by H G Lynch
“OK. Let’s just think about this rationally. I am positive it was you - or someone who looked exactly like you - that came and yelled at me. She knew you’d found out, she knew I was in on the secret, and she knew we’re best friends. If you’re saying that you honestly never found me on Tuesday… Then we have a serious problem.” Ember frowned. Two weeks ago, this argument would’ve continued in the same infuriating pattern - Sherry denying the encounter and Ember insisting it happened - but after having discovered the existence of vampires… well, doppelganger conspiracies didn’t seem so insane. “I think we need to-” Ember started and was abruptly cut off by a familiar smooth voice.
“Talk to the vampires?” Reid grinned, strolling into the room, closely followed by a grimacing Ricky.
“Were you at the door or in my head this time?” Ember mock-scowled. Reid just laughed and Ricky waved weakly at the girls.
“You took my advice. Well done Kee,” Ember grinned at Ricky, who chuckled.
“Oh no! Don’t you start calling me that, too!” he replied despairingly, folding himself on the floor next to Sherry.
Ember grinned. “Well, Kee’s no worse than Demon. And I know you call me that too, behind my back, so don’t pretend like you don’t.” She held up a hand to stop his undoubted denial and he shrugged sheepishly.
“I see you two have made up? Good. Ricky and I have discovered something interesting,” Reid smirked, sprawling on his stomach on her bed next to Ember. He ran his fingertips up her arm and she slapped his hand away. He feigned pain, clutching his hand to his chest. She rolled her eyes at him and sighed.
“What did you discover that was so important you felt the need to interrupt our reconciliation?” Ember asked, shooting a wry look at Sherry, who smiled back. Ricky was currently clasping one of Sherry’s hands in his, gazing at her with clear love in his bright eyes. It was sickly sweet and made Ember want to gag.
“Well, it appears that those witches we caught decided to get revenge on us by messing with you two.” Reid wasn’t grinning anymore, so much as just baring his teeth.
“And you know this how?” Ember enquired, surprised.
“You remember Joseph Rian?” Ricky asked solemnly, and Ember nodded, gritting her teeth. “We interrogated him after we found him chewing on a rabbit out in the forest earlier. Turns out, he was working for the witches, and he just so happens to be the one who put the dead crow in your room.” Reid grinned, but it was a malicious, dangerous grin, and his eyes glinted in that inhuman, scary way they sometimes did.
“Reid, what did you do to Joseph?” Ember asked warily. Reid just looked at her, suddenly pulling an angel-innocent expression, with a sweet smile and clear blue eyes.
“Nothing he can’t recover from. Eventually,” he replied smoothly. Ember shuddered a little but also sighed in exasperation. He was a vampire after all, and at least he didn’t kill Joseph, but it was still a little scary imagining Reid violently ripping at the helpless boy. Her temples itched. “He wasn’t helpless! He’s a damned werewolf!” Reid suddenly burst out looking at her like she’d just said a lion was no more dangerous than a kitten. Clearly, he’d been prying in her head again.
Ember scowled at him, and muttered, “Stay out of my head.”
“What? Werewolves, witches! Oh, come on!” Sherry was staring at all three other occupants of the room with horror written on her face.
“You didn’t tell her about the witches?” Ember clucked her tongue at Ricky, who shrugged. “That was how I found out,” she said to Sherry. “I was watching a group of girls, who turned out to be witches, when these two, plus Brandon and Perry, came onto the scene flashing fangs and flaunting superhuman speed,” Ember explained, shoving Reid’s arm playfully. He grinned, flashing his fangs at her as if to make a point. Two points actually. Ember looked away quickly. “Of course, they didn’t know I was there until they’d secured the witches - who happened to be trying to hurt the vampires. And then someone decided to try to talk to me, twenty feet up a tree, by magically appearing right behind me. Silently. Lucky I didn’t freak out and fall off my damned branch,” Ember continued, arching a brow at said ‘someone’. Reid shrugged nonchalantly.
“Hey, I thought you might jump and run if I didn’t try to explain it. And climbing just took too much time,” he said.
Ember sighed, but Sherry still looked in shock. “So, yes, witches exist too. And apparently so do werewolves. Great.” Ember glanced at the boys serious again. “I’m surprised you guys didn’t notice this before. It can’t be easy to hide ‘lycanthropy’ from a group of vampires?” she commented dryly.
