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Part One Hundred and Twenty-Eight
Last Updated:
2025-02-20 13:28:47
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Fire Part One Hundred and Twenty-Nine
She grabbed her head in pain and sank to the ground. Instantly the other witches joined and chanted with her. The pain in her head lessened as they all attacked me at once. They were very powerful together and their voices became one.I could feel my grip lessening and I left her mind. I concentrated instead on myself, on Saga, on Kai and I saw the Norns again. I had done everything they had asked, and Kai and Saga were safe at last.There was no greater gift than love and I had paid their price. I hadn’t known what that price would be in the beginning, but Death had given it away. “What is the ultimate sacrifice?”Me. I was the sacrifice, my life for their lives. I had entered this clearing knowing that I would die today and I had made my peace, to die for my children and my family. That was my sacrifice.I ignored the Norns watching me and I was back on Wolf Peak, taking the energy from all the wolves who had died there. They offered it to me freely and I focused on the twelve witch
Last Updated : 2025-02-21Fire Part One Hundred and Thirty
“Adara,” I said as I felt the darkness surrounding me.I opened my eyes and I saw Death sitting in his armchair. I was back in Helheim. I knew it was coming. I had tried to hold out as long as possible and not to use death magic, but in the end I had no choice, it was me or her. My choices hadn’t been black and white, they’d been riddled with fear and the unknown, but that was only half true. Not all of it was unknown, I’d known I would end up here again. I had made peace with it.Death sat patiently tapping his fingers against the leather of the chair. He smiled when he saw my eyes open and stood up. He was dressed in a black suit with a red handkerchief folded into his breast pocket. If this had been anyone other than Death, I would have said he looked sharp.“Oh Kiran, back again so soon,” he said to me and I stood up.“I tried, believe me, this is not where I want to be. But it was a choice between me and my family and her, I chose them,” I said to him and he stopped inches from m
Last Updated : 2025-02-22Fire Part One Hundred and Thirty-One
Some days Death showed me my children, other days he let me burn for hours on end. On rare occasions I was with Adara or Malachi or James. He wanted me to witness their grief and their pain and feel it deep in my soul. It was the worst punishment I’d ever suffered through.He took such pleasure in my pain that I stopped reacting to whatever they felt and turned my emotions off. He let me burn extra-long when I did that and I don’t know what hurt more, their pain or mine. I felt numb to it all, even their emotions because I was beginning to feel like I had when I’d taken Malachi’s pain, before going to Wolf Peak. I felt weak.Finally one day he let me sit down and said we should talk, man to man, and I laughed at him. I had clearly lost my mind and I had no idea how long I’d been there with him because there was no measure of time. There was only pain.“You’re not a man,” I said to him and he looked hurt.“Don’t be so mean, here I can be whatever I want,” he said and I just looked at h
Last Updated : 2025-02-23Fire Part One Hundred and Thirty-Two
Adara sat in the study and looked at Kiran’s laptop. It was four weeks later and she hadn’t had the heart to go into his study before now. She opened the laptop and the screen came alive. She looked at the numerous folders on the screen and started to cry.That day had been the absolute worst day in her life, by far. She felt helpless and so alone, although the house was never empty. Malachi and Jessica had basically moved into his old bedroom.James was there every day and she could see that it was taking its toll on him, between his twins, the hotel, and their house, he was overdoing it. She would have to ask Malachi to speak to him and tell him to stop coming over.Kiran had closed Karani’s chest that afternoon before he went to the clearing and Jessica had tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. She finally admitted defeat and told Adara that only Kiran could open it. She had hoped to find something in there to explain what had happened to him.She started going through his folde
Last Updated : 2025-02-24Fire Part One Hundred and Thirty-Three
“What the hell do we do now?” Carl asked and James didn’t have an answer for him. He turned around without answering and followed Malachi out of the forest with Carl trailing behind him. They had walked into the house, the clearing littered with dead witches.“What happened?” Jessica asked as she stood up from the couch putting the glass of water down on the table as Malachi put Adara down on the couch and she curled herself into the fetal position and just cried.“He’s gone,” Malachi said and walked to the study, slamming the door behind him. He screamed and wiped everything off the chest that stood behind the couch and acted as a secondary table which held the glass bottles of brandy and whiskey and the tumbler glasses.He started hitting the wall in frustration as he struggled to deal with facts that he didn’t really know. He stopped when both hands were broken and his blood dripped onto the carpet. He sat down on the couch and he lowered his face into his hands and cried.Jessica
Last Updated : 2025-02-25Fire Part One Hundred and Thirty-Four
Five months later…Days had turned to weeks and Malachi’s hope was dwindling. Each day brought a fresh wave of sadness and worry. They had no body and no idea where Kiran had gone. He didn’t want to believe that his son was dead. He’d pleaded with the gods for a sign, any sign. Anything would be better than wondering. He wasn’t sure how much more he could handle.He was sitting at the dining table in the kitchen, staring at the newspaper in his hand but his thoughts were with Kiran. If he was indeed in Helheim, he hoped he wasn’t suffering, but even Jessica wasn’t sure. Kiran had said that Death liked to taunt and torture him. He shuddered at the thought of what Kiran must be going through.Adara pulled a chair out and sat down next to him. “Can I talk to you?”“Of course,” Malachi said and put his cup down. He folded the newspaper and looked intently at Adara.Adara fidgeted with her hands, seemingly nervous. “You don’t have to keep living here, your house was finished two months ago
