Dark Flame (26 page)

He emerged from the black smoke, the teal flames on his cheeks pulsing, his red hair flowing away from his face. He looked demonic. “Did you honestly think, Juliet, that I didn’t know you’d found my home? But I don’t let anyone cross into my territory without retaliation. And now, at long last, I have you.”

She tried to back away but he moved like lightning. He surrounded her with a tight powerful grip then pulled her out of her dreamglide and into his.

He’d finally succeeded in hijacking her. The moment she left her own secure space, she became as docile as a lamb.

He whispered into her ear. “And now, I want you to leave Agnes’s compound in real-time and come to my home. You know the way.”

It was a simple thing to direct her real-time self to head down the hall, open the front door and levitate to the compound’s entrance.

The guards barely acknowledged her as she rose into the air and headed southeast, toward the southern end of the Graveyard. She arrived at Roche’s home in less than half-a-minute.

He stood with the doors wide, and opened his arms to her.

She went to him, as one completely hypnotized, and gave herself into the hands of the monster.

~ ~ ~

Brannick stepped out of the shower no more resolved on the path he should take than when he’d decided to get cleaned up. He dried off and headed into the bedroom. The last time he’d been here, he’d left without his duffel so he knew he had a couple of clean shirts ready to wear.

He found the bag in Juliet’s closet. He opened it and pulled out a black tank.

When he was completely dressed, boots and all, he realized something didn’t feel right. In fact, the house felt empty, which made no sense at all.

He moved slowly downstairs and smelled something very peculiar, something like smoke.

“Juliet?”

But she didn’t respond.

Had she lit up the barbecue? Yet the smoke didn’t have the smell of charred meat. If anything, the odor was more chemical in nature. It also seemed familiar in a way he couldn’t put his finger on.

He called for Juliet again. When there wasn’t a response, he went outside and walked the entire perimeter of the cottage. Where the hell was she? Had she gone to talk to Agnes? If so, why hadn’t she told him?

He headed up to the main part of the facility, but couldn’t find Juliet. He located Agnes, however, but she said she hadn’t spoken to Juliet recently.

A terrible dread filled him.

When he finally opened the compound entrance door and questioned the guards, he got the answer he feared. Juliet had levitated and headed southeast while he’d been in the shower.

The sensation of dread increased, pouring over him like a flow of sludge, weighing him down. He’d felt like this once before, when he’d learned his sister had been delivered up to a dark witch coven.

He felt compelled to return to the cottage. Juliet might have left by the front door of the compound, but that’s not where the damage had been done.

When he went back into the house, he walked straight for the dining area near the foot of the stairs. He could smell the smoke again.

As he examined the nature of it, his fears intensified, because this wasn’t ordinary smoke but the kind he’d smelled once before many years ago and had hoped to never experience again. When the witches had killed his sister, this was the same odor in the air. They’d used a spell to control her, to have her say aloud she was a willing sacrifice and she would die in their service.

His first thought was that one of the dark covens had gotten to Juliet. But the fae part of him knew it wasn’t that easy. The stench in the air told him the witches were connected, but he intuited that Roche had gone to them and purchased a spell. He’d wanted control of Juliet for years, and he’d finally found a way to get the job done.

Brannick worked hard to remain calm, especially since, as he focused on the situation, he sensed the other part of what had happened. The smoky smell was the key, because it carried a metallic quality. Roche had finally broken through Juliet’s powerful dreamglide block, then hijacked her as he’d been trying to do for a long time.

Part of him wanted to fly straight up into the air and find her now, go straight to Roche’s house and tear the damn thing apart until he found her.

But a wiser part that aligned with his acquired fae abilities, forced him to grow very quiet. He needed to think the whole situation through, including what he and Juliet had just done.

He’d made love to her, but immediately afterward he’d been filled with remorse. Only this time, he knew he was the one who’d crossed the line. He’d seduced Juliet when he shouldn’t have. When real-time merged with the dreamglide, he should have stopped the whole thing.

