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

by Julie Wetzel

  Vicky was worried that her best friend had seen Darien bite her. “What are you doing here?”

  “I should be asking you that.” An evil grin cracked across Vanessa’s face.

  Vicky swallowed hard. “We came out to get Darien some fresh air,” she said, her voice more pitchy than usual.

  Vanessa’s grin grew. “Is that what they’re calling it nowadays?” she teased. “And here I thought you were making out.”

  Vicky let out a sigh of relief. If Vanessa hadn’t mentioned the bite already, then she didn’t see it. “Darien had too many of Beth’s Bloody Marys.”

  Vanessa looked at the man wrapped around her friend. “How many did he have?” she asked, concerned.

  “Four.”

  “Wow!” Vanessa was shocked that Darien wasn’t unconscious yet. Beth had a tendency to be very heavy handed with the alcohol in her mixed drinks. “Is he going to be okay?”

  “I think so.” Vicky looked up at the vampire leaning on her. “But, I think I need to take him home.” She moved to step forwards, and Darien stumbled.

  “I think that’s best,” Vanessa said. “Are you okay to drive?”

  “Yes.” Vicky nodded. “I’ve only had one glass of your punch.”

  Vanessa nodded back. The punch was not nearly as toxic as Beth’s drinks could be. “All right, but you had better get him some water before he goes to bed,” Vanessa added. “He’s going to wake up with one hell of a hangover tomorrow.” She moved to help Vicky with Darien.

  He swayed dangerously as Vicky moved.

  “Come on.” Vanessa tried to take his arm.

  Darien shifted away from her and held Vicky tightly. “Mine!” he hissed.

  Vanessa looked at him, shocked and unsure what to make of the drunken vampire.

  “Leave it be,” Vicky warned her friend. “He’s drunk.”

  Darien sunk his face into Vicky’s hair. “Not dunk,” he slurred, “Vampers don’t get dunk.”

  “Right,” Vanessa rolled her eyes, “and I’m the Queen of Egypt.” She looked at the possessive vampire and her friend being held hostage by him. “Let me go get help.” Vanessa turned to get her other friends.

  “Come on, Darien.” Vicky tried to coax her drunken boss. “You have to turn me loose so we can go home.”

  Shaking his head, Darien held her tighter against him. “Mine,” he whispered into the back of her head contently.

  Vicky let out an exasperated sigh and thought about her predicament. She turned around so she was facing Darien. “Yes,” she said softly, “I’m yours.”

  Darien practically purred as he nuzzled her.

  Vicky carefully pulled his hands from around her and laced her fingers with his. “Come with me, so I can take you home.” She stepped back, pulling Darien forwards.

  He staggered, unstable on his feet.

  Vanessa, Maggie, Beth, and Jerry came out just in time to see Vicky rush into Darien to keep him from falling over.

  “Here.” Jerry dashed to their side to pull Darien off Vicky.

  Darien jerked away from the unwelcome male and snapped as if he were going to take a bite out of him.

  “Darien!” Vicky reprimanded him before he could get his fangs into Jerry.

  Darien whimpered and stilled.

  “Don’t mind him, Jerry. He’s drunk. Just help me get him to the car.”

  Jerry’s eyes widened as he pulled Darien’s arm up over his shoulder.

  Vicky took the other side and soothed the intoxicated man as they started out.

  “What did he drink?” Jerry asked.

  Vicky sighed as they took Darien into the house. “Ask Beth.”

  “What?” Beth said sheepishly. “It was only a little vodka.” She smiled, enjoying seeing the powerful man so messed up.

  Darien hummed softly as they moved him out to the front porch.

  Vanessa, Beth, and Maggie followed to make sure that their friend was okay.

  “Where’s your car?” Vanessa asked looking at the row of cars still lining the street.

  “Just down there.” Vicky pointed towards the Jaguar. Fishing in Darien’s pocket, she pulled out the keys. “Let me go get it.” She tried to move away from Darien, but he pulled her back.

  “Mine,” he grumbled drunkenly, nearly knocking them all over.

