elemental 05 - inferno

by Larissa Ladd

  “What did he say he did with the potion to make it linger?” Dylan asked firmly.

  Alex shook his head and Aira saw Dylan’s face harden. He reached out and pressed his palm to Alex’s forehead, and Aira almost saw the pulse of energy he sent into the other elemental. Alex began to tremble and cry. Aira realized that Dylan was manipulating Alex’s emotions, using his water energy—which wasn’t dampened by the guard around the room—to put him in a state of deep depression and anxiety.

  “He put… there was something—metal—I can’t remember everything.” Alex was gasping for breath, trembling. “He didn’t tell me anything about the spell, but he told me, something about adding iron to it, and rock salt.” Dylan released him and stepped back.

  “That’s all we’re going to be able to get from him,” Dylan said, looking at Aira. “We’ll have to figure out the spell ourselves—or track down whoever it was.” Aiden stepped forward. He looked at his brother, and for a moment, Aira almost felt afraid at the sight of the coiled rage that flickered in Aiden’s eyes.

  “Hold him, Dylan,” Aiden said. Aira trembled slightly, between fatigue, pain, and real fear at what Aiden might be capable of. Dylan looked at his brother steadily for a long moment before he grabbed Alex, holding him still, facing his older brother. Aira watched as Aiden pulled his fist back, faint fire flickering along his skin before he slammed it into Alex’s stomach. Alex grunted, and Aiden pulled back again, landing another punch to Alex’s back. “That was for your first attempt to get Aira under your control,” Aiden said, panting. He brought Alex back into a standing position, and Dylan renewed his grip on the other man’s shoulders. Aiden punched him in the stomach again. “That was for getting Dolores involved in trying to subvert me.” Aiden stepped back slightly and Aira saw his fist glowing, lighting in bright blue, intense fire. Aiden pulled it back and slammed it into Alex’s crotch, harder than the other blows, and Dylan let the man fall to his knees, whimpering in pain from the burning and the punch itself. “That’s for poisoning Aira, you asshole.” The fire extinguished itself, and Aiden turned away from Alex, giving Aira a faint smile and a wink. “It won’t leave a mark, don’t worry.”

  Aira snorted. “Of course it won’t,” she said, feeling weary suddenly. She was gratified at the fact that Alex had received some punishment for his actual crimes—beyond the death penalty that was going to be enacted on him for general crimes. Aira realized that she needed to get out of the room; the energy from the wards positioned around the room were causing the potion she had taken to wear off faster. There was still so much for them to do between now and Alex’s execution in a few days’ time. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” she said, gesturing for Dylan to get the door.

  As they navigated their way out of the building and back to the car, Aira managed barely to keep herself upright, to project the strength that she had once possessed; if they didn’t manage to get her cured of the poison Alex had given her, she feared she wasn’t going to have the power to put him to death. Getting into the car on the passenger side, Aira thought about the odd energy and vibrancy that had come from Aiden’s touch. For just that few moments, she had almost felt like her normal self—and even better. She tried to think back to when they had slept together, even though she knew it was dangerous to think of it; she couldn’t be with Aiden—they weren’t temperamentally suited to each other, she told herself again. But she remembered how good it had been; better, in so many respects, than either of her times with Alex, who had been consciously trying to make the sex as good as possible, to inflame all of the energy in her and siphon it off to power his own abilities.

  Without knowing when, Aira fell into a deep sleep. Everything was dark—heavy, painful darkness that briefly made her fear for her very existence. She tried to run, but found her limbs unable to move. She tried to scream, but her voice was frozen in her throat. There was nothing she could do. Her heart pounded and Aira managed a low moan of dread as she tried to struggle against the poisoning depths that threatened to consume her. Without warning, a sudden sensation of heat burning away the chilling darkness took over, running up from her feet to her face, lighting her limbs, illuminating the abyss that had pulled her deeper and somehow stopping the pressure. Heat filled her body and light bloomed along her hands, her legs, and her face. She was nowhere in particular, but the sensation of heat and the sight of light reassured her. “God you’re beautiful.” She heard someone murmur; the voice was tantalizingly familiar, but in spite of the heat and light, Aira’s mind still felt frozen, sluggish and slow. The light grew brighter until she saw Aiden hovering nearby, his hands running over her body slowly. She was naked, but that didn’t seem to be the most important factor.

