Evans, Gabrielle - Firestorm [Fatefully Yours 3] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove) (17 page)

Before Fiero could ask what his mate was up to, the fireball in his hand zipped across the small space between them, splitting in two, and both egg-sized spheres landed in Echo’s waiting palms. “Oh, it worked.” Echo sounded as surprised as Fiero felt. “Okay, now take it back.”

Take it back, indeed. Fiero didn’t have a clue where to begin. The confusion and frustration must have shown on his face because Echo rolled his eyes and snorted. “It’s just like the flames from your lighter, a candle, anything else. Stop focusing on the fact that it’s in my hands and treat it like any other fire.”

Fiero nodded once and focused on calling the glowing orbs back to his own hands. Once he’d removed Echo from the equation, everything clicked into place, and the fire moved back to him easily. Swirling the blaze together in midair, he reconstructed the fireball he’d created before catching it on his fingertips. “Easy,” he said with a smile.

“Okay, put it out and let’s try something else.”

Fiero did as asked and stood with his hands on his hips, waiting to see what Echo would do next. His lover produced more flames to engulf his hands. “Now, kill it. Don’t take it, just put it out.”

This task proved a little more difficult. He’d never extinguished a fire without actually touching it first. “How?”

“You have more power now. Stop worrying so much and just do it.” Echo’s voice rolled hard and commanding. “You ask too many questions.” The last statement came from Echo’s lips, but it didn’t sound like him. The cadence, the iteration, even the tone of his voice sounded different.

The Oracle.

Sighing, Fiero pushed away his questions and doubts and focused on smothering the mini inferno in Echo’s hands. Closing his eyes, he pictured holding the fireball in his hands, turning it, warping it, and then snuffing it out as easily as he’d blow out a candle. The principle was the same, only he needed to do it from a distance.

Opening his eyes he stared at the flames until everything else blurred around the edges, even Echo. Then slowly, the fire began to recede, retreating to wherever it had come from until it vanished altogether. “Did you do that?” he asked.

Echo shook his head, a brilliant smile lifting the corners of his lips. “All you, big guy. Awesome.”

“Awesome,” Fiero repeated, but with less enthusiasm. “Now we just have to wait and see if I can do it when it really counts.”

* * * *

“Why are we on the roof again?” Vapre leaned back on his hands, staring up at the clear night sky.

“Where better to see fire raining from the sky?” Echo winked as he curled into Vapre’s side. The wind was calm, but the temperatures were still below freezing. Pushing up straighter, he wrapped an arm around his mate and rubbed his hand up and down Echo’s arm, trying to warm him.

“Okay, Mr. Know-It-All, which direction should we be looking?”

“Whichever direction is on fire,” Echo quipped.

Vapre snorted, cuffing his lover lightly in the back of the head. “You are trouble.”

“So, are we okay now?” Echo whispered without meeting his eyes.

Sighing, Vapre bent and kissed the top of his lover’s head. He still didn’t feel comfortable with his mate putting his head on the chopping block, but after much discussion between the seven of them, he understood Echo’s reasoning. Never having faced a similar situation, Vapre didn’t know if he would have made the same decision, but he liked to think he’d do whatever it took to protect his men.

Even if that meant sacrificing himself.

“I don’t like it,” he said into Echo’s silky strands, “but I get it. You are the most giving, if a bit foolish, person I know. So, yeah, we’re okay now.”

Echo finally met his gaze, his smile bright enough to light up the night sky. “Good. I don’t like it when everyone’s mad at me.”

“We’re not mad,” Hex said from Echo’s other side. “Concerned for your safety, and nervous about what your bargain with Ares will mean if we fail, but we’re not angry with you.”

The other demons gave their quiet murmurs of agreement, each gifting Echo with a small smile of understanding and acceptance.

“Good,” Echo repeated on a sigh as he snuggled close to Vapre again.

Taking a deep breath to steady his resolve, Vapre opened his mouth to say the words on the tip of his tongue, the words his heart screamed at him to voice, but Fiero bumped his shoulder from the other side. Closing his eyes briefly, he glanced over, following Fiero’s arm to where he was pointing toward the east. “Look,” Fiero breathed.

Vapre was looking. He’d never have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Large balls of fire appeared out of thin air, falling in graceful arcs toward the tops of the trees. “What the hell is that?”

“The kappas!” Echo jumped to his feet so quickly, Vapre had to grab him to keep him from tumbling right over the edge of the roof. Once steady, Echo grabbed Vapre’s hand and began tugging. “Hurry! That’s too close to the pond where the kappas are. If the forest burns around the pond…” He trailed off, but Vapre didn’t need for him to finish the thought.

The little water sprites wouldn’t be a huge aide to them in the war, but they still counted in numbers. No way would Ares and Hades allow them to outnumber their army. Pushing to his feet, he held out a hand to help Fiero up, then looked around at the other warriors gathered on the roof. “Ready for this?”

Everyone nodded soberly and filed across the shingles to the ladder propped against the side of the house. One by one they shimmied down, waiting until Fiero landed on his feet beside them, then headed off in the direction of the falling fire.

“I guess this isn’t the best time to tell you, but salamanders don’t fly.”

Fiero groaned, but kept walking, looking straight ahead as he marched across the frozen ground. “Just as long as it isn’t dragons,” he muttered under his breath.

“Do you really think it could be dragons?” Echo whispered from Vapre’s other side.

