“No. Everything’s fine.” Or he was losing his mind at the normalcy of it all. How having lunch with her seemed so natural and…right. He’d forgotten the beauty of simple pleasures, of enjoying a meal with someone he liked.
The waiter returned. “Can I get you any dessert?”
“Lemon meringue,” they both said, followed by Elspeth launching another of her distracting smiles.
She glanced at her watch, turning her attention to him. “We’d better get it to go. I need to get to the office and back home. I’ve got to start transition planning on Kindred.”
A few minutes later, a waitress left a to-go bag and a check on the table.
He moved to get the bill, and she snatched it up.
“No, I’ll—” He stopped, reminding himself that he worked for her. He wasn’t out on a date. A normal social life didn’t apply to him.
“Let me,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve been out with only one other person in a year.” Her hand slid across the table and over his, and he swore he felt the heated curve of her fingers down to his bones. “Well, outside of Freddy’s.” A twinkle of mischief in her eyes threatened to short out his heart. “This was the perfect last visit to this place. Thank you.”
He looked at her face and fell into her deep, green gaze. Her sincerity stung as much as her gratitude. Seanair never thanked him. No one did. He was feared, shunned, his life a murderous haze of assignments. He was on his last one. The final hurrah, and he would not let her kindness kill his plans.
She handed a passing waitress cash and the bill and told the woman to keep the change.
“Let’s walk to the office. It’s only ten minutes.” She stood and strung her purse across her body, shrugged on her coat, and grabbed the bag with their pie. “I’ll sure miss this place.” She made her way through the packed restaurant toward the door and called over her shoulder, “You should come back here after I’m gone. You obviously appreciate their food, and that makes me happy.”
He followed her through the crowd. Something warm and right stirred deep inside him, then curdled. She might be happy now, but she’d hate him soon enough. At the exit, he gave a last look around and snatched a business card off the reception podium.
Maybe he’d come back. If the pie turned out to be good.
Out on the sidewalk, he cast out his energy and confirmed the area was Natura-free.
“We’re good to go.” He drew up beside her on the sidewalk and got snared in the aura of her perfume.
The sky had gone winter gray, and a blast of wind sliced straight through his jacket.
“It’s not far.” Her brisk steps clipped up the sidewalk. “We’ll go up Ninth Avenue.”
They continued on Hudson and veered onto Ninth. He liked Chelsea, with all the trees, ironwork on the building fronts, and its stunning array of architectural styles.
As they walked side by side amid a sea of pedestrians, Elspeth didn’t seem to notice how others stepped wide to avoid him. He noted the cars parked against the curb had mere inches between their bumpers.
“How do you live here?” he asked. “It’s so crowded with…humans.”
“Everyone minds their own business. Humans don’t know anything about me, and Manhattan has close to two million of them. I’m more at home here than in some area full of our people. It’s funny. Even though I have no innate power, I’m counted as Natura because of the baby thing, but since I don’t have that interior vessel like the witches and warlocks to call and hold power, I’m not one of them either. I swear this whole innate-versus-called-power BS has reached its peak. I might as well be human.”
“You aren’t human.” How could she compare herself to those self-indulgent twits? All they did was buy, buy, buy and fill the earth and sea and even outer space with their trash.
“From what I’ve seen, power’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
It was pointless to argue with a null. If she’d ever felt power, especially Fire, she’d laugh to hear herself say something so cavalier. The notion of her having Fire consumed him, but he killed the idea of her regenning with him, as the last thing he needed in the middle of a crowded sidewalk was a boner.
They crossed 21st Street, and he walked slap into a full-on wall of Earth energy. Not rotting. Not pure.
But way the hell off.
She grabbed at her throat, her mouth wide open, face red like she was choking. He knew instantly. That energy was pouring down her throat. He grabbed her hand. Yanked her into an alley. Encased them in a vault of Fire. Tugged her tight against him.
