Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (23 page)

She
wiped the back of her hand across her lips. Now, if she could just get the taste of field mouse out of her mouth….

16.
BACK AT HOME

T
he first thing Leesa did after Rave dro
pped her off at her dorm was
head for the showers. She was anxious to see her friends, especially Cali, but that was going to have to wai
t for a bit. Getting cleaned up—a
nd
washing her hair,
especially
—was
a bigger priority.

She had learned a lot about volkaanes staying with Rave for
the past
three days. One of the things s
he learned was that volkaanes did
n’t bathe. The
y didn’t need to. Their inner
fire kept germs and other bacteria at bay, and their heat dissolved things like mud and grease. If they got dirty with something
more stubborn,
they simply
wet a c
loth, warmed it with their inner
heat
, and wiped the spot clean.
Their clothes seldom needed washing, either. She thought about Dominic, who owned only one set of clothes, but they were always fresh and clean. She wondered if that
particular
wizard’s trick was somewhere in her book of mag
ic—while it wouldn’t be of much use for battling evil wizards, it would sure come in handy as a time saver.

Volkaane
heat
also seemed
to
keep their
hair clean and fresh
. She wasn’t so lucky
, though
. Her hair was badly in need of a shampooing.
Fortunately, Rave had
not seem
ed
to mind her keeping her hair tied behind her head in an increasingly dirty ponytail.

None of the volkaane homes had running water. Drinking water came from several nearby springs and was collected in bottles and jugs.
When Leesa needed to wash up, Rave
simply
filled a big pot with spring water and carried it back to the house. He warmed it for her
with the touch of his hand
and gave her a couple of washcloths and some privacy. The sponge baths were better than nothing,
for sure,
but they c
ould not compare to the powerful streams of
hot water now cascading down over her.

She stood with her head bent, luxuriating for several minutes as the water pounded onto the top of her head and flowed down over her body. Finally, she reached for her bottle of shampoo. As she lathered
the raspberry scented lotion into
her hair, she swore she would never take indoor plumbing and hot showers for granted again.

Half an hour later,
thoroughly refreshed,
Leesa slipped into a comfortable pair of jeans and a
long-sleeve T-shirt striped with alternating bands of
powder blue
and dark blue. Tired of being in a ponytail, she
blew
her hair
dry and left it
hang
ing loose over her shoulders as she
headed down to Cali’s room.

The door was open, so she knocked
twice
on the door jam and walked in.
Cali and Stacie were sitting
side by side on the bed, leafing through a
magazine together. In the background, Adele was singing about setting fire to the rain.
The lyrics made Leesa wonder
if wizard
or volkaane
fire could actually cause rain
to burn.

Cali was wearing black sweatpants and a white T-shirt whose right shoul
der looked like it had been dunk
ed in a bucket of purple paint, which had then been allowed to trickle down the sleeve.
The tiny jeweled stud in her
cheek matched the purple almost exactly, as did the polish on her fingernails.
Stacie
, who was
half-Japanese, wore a pale
orange and white checked button shirt
untucked
over a pair of designer jeans.
The shirt set off the
smooth olive skin of her arms and face nicely.
Her long black hair hung in a thick braid over the front of her left shoulder.

At Leesa’s entrance, Cali pushed the magazine onto Stacie’s lap and leaped up off the bed.

“Hey, Leesa.
When did you get back?” She wrapped Leesa up in a quick hug.

“Less than a
n
hour ago,” Leesa said, returning Cali’s embrace.
“After roughing it
out there
in volkaane town, I had to shower and wash my hair before I came down.”

Stacie had also gotten up off the bed.

“
I guess no
electricity means
no
blow dryer, huh?” she asked.

“Ha! You got that right,” Leesa said. “No hot water, either.”

“
Brrrrr
,” Stacie said, shivering her shoulders and head. “I don’t think I could handle that.”

If Cali had been alone, Leesa would have told her about Rave heating water for her with his magical fire, but Stacie didn’t know anything about Rave’s supernatural nature. To avoid too many questions, Leesa decided not to mention the lack of running water.

“Dang, girl,” Cali said. “You weren’t kidding about roughing it, were you?”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Leesa said. “I got to spend three whole days with Rave, remember.”

“Yeah, I guess love makes everything smell rosy.” Cali grabbed Leesa’s hand and pulled her toward the bed. “C’mon, sit down and tell us all about your vacation.”

Leesa sat
on the bed, edging backward on the mattress until her back was against the wall. Cali and Stacie plopped down on either side of her.

“It was fun,” Leesa said. “We just hung out,
ate food cooked in the fireplace,
and
went for hikes and stuff.
”

Leesa was thankful she had shared Rave’s secret with Cali, because it kept Cali from asking any
uncomfortable
questions about making out,
sleeping together or sex.
From past experience, s
he
knew Cali would have been peppering her with su
ch questions otherwise. Now, Cali
couldn’t even ask about kissing with Stacie there, because it could bring up Rave’s fire.

“Sounds like a lot more fun than going to class and doing homework,” Cali said.

“For sure.
But I’ll pay for it this weekend, trying to catch up.”

With everything that was going on,
Leesa
wondered if she should even bother with classes and homework
anymore, but
didn’t voice the thought.

“What ha
ppened here after I left?” she
asked.
“With the dead zombies?
What did the police make of it all?”

“You’re not going to believe this,” Cali said. “According to the police and school officials, the whole thing was a fraternity prank gone
bad
.”

“Huh?” Leesa said. “Zombies as a fraternity prank? I don’t get it.”

“Well, of course no one really believed they were zombies,” Stacie said. “I’m still having trouble believing it myself, even though I saw them.”

Leesa wasn’t surprised that
brainiac
Stacie would be skeptical of something so otherworldly.

“The story is that some frat guys dug up three bodies and left them in the hallway to scare us,” Cali said.

“What about Amber?” Leesa asked. “She was dead…and
from what I saw, she
must have had bite marks all over her.”

“That’s where the reports get a little sketchy,” Cali said. “Supposedly, she died of a heart attack when the
frat guys started
chewing on
her to scare her.”

Leesa shook her head. “Oh, come on. Who’s going to believe that?”

Cali
shrugged. “I know. But who’s going
to
believe zombies, either?”

“Any
kid
who’s been to more than one horror film, that’s who,” Leesa said, smiling.
She
wanted to ask more, but didn’t see how she could without getting too close to the volkaanes
’
part in the whole thing.

“Andy says the cops are pressing the frats pretty hard, trying to come up with something.”

“The police and the school
may know more than they’
re te
lling,” Stacie said. “But they’
re certainly not going to spread any stories about zombies.
They’d look like freaking idiots.
”

“I guess not,” Leesa said.

Cali scooted up toward the edge of the bed. “I hate to end this little party, but I’ve got to get dressed. Andy and I are going to the movies tonight.”

“What are you guys going to see?” Leesa asked.

“There’s a vampire movie fest
over
at t
he Student Union,” Cali said. “
We’re heading over there
to
catch a vamp
flick or two.”

“I don’t get this whole fascination with vampires,” Stacie said. “Why are so many people into something that doesn’t even exist?”

Leesa and Cali looked at each other and smiled.

“You mean something that doesn’t exist, like zombies?” Cali asked.

Stacie had no answer for that.
“Point taken.”

“What about you, Leesa?” Cali asked. “What are you doing tonight?”

“I’ve got to hit the books. Try to catch up a bit on my missed classes.” Leesa didn’t mention that the
book she was going to hit first was her book of magic.