Fire And Ash Read online

  My knee comes up in automatic defense to connect with something hard as my elbow does the same.

  A body presses its weight down on me so it can restrict my movements long enough to pinion my limbs to the bed.

  I head butt the shadowy outline of a face.

  “What the fuck?!” The familiar voice is followed by an equally familiar grunt.

  “Derek?!” I shriek in surprise. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, the sharp ankles and thick lashes of his face come into focus. “What are you doing here?! And get the hell off of me!” I hiss.

  When I buck my hips against him to throw him off, I feel the heat of his body press into mine and promptly still my movements. I become too keenly aware that I kicked the sheets off when they got too uncomfortably warm and that underneath them I was wearing nothing but a thin cotton tank and my underwear.

  His body goes as taut as mine. “I’m dropping your car and your keys off,” he says after a beat.

  “And it is not at all creepish that you didn’t knock on the door to do that.”

  I’d told him no one would be home. Aunt Farrah texted me earlier and said they would be back in the morning. News broke of the boy’s body being found in the park shortly after we’d gotten back to Derek and Cass’ house.

  “Get the hell off of me?!” I shriek again. But I don’t dare buck to try and throw him off.

  Derek peers down at me through his dark lashes. “Hmm. I don’t think I will just yet. It’s kind of amusing how uncomfortable this is making you.”

  “Derek don’t make me stab you,” I tell him in a perfectly clear and level-headed tone. See. I’m being normal me. I’m not uncomfortable at all.

  “You can try,” he snorts but finally eases his weight off of me. I almost stab him off of principle.

  “How did you even get in?” I ask incredulously as I sit up in my bed. I figure it’s a more dignified position than lying down.

  He dangles my key chain that includes my car key and my house key on it in front of me. That’s right. I’d had to enter the house through the garage’s keyless entry feature because I gave him my keys to go back and get my car.

  “Did you go joyriding or something?” I say snatching them from him. I glance at the clock beside my bed. “It’s like two a.m.”

  “In a Jetta? Be serious. I was making sure the rogue phoenix that were behind the killings were really all taken care of.”

  “And are they?”

  “The one I caught and dragged to the Council so they could persuade the whereabouts of the rest of his group out of him claims there are none left.”

  “And do you believe him?”

  Derek sighs giving me my answer. “No. But all I can do is wait and see.”

  “Why do you call them that? Rogue phoenix.”

  The corner of my bed that Derek sits on dips down a little. Him being on my bed with me in it makes a weird feeling ripple through my stomach. It reminds me that I’m not wearing anything but a tank top and boy shorts. I snatch at the sheets lying haphazardly beside me and jerk them over my bottom half.

  His lips twitch. I pretend like I don’t realize the source of his amusement.

  “Like I told you before, most of us phoenix don’t prey on human lives. A lot of us used to but when the Council was formed to oversee us and police our actions so that we would not expose ourselves to the larger human population, Collecting was outlawed. That’s what we call it when phoenix take a human life to add to their number of lives. The Council has been around for generations now. Long enough for the practice of Collecting to nearly have died out entirely. There are still a few of us who persist. We call them Rogue Phoenix. They are tracked down and taken out by the Council’s Enforcers.”

  “So that means you are an Enforcer?” I ask making the connection from the things his mom had said as we drove to their house from the hospital.

  He doesn’t immediately answer. As if considering what to tell me and what not to tell me. “I am,” Derek finally says. “My Dad was an Enforcer and he trained me to be one as well. When he died I had to step up and take over his job prematurely.”

  “I’m sorry about your Dad,” I say uncomfortably. I feel like it’s the right thing to say but I feel weird for expressing it.

  Shadows cloud his eyes, changing them from a deep ebony shade to almost onyx. “Are you really?” He spits the question at me. “My dad was a phoenix and hunters killed him after all. That’s exactly what you’ve been trained to do too.”

  I open my mouth to defend myself then close it without saying anything because he is right. That is exactly what I have been trained to do. It is what I took a vow to do. To rid the world of one less monster who preys on humans. But what if what Derek says is true? What if they are not all like the one that killed my mother? What if his family represents the norm and not the exception to the rule? I think of how nice and warm and inviting his mother is. I can’t imagine her ever hurting even a fly. Then I think about what he told me in his car. How hunters killed his Dad and sister who was pregnant. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and me questioning everything I have ever known as true.

  “If he was like yo-, your mom,” I correct myself, “then yes. I am honestly sorry.”

  “Well that makes two of us,” he says dryly.

