Read Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) Online

Authors: Kaitlyn Davis

Tags: #vampires, #paranormal romance, #fantasy, #magic, #young adult, #teen, #strong heroine

Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) (5 page)

"Oh my God," was the first thing Emma said,
"we have so much to discuss. Let’s grab some comfort food. Do you
have potato chips? I can’t resist."

Kira grabbed some cookies and chips from the
kitchen, and led Emma outside to the back porch. She sat on the
hammock while Emma curled up on the wicker chair.

"You know, Kira, it’s a little spooky out
here. You live kind of far into the woods." Emma hugged her legs a
little tighter and searched the surrounding woods for anything
terrifying.

"Trust me, I know, but you get used to it."
Kira let Emma get the search out of her system, and lay down,
peering past the edge of the porch roof to search for stars.

"So who first? Luke or Tristan? Don’t tell me
you called me over here just to gaze mysteriously at the sky." Kira
sighed.

"I know." Kira chewed her lip for a moment,
thinking. "You choose. I’m just as confused by both of them."

"Well then, I’ve been dying to tell you what
a freaking god Tristan looked like when he carried you out of the
water. You, of course, were dangling there like a dead fish, but
let me tell you." Emma shook her head as if there were no words and
fanned herself.

"Wait, he carried me out?" Kira grabbed a
chocolate chip cookie. Reliving a near death experience required
chocolate, especially when someone just said you looked like a dead
fish in the arms of a god. Great description.

"Yes, dummy, how else do you think you ended
up on the sand?"

"I don’t know…"

"Well, anyway, let me paint you the picture,
because it was like a scene from a movie, or more likely from
Baywatch, but still unreal. The guys and I are sitting on the
towels, chatting and eating, when suddenly Luke looks up and is
like ‘Where’s Kira’ and the guys start to freak out because they
don’t see you anywhere. Then, I look out all the way down towards
the pier and tell them you moved over there to surf. Dave and Luke
just shake their heads at each other, like they know you can’t
handle it, and the four of us watch you try to catch that wave. For
a second Dave is like ‘she’s gonna do it’ in that awed voice that
is so cute. Anyway, instead, we see you wipe out huge and we all
start laughing cause you just looked ridiculous, but then you don’t
surface. We are all staring, and after two minutes we don’t see you
and Luke goes running down the beach.

"Then, out of nowhere, Tristan emerges from a
wave holding you in his arms. His body is dripping with water,
making the sun bounce off of him, and his arm muscles are bulging.
I mean, I practically heard every girl on the beach sigh with
jealousy and have a momentary heart attack because of how hot he
is. Anyway, he runs from the water, sets you down really gently,
and then starts slapping you in the face. I didn’t get it, but we
all saw you wake up while we were running over and were so happy,
until we saw Luke punch Tristan in the face." At the mention, Kira
groaned.

"Why did he do that?" She asked while
grabbing another cookie. A near death experience followed by your
guy friend punching your savior, and potential crush, in the face
seriously required chocolate.

"Because, you my friend have been dropped
right in the middle of a love triangle."

"No!" Kira put her head in her hands. Screw
chocolate. She needed vodka. "Luke doesn’t like me like that, we’re
friends, okay? Right? And Tristan, well, I don’t even know
him."

"Listen to me," Emma said and put her hand on
Kira’s shoulder. Kira sat up, looking her friend in the face. "No
guy punches another guy over nothing and no guy is as attentive as
Tristan is to you over nothing. Something is going on." That was
right, Kira thought, but it wouldn’t be so simple as a love
triangle. Something else was at play here. That much she knew. "I
know you don’t want to hear it, but I’ve never seen Luke watch
someone like he watches you, like he’s always looking to protect
you. Maybe you should talk to him?"

"Yeah, you're right," Kira replied, wanting
to leave it at that and not let Emma know she thought something
else was going on. Luke wouldn't tell her anything, which was why
Kira had invited Emma over—to dig up dirt that Luke would never
tell her. She couldn't resist asking Emma, the boy genius, about
Tristan. "So, do you think he actually likes me?"

"I knew it, I knew it. You are definitely
crushing on Tristan, and, well, who can blame you." Her eyes
started to glaze over.

