SeducetheFlame (2 page)

“Let’s get this over with. It’s the middle of the night and
Sean back there needs his beauty sleep.”

“Yeah. I’m sure he’s sleeping with that hot piece of ass in
his bed,” Neil smirked.

“Don’t talk about my niece. You’re liable to lose your
teeth,” Ray replied quietly. Daisy was his adopted niece and aural mage. She’d
been the first target of this plot that Nelson had hatched. She’d been
kidnapped, but Sean had not only rescued her, he’d mated her. Ray couldn’t hold
it against his oldest friend for basically marrying his niece without anyone’s
permission, even hers, but they were a perfect match. And Sean kept her calm.
They called her a banshee not just for the ability to use sound as a weapon,
but she was unpredictable and hard to handle by everyone but Sean. This asshole
had been part of the plan to hurt her and he wouldn’t get away with it.

“Want me to fetch a pair of pliers?” Clarissa smiled sweetly
at Neil and the tension in Ray melted away. They had this. He had good people,
ready to handle it.

“We’ll wait a moment. Neil’s going to cooperate, aren’t
you?”

Neil glared, but he didn’t say
no
, which meant they’d
already gotten his capitulation.

“Keep it polite, or you might lose some body parts,”
Clarissa interjected with such sugar in her voice, he nearly missed the threat.

“You kidnapped Daisy,” Ray began.

“I didn’t kidnap her, she walked into our camp,” Neil
protested.

“Yes. A camp full of rogue para-talents hiding out in the
Appalachians. You set it up just to get her out there, didn’t you? But it
didn’t go according to plan. She escaped and we found out Vince had turned
traitor.”

“I can’t believe you never saw through my father. He had you
fooled for years.”

“He was a friend.” Ray meant it. Vince had been their
strategist, a valued member of their team, but he’d always been a friend as
well. It didn’t make sense that for all that time, Vince had plotted against
them.

CTF had been created by Ray and his brother Griffin just
after World War II—they all lived extra-long lives. Ray was approaching the
century mark and still looked and felt like he was in his late thirties. Soon
after they’d gotten started, they’d brought Vince on board as their strategist,
to help launch CTF. Their purpose was to protect and help others of their kind.
Ray couldn’t understand why Vince had turned his back on that.

“He’s nobody’s friend. His mind is too cold for that.”
Neil’s rancor wasn’t faked. His father had never mentioned him. It defied
reason to hide that news for upward of twenty years. That, more than anything,
proved Vince had never been the man Ray thought he was.

“He never mentioned you, you know.” Clarissa said it gently,
but it was like a bomb going off in the room. It went deathly silent.

Neil’s angry and defiant gaze dropped to the table.

“Why did you do it?” Ray prodded.

“Vince wanted what you had. He wanted to be the leader of
the para-talents. He built a fear of your use of syphons.” He paused and
glanced at Susan. Shrugging as much as he could with his arms tied to the
chair, he let his anger fall away as his jaw and shoulders visibly relaxed
their tension. “Honestly. With my power bled off a little, it’s easier to
control the anger. I can see that. I can see why syphons can help us sometimes.
But he made it seem as if you were a dictator. Making decisions for all of us trying
to survive among humans. And the syphons were your tools to control or
power-wipe those who didn’t go along.”

“So he gathered some stragglers together. Some rogues.”

“Sure. Then he wanted to break you apart from the inside.
Daisy was your loose cannon.”

Sean shifted against the wall, but he didn’t move again.

“If Daisy had gone to another organization with Vince, and
you’d have killed Sean, you would have dealt a blow to Ray he might not have
recovered from,” Clarissa interjected softly. She knew Ray, inside and out.
She’d spoken the truth. If they’d taken Daisy and killed Sean, his fire would
have raged out of control.

Susan would have tried to stop him. A syphon’s power was
absolute over most para-talents, but that power came as an energy drain into
the ground. Supremely effective against a weather mage, but with fire, it could
redirect. Cause ground fires. It wasn’t an absolute. They could have killed one
another and everyone around them.

“But it didn’t work.” Clarissa sat on the table and Neil
relaxed even more. “So you already had a backup plan. Vince always does. You
sent Astrid to infiltrate CTF and break into our files. You wanted all the
names of the para-talents we have recorded. Vince couldn’t get to them any
longer, since he’s still in and out of the unconscious state Daisy put him in.”

