Crossfire - a sizzling slow burn with supernatural powers

Passing through ordinary

Penny threw her arms around me when she saw me in the hallway in front of our lockers.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said.

Even Andrea, who wasn't big on public displays of emotions, gave me a quick hug, before grabbing a book from her locker and saying in a hushed tone,

"I'll see you later. I need to meet Dylan before class." Andrea turned and strode down the hallway and around a corner. Penny giggled at the expression on my face.

"Are they together?" I asked.

Penny nodded and pushed her glasses up.

"I know. It is supposed to be a good thing, but Andrea's sulky. And you, are you sure you are okay? Where have you been?"

I grabbed Penny's arm and we walked down the hallway arm in arm like we would do when we were younger. This is what I would miss the most, if I was completely in the empowered world. Walking to class with Penny. Worrying about a test and the enormity of the future waiting on the other side of graduation. Not fighting for survival or getting caught in nets of the shrewd and powerful. Not fighting. Period. Not having to lie to the people around me.

"I wish I could tell you everything that's been going on, but I would probably bore you out of your mind," I tried with a smirk.

"I doubt that, Harper, but I respect you. You have an entirely different life after meeting Hot Stuff, but if you need me, I'm here for you."

I squeezed Penny's arm in semblance of a hug.

"Hot Stuff? I guess Brandt is hot," I giggled as we entered the classroom and I thought back to last night. Penny rolled her eyes. Thank goodness for alleviating properties of humor and teenage gossip.

"Harper, long time, no see," my teacher commented as she saw me in class. I simply nodded and grimaced in order to avoid her attention.

"I understand you have a free period after lunch," she continued, "please, report here and I'll give you the test you missed."

There was no question and no mercy. I had hoped for a little time to cram, but unfortunately that wasn't an option. So I spent my free period taking the test, I had missed. It sucked, but I kind of appreciated the systemic structure. There was a test I had missed, and now I had to take it. Rational and easy. Ordinary.

After school, I went home with a load of homework that I needed to catch up on, and met my mother in front of the house. She was fiddling with a small suitcase and seemed surprised to see me.

"I was going to send you a text from the airport. I have to go to Chicago for a couple of days. You'll go to the Duncans' and stay."

I must have rolled my eyes or given away my opinion in another way.

"It is a good thing," she said, with less confidence than she started out with.

She opened the trunk of her car and lifted her suitcase up.

"I already told Neil you were coming, so no dragging it out. Go."

She offered me a smile and settled in the driver's seat. I gave her a cordial wave as she drove off.

I would have enjoyed having the house for myself and massive amount of homework I had to do. More than that, I enjoyed the solitude of house when my mom wasn't there. That was when I felt most grounded and most myself. The positive side to staying at the Duncan mansion was Brandt. Anytime I was near him, I felt a different kind of completeness. I thought of our reunion yesterday and felt my cheeks warm. We hadn't talked about sex, and in a way we didn't have to talk about it. We were together because we both wanted to and were comfortable with the notion. It wasn't awkward; it was intimate and emotional. I smiled for myself. It was my first time and it felt like a worthy first time.

Brandt was waiting for me at the front door of the Duncan mansion when I pulled up, looking like himself with a strong and casual stance and that smoldering look he had perfected and that made me blush.

"Hi sweetheart," he welcomed me. The moment he could reach me he pulled me close to his body and kissed me. The pressure of his hands against my lower back combined with his hungry kiss made me melt.

"How do you do that?" I asked him, when we broke our kiss. He seemed to know or at least guess what I was talking about.

"Expertise and instinct." He spoke with that telltale smirk that gave him a mischievous expression.

"Na, you've succumbed to my female wiles," I professed with my own smirk. Brandt kissed my cheek with tenderness.

"That must be it," he said. He didn't need to win the argument, because he had the girl. He had me.

We entered the mansion together with his arm around my shoulder. How different it felt in comparison to the first time I was here. I was a completely different person now and I realized that I liked this new Harper.

Brandt showed me to the guest room where I had stayed the first time I was here.

"Will you join me for a run tomorrow morning?"

I nodded, even though the thought of an early morning run was as exciting as a taking a missed test, but Brandt understood me. I needed tonight for homework and to be alone and then we could see each other tomorrow. So far, so good and without Neil Duncan's shadow lurking above us.

"See you at 6," Brandt chirped. I may have groaned.