Lyla
Sometime during the night, I opened my eyes. The room was pitch black, and I couldn’t see anything. I felt around, and noticed that there was something cold and slippery on my pillow.
What the hell?
It was something almost wet, but not. If that made any sense at all, which I didn’t think it did.
I stood up, and fumbled around for a light switch. I didn’t know Ethan’s room, and I didn’t know where anything was at. When I finally felt one, I flicked it on, and instantly looked over to the bed.
Ethan was lying on his side. He looked so peaceful in sleep. His lips were parted, and he had steam coming out of his mouth. It was almost like a fog/mist thing. It was really peculiar, and I started to get nervous. I didn’t know if he had anything wrong with him.
I went over to him, and placed my hand by his mouth. The steam that was coming out was freezing cold. I touched the spot on my pillow, and it was frost. My breath caught in my throat.
I had frost on my pillow.
Ethan’s breath is what caused it. How is that possible? I’d never seen anything like this, ever. I didn’t know if that was normal or not. I didn’t know what kind of non-human he was, and I was debating on waking him up.
The frost wasn’t natural, but neither was setting towels on fire with my skin, or water causing my skin to smoke.
At least I didn’t have to worry about waking him up; he did that on his own.
He turned his sleepy eyes on me, and gave a small, weary smile.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked tiredly, snuggling further into the blankets and pillows. He gripped his blue comforter, and pulled it up under the side of his face.
I’d never seen anything so cute in my life. He was freaking adorable. I smiled at him, and sat back down on the bed, crossing my legs.
“Ethan, you had frost coming out of your mouth.” I said. I was getting a little excited in ways I didn’t know were possible. I was ready to know what he was. I hoped he would tell me soon.
He didn’t look alarmed. “I know—that’s what happens when I’m in a deep sleep.”
“Does it have anything to do with what you are?” I asked.
He nodded drowsily, yawning.
“So… are you going to fill me in?” I replied expectantly, hoping he would. If he went and said that he couldn’t because of what happened earlier, I was going to throttle him. Screw what I was thinking, I wanted him to tell me now.
Then he dropped the bombshell on me.
“Lyla, I’m an Ice Bringer.”
That totally stopped my heart. Never in my life have I ever heard of something like that. There was no way something like that was real, right? Shouldn’t they have taught us that back in the Summer Solstice? I mean, it sounded like we should be mortal enemies or something.
“So, you’re like me, but you do magic and stuff with ice instead of fire?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t use mine unless I have too. I don’t like it. My mom never uses hers, either.”
“Wait—is this your mom’s house?”
“Yeah, but she’s cool about you being here, she already knows.”
“She does?” I asked incredulously. Oh God, I guess it was time to meet the parents… or… parent?
“Mm-hm, after I covered you up when I first found you, I told her. My mom is pretty laid back. She’s been sick for a while, so she’s sort of weak.”
I crawled back under the covers and turned around to face him. “Sick?”
He nodded glumly, and swallowed before he spoke.
“Yeah, she has cancer.”
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. You should have kicked me out, you have so much on your plate as it is and don’t need to be taking care of me on top of it.” I was rambling on and on. Suddenly I wanted to leave. I felt like I was imposing somewhere I shouldn’t be. Oh God, maybe this is why he’d never brought me to his house before. Maybe he didn’t want me to know that his mom wasn’t doing well.
He reached out to touch my cheek. “I would never kick you out. I’m sure my mom has enough strength to beat my ass for an act like that. And anyway, I like that you’re here. I enjoy taking care of you.”
I glanced at him from under my lashes. “Positive?” I asked uncertainly.
He smirked and nodded.
All of a sudden I heard a thumping sound from somewhere upstairs. I sent a look over to Ethan, and his smile only grew wider.
“Speaking of the devil,” he said while crawling out of the bed. “Did you want to go meet her?”
How could I refuse?
We climbed the basement stairs, and came to a white door.
Ethan pushed it open, and it led to a big kitchen.
The house was white… everything was white. Oh, and it was so clean… it smelled like home. It really did smell like my home back in the Summer Solstice. I never noticed it before because Ethan’s room smelt like a basement. It wasn’t a bad smell, but it wasn’t this.
