Love & War Book 1 in the Arcadia Falls Chronicles (6 page)

“Open your eyes, Alice.” I knew my cheesy
grin had to be from ear to ear. She opened her eyes and saw the
flame of the candle burning bright.

“I did it,” she whispered.

“You did it!” I whispered back,
excitedly.

She shook her head. “You didn’t do this, did
you?”

My smile disappeared. “Why would I do
that?”

“To make me think I can, for confidence or
something.”

“Actually, that thought never occurred to
me. This one is all you.”

She finally let herself smile. “Let’s do it
again!”

And we did, over and over and over again for
hours, until Alice merely had to close her eyes and the flame would
appear.

~~~***~~~

It was time to talk to Drew. Whether he
wanted to talk about it or not, it had to be done. A week had
passed, and things were weird in the house because of us. After
school the next Monday, I found him at the gym, beating the crap
out of a hanging punching bag.

I wore my workout clothes. Even though we
were fighting, I had still kept up with my after-school training
the previous week. I just hadn’t been doing it at the gym. He was
doing a great job of ignoring me at home, too. Not that I tried
very hard to be around him.

I stood back and watched him. He was
shirtless with only his workout shorts on. His muscles rippled each
time he slammed his fists into the bag.

“Drew,” I approached him slowly, “we have to
talk.”

“There is nothing to talk about,” he told me
and kicked the bag with a round house.

“Yes, there is.”

“No, you made it clear what you want. There
is no reason to talk about it.”

I sighed. “I understand why you’re angry. I
would feel the same way.”

Kick, punch, kick.

I tried to ignore the fact that he was doing
his best to ignore me.

“I didn’t do anything,” I told him.

He spun around toward me so fast I took a
couple of steps backward.

“You didn’t do anything? You kissed
him!”

I shook my head. I really didn’t want to
blame Gavin, but I had to. “He kissed me. I didn’t kiss him.”

“I saw you.” He spun and hit the bag again,
causing it to swing backward.

“You saw him kissing me. I didn’t instigate
it or ask him to do it. I went there to be alone, and he showed
up.”

“I know what I saw.” Right, left, right,
left, he let loose several quick punches and then stopped, lowering
his taped hands.

I reached out to touch him, and he jerked
away.

“Seriously?” I cried out. “Fine!”

I don’t know what happened to me but I lost
all sense of trying to be civil and punched him in the stomach,
hard.

“What the….” He crouched a little bit
because he hadn't expected it.

“Oh, my god! I’m sorry!” I stepped forward
out of instinct to make sure he was okay. His surprised eyes were
wide, but I couldn’t read what was in them.

Then he lowered himself and with one quick
sweep of his leg, he knocked me to the ground. I landed on my back
as the air gushed out of my lungs.

“Drew!”

I tried to get up, but he was on top of me
holding my arms down.

“Knock it off,” I grunted at him.

“No. You want to play it
this
way, we
can play it this way.”

“I didn’t kiss him. I just responded to
him.” I flung my legs up and wrapped them around his neck. “I’m
sorry.”

I yanked down with my legs and Drew fell
back. I kept my legs around his neck and squeezed.

“Chloe,” he wheezed out as my thighs
tightened around his neck. He grabbed my legs and tried to pry them
away from him, but I squeezed harder.

“Damn it, Drew. I picked you. I’m not a
cheater.”

“Sure looked like you were.” He finally
pried my legs away and escaped. I turned over and tried to crawl
away, but didn’t get far. He grabbed my legs and yanked me back
toward him, then tried to straddle me again.

Furious, I slammed my fist into his cheek
bone.

He didn’t say anything, but he grabbed my
hands again and held them above me while I lay flat on the mat. I
tried with my legs again, but he had already been taken that way so
he was onto me. I wiggled and squirmed beneath him.

“Let me go. I’ll leave you alone if that’s
what you want.”

He lowered his head until our lips were
almost touching and stared me in the eye. “I don’t want you to
leave me alone. I want to
be
yours, alone. I don’t like
sharing, especially with him.”

“Drew,” I sighed and relaxed my body. His
lips came just a little bit closer.

“You know, Chloe. This sort of thing really
doesn’t help my trust issues.”

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I don’t know what
else to say. I love you.” The last came out as a whisper.

Suddenly he was crushing his lips against
mine and tingles shot through my body. At the same time, there was
a huge burst of applause. Startled, Drew and I both turned our
heads and every single person in the gym was clapping and even a
few ‘woohoos’ came from our unexpected audience.

“Oh, my god,” I whispered as I hid my face
in Drew’s neck.

He laughed and rolled off of me. “Well, it’s
not like it’s been a secret that we’ve been fighting. This is a
small town, and everyone knows everything about everyone here."

“Wonderful,” I moaned.

Our audience was disbanding and going back
to their workouts.

Drew held his hand out and helped me to my
feet.

“Don’t ever do that again,” he told me,
bringing me close to him for another super-awesome kiss.

“I won’t,” I mumbled against his lips.

I couldn’t help but think of Gavin’s
lingering words about fighting for me. At least he would be gone
for a while, and we wouldn’t have to worry about it.

I just wished they could get along so we
could be friends.

