Dragon's Flame (8 page)

He stepped back but remained in her personal space.

Down the hall to her left, a small man with thin, pinched lips emerged from a room. His gaze landed on them and his expression became more censorious.

Saffron’s face flamed. She pushed Taine out of her space.

He went without resistance, sighed as the other man disappeared into a different room. “Ignore Anders, the guy is a total gnome. To gain his approval you’d have to be wearing a chastity belt and my considerable package would have to be locked behind a titanium cage.”

The heat in her face dissipated with a snort. “Considerable package?”

He captured her hand and pressed it against his erection. “You disagree?”

Heat returned. She wet her lips but said, “I’m not stroking your ego—or anything else while we’re on the job.”

“A challenge. I like that.” Amusement faded into grimness. “Unfortunately, a sorcerer has also presented a challenge.”

She wasn’t positive how much she believed when it came to the supernatural. But take the attraction to Taine out of the equation and there would have been no fury or fuming or confusion after the summons to the Battalion Chief’s office. Her first and only reaction to being assigned to IRE as a consultant would have been excitement.

This was a chance to satisfy her curiosity and see the inside of an organization that was shrouded in mystery. She doubted the brass had looked for reasons to say no to the request.

Taine kept her hand and used it to guide her down a hallway to the right of the front door. “So,” she said. “Sorcerers, what do they do? Spells? And how does that relate to your callout last night?”

She used her free hand to punch his upper arm lightly. “You could have told me the callout was a fire.”

“You’d have been far too much of a distraction, especially wearing my shirt.” He stopped and turned her toward him, cupped her breast. “The interest on that loan is accumulating.”

Heat streaked from her nipple to her sex. “Behave,” she said, a husk infiltrating her voice.

“Impossible around you.”

He nuzzled her ear, delivered a sucking bite to her neck that sent pleasure shivering through her and made the passion mark on her shoulder burn. She ought to give him another, much harder punch for giving her a hickey, except…

His biting her in the moment of orgasm as he’d taken her from behind had added to the ecstasy. Even thinking about it was enough to slicken and swell her sex.

“Behave,” she said, not quite succeeding in sounding calm, cool and collected. “Tell me about sorcerers.”

“There’s a mood killer.”

They resumed walking down the hallway. He said, “Think of sorcerers as rechargeable batteries. They attract and hold magic in varying degrees and can channel that magic into spells that accomplish various things. Most often the magic is transferred into charms like those you saw at the supernatural fair. But, as you’d suspect, not all sorcerers are equal and there are plenty of charlatans.”

“Meaning a lot of the charms were worthless.”

“Without magic, though sometimes the power of belief leads to the desired end result.”

“A placebo effect.”

“Exactly.”

“What’s the connection between a sorcerer and the fires last night?”

“The fires were the result of a spell working. What we don’t know is whether the spell was a success, or whether it was a failure. Ground zero will be our first stop.”

They entered a room. In the center was a short round table surrounded by comfortable chairs. Against the walls were cubicles, making this a law-enforcement bullpen housed in high-end real estate.

Taine guided her to a cubicle cluttered by knickknacks and glittery objects. Her hands twitched with the urge to grab a box and sweep everything into it, or to at least restore order.

More than a few objects depicted dragons. There was a belt buckle with a fire breather, a snow globe with what looked like a dragon fucking a virgin, a stack of poker chips with winged dragons that if they were real gold, had to be worth at least fifty grand.

“This stuff is somehow case related?” she asked.

“No. It’s all mine.” He picked up the snow globe. A blonde woman had her palms pressed to a large gray boulder and was being mounted from behind by a silver-and-black dragon. And damn if that wasn’t erotic as hell.

Taine shook the globe, making it snow inside. Naked and snow shouldn’t go together, but with a dragon…

Got fire?
Yeah. Snow wouldn’t be a problem.

He set the snow globe down on his desk and gave her a heavy-lidded look. “Arousing, isn’t it?”

Not going there. Oh hell no. They were not going to explore kinky fantasies.

“How can you stand the clutter?”

