Cleansed by Water: The Nature Hunters Academy Series, Book 3

by Quinn Loftis

  “She needs you to tighten up the reins on those overprotective instincts flowing through you,” Frost said.

  Gabby looked at the professor and saw that she, too, was barefoot. “Do you feel heat coming up from the ground?” Gabby asked her.

  Frost nodded. “Open up your power to the heat and then imagine yourself pulling the heat into you. We want to pull heat from the earth's core up into the mountain.” Frost looked at Liam. “You, make yourself useful and start crafting a lava riverbed down the side of the mountain.”

  Gabby imagined her feet as little suction cups, as odd as that sounded, but it made it easier to envision pulling the heat toward her. She kept her eyes on Liam, partly because, damn, he was just too handsome for his own good, and two, because she felt like he would disappear or get himself killed if she looked away for a second.

  She watched as he raised his hands into the air and put his palms out as if he were reaching for the sky. His mouth moved, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Gabby knew that some of the older elementalists knew the language of the elementals and used it to help wield their particular element. Some even taught it to the students, though it wasn’t a requirement to wield elemental power.

  As she watched, his hands began to move, first in a circle and then toward himself, as if he were gathering something in. Her mouth dropped open when she saw a stream of water appear and head straight for Liam. It moved fast, and Gabby was certain it would slam into him. She started to cry out to him, but the water shifted when he pushed his hands out. Instead of slamming into Liam, the stream hit the mountain. Soon, mud began to appear where solid ground had been before. About a hundred yards down, trees began to topple over as their roots suddenly found themselves anchored to soft, flowing mud. The mudslide continued, forming into a moving river of wet earth. Soon, the mud turned to brown water, an actual river traveling down the mountain. It wasn’t deep, but it was moving water.

  “Focus, Gabby,” Frost snapped. “And I don’t mean on your mate.”

  Gabby’s face would have heated if she hadn’t already been burning up. Damn, when did that start? She’d been unaware she was hot until Frost had gotten her attention. “Why am I so hot?” Gabby asked Frost.

  “Some of it’s genetics, baby,” Liam answered before Frost could. “You hit the DNA lottery with that gorgeous red hair and luscious body. It’s really not a mystery, Gabs.”

  “If you don’t focus on the heat you’re pulling into your body, and make sure you’re lowering your core temperature, you will burn alive from the inside out,” Professor Frost explained.

  “Oi,” Liam growled. “That would have been good information to give her before you told her to become a human torch.”

  Gabby had to agree with him. But instead of mentioning it, she refocused on the heat and made sure to direct it away from her organs. She pushed it out of her skin, which meant she was now sweating like a horse in heat. Super sexy.

  “Hey.” Liam stepped in front of her, and she looked up at him. He was so handsome, even with his wrinkled forehead and pursed lips. He’d hit the DNA lottery, as he put it, as well.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be directing a lava river?” she asked him.

  Liam reached up and wiped her brow, then placed his hand flat on her forehead. Gabby felt the moisture from her body being pulled from her skin. It was as if he’d run a magic drying cloth all over her. Suddenly, she wasn’t soaking wet.

  When he pulled his hand away, it was closed into a fist. He put it to his mouth and pressed his lips to it. He blew and then smiled as he opened his hand and held it out to her.

  She looked down, and instead of a puddle of sweat, which is what she expected to see, there was a shimmering heart formed from the moisture he’d taken from her. How sexy. A sweat heart. As she watched, the heart began to evaporate—tiny droplets rising into the air, holding the shape of the heart until it hovered in front of them. Maybe it should have been gross that he’d just formed a heart out of her sweat as a way to show his affection, but Gabby had to give the man points for wooing her. He blew out a breath, and the tiny droplets evaporated completely.

  “That was impressive,” Gabby admitted. “Weird, but impressive.”

  Liam shrugged one shoulder. “I’ll take weird over normal any day.”

  He couldn’t have known what those words would mean to her, but Gabby felt them pierce her heart and dig in deep.

