Licked by the Flame (3 page)

On the other hand, the human owed him some answers.

“What is this place? How did you know about it?” Kyne questioned.

“I built it, of course,” Baylor replied. “I didn’t realize when I sent you here that you’d be making such excellent use of it, though. Who’s the girl?”

“I’m alone here.”

“No, you’re not. You wouldn’t still be here if you were alone. Is she a fairy? She must be. She was hiding with you in the forest, wasn’t she? That’s why you didn’t stick around to beat the hell out of me the way you obviously want to. The council is after her, too.”

“The council knows nothing of her yet, and neither do you. I didn’t beat the hell out of you because, frankly, you’re just not worth the effort. You
are
going to give me some answers, though. What have you gotten us involved in? Hybrid equipment? When did the Fairy Council start working with humans?”

“There’s much more here than you know about, Kyne.”

“And that’s why you’re going to tell me. Start by explaining this cabin.”

“It’s a cabin, protected by magic that only a certain formulation of Fairy Dust and a couple key human ingredients can penetrate.”

More human and magical hybridization. Kyne didn’t like that one bit. “Why?”

“We needed a safe place, somewhere beyond magic or human detection.”

“
We?
You mean my mother. She lied to me, you know. All these years, she told me she had no idea where you were. But I found the photo; I know she’s been here with you. Recently.”

“She lied to protect you, Kyne. Like I said, there’s a lot going on that you don’t know about.”

“Well, the Fairy Council seems to think I know all about it. They’ve been watching my every move for as long as I can remember. Just what do they think I know, Baylor? Just what were all these lies supposed to protect me from?”

“We were hoping they would keep you safe behind the Veil.”

“By the Skies, Baylor. What is that supposed to mean? Of course I’m safe behind the Veil. That’s what the Veil is for—protecting magical beings.”

“Yes, but you’re only half-magical, Kyne. There’s a reason the council has watched you. Your human nature is strong, isn’t it?”

Kyne refused to reply. The fact that he had any human nature at all was Baylor’s damn fault. The fact that he’d battled that nature every moment of his life, only to finally fail magnificently and drag Raea into his human carnality, was proof just how strong it truly was. Hell, he was standing here six feet tall, eye to eye with Baylor right now, wasn’t he? He’d not give him the pleasure of taking any credit for it, though.

“I’m a fairy,” he announced. “There’s nothing wrong with my magic.”

“I never said that there was. But you’re human, too. That part of your nature is what concerns the council. It might be stronger than the Veil, Kyne. Especially since they’ve found…”

“They’ve found what?”

Baylor glanced around the cabin, and Kyne watched him clench and unclench his fists. Whatever he’d been about to say, he’d caught himself and was wrestling now with whether to divulge his information or not. Kyne wasn’t about to let
not
be an option for the man.

“What did they find, Baylor? You owe me the truth.”

“All right, I’ll tell you. The council has discovered some problems with the Veil.”

Obviously Kyne was going to need more information than that. He glared until the older man continued.

“Holes. The Veil is developing holes, Kyne, though of course it’s not public knowledge. There are areas where the Veil’s power is weakening.”

“I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. The council is keeping it quiet, but they’ve been monitoring weak spots for years now. In fact…well, that’s how they found out about your mother and me.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to ask, but how’d they do that?”

“Think of passion and magic as balances on a scale. When they’re equal, the barrier between worlds is strong; but when they’re not, when passion invades the Forbidden Realm or magic gets into the mundane, the lack of balance weakens the Veil. The council claims your mother and I helped upset this balance, so they’ve forced us to either work with them or suffer punishment.”

“You’ve been working with the council all this time?”

“Yes. They found out I have some skills they can exploit and they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. In exchange for giving you up and helping the council create the Regulators, they agreed not to punish your mother for our relationship.”

“But you didn’t give up my mother. Only me.”

“It was years before I ever saw her again, Kyne. I swear to you, I tried to stay away, to keep my bargain with the council, but…”

“But you’re only human, right?”

“I thought maybe you’d understand, but I guess not. Apparently that fairy in the other room there doesn’t mean as much to you as I thought she might.”

