Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) (3 page)

“My head hurts…” she moaned, clutching her head as if
with a bad headache. It was my power. She was hurting because I was near her.

I went around my car to put distance between us and
pulled out my phone.

“What did he do this time?” Maseré asked when he
picked up.

“Not Darwin this time. I’m willing to bet this is an
old enemy. I need someone to come pick up my ex-wife and get her back to her
house. It would also be great if you have a contact that can clean up a bombed
car, or I’m going to have to pull some strings.”

“Address?” He was suddenly all business. I told him
the address. “My pack is on the way, and they’re not far. My beta is the
sheriff of a nearby town and many of my pack members are officers, so they can
get her somewhere safe. Get out of there. The last thing we need is a wizard in
jail, even for a minute.”

I looked over the roof of my car at Regina, who was
sitting up with her knees to her chest, staring blankly at the burning car.
“I’m going to stick around until–”

“Devon, who will stop Gale if you’re in jail? You
know what he’s capable of more than anyone. We’ll take care of your ex.”

I heard sirens and nodded to myself. “Get here
quick.” I hung up, got in the car, and drove away. I had expected Gale to come
after me, but why would he go after a woman I openly despised? Why bomb
Regina’s car and not mine or my mother’s apartment?

My mother was still unconscious when I arrived at my
apartment. I carried her upstairs and into my living room. Darwin and Amelia
stood aside. “Do you need an alibi?” Darwin asked.

I almost laughed. “Meet Maria Sanders.” She was in
her sixties and the fragility of her mind emanated outward so that she looked a
lot thinner and feebler than she really was. It was the first time I saw her in
a year. It was depressing. In my shame of talking to Astrid, I was letting my
mother’s caretakers treat her badly.

And the worst part was that I still wanted to see
Astrid.

*          *          *

An hour later, Amelia and I were making dinner while
Darwin worked on hunting down Gale. We only had a first name and we weren’t
even sure it was his real name. Until he got arrested or his fingerprints were
found at a crime scene, there wasn’t much to go on.

“Can we use the amulet to do a tracking spell?”
Darwin asked, still typing.

“I don’t think the amulet is personal enough.
Besides, Henry pretty much laid claim to it.”

“Do we trust Henry with it?” he asked when Amelia
left. “Why did he want it so badly?”

“I think at first it was to keep it out of the
council’s hands. Second, it was probably a bit of shame that he failed to get
it in the first place. Now I think he intends to use it to break the hold of
the full moon. He might even be trying to use it to control his jaguar or his
parents. Either way, I think we can trust him not to screw us over. His
parents, on the other hand…”

“Yeah, well, they don’t deserve better from what
we’ve heard. I should get online and mess them up a bit.”

“They would probably take it out on Henry.”

We were just about finished making spaghetti and
garlic bread when my mother woke. I introduced her to Darwin and Amelia, having
forewarned them that she knew nothing about magic. She was always extremely
polite, so she and Amelia got along famously. Darwin really did try to tone
down his personality, but there was nothing subtle about the man.

My mother regarded my kitchen thoughtfully before
opening her mouth. “Regina doesn’t have much decorating skills. I would get a
professional next time, honey.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. There are several professionals
just waiting for the next time Regina screws up.”

“Good,” she said, walking into the living room. Darwin
went with her while Amelia and I finished cooking. “So you go to school with
Devon?” she asked Darwin.

Amelia frowned at me. “I thought you didn’t tell her
about Quintessence,” she whispered.

I shook my head. Any possibility of it being a nice
evening went out the door. “She still thinks I’m in high school. She doesn’t
understand age very well anymore.”

“So the apartment and the wife play into that how?”

“
Ex
-wife, thank you. My mother has good days,
where she knows I’m in my thirties, divorced, and living alone. She also has
bad days where she thinks Regina and I have kids or that I’m still a kid
myself. One time I went to visit her and she asked me who I was. Another time,
she told me my father was trying to kill her.”

“Is she… um… how is her health?”

