Ignite: Chapters 10-12

Chapter 101

Need Lyrics2

It was nighttime, and Anna was completely exhausted. The group had walked all day with only a few breaks to take a bathroom break behind some bush or to munch on some Biscoff. When Gabriel finally called out for the group to stop, Anna was relieved. It was already past sunset, and the sky was a dusky gray as it eased into a pitch black night. Anna knew it was going to be very dark when the night finally completely settled over the desert: the moon was only a thin crescent and without the lights of buildings and civilization, there would be very little to block out the inky enveloping night. 3

Anna stopped down on the ground. The backpack she had been carrying for the last few hours squished as she did so.4

“Do you mind not crushing all of our food?” Ivan snapped irritably.5

Anna stuck her tongue out at him and moved the backpack from underneath her. 6

“Can you get a fire started?” Gabriel asked Anna as he took a seat near her.7

Anna agreed and within a minute, there was a fair sized campfire going.8

“Does anyone have any idea where we are?” asked Abraham. He was sitting next to Anna. Anna could see the dark circles underneath his eyes. He was still drained from what had happened the night before. He was pale, even for him, and he seemed skinnier and frailer somehow. His voice had lost all of the usual humor and enthusiasm that it usually possessed.9

“We’re in the desert,” Ivan was being a smart ass, again.10

Abraham glared over at him. His eyes were flashing a dangerous crimson. His lip pulled up for a split second, showing his sharp canines. Trent looked around them, squinting in the darkness. He turned around so that he could see 360 degrees around him.11

“We’re about two hundred miles away from the nearest building, and even that is some little crap hole of a gas station,” he summarized.12

“You can see that?” Anna asked, amazed.13

Trent nodded, but then said to the group, “I could run and get help. It would take me about five hours of solid running to get to the station, but I’d be worried about leaving all of you out here.”14

“I don’t think that would be a good idea. If you do that, we will still be too close to the plane to avoid suspicion. Then we would have to deal with the press and the human police. Answering questions about how all of us made it out of that crash without a mark on us would be difficult to explain,” Gabriel reasoned, “If you go with us, we can get far away from the plane and come up with a decent cover story.”15

Trent nodded, “That means we have a good five or six days of walking ahead of it: that is, if you want to get any sleep.”16

“Sleep is good,” Anna yawned.17

“It’s agreed then: we’ll all walk together, starting tomorrow,” Gabriel concluded.18

Everyone nodded sleepily. Anna reached into the bag in front of her and pulled out a packet of peanuts. She tossed the bag to Ivan when he asked for it and then the heavy backpack went over to Trent. Gabriel watched over them as they ate, looking very angelic with the light flickering shadows across his solemn face. Abraham stared off into the desert, hardly blinking.19

Anna was just finishing her dinner when dark finally fell like a led curtain. Everything was so dark. The only things that were even somewhat illuminated were her shoes in front of her which were shown by the fire. Ivan tossed Anna a sleeping bag:20

“You’re lucky there were campers on that plane, Princess.”21

Anna crawled into the sleeping bag, genuinely thankful for it. She knew that the desert had to be cold: she could tell from the way that Trent’s teeth were chattering. She didn’t personally feel the chill, but a slight wind was whipping up, causing stinging flecks of sand to fly into her face and exposed forearms.22

She was starting to doze off when the wolves started to howl. She didn’t think much of it: after all, they were out in the desert. But, the howls seemed to be getting closer and closer. Anna sat up and looked around. Gabriel was still sitting next to the fire, and his head was bent in prayer. Anna guessed that you had to do an awful lot of praying if you were an angel. Abe was up as well considering that he didn’t have to sleep. He must have heard the yelps as well because he was sitting alert and looking around him.23

“Is it just me, or are those things getting closer?” Anna asked.24

Abe sharply nodded his head once. Anna was reminded of a pointer hunting dog by his position. She imagined that if he had been a dog his ears would have been pricked up in attention. 25

“This isn’t going to be good,” he muttered. He took a deep breath in, and his face scrunched up in distain, “They’re coming.”26