But he hadn’t.

Yes, he’d been caught up in the passion of being with her, especially the erotic combination of the dreamglide with real-time. But there had been a moment when he’d actually made the choice to make love to her.

Maybe it had been the passionate depths of her dark blue eyes, or how much she enjoyed being with him, or perhaps her purpose in becoming as she’d said, a resistance fighter. All of it had gotten to him.

But he’d also recalled how she’d refused his initial overtures when they’d first entered the dreamglide. She’d made her position clear and he’d loved her for that.

Now Roche had her, and he’d used a dark witch’s spell to finally break through Juliet’s blocks.

Roche had been there from the beginning, the main supplier of dark flame throughout Five Bridges, Arizona and in more recent years the entire U.S. Maybe he even manufactured the
alter
fae serum that corrupted the human genetic base and made long-lived fae out of regular humans.

Roche had been there the night his sister had died as well.

He’d been the one constant all this time.

Something shifted at the base of Brannick’s soul, something so extraordinary it felt like tectonic plates moving around. His view of the world rumbled with a dozen earthquakes.

He finally confessed the truth to himself that he’d allowed Juliet to seduce him in the initial dreamglide because he’d fallen hard for her at the White Flame. And every damn time he’d made love to her in the dreamglide, as well as every conversation he’d shared with her, had deepened that love.

He’d been pretending all these months that he didn’t love her, that it would be too dangerous for him to love anyone.

What he hadn’t realized until this very moment was the terrible truth of what Juliet had said to him recently. Five Bridges was a death sentence to every
alter
human being who chose to make a difference in their world. He could no more control Juliet’s ultimate fate than he could his own.

He felt a soft drift of fingers down his face, and he knew without having to explore the sensation very long that his wife, in her ghostly form, was with him again.

She appeared, smiling, barely more than a soft mist.
I love you, Brann. And I can see you’ve finally made the leap. I’ve had permission from the powers who serve paradise to say good-bye, all three of us.

Brannick’s chest swelled as three beings appeared before him: His wife, his child and the baby born in another realm. He tried to reach for them, but they weren’t real, yet each approached him, even the babe, and ran fingers down his face. He could feel their beautiful spiritual energy touching him, loving him and wishing him well.

Good-bye, Brann. Remember, all is forgiven. Now tend to Juliet. You’ll do tremendous things together. You’ll see.

Both his children smiled and continued to smile as his original family disappeared. He wiped at the tears on his cheeks. His soul felt free at last. Free to live and to love. Free to battle for the woman who meant everything to him and for the life he wanted for them both, as well as for all decent citizens in Five Bridges.

He let the sensation roll through him as he considered the desperate situation before him. He could have accessed his own dreamglide, but instead wondered if he could take over Juliet’s without her permission. The moment the thought entered his head, he knew he could. He might have developed a few fae abilities, but he was still a vampire and with that came a strength of will that he’d always valued. So, yeah, he could be inside the woman’s dreamglide.

He remained standing because he knew in his gut this experience would be very different. He’d have a conscious awareness of exactly what was going on in both realities.

With a brief thought, and his mind fixed on Juliet, he moved straight into her dreamglide. The stench of the spell infused the space. He saw the blown out blurred wall, with the twisted steel rebar bent toward him like a flower that had blossomed.

Because the dreamglide belonged to her, it was with her, inhabiting her current location.

He looked down through the blurred floor of the dreamglide and saw Juliet below him. She lay on her back on a sofa that looked familiar. Remaining very still, he glanced around. Sure enough, she was in Roche’s home.

Fortunately, the fae bastard was nowhere to be seen. Good.

His fae senses also told him that however unguarded Roche’s home appeared, there were powerful fae warriors in the house, lined up and ready to attack.

Roche had set a trap for him.

He drew out of Juliet’s dreamglide and was back in real-time at the foot of the stairs in the cottage.

He had to think and to plan.

