Free Sins of the Flesh (Half-Breed Series Book 2) by Debra Dunbar Page A

green, waxy, and so close together they made a wall. The bamboo reverberated from the impact of the burning roof, easily shrugging off the beams and thatch with a quick bounce. Kai stared at me openmouthed, her face shadowed in the shelter of the mini forest I’d created.
    “How? You?”
    An explosion rocked our bamboo dome, and the orange glow on the outside of the bamboo vanished in a puff of smoke. Canes cracked and separated. I looked up. Irix loomed over us, furious.
    “I ought to whip both of your asses so hard you can’t sit for a week.” He glared at us. Kai stared at him, her eyes wide. Then Irix turned to me. “Especially you. What were you thinking, running in here?”
    There was that whole spanking thing again. I started to laugh, realizing I was right on the edge of hysterics, then stopped as I felt the heat of Irix’s anger. “I couldn’t just stand by while Kai went into a burning building. What did you expect me to do?”
    “I expected you to use your fucking brain. You can’t heal or fix injuries like I can. And I can’t help you if you go up in flames. I don’t give a damn about this woman or her surfboards, but I do care about you. Stop risking your life for stupid shit.”
    Kai gasped. I bristled. I know he was pissed, but there was no need to treat me like a child, and no need to turn into a total asshole. So I punched him in the shoulder. And it hurt — me. I don’t know if it did anything more than surprise him.
    “Fuck you!” Sirens nearly drowned out my words, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw firefighters racing to put out the blaze in the tree line. “I’m not going to do nothing while someone runs into a burning building. This is who I am, and if you don’t like it, then shove off.”
    Irix’s eyes blazed. He reached out to grab my arm and stopped, curling his fingers into a tight fist before dropping his arm. “You... I can’t take this, Amber. I can’t watch you throw your life away for these stupid humans.”
    I snarled. “Up until last year, I thought I was one of these stupid humans. Don’t you dare speak about them in that fashion. Do you understand me?”
    Kai and Aaron stood like statues beside us, their heads jerking back and forth as they tried to follow our confusing conversation. The air crackled with tension. Irix towered over me, staring me down. I faltered, for a moment doubting myself in the face of his power and two-thousand years of experience. Then I straightened my spine and glared back. I stood by my decision. And he’d need to learn to live with that.
    “We’ll discuss this later. In private.”
    I winced at the barely contained violence in his voice. Damn, this wasn’t going to be the pleasant evening I’d hoped for. Still, I had to do what I felt was right. Kai could have been severely injured when that roof went down — heck, she could have died. Turning around to admire my handiwork, I blinked. Holy shit, there weren’t just a few bamboo shoots; there was a whole forest of them amid the smoldering roof and twisted walls.
    I’d accelerated growth in young plants before. I’d sprouted seeds. I’d even brought some pretty dire brown husks back to health, but I’d never grown a mature forest from long-dead, processed and poly-coated bamboo flooring.
    Regaining control over my mental faculties, I helped Kai pull surfboards out from under the debris, passing them to Aaron. “We saved the boards,” I said, not sure whether I was talking to the still-furious demon or Kai.
    “And almost got yourselves killed,” Irix ground out.
    I turned to Kai for support and saw her still staring at me as she handed the boards over. “Amber, why is there a mature bamboo forest in my shack? And what was all that about how you used to be a human?”
    Here comes the other conversation, the one where she runs screaming and never wants to see me again. I’d just gotten her to accept Amber-the-swinger. I had no idea how she’d feel about