  “Are you okay? You’re not getting too hot?” Liam asked, his voice completely serious and his eyes full of concern. For her.

  “Other than an embarrassing amount of sweat, I’m good.”

  “You’d tell me if you weren’t, wouldn’t you?” he asked.

  “Would I really have to tell you? I mean, with the bond and all?”

  He gave her a crooked smile. “True. I’d feel it, but I was trying to give you some privacy. I mean, I can’t hear your thoughts or anything, but I can get a general idea of how you’re feeling,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to intrude where I’m not wanted. I thought asking might be a better idea.”

  Gabby bit her lip as she nodded at him. “I appreciate that.”

  “Liam,” Frost yelled. “She’s alive and well, focus on that damn riverbed! Our mountain is about to blow.”

  It was Frost’s words that made Gabby realize the ground beneath them was shaking and not just a little. Apparently, Liam had the ability to distract her from earthquakes. Good to know.

  “Keep pulling the heat up, Gabby,” Frost called out as she opened her hands by her side and began to slowly raise them as if she were lifting something up.

  The ground shook harder, and Gabby heard the beginnings of a loud rumble.

  Liam cursed under his breath and pressed his lips to hers quickly. So quickly that she didn’t have time to respond, or enjoy it, not that she was about to admit she would have enjoyed it. She totally would have enjoyed it. “Don’t die,” he growled at her.

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” Gabby said as she watched him turn back to the riverbed he’d created.

  “As soon as the lava is in the air,” Frost said, her voice loud enough for them to hear over the roar of the building eruption, “Gabby, you need to focus your power on it just like you would a flame. That’s all it is, liquid fire. We want it all to be funneled down into the riverbed Liam has made. Liam, you need to start running back down the mountain, making sure your water is carving it in the right direction.”

  “I’m back,” Josie said, suddenly stepping out of a portal right next to Liam. “I realized he was going to need a little help with the direction for the lava river.”

  Frost gave Josie a thumbs up.

  “Let’s go, big guy,” Josie said to Liam as she headed for the river he’d started.

  “Why are we going to the river?” Liam asked. Instead of moving with her, he walked back over to Gabby.

  “We’re water elementalists, Liam. We don’t travel by land if we don’t have to,” Josie said.

  Liam shook his head. “You’d think I was a novice. I was about to run down the bloody mountain.”

  “You’ve just soul bonded with your mate on the side of an active volcano,” Josie pointed out. “You have permission to not think clearly.”

  Liam stepped up to Gabby. She was sweating more now, constantly blinking to keep her vision clear. Her arms were raised in the direction of the mouth of the volcano, waiting for that first eruption. She was afraid to drop them even long enough to wipe the sweat away. If she and Frost were a few seconds late, that lava could end up on the wrong side of Liam’s man-made river. It would head toward civilization instead of the ice bath waiting for it.

  “Let me help,” he said gently as he did his sponge thing, only this time she felt the water evaporate from her body.

  “Thanks,” Gabby said as she looked into his eyes. She couldn’t understand her feelings, but she knew she didn’t want anything to happen to Liam. She could sense his magic and soul inside of her and knew, though she h
adn’t wanted to admit it, that he was her soul mate. Gabby didn’t really know what would happen after this, but she at least wanted there to be a choice. And if something happened to Liam, there wouldn’t be one.

  “Try to be okay, please,” she said, not really sure how to express her concern for his safety.

  He grinned at her. “You like me.”

  Gabby rolled her eyes. “I don't not like you. So, just don’t die.”

  His smile widened. “You got it. I’ve got too much to live for, now.” His countenance sobered and he took her face in his hands. “I’m not doing this because we might not see each other again. I’m doing this because I want you to know what’s to come when we finish this thing.”

  Gabby didn’t have a chance to ask him what the hell he was doing because his lips were suddenly on hers. And this was no quick kiss. This was a kiss that took no prisoners. Whatever the hell that meant. She’d read it in a book once. Maybe now she understood. His body pressed close to hers, and he tilted her face up higher. She felt his tongue push against her lips, and she opened her mouth. Later, she’d tell herself it was instinct, but for now, she was going with the fact that his tongue was just that strong. That didn’t sound ridiculous at all.

