Chapter 51 - Ice, Ice, Baby

He just shrugged, looking completely unapologetic. "I can't help my vampire hearing, ma chèrie! Though, truly, I expected you to realise it by now…" JJ chuckled and turned to continue with his mopping. "I admit, your obliviousness was amusing to watch."

I huffed at him. The fact that I should've assumed something like that, knowing what I already knew about vampires, made me feel stupid and therefore even more irritated. "That's an invasion of my privacy. I should make you wear earplugs in here or something," I grumbled, only for him to chuckle some more.

Without looking up at JJ again, I continued to open the cashbox and turn on the cash register. Still, I couldn't hold on to my anger for long, not when I was just so happy with my cool new powers.

I wondered how JJ's aura looked like. Somehow, it felt too personal to look at it without asking for his permission, but I couldn't bring myself to do that, either.

I caught myself staring at JJ again when he caught my gaze. He arched his eyebrows questioningly and I hurried to look away. We continued to finish the preparations for the shop's opening in silence, charged with unspoken possibilities until I had to pass JJ the keys.

"Alexandra lives on the other side of the city, so I won't have time to close the store if I will want to not be late for my meeting with her. One that you know about already because you have vampire hearing." I gave JJ a pointed glance. "So close it without me, please."

"You didn't need to ask, ma chèrie."

He reached out with his hand to take the keys from me, and our fingers brushed. Just a fleeting touch, but it was weird to not feel JJ's unnatural chill from his skin. He was still cold to the touch, but it was a normal cold. Room temperature. And yet it still sent tingles up my arm.

I knew JJ did this intentionally from the smirk he wore on his face. I met it with a direct stare and a frown. There were no victories for me in this game. I could either lose or keep playing, and I intended to avoid the first option for as long as I could.

JJ's smirk widened into a wicked grin.

"I like your attitude, ma chèrie. Fire brings out the green of your eyes in the most delightful way."

I fought not to break eye contact and keep frowning even as I felt blood rushing to my cheeks. I think I lasted about four seconds—long enough to see JJ's eyes reddening a little. Then I couldn't help myself and turned away.

"You and your snake tongue…" I grumbled, walking away, knowing that he will hear it.

Fire and greens in my eyes. I should have been the one to tell him this, with how his eyes reddened when he lusted after me. Or my blood. I had a feeling that it was all connected. Red and green… Just like a Christmas decoration, was it not?

I snickered to myself. Now I knew what to say to JJ next time he embarrasses me with with his shameless flirting.

⠀⠀ ⠀

"I would like you to start with a simple exercise from my book. As you can see, Diana, I prepared some ice for you to work on. A transfer of temperature is one of the simplest spells. It's more demonstrative when used with fire, but I wouldn't want you to burn my apartment down by accident."

I nodded to Alexandra, shifting in my seat in impatience to try it out. Sadly, Alexandra was intent to retell me all the instructions I already read more than once.

The two of us sat in the kitchen of Alexandra's small apartment. The table between us was empty besides for a form full of ice cubes and a glass of water. A calico cat lied on Alexandra's knees, purring loudly when she absentmindedly stroked it.

"You can pull out an aspect out of an item entirely, or you can leave a part of it, which will allow it to restore itself given enough time, which for small auras like these always very short. I would like you to use the aspect of cold in the ice to freeze the water in the glass, without unfreezing the ice itself. It's harder, as it exercises your control more, but I believe you can do it."

"Yes, yes. Can I start now, Alexandra?"

She shook her head, but nodded. "Very well. I will watch."

Alexandra closed her eyes, and I knew she switched to the aura vision. I followed suit, and the room exploded with impressions. The air, the walls, the furniture—for a moment, everything was just as overwhelming as the first time I looked through my well.

Alexandra's aura attracted my attention the most. It wasn't there at all—instead there was only a void of her opened well. A human-shaped hole where a person should've been.

But I couldn't help but notice that in comparison with mine, her well was awfully tiny. While my well expanded over my body and way beyond it, hers barely went over her skin, even in its opened state.

I didn't dwell on our differences for long, though. Instead, I concentrated on finding my exercise items. It was relatively easy now that I practiced a little. The coldness of ice stood out, as well as liquidness of the water. As always, there were dozens of other aspects, but thankfully, the one I needed—the cold—was prevalent enough for me to use.

I took a deep breath and felt my well straining to be filled. This time, I let it do what it wanted.

It felt like the most natural thing ever to let magic fall into it, but I knew I can't let just everything through. The well was a voracious thing, but I focused my efforts only on the coldness of the ice. It flowed in, filling my well like a third lung, and as I slowly exhaled, I breathed it out in the glass of water.

I closed my well and opened my eyes. In front of me stood a glass of ice and a form full of water.

"Not bad for a first attempt, Diana, but you melted the ice. It also took you a very long time to filter out the aspect you wanted to use. Now, please, try again until all the water freezes."

I lifted my eyes at Alexandra and her unreadable face. I had been ready to jump in joy a moment ago, but she just had to kill it—or she would've if I didn't want to repeat the spell again and again either way.

It was time to do some magic, bitches!