Chapter 3

 

Julian’s gaze was immediately drawn to the flames. He reached forward to extinguish them, but a gust of air sucked the oxygen away and put the flames out. The girl next to the bowl cringed, and pink swept across her cheeks. Their eyes met and for a moment he had that falling sensation that usually only happened in bed just as he was drifting off to sleep. He blinked. She wasn’t a girl, even though she had so little control over her magic, she was a young woman. A fire-using woman. Interest flared and was quickly smothered. She couldn’t have been much older than twenty.

He didn’t have time to date. He already had one pissed-off part-time girlfriend. He shouldn’t be looking at anyone. But it was hard to look away.

Her gaze lowered and she looked like she wanted to hide down the back of the chair.

He knew the feeling. Right now all eyes were on him, even those across the globe.

The noise in the rest of the room came flooding back. There was chatter coming from the laptops. He was late and his entrance had been more dramatic than he’d hoped for. He had planned to just slip in. However, it wasn’t every day his appearance caused things to burst into flames—flames he hadn’t caused.

He smiled at her, hoping to ease the tension. She pulled her lips into something close to a grimace. She was clearly still in the “I want to die of embarrassment phase.”

By the time he’d gotten hold of his magic, he’d accidentally set fire to his curtains, several plants, and his brother’s cherished and balding dinosaur plush toy—which he had been allegedly too big for and didn’t want. There had been a very somber funeral in the backyard for Rex.

It had taken years to live that one down.

His brother, Kirin, at the back of the room lifted his arms into a T-rex pose.

Okay, he may never live that one down.

He found a seat so he could listen and catch up on what he’d missed. Saba passed him a notepad. She was obviously acting secretary tonight. That should’ve been his job. He was supposed to be taking a bigger role, but his father understood that he couldn’t race out of work on the dot. His father had struggled to be there for him when he was growing up for exactly the same reason. Policing sometimes got in the way.

Kirin and he had been very good friends with the old lady who had lived next door. She’d been the granny they didn’t have by blood and had made sure that they had somewhere to go after school.

He skimmed the page of notes. He knew all about the Albanex and the cult that he had created around himself so he could feed and give himself access to living bodies. That was a disturbing piece of Albanex magic; feed a human some of your blood and then you could jump in their bodies and control them for short periods of time.

The whole Albanex creation was disgusting.

Judging from the question mark, they still had no idea who Gwinfor had sacrificed so that he could be undead. He was halfway down the page when he felt someone watching him from across the room. He lifted his gaze ever so slightly. It was the burning crisp woman. He smiled. She looked away and went to grab a crisp, only to remember they were now ash. She clenched her teeth and then settled back to ignore him in a very deliberate way by painting her nails.

Saba took the notepad out of his hand and wrote something on it, before taking meeting notes on another notepad.

He glanced down to see what she’d written. Leira, my sister.

Leira. Leira had fire-based magic like him. For that reason alone, he wanted to talk to her. Her blond hair was messy, her too-long bangs hiding her eyes. He let himself become entranced. It didn’t happen often and it had never happened with an Albah woman.

“Guardian-caused deaths?” Quinn said.

Julian snapped his attention to the meeting. He should be listening to what was going on, not watching a twenty-something paint her nails.

“I don’t think so.” The woman on the laptop screen spoke in accented English.

“There have been disappearances too,” an American woman said.

“Are the police investigating?”

“Yeah, just more missing people. No big deal.”

People were chiming in and adding their opinions. This was a big conference call—so much more time efficient than gathering in one place to meet and talk. This way they could catch up more often. His father kept in regular contact with all the families on a more personal basis too, not just the big meetings.

“Albah do drop off the radar,” Julian said. It was one of the problems with being so scattered. There was no way of really knowing how many were left. Some families had died out—natural or otherwise. Some chose not to keep in contact, believing they were safer on their own.

He had read Saba’s note about a couple of new families getting in contact after the disappearance of a family member.

Being scattered was still better than living together. Freaks did better when spread out among the general population. That he and his brother had looked so similar, right down to the folded ears and long middle toes, had been enough for the school bullies to make them a target.

“Not at this rate,” the American woman said.

“I think it is Guardian activity. Gwinfor did come from England, so maybe they were hunting him.”

“Guardians would burn down the house to kill a spider,” someone else said.

There was rapid conversation that he struggled to follow as people from all around the world added their stories. There were too many people here to listen to everyone.

His father held up his hand. “Not every death is us being hunted. Some things are just accidents, wrong place, wrong time.”

