Which was why the upper-level classes included regeneration seminars so they learned how to cycle energy and refuel via the energy produced by sex.
“Why would you take such a risk?” She leaned over the center console, got in Zum’s face, and caught the subtle scent of sea-salted air.
“Ever since I caught wind about this meeting, I’ve been having dreams about my mom dying. Drowning. Natura Waters couldn’t hurt her, but I’m not sure about the covens. I know we’re technically all Natura, but witch and warlock power feels different.” Her gaze locked with Elspeth’s. “I thought if someone tried to harm my mother, I could help or be her secret weapon. What I felt tonight? Those witches aren’t toting around kiddie power.” A soft smile pulled across Zum’s face. “I’ll be all right. I’m just completely tidal right now. You always make me feel better. I need to ditch this charm, then I need a drink. There’s a Natura-run dive two blocks up.”
They got out of the car. Elspeth folded her arms across her silk blouse, but she might as well have been wearing nothing with the wind coming off the Hudson River.
“Where’s your coat? This ain’t Georgia, girl.” Zum pulled her hood back up.
Thank goodness a thread of teasing had returned to her best friend’s tone. Zum’s true first language wasn’t Japanese, but sarcasm.
“Don’t you think my coat would have screamed, ‘Hey, guards, I’m giving you the slip’?”
She laughed. “Yeah, probably. How did you manage your escape?”
“Egan helped.”
Zum put a hand over her heart and quickened her stride. “Goddess love that hot, sweater-vested warlock. I’m not sure who’s better looking, Egan or Ross. Wait. What am I saying? It’s Ross. Now, that’s an Earth I’d have a regen marathon with.”
Poor Zum. She’d had a crush on Ross since the first time she met him.
“He’s married to his job. I never see him date or even go out, so his power levels may be in the shitter too.”
“With him? Low flare, don’t care. When an Earth of his level regens with a Water of equal ability such as myself, the orgasms are freakin’ planetary. I now understand the saying ‘land and sea’s the one for me.’”
They stopped at the edge of the pier. Zum placed the charm she’d used to gain access to the coven meeting on the pavement and stomped it beneath her black high-top.
She didn’t put much thought into her cousin’s personal life. Ross had a fiercely guarded public persona, understandable given his high-profile role as Seanair’s event planner. Maybe that’s why he didn’t date anyone seriously. Maybe, like her, he’d made a fortress of his heart.
Zum picked up the flattened feathery disk between her thumb and forefinger and flung it into the dark river. “Drown.”
The word floated over the murky depths, a white stream in the icy air. Light surrounded where the charm plunked into the water, the blue-lit orb racing down, down, down until it disappeared.
“I’d have been better off lighting that two grand on fire. Wacky damn charm. The thing masked my signature, but I could see one of the Earth witch’s energy. It was a tangle of light, all shades of green, but black and smoky at the edges. Not normal and nothing like ours.” She wrapped her arms around her middle and bounced to warm herself. “Let’s get out of this wicked weather. I’ll never get used to this kind of cold.”
They headed into the large parking lot. Her grandfather had few hot buttons, but the subject of witches about sent him into orbit. Oddly enough, she had more in common with the coven classes than she did with the most powerful Naturas, since witches had no power, like her. They could call it to them, though, and contain it in a vessel inside them.
Unlike her.
“We’re all Mother Nature’s children. I wish Seanair would acknowledge the existence of the covens. A few evil witches don’t make them all bad.” She looped her arm around Zum’s and huddled close.
Although her grandfather couldn’t prove anything, all signs pointed to witches as the perpetrators behind her parents’ car accident, which was the only evidence Seanair needed.
“Yeah, well, good luck with changing Grandpa Corleone’s mind.”
She smiled at the only Natura who’d dare compare their North American leader to a fictional mobster. She should probably get back to her office. Still, trouble now, or trouble later—it didn’t matter.
She was having a cocktail with her bestie to break the news. “I need that drink now.”
So I can make your night worse.
