Burning for You (Blackwater) (26 page)

“Sounds fair,” Theo says.  “I can
certainly do that for you.  What else?”

I think and then recall I have
someplace to be today, and I was supposed to go with Ash.  “I could probably
use your help with something else,” I tell him.  “How would you like to visit a
dear friend of mine who could really use some friends right now?”

“As your friend, I feel it’s my
friendly duty,” Theo replies.  “We’ll talk about that in a bit.  First I have
to go steal some clothes from my sister without letting her know they’re for
you.  Her carpet really can’t take another broken bottle of wine.”

*

Theo’s car is a tiny white Renault
with white leather seats that can uncomfortably seat two, which makes Ash’s
black SUV seem like a tank.  I note with dismay that the SUV is gone when we
come outside.  My fox fur has been left behind at Normandy for a more practical
beige pea coat.  Theo lent me a pair of Olivia’s jeans and a winter white
cashmere sweater, as well as a pair of brown boots that fit me perfectly.  “The
boots are actually my niece Melanie’s,” Theo says.  “Olivia has a very small
foot.”

“Are you saying I have big feet?” I
ask him.

“I’m saying that you could drive
this car like Fred Flintstone,” Theo replies with a completely straight face. 
I smack him and regret it immediately as the backlash jabs my funny bone into
the passenger door. 

“Your car is pathetically small,”
is my retort.  Not very clever, but it’s all I’ve got.  “So have you met
Eleanor or Andrew Laurent before?”

“A few times,” Theo says.  “I don’t
know them very well.  How do you know them?”

“Eleanor was my best friend since
forever and I lost my virginity to Drew,” I say.

He looks over at me.  I notice Theo
drives incredibly fast and I like it.  “This is going to be really awkward,
isn’t it?”

I shrug.  “Drew and I aren’t
catalysts.  He and Eleanor are, apparently, and I never knew until I moved back. 
All through high school I didn’t know, when we were dating.”

“Well they had to have known.  Did
you take Drew’s virginity too?”

My eyebrows go down.  “You know, I
have no idea.”  Now I’m dying to find out.  “You’re a troublemaker, you know
that?”

Theo grins, showing me that
adorable dimple and a lot of smile.  “It’s my specialty.”

“I bet.”

We drive on a few miles in silence
and I take the time to study the landscape with my head resting against the
glass of the window.  Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees but a few
orange and red ones cling desperately in vain.  The sky is cloudy from the
storm the night before.  “Do you think it’s cold enough to snow today?” I
wonder out loud.

“It will snow today,” Theo says.

“Oh, I guess you would know that,”
I reply.

“Why?  Because I checked the
weather channel?” he asks.  “Wow, your intuition is great!”

I laugh.  “Okay, fine.  I suck at
my water elemental.  I don’t really know how it works at all.”

“Me either,” Theo replies. 

“Bullshit,” I say.  “You’ve been at
this longer than I have.”

“How long have you realized that
you’re a water elemental?” Theo asks me. 

“Since I put my hand on my sister’s
adopted baby and knew that she stole it from Eleanor.”

Theo’s eyes widen.  “That’s pretty
heavy,” he replies.  “Do you think you can prove it?”

I shrug.  “I don’t know,” I say. 
“But I want to visit Eleanor to find out more information.  Plus if the
adoption isn’t legal or anything, then I think I can get Heidi.”

“Heidi’s your sister?”  I nod. 
“And you want to basically destroy your relationship with your sister so that
your friend who married the guy who took your virginity and was likely not
entirely faithful to you during high school can have her baby back?”

“Yeah,” I say, falling back in my
seat with the impact of Theo’s words.  “You make it sound so ugly.”

“It’s very ugly,” he says.  “It’s
an ugly mess and you’re putting yourself right in the middle of it.”

“What should I do?” I snap.  “Let
Heidi keep the baby?  I don’t even know how she stole it from the hospital in
the first place!”

“That’s why you brought me,” Theo
says.  “I’m here to keep you out of danger and to help you find out what
happened.”

I turn toward him.  “You can do
that?”

“Sometimes,” he says.  “You said
yourself that you felt the connection between Eleanor and the baby Heidi has
now, right?”

I nod emphatically.  “That’s
exactly it.  There was a connection between that baby and Eleanor.  It was like
Heidi was just posing with him.”

“Elementals are about connections,”
Theo explains.  “Catalysts are people who are connected through elementals,
right?  You and I are connected because of your water elemental, and Ash and
you are connected for your fire elemental.”