“Who? What are you talking about?” Anna shook her head in confusion.27

“Gabriel! Come on, we’ve got to get ready to fight,” Abe informed the angel. The angel’s head shot up like he had been shaken out of a trance. 28

“You can’t just zone out on us like that, angel boy,” Abe growled, “we’ve got werewolves coming this way. From the sound of it there’s about ten of them.”29

“Are you sure?” Gabriel asked, “It could just be a pack of wolves.”30

“I’d know that smell anywhere,” Abe spat.31

The vampire shook Trent awake. He muttered a little bit, but as soon as he heard the word werewolf he shot straight up. He rooted around in the sand until he got a hold of his weapons bag. Anna called out to Ivan, and he woke up. 32

“What’s going on?” he yawned.33

“Werewolves,” Anna informed him, “they’re coming this way.”34

“So?” Ivan curled back up and closed his eyes, “They’re like us, and they won’t do anything.”35

“They’re the bad guys; trust me,” Abe growled, “not all things that use aeaeus are good.”36

Ivan groaned and got up. Trent took out his samurai sword out of its sheath and held it out of front of him. He spun it around experimentally in front of him, and waited. Anna pulled out a couple of shuriken from Trent’s bag and started to work her fire into the fighting stars, turning the metal a bright orange. She kept the temperature just under what would melt the weapon but hot enough to completely sear anything it cut. It would also cauterize the wound. This wasn’t an act of mercy on her part; she had a much more practical reason: she didn’t want to clean up the red mess.37

“Anna! Ivan! Both of you. Don’t use your aeaeus unless it’s a matter of life or death. They can’t know what you are. Make sure your marks are covered,” Gabriel ordered.38

“Why?” Ivan asked.39

“I’ll explain it to both of you later. We don’t have time now. Just do as I say.”40

Quickly, Anna withdrew the heat from her shuriken, resentfully thinking about the blood she was going to have to scrape away from the weapons later on. She took a deep breath and blinked. No sooner had she opened her eyes than she heard a growl and something leaped in front of her. Anna looked down. Underneath her was a wolf of a rusty brown color with human blue eyes. Right as Anna saw it, it sprang towards her. She was able to lift her hands up to its jaws after having to discard her shuriken out of her hands and into the sand and she held the animal’s mouth at arm’s length: she knew that she couldn’t let the animal bite her. 41

Her first instinct was to send all the fire she could muster into her hands, but she had to refrain from doing so. She pulled her feet up to her chest underneath the animal and kicked the animal as far back as she could manage. Her kick was hard enough stun the animal a little, giving her time to get back up. Anna hopped to her feet and flung one of her shuriken at the werewolf. It would have been impossible to miss from that close. The star hit the wolf in the neck and blood splattered onto the sandy desert floor below her.42

Anna didn’t have time to take out another throwing star, but had to deal with another wolf. The thing jumped at her and this time, Anna was able to get a grip on the animal’s front limbs. The werewolf struggled to get away; clawing deeply and painfully into Anna’s hands. She remembered something she had learned at school, and pulled the animal’s legs horizontally apart as far as she could get them. She almost vomited when she heard the horrible sound of bone separating when the wolf’s ribcage split in half.43

Anna dropped the dying wolf and looked for another opponent. She saw Ivan out of the corner of her eyes fighting with a wolf that kept beating Ivan’s weak martial arts attempts and shuriken throwing. Certainly, Ivan had improved with his fighting since he had come to live with Gabriel and his strays, but his strength still remained in the aeaeus he had been forbidden to use. Trent was moving unbelievably fast with his sword against a dusty brown wolf that was able to keep pace with him.44

Anna decided to help Ivan or another one of her friends, but before she could even find one of them to assist, another wolf was on her. This time, it caught her off guard, and had her on the ground. Anna felt the saliva of the massive animal fall against her neck and the side of one tooth brush against her neck. That shook her to her senses. Going with her first instinct, she punched the animal across the face. It fell off of her. As the animal rolled in the sand, it started to change. It took Anna several seconds to realize what was actually happening; the wolf was turning back into a human. 45