“I don’t think she’s about to die if that’s what
you’re saying.”

She blushed fiercely until I wanted to tease her
about her hair matching her skin. “I mean, if you go off to the university, who
will take care of her?”

I looked over the counter to see Darwin trying to
teach her to use a laptop. I thought he was going to cry with frustration when
she asked where to type in “windows.” Her eyes were wide as baseballs when he
handed her his iPhone. She wasn’t even insulted when he downloaded a little
kid’s game for her to entertain herself with. Then again, she probably didn’t
know it was for kids.

I resisted the urge to sigh when a heavy knocking
sounded on my door. Darwin jumped up to let his parents in. Maseré and Anya
Mason seemed to instantly realize my mother knew nothing of the paranormal
world. It was the first time I got to meet Anya. She had the same blond hair,
blue eyes, and wild energy about her as Darwin. She was tall for a woman at
about five-ten, in her mid-forties, with soft features. Unfortunately, she
couldn’t fix my kitchen with my mother there.

*          *          *

After an hour, I told my guests I needed to run an
errand and I would be back in a couple of hours. Leaving them alone probably
wasn’t beneficial to my apartment, but Marcus was counting on me. The drive
normally took only twenty minutes by car, which made me glad I had a car of my
own again. I figured Regina would be trying to sue me for it since hers blew
up.

Unfortunately, I realized within a few minutes that I
was being tailed. Of course, I knew it was possible I was also shadowed that
morning in my rush to get Regina away from my mother. Shaking the gray Sedan
took over half an hour because they had damn good skills.

I finally reached the cozy cabin that Marcus owned.
Actually, it officially belonged to a friend of a sister’s second cousin’s
son’s wife or something, but Marcus was nothing if not neurotic about his
secrecy. I was known as discreet. Marcus’s clients, on the other hand, didn’t
even know his name.

I parked my car around the side where it couldn’t be
seen even by someone driving into the yard. Although I couldn’t see the
surveillance cameras, I knew where they were. Since Marcus hadn’t seen my new
car, I casually stretched as soon as I got out, making sure he got a clear
visual from every camera. No matter where he was in the country or out, he
would be watching and there was no man I knew who was more ready to blow up his
own house.

All this just for a damn software wipe.
Of
course, he had my information on file as well, so I couldn’t really complain. I
went around to the back deck, carefully avoiding the mines, and put the unlock
code into the keypad. As soon as the light turned green, I opened the door,
entered, shut it, and entered a second code into the box on the right of the door
to disarm the alarm. The light turned green and the door relocked. I sighed.
The last time I tried that, it blew up in my face.

It looked like a cozy little house in the woods with
only a widescreen television for technology. A leather couch, a fireplace, a
fur rug, a coffee table…
yeah right
. The man never left his “studio.”
The kitchen was open to the living room, the bedroom door had a doorknob, and
the front door had another keypad. The doorknob to the front door, however, was
booby-trapped. The last door had no knob. I reached behind a few videogames on
entertainment shelf to find the hidden keypad. Once I entered the code, the
fire-proof, Feds-proof, and damn-near-atomic-bomb-proof door opened.

The entire “studio” was wall-to-wall electronics; an
eight-by-eight room filled with beeping, buzzing, and blinking. This wasn’t the
only room in the house with his gear, but this was the only one I needed. The
main computer in front of me was about the most complex thing I had ever seen,
yet Marcus often tried to teach me how it worked. All I needed was to flip a
few switches, hit a command button, type in a few codes, and click
yes
,
when it asked if I wanted it to self-destruct. The ominous ticking was meant to
sound like a bomb, and it achieved its purpose of giving me the chills.
Only…
that isn’t right.

I felt like something went very wrong. All the
blinks, beeps and buzzes were right, the lights were the correct colors, and
the process wasn’t rocket science, but I felt like I needed to get out right
that second.

My phone rang.

I exited the room, not bothering to close the door,
and went to the back window as I answered the phone.

“You were followed.”

