Born of Fire

Fire pancakes

She wondered if she should help with the research too when Khal stood and cleared his throat.

“You’re not happy that I’m here,” he said.

Gee, whatever would give him that idea?

“You’re a competent fighter and a fire mage, you’ll be an asset in the hunt.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” His brows furrowed together and he started to reach toward her, but she pulled back.

“You expect me to be happy to see you after I give you my virginity and you ignore me for a year?” She faced him with a disgusted glare. “Or are you trying to convince me you’re not really an insensitive douchebag?”

He chuckled wryly and someone in another part of the house turned on the Beatles.

“No, I wouldn’t try to convince you of that, especially since it’s true.” He folded his arms and returned her stare. “And don’t give me that look, I’m not trying to appeal to you through self-deprecation either.”

“Then what do you want from me? I have other things to worry about.” She began tapping her foot impatiently.

“We seem to have had a huge misunderstanding. I didn’t think you had any actual feelings for me. You made it seem like it was nothing more than a casual encounter.”

Okay, so he was right about that part.

“I like my casual encounters to be, well, casual. It’s difficult to enjoy it much when I’m trying to be careful.”

“You could have just ended it and sent me away.” She was more confused now than she was before. This talk didn’t seem to be helping her at all. “You don’t just shag someone and start ignoring them.”

“Believe it or not, I was trying to consider your feelings and didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You obviously weren’t trying hard after the fact!” She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration, then realized that Darren did the same thing when angry. She balled her fists and held them to her side.

“I’m sorry, okay? I guess I’m just not any good at emotional stuff.” He picked up his gun and sword and walked out the door. The wind slammed it loudly behind him.

How dare he? How could he possibly think now would be a good time for something like this? Why would he want to talk about this now?

“Men are stupid!” she announces to no one in particular. She couldn’t begin to figure him out so why bother?

She turned to go help the menfolk in the library, but paused. Darren was in there, and while he was being absolutely wonderful, she didn’t exactly want to face him at the moment. She wanted to go outside and run free on four legs, but Jacob wanted her to have someone with her at all times.

At a loss for anything to do, she went into Ben’s opulent bedroom and sat on his bed. Unfortunately, it still smelled like Rochelle and Ben and s*x, that didn’t help her feel any better either.

She walked past the library on her way to the kitchen and could hear the men talking about lunar and solar magic and tides and whatchamacallits. Her stomach grumbled loudly and she realized she hadn’t eaten in a while. Chances were the men hadn’t either.

Kenna had already added butter to the griddle when she wondered if sprinkling the cinnamon and nutmeg onto the butter would enhance the flavor. She shook the container lightly over the griddle and mixed it around with a spatula, but decided it wasn’t exactly enough. She tried to pour a little more cinnamon from the industrial-sized container when, whoosh, the contents spilled onto the griddle and mushroomed out into a spicy cloud. She gasped in surprise and drew in a lungful of cinnamon. She choked and wheezed and threw the potholder down so she could run to the sink and wash the cinnamon out of her eyes.

She coughed and laughed and gasped for air as she splashed the cold water over her eyes. The fire alarm blared and she jumped. She smelled the smoke wafting from behind her and looked back. The potholder that she had thrown on the stove next to the griddle had caught fire and the short flames spread slowly down the side of the mitt. She looked on in horror at the smoke and flames that danced on the charred edges of cloth.

Darren and Jacob rushed into the room and stared with mouths open in shock. Finally, Darren ran for the fire extinguisher, but Jacob had already lifted one end of the potholder and carried it swiftly to the sink where he turned on the water.

“I thought I forbade you from going anywhere near a stove!” Jacob grumbled at her as he opened the French doors and waved the smoke outside.

“I was fifteen! Believe it or not, I’ve cooked a few times since then and nothing happened.” She was feeling defensive and petulant, similar to how she felt when she was fifteen and she had forgotten potatoes on the stove for two hours.

He turned back to the stove and fanned the smoke, muttering swear words and something about obstinate teenagers.

Jacob glared at her as he walked past to return to the library.

“Glad you’re ok,” Darren said. “Need any help cleaning this up?”

“I’ve got it, thanks.” He nodded and she could hear his gentle laughter all the way back down the hall.

Kenna got to work on cleaning up her mess, growling and swearing as she scraped the burnt mess from the griddle.

This was how Ben found her when he walked in, accompanied by Khal. The fire mage paused in the doorway, unsure if she would try to attack him, but she turned back to her cleaning.

“Who let you near the stove?” Khal raised his eyebrows as he took in the mess before him.

“I was just trying to make pancakes, okay!” She snapped.

“Did you forget what happened last Christmas when you tried to make cookies?”

“That wasn’t my fault, blame the witch who brought wolfsbane.”

“What happened with the wolfsbane?” Ben asked.

“Some i***t trainee thought it a good idea to experiment with the herb, the results gave all of us shapeshifters in the complex what amounted to a bad cold. It wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t smell the difference between salt and sugar.”

He winced and chuckled.

“Well, if you’re going to try to kill me, I’d prefer you try to rip out my throat again rather than try to burn down my house.”

“Ha ha, you’d be even funnier if you helped me clean up,” she retorted.

“Fat chance,” he said, and went to work on making coffee and they sat down to watch and tell her when she missed a spot.

She managed to ignore them for the first minute or two, then had enough and stalked out of the room, leaving behind a few dirty dishes and some remaining spots of cinnamon on the floor.

She plopped down on the couch and picked up a magazine about cars. She thumbed through it for a few minutes when Rochelle entered the room. She looked Kenna in the eye far longer than was warranted for someone less dominant, her expression was cold and filled with loathing.

