Page 3 of Bound By Fire and Magic
2
Elle Becker hated being here in the abandoned factory, but this was her only real lead to her father Huff’s whereabouts.
“Daddy, where are you?” she called out to the darkness. “It’s me, Elle.”
His Range Rover was parked in the garage around the back, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. This was too much like the days after her mother had gone missing, the searching and questions, scared that she’d never see her again.
“And I didn’t.” The words poured out on a wave of grief.
Her mother would never have abandoned her daughter, which the authorities had speculated when they found no evidence, not even her car, to substantiate their initial suspicions of foul play. Of course, it was easier for them to go on that assumption: case closed.
Elle focused on the dark building and thoughts of her father. Something about the place felt eerie and…wrong. She rubbed her arms, trying to dispel the way the sensation clung to her.
Could it be Elementals? Some of them were nasty, but she’d seen no trace of them. Disturbingly, that left the possibility of a demon.
“Show yourself,” she commanded.
Not that demons were obedient, but they usually were more than happy to show their ugly faces just to see the fear and/or disgust on someone’s face. But nothing stirred.
A white orb hovered inches above her palm, sending light where she needed it. Off to the side, she spotted a book on the floor. The cover of a journal. Her heart jumped. With the pink background and yellow flowers, this had to be her mother’s. She opened it, eager to see what was written inside. Damn. The pages were torn out. Elle held the cover to her chest and closed her eyes, using her magick to pull any images or emotions associated with the book. All she got was some residual anger. Her mother’s? Her father’s?
She continued searching the vast factory space. In the far corner the light revealed something that stole her breath away: a large charcoal circle drawn on the concrete floor, a pile of ashes in the center. The circle and symbols inside it had been drawn with the ash. She dipped her fingers into the dark, soft residue and closed her eyes, summoning images of how it had come to be there. Just like the last time she’d tried to read ashes, she got nada.
She held her sooty fingers to her nose but still couldn’t get a handle on the odd tang beneath the burnt wood scent. The symbols and circle…she was afraid her father had been conjuring. But for what purpose?
His mindset the last few weeks was every bit as hard to decipher. In the six months since her mother’s disappearance, he had moved through life in a fugue state. But lately he’d been acting like a man on a mission, determination lending a dark gleam to his eyes. What that determination meant scared her. She’d followed him last week, surprised to end up here. She’d watched him enter through the back door, saw a light moving through some of the windows. It had taken tremendous self-control not to confront him, knowing he’d be angry and shut her out.
She had to take some of this ash to Nana Roz. Elle went to her truck, parked beside her father’s car, and looked for a container. The empty Oreo cookie package would work. She grabbed her cell phone and returned to the circle, where she took some pictures. As she scooped the ash into the bag, something buried in it caught her eye.
She studied the triangular piece of paper. Ah, the corner of a burned photograph. Clearly it had something to do with this circle. Magick crackled through her as she used her ability to “see” what had been there. But her magick hit a wall. Why couldn’t she read anything here? She stared at the fragment, using mere logic to figure out whose picture her father would burn. Had he been trying to reach her mother on the other side? That kind of conjuring was dangerous, unpredictable, and a bad idea. She’d certainly been warned about that time and again. You never knew what other entities might come in through the opening.
A sound outside sent her heart leaping, and she jammed the Oreo bag into her pocket. If that was her father, she wanted to see what he was up to before revealing her presence. Elle ran up the metal stairs that led to the administration area and doused the orb as she entered the first office. She walked to the two-way glass as the back door wrenched open. A man stepped inside and pulled it closed. In that flash of sunlight, he looked like…
No. It couldn’t be Kirin.
She pressed her hand over her chest, still fluttering from the intruder and more so from that last thought. The man walked through a patch of shadow and stepped into a square of sunlight. Her body tightened all the way down to her toes. She knew that man, his confident gait, the strong set of his shoulders, and…what was he doing? Stripping, that’s what.
Ummm…what the heck?
Kirin tore off his shirt and shucked out of his pants as though they were on fire. The sunlight cast the contours of a magnificent physique in shadow and limned his dark blond hair in a golden aura.
He threw his head back and morphed, stretching, growing as he became Dragon. Also magnificent—the beast was larger than a horse, with blood-red and white shimmering scales.
The moment the metamorphosis was complete, he took off with the muscular grace of a mountain lion, all pent-up energy finally released. More feline than lizard-like despite the scales, he leaped from one assembly table to another with his tail whipping behind him. It knocked a metal can off a table, making a racket as it hit the floor. She watched him race into and out of shafts of late afternoon light, rolling and bounding to his feet again.
Breathe.
Ah, that’s why her chest hurt. Even after several breaths, her heart still felt constricted. She didn’t even realize she’d pressed her hand against the glass, her breath fogging a circle. He wouldn’t see her up here, but his Dragon senses would eventually pick up her presence. She should sneak out the fire exit before that happened.
Wait a damned minute. Why should she slip away in secret? He was the trespasser. She would march down there and demand he leave.
When she could get her feet to move, or her eyes to shift away from him, that was.
Deuces generally didn’t see Dragons unless they were locked in battle with one. Kirin had Catalyzed for her after they’d been dating for four months. It was the first time she’d ever seen one, and he’d let her touch the spikes along his back and the leathery “feathers” that flared along his elegant head. He was all dangerous beauty, though she knew he’d never hurt her.
His heated breath had washed down the side of her neck, making her whole body tingle. Maybe there was a speck of Dragon DNA buried deep in her cells. After all, her mother was Dragon, even if Elle had taken after the Deuce side. Something had stirred inside her when running her hands across the muscled side of the creature who could tear open her throat. He’d chuffed like a tiger and nuzzled her neck, his scales a cool contrast to his breath. He’d been vibrating, and then she’d felt human hands sliding into her hair, thumbs bracing her jaw, human lips kissing her. He’d felt so good, his mouth moving against hers.
Now her body was alight with fire, heating a libido that had been locked up and put on a shelf in the freezer. With the freezer door bolted shut.
