Warrior of Fire

by Shona Husk

  “Magic can be used for good or ill. If you really wanted to bind your boyfriend to you, you could. But that wouldn’t be love and there would be negative consequences.” And she had no idea how to do something like that. Why would anyone want to force someone to stay in their life? That would be like casting a hex; until the curse was seen through the two people would be trapped in each other’s lives. It was much better to let the person go and never see them again.

  Emily smiled. “Like what?”

  Leira had no idea. The Albah didn’t mess with things that. Losing their entire civilization for breaking the laws of nature had kind of made everyone a little more cautious. No one was supposed to cheat death.

  Leira held the bag in her hand. The bag held the trimmings of a spell. If someone put enough will into it, it would work. Most people didn’t, or couldn’t. But the act of going through the proscribed ritual could help change their mindset, which was often enough. Change the path they were on as Saba would say. Perhaps she should take one of her own spells.

  “You might become miserable with him.” Leira didn’t think that Emily would be able to work the love charm, and she wouldn’t be able to modify it to bind Julian. He was Albah and could deflect magic like a duck could shake off water.

  Emily shrugged. “Then I could set him free when I was done.”

  “He might become miserable with you. Do you want that to happen?” If Emily loved him, she wouldn’t want to hurt him. But this didn’t sound like love to Leira.

  “But he would be mine.” There was a flash of anger in Emily’s eyes. She was really burned about losing Julian.

  “Would he? When in his heart he was anywhere else and looking for ways to escape, but finding them all locked because of the spell?” How could anyone do that to another person?

  “Then how do I keep his heart?” There was an almost pleading note in Emily’s voice.

  Oh my God. Emily really did feel something for Julian.

  This was hellishly awkward.

  Leira put the spell back on the shelf. “You can never truly own someone’s heart.”

  “Unless it’s in a jar.” Emily smiled, all warmth gone from her eyes. She took a step closer. “Is there a spell to keep the mistress away?”

  Leira’s fingers became warm as she summoned fire to her. It flickered against her palm where Emily couldn’t see it.

  “You could try a protection spell.” This was a ridiculous conversation. But she didn’t know for sure that this was Emily and she couldn’t go around incinerating people on a suspicion, no matter how tempting it was.

  Even if this was Emily, killing her would be bad. Killing the ex when she and Julian had gone out for lunch did make Leira look like the jealous new partner. Quinn would have a hard time getting her out of that mess. And then there was the magic to somehow cover up. The most unfair bit was that she wasn’t even doing anything with Julian. They were friends…at the moment.

  “Does it go something like this? Stay away from what is mine, little witch. Or I will kill you.” Emily grabbed Leira’s wrist.

  The fire in Leira’s hand swelled and became a ball. Emily’s eyes widened as though she’d never seen real magic before. She let go and stepped back but not before Leira saw the small tattoo on the inside of her wrist. A trident.

  The ocean had swallowed the Albah’s civilization thousands of years ago.

  “How did you do that?” The bravado was gone from Emily’s voice.

  “This?” Leira tossed the ball to her other hand and made it go out. “Magic. Get out, Guardian of Adam. If you are smart, you will leave the country and never come back.”

  Emily shook her head. “I won’t leave until you are all dead.” Then she picked up the spell bag and ran out of the shop.

  Leira’s hands shook. She wanted to throw up. She’d survived talking to a Guardian. Did that count as the first threat?

  She needed to call Quinn.

  She grabbed her cell phone and dropped it. Her hands weren’t obeying. She forced slow breaths, but adrenaline was still kicking her in the ribs. She picked up her phone; the screen was cracked.

  She swore, just what she needed. Despite the crack she was able to call Quinn. She didn’t know if she was ringing him because he was a cop or because he was the head of the Albah. Right now it didn’t matter.

  * * * *

  By the time Julian finished work and got back to the hotel, all he wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. He’d spent the afternoon trying not to think about Leira and what she’d hinted at. He was in her future.

  That meant they ended up together.

  Or they had. A part of him was disappointed that that option was off the table now. He’d been erased. That was bullshit. It was his life and he wasn’t going to be dictated by a vision. They could be changed. He knew that. It was in his mother’s diaries.

  He didn’t kick off his shoes the way he would have at home. He turned on the lights and walked carefully through the room, which took about thirty seconds. Ever since finding the iron in his apartment he’d been more careful. There were no iron tacks on the floor of his hotel room. He flicked back the neat covers ready to flop down and flick on the TV. Sprinkled all across the sheets were iron filings. They looked silvery and innocent in the light.

  The sheets fell from his hand. He checked his fingers to make sure there were no filings on his skin. Then he washed his hands to be sure. His heart thumped and sweat formed on his back. This was not random and not Emily being spiteful.

  The Guardian knew he was here.

  He might as well go home. At least there he had an advantage and he could strengthen the wards. He couldn’t go so far as to making the flat burst into flames if there was an intruder—there were too many other people living in that apartment block who might get hurt—that was more of an attack ward that the women could make. But he could still put together something that would stop a Guardian.

