by Casey Lane
Maybe her co-workers were right. A glass of wine and a bubble bath might actually relax her enough to lull her to sleep tonight.
But first, she wanted to peek inside the box. The bakery was well known for having the best pastries, and she’d been drooling over the window displays every day.
She slowly opened the box, pausing halfway to savor the rich scent of chocolate wafting from the cardboard container. She loved chocolate almost as much as she loved her car. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture what treat her co-workers had bought for her. A brownie? A slab of fudge?
Finally giving in, Sunny opened her eyes and finished tearing into the box. Inside sat a beautiful chocolate cupcake.
Only one thought ran through her head. Yum.
She pulled the cupcake out of the box and placed it on a little plate before rooting around in a kitchen drawer. She had to have a birthday candle in here somewhere. She loved candles and had them stashed all over the place.
A little pink one caught her attention and she stuck it in the center of the cupcake. She lit it and stared at the tiny orange flame. Shivers raced down her spine and something deep inside her tugged toward the fire. The pull toward the flame was so intense, it was almost creepy.
Closing her eyes, she did the same thing she did every year on her birthday. She sang “Happy Birthday” to herself and blew out the candle, prepared to make some silly wish.
Except this time, unlike other years, the flame didn’t extinguish.
Instead, it looked a little bigger and seemed to glow a little brighter.
Sunny was pretty sure she didn’t have any trick candles hanging around. There was no reason for the flame to continue to burn.
Electricity crackled along her skin, goose bumps breaking out over her entire body. Something big grew inside her. It was almost like her body was building up for some kind of huge event. She’d gone from feeling twitchy and restless to feeling like her skin was about to split wide open. It was excruciating and thrilling all at once. The fire fascinated her, drawing her closer like the proverbial moth to the flame.
The flame grew bigger and bigger until the entire cupcake was engulfed. If she didn’t blow it out, it was going to set her table on fire. Ignoring the fact that her body was about to explode, Sunny bent over and blew at the candle again, putting all the extra energy she could behind it.
It was almost like she’d thrown a jug of gasoline around the room, soaking the carpet and walls, the fire burned so big and so fast. Within seconds, the entire apartment was on fire. She rushed for her fire extinguisher but it was too late. The fire alarms were already going off in the hall and she could hear the faint sound of sirens outside.
Shit, shit, shit. What the fuck had happened?
Two weeks later, Sunny was still staying in her cheap motel room. Her apartment building had completely gone up in flames. The fire chief had made a statement to the press about how he’d never seen a building burn down so fast. According to him, it was like the fire had had a life of its own. When they’d sprayed the building with water, it had seemed like the flame would jump out of the way.
Something told her not to come forward with her story of creating the fire. For one, she really didn’t feel like having another stay in a psychiatric unit. One stay as a teenager had been enough, thank you very much. And she was pretty sure if she told the chief about how the flame had responded to her, they would lock her back up faster than she could say “Bob’s your uncle.”
But there was something else holding her back from coming forward with her story. It was some strange sense of self preservation. It was almost like a fight or flight response. Maybe it was the fact that there seemed to be an awful lot of strangers hanging around her these days. Strangers who stared at her shrewdly. People who liked to pat down their waistband when they noticed her watching, like they were reassuring themselves their protection was still in place.
Maybe she should check herself into the psych unit after all.
Of course, things always had a way of going from bad to worse. Strangely, the pressure which had been building in her had disappeared after the fire and had stayed dormant for a couple of days. But it didn’t stay that way. The restless sensation came significantly more often after the fire. It was like something was building inside her, growing until it was too large to be contained by her body. Sometimes she felt like clawing at her skin in a desperate attempt to release some of the pressure.
Add that to the fact that every time she experienced a strong emotion, fires broke out around her, and she seriously considered investing in a fire extinguisher manufacturer. She didn’t have to be angry to have a fire start. No, she could be sad, happy, whatever. Hell, even getting aroused was a no-no.
At first, no one had made the connection between her and the fires. It wasn’t like anyone had witnessed her strolling over to a wastebasket and dropping in a flaming match. In fact, many times, other people would be talking with her and the fire would start on the other side of the room.
But it wasn’t long before people started to notice she happened to be in the room each and every time a fire started.
Now, she sat in her motel room after being fired. Her employer had no evidence to actually press charges against her, but the fact that the fires only happened when she was present was enough for them to release her from her contract. And all of her previously supportive co-workers, the same ones who had invited her out for drinks a few short weeks ago, avoided her like the plague.
She was at a complete loss as to what to do. She had no job, no home and no possessions, save for her car. She’d like to think she’d been in worse positions before, but she really hadn’t. She’d always figured something out before, but she needed to wallow in self-pity a little, even if it was only for a few minutes.
Grabbing the chocolate bar she’d purchased on the way here, she unwrapped it and took a huge bite. Chocolate always made things better. Well, bearable, anyway.
Lying back on the lumpy mattress, she closed her eyes and munched, wishing someone would knock on her door with the answer to all her problems.
