“You were my friend,” Sean said, low and deadly, rage and pain combining to intensify the flames surrounding him. “Why?”
Zach tilted his head. For an instant, he looked truly bewildered, as if he didn’t understand, either, how he could have turned into such a monster, but then something evil took over and stared at Sean through Zach’s eyes.
“Because I could,” Zach sneered. “You kept blocking me, though. You, with your super hearing and your impervious skin. I wanted that baby to die, because the power I would have gained from sacrificing an innocent would have been incredible, but you had to play the hero and save her.”
The madman who’d once been Sean’s friend raised his hands into the air. “You just wouldn’t leave it alone, would you? So now, you have to die, and then your woman will die. But since she’s not an innocent, she’s going to have to suffer quite a lot of pain first, to make her death worth my while.”
Zach started laughing, and he hurled a wave of greenish-black smoke at Sean. “Goodbye, O’Malley,” he screamed.
Sean braced for the impact of the magical attack, but it didn’t hurt him—not one bit. Instead, the flames coating Sean’s body reached out toward the smoke and greedily sucked it in, dissipating it completely.
As Zach stared at him, dumbfounded, Sean suddenly had an interesting thought about fire demons. Maybe, since nobody knew exactly what they were, nobody knew exactly how to hurt them. Or, at least, maybe Zach didn’t.
“No! No, no, no, no, no,” Zach shrieked, raising his hands for another attack.
“Now it’s my turn,” Sean said, and he instinctively called for an ability he’d only guessed he might possess, and he hurled a blast of scarlet fire.
Zach threw up a magical shield, though, and then he countered with a different kind of magic. This time, the attack smashed Sean back on his heels. Sean whirled around, absorbing the brunt of the attack and then countering with another, more powerful blast of fire that Zach couldn’t deflect.
This one connected.
Zach screamed horribly as he died.
Sean slumped, exhausted and completely drained, and the flames surrounding him subsided and then disappeared completely. He fell to his knees on the cold concrete, shaking hard and unable even to stand up for one more moment, as his body reacted to his first use of his fire-demon powers.
“Brynn,” he croaked, turning to look for her.
But she was gone.
FIFTEEN
Brynn stormed back into the warehouse with her backup in tow, but when she saw the aftermath of the battle, her heart screamed at her that she was too late. Sean, human again and completely naked, lay collapsed on the floor. Zach, or at least what was left of Zach, lay smoldering in a charred heap in the corner.
She ran to Sean, knelt down, and lifted his head onto her lap, tears running down her face.
“An ambulance is on the way, but you’d better wake up right now, Sean O’Malley. You wake up, or I’ll get the moon to put a curse on you, too, and turn you into a—into a pigeon. A fat, stupid pigeon,” she babbled, uncaring that Sean’s brothers were watching her fall apart.
The four of them picked up Sean and Brynn both, ignoring her protests, and carried them out of the stinking building into the clean night air, not stopping until they arrived at a small park across the street and gently set the pair down on the soft grass. Brynn immediately wrapped her arms around Sean again, holding her breath as his eyes slowly opened. She was relieved to see that only a hint of red-orange fire remained in his pupils.
“A pigeon, hmm? Can a swan fall in love with a pigeon, lass? If so, then I won’t be minding so very much,” he said, his Irish lilt pronounced.
“I don’t know about that, but a swan can fall in love with a fire demon, and I know one who has,” she told him, laughing and crying all at the same time.
She kissed every inch of his face, over and over, until he caught her cheeks in his hands and held her still while he kissed her long and deep, right there on the grass in front of his brothers and, as they arrived, sirens blaring, the entire Bordertown Fire Department, all of whom cheered and made hooting noises.
“I love you, Brynn,” Sean said, gazing into her eyes, and she started crying again.
“I love you, too. Never, ever scare me like that again.”
Oscar took off his shirt and tossed it down over Sean’s hips, laughing.
“Why don’t we cover up the jewels, boyo? And welcome to the family, Brynn. Maybe you can knock some sense into my brother.”
Brynn stared up at the four of them, suddenly realizing that they were hers now. And Kathleen was hers, too. She had a family.
She had a family.
Fresh tears poured down her face.