Angel Fire (18 page)

I reddened. “I guess we did. Thank you, it was delicious.”

She smiled with delight. “All right, now who’s up for a cup of coffee?”

Neil raised a restraining hand. “Oh, no, I can’t. I’d love to, but I have an early day tomorrow. My first official day,” he explained. “I start at five. Thank you so much for the supper. It was perfect.”

“Don’t worry yourself about it at all.” Aunt Martha waved him off. “It was my pleasure.”

“I’ll walk you,” I offered, trying hard not to blush at the knowing look Aunt Martha shot me.

* * *

Neil’s motel room was only a couple of hundred feet from the bungalow, but we took our time walking the distance.

“I want to thank you,” Neil said.

“Me?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “For trusting me, and opening up to me. And believing me. I’ve never told another soul about myself. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

“You can say that again. So,” I added, “what do we do now?”

“I don’t know, really. If there’s a reason for this, it’s beyond me. These powers didn’t come with an instruction manual. I guess, maybe, if you want, we can figure it out together.”

I felt a flush go through my body. The thought of having a kindred spirit gave me a sense of purpose that had eluded me all my life. I had a lot of emotions running riot at the moment, and I needed time to sort through them, but I felt like I was at the beginning of something wonderful and positive. I needed that.

I didn’t want to rush into anything, though, no matter how fantastic I felt at the moment.

“That sounds good to me,” I told Neil. “But I just … I don’t know how to say this…”

“You need some time?”

“No. Yeah. I mean, listen, I don’t want it to sound like I’m not happy to find you, but…”

He smiled. “No worries. Baby steps, right? It’s been a very long day. And tomorrow is going to be long, too. My shift ends around two in the afternoon. You start at three?”

“Yeah.”

He said, “Why don’t we meet up at the Finer Diner around two, then? It’ll be a late lunch for you, and early dinner for me.”

I smiled. “All right, that sounds good.”

We had reached his room, and he paused at the door.

“Look, I don’t want to scare you off or anything, but—” He leaned toward me, his motions awkward and uncertain, and gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek.

I didn’t know how to react. At the same time, I felt giddy, and everything in my body seemed to dance with excitement. Then Neil spoke again. “No more secrets, I promise.”

He gave me a light laugh and a wink. I smiled back, but icy fingers of guilt ran down my spine.

Neil had completely opened up to me, but I had not been totally honest with him. It was something I wanted to take to my grave, and it was the main reason I was frightened by the thought of surrendering to the power.

There had been one incident in my life where I had called on the power on purpose.

I could barely wait for him to disappear inside. The moment his door closed, I turned and headed as fast as I could to my own room before I completely broke down.

All this time, I had tried my damndest not to think about the one and only time I had deliberately summoned the power.

* * *

I was originally sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter; more specifically, negligence resulting in death. They couldn’t prove I had any intent, and I didn’t have a track record of any arson-related offenses prior to the fire. That I had a juvenile record for minor incidents led the jury to believe that it was in my nature to be reckless, and the judge added that I was headed down a path that would lead to more and more serious crimes. He had passed sentence without batting an eye.

My court-appointed defender had assured me I wouldn’t do more than three years as long as I attended counseling, toed the line, and did my best to be a model inmate. But sometimes, you could make every effort to follow the rules in prison, and still end up in deep trouble.

They don’t send nice people to prison, and when you wrong someone inside, they tend not to forgive you. As a matter of fact, they can hold a grudge for a very long time.

Cindi Peterson had held her grudge against me for nearly three years. She had been my cellmate that first night in prison, when I lost control of the power, and it was she who I had nearly killed. It had frightened her to the core. When people are scared, they can react in different ways. For Cindi, she carried that fear deep inside her and she waited for the opportunity to make the world right again. The only way she could do that was to make me suffer physically as she had suffered mentally. In order for her to feel safe, I had to die.