“That’s why you’re my bestie. You drive like a hell bat, and you never say no to a cocktail.” They jaywalked across the street. “Be glad you don’t have power and no one can sense you. You have a level of freedom you don’t realize.”
“Four guards isn’t freedom.” A shiver went through her, and she wondered if her bones could freeze-dry. “Let’s hope I can sneak back in undetected, or I won’t even be able to pee by myself.”
“With luck and liquid courage, you’ll be fine. If you get caught, go the guards-with-benefits route. I’ve seen how those dudes look at you.”
“Zum.”
They turned the corner, thankfully getting out of the Goddess-forsaken wind.
“What’s worse? Sex with a hot dude, or pissing off Seanair?”
She’d not given any of her guards a second glance. Hell, most of them stared at the wall all the time and acknowledged her good mornings with a classic clipped response.
“No guard sex.” Her throat tightened at her reality. There’d be no sex at all until she was married.
They made a right and came to a beat-up door with a green neon sign that read Freddy’s.
Zum looked her up and down. “You’re not getting any because you’re dressing so… Are you running for the school board?”
She didn’t bother to tell her friend she was trying to look the part so her grandfather would take her seriously. If he ever decided to show his face at the office again.
She followed Zum into the dark, earthy-scented bar. A bell clanged overhead, and as her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she wondered if she’d walked into a florist’s shop.
“What is this place?”
Green surrounded them. Trees. Houseplants. Planters filled with petunias. Violets. Buckets of…dirt? An old-school jukebox stood in the corner, the lights flashing as the strange white noise changed from crashing waves to chirping birds and intermittent breezes.
If she closed her eyes, she’d swear she was about to have a cocktail in the woods.
“Freddy’s an old, hippie Earth who smokes a lot of weed and tends a massive garden out on Long Island. If it’s an exotic plant, he grows it to perfection and sells it to the highest bidder. You’d be surprised how much someone’s willing to pay for roses that last. His peonies are incredible too. He sends them regularly to my mother so she’ll overlook his bootleg-liquor business.”
They wandered farther into the bar. Her senses filled with the rich scent of rose and jasmine and the peaty froth of freshly turned soil. They decided on a two-person table in the back. Before she could sit, Zum pulled her into a hug, nearly squeezing the life out of her.
“Thank you for coming to get me. You always have my back.”
Her heart sank faster than the dead witch charm.
In her head, she’d rehearsed this conversation a gazillion times, but she’d never have the right words. The marriage would change their friendship. She’d consoled herself that it was just distance and a time difference. Saint Petersburg was only seven hours ahead of Manhattan.
“You know I’d do anything for you.” She savored the warmth of her best friend’s arms.
Pressure crept behind her eyes. Their relationship had started as roommates in boarding school at twelve, followed by four years at NYU. After college, Zum had moved back in with her parents, mainly so she could begin her training for when she took over as Water Magnus from her mother.
Still, the idea of any real distance between them burned like she�
��d been stabbed with a hot poker. Goddess, how could she go from emergency ice cream runs, girls’ night out, and the occasional shopping and lunch-athon to…video chats and texts?
“About that.” She pulled back and took a seat, noting most of the other tables were filled. “We need to talk. I signed the contract.”
Zum’s expression dropped, and she flagged down a waiter. “We’ll take two rosewater lightnings. Make them doubles.” Her gaze locked with Elspeth’s. “You’re joking, right?”
“A treatment for Lach isn’t a joke. It’s the only option left.”
“We talked about this. Over and over.” Zum hunched over the table, her voice low. “My mother knows of no viable treatment, and if anyone would know, it would be the Water Magnus. And if there really is one, just buy the damn thing.”
“Seanair offered twenty million. They said no.”
The waiter placed two glasses on the table. No ice. Just a pale pink liquid that glowed like the bartender had sprinkled it with silver glitter.
“One each is all you get.” The guy shot them a stink eye. “Freddy’s taking no chances with that one.” He tilted his head toward Elspeth.
Great. She’d been recognized, in a dive bar, on a Tuesday night.
“One’s all we need.” Zum’s gaze moved, slow and easy, over the waiter.
