Lonny’s heart couldn’t take another conversation with Lana. She would only push him away again in the morning. And he was having a hard enough time respecting her boundaries.
He stormed into his house and pushed his fingers through his hair. The hair he grew out when Lana told him she wanted to see it down. And once it reached his shoulders, she told him how gorgeous it was. He hadn’t cut it since.
Pathetic.
Fuck his promise to Reance. His heart couldn’t take another night of the push and pull. He picked up the phone and called Scotty. His two closest friends were Scotty and Toryn. Scotty was a wood nymph who Saressa had claimed, even though he was meant to mate Paineater. They were finally together and happy. Something Lonny didn’t seem to be destined for.
He’d grown up in Scotty’s home, his family were technically slaves to gain protection from an earth dragon who wanted to kill all Hyter Sprites. He was treated more like family and had grown close to Scotty from the very beginning. And when his parents died, he was free, though hired by Reance.
It only rang once. “What’s up, Lonny?”
“You still plan to keep an eye on Lana?”
“Of course. What’s going on?”
“I’m leaving tonight. I’ll take a break until Toryn gives me an assignment. I can’t play this game with Lana. Reance was right, someone came for her. I protected her. Now I’m leaving before she rips my heart to shreds.”
“What?”
He gave Scotty a brief rundown of what happened. Including the detail about Alenathos leaving the bar. He kept it from Lana because he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure what it meant. “Reance can be pissed, but I can’t do this anymore. Tell me you’ll keep an eye on her.”
“You can’t stay one more day?” Scotty asked lightly.
“I just saved her life, and she’s acting like she might actually give me a shot, but I don’t want to get my hopes up just for it all to come crashing down.”
“She’s going to have to stop running from you sooner or later. Maybe it’s now.”
“Not like this. Look, I love you like a brother, but I need to go. I need to be sure this is her choice, and not adrenaline or gratitude speaking. Just, keep her safe.”
“You’ve got it, but keep in touch. If she’s legit coming around, I’m bringing her to you.”
“How would you know?” he demanded.
Scotty laughed. “Seeing what’s in someone’s heart is one of my few gifts.”
“Fine, I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up.
Storming into his room, he grabbed a bag and started shoving clothes inside. Faster he left, the sooner he could figure out a way to mend his bleeding heart.
* * * *
Lana pulled up in front of Lonny’s house and parked the car. She watched him loading up a duffel bag. Gripping the wheel, she closed her eyes and drew a deep breath to steady herself.
This was on her. She needed to fix it.
She marched up to the door and lifted her hand to knock but froze. A chill worked down her spine as she spun to find another man step through black swirl in the air. Her hands came up and instinct pushed fire from her palms, out, into a cone.
The gun went off as he screamed, jerking away. Turning, he attempted to shield himself. In seconds he was engulfed in flames, convulsing on the ground.
The fire came from her. She couldn’t deny that. Heat coursed through her blood, yet it was a comfortable sensation. And she was freaking out.
Fear exploded in her head. What the hell had she done?
The door slammed open and Lonny spun her toward him. “You okay?”
“Uh…”
He caressed her face, and she lifted a hand.
Flames flickered along her fingertips. Stepping back, she shook her head. “Don’t. Don’t want to hurt you.”
“Stay here.” He rushed into the yard.
Her head spun in circles. She couldn’t get a grip on what she’d just done. She had burned a man alive. And fine, he shot at her, but she sent the fire before he pulled the trigger. What did that make her?
* * * *
So much for getting out of town and putting space between them. Lana showed up on his doorstep with some psycho trying to shoot her, once again. And she was straight up flipping out.
He’d been packing when he heard the shot, then smelled the fire. Lana stood there, frozen, staring at her handiwork.
And he got it when she realized her hands were flaming. She didn’t want to hurt him. Fine, so she needed to stand back while he hid the prick before the police came.
This was solid proof her parents weren’t who she believed. And if Alenathos was her father, that left one person to be her mother. He’d once seen Fuerah and Alenathos together. It was well-known Fuerah hated the water dragon. No one seemed to know why, though he caught the two together on a few occasions and quickly went on his way before they realized he’d been there.
