From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) (27 page)

Every head turned to me. “I feel like I’m
wearing Christmas lights,” I said quietly.

“Just keep your head lowered.” Both of us
kept our hoods up. After a few moments the stares moved off me.

An Amazon-sized woman came up to the table, a
tray of drinks in her hand. She stood over seven feet tall and had
the shoulders of a linebacker. Her long blonde hair coiled into a
beautiful braid and hung past her ass. She had a pretty face, but
her blue eyes held a “don’t mess with me” expression. She banged
the glasses on the table, splashing out a tiny bit of liquid. She
huffed, looking Ryker up and down, then turned around and stomped
away.

“Something tells me she doesn’t have problems
with men taking advantage of her.” I wiped rainwater off my
face.

Ryker snorted. “It’s the other way around
with her kind.”

“She’s an Amazon, huh?”

“A descendant. A true Amazon was a lot taller
and tougher. They originated in Greece. But let me tell you, the
present Amazons take after their ancestors. They decide who they
want and take him. He doesn’t get a choice.”

My head jerked to him. “Don’t tell me some
Amazon woman did that to you?” My teeth locked together.

He chuckled, twisting his neck to look down
at me. “Why? Jealous?”

My instinct was to fight this Amazon bitch,
but at the smug look on Ryker’s face, I picked up my drink and
smiled. “No, I hoped I could volunteer you again. Get you off my
hands.”

A ghost of a smile played on his mouth. He
picked up his glass, knocking it against mine. “Well, here’s to
getting me off…your hands.”

I smirked before slamming back a sip of
whiskey. The liquid burned down my throat, warming my chest.

A figure nearing our table caught my
attention. He was dressed in dark pants and a long, dark, woolen
cloak, his face hidden under a hood. Though he could have stepped
out of the past, he also fit strangely in with the present. He
grabbed the back of the chair across from us and slipped into the
seat.

Ryker went rigid. He set his glass calmly
back on the table, acting like we knew the stranger. His body
vibrated next to mine with tension.

“Were you followed?” The man’s voice was
gravely.

“No,” Ryker replied. “We made sure.”

The man’s head lifted and by the light of the
fire I could make out his features. He was a lot younger than his
voice portrayed, appearing to be in the mid-thirties. He had a
strong rectangular jaw and face. Dark brown eyes stared at me from
under his hood. I couldn’t see his hair, but if I were to guess by
his scruff, it was a reddish-blond color.

“Who are you?” I stared back, not lowering my
gaze from the intensity of his.

“Dunn.” He leaned his elbows on the table,
keeping his voice low. “But I don’t think that is what you meant,
did you, Zoey?”

It was my turn to stiffen. “How do you know
me? Why did you want to meet?”

“I know all about you.”

Ryker shifted next to me, but he kept his
mouth shut.

Dunn gave a quick glance around then came
back to me. “Kate asked me to.”

My mouth parted. My seer sense had seldom
been wrong, and it told me now he was dark fae. How would he know
Kate? DMG and fae, light or dark, were not on friendly terms by any
means. Even if she was sensitive to fae, I still couldn’t see her
befriending one.

“Kate?” I repeated. “How do you know
Kate?”

His gaze drifted to the side. “Our
relationship goes back over thirty-five years.”

“What?” Shock at his claim caused my words to
fumble out of my mouth. “Thirty-five years? How long had Kate
secretly fought for fae? How did she come to work at DMG? Why did
she start to work for DMG if she was for fae in the beginning?” I
didn’t realize all these questions came storming out in a jumble
until Ryker placed his hand on my leg, quieting me.

Dunn grimaced. “She told me you were
inquisitive and wouldn’t relent unless I told you everything.”

Ryker chuckled, and I shot him a glare.

“I don’t know you. I do not feel comfortable
telling you anything.” Dunn adjusted his shoulders. “But Kate
insisted you were someone to trust and that I tell you her story.”
He took in a steady breath. “Kate and I met when she was twenty.
She had just finished school and was going for her PhD in science
and genetics. I can’t tell you what drew me to her. She was human.
I tried to stay away from them. But her energy stood out bright
like a beacon. I found myself following her wherever she was. Like
a thorn in my side, I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about
her.”

