Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters)

by Rebecca K. Lilley

  I grinned back at him. He didn’t notice my hands trembled slightly as I set down my glass. “I’m sure you can contain yourself. But it is interesting timing, to say the least. I wonder if they are trying to ally themselves with the druids.”

  “I’m not too worried about that. Dragons are a savage, violent lot. They think they’re gods, above all laws. And druids live and breath to keep the peace. Those monsters won’t respect druid law. They may want something from the druids, but mark my words, they won’t hold up their end of the bargain.”

  “I’ve heard that about them.”

  “Oh, yeah. As an extra precaution for their visit to town, I had a friend of mine install a new toy he’s been working on. You probably didn’t notice it, but as you step through the front door, you get scanned now.” He smiled smugly, very pleased with himself.

  “Scanned for what?” I raised a brow, sipping my wheat-grass concoction.

  “It’s a dragon detector.” I nearly choked on my drink. “It scans anyone who walks through the door. If a dragon ever tries to come in, it’ll alert me with a siren that will bring the house down, and set off a very impressive caging mechanism.” He sighed heavily. “Wishful thinking really, one of them coming to me. But a man can dream.”

  My eyes were saucers as I spoke. “Sounds pretty dubious to me. I think you should get your money back.”

  He looked crestfallen. “Yeah?”

  I nodded. “Sounds like you need a bullshit detector more than a dragon detector to me.”

  He smiled sardonically. “Well, I didn’t say he was a good friend. C’est la vie, right?”

  “So when does the necro roast happen? And how can I get in on it?” I changed the subject to something we would both undoubtedly enjoy more.

  “Man! I wish you could. They haven’t given me a time. Everything is still up in the air, I think.” He gave me a serious look. “You gonna pay Dom a visit? I bet if you ask him nicely, he’ll keep you off those rosters.”

  I cringed, and ran a hand down my face. “I don’t know. It’s a bad idea, for all kinds of reasons, but it’s starting to look like a lesser evil.”

  He whistled softly. “What I’d pay to be a fly on that wall.”

  I felt sick to my stomach at even the thought of that meeting. I couldn’t decide whether to put it off or just get it over with. For today, at least, I was definitely putting it off. On the other hand, I was gonna be bruised up and crippled until then.

  I suddenly noticed the time on the microwave clock across the room. “Ack, I’m gonna be late for my other client.” I got up and went to gather my things. Christian walked me to the door, saying, “Call me if you need anything. Sounds like you might.”

  “I’ll do that. Oh, Lynn told me to say hi.”

  “Hi.”

  “You guys meeting for lunch this week?”

  “Maybe. Probably,” he said cryptically.

  “Ok, then, I will maybe probably join you. We won’t be working the shop for awhile, so my schedule is suddenly wide open.” I shielded up, stuck my tongue out at him, and walked out the door.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Geas

  My next appointment was in Summerlin, which was easily a forty-five minute drive away. I had twenty-five to get there. I liked to be punctual, so the entire drive was a teeth-gnashing affair.

  This client was also one of the few that I enjoyed training, though she and Christian couldn’t be more dissimilar.

  She was a stay-at-home mom in her forties who had a compulsive eating problem. Her rich husband had left her for an eighteen-year-old several years ago, and she had proceeded to eat her way to over four hundred pounds.

  At the start of our sessions a few years ago, I had started her out with the conventional methods of weight loss. I had soon learned that her need to eat when she got emotional far outweighed any discipline she may have possessed.

  She was a sweet woman, and I grew to like her quickly, so it wasn’t long before I resorted to a more unconventional approach. I put a very minor enchantment on her. It wasn’t much, really. But every time she reached for food for any reason but simple hunger, she felt a sudden and overwhelming urge to go outside and play soccer with her kids. I had to tweak the enchantment slightly, when I realized she was dragging her two boys out of bed at three a.m to play outside. After that, though, it worked like the charm that it was.

  Under my very specialized training regime, Sharon had lost over two hundred and fifty pounds and was approaching the best shape of her life.

