Igniting the Flame (The Ignited Girl Series Book 2)

by EJ Everette

  “I never got my hug and I already told my secrets so I was just cashing in.” He winks at me, my heart pitter pattering like a damned fool, before waltzing back over to his spot on the ground. These guys are going to be the death of me, and I survived an entire demon horde attack.

  “What about you?” I direct my question to Mitch. “I obviously know you can read minds, but anything extra up your sleeve? I vaguely recall something about emotions, right?” At the mention of sleeves my eyes naturally move to sneak a peek at Mitch’s arms. They are bigger than any arms I have ever seen, tightly compressed into his shirt sleeves. While I am staring, one of his biceps twitches, causing me to jump in surprise. Mitch laughs a bit, having caught me checking him out. See, death of me.

  “Actually, I have never been able to fully read minds before, to be honest. But yeah, I can read other’s emotional responses to things, gauge their feelings on different matters, and can even tell the location of the guys by seeking out their individual emotional auras. It sounds sappy as shit, but it helps me keep them all in line when they get hot-headed or wander off to do stupid shit.” He throws a knowing glance at Reid and Dean who both immediately throw their hands up, feigning innocence.

  “What changed to make you suddenly able to read minds? You couldn’t read mine before, right?” Quickly I run through all the thoughts I can remember having around the guys, but honestly there is no telling what crazy shit went on inside of my mind when they were around. It’s just been an insane couple of months.

  “I have no idea, actually. Today, right after you guys exited the tunnel, it just sort of happened, I guess.” Mitch looks as if he is struggling to piece things together but coming up short.

  “Chance ignited.” Rip appears from the area he must have been in while working on the portal. Now that it is darker out, there is a weird sort of mist about so even though the ground is flat all around us, we couldn’t see him wherever he was. Wait, did he say Chance ignited? Memories pop in and out of my mind until I remember something they told me that day on the back deck. Chance was the only one who hadn’t ignited yet. But now he has? Didn’t they have to suffer something ridiculously horrible to ignite, like I did? Am I remembering that part right?

  33

  Gray

  “What? When?”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “How do you know that?”

  All of the guys are talking at once, but Chance remains quiet, his eyes locked with Rip’s for a few tense minutes. I guess he didn’t want the guys to know? No, that can’t be right. These guys are like brothers, they all have said so, which means they must share everything with each other. So why the secrecy? And why does Chance look like he has seen a vengeful ghost all of the sudden?

  Rip must know more than I do, obviously, or just read Chance’s expression because he turns to the rest of us, letting Chance ignore everyone’s questions.

  “Everything is ready. Let us all go home.” He walks over to me, reaching down to extend a hand to help me up. I gladly place my hand in his, the gesture alone making him grin in response. Once I am up on my feet, he moves to place his hand at the small of my back guiding me in the direction Reid has already started walking.

  “So what were you all discussing before I showed up?” The casual tone of his voice is soothing. I have missed our time together. Rip grounds me in a way no one else has ever been able to. Something about his confidence in his knowledge and his willingness to help others just resonates within me.

  “The others were just telling me about all of their different abilities from igniting.” It sounds strange to say the words out loud. Just a few weeks or so ago, I was in full-on denial. As much as everything they told me seemed to align with all the weirdness and trauma in my life, I wasn’t ready to accept any of it then. Now, after my time with Mom, and being kidnapped by legit demons, it was hard to live in that state any longer. The refusing to accept reality ship had officially sailed, and I was no longer a passenger.

  “Ah, did they tell you about mine?” He seems curious, though I doubt he would be upset if they had.

  “I remember they called you a fortune teller, or something, when you guys were filling me in on the condensed version a few weeks back.” I hate that I have been so distant with these guys. As soon as the words leave my mouth I see Rip flinch just the slightest bit at the reminder of that day. Or maybe it’s because of the fortune teller part, but I don’t see that being the case. I pushed them all away, like a real bitch, when they were just trying to protect me. I was rude to Rip, even though he gave me every bit of information I asked for. I don’t blame him for harboring some sour feelings about it all.

  “Not a fortune teller, but I can see the future. Sometimes it is just sensory based, like smelling fresh pine around me usually indicates whatever I am seeing is in a forest of some kind, even if the visual itself isn’t clear. Other times I get the full picture in 3D, and I am able to walk around and see it from every angle. It just sort of depends. The downside is that I never know exactly when in time my visions are taking place. Sometimes it is immediate, like the night of the fire when I knew we needed to get to you quickly. Sometimes it is something in the near future, but there is no gauge as to when. It is incredibly frustrating. Not to mention, it hurts like hell every time.” He runs his hand through his hair to emphasize his annoyance with his inability to be perfect all of the time. Poor guy. It has to be exhausting to be the one everyone is always expecting to have the answers.

  “Remember how we told you I was able to get a sight that led us to you the night of the fire?” I nod my head in response, directing my focus to the part of the conversation related to Rip and away from the destructive fire “That night all I got was an image of you standing outside of your home, pain written all over your face, and the feeling like my skin was burning off. I could feel the flames licking at my arms, hands, and face as if I was there. I didn’t know if it was something that was going to happen in the future, or happening right then, but we took no chances.”

