Fallon snorted, disbelieving. “So you’re saying you have no ulterior motives? That you aren’t dying to meet our three assassins and either shake them out of the Guild or attempt to lure them to yours?”
She watched Eli’s eyes darken slightly at her questioning and saw a telltale ticking in the muscle of his jaw. Clearly, he didn’t like having his word questioned. “No, I don’t do ulterior motives. With me, what you see is what you get. I am, however, looking forward to meeting Jai, Ari, and Trey. I’ve heard great things.”
Fallon nodded, her expression stating clearly that she didn’t believe him for a second. “Right. Looking forward to meeting them. Gotcha.”
“Were you this aggravating before the reality shift, or is this a new addition to your personality?” Eli growled.
“I don’t think insulting the Guild leader’s daughter is a good way to go on this little ‘diplomatic’ trip of yours.”
“When insulted, I retaliate.”
“I didn’t insult you.”
Eli took one more intimidating step toward her, bringing their bodies almost flush. “Let me educate you, little girl; when you question the motives of a visiting Guild leader, you are, in fact, insulting him.”
“No, I think I’m questioning him.”
He made a choking sound in the back of his throat. “How old are you? Five?”
“I’m almost nineteen, actually.”
“Hmm, must be the height that’s confusing me.”
Anger scorched Fallon’s veins and she felt the talismans around her neck weigh heavy against her for want of a fight.
“I may be small, buddy, but I pack a punch. You want to take me on? Have at it.” She held her hands out.
Eli grunted and stepped back. “I’m not fighting a tiny girl.”
“Chicken?”
The muscles in his shoulders tensed at the challenge, his eyes glittering as they swept over her. After what felt like an hour of silence, he gave her a sharp nod. “You asked for it.” He pointed to the talismans hanging around her throat. “Lose some of them. Otherwise, you’re packing more power than I am.”
Fallon grimaced. “Dude, you’re like a whole foot taller and built like a tank. Surely, I can keep my necklaces.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So it’s that kind of fight? Fair enough.”
Now it was Fallon’s turn to be confused.
“What kind of fight?”
He answered by sweeping her feet out from under her.
Fallon hit the mats with a startled oof and didn’t have time to get over the disorientation of being knocked on her back before Eli’s body covered her. She gasped as he gently yanked her hands above her head and held her in place. His knees straddled either side of her hips as he brought his torso down, almost brushing hers. His rugged face hovered above her, his pale blue eyes alight with laughter.
“That was easy,” he murmured on a smile.
The shock of having his strong body holding hers down finally wore off and Fallon tugged uselessly against his hold. “Get off me.”
“A poor loser, are we?”
Eyes narrowing at his arrogance, Fallon’s hip twitched and she was just about to bring her knee up between his legs when his grip on her hands became almost painful. “Don’t,” he growled, his mouth a scant inch from hers, “even think about it.”
“You didn’t say we had to fight clean,” she replied petulantly, lowering her knee.
At that, Eli grinned and Fallon felt the breath leave her body. The idiot was far too attractive for his own good. “Are you saying you like to play dirty?”
She was sure the innuendo was supposed to leave her blushing and spluttering like the childish eighteen-year-old he clearly thought her to be. Instead, she relaxed against the mat and smirked up at him. “I play it the way I feel it, but I get to pick who I play with. That won’t be you.”
Surprise flashed in his eyes and he let out a deep chuckle. “Good for you.”
Fallon didn’t want to react to his approval but unfortunately, she did. Covering the warmth his comment had elicited, Fallon shot him a frosty look. “Now will you get off me?”
Still smiling, Eli let her go and gracefully got to his feet. He held a hand out for her. Fallon decided ignoring it would only reinforce his belief that she was a child, so she took it.
“You really do weigh nothing,” he commented softly, still grinning.
“My firepower is weightless until it blows your ass from here to Mount Qaf.”
“You are a cocky little thing.”