  I was only five minutes late to her house, but no one answered my first couple of rings. I was considering leaving, assuming she’d forgotten the appointment, when a harried looking Sharon answered the door. She didn’t look at me once as she ushered me in. I thought that was a little odd, but I followed her to her home gym.

  I set her to work warming up, and she followed my orders. She still hadn’t said a word. “Everything all right?” I finally asked her. She was stretching, and I automatically corrected her posture.

  She hunched her shoulders in a shrug. “Yeah, just had a bad morning.”

  As the workout progressed, her mood didn’t change. She seemed preoccupied, almost frightened. The warning signs were all there, but I didn’t see the trap I’d sprung until four druids walked through the door.

  “Jillian.” Collin inclined his head to me as he entered the room. Three druids I didn’t know flanked him. “I had a hunch it would be you.” Collin was my infamous Ex’s cousin, and one of his closest friends. He was also one of the few druids I had been on friendlier terms with before the big falling out. He had the raven black hair and striking blue eyes that were prominent in his family. He also had the classically handsome, aristocratic features that were common to his bloodline. And he was tall, as most druids were, towering well over six feet. His build, however, was unusual in that he was almost too slender, a trait that the other men in his family did not share. His brother, Cam, was one of the biggest men I knew, with forearms easily the size of my waist. Dom fell somewhere in the middle, build-wise, but I thought he was closer to Cam’s bulky physique than Collin’s almost frail one. Collin’s posture, however, was proud and elegant, which reminded me rather painfully of Dom.

  “Sharon, out,” one of the druids ordered. He was a sandy haired brute that I didn’t recognize. She didn’t look at me once as she jogged from the room. I felt the familiar and bitter sting of betrayal.

  I had been going over Sharon’s food journal and had it clutched in my hand. I set it down slowly, tensing for a fight.

  “I have to admit,” I began, “I wasn’t expecting to see more of you again so soon.”

  Collin froze, looking more than a little surprised. “More of us?” he asked, his tone deceptively casual. “You’ll have to tell me all about that. Who else have you seen?”

  “Why are you here?” I shot back.

  He spread his slender hands in a gesture of peace. “Not for the reason you seem to think. I just want to talk.”

  I looked at him warily. “How’d you find me here?”

  He waved a hand at the druid that had ordered Sharon out. “Walt here has been dating Sharon for the last few months. He noticed that she had an enchantment placed on her. He came to me for help to decipher just what it was. When I perceived the nature of the enchantment, I asked her to describe her personal trainer. The description sounded uncannily familiar.” Apparently our luck had run out a few times over.

  Collin continued. “I couldn’t let an unregistered Other go unchecked. So here we are. How have you been, Jillian?” He sounded genuinely interested in the answer. Collin had always been one of the more amiable, easygoing druids. His affable manner had always made him a sharp contrast to his cousin, Dom, and especially his own brother, Cam. I supposed I was lucky it was Collin, and not Cam, who I was facing now. Collin, unlike the three men behind him, who were looking at me with loathing, seemed to wish me no ill will. Of course, I wouldn’t count on that. “Why don’t we go
have a seat in the other room and talk?” he asked.

  I nodded agreement. “You first.” I followed them into the somewhat gaudy dinning room. Sharon had a Vegas sense of style when it came to decorating her house, with way too much marble and gold for my taste.

  I sat across from Collin at Sharon’s glass dinning room table. I made a big stink when Walt tried to stand behind me, and they agreed to stay on their side of the room. Call me paranoid. Period. I’m paranoid, but with good reason. Of course, that’s what all the paranoid people say.

  “I can’t keep this from Dom,” Collin began. It wasn’t a promising start to the conversation. “But I feel that it would be better, for everyone involved, if you pay him a visit yourself.”

  “Sure, I’ll do that,” I said quickly.

  He gave me a stern look. “You know I’m going to need more insurance than that. I can’t let you leave here without a guarantee of some kind that you plan to either register with us now, or go talk to the Arch.”

