Page 8 of Wild Fires

“Are you trying to kill us?” I blurted out when I finally found my voice.

She looked at me like I was the crazy one.

“Are you really this much of a drama queen? Come on. We have work to do.”

I sat there in shock as she jumped out of the Jeep and walked over to the edge of the cliff. If she jumped, it wouldn't have surprised me even a little.

With that thought came an old memory from back in high school where I'd seen her do just that. It had been a thing us teenagers would do, a sort of rite of passage. We would run full speed to the edge of that cliff and jump, shifting mid-air before reaching the bottom. But Gracie had still been too young for her bird to come in and when she didn’t shift like we expected, ten of us hurriedly flew down to catch her, each of us grabbing whatever we could hold onto to try to slow her down and stop her from splatting at the bottom of the canyon.

I shivered remembering that day clearly. I hadn't thought about it in a long time. I had never been that scared in my entire life. I'd only had my wings for a few weeks, and it was nothing but sheer adrenaline that had kept me holding onto her that day. When we’d reached the bottom and she was still alive, we’d made her swear never to do that again. In turn she made us promise we would never mention what happened again.

After it was all said and done, she told us she just wanted to finally know what it was like to fly. Even back then she'd been reckless and wild. I had always suspected she had a death wish, but I’d never understood why.

Briefly, I wondered if she was remembering that day too as she looked out over the cliff. I wanted to ask her, but an oath was an oath, and that was something I took very seriously. Neither of us spoke, each lost in our own thoughts and memories.

Not everything was that nightmarish here. I could still clearly remember Carson Pierce being drunk, tripping, and nearly going over the edge. His raven hadn't come in yet like the rest of the others, so he couldn't fly. It had been scary and funny at the same time. We'd all laughed for weeks about it. Poor kid had struggled to live that one down.

And he wasn't the only one. Vance Thornton had also gotten drunk and had a rather unfortunate time out here. He'd pissed off a couple of the Caldwell boys. They'd frozen him and chucked him over the edge. Scott Montgomery had taken pity on him and used his fire powers to melt the ice just in time for Vance to shift and fly back up to the cliff.

I hadn't been there for that, but I'd heard about it. Elias said he had a mouth on him that often got him in trouble or targeted for bullying. I often wondered if that was why he'd chosen to go into law enforcement.

Those had been the days. Carefree and crazy. Sometimes I missed those days, but more often than not I was too busy to even stop and remember.

“We had a lot of good times up here,” I said, feeling nostalgic as I noticed her watching me.

I'd heard her drama queen comment but didn't even bother to respond to that.

“Not all great.”

“But definitely memorable.”

I gave her a conspiratorial smile as she rolled her eyes.

“Come on. We don't have all day,” she grumbled.

Watching her walk away, I was struck by how beautiful she was. I had no doubt she knew it too. Damn, her ass was firm and perfectly heart-shaped. I had a strange desire to reach out and touch it.

“Are you coming or just going to stand there and stare at my ass all day?”

My eyes shot up to hers. I'd been busted, but I damn well wasn't going to admit to it.

“In your dreams,” I told her.

She smiled. “I'm sure you'd love to know all about my dreams, but I assure you they've never included being ogled by our illustrious Mayor.”

My jaw dropped in surprise. I didn't even know how to come back from that, though my mind went to all sorts of dirty thoughts. I really wanted to know about her dreams now, but there was no way I was going to cave and ask about them.

The little minx shook her ass and shimmied over to a large pile of ash on the ground.

Shaking away inappropriate thoughts from my head, I walked over to join her.

“Okay. What am I looking at here?”

“The remnants of a fire.”

She said it with a deadpan look on her face, but when my jaw dropped to respond and nothing came out, the corner of her lips tipped up into a satisfied smirk.

I'd never had a problem with witty comebacks, but for some reason I was finding myself tongue tied around this girl. No, girl wasn't the right word. Somewhere along the way, Gracie had grown into a beautiful woman.

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