Inside the Fire Book One in the Warden's Series (26 page)

"How odd that you would find them here." He
said looking at the cover of the sketch pad. "How are Greg and
Greta? Seems like it's been ages since we have seen them last."

"Greg is alright. Greta died a few years
back. That is why I need your help." She said it like it was
ripping through her. She reached down and opened the book to a
picture of Miranda. "This is the vampire child that is feeding off
the family. She has already taken Greta's life but now it is worse.
She's latched onto Wesley. By looking at the drawings I would
assume that she also attacked the family but was curious to what
Greta was." My father nodded.

"She's vampire then. No Dracula or anything
but she is old. I can see it in her eyes." He was flipping through
the pages rapidly now. "You been back to the old place?" He
suddenly asked.

"No, I figured that I would send Dawn up
there in a few weeks to check it out. Have her get me some pictures
and a few other items from the house." I glanced at my mom.

What were they talking about now?

"Probably smart, people would recognize you.
You look the same as you always have." He gave her a smile and
looked back at the sketches. "How did she see all of this? How did
she know about Dawn before Dawn even knew about Dawn?"

"I just figured she was touched, or she had
Harbinger blood in her." She glanced at me.

"I still have a few connections down under.
I will share the images with them of this girl. What’s her name?"
He looked at me.

"Miranda." I choked on her name, it felt
like bile in my throat.

"Oh that's scary. Everyone run and hide
Miranda is on the loose." He was teasing I know but in a way I
don't think he was. "I doubt her real name is Miranda. I'm sure she
has several names under her belt."

I just looked at him blankly. I couldn't
care less if she had other names I just wanted to turn her to
dust.

"Either way, I told Dawn not to engage her.
Miranda has ways of getting into her head at night. Astral plain
warfare won't kill her but face to face hand to hand could. Miranda
has no clue what Dawn is but I have a feeling she's going to figure
it out sooner or later and then when she does…" My mother paused.
"When she knows what you are it will be time to run."

"Probably smart." He glanced at me. "What I
don't understand is all I showed you was basic magic, and you ran.
Your mother shows you this whole new life and you cannot bear to
leave it. I know I wasn't the best father to you. It always seemed
like I was putting my work before you. I'm sorry for all of that."
I think he was being genuine, so I allowed a smile to play on my
lips.

“There is one other thing about Dawn you
should know.” My mother sighed. "She can summon the fire."

The look on my father's face was priceless
it was a mixture of pride and fear.

"How far can she summon it?" He asked
greedily.

"She stands inside the fire." They both
turned and stared at me. I felt like I was caught in the
crossfire.

"She's a powerful one. Can she summon your
flame?" He asked softly.

"Yes, but not as easily as she can yours." I
had a feeling this weekend would be long and painful.

"I think that I'm going to go to bed." I
said pushing past them and speed walking to my room where I shut
the door and locked it. I really had to take some time to
think.

Dead Man Walking

I was sitting in the bar again. It seemed
like forever since I was here last. If I recalled correctly this
was the place the green eyed Wesley snapped the neck of a deranged
pervert.

Sitting across from me, her legs crossed was
Miranda. She gave me a sick smile and waved to a waitress for
drinks to be brought over. I felt the anger course through me and I
had to fight the urge not to jump over the table and put my hands
around her throat. Not that it would have done any good. She wasn't
going to die of simple asphyxiation. So instead I just sat there
and stared at her, not sure what it was that she wanted
exactly.

"Hello, Raven Princess." She said as soon as
the drinks were placed on the table.

"Miranda." I acknowledged her.

"I have no reason to fight you tonight." She
took a shot and looked me in the face. "I have already won."

"What is it that you think you won?" I asked
her. "If you think that it's Wesley, take him."

I felt hard on the inside. No emotion
escaped me after saying those words. She seemed confused for a
second.

"You fought so hard to save him, and now you
are so willing to give him up. All of this because he betrayed
you?" She sighed. "I will never understand humans."

"I fought to save something that I thought
was supposed to be. I guess you can say I woke up from that silly
dream. Just like I will wake up from this one." I took the shot
that was sitting in front of me.

"He does love you. He won’t shut up about
you." She said softly.

Why did it seem that she was being so
nice?

Was she changing tactics now? Trying to be
my friend?

Well I had news for her it wasn't going to
work.

"If he loved me he never would have gone to
you." I bit at her.

"You are probably right." She shrugged. "I
guess we will never know." Another smile. "Still however, I need to
know what you are."

I laughed at her. "Miranda, I'm not going to
tell you anything. Just because you have the boy doesn't mean that
the battles you picked with me are done."

I saw fire flash in her eyes.

“I will figure it out soon enough.” She
groaned. “Let’s see we have a Raven haired princess that can summon
the fires of Hell as well as the flames of Heaven, yet your feet
are planted firmly on earth. So many possibilities exist."

I stood up and looked down at her.

"Well I suppose you have your work cut out
for you. Now if you don't mind." Fire snapped to my fingertips. "I
have a life to get back to. I cannot be sitting around here in an
imaginary world having pointless conversations with you."

"Always so forceful." She frowned. "The next
time we meet I will not be so nice."

"I'm counting on it." I seethed.

She lifted her hand with a flick of the
wrist and she was gone and I was standing in a bar on an astral
plane with flames of light licking at my flesh.

****

I shot out of bed and raced into the living
room. I felt like I had to report to my parents my dream. I had
done as they asked. I had not engaged her or tried to turn her to
ash. I had let her say her peace and politely declined her.

My parents weren't in the living room, so I
raced to my mother’s room praying to whoever would listen that they
were not together but my mother's bedroom door was open. I leaned
against the wall feeling incredibly confused, they had to be
somewhere.

"They are at my house." I heard a voice from
behind me.

