That was where the magic came from, I realized. I’d never gotten a present so meaningful. “Thank you, so very much.”
I turned toward Jakob filled with love for him. He’d seen how much I wanted the chest and even though it was a small thing he’d remembered. It touched me how much he cared and the work he’d put into my gift…it was easily the best gift I’d ever received.
“Thank you,” I said, trying to put all of my emotions into the two words. It didn’t work; it couldn’t work. There was too much to say and not enough words in the world to say it. My kiss could though. My kiss and my body could show him how I felt.
I leaned against him, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him deeply. One kiss lead to another, and when I could finally stop myself, I pulled my mouth away long enough to whisper, “I love you.”
“I love you, too. Happy Birthday,” he breathed, kissing my forward with each word. His hands pressed against my shoulders moving me as if we were dancing.
“Where are we going?”
“To bed.” The bedroom was a long way down the hall, and I kissed him again for the trip. I couldn’t stop kissing him. It felt lusciously forbidden to stand in his staid dining room and kiss him, kiss him in front of my present. We started this dance in my bedroom hours ago. He knew what was under my dress, what I wanted him to see, and I knew what he wanted to feel. Somehow all that made it more decadent.
“It’s faster if we stay here,” I said breathless. I was pulling his shirt out of his pants, but it was taking too damn long.
“Faster but not better.” He picked me up by the waist and carried me into the bedroom while we laughed.
He put me down in front of the bed and undressed with ruthless efficiency. I suspected a button or two didn’t survive, but I didn’t waste the time to be sure. I moved toward him, and he deftly turned me, his naked body moving against my soft dress. I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the bed and letting my lower half move against him, urging him on.
“So very soft,” he whispered, his hands running over the fabric. Everywhere he touched tingled, electric sparks running under my skin. He pulled me up and around, his hands found their way to my breasts and despite the fabric between us his caress made my legs shake.
He drew the belt out of my dress slowly, unwrapping me like I was a gift. Moving the fabric down and off my shoulders, letting it gather around my waist. He watched me then, stopping to enjoy the way my dress hung open, the way I looked beneath it. I leaned back to improve his view.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, his voice deep with desire. I blushed, embarrassed by his praise and moved to cover myself. The strap of my bra dipped down, and his eyes locked on it. His hand was on my skin, cool and white against the warm black silk, moving the fabric down lower so he could kiss my shoulders. He closed the distance between us and lifted me up and out of the dress, then slid my body down his until my feet touched the pile of fabric on the floor.
His kisses moved down my chest to the valley between my breasts leaving a line of fire there. I tried to breathe normally, but his seduction was too much. I was already panting when his mouth caught my nipple, teasing it with lips and tongue through the silk. The soft fabric turned rough, and I wanted it off. I wanted to feel him on my skin with nothing between us.
I put my arms around him and drew him on to the bed, taking advantage of his movement to strip off the bra but when my hands moved to my waist he caught them.
“Not yet,” he teased.
“Hurry,” I begged. He nodded, letting his head dip low over my stomach while his hands, those amazing hands, moved to where my own had been. His fingers played against the silk, gently stroking me through the fabric. He painted circles and swirls on my flesh even though our skin never touched. I moaned and leaned backward, curving my body up to where he watched fascinated.
Soon the gentle caress wasn’t enough for me. He’d been in control and I liked it, but it was time for more. I wanted more. I grabbed his arms and pulled him into an embrace while removing the silken barrier between us. His body was hard and ready for me. I moved and our bodies came together. He gasped with the sensation, delighting me, making me want to take him, to leave him undone and surprised the way he always left me.
I held him close to me, forcing his body to brush against mine with every stroke. I loved the way he felt on top of me, the feeling of his flesh gliding over mine as we made love. He kissed me, slow, sweet kisses that stopped my breath for a minute, holding me close, gathered me in his arms. My head moved to the curve of his shoulder as our bodies danced together, the two of us making one being. Our eyes locked, and time held still for a long sensual moment, and when it returned, the gentle part of our lovemaking was over and passion took me.