  For the briefest of moments, raw pain flashes in his eyes at the admission. It is a pain that I used to feel all too keenly myself but has dulled over the years. Still, I understand it.

  We stare at each other for a long moment.

  It gets easier, my eyes say.

  Does it?” His say back.

  Yes, with time.

  We don’t have the kind of relationship to have the conversation out loud. We are not friends, we are technically enemies, and we certainly do not like each other.

  “Your car is parked out front,” he says standing abruptly from the bed.

  I stand too so that I can follow him downstairs and lock the door behind him. My bare feet hitting the floor reminds me that my legs are bare too because I am only wearing underwear!

  “Um..thanks,” I say awkwardly tugging the hem of my tank top down. “Just let yourself out. I’ll come behind you and lock the door.”

  The movement of my hands attracts Derek’s attention.

  “It’s a little too late to be modest. I already saw a nice eyeful before you snatched up the sheets.” He pointedly smirks down at my boy shorts. “I hadn’t pegged you for the type to wear panties covered in purple bows, but it’s a good look on you.” His smirk turns into a teasing smile. “You’re cute in them.”

  “Get out. Now!” I growl at him.

  Did Derek just sort of hit on me?! And tell me I was cute?! Hell must be freezing over somewhere.

  He winks at me then turns to leave.

  I gape after him as he swaggers out of the room. I wait a full thirty seconds after I hear the door shut behind him to go downstairs and lock up.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Fight Fire With Fire

  The remainder of the summer comes and goes. It is uneventful. No more news stories break of abductions and subsequent bodies turning up in Red Creek nearly burned beyond recognition.

  Mid way through August, there is a story about how local officials will continue the search for the individual behind the heinous crimes and will not rest until he is caught, but they will never find him For one: him was really a them, and for two: Derek has already taken care of the phoenix responsible. Eventually the cases will be filed under unsolved crimes and everybody except the victims’ families will move on. It will take them considerable more time.

  It is what happened with my mom. We had to call the police even though we knew there was not a thing they could do about it. They searched in vain for leads and after a month or so of not a single one, her case was dropped. The killer was a phoenix. Dad with the help of Granddad followed more real leads of their own, but they never led to discovering who had killed Mom either. Eventually, life moved on and so did we.


  My family is thankful for no more abductions but they are all pretty pissed that the phoenix responsible seem to be alluding them. I am grateful that the abductions have stopped too, but I am also sad that at no signs of them beginning again Aunt Farrah returns to Europe.

  I spend most of my time with Cassie, hanging around her pool and running whatever random girl Derek brings over from time to time off. We think it is hilarious. He does not. He eventually wises up and stops bringing them over.

  Since the night he dropped my car off to me he has also wised up to a new way of antagonizing me. He mentions seeing me in my underwear all the time. And when he isn’t mentioning that, he is dropping innuendos at me left and right, some thinly veiled and some completely overt. I am completely mortified and left sputtering every time, which is exactly the reaction he is looking for and the only reason that he does it. I know he doesn’t like me and he knows I don’t like him. It is just his creative way to get under my skin and make me want to stab him without his mom and Cass berating him. When I call him on it he laughs and says his mom and Cass can’t badger him to be nice if he is being charming instead of a jerk now.

  Ha! Derek isn’t charming. A toad is more charming than he is. A pain in my ass is what he really is.

  ******

  To my complete and utter horror Becca calls me the week before school starts and tells me she isn’t coming back.

  “I love New York too much to leave it. And I met a boy,” She says.

  I gape at the phone. She met a boy! Becca has never been serious about anyone before. She calls everybody she dates her boy toys.

  “Don’t be mad at me Ash,” she says when I don’t respond. I’m still busy trying to wrap my mind around the ludicrousness of what she just said. “You’re still my BFF and I promise to come visit for Christmas and Spring Break and over the summer. But big city living is so much better than small town living. Are you mad?” She asks hesitantly.

  I finally find my voice. “No, Becca I’m not mad. As long as you’re happy. But I do want to hear all about this boy that you’ve obviously been having more than just fun with.”

  We stay on the phone for a while longer as she tells me all about Aaron. He sounds nice enough, but I still hate him. He’s the reason my best friend isn’t coming back now that the summer is ending.

  ******

  It feels weird not walking into school alongside Becca on the first day. It is what we have done since we started Pre-K. As I walk through the halls in search of Locker 222, the one that I have been assigned this year, an unfamiliar panic seizes me. I know the faces around me. I have even had casual conversations with a lot of them in passing, but I do not know, know any of the people I go to school with. It was always just me, Becca and Miranda, and then just me and Becca. I never bothered to actually make friends with anybody else. The panic turns into a sinking feeling. The year is going to completely suck without Becca.