Yet again he had avoided my spidey
senses.

"They showed up and my dad asked me to
leave. So here I am." Wesley looked horrible like he hadn't slept
in days. I hadn't noticed it the night before how sick he
looked.

"And you think coming here was smart why?" I
asked. There was a surprising edge in my voice.

"I don't know. I just got in my car and
drove. Next thing I knew I was pulling into your driveway." His
eyes weren't shining, and he looked as if he had lost twenty pounds
in just a matter of days.

I really hadn't been paying much attention
to him. I had put on blinders so I wouldn't see what was happening
to him. She was killing him.

"My estranged father appeared last night." I
said meekly.

"Yeah, he sure is strange." Wesley let out a
soft laugh. "He also gives me the creeps. My father was happy to
see him though."

"How is your dad?" I asked.

"Good, I suppose. I'm not home much, and
when I am he keeps his distance. He looks at me like he looked at
mom before she died." He gave me a weak smile.

"And your sister?" I figured if I was asking
about the family might as well ask about all of them, they were so
dear to me.

"She won't talk to me. Tells me she hates me
because of what I did to you." The smile faded from his face and
the sad look of a boy in pain replaced it. "I am so sorry for
everything that I did to you."

I looked at him coldly for a second and then
realized that right now was probably not the best time to start
yelling at him. He didn't look well.

"Can I make you some breakfast? It looks
like you haven't eaten in days."

"Sure, I have some time. I have to meet
Miranda in a few hours." He turned and walked towards the kitchen
with me on his heels.

"I have to ask you this." I was in the
doorway looking at him. "Why are you with her?"

"She knows me. She's always in my head. I
told you that my ex-girlfriend was special." I watched as a tear
streamed down his face. "You know what, Dawn. I think I'm just
going to leave. She's not going to like it that I was here." He
turned to walk out the back door to the driveway.

"She doesn't have to know you were." I tried
to be convincing, but I already knew the answer.

"She knows where I am every hour of every
day. She can tell me each person I've talked to. The foods I have
eaten and every thought that I've had of you." He took a step
towards me. "You can question every act that you have seen. You can
look at her and threaten to hurt her all you want because in the
long run it will be you that gets hurt. I don’t want to see that. I
love you Dawn. If you just forget her I promise to leave you
alone." With that he turned and left my house.

My emotions were erratic. I wanted to cry,
and I wanted to throw things even though I was angry with him and I
wanted to make him pay for the pain he caused me. However, just
looking at him, speaking to him, feeling him near had put my
emotions into shock. I may not want to be with him. I may want to
make him feel like he never mattered but what she was doing to him
was far worse than what I ever could have done. I dropped to my
knees, and I prayed.

Since we had become intertwined with the
Jensen household my mother was happy when so often she had been
sad. It gave her purpose, and it gave her strength and now I prayed
that she could find the answers on how to cut the cord between
Miranda and Wesley. Not because I loved him even though I knew that
I did no matter how hard I tried to tell myself I didn't. It was
because he didn't deserve to die.

I had seen a dead man walking in my house
that morning. Not much time was left before she would put him to
the same fate as his mother. So here I was on my knees in the
kitchen, tears streaming down my face praying to the one man I felt
hated me. He never answered me, my mom said he never would, but
once I stood and walked back to my room I felt like I had done what
I could for Wesley.

Miranda, on the other hand, I would crush
her. If it meant her finding out what I was so be it. I would make
her pay for all the wrong that she had done on this earth for lord
knows how many years. I was the daughter of an Angel and a Demon. I
had powers she couldn't fathom. She messed with the wrong girl.

I crawled into bed and grabbed my phone. I
contemplated calling Adam but figured it best to let him relax. He
had dealt with the whole Wesley ordeal since it started and all I
really wanted was someone I could curl up with and they would just
hold me and tell me that it would be ok. So I opened my messages
and texted Aaron. The boy was nothing to me for the most part, but
the person that I would have wanted to curl up with was driving
down a highway to a girl that was eating him alive.

Me: You busy?

I texted then rolled to my side to stare at
the wall.

Aaron: No, you ok?

Me: Not really, can you come over?

I felt a tear roll down my face. It felt
wrong to ask this of him. However, I was still cold inside just not
a complete ice queen yet. My heart was stone. It felt like the
broken pieces had mended together in the wrong order.

Aaron: Be there in ten minutes.

****

When Aaron showed up I felt better. He had
come through the door took off his jacket and instantly put his
arms around me the way that I wanted. He was warm, and he smelled
like soap. He kissed me briefly and put his hands on my face so he
could look into my eyes. I didn't say anything just reached up and
took his hand. I led him to my room, and he looked at me
confused.

"Will you just hold me?" I said softly.

He nodded and crawled under the covers with
me wrapping his right arm over my waist and looking at me his blue
eyes questioning as they searched my face.

"He hurt you bad." He whispered kissing my
forehead. I said nothing just looked up at him. "Don't worry I will
put you back together." It was a sweet gesture but there was
nothing this boy could do that would put me back to the way I was
before I met Wesley.

I wanted to go about in this world
unfeeling. As complicated as that was becoming at this moment. I
wanted to forget what it was like to love someone with every inch
of your being. He kissed my forehead again. I curled into him and
let his warmth run over me.

I'm sorry Aaron for all the things that I
have done and all the things I will do.

We both fell asleep rather quickly and
didn't wake up till I heard an annoying tap on my bedroom wall. I
opened my eyes to my father glaring down at me.

Fantastic!

"I feel I should be asking you what the Hell
is going on here." My father's eyes were darkening. I felt Aaron
jump and suddenly he was on his feet rubbing his eyes. He was
noticeably not awake, but he looked at my dad like he was about to
be shot.