“Hang on. I got you.” He summoned what little Air power he could, put his mouth over hers and kissed her, gently pushing the energy down, directing it toward her lungs, becoming her personal oxygen mask. He shored up his first Fire wall protecting them, circled his second mantle around the attacking Earth, capturing it between his two walls, and compressed the Fire barriers.
The Earth energy struggled, flailing and smashing against his invisible Fire compactor.
Her arms slid around him, and she upped the kiss. He didn’t think as he swept his hands under her ass and lifted her. Turned and pressed her against the side of the brick building. Focusing on the thread of his Air energy, he gave her all he had, giving her back her breath.
That damned Earth energy was trying to kill her. He sensed its intent, the heaviness of its plans to fill her lungs and burst them. No fucking way. Not on his watch.
The warped presence stroked and suckled at his energy field, searching for a fissure to slurp its way inside. A shriek cut through the alley, the wail shrill and sick, the otherworldly Earth’s call piercing his senses. Vined tendrils slithered up his protective barrier, writhing to get to her. He perceived the power as male, then female, then a genderless but sensual slide of other.
He tapped into that rare place where the last of his control met the lawless wild of his free Fire. He unleashed his restraint and launched an obliterating strike. Red, turbulent energy flew toward the invisible mass. He sensed a wall rising, and…oh, shit. His power ball was going to bounce off that Earth wall and strike him and Elspeth like they were bowling pins.
He didn’t give her a warning, didn’t give her time, just absorbed her into his innermost aura, the sacred space of orgasm, where he could twine his energy with hers and push power into her. She arched against him, gasping at the fusion of whatever Passives held with his Fire. He tucked her life-force beside his and held the fuck on, shoring up his shields against his own energy.
If she died, he’d go with her.
A richness filled him, the purest Fire and her Passive essence interweaving in a braid of breath-stealing pleasure. A strangled sigh left her, her hips flexed against him, and he breathed her in, tightening his embrace for the impending blow.
The blast hit him hard. His body smashed into hers, pinning her against the brick, and he grunted through the pain of waiting for his shields to absorb the Fire reverb.
The air rippled, and he sensed the Earth floundering.
Pressing her tight against the wall, he flung out a hand and slung a last-ditch, murderous swath of Fire energy, a full-out incendiary shimmer that would cling-wrap itself around the Earth mass. The blast tore from him, a torrent of powerful Fire at levels he’d never used.
A screech ripped through the narrow space, bits of brick pelting his shields. A crackling sounded, like the ground splitting, the Earth energy breaking apart. A clap of thunder split the air. Spits of sleet littered the ground. Human screams came down the alley. Footsteps clattered. Horns honked, and tires screeched. He pulled her to him and ran, ducking beneath a delivery door awning. The freak storm continued, the sleet now hail, gunfire pellets pounding the metal roof overhead as he covered her with his body.
The energy’s foulness tore away. Gone, no trace but for the white marbles of ice covering the ground.
“Aleron?”
“One minute, baby.” He scanned the alley, held her, made sure the thing was gone, and
did the weirdest damn thing. He pressed his mouth to the top of her head, closed his eyes, breathed in something that smelled so Goddess good. “Are you hurt?” He didn’t think so but assumed nothing—not after that fuckery.
“No.”
Leaning back and looking her over, he felt his whole world shrink to her wide eyes and hair tousled by his hands. He threaded his shaking fingers into her hair, pressed her back against a metal garage door, and kissed her. Sweet Goddess, she tasted of smoke and rain, air and life. He lost himself in the soft press of her breasts against him, the rush of her breath, and the sweet grip where she clawed the front of his shirt.
A tiny, faraway voice cried, What the hell are you doing?
He broke the kiss. “Elspeth, look at me.”
Her head lolled, her expression slack, looking drunk from the Air energy. “Kiss me some more,” she whispered.
“We have to go.” He rested his forehead against hers, seeking to slow his breaths and sharpen his mind.
