The thought quickly died as several of them appeared in my line of vision. Their unscarred faces were twisted, their mouths open, as if screaming, though no sound came out. I swore and scrambled upright, backing away fast and calling to the fire within. I was halfway through the change when they hit me and sent me flying. I crashed to the ground with a grunt-a sound I repeated as the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds flung themselves on top of me and began tearing at whatever remaining bit of flesh they could find with wickedly sharp nails and teeth. A scream tore up my throat, but it was lost to the roar of flames as I became full spirit. The red cloaks burned, but they didn't seem to care, tearing and biting at flesh that no longer existed.

And they sure as h.e.l.l weren't burning fast enough for my liking.

My flames became incandescent. The red cloaks screamed then, but the sound was quickly cut off as their flesh cindered and their bones became little more than ash, which the force of my fires blew away. I flowed upright and arrowed toward Jackson. The red cloak he held was little more than a fleshy torch, but again the creature didn't seem to care. Two others tore at Jackson's legs, taking little notice of his efforts to kick them away or the flames that were searing their flesh. I flicked a ribbon of fire around their necks, drew the noose tight, then ripped them away from him, rising upward and dragging them with me, high into the treetops. They kicked and screamed and fought my rope, but there was only one way they were going to get free-and that was when my noose burned right through their flesh and separated their heads from their bodies. I lashed my fiery rope to the trunk of the tree, then swirled back down and grabbed the other red cloak. Him I simply flung at the nearest tree, then tied securely with another ribbon of fire.

More red cloaks came at us. I twisted away from them, the movement so swift my flames trailed behind me like a comet's tail. I threw up a wall of fire between them and Jackson, then reached for the earth mother. Felt the trembling in the ground underneath me as she responded. Then her energy exploded through me, a wild force that this time would not be contained or in any way directed. But it wrapped almost lovingly around the five red cloaks and cindered them in an instant.

Then it retreated, leaving me shaken and back in flesh form. I scrubbed a trembling hand across my face, smearing wetness, then forced myself upright and staggered across to Jackson.

His arm was torn and bleeding, and there were chunks of flesh missing from his legs. But he forced himself upright with his one good arm and said, "Let's get the f.u.c.k out of here."

"No," I bit back, my gaze skating through the shadows. The red cloaks hadn't finished with us yet; of that I was sure. "Not before you take my fire into yourself and burn the virus from your body."

"Em, now is not-"

"You were bitten by red cloaks," I reminded him fiercely. "And no one knows if the Fae are affected by it. The only thing I'm sure of is that I'm not. As a fire Fae, you should be capable of taking in the fires of a phoenix without being cindered."

"I guess death by flame is a h.e.l.l of a lot better than a descent into madness." He hesitated. "Have you ever tried anything like this before? Heard of anything like this being tried before?"

"No and no."

"That's what I was afraid of." He took a deep breath and released it. "You need to straighten my leg before we can attempt this. If I can chase the virus from my system through your flames, then I sure as h.e.l.l can heal other wounds as well."

I glanced at his leg. It was sitting at an odd angle, with a ragged piece of bone protruding through bloodied flesh. It wasn't going to be easy to straighten it-for him or me.

But then, moving with it in this state couldn't have been pleasant, either.

I turned, but moved too quickly and had to slam a hand down to stop my face from planting itself into the dirt. I waited till the slight bout of dizziness eased, then, a little more cautiously, moved to the other end of Jackson's body.

"You ready?" I said as I gripped his foot.

He nodded, his expression grim. I didn't give him any warning, just simply did it. It ripped a scream from his throat, and the sound echoed through the trees. Somewhere in the distance I thought I heard laughter and wondered if it was the cool-voiced vampire or someone else.

I flamed, felt Jackson latch on to my fires, on to me, drawing all that I was into him, through him. Fire and flesh become one, and then there was no flesh, no him, and no me, just one united being of flame. And while it wasn't in any way s.e.xual, it was nevertheless an incredible sensation.

Then the connection broke. The suddenness of it slammed me backward, and for several seconds it was all I could do to suck in air and remain conscious.

"Em?" Jackson's voice was as weak as I felt. "You okay? I didn't hurt you?"

"No." I felt like h.e.l.l, and there was little more than ash in the storage banks right now, but I was alive. "You?"

"Same." He paused. "The leg and arm are only half-healed."

"You're lucky it did that." I pushed upright. "Phoenixes generally aren't capable of healing their wounds with fire. That's why I still have scars on my back."

"Yeah, but I'm Fae, and we can use our elements to heal."

"I'm not an element. I'm a being."

Behind me, to my left, a leaf snapped. I swung around, sparks halfheartedly dancing across my fingertips. Saw a ghostly, gray-cloaked figure watching me, the cowled hood deep enough to hide his face and yet, oddly, not his eyes. They glowed with an unearthly blue fire and were filled with such hate it shook me to the core.

