Just Breathe (9 page)

The Watery hand flared with glowing blue light, but the opposing Fire raging inside would soon get the better of him. She’d use it to her advantage.

“I’m not here to apologize. I’m here to offer you a deal.”

“No more deals. I want you dead.” He glanced sideways at the headlights from another passing car.

“Haven’t you heard the news? A natural gas plant in Sydney exploded a few hours ago, taking a hundred workers down with it.” She brushed some hair from her face and let her hand fall slowly across her breasts, rousing her nipples to attention on the way down. “I think it’s safe to assume Eidan’s behind the ‘accident.’”

Gavin’s expression didn’t change, but his Fire pulsed. He stepped closer and pointed a finger at her neck. “
You
killed those people. And the ones in the bus crash a couple of days ago when the fuel tank caught fire. And the eleven who expired in their sleep last week under ‘mysterious’ circumstances.”

“Not me.” She folded arms under her breasts and plumped them, hoping to shift his gears from flaming hatred to burning desire. “Ask Eidan. I wasn’t involved. But I could have been.” She lifted her gaze to his inscrutable face and dropped her hands.

“You lie.” His seductive voice was soft.

Scarlet shook her head. “No. Eidan told the Fyres to do as they pleased with the Wyldlings—here and in the Dreaming. ‘Whatever it takes to build up our Fire stores before the equinox’—those were his exact words. We both know he’s a pompous, power-hungry prick who cares nothing about the Wyldlings. He wants control. I, on the other hand, only want…you.”

She circled Gavin slowly, drinking in every rise and fall, every sputter of Fire dancing over his skin…

Gods, his venomous hatred was delicious.

Her core melted like butter into her little red panties. She caught her breath, slapped her thoughts back together, and continued before she lost momentum. “I’ve walked this Earth for centuries—millennia, actually. I’ve wandered every continent, lived in every place you can imagine. Killed hundreds, fucked thousands, stolen sanity from millions—all in search of a singular, perfect Fire to keep me sated. When you waltzed into my life two years ago, I found it.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed over a swallow. She took the sign of weakness as an invitation to move closer. Inches away, with that bastard blue hand between them, she gently breathed into his face the pheromones that drove Wyldlings mad with lust.

“I’ve
never
encountered Fire like yours, and I don’t think I ever will again. It speaks to me. Controls me. Pleases me. And most importantly, it fills me. When you’re inside me, I have no need to feed off others.”

He stared at her, his blue eyes as cold and hard as icicles, yet the Fire raged. She slid a warm palm up the back of his arm. The pheromones might not have turned him on, but at least he didn’t pull away this time.

“Imagine what we could accomplish together. Fueled by your Fire, I could rise against Eidan, take his position, and rule the Fyres as the new Archelemental. You and I could work together—form a treaty between the Fyres and Sentinels. Begin a new era in the Elemental world where no more Wyldlings will be killed in dreams, senseless explosions, or bus ‘accidents.’”

She paused to mute the kindling flames and willed the tense muscles in her face to loosen. “Eidan is a cruel and evil leader. He must be removed from office. He must pay for what he did to those innocents.”

The anger painted across Gavin’s features dissolved into wariness.

Perfect.

Scarlet lowered the heat dial a bit more. She was
so
close to convincing him. “I want your Fire, and you want to keep the Wyldlings safe. I’m sure we could work out a mutually beneficial trade.”

“Such as?” The blue Water throbbing in his hand faded a tad. “Not that I’m remotely interested. I’m just keen to hear what kind of bullshit ‘deal’ you’re going to concoct for me this time.”

“I only want your body.” Her gaze wandered to the hard-on she imagined pressing against the inside of his trousers. “I don’t care about your soul. You can sort that out on your own. After two millennia, there are few things in life that give me pleasure. You are one of them. Bind your Fire to mine and surrender your body, and I’ll not only give you the location of the door into the Dreaming—I’ll get the Fyres out for you as an added bonus.”

Gavin set his jaw. A white-hot chain reaction ripped from his heart to his appendages. “You want me to
bond
with you? You gonna tell everyone we’re going steady? You’ve lost your fucking mind. I
hate
you.”

“No, what we have will be along the lines of a marriage, though we’ll share a far more intimate bond than some worthless scrap of paper affords. And you can’t overturn a Fire Binding with a couple hundred dollars and a good lawyer. Our vows truly last until death does us part.”

