Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) (27 page)

Kira’s eyes fluttered open, stinging from the
unfamiliar sensation of light, and everything was blurry. Slowly,
the blobs of color sharpened, becoming more defined, and Kira
recognized her mother’s face. Her lips were moving. Kira tried to
force her ears to register the sound. She felt as though she was
underwater, that a barrier was catching the sound waves, until it
finally broke.

"Kira, oh Kira, my baby," her mother was
crying, holding her by the shoulder and searching for recognition
in Kira’s eyes.

"Mom? What happened? Where am I?" Kira looked
around at the sterile walls, the get well balloons in the corner,
the beeping and blinking machines with tubes sticking into her
arms, at her own hospital gown, and started to remember. She sat
upright. "Where’s Luke? Is he all right? And Tristan?"

"Calm down, honey. Everything is fine." Her
mother hugged Kira close and ran her fingers through Kira’s curly
and probably knotty hair.

Images from that afternoon were flashing
through Kira’s brain at a mile a minute: Luke running at Diana,
Tristan drinking her blood, Diana laughing in her face, Jerome’s
body mutilated on the ground, John burning to ash, Tristan
whispering he loved her and Luke’s crumpled body on the ground.

It was all too much, she felt dizzy and
leaned back against the pillows while her mother called in the
doctors and sent for her father and sister. The rest of the her
morning and afternoon was spent being pushed from room to room in a
wheelchair and performing different tasks or enduring different
procedures to make sure her neural functioning was completely
normal. Chloe sat on her lap, enjoying the ride and making fun of
the silly outfits and robes the doctors were wearing. When the
procedures were finished, Kira forced her family to leave her side
to go eat dinner, not allowing them to settle for hospital food.
She asked them to bring back leftovers and let a nurse take over
her care.

When the nurse finally rolled Kira back to
her room, she had a visitor waiting: Tristan. Kira tried to stand
to hug him, but he ran to her side almost before she had the chance
to move. His arms encircled her, pulling her up to a standing
position. His lips kissed her neck sweetly while he smelled her
hair. She felt his mouth widen into a smile and she leaned back,
staring into his soulful blue eyes that were searching hers for
recognition and love. Kira grabbed his face, pulling him in for a
kiss.

The nurse left in a hurry, with a little
cough and an "excuse me," making Kira laugh against Tristan’s lips.
She let her fingers sift through his silky black hair and pressed
their foreheads together, sitting in the most comfortable silence
she had ever experienced. They loved each other and it was obvious
even without words.

"Sorry to break up the moment—"

"Luke!" Kira had turned around, reaching her
arms out for a hug before he had the chance to finish. He hugged
her around the waist, lifting her up off the ground before setting
her down and helping her back onto her hospital bed. Tristan sat
down beside her, grabbing her left hand, and Luke leaned on the
mattress to her right.

Kira looked from one boy to the other: her
two loves—one friendly and one romantic, but both meaning the world
to her.

"So…what happened?" Kira looked over at Luke.
"The last thing I remember is trying to heal you. I thought you’d
died." She had to grin now, happy beyond belief that he was all
right.

"You healed me, maybe even brought me back to
life. But, you almost killed yourself," he looked down at her with
concern clouding his features, "and when I sat up, Tristan was
leaning over you, shouting your name, but you weren’t responding.
We rushed you to the hospital and you’ve been in a coma ever
since."

"How long?" Kira looked from one boy to the
other.

"About three months," Tristan said and
squeezed her hand in comfort. Kira let her body slacken in the
cushions as she thought about that. It felt like she had been
asleep for a while, like taking a really long nap, but three
months? That was a long time.

"Are you guys friends yet?" She questioned,
hoping three months of worrying about her might have done the
trick. Luke and Tristan stared across her bed, sizing one another
up, and finally Tristan replied, turning to Kira.

"I think we’ve come to an understanding."

Kira smiled. It was something. She asked
about everything she had missed, about Emma and the boys, about
school in general, and about her family. Tristan and Luke told her
stories, all three of them smiling and laughing together, and Kira
felt a warm glow start inside of her, not from power, but from pure
happiness.

After a while, a doctor told them visiting
hours were almost over for non-family members, and Kira knew her
own family would be back from dinner soon.

"Before I go," Luke said, poking his head
through the door he had just vacated, "I just wanted to let you
know the council semi-forgave us, but they want you to go to visit
Sonnyville with me…immediately. Okay, bye." Luke jumped out before
Kira could ever mutter a protest. Coward, she thought. He knew she
had no interest in the council, but she guessed seeing the conduit
society could be interesting.

"What do you think?" She asked Tristan,
liking how he rubbed her palm with his thumb while they held
hands.

"It’s probably inevitable," he sighed. If she
went to the conduit society, he would not be able to see her or
visit her for a while.

"Well, there’s still plenty of time to figure
it out." Kira pulled on his arm so he would lie down next to her.
Seeing Luke had been great, but having some intimate moments with
Tristan out of Luke’s watchful eye was amazing. Tristan let his
fingers trail down her arm, dancing light circles on her soft skin,
tickling her a little. Kira hugged her arm around his waist,
turning to mold her body to his and resting her head on his chest
to listen to the gentle thud of his heart.

