Brothers of the Flame (An Ariel Kimber Novel Book 1)

by Mary Martel

  I blinked and the image was gone. I wondered if he had leather pants in his closet. The cape, however, did absolutely nothing for me. The vest I could work with.

  Abel’s hand on my thigh rubbed up and down in a soothing gesture. “We’re witches, Ariel,” he told me.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  Fingers very gently tangled in my hair. My head was pulled backwards and I was suddenly swallowed up by blue, blue water.

  “We were born with magic in us,” Addison said quietly. Not quite a whisper but his normally deep, rumbly voice had dropped to something gentler. “As were our fathers before us. It’s hereditary. You, pretty girl, were born with magic in you, too.”

  My mouth dropped open. He was crazy. They were all crazy. Then, a thought came to me. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten.

  “Where did the heat go?” I asked.

  Addison smiled down at me. “You’re coming into your magic. I don’t know why it’s stayed dormant all this time, but it has. Your magic calls to ours and that’s where the heat comes from. The more we touch you and the more you use your magic the more the heat will fade. It will still be there under the surface but it won’t hurt you anymore to touch us. The pain will turn to pleasure and you’ll like it.”

  There was a lot there to dissect and I had no idea where to begin.

  They didn’t give me a chance to ask questions. Addison released his hold on my hair. He moved around the couch with a grace not suited to his size. He moved around his brother on the floor to sit beside me on the couch. Abel lifted his hand off the couch and put it on the thigh he wasn’t already touching. Addison scooted so close to me that our thighs touched. His arm went behind me to lay across the back of the couch. Abel shuffled closer on his knees while his brother wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Abel moved so close both his knees rubbed up against my feet on either side of me. His hands moved up my thighs the closer he got to me. Finally, when he was as close as he could get,

  his hands were damn near in my lap. Way too close to my crotch. His big hands spanned the tops of my thighs, gripping my legs tightly. Those green, green eyes met my own and the look in them plus the vicinity of his hands had my stomach clenching low.

  Abel laid his head on his arms and stared up at me from my lap.

  “Before the witch trials and the burning there were more female witches than males,” he said. “The men hid like cowards while our women were tortured and burned at the stake. Not all of our women died, but a great many of them did. After the witch trials ended females just stopped being born to us. Every so many years a miracle would happen and a girl would be born, but it’s rare and few and far between. It’s so rare, Ariel, that there are only three known female witches in the U.S. Now with you, there’s four. Each one belongs to a coven and there are only seven across the states. Most claim it’s a curse. While our women burned, our men hid themselves away in the shadows until they had a chance to run. They did nothing to try and save their wives, mothers, aunts, daughters, sisters. Because of that, most of our people believe we are undeserving of females born of our own kind. It’s either a curse or we’re being punished today for what our ancestors failed to do years past. Because of this, female witches are coveted and precious. You, Ariel Kimber, are precious.”

  My stomach clenched a second time for an entirely different reason than it had clenched earlier. He was crazy. They were all crazy. Witches weren’t real and magic didn’t exist. Were they part of a cult?

  I swallowed painfully past the growing lump in my throat. I’d never had real friends before and the thought of losing Tyson and the twins because they were nuts did not make me feel good.

  “I’m not a witch,” I croaked out past my lump. I felt slightly claustrophobic with the twins clinging to me but I couldn’t imagine pushing them away.

  “Babe,” Quinton spoke from behind Abel. He was closer to us on the couch than he had been before this little chat started. He’d left my bag behind. I let out a breath of relief when I noticed my underwear was no longer out in the open. Then I had a frightening thought. Where had they gone to?

  “Babe,” he called again. He was even closer than he had been a moment ago. “You’re a witch. We’re all witches. We’re the Brothers of the Flame. I am a witch. My father and my father’s father were witches. And it was me who made that asshole give up his blood today. I did it for you and I did it with my magic.”

  I gaped at him. Oddly enough it was his “I did it for you” that freaked me out the most about his little speech.

  I planned to ask him what he meant by that, but what came out of my mouth had nothing to do with that and was completely unexpected.

  “My mother is not a witch.”

  “No, she’s just a bitch,” Abel muttered from my lap.

  “I bet your dad was a witch,” Addison said from his place beside me.

  “I don’t know who my dad is.” It had never really bothered me until that moment. Who was my dad? Was he alive? Dead? Did he even know I existed? Had he been more to my mother than a roll in the sack? Had he been a witch?

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Quinton said from beside me.

  I blinked in surprise at his nearness. He was beside me now, on the opposite side of Addison. He was on his knees with his elbows on the arm of the couch. His head rested on his hands as he stared at me with those serious eyes. When had he moved and how had I not noticed?

  “What do you mean?” I asked him.

  “If your dad had known about you or even if he just knew there was a chance he’d gotten your mother with child he would have stuck around to see if you held magic. We don’t leave our children, not for anything, not anymore. And the fact that you’re a girl.” He shrugged. “It’s like Abel already told you. Our females are precious to us. Your father wouldn’t have left you with your mother. He’d have taken you with him even if it meant stealing you away from her.”