“Humans can be irritating like that.” Ryker
squeezed my leg. Dunn and Ryker exchanged a look of
understanding.

“Our relationship was intense, and I loved
that woman something fierce.” Dunn sat back in his chair. “But I
knew it couldn’t last; I was fae, she was human. But every day that
I convinced myself today would be the day I’d break it off, I would
find a reason not to. By this time she had earned her PhD and
started searching for a job. When she told me she was moving to
Chicago, I decided it was the perfect time to end things.” Dunn
swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Then she turned my world
upside down…”

I leaned closer, adsorbed in his story. This
all sounded so unbelievable to me.

“She told me she was pregnant.” He huffed out
a long breath.

My jaw went slack again, my eyes widening. I
knew Kate had a daughter, Elsbeth, who now had a daughter,
Kiera.

“Are you telling me…?”

“Elsbeth is my daughter?” He sat up.
“Yes.”

“But that would make her…”

“Half fae.” He finished for me. “It does.
Elsbeth was my mother’s name.”

Ryker’s hand left my thigh and went to rub
his face. I sat motionless, stunned into silence.

“With a baby coming, I could no longer keep
my world from Kate, especially because it was rare for humans to
live through a pregnancy not alone the birth of a fae child. I
wanted her to understand why I didn’t want her to keep it.”

He grabbed Ryker’s drink and took a sip, when
he pushed it back, Ryker shook his head, saying, “Have it.”

Dunn nodded a thank you and took another
sip.

“After a long time of convincing her about
the truth of fae, she still remained firm on keeping the baby. Even
knowing it might kill her, she was certain, and all I could do was
sit back and wait, wracked with terror that I would lose them
both.

“We moved to Chicago and had the baby.
Against all odds, she and the baby survived. When Elsbeth turned
three she was diagnosed with leukemia, but her fae power healed her
over time, to the shock of all her doctors. They couldn’t figure it
out. This is when Kate became obsessed with fae genetics and how
she could save other children.

“As years went by, she threw herself into
work, which caused our happiness to be short lived. She spent extra
time at work, and I grew more restless at home. Not because I
didn’t enjoy being a father, but because I did. I could see them
aging every day while I wasn’t. Kate and I began to fight all the
time about it. Even though she said it didn’t bother her, when
people would ask if I was her nephew or younger brother, it would
upset her. A lot. I knew things had started to shift when she
introduced me as a ‘friend.’ It wasn’t till she learned about Dr.
Rapava and his work that I really lost her. They began to email and
contact each other all the time. She was too easily swayed by this
man who claimed he wanted to help cure humans of diseases and
defects. It had been the end of us. When Rapava offered her a job
in Seattle, Kate took it without hesitation.” Dunn’s gaze drifted
away, like the memory still pained him. “She told me that night she
didn’t want me to follow.”

Ouch.

“Kate wanted to keep Elsbeth ignorant of the
fae world because Elsbeth has more human traits than fae. She will
age and die similar to a human. Kate thought it would only make her
life difficult knowing the truth. It was the one thing we both
agreed on. We also realized my
not
aging would become a
problem.

“So I let her walk out the door. I secretly
checked on Elsbeth every once in a while over the years, watching
her grow up and have a baby of her own. Kate, on the other hand,
completely fell into Rapava’s world, and I lost all touch with her.
Over time I heard what she was doing, the sick testing on fae, and
we became enemies. I rallied against DMG. I knew she heard about me
but never tried to contact me. That was until two years ago when
she reached out saying she needed my help. Elsbeth was in danger.
Kate told me what had been happening, how deep she was in, and her
fear that Rapava would find out about our child. Even our
granddaughter is one quarter fae. She’s in danger too. I became
Kate’s informant. She notified me when the hunters were coming to
get anyone I knew, and I would also help her catch some really
nasty ones, so she could keep her cover. After this long, after all
she had done, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.”

Kate had been living her life acting like a
flaky mad scientist while she had been carrying the biggest secret
of all. Her daughter and granddaughter were part fae. No wonder she
was so scared.

“What’s messed up is I still love that woman
completely, but she treats me like a grandson.” He shook his head.
“She forgets I’m technically hundreds of years older than her.”

