Chapter 1

Parker Wildes was not a happy bunny.

She was cold, it was so windy that her dark and bouncy curls kept whipping in and around her glasses, hitting her in the eye so often she was sure she'd go blind (well, ok, more blind), and she was pretty sure she just heard a coyote yelping. She watched as a howling gust of wind caused a few golden leaves to scatter to the ground, and bit back a grunt as one flew into her face.
"Reid, would you fucking hurry up already?" she grunted, wrestling with the stubborn leaf.

" Couldn't you have waited till we got there?" Parker angrily ranted over her shoulder, careful not to turn around for fear of having her eyeballs melted at the sight of one of her best friends Reid Garwin relieving himself over the well-kept suburban garden of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson.
"You were late first so I don't know what you're getting so pissed about." He paused, and then called back to her, "who the fuck takes two hours to get ready anyways?"

"I didn't take two hours; I was done in like ten minutes. The other hour and fifty minutes were spent in blissful sleep until you busted into my room uninvited to drag me to some lame-ass party that no-one gives a shit about!" she whisper-shouted, her eyes still trained on the tree in front of her. She pushed her glasses back into place on the bridge of her nose, and let out a grunt of pure annoyance to Reid.

"Parks, chill. I'm done, finished like 2 minu- Ow! what the hell Parks?" He asked, rubbing his arm where she had just punched him.

"Why didn't you fucking say so then?" She muttered, and then cradled her hand to her chest. Damn, why did he have to have such a hard shoulder?

"Because, " Reid trailed off, moving a few steps away from her, as if he knew that his next words would earn him another bruise. "...Missy Thompson just finished unbuttoning her shirt" he winked, turning his attention away from Parker who was now nursing a sore hand and back to the now almost half-naked girl in question who was just about to remove her white undershirt, seemingly unaware of the lascivious eyes that watched from below.

"Is it going to be blue or pink this time?" Reid rubbed his hands together, staring intently up at the window, reminding Parker of those old silent film villains, the ones with the twisted moustaches and twisted minds who always planned to tie some helpless damsel to the nearby train tracks.

"Oh for fuck's sake Reid, you said you were just taking a piss, now is so not the time to be a creeper!"

"Would you chill? She invited me! Said she gets off on someone watching her" He wiggled his eyebrows and bit his lip in what he thought was a seductive move. To Parker he just looked like he stubbed his toe and was trying to hold the pain in.

True to form, Reid then started making loud girlish moans; his high-pitched gasps were making her stomach churn, and not in a good way. It was more than unsettling to hear those sounds coming from one of her childhood friends and she thanked all the gods in the world when he finally stopped those freakish moans. The look of pure innocence on his face, as if he hadn't just been making terrible sex noises, forced a giggle to burst from her lips. Soon the both of them were howling with laughter, clutching their sides in an effort to contain themselves.

"You brought me with you to keep the car company while you jacked off over some hydrangeas?" She asked, her giggle fit had finally calmed down but there was still a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

He shrugged.

He fucking just shrugged at her.

Anyone who had ever come across Parker would say that she was known for two things in the small town of Ipswich; the first being that she never really knew when to keep her mouth shut and the second was that she was incredibly quick to anger. It just happened. One minute she would be smiling and making some inappropriate joke, and the next she would just flip out.

She grabbed a hold of his ear sharply and began towing him back to the muddy black truck parked on the side of the rich suburban road.

"Fucking fuck. Let go! Fu-OW!"

Reid's pain filled howls did not go unnoticed. Loud and vicious barks mingled with his cries and the lights in the large manor had begun to turn one by one.

Missy was now at her window, clutching a blue towel to herself like she hadn't just been playing Daddy's Little Exhibitionist, her eyes were as wide as her mouth and her look of surprise as fake as her boobs. Parker didn't have to be a genius to know that in less than a minute, Harold Thompson would be at the door with a loaded shotgun in hand ready to blow a few holes into whichever Tom thought it would be a great idea to peep through the mayor's keyhole.

"Shit," she muttered, already making her way to the driver's side, "Car, Reid. Now!"

He didn't need to be told twice. Shooting one last look of longing at the now completely lit up house, Reid jumped into the passenger's seat beside her. The car sped away from their crime scene with a screech loud enough to wake the neighbours; both Parker and Reid were far from caring though, as their laughter could be heard even over the rumbling engine. Her annoyance currently forgotten in the thrill of a getaway. When there was a considerable distance between them and the angry mayor, and their laughter had died down to mere chuckles, Parker slowed down to only just above the speed limit.

"The mayor's daughter, Reid?! That's idiotic even for you." she asked. Her eyes narrowed, still trained on the road before her.

His response was nothing more than a sheepish smile.

She bit back an angry rant, and slowed the car a little. The last thing she needed right now was another ticket.

"Next time, I promise I'll tell you first!" Reid said.

Parker's thick black eyebrow arched, getting lost in the dark forest of curls that settled into a somewhat fringe. "Next time? I don't think there's going to be a next time. I doubt Mr. Thompson will keep those dogs chained up in the backyard anymore. Your little stunt probably earned those Alsatians front row tickets to see the up and coming 'Reid gets torn a new one' show."

"My stunt? You grabbed my ear!"

