by Jory Strong
Concentrating on what was being offered for sale was pretty much impossible after encountering Taine. Saffron’s thoughts kept returning to their earlier exchange. And those thoughts were followed by scenarios of what might happen if they ran into each other on the beach.
There wasn’t a lot of clothing involved. But there was a whole lot of fire.
The crowd thickened, making it harder and harder to get down the vendor aisles. She wasn’t much of a shopper to begin with and battling to be entertained by something that might be a sleight of hand rather than evidence of the supernatural wasn’t worth the effort.
“You’ve had enough of this,” Lia said, knowing her too well.
Saffron grimaced, feeling guilty. “Sorry.”
Lia hooked her arm through Saffron’s. “You get major points for lasting this long. One more row and I won’t be bummed by your taking off.”
“Deal.”
They reached the end of the aisle. Skipped five that were somebody probably needs to call the fire marshal crammed, then headed down a row packed with fortune tellers.
Runes. Tea leaves. Palms. Bones. Tarot cards. Saffron wasn’t tempted. Unlike her twin, she wasn’t a fan of readings.
They were at the halfway point when a privacy curtain at a tarot reader’s booth was pulled aside and Ace, Sabra’s male BFF, stepped out, all chiseled movie-star looks and shoulder-length blond hair.
He was wearing a light blue tank that showed off his eyes and put muscled arms sleeved with tats on display. He flashed a white, white smile then grabbed Saffron into a tight, rocking hug.
“Long time no see,” he said.
“Too long.” She hugged him back, brushed a closed-mouth kiss across his lips and somewhere nearby, a woman screamed, “Fire!”
Saffron pulled away and hurried toward the cry, eyes searching for smoke.
She didn’t find it though she did find the blond who’d been with Taine.
He stood in front of a table with a scorched collection of charms. And though no one nearby was holding a fire extinguisher, the air felt saturated with moisture and some of the charms glistened with water.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Spontaneous combustion.” He looked at her as if he knew who she was, added cryptically, “Everything is under control, for now.”
She rejoined Lia and Ace. Lia said, “That was fast. False alarm?”
“No. Just already out.”
“Any damage?” Ace asked.
“Some charms,” she answered, glad that she could leave the fair guilt-free now that Lia had someone to hang with. “I’m gone. Pet store and then the shelter to collect Emerald.”
“Emerald?” Ace asked.
“She’s getting an iguana.”
“A shrink suggest this was a good first step toward taking on a permanent significant other?”
She lightly punched Ace on the arm. “I don’t have a shrink.”
“Emerald is the name the iguana came with?” Lia asked.
“No.”
Lia grinned. “So you just happened to come up with a name so quickly? Even though you claim this is temporary?”
“Have to call her something.”
“I still say that if you want something scaly in your life, hook up with a he who’s also a dragon shapeshifter—or a guy wearing a picture of a dragon on his T-shirt.”
Got Fire?
Saffron heated up at the possibility of running into Taine later on the beach. Maybe third time would be the charm when it came to picking a lover who wouldn’t complicate things by falling in love or wanting more from her than fun.
“I’m out of here. And Ace, make sure she doesn’t drop a grand on a charm that’s supposed to attract a supernatural mate.”
“Got it. Who needs that kind of complication?”
“Exactly.”
Chapter 3
Taine walked toward Maksim’s office. His chest tightened with each step and at his sides, he clenched and unclenched his hands. Someone had ratted him out.
It had been a matter of time. He knew that, but…
Damn the sorcerer who’d opened a portal and allowed so many demons into this world! If not for that human, he would have claimed his mate by now. Wouldn’t have reacted so badly at the fair—probably.
Smoke streamed from his nostrils at envisioning Saffron in another man’s arms. He’d just regained sight of her when…
Long time no see.
The words had registered seconds too late, seconds after the kiss his mate had given the blond, seconds after his fire had gotten away from him for the second time that day.
Taine stopped in Maksim’s doorway. This was as embarrassing as being called before a dragon elder.
The elders loved to have offenders stand on a rock that was hot enough to force a wrongdoer to shuffle from foot to foot in front of an audience, further putting them in their place.
Maksim pointed to a chair on the opposite side of his desk. It was hard wood, straight backed and without cushioning. The equivalent of the elders’ sun-heated rock.
Taine sat. Maksim said, “You were supposed to prevent problems at the fair, not create them.”
“It won’t happen again.”
“Really?” Maksim picked up a piece of paper. “Saturday, a little less than four weeks ago. Incident report. A red Porsche nine-fifty-nine owned by—you—apparently went up in flames in an event you claimed was akin to spontaneous combustion.”
Maksim slapped the paper onto his desk. “No great loss. It was an ugly little sports car. But that wasn’t the end of it.”
Taine shifted from one buttock to the next on the hard seat. Maksim picked up a different piece of paper.
“Tuesday, roughly two weeks ago. Incident report. A silver Porsche nine-eighteen Spyder, valued by humans at close to eight hundred and fifty thousand and won by you in a poker game a couple of months ago, was irreparably damaged in a blaze of unknown origins.”