A man with blood caked dirty blond hair was left in the place of the wolf. He was only dressed in scraggly pants and a sweat soaked t-shirt. Grace through a shuriken at him, but the wolf simply leaned to the side and dodged it completely.46

“You might want to work on that,” he growled in a deep voice, and then he smiled, his dark eyes sparkling with exhilaration.47

The man lunged at Anna, and she was able to land a good kick into his chest, sending him backwards, but not for long. He was soon up on his feet and running Anna. She pulled out another shuriken and threw it, only to miss yet again, though this time it was only by mere centimeters. The werewolf laughed when she missed.48

“Come on, girlie,” he taunted, “Is that the best you can do?”49

He was close to Anna. She tried to land another good kick, but the wolf caught her leg. He dug his grimy fingernails into the exposed flesh of her calf.50

“What are you going to do now?” he inquired, still taunting her.51

Anna tried to break out of his grip, but the wolf dug his nails harder into her calf. She was saved by her own blood. The werewolf finally broke the skin, and her burning blood leaked out onto his fingers. He yelped and pulled back, holding his burnt fingers.52

“So you’re the fire bringer,” he muttered to himself. Anna caught every word of what he said, and was puzzled by his wording. The fire bringer. 53

With his new knowledge about what Anna was, he lashed out at her with what seemed like double the ferocity. Anna decided that it was time to ignore Gabriel’s command. Since the werewolf already knew she was a fire bringer, there was no point in hiding her abilities any more. The first thing she did was create a shield of scalding hot air in front of her. Unfortunately, the technique didn’t work as well with the wolf as it did when she was sparring with Ivan. Her failed plan allowed the wolf a free move on her, which it took advantage of. In mid leap, the man changed back into a wolf. He landed on top of Anna, shoving her to the ground. For the second time that evening, werewolf teeth were mere inches away from the soft flesh of her neck.54

But, this time, Anna put her hand on either side of the animal’s skull and sent as much heat as she could manage into his head; literally frying his brain. The wolf slumped immediately in death. Anna made a mental note to use that technique more often. The wolf changed into a human after it died. Anna did her best not to look at the open eyes of the dead boy, who looked pathetically helpless and innocent in death with his body lying limp, almost like he was asleep. Anna pushed the body off of her, and stood up.55

She saw that there were only two wolves left to take care of. Gabriel and Abe were working on one of them, an almost unrealistically red colored animal. Gabriel wasn’t much of a fighter. Anna guessed that was because angels really didn’t endorse violence. Abe was moving faster than Anna had ever seen him go, but it didn’t seem like he was going to be able to beat the werewolf. Ivan and Trent had the other wolf, and as Anna ran to help them finish it off, Trent was able to jab his sword through its chest. 56

Trent and Ivan ran over to help Abe and Gabriel, and Anna joined them. She knew that the five of them had to be able to beat one wolf. Ivan was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow. The blood fell down his face and as soon as it fell onto the ground, it turned into ice. The wolf seemed to notice the ice, maybe from the reflection of the moon off of the crystalline surface of the frozen water. He turned his attention from the angel and the vampire when he realized that there was a glacivir he could take down.57

Ivan wasn’t expecting the attack, but he adjusted beautifully. He caught the wolf with a short knife Trent had lent him. But, the knife didn’t seem to do anything to the animal. It continued to run at the glacivir. Before the animal could get to Ivan, though, someone came at the wolf. Abe was running at the animal, and he lunged at it, pinning it to the ground. The wolf growled angrily, and was able to pull itself from underneath Abraham. It grabbed the first part of the werewolf it could: Abe’s leg. The wolf brutally grabbed onto the leg, practically shedding the flesh on it. It aimed high on the thigh and snapped its teeth into his leg one time. Then, the wolf leapt away from its victim and ran off into the desert. Trent tried to throw his sword at the werewolf as it sprinted off into the sand, but the blade missed the animal by feet. Suddenly, whether it was an illusion of the desert or real, the wolf seemed to fade into the night air. No one was concerned with the wolf at that point though. Abe was the important one. 58

