Blaze of Secrets (Asylums for Magical Threats) (27 page)

Jaxton shook his head. “That’s going to take a lot of energy, not to mention a phenomenal amount of

control. You might burn out.”

She poked his arm. “Do you have any other ideas?” When he said nothing, she smiled. “I thought so.

Let me help for once, Jaxton. I can do this.”

He searched her eyes before cupping her cheek. “You sure?” She nodded and he said, “I’ll make sure

we survive the climb down. But you need to promise me one thing, Kiarra.”

“Yes?”

He leaned down. “If something happens to me, you run. Go to one of the safe houses and find a way to

contact Neena or call the phone number I made you memorize. The person on the other side will help you.”

She didn’t want to make a promise she couldn’t keep, but then he threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled her head forward. “Promise me.”

“Fine. I promise.” He rewarded her with a brief kiss before tugging her to the side of the window. When

he motioned for her to start doing her thing, Kiarra kept her eyes on the window and concentrated on her fire. If she could pull this off, she would no longer be useless. She could protect not only herself, but those she cared about too.

After double-checking that all of his weapons were accessible, Jaxton watched Kiarra and frowned. She

should still be in bed, tucked against him, not melting glass and creating fire barriers to help them escape capture.

The people downstairs were most likely here to collect Kiarra and take her back to the AMT. But he

wasn’t going to let that happen. Kiarra was no longer just his charge.

Sure, the sex last night had been fantastic—Kiarra had proved to be an unashamed and curious bugger

in bed—but it was all of the small things she’d done that still made him smile. Kiarra’s teasing tone and half-hearted glares. The way she held him after and traced designs on his back. Or even the way she slept, with her mouth open, drooling a little.

After what had happened with his brother and Marzina, Jaxton had never slept over with a woman

because that would signal a tentative commitment, which could lead to an attachment. And when people became attached, they tended to forget their priorities and become blinded to the truth. Or so he’d believed.

Now he wasn’t so sure. Kiarra was not only determined to help him, but she didn’t try to shift his focus or demand all of his attention. Between his contacts and her inside knowledge, they had a real chance to make a difference in the lives of first-borns, especially if they could bring down the AMT system.

He wanted to keep her. Or rather, he wanted to convince her to stay. He could just imagine what she’d

do if he mentioned a plan to “keep” her.

A bright flash at the window caught his attention. A second later it was gone. The glass had melted, but the wooden frame and highly flammable curtains were untouched. Judging by how quickly Kiarra was

mastering her abilities, he was starting to believe the legends about Fire Talents.

“Nice work.” Jaxton went to the window and crawled out. “Now follow my lead.”

Kiarra crawled out behind him, but Jaxton focused on the five people down below. Two were making a

beeline for the bottom of the fire escape. Jaxton tugged Kiarra behind him and made it down one flight of stairs before he saw small lights flashing from the direction of the van. He pushed Kiarra down and fired off a few shots of his own, causing the three people near the van to duck for cover.

Taking advantage of the opening, he looked over the rail and saw a man climbing up the ladder. He

whispered, “Close your eyes and plug your ears,” to Kiarra before taking out a flash grenade. After

releasing the pin, he crouched down with Kiarra, covered his ears, and closed his eyes.

Light and noise filtered through his eyes and ears, but not enough to affect him.

When it was quiet again, he grabbed Kiarra’s hand and pulled her along after him. But they had only

gone down one flight before people started shooting at them from the van again. Jaxton ducked his head

and said, “Keep your head down.”

A bullet hit the railing next to him, so Jaxton picked up his pace; somehow they managed to reach the

bottom flight without getting hurt.

Since the ladder was already extended, Jaxton motioned for Kiarra to keep down and close to the wall

before he turned and checked out his two opponents on the ground below.

The man previously climbing the ladder was now on his arse, and a woman stood in front of him as a

shield. She had her oddly shaped gun raised in his general direction, but since she was still disoriented from the flash grenade, she was aiming not at him, but about five feet to Jaxton’s right.

