Page 100 of Of Flame and Fury

My fire is effective, but so is the fire surrounding these Nytes. I need to think, and I would if this asshole would quit trying to suffocate me.

A long black stripe runs along his underbelly. I hadn’t noticed it before. I do now. It draws my attention to the vulnerable spots his raging heat can only mildly protect. Unlike the Pegasus Johnny was hard at work at, this Nyte doesn’t have armor to spare it.

I grit my teeth when the weight of the bull grows more severe. This thing is growing, taking up more space along my shield.

Power. Give me power.

Lightning crackles across my skin and beneath my flame. Sparky quivers.That’s right, baby. Let’s show Johnny Boy what we’re all about.

“Power,” I insist, building on the words as my skin bristles. “Give mepower.”

Snap.

Crackle.

Boom.

Rows of lightning bolts eject across my body, puncturing through the underbelly of the Nyte. His fire swells in his anger and pain, but it doesn’t hold. He falls to his side, writhing as I scramble to my feet.

The deafening clatter behind me obliterates the chaos of splintering wood. I straighten, trying to breathe through the dense and sweltering air. Gemini is in the throes of battle, taking on the other Nyte as his twin dominates the Pegasus.

The winged Nyte may have been swathed in armor, but it wasn’t strong enough given Johnny’s weakening state. Gemini’s twin bites through the thinner layers at the Pegasus’s throat. I think our wolf has him until the Nyte kicks free and dashes from the building. The twin flips over, shaking off his injuries and jets after the Pegasus.

Flames eat through the stable, spreading like a hungry monster from one side to the other as the night air forces its way through the mutilated walls. The breeze should be cold, bordering on freezing, but as it pushes through the blistering temperature, it’s more irritating than soothing.

My hands are out and on the offense. I hustle toward Johnny, stopping when the orange bull blocks my path. Gemini is at my back. His weapon is gone, and his skin is raw with burns. The bull he fought looks as good as new. My bull isn’t far behind. He shakes off the lightning bolts like pine needles and snorts in challenge.

What remains of the building are mere moments from falling apart, and the Nytes aren’t letting us go. I can survive the wash of fire. Gemini can’t, not in his state. He won’t run or try to escape without me, and I can’t drop my fire without being burned.

Johnny glares at us from across the way. “I’ll kill you,” he says. He’s shaking and crying, but it’s the hatred lining his features that keeps him standing. “I may be dead, but so are you.”

I adjust my weight, readying my lightning to jolt these bulls so we can run. But as pain shoots up through my leg and the feel of hot fluid spills from my heel, I realize where I am.

My magic never completely stays with me, it comes from the environment, from the air that passes along green fields and clears the dank city alleys, from the creatures who stalk in the night in search of their next meal, to infants sleeping against their mother who may never know freaks like me exist. Johnny forgot that little tidbit of knowledge. I’m about to remind him.

I slide my finger over my bleeding heel, careful to draw back enough fire to avoid vaporizing this valuable tool.

The circling bulls train their eyes on us. I keep them in my sights, too, even as I speak to Johnny. “What do you know?” I say. “We might not be so dead after all.”

I motion to the floor gleaming with broken glass and where traces of Johnny and shifter blood await. Maybe I’m crazy to do this, or maybe I’m more of a genius than I thought. “This yours?” I ask.

Waiting patiently for an answer has never been my superpower. I bend and swirl my blood and Johnny’s. His eyes fly open. I wink. “Yeah,” I say. “That’s what I thought.”

I don’t expect the contact of our blood to hurt. I should though. His Fate power and the evil streaming in shifter blood have no business touching me, especially when mixed to perform very heinous things. Like a thorn from a dried rose stem, their magic pokes me, severing my fingertip and forcing more of my blood to trickle from my skin.

The fresh magic I release swirls around Johnny’s blood yet fails to fully join. My power and Sparky’s repel it, wanting no part of something so vile.

“But we need it,” I say, my soft voice drifting to just above a whisper. My eyes glaze over when the first droplet takes a lick of Johnny’s blood. I blink several times, suppressing a moan.

“Taran, your eyes…” Gemini bites out.

My vision sharpens as it does when my irises bleach from blue to white.

“I know,” I say. My voice echoes in the distance, no longer a part of me.

“You don’t,” Gemini says, his tone cutting through the halo forming around my sight. “Taran, they’re glowing…”

“Are they?” I ask, not really caring.

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