Burning

by Carrillo, K. D.

  Burning

  Central Coven 2

  Published by K.D. Carrillo at Kindle

  Copyright © 2014 Kimberly Carrillo All Rights Reserved

  Edited by Mickey Reed

  Cover design by Indie Designz http://www.indiedesignz.com

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission.

  This book is also available in e-book format.

  Acknowledgements

  I want to thank the incredibly talented crew that helped me with this book. First I want to thank Dafeenah Jameel from Indie Designz for another fantastic book cover. You always take my concepts and pull an image right from my brain. I don't know how you do it, but keep it up! Thanks Mickey Reed for all you're hard work editing, and your friendship this last year.

  Most of all I want to thank my best friend Fawn Sanchez. Thank you for reading and re-reading every word that I write. Thanks for listening to me brainstorm every plot twist. But mostly thanks for keeping me sane for the last year.

  For Fluffer Nutter

  You are my inspiration to follow my dreams.

  Prologue

  The land was cloaked in darkness. The moon and stars were hidden behind a thick blanket of black clouds. Not a single ray of light escaped. It was early spring and still very cold. She had run out of the house in nothing but a thin nightshirt and no shoes.

  She stopped to lean against the trunk of a thick pine tree to catch her breath. Her light-auburn hair whipped in the wind. It was left hanging loose, and the natural curls were becoming large snarling tangles. She tried to listen for the oncoming mob, but all she could hear was the thump, thump, thump of her heart pounding in her ears.

  Where was she going to run? Her feet were bleeding from running over rocks, and she was shaking violently from being out in the cold. She tried to keep going, but she couldn’t see.

  The thump, thump, thump changed to a crunch of heavy boots on rocks. Then she realized that she could see. The night was becoming gradually brighter with the orange glow of torchlight. Her breath quickened—they had found her. Then she saw it. She had run out of room to run. She was at the edge of a cliff. She could allow them to catch her—and they were surely going to if she stayed still—or she could jump.

  A tear rolled down her face as she reflected on how she’d gotten into this situation. She was only sixteen, after all, and she’d tried very hard to be careful like her father had wanted, but such thoughts don’t live up to teenage love. She was sixteen and extraordinarily beautiful. Teenagers can be rash when it comes to love.

  How pitiful, she thought, trying to choke back tears, that with all of her powers she’d been undone by a seminary student. He was eighteen and marvelous. She was nothing short of spellbound by him. He loved her desperately and had prepared to leave the seminary for her.

  How careless! A seminary student, of all the men she could have chosen! But he had been beautiful, sensitive, and soon her entire world. If his family had known how large her dowry was, they would have welcomed the match, but they had not taken the time to find out. His family wanted him to enter the church, and she threatened to lure him away. Her father would not have. He hated humans, and in his opinion, they were beneath witches. Disappointed by her affair with the human, her family abandoned her to fate.

  They called her a harlot and then sealed her fate in this age of Inquisition. They accused her of witchcraft and heresy. It was the sixteenth century, and an accusation was as good as a conviction. In the end, he let her go. He said that she’d tried to seduce him with black magic. Her father was right; you couldn’t trust humans.

  Burn or jump? She was told that witches couldn’t be killed—at least not easily—but having never tested that theory, she wasn’t looking forward to being burned. She was excellent at teleporting, and she knew that, if she jumped, she could escape. She had seen a burning, a girl tied to a post, surrounded by kindling. The fire had danced and consumed. Oh, and the screams. No, she was definitely not going to test the theory with burning.

  “There she is!” someone in the mob shouted.

  Women wearing muted shades of brown and black hung around the fringes while their husbands circled around. She walked backward until she felt the edge of the canyon with her feet. She took a deep breath and jumped.

  Chapter 1

  Begin all over again

  Grey

  A thousand years was a long time to live. A very long time when you factored in the cruelty humans were capable of. I was not innocent; I had caused death in large numbers. Yet even with all of the blood on my hands, my crimes couldn’t compete with the genocides, wars for profit, or degradation of humans as humans themselves were capable of.

  Despite all of the evil I had witnessed and perpetrated, I’d naïvely thought that the burning times were over. The witch hunts and inquisitions to root out heresy should have been left in the Middle Ages where they belonged. We lived in a post-Enlightenment world ruled by logic and science. Yet there I was, staring at the remnants of the pyre that had consumed an innocent. Anna Bisset, a nineteen-year-old girl, had been abducted and murdered by the heirs to the Inquisition, a group known as the Auto-da-fé.

  Anna had come to the council from a small town in the French Pyrenees. It was well known by her neighbors that Anna was psychic. They loved her, relied on her advice, and often bragged about her to outsiders. This bragging brought her to the attention of the council as one of the aware, or a human who exhibits supernatural abilities. She was educated at the council’s preparatory school. Anna had only returned home for a few months and was welcomed with a grand celebration.

  The loving and tight-knit community did not recognize the danger that had infiltrated their community. The auto-da-fé learned of Anna’s abilities, which was easy enough since the town celebrated her gifts.

