~~~***~~~
"Nothing." Alice closed yet another book and shoved it toward the stack of books sitting in the center of the large table we had taken over.
I couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. "We are never going to figure this out."
Alice frowned. "Maybe we should just face it, you guys. It’s a possibility that I’m never going to find magic." She shrugged. "Maybe Sostrate was wrong."
Drew and I shared a concerned look at the same time Oscar showed up with his motorcycle helmet in hand.
"She isn’t wrong," he declared, setting his helmet on the table.
"We don’t know that." Alice looked up at him. "We can’t find anything about how to do this sort of thing in any of these books." She motioned to the stack on the table. "I don’t even know any of my family, and none of us know any witches. We can’t ask the board members, because they already think we are all crazy."
Oscar stepped behind her and rubbed her shoulders. "Let’s not stress out too much right now. You’re doing so great with your sword training; you have that to concentrate on."
He stopped rubbing her shoulders and sat in the chair beside her.
My mind hadn’t exactly been on the conversation while I listened to them talk. I had been thinking, and I didn't know why I hadn’t thought of it before.
"Alice,"—I leaned forward—"I have powers, and I’m not a witch, but all these books go back to witchcraft being part of nature and elemental. They all talk about dealing with the person’s energy, the individual witch in question, like, her inner energy."
I saw Drew’s mouth open a little bit as understanding set in.
I continued. "I pretty much taught myself how to control the fire. I'm still learning, but I could probably help you figure out how to help you focus your energy."
Drew pointed at his book. "And we have enough in here about candles, crystals and stuff to know what we'll need for help."
Oscar traced his finger over the back of Alice’s hand. "They're right. It's worth a try."
With a shrug, Alice nodded her agreement. "Well, it’s worth a shot, I guess."
Even though she agreed, I could hear the skepticism in her voice.
"Good!" I shut my book, too. "I’ll help you work on that tomorrow." Quickly, I shot an ‘I’m sorry’ look at Drew before going on. "Since we are all here, I think we need to talk about what we are going to do about the vampires."
No one said anything in response, which was kind of embarrassing.
"Chloe wants to take the Talon Building."
"What?" Alice gasped. "No! There isn’t a way."
I leaned forward to whisper since we were in a library. "Alice, we were warned. Sostrate told us they were coming for us. We cannot sit around and wait for them to attack our families, our homes. We just can’t."
"But—" Alice tried to respond, but Drew cut her off.
"She’s right about not wanting to risk our families because someone told us not to do something, but I’m still on the fence about the Talon Building. There are too many of them and too few of us."
Oh, he could be so frustrating. I threw my hands up. "I’m not suggesting that we go in there and fight them all hand-to-hand. I think we should bomb it."
"Well, well, isn’t this a nice."
Each of us swiveled our heads in surprise when Christina appeared from between the bookshelves.
I rolled my eyes. "Great."
"What’s the matter, Chloe? Not happy to see me?"
"What are you even doing in a library? I didn't figure you for a reader. Don’t you have other skankier places to be?"
She smiled and adjusted her little jean skirt. It was beyond me how she could walk around in skirts and heels during the winter. I would probably kill myself in heels on the snow and ice.
"I’m here,"—she examined a fingernail—"because I saw Oscar's motorcycle outside and decided to stop in and say hello." She waggled her fingers at Oscar. "So just what are we bombing?"
Drew shook his head "We aren’t bombing anything."
"Oh, Drew, you can be such a party pooper. If you guys are planning something fun, I want in."
She pulled out the chair on the other side of Oscar and sat closer than was necessary.
Was she trying to make Drew jealous now? Or was she trying to show Alice up? Either way, the sluttiness continued. Ugh. At least to Ocsar’s credit, he scooted away from her and closer to Alice. Oscar didn’t see it, but Alice smiled when he did.
Dang it, I really, really didn’t want Christina to have anything to do with this, but fact of the matter was, she kicked butt when it came to vampire hunting.
Drew beat me to the punch. Before I could actually get a word out about letting Christina in on it, Drew opened his big mouth and ruined it all.
"Christina, we aren’t actually going to bomb anything. Chloe wants to take out the Talon Building, and I just don’t think it’s a good idea. We could be causing more damage, make them even more pissed off at us than they already are. That would not be a good thing."
"Drew!" I threw up my hands. "Come on."
"I just don’t think we should chance it."
"Well, you aren’t the only one who gets to make decisions."
Drew shook his head. "I’m the most experienced out of all of us, except for Christina." He nodded at her, and she gave us a smug grin.
God, she was getting on my nerves. As if I didn’t have enough problems.
"So we are all supposed to just follow you and whatever you say like we are your little minions?" I shot back at him. "I have an idea, and I think that everyone should get a vote, not just you."
"Chloe," he said softly.
"No, I’m sick of this. I think my opinion should be considered."
I looked at Alice and Oscar for support, and both of them lowered their eyes toward the table.
"Oh, come on, you guys."
Alice looked up at me. "I’m sorry, Chloe. I’ll go along with whatever you decide, but I’m not getting in the middle of this."
Oscar nodded. "To be honest, I’m all for taking that place out. Like Alice said, I’m not getting in the middle of it."
