Raised in Fire (Fire and Ice Trilogy 2)

“I probably shouldn’t—you’re right. But they need help. Plus, I’ve been extremely bored since quitting MLE.”

“That was yesterday morning,” Callie exclaimed.

“But I haven’t been working for two days. A very boring two days.”

“You quit MLE?” Dizzy asked, following behind us.

“I told you that,” Callie said.

“I was supposed to get fired, but Darius stuck his big nose in. So I quit.” I opened the door and gestured them out.

“That was wise. You don’t need that vampire infiltrating your life.” Callie sniffed. “He’s much too close as it is. Soon you’ll start depending on him, and that is a very dangerous trap to fall into. You remember what happened with me and my vampire admirer?”

Did I ever. She’d killed him.

“Darius wouldn’t be so easy to kill, hon,” Dizzy said, exiting my house.

“I’m older now. Wiser. I have more experience. I could get it done.” Callie nodded knowingly.

“I could kill him, but then I’d have to deal with hiding his body, and yada yada yada.” I locked the door. “Hey, do you guys want to help me booby-trap my house?”

“Oh now, that would be fun.” Dizzy nodded. “Who are we trying to maim?”

“Darius has people clean my house and stock my fridge and stuff. I told him to stop, but…”

“Here, we can take our car.” Callie motioned me toward her “old” Merc, as she called it. It was not old by any means. The shiny Mercedes looked like it had just rolled off the lot, and could move fast enough to melt the passenger’s face off.

“I have transportation coming,” I said, checking my phone. “Any minute.”

“Fine.” Callie looked around. “This is not a great place to leave the car, though. We’ll come back to it on blocks.”

“Why would you— No.” I cut my hand through the air. “You’re not coming with me. It’s too dangerous.”

“At least she admitted it’s dangerous,” Callie said. “That’s a start.”

Chapter Eleven

“Of course we are coming.” Dizzy rolled his eyes. “There is no way you can battle a bunch of mages and a higher-powered demon on your own. Plus, this is great timing. We’ve been in contact with that little mage from the mage battle a while ago, Penny. Remember her? She lives near Seattle. We were planning a trip out there anyway. We’ll just get to it sooner than expected. Win-win.”

I ignored his travel plans for a moment. “A bunch of mages? I thought you said it was just one?” I noticed the black Town Car turn the corner. A surge of adrenaline dumped into my body. It was still light out, but my gut reaction was that it had to be Darius. That was the last thing I needed right now. Luckily, as it drew closer, I saw a normal human driver behind the wheel.

“I think this is headed by one mage,” Callie said, “but he, or she, will have followers. Dizzy and I know that from experience. Those with lesser power always flock around stronger mages. I have no idea how many there are, though.”

The driver parked and stepped out, straight-backed and professional. Moss could learn a thing or two—not that he’d lower himself to be polite to me.

“Can you please pop the trunk?” I asked, stepping off my porch. I made a circle in the air with my finger.

“I can take that for you, miss,” the driver said, coming around the car with an outstretched hand.

“Trust me, just pop the trunk. It’s heavy.” I did the finger circle again.

“If you wish.” The man did as instructed, and stood by while I lowered the bag into the trunk.

“I’ll just follow along behind, shall I?” Dizzy asked. “You ride with her, hon, so she can’t ditch us, and get the plane tickets on the way.”

“It’ll probably be sold out so close to the flight.” I waved Callie away. “Seriously, it’ll be fine. I don’t need help. And anyway, they’re paying me.”

“I find it interesting that you won’t be talked out of going, but you assume we will.” Callie pushed me toward the car. “Get in, you’re wasting time. Besides, I’ve never been to Seattle. I hear it’s nice this time of year.”

“Actually, let’s stop by our house.” Dizzy pointed at my face. “It’s only a matter of time before you burn off your eyebrows again.”

He had a point.

“Dang it. Fine. But you’ll have to take a back seat if there’s any danger.”

Callie snorted and pushed me again, bustling me into the car without a word. The woman had skills. She turned to tell Dizzy to hurry up, and I saw the word Bounce written across the butt of her velvet orange sweats.

“It’s just not right to put those sayings on girls’ butts,” I said, wisely not attaching an age to that pronouncement.

“Why? I got bounce yet.” Thankfully, Callie didn’t prove it.

After stopping at their house, dropping off their car, and getting more supplies, Callie, Dizzy and I sat in the back of the Town Car as Callie scowled down at her phone.

“I don’t see any flights going to Seattle at this time of day. Are you sure it’s not an a.m. flight?” she asked me.

“Oh. Uh…” I tapped into the email and handed my phone off.

She squinted down at the screen before shaking her head and handing it back. “That’s too small. Make it bigger.”

“Do you not know how to work a cell phone?” I did as instructed and handed it back.

“I don’t want to mess with your phone. Some people have issues with that.”

“We both know I’m not one of those people.”

“You never know,” she mumbled. “This isn’t flight information. It says when to be ready, when you’ll get picked up…and then there’s hotel information. Good gracious. Are they paying for that hotel?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I’ve heard of the Edgewater. It’s fancy.”

I peered at the screen. The font was gigantic. “Get some glasses, woman.”

“She thinks they make her look old.” Dizzy glanced over at the phone.

“Well, this makes you look blind.” I pointed at the screen. “It’s probably a sister hotel or something. This is the MLE office. They aren’t splurging. They don’t even have the money to splurge.”

“If you say so.” Callie handed the phone back. “Driver, which airline are you going to?”

“You’ll be going by private jet,” he answered.

“Is this an FBI investigation or something?” Dizzy sounded confused.

I knew how he felt. “Whose jet is it?”

“I wasn’t given the particulars, ma’am,” the driver said. “I was just told when and where to get you, and where to drop you off.”

“You really should question more often,” Callie said in a low voice. “He could be taking you somewhere, right now, to kill you. And you don’t even have your sword on you.”

“I don’t need my sword to use my magic,” I said. “And besides, we’re headed in the right direction for the airport.”

“She’s right, though, Reagan.” Dizzy looked out the window. “You are too trusting.”

“The email came from the captain. I trust him. Clearly he’s got something worked out. This is all on the books.”

“You belong to the magical world.” Callie’s voice was still low—an effort to hide her words from the driver, but it ended up a whisper-shout, still perfectly audible. “People sell out other people all the time. I don’t care who it is—don’t trust anyone.”

“Even you?” I grinned.

“Of course not me. Is this your rebellious stage? Because I’m not liking it.”

“I had that when I was a teen. This is just me taking the piss.”

“That means making fun of you, dear.” Dizzy patted Callie on the thigh.

“I know what it means,” Callie snapped.