Wicked Ones {bxb}

{Chapter 17 : Castaways}

Country, 80s, classic rock, pop, country, pop, pop, pop. Why was there so much goddamn pop?

Giving up on a search for a decent station, Vinny slapped whatever preset button was closest and reclined back against his seat. They'd have very little luck finding anything but white-noise so far from the city, anyway. But silence was too difficult to cope with.

Jason had been okay—he was alive, at least. Shaken up, but otherwise just fine. Kailan's jolt had shocked him in more ways than one, and it seemed that every memory he'd had that night were gone now. Wiped from his brain like fried hardware. They were in the clear, but they'd both felt restless since the incident. There was always the possibility that those single sixty seconds would return to him. If that were to happen, god knows what Jason would do.

There was also the problem of Vincent's fire. In the moment when Jason had his grip on Kailan's throat, he had tried to spark a flame. Too pained to fight physically, he had sought to repeat his episode with Jahni. Anything to free Kailan from his grip.

It didn't happen, though. His flames didn't come the way they were always so eager to show. Jahni suggested that perhaps it was due to his injuries. His only advice was to find a place of tranquility and train the mind while the body healed.

So they waited until the weekend, packed their things and rented a car for the journey.

It was only a two hour drive, but already he was sick of the repetitive music and the artificial scent of pine. Not to mention the cramps in his legs that had been growing like weeds for the past ten minutes.

It had been so long since he'd driven a car, and Vincent wasn't exactly the safest chauffeur. Irritable, and bored of seeing the same hill-side scenery for the past hour, he had begun flying down the dusty dirt trail. It was a distance to his father's cabin, but it was the most tranquil of all the places he could ponder up. The farthest from humanity.

"I think you've been here once before." He leaned his arm out of the car window, the other grasping the steering wheel with lazy composure.

His cerulean eyes found Kailan in the passenger seat, his head rested against the window as he watched the trees pass them by. He spared Vinny a glance, but by the look on Kai's face, he couldn't recall.

"My fourteenth birthday," Vinny clarified. "We ran off without a word and nearly scared my nanny into cardiac arrest."

"I remember that." Kailan laughed, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. He hated long car rides, but conversation made it a little more bearable. "So what exactly do we plan to do when we get there?"

They soon came to a halt at a large metal gate.

"I guess we'll find out," Vinny said, reaching out of his window and pressing a few numbers into a small metal box. It screamed a swift beep and sent the gates folding inward.

Stretching onward was another endless dirt road, but they were gaining distance. Only another five minutes and they'd be at his family cabin; an extravagant log structure that sat atop a clearing, nestled in the midst of a beautiful hill-top view.

Once there, he parked the car along a stretch of gravel and snapped open the door.

"Missed this place," he said, tossing his keys in the air and catching them as he escaped the cramped confines of the vehicle. The sun was set high above, raining down rays of soft magenta and fiery orange lights; spilling like oils on a canvas of blue. So open. So infinite. For a moment, you nearly spot the amorphousfaces in the sparse and scattered clouds.

Kailan came to a stop beside him, breathing out a gust of relief. He folded his arms and let his eyes travel, scanning the lush land for as far as it met the horizon. He didn't remember the place too well and it bugged him, but he knew he had been there; the air tasted familiar. Fresh and sweet, like they were breathing in the backsplash mists of a raging waterfall.