Page 25 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

Neith

“N eith!” someone suddenly yells, and we all break apart.

“Fuck,” Coen curses as he looks at the flames surrounding us.

“That’s not good,” River mutters, his eyes wide.

Senka suddenly appears in the ring of fire with us, “No, it's not. You three really need to be careful where you choose to make out and maybe do it in less flammable places.”

“Whoops,” I mutter. I know I should probably regret it, but the only thing that I am currently regretting is that we were interrupted and I didn’t get to play with both of them.

Senka rolls her eyes, “You need to put it out before this whole forest goes up in flames, and then you’ll have to deal with some very pissed off supernatural creatures that currently call it home.”

“Shit, sorry. You’re right,” I reply as my brain switches from sexy as fuck men to the fact that we are standing in a ring of fire, which is rapidly spreading.

“It’s not just yours, it belongs to all three of you. You’re all going to have to work together to get it under control,” Senka explains.

“Well, at least it wasn’t just me that lost control,” I grin.

Coen chuckles, “I’m not sure that’s a good thing, Love.”

I shrug, “We’ll just have to make sure that when the three of us are together, we do it in my room. That one is fireproof.”

Both of their expressions heat with desire as they realize what I’m suggesting, and I smirk as they take a step closer to me.

“For fuck sake,” Senka growls, her little foxy form flickering with irritation.

She reminds us of what’s at stake, “The fire, the homes of the supernatural creatures that live here, and the fact that if it gets much bigger you are going to gain the attention of some supernaturals that we really want to avoid you gaining the attention of.” Her eyes widen slightly, and I’m going to assume that it’s because she’s told us something that she wasn’t supposed to.

“Who?” River asks, his eyes narrowed.

Senka shakes her head, “You shouldn’t even know that there is a who. Just pull back the fire as quickly as you can, and try not to let your combined fire get so out of control again.”

“And she’s gone,” I mutter, rolling my eyes as Senka disappears. “Let’s get rid of this fire.”

It only takes us a couple of moments to reel the fire back in, and River even uses his gift with the earth to heal the scorched ground, and soon everything is looking exactly as it did before our make-out session almost caused catastrophic events.

“So, any ideas what she meant?” Coen asks, once everything is back to normal.

I shake my head, “I have no idea. But she obviously wasn’t supposed to tell us that much.”

“No, definitely not,” River agrees. “It does mean that we’ve apparently got another unknown threat.”

I shrug, “What’s another one at this point?”

They both grin at my nonchalance.

“Fair point. The spirit guides must be in the background making sure that we don’t gain their attention. I assume that they will let us know when the time is right or when we have gained the threat's attention. Whomever they are,” Coen replies.

“Probably,” I reply, pulling my phone out of my pocket and sending a text in our group chat so I don’t forget to tell them later. “I’ll let the guys know.”

“Good plan,” River says, as he pulls me under his arm and kisses the top of my head.

I type out a message explaining the latest developments and immediately get messages back from the others.

Reed: Awesome, more threats.

Raiden: We’ll put it in the to deal with later pile.

Ransom: Good idea. It’s probably something that we already know is a threat anyway.

Doc: I don’t think that we’re that lucky.

Van: We’re not. We’ll deal with it when it becomes an issue.

Griff: I’m happy to go with that plan. Like a lot of things at the moment, there isn’t really much else that we can do.

Van: Agreed.

I put my phone away and look at Coen and River, “What now?”

“Come on,” Coen says with a grin. “Show me what you guys figured out about your fire.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” I ask.

Coen’s eyes heat. “I promise I won’t try to get you naked again while we’re out here.”

“I guess I promise that too?” River adds, phrasing it like a question, and not seeming too happy about it.

“Shame,” I smirk.

Van

P utting my phone in my pocket again, I frown. Threats need to stop appearing out of the fucking woodwork, or at least give us the chance to get rid of the last one before another one appears.

Glancing at Doc, who is also frowning unhappily at the latest turn of events, he glances up at me, “I find it a hell of a lot more worrying that a spirit guide is worried about a threat to us than any of the other threats we are facing.”

I nod, “Yeah, I know what you mean. Especially since we’re not apparently supposed to know about the threat yet.”

