blood and magic 02 - kissed by fire

by Danielle Annett

  I began pacing the room, clenching and unclenching my hands. “Declan, what the hell did you do?”

  He stood frozen in front of his chair, his lips pulled down at the corners.

  “Just tell me what the hell is going on, please? I feel anxious and confused and scared and so many other things, but some of them don’t feel like me. They don’t feel like they belong to me.” I hated admitting that I was scared. I was surprised I’d let the words out. It wasn’t like me.

  The look in his eyes was so broken. Like he’d reached for something he wanted so badly only to have it snatched from his grasp when he got too close. It broke my heart.

  “When you went down, Aria, it didn’t look like you’d be getting up.”

  “Okay, but I did. I’m here, and I’m fine.”

  He was shaking his head. “Your injuries were too severe, there had been too much damage, too much blood loss. You weren’t going to make it.”

  If I wasn’t going to make it, then how was I here, perfectly fine? Before I could ask, he continued.

  “We needed to do something. I needed to do something. I didn’t have very much time. Your pulse was already fading. If I’d hesitated for even a minute, it would have been too late.”

  That was when it hit me. He’d turned me. That was the only logical explanation I could come up with for why my emotions were all over the place, why I was healed when supposedly I’d been on the verge of death. I had an increased rate of healing as a pyrokinetic, but it wasn’t as advanced as that of a shifter. The lycanthropy in a shifter’s system accelerated their healing tenfold. He’d changed me to save my life. I closed my eyes and imagined the Lyc-V working its way through my body, tried to see if I felt it inside of me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being turned. My fire still worked. I could feel it beneath the surface, but what was I now, some shifter-pyro hybrid?

  “You turned me,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. A million things ran through my head at the realization. How had he done it? I ran my hand over the scab on my neck once more. I faintly remembered him biting me. At least I thought he’d bitten me. I remembered his breath on my neck and then— but why would he bite me? The change occurred when shifter blood was introduced into the system. The Lyc-V would then take action and mutate the cells within the body at rapid speed. It didn’t make sense why he’d chosen to bite me, but none of that seemed important right now. I stared at Declan realizing that I’d be under his thumb now, a member of the Pack.

  Was that such a bad thing?

  Hell yes, it was. I didn’t want anyone to have that kind of power over me. As my Alpha, he could make me do things. Would he, though? I wasn’t entirely sure. His eyes were sad, but that was all I noticed. I didn’t have any urge to turn away. I didn’t feel a beast inside of me, struggling for supremacy. There wasn’t a single bone in my body that felt like submitting to him.

  “You’re not a shifter,” I heard him say. My eyes widened. If I wasn’t a shifter, then how—?

  He heaved a sigh, and suddenly, it looked like the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. “Turning you into one of the Pack, it wouldn’t have been enough. The change alone would have likely killed you.”

  “If that’s true, then how am I here, alive? What did you do if not change me?”

  “When a shifter takes a mate—” My breath caught.

  “Hold on, where are you going with this?” My heart was pounding in my chest.

  “—if the mating is true, then a bond forms. This bond allows them to feel one another’s emotions, to share strength with one another in times of need.”

  I waited for him to elaborate, every fiber of my being on edge. My mind was screaming that it couldn’t be what I was thinking. It wasn’t that bad. I just had to stay calm.

  “When an Alpha takes a mate, he has the strength of the entire Pack behind him. If either he or his mate are ever in trouble, they can pull strength from the Pack as a whole. You needed that strength, Aria. A simple bond wouldn’t have been enough.” He ran a shaky hand through his short, white-blonde hair. “I didn’t even know if it would work. Just because you’ve been claimed as a mate, doesn’t mean the bond always forms. It can take months—years, even—and sometimes it never forms. With you, it formed right away. Aria, I felt you.” He placed his hand over his chest. “I felt you right away.”

  My eyes grew wide as his words finally sunk in. It was that bad.

  Sonovabitch.

  “You mate-claimed me?” I was going to kill him. That’s why he bit me.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” he said.

