Ember's Kiss

by Deborah Cooke

  Chen shifted shape again, becoming a beautiful Chinese woman. Brandon was sufficiently startled once more that his grip faltered—he couldn’t torture a woman!—which was the only opportunity she needed to drive her spike heel into the wound on his belly. He fell back in anguish, remembering the woman who had appeared outside Chen’s place, just as she pivoted to fight. She had the same gash on her cheek and the same damaged eye.

  She was Chen.

  Brandon punched the Slayer and went after him, determined to not let him out of his grasp. He pounced on Chen and held him down.

  What was wrong with the others? Brandon glanced at the other Pyr, only to find that they were frozen in place.

  “Another spell,” he whispered, and Chen laughed.

  He changed back to dragon form again, leaping at Brandon with talons all bared.

  He latched on to Brandon, digging his claws deep into Brandon’s hide.

  The entire scene was suddenly illuminated in brilliant blue-green light.

  Darkfire!

  When the auras of the Pyr were extinguished, Liz feared the worst. Where there had been a bright play of color, suddenly there was no light at all. The circle was dark and still, like the calm before the storm.

  She saw that the Pyr appeared to have turned to stone. Their mates were similarly snared, but the children were as active as they had been before.

  When Liz saw the red salamander appear out of nothing beside Brandon, she knew exactly what kind of salamander it had to be.

  Its name was Chen.

  Right behind it appeared another salamander, this one in shades of gold. It popped out of the air exactly the same way. Liz guessed that this was Jorge.

  Meanwhile, Brandon gave a cry and shifted shape. He snatched for the two salamanders but managed to hold on to only the red one. The gold one raced across the sand and leapt for the boundary of the circle.

  Garrett moved with astonishing speed, grabbing for the gold salamander.

  Liz cried out a warning, but Jorge plunged through the circle she’d created. He screamed as he punctured the barrier that kept them all safe, and Liz hoped that both the circle and the dragonsmoke had burned him badly. She saw the rent in the circle’s protective veil, like a tear in a silk curtain. She saw that destroyed barrier ripple in the wind and the energy she had raised begin to leak through it.

  To her horror, Garrett charged through the barrier after the golden salamander.

  Liz raced after the boy, shouting at him to stop. Twenty feet outside the circle, he snatched up the salamander with a hoot. He had time to turn to face her, his expression triumphant as he held the squirming salamander high over his head.

  Then Jorge shifted shape. Garrett shouted as the enormous golden dragon snatched him up in his claws and leapt for the sky. Jorge turned to fly away, carrying the struggling boy in front of him.

  Liz pulled out the darkfire crystal. At least there was no risk of her hitting the child; Garrett was completely obscured by Jorge’s body.

  She fired the crystal at Jorge. The beam of blue-green light that emanated from the stone struck him in the spine. He screamed and fell toward the earth, his black blood dripping from the wound in a lethal river. He dropped Garrett, and Liz ran to scoop up the little boy, fearing he had been hurt.

  As she pulled him into her arms, he clung to her neck. She spun around to return to the circle.

  Only to be confronted with a pillar of flame she’d seen once before.

  Liz swallowed.

  Her test was beginning, and at the worst possible time.

  Chapter 14

  Brandon knew he was fighting for his life. He turned his dragon’s strength to his own desire and thrashed Chen hard with his tail. The Slayer’s grip faltered, and it was the chance that Brandon needed to tear himself loose, then turn the tables on his opponent. Brandon snatched the Slayer. Chen struggled within his grip, and there was a blue shimmer around his body.

  Brandon had to weaken him before he disappeared. He remembered Niall’s comment about dragonsmoke. Brandon had used dragonsmoke on Jorge, working on intuition, but maybe he could use it even more effectively now that he understood it better. He held tightly to Chen and breathed dragonsmoke in a long, slow plume. He drove his dragonsmoke into the wound in Chen’s eye and felt the moment it locked on to the Slayer’s life force.

  As he had before, he felt a boost of energy and saw his opponent flag. Brandon pushed harder, breathing a thicker conduit and driving it deeper into the wound. He focused on his dragonsmoke and commanded it in the same way he had summoned waves to a beach.

