Chapter 55

Gunnar and I climbed into our vehicle and drove up the hill in pursuit. Once we were behind them, Gunnar did a handbrake turn and stopped. We slid out, using the vehicle as our shield.

Elsa was carrying both gems in one of their protective metal boxes. Her eyes were a normal colour; she wasn’t possessed any longer and she had put the gems away so maybe we had a slim chance of surviving the encounter.

Her husband and kids hid behind a bush; they were staying out of the coming conflict so at least we didn’t have to worry about accidentally harming civilians.

‘You should have died in the house,’ Elsa said grimly. ‘You’ll wish you had.’ She sent an insanely strong blast of wind towards our vehicle and we scrambled out of the way as it was pushed over. It tumbled down the hill and landed with an audible crunch. First the Nomo’s boat, now the SUV; things were going to heck in a handbasket.

While we were distracted, Elsa covered the remaining distance to Vogler’s house. Unfortunately for her, she’d threatened me enough times and I was now officially grumpy. I used my vampire speed to gain ground on the bitch of a witch. My anger was roused and this time I released my fire with all the strength I could muster when she was in range.

She turned before my fireball hit her and used air magic to create another shield, funnelling the fire either side of her. Thankfully it went into the damp woods where it spluttered and died.

She threw the box down to the ground and the gems tumbled out. I hurled another fireball at her to stop her picking them up. If she took hold of the cursed stones, she’d kill us.

I threw fireball after fireball, keeping her focus on me until Fluffy and Gunnar were close to her. At a signal from Gunnar, Fluffy leapt up, grabbed her wrist between his jaws and hauled her down to the ground. She cried out: he wasn’t being all that gentle with his teeth. I didn’t blame him.

Gunnar grabbed her hands and I threw him the magic-cancelling cuffs. Elsa’s husband had seized some courage and he stood up from behind the bush to point the shotgun at me. Remembering Gunnar’s lessons, I turned and ran as fast as I could to put some distance between us. Birdshot didn’t have great range and I had plenty of speed.

Luckily, Larry was neither in close range nor a good shot. He missed my torso but hit a juicier target and I screeched as the pellets bit into my butt. Son of a bitch! Too bad my fancy vest only covered my vitals. The wounds wouldn’t heal until I’d glugged down some blood. The ride home was going to suck.

I turned and glared at him. Larry had run out of ammo and he was trying to reload with his shaking hands. I closed the distance between us; my fangs were out, and my rage was high. ‘Give me a reason not to bite you,’ I snarled.

‘Please,’ his daughter said, ‘don’t hurt him! He’s trying to protect Mom. He didn’t mean to hurt you.’

‘Yes, he did,’ I snarled back.

Gunnar had raised his service pistol. ‘Drop the shotgun or I’ll drop you.’ His threats sounded way cooler than mine. I needed to work on my threat game.

Since Gunnar’s weapon had a longer range than the shotgun, and since his wife was face down in the mud and his kids were quaking next to him, Larry dropped his weapon and raised his hands. As Gunnar cuffed him, I forced back my fangs. I was itching to bite him. He’d drawn my blood and something hot and heady within me wanted to return the favour. I pushed it down with a real effort and turned my attention to the cursed stones.

They were still loose on the ground, throbbing with a dark light. ‘Free us,’ they whispered together. ‘Let us be free.’

In truth, I felt bad for them – but freeing them wasn’t my call. I grasped the diamond wind stone, intending to put it in the box, but it felt icy in my grip. Its cold was so absolute that I almost dropped it.

‘Don’t do this,’ the stones entreated. ‘Just leave us on the ground if you must, but don’t put us in THERE.’

I swallowed hard because suddenly I wanted to obey them. But the thing was that I really struggled with orders – from anyone. Wanting to obey was such an alien feeling that I knew it wasn’t mine, and that was enough to resist the compulsion.

I placed the wind gem into its box and it fell silent. However, the fire gem ramped up its pleadings. ‘You don’t want to do this, child. I sense the fire within you. Together we could be the greatest fire magus to walk the earth! Your name will be remembered through the ages!’ It’s voice swelled with triumph. ‘Burn those in our way. Let our destiny commence.’

I grasped the gem, intending to tell it that I had no desire to be renowned, but the connection I felt with it was instant and deep. The fire ignited inside my chest and roared forth until I was a living flame, a beacon in the night. I wanted to expand and fill the earth. I raised my hand, baring the gem to the sky, and screamed my flames higher and higher.

A car rumbled up and a man and a woman got out. ‘Bunny!’ The man called my name, but his voice was very far away and it couldn’t touch me. I was a goddess of fire; all would worship me or they would burn.

A dog’s frantic barks caught my attention. I glanced towards the annoying sound and frowned at the beast; it was oddly familiar. A large, bearded man was standing next to the dog; they were cringing away from me, looking scared.

The man who’d arrived in the car ran to me. He had black curly hair and ice-blue eyes; eyes that made me pause for a moment. He took advantage of my hesitation to reach out and touch me. A powerful zing ran through me, momentarily displacing the fire gem’s grip.

