The Lick of Fire Trilogy

by Bianca D’Arc

  “When you say a bit older, how much is that?” she wanted to know, her mind still stuck on the idea that shifters lived longer than humans and her newfound firebird magic might have an influence.

  “Zeke?” Adam seemed to consider. “I think he’s about two hundred and fifty, give or take a few decades. I’ve never asked him.”

  That stopped her in her tracks. “How old are you?”

  He looked both amused and a bit chagrinned. “Honey, I’ve been Alpha of this Pack for about sixty years already.”

  “You’re a centenarian, aren’t you?” she asked, feeling really out of her depth. “Adam, I’m only thirty!”

  “And now, you’re the next best thing to immortal, so really, what does age matter?” He tried the charm, but her mind was exploding.

  She had taken everything else that had happened today reasonably well, but this was the last straw. The enormity of the change in her circumstances was something that was going to take time to come to terms with. And her grandmother! She’d sounded so strange on the phone. So young!

  Diana shook her head. Then she lifted her hands and rested her face in her palms for a moment. This was going to take some adjustment.

  *

  Stone arranged everything. Zeke was only too happy to go get Diana’s granny. That old wolf had been single a long time and older magical women weren’t thick on the ground. Stone suspected Zeke wanted to check out the new lady in the extended Pack first, before any of the other older bachelors got a chance. It was a wolf’s nature…to never give up looking for that perfect mate.

  Stone knew he’d waited a long time to find his mate. He hesitated to tell Diana exactly how old he was until she had a little time to assimilate all the changes. She had a rough idea. He had seen his century mark a while back. He hadn’t denied it. But he’d wait for a bit before telling the exact date of his birth.

  When she was calmer, he escorted her out of the house and drove her over to the Pack house, where the party was already in full swing. Wolves knew how to enjoy life and when there was a reason for celebration, they partied. A cheer went up when Stone walked in with Diana on his arm. Everyone was happy for the Alpha to have finally found his true mate—and such a powerful being at that.

  Sure, there had been a few women in the Pack that had hoped to catch his eye, but wolves knew when they were meant to be and there were no hard feelings that the mating bond hadn’t formed. It just meant that the search would continue. Wolves were tenacious when they were on the hunt.

  The Pack was familiar with phoenix shifters now that Lance had transitioned. Many of the guys worked for Lance at the car lot and they universally respected him—and his new power. Lance had saved most of their lives during a pitched battle a few months back. He’d displayed the awesome power of the phoenix and his mate was something to behold as well.

  Tina was a witch with a chilling sort of power. She was ice and her mate was fire incarnate. Together, they were the perfect balance of power, and the perfect overall Alpha pair to rule over a mismatched group of shifters that had gathered to Lance’s power—even when they hadn’t really understood what it was about the supposedly human shop owner that attracted shifters of every shape and size.

  Stone had accepted Lance’s authority over him and his Pack at the shop long ago, but now that Lance’s power had been realized, Stone and his people had fully joined the Phoenix Clan, which was an amalgamation of Tribes, Packs and Clans under the Phoenix Alpha. The name was clever because outsiders would have no clue the Clan was named for the phoenix shifter at its head and not the city they all lived in or near.

  And now, there were two phoenix shifters in the Clan. Stone wasn’t sure how that might affect the power structure, but it shouldn’t be too bad. He’d already been Lance’s right-hand man. Now, with the addition of Diana at Stone’s side, that position could only solidify. And, as she learned more and grew into her power, she might find herself a new role in the overall Clan as well. Stone would enjoy watching Diana learn about her abilities and how to use them for the good of both their Pack and their Clan.

  Everyone wanted to see Diana and congratulate her on her first flight, as well as her mating to the Alpha. Normally, the wolves probably would’ve been a bit more grabby—hugging Diana like a stuffed toy—but she wasn’t a wolf and the only experience they’d had with phoenix shifters was Lance and he wasn’t exactly a hugger.

