4

 Most of the dinner was uneventful, I was introduced to countless numbers of people, most of them names flew in one ear and out the other. My mom finally got up and that drew my attention from what ever interesting thing had caught my eye on the table in front of me. She shuffled around her chair and over to someone I had seen before. He looked about my age, with light brown hair hanging in his face.

Just like me he was more interested in the table then what was going on around me, my mom walked right next to him, and started talking to the lady next to him, she had pale blond hair, and her eyes matched my moms dress, which was a strapless medium green dress with a slit up her right side that stopped at a butterfly on her hip. They were animatedly talking, and my mom gestured to me, then to the boy, who was watching them talk too.

He shoved his chair back and stalked to the door behind me, I watched him wait for the men there to move, and then he turned around, and met my eyes. His eyes were blood red, and he towered over all of the men in his way, but he seemed to lack any muscle.

I looked back to my mom and the lady she was talking to, and they were looking at the door he'd gone through, then they went back to talking. I decided I was done watching her, and I wanted to leave.

I got up, and felt a presence beside me, I looked over and Jackson was already there, elbow extended to me, and a cocky smirk on his face, I looked at him, and took his arm, he sighed, “That's so much easier isn't it?”

I grunted at him in response, and we walked in silence out the door behind me, it led outside to a small open area where there were nice plush couches around mini fire pits, and potted plants in between all of them. I glanced around the area, and that boy was sitting on one of the couches, staring at the unlit fire pit. The closer I looked, he had to be quite a few years younger then me.

He turned towards us, and turned away, “Jackson, why did you bring her out here?”

We walked over to him, “Your mothers want you two to get to know each other.”

Jackson set me next to the boy on the couch, “I don't want to get to know her, since she has no powers they won't make me marry her any longer.”

He got up off the couch, just to have Jackson push him back down, “You will talk to her, even if your betrothal is over, your mothers want you two to get to know each other.”

The boy looked at Jackson, “Fine, just go away before I break your arm.”

Jackson stepped back, then he looked at me, “And Angela, please do play nice.”

He walked away, leaving me and the boy in an awkward silence, that I wasn't going to break any time soon. I sat back on the couch, and relaxed a little bit, and he tensed and scooted away from me. He reached beside him and grabbed some small sticks, and placed them in the fire pit, and he flicked a small flame at them, instantly lighting them. He started added more wood, and in no time at all, he had a pretty good fire going.

He got up and stretched, sighed, and sat back down, “Well, they expect that we'll know each other, since they're watching us. My names Donavon.” He held out his hand.

I took it, “Obviously you already know me, but I'm Angela.”

“Yea, everyone knows you.”

I turned towards him, “Why does everyone know me?”

He shrugged, “It's a long story.”

I glared at him, hoping he would give in and tell me, he didn't, “Fine, don't tell me then, but I'll find someone else to tell me then.”

He nodded, “Well everyone knows, well everyone besides you, yet again.”

I stood up and walked away from the couch, “Yea, thanks.”

He sighed again, “Everyone knows you because of your dad.”

I stopped mid step, I kept looking forward, and could see my mom through the glass on the door, she was starring straight at me, “Are you going to tell me more, or is that it?”

I heard him stand up, “If you come sit down, and prevent both of us from getting in trouble, I'll tell you everything I know at least.”

I turned around, and looked at him, “Oookay.” I walked slowly back over to the couch.

We were standing face to face, and I swear he was at least 7 inches taller then me. He smiled at me, I think it was mostly for show. He grabbed my elbow, and led me to a couch behind a big plant, blocking the view of the door. He gently led me to sitting down, and sat next to me.

I looked at him confused, “What was with the smile and all the touching?”

“Simple. My mom and your mom want us together, even if you don't have powers. They called off the betrothal because they wanted us to fall in love and choose for ourselves to be together.” he shook his head, “And that was me trying to woo you, at least to their eyes, we both know it's not happening. Never.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, “Seriously? Never?” I smiled, “If I didn't want to piss my mom off, I bet I could get you to like me.”

He scowled, “Do you want to know why everyone knows about you or not.”

“Yes, I do.”