I looked to my left, and came face to face with a woman that looked just like Ethan. Well, I guess this was his mom. I looked her over, and noticed that there was a kindness in her eyes that I’d never seen in my own mother’s. She looked frail, but also strong at the same time.
“You must be Lyla. My son has told me so much about you. He said you were the pretty new girl at school.”
“Mom…” Ethan moaned, running his hands through his hair, making it even more unruly than it already was. It seemed to curl even more just from that slight contact with his skin.
She turned to her son and smiled. “You two are using protection, right?”
Ethan smacked his hand over his face, and groaned loudly. “Mom!”
His mom looked around thoughtfully, almost dazed like. “Grandchildren would be nice…” she murmured to herself, looking everywhere but at us.
That almost made me groan—I was way too young to be having kids. Ethan and I haven’t even done it yet. And I wasn’t about to tell her about me still being a virgin.
“Well, Lyla, you can call me Cherry, everyone does.” she added with a smile.
Cherry? A fruit? What kind of name was that? I only smiled and reached for Ethan’s hand.
He took it and rubbed his thumb over my palm. His touch was all fire. His hands were cold, but at the same time, they felt warm because of my own high body temperature.
“How old are you, my dear?” his mom asked. “I’m seventeen.” I said bashfully.
“A year younger than my son,” she murmured. “My son was born June 1st.”
I nodded.
“So, I heard you were injured last night? What did you say, Ethan? She was frozen?”
“Yeah, she was walking around with soaked clothes. She was so cold that the water on her shirt and jeans were solid ice. I’m surprised she didn’t have frostbite or anything. You still haven’t told me why you were out walking around like that.” he said, giving me a stern look that said I had some explaining to do.
I glanced at his mom. I didn’t know how much to say in front of her. What if she forbade me from seeing Ethan? I wouldn’t be able to handle that. Hell to the crapper crap no.
Ethan was like a beacon of light in my already dark world.
His mom must have seen my hesitance. “I’ll go make some tea. You kids go out into the living room and talk—I’ll be there in a minute.” she said, and then scuttled over to the stove, instantly turning it on.
Ethan pulled me down a long hallway, and into a room that had all black furniture, and white walls. There was a baby grand piano, and a large bookshelf on the opposite wall. There was also a lit fireplace in the corner, and I could feel its heat even from the doorway. Did Ice Bringers need heat? Did they ever shiver?
“Do you guys get cold?” I asked.
Ethan raised an eyebrow. “Well, do you get hot?” “Well sometimes…” I trailed off.
“Okay then, there’s your answer. It doesn’t matter if ice is my specialty. My body is the same as yours, or almost the same, I should add. My core body temperature is seventy-five.”
“Mine’s usually one-hundred-fifteen. I was really pushing it out there, huh?” I asked, ducking my head.
“Yeah, you pushed it too far. What are you trying to do, kill yourself?”
I shook my head sadly.
He sighed. “Lyla,”
I walked forward and sat on a black leather couch. I looked around the room and saw a bunch of different pictures of a younger Ethan. He was really cute. Cute enough that I wanted to reach over and squeeze his cheeks through the glass.
After Ethan started to bug me again about why I was walking around, I told him what I had overheard. He didn’t say much, but I could tell he was pissed off.
Ethan came and sat next to me, and propped his feet up on the small table that sat in front of us. I shot him a look, and he just shrugged.
If it was my table I would have swatted his feet away. I did that once when I was small and my step-dad choked me. I never did it again. Then something suddenly hit my mind like a brick wall, and I had to say it.
“Grandkids?!” I asked in a hushed voice.
“My mom is a little bit out there. The medicine that she’s on for her cancer is making her mind all funny. Of course I don’t want kids right now, and I know she didn’t mean that. There’s no way she would want me to skip going to school to raise a child.”
“Have you ever… done it?” I asked shyly. I knew from what Katie and Hannah said that he had, but I didn’t know if it was true. Miranda herself also indicated that he did it with her, but she could have been lying. I felt jealousy rise up in me from thinking about him doing it with that bitch. How could anyone want to do something so personal with a person like that? I thought sex was supposed to be about love? Well, maybe he did love her before. Maybe she never used to be such a bitch. I thought he spoke about this once to Miranda when I was within hearing range, but I couldn’t quite remember. Is it sad that I couldn’t remember what my own boyfriend said?
