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

by K.F. Breene

Instead, I sat in this boring cube with a mountain of paperwork and an uncomfortable chair. Occasionally I got to get out of the office, sure, but we were encouraged to use our words to pacify the situations, not our fists. What did I know about using words? That wasn’t my style at all. What a bunch of hooey.

“Hey!” he said, puffing up and reaching for his cuffs. “Yes, see how that works out for you.” I grinned manically. I could get a new identity, but could he repair his shattered ego after he got beaten up by a girl? I doubted it.

“How long ago did this happen?” I asked. “Three hours. At first we didn’t know it was magical in nature, or we would’ve called you sooner.” “What tipped you off?” “The sword. Normal people don’t walk around hacking people’s necks with swords.” “You’re not from New Orleans, are you?” “No.” He shifted. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said he was uncomfortable. “Seattle. Why? Is it the West Coast accent?” “All kinds of crazy stuff goes down in New Orleans…”

The trick was, you couldn’t get into trouble if you didn’t hear the command.

“What’s up?” I asked, blocking the doorway. His eyes roamed my face. “Your eyebrows have gone missing again.” “You’ve always excelled at observation.” Just as I, apparently, excelled at losing my eyebrows.

“Hold on,” I said, sitting up to reach for a towel. Before I could grab it, the door swung open. Darius carried in a silver tray laden with snack foods and wine. I crossed my legs and jerked my arms over my chest. He set the tray on the tiled ledge near my head and perched next to it, looking down at me. “You have a beautiful body, Reagan. You should allow me to appreciate it.” “No.”

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.” I groaned. “For the last time, it is a pouch, not a fanny pack. How come no one sees the difference?”

I can’t fire you, Reagan, but I’d strongly suggest you think about whether this job is really the right place for you.” I stared at him for a moment, speechless. “But then Garret would win,” I blurted. The captain laughed and shook his head. “I think you have bigger things on your plate than worrying about your feud with Garret.” “Yeah, but none quite so infuriating.” Though Darius was starting to get close.

In all honesty, I liked him. He was blunt and grumpy and violent and completely honest. He was good people. My kind of people.

“What shall I do today?” I asked myself. I needed to get a cat so I had something to talk to. At least then I wouldn’t seem insane as I wandered around the house, muttering to myself.

“People won’t work with me because I tell them when they’re being idiots. In our circle, that happens more often than not.” “How was Lorraine supposed to know that an Irish coffee wasn’t made with vodka?” “Because of the word Irish. Had I said a Russian coffee, sure, I’d get the confusion. But Irish? C’mon! Everyone knows they drink whiskey. Or beer. Had she used beer—” “You still would’ve called her an idiot,” I said. “No one in their right mind would put beer in coffee.”

Callie snorted and pushed me again, bustling me into the car without a word. The woman had skills. She turned to tell Dizzy to hurry up, and I saw the word Bounce written across the butt of her velvet orange sweats. “It’s just not right to put those sayings on girls’ butts,” I said, wisely not attaching an age to that pronouncement. “Why? I got bounce yet.” Thankfully, Callie didn’t prove it.

“It is not my inability to understand that is the problem,” he said. “It is your inability to tell a joke.”

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.”

“I will find out who that vampire was, and kill him. I will not be able to live with the knowledge that another of my kind has consumed your blood.” I blinked a few times. “I’m not sure what to say. Please don’t? That’s insane? You have lost it, my friend, and need professional help?” “If it makes you feel any better, I will blame it on the shifters so it does not come back to you or me.” “That does not make me feel better, no. Don’t do either of those things. That’s lunacy, Darius. Seriously, you’ve gone off the deep end, and it isn’t good news.”

“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.”

“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.” I put my hands into the air. “I was not torturing them at the time, detective. It was all above board.” I paused. “Mostly.” “Your humor would certainly torture them, if you lobbed jokes at them along the way,” Darius said, having stepped closer to see the body as well.

“She doesn’t like vampires,” I said when she bustled away. “Did you catch that? She was not excited about a nice girl such as myself being mixed up with riffraff like you.” “You are wearing a leather outfit with a sword, gun, and fanny pack strapped to your person. What about that look says nice girl?”

My boots creaked as I sank down onto my haunches, trying to see whatever had darted under the bed. As if hearing my unspoken question, Darius said, “It was a cat.” I pulled in a breath. “That thing jumping at me was a cat?” “Yes. You firebombed a kitty.”

“Since the mage is clearly not home, I will doctor this animal while you figure out what other poor, defenseless creature to bully next.” “It jumped at me! That is hardly my fault.” I frowned as Darius moved away. I doubted I’d live that one down anytime soon.

“Ha! Guilty!” “They could just be—” “No way. That’s super guilt, right there. He’s a criminal, which means I don’t have to feel bad about ransacking his house. I am definitely taking all his crap, yo. Happy days to me.” “Your moral compass is ambiguous.”

“I’m not looking for evidence; I’m looking for additions to my magic collection. And Callie’s. The evidence I’ll beat out of him. That part is easy.”

I patted his arm. “We’ll get you that blood and see if it goes away. Hopefully it does, for both of our sakes. Because you are cutting into my cool points by saving me.” “Saving a human also cuts into my cool points, I assure you.” “I’m back to being a human in your eyes, am I? Wow. You must really hate emotion.” “Fear for your survival is distracting.” “There he is—the vampire who stole my mark.” I pushed past him and exited the hall.

“It is always about a girl.” His sad smile made another appearance. “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.

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

“Don’t call Vlad.” I wiped my face. “Whatever you do, don’t call that guy. I don’t need any more turds in my litterbox.” “That’s graphic,” Dizzy mumbled. “She has a right to be graphic.” Callie backed away from the others. “She’s stuck in midair, floating in rocks and dirt, and jeopardized by a demon. I can’t believe every other word out of her mouth isn’t a curse word.”

“How are you going to help her?” Callie asked. “Blood,” Darius said, the possessiveness back ten-fold. “It helped after she killed the other demon. It has to help this time as well. I will not lose her to the underworld. She is bringing back my humanity—I will not let it take hers.” “Well, that is unexpected,” Dizzy deadpanned.

Darius reached the door first and went to grab the handle. He hesitated. “Would you like to kick this in, Reagan?” “How thoughtful. But no. Let’s just go inside.”

“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.”

“I didn’t expect to end up in this situation either, Reagan. But here we are. Let’s embrace it. What have we to lose?” “A lot. Each of us has a lot to lose.” He smiled, a lovely sight, before pulling me closer until I was resting against the heat of his body. “That makes it more special.”

But remember, vampires can be possessive creatures. Our primal sides uphold the verbal or, in this case, emotional contract. I will not see humor in anyone hurting you, or anyone trying to have you.” “In contrast, I probably will see humor in someone kicking your ass. But I promise to avenge you right after I stop laughing.”