Kissed by Smoke (17 page)

This was going to be awful. “Did you know he
had another family?”

She blinked at me and I could see the tears
she was struggling to hold back. After all this time, even
believing what she did about him, she still loved my father.
“What?” her voice was a mere whisper.

“When he met you, he was already married. He
had a son. He never told you?”

She shook her head, shock written clearly
across her face. Inigo squeezed my thigh again, warning me to tread
carefully.

“I met him, Mom, Dad’s son. My half-brother.
His name is Trevor. He told me why Dad left.”

My mother just stared at me. I had no idea
what was going through her mind, so I pushed on. “Trevor told me
that you were the love of Dad’s life. That he was going to leave
Trevor’s mother for you.” I still couldn’t read the expression on
my mother’s face. “He didn’t want to leave us, but … well, some bad
people were after him and he was afraid if they found you, they’d
hurt you to get to him. That was why he faked his death. You didn’t
know any of this?”

My mother seemed to shrink into her chair.
“No.”

“That’s the real reason he left. But Trevor
said he never stopped loving you. Before he died, he made Trevor
promise to look out for us.” A small lie, but a necessary one. Our
father had only made Trevor promise to look after me.

A tear rolled down my mother’s cheek. I felt
as though my heart would break, so I got up from the table and
gathered her into my arms. I’d never realized before how fragile
she was. “Mom, please don’t cry.” I stroked her back like one might
stroke a child’s. “You didn’t know about this?”

She shook her head against my shoulder. “He
was a travelling salesman. He never did anything wrong. Why would
anyone want to hurt him?”

“I don’t know, Mom. But I’m going to find
out.”

She leaned back, her face completely
serious. “I swear, Morgan, I knew none of this. I thought he’d left
us and I couldn’t bear for you to know that. So,” she shrugged, “I
told you he died. Just like Alister told me.”

My breath froze in my lungs. My eyes met
Inigo’s. Shock was written all over his face. “Alister, Mom?”

“Yes, dear. Alister Jones. Your father’s
best friend.”

I stared at her as shock coursed through my
veins. My mind was whirling like crazy trying to make sense of it
all. How on earth had my mother known the former head of MI8? I
knew my father had met Alister. I had a picture of the two of them
together. “What do you mean, Mom? How did Dad know Alister Jones?”
Maybe I could finally get some answers.

“They worked together, dear.” She started
clearing away the now empty coffee cups. “They were both salesmen
for the same company.” She paused. “Or at least that’s what they
told me.”

“And you actually met Alister?”

She gave me a funny look. “Yes. He came to
dinner a few times. Why?”

“Did he …” I hesitated. “Did he know you
were pregnant with me?”

“Of course,” she said as she put the last
mug in the dishwasher. “I told you, he’s the one that told me your
Dad died in that accident. I didn’t believe him, of course.” She
shrugged. “It was obvious he was lying about the accident. I
figured your father ran out on us and he was just covering up for
his friend by making up the accident story. Alister never liked me
much.”

I frowned. “Why not?”

“No idea. Maybe he was friends with the
other wife.” Her expression made it clear the very thought of my
father’s other family didn’t sit well with her. “My guess is he
wanted me out of Alex’s life, and Alex freaking out over the baby
was a good way to get it done. I wouldn’t put it past Alister to
have come up with the whole story and then convinced Alex to go
along with it, just so he could get away from us.”

“Except,” I said softly, “he didn’t freak
out. He wanted me. He wanted
us
.”

Mom shook her head. “If that were true, he
would have stayed.”

I bit my lip debating how much to tell her.
It was clear she knew nothing of our true nature. Nothing about our
Atlantean bloodline or my father’s true line of work. “Maybe he
couldn’t. Remember, there were people after him. He didn’t want
them hurting us.”

“Morgan, I’ve made my peace with the past.
Please let it lie.” Her voice was firm. Final.

Though it was clear she’d never fallen for
Alister’s car accident story, it was also clear she wanted to
believe that my father had left us high and dry. It was almost as
if she found that more comforting than the truth: That Alexander
Morgan hadn’t had a choice.

I heaved a small sigh and glanced over at
Inigo who gave me a shrug. “Okay, Mom.” I squeezed her hand There
are some wounds that never heal.