“I can’t believe this.” What horror to watch
the woman and child he loved grow older, and he couldn’t do
anything but watch them die. I understood Ryker’s resistance to me
at the beginning more clearly. Now that I had fae powers my life
cycle would slow down to be equal with his.

“She couldn’t tell you any of this while
inside DMG.” He downed the rest of the whiskey. “But I’m not here
just to tell you her past. Kathryn contacted me to come deliver a
message to you.”

I waited for him to continue; my hand gripped
my drink.

“Rapava has hunters searching for you
everywhere.”

“That’s nothing we don’t know.” Ryker swiped
the glass from my hand and took a mouthful then plopped it between
my fingers again.

“There are also officials keeping an eye out
for you.”

“What do you mean?” I inched forward.

“Government officials. The conspiracy goes
further up than you think. Rapava’s connections and people who
believe in his work are in the highest echelons of government. If
you go to them, you might find yourself hushed and taken care of.
It’s another reason Kate couldn’t get out. She figured it best to
stay close and continue to work with him.”

“Why didn’t she just leave when she realized
how far he had fallen?” I asked.

“Kate knew too much. She realized what
happened to the scientist who tried to escape before. Rapava had
his whole family killed.” My heart lurched painfully in my chest,
knowing which family he was referring to. “Kate was not willing to
take the chance, especially when Rapava had hinted at the safety of
her family.” Dunn glanced over his shoulder. “She believes in you,
Zoey. She feels you are the one smart enough and strong enough to
find a way to take him down for good.”

I gulped back the rest of the brown liquor,
scorching my throat.

“But you need to hurry.” Dunn dark eyes
leveled into mine. “Your sister’s life depends on it.”

I sucked in. “Lexie?” She had only been gone
two days. All day I thought about it being Lexie’s birthday. Today
she turned thirteen. And I wasn’t there with her. “Is she all
right?”

“Kate told me they ran tests as soon as she
came in. You know she is dying. Her body is rejecting the legs and
the fae-blood injections.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Ryker beat me
to it.

“How long?”

Dunn pressed his mouth together. “No more
than a few weeks. Kate thinks it might be less. You don’t have
long. I’m sorry.” He scooted back his chair. “That’s all I can tell
you. I better go.”

“We appreciate you meeting with us,” Ryker
said for me, my shattered heart keeping me mute.

Dunn bobbed his head, standing up. “You two
watch your backs. You’re being tracked.”

“By more than you know.” Ryker clasped his
hand. “Thank you.”

“Take care.” Dunn reached over and took my
hand. He was a daunting man, but his touch felt gentle and kind. I
could see what Kate had loved in him.

He dropped my hand and turned to go.

“Wait. How do we contact Kate or you again?”
I asked.

He turned enough for me to see his profile.
“You don’t.” With that he slunk across the room and vanished into
the stormy evening.

####

Ryker and I stepped into the night. The rain
thumped down on my hood, and my boots sloshed through newly formed
puddles. But I didn’t notice the cold or the wet. My soul felt
sick.

Lexie was truly dying. Hearing it made it
final. There was no pretending anymore. I was going to lose my
sister again.

Ryker hadn’t said much. Nothing would make
this better. Telling me we’d figure something out was just a crock
of shit. This wasn’t something we could work out. The only thing I
wanted was to undo the operation, take away Lexie’s new legs and
remove the fae blood poisoning her.

“What if we removed them?” I grabbed Ryker’s
arm as we reached the top of the stairs. “Got rid of the thing
killing her?”

He contemplated my idea. “Might work, but we
need to get to her before it’s too late.”

That was the problem. Could we get to her in
time? And if we did, who would do it? We couldn’t just take her to
a regular hospital. They would have no idea what to do with a human
who had been given another human’s legs along with foreign magical
blood.

Ryker watched my shoulders slump.

“It’s something. We
will
get her out
of there.” He left out dead or alive, but I got his meaning. No
matter what, we would not leave Lexie there. He took a few steps
into the parking lot and twisted around to look at me, cupping my
face in his hands. His eyes told me the words that didn’t cross his
lips.
I’m sorry
.