  Several nights ago, Anna’s parents returned home from an evening out with friends to discover their front door ajar, Anna’s room tossed, and that Anna was missing. The entire town joined the police in the search, but she was not found. After four days of searching, the search party fell upon a clearing in the forest and smoldering coals around a charred stake.

  The smell was sickening, pungent with the smell of burnt flesh and hair. No one could deny what had befallen poor sweet Anna. Carlos Sanchez, Hans and Eliana Christiansen, and I had joined the search at the request of the Council. Anna was a favorite of Marguerite du Lac, and she demanded we find the perpetrators and harshly punish them. Marguerite tried, but Madame and Mousier Bisset were inconsolable. Before they left the funeral to grieve in isolation, Madame Bisset handed me a small leather pouch.

  “This is all that was found of my Anna. Please do right by her.”

  I nodded, took the acrid-smelling pouch. “We failed to protect her, and we are desperately sorry for that. I will not fail her again. You have my word,” I said.

  Tears swelled in her giant blue eyes. She squeezed my hand once then turned and walked away from me.

  I looked in the pouch in my hand and thought. Justice for Anna will not be an easy task. I am sorry that I have to bring this home to you, Chloë, but I cannot do this without you. I am coming home… I just have a couple of stops to make first.

  Chloë

  Anita
danced around the living room, arranging pillows on the sofa, straightening picture frames, dusting, and then repeating the whole process over again.

  “Nervous?” I asked her.

  “No…I mean…yeah, I guess. Come on. Aren’t you…even a little?” Anita asked, temporarily pausing her mindless straightening.

  I shrugged. Was I nervous, restless, even impatient for Finn and Dean to return from Europe? Possibly, but I wouldn’t allow myself to show it. Of course I was excited to see Dean. At least Anita would stop cleaning. Dean brings light and sunshine with him. Besides Anita, Dean is my best friend. Also, I think she was starting to wear grooves in the furniture from her persistent polishing.

  Anita paused with her hands on her hips, looking at me with a skeptical look on her face. “Really? You aren’t interested at all? You haven’t even talked to Finn since he and Dean joined their families in Europe. They have been gone for a month.”

  I shook my head and smiled. “That long? I hadn’t realized.”

  Anita rolled her eyes and grabbed for a pillow.

  I braced my hands in front of my face and stifled a giggle. “If you throw that, it will mess up all of the hard work you’ve done getting the place ready for Dean’s homecoming.”

  Anita scowled and resumed her nervous pacing. “He is going to like it, right? They didn’t even see the place before they left. I wish you had waited until they got back. Did you have to buy the place so quickly?”

  “School starts in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to be settled. Relax, will ya? They will love it. Well…at least Dean will,” I amended.

  “So will Finn. This place is awesome,” she added.

  “Uhm…yeah… About that. Finn hasn’t exactly agreed to live here,” I confessed.

  “What do you mean he isn’t going to live here? He has to live here. Otherwise this living arrangement is just weird,” Anita said.

  Things had been weird between Finn and me since last winter. He was being patient, but he’d made it clear that he wanted our friendship to evolve. I wasn’t opposed to more—someday. That day just wasn’t here yet. Okay, so when I pictured Finn, I was close to being ready. At six foot two, he towered over me. And my, was it worth the neck strain to look at his chiseled jaw, wavy dark hair, and unnaturally blue eyes.

  “He doesn’t have to live here, and I didn’t say he isn’t going to live here. Just that he hasn’t decided yet. And hey…what do you mean this living arrangement is weird?” I asked.

  “Face it, Chlo. Without Finn, we aren’t a coven living together. Or even four friends living together. With only the three of us, it is more like me shacking up with my boyfriend in my best friend’s house.”

  “Okay, yeah. I see your point. Weird—very weird. Now I’m totally uncomfortable,” I said sarcastically.

  Anita, being her wonderful charming self, hurled a pillow at me with the accuracy and speed only a vampire could summon. I was revising my belief that pillows were soft, comforting objects and adding them to my list of dangerous projectiles. But it did manage to break the tension—and a lamp.

  Finn

  Seattle is a great city if you want to get lost or blend in even if you normally stand out. It doesn’t matter how unique you are in a city that is bursting at the seams with diversity. Your differentness becomes normal. Walking along the Sound, I was just another leather-clad stranger examining the rainbow sheen of boat pollution around the docks.

  No one minded the light rain that had been steadily falling all day. Nor did they seem bothered by the chill caused by being perpetually wet and subjected to a cold Pacific breeze. It appeared that the cure was a strong cup of coffee; luckily, it was available on every street corner. Man, Chloë would have loved a day like today.

  Chloë… It seemed that, no matter how hard I try to leave her behind, she is always right in front of me, taunting me, intriguing me, torturing me. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with her. If I were being honest with myself, I wanted her so badly that I was physically in pain.