~~~***~~~

“The whole gym was watching you guys!” Alice
exclaimed.

She was placing about fifteen candles around
the bedroom.

I lay on the bed watching her. “Yeah, it was
super embarrassing, but I’m glad it happened.”

“I wish I could have been there to see
it.”

“I imagine it was probably a good show. I’m
sure people are going to be talking about that one for a
while.”

Alice finished setting up her last candle
and rubbed her hands together. “Okay, are you ready?”

I nodded and she stood in the center of the
room and closed her eyes. I felt a rush of air sweep through the
room and then all the candles flamed to life. I smiled.

“Open your eyes, Alice.”

Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked at
all the burning candles in amazement.

“I don’t understand how this is possible,”
she whispered.

“I don’t either,” I told her softly, “but
fact is, this world is full of stuff we don’t understand. There are
vampires, mythological demigods and angels. I have fire power.
What’s wrong with throwing in a little magic to even things out?” I
smiled. “Imagine the great things you’ll be able to do, Alice.”

She blew out all the candles, one by
one.

“Well, I don’t know about all that, but at
least I know that I’m capable of something.” She looked over at me.
“I wish I’d had this when you fought Trevor. I could have
helped.”

“That is behind us,” I told her stiffly.
Mostly, I just didn’t want to talk about it.

My bedroom door flung open, and I expected
Drew or Oscar. Luke always knocked. But it wasn’t any of them.

It was Christina. “All right, you Boring
Betties, we are going out!”

“What the hell?” I exclaimed, jumping off my
bed. “Why would we want to go anywhere with you? How did you get up
here to my room? And why are you even asking
us
?”

She placed her hand on her hip and flipped
her long black hair with the other hand. Today her little skirt was
plaid, and her button-up top was red.

“Look, Chloe, I’m not about to pretend we're
friends, but I need Drew to come with me for something. I know he
won’t go unless you tag along.” She flicked her eyes up toward
Alice. “You and that hot siren may as well come along, too. I
wouldn’t mind seeing him shake his ass on the dance floor.”

Alice turned beet red and clenched her
fists. I had no idea why Christina was harassing Alice. The only
logical explanation was that she was threatened by Alice.

I shook my head in Alice’s direction, trying
to tell her silently to ignore Christina, because she was
harmless.

“First of all, Christina, I’m not going
anywhere with you unless you tell me where it is that you want to
go and why we are going there. Most of all, why do you need Drew
for it?”

“Oh, relax! It’s nothing, really.” She
grinned wickedly. “We are going to find out who this mysterious
vampire slayer is.”

I should have known. Most of Arcadia Falls
read the papers, and probably all of them were onto this story.
“How do you even know where he is going to be?”

“I’ve got a tip from a friend in the
city.”

“Where are we going?” I asked again.

“We are going to a club downtown.”

“Uh, Christina, I don’t know if you have
been thinking this over very well. None of us are old enough to get
into a club.”