“What about my parents?” I wonder. 
“Neither one of them has the same elemental.”

“Then it gets complicated,” Theo
says.  “There are so many combinations of elementals that end up working
together.  Fire and water are opposing elementals, obviously.  You’ve heard
people say ‘opposites attract’?”  I nod.  “It’s like a positive and a negative
magnet.  They’re attracted to each other.”

“Makes sense,” I say.  “What about
something like air and fire, or earth and water?”

Theo shrugs.  “Maman has combined
every elemental with water with every catalyst she’s ever had.  They all work,
just in different ways.  Some are complimentary, like fire and air.  Fire
cannot exist without air.”

“But air can exist without fire,” I
say.  “Right?”  I can’t think of an instance that says otherwise.

Theo shrugs.  “I’ve never met an
air and fire catalyst combination, but I’m sure it exists.  Most catalysts are
usually the same elemental, or opposing.”

“Except for your mother’s
marriages,” I remind him.  I’m hoping he will share more information, but Theo is
silent.  “What do you remember about your father?  Anything?”

Theo gives me a long stare, his
pale eyes fixed on my own.  “My father was killed by his own brother Bo when
Olivia and I were barely walking.  My mother was pregnant with my brother
Demetri at the time.”

“I see,” I reply, recalling my
mother’s story about how Demetri Lavanne’s putative father was killed by
Lisette’s next husband.  “What’s Demetri’s elemental?”

“Earth,” Theo replies.

“I see.  And what was your
father’s?”

“Water,” Theo says.  “I know where
this is going, Leah.”

“Of course you do!  Water elementals
know everything,” I tease, smiling just a little bit.  “And what was Bo
Lavanne’s elemental?  Was it, oh I don’t know, air, perhaps?”

“It was earth,” Theo sighs.  “It’s
not exactly the biggest secret in the world that Demetri is actually my
half-brother.”

“Elementals are better than a DNA
test, apparently,” I laugh. 

“Is your sister Heidi a crafter?”
Theo asks me.  I shake my head, no.  “Seriously?”

“No, she’s not,” I say.  “My mother
swears she’s not.  Is there a term for that in the crafting world?  Someone
born to crafter parents who has no crafting ability?”

Theo shrugs.  “I have no clue.  It
rarely happens.  A ‘muggle’?”

“Uh, no.  That’s Harry Potter,” I laugh. 
“Sorry, thanks for playing.”

“I tried,” he says.  “So Heidi
isn’t a crafter, and you feel that the baby she supposedly adopted is Eleanor
and Drew’s.  Eleanor and Drew are earth elementals.”  He chews on his lip for a
few seconds.  “It wouldn’t be definite, but if that baby turns out to be earth,
then you’ve got more fuel for your fire.”

“And how long would that take?” I
ask him.  “I didn’t really know much about crafting for years until recently.”

“It could take a while,” Theo
admits.  “So I guess there should be a better plan?”

I smirk so hard my face hurts.  “No
kidding.”

“Well until you come up with that,”
Theo says.  “We’ll just have to feel our way through the situation.”

Eleanor’s usually bright and curly
hair lays limp and dull around her shoulders.  Her eyes have the telltale dark
circles underneath that reveal she hasn’t gotten much sleep at all for the
entire week.  She looks little better than when I last saw her at the
hospital.  When Theo and I approach the house, Eleanor’s mother Renee opens the
door.  From what I know of Renee, I’m pretty sure she’s a large contributor to
Eleanor’s lack of sleep.

“Bonjour, bonjour!  So good to see
you, Leah!” she tells me, kissing both of my cheeks and giving me a friendly
push inside the house as she turns to Theo.  She offers him her hand to kiss,
which he does and then presses to his forehead in a respectful gesture.  “Oh,
Theo, you are here too!  I am so pleased you could be here for my Eleanor.”

“Hello Renee,” I say, already
feeling tired from her boisterousness.  Compared to my mother, Renee is very
loud, very energetic, very modern and very French.  Eleanor gets her curls from
her mother, though Renee’s hair is a very vibrant red, just like everything
else about her.  She and my mother have been friends since as long as I can
remember.  When Eleanor and I were very young, we were shoved together in each
other’s rooms for hours while our mothers drank wine and gossiped downstairs. 
At first Eleanor and I hated each other, resentful of the fact that our mothers
tried to use each other to spend more time together being loud and drunk.  We
bonded over playing pranks on the women, replacing empty bottles of wine with
tap water and putting them back in the fridge.  One time Renee and my mother
were so drunk that they drank a whole bottle of water, complaining of the
vintage, while Eleanor and I stood at the top of the stairs and giggled
maniacally.  These play dates would typically result in our fathers collecting
us from the opposite house because our mothers were too sloshed to drive, up
until Eleanor’s father died, and then all play dates occurred at Eleanor’s or
they would spend the night at our house.  “Where’s Drew?” I wonder out loud.  I
catch Eleanor’s eyes narrowing slightly.

