Scorch (2 page)

"What happened?" The doctor asked.

"We were just talking, I was just trying to
explain…" Kira trailed off as the doctor continued to work. After
another round of CPR, the machine picked up a heartbeat again and
Kira instantly relaxed, trying to slow her heart to the same beep
beep beep of Tristan's restored pulse.

"Give him another round of relaxants," the
doctor told the nurse, who jotted a few scribbles on Tristan's
chart and reached for a shot of fluids. "Now," he turned to Kira,
"what did you say exactly?"

"I just," Kira walked closer to the bed,
lightly running her fingers over Tristan's still forearm, "I was
just trying to explain how he got here, in this time period. He's
so confused." She winced as the nurse sunk a needle deep into his
skin. "He doesn't understand any of this."

"It's alright." The doctor, blond and so
obviously a Protector, placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's not
going to be easy for him to adjust, but these things take
time."

Kira let out a loud exhale, "Have you ever
dealt with something like this before?"

"Vampires returning from the dead?" He
chuckled softly under his breath. "No, not in this lifetime. But I
have seen people with amnesia and memory loss, and they recover
eventually—forever changed maybe, but people have a way of
adjusting to situations that may seem insurmountable at first." He
squeezed her arm reassuringly.

"Yeah, I know about that—believe me," Kira
said. If she could overcome the changes in her life—the truth about
her parents, her heritage as a conduit, and her role as a
half-breed or potentially some angel meant to fall into
darkness—Tristan would figure it out eventually. "Thanks," Kira
told the doctor as he walked out the door.

"He shouldn't wake up again for a few hours,"
the nurse informed her before following the doctor to the exit.

Kira eased onto the side of Tristan's
hospital bed. Even though his skin had darkened and his eyes had
lost their striking blue hue, her Tristan had to be in there
somewhere. He would look at her with warmth and love again, and not
as a stranger or a threat.

"He looks pretty good, you know, for someone
who was dead three days ago."

Kira recognized that voice instantly and
turned to welcome Luke with a grin. He stood in the doorway with
his hands lazily resting in his pockets and his shoulders slightly
shrugged as though he were mildly uncomfortable. When he stepped
into the room, he looked down toward the floor, avoiding the
bed.

Kira thought the green in his t-shirt made
his eyes shimmer like dark emeralds, and she resisted the urge to
run a hand over the soft cotton. "Does he still think you’re a
demon witch? I myself thought the description was uncannily
accurate."

Kira rolled her eyes at the playful jab. "You
don't want to know what nicknames I have for you."

"Prince charming? Knight in shining armor?
Love of my life? You're not that original, Kira." He smirked,
looking at her piercingly under his hooded eyebrows.

Kira breathed deeply, releasing a shaky
breath, and subconsciously slipped her hand off of Tristan's. "And
you're no Disney prince."

"I know," he said and slipped closer to her,
gaining confidence with their easy banter. "Being two-dimensional
would totally cramp my style."

"Yeah," Kira started but her breath caught
when he reached his hand out to run his thumb along her lower lip.
Kira swallowed. "You don't want a perfectly packaged princess to
run off with?"

Luke moved his hand along her cheek, stroking
her skin until his fingers rested at the base of her neck. He
tilted her head slightly upward and forced her to meet his stare.
"I prefer my pain in the butt demon witch." He leaned down, arching
her head up farther.

"Luke," Kira murmured, shifted her head to
the side so his lips landed on her cheek. Even if she wanted to
kiss Luke, which she did, and even if Tristan didn't remember who
she was, which he didn't, Kira was too conscious of his body lying
still right beside her.

Luke sighed and pressed their foreheads
together, taking a deep breath before retreating a few feet away to
the empty chair next to the bed.

"So how is he actually?"

Kira appreciated the genuine concern in
Luke's tone, even if it were more for her sake than for Tristan's.
"Well, I told him he's been a vampire for the past hundred or so
years, and his heart stopped beating and he passed out… so, yeah,
not great."

"He still doesn't remember anything?" Or who
you are? Kira finished Luke's question in her own mind.

