Burning (19 page)

Cooper picked up the girl and gave her his wicked grin.  He was a hopeless flirt.  "I don't think I caught your name
, sweetheart." 

"Ashleigh," she whispered.  Her voice was too scratchy to talk louder.
 

"As in Nik Athenos'
s girlfriend?" I asked, stunned. 

She simply nodded.
 

"Do you know if they have him?" Cooper asked. 

She put her hand to her throat, probably to soothe it.  "Yes.  They showed me to him once and said that, if he cooperated, I wouldn't be harmed.  That seems like a lifetime ago.  They didn't harm me physically, but they haven't fed me either.  They only provide the barest amount of water or food to keep you alive and little else."

Dean pressed the unlock button for his truck, and we quickly piled in.
"How did you get out?" he asked. 

“
I pretended to be unconscious when they came around to check on me.  The guard, who is dumb as a post by the way, threw the door open to see if I was breathing.  I used what little magic I had left to give him a jolt and I ran.  It only stunned him for a moment though, and I had them following me in seconds."

I could see the ideas racing across Dean's face.  "Do you remember how to get to the cells?" 

Ashleigh tapped the side of her head.  "Photographic memory." 

"I certainly hope so.  We will be depending on it to rescue three people tonight," Dean muttered.
 

"Believe me
. I want to help.  Just because they didn't hurt me physically doesn't mean I wasn't tortured. The
auto-da-fé
are masters of psychological torture.  First, they make you think you have been forgotten. When you start to relax, they do something to make you think they are going to hurt you.  Once you get back in your cell, the quiet is replaced by an ear-shattering screech that makes nails down a chalkboard seem pleasant. 

“
I'm not a violent person, but I want them to feel pain.  They took my best friend, a girl I went to college with, and slit her throat right in front of me.  I was forced to watch them tie her lifeless body to a wooden stake and light it on fire.  The stench was revolting, but they forced me to stay and watch.  It wasn't bad enough that they murdered an innocent girl, but they had to add to the horror that her parents would suffer by desecrating her remains. 

“
I would not tell you I could do something I couldn't.  I don't want anyone facing this group unprepared. Not only would you be in danger, but also, I wouldn't get Nik back.  I've lost enough. I just want to get Nik and go back to the safety of the
Council
compound."

Dean grunted.  Cooper kept that goofy grin on his face
. 

I decided I would be the normal one and
acknowledge her help.  "Thank you.  I know it is going to be tough to relive some of this.  We appreciate it, and we will do everything we can to save Nik."

"He's a fully mature wizard.  Why doesn't he save himself
?" Dean grumbled. 

Ashleigh looked uncomfortable.  "He doesn't have very strong magic.  Showy magic, certainly, but not the kind needed to attack or defend.
" 

Dean's brow furrowed, and I wanted to stop him from commenting
further.  Ashleigh had been through enough.  I leaned across the bench seat of his truck and kissed him.  I felt his tension slip away, if only for a moment, and his passion take over. 

I mumbled against his lips,
"Start the car.  There isn't anything more you can do here."  He turned the ignition and slipped the car into gear.  I pressed myself against his side, realizing that my touch helped keep him calm.  "I know you're worried.  I am too.  Take me home and hold me for a while and rest.  This crisis will still be waiting for us.  And when you wake up, I'll let you hurt something." 

Dean's mouth threatened to curve up slightly.  It wasn't a smile, but it was an improvement.

Chloë

The moment I saw Finn fall to the ground
, I knew my eyes had changed to a glowing emerald green.  I shut them tight and tried to dull the color.  I tried to take comfort in the fact that I still had a bit of magic left, but it didn't help because I couldn't control it. 

"You are a tricky little devil worship
per, aren't you?" the man with the meaty fingers sneered. 

"I don't kn
ow what you are talking about.  If this is about ransom, Finn and I are both rich, and I know our families will negotiate," I said, feigning ignorance.  I knew it wasn't about ransom, but I wasn't going to admit to knowing about magic.

He shoved me hard
and I fell hard onto my knees, scraping one and tearing my pants.  The rough cement floor tore at the skin on my palms.  I slowly lifted myself off the ground and hobbled to stand away from my captor.

"It was really rude dropping my class without so much as a visit to my office," the man lectured while he paced back and forth. 
"It made getting ahold of you and your boyfriend much more difficult.  Plans had to be moved up.  Now the rest of my organization is struggling to get here.  A most inconvenient occurrence."

I bit down on my tongue to prevent myself from speaking back.
  He didn't look like a biology professor, more like what a bulldog would look if they were human.  He was average height or a little shorter, squat, and his face showed the beginnings of jowls. 

His fingers were thick and awkward, not the fingers of someone who manipulate
s sensitive instruments during experiments.  I noticed a burn on his left wrist and forearm. 

He walked over to a metal desk in the corner of the room.  Everything about the room was cold and almost clinical. 
There was a steel table in the middle of the room.  A large light hung over the table.  The most disturbing aspect of the room was the drain in the floor.  I shuddered to think of the reason for it to have been built into this room.

I was so busy studying the room
that I nearly missed the professor open a medical kit on top of the table.  There were needles and several vacutainers.  I was starting to recognize that stress worsened my weakness caused by the partial bond.  I felt myself sway on my feet.

I dug my fingernails into my raw palms
, trying to stay conscious.  He set out several vials to collect blood, an alcohol swab, a hypodermic needle, latex gloves, and a tourniquet. 

