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Alma wondered just how much magic Phillip had at his disposal and how effectively Dylan’s spell had rendered him helpless. “I would have the police after you worldwide. There would be nowhere for you to hide.”
Finn shook his head, tossing the ball of fire idly and catching it. “What would you tell them? That three elementals destroyed your house with magic because you kidnapped two of them. I can see that holding up…particularly once the elders hear about it.”
Phillip was shaking with rage and Alma thought someone in the room finally understood how she felt. She shuffled heavily, the iron shackles rattling as she did, echoing the jolts of pain every movement sent shooting up her legs.
“Phillip.” She kept her voice strong. “You should have known better than to chain up an air elemental.”
Phillip didn’t look at her, too captivated by the threatening fire Finn was wielding.
Alma looked around and found a heavy vase. She gritted her teeth and picked it up, glancing at Dylan, who was gathering water around the two of them, condensing the vapor in the air into a fog to protect them from his brother’s pending attack. Alma smiled to herself despite the pain she was feeling, the weakness continued to spread up from her legs.
“Hey, Aid!” she called out, hefting the vase in her hands. Finn glanced at her, raising an eyebrow at her use of a nickname.
“Don’t call me that.” He formed another orb of fire, not taking his attention off of Phillip.
Alma could see the wealthy earth elemental was considering his options. He crouched down and murmured. Alma realized what he was going to do; he would call to the earth underneath the home, start a localized earthquake that would knock them all around—all except for Phillip.
Dylan was too absorbed in his spell to do anything to prevent it. Finn saw what the man was doing and pulled his arm back, a fireball in hand. He launched the flames toward Phillip as Alma made her move. She heaved the heavy vase and brought it down as hard as she could against the back of Phillip’s neck, falling to the ground next to him as she did. The fireball hit the chair beside them and lit almost instantly. The only thing that prevented the heat from affecting Alma was the cloud of vapor that surrounded her.
Alma struggled to get up knowing that, water vapor shield or not, she needed to get away from a fire that would quickly consume everything it could. Finn rushed toward her, and Alma looked down at Phillip, who was unconscious on the floor.
“Get these off of me right now!” Alma said to Finn, pushing her feet towards him. Finn looked down at the shackles. Dylan directed water toward the fire Finn had started, putting it out. Finn knelt at her feet and took the chain in his hands, murmuring. An intense heat rose between Alma’s ankles. A moment later the chain parted.
She wasn’t free, the iron still constrained her, even if her movements weren’t limited by the chain. Still, she was relieved that freedom was in sight. Impulsively, Alma reached out and wrapped her arms around Finn’s shoulders. She pulled him in close and kissed him hungrily. The heat generated between them was intense and for one moment she reveled in it. They tripped and fell to the floor together. Finn pinned her against the rug, kissing her back with burning tongue and lips, his hands traveling over her body in quick, devastating movements that left Alma breathless.
Dylan shook them and cleared his throat. “We should probably get out of here, don’t you think?” he asked, pointing to the smoke still coming into the room from the hallway Finn had entered by.
Alma pushed Finn away from her, remembering in a flash she disliked the fire-aligned elemental in spite of his handy assistance in the previous moments. Dylan lifted her from the ground into his arms and gestured for Finn to lead the way.
They walked through the smoldering hole that had been the impressive front door.
“Did you take care of the other people on the property? Because they could probably detain us.” Alma felt comfortable in Dylan’s strong arms, though she would never admit it as he carried her toward the car.
“Oh, they’ve run off,” Finn said, gesturing toward the gate the van had brought them through.
Alma looked in the direction he had pointed and saw that, like the door, it was smoldering wreckage. She nodded, satisfied.
“We could have handled ourselves, you know,” she said tartly, not wanting to admit Finn’s presence had been helpful, or that he had been right about her safety. If Dylan hadn’t been there, if Finn hadn’t been on their heels, she would have been in trouble. Her pride didn’t allow her to admit to them she might not have gotten out of the situation.
Finn snorted. “You could, you know, thank me.”
Alma rolled her eyes. “Please. We’d have figured it out without you blowing everything up.”
Dylan chuckled, his arms shaking as they held her. He got her into the passenger seat and climbed into the back while Finn climbed into the driver’s side. Alma shifted in the seat and shuddered at the pain still affecting her from the iron that held her ankles. She also felt intensely embarrassed at kissing Finn the way she had. What had come over her?
“Yes,” Finn said sarcastically, starting the car. “I’m sure my brother could have carried you all the way to civilization and you’d have found a welder or something to cut those things off of you.”
Alma crossed her arms over her chest, scowling at Finn. “I didn’t say WHAT we would have done, just that we would have figured it out. You could have taken the actual shacklesoffof me, you know.” Alma couldn’t take her mind off the kiss she and Finn had shared; it was seared into her memory. His hands had glided along the curves of her body with ease, his touch hot even through her clothes, his lips and tongue intense, awakening a sudden lust inside of her Alma knew she would have easily given in to if Dylan hadn’t interrupted them. She wondered what Finn thought about what had happened—if he was even thinking about it.
Finn drove them quickly off the property. Alma tried to get comfortable despite the iron ankle bands and settled for sulking, trying to push the memory of Finn’s kiss out of her mind. Instead of losing the thought of it, she found she was taking the kiss to its inevitable conclusion in her mind, thinking of what would have come next. In spite of her distaste for him as a person, Alma was consumed with curiosity as to what Finn would look like naked, and how the sex would be. She snorted privately to herself as her mind supplied the most obvious adjective: fiery and hot.
eight
Finn lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, trying unsuccessfully to seduce sleep. He couldn’t get the kiss with Alma out of his mind. He had driven the three of them back to Alma’s apartment and removed the shackles, throwing them into a dumpster outside when Alma vehemently declared she never wanted to see them again. He came back to find Alma seated at a desk in the living room of her apartment, hard at work with a cup of a restorative tea in hand. Dylan had turned on a football game, and for a while there was peace in the apartment.
But Finn hadn’t been able to focus on the game. Instead he was remembering the way Alma had felt underneath him, how her kiss had lit something incandescent inside of him, a response he had never experienced with another woman. He had forgotten about the situation, about his brother standing a few feet away, about Alma’s would-be fiancé knocked out next to them. For that moment, Alma had been the center of Finn’s universe and all he could think about was bringing her pleasure, hearing her moan, feeling her writhe beneath him, and discovering if her body was as gorgeous as he had suspected. He had wanted to burn the clothes off of her and take her right there on the floor, with no more concern for propriety than had he been an animal himself. When Dylan interrupted them, Finn had fought the urge to blast his own brother away, his intense emotion driving him to a possessive madness.
Finn turned over in his bed, knowing there was only more danger to come. He knew Philip Sall would now have a vested interest in Alma’s inheritance as an elemental, and there was little the elders in the elemental community would do about the situation. In their viewpoint, Alma was up for grabs, particularly as an unstable elemental whose best qualities would be better kept under firm control. He shook his head, burying his face in the pillow that smelled too much like Alma for his peace of mind. He had to make sure nothing ever happened between them. He knew he had to discipline himself. Even his brother would be a better partner for Alma than he would, Finn thought with a slight sadness. The thought of anyone having the woman sleeping only yards away from where he tossed and turned was repugnant, but he would have to stand for it—have to encourage it. Alma needed to ally herself with someone as powerful as she was.
