Burning Violet_Lick of Fire Read online

  “Again,” she said before the UIPP started firing, and, tightening her hand over his arm, she drew Idris forward.

  This time, rather than one massive fireball, he summoned fire to both his hands and launched it toward the two nearest cars outside like he might have thrown baseballs. The first one exploded immediately while the second caught fire.

  “Go,” Violet hissed toward the wolves. “Now!”

  Even as they sprung forward, a call came out from whoever was in charge out there.

  “They shifted! Fire at will!”

  In the confusion of the explosion and fire, with black smoke filling the street, only a few gunshots resonated. Violet couldn’t tell if any bullet found its mark, but at least she didn’t hear any cry of pain. They had to draw the shooters attention away from the wolves.

  “Are you ready to meet your maker?” she asked in her loudest voice, making her feathers change color so as to give the appearance that she and Idris were on fire. Lower, she asked, “Can you hit them again?”

  “I can,” Idris said, immediately launching two more balls of fire; they seemed larger than the previous ones, and one of them hit the edge of the building, sending out debris into the street. “But the more I do this, the less control I have. The wolves are gone, what’s the plan for us?”

  A volley of gunfire exploded toward them. No bullet pierced the armor formed by her feathers but Violet could feel each impact, like a stone thrown at her bare skin. When she grunted in pain, Idris tensed against her. The next balls of fire he launched at the soldiers were twice as big.

  “The bike,” she said simply. She doubted she needed to elaborate.

  They’d left the motorcycle in that alley right across from the shop—right behind the UIPP forces. If they could just get to it, if they managed to run off, if she had enough energy left to camouflage them until they were in the clear…

  Too many ifs, but she didn’t have a better idea to get them out of there.

  And then Idris added one more if to the equation.

  “You need to get away from me. I don’t know if I can control myself much longer.”

  Maybe that was the solution.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Idris’ anger kept growing and growing… and with it, the control over his power grew more and more tenuous.

  At first, it had been the same anger he’d felt in jail, the rage of having been betrayed by those he’d trusted implicitly. He’d let that anger grow as he rode toward the Gang of Nine; better anger than the mix of confusion, fear and grief he felt at having found his mate—and at having to run from her.

  Then he’d faced those he’d once considered his friends, almost his family, and as the revelation of who was to blame for turning him in had come, a more focused anger had overcome him. He’d never liked Don all that much. From the day Idris had first come to the shop, Don had looked at him with an obvious degree of suspicion because Idris wasn’t a shifter like the rest of them, and it had only grown worse after he’d started dating Ivy. When he found the bastard, he’d make him regret ever being born.

  And now… now the UIPP was there. The mere possibility that they might take him again—lock him up again—was turning Idris’ anger to sheer, uncontrollable rage. The thought that they might do the same thing to his mate was even worse. And then there were these small gasps of pain that Ladybird let out every time a bullet made contact with her. His mate was in pain, and there was nothing he could do about it. He’d never wanted a mate, and he’d tried not to let himself see her as such, he’d even run away from her, but there she was.

  There they were.

  The last time he’d lost control to this point, he’d burned down a building. He’d heard that after an investigation, the forensics team had determined that the fire was due to a gas explosion—and never mind that the gas line had been turned off in that place.

  He launched more fireballs toward the officers that were still shooting at them, but far from depleting his power, it barely kept him on the edge of losing control.

  “Ladybird, come on,” he said urgently. “On the count of three, you’ve got to let go and run like hell. Or fly. Just get away from me, okay?”

  She’d been at his side so far, but now she stepped right in front of him, her back to the UIPP, her arms looped around his neck.

  “What—”

  “Do you trust me?” she cut in, a small smile touching her lips even as gunfire redoubled around them. “We just met, but can you trust me?”

  His mind flashed back to the night they’d spent together. She’d said then that she trusted him, without hesitation or reservation. And yet… What a stupid thing to ask in the middle of a fight like this one! What a dangerous thing to do when he was holding on by a thread!

  And what an easy question to answer, too, much to Idris’ surprise.

  “I do,” he said, choking on the words a little. “But I don’t want—”

  She drew him to her and crashed her mouth on his. Her eyes were wide open and burning with the same fire that roiled through Idris. The same fire he’d barely managed to contain when he was making love to her. The same fire that he couldn’t contain any longer.

  And deep down, he was scared to realize, he didn’t want to contain it anymore. He was tired of restraining himself day in and day out. Tired of this world where people like him and Ladybird, like Chris, and that little ice dragon girl were hunted like animals.

  He wrenched his mouth off hers and only had time to say, “Violet…” before his power exploded out of him in a wave of fire.

  For a brief moment, he wasn’t merely creating the fire but he was the fire. He could see himself enveloping Ladybird and flashing outward like an expanding bubble of searing heat. The police cars and vans, some of them already ablaze, exploded and were swept backwards with thundering crashes. Behind him, the garage was engulfed in flames, the awning blown off to one side and burning. Everywhere, UIPP officers were thrown to the ground, some of them knocked unconscious or killed instantly, others screaming as the angry fire devoured them… although their cries died out very quickly.