  I lean into him as we walk, attempting to comfort him in my own weird way. These guys have done so much for me, literally running into fires to save people I care about, facing demons, you name it. Foreign emotions shift around in my chest, so rare in my life I struggle to put a name to them. I can say, at least, that one of those is the feeling of home. Unsure how to process any of this, I push it back down and rest my head on Rip’s shoulder as we walk.

  I hear him take a deep breath in, like he is inhaling my smell, and suddenly I want to pull away. I know for a fact I smell fucking wretched. I have not bathed in who knows how long. I have been trapped in that disgusting cell, and I have fought nasty demons who oozed their gross blood on me.

  “You don’t know how crazy it has made me not knowing when I would see you again. If I would. Don’t you ever leave us again, little minx. I simply will not have it and in time, you and I will have to have a little talk about all that running away from us. No arguments and this time I will be in control of the conversation.” The fingers of the hand still resting on my lower back scratch into me just the tiniest bit. It isn’t painful at all, but images pop into my head that I quickly work to shove away.

  Just as I am about to reply that I didn’t actually run from them so much as just go on a run when I was kidnapped, loud grunting sounds reach our party from just up ahead. Rip tenses behind me for just a second before snapping into action. All at once, as if their minds are all linked somehow, the guys move in to surround me, their backs to me, weapons suddenly appearing in their hands.

  “Well, there went our easy hop back home,” Reid remarks beside me. “Everyone stays in position. Once we see just how many there are, I want us at full power. Whatever it takes, protect the princess. Gray. Gray!” He is looking at me now as I frantically turn around to look for the incoming attackers.

  “What?” I snap at him, nerves at full force. I have nothing left in my energy jar-thingy. Nothing to use to protect
myself. Nothing to fight with.

  “Gray, look at me.” Reid has turned in so he is facing me, the rest of the guys are still at the ready, backs to us, anticipating the battle ahead. “Gray, you are safe. We are your guardians and we will protect you with every single ounce of life within us. I need you to listen when we speak, move when we move, and trust us. I know it is hard, I know you probably don’t want to, but we are dedicated to you for life. Can you trust us?”

  Can I trust them? The answer is quick, no real thought needed for once.

  “Of course. I trust you all with my life.”

  Reid smiles and I hear a few growls around me from the guys though whether they are out of appreciation or battle cries, I don’t know. He places his finger beneath my chin to catch my gaze.

  “Good. Then get ready princess. We are going to battle.” And with that, he turns around just as the obscene horde of demons rounds the large boulder ahead of us. Holy shit. We are so dead.

  At first count, I see at least two dozen of them. It seems strange that we have walked all this way without a trace of anything but just as we are about to reach the portal, primed and ready to take us home, it looks like the entire population of this realm has come to send us off. The gesture would be sweet if it weren’t for the sheer looks of evil, murderous intent, and angry barking sounds coming from our escort party.

  Chance is shirtless and without a weapon, but Mitch seems to notice his disadvantage, handing a large gun over to him without moving his eyes from the advancing threat. Still, I’ve seen Chance in a fight recently, and honestly, Superman doesn’t really need a weapon. Then again, he looks as exhausted as I do, used up from a day of travel since he didn’t get a piggy back ride to nap through like I did. That, and these demons are much better armed than the ones who came for us in the tunnels, likely having prepared for a fight instead of being thrown off guard. Chance nods at Mitch, accepting a few clips of ammo before shoving them into the pockets of his joggers, cocking the weapon, and preparing for the next move.

  Each of the guys stands primed and ready, but none of them so much as shift their position, despite the closing proximity of the demon horde. I am tempted to say something, snap them all out of whatever trance they seem to be in, when I see Dean’s hand go up in the air. He looks like he is gripping something, his fist tightly closed. A second later, Reid’s fist goes up in the same manner. Each of the guys follow suit until they are all standing in the circle with one fist raised. Just as the first few attackers reach us, they each take two steps out, widening the gap between them enough to be able to move but staying close enough that I am still safely secured behind their wall of protection. They yell out something that sounds like, “For our heart and for our goddess” and then everything sort of happens at once.

  Mitch, Chance, and Rip are all behind me, but I swivel on my feet in time to see the first wave get to the guys. All of these demons look the same. They are like shadowed figures, barely able to be seen, with only a few parts of them looking corporeal, the rest like a frightening shimmer of nothingness. They carry large wooden clubs with thick spiked metal barbs protruding from the tips. My guys have no armor, no shields to protect them, and I can’t help but flinch as the first creature swings its club at Mitch.

  Quicker on his feet than I expected for such a large guy, Mitch ducks, dodging the blow completely, then twists in so his back is to the shadow demon before bringing his large machete-like knife in front of him. With a swift thrust, he angles the blade away from his own body, before thrusting it back behind him just under his left arm. For a moment it looked like he was going to stab himself, the blade pointing to his chest, but the last second deviation meant the blade ended up jammed tightly into the demon at his back instead. With the blade under his arm, both hands on the hilt, Mitch pushes it back one more time, further into the chest of the shadow demon, before quickly pulling it out like he was removing it from a sheath at his side instead of a creature’s body. As Mitch moves away, turning to once again face the onslaught, his back to me, I see he stabbed the demon in just the right place in his chest cavity, one of the few areas where it is more creature than shadow. The demon falls at Mitch’s feet, he and Rip kick it away, and then the battle continues.

