Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (10 page)

Christian smiled, his friendly, innocent smile.
 
“Yeah.
 
I’m on your roster.”
 

“We will, of course, be checking you out.
 
Right after we speak to our original targets.”
 
They said the same to Caleb.
 
Lynn claimed to be his girlfriend.
 
They looked skeptical, but didn’t press it.
 
None of them were powerful enough to tell if we were human.
 
Few were, for that matter, if we weren’t actively using some kind of magic.
 
Our kind was the first race, and the hardest to identify.
 

Lynn sent for Solace and Dustin.
 
There was no way to make the druids leave until they had their interviews.
 

The boy and girl walked in, looking guilty as all hell.
 
I made a note to myself to play poker with them sometime.
 

“Are either of you human?” the druid leader asked without preliminary.

They both looked guiltily at Lynn.
 
She gave them an exasperated look.
 
“Just tell the man the truth.”

“No, we’re not human,” Dustin said.

“We’re vampires,” Solace said.

The druids just looked at them like they were crazy.
 
So did I, for that matter.
 
The stupid kids looked like they actually believed it.
 

“Bullshit,” the druid said.

“I-it’s true.
 
Mistress Noir shared blood with us.
 
We both feel different. Stronger,” Solace said in a rush.
 
Shit.
 
That wasn’t good.
 
The druids looked at Lynn, who had claimed to be human.
 
Drinking human blood didn’t give you special powers.
 
Only Other blood had those kind of perks.
 
Lynn was effectively outed.
 

Lynn just stared right back, still looking bored.
 
She was going to try to brazen it out.
 
I recognized the glint in her eye.
 
“They answered your questions.
 
You see that they’re perfectly human.
 
Can they go now?”

“Not quite.
 
Since you’ve shared your blood with them, we’re taking them in.
 
We have specific procedures for such things.
 
You’ll be joining us too, of course.”
 
Well, that decided it.
 
Lynn shot me a quick but unnecessary look.
 
I already saw clearly what needed to be done.

I hit the druid closest to me with a hard tackle.
 
It was the auburn haired, second-in-command.
 
He came up swinging.
 
It was a dog-fight after that.
 
Even the lower ranking druids were tough bastards in a brawl, and this guy wasn’t half-bad.
 
He backhanded me hard, and I was stunned for a minute.
 
A bitch slap.
 
I had a second to hope that no one had seen.
 
I’d never hear the end of
that.
 
The worst part was that I really felt it.
 
With my body’s healing ground to a halt, I was literally crippled.
 
Everything became harder.
 
And more painful.

My heel connected with his chin solidly enough that I heard something important pop.
 
Probably his jaw.
 
Crap
, that had been an accident.
 
I was compensating for my injuries by using more brute force.
 
He was up and rushing at me quickly, ignoring his jacked-up jaw.
 
I ignored it too, focusing on
 
landing a solid blow to the back of his head.
 
My goal was to knock him out quickly, but I seemed to just be pissing him off.
 
I finally settled for choking him out, his hands beating at me the whole time.
 

He suddenly went limp, and I worried for a second that I’d killed him.
 
A quick check showed him still breathing, and I let out a sigh of relief.
 

My guy made three of the four druids down for the count.
 
Christian was still toying with his.
 
It was the leader, obviously the toughest of the bunch, but that wasn’t why Christian was still fighting him.
 
It was completely deliberate on his part.
 
His was simply prolonging his own fun.
 

“Christian, finish it,” Caleb barked at him sharply.
 
Christian complied, knocking the druid out cold with one powerful, perfect kick to the back of the head.
 
He stuck his tongue out at Caleb.
 
Oh yeah, we were a bunch of badasses.
 
Badasses with the maturity of fourteen-year-olds.

We lined the four unconscious druids up next to each other.
 
“Can you do a sweep outside, Christian?
 
Make sure no one heard anything,” I asked.
 
He went without a word.
 
Lynn and I shared a look.
 
I got to work on my part.
 

It was harder than it would have normally been for me to heal each druid, but I worked quickly.
 
Christian would only be outside for a few minutes.

Lynn started working on each druid immediately after I finished.
 
I stood when my part was done.
 
Caleb was watching us strangely.
 
I gave him a questioning look.
 
Finally he asked,
 
“I can tell that you healed them.
 
Lynn is what, wiping their memories?
 
How long will that last?”
 

I shrugged one shoulder.
 
“Impossible to say, exactly.
 
One day, maybe.
 
Three tops.
 
She can’t work them over too hard or they won’t recover.”
 
Christian returned, and I shut my mouth.
 
He didn’t even look at the downed men.
 

“All clear.
 
We ready to roll?” he asked.
 
He had a hyper, after battle look on his face.
 
Fighting made him perky.
 
Go figure.
   

“You’ve got issues,” I told him.
 
I was mostly messing with him.
 
I loved a good fight as much as he did.
 
I just wasn’t all chipper about it.

He smiled happily, not in the least insulted.
 
“I found one of Lynn’s flunkies.
 
They’re getting the goth-tard bus ready to go.”

Lynn nodded.
 
“Good.
 
Let’s get out of here.
 
We’ll leave these guys with the tent.
 
