Breathing Fire

Under my very specialized training regime, Sharon had lost over two hundred and fifty pounds and was approaching the best shape of her life.

I was only five minutes late to her house, but no one answered my first couple of rings. I was considering leaving, assuming she’d forgotten the appointment, when a harried looking Sharon answered the door. She didn’t look at me once as she ushered me in. I thought that was a little odd, but I followed her to her home gym.

I set her to work warming up, and she followed my orders. She still hadn’t said a word. “Everything all right?” I finally asked her. She was stretching, and I automatically corrected her posture.

She hunched her shoulders in a shrug. “Yeah, just had a bad morning.”

As the workout progressed, her mood didn’t change. She seemed preoccupied, almost frightened. The warning signs were all there, but I didn’t see the trap I’d sprung until four druids walked through the door.

“Jillian.” Collin inclined his head to me as he entered the room. Three druids I didn’t know flanked him. “I had a hunch it would be you.” Collin was my infamous Ex’s cousin, and one of his closest friends. He was also one of the few druids I had been on friendlier terms with before the big falling out. He had the raven black hair and striking blue eyes that were prominent in his family. He also had the classically handsome, aristocratic features that were common to his bloodline. And he was tall, as most druids were, towering well over six feet. His build, however, was unusual in that he was almost too slender, a trait that the other men in his family did not share. His brother, Cam, was one of the biggest men I knew, with forearms easily the size of my waist. Dom fell somewhere in the middle, build-wise, but I thought he was closer to Cam’s bulky physique than Collin’s almost frail one. Collin’s posture, however, was proud and elegant, which reminded me rather painfully of Dom.

“Sharon, out,” one of the druids ordered. He was a sandy haired brute that I didn’t recognize. She didn’t look at me once as she jogged from the room. I felt the familiar and bitter sting of betrayal.

I had been going over Sharon’s food journal and had it clutched in my hand. I set it down slowly, tensing for a fight.

“I have to admit,” I began, “I wasn’t expecting to see more of you again so soon.”

Collin froze, looking more than a little surprised. “More of us?” he asked, his tone deceptively casual. “You’ll have to tell me all about that. Who else have you seen?”

“Why are you here?” I shot back.

He spread his slender hands in a gesture of peace. “Not for the reason you seem to think. I just want to talk.”

I looked at him warily. “How’d you find me here?”

He waved a hand at the druid that had ordered Sharon out. “Walt here has been dating Sharon for the last few months. He noticed that she had an enchantment placed on her. He came to me for help to decipher just what it was. When I perceived the nature of the enchantment, I asked her to describe her personal trainer. The description sounded uncannily familiar.” Apparently our luck had run out a few times over.

Collin continued. “I couldn’t let an unregistered Other go unchecked. So here we are. How have you been, Jillian?” He sounded genuinely interested in the answer. Collin had always been one of the more amiable, easygoing druids. His affable manner had always made him a sharp contrast to his cousin, Dom, and especially his own brother, Cam. I supposed I was lucky it was Collin, and not Cam, who I was facing now. Collin, unlike the three men behind him, who were looking at me with loathing, seemed to wish me no ill will. Of course, I wouldn’t count on that. “Why don’t we go have a seat in the other room and talk?” he asked.

I nodded agreement. “You first.” I followed them into the somewhat gaudy dinning room. Sharon had a Vegas sense of style when it came to decorating her house, with way too much marble and gold for my taste.

I sat across from Collin at Sharon’s glass dinning room table. I made a big stink when Walt tried to stand behind me, and they agreed to stay on their side of the room. Call me paranoid. Period. I’m paranoid, but with good reason. Of course, that’s what all the paranoid people say.

“I can’t keep this from Dom,” Collin began. It wasn’t a promising start to the conversation. “But I feel that it would be better, for everyone involved, if you pay him a visit yourself.”

“Sure, I’ll do that,” I said quickly.

He gave me a stern look. “You know I’m going to need more insurance than that. I can’t let you leave here without a guarantee of some kind that you plan to either register with us now, or go talk to the Arch.”

I sighed. I couldn’t get a break from anyone, it seemed. “What kind of insurance did you have in mind?”

He pulled a bracelet of bones out of his pocket. I recognized the item, and gave him an unfriendly look. “So I’m a prisoner.”

“I can set it for twenty-four hours. If you speak to Dom in that time, the geas will disappear.”

“I need at least two days.”

“Fine. Two days, then. But how about this. If you see him within twenty-four hours, I’ll let you in on one of the biggest battles we’ve planned in decades. We’re mounting a raid on one of the necro settlements. They took out a rather large human town a few weeks ago. We obviously need to remind them what it means to break druid law. It’s gonna be a big one.”