Fire Reborn

by D. S. O'Neill

  Table of Contents

  Beginning

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Book Description

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  Angel Eyes Description

  Angel Eyes Chapter 1

  More from D.S. O’Neill

  Fire Reborn

  (Shifting Fires #1)

  D.S. O’Neill

  Copyright © 2018 by D.S. O’Neill

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First Edition, 2018 D.S. O’Neill

  Formatting and graphics by Starfire Press

  Cover design by OliviaProDesign

  Editing by D.S. O’Neill

  Table of Contents

  Beginning

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Book Description

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  Angel Eyes Description

  Angel Eyes Chapter 1

  More from D.S. O’Neill

  Dedication

  I have so many thank you’s for this book that I’m honestly not sure where to begin. Nikki, of course, and Jamie and Sammybelle. You’re my best friends. I love you to the moon and back.

  Leigh, for agreeing to beta for me yet again. Glutton for punishment, I guess. (Insert laughter here.) Karmen, for being so kind as to help me keep track of everything, because lord knows I’d push the “big red button of doom” by accident if I were left to my own devices. Mads, Ashley PA, Ashley K, Anita, and Zoe—your support is irreplaceable. Thank you for helping me, for taking the time to answer my endless barrage of random questions, for giving me pointers and advice, and for accepting bizarre gifs at any time of the day.

  And to my daughter—we’ll ride your bike as soon as it’s not rainy, I swear.

  Book Description

  Almost 2000 years ago, there was a sacred city called Aresteros. This was the home of some of the most powerful shifters history has ever known: the phoenix shifters. They were not only invulnerable to any form of magic, but were said to be eternal, coming to the end of each life only to be reborn in a blaze of fire. But 2000 years ago...they vanished overnight, never to be seen or heard from again.

  Until now.

  Katra is the first Phoenix shifter since their disappearance all those centuries ago. She has traveled from place to place with her father since she was 7, after her mother was killed trying to protect her secret from a group of fanatical witches. She's learned not to talk to other shifters, not to form relationships, and most of all, not to trust.

  Until Kaster, Marclan, and Finley, 3 mercenary dragon shifters, are hired to track her down. They know there's something different about her, and that they have contract to take her in, but even with all that, there's something about her that is... compelling. Intriguing. All-consuming.

  Something that, in the wrong hands, could destroy everything.

  A slow-burn RH fantasy romance novella.

  The ancient city of Aresteros is the supernatural equivalent of the city of Atlantis. It was the home of the phoenix shifters, considered to be the most powerful shifters of their time, possibly of all time. For well over a millennia, this place was the epitome of beauty and advancement, welcoming any and all who came to their doors, no matter their supernatural heritage.

  It is believed by many supernatural historians that this open and inviting nature of theirs was what eventually led to the phoenix shifter’s downfall almost 2000 years ago. In the space of a single night, the entire city was wiped from existence. All that remains of the city of Aresteros and its mighty phoenix shifters is myth and legend.

  While many have dedicated their lives to the search and discovery of the lost city of Aresteros, there are those who hope such a discovery never happens, for the power of the phoenix shifters is vastly believed to have been unstoppable, and they would shudder to think of what such power could do in the wrong hands…

  Prologue

  Not all witches are bad.

  Her mother’s words echoed through her head as little Katra stared into the hate-filled eyes of the four teenage witches who stood before her in the small clearing in the woods she had previously been playing in. It was clear from their body language and sneering mouths that they were of the persuasion to believe that shifters were less than them. In this small southern town, there was a solid, distinct line drawn between the local coven of witches and the spattering of shifters that resided in its borders. The Imperium Coven—the name they had carried for decades—was led by Caroline Abernathy, a 40-something powerful witch who had spent her 10-year leadership instilling in her subjects the idea that shifters were a lesser form of supernatural being and, as such, had no business being in her glorious town. Before her rise to power, the town of Morning Hills had sported a fairly equal representation of every supernatural species, but since her ascension, the number of shifters had dropped dramatically as they were systematically driven out until only a handful were left.

  Katra Embersen was one of them, along with her mother and father, Marana and Jakob Embersen. Her father, a wolf shifter, had many times attempted to convince both Katra and Marana to leave, but Katra and her mother were firm in their belief that this was their home as much as anyone else’s, and they refused to be swayed. Part of this was due in large part to Marana’s animal, a lioness, who were notoriously territorial and protective by of the land they were born and raised in by nature. Although, if she were being honest, Katra would say that her refusal to leave was due primarily to her love for her best friend, Addilyn, also known as Addi, who now stood next to Katra as they faced down the angry witches.

  “You lot aren’t that smart, are you? I mean, at least the others were smart enough to know when they weren’t wanted, but you’re so dumb you can’t figure out when you should get the fuck out.” The prettiest of the witches, a tall girl with white-blonde hair and cold blue eyes sneered at her as she looked down her nose at the little 7-year-old.

