Force of Fire

by Ali Vali

  “It’s time to move on, Hill,” she said softly as she waited for someone to answer and let her in.

  “Good evening, Ms. Hickman,” someone definitely female said as the gates started to open. “Won’t you come in?”

  She understood the appeal of Kendal Richoux, but it amazed her at how many beautiful women Kendal surrounded herself with. That was something else that made her uneasy for Piper’s future. It was evident by how some of them stared at Kendal that they either had a past sexual relationship or wanted one. How long would it be before Kendal strayed?

  Now wasn’t the time to think about that since Kendal was waiting on the large porch, Piper seated right behind her. “Hey, sorry to come so late, but…” The air in her lungs seemed to seep out slowly on the last word as she saw Piper nursing the child at her breast, and to her embarrassment, she started to cry.

  Kendal rubbed Piper’s shoulder and went inside, as if all Hill’s jealousy and misery was plain to see, and she was giving them the chance to bury old feelings. “God, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize, Hill,” Piper said, tickling the baby’s cheek. “Come sit and meet Hali.”

  The baby was beautiful in profile, but she didn’t look too long, since Piper’s breast was exposed. “She’s beautiful—congratulations.”

  “Please sit. I really did want to talk to you.” Piper smiled when Hali let go and gave a full-body stretch. “I wanted to because I think it’s me who should apologize to you. Believe me, Hill, none of this was planned, and I never meant to hurt you.”

  “You didn’t,” she said quickly and wiped her tears. Fuck, even she wouldn’t have believed her.

  “Come on. We’ve known each other for years, so you can be honest.” Piper held the baby against her shoulder and gently patted her back. “I’ve always known you might’ve been interested in something more, and I’m sorry I couldn’t give it to you.”

  “Why her, then?” The question ripped from her soul even if it was petty and immature. “What’s she got that I don’t, aside from a lot of money and stuff?”

  “She’s mine, and she owns my heart. I couldn’t have been happy with only half the equation. It sounds so trite, but finding the right one really has completed the person I’m supposed to be.”

  “What about all that weird stuff that happened in England? Why raise a baby if that could happen again?”

  “Hill, you’re my friend, so I’m going to forget you said that, but don’t make that mistake again.” Piper’s voice rose and startled the baby. A moment later the door opened, and Kendal appeared, not looking too pleased.

  “Problems?” Kendal asked and took the baby when Piper held her up so she could get her clothes in order.

  “Not really,” Piper said. “We were just getting some stuff straight.”

  “I’m sorry I upset you, Piper,” she said, her eyes not leaving Kendal and the child she held. “Good God. She looks just like you.”

  Kendal and Piper shared a glance, and Kendal nodded at the unasked question. “She does because she’s hers,” Piper said, staring at her with an expression that dared her to say otherwise. “Hers and mine.”

  “I know you’re better at business than biology,” she said, smiling to soften the insult, “but that’s impossible.”

  “Sort of like vampires don’t exist?” Kendal asked with no emotion on her face. “Either wrap your head around the unthinkable or leave. At this point you really don’t have any other choices, Hill.”

  “What are you?” It was the one question she’d been dying to ask since that night in England. Kendal and Piper had left her and Piper’s grandparents in California after that bizarre night, and she’d walked around that beautiful house at the center of Kendal’s vineyard studying all the pictures. The few of Kendal didn’t make any logical sense because she hadn’t aged. The property’s caretakers, Sparrow and her boys, had aged, but Kendal looked exactly the same.

  “I’m an old soul who’s in love with Piper. Believe me or not, that’s not my decision to make for you, but Piper is mine. The baby’s ours, and I belong to her with everything I am and have in this life and all others that will follow.”

  “Do you mind if I talk to Piper alone for a few more minutes?”

  Kendal smiled at Piper and took the baby with her back inside.

  “She’s not the jealous type?”