  Aira gasped at the sight of Aiden, glowing with the fire of his essential energy. Flickering flames of red, orange, and yellow danced around his body in a soothing aura, and Aira reached out, wrapping her arms around him in desperation. Aiden chuckled lowly, his hands still moving over her, and Aira sighed at the sensation of relief that accompanied the caresses. For the moment, she didn’t care whether or not it was right—she had to have Aiden’s heat, his light, his essence. She turned her face to his and strained to reach his lips, kissing him hungrily. Her heart hammering in her chest still, but with desire instead of fear.

  “Greedy thing, aren’t you?” Aiden said, breaking away from her lips. He pressed his body against hers fully, and Aira felt the hard ridge of him digging into her hip. She smiled slightly, realizing she was pulling his energy into her, using it to dispel the cold eating away at her own energy, blocking her access to her abilities.

  “You’re here voluntarily,” she told him, bringing his lips back to hers. Everything felt surreal and Aira had no orientation in the darkness that was only combatted by the flames emanating from Aiden.

  “That’s true enough,” Aiden admitted with a chuckle. He grinned at her, rocking his hips against hers slowly. “But you shouldn’t be the only one getting a benefit from this, don’t you think?” Aira thought briefly that she shouldn’t be indulging herself this way—things with Aiden could never work. But her body’s needs overcame reason and she pulled Aiden tightly against her, craving the heat of him, wanting his light as deep inside of her as humanly possible. She coiled her legs tightly around his body, pushing her hips against his.

  Aiden filled her and Aira moaned, flexing her muscles around him, her body delighting at the heat that pushed deeper and deeper into her as they began to move together. Her pleasure mounted, the tension growing in her body felt like a tight knot, deep down between her hips that the movement of Aiden inside of her was slowly unraveling, burning it away, sending tingling electric thrills of pleasure through her even as the energy she pulled from his body was eliminating the cold, dense, body-breaking darkness that threatened to engulf her. Aira kissed Aiden everywhere, touching him as far as her hands could reach, driven nearly mad by her obsessive need for more of his body pressed against hers.

  Before she could reach the peak of pleasure, Aira was jolted out of the dream by the taste of potion, pulling her free of the darkness and Aiden’s body alike. She awakened with a gasp, opening her eyes to Aiden hovering over her, Dylan on the other side of her vision, holding the oral syringe. Seeing Aiden, she blushed a deep crimson and groaned at the disappointment of being denied the pleasure her dream had promised. It was a bad idea anyway, she told herself firmly. She had to get her mind off of Aiden and onto solving her problems. There was far too much going on for her to be indulging her sensual side. “Where are we?” she asked, struggling to regain her composure. She could feel the blood rushing into her face in a deep blush.

  “We made it back to your place,” Dylan told her. “How do you feel?”

  Aira bit back a sharp retort that came to mind immediately. As she came more fully back to herself, she realized that Aiden was touching her, his fiery energy flowing into her body through her hand. She let go of him, pulling back, and felt the ebb of the energy, felt the pai
n returning—though the potion at least was keeping her awake.

  “Tired and in pain,” she replied, struggling to sit up. As Dylan and Aiden backed away, she was able to see her apartment and sighed. “How long was I out?”

  Dylan was putting away the syringe.

  “Only about an hour. Want some coffee?”

  Aira shrugged. “Might as well, it might help.” She scrubbed at her face, trying to dispel the last of the lingering erotic thoughts about Aiden. That was the last thing she needed. She was surprised to see Aiden get up and go into the kitchen to retrieve coffee for her. Dylan sat down in a nearby wingback chair and Aira wondered just how much of her dream had been obvious to the two men. She decided abruptly that she didn’t want to know.

  Aiden reappeared with three cups of coffee and passed them around; he sat down on the coffee table, and Aira noticed the wariness in his bright eyes.

