Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters)

by Rebecca K. Lilley

  Looking into his panic-stricken eyes, I didn’t think that any of those offerings had been willing, as the hag’s must have been. He must have been her prisoner for quite some time, since the wounds over all of his missing parts were healed over. The pitiful man placed a quivering hand over my heart, closing his eyes. I watched his hand warily. Even his nails were missing. He placed a second hand on my chest, right over my heart, avoiding my breasts as much as possible. He wasn’t trying to cop a feel, which was something, I supposed.

  He took a few deep breaths before gasping and falling back with a low, pitiful moan. “She’s fire.”

  Ethel screeched at him. “Master needs a real answer. What does that mean, she’s fire?”

  The cypher just began to shake his head, over and over. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like her. She burns, deep inside, like fire incarnate.”

  That statement seemed to finally snap me out of my stupor. I studied the yellow-stained wall and channeled my rage. Yes, I did burn. I touched a fingertip to the table below me. It was all I could reach, but it would be enough. Burn, baby, burn.

  “Stop that!” Ethel screamed at me. I couldn’t imagine how she thought that would actually make me stop.

  “Blood. If I touched her blood, it might help me know what she is,” the cypher gasped, seemingly oblivious to the blue fire that was swiftly engulfing the table I lay on.

  “Blood, yes, her blood,” the demon snarled, bringing his snapping teeth down to my neck. I screamed, finally unable to hold it back.

  The door burst open and the strange girl from the lobby stood there, holding a ridiculously huge gun in each hand. She didn’t hesitate, leveling the one in her right hand straight at the cypher, and taking his head off clean with one quick shot. It exploded, splattering the room, breaking my concentration for a long moment while I stared at the strange girl.

  Ethel screamed and screamed, but the girl’s rough bark of a voice somehow drowned her out. “Banish the demon, or your head is next, hag.”

  Something about the girl’s voice and the words she used triggered some kind of recognition, and I studied her, shocked and stunned.

  The demon roared, scuttling towards the girl with it’s nightmarish gait. “Now or never, hag,” the girl barked, and the hag began to chant, her voice breaking in panic.

  It was suddenly easier to breath in the room, and I let my flames abate as I realized that the demon had just disappeared.

  Ethel chanted for a few more beats and then just stopped, raising her hands in a sign of peace to the girl. “He’s gone. Caged away. He’ll make me pay for that.”

  The girl nodded, her face expressionless. It was then that I was positive of her identity. Her next move proved it. She raised her gun and shot the hag in the head, taking it clean off.

  I shut my eyes in relief.

  “The walls are still burning,” Caleb told me, in that strange girl’s voice.

  I nodded. “This place is going to burn down. I got the fire too deep into the walls to stop it.”

  I began to sit up, but Caleb was there, in that strange body, picking me up. “You’re seriously off of your game today, Jillian. That hag shouldn’t have been able to hold you so easily.”

  I couldn’t argue. He was right. My injured body combined with my absent healing regeneration had seriously crippled me in there. It was embarrassing, especially in front of badass Caleb. “The fact that I attempted something like that at all should tell you just how off of my game I am at the moment.”

  “Yes, that was amazingly idiotic. You need to bite the bullet and go see Dom.” He carried me out of the building in that tiny body amazingly fast, not even breathing heavy under my weight.

  “I can walk,” I told him. He set me down, taking me at my word. I sighed, knowing I owed him now. “Thank you, Caleb. You know I owe you.”

  He smiled, a cold little smile, just as creepy in that girl’s face. “Yes. Never a dull moment with the sisters. So what’s your plan now? Hopefully it’s something better than this fiasco.”

  I sighed again, tired and unhappy with the way things had turned out. All of that, and I still had this fucking geas on my wrist. At least I had tried. “First, I need to stop by our house and grab some clothes. Then, possibly a quick trip to the spa.”

  He just kept staring at me, waiting for me to finish. “Spa?”

  “Yes. It’s a stupid girl thing. Obviously, you won’t understand.”

