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Part Seventy-Four
Terakhir Diperbarui:
2024-12-25 12:04:38
Bab terkait
Fire Part Seventy-Five
At 6 p.m., Malachi drove home and sighed when he found the side door unlocked. She never locked the doors, no matter how many times he told her to. He stopped in the kitchen and looked at the empty sink and frowned.He hadn’t washed their breakfast dishes that morning and he headed up the stairs towards their bedroom where he found Jessica in front of her vanity where she applied a coat of mascara to her eyelashes.“What’s going on with you?” Jessica looked at him in the mirror. “You did the dishes.”Jessica sighed and turned on the vanity chair to look at him. Her mind was closed off once again as Malachi tried to search it. “I don’t see why you want to do the whole traditional wedding thing.”“You should have the big, fancy, white wedding.” Malachi sat down on the edge of the bed facing her and searched her eyes instead.“Who says I haven’t had the big, fancy, white wedding?”Malachi laughed. “You haven’t. Are you having second thoughts? Is this moving too fast for you?” Doubt had s
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2024-12-26Fire Part Seventy-Six
Malachi let go of the man, took Jessica’s hand and walked back to the car. He rounded the front of his car once Jessica was safely inside and climbed inside. He started driving away as the man started shouting something and Jessica lowered her window.“You’ll be back, begging me to–”“Your mother should’ve swallowed you!” Jessica shouted back and closed her window. Malachi started to laugh as he glanced at her. She didn’t even seem fazed.“Your mother should’ve swallowed you? Where do you come up with this stuff?” Malachi asked her and she started to laugh as well.“My mind’s just on a different level.”They drove home in silence and Malachi turned to look at her as they sat in the dark garage. “Are you really ready to settle down with a boring old man like me?” Jessica sighed as she looked at him. “You might be missing out on that guy back there.”Jessica laughed loudly. “Dude, like seriously, I can’t wait for the pensioner discount we’ll get in two years.” Malachi burst out laughing
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2024-12-27Fire Part Seventy-Seven
Time passed slowly and Adara hardly spoke to me anymore. We skirted around each other in the house and around the children's schedules. It had been three weeks since that family meeting and I hated the silence in the house. I didn’t blame her though, the chaos around me was of my own doing.I kept to myself and I didn’t speak to James or Malachi a lot. It killed me, but it was safer. I had never before felt so alone and even Death was keeping his distance. I wallowed in my own self-pity and I took it because I deserved it.During the fourth week, my office door at the hotel was flung open and James stormed inside. He glared at me as he sat down in the chair in front of my desk. I had wondered when Adara would tell Shoran everything.“Explain yourself,” James said with a heated tone and I looked at him in surprise.“Excuse me?” I almost chuckled with the force of his aura that he tried to push over me.“Divorce? What’s wrong with you?” James asked.“Why are you angry? I’m not divorcing
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2024-12-28Fire Part Seventy-Eight
Malachi’s gaze didn’t shift away from me and I could feel his emotions so intensely. I didn’t even need to focus on it anymore, it came so naturally that it should’ve scared me. My powers were growing but I couldn’t even find the joy in it, not with my life falling apart.“Jessica and I sorted it out, I’m sure you can, too. Don’t always just listen with your head, sometimes your heart can be right too,” he said and stood up.“I know, Dad,” I said to him.“You should get a sitter for the wedding, we’re having an open bar,” Malachi said and walked out, closing the door behind him softly. The silence felt almost unbearable and I couldn’t tell him any of it.My phone pinged and I picked it up. I was still lost in thought about everything he’d said. Adara and I weren’t even talking so I had no idea how we’d get through a whole wedding being close together. I opened her text and looked at it.Adara – Could we discuss hiring a nanny for the kids?Kiran – Why?Adara – I need to re-open my sho
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2024-12-29Fire Part Seventy-Nine
I sat in the kitchen for hours, playing our conversation over and over in my head. She was going through something and for the first time, she didn’t want to share her concerns with me. It was my own fault though and I wanted to be mad at her. I wanted to share her concerns but she was right, it wasn’t my business anymore, except that it was, it always would be.I loved her more than I loved myself, everything about her that pissed me off now were things I loved about her. Frustration was getting the better of me because patience was not a virtue I had. I wanted Vincent dead but he was stubbornly staying away.Upstairs, I stopped in front of the nursery and checked on Kai and Saga. They always seemed so at peace when they were asleep, that also calmed me. I breathed in their baby scent and headed to my own bedroom to sleep.I woke up with a start, my heart beating wildly and I tasted bile in my mouth. I ran to the bathroom and threw up as everything came up. The last time this had hap
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2024-12-30Fire Part Eighty
I could feel her withdrawing. Her aura was stronger but we’d still lost a child the previous night. It didn’t matter how far along she’d been, she’d still been pregnant and I’d still been blind to it. I should’ve noticed sooner that she wasn’t okay and done something about it.“Adara,” I said but she kept walking out of the room.I had done it, I had broken her. She had said that last part with no emotion. She had tried and I had kicked her down every time. She was finally defeated and had given in. I didn’t want her to feel like this, I didn’t want to feel like this.I went downstairs where she was busy getting bottles ready for the twins, and making coffee. I went to stand behind her and she moved away from me. I pulled her back towards me and I hugged her. She started crying again. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for hurting you,” I said as her shoulders shook against me.“Then why are you? You wouldn’t have done what you did last night if you felt nothing,” she said as she looked at me. I l
