Blaze: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Spelldrift: Coven of Fire Book 4) Read online

  Table of Contents

  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

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Blaze

  Spelldrift: Coven of Fire Book 4

  Sierra Cross

  Enigmatic / Elixir

  Contents

  Glossary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Need More Coven of Fire?

  About the Author

  Want a Free Book?

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  Copyright © 2018 by Sierra Cross

  Editing By: Jaime’s Editing Service

  Proofreading by Dana Proof Write

  Cover art by Y. Nikolova at Ammonia Book Covers

  All Rights Reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are either the product of the authors’ imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual places, events, and people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Glossary

  Amalgam (Mal) - A magicborn individual born of a forbidden union, such as the offspring of a witch and a guardian. Historically hunted down as abominations, they are even now viewed as dangerous by modern Council Supremas.

  Caedis - A highly intelligent, exceedingly strong class of demon able to take over a human bodies near the moment of its owner’s death.

  Council Suprema - A legal body made up of representatives from every local type of magicborn. A city’s Council Suprema is judge, jury, and executioner for the magicborn within its jurisdiction.

  Demongates - Places on the earth where the veil between the Earthly Realm and the Demon Realm is very thin. These sites must be warded to prevent the free passage of demons into the Earthly Realm.

  Fidei - A secretive, Wont-led international organization that oversees the magicborn and keeps their doings hidden from the Wont world.

  guardian - A magicborn race whose strongest male members are trained to serve as coven bodyguards and fighters. Their magic solely enhances their combat abilities.

  magicborn - Referring to the wider community that encompasses witches, warlocks, guardians, vampires, shifters, fae, and even rarer creatures such as gargoyles.

  mage - A Wont who studies magic and makes use of potions or magic-charged objects in place of wielding inborn magical gifts.

  Nequam (Neq) - One of various forms of low-level demons who use glamours to conceal their hideous looks and who instantly reincarnate on the other side of the Demongate upon being killed.

  runes - An ancient set of symbols that, when etched onto a blade, turns lower-level demons to dust upon death.

  scry - To divine a living being’s location, using one’s own magic and the simple tools of an enchanted pendant.

  shifter - A magicborn individual with the ability to shift into one particular species of animal, as determined by their bloodline.

  skinsuit - A human body that is being commandeered by a Caedis demon.

  spellbeads - Small, marble-sized beads of different shapes that come pre-charged with a particular spell. They activate when shattered.

  The Spelldrift - a central Seattle neighborhood that has always been a magicborn hub, thanks to its unique subterranean current of free-flowing magical energy.

  ward - A magical veil that serves as a security system, lock, or boundary. Stronger magic creates stronger wards.

  wardsuit - The magical equivalent of a bulletproof vest; battle garb that absorbs much of the impact of a demon blast.

  warlock - A magicborn male whose inborn magic allows him to cast spells, perform incantations, and do various other magical tasks. Traditionally, warlocks are tasked with hunting demons and policing the witch community.

  witch - A magicborn female whose inborn magic allows her to cast spells, perform incantations, and do various other magical tasks. Traditionally, witches play many roles in the magicborn community, including building and maintaining wards, brewing potions, and controlling magical commerce.

  Wont - An ordinary human with no magical gifts.

  Chapter One

  Jaws clenched, fangs bared, the consummately controlled Director Bonaventura was on the verge of losing it.

  At me.

  One month ago, the look he gave would have melted me into a quivering mess. Now? It made me want a piece of him.

  The air in the vampire’s lamp-lit study crackled with tension. A golden firebolt blazed on my fingertips, and I raised my arm toward the seething bloodsucker, hand poised in a firing position…but I forced myself to hold. Director Bonaventura was halfway across his desk, leaning hard on his knuckles, as if ready to propel himself at me. His grey bespoke suit straining against the press of his flexed muscles.

  “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to show some manners, Ambrose,” I said. “After all, you’re the one begging me for help at three a.m.”

  “Begging?” The fire in his dark eyes belied his cool, faintly European-accented voice. “Nonsense, witch. I offered you a fair deal, but you were instructed to come alone.” Bonaventura straightened to his full height—an impressive one given that he was born back in the 1600s—and glared down at me. “What were you thinking, bringing your joke of a coven to this meeting? Obviously, our deal is off. Now douse your fire and be on your way—before my annoyance turns into hunger.”

  To my astonishment, the bolt on my hand flickered. What the hell? Was something wrong with my magic? The vampire had insulted my coven and casually threatened my life. I was ready to blast him to ash, and yet, a part of me wanted to…obey him? A terrible thought struck me. What if this was a lingering side effect of my having drunk his blood earlier? I knew it was part of the vampire package, the child of a vampire was tethered to his sire through the blood that created him. But I hadn’t drunk nearly enough to turn me. I prayed this connection was not permanent. No way I wanted another controlling force inside my body to have to fight against.

  Having to battle against Tenebris, the demon who’d destroyed my childhood, was enough. More than enough.

