by Bella Klaus
“Is this your car?” I asked, my voice dripping with animosity.
He placed a finger in the ignition, and its engine roared to life. Jonathan turned to me and grinned. “It is now.”
My shoulders sagged. Jonathan might have been telling the truth about not being responsible for my curse, but he had been lying about everything else, including his identity. He reversed into the garden, and with a few revolutions back and forth on the steering wheel, he turned the jeep around and sped down the side of the house.
“What’s this really about?” I said.
He turned the jeep around the front of the house and veered right into the path that led to the driveway. Tall ivy-covered shrubs surrounded us on both sides, giving me the impression of traveling through small hills.
The corners of his lips turned upward into a vague smile. “You’ll understand when you meet everyone in the Flame.”
“Why now?”
“What?” He turned right into the driveway, a three-hundred-foot stretch with spindly saplings growing through the tarmac. At the end was a two-lane road bordered by hedgerows.
“You could have taken me at any point in the last three years, your Flame comrades could have helped me when I got arrested, yet you waited until now. Why?”
His cheeks flushed. “Don’t make it sound like we sat by while you were suffering.”
“Don’t make it sound like you did, then,” I snapped.
Jonathan pressed his lips together into a tight line. “I’m not a bad guy.”
“Says the man who burned a cat to abduct the woman he’s been stalking for three years.”
“You weren’t like this before that vampire returned,” he said from between clenched teeth.
Returned? My eyes narrowed. The use of that word suggested he knew about my relationship with Valentine while I lived in Logris. I wasn’t going to get any meaningful answers by asking him a direct question, but I could learn a lot from asking him things that didn’t trigger his defensiveness.
I dug my fingers into the thighs of my jeans, trying to keep the hatred out of my voice. “Do you really know my mother, then?”
Jonathan turned right into the two-lane road, which stretched about an eighth of a mile toward a roundabout. Then he turned to me, his features softening with the beginnings of a smile. “Aurora is a great woman and just as beautiful as you. I’m sure you’ll love her.”
Based on the type of person she sent to watch over me, I wasn’t sure that this woman would be anywhere near as kind as Aunt Arianna. As Jonathan drove through a series of highways that all led back to London, he rambled about the secret community of fire wielders, saying that I would meet fire mages, salamander shifters, flame witches, and even a young dragon shifter who had been training with them for three years.
“Everyone got excited when they heard you could generate phoenix flames. Do you know what they do?”
“How did they find out?” I asked.
“We have someone inside Logris passing on pertinent information.” After turning a corner, he took the left lane to join a slow-moving line of cars.
Up ahead was a sign that said M25, which was the motorway that encircled London.
I rubbed my chin, wondering if this spy was Aunt Arianna. That might explain why Kain had said her house was empty. “Do they work for the Supernatural Council?”
“Let’s just say this person can access most places within Logris.” A smirk played on his lips.
It wasn’t her, then. Reading between the lines of everything he’d told me so far, his group of fire wielders must have known I was under investigation before Valentine had even arrived in London. If they had insider information, it meant that they knew I was under investigation before news had reached Aunt Arianna. But I hadn’t been important enough to save until they had discovered I could wield the flames of a phoenix. Interesting.
“You were going to tell me about my power,” I said.
Jonathan’s shoulders relaxed, and he drummed an imaginary beat on the steering wheel. “It all depends on if you can transition into a phoenix. Legend has it that they could transport themselves and others from one location to another, they were impervious to harm, virtually immortal, and able to reach the sun.”
“But I come from a family of witches, not shifters,” I muttered.
He waggled his finger. “On one side.”
“And on the other?”
“That’s not my story to tell,” he said with a chuckle. “Anyway, phoenix flames have the power of healing. If the flames burn a living being with enough magical intensity, it will turn to ash and regenerate the next day.”
“Sounds helpful,” I said under my breath, now understanding why Jonathan had gone to the effort of abducting me. His superiors at the Flame probably needed me as a healer.
The jeep reached the junction and veered off into the M25. This particular stretch was five lanes wide on both sides stretching down into the countryside and curving down a slope and out of sight. Tall street lights on the edges of the road illuminated our way, even though the sun hadn’t yet set.
“Aren’t you excited?” he asked.
“I might be if my blood didn’t contain so much firestone,” I muttered.
Jonathan stared at me through the corner of one eye. “What?”
I told him what Aunt Arianna had done to keep the enforcers from detecting the magic in my blood, and he blew out a long, whistling breath. The dread rolling through my belly stilled. Perhaps he would tell me there was a healer within the Flame who was an expert in removing foreign bodies from blood. In that case, I would go with him without complaint and escape as soon as my powers returned.
When Jonathan’s face twisted, and he indicated to take the next exit, I turned to him and gaped. Was this when he’d turned the car around and decide I wasn’t worth the risk of abducting?
“Let’s make an overnight stop,” he murmured.
“Why?” I snapped.
“I need to check with the high priest that it’s still alright for you to come.” He raised a shoulder. “Firestone can dampen a person’s power to nothing. This makes things a lot more complicated.”
