Breathing Fire

“It was for her own good,” he said, opening the passenger door. “She is being summoned, and she was having a hard time resisting. She said you could help her.”

Lynn had several chains wrapping her to the passenger seat. Her arms were even cuffed above her head. I gave Caleb a sardonic look. “Think you have enough chains there?”

“Better safe than sorry,” Lynn spoke up.

“Ok, so someone is calling you to them against your will?”

Lynn nodded.

I looked at Cal. “We need to get her locked down someplace safe. No enchantment I put on her will last long. We need to take her straight to a safe house after I place it. And not the retreat. It’s been compromised.”

“Obviously,” Caleb said, insulted. I must have forgotten for a second who I was talking to. I was a little shocky, I acknowledged.

“He’ll have to take her alone. You’re not to go anywhere until you’ve been questioned,” Sloan spoke suddenly.

I rolled my eyes. “Ok, you’ll have to take her after I’ve enchanted her, Cal. I’ll meet up with you guys later.”

“Fine.” Cal’s voice was curt.

I placed the enchantment on her quickly, using a relic I wore around my neck to draw power. “Feel better?” I asked her after I finished.

She nodded, closing her eyes. “His call is much fainter now. It still stings to resist it, though.”

“Here, look at this.” I held the relic in front of her eyes. She looked at it, brow furrowed in confusion. She didn’t know about this spell, though it was one of my personal favorites.

I clocked her, hard, on the back of the head. She was out cold.

Cal gave me a questioning look. “Hurry,” I told him. “Get her locked down someplace safe, pronto.”

“That was jacked up,” Cal muttered, but he waisted no time, getting in the car and taking off without further ado.

I turned back to Sloan, mouth twisted bitterly. I waved her ahead. “Lead on.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Old Buddies

 “Is this really necessary?” I asked Sloan after a long period of silence. She gave me a hard look, which was answer enough. “We could go out and help with cleanup, while we wait. Sitting here seems a little pointless.” We were in the back of the Arch’s limo. We’d been doing nothing but sitting and waiting for at least an hour.

“My orders are to wait with you in this car. No one said I had to listen to you. And I certainly don’t want to speak to you.”

“You have to admit, it seems a little pointless for us to just be sitting around.”

“Shut up,” was her response.

“I have to say, I’m a little surprised you’re acting like all the other druids. You of all people should be happy I left him, Sloan. You’ve been in support of Dom as Arch from the start.”

She turned murderous eyes to me, opened her mouth to speak, then shut it abruptly. “No, I’m not gonna get into that with you. I promised myself I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction. Just shut up.”

“If I promise to stay out of his life as much as humanly possible, can we call a truce?”

“Bullshit. If you wanted to stay out of his life, then what the hell are you doing here?”

I raised my brows at her. “I didn’t get discovered on purpose. I’d still be in hiding if I hadn’t had a few too many bad luck run-ins with druids lately.”

“Bullshit,” she said again. “Word is you waltzed into his office yesterday. You sought him out. Why?”

“I went there under a geas, Sloan. Collin found me before that, and bound me to seek Dom out. I never would have gone to him if I’d had a choice in the matter.”

She curled her lip at me. “Well, I guess that’s something.” She paused. “Not much, though. You know, when I first saw those pictures, I told Dom that they must be doctored. I was so sure you wouldn’t have done that to him, I would have bet my life on it. I had him half convinced, at first, that it was a ploy of Siobhan's. He was even more crushed when he found out they were legit. I bet it makes you happy that I helped to dig your knife in deeper, huh?”

I made my face carefully blank. “No, that doesn’t make me happy. Far from it. I was trying to make the break as clean as possible.”

I didn’t see the punch coming, but it sent me clear across the cabin of the limo. I slammed hard into the glass partition that separated the drivers side. I just lay there, stunned, trying to work up the desire to retaliate. It was very uncharacteristic for me, but I just couldn’t find it.

“You wanted it f**king clean? That was the messiest-”

The door nearest Sloan slammed open. Cam shoved his snarling face inside the car, growling, “What’s going on in here?” His glare was all for Sloan.

Sloan and I looked at each other, and shrugged. “Nothing,” I said.

“I don’t know. Why?” Sloan responded at the same time. It was somewhat reassuring that Sloan and Cam seemed to still be hostile to each other. They had always bumped heads, and neither were subtle enough to even try to hide it.

“Don’t mess with me, Sloan. I heard fighting in here. What happened? Why does Jillian look like she just got punched in the face?”

Sloan shrugged. “Ask Jillian. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He called her a bitch under his breath as he looked at me. “What was all the noise about?” he asked me. It was obvious it pained him to even have to speak to me.