  In just seconds, utter silence fell on the street. Nothing moved save for the flames dancing here and there, the black, acrid smoke rising toward the evening sky. Idris felt like he was at ground zero where a bomb had gone off… and he’d been the bomb.

  A cold shiver ran down his spine and he became aware that he was bare, his clothes vaporized from the intense heat he’d produced. He wasn’t surprised. It had happened in the past. Which was why he was scared to look down at the body he still held in his arms.

  It was one thing to see UIPP officers fifty yards from him charred to unrecognizable remains; as far as he was concerned, this was only a small taste of the hell that was waiting for them. But Ladybird…

  He’d been so scared of hurting her, so scared that all his life he’d tried to avoid meeting her, that he’d fled from her without a goodbye like a coward, and now…

  And now…

  A dry sob shook his body. He blinked repeatedly and forced himself to look down at a sight he knew would stay with him until the day he died.

  And it would… Except it wasn’t anything he expected.

  Nestled in his arms, her face turned up toward his, Ladybird was beaming up at him. Her skin glowed with a light golden hue, and for the first time Idris could see her feathers in their natural state, falling down her arms in wide wings. The bandage on her upper arm was gone, the wound healed. He blinked again, this time in surprise, and the feathers and golden glow slowly faded away, leaving behind the familiar white t-shirt and jeans in which she always looked so effortlessly sexy.

  “You… you’re not hurt?” he managed to stammer.

  Despite the evidence of his own eyes, he could hardly believe it. He had to take a step back to look fully at her, although he couldn’t quite make himself let go of her and took hold of her hands.

  “Why would fire hurt me?” she said, sheer joy in her words. “I’m
a phoenix, remember? Who better to be your mate than someone who actually thrives in fire?”

  He watched as her feathers extended over their hands to flow over him, dressing him in jeans, boots and a leather jacket over his bare torso—or at least, that was what they looked and felt like against him.

  It was odd to know he was nude and yet to feel material on his skin—and even odder still to know that it was part of Ladybird that covered every inch of him. Shaking his head in wonder, he stared at her and started to say something, but he was at a loss for words.

  “I never imagined…”

  “Never imagined what?” she asked gently. “That whoever or whatever made us mates wouldn’t take into consideration what we are when pairing us up?”

  He tried to swallow the hard lump blocking his throat.

  “That, yes. Or that you could still look at me like this after what I’ve done.”

  With a tilt of his head, he indicated the mess around them, the burning buildings and cars, the broken windows, the dead bodies and the people who were starting to come out from the building across the street, shell-shocked and holding on to each other. In the distance, fire truck sirens were shrieking, growing louder with every passing moment.

  Ladybird looked around and gave a shrug, her eyes narrowing when they paused on a body.

  “They’d be just as dead if I’d shot them. And I think we’d better get out of here, don’t you?”

  Without waiting for his response, she tightened her fingers over his and started guiding him toward the narrow alley on the other side of the street where he’d left the bike. The dumpster behind which they’d hidden earlier was scorched and smoking, but it had protected the bike and it waited for them, untouched.

  “It’s fine,” Ladybird said, sounding relieved as she pulled the key from wherever she’d kept it safe. “I’ll drive this time. Just keep holding on to me, unless you want to ride naked.”

  But Idris found little humor in her words. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around what had just happened.

  “I just blew up the street,” he said darkly, “and you’re worried about me riding naked?”

  She arched an eyebrow at him.

  “Not so much worried as unwilling to get the police on our back for indecent exposure,” she said dryly. After taking a good look at him however, she added, “Does it bother you that you killed these people? They deserved it. Following orders was never a good enough excuse for the kinds of things they do. And they were trying to kill us.”

  “I know all that,” he replied with a brief look back at the street. “And still…”

  He shook his head. He’d never enjoy killing with his power, but she was right that these were hardly good people. And speaking of…

  “Don got away,” he said bitterly. “He sold me out twice to those assholes. He sold his own pack. He shouldn’t get away with it.”

  He expected her to argue the point, the same way she’d advised caution before, but if anything she looked thoughtful.

  “Hard to dispense the payback he deserves when we don’t know where to find him.”

  He wasn’t sure why these words gave him the sudden need to kiss her, but he didn’t try to fight back the urge. Grabbing her hips, he drew her against him, and pressed his mouth onto hers in the next second.

  In all his adult years, every time he’d thought of the mate he couldn’t have, he’d persuaded himself that he wouldn’t miss much. Romance, sweet gestures, strolls on the beach or picnics in public parks—the image the media often gave of fated mates—none of that was anything he’d care to have. He just hadn’t realized that a mate would also see eye to eye with him for such things as revenge or the killing of those bastards who hunted paras like animals.

  The intensity of the kiss grew, and with it the heat within Idris started building up again. Any other woman would have pulled back in discomfort and protested, but not Ladybird. Not his mate.