“Not a chance.” The rhythm of buzzing from the
control room suddenly changed and my heart dropped into my stomach. Explosions
in the forest around the house shook trees.

“She tripped the outer security! Run!”

The door to the control room slammed shut and the
living room started filling with gas. I wadded part of my shirt up to cover my
face and went to the kitchen, where I pushed the fridge out of the way. By
then, I could barely see, so I kicked blindly until the wall panel snapped and
I was able to slide down the escape shoot. I landed in the pitch black
basement.

Cautious of any more traps, I pulled out my penlight
and made my way past boxes and power tools until I got to the second escape
tunnel. By the time I made it out into the forest, the explosions had stopped.
Fire was going to be an issue, but Marcus had someone else to deal with that.

My phone rang, startling me. I had no idea how I
managed to hold onto the damn thing. “You’re getting too old this job,
brother,” Marcus said when I answered it.

“I hate you.”

“I bet you say that to all the guys who nearly get
you killed on a weekly basis.”

“Nobody goes out of their way to get my face blown
off like you.”

I wanted to go back to school where I could rest.
There I only had to deal with vampires, shifters, fae, wizards, dragons,
betrayal, magical weapons of mass destruction, and shadows that kill people.
Yeah,
my life is a fucking cakewalk.

*          *          *

I woke to a familiar pounding on the door. Familiar
and dreadful. One might ask how a knock could sound dreadful. A dreadful knock
could be impatient, too hard, seeping with desperation, or, for an intuitive
person, feel ominous. This was a case of all of the aforementioned. Thus, I
knew it could only mean one person.

If it weren’t for my mother sleeping in my room, I
would have ignored it, but she was a light sleeper and needed her rest. I got
up from the couch and went to the door. Darwin sat up beside the coffee table,
awoken by the knocking as well.

Regina was soaking wet and crying when I opened the
door, which made me forget what I was going to say. “What happened?”

“The cops took me to a cabin in the woods, but a huge
creature broke in and attacked them. I escaped. I think it killed them.”

“What kind of creature?”

“I didn’t see it well.” When she took a step forward,
I held up my hand to ward her off.

Part of me was worried about her head hurting from my
magic and part of me just didn’t want to let her in the house. Unfortunately,
despite the fact that she made my life Hell any chance she got, I couldn’t
stand seeing a woman cry. These weren’t Regina’s standard fake tears. “Darwin,
would you get her a towel?”

He left the room, but not without shooting her a
glare.

“What did you see?”

“It appeared out of nowhere.”

“Out of the shadows?”

She shook her head. “It was invisible. There was a
sound outside, one of the cops answered, and he was slung across the room. I
heard a growl before the cops started screaming. I got out then.”

“He was invisible?” Darwin asked.

I left Regina at the door and picked up my gun from
the coffee table. Darwin and I shared a look as he handed me the towel. We knew
only one shifter who could turn invisible, and I saw three options: Gale got
the amulet back, killed Henry, and took his power; Henry turned on us; or there
was someone else who had the ability. Knowing the jaguar shifter, I was leaning
towards the latter. Henry was nothing if not resourceful and although he wasn’t
as loyal as Darwin, I trusted him not to turn on us. At least not in his human
form.

Darwin nodded subtly; we communicated telepathically
enough that we had a pretty good idea of what the other person was thinking. In
this case, we were agreeing to believe Henry innocent and alive until proven
otherwise.

I returned to Regina and placed the towel over her
sopping hair. She took the opportunity to step forward into my arms. I
remembered then what I saw in her in the first place. Regina could be extremely
sweet, open, and vulnerable. It was all a façade, of course. Plus, I was
lonely.

I should have gotten a dog.

I was expecting it when she hugged me. Habit kept me
from pushing her away immediately, and when I did, I was gentle. Then I pressed
the barrel of the gun against her head. “Sorry, Gale, you’re not my type.”

The man imitating Regina reached out as if to push me
away and something sliced through my shoulder. I covered the wound instinctively
with my left hand and held back a grunt as the sting worsened.