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2024-12-31Fire Part Eighty-One
Two weeks went by and Adara contacted references on the applicants’ resumes and made notes as she spoke to former employers. She threw out more than she kept and we were left with three. She’d done it all on her own, never once asking for my help or opinion.“Do you want to be here when I interview the nannies?” Adara asked me one morning as I came downstairs, ready to go to work. It was the first time in nine days that she’d spoken to me. I had just gotten used to her silence.“I said you could choose the nanny,” I said to her as I took my keys from the bowl. I could taste her disappointment in the air around me and I turned to look at her.“Oh wow, if that’s how interested you are…” she said and broke off mid-sentence.“Adara, do you want me to be here or not?” I asked her. I wanted her to need me, just once.“Whatever, the interviews start at three, be here, don’t be here, you’ll do whatever you want anyway,” she said and walked away from me. She didn’t seem to miss me at all and I
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-01-01Fire Part Eighty-Two
James didn’t blink and I sighed. I took a deep breath because he was going to have some choice words for me after I told him everything.“Okay. It’s just a matter of time before Vincent makes his move. He messed up everything I had built up with her in one message, then had me arrested, then that bogus tribunal where we all almost died. If she’s not in my life, he won’t focus on her and he won’t hurt her,” I said to James.“I get where you’re coming from, but did you tell her that so that she at least knows it’s not her that you hate, because she thinks you despise her.”I shook my head. “I don’t despise her.”“She tried to give it time, kept doing everything for you, being there, hoping you’d see the light and forgive her,” James said.“She’s stopped doing anything for me,” I said and he smiled again.“Yeah, that one’s on me. I told her to stop being nice to you because you’re being an asshole and now you tell me that you’re not even mad at her? How are you going to make it right wit
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-01-02
Bab terbaru
Fire Part One Hundred and Fifty
Malachi sat in his new study, everything still felt new and he was getting used to the layout of the new house. They had invited Adara over for dinner with the twins and James and Shoran had been invited as well.The weeks had passed agonizingly slow, and Kiran had been missing for ten months. It was hell and Malachi still felt the pain as fresh and clear as he had that first day. He still couldn’t get himself to accept that he was dead. He didn’t have a body to mourn over, hadn’t set his son’s spirit free and without that he’d never give up that last sliver of hope he still clung to.James had also come over a few times and they had trained in the new gym room built to one side of the house. He tried to keep the bonds alive between everyone but as time dragged on he was afraid that the fragile bond might break.Without Kiran, things seemed meaningless to them. It had been months with no word, no sign except the few times his imagination had run away with him and he had seen him in ev
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Nine
It just felt natural when I got into that ring, the next move and the next one. I just knew how to counter and block and what to do to win. Losing was never an option with me and I wondered if I had always been that way.I loved the adrenaline rush as my opponent stepped in and I watched him. In my head I would calculate what type of fighter he was, size him up and know exactly what to do. Josh had laughed the first time I had switched sides and led with the left instead of my dominant right.Tonight, though, I would be fighting some guy from Europe, their best against our best. Sort of like a semifinal round if this was a competition, which I guess it was sort of, we had worked our way through California and packs from other states had started attending and I had beaten them all. Josh called me a celebrity in the underworld of fight nights.We had heard rumors of this guy I was fighting tonight, he only did death fights in Europe and this would be his first tap out fight. I had never
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Eight
I laid down on the bed as Phil, the tattoo artist, started working on my new ink. Josh was on another bed adding to the sleeve on his arm. My tattoo was half of a wolf’s face in a Samoan design with the caption ‘Fight or Die’ underneath it.Josh had phoned some old friends he still had and had arranged for an introduction to the man that ran the fight nights in California. We went to the first one and just watched. The place was packed and I felt sure that I could have taken that night’s fighters easily.We had been participating in fight nights all over California and Marcus wasn’t very happy with us when we both handed in our resignations on the same night. He yelled and then offered us more money.We had been fighting two fights a night three times a week and we stayed in cheap motels and traveled to the next city or town as the fights moved locations. We had both started out with twenty grand, worked out our expenses for meals and accommodation and in two months’ time we had alrea
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Seven