Kenna could tell from that look that she knew they were sisters and understood her hate-filled expression, but she couldn’t ignore the challenging look much longer. She put the magazine down and would have stood up but Rochelle turned and left the room.

The differences in attitude between Rochelle and Darren were like night and day. It hurt her to admit it, but she actually understood Rochelle’s treatment of her more than Darren’s. If Darren weren’t trying so hard to make her feel welcome, she might prefer his presence over her sister’s. As it was, she didn’t exactly want to see either of them.

Ben walked in and thankfully interrupted her thoughts.

“Aren’t you going to finish cleaning up your mess?” He looked down on her as if he were talking to a child. She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind when the doorbell rang.

Everyone rushed into the living room at the sound. Khal stood behind the doorway and was holding his gun at the ready, Jacob had the dagger and was hiding around the corner in the office. Only the wolves were calm and collected since they could identify the smell of their caller. It was only Marie. Hopefully she was here to have Ben violated by a horse.

Ben shook his head and braced himself for what was sure to be another chastisement and opened the door warily. Apparently he was expecting a horse as well.

“Marie,” he said, and extended a hand to the old woman. She didn’t take it, rather she put a piece of paper in his hand and continued to stare blankly ahead. They looked at her in concern as Ben opened the note and drew in his breath sharply.

“The witch has Charlotte and Sadie,” he said gravely, his eyes filled with terror and he trembled with rage. His trembling increased and his beast rose to the surface.

“We can get them back,” Kenna said. “We have to stay calm.” He nodded.

“We’ll get them back,” he choked out, and his body relaxed a little. She wondered how much of the emotion was suppressed.

They crammed everyone into Rochelle’s car after putting Marie in an upstairs bedroom. The road to the old woman’s house was bumpy and if Kenna had any food in her stomach she might have thrown up. They let Khal, Jacob, and Rochelle out in the desert half a mile from the house so they could act as backup.

They stopped in front of a small double-wide trailer and walked up the steps to ring the doorbell.

“Come in,” someone said. She recognized the witch’s voice, her mother’s voice.

They opened the door and Darren tensed before following Ben inside. Kenna took up the rear.

Charlotte’s fear-filled eyes glanced between them and little Sadie, who sat on the witch’s lap. The girl was munching on a cookie as the witch ran her fingers through her hair. She didn’t see the scarred girl anywhere.

“Hello, Darren.” The witch smiled up at him with fake warmth.

“Isn’t she adorable? She reminds me so much of your little boy that I met so many years ago.”

He growled menacingly and Ben laid a hand on his shoulder.

“What the hell do you want?” Kenna demanded. She wasn’t about to play games with this thing.

“You shouldn’t talk to your mother that way, young lady,” she chastised. Kenna didn’t dignify that with an answer.

“I don’t want to be associated with something like you, I just want you to let the children go.”

“When I have what I want, I will return them.” She looked at them expectantly then clucked her tongue in impatience.

“Fine, all I want is for your friend outside to give me my dagger back. It’s all right, you three. Come on in.” They walked in behind Kenna, who gasped when she saw their blank eyes. She gave a panicked glance at Darren and Ben, thankfully they were still glaring at the witch before them.

“So you can use it to become immortal, your highness?”

“So you’ve figured it out, but there’s no need for formalities. I’m going by Sarah at the moment. And no, I’m already immortal, but my reasons are none of your business.” Something felt off with her answer.

Sarah focused her gaze on Jacob.

“Give me the dagger, Jacob.”

Jacob removed the dagger from his coat and began to hold it out but Kenna snatched it from his hands.

“Do you want little Sadie here to suffer the same fate as Darren’s son?” she arched an eyebrow at Kenna.

Kenna took in a reluctant breath and held out the dagger and started to walk toward her.

“Wait,” she commanded. Kenna stopped, not because she was compelled, but out of fear for the child.

“Sadie, sweetie. Will you be a darling and fetch that pretty knife for me?” The girl nodded and hopped off the woman’s lap, cookie still in hand, and reached toward Kenna.

Suddenly, Khal removed the gun from his holster and pointed it at the witch.

“Stop!” She commanded him and he froze with a painful grimace and his eyes glazed over again. Ben took this as an opportunity to leap toward the witch, but Khal turned the gun on Ben and pulled the trigger.

Kenna didn’t spare a moment to think as she reacted and pushed Ben to the ground. They fell hard and pain seized her chest as her breath rushed out of her. Her eyes darted to Sarah as the witch let out a blood-curtling scream. She clutched her ribs in shock as Charlotte pulled a bloodied knife away. She screamed again, spread her fiery wings and took flight. The window shattered around her and glass rained to the ground around her in her hasty flight. Then she was gone.

She laid there in pain and panic filled her as she realized she couldn’t sit up. Darren knelt above her and began spouting medical jargon to the people around him.

Her fear grew cold when she couldn’t pull air into her lungs, and her vision grew hazy when she looked down at her blood-soaked shirt.

Darren tore her shirt and bra open, leaving her bare to the breeze. He said something about a vena cava and internal hemorrhaging as he pulled a card out of his wallet and pressed it to her wound. She vaguely wondered if he were going to turn her into a credit card machine. She tried to giggle but choked on the blood in her mouth. She looked up at him, confident that he could fix whatever was wrong, and tried to give him a small smile.

Tears streamed down his cheeks, she looked over at Jacob and frowned. He was crying and smoothing her hair. She tried to squeeze his hand, but that would have to wait. Feeling tired and warm, she let herself drift to sleep.