Love & War Book 1 in the Arcadia Falls Chronicles (5 page)

“What are you even doing in a library? Don’t
you have other, skankier places to be?”

She smiled and adjusted her little jean
skirt. It was beyond me how she could walk around in skirts and
heels during the winter. I would probably kill myself in heels on
the snow and ice.

“I’m here,” she examined a fingernail,
“because I saw Oscar's motorcycle outside and decided to stop in
and say hello.” She waggled her fingers at Oscar. “So just what are
we bombing?”

Drew shook his head “
We
aren’t
bombing anything.”

“Oh, Drew, you can be such a party pooper.
If you guys are planning something fun, I want in.”

She pulled out the chair on the other side
of Oscar and sat down to him closer than was necessary.

Was she trying to make Drew jealous now? Or
was she trying to show Alice up? Either way, the sluttiness
continued.
Ugh
. At least to Ocsar’s credit he scooted away
from her and closer to Alice. Oscar didn’t see it, but Alice smiled
when he did.

Dang it, I really, really didn’t want
Christina to have anything to do with this, but fact of the matter
was that she kicked butt when it came to vampire hunting.

Drew beat me to the punch. Before I could
actually get a word out about letting Christina in on it, Drew
opened his big mouth and ruined it all.

“Christina, we aren’t actually going to bomb
anything. Chloe wants to take out the Talon Building, and I just
don’t think it’s a good idea. We could be causing more damage, make
them even more pissed off at us than they already are. That would
not be a good thing.”

“Drew!” I threw up my hands. “Come on.”

“I just don’t think we should chance
it.”

“Well, you aren’t the only one who gets to
make decisions, you know.”

Drew shook his head. “I’m the most
experienced out of all of us, except for Christina.” He nodded at
her and she gave us a smug grin. God, she was getting on my nerves.
As if I didn’t have enough problems.

“So, we are all supposed to just follow you
and whatever you say like we are your little minions?” I shot back
at him. “I have an idea and I think that everyone should get a
vote, not just
you
.”

“Chloe.” He said softly.

“No, I’m sick of this. I think my opinion
should be considered.”

I looked at Alice and Oscar for support, and
both of them lowered their eyes toward the table.

“Oh, come on, you guys.”

Alice looked up at me. “I’m sorry, Chloe.
I’ll go along with whatever you decide, but I’m not getting in the
middle of this.”

Oscar nodded, “To be honest, I’m all for
taking that place out. But, like Alice said, I’m not getting in the
middle of it. You guys are going to have to figure this out for
yourselves.”

“Fine.” I shoved my chair back and grabbed
my bag. “Have it your way, Drew. Everyone always does what you want
anyway, so I know that my idea is a lost cause.”

“Chloe.” He stood up to follow me.

“No! Don’t even bother.” I tried not to run
through the library and didn’t even stop for Linda when she called
my name. I hurried out the door, letting it slam shut behind
me.

I just ran, not even really knowing which
direction I was going. I just wanted away from them. Everyone
always did what Drew said. Most of the time he was right, but it
really burned me that he wasn’t in agreement with me on this. How
come he was always the one who had the final say on everything?

Out of breath and panting, I found myself at
the pond where Gavin had brought me last year.

I stared at the pond. It’s flat surface
completely calm, mirroring the pristine snow and the leafless trees
surrounding it. Snowflakes drifted down and melted into the water
without marring the perfection of the glassy surface.

I remembered that day I came here with
Gavin. He had shown me his beautiful gift. Controlling the water
and making it rise up out of the pond, swirling around in a sort of
reverse whirlpool. That day was the day he and I connected.

Why was I here?

I felt a few hot tears slide down my cold
cheeks. Damn it, I missed him. I wanted my friend back, and now we
didn’t even talk. I was fire, and he was water. We were
incompatible, but I didn’t want to be compatible, I just wanted to
be his friend.

Slowly, I walked toward the water.

He was Drew’s brother, and it seemed that
they were never going to get along. I felt so bad for Drew. He’d
had to spend every day running into his mother, who had left him;
and his brother, who was the reason she’d left him.

