Hunted By Firelight by Krista Street

 

Chapter 1

~ WYATT ~

“Avery, I just want to talk to you. That’s all.” I crept toward the crackling dome she’d erected around herself, the hairs on my arms standing on end the closer I got to the electrical magical apparatus. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

Wariness entered her brown-flecked-with-gold irises, and the scent of fear wafted from her, the sour fragrance permeating the domed shield which rose from the field like a glittering purple star.

A growl rumbled in my throat, coming from my wolf, before I could stop it.

Her eyes flashed wide.

Shit. Damn wolf. “My love, I—”

A huge crack came from the dome, and a punch of potent magic zapped me squarely in the chest.

The force of it made me fly back, my body shooting through the air as Avery’s gasp followed.

I landed fifteen feet away, my head whacking against the dirt. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

Fuuuuuuuuck. That one hurt. Grimacing, I brought a hand to my chest, right to my heart.

One thing I’d learned since midnight? The dome responded to my mate’s emotions. Whatever it was she’d created around herself, it was as though it were a part of her.

And she didn’t like when I approached it.

Nicholas let out a low whistle. The vamp sat in the grass. Sweat dripped profusely from him as the midday sun burned directly overhead. “That one looked particularly nasty, commander.”

With a groan, I sat up, still rubbing my chest as Avery followed my every move from beneath her shield.

“Are you sure she’s your mate?” Nicholas drawled.

“Yes,” I snapped and massaged my chest.

“It’s just that most mates don’t try to kill each other when—”

“And most mates don’t die and are then reborn with some unknown power in them!”

He raised his hands in surrender. “My, my, so testy. I was simply pointing out the obvious. No need to bite my head off.”

Another growl threatened to rumble in my chest, but I suppressed it. I didn’t need another jolt to my heart from the dome. Because as much as I hated it, Nicholas was right. Avery wasn’t acting like my mate. She was acting like I was a complete stranger who was out to harm her, and the only way she could stay safe was if she protected herself through any means necessary.

Even if that meant harming me in the process. Not exactly typical mate behavior.

She eyed me again, her expression still wary, but I thought I caught a glimmer of remorse in her gaze.

I scowled. She should be remorseful. The shock I’d just taken to the heart would have killed a human.

I straightened my shirt, then stood and prowled back to where I’d been sitting earlier.

With a low snarl, I plopped back down on the grass, my wolf no happier as he paced inside me.

The tall stalks bent beneath me, my heavy weight breaking the delicate plant life when I stretched my legs out. The movement sent a waft of pollen into the air. Wildflowers danced in the breeze as the pale-green sky in the fae lands stretched overhead.

Nicholas and I had been sitting in this field for nearly twelve hours and had managed to create a large area of wilted foliage.

But it was either that or I created a perimeter of dead flowers as I prowled relentlessly around the magical dome that my mate had encased herself in. Given that my pacing had only heightened the anxious scent coming from her, I’d forced myself to stay sitting.

Well, most of the time.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” Nicholas fanned his face, grimacing under the sun. Beads of sweat coated his alabaster skin, although streaks of red now scored his cheeks. It was almost noon, so the sun was nearly at its peak.

“You don’t need to stay,” I told him, keeping my voice quiet so as not to startle Avery again.

“That’s what you said three hours ago.”

“And I meant it. You’re what, five hundred years old? The sun’s gotta be hurting.”

“I’m five hundred and ninety-three, if you want to be precise.”

“Exactly. You’re beginning to look partially cooked. Just go, old man. Why don’t you head to SF headquarters and report to Wes. I’ll stay here. There’s no way I’m leaving her.”

“Old man.” He sneered. “How long have you been waiting to use that one?”

I sighed. “Believe it or not, I haven’t been. I’ve been a bit more preoccupied with Avery instead of thinking up ways to bait you.” I dragged a hand through my hair, irritation coating my stomach like acid. “Although that hasn’t stopped you from trying to bait me.”

