Kissed by Fire (13 page)

“MI8 invited him.” Kabita’s voice was quiet,
calm. She probably knew I was about to turn into Vesuvius.

“MI8? Why?” I couldn’t imagine Alister would
enjoy having the Americans on his turf. They had no beef with the
dragons and might not accept everything he said blindly.

“They had no choice. I’m the American Dragon
Liaison.” Yep. His smile was definitely too smug.

I snorted. “American Dragon Liaison? Are you
kidding me?”

He shrugged. “Granted, I haven’t had anything
to do until now, but the US government has always had an official
liaison. Just in case.”

I blew out a deep breath. “Well, I guess
‘just in case’ finally happened. I suppose you want to blow the
dragons to bits, too. Never mind what the evidence says.”

“No, Morgan.” Trevor shook his head. He
placed his hand over mine, his mocha skin rich against the pale
alabaster of my own. He had broad, strong hands. They reminded me
of my father, the pictures I’d seen of him.

I jerked my hand away. “Isn’t that what all
you bureaucratic types like to do? Shoot first, ask questions
later.”

He laughed at that. “I think you’ve got me
mixed up with the military.” He leaned forward again, eyes intense.
“I promise you, Morgan. I will do this right. I will not rest until
I find the truth. I will make my decision based on facts, not fear
or ignorance.”

I believed him. Somehow I believed him.

“Morgan.” Jack spoke for the first time, his
voice a little more gravelly than I remembered but no less sexy.
“We need to talk.” He held out his hand.

I hesitated. There was so much that was
screwed up between us and I couldn’t help that deep down I felt
hurt. Rejected.

I reluctantly placed my hand in his and the
electricity went zinging up and down my spine. Just like always.
The chemistry between us hadn’t changed no matter how Jack tried to
hide it. Bloody stubborn man.

I followed him out of the pub while Kabita
and Trevor remained, chatting in low voices. I imagined they were
discussing the case and our role in it. I hoped I wasn’t being an
idiot trusting Trevor Daly. If he screwed me over, there’d be hell
to pay.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?”
Jack’s voice was quiet, calm, but I could hear something else
simmering underneath. I wasn’t sure if it was hurt or anger. Maybe
a little of both. Not that I cared much. He’d hurt me plenty.

“There wasn’t time.” I dodged a tourist
snapping a picture of some random building. Honestly, sometimes I
really wished I had a cattle prod.

Jack gave me a look that said he didn’t buy
my excuse.

“Fine.” I heaved a sigh. “I knew you’d freak
out and I didn’t want to deal with it.”

“Freak out?” His voice was mild, but he
didn’t fool me.

“You know what I mean. You’d give me some
lecture on how you couldn’t protect me if I went traipsing off into
the wilds of London, yada yada. I can protect myself, you know. I’m
a Hunter, for crying out loud.”

He smiled at that. “You know me well.”

“Not as well as I’d like to.” Crap. Did I say
that out loud?

“Morgan.” It was his turn to sigh.

“I’m sorry Jack.” I stopped in the middle of
the pavement just like a bloody tourist and propped my fists on my
hips. “I just don’t get it. One minute you’re on me like white on
rice and the next I’m untouchable. All because of a piece of
jewelry. You really know how to make a girl feel good.”

His features were tight, every inch of him
strung taut with frustration. “I’ve told you Morgan. It’s my duty
... ”

“Fuck your duty.”

The shock on his face was priceless.

“You’ve given, what, nine hundred years of
your life to duty? To protecting the amulet. To some dream of a
Royal Bloodline and saving Atlantis and whatever else comes with
the territory. Hell, I don’t even know what it is you think you’re
going to do with that thing. I think it’s time you do something for
yourself for a change.”

For us.

“You should at least have brought the amulet
with you,” he said, completely ignoring the point.

“You’re trying to change the subject, Jack.
It isn’t going to work.” I turned on my heel and marched down the
street, fury strumming through me. Gods, the man could piss me off
like nobody else.

The guards in front of the American Embassy
gave me leery looks as though they half expected me to go ballistic
at any minute. The thought almost made me laugh. Almost. I kept
walking.