  Just invoking his name made angry magic flare on my fingertips once more.

  In support, Matt’s blue magic surged toward me through our coven bond—more forcefully than his gold witch’s magic. The guardians had taken away his membership card, but they couldn’t relieve him of his abilities. I felt Liv and Asher send their own magic flowing toward me, completing the circle of pissed-off power. The odds of a witch taking down a vampire were long, but at this moment, I had no doubt I could do it.

  Which would be great, if there weren’t three of the bloodsuckers in the room.

  Bonaventura’s son, Griffin, flanked the Direc
tor on the right, muscles taut, but waiting to follow his father’s lead. The vampire’s easygoing demeanor and casual look—jeans and bare feet, scruffy jaw, messy dark blond hair—didn’t fool me. He’d rip me in half without a millisecond pause if his father requested it. The sire connection was a force he couldn’t say no to.

  On the Director’s left stood his other son, Wes. The reason we were on the verge of bloodletting.

  Wes, as impeccably dressed as his father, fixed me with a taunting blue gaze. The skin on his face and neck, I couldn’t help but notice, was as smooth as a newborn’s. No hint remained of the ripped flesh, gouged muscles, and exposed cartilage that he’d sported the last time I saw him.

  “So we’re not worthy to help you kill Tenebris, but that animal is?” Asher gestured to Wes, his hand shaking with barely controlled anger. “It doesn’t even deserve to roam free.”

  “Wes is my son.” Bonaventura’s voice was quiet and measured, but there was no mistaking the malice. “He’s paid for his crimes and will be afforded the respect due him.”

  “Only thing this monster’s due is death.” The golden firebolts on Asher’s fingertips, overfed and begging to be thrown, buzzed and spit sparks. “A painful, slow death—justice for Marley’s murder.”

  He was on the verge of pushing past me. Bonaventura growled low in his throat and bared his fangs. Damn it. Someone had to be the peacemaker, and no one in this room had any natural talent for that.

  Sometimes being the coven leader sucked.

  I lodged myself between Asher and Bonaventura.

  “Alexandra.” Matt’s voice was full of warning, but I stayed put.

  “Since you seem to be slow to comprehend, I’ll repeat myself,” Bonaventura hissed through his fangs. “Wes has learned from past…misadventures. He won’t transgress again. You have my word on that.”

  “Ha,” Liv blurted out. “Because you’ve been so great at controlling him before—”

  “Let’s just agree to disagree,” I said, taking a step back from the desk but not dousing my fire, trying to push Asher back behind me. Even now the psychopathic grin was twitching on Wes’s face. If Asher baited him just one more time, that piss ant vampire would leap over the desk and rip us all to shreds, leaving one more bloody transgression for his vamp dad to clean up. And Bonaventura would. Despite being a man of honor, his loyalty to his family came before all else.

  Unfortunately, the Director’s faith in his son to behave was delusional. But this was an argument we’d never win. And there was a bigger fight on the table, one that we wouldn’t let him shut us out of. But first things first.

  “We’ll let Wes be your problem, Director,” I said. Asher shot me a look of stunned anger, but as coven leader, it was my job to look at the big picture. “Long as you understand,” I added, “that if he crosses the line again, it doesn’t matter that he’s your son. We will end him.”

  “If he crosses that line again, I’ll end him myself.”

  I tried not to show my disbelief at Bonaventura’s pronouncement. Put down his own child? If he hadn’t done it after Wes’s actions caused a crime spree that killed innocents and endangered the whole vampire community, he never would. Yet his tone told me he meant every word. Of course, that was the thing about deluding yourself.

  It was going to have to be a problem for future Alix.

  “We’ll hold you to that,” I said, taking a step back from the desk but not dousing my fire. The anger in my coven’s bond did not lessen, but at least it was in check. I decided to switch gears. “Look, we can still make this deal work,” I said. “We need to be part of taking out Tenebris, you need my help to deactivate the amulet…”

  “I need a witch, to deactivate the amulet,” Bonaventura corrected me but mirrored my de-escalation by retracting his fangs and pushing back from the desk. Though he didn’t relax a single fiber in his body. “Any witch. They’re a dime a dozen.”

  “We both know that’s not true.” Liv’s voice was strong, her resolve matching my own. “You’d be hard-pressed to find another witch who knows these spells.” Thanks to Leonard’s hoarding of the research he’d done on all-things-anaq-mazkehret, we at least had that bit of leverage. “And we’re not giving them up.”

  “Oh, yes you are.” Bonaventura’s words were a response to Liv’s, but his eyes were locked on mine. Suddenly, I couldn’t look away. Tunnel vision blurred everything that wasn’t the vampire’s gorgeous face. His voice began to echo in my mind, soft as velvet. Silky sweet, like chocolate. Yes, you are…

  The bastard. He’d brought me here to go along with him to Tenebris’s hideout and cast those all-important spells—exactly when and how he saw fit. But his inability to control me was apparently giving him second thoughts. So his Plan B was using sire-power to compel me to give up what I knew so he could try to hire some other witch for the job. One he deemed better trained, more tractable.

