Objectively, he was handsome no matter how you cut it: tall, with lean muscles that rippled beneath smooth olive-toned skin. His shoulder-length wavy hair was a deep, rich espresso that matched his eyes. He had the kind of chiseled jaw and dimpled chin that male models would kill for and a patrician's nose that had been broken at some point, leaving it at an angle that somehow made him more attractive.
On the other hand, his arrogant, sex-filled demeanor was— for me, at least— hugely unattractive. But he could be a good friend to have, even if he could be a perverted creep sometimes.
He stood and put his bowl in the sink. To the living room where Lexie sat, he said, “We cooked, so you can clean.” Jack left to go shower.
She scoffed and turned up the volume on her TV show.
Now that it was cool enough, I downed my whole bowl and stood to go get seconds. I might as well clean up while I'm at it.
I stopped seconds later, fork in hand. Something didn't feel right. “Lexie.”
“Hmm?”
“Mute the TV.” I looked around out the window, but didn't see anything.
“What?”
Impatient, I snapped my fingers at her. I didn't want to talk. We needed quiet.
She gave me a confused look, but did as I asked.
A few seconds passed in silence.
“What?” she asked, looking around like I was going crazy.
I stepped onto the front porch and peered up and down the beach. There wasn't a soul in sight. It wasn't very late and there were always at least one or two nighttime parties or teenagers trying to drink under the cover of darkness.
But it was empty. A knot formed in my stomach. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but there were people trying to kill me. I had reason to be.
Lexie followed me out. “What?”
“Something isn't right.” My hand reached for the hilt of my sword, but didn't draw it yet. “Get Jack.”
She hurried to the backyard to retrieve him from his shower. I stayed where I was to keep an eye out.
Lexie's scream from the yard brought me tearing through the house to reach them.
Jack stood stark naked and sudsy in a choke hold from a woman with hair that danced in the wind like tendrils of flame. Lexie was pinned to the side of the house by an elongated throwing dagger through the back of her shoulder. She struggled, but couldn't reach the blade with her free hand to remove it.
“Where is it before I roast your meat?” the woman growled into his ear.
Jack said nothing aloud, but the fear and rage in his eyes were telling us to run.
I jerked her blade free from Lexie's body and kept it in my hand. “Who the hell are you?”
The woman barely seemed to notice me as she wrung the life out of Jack, tightening and loosening her arm to keep him on the edge of consciousness.
I threw her dagger back at her, accidentally hitting Jack in the shoulder.
It worked, though, and her eyes darted up to me. “Stay out of this, whores. This doesn't concern you.”
“Whore?” Lexie shouted, rubbing the oozing hole left behind by the dagger.
“Who are you?” I demanded, getting ready to draw my sword.
“Angry.” She raised a hand in our direction.
Lexie and I scattered in opposite directions as the house behind us was immediately engulfed in flames.
“Hey!” Lexie shouted. “That's our house!”
“Leave.” The woman hissed, her voice just barely audible over the crackling and roaring of the house fire. “Or you're next.”
My whole body prickled with icy awareness and trepidation. My inner lizard brain wanted to run away as fast as I could, but she had Jack and I had the suspicion that she was standing near the front of the line of people who wanted to kill him. “I'm afraid I can't do that.” I drew my sword. “Let him go.”
It didn't matter that this lady could probably wipe the floor with me. We couldn't let her take Jack.
“Only,” he croaked. “Only fire.”
A spark of madness flitted through her face and she tightened her hold on his neck until he was gasping desperately.
The woman paused for a moment and looked Lexie and I over carefully. Her eyes stopped at my bracelet and lit up with interest. “You're that Stone Mage Octavius wants.” She snapped Jack's neck and let his body drop limply to the ground. Now that she wasn't behind Jack, I could see more than just her face. She had the figure of an exaggerated hourglass that was encased in a black, skin-tight, leather mini-dress with slits that rose all the way up to her hips and an intricate series of straps that crisscrossed her torso. “Come with me.”
“Bullshit,” Lexie retorted, circling the woman without getting too close. She had pulled out a folding knife from her pocket.
The woman sneered with the kind of condescension I hadn't seen since high school. “And you must be the walking carcass that follows her around.”
Lexie's expression said the woman had struck a nerve. She squeezed the knife and looked like she was contemplating attacking.
“Lexie,” I warned. Something told me a direct attack on this woman would be exactly what she wanted.
There was a hint of a smile on her cherry lips. “Don't get your corpse juice near me, you disgusting thing.”
And that was it. Lexie rushed her and in a flash, was on the ground with that knife embedded in her neck and a rapier-like sword buried all the way to the hilt in her abdomen, pinning her in place. Lexie threw aside the knife in her throat and struggled to pull the blade out to no avail. She was stuck. She tried to say something to me, but her voice was nothing more than a quiet, airy rasp.
“Now it's just us,” she purred, striding forward in her thigh-high black stiletto boots that somehow didn't sink into the sand. “Unus was a dear, dear friend of mine, you know.” She stroked a hand from her breasts down to her thighs.
“I wouldn't brag about that if I were you.” With each step she took forward, I took one back. “People might think you were easy.”
