Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (29 page)

“This is not how I planned on meeting him,
” I mutter
, looking
down at myself. “Does an
yone have a toothbrush?” I ask
, feeling like I might cry again.

“I think that there’s
an unopened one in the office…” Reed trails
off, looking at the T.V. screen again. Brennus’ face is on every one of them.

“Turn it up,” Russell says
, looking intense.

Reed uses the remote.
“Genevieve is da light of our family,” Bren
nus says
, his expression grim
. He looks ca
lm and regal in a dark suit with
his dark hair slicked back in corporate elegance. “She is…irreplaceable.”
His voice is like silk, drawing in the female reporter who is all but touching him now. He is one of the most beautiful and poised men I hav
e ever seen
,
but he’s not a man. He
looks colder now;
he’s more like a statue:
hard and untouchable.

“Do you believe she is now with either this Reed Wellington or Russell Marx?” an interview
er
asks
Brennus
in English.

“I do. We believe dat she’
s being held agains
t her will by both men,” he says
, looking
like he’
s truly in pain
as his light green eyes show his misery
.

Russell wrinkles his nose.
“Ahh, you
c
reepy, cold freak!” he says
next to me
, while running his hand through his tawny hair
. “It’
s gonna feel so good knockin’ you
r head off!”

As I listen
again
to the television, Brennus says
, “
’
Tis our understanding dat Genevieve was last seen in Torun. Any information from yer
viewers would be a great help ta
us in da
investigation. We can na
even begin ta
put a price
on whah
dat kind of information would mean
ta us. Yer viewers will have ta
decide whah is a fair reward
for it.”

“Why not just put a bounty on our heads,
Brenn
?” I ask
the
T.V.
screen.

“He just did,” Reed replies
, his green eyes looking even darker
.

“Did he
get a spray tan?” Russell asks
incredulously next to me.

“I think so
…I suggested that. It look
s good,” I say absently
.
Russell
turns
his brown eyes on
me like I’ve lost my mind. “What? I’m just saying…it makes him look less, you know, dead.”

Russell scowls.
“He looks
ora
nge to me,” he says
,
and I shrug
guiltily.

“What would
you
like our viewers to know about G
enevieve?” the interviewer asks
Brennus, probably trying to push the human-interest angle of the story.

Giving the female interviewer a small,
alluring smile, Brennus replies
, “
She
’s
jus
very…sweet…”

“Tastin’
,” Russell interjects
.

“And naïve,” Brennus continues
. “
She’
s too trustin
g—’
tis her only flaw. She’s always ready ta
champion a lost cause.
It may sound like I have a callous heart…”

“You
mean the one t
hat’s not beatin’?” Russell says
sarcastically
to the television.

“But, I’ve suffered since I
’ve lost her,” Brennus continues
, looking wrecked.

Russell growls,
“You’
r
e
gonna suffer more,
freak.”

“And if you
could say something to her now—i
f she was listening, what would
that be?” the interviewer asks
Brennus in a soft, reverent tone.

Brennus’ nostrils
flare as he tries
to suppress
the violent emotions he’s feeling just below the surface.
“To
gether we were invincible…we will
be again,” he says
in a raw voice.

“And to her
captors?” the interviewer asks
.

A surge of adr
enaline pulses
through me,
await
ing
his answer. Watching Brennus,
he pau
ses, before frowning. Then he pulls
his phon
e from his pocket. He scans
its display
before a small smile creeps
over his face
. Reaching up, Brennus unclips
the microphone on his collar, pulling off the receiver on his back.

“Mr. de Graham?” the interview
er asks
in a startled voice, but Bren
nus simply walks
off the set, l
eaving the interviewer to awkwardly try to deal with the aftermath of his unexpected departure
from her interview
.

“Uh…that’s not good,” I murmur
, turning to look at Reed, my eyes wide.

“Ahh…
shit,
Red! You
feel that?” Russell asks as a ripple of energy passes
over my skin, caus
ing the fine hair
s
to rise.