Fallon growled under her breath and turned to stride furiously out of the gym. “You call me a little thing one more time, I’m going to do something my father will regret.”
***
With no assignment looming in the near future, Fallon was bored. Ari and Jai had taken off on another hunt, Trey was working on his artwork, and the rest of the Guild was busy with assignments or their human lives. She knew some of the younger guys worked out a lot at their privately owned training center on West Broad Street. She decided to take the short walk to work out with them.
She didn’t like being inactive. Being inactive meant she had time to think about everything, and everything usually came back to falling for Charlie Creagh, dying, coming back to life, discovering Charlie was lost to her, and then, upon meeting him again, knowing for certain the Charlie she’d known was no longer. Her chest ached when she thought about him, but that ache was easing day by day. She’d loved Charlie but she reckoned that if he’d been the love of her life, moving on from him would be crippling. She wasn’t crippled, and Fallon didn’t know if she should feel guilty about that. In the end, she was just happy for the new alternate Charlie who got to live his life in peace with his little brother alive and well.
Still, it wasn’t easy piecing the realities together. A part of her was afraid maybe she’d lost who she was somehow. Every day was a fight to ensure that wasn’t true, and sitting around on her ass not doing anything did nothing to aid that fight. Fallon Roe did not sit around on her butt. She kicked ass.
Speaking of … Eli McEttrick’s handsome face flashed before her eyes as she turned onto West Broad Street. She was instantly furious at herself. Why did that oaf keep infiltrating her thoughts?
The man had spent a couple of days with her family and Fallon did her very best to avoid him after dinner that night. She’d quickly flipped his switch from somewhat amused to being downright pissed off at her. They argued throughout the entire meal and at the end of the night, her mom had taken her aside and suggested Fallon make herself scarce while Eli finished up his visit.
So that’s what she did. While he met Ari, Trey, and Jai and the rest of the Guild, Fallon avoided him like he was that kid in school who had no concept of hygiene, oral or otherwise. This went against her grain. Fallon was more likely to walk up to the kid and explain all about toothpaste, soap, and water than let mean kids bully him or indifferent kids avoid him.
She’d become an avoider, and she didn’t like it.
As she walked across the gym’s small lot, a shiny black SUV pulled in. Fallon’s breath caught at the flash of a profile as the SUV swung into a parking spot.
Eli McEttrick.
Looked like she was no longer the avoider.
Damn … maybe she did like it after all.
Pulse throbbing in her throat, Fallon strode toward the car as the driver’s side door opened and a long, denim-clad leg attached to a motorcycle boot hit the concrete. Just to be obnoxious, she crossed her arms and leaned against his shiny car as he got out.
Eli shut his door, those startling blue eyes staring intensely at her. “Fallon Roe,” his voice rumbled pleasantly.
“Eli McEttrick.” She shrugged and pressed her back against the back passenger door. “To what do I owe this displeasure?”
His lips twitched at her greeting and he took a couple of steps toward her, bringing his body close to hers. Again, she found she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. Wha
t was with this dude’s need to invade her personal space?
“I decided I wanted to see that display of firepower you were bragging about last week. Your dad said you were here.”
Not knowing what to make of that, Fallon’s brows puckered. “You came all the way here … for that?”
He nodded slowly. “It’s been on my mind.”
“I don’t think your Guild is keeping you busy enough,” she replied dryly.
Eli chuckled low as he leaned in, placing a hand on the SUV at either side of her head, effectively caging her in. “Have you got a smartass response to everything?”
Feeling somewhat breathless (and confused) with him so close, drowning her in pheromones and delicious cologne, Fallon attempted to melt into the car. “Only if a smartass response is required.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he murmured, eyes washing over her face and coming to a concentrated stop on her full mouth.
To Fallon’s increasing confusion and dismay, she realized that the attraction she felt toward Eli McEttrick was quite possibly more than a little mutual. The heat between them was real, the pull strong, the air electric.
