Igniting the Flame (The Ignited Girl Series Book 2)

by EJ Everette

  I suppose there is no time like the present when it comes to learning how to fight. Crossing my fingers that I don’t fuck this up and end up slicing my own arm off, I hop up to my full height, bracing for spiky’s attack. Holding the sword piece out before me, I twist it back and forth like a baton, hoping to ward the demon away. Instead, I end up looking like a complete idiot auditioning for a small town beauty pageant instead of a badass warrior. My moves are so laugh worthy, apparently, that spiky stops his advance completely to watch me in all my pathetic glory. How did Buffy make all this demon fighting look so damn easy?

  Seeing as how twirling is getting me nowhere, I opt to change my tactic, thrusting the blade out in a jabbing motion in the direction of the demon. This causes it to back up, sheer terror covering its face. Yes! Now we are getting somewhere. Feeling epically frightening in my new role as ninja warrior, I continue my jabbing motion, jumping with another squeal when someone grabs me from behind. Thankfully, Chance’s strong arm comes up to block my response to his approach as I was just seconds away from decapitating him. Well, I can tell myself that at least.

  “Let me help you, princess.” Chance drops the hand that had just blocked my attack until he holds my wrist just below where my hand is wrapped around the blade. “You must keep strength in your arm, forcing power through with each movement. Your elbow should stay loose to adjust with ease while your muscles remain firm for the attack. Like this.”

  He lines us up, once again pressing his bare chest against me, though this time at least he is behind me and can’t see my face turn bright red from the contact. His arm runs parallel with mine, the contrast between the two hilariously obvious. I look like a damn twig compared to his mountain man arm. His other arm falls to the other side, bringing his hand to rest on my exposed abdomen. I get this strange feeling like we are backwards waltzing as he moves us forward toward the slowly retreating spiky demon.

  Sounds from the horde behind us make me want to push Chance away, afraid for our backs to be turned to the attackers, but he keeps steady, guiding me to move my wrist in a slashing motion. A medium-sized demon of some sort approaches to my right and before I can react Chance moves our joined arms in its direction, slashing it from shoulder to hip in a slanted motion. I always wondered what it would sound like to cut into something so large, picturing this clean ripping sound. Instead, the deep cut into the demon’s skin makes a fleshy zipper sort of noise that has me ready to turn and vomit. Why does it have to sound so juicy? Fucking disgusting.

  During the attack from our side, spiky must have built up some confidence and once again comes at me, hoping my distraction will provide easy pickings for it. Too bad for the creature, Chance is ready and this time our sword blade moves in a jabbing motion much more refined than the one I was attempting on my own, stabbing deep into spiky’s gut. I immediately go to pull the blade out and Chance releases his hold on me as two more demons approach from our left. Without Chance’s help, though, I can’t seem to get the blade all the way out. Ick. It’s stuck in the ribcage or whatever of this creature, dark black ooze dripping from the stab wound I created.

  Shit, now what? I raise my leg to provide myself some leverage against the being, but it’s not dead so it swats at my gesture, slicing deeply into my shin. My own blood begins to fall, mixing with the black ooze from the creature, while I hold on to the blade, refusing to let it go. A thought occurs to me that should probably have been more obvious before but hey, I am new to all of this still. I can channel some of my stored energy! Just thinking about it causes my skin to light up, glowing from my shoulders down to my hands, both wrapped around my blunted blade. Power ripples through me and I jerk on the blade, the metal slipping out of the demon’s body like I am merely cutting through butter. I use my strength to lunge at the creature one more time, this time swinging my left arm around to punch it in the side of its head. The demon falls to the ground, unmoving, at my feet.

  Now that's what I’m talking about! Sparing a second to glance over at Chance, I see something that looks like hunger in his eyes, still jet black, as they stare at me intently. I send him a thumbs up because, let’s face it, I have absolutely no social abilities on earth or in a demon realm, and then move forward to kick at the next demon in my way.

  We continue this onslaught until I start to feel myself waning, the use of my energy taking its toll on my body not to mention the general weakness from barely eating and being tortured for weeks. There are still too many of them, though, and I don’t think Chance and I can take them no matter how amazing we may be. I pull my blade, now covered in dirt and that black ooze stuff, up to prepare for whatever approaches me next, but once again it reflects light back at me from the flames on the wall. Maybe… maybe I can do that fire trick again, I wonder.

  Still sloppy as all get out with my weapon, far from the Xena impression I see in my mind, I use my fast feet to turn, dodge, and move across the floor until I am standing next to the torch. Reaching out with my left hand, still very much unwilling to part with my new weapon, I grab the stick in my fist, removing it from the wall. I can see the room so much better now that I am controlling the light, realizing that this space is really only about the size of Leanne’s bedroom back home with the small alcove area behind me and tunnel entrances to my left and right. The demon horde has been piling in from our right, but I haven’t seen any come from the left. This has to be the way out. Seeing a small window of free time, I close my eyes to reach out to the other guys. Sure enough, I can feel them closer than ever before. They must be just right around the corner from where we are fighting now.

