by Nadia Heaton
Burning Wild
Flames of the Sea - Book 5
Nadia Heaton
Copyright © 2020 by Nadia Heaton and Southern Heat Publishing
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Nadia Heaton
Burning Wild
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Nadia Heaton
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Burning Wild
Book 5 - Flames of the Sea Series
Nadia Heaton
1
“What do you mean you don’t know? You’re their queen! How can you not know?”
Tristan shared Fleur’s exasperation, though she kept her mouth shut. Shouting wasn’t helping anything, except making all of them more agitated.
“I’ve been trying!” Lisette snapped. “They don’t want to listen to me, Fleur. I’ve talked about peace and cooperation until I’m blue in the face, but they don’t want to hear it. The rift between vampires and witches runs too deep. Maybe I was a fool to think I could make peace between our people.”
“Foolish or not, it has to be done. No one wants the world to end, which is exactly what will happen if there’s a full-scale war. I don’t think anyone except Mirabelle is crazy enough to think that a war would improve things.”
That wasn’t right. Tristan wished it was, but Mirabelle had managed to convert many people to her side. If large numbers of vampires were thinking the same thing, then war might be unavoidable.
Fleur and Lisette kept bickering, getting nowhere. Tristan knew they were both stressed. She listened for a few minutes, always having preferred listening quietly in the background to direct action, but eventually decided she had to step in. They were on a tight schedule, after all.
“Enough about what we don’t know. Let’s focus on what we do know. Lisette, you said that Rashid has been doing something behind your back?”
“That much I’m sure of. He’s been gathering vampires from all over the globe and training them to fight. I just don’t know what he’s planning to do with them.”
“What about Mirabelle?” Tristan turned to Fleur, trying not to scowl. So far, she hadn’t been able to do much to help the situation. She wasn’t as powerful as Lisette or Fleur, which meant she was usually delegated the less important duties, such as renewing defensive charms around the house.
“She’s shut herself up in her hut. I tried to get in, but it’s a no go. I don’t even recognize half of the defensive spells she’s put up around the place. Mirabelle is determined not to be found. I don’t think we have a chance of getting to her until she decides to come out on her own. I have the binding spells ready, though. I won’t let her get away from us again.”
Tristan sighed. Things within their own family had deteriorated badly. Lisette and Fleur were convinced that the only way to control Mirabelle was to lock her up, but Tristan still hoped that their aunt could be brought to see reason. Mirabelle wasn’t a bad person. Misguided, maybe, but at heart, she wasn’t evil.
Her waging war against vampires had been completely unexpected. Of course, witches had always hated vampires, but Mirabelle had always seemed to hold a deeper grudge than any other witch Tristan knew. Personally, Tristan wasn’t bothered by it. As long as vampires didn’t hurt her or her family, she didn’t have anything against them.
This view had always attracted plenty of argument from her family, but not anymore. Fleur and Bethany were both in love with vampires, and Lisette was a witch-vampire hybrid now that she’d been turned. They were way past arguing for a baseless hatred of vampires.
“I keep trying to figure out what they’re doing, but Rashid has his defenses up.” Lisette ran her fingers through her hair distractedly. “If I just knew what he was planning, I’d be able to put a stop to it before he manages to cause too much trouble, but whenever I approach his chateau, he wraps everything up again and acts like everyone is just there for a big party.”
“I had an idea on that front.” Fleur glanced hesitantly toward Tristan before ploughing on. “What we really need is a spy.”
“What about Savion? Surely, Rashid would tell him his plans?”
“No way, I’m not asking Savion to choose between me and his people. I had another idea, though. What if we disguised Tristan as a vampire? Rashid is calling in vampires from all over the globe. She could pass herself off as a vampire from some far away place who heard what was happening and came to help.”
It wasn’t what Tristan had been expecting, but she jumped at the opportunity. “I’ll do it! It’s about time I get to do something useful.”
Lisette pursed her lips. “I’m not so sure, Tristan…”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve had all the same training you have. If things get nasty, I’ll just teleport out of there.”
“You’d need to be careful of vampire senses. They can pick up lies much more easily than witches, at least if we haven’t cast a truth spell. They can hear your heartbeat and your breathing rate. It’s very easy to pick up tells.”
Tristan hadn’t thought of that, but Fleur quickly came to her rescue. “So she controls her breathing and heart rate with magic. It’s a simple enough spell.”
“Come on, Lis, I can do it. You said yourself that you need to figure out what’s going on with Rashid.”
Lisette’s eyes flicked between Fleur and Tristan. She was clearly torn. Fleur’s power would be better used trying to batter through Mirabelle’s enchantments, and Lisette couldn’t leave her duties as queen. Tristan was the best option for a spy, and Lisette knew it.