  I sighed. I couldn’t get a break from anyone, it seemed. “What kind of insurance did you have in mind?”

  He pulled a bracelet of bones out of his pocket. I recognized the item, and gave him an unfriendly look. “So I’m a prisoner.”

  “I can set it for twenty-four hours. If you speak to Dom in that time, the geas will disappear.”

  “I need at least two days.”

  “Fine. Two days, then. But how about this. If you see him within twenty-four hours, I’ll let you in on one of the biggest battles we’ve planned in decades. We’re mounting a raid on one of the necro settlements. They took out a rather large human town a few weeks ago. We obviously need to remind them what it means to break druid law. It’s gonna be a big one.”

  “How ‘bout this? You give me two days and let me in on it regardless. And I’ll let you put that thing on my wrist without killing any of you.”

  His handsome face split into a grin thick with charm. “Deal. I have to say, it’s good to see you, Jillian. You haven’t changed a bit.”

  I looked at him a little warily. “How is he?” I asked seriously. My question made the other druids shift with agitation and hostility. I really didn’t have the right to ask.

  He had no doubt, of course, which he I meant. His mouth tightened, all good humor leaving his face. “He’s powerful. After you left, he reached his potential and it was even more than any of us bargained for. Killing Declan promoted him younger than any Arch in remembrance. My father couldn’t have been more pleased if it was his own son.”

  “Is he happy?” My voice was more fragile than I preferred.

  He shrugged. “He’s busy. He’s not as angry as he used to be, but I worry he’s just pushed all of that rage below the surface. He dates a new girl every night.” I tried not to wince visibly. “Though he’s been seeing Siobhan again.” I don’t think I hid the wince very well for that one. “No, I can’t say he’s happy, but who is?”

  Well, that was a depressing question that I certainly didn’t have an answer for.

  I stuck my wrist out grudgingly. “Get it over with. I hate those things.”

  Collin chanted a surprisingly quick spell on the geas, then attached it to my wrist with the utmost courtesy not to lay so much as a finger on me. I appreciated his good manners. Politesse with an outsider was not a common druid trait.

  The druids finally let me leave, and I beat it fast. Two days. So short a time before I had to face the man who’s memory I’d been running from for seven years.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Emo Prom

  DAY 3

  I awoke to the smell of burning bed again, and started cursing before my eyes had opened. I had relocated to one of our guest rooms, on account of the bed I’d burned to cinders the night before.

  I was relieved to find the damage was minimal when I examined the bed. I might even be able to sleep on it again. Maybe. Yippee. My bed burning rate wasn’t quite one a night.

  I just stared at my reflection this time. There were no loud outbursts, I swear. The good news? It was straight and smooth like it was supposed to be. The bad news? It was a pale but vibrant purple. Violet? Lavender? I glared at my reflection and decided to just ignore the color until it went away, like the damned curls had.

  I showered and dressed, trying to ignore the geas around my wrist. I strode downstairs with a bad attitude. Lynn and her entourage were having some sort of gathering in the living room. I was torn between curiosity (Lynn always kept things interesting) and a desire to avoid having to socialize in any way. I ate some of their party food before giving in to the curiosity.

  “A party at ten in the morning?” I asked as I leaned into the doorway. A few dozen goths lounged in various stages of emo around the room. Lynn was in rare form today. She was reclining on a large, intricately carved, high-backed silver chair. Or rather, a throne. I’d never seen it before. When had Lynn picked up a throne? Gods only knew. “Some of you kiddos must have very early curfews indeed.”

  “Madame Noir does not accept anyone under eighteen into her following,” one sniffed at me disdainfully.

  “None of us have curfews,” another cried out.

  “Madame Noir?” I looked in Lynn’s direction. She was decked out in full-on, black latex, dominatrix gear. “You’re french now?”

  She nodded slightly, smiling just a little. “Oui. I was just telling my Adeptes about the horeur. Pardon, in english you say the french revolution. I was just telling them how my whole family went to the guillotine. When did you dye your hair cotton candy purple, ma soeur?”

