Burning Wild (Flames 0f The Sea Book 5) Read online

  “All right, how long –?”

  Before Fleur could finish her sentence, the door burst open. Mirabelle flew at Tristan, grabbing her by the front of her robes. Tristan was momentarily shocked, but then she realized that Mirabelle didn’t recognize her, disguised as she was as a vampire.

  “When does the attack begin? When!”

  Tristan was caught off guard and didn’t know how to react. She couldn’t let Mirabelle know the details of the vampires’ plan, that would surely only make everything worse, but she remembered all too well what had happened to Lisette. Mirabelle could be dangerous when she lost control, and right now, she looked on the edge of madness.

  Fleur reacted before Tristan could. “Get off her!” There was a bang, and Mirabelle went flying, landing several feet away on her back. Fleur advanced on her, but she never got time to cast a spell. Mirabelle shouted an incantation and disappeared with a puff of smoke, leaving Fleur and Tristan alone.

  Barrett came running out of the house. “Fleur? Are you ok? What happened?”

  “I’m fine. Mirabelle would have been able to sense the spells I’ve put all around the house. She knew she had the disadvantage, so she fled instead of letting it become a fight.”

  “Why did she go, though? I thought she needed our help finding Ariana?”

  “I suppose she thinks something is more urgent. I should have checked – I bet she put a listening spell on us. She could hear everything we were saying, and now she knows the vampires are going to make an attack on the eternal flame.”

  “I’d better get going,” Tristan said at once. “If Mirabelle knows, we need to act fast. The vampires will need to be warned, or the witches will slaughter them in a trap.”

  “No.” Both Tristan and Fleur turned to look at Barrett. “She won’t go to the Antarctic. Mirabelle will make a move to secure the volcano that is the source of her power.”

  Tristan would have take her dad’s word for it, because she had no idea what was going on in Mirabelle’s head nowadays. “Maybe it’ll be better this way,” she mused. “Half of the tension between vampires and witches is caused by the fact that neither controls their own power source.”

  “That’s all fine and good, as long as Mirabelle doesn’t get hold of the volcano before the vampires take the eternal flame. If she does, she’ll move to take out all vampires in one sweep.” Fleur was pacing, her fists clenched.

  “Which is what Vince and Zan plan to do to witches once they have the eternal flame. What do we do?”

  “You need to go back to Rashid’s chateau. Keep your cover. I’ll inform Lisette of the situation. You should also find a way to warn the vampires that there might be a trap waiting. Mirabelle might not go to the Antarctic, but she could still send a message there. Our best chance is probably to negotiate some kind of trade – the vampires give the witches the volcano in exchange for the eternal flame.”

  “We’ll need to be able to communicate to do that.”

  “You’re right. Here, hold still.”

  Tristan stood perfectly still as Fleur recited a long, complex incantation.

  “There, you’ll be able to communicate telepathically with me for the next twenty-four-hours. Go find out what’s happening, and I’ll do my best to find out what Mirabelle is doing with the witches.”

  Tristan nodded. “Hurry. I don’t think we have much time.”

  “Tristan? Find out… please find out if Savion is one of the vampires going to the Antarctic?”

  “I will,” Tristan promised. If Savion was one of those vampires, he may well have a death sentence placed on his head. Walking straight into a witch trap was not a smart or safe thing to do. “I’ll try to find some way to get him taken off the detail, if necessary.”

  Fleur nodded, biting her lip. Tristan could feel through their new mental bond that her sister was worried. She hadn’t heard from Savion in a few days, and in such uncertain times, that could mean anything.

  “He’ll be fine.” Tristan hugged Fleur and her dad briefly before pulling her hood up and locating one of her stored teleporting spells. She was instantly taken to the woods around Rashid’s chateau. No one would be suspicious of her coming out of here – they would simply think she had been hunting some animals for their blood.

  The chateau was a whirlwind of activity. Vince and Zan were organizing those vampires who intended to go, while the others set to putting defenses up around the house and grounds, since the witches were likely to attack the biggest gathering of vampires in the area when they realized that the eternal flame was under siege.

  Tristan looked around for Savion, but to her relief, she saw no sign of him. The suits were bulky and not suitable to be dragged along underwater by a ray. It seemed that this wouldn’t be a problem, though. From what Tristan picked up of the conversations around her, Rashid had some kind of portal that could be used to travel long distances, much like a witch teleportation spell.

  Rashid himself was locked up in the library, but Zan knew how to operate the portal. Everyone was gearing up to go. Tristan stayed in the background, watching.

  “Hey, Victoria, you got any combat experience?” Gregory was climbing into his suit, but he didn’t have the helmet on yet, which left him free to talk.

  “No, not really.” Tristan tried to think of something else to say, not wanting to arouse suspicions. “I’ll stay here and hold down the fort.”

  “Excellent.” Gregory gave her a rather relieved smile, which Tristan couldn’t help but find sweet, he was worried for her, even though he didn’t need to be.

