Текст книги "Passion Ignites"

Автор книги: Donna Grant

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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

“Thorn.”

Thorn’s eyes flew open at Con’s voice in his head. He glanced at Lexi to find her asleep after hours of lovemaking throughout the night. His body was curved around hers, his arm thrown over her waist.

He took his time getting out of the bed so as not to wake her. Thorn walked to the couch and put on his jeans. Then he gathered their clothes and tossed them on a chair near the bed.

Once he made sure Lexi was covered, he walked to the door and opened it. Con stood there with Guy. Thorn looked between the two and blocked their entrance with his hand on the door frame.

“You’re no’ going to let me in?” Con asked in an even tone.

Thorn wasn’t fooled. Con might appear calm and cool to the world, but inside was a maelstrom of anger and fury that broke through occasionally.

“We can talk here,” Thorn said.

Guy jerked his chin toward the inside of the flat. “I believe he doesna wish to wake Lexi, Con.”

“I’m awake,” Lexi said in a mumble from behind him.

Thorn glanced over his shoulder and bit back a groan when the sheet fell to reveal her amazing breasts.

“I think,” Lexi added.

Thorn made sure Con couldn’t see, though Guy had turned his back to the flat. “Lexi, you might want to get dressed.”

From the sounds coming behind him, Thorn knew she was gathering her clothes and walking to the bathroom with the sheet around her. Her hurried footsteps told him she sensed the situation was important.

When Thorn heard the bathroom door close, he turned on his heel and walked to the kitchen counter, leaving the door open for Con and Guy to enter.

Thorn turned on the coffeepot and crossed his arms while leaning against the counter. He had known Guy would tell Con about Lexi’s memories. It didn’t bode well that Con was here.

No one said a word. Guy stood near the door while Con walked the flat looking around as if he was interested. It was fake. Everything about Con was fake. The Dragon Kings accepted it because it was a mantle the King of Kings had to take with the humans.

Except that act had become Con’s mask that he never removed.

Ten minutes later, Lexi walked from the bathroom freshly showered. She wore her clothes from the day before and her hair was gathered at the back of her head in a messy twist of hair and elastic that she made look good.

Her gaze went to Con first. She turned toward Thorn and spotted Guy. Her entire body went taut at seeing him. Thorn walked to her with a mug of coffee in hand.

“Morning,” he whispered and handed her the cup.

She dragged her gaze from Guy and tried to smile. It failed. “Morning.”

This was not how Thorn wanted to start the day. He wanted to wake her making love. Instead, she was on the defensive.

“Hello, Lexi,” Guy said with a smile.

She blew on her coffee. “Hi.”

“It seems, Lexi Crawford, that you’re all anyone can talk about,” Con said. He had his back to them looking at a picture on Darcy’s wall with his hands clasped behind his back. “No one has ever had their memories returned after they’ve been taken by Guy.”

“I won’t apologize for something he had no right to do. They’re my memories,” she said.

Thorn waited for Con’s response, because though Lexi’s words weren’t meek, her tone hadn’t been bitter or angry.

Con turned to her then. “We’ve existed for a long time with mortals. For a short period, they knew of us. I know you know the story, so I willna go into details.” Con walked to them and took a seat at the table. He then motioned for Lexi to do the same. “The majority of that time, humans have had no inkling we’ve been here. It needs to remain that way.”

Thorn took the chair that situated him between Con and Lexi. He had no idea where Con was going with his statements, but Thorn didn’t have a good feeling about it.

“It’s imperative that our existence stays secret,” Guy said as he took the last chair. “It’s the reason I agreed to do as Thorn asked with your memories.”

Lexi looked at each one of them, a knot of uncertainty forming in her stomach. She had been woken by voices, and sat up before she thought twice about it. Now she wished she were back in bed pretending to sleep so she didn’t have to face whoever this man was.

She focused on the man in the dark gray suit. He wore no tie with his crisp white dress shirt. She caught a glimpse of dragon-head cuff links at his wrist. If he hadn’t been wearing a suit, she would think he was a beach bum with his shortish wavy blond hair that was longer on top.