The guy gave Elspeth a last look and walked away.
They earned a few more looks from other patrons. Maybe she should be frightened, but she wasn’t. In the shadows of her grandfather and Lach and her cousins, she went largely unnoticed. Hell, her other brother, Graham, landed in the gossip columns more than she did.
Oddly, a sense of lightness settled over her. She was in a bar. With her best friend. About to enjoy a neon cocktail. Without her entourage.
“No one goes to Russia, E.” Zum raised her glass. “They don’t hold meetings there. All four elements have little to no communication with the Russians. You don’t know enough about what you’re getting into, but I’m going to investigate fully on your behalf. Cheers.”
They clinked glasses.
“Yuri’s been to the States several times and has met with Seanair.” Her fiancé’s name tasted sour against the cocktail’s subtle floral sweetness. “I haven’t met him, but Seanair says he’s worthy of me.”
“You decide who’s worthy of you.” Zum’s eyes closed, a pleased smile pulling her lips tight as she savored the drink.
Elspeth took another sip, and a bloom of warmth spread in her stomach, chasing away the chill. “My marriage will be no different than the hundreds of power-couples I’ve joined at Kindred. Come on, you know the situation will be the same for you.”
Zum’s eyes popped open. “The hell it will. I’ll swear off men for the rest of my life before I let you marry into that disaster. Seanair’s up to something.” She took a long slug, and her eyes widened. “Goddess, I love this drink. Freddy knows his moonshine and flowers.”
She’d probably have a hella hangover tomorrow, as she tasted zero alcohol in the cocktail. For once, maybe she’d call in sick and spend the day in bed, dreaming of being a Jones or Smith or Williams.
Not a Lennox.
Not a Natura.
Not a godfather’s granddaughter.
And damn sure not a Burkov.
She took in the pure pleasure on her best friend’s face, thinking about all the times they’d split a bottle of wine in a dorm room. Or shared a piece of pie at their favorite dessert spot.
I love you, and I’m not sure I can watch our friendship change.
Pressure built in her head and chest. The memories and sentiment rose like floodwaters, guilt threatening to choke her. Zum had become as close a confidant as Lach, and she’d gone behind both their backs to work the deal with the Russians and Seanair.
Zum leaned closer. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but think about it. Who’d withhold a treatment with a potential benefit to many people? This disease affects Naturas everywhere. This is a power play. The Russians want superbabies, but what’s your grandfather getting?”
“Rid of me.” She caught the ripple in the pale pink liquid of her drink, courtesy of Zum’s ire, and held up a hand. “Hear me out. I’m the first Passive in my family, and my parents were especially powerful. Seanair expected great things from me. For so long, I’ve felt like the nugget of fool’s gold in a twenty-four-karat family. Lach’s the reason I’m okay with both who I am and what I’m not. If I can help him hang on while we search for a cure, there’s no other choice for me.”
Kazumi stared at the bar’s front windows like she wanted to blow out the glass. “Do you know anything about this so-called treatment?”
“They’ve sent preliminary data to Seanair. His people have looked at the trials and say they’re promising. I even looked through the information, and though I’m no medical expert, it seemed legit. The Russians have been able to stop the disease’s progression.”
“It’s not a cure.” Zum tossed back the rest of her drink.
“No, but it’s time, and I’m buying it.”
“You in exchange for this supposed treatment is a shit trade.”
Kazumi was an only child. She didn’t get sibling loyalty.
“Lach was still there for me when the rest of my family turned away.” She folded her hand over Zum’s. “He’s my brother, and I love him. He’d do it for me in a heartbeat.”
Zum’s eyes filled with tears. “What about your options? Your life?”
“I haven’t had options since my twelfth birthday, and because of the family I was born into, my future has never been my own.” She’d majored in business to prove to Seanair she could get a “worthy” degree. But honestly? She had no clue what she wanted to do, knew even less about who she was meant to be, and wondered why she’d been born in the first place. Naturas were supposed to tend the earth, but as a Passive, she could do little more than water her store-bought plants and hope she didn’t kill them. “If I don’t go through with the wedding, Lach’s dead. End of story.”
