Chapter 4 Lotus Flower Soup

When I wake up, I am in the backseat of a car that I don't recognize. The windows are heavily tinted so that only a vampire with freakishly good eyes can see through the glass. Everything looks violet. Nikki is sitting next to me, Olive is shotgun, and Hollister is driving. My skin is on fire and I'm sweating all over the leather seats. I pull the collar of my shirt away from my neck, but it doesn't help. Clothes seem to be restricting my movement. I can barely breathe. I begin to unbutton my shirt. Nikki puts out a hand to stop me, but I push her away and continue my assault on my clothing.

I take the two panels of my shirt and yank hard. Buttons fly in every direction, one of them hitting the windshield. I toss the ruined shirt on the floor.

Olive turns her head and gapes at me. "What are you doing?"

"It's so hot," I mutter. I am sitting in a luxury car with my best friends and the hottest guy I have ever seen in my life wearing only my ratty pink GAP bra and fumbling with the button and zipper of my jeans. "I have to get this off." I gaze imploringly at Nikki who looks horrified.

"Guys, wherever it is we're heading, we better get there fast," she says. "I think she's in major trouble. Her skin is the color of boiled lobster and I can barely touch her without burning myself."

Hollister glances at me in his rear-view mirror and I wonder briefly what he's thinking. I am covered in sweat, apparently sunburned like an American tourist on vacation in the Riviera wearing only a banana hammock and slathered in tanning lotion, my jeans are halfway down my thighs, and a safety pin is the only thing holding my bra together because one of the straps broke this morning. And then I don't care anymore. My blood has turned into molten magma. I'm boiling from the inside and the pain is nothing like I have ever experienced. I want to peel my skin off. I want to get out of the car, break open a fire hydrant, and blast myself with water. I reach for the door handle and attempt to open it, but shriek in anger when I discover that Hollister has engaged the child safety lock, rendering the interior handle useless. I am crying and blubbering as I struggle to pull off my jeans and Nikki is trying to help, but she can't keep her hands on my skin longer than two seconds without yanking it back and wincing. Her eyes brim with tears as she watches me helplessly.

"Hollister, hurry," she begs.

"My place is the closest," Hollister says. "We'll be there in two minutes."

The interior of the car gets even darker as Hollister pulls into an underground garage. He stops the car, gets out, opens the rear passenger door, and hauls me out. Nikki has successfully removed my jeans at this point, so I'm in his arms in only a bra and my laundry day panties. If he is bothered by the heat of my skin or my state of undress, he gives no indication. He runs for the elevator with Olive and Nikki following closely behind him. He punches a button and another panel slides out upon which he enters a series of numbers. The panel slides back in and the elevator doors close.

He is carrying me as though I weigh nothing when I know I'm about fifteen pounds overweight. But then again, he can probably lift a car over his head with just one hand and not break a sweat. My skin feels so sticky and hot that I struggle to get out of his arms, but he only holds me tighter so I don't fall.

"Shhh, Lotus Flower," he murmurs, nuzzling my hair. He whispers to me in what sounds like Cantonese in a soothing voice meant to calm and even though I don't understand, my limbs turn into jelly and I black out once again.

Lotus Flower... how does he know my name?

When I open my eyes, I am sprawled in a black marble tub large enough to fit three people and Nikki is emptying a bag of ice over me. I saw a movie once where a guy wakes up in a tub of ice and discovers his kidney missing. I try to move, but find that I am actually buried up to my neck in ice and Nikki is reaching for another bag. There are bags and bags of store-bought ice sitting on the counter and it makes me wonder how long I've been out. I squeak to get Nikki's attention and she stops.

"Oh, good, you're awake," she says, reaching down to brush hair out of my face. "Hollister used a spell to put you in a coma because you were in so much pain. He and Olive are trying to find out right now what's going on with you. They're calling people, doing research. Olive thinks it's a hex, but Hollister doesn't think so."

Isn't it nice that my pain and misery have brought Olive and Hollister together. I growl and Nikki looks at me in surprise. I'm not usually a bitter and jealous person, but the thought of the two of them together ignites something in me that I don't feel very often. Pure unadulterated fury. A vision of them with their arms entwined around each other and kissing heats up my skin again and I no longer feel the freezing sting of the ice.

"Jesus," Nikki gasps. "Guys, a little help here!"

I look down and find I am no longer sitting in a tub of ice but lukewarm water and bubbles are floating up to the surface. It occurs to me that I should be frightened, but I'm not. I sink deeper into the water until it laps at my jaw. Steam begins to rise, floating to the ceiling, and the water begins to boil. And yet I am not flopping around like pasta, screaming as my skin and flesh melt off the bone. I bring my hands to my face and flex my fingers. My skin is staying put.

Olive flashes into the bathroom and stands next to Nikki, placing her hands on her hips as she looks down at me. "Hollister! You said the spell was supposed to hold her until you bring her out of it."

Hollister walks up to the tub with a frown. "It's a Tibetan freeze spell. It should have held."

"Goddamnit, vampires, she's sitting in boiling water," Nikki yells. "Why are you not as freaked out as I am?"

Olive shrugs. "She doesn't seem to be in pain."

"It doesn't hurt." I sit up and cover my boobs. There has to be something surreal about being the only human in the room and sitting naked in a tub filled with boiling water while two vampires and a were-lion discussed your welfare as if you weren't there.

"Maybe this is the power you didn't know you had," Olive says.

"Oh, I can boil water," I mutter. "Big deal."

But it is a big deal. I've always thought I was just an ordinary human, a Mundy, and yet here I am, heating things up like a mythical fire-bug. Well, not quite like a fire-bug since I can't throw fireballs or set things on fire with my mind, but it is something. I think back to all the conversations I've had with my mother ever since I was a child who would come home from school crying because the kids called me a Mundy. She told me I was special in my own way and it was my human soul that made me shine. She also said that while not everyone could be supernatural, everyone needed a dentist, so I should follow after my father's footsteps and go to dental school. My mom is really bad at pep talks.

"You want a rubber ducky?" Olive asks.

I glare at her and look around for something to throw at her face, but Hollister seems to be a neat-freak and I am unable to find an errant loofah or a bar of soap. I flick some water on her face and she shrieks.

"Ouch, bitch, that burns!" She rubs her injured cheek with the sleeve of her shirt. "You are such a fucking child sometimes, Lottie!"

Shit, I forgot I'm sitting in boiling water.

Hollister catches her and holds her back as she lunges for me. Her arms and legs flail as she tries to get at me with Hollister's body blocking the way, but he easily pushes her out of the bathroom, drags Nikki along, and slams the door shut. My friends bang on the solid wood, threatening to break it down, but Hollister whispers a few words, and the ruckus abruptly stops. He flips the lock and heads back to the tub where I am still sitting, mutely staring at him.

"What the hell was that?" I demand. "I thought you were a vampire, not a sorcerer."

He shrugs insouciantly and sits on the edge of the tub. "You don't live to be two thousand years old without picking up a few tricks here and there." He braces his palm on the wall above my head and leans over me. "Now what kind of creature are you, little Lotus? I sense Fae, mostly human, but I can sense something else, too. What are you hiding?"