The report was slammed down onto the desk with greater force than the previous one.
Maksim jabbed a finger onto his computer keyboard, for effect since Taine was fairly certain the report was already on screen. “Flash forward to earlier today. You know what this report says?”
“There was another incident.”
“That’s right, there was another incident.” If Maksim were a dragon, smoke would be streaming from his nostrils. “So don’t sit there and tell me it’s not going to happen again—especially after what happened at the fair! Thankfully the damage control there was easy, and the vendor, if he sees you, would probably kiss your ass—scaly or human. Rumor charged through the fair that supernaturals were afraid his charms contained too much magic. He sold out of everything, including what you torched, and I’m told has orders for enough charms to keep him busy for a year.”
Some of the tightness eased in Taine’s chest. “No harm done then.”
Maksim expression went from fire to ice. “You’re a good agent. But I can’t turn a blind eye to the loss of control. It’s pretty obvious. You’ve come across your mate but haven’t claimed her.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to tell you how or when to claim her. I’m not going to ask why the hell it hasn’t already happened. But I am going to give you a warning. The next time you lose control of your fire, you’re going back to the dragon realm and you won’t be able to return to this world for a full century. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You’re dismissed.”
“Back to the fair?”
“Is the fair still going on?”
“Yes.”
Maksim gave him a pointed look. “Then?”
“I’m on it.”
Taine left the office, breathing a small sigh of relief. It could have been worse. Maksim could have given him the choice of returning to the dragon realm alone, or returning to the dragon realm with Saffron.
&n
bsp; Plucking a human from this world and returning home with her had once been fairly common. The majority of mates eventually accepted the loss of everything familiar and all those that they loved, but some didn’t. Some had wasted away. And some had leapt to their deaths from rocky precipices.
He shuddered, and was grateful Maksim hadn’t ordered him out of this realm. The thought of leaving Saffron was unbearable, but the thought of snatching her, ripping her away from life in this world and taking her to a place best described as medieval, a place where there would never be fast cars or smartphones or big screen televisions because human technology did not play well with so much magic, was equally unbearable.
There was only one way to get his fire under control and that was to be with her. Not only with her, on her, in her, skin to skin contact and lots of it.
He didn’t have to bond himself to her. Didn’t want to bond himself to her until she knew what he was and closed the bond by admitting she loved him.
As long as we’re together. I can wait her out. I can give her the time she needs.
To endure a one-sided bond… To exist for a human lifetime bound to someone who didn’t love him, to need his mate desperately only to be used or rejected by her…
Taine shuddered. Not happening.
He could maintain control. He could control the situation.
He’d orchestrate a chance encounter at the beach. She’d go there tonight. She always did on the night of a shift change.
The beach was where he’d first encountered her scent and followed it to his first sight of her. He’d hardened so fast that he’d nearly dropped to his knees on the sand at the rush of blood from his head to his cock.
Saffron hadn’t seemed to recognize him when they stood near the torched Maserati, but then, those times he’d seen her on the beach had been at a distance and he’d often been accompanied by Kellen, in fey hound form.
Kellen would not be with him this evening. And given the events of the day, he had an excuse to approach Saffron.
Smoke leaked from his nostrils as heated need scorched through him at remembering how his mate’s eyes had traveled over him, at the way she’d licked her lips, her scent lush with desire.
He was hot for her. She was hot for him. There was no reason not to proceed directly to sex, and then begin the courtship.
* * * *
Warm surf washed over Saffron’s feet with every other tide surge. In front of her, a few seagulls dipped closer to the beach for a better look at possible food then lifted away after finding nothing.
She tucked her thumbs into the front pockets of faded denim shorts and refused to glance at her watch. But that was pride.
This time of year, the sun set at around eight, and it was close to going down. The sky was already streaked orange and purple beneath darkened blue, the ocean dark indigo with rippling white caps of water.
Most of the families had packed up and gone home. Loners and couples dotted the landscape, though behind her, a pissed-off mother was yelling, “Get back here right now! Johnathon Ray Lewis, you get back here, or else!”
Saffron glanced over her shoulder, saw the kid in the distance, lying stomach down on a cheap pool float and not making any effort to turn around and head toward the beach.
She kept walking, twisted her watchband, one pass around her wrist and then a second. No Taine.
She’d been so sure he’d show up tonight. Then again, considering the crowd at the supernatural fair, he was probably still working.
What the hell did Supernatural Ops, and IRE in particular, do? How much of what they were involved with was keeping America safe from magic users or supernatural elements? And how much was weird science? Or like Kayvan said, alien tech?
Kayvan wasn’t on the beach with her, was probably at some bar looking to score, but she snorted and shook her head at the likelihood of there having been alien contact. Not that she thought humans were alone in the universe, she didn’t. But the whole Area 51 thing seemed less likely to be about aliens and more likely to be a black-ops glitch turned into a tourist trap and conspiracy theorists’ mecca.