Suddenly, there was a hard thumping against her door, like someone was pummeling it with a fist.
Her eyes flew open and she sat up so fast, her head spun.
Somehow, she doubted it was her fairy godmother knocking.
Chapter Four
Sunny tried looking through the peephole, but for some reason, it had completely clouded over. She made a mental note to speak to the motel management about fixing it as she slid the chain lock into place and opened the door wide enough to look outside.
Two men stood there, staring back at her. They were both blond, but that’s where the resemblance ended. The guy on the right was of average height but had an absolutely fabulous body. His white dress shirt clung to him like a second skin and his gray slacks molded to his thighs perfectly. He had a friendly smile and pretty blue eyes.
The man next to him scared the bejeezus out of her. He was huge. Mountain like, even. His white-blond hair was tied back in a ponytail that hung nearly to his waist and his shoulders were nearly as wide as the door frame. But his eyes frightened her the most. They were gunmetal gray and seemed bottomless. She had a fleeting thought that if she stared at his eyes long enough, she would get lost in them. And not in the good, romantic kind of way, either.
Faced with such an intimidation, Sunny did the same thing she always did when she felt backed into a corner. She got lippy. “What do you want?”
The words sounded rather flippant, even to her.
The shorter man smiled again and shuffled over so he was directly in her view. “Hi. My name is Matthew Samuels and this is Leith MacAlister. Can we come in and speak with you for a few minutes?”
The soft, Australian accent probably had the girls falling at the guy’s feet. Not her though. As attractive as this Matthew was, Sunny had always been drawn to the more tall, dark and handsome type. “No, I’m fine. Good-bye.”
He
r attempt to close the door was thwarted when the big guy slapped his hand against it and used brute strength to keep it open. “Actually, it is not a request, Ms. Kerrigan.”
“And my answer isn’t negotiable. Good-bye,” she said. Somehow, it didn’t surprise her that they knew her name.
Leith tried to force the door open. Luckily, the chain held but the door frame creaked under the pressure. “We have information you might find helpful, Ms. Kerrigan. About what’s happening to you. And about your parents.”
The mention of her parents that gave her a second’s pause. Her parents had been killed when she was a baby. She’d read the police report on her eighteenth birthday. The lead detective had stated he suspected her parents had been victims of a drive-by shooting. But the medical examiner hadn’t found an exit wound or bullets on either of her parents.
Despite her desire to know more about her parents, she wasn’t stupid. She realized she only had a few seconds to act when she saw Leith’s fingers wrap around the edge of the door and head up toward the chain. She gave the door a mighty push, slamming it against the questing digits.
The fingers were immediately pulled away and the door shut with a satisfying click. She flipped the deadlock into place and smiled grimly when she heard the big man swearing through the wood. “Fuck, lass. Are ye tryin’ to break me fingers?”
Ooh. This one had a Scottish accent. And apparently Leith’s accent got thicker when he was in pain.
“The two of you need to get lost before I call the police,” she called through the door.
“Och, we don’t have time for this,” Leith shouted.
Seconds later, the blond giant materialized in front of her.
Shrieking, Sunny stumbled back until she was flat against the wall. Why did she have to leave her phone all the way on the other side of the room?
Muttering under his breath, Leith flipped the deadlock and slid the chain off, letting Matthew into the room.
The shorter man closed the door quickly and took a quick step toward her, holding his hands up as if to show her he wasn’t going to hurt her. “Relax, Sunny. We’re here to tell you about what’s happening, that’s all. If your parents had lived, you would have already known all about this. In fact, you would have been transported to the MacAlister castle at the first sign of your magic.”
Were these people insane? “Magic? Magic? Don’t come any closer,” she warned when Leith took a few steps toward her.
Matthew reached out and made a beckoning motion to her. “We’re not joking,” he said. “We’ll tell you everything you need to know once we’re on the plane. But we should really get moving. It’s not safe to stay here, especially now.”
A hysterical giggle escaped her. “You think I’m going with you? Do I look stupid to you?”
Leith growled and made a slashing motion. “Lass, ʻtis past time we left. Doona make this harder than it has to be.”
It seemed irritation also made the Scot’s accent thicker. Maybe it was best not to annoy the crazy men. “Look, if you leave, I won’t call the police. We’ll just forget this ever happened.”
Leith laughed harshly. Reasoning with him was obviously not going to work.
Matthew patted the bigger man on the arm. “Relax, Leith. Let’s explain some of it to her immediately, okay? I would be freaked out too if I was in her position.”
Shoving his hands through his long hair, causing some of the blond locks to escape the ponytail, Leith sighed and nodded. “Do it quickly, lad. I’m getting the twitchy sensation that says someone’s on our tail.”
“Okay, Sunny—can I call you Sunny?—it’s pretty simple actually. You’re a witch. A fire handler, actually. Anyway, there’s only one handler for each element at a time. When a handler dies, another one is born sometime in the same year. They don’t come into their powers until they turn twenty-five, which is why you haven’t been able to summon or create fire until recently.”
