Fire And Ash Read online

  “Nikki!” Lauren censures her.

  “No it’s cool,” Daniella interjects. “She’s right. I’ve believed Trey’s shit way too many times before. Not this time. We’re done.”

  “Good for you,” Nikki tells her.

  “Hey guys!” Cassie appears with Matt on one side of her and a scowling Derek on the other side.

  She throws her arms around my neck and squeals like we are long lost friends seeing each other for the first time in years. “Ash! I missed you! Are you having a good time?” She squeezes me so hard I have trouble breathing.

  What the hell is what wrong with her? I think. Then I see the red plastic cup in her hand and pick up the loud smell of alcohol on her breath.

  “You let her get drunk?” I shriek at Derek accusingly.

  “I didn’t let her do anything. She was supposed to be with you. Imagine my surprise when she comes banging on my door with Matt in tow telling me I am missing all the fun.”

  “Sorry, man,” Matt mutters from beside Cass. His slurs the words letting on that he is as buzzed as Cassie is.

  I roll my eyes. Awesome.

  Cassie frowns. “This is supposed to be a pool party and people are in swim wear but no one is in the pool.” Her face brightens. “Let’s change that!”

  “I’m in!” Matt says.

  “Are y’all?” She asks Derek and me.

  We both tell her no, but she hears what she wants to hear.

  “Cool! Let’s go!”

  She sprints off and dives into the deep end of the pool. Matt follows suit.

  “Damn it! Cass! I said I didn’t want to get in the pool!” I yell at her. But I shed the shorts and tank top covering my swim suit anyway and jump into the pool too. Her and Matt can’t be in there alone. It goes to twelve feet and alcohol and deep water are never a good idea to mix together. Her and Matt being in the pool by themselves is a disaster waiting to happen.

  Derek strips down to the basketball shorts he is wearing underneath his sweats and jumps in right after me, cursing the entire time.

  We persuade Matt and Cassie to move to the shallow end of the pool. We can’t however persuade them to get out. They decide pools are meant for making out and watching them suck at each other’s faces is so not how I want to spend the rest of my night.

  “So if you’ve got this I’m getting out,” I say to Derek.

  “Oh no. If I have to suffer through this, you have to suffer with me.” His reaches out and grabs my arm.

  He only means to pull me back off the steps, but he forgets that we are in water and to adjust the force with which he yanks on me accordingly. I lose my balance and stumble. I just know my head is about to hit the cement edge of the pool. Before it can Derek catches me around the waist pulling me against him instead.

  I am wearing a two piece and his chest is completely bare. I feel way too much of my skin against way too much of his. A feeling that shouldn’t occur zips up my spine.

  “You can let me go now.” I push against him but he doesn’t release me. Gold flickers in his dark eyes. He drops them down and they rove over the part of my body displayed above the water. I fight the urge to cross my arms over my chest, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of showing just how affected I am by its intensity. I have on a swim suit, all of my intimate parts covered, but under his heated gaze I feel completely naked and exposed.

  “That would be the honorable thing to do, but yesterday you said I wasn’t. Which isn’t true because if I weren’t I would have done this instead of letting you go when you asked me that night in your room.”

  “What the hell are you do-?”

  My words sputter to a stop. Derek’s mouth is on mine, kissing me, and I can’t decide if I want to kiss him back or punch him in the face for his forwardness.

  I open my mouth to threaten to stab him, but when my lips part his tongue darts past them and is tangling itself up with mine. That feeling I shouldn’t feel zips up my spine again. It makes me kiss him back.

  I don’t know what kissing is supposed to be like because I’ve never done it before, but I can’t imagine kissing anyone else would be like kissing Derek. I forget how to breath and my heart beats as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. Awareness of everything and everyone else around me falls away and all that is left is me and Derek in the pool.

  When he ends the kiss abruptly, I have to fight against reaching out and dragging his lips back to mine.