“Fine, but you get out of there the moment it even looks like something might go wrong.”
“I will,” Tristan promised, grinning. She was glad that they were meeting out in the forest rather than at home. She didn’t think her parents would be too keen on the idea of her going undercover, but Lisette outranked them both, and had the authority to send Tristan undercover if she wanted to. It was just nice not to have to deal with arguments.
Now that she came to think about it, Fleur probably outranked their parents too. With Mirabelle’s obsession with eliminating vampires, Fleur was the one who had the most right to the title of coven leader. Not that there was much of a coven to lead at the moment.
Lisette seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because she turned to Tristan. “What about the rest of our coven? Any luck finding them?”
Tracking down their scattered coven was one of the tasks Tristan had been given, one that had proven to be difficult. “Most of them seem to have left town. I think they don’t want to have to choose between Fleur and Mirabelle. I’ve tried contacting them, both magically and electronically, but there’s been no response. I don’t think we can count on their support, at least for now.”
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br /> “They’ll certainly be getting a talking to when we find them,” Fleur muttered sourly. “This is when we need them the most. They can’t just up and disappear.”
Tristan didn’t comment, but she understood why the others would leave. No one knew what would happen between Fleur and Mirabelle. If Mirabelle’s stance didn’t change, it was likely that the two of them would have to fight for coven leadership.
No one wanted to pick the losing side and end up being kicked out of the coven for their choice. It wasn’t helpful, but Tristan could see their point of view. To witches, their coven was everything. Being expelled from your coven was worse than being disowned by your family. She couldn’t blame them for trying to avoid that outcome.
“What do I need to know to get undercover with the vampires?” Tristan pulled out a pen and notebook, ready to take notes.
“Where to start…” Lisette sighed, leaning against a nearby tree. “Well, the obvious two are that you need to feed and stay out of the sun. Staying out of the sun is easy enough. For feeding, I suggest you disappear into the woods every few nights for a couple of hours. A lot of the vampires staying with Rashid prefer live blood to blood bags, so they hunt the animals in the surrounding area.”
Tristan grimaced in disgust, but nodded. She may not hate vampires, but she still found the idea of drinking blood extremely distasteful. “All right, what else?”
“You’ll have to use magic to enhance your senses and movement speed, or it’ll look very suspicious. It’ll take too much energy to maintain long term, so we should make you some amulets to draw power on before you go.”
“You can deal with that. I’m going to keep trying to find Mirabelle.” Fleur looked so grim that Tristan thought Mirabelle would be wise to shore up her defenses.
“What will you do if you get to her?” Tristan didn’t agree with what Mirabelle was doing, but she was still family, and Tristan hoped that she wouldn’t end up getting hurt.
“Lock her up, probably keep her unconscious so that she can’t pull off another escape.”
Tristan grimaced, but Lisette nodded her approval. “I don’t know what it’ll take to convince her to give up on this war, but until we figure that out, it’s best to keep her confined.”
“What about the other witches who she’s persuaded to go along with it?”
Both Lisette and Fleur grimaced. It was Fleur who answered. “I’m hoping that once we have Mirabelle confined, we’ll be able to talk some sense into everyone. This whole thing has gotten out of hand, but I think that if we can take Mirabelle’s trouble making out of the picture, we have a reasonable chance of making peace between witches and vampires before things spiral even further out of control.”
Tristan hoped she was right. It was horrible, being cut off from their coven and other witches. Dwelling on how awful it all was wouldn’t help, though. “All right, Lis, what else?”
She listened as Lisette went into details about the habits of vampires while Tristan made notes. She’d have to memorize her notes before she left, it would be too risky to take them with her.
This was her most dangerous assignment so far, and she was determined to do a good job on it. Tristan may not be a leader like Fleur and Lisette, but she could do her part in preventing the end of the world as they knew it.
2
A stack of papers went flying as Mirabelle stormed past. She didn’t care. She’d already through her spell records, but none of them would help her. The bookshelf was half empty, with the other half of the books strewn around the room.
Mirabelle grabbed yet another volume, flicking feverishly through it. There had to be something on how to find a vampire, but every spell she’d been able to find focused on killing them rather than finding them. Mirabelle had written a number of such spells, but had never thought to do a vampire tracking spell.
A week ago, if someone had told her she’d want to track a vampire and keep them alive, she would have laughed. Now, everything was different.
She scanned the index, shrieking in frustration when it turned up nothing more useful than the last five books. Mirabelle hurled the book at a wall, breathing hard. She didn’t remember being this angry ever, in her entire lifetime. If she could just find Rashid, she wouldn’t need magic. She’d throttle him with her bare hands.
