Through the Fire (Daughter of Fire Book 1)

by Michelle Irwin

  “Why’s that?” The confusion was evident in his tone.

  “It wouldn’t have been long before I made you move that hand.”

  He shifted in his seat. “Oh yeah?”

  I nodded and bit my lip.

  “Which way?” he whispered.

  I cleared my throat—I’d wondered exactly the same thing myself earlier, but I wasn’t ready to admit that to him.

  He laughed in victory as he won the little game. For now.

  It was almost a shame when we arrived at his warehouse. Only almost though because I still had a little surprise for him.

  “Okay, I’ll just be a minute,” he said.

  “I’m going in with you.”

  “Why? I’m just going to be one minute.”

  I held his hand between mine for a moment, before guiding it to the side of my face. He seemed to take my hint and caressed my cheek softly.

  “You don’t really appreciate what you’ve agreed to with my Dad do you?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  I laughed at his naivety. For someone who claimed to have spent a lot of time on the road, it was clear his moves must have usually been planned and well executed, not mad rushes for survival. “We’re about to be stuck in a car with Dad for at least a few days while he plans the next step, and then there’ll be the drive to wherever the hell that is. Just because you’ve been almost invited to come with us, doesn’t mean he’ll make it easy for you. We won’t have any alone time for a little while yet.” If I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy his long caresses and tender kisses for almost a week, I wanted to spend a few minutes getting my fill now.

  “I see,” he said as he bit his lip and adjusted his position in the seat. “In that case, shall we?”

  My voice was almost breathless as I murmured, “We shall.”

  I raced from the car so I could try to beat him to the entrance. Running as hard as I could, I managed to get there before him, and when I turned back, he was fixing his shoelace. Ignoring him and figuring I could beat him to his room, I reached for the metal door. Just after I’d given the roller door a tug and opened it, he came up behind me and grabbed my waist, causing me to jump and give a squeal of surprise.

  He twisted me in his arms, and before I’d even caught my breath from the shock of his move, his lips were on mine, and his hands explored the skin of my waist beneath my shirt as he pushed me back against the wall just inside the door. I tugged his shoulders, pulling him closer to me and then, using the wall as leverage, wrapped one of my legs around his waist.

  Without having to be concerned that Dad was in the next room, all of my inhibitions dropped away. It seemed Clay had the same idea. His lips left mine only to trace a glorious trail along my cheeks, over my ear, and then down the column of my throat. His hands grew more confident and he slipped his fingers underneath the cups of my bra. He moaned almost as loudly as I did when his fingertips grazed over my nipples.

  His warm breath and wet mouth over my collarbone sent my body into overdrive. I fisted my fingers into his hair and tugged his mouth back to mine. My body must have almost been hot enough to singe all of my clothing away. If we continued too much longer, I was likely to lose my virginity right there against that wall in the abandoned warehouse.

  That thought stopped me cold. What did I really know about Clay? He’d said he didn’t want our first time to be something like this. Did that mean it would be his first time as well? Did he understand it would be mine?

  I was about to call a stop to our kisses when Clay pushed up my shirt and dropped down before me to kiss and caress my stomach and chest. When his tongue drew patterns across my skin, I was left utterly breathless. There was little more than a series of incomprehensible thoughts in my mind.

  Eventually, I found the self-control I needed. “Stop,” I murmured.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked as he stood upright and leaned heavily against me, pushing me into the wall with every part of himself. Resting with his forearms on either side of my head, his breaths came in soft pants as he kissed my mouth softly once, twice, three times. Each time his lips lingered a little longer, and on the third, his tongue scraped along mine.

  “No, not wrong,” I moaned desperately. “So, so right. Too right. If you keep going . . . I don’t know what I’ll be responsible for.”

  His eyes danced with mischief as he grinned at me. “You were the one who wanted some alone time.”

  “You were the one who wanted our first time to be special.” I wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “Touché.” He went to pull away.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” I asked.