Sunny held up her hand. “You guys are wacko.” Still, how did they know about the fires that had been happening since her twenty-fifth birthday?
“We weren’t aware that your parents had a child,” Leith said suddenly. “Had we been aware of you when we learned about their deaths, you would have been raised at MacAlister castle. When certain signs appeared as a child, you would have been watched very carefully. None of this would have been necessary.”
Matthew nodded and looked over his shoulder toward the door. “The ADHD, the problems controlling your temper, the delusions and hallucinations you had as a child are all signs of a handler.”
It was eerie, really, how accurate Matthew was about her childhood. Still, she wasn’t impressed. “All it takes is one good hacker to break into my medical records to find out the same stuff.”
“God’s blood, child. Why would we break into your medical files if our intention was to simply hurt ya?”
Geez, this Leith guy was sounding older and older by the second. If she hadn’t been so concerned for her life, she would have been fascinated. He stood there, looking all modern and sophisticated and then broke out in sayings like God’s blood. It was almost as if he belonged in a different time.
“You’re right,” Matthew agreed, pulling her attention back to the situation at hand. “But what about lately? You’ve had the feeling like there’s something growing in you, right? Like your skin will split if you don’t release some of the buildup. And when you experience a strong emotion, fires tend to spring up. After the fires, you don’t feel like you’re going to explode for a little while, right?”
Sunny’s jaw just about hit the ground. She definitely hadn’t told anyone about those feelings.
“ʻTis your magic, lass. When ye were a wee girl, the magic had no way out, but it was muted somewhat. It would have manifested in physical symptoms, diagnosed as ADHD. Now ye’ve come into yer magic, and it’s too big to contain. Ye need to release it, and if ye don’ know how, it will find a way to release on its own. Ye need to be trained on how to use it properly, or ye’ll keep having accidents.”
“And you can train me?” she scoffed. “Look, I’ve always figured things out by myself. I’ll figure this out myself too.”
Matthew shook his head and pointed to the curtain. “Are you going to be able to figure out how to put the fire out before it burns down the motel?”
Sunny risked a glance in the direction Matthew pointed and gasped. Flames were licking up the cheap motel curtain, steadily crawling toward the ceiling. Crap. There wasn’t even a fire extinguisher in the damn room and by the time she ran to the office to get one, the fire would be too big for the extinguisher to handle.
The two men stared at her as if they were waiting for her to do something. “Well?” Leith said with a sneer. “Figure out how to call it back.”
Call it back? What the hell was he talking about? Panic started to settle over her. Her heart began pounding against her sternum, and she panted as if she was running a marathon.
Immediately, the fire roared, shooting higher and spreading wider. It seemed to be responding to her reactions, and not in a good way.
“Leith,” Matthew implored. He sounded nervous for the first time since he’d strolled into her room. “You can put it out, right?”
The bigger man frowned but nodded. “She doesn’t have enough strength to prevent me from putting it out.” He narrowed his eyes and muttered something under his breath.
The flames got smaller but didn’t go out completely.
Leith growled and stared at the flames, his face the picture of extreme concentration. This time, the muttered words were accompanied by a waving motion. The fire went out reluctantly, if you could describe fire as reluctant. It certainly took its time dying out.
The bigger man waved his hands again and the room was instantly back to the way it was before she fried it. No damage to the curtains, no smoke stains, nothing to even suggest the place had been on fire just seconds ago.
Matthew wasn’t staring around the room like Su
nny. He was staring at Leith. “I’ve never seen you have trouble with anything before,” he said.
“Well, I’m not able to control either Anna’s or Sloan’s magic. I could only manipulate Ms. Kerrigan’s because she’s so untrained, but she’s very strong. Once her magic is firmly under her command, it will be impossible for anyone to stop her,” Leith said, his accent fading a little now that the immediate danger had passed.
Sunny said the only thing that came to mind. “Holy shit.”
Matthew scurried over to the window and peeked outside. “Leith, there’s someone watching. I’m pretty sure he was there when we first came.”
Oh man, apparently things could get worse. “There have been people following me for a couple of weeks. I thought it was just my imagination.”
Was telling these two strangers about her stalkers really such a good idea? Then again, this whole situation was completely unbelievable.
Leith’s eyes widened. “We have less time than I thought. Matthew, do you recognize the watcher as a Takahashi or Keita?”
Before Sunny could ask what a Takahashi or Keita was, Matthew backed away from the window with another slightly panicked look on his face. “No one I know. But Leith, he’s wearing a turtleneck. In July.”
Leith rubbed his palms over his face. “Hunter.”
“What’s a hunter?” Sunny asked, completely spooked by the petrified expression on Matthew’s face.
This time, the knock on the door did more than annoy her. It scared the crap out of her. “Is everyone okay?” the red head in the sweater asked as he opened the door and poked his head in.
“Yes,” Leith said shortly, attempting to push the door closed, but the stranger was already more than halfway in.
“But I saw smoke,” the guy insisted, stepping inside and locking the door.
“You’re mistaken,” Matthew said, edging closer to Sunny.