During the first three years inside, I had no idea that she was waiting and planning her revenge on me. Prison life is a life of routine, and the days and years can blend in to one another as time passes. We performed the same chores every day, shared the same gossip, ate the same bland food. The structured schedule of an inmate is designed to deaden the mind.

Even still, arguments happened, fights were not uncommon, and sometimes, when the loneliness crept in, people found solace in the embrace of whoever was closest. And sometimes, because there was a higher ratio of male guards, the female prisoners occasionally attempted to entice one of them into an intimate circumstance for various reasons: trading favors, special treatment, access to outside goods and contraband; or even simply for mutual company or pleasure.

The guards were under strict orders against fraternizing with the inmates, but more often than you would care to believe, indiscretions happened. When Cindi found a younger, very naïve guard who had recently undergone a divorce, Donny Riker, she homed in on him and worked her own brand of magic. A little flirting, a few dropped hints, and the two began a year-long tryst. After awhile, he was so whipped and confused by her head games, she could easily play him like a marionette. She was getting out in six months, and she made promises and plans with him for after her release.

I found this all out afterwards. The prison rumor mill goes into overdrive when anything extraordinary happens, and among the dozen or so stories I heard through the grapevine, one core line involved Cindi getting Donny to follow and corner me in the storage room one night.

The plan was for him to make it look like an accident, but when he followed me inside and closed the door behind him, I didn’t gasp, scream or try to run as he expected. I merely stared at him. He hesitated, uncertain what he had gotten himself into.

Truth was I was far too surprised to react. My thoughts had been elsewhere, and I couldn’t figure out what unspoken rule or protocol I had breached to get a guard to come after me.

“It’s time to die,” he said finally, and pulled out his baton.

My power immediately kicked in and I felt my skin burning.

“My eyes can see!” I shouted at him. This was the first time I had used the mantra, and I was far too panicked to recite it in a calming manner.

My reaction took him aback. “What?”

I continued yelling. “My tongue can taste!”

I clenched my fists, and I could feel the heat in me rise as I continued shouting the mantra. “My mouth can smile!”

I was scared, but I don’t think that’s how I came across to Donny.

“You really
are
some kind of crazy,” he yelled, eyes wide like someone who’d had far too much coffee and not nearly enough sleep. “Cindi was right; they should have given you the needle.”

With that, he raised his baton over his head and advanced, his eyes wide with apprehension.

Before he crossed half the distance between us there came a rattling at the door. Through the small frosted glass window, I saw a shape.

Donny turned just as Cindi, expectant and elated, burst inside. I have no idea who she bribed to get there, but I had a sudden sinking sensation deep in the pit of my stomach.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Donny demanded.

Cindi glared at me. “I had to watch. I want to make sure the bitch dies.”

“It’s too dangerous. Let me take care of it.” He turned back and leveled his eyes at me, and I could see the commitment in his gaze. Barry had had that same look in his eyes whenever he was about to throw a heavy beating on someone. There was no going back from this. No one would hear me if I hollered at the top of my lungs. If I just stayed there, Donny would bludgeon me to death in front of his lover.

For the first time in my life, I purposely did not restrain the power. I stopped shouting the mantra, and instead I willed the fire to come forth.

If I were going to die, I would take Donny and Cindi with me.

The dry papers and folders inside the cabinets ignited like tinder. The overhead fluorescents exploded in a shower of sparks and chemical powder. Windows shattered as my would-be assailants screamed when thousands of shards and splinters pierced their skin.

The walls buckled and the roof groaned. I became an inferno, and the heat radiated out from me with such power that the flesh on Donny’s face melted before he died. He didn’t even have time to scream.

I was horrified, but at the same time, I felt an overwhelming sense of release that made my knees shake. The power coursed through my veins like a wild beast.

I was so completely out of control that I didn’t even know who I was anymore. It was almost as if I were a different person, and the thing inside me was an entity all on its own. I had succumbed to its desire to be free, and now I couldn’t harness it.

