Fire on the Island (31 page)

She knew they
should go to the bedroom, but she was so tired and the living room was warm and
comfortable. Marduk spun three times before curling up in front of the fire.
Isla smiled as she drifted off again, thinking that they made an odd little
family, but that was exactly what they were.

An inhuman screech
pierced the quiet night. Jeremiah and Isla bolted upright from their position
on the couch. Marduk flashed into his human form and headed back to the bedroom
to grab a pair of Jere's sweats.

Jeremiah
grabbed the shotgun from the coat closet and loaded some shells while Isla
peered out the window. He heard Marduk return to the room, and at the same time
Isla gasped and wrenched the door open to run outside.

"
Fuck!
"
Jeremiah shouldered the shotgun and took off after her with Marduk right on his
heels.

Isla had
stopped at the edge of the porch and stood, frozen, staring out into the rainy
darkness. Beyond her, Jeremiah could see the silhouette of a man. His face was
in shadow, but from the luminescent eyes swirling with shadows, he knew it was
Alastore.

When the man
stepped forward into the dim light cast through the open door of the house, it
became clear that he had a victim. Mhairi Mackay stood in front of the demon,
and he had a strong arm locked around her neck.

Jeremiah surged
forward, determined to protect Isla's only remaining family, but Marduk stopped
him with a hand on his shoulder. With a silent shake of his head, Marduk
encouraged Jeremiah to think first and act with care.

Trust
nothing, question everything, because things will most definitely not be as
they seem.
Marduk's
earlier words came back to him, and Jeremiah gave the man a quick nod to let
him know he understood.

Isla lifted a
foot to step down off the porch. "Think, Isla. Breathe. That's not really
Mhairi. She's at Sacred Hearts, guarded by doctors and nurses that didn't even
want to let
us
in at first, remember?" he said in a low tone.

He saw a
shudder rack her slender body but, much to his relief, she stayed put. Three
pairs of eyes fixed on the pale, glowing arm that had the projection of Mhairi
in a headlock.

Alastore threw
his head back and cackled,
before pinning
each of them with a hard glare. "You think you can defeat me? I will
lead you to your graves like lambs to the slaughter." His voice was
demonic, and they could hear the echo of pure evil behind it. It sounded like a
dozen demons living inside one body, speaking in unison.

Without
warning, he wrapped his free hand around Mhairi's head and twisted in opposite
directions. They heard a gruesome snap before the image of Mhairi crumpled to
the ground.

A strangled cry
ripped from Isla's throat as the three of them bounded off the porch. They
ground to a halt as Alastore threw his hands up toward the sky, and the pelting
raindrops burst into incandescent flames.

The pellets of
flame singed their skin, forcing them back to the shelter of the porch. Isla
wailed as the spectre of Mhairi seemed to dissolve under the onslaught of fire
and rain combined. Alastore’s head swiveled back to face them, his eyes
gleaming with madness and hatred, pierced through to Isla’s soul.

“The little
witch thinks she can defeat me! I, who can make the sky rain fire?” He took a
step forward and Isla stood her ground. He glared at her with his mouth turned
up in a gruesome sneer. “I will
burn
your
life
!” he spat at her.

“You’ll watch
everything you care for turn to
ash
if you fight me!” He turned his
cutting glare to the two men standing shoulder to shoulder on her right and
absently gestured toward them. “These will die.
Everyone
will die.”

Facing Isla
again, he gave her a sickeningly sweet smile. “And you, my dear…You will watch
things fall apart. And then, you shall be mine.” She shuddered when he licked
his lips and leered at her.

Isla would
never be able to explain what came over her in that moment. As she focused on
the images the demon pushed into her head—the pain and suffering, the dead and
dying—it was the thought of Alastore turning his wrath upon Jeremiah that
sparked the bone-deep anger inside her.

Storming off
the porch into the maelstrom of fire and rain, she felt the breeze on the nape
of her neck, when Jeremiah reached for her and missed. Storming toward
Alastore, she stopped a few feet in front of him.

The balls of
fire raining from the sky seemed to roll off an invisible shield around her and
fury radiated from her body. "The hell I will!" she growled at him,
gathering her energy low in her chest, preparing for a strike.

Marduk's
deceptively calm whisper drifted over to Jeremiah. "He's goading her for a
reason. Pushing her buttons. He may be trying to funnel her energy into
himself, leaving her vulnerable for him to take her. Alastore does nothing
without reason. Stop her."

Jeremiah palmed
the shotgun and whispered back to Marduk. "If I shoot him, it's not going
to stop him, right?" He waited for the other man to nod before continuing.
"But it'll hurt."

Giving him a
devious grin, Marduk nodded again. "It sure will. When he's in corporeal
form, he'll feel the same pain a human would, he just won't die. It will send
him back to the
locus
to recharge."

"Good
enough for me." Jeremiah pumped the forestock of the shotgun, drawing
Alastore's attention. The demon snarled at him but didn't seem overly worried.
That didn't bode well.

Bracing the
buttstock of the twelve gauge on his shoulder, he took aim and pulled the
trigger. Nothing happened. Cursing, he expelled the dead round and pumped
again. Trigger pull, nothing.

Howling with
laughter, Alastore returned his attention to the 110 pounds of livid woman that
stood in front of him. He cocked his head, like an animal hearing a strange
sound. "So pretty, and yet so easy," he began, "
just like
your mother
."

"Dammit,"
Jeremiah hissed as he saw flames spike out from Isla's fingertips. She was
playing right into Alastore's hands, but she just couldn't see it. Shoving the
shotgun into Marduk's hands, he turned toward the house.

"I think
he's somehow jamming the gun. Maybe if I find something with no mechanics, he
won't be able to stop it."

"Hurry."

