Lyla
By the time Ethan left that night, I was really ready to go to bed. I couldn’t stay awake a moment longer. My stomach growled, but I ignored it. I still kinda felt sick from earlier, but I tried not to think about it. If I thought about it, I was going to stress myself out over nothing.
I attempted to focus on my mental picture of Ethan’s smiling face and his beautiful blue eyes that I was falling in love with. I heard his laugh in my mind, and it sounded close. So much so that I snapped my eyes open, and looked around the room. What the hell was going on with me? Now I was hearing things.
Awesome, can my night get any better?
After a while, I fell asleep, and dreamed about Ethan…
***
The next morning, I got up and hopped into the shower.
When I started to lather shampoo into my hair, I noticed steam coming off of my skin. Huh, that’s weird, that’s never happened to me before. I quickly rinsed my hair, and reached to grab my razor from the shelf in the corner. I really needed to shave some places on my body, because I was getting self-conscious about it.
I stepped out of the water, and noticed the steam coming off in bigger puffs. I set my hand on my skin, and it was burning hot. And I mean burning. It was so hot I bet I could have cooked eggs on my skin.
I quickly shut the water off, climbed out, and grabbed a towel. When I rubbed the towel on my skin, it immediately caught fire.
Crap.
I screamed. Holy shit!
I turned the faucet back on and shoved the towel into the tub. The fire was put out with a sharp hiss. I sighed, and stood there with my hands wrapped around my naked waist. I was scared. That’s never happened before! What, if I put on clothes will those burn too? How the hell was I going to be able to attend school? I couldn’t go nude!
Wait, there wasn’t any school today. It was Saturday!
Before I knew what was happening, Rylan busted into the bathroom, and stopped in his tracks when he seen my backside. He averted his eyes upwards before he began to speak.
“Um, I heard you scream.” he said.
“Uh, yeah, I just bumped my broken arm, no big deal.” I said with a shrug.
I waited for him to leave, but he never did. He just stood there in the doorway.
Oh my God, why wasn’t he leaving? “Are you going to leave?” I asked in a hard tone.
Then he started sniffing. “What’s burning?”
Double crap.
“I-I… don’t know.” I stuttered, trying to cover myself up the best I could.
Rylan walked further into the room, and glanced down into the tub, seeing the burnt towel. He slowly turned back to me, and had an unreadable expression on his face. Then just as slowly as before, he turned to look into the tub again.
“Is there something you want to tell me, Lyla?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the burnt fabric.
I hung my head in shame. I didn’t know what to tell him. “I… burnt the… towel on accident.”
“How do you “accidentally” catch a towel on fire?”
His voice was demanding. “Are you trying to burn my house down?”
Great, now he was mad at me.
“I don’t know… and it was an accident, I don’t know how it happened.” I never experienced something like that in my whole life.
I turned around to face him, and used one hand to cover my breasts and the other to cover my pubic region. God, this was so embarrassing. I’ve never been naked around another guy before. I was really uncomfortable. But seeing as he wasn’t going to leave, I had to make the best of the situation at hand.
As if he could read my mind, he went to grab me another towel, and draped it over my shoulders. I pulled it around to my front, and hugged my arms to my body. I prayed I wouldn’t catch this one on fire either. My mind was swirling with thoughts, and anything that I could tell him. I couldn’t find anything that was worth saying, and there was no point in lying.
So I decided to tell him the truth.
“Rylan, I’m a Fire Bringer.” I said in a smooth, confidant voice. Inside I was anything but. I was waiting for him to tell me that I was batshit crazy.
There was a minute of silence. Then two, then three…
“A Fire Bringer? I didn’t know if the rumors were true… So you guys really do exist?”
I nodded. He was taking this very well, so I went into the whole thing about the Summer Solstice and my stupid step-dad. Oh, and I told him about Tanner. Rylan listened to everything that I told him, and didn’t say I was insane or making it up, which I greatly appreciated.
“I think I need help learning about myself.” I admitted. My ears turned pink.
“I don’t know much, Lyla, but I could help you.”
“I stole a book from the school’s lib—”
“Lyla, I’m not a human either.” he said, cutting me off. He stared at the floor. His confession almost knocked me off my feet.
“What?” I screeched. “I’m not human.” “Then what are you?”
He thought for a moment and took a deep breath before he spoke. “I’m a demon, and I’m one of the Seven Horses of Hell.”
I tried not to laugh. Okay, he really had to be making this whole thing up. There’s no way a demon could look as good as him. I would expect burnt skin and horns— not green eyes and silky hair. Okay, I didn’t know if his hair was silky, but that’s what it looked like.
“What, it’s true!” he said with such sincerity that I actually believed him.
All of a sudden, Rylan’s appearance started to shift, and he became larger, and his skin started to grow white hair. In less than ten seconds, a big white horse stood in front of me. I knew it was still Rylan because of the big, beautiful green eyes.
Wow. This was really real. I couldn’t believe it. I never thought someone could turn into a horse. I’d heard stories about Kelpies, but not this. This was something else all together. Something more sinister. So sinister that it was almost sinful.
Actually, it was sinful.
He was a demon for God sakes! Demons were supposed to be super evil… right?
I reached out my hand to pet him, and he snorted. He turned back to a normal guy faster than he turned to a horse before I could touch him.
“That is so awesome. I want to ride you so bad!” I said with excitement. “Can I ride you?” I’d never been on a horse, and it was suddenly very enticing. Even if he was a demon, I knew Rylan would never hurt me. If he was going too, he would have by now.
Rylan quirked his eyebrow. “You want to ride me, huh?” he said, biting back laughter. He swiveled his hips around, and butterflies swept though my stomach.
