Passion Ignites

by Donna Grant

  Gorul grabbed the back of her hair and yanked down until Lexi had no choice but to go to her knees. She refused to cry out. She poured as much hate into her gaze as she could and stared at the bastard.

  “We have a mate of a Dragon King,” Gorul said.

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-FOUR

  Thorn carried the last of the dead Dark off the street just as the emergency officials arrived. He went to the warehouse and dumped the body where Darius was already in dragon form burning the remains. Thorn then walked outside to join the others.

  “What a day,” Phelan said.

  Aisley leaned back against the warehouse and nodded. “I thought we’d have made some sort of dent.”

  “Rest while you can, because it’ll get worse tonight,” Con said.

  Larena sat on a crate. “I didn’t realize there were so many Dark.”

  “We must have killed several thousand,” Fallon said with a shake of his head. “Why do I feel like we didn’t even make them blink?”

  “Because we didna,” Thorn said.

  Guy clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past. “She’s fine, my friend. She’s on Dreagan.”

  “Who’s there?” Thorn asked Con.

  Con put on a T-shirt Guy handed him. “Kellan, of course. Cain, Arian, Roman, Anson, and Dmitri.”

  So few. Con was King of Kings. He made decisions that he thought best for their race. But he had spread them too thin, especially knowing that the Dark had been seen outside of Dreagan.

  “We would be there as well,” Guy added. “I’m glad we came though. You needed our help.”

  “I’m no’ denying that.” Thorn ran a hand through his hair. If only he could talk to Lexi and know that she was all right.

  “Rhi,” Phelan suddenly said.

  They all turned and found the Light Fae sitting on a stack of crates with one leg crossed over the other. The hilt of her sword could be seen sticking up behind her right shoulder. She swung her leg casually and rested her hands on either side of her legs on the crate. It didn’t seem to faze her that her shirt was riddled with holes from Dark magic. “Hello, lovelies.” She then cut her eyes to Con. “And asshole.”

  Con turned his back to her. Thorn watched as Con pulled his cuff links out of his pocket and held them in his hand, rotating them in his palm.

  “I hope you’ve all rested, because a storm is coming,” Rhi said and pointed upward.

  “If only we could take to the skies,” Thorn said. “We could end this battle quickly.”

  Guy frowned as he stared at the clouds and darkening sky. “Aye, but we can no’.”

  “Why not?” Aisley asked. “The mortals are too busy either running or throwing themselves at the Dark. Use that to your advantage.”

  “She has a point.” Con turned to face them as Darius walked out of the warehouse fastening a new pair of jeans. “It’ll be dark as well.”

  “And raining,” Guy said, excitement showing in his pale brown eyes.

  Darius raised a brow. “Lots of cloud cover.”

  “The Dark would never expect it,” Thorn said, smiling for the first time in hours.

  Con put the cuff links back in his pocket. “Thorn, you and I will take to the skies. Guy, you and Darius remain here fighting.”

  “What about us?” Fallon asked.

  Con replied, “How do you want to use your people, Fallon?”

  Thorn bit back a smile. For all of Con’s faults, he recognized Fallon was a leader, a king, if you will, of the Warriors. He was letting Fallon make the decision on where to place his people. Not everyone would have been so gracious.

  “Will he ever stop surprising me?” Darius asked in a whisper.

  Thorn gave a shake of his head. “Likely no’.”

  “Never,” Guy agreed.

  Fallon gave a nod of appreciation. “Splitting up worked earlier. We’ll stick to that.”

  Thorn noticed Rhi hadn’t said a word. She was looking to a spot off to her left with an expression of annoyance.

  “What about Rhi?” Phelan asked.

  Con shrugged, as if he couldn’t care less.

  Rhi looked at Phelan and winked. “Oh, don’t worry, stud. I’ll find a group to fight.”

  “You shouldn’t be by yourself,” Larena said.

  Rhi smiled brightly. “That’s sweet. Really. But I’m a … was … a Queen’s Guard. They don’t stand a chance.”

  Thorn glanced from Rhi to Con at Rhi’s news. If Con was as shocked as the rest of them, he hid it well.

  “What does ‘was’ mean?” Guy asked.

  Rhi jumped down off the crates, landing as gracefully as a cat wearing four-inch heels. “Exactly what I said, gorgeous.”

  “Why did you leave the queen’s service?” Darius asked.

  Rhi’s smile faltered. “I got tired of it. It’s time for a new chapter.”

  Every King there knew it was a lie. The greatest achievement of Rhi’s life had been her service to the queen.

  It was unheard of for a Fae to leave the Queen’s Guard. It was just as rare for the queen to dismiss someone as her Guard.

