Alec’s eyes were wide and he stared at her with a starry eyed expression before blinking rapidly.
“You can do that? Use the fire like a Star Trek transporter?”
“Yeah, nerd. But not as reliably, I’m afraid. Fire has no memory, no consciousness. I can use it to get someplace, but I can’t see who might be there. I could travel to a wildfire but might end up surprising some firefighters. And our anonymity is too important to mess with. If I am seen by an outsider, or caught on film, then there would be hell to pay.”
“And the others can do something similar?”
“Yeah, but Earth and Water can’t go very large distances without taxing themselves too greatly. There are limits.”
“But Air can travel long distances?”
She nodded. “It’s a big advantage for the Air Elemental. Sometimes I get a lift from her when we’re close enough to each other.”
“And you’re sure it’s safe? Going out to the fire? You would be concerned about being seen if this fire wasn’t already massive and out of control. What if a tree falls on you? The ground gets unstable. Are you sure it’s a good idea? And why would the Mother have an eye on this fire? Don’t they stem from Her inattention, not Her focus? She doesn’t start fires, does She?”
Diana sucked in a breath. “It’s more like She doesn’t stop them.”
“Oh.” Alec looked rather crestfallen.
She knew how he felt. Mother Nature could be a bitch. “Look. These fires are part of a greater whole. There are cycles she set in motion when the Earth was new. It’s all a part of the process. It’s better if you don’t think about it.”
“Does She know about the people who make their home in the fire’s paths?”
“She knows. Or at least we think She does.” Diana’s voice was gentle.
“And She doesn’t care?”
Diana moved in front of him. “Honestly, I’m not sure. But I don’t think She can change the way things are now. I like to think She would if She could.”
“I see. Right,” he said, going back to stacking wood.
“Sometimes being privy to the secrets of the gods just. . .sucks,” she commiserated before glancing at the fireplace. “I’ll try not to be too long, but I’m not actually sure how much time I’ll need. If you run out of fuel, it’s okay. I’ll make my own way back.”
His lips firmed. “I will keep it burning as long as it takes,” Alec said. He removed a tarp from a pile of wood next to the fireplace. “I had Daniel get an entire truck of the stuff. It’s pulled around back.”
“If vampires could join the Boy Scouts, there’d be a joke here.”
“The Boy Scouts are a little after my time.” He sighed. “Please be careful. I’m serious about the falling trees.”
“I know. Here, take this,” she said, handing him her new phone. “I know it’s desert-proof, but I don’t think it’s going to survive what’s coming.”
He nodded as he took the phone, and she turned to the fireplace. With the flick of her hand, she sent the fire to the kindling Alec had arranged so carefully. An inferno roared to life with a great whoosh, the flames taking on the bluish-purple tint that they always did around her.
Taking one last look at Alec, Diana walked into the blaze.
25
The fire swirled, blazing hotter and higher until it covered Diana. It curled around her like a living thing.
Alec could see why primitive man had created the myths of fire gods and goddesses. Diana in all her glory was an awesome sight—but before he could blink, she was gone.
He glanced at the pile of firewood. Better to be safe than sorry. Using vampiric speed, he went outside to bring more wood from the truck.
Alec’s tension and excitement dissipated as the minutes stretched into an hour. On impulse, he searched for news coverage on the fire on his tablet. Given the scale of the fire, there was a lot to choose from. He scanned the various media outlets for signs that Diana hadn’t been discovered doing whatever it was she was doing.
Or that the body of small redhead hadn’t been found buried under a fallen pine tree.
Shut up, he told himself sternly before tossing a few more logs onto the fire, wishing he could have gone with her. But that would have been suicide. On impulse, he called his man at Defense. He was in luck. A government satellite was monitoring the fire.
Once the feeds were forwarded to him, Alec sat down in front of the fire to look for signs of unusual activity. After several minutes, he noticed a small disturbance in one of the feeds.
Alec peered at his screen. The video was live. It looked like a satellite image of a hurricane…except it was made of fire. Enthralled, he watched as the edges seemed to draw in and the center got denser.
What was Diana doing? Building up a tower of fire? One that could be seen from space? It looked small on his screen but in reality it was probably massive.
The firestorm was localized to one small valley. Passing a hand over his face, he sincerely hoped no one else was watching. It wasn’t likely anyone would be able to get close enough on the ground to spot Diana, but he still worried about her.
Alec knew that was ridiculous. She could take care of herself. But the feeling remained. It was second nature now. Diana had swiftly become the most important person in his life. And if that wasn’t a kick in the pants, he didn’t know what was.
The fire in front of him was getting lower. Kneeling closer, he placed two more logs inside and studied the strange fire. The flames still had Diana’s signature color, but otherwise, they behaved like a normal fire with no intelligence or form. Which probably meant he was sitting too close to it, but he didn’t care. It warmed the coldness inside him. Maybe that was why he wanted to be around Diana so much. Even though he could walk under the sun now, he was still cold inside—except when he was with her.