  When Zeke showed up with Diana’s granny on his arm, the room went silent. It was clear, this older woman was someone important, but few knew exactly what was going on until Diana ran to meet her grandmother near the door. She flew straight into her grandmother’s arms and burst into tears.

  More than a few of the maternal females shed a tear themselves at the display of raw emotion. It was clear, seeing them together, that they were related. Diana was a younger version of the older woman and Stone realized his Pack had needed to see this. The depth of Diana’s love for her family was clear and it spoke volumes to a Pack that was built on bonds of love and family. This one moment did more for her acceptance in the Pack than she realized.

  “Everyone,” Stone said into the quiet that had fallen. “Let me announce this officially and introduce you to our new Pack members.” Diana separated from her grandmother at his words, but kept one arm around her waist, standing at her side.

  Stone walked over to the two women. Hetty winked at him, and her smile sparkled with life. She looked quite a bit different from the last time they’d met. Something had definitely changed her. Magic sparked against his senses—a sort of benevolent warmth tinged with age and affection. Granny magic, if there was such a thing.

  “My friends, this is Diana Pettigrew. Most of you saw her streaking toward California earlier tonight on wings of fire. She’s a phoenix, or as her family knows it, a firebird.” A howling cheer went up from the Pack, all gathered around, but it was clear he hadn’t quite finished yet, they settled down to let him get on with it. “And this lovely lady, is Diana’s grandmother, Hetty van Dunk. She sees the future, so be warned,” he said with a smile, returning Hetty’s wink.

  He took Diana’s hand and drew her away from Hetty with a soft smile. Hetty let her go, a happy expression on her lined face. He didn’t take her far.

  He kept hold of her hand as he went down on one knee. “You thought you were mortal until tonight, when everything changed, Diana,” he said for all the Pack to hear. The hushed silence told him they were all listening. “Now, you’re something else, but I want to do this by the traditions you were raised with. Diana Pettigrew, you’re already my mate, but will you also be my bride?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Yes.” Tears rolled down her cheeks as Diana nodded. She bent to embrace him, and Adam stood, taking her into his arms and kissing her like they were the only two people in the universe.

  For that moment out of time, they were.

  Then she became conscious of the cheering and stomping, making the Pack house reverberate with laughter and joy. The werewolf Pack was gathered around them, and Oma was only a few feet away. Diana broke off from kissing him, a blush heating her cheeks, which only caused even more howling cheers and laughter from the assembly.

  She heard a number of loud pops from one corner of the room and then glassed filled with bubbly champagne were being handed out through the crowd. Someone brought glasses to Diana and Adam, as well as her grandmother and then Zeke proposed a toast to honor Diana and Adam’s mating. Everybody drank and cheered again and the party was truly started.

  Someone had music going in another room and when Diana had a chance to peek in that doorway, she saw the younger crowd had an area cleared for a dance floor. They were celebrating in their own way, working off happy energy by jumping and moving to the beat. The older members of the Pack were seated around the edges of the big room and food was being passed around.

  Everybody seemed to want to stop and talk with Diana and Adam. He remained firmly at her side, even when she turned to s
ee where her grandmother had gone. She needn’t have worried. Zeke had taken her to one of the side tables and was providing a plate of finger food and some non-alcoholic drinks for her. Oma was on several drugs and it wouldn’t be wise to drink alcohol while they were still in her system. Whether she’d still need them now that magic had come into their lives, Diana had no idea.

  “Do shifters and other magical folk have special doctors?” she asked Adam when she had a moment between meeting people.

  “Healers,” he replied. “We have a Pack healer who actually is an M.D., not that he needed that to deal with us, but it keeps the government happy. We have to live within the legal framework set up by the humans, so we send some of our folks to get the necessary credentials. We have a number of registered nurses in the Pack as well. Some even work in the profession at local hospitals and nursing homes. Why?”

