Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (2 page)

As Josef turned his focus to confront the mysterious new threat, the bands encircling Rave weakened. His
volkaane
strength reinforced by the danger to Leesa, Rave burst from his magical bonds and was upon Josef in a flash, pressing his mouth over the black wizard’s face and unleashing the full force of his
inner
fire before Josef could defen
d himself. Dominic had said
that not even a waziri could
withstand a
volkaane’s
fire, and Rave quickly proved him correct. In less than a minute, Josef collapsed lifeless to the ground.
A moment later, hi
s body disintegrated into a pile of coal black ash.

Leesa rushed into Rave’s arms and hugged him tightly.
W
rapped up in hi
s embrace
, the emotions of the last few minutes began pouring out of her—the fear, the frustration, the worry, the anger. She couldn’t hold them in any longer. She began to cry—great, heaving sobs. Raves simply held her tighter and
tenderly
stroked her hair.

Dominic joined them, but stood a few discreet feet away, giving them space.
No one
noticed the owl that
fluttered silently cl
oser and landed on a branch
twenty feet above their heads.
Its pointed ears twisted forward
and down
.

Finally, Leesa had no more tears to cry, no more emotions to let out. Spent, she stepped back from Rave’s embrace, but kept her
arms linked around one of his.
She couldn’t believe how lucky she was that this gorgeous guy, with his long
,
dark copper hair and
smooth
bronzed skin, was in love with her.

“S
orry
about the crying
,” she said. “I couldn’t help it.”

Rave and Dominic smiled.

“Sorry?” Dominic asked. “Sorry f
or saving
us? Sorry for being the bravest person I have ever met? Sorry for confronting one of our deadliest enemies and confusing him so much that Rave was able to destroy him?” His smile widened. “Yes, I’d say you have a l
ot to be sorry for, young lady—a
whole lot.”

Leesa smiled. “I guess I did do pretty
good
for a beginner, huh?” She pulled one arm free from Rave and wiped her
crystal blue
eyes with her sleeve. “But I don’t see either one of you crying like a baby.” Her smile assured them she was at least half joking.

Rave and Dominic both laughed.

“I never expected the growing spell to come in so handy,” Dominic said. “I only taught it to you so you could experience casting your first spell, not as something you would use to help destroy a black wizard.” He
looked over to the pile of dar
k ashes that had once been Josef. “There’s one more thing I need to do.”

He crossed
to the pile of ashes and held his hands above them, palms down. White light shone down from his hands and the ashes began to crackle and vibrate as his magic burne
d into them. A thin rope of black
smoke curled up from the ashes as they slowly disintegrated. Soon there was nothing left but the narrow stream of smoke, which slowly disappeared into the dimness above.
Up in the tree, the owl held its breath as the awful smelling smoke drifted past.

“Josef’s foul magic is gone forever now,” Dominic explained. “Nothing can be done to reanimate it.”

Leesa was very glad to hear that. Unfortunately, there were still three more like him out there…and
a
Necromancer as well.

1
.
MAKING
PLANS

T
he thought of the deadly enemies still searching for Dominic sent a chill through Leesa’s body that had nothing to do with the cool, damp
February
afternoon. She moved closer to Rave and slipped her arm around the back of his waist, pressing against his side. Sensing her agitation, he draped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

Leesa sighed as Rave’s volkaane heat flowed into her. He felt even warmer than usual, his body and
lips still heated from the battle
. She wished his magical fire could melt away
her troublesome thoughts as easily
as they soothed her body.

She looked at Dominic, whose mind was clearly elsewhere. His blue-grey eyes bore a vacant, faraway look as he absently stroked his pointed, salt-and-pepper goatee with the fingers of his right hand.
He looked so ordinary
, she thought, in his black shirt and khaki pants. It was hard to reconcile his appearance with the powerful magic he had just displayed.

Leesa was pretty sure she knew at least the general thrust of
his
thoughts
right now
.

Dominic had been fleeing
from
his enemies for more than a century, all the while trying to
concoct some kind of plan to defeat them and
fore
stall their attempts to break the magical seal the waziri had placed between the world of the living and the world of
the dead. For more than
a hundred years he had steadfastly refrained from using his active magic, the kind his foes could sense and track. Eighteen years ago, he had done something none of his kind had ever tried—instead of passing his powers on to a young male child, he had imparted his magic into Leesa while she was still in her mother’s womb.
He hoped the unheard of action w
ould produce an ally whose magic
the black waziri and the Necromancer
would be unable to
detect.

Unfortunately, he could not have known that Leesa’s mom would be bitten while still pregnant by a
grafhym
—a one fanged-vampire that was a crippled version of the real thing—and that the taint of
grafhym
passed on to Leesa via her mom’s blood
would alter Leesa’s
magical
vibrations enough so that Dominic had been unable to find her until just a
few weeks ago.
As a consequence
, she was way behind in the training Dominic should have begun with
her
before
her dormant powers began to awaken
.

This
was not the immediate problem, though, and she knew it
wasn’t
the focus of his current thoughts.
This morning,
Dominic had been forced to use his active magic to save her from being crushed by a drunk driver. The tell-tale magic
had
drawn Josef to him and forced the confrontation that had just ended. She was certain Dominic was now plotting their escape,
deciding the best way
to avoid being caught by the three
remaining black waziri, who could
now
track him through his magic.
She was glad
to
see that
Dominic was displaying no
real
urgency. They must have a little time, at least, before danger could find them.

The thought of leaving filled Leesa with sadness. She loved her life here in Connecticut. Her mom was finally behaving normally,
and the two of them
were just beginning to get
to know each other the way a mother
and daughter should.
She also had her big brother Bradley back after he’d been missing for almost two year
s
, held captive as a feeder
by a vampire coven. A deal she’d
struck with the vampire Stefan had saved Bradley. She thought she was going to have to let Stefan turn her into his vampire consort to secure her brother’s release, but luckily, it hadn’t turned out that way.

In addition to
having
her family
back intact
, s
he was also enjoying h
er friends
at Westo
n College, especially her best friend Cali.
She hated the thought of leaving
her family and friends
behind, but knew
she didn’t
really
have a choice.

Her thoughts darkened further
when she suddenly realized she didn’t even know if Rave would be able to come with them. She knew he’d want to
,
but the volkaanes were a very clannish bunch and she didn’t
know if they would allow him to leave
, especially in these dangerous times.
She shook the thought from her head—she didn’t even want to think about not being with him.

Rave was the main reason she had accepted the burden of her as yet mostly untapped magic in the first place. When Dominic had appeared in her life a few weeks ago, he
ha
d given her the choice of pushing her power down so it would never bother her
again
or accepting her magic and letting him train her
to control it
. At first, she thought the choice was a no brainer—why put
herself
in all the danger the magic would bring? But then Dominic told her if she embraced her magic, she could live a couple hundred years, at least—
if
she survived their enemies.
A couple
of
hundred years was all she’d needed to hear—t
he
chance to spend all those
years with Rave was something
she could not pass up, despite the dangers.

She needed
to remember that, she told herself. Even if she was separated from Rave for a short time,
for a few months
even,
Dominic’
s training would give
them a chance to spend centuries together enjoying their amazing love. The pain
of separation
would be
well
worth it in the long run.

Dominic’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.

“Time is short,” he said. “We have much to discuss before I leave.”