The Special Two

"Holy piss!" I shouted when I felt the pain of Daniel's fireball that burned right into the left side of my collarbone.

His face didn't shift when I collapsed, "You need to get up Clara! Keep fighting!" He shouted and shot another one at me, clipping me on the calf.

I was heaving with several hot tears streaming down my face, "It hurts to breathe."

"Alina won't care."

"But you're not Alina!"

"You need to practice."

"I levitated you twice!"

His face softened ever so slightly and he came to crouch down next to me, I visibly flinched. "Only two inches off the ground." Daniel's tone wasn't patronizing and for the first time, considering I had only just met him, I noticed his mossy green eyes. They weren't ugly.

I remained on the cold wet ground with the smell of mildew and blood surrounding me. My breathing was jagged. We had been practicing in a more secluded area for over three hours and it had taken a large physical toll on me. Well, and I had been shot with flaming balls of acid for the last three hours. Most of these I had learned to dodge, others only clipped me and could just be seen as scratches. Two however had pierced me quite severely, his first shot and his last. I focused on his face and tried to rid the feeling of light-headedness, I was quickly being covered in my own blood.

"You're going to kill me." I whispered and coughed. I nearly screamed as the scarlet liquid pooled out onto my hands and face. That's when I began to shake.

Daniel's face turned from amusement to concern at a rapid pace, "Clara you're convulsing."

I smirked and shook my head willingly, "J-just cold."

"It's eighty four degrees out." He moved an arm under my leg, which was shaking violently so it was quite a struggle.

I coughed again and I felt my eyelids getting heavy. I felt myself being lifted and swayed from left to right as he walked until I was once again placed on something solid. Daniel patted my leg a couple times and I tried to shake it off.

"C you need to stay awake."

What did he just call me? "I'm tired."

"Listen to me." He had crouched into the car and held my face. "You need to keep your eyes open until we get to Josh."

My mood couldn't find a resting spot so really I didn't know what I was saying, "I'll levitate your British ass out of this car if you don't let me sleep."

Daniel laughed and ruffled his dark curls, he then climbed into the front of the car and sped off into somewhere I didn't recognize.

***

Daniel had talked to me the entire time, asking me random questions and telling me simple stories that I was positive I wouldn't remember by the time we got to where ever we were headed. Throughout the time that we were driving I noticed we had driven out of La Push and just passed the outskirts of Forks, Washington. We traveled in several turns with large clumps of trees and rocks every so often. It smelt heavily of burning wood and reminded me slightly of the Cullen’s house but with patches of light rather than one large open area.

I laid on a black sofa with various medical supplies spread around me. I hated the smell of alcohol. But just as soon as Daniel pulled up to the house Joshua came out and immediately got to work. The fireball had burned through part of my collarbone, completely destroying everything in its path. And yes, it hurt like hell.

"What the hell were you thinking Dan?" Joshua said in a quiet angry tone as he put gauze over my neck as he sat on a short stool to the left of my face.

Daniel moved so he was by my face, and he stared angrily at my bleeding body. "You told me to make her practice."

"I didn't tell you to murder her."

"It was one mistake Josh! She had dodged all the others!"

Joshua moved onto the scratches on my face, and as he dabbed them lightly with the disinfectant I tried my best not to squirm. "How many more fire balls were there?"

I yelped as his dabbed my lip, "I’ll tell you where another one will go if you don’t stop fighting!"

Daniel laughed and Joshua just looked at me with sympathy.

They were completely different. That's what I noticed as they stood side by side in their small home. Joshua was noticeably younger, and yet his maturity stuck out against his brother’s. His hair was lighter than Daniel's as were his eyes which seemed to hold a small ounce of amusement in them. Daniel was very muscular and his hair had small curls in it. Their personalities were a wide range from compassionate and respectful to alluring and brutally honest, I trust that you can place those personalities to their rightful owners. In all honesty, I found myself attracted to both of them. I hated myself. I had only just broken up, I think, with my imprint and here I was salivating over two British invaders that nearly killed me.

Daniel picked me up and set me so I was sitting properly in a chair. "Don't try being nice," I snipped in a playful manner, "it's your fault I'm in this mess anyway."

He smirked before leaving the room.

***

I had about four pounds of gauze on my color bone, and I was making no effort to hide my discomfort. So, I animatedly limped into their kitchen, making sure to drag the entire left side of my body like it had no muscles. I pulled out a chair using my good hand and while sitting down; I managed to throw the left side of my body onto the chair to make it even. All coming together with a big "umph!". I kept a straight face despite my urge to laugh.

Joshua shook his head and turned back to whatever soup he was attempting to make, while Daniel was scribbling like crazy on paper with a piece of charcoal.

"Well aren't we the lively group." I muttered, I had been given no pain medication for the wound because Joshua didn't want to cause anything abnormal in my bloodstream. Apparently being able to shift into things is a perfectly normal blood sample to him.

Joshua threw some powder into the giant cooking pot and I watched as it blew up in his face. The heat and the putrid smell reached me and I was all the way across the room. "What the heck are you trying to cook?"

"Dinner." He replied before wiping a liquid mix of yellow and green from his face.

I got up and drug myself over to him, "For humans?"

Joshua scrunched up his eyebrows, "Of course, who else would I make this for?"

"Well, I can't think of anything that would eat it."

He sighed and looked at his screwy concoction, I noticed chunks of carrot, pineapple, and celery floating up at the top. "Pineapple? Really?"

"I thought it would sweeten the bitter taste of the-"

"I don't even want to know." I picked up the steaming liquid and poured it out, rinsing the pan clear of the devil's mix. When turned back Joshua was looking at me strangely and Daniel was still amerced fully in his papers. I looked at Joshua and then back to his brother, but I decided not to ask. For once in my life I was going to entitle a person to his secret. Even if I had only just met the Bragg brothers I felt like I could trust them. It was a feeling that did not come easily to me and I wasn't going to mess it up by prying into their private life. The last time I felt like this was with Jake and his family. I lost him; I don't want to loose them to. I decided I should probably go. I reached into their cupboard and pulled out a box of spaghetti and tomato sauce.

"Follow the directions and don't add anything else." I smiled, "Nothing else."

Joshua nodded and I went back into the living room, quietly I exited the house and walked down their large gravel drive. It was getting very late and the sun gone down a long time ago. I shivered but continued walking. I passed by Daniel's car and physically flinched when I looked in the back seat.

"My blood's acid." I muttered as I got closer to examine what I had damaged, two cushions and the floor of the back seat was gone, the gravel beneath it hadn't been hit. I wondered why this type of gauze worked, why they didn't burn and melt like everything else my blood touched. How Joshua knew my power by just looking at my scar in quick glimpses in the coffee shop. That they always seemed to know where I was.

The Bragg's certainly are a family of secrets.