“Remember, we’re going to take Kyle someplace and get him cleaned up. Try not to hurt him.” Jack met the eyes of each member of his clan. “Leave the foreigner to me. Everyone understand?” 

They all nodded except for Stan who was distracted, texting. He hastily put the phone in his pocket when Jack walked over. “Sorry. You were saying?”

“We need to go get Kyle now. We’ll get him into rehab. You okay with this?”

Stan frowned but didn’t put up a protest. “He’s probably at O’Malley’s.”

“Figures. South Philly.” Jack fingered his service revolver. “You guys hang back a little. I’m not quite sure what Zoe’s vortex will do for me in a real fight, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

It took about an hour to get to the bar. They parked outside in the desolate corner parking lot.  Abandoned construction walls of plywood hid the area from the view of nearby businesses. A few men hanging out in front of a check cashing station ducked inside, as did a few in front of a bodega. Within seconds, the place was deserted.

When he got out of his car, Stan strode over and held a cell phone out to him. “I think you’ll want to see this.”

“That’s my phone,” Jack frowned, an uneasy feeling gripping his gut.  

Stan winced and looked away.

Jack took the phone and his blood went cold. It was a snapshot of Zoe, blindfolded, sitting in a small room with a gun to her head. Behind her, assorted boxes of alcohol were stacked high to the ceiling. His heart went into his throat and he saw nothing but red. He grabbed Stan by the neck. In his other hand, he lit a vortex two inches from the weasel’s face.

“Where is she?” he gritted out through clenched teeth.

Before Stan could reply, a steel door screeched open. Kyle leaned against the frame, his dark hair matted, his jeans torn, and despite his enormous size, his cheeks and eyes were dark sunken holes.

“Best you put my brother down and come inside.” Kyle laughed, sounding crazy as hell. He threw a blast at Jack, then made a large sweeping motion over the parking lot. “Everyone else stays outside.”

The electric energy sizzled in Jack’s midsection, but he was too angry to feel the pain.

“Let her go, and I’ll let you live.” Jack kept his voice calm, despite the rage and terror that tore through him.

His cousin had finally lost it. Even the blast felt drugged up. But it wasn’t powerful, and again, it wasn’t what had hit him and almost got him killed the other night.

“Let me help you with the rules of the game.” Kyle sneered and fingered another ball of energy. “Page three hundred and one. If you win, she dies.”

Jack could barely contain the fury building inside him, the need to protect Zoe. But losing his cool wouldn’t do either of them any good. He glanced at Josh with a raised eyebrow, indicating he was to stand by. His brother gave an almost imperceptible nod back.

Stan led him into the building, up the cracked wood stairs and into the bar. The room was torn apart, as if demolition had started years ago, but was then left abandoned.

Jack breathed in the stuffy air and tried to focus on Zoe’s energy. Nothing. He couldn’t sense her. All he got was a repugnant muddle of dark energy. There were at least twenty to thirty men in the building. He recognized most of them as his own clan members.

Fear nearly choked him. Zoe couldn’t die. Not now. Not after what they’d shared.

He’d kill Kyle and his gang the minute he had the chance. How the hell had they got her out of the house? He should never have left her alone.

Stay calm, he reminded himself. If he killed either one, he might not find out where she was hidden.

“I want to talk to her.” Jack leaned against what was left of an old bar, hiding how tightly he was wound.

“First, admit that I’ve outplayed you.” Kyle, using plywood as a table, snorted something up his nose with a rolled bill.

“No, you haven’t. I talk to her right now or I assume she is dead and take the next logical step.” Jack spun a small fire-vortex in his left hand and started to take aim with a revolver in his right. A few of the gang members mumbled nervously among themselves and then left the room one by one.

“What the fuck.” Kyle stared at the small tornado, eyes and mouth wide. “Relax, Jack. I’m just getting you all worked up.” 

He texted something into his phone, and a moment later, Jack’s cell rang with the ring tone he had reserved for Zoe. 

“Zoe?” He cringed at the panic he heard in his voice. 