Then again, with his piercing black eyes and controlled movements, there was no doubt he was a lethal predator. “Who are you?”

“Constantine.”

Of course. She should’ve known. Still, the King of Kings sitting next to her. Should she curtsy or something?

Lexi sipped on the coffee, the caffeine in her empty stomach doing nothing to calm her. “You want to know how my memories returned?”

“I do,” Con said.

Lexi set her mug on the table, but kept both her hands around it. She shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I was sitting at the airport bar. I remembered how my friends wanted to go to a distillery, but I hadn’t been interested. I thought with it being my last hours in Scotland that I would try some whisky.”

She glanced at Thorn to see him frowning. “I told the bartender that I knew nothing about Scotch and to give me the best he had. He poured it and left the bottle, telling me to read the label for some history.

“It was as I put my wallet back in that I found the knife in my purse. I didn’t understand how it got there. It wasn’t the one I bought. Then, I took a drink of the whisky as I looked at the bottle. The label had two dragons on it.”

“Dreagan,” Thorn murmured.

Lexi nodded. “Dreagan. I knew that name. It sounded so familiar, but I couldn’t place it. It wasn’t until I looked at the dragons again that it all came back in a violent rush. I got up, found a taxi, and returned to the city. That’s all there is.”

“Who was sitting beside you?” Guy asked.

She shook her head as she thought back. “No one. I sat on one end, and there were two men sitting on the other.”

Con studied her, his gaze seeming to size her up. “Did they speak to you?”

“No one but the bartender spoke,” Lexi answered.

“What was the first thing you remembered?”

Lexi couldn’t hold Con’s gaze. His black eyes were too sharp. They saw too much. She looked down at her coffee. Her pause lengthened, not because she couldn’t recall, but because of how fiercely his name had bellowed through her head. “Thorn.”

“Doona look at me,” Thorn said to Con. “I was killing Dark.”

Con gave a single nod. “As Darius said. You were going to let Lexi leave?”

“Aye.”

“Why?”

This Lexi was dying to hear. She’d wanted to know since she woke from her injuries to find him gone. The story Darius told her was heartbreaking, and that did play a part. But after their lovemaking last night, it didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.

“I had to,” Thorn bit out.

That seemed enough for both Con and Guy, but not nearly enough for her.

“That’s it?” she asked Thorn. “You had to? If I hadn’t remembered, I’d be back in Charleston.”

“And away from the danger here,” Thorn pointed out.

“And you.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. Finally he said, “Aye.”

Did that mean he was going to walk away from her again? It was a possibility she had known the night before, but everything seemed so different in the light of day after heated hours in his arms.

He had held her so tenderly, loved her so thoroughly. Then been gentle and fierce in turns, and it made her stomach flutter every time she thought of it. The soreness between her legs helped to remind her that it hadn’t been a dream.

Lexi dropped her head and pretended to get sleep out of the corner of her eye while she took that time to try and gather the pieces of her obliterated soul.

To be fair, Thorn had made no promises. There had been nothing said of feelings or what was to come. Only the ecstasy they found in each other’s arms.

She wanted to stand and make him face what was between them. But how was that fair? There was a war going on, a war that she might not otherwise know about had Christina not died.

Yet she did know about the Dark Fae, Dragon Kings, and magic. There was no pretending. Thorn was needed. If she wanted to show him and the others that she understood, then she should support him. Though it was going to kill her to do it.

“You’re right,” she said as she lifted her head. “I shouldn’t have to be reminded about the Dark.” She slid her gaze to Con. “I have no answers for you.”

“I believe I have what I came for,” Con stated after a brief pause.

Lexi frowned, not sure what she could’ve said that satisfied him. Con’s eyes didn’t look away from her. She took a deep breath, waiting for Guy to grab her and take her memories again.

This time would be even worse, because she wouldn’t be able to look back and think of her time in Thorn’s arms.

“What will you do now?” Con asked her.

Lexi blinked in surprise. “I don’t know.”

At the same time, Thorn said, “I’m protecting her.”

