The Burns Fire

by N M Thorn

  “Well, obviously you want me to answer your questions, handsome?” she murmured, her voice infused with erotic tranquility.

  Gunz nodded again, bringing up some fire closer to the surface, just to be ready.

  “How about we’ll play a game?” she suggested with a tiny smirk on her face. She placed her hand on his cheek, probing him gently with her magic again and her smile widened. “I’ll answer your questions and you’ll let me do my job.”

  Gunz seized her wrist and pulled it away from his face. “How about you’ll answer my questions and we’ll skip on your job. You can just sit down right here”— he patted the couch next to him— "and I’m going to tell your queen that you were unforgettable.”

  The succubus laughed, her red hair flowing around her face in a fake plastic cloud. “It’s impossible to mislead the queen. Each succubus has a unique energy signature and queen Aisling is so ancient and so powerful that she can feel our magical energy at work even when she’s not in the same room with us. Sorry, hon, but if you want me to answer your questions, you will have to enjoy the process.”

  She put her hand on his crotch and applied a little pressure. “Mmm… you’re good… and so ready… I like it…”

  Gunz grunted and grabbed her wrist, but she wagged her finger at him warningly.

  “Don’t you know the rules, hon? You can’t touch me.” She snickered but let go off him. “So, what’s your first question?”

  Her hands went up to his shoulders and she drenched him with her intoxicating magic. He moaned softly as the heat rushed down his spine and his body arched involuntarily. He knew that he was supposed to fight her influence, but her magic was playing with his body entirely bypassing the feeble orders of his brain.

  “Ahh… do you remember… meeting me a little while go… at Missi’s Kitchen,” he managed to ask, panting.

  For a moment Rowan stopped what she was doing, searching his face but then shook her head. “Sorry, Zane, I’ve never seen you before. Trust me, I would remember eye-candy like you.”

  Rowan straddled him, perching herself on his lap and her body started to move in slow and fluid waves. Gunz moaned as she sent more of her seductive magic through him. His mind got foggy and the dark room around him spun. Responding to his emotions, the wave of fire rose in him, instantly burning out the succubus’ magic.

  “My next question…” he panted, his every cell aching for her touch. “We met before, Rowan, and it’s not only that you don’t remember our meeting… When you met me, you didn’t recognize the creature of magic in me. How was that possible?”

  She halted, gaping at him, her eyes wide open. “It’s not possible. You project such a strong fire signature that it would be impossible for someone like me not notice it… Are you sure it was me?”

  Gunz took her hand in his and pulled the bracelets down, pointing at the scars on her wrists. “Do you remember how you got these scars?”

  “No…” she whispered.

  “I gave you this burns when you tried to use your magic on me.”

  “But it can’t be… it’s impossible—”

  With a soft click of the lock, the door opened and the Demonic Queen herself walked inside the room. “But it’s possible, darling,” she purred softly. “Rowan, please leave us. I would like to take care of our honored guest myself.” A soft smile tugged at her lips as she approached Gunz and put her hand on his forehead.

  Uh-oh, thought Gunz, cringing inside, as the Demonic Queen started to wield her magic. “Please don’t…” he mumbled lethargically, but she wasn’t listening. This time her magic was different. She wasn’t trying to seduce him or give him sexual pleasure as Rowan did. At the touch of her magic, his body went numb and his mind got soft and mushy… Slowly the world around him went dark and he fell asleep.

  A strong current of fire through his body woke him up with a start. Gunz opened his eyes and found himself inside the same private room of the club, lying down on the couch with a pillow placed under his head. The succubi were gone and he was alone in the room. Only Mishka was hovering over him, thrusting one fireball after another through his heart.

  “Mishka,” croaked Gunz, still feeling slightly disoriented, “thank you for waking me up, buddy. You can stop now.”

  “Finally,” muttered Mishka grumpily, shaking his head. “That slutty queen did a number on you, Salamander. You weren’t ready for her magic. Be happy she didn’t kill you.”

  “She couldn’t kill me,” muttered Gunz.

  “Oh, that’s just great,” huffed Mishka, rolling his angry eyes. “She couldn’t kill you. Big friggin’ deal! She could have put you on a short leash, bewitch your mind, force you to do her bidding against your will. Any of these options sound better to you?”

  “I know, Mishka, you’re right,” said Gunz, lowering his head. “It was stupid of me to show up here like this. I wasn’t ready at all. Not magically, not physically. Lesson learned.”

  His eyes fell on the corner table that was moved in front of the couch. Except for a business card there was nothing else on the table. Gunz picked up the card and turned it in his fingers. One side of the card was red, and a short note was written on it by hand.

  “If you wish to know the truth, see me tomorrow at 8 PM.”

  There was no signature. Gunz flipped the card over. The opposite side of the card was black. A Ft. Lauderdale address and the name of the company “EverSafe Security, Inc.” were printed on it. There were neither name nor phone number printed anywhere on the card, but Gunz knew exactly who this security firm belong to and the idea of meeting with another supernatural ruler didn’t sound too enticing at the moment.

  Gunz got up and put the card in his pants pocket.

  “Mishka, did you see who left this card here?”

