I covered my ears and grinned. “I don’t want to ask.”
She curled her lips into a perfect Maya Cheshire Cat smile. “Let’s just say I’m envisioning Joe Manganiello’s performance at the end of Magic Mike XXL.”
I laughed. “Who wouldn’t want that?”
Maya glanced out the window. “We better get the hell out there. Or else my mom will be back, fearing I decided to become the Runaway Bride.”
I slapped my hands on my thighs. “Right. Let’s get you married.”
Maya
The start of the music signaled it was time for me to walk down the aisle—or technically the garden path. We’d lucked out with a beautiful, mild evening for the first day of spring and skipped the tent.
My dad took my arm. “Ready?”
“I am.”
We stepped down along the cobblestone walkway. When I glanced at my loved ones smiling at me, I beamed like Meghan Markle did walking into Windsor Palace to marry Prince Harry. Besides family, several of my coworkers were there, as well as some of the staff and regulars from Vamps. Never did I think my two worlds—such opposite worlds—would come together this way.
Tristan stood under the arch, which was abundant with lilies and peonies and flowers I couldn’t name. Isabella could give Martha Stewart a run for her money when it came to floral arrangements. Who needed a florist when you had a witch?
He wore a suit that fit him perfectly; he might as well have stepped out of GQ. I’d always loved how his black hair was long enough to give him a bad-boy edge. His mother had hinted he should pull it back for the wedding, but I was pleased to see he hadn’t listened. He looked so damn delectable. And he was mine.
Once our gazes met, my insides sizzled. I’d worried I might have trouble with heels on the cobblestones, but that thought vanished once I saw Tristan. I practically glided the remainder of the path to meet him beneath the arch.
My father kissed my cheek and stepped aside.
The officiant began, “Dearly beloved…”
My heart pounded, and I barely heard the words that followed. Caught in Tristan’s intense gaze, emotions zipped through my body that I couldn’t identify, making me smile so wide my face might crack. In the next moment, I was ready to cry tears of joy. I’d never experienced so many thoughts and sensations at once before, yet these were all positive—deliriously so.
All my reservations about my origin vanished as I stood there with Tristan, ready to take our vows. We had gone through so much together. We had our flaws, for sure, and could fill a cauldron with our supernatural strangeness. Our odd abilities might send most people packing, yet in our case, it brought us together. Who else could understand your peculiar nature and inner conflict but someone who also experienced it?
The officiant wrapped three cords around our wrists as we incorporated a Wiccan handfasting into the ceremony.
“I, Tristan Eric Stone, take you, Maya Elaine Winters, to be my wife. To share the good times and difficult ones as husband and wife. I give you my hand and my heart as sanctuary, and pledge my love and faith to you.”
My heart raced like wildfire. How two people like us, who might be considered freaks out in the world, had managed to find each other in such a vast world left me awestruck.
Tristan had been so tormented when I’d met him. At times, I’d still catch a haunted look in his eyes. It was impossible not to have been affected by what he’d seen in his life, although he could now use his abilities for good. No signs of inner anguish appeared on his face now. In fact, he radiated pure happiness. Would he see that on all the guests as well? His gift was a mystery. But he didn’t glance at anyone else—only me. And I’m sure my joy reflected in my aura, like his.
Then it was my turn to repeat the vows. “I, Maya Elaine Win-Winters…” Yikes, I was stuttering. An emotional wave almost kick-started the waterworks, but somehow, I managed to state my vows.
The rest of the ceremony whisked past with smiles and promises. After we slid rings on each other’s fingers, we were declared husband and wife.
Tristan kissed me and then spun me off the ground. “We did it.”
“We sure did,” I agreed.
He took my arm, and we walked down the cobblestone path to the cheers of those around us.
“Happy?” he asked.
“Ecstatic.”
He grinned. “You look more radiant today than ever.”
I tilted my head with a grin. “Coming from you especially, I think that’s a good thing?”
“Oh, very good,” he said. “Just wait until I show you tonight.”
Before I could respond, we were swept up in a whirl of hugs and congratulations. We didn’t have a chance to reconnect again until we had our first dance as newlyweds.
Tristan had chosen a song I loved: “I Only Have Eyes for You.”
Our gazes locked as he spun me around our garden. I couldn’t stop smiling, beaming at my new husband. As I stared into his eyes, I knew everything was going to be okay.
“You’re my light, Maya. You have been since I first saw you.”
“And you’re the only one for me,” I said. “I always knew you were different. And with time, I’ve appreciated how wonderful different can be.”
We stole a kiss and a chorus of whistles and cheers followed.
After the song ended, he said, “I have something in the bedroom for you.”
“Ooh.” I flashed him a sultry glance. “I thought we’d wait for the guests to leave.”
He grinned. “I mean a present.” He kissed me. “Be right back.”
After Tristan entered the house, I returned to talk to the guests. Sirens blared from down the road and seemed to stop a couple of blocks away. The firefighters in attendance excused themselves and said they’d be right back. I understood. They wanted to check on the situation and see if there was anything they could do. Although I wondered myself, there wasn’t much I could do in a wedding dress and high heels.