  My face is flushed and both my heart beat and my breathing refuse to slow. “What was-, Why did you-, what the hell?!” I finally get a complete sentence out.

  The same wolfish smile he shot me in the cafeteria appears on his face. “Just proving a point. I could have done that while restraining you in your bed but I didn’t. See honorable.”

  I realize he is still holding me around my waist and that neither he nor I makes any move to change that.

  “Let me go,” I tell him because it is what I should want him to do.

  His arms don’t move. “Are you sure you want me to?” If I didn’t know any better I’d think he could read my thoughts.

  No. “Yes,” I answer him.

  We’re standing too close. So close that our toes are touching at the bottom of the pool and I really, really should not be affected by his nearness like I am. This is wrong. This is so wrong. I can’t be attracted to Derek. He’s a colossal ass.

  He tilts his head forward, bringing his lips an inch within mine. They’re so close that when he talks, the full bottom one brushes against them. “So if I kiss you again, you won’t kiss me back again?”

  “No,” I lie. “I didn’t mean to kiss you back the first time. You caught me off guard.”

  Derek’s lips come a fraction closer. I know he’s about to kiss me again and he wants to be sure that I know he’s about to kiss me again. He’s about to prove me a liar. When his lips touch mine again my hands go around his neck, crushing him closer when they should be shoving him away.

  And again, he’s the one who ends it abruptly, not me. He drags his lips across my right cheek moving from my mouth to my ear.

  “Liars go to hell Ash,” he whispers into it. “You might want to stab me but I think you want to do other things to me too.”

  I flush from the tips of my ears to my toes.

  His lips capture mine again and I have no idea what it means that I spend the rest of the night making out in a pool with Derek Jensen, the boy I can’t stand and the boy who can’t stand me either.

  ******

  Oh God, is the first thing I think when I wake up the following morning. I kissed Derek. Not once or twice but so many times I lost count. What’s worse is that I slept over at his house, promising to help Cass clean up in the morning. I groan and pull the sheets over my head. Maybe I can just hide out in their guest room for the remainder of the day. Or at least until Derek leaves the house or something and then I can avoid the embarrassment of seeing him. It’s Sunday, which means Mrs. Jensen is baking up a storm like she normally does on her day off. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll send Derek to the store for something she forgot instead of Cass today. All I have to do is hide out in the spare bedroom until it happens.

  “Ash are you up yet?” Cass bursts into the room full of energy completely obliterating my wishful thinking.

  I don’t move from under the covers. Maybe if I stay really still she’ll take it as a no to her question and go away.

  She sits down on the bed and pulls the sheets back. Shit. No Luck.

  “It’s almost noon. You can’t hide out in here all day. You promised to help me clean up and you’ve already skipped out on half the mess.”

  “Yes I can,” I grumble snatching the sheets back over my head.

  She pulls them away again. “You can’t hide from Derek forever you know. You might as well face him sooner rather than later and get it over with.”

  My cheeks flame red.

  “Are you two going to be an item now? It’d be kind of weird but kind of cool t
oo. I think you’d be good for him. He needs someone who isn’t going to fall at his feet. When I asked him that he just scowled at me and told me to mind my business like the two of you getting together isn’t my business. He’s my family and you’re my friend so it is every bit my business. Mom is going to freak. She likes you a lot you know. She’s been hounding Derek about what a nice girl you are since the first time you came over and mmmmppph.”

  I put my hand over her mouth to shut her up. If she says any more I might die of mortification.

  “No me and Derek are not nor would we ever be an item. We don’t like each other. We’ve never liked each other and we never will like each other. Now can we please change the subject? Nod once if it’s a yes otherwise my hand stays where it is.”

  Cassie nods and I take my hand away.

  “It sure looked like you two liked each other a lot last night,” she says with a teasing grin then leaps off the bed before I can cover her mouth again.

  I launch a pillow at her. She squeals and raises her hand to block it but instead of it bouncing off her arm and falling to the floor it hovers suspended in the air inches away from her face.

