Simmer (7 page)

"That was the truth," Kira said, taken aback.
How had defending Luke to the Council made his sister so annoyed?
She thought she would be happy.

"Oh my God, you really are blind. Didn't you
see his face? He was practically glowing while you spoke."

"What?"

"Look, I really do want us to get along, but
you've got to back off. Luke told us all you have a boyfriend, and
as long as that's the case, just leave him be." Vanessa shook her
head and bent down to start folding the picnic blanket on the
ground.

"I won't stop being his friend," Kira
retorted.

"You will when you finally realize that it's
breaking his heart," Vanessa said softly and finished her fold. She
held the bundle in her arms and started walking towards the rest of
her family. Kira watched her go.

The nerve, she wanted to scream. She doesn't
know anything about our friendship, Kira thought. Sure, Luke's
feelings had seemed to veer from friendship in the past few months,
but it wasn't that extreme. He knows that I'm with Tristan, Kira
chewed her lip, he knows that I'm in love with someone else.

"Kira!" Luke yelled and waved her over. She
saw his family waiting for her on the lawn outside of a modest
two-story house, so she hurried to catch up.

"Luke," his mother said when Kira finally
reached the house, "why don't you take Kira upstairs and help her
get settled."

Luke nodded and motioned to Kira to follow.
"Come on," he said and Kira noticed that their luggage had
miraculously appeared by the front door of the house. She had
totally forgotten about her small suitcase. Luke grabbed both bags
before she had a chance to help him. She was too distracted by her
surroundings.

The house was so typically suburban that Kira
almost wanted to laugh when she walked inside. Before arriving, she
had thought Sonnyville would be so foreign, but so far the town
looked like something out of a fifties television show. The family
room had a cushiony sofa and a few chairs, all centered around the
coffee table and a widescreen television. A few video games leaked
out from the entertainment center and books lined the shelves. To
the other side there was a dining table and Kira spotted the
kitchen through an open door. More than anything, Kira noticed the
personal touches. The family photos hanging on the walls and lining
the shelves immediately caught her attention.

The wooden staircase directly in front of her
was a gallery of sorts, and as she followed Luke up the steps, she
gazed at the little flashes of the Bowrey family life. An
embarrassing family Christmas card photo, complete with terrible
sweaters, was the first to catch her eye. Then, Luke and Vanessa as
children playing in the backyard: the streaks of fire dancing
between them looked more like Photoshop than real life. Another
showed a more grown-up Luke holding his baby brother who seemed
barely a year old.

"I love that photograph," Mrs. Bowrey said
from behind Kira. She turned, not realizing that Luke's mom had
started climbing the steps too.

"They look so much alike," Kira said. Even as
a baby, TJ giggled with energy.

"My two boys," she smiled, creating two
dimples in her slightly rounded cheeks.

"Not photos already, Mom," Luke said,
bouncing down the steps to grab Kira's arm. "Don't believe anything
she says," he whispered and started pulling her up with him.

"I heard that, Luke," his mother said in
amusement. Luke rolled his eyes and Kira smiled. It was clear to
her why Luke was so caring and open. He had grown up surrounded by
love.

"Here we are," he said and pushed open the
blue door at the end of the hallway. Kira walked inside, and knew
in an instant that it was his room. Super hero posters graced all
the walls and she saw a serious collection of comic books on the
shelves. A wooden desk topped with notepads and a pile of old books
sat in one corner. On the opposite wall, Kira's suitcase rested on
a twin-sized bed covered in a blue comforter.

"Wow, Luke," she said while fingering one of
the comic books, "you were such a loser in high school."

He laughed. "I had a bit of a superhero
complex."

"Had?" Kira mocked and walked over to her
suitcase to start unpacking. As she started to unzip the duffel
bag, a wave of nerves hit her. She blinked in shock and rested her
hands on top of the suitcase to take a breath. What the heck? She
thought. Butterflies fluttered around, not in her stomach but in
her head. Strange, she thought and turned to Luke to tell him.