“RUSSELL!” I shout
, feelin
g panic hitting me as
I
try
to pull all of that energy that I can to me.
“WE NEED
A—
”

In an instant,
my world explode
s. I lift
o
ff the ground and spin
in midair like a
tornado
.
The entire room cascades and whirls
ar
ound me while I hover above the ground
.

“DO SOMETHING,
RUSSELL!
”
Reed shout
s
, flying to me and tryin
g to hold
on to
me. He extends his wings and attempts to stop me from spinning, but it causes him to whirl with me
.

“OY, RUSSELL, WHA
H ARE YE GONNA DO?” Lonan calls
from the stairs, having blown the doors off the hinges
in
a cascading flurry of splintering
wood
.
Alastar and Cavan are by his side
and the wind carries their heavy scent to us
.

In the next instant, I stop spinning
, but I
feel like I’m a penny
in the path of an electrom
agnet. The only thing holding me
back fr
om streaking across the room,
straight into Lonan’s arms
,
are Reed’s arms around me.

“Ughh,” I groan
, feeling like my insides are going to s
pill
out of me. “Shield,” I whisper
weakly.

“Where’s Brennus
?” Russell calls to the Gancanagh
, scowling as he watches
Reed struggle to keep me in his arms.

“
He’
s
on da
way,” Lonan replies
smugly.

An antagonistic scowl crosses Russell’s lips.
“Why does he keep sendin’ the B
-T
eam? Is he afraid to face me?”

Lonan playfully replies,
“
We requested da honor o’ meetin’ ye now, da other. Do y
e remem
ber Ultan
?”
Beneath Lonan’
s
archness
,
he’
s seething with a desire for revenge.

Russell lifts his eyebrow.
“You
mean Zoltan
? Y
eah,
I remember him. He was the first vampire I ever made really
dead,” he
smirks
.

“He was Gancanagh! Me b
rother,” Lonan snarls with loathing
.

“Really? I can’t tell,
‘cuz all y’all look the same to
me,
” Rus
s
ell replies
, shrugging
.

Cavan grinds his teeth. W
inding
back his hand, Cavan throws
an elf dart at Russell.
The fiery ball
swirls and
hisses through the air
like a teardrop from a melting star
.

Rai
sing his hand, Russell whispers words that cause
the flaming ball of fire to reverse course, plo
wing back towards
Cavan. Cavan dodges
the inferno
by mere centimeters, lunging to his side and falling into Alastar.
His eyes go
wide in shock
at Russell’s ability
to manipulate
his spell.

“Y
’
a
ll
wouldn’
t last a second in MLB
,” Russell heckles
them.

“Russell, block their spell
on Evie
,” Reed demands
, straining to keep me with him.

Russell scowls
seeing me lurc
h forward as Reed’s grip slips
a little. He
pulls energy in the room to him
and
whispers word
s
I can’
t hear.
T
he brie
f silence gives way to
a trembling vibration
as an incredibly loud hum
erupts
from Russell’s chest.
The vibra
tion moves the very air
like a
woofer trembles with sound in an amp. A
wavering bubble
of low
frequency
waves swirl
s
out around us like
steel-gray
water in a pool
.
The
tremor
shudders the cellar
as it pulses
forward. I fl
inch in agony
at the noise
, grateful that I’
m behind the sound,
not in front of it. The t
h
underous
roar from the
deep-
frequency
noise
shakes the ground as the tempest
crack
s the floors and
surges ahead.
The sound
collides with chairs and tables in its path,
disintegrating
them
into poofs of s
p
lintering
wreckage
. Disbelief shutters over Lonan’s features.
When it
reaches the fellas,
it
blasts
Lonan
off his fee
t, hurdling
him
back outside along
with Alastar and Cavan.

Lonan’s pull on me
sever
s and
I hug
Reed to
me.
“We
ne
ed a shield, Russell,” I manage
to say
.
R
eed lan
ds
with me on the floor
by Russell and Anya.

“O
kay
,” Russell replies
. Immediately,
he forms a wall of energy
in front of us
.

“Uhh
,” I groan
, gripping my head in my hands.
My universe is still spinning.

“Somethin
’
s
comin’, Red,” Russell warns
,
while
c
r
ouching in a defensive posture
. “
Reed, tell Anya to get behind me
.”