Smolder by Abigail Livinghouse (best young adult book series TXT) 📕

 “You can’t be pissed at him for doing this.” I said to Trenton. He paused and stopped struggling, going still for a moment.

  “What?” He blanched in shock.

 I let go of him and held onto his hands, my eyes calm and reproaching. “You can’t tell me that it wasn’t running through your mind to shoot him before he could shoot me.”

It was like a curtain fell across Trenton’s face. His blue eyes went dark and his expression became defensive. He pulled his hands out of mine and began to back up down the hall.

“I would never have killed one of our own.” Trenton said gravely.

I swallowed against the sudden lump in my throat. Was he really saying he would’ve let Nathan kill me in order to avoid killing Nathan? Not possible . . . 

“Trenton-“

“He was going to kill Siren without a doubt.” Dimitri chimed in.

He was no longer tense but even leaning once again against the frame of the staircase. He had his gun casually holstered and his knife tucked away. Dimitri hadn’t even touched his weapons to defend himself against Trenton?

“Excuse me?” Trenton asked, his eyebrows raised. Dimitri shrugged.

“Your buddy was going to kill her.” He jutted a thumb at me. “I wasn’t about to let that happen. I don’t know if you didn’t have the balls to do it or you really would’ve let him kill Siren, and I don’t really give a damn either way. The point is, she’s alive.” He said matter of fact.

I was grimacing in the realization and pain that Trenton would’ve let Nathan, the man who hated me from the start, live while I would lose my life. It wasn’t that I was a more important human being than Nathan had been, but I thought I was important enough to Trenton to save.

 “It doesn’t fucking matter.” I spat. Both boys looked at me, Dimitri waiting for what I was going to say next and Trenton with the same surprised yet uninterested look on his face.

“I came here to see if you were all still here and alive. Obviously you are very much alive and still here. So, I’d say it’s about time for me to leave.” I looked at Dimitri, who nodded in agreement.

I took about two steps before Trenton broke.

“Please Siren, don’t leave. We won’t be able to make it without you.” He begged, his eyes wide and fearful. I sneered.

“All I am to you is another body, another person to keep track of. I don’t want to create unnecessary baggage for you Trenton. Nathan was right from the beginning. I shouldn’t have come here.” What I had just said I knew would hurt him and regretted it even as the words came out of my mouth.

By the way his face crumbled in defeat it proved that I had succeeded. 

“Siren, please-“

 “Don’t waste your breath.” I spat, and followed Dimitri as he began to descend the staircase. 

“Siren!” Isabella’s commanding voice travelling up the hallway stopped me in my tracks.

She was bounding up to us and stopped at Trenton’s side. She assessed Nathan’s body in her usually cool demeanor, but I could detect a bit of alarm in her brown eyes.

“What happened? Are you alright? Are you hurt? Bitten?” Isabella’s stream of questions seemed to have trouble stopping once it got started.

 It seemed a little insensitive to ask if I’d just been bitten, but I was used to it. Trenton and Nathan had asked me the same thing before I was allowed near this group.

“I’m fine in a sense. There’s nothing to worry about.” I said rationally.

Her eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Are you leaving us?”

It was another question I wasn’t prepared for. Dimitri placed his hand on my shoulder, his greenish eyes encouraging me to speak. I shook off his touch, straightening my shoulders.

“Yes. It’s a choice I’ve made entirely on my own.” Not trueeeee my subconscious tittered in a sing song voice. I ignored it.

“Please just let me go.” I nearly begged. Isabella’s expression softened, and she reached out and unexpectedly took my hands in hers.

 “If you feel it’s your time to leave, then who am I to stop you?” She mused.

 “Isabella”, Trenton spoke up, scowling. “You can’t be serious.”

She looked at him, all calm cool and her natural born leader self and nodded.

“I’m completely serious. We took Siren in as one of her own. If it was Mary or Jess who wanted to leave, I wouldn’t stop them either. Just because we believe they belong here doesn’t mean we have a right to strip them of their free will. If she ever wants to come back, she is more than welcome.” Isabella squeezed my fingers, smiling tenderly at me.

“I have a feeling about you Siren. You’re going to do great things.” She said conspiratorially.

 “I know.” Dimitri piped up.

For some reason I found myself blushing at his comment, and surprised at Isabella’s. How would she know?

“Isabella”, Trenton panicked. He was looking from me to the leader in desperation, his faze finally rested on me, pleading. “Don’t do this Siren. Please.”

I extended my arms, gesturing to the empty space around me. “If I mean so little to you, what difference would my departure make?”

I didn’t wait to hear his answer or even look at his face. I just walked down the stairs, with Dimitri following behind.