He leaned against the wall, in a seemingly
relaxed pose, but his eyes were intense as they watched her. Kira
felt the anxiety grow until it was all she could think about. She
couldn't look away from him. Something strange was happening, but
she had no idea what it was. The nerves quieted, replaced with
resolve. But, Kira felt her head spin, as her own uncertainly
pushed the other emotions back to the corner of her mind. Her heart
felt only confusion, but her brain was wracked with an overwhelming
mix of different feelings.

Luke started to step forward, but they both
jumped when they heard someone call his name.

"Luke!" Kira heard again and recognized TJ.
Like a vacuum, the emotions were sucked from her head, leaving her
alone with her confusion. She saw Luke's shoulders slump slightly
as he yelled back to his brother.

"I'll give you some time to unpack," he said
and walked out of the room. Kira closed the door behind him and
leaned against the wood. Something odd was going on. That wasn't
the first time she had been overcome by a strange flux of emotions,
ones that felt foreign and not her own.

"I'm losing my mind," Kira mumbled and shook
her head, "literally." She walked over to the window and twisted
the blinds open to let the dying light of the setting sun into the
room. Feeling curious, she fingered some of the items on Luke's
desk. A photo of his family, one of him surrounded by three other
blond boys and one of him and a blonde girl were displayed in a
three-fold frame. She picked it up, wondering what life he had had
before she had interrupted it. He was eighteen when he volunteered
for the job. He moved to South Carolina to watch her family and
prepare for her return. He waited there for a year before Kira
finally arrived. He had left his family, friends and maybe even a
girlfriend behind. And, Kira had never really appreciated that
until now.

She put the picture down and leafed through
the old books on his desk. Study material, she assumed. Kira opened
one to read the table of contents, and saw labels for conduit
history, battles and famous leaders. She would definitely look
through it when she wasn't training.

The sound of a phone ringing made Kira turn
around — she recognized her cell. She ran to the bed and sifted
through her purse to find the source of the muffled noise.

"Hello?" She questioned, seeing an unfamiliar
number.

"Hey," the deep rumble of Tristan's voice
sounded. Kira smiled involuntarily and sat down on the bed, curling
up for a long conversation. It had seemed like far longer than one
day since she had seen him.

"Where are you?" She asked and let her head
fall back against the pillow. There were glow-in-the-dark stars
stuck to the ceiling.

"Still in South Carolina," he sighed through
the receiver. "Do you remember when I told you about Aldrich, my
maker?"

"Yes," Kira responded, remembering that day
by the Ashley River. It was the only time she could remember him
mentioning the man and the painful memories he triggered.

"I think Diana is maybe trying to mess with
me and not you. I followed her back to the mansion where we all
lived almost a hundred years ago: she, Aldrich and I. She knows
exactly how painful it was for me to return to that place. The only
reason she would go there is to screw with my head."

"I'm sorry," Kira said, wishing she could
reach through the phone and comfort him. Just talking, Kira could
hear the obvious strain to his voice. "Did you at least find anyone
there?"

"No, Diana was gone by the time I arrived.
But, she's heading north. I'll find her eventually," he said,
changing his tone to one of resolve and determination.

"Enough about that," Kira said, not wanting
to harp on his journey further and further away from her. "I wanted
to thank you, for telling my parents that I'd gone. How'd they take
it? My mom seemed upset on the phone."

"Please," Tristan scoffed and Kira could
almost envision his grin as if he were lying next to her on the
bed. "Your mom loves me. All I had to do was flash a smile and give
her a hug. She invited me over for dinner later this week."

Kira smirked at the inside joke, "Too bad you
don't eat food." Her parents always invited him to dinner, but he
always managed to find some excuse. "And my dad?" She asked.

"I think he still doesn't like me," Tristan
laughed.