"At least that was all I fucking did!" she seethed. Seeing that he was getting ready to shoot back a retort, she added. "If you hadn't been such a creep, then maybe I wouldn't have to pull your ear like that!"

Realising that he had no way to win this one, he backed down. "Alright, fuck. I'm sorry ok?"

Parker smiled, knowing that she had won. Then again a victory against Reid was just as empty as no victory at all, it was like trying to fight a child.

"God, I swear sometimes you are just like Caleb," he scoffed.

"No way, if Caleb were here he would've-" She broke off, and frowned. "Shit!" her sudden exclamation almost made Reid hit the roof of the car.

"I told him we'd meet them at the cliffs like twenty minutes ago." She put the car back into gear, flooring it until they reached the edge of the forest.

That was where they left the car; its mud streaked body stuck out like a sore thumb amid the expensive, shiny BMWs and gold number plated Bentleys of the wealthy Spenser Academy students, all gathering to celebrate a final drunken farewell to their last days of summer. Though they were quite a distance away, Parker knew from the sounds of cheering and the glow of the fires that the party was in full swing. Whilst the other kids were following the sounds of a beer drinking contest, she and Reid kept walking. Past the path that led to the beach front, and further into the forest until the glow of the party fell far below the horizon, and they could no longer be seen. The ground they walked along was teeming with errant tree roots and debris, and on more than one account Parker had been moments away from planting face-first into the ground.

"I don't see why we couldn't just meet them down there," Parker grumbled, catching herself for the third time after her foot snagged on a broken branch. " But I guess it's more dramatic this way with all of us dropping in and cat-walking it down to the party"."

"Yeah, you know how he likes to show us off." Reid waved her off and chuckled.

"He likes the big entrance that only the Sons of Ipswich can make." She scoffed and rolled her eyes at the nickname given to her friends. Sons of Ipswich, she scoffed internally. She loved her friends to death but even she had to admit it was a stupid nickname, and a sexist one at that. She'd been part of this little group for all of her life but did she ever get any recognition for it? No. These bozos were still alive most of the time because of her and no one really cared.

Reid snickered again, but said no more. Parker knew that he understood she didn't mean anything by it. Between the five of them, it was a running joke how desperate Caleb was to keep up the mysterious and almost untouchable appearance of the Sons of Ipswich; his logic was that if they gave people the impression that they thought of themselves as gods, then so would everyone else thus they could still be in the public eye (there's that freaking ego thing again) whilst maintaining a strict sense of privacy. She hated to admit it but he was right, it was safer this way.

They still had another ten minutes until they reached the cliff where the others were waiting for them, and Parker had had enough of the treacherous ground.

She stopped, forcing Reid to come to a standstill beside her. She could see that he too was growing weary of the trek; every so often his blue eyes would glare at the ground beneath him.

"Do you want to just…" she waved her hands in front of her and wiggled her fingers, knowing that Reid would understand exactly what her gesture meant. She felt a weight settle in the pit of her stomach. She shouldn't have suggested it. There she goes again, encouraging something that she's meant to control and limit.

"Caleb would kick my ass if I let you use." Reid smirked.

Technically it was the other way round, she was meant to stop him from using and if she had a higher power to report to she knew she'd have been in trouble. It had been drilled into her time and time again; using was bad; using was addictive. But it only became detrimental once one of them turned eighteen and came into their full potential (something they called Ascending). At almost nineteen she had already gained hers, and soon Caleb would too.

"But," he continued, "I guess our Lord and Master doesn't have to know everything."

That made her smile. Caleb did have a habit of thinking he was the boss. It was endearing at best.

"Who said I'm doing anything?" she asked and then mentally kicked herself. She prayed someone would strike her down, to stop her mouth from moving. Why was she pushing this? "You still owe me one from that time I set your exam papers on fire."

"Alright fine," he conceded, holding his hand out to her. "But after this we're even, okay? I don't owe you anything. I want a clean slate."

"Speaking of clean..." She trailed off, warily eyeing the unwashed hand Reid held out to her, her lips not even bothering to hide their disgust as they hitched into a grimace.

"What?" He blinked at her.

"Really?" she asked, rolling her eyes as she explained her sudden urge to empty the contents of her stomach all over the forest floor. "Reid, there is no way I'm touching that! I know what it was just holding... Although I suppose if I did it would probably be the closest you ever get to a girl touching your-"

"Okay, that's enough!" Reid interrupted.

He rolled his eyes, and then they burned. The whites of his eyes were consumed in an explosion of flames licking at the black stones that were once blue-grey irises. Parker watched as a thin wisp of grey smoke wound around his hand, (that sinking feeling in her stomach only getting stronger) covering it completely. The flash of fire faded away, and Reid's stone coloured eyes slowly emerged from the flames.

He flexed his hand as the smoke dissipated, and held it out to her again. This time, she gladly accepted, and watched as his eyes once again flickered with fire.

She thought about how late they were and how the guys would react to them using again. That feeling got heavier until she remembered how much the rest of them still use. Just last week she caught Pogue fixing some problem with the motor of his bike without any tools, and Tyler had passed his math test even though she knew for a fact that he slept through the whole thing. So really she wasn't that terrible. Terrible at her job maybe, but these guys don't exactly make it easy for her.

She knew Caleb was going to be a little more than a little pissed off and for once it made her smile.