Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) (6 page)

And what of love? Thank goodness Luke had no
feelings for her, but Kira needed to decide for herself what she
wanted from Tristan. He was gorgeous of course, but she barely knew
him. She shouldn’t be catching her breath every time she saw him
and getting little chills up her spine at the thought of him. But,
there she was, looking out the window of the local Starbucks
holding her breath and feeling a tingle when he unexpectedly
stepped out of a car with Jerome, John and Diana in tow.

Tristan’s face didn’t have a single scratch
from yesterday, and his pale skin was unmarred with a purple
bruise. Kira was surprised. It had seemed like Luke had really hit
him. Kira saw Tristan smile as Jerome said something funny, saw the
dimple curve into his cheek and his hair fall over his eyes as he
shook with laughter. He stopped before the others, and a dark look
slowly gathered back to his face as his mouth curved down and his
eyes became full of his own troubled thoughts again. Kira could
read him just as easily as she read other people, she just couldn't
read how he felt about her.

Kira watched as the four of them walked
towards a sporting goods shop next door and quickly drank the rest
of her latte. She waited until they went inside before sneaking
over and carefully opening and closing the door without making a
sound. Kira wanted to snoop now that she finally had the chance to
get some real unguarded information.

Kira slowly walked down the aisles, checking
each one with a quick peek before entering. She eventually spotted
them in the surfing goods section at the back of the store and
walked down the parallel aisle, trying to hear tidbits of their
conversation. Through a small hole in the shelf, she could just
barely see them, but it was enough for prime eavesdropping. They
were talking about surfing wax because John needed a new one.
Great. Kira thought. She was really going to learn a lot on this
covert mission.

After a few minutes, staring at what looked
like soap to Kira, they moved down towards the boards themselves.
Tristan needed a new surfboard; he had abandoned his in the water
when he dove in to save her. They started to talk about his rescue.
This was exactly what she needed.

"Why’d you do it?" Kira heard John ask.

Tristan carefully examined the fins of a new
board, and smoothed his hand along the bottom testing the curve of
the wood. "I knew it would annoy Luke, and besides, we might be
able to use her later. Letting her die would have been a waste."
Kira stopped breathing so she could listen closer. This wasn’t
about her at all. Maybe he would have even let her drown.

"Good thinking," Jerome praised him.

What was she to them? She would never let
herself be used by anybody, ever. The fact that they thought she
would was more proof that they were the ignorant ones and not
her.

"I don’t think it’s as simple as you make it
sound, Tristan." Diana seemed to spit the words. She put her hand
on his, making him meet her gaze. "I see the way you’ve looked at
her. The way you held her when she woke."

"Don’t be absurd." He looked back down like
he couldn’t hold her gaze for too long. She threw his hand away
from hers and off the board, so he couldn’t hide behind it.

"Jealously doesn’t become you," Jerome said
to Diana.

"We’ll see," was all Diana replied with. Kira
didn’t want to trust her ears. His concern had seemed so real on
the beach. But, maybe Diana was right, maybe he was helping just
because he wanted to protect her. Maybe, there were things he
didn’t want his friends to know. Maybe, Kira started but then her
tippy-toe balance failed her and she knocked the shelf, letting a
few soccer balls fly off and bounce down the aisle. Crap, she
thought and ran to another aisle to escape before they caught her.
Kira heard one of them say to separate and check on who was
listening, so she dove into the best hiding spot she could find: a
tent that had been set up in the camping section. She zipped it
halfway, to prevent from being too obvious, and hid behind the
closed part of the flap.

Kira barely breathed for ten minutes until
she saw the misfits walk past her tent with a surfboard and head
for the cash register. Kira slowly emerged from the tent and calmly
walked out the door.

"Miss, miss!" She turned to see an employee
from the sporting store running after her. "I’m supposed to give
you this." He handed her a small piece of paper and turned back
towards his store. Kira stared at the folded note, unsure of
whether to open it or let it fly away in the wind.

