Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3)

by Oxford, Rain

  I opened my mouth to say that wasn’t necessary, but Darwin cleared his throat and shook his head behind Sean’s back. “What?” I asked in his mind.

  “Never refuse a gift or payment from fae. They have a karma-like balance system and if you refuse, you’re basically wishing them harm. Also, giving you something of monetary value is actually a last resort for us, because that means he has nothing personal related to his lineage that equals the value of his daughter’s life. Therefore, in this case, refusal will also mean that his best isn’t enough for you.”

  “A car would be lovely,” I said quickly.

  * * *

  August 25

  “You’ll see for yourself when you come to visit,” I said. I knew the man just wanted to see his son.

  Darwin was old enough to live alone and was ridiculously intelligent, but he wasn’t all that functional on his own. He would work for days on his research and writing, forgetting to eat and falling asleep in front of his computer like a child. Of course, his mother was a forest spirit, which normally lived in tribes, and his father was a wolf shifter, which normally lived in packs. Thus, Darwin had never been taught to be independent.

  A sharp beep alerted me to an incoming call. “I got a call coming in, so I’ll have to talk to you when you get here.”

  “Good. About five then?”

  “Sounds good.” I hung up with him and answered the incoming call. The number was private. “Hello?” I never offered my name on a phone before I knew who I was talking to.

  “Hey, brother.”

  Marcus. “What’s up?”

  “So, my girl and I are going to try to get out to the farm this weekend and we were hoping you would take care of Joey.”

  The loud bark in the background was timed perfectly. Marcus didn’t have a girlfriend and he didn’t have a dog; this was a code we worked out not long after he found out the feds couldn’t protect him from his father. What he was actually telling me was that someone was on his tail and he didn’t know who. “No problem. Bring him over.”

  “Actually, I thought I should drop him off at your mom’s place on my way out. I figured he might protect her after your ex leaves.”

  Shit. Regina was with my mother and Marcus was in too much danger to deal with it. However, he hadn’t said the words to indicate he needed help yet, and I knew he would say so if he needed my help. I looked at my watch. Fifteen seconds. “Sure, no problem. I’ll pick him up and swing by your place to water your plants.”

  “I got some bug bombs set up. If you would…” Marcus ran security and had confidential information on a lot of people. If the wrong person got that information, they could bring down a lot of good people.

  Five seconds. “Sure. I’ll head there now. See you when you get back.” We both hung up. Marcus had software that could call my phone, scramble the location, and wipe the number completely after the call. Unfortunately, it was only a hundred percent safe for three minutes.

  I took a quick shower and dressed. Amelia entered as I was holstering my gun. “I’m going out for a bit. Make sure Darwin doesn’t magic my bedroom pink.”

  She shut the door. “Darwin is running out of time,” she whispered.

  “I know.” Amelia and I had done everything we could to no avail. In fact, he was now coloring everything uncontrollably, whereas at least he could turn it off before.

  Darwin’s fae magic was tied to nature, particularly the forest, while his shifter magic was more like an inborn ability. Shifter children learned to crawl, talk, walk, and shift… Darwin just never got to the last stage. Unfortunately, he was also never “in tune” with nature. A lot of it was learned helplessness. The more I tried to teach him, the more stubborn he became. He believed he couldn’t do it, so when he failed, that just enforced his belief.

  It didn’t help that he couldn’t quiet his mind long enough to do any of the meditation that I was taught. I suggested I try to invade his mind again, but he whined about having work to do on his computer. I was starting to think he was afraid of controlling magic.

  * * *

  The drive to my mother’s apartment was long and I had to turn on the music because my fury rose with every mile. Regina was a snake who could poison my mother’s fragile mind. My mother’s nurse was supposed to keep Regina away.

