Flame Caller (8 page)

It was Xander’s turn to shrug. “Maybe
I am. It doesn’t mean that I want it. God, Sammy. I’m not the
responsibility type. I’m the guy that was sitting in the back of
the classroom doodling in his notebooks instead of paying attention
in class. I was the twenty-year-old who still lived with
his…”

He let the end of his sentence trail
away. Finally, he shook his head.

“
I never wanted this. I
just wish I could hit the rewind button, you know? I wish I could
just go back to a simpler time, like when we first met.”

Sammy smiled. She sat upright and
extended her hand.

Xander smiled. “What are you
doing?”

“
I can’t change everything
that’s happened to you over the past few weeks but I can help us
start over. Now shake my hand.”

Xander reached out and took her
hand.

“
Hi,” she said. “My name’s
Sammy.”

“
Xander.”

“
Nice to meet you, Xander.
So where are you from?”

Xander smiled. “Just a small town in
Tennessee. A worldly girl like you? You’ve probably never heard of
it. What about you?”

“
California,” she
replied.

He was genuinely surprised.
“Really?”

“
The middle of nowhere in
the California desert is where I came out of the ground when I left
home. So what brings you here?”

Xander looked around at the cluster of
squat buildings spread across the island. “You mean to a floating
island in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico? You know... the usual.
I was chasing a girl.”

“
Oh, a girl. Those are
always the best reasons to start an adventure. What’s she
like?”

Xander leaned in until he could feel
the heat radiating from Sammy’s body. “She’s gorgeous. Long, silky
hair. Entrancing eyes. Legs that seem to go on forever.” He leaned
in closer, until he could feel her moist breath on his skin. “Lips
that just beg to be kissed.”

“
Yeah?” Sammy said
breathlessly.

Xander suddenly leaned back with a coy
smile. “Yeah, just be sure not to tell my girlfriend I was talking
about such a cute girl, okay?”

Sammy laughed and shoved Xander
playfully.

“
Are these the simpler
times you meant?” she asked.

Xander’s broad smile faltered as he
looked at her. “Almost.”

He reached out and caressed her cheek.
Sammy closed her eyes and leaned into his gentle touch. She brought
up her own hand and cradled his, pressing it tightly against her
skin before softly kissing his exposed wrist.

Xander slid his hand down her cheek
and under her chin, tilting her head upward. Leaning forward, he
brushed his lips against hers. She responded to his touch by
leaning into him, pressing her lips tightly against his as she
slipped a hand around his waist.

Xander felt his face flush with heat
and knew it was more than just the warmth emanating from Sammy. Her
lips were sweet and tasted of the plump grapes she had eaten for
dinner. He quickly ran his tongue along her bottom lip, drinking in
the intoxicating taste of her skin.

Sammy leaned back with a sigh, as a
broad smile spread across her lips.

“
Not everything is
complicated in your life,” she whispered.

He started to lean in again but she
placed her index finger on his lips. “I should probably go to
bed.”

“
You don’t have to go
home,” he offered. “You could stay the night.”

Sammy smiled sweetly. “Not tonight.”
She noticed his obvious disappointment. “Don’t read too much into
that, though. That doesn’t mean ‘not ever’.”

She slipped her hand into his. “Are
you going to stay up much longer?”

“
Just a little bit longer.
I just want to work through some things rattling around my
mind.”

She looked into the deep pools of his
eyes. Leaning in, she kissed him softly on the lips.

“
Don’t stay up too much
later, okay?”

Xander smiled and brushed some of the
blonde hair out of her face. “I won’t, I promise.”

Sammy stood from the rooftop and
gingerly climbed back to the open window. As she stepped back
inside the marble house, she could hear the wind blowing strongly
behind her.

Xander awoke the next morning feeling
rested for the first time in days. Though his shutters were closed,
a gentle light already filtered through the slats. He threw his
legs over the side of the bed and took in a sharp breath as his
feet settled on the frigid marble floor.

Reaching up, he ran his fingers across
his lips. He swore he could still taste the sweetness of Sammy’s
lips from the night before. A smile spread unbidden across his
face. After all the hardships he’d been through over the past week,
it felt incredible to have something he could trust so
completely.

He dressed quickly, eager to start his
day. He was slightly less eager to get back to training with his
aunts and uncles. At least today, he would be training with
Giovanni. Of all his aunts and uncles, Giovanni was the most
approachable and the one with whom he had the strongest connection.
The Italian was quirky and used humor Xander didn’t always
understand but his laughter and smile was infectious.

