Alaskan Fire (52 page)

Blaze peered at him.  She
wanted
to tell him that he was wrong and he could go take a flying leap off a cliff
while she packed her bags and left this insanity in the Bush, but there was
that little nagging voice in the back of her head that reminded her of the fire
that flowed through her veins when something disturbed her calm.

“So,” she said tentatively,
“You’re saying it’s connected to me.”

“You pluck a feather, it’s gonna
hurt,” Jack said.  He shrugged.  “Ain’t that big a deal, long as you keep it
out of sight.”

Suddenly, buried in the back yard
didn’t seem
half
as safe as something like that needed to be.  “Where
can we put it that nobody’s ever gonna find it?” Blaze demanded.

Jack bristled immediately.  “It’s
good where it is.  Told ya, tootz, I’ll protect you.”

“What about putting it in a metal
box and dropping it to the bottom of the Mariana Trench?” Blaze demanded.

Jack balked, paling considerably. 
“Uh…no…sweetie, that would be very bad.”

Once again, she was getting the
distinct feeling that he knew more than he was telling her.  “Spit it out,”
Blaze growled.

“Uh…”  Jack rubbed the back of
his neck and she was pretty sure she heard ‘Yeti wench’ in the muttering that
followed, but finally, after peering down the hall, then at the Visqueened
windows, then at the ceiling, then at the cherry stones on the floor, he just
looked straight at her and said, “You can’t wake up if you don’t have that
feather.”

“Wake…up…” Blaze said.  She
frowned.  “Enlighten me?”

“Wake up,” Jack said, gesturing
at her.  “You know.  Grow wings and hurtle across the sky in a blaze of fire? 
All that wonderful phoenix stuff?”  He frowned.  “Well, I mean, I guess it’s
not
impossible
to do it without the life-link, but it’s damn hard.”

“In English, please.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and
spouted something that sounded French.  Then repeated himself in Chinese.  Then
German.  Then…Gaelic??…then Russian then Japanese then another dialect that
sounded Chinese—

“Enough!” Blaze cried, “Jesus!”

Still scowling at her, back all
puffed up and hairy, Jack growled, “I said I’m illiterate, not stupid.”

“I didn’t
say
you were
stupid,” Blaze growled, jabbing her thumb at her chest again, “I said
I
didn’t understand.  This is important to me.  You and your goddamn touchy pride
can take a flying fuck at a rolling goddamn doughnut. 
Tell me what you
meant in terms I can understand.
”

 The wereverine sniffed and
glanced beyond her at the door out the basement of the lodge, and for a moment,
it looked like he would simply wander off.  Then, muttering, he said, “You take
the feather, pierce your heart with it, and boom, you take its power back,
which triggers a reaction inside.  Kind of like setting off magnesium
shavings.  You get all burny and glowy and it hurts to goddamn look at you,
okay?”

“Uh,” Blaze said.  “Why would I
ever want to do that?”

Jack’s mouth fell open and he
stared at her like she’d just offered to shove leeches up her nose.  “Why…?” he
stammered, obviously confused.

“Yeah.  Why?”

He peered at her.  “Well, you
could fly, for one.”

“I could buy an airplane.”

Giving her a somewhat startled
look, he said, “Because it’s your
power
.  You have someone show up on
your property you don’t like, well, you tell them to leave.  They don’t wanna
leave, you scatter their ashes across half the valley.”

“You said stab me in the heart
with a feather.  I’m still trying to get past that part.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jack said, frowning. 
“So?”

Then Blaze remembered who she was
dealing with, and just how many times he’d had his body ripped asunder, and
realized getting stabbed in the heart probably wasn’t such a big deal to him. 
“And this big, glorious ball of fire that you can’t even look at…that’s gonna
be my M.O. the rest of my life, post-feather-stabbing?  I just walk around
having people shield their eyes?”

“No,” Jack said, frowning.  “That
just lasts a couple hours.  It kinda fades with nightfall.” 

“So I’m a great big, really
pretty fiery birdy that flaps around setting things on fire, is that what
you’re telling me?”

Jack was obviously confused by
her line of questioning, because he said, “Uh, yeah, I guess.  If that’s what
floats your boat.”

Blaze snorted.  “No, I think I’ll
stay just like I am, thank you.  Yeti beats ‘unapproachable avian bonfire’ any
day.  Hell, you said it yourself…with how few of…those things…are out there,
I’d probably never have sex again.”

