by Evi Asher
“Job well done, ice-bear.”
He nodded his big head in response and let the change take him back to human form.
She was looking at him with appreciation in her eyes when he completed the transformation.
“Could you magic me up some clothes?” he asked with a lifted eyebrow.
Cerise laughed, but waved a hand and he was dressed again.
“Thank you.” He nodded, a small smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. He was happy that his mate would not be facing any dangers when she came out of that tube.
* * * *
Angelica swam through the lava, and even in her fire form, it hurt. She’d never in her life felt heat like this, even if heat was normally pleasurable to her.
She couldn’t see anything in the lava. She used her hand on the side of the tube to guide her and followed the flow of lava, and she sensed an opening ahead of her and braced herself for the test that was too come.
Her body came to an abrupt stop. She wasn’t expecting anything bad. Cerise was right about her having a good soul.
Sudden pain lanced through her body and she screamed. The lava poured down her throat and the pain intensified. Angelica curled into a ball in the middle of the lava flow, her arms wrapping protectively around her body.
Voices filled her head.
A dark male voice spoke inside her mind. “She is not pure.”
A woman’s voice, with a strange accent answered him, “She is pure enough. The evil you sense is not her, it will not harm the egg. She won’t let it.”
The male voice spoke again. “Can you be sure?”
“Yes.”
The pain stopped as abruptly as it had begun and Angelica could move again, but she was hurt. She had burns all over her body, and didn’t know if she could make it to the egg. The flow pushed her forward and she surfaced inside a cave.
The beach was made of cooled lava and she stumbled her way up onto it. She got cuts all over her knees and hands from the volcanic glass but she ignored them, looking for the thing she’d been sent here to get.
She took three steps and staggered, going to her knees. She tried to focus her eyes, but they were burning as if someone had poured acid into them.
She rubbed at her eyes and the skin on her hand sloughed off. A hiss of pain escaped her. She needed to hurry, get the egg and get back to Colt because she wasn’t going to survive these temperatures much longer.
A glitter in her peripheral vision made her turn her head.
There it was, nestled in some rocks that glowed with heat. It was about the size of a watermelon, and the shell was black, with golden veins running through it.
Angelica scrambled on her hands and knees toward it and gently lifted it.
“Harm it not!” both voices boomed in her head and she shook it in denial. “I won’t hurt the egg. I vow it.”
Silence.
She took that for approval and slid into the lava flow again, hissing in pain as she moved through the superheated rock.
She tucked the large egg in the crook of her arm and swam a one armed breaststroke against the flow of the lava.
This time, they didn’t stop her as she passed through the opening of the cave. The egg jumped in her arm and she almost dropped it. She latched onto it again and held tighter kicking, hard to make headway against the volcanic tide.
The journey felt like it took years, but it couldn’t have been longer than fifteen minutes.
Her head surfaced into fresh air—or what passed for fresh air on the surface of a volcano—and she gasped in oxygen and wanted to cry in pain.
The Oracle was there immediately and Angelica passed the egg into her hands.
“What happened?” Colt sounded furious as he reached for her.
“No!” she screamed. If he touched her, he would burn. “Let me get out, then you can help me, okay?”
He nodded and stepped back.
Angelica braced her weight against the side of the lave hole and lifted her body with her arms. She hoisted herself up, her teeth gritting in pain as the side of the rocks scraped skin off her body.
“Fuck.” Colt sounded so angry. “I thought you said she wouldn’t get hurt?”
Angelica looked up and it looked like he was ready to kill the Oracle.
Cerise’s mouth was open. She was obviously as shocked as Colt was.
Angelica eased her body onto the edge of the pit and remembered the words in her head.
The bad you sense is not her.
She looked down to her thumb where she’d put the signet ring. It had gained the protection of her body because she’d put it on her finger. Now she knew that Michael was bad and she had to get rid of him.
The reason she’d been hurt was his dark taint on her soul and the soul of her child. She didn’t care about helping him anymore. She wanted him gone, and she wanted him gone, now.
She considered tossing the ring away, but she didn’t know if that would harm or aid her cause, so she kept it on her thumb.
“She didn’t know I’d get hurt. It’s Michael’s fault,” she said and her voice came out in a hoarse whisper.
Colt was at her side, kneeling next to her, his hands hovering around her as if he wanted to touch her, but didn’t dare. There wasn’t a part of her body that wasn’t covered in blisters.
“Geli…”
Cerise waved her hand and Angelica was wrapped in something she could only describe as a soothing blanket.
It was cool to her skin, but not solid. It hid her damaged body from view so that only her face was visible.
“It will help the healing. We need to get her away from this bad air, though. It’s hurting them both at the moment.”
“Stop yacking and do it, Oracle.”
An instant later, they were back in the Oracle’s home.
Chapter Nine
Late afternoon sunshine streamed through the windows of Angelica’s room, making the whole room feel warm and safe. This room also made everything seem like it was going to be just fine.