  Chance’s gun is aimed high, bullets making their way with killer precision into the skull of everything that approaches us. Rip has what looks like a set of knives, or maybe daggers is the right word, two of which are in his hands but more are secured on a belt around his waist. Much like Mitch’s approach, Rip dives right into the approaching demons. Two come at him at once making my heart race in fear, but I shouldn’t have worried. Rip uses their momentum against them, leaping from his place in the circle to land a kick hard into the same chest piece where Mitch stabbed his demon. The demon falls backward but Rip seems to follow him, using him as leverage to jump even higher, bringing both of his daggers down hard into the neck of the second demon. With a twisting motion, Rip’s blades slice into the shadow, finding a solid place to dig into, and suddenly the shadow’s misty being just dissolves, the head falling off completely but disappearing before it hits the ground along with the rest of the body.

  Rip has already landed behind where the now ghosted shadow demon was, his daggers coated in something thick and dark that turns my stomach just a little. The first one, the one he used as a surfboard, is back up, ready to fight, but Rip just drops his daggers down low in between them then rakes them up the demon’s body. A disturbingly high-pitched scream comes from the shadow’s mouth before it falls to the side, large deep cuts running from it’s middle to its neck. With the second demon’s demise, Rip quickly shifts back into his place in the circle, not even phased by the deaths of his enemies.

  Holy. Fucking. Shit.

  I get it now. I get why Reid said to trust them. I turn in circles, the fight going strong around me, yet not a single demon gets even remotely close to harming me. These men, my guardians, are lethal weapons, trained fighters with skills I can’t even fathom. Already I have seen Reid use his dual swords to slice through multiple shadow demons as they run toward him. Not a single enemy weapon has landed a blow on him, his blades mere extensions of his lean muscular arms. While I am watching him, he does some sort of spinning thing where his blades cross in front of his body, sort of like a helicopter. THAT! That is what I was trying for with my small little blunted blade that ended up looking idiotic at best. Maybe I just needed to have two swords like Reid for it to look right. Sure, that’s what I’m going with. Regardless of the details of how to make the helicopter spin look sexy and badass, Reid has perfected it. His swords barely miss each other, moving like the blades of a mower, taking down every weed they approach without hesitation. Soon, he has eliminated everything on the side he and Dean cover.

  Of course, that is likely in part to Dean’s ridiculously accurate throwing skills. I know everyone’s favorite superheroes are usually the big ones, or the ones with super strength or kick ass equipment, but I have always had a thing for the sharpshooter. Dean’s Hawkeye impression is giving me shivers, watching him pull blades I didn’t even notice before from his chest and legs before flinging them into the approaching enemies. Each finds its mark, much like with Chance’s bullets, in the skull of its intended target. When there is a short reprieve between aggressors, he moves swiftly to gather his weapons from fallen victims before returning to his spot in the circle, always protecting me. All of them. Even submerged in the heat of a fight where they are greatly outnumbered, their focus never shifts from keeping me safe. My guardians.

  34

  Reid

  After we finish off the first wave of shadows, at least another dozen rush us. The guys and I release them from their hold on this life with extreme prejudice, the familiarity of battle coming back to all of us like it always does. It has been too long since we were able to just let loose like this, and if the most precious thing in the world was not at our backs right now needing our protection, I can guarantee each of us would
have already taken off on our own slaughter missions. Even Chance, the only one of us not covered in weapons, seems to be holding his own just fine. I can tell he is drained from already fighting his own little army within the cave but he is keeping pace, firing off rounds with incredible accuracy, as usual, and dropping his weapon to use his hands when necessary.

  There is a slight pause in the battle around us so I take a minute to assess our situation. We really need to get to the portal. There is no limit to how many they can send after us and eventually we will all grow too tired to continue no matter how motivated we are. Each of my brothers looks completely unharmed, thankfully. We may be harder to kill but battle wounds slow us down just like anyone else and prove to be a hindrance we need to avoid at all costs.

  Gray is standing in the circle behind us looking slightly in shock but, honestly, hot as fuck. Her body seems to have taken a natural fight stance, her small jagged piece of shit blade from her fight earlier in her hand, ready to defend herself if necessary. Thankfully, the five of us guys have trained and fought together for so long, she will never have to raise that weapon. Still, it is a huge turn on to see my little warrior wifey in her sports bra and shorts, covered in dirt and grime, standing there with her battle face on. Damn, I love this girl so much. Seeing her in Chance’s arms when he practically crawled out of that hell hole almost did me in. If she had died…

  Head in the game, man. I shake off my pointless dark thoughts. Gray is fine. She is here, and my job is to keep her safe and get her home. Hopefully, once we are there, she will let me hold her for like, forever. Okay, maybe like a day… or at least a few hours. Long enough that I can chase away all the fear of losing her, of what my life would have been like had she not come out of that damn cave.