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The Fiery Trees
By Dessik



Chapter One
November, 2000

Birds that stayed after the first ice of the coming winter huddled in their nest, knowing the cold that was yet to come. The leaves on the trees had come and gone and their prints in the pavement were all that were left of the decayed foliage.
Van walked down the long country road he was so accustomed to. The cold bit at his thin, inadequate jacket. He would never complain about it though because he knew it was the only jacket he would get. The trees on the sides of the road looked ominous and their barren branches seemed to point at him, laughing at the poor kid. He tried to focus instead on the road ahead of him. He still had three miles left.
He wanted so bad to be home. When he saw his mother’s face at the end of each trying day at school things would always seem better. She made the most out of everything that they had, though that was barely enough. He wished he could take care of her but the odd jobs he took barely made a difference.
He was thinking over his problems when he heard a powerful engine behind him. He moved to the side to let the vehicle go past but when it didn’t, he turned. The black SUV drove up next to him and the passenger-side window rolled down and the prettiest girl he had ever seen stuck her head out and spoke to him.
“Hi, your name’s uh, Vice, right?” She asked him.
“Van’s his name.” One guy yelled from the backseat.
“Van, it is kinda cold out here. What are you doing all the way out here walking?” He kept walking, ignoring her. She could be playing some kind of trick on him.
“Do you want a ride?” Van stopped suddenly and the driver of the truck hit the brakes as well.
Was she serious? He looked up at her. She looked sincere.
“Come on.” The driver said. “We’ve got somewhere to be, Jessica.”
“No, I don’t need a ride. Thanks though.” Van walked on and after a few moments, she rolled her window back up and they sped off.

“Next time, you want to invite kids like him, make sure it’s your car you are doing it in.” The driver, Ted Jacobson, warned. He was on the varsity football team and the one in the back, Ted called him Rabbit, was too. “How old are you?”
“Seventeen.” She answered.
“That’s close enough.” He replied, very lecher-like.
Emily knew the party they were going to was going to have drinking and whatnot there, but she was only going because Ted asked her out. Of course when Ted asked her out she nearly peed her pants. He was so popular and so handsome and isn’t it every girl’s dream to go out with the captain of the football team?
She was popular as well but just the thought of dating him was just too ideal to pass up. But lately, she had been noticing his jerk-like traits. All throughout the ride, he’d been trying to get her to kiss him right in front of the Rabbit. She was so glad she had gotten a break from his onslaught when she saw that boy on the side of the road.
Something about the boy stood out so much but she couldn’t quite pinpoint it. He’d tried to act tough when she had called him name and he didn’t answer her. That’s when she started to feel bad for him. When she had offered him the ride, she had really thought he’d accept but she thought it was one of those ‘man’ things.
When they drove away she’d watched him through the side mirror until he was a little dot. She felt guilty. She wished she’d persuaded him to get in. It was cold out there and the snow hadn’t even fallen.

Finally, Van thought to himself, after he walked down the small short dirt road that lead to his house, though shack would be a better word. He opened the door and called out, “I’m home.” No one answered and he figured his mother was still at her job. He plopped down on the couch with the spring sticking out, exhausted. It took an average of two hours to get from school to home and vice versa. The five mile road was lonely but he had always walked it alone.
He ran his hand through his white hair. It was combed back against his head and reached down to his shoulder blades. He didn’t have the courage to cut it so he would just put it in a ponytail and besides, he thought it gave him a little bit of a royal air even though he was dirt poor. It was naturally white and no doctor could explain where it came from. His mother’s hair was a dark brown and his dad, well his dad’s hair wasn’t white. And he wasn’t albino or nothing.
Many hours later, he heard a screech outside and ran out to the steps to see. It was about three in the morning so it was dark outside but he could see a black SUV turning on to Rock Road. It was going too fast on that road. Besides, it had lead up to a dead end. But seemingly the driver knew that as well because it skidded to a halt just before the dead end and the driver hopped out of the car and slammed the door.
Van had a bad feeling so he went back inside and grabbed a flashlight, a rope, one of those sharp kitchen knives and the thick walking stick he used sometimes. He made his way up the road slowly behind bushes because he saw that the driver was Ted and he was the best nose guard in the league. He left broken bones on the field.
Van thought it would be best if he stayed back in case it was a false alarm. Then he saw Ted pull out that girl he’d earlier. She looked angry and was half-way trying to tear his eyes out.
