Exhale (24 page)

Her scream shattered every window in the house.

* * * *

Red wisps cleared, and Gavin turned to Zoe behind him. He half-expected to find her cowering after the altercation with Scarlet, but the only sign of fear he detected was a slight quiver in her lip.

He reached for her. “Let me see your arm.”

She held it out. The burns had already healed, thanks to the waterworks display.

Her aura was overly blue, as one would expect after she’d pumped him full of Water, but there was a good bit of red hanging around the edges. Scarlet’s proximity must have had an effect on her.

He glanced down. Erection heavy against the inside of his jeans, he hadn’t escaped the clutches of rampant Fire either, though this particular show of force had come from a different source: Zoe’s mouth on his cock earlier. He twitched at the memory.

Sentinel duties fulfilled for the moment, it was time to finish what Zoe had started at her house. “I’m sorry I had to leave you tonight, but I’m going to make up for it now.”

Her cheeks colored, and she dropped her gaze to her twined hands.

Gavin grabbed a tattered corner of the Dreaming’s daytime sky and tore it away, revealing a curtain of blackness. The monstrous eye of the moon stared down on them like a vengeful Cyclops. Night’s starry, white freckles gleamed around it. Drawing Zoe to his chest, Gavin locked his lips on their favorite target—her sultry mouth. He spread his fingers wide and threw out a new dream like a pair of dice at a craps table.

A different world spun around them as his muse’s blue-tinged kiss made him forget his name. Curled fingers clutching his shoulders, she pulled back. Her lips parted as the scene unfolded.

The Dreaming’s red dust erupted. The ashes covering the ground hardened and smoothed to glassy, white marble. Pairs of Ionic columns formed two at a time, lining up in rows like dominoes on a stair-stepped base. Stony slabs capped the columns in the shape of an angled roof. Gods and heroes from Greek mythology decorated the friezes.

Gavin swirled a hand in a circular motion. Within the open-air temple, a king-sized bed dressed in pale, gossamer linens solidified out of the mists. From each of the four corners, a bedpost sprouted and connected with a square frame around the top. Gauzy sheers rolled down and drifted in the subtle breeze. The smell of fresh lemon and a hint of orange from a nearby orchard filled the air.

“This is the best I can do on short notice.”

“It’s perfect. You promised you’d take me to Greece, and here we are.” Zoe flashed a huge grin at him.

He lifted her up. She locked her thighs around his hips in a long-legged embrace. His erection punched at her warm core, and hands fisted together under her arse for support. Strands of blond fell around his head as she leaned toward him. Her lips hovered over his for a moment, teasing. When she plunged her mouth down, he made a beeline for the bed.

He laid his precious prize on the silky sheets and undressed her, worshipping every inch of skin with his tongue along the way. She giggled and freed his cock from his pants. He pressed it into her wetness and gazed into her heavily lidded eyes. Blue beamed out of her and merged with his Water. Powerful tides shifted between them.

He’d found his place in the world. It was here, with Zoe.

As he made love to her, Gavin stared through the windows of her eyes into her dream soul. She held his gaze, never wavering amid the thrusts, grunts, and moans. Her beauty swept him away like a bird in the wind.

When the orgasm took hold and flushed her skin, he tumbled with her into the unknown. Fragments of the future spun past like whirling puzzle pieces with an endless array of combinations. Yet, even with millions of possible outcomes, the same conclusion punctuated every scenario: blissful happiness.

Love.

Spent from his release, Gavin caressed Zoe’s hot cheek. Her lashes flipped up in slow motion, and she smiled contentedly. So goddamn beautiful. Tomorrow, he’d have her for real. Scarlet and her fucking mates be damned.

Screams from far-off Wyldlings jarred his brief moment of peace, disrupting the calm of their shared Water with unwelcome Fire. Zoe’s sated demeanor shifted to one of concern, and she tensed under him. Her grip tightened around his middle.

“You should go. Someone needs your help.”

The cries grew louder and more intense. He hesitated.

She gently urged him up. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. After what you did to Scarlet, she won’t be back to bother me tonight.”

Torn between his obligations to the Wyldlings and his desire for a few more minutes with Zoe, he gritted his teeth. He swung his legs around to sit on the edge of the bed. She followed right behind him and rested her chin on his shoulder. The Air tattoos there swirled, ruffled her hair, and downgraded his sex drive with an infusion of reason. Zoe was right, but he didn’t have to like it.