  “Why don’t I go get it?” Vanessa said. “That way, you can keep Mister Needy here on his feet.”

  “Good idea.” Vicky handed the keys over to Vanessa.

  “Which one is it?” Vanessa asked as she started down the walk.

  “It’s the red one about half a block down,” Vicky called after her. “Trust me, you can’t miss it.”

  Vanessa tilted her head in curiosity and headed off to get Darien’s car.

  Vicky rearranged Darien so he was supported between herself and Jerry so they could take him down to the road.

  He started humming a familiar tune as they moved Darien towards the street.

  “‘Twas in Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty, that I first laid me eyes on sweet Molly Malone.” Jerry started singing the words to the Irish tune Darien was humming.

  Darien joined him as they staggered down the driveway. They were all loudly singing the song by the time Vanessa came roaring up in the little, red convertible.

  Jerry whistled appreciatively as Vanessa got out of the car. “Nice.”

  “Darien’s a bit of a car nut,” Vicky confessed as Jerry helped her load Darien into the passenger seat.

  Darien rambled something off in badly slurred Gaelic.

  Vicky’s friends looked at him, surprised.

  “Maybe you should take him to the hospital,” Beth said, concerned for the man. She tried to calculate exactly how much vodka he had consumed. Were twelve shots enough to make someone talk in tongues?

  “I’ll take care of it.” Vicky hurried around the car. She needed to take him home before something bad happened. Climbing into the car, she fussed with the train of her dress, trying to get her feet clear.

  Vicky’s friends waved as she drove off.

  “Will she be able to get him inside by herself?” Jerry asked, concerned.

  “Don’t worry about that.” Vanessa turned to go back inside. “If she has to, she can get the concierge to help her with him.”

  “Concierge?” Jerry asked as he followed the girls back inside. “Are they staying in a hotel?”

  “No,” Beth explained. “The building they live in has an attendant in the lobby at all times.”

  Jerry looked back at the road in surprise. “She lives with him?”

  Maggie shrugged. “Since the unexplained fire in her apartment a few months back.”

  Jerry’s eyes widened even more. “What have you girls been doing since I’ve been gone?” He laughed.

  “Just the normal stuff.” Vanessa grinned at her friend.

  “Yeah,” Jerry laughed again. “Just getting into trouble.”

  Beth grinned. “Nothing we can’t handle.”

  Jerry took one last look at the street before following his friends inside. He hoped that the drunken man was not more than Vicky could handle.

  ***

  Vicky looked over at Darien as he snored quietly in the passenger seat. He had spent most of the ride back home singing in Gaelic to her. She loved the dulcet tones of the old language and decided that she was going to have him teach it to her when he was acting right again. “We’re home.” Vicky patted Darien on the arm.

  He moaned lightly in his sleep.

  Vicky sighed. She had no idea how she was going to get him out of the car if she couldn’t wake him up. The weight he had left in her chest was getting hotter, and all she wanted to do was get them inside and get out of this blasted corset. Vicky opened the door and swung her legs out of the car. A soft whimper drew her attention, and she looked down at the dark Shih Tzu waiting for her. “Zak.” She picked up the fay. “What are you doing out here?” Rubbing the hellhound, she stood up from the car.
>
  He gurgled and rubbed his face into Vicky.

  Rounding the car to get Darien out, she stopped when something moved in the shadows. She froze, remembering the random attacks that had been happening in the city.

  “Victoria,” a familiar voice called to her.

  “Elliot?” Vicky asked as Darien’s friend stepped into the light. “Thank God you’re here.” She set Zak onto the ground and turned to open the passenger door. “There’s something wrong with Darien.”

  Elliot took a hold of her hand and turned her to face him before she could get the door open. “It’s not Darien I’m worried about.” He looked into Vicky’s eyes, studying her for a moment. “Did he try to mark you?”

  The concern in his soft voice confused her. “He did,” she confirmed.

  Elliot let out a disappointed sigh. “Forgive me.”