O.K. This is not a test, Van said to himself before he moved in.

“No! Stay away!” Jessica yelled, her nails getting good slices at him though they didn’t penetrate his drunken haze.
She wished she’d never met this scumbag. He’d tried to ply her with drinks and even with Ex even after she had told him no. Then he started to get angry and that’s when he yanked her outside and into his car for a breath-taking, horrifying ride where she hung onto the door handle and the seat-belt for dear life.
He overpowered her and pushed her to the ground when she tried to get up again; he lay on top of her and pinned her down with his weight. With one hand he tore her shirt and bra open and with the other, he tried to pull down her jeans but he was too drunk to multi-task. He kissed her with sloppy lips and breath that reeked of hard liquor.
So this is it, she thought. She’d watched so many shows where it’s always the boyfriend who rapes the girlfriend. She thought there was no way to be saved. Who lived out here?
Ted ceased his invasion of her body and just fell fully upon her. For a second, she thought he’d passed out and then she realized she couldn’t breathe. She was panicking until she felt Ted’s body move again and then he was pulled off of her. She took a giant breath full of the life-giving air.
She saw Van’s face and she cried. Tears of pain and of joy spilled out of her eyes. Then she felt a breeze and remembered her breast were out for all to see. She crossed her hands over her chest as she sat up.
Van pulled off his shirt and gave it her. She put it on and saw his athletic, lithe chest. He sat down beside her, not knowing what to say. She somehow managed to sit between his legs while laying her head against his shoulder and he was now wishing he’d had a spare shirt because her silky black hair was feathering against his chest and he was getting aroused.
He berated himself, wondering why his body could ever think of something like that after she’d just nearly gotten rape. He doubted the last thing on her mind was that. He had to get up though or she was going to feel his arousal.
He went to get up but she kind of whimpered and he nearly sat back down. But he clenched his jaw and grabbed the rope. He hog-tied the nose guard tight as he could, trying to make it as uncomfortable as possible without hurting anything too bad. He had no remorse for the guy after he’d try something like that.
He turned around and headed back to the girl. “What’s your name?” He asked.
“Jessica Baton.” She said a little timidly.
“Well, we’ve got to go the police, now—”
“Sit with me for a little bit longer.” He wouldn’t dare argue with her after what she’d been through so he sat down again and she sat right in his lap again. When she laid her head down one shoulder and her left hand on his other, she kissed him just below his jaw.
He went rigid, in more ways then one, and he couldn’t move for a while. He was battling for control and so desperately wanted to lose. But he was taught better. He lifted Jessica off of him and stood up. “I don’t have a car so we’re just going to take his truck. Get in while I do this,” he said, indicating Ted. He felt cold and harsh, but he knew he was doing the right thing. He dragged Ted to the back of the truck, dug through the guy’s pants pocket and found the keys.
He opened the trunk and, with a burst of strength, lifted the two fifty pound dead weight into the back. Van had to rest for a second and he saw Jessica slipping into the front. At least she listened, he thought. He could hear tiny moans from Ted’s mouth and moved quickly.
He jumped into the driver’s seat and started the car. After a near perfect u-turn, he sped back down Rock Road and onto the main road towards the city.
Van looked over at Jessica but she was huddled on the other side of the car, staring out the window. Well, at least she has recovered enough to give me the cold shoulder, Van thought as they hit the city streets.
When they arrived at the police station, he hurried inside and got help removing Ted from the truck. He was awake now and he was raving mad. Three officers dragged him away as another female officer came out to ask Jessica question and to get her statement.
It had taken a while for them to get Ted into the front door of the police department. He was fighting them all the way and just before he was hauled inside, he gave Van a death stare one would only think existed in the movies. If looks could kill…
When Jessica and the cop wrapped up with a hug and a load of sympathy, he went the passenger side and looked up at her. The truck, he realized for the first time, was huge. No wonder it was so hard to get Ted in the back. It was almost the size of a Hummer!
“Do you want me to take you home or are you going to call your parents?”
“I don’t want to tell my parents about this. Just take me home, please.”
“Sure.” He jumped in the truck and by her directions, drove her safely to her house. It was large. Not like he hadn’t expected that. Any sleaze-ball like Ted would have gone after an ugly girl as long as she had her back hand in her father’s wallet. He parked in front of the house and then turned off the engine.
The silence was maddening and no one had anything to break it with. “How will you get home?” She asked just to say something. She sat still looking away from him, her cheek pressed against the cool glass.