I pressed on to him, rising to meet his thrusts and moving my body to take more of him. I moved with a need I hadn’t realized I had, going forward, losing everything but the sensation of him. A new pleasure rose inside me, fire spreading from between my legs. My body was flush with it, sweat riding on my skin as I pulled him into me, my hands grabbing his ass. He moaned above me and I heard him beg me in our private language, beg me for more. I gave it to him, grabbing him tighter, moving faster. I wanted to see his face as he came, to watch the primal emotion take him. A second later I got my wish, his blue eyes opened wide in an explosion of perfect ecstasy. The sight was too much, and the fire in my veins over took me. I screamed his name as my body climaxed in long beats of passion.
The room was quiet when we finished, quiet but disturbed. The sheets and the bed were a mess. There was a shirt on the other side of the room, and somehow my bra had made it halfway to the bathroom door. I surveyed the destruction with glee. Yeah, it had been that good. It had been great actually, the best birthday ever. My thoughts turned back to my present, sitting in its perfection all alone in the dining room. I’d have him move it in here, where its handmade art would interrupt the sameness of black and white. I smiled at the way it would ruin the sleek modern decorating scheme.
“Did you put magic into my chest on purpose?” I asked.
“Just a little.” His hand strayed to my nipple, casually caressing and distracting all at once.
“You do spellwork?” His touch was interesting, but the idea of Jakob inside a witch’s star was more interesting.
“A bit, it can be useful.” He replaced his hand with his mouth kissing delicately. A minute ago I was sure my body was spent, but now I wasn’t so positive.
“So what’s the spell on my chest do?” I asked. Really my thoughts were on his tongue and the swirls it was painting across that delicate point.
“Perhaps we could discuss this later?” he offered. I agreed, even though I knew we’d never get back to the topic.
****
I took Jakob’s car to get to work wondering about something he had said the night before, that the chest would be prefect for something important like a wedding dress. Jakob might have meant a wedding dress for a marriage to him, something he’d mentioned back in July. On the other hand, he’d barely made an off-hand remark, nothing serious. His stray comment on the phone, a remark about the chest, it all seemed a bit tenuous. If it was a case, I wouldn’t take it to the district attorney yet.
My pondering made me drive slowly, and I walked into the squad room a little later than usual. Danny hadn’t heard back from the owner of the Corner Pocket. We’d gotten the warrant for Vianne’s home based on multiple people who had seen Chris there and her admission that they had a relationship. We didn’t have any of that for the pool hall, which meant no warrant. Instead the best we could do was send someone for the phone. We gave the errand to a uniform cop familiar with the area and went back to our top priority— finding Chris and Kelly. Danny wanted to check the latest narcotics arrests to see if Kelly had been picked up somewhere while I sorted through everything we had on the two of them.
I was into my second cup of coffee when I realized how hard this was going to be. When you said it o
ut loud, find a place where a penniless vampire and his teenaged fire witch girlfriend could hide, it seemed simple, but in reality there were a number of dark sewer tunnels, empty buildings, basements, and holes in the ground, and that was assuming we didn’t have to start checking cemeteries.
“I was hoping you could direct me to Detective Mors?” a male voice said behind me.
“The only woman in the place,” someone replied on his way out. I looked up to find a man in a suit holding my card, and it occurred to me I really should have put my first name on my business cards.
“I’m Ted McRae. You spoke to my wife yesterday.” He was standing inside the SIU doors. He looked more than a little bit uneasy in his crisp white shirt and tie. The morning sun was streaming into our building, and he should have been at work, or maybe commuting but definitely not holding my card in the middle of the squad room.
“I did. We’ve found some people who know Kelly; she was working with them about a month ago. We’re trying to find her now,” I said smoothly. It was early, but I was awake. I’d had my coffee; I could handle this. Danny didn’t even try to interrupt me. “Would you like to sit or maybe go someplace private?” I gestured to the chair beside my desk.