Anna watched in horror as blood pooled at the top of Abe’s pants. The wolf had managed to break the femoral artery in his upper leg. She might as well have slit his throat; he was going to bleed out unless he got to a hospital fast. The injury was definitely beyond anything he or Gabriel could heal with general aeaeus. Abe started to cough. Blood was draining out of his leg: blood that Anna knew he couldn’t afford to lose as a vampire. His face was draining of color. His breathing was becoming shallow.59

“He’s going to need blood. Quick, Trent!” Gabe called out.60

It was too late: Anna took out a shuriken and dug the sharp blade deeply down into her forearm. She ran over to Abe and pressed his mouth against the blood. Everything that occurred then seemed too horrible, too unreal to even comprehend.61

Abe grasped onto his natural instinct to drink blood and sank his teeth around the cut. It was too late when he realized what was happening. Anna felt herself become dizzy from the loss of blood. She staggered away from Abe when she heard the first screams. Abe turned onto his side, grasping at the place where his heart was. 62

Anna fell back onto the ground and watched what happened with disgust. Abe had always been the last person to complain; the last person to admit true pain. He was screaming, shrieking.63

“Somebody help him!” Anna shouted, tears streaming down her face. She was crying, for the first time in years, she was weeping. There was no point in her closing her eyes: it wouldn’t work this time. 64

She had done this. She hadn’t thought. She knew that now. Pure fire was running though Abe’s body and was burning his heart and every other inch of him. There was nothing they could do, she knew that. By the time the blood even got close to his wound, it would have burned through his system. It was too late.65

The screaming continued, and Anna ran over to Abe. She wrapped his arms around him and continued to cry.66

“Abe, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed into the vampire’s shirt.67

Suddenly, all the crying stopped. 68

“He’s dead, oh God, he’s dead,” Anna said, her voice hoarse and high.69

She looked down and saw that she was right. Anna tucked her head into Abe’s chest and cried. She was still bleeding, her blood burning through Abe’s shirt. Her head was spinning and she couldn’t see anymore. She continued to cry until she passed out from blood loss.70

Chapter 1171

There now, steady love, so few come and don't go72

Will you won't you, be the one I always know73

When I'm losing my control, the city spins around74

You're the only one who knows, you slow it down75

“Look After You” by The Fray76

Anna woke up over three hours later. Her head was throbbing horribly, and her eyes were swollen from crying. Her head was in someone’s lap, and a hand was stroking though her hair.77

“Hey, Trent,” Anna said, when she recognized the black jeans her head was lying against.78

“Gabe! She’s up,” Trent said.79

Anna pulled herself up and out of Trent’s lap. Her arm hurt, God how it hurt. She ran her fingers over the long wound that was only just starting to lightly scab. The motion of her hand over the thing triggered bleeding in some spots. Gabriel squatted down next to the fire bringer. He took her by the sides of the face and tried to look her in the eyes. Anna refused to raise her head.80

“I’m going to need to heal up your arm,” Gabriel explained in a slow, kind voice. He started to reach for Anna’s arm, but she pulled it back, “I don’t want you to heal it. I deserve this scar.”81

“Anna. No you don’t,” Gabriel said, hugging Anna.82

Anna pushed herself away, “Don’t touch me.”83

She needed to get away. She didn’t want people to try to tell her about how she wasn’t responsible for Abe’s death. She knew she was. So, Anna stood up. She looked around her and started to walk. It was hard. She was still drained from her loss of blood, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She walked out into the desert84

Anna sat, looking out at the never-ending stretch of desert out in front of her. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and her arms were wrapped around her knees. She looked out at the miles and miles of sand punctuated with the occasional cactus or slinking coyote. The sun was rising over in the far off horizon, and it cast a breathtaking orange hue on everything out in front of it. Anna started to cry for the second time in twenty-four hours. It seemed that crying the first time had opened up the floodgates. The tears fell against her dusty, worn-out jeans and burned to her skin.85

She had killed Abe. The fact hadn’t even sunk in yet and it was horrible. She had taken yet another life. Was this how the rest of her never-ending life would go? She was starting to see the logic in Ms. Morgan’s loathing of her. She was a monster and would always be one.86