“I don’t want to leave you.” Memories of Scarlet taunting and burning his muse returned uninvited, simmering his blood again. That jealous bitch couldn’t stand the thought of Gavin not loving her.

Not far away, an explosion erupted, staining the night sky outside their private little dream hideaway with red smoke. In an instant, Zoe’s aura shifted to dark blue worry. She pushed him to his feet. “Go and be a Sentinel. The Wyldlings need you, Gavin.”

Maybe, but he needed
her
. Damn responsibilities always fucked with his happiness. Damn Fyres. Damn Scarlet—

Scarlet.

A stab of fear pierced his lungs as a realization crashed into him. The Water damage he’d inflicted on her tonight was nothing compared to the pain Zoe had caused her. Zoe was no longer just a rival. She’d stolen Gavin’s heart.

And knowing Scarlet as he did, she’d resort to
anything
win it back.

The shrill yelps of terror and agony rose to an unbearable level. Unable to take any more, he willed his clothes in place, and kissed Zoe quickly. “Tomorrow night, Zed. Keep your Water close.”

She nodded, long hair brushing her bare breasts. “Be careful.”

“You too.”

Please, gods, watch out for her.
He’d die if anything bad happened to his muse.

Chapter Twenty-three

“…where two of the shops burned to the ground and fire fighters continue to battle the flames. So far, five people are missing and presumed dead inside the building. Officials cannot yet speculate as to what started the fire, but they have not ruled out arson as a possibility. Stay tuned for more…”

Sinnder’s doorbell rang. He shifted his focus from the breaking news story about a fire in a local strip mall to the jiggling door handle demanding his attention. The heat pouring through the cracks in the wooden frame brought his brow up.

He went to the door and opened it. Scarlet pushed past him, her hair a mess of matted, dirty curls. Ash covered her usually ruddy skin, and a line of black soot smudged her mouth.

She stumbled wild-eyed into the lounge room. When she caught a glimpse of the blaze on the news, she picked up the remote and hurled it at the TV. Glass shattered. The picture whimpered, shuddered, then flickered out in a death throe. Ozone-laden smoke filled the room.

Sinnder glanced from the telly back to Scarlet and sat on the lounge. “You’ve been busy.”

“Get your arse up. We’re going to Sydney.” She slipped behind him and urged him to his feet.

“For what? Did you find the whale?”

After Scarlet sent him and several other Fyres on an unplanned Wyldling attack in the Dreaming last night, he thought maybe she’d leave him alone for a few days. But judging by her appearance, she’d reached the edge of sanity, and would step off into the unknown soon. He didn’t want her holding his boot strings when she did.

No, if everything went according to plan, he’d be behind her, doing the pushing.

“Fuck the one whale. We’re going to kill them all.” She turned on him, her eyes boiling light red—jealousy—under the bottomless black of madness. What a combination.

He started to ask what Zoe Morgan had done this time, but it was irrelevant. Mentioning Zoe would only serve to enrage Scarlet further, and while sometimes entertaining, her rants had become increasingly dangerous to uninvolved parties of late. He glanced at the smoke-spitting telly.

His Fire reserves still weren’t up to full, and considering the destruction Scarlet had been wreaking in both the Dreaming and Realis, he’d need every last bit to accomplish his goal. If only he could find a couple more Fyres like the one he’d popped out of Gavin’s necklace—

“
Now
, Sinnder. I’m tired of playing games. We need to finish the Wæters’ Archelemental candidate off
today
.” Wincing, Scarlet bounced back and forth between her feet.

He followed the line of the torn stockings under her miniskirt down to the floor. Her calves were seared black and red, ankles worse, and her shoeless toes were little more than crusty, bloody nubs.

Looked like Sinnder had some competition. Then again, Scarlet was such a notorious object of hatred, he shouldn’t be surprised.

He notched his head and tried to hide a smile. “What got hold of you?”

She narrowed her eyes on him. The flash of clarity dawning over her face proved her intent was as lethal as he had supposed. “A dead woman.” Her upper lip curled as she spoke.

He nodded. So, it
was
Zoe.