  “To get my things,” he answered, clearly confused.

  “I didn’t say I was finished with you, just that we should keep it PG-13 for the moment.”

  “You’re insatiable.”

  “Only for you.”

  AFTER ANOTHER few moments in the entryway, we finally pulled ourselves apart and headed toward Clay’s makeshift bedroom. Almost the instant the door was open, he rushed around and packed up the few things he had. As he packed, I saw one of the reasons he was insistent on coming back to grab everything. Among the bags was a stack of cash that easily had to be a couple of grand. When he pulled it from its hiding space, he gave me a coy look and called it his traveling money. “It’s so I don’t have to use a credit card, they can track me with that.”

  I didn’t ask him how he got it—I’d learned long ago not to ask questions you didn’t want the answer to.

  While shoving the last of his things that he’d decided on bringing with him into the bag, he suddenly stopped.

  “Do you actually want me to come with you?” he asked.

  “Of course I do.” My voice was filled with confusion.

  “I just realized I never bothered to stop and ask you what you wanted.”

  “I still don’t know exactly what I want, but this—you—it’s a good start.”

  Reaching for my hand, he swung the backpack onto his back and took one last glance around. “I think that’s everyth—”

  “Was that a car door?” I asked after a sound from outside cut him off.

  “I think so,” he whispered before putting his finger to his lips to indicate that we should be quiet.

  I could hear two male voices in a quiet discussion outside. I couldn’t make out all of the words, but “Clay” and “tricked” were among them.

  “Shit, it’s Dad and Eth.” Clay turned to me with a dismayed gaze. “We need to get you out of here.”

  I barely heard him over the blood pulsating through my head and the hammering in my chest.

  “This is definitely the truck Lou mentioned,” the younger sounding voice said. “See, Maryland plates.”

  “It probably means that creature is in there with him.”

  I swallowed heavily as I the understanding that I was “that creature” sank in. The breath that was burning my lungs slipped out in a stuttering exhale.

  “What do we do?” I mouthed to Clay.

  “Stay here,” he mouthed back as he made overly emphasized hand movements and pointed at the ground.

  I nodded as he silently dropped the backpack off his shoulder and left it on the floor, before dragging something out of it, but I couldn’t make out what because of the angle his body was in. Whatever he grabbed, he tucked into the back of his pants.

  He reached out for me, pulling me to him for a moment. My skin blazed with fear, but it didn’t seem to faze him. I glanced down to where his hand clasped my wrist. His finger traced a small circle against my pulse point.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I never meant for it to be like this.”

  “What do you mean?” I rested my hand on his chest and stared at the spot where the thrumming vibrated beneath my hand.

  “When the moment comes, take it. Don’t look back.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He stepped closer to me, drawing me to him with h
is steady grip on my arm. His other hand caressed my cheek again, and a moment later his soft lips were on mine. His lips dragged over mine in gentle, sad movements. His fingers twined into my hair, and he drew my face closer to his. He placed his forehead on mine for a fraction of a second. “I love you.”

  Without giving me a chance to respond, he let me go. He took a moment to run his fingers through his hair to tidy it. With a sigh, but not even a glance back at me, he shoved both hands in his pockets and casually strolled out toward his family.

  All I could do was stare after him as my heat rose by the second.

  How were we going to get out of this?

  CHAPTER NINE

  LESS THAN a minute later, he was greeting them as if he hadn’t just declared his love to a monster. “Eth, Dad, what are you guys doing here?”

  “Lou said you might be in trouble,” the younger voice—the one I assumed must have been Ethan—said.

  “No trouble,” Clay said in response. “I just needed some time to myself.”

  I had no idea how he planned to get us both out of the situation, but I was willing to trust that he would find a way.

  He loves me.

