Darkness, Kindled (Fire Spirits 4)

She blinked the fog of lust from her eyes until they were clear.

Realization instantly hit.

“What the freakin’ hell!” she yelled and shoved at his shoulders. Eli barely moved.

Instead his arms tightened around her waist and he grinned. “I’d stop hitting me with your tiny, ineffectual fists.

You’ll wear yourself out.”

“I don’t even know you,” she huffed.

“You can’t just kiss me. We’ve met twice. Twice! And we don’t like each other.

Not to mention that I just got out of something very, very insane and I don’t have time or the emotional patience to deal with whatever the hell you are.”

Laughing roughly, Eli gently eased her back against the car and let her go. “I’ve wanted to kiss that mouth of yours from the moment I saw it. You were an itch and I scratched it.”

Indignation flooded her. “I was a what?”

“An itch,” he repeated but his eyebrows came together as he ran a hand through his hair. “Unfortunately, scratching it has only made me itchier.”

“Would you stop comparing me to an itch?

If this is McEttrick smooth-talking, it’s a wonder you ever get laid, buddy.”

His lips twitched. “You’re making it worse.”

“What worse?” Her hands flew to her hips.

“The itch.” Grinning wickedly, Eli pulled open his driver’s side door. Taking the hint, a discombobulated Fallon stumbled away from the car, staring at him as he got inside. As he reached for the door to close it, his blue eyes were hot with the heat between them. “I think we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, Fallon Roe. You can count on that.”

Before she could respond to his sensual promise, Eli slammed the door, started the engine, and swung out of the parking lot, leaving Fallon wondering what the hell had just happened.

“I didn’t know the Roe Guild Welcome Wagon was so thorough!”

Blanching, Fallon turned and saw her uncle Gerard standing with a couple of the younger Guild guys. They grinned at her mischievously.

They’d caught the show.

Fallon groaned and threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know what the hell just happened!”

Gerard chuckled and winked at her. “I think you just met your match.”

At her uncle’s words, Fallon swallowed hard, feeling her heart pounding against her ribs. Butterflies rioted in her stomach and she turned, narrow-eyed to gaze down the street after Eli. As she did this, the skin on her neck prickled, and Fallon knew … something monumental had just happened.

Her life was never going to be the same again.

“The Invisible Save”

Smokeless Fire, Chapter 3—Jai’s Perspective

The buzz of teenage conversation was giving Jai a headache. He was pretty sure from the tightening of his client’s features that it was giving her a headache too.

I am on the assignment of a lifetime. It will all be worth it.

Luca, Jai’s father, and Jai’s spawn-of-Satan half-brothers wouldn’t be able to touch him once he successfully completed this assignment. So far it had been easy—a little like being trapped in a teenage soap opera from hell—but other than irritating, it was easy.

Yeah, Jai found himself surprised by the girl he was to guard. Ari Johnson. An eighteen-year-old girl from Sandford Ridge, Ohio. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t … Ari.

It wasn’t how gorgeous she was that had taken him aback—although he hadn’t been expecting it—it was how lonely she was for an attractive, intelligent eighteen-year-old. Pop culture told him that she should be admired and loved and surrounded by people twenty-four-seven.

Instead, she was quite possibly the loneliest person he’d ever “met.”

As lonely as he was.

He felt a kinship with her because of that.

Her dad wasn’t home and from what he could tell—which wasn’t a lot since a damn Ifrit Jinn was keeping him out of the house—Derek Johnson rarely checked in with her. Ari was left to the care of the Ifrit, who Ari presumed was a poltergeist. The fact that she didn’t even flinch at having a poltergeist intrigued him more than a little.

Jai hadn’t sensed anything harmful from the Ifrit, yet he thought it best to check in with The Red King. His Highness didn’t seem too perturbed by the Ifrit’s presence, so Jai was going to let it settle until he could get into the house. He wasn’t keen on someone else trying to guard his client, but there was little he could do against her surprising strength unless The Red King gave him the all clear to fight.

Jai leaned back against the classroom wall and indulged in a heavy sigh. He was, of course, using the Cloak to hide himself from Ari as he watched over her. He’d walked with her to her friend Charlie’s house and then walked them to school, vigilant for any signs of otherworldly danger. Ari had been fine. The only danger she was in was the danger of getting her heart broken by Charlie Creagh. Personally, Jai didn’t understand the emo, moping, drug-abusing thing Charlie had going on when he had a gorgeous, sweet girl like Ari hanging around. He knew Charlie’s past and he felt bad for the kid, but when shit happened, you fought through it. You let the wounds heal and took strength from the scars. You didn’t keep picking at them until they were infected.

After that encounter, Jai had walked a forlorn Ari to school and strolled around the perimeter, making sure he couldn’t feel anything out of the ordinary in the air. When he’d done that, he’d found her in art history, a class where the kids were excited about their futures.

“I can’t wait to get to Brown,” some girl announced cheerily to Ari as she worked diligently on a puzzle of the Mona Lisa. It was also clear from where Jai was standing that Ari didn’t want to hear it. In fact, he’d noticed as everyone talked about their future lives, Ari curled into herself and blocked them out, suggesting to him she was having a crisis about her own prospects.

Yeah … if only she knew what was coming.

Ari Johnson was about to find out her father was a Jinn king—the White King had made some enemies apparently, enemies who might discover who Ari was and try to use her against him. She was about to become aware of Jai’s twenty-four-seven guard, and she was going to be subjected to Jai’s kiss so he could trace her if anyone did try to take her.

Jai’s eyes flickered to the girl’s lush mouth as she winced at whatever her friend was saying. A sti

rring of heat took Jai by surprise. It wouldn’t be a hardship to kiss that mouth.

“I bet the babes are smokin’ at USC,” some kid with more muscle than brains said behind Ari, grinning like he was the coolest person ever. “I heard they wear bikini tops to class.” Jai rolled his eyes.

Seriously? He was stuck in hell. Just about to conjure a book so he could drown out their voices, the sound of Ari’s name drew his gaze back to her.

The girl was asking Ari something. He frowned, taking a step toward her. Ari had grown pale, her eyes looking a little wild. The girl didn’t seem to notice, bombarding Ari with questions about college. With an abruptness that surprised a few of her classmates, Ari scraped her chair back and stood.

“You okay?” the girl asked.

Ari nodded but Jai’s eyes narrowed on her trembling hands. “Just need the bathroom.”

What was going on with this kid?

he thought, following her into the hall. He watched her lean against the wall, drinking in air like it was water and she was parched. Was she having a panic attack?

He frowned. Not good.

When she took off toward the school’s front entrance, he ran slowly behind her, wondering how she really was going to react to finding out the truth about her heritage, especially when the mere mention of college frazzled her so greatly. She stopped outside the doorway, making a startled sound. Jai sidled up beside her to follow her gaze and discovered the reason behind her abrupt halt.

It was the guy. The Charlie kid. And he was with another girl.

Jai sighed and shot a look at Ari. The sun fell across her soft, tan skin, catching her strange eyes in a myriad of metallic lights. He shook his head. Charlie Creagh was an idiot.

At her pained noise, Jai glanced back to see Charlie making out with the girl.

Well, shit.

Ari looked crestfallen.

A pang of something radiated in his chest for her and Jai silently cursed. He didn’t want to feel sorry for her. He didn’t feel anything. The girl was a mess. Getting involved in her personal life was just asking to turn this assignment into a disaster.