“A Guardian’s specialty,” a man spat. “You of all people cannot deny that.”

His father winced. “That is true and there is no need to be complacent. If they know about the Albanex, they may consider the treaty broken.”

There was silence for several seconds.

“We do need to find out who made the Albanex. We believe it happened in America.”

Someone laughed. “America has the biggest population of off-the-grid Albah.”

“So we need to start finding them. I know several of you have been trying to piece together some family trees. That knowledge is very valuable.”

Yeah, no one wanted to accidentally get with their first cousin. Julian kept that to himself. Everyone here or online would be aware of that. While he was aware of the need for more male Albah to be born, adding fresh blood to the old bloodlines by mixing with humans was beneficial.

“Now is the time to go back to the old records, if you still have them, and work forward. See if you can track down missing relatives.”

“They won’t be using Albah surnames anymore.”

“None of us do, we changed them to fit in centuries ago. They would’ve gone one step further.”

If Julian were planning on disappearing, he’d pick a random surname. Something unrelated to the Albah. It would be impossible to find someone on paper; it was only pictures that revealed Albah heritage.

“One person who knows how to make Albanex out of three hundred and twenty million.”

“Let’s hope it was only one person and they haven’t put the recipe online.” His father was deadly serious.

The idea was chilling. How many disenfranchised Albah were there who would be willing to even attempt becoming Albanex?

Someone laughed, high and nervous. “A how-to-make-a-vampire website?”

Saba looked up. “I have found other rituals online. Make sure your teens aren’t posting magical selfies too.” She glanced at her sister. “We don’t want humans asking how it was done, or noticing too many similarities between us.”

Leira rolled her eyes. Had she been guilty of posting something a little too true?

She wasn’t his cousin. They weren’t related by blood. However, they did have a half-brother in common, but genetically that did not count. He should’ve seen her here before tonight. Had she been traveling with her mother? Or was Leira planning to disappear?

Her mother would not like that. Her mother could be a truly terrifying woman when she wanted. He did not envy Kirin his new role working with her, even if he did get to travel.

There some talk about the internet and social media and the danger it presented as well as the uses. Someone suggested that there be a face to face gathering in a few years’ time. It had been almost fifty years. Before the internet there must have been long letters of news making their way across the oceans by boat and then plane.

His father wound down the meeting. With people promising to update him when they found out any news and his father vowing to keep them all updated and encouraging them to be careful but not fearful. Humans wouldn’t devolve into medieval-style witch hunts again.

Leira snorted, then bit her lip.

When the laptops were closed, his father turned his attention to Leira. “Magic going well, is it?”

Julian had been on the receiving end of that look too many times. Good luck wriggling out of that one.

Leira sighed. “I was shocked. It was an accident.”

His father shook his head. “We can’t afford accidents like that.”

Leira stood. “Why not? You just said that humans would be cool. Why can’t they learn to accept us?”

His father drew in a breath, his gaze sharpening.

Julian had to step in before his father got going. “Dad, I’ll spend some time with Leira. Fire isn’t easy.”

Leira crossed her arms. “I don’t need help.”

“Clearly you do,” his father said in his best I-am-the-king-and-you-will-listen voice. “You are a hazard to yourself and others. Julian has fire. I realize it’s not the same as having a fire woman teach you, but it’s all we have at the moment.” He looked at Saba and beckoned her out of the room.

Well, this was a shitty way to end the evening. Saba would now get told off for not getting her sister help sooner. From the way Leira was looking at him he could see why Saba had not rushed to involve him. Though Julian wasn’t sure what he’d done to her. He’d never met her before… But he wanted to spend more time with her. There was a bone-deep resonance of need that was more than a little unsettling.

He didn’t have time to teach someone how to control their magic even if she’d been willing. He shouldn’t have opened his mouth. Still, he’d volunteered and would have to make time. And so would she.

“Julian’s a good guy.” Dale was risking having his pants set on fire by speaking. He was sure Dale was only saying that because Julian was worse at poker than he was.

“You don’t get it.” She picked up her three bottles of nail polish and shoved them into her bag. Her glittering toenails disappeared into her shoes. “Sorry about the crisps.”

Then she walked out.

* * * *

Shit. That was not how it was supposed to have been. The cold night air cooled the heat from Leira’s cheeks. Why hadn’t she just accepted his help? Julian was the guy and he’d just given her a perfect excuse to see him and get to know him. What was wrong with her?

Aside from her inability to control her element?