His nostrils flared. “The sooner for you, the better.”

“Wishful thinking, my lover. Once we’re bound, neither of us can intentionally harm the other, or we forfeit all Fire to Incendius. Consider it a built-in means of ensuring fidelity.”

His hurried nod dripped with enough disbelief to give an atheist a hard-on. “So, I get to spend the rest of my days stuck with you in a no-escape-clause contract?” He pressed a sarcastic index finger to his lips. “Hmm…pledging my Fire for a lifetime of torture at the hands of my most hated enemy
almost
makes up for what you made me do to the woman I
actually
loved.”

She reached for his cheek. He batted her away, the heat palpable before he even touched her.

Her vision clotted with red. Dear Incendius, the blaze in him was so fucking sweet, she might crumble right now. “You’re forgetting what you’ll get out of the deal. Wyldling safety, the Dreaming free of Fyres, Eidan out of commission—it’s a Sentinel’s wet dream. Binding our Fires together is a small price.”

“Small?” he barked out, brows tight over his steaming eyes. “I cheated on and
killed
Zoe because of you. What makes you think I’ll ever forget that?”

“Picture your dead girlfriend while you’re screwing me. I can even become her if you like.” With a moment’s concentration, she reorganized the structure of her face to match Morgan’s.

“Never.” His fists curled into tight balls, and fury poured off him like a raging fever. He swiped at her, but the Water had evaporated from his fingers.

Smiling, she easily ducked out of his path and snagged a glimpse of the raven figure clinging to his neck. Still had to get that necklace for her informant. She’d nick it in post-coital bliss after their binding ceremony.

Daring him to conjure enough Water to take a crack at her in his near-frenzy, she reassumed her normal appearance and laid a hand over her heart. “This is a limited time offer. You have two days to make your decision. Join your Fire with mine, consummate our union, and the Wyldlings will be safe. I swear it.”

A defeated soul, beaten by tragedy, battered into submission stared back at her. Such beauty in that hopeless expression.

Now, if she could just stoke the ashes of his Watery love for Zoe into Fire for her…

If the flames grinding between them were any indicator, she’d be back in his bed tomorrow.

Chapter Ten

Gavin lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, numb. His heart little more than a shredded hunk of poorly maintained biological chest furniture, he covered his eyes with an arm. He hadn’t slept for shit in over a week. Hadn’t spoken to Zoe in nearly as long.

Every day was a repeat of the one before. He went to band rehearsal, checked in with Jack, asked about Zoe, got the same neutral answers, patrolled the Dreaming, chased after Fyres, and woke up to do it all again. Same shit, different nightmare.

And now Scarlet was back, making outlandish demands he shouldn’t even be considering.

The latest news headline just before he’d gone to bed told of an apartment complex tragedy in Maryborough. The entire property had been razed by a fire. Another hundred people dead, including three babies.

Fuck, his heart hurt.

He was so goddamn tired of fighting. The Sentinels were getting nowhere in holding off the Fyres. They were too few, too scattered, too ill-equipped to handle anything more than minor scuffles.

Meanwhile, the door to the Dreaming remained hidden, and the Fyres kept coming like a recurring infection. For every one Gavin managed to snuff out in the Dreaming, two more popped up. In typical, indecisive fashion, the Wæters continued to spin their wheels as they waited for Lily to arrive.

And innocent Wyldlings suffered.

Explosions, bush fires, car bombs. More unexplained sleep-related deaths. Gavin had lost track of how many had died at the hands of the Fyres. The public had grown understandably antsy. Everywhere he went, waves of red-brown fear dominated the Wyldlings’ auras. Radicals professed this was the beginning of the End Times. Conspiracy theories abounded. The latest claim warned that the government had executed secret scientific programs to induce mania through airborne drugs.

Of course, the allegations were total bollocks. Insane. Yet people fell victim to the theories. To them, there was no other reasonable explanation.

Just what the Fyres wanted.

Over twenty million people lived in Australia. Gavin was a Sentinel before everything else. He’d been chosen to protect humans and to keep the Balance. Yes, Scarlet was a liar and a murderer, but her aura suggested she told the truth about Eidan encouraging the Fyres to attack Wyldlings. Aside from Whetu, who may or may not wake up before the equinox, Scarlet was his only chance of taking back the door to the Dreaming.