  Vicky didn’t have time to respond as he grabbed her and chomped down on her neck. She let out the slightest of gasps as Elliot poured his power into her. It washed through her with a feeling of light through the canopy of a tall tree—cool and very green. The energy wrapped around the hot lump growing inside of her chest, cooling it slightly. Vicky felt a hard tug and went limp in his arms as he tore the magic out of her.

  Elliot released his hold on her neck and pulled back, breathing hard. He raised a hand to the wound on her neck, pressing on it to stop the bleeding. “I’m sorry,” he apologized again as he held her in his arms.

  Zak whined from where he sat on the sidewalk.

  Elliot moved his hand to make sure the bite wasn’t bleeding. He didn’t have the healing skills need to seal the wound. That was Darien’s skill, not his. Once he was sure she had stopped leaking, he licked the blood from his hand before picking her up. Elliot followed Zak into the building as he carried her.

  Ethan, the concierge, looked up from his book and stood as Elliot carried the limp and bloody woman into the room.

  “We’re fine,” Elliot said to the attendant. “Go back to your book and ignore us,” he instructed, and Ethan went back to his book as if nothing had happened. Elliot was surprised at how easy getting past Ethan had been, but with as many times as the poor man had been put under a suggestion, it was understandable.

  Zak shook out of his dog form and stretched a tentacle up, pressing the call button for Elliot. He whined and reached up to touch Vicky.

  “She will be fine, my friend,” he reassured the fay as they got into the elevator. “I just have to get that idiot straightened out so he can fix this mess,” Elliot growled.

  Zak echoed his anger as he punched the code that would take them to the penthouse.

  Elliot took Vicky into the living room and set her down on the couch. “Stay with her.” He turned the fireplace on. “I’ll take care of him.”

  Zak gurgled his agreement and climbed up on Vicky.

  Elliot squared his shoulders and stalked out of the penthouse to deal with his friend.

  “Wake up!” Elliot growled as he slapped Darien hard across the face. He took his friend and threw him into the tub of cold water he had run.

  Darien gasped as the icy water shocked him out of his drunken stupor.

  Elliot shoved his head back under the water roughly. “Are you awake now?” Growling again, he released the messed-up man.

  Darien came up coughing water out of his lungs. “What the hell?” he growled back at his so-called friend. It felt like someone had a full drum line playing cadences in his head.

  Elliot sneered and dragged him from the water by the front of his undershirt. “So you are alive.” He had stripped Darien out of most of his costume before trying to wake him. Elliot dropped Darien to the floor where he sprawled across the tile, coughing as water rushed away from him.

  “Damn it, Elliot!” Darien snapped as he attempted to get up. He managed to get propped on his elbow before the room started spinning. Clutching his head, he tried to make it stop whirling.

  Grabbing him again, Elliot pulled him harshly into a sitting position. “Darien, what the hell is wrong with you?” He squatted down to look at his drunken friend.

  Darien swallowed hard as a bout of nausea turned his stomach. “I don’t know.” He tried not to puke on the floor.

  “Well you better find out, and fast,” Elliot said, pissed off. “We don’t have much time.” He turned to look towards the door and the woman he was worried about. Elliot turned back to catch the hazy expression on Darien’s face. “How in the hell did you get so shitfaced?” he asked, recognizing the look of intoxication in his friend’s eyes.

  Darien moaned and raised his hand to his aching head.

  Elliot growled, irritated at the situation. Slicing his wrist with a fang, he spun Darien around on the wet floor. When Darien yelled in protest, Elliot shoved his bleeding wrist into his open mouth. Darien struggled for a moment, but Elliot held him fast. “Shut up and drink, idiot.”

  Darien swallowed the blood welling up in his mouth before he choked on it. He swallowed twice more before the magic in Elliot’s blood burnt the alcohol from Darien’s system.

  Jerking his wrist back from his friend, Elliot let Darien fall backwards onto the floor. His head crack on the tile with a resounding thud as Elliot stood up and covered the wound on his wrist. Pressing on the cut until his body healed it, he looked down at his friend, curled into a ball and clutching his head.

  “What the hell?” Darien cursed again, not understanding why his friend was being so cruel.