  “Don’t talk to my friend like that! She’s better than all of you!” Addi responded with as much vehemence as an 8-year-old could muster. Standing as tall as she could, she glared up at the intimidating witch without flinching, and Katra felt a flutter of pride for her best friend.

  Addilyn Pierce and her mother were the only witches in town who refused to pander to the radical ideals of the Imperium Coven, and for that, they had been disowned and were treated nearly as bad as the shifters. The separation was an idiotic move on the coven’s part; it placed them in the position of being entirely unaware of Addi’s blossoming power, a power that was far greater than any average 8-year-old witch. Unfortunately, this power also tended to give Addi a sense of invincibility that she couldn’t fully back up, since her power was largely uncontrollable.

  The four witches cackled in unison, and Katra tugged on Addi’s arm from where she stood hiding behind her, hoping to grab her attention enough to convince her to just leave. “No, Addi. I don’t care what they say. I just wanna go home. Please, Addi—let’s just go.”

  Pulling her arm from between Katra’s shaking fingers, Addi pulled herself up even higher. “No way. These stupid bitch
es need to learn that they aren’t better than anyone.”

  “Addi, you know your momma doesn’t want you swearing. You’ll get the switch again.”

  Her response elicited a round of obnoxious giggling from the quad of witches as they began to surround the two little girls with looks of danger in their eyes. “Aww, do you need to run back to your momma and tattle? Like she could ever compete with my mother, the leader of the Imperium Coven.”

  Of course they would be dealing with Charlotte Abernathy, who was just as conceited and over-zealous as her mother. She flipped her hair over her shoulder with haughty arrogance, the kind that came from years of being treated as important simply due to the luck of her birth. The witches positioned themselves around Katra and Addi as they eyed the children up and down like a butcher studying a fattened-up cow.

  Like meat.

  “You can’t touch us.”

  Katra’s eyes closed in dismay as Addi’s words sank in. Challenging members of the local coven was akin to challenging the gods. Nothing good could come from it.

  “Well let’s test that theory.” Charlotte responded as she pulled a small, glass orb from her pocket that was roughly the size of a large marble. She whispered a word over it before smiling wickedly at the young girls.

  The orb glowed softly before cracking and releasing a green mist that quickly flew up to surround Addi and Katra.

  Addi simply smiled. Lifting a hand, she cut through the dull green mist without saying a word, and the mist quickly evaporated into nothing.

  The older witches were clearly surprised by the younger witch’s skill. Only the most powerful witches could cast without using words or objects, and for an 8-year-old to hold that skill was simply unheard of.

  A wise person would turn at that point and choose to leave the situation for safer ground. But clearly Caroline Abernathy’s daughter was neither wise nor was she planning to leave. If anything, this sudden turn of events angered her to the point of seething, and she pulled another glass orb from her pocket as her eyes burned into Addi’s. Whispering another word to the orb, she grinned with an expression that sent chills running down Katra’s spine.

  Things were about to get very, very bad.

  The orb cracked and this time, a black, inky looking smoke welled up from it as Charlotte threw it down at the ground in front of Addi, who simply looked as if she were bored. But when her hand attempted to slice through the smoke like she did with the green mist, the smoke latched onto her arm as if it were a living thing. She blinked, and her mouth opened into a startled ‘oh’ before her expression quickly changed into one of pain. Waving her arm up and down as if she were trying to shake off the foul substance, her body began to convulse as the smoke morphed to take a more liquid form, moving slowly up her arm like spilled oil.

  Katra watched in horrified fascination, lost as to how she could help or what to do, desperate to end her friend’s suffering but knowing that, as a still unidentified shifter, she had no abilities of her own with which to provide any kind of assistance.

  Addi convulsed again before collapsing to the ground, her body trembling as the oil-like spell began to reach her throat.

  Not all witches are bad. And certainly not her best friend and self-assigned body guard, Addi.

  Katra fell to the ground next to her best friend and grabbed her arm, not caring if the spell might decide to latch onto her as well.

  It was at this point that the unimaginable happened.

  The moment Katra’s hand touched Addi’s blackened arm, the air around them heated by a good ten degrees, and little sparks of fire began to flicker in the air over her and Addi. The tiny tongues of fire slowly coalesced over the black spell, and as Katra watched, the flames ate through the spell like hungry vultures picking through the carcass of a zebra.

  Picking it clean until there was nothing left, not even a hint of black, before flickering out completely.

  Blinking her eyes slowly, Addi tenderly sat up as she gazed at Katra in awe.

  But she couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t as if Katra had done that…right? She couldn’t. It wasn’t possible.

  The only creatures capable of burning away magic were…extinct. If there was anything her dad made sure her young mind knew well, it was supernatural history, and supernatural history said that every creature who had that kind of ability was long gone, disappearing from the world almost 2000 years ago.