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Adara hadn’t changed anything. She’d washed his clothes in the hamper and nothing had been touched in Kiran’s study. Malachi had made the notifications to The Council but Adara still kept everything the same. Some nights she still made Kiran’s favorites, like that would bring him home.His car keys remained in the bowl and she recorded everything the twins did, so that when he came back he could be part of everything he had missed. She even had his car serviced and started it every single morning to keep the battery charged.“You should just give her time, maybe give her what she wants and move to our own house. We’re close enough if anything happens and she’s not defenseless, she has Norah here,” Jessica said to Malachi.Adara sighed as she stood on the stairs and listened to them talk. She turned and went to her bedroom. Every day she scoured the internet for stories of acts of heroism. That was something Kiran could never stop doing, being the hero.She had phoned all the hospitals
Last Updated : 2025-02-27Fire Part One Hundred and Thirty-Six
Four months earlier…“He’s opening his eyes, Dr Schwartz,” the nurse said as Malcolm Schwartz stood in front of the counter at the nurse’s station filling in paperwork. He’d been waiting for this day anxiously. They were all curious about the young man in that hospital bed.He looked up and walked into the hospital room where for the past two months ‘John Doe’ had been in a coma. He felt relief that his patient had finally woken up since there was no medical reason for him to be in a coma.“Good morning, I’m Dr Schwartz.” He kept his voice low and he was sure the relief showed in his eyes.Dr Schwarts looked at the man lying in the bed as the nurses checked the monitors showing his blood pressure and heart rate. Everything was normal as it had been for the past two months, ever since a taxi driver had brought him in.“Where am I?” I asked him, looking around.“You’re at the Fresno Community Hospital. Can you tell me your name?” Dr Schwartz asked me.“It’s… it’s… I don’t know,” I said
Last Updated : 2025-02-28
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I sat down behind the desk and moved the mouse. The laptop came to life and I looked at it. I read the letter that I had written to Adara ten months earlier. Wow, I really did love her. I looked down and a huge wooden chest stood behind the desk. I wondered what was inside. I opened a drawer and there were cables and stationery, normal stuff you would find in a drawer.I tried the next one and it was locked. I looked at it and then felt beneath the desk where I sat, a few inches forward and took the key down from the magnet that was fastened there. How did I know that? I just knew there would be a key for this drawer. I unlocked it and pulled it open.It was full of A5 diaries, in numerical order, starting from 1994. I opened the first one and it was filled with my handwriting. I began to read it. It began when I was fifteen years old and it described my first teenage relationship. I skipped forward and read the last few pages. It was filled with wolf laws, training with Malachi, stor
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-Eight
Malachi and I finished our coffee and sat staring at each other. It felt oddly comfortable to be sitting there with him. I could tell that he loved me fiercely because his eyes and his aura, that I could see, were soft.“Let’s take a walk,” Malachi said.I went upstairs and got dressed in my own jeans, boots, and a t-shirt. I grabbed a sweater that Adara had given me the night before and pulled it over my head. I went back downstairs and Malachi stood in front of the open sliding doors.I followed him outside and across the garden right into the forest. I looked around me, this was beautiful. We walked in silence until Malachi stopped in a clearing, it felt kind of magical and I felt silly for thinking that.“This is sacred ground to us. Ten months ago you fought against twelve witches right here,” Malachi walked over to another spot and knelt down on one knee. “Right here, this is where you disappeared right in front of our eyes. Your cloak transported you somewhere and we had no ide
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-Seven
Adara walked back down the hallway and into the living room. There were pictures all over the walls and I stood in front of it and looked at them. I was in many of the photos and it was hard to look at them and not know when they were taken. I smiled a lot and I guessed I was happy with my previous life.“Cute kids,” I said as I looked at a canvas array of two babies.“They’re also yours,” Adara said to me and I looked at her in shock.“I have kids?” I asked her, stunned. She smiled as she walked forward.“This one is Kai, you chose his name, and this one here is Saga,” she said and I could see that she loved them very much.“How old are they?” I asked her.“One and a half, they could only crawl the last time you saw them,” she said and I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t remember them.“I think I should show you to a room and then tomorrow when Malachi comes back we can talk, I’m sure you have a hundred questions,” she said and I smiled at her. I followed her upstairs, my wife, mothe
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-Six
