Storm the Night

by Zahra Stone

“A really big cat?” I joked. I didn’t want to tell Rae what I’d been doing since she’d left. She was SIA now, and they frowned on rogue vigilantes like me. I had to trust that Nate wasn’t going to turn me in. I didn’t think Rae would if she knew, but I couldn’t put her in that position. What she didn’t know couldn’t get her into trouble.

  “Right,” she scoffed. “Don’t tell me then. You’re funeral.” Rae had never been the type to push and pry, and right now, I couldn’t have loved her more. “So, the flaming thing is pretty easy. Just call your fire to you and picture it in your mind, like a giant fire bubble, and you’re in the middle. The first time I did it, I panicked and didn’t know how to extinguish the flame once I was healed. Jordan ended up dousing me with the hose, but I’ve done it a few times now with no problems.”

  “No special words or incantations or anything?”

  “Nope. Just like everything else with your flame. Think about it, and it will happen. Just be somewhere safe. Somewhere non-flammable. And do it nude if you don’t want your clothes to turn to ash!”

  “Got it. Thanks, Rae.”

  “You going to Grandma’s house?” No wonder the SIA wanted her. She was a step ahead of me.

  “Yeah. Now I know why Grandpa decided to build way out here.”

  “It has its appeal, that’s for sure. Let me know how it goes, okay?”

  “Sure.” Disconnecting the call, I slowed and turned into the long driveway leading to Grandma’s house. It was pitch black out here, no streetlights, and the place was in total darkness. Again, utterly eerie but something I was used to. As kids, we spent many sleepovers in the big old house.

  Letting myself in, I flicked on the hallway light. The hallway ran the length of the house, from the front door to back, and I hurried down the hall now. The back lawn was a scorched mess thanks to my siblings and cousins all practicing our fire demon skills—it was the perfect location to heal myself. Flicking on the outdoor light, I opened the back door and stood on the deck. There was barely a breeze and the night sounds were loud in the silence.

  I blew out a breath, crossed to the first step, and sat down. I untied my Nikes and slid my feet out, whipping off my socks and stuffing them into the shoes. Next was my jeans, tricky to unbutton one-handed, but if I didn’t want my clothes to go up in flames, I had to take them off first. I tossed them onto the deck next to my shoes, panties followed. Now was the hard part. This was going to hurt. Sucking in a breath, I whipped my T-shirt over my head as quickly as I could, unable to contain the yell as pain surged through my entire body.

  “It’ll be worth it,” I whispered to myself, rocking and waiting for the pain to subside to manageable levels. I glanced at the bloodstained T-shirt with a hole in it, now totally ruined. “I fucking liked that shirt too. Asshole.” I was glad I’d killed the vampire, no regrets, except for the little niggling nugget of doubt that said Nate was going to be angry with me. But I couldn’t think about that now. I’d worry about what I’d tell him once I could think clearly without the thrumming pain that was clouding my mind.

  My bra turned out to be the most challenging piece of clothing to remove. I couldn’t twist my arm behind my back to undo it. Instead, I slid the straps down my arms, then turned it, so the clasp was at the front. Even then, I couldn’t undo it one-handed and ended up shimmying it down my body and stepping out of it. The edge of one cup was stained with blood.

  Stepping down onto what barely resembled a lawn, the sharp blades of grass digging into the soles of my feet, I made my way out to the middle, to an already scorched area where the flames couldn’t spread. This was it. Nerves fluttered in my belly, and I was suddenly unsure. What if I got stuck like Rae did? What if I couldn’t turn back? I was here alone. There was no one to turn the garden hose on me if I got into trouble. But the oozing wound on my shoulder told me I was losing too much blood. It trailed down my body in a red blaze, and if I didn’t want to die from blood loss, then I’d better man the fuck up and do this thing.

  Pep talk over, I closed my eyes and summoned my flame.

  It surged over me, covering my body and consuming me whole. I bathed in the glory of my fire, felt it wash away the blood staining my skin, felt the wound in my shoulder knit together, tendons, muscles, flesh, all healing with no trace of the previous trauma. There was no pain. In fact, I felt… euphoric. I stood, body ablaze, and lifted my arms out from my sides, twirling in delight. This felt fabulous.