“He’s downstairs.” Ray picked up from there, feeling how
Clarissa had lulled Neil and taking it further. “Want to see how your father is
doing?”

They made a good team in many ways—questioning witnesses
together was one.

“No.” Neil shook his head slowly. “Never really cared that
much for the old man. He’s an asshole.”

“Your plan was to get the names, come in, and take us out.
You want to kill us, Neil? You want to kill me?” Clarissa asked with such a
soft voice, the horror of it didn’t seem to register for anyone else in the
room, but Ray’s fire sprang to life.

With a quick roll of his shoulder, he released the sudden
firestorm and directed it with a wave. The trashcan exploded with fire. His
chest felt tight and his eyes glowed enough that his vision clouded with its
aura. The room turned orange and hot.

Clarissa calmly slid from the table and walked to the corner
where the trashcan roared high with flames. With a slight smile, she swirled
her hand, and a ball of water formed over the receptacle. It splashed down with
a whoosh. Steam rose to the ceiling.

Watching her in action calmed him and the room cleared of
smoke quickly.

Only the scent of wet ashes left behind let them know what
had just happened.

“I wouldn’t have killed you,” Neil pleaded.

They may never know. Not without Sean digging deep into
Neil’s head to ferret it out, and that could scramble him for life.

“If we let you walk out of here, we’d have to watch our
backs.” Ray let his anger show. No use in hiding it after that display. “You
threatened my family. My people. I still have to figure out what to do with
your father—lying in a hospital bed downstairs. I don’t have time to babysit
you. Do I need Sean to dig around in your brain to get the truth? Is there
anyone else in on this? Anyone to worry about sneaking into the house in the
dead of night to try to take us out?”

“Nobody. Just Astrid’s mother knew, and without Astrid to
help her, she’s nothing more than a sour old woman. If you still have Vince, she
won’t do anything until she hears from him.”

Ray glanced at Sean. Sean nodded. He hadn’t picked up vibes
of a lie from Neil.

They talked into the night and questioned Neil over and
over. He seemed forthcoming, but even so, Ray couldn’t determine if Vince had
twisted his son too much. He didn’t know if there was anything left to save in
Neil.

“This is what’s going to happen. You will go to a clinic
that will evaluate you. To the Mountain View Retreat. I’m sure you’ve heard of
the compound. All the troublemakers go through there for treatment and a parole
program. You do your community service, keep clean, or you will be fried. Got
it?”

“Got it.” Neil appeared defeated. His shoulders slumped and
he stared at the table.

As morning came, they locked him into a guest room with no
way out. When everyone had gotten some sleep and cleaned up the mess out back,
Neil would be escorted to the Retreat. It was a mix of medical professionals,
guards, social workers, and old-timers who hadn’t adjusted to the modern world
and lived there together. When you reached a few hundred years old, sometimes
change was impossible.

Already, he’d sent a team to go pick up Astrid’s mother. He
didn’t know if he could leave her out there on her own. She’d make a visit to
the Retreat. For how long depended on her.

Now they’d taken care of all loose ends but one. They had to
be sure Vince hadn’t hatched some other plan in his crazed move to try to build
a rogue faction of para-talents.

Before Ray went to bed, he had to check.

Ray had one mission. He had to face and deal with the
mastermind.

The bottom floor of the mansion had a clinic. Inside, Vince
Nelson, traitor, slept.

Neil had been safely transferred to the Retreat weeks ago
but there had been no progress with Vince. That had to change. Ray stared at
the flame dancing on his hand instead of the motionless figure secured to a
hospital bed.

“Why did you betray us?” Ray’s hoarse words fell heavy into
the silence left by the only other occupant of the room, an unconscious Vince
Nelson.

Susan and a neighboring para-talent doctor had kept Vince in
this semi-conscious state for weeks. They’d brought him to consciousness a few
times, but he’d raved uncontrollably. There was no getting through. Ray didn’t
know what to do with him. He couldn’t transfer him to a hospital or turn him
over to the police. Not without revealing themselves.