  “She’s more the drive-a-sword-through-your-forehead type if you get stupid, but she does get jealous on occasion. Listen, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but she’s right. If you can’t accept this,” Piper said, glancing at the front door, “then you have to go. I’m not going to change my mind no matter how much you want me to.”

  “This is about me, so I’d like to stay if you don’t mind it, and if she lets me. If she makes you happy I’m not going to be an asshole about it.”

  “You’re not staying to keep an eye on her, are you? I wasn’t kidding about the sword thing.”

  “I’m staying to keep an eye on you. One look at that baby, and I believe she belongs to both of you, but there’s a million other things I want to know before we get to that.” She smiled and did her best to bury her feelings for Piper.

  “What you need is to find a nice girl and start a family. I can totally recommend it.”

  “You’re a riot,” she said, glad she wasn’t losing Piper as a friend. “But now I’ve got to go see the boss about a report. Hopefully when I’m done she’ll still be my boss.”

  They went inside, and Piper led her to the large study at the front corner of the house that once had been Jacques St. Louis’s office. The furniture was still the same, with the addition of the line of electronic equipment, since this had become Kendal’s new headquarters for all her business dealings. Eventually they’d have to decide what to do with Marmande Shipyard, but the staff was doing a good job of dealing with the day-to-day operations with both her and Mac gone.

  “Honey,” Piper said as they entered together and caught Kendal making faces at the baby. “Hill’s got a report for you.”

  “Is Hill’s head screwed on right?” Kendal said, holding her finger where the baby could clamp down on it.

  “It never really was, but I think you should let her do her job anyway,” Piper said, kissing Kendal and pinching her cheeks.

  “Leonardo came back,” Hill said, and Kendal nodded. “He asked if he could meet with you to discuss business. He never mentioned what that might be, but he was pretty insistent he get to meet with you.”

  “Did he leave a way to contact him?” Kendal moved her hand to the beautiful sword sitting on the large desk.

  “It’s all in here, but I don’t think you should go alone.” She shook her head when Kendal started to say something. “I know you can take care of yourself, but you’re paying me to do it.” She stepped closer and studied the blade. “It’s beautiful. Where’d you get it?”

  “Walmart,” Kendal said, and Piper snorted. “I’ll call when I set something up.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Rawney stood outside with a smoldering bunch of sage and seemed to be mouthing a spell of some kind in a language Piper didn’t understand. Kendal stood next to Piper, holding her hand, and smiled as if signaling that everything was all right. The car that had driven slowly up the drive came to a stop as Rawney finished, and she bowed as the back door was opened. The two women who emerged bowed back, and they seemed regal and powerful to Piper.

  Kendal tugged her gently so they could descend the stairs together, and their guests’ expressions changed to true happiness. The two blondes came forward, and when the taller and stronger-looking one held her arm out, Kendal grasped it, wrapping her fingers around the woman’s forearm. As imposing as the woman was, Kendal was taller and more solidly built, even if her body was hidden by the heavy linen shirt she wore.

  “Lovell, welcome to our home,” Kendal said, and went willingly when the woman tugged her into a bear hug. “I’ve missed you, old friend.”

 
“Save some of that for me, Asra,” the smaller woman said as she opened her arms.

  “Queen Tala, it’s great to see you again. How are the children?”

  “I’ll bore you with pictures later, but introduce us,” Tala said.

  “This is Piper Marmande, my mate,” Kendal said, having told her that in Tala and Lovell’s world, that’s what Piper was to her. She’d explained so she wouldn’t be insulted by the title even if it’d been used by others before now, but hearing Kendal say it made her love her more. It fit perfectly as to what Kendal was to her.

  “Over three thousand years,” Tala said, taking Piper’s hands, “and she finally found you. Congratulations, Piper, and I hope we can become friends. It’ll be good to have someone to talk to about the big bears we married.”

  “Yes, your highness, it will. Please come inside,” she said after shaking hands with Lovell.

