Richelle Mead - Storm Born

The creature was so fixated on me and what it wanted to do to me that it’d forgotten about Kiyo. Kiyo had surveyed the room during the exchange, and I’d seen his eyes rest on a tall, wrought-iron lamp. His eyes glittered with a dark heat, almost frightening in its ferocity. With the elemental distracted, Kiyo dashed for the lamp, again moving with incredible speed, and then in one motion, swung it at the elemental, hitting it with the force of a tank.

A large chunk of ice broke from the elemental’s body, and it roared in agony. Iron or steel will always hurt the gentry, regardless of which world they walk. I wondered if Kiyo had known that. The elemental lunged at him, and the two of them wrestled on the floor, rolling over and over as they struggled to land a hit. Kiyo fought savagely, and each time he dug his fingers into the monster, it would hiss in pain.

I had my wand now and advanced toward the two of them. I thrust it out, making it an extension of my arm. With alcohol still metabolizing in my body, as well as me being physically exhausted, I knew I couldn’t destroy the elemental, but I could sure as hell send it back to the Otherworld.

The air tingled around me, and again I smelled ozone. The elemental realized what I was doing and released Kiyo, trying to stop me. Kiyo did not let his prey go so easily, however, and moved forward, his foot again connecting with the creature-this time on the back. The weakened elemental stumbled to its knees.

I could usually do expulsions on my own, but tonight I needed a little divine help. “By Hecate’s grace, I cast you from this world. In Hecate’s name, I return you to your own realm.” The elemental screamed its fury, but it was already dissolving. “Leave here, and return no more, you fucking bastard. Go.”

The elemental shattered in an explosion of ice. Some of the crystals grazed my skin, cutting it. An onlooker might have thought it had been destroyed, but I had only damaged its elemental manifestation. It had gone to the Otherworld in its own body.

I could hear the blood pounding in my ears, adrenaline surging through me. Another creature had known my name. And like the keres, it had seemed terribly interested in me in a…Biblical way. Bleh.

But I had more pressing problems. Slowly I turned to stare at Kiyo who was watching me with equal caution, taking in my posture and the charged wand in my hand.

Kiyo.

Dark, sexy Kiyo, who had wooed me in the bar and just given me the best sex of my life.

The same Kiyo who had just fought an elemental with more strength and speed than I ever could have mustered-more than any human could have mustered. He had also not turned into a blabbering, shocked idiot like most humans would have-should have-around an elemental. He had seen one before. He knew what it was, just as he knew what my wand and incantations were.

What had earlier seemed like a passionate encounter for me suddenly had a vile edge. Fear traced my spine as we stared at each other, neither of us certain what to do. The words were on my lips, but he asked them first.

“What are you?”

The fact that we were having a standoff while completely naked might have been hilarious under ordinary circumstances. But these were not ordinary circumstances, and even my twisted sense of humor had its limitations.

“Me?” I demanded. “What about you? You’re not a veterinarian. Veterinarians give dogs rabies vaccines. They don’t throw elementals around.”

Kiyo regarded me levelly. “And Web designers don’t banish elementals to the Otherworld.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes I moonlight.”

The faintest ghost of a smile flickered across his face. He relaxed a little, found his pants, and pulled them on. Not me. I stayed rigid and ready to strike. I was also trying very hard to think of him only as a potential threat, not as the man I’d just slept with. Because if I thought about that, I might falter. Worse, I might have to face the fact that I had just let a creature of the Otherworld His pants now on, he approached me. “We need to talk about this-”

“No. Don’t get any closer.” If I could have cocked the wand like a gun, I would have.

“What are you going to do? You can’t cast me out. It won’t work.”

I hesitated, wondering about that. He seemed so human. He had felt human. I hadn’t sensed anything from him like I would one of the gentry, yet his speed and strength had been superhuman. And that wasn’t even counting his unholy stamina. That should have been a dead giveaway right there.

“What do you want from me? Why did you bring me back here?”

His eyebrows rose. “I thought it was obvious. I wanted to have sex with you.”

“No, damn it! There’s more to it. What’s going on? What are you trying to get from me?” My cool demeanor was plunging rapidly. “Did someone send you?”

“Look, Eugenie, just put the wand down. We’ll talk. We’ll figure this out.”

“I thought you couldn’t be cast out,” I reminded him. “Why are you afraid of the wand? Maybe the Otherworld couldn’t hurt you…but what about the Underworld?”

He didn’t answer. I sent my will into the wand and felt the air crackle with power. Fear crossed Kiyo’s face. So. He was afraid. That was all I needed to know. The words were on my lips to send him to the crossroads, but suddenly he moved with that rapid speed I’d seen earlier. He backed up toward the sliding glass door, opened it up, and then ran out and over the edge of the balcony.

A small scream escaped me in spite of myself. We were three floors up. I dropped the wand and dashed off to the balcony, peering around on the ground for him. No way could he have survived that uninjured.

Yet, there was no sign of him. A few bats flew up over the eaves of the building, and around the far side of it, I saw the flicker of headlights. A coyote howled from far out in the desert, and a cat slunk into the shadows. There was life out here but not the kind I sought. With a lot of maneuvering, I hung over the side of the balcony, making sure he wasn’t hiding under it like escaping people often did in movies. Nope. Nothing.

I gazed back over the desert, wondering what had happened to him. It was possible he could have “jumped” figuratively to the Otherworld. He’d have to be a very powerful gentry to do that without a thin spot nearby, but similarly, a strong gentry would have also been able to hold a perfect physical shape in this world. I supposed it was also possible someone so powerful could pass themselves off as human. I hadn’t encountered any who were that strong.

Walking back inside, I sat on the bed cross-legged, wrapping my arms around me. The residual ice from the elemental had melted into small puddles. The bed smelled like Kiyo and sex, and I swallowed down the nausea building within me. Oh God. What had I done? Had I had sex with a monster? Had I had sex with the very kind of thing I hunted and hated and killed? Kiyo had spoken to me about honesty, yet it seemed to have all been a lie. At least it had been safe sex.

Worst of all, I had liked him. Really liked him. When was the last time that had happened? Dean and I had seemed to date and sleep together simply because neither of us had anything better to do. With Kiyo, I had started to feel a real connection. Real chemistry. His betrayal hurt me deeper than I liked to admit.

I opened my eyes, thinking. Most gentry were too technologically inept to function seamlessly in the human world, yet he had navigated it well. He’d had a car back at the bar, one we’d passed over in favor of letting me drive. He’d also had a wallet and cash to pay for drinks and the condoms. And if he was checked into a hotel, he had to have a credit card. Credit cards were traceable. If he had a dual life in our world, I should be able to find out something.