Of Flame and Promise

by Cecy Robson

  “We’re close,” Gem slurred, dragging out his next few words. “We can feel them.”

  My body shuddered with cold, every emotion raking down to my core. “You’re not going to make it, love. Not if he goes.”

  “None of us will make it if he doesn’t. Go,” he whispered, his breaths so shallow they were barely visible in the cold air.

  The wolf met my eyes briefly before he limped across the clearing and back into the forest. As he disappeared, I watched my lover fade into darkness.

  Some women could cry, and cry, and cry, allowing those around them to coddle them and surround them with their strength while they did nothing more than unleash their grief. Sure, there were moments when they should: a death, a fatal diagnosis, a severe illness, or uncontrollable pain.

  But I didn’t have the luxury of tears, or the help of others. Instead of crying like I would’ve preferred, and hating myself for it later, I acted.

  I kissed Gem’s shoulder and motioned his father closer. “Stay with him; keep him warm with your body. I’ll gather wood to start a fire.” To his mother I said, “Guard them—I won’t be long.”

  Momma stopped pacing, appearing to frown.

  “No fire, Taran. The Tribe will find us,” Pop insisted.

  “Our friends will find us dead if I don’t.” I motioned to Gem. “Just do what I ask. Please.”

  His eyes widened at my desperation, and he exchanged glances with his wolf wife before crawling forward and huddling around his son. “Branches are too wet or too green,” he muttered. “They won’t burn.”

  I rose, my numbing feet throbbing with each step. “I’ll make them burn,” I assured him.

  Flames sizzled above my head, their intensity so fierce I barely heard the howl of the increasing wind over their hiss. It wasn’t intentional. I hadn’t called forth that power. I was simply that livid. I wouldn’t go down like this—in the woods, barefoot, half-naked—especially this close to salvation.

  And neither would Gemini.

  I stomped my feet, forcing fire to engulf my soles and ribbon my legs and thighs. I lifted my arms out. With a swoosh, my hands and forearms followed in a blaze of light.

  Warmth wound along my extended limbs, reminding me just how cold the rest of me was. I shuddered and moved forward, my aching bones creaking in protest.

  “Shut up,” I told them. “You’re acting like a bunch of bitches.” I cringed when Pop abruptly stopped speaking. I glanced over my shoulder, only to meet Gem’s parents’ stunned faces. “Not you. I meant my bones—bones.” With a defeated sigh I plowed forward. Would I ever get anything right with them?

  Snow melted beneath my feet with each step I managed, my frustration burning an imprint down to the soil. I wasn’t stupid. I knew I was all but mapping out our location. But Gem couldn’t wait in the cold, not in his condition.

  I shook out the flames in my hands as I neared the long stretch of trees and reached for what I thought was a branch buried in the snow. FYI, it was a root. And FYI, I landed on my ass again.

  I had to surround myself in flame just to warm up again before I caught sight of a chunk of log. It wasn’t that big, but it would hopefully hold us over. I dragged it along the ground, my face scrunching from the splintering wood digging into my skin, yelling and of course swearing in the process. Thankfully, the only attention it drew was Momma’s. She bounded over the snow and raced to my side, lifting the piece in her powerful jaws with the same effort most would lift an empty box. I nodded. “Okay, girl, remind me never to piss you off.” It was a stupid thing to say, considering I’d flung her down a mountain.

  I couldn’t be sure, but she might have grinned. She didn’t wait for me, though, and trotted off with the large chunk of wood in her mouth. My gifts included the ability to strut in four-inch platforms across a layer of gravel. But this wasn’t gravel, and my feet were bare. I stumbled, cursed some more, and wobbled my way back to them. I didn’t think I’d wandered far, but it seemed far just then.

  In the time it took me to return, Momma Hamamatsu had dug out a small circle in the dirt and dropped the log dead center. Gemini lay unmoving, with his father’s small body trembling uncontrollably as he curled against his son. My need to warm them and the emotion the scene evoked made me careless. I concentrated my power into my palm and flung a softball-sized sphere at the log…which grew in size with each rotation.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  Momma soared across the space between the log and her family, shielding them with her massive body as my flaming ball struck the log in an angry burst. The log fired, spitting flames and roaring in a scorching F-you blaze.