"Yeah, well..." Kira trailed off. Tristan had
told her the story many times. Months ago, after Kira had saved
Luke but almost killed herself, Tristan was the one who rushed her
to the hospital. He made sure the doctors called her family, but he
never left her side. As Tristan described it, he had been caught
off guard when her father was the first to arrive at the hospital
after coming straight from work. Tristan had been leaning over her
bed, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, when the doors burst
open. He jumped up and reached out to say hello, when her father
promptly tried to punch him in the face. When he stepped out of
reach, it finally dawned on him that he had forgotten to change
into the scrubs the doctors had offered...he was standing in her
hospital room shirtless and covered in blood. Needless to say,
their relationship had been strained ever since.

"I remembered to change this time," Tristan
chuckled. Kira could only imagine what her father would do if
Tristan had shown up in the bloody, ripped-up shirt she had last
seen him in on that back road in Charleston. "So, did you see it?"
He asked and Kira could sense the excitement in his voice.

"What?" She asked, getting a little giddy
herself.

"Have you opened your suitcase?"

Oh crap, Kira thought to herself. She had
entirely forgotten that Tristan had packed everything for her. She
almost didn't want to know which clothes he had thrown in. She just
hoped he remembered the basics.

Kira sat up and unzipped the rest of her
suitcase while Tristan urged her on. She peeked inside and resting
on top of her clothes was the picture he had been drawing of the
two of them. She reached inside and pulled it out.

"You finished it!" Kira was thrilled. She set
the photo out on the nightstand and leaned it against a lamp. In
the picture, he was smiling and crystal eyes stared not out of the
page but across it at her.

"Not that. Keep looking," Tristan said and
Kira closed her eyes for a second to envision his face. When he was
excited, his eyes widened and his smile stretched out to show all
of his teeth. Usually, Tristan was more reserved and secretive,
showing only a side smile with one upturned lip. But the more he
opened up, the easier it was to make him happy. Kira could tell
when he smiled like that it meant he had forgotten about what he
was for just a moment. When he forgot to keep his teeth hidden, she
considered it a personal victory, and she pictured him that way
now.

"Did you find it?"

"Not yet," Kira said, enjoying his
impatience. She shifted her arms until she felt something hard near
the bottom of the bag. Pulling it out, she realized it was a frame.
Tristan always gave her slips of paper, never finding his artwork
worth the grandeur of a frame. She flipped it over and immediately
felt a knot tighten her throat.

"You didn't," she said in shock.

"I did," he happily replied. "Consider it an
early birthday present, since I won't be able to see you three
weeks from now on the actual day."

Kira bit her lip to keep from smiling so
widely her cheeks hurt. She tried to blink away the slight pools of
water welling in her eyes. Framed, in her hands, was a blown up
version of the photo in her locket. Tristan had a skill for
recreating people's faces in his artwork and she stared at the
drawings, amazed because it looked exactly like the photograph. She
was a baby with unruly curls in the middle of a fit of giggles
while she stared at her mother. Her father, freckle faced and
openly displaying his love, looked out towards her. And, finally,
Kira's mother, with the secret smile she had witnessed on her
grandmother's face just that afternoon, watched on. In the bigger
size, and especially with the muted color tones Tristan had added,
Kira almost sensed that her parents were really gazing out of the
picture. It almost seemed like they were watching over her.

Engraved at the bottom of the frame, Kira saw
the words 'Love Will Prevail' in cursive. She hugged the whole
thing to her chest with her free hand. That phrase, which was
engraved on the wedding ring hanging around her neck, had once
belonged to her parents. Kira liked to think it belonged to her
now.

"I met my grandparents today," she said
softly, after realizing she hadn't said anything for a few
minutes.

Kira heard him release a slow breath. He did
that when he was thinking and trying to understand her feelings.
"Are you alright? How'd it happen?"

Kira told him about the Council and about her
grandfather. She described the argument they had gotten into, the
test she was issued, and finally playing with the children. She
didn't want to mention Luke to him. The two of them always seemed
to butt heads, and there was no reason for Tristan to worry about
Luke trying something because Kira would never let it happen.

"I think it actually went well," Tristan
said.