Things That Go Bump At Night Part 23

"How often is time to time?"

"Couple times a week. Unlike you, not everyone believes they have to have a relations.h.i.+p to have the s.e.x. Besides, I don't want to play second fiddle to you."

"Okay, A; I don't think everyone has to be in a relations.h.i.+p to have the s.e.x, just so happens I found the girl that I want both with, and B; from what I saw last night, you're not a second fiddle. She didn't look one bit embarra.s.sed at being caught with you by me."

I heard Ryan sigh roughly.

"I don't know. She's complicated. How do you do it with Remi? You make it look too easy."

"Oh-ho! You cannot base anything you do off Remi and me. We are pure undiluted chemistry, my friend. Well, that and there's my irresistible s.e.x appeal."

Ryan snorted out a laugh.

"You mean, her irresistible s.e.x appeal?"

"Hey, now. I am one s.e.xy guy." Jake admonished, both boys chuckled. "I don't know dude. Remi is Remi. She's amazing. She doesn't talk much, so when she does, you really listen, because every time she opens that mouth, she's interesting. She's intelligent, and funny. Ohhh, and she's mean. I find that so freakin' hot." I found myself really appreciating this conversation. "There is a thousand different things I love about Remi that I could tell you about, like for example, there is this mole-"

"Okay!" Ryan shouted. "Let's go ahead and keep that a secret between you and her." Jake laughed and behind the door I blushed. I knew what mole he was talking about. "Actually, I think I'd kinda like to hear about her mole."

There was laughing and scuffling until Ryan yelled uncle.

Jake continued.

"She has such an open mind. I mean, look how quickly she took to demons and hunting. Remember when we found you? You'd been fighting them for several years on your own and you still thought we were all bat s.h.i.+t crazy."

Now Ryan laughed.

"I still do. But, you're right, she doesn't freak out very easily, does she?"

"No. She amazing. And we fight too. A lot. But it's part of it all, part of me, part of Remi. I think most people find her overwhelming. Even her silence can be intimidating. But it's good for me, it's like that's exactly what I need, you know? I'm built for it. For her. She fits me. And that's what you need to find. You need to find that s.p.a.ce where you and Ana fit."

"Sounds like a lot of work, brother. I think maybe I'll just stick to s.e.x."

"Oh come on, if we all stuck to easy then we'd been eaten by demons years ago."

They laughed and I heard their voices move off as they went out the back door. I stood where I was for a time, basking in everything that Jake had just said.

I wondered when he planned on telling me how he felt about me.

Or when would I finally tell him?

I was pondering that later as I sat at the back bench in the shed cleaning my guns yes, my coolness transformation was so complete that I could now take apart, clean and put back together five different types of guns- when Jake strode in through the big sliding door. I smiled at his c.o.c.ky swagger, watched with amus.e.m.e.nt as he approached Ryan, who was busy putting weights on a bar for bench pressing, and pants him.

"d.a.m.n it Wagner!" Ryan yelled, unable to retaliate, with the weight in his hands and his shorts around his ankles.

I cracked up laughing. Jake was chuckling when he took the stool next to me.

"You're terrible." I giggled. Jake shrugged.

"And you love it. So, hey. Have you given any thought to Dane's Halloween party this weekend?" Jake began to take apart his own gun.

I wrinkled my nose.

"I don't know. Do we have to dress up?"

"No, we don't have to, but don't you think it would be fun?"

"What would I go as? I don't want to be s.l.u.tty!" I warned him as he opened his mouth to respond. He snapped it shut and chuckled again.

"Well, you could be s.e.xy." He suggested.

"What's the difference?"

"There's a huge difference, you are s.e.xy."

Awww, wasn't he sweet?

"Give me some suggestions."

"Victoria's Secret model." He said immediately.

"That falls under the s.l.u.tty category." I warned him. He pouted, so I tipped my head in his direction and whispered conspiratorially "Though...we could save that idea for later." I suggested. Jake looked at me adoringly then clutched at his chest and fell from his stool.

"You are so s.e.xy it's killing me." He gasped from where he lay on the floor. I giggled.

"Did you finally finish him off?" Ryan asked from where he was finally bench pressing. I looked down at Jake then to Ryan.

"No, he's still breathing."

"You really have to work on your follow through, Rem." Ryan grunted.