  She gestured toward her grandmother. “Oma will probably need some reevaluation. She’s on a dozen different drugs and if the magic is changing her…”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get our doc to take a look at her first thing in the morning. He can handle any paperwork or prescription changes. You’ll also need to change doctors. Heaven knows what your kind of magic will do to their instruments now.”

  He chuckled and she admitted there was probably something to his words. She’d miss her old doctor, but she couldn’t risk exposing the changes in her physical form to a non-magical person. She had always understood the need for secrecy. It had been drilled into her from a young age. Especially after she’d been granted access to the family chronicles.

  Come to think of it, she had better start writing a chronicle of her own now that she had some magic. It would help later generations if she made note of the things that had happened to her and the things she learned along the way. Oma had a journal, in which she made notes about her gift of clairvoyance, but since Diana had never manifested magic, she’d never had anything to contribute. Well, that had just changed in a big way.

  The front door opened again and new murmurs went through the crowd, which opened up a direct line from where Adam and Diana were standing to the newcomers. An intensely magical couple were standing near the door if Diana’s new vision proved accurate. The man…burned red and orange. And the woman was haloed in icy white.

  “Come on. I want to introduce you to some great folks,” Adam told her, reaching for her hand as they began walking toward the doorway. He stopped them in front of the newly arrived couple.

  “Lance, Tina, this is Diana, my mate,” Adam said into the hush that had fallen as everyone watched what transpired.

  “And another phoenix,” Tina said with a wide grin. “It’s really great to meet you, Diana.” She held out her hand and the two women exchanged greetings, sparks of magic filling the air as their magic met for the first time. “Cool,” Tina said, watching the display with an infectious smile. “That’s never happened before.”

  “What is it?” Diana whispered for all to hear.

  “Fire and ice,” Tina said, her tone contemplative and amused. “We spark off each other a bit. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Tina asked, suddenly contrite. “Sorry.”

  “No harm done. I didn’t even feel anything,” Diana assured her and Tina relaxed again.

  “I’m Lance,” the man standing next to Tina held out a hand and Diana shook it. The feeling this time was one of warmth and…recognition?

  “You’re like me,” Diana whispered, knowing the man was also a firebird shifter. A phoenix, as Adam called it.

  Lance nodded. “I’m a newcomer to this whole thing too,” he admitted. “But yeah, I’m a phoenix shifter. Nice to not be the only one around.”

  “I wonder if we’re related somehow?” Diana asked, thinking aloud. Lance had a certain look about him that was somehow familiar. He looked a bit like her uncle had.

  “We’ll probably never know,” Lance told her, his expression tightening as the handshake ended. “I’m an orphan. I grew up in foster homes.”

  Diana’s heart went out to the man. “I’m sorry. But you look…” Diana shook her head. “My parents died when I was very young, but you look a lot like photos I’ve seen of my uncle. My mother’s brother,” she clarified. “They all died in a wreck—my parents and my uncle. He was driving and a semi came out of nowhere and crashed into them.”

  “I have no information on either of my parents. Just that my mother died in childbirth at a local hospital here in Phoenix and nobody came forward. I was put into care and stayed a ward of the state until I was eighteen,” Lance told her, reciting the story quietly, as if he’d come to terms with his origins a long time ago.

  “Let me see him,” Oma’s voice came from just behind Diana. She whirled to find Oma barreling toward them under her own steam, Zeke following behind as every eye in the room focused on the little tableau by the front door.

  Oma went right past Diana and walked directly up to Lance, putting one hand out as if to touch him, but she stopped short. Her eyes closed and Diana knew her grandmother was reading Lance’s energy.

  “You are one of ours,” Oma said, her eyes popping open. “You are Gustav’s child.” Tears flowed from Oma’s eyes now as she looked up at the tall man who looked a lot like photos Diana had seen of her Uncle Gustav, Oma’s only son. “How is this possible? How did I not see it?”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” Lance said, a tight expression on his face. “I’m not really sure what you’re talking about.” Diana saw Tina reach out to take hold of her mate’s hand, squeezing gently in support.

