Kindling Flames: Smoke Rising (The Ancient Fire Series Book 3) (10 page)

Elliot looked around at the open entryway. “Come on.” He grabbed Vicky’s bag and Darien’s coat from the back of the ambulance and pulled his friend off towards the cars parked to the left of the entrance doors. “Cassie,” Elliot called to the female with him. “Can you?” He handed Darien off to a short woman with brown hair. She had no problem supporting the taller man as she raised her wrist up for Darien to bite.

“Thank you,” he said softly before sinking his fangs into her wrist. A tingle of energy told Darien that this woman was a werewolf. He took two long pulls of the woman’s blood before the pain in his head subsided. Drawing two more mouthfuls, he licked the wound closed.

“Is that enough?” Cassie asked as Darien pulled away from her wrist. The vampire hadn’t taken nearly what she’d expected him to.

Darien straightened up and leaned against the car behind him to heal. “Yes.” He turned his attention to Elliot. “I need to get in to Victoria.”

“Are you sure you’re all right now?” Elliot asked.

Darien swallowed, clearing the last of the blood from his mouth. “Yes.” He stood up. “That helped a lot. Thank you.” Taking his coat and bag from Elliot, he led the way to the emergency room. The magic in Cassie’s blood had kicked his system into gear, and the pain had subsided. He could feel his ribs knitting back together as they made their way into the hospital.

Elliot and his two friends followed Darien in to find Vicky. The EMTs had helped the nurses transfer her to a normal bed before gathering up their stuff to leave.

Vicky looked up to find the group standing back, watching. “Darien,” she called. He looked a lot better than when he had been sitting in the ambulance. Her eyes found Elliot standing behind him.

Darien pulled his coat back on to cover the bloody spot on his shirt. “Everything is fine now.” He stepped back to give the nurses more room to work.

“What happened?” Elliot asked as he looked over Vicky lying on the bed.

“Someone ran a red light and tagged the front end of my car.” Darien tried to make himself more presentable. “If you hadn’t warned us, they would have T-boned us.”

Elliot nodded. “Sorry I couldn’t have warned you sooner.” He looked over Darien.

“I appreciate what you
did
do,” Darien said. “I think I now owe you a boon.” His eyes turned back to Vicky. “Or two.”

Elliot chuckled. “You have already done enough for me, My Lord. It was the least I could do.” He tilted his head forwards in a slight bow.

“Stop it, my friend.” Darien raised him up by the shoulder. “Those days have long past.”

Elliot stood up and chuckled lightly again. “True, but I’m still honored to be called your friend.” He looked over at the nurse drawing blood from Vicky. “But, what I really want to know is what happened with you.”

Darien stilled as he thought about his reaction after the wreck. “I don’t know,” he said softly. “I had a bad reaction to something earlier today.”

Elliot turned concerned eyes to him.

“I suspect that whatever was affecting me then is still bothering me now.”

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure.” Darien looked over at Vicky on the bed. “I was confused and couldn’t think straight.”

“Did you eat?” Elliot worried.

“Victoria forced me to eat both a sandwich and the regular fare. It took about half an hour for it to clear out.” Darien looked over at his friend. “I have no idea what caused it. Victoria said I was acting as if my blood sugar were low.”

Elliot gave him a really confused look. “Do we even
have
blood sugar?”

“I have no idea,” Darien answered. “Victoria thinks I should find someone that knows more about us and ask them.”

Elliot snorted at this idea.

Darien smiled at his reaction. “Those were my thoughts exactly.”

“If anyone knows more about us than you, it would be Lord Dakine.” Elliot cleared the humor from his words as he spoke.

“I will talk with him as soon as I can.” Darien turned to look towards the door. Two police officers had just stepped in and were heading his way. “I think I have company.” He tugged on his jacket as the two police walked towards him.

“Mr. Darien Ritter?” one of the cops asked.

“Good evening, gentlemen. How can I help you?” Darien asked.

The cops looked at each other, surprised that Darien was even standing. “We need to get your statement about the accident,” the officer said.

“Of course,” Darien answered. He looked at Elliot. “Could you stay with Victoria?”

Elliot nodded, and Darien walked off with the two officers to find a quieter place to talk. Elliot turned back to wait for the nurses to stop buzzing around Vicky like bees.

“I’m sorry.” Darien said as he and Vicky rode up to his penthouse. Elliot had hung around to take them home after the doctors had released Vicky with her new cast. They were amazed that she had come through the wreck with as few injuries as she had.

Vicky leaned in against Darien. “Don’t worry about it.”

Putting his arm around her, he pulled her closer. “I’ll get something to get that off.” Darien promised as the elevator opened and they stepped out. He had already healed the bone in the car on the way home.

Vicky tapped her nails on the plaster and sighed. It had been her first cast.

They hadn’t taken more than three steps into the foyer when a terrible roar broke the silence in the apartment. Vicky turned just in time to see Zak barrel out of the living room and slam into Darien. The vampire fell over backwards with the mass of angry tentacles writhing on top of him.

