Down, Down, Down and The Flames Went Higher:
The Beacon Hills sheriff station was nearly completely silent as I strolled inside confidently as though I owned the world and some of the deputies looked up when I entered but they must have recognised me because they just went back to their work without a word. I continued my way down the familiar path towards the back of the station where Jordan's desk was situated and I paused for a moment as a frown pulled at the edge of my lips when I caught sight of an unfamiliar brunette female in a deputies uniform standing beside his desk. My gaze drifted towards Jordan's face once I had recognised the tell-tale signs of someone flirting and I hated the uncomfortable clenching of my stomach when I saw the grin on his lips. I mentally scolded myself for feeling jealous because I knew that I had no claim to the deputy, and I was nowhere near ready to start dating again, but the possessive side of me didn't care about technicalities.
I shook off the jealousy as I plastered on the fake smile I had mastered over the years and strutted forward as though my lapse hadn't happened, "Deputy, I'd like to report a crime."
My teasing voice caught both of the deputy's attention as they turned to face me and Jordan's grin widened as his eyes lit up at the sight of me but the other deputy's expression turned serious as she straightened up.
"Yes, ma'am. What crime is that?" Jordan asked me in the same playful tone as he leaned back in his desk chair and I beamed at him as he played along but the female officer frowned in confusion as she watched us.
"It is a crime that they make you eat that horrid break room food when you're on the late shift." I concluded with a small pout of my lips as I held up one of the brown paper bags I was grasping and he chuckled in amusement as I set the bag down in front of him on the desk. "Bacon cheeseburger, extra curly fries. And yes, I am amazing. Thank you for noticing."
"You are amazing. Thank you." he said happily as he reached into the paper bag with a hungry expression and I chuckled in amusement as I shook my head at him with a smile on my lips. I turned my attention to the stoic deputy standing beside the desk and she drew her gaze away from Jordan when she realised that I was watching her.
"Hi, I'm Sophie McCall." I introduced myself with a forced smile as I extended my hand towards her and she copied my gesture as she shook my hand stiffly with a blank expression.
"Deputy Clarke." She replied in a nonsense tone of voice as she gave me a nod and I noticed that she didn't get too personal because she didn't give me her first name.
"Nice to meet you." I murmured with a hint of sarcasm as she walked away without another word and I pursed my lips in irritation as I turned back to face Jordan, who was watching the interaction while eating. "She's lovely. I'm going to give this," I stated plainly as I held up the remaining brown paper bag in my hand, "to John and then I have a little experiment I want to try."
"I'll finish this and meet you in the conference room."
"Awesome. See you there." I said brightly with a grin as I spun around on my heel and I headed towards the sheriff's office with a slight bounce in my steps. I knocked on the closed door as I stole a glance over my shoulder until I heard the 'come in' through the wood and I opened the door with a grin when I saw John sitting behind his desk reading some document. "Hey."
"Sophie!" John exclaimed in surprised greeting as he lifted his head to look at me with wide eyes and I smiled at him as I stepped into the office before closing the door behind me. "What are you doing here? You haven't been arrested again, have you?"
"First of all, a warning isn't an arrest. And second of all, no. I brought you dinner."
"Oh, thank god! I'm starving. What'd you bring me?"
"Turkey burger!" I announced brightly as I set the brown paper bag down on the desk and his face immediately scrunched up in disgust as I reached inside to grab the burger. "Come on. It's healthy. It's lowering your cholesterol."
"And my will to live." He remarked under his breath with a roll of his eyes as he poked at the wrapped burger in front of him and I scoffed out a laugh as I shook my head at him in amusement.
"Compromise, okay? You eat the delicious, healthy turkey burger, and you can eat these delicious, unhealthy curly fries." I told him soothingly as I pulled out a carton of curly fries and his eyes nearly popped out of his head as his gaze followed the movement of the fries until they were in front of him.