  “I have no clue why you’re cursing at me!” Elliot raged at him. “You’re the one that nearly killed her. If you don’t pull yourself together and fix this, you’re going to lose her when the sun comes up.”

  Darien looked up at his friend, concerned by his words. “What are you talking about?” He sat up, dripping on the floor.

  “Victoria,” Elliot growled at him.

  Darien went to get up. “What about her?”

  Elliot offered him a hand, and he took it. “You tried to mark her.” He pulled Darien to his feet.

  “So?” Darien said. “She agreed to it.” He rubbed his still-aching head.

  “Did she agree to you turning her?” Elliot asked softly.

  Darien froze at his friend’s words. He looked up in confusion.

  “Because that is what you tried, but you messed that up too.”

  Darien’s eyes widened in shock.

  “You’re one lucky son of a bitch because I don’t think she would have forgiven you for killing her without asking.”

  Darien rushed past Elliot into the living room. Stopping in the doorway, he looked down at Vicky, sleeping on the couch with Zak lying on top of her. “What happened?” he asked, stepping into the room lit by the fireplace.

  “When you marked her, you forgot to pull the energy back out,” Elliot explained. “It had started to hurt her by the time she got you home.” He stepped up next to his friend. “I pulled it out, but there was already damage done.” Giving his friend a frustrated look, he went on. “Darien, I don’t have the skill to fix this. Dakine can, but it would take too long for him to get here. You’re a healer—do something, or the dawn will unravel her, and she will be lost.” Elliot swallowed hard. “If that happens, I won’t be able to stop what Zak will do to you.”

  Zak growled a warning at Darien.

  “Yes,” Darien agreed as he ran his hands over his head, slicking his wet hair back. He went to the front of the couch.

  Zak wiggled menacingly at him.

  “Peace, little one.” Elliot reached over the back of the couch and rubbed Zak’s feelers down. “He’s going to fix this.”

  The fay whined his worry and touched Vicky’s face.

  Elliot tugged on one of fay’s ends. “Give him some space.”

  Zak wiggled farther down Vicky to lie on her legs.

  Darien looked at the fay before kneeling on the floor in front of the couch. He stretched his hand out and rested his spread fingers gently on her chest. Closing his eyes, he opened himse
lf to her. A pained noise escaped him as he surveyed the damage. The vampiric power he’d left in her had started eating away at the web that held Vicky’s life force to her. Elliot had torn it more when he pulled the power out. The tattered edges were already starting to unravel. If he didn’t do something fast, there would be no way to save her. Darien centered and calmed himself so he could concentrate on what he needed to do.

  Grabbing up the loose ends of Vicky’s essence, Darien wove them back together the best he could. He had never done anything like this, but he had read about what held a person’s life once when he was studying magic. He ran into a problem when the ends of the strands were tight, but there was still a hole in the web where the uncontrolled power had devoured it. Darien held the pieces together as he thought about how to fix the rest. As long as he held the ends together, she was safe, but he couldn’t stay there indefinitely. He could feel her energy fluttering under his fingertips. He delved into her life force and felt the way it curled around his power. It was soft and warm, like feathers under his fingers. A slight smile broke across Darien’s face as he remembered something Vicky had once told him. His power was warm and soft like feathers, too; maybe he could use that to fix the damage.

  Darien reached to his core and found the part of him that held his life force and snagged a strand. It hurt as he pulled on it, but the strands stretched. He was able to pull a section out without damaging the web too much. Snipping the piece out, he secured the loose ends so they wouldn’t unravel. Given time, the break would mend, but he was more worried about Vicky. If his strand would not bind with hers, he didn’t know what else to do. Darien carefully wove the piece into the tear and prayed that it would hold. He tied the last knot in the string and held his breath. Vicky moaned in her sleep when he released his hold on the web. The strand stretched but held the damaged ends together. Relief flooded him as he pulled back to survey his work. The patch was messy, but it looked to be holding. He slumped until his head rested on the edge of the couch.

  “And?” Elliot asked nervously from where he stood behind the couch.