Scorching Secrets (28 page)

“Ryanne got attacked by Adam last night. I healed her. She fell asleep in here,” Logan says while popping his back. Liam groans and sits up as well.

“Oh, why didn’t she wake me up? She got you guys…”

“She didn’t want to wake anyone up. She only wanted to find Logan, but Liam and I were already in here,” I try to speak quietly but loud enough for Emma to hear me.

“She wasn’t attacked again was she?” I glance down at her. Her hair has fallen over her face, hiding her features. Brushing her hair aside, I don’t see any injuries. She has lines from the fabric of my pants on her face, but other than that, she seems fine.

“I don’t think so.” Ryanne stretches her legs out and yawns. Despite her petite stature, in those shorts her legs seem to go on forever. I know that Emma catches me staring, but I’m past the point where I care.

Ryanne pushes herself up off of my leg and grabs her face, “Oww.” With her hand still covering the part of her face that was resting against my leg, she turns to me with sleepy eyes and mumbles, “Your leg is not very comfy.” I look away as she stretches her back and arms. I see the guys do the same. We’re not blind, and Ryanne is showing a lot of skin. Emma laughs at our reactions which Ryanne doesn’t hear or chooses to ignore. “Oh my gosh, I totally had a dream last night.”

“Really? What happened?” Emma asks.

Ryanne sits Indian style on the ground and starts to tell us about her dream. “I was at a mall, and suddenly everyone started to go crazy. I went over to find what the commotion was about and saw all these people lining up to see Christian Bale. You know me; I love the Batman films. However, I thought it was fake, so I didn’t get in line. I stood off to the side and laughed at a kid, who was literally in tears. Someone placed a hand on my shoulder and asked if I knew who that kid was.

“I said no and turned around to find Christian Bale smiling at me. Well, of course, I fainted when I saw him. When I woke up and saw him still standing over me, I turned around and threw up on his insanely cute bodyguard. He bent down to help me stand back up, and the last thing I remember is the crying kid yelling, “She knows Batman.” And then I woke up.”

“That’s what you dreamed about?” I try not to laugh, but that is the weirdest dream I’ve ever heard of.

“Yeah, and it was freaking awesome. You know besides the throwing up on the bodyguard part.”

“You’re a strange girl, Ryanne,” David says from the doorway.

“Never claimed to be anything else.” She stands up and walks over to him, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” At the confused expression on David’s face, Ryanne laughs and leaves the room.

“It’s not from a movie, big guy. Dr. Seuss said it!”

“Dang, how does she do that?”

“I’m awesome!” she yells from down the hallway. I start laughing. Even David laughs at that. Pushing myself off the ground, I walk past everyone and out of the room to take a shower and get dressed. Hopefully the hot water from the shower will relax my stiff muscles.

“Happy birthday!” Emma shouts at me as I come into the living room. I stop short and look around the room. Nothing is out of the ordinary. She runs over to me and gives me a hug. “Why didn’t you tell anyone that it was your birthday? We could have done something.”

“Because I didn’t want anyone to know.” I glare at David. He’s the one that probably told everyone.

David says, “Oops,” but I can tell that he doesn’t mean it. Because of the short notice, they didn’t have time to plan anything. We have bigger things to worry about right now than a birthday.

Larkin is sitting at the table. “Can you take me the store now?”

“Sure.” he stands up and walks over to me.

“What are you going to the store for?” I just shake my head. I don’t have to keep it a secret, but knowing that it’ll kill Emma to not know, I decide to leave her in the dark. With a smile, I wave at her as Larkin transports us out of the kitchen.

I’m humming “It Girl” by Jason Derulo as I skip down the stairs. I feel so much better after the shower. I decide to wear my Avengers t-shirt and jean shorts today. I’ve been on a superhero kick recently.

Entering the kitchen, I go over to the food bowl and fill it for Olive.
Thanks
. She starts eating, and I walk over to the sink to do the dishes. Emma comes over and starts to help me. I keep humming because the song won’t get out of my head. When the last plate is put away, I turn around and see all the guys sitting at the table, eating. Dirtying more dishes. Emma and I groan but don’t say anything. Boys gotta eat, I guess.

I glance around the table and see a couple empty seats. “Where are Larkin and Colton?” I sit down in the chair next to Liam.

“Colton needed to go to the store,” David says through a mouthful of cereal.