A loud popping sound shook him from his reverie as the fire snapped and the logs shifted. Instinctively, he reared back, but not fast enough. A large spark flew out and caught him on the hand.
For a second panic flared but before he could react, the ember died out on his skin. Bewildered, he rubbed the spot. It didn’t hurt at all.
What the hell?
Senses on high alert, Alec stared at the fire before slowly reaching out to take hold of a glowing ember from the bottom of the fireplace. Picking it up, he held it in front of him until the glow faded and he was holding a bit of charcoal. There was no pain.
By rights, as a vampire, he should have been fiercely burned, but he had felt nothing at all.
He dropped the charcoal and studied his fingers. There was nothing, no redness or swelling. No burn marks of any kind. How was that even possible? At the very least he should have smoldered a bit.
Could it be? Alec shifted his eyes to the flames and tentatively reached out until the fire enveloped his hand.
“What are you doing awake?” his father asked from behind him.
Alec snatched his unburned hand out of the fire and spun around. He had been so engrossed he hadn’t heard his father come in. Standing up, he hoped Alden hadn’t seen what he’d been doing.
“Hello father,” he said formally, inclining his head in a gesture of respect.
It wasn’t strictly necessary since the head of his house happened to be his parent, but he did it nevertheless.
“What are you doing?” Alden asked, taking in the piled wood and the fire.
Caught red-handed, he decided not to lie. “I’m helping Diana with a small matter.”
“What?” Alden was confused. “Who’s Diana? You aren’t referring to the Elemental, are you?”
Alec didn’t answer.
“You are joking, aren’t you?” His father’s eyes were wide, his face twisted as if he was smelling something unpleasant.
“No. I’m helping her. Or rather, she’s helping me restore the honor of this house,” he said, annoyed. “We’re conducting an investigation into the disappearance of those children. We’re looking for them tog
ether,” he said, picking up the poker and stirring the fire with a rough slashing movement.
“There is no reason for you to be involved!”
Unbelievable. “A child of one of our retainers was also taken by the circle, in case you’ve forgotten. I’m going to get him back or kill the circle trying.”
His father rubbed his face with both hands. “You should leave it to that. . .thing. The Elemental is involved now. You don’t have to help her. She can manage on her own. You’ve done enough.”
“Honor won’t be satisfied until those children are returned and the circle is dismantled or destroyed,” he said from behind gritted fangs.
His father sneered. “That’s not the way these things work. You can’t honestly tell me the Elemental even wants you around. She probably doesn’t appreciate your interference. Just leave things well enough alone. You should be focusing on this coven for a change, and your place in it. You have neglected your duties too long,” he said, drawing himself up to his full height.
Since Alec was a little taller, it didn’t intimidate him. . .anymore.
“Whether you like it or not, I am fulfilling my duties,” he ground out, repressing an urge to roll his eyes. “The ones I value most. I know you don’t agree, but seeing to it that our family’s retainers aren’t used or abused is my highest priority.”
“Pretty words when you neglect everything else,” his father said.
Alec rubbed his temple above his left eye, which was starting to twitch. “I’m not going to have this argument with you again. I have more impor—”
A whoosh from the fireplace distracted him mid-sentence. The flames flared high and coalesced into a form. Shaking embers from her long red hair, Diana stepped out of the flames, and Alec sagged in relief. So much so that he forgot the presence of his father.
He moved close to her and put his arms on her shoulders before drawing back to check her up and down. She wasn’t even dirty. Not even a speck of soot. The tight worry he’d had at his core since she’d left relaxed.
“Are you all right? Did it work?” he asked.
She ignored him and looked over his shoulder with a carefully blank expression.
He turned back to see his father was watching Diana with a look somewhere between distaste and fear. It was, however, carefully controlled into a rigid mask.
* * *
Alden was staring a hole through her.
“Diana, you remember my father?” Alec asked as if they were in a polite drawing room a hundred years ago.
Blergh. She put her hands behind her back.
“Yes, of course. How do you do, Mister Broussard? I trust you and your wife are well,” Diana said with studious politeness.
Serin would have been proud of that delivery.
“We’re as well as can be expected given the circumstances,” Alden said with equal formality.
Diana kept a neutral expression as she looked to Alec for a little guidance. What was she supposed to do now? Talk about the weather? Thank him for his son’s help?
Well, why the hell not?
“Your son has been very helpful in my inquiries. I’m satisfied your house was not responsible for the disappearance of the children.”
“Good. I trust this matter will be resolved quickly, and my son will be able to resume his duties here soon,” Alden said, doing his best impression of someone with a broomstick up their ass.
What duties? She and Alec exchanged a look. One Alden did not miss. He glared at the way Alec’s right hand still held her shoulder securely, which made her realize it was still there, too. And she hadn’t pushed it off yet.
Ignoring the hand, Diana smiled at Alden.
“I’m sure he’ll be free to go on his way soon,” she replied evenly with the faintest stress on the his.
Alden scowled. “Good,” he said before stalking out.