One of her eyes twitched and the flames that were only on the house spread to encircle us in a wall of fire. She formed a spinning orb of fire the size of a basketball in her hand and flung it straight at me.
I blocked it with a wall of air and was temporarily blinded by the brightness as it broke apart in front of me.
She took advantage of my brief disability and sent another, smaller one to my feet.
The flames caught on my shoes and tried to creep up my legs. For a moment, the burning sent me into a mindless panic, but I broke through my fear and used water from the still-on shower to douse it. The water was nearly boiling from the burning house, so it was searing on my burned ankles.
I held up my sword and kept my eyes on her. She was bare-handed, so she didn't get too close. But she could throw fireballs. She didn't have to.
More flames appeared in her right hand. They dripped from her palm down to the ground in one continuous rope that formed a long, spiral shape on the sand. She twirled it above her head like a whip with the kind of dark smile on her pouty lips I imagined a psychotic murder clown would wear.
I backed away, gaining as much distance as the ring of fire allowed me.
She lashed it out at me.
With my back against the wall, I held up my sword to block it.
The flaming whip wrapped around the blade and held on. Now that she had it trapped, the woman didn't try to pull my sword away. She only stood there on the other end, maintaining just enough pressure on it to keep the line taught.
For nearly a minute, we stood there, deadlocked. Until I realized what she was up to when the hilt of my sword started getting hot.
I held on to it as long as I could, trying to pull it free. But in seconds, it became too hot to hold and I had to release it.
She tugged at the line and my sword went flying beyond the edge of the wall. She strode toward me, rolling her hips languidly as her burning whip twitched behind her like a cat's tail.
In her
free hand, she formed another fireball. Why was she using another fireball? Surely, if this mystery woman was strong enough to catch Jack unawares, she had to have more tricks up her sleeve.
Except what Jack had said was niggling in the back of my mind. While she had been choking the life out of him, he had felt it important enough to choke out the words “only fire” to me.
Maybe fire was the only thing she could do. If this was her genus magic, she would have to run out of it eventually.
And no matter how much of it she had, I had more. All I had to do was survive until she ran out, then I could get her.
“But on the other hand,” I said. “You might as well have 'skankosaurus rex' tattooed on your forehead.”
She looked confused, but kept walking toward me.
“Was that too obscure for you?” I asked as patronizingly as I could, given that I was shaking in my scorched sneakers. “How about I just call you a slut then, as well as dumber than a box of rocks?”
The flames behind me swelled and she lashed out low with that whip, trying to catch me around the legs.
“You'll be sorry for that,” she roared.
I jumped over the rope.
“On second thought, that'd be an insult to rocks.” I tried to laugh, though the sound was weak and it wasn't just the quivering in my stomach causing it. All that fire was consuming the oxygen. I could bring in fresh air, but that might backfire and end up making it bigger. I would just have to try to keep my movement and talking to a minimum.
She screamed, the sound oddly reminiscent of a small child's tantrum. The flames all around swelled even more, becoming thicker as well as taller. The space inside was now no bigger than a boxing ring. I was going to have a hard time dodging that whip again.
“I was just going to turn you over, but now I'm going to get some revenge first.” Her brown eyes nearly glowed with rage. It would just take a little bit more and she would go over the edge into crazy town.
“Yeah right!” I scoffed. “I've killed worse than the likes of a dumb, ugly slut like you. What look are you going for with that getup? The D-list Jessica Rabbit bondage porn parody? Because if so, it's working!”
That did it. I sent up a prayer to whoever was listening to not let this bite me in the ass. She'd already killed Jack. If she killed me, that was it. I was dead.
She raised her arms slowly with her palms open and fingers curled like claws. With each inch she raised them, the flames around us encroached even further until she was completely engulfed and they were only a foot from me on all sides.
The heat was scalding and I couldn't breathe at all now. The flames came even closer, licking my skin with searing, fleeting tongues.
What the hell was I going to do now? I was counting on her running out of magic and she wasn't!
Just as my vision was going dark on the edges, the flames halted their advance. They didn't abate, but didn't grow either. With the last of my sight, I spied that they were getting shorter and I no longer saw the house fire.
She was running out. She must be sacrificing all her flames except what was immediately surrounding me to keep me burning.
I was willing to bet that the ring wasn't so thick anymore, either. I was willing because I had to.
I closed my eyes and ran blindly on my unsteady legs into the fire. Everything burned beyond what the word pain could define, but I pushed through and within a few more steps was enveloped by cool night air.
Dropping into the sand, I rolled around frantically until I was extinguished. Focusing my healing magic into my skin with all my might, I felt the tingling warmth of regeneration and within moments was fully healed.
I stood and locked eyes with the mystery woman. She now stood barren of her flames and knives. Shock, indignation, humiliation, and absolute fury were written all over her face but she did nothing.
A smile crept across my face as I realized I now had the upper hand.
She was standing too near Lexie and Jack for me to do anything big, but I could still hurt her.
I picked my sword up off the ground where it had landed near me.
She pulled the knife out of Jack's shoulder, causing him to wake up. At least he wasn't actually dead.
She threw that knife at me.
