Fire And Ash (17 page)

I give her a deadpan look. “Do I
look
like the answer to that question is a yes?”

“No,” she says frowning, “but I figured I would ask. I’m also not above begging if it will get me a yes.”

“You can do whatever you want, the answer will still be the same.”

“The answer to what?” Derek falls in step with us as we walk towards the cafeteria.

“I asked Ash to try out for the cheerleading squad with me.”

Derek barks out a laugh.
 

I glare at him. “What’s so funny?”

“You. As a cheerleader,” he sniggers. “You’d make a terrible one.”

I think the same thing myself, but Derek saying it makes me feel some type of way.

“Kiss my ass Derek. What do you know?”

He’s still chuckling and I’m trying really, really hard not to smack the grin off his face.

He smartly takes a step to the side, out of my swing range.
 

“I know cheerleaders are supposed to be perky and friendly. And you Ash are about as friendly as a viper.”

“I’m friendly,” I outright lie because I refuse to concede that he is right. “I’m friends with Cass.”

“And?” he smirks at me.

“And…and Becca.”

“She doesn’t count anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because she no longer lives here.”

I give him my back to grab a tray and go through the food line.
 

We sit with Matt and his friends. Him and Cassie are obviously developing a thing between them and he’s still trying to convince Derek to join the football team.
 

“What do you have against football?” Matt asks Derek.

“Nothing,” he shrugs. “It’s just not my thing.”

I can see why. Derek is the exact opposite of a team player. He is the type to do what he wants to, when he wants to, how he wants to.
 

“Then what is your thing?” Brent asks him curiously.

“Fighting,” Derek and I both say at the same time. I don’t know why I knew that. He has never actually said so. But from the practiced and expert way I’ve seen him move in real fights and down at the gym, it just makes sense. At the diner Derek said he is an Enforcer because it is his duty to be, but even then I knew it was not the entire truth. Derek and I are a lot alike in that respect. We were trained to be warriors, but the rush of adrenaline from the thrill of fighting is what truly makes us such.
 

“You mean like boxing?” Matt asks.

“I like boxing but I’m more a fan of mixed martial arts.”

“Are you any good?” Trevor, another one of Matt’s football buddies asks. He is large and stocky, the perfect build for a linebacker.

“He’s better than good,” Cassie pipes up. “Before we started moving around a lot Derek was making a name for himself on Utah’s amateur MMA circuit.”

“That’s cool,” Trevor says. “Are you interested in getting on the circuit here? I know Mick probably has his hands full with Rashard, but I have an uncle in Denver that has some connections. I could hook you up.”

Derek throws Cass a look I don’t miss. “Nah, I’m cool with just getting a couple of workouts a week in at the gym. I don’t really have time for anything more serious anymore.”

“Well if you change your mind let me know. My uncle is always looking for new talent for the competition circuit he runs. It’s small, but it has some decent talent in it.”

******

“So you used to compete on an amateur circuit. Were you as good as Cass said?” I ask Derek as we walk to my car after school. Cassie is staying for cheerleading try-outs so I’m taking him home so he doesn’t have to wait around for two hours on her to be done.
 

He slings me a cocky grin. “Better.”

“Then why’d you stop fighting? You obviously miss it on some level. Or else you wouldn’t come to Mick’s.”

“At first it was because Dad was my trainer and it didn’t feel right continuing with somebody else. Now it’s because I never know when things will get really hectic and when they won’t working for the Council. It kind of just depends you know?”

I unlock the car and we get in.
 

“That night in Red Creek. You cut the heads off of the rogue phoenix you took down instead of piercing their hearts with silver. I gathered it prevents them from rising too but I never knew that before then.”

“You wouldn’t,” Derek says. “That there is another way to extinguish us other than with silver is one of those things hunter have chosen to forget.”

“Why?” I frown not understanding. “It seems to me the more ways available the better.”

“Not when one leaves us to a fate worse than the other,” Derek bites off the words and I don’t need the barely restrained anger behind them to tell me that he is pissed. The fact that his eyes are pure gold tells me that.