Anna sat brooding until the orange tint in the sky had receded. She was completely unaware of this occurring though because her face was pressed against her knees. She probably wouldn’t have looked up for quite a while longer if she hadn’t heard a slight thump as someone sat down next to her. She looked up and was caught by a blinding glint of sunlight reflecting off of glasses lenses.87

“What are you doing, Ivan?” Anna asked miserably.88

“I was just out on a walk this morning. Fancy running into you. It’s quite a coincidence.”89

“Don’t lie to me, Ivan, you suck at it,” Anna sniffed, “Gabriel sent you out here.”90

Ivan didn’t say anything, but reached out towards Anna’s face. Anna thought for a second he was going to hit her. Instead, her wiped a tear away from Anna’s cheek.91

“Don’t…you’ll get,” Anna started. She was going to finish with the word hurt but it was too late. Ivan wiped the tear off. She finished her sentence, “You’ll get burned.” 92

“You don’t have to worry about me, remember?” he said, smiling kindly.93

“The only reason they would send you out here is because of what you can do, which means Gabriel thought that I would lash out. How crazy do think I am?” Anna asked.94

“They didn’t send me out here. I volunteered,” Ivan corrected.95

“Why, do you want to make fun of me? You sick bastard.”96

“No, I just thought that I would be understand this more than anyone else,” Ivan started to play with the sand around him; picking it up then letting it slide through his hands and back to the ground.97

“I doubt it. What harm can you do to people with ice?”98

“No, but I understand what it’s like not to be…to be able to be close to people,” Ivan said, pausing slightly to search for the right words.99

“But have you killed anyone: right now my tally is at four,” Anna practically whispered.100

“No.”101

“Then stop trying to think you understand this,” Anna snapped.102

“Way to act like a teenager. Heaven forbid anyone could understand you,” Ivan rolled his eyes.103

Anna started to stand up; Ivan yanked her back down, “I’ve prepared this whole damn speech for you. Let me give it.”104

Anna glared at him. Ivan took off his glasses, placing them in the sand next to him. He rubbed his eyes with his index fingers, and then looked off at the desert ahead of him. Anna couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t that horrible looking after he took his glasses off.105

“You see, Anna,” he started, though he didn’t look over at Anna, “I’ve gone through this before. I suppose you’ve really never thought about it, and I can’t blame you for that, but there’s a reason why I wasn’t in college when you found me. Mind you, I could go to just about any school I wanted to. My IQ is only a few points short of genius…”106

“What does this have to do with anything?” Anna cut in.107

“Jesus H. Christ, don’t interrupt me, Anna,” Ivan growled. This was one of the few times Anna had heard Ivan’s voice contain anything much more than boredom, “There is a point to this thing. The reason I didn’t go to college is that I didn’t even make it out of high school. I barely even made it out of middle school for that matter. You see, you wouldn’t notice, but unlike you, I can’t keep my element below the skin. So, every person I shake hands with or even brush by freezes. That’s why I refused to spar with Trent and Abe. That’s why I refused to help when you were pulling people out of the plane. That’s why I keep away from everyone. That’s why I only mess with you and no one else.108

“I was having a hard time hiding my little problem. It didn’t start until the mark showed up on my arm and it took a couple of awkward incidents to figure out what was happening. By then, I was a sophomore, and I knew that I couldn’t stand much more of high school: it was difficult to move through the halls without some part of exposed flesh touching someone and my parents were wondering why I was so distant. So, I ran away. It was pretty difficult to stay hidden, but I could get rid of anyone who found me of course. They would thaw out eventually, especially if I couldn’t get much of a touch on them, but by that time I would be long gone, and they were too scared to look like they were crazy to say anything. I hated to do it; but, there was no way I was going back home. When I was eighteen, I finally stopped running. I found a place where I could get a job without too many questions, and that’s been my life ever since.”109

“Nice story, but still. That doesn’t exactly help me out,” Anna pouted.110

Ivan flicked her on the side of the ear, “Shut up for once in your life. Believe it or not, some people other than you might actually know what their talking about.”111