“Detective, I don’t like being here. To be honest, I don’t want to stay.” Some people came in, a water witch dripping everywhere and a normal looking man. Mr. McRae flinched and stumbled for a minute before he spoke again. “I don’t know what my wife told you, but there’s one thing I’m fairly certain didn’t come up, and it might be helpful.”
“What’s that?” I prompted; the woman had distracted him again.
“Kelly was adopted.” His words hit me, thoughts of Aunt Jo and her child, her daughter who shared a birthday with Kelly, and their family of fire witches sprang to mind. “My wife didn’t like to talk about it. We only told Kelly last year, when she turned seventeen. That was in November. She started acting out in December. There’s a very good chance Kelly is off trying to find her birth mother.”
“You don’t seem too terribly upset,” Danny spoke up.
“We gave Kelly everything; we loved her like our own flesh and blood. Then after we told her she started to withdraw from us. Look, those last months before she left were hell. She wouldn’t go to church. She fought us at every turn, told us she hated us. It really made me wonder if we did the right thing in adopting her. Honestly, if Kelly doesn’t want to come home, I’m not going to drag her back.”
There was a shout from the other side of the room, followed by a gust of wind. Apparently the normal looking man was an air witch, and from the heavy insults he was hurling at his companion, I’d guess it was a domestic violence case. When I turned back McRae was gone.
I spent my morning going in and out of crack houses, abandoned buildings, and other places where you generally don’t want to be. We stopped around ten for my second breakfast, and as an afterthought, a package of hair ties, considering some of the places I’d been in it would be a wonder if I didn’t end up with lice. With my shoulder length hair stuffed into an unruly brown bun, we went back out. By then we had developed a pattern, I would sweep the place magically, looking for any vampires or anything else that called to me. Danny would go in once I gave him the okay and check for Kelly, while I showed her picture around to the people that invariably came streaming out after him.
We didn’t find much. In fact we found nothing. One particularly nasty half burnt out old warehouse had a couple of guys who might have recognized Kelly, then again they might have seen a large purple dragon hovering over my head, there was no way to tell. Most of the people we talked to were the same, so strung out they couldn’t be trusted to see straight, let alone to recognize someone from a photo. The more I looked at them the more I realized it was a losing battle.
If Kelly was in one of those places, she probably didn’t resemble the smiling girl in the photo we had. The morning had been a sea of broken teeth, wrinkles, and sores. Drug addicts looked worse than zombies. Frustrated and feeling grimy, we decided to stop by Fairy Tails.
Puck was in, and more than happy to offer a slew of suggestions. Kelly could be working somewhere else, the fee for a lost license was only twenty bucks, with a license any brothel in the city would take her. Chris could have found a crypt; he was a fan of the old memorial park down town. Also, there was a chance, but a small one Puck admitted, that Chris had gone after his ‘old man’ and was back living at home.
I rolled my eyes at a son who called his father old man instead of dad, but the lead was a good one. If Chris was panicked by being thrown out of Vianne’s place, his home was a good refuge. If Chris was cocksure, he’d go home to give his father a piece of his mind.
We went back to the office for lunch and to get the address. I was envious of Danny’s packed lunch. Sure, I’d eaten, but I’d also spent the morning doing hard core magic, the kind that burned through calories. I grabbed my wallet and stood up to go to the cafeteria when I saw E standing the doorway. Standing on the other side of the wide double doors, she looked small and angry. She kept her hostile eyes on me as she walked into the room.
“I’ve been thinking about your case, and something occurred to me.” She stopped in the aisle between the desks, blocking the way for anyone going to lunch. Lieutenant French left his office and tried to stay out of her way. One minute I was focused on her brown eyes and the strange look on her face, and the next the windows exploded inward in flames. Her eyes shifted immediately, and she flung herself into the flames, pushing the lieutenant out of the way. The fire was everywhere, and then it wasn’t. E wrapped it around herself like a cloak. Bits of broken glass fell down, charred paper was everywhere, but the only thing on fire was E. Her clothes didn’t burn, not her hair, she made the fire dance along her skin.
