Born Into Fire Read online

  “Kenna—” He grabbed for her arm, then halted.

  Her element already guided her hands. She was acting on instinct with her fire. His heart pounded. The time was here, whether he was ready or not. His few minutes were up. She folded the glass over, evening out the edge, then grabbed the fruitwood, ladle-like tool she’d called a block, and began shaping the glass.

  He watched fascinated until she had formed an eight-inch oblong piece of glass. White-hot color eventually gave way to clear glass with thick dark blues and greens rippling through the center.

  Erion half expected Kenna to pick up the object and slide her hand up and down its smooth surface. He imagined her fiery fingers mimicking the motion along his length, and shuddered. Pressure increased as his engorged cock further swelled behind the zipper of his jeans. In his mind, he heard her whisper, yes, and he stilled. She wiggled her ass against his rigid arousal, and he realized she’d been reading his mind. He had to satiate his hunger for her—now, before it was too late. He stood, reached around her waist, and undid the button on her jeans.

  “Erion.”

  He unzipped her jeans, tugged them down her hips, then shoved aside her red thong and parted the folds of her pussy.

  “I’ll never finish,” she protested as she braced against the bench and leaned forward so that he had access to her from behind.

  He nuzzled her ear as he slid a finger inside her drenched pussy. “We’ll finish.” He pushed her panties past her hips. “But I have to touch you. Now.”

  Hot juices coated his finger. He commanded a tiny breeze from his finger into her core. She gasped softly and moved against him. The block slipped from her grasp and clattered to the concrete floor.

  “Hot,” she whispered.

  “Sweet torture,” he replied and thrust his finger deeper into her honeyed channel. “Is this what you want?”

  “More,” she pleaded.

  He slid another finger into the tight passage. She pressed against his hand. He kissed her neck, infusing her skin with chilled air. Kenna gasped.

  She abruptly reached out and grabbed the blown glass—a dildo, Erion realized with a jolt. He stared. Heat radiated off her in waves from contact with the glass. The piece glowed in her hand, a natural conduit to channel her element. She settled back against him, holding the dildo as if fondling newly formed molten glass was the most natural thing in the world. It was.

  For her.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered and grasped his hand.

  He entwined his fingers with hers around the phallus. The glass should have burned his hand. Instead, it cooled with his touch. His heart pounded. How was he able to touch fire? They hadn’t bonded. Her element hadn’t emerged, yet she controlled the heat so that he could touch the glass. Was he wrong? Had her element emerged? No! He had to touch her one more time.

  Erion slid the dildo through her drenched curls, parted her folds, and rubbed the end against her clit. Cream sizzled on the glass, and the sweet scent of her warm juices rose in the air. She hissed and rocked against the glass, attempting to impale herself on it. Fire arced from the furnace.

  Erion gave a low laugh. “Easy, baby. Not so fast.”

  She reached between her legs. “I have to come.”

  He resisted the force of her fire as it drew wind from his being. Holding the dildo between her pussy lips, he denied her the orgasm she desperately sought. With his free hand, he tugged her shirt over her head.

  Cream coated the glass as he rubbed it back and forth against her folds. “Do you want this?”

  “Yes,” she whimpered.

  Erion set the dildo beside Kenna, then picked her up and gently laid her on the marver. Eyes on her face, he yanked off her jeans and thong, then grasped the phallus and eased it deep into her channel. Kenna’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she bowed off the table. Bending over her, he blew on her soaked pussy.

  Red and blue colored cane on a shelf to their left began to melt in a slow drizzle. In the corner, water bubbled in the ten-gallon dispenser. Erion glanced back at her. Kenna heated everything near her, including his blood.

  He rubbed the dildo against her, eased the thick glass between her legs until she writhed on the table and cried out in a language he understood all too well. Desperation clawed at his conscience. The instinct to mate was surfacing.

  He funneled a tiny extension of his air to her. Wind gusted through the rafters. Fire popped in the kiln. Erion rammed the glass fast and deep. Amber light radiated from Kenna’s flesh. Blinding flashes burned his eyes, but he couldn’t tear his stare from the dildo. The glass glowed with the iridescence of the northern lights. Her emerging fire…her life force. He had never witnessed the Giris so intimately, and he never would again. This woman was his.