I exhaled a weary breath, my heart sinking with the confirmation that I had been right. This so-called Flame community was only interested in me because I possessed a valuable power their leaders could use to their advantage. My mind drifted to the mother I had thought was missing or long-dead. Did she care what happened to me or had her giving me to Aunt Arianna turned her heart to ice?
Jonathan drove down the left lane in silence, seeming deep in his thoughts. Thoughts of my own plagued my mind, mostly centering on how quickly the sun would set so Valentine could come to my rescue.
The exit was only a few yards away, and I thought he would indicate to leave the motorway, but he drove straight past.
“Are we still going to the Flame?” I asked.
“Let’s stop for a cup of tea.” He shook his head. “You prefer coffee, right?”
“Actually, a nice cuppa is exactly what I need at a time like this.”
He gave me an absent nod and continued through massive motorway complexes with a Welcome Break, a service station where people could stop and get a burger, buy newspapers, have a drink, or stay the night. It was set within a complex as large as Grosvenor Square with a gas station large enough to service lorries, and a few large chain stores I hadn’t expected to see tucked away behind the M25.
“Who cursed you?” He passed the Welcome Break and headed toward a Travelodge Hotel.
I turned around, watching the large complex disappear through the rear window. “What about the tea?”
“At this time of the day, our high priest likes to meditate,” he said. “I want to check before letting you in, so we may as well wait here and spend the night.”
The noose of black flames around my neck pulsed, reminding me that I was still Jonathan’s prisoner. I clenched my teeth as hard as I clenched my fists. There was absolutely no do
ubt in my mind that the wretched Paddington-Bear-coat-wearing stalker would insist that we share a room.
Chapter Eleven
As the jeep slowed to a stop outside the hotel I tugged at the door handle, but Jonathan had somehow engaged the central locking and made sure I couldn’t escape.
Taking a deep breach, I felt around the doors, feeling the thrum of magic powering both the vehicle’s engine and its locks. Maybe a blast of my fire would disrupt his, and I could break free. I lined my palm against a line of dark power that crossed the door’s seal, and pushed my flames into my hand.
It didn’t work.
Jonathan had me trapped, and there wasn’t a single thing I could do to save myself.
“Calm down.” He withdrew his black flames from the ignition, pulled out his phone and tapped its home button. “No one’s going to get hurt.”
I sucked in a breath through my teeth, bristling at the way that sentence had left so much unsaid. No one would get hurt unless I tried to escape, unless I fought back, unless I refused to spend the night with him in a roadside hotel.
“You said you would take me to my mother,” I hissed.
“Eventually, I will,” he replied without raising his gaze from the screen of his smartphone. “But there’s no point in bringing you to the Flame when your blood is filled with firestone and who-knows-what without the high priest’s approval.”
My nostrils flared, and I wrapped my fingers around the noose of black flames, only for them to flare with a sting of heat. “Ouch.”
“Careful,” he muttered.
“Let me out,” I snapped.
“As soon as I’ve gotten us a room. It’s fifteen percent off if you book online.”
Annoyance rippled through my insides with a side order of disgust. I clenched my teeth and stared into his pasty profile, my fingers itching to break his long nose. Jonathan had abducted me, trapped me, threatened Macavity’s life, and I was completely at his mercy. Now he wanted a discount on his hotel room?
An idea slotted into place. It was stupid, but I’d run out of options. “I need to pee.”
“Later.”
I wriggled in the seat. “It’s slipping out. As is number two.”
He reared back. “What?”
What a dickhead. I folded my arms across my chest. “And I’ve got my period. I’ve already leaked through my super-plus tampon, and my maxi pad is soaked. If you want to keep me here against my will, that’s your choice, but you’ll have to clean up the mess.”
“Blimey.” The noose around my neck disappeared, and the central locking released.
Turning to Jonathan, I held out my palm, but he reared back and leaned against the driver-side door as though it was already covered in the aforementioned waste products. “W-what are you doing?”
“I need money to buy supplies,” I said in a slow voice. “If we’re spending the night together, I can’t muddle through with rolled-up toilet paper.”
Jonathan’s pale features twisted into a rictus of horror, and he reached into the pocket of his camel-colored duffle coat to pull out his wallet. Triumph flared through my insides, but I stilled my features. He acted like a man who had never had a girlfriend—at least not for longer than a few weeks.
With trembling fingers, he pulled out a five-pound note and dropped it from a height into my hands.
I slipped it into the pocket of my jeans. “That will buy a box of Tampax, but what about the pads?”
Red blotches spread across his pale features, and his tongue darted out to lick his thin lips. “Can’t you change them more frequently?”
“And bleed all over the bed?” When he opened up his wallet again, I suppressed a smile. “And I need money for an extra-large cup of tea and two bars of chocolate. None of that cheap stuff. This heavy duty menstruation requires Green and Blacks.”
Jonathan shuddered, looking like he was already regretting having abducted me. As soon as he pulled out a ten-pound note, I plucked it out of his fingers and opened the door before he could demand the return of his fiver.