  “See if you can get Rashid to come out of the library while we’re away.” Zan helped Vince zip up his suit before putting his own helmet on. Tristan knew that the helmets were equipped with radios, so that everyone wearing them could communicate, but she wasn’t sure if they’d be able to talk to anyone not similarly attired.

  Vince and Zan probably wouldn’t care about that. They wanted to destroy the witches, and had no interest in communicating with them.

  Everyone formed up, with a number of vampires who were staying behind watching from the other side of the room. One by one, the suited vampires marched into the glowing portal and disappeared. Now, Tristan had nothing to do but wait. Fleur could see everything she could with their link, so there were no reports to make, at least until the spell faded after twenty-four hours.

  Tristan suspected that this whole thing might be over in twenty-four hours. What would become of those left behind… well, she’d better get packing. If this conflict couldn’t be resolved peacefully, she and her family needed to be prepared to run.

  11

  Fleur didn’t expect to hear anything from Mirabelle until this most recent fight was resolved, but she was wrong. Barely an hour after Mirabelle’s flight, a small scroll appeared right in front of her with a puff of the same color smoke Mirabelle always used to teleport herself.

  It was still smoking slightly as Fleur snatched it. The message was short and simple.

  The vampires are making a move on the eternal flame. If they gain control of it, they will have no reason not to destroy the volcano that is the source of our powers, and without our powers, the vampires will quickly kill us all.

  All witches are called to this meeting place to put together an urgent mission to take back the volcano before the vampires get the eternal flame.

  There was a spell attached to the scroll, one Fleur recognized as a location pin. She touched it, and found that the location was the docks on the outskirts of town.

  Barrett was out, restocking their supplies of crystals for storing spells, Tristan was undercover, and Lisette had her hands full with trying to be queen of the vampires. That left Fleur. She was torn. She didn’t doubt that there were some vampires who would do exactly as Mirabelle said – they weren’t all willing to make peace.

  In that light, it made sense to try to take the volcano, but Fleur worried that it would simply give Mirabelle the advantage she needed to start attacking vampir
es in earnest.

  “Tristan?”

  Her sister could sense everything though the mental link, and replied immediately into Fleur’s mind. “You should at least go and see what she has to say. If there has to be a fight, at the very least you can try to minimize loss of life on both sides.”

  Fleur nodded. Tristan was right. She was filled with worry over Savion, and it was clouding her judgement. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”

  By the time Fleur made her way to the docks, there were already dozens of witches there, some filing into Mirabelle’s submarine, which was just visible with the top poking out of the water. Mirabelle was addressing the witches.

  “Most of us will go at once to the underwater volcano. I want at least a couple to stay behind, though, to keep things safe here. When we return, we may well be injured or in need of help, and we can’t be coming back into a vampire warzone.”

  Mirabelle glanced up at Fleur. “My niece will lead the group who stays behind in putting up protection around the town.”

  It was a good decision. Fleur would never fight Savion, and for all she knew, he could be one of the vampires guarding the volcano. Besides, it would be easier to keep track of what was happening both at the Antarctic and the volcano if she was here.

  She felt helpless as the situation unfolded. There was little she could do except keep track of things and hope an opportunity for negotiation presented itself. Fleur knew better than to throw herself between witches and vampires intent on battle – that was a sure way to get herself killed. No, persuasion was the only route that might work, but no one seemed very open to persuasion right now.

  The other witches babbled questions as Mirabelle sorted them into two groups, one to attack the underwater volcano and another to stay.

  “Remember, we must subdue these monsters at any cost before they destroy us. Any sightings of them are to be attacked at once. Incinerate them all if you must.”

  “Mirabelle… wait.” Fleur was fairly certain that what she had to say wouldn’t go down well, but she had to try. “There may be another way. You want the volcano, and the vampires want the eternal flame. Why not negotiate for it? We could do a switch. No one has to die.”

  “They’re not going to negotiate with us! They will lie to us and double cross us. That’s what vampires do. I learned that the hard way.”

  Fleur knew that Mirabelle was thinking of Rashid and his deception around Ariana’s identity. She glanced hopelessly around, but no one seemed inclined to argue with Mirabelle. They were all scared, and they wanted their power source secure.

  She supposed that having the witches and vampires each in control of their power source was a good thing; she just wished it could be done peacefully.

  There didn’t seem to be anything Fleur could do about it now, so she resolved to stay here and do her best to keep the peace. At the very least, she could warn vampires to stay away, what with Mirabelle’s instructions to slaughter any who came near.

  As the group who was staying behind started talking about plans, Fleur drifted away. She dialed Savion’s number, the number of a phone she’d insisted he get so that she could contact him. Of course, the phone was of limited use. Savion spent a lot of his time underwater as a manta ray. The phone stayed in his underwater home while he was out swimming.

  Fleur stared blankly at the phone, her mind racing. It wasn’t like Savion to leave it this long before checking in with her, especially in such troubled times. What if something had happened to him? Skirmishes between witches and vampires were becoming more common by the day. Fleur couldn’t imagine her life without him.