  “Ash!” Cassie calls out from across the hall.

  My mood automatically brightens when I see her.

  “Hey! How’s your first day so far?” I ask going to stand beside her.

  She frowns. “A little overwhelming. I am looking for Locker 229 and can’t find it and all of the books are heavy.” She switches her book bag from one shoulder to the other.

  “I’m looking for 222. They must have assigned them in alphabetical order this year.”

  “Oh, yay, we will be right by each other. Come on,” she says hooking her arm in mine, “let’s go find them.”

  We find the lockers as well as Derek standing in front of what I assume to be his. There is also a crowd of girls around him introducing themselves, asking him his name, and offering to show him around and help him find his classes.

  Cassie and I look at each other and roll our eyes.

  “Excuse me,” she says none too politely to one of them. “But you’re standing in front of my locker.”

  The girl’s name is Camille and she’s a senior. She’s blonde and petite like Cassie but short and not nearly as pretty. The girl looks put off for a second but then Derek says something to Samantha, a junior in our class, and Camille’s attention turns to them. She inserts herself back into the conversation so she isn’t forgotten about.

  My locker is enough spaces down that it is thankfully clear of Derek’s quickly forming fan club.

  “Hey Derek.” Miranda walks up to him like she’s known him for forever. She only does it for the benefit of everybody who is watching.

  She reaches out and runs her hand down his arm like she has every right to touch him. “I had fun over the summer. We should definitely do it again.”

  Some mouths around her gape open in shock and others gape in envy. Everyone picks up on what she insinuated.

  “She is pathetic,” Cassie says coming to stand beside me. “And you used to be friends with her? I don’t see how you two ever got alone. You’re like night and day.”

  “She used to be a much better person,” I tell her.

  In that respect Becca was right. Miranda didn’t dump us but once we let our friendship drift apart and she got in with the in crowd she turned into a total bitch. That wonderful change in her personality was no fault of ours. It was a choice she made all on her own.

  “Ashley,” Miranda says passing me with her two main minions, Stacey and Krystal, in tow.

  “Agnes,” I call after her because something has made me feel particularly snarly where she is concerned.

  Miranda goes chalk white at the sound of her first name. She hates it. It is what everybody in her family calls her and what she has worked years to get everybody at school to forget.

  ******

  My first period is A.P. Literature. English is my favorite subject and Mrs. Peters who teaches the class is my favorite teacher. I am thinking how nice it will be to start off my school days with a class and a teacher I actually like when Derek walks into the room and Mrs. Peters directs him to sit in the seat beside me. Why oh why does she have to sit us in alphabetical order?

  “Nice outfit,” he leans over and whispers to me.

  I look at him like he’s the bad kind of special. I literally have on ripped jeans and a graphic tee with boxing gloves decorating the front. The words “I Hit Like a Girl,” are printed beneath them.

  “But your legs look better in the boy shorts than the jeans.”

  I sharply turn my attention to the front of the room where Mrs. Peters is going over our syllabus for the year. My cheeks flush like they do every time he mentions seeing me in my underwear.

  “I hate you,” I mutter under my breath.

  I see his mouth curve into a half smile out of the corner of my eye.

  To my chagrin Derek is in my second period physics class too. And of course Mr. Dotson pairs us up into lab partners by our last name.

  Gah! Why me? By the end of it I swear the universe is playing a particularly nasty trick on me.

  Third period is blessedly free of Derek and for that very reason I don’t mind sitting through forty five minutes of Hamilton as much as I have in the past.

  “You were right. He is a hardass,” Cassie says to me as we leave class and walk towards the cafeteria for lunch. She walked into the room literally a second after the bell rang because she got lost trying to find her way to his class. He gave her his famous first impressions are the only impressions line, and told her he would see her in detention after school if she showed up late again.

  Derek falls into step with us a few feet away from the cafeteria’s entrance. “How’s your day going?” He asks Cass.

  “Good,” she responds. “How is yours?”

  “It’s been interesting. Especially this morning.” He looks at me when he says it and I glower back.

  Something needs to be done about his new hobby. I cannot live my life like this the entire year. It was tolerable over the summer because the option to haul off and beat him senseless was always there. But in school I really have to be on my best behavior. Grandma
will skin me alive if I get suspended for trying to break his nose, or worse expelled for trying to stab him.

  A horrible idea forms in my mind, and it is so horrible it just might work. The next time Derek pulls some shit with me, he is going to be in for a big surprise. It is sometimes best to fight fire with fire.