The rest of the day went rather smoothly for me. It felt like no time before I was in gym class practicing for our first swim meet with Ethan helping me out. It never ceased to amaze me how built he was. Then again he himself never ceased to amaze me so that wasn’t surprising. I was quite satisfied to see Raven was still dead scared of Ethan, it meant he wouldn’t pester me as long as Ethan was around me.

Finally the coach dismissed us about five minutes before the bell rang and we joined the rest of our class in the locker rooms. I quickly changed back into my black shirt and jeans and rushed out to meet Ethan who conveniently had been waiting for me outside the locker room, shirtless of course. While the girls behind me all stared at him I took his arm and dragged him away anxious to continue our conversation.

“Well, just wait, I’ll be driving you to my home, there I will explain everything.” I looked at him puzzled, my mom would never allow me to step into a boy’s house unless she knew him one hundred percent. As if he had read my thoughts he quickly followed up with “Don’t worry, it’s not a house so no foul.” Now I was more puzzled than ever, what could he mean by that? I wondered if maybe he had a mansion instead of a house, or maybe a condominium.

The bell finally rang and we made our way to his car, gorgeous as I had remembered it being. It seemed to suit him perfectly now that I thought about it. Driving down the road it felt really nice compared to the bumps and unnecessary stops of the school bus. Ethan had some music playing, metal I could only assume it was, and he didn’t seem too worried about the other cars, that made me nervous. The drive actually felt pretty long though I had been preoccupied with watching him, it didn’t take long for me to realize we were near the forest.

Suddenly he stopped the car and got out, I simply followed rather confused by this. He led me through the forest pushing branches out of his way and leaping over logs like they were nothing. I, however, had a more difficult time making my way through the forest. We kept the same pace and finally made our way to a lake and a small waterfall and to my surprise yet again he stopped. He just stood there for a few minutes staring at the water while I stared at him, and I finally broke the silence.

“This is… Your home, Ethan?” He silently nodded and did not change his facial expression. “Mychaela, I’m not normal. In fact I’m the farthest thing from normal.” He slowly turned his head to face me and continued, “I’m not human, Mychaela, and if you want to know the truth, I’m centuries old.” Ok, this was just weird, was he playing a game with me? I could see in his eyes that he had sensed my disbelief and he held up his index finger.

“Allow me to demonstrate, behold, Mychaela.” Slowly he turned his head to face the water, “The power I was born with.” He inhaled deeply and I fell to the ground in shock as he breathed out a huge stream of fire! My body was shaking, there was no way this could be real, no way at all! Ethan was breathing fire like some kind of dragon! Finally he stopped and the flames slowly died in the water. He wasn’t finished however for he then looked at me more seriously than ever. “Now behold what I have trained myself to do!” In another instant the water in the lake was going wild, forming to huge walls and then swirling around in a great whirlpool. I could only stare with my mouth hanging open as e once again turned to face me.

“Mychaela, have you figured it out?” I slowly stood up and laughed weakly “That’s… Some gift.” I tried to remain calm. “So what are you?”, suddenly my mind went back to one of the movies I saw that reminded me of him, “An element-controlling vampire?” He smirked and replied conceitedly “That would be a vampire-witch you’re thinking of, and no, I’m far more powerful, I’ve killed so many vampires it isn’t funny.” Ok, now I had to ask, “Are you being serious?! So wait, what are you saying!? I was just kidding!”

He continued to stare at me, “I wasn’t. No, Mychaela, I am a fire apparition, my father was the lord of all apparitions. I inherited his powers.” This was a lot to take in so I moved to an easier question. “So do you hunt animals here or fish or what?” He smirked again, “I don’t need to eat, we apparitions are like gods, we could eat but it isn’t necessary.” Ok, so basically he was immortal, yeah that totally seemed possible. Of course clearly if he was showing evidence that he had super-human powers there had to be some truth to his story.

“So the other night, you burned that man’s face, but you healed it?” He nodded, “I can control fire, both to use and to contain, I can heal wounds I cause, I just absorb the fire back into my body, I am literally made out of fire, Mychaela.” Ok, good, that led to an easier question. “Yet you don’t set anything on fire when you touch it?” He was quick to reply, “I can control it, it’s only when I get excited that I set things on fire upon contact, which is why that kiss felt very warm. That explained a lot of things.

“Well, based on recent events this has got to be true. All of it. So, where are you from? Certainly not here?” He shook his head, “I am from Wiltshire, the location of Stonehenge.” Of course, mythical creature, got to be from Ireland. “So how did you get here? Boat?” He looked down and quietly responded “That was the plan, however my raft got wrecked halfway there and I almost drowned. See until I trained myself to become water-resistant I couldn’t handle it because I’m made out of fire. Luckily Cordelia, the water apparition controlled the waves to lead me to the nearest shore. I then roamed around the country.”

Ethan basically explained his whole life to me up until now. How many High Schools he had gone to, how many states he’d visited and how many wars he had helped us win. He had quite a history and let’s face it, it was too well-told to be made up. When he finished telling his story I was too dumbstruck to speak, it was all so overwhelming. I was literally standing next to someone who was completely inhuman, mythical. Hell, I’d actually kissed someone who was mythical! This was way too bizarre!

He continued to stare at me, “Mychaela, I told myself I would never do this, I promised myself I would not do what my father had done, but after meeting you, I think for once I really want to.” I just looked at him waiting to continue, he didn’t. “Ethan, what are you getting at? What are you trying to tell me? Please, I don’t like to guess at these things, just tell me what you’re trying to say!” He continued to stare at me with that serious look on his face when suddenly he shot his head back toward the water looking concerned now. “What’s wrong? What did I say?” He didn’t answer, he just stared, and now his body began to tense up. I was becoming worried now.