Anna wanted to reply, but she closed her mouth when she saw Ivan give her a meaningful side glare.112

“So, I know where you’re coming from. I know what it’s like to mess things up with everyone you love. So, stop trying to tell me that I don’t. We’re the same type of person, Anna. We’re in the same sort of shit together. It sucks, sure, but it’s how we were born, and we’ll be that way until…well forever.”113

“That doesn’t change the fact that Abe is dead,” Anna traced her fingers around the burned patches on her jeans.114

“Abe is, was, a fighter. He accepted the fact long ago that he could die in battle. He would have died even if you hadn’t tried to do anything. Sure, you messed up, and it cost Abe his life. But, he had lived for far longer than he would have as a human. He went down bravely and took a lot of those werewolves with him.”115

Anna started to cry again. Ivan pulled her close to him, leaning her face against his chest. He waited there until Anna finally ran out of tears. She wasn’t just crying for Abe anymore, she was making up for sixteen years. When she finally pulled away from Ivan, she wiped her eyes, “I think I’m going to be okay now.”116

“So, you’re not going to kill yourself now or anything, are you?” Ivan said he was back to normal apparently.117

“Nope.” Anna sniffled. 118

“That’s good.”119

Anna joked feebly, “This doesn’t mean I like you or anything.”120

“Not even as a friend?” was Ivan’s witty comeback. 121

“That’s the way I meant it you idiot. Don’t get so full of yourself.”122

Ivan rumpled Anna’s hair, “You’re a cute kid.”123

“Fuck off.” 124

The two didn’t say anything after that: there was nothing else that needed to be said between them. They both just stared off at the miles and miles of sand ahead of them that separated them from the rest of the world. Then, finally, Ivan picked up his glasses and stood up. He dusted off his pants and offered his hand to Anna. She refused it and pulled herself up.125

“Nice to know that things are back to the way they were, princess dearest,” Ivan laughed.126

Anna and Ivan started to walk back in the direction of the group’s little camp. When the outlines of Gabriel, and Trent came into view, Ivan started, on cue:127

“You burnt a hole in my shirt, idiot.”128

“I thought you were supposed to be some sort of super powerful Glacivir. Couldn’t you have stopped that?” Anna responded. 129

“It’s not my fault you threw yourself on me. I didn’t ask to be so hot.”130

“Like I would ever be even slightly interested in you! You think way to much of yourself, ice boy.” 131

Ivan smiled a little bit and the corner of Anna’s mouth twitched upwards in acknowledgement. 132

Chapter 12133

Need Lyrics134

“You seem to be in slightly better spirits, Anna,” Gabriel stated. Anna could tell that he was picking his words very carefully, “I suppose that it might not have been a brilliant idea to send Ivan out to console you.”135

Anna shook her head, “It was alright.”136

“Are you alright, Anna?” Trent asked, reaching out to touch her hand, which was resting down at her side. Almost as soon as Trent’s finger had brushed against Anna’s skin, he jumped back, “Ow, Anna, what was that for?” Trent asked, drawing his hand away from the back of Anna’s hand.137

“What?” Anna’s eyes got wide, “What’s wrong?”138

“You just burned me,” Trent pouted. He shook his hand in the air and blew on the spot that had contact with Anna.139

“No I didn’t.”140

“Did too!” Trent protested. He shoved his hand in front of Anna’s face and sure enough: there was a blistering burn on the elf’s palm.141

“I’m pretty sure I can tell when I burn someone. I control the fire,” Anna assured Trent, who was shaking his burnt hand around out in front of him.142

Gabriel turned from his reading to look over at Trent and Anna. The incident must have piqued his interest:143

“Are you okay? You’re not upset or anything like that, are you Anna? You didn’t do that to Trent on purpose did you?”144

“N-no,” Anna stuttered, “I’m not upset and I definitely didn’t do that on purpose.”145

Gabriel’s eyebrows furrowed. He reached out his palm and pressed it lightly to Anna’s forehead. He quickly jumped back. 146