  I jetted toward them, falling more than once. Momma’s eyes narrowed as I batted out her fur with my hands, withdrawing the blue and white tendrils with each strike. “God, I’m, like, so sorry.”

  She sneezed, likely because of all the singed fur drifting in the air as my hands continued to slap mercilessly against her hide. I coughed and gagged when some strands tickled the back of my throat. “Damnit. This shit’s everywhere.”

  Believe it or not, it was more of a jab at me for my carelessness than anything directed at Gem’s mother. Of course Momma didn’t take it that way, her dark wolf eyes regarding me as if she’d like nothing more than to rip out my throat and roast my ass for breakfast.

  Gem’s father poked his head out from her other side when the flames dwindled down to a respectable fire. He looked from me to the hairless patches of skin spreading along his mate’s body. I petted a particularly large bald spot. “I’m sure it’ll grow back.” Maybe. My fire generally had a freaky effect on preternaturals.

  My shoulders slumped more the longer they scrutinized me. If so much as a toe had stepped onto the Taran Bandwagon, I’m sure that toe had leapt off so their bodies could moon me as the wagon sped off. “Sorry?” I offered.

  Gem’s dad deepened his scowl. “Tomo needs food.”

  Momma rose slowly and shook off more damaged fur. Girlfriend wasn’t looking so hot, but her son was much worse. I gathered him to me, trying to keep his body warm with mine.

  Momma sat on her hind legs and closed her eyes, her large nose flaring until something caught her attention and she took off into the brush. I waited for her to disappear before speaking, careful to take in our surroundings. “Why don’t you sleep?” I told Pop. “I’ll stand guard.”

  He seemed to hesitate. My hand passed along Gemini’s spine. “I’ve slept. You haven’t,” I pointed out.

  “The magic you drew was powerful.”

  I shrugged. “I s’pose.”

  His face tightened. “You’re not weak?”

  He wasn’t were, but something in the way he carried himself told me he could sense a lie as easily as his wife could. This man had experienced a lot in his life. “I am a little weak still. What helps me most is sleep, which your son made sure I had.” I pressed a kiss on Gem’s bare shoulder. “I can fight if I need to. And I will. I swear it.”

  That much I meant. My protective instincts and will to survive were officially in overdrive. If anything was stupid enough to approach us then, I’d likely set this whole forest aflame.

  My response seemed to satisfy him. Pop staggered to his feet, hugging his body, and shuffled closer to the fire. Gem squirmed beneath my touch, struggling to inch closer. My lips found his, and my thumb brushed over the skin beside his ear. He couldn’t see how bad he looked, but I’m sure he felt it. “Do you want me to adjust your position?” I asked.

  “No. The heat feels good on my back.”

  He sounded so weak, and it scared me. “What’s happening to you?”

  It seemed to hurt him to speak, but it also seemed like he needed to tell me. “The bullets have gold in them.”

  My lips parted. “But the shells were silver.”

  He kept his eyes closed, but continued to speak. “They were encased in silver, but I can feel the gold within them.” He swallowed hard. “The silver alloy protects the fragments of gold, fool
ing my body into healing around them.”

  My eyes widened. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. “Gem, I need you to be honest with me….How many times were you shot?”

  His head lolled to the side. “At least six. Maybe more.”

  Tears blurred my vision as it became clear what was happening. His healing abilities had betrayed him and cocooned the gold within his body. Had all the bullets been all gold, they’d burn the tissue around them, preventing it from fully healing, all the while poisoning his bloodstream. But those would be easy to locate. Aric had once been shot full of gold, and had pushed the bullets out through his skin with a screwdriver.

  I tried not to think what awaited Gemini if help didn’t arrive soon. These bullets within him might have been cheaper than actual cursed gold, but they were effective. I couldn’t push or burn them out. I couldn’t do anything with his body trapping and hiding them from us.

  I took a few breaths to steady my mounting fury and keep my power in check. “They’ll have to be dug out, won’t they?”

  I thought he’d fallen asleep until he answered. “Yes.”