“Yeah, well, he was good at hiding it and we don’t investigate animal scent trails in the forest.” Reid rolled his eyes, but he was clearly unhappy with his own ignorance. Sherry was slowly absorbing all the new information, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
“OK. Can we press pause for a moment? So vampires exist. My boyfriend and my best friend’s boy-” Ember glared sharply at the green-eyed girl talking. Sherry made an exasperated noise, “-OK, my boyfriend and Reid are both vampires. Witches exist and they, what? Are using Ember and I as a means of getting revenge for the vamps beating them up? Great. And of course Joseph Rian the Werewolf is working for them. Did I get everything?” Sherry’s eyes were bright with intense light, expectant and a little incredulous.
“Everything but why Joey decided to work for the witches.” Ember nodded, and turned to the boys for an answer to that final question. Reid, for once, seemed to be reluctant to speak. Ricky was the one who answered her.
“He wanted to get back at you for… well, for what happened that night at TipTap and he wanted to get back at Reid for beating him up that night,” Ricky said quietly, his expression sympathetic. Ember felt sick, remembering that night. Joseph had attacked her and Reid had come to the rescue at the last moment. Recalling how, for just a moment, Reid had been her hero, Ember smiled at the blond next to her. Reid was too busy brooding to notice.
“So, what do we do now?” Ember asked, unsure what their next move would be.
“Well, we took care of Joseph. I’m fairly sure he won’t be a problem anymore. But as for the witches, we don’t know what they’ll try next. They might opt for more lotions and potions, more illusions and trickery. Or they might just decide to grab knives and stakes.” Reid shrugged, and his blond hair fell into his eyes.
“Fantastic. We have vindictive, vengeful witches after all of us, who may or may not want to kill us,” Ember said, heavy on the sarcasm.
“Actually, they definitely want to kill me and Ricky. It’s whether or not they’ll kill you two as well that we’re not sure of. They might just use you two to get to us. Draw us out.” Reid’s eyes were cold but his tone was light. Sherry gazed at him with wide green eyes, like he was insane. He was, of course, but that was beside the point.
“Hmm. What you’re saying basically is that we have no plan of attack, no plan for defence and no information to make those plans. Fun. Does that mean for the next couple of hours we can actually relax a little then?” Ember was tired, and she knew Sherry was dying to talk to her in private about the whole situation.
After a moment, Reid nodded. “Fine. But don’t leave the room and don’t split up. We’ve got to go talk with Brandon and Perry anyway.” Ember nodded in agreement and Sherry did too. Then Reid sat up and leaned over, putting his mouth to hers and kissing her with a little more intensity than was polite in company. But when he pulled away, it was clear Ricky and Sherry didn’t mind because they were also engaging in some serious lip-locking. Ember giggled under her breath and watched the boys leave, sending Reid a sweet smile as he winked at her.
Thursday morning was… well, almost relaxing. Ember woke up early to find Sherry poring over her notepad. “What’cha drawing?” Ember yawned, brushing her hair off her face.
“Nothing really. I’m actually just doodling.” Sherry shrugged lightly, never taking her green eyes from her notepad.
“Well, m
ust be some serious doodles if you’re concentrating so hard on them,” Ember joked and pulled herself from her bed to stretch. Sherry just smiled, but continued scribbling. A quick peek over Sherry’s shoulder as she made her way to the bathroom let Ember see that Sherry was indeed doodling, but the page was covered in fierce eyes and bloody fangs and the word ‘vampire’ in various different texts.
Ember grinned, amused. She had to admit, she’d been doing some gory drawings herself since she found out what Reid was. Having a vampire boyfriend was good for inspiration sometimes.
When Ember emerged from the bathroom, clean and fresh and fully dressed, Sherry was frowning. She was twirling her pen absently in her fingers, and the page in front of her was covered with black lines.
“You know, you never did tell me what you were arguing with your mum about?” The green-eyed girl looked up at Ember speculatively. Ember shrugged and tossed her pyjamas in a heap on her pillow before collapsing onto her bed and sighing.
“My mother seems to be under the impression that Reid Ashton is a bad influence, and is not only corrupting my reputation but also unbalancing my sense of self-respect and… well, she thinks I’m having sex with him,” Ember summed up in less complex terms.
