Born in Fire (Fire and Ice Trilogy Book 1)

by K. F. Breene

  He stared at me, clearly waiting for a reaction.

  “Go on,” I said.

  His lips tightened. “We think it must have been vamp blood, and it certainly wasn’t taken with approval, because they ended up killing him.”

  “Vamp blood? Maybe.” I wanted him to think I didn’t know the real source of the blood. “It’s pretty hard to trap a vampire. Maybe while he was sleeping, but it would take some extreme presence of mind to pull that off without getting killed before you reached the door.”

  “That’s what we’re thinking. It doesn’t quite add up.”

  “We being the shifters?” I asked.

  He looked toward the door again. “Yeah. So we’ve been looking for any other explanation.”

  “And you heard about a mage,” I surmised.

  A troubled look crossed his face. He ran his finger down the sweating bottle of beer. “I’ve heard about a few, actually. All of a sudden, it seems like mages in this area have gotten really powerful. Like…one can create hellfire.” He shook his head. “He went missing a couple days ago, but they say he does that often. He disappears for a while, but he always comes back, usually with some spells.”

  That sounded like the guy I’d taken out, though the spell he’d thrown at me hadn’t been hellfire. Close, but it wouldn’t have killed a vampire. It hadn’t been hot enough. “Where does he disappear to?”

  Red shrugged, glanced at the door, and lowered his voice. “The witch who was telling me was really drunk. He didn’t think it was the Realm, but he wasn’t sure where else the mage would go. Maybe he disappeared to re-up his supply of the blood?”

  “That’s all you’ve got?”

  His eyes turned shifty. “Yeah.”

  He was the worst liar. I said as much.

  “That’s it. He’s been gone a while.” Red fidgeted.

  “You guys killed him, then?” I tried, watching closely. His head jerked, like he stopped himself saying no, and his shoulder ticked upward, like a shrug in process, but there was no surprise or defensiveness in his expression.

  The shifters knew the mage was dead, but they didn’t know I’d killed him. Huh. Captain Lox was keeping his secrets, and so were the mage’s neighbors. That was good.

  “What else?” I asked.

  Red shifted in his seat. He licked his lips and eyed the door.

  “What else?” I repeated before upending the bottle and gulping down the liquid. For some reason, my heavy drinking scared him more than an out-and-out threat.

  “The rumor is, there are a few mages involved,” he said in a shaky voice. “They’re selling the blood, but that’s just a monetary scheme. They’re also trying to amass power.”

  I rolled my eyes. “They are always trying to amass power. Is this all you’ve got?”

  “No!” He scooted toward me. When the man had information, he hated to be disbelieved. Hence the shifters keeping most of the juicy bits from him. “Rumor has it, they’ve enlisted a few covens of witches for their army. Those witches have somehow turned into full-scale mages. Their power has doubled. Doubled. Now, the witch who told me was drunk, as I said, so he could’ve exaggerated, but still…a witch who couldn’t even get into the Realm, suddenly talking about it as a second home?”

  That was something.

  I leaned back, not liking that news at all.

  “Exactly,” he said, matching my lean. “Exactly. We’re a little worried about what this might mean. And even more worried that the vampires will stumble onto all this, and try to bring the leader into their fold. Can you imagine if the vampires suddenly had access to this much power? They could easily use the mages to force us out of the Brink…and, eventually, maybe even take on the elves.”

  I couldn’t hold back a dark look as I remembered what Darius had said: “We won’t bow forever.”

  Red had a point. My job had started as a bounty hunter gig, but now it seemed like I’d be leading them to a large source of power with an amassing army. Not to mention, I had a lot of power myself. Once I found the mage in charge, the vampires would have both of us in the same place, ripe for capture. I was pretty sure this hadn’t started as a setup, but if the shifters had made this connection, I could damn well bet it had occurred to Vlad and Darius.

  “Not good,” I mumbled.