  He talked so casually about stealing children, as if it were an acceptable thing to him. It made me think about those three women they’d mentioned and what kind of life they had lived and were living now.

  What did I say to that? I didn’t have the right words so I let it go. I wasn’t about to get into a conversation about morals with Quinton, not when I didn’t think I’d enjoy what he had to say.

  “What did you do to Chucky?” I asked a question that would likely drive me insane if I didn’t get an answer for it. He’d said he had done it with magic. How do you make someone sick like that with magic? If he’d said he had mixed some Comet in with Chucky’s applesauce I would have understood it. But magic? I didn’t understand that. Hell, I still wasn’t certain sure I believed them that magic was real. I had seen no proof and I needed proof.

  “I heard the twins talking about this Chucky person. At first, he just sounded like any old asshole. Then I heard about what he did to you on the first day of school. That should have never been allowed to happen to you, Ariel. It pissed me off and made me angry with Ty. We argued all summer long about you, Tyson and I did. I thought it would be best to stay here for the summer and give you that time to get to know us. He disagreed, saying you could get to know us when school started. He was wrong. And if we would have stayed here this summer what happened to you at school would never have happened. You would have come into your magic already and known how to use it to protect yourself. Not only that but Tyson wouldn’t have just sat there and watched it happen. He would have put a stop to it. Instead he was angry with me and took it out on you. I apologize for that.”

  Both twins went tense and alert. Something Quinton said had startled them.

  “Now, about what happened with this Chucky person. I found his picture on the school’s website. I printed it out and put together a little spell. I hadn’t meant for it to spread to others but,” again, he shrugged casually, “shit happens. I think I might have put too much of my own blood in the bowl which made the spell more powerful than I had intended. My bad.”

  My b
ad?

  My bad?

  He’d meant to only make one person sick and instead he’d made a handful of people sick, to the point it seemed contagious. They were puking up blood. Blood! And all he had to say was “my bad.” Seriously?

  I gaped at him with my mouth hanging open and everything.

  “What if they don’t get better or they make even more people sick?” I asked in horror.

  People vomiting up blood, people stealing children – it was all the same to him and it meant nothing.

  The corner of his mouth moved up in amusement. I didn’t find anything amusing.

  “The spell only lasted forty-eight hours, Ariel. Relax.”

  Relax? He wanted me to relax? My left eyelid twitched. He really was crazy. Someone should tell him now would be a good time to stop talking. Maybe while he slept I could sneak into his room and super glue his lips shut.

  “You don’t like me, I can see it in your eyes. That’s okay. You don’t have to like me, and you certainly do not have to like the things I do. That’s alright with me. But I would prefer it if you liked me because, babe, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna like you a whole lot. But the things I do, I can’t help that. It’s my job to take care of us all, and now you’re a part of that. Part of my job as the person who takes care of us all is not allowing some douchebag motherfucker to hurt you in any way. That Chucky kid fucked with you so I fucked with him back.”

  He moved away from the couch and gained his feet.

  “I’ll not apologize for the things I do, Ariel, so you had better get used to it because you’re stuck with us from here on out.” And with that he turned around and walked out of the twin’s bedroom.

  “What just happened?” Addison whispered as the door clicked shut softly behind Quinton.

  “I have no idea, twin, but I think maybe Quint’s finally lost his damn mind.”

  Their bodies shook against mine and it took me a second to realize they were laughing. I didn’t find anything funny and they refused to tell me why they were laughing.

  Whatever, boys were stupid.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The twins wanted to cuddle on the couch and watch a movie. I was having none of it. I’d been promised answers and I felt like I got the short end of the stick in the answer department. I wanted answers so I demanded they hand them over to me. They thought my being bossy was cute, I know because they told me so.

  When they continued to laugh and tease me I pushed away from them and crawled off the couch. I crawled to my bag on my hands and knees.

  I was half way there when a sharp sting hit my right butt cheek. I whirled around ungracefully and landed with my butt on the carpet.

  I had no idea which one had smacked my ass because they both sat there like perfect angels with serene looks on their faces, with their hands in their laps.

  If I had to guess, my money was on Abel. But, then again, I couldn’t discount Addison.

  I pointed at them both. “You’re both naughty, naughty boys.”

  They grinned identical grins, unrepentant.

  I scooted backwards towards my bag. I bumped into it and without turning around I started digging around inside with my hand.

  When I found my cell phone I pulled it out. I unlocked it and clicked on the little icon that would take me to my text messages. I opened my conversation with Tyson and sent off a quick text.

  Ariel: Where are you?

  He responded immediately.

  Tyson: Kitchen. Where are you?

  Ariel: I’m with the twins and I need reinforcements. One of them just smacked my ass and I don’t even know which one it was! Help.

  “What are you doing?” Addison asked me.

  “Sending for reinforcements.”

  “Who?”

  “Who do you think, twin?” Abel cut in. “Out of all of us she’s only got Ty’s phone number.”

  “We need to change that.”

  “I’m with you, twin.”

  I did not like the sound of that. They had had a similar conversation before I was shoved onto Abel and the couch.

  Ariel: Hurry.