  I stare at it wide eyed. “That’s what Derek meant when he said you had unique abilities.”

  “Yeah,” she says sheepishly. She drops her hand and the pillow silently drops to the carpet.

  “I assumed he meant phoenix-like abilities, not X-Men-like ones.”

  Her cheeks burn the same shade of red that mine did a moment ago.

  “Can you move anything?”

  “Anything made of matter, that’s not too particularly heavy.”

  “That is so cool!”

  Relief flashes in her eyes when I say so. “So you don’t think I’m a freak?”

  “Are you kidding?” I laugh. “You family members burst into flames when they die and reform from the ashes and I am stronger than most adult men by some evolutionary genetic fluke. How are you any more of a freak than us?”

  “Because there are other people like y’all who have been around for centuries. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one like me with no explanation as to why I’m like me.”

  “If the first hunters evolved from an evolutionary mutation, maybe you did too. And maybe you’re not alone. If you’re telekinetic maybe others are too.”

  “Argh!” She groans as she plops down on my bed. “Don’t say that. You make me sound like some mutant freak.”

  “And that’s a bad thing why? The X-Men were cool. I’d love to be a Storm or a Jean Grey.”

  Cass holds out her hands to me. “By all means then, take my freak of nature abilities.”

  I roll my eyes at her dramatics. “Whatever Cass you’re tripping.”

  Derek pokes his head into the door. His eyes lock on mine. The sheets covering my legs suddenly become mesmerizing. I intently study their interlocking rosettes pattern.

  “Mom says breakfast is ready,” I hear him say. I wait until I hear his footsteps thudding down the hall before I look up from the sheets.

  “You do know you’re going to have to face last night at some point right.”

  “Speaking of last night what’s up with you and Matt? Y’all looked pretty buzzed and cozy in the pool together.” I ignore her astute observation and turn the tables on her with one of my own.

  It’s her turn to look mortified and uncomfortable.

  “Umm.. Let’s not talk about that. Like ever again. I’d never even had a sip of an alcoholic drink before last night.”

  “So…what made you end up getting drunk?” Cass was smarter than that.

  “We’re not talking about that remember.”

  “Oh yes we are. You insisted on talking about Derek now I’m insisting on talking about Matt.”

  I look at her pointedly, waiting on her to start talking.

  “Fine,” she mutters after a prolonged silence. “I don’t know. He was drinking the spiked punch and asked me if I wanted some. When I said no he was like oh, you don’t drink? He didn’t say it any type of way but I still didn’t want to seem lame. So I told him I preferred beer. Then three red plastic cups later I was jumping into our pool and making out with him in front of everybody.”

  She flopped back on the bed. “I am so glad it’s a three day weekend. It gives me an extra day before having to face the shamefulness of it all.”

  “At least you get an extra day. I have to go downstairs and eat breakfast with Derek.”

  “Cass! Ash! Hurry up before the food gets cold. We’re waiting on you girls,” her mom yells on cue.

  When we get downstairs Mrs. Jensen has scrambled eggs, sausage, fried bacon, scalloped potatoes, and waffles laid out on the square table in the breakfast nook just off the kitchen. She sits on one side of the table and Derek sits to her right. That leaves me the option of either sitting adjacent to Derek or directly across from him and being forced to look directly at him.

  Cass deftly steps around me and slides into the seat adjacent to Derek.

  And she’s supposed to be my friend. Hmm.

  “So tell me about the party?”

  Why oh why does that have to be the first thing his mother says when we sit down.

  “It was fine,” Cassie says trying to keep her voice even.

  I fill my plate with the food around the table with the single minded focus of someone with OCD. Three strips of bacon, two sausages, a spoonful of eggs, five scalloped potatoes and two waffles.

  “Did you have a good time?” I hear Mrs. Jensen say.

  “Yeah I guess,” Cassie answers.

