Figure of Speech (Halle Shifters) (23 page)

He is the love of
all
her lives…

Furious Fire

© 2014 Shiloh Walker

Grimm’s Circle, Book 8

Thomas Finn, troublemaker, gunslinger, guardian angel…loner. More than a hundred and fifty years ago, he was shot in the back then brought back to life just in time to watch a demon masquerading as his best friend kill the love of his life.

Now, as a Grimm, he satisfies his need for vengeance hunting down demons like the ones that took Rebecca from him. His mission: kill as many as he can, then, when the time comes, go down in a blaze of glory. But with each kill, he comes closer to a line no angel should cross.

Her name was Rebecca. Then it was Tilly. Then Ada. Now, Kalypso. She’s lived so many lives, she can’t even remember when or why it started. All she knows is, she’s always searching for a man with golden eyes that make her burn. And when she finds him—as she always does—she knows that spark of joy means she’s only seconds away from death…again.

This time will be no different…unless something breaks the cycle once and for all.

Warning: Contains the Groundhog Day of star-crossed lovers, a pissed-off guardian angel, a demon-hunter with an axe to grind, and the battle to end all battles. Be warned…there’s pain ahead in this book. Oh, and that HEA finally happens. For these two, anyway.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Furious Fire:

Finn didn’t even remember leaving the riverbank.

He stood at the edge of the churchyard.

The church had burned to the ground. Will had kept it from spreading but he hadn’t been able to save the church.

Then he’d blasted his way into Finn’s head and bound his ability for a decade.

The pyrokinesis was apparently too volatile to be left in the hands of somebody spiraling through grief and rage. A newly made angel at that. Although why Finn had come into this life with such a deadly ability, he didn’t know.

He was still trying to understand why he’d come into this life at all.

Brooding, he stared at the rotting remains of the church. A new one had been built. Twice.

It had burnt down twice more.

Once after lightning struck it in 1892 and then again in 1928 after a lantern was knocked over. Apparently they gave up then. “Three times a charm.” Staring at the few timbers that hadn’t yet given into the elements, he looked at Will. “You’re telling me that he had a demon in him all that time. We were best friends. We did everything together—he was a good man. Once. I don’t…”

He stopped and lifted his gaze to the sky, staring at it through the crisscrossing branches of the tree.

“It’s an easy enough answer. You felt it yourself when you saw your Rebecca standing next to him. Jealousy. He wanted what you had. He loved her, just as you did. But she loved you. The demonic can work that. You know it as well as I do.”

Finn closed his eyes against the knowledge that burned in him. “And it had him—had
her
for two years?”

“No.” Will’s voice was a cool slap against the burning fury that started to spiral out of control.

Finn shot to his feet but when he would have started to move, Will caught his arm.

“He knew, almost right away, that he’d made a mistake. He fought it—as hard as he could, for as long as he could. But once you open that door and it comes inside, once you let it gain control…” Will looked away.

“It was too late then.” Bitterness twisted him. Two years. He’d left his woman alone with a monster for two years. No wonder Will hadn’t told him.

“That monster didn’t get the better of him until the final few months—not when it came to her.”

Finn swore. “Stay out of my head.” He yanked on the leather cord around his neck. He’d been wearing it when he woke up after Becky’s funeral and Will had told him just what sort of life he’d fallen into. The pendant was etched with upswept wings and when the Grimm looked, it bore words from a language long dead.

Under Finn’s touch, it pulsed, then warmed. Even that irritated him, this connection to a life he hated. He ripped it off and for one moment, he thought about hurling it back at the other man. But something stopped him. Instead of throwing it, and his life, away, he snarled, “This—wearing it—accepting this life, doesn’t mean I want you prying inside my head. Let me have my thoughts. They are all I have, okay?”

Will inclined his head. “If you wish. But would you really prefer to live the rest of your life believing that your friend spent two years tormenting her? Or would you have the truth of it?”

“Sometimes,” Finn said quietly, “I really hate you.”

“So is that a yes?”

Will didn’t blink as he found himself staring down the barrel of a Colt M1877.

Finn had to admire that. Of course, Will could take that gun, melt it into a noose and strangle Finn with it before the metal even cooled, so that might explain why Will didn’t so much as change his expression.

“I. Hate. You,” Finn bit off, fury beating and chewing at his nerves with jagged, gnawing little teeth that left him wanting to scream.

“You aren’t the first.” Will reached up, closed a hand around the barrel and pushed.

Because he knew he wouldn’t shoot, Finn lowered the gun and then, weary, he shoved it into the holster and turned away.

“I don’t want to know this,” he said. “I have enough nightmares in my head.”

“He never hurt her. Not physically. She went to her grave bearing guilt. That alone is an awful burden, but you and I both know that there are much worse sins in this world.”