  The phoenix shifters.

  However, if the terrified expressions on the four witches’ faces were any indication, then she was in serious trouble.

  “A…Phoenix shifter. You’re…you’re supposed to be extinct. How can…” Charlotte stuttered in dumbfounded shock as she slowly backed away, the three other teenagers following in equally stupefied awe. One of them, a short, round girl with straight brown hair, tugged on the blonde girl’s arm as she leaned in to whisper to her.

  “Your mom. We need to go tell your mom. Remember she was talking about that guy? I can’t remember his name…but she needs to know. She’ll want to tell him.”

  Shaking her head, Charlotte continued to stare at Katra with a look that was quickly changing from shock and awe to something that closely resembled…hunger. As if she were a starving person who had just been presented with a meal of filet mignon, mashed potatoes, and succulent lobster tail.

  “No…we’re going to take her with us. She might be immune to magic, but she’s fuckin’ 7 years old. We can easily overpower her physically. Knock her out, take her with us, deliver her to my mom, and then she can bring her to him. He’ll be indebted to us.” She quickly began to move towards Katra and Addi, the look of hunger never once faltering.

  “I can’t let you do that, Charlotte.”

  Startled by the new voice, Katra’s gaze swiveled around to see the deep, honey-blonde hair of her mother, Marana, as she emerged from a cluster of trees. She wore an expression of determination and not a little bit of fierce, motherly protection, and the claws had already begun to grow on her fingers as her hair gradually shifted to the soft russet color of her lioness. Her mother was clearly holding back, as she was long past the point in life where shifting fully to her lioness form took only a matter of seconds. It wouldn’t be long before she was fully shifted, and the intimidatingly large lioness would have no qualms with extinguishing any threat to her offspring.

  “Go home, Charlotte. Don’t tell anyone what you saw. I promise you—this won’t end well if you do.”

  Charlotte scoffed, a very unwise gesture, though it had already been made clear that she was severely lacking in the intelligence department. “Please. Four witches against one lion shifter? That’s not even a match. We would take you down in less than a minute.”

  Marana’s lioness growled low, clearly threatened by the tone of the young witch’s voice, and not content to take it lying down.

  “Momma—”

  Before Katra could finish, Charlotte suddenly threw a glass orb Katra hadn’t even seen her grab while screaming a word in Latin—premo—and it broke at Marana’s feet, unleashing a lightning storm that quickly covered Marana’s body. She twitched and spasmed as the lightning bit into her flesh, leaving char marks in its wake. Katra screamed, rushing to help her mother, and the moment she reached her, flames of fire filled the air again and quickly ate through the electricity spell until it was gone.

  Marana’s body fell to the ground as smoke wafted off her scorched flesh, and much of her clothing had been disintegrated into nothing more than a bit of charred fabric.

  A vicious howl filled the air, and in her shocked state, Katra barely recognized the broken voice of her father as the sound of a scuffle filled the air. Moments later, she felt more than saw her father fall to his knees next to her as he reached out to gather his wife in his arms.

  Except it wasn’t his wife anymore. It was her body.

  Her mother was gone. She knew it with the same certainty that she knew her life would never be the s
ame again.

  “Jakob…we need to go.” The soft, feminine voice drifting through the clearing was enough to startle Katra, forcing her to finally lift her eyes from her mother’s lifeless form. The voice belonged to none other than Addi’s mother, Evangeline Pierce, who was leaning over Katra and Jakob with a look of sorrow and understanding.

  Of course she understood. She’d lost her husband nearly 7 years ago, soon after Addi’s birth. She understood all too well the loss that Jakob felt.

  “We need to go. Now.” Evie repeated as she glanced around the clearing, and it was only then that Katra realized her mother’s body was not the only one there.

  Charlotte Abernathy’s shredded corpse lay some ten feet away, mutilated almost beyond recognition with bite marks and a very clearly broken neck, judging by the odd angle at which it now lay. She didn’t see the other three girls, and could only assume that they had fled.

  “I know where we need to go, but we need to leave immediately, before the other girls bring the rest of the coven.” Evie reached down and tugged on Jakob’s arm as Addi moved to Katra’s side and wrapped her arm around Katra’s shaking shoulders. The mother-daughter team both pulled the shocked father and daughter from the ground, forcing them to walk blindly through the woods as they guided them to some unknown destination.

  Katra didn’t really register much of the journey, only the ground below her and the trees passing by her. Eventually, she found herself sitting at Evie’s kitchen table with a glass of water held between her hands that must have been given to her at some point, though when, she didn’t know. She was aware of the sound of shuffling around her, papers moving, drawers opening and unknown items rustling around in said drawers before she heard the sound of them close again. Moments later, Evie’s kind brown eyes appeared before her as she gently took the glass from Katra’s hands, and Katra felt a fleeting curiosity as to whether or not she had even taken a sip from it before hazily focusing in on Evie.