The Beloved Fire Read online

  “I’m on my way.” What?

  “Ander, no! Listen…” She turned around to realize James was only inches away from her. His stare deep and sexy. He reached out trailing the back of his hand along her arm. Goosebumps covered her flesh and she bit back a moan trying to control herself. How could one simple act make her want to undress so fast? The dominance, lethal danger, and sexiness this man projected could have a crowd of women wet in seconds. Why the hell did he want her? Ander and his anger now completely forgotten.

  “I have to go.” She whispered into the phone before ending the call and taking a step back.

  “Who was that?” His face flashing with annoyance. She scoffed. Where the hell did he get off thinking he could ask that? It was clear that he was pure alpha, but she wasn’t going to let him boss her around, no matter how bad she wanted him.

  “None of your business.” She challenged as he took a step forward keeping up with her slow retreat. Not that she wanted to get away from him, more like jump him where he stood. She licked her lips clutching her phone harder than she needed to. Looking around she could see they were slowly backing away to the point she couldn’t see anyone else. The seclusion filled the air, making lust fill her veins and caused her imagination to flare.

  He growled as his eyes seem to darken again. Actually freaking growled, and damn if it didn’t turn her completely on. She felt a thrill run through her making her breast perk up. She looked down seeing her nipples through the silk that pressed tightly against the fabric begging to be touched. Damn she knew silk would come back to bite her one way or another. He looked down a second later catching what she saw and peered back up through hooded eyes that almost appeared black, grunting in what sounded like frustration. She gasped when she tried to take another step back, only to hit into some type of plant terrace thing and his arms immediately came up caging her in before slamming his body into hers, making them flush.

  Here’s the thing, was he frightening? Yeah. But that shit turned her on something fierce and the idea of hooking up with a stranger, not that she was a slut, only added to the flames. She had played the virgin good girl for too long. She was feeling sexy, wonton and every bit of woman no other man had ever made her feel. She wanted James more than the breath she needed to breathe, the idea of being touched by the powerful male in front of her almost had her begging.

  “What do you want Mikayla?” He leaned his face forward so close all she’d have to do was tip up her chin and they would lock lips.

  His breath was cool and smelled of alcohol mixed with mint. She breathed in his ocean scent, the crazy fragrances wreaking havoc on her nerves and the need to devour his mouth pulsed somewhere deeper than she ever knew existed. How long could she bare this? What did he want?

  Did she care?

  Almost like he could hear her inner conflict, the corner of his mouth came up in a sexy smile and all questions fled. Fuck it. Why deny what they clearly both wanted.

  Just as she tipped her chin up to connect with his soft lips, her eyes fluttering closed, an all too familiar voice broke through.

  “KAYLA!”

  Her eye’s snapped open.

  No. Freaking. Way.

  Ander was here?

  She glanced over seeing Ander walking up angrily pushing party goers out of his way. Her nerves skyrocketed, how in the hell was he here? She just talked to him on the phone. She tried to push James away, but he reached down grabbing her chin lightly bringing her face back to his, while holding her body in place.

  “Ignore him.” James whispered, his lower half rocking into her and she all but cried with the need to take him right there, feeling a trance like state blanket her nerves. She brought her hands up to his face, maybe if Ander saw she was busy he would go away. It was like James had her in a spell, one she couldn’t shake out of. She leaned in to kiss him again, she wanted, needed to taste his lips. All she wanted was to continue what they stared. Her veins thrummed and her body tightened with excitement. Ander completely forgotten.

  For a second anyways.

  “Back the fuck up now.” Ander’s voice was low and dangerous, and right by her ear. She shook out of her bliss dropping her hands from James’ face before pushing him lightly away.

  “What the hell Ander!?” She shouted.

  Ander looked pissed. Well he could just be pissed. She was pissed! Her one night to get laid and yet again, like he had some secret Mikayla is going to get laid bat signal go off, he appears and ruins it.

  Ander just stared James down like he was going to kill him, completely ignoring her pissed off stance and shout.

