Table of Contents
~ Acclaim for Ally Shields ~
Look for these titles from Ally Shields
Copyright Warning
~ Dedication ~
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
~ About the Author ~
~ Also by Ally Shields ~
~ More Fantasy from Etopia Press ~
~ Acclaim for Ally Shields ~
Praise for Awakening the Fire (Guardian Witch #1)
“I can't wait for the rest of the series from this exciting new author because I will definitely be reading them all.”
5 Stars from The Romance Studio
“If you love paranormal and a good mystery, then I can't recommend this book enough.”
5 Stars from Paranormal Romance Guild
“Vampires, werewolves, and witches oh my! In a journey through a magical world...a witch named Arianna will have you lost under her spell.”
5 Stars from I Heart Books
Look for these titles from Ally Shields
Now Available
The Guardian Witch Series
Awakening the Fire (Book 1)
Fire Within (Book 2)
Burning Both Ends (Book 3)
Blood and Fire (Book 4)
Fire Storm (Book 5)
In Print
Awakening the Fire (Book 1)
Fire Within (Book 2)
Burning Both Ends (Book 3)
Blood and Fire (Book 4)
Coming Soon
Fire Storm (Book 5) To Print
Fire Storm
Guardian Witch Book Five
Ally Shields
Copyright Warning
EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published By
Etopia Press
1643 Warwick Ave., #124
Warwick, RI 02889
http://www.etopia-press.net
Fire Storm
Copyright © 2014 by Ally Shields
ISBN: 978-1-940223-90-2
Edited by Nancy Cassidy
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 Etopia Press electronic publication: March 2014
~ Dedication ~
With gratitude and affection to my former writing instructor, Rosemary Olds, whose encouragement kept me writing.
Chapter One
She ran onto State Street and slid to a halt. Silence squatted over the Vampire Strip. The Second Chance Saloon, vampire biker bar and thriving center of depravity, stood at the end of the street with its front doors propped open on the mild September night, but the normal raucous music that should be spilling into the streets was missing. Neon signs added a garish note, tinting the clothes and faces in the crowded parking lot with shades of orange and green. She started toward the bar at a brisk pace. The crowd seemed to be waiting for something, voices hushed. One by one they turned to watch her approach.
Not an ordinary disturbance then. Her magic stirred. Arianna Calin, supernatural cop for Riverdale’s Magic Council, slowed to a walk and circled past the two Riverdale Police Department cruisers that blocked the end of the street and warned the curious away with their blinking red lights. At the edge of the crowd, she held her badge overhead and threaded her way through, listening to the voices for some hint of what lay ahead.
“Let her through.”
“It’s the Guardian,” a man called. “Let her handle this mess.”
Handle what mess? That bad, huh? Her witch senses sent trickles of energy across the back of her neck. She stepped inside the front doors of the all-too-familiar establishment and turned to the right, entering a large room unnaturally bright under police spotlights.
Holy crap! The heavy scent of blood and death choked her senses, her vision blurred. She threw out a hand as if in defense, stopped, and shut down much of her sensory system. The room gradually came back into focus.
Straight ahead, Lt. Ryan Foster, her human partner on joint investigations, and two of his fellow officers talked with two male elves. From the wary stance of the officers and the blood splatters on the elves’ clothing, she assumed they were suspects.
Ryan spotted her and tipped his head in acknowledgment. She returned the nod but didn’t approach him yet.
Ari slowly ran her gaze over the room, taking in and absorbing each detail. She would review the photos later, but this first scan always set up the rest of the investigation for her. Tumbled tables and chairs, spilled drinks, and broken glass covered the floor—along with what remained of four werejaveys. She did a double take. What were javeys doing so far north, hundreds of miles out of their normal habitat? Not noted for their cleanliness, the part-human, part-javelina creatures often smelled bad, but at least two of them had been dismembered, making the sight and odor more like a slaughterhouse than a bar.
Ari swallowed twice, forcing down bile. Could this horrific scene have been prevented? How had these creatures slipped into town?
On a normal night she would have been on evening patrol by now, and probably in this nightlife area known as the Vampire Strip. If so, she would have intervened and stopped this fight before it turned fatal. But she’d been running late, doing a favor for the vampires—actually for Andreas, the vampire prince who was her boyfriend—by talking with an abandoned newborn. The young woman, only a week into her vampire transformation, was having a tough time with the adjustment and the visit had taken longer than Ari anticipated. When police dispatch notified her of a disturbance at the biker bar, she had left on the run, but the extra seven blocks took precious time. The fight would have been short and decisive. Elves might look delicate, but they could pick up a sumo wrestler and throw him across the room when aroused. Even evil-tempered javeys were no match.
