Great Celestial Balls of Fire [Celestial Nights 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Celestial Nights 3

  Great Celestial Balls of Fire

  Rayne Meyer’s life was all planned out. Every detail had been accounted for, and barring no complications, she was on fast track to accomplish everything her heart desired. Independent and self motivated, she was determined to let nothing stand in her way, even if that meant singeing Apollo in the next mayoral election.

  Ashe Bently and Blaze Weston were two of Arizona’s best firefighters. Decorated and at the top of their game, their lives consisted of one thing, fighting the next big fire. That was until an accident drastically changed their way of thinking.

  When Ashe and Blaze accept a new position in the small town of Celestial, they think their firefighting days are over. However, the town of Celestial has different plans as they welcome the new firefighters the only way they know how. Fires burn wildly in Celestial as three people try to tame the flames passion before the town burns down around them.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 40,216 words

  GREAT CELESTIAL BALLS OF FIRE

  Celestial Nights 3

  Rebecca Joyce

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  GREAT CELESTIAL BALLS OF FIRE

  Copyright © 2014 by Rebecca Joyce

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-608-7

  First E-book Publication: November 2014

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Great Celestial Balls of Fire by Rebecca Joyce from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Rebecca Joyce’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Rebecca Joyce’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  Dear Readers,

  First off, I want to say thank you. If it weren’t for all of you, I would not be doing this today.

  Since the beginning of Treasure Cove, every one of you has stuck with me, encouraged me, laughed, cried, and gasped with me as the residents of Treasure Cove lived their lives. Through it all, you have been there as I continued my journey, and because of that, I wanted to give you something back, something I knew all of you had been waiting for.

  From the first moment I introduced the crazy characters of Celestial, I knew there was something special about them, from Pisces, the naked Sheriff, to Pandora, the crazy Goth-hippie receptionist at the Best Lay Hotel. All of them, every one, has been a joy to write about and create, and they are all for you…my readers, my friends.

  Celestial Nights is my gift to you, my thank-you.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  About the Author

  GREAT CELESTIAL BALLS OF FIRE

  Celestial Nights 3

  REBECCA JOYCE

  Copyright © 2014

  Prologue

  Widow Rock, Arizona, two years ago…

  “This is going to be bad,” Blaze Weston said, looking into his binoculars out over the landscape before him. It had been one of the hottest and driest summers on record. The country had been dealt a bitter blow by Mother Nature, as she had withheld her bountiful rains for seven long months. The whole state of Arizona was parched and dried to a crisp. Even the native mesquite trees were showing signs of their thirst for life-giving water. Their leaves drooped limply toward the dry, hot dusty earth where even the grasses were brown and dead. The stage was set for a disaster of huge proportions. If a fire started, the whole area could be consumed in the conflagration. It was only a matter of time, and there was nothing Blaze could do about it, but wait for the inevitable, because it was coming. The fire always came.

  The only relief from the incessant heat and lack of rain was to be found in the small freshwater lake situated just outside the township of Widow Rock. South of Phoenix and about thirty minutes from the Mexico border, the town of Widow Rock was aptly named. Everything was brown, dull, and barren. Hell, the only color besides brown that he could see was the blue sky, and it wasn’t even a bright blue, more like a soft baby blue, so soft it almost looked white. However, tonight, as Blaze looked toward the west, he braced himself for his worst fears.

  The extreme hot conditions had set the stage as thunder rumbled and reverberated around the mountains off in the distance. Lightning flashed, lighting up the pitch-black skies. The storm peppered the hills with powerful electrical discharges, where they struck tall trees and havoc ensued, as trees were split asunder and the intense heat of the discharge caused the wood to burst immediately into flames.

  “How close do you think it is?”

  Blaze turned and looked at his second-in-command, Ashe Bently.

  “Too close,” Blaze replied, turning back to the bre
wing storm.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Nothing yet,” Blaze said. “If that storm moves over us, we could be in the same predicament soon.”

  “Want me to notify the boys?” Ashe asked.

