Moonlight Calls (Demon's Call Series Book 1) (42 page)

He leaned
forward urgently.  “I can’t live without you Mya.”  He looked at me so
intently.  “I love you.  I always have.  I’ve just been…confused.”  I rolled my
eyes.  He was certainly dramatic today.

Just then, the
doorbell rang.  I jumped up quickly.  “I got it,” I shouted.  I didn’t want
Ailis and Christian in here again. 

I pulled open
the door to find Dominic standing on the stoop with a bottle of wine in his
hand.  Shen stood behind him holding a perfect, single stemmed red rose.  Shen
reached over and handed me the flower like a child, proud of his cleverness.

“Hi,” I said,
twirling the rose absently.  I was trying to think up a suitable story to
explain the pair.  Before I could step aside and let them in Dominic stepped
close, slipping an arm behind my back, and pulling me gently toward him.  He
leaned in and captured my mouth in a surprise attack.  I relaxed into his full
mouth without thought, my hand creeping up to caress his square jaw and brush
his golden curls.  I didn’t think to quell my reaction.  It was just
instinctive.  I was getting far too comfortable with the characteristic vampire
lack of boundaries.

Kyle cleared his
throat behind us and Dominic released me, noticing the human for the first
time.  He handed me the wine and walked over to sit by Kyle.  I rolled my eyes
and took the wine- and the bewildered Shen- to the kitchen while they
introduced themselves.  God only knows what Kyle thought.  I had just told him
Christian was my boyfriend.

Christian and
Ailis were by the stove, laughing as they whispered to each other like
children.  Setting the wine down with a thump, I crossed my arms and tapped my
foot on the tile.  “You two are horrible.  Will you please behave yourselves!” 
I said in an angry whisper.

Christian raised
an eyebrow and turned away. 
Not my idea,
his posture said.  Ailis just
kept laughing, and I whirled and stormed out.  I came to a halt as I saw
Dominic lounging next to Kyle. I don’t know what he had done, but Kyle looked
pale.

“Dominic, I
think they need your help in the kitchen,” I said shortly.

He smiled and
slunk off into the kitchen.  “Nice to meet you Kyle,” trailed after him as he
left.

I let out my
breath and went to sit down again, halting as a slightly awkward Shen stumbled
into the room as if pushed.  Good God, now what?  He regained his composure and
crossed to me with the bottle of wine and two glasses.  Setting the wine aside
on the coffee table, he grasped my hand and drew me away as if to have a
private conversation.

My back to Kyle,
I rolled my eyes at Shen.  What now?  He leaned close as if he were whispering
in my ear and his hand rested possessively on my waist, drawing me close.  In
actuality, he was hesitantly pulling on his beautiful aura, and the ripple of
pleasure as he nibbled my ear made my knees buckle.  He let out a soft chuckle
as he caught me.

“Wait ‘til we’re
alone,” he said shyly,
just
loud enough for Kyle to hear.

I pushed myself
away and shooed him out of the room.  Dominic had come back to lean against the
kitchen archway, no doubt supervising Shen’s performance.  And making sure he
could control himself.  Good test run. 
Bastards
.

“Well,” I said,
rocking back on my heels.  “Kyle has to go now, he has errands to run.  Say
buh-bye Kyle.”  Grabbing his hand, I pulled him off the couch.

He nodded in
Dominic’s direction.  “That’s right.  I have a lot to do.  It was nice to meet
you.”  We practically rushed out the door and I closed it behind us, leaning a
back against the door, and closing my eyes.

“Mya, what the
hell is going on here?  Who are these people?  Are you… are you sleeping with
all
of them?”  Kyle was genuinely confused, not that I blamed him.  Thanks to their
performance, it looked like I had at least three lovers.

“They are my
friends.”  I said, finally.  “The rest is none of your business.  They were
just messing with you.”

He rubbed a hand
on the back of his neck, agitated.  “Look, I just wanted to apologize,” he
explained.  “I had hoped maybe we could start over, but it wasn’t a big hope-
just a daydream I guess.”  He sighed.  “I needed to get my life together,” he
said slowly.  He had obviously put a lot of thought into this, so I let him say
his piece.  “When I left… I was so tired, and burned out and…ill.  I wasn’t
thinking straight.”