Cindi tried to run from my rage, but she was not fast enough. Her scream was cut off as a wave of my fire washed over her.

That scream was the last sound I heard; as with the first time the fire had taken control of me, I passed out. The building continued to burn around me.

The next day, when I woke in the infirmary, I was completely unharmed. The administration building, I found out from the orderly, had been reduced to ash.

They never found any signs of Cindi or Donny, and never suspected that their cremated remains were among the ruins. What they assumed was that Cindi had somehow escaped prison with the aid of Donny and me. That I was found among the burnt wreckage—a convicted arsonist—was enough circumstantial evidence for them to press multiple charges: I got an additional seven years tacked on to my original sentence for destruction of property, attempted escape, and aiding and abetting.

I had murdered Cindi and Donny. In a court of law, I could have pleaded self-defense, but there had not been and never would be a trial. For years I punished myself for unleashing the power on human beings, whether it had been justified or not.

During the remainder of my sentence I withdrew emotionally from everyone except for Kyra; I was alone in a prison of solitude, and felt I had warranted no less.

But now I met someone wonderful, someone who was like me: a kindred spirit who seemed to be everything I had always needed. Someone who had actually sought me out.

How could I accept Neil into my life, knowing that I had committed the vilest crime one person could inflict on another?

I had killed two people. It was self-defense, but at the same time I had
wanted
them to die. What kind of a person was I?

I did not deserve to love, or be loved.

Chapter Twenty-Two

I woke late
the next morning and felt like a new woman with a renewed lease on life.

My exhaustion had taken over and I slept for eleven hours straight. It wasn’t until I poured a hot cup of coffee from the one-cup brewer in my room and took a long, wincing sip that I realized that the weekend was not a dream. It had all happened.

Barry. The fight at The Trough. The journal. The confessions. And Neil. My thoughts lingered on that last bit.

Somehow, I felt both thrilled and frightened at the prospect of knowing another person who was cursed with these elemental abilities. Two nights ago, I had my bags packed and I was set to walk away from everything I had known all my life. So much had happened in such a short time, I had trouble getting it all straight in my mind; but one thing I was certain of right now was that I was meant to come back to Middleton. I belonged here, not just because of the ties to family and friends. For the first time since I was a teenager I felt myself drawn to another person.

I didn’t deserve to love … but I wanted it. I found myself dwelling on that kiss Neil planted on my cheek. Gently touching the spot where his lips had made contact with my skin, I felt a flush emanating from my stomach and radiating throughout my entire body.

I suppose people who are most suited find each other more attractive. In my youth, I had found Barry’s rebellious personality appealing. Over the last decade, my outlook on life had completely changed. When I thought I was a freak of nature, I never entertained the thought of a personal relationship. Now that I was no longer the only one of my kind, I found myself drawn to Neil.

After quickly eating a stale blueberry muffin, I showered and dressed. I even put an iron through my hair to give it a bit of bounce.

The weather was seasonably mild when I stepped out of my room, but I still wore my jeans jacket in case the wind picked up. I walked past the main office and saw my uncle hovering over the ancient computer and grimacing in growing frustration. Technology was not his strong suit.

Ordinarily, I would have made a detour to help him, but I knew I had taken a little longer to get ready than I had originally planned. If I didn’t put a hustle on it, I was going to be late for my lunch date with Neil.

The Finer Diner was only a few blocks away, and I made good time. When I got there, I was a little startled to see Neil standing out front with a large paper bag.

He flashed a grin of welcome that I automatically returned.

“Hey. What’s up?” I asked him when I got close.

He raised the bag up to show me. “I took the liberty of ordering something to go.”

I blinked. “Go? Go where?”

“I got to thinking last night about a few things, and I think we can make this a working lunch.”

In a way, I was crestfallen. I had spent the morning hoping that this might be more of a romantic meal, perhaps our first real date. But I have to admit, I was very curious about what conclusions he’d drawn. Valiantly hiding my disappointment, I nodded.