"Have a seat
." He pointed to a phlebotomist's chair. 

I hesitated for a moment
, and he forced me into the chair. 

"The mutations in your kind's DNA
are truly fascinating," the professor began.  "I wonder if you are still human or if you have evolved into another species.  I've been studying your kind for several years now.  You don't get cancer, heart disease, or any of the problems associated with aging.  If I can unlock the variation in your genetic code that prevents these diseases, I could revolutionize modern medicine."

"I really don't know what you are
talking about.  I'm hardly evolved.  You said that 'my kind,' whatever that means, doesn't get sick.  Well, look at me."  I dramatically lifted my arms out to the side.  "I'm not exactly the picture of health."

He cocked his head to the side, taking a more analytical look at me.
  "We will just have to test your blood and see if you have the mutation.  You do bring up an interesting point, but perhaps you have a congenital defect?  I suppose no species can escape those." 

He tied the tourniquet around my arm and swabbed the bend of my elbow. 
I felt a sharp stick and then discomfort every time he changed the vial.  I tried looking at the wall, but everything was uniformly gray.  I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, but that made me even more lightheaded.  Finally, he started to remove the needle, and I made the mistake of looking.  I saw the thin metal slide out from my puckered skin and I fainted.

I became
aware of garbled voices. One of them was shouting, "I told you if you took her away from me this would happen!"  Finn! Oh thank God. 

I felt myself transferred into Finn's arms.  I knew
they were his because of the warmth and safety that flooded my body.  The sensation allowed me to open my eyes. 

The door slammed and we were alone in our
cold, gray, concrete cell once more.  Finn kissed me.  First it was a simple brush of his lips against mine, and then it turned into a desperate, life-affirming kiss.  I clutched at his hair and twisted myself until I was straddling him.

"Finn?" I asked, wondering if we were really going to make love here. 
It wasn't exactly what I had pictured our first time being like. 

"Chloë, I can stop if you want.  I thought you weren't coming back.  I don't want to die down here.  I am determined to get us out, but if we don't
, I..." His voice cracked.

I looked into his
blue eyes, which were darkened with desire.  "I don't think we should wait either.  I've been stupid, waiting for the perfect time for my life to begin, and all the while, it was passing by me.  If the next moment is our last one, I want to spend it in your arms.  Let's enjoy the time we have left and pray our friends find us before he comes back."

He stroked my hair.  "Did he hurt you?" 

"No. He drew some blood, and I passed out," I reassured him.  It didn't work, because his eyes widened with fear. 

"When that sample shows major differences from human blood
, there will be no more pretending we are human.  They burn our kind at the stake, and we aren't fully mature yet.  We won't survive that." 

I smiled sadly
.  "I know.  There is nothing we can do now but pray our coven gets to us first."

Finn touched the wall, and beautiful ivy spread along the blank grayness.  Grass sprang up out of the hard
, cold floor, and wildflowers clustered here and there.  I looked around, amazed. 

He flashed his wicked half smirk.  "I had a little bit of magic left.  If this is all the time we have left, it should be beautiful.
"

I grabbed his hair and pulled him back into a kiss.
  He sucked my lip into his mouth and gently bit down.  I released an involuntary moan, and he trailed kisses down my neck.

I slid my hands up his shirt and traced my fingers across his rippling abs.  He sucked in a breath and
yanked his shirt over his head.  Continuing my exploration to the contours of his back, I followed the dip of his spine and teased the skin above his pants.

Emboldened by my examination, he slipped his hand into my shirt.  His large hand spread across my stomach, scorching my skin with his heat.
  It slid to my back, and he lowered me gently onto the soft grass. 

I pulled my shirt over my head, and Finn saw my bloody palms
from where I’d fallen when he’d shoved me into the other room.  He picked up each hand and gently kissed my scrapes. 

"He is going to die violently," Finn swore. 

"The rules..." I began. 

"Screw the rules
, Chlo.  They can't do what they have been doing without retaliation."

I bobbed my head in agreement. 

"That's it? You aren't going to fight me?" he aske
d
.
 

I traced his lips with my index finger.  "There are much more interesting things I can think of for these lips
to do than argue with me."

He groaned, and his mouth crushed against mine.  This time
, the kiss was feverish.  I fumbled with the button of his jeans, and he tugged at mine.  When I managed to pop the button free, he immediately kicked his jeans off.  Seconds later, he pulled mine free.  Our underwear was flung towards my jeans.

"I, uh
… I don't have protection," Finn stammered, embarrassed.  I raised an eyebrow at him.  "Right. We might not get out of here alive," he muttered. 

I leaned forward and flicked my tongue against the hollow of his throat.  I rubbed his calf with my foot and watched the
moment he stopped thinking wash over his face.

He wrapped my leg around his waist and rocked forward.
  Once he was inside me, he paused.  A light sheen of sweat beaded on his forehead.  His breathing was ragged.  He buried his face into the side of my neck and held me tight.

I felt him everywhere
—on my skin and in my soul.  Slowly, he started to move.  Each thrust brought me to the edge.  I wasn't only racing toward pleasure.  It was the last push over the cliff, and I fell.  I knew this was the moment I fell completely, unalterably in love with him.

I
’d loved Finn before, but I finally understood what it meant to be in love.  Finn was a part of me; he was in my soul, my heart, and my every thought.  My body exploded, and I felt him shudder over me.  His arms wrapped around me, and the invisible cables of our bond wound us tighter together.  I was locked into him, and he in me, and I had never felt so free.