I knelt down into the snow. It soaked into
the calves of my jeans, but I didn’t care. Being careful not to
fall in, I slowly reached out and touched my fingertips to the icy
water. Immediately, rings spread out around my hand, rippling
across the water, ruining its perfection.

Suddenly, the ripples in the water began to…
vibrate. My fingertips in the water tingled like my foot did when
it fell asleep. I yanked my hand back out of the water and fell
backward onto my butt, not taking my eyes off the water.

The ripples rose out of the water, forming
droplets, like rain going the wrong way. The droplets mingled with
the snowflakes in a beautiful dance.

I felt my heartbeat slow and turned my head
to look behind me. “Gavin?”

I heard splashing as the droplets fell back
down into the water. He grinned, his green eyes glowing. “Who
else?”

“What are you doing here?” I asked him,
still not moving from my spot in the snow.

He shrugged and moved forward. “This is my
spot. The question is: What are
you
doing here?”

He plopped down into the snow beside me, not
seeming to care if he got his own jeans wet.

He looked rather good in those jeans. I knew
I shouldn’t be thinking things like that since I had a boyfriend,
but still, a girl could notice. I would have to have been blind not
to notice.

“I just came out here to do some thinking.”
I shrugged like it was no big deal.

“I thought you were doing most of your
thinking up at the falls, with Drew.”

I flipped my hair back over my shoulder.
“How would you know that? And what do you care anyway?”

I know because it’s not a secret. You guys
are up there all the time. And I do care, because I care about…” he
trailed off.

“What?” I demanded. “You care about what?
Enough to know where Drew and I spend all our time?”

“Don’t be stupid, Chloe. You know why.”

I forced myself to abandon my defense and
tore my eyes away from his to stare out at the water again.

“Yeah, I know why.” We were both silent
after that, just sitting there.

Then, suddenly, Gavin reached out and took
my hand. I tried to yank it back. I didn’t want to hold his hand.
That was like cheating.

“No,” I told him, and he released me as
suddenly as he had reached out.

“Okay, okay,” he held up his hands. “Listen,
I think you need to know that I have to leave for a while.”

“Are you going on mission?” I asked.

“No, not really,” he looked away.

“Well, why are you leaving then?”

“I just need to get away from here. I
thought that I could handle being around you and Drew, but I can’t.
I hate seeing you with him.”

I bought into the guilt trip. Casting aside
all worries about cheating, I reached out and put my hand over his.
“Look, I don’t want you to leave because of me… because of us.
Please stay.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. I need to get
away from here for a while.” He flipped his hand so that our hands
were palm to palm and laced his fingers with mine. “But you need to
know, I don’t intend on letting him have you forever. I am going to
come back, eventually, and when I do, I have every intention of
fighting for you.”

For a moment, I was speechless. He was
sitting here telling me that he planned on trying to win me over,
away from Drew.

“Gavin… I...” I didn’t get any more of the
sentence out, because before I knew it, he had pulled me forward
and crushed his lips into mine.

Every single nerve in my body danced, and
the warmth of my fire heated my body.

Heaven, help me, I kissed him back. I didn’t
fight him. I didn’t resist. I just kissed him until he pulled his
lips away from mine and jumped to his feet. “Remember that, Chloe.
Remember me, because I’m coming back, and we are going to be
together.”

Holy Moly. What in the world just
happened?

I sat there in the snow feeling horrible. I
kissed the one guy Drew hated, and that very same guy was
apparently in love with me and declared that he was going to fight
for me if he had to.

“Oh, no,” I muttered to myself and picked
myself up off the snow. As I stood, I felt eyes on me. Suddenly
nervous, I scanned the edge of the woods. The feeling was right.
Drew stood there, among the trees, watching me.

Our eyes locked, and I wanted to sink into
the ground.
Damn, damn, damn!