“I’ll walk.”
“Are you kidding?” She said incredulously. “There no way you can walk to your house which just happens to be in the middle of nowhere and expect to make it to school on time. Unless you are superman. Which,” she looked over Van, “you are not.”
“You know, I could take my shirt back.” I can’t believe this girl, he thought. He saves her and what does he get in return, disapproval. Some Thanks!
“You wouldn’t dare.” She held the shirt tight against her chest.
“You’re right! So, I’ll be going.” He pushed the door open and slammed it. Of all the nerve! He’d just saved her, for god sakes. He started walking off and looked at his watch. She was right. It was four thirty now. He’d be late to school by at least one hour. No thanks to her!
Then he heard the passenger door open and slam. He turned and she was standing on the sidewalk with her hands on her hips. Jeez, what hips they were. “Aren’t you going to let me pay you back? You need a ride and a few favors and I have both. Just wait while I shower and change and I will take you to your house.”
Van wouldn’t have passed up something so good if it smacked him. He followed her to the house and was fully expecting to have to wait outside but she invited him in and he was sat down on a white couch and told not to move. She acted as though he was going to steal something. Where were her parents?
He heard the shower and images better left unexplained wandered into his head. He was no better than Ted.
A half-hour later, he heard the shower turn off and the door opened ten minutes after. Her body soap or shampoo was vanilla and his mouth began to water. She came around the corner dressed. She wore a tight white t-shirt and some jeans. She threw him his shirt. “I think it is still clean.” Jessica went to a coat closet next to the front door and pulled out a leather coat and pulled the heavy thing on.
“You know, it’s not that cold outside,” he remarked. The thing was like four regular coat pulled on together.
“Humor. Noted, and then forgotten. So anyway you need a coat? That crap I saw you walking in before was just sad.” She didn’t wait for him to answer as she pulled out a man’s parka, probably her dad’s.
“Now you were worried about me being cold. You were about to let me walk home by myself.”
“But I stopped you, didn’t I? I could’ve let you just freeze.” She had her hands on her hips again. “I suggest you take the coat.”
“Do you always boss everyone around? I feel like Cinderella.” She threw the coat in his face and marched out of the house. “Hey, wait!”
She stomped her way to the garage and pressed a button hidden under a fake rock next to the garage. The automatic door slid opened and she tapped her foot, her hands still on her hips.
When he caught up to her she was getting her blue car warmed up. He pulled the passenger side door open.
“What’s your problem? You can take little shots at me but when I dish them out you can’t hack it?” He sat down and slammed the door.
For tense moments, there was quiet and then Jessica put the blue sedan in reverse¸ backing out skillfully. They drove in silence, no one wanting to break the ice that had wound its way between them. But he had to. He was getting uncomfortable because with nothing else to talk about he was thinking about her body.
The jeans fit her well and left little to his imagination. She had long legs and he’d give an arm just feel his hand going down one. Van would just bet she had creamy smooth skin. He shook his head calling himself a pervert. She was trying to help him and he was sitting next to her in her car fantasizing about her.
“Sorry.” She said first. She said sorry? To him? He would expect her to give him the cold shoulder and leave him at his house to walk to school.
“I guess, I am, too.” He looked out the window and then said, “You don’t have to take me back if you don’t want to.”
“I’ve got to pay you back for all you did for me. It wouldn’t look good on my conscience if I dropped at your house five miles away from school and then left you with only,” she lifted her wrist and looked at her expensive watch. “Two more hours left. You’d never make it.”
What is with this girl? He said to himself. Why isn’t she obnoxious like the other girls at school?
He would have expected and would’ve accepted her as just another girl if she had been shallow. She was a little temperamental but she was caring as well.
When they were at his house, he asked her to stay inside the car. He didn’t want her to see his house. It was clean as a poor person could get it but that wasn’t near clean enough for maybe someone like her.
He rushed inside and stepped under the luke warm water, hurrying before the shut-off.

She wasn’t going to just sit in the car. Jessica got out and walked up to the house. It was small but it wasn’t really bad, she thought to herself. She pulled back the screen door and pushed through the storm door. It was dim inside and a little dusty. The first piece of furniture that caught her eye was the couch with the spring sticking out she thought she’d only see in cartoons. It was sitting behind a little coffee table with water rings melted into it.
