"Your skin is burning up, Stormie. You don't feel that?" Nix asked as she leaned against the sink in my bathroom.
"That's probably because I'm so heated right now. That idiot hit you."
I dabbed the dried blood off her face with the washcloth I was holding. She placed her hand on the back of mine. Bands of black light pulled the cut on her lip closed.
"Stormie, I've been punched before. I can take it."
I understood what she was saying. Even I had landed a clean hit on her during our training sessions. The way he hit her was different, though. He didn't even give her a chance to defend herself. He ambushed us from behind. There was no way I was ever letting that go. Nix flinched. I yanked my hand away.
"What happened?"
"You burned me."
She took the washcloth out of my hand and laid it on the sink. The steam rising from it caught my attention. I looked at my hands. The air around my skin rippled as heat rose off it. Nix folded her arms over her chest and looked at me with an attitude.
"What?"
She gestured at me.
"I've been throwing myself at you for weeks to get a few pecks. Joul shows up twice and has you this hot and bothered. Is it the ringlets?"
I stared at her, not knowing if she was serious at first. She twirled a strand of her hair around her index finger. It immediately started to unravel when she let it go.
"Is this what you like, you sick bastard?"
She sounded serious, but she was smirking. I couldn't stop the laugh that came out of me.
"You're actually insane, aren't you?" I shook my head as I asked the question.
She nodded as she turned the cold water on and let it run over her right hand. When she touched her hand to my forehead, I flinched at the initial shock. She repeated with her left hand.
"I need you to calm down. Not to alarm you, but turning into a tornado of fire might be possible for you."
I was still angry at Joul and definitely planned to handle him later, but I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. I had gotten so hot that I burned her and that was definitely a new side effect of my power. Was it a new power emerging? Fire power did sound like fun. I imagined Joul bursting into flames and falling to the ground as his charred corpse burned at my feet. The level of hate in my toward him concerned me.
"Stormie, seriously there is steam coming off your skin. Calm down."
I opened my eyes and looked at her. My anger was gone, replaced by a sadistic optimism. I would get a hold of Joul one day and he wouldn't survive it. Nix's cold wet hand slid up my face and demanded my full attention.
I stood quietly as she continued rubbing my face and neck with cold water. She was doing everything she could to calm me down, but her hands were trembling.
"I know you're shaken up, Nix. It's okay to say so."
She gave me a weak smile and ran a wet hand across my collarbone.
"Yeah, that shook me up a little, but it's not a big deal."
A chill ran over me, and I stopped her before she touched me again. I grabbed a towel and dried her hands.
"I'm freezing now."
She nodded and shut the water off.
"So, were you and Joul a thing at some point?" I had to ask. The question was lingering on the edge of my brain.
"Eww no, I did date another member of our group for a year. Joul is so obsessed with beating him he made it a point to go out with me as well."
She ran the towel over my neck.
"So, he's seriously just a delusional person?"
"Yep, it seems that way."
"So what was it about that attack that shook you up so badly?"
She shook her head and gestured at the air as if she were searching for the words.
"It's not that I didn't believe they would truly come after me. I guess I just wasn't ready to accept that they were. I probably sound crazy, right?"
We left the bathroom and went downstairs to the living room. I sat beside her on our black suede couch and turned the TV on.
"I guess it makes sense. They were a big part of your life. I can't imagine what it would be like to suddenly learn that the people I grew up around were hunting me."
I leaned back on the couch, and she draped her right arm and leg over me.
"You feel like training today?"
The thought of getting off the couch made my body ache. Nix didn't sound too enthusiastic about the idea either. I just wanted to close my eyes and wake up in a few days.
"Do you?" I asked, ping ponging the question back at her.
She yawned and snuggled tighter against me.
"I'm somewhere between falling asleep like this, or climbing on top of you and then falling asleep."
I really liked the idea of her mounting me again but not falling asleep that way. My parents would very likely walk in and find us that way. What happened after that was uncharted territory for all of us.
"Why are we so tired? I feel like we've trained really hard before and been fine after?" I asked suddenly, realizing this wasn't normal.
She yawned and ran a finger along my jawline.
"You have a good point. I wonder if it's a side effect of that attack he hit us with?"
The idea of that startled me, but I was too tired to react. I put my arms around her and closed my eyes.
"You think we're in danger if we fall asleep?"
She shook her head.
"I think if we were gonna be attacked today, we wouldn't have made it inside the house. We should be fine now."
Her logic either made perfect sense, or I was too exhausted to care. Either way, I accepted it and closed my eyes. Before long, her breathing turned slow and rhythmic. I curled a strand of her hair around my finger and felt myself drifting off as well.
"I really, really like you, Troy," she mumbled in a sleepy drawl.
My eyes popped open at the sound of my name and then slowly closed again. I felt the same way about her. I'm not sure how long we were asleep before someone cleared their throat a little too loudly. When I blinked awake, my dad's dark brown eyes were staring into mine.
"Hey, Loverboy, you wanna get up and explain this?" he whispered.
Only my dad could be furious at me and still be courteous enough not to wake up the girl he caught me tangled up with. I shook Nix to wake her. She grumbled and turned to face my dad. His eyes went wide, and he stumbled away. The smile on his face was startling. When he broke into his happy dance, I sat up. Nix slumped on her side before sitting up and shoving me. Instead of saying anything, I nodded in my dad's direction. She glanced over and then blanched.
"Hello Phoenix, how are you, sweetheart?"
Nix fixed her hair and face as best she could as my dad sat two bags of takeout on the dining room table.
"I'm doing well, Mr. Prince. How have you been?"
Watching her interact with my parents was always amusing to me. She turned into a super polite, respectful young lady. I mimed my impression of her kissing up. Thin black arcs of electricity traveled across her eyes, and I stopped.
"You two gonna come help me set up this dinner or what?"
We both jumped off the couch and scrambled into the dining room. Nix and I spread a white tablecloth over the mahogany surface. My dad set out 4 plates and glasses.
"Why are there four place settings? Do you have a sibling I don't know about?" Nix asked.
Before I could tell her I wasn't sure. My dad cut in.
"Angel and I would really like it if you would join us tonight, Phoenix. We just wanna get to know you better."
Nix looked at me with eyes the size of beach balls.
"What the fuck?" she mouthed.