  “Impressive.”

  I stopped twirling and turned to face the vampire standing on the back porch.

  “Don’t even think about it,” he warned. “You might be able to burn me, but it won’t kill me—you’d best be prepared to face the consequences if you do.”

  His words stung because I hadn’t been thinking about burning him at all. That he trusted me so little was a blow, but then who could blame him? I’d given him no reason to trust me other than my word, and even that was tenuous.

  When I didn’t respond, he said, “Do you need a hand extinguishing yourself? Rae mentioned you might need help.”

  Ah. That’s why he was here. I’d called Rae. She had probably called him, for that was where her loyalties lay now. With the SIA.

  “I’ve got it,” I called my flame back, and with a whoosh, I was no longer on fire. Instead, I stood naked in the moonlight, all pain gone. No more blood, no more wound. And two seconds later, I remembered I was stark naked and quickly spun, presenting my back to Nate, my cheeks heating. He cleared his throat, but I refused to look at him.

  “Inside. Now.” His voice told me he was in no mood for an argument. I hesitated a second too long, it seemed, because hard fingers curled around my upper arm, and I was propelled into the house. He had no problems crossing the threshold, and I frowned. How could he come inside? He hadn’t been invited.

  “Hey!” I protested, wriggling out of his grip.

  “Get dressed, then meet me in the den.” His voice was clipped, and I figured he was angry. He’d obviously worked out I’d killed another vampire, and he was as pissed as hell about it.

  “My clothes are out on the deck, dick.” Urgh, why couldn’t I control my mouth? He was already angry with me; did I have to make it worse?

  “Wear something of Rae’s.”

  “You’ve met her, right? She’s an Amazon compared to me. Nothing of hers would fit.” Why oh why was I arguing with him, wearing nothing but my skin? Shut your mouth Paige and just do what he asks!

  A whisper of air blew my hair from my face, then he was back, my clothes being pushed against my chest. I automatically took them. “Thanks.” But he was gone—waiting in the den, I assumed.

  Carrying the bundle of clothes upstairs, I let myself into the bedroom Rae had claimed as hers and tossed the clothes on the bed. My panties and jeans were okay, but I wasn’t putting on the bloodstained bra, and my T-shirt was ruined. I rummaged in Rae’s drawer and pulled out a black tank. It was too big, but it would do. Pulling it over my head, I frowned at my reflection in the mirror. The way the fabric clung to my breasts, it was apparent I wasn’t wearing a bra, but I shrugged. He’d seen me, all of me, more than once.

  Pulling on my panties and jeans, I carried my Nikes in hand and made my way downstairs, barefoot. When I walked into the den, I was greeted with a glowering Nate.

  “Where have you been?” he demanded, stopping mid-pace when I entered the room. Oh crap. In my determination to prevent the rape of two teenage girls, I’d ignored the fact that he’d told me we had to work tonight. Although to be fair, he hadn’t called earlier, searching for me. It had been one in the morning when he’d eventually reached out, way beyond the sunset he’d initially said. Feeling justified, I squared my shoulders and gave as good as I got.

  “Excuse me? Did we have an appointment? Because you were not at my door at sunset.” My voice dripped ice, and his eyes widened. He wasn’t expecting to be challenged. Good.

  “I told you we had work to do.” Hands-on hips, he towered over me, doing hi
s best to intimidate. It was working but damned if I’d let him see it.

  “Yes. You did. You didn’t show at sunset. Obviously, I had things to do of my own. I am not at your beck and call.” Turning my back on him, I held my breath as I made my way into the kitchen, burying my face in the fridge to hide my slight feeling of terror at standing up to him. My hand only shook a little as I pulled out a bottle of wine. God knows I could use the hit of alcohol. I made a mental note to replace Rae’s stock.

  “Where were you?” Not so aggressive, more curious than anything. I held up the bottle, and he nodded, so I grabbed two glasses and fiddled with the cork, my fingers not cooperating.

  “You’re not dressed for hunting.”

  I could practically feel the heat of his gaze and swallowed. I’d forgotten in the few brief hours I’d been away from him just what a devastating effect his presence had on me.

