Pyromantic Read online

  “Where’s your sense of adventure?” I asked.

  “I think the rabid werewolf ate it.”

  5

  DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME … OR ANYWHERE ELSE

  IT TURNS OUT THAT RIDING on an invisible motorcycle when you are also invisible is incredibly dangerous. Makes me wonder how Wonder Woman manages in an invisible plane. Being a superhero clearly has its advantages.

  We tried to follow Alistair’s car, but people kept attempting to merge into us, thinking we were an empty space. Since Bianca’s veil also managed sound, people couldn’t hear the motorcycle right next to them. I clutched Sid and gave thanks for his excellent reflexes. Things did get a little less terrifying when the roads had enough of a shoulder for us to drive next to the car, but that wasn’t always possible.

  By the time we reached the Inferno, I wasn’t shaking from electrolyte withdrawal anymore, but from pure terror. Sid was ghostly white and not in much better shape.

  I climbed off the bike, barely able to pry the helmet off my head, my fingers were shaking so bad. “Let’s never do that again.”

  “Agreed. Would you think less of me if I vomited over by that car?”

  “I couldn’t possibly think less of you than I already do.”

  “Will you hold my hair? I don’t want to get any puke on it. There might be some lovely ladies in there, and I’m not really into the kind who can sign off on puke hair.” He grabbed both the helmets. Alistair had assured us someone would come out to disinfect the vehicles. At least Sid wouldn’t lose his bike.

  “Yes, because blood, gore, and ash are cool, but you draw the line at vomit.”

  He offered me a friendly arm as we followed Alistair. “I do have some standards, you know.”

  I couldn’t help it—I laughed. Maybe my usual team wasn’t with me, and something ached at the absence of Lock and Ezra, but Sid was good backup, too. And I had to give Bianca some credit. It couldn’t have been easy holding a veil for that long. I didn’t have to like her, but I was going to have to respect her. It was the adult thing to do. Damn it. Being an adult sucks.

  Alistair led us in through a back door and down some stairs into a tiled room that stank of disinfectant. Showerheads lined the wall, each one surrounded by a flimsy vinyl curtain that really only concealed what absolutely had to be covered. Not quite prison-shower bad, but getting there. I really didn’t want to know what the original use of this room was.

  Alistair had us each take a stall, pull the plastic shut, and strip. We threw our clothes and our bandages into the middle of the room, and when I peeked around the curtain, I saw someone in a hazmat suit come in. Sid was very upset when he was forced to hand over all his blades and a bracelet that apparently doubled as a garrote. He settled down once he heard that he’d get them back after they’d been disinfected thoroughly. Dr. Wesley, the woman in the hazmat suit, would be stitching, inspecting, rebandaging, and examining all of us after we were clean, or so Alistair said.

  Again, I didn’t want to know why Alistair even owned a hazmat suit. Our clothes were collected and taken to an incinerator. The liquid soap I had to use had a hospital smell to it—all medicine and no love. Not the kind of thing you purchased in the store. Despite the chemical-warfare-grade cleaning agents, I still had to wash my hair several times to get all of Elias out of there. I’m not sure I managed.

  “Any more and you’ll go down the drain, my wrinkled dumpling.” Ezra grinned at me from around one side of the vinyl. He handed me a fluffy towel. I didn’t shrink away—Ezra’s seen all I have to offer.

  “You never texted us back.” He handed towels to Sid and Bianca, who were on either side of me, but barely looked at them. I guess they got privacy. Probably strict orders. Ezra’s not the best at understanding boundaries. Because he’s charming and heart-smashingly gorgeous, he gets away with a lot.

  “I was a little busy.” I traded the towel for a soft white robe, the kind people steal from luxury hotels.

  Amusement lit up Ezra’s whiskey-colored eyes. He clearly wasn’t buying my lame-ass excuse. “I’m not new, Ava.”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled.

  He gave a head tilt of acceptance before grabbing robes for the others. At least it was just a huffy Ezra I was dealing with, although he was clearly not too upset. I wasn’t sure I could handle Lock right then. Between the bike ride and the earlier fun, I was whuped. All I wanted was some detangler for my hair and a nap. Neither seemed likely.

