Playing with Fire #1 ✔

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟎 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨

"Ember?

"Hmm?" She replied, only half-listening; presumably focusing solely on her voodoo crap — or her 'Sight' as she called it.

Faltering, I told her, "I... want to admit something." Though why I wanted to admit it, I wasn't even sure of myself. Perhaps the sudden aching in my bones was forcing me to try total honesty with her.

"Go on." Ember prompted, and I felt a trickle of blood run down the back of my neck.

"Is that—?" I began.

"Yep," the blunt, brief reply revealed the agitation evident in her voice. "It's bleeding again."

I tried to sit up and place a hand on my neck, but she stopped me, placing her heat-radiating palms against my back with forceful pressure. Her fingers made my skin tingle slightly as minuscule jolts of electricity passed between us.

"Leave it be," she insisted, "And let me focus."

Annoyed, I huffed "Fine. Does that mean I can't talk at all?"

"No..." She stated, "It just means don't move, but I suppose you can talk — it could relax you. So, when did you actually get this tattoo?"

"It sounds stupid, but I actually have no idea," I admitted. The back of my neck wasn't exactly somewhere I checked often so it could've appeared any time between my pack's disappearance and the night before Neal took a picture to prove that I truly was an Omega.

"Oh," she let out a short, exasperated laugh. "Well, that's good to know."

I was expecting for her to remove her hands, but she didn't and instead continued to push against my muscles, making it feel like a massage. Guess I don't need to talk to relax myself; she's doing that just fine.

"The thing I was going to tell you a minute ago, before that stupid, cursed tattoo started bleeding again," I paused mid-sentence in order to exhale a sigh, "Is that my surname isn't actually Aquila... I lied about it."

"Everyone lies," Ember replied simply, and I could almost hear a shrug in her voice. "But why would you lie about your surname, unless you are on the run from those hunters?"

"You make it sound like I should be on the run from them." I spat back, my temper firing up quickly. "The Agency got me here, didn't they? Surely that's far enough away, at least for now? I told you I didn't kill them. Someone set me up, okay? God, Ember, why do you always have to complicate things like this?"

"I didn't mean to complicate things. Sorry for caring if you live or not." Her tone became cold, and I realised that she was only trying to ask why I lied about my surname, not accuse me of murdering my pack.

Pushing my palms against my eyes, I realised I had screwed up again. I wished I could see Ember's face in that moment. Here she was in the middle of the woods, trying to figure out who, or what, cursed a tattoo on the back of my neck.

Damn it, she does care, I thought stupidly. I was being such a dickhead — no wonder she keeps trying to avoid me.

"Look, Ember, I didn't mean to attack you like that... I don't know what I was thinking, and I guess that any mention of my pack or of those hunters just sets me on edge. So, I'm sorry for that, and you don't have to keep doing this."

"Oh, shut up!" She exclaimed. "Of course I'm going to keep doing this, just tell me about your surname already."

"Uh, okay then," I said, slightly taken aback. "I've never used my real surname after my parents both died, and I never had a surname until I found my pack. Being bumped around foster homes, you don't need to have a surname, or an identity at that."