“Don’t you dare bring her into this. Raea means more to me than my own life!”

Baylor smiled and Kyne felt just a bit foolish. The old man had been looking for a response and was obviously pleased with himself for getting one. Kyne promised himself never to let that happen again.

“Raea,” Baylor mused. “It’s a lovely name and I’m happy to make her acquaintance.”

“You will
not
be doing that. I have no intentions of even letting you lay eyes on her.”

“Too late,” Baylor said with another damn smile. “She’s standing right behind you.”

Kyne whirled to find his father was correct. Raea had opened the bedroom door and stood there wrapped in a bedsheet, her wide lavender eyes blinking with a great number of questions. She’d obviously used Sizing Dust, choosing to show herself in human proportions, but every bit of her was pure fairy. Kyne wanted to shield her from whatever evil his father represented, but she stepped up to his side and faced Baylor unflinchingly.

“You are Kyne’s father,” she said.

“I am.”

“Why are you here?” she asked. “You must have come for some purpose.”

“I did. I came to see how you were doing.”

Raea’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “No, there’s more. Why did you really come here?”

Kyne watched guilt flash over his father’s face. Raea’s instincts were right. Clearly Baylor had come for something more than just checking on the son he hadn’t ever bothered to check on before. Whatever truly brought the man here today, Kyne knew he wasn’t going to like it.

“I came to ask a favor,” Baylor announced.

Well, that figured.
“I’m not really in a favor-granting mood.”

But Raea was at least curious. She hugged her sheet closely around herself, and her glossy wings fluttered nervously. “What do you need from us?”

Baylor’s expression darkened. “There’s something happening—something bad, and I think it involves my machinery. Someone may be tampering with it, misdirecting it, and using it for purposes we never intended.”

“And what are we supposed to do about it?” Kyne questioned.

“I don’t know, maybe there’s nothing we can do. I need to know what is happening, and why. That’s where you come in.”

Kyne sneered at him. “You think we know what’s going on? By the Skies, I barely know my own name right now.”

“Of course you don’t know what’s going on, but you can find out.”

“Why don’t
you
find out? You’re such close friends with the Fairy Council and all.”

Baylor shook his head. “This doesn’t involve the Fairy Council. At least, I don’t believe it does.”

“Really? So who does it involve?”

“Someone in Iceland.”

Iceland?
Kyne wasn’t an expert at human geography—the Forbidden Realm did not rely on those imaginary lines of political boundaries that humans set for themselves—but he knew enough to understand Baylor was talking about a place half a world away. What on earth could be happening in Iceland that had Baylor so concerned? And how could it possibly have anything to do with his stupid hybrid equipment?

“The coalition that I’m working with is trying to preserve the Veil,” Baylor explained. “We’ve kept our efforts secret so as not to upset the balance within the Forbidden Realm, but everything we do is to keep the Veil in place. Recently, though, some of our equipment has come up missing.”

“You’re telling us that some other secret organization is stealing from your secret organization. Why? What do they want the machinery for?” Kyne asked, hoping that the sarcasm was obvious in his tone.

“We don’t know,” Baylor replied. “But I found evidence that it’s been shipped out to Iceland. To discover what they’re doing with it, someone will have to go there.”

“You’d better take a coat,” Kyne suggested. He knew what the man was getting at. “I hear it’s cold up there.”

Baylor scowled at his tone. “I can’t go, of course. They watch me almost constantly. I don’t even want to think of what they might do to your mother if I run off to Iceland. No, it has to be someone they’d never suspect; someone they don’t currently have eyes on.”

“Then it has to be us,” Raea announced boldly. “We’ll go there and find out.”

Kyne gaped at her. “No, we will not!”

“If your father felt it important enough to come here and confront you this way, then we need to look into it. Clearly there are things in the Realm we don’t know about. We need to find out.”

“If anyone is going, it’s me. Not you,” he said. “I won’t risk you.”

“And I won’t risk you,” she said, meeting his eyes. “We go together, Kyne. This argument is getting old.”