She sat on it surprised it was soft and comfortable. She couldn’t keep her hands away from the spring and soon she just kept playing with it to amuse herself. Then she heard a door close and Van appeared dripping wet covered in nothing but a white towel knotted at his hip. Just then she noticed the necklace around his neck. It was magnificent. It was plated silver with a giant rounded and smooth piece of Obsidian wrapped in thick silver claws. Even as a black precious metal, it still gleamed like a diamond in the light.
He was startled for a second and then walked on past her, blushing red into another room. It must have been his room because he came out dressed a few moments later in black everything. “I told you to stay in the car.”
“Yeah, you did but that doesn’t mean I had to listen.” He growled a little under his breath so she wouldn’t hear it. “Where did you get that? That piece of jewelry. It’s beautiful.”
He looked down at it acting as if it was just another rock. “I’ve had it ever since I can remember and I have never taken it off. It just something my mother gave me when I was small.”
She was enchanted by it and wanted to touch it. Before she could stop herself, she reached out and took it between her fingers. It was warm as his skin. And it was smooth and shiny. It was of first-rate quality and the silver that enclosed it was excellent and accented the stone.
He had been holding his breath and it came out in a rush of air. Jessica raised her head slowly and looked at him. They both jumped when they heard the front door slam and his mother walked in.
“Van, who’s this young woman?” His mother asked attentively.
Jessica walked up to his mother and shook her hand. “Hi. I’m Jessica Barton. Your son saved my life so I thought the least I could do was give him a ride.”
His mother smiled at him and then started telling Jessica how courageous he was and how kind he was. How he would grow up to be grand. Jessica just kept agreeing with her.
Van could tell if she was just nodding her head off just to be nice but she looked sincere while she chattered with his mother about his ‘courageous rescue’ and ‘brave heart’. Jessica looked back at him and saw he was starting to feel embarrassed. She ended her conversation politely and pulled Van by the arm out of the house and to the car. He barely had time to yell good bye.
They hopped in the car and she sped to school. She was a demon at the wheel. He was gripping the dashboard at every turn and was sure she spent a lot on her wheels because she always burned rubber at every stop sign and light.
A block away from school he said, “Pull over. You can let me out here.”
“Why?” But she did anyway. “Wait! Why am I letting you out here?” She said just as he was getting out of the car.
He paused. “I’m sure you don’t want your friends to see you pull up with a bum like me in the car. I’ll walk from here.”
She grabbed his arm when he tried to leave again. “Who do you think I am?” When he didn’t answer, she went on. “I am not shallow and I wouldn’t do that to you. Besides, why would I kick out the boy that just saved me? If anything, I would want you to hang around with me all the time. So get back in the car and stop thinking that way.” He got settled back in the car.
“I’d hate to see you when you’re mad.” They pulled back into traffic and parked in the school parking lot.
“Well, if you keep doing dumb things like that, you will. Come on.”
“Has anyone told you that you are bossy?”
“Shut-up.” They alighted from the car together and came around to the front of the car.
“See? I’ll see you later. You’re gonna give me a ride back, right?”
“Of course,” she said as she walked towards her group of friends. He stood there for a second, looking at her. She was amazing. She wasn’t shallow at all and he had been completely wrong to think so. He walked away from the car to the main entrance.

“You can’t stay in here forever. Go home if you don’t feel good, Van.” The school nurse said to him. He sat up on the plastic covered bed.
“Aw, come on, Jill. Just until the end of the day.” Van pleaded with her. He tried to use his best puppy dog face on her but since she was the only one he used it on she had managed to become immune to its power. She put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot. A clear sign she was ready to bodily remove him.
“All right, there is only an hour left anyway.”
“Here,” she said as she pulled a ten from her purse on the top of her six year old desk.
“Oh, Jill you don’t have to.”
“Oh take it and scram.” He pocketed it reluctantly and headed out the side door. As soon as he came out, he heard his name called but thought it was someone else. But exactly how many Vans are there in this school.
He turned around and saw Jessica walking up to him. “Hey Van. You wanna go now?”
“Sure.” They went out the side entrance and into the student parking lot. He’s never skipped before but he hadn’t thought twice about when she asked him. Jeez she had an effect.
They got settled in the car and were headed to the long street he lived on when she made a left turn where she should have gone right.
“I don’t mean to be a back seat driver but you missed the turn.”
She just smiled and kept driving until she pulled over in front of a video arcade. “Wanna?” She asked.