  By the time I pulled into the elegant, pricy gated community, I was ready to get rid of Regina once and for all. I parked my new blue 2013 Lexus LS 600h L next to a silver BMW M6 Coupe and resisted the urge to shoot the windshield. It was the car I bought for her when she complained that her previous BMW was embarrassingly outdated. She had also gotten my Prius in the divorce, even though she hated it, just because she didn’t want me to have anything and I was too sick of her to fight for it.

  I was doing very well financially and could afford a car easily, but Regina kept trying to sue me for stupid reasons, so I hadn’t bothered.

  The unit was a quaint, ground-floor, cottage-like apartment made of red brick and dark brown wooden trim. The yard was carefully manicured with seasonal flowers that drove my mother’s allergies nuts. Instead of getting rid of the flowers like I had requested, they gave her allergy meds that made her less lucid. I had thought having an on-site nurse made it worth it, but I decided right then to move her somewhere else.

  I didn’t bother to knock. The fact that the door was locked didn’t even slow me down; I was so fired up that my power lashed out and unlocked it. I hadn’t even known I could do that.

  The inside of the house matched the outside, since the units were furnished with tacky old-fashioned furniture that smelled old and dusty. The living room was dark and I found the flowered couch and matching chairs to be highly depressing— almost as much as the white lace curtains.

  I tried to calm myself before entering the dining room, but it was too late. Regina and my mother’s nurse were sitting at the table, drinking rum and laughing.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked my ex. They both turned to me.

  Regina pouted, not drunk yet. “You can’t yell at me, Devon,” she said.

  I glared at Danielle, who just rolled her eyes. “You don’t have the right to keep Regina from seeing her mother-in-law,” she said with a scoff. “Maria is ashamed of how you treat your wife. You should stop acting out and move back in. Can’t you see your poor wife deserves better than–”

  “You’re fired. Get out,” I told her. It occurred to me I should have had Amelia come with me to help calm me.

  Danielle scoffed again and waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “You can’t fire me.”

  “I hired you, I paid you, now I’m firing you.” I didn’t need to make any threats; it was all I could do not to reach into her mind and hurt her.

  Regina patted her shoulder with a small smile. “He gets this way. Go ahead and take the afternoon off, paid, of course. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I let Danielle walk away, since I had no intention of my mother being there in the morning. I turned to Regina. “Do you realize what a restraining order is? You are not allowed–” She tried to slap me, but I caught her arm.

  Her eyes widened with shock as I squeezed. My power lashed out again, just a little, and she winced. “You’re hurting me!” she cried.

  I almost let go of her arm until I saw the marks on her skin. Needle marks. “You’ve been using again?” I squeezed her arm tighter as she tried to tug it away. “You promised you quit over a year ago!”

  “I’m not using!”

  “What the hell is that then?” I let go and she rubbed her arm.

  “They’re mosquito bites,” she lied.

  I went to my mother’s room, where she was sleeping in her bed. The room was way too dark and smelled of mold. I stroked her hair back and pressed on her shoulder gently until she was on her back. She didn’t even make a sound. “What’s wrong with her?” I asked as Regina entered.

  I was terrified her health had taken a turn for the worst. I trusted Marcus to watch over h
er and warn me if something was wrong, but I couldn’t bring myself to visit her after talking to Astrid, who had done this to her in the first place.

  “She was asking when you were coming to visit and insisted we called you, so Danielle gave her something to help her sleep.”

  My fist went through the wall before I even knew it was coming. Thank god it was just plaster. Regina shrieked. I was honestly just as mad at myself as my ex and Danielle, but I couldn’t hit them or myself. I picked up my mother gently and carried her out of the room, pushing Regina out of the way. I didn’t stop until we were outside in the sunlight. Carefully, I opened the back door and laid my mother down in the back seat. Unfortunately, Regina had followed me out.

  “Where are you going? She’s in no condition for a trip.”

  I reached out with my magic far too easily, felt her mind, and wrapped my power around it. My anger cooled almost instantly, so my words were clear and concise. “If you ever come near my mother or me again, you will feel physical pain. Don’t talk about me, think about me, or try to find me or my mother again.”