“In my opinion, you deserve it, and as for your first point, I would gladly leave this insufferable heat, but that doesn’t end our predicament. What are we going to do about her?”Nicholas pointed at Avery. “She hasn’t shown any signs of releasing that . . . whatever that is.”

That happened to be the impenetrable dome of magic that my mate had built around herself during the night.

Once again, a rare celestial event in the fae lands had done something to Avery.

Only two weeks ago, the Safrinite comet had struck, infecting her with a power that leeched her magic and life source. And last night, it had finally killed her, only to have another celestial event—the fae lands’ solar system alignment—resurrect her from the dead.

But she’d come back changed. That event had not only brought her back to life but it had also robbed her of her memories and changed her in ways we didn’t understand. New potent power filled her slender body, and it was power none of us could comprehend.

One thing I knew, though, it was immense. Avery had created the dome after the alignment. She’d never had enough magic to do something like that before.

The magic will erupt in the heir destined to forge our path, creating the path for the gods to be born.

The line from the text in the ancient tome again flashed through my mind. When Avery had awoken, violet light had flashed in her eyes, and colossal power had radiated from her soul.

My stomach turned over as my jaw worked.

A month ago, Avery would have never possessed enough magic to create a protective dome so powerful. Now, she’d created it in a blink.

“The texts Masters Ambrose, Godric, and Romanus found predicted this.” Nicholas wiped at the perspiration above his lip. “And only when the Safrinite comet returns will the true prophecy occur. The magic will erupt in the heir destined to forge our path, creating the path for the gods to be born. Only then will we rise.”

“I was just thinking about that.” I leaned back on my elbows more. “That and the picture Master Ambrose showed us last night.”

“The drawing of the fae lands’ solar system, the Safrinite comet, and the alignment?”

“Yes, all of it is linked, and she’s tied to it. She has to be the heir.”

“She has a name, you know,” Avery called from under her magical dome.

Dammit. Guilt bit me that my mate thought me so callous to speak about her as if she wasn’t here, but she was right to be annoyed. I had been speaking about her on and off with Nicholas since, for the most part, she’d refused to engage with us.

“You’re right.” I inched forward on the grass unconsciously, then stopped when I realized what I was doing. “Do you remember what your name is?”

Instead of replying, my mate’s forehead puckered. Another troubled look descended over her features like a veil. The annoyed expression she’d worn after hearing Nicholas and I talking about her vanished.

“My name . . . it’s, um . . .” She shook her head, then glared at us.

The hopeful feeling in my chest faded, my body withering back into a hunched position. I ripped out a handful of thick grass and threw it. “Shit,” I muttered under my breath. “Why can’t she remember who she is?”

“That’s the million-dollar question, commander,” Nicholas replied. “If we knew the answer to that, I doubt we’d be sitting here in this sweltering heat.”

My stomach growled for what had to be the twentieth time. None of us had eaten or drunk since the alignment, but I couldn’t leave Avery for food and water. If she bolted, there was a good chance we wouldn’t be able to find her given the power she now held.

“I can’t handle this anymore. My sincerest apologies, Major Jamison. I’m going to headquarters.” Nicholas blurred to a stand, then in a blink he was standing in the forest at its edge. Shade covered him, the thick grove of trees shielding him from the sun’s harshest rays. He could walk partly through the forest to the nearest portal.

“You should have done that hours ago,” I called to him.

He extended his middle finger.

My lips curved up despite the steady thrum of anxiety that pulsed through me. I still hated the bastard, but he’d proven useful in the past twenty-four hours despite his annoying jabs. Without his help at the Bulgarian libraries, we might not have returned to the fae lands in time to save my mate.

I ripped out another handful of grass, my mood darkening again when I remembered what had happened twelve hours ago.

The haunting message in the ancient tome again blazed its way to the front of my mind.

“Creating the path for the gods to be born,” I whispered, then glanced at Avery.

She quickly averted her gaze when we made eye contact, then drew her knees tighter to her chest before wrapping her arms around them. Her beautiful mahogany hair draped down her back as her full lips thinned into a line. She rocked back and forth, her gaze occasionally darting to me and then to where Nicholas had been, but the vamp had already departed.