"Deal." He said instantly with an eager glint in his eyes as he went to grab the fries and I quickly pulled them out of his reach with a strict expression. He glanced up at me in despair as I quirked an eyebrow pointedly and he rolled his eyes at me as he picked up the forgotten turkey burger. I watched him take an exaggerated bite of the burger as I suppressed an amused smile and he offered me a tight false smile as he spoke around a mouthful of food, "Happy?"
"Extremely. Here." I said with a wink as I pushed carton of fries towards him and he nodded in gratitude as he immediately started munching on the fries. "So, I'm going to be borrowing Jordan for a little while. I have a few things I want to test him with, eliminate what kind of supernatural creature he is."
"These were a bribe, weren't they?"
"Maybe."
"You know it's illegal to bribe a police officer, right?"
"It's one of the less illegal things I've done."
"Just go!" he exclaimed in a defeated tone of voice as he waved a hand towards the office door and I nodded once with a teasing grin as I exited the room without another word.
I tightened my cardigan around myself as I strolled through the nearly empty station in the direction of the conference room and I stole a quick glance over my shoulder at Jordan's desk to make sure he wasn't still eating. I smiled slightly at the empty desk chair before turning back around and continuing my journey towards the room we had used every time we searched for the truth of his nature when he was working. He was sitting at the small two person table to the side of the room as he played around with his cell phone and I quickly closed the door behind me before going around to close all of the blinds so that no one could see into the room while we were discussing the supernatural.
"Hey." He greeted me with a sincere smile as he looked up at me and I returned the gesture as I sat down opposite him while he put his phone away. I bit my lower lip in between my teeth as I pulled the lighter I was carried out of my jeans pocket and his forehead furrowed in confusion as his smile dimmed into one of befuddlement, "You going to do a magic trick?"
"No, but you are." I replied with a smirk on my lips as I skilfully flipped the lighter in between my fingers and he raised an eyebrow at me sceptically with a smirk playing on his lips.
"I only know one trick and it's with a playing card."
"Well, this one involves a lighter and your hand."
"This is sounding less like a magic trick and more like assault." Jordan pointed out teasingly as he leaned forward a little and my gaze instinctively dropped to the open collar of his uniform before quickly flickering away.
"It's a little dangerous, yes. But it's not as bad as being lit on fire in a deputy sheriff's car." I shot back sarcastically with a deadpan expression as I tilted my head to the side and he chuckled softly in amusement as he ducked his head. "Which, by the way, you walked away from unscathed."
"Not entirely. I had to pay for the uniform." He countered almost immediately with an innocent widening of his eyes as he shook his head slightly and I laughed in amusement, enjoying the witty banter that I had established with him.
"Give me your hand." I ordered him in a mock stern tone as I held my own hand out and he subtly rolled his eyes but did as I instructed with a humouring expression on his handsome features.
"I think I've seen something like this in a movie."
"'Lawrence of Arabia.' I watched it last night, it kind of gave me the idea."
"Remind me what the trick was?" he asked with an amused grin as he turned his body to face the table and I flicked the lighter on with a mischievous smirk as the flame flickered for a few seconds before solidifying into a steady flare.
"Not minding." I told him firmly as he moved to hold his palm over the flame and I kept my thumb down as I watched him frown uncomfortably after a few moments under the heat.
"Ow, son of a..." he cried in pain as he jerked his hand back with a wince and I couldn't help but laugh at his frustrated expression before he quickly joined in my merriment.
"Oh, you can last longer than that." I taunted him coyly with a suggestive smirk on my lips as I quirked an eyebrow and he grinned at the obvious innuendo as a blush spread up his neck before expanding across his cheeks.
"This time... I want you to do something different." I instructed him softly as I reached out to grab his hand gently in mine and I locked eyes with him confidently as I slowly positioned the lighter under his palm. "Don't think about the flame. Don't think about the heat. Don't think about it hurting. Don't even look at it. Okay."
With a flick of my thumb, a steady flame emitted from the lighter underneath his hand and I kept maintaining eye contact with him, trying not to get lost in the pale green of his irises.