Downstairs, a cold breakfast sat on
the table. He assumed that was Sammy’s doing, since he doubted any
of the others on the island would actively go out of their way to
help him out like that. The cold oats didn’t have the best
consistency and he wondered exactly how long they’d been sitting
out. They had the consistency of gruel, as though the oats had
soaked up too much moisture during cooking and left to congeal for
too long. Xander didn’t love all the food they ate on the
island—especially since they were limited on what they could eat
since they didn’t have ready access to a grocery—but this was
exceptionally unpleasant. He shoved the bowl away and politely spit
the oats into a napkin, being sure to scrape his tongue at the same
time.

The breakfast wasn’t normally this
bad. He looked at the light seeping around the edges of the door
and wondered what time it was. They didn’t have a whole lot of
clocks but that usually wasn’t too much of an issue. The heat from
the rising sun and the constant humidity usually forced him out of
bed early. Today it seemed he might have overslept quite a bit
longer than he had planned. That would explain why the oats had
congealed so badly.

Dumping the contents of the bowl into
the trashcan, he wrapped his tunic around him and walked to the
front door. He raised one hand to cover his eyes as he opened the
door. As he expected, the sunlight was immediately blinding. Xander
knew he’d kill for a pair of sunglasses. For some reason, those
small necessities never seemed to make the shopping list whenever
one of the Wind Warriors escaped to the mainland on an excursion.
He was just biding his time until he made that trip. The island was
quickly going to become much more livable.

The street in front of his house was
empty, as it was every morning. There were only a couple dozen
buildings on the island but they were nearly all abandoned. He
recalled the conversation earlier with Alicia and tried to imagine
hundreds of Wind Warriors living on the island. It must have been a
remarkable sight to behold.

He turned toward the central dome and
reveled in the click of his sandaled feet on the cobblestones.
Before he reached the end of his street, he heard another set of
feet rushing up from behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw
Sammy hurrying to catch up. Her face was flushed from exertion and
her breath was labored.

“
What’s wrong?” he said
with concern.

He spun toward her as she slowed in
front of him.

She placed a hand on his arm and
smiled despite her exhaustion. “I didn’t think you’d still be at
home. I ran all over the island trying to find you.”

Xander laughed. “Well, you found me.
What’s so important that you had to run all over the
island?”

Sammy stood up straight and took a
deep breath. “Your grandfather’s awake.”

The other aunts and uncles were inside
the building by the time Xander and Sammy arrived. He let the cloth
tarp drop behind him as he entered, cloaking the room in its dim
light once again.

The Wind Warriors parted at his
arrival, allowing him to see the elder man prostrate on the bed.
The old man’s eyes were open and staring at Xander. A small, weak
smile spread across his lips at the sight of his
grandson.

Xander hurried over, pushing past
Patrick and Thea so he could take a spot beside his grandfather. He
immediately took the man’s uninjured hand and had to swallow hard
to stop himself from crying. It was becoming a trend that he didn’t
enjoy.

His grandfather rolled his head to the
side to look at Xander. Half his face was still bandaged but Xander
tried his best not to focus on it. Instead, he stared into the
man’s eyes and focused on his smile.

“
Hey, kid,” his
grandfather croaked through a dry throat. “You look
terrible.”

Xander laughed despite himself. His
grandfather rarely took anything as seriously as he ought to.
Xander shook his head softly and chuckled again.

“
I guess we balance each
other out, because you look like a million bucks.”

“
Yeah. A million bucks
that’s been dragged through the mud and left out in the rain. I
know I look bad. You don’t have to sugarcoat it for me.”

“
Is there anything I can
get for you?” he asked.

His grandfather shook his head, though
the movement looked as if it was painful for him. He was overcome
by a wracking cough that sounded wet in his chest.

“
No,” his grandfather
replied as the cough subsided. “I’m just glad you’re here right
now.”

“
I’m not going
anywhere.”

Giovanni coughed politely to get
Xander’s attention. When he looked up, the Italian placed a
comforting hand on his shoulder.

“
We’re going to wait
outside so you two can talk. We’ll be just outside if you need
us.”

Xander reached up and squeezed the
man’s hand in appreciation. The Italian ushered the others
outside—including Sammy—leaving him alone with his
grandfather.

“
Glad they’re gone,” his
grandfather said. “They’re like mother hens, all trying to sit on
me like I’m their fragile egg.”

The mental image made Xander laugh
again but his laugh quickly threatened to become far more
emotional. He lowered his head so his grandfather wouldn’t
see.

“
Hey, hey. None of that. I
didn’t raise you to turn into a blubbering kid when things get
tough.”

Xander frowned. “Things aren’t just
‘tough’ right now, Grandpa. They’re impossible. I need you to tell
me what to do.”

Another coughing fit overcame his
grandfather before he could reply. Xander took a damp rag from
beside the bed and wiped away the spittle that settled on the old
man’s lips.

“
You want to know what to
do?” his grandfather asked after forcing a deep breath. “You need
to listen to your heart. What do you think you should do right
now?”