Ari grabbed a set of plastic booties from one of the cops, slipped them over her shoes, and walked around the room to get a better look at the crime scene. Avoiding the larger blood pools was easy, but the widespread splatters made some contamination inevitable. The floor was sticky with beer and blood and body parts she didn’t want to think about.
The first javey victim was missing an arm, and his snout was ripped open. The second had lost parts of several limbs, including both hoofed back legs, and the last two bodies had fewer, but more devastating injuries: one decapitated, its hog-like head coming to rest next to the wall; the other had been slammed backward onto a table leg that now protruded from his abdomen.
She’d se
en enough. She pulled off the booties and tossed them into a bag held by a young officer. He looked mid-twenties, about her age, but his face was pale and pasty. Rookie.
She approached Ryan, shot a brief glance at the elves, but spoke to her human partner. “What started it?”
“The elves say six of these guys,” Ryan frowned and waved a hand at the four bodies, “attacked them over whose order would be delivered first. The two survivors took off before our patrol car arrived, so I haven’t heard their version.”
His tone was noncommittal, but the story sounded about right to her. Almost anything could send a javey’s temper into the stratosphere.
Ryan pulled her off to one side. “Can we talk a moment…in private?” He turned his body to shield their conversation from the others and lowered his voice to a whisper. “What kind of creatures are they?”
“Javeys. Werejavelinas. But they’re only pseudo-weres. They can’t shift back and forth.”
“Haveys? Spelled with an H?” He was taking notes. “They don’t look like any werecreatures I’ve ever seen. Were they trying to shift at the time of death?”
“Javey with a J. They’re stuck that way. Javeys are created by mutants.” Ari gestured at the nearest victim, the one missing his head. “This guy was a regular human once, until he was attacked and infected by a mutant javelina. The defective lycanthropy left him in this half-human, half creature state the first time his body tried to shift. He’s been stuck ever since. It’s what the mutation does.”
“Talk about bad luck. Why haven’t I seen anyone like this before?”
She shrugged. “They’re not from around here. Texas and the Southwest mostly.” She glanced at the bodies again and grimaced. “True javelinas may look and act like feral hogs, but werejaveys are ten times more bad-tempered. I’d have chased them out of town, if I’d heard they were here.”
Why hadn’t she’d heard? No one needed to die over a fit of bad temper. The elves were law-abiding and would have quit fighting if someone had restrained the javeys. It was a plus that the elves had survived, but it didn’t square the score in her mind. Javeys or not, four Otherworld creatures had died on her watch.
Ari and Ryan returned to the waiting elves, and she listened while they gave her the details. The fight had played out as she’d suspected: the javeys, who’d boasted they were part of a south Texas gang, had been the aggressors, forcing the fight on the elves. A waitress had been bringing the elves their drinks, when the javeys accosted her, and failing to convince her to deliver the tray to their table instead, one of the javeys had lost his temper and knocked the tray out of her hands. The elves stepped between the young woman and her tormenters, the six javeys started swinging, and the fight was on.
“So what happened to the other two?”
“Back in Texas by now, I’d guess,” one of the elves said. “They were hurt but moving fast when I last saw them. What happens to us? Are we under arrest?”
It was her call since they were Otherworlders, but Ari looked at Ryan for his input.
“Witnesses tell the same story. They confirmed the dead guys struck the first blow.”
She returned her attention to the elves. “It sounds like you did what you had to. As long as you’ve given the officers your name and address, you’re free to leave.” She watched them slip out the back door. “It really wasn’t their fault. I should have stopped the fight.”
“How? You weren’t here.”
“That’s the problem.”
* * *
The following morning Ari finished her first cup of coffee, considered a second, and picked up the local newspaper folded on the table. She’d been living in the vampire prince’s Victorian mansion for almost seven months now, but still loved the luxury of finding the coffee perking in his fancy kitchen and the paper waiting.
She unfolded The Clarion and read the headlines. Four Dead in Bizarre Otherworld Fight. She closed her eyes, an unhappy twinge in her stomach.
Ari dropped the paper on the table, grabbed her cup, and headed for the coffee pot. She needed that second mug after all. Her cell phone rang the solemn organ music that Gabriel, Andreas’s second in command, had jokingly programmed for the Magic Council. At 7:00 a.m., no call was good news. But with her bosses calling this early? Definitely not good news.