  “Hello?” A voice called out toward them, echoing through the alley. “Are you hurt? Do you need help?”

  Ending the kiss with a reluctance that Ladybird shared, judging by the brief annoyed look he saw on her features, they turned together to see a firefighter standing at the end of the alley. He looked unsure whether he ought to venture into a dark alley toward people he probably couldn’t see all that well in the shadows.

  “We’re fine,” Ladybird called back toward the man, then added more quietly, “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Yes. Give me the key.”

  She arched an eyebrow at him at that.

  “It’s my bike. I’ve been more than accommodating so far but—”

  “I think I might know where Don is.”

  Was that hunger, flicking through her eyes? Hunger for him, or for revenge? It didn’t matter. Either way, she gave him the key, allowing him to get on the bike before she hopped on behind him. He brought the bike’s engine to life with a roar. He couldn’t know for sure they’d find Don at the apartment complex where the wolf clan lived, but for his own peace of mind, he had to at least try.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  As Idris maneuvered the bike through narrow streets and quiet neighborhoods, Violet once more turned her feathers to a perfect mirror of the city around them. Not only was it easier to render them all but invisible at night than it was during the day, but she brimmed with energy after the burst of intense fire Idris had unleashed earlier.

  She’d stood right at the center of the blast, and had she been anything other than a phoenix, she would have burned to ashes in a matter of seconds; the fire had certainly been strong enough to destroy any normal body at point blank range. But like she’d told Idris, she wasn’t his mate for nothing.

  She didn’t know if the being or power that marked them all with their mates’ names knew everything that would happen in their lives, or even planned it, but if that was the case they couldn’t have picked a better person for her. His fire had rejuvenated her, making her feel as rested and full of strength as though she’d spent the last few weeks relaxing at home.

  She kept her arms tight around him as they rode into the night, tighter maybe than they needed to be. She didn’t think he’d run away from her anymore, not now that he knew she had nothing to fear from his power. She couldn’t wait to go to a quiet place with him and get to know him better… both his mind and his body. He felt hot again, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it was because of her, draped around him like a living blanket, or because he was getting angry once more.

  A little voice that sounded too much like Millie’s for comfort refused to quiet down at the back of her mind. It listed all the reasons why it was a bad idea to go hunting for that wolf. First and foremost, Idris had just committed what the authorities would surely call an act of terrorism when they intensified their manhunt for them. It would have been safer to get on the way to Sanctuary, swap the bike for a nondescript rental car like Violet had suggested before, and get away from the region as soon as possible. Every tactical lesson Violet had ever learned said as much.

  And yet her heart said something else.

  She wasn’t blindly following Idris because he was her mate, however. She trusted she’d have made the same decision to go with him rather than try to convince him to let it go if he’d been any other para she was helping through a rough time. The issue here, the thing that Millie, disciplined leader that she was, wouldn’t have understood, was that some things were worth taking an extra risk for. It had been more than worth it to risk additional gunfire to rescue three more people from the containment center—and it was worth coming across more UIPP forces for a chance at eliminating a traitor.

  Because in the end, that was what this Don person was: a traitor to his clan, to his acquaintances, and to all paras. In this world where anyone with some kind of power was treated like a freak or monster, imprisoned and studied as such, the only thing paras could depend on was each other. Anyone who played by the government’s rules was a liability to all of them.
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  As fast as Idris was riding, it didn’t take very long before they reached an apartment complex, several buildings between seven and ten stories high gathered around a small park and playground. He parked the bike near the entrance of one of the buildings. As she dismounted the motorcycle, her hand gripping Idris’ arm to keep him covered, she couldn’t help but throw a nonplussed look around.

  “They lived here?” she asked. “Surrounded by all this concrete? When did they ever shift?”

  “They’d go out into nearby woods on weekends or late at night. Or shift inside when they really needed to.”

  To Violet, it sounded almost as bad as being caged… but she supposed she was biased, having been born and raised on a sprawling domain where she could shift to her phoenix form and take flight whenever she pleased without having to worry about who might see her.

  He led the way inside the building, walking past the elevator to get to the staircase instead. He walked fast but she easily kept pace with him, silently rearranging her feathers over both their bodies. Soon, they were both wearing the same black ensemble the squad wore on missions, their vital organs protected not by Kevlar but rather by additional layers of feathers. Drawing out the small gun she’d kept close to her body for the past few days, Violet quickly checked that it was in working order before holding it against her thigh again, where she fashioned an invisible holster around it.

  “Next floor,” he said when they’d reached the second landing. “They have five apartments over two floors, this one is where he lived when I was there. We should know pretty quick whether he’s here or not.”

  “And if he is?” Violet asked. “What do you intend to do?”

  He didn’t say a word but gave her a look that made his intentions quite clear. Tightening her hand on his arm, she drew him to a stop.

  “The building must be full at this hour,” she said, keeping her voice low and calm. “Families home from work and school. Kids already in bed. Starting a fire might not be the best option here. Do you know how to use a gun?”