He’d seen that type of gun before, when he’d rescued Kiarra and his brother from the AMT—it shot

tranquilizer darts.

Before he could jump down to the ground, a small arrow of flame shot from behind him and hit the

tranquilizer gun below. As the woman dropped her gun, Jaxton jumped down and twisted the woman’s arm

behind her back. He took the spare tranquilizer gun from the woman’s holster and shot both the woman and the man. The drug was quick acting, and it knocked them out within seconds.

Jaxton looked up, but Kiarra wasn’t there. A quick scan revealed her location to the side, behind a trash skip, with a small flame dancing on one of her palms. He fired his gun toward the van to keep them

ducking for cover, and went to Kiarra’s side.

He waited, not wanting to break her concentration, but after five seconds passed, he whispered, “Is it

impossible, pet?”

“I can do it, but I need you to help me focus.”

“Tell me what do you need me to do.”

“I need physical contact. Pull me close.”

Despite the odd request, he didn’t hesitate. Jaxton placed his hands on Kiarra’s hips and pulled her back against his chest. “Like this?”

A heartbeat passed before she answered. “Yes.”

He kept an eye out for anyone else, but was soon distracted by a tingling sensation on the back of his

neck. A quick sweep confirmed that no one was behind them or on the fire escape, but then the tingle

started to spread. Soon there were flames dancing along his arms, moving down in a continuous stream until they collected in Kiarra’s palms; the more the flames moved down his arms, the stronger her flame

grew.

Holy shit.
This wasn’t normal. The fire didn’t hurt him, and while Kiarra had successfully surrounded the fake plant last night without damaging it, at least until he’d distracted her, he didn’t think she was consciously covering him with fire.

So this was the power of a Fire Talent.

Something slammed against his back right before fire shot out from Kiarra, igniting an eight-foot

dancing wall of flame. Kiarra leaned against him for a second before standing on her own without help.

Adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping her conscious.

Jaxton raised his gun and stepped around the skip to look for enemies. The way was clear. Jaxton took

hold of Kiarra’s elbow and guided her toward the left and said, “Head down that street and turn left. If we get separated, I’ll meet you at the second safe house.” Kiarra’s wall began to flicker. He gave Kiarra a push.

“Now go.”

She hesitated a second, but for once didn’t argue. The wall of fire started to die down, and was now

only a foot or two high. One of the men near the van was staring straight at him.

Fuck.
Now he needed to distract them long enough to let Kiarra get away. He knew Edinburgh well enough that he could find an alternative route to the safe house.

Jaxton headed right, in the opposite direction of Kiarra, and fired off a shot to ensure that the people in the van would follow him. Careful to choose the path with the most obstacles to act as cover, Jaxton picked his way to the street on the far side. A quick check over his shoulder and he saw that the three people from the van were following him with their guns drawn.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Gio studied Millie’s face, relaxed in unconsciousness, and noted the bruise on her cheek and the cut on

her swollen bottom lip. By the time Gio had arrived, the interrogation had been over. The specialist,

Ramirez, had extracted little from the woman, but had assured Gio that the first session was usually the least productive. He’d be back in a day to try again.

Something had to be done. Gio couldn’t stomach the thought of Ramirez hurting the young woman

again. Her records showed nothing illegal, or even dangerous, about her. She just happened to be related to the wrong person. There was nothing to justify this kind of treatment.

That put Gio in a conundrum, because he couldn’t give his father cause to dismiss him, yet he wanted to

help this innocent woman. In order to do that, he was going to have to find a way to fool everyone.

He turned, headed out into the hallway, and stopped in front of the nearest com unit. He pushed the

button and a male voice answered, “
Yes?
”

Gio leaned in to the speaker and said, “No one is to enter Room 5 without my permission.”