"You," he said, the words soft, yet carrying easily on the evening air, "will yet be mine."

Then he was gone, leaving me not only shaking, but wondering what the h.e.l.l was going on. Nothing we'd discovered so far was adding up, and the only thing we could really be certain about was that there was something a whole lot bigger than our investigation into the murders of the two scientists going on.

Something-if the stranger's words were anything to go by-that would drag me far deeper into this whole mess.

Red cloaks appeared and charged as one. I raised my hands and backpedaled fast-only to trip over something and fall a.s.s over t.i.t. I landed on my back, had a glimpse of claws thicker than my arm, and quickly glanced up. It wasn't trees that filled my vision; it was fire. Not mine, not Jackson's, but Rory's. I flung out a hand and added what little fire I had left to his. The red cloaks were hit by the joint wall and had little hope. In a very short time, they were ashen blobs on the forest floor-blobs that the wind picked through and scattered.

Silence returned to the forest.

For several minutes, I didn't move. I could no longer hear the crackle of Rory's containment circle, but I had no sense that anyone was near. Perhaps the cool-voiced vampire had indeed kept his word and retreated rather than attacked. But then, if he was working with whoever controlled the red cloaks-and I very much suspected that that person was the gray-cloaked figure I'd seen-he had no real need to attack. Not given that he obviously expected them to take us out.

I pushed to my feet, brushed sweaty strands of hair out of my eyes, and met Jackson's gaze. "You up to getting out of here?"

"Yeah." He raised his good arm, and I hauled him to his feet again. This time the effort left me panting.

"We're a d.a.m.n fine pair, aren't we?" He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and leaned on me heavily.

"Seems we're perfectly matched when it comes to finding trouble," I agreed. My gaze swept the trees around us. That gray-cowled figure was still out there somewhere; his presence was like a canker in the fast-fading light of the sunset.

You will yet be mine, he'd said.

A s.h.i.+ver ran down my spine. I had no idea who he was-or even what he was. I only knew he was someone better avoided.

And why the h.e.l.l would he want me? It wasn't like I had any special talent. Yes, I was a phoenix capable of taking several different forms, but that didn't make me any more special than Jackson-or any other nonhuman, for that matter.

So why me?

I had no idea-but it was very obvious sometime in the near future I was going to find out.

Trepidation trembled through me, but I thrust it aside. One problem at a time, I reminded myself yet again.

And that, right now, was getting the h.e.l.l out of this forest.

CHAPTER 15.

Rory met us at the fence line and, between the two of us, we managed to get Jackson over the fence and into the car without too much further damage to his half-healed arm and leg.

"Where to?" Rory said as he retrieved the keys from under the wheel arch.

"I don't know." I ran a trembling hand through my matted hair. "We need to go somewhere safe and regroup. This isn't over. Not by a long shot."

"No, it's not," Jackson said from inside the car. "But there's little we can do here. You might as well come back to my office, so we can decide where we go from here."

I glanced at Rory, who raised his eyebrow and shrugged. "Right now, it's as good an idea as any. But you and I will need to go home sometime this evening."

Yes, we would, if only so he could recharge. Though I'd called on the earth mother's power myself, it had been only briefly. Rory had drawn on her energy for a far longer period and, though he hadn't said anything, his skin was pale and the heat emanating from his body was muted.

We climbed into the car and headed back to the city. I flipped the vanity mirror down and kept an eye on the road behind us. But darkness was rapidly closing in, and it was d.a.m.n difficult to distinguish cars that might be following us from cars that were simply going in the same direction. In the end, I gave up.

Thankfully, we arrived at Jackson's without further incident. Together we helped him inside. Though he didn't say anything, he was trembling by the time we deposited him on the sofa at the far end of his office.

"Right," I said, rolling up my sleeves. "We all need to eat before anything else happens. Rory, you arrange drinks for everyone, and I'll rustle up some grub."

I ran up the stairs and raided Jackson's fridge, ending up with a big platter of chicken, a variety of cheeses, and some bread that I'd roughly cut into thick slabs. I carried it down and placed it on the coffee table, grabbing a chicken leg and chunk of bread for myself before retreating to one of the chairs.

"So," I said, once everyone else had helped themselves. "What the f.u.c.k do we do now?"

"That," Jackson said heavily, "depends very much on what the sindicati decide to do next. They have the laptop, so maybe they'll walk away and leave us be."

"They may have the laptop," Rory said, "but they won't have the files they wanted. A Trojan will destroy all of them the next time it's booted up."

"Good move." Jackson finished his wine in several large gulps, then held it out for Rory to refill. "But it's one that will surely p.i.s.s them off."

"Better to p.i.s.s them off than give them Mark's notes." I grimaced. "But it may not mean anything, given Baltimore has walked out of the morgue and disappeared into Brooklyn."

Jackson raised his eyebrows. "He was infected?"

