Urban Fantasy Romance Complete Series

The secret of her power is the source of her ruin...

One night, an unforgivable accident strips me of my family, my home and my identity all at once. In the wake of the destruction, Lee comes forth, who promises me all will be explained once I take my place at the Broken Academy.

Whether he’s a friend or foe, I can’t be sure, but I know one thing:

Revenge requires I control the wildfire inside of me.

To do that, I’ll take Lee’s help and his sweet kisses too.

My dorm supervisor Serge’s darkness and passion could be of use as well.

Never mind Jason, my demonic study buddy who I'm not convinced just wants to be friends.

The line between allies and lovers becomes hazy.

When the time for vengeance comes, will my rage to avenge the pains of the past blind me to the promise of a new life within my grasp?

I’m Cece Ford. Firestarter. Reluctant student of magic. And tonight? A hellstorm is brewing…

“Valencia, please,” I tell our cab driver as Jason closes my door for me. Well, he’s got one thing right already. If there’s not too much traffic, we’ll get there before midnight and he’ll have two points on his scorecard. 

“Ah, a date with destiny?” our driver hums back to me in a thick oriental drawl. He knows as well as I do what lines Valencia Street, practically wall-to-wall. Bars. Tons of them. Frothing fountains of alcohol for the thirsty wayfarer - like a shelf-stocking-dropout-turned-human-candle. Jason plops on the other side of the back seat and slams the door. The car rolls away the next second. 

“A date with Jose, Jack, Morgan and maybe a few others,” I sniffle and tease the driver to take my mind off the fact that it’s all over now. If City College won’t even take me in… I shake my head to rattle the tears back down wherever they welled up from. That part of the night is over. This part is for pouring as much poison my body can handle on top of it all, to douse the fire. Right, alcohol’s going to put it out. 

“Oho! I like this one!” the driver laughs as he swings the turn off our street. I turn to Jason to lift my eyebrows. 

“See? He likes this one. Take notes. How long did that take me? Thirty seconds?” I taunt him. 

“Yeah, well…” Jason leans in to whisper, so our driver won’t hear, “you’ve got the right equipment… Did that shirt come like that, or did you try to rip it off like the hulk?” 

I snort and instinctively bunch up the fabric around my breasts to cover them a little more. But that’s my Mom acting through my arms. That’s not me. I shake off the instinct and give my boobs a little shoulder-shaking rustle. The shirt settles back around the edges of my muscular breasts. The inner lining of my bra is just out of sight. Jason shakes his head and averts his eyes. “Well, let’s see what you’ve got to work with, then.” 

I catch the driver glimpsing at us in the rearview mirror more than once, particularly my cleavage, as I turn Jason towards me. At least I did something right today. I tilt my head and squint at him up and down. His collared shirt and khakis aren’t horrible. He does have the shirt buttoned up too high, and that hair! 

“Hey sis, you forgetting I’m a few cup sizes smaller than you?” Jason asks as I undo the neck button and the one just underneath it. I chuckle at both what he said and the goofy, repeating peach graphic on his shirt. That’s good, plenty of girls like goofy. I find myself being one of them on occasion. 

“Hey bro’, are you forgetting that you’re going out to try and pick up ladies? If you’re going to button all the way to the top, you might as well wear a tie. If you go out to the bar in a tie, you might as well wear a fake wedding ring and stamp the word unstable on your forehead.”

“Are you getting this out of a rulebook somewhere?” Jason laughs, at the same time as our driver. 

“Am I not right?” I ask him through the mirror. The man flushes, realizing I’ve seen him ogle my breasts about ten times already. From the shame in his face, I suspect he’s got a daughter himself. 

“You never go out to drink with a tie on, not alone. In a group, it seems like a business party after a successful deal,” the driver says. 

“Damn, touché,” I commend him as I ruffle Jason’s hair into a formless mop. 

“You two are going to turn me into some sort of lady-killing monster if you don’t slow down,” he warns as he tenses up. To be fair, I am pulling at his knots a little rough. 

“Now…this. You know, Jace, if you’re going to grow it out, you’ve got to do something with it,” I scold him. I lick both my index fingers and proceed to comb the blonde mess into two vaguely styled wings. 

“Why would I waste money on hair products when you’re just going to redo it with spit?” Jason laughs right up until I yank his two handfuls of hair away from one another. I fix a bit of each behind his ears, and presto - one decent-looking grad student is born. 

“Sure, I’ll just bottle you up some of it to go. Make sure not to mention that to a girl before the third date,” I play along, then slap him hard in the chest. “Get your own damn styling gel!” The two of us crack up, along with our driver, for a few more seconds. Then the man announces:

“Valencia Street. Time certainly flies. Will I see you two later?” 

“You might, but I’m not so sure we’ll see you,” I chuckle. Not after I put my lips to Jose, Jack and Morgan, at least. 

“Not if you handle the night right,” the man smiles. Afterward, a silence settles in the car while I test my brother. He fails in his lack of action, and I slap his chest again. 

“You wait that long with a girl and she’s going to think you expect her to pay for the cab. Bad impression, Jace. God, you’re bad at this,” I laugh. “Pay the man.” Jason makes a face more like a cringe than a smile, but he does pay up. We stroll from the car to our first stop on one of the most epic bar crawl strips in the city. 

* * *

Blondie’s Bar 

The adventure begins on the outdoor patio of Blondie’s. The bartender immediately laughs at the sight of my brother, who painted their bathroom floor with vomit on his twenty-first. As soon as he hears it’s mine, he brings me a complimentary fishbowl full of God-knows-what. All I know is it’s the same shade of blue as my eyes, it reeks of alcohol and it’s free. 

