Fire Cursed Trilogy Box Set

by J. E. Taylor

When his gaze came back to mine, his eyes shined with interest. He slid his arm under the fabric and pulled me against his chest. I breathed in his kiss, letting it warm my soul. I had no idea how I got here without any sort of connection beyond his scent on the shirt, and I didn’t really care.

  The soft groan in the back of his throat thrilled me as much as the caress of his hands. His kiss broke and his lips trailed down my neck and then to my ear.

  “I need…”

  The bang on the door shocked me back into my body. I inhaled, glancing around the room. My phone rang at the same time Kylee asked if I was okay.

  “I’m fine,” I said to Kylee and answered my phone. “Hey. Can I call you back in a few minutes?”

  “Can you come back?” he asked, his voice rough with the same heat that was making it difficult for me to concentrate on anything else.

  “Not sure,” I said. “Just hang on while I get dressed and let Kylee have the bathroom.” I put the phone on the counter and pulled on my clothing as quickly as I could. With my dirty clothes, my brush, and phone in my hands, I stepped out of the bathroom and gave Kylee a tilted smile.

  “I guess you lost track of time,” Kylee said.

  “I did, and I’m sorry I took so long.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll catch a shower once we are in the air.” She led the way through the bedroom and closed the door as we took seats in the main cabin.

  I dropped my dirty clothes in my suitcase and then sat down to brush my hair.

  Alex called my name, and I put the phone to my ear. “Sorry, I was just getting settled for takeoff.”

  “Are you going to come back?”

  “I don’t know. I might, but I was thinking I needed some serious sleep. It took everything I had to close this one, and I was running low on energy even before I got to Texas.”

  “I need you.”

  His whispered confession struck deep inside, but not enough to pull me to him like last time.

  “Me too.” I said under the rumble of the engine. “What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked, hoping to change the subject away from us.

  “Dad wants to take a ride to New Hampshire.”

  I stared out the window. “Paradise Cove?”

  Silence blanketed the line. “Yeah.”

  There was only one reason to go to Paradise Cove. “He wants to talk to Tom?”

  Alex chuckled in a way that chilled me. “No. He wants to talk to Michael. He figures if Lucifer could come back after what happened, so can the rest of the archangels. He wants them to help us stop Lucifer.”

  “He knows they can’t leave the cove, right?”

  Alex got quiet again. “He thinks they can. He also thinks his father can, too.”

  A sharp pain behind my eye drew a hiss from my lips. The memory box in my head started pounding, and I closed my eyes, clamping down, controlling it, and turning the imaginary keys to the locked position in my mind. I couldn’t have another seizure. That would delay us from closing the next breach and keep me away from Alex for much longer than either of us wanted.

  “Faith?” he asked.

  “Mm-hm?” I replied when I had control over the file cabinet of memories.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Just tired.” Exhaustion ripped at my muscles, and I leaned back in the chair, watching the scenery fly by as we accelerated down the runway yet again. The blur of the scenery was appropriate. It felt like everything else in my life since my mother had died.

  “Get some rest. We can talk after you’ve had some sleep.” Although his voice was steady and full of compassion, the only thing bleeding through the line was his disappointment.

  And as much as my body craved his touch, I was just too damn tired to make the transition now.

  “Love you,” I whispered.

  “Back at you,” he said, and then the line disconnected, along with whatever aggravation was brewing in his blood.

  Chapter 15

  “Faith?”

  Hands shook me.

  I blinked my eyes open to the white ceiling of the plane. “Is something wrong?” I glanced around at the bright sunlight filtering into the windows.

  “Yes. It’s time to get moving.”

  “Huh?” I looked at Kylee, confused. It had been dark out when I closed my eyes.

  “You slept through the stop in Hawaii. We’ve landed in American Samoa. I’ve gone out and gotten us breakfast and chartered a boat and bought us the proper hiking clothes.” She waved toward the table.