*          *          *

“Where do you expect to go?” Dimitri asked not mere seconds after we had gotten out of the hospital.

Trenton hadn’t tried to come after me and I hadn’t expected Isabella to, considering she supported me. Knowing how Trenton really felt was like a fresh slap to the face. I seemed to be getting a lot of those lately.

I thought he had cared about me at some point as more than just another member of his group. That’s what I had thought. Obviously I was much farther away from reality than expected.

A few Half Deads were stumbling towards us about twenty feet away. For the time being we ignored them, but my fire was always front and center.

“I don’t know yet.” I admitted. Dimitri looked ahead, seemingly to notice I wasn’t in the mood for questions.

A few minutes of silent walking and Dimitri killing the Half Deads efficiently with his knife, I realized that I truly owed him my life.

“Thank you.” I said quietly. He gave me an odd look.

“For shooting Nathan. You saved my life.” I elaborated.

Dimitri shrugged, his strange eyes on the horizon. “I only did what your friend could not. It was anything a decent person would do.”

I took offense on Trenton’s behalf from Dimitri’s insults but then I stopped myself. What was the point? Why try to defend him when he didn’t give a damn about me? Instead, I agreed with Dimitri.

“True.”

We were going in the opposite direction of the old hospital and the Haven. I wasn’t sure where we were headed, or when Dimitri had decided he was going to stay by my side. Maybe it was my name that kept him around.

I was obviously known well as “Sirenia” in the Haven, word spread unknowingly by Felix. I could protect Dimitri-well I had to consider that. With a little trick Felix had done, I couldn’t even produce a spark. How could I count myself as being able to protect someone else when I couldn’t even protect myself?

My flames seared at my fingers, showing that they were very much there. I clenched my hands into fists to keep them at bay. I knew they were there now, but what had Felix done earlier that had basically extinguished them? If he could do it, then who’s to say someone else didn’t also know how?

“They’re gonna be okay you know.” Dimitri yanked me out of my train of thought. I blinked, looking at him in confusion.

“What?”

“Your friends. They’re gonna be okay.” He repeated exactly what I had thought he said.

I stopped walking, standing there in numb silence.

“How could you possibly know?” I whispered.

Dimitri stopped walking as well, turning and looking at me with solemn eyes that were a sparkling greenish amber. I could’ve sworn they were changing color.

“I just do.” He said gently, picking up his pace and leaving me in the dust.

I hurried to catch up to him, and once I was by his side again, I took a moment to assess our surroundings, pushing his mysterious comments to the back of my mind for now.

We were walking on the edge of a winding road around a scattering of shops and restaurants. It was a center just a few miles away from the one the hospital belonged to. I observed the buildings. Long shops but taking up no more than a few sidewalk squares in order to make room for the stores connected to each other on both sides.

Windows were cracked and broken, some baring signs saying HELL IS AMONG US or TAKE WHAT YOU NEED, IT WON’T HELP YOU ANYWAY. And various other warnings. Many of the storefronts were empty, their manikins stripped and displays torn apart. However, others were intact and seemingly untouched except for their shattered windows.  I stopped, Dimitri coming to a halt as well.

“What is it?” He inquired as he scanned the shops. “I doubt there’s anything here. Seems like these places were picked clean long ago.”

I shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt to try.”

I knew from experience that some places held hidden treasures such as food and on the rare occasion, weapons people had left behind in their hurry to leave. Once when I was with Cassandra we had stopped at a gas station to scope things out and I found a mint condition rifle, fully loaded and ready for action underneath the counter. I didn't stop to think what happened to the owner for him to leave it behind.

No matter, ever since then I've learned to thoroughly check places out before disregarding them as empty. You never know.

Dimitri didn't argue. He followed me as we walked up to an old Mexican restaurant. The name of the place was too worn to see and the lettering had been ripped to shreds by the weather. I was hoping we would be able to find some canned goods or something in here. Usually restaurants were just barren nowadays, what with how long ago the Plague had hit. But like I said, sometimes you get lucky.

The door was partly ajar, so we were able to sneak a peek inside. It was dim, lit only by the few streaks of sunlight filtering in through the broken windows. Tables and chairs were turned over on their backs and sides. A small podium greeted the entrance, where a hostess would've stood. The place seemed to go back pretty far, with dusty booths and utensils strewn about. It looked like we weren't the only ones who had the idea of stopping here, and who knows when the last visitor had arrived.

"This place is a dump." Dimitri stated as we slipped inside.

I moved behind the podium and ducked under, only finding faded menus. I straightened up again to see Dimitri