Blaze (18 page)

A few excruciatingly silent seconds passed.
Both of them cupped the other’s face, but neither moved, too afraid
to break the momentary peace, the momentary reprieve from their
breaking hearts, the momentary trip back to a time when three
little words were bigger than everything else. They were holding on
to the fleeting belief that maybe this wasn’t the end…

“Come on,” Tristan said finally, “we’ll
figure out a plan on the way back.” He stepped away and paused
before reaching for her hand.

“Tristan,” Kira sighed. His fingers stopped
in mid-air, inches from Kira. He looked at her, with an expression
mixed between daring and disbelief.

“Tristan, we need to go to London first,”
Kira said hesitantly, “we need the conduits to help us take Aldrich
down.”

“We need Luke, you mean,” he said bitterly,
jerking his arm back to his side. Kira hated the snarl gathering on
his lips.

“No, we need help. We need a plan,” Kira
urged.

“Don’t bother denying it,” Tristan said and
laughed darkly. “You know, I thought we might be able to get
through this without talking about Luke, without mentioning him.
But now I’m the idiot.” His voice was rising with his anger. “I
heard him tell you he loved you outside of the ball. I’ve listened
to your heart flutter every time he’s walked into a room after
that, heard your breath catch every time you’ve met his eyes,
heard—”

“There’s nothing going on between Luke and
I,” Kira interrupted, reaching for Tristan. He moved away.

“Keep telling yourself that,” he spat, then
turned and started walking away from Kira, swatting the leaves of
the willow tree out of his way.

“Tristan!” Kira yelled and ran after him,
but it was no use against his speed. His black hair had almost
disappeared behind the trees on the road by the time Kira had
stepped free of the willow. He paused for a moment before turning
around to look at Kira one more time. He reached his hand up to his
mouth, cupping the air around his lips.

“Do me a favor,” he yelled across the pond.
Kira nodded. She would do anything to make things better between
them.

“Please just,” the shadow of sadness
flickered across his face before a hard exterior returned, “just
don’t tell him we broke up.”

And with that, Tristan was gone.

Chapter Eleven

Broke up.

The phrase kept spinning through Kira’s mind
as she continued the drive to London on her own. She mindlessly
followed the directions on the GPS, barely registering the
computerized voice as it navigated her through the twisting English
countryside.

Broke up.

A honk screamed at her and Kira focused her
eyes on the road again, blinking away the bleary film blocking her
vision.

Broke up.

Kira loosened her hands on the wheel,
feeling blisters start to rise on her palm. She tried to control
her heaving breaths, tried to breathe in and out to the count of
four.

Broke up.

Ahead, a sign told Kira she was less than
ten kilometers from London—from Luke. But was she driving towards
someone or away from someone else?

Broke up.

Kira readjusted in her seat.

“We broke up,” Kira whispered to herself.
Finally saying it out load made it feel real, made her insides coil
a little tighter and made the pain in her heart ache a little
harder.

She was in shock, but yet she had seen it
coming. As soon as Kira had started the lie, had chosen being a
conduit over being with Tristan, she had known that the end of
their relationship was coming, that there was no escaping this
moment. But still, those two words sounded wrong.

Kira was a conduit. Tristan a vampire.
People had been telling them for months that they couldn’t be
together, that they were wrong for each other.

But they weren’t, Kira thought sadly. For
the past few months, they had been exactly right for each other.
Until Kira decided to change the rules. Until she, without
realizing it, bumped Tristan down to number two on her list of
priorities. Because, if Kira was being honest, as soon as she had
stepped foot in Sonnyville, her mind had started shifting. Being a
conduit started to become more and more important. Her powers not
only strengthened, but wove themselves tightly around her heart.
And only when she was faced with the possibility of losing them did
Kira fully understand how much being a conduit meant to her.

Kira took one hand off the wheel and placed
it over her chest, letting a string of light warm her heart. The
heat was comforting. It felt like the very essence of life was
pumping into her veins, strengthening and calming her.