  Before Red could reply, a burly man walked through the door. Stacked with muscle that didn’t steal any of his grace, complete with a barrel chest and heavy tree-trunk arms, he held himself like he owned the world and everything breathing within it. I groaned when I caught sight of his eye color. One blue and one green.

  The most powerful of the shifters in North America had just walked into the bar. My day couldn’t get worse if I intentionally sabotaged it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Hey, Roger. Nice to see you. I was just leaving.” I got out of my seat as he stalked up.

  “Sit,” he barked. Full of power and force and intensity, his words demanded obedience. Red quailed and stooped in his seat. If he were in dog form, he would’ve rolled over and showed his belly.

  “Gotta go. I’m working.” I took a step away from the table, shamefully ready to run. Downing a guy like Roger would not be easy. Maybe not possible, even for me. I was lucky he couldn’t change into shifter form in front of all the humans. Still, if it came to a fight, the whole bar would be taken out.

  “Working. Is that what you call constantly badgering my employee for information you are not entitled to?” He stepped in my path.

  “Yes. Why, what do you call it?”

  Roger’s face was a terrible mask of violence. Shivers of apprehension worked up my spine. “This ends, now,” he snarled.

  Fire sparked in my gut, my automatic response to bullying. Logic told me to run, but my contrariness had always been stronger than my logic. I sometimes hated that part of myself. “You can’t be here all the time, Roger.”

  His eyes flashed. “I don’t need to be here all the time. I can find you anywhere.”

  “And do what? Hump my leg?” I smirked, the fire spreading through my middle and tingling my fingers.

  “I should drag you out of here right now.” He took a step toward me. “You’ve caused a lot of problems for my people.”

  “I haven’t done dick to your people. You hang around like gremlins, hoping I’ll slip up so you can haul me into the Realm and get someone to check out my funky smell. I have a legit job, you harassing douche. Spoiler alert: that job doesn’t answer to you. You have no power in the Brink magical law enforcement. You are allowed to work here because you help them with a few of the outliers. Start messing with their employees, and that might not be the case anymore.”

  He stared at me, and though he was about my height, it felt like he was looking down at me. Lava replaced the heat in my body—survival mode. It was about to get real, I could tell. Shifters didn’t reprimand with words; they did it with actions. They battled to get to the top of their hierarchy. He was ruthless, vicious, and at the top of his game. Quite possibly, I was in over my head on this one.

  I wonder how fast he can run…

  Roger’s tone lowered into not much more than a growl. The small hairs rose all over my body. “I will only say this one more time, Reagan Somerset. Keep my employee out of your schemes, or I will be forced to make good on my warning.”

  “I didn’t remember hearing a warning in your dull sermon.” Darius strolled into the bar with a calm expression, all infallible confidence.

  I jumped, only then noticing full night had fallen. Roger stiffened and turned around extremely slowly, coiled and ready to strike. Green shimmered around his body, a shifter’s magic, making their form change possible. The power of it stung my eyes.

  Red hunched so low in his chair that I could barely see his head above the table.

  Darius tsked. A little smile played across his lips as he crossed much too closely to the fuming shifter and took his place by my side. “Careful there, little doggie. You wouldn’t want the huma
ns to know how furry you can get. That might get you in some trouble. You’d be on the other end of the law, then, would you not?”

  “An elder among us. How did I get so lucky?” Roger grinned, a terrifying sight filled with violent promise.

  “You turn into an animal. You didn’t,” Darius replied with nonchalance.

  “Given your other form, you probably shouldn’t throw stones regarding what he turns into,” I murmured.

  “You openly feed on human blood,” Roger said quietly, his voice muted by the jazz music. “I am authorized to take you down. Do you want a head start?”

  Darius laughed. “My, my. Full of ourselves, aren’t we? Tell me, when have you ever taken down an elder by yourself?”

  Roger’s unwavering stare beat into Darius’s face. “We’re not solitary monsters like you are, hiding in the shadows and preying on the weak. We run in packs. We share the euphoria of a good kill.”