  “And your heart?”

  “The bullet detonated part of my heart, but that’s a good thing,” he slurred.

  “You have to be kidding me.”

  “The fragments spread along my chest when it exploded,” he said, his words slow and hard to understand, “away from what remained of my heart, allowing my other wolf to heal the part that was spared….Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it.”

  It was great news in a way. Yet as I pictured fragments of metal scattered along his chest cavity, let’s just say the nurse in me was grateful to be horizontal at that moment. “You need Emme,” I said quietly.

  “No. Emme’s power will further encase the bullets within me.” He lifted his heavy eyelids. “I need Shayna. She’ll be able to sense where the metal is. Either she or Celia could dig them out. My brothers won’t be able to without feeling the effects.”

  “Celia will do it. Her hands are steady and she can disconnect and focus better than the others.”

  I didn’t need to add that Shayna and Emme were more emotional. Or that I was, too, when it came to my wolf. I sniffled a little. There was a reason Celia was our rock. Although she felt very deeply, when we needed her strength, it never faltered. “She’ll make it right,” I promised.

  Chapter 17

  I spent the remainder of the day feeding Gem chunks of ice, in addition to pieces of rabbit, squirrel, and something that resembled a possum. Momma had hooked us up big-time. I ate, mostly to keep my strength up, and not because I felt like eating.

  Around noon Gem told us his twin was close to finding our friends. I didn’t remind him that he’d said the same thing at the crack of dawn. He knew as much, and my complaining wouldn’t help him. I hoped the nourishment he received would help him rise so we could trek our way through the forest and closer to civilization, but without his other wolf, he could barely harness enough energy to eat.

  Close to dusk, something riled Momma’s wolf. She leapt to her feet, her spine and tail so stiff Pop and I scrambled to stand, expecting the worst. Lightning zapped from my fingertips, sending the fine hairs on my arms to stand on end. My nerves were so on edge, sparks scattered along the frozen earth.

  I waited. And I was glad I did. Through the stretch of dense vegetation and darkness, I caught my first view of big Jersey hair. “Here!” Celia called behind her. “I found them.”

  Celia shot forward, her tigress eyes flashing briefly in the fire’s glow. I almost broke down when she snatched me in her arms, but her embrace wasn’t what I needed. She realized as much before I could break free and fell to Gemini’s side, dropping the pack she carried beside him.

  She nudged his shoulder carefully. “Gem, can you hear me?” She glanced up when he failed to answer. “How long has he been unconscious?”

  My voice shook. “I don’t know—a few hours. He was in and out, but then he just seemed to fade.”

  She unzipped her pack and fumbled through the contents. “I have clothes.”

  “I’ll do it,” I snapped. I didn’t mean to react the way I did, and I’m not sure where the response came from. Thankfully, Celia didn’t appear to take offense. Without so much as blinking, she passed me a thick pair of sweatpants. “Sorry. I’m tired…and angry…and-and…” I tripped over my last few words.

  When she squeezed my shoulder, I thought I would lose it. “It’s okay. It’s a mate thing,” she said quietly.

  It was as if she’d slapped me across the face with a chunk of bear liver. “What?” I dragged the pants along his legs, struggling against their dead weight.

  Celia met me with kindness. “Your need to protect your mate is overtaking your reason,” she said. “Remember how crazy Koda acted if anyone approached Shayna after she was hurt?”

  “Crazy” was putting it lightly. I’d considered slapping a muzzle on him.

  “I don’t mean to be a prick,” I admitted.

  Celia turned from passing Pop a garbage bag stuffed to the brim with what appeared to be more clothes. Despite the fire, we were freezing our asses off. Yet Pop’s hands stopped in the process of tearing open the bag to scowl at me.

  “I meant no offense to your manhood,” I added apologetically.

  Celia grimaced, making it clear it was time to stop talking. She motioned to Gem. “Are you okay if I put socks on his feet?”

  I had built up a sweat just hauling the waistband up to his thighs. It was nuts—and I didn’t want to admit it—but it was like Celia said: I couldn’t handle another female touching him.

  Don’t be an asshole, I told myself.

