Immortal Fire - Book One

Damien suggested that I work on my fitness when we started the training a week ago, so I did just that. My muscles were protesting after running laps around the training area. The weather was picking up and I was forced inside after a few hours.

Closing the door behind me as I entered the warehouse, I ran into Hayden. I could not contain the smile that spread across my face. He smiled back.

“You’ve been training for a while…” he spoke.

“Yeah, but there’s a storm coming again.”

The past week there had been numerous electrical storms like the first one, the night Damien and I had our encounter with Hunter. There had also been more murders within the Vampire coven after each storm. Jesse was constantly in a foul mood due to it; no doubt she would be on a rampage after tonight’s storm.

No one knew why the storms happened or the killings, but we all knew they were connected and that a greater plan was at work; we just did not know the specifics and it weighed heavily on all of us. Hayden leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

“I’ll see you in two hours okay...?” he said.

“Where are you going?” I asked, frowning at him. I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, not wait another two hours until we left. A mischievous smile spread across his face.

“I can’t tell you that, it would spoil tonight.” I hated surprises and he laughed at the scowl that had spread across my face.

“C’mon, it won’t be bad. Oh, and get dressed up…” he said.

After another kiss on the cheek, he left. How am I supposed to get dressed up? I have no fancy clothes; all I had with me were jeans and sweatpants… Panic set in faster than I thought it would. I had nothing to wear and nowhere to get clothes from now…

I had not even realized that I was muttering curses and pacing the room as Jesse walked in and grabbed a glass bottle from the fridge that had something scarlet in it that I suspected was blood. She watched me pacing and eventually threw a scrunched-up paper towel at me. It bounced from my head, and I whirled around.

“What the hell was that for?” I exclaimed annoyed. She was leaning against the counter taking a sip from the bottle.

“You are trampling a trench into my floor and I’m sick of hearing your little rant. I could hear you from upstairs.” She stated.

“How...?” I asked.

“Super hearing, remember?” Oh, I had forgotten about that…

“C’mon Elfie, follow me…” she said and turned.

I did not appreciate her calling me Elfie but followed her anyway. She led me to a hallway that led to the back of the warehouse. There were rooms on either side. I had not realized that there were rooms down here. Passing a room that had its door open, I paused outside. Pictures lined the walls. This must have been Hayden’s room because his gear was slung over the sofa that ran next to the wall.

Taking a closer look at the drawings, I saw that there was one of me. It was like looking in a mirror. I know that back at school, Hayden had been in my art class, but I had not realized how talented he was. I could not help myself and stepped into the room. Walking up to the picture of me, I saw a date written at the bottom. Hayden had drawn this before we met; before I had even arrived at school. A warm feeling entered me and ran over my soul.

“Get lost?” Jesse was standing by the door looking at me expectantly. “Sorry…” I stammered.

Stepping away from the picture, I followed Jesse down the hallway and into an enormous room. There was a four-poster bed that had red and black chiffon curtains that ran around it. There was black wood furniture set up and red roses decorated everything.

It was all very Gothic, but there was something beautiful about it. This was Jesse’s room. She strode over to a huge dresser and opened it. She dug through clothes for what seemed like forever and pulled out a silver dress. It was gorgeous. I was not exactly a girly girl, but I would have to be blind to not appreciate the dress. It had thin straps, I straight neckline, and would end above my ankles. It was perfect.

“Wear this…” Jesse said.

“What… I…” Jesse grabbed my arm and shoved me behind a screen, pushing the dress into my arms.

“Just get dressed,” she ordered.

“Um, Thanks.” She was extremely pushy, so I did as she said.

The dress fit but it was tight in certain areas. Stepping around from the screen, I felt very self-conscious. Jesse’s mouth fell open when she saw me.

“It’s too tight, right?” I asked, standing there awkwardly.

“Oh, hell, no! You look good as much as I loathe you for it. Who knew you had some curves and titties?” That statement shocked me; I did not know if I should have taken it as a compliment or an insult.

“Um, thanks...” I said, feeling flushed at the fact she had made a comment about my breasts that were showing plenty of cleavage due to the tightness of the dress.