"What's wrong buddy?" Jake said pulling himself back up to his stool. "Are you s.e.xually frustrated today? Did you not get to finish last night?"

"I knew it!" Ana cried from where she'd been jogging silently on her treadmill. "I knew you weren't going to let it go!" Her water bottle zipped across the room and thudded against Jake's shoulder.

"OW!" He laughed, rubbing his palm over the spot.

"How's that for follow through?" Ana asked Ryan, her eyes lit with a smile that she tried to keep under control.

"Nice!" Ryan called.

Our laughter died as Mr. Wagner came through the large door, he looked neither angry, nor worried, or even upset, but there was something about his thoughtfulness that caught our attention, it had Jake standing from his stool, but he didn't leave my side.

"What's going on, dad?"

Mr. Wagner approached the bench where Jake and I were working on our guns, Ana abandoned her treadmill and Ryan set up his bar to join us.

"I've been doing some research for the past couple weeks." He looked mostly at me as he spoke, and I felt a slight leap in excitement. Would I be getting some answers? "Granted I've had to be very discreet, I did not want to alert anyone to even the possibility that you might be here." I knew he meant here in the all-encompa.s.sing sense and not just "here in my home". "We still don't know what the outcome of anyone knowing about you will be yet; but my vague questions were met with vague answers. So I've come up with educated theories."

I was waiting on baited breath.

"So, let's hear them." Apparently Jake was too, he crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes were riveted on his father's face.

"I'm still not clear on how you became, or were chosen to be, the one. I've gotten no answers there. But as far as your abilities, I believe that we can channel that light that came from you into a more centralized area, like your hands for example. They could in themselves become a weapon."

"How would I do that? I haven't been able to recreate what happened. I don't know how to bring it back."

"I'm trying to figure that out. In theory you should be able to tap into it and harness it with practice, but I understand the problem is finding it again. I'm afraid that brings me to my second theory."

"Which is?" Jake frowned, he instinctively took a step closer to me.

"There is a possibility that you'll only be able to produce the light in dire situations. Like what we went through in those woods."

Silence greeted that.

Awesome. So in order to use the one weapon we had that could wipe out large numbers of demons in just one fell swoop Jake and I would have to be moments away from death. Or maybe it was just Jake's life I had to see in danger before I could make it work. I wasn't positive if my own life had played any part in the miracle.

"But..." I processed what Mr. Wagner said, couldn't accept that G.o.d awful second theory, so I decided to stick with the first one. "You believe that there is a way to find this light in me again, and harness it as you said? Without...us" or just Jake "having to nearly die every time we want to tap into it?"

"In theory, yes."

"Okay, so how do we go about figuring out how to light me up on command?" I asked. I did not like that frown, he should seriously stop that.

"I don't know yet. I can't find out much more without raising suspicions."

"Well, what do you theorize would be the outcome if anyone found out about me?" I asked, I couldn't help but to take a sidebar with myself and notice that Jake was letting me do my own talking. I glanced at him, but he was looking to his dad, waiting for his answer. So I guess I asked a pretty dang good question.

"Well, I can only a.s.sume that our home office in Portland would most likely bring you in, the other home offices around the country would probably be alerted to your existence and I'm sure they would then work out a schedule to divvy up your time. You'd most likely be sent to the most demon riddled areas and work your way out from there. That's my theory."

I swallowed. That was a lot of a.s.suming. Okay, so researching for ways to light up on command was limited. We were going to have to figure this out ourselves because I certainly did not want the "home office" to take me away from Jake, or here; because I was actually starting to consider here my home. Mr. Wagner said he'd let us get back to work and as soon as he knew more he'd let us know. We all stood in silence for a few moment after he left.

Jake reached out and took my hand, gave it a squeeze.

"We'll figure it out." He a.s.sured me quietly.

I think I liked it better before Mr. Wagner had given us any information, but I squeezed Jake's fingers back and pretended to smile encouragingly.

Why couldn't anything in my life just be simple?

I glanced down at Jake's hand wrapped around mine.

Okay, so the most wonderful thing in my life was actually pretty simple. I needed to stop whining so much.

"Okay." I said looking up at Jake with a small smile, but my tone was filled with warning. "You can pick my Halloween costume, as long as all my bits and pieces are covered."

