Stealing Fire (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 5)

by Mallory Crowe

  Ella’s back went straight. “Um, date is a strong word.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t play around. Clara’s his, isn’t she?” Her silence was answer enough. “Usually it takes more than light conversation for that to happen. Or are these bastards even stranger than I thought?”

  A blush crept up her cheeks. “Nope. She was conceived the old-fashioned way. But it was only one time and there were extenuating circumstances.”

  Charlie frowned. “One time?”

  Well, multiple times. One night. Not that she was going to correct herself in front of Charlie. “The point is that it’s over.”

  “It didn’t look over last night when you were trying to swallow his tongue.”

  “Well, it is. That was an anomaly and it isn’t going to happen again.”

  “You trying to convince me or yourself?”

  Definitely time for a change in subject. “Why are we talking about me? What happened after you left last night?”

  “I went on a magic freakin’ carpet ride to New York. Took about two seconds, round trip.”

  “There was a carpet ride?”

  “There was no carpet! It was a metaphor!”

  Her brows knotted together. “I don’t think that’s a metaphor.” It looked as though Charlie was about to blow smoke out of his ears, so she quickly continued, “So they told you about vampires and myotis and all that crap? Are you doing okay with it all?”

  “I don’t know how I’m doing with it. I haven’t really had a lot of time to process. They said I’m still probably in danger and are going to send one of their guys who won’t go all Mr. Hyde after dark to watch my back. It’s bullshit.”

  “It can’t hurt to have a bodyguard.”

  “I don’t need a goddamned bodyguard. You killed one of these guys on your own.”

  “That was a mix of luck and preparation. I don’t know what I would’ve done if there was more than one. Besides, their mind control doesn’t work on me.”

  His head snapped to attention at that and she winced at the detail she’d let slip. “What do you mean, ‘their mind control doesn’t work on you’?”

  “Um...shit.” Ella grabbed the extra chair and took a seat. “Well, long story short, my DNA was kind of, um, altered when my mom was pregnant with me.”

  Both his brows went up. “Who would do that? Why?”

  Everything in her wanted to lie, but she knew he would find out sooner or later. Besides, he was a friend and she’d gotten him in this mess. He deserved the truth.

  “Funny, completely not creepy story. Lucian’s people have a hard time having kids and hired a doctor to figure out a way to let human women carry their children, and I was kind of the result of that.”

  “Your father let them do that to you?” She could understand Charlie’s confusion. He’d met Dad. They’d shared beers together at the local bar and bonded over football.

  “He’s the one who did it. I’m not his biological daughter. My real mother didn’t want me and was paid for her services. When I was born, Dad couldn’t bear to turn me over to Lucian’s predecessor—from what I understand, he wasn’t very pleasant—and ran away with me.”

  “In all honesty, Lucian isn’t all that ‘pleasant.’ Obviously Lucian found you somehow.”

  “Yes. I am not going into detail about that. Let’s just say we fought a lot, agreed for one day, and haven’t seen each other for years until last night. He didn’t know about Clara, and I was worried what he would do when he found out. That’s why I ran.”

  “So, you are afraid he is going to take Clara, yet you still think he’s basically an okay guy?”

  “If he was going to take her, he would’ve last night. There was nothing stopping him.”

  “I was there,” insisted Charlie.

  “There was nothing stopping him.”

  His wince told her exactly how much her words stung, but she didn’t take them back. Charlie couldn’t walk around thinking he could take on a myotis or vampire. Cockiness bred mistakes, and he had to be on his guard.

  “How did the vampires know you were involved with me?” she asked.

  “I was on the news,” he muttered. “When I came out and the cops found the guy dead, they assumed I’d killed him.”

  “I told you not to talk to anyone,” she bit out.

  “I didn’t! I was just in the background and they said my name. Not that anyone remembers it now. I guess the vampires got to work erasing everyone’s mind. I saw Sheriff Daniels last night and he acted like he never helped Shelly clean blood off the floor. Crazy shit.”