Well, duh.
Jeremiah bounded into the house and began tearing through cupboards and rifling
through drawers. He thought about grabbing a knife, but he didn't think any of
them should get that close to the demon.

Inspiration
struck when he found an unopened bottle of vodka, dusty and forgotten in a cabinet.
Grabbing a kitchen rag, he ripped it in half. Emptying a third of the bottle
down the sink, he stuffed the rag down into the neck, making sure that it was
in far enough to soak up the alcohol.

He snagged a
lighter from a drawer and rushed back outside. "Get her out of the
way," he ordered Marduk as he passed, not even stopping to make sure the
other man heard him. He didn't need to stop, because Marduk ran to catch up
with him as he was lighting the rag on fire.

Marduk grasped
Isla by the shoulders and yanked her back into his arms as Jeremiah tossed the
burning bottle at Alastore's feet.

The projectile
immediately exploded, engulfing the demon in a huge wall of fire. The surge of
heat was so intense, Jeremiah backed up several steps. He stood, watching as
the skin melted off of Alastore's corporeal form to reveal a blackened
skeleton.

An inhuman
screech rent the air as Alastore pointed a bony finger at them. "You're
mine," he croaked as what was left of him dissolved into ash and flame.

"Yeah, yeah,
and our little dog, too. Got it," Jere grumbled.

"Hey!"
Marduk's indignant tone said he didn't appreciate the dog reference, but
Jeremiah didn't much care. Pulling Isla away from wolf-boy, he enveloped her in
a tight hug. Resting his chin on the top of her head, he allowed the shudders
he had been suppressing to roll over his body. Giving her one last squeeze, he
set her away from him and brushed past her, stalking into the house, slamming
the door behind him.

When Isla eased
her way in through the front door and into the open living area, she saw him
standing in front of the fire. He faced away from her with one elbow propped on
the mantle. The tension in his body was evident, from his tight shoulders, to
his clenched fist, to the way he shoved the fingers of his other hand through
his hair.

Standing behind
him, she called to him softly, "Jeremiah."

He rounded on
her, eyes snapping and body shaking with fury. He started to speak, then clenched
a fist over his mouth to stop himself. Taking what appeared to be a few calming
breaths, he dropped his hand. "What the hell were you
thinking
?"

She'd expected
him to shout at her. That she would have been prepared for. It was the
startling calmness of his voice in contrast with the anger in his posture that
caused her stomach to drop. "I'm sorry, I..."

He held up a
hand to silence her. "You'll let me finish." It wasn't a request.
When she nodded, he began to pace fitfully. "After all the work we have
done to dig up information on the
bruixi
and the
lochrim
, all of
the friends who have risked themselves to help us, how could you risk throwing
it all away like that?"

Still she
waited, knowing he had to say his piece before he could get past it. "If we're
all going to survive this, you have to be more careful.
Think
. Alastore
pushes your buttons, tries to make you angry. What do you do? Give him what he
wants!"

Whirling around
again, his hair stood up in all directions and her heart melted just a little,
despite his anger. "Unbelievable..." Letting him rant for a while,
Isla waited and took it all in. She knew the anger was driven by fear, and the
fear was driven by love.

Eventually the
words ran out and the silence from her drew his gaze to her face. She looked up
at him and couldn't help but smile.

"I'm
sorry," she said, placing a tentative hand on his forearm. "When he
threatened all of you...when he threatened
you
, I just lost it."
She was embarrassed when her lower lip trembled, but she pressed on, needing
him to understand.

"I know
that doesn't make it right, for me to be so careless, but that's what happened.
I've never known what it's like to have a real family. I've had to do for
myself since I was a child." Cursing, she brushed a tear off her cheek.

"Then you
came along and showed me. In just a few short months, you have become my home.
It doesn't matter if I'm on my island, in the city, or in the States, as long
as it's with you. You and Furball out there, and the folks at Expeditions
are
my family, and when faced with the prospect of losing that, I saw red."

Jeremiah pulled
her into his arms and kissed her, long and slow. "I get it, I really do.
But I'm just a foot soldier in this war, honey. You're the warrior—the only one
who can end this. I'm not important."

Pulling him
down to her, she kissed him fiercely, invading him with her very essence.
Trusting him to hold her up, she wrapped her legs round his waist and held on
tight. He shivered as she whispered in his ear. "I'm only a warrior with
you holding me up. Do you understand me?" she said fiercely.

"You are
just as important as me. If you don't survive this, I won't either. You want to
be a soldier in this battle? Then live. Because if anything happens to you, I
won't survive that."

He looked as if
he might protest, but she bit his earlobe to shut him up. The time for words
had ended.

Carrying her to
the bedroom, he laid her down gently and began to reverently peel off her
clothing. Quickly stripping himself, he slid into bed beside her. The storm had
subsided, and soft moonlight filtered in through the window.

Crawling up her
body, he covered her. The muscles in his arms rippled as he held himself up to
keep from giving her all of his weight. A sudden intensity filled her, and she
cupped his face in her hand. "Jeremiah," she said quietly, "I
really need you to understand something. It worries me that you don't think you
are an important part of this...situation that we're in."

He ducked his
head, putting his face in shadow. "Look at me." She waited until his
gaze rested on her face again, brimming with love and strength. "You are
the
most
important, because without you giving me strength, this would
break me."

"No, it
wouldn't. You're stronger than you think you are, Isla."

"Maybe
so," she answered, tugging on his arm and placing his hand over her heart.
"But having you with me, in here, makes me unstoppable." She grinned
at him. "I love my island, I love my job, but you are my home. Wherever
you go, that's where I'll be. That is...if that's what you want."

He was silent
for so long that she began to think he wouldn't answer and her smile faltered
slightly. Finally, he leaned in and brushed his lips over hers.