  “I have an idea,” Dylan said, resting the bottom of his coffee cup against his leg. He glanced from Aira to Aiden with a faint hint of a smile curving his lips. “I don’t think either of you is going to like it, though.”

  Aira raised an eyebrow. She sipped at her coffee, thinking to herself that the poison in her system—in spite of the potion—felt like the world’s most lingering and annoying hangover. I’d need to drink a hell of a lot in order to get this bad, though, she thought to herself.

  “What is it?” Aiden asked.

  Aira recognized the amusement in Dylan’s eyes and was glad that one of them could see the levity in a situation where she was going to have to kill someone in two days’ time. She was full of a poison they didn’t even fully know how to combat—and to top it off, they didn’t know who Alex had been working with to give her the poison.

  “You two need to sleep together,” Dylan said, taking another sip of his coffee as casually as if he had suggested that Aira should donate blood, or take a nap. Aiden, who had been in the midst of taking a big gulp of his coffee, choked, spitting the brew mostly back into his cup but spraying some of it across the table in his surprise. Aira managed to swallow her sip of coffee and set her cup down, ignoring Aiden for the moment to stare at his brother levelly.

  “What are you talking about?” She said, blinking slowly.

  Dylan’s smile spread wider on his face. “Oh, you know. The two of you. In bed. Together. With clothes on, of course; or no clothes if you prefer it—it’s pretty much up to you once you’re there.” Aira glanced fleetingly at Aiden, who had grabbed a handful of tissues to wipe up the mess his sputtering had made.

  “What is that going to help?” Aira asked, suddenly self-conscious from the dream she had just been having. What was Dylan thinking? She couldn’t sleep with Aiden. She needed more than anything to keep a distance from him.

  “Okay, here’s the thing,” Dylan said, his face taking on more serious lines. “I noticed something while you were out, Aira. When Aiden is touching you, you get a little bit better—not fully better, but you should have seen how you looked before. You also seemed stronger in the cell with Alex when Aiden was holding you back. So, I have to reason that there’s something about Aiden’s energy that’s helping you push through the poison.” Aira stared at Dylan, trying to absorb what he was saying. In a way, it made sense; she could easily remember the strange sensation of power and potency she’d had when Aiden had grabbed her. She couldn’t remember anything from before Dylan originally dosed her with the potion.

  “Wait—you said while I was out. What happened while I was out?” She looked from Dylan to Aiden, a rising fear climbing from the pit of her stomach, making her heart beat a little faster. Aiden was blushing, avoiding her gaze.

  “Aiden was tired from staying awake for several days in a row and he climbed onto the couch with you for a nap,” Dylan explained matter-of-factly, shrugging and taking another sip of his coffee. “By the time I came home from getting ingredients for your potion, you were looking much less like a breathing corpse.” This time Aira sputtered at the description of herself looking like a ‘breathing corpse.’ She had seen the way she’d looked after the potion, and it had been bad enough—apparently she had looked worse before. She took a deep breath and another sip of her coffee, trying not to let her excitement leap at the thought of Aiden in bed with her—even platonically, as she firmly told herself it would be.

  “So you think this is going to help?” she asked, carefully keeping her voice level.

  “Well, all I can say is that it’s helped before. Until we can figure out what’s happening, it sure as hell can’t hurt.” Dylan paused, and then his eyes lit up. “Hey, if you actually have sex, maybe you’ll cancel out the poison altogether!”

  Aira’s face flooded with blood and she groaned.

  “No,” she said firmly, glancing hurriedly at Aiden to see that his reaction—like hers—was uneasy. “No sex. I’m—I’m going to stay abstinent for a while. I seem to make bad life decisions regarding sex.” She heard a snort and looked over to see Aiden pressing his lips together to suppress his laughter. “Shut up!” she said, scowling at him.

  “Well, you’re the one who said it, not me.”

  Aira sighed, closing her eyes for a moment and rubbing at her forehead.

  “I definitely need to learn how to not have sex with jerks.” She took another deep breath and looked at Dylan once more, ignoring Aiden’s half-uttered protest—once he realized that she was classing him as one of the jerks in question.