I knew these humans, didn’t I? No, they weren’t human – they were supernats and so was I. As I’d done a million times, I turned my attention inwards to search my memories, and in doing so I unknowingly broke the connection between the gem and me. Memories rushed me: Fluffy! Gunnar! Connor!

For a moment I was dazed, but then I remembered who I was and, more importantly, what I was: an officer of the law. That crooning voice inside my head was not my friend.

I looked at my clenched fist that was holding the gem, then with all my might I shoved it into its box. It took every scrap of will I had to shut the lid but, as soon as I did, the voice fell blessedly silent. My fire dropped away and I fell to my knees in the cool mud.

My throat felt like I’d swallowed glass: I must have been screaming the entire time. I was shaking with exhaustion, but even so I could feel rage. The gem had tried to make me burn my friends! Whatever sympathy I’d had for the trapped banshee spirits was gone. I was furious, but for now my rage couldn’t spark a thing. My powers were as depleted as I was.

Liv was watching me, fascinated. ‘What are you?’

‘She’s a vampire,’ Connor snarled. ‘And my mate. She is nothing to you. You hear me, Fox?’

A smile curled her lips. ‘Your mate? Oh, I hear you, Mackenzie. Loud and clear.’ She smirked.

‘Focus on the problem at hand,’ he barked, gesturing to Wintersteen who was still face down in the mud.

Liv looked at the wrecked Nomo’s vehicle. ‘I guess we can transport them in my car,’ she offered begrudgingly.

‘Elsa was under the influence of the stones,’ I said wearily. ‘I don’t know about her husband. The kids are innocent.’

‘I’ll arrange someone to pick them up.’ Liv sounded calm but her eyes still glowed with a covetous light when she looked at me, and I didn’t like it one bit.

The teenagers were watching us from the bush; someone needed to reassure them. I walked carefully towards them, my birdshot arse aching and making me limp. Connor stuck to my side like glue. ‘Okay?’ I asked him.

He smiled tightly. ‘I’ve been better. We’ll talk later.’

We reached the teens. ‘I know this is all very scary, but I think your parents were acting under the influence of the gems. They’ll need some time to be –’ I searched for the right word, ‘de-programmed. Liv Fox has summoned someone that you can stay with until we work out something more permanent. Okay?’

The girl was holding her brother’s hand. She nodded slowly. ‘I know it doesn’t look like it, but I swear my mom is a good person.’

I returned her nod. ‘Hopefully she’ll recover and become the woman she was before.’

‘God, I hope so.’ She gave a sob. ‘She was so fucking scary.’

Both kids started to cry and I wanted to pull them into a hug; I didn’t because I’d been pivotal in arresting their parents and in those circumstances I didn’t imagine hugs would be all that welcome.

The fire engines had arrived at the bottom of the street to tackle the blaze and behind them was another car. It turned up the hill, carefully skirting the trucks as the firemen did their thing, then stopped on the road. I squinted to see if I knew the driver: it was Anissa, a shaman I’d met once before. She got out of the car and beckoned to the kids.

‘Nissa!’ the girl cried. The kids ran to the tired-looking woman who gave them warm smiles.

‘Come on. Let’s get you somewhere comfy. It’s been a long day.’ She wrapped an arm around them and looked back at me. I smiled and waved; she returned the smile and nodded.

Liv had the adult Wintersteens in her car and there wasn’t space for all of us to ride together. Evidently Connor had had the same thought because he pulled out his phone and said, ‘I need a car at Vogler’s address. Bring two bags of blood.’ He hung up.

‘You forget your Ps and Qs?’ I teased.

‘I think Margrave would faint if I said please and thank you to him.’ His smile faded. ‘I would have said please and thank you to Juan,’ he admitted, sadness in his eyes. I touched his arm in sympathy – and that’s when I saw it.

‘Oh my God! What happened?’ The sleeve of his flannel shirt was gone and his arm was red and covered in blisters. He’d been burned – he’d been burned by me. When he’d touched me, when I’d been busy being a goddess of flame…

‘Me,’ I whispered. ‘I happened. You must be in agony! I’m so sorry!’

He shrugged. ‘It’s not so bad. I’ve had far worse. It’s nothing a little blood won’t fix.’

‘I burned you!’ I looked at him with horror. Burning Virginia and Jim haunted me, but this was at another level. I’d hurt Connor.

He fixed me with his blue eyes. ‘You didn’t do it on purpose. You were lost and I knew our bond could bring you back. I knew it would hurt to touch you, Bunny, and I did it anyway. I needed to touch you to call on our bond and shock you out of the trance you were in. I don’t regret it – I’d do it again.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I repeated.

‘Yes,’ he sent me a lopsided smile. ‘So you’ve already said. It’s okay. There’s nothing to be sorry for.’

I suddenly realised that I was still holding the gemstones. Giving them to Liv whilst she had the Wintersteens in her car didn’t seem like a good idea. ‘What do we do with these? I can’t have them! They almost got a hold of me like they did Elsa.’ I thrust the box at Connor.

‘We’ll get them back where they belong – powering the barrier,’ he said grimly.

He was right. Getting the barrier back to full strength was our priority. The only problem was that I was running on empty.