But an invalid couldn’t be kept in the house clinic
indefinitely. This was headquarters to CTF, but it was also home. Not a prison
hospital.

He stared at the lick of fire flickering on his hand, but it
didn’t give him the answers, even if it did center his thoughts.

“Still not sure where to send him? I think the clinic you
found up in Colorado would be perfect. They can handle him there, if he comes
out of it.” The weight on the loveseat shifted and fingers reached out. Water
doused the flame on his palm.

“Clarissa,” he greeted in a gravelly voice.

“Here all night?” The water mage let her hand settle onto
his in a momentary caress. His fingers wouldn’t close around hers and the
weight of her touch dropped away.

“Only two months ago, I would have told you he’d do the same
for me, sit all night by my side as he decided what was best for his friend’s fate.
But we didn’t even know he had a son. How old is Neil? What? Mid-thirties? And
raised with the mission to supplant CTF and expose us all. Well, we’re free of
that now. But we still have to take care of Vince.” Ray dried his palm on his
slacks and climbed to his feet. Bracing himself, as he did more and more these
days, he faced the clear, blue-eyed stare that never missed a thing. “Contact
Colorado. We’ll send Vince there.”

“You know. There’s something else we could try.” Clarissa a
tapped a finger over her luscious lips. If only he trusted himself to touch
that tempting mouth again. “You’re not very talkative this morning. You need to
get some sleep.”

“Go ahead. Tell me your idea. I won’t rest until I worry it
all to death in my head again, anyway.” Ray crossed his arms over his chest and
angled his against the corner of the seat.

“We could take him to Savannah to see Jonah.” Clarissa
glanced at him from the corner of her eye and then mirrored his pose, hands
across chest, leaning against the back of the opposite side of the loveseat.

“He lives on a beach. All that water makes me a tad
uncomfortable.” He shifted and straightened his legs. White-haired Vince hadn’t
moved.

“If anyone can bring Vince around, it’ll be him.” She leaned
toward him and he couldn’t help himself. His gaze drifted down to the V of her
white silk shirt beneath her blazer. “I mean, Daisy didn’t scramble his brains
when she brought him down with her banshee wail. I think Jonah has the healing
skills to pull him out of his mental retreat.”

“If that’s possible.” He jerked to his feet and crossed to
the door. “Even though he betrayed us, I can’t forget the years he’d been my
friend. You’re right. Jonah can help him, if anyone can. We’ll take him up in
the morning.”

“See you this afternoon,” she called after him.

His shoulders knotted. He’d forgotten what day it was.
“Shit.”

Not two hours later he stood in a tux in the Atlanta
courthouse and watched his brother Griffin marry Astrid Collins. The weather
mage and syphon had successfully joined as para-talent partners and Ray
couldn’t help but smile as Griffin’s abilities overran his control and created
a rainbow. The colors streaked across the floor. Many of the couples in the
mass wedding pointed, wide-eyed at the prism effect bouncing around the room.

“That’s some light show,” a bride exclaimed.

“Wonder where they hid the projector,” a groom murmured.

The crowd didn’t suspect there were people with extra
abilities in the room with them. An entire culture hidden from view, built of
families with hereditary elemental powers. And that was CTF’s job, to protect
people from the knowledge that his people existed, and to protect his people
from trouble from within and without.

A swell of sound brought Ray’s attention back around. The
judge announced all the couples married. The room erupted in applause, kisses
and good cheer. Ray laughed. A buzz zinged through him and he grinned. The
weight of the past few weeks lifted from his shoulders. After everyone had
filed out of the large courtroom, he followed the newlyweds out to the street
to await their car.

“They work well together.” Clarissa stood next to him. The
only witnesses to come along, they were family, even if Clarissa wasn’t
technically so.

Griffin and Astrid kissed, all tongue and
hands-grabbing-ass. His brother was stocky and muscular with hair just like
Ray’s, short dark brown. Except now, Griffin had let his hair get a little
long. Astrid, tall and dark-haired, fit into the family perfectly. She even got
along with Clarissa in their love of fashion.

“Cut it out, little brother.” Ray glanced around to see
smiles of passerby. “We’re on an Atlanta street corner here. All four of us are
going to get hauled in for indecency.”