She’d been moved back to it as soon as they’d reached to the house, and for the first few hours after that, she didn’t remember much. She’d been in a delirium with a fever. At least that was what Colt had told her when she’d woken up and been able to construct a solid sentence.
Now she was much better, though the pain was still intense. As the thought crystallized in her brain, the pain wracked through Angelica’s stomach and she bit down on her tongue, tasting blood. She tried not to move, because every movement made blisters pop. Her skin was healing already, a testament to her Eternal abilities but the pain was not fun. All she had to do was wait it out, and sooner or later, she would heal, and this pain would end.
Sooner, please.
Colt sat in the chair next to the bed. He’d tried to lie down next to her, but she’d hissed from the pain and he’d left to go find a chair.
She looked over at his dark curls. He was looking at his hands in his lap, one thumb tracing an old scar on his knuckle, and he looked like he was deep in thought.
“We still need to have that talk, Colt.”
He looked up and smiled at her, but shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “Uh, ah, I want you fine and healthy and thinking clearly before we talk about you forgiving me.”
Angelica frowned. What did he mean forgiving him—she had already. He hadn’t known it was Malta, so he couldn’t be blamed for his reactions. Okay, so he could have figured out she was a virgin when they had sex and she meant to bring that up too, but there was nothing to forgive. Even when he hated her, he’d never hurt her.
“But…”
“No. I said when you are healthy, I have some important stuff to say, Angelica, and I don’t want you out of it when I say it.”
She was going to argue that she was fine, but a knock on the door interrupted her.
“Come,” Colt called out, and Angelica thought he sounded relieved that their conversation had been interrupted.
Too bad for him. She was going to nag if she had to. Her curiosity was killing her. What was this important thing he wanted to talk to her about? Other than forgiving him. She had a feeling she might like what he had to say and she didn’t want to wait forever to hear him say it. Even if all he said was give us a chance, that would make her world shine with happy rainbows.
The door opened and Cerise stepped in, giving off an air of calm that made Angelica smile and feel content.
Must be the magic mojo of the Oracle.
“How are you feeling, Angelica?”
“I’m doing better, thank you.” Angelica tried to sit higher and felt a stab of pain.
“You are healing well?” The Oracle canted her head to look at her, and Angelica was sure she made quite the weird sight, bundled up in the white cloud-like fluff that Cerise had wrapped around her, sitting up braced by a heap of pillows at her back. She must look like she was in a weird chrysalis. The stuff Cerise had wrapped her in was supposed to help her healing and speed things up.
“Yes, quite fast.” Angelica took her arm out the wrapping to show Cerise the changes. There were far fewer blisters, and nice pink skin was showing through in more places than not.
“Good.” Cerise stepped forward and seated herself on the edge of the bed.
She didn’t seem to notice the dirty look that Colt shot in her direction.
“As soon as you are healed, you are free to leave, and you have me in your debt. Anything you need now, or in the future, please ask, and I will do all in my power to help.” She leaned forward and dropped something into Angelica’s lap.
Angelica looked down and saw a fine golden chain, and on it was a tiny pendant of a falling star.
“This?”
“If you need to contact me, simply hold the pendant in your hand, and call my name, I will find you.”
“Thank you, Cerise.”
“No…I need to thank you, and I can’t do it enough. You have put an end to something that would have been catastrophic, even though you got hurt doing it.” She frowned. “I need to know why you got hurt. I know your heart is pure, and so is that of your child. You shouldn’t have been hurt.”
Angelica looked down and mumbled, “Michael.”
“What?” Cerise and Colt asked in unison.
She looked up at Colt and spoke. “Remember back in Radcliff, at that house we took shelter in?”
“Yes.” His brows drew together and his eyes had storm clouds gathering in them. “Oh, my god!” He jumped to his feet. “You said Michael.”
Angelica was taken aback by his response. “Yes I did.”
“Michael Radcliff.”
“I don’t know his last name is Radcliff. The only name he gave me was Michael.”
“It can only be Michael Radcliff.” He walked away from the bed and slammed his fist into the wall, dust and mortar falling from it.
“Please, try not to damage my home,” Cerise said with a note of censure in her tone, and waved her hand at the wall. The wall repaired itself in front of their eyes, leaving no trace of the hole Colt had made..
“What is the significance?”
“I told Angelica about the mine.”
“Yes, I remember. Radcliff, the guy who wouldn’t give the townspeople shelter and sent them to the mine, then caved it in, letting all those people die.”
“His name was Michael, Geli. You are carrying around the ghost of a mass murderer.”
Angelica felt the blood drain from her face. Oh, my god was right. No wonder she lay on this bed wounded. The ghost that had latched onto her was the purest evil. She had to get rid of it now.
“Get Laz.” Her tone brooked no argument.
Colt moved toward her. “Geli…”
“Get Laz. now!”
Athera was with Laz when Colt strode into the room. They were arguing about who was their favorite Game of Thrones character.
Laz was losing, but that wasn’t a surprise. Athera knew he couldn’t possibly compete with her wit and logic. She knew her stuff, and no one could compete.