If being her fuck doll would stop the Fyres from killing people in their sleep, would it be worth it?

No. Scarlet was out of her mind. There was no way he’d agree to binding his Fire with hers. Fuck that crazy bitch. He’d find another solution. He had to.

Desperate voices from the other side of the Veil called out for help. Gavin sighed. Time to go to work. He closed his eyes, relaxed into his pillow, and slipped into the Dreaming.

The dreamscape’s atmosphere was heavy with red-tinged sulfur. Wyldlings scattered like fleeing rats. Fyres gave chase. Screams pierced the air in a steadily flowing spate from all directions. Babies cried, children shrieked, adults whimpered and begged in vain for mercy.

Gavin roughed his hair, wondering where to start. Fucking hell, it had gotten much worse overnight.

Shadows—horrifying, living products of the collective unconscious’s fear—emerged from dark corners, eyes glowing white, teeth sharp. A pair of them double-teamed a little blond boy cowering behind a boulder. Instinct shot Gavin toward him as their sharp claws raked his skin, flaying flesh like paper. Imaginary worms wriggled free of the gash and slithered up his arm. The kid’s eyes popped with terror. His mouth opened in a death scream, but no sound came out. Once in range, Gavin blasted the Shadows with short, controlled bursts of Water. The boy’s face turned white, he clutched his chest, and dropped to the ashes.

“No!” Gavin knelt beside him. His small fingers curled around Gavin’s Water tattoos in a final, silent plea. A rattle wheezed out of him. Gavin lowered his ear to the boy’s mouth, checking for breath. There was none. He administered CPR, but it was too late. Fear had literally killed the child.

Fuck. He was just a kid. He didn’t deserve to die. So senseless. The boy’s parents would have to endure this loss for the rest of their lives. Imagine the pain of waking up to find your child dead in his bed with no apparent cause, no indication anything had been wrong. Gavin’s muscles quaked as he struggled to channel his emotions to his hands. He’d need plenty of Water to avenge the kid’s death.

Gavin gently unhooked the boy’s fingers from his arm and smoothed his hair. “May your spirit live on in the Dreaming.”

The tiny body disappeared just as a crying pregnant woman stumbled past. No. No more deaths on his watch. Determination nudged Gavin to his feet. At that moment, a horde of about twenty flaming bodies stampeded after the lady. Cruel laughter bounced between them.

Targeting the red wall of Elementals, he mentally transposed Scarlet’s face on each body and sprayed a concentrated jet of Water like a fire hose across their backs. Five of the Fyres fell into steaming puddles of goo, but the rest were unfazed. They collectively faced him, fury sharpening their blood red eyes.

“Wake up!” he shouted at the pregnant woman and anyone else within earshot. “Go back to your beds and wake up from this nightmare.”

He attempted another dousing, but after the run-in with Scarlet earlier, his ammunition was already waning. The Fyres adjusted course for Gavin when the woman phased out of the Dreaming. A chill climbed his spine, and his shoulders stiffened as the swirl of insanity surged around him. The Elementals closed in perfect sync, with matching deadly intent.

Gavin’s heart scrambled up his throat and barricaded his airways. He glanced around. Several of the Wyldlings had popped back to Realis, but a few lingered, probably too scared shitless to move. He assessed the fading blue of his palm, cursed, then focused on the Fyres. Only enough Water for one more attack, then he’d have to play defense. Pumping his arm full of everything he had, he squeezed out his final spray, which did little more than aggravate the monsters further.

Cackles rose from the flames. “This is the Sentinel’s
leader
? If he’s the best they can do, the battle for control of the Balance is already won.”

As a single unit, the Fyres stepped up their speed and charged straight for him.

Shit. He spun to face the remaining Wyldlings and waved his arms. “Time to go, people. Now.” Drawing on his Earth for strength, he kicked the pedal to the metal and hoofed it away from the scene, dragging stunned Wyldlings along the way.

Some of the humans lagged. With the Fyres hot on their heels, there was barely time to breathe, let alone rest. Gavin lost a couple of the Wyldlings in his desperate bid to get them to safety. He was only one man. No way he could fight fifteen Fyres by himself.