“Please swallow before talking. No one needs to see that,” Emma chastises him. He smiles at her—a big toothy food covered grin. I can’t help but laugh at her disgusted expression.

“What did he need to go to the store for?”

“He wouldn’t tell us,” Emma doesn’t like to be left out of the loop. By her pout, you’d think that someone just took away her favorite toy.

“Hopefully, a birthday present,” David mumbles.

“A birthday present for who?” David’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t answer me. Everyone is looking down at their food. “Whose birthday is it?”

“No one’s.”

“It’s Colton’s birthday, isn’t it?” I ask. Liam and David just nod. Logan and Bragden keep their attention on their cereal.

“Are we going to do anything? Why didn’t he want me to know?”

“It’s not just you. He didn’t want anyone to know, but I kind of spilled the beans,” says David.

“Are we going to do anything?”

“There’s not a whole lot we can do…” Liam replies.

“There’s always something we can do...” I think about it. What could we do that didn’t involve leaving the house? “We could make him a cake at least.”

“Ha, I can barely make toast, and you want me to bake a cake?” Bragden says. I don’t doubt him. He doesn’t seem like he’d be a baker.

“Well, Emma and I could bake a cake. I’m sure we have enough ingredients here.” I walk into the pantry and start gathering the supplies. There isn’t a box of cake mix. That’d be too easy. We’ll have to make this from scratch.

Placing everything on the counter, Emma and I start to organize all the dry ingredients into a pile. We’ll need them first.

“How do you know how to make a cake from scratch?” Emma asks when I start to measure out all the ingredients.

“I used to bake with my mom on weekends. I’m really surprised I wasn’t a fat child,” I smile as I remember baking with my mom. We’d always make a mess and have to spend more time cleaning than baking. “For some reason, I remember the measurements…or at least I think I do.” When I have all the dry ingredients measured out, I turn to Emma, “Can you mix all those in a large mixing bowl?”

“You got it Rachel Ray.”

“Rachel Ray is a chef, not a baker.” I inform Emma.

“Same difference.”

“Not really.”

“Hey Logan,” I call to him. “Is it possible for a mage to get fat?” I don’t think I’ve ever met a mage who was fat. They’ve all been big but that was because of their muscles. I glance over at Bragden. He’s the largest mage I’ve ever met, but there’s not a single ounce of fat on him. I’ve never been on a specific diet before, but I used to consider how many calories I was consuming. Now, I just eat whatever is available.

“Not really,” he tells me. “You can gain a few pounds, but the magic in our bodies keeps us healthy. It heals anything that’s not supposed to be there.”

“Is that why I don’t have to take any of my iron pills anymore?” I haven’t really thought about that much. Before I came into my powers, I was anemic. I had to take iron pills every morning.

“Yeah, your body recognized that your irons levels were low, and they basically fixed that. We’re meant to be fighters, so the magic keeps our bodies in optimal conditions.”

Emma walks over to my iPod and turns some music on. With a laugh, I return my attention back to the ingredients in front of me. I start mixing the milk and vegetable oil together, and when Emma is finished with the dry ingredients, we combine the two. Adding in the butter and vanilla extract, we search for a mixer. I give it to Emma and start spraying the pans.

She turns on the mixer before placing it fully in the bowl, and cake batter flies all over us. She screams and jumps back, dropping the mixer into the bowl. Cake batter continues to splatter everywhere. I rush over and turn off the mixer. I slowly turn toward Emma with my mouth hanging open.

She covers her mouth with her hands and starts cracking up. We’re both covered in cake batter.

Emma walks over and grabs a handful of flour and throws it at me. I turn at the last minute, so it only covers my hair and clothes. I gasp and stare at her with wide eyes. Did she really just do that? I grab a handful and throw it at her, but she doesn’t duck soon enough. It hits her in the middle of her face. Staring at me with a white powdered face, she huffs, sending flour everywhere.

All the guys at the table start cracking up. We glare at them but don’t do anything. It
is
pretty funny. I walk over to the cake batter and decide to mix it. Emma obviously hasn’t used an electric mixer before. I add the eggs and continue beating it for a few minutes. While I am doing this, I give Emma instructions on how to make the chocolate icing.

I finish pouring the batter into the pan, when I hear Emma exclaim, “Oh my gosh, this is heavenly,” she says while eating a spoonful of chocolate icing.