She swiveled her head to him. Did that mean they weren’t going to wipe her memories? Or did that mean that Thorn was going to make sure she got on the plane this time?

“As I assumed,” Con said to Thorn. His eyes returned to Lexi. “Did Darius tell you how we made sure never to fall for a human again?”

Lexi turned her mug around in her hand. “No.” And she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “I know of Ulrik and the betrayal by his woman.”

“After Ulrik’s banishment, the Kings combined our magic and cast a spell to ensure that we would never be betrayed again.”

It sounded as bad as she thought it might. It also answered her question about whether Thorn had any feelings for her.

“For thousands of years the spell remained in place,” Con continued. “Until a few years ago. We didna know the reasoning at the time, but the spell was broken. The Kings began to find love with humans. They took these mortals as their mates.”

Guy bowed his head at her. “I’m one of them.”

Now Lexi was even more confused. So the Kings couldn’t fall in love, but now they could?

Con smiled, as if he knew she was baffled, yet his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll be the first to tell anyone that I doona want my Kings to take mates. We’ve been lucky so far, but I know a betrayal will happen. I tell you all of this because we’ve noticed a trend.”

She watched as Con got to his feet and stood behind the chair. He adjusted his sleeves and cuff links before he rested his hands on the back of the chair.

“What’s that?” Lexi asked.

His hard gaze softened just a fraction, and she thought he might have given her a true smile—though it was small.

“Because those mates are immune to the Dark after coming in contact with their Dragon King.”

Lexi sat back and shook her head. “You think that’s why I’m immune to the Dark?”

Con’s blond brows lifted in his forehead. “Are you now? Interesting.”

“I’ll be damned,” Guy said with a smile. “That’s how my magic was broken.”

Lexi threw up her hands in frustration. “Will someone enlighten me?”

Guy chuckled. “The kiss you shared with Thorn. You held on to that tightly. It took me a lot to erase that memory.”

Lexi was afraid to look at Thorn, afraid he might be appalled by what Con and Guy were saying. A mate? Her?

No, that couldn’t be possible.

Did she lust after him? Did she want to jump on him and strip off his clothes? Did she want to curl up on the couch and watch a movie with him?

Hell yes.

Lexi turned her head to find Thorn staring at her, his expression closed.

Which pretty much said it all.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-EIGHT

Rhi stood in her small cottage in Italy. It had been awhile since she visited. The last time was when he had been there.

How long had he known of the house? Not that it mattered. It was her last time there. The cottage was once a sanctuary for her, a place she could go that no one knew about.

Yet now there were two who knew. Her love and Ulrik. And that was two too many.

One by one she took down the bottles of nail polish and put them in a box. She took the clothes from the closet and put them in another box. It wasn’t until she turned to the bed that she saw the nail polish.

Rhi stared at it for a long time before she picked up the bottle. Why did he keep returning? If he wanted to talk to her, he knew how to find her. Or was he becoming interested because she was trying to stop loving him?

She turned the bottle upside down and read aloud, “Titanium.”

It was a shimmery dark silver with black, grays, and whites. It would go perfectly with her choice of clothes lately. The fact she hadn’t used the pink he left behind—and that he knew it—made her chest ache.

But at least this time she didn’t fall into the fetal position and cry.

It was a step in the right direction.

Rhi tucked the nail polish into the front pocket of her jeans and teleported away with her boxes. She breathed in the fresh sea air at her new destination.

She was on a small island in the Caribbean without another soul for miles. It truly was a refuge now. No one could stumble upon her here without her knowing about it.

The hut was sparse, but perfect. Palm fronds were laid over the metal roof, and it didn’t have a single wall. The bed was queen sized and hung suspended by rope as thick as her wrist from the beams above.

The shower was as sparse as the hut. It had a showerhead that was attached to a three-foot-wide wall of cut bamboo that rose up six feet. The kitchen was nonexistent, and besides a tiny table with two chairs, the only other furniture was a hammock, a chair and umbrella in the sand, and a chest for her clothes.

“Perfect,” Rhi said and snapped her fingers, exchanging her jeans and shirt for a white bikini.

