Table of Contents
FIRE BORN
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
FIRE BORN
Book One Of The Guardian Series
RAYANNE HAINES
SOUL MATE PUBLISHING
New York
FIRE BORN
Copyright©2017
RAYANNE HAINES
Cover Design by Fiona Jayde
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
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Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Published in the United States of America by
Soul Mate Publishing
P.O. Box 24
Macedon, New York, 14502
ISBN: 978-1-68291-511-0
www.SoulMatePublishing.com
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is dedicated with much love to
Patty, Kelly, and Catherine.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank my sister, Kelly, for pushing me, for badgering me, for encouraging me to “get writing.” She’s been my biggest champion. Love you, sis.
Thanks also to my husband, my children, my mom, my village.
Thank you to my writing and editing community for all your support, especially Sandra, Kate, Janet, Cheryl, Astrid, and Laurel. You all helped bring this book to life.
Chapter 1
Alex hated her goddamn hair. She pushed the ratted, red nest off her face and out of her eyes as sweat and yesterday’s curl definer spray blurred her vision. She’d run the track early today hoping to burn off some excess energy. Her new editor had given her an assignment about a corrupt city official taking bribes. There was a quick deadline and after flaking out last week, she had to prove she could handle it. Now, sitting in the sauna she looked at the three ladies sharing the space and begged her subconscious to stay awake.
Sweat dripped like lava against her flesh, and she could feel her freckles melting down her cheeks. She tried to stretch out in her little corner of the sauna. It was getting harder to stay awake and she was terrified of passing out again. Last week, she’d had an episode while trail running. When she’d come to an hour later, she’d found herself lying in a circle of blackened and burnt earth, and her mouth tasted like she’d been chewing on cotton balls for a week. She hadn’t been able to leave the house for two days after. Aunt Quinn had covered for her, but they couldn’t keep doing that.
She leaned back against the wall, discreetly listening in to the conversations around her. Sauna talk was always good for a few laughs. She bent over and began massaging her foot and legs. They were extra tight after this morning’s run and her muscles had been aching for days already. She wondered if she was coming down with something.
Almost on cue, her stomach rumbled loud enough to attract the attention of the other women. A few odd looks had her ready to start telling them off. But as she opened her mouth to give them a piece of her mind, a sharp pain racked her gut, doubling her over. Her lower legs cramped and she almost fell off the back ledge she was sitting on.
“Damn.” She groaned and began kneading her calves and digging her thumbs into the bottom of her feet. “Runners cramps,” she explained as the other women in the sauna turned to stare at her.
Nodding with sympathy, they returned to their conversation.
One woman though, stared a bit longer. She looked puzzled and after a few seconds hopped up and leaned in to whisper, “Are you sure you’re all right? If it’s almost your time, you shouldn’t be out right now.”
Alex hadn’t noticed her until then, which was strange since she was wearing a leopard print two-piece bikini and had short blue hair. I mean who wore that to a public sauna? With a strained laugh, she said, “Okay, That’s the first time someone’s asked me about my time of the month in the sauna. I gotta say, you’re a little creepy, lady.”
Alex sat back to regain some of her personal space hoping the woman would get the message, but no such luck. The woman kept staring. So, she did what she knew how to do—Alex stared back just as hard, before asking, “Are you new?”
Blue hair ignored the question and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, “You know you can’t be with humans right now. Let me take you home. Where do you live?”
Convinced she was leading her on, Alex winked at the ladies who were not-so-subtly eavesdropping from the bottom bench, and replied, “Yeah right-those humans are sooo tiresome,” before turning away from her.
“You don’t know?” the crazy lady marveled.
Alex had had about enough of the game and didn’t need to deal with any more weird today. Her body was saying it was definitely past time to leave. She was feeling faint and could swear the woman’s eyes flashed silver. She stood on shaky feet, bumping against the blonde Barbie below her in her haste to get away.
“Sorry about that. I just need to get by.” Hands from above and below reached out to steady her.
“Are you okay? You don’t look so good,” Barbie said.
As Alex weaved, the other ladies’ voices chimed in until they were a chorus of concern.