  “Yeah, call them all in,” Blaze solemnly said, as he watched off in the distance as the storm released its fury. The eager flames were hungry for food and rapidly raced from the felled tree to run in little fingers into the desiccated grasses, which added to their bulk and then they grew in size as it crept slowly along.

  It was nighttime and the cooler temperatures with the lack of wind caused the flames to slowly consolidate and build as they consumed more and more of the area. No one knew what was happening in the rugged territory as there were few people to witness the disaster that was occurring, but Blaze knew as he stood there and watched, helpless. His job was in Widow Rock, and unless the neighboring town called for help, he had to stay put, in case the fire brewing reached his town. It wasn’t easy to do nothing, when all he wanted to do was get in the rig and race to help.

  Blaze didn’t know how long he stood there on top of the firehouse’s roof and watched the inferno blaze wildly, but when the unwelcome sun began to lift over the horizon it seemed to suck air toward itself, causing the winds to awaken. At first, gentle draughts of air fluttered the flames as they bent away from the draught. The flames seemed afraid of the wind as they began to run ahead of the slowly increasing breaths of air and as they ran, they met new fuels and began to grow in size.

  “It’s shifting,” Ashe said, watching from behind. Blaze knew his partner would never leave. From the beginning, the two of them had enrolled and finished fire training together. They worked side by side, for years, as Blaze moved up the ladder. No matter where Blaze’s life took him, he knew that Ashe would follow. He loved that about him, and though he didn’t say it often, he really did love Ashe.

  It was kismet the first moment they met, and since then, they’d been inseparable. Hidden behind closed doors, no one knew that they were lovers. Ashe wanted to tell everyone. Yet Blaze felt it necessary to keep it hidden. Why, he didn’t know, but something in his gut was telling him it wasn’t the right time.

  Sighing, Blaze replied, “I know. Better get the boys ready,” as the fire reached another tree, clawing its way into its shriveled skin. The bark began to smolder as the wind blew upon it and burst into flames. The flames greedily raced to the top of the tree and consumed its crown of highly flammable gum leaves. As the tree burned, the wind began to send the burning embers and leaves away, spreading them over a large area, and wherever they touched down they caused more fires to begin their consumption of the land surrounding it. The stage was set for a disaster of gigantic magnitude as the embers sparked and tortured burning leaves as they fled before the increasing wind could touch down and create new flames.

  Within minutes, there were hundreds of small, eager fires covering a huge area of land, all trying to consume as much of their chosen fodder as possible, and their hunger insatiable. The greedy flames raced before the increasing hot breeze, spreading out further and further as the sparks and burning leaves broadcasted into new areas where they began to feed.

  The fire now covered twenty acres as the sun peeped over the horizon and the smoke became visible as Blaze watched, no longer needing his binoculars on top of his firehouse some fifteen miles away.

  Blaze walked over to a two-way radio he had brought with him, and turned up the volume as the emergency broadcast system started to blare. He listened, as the message of a wildfire was underway in the area. The time had come. His worst nightmare realized, and he watched it all happen. Just then, the firehouse alarm went off.

  It was time to go to work.

  In the small town of Widow Rock, Blaze could hear fire alarm sirens blaring as they aroused the residents, no doubt causing shudders of fear to course through their bodies as they realized their worst fears. Blaze stood back and said nothing as the men and women firefighters of Engine 13 hurriedly donned their firefighting gear. He knew them all, from Peter Kist, his engine driver, Ruby Wood, his paramedic, to Dustin Rawly, his lead hose man. All of his men and women were good, solid firefighters, and Blaze would give his life for any of them.

  Within ten minutes the bright red trucks of Engine 13 were speeding toward the edge of town, with their sirens wailing as if they were crying at what was ahead. The trucks wound their way laboriously through town until they reached the outskirts and spotted the glowing on the horizon.

  “Dear God above,” Peter said.

  “Heaven help us,” Dustin added, but Blaze already knew how bad it was.

  As the engine came to a stop, Blaze said, “It’s just another fire, boys and girls. You’ve trained for this. Now get your game faces on, we have a job to do.” As his crew dismounted and began to roll out their hoses and pick up their shovels and knapsack sprayers, Blaze went in search for the chief fire officer.