She’d been like this for twelve hours, but at least the terrible power she’d initially unleashed when she’d woken—which had created the strangest pausing sensations as if the world had stopped turning—had ceased. Whatever had been birthed inside her following the alignment was either gone or . . . it was dormant and she wasn’t using it.

I studied my mate as she watched me warily. She still looked like Avery, like my mate. The beautiful curve of her neck, the winged arches of her eyebrows, and the slender legs she cradled to her chest all screamed that she was the woman I loved.

And thankfully, her brown-and-gold eyes looked like hers again, that flashing violet light no longer present. But she still didn’t remember me, and more importantly, she didn’t appear to remember herself.

I inhaled, taking in her rich lilac scent. That fragrance solidified my belief that she was still Avery and not some demon born of a sacrifice who was merely impersonating my mate.

“Avery? I swear, I’m not going to hurt you.” I wanted so desperately to touch her, but right now, she didn’t want that. But dammit, I had to try to get through to her. “Please, you have to believe me. I would never hurt you. You mean too much to me to even consider that.”

She shot me another distrustful glare, and magic sparked in the dome, a charged particle leaping from it.

I winced when it hit me, but at least, that was a small one.

I resumed plucking blades of grass, and tried to act like I didn’t have a care in the world. “Your parents are probably wondering how you’re doing. You were going to see them again today.” I waited, to see if she’d respond, but all she did was press her chin to the tips of her knees and rock more. “Danielle and Bryce Meyers are in Bulgaria right now. They’re your parents. They came yesterday from their posts in India. Do you remember? You met with them, reminisced about your childhood, then promised to see them again today. I could bring them to you if you want. Or we could go back to Bulgaria, see them, and get you something to eat.”

She bit her lip and darted another glance at me, her gaze fierce.

“All you have to do is release the dome around you, then we can go see them.”

Her gaze narrowed. “And what if I do and you hurt me? I’ve seen how strong you are.”

Her question was so quiet, so lacking in trust, that my inner wolf’s hackles rose. A protective instinct surged within me, threatening to release a growl from my throat. I swallowed it down, knowing that would only worsen the situation.

“I would never hurt you,” I said again.

Her brow furrowed, and even though she looked away, she still whispered, “How do I know I can believe that?”

My nostrils flared, and I resisted the urge to slam my fist into the dirt. My wolf’s response was similar.

He snarled and paced in my belly. He’d been as agitated as me once we’d seen how our mate shunned us, and his heightened responses weren’t helping.

“Avery—”

“Stop calling me that!” she seethed.

“But it’s your name.”

“So you say.”

I gritted my teeth and tore a hand through my hair. “It’s true. Your name is Avery Meyers, and you’re twenty-three years old. You just completed three months of new recruit training at the Supernatural Forces. You were supposed to be on your way to the Supernatural Ambassador Institute to begin your new career. You’d be there right now if it hadn’t been for the Safrinite comet and what it did to you.”

“The Safrinite comet?”

“Yes.” I sighed. “It’s what started all of this. Two weeks ago, its magic changed you. Your body had a response to it that we don’t fully understand. All we know is that it began eating your magic and stealing your life force. It—” I sucked in a breath. “It killed you last night, but the alignment brought you back—”

“Killed me?” A look of horror washed over her face. “Last night? I died?”

“Yes. That’s right.” I hung my head. Dammit. None of this was easy. Even though Avery remembered the English language and was able to converse, she didn’t remember anything else.

“Why don’t I know who you are?” she asked.

“I honestly don’t know. The alignment took something from you.” Or birthed something inside you. I thought again about that power she’d unleashed and the violet color in her eyes. “But, Avery, please, just give me a chance to prove to you that I won’t hurt you. Remove the dome, and let me help you.”

She glanced up at the buzzing magical dome. “You promise? You promise to the depths of your soul that I can trust you?”

“I promise on my life.”

She bit her lip, a frown tightening her features.

