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‘Lucy!’ Greg reached me and grabbed my shoulder, turning me to face him so he could examine me. His grip was tight and his gaze was anxious as he looked me up and down, studying me for signs of injury.
‘I’m okay,’ I reassured him.
‘But how?’ he said, totally confused.
‘Terrance,’ I tapped my head.
Greg squinted at where I tapped. ‘You’re not wearing anything,’ he said finally.
‘Oh! Amber made the crown invisible,’ I explained with a shrug.
He blew out a long breath. ‘The flames were coming right for you. The biggest mother-fucking fireball. I thought you were a goner.’ He pulled me roughly into his arms before pressing his lips desperately to mine.
His tongue invaded my mouth and made me gasp. The smell of smoke curled around us and I could still hear distant flames crackling, but it all faded away as he kissedme like I was his sunlight and his air. ‘I’m okay,’ I panted when we finally separated. ‘I’m okay, love.’
He nodded with visible effort and drew back a little. ‘You’re okay,’ he repeated slowly, hooking loose strands of my blonde hair around my ear. He blew out a long breath and stepped back.
‘Any idea who this little shit is?’ I asked Greg, toeing the unconscious body.
‘A dead man walking,’ he growled. He got out his phone, took a picture and sent it off in a text message.
‘Maxwell?’ I asked.
‘And Roscoe,’ he confirmed.
I grimaced a little. Roscoe and I hadn’t exactly seen eye to eye on a recent kidnapping issue, and I wasn’t sure if he was the type to hold a grudge.
Greg leaned down and slapped the unconscious man a few times across the face. When nothing happened, he reached into his pocket and pulled up a small vial. When he dripped two small drops onto the man’s tongue, the redhead stirred.
His eyes fluttered open and he gave a low groan of pain, then looked at me and sneered. ‘The Domini send their regards.’ His words were muffled; a broken jaw would do that.
I smiled. ‘That threat would work better if you could speak properly, darling.’ I turned back to Greg as a sudden thought occurred to me. ‘Check on my parents?’ I asked him in a low voice. The last time the Domini had struck at me, it had been my family they had targeted.
Greg nodded briskly. Pulling out his phone again, he stepped away and made a call.
‘So,’ I said to the prone man. ‘Why did you throw your lot in with the Domini?’
‘Because we will be victorious. We will create a new world order!’ Again, his words would have had more impact if he hadn’t been slurring so badly.
‘Uh-huh.’ I sighed. ‘Sure you will. Who do you answer to?’
Flames sprung to his hands. ‘Do you know that I’m not afraid of fire?’ I asked, my tone conversational. ‘I was born a fire elemental. I’m actually an Alessandro.’
Not to mention I had a secret crown haunted by a fire elemental spirit of some kind, but he didn’t need to know that – that was more fifth-date information when you were pretty sure they liked you and they weren’t going to run off when you showed them a little more of the real you.
The flames on his hands spluttered and died as he stared at me in wide-eyed fear. ‘Alessandro?’ he stuttered. I guess my birth family’s name still held some weight in the fire-elemental community.
‘Yep,’ I confirmed.
A moment later flames sprang to his hands again. I sighed. He really wasn’t getting the picture: no flamey the Queen.
I opened my mouth to say something sassy but the flames didn’t come towards me; instead they turned inwards. He started to scream as he literally burned himself from the inside out, his eyes glowing with the light of inner flames.
I stared, mouth agape, as he burned himself alive – and with him all my evidence against the Domini.
Son of a bitch.
Chapter 13