  They’d begun the mating process.

  Careful. Her need to mate would compel him to give his spark. Strong, determined, beautiful. His. The thought rocked him to his core. Could he claim the woman and deny his mate?

  “Erion.”

  Hunger to feast and the inability to refuse her demands answered the question. Erion pulled the dildo from her pussy and fastened his mouth to her clit. Sliding his tongue between her folds, he drank from her scorching pussy. Her hips lifted off the table and thrust against his mouth. Erion eased away and plunged the dildo back into her channel, then brought his mouth to her again and flicked her clit with his tongue. Sweet, tangy flavors floated across his palate. He lapped at her cream, savored her essence.

  Closing his eyes, he allowed his mind to dip into the tangled thoughts ricocheting in her mind. Time halted. She merged. Breath caught in his throat. A scream tore through her mind. “Erion!”

  “Fiera,” he answered before realizing he’d called her by the Element name he had no right to give.

  He ripped the dildo from her channel. Glass sizzled against his palm. He tossed it aside. The clatter of the glass rang high in unison with the fly of his jeans as he yanked down the zipper and shoved them down his thighs.

  “Ohhh.” She lifted her hips and gave several hard, quick thrusts against the air swirling around her.

  “Shhh, hold on, sweetheart.”

  “Hurry,” she pleaded.

  The kiln crackled. Erion startled. Tiny flames danced upward. An arc of fire leaped across the garage. He jerked his gaze to the swirling vortex overhead. A man’s form shimmered in the flames. Aiden. The male Fire Element commanded the inferno. Erion’s blood chilled. If Fiera emerged now, and he merged with her—their sparks merged—it was over for them both.

  The eyes glowed. Erion met the challenge with one of his own. “Mine.”

  “Yes,” Kenna murmured, dragging his attention back to her.

  Erion stared at the woman who was no longer wholly human. Flames, color, and energy weaved through her hair. Her skin radiated light, and God help him, he felt the connection of her element as much as his own. The compulsion to thrust his cock into her tightened his body as if he was about to implode. Realization hit with the force of a thunderclap. Their surroundings faded. Time slowed as if they spun on the rim of a distant black hole, with Fiera as the nexus that flickered like a beacon in the black depths. If he dragged the Fire Element with him into her vortex, they would be torn apart and cease to exist. Kenna would be safe, and he would have the fate he deserved…welcomed even.

  Peace settled. He stood within the eye of the storm. He could bond with her, merge as Elements, and give her his air. That would ensure he didn’t consume her as he had Airiana—as long as their sparks didn’t merge.

  The roar of flames intruded upon the silence of his thoughts. The room snapped back into focus. He inhaled sharply. Aiden’s heat intensified. Rage filled Erion. Flames encroached on the pocket of calm that cocooned them. A tear slipped down Erion’s cheek. He’d sworn to protect Airiana, yet what remained of her would cease to exist because he must now protect Fiera.

  Erion locked his gaze on to Kenna, Fiera, and the fire emerging in her eyes.

  “Fo
rgive me, Airiana.”

  He plunged his cock into Fiera’s channel. Long hard strokes, a cyclone of energy.

  She wrapped her legs tight around his hips and locked him to her. Her internal walls tightened. Heat rolled off her skin. He pulled her upright, grasped her ass, and lifted her into his arms. Kenna entwined her arms around his neck and hugged him close. He continued the thrusting rhythm.

  Erion gritted his teeth against the intensity. The pleasure he experienced, making love to her as a man, paled in comparison to the rush of euphoric energy now coursing through him. One breath, one heartbeat, they merged on the physical level. One more step, and they would enter the realm of Shadow where only Element existed.

  The flames that were Aiden glowed blue at the edges. The beast roared around them. Erion crushed his lips to Kenna’s. Her tongue slid into his mouth. Tasting, savoring, and joining. Her taut nipples pressed against his chest, searing his flesh.

  Kenna pulled back. “Hot,” she moaned. “Need air.”

  “Erion.” The call echoed in his mind. “I need your air—I need you.”

  Satisfaction rocketed through Erion. She wanted him. Her desire was more than he deserved. He would give her all he had.