“Trent’s right, you’re burning up.”147

“Hey, that’s my job around here,” Ivan said, tossing his hair. Trent and Gabriel gave the glacivir exasperated looks, but when Ivan spoke, she remembered what he had told her earlier. He had said that he wasn’t able to touch people because they would freeze. This had to be something similar.148

“Anna,” Gabriel started, turning her attention away from Ivan’s problem (which was now quite possibly her problem as well), “Can you try to calm down for me?”149

“I’m calm already.”150

“I know, but can you try it for me?” Gabriel inquired.151

Anna nodded and closed her eyes. She breathed deeply and pulled herself deeply into her aeaeus. She could feel the liquid fire running mere centimeters below her skin: all she needed to do was pull the aeaeus deeper into her body. So, she started to push against the wall of magic. She used all the energy she could muster to attempt to move it back into the condensed ball of flame in her center, but nothing happened. The wall remained. The shoved all her power against the wall, but again, nothing moved.152

She finally accepted that there was nothing she could do about the fire. Anna pulled herself back into the physical world and opened her eyes. 153

“I can’t move it. The heat…it won’t move. I don’t know why,” she gasped, moving aeaeus was difficult and she could feel her heart racing. She didn’t like this feeling. She didn’t like not having power over something so small but so important. It made her feel weak. She couldn’t even control her own aeaeus. How was she supposed to use it in battle if she couldn’t even keep it below her skin?154

“That’s strange,” Gabriel reflected, “The stress from Abraham’s…” the angel looked over and saw Anna’s eyes start to well up with tears and started over, “The stress from the plane crash along with what happened to your parents must have done something to mess with your body’s equilibrium with your aeaeus.”155

“What am I supposed to do now,” Anna asked. She really meant for the question to be directed at Ivan, but she knew that he wouldn’t answer. Anna knew that he didn’t want everyone to know about his past quite yet: in fact, she didn’t even know any more about it than Ivan thought she needed to know.156

Gabriel seemed to think about the question for nearly half a minute, and then sighed, “I suppose the only thing you can do is to avoid human contact: you’re clothes and the ground that you are sitting on have remained intact, so it’s safe to assume that you only burn people when you touch them. So, as long as you don’t touch any people, you should be alright.”157

It was exactly like Ivan. Anna nodded after Gabriel finished his conclusion. Trent seemed to be studying Anna with quite a lot of intensity. Ivan was merely sitting where he usually did, etching something that looked suspiciously like a mathematical equation into the sand between his black Converse clad feet.158

“I need to go,” Gabriel said, standing up. With no other warning, he walked off into the desert.159

“What was that all about?” Anna asked as she watched the angel’s progression across the flat desert.160

Trent explained, “Sometimes, he goes off to pray. I suppose it’s an angel thing. He’s done it as long as I have known him though.”161

Anna continued to watch the angel though she spaced out. She was getting sort of tired: it had been a long day. She probably would have kept staring out into the desert for the night if Trent hadn’t started to talk.162

“I don’t understand this,” Trent shook his head, “How can you not move the aeaeus?”163

“Huh?” Anna was forced back into the real world and realized that she had absolutely no idea what was going on.164

“You know, how is it possible for you not to be able to control your aeaeus. You said earlier that it wouldn’t move. That’s sort of weird.”165

“Oh, that…I don’t know,” Anna put her head between her knees, “I just can’t. I tried, and I’ll try again later, but it just won’t budge. It’s like it’s become a permanent part of my skin or something.”166

“I still don’t understand,” Trent admitted, “but I’m sorry.”167

“Why?” Anna asked.168

“Well, I mean, it’s going to be hard for you to you know…if you ever meet some guy one day, things could be difficult. Unless you want to hook up with Ice Boy here. Like that would ever happen.” Trent was grinning. Anna gave him a death glare, but he ignored it. 169

“I think I’ll be okay,” she snapped.170

The rest of the day passed, and Gabriel still hadn’t returned from praying. Anna was thinking: she hadn’t stopped thinking since she had arrived back at camp. Anna thinking rarely resulted in anything good. 171