  I stared at her outfit. She reminded me of Steve Irwin right down to the hiking boots, and an identical pair of clothes sat on the table for me right next to a breakfast plate of fruit and crepes.

  I struggled to my feet and headed to get the awful taste out of my mouth then change into the ridiculous safari outfit. The thing fit, was surprisingly light, and much more comfortable than it looked. I tied my new hiking boots over the thick but weirdly cool socks before heading back into the cabin. I sucked down every bite of what was on my plate and then stood and stretched.

  “Where’s Levi?” I asked.

  Kylee nodded toward the bedroom. “Levi is going to stay and keep an eye on the plane while we are gone. Josh needs sleep before we head to New Zealand, and I didn’t think the rainforest was the place for Levi anyway.”

  “He was really good to have around in Texas,” I said.

  “I know, but he’s staying here. Besides, it should only take us a few hours once we get to the island.”

  Her smile made me uneasy, I wasn’t quite in agreement with leaving him here. There had to be more to it than what she was telling me. Instead of extracting the information from her mind, I decided to ask.

  “What happened? Seriously?” I glanced at my phone. There were more texts from Alex, but the battery was low enough for me to plug it in instead of pocketing it. When I looked back at Kylee, she was glancing outside and biting her lip. “Kylee?”

  “We ran into some Kapua when we landed.”

  I stared at her, thinking that Kapua must be some sort of bird or animal of some sort. “If we hit some birds, is the plane okay?”

  She started laughing. “Kapua aren’t birds or any sort of natural animals.” She presented me with a knife with sigils carved into the steel. “Please accept the protection of this knife.”

  I took it from her despite the odd way she gave it to me, and inhaled at the weird hum that came from the metal. I slid it into the holder she handed me and clipped it to my belt just like she had done with hers.

  “You see anything coming at us that isn’t normal, use the knife.”

  Her command threw me. “What exactly is a Kapua?”

  “It’s a Polynesian monster with an elongated snout, razor-like teeth, and deadly claws that can decapitate a man in one swing.” She turned away and slung a backpack over her shoulder, taking the time to actually strap it on. “I haven’t seen one of those things in years.” She stopped at the door and glanced back at me. “We need to hunt them down and kill them once we close the portal.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Her gaze jumped from me to the bedroom door and back. “When we finish closing the breach, we need to let Levi loose to do his job here.” She pointed at the floor in front of her.

  I narrowed my eyes. She was still keeping something from me. When she looked at the bedroom door again, I crossed to it and turned the knob.

  “Faith,” she said sharply.

  I ignored her and opened the door. Both Josh and Levi were lying on the bed. Levi opened his eyes, but Josh didn’t stir.

  Josh’s chest was bandaged, and it was moving up and down in enough of a cadence for me to guess sleep. I scanned his mind just to make sure it wasn’t something deeper, and he was just entering the stage of sleep where dreams were starting to form.

  Levi’s side had an ugly gash, and he moved to get up. I put my hand out, stopping him. I moved my gaze to Josh and then back, and Levi nodded, understanding my silent command to stay an
d protect.

  I closed the door and looked back at Kylee. Obviously something major went down when I was sleeping. She pulled a remote out of her pocket and aimed it at the stairs.

  “Get ready to move,” she said. “I think Levi and I took care of the ones here, but we’ve been here long enough for the bastards to call in reinforcements.”

  She gripped her knife and nodded for me to do the same.

  “Whatever we do, we can’t let anything get into the plane.” She pointed her chin at the knife on my belt.

  I peeled the glove off my hand.

  “Um. Not anywhere near the plane,” she said, turning pale.

  I pulled the knife out of the sheath with my ungloved hand. As nervous as I was, I was also surprised that my hand didn’t immediately engulf in flame. “I got it.”

  She didn’t look convinced, but she waved me next to her right in front of the stairs. “Fast. We have to go very fast.” Sweat broke out on her forehead. She took a breath and pressed the button for the stairs.

