Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters 1)

She stopped a few feet from me, her hands clenched. “Whore,” she spat. Not a good start.

I calmed myself before speaking. “Siobhan. It’s pointless for us to still be fighting each other for a man that doesn’t belong to either one of us. Let’s just leave it at that.” I really was trying to defuse the situation. Honest.

If anything, it worked her up even more. “Don’t you tell me where to leave it, you dumb bitch! I’ll leave you buried in the f**king desert!” I just blinked at her for a minute. She wasn’t alone with that sentiment. Apparently my desert burial was a popular fantasy amongst the druids.

“I’d love to see you try,” I told her softly. I couldn’t help it. Seriously. When someone threatened me, and I was ninety-nine percent sure they couldn’t kill me, I had to call them on it. And I would sincerely love to see her try.

“One of these days I will.” Her voice was a purr. I’d forgotten how much I hated that venomous drawl.

I shrugged. “I’ll be waiting. Has it ever occurred to you that your problems with Dom have nothing to do with me? I left for over seven years, and it looks like all you managed to get out of him were some pity f**ks.” Okay, even I thought that jab was on the bitchy side. But it felt so f**king good to say it.

She was literally quivering in rage. She was showing considerable restraint though, for her. Years ago, whenever we’d had a confrontation, half the room had had to hold her down. “They have everything to do with you. You f**ked with his head. If he had never met you-”

“Um, sorry to correct you, but he’s known you all your life.”

“Luckily I was there to comfort him when you left. You were exactly what I’d always told him you were. Guess whose bed he crawled into to lick his wounds?”

The revelation stung more than a little, but I shrugged, my face serene. “Hmmm, let me think. Probably whoever was clinging closest? I’m assuming that was you? He’ll f**k anything these days, I’ve heard. Seems like he’s getting your kind of comfort from a lot of girls.”

“Even you now. Rumors are you two tore up his office. You think you’re reconciled? He’ll never care about you again. I hope you know that. He’s on to you now. I always told him you were screwing around on him. He denied it, but I knew he always suspect-”

I’m not even completely sure how it happened, but before she finished her sentence, my fist was flying through her face. Not into her face, but right through it, as though I’d been aiming at a spot a foot behind her, and her face just sorta, I don’t know, got in the way? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t gratified to see her fly back twenty feet, slamming into the wall. Though I have to admit, it wasn’t quite as fun as that time I threw her out a window.

She lay there, stunned. Every eye in the room was staring at me in shock. I wasn’t sure whether they were shocked that I’d punched her, or that I’d punched her hard enough to throw her that far. Suddenly every eye was centered behind me, on the open doorway. I didn’t turn. No way was I giving my back to the bitch after what I’d just done.

“I swear you show up just to cause trouble.” I recognized the gravelly voice instantly. Cam strode past me, going to help Siobhan to her feet, I assumed. I assumed wrong. He restrained her arms as soon as he reached her. “This ends now.” His authoritative voice commanded the room.

“You had sex with Dom?!” Christian’s voice whispered loudly behind me.

“Shut up,” I whispered, just as loudly.

“Oh my God! You really did!”

“Shut. Up.”

“You sneaky little tramp.” Christian was laughing at me.

“I’m going to rip your head off!” Siobhan was screaming from across the room. I stuck my tongue out at her. It’s entirely possible that I was actually losing maturity as the years went by. Likely, even.

Suddenly she ripped free of Cam, rushing across the room. I braced for her, but Cam caught her again. Christian grabbed both of my arms from behind, pulling me farther into the room. I struggled against him, though I held back. She’d almost made it to me. I wished she had.

“If you touch her, and Dom finds out about it, he’ll punish you. As unfair as it is, none of us can harm her,” Cam was murmuring softly to Siobhan, but I heard him clearly.

“You all act so scared about that,” Siobhan responded. She sounded more calm than she looked. Then again, she wasn’t talking to me. “I poisoned her once, and he didn’t do a damned thing about it.”

“He never knew about it,” I spoke up. A room full of angry eyes turned to me. I shrugged at them. “I didn’t tell him. Unless someone else did?” I knew no one had.

“I won’t tell you this again,” Siobhan was screeching again, in my direction. “Stay away from him. If you ever touch him again, I’ll f**king kill you!”

I couldn’t help it. I smirked at her. She went crazy for a few minutes, but couldn’t get loose of the growing group of men restraining her. Christian was still the only one restraining me. I knew he was really just trying to help. He knew that if he didn’t restrain me, one of the druids would try, and things would get quickly out of hand, then. I let him get away with it, though I didn’t make it too easy.

Siobhan stilled as two figures filled the doorway. Her tantrums had brought her within arms length of it.

Lynn and Caleb studied the scene in front of them rather indifferently.

“Good,” Cam panted at Lynn when he recognized her. “Go get your sister under control, and tell her to shut her f**king mouth.” I had the urge to tell him I hadn’t even spoken for several minutes, but bit my tongue.

She didn’t obey, but she looked at me, raising a brow in question. She looked remarkably recovered from her drunken ordeal. Caleb had obviously succeeded at sobering her up. I nodded at Siobhan, who was carrying on like a maniac again. “That’s Siobhan,” I told Lynn.

Lynn’s fist met Siobhan’s face before anyone saw it coming. Siobhan finally stopped running her mouth. She was out cold. Adding insult to injury, I swear Lynn muttered, “Cunt,” at her loudly enough for all of the druids to hear. The druids wouldn’t appreciate having the C-bomb dropped on their favorite princess.

Lynn totally ignored all of the shocked looks aimed her way. Even Caleb was looking at her strangely. She just grinned at me across the room. “Man, I’ve been wanting to pop that bitch in the face for years.” Oddly enough, we were the only two in the room that laughed.