“Say you buy him five years, then what? I need the rest of your drink, or the Hudson will crest its banks.” Zum took Elspeth’s half-consumed cocktail and downed it in one chug. “All it is is a little more time for Lach in exchange for a future of misery for you. But I get it.” Understanding weighted her finally calm blue eyes. “If I had a brother like Lach, I’d try to save his ass too. Have you told him?”
“No.” Her vision wavered, her body toasty and relaxed. “What was in that thing?”
“Psychedelic flowers. The effect lasts about an hour. It’s only dangerous if you drink too much.” Zum’s head lolled toward her. “Take Lach out of town when you break the news, or he’ll burn down Manhattan and blow the rubble into the Atlantic.”
She couldn’t picture Lach destroying anything without purpose, as he was a master of control. He was the Dual-powered brother who’d let her play with the Fire energy dancing between his fingertips and used his Air power to tangle the hair of catty high school girls who’d been mean to her. He’d shot mini flames over her marshmallows so they were the perfect golden brown for their s’mores on the deck.
A wave of peace rolled through her, the subtle rose scent burying the stress. “Why haven’t you brought me here before?”
Zum laughed through an easy smile. “This bar’s packed with powerful Earths. They won’t mess with me now that I have power and am stronger than them. I’d never put my bestie in danger.” Another laugh escaped. “Goddess, I wish Freddy sold liquor to go. When does Yuri get here?”
“Ten days. He’s coming in a day before the couple’s shower to see if we’re compatible.”
“My cat and I are compatible.” Zum leaned back in the chair and rested her head against the wall. “Before you buy the bottle, you need to taste the wine.”
“I know.” The wedding would be a big enough deal. She wasn’t going to make the first night as a couple any more awkward. “Actually, the Russians have been surprisingly easy to
deal with. Their main problem is with my current security.”
“Seriously? Four guards aren’t enough?”
She thought about the details of the straightforward contract.
“They’ve ordered my grandfather to assign some kind of elite guard.” She laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Goddess bless Freddy and his flower-power lightning. “Who knows what I’ll get if Seanair gets wind that I snuck out?”
“We’d better go.” Zum sat forward, widening her eyes as if to try to sober herself. “Give me the fob for your car. We’ll both catch cabs, and I’ll have one of my guys come down tonight and get the Mini. I’ll drive it to your place tomorrow. Tell your detail I borrowed it.”
She was likely in all kinds of trouble. At the moment, she wanted nothing more than an XXL jug of that pink sparkly elixir.
“That won’t work. I never loan my car.” She pulled out her phone. No one had texted or called.
Maybe the toast was fear…coast was clear. She blinked, recognizing liquor and her thoughts weren’t meshing well.
“Tell them I stole it,” Zum said, her voice scratchy.
That, her guards would believe.
The waiter came over. “Freddy ordered cabs for you.”
“Tell Freddy we love him.” Zum damn near giggled, a laugh attack imminent.
Both of them enjoying the timeout from their worry, they chilled out in silence for a few minutes, the white-noise music changing to the trickle of a babbling brook. Once they’d made their way to the front, they hugged one last time inside the toasty bar.
“This isn’t over.” Zum’s hands rested on Elspeth’s shoulders, her expression that of a coach giving a pep talk. “I’m going to learn everything my mom knows about the Russians. And then I’ll come up with a plan to stop my best friend from making the biggest mistake of her life. We’ll talk more when I bring over your dress for the gala. I’m almost done, and it is fabulous.”
“I’m sure it is. I can’t wait to see it.” She pulled Zum in for a hug and wondered how many more they had left before her life changed.
Two taxis pulled up, and they stepped out into the cold. She gave a last wave and got in the first one. As it pulled away from the curb, her phone buzzed in her bra. Once. Twice. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the pack of gum, for once not caring about pissing off her grandfather. Or her guards. Or anyone.
The Call of Fire: A Natura Elementals Novel Page 3