He looked confused for a minute, and then clarity shone in his eyes. “Yeah,”
“What’s it like? Does it… does it hurt a girl?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, but it feels a lot like love. It feels really good too. And I’m not a girl, so I don’t know… but I’m assuming it does the first couple of times.”
“How old were you when you first did it?” I asked. His cobalt eyes met mine. “Fifteen.”
I blushed. “Last night was the first time I’ve… um…” I trailed off, not knowing what to call what Ethan did to me. Whatever he did was some kind of awesome magic.
“Had an orgasm?”
“Yup, I’ve never done that before.”
He looked at me and gave me a lopsided grin.
“Really? Don’t girls usually experiment with that kind of stuff on their own?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve never tried it. It never occurred to me.”
“So, how was the Summer Solstice? I’ve always known about the Winter Solstice, but I’ve never been there.
I was born and raised here in Toledo.” Ethan said.
“Well, it looks the same as it does here. There are just some technology differences. Like for instance, we never had TVs, or any kind of fast food places. We went to school like normal kids, but we only went until the 8th grade. When I came here, I had to start going to school again, and I felt stupid because I didn’t know anything like the rest of the kids did… or still do, I should say. I have to pretend that cars are normal among other things. I mean, we had vehicles, but only the councilmen could drive them. We ate different things, and so forth. Our clothes were somewhat different. We are also assigned a person to marry when we’re born, or shortly after. My betrothed’s name was Tanner.”
“Wow, that’s a lot to take in.”
“Yeah. There’s other stuff too, but it’s a bunch so I’ll tell you later. Oh, and I also read a book that I stole, er, borrowed from the school’s library on Fire Bringers. Supposedly by what I was reading, I’m a level five, and if I lose this necklace,” I pointed to the quartz poppy. “I’ll turn into a dragon or some stupid crap like that.”
“That sounds kinda wacked. A dragon? I’ve never heard of anything like that before. It probably wasn’t true.” “So what kinds of things can you do?” I asked, trying to get him off the dragon subject. It was making me all sweaty and uncomfortable.
Ethan thought about it for a minute before he answered. “Well, I can freeze stuff, breathe underwater, shoot ice balls and—”
I cut him off. “Breathe underwater?!” I exclaimed incredulously.
“Yes, but it only works in saltwater. I can’t just go into a pool and try to breathe; I would end up drowning myself. It’s something that has to do with the salt that makes it able to pass into my lungs without me drowning. Oh, and I take it that you can breathe in smoke and carbon monoxide without dying or passing out, right?”
I thought about it, and found that to be true. One time someone set our school house on fire on accident, and I hid under the desk like a little idiot. The smoke never bothered me at all. It was like I was breathing normal air.
“Yep,” I said proudly. “But your underwater thing is better than breathing in smoke. When am I ever going to breathe smoke?”
“When am I ever going to breathe water? I don’t even live near the ocean.”
That was very true, he had me there. I had to give him that.
“I also heard rumors about Fire Bringers not even needing oxygen, but carbon dioxide. Ice bringers need oxygen.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know if that’s true. It isn’t like I can go back and ask anyone. I’ll be killed for using my magic on my stupid step-dad.”
“Even though you were running away from him because he beat you?”
I nodded.
“That’s shitty. What kind of place is that anyway?
Wow.”
“Oh, and I forgot to mention the other thing that the book said…” I got into detail about the book saying we didn’t have souls, and that our souls were in Hell from the moment we were conceived in our mother’s wombs.
“I’ve heard that one about myself. I don’t know if it’s true, Lyla. I feel normal, but that doesn’t mean I am.” He shrugged and leaned closer to me, but backed away as soon as his mother entered the room carrying a teapot, and a tray of food.
“Hey, kids, I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I have peppermint tea and some munchies.” she said, setting everything down.
I looked over at the tray, and saw there was an assortment of crackers and different kinds of cheeses. Who the hell eats cheese at… wait, I didn’t even know what time it was. I glanced around for a clock, and finally found one. It was six in the morning. Who the hell eats cheese at six in the morning? Maybe this was one of those things where she acted weird from her medication.