A scream broke through my shock. I rushed to the lieutenant’s side. He’d landed on his right, but the rest of him, the part she hadn’t gotten out of the way fast enough was charred beyond recognition. I grabbed his hand, trying to stay strong despite the scent of burned flesh and his powerful screams. I felt death hovering near, wanting him, and cursed myself for not knowing what to do to stop it. E still stood in the middle of the room, holding the fire around herself like a blanket.
“Help him,” I demanded.
“Oh, so this one is mine?” She walked around him, and the last wisps of flame left her skin. A smile played on her lips, and I watched her solid red eyes. She shoved her hand onto his chest, pressing through the burnt fabric over the liquid gold that had been his Marine Corps necklace. Her power brushed over me and from her hand healing spread in circles, burnt flesh melting away to flawless ebony skin. The death drifted away like the ashes floating down around us.
EMTs charged into the chaos of the squad room. They pulled her aside to work on the lieutenant, but he was already fighting them to get up, as healthy as he had been a minute before. One of them grabbed her and ready to start an IV line.
“Oh no, I don’t need anything. My Lady provides,” she smiled. My office had been blow apart, my lieutenant had nearly died from burns, and she was smiling. “I’ll wait for you in the interview room. We need to talk.”
The lieutenant was brushing off bits of his shirt, or bits of ash that had been his shirt. The fabric was burned in a pattern that suggested the flames had hit him on the left. Through the gaps in the material, I could see his bare sepia flesh and by his shoulder an ugly scar.
“Did she leave that? Should I call the EMTs back?” I gestured to the pink knot of tissue.
“It’s been there since ’91, from the Gulf. I need to talk to your friend,” he said.
“She’s in the interview room,” I said, dumbly. Of course he’d heard her say where she was going, but why would he want to follow? I wondered if he was in shock. He looked too calm for someone who had a brush with death. I didn’t know if I could order him to see the EMTs or demand he sit quietly, but I wanted to. Of course most days we don’t get to do what we want, which was
why I fell in step behind him and Danny on their way to the interview room. I thought everyone in the room should have a nice quiet lay down instead of marching off to pounce on E, but no one consulted me.
It turned out E was the only one following my advice. She was sitting in the interview room chair perfectly relaxed, leaning back with a mellow expression on her face. Her eyes lit up when we entered the room.
“Hello there. That was a very interesting fire.”
The lieutenant ignored her words.
“You saved my life,” he said, his voice half breaking. “Give your goddess my thanks.”
“Oh She’ll take more than that,” she said, her voice seductive. The lieutenant acted like he’d known she was about to say it, reached for the door, and left. A bit of charred cloth fell off him as he walked.
“That was surreal,” I said, sitting down with a heavy sigh.
“Wasn’t it though?” She was playing with a bit of fire on her finger tips, snapping her fingers so it would bounce then juggling it from finger to finger. I’d seen people play with coins that way, or pens, but never a bright orange flame. After watching my squad room explode it was disturbing. “The fire was different, like a fire witch made it but not. It’s hard to describe. Compelling, actually. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
“I’m glad we can entertain our heroine,” I smiled. “Good thing you were here.”
“I’ll say, but then again, maybe not. Do you think I did it?”
She didn’t sound like she cared much, and before I could reply, Danny did.
“If you did it, the fire wouldn’t have come from outside.”
She cocked her head to the side, studying him. “Most people would say a fire witch can make a fire anywhere.”
“Most people aren’t SIU. We know better. You need to see what you’re doing when you work magic. And you weren’t looking outside, you were looking at Mallory. If she’d been hit, it’d be a different story.”
Fire in Her Blood Page 26