  “You’re right. Ok. Spa. Then what?”

  I grimaced. “Then I get this fucking geas off my wrist.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Forsworn

  The Vegas weather was at it’s most manic, going from a bright sunny morning, and then switching to a late afternoon of flash floods, lightning, and thunder. It was a particularly violent one, even for the season. As I headed from our house at the lower part of the valley, to the strip, I actually saw some crazy teenagers trying to body board in it. I shook my head at the sight. Crazy mortal humans, always acting like death was so far-fetched.

  The drive seemed unbelievably short, since I dreaded my destination so completely. It wasn’t lost on me that the mercurial weather matched my mood. Dread and anticipation both had a firm hold on me, warring until I couldn’t have said which one held more sway.

  I got some strange looks as I pulled up to the covered valet station in Christian’s slightly singed, but still whole, porsche.

  The thunderstorm raged gloriously behind me, but my hands were steady as I flicked my car keys at the valet. I strode into The Grove Hotel and Casino like I owned the place. I drew plenty of stares in my black latex getup, thigh high boots almost reaching my mini-skirt, and a corset complementing my diamond collar. My face was an alabaster mask with blood-red lips. I wore a pitch-black, jaw-length wig with straight bangs that just touched my eyebrows. Oversized silver hoop earrings completed my ensemble. I had dipped into Lynn’s wardrobe for the outing. I reflected ruefully that the Ren fair costumes must have in some way influenced my fashion sense.

  In spite of myself, I felt kinda cute in the ridiculous disguise. Which, of course, made me question myself for going to so much trouble. I mean, sure, I needed a disguise for the security cameras. But what purpose did the brazilian bikini wax serve? And getting waxed was not something you wanted to do while an anti-regeneration spell was working powerfully on a bruised up body. I would not be doing that again.

  I kept my eyes and features in their natural state, but wore a pair of dark, heavy, Dior sunglasses. This whole exercise would serve no purpose if Dom couldn’t recognize me.

  A receptionist was stationed at a desk in front of the elevators that led to the office suites of the hotel. Several security guards stood in front of the elevator doors behind her.

  I gave her a smile that was all teeth and blood red lips. She was a pretty young thing, with light red hair and bow-shaped lips. The part of my mind that was a masochist wondered if she was one of the many women he was rumored to be sleeping with.

  “May I help you?” she asked in a professional tone. She was eyeing me up and down. The look on her face was not friendly.

  I perched a hip on her desk. “Yes, you may. I’m here to see Dom. If you could tell him I’m here...”

  She gave me a totally blank face. “I’m sorry. No one by that name works here.”

  My smile turned unpleasant, and I leaned closer to her. “Give your Arch a ring and tell him that Jillian is here to see him.” I saw recognition light her face at my name. And then animosity. “Call him now, or I’ll make a big enough scene that he’ll see me himself on the security cameras.”

  I’m not exaggerating when I say she snarled at me. But she picked up the phone and dialed. “Sir,” she murmured into the phone, tone suddenly warm and polite. And breathless. “There’s a Jillian here to see you.” There was a long pause on the other end. I heard a rumble of words from a familiar voice on the other end of the phone. Then a question. “Yes, sir. She’s extremely tall. Blac
k hair. Big breas-” She handed me the phone mid-sentence.

  I put it to my ear, heart pounding. “Say something,” a heart-achingly familiar voice growled in my ear. There was a world of menace in his voice.

  The sound of his voice triggered the unwanted memory of the last time I’d seen him.

  DENVER 7 YEARS AGO

  My body was shaking as I closed the apartment door behind me, leaning heavily against it. The confrontation I’d just had, with the present Arch-Druid Declan, had left me scared and in full flight mode. He’d pushed all the right buttons, threatening Dom and my freedom. What Declan didn’t understand was that pushing all of those buttons had only served to open Pandora’s box. A plan was already formulating in my mind of how to use his own proposals against him. I was more than determined that he would not take away the two things dearest to me. Dom and my freedom. Unfortunately, almost everything else was about to go up as collateral. Including my relationship. And the identity I’d been able to maintain for more than a decade.