“I’m here,” he says, stepping out
of the kitchen.  “I just put on more coffee.”  He leans over to kiss me with a
friendly and quick peck and shake Theo’s hand.  “Are you running around with
all of the Lavannes these days?”

“Drew!” Eleanor snaps.  “That’s not
exactly your business.”

“El, I’ve known Leah for years,”
Drew says.  “I think it’s okay if I ask her what the hell is going on.”  How
could he know anything was going on at all?  I recall running into him at the
hospital when I was with Ash, and now showing up with Theo…I guess it does seem
odd.

“I came to see how you were doing,”
I say.  “That’s what the hell is going on.”

“Oh I’m just great,” Eleanor
snaps.  “Wonderful.  Couldn’t be happier!  Walked around for nine months
carrying my firstborn child and then someone snatches it right out from under
our noses, completely surpassing hospital security.”  I step back from her a
few paces, backing against Theo, who puts his hands protectively on my
shoulders.  “On top of that,” Eleanor continues.  “You show up unannounced and
back to Blackwater after dropping off the face of the earth and I see you
coming on to every man who will give you a second look, including my husband!”

“El, that’s-“

“I saw you outside of my hospital
room!” she cries.  “You were draped over him, during one of his most vulnerable
moments, while I was devastated.  I tried to play nice, but it’s amazing to me
that suddenly you show up after all of these years – my husband’s
ex-girlfriend, who never actually broke up with him, you just left – and
suddenly my baby is gone.  You don’t think that’s a huge coincidence?”

“You’re saying I stole your baby?”
I ask her, incredulous to the accusation.  “You honestly think I came back to
Blackwater to destroy your life or something?  That’s insane!”

“Is it?” Eleanor says.  “For years
I stood by you.  You had Drew wrapped around your finger all through high
school.  He was my catalyst.  We didn’t know what we were feeling for a while,
but when we finally understood, he stayed with you because he didn’t want to
hurt you after your dad left.”

I turn to look at Drew.  “I didn’t
know,” I say quietly.  “He could have still broken up with me.  I would have
gotten over it.”

“Oh please,” Eleanor snarls.  “You
were psychotic.  Everything was about you, poor you.  My father died when I was
ten years old.  I will never see my father again.  Yours left and you acted
like he might as well have been dead.”

“Your father loved you,” I snap. 
“He loved you until the day he died.  When my dad left, it was like he was
telling us he didn’t love us at all.  Like he didn’t want his own family.”  The
tears cloud my vision and the room blurs around me, but a flash of red tells me
Renee has stepped in.

“Leah, your father loves your
family so much,” Renee purrs.  “That is why he left when he had to.  He had to
protect you.”

“So I’ve heard,” I say, wiping my
eyes with the back of my hand. 

“And Eleanor, you need to sit
down,” Renee continues.  “You will not take everything out on Leah.  She is
your friend.  You have spent over ten years missing her and now that she’s back,
you will not fight.  These accusations are insane!  You know Leah did not take
baby Phillip.”  Just the sound of her baby’s name makes Eleanor crumple into a
chair, looking dejected.  “Andrew, take Theo to the kitchen and bring us
coffee, please.  I need to speak with my girls.”  Drew nods and Theo follows
him away to the kitchen.  I cast Theo a look, indicating how sorry I am that he
has to experience the craziness of my life on day two of knowing me.  He
doesn’t look too uncomfortable, though, and flashes me a quick smile that makes
me breathe a little bit better.

Renee calling us “her girls” sends
Eleanor and me directly into sulking children mode.  We are both slumped in
chairs across the room from each other refusing to make eye contact.  Renee takes
a diplomatic position by sitting on the piano bench on a side of the room that
seems to be equidistant from both Eleanor and me.  She looks at the two of us
in similar defensive poses with our arms crossed over our chests, and she
throws her arms up in the air.  “Why are you girls fighting?” she wants to
know.  “You girls have always been friends, and it has always confused me how
little you two actually know about each other.  All of this is over a high
school crush?”