Ember's Kiss by Deborah Cooke Read Free Book Online

with desire, wanting to do more than kiss Brandon. She wanted to run after him and leap into the back of their Jeep, go with him wherever he went, and satisfy all her sexual fantasies in one night.
    But he had a strange power, one that should make her run.
    Maybe it was better that he’d turned away.
    Maybe he was saving her from herself. Maybe he was on logical Liz’s side.
    Brandon and his pals drove out of the lot, still arguing. Liz could feel Brandon looking toward her, her skin prickling with awareness, but she deliberately didn’t look at him. She’d never see him again, which was probably a good thing.
    Even if her lips still burned from his powerful kiss.
    Erik Sorensson, leader of the
Pyr
, stood on the roof of his loft in Chicago, watching the sky. The clouds overhead obscured any portion of the eclipse he might have seen, but Erik could still feel its power.
    He felt the spark of the firestorm and knew its location. It was hot and bright, unusually so, and Erik wondered why. What was different about this firestorm? Was darkfire modifying it? Or something else?
    Erik followed the conduit of ley lines that led his thoughts to every living
Pyr
and understood which dragon was feeling the firestorm’s burn.
    It was the mate. She was different, although Erik couldn’t discern how. Perhaps the darkfire had beckoned to her or maybe it fed her powers, whatever they were, but she was the reason the flame burned so brilliantly.
    Was that bad? Good? Erik wasn’t sure.
    He used the overcast sky as a scrying glass, trying to see the future and best navigate the threat to his kind. Instead of a dark mirror, the future could have been a dark opal touched with shimmering blue andgreen light. Erik recognized the effect of the darkfire but still could not guess what would result from its influence. Its light swirled in a vortex, looking both unpredictable and dangerous.
    Erik stood and he pondered and, finally, he chose.
    He sent two messages. The first, in old-speak, the language of the
Pyr,
was to Sloane in California, the Apothecary. Not only was Sloane closest to Hawai‘i, but Erik sensed his skill would be needed.
    â€œGo”
was all Erik said to Sloane, knowing his command would be followed.
    The second, a text message, was to Brandt in Australia. “Stay away,” he instructed the distant
Pyr
, having no expectation that this particular dragon would do as commanded. Brandt was passionate, volatile, and unpredictable.
    Like darkfire.
    And the
Pyr
experiencing the firestorm was Brandt’s only son.
    That the pair was estranged gave Erik the conviction that Brandt’s presence wouldn’t help. He hoped Brandt listened to him, but he wouldn’t count on that.
    Erik scanned the sky one last time, still sensing that a great deal was hidden from him. There was uncertainty in the air. He—and all the
Pyr
—would have to be vigilant.
    No. They would have to be prepared. Erik was going to assume that his presence was needed. He’d go with Quinn, the Smith of the
Pyr
.
    Assuming he could persuade Quinn to accompany him.
    â€œStay away.”
    Brandt Merrick ordered another double. He couldn’t stop himself from pulling up the message on his cell phone to stare at it. He knew why Erik had given that instruction, and he knew that Erik was right. Brandt had messed up every part of his relationship with his son, and he trusted Erik to help Brandon get his firestorm right.
    Anyone had to do better than Brandt had done.
    But still. He felt the burn of his son’s firestorm. He experienced that surge of optimism again, as bright as it had been twenty-seven years before for him.
    Him and Kay.
    The firestorm’s heat made Brandt burn for a second chance and yearn to reclaim everything he had lost.
    He was looking at the message again when the bartender put his drink in front of him. He could smell the familiar tang of the rum straight up, but for the first time in a