“Yes, sir.” She automatically straightened upon hearing the voice of the elder wizard who was the council president.
“We need to talk, Arianna, as soon as possible.”
“If it’s about last night, the javeys won’t be causing any more problems. They were out-of-towners, and the two that survived have already taken off. I found a witness who saw them on the highway headed south. Fortunately, the elves didn’t have any life-threatening injuries.”
“Yes, I have heard the details, but I still want to meet. In about an hour?”
“I’ll be there.” Ari disconnected. He sounded serious, even discouraged or upset. This wasn’t just an update meeting. She rubbed at the tension starting in her temples and ran over last night’s events, looking for what else she could have done—should have done. Be there, was the only answer that came to her.
She ran up the wide wooden staircase to the second floor and changed into a new pair of black jeans, throwing a jacket and neck scarf over her T-shirt. Andreas would be asleep another seven hours, so she simply waved at the hall camera as she left. Samuel, the weretiger watching the security monitors, would note the time she’d gone out and report it to Andreas when he woke. It was one of the drawbacks she lived with in the vampire’s home: someone else always knew her business. At least by the time she heard from Andreas, she’d be able to tell him what the meeting was all about.
In typical fall fashion, the day was starting off crisp and cool. She tightened her scarf against the brisk wind and jogged the dozen blocks to the Magic Hall. The massive gothic structure, which held the president’s chambers, towered over the surrounding trees, but she slipped into the more modern, attached cultural center and unlocked her office. She put on the coffee pot, downed a quick cup, and still made her appointment on time.
Exactly at eight o’clock, she tapped on the president’s dark oak door and pulled it open when he said, “Enter.”
An aged wizard with a long white beard and rimmed glasses rose to greet her from behind the heavy desk and a pale-haired elf unfolded his lean body from one of the visitors’ chairs.
“I asked Eryndale to join us.”
Eryndale met her gaze briefly. “Ms. Calin.”
Their voices and demeanors didn’t reveal anything, but her back stiffened. What was the elf rep to the Magic Council doing here? He was usually pleasant enough, but he looked somber today and didn’t hold her gaze for long. It was significant the president hadn’t warned her Eryndale would be joining them, but she merely nodded and took the remaining seat. While they were settling again, she waited for them to initiate the conversation.
The president started mildly enough. “We’ve been discussing last night’s bar fight at the Second Chance. I understand it was over by the time you arrived.”
“That’s true. The javeys were dead, and the police were questioning the elves.” Wary of where this was going, she limited her comments to the facts. “I was at the New Life Shelter when I got the page.”
“An emergency no doubt.” The president’s gaze was direct, but she still couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Not critical, but I was advising a newborn vamp on her rights and responsibilities.” She looked at Eryndale. “It’s part of an orientation program I do before every young vampire goes into our community. They have to know what the law will allow so they don’t make stupid mistakes.” She stopped; she was explaining too much, and beginning to sound like she was defending herself.
“Important work,” the wizard said, “but unfortunate that it delayed your normal rounds last night.”
“Yes, the timing turned out to be bad.” She bit her lip to keep from adding that her schedu
le was often flexible, had to be with Otherworlders getting in trouble at all hours. That really would have been defensive, and it wouldn’t make last night turn out any better.
“Bad for everyone.” Eryndale leaned forward and spoke for the first time, his voice soft but firm. “Would the outcome have been different if you were there?”
“I think I could have stopped it,” she admitted. “Especially if I’d known when the javeys first arrived in town. But I didn’t.”
The wizard and elf exchanged glances.
“We are a peaceful race by nature,” Eryndale said. “The physical injuries of our elves will heal, but they are experiencing deep feelings of guilt over deaths that weren’t of their choosing.” He eyed her. “I am concerned other incidents will happen, if you remain detached from much of the Otherworld community.”
Ari blinked, stunned by his comment. Where had that come from? “What do you mean by detached?”
The wizard answered. “You’ve been deeply involved with the vampires for months. Perhaps overly involved.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he stopped her with a look. “Your personal relationship with the prince has strengthened the vampires’ ties to the Magic Council—a good thing for us all, and Oliver has proven to be an asset as the new vampire representative—but one magical race, only one segment of your duties, has consumed the majority of your time. Sometimes at the expense of others. Last night is only one example.”