“
Zak
!” Vicky grabbed at the hellhound, trying to keep him from eating Darien.

Zak snarled at the vampire and snapped at Vicky in his fury.

She fell backwards, surprised that the fay had tried to take a chunk out of her. “Zak!” she cried.

The fear and hurt in her voice made the fay pause in his attack. He held Darien down and looked to where Vicky had landed on the floor with her arms held protectively in front of her. Zak reached out an end to touch her, and she flinched away from him. He gurgled apologetically as sense came back to him. The little horror wiggled carefully over to Vicky, leaving Darien slightly mauled on the wooden floor of the foyer.

She tensed as Zak drew near, gurgling.

He whined and wiggled his feelers at her, but he didn’t touch the frightened woman.

Darien sat up and checked to make sure he was still in one piece.

Vicky relaxed, seeing that Zak had returned to himself. She held out her arms, and he swarmed over to bury his face into her stomach. “I’m okay.” Vicky rubbed the worried little fay. “You just frightened me.”

He whined, touching her all over. A tentacle wrapped around the cast on her arm.

“That’s okay, too.” Vicky rubbed Zak reassuringly. “Darien already healed it.”

The fay turned around and growled at the vampire on the floor.

“Stop it. It wasn’t his fault.”

Zak whined again and held on to her.

Darien found his feet and pushed up from the floor. “I’m sorry,” he apologized to the distressed fay. “If I could have stopped it, I would have.” Reaching down, he attempted to pet Zak’s head.

Zak growled at him.

Vicky patted him on the bottom. “Stop it,” she demanded.

Zak whined but let Darien pet him.

Darien looked at the cast. “Would you like to help me get that thing off her?”

Zak gurgled his agreement before pulling Vicky’s arm over to him and chomping down on the cast. The plaster cracked under the pressure of the fay’s teeth.

“Not like that.” Darien pulled the fay off Vicky. “You could hurt her again.”

Zak wiggled, but let the vampire pick him up.

Darien tucked him under his arm and reached a hand down to help Vicky to her feet. Once she was standing again, he handed the fay back to her. “I have a Dremel upstairs.”

Vicky chuckled as Zak wiggled his feelers under the cast and started pulling it apart. “You may not need it.” She grinned as they went up to Darien’s office.

Zak chewed on the edge of the plaster as they walked. He had nearly devoured half the cast by the time Darien had gotten out of his coat, found the Dremel, and put a cutting wheel on it.

Vicky dropped the little fay to the floor and held what was left of the mangled plaster out for Darien to remove.

Zak wrapped himself around Vicky’s ankles as Darien carefully cut a line down the cast and pulled it free of her arm.

“See.” Vicky bent her wrist around before holding it down for Zak to examine. “It’s okay.”

The little fay wrapped his ends around Vicky’s arm and sniffed at it to make sure. He released Vicky and snorted at Darien.

Darien dropped the damaged plaster into the trashcan.

“I’m going to go take a bath.” Vicky headed out of the office.

Darien shook his head as he watch Zak drag behind her by a tentacle wrapped around her ankle. He rolled up his sleeves as he turned to search the shelves for the things he would need to contact Dakine. He really needed to get someone’s opinion on what was happening to him.

***

“Darien.” Vicky’s voice echoed out of the bathroom in the master suite.

Darien turned from the pattern he was drawing on his bedroom mirror. “Yes?” he called. He was in the middle of a rather complicated communication spell and really couldn’t walk away from it.

“Can you come here for a second?” Vicky asked.

Sighing, he set down the jar of grease he had been using to mark on the mirror. Wiping his fingers on his shirt, Darien looked over his work so he would remember where he had to pick the spell back up before turning to the hall. “What is it?” He pushed the bathroom door open. Vicky was stretched out in the large, marble tub filled with rose-scented bubbles. The annoyance at being pulled away from his work eased as he looked over her foam-covered skin.

Vicky raised her left leg out of the water. “What is this?”

Darien’s eyes followed a line of bubbles running up Vicky’s calf before he closed them. He shook the errant thoughts from his mind and turned to look at what Vicky was asking about. There was a strange marking on her ankle. Confusion crossed Darien’s face, and he got closer to see what was there. Taking Vicky’s foot in his hand, he twisted it so the light shone on the markings. Anger filled Darien as he identified the shape of vines and flowers scrolling around Vicky’s ankle. “
Zak
!” Bellowing for the small fay, he dropped Vicky’s foot back to the water and turned around to find where the offending horror had gone. “
Get out here now
!”

Vicky sat up in her bath as Darien lost control of his power, and it rolled out in angry waves. A gurgling sounded from under the bathroom counter.

Darien went over to it and dropped to the floor. He had to rest his head on the cold, stone tiles to find the hellhound stuck under the sink. “Come here.” He reached roughly under the counter to drag Zak out.

Zak snapped at him and bolted away from his grasp.

Darien cursed loudly at missing his target and sat up quickly to see Zak skitter over behind the tub. “I’m going to kill you as soon as I get my hands on you!” He stormed over to the tub to catch the fay.