Jack finally caught up to me. “I am not going
to discuss this with you Morgan,” he said, jaw clenched. “You know
what I must do. I will not shirk my duty.”

I rolled my eyes. “Good lord. You’d think we
were still in the Dark Ages. Fine, you don’t want to talk about it,
I’ll give you a pass. For now. But we
will
talk about it.
Soon.”

He said nothing to that. I shrugged. A girl
could only do so much. “As for the amulet, it doesn’t go with my
wardrobe.”

“Morgan Bailey.” His voice was practically a
growl.

“Listen, I am not walking around with some
big clunky thing on my neck. Especially some big clunky thing that
turns me into a supernatural superconductor. I have enough problems
in my life as it is.”

“Eddie told me.”

My breath came out in a hiss. “I told Eddie
not to tell you.” I glared at another tourist and she scrambled out
of the way like I’d pointed a gun at her. Maybe I didn’t need a
cattle prod, after all.

“Eddie decided that you setting a door on
fire was something I needed to know about.” He led me across the
road to Hyde Park and down one of the tree lined paths. It was
nearly dark, but there were still plenty of people about.

“I would have told you.”

“When?”

I shrugged. “Eventually.”

“Morgan.” His voice was filled with
frustration. “This is not something to mess with. It’s dangerous.
You could die.” His voice seemed to catch a little on that last
part.

“I know that. Don’t you think I know that?
But what can I do? This amulet of yours has decided it wants to
download all these stupid abilities into me and there’s nothing I
can do to stop it.”

“Morgan ... ”

“Listen, I don’t want to talk about it right
now.” My turn to be uncooperative. “Unless you have something
useful to tell me like what this new ability or whatever is, or how
to get rid of it?”

Silence.

“Fine. I’m done talking about it. When you
decide you’re ready to talk about us, then I’ll talk about this.
Maybe.”

He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and
shook his head, frustration in every line of his body. I knew I was
driving him insane and part of me was glad. After all, he’d been
driving me crazy for months with his stupid duty and honor
stuff.

“Kabita told me about Sandra.”

Goodie. Subject change.

“Yeah. She seems to know an awful lot about
dragons. And then there’s her ability. I’ve never seen anything
like it.”

“Can she turn objects into anything other
than dragons?” he asked.

“No. Just dragons.”

“Interesting. She may be a Dragon Child.”

I stopped dead in the middle of the footpath.
“A what?”

“They’re rare. I’ve only met one before and
that was nearly five hundred years ago. You know how you have an
affinity with vampires?”

“Uh, yeah. If by affinity you mean I can
track and kill them better than normal people.”

“Dragon Children are human children born with
an affinity with dragons. Unlike Hunters, they are born of peace,
not violence. In ancient times, before they disappeared from
history, the dragons often used Dragon Children as go-betweens with
humans.”

I frowned at the thought of being born of
violence. In my case, it had been more like being reborn in
violence. Then another thought struck me. “I thought the dragons
just wanted to eat us?”

He laughed, but it wasn’t an amused laugh. “I
bet Alister Jones told you that.”

“Yeah. You know him?”

“We’ve met.” His tone didn’t invite further
questioning. It wasn’t important, so I didn’t press.

“You think Sandra Fuentes is one of these
Dragon Children?” I asked.

“Yes, I do. It would explain the way her
magic manifests, the reason she can manipulate objects, but only in
a very specific way.”

“It would also explain her rather passionate
defense of the dragons. She doesn’t think they murdered Alison any
more than I do.” I continued down the path, Jack following
suit.

“I believe she is correct. A Dragon Child may
be a soul of peace, but she would never lie to protect the guilty.
It would not be in her nature.”

“You seem very sure of that,” I said.

“As I said, I’ve met a Dragon Child before.”
Again, his tone implied he wasn’t interested in talking about it. I
imagined that after nine hundred years he held a lot of secrets and
Jack wasn’t the type of man to give up his secrets easily. A fact
which frustrated me no end.

“So, Alister lied about the dragons. About
them killing everyone.”

“Let’s just say that it’s in Alister’s best
interest to blur the lines of truth.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I get that about him. Sort
of like the whole thing with him and his ancestors and
Witches.”

“Yes, something like that.”