  It was like he’d stuck his thumb into an electrical socket. The power was almost overwhelming in its intensity. Chen moaned, visibly weakening by the second. This was his chance! Brandon concentrated on the dragonsmoke, pushing it into Chen’s wound and deliberately drawing out as much strength as he could. To Brandon’s relief, the incoming power strengthened his control over his dragon and allowed him to diminish Chen’s hold over him.

  Brandon breathed, exhaling dragonsmoke and inhaling Chen’s energy. Chen struggled, but his efforts became more feeble each time. He tried to escape, but Brandon ensured that his dragonsmoke thread was thick and robust, that it couldn’t be easily broken. Each breath brought him closer to victory. Brandon would suck the Slayer dry and render him powerless forever.

  Chen rotated between forms, becoming the woman, the old man, the young man, then the dragon again. Brandon waited, knowing what form he would ultimately take. He hoped the Slayer didn’t have enough strength to manifest elsewhere, then concentrated on trying to make that so.

  When Chen became a salamander again and slipped from Brandon’s grasp, Brandon snatched him up again and squeezed tightly. He felt bones break and tissue crush. He let his talons dig deeply into Chen’s soft hide. The Slayer screamed, but Brandon didn’t release him. He didn’t enjoy the suffering of any creature, but he wasn’t going to let this villain off easily.

  This was the dragon who had targeted Brandon, who had tried to enslave him, who would have hurt Liz. Brandon knew that if roles had been reversed, Chen would have shown him no mercy. He savored the sight of the black blood dripping from his claws. He heard Chen moan and felt the Slayer’s heart palpitate.

  Then Chen went limp.

  Just as relief surged through Brandon, he saw a sudden flash of blue-green light. He knew the darkfire had to be in Liz’s vicinity and he turned to look.

  To his surprise, Liz was outside of the circle she’d cast. There was a pillar of flame in front of her, and Brandon remembered her story.

  This was her test! The mark on her arm was glowing red, lit by an inner fire. Garrett stood behind Liz, watching the flames with awe.

  Liz visibly took a breath, then stepped forward, fearless and confident. Brandon could feel the rapid pounding of her heart, though, and knew she was afraid of failure. What could he do to help? Liz raised her arms before the column of crackling flames and recounted a spell. Brandon didn’t understand her words or recognize the language, but he smiled as he felt the change in the air around him.

  Air. She was proving her mastery over air first.

  At Liz’s command, the wind tore over the beach in silent fury, bending the trees to the ground and making the sand fly. It swirled around Liz and the column of fire, making sparks dance high into the air and Brandon’s ears pop.

  Liz spoke again and the wind calmed at her dictate, reverting to a gentle breeze.

  Brandon was amazed by what she could do.

  Air. She’d nailed air.

  She swallowed, then gestured to the pillar of flame. She called another invocation. The flames grew higher and brighter, the column of fire turning to a pillar of white heat. Brandon shifted back to human form and stepped forward, wanting to be closer to her. He felt her heart skip because his did the same. She didn’t look away from her task, her concentration intense. Brandon flung the crushed carcass of Chen into the flames, certain the old Slayer deserved no less than i
ncineration, and went to her side.

  He and Liz would both put their challenges behind themselves today, then step into their future together.

  He smiled as Liz coaxed the fire to burn higher and hotter yet. It seemed to touch the sky or even become one with the sun. When the pillar of crackling flames was blinding in its heat and intensity, Liz spread her hands and spoke again. She steadily damped the flames until they were embers, glowing red in the sand.

  She cast Brandon a proud smile, and he grinned at her.

  Garrett clapped in approval.

  Liz took a deep breath, and Brandon felt her confidence falter. He realized that she had addressed the elements that were easier for her first. He reached out and took her hand, not certain whether his touch would hamper or help her. She squeezed his fingers once, as if in gratitude, then walked around the pile of embers.

  Was she choosing a cardinal point of the compass? Or just summoning her strength? Brandon wasn’t certain, but he trusted Liz to know what she was doing.

