Fiery Nights Read Online Free Page B

fortune.”
    She looked at me over her Tarot deck. “It’s not all fun and
games, Tristan. Most of the time when people come to me, it’s because they’re
troubled. And much of the time, when I read for them, they have reason to be.
It’s not that easy to see that their worst fears may be imminent and yet try to
focus on the positive. Try to help them find a way out of their predicament.”
    “The difference is that you choose to meet with people. You
can help them. I don’t want this ability. What good is it to see sadness
in people? I can’t do anything about it! I don’t want to see their pain.” Why
was I raising my voice right now? And bringing up a topic I hated to discuss
with her?
    “Tristan,” she said in a soothing voice. “Some gifts take
more time to develop than others. Especially if the person fights it. Maybe
someday you’ll find what makes your ability so special. Our paths are not
always clear at first and you’re still so young.”
    I bit my tongue to stop the retort forming and let her do
her thing.
    “I believe in you, Tristan. I always have. One day you can
do great things. I know this.”
    “Of course you think that. You’re my mother. Nobody else
feels that way about me. Especially not me.”
    She looked at me with the sympathy only a mother expresses
without embarrassment. Then she said, “Close your eyes. Focus on your concern.”
    I closed my eyes and thought of Maya and her light. Then I
picked a card.
    “The Emperor,” she said. “Major arcana.” She looked up at
me. “You want to find some control over things you have no control over. You’re
thinking about her; she’s thinking about you. You will spend much time
together. Working together—maybe having fun together. Ultimately, you must work
with her to achieve your desires.”
    “This is ridiculous,” I said, pushing my chair back. “I’m
not buying it. I might be wondering about her, but she is most definitely not thinking about me. Why would she? And I have been alone for thirty years.
Someone is not going to walk into my life now and change everything just
because of what you see on some card.”
    She just smiled at me and picked up my tea cup to examine
the leaves. She turned the cup around slowly and hmmphed here and there.
    “What is it?”
    “I’m not sure,” she said and looked up at me. “Can you bring
her here?”
    “Bring her here? I don’t even know how to contact her. Why
on earth would I bring her here?
    She put down the cup and looked me straight in the eye. “I
want to meet her.”
     
    Maya
    One week went by. Saturday night. I wished I was spending my
evening getting ready to go to Vamps and seduce one Mr. Tristan “Smoking-Hot
Guy” Stone. But I was a working girl. So instead, I sat around in a firehouse,
the only female working with a bunch of guys. Although I was usually one of the
first ones to engage in the friendly banter that kept us entertained during the
dragging moments, lately I was distracted by other things.
    Bob Walker, a middle-aged firefighter, noticed I wasn’t my
perky old self. After most of the guys went out on a call and it was only the
two of us left, he asked, “What’s with you lately? Most people can barely get a
word in when you’re around. You haven’t said two sentences in a row all week.”
    “Things on my mind. You know, things.”
    “I know what that means,” he said with a smirk. “I have two
teenage daughters. I don’t need a crystal ball to see that by ‘things’ you mean
a guy.”
    I frowned. So much for keeping my angst to myself.
    “Do you want to tell me about it?” he asked.
    As a matter of fact, I would have liked to spew out all the
racing thoughts in my brain to someone who would just listen to me ramble. But
then that would require spilling the beans on my secret other life where I
liked to go dancing in underground fetish clubs. And that would not go down
well in a firehouse full of guys, for me at least.
    “Thanks, but there’s