  I released her mind and only then felt guilt. It was subtle, though, because the anger came back. The only thing my mother had left was me and a little bit of her mind, and they were trying to take that from her.

  Knowing she would leave, I started to get into the car. The chirp of her car as she unlocked it was completely normal, so it must have been my instincts that made me tackle the woman to the ground and cover her head. She screamed as her car exploded, showering us with glass and burning metal.

  The actual explosion was oddly silent, which I assumed was due to shock. Regina continued screaming even after it was still again. I climbed off her. The hood of the car was gone, as were most of the guts of the engine. While there was technically some car left, it was twisting and charring as the seats were on fire and dark smoke billowed from the windows.

  Regina moaned, but I didn’t see any blood. “Are you hurt?” I asked, torn between examining her and checking on my mother.

  “My head hurts…” she moaned, clutching her head as if with a bad headache. It was my power. She was hurting because I was near her.

  I went around my car to put distance between us and pulled out my phone.

  “What did he do this time?” Maseré asked when he picked up.

  “Not Darwin this time. I’m willing to bet this is an old enemy. I need someone to come pick up my ex-wife and get her back to her house. It would also be great if you have a contact that can clean up a bombed car, or I’m going to have to pull some strings.”

  “Address?” He was suddenly all business. I told him the address. “My pack is on the way, and they’re not far. My beta is the sheriff of a nearby town and many of my pack members are officers, so they can get her somewhere safe. Get out of there. The last thing we need is a wizard in jail, even for a minute.”

  I looked over the roof of my car at Regina, who was sitting up with her knees to her chest, staring blankly at the burning car. “I’m going to stick around until–”

  “Devon, who will stop Gale if you’re in jail? You know what he’s capable of more than anyone. We’ll take care of your ex.”

  I heard sirens and nodded to myself. “Get here quick.” I hung up, got in the car, and drove away. I had expected Gale to come after me, but why would he go after a woman I openly despised? Why bomb Regina’s car and not mine or my mother’s apartment?

  My mother was still unconscious when I arrived at my apartment. I carried her upstairs and into my living room. Darwin and Amelia stood aside. “Do you need an alibi?” Darwin asked.

  I almost laughed. “Meet Maria Sanders.” She was in her sixties and the fragility of her mind emanated outward so that she looked a lot thinner and feebler than she really was. It was the first time I saw her in a year. It was depressing. In my shame of talking to Astrid, I was letting my mother’s caretakers treat her badly.

  And the worst part was that I still wanted to see Astrid.

  * * *

  An hour later, Amelia and I were making dinner while Darwin worked on hunting down Gale. We only had a first name and we weren’t even sure it was his real name. Until he got arrested or his fingerprints were found at a crime scene, there wasn’t much to go on.

  “Can we use the amulet to do a tracking spell?” Darwin asked, still typing.

  “I don’t think the amulet is personal enough. Besides, Henry pretty much laid claim to it.”

  “Do we trust Henry with it?” he asked when Amelia left. “Why did he want it so badly?”

  “I think at first it was to keep it out of the council’s hands. Second, it was probably a bit of shame that he failed to get it in the first place. Now I think he intends to use it to break the hold of the full moon. He might even be trying to use it to control his jaguar or his parents. Either way, I think we can trust him not to screw us over. His parents, on the other hand…”

  “Yeah, well, they don’t deserve better from what we’ve heard. I should get online and mess them up a bit.”

  “They would probably take it out on Henry.”

  We were just about finished making spaghetti and garlic bread when my mother woke. I introduced her to Darwin and Amelia, having forewarned them that she knew nothing about magic. She was always extremely polite, so she and Amelia got along famously. Darwin really did try to tone down his personality, but there was nothing subtle about the man.

  My mother regarded my kitchen thoughtfully before opening her mouth. “Regina doesn’t have much decorating skills. I would get a professional next time, honey.”