“It helps me concentrate.” He undressed her with his eyes. “Or used to.”

“Behave,” she growled, eliciting a smile that had her fighting against leaning forward and doing the complete opposite by kissing him.

Taine stabbed his keyboard with an index finger. The screen came to life, revealing several rows of faces.

“Suspects?”

“A six pack of sorcerers to show the elderly couple who rented the house where the fire started. We’ll go there after ground zero.”

It felt surreal for an instant, as if she’d stepped into a cop show. How many times had she watched detectives put a picture of their primary suspect with five others, creating what  they called a six pack in the hopes a witness would identify their suspect as the guilty party?

Taine stabbed the keyboard again. A printer hummed then spat out several pages, each with six faces. She picked them up, studied the images. Roughly seventy-five percent of them were men, but no one race dominated. “Do you think there will be more fires?”

“I think by the end of the day we’ll have a pretty good idea of how bad this might get.”

They left the house. Seeing her little red Corolla among all the expensive sports cars, Saffron said, “Do I have to worry about it getting towed?”

“Word will quickly spread that it belongs to you, and you’re with me.”

There was a wealth of satisfaction in his voice. She ignored it. Or rather, her brain did while her body hummed and wanted more time with him, more of everything with him.

Taine opened the sedan’s passenger door for his mate then got into the driver’s seat. If not for this business with the sorcerer, he would be utterly content. If not for the harm that could come to Saffron if he plowed the sedan into something as they drove to ground zero, he’d close his eyes and luxuriate in her scent.

As it was, it was all he could do to keep from filling the car with the sound of purring. He took her hand, tightened his grip when she tried to pull from his grasp.

She relented with a very dragon-like huff. “Only because no one’s watching.”

He brushed his thumb over her knuckles and grinned. She couldn’t resist him.

That was fair. He couldn’t resist her either.

And he could be magnanimous in victory.

He breathed her in. Arousal still laced her scent and it was heady.

Aggravating sorcerers aside, having her with him like this counted as courtship. And what better way to bring her more fully into a realization that supernatural beings existed, and often took human mates, than to have her working a case?

He glanced at his mate.
Glorious tribute to the First Ancestor
. He’d gotten lucky.

Strong. Brave.

Prickly. But a meek mate wouldn’t suit him nearly as well.

Delectable. Beautiful.

His gaze slid to her breasts and he mentally stripped away shirt and bra to admire caramel perfection capped with large dark nipples. And that imagining was followed by jeans and panties disappearing.

His cock throbbed. His lips parted, both tongue and shaft wanting to explore the smooth, wet place between her thighs.

Perfection. That defined his mate.

He readjusted his jeans.

Torment. That also defined his mate.

He wanted to carry her hand to his erection—or better yet, urge her mouth to his cock.

Need shuddered through him but he behaved himself—at painful cost.

Finally they turned onto a street marred by charred building remains. He released her hand so she could maintain her professionalism.

Burned warehouses were visible on both sides of the street. She said, “There must have been one hell of a blast for so much to go up when there’s all this separation.”

“It’s possible the spell working was large enough that the buildings that burned served as anchors. For every reaction there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”

“So they intentionally burned?”

“We’ll know soon enough.”

“It’s amazing that there weren’t any casualties.”

“A dread spell could explain the lack.”

“Does that do what it sounds like it’d do?”

“Yes. Anyone in the targeted area would get a bad feeling and need to leave. Anyone about to enter would be compelled to detour. A more subtle spell would trigger cravings. The sudden need for a taco sold miles away, or a walk on the beach.”

“Is either spell unique enough to point toward the guilty party?”

“No. But the six packs we printed out are those sorcerers who have enough power to do a working this large and also prevent casualties.”

He parked behind a black sedan identical to the one they were in. She asked, “What’s the total building count? I heard the damage was in the millions but didn’t hear how many warehouses caught fire.”

“Seven warehouses, one old house. The house is ground zero.”

They got out of the sedan. He shoved the hand closet to her into his jeans rather than pull her against him so that no one could miss the fact that she belonged to him. They headed toward Crew and Gaige, who stood well back from Kristof.