She laid her hand on his arm, and his skin reacted with heat and electricity. By the Skies, what she could do to him without even trying. She really was ready to fight about this, he could tell. As much as he did not want to put her in harm’s way by rushing off on Baylor’s wild, paranoid quest, he sure as hell was looking forward to her trying to convince him.

“Maybe I’d better give you the specifics,” Baylor suggested. “Then I’ll let you two decide how to handle things.”

Raea batted her eyes and lifted just one corner of her pink lips. “Good idea. Your son has become very adept at handling things.”

S
omehow Nic made it through the morning’s meetings without setting the building on fire. Or melting the glacier that wrapped around the base of the huge mountain beside them. Lianne McGowan was just too damn hot for her own good. The more she explained her plans for tweaking their procedures and reviewing their data, the more Nic realized she could pose a real threat. She could also be exactly what he needed to control the fires burning inside him. Lianne’s energy and drive indicated a strong, passionate woman. His desire was stoked and he wanted to drag her out somewhere and convince her this energy and drive could be put to much better use.

He needed to bide his time, though. Even if he hadn’t found the woman so scorchingly attractive, he knew he couldn’t let his need race ahead of good sense. Before he could get into her pants, he had to get into her good graces. It would get him closer to his goal, plus slow her down a bit on hers.

The woman was smart, and her presentation today showed that she might actually get this project moving again after it had been more or less stalled for several months. The trouble with that, of course, was that Nic was the one who’d made sure it had stalled. These humans thought they were merely investigating the stability and reliability of thermal energy beneath the nearby dormant volcano. Nic had sworn his life to protecting the real cause of this energy and he’d taken great pains to falsify data and discourage this project. Now that Ms. McGowan showed up, all his hard work was in real jeopardy. He’d have to find some way to stall her now, too.

And hot, raging sex seemed like the perfect distraction. He’d simply have to convince her she wanted it as badly as he did. From the glare she gave him when he walked over to the table in the corner where she sat eating her lunch, it seemed that melting the glacier might be easier than melting Lianne.

Nic had never been one to back away from a challenge, though. He smiled and snapped open his soft drink.

“You give a good presentation, Ms. McGowan. You must be a real asset for Geo-Diagnostics.”

“That’s why I’m here,” she replied. “To tell you guys how to do your jobs.”

“Oh, I do my job just fine.”

“Great. Then I won’t be dealing with you very much, will I?”

“Maybe not. Or maybe yes. Maybe we’ll find out I can be useful to you.”

Obviously his charm and subtlety were slipping a bit these days. The glare she gave him said she knew exactly what he was up to and was in no mood to play along. That was perfectly fine with him. Her coy intelligence only served to make the game more stimulating for him. He smiled his most smoldering smile and simply sat back to watch the sparks fly.

And damn, but she did let them fly.

“Look, Nic, I know you’ve been stuck out here on a godforsaken tundra with a bunch of engineers and computer geeks,” she said, her lips forming the words carefully, as if each one was an insult directly for him, “but you need to quit imagining I’m here for your personal entertainment. I’m not. I’m only here to get you guys off your asses and start making headway.”

He darkened his smolder and sweetened his smile. “I like making headway.”

Her lips and her eyes narrowed. He wondered if she might actually snarl at him, but in the end she did not. She took a deep, frustrated breath and scolded him soundly.

“I’m a professional, and a grown-up. You need to get right over this stupid notion that I can be flattered by childish jokes and tacky come-ons, Mr. Vladik.”

“Well, I’m flattered you remember my name.”

“Oh, you’re memorable, all right. But don’t think there’s even the slightest chance you’ll be making memories with me. I’m here to get the job done. The job we’re all getting paid for. Unless you’re here to talk about that, I suggest you go find another table and let me finish my lunch in peace.”

Very clearly she meant it. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. After all, she wasn’t the one who’d been stuck here without companionship, burning up from the inside out every day and every night. He’d just have to be a little more patient, a little more careful in his dealings with her. If she wanted to concentrate on the job, he could do that. For a little while longer.