Jack stared at her.  “They don’t
just
have the bird-form.  They can change.  Human and back.”

Blaze froze.  “It’s like a
possession from the Fourth Lands, isn’t it?  Instead of the Third Lands, like
werewolves?”

Jack stiffened immediately and
growled, “There’s no possession involved.  You imbeciles left the Fourth Lands
through the portal in the sun.  Fled the wars in your home lands and thought it
would somehow be better here.  Little did you know they would seal the portal
and leave you here with a bunch of monkeys who think they got a right to run
around killin’ stuff that they don’t understand.”

Blaze peered at him for a long
moment before saying, “All right.  Say I believe you about…what I am…and say I
just leave that feather right where it is instead of punching it through my
ribcage.  What’ll happen to me?”

Jack gave her an irritated look. 
“Nothing.  That’s why I wasn’t gonna tell you about it.”

“And if I
do
decide to
stab myself with it, then what happens?  Big, glowy birdy for a few hours, then
back to regular old Blaze, but with a few upgrades?”

“Your eyes will glow,” Jack said. 
“Uh, so will your hair.  And it’ll float, too.  Kind of like the way the
filaments on the feather do.”

Ooooohh, yeah.  Blaze could so
totally live
without
that.  “Anything else I should be aware of?” she
asked, trying not to look as thoroughly spooked as she felt.

Jack grunted a moment, then
sighed and gestured out at the greenhouse.  “You know the trees you planted?”

“Yeah,” Blaze said.

“Okay,” Jack said, “You take the
feather away, they’ll start to die.  You put an awakened
phoenix
in its
place, and everything within twenty square miles is going to look like the
Garden of Eden within a decade or two.  You know that nice lush area of
Mesopotamia, where the Tigris and Euphrates made it so easy for people to start
their nice new civilization?  It wasn’t just the rivers, baby.  Had a phoenix
living there, at least in the beginning.  Ran him off eventually, of course,
but that’s where everything started.”

“Uh,” Blaze said, looking down at
the cherries in her hand.  “Twenty
miles?
”

Jack shrugged.  “I dunno.  Twenty
miles in a decade’s probably a bit of an embellishment, but I do know the
longer you’re in one place, the further it goes.  Guy on the Tigris, hell, he
had been living there close to his full lifetime before they drove him out. 
Had a good hundred miles growin’ like weeds.  Prettiest thing you ever saw.”

Blaze peered at the wereverine
for a long moment, finally starting to understand why he wanted her to hang
around.  “You want that to happen here.”

He flinched and gave her a
nervous look.  “I, uh, ain’t gonna force you into nothin’ girlie.  Already told
you that.  You just take as long as you need.  Hell, wasn’t even gonna
tell
you until I was sure you could handle it.  You forced my hand and made me. 
Wasn’t like I was gonna drag you outside and stab you, you know, so no need to
take it the wrong way.  Sure, I want you to stay, and yeah, some extra greenery
around would be really nice, but you ain’t gotta rush it.”

The way he was suddenly babbling
made Blaze wonder, “How many phoenixes have you known?”

Jack went quiet.

“One?  Two?”

Reluctantly, looking up into her
eyes almost timidly, he said, “They’re kinda rare.”

Hence why, when the curmudgeony
old fart had one dropped in his lap, he broke her cell phone and otherwise
removed her ability to leave.

Blaze took a deep breath, then
let it out slowly.  “Okay.  So, what, you’re offering your protection so I’ll
hang around and make your plants grow?”

“Already said that,” Jack
growled.  “First time you asked it.”

“You didn’t say
twenty square
miles
!” Blaze cried.  “Jesus!  That’s like…”  She tried to think of a way
to describe what people would start saying if twenty square miles of the
Alaskan Bush suddenly started growing pomegranates, with the Sleeping Lady at
its epicenter, but discovered she couldn’t find the words.  Instead, she
dropped her face to her hands.  “I’m so screwed.”

“Look, you ain’t alone in this,
honey,” Jack said hurriedly.  “I’m here.  And Brad…  He’s a vain and arrogant shit
who struts around in robes and Spandex and panics if he gets dirt under his
nails, but he’ll probably come to your aid, if we ask nicely.  Same with the
dragons.”  He winced.  “Well,
half
the dragons.  The other half would
spirit you off and tuck you away in their cave so you make their mountain
thrive.”

Glaring at him, Blaze said, “Kind
of like you?”

