Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (7 page)

“Hey, are you all right?” a
familiar female
voice called from behind Leesa
and Rave.
Leesa turned to see Cali
hurrying toward them
from
the dorm’s entrance
.
Her face bore a serious look of concern.

Leesa smiled at the sight of her best frien
d. Only the ends of Cali’s neck-
length hair poked out from beneath her rainbow-colored Rasta tam, but
enough was visible for Leesa to
see that Cali had streaked her hair with bright pink highlig
hts. She had also found a
pink stud to put into her cheek piercing.
When Leesa had
first
met Cali back
at the start
of school
,
Cali’s
dark hair had been streaked burgundy, almost matching the port-wine stain on her cheek that looked like a map of California and was the source of her nickname. Her stud had also been burgundy.

“I’ve been really
wo
rried about you,” Cali said
. “Your smashed up car has been sitting here for a couple of hours, but I couldn’t find you anywhere
and you weren’t answering your cell
. Thank go
od
ness
I didn’t see any blood around the thing, or I would have been
more of a
wreck
than the car
.”

“I’m f
ine,” Leesa said. “Sorry I
worried you.”

Cali was not convinced. “If you’re so okay, why is Rave carrying you?
And out here in the open, yet?
”

Rave lowered Leesa gently to the ground.
She
took a few steps in place, exaggerating the movement, to
prove she wasn’
t hurt.

“Oh, I see,” Cali said, grinning
now
. “You two were just being romantic, doing that carrying thing. I thought you only did that in private.”

Cali
knew all about how
Rave
carried Leesa at high speeds and how much Leesa loved it. Cali
was the only person who knew about Rave’s volkaane identity
and
powers. She
had even gotten to see what it felt like to have him effortlessly hold her,
after begging Leesa to
let her try.
Leesa
still
hadn’
t
told her mom or brother about Rave
not being human
, figuring they’d
both
had enough of the supernatural
for awhile,
after their suffering
at the hands of
vampires. She would tell them eventually, but not
yet
. Not even Cali knew about Dominic or abou
t Leesa’s magic, though, so Leesa
couldn’t tell
Cali
anything about
the
afternoon
’s amazing events
.

“Usually, we do,” Leesa said. “But after the accident, I needed something to calm me down, so Rave took me for a
ride. We only did the
speed thing
out
in the woods, but it felt so good, I decided to let him carry me all the way home—at walk
ing speed, of course.”

Cali looked suspiciously at Leesa and
then at
Rave, convinced there was something Leesa wasn’t
telling her.
When she shifted her gaze back to Leesa, her
eyes locked
on
to
Leesa’s book.

“Hey, w
hat’s that?” she asked, pointing to the book. “It looks really old.”

Leesa glanced down at the book, trying to think of something to tell Cali. She wished she had a
magic wallet like Dominic’s
that
she could hide things in. Thinking of the wizard gave her an idea.

“It’s Dominic’s,”
she
said. “I’m holding it for him.”

“What’s in it?”
Cali asked.

Leesa shook her head. “I don’t have a clue. It’s
all
written in Romanian or something.”

She opened the book and showed it to Cali, knowing she wouldn’t know the difference between Romanian and waziri.

Cali studied the flowing script for a moment. “It looks cool, but it’s all Greek to me. Where is Do
minic
, anyhow
?
I thought the Blazer was his
.”

“
Uhh
...he
had to leave,” Leesa said. “He’s going to be gone for awhile, I think.”

Cali’s eyes narrowed. “There’s something y
ou’re not telling me,” she said.
“But I guess you’ve got your reasons.
” Her eyes brightened. “
Tell you wha
t. I
f Rave will carry me for a moment, I’ll stop pestering you with questions.”

“Ha! Have I told you that you’re incorrigible?” Leesa said, grinning.

Cali returned Leesa’s grin.
“Yep.
I think you mentioned that.
It means cute as hell, right?”

Leesa shook her head
in resignation
. Cali really was incorrigible, but that was one of the things Leesa loved about her. She looked at Rave, who smiled and held out his arms.

Cali hopped up into Rave’s waiting arms and then snuggled briefly against his warm chest.

“
Mmmmm
,” she sighed. “I could get used to this.”

“Ha! Don’t even think
it,” Leesa said as Rave set
Cali back
down on
to her feet.

Cali grinned again
. “Rule thirty-two: Never pass up a chance to get carried by a volkaane.”

Leesa smiled. Cali had a rule for seemingly every situation. She’d long ago admitted she made most of them up on t
he spot. A few seemed to be genuine
, though.

Cali turned toward
Rave. “When are you going to bring
those two cute
volkaane friends
of yours
around aga
in? Maybe I can get
one of them
to give me a ride
.
We could m
ake it a double date.
”

“Do
n’t push your luck,” Leesa said, still smiling.

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Rave said.

Leesa looked at him in surprise.

“Not the double date
thing
,” Rave added hurriedly. “But having
Dral
and Bain around for a few days might be smart. And
with
Destiratu
continuing to strengthen,
it would make the elders more comfortable about me remaining outside the settlement.”

With so much else going on, Leesa had forgotten about the
Destiratu
thing
.
The magical
phenomenon resulted from a rare combination of magical energies in t
he earth and the air. She didn’
t understand the thing completely, but she knew it fanned the hunger and killing ire of vampires and volkaanes, and it affected other
magics
as well. Luckily,
Destiratus
happened less than once every hundred years, but Rave had told her a strong one had been forming for several months now. Both volkaanes and vampires took extra care during the period of magnified appetites, which was why the elders were not keen on
Rave
being away from th
e volkaane settlement alone
. Now that she was dabbling in magic herself, she supposed she’d better learn more about the phenomenon sometime soon. 

“You
’re
right,” Leesa said. Whatever the reason, she loved
the idea of having Rave with her for at least the next few days. “It is a good idea.”

“Why don’t you two go inside,
” Rave said, “
w
hile I head back to fetch
them. We’ll be back in a few
hours.”

“Too bad you can’t just call them,” Cali said, knowing volkaanes didn’t use electrical or battery opera
ted devices. Most p
eople thought
the
Mastons
—as the reclusive clan
was
known to the local people—didn’
t use modern technology
for religious reasons, like the Amish, but Cali knew bett
er. Volkaanes couldn’
t use them
because their magical energy simply shorted
out
such devices
.

“Yeah, too bad,” Leesa agreed. Not being able to communicate with Rave when she wanted to was one of her biggest frustrations with his magical inner fire. But the way his heat always made her feel more than made up for it.

She rose up onto her toes and gave Rave a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Get going, sweetheart,” she said. “The sooner you leave, the sooner you’ll be back.”

Rave smiled.
“As you wish
.”

Leesa loved that he had adopted that phrase as one of his favorites to use with her.

Rave
turned and strode rapidly down the sidewalk.
Leesa and Cali watched him until he disappeared around the corner,
then they
headed up to Leesa’s room to wait for his return.