Sinnder grabbed his leather jacket and slipped it on. He stepped into Scarlet’s personal space and took a whiff of her. Unquenchable thirst, with a bold note of vengeance similar to his own. They weren’t so different. She’d fed recently—on the victims of the fire she’d started at the strip mall, no doubt—but the madness in her eyes demanded more.

“Where to?” he asked.

“Meet me in the alley behind Oxford Street in Kings Cross. There’s an old gas lamp still burning there that you can use as a portal. We’re gonna pay a visit to a bloke I know who can hook us up with guns. Then we go hunting.” She peeled her lips back into a pleased grin.

Cold settled into Sinnder’s bones. The feel of it reminded him of death, a subject with which is he was way too familiar.

Though his instincts screamed to stay at home, he Firewalked to Sydney and followed Scarlet on her errands.

Several hours later, Sinnder sat behind the wheel of a rented leisure boat, piloting across open ocean. Four shotguns lay scattered on the deck, and Scarlet sat shivering beside him, wrapped from head to toe in waterproof foul weather gear.

She hadn’t cleaned herself up from the fire she’d started earlier, and the longer the day went on, the more fixated she became on killing whales. She mumbled to herself, stomped her feet, and cursed.

The occasional spray of ocean hit Sinnder’s exposed face, the sharp sizzles opening tiny holes in his flesh, but he ignored them. His heart had experienced far worse damage than a little water could inflict.

The sun provided supplemental warmth from overhead, but still his skin tingled and bones ached with chills. A disturbance about a kilometer off the bow caught his attention, and a second one verified his fear. Two whales. Likely a mother and calf. He exhaled heavily as Scarlet cackled and reached for one of the guns.

“Finally,” she muttered, lowering her sights on the whales. She shouldered the butt of the gun. Her finger caressed the trigger. “Move in closer.”

Stomach dropping, Sinnder did as she asked. He swallowed hard. A few minutes later, two blows steamed the air to the left, a couple hundred meters away. He accelerated and headed toward them, the knot in his throat tightening with the turn.

When they got close to the spot where the whales had last appeared, he cut the throttle and waited. Scarlet’s anxious Fire surged like solar flares around her. She continued rubbing the trigger. He licked his lips, heart racing.

Another blow, then a bigger one next to it. Scarlet’s shoulders tensed.

BANG!

Maniacal laughter.

A struggle in the water.

Red frenzy.

Sinnder flinched.

Two more shots fired. Blood everywhere. The mother’s panic was palpable, rousing familiar desire for Fire in his blood. Though sickened by his body’s response to the fear coming off the whale in massive waves, Sinnder couldn’t stop the natural reaction.

How worried the whale must have been for her baby. Her protective instincts did her no good against forces like him and Scarlet. They were murderers, bringers of panic, dread, and death. His eyes misted while he grew hard at the feel of the mother’s intense pain fluttering on his skin.

The calf disappeared into the depths.

Scarlet fired three more shots. Sinnder dropped his gaze to his feet.

The fear called to him like a subtle perfume, seductive and undeniable. He fought to resist, but the Fire was too strong.

Pulse racing, he blinked several times to clear his vision and embraced the animal’s agony in the way only a Fyre could: with a cruel, unapologetic smile.

* * * *

As the CRN team headed back to Urangan Harbour around six o’clock, a loud cry shook Zoe away from another replay of last night’s sex dream with Gavin. She twisted her head, looking for the source, but the ocean was calm.

“Did you hear something?” she called up front to Dani, Elizabeth, and Adriene.

They glanced at each other and shrugged.

Nagging dread climbed her spine, digging its claws in deep. She slowed the Zodiac and scanned the horizon again. No sign of whales or anything else. Not even another boat in sight.

“Everything okay?” Adriene asked.

Zoe frowned. She could have sworn she heard a whale in distress. Same as when Lily’s calf had been killed by the whalers in the Southern Ocean.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just my imagination.” But she remained on high alert the rest of the way to the harbor, watching and listening for anything out of the ordinary. Uneasiness gnawed at the back of her brain.

Once the boat was secured at the dock, the team headed back to the research house. Iri came out to help unload the Land Rover but said nothing. Zoe needed to cut him lose. Something dark followed him. She wasn’t the superstitious type, but after that horrible headache yesterday and the weird
moko
she’d seen on his face…