  Like hell he hadn’t, but before I could tell him so, the door to the room swung wide and James stepped in. “Hey, you’re—”

  “You let him mate-claim me?” I demanded, cutting him off. “What the hell were you thinking?” I threw one of my boots at him. James easily dodged it before looking away, standing by the door awkwardly as though he were just now regretting his decision to come into the room.

  “James! What the hell?”

  “Ari, you were dying!” He faced me, his grey eyes boring into mine, pleading with me to understand.

  “No, don’t you ‘Ari’ me. I’m freaking mate-bonded to him.” I waved my hand in Declan’s direction. “How could you let him do this to me?” A flash of grief washed over James’s face before his expression became blank. He was shutting me out.

  “Look, Declan did what was necessary to save your life. The two of you formed a mate bond. You should be happy. Not everyone gets that in life.”

  I scoffed. “I should be happy. Are you kidding me?” I turned to Declan, anger pulsing in my veins. “You had no right to force me into this. Fix it!”

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked, clearly deflated.

  “Unclaim me! Take away the bond and whatever else comes along with this.” He was shaking his head. “Just take it back!” I yelled.

  “I can’t do that,” Declan said.

  I turned to James and he shook his head in confirmation. My heart plummeted. What did he mean he couldn’t? There had to be a way, something, anything. Declan and James both eyed me with apprehension, and I knew whatever they saw when they looked at me wasn’t good. I started to feel like the walls were closing in, like I was trapped. I was no longer in control of my own life, my own destiny. He owned me.

  “No, no, no. This can’t be happening.” Fire ran along one of my shoulders. I didn’t care. I searched by the foot of the bed, retrieving my other shoe and haphazardly shoving my foot into it before looking around for my daggers. Bingo! On the bedside table. I didn’t bother contemplating who’d found them for me after the fight. I grabbed my sheath and strapped it around my thigh before turning around and storming over to James. I glared at him as I bent down to take back my other shoe.

  “You’re on fire,” he said.

  “Do you really think being on fire is what I’m worried about right now?” He pressed his lips into a thin line.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I have to get out of here,” I said, pushing past him.

  “You can’t leave,” Declan said behind me. I whirled on him so fast I gave myself whiplash.

  “You do not own me. I am not yours and I do not take orders from you. I don’t care that you said you mate-claimed me. I’m going to fix this, with or without your help.” I had no idea how I was going to do that exactly, but eh, semantics. One way or another, I would reverse whatever he had done to me.

  “There isn’t anything to fix, Aria. Don’t you see that? This isn’t a bad thing. The bond already formed, this is real. It’s permanent.”

  I sneered at him. “Maybe to you it is, but I didn’t ask for this and I don’t want any part in it.”

  “Hey, calm down.” James reached for me and I jerked away. Taking two more steps towards the door, I found myself blocked by a solid wall of muscle. How the hell had he gotten there so fast? Declan’s eyes were twin jewels as hard as ice.

  “I can’
t let you leave like this.” Apprehension hit me as I realized that he was going to actually try and force me to stay. I saw red. My fire grew without conscious thought, and within seconds my arms were engulfed in orange flames.

  “Get out of my way,” I said between clenched teeth. He didn’t move. His face was an expressionless mask, but whatever bond had formed between us allowed me to feel the emotions swirling inside of him. He wouldn’t hurt me, and when I was like this, he couldn’t reasonably stop me, either. Seconds ticked by and my patience began to grow thin. I took another step forward; he didn’t move.

  I weighed my options and then finally decided to hell with it all. I walked right into him, my hands pushing against his chest as I allowed the flames to lick his flesh in my attempt to shove past him. I heard him release a hiss, but he still didn’t move. I shoved his chest with everything I had.

  I watched in abject horror as my hands burned the material of his shirt and saw his flesh blister beneath my palms, but he remained immobile. His face was granite hard and his mouth pressed into a thin line. A muscle ticked in his jaw. I maintained the contact until the smell of burning flesh reached my nostrils. Jerking away, I whirled around, my eyes settling on a nearby table lamp. I stormed over to it. I pulled the lamp from the table, the cord ripping free from the wall, and threw it across the room. The sound of shattered glass echoed throughout the room but Declan still didn’t move.