His head slowly dipped toward hers.
“I barely know you,” she found herself whispering back, her own eyes studying his perfect lips. “I don’t even like you …”
And then his mouth was on hers. His kiss was deep and slow as he gently seduced her into melting against him rather than the car. By the time their lips parted, they were both panting slightly. Fallon’s arms were around his shoulders, his around her waist.
She blinked the fog of lust from her eyes until they were clear.
Realization instantly hit.
“What the freakin’ hell!” she yelled and shoved at his shoulders. Eli barely moved.
Instead his arms tightened around her waist and he grinned. “I’d stop hitting me with your tiny, ineffectual fists.
You’ll wear yourself out.”
“I don’t even know you,” she huffed.
“You can’t just kiss me. We’ve met twice. Twice! And we don’t like each other.
Not to mention that I just got out of something very, very insane and I don’t have time or the emotional patience to deal with whatever the hell you are.”
Laughing roughly, Eli gently eased her back against the car and let her go. “I’ve wanted to kiss that mouth of yours from the moment I saw it. You were an itch and I scratched it.”
Indignation flooded her. “I was a what?”
“An itch,” he repeated but his eyebrows came together as he ran a hand through his hair. “Unfortunately, scratching it has only made me itchier.”
“Would you stop comparing me to an itch?
If this is McEttrick smooth-talking, it’s a wonder you ever get laid, buddy.”
His lips twitched. “You’re making it worse.”
“What worse?” Her hands flew to her hips.
“The itch.” Grinning wickedly, Eli pulled open his driver’s side door. Taking the hint, a discombobulated Fallon stumbled away from the car, staring at him as he got inside. As he reached for the door to close it, his blue eyes were hot with the heat between them. “I think we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, Fallon Roe. You can count on that.”
Before she could respond to his sensual promise, Eli slammed the door, started the engine, and swung out of the parking lot, leaving Fallon wondering what the hell had just happened.
“I didn’t know the Roe Guild Welcome Wagon was so thorough!”
Blanching, Fallon turned and saw her uncle Gerard standing with a couple of the younger Guild guys. They grinned at her mischievously.
They’d caught the show.
Fallon groaned and threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know what the hell just happened!”
Gerard chuckled and winked at her. “I think you just met your match.”
At her uncle’s words, Fallon swallowed hard, feeling her heart pounding against her ribs. Butterflies rioted in her stomach and she turned, narrow-eyed to gaze down the street after Eli. As she did this, the skin on her neck prickled, and Fallon knew … something monumental had just happened.
Her life was never going to be the same again.
“The Invisible Save”
Smokeless Fire, Chapter 3—Jai’s Perspective
The buzz of teenage conversation was giving Jai a headache. He was pretty sure from the tightening of his client’s features that it was giving her a headache too.
I am on the assignment of a lifetime. It will all be worth it.
Luca, Jai’s father, and Jai’s spawn-of-Satan half-brothers wouldn’t be able to touch him once he successfully completed this assignment. So far it had been easy—a little like being trapped in a teenage soap opera from hell—but other than irritating, it was easy.
Yeah, Jai found himself surprised by the girl he was to guard. Ari Johnson. An eighteen-year-old girl from Sandford Ridge, Ohio. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t … Ari.
It wasn’t how gorgeous she was that had taken him aback—although he hadn’t been expecting it—it was how lonely she was for an attractive, intelligent eighteen-year-old. Pop culture told him that she should be admired and loved and surrounded by people twenty-four-seven.
Instead, she was quite possibly the loneliest person he’d ever “met.”
As lonely as he was.
He felt a kinship with her because of that.
Her dad wasn’t home and from what he could tell—which wasn’t a lot since a damn Ifrit Jinn was keeping him out of the house—Derek Johnson rarely checked in with her. Ari was left to the care of the Ifrit, who Ari presumed was a poltergeist. The fact that she didn’t even flinch at having a poltergeist intrigued him more than a little.
