Read Online Fire Danger by Claire Davon - Free Book Online

fitting.
    She let her gaze run over his entire body. His nose had a faint hooked quality, and he moved like a lion.
    “Shouldn’t you guys have to wear something that says you change into mythical creatures?” Her smile took the sting out of her words. “Nice to meet you, Griffin. Meeting not just one but two Elementals, beings I’ve never heard of, and getting chased and confronting a pack of werewolves and other nonhumans has certainly livened up my week.”
    Griffin shook his head, the blond locks flying. “I liked women better when they had to obey their lord and master,” he said with a smile that wasn’t quite sincere.
    He seemed more hard-edged than Phoenix, a little rougher. Shouldn’t it have been the reverse, if the legends were true? Griffins were noble beasts and the Phoenix bathed in fire.
    “You haven’t learned how to shield properly, have you, carina ?”
    “Give her a break, Griff. It’s been less than a day. She’s had a lot to handle.”
    Rachel slipped away from Phoenix. Her head had started to pound, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the effort of trying to take all this in or a simple need for more coffee. “I’m sure this isn’t a social call, so don’t let me get in your way. Griffin, can I make you some coffee? Or don’t griffins drink coffee?”
    “Yes. Strong and black. Thank you.”
    “You share that,” she said with a smile toward Phoenix.
    “I see.” Griffin’s reply revealed little of what he was thinking.
    “Why are you here?” Phoenix said after a short, uncomfortable silence. “Ondine said she was on her way to visit you.”
    “She is. I’ll be back in Europe before she arrives. I wanted to see Rachel for myself,” Griffin said. “Challenge is here. We can’t afford distractions, and your woman’s thoughts came across the ocean like a beacon.”
    Rachel busied herself with the single-cup coffeemaker, making a loud clatter as she worked. She reached out to Phoenix’s mind. He let her slide in, his attention still on Griffin.
    Phoenix and Griffin both sprawled on the sofa and Rachel joined them, staying close to Phoenix. His warmth made her want to press up against him, soothing her nerves with skin-to-skin contact. There was something about this air Elemental that agitated her. She didn’t want to be near him.
    “Any Amai sightings?” Phoenix asked Griffin. Rachel got an impression of a giant tattooed Pacific Islander with a…basket? That was odd.
    Griffin shrugged. “We had an encounter. Challenge is coming. It’s expected. Any sign of Haures?”
    “Not yet.”
    Rachel felt the image of a female, she thought, with black eyes and multicolored hair. This could only be Haures, Phoenix’s Demonos enemy, if she took what he was saying at face value.
    It was clear the two Elementals were close, and as the talk went on for a few minutes in the way old friends remembered good times, Rachel started to relax. Phoenix’s warmth was a beacon. Rachel wanted to curl around him like JT would snuggle up to her on cold nights.
    “What can you tell us about your parents?” Griffin said, and his blue eyes were lasers focused on her. She blinked, unprepared for the assault.
    There was a faint tingling at the base of her skull. With an effort, she focused on Phoenix. Rachel shifted, her skin tightening across her scalp.
    “Not much. I have some memories from before they were killed, but it’s all dim, as if there’s a heavy cloth over them.”
    Griffin shot Phoenix a look. There was no mistaking his mistrust.
    “Griffin,” Phoenix said, but the other man’s blue gaze was unwavering. Rachel swallowed. Something shifted down in her core, as if awakening.
    “They were just people,” she said, feeling the wrongness in those simple words. “There was nothing special about them.”
    “Wrong answer.”
    Suddenly Griffin yelped as the tips of his top feathers showed a line of flame. It went out as quickly as it had started. There was rightness to the flame in her.