Love lines (44 page)

“Are you ready?” I asked Eileen casually, trying to save
a carefree expression on my face.

“Yes. Will you help me with those presents?”

I picked up a few packages with gifts and saying goodbye
to those who still was able to have fun, went to the dormitory.

“What did Evan want to talk about?” she asked.

I knew that my calmness wouldn’t cheat her.

“Oh! He just offered some idea of how to make Amanda and
Lucas up.”

“Really? How?”

“Evan will tell Amanda that she'd better spend the night
with Lucas, because tonight I have to stay with you... well, in case... if
something unusual happens...”

Man, my explanation was good-for-nothing!

“Something
unusual,
huh?” she asked, smiling.
“For example, if you
really want
to spend this night with me?”

“Well, yeah,” I said, surrendering. Denying the obvious
didn’t make any sense, and it was better to let her think that it was my
unwillingness to leave, rather than the main cause of this mess with an
overnight staying.

“A friend of yours thought of everything.  He cared
about Amanda and you.”

 “Yes and just forgot about himself,” I agreed.

“It has already become a habit,” Eileen said sighing.

We entered the dark room. Both my hands were busy, so I
walked carefully over to the sofa and put the packages. The absence of light
didn’t matter to Eileen. She was quietly moving around the room, not noticing
my frozen figure.

“Oh, sorry! I forgot about the light,” she said lighting
a table lamp.

“I still can’t get used to your abilities,” I said
sitting on the sofa.

“It’s hard for me too. I don’t even want to think about
what else I will have to get used to,” she said standing in front of the
mirror. I came to

“You will handle,” I said embracing her waist. “Have I
already told you how beautiful you were today?”

“Apart from a few hundred times? No,” she said turning
to face me.

“You were the most beautiful flower this evening. No
masterpieces of Embry can change this fact,” I said leaning over to kiss her
lips. To do it properly in the presence of all the guests was simply
impossible, and I didn’t want to confuse Eileen even more. She blushed every
time I held her in front of my parents. But now we were alone, and nobody could
stop us.

She responded to my kiss immediately. Her lips were so
soft and sweet, that breaking away from them at that moment seemed like the
most terrible punishment. We both felt the temperature in the room rising. We
were not going to spend one more night in our clothes. Without interrupting the
kiss, I found the zipper of her dress on the back and slowly pulled it
downwards. She took off my jacket and began to unbutton my shirt. In the dim
mirror image I saw the fiery lacy pattern on her back, making an already
wonderful silhouette of her body even more perfect. My shirt was on the floor,
and now the light of her lines was added by the light of my own pattern. Her
dress fell to her feet with a soft rustle.

I had no words to describe all the admiration and
unconditional love that I felt at that moment. I swept her in my arms and
carried her to bed. Our embrace was so strong that a single gram of air wasn’t
left between our bodies. I kept kissing her, stroking the delicate curves of
her body. I had no idea that in such a moment I would be so nervous. I was
afraid to do something wrong, afraid to spoil this already wonderful night.

My fears proved unfounded, because instead of me our
idyll was broken by something else... A terrible cry of Eileen. She was
screaming in pain, holding her hands where Frederick’s medallion touched her
skin. The pain was gone as quickly as it appeared. We both got scared.

“What was that?” in a breaking voice asked Eileen.

“Did you feel something?”

Eileen didn’t answer immediately as if trying to find
the right words.

“Some kind of blow, just right here,” she said touching
the back of the medallion around her neck.

I glanced at the clock on her bedside table. Midnight.
This moment meant the end of her birthday and a start of a new life, unknown
before. And in this life Eileen had already had all the powers of her father...
In addition to her own. A new day meant the beginning of new challenges.

Eileen took off the medallion and began to watch it
carefully, turning it in her hands.

“I swear that the blow came from this thing,” she said
thoughtfully.

I didn’t know how to say that I could understand and
explain everything.

“It is charged with magical powers,” Eileen said again,
speaking of the medallion. “I felt it as soon as it touched my skin. Whoever
was the person who sent it, he obviously knew about the properties of the
medallion. Moreover, now I'm starting to believe that it was my father. His
energy seems so close, so familiar...”

I thought she would finally realize where she could feel
that energy before, and I would no longer have to lie. But Eileen put the
jewelry on the table and leaned back against the pillows staring pensively at
nothing. I sat down, embracing her.

“I can only say that what happened today, means that you
officially became an adult, which means all your abilities have increased by
several times, and your power is stronger than before.”

That was the part of the truth she knew perfectly well.
I didn’t have any right to tell her about Frederick.

“How can I check it out then?” she asked. “Maybe this
way...”

Those words were followed by a wave of her palm and the
instantaneous collapse of the chandelier in the middle of the room.

“Oh, God!” she exclaimed jumping out of bed and putting
on the first available thing - my shirt. I jumped too.

“How did you do that?”

“I have no idea...,” she said nervously. “Actually, I
just wanted to turn the lights on, but it seems as I have overdone a bit,” she
added sitting next to the remnants of the former chandelier.

“Can you fix it again?” I asked. “If you are going to
ruin here something else, let it be just one thing.”

“I'll try,” she said hesitatingly.

She touched the chandelier and it slowly began to
acquire the former shape - a little rough but better than the first time.

“Try again,” I said.

She touched the already almost collected item. This time
the chandelier became itself, shaking slightly in the air and instantly
re-falling down. Luckily I managed to catch it, not allowing breaking again.

“I can’t believe that!” Eileen said. “It's not just the
power of the elements. This is magic!”