  The outer shell opened, and the stairs unfolded in what seemed like slow motion. She pocketed the remote and took the lead, nearly jumping the entire way. I scrambled behind her. The minute she landed on the concrete, she turned and pushed the button. I jumped the rest of the way as the stairs started to fold back up.

  Movement out of the corner of my eye made me spin in that direction, and my brain stalled. She hadn’t described the thing very well. They did have elongated snouts, and their teeth and claws were frightening. Their eyes were like shark eyes, black and dead. My heart jumped in my chest, and I ducked as the things arm swung in my direction.

  I lunged under his swing and buried my knife in his chest. It howled and then blew into a ball of dust. I turned toward Kylee in time to see her battling another one of these creatures. It had one hand on the ladder, hanging from it and swiping at Kylee. I launched the knife, pushing with my mind. The blade went straight through the beast. I caught a quick view of it buried to the hilt in the first seat on the plane after the monster exploded in a shower of ash.

  The stairs finished folding, and the door clasped shut. Kylee grabbed my wrist and ran towards the beach. I got a quick glance at the cluster of homes, and my blood ran cold. There were bodies in the street. Bloodied bodies. Bodies of children and adults alike.

  Rage filled every cell. I peeled off my other glove, shoving it in my pocket as we approached a beached power boat. Kylee sheathed her knife and started pushing the bow, sliding the boat into the ocean. I blocked her, facing the island as she pushed our vessel free from the sand.

  When one of those things charged, I let out a targeted jet of fire. It struck with precision, carrying my fury with it. The thing didn’t blink out in a cloud of dust like the ones that met the blades. No, this one screamed in a way that made me cringe at the same time I felt the true hand of justice.

  “Come on!” Kylee called, and I turned, waded into the water, and climbed into the boat.

  When a second charged from the woods, I let out a growl accompanied by another shot of fire. Satisfaction at its scream fanned the darkness inside me. I closed my hand into a fist and looked down at the bottom of the little boat. I needed to rein in this anger.

  When we were out far enough from the island, Kylee slowed the boat down, circling around the island until a smaller one came into view on the southeastern side of the one we’d landed on.

  “I don’t expect anyone to be alive.” She wiped her face with a shaky hand. “Do you think you can close the portal by razing the entire island?”

  I let out a laugh, and then it faded at her stark stare. “You’re serious?”

  “Afraid so.”

  I turned towards the small island. I could see end to end and shivered. The thought of an island full of those things didn’t settle with me at all, but there was no way I could close a breach at this kind of distance, especially when I struggled at close range.

  “What if someone lived?”

  “If no one was alive where we landed, I doubt anyone is left here.”

  “Then who made the crepes?”

  “I did,” Kylee said and accelerated. “We’re beaching this boat on the north shore, which is the closest point to where we need to go. I think we can still land safely there.

  I gripped the wood plank I sat on as she plowed forward through the open waves. Our little dingy wasn’t made for the open ocean, and we both white-knuckled the ride, while my heart banged in my temple.

  I was ready to stand on land when we cut the engine and let the tide roll us onto the sandy beach. Kylee hopped out and pulled the boat behind an outcrop of rock, then staked the line in the dry sand beyond the rocks. She glanced at her watch and turned towards the hill on our left, ignoring the no trespassing sign.

  “Looks like the flats first before we get to the basin of red lake.” She started to lead the way.

  “Where did you get these clothes?” I asked as everything started to hit me.

  “At an outfitter near where we landed.”

  “I thought you said they were all dead.”

  She turned and gave me the kind of look that made me want to dig right into the sand and hide.

  The store existed, but the people no longer did.

  My stomach flopped with the breakfast I had eaten earlier. She’d cooked for us after her adventure defending the plane and getting us outfitted for this. I was grateful for the clothes and the boots, but it still made me feel sick.

