Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (49 page)

“Yeah, yeah, yeah—
I’m probab
ly all of that and more,” I agree
in a stern tone, “but don’t thi
nk for one second I’m lettin’ you off this ship, so you
can turn ‘r
ound right now and go back to you
r room.”

“Leav
e ship! Stay on ship!” Anya rants
in a derogat
ory way
as she wildly gestures
with her hands. “You non compos mentis, Russell. You cannot decide what you are wanting.”

“Don’t
try to twist this,” I respond
with equal heat. “
I want you to go somewhere else—
not the exact same place I’m goin’
.
”

“How am I to know that you
volunteer for the mission, too?
You do not share your intentions with me. I do not possess the magic
to read your mind!” she replies
.

“Yeah, well, I bet y
ou
can tell what I’m
thinkin’ right now,” I retort
angrily.

“I no longer care what
you are thinking,” she replies
. “I volunteer for this missio
n and I am going.” She attempts to step ‘round me again, but I block
her.

“Anya,” I growl when she tries
to
duck by me the other way. “You’
r
e
stayin’ h
ere until I get back,” I order
as I pi
ck
he
r up
off her feet
and heft
her over my shoulder. Carryin’
her back do
wn the hall to my room,
I dump
her quickly on my bed.

“Russell!” she squeaks
at me, too angry to even yell at me in Angel.

“We’l
l talk later ‘bout this,” I say
, before backin’ out of the roo
m. Closin’ the door, I whisper
words to it, sealin’ it shut tight for the next hour or so wit
h a spell. Grinnin’ when I hear
Anya try to
kick down the door and it holds tight, I turn and ru
n back down the hall to the deck of the ship.

Mil
itary grade helicopters
with advanced weaponry
speckle
the deck with their rotors warmin’ up. Spottin’
Zee already seated in one, I ru
n to it, climbin’ in next to him.
"We’
re not
gonna fly with our wings?" I ask
.

Zee shrugs,
“
This will get us near the castle fa
ster. It is also less taxing. We will
bail out before we get there so they do not hear us coming.
I thought you were
going to miss it,” Zee comments
next to me, usin’ a loud voice to be heard over the engines.

“I ra
n into a complication,” I yell, but smile when I remember
the feelin’ of Anya’s body against mine.
The crickets are still buzzin’ ‘
round wildly inside of me.

“I think your complication h
as followed you,” Zephyr replies
a
bove the noise of the rotors. Anya emerges
onto t
he deck of the ship and strolls
over to our helicopter.

As she brushes
past me to a seat, small pi
eces of wood and fiberglass fall
off her armor, lettin’ me know that she couldn’t break through the door I had put a spell on, so she went through the wall.

Sittin’ ki
tty-
corner from me, she smoothes
her hair back delicately like a cat, raisin’ her
eyebrow cunningly when I scowl at her. As I tear
my eyes away from hers,
I try
hard to get control of the warrin’
emotions her presence instills
in me. I don’t know if I want to shake her or kiss her…or both.

Through the open doorway, I see
Reed standin’ among the Seraphim on
the deck of the ship. He nods
his head when Tau
places
his hand on Reed’s shoulder in a ges
ture of respect. When he drops his hand, Reed turns toward the main door. I glance
ov
er in that direction too and see
Red standin’ by the entryway with her arms crossed over her chest and her hair whippin’ wildly ‘ro
und her in the wind. Reed walks
to her an
d when he reaches
her, he picks her up off her feet and kisses her like he’ll
never let her go.

I frown then, not ‘cuz I’m jealous—
I mean I am, but it has lost its intensity somehow…it’s different. Glancin’ at Anya, she’s no longer lookin’ at me, but out the other doorway at the sea. A
few moments later, Reed climbs
into the seat across f
rom mine and the helicopter leaves
the deck.

While Anya continues
to st
are at the sea, my eyes wander
down the delica
te slope of her neck. I wonder what she i
s thinkin’ ‘bout and what it would be like to kiss her like I dream of kissin’ her whenever I close my eyes
.

Everlasting
L
ove

Evie

Cold, fine drops of rain fall
softly on my cheeks as I emerge
from the darkness of the ship’s interior to the gray, overcast sky of
the main deck. Pulling my dark
pea coat tighter to my
body, the wind lifts red tendrils of my hair. I walk
slowly to the railing overlooking the water.

Even though the initial reports from Reed a
nd his team are good, I had felt
suffocated listening to them in the comfort of the Seraphim’s control room. Envisioning Reed, Russell, and Zephyr roaming the shadowy rooms of Brennus’ castle has me unable to sit still or think clearly. I spared little thought for what the Seraphim would think before I had left their meeting abruptly. They’re the ones that insisted that I stay with them; so right now upgrading their opinion of me isn’t a priority.

