Chapter 2
two
Sweat poured down my face as I blasted my flames higher, urging them to burn brighter.
Double vision set in, but I shook my head to clear it and reached deeper within myself for strength.
As I panted through the strain, a hulking silver pickup squealed to a stop, bouncing two fat tires onto the sidewalk in the process. A man with pale skin and a shock of orange-red hair leapt out with a quick nod for me before he descended on Becca. “What happened to her?”
“She was fine one minute then bleeding from her mouth and seizing the next.”
“I’ll get her to Burdock.” He lifted her small frame with care. “Then I’ll circle back for Jess and Sloane.”
“You’re Seamus.”
“I am.” He shifted her weight, opened the passenger side door since I was a flaming mess, then set her on the bench seat. “We’ll have to do a proper introduction sometime.” He shut her in, noticed my issue, and cocked a bushy eyebrow at me. “Do you need help with that?”
“Maybe send Fayne?” I flushed even hotter, wishing I’d had the courage to practice control over my fire more after nearly drowning Rían. “I’ll try to get this under control before then, but no promises.”
A moment’s hesitation tugged him between two duties, but I made it easy for him.
“She’s the priority.” I flexed my fingers. “Worst-case scenario, I burn out. I’ll survive, but she might not.”
Grumbling under his breath about how he might not survive Rían finding out, he jumped in and drove away.
With a growl in my throat, I folded myself into a seated position, shut my eyes, and focused on the flow of magic within me.
I couldn’t burn out again. That weakness left me too vulnerable.
I couldn’t afford to let this power control me.
I had gotten lucky so far, but I would seriously hurt someone if I didn’t devote more time to mastering my flames.
Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.
A wave of tiredness crashed through me, but I refused to let it pull me under.
Teeth gritted, I pictured my palms as the water spigots at GSG, the ones we hooked hosepipes up to when we sprayed down the kennel runs. I imagined twisting them off to kill the flow, but when that didn’t work, I grew frustrated enough to mime the action.
As cool air skated across my palms, I cracked open one eye and almost collapsed with relief.
It worked.
It actually worked.
Slow claps jerked my head around in time to watch Liam applaud my accomplishment with a genuine smile on his face. Had my cheeks not been rosy from the heat, I might have blushed at how pleased I was with myself. And, okay, maybe a little bit with his acknowledgment that I had done well.
Ugh.
I was such a pushover. His opinion hadn’t mattered to me before, I had been too cautious to avoid negativity to invite more into my life, but I was grinning back at him.
As much as I wanted to beat myself up over how quick I was to forgive his past rudeness, I understood its cause now, and I was done holding grudges against people who were willing to put in the work to atone. Life was too short to be petty.
“Not bad.” He crouched before me, shackling my wrists and flipping my hands palms up to examine them. “How do you feel?”
Guilt edged out pride when my first thought was I wished it had been Rían who witnessed me taming my flames. I ought to be grateful to have controlled them, period. No matter the audience.
“Woozy,” I admitted, allowing him to help me to my feet. “I’m good, though.”
“I would offer you a piggyback ride, but let’s not make it weird.”
“I can walk.” I wobbled a few steps as the horizon tilted ahead of me. “See?”
“Give me your arm.” He seemed to think better of it then cupped my elbow. “Let’s get moving.”
Though his grip was light, his height made my shoulder ache from the angle.
Rían, who was much taller, was also much more conscientious.
He paid attention to the space he occupied and moved through the world with awareness for others.
Liam? Not so much. Still, this awkward handling was a huge improvement over my previous treatment, so I wasn’t going to complain. Out loud anyway.
“Any idea what happened to Becca?”
“None.” His jaw set. “I’m going to the emergency clinic to check on her as soon as I drop you off.” The muscles in his cheek flexed. “As soon as Burdock pins down the cause, I’ll update Rían. Since it involves you, he’ll take it better coming from me.”
“I couldn’t find any wounds.”
“She’s new to the enforcers. I don’t know her well enough to say if she’s got any preexisting conditions. Burdock will figure it out. He brought the full medical histories of everyone who came with us to Brentwood. She’s in good hands.”
“Burdock is the best. No worries there. It’s the timing that bothers me.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “We haven’t caught the person responsible for the car bomb that killed Mindy and now this happens.”