  “Don’t worry, Mom. There are several professionals just waiting for the next time Regina screws up.”

  “Good,” she said, walking into the living room. Darwin went with her while Amelia and I finished cooking. “So you go to school with Devon?” she asked Darwin.

  Amelia frowned at me. “I thought you didn’t tell her about Quintessence,” she whispered.

  I shook my head. Any possibility of it being a nice evening went out the door. “She still thinks I’m in high school. She doesn’t understand age very well anymore.”

  “So the apartment and the wife play into that how?”

  “Ex-wife, thank you. My mother has good days, where she knows I’m in my thirties, divorced, and living alone. She also has bad days where she thinks Regina and I have kids or that I’m still a kid myself. One time I went to visit her and she asked me who I was. Another time, she told me my father was trying to kill her.”

  “Is she… um… how is her health?”

  “I don’t think she’s about to die if that’s what you’re saying.”

  She blushed fiercely until I wanted to tease her about her hair matching her skin. “I mean, if you go off to the university, who will take care of her?”

  I looked over the counter to see Darwin trying to teach her to use a laptop. I thought he was going to cry with frustration when she asked where to type in “windows.” Her eyes were wide as baseballs when he handed her his iPhone. She wasn’t even insulted when he downloaded a little kid’s game for her to entertain herself with. Then again, she probably didn’t know it was for kids.

  I resisted the urge to sigh when a heavy knocking sounded on my door. Darwin jumped up to let his parents in. Maseré and Anya Mason seemed to instantly realize my mother knew nothing of the paranormal world. It was the first time I got to meet Anya. She had the same blond hair, blue eyes, and wild energy about her as Darwin. She was tall for a woman at about five-ten, in her mid-forties, with soft features. Unfortunately, she couldn’t fix my kitchen with my mother there.

  * * *

  After an hour, I told my guests I needed to run an errand and I would be back in a couple of hours. Leaving them alone probably wasn’t beneficial to my apartment, but Marcus was counting on me. The drive normally took only twenty minutes by car, which made me glad I had a car of my own again. I figured Regina would be trying to sue me for it since hers blew up.

 
; Unfortunately, I realized within a few minutes that I was being tailed. Of course, I knew it was possible I was also shadowed that morning in my rush to get Regina away from my mother. Shaking the gray Sedan took over half an hour because they had damn good skills.

  I finally reached the cozy cabin that Marcus owned. Actually, it officially belonged to a friend of a sister’s second cousin’s son’s wife or something, but Marcus was nothing if not neurotic about his secrecy. I was known as discreet. Marcus’s clients, on the other hand, didn’t even know his name.

  I parked my car around the side where it couldn’t be seen even by someone driving into the yard. Although I couldn’t see the surveillance cameras, I knew where they were. Since Marcus hadn’t seen my new car, I casually stretched as soon as I got out, making sure he got a clear visual from every camera. No matter where he was in the country or out, he would be watching and there was no man I knew who was more ready to blow up his own house.

  All this just for a damn software wipe. Of course, he had my information on file as well, so I couldn’t really complain. I went around to the back deck, carefully avoiding the mines, and put the unlock code into the keypad. As soon as the light turned green, I opened the door, entered, shut it, and entered a second code into the box on the right of the door to disarm the alarm. The light turned green and the door relocked. I sighed. The last time I tried that, it blew up in my face.

  It looked like a cozy little house in the woods with only a widescreen television for technology. A leather couch, a fireplace, a fur rug, a coffee table… yeah right. The man never left his “studio.” The kitchen was open to the living room, the bedroom door had a doorknob, and the front door had another keypad. The doorknob to the front door, however, was booby-trapped. The last door had no knob. I reached behind a few videogames on entertainment shelf to find the hidden keypad. Once I entered the code, the fire-proof, Feds-proof, and damn-near-atomic-bomb-proof door opened.