“Very well,” he capitulated. “Let’s discuss the job, then. You are here because Geo-Diagnostics is concerned that we’ve been testing things, probing things, monitoring things, and generally spending a great deal of money on things, yet we don’t have a single reliable report to send back to your father, correct?”

“Yes. I’m glad you recognize this might be a bit of a problem for us.”

“But of course you know that what we are doing here is unique, groundbreaking work. Delays and some level of uncertainty are to be expected.”

“No, usable data and measurable progress are to be expected.”

“Our team has provided you with all of our findings.”

“Your team has been on-site for almost a year now and you’ve given us nothing. We’re not one step closer to tapping into the resources of this mountain. We still don’t even know what’s causing the massive heat buildup half a mile below us. Lava flow? The usual superheated water? Is this activity indication that the volcano is growing unstable, or will it be feasible to invest in a thermal facility here?”

“This is delicate work we do, Ms. McGowan, and—”

“This is Iceland, for pity’s sake. Geothermal technology is old hat around here. Why all the holdups now, at this site?”

“We’ve been carefully gathering all the information you need, trying to answer your questions.”

“I’ve only got one question: Is it safe to start building, or is this site too dangerous?”

“If it was safe, wouldn’t we know that by now?”

“That’s what I’m asking, but all your data is inconsistent.”

“The fact that our readings are inconsistent ought to answer your question,” he said, clamping down the desire he felt, heated by her anger and her captivating will. “If you’d have looked at our reports, you’d see that—”

“I did look at the reports, and I agree that there are a lot of inconsistencies. However, to be honest, I’m not sure if the data was inconsistent, or the reports themselves.”

His knuckles clenched white. Damn, but he had very much preferred when they were not discussing the job. He did not like being accused of incompetence, but he could hardly admit to intentionally submitting flawed reports. He’d have to deflect her questions before she either brought out his anger or dug down to the truth. Both were uncomfortably close to the surface just now and he needed to regain control.

But need was getting to be the hardest thing to control. Sitting here across from her, watching her moisten her plump lips as she prepared for a fight, meeting her flashing green eyes with his own, he was painfully aware just how strong his need had become. His body wanted her intensely and his ability to maintain human composure was wearing thinner by the minute. Instinct roiled and churned in his being. It required much more of a struggle than usual to hold them inside.

Even now he felt a wave of unbidden telepathy surge out from him. He had already touched Lianne’s mind before he quickly drew his senses back. But he had touched her, his mind creeping inside hers just for a moment.

Had she noticed? Humans were unpredictable about such things. Most humans were fully unaware of such intimate contact with his kind, but some, unfortunately, detected it and reacted irrationally. They sometimes became agitated, anxious, or violent, even, without any idea why. It was generally a good idea to keep such contact to the barest minimum, and only when truly necessary. Consequences from prolonged mental contact could range anywhere from slight memory loss to complete cerebral deterioration. There was no telling yet how Lianne would react should he probe her mind with his.

He hadn’t probed her, though. It had been merely a touch, and an accidental one, at that. She didn’t seem to have noticed it. For him, though, it had been enough to convince him that he wanted more. Lianne McGowan’s mind had felt nearly as heated as his own. Despite her cool exterior, this woman’s mind had been a whirl of fire and raw emotion. It was just the fuel Nic’s nature craved.

“Stop glowering at me,” she ordered.

“I didn’t realize I was,” he lied.

“Well, you are. Did something I say offend you?”

He shook himself mentally, regaining his cool—on the outside, at least—and schooling his expression to show the proper disdain she obviously expected.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” he responded. “It sounded to me as if you implied I don’t know how to do my job, Ms. McGowan.”

“Did I? Well, maybe it’s a bit early for me to jump to that conclusion. How about if I just promise to keep my eye on you,” she clarified, “and anyone else who is involved in the reporting process?”

He smiled. Damn, but she certainly did hide her emotion well. If not for his secret senses, he’d never guess at the tumult inside this woman. He would have expected her mind to be rigid and compartmentalized, very much the way she appeared. But no, inside she was a jumble of passions and desires, anger and fear, all tossed together as a huge pile of sharp, jagged bits that rattled and tore at each other. Touching her mind, even for that brief moment, had cut at him like he’d been plunged into broken glass.