The dome shimmered, the translucent purple magic sparkling. It thinned for the merest second, then strengthened. Her eyebrows drew together more, a look of absolute concentration on her face.

The magic glimmered a second time.

A small hole appeared in it.

Then another.

A buzz emitted from my tablet.

Avery’s head whipped toward me, and a crackle of power burst across the dome, thickening it to twice the width it was previously.

“What was that?” Her eyes grew wide.

Dammit. Why did I have to get a message right at this moment?

“It’s just my tablet.” With slow movements, I extracted it and showed her the electronic device. “This is how I communicate with my job. And right now, my boss just sent me a message.”

She glowered, then moved as far away from me as the dome allowed.

My nostrils flared. “Shit,” I whispered under my breath. It was the closest she’d come to dismantling the barrier, but now she looked like an angry kitten. I was surprised she wasn’t hissing again.

“This better be worth it.” I tapped the screen on my tablet, and a message from my boss, Wes McCloy, appeared.

Any progress?

I scoffed at the irony. There was.

If he’d waited another ten minutes perhaps I’d actually have good news to report.

Sighing, I typed in a response.

No. Magical dome still intact. Her memories are still gone. She’s still convinced that I’ll hurt her.

His response came readily.

I’m sending reinforcements. Return to headquarters for a proper debrief when they arrive.

My jaw locked, my finger hovering over my tablet. I nearly typed in, No.

But Wes was my boss.

I took a deep breath. Fucking duty. I had to follow orders, which meant I had to leave Avery. Dammit all to hell.

Wes knew that Avery was my mate. He knew how hard it would be for me to leave her.

Fuming, I closed my eyes and tried to slow my breathing. I pictured Avery as she’d been last night.

An image formed in my mind of her lying on her back, in our bed, back in our chambers in the Bulgarian libraries. She writhed beneath me as I plunged my length inside her, then she screamed when I brought her to climax, right at the moment I claimed her.

My heart ached at the memory. Only last night I’d claimed Avery as my mate in every sense of the word. When I’d been battling my wolf over the need to mark her as ours, in the midst of fucking her, she’d curled her hand around my nape and brought my mouth to her neck.

She’d coaxed me to do it, wanted it, begged me to.

So I had.

I’d bitten into the tender skin on her neck, my wolf coming to the surface just enough to elongate my teeth and fuse my magic with hers. My magic swirled inside her, twining around her limbs, infiltrating her cells, and forever tingeing her scent with mine. All male wolves would have known that she belonged to me.

For two brief hours, she’d been my mate—the other half to my soul, the bonded piece to my inner puzzle—and she’d welcomed my magic inside her.

Because of our bond, I felt it when she’d died. The tether that linked us had been severed. And the trauma of it would haunt me forever. I would never forget the feeling of that tiny, delicate thread being cut. It’d felt as if someone had snipped a ribbon. It’d been that fast, that smooth, yet the effects of it had barreled through my veins and torn out my heart.

So last night had not only been the very first time I’d made love to Avery, but it had been the night I lost her, too, and the experience shattered me.

I hung my head. I want you back, Little Flower. I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back.

A cracking sound in the forest had me lifting my gaze. A second later came the very faint sound of footsteps.

In a blink, I was standing, my hands fisted as heat pulsed under my skin. I scanned the trees. Golden leaves fluttered in the wind. Some of the foliage shimmered a deep-blue and magenta, hinting that the life in this realm was so alien to earth’s.

I inhaled, scenting the breeze, but the forest was downwind. A quick assessment of my mate showed Avery as she’d been—still curled into a ball and none the wiser that someone was in the forest watching us.

“Major Jamison?” a woman called.

My tensed shoulders relaxed just as Avery’s head snapped up.

“Corporal Morris?” I used Charlotte’s new title since she was now officially a member of Squad Three, having passed her final test.

Avery’s former new recruit squad mate emerged from the trees, donned in Squad Three’s uniform. Behind her stood a very anxious-looking couple—Avery’s parents, Bryce and Danielle Meyers.

Charlotte gave a small smile. “I believe you were told reinforcements were being sent, sir?”