He looked up at the building. He had never been here before even though he knew about the place. “I guess.”

“Wow, that place is fun.” They came out of the arcade, his hand around her waist and her arm around his shoulders.
“Want to go somewhere else?” She suggested. Jessica looked down at her watch and noticed they had been in there for three hours. Time does fly, she thought. It was only a quarter past five and it was already dark.
“Where else?”
“Well, there’s this club a little ways down the street.” She sashayed to her side of the car and unlocked the door for them.
A few moments they pulled in front of a dance club with a long line waiting on the carpet. He could see that most of the ‘better’ kids came here. When they saw them drive up, all the girls leaned to another and he swore he could tell exactly what they were saying.
Jessica parallel parked like a champion between some punch buggy and a busted up Toyota. She got out first but he didn’t get out at all. She came around and the window was already rolled down so she just started talking. “Um, you’re supposed to come around and help me out of the car, Van, not the other way around.” She tried to make a joke out of it but he was serious. She squatted down which he knew was hard in those pants. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to be here. You shouldn’t want to be here with me.” He got out of the car prepared to walk home. She grabbed his arm and spun him around when he tried to move away.
“What the hell?” She yelled. Then she followed his gaze to the line of people watching them. She pulled him to the other side of the car and whispered, “Why are you acting like this again?”
“Look at them, Jessica. They are your friends. Go to them. You’re not supposed to hang out with someone like me. That’s what they are thinking right now.”
“Didn’t we have this conversation before? I don’t care what they think. You’re my friend and I like you. What they have to say about anything can be shoved up their butts for all I care.”
He was speechless. From the start, he should have known she would be like no other girl he’d ever met. He pulled her to him and leaned down to kiss her. He didn’t care at all about anyone around them but in that one moment he was with Jessica and that’s all he wanted.
They paused for breath and her eyes were sparkling like the stone around his neck. “Well,” she croaked. She coughed a little to straighten her voice out and tried again. “Well, that was just up there with my desire to want ponies and a plane.” They smiled and weren’t aware of the jaws they had just dropped and all the school gossip that would be generated.
He felt something in him being released and it made him feel fierce. He wanted to roar at the watching crowd, tell them to go eat themselves.
“Give me the keys,” he said in a voice unlike himself. It was low and gravelly, kinda sexy. She couldn’t resist slipping them out of her pocket and handing them to him. His eyes were putting her in an unnatural trance. He opened the passenger door for her and she glided inside nearly never taking her eyes off him.
The driver’s seat was comfy, he thought. It felt right for him to be driving her car, to have her half swooning next to him. He started the car and then wrenched the stick shift into first harder than he needed to. They peeled out of there and this time Jessica was the one holding on tight to her seatbelt. The scenery passed by so quick it made her dizzy so she stopped looking out the window and turned in her seat to him.
She noticed he handled the stick and the clutch like he was a pro-racer and they were in the lead. “So, what’s happening here,” she asked when they stopped at a street-light. He looked over at her and something about him was different. He seemed confident and audacious. The way he drove was different. He was fluid between gear-shifts and his position while he was driving was more laid back with self-assurance.
“I can’t say.” He shifted forward again as the light turned green and hit the gas.
“I can.” She cleared her throat before she started. “I liked what happened back there and I meant what I said as well.”
He slowed the car and then pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot where no one else was parked, cutting off the engine when he came to a dead stop. His hands were gripping the leather steering wheel and he had to peel his fingers off one by one. He sat back and took a breath. Then he turned to her.
“Jess, I am poor. Dirt poor and I should be so lucky as to lay my eyes on you more or less receive kisses you. I couldn’t give you the things people like Ted or your friends or your parents can. You saw my house. You can see me now. I have worn these pants at least twice already. I am just…” She laid a finger on his mouth.
“I am tired of hearing you criticize yourself and putting words in my mouth. If I cared about all of those things, would I be here now? I want to be with you.”
He moved her finger to the side. “But you may come to your senses the next day or sooner than that. I mean, yeah, I helped you but I am afraid that you will flake off when the effect wears off.”
“I swear…” She said frustratingly. She leaned over the stick shift and kissed him.
He felt heat on his chest and would have looked down to see what it was if Jess hadn’t climbed onto his lap. He forgot all about it and put his hands on her hips pulling her closer to him.