Vicky twisted in the bath so she was as far away from the raging vampire as she could get.

“We’re going to find out if hellhound tastes anything like calamari!” Darien bent over the tub to look behind it.

“Darien!” Vicky was shocked that the normally calm man was so fired up about the mark. She didn’t even know what it was.

Darien ignored her and continued his ranting search for the fay. “Deep fried with maybe some butter and sliced lemons.” He reached his hand down behind the tub to the growling fay. “Gotcha!” Darien’s hand closed around one of the fay’s tentacles.

Zak stretched the appendage out and slipped from the vampire’s grasp. He scurried over the edge of the tub and landed in the water with a splash that soaked Darien’s bloodstained shirt.

“Damn it, Zak!” he cursed as the fay shoved himself into Vicky’s chest.

She squealed as he wrapped his tentacles around her body and upper arms.

Darien growled loudly as he grabbed one of Zak’s wet tentacles and tried to pull him off the woman.

“Darien!” Vicky wrapped her arms around the terrified fay, protecting him from her pissed boss. “Stop!”

Darien stopped pulling and glared at her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, not understanding.

“
He marked you
!” Darien screamed.

Vicky looked at him, confused. Zak had marked her a while ago with a band of silver flowers.

Darien let out a ragged breath and let the fay’s end go. Dropping his hand into the water, he grabbed a hold of Vicky’s ankle and yanked it up, knocking her off balance.

Vicky threw her arms out to catch the sides of the tub so she wouldn’t go under the water.

Darien showed the thin vines and flowers to her. “This is a fay mark.”

Vicky’s mind spun on this. Darien hadn’t been this mad when Zak had put the flowered anklet on her.

Darien growled, seeing she didn’t understand. “It’s permanent. It marks you as his.”

Enlightenment dawned on Vicky’s face, and she looked down at the fay wrapped around her. “Zak?” she questioned. “Is this true?”

Zak whined.

Darien let her leg go and stood up.

“Zak?” The fay slowly released the grip he had on Vicky’s torso, and she sat up in the bath, lifting him up so she could see his face. Guilt showed clearly in his little, beady eyes. “Why?”

Darien let out a growl of anger and frustration before he stormed from the room, leaving the woman to deal with the fay. He knew the only way to remove the mark was to kill the fay, but Vicky wouldn’t allow him to hurt Zak like that. Darien went back to his spell and picked up the little jar of ointment. He looked at it for a moment, and then up at the markings on the mirror. His eyes tried to find where he had left off, but his concentration was shot. He slung the small jar at the interrupted work, and the mirror shattered under his fury. Storming from the room, Darien headed for the stairs that led out of his penthouse. He needed to get out of here for a while before he did something he really regretted.

***

Vicky held up the fay, questioning him as Darien left. She had asked Zak why, but the only response she had gotten was a whine and some wiggled tentacles. Vicky looked over at the open bathroom door when she heard the glass shatter and Darien storm out.

“Oh, Zak,” she sighed as she looked at the fay. “I know you’re worried about me, but this wasn’t the answer.” Vicky dropped the fay on the floor. Climbing out of the bath, she wrapped a towel around her. “There was no need for you to go this far. You had already claimed me.” Vicky pulled another towel down and dropped it over the fay. She ruffled him around in it to dry him off.

Zak whined more.

“All this has done is upset Darien,” she explained as she lifted the fay, wrapped in his towel.

He growled at the vampire’s name.

Vicky popped him on the bottom to stop the noise. “You know I’m not leaving him.”

He made another unhappy noise.

“Now stop that. I started out with Darien, and he has been very accommodating to you. He lets you stay in his home, sleep in his bed, and he didn’t even get upset when you first claimed me.”

Zak wiggled, unable to argue with Vicky.

She carried the fay out of the bathroom. “The least you could do is show him a little courtesy.” Stopping in the doorway, she looked at the shattered mirror before heading into the bedroom. Vicky sighed and dropped the wet fay on the bed before drying the rest of the way off. She was disappointed in both of her boys, but she could understand how they felt.

Zak gurgled as he looked at the mess Darien had made.

“I’ll take care of it,” Vicky reassured him as she headed out of the room to find something to wear. Maybe Darien had calmed down enough to listen to reason.

***

Darien stood on the roof patio and looked up at the night sky. The lights from the city made the stars impossible to see, but the waning moon shone brightly in the sky. He breathed in the cool, autumn air and tried to calm the anger raging inside him. How could that little mutt do such a thing to Vicky? He took another deep breath and slipped his hand into his pocket. Darien let the night wind blow across his damp shirt, cooling his body. He twitched at the sound of the stairwell door opening.

The wind was blowing against him, so he couldn’t smell her, but he knew it was Vicky. He could feel it in his soul. Listing to Vicky’s bare feet carry her over, Darien centered himself so he could send her away without snapping. He really didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. Zak’s actions had thrown him. Darien knew the little fay cared greatly for Vicky, but he didn’t think he would go that far. He had already had a discussion with the fay and come to an agreement to not mark Vicky permanently without asking her.