Evans, Gabrielle - Firestorm [Fatefully Yours 3] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove)

Fatefully Yours 3

GABRIELLE EVANS

Copyright © 2011

Chapter One

“Why the hell are your eyes blue all of the sudden?” Onyx demanded.

Eyce smirked and shook his head. “I have a theory, but I’m not telling yet.”

Fiero frowned as a mile-wide, shit-eating grin stretched across Eyce’s face. Then the demon turned on his heels and began to strut from the room like a cock in a henhouse. Fiero bit the inside of his cheek to keep from growling in frustration. The least Eyce could do was share his secret with the rest of them. They were supposed to be a team, a family.

“Just a little hint,” Myst called.

Eyce looked over his shoulder, his smile stretching even wider if it were possible. “I got the first one.” Then he disappeared around the corner in the direction of the kitchen.

“Huh?” Myst’s eyebrows drew together as he looked around the room at the rest of them. “What the hell does that mean? He got the first what?”

Fiero knew exactly what the man was talking about, but it didn’t make much sense to him. Echo had told Eyce he loved him. Fiero wasn’t jealous, but he just didn’t get it. Echo had said he loved Fiero as well. So, why hadn’t his eyes changed? No, there had to be more to it.

“I guess I’ll get started on the laundry,” Onyx grumbled under his breath. He headed in the direction Eyce had gone, a deep scowl on his face. “I really hate fucking laundry.”

Syx slapped Vapre in the back of the head. “Research, my dear.”

Vapre rubbed the back of his head as he glared at the demon. “What the fuck was that for?”

“Gentlemen.” Echo clucked his tongue at them. “Is it really necessary for you to use some variation of the word ‘fuck’ in every sentence?” His small hands fisted on his hips, and he arched an eyebrow in question.

“Sorry,” Vapre mumbled.

Fiero bit the inside of his cheek again, but this time it was to hold in his laughter. Their little mate was quite the pistol. In just the couple of months since he’d arrived on their doorstep, Echo had insinuated himself right at the top of the chain of command. The warriors may be double his size and triple his strength, but they all fell in line when Echo spoke.

If anyone had told him that he’d be taking orders and bending over backward to please someone he could easily snap in half with one hand, Fiero would have laughed in their face. Yet, there he was, trying not to smile, and praying Echo didn’t turn that sexy little smirk in his direction. Badass demon warrior or not, he was a complete sucker for his mate. He’d do anything to make the man smile.

Echo sucked his plump bottom lip into his mouth and bit it, the corners of his mouth twitching as he stared back at Vapre. “Better. Now, Syx is right, though I don’t think there was a need to be quite so violent about it.” He turned his sapphire blue gaze on Syx.

Syx hung his head and shuffled his feet. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

Echo shrugged. “Okay, now go Google your Yahoo and find out about raining fire.” He flicked his wrist, dismissing them as he turned on Myst.

Myst held his hands up in surrender. “You’re hungry. I’m going.” He turned without another word and disappeared out of the room.

Fiero knew what was coming and hurried to cut off Echo’s next order. “We’re on it.” He nudged Hex with his shoulder. “You want the upstairs or down?”

“I don’t want to clean,” Hex grumbled.

“And I don’t want the princess to get his panties in a bunch.”

“I heard that,” Echo said icily. Then his features softened, and he strolled over to them, rubbing up against Fiero like a cat before turning his attention on Hex. “How about we make it a race? The first one finished gets to come find me and do wicked, naughty things to me.” He licked his lips seductively then whirled around and headed for the stairs. “Don’t take too long.”

Fiero watched their mate bound up the stairs, then looked at Hex as a slow, devious grin spread over his face. “What are the odds he’ll let us skip the cleaning and jump right into the naughty part?”

Hex seemed to consider it for a moment, then shook his head slowly. “Slim to none, I’d guess.”

“Want to test that theory?”

Hex continued to shake his head. “You do remember what happened the last time I pissed him off, right? He just about handed me my ass on a silver platter. You do what you want. I’m going to clean.”

Fiero nodded reluctantly. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Rubbing his palm over the growing erection behind his zipper, he sighed. It wasn’t like Echo would be up for doing all the things Fiero wanted anyway. The man had a distinct aversion to anything dealing with ropes or restraints. Not that Fiero could blame him after what his mate had been through in that lab, but it definitely put a damper on Fiero’s kinky nature.

Maybe with a little more time and trust, he’d be able to talk Echo into all the dirty things he wanted to do to the man. Echo’s smooth, creamy skin would look so beautiful against the black silk scarves Fiero had in his dresser. His mate stretched out, tied to the bed, turning his pleasure over to Fiero—the mere thought left him struggling for breath.

Sighing again, he pushed the thoughts away and began moving around the room, straightening the couch pillows and picking up beer bottles from the coffee table. No sense in letting his thoughts linger on something he couldn’t have. Maybe one day, but for now, he’d take what Echo could give him and be grateful for it.

* * * *

“What exactly are we supposed to be researching?” Vapre pushed a hand through his long, silver-blond hair and groaned. “Fire falling from the sky? Because I’m sure there is just a ton of information on that.”

Syx nodded sympathetically as he powered up his laptop. “I don’t know either, but Fiero’s going to need all the help he can get. We have to try.”