Outside, cold air swirled through my long-sleeved sweater, making my teeth chatter, and a muffled rumble of traffic filled the air. With a relieved breath, I glanced over my shoulder to the thick line of trees bordering the service station and blocking my view of the motorway. By now, the last vestiges of sunlight shone behind a blanket of low-hanging clouds, coloring the horizon a deep mauve.
I continued toward the concrete structure at the other end of the parking lot. It looked more like an office building than a hotel, with a glass porch emblazoned with its navy-blue Travelodge sign. Wrapping my arms around my middle, I slipped through the cars parked in front, paused to let a minibus drive past, and continued through to the next row of parked vehicles.
Picking up my pace, I jogged past a Scooby-Doo-style camper van in front of us in the hotel’s parking lot, hoping I could call Kain before Jonathan came looking for me. Where was that boy? He was supposed to have called or texted by now with news on a healer or the location of Valentine’s heart. I hoped the princes hadn’t caught him snooping where he shouldn’t.
Another quick glance over my shoulder told me that Jonathan hadn’t worked through his terror of all things female to follow me into the hotel. Knowing that he employed such a terrifying power to control others made him all the more dislikable.
Despite Jonathan’s terminal awkwardness, the man had the makings of a ruthless and dangerous killer. And what was all that with the black flames? He could increase and decrease their temperature at will, use them as a rope, and mold them to resemble shadows. Jonathan could even command smoke.
As I approached the hotel’s automatic glass doors, smoke curled around my senses, making my steps falter.
“Excuse me,” said a smooth voice from behind. “Do you need any help?”
I glanced over my shoulder to find a black-haired man with pale features, sharp eyes, and a closed-lipped smile. The harsh light of the hotel’s entrance sharpened his pointed nose and angular cheekbones, giving him the look of a hawk. It was too dark to see the color of his irises but everything about him from his tailored suit, impeccable grooming, and handsome features screamed vampire.
All the moisture evaporated from my throat. “No, thanks.”
He placed a hand on the small of my back. “I’m sure I know you from somewhere.”
“You don’t.” I stepped away from his touch.
The vampire stepped around me, blocking my entrance to the hotel. “Are you thirsty? I would very much like to invite you for a drink.”
If I were watching this from the comfort of my sofa bed with Beatrice on one side and Macavity curled on my lap, I might have made a joke about who would drink who. But this was no joking matter. I hadn’t planned on leaving the mansion, so I hadn’t put any effort into suppressing the curse. Now, out in the open and with the wind carrying my scent in all directions, I was a beacon to any supernatural vampire in the vicinity.
I had to get inside before someone else noticed my presence.
“What kind of drink?” I tried to keep my voice from trembling. “Does the hotel have a bar?”
His face broke out into a grin of blunt, white teeth, and he swept his arm to one side. “After you, my dear.”
“Thanks.” I stepped into the hotel lobby, a large space of linoleum floors with a carpeted section where about a dozen tourists sat surrounded by luggage.
Four small groups of people stood in line at the reception desk, where a man and a woman wearing white shirts typed in their details. Good. At least I wouldn’t be alone. My gaze darted from side to side, skimming a row of vending machines and settling on a prominent security camera hanging on the wall. Whatever happened, I needed to stay in sight of that surveillance and not allow this vampire to drag me out of the hotel.
“You know what?” I said, rubbing my throat. “I actually quite fancy a Diet Coke.”
His lips tightened the way most vampires reacted at the notion of artificial
sweeteners. Valentine said it made the blood taste sour and that the most popular blood cows loaded up on sugar and spices before making their donations.
“That won’t be necessary,” he said with a cold chuckle, “I’m sure there are finer establishments—”
“Forget it.” I raised a hand toward the security camera, making him turn around. “My boyfriend’s watching and he’ll go mental if I leave the hotel with a man.”
The vampire’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced over his shoulder at the camera again. I didn’t need a degree in Vampire Psychology to know he was wondering if he should snatch me anyway and risk a scene and the potential wrath of the enforcers. Before he could finish deliberating, I waved to the receptionist, who raised her hand with a confused frown. I wanted everyone in this lobby to notice my presence here. Most importantly, I needed this vampire to believe that abducting me would get him into more trouble than the prospect of obtaining delicious-smelling blood.
Casting a final glance at the security camera, I jogged across the lobby to the vending machine, slipped the five-pound note in the slot, and selected Diet Coke. The can tumbled through the machine’s interior and dropped on the dispenser, accompanied by the clink of three-pound coins into the small change compartment.
As I bent to retrieve the drink, the vampire wrapped his warm hand around my wrist.
“A beauty such as you should be drinking champagne,” he drawled, trying to sound seductive.
“What are you doing?” I said in a loud voice. “Let go of me.”
“Is this man bothering you?” asked a cultured female voice.
I’d been so focussed on souring my blood that I hadn’t noticed the appearance of a second vampire. A pulse pounded between my ears, and my throat turned to the consistency of tree bark.
The male vampire released my wrist and turned to the female vampire with a tight smile. She stood five feet and ten inches tall and wore her long, mahogany hair in a high ponytail that made her appear even more imposing compared to my five-five stature. The stark lights shining down from the lobby’s ceiling tiles brought out red highlights the exact shade of my hair.
