Homecoming (Fire Cursed Book 2)

  Homecoming © April 2019 J.E. Taylor

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Cover Art by julienicholls.com

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  HOMECOMING | Fire Cursed Book 2 | J.E. Taylor

  HOMECOMING

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  About J.E. Taylor

  HOMECOMING

  Fire Cursed Book 2

  J.E. Taylor

  HOMECOMING

  Being supercharged doesn’t mean you can stop the inevitable.

  Faith Kennedy has no control over her own powers, never mind what Tom Ryan bequeathed to her. She must learn to control her natural fire abilities while harnessing all her new supernatural gifts without harming those she cares about most.

  When Faith partners with Kylee Paradox, an ancient bounty hunter, to close rifts she created across the globe, her worst fear comes to fruition. Half a world away, Alex Ryan goes missing.

  Faith must hunt down the devil before he can claim Alex as his own. If she fails, she may have to kill her one true soulmate.

  Chapter 1

  Driving without a license with a dead body in the back seat probably wasn’t my brightest idea. I didn’t give too much thought to my current predicament until the flashing lights and siren filled my rear window.

  I swallowed the last bit of spit, and it felt like I was trying to ingest a handful of spikes. I caught a glimpse of my face in the rearview mirror. There was no wiping the amount of blood smeared on me away. If the officer pulled me over, I would land in jail, and I was still way too close to where Lucifer was to take that chance.

  “You aren’t chasing me,” I whispered, wishing it to be so.

  The police car changed lanes and flew by me.

  I uttered a high-pitched laugh. I wasn’t sure if that had been a result of my words or just dumb luck, but either way, I would take it. I wasn’t going insanely fast, like Tom had driving up to the cabin. But I wasn’t going the speed limit either.

  I wanted home.

  I wanted Alex’s arms.

  I wanted someone to tell me what I did was okay.

  I didn’t know if I would get any of those things.

  My vision blurred.

  I wiped away my tears and focused on the road. Pushing the pedal to the floor was tempting, but that was a surefire way to land in a world of trouble.

  I glanced at the body lying prone on the back seat. Tom Ryan had died to save the world, but it had been all for nothing. Lucifer still got out before I was able to shut down the breach between our world and hell.

  Instead of wallowing in growing despair, I focused on what had happened the moment I ate the last of Tom’s heart. My stomach lurched, and I swallowed back the bile. I had no idea what would happen if I vomited now. I certainly couldn’t do it at eighty miles per hour.

  Tom’s memories swarmed in my head. But it wasn’t just his memories. It was so many others going back thousands of years to a time when archangels walked among us. My hands trembled with the sheer volume in my head. It rivaled the aching power pulsing just underneath my skin.

  I didn’t have the first clue of how to use the arsenal I now had. That was quickly realized when I tried to close Tom’s chest, and nothing happened. But I sure felt every ounce of the power inside me. I thought my fire power was strong. This little infusion of angel magic made all my cells hum.

  I reached the town of York at a little after midnight. My muscles ached with the tension tightening my body. I drove past Tom and Bridget’s house. I couldn’t face either Bridget or his Tom’s daughter, April, right now.

  A lump formed in my throat, and I couldn’t swallow it. By the time I rolled up to the keypad at CJ’s gate, my entire form shook, and tears blurred my vision. I didn’t even have to roll my window down. The gate opened at the same time as the front door, and the blindingly pure light of CJ’s aura shined on the front walkway, making me squint.

  I pulled into the driveway, put the truck in park, and engaged the parking break like Tom had taught me. That small activity brought the sobs back while I climbed out of the car. I made it two steps before I dropped to my knees on the walkway and buried my face in my hands.

  “Where’s Tom?” CJ asked, and his voice carried worry that I couldn’t deal with.

  I pointed at the truck. All I could do was shake my head.

  CJ stumbled to his knees next to me. “He’s dead?”

  His words pierced my heart along with his raw emotions. I felt the loss as if I were CJ, and it was crushing. I glanced up to see a stream of tears rolling down his face as he stared at the truck.

  “We failed,” I squeaked out between sobs. “It was all for nothing.”

  His gaze jumped to mine and widened.

  A blur of motion came towards me, and then arms wrapped around me. It took a second to realize Alex had been the one to hug me, not CJ, but his presence didn’t stop the tears. It didn’t stop the churn of my stomach or the heat building inside me at my failure.

  Alex helped me to my feet and led me towards the front door, leaving his father kneeling on the brick pavers.

  There was no consoling CJ. His emotions flowed over me like a suffocating wave of fire. Even as Alex sat me on the couch and brought a wet towel to wipe my face, I couldn’t climb out from under the weight of CJ’s despair.

  Alex cupped my chin and lifted it so I would meet his gaze. “Are you hurt?” he asked and then glanced down at the soiled cloth in his hand. His worried blue-eyes waited for an answer.