“I get that.” Vapre dropped down on the sofa in the office and stared out the window. “We’re supposed to be getting another snowstorm at the end of the week.” He didn’t know what that had to do with their current predicament, but it seemed important somehow.

Syx grunted in acknowledgement that he’d heard Vapre, but otherwise didn’t comment. His fingers flew across the keyboard, his eyes narrowed as he stared at the screen. “Instead of worrying about how the fire will come about, maybe we should focus on figuring out how to combat something like that. Let’s think worst-case scenario.”

Vapre turned the idea over in his mind, trying to come up with the worst possible outcome of fire raining down from the sky. “Forest fire?”

Syx bobbed his head in agreement. “There are certainly enough trees around here to make that an issue. Depending on how much humidity remains in the air after the storm, it could be dry enough to burn for days. Then we have to worry about the fire spreading closer to town. Maybe we should see about evacuating people.”

“Yeah.” Vapre snorted and rolled his eyes. “And just how do you plan to accomplish that? Are you just going to stroll into the mayor’s office and demand that he evacuate the town because some lady in a dream told us that fire would fall from the sky? I see that going over well.”

Grimacing, Syx continued to pound away at the computer. “Yeah, okay, I see your point. We can’t just sit back and do nothing, though. People could die.”

“And they probably will,” Vapre said softly. He didn’t like it, but it was a fact that they needed to face. The longer it took them to figure out what was coming and how to stop it, the higher the probability that innocent people would lose their lives, the same as had happened with the kappas. Damn, he hated those little bastards, and yet Echo treated them like beloved family pets. Sometimes he wondered if their mate was running on all cylinders.

“He says they’ll be useful, and Eyce and Hex agree,” Syx said without looking up. “I happen to agree as well. You don’t have to like the little monsters, but you need to realize that they could be a big help in the war that’s coming.”

Okay, he understood that, but it didn’t mean he had to like it. “They’re fucking creepy, man.”

“They’re not so bad as long as you keep them supplied in cucumbers. Myst thinks they’re hilarious.” Syx clicked the mouse and paused, his eyebrows drawing together as his eyes scanned the computer screen. “Come look at this.”

With a loud groan, Vapre pushed up from the couch and hurried around the desk to peer over Syx’s shoulder. “What am I looking at?”

“Well, I seriously doubt that what’s coming is going to be a natural phenomenon. I think the kappas proved that we need to be ready for anything when it comes to Hades. So, I did a search on mythological creatures associated with fire. I’ve got some pretty good results here. Now, we just need to narrow them down.”

“Okay, so where do we start?”

“Well, here for instance.” Syx clicked on a picture of a fiery bird. “I seriously doubt that we’re going to have to face down a phoenix. So, we mark off creatures with benign natures, and look more closely at the ones that would be easily manipulated and used by Hades.”

“So, the stupid ones,” Vapre deduced.

Syx chuckled under his breath. “Not stupid. I was thinking more along the lines of…trainable.”

“Got it.” Vapre pushed away from the desk and headed for the door. “Let me grab my laptop. It’ll go a lot faster with both of us looking. Divide up what you’ve got and make a list for me to research. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Bring Echo with you,” Syx responded before Vapre could slip out the door. “He might have some ideas. That little shit is smart as a whip.”

Vapre nodded his agreement and hurried off to find his laptop and their mate. Echo may have spent his entire life inside some research facility, but he had a way of looking at things that astounded Vapre. While he and Syx tended to take the more complicated route when it came to solving problems, Echo cut straight to the heart of any issue with barely a blink of an eye. His simplistic way of looking at things was exactly what they needed. It would make their lives a hell of a lot easier if Echo could at least give them some direction.

He hurried up the stairs two at a time, then down the hall to his bedroom to retrieve his laptop before going to find his mate. Once he’d gathered what he needed, he went across the hall and lifted his hand to knock on Echo’s closed door. Just before his knuckles met with the wood, Vapre pulled back and cocked his head to the side as he listed to the sounds coming from inside the room. Smirking and shaking his head, he placed his laptop on the carpeted floor and slowly eased open the door.

Sure enough, his eyes landed on three gloriously naked bodies, rolling around and moving together on the bed as pants, moans, and whimpers filled the bedroom. It seemed Hex and Fiero had finished with their cleaning and had come for a little afternoon snack.

As much as he’d love to join them, he had work to do, and not a lot of time to do it. There would always be later, and besides, he understood the need for a little one-on-one time with their mate. He hadn’t had near enough of it lately, but he wouldn’t begrudge Fiero and Hex. Hell, Vapre had been so busy helping Syx look for Echo’s parents, that he hadn’t really had any one-on-one time with any of his men. He saw each of them every single day, and yet he missed them like crazy. How messed up was that?

Slipping out of the room, he closed the door quietly, picked up his computer, and headed back down the staircase with a heavy heart. It felt like his lovers were slipping away from him, and he knew it was his own fault. Even when he was present, his mind was absent. There were just so many things to worry about, and his mind felt like it was being pulled in fifty different directions at once.

Pausing outside the office door, he scrubbed a hand over his face and growled quietly. It was no excuse. Everyone else in the house had the same worries he did, yet they weren’t pushing him away. No, Vapre needed to pull his head out of his ass and make things right. He just had to figure out how to accomplish it.