Fire Danger Read Online Free Page B

a sexy male body was the least of her worries.
    His wings vanished, disappearing into his shoulders. One minute they were there, and then there was a noise, like a sucking sound, and they were gone. The fact that he didn’t move or otherwise register the disappearance told her this was something that had happened before.
    Just like the rest of everything that had happened in the last twelve hours, it made no sense. Yet there it was.
    He reached for a T-shirt resting on the back of the sofa and slipped it on. The selfish part of her missed the sight of all that beautiful naked flesh, but the logical part of her decided it was for the best.
    “Drink?”
    The skyscape out the large-paned windows showed the hill and the city beyond. With her salary, she could never have hoped to afford this upscale central San Francisco neighborhood. “This must have cost a fortune.” Her hand gesture took in the house and the landscaping beyond. Even if the place had been a family inheritance, this area hadn’t been affordable for decades.
    Phoenix poured one neat shot of brandy and handed it to her.
    “None for you?”
    He shook his head. “Alcohol has no effect on me.”
    “Oh.” Too bad.
    He grinned and Rachel flushed, realizing her mistake. “It really sucks that you can hear me,” she said, trying to sound casual. “It makes me feel vulnerable.”
    His gaze met hers. His eyes were a clear sort of brown that could be called amber in certain light.
    “You are vulnerable,” he said brusquely, moving toward her. “Sit.”
    She took the alcohol and drained the glass with one tip of her head.
    Phoenix arched an eyebrow at the act. “Another?”
    It would be nice to get drunk, to forget the craziness for a few hours, but all that would do was leave her with a hangover, a muzzy head and the same lingering questions tomorrow. Today. Whatever day it was, getting plastered wasn’t going to help the crazy turn her life had taken.
    If this was a dream, it was a hell of a ride.
    “No, that’s enough.” There was that sensation again, like someone had placed a flame under her skin. Rachel rubbed at her forearm, trying to shake the feeling. “I don’t get it, though. Why would the wolves, or you, care about me?” She waited, but he made no response. Was she really having this conversation, as casually as if they were discussing the weather?
    “I don’t know the answer to that question,” he admitted. “I will need to find out.”
    “ We will need to find out,” she corrected.
    He inclined his head, but his mind was shuttered.
    “How do you do that?” she asked, tapping her head with her forefinger. “That whole not-let-others-know-what-you-are-thinking thing?”
    “There are ways,” he said, the amber-colored bottle still in his hands. “You will need to learn them, if there is time.”
    “If there is time?”
    She didn’t realize she’d echoed the words in her mind until he answered there.
    “If the world doesn’t end first.”
    “Repeat that last bit to me?”
    He turned to her, and his eyes were distant, as if focused on something far away. “Are you sure you’re ready for the answers? You’re a…damned if I know what you are. You’re different. This shouldn’t concern you, but it does.”
    This. Vampires. Shadow people. Wolves. This. It made no sense.
    “There are many things mortal beings have no concept of.” His voice was gravelly and suddenly sounded very old. He gestured to the sofa, and without waiting for her, sat on one side. The throw there told her this was the side he preferred. She took a seat as far away from him as she could, sitting primly on the opposite side of the sofa.
    His brows knitted together, and his eyes focused in on her like a laser beam. “Who are you, and how is it you can call to an Elemental?”
    Rachel wished she could have controlled her involuntary start. The sensation under her skin intensified. She was pretty sure she wasn’t in a fugue state or dreaming, but now she