I tried to dodge it, but it grazed my cheek and hit the fence somewhere behind me.
She smiled like she'd won and whistled. The knife flew back to her hand, nicking my leg as it passed. “I'll be back for you.” With that, she pulled the sword out of Lexie's stomach and popped something in her mouth.
She disappeared like a mirage.
9
As soon as she was gone, I rushed across the yard to help Lexie and Jack. Those flames had been so hot that I could feel the heat through my shoes.
Lexie was sitting up. “Ouch. That stings.”
Jack was lying back in the sand, one hand on his bleeding shoulder and the other kneading his neck.
I stabbed my hand and gave it to Lexie. To Jack, I asked, “Are you alright?”
“I am well enough.” He sounded exhausted. And naked. Very naked. “She snapped my neck.”
Reaching around, I grabbed the singed remnants of his towel and draped it politely over his lap while keeping my eyes averted. “Did you die?”
“Not to the extent where I would have needed your revival,” he answered as he adjusted it. “I will only need your help for decapitation. Anything else I can heal from on my own.”
“Good to know.” I'd still been in mortal danger, but it was nice to know where the line was. “You'll have to teach me how to do that.”
He shrugged, then winced. He'd used the wrong shoulder. I nudged his hand away and used the last of my healing magic to fix it. “It is easy. You simply reach me through the bonded stones. For us, it is the fire stones. From there, you give me magic.”
That was like telling me to extrapolate an equation. I would probably figure it out when I had to cross that bridge, just like I'd gotten everything else. He'd told me the steps, but it was Greek to me until I needed to do it.
I nodded my head.
“Out of healing?” he asked, to which I nodded again. “Also learn to prioritize injuries.”
Whoops. Yeah, a broken neck beats a stabbed shoulder. “Sorry.”
“Do not apologize,” he used the bloody shoulder hand to pat my leg. My very bare leg. “You are learning yet.”
I looked down to see most of my clothes had burned off. My denim shorts were now a few inches higher and covered in holes and my shirt was mostly gone, but I had my sports bra. All the important bits were covered.
“Who the hell was that?” Lexie asked, punching Jack in the thigh now that her torso and hands were back in one piece.
“Careful!” he snapped. “One wrong move and my spinal cord cou—” He went still.
“Oh,” she said. “Oops.”
I sighed, reveling in the fresh sea air that didn't sear my lungs. “What do we do now?”
Lexie and I were sitting in the backyard. The house was nothing but ashes and cinder. The car was still there, but the keys were in the house. I really needed to learn how to hot-wire a car. Not that we could go anywhere without glamours and wards because of all the people trying to kill us. But we couldn't stay here because one of them clearly knew where we were.
Lexie held up her hands. “I'm out.”
Out of nowhere, the so-not-funny hilarity of our situation hit me and I laughed.
She looked at me like I had lost it. Finally, she asked, “What are you laughing at?”
“Everything.” I threw my hands up and gestured to the smoldering ruins around us. “Everything is funny, Lexie.”
“You're gonna have to explain that one to me, Constance.”
“This is the second time my house has burned down in one year. I can't even count anymore how many times someone has tried to kill me, but this is the first time that I've been burned alive. My friend here is dead again and you just had three giant holes stabbed i
n you.” Tears started to roll down my cheeks. The laughter became choked and died off. “And my mom is dead! My life is fucking hilarious right now!”
Her ash-smeared face turned grim. She stood and came over to sit with me on the other side of Jack. “At least we have each other.”
I started sobbing again.
“So we should probably move, right?” she asked, patting my bleeding hand. I hadn't had enough magic to heal it, so it would take hours to mend on its own. “If only to be a moving target.”
I nodded and started to regain my composure. “We can hide out with a crowd of humans. Find the most populated area we can and stay there. She wouldn't attack in public.” Probably not. It was better than sitting out in the open in a private area.
She looked to the jeep. “We should really learn how to steal cars.”
I laughed again. “I was just thinking that.”
That made her laugh. “Let's go dig through the rubble. Maybe we can find the keys where his room used to be.”
“Good idea.” I stood and followed her into the remains of the house.
It didn't take nearly as long as we thought. After we'd pulled away the charred rafters and debris from the ceiling, a small keyring was lying on the floor near where a dresser had been. It was covered in some kind of hardened goo that I assumed was melted plastic, but the metal of the keys were still intact and didn't seem warped.
His wallet, however, was completely destroyed. The only way we knew we'd found it was because of his metal money clip. Lexie and I had no cash, no credit, and no access to a bank account. We were as broke as broke got.
The seats on the jeep were burned in spots and the whole thing was covered in soot, but the engine started just fine. Lexie and I together managed to haul Jack into the jeep and laid him out on the backseat. His legs stuck out from the knees down on the passenger side, but there wasn't anything we could do about that but drive really carefully. Healing from a broken neck was one thing, but losing his legs would keep him out of commission for a lot longer. Not to mention how much that would hurt.
Lexie ran back to grab his towel and tuck it in around his lap. She opened up the back gate for us to drive out. She climbed back in, not bothering to close the gate. But why should she? There was nothing left here.
Tresia (Stone Mage Saga Book 3) Page 7