Simply by the hurt in his eyes, I knew he
had seen us kiss. He said nothing, pulled his beanie down over his
ears and turned away, leaving me to drown myself in my own
guilt.

~~~***~~~

One of the things that bothered me the most
about having to share my room with Alice was that when I wanted to
be alone, I couldn’t. That evening, everyone pretty much steered
clear and left me alone when they realized things weren’t right
with Drew and me.

Monday droned on at school, and I skipped
dinner because I knew Drew would be there. Shortly after they
finished eating, Alice crept into the bedroom. I lay on the purple
comforter and stared at the ceiling and thought about how I was
going to fix the problem.

“Chloe?”

“Leave me alone.” I rolled over onto my
side.

She crawled onto the bed beside me. “Maybe
you should talk to Drew. He seems pretty upset, too. I don’t know
what happened, but it can’t be so bad you can’t fix things.”

“It is that bad, Alice. He saw Gavin kiss
me.”

“Hmmm.” She thought for a bit. “That is bad,
but if he kissed you, I’m sure it was obvious that you didn’t
instigate it.”

“I kissed him back. This wasn’t a peck on
the cheek.”

“Oh.”

I wanted to start crying all over again. I
knew how I would feel if I had seen that happen between him and
Christina. I would have been furious, and there would have been
more to deal with than Drew’s method of silent treatment.

“I know I have to talk to him,” I told
her.

We were both quiet for a while, and then
Alice stood. “You said you were going to try and help me with the
magic stuff. Did you want to work on some of that now? It might
take your mind off of stuff.”

I sighed. I wanted to procrastinate, but I
told her I would help her. It needed to be done. She was right,
too. It might take my mind off of stuff.

“All right. I suppose it’s time to stop
wallowing and get on with my life. I know things will be okay.”

I went into the bathroom to get both of the
candles that were sitting on the counter and brought them into the
bedroom. Setting them both down on the cool hardwood floor of my
bedroom, I sat down cross-legged and gestured for Alice to sit
opposite of me. Once she was settled I held out my finger and let
the fire come. When a little flame appeared at the tip of my
finger, I smiled and held it to the wick of one of the candles. I
didn’t light the other one. I left that one for Alice.

“In all those books,”—I extinguished my
flame—“it says fire is one of the more basic elements a witch will
learn in the beginning. I am pretty sure I can help you with that.
I receive my power from angels and gods, but you will get yours
from nature, from everything around you, and the pure energy in the
air.”

I felt strange, like I knew exactly what I
was doing and was supposed to be doing it. Like the words were
being fed to me to say just the right thing to Alice.

“Now, to start, close your eyes and think
about bringing all the energy into your body. Try to mentally fill
yourself with it.”

Alice closed her eyes and held her hands out
palm up.

She opened her eyes after a few minutes of
sitting there and nothing happening. “Nothing,” she sighed,
exasperated.

“You have to concentrate. For me, it happens
when I imagine that I’m literally pulling from the energy around
me.” I thought for a minute. “Maybe if you concentrate on pulling
from the earth, like the trees and plants and things like that. I
don’t know, but I’m pretty sure you’re not going to make fire from
your palms like I do. So maybe you should focus that energy on the
candle. Try to light the other candle.”

She nodded. “All right.”

Again, she closed her eyes. This time she
left her hands down on her legs. She seemed more relaxed this time.
While I watched, she breathed in deeply through her nose and out
her mouth in a meditational way. I said nothing, keeping my own
energy at bay so she didn’t accidentally pull from me. I wasn’t
sure that could happen, but I had read a bit on channeling, and I
didn’t want her to accidentally channel me. She needed to learn her
own focus first.

The wick sparked.

I gasped unintentionally, and Alice’s eyes
flew open. “What?”

I shook my head. “Try again! The wick on the
candle sparked!”

Her eyes lit up and her cheeks flushed with
warmth. “It did?”

“Yes.” I nodded vigorously “Try again!”

I think the spark gave her confidence.
Confidence meant a lot when trying to focus energy. She closed her
eyes again. That time, it took far less time for the candle to
spark. I smiled while she breathed and focused because I knew it
was going to work. We had done it.

“Keep going,” I urged

The flame jumped to life as a gigantic lick
of orange, and then settled to normal size candle flame.