And even though the flames couldn’t heal her
pain at having lost Tristan, they reminded Kira why she had done it
in the first place. She loved him. She really, truly did love him.
And part of her would probably always ache for him. But another
part of her was okay with what happened, okay with the loss.

“You have arrived at your destination.”

Kira looked at the GPS. The green arrow
representing her car was blinking over a red and white target,
announcing her arrival at Luke’s address.

Her heart seemed to stop and speed up at the
same time.

What would she do when she saw him? Touching
him, even just to hug him, seemed like a betrayal. Tristan’s last
words echoed in her brain. She couldn’t blame him for the nasty
tone and snide remark. He was hurt and angry, and was it possible
he had been right?

Looking away from the small map, Kira parked
the car and turned it off. Without the air conditioning on, the
vehicle started to heat up, but she didn’t feel like moving.

Luke hadn’t seemed angry on the phone. Kira
thought he might have even sounded excited. But what if he was
lying? What if he was still angry with her about the airport? Kira
didn’t know if she could handle another fight right now.

But Aldrich’s beady black eyes invaded her
vision, and she opened the car door, stepping into the somewhat
clean London air. This was all about finding out what Aldrich was
up to—and after so much heartache, Kira almost wished Aldrich had
an apocalyptic plan in the works. At least then, her actions would
be justified, at least then it wouldn’t all have been in vain.

And with that thought pushing her along,
Kira punched the access code to the building and walked through the
front door. Looking around, she realized it was an apartment
building. She took the elevator to the top floor, walked down one
long perfectly straight hallway before stopping outside of
apartment 10.

She heard muffled voices through the wooden
door. Laughter. A deep response that didn’t sound like Luke. Unable
to fight the urge, Kira reached out with her mind, searching for
Luke’s. After a few seconds, Kira felt it, felt him. Light, bubbly,
and unconcerned despite the nature of his visit to London. There
was no anger, no hint of bitterness. It was pure Luke. Kira let his
confidence roll over her, hoping his ease would sink into her
brain, before releasing the hold. It wasn’t really fair to spy on
him when he had no idea she was there.

No longer nervous, Kira raised her hand,
poised to knock, when the door swung open, catching her in the
act.

A boy, blonde but not Luke, was looking at
her with a confused squint. Kira opened her mouth to speak, but her
eyes slid over his shoulder and the sound caught in her throat.

Luke.

His hair was disheveled and longer than Kira
remembered: a mix of gold and honey that now stuck over his ears a
bit. His tanned skin was spotted with freckles, from his cheeks
down along his arms. He was too tall for the old English apartment.
Kira saw him duck through a doorframe, bending his long torso to
squeeze underneath. A smile played on his lips, teasing with a hint
of laughter as though left over from a joke Kira had just missed.
It made her smile, turning her lips without her realizing it.

“Who’s ther—” Luke started to say, but froze
when his eyes met Kira’s. Kira caught the emerald sparkle even from
this distance and saw his features lighten just a shade, but it was
enough. Enough to know that he really wasn’t angry, that maybe she
was even forgiven.

“Kira!” He grinned.

As if under a spell, Kira found herself
pushing past the boy in the doorway to run for Luke.

“Oi!” The boy said with a distinctly English
accent, but Kira was already catapulting off the ground and into
Luke’s arms. She flung her hands around his neck, burying her face
in the crook of his shoulder, relieved when he caught her in a
tight embrace. Tears sprang in her eyes as the stress of the past
couple of days caught up with her, but she was also laughing
against his chest. The rumble of his body let Kira know Luke was
laughing as well.

“’Suppose they know each other, then?” The
other boy said.

“Looks like,” another British accent
responded, but this one was higher pitched and female.

Self-consciously, Kira unbent her legs,
searching for the ground with her feet. Luke set her down, but kept
an arm around her waist. She didn’t have the will to push it off,
but turned her head towards the voices she had heard.

A boy and girl, a little older than Luke,
were standing together in the entryway, looking at Kira with mild
amusement. Realizing how crazy she must look, Kira wiped at the
water just below her lashes.