Jesse then proceeded to dress me in sapphire blue heels and gave me sapphire teardrop earrings. She also did my makeup and tied my hair up in a super high ponytail. The whole process reminded me of Cassie and my heart clenched. I did not know her very well, but I missed her. She and I would probably have been good friends if my life did not take such a turn… I wondered what she was doing right now. Was she okay?

Looking at Jesse, bending over a makeup case, I could not figure out why she was doing this… it was not a secret that we didn’t like each other…

“Can I ask you something?” I asked and she looked at me.

“Doesn’t that count as a question already?” I stopped myself from the retort that was lying at the tip of my tongue.

“Why are you even helping me? It’s weird, to say the least…” I tried to sound as casual as possible. Jesse began applying blush to my cheeks and looked me in the eyes and back at her work in progress.

“As much as I don’t like you, which by the way is a lot, I can’t stand Hayden being unhappy. We used to date, which I know you know about; he told me what is up between you two…” she said. Again, I felt uncomfortable.

“Anyway, he has never even come close to caring for someone so much; not even me.” she finished saying with a lungful sigh.

“How do you know?” I asked cautiously. She set the makeup down and sat back.

“I can tell by the way he looks at you and the way his heart, literally speed’s up when you are near. I do care about him, but as a friend now. No one is going to ever take your place.” I could not believe it. I could feel myself start to blush, and thought that Jesse’s hard work was going to waste now that my cheeks were so red.

“I still don’t like you though…” Jesse said flatly. And just like that, any progress I thought Jesse and I had made went to waste.

“The feeling is mutual, trust me.” Jesse and I had a stare-down that would have brought the guys to their knees. Jesse looked away first and spotted the clock. It was time for me to go.

Saying my thanks as friendly as I could muster, I headed down the hall back toward the living room. My heels made me feel like a tower of silver and blue. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going as I was trying to pull the dress slightly higher to cover my cleavage, but it was too tight and walked straight into Damien. Damien was about to comment on my clumsiness but stopped. He had a strange look on his face.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you,” I said a little breathlessly.

Damien looked away quickly then back at me, a look of determination, one I had come to learn over the past week, covered his face.

“Are you going out tonight?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said beaming. “Hayden is taking me out. What’s up?”

“I wanted to speak to you about Hunter…” he started saying, but I quickly interrupted him.

“Is it okay if you tell me when I get back?” I was already running late and did not want to ruin tonight with talk about Hunter… If I had waited this long, what were another few hours?

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to put this off Aria.”

Hayden walked in then and wore a suit. I thought I would die on the spot. He looked gorgeous. He was not wearing a tie and the top button was undone. He made it look good.

“Sorry to interrupt Damien, but I need to steal Aria from you. We’re running a bit late.” Hayden never took his eyes off me as he spoke. Damien looked at Hayden then me.

“Just promise me you will be careful and safe,” Damien asked me. I nodded. He never acted this way, and it was weird. Turning to Hayden, he then addressed him directly, seeming to forget that I was standing there.

“You better take good care of her Hayden Levi, or may God help you, I will come after you myself and be sent to Hell or not for it, I will come back for you for a second go-round.” My mouth fell open.

I could not believe Damien. He was acting as if he owned me. What the hell? The two of them had a stare-down, not so different from Jesse and I’s earlier, but they won. Jesse and I were like a bunch of kittens compared to this. I had to get them apart.

“Okay time to go…” I grabbed Hayden’s arm and had to use all my weight to get him to budge.

He was still shooting daggers at Damien with his eyes as I led him outside to the Jaguar. I could feel his muscles tensing beneath his jacket sleeves. Grabbing both sides of his face, I kissed him. I could feel the shock of what I was doing go through him and then pulled away. He was not expecting that.

“Can we go now?” I put on the sweetest voice for him, and he eventually smiled.

“Yeah okay…”

Both of us climbed into the car as Hayden sped us away towards the city center; lights flashing past us and lightning flashing in Heaven. I hoped this storm would pass, but my gut told me otherwise...