  The table in the formal dining room was set, but she invited them into the large living room for a drink. Tala and Lovell seemed like every other couple, but Kendal had told her they could shift at will into wolves that were larger than any known species. They could also mate despite their sex and produce offspring like the twins Tala and Lovell had brought into the world.

  She accepted the baby from the young woman they’d chosen as their nanny and turned to Tala and Lovell. “This is the newest addition to our family, Hali.”

  Tala held her arms out and Piper handed her over, not sensing any danger. “She’s beautiful,” Tala said, glancing up at Kendal when she held the baby closer. “She’s yours,” she said, not in question form. “How?”

  “It’s a long story we can tell you at dinner, but it’s her dinnertime first. Would you like to come up with me?” Piper asked, taking Hali back.

  Tala followed her upstairs after placing her hand on Lovell’s chest. “Thank you for putting the smile back on her face, Piper. Asra deserves the kind of peace only a true mate can bring into any life.”

  She opened her shirt and cradled Hali against her breast. “How long have you known Asra?”

  “I met her a few years before she came here and built this place. My mother was queen then, and Lovell had first started showing interest in something other than the hunt and patrol.” Tala laughed as if recalling something really humorous. “She’d probably still be loving her unencumbered life running through the wild if it hadn’t been for Asra.”

  “She has a talent for matchmaking too?”

  “Lovell challenged her when Asra came to a meeting with my mother in the name of the clan. If my mate expected a fight, Asra disappointed her by not drawing her sword and instead told her to look at what she had to gain by staying alive and whole. We were bonded less than a year later.”

  “You waited all this time to have children?” she asked, finding Tala easy to talk to.

  “My mother died in a freak accident not long after that, and I faced rebellion once I’d claimed the throne. Now seemed a better time because I wanted to raise them in peace.”

  “I understand that,” she said as Hali slowed. “Thank you for being her friend.”

  “She is that, and I owe her my throne as well as for giving Lovell a kick in the rear, so I’ve loved her for a long time. You have to understand that Convel met her before that, and it was Asra who spared her that first time at the request of Convel and Lovell’s mother, Melle. Every time after that it was because Lovell and I asked it of her.”

  “She’s come here,” Piper said, not knowing exactly how to finish.

  “We must all eventually choose what’s right, Piper, and Lovell’s made that clear to her sister. It will kill a part of her that won’t be able to be restored, but she sides with our children’s protector. So do I.”

  “I’m sorry if it’s hard.”

  “Our mates and our children are why we live full lives, my friend. Asra is no different. Let’s hope Convel comes to the same conclusion before it’s too late, but you have nothing to fear from me or my pack. Asra has come and fought for my mother and me whenever we’ve asked it of her, so she’ll face no betrayal from me or Lovell.”

  They went down and joined Lovell and Kendal in the dining room, where Piper told them the story of the goddess and their reward for helping her with the Sea Serpent Sword. Both Lovell and Tala listened like children being told an adventure story, and they exchanged an interesting but unreadable glance when she finished.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked, but Tala waited until the dishes were cleared before she spoke.

  “The Genesis Clan has Bruik and the other seers as well as the archivists who record their visions of the future, but so do we. Anatol Bashar, Lovell’s other mother, brought an old prophecy to my attention recently.” Tala took a deep breath but smiled as if to put her at ease. “This is from some of our first ancestors and was told for centuries until, like all far-fetched stories, it faded from history.”

  “How far back?” Kendal asked.

  “Before you and most of the elders existed,” Lovell said. “Back to a time when people still believed in fairies and in us. Before we were hunted and had to live in the shadows.”

  “In the time of the gods and dragons,” Tala said, staring at them as if expecting them to laugh.

  “That time may come again,” Kendal said.

  “Aphrodite told us someone is trying to find her dragons and awaken them. For what, though, she doesn’t know, but it’s not for the dragons themselves,” Piper said.

  “Our prophecy says something similar and that one from our kind will join the hunt because waking them will bring us out of hiding and into our rightful place,” Tala said.