Jai hadn’t sensed anything harmful from the Ifrit, yet he thought it best to check in with The Red King. His Highness didn’t seem too perturbed by the Ifrit’s presence, so Jai was going to let it settle until he could get into the house. He wasn’t keen on someone else trying to guard his client, but there was little he could do against her surprising strength unless The Red King gave him the all clear to fight.
Jai leaned back against the classroom wall and indulged in a heavy sigh. He was, of course, using the Cloak to hide himself from Ari as he watched over her. He’d walked with her to her friend Charlie’s house and then walked them to school, vigilant for any signs of otherworldly danger. Ari had been fine. The only danger she was in was the danger of getting her heart broken by Charlie Creagh. Personally, Jai didn’t understand the emo, moping, drug-abusing thing Charlie had going on when he had a gorgeous, sweet girl like Ari hanging around. He knew Charlie’s past and he felt bad for the kid, but when shit happened, you fought through it. You let the wounds heal and took strength from the scars. You didn’t keep picking at them until they were infected.
After that encounter, Jai had walked a forlorn Ari to school and strolled around the perimeter, making sure he couldn’t feel anything out of the ordinary in the air. When he’d done that, he’d found her in art history, a class where the kids were excited about their futures.
“I can’t wait to get to Brown,” some girl announced cheerily to Ari as she worked diligently on a puzzle of the Mona Lisa. It was also clear from where Jai was standing that Ari didn’t want to hear it. In fact, he’d noticed as everyone talked about their future lives, Ari curled into herself and blocked them out, suggesting to him she was having a crisis about her own prospects.
Yeah … if only she knew what was coming.
Ari Johnson was about to find out her father was a Jinn king—the White King had made some enemies apparently, enemies who might discover who Ari was and try to use her against him. She was about to become aware of Jai’s twenty-four-seven guard, and she was going to be subjected to Jai’s kiss so he could trace her if anyone did try to take her.
Jai’s eyes flickered to the girl’s lush mouth as she winced at whatever her friend was saying. A sti
rring of heat took Jai by surprise. It wouldn’t be a hardship to kiss that mouth.
“I bet the babes are smokin’ at USC,” some kid with more muscle than brains said behind Ari, grinning like he was the coolest person ever. “I heard they wear bikini tops to class.” Jai rolled his eyes.
Seriously? He was stuck in hell. Just about to conjure a book so he could drown out their voices, the sound of Ari’s name drew his gaze back to her.
The girl was asking Ari something. He frowned, taking a step toward her. Ari had grown pale, her eyes looking a little wild. The girl didn’t seem to notice, bombarding Ari with questions about college. With an abruptness that surprised a few of her classmates, Ari scraped her chair back and stood.
“You okay?” the girl asked.
Ari nodded but Jai’s eyes narrowed on her trembling hands. “Just need the bathroom.”
What was going on with this kid?
he thought, following her into the hall. He watched her lean against the wall, drinking in air like it was water and she was parched. Was she having a panic attack?
He frowned. Not good.
When she took off toward the school’s front entrance, he ran slowly behind her, wondering how she really was going to react to finding out the truth about her heritage, especially when the mere mention of college frazzled her so greatly. She stopped outside the doorway, making a startled sound. Jai sidled up beside her to follow her gaze and discovered the reason behind her abrupt halt.
It was the guy. The Charlie kid. And he was with another girl.
Jai sighed and shot a look at Ari. The sun fell across her soft, tan skin, catching her strange eyes in a myriad of metallic lights. He shook his head. Charlie Creagh was an idiot.
At her pained noise, Jai glanced back to see Charlie making out with the girl.
Well, shit.
Ari looked crestfallen.
A pang of something radiated in his chest for her and Jai silently cursed. He didn’t want to feel sorry for her. He didn’t feel anything. The girl was a mess. Getting involved in her personal life was just asking to turn this assignment into a disaster.
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