"No, nothing. But he seemed a little more in
control, at first at least. The nurse gave him a few more meds…"
Kira trailed off as she traced Tristan's body with her gaze.

He was fast asleep and not waking up anytime
soon, but what she couldn’t help noticing was how serene he looked,
even with all the confusion. His features had never appeared so
relaxed to her, not in all the times she had seen him sleep. It was
as though some invisible weight had been lifted, as though he had
been freed.

"So what did you really come here to talk
about?" Kira looked over at Luke, catching him mid-stare.

He opened his mouth, ready with a witty
reply, but closed it again. "The Council," he said and let his eyes
slip away to the window.

"Which one?" Kira sighed.

"Both." Luke leaned forward, resting his
forearms on his knees, clearly stressed out.

They both were. The past two days had been
taxing on everyone, but Kira thought she and Luke had taken the
brunt of the heat over the failed mission in England. Everyone
forgot that Luke had managed to save all of the locked up conduits
in the dungeon just because he had let a single vampire go
free—Pavia. He refused to put more blame on Kira by telling the
Council that it was her demand to let Pavia escape and instead let
everyone believe she had slipped away.

But the real stressor, for both of them, was
the Punisher Council. Never in Luke's lifetime or in his parent's
lifetime had the two Councils met in full. Whenever cross-conduit
business needed to occur, one member from each Council would travel
and make the necessary decisions. But a full meeting of all seven
members of each Council was almost unheard of—and they were meeting
today to discuss Kira's fate now that she had completely changed
the game by bringing Tristan back to life.

Kira swallowed.

Her hours of peace stowing away in Tristan's
hospital room were about to come to an end. It was almost time to
face the world and its consequences again.

"When are they supposed to get here?" Kira
asked.

Luke didn't need clarification. "Soon, really
soon."

"And what did the Protector Council say?"

"They won't let anyone hurt you—I won't let
anyone hurt you. But they are concerned about how the Punishers
will act, what they'll demand. This goes against everything they
know. For hundreds of years, Punishers have been fueled by their
belief that vampires can't be saved, that their humanity is gone,
and what you did completely negates that."

"And there's more," Kira said. Luke continued
wringing his hands together and looked at her questioningly.

"More than that?"

"Well, that's their argument for why Tristan
should die—that the evil will still call for him. But what's their
argument for me? I told you what that Punisher in the dungeon said.
About how he thinks I'm an angel that's falling and becoming an
original vampire, an unstoppable force. They'll want to put an end
to me before I have the chance to make that transformation."

Luke leaned back and waved his hand
unconvincingly in the air, dismissing the idea. "Come on, Kira,
that's insane. Anyone who looks at you can see what side you're
on."

"Anyone who looks at me can see my blue eyes,
or are you that used to them now?"

Luke scooted his chair closer so his knees
touched hers. "I see them. I see two bright and beautiful and warm
cobalt blue eyes that look like the sapphire heat of a burning
flame and nothing at all like the dead cold eyes of a vampire."

Kira looked away, her heart melting a little
under his scrutiny. "Yeah, well, too much sun exposure might have
affected your brain cells. Besides," Kira continued, not letting
him retort with any more compliments—she could already feel the
blood rush to her cheeks a little, "they'll say I'm too sympathetic
to vampires because I was with Tristan. Maybe they'll twist it
around so it seems like I wanted Aldrich to go free. I don't
know."

"But you've never once acted like one of
those things or felt any sort of calling like the Punisher
described, have you?"

"Of course not," Kira retorted, trying to
look angry that he even asked and not at all guilty.

Because, of course, she had.

During her fight with Aldrich, Kira had
lusted for the kill, a prolonged painful death, and maybe even for
Aldrich's blood. And that was why he had slipped free—why he had
the moment he needed to escape—because Kira had started battling
the demon inside of her instead of the one burning at her feet.
Since leaving the castle, nothing new had happened. But still, she
felt the change within her, the slight taint her flames now
carried.