  “Which is?” she asked.

  “Rulers of mankind.” Tala said it almost as if she didn’t agree, but the pieces were starting to fit.

  “So why would Rolla invite Convel here?” Kendal said, her frustration evident.

  “Because we needed someone who’d fulfill the vision but would be dispensable once they’d found what can’t be found,” Lovell said, and Piper could almost feel the pain in her voice. “You know Convel and her total disregard for her pack or her family.”

  “My promise to you still stands, Lovell. I won’t kill your sister, even with the blessing of you and Tala. You can unbind me from my promise, but we can’t go back after that. I warned her to stay away from my family, but I’ll cause her no harm.” Kendal spoke to Lovell, and her words made Lovell’s green eyes water with tears that wouldn’t fall. “I know that pain, so I won’t do that to you, Melle, Anatol, or your children.”

  “You might not have a choice, Asra, so promise me you won’t expose my children to Convel’s stupid delusions of grandeur. Promise me,” Lovell said, bowing her head.

  “I promise, and I’ll watch over your children like I would if they were Hali.”

  “Good, so if you’ll allow us, we’ll return tomorrow and meet with your elders and share our writings with you,” Tala said. “But before we go, we’d like to offer you what you did for our children.”

  “It would be a great honor,” Kendal said, lowering her head in Tala’s direction in what seemed to be a posture of respect.

  “Piper, if you’ll allow it, we need to bare our true selves to your daughter so our animal spirit will know her. No matter how much time or distance, we’ll come if she needs us.”

  “Thank you. You’ll be something like godparents then,” Piper said, but thinking the Catholics didn’t have this in mind.

  “In a way, yes,” Lovell said as she stood and offered her hand to Tala.

  “Turn around, love,” Kendal said, walking to her and holding her against her chest with her hands on Piper’s abdomen. “They have to get naked for this next part.”

  Behind them she heard the sudden sound of what seemed to be breaking bones and grunts before the room grew quiet again. Kendal kissed the back of her neck before whispering, “Don’t freak out, okay.”

  It was a hard thing not to do when she turned around and saw two wolves sit
ting where her new friends had been. The only thing that hadn’t changed was Tala’s pale-blue eyes and Lovell’s green ones.

  Kendal bowed again and held her hand out, motioning for her to do the same. Both wolves sniffed and barked softly, so Kendal moved and opened the door so they could lead them up to Hali’s room. Each wolf stared at the baby before sniffing her as well. They seemed to be committing her to memory, and when they were satisfied, they went back down. By the time Kendal and she made it to the living room, Lovell and Tala were dressed.

  “Thank you,” Piper said as Tala hugged her.

  “We’re family, so no need to thank us. Until tomorrow.”

  “That was truly bizarre, but cool,” she said once they were alone in their bedroom.

  “You mean you didn’t entertain werewolves before you met me?” Kendal said, unzipping her when she presented her back.

  “Kenny Delaney doesn’t count, honey,” she said of the man who’d truly tried to steal their business. “And I never heard from him after you shoved his head in the toilet.”

  “I’m horrible for your dating prospects, so hopefully old Kenny has put the word out.”

  Piper laughed as her dress fell from her shoulders and pooled at her feet after Kendal pushed it down. “I’m glad you’re possessive since that’s how I feel about you. You’re mine and I don’t share.”

  “Not ever, my love.” Kendal picked her up and carried her to the bed. “Not ever.”

  * * *

  Aishe sat on the wall that surrounded the Rodriguez estate in Costa Rica and idly ate an apple. From the size of the main house and pool, the family had lived well off the Genesis Clan’s money. They’d been paid millions over the decades to watch a parcel of land the archives called Ventanas de Fuego.

  Windows of Fire was catchy, she guessed, but right now all it contained was vegetation and the kind of unnatural wildlife that would make anyone have nightmares, but someone was indeed digging and uncovering things these people should’ve been reporting. So far their silence had cost them their son, but the rest of their toll was coming.