She pulled away for a second, breathless. “Is this the only way I get you to stop talking?” When he went to talk again, she covered his mouth with hers. She felt the heat as well coming off his chest when she leaned closer to him but she just dismissed it as heat from him. She ran her hands under his shirt, feeling his chest and the hard muscles underneath his skin.
The stone was burning and he reached back to take it off. When the clasp gave, he felt fire run through his body. He nearly groaned but he hadn’t needed to because Jess felt it on his skin.
“What’s wrong?” She said. She looked up at his eyes and saw they were shimmering between his emerald green eyes to amethyst. They were beautiful eyes but deep within them she could see fire.
He fastened the clasp back on and the heat stopped. Before her eyes, she saw the fire doused and his eyes turn back to their original color. “What happened?”
“I don’t know but I know who to ask. Sit down.” He ordered and she listened. She was afraid of him. Where that had come from, he thought, he didn’t know. He started the car and sped out of the parking lot home.

“What is this, mom?” He luckily caught her before she left for work. He and Jess confronted her and she was calmer than he had ever seen her before.
“A necklace, boy. Now stop this non…”
He interrupted her. “What is it really, Mother?”
“Do you want me to tell you in front of her?” She was talking about Jess behind him. All of a sudden she had become submissive to him and hurriedly did all he said.
“She will hear too. Now, Mother!”
She sighed and went the kitchen to get coffee. Van stayed standing rooted to the floor, thinking back wondering if he had ever been mad at his mother before. She was keeping something from him and he was going to find out right now what. His mother came back out of the kitchen, a steaming mug in her left hand and a picture book tucked under her other arm.
“Just remember that you asked me for this, for the truth and in front of her.” She settled down slowly and took a sip from the mug. Van’s anger was rising with every second and the stone hanging from his neck was burning but he paid no attention to it. “Well, for starters, your human name is Van. But your real name is Uro-Bast-Vanath. You can see where I got your name from.” She snickered a little until he growled deep in his chest.
“What are you talking about?” He noticed that when she said the long unusual name, the stone cooled. “What’s happening to me?”
“You are not a human. You are a demon. Now I know you are thinking I am crazy, son but I am telling you the truth. And… though I am the mother who raised you, I am not the mother who birthed you. She died having you.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. There’s no such thing as demons.” He looked behind him to Jessica. She was shaking a little, her eyes wide and disbelieving.
“I hate to show you this but…” She sat the book down on the coffee table and opened it. There were only two pages filled with pictures. She pointed to a beautiful woman dressed in a blue maternity shirt and pants. Her stomach was big, round and tight. The woman had long white hair. “That, Van, is your mother. You remind me of her all the time. You have her lilac eyes.”
“I have green eyes.” She pushed herself out of the chair and stepped around the small coffee table to Van. She reached around his neck and unclasped the necklace and then quickly pulled it off, stepping back.
The fire that he had felt in the car was similar to this except this heat was scorching him from the inside out. He tried to reach out for his mother but she stepped away. He collapsed from the spasms of pain up and down his body as though he was being whipped with heavy chains. On his hands and knees, the agony didn’t stop. He called out for her. He called out for Jessica but neither of them would step close as though he was the next black plague. He saw Jessica turn her head away before he just gave up and fell on his back, blacking out.

“So, he’s a demon,” Jessica stated just talking to herself. Her hands were shaking violently and she placed her tea on Van’s bedside table. She decided to stay with him all night, even calling her parents to tell them she was sleeping over a friend’s. She knew she should be freaking out right now. Demons exist and the boy she’d just been kissing was one. That’s big news. Any other person would have high-tailed it right out of the state.
When his mother had taken off the necklace his skin just burst into flame and his clothes had disintegrated in the heat. And it was not even ordinary flame. It was tinged pale purple just like his eyes. She had had the urge to douse him with water but Van’s mother held her back. She could feel the heat even as his mother pulled her back from Van but the flame wouldn’t catch on anything else. She had tears streaming down her eyes calling out to Van but he couldn’t hear her. Then he had looked at her and his mother told her not to look in his eyes. She turned her head but could still his gut-wrenching cries. When he finally passed out she had helped his mother put him in his bed.
His mother had dressed him and told Jessica to call her if anything changed. Now here he was with a high fever that his mother said was a normal temperature for demons. She had wondered how she’d known so much and when she had asked her, she said she had been best friends with the mother. She had so many questions to ask her but she held them back and just sat with Van. He slept fitfully, sometimes nearly falling off the bed.