"Really?" The worry in his eyes was replaced with a smile.

"Yes, but I'm warning you Jake Wagner, if you turn me into a playboy bunny I will seriously be p.i.s.sed."

"Yeah, but...you wouldn't stay mad forever, right?"

"Jake!" I picked Ana's forgotten water bottle up off the floor and chased him from the shed.

13.

Turns out, Jake was cla.s.s all the way. I should have figured that cliche just wasn't his style, and there was no way in h.e.l.l he'd let his girl whether it was me or not, but FYI, thank G.o.d it's me- walk around looking anything but the cla.s.sy girl he thought her to be. There'd be no Victoria's Secret model or playboy bunny costume for me.

I was a cla.s.sy dame from the 1920's in a black silk sheath of a dress over-embroidered with red sequins granted the dress had a dangerously scandalous plunging neck and back line, he still liked s.e.xy after all- and a string of long pearls around my neck. Kendra slicked my hair back for me into a knot at the lower back of my head and made my lips dramatic with red lipstick was never an accessory I used since Jake was always wiping it off- and my makeup was a little more dramatic than usual.

Jake had whistled when he saw me. And if I could whistle yep, the whistle was as elusive to me as the single eyebrow hike- I would have done so right back. He was sporting a 1920's black with white pinstripe three piece suit. Of course, there was no tie, he'd simply wore a white tee s.h.i.+rt under his vest it was better than any tie in my opinion- a pair of s.h.i.+ned black shoes and a simple black fedora with a simple even blacker silk band.

Kendra couldn't tell us enough how much she hated us and wished she had a man to match costumes with. I reminded her that she did, that Dane was more than ready to kiss the ground she walked on but Kendra liked to play hard to get. Kendra herself was going as Sleeping Beauty and yes, true to girl-Halloween-costume-code she had s.e.xed it up. The standard pink dress that Aurora was known for barely went past Kendra's b.u.t.t, and her shoes were studded spiked heels.

At least she'd gotten the crown right.

The girls at the party weren't much different than Kendra. There was more flesh showing at Dane's party than on the skinemax channels on TV.

This party was similar to the first one I'd been to. Parking was a mess and the house was packed wall to wall with bodies. Drinks were flowing and people were either dancing, playing beer pong or taking turns at a piata shaped like donkey though I'm not really sure what a piata had to do with Halloween. Jake and I were consumed into the crowd. At one point we stood around a kitchen table and shots were handed out. I declined I was still nursing the first beer I'd been handed shortly after walking in the door. Jake accepted, but when everyone threw their shots back he dumped his into the beer gla.s.s of the guy next to him and slammed his shot gla.s.s down on the table with everyone else. They were none the wiser that he hadn't taken it. I smiled when he winked at me.

Kendra pulled me onto the dance floor and this time I was able to finish a whole dance or five- before getting sweaty enough to need a break. I'd gone in search of Jake when someone grabbed my arm from behind, I spun, already on the defense. Even more so when I saw it was Ben who was pulling on me.

"Peace." He said putting his hands up, palms towards me when I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What do you want Ben?"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." He explained, his expression told me he was sincere. I spied Jake around Ben, making his way towards us, his own expression grave.

"Apology accepted. Now you better skedaddle." I loved that Jake would defend my honor to the end, but the party was going so well that I didn't want to end the evening with a fight.

"What?" Ben asked, wasting precious seconds.

"Get out of here now." I ordered. Ben looked over his shoulder to where my gaze was riveted and swore under his breath, he beat feet just as Jake made it to us, his glare followed Ben through the crowd. I touched Jake's arm when it looked like he was going to continue after him.

"It's fine, Jake. He just apologized."

Jake still scowled after Ben for a moment, then grabbed my hand.

"Come with me." He led me through the crowd, nearly shoving people out of our way.

"Nothing happened Jake." I hissed at him as people tossed us dirty looks for shoving them around though, I do have to say, their looked turned from dirty to apologetic when they realized it was Jake and I doing the shoving. Yep, I was officially cool.

Jake didn't respond. He led me up the stairs and down a hallway where he turned into a room, closed the door and flicked on the light. I glanced around, we were in a girl's room and I watched as Jake went to a dresser and started pulling drawers until he found what he was looking for. He then tossed me a pair of...sweatpants? And was headed off to the closet before I could say a word.