  He released a small stream of wind from his core. The current swirled around them. Faster. She absorbed his element, burning brighter, shifting into fire in his arms. His cock pounded into the flames. Fire and air flowed between their joined bodies.

  A sudden pull in the innermost part of himself felt as if he were being torn apart from the inside out. The spark. Erion fell in on his element. His clothing dropped to the ground as his physical mass metamorphosed into air. The furnace crackled. Arcs of fire leaped in hard-pointed tendrils from Aiden. Kenna liquefied, and Fiera emerged in long orange flames tipped with white. Aiden exploded between them. Erion channeled air into her fire. Sounds of rushing wind filled the garage, then centered on Fiera.

  Blue flames of Aiden twisted in a vicious dance. Erion engulfed her in a whirlpool, drawing oxygen from the farthest corners of the garage. He would kill Aiden while feeding Fiera.

  Erion forced a tiny eddy deep inside himself. He drew the air from around them, gave to Fiera, but kept the small center, the spark, separate. Slowly, his insides began to tear apart, but he concentrated on Fiera, ignored the pain. Deeper, stronger, he drew energy from the room, from Aiden.

  A primal roar of rage cut through the tumult. The consuming hiss of fire grew more intense as Erion sucked the last molecule from his victim. The hiss rose to a high pitch, then stopped. Aiden was gone.

  Two Elements twisted in frenzied ballet. Fire burned white-hot. Erion’s wind churned Fiera into a torch of elemental power.

  She abruptly winked out. Gone.

  Erion gave a scream of terror. “No!”

  Chapter Eight

  A rushing filled Kenna’s ears. Heat pooled into a tiny point at her center, and the weight of atoms forming into matter replaced the weightlessness of flames. She felt as if she was falling inward and, in a sudden bolt of energy, shifted from fire back to woman.

  Erion still held her, his palms gripping her ass. The feel of his cock lodged deep inside her body jarred her. She trembled but dared not unwrap her legs from around his waist. She’d erupted into flames. Literally. Panic rose on a wave of bubbling heat. Erupting into flames wasn’t possible. People who spontaneously combusted became a pile of ash. They didn’t experience earth-shattering orgasms. Yet, in testament to her desire, flames of yearning still licked at her core. An answering ache pulsed deep in her pussy. And she breathed, felt…lived. Impossible.

  Erion clutched her so close, she could barely breathe, his head buried in her neck. His hands trembled. She knew how he felt! Her insides smoldered. Her sanctuary smoldered. Nearest them, large glass sculptures dripped in half-melted globs on the shelves and tables. Smaller pieces had puddled and still drained down shelves like slow-moving rivulets of lava into a multicolored mass where the concrete floor slanted slightly toward the house.

  Why hadn’t the fire department been alerted? Kenna swallowed, her throat a dry bed of sandpaper. What would have happened if the fire department had come? She would have been carted off for dissection by the world’s scientists. And Erion?

  She gasped softly. He had shifted into rushing wind that fed her. Shock replaced comprehension with dizzying speed. Aiden. Gorgeous, rich Aiden was fire—a fire that would have consumed her. How did she know that? Because she and Erion had shared more than their bodies.

  “You’re safe from Aiden.”

  “You’re in my head?” She rocked against Erion, attempting to free herself from his embrace. Her stomach pitched. They’d merged minds…souls.

  “You’re free from Aiden. He sought to enslave you.”

  And Erion freed her.

  Freed her into what?

  She pushed against his chest. Her mouth burned. “Down,” she croaked.

  He gently lifted her off him. The chill of loss stunned her. Her toes touched cold concrete, and she shivered.

  He hugged her to his chest. “Fiera.”

  Fiera. The name startled yet invoked images of sharp orange flames leaping heavenward in an effort to stretch farther into the unknown. She wasn’t Kenna anymore. She was…more.

  Her gaze riveted on the glass dildo lying forgotten—and half melted—on the floor. Blown glass took days to cool in the leher, yet she had picked up the phallus moments after it came out of the furnace and impaled herself on it. She grappled with the reality—reality, what was reality? She had held a molten-hot piece of glass, Erion had shoved it inside her—and she’d liked it. That was some fucking reality.