"Um, Emma?"

"Right right, sorry. I love Dave, but a bad
boy is always dreamy." Kira sighed to herself. Just what she didn’t
want to hear.

"And you think Tristan is a bad boy?"

"Kira, please, let’s not state the obvious.
The real question is would he change for you?"

Kira paused. "No?" She tried to convince
herself and Emma that she wouldn’t be the one to try to change him.
It never worked out she knew, but in the back of her mind Kira
could hear a small part of her say yes.

"I don’t know, not yet. But I will, I
promise, even if it takes all the knowledge of boys I possess and a
little more snooping." Kira laughed, happy she and Emma had started
this new stage of their friendship. It would be great to have a
girlfriend who she could gossip with, and who could help her figure
out her disheveled love life, something she had never been able to
master.

"Have Tristan and Luke always hated each
other?" Emma nodded her head while munching on a chip. "Do you know
why?" Emma shrugged.

"I’d say it was an instantaneous thing. Miles
was the first one of us to arrive, then I showed up a day after him
and the next week Dave showed up with Luke right behind him. None
of us really knew each other at that point, but I still remember
when Luke walked into the lunchroom. We figured we would round him
up, but when he walked down the cafeteria aisle, I remember he
paused and looked right out the window towards the misfits. They
all stood outside and stared back at him with seriously evil
smiles, it was like a challenge or something. None of us knew what
caused it, but that first day we met Luke he was nothing like he is
now. He was angry the whole day and barely spoke to any of us. In
fact, the next day we were all questioning if we wanted to let him
in to the group, but he came back on his second day as the charming
person we know and love. Still though, he changes around them. Oh,
and there was Bethany."

Emma paused to grab another chip. She chewed
on it slowly, her eyes lost focus on the forest around them, and
Kira wanted to wring her friend’s neck in anticipation. This was
it: this could be the explanation she had been looking for.

"Bethany?" Kira prompted.

"I’m trying to remember all the details.
Bethany was the first girl Luke dated, here at least. They met his
second week of school, and he was head over heels for her. After a
month, we all knew he was in love, but none of us were as sure
about her feelings. She was the kind of girl who tricks a guy into
falling for her, but keeps a wandering eye." Emma rolled her own
eyes to show her disgust. "The boys all loved her, but I had a
feeling something was off. Anyway, there was this party and Bethany
told Luke she was doing homework and couldn’t come out. So, we all
went without her, but it was totally lame and we heard people were
partying at the beach. We drove the extra fifteen minutes, and when
we walked onto the beach the first thing we saw were Tristan and
Bethany making out in the dunes. Luke ran over and punched Tristan
in the face. By the time we got there, blood was all over Tristan’s
face and Luke’s hand, and we had to pull him away. It was messy."
Emma shook her head, and Kira flashed back to Luke’s punch on the
beach. She was surprised Tristan hadn’t started gushing blood then
too.

"Yeah, wow, I didn’t expect that. So I'll be
the worst person ever if I try to date Tristan knowing Luke hates
him and maybe likes me."

"Eh, fifty-fifty on that, but you have to do
what you want." Emma looked at Kira with wide eyes, showing her
that she meant those words.

Kira curled back up in the hammock and
listened to the breeze as it ran through the trees. That was the
clue she had been waiting for, but she wasn’t so happy now that she
had it. Even if Luke and Tristan had hated each other from the
start, Bethany had been the catalyst, and maybe she was drudging up
old wounds. Kira needed to talk to Luke about this.

"Thanks for coming over Emma," Kira told her
friend at the door an hour later. Their conversation had moved past
Tristan and Luke into school gossip. But, it became so late that
Kira’s pain meds had worn off and she knew she needed to sleep on
everything.

"You know I’m here when you need me." They
hugged and Kira watched her friend leave before shutting the door
and heading upstairs. Instead of lying awake for hours, as she had
expected, sleep came almost instantly—and thankfully dreamlessly,
considering her tumultuous thoughts.

The first thing Kira did the next morning was
Google search for a Starbucks, then call Luke to meet her there. In
New York, coffee shops had been her favorite place to meet with
friends, and she needed a comfortable spot to have this
conversation with Luke. She loved the smell of coffee brewing and
the artsy laid back feel that most coffee shops had. Everyone was
in his or her own world, typing away at a computer or talking about
the previous days’ events, but it was like a secret community.