It was tantalizing, to say the least. He’d never been one to shy away from pain. Perhaps he might just allow himself to reach into her mind again. If he became desperate enough, he knew he could use those jumbled passions for his own purposes. He could control her, if he had to.

He didn’t want to, though. The way her mind cut him, seared into him, was a completely new sensation. Human minds usually did not hold this much power. Something about Lianne affected him in a way that went beyond usual need. Reaching into her mind left marks on him. It was not mere passion he craved from her now…he was left with some other type of want, something deeper.

He’d better take his time with her. There were other ways to feed his need beyond simple control. He would have her on
her
terms, in time. For now, he could wait. He met her glare with a deceptively steady one of his own.

“I think I will enjoy having you watch me, Ms. McGowan.”

“Not the way I’m going to do it, Mr. Vladik. No, you’re not going to like that one little bit.”

He almost laughed at the cold, determined scowl on her face. She was wrong, of course. He would, indeed, very much like being watched by her. As if she could do anything to him that he might not like. Oh, but Lianne McGowan posed a delightful challenge that he was more than eager to take up.

“So the gauntlet is set,” he announced with a grin. “Just know that as you watch with your eagle eyes, Ms. McGowan, I’ll do my best to give you something interesting to look at.”

He didn’t give her the opportunity to shoot him down after that, though he could see that she wanted to. Her eyebrow arched and her lips parted. He really liked those lips, but he didn’t let her use them. There’d be plenty of time for that later.

For now, he needed to make sure she understood he wasn’t fooled by her. She could play her ball-busting games on all the other guys, and maybe they were intimidated by it, but things were different for him. Lianne McGowan had something he wanted—something he
needed
. He had felt inside her mind and realized she had her own needs, too. They roiled and strained inside her, threatening her tenuous control. He was used to wrestling that feeling, but he’d never encountered a human like this. What secrets did she hide? What tumult did she barely keep wrapped up deeply inside her?

He was determined to find out, to unleash all of it. Victory would be sweet. For both of them.

“Don’t think for one minute that I won’t be watching
you
,” he added. “Now pass me the salt and tell me how you propose we issue a more consistent report about our inconsistent core readings.”

Thank God she’d had her notebook with her. Lianne scribbled in it—nonsense, really—and flipped back and forth between pages at random times while the damn Russian rambled on about samples and readings and other things she ought to be making sense out of. She seemed to have no sense left, however. Nic with his bright, flashing eyes and that ever-present—and ever-sexy—smirk had thrown her off her game completely.

At least he’d stopped feeding her all the stupid come-on lines and seemed willing to get down to business. She took notes as he talked, glad for something to look at other than his dark, chiseled face and those sculpted lips as he formed words. The man was actually making some good points, too, discussing the various obstacles the team had come up against. What in the hell was making this particular mountain so much hotter than the others in the desolate Hornstrandir wasteland? Why was it taking so damned long to determine whether or not it was safe to establish facilities to harness that energy?

Well, she could half explain the extra heat in the mountain as Nic’s swaggering presence. God knew sitting at the table with him now, she certainly felt a hell of a lot hotter than usual. And there was nothing wrong with the heating and cooling systems in this modular. Just listening to him be all technical and businesslike had her about to boil over in her chair. Damn it, but she needed to keep her mind on her work.

“So you’re saying the mountain is unstable,” she said, dragging her mind off his broad shoulders and that damn tattoo teasing her from just under his collar.

“It is. Yes,” he replied, catching her eyes with his and holding them half a second too long.

She went back to her notebook, turning pages to find where she’d recorded the highlights of the last set of data sent to them while she was still in the States. That report had come in while she was…well, while she’d been temporarily out of commission. She’d lost a week last month and was still trying to put everything from that time in order, trying to regain herself after she’d crumbled.

Thank God no one knew about that episode. Well, almost no one. The guy she’d been dating turned out to be just another
asshole
du jour
when she’d confided in him, but she found out she didn’t care nearly as much about him as she’d thought she did. Obviously he hadn’t cared much about her, either.