  Ella sighed. It was crazy shit, and she’d put him right in the middle of it.

  The door opened behind her, and from Charlie’s sudden scowl, she knew exactly who it was.

  “Why do I get the feeling you were talking about me?” asked Lucian.

  “Because you’re a narcissist,” shot back Charlie.

  Clara ran past Lucian’s legs and jumped into Ella’s arms. “Mommy, Lucian is the best babysitter ever! Can he watch me every day?”

  Charlie cursed under his breath and Ella studied her daughter. Her cheeks were flushed, and she had the outdoorsy smell kids get when they’ve spent all day running around a park. Which would be normal, except for the continuous rain all day.

  “Where have you been?”

  “Lucian took me horseback riding!” she shouted, probably loud enough for the entire gym to hear her.

  “You rode horses in the rain?” mumbled Charlie.

  Clara rolled her eyes. “No, silly. We went to Montana.”

  Charlie nodded. “Of course. Montana. Why wasn’t that the first thing that came to mind?”

  “Did you at least wear a helmet?”

  Clara exchanged a look with Lucian and Ella didn’t even want to ask.

  “Lucian didn’t let me fall.”

  Which meant no helmet. Great. Ella wanted to be angry. He’d taken Clara out of the state and put her in a potentially very dangerous situation without even asking her. But any anger seemed to melt away when she looked down at Clara’s wide smile.

  She turned her gaze to Lucian. “You know we’re going to talk about this later.”

  He plastered on an innocent expression. “It’s her fault. She said she wanted to go riding.”

  Clara didn’t look the slightest bit guilty.

  Ella bent her forehead to Clara’s, a soft touch they were in the habit of. “So what are you two doing here?”

  “We were wondering if you wanted to grab dinner. Clara said you were normally here after work. So we’re here too.”

  Charlie stood, finally getting tired of Lucian standing over him. “No training today?”

  Lucian perked up at that. “If you were going to train, we can go out later.”

  Ella gazed over at him, looking for any sign of jealousy, but he seemed sincere. “You really don’t care if I train?”

  He shrugged a big shoulder. “It’s important to keep yourself in fighting shape. Obviously you two are doing something right since you took down that...monster without breaking a sweat.”

  Everyone in the room looked to Clara, but she didn’t seem disturbed by the conversation.

  “There was definitely sweating. Gross amounts of it.”

  “As long as there wasn’t bleeding, something was going right.”

  Ella looked to Charlie. “Did you feel like kicking my butt?”

  An evil grin filled his face. “Funny you should ask.”

  Ten minutes later, Ella had traded her skirt for workout pants, and Clara was tucked away in the on-site childcare offered for members. The room was set up for group classes, but there were none scheduled for the next hour. Three of the walls were filled with inspirational posters; the other wall was composed of mirrors.

  Charlie fiddled with his MP3 player hooked up to the speaker system. “You in the mood for anything?”

  Ella fiddled with the bottom of her T-shirt. “Some kind of rock. I need to work
out some anger.”

  “Linkin Park?”

  “Works for me. You have a problem with it?” she asked Lucian.

  He shrugged. “I’m just here to watch. You two do whatever it is you normally do.”

  “Normally no one would be watching us train,” she mumbled.

  Lucian grinned but didn’t say anything. He leaned against the mirrored wall, still wearing his black leather jacket and jeans. His dark boots were still covered in what she was telling herself was dirt from his little romp at the stables with Clara. Charlie didn’t seem to notice the mess, and Ella wasn’t about to cause any additional drama by pointing it out.

  Charlie put on a fast-paced song and swung his arms to loosen up, rolling his shoulders. Ella tried to relax, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Lucian’s eyes boring into her back.

  She turned to glare at him. “Stop it.”

  He held out his hands. “Stop what?”

  “Judging me.”

  “I’m not judging you.”