  “Chance! Let’s go!” I don’t waste time to see if he hears me, feeling a warm sensation the moment he decides to move in my direction. This whole connection thing is next level and I am really going to need a handbook of sorts from the guys once we are out of here.

  “You have a plan?” He looks at me with a confidence I surely don’t feel, despite the fact that he had to teach me how to hold a dang sword in the middle of our mini battle just a few moments ago. I nod, unable to say anything in the moment, refocusing my mind on where I can feel my energy stored. Almost as if it were in a physical jar, I can sense how little I have left, but it will be enough. I know it will.

  I start to back toward the left tunnel entrance, Chance somehow seeing my intention and moving to stand just to the right of me but close enough he can stop anyone from getting to me while we retreat.

  “The guys are just around that corner. I’m not sure why they haven’t come to us yet, but I know they are there. I need you to… umm… to trust me.” Trust. It is about to come down to trust and I wouldn’t blame him at all if he didn’t trust me one lick. I have been standoffish at best, pulled away, shit pushed away more like it, and what does he really know about me aside from what some prophecy has told him? I sure as shit don’t blindly trust people, even the ones I have gotten to know.

  “Of course I trust you. I told you, where you go, I go. Lead the way, princess.” Chance’s hand at my back is so reassuring, fuck it my eyes well just a bit at the honesty I feel from him, but I have to focus so I blink the tears away. Turning away from him, the ocean blue of his eyes having returned at some point, I push him out of my mind before I do something I could regret.

  “Good,” my voice breaks a tad but I play it off as nerves, “because it’s about to get hot in here and we are going to have to run for it. Ready?” I hear him grunt a reply beside me which is all I need to start moving.

  Raising the torch out in the direction of the new wave of demons coming our way, I push my energy outward toward the small fire in my hands. Right before I feel it release, I look up to see Dagnoroth approaching us from the tunnel. He looks so epically pissed I want to run and hide and laugh at his anger at the same time. He shouts something, but the boost has already left my body, fanning the flames as they shoot like a fucking blow torch from my hand. Wails fill the small space, echoing off the walls so that it sounds like they are comi
ng from all directions. I hold the fiery torch out for a few seconds longer, my hand and arm slowly being coated in translucent blue and red flames, the result of using my energy I have already come to expect.

  “What? How? My goddess.”

  I hear Chance but I am so absorbed in the final stores of energy leaving my body I can’t respond. When the imaginary jar inside of me is completely empty, I feel myself start to drift away, knees buckling beneath me as I tumble to the ground. Strong arms catch me before I can sink all the way to the floor, and Chance pulls me tight into his chest whispering something I can’t quite make out in my ear. I feel the gentlest brush of his lips to my forehead before he starts to move. My vision is darkening but I can tell we are running down the tunnel though Chance keeps me so firmly trapped against him I barely register the jostle of his feet hitting the hard ground. I hold on as long as I can before I feel myself unable to remain conscious any longer. Just before I black out completely I hear the best sound I’ve heard in a long time, though the voice I hear seems far from pleased.

  “What in the hell happened to her?!”

  31

  Mitch

  “What the hell happened to her?” I bark the question the second I see an unconscious Gray wrapped tightly into Chance’s chest. His naked chest, but who the fuck knows what they’ve been through so I let it go for now.

  The guys and I have been standing outside of this cave entrance for the last few hours. We could hear sounds of a fight bouncing off of the rocky corridor but some sort of barrier kept us from entering the cave. Instead, we stood here like worthless bystanders while Chance and Gray were enduring whatever was going on in there. I hated every second of it, and it made me more than a little pissy.

  Chance scowls at my question, taking offense to what it implied, that he let something else happen to her. I know it is not right to blame him, that he is not even remotely at fault for her capture despite how I can sense he feels, but he is all wrapped up in his guilt, unable to see anything else. Of course, that means he thinks we all put the fault on him, leaving his defenses up. Rolling my eyes, a trait I seem to have taken on after just a short time with our princess, I try to send calming thoughts through to him, letting him know we are all just high strung and worried about him. I am not sure just how extensive our powers are in this realm now that we have started the bond with Gray, but it can only help.

  “Here, I will take her. You look exhausted.” Dean steps up to take Gray from Chance, not that the poor fool looks much better despite not having been kidnapped and tortured like our blonde brother, but the man just pulls her tighter into his chest, unwilling to let her go. His blue eyes flash a dark black before returning to their previous state. Interesting.

  “She is fine. I am fine.”

  “Okay, whoa man, I was just trying to help. You are bleeding and so is she.” Dean’s voice practically growls out this last part, drawing all of our attention to the sleeping girl before us and the all too evident blood dripping down her leg.

  “I will say it again, what the hell happened?” Looking to Chance, I see his eyes locked onto the wound on Gray’s shin, a deep slash still actively producing blood. I know that look, we all do. It is the same one we have all had after a big battle. The one where we finally take notice of our surroundings having left the intense fighting behind. The look we get when we are forced to acknowledge those we have lost in the battle, our own injuries, and the full extent of what we just barely survived. I feel it before I see the change in his expression as the reality that Gray is badly hurt and needs attention reaches him. He drops to his knees, all of us quick to rush to his side. He, reluctantly, allows me to take Gray from him as Rip reaches into his pack for some supplies. He hands a few things over to Dean, indicating he should treat and bandage Gray’s leg as Rip starts to patch up our brother.