  As soon as the taste of him hit her tongue, Gabby groaned. She pressed closer to him, and she wished she could drop her hands. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and bury her hand in his blond hair. She also wished he’d drop his hands from her face and put his strong arms around her.

  A heartbeat later, Gabby was wrapped so tightly she almost couldn’t breathe. Liam had one arm around her waist while the other was around her shoulders with his hand gripping the back of her neck. She felt completely protected. He slowed the kiss but didn’t back off. His lips were pressed just as tightly, but his tongue was moving as if to savor her instead of devour her.

  Gabby sunk into him. She let herself believe he could one day love her. That he would find her worth it. She kissed him back with an intensity she thought she was only capable of when fighting. She was rewarded with a moan from Liam, and a “Damn woman” breathed out of him when he pulled back long enough to say it. But then he was right back on her, kissing the breath from her lungs. Her lungs weren’t complaining. At all.

  “I’m not going to say this isn’t hot as hell. But then we are standing on a volcano so my words could be interpreted many ways.” Josie’s voice interrupted Gabby’s bliss and for a microsecond she considered shifting the hand that would direct the erupting lava toward the little female water elementalist. Bad Gabby. She forced herself to pull her lips from Liam. He tried to follow, but Gabby turned her face so that his mouth ended up on her neck. He wasn’t deterred in the least.

  “Lia-ahhhh,” Gabby moaned when his teeth latched on to the tendon in her neck.

  “It’s Liam, baby. Not Leah,” he whispered against her ear and then gave her neck one last kiss before stepping back. “I’m glad it’s you,” he said. “Wouldn’t want it to be anyone else. If you let anything happen to yourself, I’ll hurt a puppy or something.”

  Gabby’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

  He shrugged. “You seem like the self-sacrificing type. I don’t want to lose you, so I figure making sure I don’t kick a puppy will motivate you to stay alive.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s disturbing or worrisome,” Josie said.

  “Both?” Gabby offered.

  “But also a little sweet,” Josie said.

  “He said he’d kick a puppy,” Gabby pointed out.

  “Yeah, but it’s because he doesn’t want anything to happen to you. See. Sweet.” Josie snapped at Liam and pointed to the river he’d made. “Let’s go, Casanova. Worry about kicking puppies only if your woman doesn’t show up at the bottom.”

  He and Josie jogged a few feet, and then Liam turned around and started walking backward. Gabby watched him as he looked at her.

  “I’ll totally do it, Gabs. I’ll kick a damn puppy if you die.”

  Josie grabbed the back of his collar to keep him from tripping over a rock. But he just kept walking backward, staring at Gabby. Finally, she nodded at him. It must have been what he was waiting for because he blew her a kiss and then turned back around.

  When they reached the river, Liam and Josie jumped down onto the murky water. Their feet rested on top, as if they were standing on solid ground. Then Liam flicked his wrist up, and the water rose and moved swiftly forward, carrying him and Josie away. He looked at Gabby, and she watched him until he was out of sight.

  Gabby wanted to call him back. How was she going to know he was okay if she was at the top of the mountain and he was at the bottom? How would he know not to kick a damn puppy if she didn’t show up right away? What was the time frame on not kicking a puppy? Why didn’t he specify that shit? “Do-over,” she said suddenly. “I want a goodbye do-over.”

  She heard Frost's laughter and turned her head to see the professor shaking with laughter and trying to keep from doubling over.

  “Can I just say that you look like a bleeding idiot with your hands in the air, on a volatile volcano, laughing your head off,” Gabby snapped. The words were out before she could process the fact that she’d just spat them at a freaking teacher.

  “Worrying about your man makes you mean,” Frost said, the smile still on her face.

  “Uh, yeaaah, sorry about that,” Gabby said slowly. “Don't really know what got into me.”

  “You’ll see him again, Gabby. And Josie won’t let him kick any puppies until then.”