  Alistair led us all through a few hallways and up a stairwell that I was pretty sure I’d never seen, into an unfamiliar set of rooms. The Inferno is the acting headquarters for the Coterie. The building has three levels, but the public only knows about two. Purgatory, the restaurant, sits on the ground floor. They serve the best burger I’ve ever had, and there’s usually a line out the door—reservations are a good idea. It toes the line between comfortable and swank, and it’s a place people go to be seen.

  If you go through a pair of gilded elevator doors, you can reach the dance club, Heaven. If people go to Purgatory to be seen, then they go to Heaven to be seen with less clothing. The staff wears wings, and everything is ethereal and beautiful. I hate it. To be fair, my only experience with Heaven was a tainted one. My charming ex-boyfriend who will not be named roofied me when I was in Heaven. Lock had to carry me out almost unconscious. Not my favorite memory. Plus, it reminds me of a roller disco for some reason.

  The bottom floor, which is underground, is aptly named Hell. Under Venus’s reign, it was the last place you wanted to be, and frequently became the last place some people were seen alive. I hated it more than Heaven, but at least Hell didn’t pretend. It was large and labyrinthine, and used to be white from ceiling to floor. Venus liked the contrast with blood. Alistair had been remodeling, and this area had obviously already received treatment. It was a bit of a forced remodel. I burned a lot of Hell down during a firefight. The sprinklers and the fire department managed to shut the fire down before it reached the upper floors, so they only took on a little water damage and some smoke.

  The room we were in was put together like a hotel suite—soothing pale green walls, warm colors on the couches and carpets, and a well-stocked minifridge.

  Everything about the room beckoned you to relax—all except one very irate-looking half-dryad. Judging from the plaster dust in the air and the new Ezra-and Lock-shaped dents in the wall, we’d interrupted a disagreement. Ezra’s face was flushed, and he was midshout. At the sight of us, Lock dropped his hands from Ezra’s throat and they both put on a serene countenance. From the guilty look Lock threw my way, I could only assume the quarrel was about me. Great.

  Lock is a very even-keeled kind of guy—usually. Forgiving, gentle, and everything you’d expect from a nature spirit. But people sometimes forget that nature is multifaceted. On one hand, you have idyllic meadows, gentle breezes, fluffy bunnies, and calm seas. On the other? Tornados, earthquakes, monsoons, and sharks. Lock spent most of his time in fluffy-bunny mode. Today was not one of those days. Every muscle in his jaw was tense, and one of them was twitching. His gray eyes were like granite. We stared at each other, and it was like the only people in the room were me, Lock, and his pissy attitude.

  I looked down at my shaking hands and realized that all of this, well, it just sucked, and I didn’t want it anymore. Then Bianca gave him a light kiss on the cheek and the spell broke. Because I was trying to be mature, I didn’t even make a gagging sound. Lock seemed to notice then what state we were all in. He shook the plaster dust from his hair and handed out clothes to everyone.

  Alistair examined the room with chagrin. “The contractors just finished this room. The paint has barely dried. If I didn’t need you both doing other things so badly, I’d make you fix these walls yourself, understood?”

  Ezra was unconcerned, his attention already somewhere else, but Lock appeared repentant.

  Bianca and Alistair and the other Coterie regulars like myself had our own spare clothes on hand. Alistair h
ad called ahead with sizes for June, who grabbed hers and hit the bathroom. Sid took a separate bedroom. And lucky me—my clothing came with a firm hand on my wrist as Lock dragged me into the other bedroom.

  “If you’re going to lecture me, at least turn around so I can get dressed while you yell.”

  He dutifully turned around, even though, like Ez, he’s seen it all before. But Lock has good manners and didn’t point that out. If we were going to fight, I didn’t want to be naked. It’s incredibly difficult to fight in the nude. It’s actually a little disturbing to realize how many times I’ve actually had to do just that. Lock was silent as I got dressed, and he looked more relaxed than before, but I know him. He’d gone into slow-simmer mode. I hadn’t seen him this mad in a while, and I couldn’t decide if I should tiptoe around him or get defensive.

  Ezra slipped in, shutting the door again before anyone could get a peek of me in my unders. He cradled a fire extinguisher in his arms.