A couple of minutes later, Nike shouted, “Smoke!”
The telltale odor reached my nostrils. Shit, she was right. I turned to see the top floor of my house engulfed by puffs of gray smog.
My heart clenched and froze. I pointed with a shaky finger. “Tristan’s up there!”
In the next breath, pandemonium struck. People freaked the fuck out the way they do whenever they see a fire, and what timing that my team of firefighters had left to check on another situation.
When I tried to open the door, it was locked. The windows were locked, too. What the hell? I smashed through a window with a rock, so we could unlock the door and run in.
My father grabbed my hand. “No. It’s too dangerous.”
“I have to,” I replied. “Tristan’s in there! Call 911.”
Someone might have done so already, but there was the possibility that they figured the same. Wiggling out of his grasp, I ran in and gasped. My living room was a wall of flames. Smoke billowed up the staircase.
Shit, shit, shit! We’d never get up there. Shouts followed as we ran out, gasping for air. Did I have a ladder?
“Get the ladder from behind the shed,” I shouted.
Once they rushed down there, Nike asked, “Can you do your thing?”
I nodded. “It’s too big for me to control, but I might be able to coax it to down slow, at least.” Hopefully, before it engulfed the house in flames and the man I loved with it.
“I’ll see if there’s another way up,” Nike said. “We’ll get him, Maya.”
“See if anyone else is up there, too.”
It was difficult to communicate with the fire, with so much at stake. My hands shook, and every centimeter was covered with perspiration. But I forced myself to breathe past the terror and implored the raging flames to calm its devastating reign.
Tristan opened our bedroom window.
“Get the ladder from under the bed,” I shouted.
“Okay.”
He disappeared from view. In those seconds of waiting, m
y heart caved in and tumbled in and over itself. My husband of mere minutes had gone inside to retrieve a present for me, and now his life was threatened. I might have started this evening as a new bride, but could end it as a widow.
His mother ran beside me and covered her heart. “Tristan.”
She turned and caught my eye. The unspoken screamed between us—the tarot reading.
A woman’s scream pulled my attention back up to the window.
“Help!”
Oh shit. Oh my God. It was my mother.
Tristan returned and opened the other window. “The ladder’s not there.”
What the fuck? What the hell was going on? I didn’t move it. As a firefighter, I’d started preparing for emergencies before I’d even moved in.
Damn it. The fire wasn’t going to take them from me.
A wave of fury rose inside me so quickly I couldn’t control it. I stormed toward the house and raised my hand, focusing all my attention at the raging fire.
“Back the fuck off!”
Nike
I ran around the house, trying to find a way up to the third floor. How the hell could I get up there? With these vampiric abilities, I should have more skills to face shit like this.
And where the hell were they with the ladder?
As I completed a circle, I almost ran into Maya. She stared unblinking at her burning house with her hand raised.
“I said back!” Her expression was fierce. With her dark hair falling about her shoulders and over her ivory wedding dress, she appeared like a dark and powerful angel.
Or the daughter of a fire goddess…
In that flash of a second, I had total belief in what I’d thought was impossible when she’d told me. If fire goddesses existed, Maya was certainly the picture of one.
Michel ran up to me. “I’m going up.”
What the fuck? My stomach somersaulted. “Michel?” His name sounded breathless on my lips. Where did he come from? And what was he doing here?
In the next blink, Michel lunged at the wall and climbed it like a superhero on steroids. The wedding guests gasped and said things like “How did he do that?” Tristan moved aside and had to coax my mother back from the window as Michel climbed in.
He shouted down to me. “It’s like rock climbing. You can do it.”
I snapped my gaping mouth closed. If I moved anywhere close to how he did, I’d be exposing myself as a bit more than human. But we had to get Tristan and Maya’s mother out immediately, and we didn’t know if anyone else was trapped inside.
I glanced at Maya and gave her a sheepish grin. “You’re still my lucky charm. Help me out?”
Then I ran for the exterior wall, reaching for it the way Michel had scampered up the siding, like he had Velcro on hands and feet. Somehow it worked. It worked! I scooted up the side of the house and climbed.
Once inside, I gauged the scene. Both Tristan and Maya’s mother were in the bedroom. Smoke crept deeper into the room. While the smoke might not kill me now that I was a vampire, the flames from behind it would.
“I was in the bathroom,” she said. “And then, I smelled smoke.”
“We’ll get you out,” I reassured her. “Is there anyone else inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Tristan said, “I didn’t see anyone when I came up.”
I debated opening the bedroom door to go search. With the acceleration of smoke drifting in, that wouldn’t be the best option. The priority was getting them out.
When I faced Michel, I wanted to ask him why he was there, why he was facing flames that could engulf him when I knew how much fire terrified him. When I caught his gaze, I read the answer in his eyes.
Love.
“I’ll jump with her,” he said, “And come back to help with Tristan.”
“What should I do?” Tristan asked us.
“Nothing yet,” I replied.
Michel tried to carry Maya’s mother to the window, but she freaked out, screaming that she’d die.
“You need to cooperate,” Tristan told her.
Michel spoke to Tristan and me. “I’m going to jump down. Lower her to me and I’ll catch her.”