“Jack, I’m okay. I thought–”

The connection hung up.  After a wave of relief washed over him, Jack focused on Kyle with a deadly calm. He was a dead man walking – he just didn’t know to lie down yet.

In his peripheral vision, Jack picked up five or six men entering the room. A few he recognized. The young woman who Kyle had claimed he mated with came in behind them. Her long dark hair hung disheveled around her face. There were dark bruises under her eyes and along her exposed arms. She glanced at Jack and the air in his lungs left him. Up close he could tell that she was younger than he’d first thought. Barely thirteen if he had to guess. Fuck, what was Kyle thinking?

“Dealing in pedophilia now?” Jack snarled. “That’s low, even for you.”

“Fuck you, Jack!” Kyle glared at the girl, raised his hand like he was going to hit her, and snapped, “Get back to your room.”

The girl’s eyes widened and she scurried away. Kyle smirked and turned back to his makeshift table.

“As I was saying…” He snorted the white powder again, which seemed to allow him to regain some of his bravado. He was oblivious to the fact that these might be his last words. “If I lose, she dies. I get injured, she dies. Get the picture?” 

He threw another blow to Jack’s midsection. Jack easily deflected the energy and used the opportunity to back towards the exit. That had to be where they kept her.

“Uh-uh. No slipping away.” Kyle picked up his phone and texted again. “Tonight you’re going to step down as clan leader.”

Kyle sent Jack another blast, this time more powerful, and Jack gritted his teeth.

“It won’t do you any good, Kyle. We’ve already mated.” He brought his palm up and created a small vortex.

“Don’t care. She’s still a hot piece of ass. Besides, I have a buyer, even if she’s damaged goods.” 

Kyle started to text again and Jack felt the oncoming firestorm, like a déjà vu, milliseconds before it happened. Zoe. Holy shit, the place was going to detonate.

Jack enlarged the vortex still spinning in his hand, added shielding, and stepped into it.

In the blink of an eye, Jack was knocked flat against the far wall and the bar was engulfed in flames. The explosion left him stunned, partially deaf, and smelling of liquor and sulfur. When the smoke thinned a bit, he saw Zoe below, curled up in a little ball, hands over her head, face down. Beside her lay a blackened corpse, the flesh charred and still sizzling.

Jack’s heart stopped.

He dropped down into the supply room and squatted next to her. Before he could find a pulse, she turned and put her face into his hand. She was alive. He held her close until he could feel her heartbeat against his.

“Zoe.” He could barely speak his throat was so tight.

All signs indicated that a tornado laced with fire had blasted outward from her. Splinters of charred wood pierced through chairs and into the walls behind. Shards of colorful glass and human flesh were strewn everywhere in a horrifying mosaic. Large pieces of bone and skin fell off the wall with a splat and sizzle. Thank God he’d felt the storm coming.

Everything was on fire. He stood, grabbed her into his vortex, and ran like a madman out of the building, just as the building hit the flashpoint.

He put her down on the pavement, dropped the magic, and felt all over her body for injuries.

Ghostly pale, she just stared into the inferno, eyes vacant. Her body began to convulse. He held her tight until she pushed him away and buckled over. She retched onto the pavement. When she was finished, he pulled her back against him. She went limp, almost lifeless in his arms.

“What happened, Zoe?” He pushed her sweat-soaked hair off her forehead.

“When you left, I was in the kitchen.” She stared down at her hands, brows furrowed as if trying to remember. “I heard a noise.” She looked up at him and blinked. “It was Stan. I knew something was wrong. I tried to run, but he…he grabbed me….covered my mouth with something…then everything went black.”

Un-fucking-believable. He was going to kill the bastard, if he wasn’t dead already.

“When I woke up, finger-gun-man was there…he…he tried–” She squeezed her eyes shut and her lower lip trembled. “I panicked.”

“It’s over now.” He rubbed at the goosebumps on her arms. Her skin was ice cold.

An old-fashioned fire whistle began honking every few seconds in the distance. Damn it. He had a lot to do before the firefighters and police showed up.

Zoe moaned from her seat on the curb and held her stomach. 

An out of breath Josh sprinted to their spot on the pavement. “Thank God you got out in time. Either of you hurt?”