  “I think Ash had an especially good time.” My head snaps up at the sound of Derek’s voice.

  His lips twitch facetiously. He is mocking me and it pisses me off.

  “I had an okay time,” I say to her but look directly at Derek. “It could have been better.”

  His lips still mid twitch. Ha! Glad to knock your ego down a notch or two, my eyes say to him when he narrows them at me across the table.

  For some reason while glaring back at him I notice how incredibly long and thick his lashes are and start thinking how they make his intensely dark eyes look even more sexy. I catch the thought and shut it down looking away from Derek abruptly.

  I go back to focusing intently on my food. I don’t dare make eye contact with him for the remainder of the time we sit across from each other at the table.

  Later while Derek is helping his mom with the dishes and Cassie and I are finishing cleaning up, Mrs. Jensen gasps from the kitchen. The volume of the television that has been sounding softly in the background immediately gets louder.

  “The victim attended Laurel Springs High School,” I hear a female voice say. “She’d just started her senior year and as we are told by her friends, she was on her way to meet them at a party she never made it to. Her body was found in the early hours of the morning lying beside her car on Route 68. Its left passenger tire was flat and we can only assume that is what drew her out of the car. Authorities report the cause of death to be massive blood loss resulting from several lacerations to the throat and upper chest areas. Authorities were also quick to state that the victim’s death is in no way related to the string of abductions nearby Highland Village experienced earlier in the summer. They have concluded her death to be the result of a vicious animal attack. Nearby Red Creek State Park is home to several thriving populations of wolves and coyotes.”

  I recognize the girl’s picture on the television screen. It’s Camille Ford, the senior who was talking to Derek at his locker on the first day of school.

  Cassie, Derek, Mrs. Jensen and I all stare at the television screen from our various places around the kitchen.

  “Do you think what they say is true?” Cassie asks her mom. “That her death isn’t related to the killings from the summer.”

  She nods her head. “I’m pretty sure. The Council seemed pretty confident that Derek successfully dealt with the small group of rogue phoenix that popped up in the area. What do you think Derek
?” She asks him.

  “I think you’re right. A rogue phoenix wouldn’t kill that sloppily. The Council no doubt knew about the details minutes after Laurel Springs Police Department arrived on the scene. They have a contact on the force that passes information to them. If they thought rogue phoenix were behind it they would have contacted me already.”

  Mrs. Jensen’s mood turns angry when Derek mentions the Council contacting him. “I don’t like that you are becoming their first point of contact. You’re too young Derek. And you should be doing the things any other teenager would do not filling the shoes your father left behind. I never should have listened when the Council asked us to relocate closer to it or when you insisted that we tell them yes.”

  The muscle in Derek’s jaw ticks the way it does when he is particularly frustrated or irritated. “It’s what Dad trained me to do Mom. It’s what we always knew I would eventually end up doing.”

  “The key word in that sentence Derek is eventually. Not at seventeen!”

  “When Dad died he left them with one less Enforcer. You know there aren’t many of us who are strong enough to do the job.”

  “I don’t care about the job Derek! I care about you! And that you don’t end up like your father and that Cassie doesn’t share Bethany’s fate because of you like your sister did because of him!”

  Ouch. Derek visibly flinches. I see the hurt flicker in his eyes. I get the feeling that the argument they’re having isn’t a new one.

  Derek makes his way out of the kitchen and towards the front.

  “Im going out. I’ll be back,” he mutters right before he walks out of it.

  Mrs. Jensen stares after Derek then her eyes shift to me standing off to the side of the doorway that leads from the kitchen to the living room. She immediately blanches like she only then remembers that I am there. “I am so sorry you had to witness that Ash.”

  “It’s okay,” I say lamely because I have no idea what else I am supposed to say.

  “Come on,” Cassie tugs at my arm. “We’re finished with the living room. Let’s start on what little we have left outside. I did most of it before you woke up.”