Kindling Flames: Smoke Rising (The Ancient Fire Series Book 3) (26 page)

“It’s hard to say.” Darien shrugged. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you would like.” He was sure that Ann would be torn up about the whole ordeal as soon as reality sunk in.

“Thank you.” She nodded her head.

Vicky took her mother and Zak over to sit on the couch.

Darien picked up his folder and coffee to head out of the room. Vicky would be better at dealing with Ann’s heartache than he could. He headed into the kitchen to get some fresh blood. The cross had really done a number on the palm of his hand, and his skin smarted from the time he had spent sitting in the sunlight.

“Here are the files from HR.” Vicky set the healthy stack of papers on the desk in front of Darien. “These are the people that Mrs. Roberson thinks need disciplinary action.”

Darien let out a heavy sigh and looked at the folders. He had been receiving numerous complaints about the way the woman was running his human resources department, and he’d decided the best course of action was to check over her work to make sure it was good.

Vicky set his cup of coffee on the desk next to him and patted his hand encouragingly before she left.

Giving her a weak smile, he pulled the stack of reports over in front of him. He flipped open the top one to see what infraction Mrs. Robinson had found with the employee’s work this month.

Reading through the first file exasperated Darien. The man in question had been late a few times and needed reprimanding, but termination was a little extreme. Overall, his record was good. Darien made a note to have a talk with his manager and closed the file. He picked up his coffee to help ease his mind. Tedious work like this always bothered him. That was why he hired Mrs. Robinson to take care of these issues, but it looked like he was going to have to find someone to take her place.

Darien took a long pull from the cup but immediately spit the hot liquid out across the desk. He dropped the cup on the table as smoke rolled up from his hand and mouth where the liquid had burnt him. Pushing away from the coffee spilling across the desk, Darien cried out for Vicky, but he couldn’t make the right sounds around the damage the substance had caused.

“Darien?” Vicky stepped into the room to see what the strange noises were. Her eyes took in the mess on the desk and the shock in her boss’s eyes. He had raised his hand up, blocking Vicky’s view of the raw and ruined flesh at his mouth.

“Darien!” Vick gasped at the coffee running across the desk. She rushed to save the files from the flood of liquid spreading out in a thin pool. Grabbing the box of tissues from the corner of the desk, she yanked some out and tossed them down in the path of the coffee.

Darien backed away from the spill as his healing powers kicked in and started to rebuild the flesh inside his mouth. He made an angry sound that drew Vicky’s attention from the puddle of fluid on his desk.

“What happened?” she asked, her hands quickly moving to sop up the coffee. Her eyes kept darting up to the hand covering his mouth. She could see what had happened, but she could feel the angry energy leaking from him.

“Ahhe!” Darien tried to speak, but the melted skin in his mouth muddled the words.

Vicky gave him a confused look, not understanding what he wanted.

He glared at her and looked down at the mess on his desk.

She looked to the soggy tissues in her hands. “Coffee?” Vicky guessed what he had said. Darien gave her a curt nod, and she looked down at the liquid again but could find nothing strange about it. It was just the normal coffee that he always got. She looked back up to her boss. “What about it?”

“Yours.” The word came out a little muffled behind his hand, but it was more whole then his last attempt to talk.

“You want my coffee?” Vicky straightened up and cocked her head in confusion. Darien gave her another curt nod, and she wiped her hands on another tissue before heading out to get her drink. She brought the cup back and held it out for him.

“Desk.” Darien’s voice still sounded raw, but it was getting better as the wound healed.

Vicky gave him an odd look and set her cup down on a dry section of his desk. She gasped as Darien dropped his hand away from his mouth to show the bloodied skin on his chin. Most of the blistering had already healed, but the skin was still raw as it regenerated slower than it normally did.

“Darien!” Vicky gasped and took a step towards him, but a quickly raised hand and a slight turn of his head stopped her. It was plain from the tension in his body and the expression on his face that getting close to him at the moment was not a good idea. Vicky retreated back the step she had taken, and Darien relaxed a little bit. She studied the wound on his face as he reached out and picked up her coffee.

Holding it carefully, Darien popped off the lid and looked at the seemingly innocent liquid inside. He studied the contents of the cup for a moment before carefully lowering the tip of his pinky to the surface of the drink.

Vicky watched in shock as smoke started to rise from the dampened skin.

He quickly pulled the burning digit back. “Where did you get this?” he asked quietly, looking up at her. His voice was still filled with gravel, but he could talk again.

Vicky swallowed hard, not knowing what to think about what she had just seen. She had had several sips of the hot coffee, but it hadn’t had the same effect on her. “I got it from Sue,” Vicky answered, slightly bewildered.

Anger hardened Darien’s face again, and he set the cup back on his desk. Picking the phone up from its cradle, he punched in a few buttons.

Vicky held her breath, unsure what to do. She had never seen Darien like this before. Something had upset him greatly. The part that really scared her was the calm way he raised the phone to his ear and waited for someone to answer.

“My office.
Now
!”

The rage boiling in Darien’s quiet voice pulled a tear from Vicky’s eye as she trembled under the rolls of power bubbling off him. Every fiber in her told her to turn and run, but she couldn’t bear to leave him alone like this. Looking from the very still vampire to the pool of spilled coffee marring the top of his desk, she drew in a shaky breath and forced herself back to the task of cleaning up the spill. Moving around to the backside of the desk, Vicky picked up the trashcan and pulled the mess over the edge of the desk into it.