“Hi,” she said with a wave. “I’m—”

“Kira,” the boy supplied. “We know. Luke’s
only been here for an hour and already he won’t shut up about you.”
Luke’s fingers tightened on her waist affectionately.

“We thought he was a bit of a nutter,
really,” the girl chimed in, “he never told us you were
dating.”

Kira stepped away from Luke as Tristan’s
face flashed into her head. “Uh, well, we’re not,” she said
awkwardly. Two pairs of eyebrows raised.

“Anyway,” Luke coughed, “Kira this is Jack
and that’s Mary Beth, the two London based conduits who agreed to
host me.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kira said, fighting the
heat rising on her cheeks.

“We’ll just be in here,” Luke shrugged
towards the door behind him and pulled Kira through the opening…
into a bedroom.

Picking the corner furthest from the door,
Kira sat down on the mattress and tucked her feet beneath her.

Before Luke had time to close the door, Kira
blurted out, “I’m sorry.” He opened his mouth to speak, but Kira
charged on.

“No, wait, let me finish. It was torture,
and I mean absolute torture, to think that something I had done
made you hate me. And as soon as I sat on that plane, I knew I had
made a mistake. I tried to call you, but then we took off and it
was too late. And that plane ride was the worst in my life. I could
barely even function, thinking I had lost you as a friend. I just—I
felt lost and alone, and I hope that you can forgive me some day.”
Kira paused, looking up from her hands, which were clenched in the
folds of her t-shirt. To her surprise, Luke was grinning. Barely
five minutes together and he was already annoying her.

“What?” Kira asked. “Do you think my total
anguish is funny?”

“A little, yeah,” he said and flopped down
next to her on the bed.

“Well, it was all your fault. You’re the one
who said you were done and wouldn’t call me back!” Kira crossed her
arms.

“Whoa, no way,” Luke shook his head at her,
“no way are you turning this around on me. It was your brilliant
plan to completely ditch me in the airport with no warning or
explanation.” Kira could hear the slight tightness in his voice. He
wasn’t totally over it yet.

“So yell at me,” Kira said. It was what she
had been expecting anyway.

“Nah,” Luke shrugged and laughed at Kira’s
exasperated expression. She, in turn, could feel her stubborn side
coming out full force. Kira raised her eyebrows and stared him
down, waiting for some explanation for his bizarre attitude.

“Well, what do you want to do then?”

“Nothing,” he folded an arm behind his head
and fell back against the bed. “I’m just going to lay here and
enjoy being in charge for once.”

Kira slapped his leg, “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” he nodded and kept his eyes on
her. Kira didn’t like the mischievous glean gathering there.

“I haven’t always been in charge,” Kira said
slowly, getting a snort from Luke.

“Come on,” he sat up quickly, “first, I was
the one who kept being a conduit from you. So when you found out,
you totally guilt tripped me. Then you saved my life and landed
yourself in a coma, putting me in your debt for life. Now, you can
go inside my head whenever you want and know exactly how I’m
feeling. Following Diana to Baltimore was completely your idea, and
do I even need to mention this little European adventure?”

“Okay, okay,” Kira said, not liking the
slightly smug look on his face. “Well, what do I have to do to make
things even again?”

“I think I’m charging you…” He looked around
the room, pretending to be deep in thought. His eyes landed on her
sending a slight jolt down her spine. Kira put all of her
concentration into keeping Luke’s mind separate from her own. She
could feel excitement and heat coming from the other side of the
barrier, making a slight flush rise to her cheeks.

“You owe me one kiss,” Luke said. The
light-hearted grin was gone. Kira hesitated before breaking
contact.

“Luke, be serious,” she said and attempted
an easy laugh, trying to play it off as a joke.

“I am,” he said, and something in his tone
made Kira pay attention. “You see, I realized something. Well,
actually, my sister helped me out with this one. But, I finally
realized that you are totally into me, you just won’t admit
it.”

“How’d you get there?” Kira said, letting
mirth flow into her words in an attempt to keep the mood light.