  “No. I wasn’t hunting.” I relented somewhat, remembering that I had made a deal with him. I could make this easy on myself, or I could antagonize him every step of the way—and pay the consequences.

  “Who were you with? A man?” Was that a hint of jealousy? Surely not.

  “None of your business if I was,” I retorted, feeling a blush heat my cheeks. Jesus, I wasn’t a prude, not by any means, but talking sex with this man was not on my list of things to do. Especially when I’d been fantasizing about fucking his brains out.

  “Must’ve been a hell of a date if he left you bleeding.” Nate’s eyes traveled to my now-healed shoulder, then back to meet my angry gaze.

  “None. Of. Your. Business,” I ground out.

  “You know, if I were to take you on a date, I’d leave you aching in another way entirely,” he drawled, his innuendo clear.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered, horrified, intrigued, and impossibly turned on.

  “Playing with fire, it seems.”

  “Too bad,” I grumbled, my cheeks flushing again, “because we are not discussing this.”

  “Spitfire—”

  “Bite me,” I snapped, shoving the bottle at him. “Open this.”

  Chapter Six

  I flopped onto the sofa in the den, beyond agitated. Nate followed, a glass of wine in each hand, handing one to me before lowering himself onto the couch by my side.

  “Let’s start over,” Nate suggested. I sipped my wine and looked at him over the rim of the glass, waiting for him to elaborate.

  “I came to your apartment earlier. You didn’t answer. You weren’t there.”

  “You let yourself in?” Why wasn’t I surprised? The invasion of privacy niggled.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I listened. For your heartbeat. You weren’t there.”

  “Oh. And we had work to do.” Now I felt terrible. I’d sworn to help him. Instead, I’d let him down. “So we lost another night. Sorry.”

  “When you didn’t answer… I thought you’d run.” My head snapped up, catching the storm gathering in his eyes.

  “I promised I wouldn’t,” I muttered.

  “You tried before,” he pointed out.

  Blowing out an exasperated breath, I played with my braid. “Look. You said it yourself. I am going to have to trust you, and you are going to have to trust me. If you can’t do that, you may as well take me in now.”

  My heart was thundering in my chest, and I hoped he wouldn’t call my bluff. He watched me from the sofa, then breathed in through his nose as if drawing in my scent.

  “You’re scared.” It wasn’t a question.

  Rather than admit any such thing, I blurted out the first thing that came into my head. “Coffee?”

  Nate raised his half-full glass of wine. Oh. Right. Again, my cheeks heated, and I hated the telltale blush, knew he saw every little detail.

  “The question is,” he continued, “why are you scared? Scared of what? Me? I promise you, Spitfire, when you’re on my team, working with me rather than against me, I will protect you with everything I have. I will allow no harm to come to you.” His words were comforting, but that wasn’t what had my breath hitching in my throat and my heart pounding. The truth was, I was scared of my attraction to him. I was scared that I couldn’t keep my hands to myself. And I was terrified of the consequences if I succumbed to the urges I was barely keeping under control because I was one hundred percent sure if I instigated anything with him, he would take what I had to offer and more.

  Changing the subject, I told him what I’d overheard that afternoon and where I’d been all evening. He listened in total silence, not interrupting once. Finally, my words ran out, and I waited for his response.

  “Cory Blanard and Blake Stevens, you say?”

  “Why? What are you going to do?” I was suddenly worried about the boys. I mean, I shouldn’t be, they were assholes for what they had been planning to do, but I’d dealt with them. It was over. Plus, the police were now involved. The girls’ blood would be tested, charges would be laid.

  “What needs to be done,” he growled, rising to his feet, setting his empty glass down on the coffee table. I jumped to my feet too, tiny against his big frame.

  “Don’t you hurt them!” I protested, grabbing hold of his wrist as if I could stop him.

  “They don’t deserve your protection.”

  “I know they don’t. But they’re kids. They deserve a second chance.” I couldn’t face the thought that he was going to go out and kill those boys.

  “They hurt you. Turnaround is fair play.”