The only thing he could imagine was that Alenathos took Lana from Fuerah. Probably to protect her. And pissed Fuerah off in the process.
Lana believed she was an Earth Fae.
Ha ha, fucking ha. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Lonny knelt beside the guy with the gun. He grabbed the weapon and took a look at him. The guy was smoldering, his skin blistered and cracked. Incoherent sounds came out of his mouth.
The hair on his arms stood on end and he touched the guy, shifting him out of the plane, leaving him there. He rushed to Lana, who stood at the door, staring with her mouth hanging open.
Embedded in the door was a charred dart. He pulled that out of the door and stored it and the gun in a pocket that wasn’t in this realm.
He started to understand what Maddock Delnias wanted in Lana. A dragon of mixed blood would be a powerful tool. If no one else knew, how did he?
Fucking bastard always used every piece of knowledge he could glean, usually through torture or blackmail.
He rubbed his hand over his face, then really looked at her. “Lana, snap out of it. How did you do that?”
She didn’t move, didn’t say a word, didn’t even acknowledge his presence.
He shut the door and took Lana’s shoulders. “What happened?”
She shook her head, blinking slowly. “I-I-I do-don’t kn-kn-know.”
Lana was going into shock. No surprise there. Like any Fae or dragon her powers manifested when she was in danger.
The person responsible for coming after Lana was going down. And he’d take great pleasure in making that happen, especially if Maddock was behind the abduction attempts.
Lifting her chin and making eye contact, he asked, “You’re okay, though?”
“Are you?”
He dipped his head. “On one hand, I wish you hadn’t come here, but I’m glad you did. If you had gone home, or someone else…fuck. He wasn’t trying to shoot you. He wanted to drug you and take you back to Faery.”
“How?”
“He came through a portal. My guess, he had a way back through. Someone is tracking you somehow. Probably some spell. Did your father give you some jewelry? Your clothing? Anything?”
She shook her head. Then her eyes bugged out. Lana pulled a necklace from under her shirt and looked at him, her eyes wide. She ripped off the necklace and handed it over. “You think this tracks me?”
He held out his hand. She dropped it into his palm. He felt magic vibrating through the metal and stashed it the same place he stashed the asshole.
Sirens rang out. “Shit, Lana, we need to go. They’re going to ask you too many questions, and you’re in no position to answer.”
Someone must have called 911, which made sense considering his grass was still on fire. He just hoped there was no video.
“God, how do we get out of here?” Lana demanded.
Lonny dragged her back to his bedroom and called Kellan.
Thankfully, he answered quickly. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Need a portal to the office, or somewhere I have access to a car that isn’t here.”
“Uh, why do I hear fire sirens?”
“My lawn is on fire. And explaining why to a bunch of humans will land us in the loony bin.”
“Right. Where are you?”
“My bedroom.”
A portal opened, and Lonny pulled Lana through.
Kellan stood there, bouncing Nyla, his baby girl. “I’m sending you to Toryn and Isa, since I heard some crazy tale about what happened at the bar, and I have a feeling she’s going to want to make sure Lana’s okay.”
“Right. Fine. They might have an idea of what’s up,” Lonny answered.
Lana nodded, no words leaving her mouth.
Kellan opened another portal. “Good luck.”
Lonny tipped his head and pulled Lana through the portal. They stepped into Toryn and Isa’s living room.
Isa wrapped her arms around Lana. “Another asshole came for you.”
Lana nodded.
Toryn met Lonny’s gaze. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of that. You take care of Lana.
Lonny gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.
“Do you trust anyone else at this point?” Toryn countered.
“No,” Lonny admitted grudgingly.
Isa gave him a grin over Lana’s shoulders. “I only trust you to keep Lana safe.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck! He wasn’t sure how he could manage to keep his distance with her by his side until they figured out what the fuck was going on and how to stop it.
Toryn caught his shoulders. “I’ll talk to Reance.”
“She says she recognized the first man as one of Delnias’ men. I don’t think she had a chance to see the second, but if he sent one, he sent a second. And there was tracking magic on the necklace she wore.”
“Where is the necklace?”
“Wherever I take stuff when I disappear from sight.”
Toryn snorted. “Right, okay. They won’t find him or the necklace. Now why are there firetrucks at your place?”