“What did I say now?” I whined. Then I thought about it. Son of a bitch. Really? No wonder why he made an obscene gesture with his hips.
I crossed my arms over my chest, causing the towel to fall to the floor.
Rylan had his fill while I stood there, not even doing anything about it. Why bother trying to cover myself when he already saw me? There was no way to take the images of me naked out of his mind.
“What?!” I yelled, throwing my arms out to the side. I’m sure he just loved the display of my boobs bouncing when I let go of them.
“You’re so beautiful…” he murmured softly, so softly I didn’t think that I had heard him right.
In about a second he was standing in front of me, and pressing his lips to mine. The kiss was soft and sweet, but suddenly turned into something urgent. His tongue touched my bottom lip, making me part them. His hands were on the small of my back, dragging me closer to him. I didn’t complain. His lips felt cool and tasted sweet on my own. I didn’t want to stop.
I never wanted this to end. I’d never felt such a rush of pleasure before.
A moan escaped my mouth, and I knew I was going to be red-cheeked about it later. But for now, I didn’t care. Another one rose into my throat, and I let it go.
Rylan was pressed fully into me, running his hands up my sides, and then back down to my bare behind. He cupped my butt with both hands, causing me to squeal.
What was I doing?
I broke apart from him, and looked him in the eyes. His eyes were dilated with desire, and his gaze was so full of hunger…
I was panting, and so was he. Wow, that was amazing.
Rylan ran his hands through his hair, and sighed.
“I’m sorry… I... I shouldn’t have done that.”
I shook my head. I was speechless. “I—”
He held up his hand to stop me. “No, it was wrong of me. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again. I was just caught up in the moment.”
I watched him walk out of the bathroom.
***
Sometime later, Rylan came back upstairs and stood in my doorway while I was reading the book that I had taken from the school’s library.
I didn’t look at him, but I knew he knew that I was well aware of his presence. I felt like he had to say something to me, but I didn’t know what.
My lips still felt swollen from our kiss, and I was scared of what kissing him could mean… did that mean I cheated on Ethan? I know Ethan never really asked me out. Sure, we hung out every day and went on dates, but that didn’t mean that he wanted me as a girlfriend.
Something in me wanted to go find Ethan and kiss him. I felt bold now for reasons I didn’t understand. I would have to convince myself that Monday would be the day that I would be brave and fearless and take matters into my own hands—I was going to kiss him, and I wasn’t going to let my shyness stop me.
When I closed the book, I finally looked up, and he was still there.
“Lyla, can I talk to you?” he asked hesitantly.
I nodded, and patted the space next to me on the bed.
Rylan came over, almost timidly. His green eyes flashed.
I stayed lying on my stomach, but put my head down on the mattress, turning away from him.
He settled in on my left side, barely moving the bed.
I wouldn’t have known he was even there if I didn’t know he was in the room.
“Lyla.” he said softly.
I finally turned to look, and found that he was leaning on his elbow, propped up. His black hair fell into his face slightly, and I wanted to run my hands through it.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry.” he whispered almost pathetically.
I furrowed my brows. “About what?” I think I already knew, but I wanted him to say it.
“Kissing you this morning—I had no right to put my hands on you while you were naked. I let my inner demon control my movements. I don’t regret it… but I know you’re probably not pleased with me.” He hung his head.
I stared at him, and put my hand over his. “It’s okay, Rylan. We all make dumb mistakes.” I should know, I’m the worlds most wanted for stupid oversights. I thought in my head.
“But it still wasn’t proper. I took advantage of you when you were already having a rough morning.”
“Rylan… it’s okay.” I repeated. “I liked it.” I added with a slight blush.
He smiled slightly. “You sure?”
I nodded.
“What have you got there?” he asked. “What… this?” I replied, gesturing to the book.
“It’s what I found in the school’s library. I tried to tell you that earlier, but you weren’t listening.”
He smiled apologetically, and pulled it over to him.
“Um, Rylan… could you read these pages and tell me what you think?”
“Why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind instead of me reading this?”
I told him everything about what I had read in the book, except the thing about my necklace. I didn’t know why I didn’t want to bring it up, but something inside of me told me it was too soon to say anything.
“Ice?”
“Yeah, it’s really weird.” I stated.
“Lyla, I don’t really know much about any of this, but I could always go to Hell and ask someone… would you like me to gather information that way, or did you want me to take this book and read it, and then let you know?”
I thought about it. “You can read it if you want.” I pushed it in his direction, and he pulled it closer to him.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome, my darling.”
***
Sometime later that evening, Rylan fell asleep on my bed.
I rolled over to find him on his belly, breathing softly and deeply. He looked so peaceful in his sleep that I didn’t have the heart to wake him up. I couldn’t.
But, I could cover him up just in case he was cold.
I slowly moved and dragged the blanket up over his sleeping form.
“Lyla…” he murmured, sighing.
“Rylan?” I whispered, not knowing if he was asleep and sleep talking, or if he was awake.
When he didn’t move, I slowly got off the bed and grabbed my phone. I snuck into the hallway, and went downstairs. I wanted to call Ethan and see what he was doing.
“Hey,” he answered sleepily.
Crap. It was ten o’clock. I thought he would be awake.
“What are you doing?” I asked, and then smacked a hand over my face when I realized it was apparent that he wasn’t fully awake.
“Mmm, thinking of you, sweets,” he mumbled. “You’re sweet, did you know that? That’s why I just called you sweets… okay, was that weird?”
I laughed softly. “No, it wasn’t.” I liked that he called me that. It made my insides melt.
He chuckled softly, and then paused, like he was listening to something. “Good. Hey, did you want to… hang on. Call you back.”
He hung up.
I wondered what the heck was going on.