That person had already killed once, from inside Brentwood, and there was no guarantee they had left after completing their mission. Until we found them, we couldn’t say for certain whether she had been their only target or if there were more deaths to come.
“There’s a wide divide between a bomb exploding and what happened to Becca.
Without concrete proof this was another targeted attack, or a more widespread outbreak of symptoms, we can’t afford to slow the rollback at this stage.
” He steadied me when I tipped to one side.
“You just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Leave the rest to us. We’ll figure out what’s going on. ”
A quiver in the air shivered over my skin, and I sucked in a sharp breath as a piercing screech rang out. I hadn’t heard a racket like that since the last tornado warning broadcast.
“That would be the clan-wide text.” Liam tugged his phone from his pocket. “Yep.” He flipped the screen toward me. “The wards are down, and the tech is up. That was fast. Looks like we couldn’t have stopped them from falling even if we tried.”
Subtle tension radiated through him that hadn’t been there before, and he scanned the streets as he ushered me toward GSG. The wards falling must have been what caused that peculiar sensation earlier.
“Without the magic barrier dulling my connection to Carmichael, I should be able to track him.” I fell into the same habit as him, searching for any hint of disruption.
Part of me had been expecting Sartoris to swarm us the second they sensed an opening.
I couldn’t decide if the absence of chaos was better or worse.
Neither could I shake the fear Becca’s episode had been a more subtle opening salvo. “Do you think Rían will let me do it?”
“Rían trusts you to make your own decisions.” He sighed as if that fact was an inconvenience. “He won’t be happy about you putting yourself in harm’s way, make no mistake, but he won’t stop you from acting as your conscience demands.”
“I need this.” I wasn’t sure why I was explaining myself, but I felt compelled to unburden to him. “I won’t let Carmichael do to Rían and me what he did to my parents.”
“I understand,” he said softly. “I killed the ones responsible for my parents’ deaths.”
A lump wedged in my throat. “Oh.”
“It didn’t help, if you’re wondering. I didn’t feel better afterward. My parents were still dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t expect closure is all I meant.”
“What I need is to protect Rían and Goldie and everyone else in the clan.” I jabbed him with my elbow. “Even you.” I stared at the cracks in the sidewalk. “Carmichael is an active threat. He may have lost the bulk of his resources and his allies, but as long as I’m alive, he’ll keep coming for me.”
A buzz in my pocket prompted me to reach for my phone.
>>Who has two thumbs and 5G?
>>It’s me!
“Sloane has rediscovered the joys of texting.” I tapped out a quick message. “Prepare yourself.”
>I’ll forward the pics of you and Jess to celebrate.
A flush swept up my nape when a second text from a new contact pinged me.
>>Everything okay?
Guilt nibbled on me for what I was about to do, omitting the scare with Becca, but I trusted Liam knew how to break the news to Rían best.
>All good. Liam is walking me to GSG. How are things on your end?
This marked the first time a guy had beaten me to texting him.
Rían had my number. Of course he did. He was thorough like that.
It just never occurred to me that he would reach out unless I touched base with him to prod him along.
Which, now that I thought about it, should have clued me in ages ago that I was dating the wrong kinds of men.
>>I’m lonely. Possibly experiencing withdrawal. I had to leave without a kiss from my mate this morning.
“I know what that goofy look means.” Liam wrinkled his nose. “That’s Rían.”
>Aww. That’s terrible. Your mate must be a horrible person.
>>To be fair, I would have sneaked one if there hadn’t been a wolf asleep at the foot of her bed.
>She ate too much chili and got a stomachache. Rubbing her belly in that form was less awkward than the alternative.
>>I have to go. We’re starting patrols. Meet you at the party.
>See you then.
Two quick chimes distracted Liam from my post-texting glow while he skimmed his own inbox.
“Dear God in Heaven.” He blacked out the screen. “Your best friend is not right in the head.”
“She sent you a meme, didn’t she?” I nodded solemnly. “Just know she expects you to keep the streak going now that she’s started it. Fail to reply with an appropriate counter meme, and you will regret it.”
“I already do.” He tapped his device against his chin. “How did she get my number anyway?”
“There are some questions best left unanswered.”
Probably safer (for Goldie) if he didn’t learn you could buy any clan number from the master directory off his little cousin for five dollars.
Sloane bought the three-for-twelve-dollar bundle, and I left before I found out who she chose.
Plausible deniability had seemed like the best defense at the time.