“Not hardly,” Clarissa muttered. “You’ve never been indecent
in your long life, Ray Cinder.”

“Not since I met you,” he replied sardonically.

They’d met exactly fourteen years ago. Clarissa had answered
a call out to the local para-talent families for a personal assistant. The
interview had lasted five minutes before he knew she had the job. He’d soon
learned she was fifty-five and recently divorced from a non-talent. Since that
day, he hadn’t had a chance to be indecent with anyone because no other woman
had caught his eye and no other woman had stirred the para-talent sleeping like
a banked fire beneath his skin.

He stopped short in the middle of the sidewalk. After
fourteen years of celibacy, he really was a prude. Truly, it was a wonder he
wasn’t more uptight. He missed sex.

Adjusting his tie, he climbed into the back of the limo.
Clarissa joined him and softly shut the door.

“Everyone else can catch the next ride.” She grinned at him.
“Doesn’t it feel good? To see our friends and family so happy?”

Leaning back, he returned the smile and relaxed as the
driver pulled away from the curb. “It does. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day
Griffin really did it. And Sean and Daisy. I can’t believe it was right under
our noses this whole time.”

She cut a sideways glance at him and opened her luscious
lips. But she shut them before going further down that path. She’d been under
his nose for years, and damn but he’d like her under his body too.

“You know I’d been married before, right?” Clarissa stared
out the window and his gaze tracked down her body. She wore red. The dress
clung to her and accented her delicious body as much as her usual classy,
understated-but-upbeat demeanor.

Her words sank in and he frowned even while staring at her
cleavage and wanting to run a finger just inside the V of the neckline. He’d
rub over a nipple and she’d moan.

The back windows fogged and she glanced over at him with a
lifted brow.

“I know.” He sat back and concentrated on the road before
them. Better to watch where they were going than get in deeper.

“The reception will be a blur to them.” She laughed and
shook her head. “The coming days will be one happy discovery after another.”

Ray shifted in his seat. He’d never been close to proposing
to a woman. None had stirred his power in a way that intrigued him enough to
stay for the long haul. “You gave it a try, with a non-talent. Did he find
out?”

“You’ve never asked that before. All these years of doing
nearly everything together, working, eating, even living together, you’ve never
asked about him.”

“I thought it might be too painful a subject.” He couldn’t
admit that he didn’t want to know. Thinking of a man being with her, sharing a
life, being her husband, he couldn’t stop wishing. It made him feel sick
inside.

“Not painful. It was for the best. It’s only painful when I
think I might never find the man who would be my partner in every way
possible.” She gave him a soft smile. “We’re partners in a way, you know. We
work together seamlessly. Remember the time we went to that school because a
boy had been levitating the furniture? You talked the principal into believing
the kid had rigged some great contraption of fishwire and pulleys while I managed
to calm his mother. She finally agreed to send him to one of our specialists.”

“We do good work together.”

“We could do more together.”

“It’s too risky.” He crossed his legs to hide his sudden
erection at the thought of honeymooning with Clarissa.

“After all this time, can’t you admit that our powers would
be even, if we joined as para-talent partners?”

“It’d be like Vince. How he sucked his wife dry and she
died.”

“Why would you think that, Ray? We’re both mage-level,
powerful talents. His wife couldn’t have been…”

The cigarette lighter in the back of the limo popped and
fell to the floor. The red hot center glowed.

“My power does erratic things if I even think of anything…”

“Do you think of fucking me, Ray?”

Ray sat straight and pulled his slacks at the knee, trying
to alleviate the pressure on his now fully erect cock. “Since when have you
taken to speaking that way?”

“What? I always speak plainly with you. You’re my best
friend. I don’t mind telling you, I think of riding you on a nightly basis.”

“Damn.” He sat forward and pressed down on the intercom
button to the driver. “How much farther?”

“We’re there, sir.”

Ray opened the door before the car fully stopped and nearly
stepped right out, but the frustrated, disgusted sigh from beside him gave him
pause.

“Let’s not mess up a good thing.” He stared at his
white-knuckled grip on the handle. “Nothing needs to change.”

He stepped onto the curb but before he could shut the door,
or tell the valet he’d get Clarissa’s door, he heard her reply.

“It already has changed. You just refuse to see it.”