  Next, she called Lisette, but Lisette wasn’t answering either. Fleur left a voice mail explaining the situation. She just hoped Lisette got it in time to make a difference. If she was also swimming as a manta ray, she could be anywhere, and it could be days before she returned to her palace.

  “Fleur! What do we do about larger groups of vampires? Should we attack, or hang back?” A witch from a coven a couple of cities over named Isabelle was beckoning her. Fleur was supposed to be leading this group. She wondered how willing they’d be to take different instructions from her than the ones Mirabelle had given.

  “We should hang back as much as possible. Vampires are powerful, and I don’t want anyone to die. If anyone sees a vampire, come and get me first, before attacking. You understand?”

  “That would give them time to escape…”

  “I’d rather that than have one of you killed. We can always hunt vampires. We can’t bring our people back to life.”

  This argument seemed to work, but Fleur knew it was temporary at best. Soon enough, the witches now under her command would realize that she had no interest in killing vampires. At that point, she expected they wouldn’t be willing to follow her as a leader.

  She closed her eyes, reaching out to Tristan through the mental bond. “Did you get all that? Don’t let any of the vampires leave Rashid’s chateau, or it’ll be a bloodbath. Tell them there’s a planned witch siege of the estate if necessary, just keep them there.”

  “Understood. No one is that keen on leaving now, they’re all expecting a retaliatory attack from the witches for their attempt on the eternal flame. Hopefully it won’t be too difficult to keep them put. Are you all right?”

  “Fine.” Fleur didn’t go into her worry for Savion, and Tristan didn’t push. She closed her eyes, hoping more than anything that he was ok.

  * * *

  Savion was exhausted. He’d been working double shifts for the past week. He knew that Fleur must be worried by his silence, but he hadn’t been able to snatch a few hours to return home and call her. Soon, he promised himself.

  The vampires were spread thin, all on the lookout for a witch attack, as well as spying on known witch locations. If a fight did break out, they intended to be prepared. It didn’t help that Rashid had swayed a number of vampires to his side. Not only were they in direct opposition to Lisette’s peace plans, but they were missing resources that could have been put to good use.

  Savion, and Nobu were some of the few who had remained on Lisette’s side. Savion was currently guarding the underwater volcano with a couple of others. There were more vampires nearby in their ray forms who could be called in if there was an attack.

  Things had been quiet, as they usually were. Savion’s shift was over in a couple of hours, and he should have enough time to go home and contact Fleur. His heart ached to be with her, and he wanted more than anything for this stupid war to be over so that he and Fleur could have a life together.

  A glowing form was approaching quickly. Savion recognized Bekka in her ray form, and became alert at once. Bekka was swimming way faster than usual.

  When he got close enough, she spoke in the simple language that vampires had developed to use in their ray form. “Enemies approaching. Witches. Make the call.”

  A jolt of electricity seemed to go through him as Savion turned tail and swam to the small control station by the volcano. They’d installed a distress call button the last time witches had attacked the volcano, and Savion bumped his ray’s head against it, activating the alarm.

  He couldn’t hear anything, but he knew that vampires in all surrounding stations would hear it. they would come. Savion gathered up the six other vampires who were guarding the volcano, and along with Jermaine, they swam forward to face the threat.

  Mirabelle looked to have made some modifications to her submarine since the last time, which made it all the more dangerous. There were also many more witches in there than Savion had seen during the last attack.

  Already, the defenses they’d set around the volcano were pulsing, but those wouldn’t last long without reinforcements. Savion just hoped that help arrived in time. If it didn’t, they were all dead. He suddenly regretted not finding the time to call Fleur.

  “Savion – get Rashid. We need more help.”

  He hesitated, but there was no time to argue, and Bekka’s panic made sense. Sure
ly, Rashid wouldn’t ignore this call, no matter his recent disagreements with Lisette. It would take magic to get himself there fast enough to make any difference, and magic wasn’t as easy for vampires as it was for witches, but Savion would do what he had to, even if it weakened him. He might be useless in a fight until he recovered his energy, but Rashid could send some much-needed help.

  Without further protest, Savion started pulling magic from the volcano in to assist him, preparing to increase his speed so that he would be at Rashid’s house in mere minutes. It was as close to teleporting as vampires could get, and not an ability they used often.

  He thought again of Fleur, and prayed that she was in a safer situation than he was.

  12

  The library was a mess. Rashid valued his books and usually treated them very well, but he hadn’t quite been able to control his temper. A number of loose pages were scattered on the floor from where they had fallen when he’d thrown unfortunate books across the room.

  No matter how much he’d tried, Rashid had been unable to find any sort of spell, trick or search method that would help him find Ariana. He’d tried calling her more times than he cared to count, and had contacted what felt like every vampire in Russia. His search parties had turned up with nothing. It was like she’d just disappeared off the face of the planet.

  He remembered his resolution to go after her himself, but his encounter with Mirabelle had put a stopper in that plan. Rashid wanted to see her again. All of the old feelings that had never really gone away were stirred up, and he longed to hold her in his arms and whisper soft words of comfort to her.