The IRE sorcerer’s skin was a deeper brown than Saffron’s. His hair was also longer, the dozens of braids pulled back into a thick ponytail. Taine’s eyes narrowed with thoughts that his mate might be attracted to the human sorcerer.

Despite his good intentions, Taine’s hand slid from his pocket and gripped her arm. He tried to make it appear as if he was ensuring that she traveled safely through the debris. Gaige’s head shake and Crew’s eye roll said they weren’t fooled.

“I’m good,” Saffron said, an edge in her voice as she stepped to the side, freeing herself from his grip.

He suppressed a growl. Glowered at Gaige and Crew. Inhaled.

The scent of his mate’s earlier arousal lingered. But it didn’t seem to be intensifying.

That was acceptable. He wasn’t lavishing amorous attention on her at the moment. And appearances mattered to her. According to her, they were supposed to be acting professional.

His sanguinity lasted all of a heartbeat.

“Catch up to you in a minute,” she said, angling away from him and toward an older Hispanic man.

Her light steps and hurried pace had smoke working its way into Taine’s nostrils. He sucked it back into his lungs and forced himself to join Gaige and Crew rather than chase after his troublesome mate.

They didn’t hide their amusement at watching him watch Saffron.

The hand she offered the human turned into a quick hug and a small tendril of smoke accompanied Taine’s growl.

Gaige shook his head. “Walk away my friend. Even if the two of you bond, love means that you will never again be in control.”

“I am in control of the situation,” he said without glancing away from Saffron.

Crew laughed. “The delusion continues.”

“Comes with the territory,” Gaige said. “Do me a favor, if I ever look at a woman the way Taine is looking at his human, lock me in a cell until I come to my senses.”

“If you’ll do the same for me.”

“Agreed.”

Taine ignored them. Fought the urge to join Saffron as she spoke to the human.

An unbearable time—measured in minutes by his companions but by agonized self-restraint for him—passed before Saffron returned to his side.

Taine struggled not to pull her into his arms and smother the traces of the other man’s scent with his own. His control held primarily because she didn’t smell of lust.

When he was sure it wouldn’t come out as a growl, he asked, “Who is he?”

“Miguel Gutierrez. He’s an arson investigator.”

Crew’s eyes glittered with amusement. He offered a hand and introduced himself to her. Gaige did the same, then tilted his head in Kristof’s direction and said, “That’s Kristof. He’ll tell you himself, he’s IRE’s best sorcerer.”

The sorcerer was too absorbed in studying the area around him to acknowledge the introduction. Crew asked Saffron, “Did Gutierrez tell you anything?”

“He thinks the house was completely empty of furnishings. He was more interested in what you knew.”

“Right now, that’s nothing.” Crew glanced at Kristof then at Taine, leaving it up to him how much to reveal.

Taine lightly curled his hand around his mate’s forearm, earning a smirk from Crew. “This was a major working. A complex spell can spread across a large area and require that nothing be touching the lines, which explains the empty house. This won’t be where the sorcerer lived.”

“So spells are written? Not spoken?”

“It depends on the spell,” Kristof said, drawing their attention to him.

He pulled what looked like fine, white netting from a yellow knapsack with a black multi-circle hazard symbol stitched onto the front. Completely liberated, the woven magic was circular, some twenty feet in diameter, and a costly use of power. But given that there were humans other than Saffron on site, the netting would allow Kristof to reveal pieces of the spent spell while allowing observers to see something they could understand and label advanced, even alien, technology.

IRE wasn’t charged with the goal of increasing human awareness of the supernatural. Though as a division of Supernatural Operations, their work sometimes had that effect.

In moderation, revelations were acceptable. Anything beyond moderation would earn an ass-kicking, maybe all the way back to the offender’s home world.

“This working had a focal point,” Kristof told Saffron, his gaze lingering a little too long on her as far as Taine was concerned. “It took a while to follow it to this spot. This is absolute ground zero. And because there is a focal point, the symbols here should tell us what the sorcerer was after.”