He felt certain Roche didn’t know just how much of a fae Brannick had become during his time with Juliet. His solitary vampire nature at one time might have sent him storming to the house alone, ready to be slaughtered. But the fae part of him had added a strong level of wariness.

He felt the need to take a team in and considered his options. He knew Vaughn had to stick close to the safe house, because it was under a constant threat of attack. He turned therefore in a different direction, toward Savage Territory.

He contacted Fergus telepathically. In a few brief sentences, he told him about Juliet’s abduction, how he knew where Roche lived and that Roche was using Juliet to draw him into a trap.

Fergus didn’t even pose a question but simply stated the exact response Brannick needed.
I’m in. Tell me when and where.

Brannick pictured the entire operation in his head.
I want a heavy diversion at the entrance to the Fae Cathedral. Contact Keelen and tell him all that’s going on. The more of Roche’s security force that I can draw away from his home, the better.

Then I’ll need a small group of your best fighters to enter with me through Roche’s front door, which is from the strip-center side. But come well-armed. Roche has men in there ready to fight.

He explained the layout in detail as well as the elevator they could use as needed to get to the factory level.
And I’ve got Juliet’s ability with dreamgliding, so I can scout every location first.

Fergus detached his telepathy for a few minutes to get his end set up. He returned a moment later.
I reached Keelen. He and five other squad cars are heading to the Fae Cathedral to make some noise like last time. Each is prepared to battle and die, just like you, so don’t give me any shit about withdrawing if things get tough.

Brannick smiled, then wondered why he’d ever thought he was alone in this world. Here was a whole group of men ready to take up arms, and none of them were vampires.

He talked timing over with Fergus, then set his internal clock. In three minutes, he’d meet Fergus and six of his men at the strip-center.

With his plan in place, he left the cottage and headed toward the compound’s entrance. He took a moment to speak with Agnes. He explained the situation to her in detail, then asked if she could repair Juliet’s dreamglide. Otherwise, Roche could get to her all over again. He knew the sage fae had tremendous power.

Agnes grew very serious. “I’ll get in there right away and start taking care of the damage.”

Her willingness to jump in and help reminded Brannick once more he was part of a team now.

He went outside to let the guards know he was heading out and hoped to be back soon. He shielded himself with his vampire cloak, then rose into the air and began a slow drift to the southeast. He wouldn’t enter Roche’s home until Fergus’s team was with him.

Once he arrived at Roche’s home, he found he could remain upright for a limited amount of time, while moving back and forth into Juliet’s dreamglide to check on her. As long as he made it a quick trip, his real-time self remained conscious. He could feel Agnes working her magic as she continued to repair the dreamglide.

Juliet still lay quietly on the couch, but teal flames had appeared on her cheeks. Roche had drugged her.

Brannick had to work hard again to keep his temper in check. Otherwise, he could inadvertently let Roche know he was on his way.

But the knowledge Roche had shot her up with drugs made his blood boil, and it took some doing to suppress his rage.

Hopping back out of Juliet’s dreamglide, he levitated above the strip-center, his gaze fixed to the southwest. A few seconds later, Fergus appeared in the distance, flying with six of his warriors. Only the more powerful wolves could take to the air, a real advantage when traveling from one territory to the next, otherwise they could be turned back at any of the five major bridges they intended to cross.

Brannick removed his vampire shield, so that he’d be visible to the wolves.

When they arrived, he led the way to the front walkway of Roche’s home until they stood as a group in front of the door. He glanced at each man, then engaged in group telepathy.
Speak mind-to-mind only. We’ve got sharp ears on us and all kinds of surveillance. Our primary objective is to get Juliet out of there, and once I have her, I’ll fly her back to Agnes’s compound. But I’ll return as fast as I can.

Right now, I’m going into my dreamglide to find out what’s happening inside and where Roche has positioned his men.

All seven warriors nodded, chins lowered, shoulders tense, AR-15s in hand. They were a fierce, tattooed bunch, most with long, wild-looking hair. They moved as a unit, a pack, and were ready to make war.