"Hi Kira. Nice hiding spot. Tristan." A
shiver ran down her spine, of fear or of excitement she didn’t
know. But, she did know one thing, he didn’t rat her out to his
friends or they would’ve confronted her. So Tristan was keeping
secrets, Kira thought, the question was really how many and from
whom?

For the next three weeks, Kira ignored
Tristan. At school, she built her friendships with Luke, Miles,
Dave, and Emma. At home, she played with her sister and practiced
for culinary school. She was determined to not think of him and the
drama he would bring into her life. Instead, Kira focused on all of
the people and things she did have, and let that little part in the
back of her head that longed for him get quieter and quieter. But,
she couldn’t completely erase the nagging wish that he would be the
one to break the silence and approach her.

On the first Saturday of October, Kira
decided it was finally time to start working on her term paper
about Charleston’s role in the war of ‘northern aggression’, more
commonly referred to by the rest of the world as the American Civil
War. Her history teacher had assigned the entire class a research
paper due before Christmas about Charleston’s local history and
involvement in the war. The open-ended question was to be
interpreted in any form she wanted, and Kira thought it was more
than annoying that most of the students had a lifetime of knowledge
about the city compared to her meager month and summers spent
mostly at the beach. Today would be her day to wander around and
explore until something interesting caught her eye.

Battery Park was the first stop. Kira figured
she would start from the southern most tip of Charleston and move
north. As she walked along the wharf that ran parallel to the park,
Kira saw that the civil war monuments still stood but their meaning
had been left behind. Monuments had been erected to honor past
heroes of the south and cannons were placed facing the open water
as if still waiting for an attack to defend against. However, the
mounds of cannon balls were now a play place for children
pretending to be soldiers, and the statues were a challenge to
little adventurers hoping to climb something more than a tree. The
north had long since moved past the Civil War, but even in
Charleston, a city engrossed in its own history, the past was
beginning to be left behind.

Kira leaned against the metal fence, facing
out towards the sea. In the distance, almost like a mirage, stood
Fort Sumter, the ultimate spot of Charleston’s Civil War history.
It seemed hard to believe that such a small island fortress had
been such a huge stronghold and spot of aggression. But, she knew
it was too easy of a pick for her paper and figured almost everyone
in her class would be writing about it.

Kira turned back towards Battery Park just as
a modern day horse and carriage rode past her. She tried to picture
two women with hoop skirts and floppy hats riding around, probably
pulled by a slave, and envisioned men wandering around in uniforms
with muskets to patrol the streets against a potential northern
invasion. She imagined a way of life come crumbling down, imagined
the mansions in front of her exploding with cannon fire and all the
beautiful trees around her lighting up in flames. For a moment she
saw all of that, until she felt someone's breath on her neck and
heard a whisper in her ear.

"Lost in thought?" Tristan’s deep voice sent
a shiver down her spine, and a secret smile played upon her lips
because he was officially the one who broke the silence. Since she
had tested her own will power and had won, Kira decided it was
perfectly fine to talk to him now.

"I was until you so rudely interrupted," she
said playfully while turning her body to face his. Kira took note
of his dark washed jeans and how they completely opposed her own
white tank top and flower covered skirt.

Tristan shrugged and said, "Since I’ve
already annoyed you, I guess there’s no real reason to stop." She
couldn’t help but laugh, and he smiled in return. "What were you
thinking about?" He leaned back against the rail, so his arm
lightly brushed against hers.

"Hoop skirts and muskets," she blurted
out.

"What?" He lifted one corner of his mouth and
furred his eyebrows in a half-question, half-laugh.

"Oh, sorry, my Civil War paper." Kira frowned
and looked beyond Tristan at Battery Park. "I see all of the
history here, but I can’t seem to find a topic that really stands
out to me."

"Come on," he put an arm around her
shoulders. "Who better to show you around than a Charleston
native?" He started to guide her towards a cannon across the
street.