Her thoughts shifted back to the fight. Kira
couldn’t forget what Diana had taunted, that her real mother might
still be alive. And she didn’t want to imagine what sort of hell
she had been living in all these years, probably trapped in a
dungeon, the feeding toy of an evil vampire. Kira silently vowed to
hunt Diana down and get the truth. She would find her mother and
she would free her mother, no matter how many vampires she had to
kill along the way to do it.

As if sensing her dark thoughts, Tristan
started to hum a tune quietly in her ear. Kira recognized the jazz
song. He had made her listen to it in the car one time, promising
Kira she would fall in love with the sounds. She didn’t love the
song, but she loved Tristan and she loved the sound of his voice, a
deep tenor that reminded her of rolling waves. Kira let her body
relax and drift off into a deep sleep, content to push all thoughts
of the future aside for the moment to lie safely in the arms of her
lover.

###

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"I hate packing," Kira whined and collapsed
onto the heap of clothes piled high on her bed. She did not want to
move another muscle.

"Just pick out some outfits," Tristan
chuckled, not looking up from the pad of paper he was scribbling
on.

Kira arched her head, glancing in his
direction. He sat with one leg outstretched and one knee bent,
leaning against her headboard in relaxed concentration. With
squinted eyes, he focused on rubbing in the graphite pencil marks
he had just made with his already blackened fingers. If she wasn't
so tired, Kira would have crawled a little closer to see what he
was drawing, but instead she dropped her head with a sigh.

"Easy for you to say. You just have to sit
on my bed looking all artistic and mysterious while I run around
like a crazy person trying to get ready for two months at conduit
boot camp."

"Then my plan is working perfectly," he
smirked and finally put the sketchbook down. Kira peeked over at
the pages, wondering what image of her he was crafting, but saw the
last thing she ever expected: a self-portrait. Fighting her
exhaustion, Kira jumped up in curiosity.

"What are you doing?" She spun the image to
look at it closer, noting the strong cheekbones and crystal eyes he
had drawn perfectly. The hairs that always threatened to fall over
his eyes seemed just ready to spill and Kira saw the faint outline
of her own features. She realized he had been sketching both of
them.

"Just something for you to take to
Sonnyville, to carry around and show everyone, especially any guys
ages eighteen to twenty-two..."

Kira rolled her eyes. "You know I don't date
men who are younger than a hundred. I can't stand the immaturity
level."

Tristan grabbed her hand and pulled her
against his chest, making her giggle. With her arms wrapped around
his waist, she let her breath slow to the pace of his heartbeat.
Tristan's strong arms encircled her, hugging her as tightly against
his body as he could, and he sighed.

"I'm going to miss you," he whispered and
Kira's mouth widened into a smile. She rested her chin on his chest
so she could look into his face, taking in each hair on his head
and memorizing the features she already knew better than her
own.

"I'm going to miss you, too." She leaned up
and kissed him quickly, her thoughts already wandering to what lay
ahead.

A few months had passed since Kira had woken
up from the coma. Luke had convinced the Council to let her
recuperate before forcing her to go to Sonnyville, and they all
agreed that the day after graduation would be, what Kira liked to
call, doomsday. Just this morning, she and her friends had all
donned their robes and received their diplomas. And before she knew
it, time had all but slipped away. But more than anything Kira
dreaded saying goodbye to Tristan. Luke had promised to sneak him
into Sonnyville at least once, but Kira wasn't sure if it would
even be a good idea to bring Tristan around so many conduits.
Tomorrow morning they would have to say goodbye, and even though
Kira knew it wasn't goodbye forever, two months was starting to
seem like an impossibly long time apart.

"It's going to be fine," Tristan said and
kissed her forehead. "And you'll be safe there, which is the most
important thing."

"I know. I just wish it wasn't for so long.
Do you think you'll be able to find Diana soon?" Kira questioned,
bringing up the topic they had skirted around for the past few
weeks. Tristan knew Diana was still a threat. She had come back to
Charleston multiple times while Kira had still been in a coma. She
managed to evade Tristan, but he still sensed her presence and both
of them knew that she was planning something. But neither Kira nor
Tristan had known what, until about a week ago when a pack of
vampires came to Charleston after hearing a rumor that a mixed
breed conduit was alive and in the neighborhood. Tristan had
managed to persuade them, forcefully, to leave but more would come.
The safest place for Kira was with the conduits, not with her
vampire boyfriend, especially since Tristan would be off hunting
Diana down while Kira was away.

"I know where to look. She can only run for
so long." Tristan tried to reassure Kira. He ran his hand along her
arm in a soothing motion. Kira relaxed into his touch.

"And you'll find out about my mother?"

"I'll try," Tristan said, but he wouldn't
look her in the eye. They had had this conversation before, with
Luke too, and Kira was the only one with hope that her mother was
still alive. Luke and Tristan agreed that Diana had used it as a
dirty trick to shock Kira, giving her the chance to escape, but
Kira felt something deep inside, a gut instinct urging her to
believe that her mother was living and breathing somewhere on this
earth.

Kira opened her mouth to say so, but decided
against it. She was too comfortable resting in his arms to bother
fighting and the last thing Kira wanted was to argue with Tristan
on their last night together. Instead, she inched up his chest,
noting the glint in his eye and leaned in for a kiss.

He slid his hand up her back to cup the base
of her neck, pulling her face into his and letting her know he was
thinking the same thing. After a teasing moment of stillness, Kira
leaned the extra centimeter forward and their lips met.