  Ella set a hand on her hip. “There is definitely a judgy vibe coming from over there.”

  “No judging. I just want to get an idea of your skill level.”

  She sighed but decided to let it go. A good workout and a sweat was exactly what she needed, not bickering with Lucian.

  Charlie stood in front of her, bare feet braced and arms in defense position. “You ready?”

  “Let’s do this.” She took the first swing.

  Charlie ducked away and kicked out at her ankle. She tried to jump, but he still tapped the bottom of her foot. As she came down, she had to catch her balance and Charlie was already coming at her with a right hook.

  She threw up an arm just in time to block it and grunted at the impact. Charlie always tried not to hurt her, but sometimes a hit would land.

  Nothing that wouldn’t heal in a few days.

  The pain gave her motivation. If this was what someone who cared for her could do, she could only imagine what a rogue vampire would do to her.

  Or to Clara.

  Ella tightened her jaw and kicked out; her bare foot hit Charlie squarely in the shin. He groaned, and she pushed her hands out at him, knocking him in the chest with her palms.

  Charlie met her eyes as a tiny corner of his mouth lifted. The first few minutes of their workouts were to gauge their moods. Now that Charlie knew she was all in, the fight was on.

  For the next ten minutes, the (mostly) harmless blows continued. The upper hand would switch between her and Charlie, with both of them ending up flat on their butts a few times.

  As she was helping Charlie up and breathing hard, Lucian pushed away from the wall. “Okay, enough of that. It’s my turn.”

  Ella looked Lucian up and down as he took off his jacket. “I, um, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  He bent down to unlace his shoes. “Is that right?”

  Charlie looked between the two of them. “Probably wouldn’t hurt. It’s always good to train in a variety of styles.”

  Ella shot daggers with her eyes. “I said no.”

  Lucian stood up to his full height. “You want to fight the supernatural. I’m supernatural. I’m missing the problem.”

  Even though Lucian hadn’t moved any closer, Ella still stumbled away from him. “I just don’t feel like it.”

  “Don’t be a baby. I’ll be gentle, promise.”

  The condescending words sent a fresh wave of annoyance through her. “What the hell? It’ll feel nice to punch you a few times.”

  Lucian smiled, and she cursed herself for playing right into his hands.

  Of course he wanted to train with her. He was fifty times as strong and could kick her ass without breaking a sweat. She just hoped she didn’t embarrass herself too much.

  Lucian closed his eyes for a second and tried to erase any memory of Charlie’s hands on Ella’s body.

  Every blocked blow felt as if he was being punched, and every gentle pat on the back or helping hand up would send a new wave of jealousy through him.

  If he had to spend ten more seconds watching Charlie touch her, he was going to kill the human. Not exactly the best way to convince Ella he was safe enough to be around Clara.

  In all honesty, if it weren’t for Charlie, he could watch Ella train all day. With every duck and swing, her tight tank top would hug her generous breasts even tighter, and every step showed off her toned ass to its best advantage.

  He had to clench his fists and his jaw to keep from running to her. From pulling her away from the arms of another man and touching her in all the ways he’d imagined over the years.

  The memory of her mouth under his rushed back. Just last night, she’d kissed him. He hadn’t forced that reaction. She’d pulled him closer and didn’t scream or fight his touch.

  Okay, she’d eventually stopped him, but he was convinced that was her misguided attempts to hide Clara.

  But now that the cat was out of the bag, there was nothing truly keeping her from him. Just remnants of her fear. Fear of him. Fear of his world.

  But she wasn’t the same Ella he’d met three years ago. This was a fighter. A mother. She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen when she appeared in his woods three years ago, and somehow she’d only gotten sexier.

  She moved to stand in front of him, holding her arms in front of her, fists tightly clenched and ready to throw punches.

  His mouth tilted up at her enthusiasm. He held a hand out and curled his fingers up, signaling his readiness.