He took a deep breath, “Your dad's a Virq.”

“What!”

“You were supposed to have both powers, but it didn't happen, and when they finally noticed that, your parents were going to try again, but your dad got captured, and had to get killed so they didn't get his memories of this place.”

I jerked away from him, “What do you mean, my dad was a Virq, I thought I was told they ate human souls, and you guys were at war with them.”

He nodded, “All of that is true, but please lean into me, because they're watching again.”

I shook my head, but put on my best fake smile towards him, “I don't touch guys all that often, so I won't lean into you, but I can act.” I blinked a couple times, “But I'm confused, why were they trying to make me have both fire and ice powers?”

He shrugged, “I'm not sure about that, but that's what they wanted.”

I looked away from him, over to the window my mom and his mom had gone to, and met my moms eyes, I looked back at him. He was watching the fire at the next circle over intensely, I leaned forward before I could think about it anymore. I brushed my lips against his cheek, and sat back down and looked at the fire too.

He opened his mouth to say something, and I cut him off, “Thank you for telling me all of that.”

I stood up and smiled down at him, he stood next to me, “Ready to go back in.” he chuckled to himself, “Jackson is totally gonna freak.”

We walked to the door in silence, and when we got there, Jackson had already opened it, “I see you two are done talking, may I ask what you talked about?”

Donavon shrugged, “Oh you know, the usually stuff, when were going to meet up again and piss you off. Also we talked about her.” With that he briskly walked away, waving to me over his shoulder.

I decided not to wave back but focuses on Jackson, “So, how was watching us talk?”

Jackson turned away, “It was fine, until the end. I actually thought you were going to ditch him half way through when you took off. What made you stop?”

I smiled at him, “That's none of your business.”

We walked towards the elevator again, when I remembered I hadn't yet tried to get out of here. I looked around, and I saw the main entrance. It was a large room, with an orange spike chandelier hanging about half way down. There were plush chairs scattered around the area I could see, and the walls were made of glass with water pouring down them. Fancy was my first thought, then I saw my mom walking in my direction, and Jackson was opening the elevator. I jumped into the elevator and clicked the close doors button.

The door closed just before my mom could get to it, and Jackson glared at me, “You're going to get me in trouble if you keep doing stuff like that.”

I looked up at him, “I'll kiss you if, you let me do what I want to Stephanie.”

He bit his bottom lip, looked around the room, “I can let you get away with one excursion for each kiss I get. Also I can initiate the kiss if I feel I deserve it for your behavior towards her.”

I opened my mouth to say no, but seriously, who would it hurt if I kissed him, or if he kissed me, “Fine, whatever.”

He mischievously smiled at me and turned to be facing me, he pushed me against the wall of the elevator. He closed the distance between us before I could even think of what I would say to get him to stop. As his lips met mine if felt like the entire world stopped, then I felt a fire starting deep down, only to be squashed down by something cold. I got lost in the kiss, wishing it wouldn't end, because with each second that passed the heat and cold got stronger, and I felt more alive.

The elevator came to a stop, he reluctantly pulled away just as the doors opened. I sat leaned against the wall, absolutely confused. He walked out, I waited a second then followed at a distance. We got to my door, and he held it open for me, as soon as I was in I felt his hand connect with my back shoving me in quicker.

He slammed the door behind himself, “Tell me you felt that?”

I looked at him, too stunned to say anything, “Huh?”

I walked in circles pulling at his hair, “I know why you don't have any powers, they're fighting in your body canceling each other out. Why did she not think of that?”

“Wait, back up, you felt what was happening in my body?”

He stopped in his tracks, and looked at me like a deer caught in headlights, “Well I... sorta... not... it was different, but I could feel your power, I felt heat then cold.”

I walked over to my bed and sat down. “Did you feel them intensifying?”

He looked incredulously at me, “What do you mean intensifying?”

I starred at my hands for a long time, when there was a knock on my door. Jackson walked over and answered the door, whoever was there, asked Jackson to sit in the hall with him while they talked. It was a short while before my door opened again, this time I looked up from my hands.

Jackson walked over to my side, “Angela, you have to tell me what you mean by the feeling intensifying.”