“She set the lawn on fire when she sensed him.” He didn’t see what happened, but it wasn’t hard to fill in the details.
Toryn shook his head. “Fire?”
“Fire. It was her,” Lonny explained.
“And someone froze the first bastard?” Toryn asked.
Lonny lifted a brow but didn’t specify. He didn’t want to freak out Lana with who he thought he saw earlier.
“Yeah, but could it have been someone through the portal?”
Lonny shook his head. “The portal had already closed. The man had been kicking off dark magic, not ice. And if Delnias is involved it would have been earth magic.”
“Okay,” Lana asked. “Then who?”
“Someone left the bar after Kevin got there.”
“No one else was there.”
“Someone was. I don’t know who, but I watched him leave.”
“What did he look like?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look.” Not good enough to know for sure, and the chameleon bastard could shift into damn near any form. He seemed to always have blue on him.
“Great, maybe our video caught it.” Lana looked at Toryn and back.
Toryn nodded. “That’s a good start. You two get away from here, somewhere the Delnias family wouldn’t think to look for you. We’ll figure out what we can and keep in touch. Hang on, though.” He left the room.
Isa sighed. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but we will get to the bottom of it.”
* * * *
Lana still couldn’t figure out what the hell she had done. Fire came out of her hands. She could alter the temperature. Make it hotter or colder in a room, her drink, whatever. She’d never created fire.
And it had just happened. She’d seen Isa get all sparky more than a few times over the years they’d been friends. This was worse. It was a damned inferno from her hands. Not like Toryn’s fire which is silver. This was different, bright red and more alive. She couldn’t explain it, but she needed to know.
And there was no way she inherited the magic from her father from the Earth Realm, or her mother who was as human as they came. She didn’t have a drop of magic.
So where did the fire come from?
Lonny touched her shoulder. “You trust me?”
Turning, she looked into his eyes. “Like no one else.”
“Thanks,” Isa exclaimed, feigning hurt.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You know I trust you. It’s just that Lonny makes me feel safe.”
Isa shook her head. “Then why haven’t you let him in?”
“Because I was afraid, but not of him. Of what I am. Now I have a real big reason to be afraid of what I can do. I fried that dude.”
“Sounds like he deserved it,” Isa answered.
Toryn came back. “Did you find a bullet?”
Lonny reached into the pocket and pulled out the dart and gun. “Worse. Give these to Kevin. Let him figure that out.”
Toryn took the items. “Bloody abyss. The aim was to abduct.”
“But why?” Lana asked.
Toryn looked at Lonny and back. “I’m guessing your parents aren’t the people who raised you.”
“What?” That didn’t make any sense.
Toryn handed him a duffel bag. “There are phones in there. One in red for Lana, one in blue for you. There’s a set of clothes for each of you. Passports in case you feel the need to go farther than the States. Money. And cards you can use.” He nodded to Lana. “And you’re not going to be Lana to anyone but Lonny or one of us on the phone while you’re gone. You need to disappear for a while.”
She nodded slowly. If she wasn’t there, Maddock wouldn’t find her so easily. What else could she do? “Sure. Maybe I can convince Lonny I’m done running from him.”
“We don’t need to worry about that right now,” Lonny insisted.
“We do,” Lana answered. “Ask Isa. I planned to talk to you tonight. Before all of this happened.”
“Lana, that doesn’t matter. Right now I want to know why that bastard wants you. Then we need to stop him.”
“Tonight was bad timing, but it’s true, Lonny. I’m done pushing you away.”
Toryn interrupted. “Take the Land Cruiser. And I’d put on that hoody and cover your hair. Both of you.”
Someone would definitely recognize Lonny’s rainbow hair, and her hair had always been a little too vibrant to not be Fae coloring or a dye job.
“Yeah.” Lonny took the bag, dropped it on the ground, and took out the sweaters. He tossed Lana one and put on the other. Then he tied his hair into a bun and threw the hood on. “We better get out of here, before they guess where you went.”
“Right,” Lana said.
Isa hugged her again, then grabbed Lonny’s arm. “Keep both of you safe.”
“You have my word.” Lonny nodded to the door. “Shall we?”