Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,7
was among the shadowkind.
Just how much of a monster was I going to become while we saw this mission through?
An unnerving prickling crept over my skin with that question, as if some of my inner fire was already rising to the surface. I wet my lips. “Before we do any blazing, could we find someplace for me to get in a little fire-throwing practice? I’d like to make sure I still have a good grip on my powers after the downtime.”
No need to mention that I already suspected I was losing my grip.
Omen frowned as if he resented the delay, but then he sighed. “It isn’t as if we’d go barging in there five minutes from now anyway. You can toss your flames around while we discuss our plan of action. The dwarf did mention a place where we should be able to park Darlene without being observed or disturbed.”
He pulled up the map on his phone and barked a few directions at Ruse, who gamely drove us through a sprawling residential neighborhood and out to a strip mall where all the store windows were boarded up. They formed a perfect C around the parking lot Ruse drove into. Plenty of room and no witnesses—just the way we liked it.
I stepped out into the cool night air and rolled my shoulders, willing my nerves to settle. That little accident the other day was no big deal. So my powers were a little capricious still. What else would you expect when I was some weird type of mortal who occasionally bled smoke as well as blood?
There was no guidebook on being… whatever the hell I was. I just had to get used to my unexpected abilities. And as for Talon and his sunglasses, he’d probably been pulling crap out of his ass, hoping he’d freak me out as payback for mocking his interior design sense.
There’d been a time only days ago when I hadn’t been able to summon a flame except under terror of death. Now, I fixed my gaze on a paper bag drifting along the asphalt, and the surge of power swelled inside me so swiftly my heart started thudding because of that magic instead of the other way around.
“Burn,” I murmured with a flick of my fingers.
Heat shot through my arm, and the paper bag exploded into flame. In seconds, it was nothing but a little heap of charred black flakes.
Ruse clapped his hands for me where he was conferring with Omen and Thorn beside the Everymobile. “Bravo!”
I grinned at him in return, but my face felt stiff. The prickling sensation that had welled up inside me before was spreading all through my chest and down to my gut.
As long as it stayed there, I was just fine. No self-roasting today; no problem.
I swiveled around in search of more targets. A tattered flyer for a small-time theater production—with one sharp look, it was ashes. A paper plate with grease stains in the shape of a slice of pizza—cinders. An empty pop can that rattled as it rolled in a gust of wind—why the hell not?
I stared at it, my gaze narrowing to a glare. Heat blazed from my chest through my throat to the back of my eyes, and—
A rush of fire burst up not just on the can itself but several inches around it too. The heat of those flames flared so intensely that it lashed across my body from five feet away.
Or was that the heat inside my body flaring at the same time? The sensation whipped up in a whirl that sizzled up my spine and across my shoulder blades, and pain stabbed through my back.
A cry caught in my throat. I winced, drawing my arms toward my chest, and both the pain and the fire around the pop can shimmered down.
Or rather, around the smear of melted metal that marked the ground where the pop can used to be. Holy liquified lizards, I’d reduced the aluminum to a puddle in just moments. A little more practice and I wouldn’t even need to miss my titanium scorch-knife with its magically heated blade anymore.
A slightly hysterical giggle tickled up from my chest. Watch out, Company of Light.
As I adjusted my stance, the fabric of my shirt shifted against my back, and a fresh sting jabbed across my right shoulder blade. I tensed instinctively. With careful fingers, I prodded the flesh just below the collar of my shirt.
Even that tentative touch provoked more stinging. Small ripples met