Fire And Ice

Chapter 19 - Hunt Her?

Gregory's P. O. V

'Not again.' I shook my head as Keily's voice drifted from Ari's kitchen to our ears.

I wanted to get up, to defend Ari, but it sounded like she already had the situation handled. Besides, my presence would probably do less good than bad.

We all winced at the sound of a plate shattering and Trevor and Hailey moved to get up. I held my hand up, making them pause.

This was Ari and Keily's fight. Stopping them now would leave things even tenser than they were before. God knew I could barely handle things as they were.

The last thing Ari said before Keily left the kitchen caught my attention. It wasn't her words but her voice. It came out in an almost genuine growl that sounded like two different voices towards the end. Hearing it sent shivers down my spine and it wasn't even directed at me.

Trevor and I locked eyes – he'd heard it too.

Keily exited the kitchen only to face all our eyes on her. Why did she have to start things up with Ari? After all, she had a boyfriend and I wasn't her's to be possessive over. And, judging by her expression, she hadn't even been ready for the fact that Ari wasn't a pushover. She'd probably thought that she could play the mean girl card and Ari would lay down, accepting it, just like all the previous girls that had shown interest in me. When that hadn't worked, she'd switched to indignation at Ari's comeback, trying to act innocent or at the very least, make Ari feel bad.

I didn't ease up on my scowl as she stared at me, tears pooling in her eyes. She grabbed her bag and left the house in near tears. I shook my head; she needed a reality check every now and again. Things wouldn't always go her way.

If she wasn't careful, someone with far less self-control than Ari would retaliate harshly.

I looked at Hailey. She looked torn between going to check on her friend, the victim, and going to comfort her sister, the perpetrator. She finally settled on going to help Ari, probably figuring that her sister needed space to sulk.

"You heard that, right?" Trevor whispered once Hailey was out of sight.

I nodded and tapped my ear then pointed to the kitchen. If she really was a vampire, she could hear us. No matter how much I wanted it to be untrue, everything pointed towards it.

"Oh, my gosh! Trevor! Greg! Get over here!" Hailey yelled.

Trevor and I promptly made our way to the kitchen.

"Ari!"

"What happened?!"

There stood Ari who looked like she was struggling to get a grip on her anger. Drops of blood trailed from the tiles in front of the sink to the floor beneath her left hand. Blood dripped from her hand, forming a pool beneath it. In the blood by the sink lay pieces of the shattered plate we'd heard earlier. Some shards stuck to Ari's hand, poking into of her wound.

Her eyes finally seemed to focus. She stared at her bloody hand then looked at the blood covered plate pieces. An 'oh, shit!' expression crossed her face so fast I almost didn't notice it.

Almost.

"I just cleaned this kitchen." She mumbled to herself, hiding her bloody hand from our view.

"You're bleeding. What happened?" Hailey asked, taking a step towards her.

Ari took two steps back and let out a laugh. Because I was already suspicious, I could tell it was strained, "I'm so clumsy. After I dropped the plate, I went to pick it up but was distracted by Keily's... words so I ended up cutting myself instead."