The jet landed and I opened my eyes. I felt better although I could still sleep. Everything felt like an awkward dream where you didn’t know you were dreaming. I kicked Josh’s leg and he woke up.“What’s up man, did we crash?” he asked and I laughed at him.“I think we’re in Seward,” I said to him as I looked out of the window.Malachi, Jessica and James had walked down the stairs and two cars stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Malachi’s Zeta, Quentin, was loading our duffel bags into the first SUV.“These guys travel in style,” Josh said and grinned at me. We walked off the jet and got into one of the SUV’s Malachi showed us. We were driving with James. Malachi and Jessica followed behind us.“So this is Seward, where I live?” I asked James and he nodded.“All our lives we’ve lived here, went to Seward High, graduated, then we went to college,” James said and Josh laughed.“Should have known your ass was educated,” he said as he looked out of the window. Malachi’s car overtoo
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-Five
I looked intently at Josh. Everything he said was true and a sudden idea occurred to me. I wasn’t going anywhere with these people alone.“Come with me then, help me figure this out. You have no pack, but you have me and I have a pack, a family, a home. I would never just leave you,” I said to him and he nodded at me.“Fine, let’s go ice-skating or shit,” he said and smiled at me.“I’ll go with you on one condition,” I said to Malachi.“Yes?” Malachi didn’t seem worried about my condition, he only wanted me to leave with them.“Josh goes with me, I’m not leaving him behind,” I said to Malachi and he nodded.“Of course. Gather whatever you want to take. Our flight back leaves in three hours,” he said.He walked towards the door holding Jessica’s hand. James turned to look at me and I could tell that he was sad. I could feel it deep within myself.“Do you feel that?” he asked me and I looked at him.“I feel your sadness,” I answered him.“That’s one of the things you can do. You can fee
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-Four
“We don’t care what you selling, bargaining or want. We ain’t interested,” Josh said as he closed the door behind me and stood next to me. I had an uneasy feeling about this and I was glad that I wasn’t alone.The older man looked at me with curiosity and I wondered what he wanted from me. His gray eyes seemed to search for something in mine and I couldn’t look away. It was almost like he was trying to read my mind.“He doesn’t recognize us,” the older man said to the younger man and woman with him.“Am I supposed to know who you are?” I asked the older man.The younger man stepped forward. His eyes held sadness and he looked intently into mine. He put both of his hands on my shoulders and squeezed lightly. It all felt too surreal like I was supposed to know him.“My name’s James,” he said and then he hugged me tightly. I just stood there with my arms by my sides not knowing what to do. He let go of me after a while, sighed deeply and then looked away.“I think you might have me confu
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-Three
It felt like I got tunnel vision until I could only see him, moving in the ring. I was focused and I saw the plan forming in his mind. He was going to move me until he had me on the ropes and then deliver his killer punch. I saw it happen in slow motion.“He’s going to come from the right and then the left, the punch to your jaw will be a right hook,” the voice said clearly in my head and I dropped my hands as I stood up right in shock. I couldn’t move my head as George’s fist hit me so hard I felt my jaw dislocate.I was on my back, coughing up blood and the crowd was going wild. Josh was right there by my head. “What the hell happened, why’d you drop your arms man?” He was yelling at me and the announcer bent over me.“Ten count then the fight continues, unless you tap out.” I shook my head and started to get up.I pushed my jawbone back into place and I felt it start to heal. I looked up at the Council members sitting there and somehow I knew that the older man was speaking to me i
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-Two
I stood in that back room and wondered about the Council member’s presence. Everything that Josh had told me about them was terrible. They were rich old men using the system to their advantage, getting rid of packs that irritated them and executing people as they saw fit.He wanted nothing to do with them and neither did I. I had enough things on my plate to worry about their presence. Josh and I weren’t interested in becoming Council Zetas, no matter what they offered us.I shook my head and I took my shirt and shoes off. I had to get my head in the game. Tonight’s fight would probably be the hardest one by the look of my opponent. He was ready for me. I closed my eyes and centered my energy.I saw the fight play off in my head, in slow motion, punch for punch, kick for kick. This guy was a street brawler, I decided. His punches would hurt and he could get a knockout on the jawline.He wasn’t fast but he was strong and usually won his fight after a few punches, where he would then sn
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty-One
Malachi walked down the hall, hoping that John wasn’t sending him another tribunal email. He was tired and he wanted to spend time at home. The kids were changing so much and every time he came back from a trip it felt like he’d missed something new they were doing.Adara was doing her best and she really was a terrific mother. Those two kids wanted for nothing. She read bedtime stories to them, told them stories about Kiran, they were healthy and well looked after.He could hear them all laughing in the sitting room as he closed the door to his study and switched the laptop on. He waited for it to switch on and then accessed his Council encrypted email and typed in his password.The email was from John with a video attached.“Malachi,I hope you’re sitting down while reading this. I received this video from a California Alpha, he always sends me these when new talent steps onto the scene for consideration as Council Zetas.Good luck,John”.Malachi frowned at first. They didn’t need