  The animals fleeing the fire tore past his men. Deer bounding at full speed were the first to be encountered, as they were the swiftest, then followed the rabbits and field mice racing past with terror in their eyes, their tongues hanging from their parched mouths. The slower animals like lizards, snakes, and such were struggling along, rapidly losing ground as the fires overtook them, those who were too slow generally perishing in the inferno.

  The darkness slowly became light as the firefighters approached the roaring flames, seeing their antagonist as it reared up in the timber in front of them. The fire was roaring and hissing like some prehistoric beast as it devoured the trees and scrub, the fuel of timber literally exploding as the flames approached. Trees were standing shimmering in the heat and wind, then, as the flames seemed to caress them, they just erupted into flames as the mesquite trees overheated and vaporized, then exploded.

  “Where’s the chief fire officer?” Blaze shouted over the roaring inferno, appalled at the heat of the fire and its intensity as it slithered toward them like a huge, red, angry monster. Reaching out as a firefighter ran past, Blaze caught the man, and asked again, “Where’s the chief fire officer?”

  “No clue,” the man shouted back, and took off running again. From his current position, Blaze could tell the fire was completely untenable. The firefighters needed to retreat to a safer position. Running back to his engine, he ordered his men back, just as their hoses began to burn from flying sparks and burning debris. Blaze’s vision blurred and he was nearly blinded by the heat and smoke as he coughed and choked on the heavy fumes. “We need to get everyone back!”

  “On it, boss,” he managed to hear Ashe say as his crew raced for their truck.

  The fire was moving faster than Blaze anticipated and by the time he gave the order to retreat, most of the firefighters were already running to their rigs. Blaze watched in horror as Engine 3’s rig, filled with firefighters, caught fire. Shouting at the men to get out, Blaze ran as if the hounds of hell were chasing him to help his fellow firefighters, already knowing that it was too late. He knew what was in that engine, and it was a matter of seconds before the fire ignited the gas tank. Blaze was within feet of the rig when he heard someone shout at him as the rig blew, blowing him into the air.

  “Blaze, no!” Ashe screamed, just as the fire engulfed the truck, and the fuel tank exploded from the intense heat, vaporizing the diesel fuel, sucking everything in around it into a large fireball, including Blaze.

  Chapter One

  Celestial, present day…

  “The annual town meeting of the cosmic residents of Celestial is now brought to order!” Rayne listened as Apollo shouted into the microphone over the loud voices in the Rainbow Room. Why Apollo insisted the yearly meeting needed to be held here instead of at the Best Lay Hotel she would never know. Of course, when she thought about it, she really didn’t care. She was here for only one thing, to make sure Apollo did his job and once and for in all, hired some reliable men or women for their local fire department.

  Not th
at the town really needed a fire department. Nevertheless, one could never be too careful, and she was for all intents and purposes, a safety first kind of girl.

  In addition, since she sat in the withering and decaying firehouse every day, filtering phone calls while making sure all her medical supplies were updated and not past expiration, Rayne figured that if she had to be there, then so did some firefighters.

  For the last three years, she had worked the Celestial fire station alone. In that time, she had dealt with many false alarms, like two home births that just needed her there on standby, then there were the three kittens stuck up a tree last spring, and she would never forget the time when she got the call from Aquarius, when he thought he set his shop on fire. Well, he didn’t actually set it on fire, he just lit too many incenses and the place reeked for days.

  She was bored, tired, and getting angry at the lack of concern of having an unmanned fire department. She got that most of the residents were too concerned with their everyday lives to worry about the lack of safety precautions in Celestial, but the town was one asteroid away from total destruction. She couldn’t count the many unattended safety briefings she held, or the lack of preparedness for the monthly fire drills. Hell, the last month’s fire drill wielded, according to her calculations, the deaths of half the town, and the total destruction of two-thirds of the local businesses, and when she gave this information to Apollo, he just smiled, and said, “Wow, that’s groovy!” It was then she knew she had to do something drastic, something so outlandish, something inconceivable to get the residents to stand up and pay attention, and she wasn’t leaving until Apollo got off his ass, picked up his phone, and hired someone.