I truly believed in mind over matter, that your body could withstand almost anything and that it was your mind that you had to convince. It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to, has power over you, if you allow it.
I tried to convey my support through our eyes connection, to tell him I believed in what we were doing but I doubted we were close enough to be able to speak without words. There was a heavy presence surrounding us in that moment and it almost felt like there was something connecting me to him, something unseen and unspoken, but there nonetheless.
I blinked in confusion when my fingers of the hand holding the lighter started to feel numb and I looked down with a frown pulling at my lips. "Whoa!" I breathed out in awe as the fire encompassed my entire hand and I quickly extinguished the blaze as I closed my hand into a fist.
"Are you okay?" Jordan asked me in concern with a frown as his forehead furrowed slightly and I offered him a distracted smile as I shook my hand in my effort to get some feeling back into it.
"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you? Did it hurt?" I asked him curiously as I held up my hand expectantly and he placed his hand in mine as we looked down at him blackened skin. I gently rubbed my thumb over his palm, wiping away the soot as I ignored the way his pulse accelerated at the touch and I hummed when I saw the unharmed condition of his hand.
Jordan curled his fingers experimentally with a confused scowl on his features and I carefully extracted my hand from his, trying not to make it obvious that the contact was worrying me. I could tell that he was attracted to me; I could hear his heartrate fasten when I walked into the room, I could smell the pheromones of arousal when I was around him, I caught him looking at me when he thought I wasn't looking.
If it was a few years ago, I wouldn't hesitate in sleeping with him but now I was more conscious of how my actions affected those around me. We were developing a close friendship, and because he was also supernatural, we were going to share mutual alliances or friendships, so it wouldn't be smart to start something. I knew that if I let myself, I could easily fall in love with someone like Jordan, but I wasn't ready for something meaningful when I was still recovering from my breakup with Derek, and I didn't think it was fair to start something casual when I knew Jordan had real affection for me.
"When you were looking at me... Your eyes kind of drifted. What were you thinking about?" I asked him curiously as I folded my hands in front of me on the table and he glanced away from me with a vacant expression.
"A dream."
"What dream?"
"I've had it here and there for about six months. I'm walking in the woods, carrying a body. But it's completely burned. I can't see who it is or who it was."
"Where are you taking it?"
"A clearing. There's a huge tree in the middle of it. You'd think it was 1,000 years old. But it's been cut down. It's just a stump."
"It's real." I breathed out in awe with wide eyes as I stared at him in shock and he looked over at me with his forehead creased in confusion as I sighed heavily, "It's a real tree. In a real part of Beacon Hills. It used to be the centre of a grove of trees called a Nemeton."
"What's a Nemeton?" he asked me with a slight shake of his head as he tilted his head to the side and I chewed on my lower lip in consideration, debating how much to tell him in case he freaked out on me.
"A sacred meeting place for Celtic Druids, like myself. They were scientists and healers thousands of years ago." I told him honestly as I pursed my lips together, tapping my finger against my other hand in an effort not to fidget under his gaze.
"I've never seen this place." Jordan insisted in a strained voice as he stood up abruptly from his seat and ran both of his hands through his hair as he blew out a frustrated exhale while pacing in front of the table.
"But that's why you're here. It drew you here. That's what it does. It's a beacon for supernatural creatures. It might even make them more powerful. What else happens?"
"I put the body down... I... I lay it down on the rings of the trees and..."
"What?" I asked him softly as I leaned forward, concerned when he cut himself off suddenly and he spun around to look at me with a startled expression like he had forgotten that I was even there.
"Nothing. That's it. That's the end of the dream." Jordan declared in a firm voice after a moment of thought as he met my gaze evenly and I tried not to show how hurt I was that he didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth. Because I had no doubt in my mind that he was lying to me.
I nodded silently as I offered him a weak smile when he sat back down in front of me and I cleared my throat delicately as I slipped my lighter back into my pocket. There was a heavy feeling in my stomach as I lifted my gaze slightly to peek at Jordan from underneath my eyelashes, observing him as he stared pensively towards the closed blind of the window.