  The mark on her arm, after all, was half-gone. He could see that two of the points of the pentacle that had been emblazoned on her chest were flickering with golden light, too.

  Those must be the elements she had proven herself able to command.

  Brandon glanced back at the Pyr, who still stood frozen in the remnants of Liz’s protective circle with their mates. He didn’t like that they were snared like that, but didn’t want to interfere with Liz’s concentration by asking questions. Maybe only some people could witness the test of a Firedaughter.

  He was glad to be one of them.

  When Liz stood on the opposite side of the embers, she squared her shoulders and gestured with both hands again. Brandon liked that he could watch her make her magic and, once again, he admired the glint of fire in her eyes and sparking off her fingertips.

  This time, Liz’s invocation must have been to the earth, because it rumbled far beneath their feet. There was a flicker of movement in the glowing embers left from the pillar of fire; then an earthquake shook the beach with savage force.

  Brandon saw Liz’s surprise and knew she hadn’t called for this. Was it an aftershock from the earthquake the day before? Chen had created that one—was this the result of instability he had caused, or was the Slayer still clinging to life?

  Brandon shifted shape and plunged his talons into the embers before himself, stirring through them in search of a red salamander.

  In that moment, Liz cried out in dismay. The beach trembled so hard that she fell to her knees and a great fissure opened in the sand. It bisected the circle of embers, some of them falling into the crevasse. Sand poured into the widening gap. Liz gasped as she lost her footing and slipped toward the hole. Brandon abandoned his search and lunged toward her, intent on carrying her to safety.

  No sooner had Brandon caught Liz than pain stabbed suddenly in his gut. He tipped back his head and roared, breathing flames at the sky in his anguish.

  “Brandon! What’s wrong?”

  Brandon lifted his claw away, revealing the current of red blood that flowed from a new wound. It was where the third scale he’d given to Chen had been.

  “Someone has broken that last scale,” Liz said. Brandon nodded agreement, feeling faint with the pain. This one hurt far more than the other two had and left him trembling.

  “It’s just been broken now,” Liz said, looking around in fear. “That means Jorge wants to weaken you before he attacks.”

  There was a resonant crack and the crevasse in the beach gaped wider. Lava bubbled in the fissure, shooting upward in a shower of fiery sparks. It surged toward the surface, rising fast and hot. He heard Liz call to the fire and felt it settle back to a simmer, on the cusp of boiling but not rushing forth.

  “It’s not up to me,” she said, panic in her voice. “I can’t push it all the way back. Something else is driving it.”

  Or someone.

  Brandon glanced back at the Pyr in terror, only to see that they had been freed from the spell. They roared in unison, seizing their mates and children. Brandon saw Sloane take flight, then Niall.

  Had Liz failed her test? Was it over?

  Would she die, like her mother? Brandon couldn’t even think about it.

  He pivoted, dizzy with pain, and reached for Liz.

  But she was gone.

  Neither of them saw Zoë race across the sand, ignoring Eileen’s shout. The little girl snatched up a black scale rimmed with orange, the scale that had fallen from Brandon’s hide just before he spied Chen as a red salamander. Garrett had already been running back into the circle when Zoë bolted. Sara was calling him as frantically as Eileen called to her daughter. Zoë exchanged a glance with Garrett, then put the scale into the pocket of her pink overalls.

  They joined hands and ran together, only to be snatched up by their respective fathers and flown to safety.

  In the moment that Brandon had looked away, Jorge had manifested beside Liz in human form. Now he stood silhouetted against the brilliant blue of the midday sky, his eyes gleaming with intent. He had snatched Liz and held her captive.

  Brandon froze. Although Brandon was in dragon form, there was blood running down his chest and he was shaking from the pain of his wounds. Jorge, in human form, looked lethal and mercenary.

  Brandon was injured but he had the motivation to take the Slayer down.

  Liz kicked Jorge in the groin with vicious force, and he swore. Brandon made to leap forward as Jorge shifted shape in a brilliant shimmer of blue, becoming a golden dragon.

  With a talon at Liz’s throat.