Kira’s drive over was solemn, but when she
arrived at Starbucks and sat down with a latte, she already felt
more relaxed. The indie music of an up-and-coming artist was
playing in the background, and she sank into her big leather seat
to wait.

Luke walked in about ten minutes later, and
she waved him over. When he sat down, Kira didn't really know where
to start, so she waited for him to say something.

"So, how’s my hospital patient?" She smiled.
Luke always did make her laugh.

"Fine, thanks. And, even though my mom thinks
I’m crazy, I can’t wait to try surfing again."

"Such a bad ass," he smiled at her. She
relaxed finally and tried to face what she came to say.

"Luke, believe it or not I didn’t just asked
you for coffee to swap jokes, I actually need to talk to you about
something." He nodded, prodding her on. She wasn’t sure how to tell
him gently, so she figured it was like ripping off a band-aid.
"Luke…I know about Bethany."

"Dramatic much, Kira? It’s not like she
died." She knew him well enough to know he was trying to brush it
off, but couldn’t quite.

"Emma came over last night and told me the
whole story, and I know that’s why you hate Tristan."

"Kira, that’s not even half of why I hate
Tristan. Can’t we just drop it?"

"Why won’t you talk to me? I feel like I just
got plopped down into the middle of television show. I know all the
characters, but none of the plot." Kira set her coffee cup down.
Whenever she was angry, her hands had this bad habit of moving of
their own accord, usually in wide sweeping circles that would
definitely spill her warm, sugary latte everywhere.

"I can’t tell you. Trust me, I would because
I know it would keep you away from Tristan, but I can’t." Luke
leaned closer to her—his eyes crinkled at the edges as he pleaded
with her to understand him and stop the argument.

"Why not?" Kira was angry now. She had known
he was keeping things from her the moment they had met, but she
couldn’t guess what it was or could even be.

"I just can’t, okay? Drop it, seriously."

There was an awkward pause. Kira wouldn’t
speak until he gave something up and he wouldn’t give any
information away. Luke fell back against his chair.

"So, surfing…"

"Oh, don’t change the topic," Kira snapped to
shut him up. "There’s something else I want to talk about too, as
long as we’re at a stalemate with the other topic…?"

"We are." He nodded his head to enforce the
finality.

"Fine, then I need to ask you something."
Kira picked her mug back up to ponder. On her ride over to the
coffee shop, she debated talking to him about this in case it hurt
his ego. But, now that she was angry with him for holding so much
back and keeping so many secrets from her, Kira had no such
reservations. "Luke, do you like me?"

"Sure, what’s not to like?" Kira stared at
him, waiting. Typical of a man to totally misread the question
entirely, she thought. "Oh…I mean, you’re great and all, but I
really thought we’d just be friends, you know?"

Kira smiled, totally relieved. "Thank God. Me
too. So, why did you punch Tristan yesterday if not jealousy?"

"Plead the fifth?" He grinned like a little
boy.

"Luke, this is ridiculous. He saved my life.
I would have died if not for him and you punched him in the face!
Seriously, you have got to get over whatever it is that’s between
you guys, because I won’t let you punch him in the face the next
time he does something nice for me." Not like she knew he ever
would. It could have been a one time, I was the closet person to
you, sort of thing. But, Kira hoped not.

"I know you don’t understand, but eventually
you will. And I hope I’m there to help you when that happens." Luke
stood up and left, letting the door slam behind him. Kira remained
sitting and sipped the rest of her coffee slowly. Now, she was
really confused. Who wasn’t letting Luke talk or was he just using
that as an excuse? Kira had thought he would be a best friend to
her, but how can someone who won’t even explain himself be her best
friend? Luke was clearly emotionally hurt about Bethany but
wouldn’t talk, hated Tristan for something that happened a year
ago, and hated him more for something he wouldn’t discuss. Maybe
she would have to go to the source of the trouble. And what of him?
All she knew about Tristan was that he had been a jerk to her, but
then saved her life. Was that enough to redeem someone who everyone
she knew disliked?

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