I catch
my first sight of the Irish coastline; its craggy lands
cape makes
me shiver in dread. I find it difficult to imagine now
how the Gancanagh had made this their home for so long without anyone realizing it. The cold, moss-covered edifices practically scream
their presence. As I study
the shadows between th
e falling-down stone, I imagine
creeping shapes of undead Faeries grasping the rock, waiting for our ship to draw nearer to their position.

Tipping my face up, I let the
rain wash over me. It bathes
away the frigid sweat of fear that has broken on my brow.

“You don’t know how fiercely beautiful you are, do you
?” A quiet voice behind me asks
, causing me to stiffen and fix my eyes on the rocks along the shoreline.

“Xavier,”
I say
in a tight voice, “if there was ever a time to leave me alone, it would be now.”

“I have left you alone—
t
oo long alone,” he replies.

I glance at him over my shoulder and I see
the strange expre
ssion on his face that resembles
something disturbingly like regret. “Continue the
trend, I don’t mind,” I reply
.

Xavier grins
, “When your insult is accompanied by your winsome smile, it takes all the edge out of the remark.”

“I’ll try to affe
ct a scowl next time,” I say
.

He joins me at the railing.
“You could try, but they’re j
ust as seductive—” he begi
n
s
.

“What do you want?” I interrupt
, stiffening in confusion.

“I saw you slip out of the strategy meeting.
Why did you leave?” he asks
.

“Strategy,” I murmur
the word like it’s an illusive concept, “the art of planning.”

“I remember your fondness for it. You used to
have a strategy for everything—
studying, entertaining, shopping…you used to lay out
y
our clothing each night before
school,” Xavier says
with another grin. “Cole and I would wager whether you’d actually wear the outfits that you chose or change them at the last second.”

“You were spying on me in my bedroom
? That sounds perverted
,” I reply
, wrinkling
my nose at him. My cheeks burn
not only with that thought, but also at my stupidity for not knowing that they were there.

“I
was guarding you,” he corrects
me. “So why did you leave the strategy meeting? It’s not like you to let any detail escape y
our attention.” His mouth curves
in a cunning smile as he watches
me frown.

“You go ahead and ma
ke your plans,” I reply
in a dismissive way, irritated that he thinks he knows me well.

“You sound as if you believe it is f
utile to do so,” Xavier remarks
.

Facing him, I
see both his blue eye
and his green eye. He is so big,
like Russell, in fact, they have a similar look to them, but Xavier’s hair is much lig
hter than Russell’s tawny color—
more golden…extremely handsome
.
I used to like his size, but
right now it’
s annoying because it makes me feel small.

“It is futile,” I reply
. My knuckles tighten
on the railing in front of me, causing them to turn whiter.

“There can always be a plan, if y
ou know your enemy,” Xavier says
in a quiet voice.

“I know my enemy. That’s why
I’m not making plans,” I reply
.

“What does Brennus want from yo
u? Do you know?” Xavier asks.

I flinch at the mention of Brennus’
name. “He wants me to
be his undead queen,” I answer
in a voice that quivers
a little.

“Why?” he questions
with his
eye
brows pulling together
in concentration
.

“Why what?” I ask
as drops of rain slid
e
down my cheeks.

“What is it abou
t you that he desires?” he asks
in a probing tone. “Apart from the fact that you’re a beautiful, tempting morsel…”

My face flushes
wi
th color again as his eyes rove
over me and
I want
to hit him when
he
chuckle
s
.
Raising my chin, I reply
, “I think it’s important to him that I see the good in him that di
dn’t die.” The smile falls
away from Xavier’s lips to be replaced by a deepening frown. “Something good survived in him that Aodh, his maker, couldn’t kill a
nd that part of him craves love—
yearns for it.”

“You’re wrong,” Xavier disagrees
in a tight voice. “Nothing good survived his transformation from Faerie to Gancanagh.”

“How do you know?” I counter
.

“Because he follows you even though it’s wrong. If his love were pure, he’d let you go so that you could pursue what you desire. He wouldn’t try to change you into one of th
em because he knows that it’
d be t
he death of you,” Xavier replies
, his breathing increasing with restrained emotion.

“Brennus hasn’t changed me yet and he’s had p
lenty of opportunity,” I point
out. “He’s not what he seems.
..and I think he’
s different
around me.
”

“
He’
s different? How is
he different
?”
Xavier asks while his jaw tightens
.

“
He...he’
s nicer. I make him nicer,”
I admit.

“Nicer?”
he asks like he doesn’
t know the word.

“He doesn’
t want to hurt anyone
when he’
s with me. M
aybe I do that to him. Maybe it’s because he says I’
m always giving him my energy. He says he craves it
like an ad
diction. Maybe I make him nice,”
I explain.