  I kept that thought running as a mantra in my mind as I tried to find another escape path from the tiny office, just in case Clay’s plan didn’t work. There was only one—up. Unless I suddenly discovered I had an unknown ability to climb walls, it wasn’t going to happen. My eyes darted around every part of the tiny space, cursing the smooth walls and lack of hiding places.

  “Why don’t we go get some coffee and breakfast?” Clay said. “This place is a dump.”

  “Then why are you staying here, bro?”

  “I told you, I needed some time alone. That means away from people. You don’t get more away than this.”

  Ignoring Clay’s instructions, I crept forward toward the door to the room. I hoped I could get out of the space and hide somewhere in the labyrinth of corridors around the warehouse, but I couldn’t risk being seen—or heard—leaving the room. Peering out into the hallway, I saw the shadow of the three men flickering over the graffiti on the walls. Then my gaze was drawn to my own very obvious shadow in the outline of the open door and I jumped back inside the room. It was my worst fear—I was trapped.

  The thought made the tips of my fingers prickle instantly with heat. The warmth licked up my arms as if the flames had already leapt from my body and were burning their way over my skin. The heat was more intense than anything I’d experienced. Deep within me, a strange voice whispered undecipherable things.

  At first, the speech terrified me. It wasn’t something I’d experienced before. The stories Dad had told me about the sunbird came back to me as if planted in my mind by someone else. As those images flittered through my mind at a rapid pace, I understood. Almost by instinct. The quiet utterances were a form of encouragement.

  The sunbird, or whatever it was that the voice belonged to, would keep me safe.

  A renewed confidence rushed through my limbs, and I breathed out my fear. Closing my eyes, I surrendered myself to the meaningless words. Once I had, they were no longer meaningless.

  You’ve never been in such danger before, the voice whispered. I’m here to help.

  How? I asked silently.

  You know how. It was my own thoughts that bubbled up in response to my question. The invisible flames that licked along my arms burned hotter for a second.

  Surrender to me, and they will pay.

  The unveiled threat in the sunbird’s words terrified me, but then she moved within me. My heart beat a little faster, and my stomach clenched.

  If you need me, I will take control.

  “I’ll be okay,” I whispered to myself to silence the voice. The thought of something else—even something within my own body—taking control of my actions terrified me. It made me consider the fact that maybe Clay was right—maybe I was a monster. Or at least I had one residing just beneath my skin.

  I moved into the corner of the room closest to the door, hoping I could at least surprise them from behind and gain some advantage if it was going to come down to a fight. In the seconds that it took for the three voices to fill the corridor outside the room, I wondered what they looked like and how strong they might be. They were both seasoned hunters—I remembered Clay telling me his brother was a few years older than him. Even if Clay was willing to fight against them, making the fight two on two, would I have enough strength to fight off a fully-grown man?

  You don’t need strength; you have fire.

  I nodded in response to the voice inside me. She was right; I did have fire. I could make them burn. The thought terrified me as it ran through my mind, mostly because I recognized that it was not my own. I didn’t want to deliberately hurt anyone, but she would if it was necessary.

  It won’t be necessary, I thought again to pacify the sunbird. It didn’t seem she could come to the surface unless I let her, so I didn’t have to be evil. I couldn’t stoop to their level; it would make me no better than them or the creature they believed me to be.

  Closing my eyes, I tried to retrace the steps back out of the warehouse and cement the escape route in my mind. When I opened them again, I was looking at three backs: Clay and two other men who had entered the room. Clay’s head immediately turned, and his gaze sought me out.

  He ripped his hand from his pocket, lifted his shirt to reveal a holster and gun. In the next instant, he had it drawn and pointed at his father.

  “Now, Evie! Run!”

  I didn’t think twice. I turned, and I raced from the room—rushing through the doorway and into the darkened corridor. Before I’d even broken free of the warehouse, I heard the sound of fighting erupt behind me. After a rash of thuds and bumps, Clay’s voice shouted indecipherable words, and then the sound of a gunshot sliced the air. My heart beat rapidly as I skidded to a stop. A pained cry filled the corridors. The sound was enough to stop my progress and spin around.