  He thought I’d been injured by the boys. And now I had to admit my latest indiscretion, the one I’d been hoping to keep on the down-low because, besides being afraid of my attraction to him, I was also painfully aware that I didn’t want to disappoint him. It rankled like a splinter under my skin.

  “It wasn’t them,” I admitted, turning my back.

  “Who then?”

  Spinning back to face him, I put on my brave face and told him everything. “I was jumped by a vampire when I was leaving the hospital. We… got into it… and he managed to get past my defenses when I was distracted.”

  “Distracted by what?”

  “Checking that no one could see us, that no one was around.”

  “Jesus Christ. Why didn’t you call me?” He ran a hand through his hair, and I wanted to smooth the tousled strands.

  “Oh right, I should have totally said, excuse me one second before you tear my throat out. I just have to call a friend. He jumped me.” I was agitated now, unable to read his reaction. I’d been expecting him to be angry with me, but he seemed almost…indifferent. I didn’t know what to think, and it made me defensive. Snatching up my glass, I headed back to the kitchen, poured more wine, gulped it down.

  “Take it easy on that stuff,” Nate said from behind me.

  “Ha!” I scoffed. “Being half fire demon has given me a strong constitution. And you’re not the boss of me,” I added, once more defiant.

  I heard him sigh, then the click of the door closing. What the hell? He’d just…left? No goodbye? How rude. I gulped down another glass of wine, enjoying the buzz, but I was almost out, only a few drops remained in the bottom of the bottle. Regardless, I tipped it into my glass. No use wasting it. I’d buy Rae another bottle. Hell, I’d buy her a dozen.

  The oblivion I’d been hoping to find in alcohol wouldn’t be tonight, which meant I had to deal with my emotions, which were always on the surface whenever Nate was around. Placing my glass a little too heavily in the sink, I winced when the stem broke, and my hand impaled itself on the broken glass.

  “Fuck.”

  “I can’t leave you for five minutes without you getting into some sort of trouble.”

  I jumped, not hearing him come back in. A shiver danced over me when he cradled my hand gently between his and began picking glass out of my wound. I saw him draw a deep breath, no doubt scenting my blood. When he glanced at me, his eyes were darker than ever, hungry, and I swallowed.

  “Trust me,” he whispered. And god
help me, I had an uncontrollable urge to do just that. I watched with wide eyes when he scored his tongue on a fang and then ran that tongue along the cut in my palm. I felt the edges of the wound pull together, healing. Then he licked again, cleaning up the remaining blood—his reward for a job well done, I suppose. I watched, dazed, and unbelievably turned on.

  “Your blood…” I whispered, my body leaning toward him of its own accord.

  “What about it?” His voice was equally low, yet he didn’t move toward me as I was him.

  “It does things. To me.”

  “Yes.” He nodded as if he were talking to a child. “It heals.”

  “Other things. Like my sense of smell.” I breathed in deeply through my nose, got a face full of his scent. He was chocolate and musk and the outdoors and sex. I almost groaned. I knew that scent was now burned into my brain—I could identify him by smell alone from this point on. “And my hearing. I can hear a mouse fart.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, vampire blood will do that. While it heals, it enhances your senses. It’ll wear off within twenty-four hours.”

  “Oh.” I was relieved and disappointed and then incredibly confused about both of those things. My mind spun. When I didn’t say anything more, he released my hand and handed me a bottle in a paper bag.

  “This might work better.”

  “What?” Opening the bag, I withdrew a bottle of whiskey and barked out a laugh. He’d gone out to get me a bottle of whiskey.

  “You weren’t gone long enough to go to the store.”

  “It was in my car. I’d bought it earlier when I realized you were going to drive me to drink.”

  “You confuse me,” I whispered, not knowing how to react. Why couldn’t he be an asshole? A total dick. Then I could hate him, and all of this would be so much easier.

  “That doesn’t surprise me.” Reaching up, he grabbed two glasses off the shelf and took the whiskey from me, pouring a generous shot into each glass. He handed one to me, then clinked his glass against mine. “Bottoms up.”

  “Cheers,” I responded automatically, taking a mouthful, feeling the burn down my throat, so much more potent than wine, although I liked the bubbly fruitiness of the wine.