  Still unconscious, Gray’s body feels so small in my arms. She has always felt tiny, of course, seeing as how I am basically the size of a grizzly bear even in my earthly form, but something feels off about her. Running my eyes over her I can see she has lost a tremendous amount of weight. My mind has to do all sorts of calculations, trying unsuccessfully to figure out just how long they must have been trapped down there.

  “Just over four weeks.” Rip is looking at me, my confusion evident at my observation of her weight loss. “It has only been five days for us, but the conversion means they have been here for a little more than four weeks. Give or take a few days.” He looks sad, as if suffering from a great loss, and his emotions are so distraught I quickly pull out of them, focusing my attention back on the girl in my arms.

  “Shit. An entire month of messed up demon shit. How are they even here right now?” Dean shakes his head in both awe and disbelief, both sentiments my own feelings match with perfectly. He goes about cleaning the cut on Gray’s leg while I do an inventory of the rest of her, checking for any additional injuries. Strangely enough, she looks practically unharmed everywhere else. Aside from the cut she obviously earned during their scuffle before they got through the tunnel, there are no bruises or cuts anywhere else. She looks greatly malnourished, for sure, but her skin isn’t pale like I would expect after a month of being locked up in a cell in the dungeon of the demon realm.

  “Why doesn’t she look worse?” My musings make it out into a question I pose for the rest of the group, curiosity outweighing my need to keep to myself. “She looks smaller, like she has been starved, but other than that she looks normal. Healthier, even. Like, her hair is soft as silk, her skin glowing with life. I don’t get it.”

  Everyone is quiet for a moment and then a small, tiny voice that makes me feel like I’ve died and gone to some heavenly realm answers me.

  “I healed myself.” My eyes shoot down to take in the now awake Gray, her gorgeous blue eyes look back into my golden ones. She stares for a moment, looking like she is memorizing my face, before a slight smirk lifts her lips in one corner.

  Maybe I died, but that’s fine. The view is pretty damn nice and I could get used to being held like this.

  “What did you say?” Surprise crosses her face as I try to make sense of what I just heard. Was she talking about me? Does she really think she is dead?

  “What do you mean? I didn’t say anything.” Her shock is evident in her voice. But I know I heard her. I look up at Dean who is hovering so close he is practically sitting in my lap, too. He is gaping at Gray, so much freaking admiration and happiness emitting from him, but when he meets my eyes he is hit with confusion.

  “Did you hear what she said?” I ask him.

  “I didn’t hear anything except that she healed herself. All on her own.”

  What the fuck? I swear I heard her say something about dying and being content to be held like this forever.

  Did I really say that out loud? Monkey speckled ass cheeks, shoot me now! Maybe I can blame it on hitting my head or something during the battle.

  This time I know I heard her, but since I am staring right at her and can safely say she never opened her mouth, it dawns on me that there is only one possible answer.

  “Gray, doll, I can hear your thoughts.” Sure I thought about hiding it for exactly half a second, curious as to what else I can hear from her, but I know how it feels to intrude on others' thoughts and feelings. My blessing is also my curse, giving me access to others emotional thoughts without their permission. The guys are really great at keeping their walls up so I rarely have to be bombarded with their internal musings, but they slip sometimes and I have to block them out or I wind up with a killer migraine.

  Holy shit!

  “Holy shit!”

  The double exclamation from both her mind and mouth make me laugh out loud, her face tinging the sweetest pink at the realization that I, once again, heard her mind. This is all new to me. Usually I am unable to read the guys’ thoughts, sometimes getting one or two really intense notions from them, but never complete sentences. Never actual words, really. I wonder…

 
; “Reid, let your barrier down. I want to test something.” Reid, our usual leader in these missions, has been quiet ever since we realized we were trapped behind the barrier. I think he might be a little upset that his kick ass plan ended up being thwarted by an invisible shield and our girl and brother ended up having to mostly save themselves. Still, since the moment Chance became visible, our princess wrapped in his embrace, Reid’s emotions have been a mix of guilt and relief.

  Like this? I hear him, in my head. I hear his voice. This is definitely new.

  “Well fuck me. It appears I can hear more than just Gray. To be safe, and prevent me from hearing anything you all are not interested in sharing with me, keep your barriers up for now. Once we are home we can figure out what this means and how exactly it happened.” Gray wiggles in my arms until I release her, allowing her to scoot into her own seat on the ground next to me. Dean immediately takes up a place on the other side of her, his body touching her at every possible point he can access.

  God Dean feels so warm and cozy. I just want to lean into him, curl up, and sleep for a few days. He smells fucking divine, too. Almost good enough to li…

  “Okay well someone needs to work with Gray on her barriers and I say we get moving before our friends inside make their way to us seeing as how we stole their prized possessions.” I clear my throat a bit, rising to my feet before turning to help Gray do the same. My girl is deep red at this point, but I put up as many blocks as I can to prevent myself from hearing any more of her wayward thoughts or fantasies.