Page 41 of Wildfire Witch

Most of the water that ran off us was too hot to reuse, bubbling as it returned to the ground under our feet. “Oh yes, that feels amazing. More, Seth!” she said in a tone verging on erotic. I clenched my jaw, reminding myself to be a gentleman. I managed to give her a few minutes of this impromptu bath before my control ebbed away. Pulling on this much water at once was a little much for me.

I brushed off most of the wetness on my skin and gathered up what was soaked through my hair and clothes. Lifting this last bit of water, I rained it down on her with a playful twinkle of my fingers. Sparkles of Moortide magic joined the drops, adding glimmers to her hair, and she released a rough little laugh that did twisty things to my insides. “Just wish I’d lasted longer,” I said earnestly. Rusty, who was subtly adjusting himself, snorted in agreement.

She gave me a look of gratitude before her gaze drifted lower. By the knowing curve of her mouth, I figured she knew exactly what she’d done. “Later,” she said in an undertone. “If you’re still interested.”

I bent and brushed a kiss over her temple. “When you feel better,” I murmured.

“Bonding with you will help me,” she admitted quietly.

Holy hell, in that case, I’d do it with the dragon man watching. He was certainly staring holes through my skull while we were having this moment. She glanced over and smiled at him. Just like that, his big growly man act softened. “Bonding with you both means I won’t have another episode like this…hopefully.”

“Anything you need,” he said with all the perky energy of a golden retriever.

She covered another yawn. “I need…a nap,” she said heavily.

“Let’s grab wind guy and get to the car, then,” he said, unbuttoning his jeans. Nix squeaked in surprise, and he unzipped extra slowly with a wink.

I rolled my eyes. “He’s going to carry us in his dragon form. It’s how we got here so quickly,” I explained.

“Oh,” she murmured.

He huffed and discarded the jeans, changing to his second form and lowering himself flat to the ground. “I’ll hand wind guy up,” he rumbled.

Before I climbed up on his back, I searched for Ceridor’s staff. He might wake up and murder one of us if we left it behind. I was under the impression it was quite valuable. It was lightweight despite its length, so I had Nix hold it and the dragon’s jeans, while I sat behind her with my back to one of Rusty’s scaled ridges. I looped a protective arm around her middle. The part of me that’d been panicking ever since she’d called was soothed by the contact.

Rusty lifted Ceridor and placed him in front of Nix. We both supported his weight and kept him upright for the journey.

Rusty lumbered back more carefully now that the emergency was over. “We need to get to Spells Hollow,” Nix said. “Can you guys drive us towards New York while I catch some rest?”

“Not a problem, my dear,” I said.

“What will be a problem is fitting all of us. These two brought more shit than the car can fit,” Rusty said over his shoulder.

“To be fair, some of that shit is mine,” she said. “Guess I’m sleeping in someone’s lap.”

“Mine,” he responded immediately.

“Hold on?—”

“Seth’s driving. I call dibs,” he said.

“This isn’t high school. You’re not calling shotgun,” she muttered.

“Oh, don’t worry, mate. I already called that too.”

I shook my head with a sigh. “It would make sense to do it that way. We can move all the extra stuff to one corner and have Ceridor in the other backseat.”

Once we made it back to the car and Rusty had both shifted and dressed out of sight, that was exactly what we did. I buckled the unconscious fae into a backseat space I barely cleared enough room for and Rusty eased back the passenger seat about as far back as it could go without crushing Ceridor’s kneecaps. He gleefully held Nix while I programmed the car’s navigation and set the wheels in motion onto the next leg of our trip to New York.

We droveuntil the sun set. It was peaceful enough, since Ceridor was dead to the world and neither of us wanted to wakeNix. She’d passed out with her head on Rusty’s shoulder, hands tucked under her chin. She called me cute, yet I thought she was adorable in that pose.

Rusty and I made basic conversation at whisper level. He reassured me he wasn’t in the Fire Brotherhood, but the complete story of his real government job was too long, and he only wanted to share it once with everyone. Then he asked why I didn’t use my control over water to fight more seriously alongside him and Ceridor earlier.

“I dunno, man. I dreamed of being a doctor once. I want to be a healer, not a fighter,” I told him. “Watching you and Ceridor, though…wow. I wish I could do something just as impressive when I needed to.”

“It’s not too late to learn. I haven’t met many water witches, but I felt your power earlier. You’ve got potential,” he said, inclining his head. “Train with me. If we’re going to mate with the same female, we’re going to share the duty of protecting her, too.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

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