My people should have the rest packed up in a matter of minutes.”

“Think these guys’ll be out long enough for me to grab an elephant ear on the way out?” Christian asked.
 
Caleb gave him a borderline disgusted look.
 
Lynn and I laughed.

As we made our way quickly to the parking lot, I pulled Lynn aside.
 
I held my arm up.
 
It was literally steaming.
 
I was burning up again.
 
She studied me closely, saying, “You ride with Caleb in Christian’s car.
 
You’ll have to take one of my kiddies with you.
 
We have a full house.”
 

“What about Caleb’s car?” I asked her.

“God only knows.
 
He says he doesn’t have a car here.
 
I have no idea how he got here.”

“The bus?” I joked.

“I have a feeling he didn’t take the bus, either.”
 
We shared a long look.
 
We had our reservations about Caleb. He was an ally, had even become a friend, but he was a concern.
 
There was so much we still didn’t know about him, about his abilities and his loyalties.
 
I could well understand his need to keep his own secrets;
 
we did the same rather zealously, but it was still a concern.
 
He had arrived with the first wave of the coming storm…

I ended up sprawled out in the cramped back of Christian’s porsche, with Caleb at the wheel.
 
Luke, the submissive, was riding shotgun.
 
Apparently he’d volunteered to ride with us.
 
I wondered if he’d done it just to get a punishment from his girlfriend, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask.
 
He kept his face in profile to me.
 
He was shooting me worried glances from under his downcast lashes.
 
Such demure looks from such a large man were disconcerting to me.
 
I thought I had adapted well to this century, but perhaps I was a little sexist, after all.

I gasped as a wave of raw, painful heat swept through me.
 
Not good
.
 
I started gasping and shuddering involuntarily.
 
“What’s going on, Jillian?”
 
Caleb’s voice drifted at me as if from a distance.
 
I held on hard to consciousness.
 

“I don’t know, but I think I might be about to ruin Christian’s backseat,” I gasped out.
 

“What can I do?” Caleb asked, always practical.

I could literally smell smoke coming off of my clothes.
 
I tried to answer him.
 
The world went black.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Dangerous Backup

I came to lying on a hard slab of concrete.
 
I didn’t recognize my surroundings, but I knew immediately that I was in a cel.
 
There were no windows, and the lighting was dim, but I could see well enough to know the man looming in the doorway.
 
It was the only way in or out of the small room.

A worried Luke rushed past the still form of Caleb, apparently oblivious of the danger.
 
He knelt by my head, a damp cloth in his hand.
 
He pressed the cloth to my head, a concerned look on his face.
 
Great.
 
My own hunky nursemaid.
     

“Where are we?” I asked Caleb.

“Someplace safe.”
 
He shot Luke a cold look.
 
I saw that there was a fresh bruise on Luke’s cheek.
 
It hadn’t been there before I’d blacked out.
 
If I’d had to guess, I’d say he’d been bitch-slapped.
 
“Luke assures me he’ll reveal it’s location to no one.
 
I’ve assured him that he had better not, or I’ll teach him the true nature of pain.
 
Those little games he plays have done nothing to prepare him for the kinds of tortures I can devise.”

Luke looked suitably scared.
 
He was nodding jerkily.
 
“I swear.”

Caleb’s cold stare turned back to me.
 
His face was it’s usual expressionless mask, but I could feel something warmer under the surface.
 
Anger, maybe.
 
“It’s time for you to give me some answers, Jillian.”

I sat up, fury almost blinding me as I felt the shackles on my wrists and ankles as I moved.
 
The bastard had taken full advantage at my first sign of weakness.
 
I gave Luke a murderous look when he moved to help me.
 
He backed off, head bowed.
 

I schooled my features into passivity, meeting Caleb’s cold gaze with my own.
 
My fury would not help me here.
 
I wanted to rip his head off, but I still needed his backup more, and I couldn’t fathom the extent of his betrayal just yet.
 
“So I’m your prisoner?
 
Care to explain what you’re doing, Caleb?”

 
“What the fuck happened to you in that car?”

I gave him a disgruntled look.
 
“I told you I don’t know what that was about in the car.
 
I’ve been having…episodes.
 
I can’t explain them.”

He set his hands on his hips.
 
No, that was wrong.
 
He had them resting on the hilts of two guns riding his hips.
 
“You’re going to give me answers, Jillian.
 
I’ve been kept in the dark for far too long where you and your sister are concerned.
 
I have a real problem with you knowing more about me than I do about you.”

I curled my lip at him.
 
“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m determined,” he said ominously.
 
Well, that sure sounded like a yes.

I didn’t have to feel down my body to know he’d removed my weapons.
 
You know it’s a bad week when even your backup turns on
 
you.
 

“What are you?” he asked.
 
Well, that was direct.
 

“Do you have another room that Luke could wait in?” I asked pointedly.
 

Caleb shifted, waving Luke out.
 
Luke went, casting me sad, worried glances.
 
I nodded at the door.
 
He closed it softly behind him.

“What are you?
 
Both of you?
 
I know that you have different powers, and I don’t understand it.
 
Some shit is about to go down in this town, and I sure as hell don’t plan to stay in the dark about the people I’m fighting with.”