  Mikayla got in his face, pissed for the interruption. If she wanted to hook up with some random guy, what gave him the right to stop her?

  “Fuck! Why are you here Ander?” She’d never really cussed at her Ander, hell, ever really protested to him interrupting in the past, and maybe it was the alcohol but enough was enough! Damn, when was it okay for her to live her life?

  And how the hell was he here so fast?

  James sighed in frustration running a hand through his hair disrupting his previously perfect gelled back hair, before turning to Ander with a murderous stare. You would think James would be terrified of what stood before him.

  Ander was what she called, Army-Navy-Super-Strong, and he constantly told her not to call him that. So, naturally that’s all she called him when she wanted to be silly. Technically he was a Marine, but whatever. He was 6ft, huge, strong and deadly with a weapon. His beautiful dark chocolate skin wrapped around the biggest muscles known to man and yet she’d never actually seen him work out. Now sneering at James she realized they were the same height and with James just as lethal looking maybe Ander had finally met his match?

  “We’ve been here before old man.” James said with a smirk, sauntering back to sit on the bench they were once at. Wait, what?

  “Ander how the hell did you get here so fast? And do you know him?” She pointed at James, who looked totally unfazed if not a bit annoyed.

  Ander opened his mouth to speak, but not before James blurted out, “Oh yeah we go way back don’t we Army-Navy?”

  Holy shit. That was her name for Ander, how had James known that?

  “Enough James. You’ve already started things in motion that can’t be undone.” Ander took a step towards James lifting his chest. Good lord. Why did men have to be so alpha all the time?

  “Like that little sentence wasn’t cryptic and will have her guessing what it means.” James paused to scoff. “You’re the one putting things into motion.” James said, before draining his glass tossing it on the ground with a shatter as he stood again.

  Well that was rude. She looked around to see if a waiter would appear or anyone to notice the broken glass, but they didn’t. She saved that annoyance for another time, people who littered were the worst. Shifting to the side wondering if this was going to be some stupid male testosterone fueled fight, or maybe just some big joke. Not to mention Ander still hadn’t answered her.

  Ander took a step closer towards Mikayla smiling softly, “Yeah I know him, he’s bad news and not someone you want to hang around.” He paused looking around, “And you were never alone. I tried to give you a little space, but your parents were worried about you coming alone, so I followed. I called because I meant where in the party you were. I was going to leave you be, so I made it sound like I wasn’t here, but then I saw this sleaze on you.” Her mouth dropped open as she stepped away from him.

  Un-freaking-believable.

  “You are a complete asshole Ander! What the hell!? I’m not some child that needs to be babysat!” She poked her finger into his chest driving home how mad she was, it was either that or stomp her foot and she didn’t think her heels would appreciate that. Now getting a good look at Ander, she noticed he had normal clothes on. Jeans and a tight fitted grey shirt with boots. So, he planned to follow her here but didn’t dress the part? That didn’t make sense.

  “I can’t believe you!” S
he turned glancing at James who looked way too amused with her and Anders fight. “And what the hell is so funny? I was actually thinking about sleeping with you, but apparently this is all some joke. Fuck you!” At hearing her confession James dropped his amusement. Next, she looked at Ander, “and fuck you too!”

  “Mikayla stop, calm down.” Ander said reaching for her arm that she shrugged out of. She felt hotter than normal.

  “Listen, let’s just find this guy and leave. You’ve been drinking anyways, how were you planning on driving home?” Ander’s voice was calm and gentle. She watched as he reached up clutching the necklace around his neck distracting her enough for her anger to fade. She had made it for him when they were in the second grade and he never once took it off; well other than when she had to lengthen it in high school. He grabbed at it when he was nervous, she found. It always clenched her heart and sometimes she wondered if he didn’t pull the necklace thing on purpose.

  “Whatever.” Turning away and leaving these two was her best plan yet. After grabbing her clutch, and not uttering a single word to the pair, she stomped off towards a penguin carrying liquid happiness. Stupid Ander and his stupid timing.