Who knows?
Cherry began pouring each of us a steaming cup of tea. She handed me mine, and I took a sip. It was hot, but nothing major.
Ethan began grabbing slices of yellow and white cheese, popping them into his mouth one after another.
I raised my eyebrow and looked at him. “Taste good?” I asked, trying not to laugh.
“Yes, very. Here, babe, try one.” He held up a thick piece of orange cheese until I opened my mouth. When I did, he set the cheese on my tongue, causing my taste buds to tingle from the sharpness of it.
I chewed, and found out it was really good. I reached for another slice. “What kind is this?”
“It’s aged extra-sharp cheddar.” Cherry said.
I nodded along while he and his mom talked; only answering when she asked me a direct question. I didn’t want to come off as rude. Eventually Ethan told her what I was, and why I was out “wandering around” last night. Cherry looked shocked, but also told me she knew about my kind.
“So, did you want to stay here?” Cherry asked after a few more minutes. “It doesn’t sound like you came from a very good home, sweetie. I have a good son; he would take care of you.”
“I can’t impose on you guys like that.” I said, standing up. “It wouldn’t be right.” I wasn’t going to do this again like with Rylan.
“Well, it seems to me that you don’t have a home to go back too, and also I wouldn’t want you turning into a snowball by being out there. That’s just silly.” She shook her head and giggled like a little girl.
“Yeah, Lyla, you can stay with me. My room is big enough, and if you don’t want to sleep in the bed with me, I’ll gladly take the couch. No big deal.”
I blushed from him saying that in front of his mom.
I thought about it… I didn’t feel comfortable staying here with Ethan. He had more than enough to do with his mom being sick. He didn’t need me on top of that list. But on the other hand, I wasn’t going back to Rylan’s, and I didn’t want to die from the cold…
“Okay, I’ll stay. But only until I can get my own place. I need to get a job.”
Ethan’s blue eyes sparkled. “I’ll help you get a job.
I know the Coffee House is hiring, if that’s something you would be interested in.”
“Okay, yeah, I can do that.”
“I know the manager; I’ll give her a call this morning to see if she would be interested in you. I’ll give her a good word.” Cherry said with a wink.
“Okay, thank you.”
***
The morning progressed nicely. Just as Cherry promised, she called the lady at the coffee shop. I got the job, and would be starting tonight at five.
I had a few more hours yet before I started. I was told I had to wear a white top and black pants. Since I couldn’t go back to Rylan’s to get my stuff, Ethan was driving me to the store to pick some up.
I sat in the passenger seat of his truck and listened while he sang along to a song called Seasons in the Abyss by Slayer. Ethan told me that he loved metal music. I was starting to really like it too.
We listened to different bands on his computer this morning, and I already had a couple of favorites. I liked Bullet for my Valentine and Slipknot and All That Remains a lot. I really thought the drums and bass guitar sounded awesome.
We pulled up in front of the mall where Rylan brought me, and I unbuckled my seat belt.
“You know, I feel bad about having you buy me stuff. I don’t know if your family is hurting for money.”
“Lyla, chill out. My mom has a lot, and so do I. When my dad died he left me more than enough money. My mom is an accountant, so she is well set. She works from home, so she never has to leave. And anyway, I don’t mind getting stuff for you. I like making you smile, it makes me happy and feel good.”
I grinned at that. If Ethan was happy, then so was I. Something was bugging me about what he said though… “I’m sorry about your dad.”
He shrugged, but I could tell it bothered him. “It’s okay; it wasn’t like he was ever around a lot. I’ll show you a picture if you’d want to see one.”
“Yes, I would.” I wanted to see how close of a resemblance he had to Ethan. He has his mom’s big blue eyes and brown curly hair, so I was excited to see what he inherited from his dad. I’m sure his dad would be equally as handsome, just older.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his black wallet. He flipped it open and came to some photos. He leaned over the middle console and showed me the picture.
My heart started to beat out of my chest.
I knew the man, and I knew him very well.
I started to hyperventilate, and I thought I was going to pass out. It took everything in me not to run out of his truck. I was suddenly so scared, I could have peed my pants.
It was my step-dad, and my step-dad was Ethan’s father.