  Another loud crash sounded, and one of the men was right behind me.

  “What the hell?” the older voice, Clay’s Dad, shouted from inside the room. Angered cursing replaced his uttered statement and filled the space around me, vibrating off the walls and drowning out all other sounds.

  At least until Clay saw me standing still with his brother fast approaching.

  “What are you waiting for, Evie? Run!” Clay shouted as he crash-tackled his brother into the wall. “Run and don’t look back. I’ll find you!”

  A loud, wet thud sounded as Ethan fought back against Clay’s hold.

  Bursting out into sunshine, I didn’t even stop for the air I desperately needed before I climbed into the truck and gunned the engine. My eyes were trained on the warehouse as I reversed out onto the road, so I barely even noticed the Hummer that was parked in my way until I almost hit it. I spun the wheel at the last second to avoid collision and ripped out part of the fence on my way to freedom.

  I drove like a madman until I was halfway home and then the adrenaline left my system in a rush, leaving me with tear-filled eyes and shaking hands. It was in that instant that it struck me what was different about Clay’s kiss.

  The extra time and space I’d had to assess it properly had left me without any doubt. With his kiss, he’d said goodbye.

  He didn’t think he was coming with Dad and me anymore. After that gutting discovery, I couldn’t move the car another inch, even if I wanted to. A chorus of beeping sounded around me as a reminder that I wasn’t alone on the road, and yet even that wasn’t enough to force me to drive.

  Pressing my forehead against the top of the steering wheel, tears that I couldn’t fight fell in cascades. The ghost of his kiss lingered on my lips. His “I’m sorry” and “Goodbye” had echoed through every motion of his mouth, I just hadn’t understood.

  By the time I’d finally been able to compose myself enough to drive, I didn’t know where to go. I worried that taking the truck home would flag a warning in some database. Did they al
ready know where we lived? Dad would kill me if I dumped his truck, but he’d be more devastated if it was a link that led to us being discovered. I had no way of contacting Dad to discuss the best course of action. After hearing Clay’s admission of how he’d found me, I had no doubt Dad’s reasons for not getting cell phones were valid. I would have to make the choice unaided and live with the consequences.

  I put the truck into drive and forced myself to head down the tree-lined road toward home. Just as I drove past Renaissance Park, the black Hummer that had been at the warehouse tore through the streets behind me and slammed into the rear of my truck, jolting it roughly. I was thrown forward, and my head smashed against the steering wheel. For a moment all I could see were stars, but I fought to remain conscious.

  When my vision finally cleared, my heart slid into my stomach as I looked beyond the hood to see a young man who could almost have been Clay sitting behind the wheel. I hadn’t had the chance to look at him in my rush to flee the warehouse, but now I couldn’t look away. He was clearly a few years older, his exposed arms were bulkier, but otherwise the likeness was obvious. After hearing his statement before Clay had left to greet him, I was certain he knew the truck was mine and that I was the one driving it. Cringing at the violent look on his face, I held tightly onto the steering wheel and forced my foot flat against the accelerator pedal.

  With the Hummer on my trail, there was no way I could go home. It would be leading him straight to my father and my best chance of long-term survival. At the next intersection I turned right instead of going straight ahead. That road would lead me away from the city and could only hope it offered the opportunity to shake Ethan before too long.

  I gunned the engine and watched the rearview mirror closer than was probably safe. Desperate to put as much distance between my vehicle and the Hummer as I could, I drove recklessly—with no regard for the law, other cars, or traffic lights. After a time, the houses grew farther apart and the trees grew denser. Regardless, Ethan was always right behind me, giving my truck the occasional tap on the rear. My skin flamed hotter as his vehicle swerved through the lighter traffic on the highway, almost in time with mine. It was as if he were tethered to my rear bumper.