Desert Flame

by Nicole R. Taylor

  “Eloise wouldn’t lie.”

  “No, she wouldn’t, but it’s not her I’m talking about. This isn’t something I’m willing to take on faith alone, Kyne.”

  “Coen saw her, too,” he went on. “At least, he implied he did.”

  She was tired of talking about the old woman. She wasn’t here, but the Exiles were. Whatever reason Andante had drawn Eloise in for, she didn’t seem to care about following through, so Vera didn’t see the point of believing in her ramblings.

  “What did Eloise say about the vision?”

  Kyne shrugged and glanced outside. “Nothing. She was embarrassed, I reckon.”

  Vera leaned against the counter and rubbed her temples. No doubt about it. As far as she reckoned, it was the elemental’s first time—considering how her power had screwed up all her relationships.

  Vera winced, remembering her first foray. Sex was another thing about the world that wasn’t always so magical.

  “Her elemental magic is strongest with ether,” she said, steering the subject to safer waters. “It’s no wonder she has visions in her dreams. That’s what ether is. Spirit.” She waved her hands through the air. “The cosmic juju that binds us all together. The topmost point of a pentagram.”

  “Yes, I know what ether is,” Kyne complained. “Just because I’m good with rocks doesn’t mean I’ve got them in my head.”

  “In a moment of heightened emotion,” she went on, ignoring his attitude, “she was able to share it with you, and…” Vera realised Eloise wasn’t just having a dream here and there.

  “And what?” Kyne asked.

  “How often does she have these dreams?”

  The miner shrugged. “I dunno. Not often?”

  Vera shook her head. “I think she’s having them more than she’s letting on.” She stood and grabbed her sunglasses.

  “Where are you going?” Kyne demanded.

  “To talk to Eloise.” She went to step around him, but the elemental grabbed her arm.

  “Let me. If she knows I told you…”

  “Kyne, I’m not going to hurt her feelings.”

  “It’s not about her feelings,” he argued. “It’s about her trust. She…” He hissed and let her go. “It takes a lot for her to open up, let alone for things to uh…progress. Let me talk to her about it.”

  Vera stepped back, her heart softening. He had a point. Eloise had spent most of her life hiding from the world, and not just physically. Emotionally, too. She’d made a lot of progress since she’d arrived, but old habits die hard, or so the saying went.

  “We need to find out what this mountain has to do with the seal,” she said. “Three of us have seen it now, and I don’t like those odds.”

  “I know.”

  “It has something to do with what’s going on here, but it could be anything.” Vera was more concerned about whether it was friend or foe, over what it was.

  “I’ll talk to her,” Kyne murmured as he grabbed his hat off the counter. “Could you see if you can find anything out? I know you were looking into it, but after the Nightshade…”

  “I’m fine with all that,” she told him. “My magic has changed, but I’m still the same witch. I’m just… I’m just not in tune with fire as I used to be.”

  “Still, I know it can’t be easy after letting go of your father’s legacy.”

  Vera tensed, her gaze falling. To banish the Nightshade, she was forced to renounce his coven and sever her connection to their magic. It was like he’d died all over again, but it had to be done. For the seal and the town. For her friends. For the world.

  “Sacrifice is part of being a witch,” she murmured. “I still have the Brinewold.”

  “Even if you didn’t, you’d always have us,” Kyne said.

  She drew in a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face. Looking up at him, she said, “Go on.” She waved him towards the door. “Go have your awkward talk with Eloise. I’ll let you know if I learn anything.”

  Kyne nodded and opened the door.

  “Oh! Hang on a sec!” She raced down the first aisle and grabbed a purple and gold Cadbury Dairy Milk gift box. Returning to the front, she gave the chocolates to the elemental and smirked. “Sex vision talks go down a little better with processed sugar.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You’re hilarious, you know that?”

  “Of course, I do!” She shoved him out the door, but he turned back at the last second.

  Holding up the box, he grinned. “Thanks.”

  “Anytime, tentacle boy.”