“That went well,” Diana said in a perfectly serious tone. “I think he’s warming up.”
Smiling faintly, Alec turned to her. “Sorry about that. His age allows him to wake several hours before sunset, but he can’t go outside in actual sunlight.”
“How did you explain being awake at this hour?”
“I didn’t,” Alec said, bending to clean up some stray logs.
“Well, that’s one way to avoid an awkward discussion. Ignore it.”
He dismissed her comment with a wave. “Were you successful? Did you get anything useful?”
“I don’t know. Nothing was clear. It was all very confusing. And I have a raging headache now. Why don’t we get out of here before we have to have a real show and tell for the rest of the coven.”
She rubbed her head, and his face creased with concern. He put his arms around her shoulders.
“All right, let’s go.”
26
A little later, Diana was on the computer in the apartment she shared with the other girls, flipping through images of pastoral scenes. Her headache was gone, and she was starving, so Alec had called his men to bring some take out to the safe house after Diana admitted that she did not cook—she only reheated.
“What are you looking for?” Alec asked.
He’d been prowling the apartment restlessly since his run in with his father. She’d already had to scold him for using the Koto sword as a light saber.
“I’m not sure exactly,” she admitted. “Trying to commune with the Mother is kind of like trying to mind-meld with a giant sperm whale, only the whale is all knowing and probably the size of a small city.”
“Really? No wonder you had a headache,” he said, taken slightly aback as he sat next to her.
Diana could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he digested this new bit of information. Personally, she didn’t care about the pain because she had successfully made contact with the Mother in the fire. Sort of.
As she’d built the flames high into a tower, a sensation of intense pressure had overtaken her. It was like being squeezed all over. And then her head had split wide open. Or at least it had felt that way. A roaring sound that had nothing to do with the wildfire burning around her had filled her head. It was soon followed by a flood of memories and images so vast it had threatened to burn her brain out.
It had been hard to make anything out of the data dump. The few images she had seen had burned behind her eyes before she’d fallen out of the stream, coming back to herself as the flames around her died down. A little dizzy, she’d walked back into what was left, trying to be happy she had made some form of contact.
It was more than Gia had gotten the last time she tried, but not much more.
“I did see a few images I think She intended me to see. Enough to know who I’m dealing with but not where they are. The witch responsible is a Burgess by blood. But they weren’t raised on the inside. I got snippets of Hillard Burgess with one of his mistresses. The child is theirs. When the relationship ended, it was messy and the kid and mother were cut off. I didn’t see anything else about the child, not enough to even know what sex we’re dealing with. I’m lucky I saw anything at all,” she said, massaging her temples.
The headache was gone, but its memory lived on.
“Shouldn’t one of the big seven have been monitoring their own so something like this wouldn’t happen?”
The Burgess was one of the oldest lines of practitioners. Unlike the Delavordos, they had a much more upstanding reputation. For witches anyway. . .
“In a perfect world, yes. But it happens more and more these days. The Supes are splitting up, getting divorces, too. Not as often as humans but still. The kids that are the products of these unions sometimes fall through the cracks. We try to make sure it doesn’t happen but you can’t fight the future. And marriage is going the same way as the bees and the environment.”
“All right. How are we going to find them?”
“It’s a muddle, but I think I saw a location. It’s not very helpful. Just a few images of a rundown farmhouse in the countryside,” she said, laps
ing into silence while continuing to scan pictures on the laptop.
Alec started wandering around the apartment again, fingering weapons and examining figurines. “These pieces are museum quality and then some. It’s an amazing collection. Do you have any old manuscripts by chance?”
“Not here. Serin’s people have scanned some of the old stories, though. Stuff they think is important, but they don’t give access to outsiders.”
“Oh. Well, maybe they’ll not consider me one in time,” Alec said.
Diana grinned at his wistful tone, but she didn’t turn away from the images on the computer screen.
“I don’t think your father is going to be okay with any further involvement with Elementals after this case is over.”
Alec frowned. “That’s not up to him. I’ve been leading my own life for a few centuries now.”
Diana considered his determined expression before replying. “He expects you to lead the coven,” she said, giving him a sideways glance while twisting a lock of her hair around her finger.
“He knows better.” Alec walked toward her until she was forced to meet his eyes. “And honestly, my father has no plans to step down in the future. It’s only that he believes, like all good dynasties, the heir should be visible to its subjects. He knows I’ve always had other plans for my life, Diana. Your presence in it hasn’t changed that.”
Not convinced, she raised her brows. “You might have a change of heart about that in the coming years. The head of the Eastern coven had a lot of pull and a lot of influence. There’s a lot you could do in that position,” she said, trying to be practical.
Alec rubbed the back of his neck. “How many times do I have to tell you that heading the coven is not something I want? I have never wanted to follow the path my parents laid out for me. It’s not even a remote possibility. I can’t stomach the empty gossip and backstabbing that passes for vampire politics.”
Fire: The Elementals Book One Page 19