“Your own fire shouldn’t burn you,” he said.
She lifted an eyebrow and stepped back from him, trying to concentrate. Nothing.
He smiled. “Pretend you’re a conduit for energy, and you can create light. Imagine you can actually see and control the oxygen molecules around you. Feel them touching you, and then grasp them. Change them from oxygen into fire. Then let your skin expand.”
That didn’t make sense. But she took a deep breath, imagined energy, and watched fire dance along her arms to whiff out. She laughed. “Awesome.”
He nodded. “Want to learn how to make fire balls?”
Oh, hell yeah.
Hours after learning to create fire and then taking a very satisfying nap, Lex handed over the extra-large bag of M&M’s to Bernie, allowing the chocolate to explode on her tongue. “We haven’t done stakeouts two nights in a row in way too long.”
Bernie snorted and shoveled in candy, his gaze out the front of his Buick. “Stakeouts suck. You’re getting maudlin.” He shifted his bulk on the ripped seat and handed back the candy.
“Yeah.” She watched a twenty-something in a pink minidress stumble toward the front door of Slam, an old bar east of Seattle. “I am gonna miss you, Bernie.” Truer words she’d never spoken. They’d been partners for five years, had watched each other’s backs, and had shared dinners together.
“Me too, kid.” Bernie glanced at her, his gaze concerned. “Who do you think will be your new partner?”
“Dunno.” Lex sighed as another young gal, a blonde, tripped through the door. “That chick is derunk.”
Bernie sighed. “She’s probably the age of Janice, my youngest.” He and his wife, Liz, had been married for forty years and had raised four kids. All girls. The youngest was finishing up college.
Lex nodded. “We can still do football Sundays together, right?”
“Of course.” Bernie lightly punched her in the arm.
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes, and she quickly blinked them away. Geez. She was a badass cop, not some debutante. “Cool.”
Bernie leaned forward as Spike Evertol sauntered toward the doorway. “There he is.”
Lex nodded. “Yep.” She waited until Bernie had passed the information on to Masterson and Bundt, who were in place inside the bar. “Bundt said Spike will bring out his connection.”
“Yeah. Hopefully we can take them quietly.” Bernie tossed his jacket in the back of the car to leave his weapon free. He cleared his throat. “So, you end things with that Fire member?”
Lex stiffened. She had one partner, and she owed him the truth. “No.”
“Damn it, Lex.” Bernie shook his head. “You’re smarter than that.”
“No, I’m not.”
Bernie chuckled. “Yes, you are. Give me a break. What the hell you doin’?”
Lex turned toward her partner just as the skies opened up and pummeled rain onto Seattle. “Kellach isn’t a member of Fire. He’s undercover for a military group from Ireland, and he’s working to take Apollo off the streets.”
Bernie’s bushy eyebrows rose and he pivoted to face her fully. “You’re fuckin’ kiddin’ me. You believe that shit?”
“Yes.” God, if she told him all of it, he’d have her committed to the loony bin. “I believe him, Bern.”
Bernie flicked on the windshield wipers. “Why the hell would some Irish military group give a shit about the streets of Seattle?”
“They think the drug is being tested here before hitting the streets of Dublin.” Okay. That sounded lame. “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but you have to trust me. Please.”
He studied her, and the tick, tick, tick of the windshield wipers filled the silence. “Lex, I do trust you. But the only reason a guy from Ireland joins a Seattle motorcycle club that is known to distribute drugs is because he either wants drugs or guns or both. Your theory about Dunne supplying Fire with drugs and Fire supplying Dunne with guns for the IRA is the best one we’ve had yet.”
“I know, but I was wrong.” And my lover is a witch who has mated me, and someday I’ll be immortal. “Sometimes life doesn’t make sense.” She shook her head, feeling more alone than ever. How could she trust a guy she’d just met? Men left, and he had the power to leave for eternity. She hunched into her seat.
“Don’t be mad.” Bernie sighed. “I just don’t want to see you screw up a great career.”
Forget her career. Right now she was more worried about her sanity. “Do you think there are things in this world we don’t see? I mean, like magic or destiny?”
Bernie coughed, and his eyes widened. “No. Do you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Jesus, Lex. Don’t tell me you’re thinking this guy is fated for you or some nonsense like that. You’re as bad as my Linda.” Bernie shook his head.
Linda was Bernie’s second daughter, and she’d earned a college degree in Urban Legends, much to Bernie’s dismay. She currently worked as a waitress in a yogurt shop and was loving it.