  Eloise was sitting in the middle of Hardy’s opal workshop, staring at the wall. Well, she wasn’t actually looking at anything; her mind was elsewhere, on other…things.

  She shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms. Last night was good. It was great, actually…right until the point where her stupid powers screwed everything up.

  Thankfully, Hardy wasn’t back from his trip to Brisbane yet, so her lack of focus could slip by unnoticed. She didn’t want to know what the vampire had to say about her ‘escapades’.

  She spun in her chair and opened her journal. Hunching over it, she scribbled a new image, the black ballpoint pen etching a rendition of the mountain that haunted her dreams…and now her sex life—because she had one of those now.

  Stupid mountain.

  Eloise glared at the page and wrote her assessment under the drawing…and underlined it ten times, her pen strokes so violent, they almost ripped a hole through the paper.

  A knock at the door sent her heart into her throat and the pen slipped from her fingers. It clattered to the floor as she looked up and saw Kyne.

  “Oh, God!” she exclaimed, covering her face with her hands. Her cheeks flamed so hot it was a wonder she didn’t burst into flames. “I’m so embarrassed!”

  He edged into the workshop. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

  “I knew you were going to say that!” she wailed. “It doesn’t help!”

  “Here.” He set something down in front of her, and she eased her fingers apart just enough so she could see. It was a purple box of chocolates with a big golden bow. “This might.”

  Her shoulders sagged as her hands fell into her lap. “I’m so embarrassed I can barely look at you.”

  “Why?” Kyne pulled up a chair and sat beside her. “I had a good time. Didn’t you?”

  She was a ball of emotions, her awkward inexperience trying to force tears into her eyes.

  “Whatever you’re feeling, don’t,” he went on. “You don’t have to keep anything from me. I never want you to think that. I’ll never keep anything from you.” He shifted in the chair. “I learned my lesson with that one pretty quick.”

  Her lips quirked as her anxiety faded. “I know. I just have a hard time breaking through old defences. Talking used to be such an exhausting exercise…and facing stuff. It was easier just to get into my van and drive to the next town.”

  She felt his hand slip onto her thigh. “I’m always going to be here. For the good and the bad.”

  Eloise wasn’t sure he could make that promise—people fell in and out of love all the time—but she understood the sentiment.

  “We need to talk about the vision,” he added.

  “I already told you about the mountain,” she blurted. “That it was in my dreams.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t tell me you were still having them,” Kyne said. “Once or twice is a thing, but continually…? That’s a pattern.”

  Eloise shrugged, a little bewildered he was just figuring this out. “I didn’t want to keep harping on about it. I didn’t know I had to keep reminding everyone. I thought that was the best way for people to brand me as annoying. People don’t want to be friends with annoying people who whine about silly dreams.”

  “It’s not a silly dream and you’re not annoying.”

  She snorted. There were plenty of people who didn’t get that memo, but there were also plenty of people who enjoyed whining for the att
ention it got them. She’d known a lot of those kinds of people back when she still tried to fit in with the human race. It gave those who wanted to reach out for actual help a bad name, so it was easier for her introverted self to keep her mouth shut.

  “Eloise,” Kyne murmured. “How often?”

  “I dunno.” She shrugged again. “Every other night?”

  His eyebrows rose. “Since you got here?”

  “Since before…?” Her uncertainty bled through her voice. She knew the mountain was important, but not like this. Kyne seemed troubled.

  “Hell,” he muttered. “Eloise.”

  “Vera saw it,” she told him. “And she didn’t get all worked up about it. I asked Coen and he wasn’t, either.”

  “Yeah, but I’m guessing they didn’t see what we saw last night.”

  She leaned back, uncertain.

  “It was different, wasn’t it?” Kyne asked.

  Eloise nodded. “It’s never been like that. It’s always just been a mountain. Even when Rosheen and I—”

  Kyne jerked up straight, his brows knitting together. “Rosheen?”