She wanted a flame right now so she could see if her future was still on track, but after the crisps incident she wasn’t going to do anything here where she could get caught screwing up. When she got home, she’d scry and hope everything was still on track, even though she’d met him in the wrong place.

She unlocked her car and in the flash of the lights saw the car parked behind her. That had to be Dale. Had he done that deliberately after returning to the meeting with Julian? Now she’d have to go in and face them all again.

Or wait for them to start to leave.

She stared at the drawn curtains of the front room. They’d all be in there having a nice chat about the meeting and her impromptu fire. She wasn’t part of that circle. Hadn’t been allowed to be when she was still at school, and then she hadn’t wanted to be.

She still didn’t want to be part of their secret society.

No, but she did need help and Saba was already in the awkward position of having to supervise her. Leira knew her sister was also reporting back about her progress, or lack of. Quinn couldn’t have his people running around and making trouble and drawing attention.

One photo had gotten her into trouble last year. She’d been holding fire in her palm and letting it light her face. Only Albah, or Guardians she supposed, would know the truth. The average human would think she had been holding a tea light or that the picture was edited. It made her smile to know that she wasn’t the only one taking magical selfies.

She trudged back up to the front door. Her exit substantially less dramatic now that she had to go back. The door opened before she reached the step.

“You’re still here. Great. Can you give me a lift to the train station?” Julian smiled.

Leira wilted inside, but forced her lips to turn up. He had no idea how much she’d wanted to be at a train station with him. She stared at him for a moment, trying to convince herself that it wasn’t him. Couldn’t be him. But she’d known the moment their eyes had met. She’d known it was him in her bones, the same way she’d known that his brother was not the man on the train.

Julian was unfortunately the man she had been waiting for. While she couldn’t say why she knew that to be true, she’d learned to trust her gut. Right now her gut wasn’t being helpful.

“Sure.” Saying no would be rude, and she’d already left a disastrous first impression.

He was fire, like her. Except not like her, because male Albah’s magic was different. They had defensive magic and healing. The women had the ability to see the future, which wasn’t always useful, and the past and the much more dangerous attacking magic.

“Dale needs to move his car.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder.

Julian took a few steps back into the house. “Dale, shift your car.”

A few seconds later, the human inconveniencing everyone appeared and he didn’t look at all sorry. No doubt Saba had put him up to it. She was either going to have words with her sister or stop talking to her altogether.

“My mother was fire too,” Julian said as they waited.

His mother had been killed when he was a kid, a car accident. Everyone knew the story. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t your fault. Like Dad said, accidents do happen. We can’t jump at every shadow. I have her diaries, the ones about magic. They helped me and they might help you.”

Leira bit her lip. That was a very generous offer. “Thank you. You aren’t worried that I’ll set them on fire?”

“How about I ward them first?” His smile widened as though it was funny.

Maybe she’d be able to look back and see the funny side of accidentally setting things on fire when she had control. Right now it was stress that she didn’t need, and the more stressed she got the more likely it became that she’d screw up.

“All clear, sorry about that,” Dale said as he walked by. “I’ll see you at the next poker night?” he said to Julian.

“Yeah, mate.”

Leira waited for the door to close. “You know him well then?”

“We’ve met a few times. You don’t like your sister’s boyfriend?”

How could she say that cops were too…establishment…without insulting Julian’s father? But then Quinn did like rules. “He’s human.”

“So’s your father.”

That was true. And while her father knew some of the truth, he didn’t know it all, and he would never understand magic and talk about it the way her mother did with other Albah. Dale knew far too much already. She opened her car and cleared her gym bag and backpack for college off the front seat by throwing them on the backseat. “Sorry about the mess. I wasn’t expecting company.”

“That’s okay.”

She glanced at him as he buckled in. “Why didn’t you drive here?”

“I haven’t bought a car yet. I only moved back here six months ago and I haven’t needed to.”

Leira started her car. Well, it was really her mother’s car. While her mother was traveling, Leira got use of it and she got to stay in the house. All she had to do was pay the utility bills.

“So you catch public transport?” At night? Alone. Hell no. She could burn an attacker to a…a crisp and she still wouldn’t do it.

He shrugged. “The hospital and my apartment are close to stations.”

“Where are you staying?” Had they even come close to crossing paths or was fate being a dick?

“North Fremantle.”

Saba’s shop was in Fremantle. That was close.

“And you work where?” She was giving a stranger a lift. Just because he was Albah didn’t make him safe. Albah could become the undead and feast on blood. Dale’s tick of approval didn’t help. But Leira did trust her sister. Saba must have suspected that Julian was the man on the train from her vision but she hadn’t said anything, wanting it to work out. Saba had even tried to get Leira out of this meeting.

