Fearless Fiery Beauty

Chapter 4: Hatching Plans

When Edana finally arrived at home, Jerry was already waiting in her driveway.  She pulled her bike into the garage and grabbed the few bags that fit into the seat, readjusted the bags in her arms and walked up to the driver’s side of Jerry’s car as he rolled the window down.

“Hey Jer, sorry I’m running a little late; I got held up at the mall.  I just need to get changed quickly, but if you want, you can come inside to wait for me.  If you don’t mind,” she added after a second.

“Yeah, sure,” he replied, climbing out the car and locking it behind him.

They walked in and went straight to Edana’s bedroom.  Edana threw her shopping bags next to the duffel bag, to empty later, and walked into her wardrobe, while Jerry lay down on her bed.  Edana stripped down to her underwear – perfectly comfortable in Jerry’s presence – and went through her clothes.  She picked out a pair of baggy, camo capris, a black tank top and a pair of black and white converses.  She got changed quickly, threw on some eyeliner and lip-gloss and left the wardrobe.  She lit up a cigarette, grabbed her handbag and led Jerry back out the house.

They got into his car and Edana immediately put on some music; she flipped through Jerry’s music and eventually stopped at Slept So Long by Korn.

Once again, lyrics pounded through the car sound system as they drove to the club.  Jerry didn’t know what was going on with Tracy and Craig either, so the entire drive was spent with them speculating what it could be.  Edana didn’t have time to call Tracy when she was at the mall, as, after she left the stairwell, she knew Darren was just looking for an opportunity to get her alone, and, although she could easily get away from him again, she wasn’t in the mood to argue with a vampyre, so she couldn’t go over to Tracy’s house.  Instead, she did the shopping she had planned to do and decided that she would see Tracy at the club, and phone her if she decided not to go today.

When they arrived at the Bonfire, Snake parked the car in his usual spot and him and Belzy walked confidently into the club.  They were both surprised to see Flame, Tiger and Crusher all waiting for them in the lounge area.  They had all been here just the day before; they almost never came two days in a row, unless Crusher had a fight booked and wanted to put in extra training or Bonfire Breakers had an upcoming gig and Flame had to come in for practice.

“Hey guys what’s up?  Since when are we all here together two days in a row?”  Belzy tried a joke to lighten the mood.

Flame’s sadness beat at her so that it took even more concentration than usual not to look into her mind and see the cause of her distress.  Crusher and Tiger looked livid, but where Tiger was comforting a crying Flame, Crusher looked like he wanted to punch something.

Her joke didn’t work and suddenly Crusher jumped up and stormed out the room.

“What’s wrong, Flame?  You know you can talk to us,” Snake consoled as he sat down next to Flame.  Belzy stood fixedly in the doorway, too scared to get any closer lest the barrage of emotions overcome her iron-self-control.

“Thunder d-d-dumped m-me,” Flame sobbed.

Belzy’s entire body froze: Thunder was Craig’s fighter name.  Snake threw a worried glance in Belzy’s direction a second before she stormed out.  Snake jumped up immediately, going after her, and Tiger and Flame followed suit soon after, with Flame tucked securely under Tiger’s shoulder.

When Belzy found Thunder, he was in the middle of a loud argument between himself and Crusher.   Just before Belzy reached them, Crusher pulled back his fist, ready to throw his first punch, but Belzy wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction: she wanted it.