Battle With Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

“Would you come on?” I yanked her out of the reach of her drink then relented. “Okay, down that drink, then we’ll go.”

“I don’t want to go home.”

“You don’t have a home. You move around way too much for that. Unless you mean Emery?” I paused. “Do you not want to see Emery? Why? What did he do? I’ll cut a bitch, I don’t care.”

“Leave him alone. He’s fine. I want to keep drinking and chase shifters around with you. I want to get into trouble and do something foolish.”

“No you don’t. You’d just feel bad about it in the morning. Come on.” I dragged her behind me after she finished her second whiskey, a larger-than-normal pour. Penny had this uncanny ability to make people feel sorry for her and want to protect her. Except for me, of course. I preferred just shoving her into danger and seeing what she’d do.

But right now, she needed a gentler touch. Her oldest friend, Veronica, was staying with Callie for the time being. She’d been collateral damage to Penny in the past, and she figured it was best her friend had some firepower around her, just in case. She’d know what to do if anyone did. Besides, Callie and Dizzy, my other dual-mage friends, were a good distraction, if only because they always bickered.

“Come on, we’ll go have Callie make us something to eat.” I tugged Penny out into the coming night.

“Oh good. She has a large store of alcohol.”

I pulled out my phone, sent a text to Darius so he’d know where to meet us, and headed for the car. As I neared it, a strange prickle of awareness danced across my skin. It flared my magic and fanned it higher.

I looked down the street but didn’t see anything except the rolling throng of tourists taking in the new night. I felt it, though, an expectation.

Like something was coming.

Four

“Oh, hello!” Dizzy beamed when he answered the door. He was a guy in his late sixties with a stained blue shirt featuring three rips and one obvious burn mark. His old jeans sagged and collected over his red runners. Gray hair stood up from his head, as though electrically charged, and I could smell the magic coating him. He’d been creating spells.

His gaze fell on Penny, and his expression instantly drooped.

“Oh no, what happened?” He stuck out his arm and turned, shepherding Penny inside.

“She’s sad that she followed my orders and left the elves’ castle with her life,” I said, following them.

I paused in the doorway and turned back. The night paused with me, utter stillness coating the street. Clouds gently drifted across the clear sky, promising a turn of weather to come.

That was what my life felt like right now: the pause before turbulent weather.

A wire crossing the street swayed softly, and a strange feeling came over me. A pulsing almost, deep down in my blood. A likeness, maybe, drawing nearer. Creeping ever closer.

I frowned, confused by that thought, and continued to peer out into the night. The moon shone down on the placid street. The low hum of a car engine reverberated off the houses, someone probably turning onto the street down the way.

“What’s the matter?” Callie stepped out with me, placing her hands on her hips. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing. It’s early for no activity on this street, isn’t it? It seems too quiet.”

Her brows lowered, and she stepped farther onto the porch, looking down the street to the right, then turning and surveying the left. The sound of the car motor increased in volume, coming closer.

Shivers washed over me, but I already knew who was coming. Sure enough, a black Town Car pulled into the driveway, Darius’s surly kinda assistant, Moss, in the driver’s seat. Darius would be in the back. I could feel his proximity through our fully restored bond.

More shivers coated me, though, and since they weren’t delicious Darius-is-close kind of shivers, I looked away from them and shifted my focus to what was going on inside of me, trying to tap into the sensation. I tilted my head, feeling movement of some kind. Not organs or anything, but…

“What is the matter?” Darius’s deep voice washed over me, somewhat soothing the feeling.

“That’s what I asked,” Callie said. “She said it was too quiet. I agree. Something doesn’t feel right.”

I shook my head as Darius’s hand slid down my back. “I don’t know. It’s…” I put my hand to my sternum. “Something is weird.”

“Danger?”

I opened my eyes and took a deep breath, unsettled. Moss stood beside the driver’s-side door, staring at me with a frown.

“You’ve been missing me, haven’t you?” I called to him, waving like a woman with a handkerchief in the fifties. “You’ve missed my sass. I know, I grow on people.”

His frown deepened into a scowl. He lowered into the car. Clearly he wasn’t staying.