  Not gonna happen. The effects of his blood were mild, thankfully, and fading by the minute. I rolled my shoulders, jutted out my jaw, and blew his thoughts out of my head like dust bunnies from under a bed. “We want in on the takedown.”

  Bonaventura raised an eyebrow—at getting pushed out of my head? “Absolutely not. This is vampire business.”

  “That’s the thing, Director. Killing Tenebris isn’t business to me, it’s personal.” That Caedis had violated me, hijacked my most private thoughts, made me betray everything I held dear. He’d killed my parents. Turned my coven sister Callie into a host body for his Splinter personality. His vile assaults on me may not be happening at this moment, but the memories still messed with me. The effects were still raw and visceral in my body. And I lived in fear of the flashbacks. I would not be whole until Tenebris was erased from existence. It was time to show all my cards. “I want to be the one to kill him myself.”

  A long, fraught silence stretched out and I sure as hell wouldn’t give an inch on this one.

  “Father, if you’d been wronged in that manner,” Griffin said, his low, gravelly voice breaking the charged stillness. “You’d insist on settling the score.”

  Bonaventura’s head snapped toward his son, an eerie rumble emanating from his chest. I had the feeling that Griffin would pay for that public dissent later. The Director sat down in his chair, though he didn’t seem to relax at all. Was he finally ready to negotiate? I doused my fire. My coven did the same. “This is the only offer you will receive,” Bonaventura said, fixing his gaze on me. “Take it or die fighting against it. Your choice.” He pointed at me. “You, witch, will accompany us. You’ll deactivate the amulet. I’ll allow you to escort us on the raid. But I will not let your untrained, uncontrolled antics jeopardize the mission. You will be present but have no role in the assault.”

  I folded my arms. “And my coven?”

  The question earned me a bored, condescending glare from the vampire. “Of course my offer does not extend to your…odd crew. Frankly, your dependence on them is becoming unseemly.” He stuck out his square jaw and regarded me with contempt. “How can you even call yourself a coven leader?”

  Oh no he did not.

  I stared at Bonaventura, my hands itching with a familiar heat. Because damn if that crack didn’t push every one of my buttons. I’d never asked to be coven leader, but I was doing my best here. No thanks to every traditionalist jerk in the Spelldrift who looked down their nose at us for being different.

  Before I could lose it, though, Matt stepped closer and touched my arm. Even without words, I knew what he was saying, Take the deal. Ever the pragmatist. If I said yes, Liv would be pissed. After all, she was the more accomplished spellcaster. But if I said no, there was zero chance I’d be the one to send Tenebris to oblivion. No matter what Bonaventura said, if I was present at the attack, I could get my shot.

  I couldn’t make myself say the words to accept the lame offer, so I simply nodded.

  I was really beginning to detest bargains with vampires.

  If Bonaventura was relieved
or disappointed by my choice, he didn’t show it. Smoothly, he shifted to business mode, all traces of hostility gone. Or at least hidden from view. “As I’ve stated, we’ve pinpointed the Caedis’s location,” he said. “We’ve filed flight plans and made travel arrangements. Hopefully, you’ve packed for freezing temperatures.”

  “Wait, freezing?” Griffin had told me to pack my bags for cold weather, an instruction I’d passed on to the coven. I didn’t know what they’d packed, but my idea of cold was a couple of wool sweaters to wear under my leather jacket. “Where’s he hiding, the North Pole?”

  Bonaventura wasn’t about to answer. “Boeing Field, our new boarding time is four a.m. And you will not be late.”

  Forty minutes later, my sleep-deprived brain sparked to life when Matt bent his head and pressed his lips to mine. Right here, standing in the middle of the King County International Airport. Okay, so it was a tiny airport, better known as Boeing Field, that served as the hub for Seattle’s private air traffic. And, at this ungodly hour, there were only about five other people in the place, two of them being Liv and Asher. But still for Matt—who’d been indoctrinated that guardian-witch romantic pairings were morally wrong—to be engaging in PDA with me was a huge step. And he was doing a damn fine job of it, unashamed and greedy.

  I hadn’t known what to expect from Matt after the guardians released him, and his entire internal moral scaffolding came crashing down. For him to crumble? Cling to the past? But he did neither. He’d just let go. Or was about to, when Griffin summoned us to that mandatory middle of the night meeting with his oh-so-lovable father.

  Matt leaned in, his arm wrapping around my waist, pulling me closer to him. Reminding me of exactly what we were doing when the vampire so rudely interrupted us last night. Synapses fired, adrenaline pumped into my bloodstream, and heat bloomed deep inside me. I almost forgot that we’d spent half the night negotiating with Bonaventura. Matt’s tongue parted my lips, and every thought poofed right out of my head.