Despite the cups of tea she was sleepy after hours of watching him restlessly. She tried fight off the fuzzy edges of splendid sleep for as long as she could but her eyelids felt so heavy and the need to sleep so great. She nearly dozed in the chair when she heard the covers moving. Her eyes reluctantly snapped open, seeing Van sitting straight up, staring at the door. When his eyes flickered over her, she observed that his eyes were the light purple they had been in the car.
“Van,” she called out softly. He didn’t respond to her and his expression was blank. He slipped from the bed and she recognized his poise. It was smooth as liquid silver and she knew it from when he had driven and the first time they’d kissed. His mother had just put him in some pajama bottoms a little too big for him. They were baggy and the cloth of the legs gathered at his ankles. The waist dangerously hung low, clinging to his hips and she had never thought him so sexy until now. His white hair was no longer in a ponytail and it fell to his shoulder blades. He looked beautiful and mystic. “Van, where are you going?”
He must have heard her that time because he stopped his slow walk to the door and looked at her. “Jessica,” he said, low and seductive. He breathed the name and it lingered in the air. Then he kept moving pulling the door open and nearly ripping it off its hinges.
She jumped up out of her chair and followed him. “You should be sitting down.” She said, laying a hand on his shoulder. His skin was hotter now then when he was sleeping.
“I am fine. Where is my mother?” He ordered.
“She should be in her room. Stay here. I’ll get her.” She proceeded to knock on the wooden door when he grabbed her fist.
“She’s not here. She left a long time ago. Her scent is dissipating. She is afraid of me now that the necklace is off.” He let go of her and searched for the necklace. He found it on the floor next to the kitchen. He put it on and nothing changed as she thought it would. “No, it doesn’t work anymore. The magic in it was released when she took it off and it will not come back now.”
“You are in my mind?” She asked.
“Yes. You must leave now. This house of lies must burn. Go!” He yelled when she didn’t move. He loved his new powers and his ability to scare her. His human personality protested but that part of him also enjoyed the power.
“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” She inquired cautiously, not moving even though she was frightened.
“Yes, now go, human.” He shouted. She listened to him this time and hurried to her car. Oh crap, she said to herself. Where is the car? Skids marks showed her exactly what happened. She felt like screaming. That woman took her car and left her with Van. She ran back through the door and saw him standing before the couch. He raised both hands and with a small snap of his fingers, small lilac fires speared over his open hands. He threw one at the couch and watched it burn faster than regular fire.
“I thought I told you to go.” The fire in the other hand grew in size and a deeper tone of purple. He turned and she could see fire dancing in his eyes.
“Your mother took my car!” She exclaimed. “How am I supposed to get home?”
He laughed, “You could always walk. It would only take you,” he scanned her body, “four hours.”
“You b*****d.” She bellowed. His eyes flickered red before settling back to purple, He threw the other fire at the roof. In seconds, there was already a hole in the roof. He grabbed her and pulled her along with him out of the house.
He turned back to look at the house and smiled. Then his expressions faded back into an emotionless face as he looked up at the sky. “I love the night, Jessica. It is where I feel most comfortable, at home and at ease with myself.” He paused and then looked at her. “Jump on my back and close your eyes.” She did as he said and seconds after she felt a draft.
“Don’t open your eyes, Jessica or you will die.” He said solemnly. She kept them closed tight and clung to his back as wind and then heat blew at her. She felt them land seconds later and there was silence. “Not yet, Jessica, I will tell you when. “ He said, knowing what she was thinking of doing. There was an intense heat and Jessica held her cry in.
“Ok, Jess. Open your eyes.” He bade her.
She was reluctant to open them after his earlier warning but opened her eyes slowly and saw her bedroom clearly. She dropped off his back and he spun around to face her. “Should I even ask how we got here?”
“No, it would hurt your mind. This will be last time you see me, Jessica unless you tell anyone about this. I will come for you if you do.” He warned her, his voice still lulling and beautiful.
“Why are you like this? Your whole attitude has changed. You were charming but now you’re being a jerk. I don’t care how strong you are, that doesn’t give you the right to act like this.” She shouted.
“But Jessica, you like the way I am now. I am turning you on even though you’re mad at me. I should make you pay for what you said though but I’m afraid I may kill you in the process,” He twisted away from her. “Later,” he said before he disappeared.
“b*****d!” She screamed for the second time and then she heard her parents’ footsteps coming to her door.