve the problem of what to say to his family back home, but…it’s a start. Right?”

  Ember stared at him for a moment, ticking the plan over in her head. Then she said with absolute seriousness, “Ricky, you’re a genius!”

  It was almost a perfect plan. It was so simple, it was brilliant. Okay, so Owen’s family would probably never find out what happened to him, and worry for the rest of their lives, but it’s not like she could do anything about that. She couldn’t tell them anything. She hadn’t seen or even spoken to any of them in years. Maybe they’d assume Owen had run away. They could speculate all they liked. That was not her problem.

  Again, she knew she should feel bad for thinking something like that but she figured she got a pass for this one – after all, Owen had tried to kill her boyfriend, and probably would have killed her too if he could’ve. She just had a hard time finding sympathy for his family – they were probably better off without him.

  “Okay,” Ember said carefully, still thinking over the idea. “So I’ll Compel her. I’ll make her forget about Owen, and maybe throw in a little extra warping to keep her from bitching out Reid again.” Then her mother would be nice and happy and not a complete pain in the butt. Ember liked this plan a lot.

  “Are you sure you want to use Compulsion on your mother though, Emz? I mean, I know she drives you crazy and everything, but she’s still your mum,” Sherry cut in softly.

  Ember hesitated only a moment, taking a deep breath, and then said, “Yes. It’s easier all round if I do. Just this once.” She swore to herself she really wouldn’t make a habit out of this. Only when it was really necessary would she use Compulsion on people. The moral compass regarding Compulsion pointed to WRONG. Not that she was really all that concerned about where her moral compass pointed – lately, it had gotten a little confused.

  Sherry sighed. “Well, you’d better do it fast because your mother’s probably going to go mad and come charging over here in the next hour. After all, she expected you to get back with Owen hours ago.”

  “Yeah, back from your camping trip,” Reid grumbled, looking sulky. Apparently, before she’d been kidnapped by the witches, Sherry had been able to convince Carol that Ember and Owen had gone on an overnight camping trip – she had, apparently, been thrilled. Reid’s tone, though, let everyone in the room just how much he appreciated that idea. He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and Ricky scowled at him.

  He leaned over and punched Reid’s arm. “What did I tell you about getting jealous?”

  Reid glared at him and pulled one hand out of his pocket to shoot Ricky the finger. “Bite me, Dr Phil.”

  Ricky smiled blandly and pointed at Ember. “That’s her job, not mine.”

  Ember glared at him, and he shrank away guiltily. “Yeeeah.” Ember huffed, getting
to her feet. “I’ll go just now,” she muttered. She touched Reid’s arm, trying to draw him out of his brooding. He looked at her and pouted sulkily, which didn’t really make him look as grumpy as he was obviously aiming for. It just made him look, well, adorable. She smiled at him, and saw the corner of his mouth twitch, though he stubbornly didn’t smile back.

  “Okay then, continue sulking. I’ll be back as soon as I’ve Compelled my mother into not hating you,” Ember said, and he cracked; one corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. Satisfied, Ember sighed and headed for the door.

  As she slipped out and closed the door behind her, she heard Sherry call, “Good luck!”

  *

  Ember paused outside her mother’s temporary room, steeling herself for what she had to do. There were a lot of reasons this might not work:

  She might not have the power to do it properly.

  She might simply mess up, seeing as she’d only tried it twice before on much less stubborn minds than her mother’s.

  She might actually feel some degree of guilt, and chicken out.

  Well, Option B seemed most likely considering her incredible new ability to set fire to things without matches which lent a lot to her magic strength, and if she didn’t feel guilty for killing five people and then drinking the blood of an innocent random guy, it was unlikely she’d feel guilty about this. But screwing up was a real possibility. Okay, she thought to herself, drawing a deep breath, you can do this. Just do what you did with Sherry and that cashier guy.

  Ember let out her breath, and knocked on the door. Her mother answered swiftly, pulling open the door with a joyful smile. “Honey! You’re back! How was your camping trip with Owen? Did anything exciting happen?” Carol gushed as she tugged her daughter into the room and shut the door. Her green eyes shone with enthusiasm, and she flicked back her dark hair before she went to sit on the bed.