  I shook my head, unable to articulate while I studied Alex’s aura. Light still shined, but it was much duller than CJ’s. My heart constricted in my chest, and the horror of what I’d unleased prickled my skin.

  His brow creased as he lowered in front of me. “Uncle Tom?”

  “He...” My throat tightened, and I couldn’t say the words. How could I tell Alex that I’d ingested his uncle’s heart? That he was dead, and even with Lucifer’s grace riding my blood, we hadn’t won? How could I tell him he was now in real danger of becoming the devil’s vessel?

  He glanced outside. “Where is Uncle Tom?”

  “In the backseat.”

  He stood but I grabbed his hand, shaking my head.

  “Don’t,” I said.

  “I’m okay. And if you are okay, I think I need to help my father.” He gave me a soft smile. “I guess there
are some benefits to being nearly soulless.”

  I nodded. His father’s emotions were still pounding into me like the waves on the rocks outside. But there was very little emanating from Alex. He left me. A few minutes later, he brought his father inside and sat him on the couch.

  “Should I call Aunt Bridget?” Alex asked.

  CJ looked up at his son and then over at me, his face scrunching as a new set of tears tracked down his cheeks. He wiped them away and took a shaky breath. “I’ll call her.” He stood and headed upstairs.

  Alex resumed cleaning the blood off of me. His gentle touch kept drawing new tears.

  Overwhelmed. That was the only thought that surfaced. I was not handling this very well considering I had watched cancer kill my mother.

  But I was not the cause of my mother’s cancer. I was the cause of Tom’s death and probably of all those who surrounded me here. All that I loved would be destroyed because I wasn’t strong enough to keep Lucifer in his rightful cage.

  “Show me,” Alex said softly.

  I shook my head. The time jump was what had caused the breach before. I couldn’t guarantee another one would break open if I did it again, and I did not want to be responsible for hell’s army being released. It was bad enough Lucifer had survived.

  “Were you able to close the breach?” he asked.

  “Yes.” My voice shook as if I had a teeth-clacking shiver. “But he still got loose.”

  Alex searched my gaze and then slowly sat down on the coffee table in front of me. He closed his eyes, and his thoughts swarmed my head.

  I didn’t need to tell him the horrifying truth. He already knew.

  “Well, then,” he said and opened his eyes. “I will need to be extra vigilant.”

  I nodded and a new wave of tears heated my face. “I can’t even protect you,” I whispered.

  “Don’t you have Uncle Tom’s gifts now?”

  “I have no idea,” I said. “I tried to close his chest with whatever this is turning my bones to jelly inside me, but I failed at that, too.” I hung my head.

  “What exactly happened?” CJ asked from the stairwell.

  The room twisted out of focus and I tried to stop the time jump from happening by clamping my eyes shut, but it was out of my control. When I opened my eyes, we were all outside the little cottage.

  I glanced up at Alex as hot panic welled up in my blood. I did not want them to actually see Tom’s death. It had been so brutal, so awful. My stomach did a slow roll, and I swallowed the sour bile that crawled up my throat.

  “WHAT’S THE PLAN?” TOM asked, looking at the ground.

  “I figured if we both blast it, our combined power will close it,” she said.

  I stared at my likeness and shivered. It was strange seeing myself, and now I understood the unease of both Tom and CJ when they’d witnessed my time jumps.

  “I’ve never been able to control my angel fire.” Tom said, and they stepped into the middle of the clearing twenty yards from the breach.

  Her nervous laughter filled the tense air. “I’ve only suppressed mine, so I’m not very versed in control either.”

  “Aren’t we a pair,” he said with a smile. “Here goes nothing.”

  They aimed their palms toward the crackling light. Flames licked her hand, but that was it. A small ray of white light sputtered from his. They both stared at their hands with open mouths and creased brows.

  She pulled my hand out of his grip and nearly torched her face before her fist closed. He closed his hand before the angel fire shot into the stratosphere.

  Their eyes looked like wide anime eyes, and they both turned toward the breach in unison.

  “Let’s try that again,” he said, and the moment their hands opened, white and blue flame shot from their palms.

  Seeing us in action was spectacular and humbling. My chest squeezed because we should have been able to close the breach with our separate powers, but the opposite happened. The hole stretched, and screams of joy filled the air from the other side of the breach. That same sick feeling that had blanketed me at my cabin gripped me again.

  “Jesus Christ!” Tom closed his palm and took a shaky step back. “We weakened it! Fuck!”

  She screamed, and the flare from her palm brightened and only served to increase the gap. Bodies started pushing through the portal. Her face turned red with the effort, and tears tracked down her cheeks.

  The first red-eyed demon smiled as it fell onto the earth, despite the shower of fire Faith aimed at it, but it finally charred under the blast.