  “Urgh! What the hell is your problem?” My voice shook and inwardly I cringed. He didn’t say anything. I noticed him and James staring at one another before James nodded, as though some silent form of communication had passed between them. Then, without a word, Declan turned and left the room, the door closing behind him.

  I folded my still flaming arms across my chest and counted to ten as I tried to rein in my fire. James stood by in silence, waiting patiently. When I hit ten, nothing happened. The flames still burned, so I tried again. On the second round, my flames finally started to retreat but didn’t disappear entirely. On the third round of ten, they were finally gone. I uncrossed my arms and headed for the door.

  “Aria—”

  “James, just…don’t.” I couldn’t handle this right now. I needed some air. I needed to get away from everything that was Pack, and that included James, my best friend.

  I felt him come up behind me. My hand brushed the door knob as his hands gripped my shoulders from behind. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in.”

  I scoffed. “You think?”

  He heaved a sigh and then gently turned me around to face him. “Would you just talk to me?” His eyes were so sincere, so genuine, that I found myself nodding without even realizing it. He smiled and led me over to the bed, taking a seat beside me. When I went to cross my arms, he pulled my hand away, clasping it in his as we sat beside one another. At first he said nothing, his eyes distant as he stared at the blank wall in front of us.

  “A mate bond doesn’t happen all that often. It’s a sign of finding your one true match.”

  I shook my head. Declan wasn’t my one true match, he couldn’t be. I could barely stand the guy. “How was I claimed to begin with? I remember him biting me”—my hand brushed my neck in remembered pain—“but that's all I remember.”

  “There’s a serum that releases in a shifter bite when they find their mate. From what I’ve been told, only your beast knows when the time is right. His tiger decided you were its mate and it chose to claim you.”

  “Why did you let him do this to me?” I asked, my voice barely audible to my own ears. I looked up at James and saw the moment my words registered. He looked stricken. With his free hand he covered his face, taking a deep breath before turning to look at me. I knew I shouldn’t blame him. It wasn’t his fault that Declan had done this, not really. But a part of me was angry. He’d been there when I’d gone down and he’d been there where Declan had decided to take me as his mate. Why hadn’t he done something, anything, to stop him?

  “Ari, I thought you were going to die.”

  “Then you should have let me die,” I said.

  “Don’t say that. Don’t ever even suggest it. I could never let you die, not if there was another way.”

  “You can’t let me die, but you can let me be mate-claimed against my will? How is that any better?”

  “Than you being dead? Aria, what the hell are you even thinking? Of course being mate-claimed is better than death.”

  I shook my head. Not to me, it wasn’t. This wasn’t like dating, or being married. This was an ownership. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it’d been with someone else, someone who I was on equal footing with, but it wasn’t. I’d been claimed by the Alpha of all Alphas in our region.

  “I need to get out of here.”

  “Where would you go?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, but I can’t stay here. Not like this.”

  He nodded and gave my hand a squeeze before releasing me. “I get that you need some time and some space. Declan gets it, too. Just know that you’re his everything now. He wouldn’t hurt you.”

  I didn’t entirely believe him; while the bond made me almost certain that he’d never intentionally hurt me physically, it didn’t reassure me that he wouldn’t crush me another way. I’d had my spirit crushed enough in the past. I couldn’t let him do that to me now.

  “I would have done it in his place if it would have been enough. If I’d had enough strength to of save you.”

  My eyes misted at his confession. I knew he would have, and I loved him for it, but I didn’t see James that way. I wasn’t happy that Declan had claimed me, but I was glad that it hadn’t been by James. He deserved better than me.

  “I know,” I said before leaving the room, and the Compound, behind me.

  An hour after leaving the Compound, my phone began going off. I ignored the first three calls, recognizing the number as Declan’s, before turning the phone off entirely. What ever happened to giving me some space?