I nodded.  “And
that’s why it needed to end,” I said softly.  “Kyle, our relationship made you
into a complete wreck.”  I shook my head sadly.  “Why would you stay?  What
possible benefit could there be?”  I stepped forward and drew him into a hug. 
His arms wrapped around me instinctively.

“I still loved
you,” he said quietly.  “Even though it was killing me.”

I stepped back,
distancing myself from him.  “I know.  And that’s why it had to end.  The
relationship was dead, Kyle.  It wasn’t healthy anymore.”  I reached for the
doorknob, but hesitated at the last minute.  “Maybe...”  I took a deep breath. 
“Maybe we could go get coffee sometime?”

He smiled. 
“Just as friends, right?”

I nodded. 
“Nothing else.  I really am happy,” I said, gesturing toward the house.  “But I
don’t get a lot of normal in my life these days.”

He shook his
head.  “You aren’t kidding.”  He backed away, heading to his car.  “Coffee
would be good.  I’d like that.”

He turned and
walked away, still with a sad slump to his shoulders.  I should feel sorry for
him, but I didn’t.  Let him see how I had moved on.  Let him think that I was
dating not one, but three of the most beautiful men alive- and maybe a hot
redhead as well.

I turned and
went back inside with an odd feeling in my chest.  I took a deep breath and
tried to marshal my thoughts.  I needed human friends.  I hadn’t lied when I
said I was happy.  I was beginning to love my odd life.  I had been looking for
something before- something more.  I certainly wasn’t bored now.  Sure, I was
in constant danger, and who knew what kinds of weird crap I would get myself
into next, but I didn’t regret it anymore.  I had stopped asking myself when my
life had gotten so weird.  Now I just took it all in stride.  I wasn’t alone
anymore and my life, strange as it was, had meaning now.  Lots of little
oddities I had lived with all my life were beginning to make some sense.  But
on the flip side, I had no human contact anymore.  When I was at work, I did my
job in a haze and came home right after.  In fact, I was beginning to feel
detached there, as if it was just a place I visited now and then before getting
back to “real life.”

I wanted to be
furious at the creatures in my kitchen, but I couldn’t.  I knew that, as
annoying as they could be sometimes, they got joy out of watching me live my
funny little human life.  Sighing, I turned and followed the smell of pasta
sauce to my new family, the theme song from the Adams Family running through my
head.  The more I accepted the weird things that were happening to me, the less
human I felt- and that scared the hell out of me.  I resolved that I would make
more effort to keep my human friends.

*****

 I said goodbye
to Amanda and hung up the phone.  I was trying to nurture the friendship, but
at the same time, I was cautious.  On one hand, I really felt like I needed to
have more human friends.  On the other hand, I didn’t want to put her in any
danger.  I couldn’t imagine introducing her to Dominic or Christian, for
example.  I knew Ailis would be snide.  She was against me having human
relationships at all.  She said it was too dangerous, which was probably right,
and that I wasn’t really one of them anymore.  She was probably right about
that too, but I’d be goddamned if I was going to admit it. 

Shen was
probably my most normal friend, the youngest, and most human of the bunch.  But
he had serious control issues around the warm and blood filled.  Maybe I was
just better off without friends.  I considered getting a cat.

I made my way
through the house, turning off lights as I went.  I sighed at the peace and
quiet around me.  Ailis had given up the pretense of being my roommate. She now
spent most of her time at the coven house, but she left her room here as it
was.  She usually spent weekends here when she needed a break from Argenou, or
when she just wanted to hang out.  She was no longer so afraid for my wellbeing
since both the vampires and the weres had decided they wanted me alive and
kicking- for now.

I stretched and
slid into bed.  Yawning, I switched off the light and sank into my pillow.  It
had been a long day, split between martial arts practice and the mental fatigue
of trying to figure out how to extract myself from involvement in the
supernatural world.  I didn’t want to use my powers to help the vampires and
weres, but getting out unharmed would be almost impossible.  Besides, I really
wanted to help the humans, even if they didn’t know they needed help.  My
exhausted mind finally gave out and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head
touched the pillow.