  “God damn demons,” Tom muttered.

  The more demons she torched on this side of the portal, the more broke through.

  A voice carried through the breach. “I’m coming for you.”

  Tom’s face went deathly pale. “Give it everything you have.”

  Her lips pressed together, and her eyes narrowed. The fire coming from her palm turned blue with white flares. The hottest color of fire, but blue eyes still peered out through her wall of fire. She screamed, and wind accompanied the fire rippling the demon’s clothing before fire charred it.

  A storm brewed overhead.

  “You know what you have to do,” Tom said, stepping close to her.

  I wanted to stop the time jump. I didn’t want them to see what I had to do to close the damn breach, but I couldn’t pull this back. I screamed at the same time as my image, and Alex wrapped his arms around me from behind. Even his touch didn’t stop the vision.

  “No!” she screamed.

  “You have to,” Tom whispered. “It’s either him or you, and I’m betting on you.”

  The roar of the wind surged around them.

  He tore his shirt open, revealing Raphael’s sigil on his chest, and pointed at the breach. “If Lucifer gets through, I’m dead anyway.”

  “I can’t. You should have killed me that first day.”

  His gaze hardened. “Don’t ever think that. Ever. You understand?”

  She nodded, her chin trembling.

  His gaze flicked to the disturbance between worlds, and then he closed his eyes. Clenching his jaw, his skin broke open like a scalpel running down the length of his chest.

  My image wasn’t the only one who gasped. CJ shared the same horror I had, and his hand covered his mouth.

  Tom’s arms shook as he gripped his shirt. He cried out as bones snapped. His rib cage ripped through his skin, giving her a clear view of his innards.

  “Take the grace,” he said, and his lungs inflated and deflated with his labored breath.

  Fire spit like crackling embers from her ungloved hand. She reached into his chest with her gloved hand and grasped his heart. The beat of the muscle continued, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “Do it,” he commanded.

  She screamed as she yanked his heart from his chest, and the fire flared brighter.

  Lucifer was already halfway through the portal.

  Her fire was the only thing keeping him from reaching this world.

  She closed her eyes and shoved the still-beating muscle into her mouth, then bit off half of it. She gagged, but continued to eat through her sobs until the heat was gone.

  My stomach rolled, and I swallowed the bile lining my throat.

  With blood still dripping down her chin, her form went rigid. Wings of fire formed on her back, burning until blackened. The fire flowing from her hand tripled in strength, turning into white-hot angel fire, annihilating the rift between worlds and anything in its path.

  When the fire faded to only sparks, she dropped to her knees and pressed Tom’s hand to her lips.

  The ghostly figure of Tom materialized next to her. “Just remember to keep your promise.” His voice rang in the clearing.

  “I will remember,” she whispered.

  He smiled and faded into the smoky mist.

  She closed her eyes, and a crease of concentration along with a layer of sweat broke out on her forehead. When she opened her eyes, her lips tu
rned down in disappointment.

  “Damn it,” she whispered and let go of his hand.

  She placed her palms on the skin outside of his shattered ribs, and pushed. They collapsed with a sickening crack.

  She sat back on her heels and wiped her face as she stared at his prone form. With effort, she stood and grabbed his ankles, then dragged him to the truck and opened the back door. The awkward battle of getting him over her shoulders and into the back seat commenced.

  If Tom had just been unconscious, the scene would have proven to be comical, but the fact I was struggling to put his dead body in the car created a solemn atmosphere.

  Her sobs echoed off the car, drifting into the woods. When she finally closed the back door, she fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

  Tom’s ghost knelt next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “I knew this was a one-way ticket,” he said. “They knew it, too.” His image faded before she finally uncovered her face.

  Blood streaked her skin. She climbed to her feet, sniffling as she glanced at the smoldering pile of bodies under where the rift had been.

  Nothing moved at first, and then the pile fell away. One charred body rolled towards her, his head turned deliberately, and blue eyes peered from a burned face.

  Lucifer grinned.

  I BLINKED, AND WE WERE all back in CJ’s family room. Alex’s expression hadn’t changed, but CJ’s was tight, like he was trying to hold whatever he had eaten earlier this evening inside. His cheeks bloomed with patches of red over the green hue that had colored the rest of his face. He walked to the bathroom around the corner and the sound of retching reached us.

  I couldn’t say I blamed him. I wished I could vomit, but I kept my stomach in check. I still didn’t know what throwing up Tom’s heart would do. From what I’d gathered from his memories, he’d had the same struggle and the same conclusion that something bad would happen if he didn’t digest the muscle fully.

  “So, you now have Lucifer’s grace,” Alex said, breaking the silence.

  I nodded. “And I can see auras, and I saw his ghost, so I guess I did get some of Tom’s gifts. I don’t know what is what, but my skin feels like it is going to fly off in a million directions at any moment.”