Ember's Kiss (33 page)

“High school sweetheart?” Sloane asked.

Brandon shook his head. “Lots of women, but nothing serious. Just fun. Mostly they're just surfing fans.” He squeezed Liz's fingers. “Nothing like this.”

“You must have experienced some loss,” Erik mused.

“What's past is past,” Brandon said, uncomfortable with all these new acquaintances wanting to discuss his romantic history. “What does it matter?”

“Because if you are healed, you'll be less vulnerable to attack,” Sloane said softly. “By magic or by force.”

“And that means we can fight more effectively together,” Niall said.

Right. They weren't just acquaintances—they were allies and they were trying to help him. Brandon still couldn't think of any time his heart had been broken, though.

“What about your parents?” Liz asked. “You're pretty bitter about your mom throwing you out, and you're hard on your dad for his choices.”

Brandon bristled at the reminder. “Well, he was wrong….”

“Maybe he was,” Erik said, his voice low. “Maybe he wasn't able to do anything else.” He held Brandon's gaze steadily. “Maybe you need to hear his view of things.”

“I don't think so,” Brandon protested. “There are things that can't be unsaid.”

“You sound like your father,” Erik muttered.

“You know him?” Brandon asked. “Because I sure don't.”

“Funny you remind me of him, then,” Erik mused, his eyes glittering. “Maybe some things are bred in the bone.”

That wasn't a very welcome comparison to Brandon's
thinking. “More than the dragon stuff? I don't think so. I'm as different from him as possible.”

“How so?” Sloane asked.

“I keep my word,” Brandon said hotly. “And I don't abandon anyone I care about.”

Erik nodded slowly, then slanted an intent glance across the room. “I have argued with Brandt, more than once, about his choices. Brandt is volatile and irritating in the passion of his nature, but his heart is good.”

“Then he should learn to keep his mouth shut,” Brandon snapped. “And keep his responsibilities.”

“He also has some ability to admit when he's wrong.”

“That must be new,” Brandon retorted. “I'm twenty-six and he's been gone more than half my life. I'm not that hard to find.”

Erik's lips tightened. “He is your father.”

“How would I know?” Brandon demanded. “He abandoned me before I could walk, then only came back for a short lesson on being a dragon shifter.”

Erik's eyes glittered. “Maybe he didn't have a choice.”

“I don't believe it,” Brandon said. “He left me and he doesn't care, and if anyone is going to try to heal that relationship, it had better be him. I don't think it can be fixed.”

“What about your mom?” Liz asked quietly. “Maybe she regrets her choice. Does she have any idea how to find you?”

Brandon met her gaze warily. “We don't keep in touch. She knows I'm in Hawai‘i. Like I said, I'm not that hard to track, with the surfing competition and all.”

“If she knows you're in Hawai‘i, she'll be worried about you,” Liz said, her tone filled with appeal. Brandon recalled his own doubts about his mom's condemnation of him, and Liz's plea found a resonance in him. “She'll have seen the earthquake on the news. You should call her.” She grimaced. “I'd lend you my cell phone, but it didn't survive that swim across the bay.”

“Then I'll do it later,” Brandon said. “Let's tug on Chen now, while he's weakest. Let's get this done.”

“First things first.” Sloane pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and tossed it across the room.

Brandon caught it instinctively but shook his head. “Later.”

“Now,” Niall said.

Quinn folded his arms across his chest. “Call.”

The women straightened, watching Brandon with bright eyes.

“I believe Kay will be glad to hear from you,” Erik said softly.

Brandon looked down at the phone, his uncertainty clear.

“Everyone has spoken in anger once and regretted it later,” Eileen said.

“If one of my sons was in an earthquake zone, it wouldn't matter how long it had been since I'd talked
to him or how we'd parted,” Sara said quietly. “I'd want to hear his voice.”

Rox smiled. “And maybe I'd cut him a bunch of slack, just out of relief.”

“A scientific experiment,” Liz added. “It won't hurt. Just give her a quick call. Check in and say hello. Then we can go fight dragons.”

Brandon pursed his lips, looked at the cell phone, then down at Liz. “When you put it like that, it seems stupid not to call.”

Liz smiled. “I'd say stubborn,” she said, and Eileen chuckled.

“None of us has any experience with that character trait, do we?” she murmured, earning a quick look from Erik. Rox and Sara exchanged a glance, and Brandon noticed the sense of camaraderie these women shared. Liz had been right. He needed this community of
Pyr
.

And Liz would need them, too.

There was no point in asking for advice, then not following it. He hated when people did that, and he wasn't going to be one of them.

Brandon took a deep breath, walked out onto the balcony to improve the reception, squared his shoulders, and called his mom.

K
ay Merrick welcomed the chaos of the holiday season. She was completely overbooked with orders this year, and she was even gladder of it than usual. Working twenty hours a day ensured that she had no time to think. No time to be lonely. No time to worry that she hadn't heard from her son, Brandon, since the earthquakes.

Surviving Christmas Day would be another feat altogether, but she'd get through it. She always did.

Even if this year would be the twenty-fifth anniversary of her first Christmas without Brandt.

She told herself that the only thing she regretted about her booming business was that she wouldn't be able to watch the surfing competition live from Hawai‘i. She'd upgraded her cable to get the specialty station, just to see Brandon compete. She'd taped the other two competitions and watched hungrily as her son succeeded at what he did best.

She replayed it over and over again, as greedy for detail as a rabid fan girl. Her son was even stronger and more handsome than she recalled and exuded his father's confidence. The commentators had noted that the third part of the competition was likely to be his chance to shine, and Kay wanted to watch it live. No chance of that, not this holiday season. The recording would have to do.