She flipped her hair again and shifted the
large bag she carried on her shoulder. “For god's sake, Chloe. I am
not an idiot! It’s a club for ages sixteen and up. You know, those
clubs meant to keep the kids off the streets and all that.” She
waved her hand in the air like people trying to help kids avoid
drugs and trouble was unimportant to her.

“Well, let me see if Drew even wants to
go.”

“No need. I saw him on the way up. He’s fine
with it as long as you come. I’m here to help you get ready.”

How annoying.
“I’m perfectly capable
of getting myself ready.”

She set her bag on my bed. “Uh, no, you are
absolutely not. This isn’t yoga class. We are going out dancing,
and your idea of outing wear is stretch pants and a tank top. You
need my help.”

Caught off guard by her blatant dislike of
my attire, I reached up and smoothed down my hair. “I’m still
capable of doing it myself.”

I stalked off to my closet to see what I had
to wear.

Alice went to the door. “I’ll go call Oscar.
I’ll be back to get ready in a few.”

“See ya’.” Christina waved her off.

I didn’t even know what a person wore to go
out dancing. I’d never been before. I flipped through the hangers,
and I became more annoyed by the second. I was beginning to think
Christina didn’t actually have any friends. Why else would she be
bothering us with this?

“Don’t worry,” she called from behind me, “I
have the perfect thing for you to wear.”

Oh, no.

“It better not make me look like a
hooker.”

I turned to find she was holding up a
sophisticated-looking, bright red shirt dress type of thing. If
anything it was the opposite of hooker. The top was tight fitting
with short sleeves that ended just after the shoulders, and instead
of an impossibly low neckline it had a turtle neck. Below the
breast area of the dress it began to loosen and hang
comfortably.

“I knew you’d like it,” Christina smiled.
“You need to wear this with black stretch pants and those leather
boots I saw you wear once.”

The next thing I knew, Alice was back, and
we were all squeezed into my bathroom to do our hair and makeup.
Well, they got to do their own. I was subjected to the application
of ten tons of eyeliner and mascara. Christina, having taken over
doing my makeup, applied a very dark brown eye shadow along with
all the black. At least she let me use a pale lip gloss instead of
a slutty red one.

Next, she tackled my hair. She left it down,
but tied up the top half of it, pulling out a few strands of bangs
around my eyes.

“There!”

Christina turned me around so I could look
in the mirror.

“You look like you’re five years older now,
at the very least.”

She packed all her things into her bag. She
had changed, too, and now her outfit consisted of a tight black
dress with short sleeves and lots of zippers. Surprisingly, it did
not look as slutty as I thought it might: One zipper for the whole
dress and two pocket zippers on the hips, along with two pocket
zippers on the breasts. She had on a pair of insanely tall
high-heeled black boots. Her normally straight dark hair was done
in full, bouncing curls.

Alice, who had picked out a blue-jean skirt
and a shimmery white tank top that hung loose down over her hips,
eyed Christina curiously. “How can you wear heels all the time?
Isn’t it hard to fight with them on?”

Christina zipped her bag shut. “Nope.”

“Well, where do you keep your weapons?”

With a slightly annoyed tilt of her head,
Christina turned to face Alice and lifted her skirt to show us her
thighs. “First of all, I have these.” She had a knife, sheathed and
strapped to each thigh. “Then there are the guns, knives and pepper
spray in my bag, and this,” she reached into her boot and extracted
another large knife. “There is always a place to keep a weapon.
Hunter Girl 101.”

I opted to keep my gun in my purse instead
of trying to find a place to hide it on my body. Alice didn’t even
carry a gun. We had given her lessons, so she did know how to use
one. She didn’t like carrying it though

“All right, you guys,” I put my lip gloss
and my cell phone into my purse beside my gun and an extra magazine
of UV bullets “we'd better go downstairs and get a few extra
weapons. Alice needs a gun.”

Downstairs, the guys waited for us. Of
course, being guys, they were already done getting ready. They had
beaten us to the punch and were huddled together in front of the
secret weapons closet, discussing the effectiveness of the UV
bullets.