Darien watched Vicky clean the coffee from the desk, pondering how this could have happened. He couldn’t imagine Sue doing something so heinous, but then he couldn’t see the woman he loved doing it, either. Closing his eyes, he ran his tongue along the healing skin of his lips, feeling how much they had recovered. What had been put in his coffee couldn’t have been that strong, or else the act of making it into coffee had diluted its power. He opened his eyes again and watched Vicky’s trembling fingers move the tissues around his desk, removing the last of the moisture. It didn’t take long for the one person that could answer his questions to arrive at his door. He heard her before the timid knock announced her presence.

“Mr. Ritter?” Sue called into the room as she tapped lightly on the door.

“Come here, Sue.”

She stepped all the way into the room and stared at the desk Vicky had just finished cleaning before turning frightened eyes to Darien.

“Explain this,” he said, holding his hand out to the coffee still in the cup.

“It’s coffee,” Sue said, unsure what was going on. She could see the mostly healed wound on Darien’s chin, but she didn’t understand how the injury could have happened.

“I can see that,” Darien snapped, causing both women to flinch. “Why is there holy water in my coffee?” Both Sue and Vicky gaped at him with saucer-like eyes.

Vicky’s eyes shot to the remaining cup of coffee, finally understanding what had happened.

“Master!” Sue took a trembling step towards the man she worked for. “I didn’t!”

“Then who did?” he demanded.

Sue’s eyes flashed to Vicky for help with this one.

Darien saw the movement and looked at his shocked assistant. “Victoria, did you put anything into the coffees?”

Vicky took a step back from the angry bite of the power coming from Darien. Unable to speak, she shook her head.

Glaring back at Sue, he growled at the girl, “If she didn’t put it there, and you didn’t, how did it get into my coffee?”

She cowered under the strength of his rage. “I don’t know, Master.”

“Then find out!” Darien bellowed.

Sue took this as her cue to leave and ran from the room.

“More than your job is at stake if you don’t!” he yelled at her retreating form.

Vicky stood, terrified by Darien’s rage, as the vampire turned around and paced the room, stewing.

“Darien,” she said softly after he had made a few laps of the room.

He stopped and turned burning, green eyes on her.

“I’m sorry,” Vicky apologized as she closed her eyes and cringed away from his fury.

The apology shocked Darien out of his rage, and he just stared at her. He took in the tears staining her cheeks and the tremors in her hands. It only took a moment for him to see her words were not an admission of guilt but a way to try to calm him. Pulling in a deep breath, he realized how stupid he had just been. How could he have accused either of these women of trying to hurt him? Laughing at himself, Darien pushed the anger away and came over to her.

“There is nothing for you to apologize for.” He enclosed her in his arms and held her.

Vicky circled her arms up around his back and rested her head on his shoulder.

Darien rubbed his cheek into her hair. The feel of her in his arms soothed what was left his riled nerves. “Thank you for cleaning that up.” He sighed, looking at the empty top of his desk.

Vicky glanced over at the desk, pondering the coffee and how the holy water could have gotten into it. An odd thought struck her, and she looked up at Darien. “How does one get holy water?” she asked softly.

He considered the odd question. “You either have a priest bless it, or dip a sacred cross in the water.”

Vicky pondered this for a moment. “Do holy objects affect werewolves?”

“No. Werewolves react badly to silver.”

“Then, how will Sue find the blessed item if someone has hidden it?” Vicky pulled back a little more.

Darien sighed again and released her. “She won’t,” he added as he turned to leave.

Vicky followed Darien out of the office to the elevators. She handed him a tissue when they stepped into the little box.

He gave Vicky a questioning look as he took the scrap of paper.

“Your chin.”

Darien looked up into the reflective surface of the metal and realized there was still blood drying on his face. He had been too upset by the attack on his person to realize that there was still visible evidence.

“Thank you.” He used the tissue to wipe away the last remaining traces of the blood and burns.

“Are you okay?” Vicky asked gently. She knew that, as a vampire, Darien’s healing abilities should take care of the wound, but that didn’t stop her from worrying about him.

“I’m fine.” He patted her on the arm lovingly. “The blessing wasn’t that strong, and I didn’t get much in my mouth.” He thought about it for a second before continuing. “It could have been worse. Had the water been pure, even the little bit I did get could have messed me up for a lot longer.”

Vicky tipped her head in thought.

“Damage from holy objects takes a lot longer to heal than normal wounds.”

She looked up to the pink skin still showing on his chin and watched as the color slowly returned to normal. “But, this isn’t taking you long to heal,” she said, confused.

Darien looked at his reflection in the reflective surface. He ran is tongue over his lip. “That’s what happens when the water’s diluted. It still does the damage, but it heals quicker.”

Vicky nodded her understanding as they reached the fifth floor.

Stepping out, he led the way to the café. “Come on.” Darien sighed when he rounded the corner into the café and saw Sue standing on a chair behind the counter. Even from across the room, he could see tears streaming down her cheeks as she ripped the coffee machine apart, looking for the source of the holy water. Looking up from her task, she let out a soft squeak in fear. Darien closed his eyes and pushed the regret he was feeling away. He had been rather coarse with her in his anger, and it was clear she was torn up about what had happened.

“Master!” Sue held the top of the coffee machine up over her chest as if it could save her from the approaching vampire.

Darien walked behind the counter and held his hand out for the frightened werewolf. “Come on down.” Now that he was calmer, he knew that the barista would never do anything to hurt him.

Sue looked at his hand as if it were going to bite and looked up into his eyes before taking it.