  Gabby let out a deep breath and nodded. “Got it.”

  “Excellent. Now, let’s blow this mother.” Frost’s smile widened. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “Really? That phrase exactly?” Gabby asked.

  Frost nodded and then motioned with her head to the mouth of the volcano, which was a good hundred yards above them. “Incoming! Brace yourself.”

  Gabby bent her knees a little to help steady her feet just as the mountain gave a hard shake. Suddenly, fire erupted into the sky.

  “Focus your power on the lava,” Frost yelled. “Just like you wield fire, Gabby, take it to the river Liam made.”

  Gabby reached out for the lava shooting high into the air above the mountain and focused her power on it. She felt the moment she was in control of it. She began directing it, pulling it down toward the mountain and to the waiting river.

  “I’ll focus on the lava at the mouth of the volcano,” Frost told her. “You focus on what’s in the air and keep bringing it down, just like that. Good job.”

  Gabby saw the lava had turned in a high arc and was now coming smoothly down like an airborne waterfall. She continued lowering her hands, bringing the lava closer to the mountain. As it closed in on the riverbed, treetops began to catch fire, then the trunks, and then the foliage below it. Everything the lava got close to went up in flames.

  “Everything is going to burn,” Gabby yelled as she realized, even though they were directing the lava, the heat was still strong enough to ignite everything around it. It wouldn’t be long before the forest all around them was a raging inferno.

  Gabby heard Frost curse, but she was too scared to take her attention off the lava. She kept one hand focused on the lava, flowing into the river, and then used the other to focus on the fire in the trees and along the sides of the river. Gabby tried to use her power to keep it contained to the trees, to keep it from spreading to those near it. She managed it for a few minutes, but she was getting tired fast. She saw the fire practically leap from one tree to the next and realized there was no way for her to control both the lava coming from the volcano and the fire now burning up the mountainside.

  “Dammit,” she whispered. “I really do not want him kicking a puppy.” Gabby began walking forward, thinking perhaps if she got closer to the fire she’d be able to control it better. She looked over her shoulder at Frost and saw the woman also had one hand pointed in the direction of the trees. Her mentor shook her h
ead at Gabby, but she didn’t stop moving forward. She could do this. She knew she could.

  She called on her inner fire and let it run up her skin so she looked like a human torch. It would protect her from the surrounding flames.

  “This doesn’t look to me like you want me to not kick puppies, baby.”

  Gabby jumped at the sound of Liam’s voice.

  His arms were suddenly around her waist, and his cheek rested on the back of her head. “In fact, it looks like you’re just begging me to kick all sorts of puppies. You got a thing against puppies I should know about?”

  “What are you doing here?” Gabby asked as she focused on the fire, trying to keep it from spreading to trees on the opposite side of the lava river.

  He pressed a kiss to the back of her head and then released her. When he stepped up beside her, Gabby looked him over to ensure he wasn’t hurt. Dude still looked sexy as hell.

  “Just call me the fireman, Gabs,” he said with a wink as he raised his arms and began speaking in those words she didn’t know. Clouds began to gather above them. “Because things are about to get wet.”

  “That’s what she said,” Gabby said and then snapped her mouth closed. I did not just say that.

  “Knew you were perfect for me,” Liam said with a laugh just as the skies opened up and rain poured down over them.

  “Can we pretend I didn’t say that?” She yelled to be heard over the downpour.

  “Absolutely not,” he yelled back. “I can’t be the only inappropriate one in this relationship.”

  “There is no relationship, Liam,” Gabby said, even as she hoped he’d argue with her.

  “I don’t care what you call it, Beautiful, but there is an us. As in, you and me equal a thing.”

  “That didn’t make sense,” she said. “Is Frost okay?”

  “It made perfect sense, and yes, the good professor is kicking lava ass,” Liam assured her.

  Gabby’s arms were tiring, but she had no idea if she could drop them yet. How much lava was going to shoot out of the volcano? Was it endless like saliva?

  “Did you just ask me if lava was like saliva?” Liam’s voice interrupted what she thought had been inner thoughts.