Awakening the Fire Read online

  “Go help them with the wolves,” Ari said when she was sure her voice was steady. “I can get back on my own.”

  “No. You can’t. Not with that arm.” Mike was matter-of-fact.

  She had forgotten. Glancing down, she saw the bindings were tight; it was swelling. “I guess you're right. Let’s go.”

  She started off in the lead, Mike followed. He didn’t attempt conversation, and the return trip up the cliffs was completed in silence. It was harder than she had anticipated. Without Mike, she wouldn’t have made it.

  When they reached the top, Ryan was sitting in his off-duty car. The door opened when he spotted her, and he stepped out. “I heard there’s been some trouble.”

  “Yeah, you might say that. Who called you?” As if she couldn’t figure that one out. She wondered how much Andreas had told him.

  Ryan ignored her question, looking at her arm. “You’re injured.”

  He was being careful, cautious. Andreas must have said quite a bit.

  “It’ll keep,” she said. “Prisoners and bodies come first.”

  A brief frown crossed his face before he shrugged, accepting her answer. No barrage of questions. His restraint made it easier to stick to business.

  Mike left, refusing a ride, and headed back to the vampire compound.

  Ari filled Ryan in on most of the night’s events. She didn’t mention the fire salamanders. Not now, maybe never. And she didn’t talk about how Sheila died. Surprisingly, Ryan took it all in stride. Of course, he’d already been primed.

  “No human bodies,” she said. “In fact, no one local. They thought they could walk into Riverdale and take over.”

  “Overconfident, huh?”

  “Yeah, I guess. Too bad most of them aren’t alive to learn by their mistakes.”

  Ryan gave a short, mirthless cop laugh.

  He drove her to the compound. Mike was already there, and no one asked her what happened. The next hour was a flurry of activity. Carmella and the four vampires arrived from the caverns with the wolves, both living and dead. Carmella took no time in letting Ryan know the caves were off limits. He was fine with that, said the delivery saved him and the police department a lot of trouble. He called in officers to take custody of the prisoners and the coroner to handle the bodies. Ari started to follow the last officer out the door.

  “So this is the vampire court, huh?” Ryan stood in the middle of the security area and looked around.

  Ari stopped and turned back. “This is security. The audience chambers are down the hall. Sleeping quarters are far from here.”

  “Not very fancy. Somehow, I expected plush quarters.”

  “They were better before the fight.” She started to shrug, grimaced at the discomfort in her arm.

  “You need to see a doctor. We’re done here. Unless you’re waiting for someone.” He paused and waited for an answer.

  “No, no one. Let’s go.” Now the work was done, she was anxious to get away. Afraid Andreas might appear. She couldn’t see him right now.

  “Hey, Ari.” It was Mike. He walked toward them, pulling something out of his belt. He held out her silver dagger. “You dropped this.”

  Ari shook her head. “You keep it. I don’t want it anymore.” As she turned away, Mike and Ryan exchanged a look, but she kept moving toward the door. “Are you coming?” she said over her shoulder.

  “Right behind you.” Ryan caught up with her outside. “You’re not going to talk about it, are you?”

  Ari didn’t break stride. “No, there’s nothing to talk about. The bad guys are mostly dead. The rest are in custody. Case closed. What more do you want?”

  “Me? I’m satisfied, but I get the feeling you’re not.”

  How could she be? Her personal life was a wreck. People she counted on had died or betrayed her. She had developed magical powers she didn’t understand. But she’d cope. She always did.

  She turned to Ryan and mustered a smile. “Quit worrying about me, partner. I’ll be fine. A visit to the ER, a good night’s sleep, I’ll be a new woman.”

  “I kind of liked the old one,” he said.

  “Tough. You’ll get used to the new me. Now come on before your pager or mine goes off. I couldn’t face another crime scene tonight.”

  As she climbed into his car, she congratulated herself for not asking why Andreas hadn’t returned to the compound. It was a start.

  Epilogue

  Six weeks later, Ari returned to Riverdale on a gray, gloomy afternoon. The feel of early snow was in the air, no more than a few weeks away. She was glad to be coming home. Her arm had healed, she’d undergone rigorous retraining with her childhood Sensei, and she was ready, even anxious, to get back to work. Martin was exhausted from covering both territories, but at least there’d been no vampire wars or drug outbreaks during her absence.

  She hadn’t heard from Andreas, but that was a good thing. At least she thought so most of the time. The manner of Sheila’s death had stunned her, but she’d had many hours to go over the details of that night. In the honest light of day, she realized she’d reacted mostly from anger at herself, the irrevocable choice she almost made. And she’d been afraid, still was, not for what happened in the caverns, but at the compound. The magical link. The idea of such a powerful connection with a vampire, one that could break all magical barriers and wake him from his sleep…well, that was something she still couldn’t wrap her head around. What if their magics consumed each other? Or the stronger one took control? And, Goddess forbid, what if it was all her fault? Or at least the fault of her family legend?

  In her brooding, Ari almost missed the turn. She drove down the lane to the woods where Yana was buried and parked the Mini Cooper. She’d come to chat. She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t brought her problems to Yana. This time, she also needed to tell Yana why she’d died.

  And how the story ended.

  Ari got out of the car and entered the woods. The ground was hard, the brown grass brittle and crackly. It crunched under her feet. Finally, standing in the middle of a small clearing, Ari explained it all. The drugs, the deaths, Sebastian’s ambitions, the compound attack, the caverns, and how Sheila died.