Her twin was a believer in tarot cards, but as a medium for self-exploration, for connecting with the subconscious. Sabra was also a believer in charms, a belief that was reinforced by the death of their father.
Saffron breathed deeply against the ache spasming through her chest. Twelve years later and it was like yesterday. It didn’t do any good to fight the feelings that came at remembering finding the charm on the floor of the family car after he’d deployed to the Middle East for a fourth tour.
The chain had broken while they’d all been at the beach, the three kids roughhousing with their father in the water. He’d put the charm on the center console, said he’d get the chain fixed, but must have forgotten after it’d somehow gotten knocked onto the floor.
Out of sight. Out of mind.
She reached up, touched the keep safe from harm charm at her neck. The day they’d gotten the news, Sabra and Dashon had been hanging out with friends somewhere else while she’d been in the front yard, watching their mother water the flowers she took such pride in. They’d been swapping stories, the drama of ninth grade feeling every bit as much a life or death situation as the nine-one-one calls her mother dealt with while on duty.
A car pulled up in front of the house. The two men wearing Marine Corps full dress uniforms had gotten out and her throat had closed with a sob.
She’d known. She and her mother had both known.
Tears had streamed down her mother’s face. But her mother had stood straight and solid, like a soldier. Heard what the men said without breaking.
Master Sergeant Antwan Dashon Greene, aged thirty-five, was dead. KIA—Killed in Action while serving his country.
Saffron clasped the charm. Didn’t let herself go down the maybe if he’d been wearing his, he’d be alive road.
Her brother Dashon had refused to wear the charm Sabra had given him when he joined the Army. Had refused again when he got out and joined the police force.
He’d called it superstitious. And it wasn’t lack of some kind of supernatural protection that’d killed him. It was love.
She wasn’t going to make that mistake. Wasn’t going to leave a lover behind to grieve when her time was up. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to allow herself to get into a position where what was going on with a lover distracted her in a firefight.
Her brother and his girlfriend were fighting the day he’d pulled a motorist over on a routine traffic stop and was killed. The images of his death had been captured on his patrol car’s video cam and cycled on the news, over and over and over again.
She’d never know for sure that he was distracted, thinking about Shelby, but… Hard not to believe that love had killed him as surely as the bullets that’d pierced Dashon’s body and torn up his insides.
Saffron released the charm, tucked her hand into a front pocket. At least she didn’t have to worry about screwing up and falling in love with Taine. When it came to surrendering her heart to someone in law enforcement, she had full immunity, even if she did have a bad case of lust for a certain IRE agent.
Behind her, the pissed-off mother who’d been yelling at her son became a terrified woman shrieking, “Help!”
Saffron spun, scanned and saw the cheap float but no boy. She charged forward, was mid-thigh in water when the kid flailed to the surface then went under.
She dived and swam.
Stroke. Kick.
Stroke. Kick.
She knifed toward the spot where he’d come up, matched a word with an action.
Hurry. Kick.
Breathe. Stroke.
Hurry. Kick
Breathe. Stroke.
She didn’t second guess herself. It was too late to run down the beach, get closer before going it.
Kick. Breathe. Stroke.
She checked her direction and kept going.
The boy came up for air again.
She closed the distance.
The dangerous part came with reaching him. Saving him instead of being drowned by him.
She dived close to where he’d come up last. Looked, the salt burning her eyes.
The water was too dark to see anything. But somewhere close there was movement, sound.
She kicked and lanced forward.
The boy grabbed on. Locked his arm around her neck in a chokehold.
She fought instinctual panic, used force to get him off her, the two of them grappling, thrashing.
If felt like a fight to the death instead of a rescue.
Heart pounding like violent waves against a cliff, she finally got the boy pulled against her chest, one arm penned to his side.
His struggles weakened. Her lungs burned. She kicked, aiming toward what she hoped was the surface.
Something grabbed the back of her tank top. Turned her and forcefully guided her in a different direction.
She broke the surface of the water. And then Taine did, his expression fierce.
No time to interpret that, she thought, gulping air.
The kid gasped, heaved, vomited ocean water and partially digested food.
“Let me have him,” Taine said.
Gladly, she thought and handed off the boy.
The kid retched again. A third time, and a fourth then said in a weak voice, “I’m okay.”
They swam toward the beach, Taine’s arm around the kid, keeping the boy’s head above water.
Saffron’s heartbeat steadied. She concentrated on forward momentum though she was hyperaware of the muscled body next to hers, the man who hadn’t been far from her thoughts since the fair.
When it was shallow enough for the kid to get safely to his mother, Taine released him, rolled in the water as if it were his natural element then stood, wet clothes hugging his body and water lapping at muscled thighs. “Swim away? Or go onto the beach here?”
Saffron glanced at the mother and son. She didn’t need the accolades or crave the five seconds of social media fame that’d come with having her picture taken and posted online. It was enough that the kid was alive.
“Swim.”
They swam in the direction she’d been walking when she’d heard the cry for help. The adrenaline left her system while the water and rhythmic motion recalibrated her and the sky darkened further, orange and purple yielding to deepening dusk.