  “Yeah. Right before I knocked her out.” She told him how she’d fought the witch during the tornado the Nightshade had risen through Vera, and how they’d fallen through space and the mountain had appeared.

  “Now that you mention it, she did say something…” he mused.

  “She did? What?”

  “That it spoke…” He grimaced. “No tentacles?”

  “No.” It was her turn for her eyebrows to rise to new heights. “Though she did ask who it was. If it said something, I never heard it.”

  “Hmm…” He leaned back and ran his hand over his face. “Can you do me a favour?”

  She nodded.

  “If you dream about the mountain again, tell me about it? I’ve got a feeling it’s not done with you, and I want to know why.”

  Eloise nodded again, her heart twisting. She’d become so used to seeing the mountain that she barely thought much of it anymore. How could she be so stupid? If it turned out to be evil, complacency might kill her and everyone in Solace.

  “Hey,” Kyne murmured, pulling her towards him. “It’ll be all right. We’ll figure it out. I asked Vera—”

  “You told Vera?” she exclaimed.

  His cheeks turned a bright shade of red. “Shit.”

  “I’ll say!” She hurled the box of chocolates at him. “I’m mortified!”

  He caught the chocolates against his chest. “I was worried about you! You’ve seen that thing! It’s terrifying! It’s got tentacles, Eloise. Tentacles of darkness.”

  She let out a frustrated cry and covered her face with her hands. She knew she was overreacting, but it’d been an emotional twenty-four hours. Add in her expanding elemental powers, and it was a wonder she hadn’t short-circuited earlier.

  The opal hanging around her neck hummed softly, warming her skin. Letting her hands fall away from her face, she curled her fingers around the stone and took a deep breath. Her power flowed through the layers of silica and found all the flashes of colour. Much to her surprise, it helped calm her.

  Kyne glanced at the door. “Do you want me to go?”

  “No.” She managed to look at him. “I’m sorry. I know I’m overreacting. I don’t mean to, I…” Her bottom lip trembled. “Sometimes I’m not sure I know how to,” she waved her free hand in the air, “people the right way.”

  “You’re doing great,” he reassured her. “No one’s perfect. No one at all.”

  She attempted a smile and scooted her chair closer to him. “The mountain is important, I know that. But it’s not like I can ask it what it wants. I don’t have any control over the dreams.”

  “We’ll figure it out. It’ll just take time.” He draped his arm over her shoulders. “There’re things Vera can do, and Coen knows about it. Between us, we have to discover something.”

  “I hope so.” She also hoped it was a nice mountain because there’d been too much bad seeping out of the woodwork. No doubt there’d be more, but if there was a way to end the chaos, then she’d be totally down for a happily ever after.

  Kyne sensed her relaxing and grinned. “Maybe we can try to recreate it…” Her smile dropped and he grimaced. “Too soon?”

  “Maybe…” Her hands trembled and she remembered all the good bits about the night before. And there were plenty of those. “Maybe it’s not such a bad idea. You know, for the sake of supernatural science.”

  Kyne chucked and pressed a kiss on her lips. “Well, if it’s for science…”

  Chapter 6

  Hardy opened the door to his workshop, glad to be back in Solace. Even though he wasn’t bringing welcome news, it was home. Quiet, peaceful, blissful, home.

  Eloise and Kyne were in the workshop, kissing. They hadn’t heard him open the door, and for a moment, the vampire stared at them, an unwelcome feeling pulsing in his cold, dead heart.

  Their connection had occurred instantaneously, even though Kyne had been resistant to it in the beginning. They were two pieces of a puzzle that fit perfectly, and Hardy was jealous. He wasn’t too proud to admit it, but he’d never say it out loud.

  The reality of his life was to live on while everyone around him grew old and died. Kyne, Eloise, and the rest of the Exiles would do the same, and eventually, he’d be on his own out here. Who would help him protect the seal then?

  He breathed deeply and realised things had progressed between them since he’d been gone. Another unfortunate and slightly creepy side effect of being a vampire.