  He should get Kirin to do something and his father too. If his apartment was warded by three elements, that would be better. He’d be safe. And what about when he was on the train or at work?

  Would it be a bullet? Or would the Guardian go more old-school? Hanging? A fake suicide? Burning—he’d like them to try. Not all witches burned.

  His phone buzzed from the hotel bedroom. Emily had texted him today. He hadn’t replied. He didn’t know what to say. As much as he didn’t want it to be her, that seed of doubt had been planted. How could he have been so stupid?

  But they’d had fun at the start. It had been easy. It had been fake. The whole thing had been nothing but a scam to get him to reveal the other Albah in Perth.

  He washed his face and threw his things back into his bag.

  He checked the messages. They were from his father. Three missed calls. Then a text.

  Emily is the Guardian. She confronted Leira in the shop.

  Was Leira all right? His father hadn’t said. If something had happened he’d have said, wouldn’t he? He called his father, needing to be sure Leira was okay. At least they knew now who was hunting him. It didn’t feel any better, though.

  Julian didn’t wait for any greeting when his father answered. “Dad, is Leira alive?”

  “Yes. We’ve Emily on tape shoplifting, which means we can actively look for her.”

  That seemed like a dumb thing for her to do. “What did she take?”

  “A love spell. Is there anything you want to tell me?”

  Fuck. “No. It wasn’t that serious.” It had never been that serious. They had both agreed that it was nothing but short-term, convenient fun.

  “I think she thought it was,” his father said.

  “She wants to kill me. She’s a Guardian.” That was entirely the wrong kind of serious for a relationship.

  “She only started trying to kill you after you dumped her. Maybe she was hoping to find another Albah to kill instead of you.”

  “Like Leira.” This was
becoming a rather big mess. “Emily left filings in the hotel bed.” That was not the kind of thing one did if they were trying to win their lover back. Flowers, chocolates…a card that said sorry for being a Guardian and wanting to kill your kind. “I’m going to head home.”

  “I’ll meet you there, and then we are going to the shop. It’s the most well-warded place. Plus she already knows about it. We need to see what’s coming.”

  Julian winced. He didn’t want a reading and he didn’t want his father standing there for it. But his father was right. They did need to peek into the future and try to derail Emily’s plans. Maybe knowing was the only way to do that.

  “Do you have anything of hers at your place?” His father was still talking and being completely cool and rational.

  “Yeah, she left a toothbrush and a few bits. I’ll grab them.” Leira was going to do the highly unethical reading on Emily. That didn’t sit right, but what else could they do? Wait like tethered lambs until the axe came?

  “Good.” Then there was a pause. “Julian, I want you to destroy your phone.”

  “What?” It was the only way he could stay in touch with everyone.

  “Just do it, before you leave the hotel room. I’m not asking, I’m ordering.”

  He remembered Emily holding his phone the last night they had been together. Had she done something to it? That meant that she had seen him put in his passcode at some point. How many times had she been through his phone while he wasn’t in the room? Had she noted the phone numbers of all of his contacts just in case one was Albah? Was she working her way through that list, calling them up or doing some kind of search on them?

  He swallowed. He’d only had the phone three months. “Okay.”

  “And the sim. I’ll give you a prepaid at your place.”

  That was going to be inconvenient. “Destroy the sim, or can I keep it for when this is done?” He didn’t want to be telling everyone he had a new number.

  His father was silent for a moment. “You’re worried about your social life. I’m worried about your actual life. And everyone else’s.”

  The line went dead. At least everything was all backed up as of a few weeks ago. It wouldn’t all be lost.

  He sent a final message to his father. Leaving now.

  Then he pulled the sim out. He held it in his palm and incinerated it in seconds, the flames like the caress of a lover. Then he crushed the phone on the bathroom tiles and walked out.

  If anything happened to him now, he had no way of calling for help, but if she had been tracking him via his phone, she was screwed.

  She couldn’t have been tracking Leira. That meant Emily had seen him at lunch and had followed Leira the old-fashioned way. That had been her in the crowd, not him being overly worried.

  When it was just him being hunted, he’d been concerned. But Leira hadn’t asked to be dragged into this. Somehow she had been and her future, their future, had been replaced.

  It wasn’t only his life Emily was playing with, and that pissed him off.

  * * * *

  Julian made the short walk from the train station toward his apartment block. He could hear sirens and see smoke rising into the night sky. He believed in magic, but he didn’t believe in coincidences. He was sure the fire was coming from his building.

  There was no shock when he stopped across the road and saw that it was his apartment block on fire. Emily was closing off options. Playing with him, showing how much pain she could inflict before she did something. He put his hands on his hips and let out a sigh. There went his idea of getting something that Emily had left at his place. There went everything he owned.

  His father was talking to the uniformed cops who were on the scene. Julian didn’t want to go over. He was now that guy with the stalker for an ex. He wanted to turn around and walk away, but he’d invited this trouble the moment he’d smiled at Emily. That had been the start. She’d seen him and taken the chance and he’d made it easy by agreeing to what she was offering. This could have been worse. It could’ve been his younger brother that she’d claimed.