I stood on a chair and hung a chandelier where it used
to be.

“Please, just don’t touch anything else, get dressed and
we will go to Evan. Okay? I'm afraid I can’t cope with this alone here.”

“Okay,” she said trembling.

Eileen returned me my shirt, replacing it with jeans and
a long sweater. We left the room, and I called Evan, who, fortunately, still
wasn’t even thinking to go to bed. Eileen was a little scared. We went up two
floors above, and came to the room of my friend. He opened the door, even
before our knocking.

“Just look at you!” he smiled broadly, leaning casually
against his doorframe.

“Evan, please!” Eileen hissed, barely uttering the
words. She went into his room and sat quietly in the chair, tucking her legs.

“And why can’t you sleep like most of the people at this
time, my dear friends?” he asked, closing the door behind me.

“Eileen has just blown her chandelier to smithereens
with a single flick of the wrist,” I said dryly.

“Well, well! I hope there wasn’t anyone under it,
right?”

“Evan, if you don’t stop joking, I’ll smash the one
under which you are standing right now!” Eileen snapped.

“Okay. Let's start from the very beginning. Why did you
decide to take revenge on that chandelier?” he asked.

In response, we told him about everything, well, not
really
everything.
We missed that part about kisses and being naked.

“I have just one question, Christian. What the hell were
you looking at?” Evan shouted. “Thank God, it was only a chandelier! But there
are too many useful things in my room too, so let’s go somewhere else.”

On our way we woke up my parents, who were also a little
scared. Frederick still wasn’t on campus, so we just left him a message to find
us as soon possible.

Thankfully it was night outside, so, apart from us the
educational building was empty. We chose the largest audience.

“Well,” said Evan turning to Eileen. “Let's see what
you're capable of, my dear. I’ll take that chair up in the air and you repeat
after me,” he instructed her.

“Okay,” obediently replied Eileen.

Evan did his part, and we all froze in anticipation of
how Eileen would do that task. No one was surprised when the chair abruptly
rushed to one of the walls and dashing against it with full force, shattered
into splinters.

“Holy cow! Not bad!” Evan smiled. “Listen to me
carefully, Eileen. When you are going to do something, you should concentrate
and imagine what you are going to do. Don’t be nervous, calm down, we can stop
you if something goes wrong. Got it?”

 Eileen nodded.

“Let's try again,” Evan said waving a hand to bring that
chair back, then lifted it into the air again and put it slowly back to the
floor.

This time Eileen managed to do everything right. Well,
almost. The chair hung in the air and then, as in the case of the chandelier,
started to fall sharply downwards.

“Much better,” said Evan catching it on the fly.

“Apparently, Eileen’s problem is that she doesn’t know
how to distribute the power properly,” my father pointed. “Let's try this. I'll
create a small circle and you try, just very slowly and carefully, to make it
bigger and then smaller. Okay?”

Eileen nodded again. My father created a simple water
range, which swayed in the air at Eileen’s eye level. She slowly raised her
hands, closed her eyes and tried to do what Patrick had said. First the line of
the circle was shaking a bit, and then became longer at one side, making the
former circle look vague. Eileen didn’t open her eyes.

“You are doing pretty well,” my father said calmly. “Try
to align the circle again and make it larger.”

Now all the edges of the established shape began to move
in one direction. The circle again got the old form and really grew in size.

“And now,” said Evan, “continuing what you're doing,
open your eyes.”

Eileen did just that and the circle shaken a little.

“Just keep making it bigger, not closing your eyes,
Eileen.”

The circle lost its shape again, but Eileen was able to
quickly bring it to its former state. Then she slowly began to expand it. The
circle wasn’t losing its form, and became bigger. Then she tried to reduce it,
and again everything went as it should be.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she said dropping her hands
and sitting on the floor. “I feel as though I had run several miles and was
completely flaked-out.”

“The art of managing your own powers is studied for more
than one year, but in your case everything happens too quickly. So it’s not
surprising,” my mom said sitting next to Eileen. “You will learn everything.”

“It would be nice if by that time I
don’t destroy the entire Dever,” Eileen tried to joke. We all smiled.

“I'm afraid that even your power is not enough for
that,” said Evan. “But if you ask me to help...”

“What is going on here?” asked just entered Frederick.

“Trying to teach Eileen how to control her magic blows,”
I replied.

“Is that so bad?” he asked again.

“Actually, no,” replied my father. “She has already made
some progress.”

“Let's try together,” Frederick suggested.

 He took all the same chair that Evan had used before,
put it a few steps away from Eileen and forced it to move over to the opposite
wall, and then back to its original place.

 “Now repeat after me,” he said to Eileen. She also
raised one hand, and following Frederick’s instructions, moved the chair.
Strangely enough, but this time she did everything right - the object moved
away, and then returned to its original place.

“See, it's not that difficult,” he said smiling
reassuringly. “Tomorrow we will have a little more practice, okay?”

“Okay,” said Eileen, looking thoughtfully at Frederick.
I wished I could read minds, because at that moment I wanted to know what she
was thinking about.

All went to their dorms, and Eileen, Evan and I went to
his room. He decided that he wouldn’t be able to go to sleep tonight knowing
that at any moment the walls of the dormitory might become Eileen’s next
victim, so it was decided to leave her with someone possessing magic. Eileen
was completely exhausted, so Evan let her take his bed. We both didn’t want to
sleep, so we just sat on the floor in front of the fireplace and lit a fire.
Nice flame warmed my body, so soon I wanted to get some sleep too. Evan said
that I could take his couch, as he himself still couldn’t put his eyes
together.