  “You don’t have to have sex,” Dylan said, raising a hand in a conciliatory gesture. “But close contact will probably help a lot. Aiden can’t really be harmed by the poison that’s in you—since it’s earth-aligned, he’s practically immune to it, and it’s in your body anyway, not his.”

  Aira nodded, starting to consider the idea seriously. “We’ll still need to get the poison out of me, though,” she pointed out.

  Dylan nodded.

  “I’ll be researching the rest of the day. And tonight. And tomorrow if I have to.” Dylan gestured to a pile of books, water elemental-written tomes on healing and poisons. Aira nodded, feeling tired and achy all over.

  “And we have to figure out who’s behind this—who put Alex up to it.”

  Aiden grinned slowly as Aira glanced at him. “I can find that out,” he said. “After all, Alex did say it was a fire elemental. I’ll get some information.”

  Aira made a face. “I feel completely useless,” she said with a sigh. “My own life and I can’t do anything to help myself.” She shook her head and finished her coffee.

  Dylan’s look was sympathetic.

  “We’ll figure this out, then you can get rid of Alex once and for all and you’ll move on to what needs to be done next.”

  Aira nodded, disbelieving but not willing to argue the point.

  “I’ll just… get some work done, I guess,” she said, at a loss. The two men turned to their own tasks and Aira wondered how long the potion would allow her to even stay awake and conscious.

  CHAPTER 5

  AIRA WAS SURPRISED AT HOW nervous she felt as she sat on her bed in her pajamas, fresh from the shower, waiting for Aiden. Her hands were shaking slightly, her heart racing at the thought of spending an entire night alone in bed with him. She told herself firmly that they were going to keep the contact platonic—they had agreed to that before going to their separate rooms to shower. Dylan was still awake, consulting the pile of books he had taken from her grandmother’s house weeks before; he had originally brought them as curiosities, to study water-based lore and information, but they were coming in handy.

  Aira fidgeted as she sat, feeling the ache and fatigue of the poison still eating away at her. She had taken Dylan’s strengthening potion before her shower, but it didn’t seem to be working as well as it had initially. Aira was worried. In two days, she would have to put a man to death; she had been so locked into the limitations she felt from the poisoning that she hadn’t really thought about the act of killing someone. It was an execution not a m
urder, but by the same token, Aira had never actually wanted to kill a person. Even if Alex deserved it—he was a danger to them all, he had made it clear that he had no qualms about killing her—she didn’t know if she had the psychological strength to go through with what she had to. She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about it. She had to; there was no alternative. She had sentenced him to death, the elders had proclaimed that she would have to follow it through, and if she didn’t she would open herself up to the same penalty she had enacted on him, simply because she would not be in contention anymore.

  Not for the first time, Aira wished her grandmother could somehow come back from the dead—just for an hour or two, just to tell her what to do. She had always been so irritated by her grandmother’s well-meaning but strongly worded advice, had always chafed at the way the older woman had emphasized her becoming more stable, more secure, less flighty and wild. She had never wanted to really be stable the way her grandmother had wanted her to; Aira had always wanted to have her own way, to live the life she chose. It was a solitary existence, but until she had come into danger, she had never really minded it.

  Aiden entered her room after knocking softly at the frame of her open door. Aira looked up from her hands, realizing she was picking at her cuticles in her contemplation.

  “Come in,” she said. Aiden wore a tee shirt and loose pajama pants, and the poison still working in her system was not sufficient to suppress the rush of involuntary desire she felt. She remembered vividly and abruptly how he had looked naked, in the bed with her at her grandmother’s house. Aira took a deep breath to banish the sensation, swallowing against the dryness in her throat.

  “This is awkward,” Aiden said, smiling slightly as he came into the room and closed the door behind him. Aira nodded. “I wanted to say… I probably shouldn’t have curled up next to you on the couch without you knowing. I was so tired, and at the time it seemed like the only way to both get some sleep and keep you protected… in case, you know, someone broke in, or something.”