  I made a fresh cup of hot decaf green tea and sat down to drink it, and think. My hands shook every time I brought the cup to my mouth for a drink. I was wound up so tight that, for the first time, maybe ever, I considered having a glass of wine. I’d heard many people found a glass of wine relaxing. Perhaps, in spite of the danger, it would have that effect on me. My kind wisely stayed far away from alcoholic beverages. Bad, bad things happened when we imbibed.

  I finally decided against it, opting instead to hit the gym. It was my safest stress reliever. Maybe after a few hours of intense cardio my body would stop shaking. I determined to do just that as soon as I finished my cup of tea.

  My body tensed as I heard a key turning the lock on the front door. Dom wasn’t due home for several hours, and I had no wish for him to see me so shaken.

  My profile was facing the door, so it was out of the corner of my eye that I saw Dom enter, and head straight for the kitchen. I heard him pour himself something on ice. Whiskey, I thought. He was having a bad day, too.

  “We need to talk,” he began.

  I tried to stifle a laugh. Why did that strike me as funny? I didn’t know. We’d been going through a rocky patch for the last couple of months. One thing after another seemed to be putting distance between us. Too many people wanted us apart. Team that up with some very unfortunate misunderstandings and we’d had some big fights that weren’t easily resolving themselves, as they always had so easily in the past.

  He tried to ignore my rude outburst, starting again. “Declan is sending me out of town for about a week. The timing is bad, but unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of ignoring a direct order. My flight’s in a few hours, but we need to discuss a few things before I go.”

  My breath caught at the news of his trip. Of course Declan was sending him away. It was his best chance to snare me in his trap. No wonder he’d gotten so aggressive of late. What Declan wasn’t counting on was that it would also create the best circumstances for me to implement my own plan. A few hours, I thought. So this was what it came down to for Dom and I. My mind seemed to be moving like molasses, but I understood that part right away. This was goodbye for us, and Dom couldn’t know it. I didn’t know what to do with the tightness in my chest, the thickness in my throat that felt like it could turn to tears if I let it. I’d never allowed myself to get this close to someone before, so close that they could tear me apart. I’d never even wanted to before Dom.

  “Your behavior lately is baffling to me,” he was continuing in a hard voice. I tried to pay attention. “Is it too much to ask that you show a little civility, a little decorum, when dealing with my people? If you had set out on a deliberate campaign to systematically alienate yourself from the druids as a people, you couldn’t have done a better job. You’ve put me in an untenable position.“

  Wow, he thinks I’m trying to ruin his life, I was thinking to myself as he spoke. I hadn’t expected him to make this easier for me, to give a speech that would actually strengthen my resolve to get out of his life.

  “First, you throw a jealous tantrum and chuck Siobhan out of a twelve story window.”

  I laughed out loud.

  “You may think that’s funny, but I don’t think you understand how difficult this has made it for me to protect you and our relationship. Where is your self-control?”

  I couldn’t seem to stop laughing, but it wasn’t happy laughter. It was more the hysterical kind. I finally got ahold of myself, wiping my eyes. “You really think that’s what happened with Siobhan? She said something to piss me off, and, in a jealous fit, I couldn’t stop myself from throwing her out a window?”

  For the first time since he’d entered the apartment, I looked at him. He met my wild eyes with his own. His were beautiful, and mismatched. One was a jewel-toned blue so perfect it was almost violet, catching the highlights in his raven hair. The other was golden, and otherworldly. A wolf’s eye. They were the legacy of his mothers side of the family, a mark of druid pride carried on only in his powerful bloodline. And he was the last to carry them. They were the most beautiful eyes in the world to me. I could lose myself in those eyes. I had, many times. And right now, they were as angry, and as cold, as I’d ever seen them. “I think Siobhan has a vicious tongue, and I have no doubt that she provoked you deliberately.”

