6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Tia woke up screaming. The memory of being surrounded by fire was so prevalent that she could feel the flames licking at her flesh. When her eyes opened and she looked down at her body, fire still surrounded her, but it wasn’t burning her.

It didn’t matter; she kept screaming. Tieran pulled her into his powerful arms, hugging her tightly as she pressed herself against him. She could feel his heartbeat against her chest and his warm breath against her forehead as her head lay on his shoulder, resting against his neck.

“My mother, the fire queen,” he whispered. “She’s been gone for so long; I miss her.” Tia couldn’t imagine what she would do when her mother was no longer here.

It was a given. Humans died one day. God, just the thought broke her heart.

“Your mother,” she said softly, unable to deal with the pain that she could feel swamping his body.

“My mother was called the fire queen, and what is surrounding you right now is her fire. It is slowly dissolving in you and soon you will become the next fire queen.”

Right, that was one more revelation for which she wasn’t ready.

“Your mother wasn’t a vampire?” Fire queen and vampire didn’t seem to go together in her mind.

“No, witchling, she wasn’t. She was a fire witch, which you are going to be too. Well, you’re going to be a fire witchling.” He placed a kiss on her forehead and rubbed her back, listening to her breathing. “What scared you that you woke up screaming and how did you receive my mother’s fire?” The feeling of her in his arms made him want to growl. He refused to let her go.

“We have to get up.” She started pulling at him. “We can’t stay here. Everything, everyone, they’re about to die. They’re about to die!” She lost it thinking of everyone lifeless.

“Calm down, witchling, and tell me what happened.” She took deep breaths until she was finally breathing in sync with Tieran.

“I met this being, neither male nor female. They were an extremely beautiful being who called themselves Mael, but that’s what they wanted to be called today. Tomorrow, they might be somebody or something else.”

“My father spoke of them fondly, but I never had the chance to meet them.” Tia could feel Tieran’s mouth twitch in a smile as he talked about them.

“I’m fairly sure I met your dad too, although he didn’t give me a name. He looked like you, just bulkier.”

“That sounds like my dad.” It didn’t surprise him that his dad found a way to escape the dying world. Now, if only he and his people could do the same. “In features we look a lot alike, but in body I take after my mother.”

“The fire queen,” she said, and he just nodded his head, looking at her. They said there will never be another Hallo; that this is the last one.”

She gulped and rubbed her eyes. Talking of wide scale destruction made her feel sick. “When the world that you now inhabit is destroyed, this world will be destroyed too. Because, as you’ve already proved, you’re in sync with it.” Tieran threw back his head and laughed.

“I bet those necrotechs had no idea that when they destroyed their world and took over ours, that when their world died, everything would die. How long do we have, Witchling, before the whole thing goes kaboom?”

“Are you crazy, Tieran? We need to stop this together somehow, some way. We must find a way to save this world.”

“Why, Witchling? Your people have condemned my people to death. Why shouldn’t I condemn them to that same death?”

“You don’t get it.” She pulled away from him, wrapping her arms around herself. “If you die, we die,” she shouted. “But it doesn’t end there. Because if we die, you die.” She started rocking and thinking fast. “Nobody lives without the other. Either we all live, or we all die. Is that clear enough for you?”

“To save my people, I must save yours?”

“Hell to the yes, that’s what I’m talking about. It’s either all or none. So, which will it be?”

Tieran slid out of bed, and Tia couldn’t stop looking at his naked body. It wasn't like they had time to do anything. The rest of this night had to be about saving both of their people. But damn, if only she had the time.

“Are you with me, or are you against me?” She held her breath because it was a... shaking her head she wasn’t sure what to say. She knew it was a real possibility that he might decide to let it all burn. And she couldn’t blame him. In his position, she might do the same thing.

“You deserve to live, witchling. And the female who gave you birth. But that’s it. The rest of them, the necrotechs, the ignorant people who stole our world and condemned us for becoming the cursed people we are. They don’t deserve to live.” He took several deep breaths, calming himself down.

“But my people deserve to live. They didn’t do anything wrong. They didn’t go looking for trouble. It came for them, as it so often does. So yes, I’m with you, but do you understand what that means?” He tilted his head to look at her.

Tia took in a deep breath. His navy-blue eyes were shooting darts, but not at her, at the people he considered to be enemies.

“I know what it means. We shall share this world together.”

“It sounds nice when you say it, but that’s not what it really means. It means that this is our world. This world responds to us. And yes, we will allow the humans to stay because unlike them, we will not condemn them to death. But we will not be slaves on our own world.”

Tia felt the butterflies in her stomach grow teeth and start gnawing at her insides. She knew her people well enough to know that they thought they deserved this world.

“We will not allow ourselves to be condemned or walked upon. Just because we don’t look like you, the precious few, does not mean we will allow ourselves to be ostracized. Can you handle that, witchling?”

“I’m not the one you need to worry about. It’s the rest.” She tried to protest.