She tried to hold on. She truly did. Tried to reassure them that everything would be fine, only the words wouldn’t come out. Fire flashed in front of her eyes and pain se
ared her hands and feet. The last conscious thought she had before passing out was, please God, don’t let it out!
~ ~ ~
The concrete floor was cold to the touch and Alex winced. Her head pounded and there were at least five hundred people yelling at her. Or maybe it was five thousand?
“Not so loud . . .” The cotton balls were back. Alex tried to lick her lips. “I need water.”
“Get her some water.”
“Are you okay?”
“Beth, get her some water. Did the staff say they were on their way?”
“They’re sending an ambulance.”
“No, No, I don’t need an ambulance,” she managed to croak out, before pushing herself up to a sitting position. “I’m fine. I just over did it you know.”
“You sure? You took a nasty fall trying to climb over us.”
Alex’s gaze shot frantically around the room before turning back to their concerned faces. “Did anything else happen?”
“What?”
“Like, did I do anything else?”
“I don’t know what else you could have done mid-faint.”
Alex considered the young woman in front of her. Up close, Barbie wasn’t so perfect after all, and she had kind eyes. They were probably around the same age. Alex had seen her around the marketing department. The majority of the staff at the paper used the connected YMCA facilities to save money on gym memberships; at least the ones her age did since most were paying off student loans. The weirdo from earlier was gone.
“Can you get me a towel please?”
“Hey, Beth, get her a towel too. I’m Denise. Just sit still and put your head on your knees. I took a first-aid course last month and in cases like this, we need to keep you calm and talking.”
Alex closed her eyes and did as asked. She felt fine now, but also utterly exhausted. She could sleep for a week.
Beth rushed back with the water and draped the towel over Alex’s shoulders. “Here, take a drink.”
“Thank you. I’m sure it wasn’t part of your morning plans to babysit a fainter.”
Beth laughed. “Hey, gets me out of work a little longer. Cool tattoo by the way. I like how little it is. I think if I ever get one I want something small like that.”
“What are you talking about?”
Beth pointed to her foot. “Your tattoo.”
Alex looked over her knees to her feet. Gazing back at her from the base of her big toe was the tattoo of an orange flame, licking up her toe onto the top of her foot. As she studied it, trying to make sense of what she was looking at, she realized Beth and Barbi . . . ah . . . Denise, were giving her strange looks.
She stammered out, “Oh, that’s a Henna. Sorry, I’m spaced out. Maybe I did bump my head when I fell.” She shook her head a little and pushed the knotted mass of red curls off her back. Sweat covered every inch of her body. She looked at her foot again and managed to reply, “You know, I don’t need an ambulance.”
“I really think you need to get checked out. Especially if you bumped your head.”
She knew they meant well, but Alex had had enough with the helping twins. “I didn’t eat this morning, and I’ve been feeling run down this week. I shouldn’t have had the steam. That’s all.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very sure. I’m a big girl. I just need some protein and rest.” Pushing herself up, Alex towered over the other women. At 5’10” she took full advantage of her height. She’d learned that lesson early on in high school.
Beth was already nodding and ready to move on to the next thing. Denise was a bit more reluctant, but she agreed quickly once Alex put on her don’t-fuck-with-me-face. Another skill left over from high school.
As soon as the two women moved on, Alex rushed to her locker to get dressed. She refused to look down. It was the only way to keep from having a panic attack. She didn’t bother trying to dry her hair; just shoved the mess in an elastic band and threw her gym sweats back on. As she raced out to the parking lot, she could swear she felt a thousand eyes drilling into her back and a fluttering against her foot.
Just ignore it, ignore everything.
~ ~ ~
Alex climbed in her 1981 Jetta and hoped to God the thing started. As the engine sputtered to life, she let her breath out a little.
A knock on her passenger window startled her and stopped her escape. Assuming it was one of the girls from the sauna checking on her, she began rolling the window down while preparing to fend off their unwanted concern. Her hand stopped midway when she came face to face with the weirdo from the sauna instead.
Before she could get a word out the woman said, “I thought I’d check on you in private. I’ve never noticed you before and that’s strange. I usually know everyone.”
She made Alex nervous. “I already told the other ladies that I’m fine. I appreciate you checking on me again but I’m just going to go home and chill,” she clipped out in an effort to cut the conversation short.