Sherry blinked, but without missing a beat, asked, “Are you?”
Ember flinched, surprised at the burning curiosity in her friend’s voice. She wasn’t offended as she might have been had anyone else asked, because she knew her relationship with Reid had pretty much been a mystery to Sherry up until now. Sherry wasn’t asking to be nosey, or for gossip, or so she could judge. She just wanted to know what was happening in her best friend’s relationship. So Ember threw her a casual smile. “Nope. I don’t think we’re quite at that stage. Everything’s still pretty complicated, and… I know Reid wants it - he’s Reid after all. Infamous man-whore. Bad boy. Male.” Ember rolled her eyes. “But I don’t think I’m ready for that. How about you and Ricky? You must be getting pretty hot and heavy by now?” Ember, too, was only interested in her friend’s life, not looking for gossip. Curiosity was her ever-present weakness.
Sherry blushed but smiled. “We haven’t gotten to that yet, but yeah, we’re getting pretty… close.” The green-eyed girl giggled and Ember laughed with her.
“Well, well. Go Sherz.” Ember grinned, and then added in a serious tone. “And how are you handling everything? You know, with the whole reality-being-thrown-out-the-window thing?”
Sherry sobered up and just nodded. “I’m doing OK. It was a shock at first but I’m getting over it. Sort of. Hearing you guys talk about it so casually yesterday made me feel like I’d been dropped into some private club by accident. I think it’ll take a while before I get so comfortable with it. How long did it take you to get over it?” Sherry asked eagerly, her eyes alight as she beamed. Ember brushed hair off her face in a nonchalant movement and bit her lip for a second.
“Well, I’m totally insane you realise, and you know I’ve always kind of believed vampires and things existed so I mean you can hardly compare,” Ember rattled, avoiding answering directly, but Sherry gave her a knowing look that shut her up. Ember sighed. “I got over it in about a day really. Pretty much anyway. Little things like the fact that werewolves exist still get me, and sometimes I wonder if I’ve completely lost my nut, but mainly the thing that gets me is just Reid. Whenever he shows his fangs, it hits me like lightning and I think, ‘Wow. He really is a vampire. They really do exist and my sort-of-boyfriend is one of them!’” She paused, rolled her eyes, “And then he kisses me and I forget what I was thinking about for a while,” Ember tacked on the end, grinning.
“The fangs don’t scare you at all? Even a little?” Sherry enquired. Ember shook her head.
“They did to start with but, you know me, I like fangs. They’re sexy, not scary,” she laughed.
“I’ve only seen Ricky’s a couple of times, and they freaked me out a bit. But I’ll probably like them too once I’m used to them,” Sherry confessed, looking a little sheepish.
They sat in silence for a while after that, Sherry returned to her doodling and Ember sank into her own thoughts, wondering what to do about her mother. Ignoring her was always an option, but she knew she’d feel bad afterwards since her mother wouldn’t be back until the October holidays. Albeit they were only a couple of weeks away, but still. Two weeks was a long time to be hurting, especially when it was your own daughter that did the damage.
“What do you want to do with the rest of the week off?” Sherry piped up, breaking Ember’s train of thought. Ember was kind of glad, though, for the distraction.
“I don’t know. We still have the issue of the witches trying to possibly kill us to deal with. But aside from that, I’ve got no plans.” Ember thought of a few things they could do but her mind still lingered on her mother. Surely she should do something fun with her before she left?
“Ice-skating? Shopping? Cinema? Um, picnic? We never got round to considering that double date thing properly.” Sherry suddenly seemed cheered by that idea and Ember groaned. She’d been pitching her protests about the idea for a double date when they’d found that damned dead crow in their room. She’d totally forgotten about Sherry’s sickly sweet romance plans. “Oh, come on, It doesn’t have to be like a normal double date, with candle lit dinners or anything. I mean, our guys are vampires after all! Nothing normal about that. You don’t even have to think of it as a double date, just think of it as us all hanging out together.” It was clear Sherz was going to keep pressing this; the excitement was glowing in her emerald eyes. Reluctantly, Ember agreed, nodding slowly.
“Fine. But I swear, the minute it gets all lovey-dovey orientated, I’m leaving,” Ember warned with a sigh. But Sherry squealed in delight.