“Laz, we need you to banish a ghost,” Colt said his voice was thick with worry, his expression tight.
Athera frowned. So…the ghost was the new drama in the mix. “Is she willing to get rid of him now?”
“You knew about this?”
Colt turned his death stare on Athera and she almost flinched. Instead, she came back with. “You didn’t?”
“Forget it. Are you coming?” He looked over at Laz again, and the necromancer unfolded his large body out of the chair and got up. “About time,” he muttered and followed Colt out the door.
Athera followed them up, but at the door, Colt stopped her.
“Stay here.”
Before she could argue, the door was slammed in her face and she was left standing in the hall. She put her back to the door, puffed up air to blow her bangs out of her face, then noticed she wasn’t alone.
Grave leaned against the opposite wall, his stance casual, his arms folded across his chest, and those almost white eyes pinning her like a butterfly on a board.
Heat suffused her cheeks.
Why the hell am I blushing—you know damn well why. The thoughts chased each other in her mind and her inner voice was right. She knew why she was blushing. She had a case of the hots for Grave.
That’s an understatement.
She couldn’t find the words to describe what looking at him did to her body and senses, and when he glanced her way, she was a goner. The male had a panty- melting gaze.
Her attraction to him was intense, on a level that she hadn’t felt before. She’d been attracted to Geo, and from the looks he’d passed her way, he’d been attracted to her, but he’d never made a move, and she wasn’t going to chase after any male. It hadn’t bothered her, she’d let it go, and she hadn’t thought of it again.
Grave—now that was something else. She would chase after him all day long, because she suspected that he was supposed to be her mate. She wasn’t sure, but her reaction couldn’t be explained in any other way.
Finding a mate and knowing it was your mate for a fact wasn’t really a phoenix trait, but Athera was part shifter—she was part Bull-shark shifter to be precise—and shifters knew when they had found their mate.
She canted her head and had a good look at the object of her fascination.
She gave him an up down look, and appreciated every inch of the male. He was shirtless again, and all that tawny skin was teasing her in the worst way. He had braided his long blond hair, a neat braid that flowed over his shoulder and down, drawing her eyes over his biceps and what his crossed arms did for those muscles.
Her mouth was suddenly dry.
“Don’t you own a shirt?” she said.
“It’s against the dress-code.”
His deep voice made shivers race over her skin and she struggled to hide the arousal that just his voice caused.
Her eyes traveled lower. His jeans were low, and she could see the cut of his hip before the top of the denim kissed his skin.
“Do you always undress males with your eyes?” he asked, and Athera could have died of embarrassment right then.
Oh, no, you won’t go out that way, phoenix, she lectured herself.
She would brazen it out.
With a shrug, she straightened. “If I find them appealing enough.”
His lip curled in one corner and the crooked grin nearly melted her. “I take it you like what you see.”
Another enigmatic shrug. “What’s that?” She stepped forward and reached her hand forward, running her index finger along a dark line that came out from under his jeans and rode up over his hip. It looked like the end of some kind of design.
Athera was amazed to see goose bumps follow the path of her finger.
Ha! He isn’t immune to me.
Grave shot up straight and slapped her hand away from his skin. “It’s a tattoo.”
“Really? Of what?”
“None of your b
usiness.” He stepped sideways, as if he was trying to create distance between them.
“I have to admit, I’m dying to see what’s under those jeans.”
At his raised eyebrow, she modified the statement. “The tattoo of course.”
She looked down at the dark line disappearing into his pants and tried to imagine what picture the tattoo made across the lower part of his hip and his upper thigh. Her mouth went dry again.
Athera looked up at him and his eyes were swirling white. “I get to you, don’t I?” she asked, feeling empowered by the idea.
“No, you don’t.” His words sounded forced.
“I’m a virgin, you know,” Athera said, looking into his eyes to see his reaction, and there was a flash of something, hunger maybe—she couldn’t put her finger on it. She was too inexperienced, but she knew one thing. She wanted this male, and she’d take him anyway she could get him.
Grave’s expression closed down as he switched what she’d seen for a look of disdain. He snorted. “Surprising.”
“Want to help me do something about it?” Athera blurted, and promptly wished that she could vanish, disappear in a cloud of smoke, because she really hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
The look on his face was one of shock and that something else again…Need?
“What kind of female are you?” he spat out, taking another step away from her.
“Is that a yes, no, maybe?” She was determined to brazen this out. Even if it killed her. She’d go wallow in her embarrassment later.
“No!” He all but shouted. “It was a no. Seriously? Do you proposition every male you meet?”
“Of course not, silly. If I did I wouldn’t be a virgin, now would I?”
He looked as uncomfortable as she felt.
“I don’t think you really mean no.” Athera’s impish side had come to the fore, and the need to tease him was undeniable.
“Of course it was a no,” he hissed.
“Oh…I get it, you can’t…you know.” She made a rising gesture with her index finger.
Color suffused his face. “Of course I can.”
