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

"That could've been dinner." He grumbled, sheathing his weapon.

I grimaced. He wasn't wrong.

Dimitri turned around and walked in the opposite direction I had come. I followed his lead into the kitchen. There were countertops and cabinets, a few stoves and large sinks. Cutlery was piled in a few of the basins and littered the cracked tile floor. Shattered plates and glass was also covering a few of the white tiles.

"Careful." I called in warning, stepping over the debris.

"Nothing back here." Dimitri called from somewhere in the area.

A few moments later he emerged from a large walk in freezer. "From what I can see the place was ransacked pretty recently. I'm surprised."

I scowled. "How can you tell?"

Dimitri moved aside with a condescending look on his face, like he was repeating something to an incompetent child. He gestured to the floor of the freezer.

"I have eyes." He said snidely.

Despite what I would've liked to do, I followed what he was looking at and saw a scuffle of muddy footprints overlapping each other.

"Damn." I muttered, coming closer.

The prints varied in sizes, looked like there could've been kids with these people. Another thing, it seemed like there were a lot of footprints.

"How many do you think there were?" I wondered out loud.

Dimitri shook his head. "Hard to tell. Maybe ten. This could be a variation of different people on separate days you know."

He was speaking logically and I understood completely. But the footprints just seemed so fresh . . . as if the people were stomping around just a few hours ago.

The click of a gun readying for fire sounded behind my head. I stiffened as my back straightened out, my flames registering hot and angry in my palms. Moving nothing but my eyes I looked at Dimitri,  who had his hands casually at his sides. He was standing very nonthreatening, but I knew the weapons he had tucked away.

"All your weapons in front of us, now." A commanding female voice ordered from behind us.

I swallowed, knowing full well that with a gun pointed to the back of my head and probably a lot more than just these two people behind us, if we didn't listen, we would be shot.

"I said give me your fucking weapons or I'll shoot." She threatened again, and very slowly I pulled my knife out of its sheath, reluctantly dropping it to the ground.

"Keep going. I know you have more." The woman demanded.

"I have no more." I snapped, but didn't dare move.

I wasn't sure how many people were behind us and if I would be able to take enough of them out with my fire before getting shot. I could act quickly, but too many numbers and it would be the end for me, and Dimitri. I had him to protect now too. I also really did not like using my fire against people. Half Deads weren't people anymore, but these were living and breathing human beings. Very different from a bunch of shrieking corpses.

Silently, Dimitri began emptying his artillery behind him. He carefully placed the guns on the ground but let the knifes clatter. When he was done, there was at least three guns on the ground and two knives.

"Very good." I woman said, and I felt the barrel of a pistol jab the back of my head. "Turn around."

Dimitri and I turned around in synchronization, facing a teenage girl a little shorter than me. She had strawberry blonde hair and brown eyes that were analyzing us with scrutiny. She wore dark blue jeans, a green shirt, and held a gun pointed at our faces. She was a lot younger than what I had originally thought by her voice. She looked to be only sixteen. There were two other people with her, one girl and one guy, both middle aged and pointing guns at us.

"Let me see your fucking hands." She ordered. We obeyed silently, showing her our hands palm up.

I had to resist clenching my fists. They were itching to release some of my fire. I held it at bay, knowing that it would only take one twitch of my finger for my flames to pour out. I hoped this girl knew what she was doing and wouldn't fire at us. I didn't like using my ability against humans, but with a loaded weapon at my nose, I wouldn't have any other choice.

"Where have you two come from and how did you get here?" The girl asked. 

"Different places because we are two different people. We have come from separate groups." Dimitri provided.

I was grateful he didn't give away the location of Isabella's group, even if Trenton didn't care if I was dead or not. When it boiled right down to it, it was Isabella's group and not Trenton's.

"I'm not going to ask you again. Where the fuck do you both come from?" She sneered at us.

I didn't look at Dimitri and he didn't look at me. Judging by the silence that followed, it seemed as if neither one of us was about to answer her question.

"So you're the strong willed typed eh?" The girl mocked, cocking her gun. "Well how's this for strong willed? If you don't answer me right now I will blow your brains out." She said, addressing me. I kept my expression blank, even though my temperature jumped up a notch. "And my friend here will blow your brains out." She stared at Dimitri, a nasty smile curling her chapped lips. 

"You might want to rethink that." Dimitri cautioned.