“Okay,” I said.
Michel leapt out the window so quickly, it reminded me of the first night we were together—the night that Ricard had thrown an incendiary device into Vamps and Michel had jumped out of the hole to face Ricard. It had been so quick that I couldn’t see it. But now, with my enhanced vision, I tracked his movement.
“Shit, that was fast,” Tristan said.
I nodded in understanding.
Maya shouted from below. “Someone chained the ladder to the fence.”
“What the hell’s going on?” Tristan said.
Good question. This fire was looking worse by the second. The locked doors, missing ladder from the bedroom, and chained ladder all pointed to arson. Someone had planned this.
We’d worry about that later. The next task was getting Maya’s mom to listen.
She questioned, “How did he do that? That’s not normal.”
With the dangerous situation exacerbated by witnessing Michel’s supernatural abilities, she was on the verge of a meltdown. I’d seen this in emergency situations with people too freaked out to listen and follow instructions. Fear incapacitated them.
“Be quiet and listen,” I commanded in my take-charge voice. “I’m going to lower you down to Michel.”
“But, but, but…”
“No. Come here.”
With Tristan holding one arm and me the other, we managed to strong-arm her into cooperating and lowered her down. With my new strength, her weight wasn’t the problem, but her shrieking and squirming didn’t help.
“I’m ready for her,” Michel said. “Let go.”
That instigated a new level of screams—“Don’t let go!” She clutched at our hands and tried to climb back into the window.
“Here she comes,” I said.
I released her clinging, clammy hand, and she screamed as she fell. Michel caught her, as if she were as light as a stuffed animal.
Sirens sounded, coming closer. This would be my old firehouse responding. Maya and her dad ran and hugged her, uttering phrases of disbelief and relief.
“Ready?” I said to Tristan.
“Yes. Same deal?”
“I’ll lower you.”
Tristan gave me a look of awe as if surprised I could support his weight. But he likely knew about my transition. He was heavier to support as I lowered him to Michel.
Firetrucks pulled up just as I released Tristan. Smoke was filling the room, followed by flames. Time was running out.
“Jump,” Michel directed.
Although I’d discovered I could run up the wall, jumping three stories still gave me pause. I might not die, but the pain could be excruciating. Plus, if I performed some superhuman leap, my secret would definitely be out to everyone there.
“I’ll catch you,” he insisted.
A rookie firefighter whom I didn’t recognize ran up to Michel and tried to usher him back, saying the ladder was coming. Michel hissed at him, eyes glowing red, and affixed himself to the spot with open arms to catch me.
“Jump!” Maya echoed. “The fire is turning fierce. I can’t hold it back any longer!”
Fuck, she’d just revealed her secret as well.
Well, damn it. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice.
I caught Michel’s gaze. “Catch me.”
“Of course.”
I pulled myself to sit on the windowsill and counted: “One. Two. Three.” Launching myself off the ledge, I fell through the air. A flash later, I met a solid mass.
Michel caught me, as he’d promised he would, but the impact knocked us both to the ground. We rolled, tumbling over each other onto the grass. Gasps and exclamations surrounded us. I didn’t care. All that mattered was that I was back in his arms, where I needed to be.
He leaned forward so his forehead touched mine. “You’
re safe,” he whispered.
I stared into his eyes, still rimmed with redness. “How are you here?”
He cocked his head. “I heard your message. And I had a feeling you’d end up here.”
Michel knew me better than I thought. I stared at him with astonishment. “I can’t believe you climbed up there.”
Vampires feared fire as much as the sun—both would leave them burned to a crisp. Although I’d been trained to fight fires to rescue people, he’d faced his fear to help me and I’d never admired him more.
“I’d do anything for you, Nike. Even stay away if that’s what you want.”
“No.” I shook my head with vehemence. “That’s not what I want. I was frustrated and foolish, but I was wrong. What I want is you.”
Michel smiled. “Good. I’ve missed you. I understand the transition is…trying. For both of us. But I think we can face it better together.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Together.”
“Can I move back home now?”
“God yes,” I said and kissed him.
Although I yearned to melt into the earth, kissing him with a ferocious passion to show how much he meant to me, too many voices interrupted.
Maya fussed. “Oh my God, Nike. Are you okay? This is insane. You were almost killed.”
“I’m fine.” I pulled myself to my feet.
She threw herself at me with a giant bear hug. “If you hadn’t changed, if you and Michel hadn’t…” She broke down, unable to finish her thought. Then she enclosed Michel in the hug, too. “Thank you. I owe you everything. Sorry I was such a bitch.”
When we pulled apart, the yard was teaming with firefighters—both wedding guests and those on duty. I recognized several from the firehouse. I’d already shared a quick greeting with several of them whom I used to work with. It was a bit uncomfortable at first, since I’d retired hastily over medical conditions, and I’m sure several were speculating on the problem. But the discomfort had passed quickly.
Until I felt eyes scrutinizing me. It was the fire chief.
We exchanged a quick glance as he hastened into the house. In that flash, I sensed one thing—he’d seen everything.
Combust: a vampire and firefighter paranormal romance (Underground Encounters Book 7) Page 8