“Yay! We’ll make it Friday and we can go…. um…” Ah ha! Something to slow down her plans. No destination, no activity plan. But, of course, Reid had been listening again, whether at the door or in her head, Ember wasn’t sure.
He simply strolled into the room casually and flashed a devilish smile. “Swimming?” He pitched the idea so smoothly that it almost sounded reasonable.
Sherry liked it. “Yeah, swimming! We haven’t been swimming in ages and the leisure centre is only a half hour’s drive away.” Ember hated to burst the girl’s bubble but there was no way she was going to parole around in a wet bikini with Reid anywhere nearby. He may have been her sort-of-boyfriend, and they may have engaged in a little bit of physical teasing, but she was not going to tempt him further and she was sure seeing him in wet swim shorts would do nothing for her own self-control. She could still vaguely remember seeing him swimming that day she’d stolen his clothes from the Boys’ Locker Rooms. It was certainly a distracting sight.
“Couldn’t we do something, I don’t know, that wouldn’t involve getting half naked and soaking wet?” Ember rolled her eyes and pushed Reid away as he slung an arm around her. He pretended to be hurt for a second but then chuckled, a warm gleam coming to his blue eyes.
“What, worried you won’t be able to control yourself around me like that?” he teased. Yes.
“No, I’m worried you won’t be able to - or won’t want to - control yourself. Last I checked, you were still the ever-touchy-feely Reid Ashton. And a public pool is not the place for your antics,” Ember smirked and propped her feet up on his lap as he folded himself on the end of her bed.
“Do you understand the word ‘privacy’? You seem to always be listening to our conversations,” Sherry mused, light-heartedly.
“You always seem to be talking about me in some way or another,” Reid shot back with a grin.
Ember rolled her eyes. “Back to the matter at hand please?”
Sherry sighed at her this time. “I want to go swimming. I’m sure Reid will behave himself for the sake of everyone else.” Sherry gave him a cold, sharp glance and her tone insinuated it wasn’t an assumption as much as an order.
“I guess I’ll have to. I’m just not sure Ember w
ill behave.” Reid smirked at her.
“I’m sure I’ll manage somehow,” she muttered sarcastically, and was abruptly pulled against his hard, warm chest for a smouldering kiss. Her lips parted instinctively under his, bubbly things stirring inside her.
A few seconds later she was released and managed to gasp, “What the hell was that about?”
Reid grinned, gracefully rolling off the bed. “Mother alert. She’ll be here in… eighteen seconds. I’ve got to go.” And with that he flitted to the window, threw it open and flung himself out it. Sherry gasped, gaping at the window with wide eyes and Ember just called “Show-off.” down to him from her bed. I heard that! Reid’s voice answered in her head and she laughed. She’d said the same thing to him the night she found out his secret. It was becoming a private joke. Sherry stared at her for a moment until she explained.
“He replied, in my head. Telepathy is handy on occasion.” Ember shrugged but Sherry still looked dumbstruck. “Didn’t Ricky expl-” Ember was cut off as her mother entered the room.
“Ember, can I talk to you?” Mrs Jennings asked gently, but her face was stern. Fabulous. Sherry excused herself and left the room. Ember was half tempted to call her back to rescue her, and mention that this was her room too and she shouldn’t have to leave just because Ember’s mother wanted to lecture some more.
“What do you want?” Ember snapped harshly, glaring coldly at her mother.
“Ember, I know you’re upset about last night. But I truly believe there are better guys out there for you. Ones who will look after you and not put you in the middle of awful rumours.” Mrs Jennings said calmly, sitting delicately on the end of Ember’s bed. Ember got off the bed.
“Those rumours started way before me and Reid were together. They were going around practically since day one and they just got kicked up a notch is all. I defend myself perfectly fine and I don’t care what those bitches say about me anyway. I don’t need protection and I hate being looked after, you know that! It makes me feel like a little kid. And you don’t know anything about Reid anyway, aside from the rumours. But, as has been proven in my case, rumours aren’t always true! He’s a lot smarter and sweeter than anyone gives him credit for. And you know what? He did take care of me, last night after you bitched at me at the dance!” Ember was getting angry again and she didn’t care about her language in front of her mother anymore.