  “You here to break up the fight?” I asked. I said it lightly, hoping to decrease the tension in the air. As much as I didn’t want to argue, I also wanted to get it over and done with. It felt weird to have this disconnect between my best friends and me. It was like half my family had packed up and left town, only I knew for a fact that it was my fault and it was not a vacation. Ezra wasn’t mad at me. Frustrated, yes, but not angry. I understood that. He was stuck between Lock and me, though, and trying really hard to not be. It was a crappy position for us to put him in, but I couldn’t see a way out of it.

  Ezra set the fire extinguisher down. “Not today, my little apple fritter. If I thought it would help, I would park my beautiful self in that chair with some popcorn and watch the fireworks. Instead, I am going to be right outside that door, and I’m going to make sure you’re not interrupted.”

  I yanked on a pair of jeans that were still a little loose and grimaced. I’d gained back a lot of the weight I’d lost while fighting Venus, but clearly I wasn’t quite back to myself yet. I fiddled with the zipper, buying myself a few precious seconds. Of course I knew I had to take my medicine, but that didn’t mean I would like it. Ezra came over and cupped my face in his hands. “I refuse to let you two destroy what we have.” He squeezed my cheeks until I made a fish face. “So I’d better hear yelling. Alistair says whatever you break will come out of your pay, just so you know.”

  I spend a lot of time hurting the people I love. Not on purpose. It’s like there’s a radius of pain around me, and the closer you get, the more it sinks into you. Cade had been kidnapped and beaten last spring, just for being the most important person in my life. Dad, I corrected mentally. It was easier to say Cade than it was to say Dad, and I realized that I was doing it for the same reasons that I was avoiding my friends. This thing with Cade was new and fragile, and I was afraid the wrong move would crush the fledgling life we had.

  Lock and Ezra had been hurt at the same time as Cade, Ezra more so than Lock, at least physically. And just like with Cade, I knew that I shared some of the blame for his injuries with Venus. And that sucked, but I knew they were all healing and soldiering on. I’d been too chickenshit to face up to what I’d done to Lock, which was totally different, I know. Yes, Lock had been roughed up in the fight. And that hurt me, of course. Emotional pain, though—I didn’t know what to do with that. Lock had been brave. He’d put his heart out there, and I’d panicked and crushed it. That pain was all on me, and I didn’t know how to fix it.

  Ezra rested his forehead against mine, his eyes inches away. “Try not to do more damage to him, Ava.” He said it softly enough that I wasn’t sure Lock could even hear him. I was too close to peer around him to see if Lock still had his back turned.

  “All my fault and all that?”

  Ezra tweaked my chin. “He got this talk already. If you’d been answering your phone or texting me back, you would have had it, too. The fault is shared, though you both will try to claim it.” He gave me one more reproving look, then sauntered over to Lock, smacked him on the ass, and headed for the door.

  “You’re supposed to say ‘good hustle’ or ‘good game’ after you smack any of our asses,” Lock said. “It’s a rule.”

  Ezra popped his head back in before he shut the door. “When have I ever followed rules? Remember—yelling. Happening now. Not letting you out until a peace treaty has been reached.” Then he shut the door with a soft click.

  I yanked on a tank top and sat on the bed. I didn’t want to start the yelling. I wasn’t angry like Lock was. Okay, so sometimes I was, but mostly what I felt was a hollow dread low in my stomach. How something so empty feeling can also be so heavy at the same time I’ll never know. Heavy, empty, and delicate. I was afraid that in taking out the problem and examining it, I might break everything.

  “You can turn around now.” I folded my hands in my lap. “I’m ready.”

  Lock turned around and didn’t say anything. He tried. He opened his mouth, then shut it. He turned and stared at the wall, as if the words he needed might show up there. His eyes shone and his hands were fisted and I could see that Lock wasn’t just angry, either. He was hurt. I did that. I put that pain there.

  Before I could think too much about it, I got up from the bed, crossed the room, and threw my arms around Lock’s neck. “I don’t want to yell,” I whispered. I closed my eyes and held tight. At first, Lock didn’t move. His whole body was rigid, but I didn’t stop hugging him. “I am so, so sorry.”