  We didn’t encounter anything as we climbed through the rainforest. Once we crested the hill, a lake sat to our right. Kylee turned the opposite direction, towards the thickly covered hill. She stepped onto a sandy patch and sank like it was water. Deep water.

  I reached out for her and grabbed the back of her collar. Unfortunately, her weight knocked me off-balance, and I stepped onto the sand as well, sinking right along with her.

  Stop!

  The command barreled through my brain, and our downward progression halted. I breathed through the shock and exertion of tapping into Tom’s power out of panic. I had stopped us from sinking farther. Now I just needed to get us out of the quicksand.

  I met Kylee’s wide stare. Up?

  The thought was weak and timid and made me cringe. It didn’t have the same power as the original command, which thankfully hadn’t failed. Yet.

  I was in the sand to my waist, Kylee to her chest.

  I laced my fingers together and put them on top of the sand. “Can you put your foot in my hands?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t even lift my arms.”

  The flare of panic reared again. “Up!” I commanded aloud. Whatever power I had obeyed the command. We both popped up out of the sand and into the air. Straight up, and as we started down towards the sand again, I screamed, “Stop!”

  My heart thundered as sand filtered over my feet. Kylee was at the same depth. Both of us lunged back on solid ground.

  It was good to know panic honed my skill much better than practice. It was almost as good as having Alex’s hand in mine.

  This totally explained the no trespassing sign we’d breezed by. I glanced at the area around us, along with Kylee. Sand patches covered most of the area. There were a few green patches of earth, but they were sparse.

  Kylee dropped her backpack at her feet and unzipped it. She pulled out a rope and tied one end around her waist and handed me the slack. “Tie the end around your waist. This way if one of us falls in while we are trying to get from one patch of land to the other, at least we have a fighting chance.”

  I did as she said and studied the pattern. We would have to jump together because the rope was not long enough to cover some of the gaps.

  She hooked her elbow in mine and marched us back far enough to take the first leap. “Once we start, we keep going, because if we stop, we have no runway to go from one to the next.” She pointed at the order, and I studied the pattern and nodded. Any other way wouldn’t end with us on the lush green earth th
at led up the hill at the far side of the sand marsh. “Ready for this.”

  I laughed. I was so not ready to die by quicksand. But I also knew if we didn’t get over this hurdle, we would lose time and daylight backtracking to a more reasonable route. And who knows how many of those things were still on the island.

  “I’m ready,” I said when my laugh wound down.

  “And go!” Kylee shouted, pulling me with her until I found my stride.

  We launched at the same time, and landed at the same time, then pushed off for the next one to our left and then the next to our right until we successfully reached the bottom of the grassy knoll.

  She unhooked her arm from mine and made quick work of untying and stowing the rope as I caught my breath. We both looked up at the hill wondering what in the hell would be waiting for us up there.

  “This is going to be a nightmare,” she said and unsheathed her knife.

  I couldn’t disagree. The heat here away from the constant breeze of the ocean was downright oppressive. Drawing air felt like someone was forcing water into my lungs, and I nearly coughed each time I took a deep breath.

  Sweat soaked my back, and I wished I had braided my hair. I needed to get it off my neck, so I twirled it into a tight but messy bun like my mother taught me to do before we took treks in the woods. The times I hadn’t, my hair inevitably got caught on a branch. I did not want to be caught by a tree while I was battling one of the Kapuas.

  I could just see me walking into Alex’s house with half my hair chopped off, I smiled.

  “Something funny?” Kylee asked as she hauled her backpack on again.

  “No, nothing outside my own head anyway.”

  “Try me. I could use a laugh.” She started up the hill.

  “When my mom and I used to go on hikes in the woods, if I didn’t put my hair in a bun or a braid, it used to get caught in tree branches,” I started, and then had to dodge one of the limbs Kylee had released. “I was just imagining what would happen here if I got caught in the trees and one of those things came. Explaining that I lost half my hair to Alex would be humorous.”

  Kylee snorted a quick laugh and then stopped, putting her fist up.