  Her body still hummed with having gone from the ball of fire back into herself. Her imagination had always been vivid. Her dreams, often in 3-D color that would shame the big screen, felt real, alive. Working with glass was her attempt to bring those dreams to life. Now, only moments after wakening as a woman, the dreamlike quality of having shared consciousness with Erion warred with the reality that was the shambles of her workshop.

  She and Erion—fire, wind, whatever they were—had merged.

  Shock rippled through her anew. Air—his wind—now softly whistled through the chambers of her heart. Kenna tentatively tuned into the rhythm of the intimate song, then was shocked at sensing the hunger that lay beyond the quiet of his protective embrace. In her mind’s eye, she stretched out a hand to touch his need. Pain lashed out. She stifled a cry and snatched her hand back. Guilt flooded her…his guilt.

  Airiana. Kenna startled. Another being like Erion…like her, lived inside him. Airiana, a female gust of wind. She had been a part of their merging. Tears welled in Kenna’s eyes, only they weren’t hers. They were Airiana’s.

  “Water,” she croaked.

  Erion hesitated, then released her. He turned and headed toward the utility sink at the far corner of the garage. She inhaled sharply at sight of his muscled buttocks. Fever heated her blood. Every muscle burned in exhaustion, but she wanted more—more fire, more air…more of the merging.

  At the sink, Erion picked up the ceramic coffee cup she’d left there that morning and filled it with water. When he faced her, his gaze dropped to her breasts. A thrill jolted through her. Even after the fire, the destruction, the all-consuming lust, he still wanted her. Evidence of how much was revealed in the growing length and thickening girth of his cock.

  Erion returned. Wordlessly, he slipped a hand around her nape and brought the cup to her lips. She closed her eyes and sipped. Guilt seeped from him. Why? She opened her eyes as he set the cup on the marver. He pulled her into his arms, then gently blew into her face. Heat radiated from her center. Desire warred with confusion. Airiana.

  No. She must first understand the confusing yet comforting presence of this other woman. A woman like her and Erion. She looked up at Erion. “Who is she?”

  “An Air Element, like me.”

  “I feel her.” Kenna touched his chest.

  He ten
sed beneath her fingers. “I’m sorry. I never meant for her to merge with you. I didn’t know she could.”

  Confusion coiled in her stomach, along with what she knew to be true. Kenna shuddered. “Aiden meant to kill you and enslave me.”

  Erion gently squeezed her arm. She startled at the tremble in his fingers, then gasped at the realization conveyed in his touch.

  “You intended to…to die for me.” The room reeled. What was this insanity?

  Garbled whispers rose in Kenna’s mind. She shook her head in an effort to clear the choking fog. Airiana—too many thoughts. Strength, determination. An eddy of wind with Airiana at the center. The female Air Element existed within Erion. And now, somehow, within Kenna as well.

  “Why am I hearing her?” Kenna demanded in a voice she knew was near to hysteria. “How the fuck did this happen—how did we happen?”

  Erion didn’t immediately answer but finally said, “Like you, her element called to mine.”

  “Like me?” Kenna recalled how, ten seconds after meeting him in the art store, she had wanted to rip off his clothes. That had been a first. Even now, a thread of heat ran from her breasts to pussy. She wanted his cock inside her—wanted to merge. As if reading her mind, he trailed fingers up her arm and across her collarbone.

  “Tell me about her,” Kenna demanded. “And…I want to know about the rest. Look at me. I’m scared. I’m hot. I feel this incredibly overwhelming connection to you, and her, and I know this isn’t normal. This is fucking crazy, and I feel like I’m going crazy. We need to talk.” She glanced around and swallowed. “But not here. Let’s go into the house.”

  Erion took a step back as if she’d sprouted horns.

  His thoughts slipped into hers. “I should leave…before it’s too late. Maybe it already is too late.”

  Kenna seized his arm. “Too late for what?”

  Airiana’s full-throated laugh floated through Kenna’s mind. She straightened, understanding dawning. “Airiana. Both of you are in my head. She’s part of you, too. Isn’t she?”

  ****

  Airiana’s whispers filled Erion’s mind. For so long, he’d shut out her wind song. A wave of crippling guilt turned his legs to rubber. He grabbed for the table.