"Apparently. G.o.d knows when it happened."

"d.a.m.n it. That means the red cloaks have both of the scientists who were working on the cure for that f.u.c.king virus. That can't be a good thing for the rest of us."

"No," I agreed. "And it's made worse by the fact that-if tonight is any indication-the sindicati are now working with the cloaks."

"Which doesn't make sense. I mean, from what your ex said, vampires can be infected as easily as humans. Why the h.e.l.l would they work with the people who cannot only give them the disease, but who now control the only two men capable of finding its cure? Wouldn't it make more sense to try to grab the research and scientists for themselves?"

"The sindicati are nothing if not opportunists," Rory said, voice grim. "They probably see more benefit in working with the cloaks to gain a cure than working against them and risk infection and possible subjugation."

"If that's the case," I said, "why the farce tonight? The cloaks have the scientists, so if they are working together, they don't need the notes. And if they simply wanted to kill us, they could have done so when they had us all tied up in that d.a.m.n room."

"The sindicati may be opportunists," Rory said, "but they are also backstabbing b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. If the cloaks trust them to uphold whatever deal they've made, then they're fools."

And whatever-whoever-that gray-cowled figure was, I doubted he was a fool.

Perhaps our next move should be trying to uncover what, exactly, those plans were-although that wasn't likely to be an easy task. If Sam and PIT were having trouble locating the people behind the cloaks, what the h.e.l.l made me think we'd have any greater luck?

We wouldn't-except for the fact that the gray-cowled figure had revealed himself in the forest. I had a feeling that was something he'd not done before.

Of course, just because Sam had said they had no idea who was behind the cloaks didn't mean he'd actually been telling the truth.

"Sam did mention that the sindicati were having factional problems," I said. "It's possible that has something to do with the vamps working with the cloaks."

"Only if one of the factions has decided it needs help to oust the other, and that would be very rare," Jackson noted. "They tend to just slaughter one another and then start anew with whoever is left."

"But what would the red cloaks get out of the deal?" Rory asked. "As far as I can see, there's nothing the sindicati can give them that they can't just take by infecting them."

Jackson shrugged. "It could be something as simple as not having the manpower they need at the present time, thanks to the fact that the virus makes most of those infected mad."

"It only makes them mad if they're infected by one of the rotten ones." I tossed my chicken bone onto the platter and grabbed a bit of cheese to munch on. "Otherwise, it just wipes out free will and replaces it with a hive mentality."

"Whatever the h.e.l.l is really going on," Jackson commented, "the fact remains that neither party is going to be happy with us after this evening's events. There will be reprisals. Everything else might be up for conjecture, but that is fact."

"Actually, they'll be coming after you two." Rory waved a bit of bread at the two of us. "Me, they don't know about as yet-and it might be wise to keep it that way."

"An emergency backup," Jackson commented. "I like it."

My gaze met Rory's, and he smiled. We both knew it was a bit more than that-him stepping back meant life could go on for the both of us if the very worst happened. I might have been reborn more times than I could now remember, but I wasn't tired of life just yet-even if I was getting more than a little p.i.s.sed off with our whole "love will go sour" lot in life.

"What it does mean," Rory said, "is that you two may need to watch each other's backs."

"And I," Jackson said, a gleam in his eyes, "have the perfect way to do that."

"Oh, yeah?" I said, not trusting that gleam for an instant. "And that would be what, exactly?"

"This." He airily indicated the room around us.

I grinned. "I'm not moving in with you. As I explained, Rory and I need-"

"No, no, that's not what I meant." He paused. "Well, I wouldn't mind if you occasionally stayed here. No sane man is ever likely to reject the possibility of great s.e.x-and certainly no Fae ever did."

"Then what did you mean?"

"I meant h.e.l.lfire Investigations." His expression was serious, the gleam giving way to determination. "As I mentioned earlier, I've been looking for someone to work with for a while, and if the last few days have proven anything, it's that we work well together."

I raised an eyebrow. "Didn't anyone tell you it's a bad idea to sleep with employees?"

"I don't sleep with employees. Well, I don't anymore-not after I ended up in court fighting hara.s.sment charges." He grinned. "Partners, however, are an entirely different matter."

"Only a Fae would think there's a difference," Rory commented, voice dry.

"Well, there is. We'd be on equal standing, rather than in a superior-subordinate situation."

I stared at him for a moment, then said, "Are you serious?"

"Totally." He leaned forward and caught my hand. "I've got so much work, I'm having to turn potential clients away. I really do need help."

I had to admit, the thought of becoming an investigator certainly had my blood racing. As Rory had noted before this whole mess had begun, I wasn't usually one to put up with a staid life for very long. But this would be two lifetimes in a row I'd done something dangerous-and joining forces with Jackson against those who would hunt us down was certainly that-and it was supposedly Rory's turn to live on the edge this time around.

Not that he'd actually taken up the option beyond becoming a fireman.