“OK.” I stopped again, this time at a fork in
the path. “I’m heading back to my hotel. Alone. I need time to
think.”

“Morgan ... ” he started, but I cut him
off.

“Hyde Park is perfectly safe.” He looked
doubtful so I reached out and gave his shoulder a little squeeze.
“Stop worrying Jack. I’ll be fine.”

After a moment he nodded reluctantly. “I’ll
head back to the pub. Trevor has made the arrangements for our
stay. I’ll see you tomorrow?” There was just a hint of something in
his voice that gave me hope. Maybe he wasn’t quite the unmoveable
rock he seemed.

“Fine.” I stood on tiptoe and kissed his
cheek, inhaling the scent of him. It had been too long since I
touched him, tasted him. I drew back before I ended up a puddle of
jelly. “See you tomorrow.” I turned my back and headed across the
park.

***

As I strolled through the park, enjoying the
cold night air, my phone chimed indicating a text message. I pulled
my phone out. It was from Kabita.

Ben Landry. Alison’s co-worker. Meeting
tomorrow 10am
.

I sent her a text back.
OK. C U at
breakfast
. Kabita never used text speak and she hated it when I
did. Not that it stopped me.

I wondered just exactly what Ben and Alison’s
relationship had been. Had he told her he loved her? Had she loved
him back? I wasn’t sure which was worse, losing the person you
loved, or having them there in front of you but totally
unreachable.

Not that I was in love with Jack of course.
It was just a hormone thing. Honest. Besides, he hadn’t given me a
chance.

It was then I caught the scent. That same
scent that had been taunting me for days, but this time that
tingling in the back of my skull came with it. The vampire was
close.

I took off at a dead run, following the scent
trail that grew stronger with every footstep. He was close, really
close.

And then what felt like a Mack truck hit me
in the side and sent me tumbling across the grass until I landed in
a breathless heap. I staggered to my feet, the stench of vampire
drowning out everything else. This time, though, I could smell the
reek of a second vamp underneath the original scent trail.
Something hinky was definitely going on.

The shadows shifted as I scanned the park. I
could barely make out the dim shape of what had to be the
vampire.

I slipped out my knife. I was going to have
to get in close without getting myself killed. I didn’t have my
larger weapons with me and I was loath to use the Darkness again so
soon.

I braced myself as the vamp stepped closer
and a shaft of moonlight lit his face. It was not what I expected
to see. “You’re not the one. You didn’t kill me.”

“Maybe not,” he snarled, putrid breath
hitting me full in the face. “But I’m going to kill you now.”

He lunged into me, grabbing me around the
throat and throwing me to the ground. There was no way I could stab
him through the chest in this position, so I went for the kidneys.
Contrary to popular belief, you didn’t need to stab a vamp through
the heart. Technically massive blood loss could do it, though it
usually wasn’t fast enough.

The knife went through his back, slicing
tissue and muscle and sliding into organs, the silver tip burning
him like acid. Cold blood spilled over my hand. The vamp screamed
loud enough to make my ears ring.

I ripped the knife back out, causing as much
damage as I could on the way through. Then as the vamp reared back
I sliced backward across his throat. More blood cascaded from the
wound, drenching me. I turned my face to avoid getting the vile
stuff in my mouth.

I twisted, heaving the dying vamp off me. I
knelt on him, the tip of the blade over his heart. “Who sent you?”
I hissed at him.

Underneath his own scent, I could still smell
the scent of the vampire that killed me. His jacket looked lumpy so
I fished around and pulled out a dirty old T-shirt. It stank of
vampire. Not this dying vampire, but the one I was looking for.

“Where is he?” I thrust the T-shirt under his
nose. “Where is he?”

He laughed, blood burbling out of the neck
wound. “You will never find him.”

“Tell me and I’ll end you quickly.”

“Go to hell.” It came out more as a gurgle,
but I got the message.

With a grin, I thrust the knife home. “You
first.”

Fortunately I wasn’t far from the hotel, so I
didn’t need the tube. I could only imagine what would happen if I
walked into the tube station covered in blood. I avoided taking a
taxi for the same reason. Unfortunately, I couldn’t avoid Francois,
the hotel concierge.