Sounds of Fire

12

Derek was waiting not so patiently downstairs for his sister and Lady Grace to get home. They had been gone a while, and aside from his anxiety of having Anatolia away for so long, he wondered how their date went. He wasted time in the kitchen, avoiding Nan and the other cooks skillfully, snatching any little thing he could get his hands on. His stomach rumbled. It wasn't until he managed to swipe a whole bag of grapes that he heard the front doors open and shut, and the voice of a housemaid that happened to be in the foyer greeting the mistress of the house.

Anatolia gave a curt nod to the housemaid in front of her, slightly surprised at seeing her, and hoped that her face didn't look as hot as it felt. The voices had told her that someone, a few people, had seen her and Lady Grace making out like teenagers at the mall. It was unwelcome information but she hoped that whoever saw was of no importance. The voices confirmed that the onlookers were no one of high standing, but that one of them acted suspiciously. That person had a 'soul devourer', which was the voices' odd way of saying camera. Anatolia had learned that bit of information after a long, exasperating talk with them.

Whoever had the camera, Anatolia assumed, was a pervert. Since they were not high socially, she figured it was a good assumption. She hoped she was right.

Bringing Anatolia out of her thoughts, Lady Grace slyly ran her hand down Anatolia's spine when the housemaid wasn't looking, then took her leave, leaving Anatolia feeling hotter than before. Anatolia kept her mouth shut and let Lady Grace go. A moment later, Derek came into the foyer holding a bag of freshly washed grapes, water dripping onto the floor. The housemaid chastised him but he shrugged and kept eating. Anatolia shook her head and took the bag from him, an overflow of water dropping onto the floor. She apologized to the housemaid and took Derek upstairs.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me," Derek chuckled, allowing his sister to push him down the hall to his room. He plopped down in front of his artifact desk and waited for Anatolia to get inside.

She shut his door then grinned herself silly. She could still feel Lady Grace's lips planting too-soft kisses over her collarbone and the breathing exhales of her middle name coming from Lady Grace's mouth.

"I don't see any hickeys," Derek mused. Then he wiggled his eyebrows. "Unless you have a few where I can't see..."

Anatolia would have punched her brother but she didn't feel like it. She didn't have hickeys, anyway. Her and Lady Grace got rather intimate, but they didn't want marks, so they contented themselves with licks and light kisses. The time did not disappoint.

"We just hung out," Anatolia said, nonchalant. "Nothing special."

"You're practically glowing. I'd say whatever you two did was pretty special."

Anatolia shrugged a shoulder. She sat down on Derek's bed and looked up at him sitting at his artifact desk. She stared at him for a long time. As much as she wanted to gossip and blush and giggle, there was something more important to talk about. Something that Derek wouldn't like. "Someone took pictures of us."

A moment passed. Derek's face turned dark. "Who?"

"Some pervert, I think. The voices told me when we were leaving so it was too late for me to do anything about it."

"That's not good. What if it wasn't some pervert?"

"The voices didn't tell me otherwise. They said they weren't of high social standing so I want to believe that it was only a weirdo."

Derek scratched his forehead. "Someone could have hired this lowlife."

Anatolia had thought of that, too, but it had made her angry. She didn't want it to be the truth. If it were, then she herself was to blame. She had shut out the chatterings of the voices when the photos were taken. "Maybe."