Jessica shifted on the bed and cocked her head to the side. It wasn’t that Jessica didn’t miss Kiran, she dealt with sadness differently. She poured all of her emotions into her work and kept the sadness locked away. Malachi worried about that as well.“James isn’t really helping Adara with the healing process. After he leaves, then she’s all excited because Kiran’s out there,” she said.They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes and Malachi stretched out onto their new bed. It would be Malachi’s first night in the house even though Jessica had been staying there for a week already, there were still unopened boxes everywhere.“Where’s the cat?” he asked her suddenly and she started to laugh.“I decided to give you one more chance,” she said and he laughed. She crawled towards him on the bed and sat astride him as she looked at him.“I like this,” Malachi murmured.“But now that you’re back, you’re going to have to think of a way to make it up to me, you know you can’t leave me
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Six
Malachi hadn’t slept since he left Fresno. He couldn’t get the thought of Kiran being there out of his head. The resemblance was uncanny and it had slammed into him as he watched him on the street, jogging.He really was losing his mind. He knew he was seeing Kiran everywhere because he wanted to see him. He wanted him to still be alive and be somewhere, but the truth was, Kiran was dead, he was just slow in accepting it.At the airport, Malachi pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and dialed Jessica’s number. He was already walking towards the exit with Quentin next to him. “You’ve reached Jessica’s phone. She has no surname at the moment but she does have a cat.”Malachi chuckled. She never failed to make him smile, even in dire times. “I’m leaving the airport now. I’ll be home in about two hours.”“I’m sorry, you must have the wrong number,” Jessica said.“Order some food, I’m starving,” Malachi said instead.“Are you really at the airport?” she asked him.“Would I lie to you?”
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Five
Allen White was nervous, rubbing his palms over his thighs as he kept watching me. I didn’t look as dangerous as Josh did but I was dangerous as well. I could handle myself well and I wasn’t afraid of anything.“I have men outside the door … with guns,” Allen said to me and I smiled as I sat down opposite him.“I hope you’re covering their medical bills, because my friend is behind them,” I said to him and he looked around the room for Josh and noticed the open window. Josh opened the door and smiled at me.“Okay, okay, I’ll open it, but I want you to really consider coming to work for me,” Allen said as he walked to the painting and took it down from the wall. He placed it carefully to lean against the chair and I wondered why he was so protective over a fake painting.He took the money out and Josh was standing right next to him. There was more money in the safe and Josh took that out as well. He started thumbing through the stacks of money and grinned. I could see in Josh’s eyes wh
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Four
Josh and I got his car from the parking lot across from our apartment. We rarely used it because we were so close to everything. We walked everywhere we needed to go and only used the car when we had to. He drove to the address that Marcus had given us and we looked at the houses that lined the street heading towards the Country Club.It reeked of old money, new money and it made my skin crawl. Everything was in your face wealthy like it was a competition. I disliked it intensely, maybe because we were actually poor and we lived on a budget. We couldn’t just spend money like we wanted to.“Man, check out these houses, some rich ass people that live here,” Josh said and I laughed at him.“Do you really want to live in a house like that?” My voice was earnest and I was really interested in his answer.“Wouldn’t you, man? Just imagine, lying there next to the pool, this cute little thing just handing you drinks,” Josh said and I laughed at him.“Maybe for a week, then you’ll get antsy an
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Three
The room was quiet as Bryan held his hand up. Nobody said a word and Malachi sifted through random thoughts. He would have preferred to do this with the Alpha and Beta alone in the room but the members needed to verify the truth for themselves.“Are you confirming that you never broke into more than a hundred homes, tied up the human residents and emptied the contents of their safes?” Malachi asked the Alpha.“That’s correct, Alpha,” Warren Brown said to Malachi.“And you don’t have a certain painting in your possession?” Malachi asked him and he looked around unsure of what to say.Warren Brown swallowed nervously, realization flickering in his eyes as he watched Malachi intently. The truth would come out, it always did.“The truth will set you free, Warren. The more honest and compliant you are now, the less severe your punishment will be,” John said to him as Malachi walked up to Warren.Quentin was unsure of what to do, protocol didn’t allow for Council members to enter that circl
Fire Part One Hundred and Forty-Two
Malachi sat at the table next to John Whitcombe with Bryan pacing up and down behind them. He was exhausted and Bryan’s pacing was grating on his nerves but he didn’t say anything, wouldn’t say anything either.“There’s still no word about Kiran’s whereabouts?” John asked him. Even John’s eyes portrayed his misery. Kiran’s disappearance had been hard on all of them. John cared about Malachi and he had high expectations of Kiran and accepting that he was dead was just unthinkable.“No, nothing. I’m starting to think that Jessica might be right,” Malachi said looking tired.“What does she think?” John asked him.“That he’s dead,” Malachi said, not looking at him. His voice was sad, almost broken and John couldn’t imagine what he must be going through.John looked over at Bryan and the irritation in his eyes was evident. “Would you stop that? You’re making me nervous.”Bryan stopped pacing and sat down at the table. He had also been trying to track Kiran’s magic over the past six months
