FOURTEEN
Brynn had never been so afraid in her life. The man—Zach, he’d called himself—who’d knocked her out with poison powder and set her house on fire was absolutely, certifiably, insane. Worse, he was messing with black magic.
He’d slapped her face until she’d regained consciousness, and then he’d bragged to her about how he’d set more than seventeen fires in Bordertown and other places. The seventeen fires had claimed six victims so far, and he’d recited every single name, almost as if he were boasting, chanting the six names rhythmically like a prayer.
Like a curse.
When Brynn had been unable to hide her revulsion, he’d slapped her again, tied her hands behind her, shoved her over to a wooden box, and told her to sit. When she’d tried to fight him, he’d pulled out a plastic bag filled with more of the gray powder and asked her if she’d rather be conscious or unconscious when her lover arrived.
So now she sat, hands tied behind her, and fought back the shuddering terror that Sean would run headfirst into Zach’s trap and get himself killed. She didn’t have time to fall apart. She needed to be able to think, plan, and fight back.
Zach was planning to kill Sean, and there was absolutely no way she was going to let that happen. She took a long, steadying breath, and forced herself to calm down, look around, and think. Unfortunately, there weren’t any convenient caches of weapons or a telephone handy, because she wasn’t living in a movie. Bruce Willis wasn’t going to yippee-ki-yay his way into the building and save the day, but Sean—the man whom she now realized she loved—was going to try.
She believed in Sean far more than any movie hero, but if she didn’t act fast, he was going to get himself killed.
The stench of mold and garbage permeated the interior of the hulking warehouse where she’d regained consciousness. The building was made of steel and concrete—harder to burn, Zach said—and it had clearly been abandoned years before. Piles of debris hunched in corners, and Brynn was sure the movement she’d seen at the edges of the cracked concrete floor was rats.
Zach took a break from his frantic pacing and followed her gaze.
“Rats! Are you afraid of rats, little girl?” He chortled like a caricature of an evil villain, and all she could do was watch him in disbelief.
“You kidnapped the wrong woman, if you wanted somebody who was afraid of rats,” she said flatly. “Why don’t you let me go, and I’ll help you catch a few of those rats so they can eat your eyes out? Then at least you won’t be able to see to set any more fires.”
He turned his reptilian gaze on her, and she shuddered. “Watch your mouth, you slut. Dropped your pants for O’Malley fast enough, didn’t you? That’s the problem with people today. No morals.”
“You’re an arsonist and a murderer,” she shouted at him. “How dare you speak to me about morals?”
He whirled and threw his hands into the air, hurling a bolt of green smoke at the rats, who squealed and scurried away. They didn’t seem to be hurt, but they weren’t sticking around, either, so Brynn didn’t know how to judge the strength of Zach’s magic.
Before she could say or do anything else, a thunderous roar sounded from just outside the door. Someone was shouting her name, and Brynn realized she was out of time.
Sean had arrived.
The warehouse door blew off its hinges and slammed down to the floor, and a creature she’d only heard about in rumors and fairy tales crashed into the room. Red-hot flames surrounded the shape of a big man, but they didn’t seem to be burning him. The blaze moved with him—part of him—covering him like a second skin. Heat shimmered around his body like a warped version of a halo, and she didn’t need to get any closer to confirm that her first impression had been right.
This was a fire demon in full, raging fury and, if the stories were true, its next move would be to set fire to Zach, Brynn, and everyone else within a half-mile radius of the warehouse. Despair washed through her, and she fought wildly against the rope tying her wrists behind her. She didn’t care if it killed Zach, but she didn’t want to die today, and she really, really didn’t want to burn to death.
She jumped up off the box, but before she could take a single step the demon started running toward her, and she caught sight of its face.
His face.
The fire demon was Sean.
He hadn’t been kidding about secrets.
* * *
Sean saw Brynn hunched over, one side of her face red and swollen, and any hope of restraint shattered. Zach had hurt her, and he was going to die badly. But Brynn was alive. She was alive.
He roared her name again and headed straight for her, not realizing until he saw her face that she might not welcome his approach. That she might be afraid.
Afraid of him.
The flames engulfing him must have malfunctioned in some way, because now they were searing his heart.
Before he could think of something to say to reassure her, he caught sight of movement in the corner and spun around, shielding Brynn with his body, and faced Zach.
“I knew it! I knew you were a fire demon all along, or at least I’ve known ever since I started to practice black magic,” Zach said, smiling crazily.