“Hey, save some for the cake.” She sticks her tongue out at me and continues eating. I place the cake in the oven and turn around and assess the room. We created a very large mess. I turn back to Emma and start laughing all over again. “It Girl” plays through the speakers. Emma jumps up and rushes over to me, dancing. I refuse at first, but this song has been stuck in my head all morning, so I join in.

Might as well have some fun.

Colton

Larkin transports me back into my room. I place the bag on my bed and walk out. From upstairs, I can hear music playing in the kitchen. I think I can even hear Ryanne singing along with it. I walk down the stairs and into the kitchen and freeze.

Are my eyes deceiving me?

Ryanne and Emma are in the middle of the kitchen, singing and dancing along with “It Girl” by Jason Derulo. The most shocking thing is the state the girls are in. They’re a mess. Liam, Logan, Bragden, and David are all sitting at the table, watching them and laughing.

I look back at the girls. Ryanne has flour and something else stuck in her hair. Her dark hair now has a whitish tint. Emma has flour caked to her face and chocolate on her nose, but neither girl seems to care. Their outfits are covered in what looks like cake batter. Emma sticks her hand into a bowl and wipes chocolate on Ryanne’s face. She screams and retaliates with more flour. I lean against the doorframe to watch. Larkin walks into the kitchen and instantly starts cracking up.

Both girls stop and look our way. Their eyes widen when they see us. Ryanne tries to hold her laughter in, but she falls to the ground laughing. Emma stares down at her silent for a few seconds before she starts laughing again. She walks over and sprinkles sugar on Ryanne, who is still on the floor. Ryanne snorts from laughing so hard which makes everyone laugh. She gets up and walks over to me.

Hitting me on the chest, she says, “Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday!” She has to yell in order to be heard over the music. Emma turns the volume down.

I act like that hurt. Instead of answering her question, I grab the end of her hair. “Do you know you have flour in your hair?”

She crosses her hands over her chest and looks up at me, “Emma doesn’t know how to use a mixer.” I let go of her hair and look over her head toward Emma.

She has an evil grin on her face, and with silent steps, she makes her way across the kitchen. Moving her arm back, Emma throws something in our direction. Ryanne ducks at the last second, and I’m hit in the chest with whatever Emma just threw. I look down. Egg yolk is dripping down my shirt.

Emma’s eyes widen. “How did you know I was going to do that? You weren’t even looking at me!”

“Well, I’m kinda psychic. I have a fifth sense. It’s like I have ESPN or something.” Ryanne stands up and smiles over at David. I’m guessing that was from a movie, since it makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever.

Emma jumps up and points at David. “Mean Girls!” Clapping, she continues, “I got one!”

“That and I saw Colton look at you, so I figured you were going to do something,” she shrugs. “I ducked.” Staring at my shirt, she says, “Which I’m glad I did. Egg is not my color.”

“I think you’d look pretty good in it,” I tell her as I reach forward and hug her to me.

She screams and tries squirming away, but the damage is already done. I let go of her, and she takes a couple steps backwards. Egg is stuck in the ends of her hair and plastered to the front of her shirt. She gapes at me, before turning around and grabbing a handful of flour. I try to turn around but run straight into an invisible barrier. “That’s not fair.” My eyes are glued to her as she slowly walks closer to me, an evil grin on her beautiful, cake-covered face.

“I thought we already established that I don’t fight fair,” she says as she stops right in front of me. She brings the handful of flour up to her face and slowly blows it onto my face. I close my eyes and wait for the flour attack to stop. Then, she runs backwards and hides behind Emma, giggling.

If that’s how things are going to be….I think about Ryanne last night when she came into the room after Adam’s attack. My anger turns me invisible. I hear Ryanne mutter “Oh shoot” as she darts across the room and stands behind Bragden. Grabbing onto the wooden back of his chair, she whispers, “Do you know where he is?” I walk toward the island, trying to not make a noise.

“He’s invisible, Ryanne. If you can’t see him, neither can I,” Bragden says. He starts shaking his head, chuckling at her question. Liam’s watching her, laughing. It is nice to see Ryanne finally happy, not worrying about something. She keeps looking around the room, searching for any signs of movement. I wait until she looks away. The bowl of chocolate icing on the island beckons me forward. Walking over to the bowl, I place my hand inside and wait until the handful of icing disappears. I know that Emma sees it because she smiles in my general direction. She takes a couple steps back and leans against the counter. I take the handful and rub my hands together, smearing the chocolate between both hands.