Page 32 of Heir

I gaped at him. Not only was he cracking jokes, but he spoke like he was telling me to give him thirty seconds to brush his teeth and tie his shoes before we headed out to go grocery shopping. Not half a minute to scorch a body to ash.

“What did I do?” I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the lifeless body, the blood still running out of his nose and onto the damp and cracked pavement beneath him.

“You killed him,” the vampire said plainly. “He probably deserved it. Phaceanesh are an abomination and troublemakers.”

“H-he was going to bite me.”

The bear’s head snapped my way. “Did he say that?”

I nodded.

“Well then, he should be glad you killed him and I didn’t. Because I’d have ripped him into pieces with my paws.” He growled low and deep in his big chest before turning to me and cupping my jaw in the gentlest way and the paradox startled me. He was so big and scary, but the genuine concern for me in his eyes hit me in a weird place in my chest. “Are you okay, Little One?” he asked. “Did he hurt you?”

I stepped out of his embrace and shook my head. “I’m fine.”

The mage walked over to the body. “Keep watch.”

The vampire and bear nodded, then turned to face outward. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away as black flames emerged from the mage’s palms and he blasted them at the dead body, covering it in nothing but gorgeous ebony fire, unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Just like he said, it took about thirty seconds, then the flames withered out on their own. He put his hands down at his sides and when the last ember died out, there was nothing left but a pile of smoking ash.

My jaw dropped.

“All clear,” he announced, returning to me. “Taken care of. Now we need to get you home, my Queen.”

“Don’t,” I said, swatting away his hand when he tried to cup my elbow.

The briefest flash of hurt flickered through his amber eyes, but he stowed it quickly, plastered on an easy-going smile, and shrugged.

“We need to go home,” the bear said. “It isn’t safe here.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ve lived in Chase City my entire life. I’ve walked these streets at night alone hundreds of times. I don’t need you.”

“You’ve never walked them as the Queen of the Realm or a demon without a shield, and who can’t control her powers,” the vampire said in a tone that had so much judgment and almost disbelief that I couldn’t understand something so simple. I wanted to punch his chiseled face.

My anger at him must have done something because he winced and blood seeped from his nose.

Guilt swamped me. “I’m sorry.”

He blinked a few times. “It’s okay.”

No, it wasn’t. Anytime I got mad now, was I going to kill someone?

I was a walking time bomb.

“You’re not safe with me. If you piss me off . . . which we all know you will, I could kill you.”

“Then we need to mate,” the vampire said. “It will keep us safe.”

“Absolutely not. You should just go.”

His nostrils flared. “Absolutely not,” he mimicked. I growled. “You are my mate. I’m not leaving you.”

“Well, then you’ve got a death wish because I’m going to get pissed and try to broil your brains at some point. You’re insufferable. It’s inevitable.”

His gaze narrowed on me and I did everything I could do not to squirm beneath its intensity. I also really hated what it was doing to my lower belly and between my legs. “You’re not being smart about this, Omaera. It’s the safest way to protect you and everyone else. To bring you into your full power.”

Even though the more I thought about all of this, the more there was less deniability, I still wasn’t ready to just accept it all. I was stubborn and a lot had been thrown at me in the last few hours. “I don’t believe in any of this shit,” I said. “I don’t believe in Fated Mates or powers. There has to be a scientific explanation for this. Magic isn’t real. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Illusions and sleight of hand.”

“There isn’t a magician on this planet that wasn’t a mage,” the fire mage said. “We make a lot of money fooling humans.”

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