“
Yes, sir.
”

“Get word to Ramirez that I plan to take over the next round of interrogation with the prisoner. I’ll give him the details later. Relay all communications to my office.”

“
Is that all, sir?
”

“Yes.” Gio released the com unit’s button and walked to his office. Not only did he have to think of

how to appear like he was interrogating the woman without hurting her, but he also needed a plan to get her out of the building and stash her somewhere until it was safe to let her go free. If he could clear those hurdles, he had someone he’d met at university who owed him a favor and would keep watch over Millie

Ward until she understood the necessity of living under a new identity. Even if it took some convincing, a few verbal threats were better than torture any day of the week.

Then there was the problem of Kiarra. If he wanted to continue his research on the pediatrics facilities and the experiments being conducted inside the AMT compounds, as well as keep his access to the AMT

database, he needed to please his father. James Sinclair wouldn’t tolerate failure.

It was a good thing Gio enjoyed a challenge, because scheming all of that wasn’t going to be easy.

Something was wrong.

Kiarra paced the room and resisted looking out the window for the fifteenth time. She’d made it to the

safe house nearly an hour ago, but Jaxton had yet to arrive.

Leaving him behind had been one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do. She knew her fire had

started to dissipate the instant she ran, leaving Jaxton with nothing but the weapons strapped over his chest to defend himself. She’d seen Jaxton in action before and knew he wouldn’t give up easily, but he’d still been outnumbered. That may not have been a problem, but Kiarra had a feeling that the three people near

the van had also been carrying tranquilizer guns. All they needed to do was injure or stun Jaxton and fill him full of drugs, and he’d be done for.

But even if she knew where to find him, she could barely stand on her own two feet. The adrenaline

that had kept her going was slowly fading and exhaustion was setting in. She and Jaxton hadn’t spent much time sleeping before the visitors had arrived, and creating a wall of fire had sapped the last of her energy.

Right now anyone could attack, and she wouldn’t be able to defend herself.

So much for finally being useful.

She eyed the phone again and wondered if it was safe to use. She trusted Jaxton, but Kiarra had no idea

what waited for her on the other side of the phone number he’d made her memorize. Would they make her

leave him behind? As the minutes ticked by, she was running out of options. The longer she waited, the

more she might be putting Jaxton in danger. Maybe the person on the other end could help. Leery as she

was, it was worth a try.

After dialing the number, the phone rang twice in quick succession between pauses. She was just

wondering if that was a British thing when a woman answered, “Hello.”

The voice was unfamiliar, but she trusted Jaxton enough to answer, “Um, hi. I was told to call this

number if I needed help.”

“A strange American female calling me for help. You must be Kiarra,” the woman said in barely

understandable English. “Whatever has happened, someone is already on the way to help you.”

“H-how did you know I needed help?”

Amusement tinged the woman’s voice. “I have my sources.”

Kiarra didn’t like how vague the woman was being. Jaxton’s safety was too important to her to not

know what was going on. She wanted to know the details, because if it didn’t include helping Jaxton,

Kiarra would find a way to help him on her own.

This was another test for Kiarra, another way to sever ties with her past inside the AMT, another chance to prove how strong she could be. She took a deep breath, imagined she was talking to Jaxton, and said,

“What do you know and what do you plan to do about it?”

The line went silent and Kiarra feared she’d gone too far. If she’d just cost Jaxton the help he needed, she’d never forgive herself. But then the woman chuckled and said, “After all this time, I should’ve known better than to doubt Neena’s words.”

“You know Neena?”

“Aye, better than most.”

She wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. “So, what’s the plan?”

Kiarra swore she heard a buzzing sound on the other end of the line before the woman said, “Someone

should knock on your door in a few minutes and that person will give you the details.”

“But—”

“Sorry, darlin’, that’s all I can tell you for now. Gotta jet.”

The line went dead and Kiarra stared at the phone. She was starting to hate the word “wait” with a

passion.