  Rhi licked her lips and looked around at them. “The Dark are vain. Aisley, if you and Larena are up for it, I’ve got a plan we three could execute.”

  “Name it,” Larena said.

  Aisley smiled. “Count me in.”

  “Wait,” Phelan said, but Aisley put a hand up to quiet him.

  Thorn could well imagine Lexi doing the same to him.

  “We each find a group of Dark and pretend to be just as enamored with them as the humans. Once we’re close enough, we kill them.”

  Aisley nodded sharply. “I like it.”

  “I doona,” Phelan stated with a look of dread.

  Rhi walked up to him and patted his face as she looked at Fallon. “The best part is when you and Fallon jump in and start killing.”

  “Now that I like,” Fallon said.

  Thorn noticed how Con watched Rhi as she spoke. He couldn’t tell if Con liked her plan or not since it looked as if he’d eaten an entire plate of prunes.

  “Let’s get in place then,” Con said.

  Thorn walked to Rhi before she could disappear. He touched her arm to get her attention. She swung her head to him. “I wanted to thank you again for being there to help Lexi.”

  “It’s my pleasure, gorgeous,” she said. Then her gaze softened a fraction. “She’s pretty.”

  “Aye.”

  “Am I to assume by your interest that Lexi is yours?”

  Thorn looked at the sky as he thought of their night together. “I doona know.”

  “That’s answer enough.”

  “Is it?” Thorn lowered his gaze back to Rhi. “When it comes to Lexi I know the best thing to do would be to let her go and have her memories wiped again. But the thought of her gone is … devastating.”

  Rhi’s silver eyes widened. “You’ve already wiped her memories?”

  “She got them back.”

  Rhi gaped at him for long moments. “What?”

  “I know. That’s what brought Con here.”

  The Light Fae’s gaze slid to Con who was talking with Fallon. “What did he do?”

  “Nothing.”

  Rhi made a face. “Nothing? Are you sure we’re talking about the same jerk?”

  Thorn smiled as he nodded. “The verra one.”

  “Look, stud, I know none of this is my business, but if you’ve had Guy take her memories and she got them back, that’s telling you something.” She started to turn away and stopped. Rhi looked back at him and gave an exasperated shake of her head. “Perhaps I’m not the one to give advice. I’ve always said to follow your heart, and that has gotten me nowhere. Maybe I should say protect yourself at all costs.”

  “Rhi,” Thorn said, not liking the way she was talking. It was almost as if she were saying she was giving up on her Dragon King. No. That just couldn’t be possible.

  “If you hunger for her more than you want to be in
the sky as a dragon, and if you crave her on a level that goes so deep it physically hurts, then that’s a warning, Thorn. For a select few, they get their happily ever after.” Rhi blinked rapidly.

  Thorn could only stare at the vibrant Fae who was being torn in two. It made him want to punch the King into the next century for being such a prick to let something so precious as Rhi and their love go.

  “There are some who never experience it. The worst, the absolute saddest, get a taste of that wonderful life only to have it ripped so viciously from our grasp.” Her smile was sad and pitiful. “You want to know a secret? You want to know how I survived Balladyn’s torture and the Chains of Mordare?”

  Thorn nodded slowly, knowing in his gut that he wasn’t going to like what he heard.

  “None of it came close to the pain I’ve been living with for all these centuries.” Rhi laughed and lowered her head. Then she whispered, “It’s killing me.”

  In a blink, she was gone. Thorn could only stare at the place she had been. They had all been such fools to think that Rhi was soldiering on always waiting for her King to remember why they had fallen in love.

  But Rhi knew something none of them had accepted yet—her King had already given up on her.

  “You know who the bastard is,” Phelan said as he walked up. “Do you no’?”

  Thorn didn’t pretend not to know what the Warrior referred to. “I do.”

  “Tell me his name.”

  Thorn faced him to look into Phelan’s blue gray eyes. “If Rhi willna tell you, then neither will I.”

  Phelan took a deep breath and slowly released it. “Rhi is my family. I know all the Light are supposed to be, but it’s really only Rhi. She’s been there for me and Aisley during the most difficult times. I need to help her.”

  “You are. She knows she can come to you. Doona pressure her, Phelan. Everyone else is. And trust me, you doona want to know who it is. It makes everything worse.”

  “If you had a sister, would you no’ do everything in your power to make her sadness go away? Would you no’ want to hurt the man responsible for breaking her heart?”

  It felt as if someone had slammed their fist in Thorn’s chest. Memories he hadn’t allowed to surface in millions of years began to shift and move. “I did have a sister.”

  Phelan glanced away. “I didna know.”