  He coughed loudly and the elementals broke apart like they’d been hit with an electrical shock.

  “Hardy!” Eloise shot to her feet, grinning.

  He was so surprised to see her so happy at his return, he faltered.

  “What did you find out?” Kyne asked, not getting up.

  “It’s bad news, I’m afraid.” He took off his hat, set it on his workbench, and pulled up his usual chair.

  “Crap.” Eloise’s smile faded, and she fell back into her seat.

  “EarthBore has their permits,” he went on. “They’re going to begin testing the ground any day now.”

  “How the hell did they get permits?” Kyne asked, his anger causing the sound of his heartbeat to deepen. “Have they done the cultural walkthrough? Notified the land owners? No one’s said anything to us about it.”

  “They’ve bypassed it all,” Hardy replied.

  Kyne wasn’t done. “We’re the one’s who are going to bear the brunt of the industrial pollution it’ll bring, and that’s not even taking the seal into consideration.”

  “Someone has to be paying off the government,” Eloise murmured.

  “Oh, there’s no doubt,” the vampire drawled. “This mine is worth billions in jobs, international trade, taxes…it just sucks for the environment.”

  Eloise sighed. “And the supernatural wellbeing of the entire planet.”

  Hardy smirked. “It’s a thankless job, but someone’s gotta do it.”

  “How have you guys dealt with it for so long?” she asked. “It’s exhausting, and I’ve only been here six months.”

  Kyne laughed. “It’s been a quiet ten years.”

  Hardy watched Eloise’s expression fall and knew she was overthinking again. She had a good heart but dwelt too much on things that weren’t her fault. He knew she believed she was the catalyst for all their recent battles, and it troubled her. But it shouldn’t.

  “There’s nothing we can do about stopping EarthBore now, at least not from going out to that ground,” the vampire said. “We have to do something here. Bureaucracy was always going to fail us.”

  Kyne nodded. “Money talks, but we have something better than that.”

  “What?” Eloise asked. “A ragtag group of supernaturals?”

  The miner looked at Hardy. “Compulsion.”

  “No.” There was no way Hardy would consider going that far. He wouldn’t even entertain discussi
ng it.

  “Why not?” Kyne asked. “It would be a simple matter of making the team doing the preliminary work believe the ground isn’t viable.”

  Hardy narrowed his eyes and ran his tongue over his teeth. “It’s not simple. This goes deeper than a few people in a truck with a drill. There’s been multiple surveys already, government approvals, and an entire company of people who’ve been working on this proposal for years. Someone has bribed and cut corners not only at state government levels, but federal. This is too big for one vampire to erase.”

  “He’s got a point,” Eloise murmured, tugging on Kyne’s sleeve.

  “We have to do something,” the elemental told her. “What else can we do to stop them? It’s like you said, we’re just a handful of supernatural outcasts.” His gaze moved back to Hardy. “What can we do, besides use our powers?”

  Hardy curled his hands into tight fists, his anger rising. “I won’t exploit my vampirism in that way. They’re innocent people.”

  “Innocent until the seal opens,” Kyne fired back.

  “Then use your powers.”

  He scoffed. “You want me to change the molecular structure of ten square kilometres of iron ore? Impossible. There would have to be a hundred of me, and even then, I’m not sure it’d work.”

  As Hardy’s annoyance at the elemental grew, his teeth started to ache and his vision darkened around the edges. “Then you go out there and screw with their core samples and see how little that’ll do to help.”

  “Hardy…” Eloise’s voice was barely audible.

  “Then I’m all out of ideas,” Kyne retorted. “You’re the one who has all the inside information. You tell us what we should do.”

  “Last time I looked, you were the leader, Kyne.”

  Eloise slammed her fist on the workbench beside him. “Hardy.”

  His gaze moved to hers, and he saw fear in her eyes. He pulled back, realising he’d loosened his grip on his control. His fangs had started to emerge and his eyes… When the predator inside him took over, they turned completely black.