  “For a species that hunts us, you know very little about our true habits. I find that interesting. Or maybe you trick yourself into thinking we are solitary beings so that when you prey on a lone vampire, you can still call yourself mighty?”

  Roger’s jaw clenched.

  “Food for thought,” I said, and cleared my throat. We were wasting the night. Those mages had to know they were being hunted by now, and they possibly knew by whom. They’d be putting up defenses, and if they were gaining power quickly, I’d soon be no match for them. “Anyway, Roger, we are on official business. His faction”—I nodded at Darius—“has posted a bounty, and we are investigating. He has a legal right to be in the Brink.”

  “He has a legal right if he abstains from taking human blood or revealing his true identity.” Roger’s stare had not left Darius’s eyes, and vice versa.

  “I have not taken human blood while on official business,” he lied.

  “And when you need to?”

  “Shifters don’t count as humans…”

  A more prominent cloud of green shimmered around Roger. He was having a hard time controlling his wolf, which was not usual for someone in his position. Darius obviously recognized this, judging by the taunting smile curling his lips. He wasn’t fooling me anymore, though. Darius’s body had tensed and the sharp tips of claws were poking me in the back where his hand rested. He was ready to fight, just like Roger was.

  “He’ll take it from me,” I blurted.

  Both men blinked and looked at me.

  My mouth went dry. I didn’t want to say it again. So I dodged. “He won’t have to take it from a human, because he is super old, and elders don’t need blood as often. Which you know, Roger. He was full up when I met him in the Realm, in anticipation of being in the Brink on this bounty, and that was only a couple days ago—”

  “Five days,” Darius said, his pupils dilating in a sexual sort of hunger. His hand now splayed across my back possessively.

  That probably wasn’t good. At least I knew what day it was, though.

  Wait…what day was it?

  I shook my head, getting back on track. “Right. Five days. And I’ll close this in no time. I always do. So there’s nothing to worry about. But if he needs it, I can supply it. I don’t count as human, so that sidesteps your jurisdiction.”

  Roger’s eyes narrowed. If I was on the “shifter watch list” before, I probably had a star next to my name now.

  “So let’s go.” I flung Darius’s hand off my back and pushed him so he’d walk around Roger. He did so grudgingly, that hunger now burning bright.

  Definitely not good.

  “Oh, and…” I tapped on the table, drawing Red’s wide eyes, two orbs right above the table edge. While he didn’t deserve a favor—after all, he passed on loads of my information to others—I wasn’t the type of girl to get a guy in trouble with his boss. “I didn’t get a chance to reciprocate knowledge, what with your boss throwing his dick around and all.” I saw Roger stiffen out of the corner of my eye. He was really easy to bait when Darius was on the scene. “I killed that mage. The one who disappeared for a while? He’s not coming back. His friends are after me now, too. So I’ve got that going for me. Unlike shifters and vampires, I am solitary, so if you want to watch me a little more closely after I take down the festering group of power seekers, that’d be just fine. And it would be preferable if you’d intercede before they kill me.”

  I switched my glance to Roger, whose brow had furrowed. He hadn’t expected that, I wagered. “I’m working with vampires because they stole a mark, and with it, my livelihood. They posted a bounty through the Magical Law Enforcement office. I am not working with them; I’m working for myself while adhering to the terms of the bounty. I have no loyalty to them outside of this particular job.”

  It was Darius’s turn to stiffen. I was making solid friendships that would stand the test of time, as was normal.

  “Why are you telling me this?” he asked, clearly confused.

  “Because, while I think your people are extremely annoying, I am not choosing a side. I am not your enemy.”

  Though Roger didn’t so much as glance at Darius, I had the feeling he was uncomfortable with the vampire’s continued presence. “Noted. The job offer is still on the table. As is the warning for harassing Red.”