"Fine." I shoved my chair back and grabbed my bag. "Have it your way, Drew. Everyone always does what you want anyway, so I know my idea is a lost cause."
"Chloe." He stood up to follow me.
"No! Don’t even bother." I tried not to run through the library and didn’t even stop for Linda, the librarian, when she called my name. I hurried out the door, letting it shut on its own behind me.
I just ran, not even really knowing which direction I was going. I just wanted away from them. Everyone always did what Drew said. Most of the time he was right, but it really burned me that he wasn’t in agreement with me on this. Why was always the one who had the final say on everything?
Out of breath and panting, I found myself at the pond where Gavin had brought me last year.
I stared at the pond. It’s flat surface completely calm, mirroring the pristine snow and the leafless trees surrounding it. Snowflakes drifted down and melted into the water without marring the perfection of the glassy surface.
I remembered that day I came here with Gavin. He had shown me his beautiful gift: controlling the water and making it rise up out of the pond, swirling around in a sort of reverse whirlpool.
That day was the day he and I connected.
Why was I here?
I felt a few hot tears slide down my cold cheeks. Damn it, I missed him. I wanted my friend back, and now we didn’t even talk. I was fire, and he was water. We were elementally incompatible, but I didn’t want to be compatible. I didn't want anything from him. I just wanted to be his friend.
Slowly, I walked toward the water.
He was Drew’s brother, and it seemed they were never going to get along. I felt so bad for Drew. He’d had to see his mother nearly every day, the mother who had abandoned him. Then he had to see Gavin most days too, his half-brother, the reason Drew's
mom had left.
I knelt down into the snow. It soaked into the calves of my jeans, but I didn’t care. Being careful not to fall in, I slowly reached out and touched my fingertips to the icy water. Immediately, rings spread out around my hand, rippling across the water, ruining its perfection.
Suddenly, the ripples in the water began to… vibrate. My fingertips in the water tingled like my foot did when it fell asleep. I yanked my hand back out of the water and fell backward onto my butt, not taking my eyes off the water.
The ripples rose out of the water, forming droplets, like rain going the wrong way. The droplets mingled with the snowflakes in a beautiful dance.
I felt my heartbeat slow and turned my head to look behind me. "Gavin?"
I heard splashing as the droplets fell back down into the water. He grinned, his green eyes glowing. "Who else?"
"What are you doing here?" I asked him, still not moving from my spot in the snow.
He shrugged and moved forward. "This is my spot. The question is: What are you doing here?"
He plopped down into the snow beside me, not seeming to care if he got his own jeans wet.
He looked rather good in those jeans. I knew I shouldn’t be thinking things like that since I had a boyfriend, but still, a girl could notice. I would have to have been blind not to notice.
"I just came out here to do some thinking." I shrugged like it was no big deal.
"I thought you were doing most of your thinking up at the falls, with Drew."
I flipped my hair back over my shoulder. "How would you know that? And what do you care anyway?"
I know because it’s not a secret. You guys are up there all the time. And I do care, because I care about…" he trailed off.
"What?" I demanded. "You care about what? Enough to know where Drew and I spend all our time?"
"Don’t be stupid, Chloe. You know why."
I forced myself to abandon my defense and tore my eyes away from his to stare out at the water again.
"Yeah, I know why." We were both silent after that, just sitting there.
Then, suddenly, Gavin reached out and took my hand. I tried to yank it back. I didn’t want to hold his hand. That was like cheating.
"No," I told him, and he released me as suddenly as he had reached out.
"Okay, okay," he held up his hands. "Listen, I think you need to know that I have to leave for a while."
"Are you going on mission?" I asked.
"No, not really." He looked away.
"Well, why are you leaving then?"
"I just need to get away from here. I thought I could handle being around you and Drew, but I can’t. I hate seeing you with him."
I bought into the guilt trip. Casting aside all worries about cheating, I reached out and put my hand over his. "Look, I don’t want you to leave because of me… because of us. Please stay."
He shook his head. "I can’t. I need to get away from here for a while." He flipped his hand so that our hands were palm to palm and laced his fingers with mine. "But you need to know, I don’t intend on letting him have you forever. I am going to come back, eventually, and when I do, I have every intention of fighting for you."
For a moment, I was speechless. He was sitting there telling me he planned to try to win me over, away from Drew.
"Gavin… I..." I didn’t get any more of the sentence out, because before I knew it, he had pulled me forward and crushed his lips into mine.
Every single nerve in my body danced, and the warmth of my fire heated my body.
Heaven, help me, I kissed him back. I didn’t fight him. I didn’t resist. I just kissed him until he pulled his lips away from mine and jumped to his feet. "Remember that, Chloe. Remember me, because I’m coming back, and we are going to be together."
Holy Moly. What in the world just happened?
I sat there in the snow feeling horrible.
"Oh, no," I muttered to myself.
I picked myself up off the snow. When I stood, I felt eyes on me. Suddenly nervous, I scanned the edge of the woods. The feeling was right. Drew stood there, among the trees, watching me.
Our eyes locked, and I wanted to sink into the ground.
Damn, damn, damn!
Simply by the hurt in his eyes, I knew he had seen us kiss. He said nothing, pulled his beanie down over his ears and turned away, leaving me to drown myself in my own guilt.