  Just as she reached for a flute on the tray, she felt a rumble and watched as the liquid in the flutes sloshed slightly, stopping as soon as it started. What the?

  “Did you feel that?” She asked the orange haired waiter as he now held the platter with both hands. Just as he started to open his mouth a larger rumble, along with more shaking started again and she stumbled back grabbing a side table trying to keep her balance. The waiter was not as lucky as he and flutes crashed to the floor. Glancing back towards where James and Ander had been, she couldn’t see them. The shaking only increased and realization that she was on-top of a damn skyscraper in what was most likely an earthquake took over. But they were in Kansas and they didn’t have earthquakes. Or did they?

  People screamed rushing inside to get down the elevator or stairs, while knocking down the priceless sculptures in their attempt to escape. She knew she needed to follow but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t get up from the last rumble knocking her down; the shoving of people rushing past her didn’t help. She looked around again for Ander, not being able to see him drove her heart further in her throat about being trampled.

  “ANDER!” She shouted out as the crowd thinned and she finally was able to get on her feet as an earth-shattering boom echoed causing her hearing to evaporate temporarily, coming back with a loud pitched whine. The boom was followed by a blast of heat, and the sound of glass like all windows below them shattered, but she couldn’t be sure. The blast threw her down so hard it knocked the air out of her at the same time her head slammed into what felt like concrete. She was sure the building was coming down with how badly it swayed and buckled. When she tried to call for Ander again but no sound came from her mouth, and she could feel a weird numbness start to take over her body.

  She slowly felt her senses dimming and giving out as the chaos continued around her. It almost felt like she was falling. The last thing she saw was James bright green eyes and then she surrendered to darkness.

  Spaced

  Blake

  “What makes you think she’s the one?” Sarah whispered a look of disbelief on her face.

  “Like you really don’t know about The Fated? Don’t be stupid.” Blake said, not even trying to keep his voice quiet.

  He thought back to the last time he saw Mikayla.

  Fuck, she still had the same perfection, even if she did come in here a bloody mess. He had stepped out when they cleaned and redressed her respecting her privacy, even though he wanted to stay. Now that he was back with her after being parted for so long, he didn’t want her out of his sight. The twins took the memory of her trauma from the roof easily enough, if they hadn’t, she’d need some serious therapy.

  When Mikayla first came in being carried by the twins, she was awake and screaming out for Ander and, shockingly James. Blake knew James had been around, he was sure they were all watching her, but it was a shock hearing her cry out for him seeing as she’d only just re-met him that night; or so the twins had said. James probably made some great first impression that would trump Blake. Not that it mattered. He shook his inner thoughts looking up to the one woman who grated his nerves more than his irritating twin.

  “Go get some sleep, I’ll stay by Mikayla and come find you when she wakes.” Sarah said brushing her blonde hair from her shoulders.

  Yeah right, stupid wench would sooner drown Mikayla than help her. He still wasn’t sure why his prince, Anock, tolerated Sarah. She was playing both sides, everyone, including Anock knew it. Sarah was a spy, for The Chosen, James’s side. Reporting their shit back to Anock, while claiming she was a mortal. Yeah, a mortal that doesn’t age and has purple eyes. Anock had told Blake he knew Sarah from before the fall, but Blake had seen her do witchcraft, so she was either a fallen angel or a magical. Whatever she was, Sarah needed to be watched. He hated being anywhere near her, which was probably why his nerves were grated further every time she tried to talk to him.

  Mikayla groaned in her sleep, her face scrunching up like she was in pain or distressed. He watched as her facial expressions relaxed once more as a past memory hit him.

  Mikayla’s lips full, smiling as she looked up to him. The full moon casting a bluish white light across her face. Her hair was a mess. She had licked her bottom lip before stepping back dropping her bra. “Well, are you coming or you gonna stand there all day?” She giggled before turning and walking seductively towards the pond.