  I texted Tyson that one word before stuffing the phone back into my bag. It’s not that I minded playing with them but it felt like they were trying to distract me and the only thing I needed to be distracted from at the moment was getting my answers.

  This time I did look in my bag when I stuck my phone back in it. My lacey black underwear was nowhere to be seen. They weren’t on top. I dug through the bag, frantically searching. Nowhere. They were nowhere. Finally, I dumped my bag upside down and watched as all my things spilled out onto the floor.

  “What’s going on, pretty girl?” One of the twins asked from right behind me. I had that problem I always had when one of them spoke from behind me. I couldn’t tell which one was speaking because their voices were identical.

  I dug through my pile of belongings, tossing them every which way. My clear bag with the bright yellow zipper stuffed full of my toiletries got tossed to the side. My fuzzy yellow socks went the other way. The flip flops with the pretty red and black Gerber Daisies got pushed away from the pile. I tossed my red hoodie with the white vampire fangs on the front behind me, over my shoulder. One of the twins made a surprised sound but I did not care. Shorts and tank tops, both red and black, were tossed aside. All that remained of the pile before me was my phone, phone charger and the black bra that matched the missing underwear. And they were missing.

  “Son of a bitch,” I whispered angrily.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard her swear before,” said a twin.

  “Shit just got real,” said the other twin.

  “Not that we mind, pretty girl, but why is our bedroom now littered with girl clothes and… girl things?”

  “If you don’t like her shit on your floor she’s more than welcome to bring it to my room and leave it wherever she wants.”

  Tyson. Tyson was here. I sighed in relief. I wasn’t uncomfortable around the twins but they didn’t make me feel the same level of comfort I got from being around Tyson. I think it stemmed from having met him first and spending the most amount of time with him outside of school. That and falling asleep next to him twice and waking up pressed up against him after sleeping cuddled up beside him.

  “We don’t care about her clothes,” the twins said together. “We just don’t know why she threw them all over the place.”

  It was weird listening to them speak as if they were the same person, with the same mind, thinking the same thoughts then speaking them out loud at the same time. It was bizarre, I tell you.

  “What are you doing?” Tyson asked as he knelt beside me on the carpet.

  Hmm… Did I come right out and tell him? Let’s try it on for size. Hey, Ty, I think your Uncle might have stolen my panties. Lord knows what his intentions are towards them, but whatever the case, it can’t be good.

  I frowned. Yeah, that didn’t sound good to me, either. They both seemed quick to anger and I really didn’t want more drama heaped on top of the already overflowing pile.

  “Ariel?”

  I sighed again. This time not in relief. If I wasn’t honest with them then I’d likely end up looking like a crazy person and if Quinton really had stolen my underwear I didn’t want him to keep them. At the same time, depending on how long he had them, I wasn’t sure I really wanted them back.

  This day, more than any day before it, was starting to turn into the longest day of my life.

  “Ariel?”

  Tyson was persistent, I’d give him that much.

  “I think Quinton stole my underwear,” I told them honestly. When all else fails you, the truth is always the best way to go.

  My cheeks burned and I knew they were bright red as I felt the three of them watching me. “You think my Uncle Quinton stole your panties?” Tyson spoke slowly, as if he were speaking to a child.

  My face burned hotter. The fact that Quinton was Tyson’s Uncle made it sound that much dirtier. I
sucked up my embarrassment and explained to them why I thought Quinton had taken my underthings. When I was done speaking I looked up at all of them and found them all frowning at me.

  “Why-” Abel’s mouth snapped shut abruptly, his green eyes filled with anger as he looked to his twin brother. “Let’s go find Quinton before he gets inspired.”

  “I hear you, twin,” Addison growled low in his throat. “I hear you. Let’s go recover our sweet Ariel’s panties before Quint can work his magic on them.”

  I thought about the way Addison phrased his words and frowned. Before, if someone had said something about working their magic on a pair of lady’s lacey underthings I would have assumed magic was a polite way of saying masturbation. Now the word magic frightened me. I’d seen what Quinton’s magic had done to Chucky, I did not want to find myself subject to it. No thank you.

  The twins let me go and climbed to their feet. Without a backwards glance, they left the room. I felt weird about being alone in their bedroom with another guy and them not being here. Frankly, I felt weird about the whole situation. And very, very tired.

  “Here,” Tyson picked up a flip flop. “Let me help you pick up your stuff. Then we can go and hide out in my room.”

  I didn’t need to see another one of their rooms. What I needed to do was get the hell out of here.

  Tyson picked up my bag and stuffed the flip flop inside. Next, he picked up the black bra by one of the straps and quickly stuffed it inside the big empty bag, too. This was beginning to get ridiculous.

  Instead of helping him, I laid back on the carpet and spread my arms out wide at my sides. I had no intention of picking up after myself, someone else could do it.

  I wanted to know about magic. I wanted to see actual physical proof with my own two eyes. Tyson owed me an explanation.

  I made angels in the carpet as I heard him pick up my belongings. He never complained. He never asked me to stop what I was doing so I could rightfully pick up my own things. He simply moved around me quietly as he did it for me.