For one outrageous moment, he imagined he didn’t have to stop, imagined they didn’t have to leave. He dug his fingers into her hips and envisioned the tearing of their clothes as they both rushed to get the barriers gone between them. He pictured driving in, filling her, saw the flush on her cheeks and her half-lidded eyes as thrust into her. He wanted her right there, in the alley, against the wall, the salt from her sweat-drenched skin rich in his mouth.
Sirens wailed in the distance. A human had obviously called 911. Goddess, he’d screwed up. He hadn’t remembered to hide the extent of his power and probably left some nice, black scorch marks on the brick. Shit, he might have torched a car or, Goddess forbid, a building.
He’d earned his towering-inferno reputation.
A mass of energy pushed against him, and he knew.
The restaurant. The walls closing in. He’d sensed something and written off the sensation. That Earth abomination had sized him up, right there in the restaurant, and judged him beatable.
And he’d dismissed the whole thing being distracted by…her.
Her hands slipped into his hair. “More.” She kissed him, her lips gentle and soft and searching.
He should push her away. She was energy-high and—
The truth clocked him. Air was a truth serum and melted away falsities. She was kissing him because she wanted to. With her logic dulled and the truth unhindered by reason, she’d continue to pursue anything she wanted until the high wore off.
“Hey. Elspeth. Baby.” He pulled back slightly. “You have to stop kissing me.”
“I don’t want to.” Her bottom lip teased over his mouth. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since you mouthed off to me. You talk to me like I’m a normal person. Take me home. Have sex with me,” she whispered into his mouth.
Great human Jesus.
“Elspeth, listen to me. You’re telling me these things because your brain’s filters are down.”
“I know. I like it. I can do what I want.” Her head met the metal of the garage door, her expression soft. “You’re not attracted to me. I’m sorry I misread—”
“I am attracted to you.” Shit. Where were his fucking filters?
As if called, the first of his mantles returned to him, the energy seeping into his skin. The second one that had been his father’s gave them a wide berth, surrounding them and guarding against the Earth energy’s return.
A lazy smile pulled at her mouth. “I knew you felt it too. You’re a good person, and we could be good together, for a little while. I’d like something good to remember if things go bad after I’m—” She blinked and sucked in a deep breath. “Everything hurts.”
“Yep. That’s the Air hangover.”
“Put me down. Put me—” She scrambled away several steps and retched.
Shit. Maybe he’d given her too much Air, but he hadn’t known how to control it. His Air was latent. He’d never pulled that much, let alone knew how to use it help someone.
“I’ve got you.” He gathered her hair in his fist.
His second mantle did a weird thing, ballooning into a bubble, encasing them both. He tried to call it to him, but the energy wouldn’t budge. Instead, faint orange flames licked over every inch of her, the light pulsing and dancing around her.
“Can you see the Fire?”
She’d stopped vomiting but still had her hands on her knees. “That’s you?”
“Yes.” He scanned the alley as she straightened, distrusting the thing had truly departed. It dawned on him then. “You’ve never seen this side of what we are, have you?”
Her stare went miles long.
“I’ve seen flowers preen and bloom for my cousin. I’ve watched Fire dance between Lach’s fingertips. My cousin Kerr burned me once when I was a teenager. He tampered with my mug of chai tea and hid the heat until I picked it up. Lach found out, and it never happened again.” She slowly raised her gaze to his, her chin quivering. “I know about enriching soil and managing temperatures, filtering the air of pollutants and cleaning up seawater. I know how our elements drive industry and why many of us come from old money. The few high school classes I got to attend outside the regular ones didn’t cover filling lungs with dirt.”
There could be only one man behind her ignorance—Seanair. One part of him agreed with keeping her far away from their ugliness. The other wished Naturas could reincarnate, because after he killed Seanair, he’d raise him up like a zombie and kill him over and over again for not letting her take advanced-level classes. Marrying into Russian royalty, she needed full understanding of their capabilities.