“No,” he cut her off. “You’re the only one I’m worried about.” He flashed her a dark look that made her thighs squeeze close. “So again, I ask, can you handle that, witchling?”

Tia almost hit the floor and not the chair by her closet when she realized what he was asking her. She was making the decision right now for millions, maybe billions, of people who inhabited Earth. They would live or die based on what she said she could handle.

That didn’t seem fair, but she didn’t think her vampire cared one bit about what was fair. How could she blame him for not caring about what the others would feel? She was the only one who mattered to him. And to a degree, she loved that simple fact.

“Yes, I understand. And yes, I agree. And you’re right. You’re not the interlopers here. We are. And to try to treat you as anything else except a native who deserves to be on this planet, in this world, would be a crime.”

“Your people are capable of many crimes, but that is not what we’re going to focus on right now. We’re going to save this world and then, well, let the fight begin.”

Tia stood on shaky legs and put on her underclothes and then a pair of jeans with a long-sleeved T-shirt and a jacket.

Tieran dressed in what he was wearing when he came in. Once they had their shoes on, they walked to the front door. Standing on her porch was a werewolf with red, crazed eyes.

She took several steps back until she was standing behind Tieran. Tia figured this werewolf was one of his, so hopefully he could do whatever it took to talk reason to him. The werewolf growled and scented the air.

He took a step back and then came forward, scented the air again.

Tieran's body expanded and grew taller, making Tia tremble at the sight. He was becoming the monster of her nightmares right before her eyes.

The werewolf attacked, and Tieran met him. His teeth elongated and his nails were sharp and black.

He was frightening, although she knew he would never hurt her, but he could have killed so many people at that moment. The fight moved from her front porch to the sidewalk in front. The werewolf looked for Tieran’s throat.

Tieran ducked and flung him over his shoulder. The werewolf stood and came at him again. Tieran caught him around the waist and flung him as far as he could.

The werewolf looked up, shaking his head, then growled. His eyes got redder. Tia knew she had to do something.

Tieran was ducking, moving, and avoiding all the fatal blows his opponent tried to land while simply tossing the werewolf away from him. But that wolf wasn’t going to give up because there was no sanity or reasoning in his eyes.

“Stop,” Tia screamed, both hands going in front of her.

Both males turned to look at her as fire came from her right hand. It covered the wolf, making him scream, but she didn’t smell burned hair or flesh, and he didn’t look like he was burning, but he was in pain. The fire made its way into him. Finally, he dropped to the ground, his hand coming up to his head, his eyes looking up.

They were brown and clear.

“What did you do?” The werewolf asked Tia, accusing her, and then he looked up and he saw Tieran. “My king.” He prostrated himself on the ground in front of him. “What was I doing? Kill me now, my king. Kill me, please.”

“I refused to kill you when you were crazed. Why would I do it now that you are sane?”

The wolf looked at Tia again and scented the air. “My queen.”

Tieran turned and stretched his hands out towards his mate “This is my queen, Tia.” She took his hand and stepped beside him.

“We are people once more,” the wolf cried.

“We have always been people, simply a little broken for a while,” Tieran told him. “Brice, meet your queen.”

“Hello, your majesty.”

“Hi Brice, drop the ‘your majesty’ and let’s try to save our people. By the way, you will stay with us,” Tia said. “We are going to find a way to right the wrong that happened to you and your people.”

Tia thought the best place to start was at home. Just thinking of it had butterflies storming in her stomach, wanting to get out. She needed to talk to her mother, and taking a vampire and a shifter werewolf with her wasn’t exactly the thing she wanted to do.

She couldn’t imagine her mother’s expression when she turned up outside of her door. Then again, if she was a witchling the way Tieran kept calling her and then the being and his father also called her witchling, that meant her mother had some explaining to do.

Was that the reason she never wanted anyone to know what Tia was capable of? And did that mean that her mother was a witch or her absent father? Yep, she was going to see Mother dearest.

“I think the best thing to do is to go see my mother because it seems like everything started there.” She cringed and waited for them to say no or to come up with a more appropriate plan.

“I agree, Tieran said. “Going to your mother’s house seems like the perfect place to start.” Tia Nodded and gulped, hoping that her mother would have some information for them.

She also couldn’t help wondering if her mother knew about all of this. Why would she leave Tia alone by herself on Halloween?

“What time are you pulled back across the veil?” Tia asked.

The wolf shifter answered. “Three a.m. your time is midnight our time.” She nodded, taking Tieran’s hand, and leading him and the wolf down the street.

That meant for them, All Saints Day started at midnight or three a.m. their time. So that was the goal to make sure that when three a.m. rolled in, All Saints Day, all the monsters were still on this side of the veil. They hurried down the street, hearing the growls and the screams of both monsters and humans and knowing there was nothing they could do about it, unless they broke this curse.

When her mother’s house came into view, she walked even faster, knocking on the door, desperately wanting her mother to answer it. When the door swung open, it wasn’t her mother there. Tia’s mouth opened in shock.

Tieran then growled, “What the hell?”