Drowning with Fire #3 ✔

Chapter 14 - Ember

I watched my flustered face in the mirror – so this mess is what he sees every time things get heated...

As if he could read my thoughts, he smirked against my skin, "I like seeing the hot mess you get in."

Blushing deeply, I turned around and quickly pressed my lips to his, before backing away again. I took his hand and pulled him towards my bed, lying down beside him, facing one another.

"The last time we were both here, we came so close to going all the way... Do you remember?" Theo breathed out, tracing his fingers over my cheek.

"How could I forget." I laughed lightly, trying to fight back the deepening, reddening blush.

"Why are you embarrassed?" His hand rested on my waist and pulled me a little closer.

"Because I'm worried my mum can hear us." I mouthed out awkwardly.

"Well, she can just hear us sleeping then." He pulled the covers over us and shuffled closer to me – leading me to turn around so we were spooning.

"You sure you can cope with this position?" I bit my lip as I turned around to see Theo's face pinkening ever so slightly.

"I don't know what you mean, Em. My self-control is incredible." He smiled and kissed my cheek softly.

"Yeah...r-i-ight." I yawned, mouth stretching wide as my words faltered.

"Just go to sleep, beautiful." He turned the light out and wrapped his arm around my waist lightly.

"Goodnight, Theo..." I found myself drifting off faster than I'd expected. "I love you..."

"Love you too." He settled down behind me and I soon fell asleep, safe in his arms.

~

At breakfast the next morning, I sat staring at my cereal bowl. As I watched a single cornflake being submerged into the milk, I caught myself thinking about Kaden.

Did the darkness that's taken over his soul do it quickly or over a long period of time? Did it hurt him as he transitioned from a boy we all knew and loved to a vicious and cruel monster?

Ever since we talked about Kaden last night, my mind had been elsewhere other than Theo.

But, judging from the contemplative look on his face, so had his mind.

My spoon abruptly clattered to the table, startling the both of us.

"What can we do to help Kaden whilst we're here?" I asked directly, hoping that inciting a conversation between the two of us would progress our individual thoughts.

Theo blew out a shaky breath, "We need to go back to the start of all this – back to where he had that accident on Lake Oldoy."

Staring down at my cereal once again, I frowned into my cornflakes. "Do you really think there's going to be anything left after all these years?"

I highly doubted it. Kaden's accident, and consequently his almost-death, had happened two years ago. Whilst it was hardly a decade, so many things could change in a matter of months – never mind years.

"Because of what happened there, I'm positive I'll be able to pick up a few chemosignals." Theo nodded to himself, before clarifying, "Stronger emotional events leave behind more leads and more chemosignals."

"Like...what?" Werewolf shit still confused me more than necessary; there just seemed to be zero logic behind any of it.

"Like the electrical rooms where my pack were kept, the rooms the hunters held you and me in, the lake where you were reborn, the hu–. Uhm, yeah." He glanced at me, "All of those places will have lasting chemosignals for years and years because of the monumental events that happened there. The emotional stresses endured and the pain inflicted."