“Now hold on there a minute,
missy,” Jack growled.  “I never kidnapped you.”

“You ran me down in the woods and
dragged me back over your shoulder,” Blaze growled.  “Twice.”

“Three times, if you count saving
your ass from the werewolves,” Jack growled.  “I was just doing my job and
keeping you safe.”

“Your…job…” Blaze gritted,
deciding that was something they needed to examine under a more careful light,
“is
what
, exactly?  Telling me I’m a draft animal and giving me just enough
of a taste of your chiseled body to leave me in a state of constant sexual
frustration?”

Jack gave her a long, irritated
look, then picked up his hammer and said, “I’m gonna go fix some trusses.”  He
started to walk past her.

Seeing him about to leave, Blaze
suddenly had every bit of her pretenses stripped away, realizing that at any
moment, he could decide to leave her to deal with these things alone,
unequipped and ignorant.  “Wait,” she whimpered, catching him by the muscular arm. 
“Please.  I’m sorry.  I’m scared, all right?  It’s like a kid who never watched
the Care Bears because their parents decided it was too violent suddenly
discovering there’s rapists and murderers out there, and, gee, some of them are
living right down the street.”  She held his arm until he stopped.  “Please,”
she whimpered.  “I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared in my life, and we
just fought
werewolves
.”

Jack looked down at her hand,
then slowly up at her.  There was compassion in his green eyes.  “I’ll help any
way I can, sugar.”

The revelations, the fear, the
wereverine’s sudden kindness…  It was too much.  Blaze bit her lip and felt the
first wave of fatigue as tears stung at her eyes.

“Hey now,” Jack said, giving her
a worried look.  “No need for that.  Here.”  He yanked off his shirt and
carefully brushed the tears from her eyes with it.  Softly, looking up at her, he
said, “You’re gonna be fine, girl.  It ain’t as bad as it seems.”  Then he
grinned.  “Besides, you got a grumpy old wereverine on your team.”  A big,
callused hand holding her arm to steady her, he lowered the shirt and peered
into her face.  “Feel better?”

“Could use a hug,” Blaze managed.

“Oh, darlin,” he said, pulling
her close.  “Okay, here.”  She felt him wrap his arms around her, heavy and
strong, felt his thick chest hard and firm against her breasts, and she lowered
her chin to his shoulder, suddenly feeling a lot better.  She felt tears burn
her eyes again, followed by the requisite wave of exhaustion.  She blinked, and
one dropped.

Under her, Jack hissed and
immediately stuffed the shirt under her chin.  “Don’t mind hugging your Yeti
ass,” he growled, through a clenched jaw, “but that fucking hurts.”

Blaze laughed, despite herself. 
She pulled back and wiped the tears away with her arm.  Before she could fling
them aside, however, Jack snagged her wrist and, with his shirt,
less-than-gently ran the rag up and down her arm.  “Listen, tootz,” he said, as
he worked, “Eventually, you’re gonna get things figured out, but until you do,
please
don’t go throwing liquid sunshine on a nice tongue-and-groove wooden floor.” 
He caught her eyes with an impatient scowl.  “Really messes up the epoxy.”

Blaze frowned at him.  “Huh?”

Finishing with her hand, Jack
gave her an irritated look, strode over to the fireplace, and threw his shirt
into it.  Then, casting her
another
irritated look, marched across the
hall to the room where she had slept and came back with a scorched blanket in
his hands.  Gesturing at the black, melted holes in the dark blue material, he
said, “Kept a good eye on it, as you slept, and put out the ones that actually
took, but yeah.  Not a good idea.”

Blaze frowned at the blanket.  “
I
did that?”

“No, it was probably the Easter
Bunny.”

She glared at him.  “I had total
sob-fests as a teenager and my house never caught fire.”

“Probably hadn’t touched the
feather yet, either.”  Conversation over, Jack threw the blanket back into the
bedroom and went to retrieve his hammer.  As he passed her on the way to the
back door, he said over his shoulder, “If you wanna keep from passing out, you
should probably come hang out in the sun with me for a few.  It should help.”

Indeed, Blaze felt absolutely
exhausted, and all she wanted to do was crawl into bed.  When she saw Jack
hesitate at the back door, giving her a pointed look, she realized that she
could either follow him, or he would probably come back to demonstrate his Yeti-shouldering
technique.  Reluctantly, though every part of her body was begging to go to the
bed
, Blaze followed him.