But the other woman leaned in the passenger window. “So, which one are you anyway?” She put her hands on the car and her eyes flashed silver.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Alex shook her head. The last thing she needed right now was another episode.
“You know what? I need you to back the hell off.” Alex sat up taller in her car and stared the woman down. She made it a rule to never show fear to anyone no matter who they were or what they threw her way.
The woman eyed her. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
Alex took stock of the situation—blue hair, wannabe Goth, maybe twenty-one. I can take her. She turned the car off before climbing out the driver’s side. She glowered at the girl. “You need to leave . . . now.”
But Goth girl smirked, put her hand on the hood of the car, and slowly pushed the vehicle out of the way so there was nothing between them. “I don’t think so, Red.”
Wide eyed, Alex backed away. Fire started climbing inside her again. “What the hell are you on?”
Crazy cocked her head. “Not enough. And I want what you have.”
Her foot was burning. “I don’t have anything. I’m drug free, honey.”
“Oh, that’s cute.” She laughed. “It’s just my luck I ran into you today. Don’t worry. It won’t hurt. One little snap of your neck before your transition and I get to keep it.”
“What are you talking about? You’re insane. Get away from me.” Alex looked around for help but the parking lot was empty. How the hell could a parking lot be empty at ten in the morning? Wasn’t anybody late for work anymore?
Alex slowly backed away. Around her, steam spewed from cracks in the pavement. The engine in her car roared to life and started revving.
The girl rubbed her hands together and said, “You are powerful. This is a good day for me.” She edged closer.
Alex prepared to fight. She’d been fighting since before her parents died and could hold her own against anyone. It was either the Barbie’s poisoning people against her when she was a kid, or when she started in journalism, politicians in positions of power trying to scare her off a story. She hadn’t been in a fist-fight since she was twenty, though, and this chick looked ready to destroy her. For once, Alex wished she knew what her fire could do.
She backed into the alley, keeping her eyes on the Goth freak. Maybe if she could reach the back door to the gym, she’d be okay. Rivulets of sweat poured down her back. Whether from fear or the heat screaming under her skin, it didn’t matter.
“So, I have a theory. Want to hear it?” Goth girl questioned as she advanced.
“Is it going to stop you from threatening me?”
“It’s not a threat, Red. I’m taking what you got.”
Goth pushed Alex further back into the shadows, and Alex knew she was
done for if she didn’t stand her ground. It was too much like the night of the tragedy. She didn’t know how she’d made it out; only her dad yelling at her to run. She listened; they died. Alex had never run again.
Goth girl reached down and picked up an old pipe. “You’re an orphan, right? Mommy and Daddy got popped and left you all alone to figure it out.” She smirked and slapped the pipe against her palm.
“Something like that.”
“Yeah, it happens that way a lot with half-breeds. Though you don’t smell like a half-breed. You smell like power.” She glanced around, and smirked. “No one’s here to help you, Red.”
Alex bumped up against an old garbage bin. The metal was soothing against her back. “Are you going to make your move sometime soon?” Sneering, she dug her heels into the concrete that was beginning to ooze beneath her feet.
Still smirking, Goth bitch replied, “Just waiting for you to get ready. I like a fair fight.” She launched herself in the air.
Ms. Freak came down hard, landing a blow directly on Alex’s shoulder before she could get out of the way. Her bone cracked as she fell to her knees on cement that had melted beneath her feet.
Trying to get her footing, Goth slid in the wet cement. Alex rolled into the back of her knees before she could swing the pipe again. Goth landed hard on her ass, screaming as the hot liquid burned into her flesh.
The alley came to life around them as they fought. Light bulbs exploded against buildings—manhole covers flew off the ground.
Alex dug her nails into the other woman’s arm, trying to dislodge the fingers gripping her hair. With a hard twist, she slammed her left elbow into the woman’s stomach. Goth girl held on, but Alex knew she’d done some damage. Alex fought harder than she ever had. Her life was at stake.
Refusing to give an inch, the woman dug her heels into the earth, dragging them both out of the scalding cement. She tightened her grip, kneed Alex in the back, and hauled her further into the shadows.
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