  “Sorry, but I also sort of… dozed off,” replied the wyvern sounding a little embarrassed and vanished from the room, hiding in Gunz’s watch.

  “Well, whatever didn’t kill me today, surely will give another try tomorrow,” muttered Gunz, walking out of the room.

  ~ Tessa ~

  “My investigation hit a dead-end. I tried all the leads I had, but the last trail went cold just like everything else I tried before. I’m failing the Guardians and my girl.

  After considering all my options, yesterday, I decided to visit Father Collins, but didn’t make it all the way. As soon as I pulled out of the condominium gates, I noticed a dark SUV with tinted windows. After I made a few turns, I had no doubt that they were after me. I have no idea who they were and why they were following me, but I felt like the circle around me and Tessa was getting tighter.

  No matter what, I need to find a way to meet with Father Collins. I’ll try again tomorrow.

  R.D.”

  “R.D.” – Reilly Donovan. Tessa closed the diary, her eyes swimming with tears. She put her hand on top of it. The soft leather of the notebook felt warm and soft, and she stroked it gently with her fingers, feeling almost like she was touching her mom’s hand. That was the last record in her mom’s diary. She wrote it the evening before the accident that claimed her life.

  Who was following her mom and why?

  Was her death an accident or did the people in the dark SUV kill her?

  She couldn’t find the answers to these questions in her mom’s diary. And she had no one to ask for help. Tessa thought back to that day at Zane’s house when she found out that Aidan had magic. Aidan – the only person she believed to be normal, the only person she trusted, no questions asked. He lied to her for years.

  And Zane… She just didn’t know him. Tessa shuddered. What in the world made her believe that she knew him well enough to trust. She actually thought that she was attracted to him. What came over me? she scolded herself bitterly. I don’t need either of them. I was always fine on my own. Nothing has changed.

  Tessa put the notebook in the box and slowly walked out of her mom’s secret room. As she closed the door, her eyes fell on the wall clock in the living room.
It was showing ten to four in the morning. She didn’t realize that she spent all night reading.

  She walked into her bedroom and flung herself on the bed without taking the bedcover off or undressing. She fell asleep almost immediately and when she woke up, it was ten o’clock in the morning. After a quick shower, Tessa got dressed and headed to the kitchen. She didn’t feel hungry, so she made a cup of coffee and sat down, thinking what to do next.

  After reading her mom’s diary, one thing became clear to her – her mother’s death wasn’t an accident and she needed to find out who did it and why. Just to visualize her thoughts, she took a piece of paper and started writing everything she wanted to do.

  “1.Find out who killed my mother and why.”

  Possibly finding the truth about her mother and the assignment she received from the Guardians, would help her learn why the Guardians were interested in her. Thinking back to her conversation with Angelique, she wrote the second item on her list.

  “2.Find my second Guardian and talk to her or him.”

  She looked at her writing and pursed her lips. Even if she finds this second Guardian, what if she or he refuses to answer her questions. She drew a giant question mark at the end of the sentence. Maybe before she starts looking for the second Guardian, she should find out who these Guardians are and what their true mission is.

  “3.Learn more about the Guardians.”

  But even if the Guardians refuse to help her, there was always another source of information about her origins and possibly her power. She knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to find them, but she had to try. She couldn’t go on living like this, not knowing what she was and who she was.

  “4.Find my biological parents.”

  Tessa picked up the paper, looked over everything she wrote so far and threw it back on the table. It all looked perfect on paper, but she had no leads and she had no idea where to start.

  Or maybe I do? Tessa got up and ran back into her mom’s secret room. She pulled her third diary out of the box and opened the last page. Father Collins. Her mother wanted to meet with this priest. She thought it was important and most likely she died when she was driving to meet with him. She checked every single paper inside the secret room but didn’t find any information on how to contact Father Collins.

  Her mother was Catholic, and she raised Tessa believing in the existence of God. But she wasn’t very religious, and they weren’t observing the holidays or going to church every Sunday. From her earlier childhood memories, Tessa recalled her mother taking her to an old church. The church was too far away, south of Miami, and her mom took her there maybe two-three times at the most. Is it possible that she was meeting with Father Collins there?

  Tessa locked the secret room and went to the master bedroom which used to be her mom’s. Since her mother’s death, Tessa never opened the door to this room. Too many memories were associated with this place. She knew that every little thing there would remind her of her mother and she didn’t want it. She didn’t want to remember. She didn’t want to feel the crippling despair and pain of loss again.

  For the first time in the last two years, she opened the door and crossed the threshold. Everything in the room was untouched, just the way her mother left it that day. Tessa swallowed her tears, forcing herself to stay focused on her mission. She walked toward the dresser where her mother used to store some of her personal papers.

  A thick layer of dust covered everything in the room. Tessa sighed, thinking how much her mother hated dust and decided that she should clean this bedroom even if she wasn’t planning to use it. Carefully she picked up the chest that was sitting on the dresser and sat down on the bed, placing the chest next to her.

