Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

Amelia and I finished cooking. “So you go to school with
Devon?” she asked Darwin.
    Amelia frowned at me. “I thought you didn’t tell her
about Quintessence,” she whispered.
    I shook my head. Any possibility of it being a nice
evening went out the door. “She still thinks I’m in high school. She doesn’t
understand age very well anymore.”
    “So the apartment and the wife play into that how?”
    “ Ex -wife, thank you. My mother has good days,
where she knows I’m in my thirties, divorced, and living alone. She also has
bad days where she thinks Regina and I have kids or that I’m still a kid
myself. One time I went to visit her and she asked me who I was. Another time,
she told me my father was trying to kill her.”
    “Is she… um… how is her health?”
    “I don’t think she’s about to die if that’s what
you’re saying.”
    She blushed fiercely until I wanted to tease her
about her hair matching her skin. “I mean, if you go off to the university, who
will take care of her?”
    I looked over the counter to see Darwin trying to
teach her to use a laptop. I thought he was going to cry with frustration when
she asked where to type in “windows.” Her eyes were wide as baseballs when he
handed her his iPhone. She wasn’t even insulted when he downloaded a little
kid’s game for her to entertain herself with. Then again, she probably didn’t
know it was for kids.
    I resisted the urge to sigh when a heavy knocking
sounded on my door. Darwin jumped up to let his parents in. Maseré and Anya
Mason seemed to instantly realize my mother knew nothing of the paranormal
world. It was the first time I got to meet Anya. She had the same blond hair,
blue eyes, and wild energy about her as Darwin. She was tall for a woman at
about five-ten, in her mid-forties, with soft features. Unfortunately, she
couldn’t fix my kitchen with my mother there.
     
    *          *          *
     
    After an hour, I told my guests I needed to run an
errand and I would be back in a couple of hours. Leaving them alone probably
wasn’t beneficial to my apartment, but Marcus was counting on me. The drive
normally took only twenty minutes by car, which made me glad I had a car of my
own again. I figured Regina would be trying to sue me for it since hers blew
up.
    Unfortunately, I realized within a few minutes that I
was being tailed. Of course, I knew it was possible I was also shadowed that
morning in my rush to get Regina away from my mother. Shaking the gray Sedan
took over half an hour because they had damn good skills.
    I finally reached the cozy cabin that Marcus owned.
Actually, it officially belonged to a friend of a sister’s second cousin’s
son’s wife or something, but Marcus was nothing if not neurotic about his
secrecy. I was known as discreet. Marcus’s clients, on the other hand, didn’t
even know his name.
    I parked my car around the side where it couldn’t be
seen even by someone driving into the yard. Although I couldn’t see the
surveillance cameras, I knew where they were. Since Marcus hadn’t seen my new
car, I casually stretched as soon as I got out, making sure he got a clear
visual from every camera. No matter where he was in the country or out, he
would be watching and there was no man I knew who was more ready to blow up his
own house.
    All this just for a damn software wipe. Of
course, he had my information on file as well, so I couldn’t really complain. I
went around to the back deck, carefully avoiding the mines, and put the unlock
code into the keypad. As soon as the light turned green, I opened the door,
entered, shut it, and entered a second code into the box on the right of the door
to disarm the alarm. The light turned green and the door relocked. I sighed.
The last time I tried that, it blew up in my face.
    It looked like a cozy little house in the woods with
only a widescreen television for technology. A leather couch, a fireplace, a
fur rug, a coffee table… yeah