“Perth Central Hospital.”

So he’d be on the Fremantle train line. She took the Fremantle line when she wasn’t driving to university, and she’d been driving less lately. Had they crossed paths already? How close had she been to meeting him before the fail of tonight?

She pulled out of the driveway and headed toward the station. “I do need help with the fire, but I’m tired of being treated like the baby of the group.”

The few times she’d met Quinn it was like he was expecting her to screw up. At least she hadn’t disappointed him tonight.

“Why don’t we get together over the weekend?”

Because this is all wrong!

Where were the sparks, the attraction and the romance? Sure she knew it was him, but that wasn’t the same as that rush of attraction. She wasn’t even sure that she liked him now that he was in her car. He was good looking, short blond hair and blue eyes and a nice strong jaw. He was obviously smart because he was a doctor. And he shared her element.

There was definitely something wrong with her. Maybe it was because he was older than she’d imagined he’d be. She’d thought the man would be her age or maybe only a couple of years older. Julian was, what, thirty?

“Have you ever had a reading done for you?” She wanted to know if he’d peeked into his future.

“No,” he said with rather more finality than she’d expected.

“Why?” Being able to glimpse the many paths and what might be was fun. It was the one thing she could do without needing the fire brigade on standby.

“Because I don’t want to know my future.”

“Oh.” Probably best not to mention Saba’s vision and the way she’d been checking up on it, or how she planned to check later tonight. “I can do that bit.”

He was watching her now. “This is starting to feel like a bit of a set-up.”

“You think? Dale wasn’t very subtle, was he?”

Julian stared out the window. “I went to Sydney to study because I needed to get away from here. I thought it would be different coming back as an adult with my own life. Dad is still all about duty to the Albah and all that.”

“He is kind of the king.”

He gave a small laugh. “I know. I do plan on doing the right thing eventually, but in my own time. I know that the men are outnumbered ten to one. And fire is getting rarer with each generation. I get that, but I don’t like the feeling that I have to.”

Leira nodded. Definitely not telling him about the vision and their supposed future. She hadn’t realized that the genders had become so skewed. Ever since the Albah had gotten rid of arranged marriages and monitoring the magics, things had been falling apart.

Her people were fading away.

“Well, you don’t have to help me.” She tried to make her voice light.

“No, that I do have to do. Mum would want me to, she would’ve wanted to. She’d have been so thrilled to have a girl to teach.”

If Julian’s mother had been alive, there was a bloody good chance that Leira’s own mother would have left her behind as soon as her magic showed up. Part of her wondered what it would have been like to have a normal childhood. Going to the same school and keeping friends for years.

Instead she’d wandered the globe with her wildlife photographer mother and philanthropist father, building villages and digging toilets.

She parked at the station. “But do you want to?”

She didn’t want to be on his list because other people, even dead people, thought he should help her.

He nodded slowly. “I’ve never met another Albah in person who could use fire.”

“But your mother…?”

“She died the day my magic kicked in,” he said softly.

“You were in the car.” She’d heard that trauma could make it happen. But no one had ever told her that Julian was in the car when their mother had died.

“Kirin was too. I couldn’t get the baby seat unbuckled. Mum wasn’t answering. When the car caught fire, I hugged Kirin, trying to protect him. I couldn’t make a shield big enough to protect my mother too. I tried and I got burned.”

She had never heard that part of the story. “That’s an awful way to get your magic.”

He shrugged. “Better than being dead. I think Mum must have already been dead. The driver hit us head-on. The cops think he was drunk, but he fled the scene.”

“Where was Finley?” Technically her half-brother, but the closest she’d ever been to him was the cover of a glossy teen magazine.

“We were on our way to get him from something, probably sport practice.”

“I would totally get it if you didn’t drive because of that.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to drive after hearing about that. The idea of being stuck in a burning car. She suppressed a shudder. Fire was her element, but she was still wary.

He shook his head. “Life and magic are unpredictable. Everyone is watching you because you have fire, but if you stop trying to please them, it will be easier.” He pulled out his cell phone. “What’s your number?”

Whoa, advice and wanting her number in the same breath. She rattled off her number, not sure if she would make time this weekend to see him. She didn’t want to seem too keen. But she was. She wanted to read his mother’s diaries. Even though that probably made her a bad person, and she wanted to see what it would be like to work with a fire user instead of her air driven sister, who could literally suck the air out of an argument.

She was already too curious to back out.