The muscle in his jaw ticks and I start the car. I want to ask him what he meant by one fate being worse than the other but I don’t. I’ve obviously pissed him off and I don’t want to make it worse. Normally I wouldn’t care about his anger but it is different when it comes to something that probably hits really close to home given how his dad and sister were killed by hunters.

We drive in silence for most of the way to his house. I’m pretty sure he is going to get out of the car without saying another word to me. His hand grips the door handle but then he releases it.

“Do you seriously not know what the silver knives you carry really do Ash?” He asks without looking at me.

“They prevent phoenix from rising,” I say matter of factly.

“Yes, but so does beheading them. It sends their souls to whatever place they are supposed to go after they die. The silver however does not.”

“Isn’t that exactly what the silver does too?”

Derek turns to look at me straight on. When he does I see that his eyes are back to their deep brown. “Let me see one of your knives.”

He holds out his hand and I reach into my messenger bag then press one of them into his palm.

He takes it out of its holder and holds it up. Rays from the afternoon sun glint off of it as he does. “We are all born with exactly six rebirths. I asked my mom why six once when I was little. She told me a story. Six is the number of sacrifices made by our ancestors, human tribesmen who worshipped the Fire God. One of them, their tribe’s head priest, claimed the Fire God came to him in a dream and offered them the gift of extended life for their worship. All they had to do to receive the gift was prove their dedication to him by sacrificing six of the children in their tribe. It could be any six as long as they were on the cusp of adulthood. Those were the ones whose life forces were the strongest. The head priest said the Fire God told him that in exchange for the six lives he would grant each of his dedicated worshippers six rebirths. Six of the tribes children were burned on a sacrificial pier as the tribe’s offering to the Fire God. That same night the Fire God reappeared to the priest in a dream and said the tribe had proved their dedication to him. He said now they had to prove their faith in him and his power. They had to die of fire and from their ashes he would remake them. The tribesmen set fire to their homes and burned themselves alive inside them. Nothing remained of the tribesmen or their homes but ashes. Six days later the tribesmen were reborn from them. The Fire God held to his word but the tribesmen wanted more than what he gifted them. They wanted true eternal life. They petitioned the priest to convene with the Fire God on their behalf. The Fire God told the priest that nothing comes without cost. He said he would gift the tribesmen one additional life for each human life they sacrificed to him. Half of the tribesmen thought the price too high, growing wise of the clever trap the Fire God had laid. They recognized his required sacrifices as the slippery slope for what it was. Soon there children would be in danger of being sacrificed too. But half of them coveted true immortality so fiercely that they thought no price was too high for them to pay. They would sacrifice all of the world’s children if it meant they could live forever. I don’t necessarily believe the story. I think it’s lore that developed somewhere along the way to explain our origins and the division between phoenix and rogue phoenix. Phoenix who aren’t rogue aren’t afraid of dying. Just like humans, we have a set time to live and when it’s up, it’s up. We’ve accepted that. What we fear are these.” Derek tips his head towards the silver knife holds it so that it hovers over his heart. If you drive anything into my heart, I will die. But if you drive this into it and it remains there when my body combusts into flames I will not be reborn from the ashes, even if I am not on my last life. The silver will prevent my body from being reformed after it burns to ashes and it will also cast my soul into the void that exists between this world and the one of the dead. Piercing our hearts with silver turns us into what we call lost wraiths. When we become one we are forever trapped in the void. That is what happened to my dad and my sister and probably the life she carried inside her too.”

Derek sheaths the knife and hands it back to me. It feels heavier than it has ever felt in my hand.
Did Aunt Farrah know that when she had it made for me? Does Dad and Granddad and Sean and Gerard and Becca and her dad and every other hunter know what Derek just told me? It is one thing to kill somebody, it is an even worse thing to kill somebody who is innocent, but condemning somebody’s soul to the fate Derek described is something too heinous to even consider.
The more I learn of Derek’s world and the things I learn of mine that I never knew, never bothered to question, make it seem more and more like hunters might be more monster than the monsters they vow it is their sworn duty to protect humanity from.
 