  With every mile I traveled farther away from the Compound, a small part of me felt like it died inside. Each step took a focused effort. It was like my body knew I was leaving him and it rejected the idea. This bond was serious business, but there had to be a way to get rid of it. I just needed to focus on that and things would be okay.

  I racked my brain for any sort of idea, anything that could get me out of this. I came up with nothing. Shifters were secretive. I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t a shifter that would possibly have known of a way to get out of the mate bond. At this point, James was the only one who might’ve known anything, and I doubted he’d be any help. With him being a member of the Pack, I didn’t know if he actually could help me, even if he wanted to. I needed someone else, someone outside of the Pack.

  Melody was one of the few I called friend, and that was saying something, especially since she happened to be a harpy. Not that I had anything against harpies, but when it was in your very nature to lie, cheat, and steal, well, your motives and morals were typically questionable. In this case, though, there was no incentive for her to lead me astray, and if anyone knew how to break a mate bond outside of the Pack, it'd be her. She thrived on spying on other paranormals. It was a favorite pastime of hers, one I myself have come to enjoy as well. Purely for the purpose of expanding my knowledge base of course.

  I powered up my cell phone again, then deleted my missed calls log and dialed her number. Her ring back tone sang in my ear. “Holla back girl! What's up?" she said enthusiastically.

  “Holla what?” I said.

  “Don’t judge, I’m trying something new.” I sighed. She was always trying something new.

  "Look Mel, I need some help." And with that one statement, she turned all business.

  "Who do I need to kill?" she asked, her tone entirely serious. I had to laugh. Melody was the friend you called when there was a dead body in your living room because rather than freaking out and asking what the hell happened, she'd ask you where you kept your shovels and help you start di
gging. Hell, she wouldn’t even ask you that much. She’d find the damn things herself. When she called you friend, there was nothing she wouldn’t do for you.

  "No one. Not yet, at least. I just—” How could I explain this to her? I barely knew what was really going on myself. To hell with it. There was no sugarcoating this, and besides, I wasn’t Willy Wonka. “I’ve been mate-bonded to the Alpha of the Pacific Northwest Pack.”

  The line went silent.

  “Mel?” I started to think she’d hung up when I still got no response.

  “You’re fucking with me, right?”

  “God, I wish I was.” Wasn’t that the understatement of the century? I rubbed at my forehead; if Mel didn’t have any ideas, I’d be up a creek without a paddle.

  “Where are you? I’m grabbing my bag and leaving right now.”

  Oh thank God.

  I surveyed my surroundings. I’d walked several miles after leaving the Compound before hailing a cab to drop me as close to town as the twenty in my pocket could get me. “I’m on Argonne, nearing Millwood. Meet me at the Rocket Bakery.”

  “Done. See you in ten.” With that she hung up, and I released a huge sigh of relief. Melody was on her way. I’d explain the situation—well, as best I could—and together we’d hash out a plan to get rid of the bond. Easy peasy, right? If only.

  I shoved my phone pocket and continued my walk, heading closer to the Millwood area of Spokane at a brisk pace. I shook my head at myself over the stupidity of leaving on foot but with my Civic still at Mr. Ortiz’s, I hadn’t had much choice. The long walk had cleared some of the fog from my mind, allowing me to think more clearly. I was determined to fix this.

  The roads were flooded with traffic that was at a standstill. Some idiot had turned down Argonne the wrong way, not realizing it was a one-way road. I’d missed the wreck, but not the aftermath. The absence of any fire truck or ambulance was nothing new. It’d been over six years since the Awakening and we still had yet to recover some of the most basic forms of community help. During the Awakening when paranormals decided to come out of hiding, our government had waged a war that they just couldn’t win. That was the problem with human society. As a species, we were driven by fear and more than anything, humans feared the unknown. Our president at the time had funneled all financial resources into our military pulling funds from each state and bankrupting both state and federal governments in an attempt to kill the monsters coming out of the closets.