  “I think I know,” Diana stepped closer. “This is my grandmother,” Diana explained. “She had two children. A boy and a girl. My mother and…according to what she just said…your father. Though both died in that car accident, and that was in Kansas. We lived there until recently. We moved here because of the climate and I think because Uncle Gus traveled here a lot on business and always talked about how much he loved Phoenix.”

  Tina smiled. “Maybe it wasn’t the town he loved so much as a girl who lived here. I bet your uncle was courting Lance’s mom.”

  Diana shrugged her shoulders and her eyes widened in wonder. “Stranger things have happened, I suppose. I think you’re probably my cousin,” Diana said, knowing her life was changing even more with every passing second. “And my Oma is probably your Oma too,” she concluded with a tearful chuckle.

  “What does oma mean?” Lance seemed thunderstruck and Diana didn’t blame him.

  “It’s Dutch for grandma,” she told him, well aware of the room full of wolf shapeshifters hanging on every word.

  There was a feeling of rightness about this. A feeling of fulfillment. The wolves felt it too, and their hushed attention had a sort of reverence about it. Only the beat of the music in the next room went on in the background, but it didn’t detract from the significance of the moment. Someone had thoughtfully closed the door to block out most of the sound.

  “This is kind of hard to believe,” Lance said finally, looking as if he wanted to just accept, but was too world-weary to take anything at face value.

  “It’s okay,” Oma said quietly, her eyes shining. “We have time to look through the records and to show you images of Gustav. You look just like him at that age, you know.” Oma paused to wipe at her cheeks, but her expression was joyous. “And there are many things we can share with you about the history of our people.” Diana noticed her grandmother didn’t mention the chronicles by name, but Diana knew that’s what she meant.

  “Why don’t we all sit down,” Diana put in, unable to break the habit of looking after her grandmother.

  But Oma had all sorts of new strength and she led the way to a nearby table that was mostly empty and claimed it. She directed Tina and Lance to sit next to her with Diana and Adam on her other side.

  Zeke was kind enough to get refreshments brought over to them as he joined the table without being asked. He seemed somewhat possessive of Diana’s granny, which was kind of cute
.

  Oma reached out and put her aged hand over the back of Lance’s where he’d rested it on the table. She paused a moment as their energies met for the first time, and then she smiled beatifically.

  “You are my Gustav’s son, though I know it will take a while for you to accept it. It doesn’t matter. You are a firebird and my granddaughter has blessed me with the second of the firebird’s magical gifts. I have long foreseen my own death, and it wasn’t too far away.” Here, she looked at Diana, who gasped, and smiled reassuringly. “But after today, everything changed. When Diana embraced the firebird fully, the gift sparked to life in her, and in me.”

  “What are these gifts you speak of?” Tina asked from beside Lance. She looked intrigued.

  “It has been handed down in our family that there are several gifts the firebird can bestow. The first is being able to see and destroy evil. The second is longevity. The third, and rarest, is clairvoyance. I’ve always had a bit of the third. It seems Diana’s transformation has gifted me with some of the second.”

  “And I have the first,” Lance confirmed, nodding. “I’ve already done battle in my other form and I can both see evil and destroy it.”

  Diana nodded. Adam had said as much. But Oma’s claim to have foreseen her own death still bothered Diana.

  “Why didn’t you warn me that you’d seen your end?” Diana asked her grandmother gently.

  “I don’t like to worry you, pumpkin,” she said gently. “And besides… It’s all changed. This evening I saw a new vision. Not my death. My future. And it was a long and happy one.” Here, Oma surprised Diana by looking over at Zeke, who had sat across the table from Oma, smiling.

  “You’re not going to turn into a firebird too, are you?” Diana asked, half-amazed and half-appalled at the very thought of her ninety-something-year-old grandmother shapeshifting and flying all over the place. Could that even work?