***

Outside I drew in a lung-full of ice cold
air. “That sucked.”

“Yeah.” Inigo wrapped an arm around me and
pulled me up against him. “You handled it well.” There was a note
of pride in his voice.

“Excuse me?” I was seconds away from biting
his head off.

“You know your mother winds you up. You knew
this day was always going to be tough. Yet you handled it, and her,
with calm and sensitivity. Even when she wasn’t being …
rational.”

I had to admit he had a point. I was never
good with my mother. She had the most amazing way of getting under
my skin. Much as I loved her, she drove me nuts. But today I’d felt
less like I was someone she was fighting, and more like … her
daughter.

“I just don’t understand why my Dad would be
friends with Alister Jones. The man is a psychopath.”

“Maybe he wasn’t always. I mean, your mom
said the two of them worked together,” Inigo pointed out. “Maybe
Alister was one of the good guys back then. Or maybe your dad just
didn’t realize what kind of person he was.”

I frowned. “Trevor didn’t know Alister Jones
other than as an MI8 agent. Surely, if he and my dad had worked
together at the SRA, Trevor would have known about it.”

“Not necessarily. The SRA was in its infancy
back then,” Inigo said. “It’s possible that MI8 was helping out by
sending their agents here to train Americans. A lot of things that
went on back then weren’t exactly documented.”

Before I could say anything else, a familiar
heat burned my chest. I yanked the amulet out from under my
clothes. “It’s doing it again. The damn thing is burning hot.”

The sapphire was glowing like a beacon. If
it had been night, I’d have looked like one of those damn lights at
a Blue Light Special. Fortunately it was broad daylight on a
residential side street, so no one noticed.

“There’s sidhe magic nearby.” Inigo kept his
voice low.

I scanned the street, but I couldn’t see
anything that looked like one of the fae. “Where is that thing? Why
doesn’t it show itself?”

Inigo tugged me to the car, a look of strain
crossing his face. “Come on, Morgan, we need to go.”

“Inigo … ”

“Now, Morgan. We need to go now.”

I was more than a little surprised at his
insistence, but I let him drag me to the car. “You sense
something?”

“Nothing good. We need to get in the
car.”

Before he could reach for the door handle, a
blast of bluish light hit him and he crumpled to the ground. He was
still awake, staring up at me, but it was obvious he couldn’t
move.

“Shit! Inigo … ” I knelt beside him, my eyes
searching the street for any sign of his attacker. I couldn’t see
anything. There was no one around. I couldn’t sense anything
either, though my Spidy senses only worked on vamps, so that was no
surprise.

Inigo’s pulse was strong, which was a good
sign. I didn’t know what to do. So, I yanked the back car door open
and tried to get him into the seat. Before I could, something
grabbed me by the hair and yanked me away from the car.

I went flying across the sidewalk and
crashed into the cyclone fence around my mother’s yard, hitting the
ground with a very audible thud. I still couldn’t see my
attacker.

I winced as I staggered to my feet. My ribs
were definitely bruised, if not broken. Shit. The amulet was
glowing like crazy. I could feel the heat clear through my heavy
winter coat.

I started back to Inigo, but something
grabbed me again, a large hand wrapping around my throat. This
time, I grabbed back. My hand closed around what felt like a
forearm. Human. Or human-like. Good. I wrapped my legs around the
invisible thing’s waist so it couldn’t throw me.

There was only one creature it could be,
though I’d never heard of the sidhe going invisible. “Listen, you
freaking fairy,” I snarled at my still invisible foe. “You do not
know who you are messing with.”

“Oh, I know exactly who I’m dealing with,
Hunter.” The voice was surprisingly musical. Lilting and bright.
The sound wrapped its way around my senses, threatening to pull me
under its spell as he tightened his grip around my throat.

“Ain’t … going to work, fairy boy,” I
snapped, my voice coming out a little strangled. “As you say, I’m …
Hunter. Your tricks don’t work with me.” I decided it was time to
play my trump card. “If you hurt me, you’ll answer to the Fairy
Queen.”

My words certainly had an effect, though I
wasn’t sure it was the effect I was looking for. Without warning,
the sidhe snapped into visibility. His face shifted incarnations so
fast it made me dizzy.