“I don’t like all the unknowns,” he adds, and I hum in agreement.

He decided that he would rather look over the case files and his notes in the office with me, and to be honest, I’m grateful for the company.

It helps to pull me out of my work every now and then.

Which I need, or I end up getting so sucked into it that I lose huge chunks of time.

Kind of like Raiden does when he goes to the library.

Both of us refocus on our work for a while before I remember that I wanted to check in with him.

“How’s the feeding thing going?” I ask him. “We haven’t really spoken about it since you first brought it up.” I frown, “Sorry, man, I should have checked in sooner.”

Doc glances up from what he’s reading and smiles, “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like we’ve actually stopped properly for a while. It seems to be just one thing after another at the moment.”

“I know, but I still should have asked,” I reply. I don’t like it when I drop the ball like this. It’s my job to make sure that everyone in the team is okay, and I know you all come to me if you have issues, but I like to be on top of it.

“Seriously, stop worrying it’s fine.” He reassures me and then continues, “I’m doing great, actually.

I still can’t seem to feed from anyone else, but I have absolutely no desire to.

I really don’t want to feed from anyone else but Neith, which is an entirely new experience for me.

It hasn’t seemed to affect me as much as it should.

I’m still picking up enough,” he smirks, “more than enough actually, from her and you guys. Apparently, so long as she has caused the desire, then I can still feed from you guys too. I feel stronger than I ever have, which is weird.”

“Huh, that is strange. Are you sure that she isn’t your bonded?” I ask him seriously. It’s the only reason that I can think of that would explain his strange reaction.

I mean, he did have the strange desire to be here when Neith first showed up. He said so himself.

Personally, I think it would just make sense.

He shrugs, “She can’t be. It’s not like it is with a kitsune, Succubus and Incubus have more choice in the matter. This is more than that. I can’t feed from anyone else but her, and apparently, as a byproduct, you guys too, but that’s it. That’s not how it works with us.”

My eyebrows raise, “Maybe we should go and ask Raiden and see if he’s found anything? He’s been in the library every opportunity he can be, trying to catch up on all the research that we have to do.”

Doc shrugs, “Yeah, I’m ready for a break anyway. It’s not really concerning me, but if there is somehow a chance that she’s my bonded, that would be fucking awesome, and I would obviously like to know sooner rather than later.”

I chuckle, “Yeah, it would.”

We get up, but before we leave the large office, he stops me, “Why did you tell Neith that Sirens don’t have mates?”

I grimace, “I didn’t mean to, not at first. I’ve known that she was my mate since just before I went to the Magical Academy.

I had this whole thing planned about how I was going to tell her, but she disappeared.

Telling her when we were in the middle of the woods and dealing with the wolves would have opened up that discussion, and we didn’t really have time for that.

Plus, she had only just found out that she was River’s fated mate.

I didn’t want to overwhelm her and then have her freak out and run away again.

So, it sort of just came out, and I went with it.

She never attended the classes, as I said, so she didn’t know I wasn’t telling her the truth. ”

Doc frowns, “You know she’s going to be really fucking pissed at you?”

I nod and sigh, “Yeah, I knew that as soon as the words came out of my mouth. But by that point, it was too late.”

He shakes his head, “The longer that you leave it, the harder it's going to be to tell her the truth. I think you should go and do it now before life gets crazy for us again, and you don’t have the chance.” He pauses and studies my worried expression, realization dawning across his, “She’s going to be really happy, you know that, right?

You know, after she’s done being mad at you because you lied to her. ”

“I hope you’re right,” I reply, aware that I still sound unsure. “Let’s go and talk to Raiden first.”

He raises his eyebrows at me, knowing perfectly well that I’m stalling on purpose.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

I nod and add with a sheepish smile, “Just let me stall a little bit.”

He grins, “You’ve got it, man. Let’s go and find Raiden and see if there’s something that I need to be worried about.”

We head out of the room and through the house to the library. I grin when Raiden doesn’t even look up when we walk in. He is so absorbed in whatever it is that he’s reading that he is completely unaware that we’re here.

“Hey, man,” I greet him, trying not to let my smile widen when he jumps.

He looks up, “Hey, guys. What’s up?”