  I hate apologizing. Not that I don’t need to do it often, but it always feels like it’s not enough. Even though the words are like glass as they come out, they just don’t quite cut it. It’s like handing a starving person a piece of gum.

  Lock sighed and his shoulders softened. He put his arms around me and squeezed me to him. “I don’t want to yell, either. I hate yelling.”

  “I make you yell a lot.”

  “You really do.” He rested his chin on my shoulder. “You just … you do some really dumb stuff. Brave, but dumb, and it scares the hell out of me.”

  “It’s my superpower. I even make Cade yell sometimes.” He laughed, and it was a startled sound, wet like he’d been crying. I closed my eyes. “I’ve really missed you. This whole thing. It sucks. You’ve been trying to talk to me, and I shut you out. It’s not that I didn’t want to, but what would I say? ‘Sorry for being an ass’ doesn’t really seem to work.”

  “I didn’t exactly make it easy on you. I…” His voice trailed off as if he couldn’t quite make the words happen. But I knew. He’d had to hole up and lick his wounds. I guess we both did, but when you’re the wounded party, you at least have the sense of being wronged to cling to. You know that you didn’t really do anything. But when you’re the one who put all the terrible into action? Nothing to cling to except regret, and let me tell you, regret does not know how to cuddle.

  “We were both kind of assholes,” I said.

  “But you still take the prize,” Lock added. And I didn’t argue, because he was right. He pulled back and looked me in the face, and it finally clicked in just how close my friend was, how wrapped around each other we were, and I felt compelled to run and to lean into him at the same time. Lock didn’t seem to notice.

  He rested his hands on my hips and looked down, and I could have counted every long eyelash if I wanted to before his gray eyes met mine again. “It might take me a while,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t want to forgive you, it’s just…”

  “It’s hard,” I said. “And I kind of have a lot to make up for.”

  “The rejection hurt. It’s your answer to give, but it still hurt. But the radio silence afterward … that hurt more.” He let go of me and walked over to the bed but ended up sitting on the floor, his back against the mattress. He rested his arms on his knees and tilted his head back. “Maybe I overreacted. I don’t know.”

  I sat down next to him, my head resting on his shoulder. “Don’t do that,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Try to ta
ke all the blame. You make the problem all yours to keep me from having to deal with things, and I appreciate it, but this one is on me.”

  Lock took my hand in both of his, absentmindedly massaging the pressure points. “How about we split it thirty–seventy. Then we can both be sorry but you can really torture yourself over it. And that way you’ll have to make it up to me by not throwing yourself in front of every terrible and dangerous situation, and also maybe make me some wacky cake.”

  “You want me to bake? Are you sure you’re not still trying to torture yourself?”

  “Wacky cake is pretty simple—”

  “Do I need to remind you of the great pudding fire?”

  “But—”

  “It was instant pudding, Lock.”

  He dug gently into the padding around my thumb. “How about we have Sylvie make the cake and you can buy ice cream.”

  Ezra opened and shut the door quickly. He walked over and frowned. Then he pushed both of our legs down until they were flat. Lock let go of my hand, but Ezra shook his head, grabbed our wrists, and reconnected us. “You can hold that one.” Then he sprawled out over us, belly up, his head snuggled into my stomach. “You didn’t yell, which was disappointing. No, you had to talk it out. Like grown-ups. Fine. But you have to at least let me take part in the cuddling.” He took my other hand and cradled it on his chest. “And the ice cream. I’m definitely in for the ice cream. Maybe some apology foot rubs. I mean, don’t limit yourself.”

  I kissed the top of his head, pulling back only enough to speak. “What makes you think you get any of this?”

  Ezra snorted. “I should get more. I had to deal with both of you. The whining and the hand wringing. It was unseemly.… And you weren’t much better, Ava.”

  I sighed and rested my cheek on his hair. “I love you, Ezra.”

  “How could you not? You’re only human. Now tell me something I don’t know. Like why you went on a job today without us. We’re a unit. A team. You don’t go out without us. The hare is adequate, but he’s unaware of your ability to get into trouble. You need experienced Ava handlers around at all times.”