After not speaking for three weeks, Kira had
never expected to have Tristan as her own personal tour guide, but
it was perfect. He seemed to know everything about the city, and
spending the afternoon with him was exactly what she needed to get
the paper done. It also happened to be exactly what she wanted in
her heart.

Tristan led her around Battery Park first,
pointing out a huge mansion that was a wedding gift from a father
to a daughter after the war, and another beautiful town home that
still had a piece of shrapnel lodged in the roof from a northern
attack. He explained that Battery Park had been Charleston’s first
line of defense against any ships that made it past Fort Sumter and
had not always been so picturesque. They kept walking as Tristan
pointed out famous cemeteries where confederate soldiers were
buried and tons of buildings that had been preserved during the war
that were truly from historic Charleston. They walked to the old
slave market, which was now a flea market where local artisans
could sell their goods. He showed her where the slaves had been
kept, how they were sold and where they were eventually set free.
He painted the picture of a graceful city with an ugly undercurrent
of racism that still needed to be weeded out.

"How do you know all of this?" She questioned
him after two hours.

"You pick up a lot when you live here," he
shrugged, "Charlestonians are very proud of their history."

"I guess, but you describe it like you lived
there." He breathed out a laugh, one that almost sounded like a
sigh.

"Do you actually believe that’s possible?"
His squinted eyes caught hers at that moment and she knew there was
more to this question, some deeper meaning. Her heart skipped a
beat. Was it possible?

"Of course not," she looked away flustered
and focused on the old woman sitting on a blanket on the sidewalk
weaving a straw basket. She could have been from a different era
and almost seemed out of place near the busy intersection where
cars zoomed by behind her. Kira looked back at Tristan. Did he fit
into the scene? His constant brood made it seem like he was years
older than he looked. She knew he had more on his mind than the
average seventeen-year-old, but was that enough to start believing
impossible things?

"Come on," he nodded to the side making his
hair slip to shield his eyes. When the piercing blue was hidden in
shadow, Kira finally felt she could breathe and stopped her mind
before it dreamed up even crazier theories. "I want to take you to
my favorite place in the city."

They walked for a while, lightly chatting to
avoid any serious topics, before Tristan stopped in front of a huge
building. Four round columns shot upwards into a huge triangular
frieze that reminded Kira of a roman temple, until she looked
further up and saw the top of a steeple. The building was huge but
rather plain with large wooden doors and sweeping windows, but no
ornate decorations marred the beauty of the architecture. The
yellow tinted stone created a beautiful contrast against the blue
sky, and Kira tried to take it all in before she looked to her left
to read the sign that stated ‘Saint Philips Episcopal Church’. Kira
was a little shocked. She had never figured Tristan as the
religious type.

"I know what you’re thinking, but it’s
because of the view." He started to enter and she had no real
choice but to follow. When she walked inside, the sanctuary took
her breath away. Huge white columns rose toward an arched ceiling
that was also a polished white. The marble floor led her eye past
the ivory pews towards a huge stained glass window behind the
altar. With the sunlight beaming through, the window acted almost
like a kaleidoscope, casting colors around the otherwise bare room.
Kira looked up at the balconies that ran parallel down the sides of
the church and were composed of carved mahogany creating a striking
contrast. And when she turned, an organ took up the majority of the
back wall and she could almost feel the music coming from the great
instrument.

"Kira, come on." Tristan stood beneath the
organ and waved her over. "This is nothing."

He walked over to the wall at the left corner
of the church and Kira watched him dubiously. Suddenly, what had
seemed like solid plaster creaked open as Tristan found the secret
latch he had been searching for. He pulled the thick door and moved
his arm towards the opening as if to say ‘After you miss’.

"Is this allowed?" Kira asked while she
peered into the darkness.

"Rules are made to be broken," Tristan said
with a wry smile. She knew it was a challenge, could she drop her
usually straight-laced mentality?