“If you came here to learn, you should really have brought a better teacher!” the bartender laughs as we head for the door out to the cool summer evening. 

“Actually, I’m the teacher tonight,” I wink back at him as we pass through the door. The second the cool night air hits my skin, my muscles uncoil. I give my neck a good crack on the way to give my brother a look. “See? Keep it short and simple, then walk away. Make it clever if you can, but don’t try too hard. No one remembers what you say in a rant or ramble. But you leave them with a simple answer like that, with no way to tell exactly what you meant, and it’ll stick out in their minds.” 

“You’re trying to pick up Kevin?” Jason wonders aloud as he sips his rum and coke. We plop down at the first black iron table we come across. 

“No, I’m using Kevin as a demonstration. Notice where we’re sitting,” I instruct. With each sip of my fishbowl, I become a more animated teacher. Every gulp of his own drink makes Jason a more malleable student. “We’re in sight of the bar. My back is to him. He can stare as much as he wants without fear of me looking back. But if I turn my head every once in a while, he can get a glimpse of my profile. I’m letting him stew in what I said to him, what I possibly could have meant.” 

“Devious,” Jason mumbles, though I can see he’s impressed. 

“Effective,” I correct him. “I’ll bet you it’s not fifteen minutes before he comes over here himself to bring me another drink, without me asking. By then, you’ve got to have your own fish on the line. Go!” 

“G-g-go? Right now?” Jason stammers while I rock in my chair, laughing at him. All of the fancy education I wish I had rushes right out of him. 

“Yes, now! You wanted a coach. What kind of coach would I be if I didn’t have you practice what I teach you?” The scrape of Jason’s chair legs, at least, catches the attention of every pretty girl out on the patio. He straightens up, takes a deep breath and walks stiffly to his first target for the night. All I can do not to laugh is put my lips around the straw of my drink, which tastes a whole lot better than my first sip, all of a sudden. 

“I truly hope you enjoy your evening,” Jason tries with one girl, who looks more terrified than charmed. He about-faces and marches back to me for a disapproving head shake. 

I kick back and listen to my brother stumble through pickup after awkward pickup. They get better as he buys each one a drink and takes big pulls from his own. I watch for the click of his realization of how big a financial commitment this is. It does wonders for his delivery. 

“Hey there,” he says to one girl, finally almost smooth. “Noticed your glass was empty, which gave me an excuse to bring you a present.” He puts a glass on the table and slides it towards her. The girl’s friends get back to chatting even as Jason turns around. “Enjoy. Let me know how you like it,” he leaves them with. I give him a prideful smirk well before he gets back to the table. “How’d I do?” 

“Perfect, so long as you turn your head every once in a while so she gets the view of your face, not just your back,” I tell him. I find the words fall out more fluidly than I meant them to. I suspect that’s because this is around the time I slurp the last slushy remnants of my fishbowl up my straw. It’s also the time that Kevin the bartender comes to fulfill my prophecy. 

“Here, a screwdriver. Classic birthday drink. Goes down easy, and here’s some water,” Kevin tells me. He lays the platter of drinks before me with no implication of payment. 

“I’ll be damned,” Jason mutters to himself. I brush fingers with Kevin on my way to the drinks, and he holds on to me just for a second. 

“Thanks,” I murmur in the sexiest whisper I can. 

“You need anything, I’m your man,” Kevin answers. Damn, he’s good. I almost don’t notice his fingers sliding up over my wrist. At this point, Jason’s a little too drunk to catch it either. The only sober one amongst us, however, doesn’t miss a thing. His hand slides right back down mine. He almost flinches away with the realization: “Damn, you’re hot!” Most girls would take it as a compliment. I, however, recognize it as a warning sign. 

“Yeah, I’m not feeling great, actually…Jason,” I shoot him a glance. He knows by the look in my eyes as well as the heat waves rising from my skin. “I think I might need to go.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” he says, “How much do we owe you?” 

“We? Not a thing. It’s the lady’s birthday. You, however, owe me fifteen,” Kevin tells him. Jason slaps a twenty in the man’s hand and comes around the table to get me. 

“Jace, no. I can go by myself. What about your girl over there?” I try to brush him off. I turn and try to beat him to the door, but he follows. 

“Forget about the girl. The girl was just a ploy to get your mind off the letter. I’m here for you, idiot,” Jason whispers behind me. I keep my head down and shuffle through crowds to the front door of Blondie’s. I burst out into the night and immediately double over. Jason is right there at my side, though he knows well that he might get a few hairs singed off. 

“Dammit… Jace… You might have trouble getting a girl…” I heave in and hold each breath for a few seconds to tame the heat, “but…this is why…you won’t have any trouble…keeping one…” 

“Take it easy, breathe,” Jason hums, even in his half-drunken stupor. “And…thanks.” 

“Yeah…” I mumble into the ground. A hard push off my thighs gets me upright again, though my shoulders still bob with each breath. 

“Do we need to get you down an alley?” Jason asks. 

“No… I think I’m fine.” I wave him off. It takes a while, but the aftershocks of Kevin’s touch work their way out in a thin puff of smog from around my neck. It’s been too long since someone slid their skin along mine like that. Since I felt goosebumps from desire - not for any one particular person - just a connection. I force my shoulders to stop, and smile at my brother. “A bar crawl requires at least two stops. Something good has to come out of my birthday.” Jason checks his watch, but doesn’t have the heart to tell me what I already know. My birthday ended twenty minutes ago. 

“Alright,” he smiles.