“First up,” he said with a nod, knocking blond curls into his stunning blue eyes. He thrust his fingers through his hair to push it off his face. “It’ll only take a few minutes for them to realize I’m not magically enhanced.”
“Let me give you a good luck kiss.” I pulled us together, welcoming the heat from his touch. I lost myself in the connection, as I did every time I kissed one of my guys. Our kiss deepened. When he opened his mouth and really kissed me, I responded by weaving my fingers in his hair and pulling him tighter against me. I pushed my control to him. The burn twisting inside me intensified and fought to break free. I couldn’t allow the fire to escape and end up hurting him, not my water elemental, especially after what’d happened in my dream. Imaginary or not, he’d suffered from enough fire calls to last a lifetime.
His kiss grew more urgent, more desperate, more passionate, and I drew in a breath to take him in. The heat roasted me from the inside out. If I didn’t find an outlet soon, I’d burst into flames and take Leo with me.
Carefully, I released the call broiling inside me by heating my lips ever so slightly, just enough to break us apart. He’d only feel the warmth from my kiss, nothing more, and would never know how close he had me to losing all control.
At first, he stiffened when he must have felt the call, but then cupped my face in his hands and really kissed me. The heat in my call intensified until the feeling moved beyond my lips and engulfed my neck, and then my torso. Still, Leo didn’t pull back.
My skin had to be close to catching fire and yet he didn’t pull away. If anything, he held me closer, his passion igniting from the heat. We held each other, lost in our craze to taste and touch each other, until the fire inside me, which had since died down, began to build again.
And then, just as quickly as the kiss started, it ended. Leo pulled back and licked me from his lips, his breathing labored. What I saw robbed me of what little breath I’d managed to draw into my lungs.
Flames—literal tiny flickers of fire—burned in his blazing blue eyes. I’d never seen anything like it. His gaze, so sharp, so keen as he raked it over me, was so foreign coming from my soothing water elemental. I’d expect a heated, dark look from my fire elemental, or even my air elemental since he also had the power to control fire. But not Leo.
And then, without warning, he collapsed.
“Leo!” I dropped next to him as he blinked his eyes wide and glanced around. “What happened?”
“Just got a little dizzy there.” He rested the heel of his hand against his temple.
“Your kiss literally knocked him senseless,” Clay mused. “That’s freakin’ awesome. You’re a fire-breathing, shapeshifting, vengeful dragon with a killer kiss. I knew I fell in love with the coolest chick on the planet. You gingers are definitely mystical.”
My heart skipped at his declaration. He’d never dropped the mother of all L words before. I’d jump up and into his arms if I didn’t currently have a half-conscious guy already in my lap. I wanted to hear it again. “What did you just say?”
Clay scratched his beard, his grin sending his emerald gaze into a brilliant dance. “That you’re mystical.”
“Before that.”
“You’re a vengeful dragon.” He smiled so wide, his back teeth showed.
“After that.”
Lifting his face to the sky, he took his own sweet time coming up with the answer. “Oh, I don’t know. Something about a killer kiss. There may have been mention of a cool chick maybe?”
Jerk. I ignored him and helped Leo to his feet. He swayed before catching himself, staggering back.
“You’re in no shape to test today.” I grasped his arm to lead him back to his dorm.
He moved out of my reach. “No. I have to.” Clay jumped in, grasping his other arm. “Stop. I’m fine, you guys.”
“I’m with Montana. You look like shit.”
“I never said that!”
“Stop.” Leo pushed us both away with more strength than I’d expect from someone who’d just collapsed. “I need to do this. Today. It’s my only window until the Council is through exposing all the enhanced elementals. It has to be today.”
“Why is it so important you do this today?”
“It just is.”
“Wait a second.” Clay narrowed his eyes as he scratched at his beard. He did a quick Bieber flip and nodded, then did another flip to send his wild brown hair off his forehead again. “I know what’s going on.”
Leo and Clay exchanged looks. I bounced my attention between the two of them. When neither spoke, I did. “What?”
“Never mind.” Leo took several steps back. Then, to both Clay’s and my shock, he teleported out.
“I never thought I’d see the day Leo Jackson teleported to avoid a conversation. I mean, I do it all the time, but that’s me. This is Leo we’re talking about. The only guy I know more straitlaced than him is Bry.”
“What the hell is going on, Clay? Why is he acting so weird?”
“How much time do you have?”
“Clay!”
He brought up his hands. “Okay, okay. Don’t ginger snap on me. It’s the last day of August, the day Leo’s parents finally lost all touch with reality and his grandparents had to take him in. Every year leading up to this this day, he gets a little more unstable as the date approaches. Then, on the thirty-first of August, he tends to freak out. That’s what’s going on. He doesn’t have a fever. He’s not sick. He’s processing that loss. Every year.”
Sweet bejebus. What a terrible thing to have to live through. What a terrible thing to relive year after year. I needed to build a bridge and get over myself. The shit storm I called my life was nothing but a poop pile compared to