I was jerked
awake by a feeling that something was wrong.  I lay stiff in my bed trying to
figure out what had awakened me.  I couldn’t see anything odd around me.  The
room was pitch black in the corners, but a thin stream of moonlight was lying
across the floor in front of my open window.  A light breeze lifted the
curtains and I forced myself to let out my held breath.  Maybe I’d had a bad
dream.

Just then, I
heard a furtive scraping sound and a flash of light flew in through the
window.  I sat up, blinking in the dim light, my sleep dulled brain trying to
make sense of what was happening.  I smelled smoke.  That realization was
followed by something covering my window.  There was a flurry of hammering and
I leapt to my feet and ran to the window.  Someone was boarding it up.  I
pounded on the wood.  The window screen had apparently been torn when my
assailants threw the gasoline soaked rags and bundles of wood through the
window.

I realized that
my struggles to get out the window were futile so I turned to the more
immediate matter at hand.  Flames were spreading all over my room.  I had to
get out.  I rushed to the door and grabbed the metal doorknob, only to jerk my
hand away when it seared my skin.  Reaching out gingerly, I touched the wooden
door, then my hand back with a curse.  Heat radiated off the door.  Apparently,
the rest of my house was already in flames.

I turned and
dragged the sheets and blankets off my bed and tried to smother the worst of
the flames in the room.  It was futile, as everything was soaked in gasoline. 
The gas fumes and the increasing smoke were beginning to suffocate me.  I
dropped to my hands and knees, seeking the clearer air at the floor as my
vision began to darken around the edges.  I had to get out of here now.

I crawled across
the room to my vanity then lunged to my feet.  I grabbed the chair from in
front of the vanity and threw it at the boarded up window as hard as I could. 
It smashed the upper window glass, but bounced harmlessly off the wood, and
tears of frustration began to streak down my cheeks.

I sank to the
floor again and gasped for air as I struggled to think.  I had to calm down and
find a way out of here.  A cluster of sparks lifted into the air and settled on
my nightgown, burning my shoulder and legs.  I smelled the reek of burnt hair
and belatedly batted at my head, brushing away the sparks that had landed
there.

Panic was a
heavy weight in my chest, drowning all thought.  My lungs were burning with
each gasping breath and my skin was beginning to burn as little sparks flew
through the air and the actual flames crept in even closer.  Something gave a
wooden groan and crashed to the floor outside my bedroom door.  I had to get
out the window.  It was my only way now.

I made my way
through the smoke and flames to the boarded up window, blisters forming on my
feet and legs as I went.  I had a brief moment of clarity as my brain struggled
to function without oxygen.  Someone was trying to kill me.  The sick fuckers
had boarded my window up.  I embraced the anger.  If I wasn’t angry then I was
going to fall to pieces and die in here.  I held on to my rage as I pressed my
hands flat against the wood covering the window. 

I closed my eyes
and called to whatever it was that lived inside me.  I didn’t want to use my
powers anymore.  They scared me, and every time I used them, they seemed to get
stronger.  But damned if I was going to die in a human weenie roast.  

I breathed
deeply in the choking, smoke filled air, pressed my hands harder against the
wood, and braced myself.  Deep in my mind, I willed the feeling of power to
grow.  I tried to recall the most recent exercises I had done with Dominic
during our training sessions.  I imagined opening a door in my mind, the one
that held my power in check.  It wouldn’t budge, so I shoved harder.  Something
inside me snapped and power flowed over my skin like electricity.

With a moan, I
let it all out, shoving it from my toes up, forcing it out my hands like a
fountain.  It burned worse than the fire behind me and I shrieked as the wood
in front of me exploded, throwing sharp splinters everywhere.  Gasping, I fell
out into the rose bush under my window.

I struggled to
my hands and knees and dragged myself a few hundred feet from the house,
collapsing against the trunk of a nearby tree.  I wiped a trickle of blood from
my cheekbone.  An inch higher and that splinter would have hit my eye.  My
whole body was shaking with fatigue, my legs were a welter of blisters, and my
head was pounding from whatever I had just done.  Every breath of fresh night
air burned as it hit my tortured lungs.