Raised in Fire (Fire and Ice Trilogy, #2)

by K.F. Breene

I’m a nerd. Nerds love swords. Everyone knows that.”

Normal people don’t walk around hacking people’s necks with swords.” “You’re not from New Orleans, are you?”

“You’ve just seen the horror of violence in action, and you’re eager to go kill something?” “Is that a trick question? Because I feel like you should know the answer to that based on my personality…”

“Show me your tits,” he yelled. I punched him in the throat.

Knocking oneself out was not the first step to winning a fight.

No one questions extreme nerd-dom. It’s crazy without equal.”

What is this hold you have on me, Reagan?” “No hold. I’m a naked chick and you’re a creepy dude. Your reaction is pretty standard.”

I don’t know what you are, Reagan Somerset, but I know it’s more than a leather-clad woman with a fanny pack and no eyebrows.”

It was annoying that I could withstand fire, but weather still affected me. Of all the injustices in the world…

“Don’t let the air conditioning out.” “Girl, you need a lesson in hosting,” I heard him mutter.

“This is going to be the worst conversation I have all day, I can already tell.” “All month, at least.”

I wasn’t lying—I really didn’t want to kill him any more than I did the captain. In all honesty, I liked him. He was blunt and grumpy and violent and completely honest. He was good people. My kind of people.

I’m having a hard time with what I saw. It was either incredibly dope, or batshit crazy.” “Crazy. Stick with crazy.” “Yeah.”

Seriously, who actually called people anymore? Now I had to physically put the phone to my ear and listen to a voice message. The horror!

“This is why no one will work with you!” he shouted. That was how he dealt with his wife’s bullying. Yelling. “You don’t appreciate people’s efforts.” “People won’t work with me because I tell them when they’re being idiots. In our circle, that happens more often than not.”

“You really shouldn’t go.” “I probably shouldn’t—you’re right. But they need help. Plus, I’ve been extremely bored since quitting MLE.” “That was yesterday morning,” Callie exclaimed. “But I haven’t been working for two days. A very boring two days.”

I’m not sure I get this new Darius. A soft spot on you is about as comforting as a brown spot on white carpet. I don’t know how it got there, I don’t know exactly what it is, but I’m expecting the worst.”

“For some reason I can’t identify, I feel an overwhelming need to protect you. The primal side of me views you as mine, solely. I cannot pinpoint when this need took hold, just that it continues to grow stronger. I crave you constantly. I dream of you when I haven’t dreamed in over five hundred years. I take blood from others, but nothing quenches my insufferable thirst. We are not tied through blood, and even if we were, the bond shouldn’t be this consuming. Yet I am powerless to absolve my desire for you. In addition—” “Oh good, there’s more. I was worried the crazy was about to end.” “—you are incredibly valuable to me. Your abilities and lineage ensure it. There has never been anything as precious to me as you, be it as my beloved or as a bartering chip. My primal side wishes to claim you, but worse, my logical side realizes I must do that as a man claims a woman, as a husband claims a wife, in order to sustain your happiness. It is absolutely unheard of, not to mention absurd, for an elder to feel this way, yet…” “I can see that this is sitting with you about as well as it is sitting with me.” He looked away. “Something is causing this, but I have no idea what. I would like to undo it, but I need to find the root. A vampire in my position needs to think strategically. Without emotion. You are making that impossible.”

“Being a vampire sounds exhausting.” “You are young and within your first lifetime. That sentiment is to be expected.”

“Someone screaming would certainly be distracting.” I eyed the wounds. “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve punched out so they’d shut up. So annoying.”

Breakfast isn’t breakfast without a milkshake.”

“Is something wrong with you?” she asked. I pointed at Darius. “I’m traveling with a vampire. That should’ve been your first clue.”

“I have never understood your infatuation with kicking things in.” “We all have our vices.”

“Things are only obvious when you already know them. With you, there is no telling what knocks around in your head.”

People who drank vodka out of a pint glass didn’t usually leave it behind unless they were passed out next to it.

“Don’t play with air, and I won’t lop off body parts,” I said by way of a half-felt apology, and lurched after him.

“You already make my life hell,” he whispered. “In the best of ways.”

a pudgy guy with a serious gray mustache. It was like a mouse had crawled onto his face, lain down, and gotten stuck there.

“Our folly always has to do with a girl in one way or another.” “That’s because men are dependent and can’t do anything on their own. You think you run the world, and then you get sick and everything stops while you mope and whine.

“I cannot describe how good you taste, mon amour. Your blood is truly the nectar of the gods. Sweet, spicy, complex. Better than the finest wine in all of France. Better than I could’ve possibly imagined. The smell does not do it justice. There is nothing on this planet that could possibly compare.”

“It means we are up shit creek, and we better hope my mage friends brought an outboard motor, because paddles won’t be enough.”

“Think of New Orleans as the magical Wild West, detective. We’re hard-core.”

“You try to kidnap me, stalk me, threaten me, manipulate me, but oh look, you’ll hold the door for me,” I mumbled. “You guys are something else.”

Blind terror that I would be lost, and his soul would be lost with me.

“Isn’t improbable. Double negatives don’t save lives, Callie.”

The hot, sticky night embraced me. I’d missed New Orleans. Sure, Seattle was green and mild and beautiful, but it didn’t have enough crazy for my taste. It didn’t have enough old-world and deep magical traditions. Hell, it didn’t have enough nudity. What was the fun in that?

“Reagan, for the second time in my life, and the first time as a vampire, I am falling in love. I didn’t think it could happen after I changed into…what I am. I have never heard that it could. But here I am. I was seeking a solution to undo this change in me, but after Seattle…I have gone too far. I no longer want the antidote. I want to lay claim on you. I want you to let me. And for the first time in my history, I want to feel what happens when love fully matures.”

“In contrast, I probably will see humor in someone kicking your ass. But I promise to avenge you right after I stop laughing.”