  “Don’t change the subject. Wow. Your whole family, huh?” I raised a brow at her ruefully. “I thought you were a viking.” Everyone in the room was glaring at me. Except for Lynn, of course. I was more than half convinced that she pulled this shit just to make me laugh.

  “Oh, oui, I was a Viking before I was French,” she said, as though she’d forgotten. And as though it was perfectly natural to switch your nationality. “Memory can be a tricky thing, as the centuries pass you by.”

  “Amen, sista.” Her last statement was actually pretty true, though I knew very well that she hadn’t forgotten that she had never been even a little french. Sure, she’d spent some time there, but certainly not during the revolution.

  I was starting to notice that everyone in the room was a little more decked out than normal, even for them. “What’s the occasion? Did I miss my invitation to emo prom or something?”

  Lynn choked on a laugh. “The Renaissance Fair is in town,” Lynn explained. “We’re setting up a tent there. It’s nice, on occasion, to visit reminders of the past.”

  “Ohh, that. Hmm, I might have to give Christian a call, so that we can come laugh at you. How long will you be there, O’ Mistress of Black Eyeliner?”

  “All day. We’ll be set up somewhere in the fortune-teller court. Big black tent. So what’s with the lavender hair?”

  “Awesome,” I said with a grin, completely ignoring her question about my hair. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Did you lose a bet?” she tried.

  I sighed. “A bet with god maybe. I don’t wanna talk about it.”

  “Is there something I can bribe you with to make you talk?”

  I thought about it. I was always at least a little susceptible to bribery. Especially if it was jewels. Or any kind of treasure, really. Of course I loved to hoard treasure. Name me a dragon who didn’t. My kind were somewhat famous for it. There was always some truth to every legend, and that particular legend was all truth. “I’ll let you know if I think of anything.” I started to walk away, then remembered. Shit on shingles, I’d almost forgotten. I raised my wrist, showing her the geas there. She raised a brow at me in question. “I ran into Collin yesterday, and ended up with this thing on my wrist.”

  She rose. All of her flunkies rose with her. I rolled my eyes as she waved them back down. “We need privacy, in the kitchen.” She swept from the room, and I followed her.

  I told her
the short version, then she got me to spill the long version, which wasn’t much different. She, in turn, told me about her more than interesting last few days. Our most dangerous ally, Caleb, had come to town, with tales of some major shit about to go down. And she had met a guy, a mysterious guy, who had placed some kind of enchantment on her. A love enchantment, she thought. I didn’t like that, especially considering the timing. I told her so. She was equally disgruntled by the entire affair.

  “Well, shit. If Caleb’s in town, it’s bad. He only shows up for the really nasty stuff.” I let loose a fluent stream of cursing.

  “We need to move?” she asked, after I’d finished.

  I shrugged. “I‘m not sure. The geas pretty much means I’m screwed, but I have a plan. Kinda.”

  “Kinda?”

  “Yes, I have a plan, kinda-ish.”

  “Ish?”

  “Ish. Worst-case scenario, I’ll have to go see Dom. But I should have it under control. Ish.”

  “Your confidence is inspiring-ish.”

  “I do need a favor though.”

  “Sure, what?”

  “You know how crappy I am at shielding. Can you do something for me, to cover the bruises? Just for a day or two.”

  She nodded, pulling a small relic from around her neck, and placing her hand on my forehead. She chanted for a bit, paused to ask, “You don’t want to heal at all?”

  I grimaced. “Maybe a touch. I need it to look bad, though, under the glamour,” I explained, and she continued.

  She paused, studying her work. I knew from experience that it would be perfect. Shielding and glamour were her specialties. And my weakness. Our magics had some similarities, but more differences. Hers was subtle and powerful. And very dangerous to find yourself on the wrong end of. She was a master of illusion and subterfuge. You’d never see her coming. Me, on the other hand, not so subtle. I was more likely to blow the door up on my way in. Oh, and I’d probably blow the roof off on my way out. “So is that why your hair’s been wigging out? The strain of shielding?”