Slowly, he turned his head and looked back at Will.

The other man was staring into the sky, his expression serene. “He slept with her once, only once. He didn’t hurt her. He had her convinced that you’d abandoned her and she was upset, lonely.”

“Abandoned…but…”

Finn stopped, shaking his head. He didn’t bother to ask how Will knew. The man seemed to know everything he wanted. Or at least what he needed.

“He took your letters. He took hers.” Will shrugged. “He planned it to the last detail, even knowing just how long to wait to make her start to wonder. He planted the seeds of doubt early on, and even before that, he’d let her know how he felt. He was subtle.”

“
Incubae
don’t know what subtle is,” Finn said, shaking his head.

Will didn’t respond.

Slowly, Finn turned, stared at the other man. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Long, heavy moments of silence passed. It could have been moments—it could have been hours. But each heartbeat drew Finn tighter and tighter. When Will finally turned to look at him, Finn’s nerves were drawn too tight and his skin felt sunburnt from the effort it took to keep himself locked down.

“You were too young,” Will said, his voice low. “You were too young and too new and you didn’t feel it. The fact that you even recognized Sawyer as broken was amazing—of course, you knew him from before and you likely saw the wrongness in him because of that. But he wasn’t the only demon we’d gone there to face. Once you were in stasis, Sina and I went after the other one. She was the one who had the most influence on the girl. Apparently she’d been working with Sawyer. If it hadn’t been for her, the incubae wouldn’t have even found his way into town.”

Her—

Finn roared and spun away, going to his knees and plunging his hands into the earth.

There, he unleashed.

The fire flowed deep, deep, deep—

The scent of scorched earth flood his head and he sucked in air, fought to control it.

Head spinning, he opened his eyes.

Around him, birds sang.

Off in the distance, he could hear the river.

The footsteps were nearly soundless and Finn found himself eyeing the white toes of Will’s boots while he continued to fight for air. “Her…” he panted, memory raging inside him. “It was her mother.”

“Yes.”

Jerking his hands out of the ground, he rose. The air smoked, steamed. The fire had cooled to something almost manageable and he felt empty, almost numb. His legs were stiff and he practically stumbled as he moved a few feet away.

“She was the one who told me I should go, make my mark and better myself if I truly wanted to be worthy of her daughter,” Finn said, looking down at his hands, streaked with dirt but unmarred. He’d damn neared killed himself trying to
make his mark
. Trying to make himself
worthy
.

“She wanted you out of the picture. That town was to be her hunting ground, but you were always picking up the pieces, stopping fights…starting them.” Will paused. “You were always the hero type, Thom.”

Finn growled under his breath.

“It’s the truth and you know it. You’d rescue a cat from a tree, put yourself between a town drunk and his wife even when you were nothing but a scrawny bit of nothing.” Will paused. “I should know. I was watching you even then.”

“Too bad you didn’t show up a little sooner.” Finn’s bitterness was going to choke him. “We could have saved her, and maybe even me.”

It wasn’t his fate to be saved, though. Not if Will had been watching him.

What a bitch to know all of this.

Why had he even asked?

It tormented him. Even now. To think that maybe, just maybe, she could have been saved. That maybe he could have some time with her, a life with her.

That if evil hadn’t been lurking at the shadows of his life or maybe if he’d been more wary, from the beginning, he would have been there when that evil came to call.

And he could have had some sort of life to look back on. Instead of this…nothingness.

“Finn. Isn’t it time to let it go? You’ve come too far to lose yourself to a memory,” Will said, his words little more than a whisper on the air.

“A memory.” He turned away from Will.

That was what Will didn’t understand.

She was more than a memory to him, and always had been.

He all but ached for want of her. He couldn’t make himself
believe
that she was truly gone. Never mind that he’d stood at the side of her grave as she was lowered down in the waiting earth.

Once it was done, the world had gone dark as he slid into a deep, mindless sleep that had lasted almost three weeks.

It wasn’t until later that he realized he shouldn’t have come back into the world, wings or no, the way he had. A newly made Grimm was weak and while a new one might not immediately collapse into sleep, within hours, they usually succumb to that deep, dreamless sleep, one that could last hours, or days…and it took weeks or longer to grow into any measure of strength.

Finn practically set the world around him on fire only moments after his return into this life.

Those early days were surreal to him, never fully connecting in his mind.

Maybe that was why he had a hard time believing she was really
gone
.

So much more than a memory, but that was all she’d ever be.

A memory…who even now haunted his dreams, twining there with all the mistakes, all the times he’d failed.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Figure of Speech

Copyright © 2015 by Dana Marie Bell

ISBN: 978-1-61922-636-4

Edited by Tera Cuskaden

Cover by Kanaxa

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: March 2015

www.samhainpublishing.com