She left the unpacking for later and dove into the water. For hours, she swam with the fish and dolphins. Beneath the water she wasn’t being bombarded with everything. She could focus on one thing at a time.

The Reapers were being looked into by Balladyn. She would worry about his “payment” when it came due, and if he told her anything of importance.

Her biggest issues were Usaeil and the war. Rhi knew the queen was making the wrong decision about not helping the Dragon Kings. She couldn’t understand why Usaeil wouldn’t align with them.

The Dark’s deliberate attack on Scotland to rile the Kings worked to perfection. The war the Dark craved was in motion.

Rhi wasn’t sure her participation in helping the Kings would be welcome after not coming to Warrick and Darcy’s aid.

The fact was, she liked Earth. She liked humans. She didn’t want to see the realm razed by the Dark. Whether the Kings wanted her help or not, she was going to give it.

Rhi swam to shore and walked onto the sand. Her watcher had found her again. Sooner than she had expected.

“Who are you?” she demanded angrily. “Show yourself!”

She used her magic to try and make them appear, but it bounced back at her, knocking her backward a few steps. Rhi stared at the spot where she had thrown the magic.

“What do you want with me?” she asked.

There was no response, just more silence.

She didn’t have time for that. She used magic again and changed from her bathing suit to black jeans, black spiked boots, and a black turtleneck.

Magic also dried her skin and hair. She braided her hair in two small braids on each side of her temple, then gathered the bulk of her hair into a bun at the back of her head.

She closed her eyes and held out her hand. With a few whispered words, her sword appeared. Rhi strapped the sheath across her upper body so the sword rested against her back.

With a thought, she was in Edinburgh.

Rhi barely had time to look around before a Dark came at her. She unsheathed her sword and beheaded him. Looks like she arrived just in time, she thought with a smile.

Two more Dark came at her, their red eyes glowing in the night. Rhi backed into an alley, her sword at the ready. In two swings of her sword they were dead.

*   *   *

The morning went by quickly for Lexi. Since all three Kings—Thorn, Guy, and Con—asked her to remain in the flat no matter what, she had agreed. Although, she had nowhere else to go.

It wasn’t long before another two couples from MacLeod Castle arrived looking weary and exhausted. She cooked them brunch as they rested and changed clothes.

She had just begun to clean up when a man popped into the flat. He just appeared. Out of nowhere.

Lexi gaped at him, but he merely smiled.

“It’s good to see you up this time, lass,” he said in a deep Scottish brogue.

Lexi couldn’t remember meeting him. Her gaze dropped from his green eyes to the gold torc around his neck.

“I’m Fallon MacLeod. The eldest of the MacLeod brothers.”

“A Warrior,” she said with a nod, piecing it together. Fallon was the one who could teleport. He was also the one who had brought Druids to help heal her the night she was hit with Dark magic.

He gave her a wink. “I’m here to take this lot back,” he said, motioning to the four behind him.

Lexi watched as he walked to them and put his hands on the shoulders of two of them. When they were all touching, they vanished.

“Now that could definitely be something I’d use,” Lexi said with a chuckle. “No more astronomical plane tickets to visit places. He could just pop me back home.”

If she wanted to return to Charleston. Which she didn’t. That hit her suddenly.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see her friends, but the idea of leaving Thorn seemed … preposterous. It wasn’t as if she had known him for long. Yet it felt as if she were meant to be there—even in the middle of a magical war.

She stood there thinking about her night with Thorn. A more magical, dreamy night she had never imagined. How she wanted a million more of them.

With a smile she gathered the dirty dishes and brought them to the sink. Lexi just finished washing the last of the dishes when there was a knock on the door and Darius entered. He held several bags of food that he put on the counter. Then with a wave, he was gone.

Lexi laughed at the closed door. She wiped her hands on a towel and went to inspect the bags. As she drew close she smelled the fish and chips, and her stomach immediately rumbled with hunger.

She eagerly dug into the food and ate until she couldn’t put another bite in her mouth. Then she moved to the couch.

