The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) by Nicola Claire Read Free Book Online Page A

though being woken up, and then slowly one of its thick branches bent down towards me in a fashion that should not have physically been possible.
    It creaked and groaned and I thought it might just set off alarms inside the perimeter fence, but nothing happened, except I now had a way to clamber over to the other side. I snorted in disbelief, but didn't waste any time taking advantage of the opportunity.
    As soon as I climbed a way up the branch, it moved. Making me collapse along the length of it and grip its circumference tightly with my arms and legs. Then with a finesse that was not mine, I slipped from the end of the branch and landed in a crouch on the other side of the fence. The tree creaked back to its former position.
    He is inside, he is aware you are here, the tree whispered.
    "Well, thanks," I said a little sarcastically. What use was a network of spying trees if they couldn't get me on the property undetected? I might as well have hit the buzzer at the gate.
    He is attuned to you , the tree defended itself. We were not aware you were his Thisavros.
    His what? And it hadn't failed to register with me that the trees were easily reading my thoughts. Why hadn't they before, back at my home? I wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that I now believed . Doubt had still festered in my mind when I first thought my question at the Rimu Tree. I had no doubt now that the trees and I could communicate. What I doubted was my plan to confront Theo Peters.
    Well, here goes nothing. I was here. He knew I was here. I might as well come out guns blazing.
    Or come out trees blazing.
    "Those plants closest to the building, please get his attention," I instructed, taking off at a run towards where the trees all pointed, and had to be the location of the house itself. They parted as I ran, herding me in the right direction. Without their guidance I would have gotten lost, so thick was the foliage. It was a veritable forest here. I kind of loved it.
    After several seconds I heard the noise. Tree branches creaking, setting a beat that the tinkling of the leaves accompanied. A musical of nature, none ever before seen nor heard by man. It was magnificent. It was magical. It was so freaking unreal I kept shaking my head.
    Lights blazed from every window of the three storey brick mansion. Lit up like a Christmas tree, but I wasn't fooled by its festive façade. Did a monster live within those walls? Prepared to kill me? Who had killed my potted plants?
    I came to rest beneath the tree-line that bordered Theo's house and realised there was a rather large flaw to my plan. No tree or plant came within twenty feet of the building. And it wasn't surrounded by grass, but paving stones and gravel instead. It stood in a moat of concrete and stone, not a plant in sight. Well damn. I could hardly use pavers against the man. What now?
    Theo slowly walked down the steps at the side of the house where I stood, looking composed, dressed in his suit still. Looking too bloody good, it was completely unfair. I reached out and wrapped my hand around the leaves of the closest tree, seeking courage and comfort, and maybe a hint of an idea of what I should do next.
    The plant was silent. I guess my network of spies was fresh out of ideas too.
    "You trespass, Gi ," Theo said in that silky, accented voice of his. I felt it wrap around me, fill me with warmth, set my blood alight.
    I gritted my teeth, felt the branch I was holding wind around my wrist... and then stab me with a thorn on its side.
    I gasped, trying to hide my painful reaction, and watched as a drop of my blood slipped down the side of my arm and fell to the soil at my feet.
    And then all hell broke loose.

Chapter 4
Oh Dear God, A Mad Scientist's Lab Flashed Before My Eyes
    The gravel began to rattle where it lay, the concrete paving blocks shuddered from an unseen force. The ground made a deeply horrific groaning sound, the trees joined in, turning the miscellaneous sounds into a