  It could have been anyone. This wasn’t about him at all. Emily would’ve done the same trick to any Albah male she’d stumbled over. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and dumb enough to think that something good had landed in his lap without him lifting a finger.

  He crossed the road and approached his father. “What happened?”

  “They think the gas must have been left on in one of the apartments.” The way his father was looking at him, it was clear that apartment was his.

  He kept his mouth closed. The two other cops were looking at him. They weren’t the same men from the other night, but he was sure they’d heard about the ex who had left tacks in the kitchen. He did not need them looking into his life. Would they think he’d done it for the insurance?

  He looked up at the building. Was Emily trying to force him to stay with his father and reveal where he lived? He was not putting his father and brother at risk.

  His father finished talking to the cops and they walked around to the side of the building where his father’s car was. On the white paint was a fresh piece of graffiti.

  A red trident.

  It meant nothing to him, only that Emily had a much more delicate trident tattoo on her inner wrist. She’d said she was a Pisces. He hadn’t questioned it because he knew nothing about star signs.

  His father pointed. “She wanted you to know this was a Guardian attack.”

  “Tridents are the mark of Guardians?” He really should have known that.

  “The mark of a branch of Guardians I’ve been told. Leira is looking into it.”

  “Right.” Leira was fast becoming the Guardian expert. She must be thrilled with that. “But that’s three warnings.” It was meant to be two and then death. Had she planned for him to be in the apartment when it went up? He was glad he’d worked late and spoiled that for her if that was the case.

  “Nothing is fitting the known MO of the Guardians, so I think we can forget about that.” His father handed him a cheap phone. “I’ve put the important numbers in there. We’ve all switched over. I’ve let Archie knew we’re having some trouble. It will be safer if Kirin leaves sooner to join her.”

  Julian nodded. “And safer if I don’t see him between now and then.” He wouldn’t be able to see his brother to say good-bye. That wasn’t fair on either of them.

  “Yeah. That would be for the best.”

  “I’m sorry.” Julian lifted his gaze from the phone.

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “Four months and I didn’t pick it.” He should’ve known something was off. “How did I not see what she was?”

  “She lured you in. You can’t suspect everyone you date otherwise you’d never leave the house. I’ve already disseminated the tattoo and the honey pot information to the other Albah.”

  “Honey pot?”

  “A pretty girl to lure info out of an unsuspecting man. It’s an old trick, but the Guardians have never used it before to the best of our knowledge. I’m surprised that you were intimate with her.”

  He did not want this conversation. “Can we not go there? It’s been a shit day without discussing my relationship with my ex. Was Emily even her real name?”

  “We’re still following up. It takes time, even though there are enough of us in law enforcement.” His father opened his car door and got in.

  Julian got in on the passenger side. “What now?” He needed to find a new place to live. He was going to need new everything. He didn’t want to think about it.

  “Now we go to the shop as planned.”

  “Won’t she be expecting us there? Herding us so she can kill us?” If he were a Guardian, he’d be staking out all of their known hideouts. The shop was the one place that Emily knew about now that his apartment was gone.

  “Right now she doesn’t know where you are.”

  Chap
ter 9

  “You have reported no death.” Her mother’s voice was cool.

  Emily winced at the ice in the tone. “No. But I have uncovered a second family. There are two daughters here.” Leira was too cute and perky. Emily had felt sick watching her and Julian eat lunch together.

  Julian had been hers. She fingered the pink satin bag that held the stolen spell. It was wrong to want him. He was one of them; he looked human, but wasn’t.

  Leira definitely wasn’t human. Human’s couldn’t hold fire in their hands. They had been doing something at the beach that day. Did Julian know what Leira could do? Could he do that?

  “I don’t care about them,” her mother snapped. “We eliminate the men. The way we always have. When there are no men, the Albah will die out.”

  Emily nodded. She knew that. Killing the men was effective and they were easy to target as she’d proven. Julian had readily agreed to her offer of a casual relationship. But that was all he’d wanted her for. She wasn’t good for anything but sex. He’d marry an Albah female…someone like Leira. “Do the men have the same magic as the women?”

  “No… What do you mean magic?” Her mother’s voice became guarded.

  “One of the women made fire. Held it in her hand.” That was the kind of special affect usually confined to movies. Her mother had never mentioned magic before, only that the Albah had the ability to became undead blood drinkers who could enslave humans. And there were six of them now. Six vampires running around eating people.

  And they were just the ones that the Guardian had heard of.

  She had to remember that was what Julian could become.

  She had no idea how the change happened.

  “Mom?”

  “You have to make the kill and be initiated before I can tell you more. I’ve told you everything I can. The council will call you tomorrow. They are giving you one week to kill your Albah and gain membership. If you fail, you will be on your own. You are my bloodline. We can trace our lineage back five hundred years. While humans accused each other of witchcraft, we dealt with the real witches.”