Jack shook his head. “Any injuries among our men?”

“Not sure. We’re still counting heads. What the fuck happened in there?” 

Jack raised his eyebrows and flashed his gaze towards his mate. Josh got his meaning and flinched.

“She could’ve killed us all.”

Jack mentally agreed. Zoe was very powerful and very unskilled. A bad combination. He grimaced as a vision of fried body parts flashed across his brain.

“I’m sorry.” Zoe shivered and let out a small whimper. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

“We’ll fix it.” Jack pulled her against his chest and gave Josh a hard look when he started to say something. They needed to get the situation under control. The last thing he wanted was for this to be leaked to the global court. He wouldn’t see Zoe stand trial for something she had no control over.

Jack’s men were scattered around the building, trying to help the injured, but most of those that could, were running away, disappearing into the side streets.

“I need to take care of a few things.” Jack squeezed Zoe’s hand, then stood as his brother Jase approached. A few of Kyle’s gang wandered about in a daze, but they weren’t the one man he was interested in. “Any sign of Stan?”

“Dead.” Jase glanced at Zoe, his brows drawn tightly down. “He was downstairs.”

Zoe shuddered and buried her face in her arms. He ached to comfort her, but his clan needed their leader.

“Anyone hurt from our men?”

Jase shook his head. “Nothing serious. Just some injuries from flying debris.”

Jack turned his head to the sound of sirens in the distance.

The young girl that had been with Kyle sat on the curb, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest. Other than the bruises he’d seen earlier, she seemed unharmed. “Have you spoken with the girl?”

“Doesn’t speak much English.” Jase frowned and dragged his fingers through his disheveled hair. “Not sure what to do with her.”

“Take her to mom and dad. She’ll be safe with them until we figure out where she came from.”

Jase gave a hard nod. “You need to go. Who knows what she’ll say.”

“We’re going to need to cover this one up. Luckily it looks like something exploded. It shouldn’t be too hard to reinforce the notion of some kind of meth lab. Kyle was into some bad shit. The local cops will see what they want to see. Just push their will a little in that direction.”

“Got it.” Josh nodded. “I think it would be best to say Stan was a casualty of the explosion. It would kill Aunt Jane and Uncle Bill to know what hand he played in this. They’ve lost two sons tonight.”

“Agreed.” Jack squatted next to his mate and placed his hand on her arm. “Zoe, we have to go now.”

Her head snapped up, eyes wide. “What did you do to me?”

“We can talk about this when we get you somewhere safe.” Jack took her elbows and lifted her to her feet.

“No.” She pounded her fists on his chest, and began to shout, “I killed people. You did that to me.”

Josh and Jase raised their eyebrows and walked away.

“Zoe, relax.” He gripped her wrists so she couldn’t hit him. “Everything is going to okay. We just need to get out of here before the emergency crews arrive.”

The last of the flaming bar collapsed with a sickening crack, and a few more bottles of alcohol exploded.

“Nothing is okay.” She pulled her arms free, then placed her forehead on his chest, sobbing. “What kind of power is that? I’m a…a fucking killing machine.”

Jack let her rant and pulled a few strands of sticky hair out of her mouth. He’d tried to warn her, but even he was surprised at the extent of her power. 

 “Everyone is different when it comes to this kind of thing. The augmentation of power of our kind is very rare. It’s only because you were so frightened that your energy came out like that.”

“I could’ve killed you.” She gave his chest another hard whack.

“Enough.” He gripped both her wrists in one of his hands. “Half of your newfound power came from me. I felt it coming. You can’t hurt me.”

The lie sounded better than the truth. He tried to soothe her with his free hand by rubbing her shoulders. She shivered, and giant tears made streams of dirt along her cheeks before dripping onto his shirt.

“Time to get you home.” Jack scooped her into his arms.

He placed her in the leather passenger seat of the dark sedan and shut the door. Immediately, she tucked her legs under her chin and curled up in a ball.

He took one last look at the burning building and shuddered.

What a fucking nightmare.

The sirens were getting louder. They pulled out of the parking lot, just as the rescue vehicles zoomed past them with alarms blaring.