Lexi didn’t mind having most of the day to herself. It gave her time to think, which only proved to give her more questions than answers.

The afternoon passed with no one arriving. She tried to watch some TV, but she couldn’t concentrate. With nothing else to do, she began to cook. She had no idea if the Warriors and Druids would return or if Thorn and the others would be hungry.

She baked a cake and some scones while she considered how she felt about Thorn. Like appeared too soft of a word for how she felt, but she wasn’t sure she could call it the other “L” word.

That word seemed so … intense.

But that’s exactly how she would describe how she felt for Thorn—intense.

Passionate was another.

Then there was fierce and profound.

She also felt awoken. Yes, that was a great word for describing just one of her feelings. Thorn had pulled her out of a fog and shown her the light.

Lexi let the desserts cook and set about putting some chicken in the oven. Then she peeled and boiled potatoes for garlic mashed potatoes. She would wait to do the steamed spinach until later.

While she waited on the chicken, she realized how precarious she was to thinking of that “L” word in regards to Thorn.

Love.

She actually thought it aloud in her head. The fact she didn’t feel like the earth was crashing in around her was revealing.

Lexi had never had time to think of love. It wasn’t that she hadn’t dated, but she could never see a future with any of those men. Which is why none of those relationships lasted longer than a few weeks.

It was different with Thorn. She could see a future with him. It might be a dangerous one, but it was also one filled with light.

But to even think she might be falling for him? That was pushing things. She needed to get a hold of herself quickly. With a half-hearted attempt, she tried to say that Thorn was just someone she was attracted to, but it fell flat. It was so much more than that—and there was no use in pretending otherwise.

How could she see a future with him when he was immortal?

Immortal. He could never die. The idea didn’t compute in her mind. Even though if a King took a human as a mate, the female lived as long as he did, she didn’t consider that option.

Because while she might feel deeply for Thorn, she was unsure of where he stood.

Lexi stirred the potatoes and opened the oven to check on the rosemary chicken. When she straightened, she heard a noise behind her and turned to find Thorn.

Her heart jumped in excitement at seeing him. He was covered in blood again. Their gazes met and held. As soon as his lips softened into a smile, she returned it.

“You’re flushed,” he said thickly.

Lexi pointed to the oven behind her. “Cooking.”

“It smells delicious,” Darius said as he came in.

Following close behind him was a man with long dark blond hair and cobalt eyes. “I’m starving.”

“You’re always hungry,” replied a woman with auburn curly hair pulled back in a ponytail.

Thorn walked to Lexi and pointed to the man. “That’s Galen, a Warrior. The woman behind him is his wife, Reagan.”

Lexi nodded just as another couple came in. The woman had wavy brown hair streaked with blond. Her blue-green eyes were filled with pain as she limped.

The man holding her up looked like he was ready to rip someone’s head off. His eyes were focused on the woman as he brought her to the kitchen table. Only then did he let out a breath and run a hand along his black hair pulled back in a queue.

“Ramsey and Tara,” Thorn said. “Ramsey is part Druid, part Warrior.”

She hadn’t known that was even possible. “Is Tara hurt?”

“She’ll be fine,” Ramsey said as he frowned at his wife. “If she would’ve listened to me, she would’ve never twisted her ankle.”

Tara rolled her eyes and looked at Lexi. “Many a time a man’s mouth has gotten him in trouble.”

Lexi laughed, but quickly stopped when she saw Thorn staring at her. “What?”

“It’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh.” He tucked her hair behind her ear and let his fingers caress her cheek as his hand dropped. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Liar,” he said with a grin.

Lexi had started to turn away when he pulled her against him. His head lowered so that their noses brushed. “Doona ever be afraid to tell me the truth.”

“I don’t know what I’m feeling. I’m scared and worried. I’m afraid that every time you walk out the door you won’t return.”

He cupped her face with both hands and tilted her head back so that she looked into his eyes. “I’ll no’ leave like that ever again. You have my word.”

She was completely taken by his declaration. He infuriated her at one turn, and the next he made her heart mush.

It was no wonder she fell so hard for him.