  Inside, there were a few letters, a bunch of business cards held together with a rubber band and a stack of post cards. Tessa recognized the cards and her vision blurred. These were all the birthday and Mother’s Day cards that Tessa gave her over the years. Every single one of them. With unblinking eyes, Tessa stared at the cards scattered all over the bed. She was afraid that if she would blink, she’d start crying and she wouldn’t be able to stop. Ever.

  She took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes with her hands, wiping the unwanted tears away. “I’m going to stay strong,” she whispered. “I’m not going to cry… I promise, I’ll find whoever did it to you, mom. And when I find them—” She clenched her teeth so tight that they squeaked. “They will pay for what they had done to you. I swear…”

  Tessa grabbed the stack of business cards and pulled the rubber band off. Patiently, she checked one card at the time and finally, her determination was rewarded. The last card in the stack had the name of Father Collins printed on it in an embossed gold font. There was no phone number, but the address of the church was printed on the back. Church by the Sea – she read the name of the church, thinking that it was quite an unusual name for a place of worship.

  Tessa got up, hope blossoming in her heart – she found what she was looking for and now she knew what needed to be done next. It took her a minute to put everything back in the chest and return it to its place. Squeezing tightly Father Collins’ card in her hand, Tessa walked out of the room and shut the door.

  The drive to the Church by the Sea was an unnerving blur of stop-and-go traffic during the lunch hour on the southbound freeway. Her fervent belief that she would find some answers in this church was making Tessa impatient and she drove fast and reckless, like she had never driven before. As her little car was swinging between lanes, she was muttering under her breath, cursing bad Miami drivers who didn’t know how to use their turn signals, South Florida tourists who had no idea where they were going and the chronic rush hour on the southbound ninety-five.

  Following the directions of her GPS, she exited the freeway and took a small side street. Turning left and right on different streets, drives and parkways, Tessa slowly left behind the suburban area. The last street merged into a small two-way road that was going through the forest. After fifteen minutes of drive, the obnoxiously cheerful GPS-lady announced that her destination was on her right. Tessa stopped the car and took in her surroundings. There were the usual Florida thickets on both sides of the road and there was nothing anywhere that looked remotely like a church. Since it wasn’t a dead-end, Tessa decided to keep going, following the path.

  After another few minutes of drive, the road came to a dead-end at the ocean side. There was a small space clear of greenery that looked like a parking lot and two cars were parked there. Tessa stopped her car and walked toward the ocean. As she reached the narrow strip of a beach and glanced to the right, she finally saw the church. The building was facing the ocean, but it’s back was enclosed by a grove. It wasn’t clear if it was a park that belonged to the church or a real wild forest.

  Tessa stopped, gaping at the building with her mouth open. She hardly recalled this place from her childhood memories, and most of her memories retained the way the church looked inside. Even if she remembered how the building looked from the outside, as a child she wouldn’t be able to truly appreciate its beauty and the uniqueness of its architecture.

  Tessa didn’t have enough knowledge of history and architecture to identify the century it was built. But she had no doubt that the church was ancient and by the looks of it, merciless time took its toll. The walls were constructed of large, roughly-cut stone blocks. The blocks were worn down and crumbled in places by years of tropical winds and rains, and their surface was covered in patches of dark moss and slithering green vines.

  The whole church looked like a miniature version of a medieval cathedral. It had everything any medieval cathedral had – pointed arches, high roofs and towers, stained glass windows, and even flying buttresses. The facade of the building was decorated by statues. Most of the sculptures suffered the unforgiving effects of time and weather and were mostly destroyed, but the statues of two gargoyles on both sides of the door, looked almost untouched, as though they were carved just yesterday.

 
; Tessa stared at the gargoyles with interest. From her history lessons, she remembered something about gargoyles being used to take the water away from the building walls during rains. But these two didn’t look like rain gutters. Tessa stepped closer, craning her neck to see them better. The gargoyles had the body of a lion with webbed bat-like wings and the face of a dog from hell. Their mouths were opened in a grotesque snarl, their terrible fangs exposed, and their snouts were distorted by rage so realistic that Tessa felt goosebumps rising on her skin.

  As she walked toward the front door, she couldn’t get rid of the feeling that the gargoyles’ furious eyes were following her. She stopped in front of the heavy wooden double-door and pulled on the door handle. Despite the heavy look, the door opened easily and quietly. Gingerly Tessa stepped over the threshold and walked inside the church.

  Inside, the church also reminded her of a medieval cathedral with its tall vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows. It smelled of candles and oils, which was normal for a Catholic church. Besides that, a light, hardly noticeable scent of flowers and freshly cut grass was lingering in the air.

  There was no one inside, so she walked between rows of benches and sat down somewhere closer to the exit door. For a moment, she stared at the altar with a large crucifix behind it. She didn’t pray or think of God.

  After her mother was taken away from her, she never questioned or blamed God for what happened. She accepted things for what they were – accidents happen, and good people have bad things happen to them all the time. For her, it was never about God or his mighty angels. It was about life. And in real life, when shit happens, you have to deal with it and not count on divine intervention. You’re on your own. In her mind, there was no more place for faith and God. The moment she threw the handful of dirt on her mother’s coffin, she buried her faith together with the body of her mother.