Palace Of Flames (Book One of the Damnata Series)

Chapter Four: House Of Wolves

[Kristy]

I pull a brush through my wild mop of hair quickly, and then look out of my room window, which looks down upon the driveway and the currently-deserted street beyond. Still no sign of him... I look up at the clock: 12:59. Surely he can't be that precise?

Just as it hits one o'clock, I hear a car pull up, and smile to myself. It can't be, surely? I look out of the window.

It seems it can.

Laurence's dark, chocolate-brown eyes are glistening, his black hair swept to the right, so much like a raven's wing in both it's windswept shape as it sweeps to the right, and the dark colour contrasting so much with his extremely pale face. His mouth is turned up slightly at one corner in a sly smile, and he is leaning back against his slim black car, hands slipped into his pockets. Today, yet again, he is clad in a similar outfit to yesterday's - black shirt, suit jacket, black jeans, black Converse. He meets my eyes, and I smile slightly, walking away from the window and moving quickly downstairs.

"Hey, you going out again?" My father confronts me at the front door, giving me an accusing look.

"Yes; with Laurence."

"Well, take your phone with you, then-"

"One step ahead of you, dad." I dodge around him, opening the front door, and he taps my shoulder.

"Hey, uh...we need to have the...the Talk, when you get home. Okay?"

I grimace. "Yeah, yeah...whatever." The Talk is something my father and I have avoided for a while now. Despite the fact that I'm nineteen, I've never really required the Talk. My mother died when I was ten, and I've never had any other feminine influence in my life to deliver such a horribly embarrassing talk to me.

I close the front door behind me, and meet Laurence's gaze from across the path. He pushes forwards and away from the car, and I cross the garden quickly, smiling as I stop in front of him.

"Hello." He smiles slightly.

"Hey. So, what're we going to do, then? I mean, we can't just stand around and talk here; my dad's watching from the window." Laurence and I look over to the window from the front room, and sure enough, Ronnie is peering over at us, trying to disguise himself with a curtain. Laurence waves slightly, smiling widely, and I gape up at him, mortified.

"Right, move before he comes out and hits you with something sharp." I push him towards the car, and he smiles, opening the door for me. I slip in silently, smiling slightly.

Laurence slips in next to me, in the driver's seat, and smiles slightly. "I thought perhaps we could go to the woods, and look for wolves."

I blink in surprise. "You what?" I ask bluntly, and he smiles.

"I mean, I was in the woods the other day, perched in a tree, and I happened to see a rather large wolf, around the size of a horse, almost-"

"Mutation?" I suggest, and he smiles. "That's a little over-exaggerated, though, isn't it? No wolf is the size of a horse."

"These wolves were."

"Prove it, then." I smile, and he smiles slightly in reply.

"Oh, but of course." He starts the engine, driving forward quickly, and I close my eyes, sighing.

"Wait...perched in a tree? You what?" He doesn't say anything, just chuckles, before searching for my hand and squeezing it gently; I flush red. I don't know what happened to the way we used to be when we were kids, like brother and sister. I mean, people have always said there was something there, even my dad used to say he thought Laurence liked me, and then Laurence practically told me as such, and things got awkward... But I don't know how to deal with this, not seeing him for a year and then everything being completely different...