Again and again, the fateful scene of the confession played before her eyes. Had Mirabelle known she’d had a daughter, everything would have been different. She didn’t know why Rashid had told her that her baby was a stillborn, but whatever his reason, she knew now that it had been a lie.
She would find Ariana, then… well, Mirabelle wasn’t really sure what she would do. Her daughter was half vampire. There was no known cure for vampirism, but Mirabelle would search to the ends of the earth to find one. She’d find a way to help Ariana, but she had to find her first.
Footsteps echoed slightly in the stone passages as someone approached. Mirabelle’s hut was secured by a number of spells, but she hadn’t wanted to remain there. No doubt her meddling nieces would be trying to get to her, and she didn’t need to be distracted by restoring protective spells.
She’d moved to the extensive set of catacombs underneath her hut, spanning miles in every direction. These tunnels were virtually impenetrable.
Amanda knocked cautiously on the door. “Mirabelle? I’ve brought you some food.”
“Not hungry,” Mirabelle muttered. She blinked hard, trying to clear her vision.
“When was the last time you slept? You look terrible.”
“I’m fine! Leave me alone.”
Amanda retreated, leaving regret pooling in Mirabelle’s stomach. Amanda was one of the few members of the coven who had chosen to stay with her. Witches were divided right now when they had to be united. They were confused. Mirabelle was trying to exterminate vampires, while members of their own coven had fallen in love with the monsters.
Mirabelle splashed some water on her face. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept, though it must have been several days. She couldn’t keep going like this forever, but she was determined to find Ariana before she rested.
Her scrying mirror was still on the desk. Though she’d tried this ten times already, Mirabelle sat down once more in front of it, speaking the incantation to activate it, along with Ariana’s name.
Nothing happened.
Her nieces might know how to spy on vampires, but Mirabelle only knew how to kill them. The thought of asking Lisette, Fleur or Tristan for help was intolerable. They were working against everything she believed.
No, she’d find Ariana herself, cure her, then move on to curing Lisette. She would get her family back together. Maybe she could even cure Rashid. Would he have lied to her if he hadn’t been turned into an undead monster? If there was a chance she could get the man she knew back…
Mirabelle stopped herself right there. Thinking about Rashid was sure to shatter her concentration, and she was already having trouble focusing due to lack of sleep. She glanced at the armchair at the back of the room. Maybe it would be better to rest. She knew that magic always had the best results when the caster was performing at their best.
Sighing, she threw herself into the chair, forcing her eyes shut. They popped open again. growling under her breath, Mirabelle cast a darkness spell on the room, but it didn’t make any difference. All she could think about was Ariana.
What must Ariana think of her? Did Mirabelle’s daughter hate her for abandoning her? Surely not. Ariana had been there for Rashid’s confession. She knew that Mirabelle had never known her daughter survived.
After a few painful minutes, Mirabelle gave up on sleep. Her eyes hurt and her body ached, but her mind wasn’t interested in sleep. She threw herself back into the desk chair and continued flicking through books. There had to be something here.
Over the years, she had stocked these catacombs with any books on magical lore or knowledge she could find. If there was an answer here, she would find it.
Mirabelle was so exhausted, she nearly missed it. She’d actually moved on when the words from the previous page filtered into her brain.
Used to locate non-human creatures of supernatural origin.
That was it. Vampires fit perfectly into the spell’s description. Mirabelle scanned the rest of the page, looking at the details of the spell. Half way down the page was a note that had her slamming her hand down on the table.
Doesn’t work in salt water.
Of course. Salt water was the weakest area for all witches. Most of their spells didn’t work in that medium. It wasn’t usually a problem, as witches generally avoided salt water at all costs. It was a problem now. Ariana was a vampire, and therefore highly likely to be deep underwater in the ocean, surrounded by salt water.
Still, it was worth a try. Even those vampires who lived in underwater castles came up to the surface occasionally. The spell required a number of ingredients, some of which Mirabelle didn’t have with her. It wasn’t a common spell, that much was obvious from looking at it. It was followed by a dozen spells that killed non-human magical creatures from a distance without bothering to locate them.
Before she found out about Ariana, Mirabelle would have put these spells to use at once, but now she barely paid attention to them. Once she found Ariana, she’d go to her and… what?
As a witch-vampire hybrid, Ariana was more powerful than any one witch or vampire. Mirabelle wouldn’t be able to take her by force. She’d have to persuade her to come, to let her mother help her. She had yet to find a spell to cure vampires, but Mirabelle wouldn’t give up. Her first priority was finding Ariana, and then once she had her daughter, she wouldn’t hold back anything in the effort to cure her, even if she had to invent the spell herself.