The girl narrowed her eyes at him, the smile on her face vanishing. "Who are you to tell me what the fuck to do?"

"Oh I'm no one." He turned and his gaze rested on me. A wicked smile spread across his face, and I caught my breath. What was he-

"Then I suggest you answer the fucking question. I don't think you two quite get it. I have no qualms about shooting a human. I've killed thousands of those corpses out there, and a human to me is no different. So you might want to rethink that smart mouth of yours."

The whole time she spoke, she stared right at Dimitri. His eyes were still on me, encouraging and waiting for me to do something. It took me a few moments before it sank in.

"Listen, we don't want to hurt you." I spoke to the girl.

Her eyes flashed to me in anger. "Did I say you could fucking speak?"

Seems like she was the one with the smart mouth, not Dimitri. I continued anyway.

"We came in here looking for anything we could get. We didn't know it was your territory." I explained calmly.

 She scowled at me, her eyes squinted as if she was trying to see me better. After a few seconds of staring, her eyes widened, her mouth fell open, and she dropped her gun. It fired as it hit the ground, shooting one of her counterparts in the calf. They doubled over, gritting their teeth and sucking in a sharp breath.

"What the fuck Kimberly?!" The wounded person shouted.

"Oh god." Kimberly whispered, her eyes wide and glued to my face. I looked at Dimitri in confusion, who was grinning at me in appraisal.

"It's-it's her." She said, her hand going to her mouth. "Sirenia."

"That's right." Dimitri confirmed triumphantly.

The people who had arrived with Kimberly dashed for the exit, the one with a bullet in their leg limping. With a bloodcurdling scream, Kimberly followed after them, leaving her gun on the ground.

I was looking around in bewilderment, my hands still in the air. What had just happened?

Dimitri dropped his arms to his sides, the same winning smile on his face as he collected his weapons from the floor. He picked up mine as well, handing it to me.

"Nice work." He congratulated.

"I-I don't understand. Why did they run? And how did the leader know my name?" I asked, taking my knife and putting it back in its sheath.

A lot of surprises have been thrown my way these past two days, so you would think I wouldn't be too shocked if people ran from me screaming in terror. Still, it wasn't something that happened often.

"Word travels far Siren. You should know that." He said simply, grabbing the gun that Kimberly had dropped and securing it in a holster.

We ended up finding two bags packed with canned food left behind by Kimberly and her cronies. I still possessed Trenton's watch and I was debating what to do with it, but since it was getting late we decided we would break in to our new food supply.

 With a can of green beans for me and corn for Dimitri, we sat on the floor and ate with our hands. We didn't trust the utensils left behind in the restaurant. Really, who would?

 "I wonder how long Kimberly's group was holed up in here." I mused, spooning a bean out with two of my fingers and popping it in my mouth.

 Dimitri shrugged, his mouth full of corn. "All I can say is that they sure didn't have the place secured very well."

 He was right, we all but walked in like we owned the place. You would think if someone cared about their settlement, they would defend it.

 Dimitri finished off his food and chucked the empty can behind his shoulder. I was still working on mine, so I watched him unload his bag and begin to clean his guns. He checked the ammo first before continuing on. One gun was completely empty. He rolled his eyes.

 "Figures. The little girl was probably pissing her pants hoping we wouldn't call her bluff about shooting us." He said in irritation, loading Kimberly's gun with his own ammunition.

 "No wonder she ran screaming." I added.

 Dimitri chuckled. "True."

 I stood after finishing my beans and began to look the place over again, even though we had already done a once over. From the looks of it Kimberly and her people had only been there for a short time. The place was in complete disarray from others who had made it through here before. Considering the empty cabinets in the establishment, the food Dimitri and I now possessed from Kimberly must've come from their own stockpile from whatever camp they had come from.

 I walked around the sizable dining area, checking outside the broken windows for signs of life. There were a few Half Deads stumbling around, some wild dogs feeding on a long dead carcass of a human. Other than that there was nothing. The Dead outside obviously mustn't have realized we were in here yet, and I intended to keep it that way.

 The sun was setting. Dimitri and I hadn't talked about where to go after our little adventure with Trenton. We sort of just holed up here for the night. I knew this, the restaurant and the arrangement I had with Dimitri was nothing permanent.

 I wasn't even sure how we had joined together. I knew why. Felix had obviously told Dimitri about me, which made