  “I wanted to kill her,” Ari admitted. “And I don’t know why Andreas did it instead. His own reasons? Or maybe to protect me from stepping over the line. I’m still not sure I wanted to be saved.”

  With most of the story behind her, Ari began to walk. She turned onto a trail made by summer hikers and plucked a tall slender blade of grass from the edge of the path. She chewed on the end. It was dry, flavorless.

  “I wish I could turn back the clock,” she finally said. “Have you back. Do things better. But that isn’t how things work. So I guess I just have to do the best I can.” She paused to watch two squirrels chasing through the trees. “But I wish you could tell me what to do about Andreas. Until I figure it out, I’m going to stay away. There’s so much about him…us…that I don’t understand.”

  She fell silent, listening to the wind in the trees. The weather grew colder every day, the winds stronger, more biting. She turned to retrace her steps. It was time to go.

  Ari chuckled as she rounded the last curve in the trail. “You’ll be happy to hear Sebastian is having his own problems these days. Revolts among his vampires. Zoe heard Prince Daron had a hand in it. Payback can be hell.”

  Ari spotted her Mini Cooper through the trees. She’d reached the end of the path—and the end of her story. A gust of wind whipped the hair across her face. She shivered, pulled her jacket tighter, and said her good-byes. Pulling a pouch from her pocket, she tossed a handful of sweet grass into the air. It spun and twirled, scattering its seeds, ready to renew life when the ground warmed again. Spring was only a winter away. A smile tugged at her lips as she took a last look around. Yana would rest now.

  Ari wouldn’t be back.

  ~ About the Author ~

  Ally Shields is the pseudonym of Janet L Buck, a former attorney and ju
venile officer, residing in the Midwest.

  Find out more about Ally Shields here:

  http://www.janetlbuck.com

  http://facebook.com/janet.buck1

  http://twitter.com/janetlbuck

  ~ More Fantasy from Etopia Press ~

  When the Moon Is Gibbous and Waxing

  by Angela Parson Myers

  Unspeakable evil rises with the moon…

  Graduate student Natalie Beres can’t remember who attacked her that autumn night under the full moon. She can’t remember anything between leaving her lab in a secluded building at the south end of campus and arriving at her apartment in the wee hours of the morning. Covered in blood. Not her own. Other than the loss of memory, she’s completely unharmed.

  She can’t say the same for the men who attacked her. The grisly campus murders force Natalie to dig deeper into what happened that night, to force herself to remember. But what she learns about herself is horrifying. When the police officer investigating the murders tries to get close, Natalie is caught between her attraction to him and her fear of discovery. But worse, can she avoid being found by the young man with a similar problem who’s on his way from the West coast to find her…leaving a trail of shredded corpses along the way…?

  The Taste of Magic

  by K.C. Shaw

  Magic’s in her blood. Unfortunately, that just makes it taste better...

  Analefa Miradwen has spent the last ten years avoiding vampires. She knows her blood is a delicacy, but she doesn’t want to share. Not after the last time, which nearly left her dead.

  When the vampire mage Magnus begins stalking her, Ana turns to the King’s Enforcer for help. Vincent Ondarr has the manpower and the magic-power to keep her safe. According to him, Ana’s blood doesn’t just taste good, it enhances a mage’s magic.

  The trouble is, Vincent’s a vampire mage too. If Ana wants to keep her blood to herself, she’ll have to figure out which one of them she can trust. And what exactly Magnus wants from her...

  Blood and Ashes

  by K.C. Shaw

  The Gryphons have a secret. And someone thinks Ana knows it.

  Back in May, things were heating up between healer Ana Miradwen and the King's Enforcer, Vincent Ondarr. Then Vincent stopped seeing Ana abruptly, only to resurface in July--with a fiancée. Ana's hurt, but she's angry too. When Vincent summons her to his office, she plans to tell him off.

  But Vincent has a proposition for her, and not one she expects. A half-breed rights group called the Gryphons is fighting for change--but it may be a front for something darker. Vincent needs Ana to join the Gryphons and investigate.

  Ana's happy to help, especially since it means spending time with a couple of gorgeous elf men. Never mind that Vincent thinks they're smugglers. But when someone tries to kill Ana, she realizes that she's in way over her head. Only it's too late to back out.

  Dirge for a Necromancer

  by Ash Stinson

  There is always a cost to raising the dead...

  The Magician Raettonus has been agonizing over the death of his master, Sir Slade, for centuries, studying necromancy in the hopes of bringing him to life once more. Soon after Raettonus arrives at a key defensive citadel to tutor the general's sons, the trickster god Kimohr Raulinn comes to him, promising to bring Slade back to life. Raettonus is all too eager to make the deal. But where Kimohr Raulinn goes, suffering follows. The citadel falls under siege by foreign forces, and matters look increasingly grim for the small force of defenders. The god of death is rallying his army of steel-toothed warriors to come reclaim the resurrected knight, and deals made with devils are always poisonous...

  Lord of the Screaming Tower

  KC Myers

  The darkest magic demands the darkest price.

  In a world where magic is ruled by music, Sarangell is born with the rarest quality of all--a natural voice. Against his parents' wishes, Sarangell seeks the aid of the powerful spellcaster Kandrell, who takes him as a pupil. But will his harp and his voice be enough to defeat his master's sworn enemy in the black, screaming tower?

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four