  But that right there was why I’d fought it so hard. It felt like being on the edge of something and preparing to jump into…nothing. Everything. And that was the problem. I sensed that being with her would either be the end or the beginning. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that, once that line was crossed, concretely—once I’d had her in my arms without hesitation, without interruption—that would be it for me. Hell, she was already everything to me, and we’d only kissed. If we took that next step and she didn’t want me, it would end me.

  I wanted forever with her. I’d given her as much time as I could, but I couldn’t stay away from her anymore. As the cliché goes, ready or not... She might not be ready, but Dean sure was. He was beyond ready, actually. One month away from Anita had not been good for him, like I’d insisted.

  Though my hearing was not superhuman, I could tell that he had begun to quietly growl at me. It had begun as clipped orders to hurry, but now he was literally growling. Damn it, I hadn’t decided what I should do.

  Move in with them? Living with my friends—that was the ultimate college experience, right? But living with Chloë? Waking up in the morning, catching her with freshly scrubbed skin, wearing short shorts and a well-worn (and somewhat see-through) T-shirt? Exactly how much torture was I supposed to endure? Live together, down the hall, this time without locks…

  “Damn it, Finn. I can see the wheels turning, but I am reaching my limit. Let’s hit the road, or I’m going to hit you and throw you in the bed of my truck. Either way, we are getting the hell out of this rain and I’m going to see Anita.”

  I tried hard not to laugh at Dean, but it was a losing battle. He had spent nearly a year “waiting” until Anita had decided she was ready to get married. I didn’t think he had actually asked, but it had been implied. I’d watched her clothes get tighter and smaller, and still, he kept waiting. Funny, seeing her prancing and parading had never done anything for me. Which said a lot. Anita was hot—like melting. She looked like a pixie version of Jessica Alba, a tiny, bronze goddess, but I couldn’t even enjoy the view.

  Ever since the first day I laid eyes on Chloë, I just hadn’t felt the impact of another pretty girl. God knows I’d tried. I’d made out with half of the cheerleading squad trying to see other girls. It hadn’t worked. I was fighting a losing battle.

  “I’m coming,” I responded to Dean.

  “You’re moving in, aren’t you?” he asked, peering at me sideways from the driver’s side of his truck.

  “I don’t see how I can fight it,” I sighed.

  Dean laughed. “You never stood a chance.”

  He was right; I never had. I’d concede this victory. If I got the girl in the end, this was a battle worth losing. Besides, if I didn’t move in, Grey might, and that couldn’t happen.

  He was always waiting in the wings. Just waiting for me to screw up so he could pick up the pieces. And I was such an ass that I kept giving him chances. He had been so smug when we’d met up with him in Europe, so confident that everything would work out his way. Just knowing that he had been her first, not me… I could stake his dead ass.

  “Quit crushing the rail and get in the truck!” Dean yelled.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled.

  “Thinking about Grey again?” I could only nod. “Good. It’s your own damn fault. He wouldn’t stand a chance if you would grow a pair and tell her how you feel. You really can’t hate him, because he loves her too. If it weren’t him, there it would be someone else, and the next guy isn’t going to give a shit about her ‘destiny.’ Remember that,” Dean advised.

  “You’re right, as always,” I grumbled. “I just… What if I can’t convince her I’m serious this time?” I asked, finally voicing my fears.

  “You’re an idiot,” Dean said without looking at me.

  “Why am I an idiot?” I asked, confused.

  “You screwed her over more than once. Chloë isn’t a pushover. It's going to take work to convince her. You have to keep try
ing until she believes you this time,” Dean insisted.

  “I don’t know if I can risk her rejection. It’ll kill me,” I explained.

  “So you’re a fucking idiot.”

  “Yeah, I guess I am.”

  “Get in or find another way home. I’ve followed your stupid ass long enough. I want to see someone prettier than you,” Dean snapped.

  Well, I still had two hours to think before I saw her face. I could pull myself together by then. If not, well, time was up. Ready or not, Chloë, I’m coming home.

  Grey

  “Uh…Mr. Grey…it appears that we are going to be grounded at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey,” the pilot announced over the intercom.

  “Exactly how long are we going to be delayed? I have to continue on to St. Louis this evening,” I replied, trying not to violently jab the intercom button.

  My senses were finely tuned to detect the smallest noise, the faintest smell, and the dimmest light. Right now, I could hear the scraping of skin against skin as he rubbed his hands together nervously. I could also hear the increased speed of his heart while adrenaline coursed through his body. Fear hung around him, pouring out from his glands. I saw a muted light around the edges of the tightly sealed door. The blue glow and the sound of fingers on a touch screen alerted me to the pilot texting from the cockpit.

  I pushed the intercom button. “Did you hear me? How long are we going to be here?”

  “How… How…long sir? U-Until morning, I believe.”

  I had to fight back a snarl. Instead, I stormed up to the cockpit and ripped the door neatly from its hinges. “You are afraid of me. I am a Watcher, so you shouldn’t be. But if you delay me and those I am to protect are injured, you will regret it,” I warned the Council’s pilot.