Mrs. Peters’ question from earlier in the day comes back to me, but instead of thinking about Frankenstein’s creation I think about my family and the legacy that I embraced without questioning it.
Are hunters more Human or more Monster?

When I get home I find Dad in his office. I ask him does piercing the hearts of phoenix with silver only prevent the rebirthing process or does it do something else. He looks genuinely surprised by the question, making me feel marginally better. He asks me why do I ask and I tell him I was just wondering how hunters figured out to use silver in the first place. He says the answer to my questions probably died with the first couple of generations of hunters.
 

I wonder if hunters knew what piercing the hearts of phoenix with silver really does would they still use it. I think I know the answer to the question and it leaves a hollow feeling in my stomach.

It is homecoming and Derek and I are going to the dance for the same reason we went to the game last night. Cass. It is not enough that she is going with Matt, she wants us to go with her as well. Over the past month we’ve gone from dating into boyfriend/ girlfriend territory. I still want to stab him sometimes, but now I also want to do other things just as much.

“I know I promised you I wouldn’t cry or make a scene Cassie, but I might not be able to help myself,” Mrs. Jensen says after opening the door to Cass’ room.
 
She waves a hand in front of her eyes to fight against the tears that are forming in them. “Matt is here. He and Derek are waiting for you girls downstairs.”
 

She walks to Cassie and kisses her on the cheek. “You are every bit as beautiful as your mother. Have fun tonight. I trust you to make good decisions but I’m going to say this anyway. No drinking and driving, be aware of your surroundings and the decisions others are making, and remember to be
safe
. That includes with sex.”

“Mom,” Cassie groans blazing red. “Do we have to have the sex talk every time I go out with Matt?”

“Yes, we do,” she tells Cassie sternly.

Mrs. Jensen fixes her hair then hugs her. “I love you Cass.”

“I love you too Mom,” Cassie tells her back.

Their exchange tugs at me. I think about my mom and if we would have similar exchanges if she were alive. Me and Grandma never do and Aunt Farrah isn’t around enough.
 

“You’ve become like my daughter too Ash.” Mrs. Jensen’s words take me completely by surprise. She moves from Cass to me and hugs me just as fiercely as she did her. “Which is why the same thing I told Cassie goes for you too.” Mrs. Jensen holds me out from her body giving me a pointed look.

Oh no. She did not just subtly give me the sex talk about her son!
 

I shift under her gaze uncomfortably.
 

“Now come on,” she tells the both of us. “Let’s get you girls downstairs so I can take lots of pictures before you go.”

“So…your mom kind of gave me the sex talk,” I tell Derek once we’re in the car. Cass and Matt are in his truck in front of us.
 

“She didn’t.”

“Yup, she definitely did.”

“That must have been all kinds of awkward.”

“You have no idea. Anyway, it’s not like we are even there yet right?” I force a laugh to keep the conversation light.
 

Derek throws me a look. “I could lie but I won’t. I’m a guy Ash. I’m always
there.
Especially, when we’re talking about you. I was
there
the first time I saw you. But what we do and when we do it is completely up to you. I’m good either way. We can take things as slow or as fast as you want to.”
 

“Um…okay.”
I swallow. Hard.
 

******

I wasn’t sure what to wear, but when we get to the school’s gym it turns out the dark blue dress I decided on is perfect. It’s not too prom-ish and it’s not too Sunday church-ish. It’s short with one slim strap over my right shoulder. The sales woman who rang it up when me and Cassie picked out our dresses at the mall called it a cocktail dress. She said it would be perfect for a homecoming dance. I am glad to see that she was right.

“Did I mention I really like the dress,” Derek says as he pulls me closer to him. He surprises me with how well he dances. I let him take the lead and move me in time with the music so I don’t look like a complete klutz. I’ve never danced with a boy a day in my life. I sway my hips and mirror his movements and pray I look like I know what I’m doing.