  “And that’s it? She insulted me and I threw her out of a window? Does that really add up to you?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Why don’t you speak plainly? If that isn’t what happened, tell me what did. I’m all ears.”

  I was a breath away from telling him the whole story when I stopped myself. If this was last time I would see him, what was the point in alienating him from one of his staunchest allies? And wasting our last precious hours talking about that bitch. That thought made the decision simple. I remained silent, and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

  He raised a brow at me. “That’s all you have to say for yourself? It doesn’t matter? How about your hostility toward my Arch? I left you alone for two minutes at a social function, and you slapped him across the face in a room full of druids. Everyone there says he never laid a finger on you.”

  “And did any of these witnesses happen to overhear what he was saying to me?”

  His nostrils flared, as though sensing a threat. “No. Enlighten me, please. You keep telling me he’s a danger to me, but you never elaborate. What has he been saying to you that would elicit such a reaction?“

  I debated what to tell him. It all seemed so pointless, with only a few hours left between us. I tried one last time. “You need to challenge him. You can beat him in a fair fight. But if you leave it to him to try to assassinate you-”

  He made a slashing motion with his hand. “We’ve been over this too many times to count. I don’t believe in killing my way to the top. I’m not afraid of him. If he wants to kill me, let him try his best-”

  “He won’t be challenging you to a fair fight! This won’t be a test of your strength or his! He’s feeling out all of the people close to you, looking for a weak link. It would only take one to get you a knife in the back!” I hadn’t meant to, but I was almost yelling at the end.

  He raised his brows in a question. “And this is what he’s been saying to you? He’s trying to solicit your help to kill me?”

  I inclined my head. “He wants your head on a platter, and he has no scruples about how he gets it. You can’t fight someone who’s fully armed, with your hands tied behind your back. You think because your’e stronger than him, that you can take him lightly, but he didn’t get that position by being a pushover. What he lacks in power, he makes up for with deception and cunning. He’s pulling strings that you aren’t even aware of. You need to wake up and realize that the world is not going to follow your set of rules for decency. It’s pure ignorance to believe that Declan will!”

  He ran a hand through his dark hair, his face showing his obvious weariness for a subject we had beaten to death. “It’s becoming clear that we
aren’t going to settle any of this in the short time I have before I need to leave. And I don’t want to spend our last hours together arguing. Can you just promise me that you will at least try to stay clear of Declan and Siobhan while I’m gone? You don’t need any more bad press with my people, especially if I’m not here for damage control.”

  I nodded, my jaw clenching. I wanted to argue with almost everything he’d just said, but I knew none of it would matter soon.

  I stood, walking to the kitchen and placing my teacup in the sink. My head fell forward as I leaned heavily against the sink, feeling impossibly tired.

  He pressed his full length in behind me, as I’d longed for him to do. His arms folded around me. He buried his face in my neck, breathing in deeply. Strands of our long hair mingled together in my line of vision. Just the sight of of it, his blue-black, and mine pale gold, touched something deep within me. There wasn’t a thing about him that I wouldn’t miss all the way to my core. “I’ll miss you,” he said into my skin, his voice thick.

  I arched back against him, feeling the fever take me. “Now,” I said hoarsely, and as always, he obliged.

  Later, we lay entwined, lingering together until the last possible moment. He cupped my face in his hands, looking intently into my eyes. “I know things have been bad lately, but I need you to trust me. And I want you to swear to me that you won’t run.” He knew me so well, knew that would be my first and strongest instinct. Years ago, when we’d reconnected after decades apart, I’d sworn him a blood-oath that I would never run again. Those things were a bitch to break.

  It was because he knew me too well that I made sure to respond quickly and convincingly, looking straight into those beloved eyes. “I swear it.”

  He stroked my cheek. “You know you’re the world to me, don’t you? There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.” His voice held a tenderness that was rare for him, a softness in his character that only I had ever been witness to, because it was a softness for me.