  Roger had offered me a job several times, delivered by his people. The terms were simple—tell the shifters what and who I really was, let them categorize my magic, and then I could help them bring down vampires and occasionally demons for a moderate monthly income. In other words, choose one side, hunt the other side, and let someone control me with knowledge and money.

  Nope.

  “Declined and, respectfully, declined.” I bowed with a flourish. “I’ll stick with no ties, if you don’t mind. Friends are as dangerous as enemies around here. But thanks for asking and delivering.”

  “Reagan,” Darius said in a soft tone, letting me know it was time to go. It was just as commanding as Roger’s barked words, pun not completely intended.

  “Are you sure you are working for yourself?” Roger asked as I stepped away.

  “No, and it isn’t sitting well,” I responded as I joined Darius.

  “I was not pleased to have awoken and found you missing,” Darius said as we stepped out into the sticky New Orleans night. The clouds above hadn’t broken open and poured down onto the street yet, but the extra moisture in the air clung to my body like a wet, lightly heated blanket. I loved it for reasons I couldn’t explain, like the city itself. It was a living, breathing thing that either took root in a person and brought them to life, or turned them cold and pushed them away. I was the former, and the pulse of my surroundings thrilled me, filled with danger and intrigue, history, and tradition. There was no place like this place, and I felt the pleasure of it drumming through my veins.

  “Reagan?” Darius prompted.

  “Sorry, the city was talking to me, and I like it better than you.” I gave him a grin to say I was joking. “I can go out in daylight, Darius. So when I can’t sleep, I might as well work, no?”

  “It isn’t safe for you to go alone. As you told the shifter, the mages will know of you by now, and they will try to take you down.”

  “They’ll try to take you down, too, O Wise One. And yet you wandered around the city looking for me. Double standards, much?”

  He scowled, leading me God knew where, but it happened to be in the direction I was going, so I didn’t say anything. “You are a human female. It isn’t safe,” he repeated.

  “That’s what I meant by— Never mind. Look, don’t worry about me. I’m better equipped at dealing with mages than you are. If a pack of vampires comes after me and I need to walk around at night, you can gallantly stalk me then. How does that sound?”

  “I get the feeling you are poking fun at me, Reagan.”

  “I sure hope so. I’m laying it on pretty thick. Anyway, how’d you find me?”

  “One of the humans on my payroll saw you. He kept tabs on you and awaited my call.”
r />   “Wow. You really were stalking me. That is horribly uncool.”

  I gestured him right. He resisted for a moment, but when I stepped around him and went on my merry way, he caught up immediately. He didn’t ask where I was going.

  I enjoyed that he wouldn’t admit to his ignorance—it really made things easy on me.

  “I got some disturbing information,” I said.

  I told him what I’d learned from Red, stopping in front of the brewery on Decatur. I had wanted to watch his reaction. I should’ve known he wouldn't have one. He was much too controlled for that.

  When I was finished, he studied my face. “We haven’t much time to find him, or his power might soon exceed yours.”

  “Yeah. I came to the same conclusion.”

  “We can try another of my contacts. I did not get the feeling Mrs. Banks was withholding anything.”

  “She wasn’t, but if you’d just talked to her husband, you wouldn’t have gotten what we did. Your other vendors might be the same way. Not many people want to get mixed up in vampire politics.”

  “This is hardly politics.”

  “Everything with you guys is politics.” I watched his face again, but still got nothing.

  I sighed and threw up my hand for a coming cab. Seeing it was a female driver, I shoved Darius toward the street. “Stick your hand up!”

  “I do not lower myself to jumping around like a fool to hail a taxi. I will simply call—”

  I flung his hand up and shoved him forward again, making him take a step. The cab flashed its lights and pulled into the public parking area.

  I hastened Darius that way. “This is faster.”

  “You engage in life like a simpleton.”

  “Engage in life? You need to go back to studying how the people of this time speak. That was a big failure, right there.” I reached for the door handle, but suddenly his hand was there. He scoffed and pulled it open. I was pretty sure he was thinking simpleton again.