In that moment, he realized he wasn’t Seanair’s only victim. It made sense, in a messed-up way, that their brutal leader kept the tightest reins on his own family.
He held out a hand, the desire for her to feel safe with him more important than finding and obliterating whatever had attacked her. “If you have questions, ask. I promise to always give you the truth, no matter how hard the answers.”
He understood the danger of lies, and the one he’d keep from her was his plan for her grandfather.
She took his hand, and he pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t let anything happen to you. I give you my word.”
“What was that thing?” The heat of her words seeped into his shoulder.
“An Astrux, I think. I’ve never felt one that strong.”
“Do I want to know what an Astrux is?”
Her arms tightened around him. He noticed the anomaly. The small spot squatting beside his burning need to torch something. A strange corner. A tired place. That longed to steal her away and hibernate somewhere, nothing but the perfume of her shampoo and her body’s softness in the space.
“It’s improperly released energy.” He’d share what he knew of the phenomenon. “If a Natura dies, and their energy isn’t properly released back to its source, it roams the earth, stuck in a human-like purgatory, like an invisible, sentient cloud of power. Normally, they’re frightening and can cause some turmoil, but I’ve never heard of a mass this large and powerful.”
“But if it’s Natura energy, why couldn’t you sense it before it struck?”
Good fucking question.
“I’m not sure. It’s gone now.” He didn’t think, just kissed the top of her head and narrowed his gaze on the tiny balls of ice in her hair and melted them.
He cast out his energy, out of the alley, down the streets, clocking every Natura in the vicinity with a stay-back warning. How many humans had experienced the storm? What was the damage? Man, Elite One was going to have to scramble to cover up this shit. He’d call in and check the cleanup status as soon as he got them home. Wait. Home? Them? He shook his head at the slip.
What are you doing?
Another great question, which begged a central one. What was more important? His mission? Or some woman he’d never see again once she was married?
Stay. Focused.
Stress made everyone do weird shit, so this cuddly
, kissy, huggy version of himself was as messed up as that Astrux.
“Let’s get you back to the apartment. I’ll seal us in and figure out what’s going on. Okay?” He put her at arm’s length and lowered his head even with hers.
Her hand came up, cradling the scarred side of his face.
She nodded and leaned to look behind him. “That terrible thing ruined our pie.” Her words slurred.
He looked over his shoulder at the smashed white bag on the ground.
“I’ll get you some more. Here, walk beside me.” He tucked her under his arm, because he…well, he was just being nice. That was all.
They walked up the alley. His senses on full alert, he scanned every brick and car and person as they waited for a cab, certain of only one thing.
That Earth energy wouldn’t give up.
Her heart would not slow. Not in the cab, not in the elevator, not at her doorstep.
Everything hurt. Like she’d been a car, and that thing had been a wall. What hurt most was the lies. Or, rather, the omissions. All the things her loved ones hadn’t told her, Seanair, Lach, and Kazumi included.
Lach, she understood, at least from a protective-big-brother perspective. But Kazumi? Ever since seventh grade, her best friend had known her big nonnegotiable—she never again wanted to feel less than. Right now, she felt like a clueless, privileged twit.
The poor, brainless, sheltered rich girl.
Ms. Passive girl living in her protected Passive world.
“Keys are in my front pocket. You’ll have to get them.” She put a hand on the doorframe and tugged her purse over her head, her leg muscles signaling they were about to go on strike. “It’s taking everything I have to breathe.”
And dry-swallow the bitter pill of her ignorance.
Her purse thumped on the carpet.
“Turn around and look at me.” Aleron’s hands rested on her shoulders, and he put her back to the door. “What’s going on? You’re having trouble breathing?”
She looked up at his face. The deep furrow of his dark brows. The tightness of his hard jawline. The angry pink of his scar. He looked ready to kill the first thing that moved, right down to the dust motes.
The Call of Fire: A Natura Elementals Novel Page 9