  Brandon didn’t dare move closer. His wings, to Brandon’s dismay, were already growing back. They weren’t as big as they had been, but Jorge’s recovery was still amazing. This was the healing power of the Elixir in action.

  “The old Slayer did me a favor in the end,” Jorge said. “Too bad he didn’t survive to see his handiwork.”

  “What do you mean?” Brandon asked.

  “Chen. Didn’t you know? He had an affinity with the Earth. He could cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Like the one right behind you.”

  Liz began to recount a spell, but Jorge clapped a claw across her mouth, rendering her silent. She struggled against the Slayer, and Brandon wanted to rip Jorge apart—but he couldn’t risk Liz.

  “No incantations,” Jorge hissed, then glared at Brandon. “I want Chen’s body. I’ll trade you for your mate.”

  Brandon wanted to destroy Jorge, but he had to choose his moment to ensure that Liz was safely away from him first. First, he’d feed Jorge’s confidence. Brandon didn’t think it would take much.

  He would also pretend to be much more seriously injured than he was to encourage Jorge to underestimate him. He closed his eyes and let himself waver as if unsteady.

  “You want Chen? I dropped his body right over here,” Brandon said, turning as if to look and keeping his voice weak. “He was in salamander form, not very big.” He fell to his knees and pretended to search through the embers, moving as if he were nearly out of strength.

  Brandon wasn’t going to negotiate with this villain, but he didn’t mind deceiving him. He was thinking furiously about Chen’s affinity to the earth giving him the power to summon earthquakes. Brandon knew he had an affinity to the sea, because he’d used it to summon waves.

  He decided to call up a big one.

  He just needed a bit of time.

  “What do you want it for, anyway?” he asked, pushing aside rubble and rocks as if the effort was too much for him. In reality, he was focused on the sea and on beckoning that big wave. The depths of the ocean were already stirring in response to his summons.

  “The Elixir,” Jorge hissed. “I want more. I need more, but the supply is destroyed. The only source is other Slayers who have drunk of it.”

  “How’s that?” Brandon asked, coaxing the surf closer. He’d never done it so quickly before and was surprised to feel the power of the ocean’s response.

&
nbsp; It would be a tsunami.

  Jorge grinned. “It’s always in the body somewhere. I eat Chen’s corpse and I get the Elixir he consumed. It’s that simple.”

  “I was sure he was right here,” Brandon said, peering at the ground. He heard the water that had been lapping on the beach recede, a sign of a big incoming wave. It was close! Just a minute or two more. He pretended to know less than he did. “What does the Elixir do?”

  “In quantity, it ensures immortality. In smaller doses, it permits faster healing and greater resiliency.” Jorge smiled. The last thing Jorge needed, as far as Brandon was concerned, was more power.

  He turned to the Slayer, though, and raised one claw to his bleeding chest. “You’re kidding. It could heal me?”

  Jorge grinned. “Play it right and I’ll let you have a taste.”

  “Really?” Brandon pretended to be pleased. In reality, he’d heard this line before. He guessed that the Elixir was addictive, and that one taste ensured that a dragon was hooked forever.

  “Here it is!” he exclaimed, as if he’d discovered Chen’s body. The wave was surging closer. Brandon reached down, pretending to pick something up. The wave was roiling toward shore and he felt Liz’s awareness of it. “Let her go,” he said, turning as if he had something in his hand. He deliberately faltered then, feigning weakness from his injury and loss of blood.

  “Give it to me first!” Jorge demanded as he stepped forward.

  Brandon coughed.

  “Give it to me!” Jorge leapt closer, impatient.

  Brandon attacked fast, taking the Slayer by surprise. He decked the golden dragon, breathed fire, and seized Liz. He tripped Jorge, shoving him toward the crevasse filled with bubbling lava, then leapt into the air.

  “Liar!” Jorge might have given chase, but he didn’t have the chance.

  Liz called to the fire, the words of her spell incomprehensible to Brandon but her meaning clear. The lava seethed and boiled, spilling forward with new vigor. It burst toward Jorge in a torrent of flame.