“I do not give one fuck what the so-called
Queen has to say,” he snarled. His fingers around my throated
tightened even more until dark spots danced in front of my eyes. He
leaned his face close to mine, breath hot against my cheek. “If she
loves you so much,” he taunted, “maybe she should save you.”

As I struggled for breath, something
clicked.

This will save your life.

The key. The Queen of the Fairies had given
me a key. A key she’d said would save my life.

I could feel my consciousness slipping from
me. Struggling against the sidhe’s powerful grip was useless. Even
my Hunter strength was no match for his, and with my energy
slipping away, so too was my ability to call my powers to me. Now
was as good a time as any.

I slipped my free hand into my pocket until
my fingers touched the small gold key. I had no idea how it worked.
So, I did the only thing my fading brain could think to do. I
whispered a name … a name no mortal should know. “Morgana.”

***

“Now that is a name I have not heard in
awhile.”

The surface under my palms wasn’t concrete
like I expected. It was highly polished black marble, smooth and
cold to the touch. I glanced up at the speaker. She was quite
possibly the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life.

Of course, that was to be expected from the
Fairy Queen.

“Uh, hey, your Majesty.” I had no idea how a
person was supposed to address the Queen of the Fae, so I went with
whatever spilled out of my mouth. Not my most brilliant move. “I
guess your key worked.”

Boy, had it. One minute I was being
strangled to death by a psycho sidhe. The next I was face-down in
fairy land.

I glanced around me. “Where’s Inigo? Is he
okay?”

The Queen gave me an amused look. “Dragons
are not allowed in the Other World. They are of Fire. We are of
Earth. But do not worry. Your lover will be safe. Alberich isn’t
interested in the boy and besides, he would not risk angering the
dragons”

Right. Okay.

Hearing a four-hundred-year-old dragon
referred to as a “boy” was kind of funny, but I checked my
laughter. “I have Fire. Why am I allowed in the Other World?”

“Because I bid it to be so. And I am
Queen.”

Right. Okay. Made about as much sense as
everything else did.

“So, the guy who just tried to kill me.
That’s your twin?”

“My, you do get around.” She moved toward
me, her delicate feet scarcely brushing the marble floor. Her
sheer, green gown spilled out behind her slender frame, wafting
slightly in a wind I couldn’t feel. Unlike most sidhe, her face did
not change. It remained still in a single permutation of
breathtaking beauty. She reminded me a little of Michelle Pfeiffer
as Titania, complete with pale blond ringlets spilling down her
back.

She held out her hand to me. “Come.”

I took her hand, so dainty compared to mine.
Like I could crush her bones with my Hunter strength. Of course,
her appearance was totally deceptive. She was, without doubt, one
of the most powerful beings in existence.

“Walk with me,” she said in that beautifully
lyrical voice that sounded so much like her brother’s. Minus the
hate and the nasty, of course.

I gazed around the room. Every surface from
the fluted columns to the intricately carved ceiling was made of
the same black marble. We were the only spot of color. In fact, the
only light in the room came from the Fairy Queen herself.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“To save your life, of course,” she
laughed.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Get a grip. I
may be a lower life form to you, but I am no idiot.”

Her face tightened, hardened, revealing the
true Queen underneath the facade. And she was an ice-cold
bitch.

“Very well. I knew that when Alberich’s plan
failed, as it was bound to, he would come after you next. He would
not be able to help himself. His thirst for revenge would be too
strong.”

“So you decided to help me, out of the
goodness of your heart?” As if.

She laughed at that. “Oh, no. You see,
Morgan Bailey, I have saved your life. And now you owe me a favor.
A favor that I will one day collect.”

Now that, I believed. “Why me, in
particular?”

Her expression didn’t change. “It was not
about you in particular. I simply saw an opportunity, and I took
it.”

It was a lie. I could almost smell it.
Technically the fae could not lie, but somehow she was getting
around the rules. Or maybe there was some grain of truth wrapped in
the lie, but in those seconds when Alberich was squeezing the life
out of me, she’d given me her name. Not something the sidhe took
lightly. But accusing the Fairy Queen of lying would be so not good
for my health. “Fine. What about Alberich. You said he had a plan.
What was his plan?”