  The crunching of metal, or in this case steel broke him from his painful memory and he looked back to realize he had crushed the counter behind him. Why had Walter waited to give him back his memories, only after Blake had made the deal to give up Mikayla? Stupid warlock. He’d had twenty-one years to know he would have to face Mikayla sooner or later, and now he didn’t know how to act. He wasn’t allowed to pursue her, but he didn’t know how he couldn’t. They’d been through so much together.

  Noticing Sarah’s gawk he finally answered her. “No, I’m not leaving her.”

  He walked over leaning against the other non-broken medical counter. There was no way he was letting Mikayla out of his sight after Anock damn near killed her retrieving her from the mortal realm. It took the twins almost 2 hours of the most annoying chanting to heal her. He still didn’t know the full extent of what had happened on that roof and how they managed to capture her. All he knew was that the twins walked in with her, bloody and half dead, praising him for the victory in retrieving her. Which didn’t make sense, since he had no idea they were able to get her until they walked in suddenly.

  “Listen,” she said calmly with a breath to continue.

  “SARAH! NO! Now leave, you’re getting on my nerves!” His eyes tingled deep and he watched her flinch back slightly but could tell from her bitchy expression she wasn’t going to back down. He glanced back seeing Mikayla’s calm demeanor.

  “No.” Sarah said, standing between Mikayla and him. She had been slowly making her way to Mikayla and he tracked her wondering what game she was playing.

  “Your job is only to guard when Anock asks. He hasn’t asked you to be here right now. There are guards outside, so it’s rather pointless for you to be here.” Sarah paused, examining her spiked black nails. “Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind about her already? I thought you weren’t allowed to participate after you took your oath as a guard?” With a look of clear disgust on her face, Sarah reached down flipping a piece of Mikayla’s silk brown hair up into the air watching it fall back down on the pillow. Blake took a step forward clenching his fists as his demon strained to get out. If Sarah noticed his wavering form, she didn’t care and continued on. “She is just a mere, little, insignificant, mortal th-”

  Before she could finish, he rushed forward slamming her hard against the wall, squeezing at the leathering skin of her neck, as he heard her take a wheezing breat
h. “You are mortal remember?! Or did you already forget your game? Don’t speak like this around her, I haven’t had time to explain why she’s here. Which is part of my job. You need to watch your tongue. I don’t want her getting the wrong idea! And the Fated is none of your damn business!” He stared deeply into Sarah’s bright purple eyes watching them grow in terror, when he let his demon out to snarl in her face. After he thought she finally got the hint he released her pushing her hard to the ground.

  Sarah stumbled to her feet, holding her neck and gasping for air as she straightened her dress, all while shooting a bitchy expression his way. He felt a deep ache in his back where his wings strained to be released to slap that expression from her face.

  “She’s sleeping, what’s the big deal?”

  “No! She is not sleeping. I’ve tried to reach her, her mind is blocked, meaning she isn’t asleep. She’s awake. Most likely in shock.”

  “Fine!” Sarah hissed. “But don’t expect me to cover for you when Anock wants to know what the holdup is!” She walked out of the room with the slam of the door. He sighed going back to his spot against the metal counter, just as he relaxed felt Mikayla drift off and knew it would be time to enter her dreams.

  He needed to re-introduce himself but wasn’t sure how to go about it. For the past twenty-one years, him and two other beings had been in a race for her soul. One already got a head start, and the other had gotten her captured. So how would he get his start with her?

  As soon as Mikayla found a table in the far south west corner of the college library she was set. She had coffee in hand, a good book and her I-Pod. Perfect, everything was perfect. All around her was the smell of books and the sound of nothing. Which was exactly why she had ended up here, to escape and have a place to think. After having the worst champagne hang over in the history of hang over’s, she woke up to realize her and her little black Saturn made it back home in one piece. No doubt Ander’s doing. Not that she didn’t appreciate him getting her home. The whole night after him showing up was a blur. Everything except James. He had flooded her every thought. She wondered if it was because she had been ready to give up her virginity to him.