"So that's that," Luke slapped his hands
together, jolting Kira out of her thoughts, "they have nothing, no
argument that makes any plausible sense against you."

"I'm just nervous, I guess." She
shrugged.

"The Flaming Tomato is nervous? I'm
shocked!"

Kira smiled. "I haven't heard that one in a
while. I was sort of hoping you had somehow forgotten about
it…"

"Forget The Flaming Tomato? You can't just
forget The Flaming Tomato—it's too good." Kira raised her eyebrows
in his direction and he responded by raising his hands up. "What?
I'm just saying…"

"So I have Demon Witch and Flaming Tomato? I
seriously need some new nicknames… or some new friends," Kira
muttered the last part.

"Would you prefer something more normal like…
Kiki?" Luke asked, his face a blanket of innocence.

"Call me that again and I may kill you…" Kira
sent over her best death stare.

"See, that might have actually scared me when
your name was Demon Witch, but with Kiki it's just not nearly as
menacing." He folded his lips together to keep from grinning.

Kira launched herself across the room, going
right for his ribcage with her hands. The benefit of being best
friends was Kira knew all of his vulnerable spots and it took about
two seconds to have him rolling around on the floor begging for
mercy.

Tickling—it was totally underrated.

"Kiki… come on… I can't breathe," Luke gasped
between giggle fits. Kira pushed even harder.

He grabbed her by the wrists, finally using
his strength and size to overcome her. Without her hands to ground
her, Kira's balance slipped and she landed on his chest with an
oomph. When she opened her eyes, the laugh had disappeared from
Luke's face and in an instant the air felt thicker. She licked her
lips, unable to look away.

"Ahem."

Kira rolled off of Luke immediately, jumping
at the sound of an unfamiliar voice in the doorway. She looked up
to see a well-dressed blond man who she remembered seeing around
Sonnyville before.

"The Punisher Council has arrived. We request
your presence at the Council dais immediately."

"Thanks," Luke muttered while he stood up and
brushed his clothes off.

"I'll meet you there in a minute," Kira said,
looking back at the still unmoving Tristan. Luke nodded and dragged
the protesting Protector from the room.

Kira walked back to the corner of the
hospital room where she had left her handbag and took out the
shabbily wrapped present resting inside. Hastily, she scrawled a
note on the blank card.

"Dear Tristan, I'm sorry I won't be here when
you wake up again. Remember what I said and please try to stay
calm. Here's a history book I think you'll like—it'll get you
caught up on everything you've missed. And there's a little extra
too. I couldn't find the charcoal you like, so I got some soft
graphite pencils instead. I know how much drawing relaxes you.
Please don't worry, I'll be back soon. Love always," she erased
that, "yours truly," she erased it again, "your friend, Kira."

Kira left the package at the foot of his bed
and walked out of the room, hoping she could keep them both safe
from the Punishers now waiting just a short walk down the
street.

Chapter
Two

While making her way toward the town square,
a strange sense of déjà vu overcame Kira. Spotting a sea of blond
heads surrounding the archaic wooden platform that served as the
Council's meeting center was a reminder of the first visit she had
made to Sonnyville. More so, it was a reminder of how much could
change in such a short amount of time… and how much could stay the
same. Whereas before Kira was an outcast for the color of her hair
and the source of her powers, she was now an outcast for her
loyalties and her supposed softness for vampires.

When she reached the top of the long hill,
every head in the crowd turned toward her. Weeks before, their
gazes had been filled with interest, awe and a slight sense of
fear. Now, some of the conduits had added disgust to that list.

But Kira had been through too much to really
care what anyone thought about her, so she just walked through the
people, not making eye contact with anyone until she reached the
wooden steps of the raised platform and saw Luke waiting for her.
Grateful for his warm smile, Kira took the hand he offered and
climbed the steps ready for whatever faced her.

Sitting in their wooden thrones were the
seven members of the Protector Council. Kira cautiously glanced
over at her grandfather, who sat in the center of the group. Like
Luke, he offered a warm greeting. The wrinkles around his eyes
crinkled in a subtle smile meant for Kira's eyes only.