“Well, I’m going to bed,” Trent stated about four hours after sunset. He had been waiting up for Gabriel, but it was getting really late and it seemed like the angel may not arrive back to the camp until the next day. 172

“Is it past your bed time?” Ivan smirked.173

Trent shrugged and started to walk off to the rock alcove where he had set his sleeping bag. Anna turned to the stack of straw and sticks that Gabriel and Trent must have set up during the time Ivan and Anna had been out in the desert. She turned her palm up to the sky and summoned the fire she needed. She then moved the fire to the stack of sticks. She sat there, looking into the fire until she heard snores from Trent. Then, she looked over at Ivan. 174

His nose was pushed into his now absolutely filthy copy of The Fountainhead and his eyebrows were furrowed in concentration.175

“I guess it’s time for us to talk, am I right, Anna?” he sighed and put down the copy of his book.176

“You really are smart,” Anna said sarcastically, “I figured you knew this was coming.”177

“You figured right,” Ivan pushed his spectacles high on the bridge of his nose and asked, “What exactly do you want to know?”178

“I want to know what exactly happened to you: something dramatic must have happened to make you unable to control your aeaeus enough to keep it inside of you.”179

“I assumed that this would be the topic of our heart to heart,” Ivan sighed.180

“I’m guessing that you took all this time to make up a suitable lie to tell me so you wouldn’t have to actually tell me anything.”181

Ivan looked slightly amused. He tilted his head and looked at Anna like a botanist would look at a new species of bush.182

“What good would it do for me to lie to you know? You already know enough about me.”183

“I don’t know, it just seemed like something you would do,” Anna shrugged.184

“Oh, you hurt me,” Ivan moaned dramatically, “How can you have so little faith in…”185

Anna flopped back onto the sand and looked up at the sky above, “Ivan, if you’re going to tell me what happened stop stalling. If you’re not, you can tell me.”186

Anna heard the sounds of sand moving and when she looked to the side, she came into contact with Ivan’s armpit: he was lying on his back next to her with his arms above his head. She restrained the instinct to gag and say something rude and pulled herself up so she was actually at head level with the glacivir.187

“Are you going to tell me anything? I mean, there’s no pressure or anything, but I would really like to know…”188

“You talk way too much sometimes,” Ivan sighed, “I’ll tell you what you want to know.” He shuffled a little in the sand and fidgeted with his glasses. Then, he began:189

“I don’t really know where to start this whole thing, in fact, I’m not really sure if it’ll make sense when I’m done,” Ivan paused, but he saw Anna’s interested eyes staring over at him, he continued, “I had a little brother: Jamie. He was four years younger than me, which I guess would make him about your age, maybe a little older, well, if he was still alive. God, I loved that kid. He was annoying as hell sometimes, sure, but all siblings are. Still, he was just so, I don’t know, cute. He was a great kid, really. 190

One day, when I was thirteen and he was nine, we were walking into town to go to my parents’ office; they were lawyers and had their own firm. We started to fight a little bit, just bickering and teasing, and I started to run ahead of him. It turned into a race. I ran across the street when the time came to do it, and I looked back to see that Jamie was doing the same. Only, he had run too late. The light had changed. I looked back at just the right moment to see the car hit him. The truck had tried to swerve, but it didn’t do any good. Jamie was gone.”191

Ivan stopped talking and looked down at his feet. Anna wondered if he was going to cry. She had never really thought as Ivan as the crying type. He was too sarcastic and down right mean when the mood took him.192

“I know that my story comes no where near to being as horrible as yours, but I was young. It just really messed with me, I guess.”193

“I’m sorry,” Anna whispered.194

“It’s alright,” Ivan managed to choke out. He snuffled a couple of times and Anna could tell that he was doing his best to cover up the fact that he was crying.195

Anna was desperately trying to figure out what to do in the situation when she heard the spraying sand that meant someone was running in the desert. Anna looked around, fully ready to fight whoever was coming. She reached around her to find her pack of shuriken, perfectly willing to pull one out and use it against an opponent. But, she didn’t have to. The person who came running towards the small camp was Gabriel.196