She'd also been avidly checking the news for details of damage and deaths after the earthquake. She hoped and prayed that Brandon was okay, that he'd remained on the north shore, which had seemed to be comparatively unscathed. She hated that she didn't know for sure and had no good way to find out.

Watching the videos of her son thousands of miles away just made Kay more keenly aware of what she'd lost. She'd said hard things out of anger and fear and never had the chance to take them back.

Well, maybe Kay hadn't made the chance. Pride got in her way. And when she heard from Brandon—which wasn't often—he usually mentioned that he was sending an e-mail from a public computer. That didn't exactly open the door to apologies and exchanging confidences.

Her cell phone rang just as she was reaching to take tart shells out of the oven. Kay glanced at them, but they weren't quite ready. “Rachel!” she called to her assistant. “These are within a hair of being done. Can you keep an eye on them?”

“I'm all over it,” the younger woman said with her usual cheerfulness.

Kay checked the caller ID on her phone. Sloane Forbes. She didn't know anybody by that name, and she didn't have the capacity to take on any more holiday orders. Might as well get that straight early.

“Hello, Mr. Forbes,” she said briskly by way of greeting. “I do hope that you're calling with regards to something for the New Year. We're quite overwhelmed this holiday season….”

“Hey, Mom.”

Kay fell silent at the sound of a voice she would recognize anywhere.

“Still working too hard?”

Kay's knees gave out beneath her and she sat down hard on a stool. “Brandon,” she whispered, unable to believe it was true.

“Yeah,” he said, and took a shaky breath, proof that he wasn't as confident as he sounded. “I've owed you an apology for a long time, Mom. I'm sorry.”

“So am I,” Kay admitted, feeling her tears start to flow.

Brandon took another deep breath. “So, Mom, I met this girl, and she told me I should give you a call. I'm thinking she's the one.”

Kay smiled through her tears. “I'm glad.”

“Her name is Liz,” Brandon said, and Kay could hear his love for this girl in his voice. Everything was coming together for him and she was so happy to hear
from him again. She could have listened to him all day long—to hell with the tarts.

When they ended the call, agreeing to keep in touch, Kay sat holding her cell phone tightly, marveling at what had just happened.

That was when she realized that her son must have had his firestorm, that this Liz was the woman who could have his son. Like Kay had been, she was probably already pregnant. She'd probably been overwhelmed by the sparks and the power and the raw charisma of a
Pyr
determined to win her heart.

Kay remembered that very well.

She was going to be a grandmother, she realized with a shock.

Kay looked around her commercial kitchen, at the scheduled bookings on the wall chart and the stacked boxes waiting to be filled with cakes and pastries, and she knew exactly where she wanted to be. None of this could compete with the chance to stand on a beach in Hawai‘i and watch her son's life come together. She'd meet Liz. She'd be there when he triumphed.

And she'd start to try to make up for all the years they'd lost.

Liz watched Brandon punch in a number. The
Pyr
and their partners pretended to avert their interest, but she knew they were all listening. With their keen hearing, they'd be able to hear every word.

They were as protective of one of their own as she had guessed dragons would be. That reminded her of her mother's circle, and she realized how much she had missed that sense of community. Plus the
Pyr
and their partners were more welcoming of her than she'd expected. Like Brandon, they believed implicitly that the firestorm could not be wrong. That level of trust was also familiar to Liz, and just as completely forgotten.

She caught Rox looking at the mark on her arm again, the woman's concern clear, and covered it with her other hand. She would be glad to join this group if she could. Liz, though, would require more proof that she wasn't bringing peril to this group by joining them.

She knew that she had to use her gifts to guarantee Brandon's freedom. But how? She knew she could summon Chen by tugging on the binding spell from this end, but what would she or the
Pyr
do once the
Slayer
turned up?

Sara came to Liz's side then. She was holding a piece of paper with some writing on it. “Does this verse mean anything to you?” Her tone revealed her conviction that Liz would understand it perfectly.

Liz shuddered and handed it back to Sara, not even wanting to touch it. It was one thing to think that she might fail her test, but she didn't even want to think about Brandon being caught up in the repercussions.

“How did you get the mark?” Rox asked, having come to Liz's other side. She read the verse; then the two other women exchanged a glance.

Liz explained about her family tradition of witchcraft, telling them all what she'd told Sloane and Brandon. Brandon ended his call when she was nearly done and came to her side, putting his arm around her shoulders.

“Okay?” she asked.

He grinned. “Perfect. You were right.” The others exchanged pleased glances, then looked at Liz.

“You must hold the key to breaking the spell Chen cast over Brandon,” Sara said. “Tell us what to do to help.”

“Well, that's the thing,” Liz said. “I can bring him to us—I'm pretty sure of that. I'm just not sure what to do when he gets here.”

“How can you protect Brandon from being claimed?” Erik asked.

“I would use a protective circle against a demon. It might work against Chen, too.”

“What about the spiral?” Brandon asked, and Liz
looked at him in surprise. “The spiral on the floor of his lair must have been part of his spell.” He gestured. “It was big. It filled the whole room and was made of ridges of sand. My scales were at the middle.”

“At the vortex,” Sloane said.

“What did it look like?” Liz asked, her excitement rising.

“A big spiral,” Brandon said.

“No. Which way did it turn?” From beside the phone, Liz grabbed a pad of paper that had the hotel logo on it. She drew two spirals, one that radiated from the center in a clockwise direction and one that radiated from the center in a counterclockwise direction.

“This way,” Brandon said, touching the second one. “Does it matter?”

Liz smiled, hearing her mother's lessons all over again. She pointed at the first one. “This one is sunwise. It's an emanation of creative energy. Like the sun, it sends its power out into the universe.” She tapped the other, the one that had been the same as the spell on the floor. “This one is destructive. It pulls power in, cheating it of the universe and drawing it to the center.”