Love Burns Read Online Free Page A

mother had married him – she’d known her mother to be a strong, take-no-crap woman her entire life. Quinton must have put on quite the act to woo her to the altar.
    She headed straight home to the little cottage that she was renting on the edge of town, and took a nice cool shower. It felt good on her slowly healing burn.
    After the shower, she fixed herself a quick dinner of half a dozen burgers – using her ice powers had worked up an appetite, and she’d been starving enough sitting in that jail cell that she’d almost gnawed on the bars before she finally got out.
    She sat on the little rocking chair on the porch and breathed in the country air as she shoveled the food into her mouth in a most unladylike fashion. The air was so clear here, and the stars were like twinkling diamonds scattered across black velvet.
    If only her mother were here to see her home town again. The thought made her eyes burn with unshed tears, and she blinked hard and set her plate of burgers down. Her mother Laura had been a wealthy debutante, the last member of a small, dying clan, who had inherited everything they possessed. She’d never worked a day in her life. But when Quinton’s abuse had become unbearable, she’d grabbed Olivia and they’d fled with a couple of suitcases, and the two of them had moved to the East Coast under assumed names.
    A few months ago, Olivia’s mother had died of a heart condition. Olivia had stayed away from North Lyndvale even after she was an adult, because she knew that if she reappeared, Quinton would start searching for her mother and insist on prosecuting her for fleeing with his daughter.
    But with her mother gone, and with no real roots or close friends, she’d decided to finally come back home.
    Thinking about her mother dampened her appetite, so she went back inside and tossed her last burger in the trash.
    Then she climbed into her ancient Volvo and went to the town meeting that had been called to address the Overseer’s visit to their territory.
    There were hundreds of people packed into the room and spilling out into the hallway. To her annoyance, she saw Henrik sitting in the audience. People were glaring at him; news travelled fast and they already knew why he was there.
    She heaved a sigh. No point in ignoring him.
    After she called the meeting to order, she indicated Henrik Vromme in the audience. “Well, we might as well address the elephant in the room, or rather the fire dragon,” she said, and was rewarded with a polite ripple of laughter.
    She called Vromme up to the podium, and the audience began peppering him with questions. The tone was definitely aggrieved and resentful, and Vromme wasn’t particularly reassuring. There had been numerous complaints about the recent fights between the fire and ice dragons, and if the two warring species couldn’t keep the peace, action would be taken.
    After the meeting, she called Henrik over to talk to him. Before she could say anything, a tall, elegant woman with flowing black hair walked up. She appeared to be in her fifties, and wore a cream-colored Chanel linen suit and low-heeled pumps. To Olivia’s surprise, she recognized the woman as a fire dragon; the red ring around the outsides of her pupils gave it away.
    “Hello, Henrik,” the woman said coolly.
    “Tabitha.” Henrik looked down his long, aristocratic nose at her. “I assume you’ve come over here to tell me that you regret your decision back in college.”
    “What decision would that be?” she said.
    “Marrying into a family of jewel thieves and joining in their ridiculous exploits and nearly getting arrested several dozen times.”
    “The operative word being ‘nearly’.” She smiled at him. “I am here to tell you not to allow our unfortunate history to influence your decisions here, or I will file a complaint with the Council of Elders.”
    Henrik snorted. “Good luck with that.”
    Her eyes glowed red. “I have pictures of you from back in college.” At