Vapre shrugged. “At this point, I’m willing to believe anything.”

They continued on in silence, pushing through the low-hanging limbs and dried underbrush as they made their way to the kappas’ pond. “We really should bring them more cucumbers,” Vapre said out of the blue when the trees began to thin. His mind was so tangled and twisted, his thoughts jumping from one subject to the next in rapid succession, he couldn’t focus on any one idea.

“What the fuck is that?” Echo yelled when they stepped through the trees at last. He pointed toward the sky overhead, then dropped to the ground with a scream as one of the huge beasts flew over their heads. “That is not a goddamn lizard!” he shouted, his voice full of panic and fear.

Vapre watched as the four huge beasts glided through their air, plumes of smoke wafting from their nostrils and streams of fire pouring from their mouths to ignite the trees around them. Their enormous leathery wings sent the wind swirling with a soft roar as they flapped to stay airborne. “Not dragons either,” Vapre confirmed before Echo could ask. “They’re some kind of hybrids.”

One of the creatures roared, vibrating Vapre down to his bones. He watched the beast soar around the lake, spewing fire from its opened mouth. The trees ignited instantly, crackling and snapping as they burned until they were surrounded in a wall of fire, similar to the one in his dreams of the Oracle.

Glancing over at Fiero, Vapre watched the blood drain from his lover’s face. “I can’t do this,” Fiero whispered. “How am I supposed to stop this?”

Vapre wished he had an answer, but he was as helpless and clueless as Fiero. He didn’t know how anyone could face down these beasts and live to tell about it. Still, they were in this together. Either they succeeded as one, or they failed as one.

There could be no division.

Then Echo stepped between them. Taking Vapre’s hand in one of his, and Fiero’s in the other. “I have a plan,” he said confidently, his eyes never leaving the scaly beasts circling above them.

Fiero swallowed loudly as his gaze marked the creatures’ trek as well. “I was hoping you’d say that. So, what do we do?”

“We’re going to create a firestorm.”

Chapter Fifteen

Fiero didn’t understand how creating more fire was going to help, but he trusted his mate implicitly. Still, he could help but ask, “Why?”

“During a firestorm, the blaze reaches such intensity that it creates its own wind system,” Echo explained. “Once a fire has reached that point, it is virtually unstoppable.”

“Okay, so again, why? How is that going to help? We’re all going to roast alive.” The trees were already burning at an alarming rate. Fiero could feel the sweat trickle down the back of his neck from the heat of the inferno.

“Because we can control it. We’re going to create a firestorm around those…those…whatever they are.” Echo waved a hand around vaguely. “Then we’re going to snuff it out. If it works like I think it will…well, we’ll get to that part.” He looked at Fiero, then Vapre, then over to the others. “Everyone stand back,” he called.

Only, they had nowhere to go. The fire encircled them completely, cutting off escape in all directions. Still, the warriors moved as far away as they dared.

Echo squeezed Fiero’s hand and took a deep breath. “Hold on to your asses,” he mumbled.

The words had no more than left his mouth when Fiero felt the electricity coursing through him, burning him from the inside out. He heard Vapre gasp and knew the man was feeling the effects of Echo’s power for the first time.

When the buzzing finally stopped, Fiero struggled to stay upright as he watched Vapre fall to his knees, turn his head, and vomit. Wincing in empathy, Fiero turned his attention to Echo with raised eyebrows.

“Give him a second,” Echo whispered as he knelt beside Vapre.

“I don’t really think we have a second.”

“I’m fine.” Vapre pushed to his feet, scrubbed a hand over his pale face, and shuddered. “Damn, that sucked.” Then he took a deep breath and looked skyward. “What do we do now?”

“Form a circle,” Echo demanded as he took their hands again. Once they’d done as ordered, Echo nodded. “Combine your powers and build us a storm. Don’t fight it. Just let it come to you.”

It wasn’t nearly as hard as Fiero imagined it to be. He could feel his own fire building inside him, but he caught tinges of Vapre’s power as well. Focusing on the burning trees, he imagined the flames growing larger, spinning in a fiery twister with a gaping vortex at the center.

Once the flames began to move, almost leaping from the trees to gather over the pond, Vapre seemed to catch on, and Fiero could feel little power surges pushing at him. Within minutes, they’d assembled a raging wildfire that hovered in midair over the dark waters of the lake.

Fiero didn’t know what to do from there, though. Fuck! He knew it had been too easy. Well, not exactly easy. The power exerted to keep the fire contained was already draining him, and he felt exhausted.

“Now expand it,” Echo called over the roar. “Fiero, push it outward. Vapre, increase the wind. Everyone!” Echo shouted. “Hit the ground!”

It never crossed Fiero’s mind to question or doubt. Gathering his waning energy, he concentrated on expanding the flames, moving them up and outward, forming a giant ring over their heads.

The beasts roared and screamed as the fire enveloped them. Fiero still had no idea what they were, but he doubted they were trainable like the kappas. Their snouts and wings looked like dragons, while the rest of their bodies resembled giant scorpions.

Only the Lord of the Underworld could produce something so hideous.

Then one of the creatures broke free of the flames and dove straight for Echo. Fiero’s eyes rounded, the blood drained from his face, and his concentration snapped. Tackling Echo to the ground, he braced himself over his mate, waiting for the impact that was sure to end his existence.