  At my nod, she hurried to slip his socks on. She’d only managed one when Koda, Liam, Emme, and Shayna arrived. They swept in like smoke. Relief should have flooded my system. Instead, all I could do was gasp.

  Koda carried Gemini’s twin draped across his shoulders. The large wolf was limp, his tongue lolling over his opened mouth. Celia seized me around the waist, clamping my wrists with her hands. “Taran, don’t. It’s okay, Taran. It’s okay.”

  No. It wasn’t.

  I fought her hold, my body trembling, needing to erupt in flame.

  Liam quickly lowered Emme to the ground, racing toward us. “Celia, get away from her!”

  Shayna and Emme approached slowly with their hands out. “Don’t do it, Taran,” Emme urged. “Please calm down, honey.”

  “T, pull back your power,” Shayna pleaded. “Please. You’ll hurt Celia.”

  I grunted, the need to lash out pumping liquid fire through my veins. Celia held tight, her voice surprisingly steady. “She’s okay, aren’t you, Taran?”

  I bowed my head, biting through the pain stabbing down to my gut. “Is he dead?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “No,” Celia answered. “But he needs to merge with his other half. Let him, okay?”

  She released me, following my half-assed nod.

  Koda carefully lay the twin wolf beside his human half, but kept a watchful eye on me, pulling Shayna far from my reach. He perceived me as volatile, unstable, and maybe more.

  His perception was dead-on.

  “Go to him,” Celia whispered.

  I more or less moved to his side out of instinct, dread locking me in a haze. I collapsed near his head, where I could touch both wolf and man. Where Gem’s breaths were barely visible, his wolf’s seemed completely absent.

  My fingers clutched the wolf’s fur. I didn’t believe he was alive, not then, until I caught the barest twitch of his nose. He blinked up at me with dead eyes yet managed to thump his tail when his gaze met mine.

  “He likes me,” I stammered. It was such an asinine thing to say, but it slipped out anyway, and caused my eyes to tear.

  Celia’s hand stroked my back. “No. He loves you, Taran.”

  My vision clouded with tears as my hand gently skimmed along his soft fur. “Time to go home,” I told him. “He needs you, and
I need you with him.”

  At my words, the wolf lifted his head, shimmying closer to Gemini. Ordinarily the union was a scene of beauty and awe. It wasn’t beautiful then. Gem curled inward as his beast tried to push his way back inside him. Instead of accepting the unity, both seemed to fight it, Gem tensing and snarling in pain and his wolf whimpering and writhing.

  I understood what was happening. But that didn’t mean I liked it.

  I snatched Emme’s wrist when she extended her hands toward his shoulder. “Don’t touch him.”

  “He needs help healing, Taran,” Koda growled.

  I understood his need to protect his friend. But Koda needed to stifle those growls. “There are bullets buried inside of him with gold at their centers,” I snapped. “If she tries to heal him, they’ll embed deeper into his tissue, muscles, and organs.”

  Koda tightened his stance. “How many bullets are we talking about?”

  I watched the wolf collapse once more, certain I’d lose what remained of my sanity. “At least six, plus shards of metal in his chest cavity.”

  “Oh, hell,” Liam said. He lifted Emme up and away from Gemini. “No wonder he’s so sick.”

  Celia withdrew slightly, and passed a thermos to Gem’s dad. “It also explains why it’s hurting his wolf to merge them.”

  “He needs to, though,” Koda said. This time he kept his voice soft. “Gem will be stronger with him than without.”

  I continued to stroke Gem’s twin as my eyes swam in a pool of my tears. “His heart was blown out. His twin healed him, but the shards are close to the regenerated muscle. We need to get these bullets out fast.” I faced Celia, whose soul seemed to shatter in front of me. Yeah. Join the club, sister. “Will you do it?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “Of course. We’re about ten miles from the house. It will take us about half an hour to reach safety.”

  I passed my hand along the wolf’s face. “Did you hear that? Thirty minutes. No more waiting. You need to get this done.”

  Once more he lifted his head. He shuffled his body along the frozen ground until his nose was an inch from Gem’s back. With a deafening crunch and a heart-wrenching howl, Gem and his twin were whole once more.