  Her gaze scanned his body, but she didn’t strike out. He wasn’t about to make the first move, though. This was to see how she fought. How she handled these situations.

  He moved to the left as he started to slowly circle her.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m throwing you off balance. Is it working?”

  She snorted. “If by off balance you mean dizzy.”

  “Then hit me, Ella.”

  She pivoted on her heel to follow his progression. “What’s your game, Montclair?”

  “No game. Stop stalling and just do it.”

  Her chest rose and fell as she took a steadying breath. Then a fist swung at his face. He easily knelt to avoid the blow, one hand against her sternum, just an inch above her beautiful breasts, to push her back.

  She coughed with the impact and looked at him with renewed determination. She stepped forward and threw a left hook. He ducked it easily, but she was ready and kicking out at his leg as he ducked.

  The blow threw him off balance, but he caught himself just as her other fist came at his face. One hand shot up to grab her wrist before it connected. He scanned for other flailing limbs, but was taken completely off guard when her lips connected with his.

  What the hell?

  He hadn’t read any signs of interest from her. Not in the last thirty seconds at least. Where was this kiss coming from? Not that he fought it.

  She opened her mouth and his tongue slid in, the sleek warmth of her mouth teasing other parts of her that would be just as hot and welcoming. His tight grip on her arm softened; his hand ran down her arm and skimmed down her back.

  He tilted his head for better access when the flat of her palm slammed into his bicep and her sharp knuckles connected with his nose just as she pulled her head back. A trickle of blood immediately poured down. He reared away and covered his face. “What the fuck?” he shouted.

  Her eyes widened in mock innocence. “Someone once told me that when dealing with myotis, I should never pull punches.”

  He wiped the blood from his face, the nose already healing. “If you wanted to play dirty, all you had to do was say so.”

  And then he was on her. He charged, full speed. She swung at his throat, but he caught her arm, twisting her around and pulling her against him, her back to his chest. He only had a short second to enjoy the feel of her ass, covered in just those thin yoga pants, rubbing against his cock before her bare foot hit his shin with enough force to m
ake him grunt.

  Her head smashed back, aiming for his already injured nose. He let go of her and crouched low; her head butt hit only air and threw her off balance. He kicked out her ankles and she fell hard on her back.

  Lucian jumped on top of her, straddling her stomach, and looked down at his prey. God, he wanted this woman.

  Only the knowledge that Charlie stood a few feet away stopped him. The things racing through his mind didn’t call for an audience. Just him and Ella and a bed.

  She gasped for breath underneath him. The bottoms of her breasts hit the top of his thighs, just inches away from his now completely erect cock that strained uncomfortably against the jeans stretched tight from the position he sat in.

  “It’s good advice,” he whispered from above her.

  Her big brown eyes looked up, and he could hear the catch in her breath the exact second she realized what he was thinking.

  God help him, were her nipples hardening?

  Her palms hit him in the chest, albeit much more gently than the last time she’d hit him. “Get off me, you big lug.”

  Yep. Her nipples were hard as rocks. His mouth watered as he pushed himself up. He held a hand out to her, but she ignored it as she stood up without his assistance.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine. Pride is a bit bruised though.”

  Charlie walked up from behind Ella and laid a hand on her shoulder. “From where I was standing, you held your own. Never tried that kiss move before, though. Maybe I should work that into my training.”

  Lucian’s lip curled into a snarl. He would show the human a few of his choice moves if he didn’t move his fucking hand.

  “Let’s pack up, Ella. I’m sure Clara wants to get home and I need to be out of public before dark.”

  “I can drive Clara. You don’t have to wait around,” said Ella.

  He started to lace up his shoes. “I had a good day with her. I’d like to tell her who I am tonight.”

  Ella chewed at her bottom lip. “Do you really want to do that when you’ll only have an hour before you change?”

  “I’ll hold it back if I need to. We need to do this.”

  She closed her eyes and tilted her face to the ground. “I’ll grab her and then we can go.”