  “You couldna have. Believe it or no’, I do understand. I sent my sister and my family away to protect them. I have to trust that they’re all right. I had to push thoughts of them aside and focus on my duties as King, because if I didna, I’d have gone daft with worry.”

  “But Rhi is here.”

  “Aye. She lost her family and her King in short order. It almost killed her, Phelan. It wasn’t long after that her world crumbled again when Balladyn disappeared. You’re her family now. Be the shoulder she needs. When the time comes, she’ll tell you who it is.”

  Phelan closed his eyes as he shook his head, battling with what he wanted and what he knew he should do. He opened his eyes and looked at Thorn. “Tell me if I’ve met him.”

  Thorn clapped him on the shoulder as he walked off. Some things were better off not said.

  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-FIVE

  Dmitri growled when Kellan dove from above him, his wings clipping Dmitri’s.

  “What the hell, Kellan?” Dmitri said through their mental link.

  “Listen,” Kellan yelled.

  Dmitri soared through the clouds over Dreagan. He listened past the rain and wind, past the beat of dragon wings and the animals in the Dragonwood.

  There. He caught it. It was faint, so faint he wouldn’t have heard it had he not been listening. A scream.

  He dipped a wing and turned, following Kellan’s path that took them over the distillery. Dmitri glanced to his left to see deep turquoise scales. Arian had heard it too. That must mean … Dmitri’s heart skipped a beat. The mates.

  Kellan’s voice boomed through their link. “Kings, be at the ready. Keep to your posts and your eyes open. Arian and I are going to make a pass over the distillery. Dmitri, take a look at the border near there.”

  “Four more Dark have shown up at the northwest side,” Anson said.

  Cain growled low in his throat. “Another two on the east.”

  “Six more on the west,” Roman stated in an irritated voice.

  Dmitri saw Arian flying faster. He and Kellan each had mates. Knowing Arian’s woman, Grace, she was in the manor writing. But Denae was another matter entirely.

  It wasn’t just those two women either. There were eight other mates on the grounds. It was the duty of every King on Dreagan to protect them as fiercely as they protected Dreagan and their secret.

  Dmitri shifted slightly to give himself a direct path to fly over the border near the distillery. He flapped his wings to climb, using the fast moving clouds to keep him hidden.

  His first pass brought him around quickly again. Dmitri tilted his wings so that he hovered over the driveway leading from the main road onto Dreagan. He saw nothing that would cause alarm there. Yet, the idea of Dark beginning to arrive on Dreagan didn’t bode well for anyone.

  Dmitri soared above the long, winding driveway leading to the distillery and shop. To his surprise, there were many cars still in the parking lot when it should have been deserted. It was the last day the distillery was open to the public until spring.

  “We have a problem,” Kellan’s voice rang out through their link. “There are Dark Fae in the shop.”

  Dmitri fisted his hands, his talons itching to slice some Dark Fae in half. “How many mates are in the shop?”

  “Three. Jane, Shara, and Cassie.”

  “I’m heading to the manor,” Arian said.

  Dmitri circled around the distillery. He could see Kellan’s bronze tail disappear into the clouds below.

  “Keep them there, Arian. The Dark doona get into the manor no matter what,” Kellan ordered. “Anson, doona get far from Con’s mountain. If you see a Dark, kill him. If you see anyone—mortal or no’—near the mountain, kill them.”

  “Gladly,” Anson replied.

  * * *

  Lexi laughed in Gorul’s face, though inside she was frozen with fear. Not for herself, but for Thorn and everyone on Dreagan. If she had only kept her mouth shut, but she hadn’t and she needed to think fast.

  “Mate? What are you going on about?” she asked, derision in every syllable.

  Gorul ran a finger along her cheek. He laughed when she jerked her head away from him. “Who else but a mate to a Dragon King would know such things about us?”

  “Fine,” Lexi said with a bored expression. She might have failed theatre in school, but she was about to put on the performance of a lifetime. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

  Gorul got so close their noses were touching. “Then get to talking.”

  “I’ve known it was you who killed Christina. I saw all the others with red eyes and began following them around the city. I figured one would lead me to you eventually.”

  Gorul’s expression darkened. “Humans really are pathetically stupid.”

  “So stupid that I had a map showing your movements and where you liked to congregate?”

  “That’s when a Dragon King found you,” he guessed.

  “After what I saw you do to my friend, do you really think I would trust a man?” Lexi made a sound at the back of her throat. “What I did learn was that I wasn’t the only one following your kind. There were two other men. I saw them easily kill your people.”

  “The Kings,” Gorul said between clenched teeth.

  Lexi held her blanket tighter. “I don’t know who they were, but I learned a lot from them. That’s how I discovered you were Dark Fae. I went to a pub where they were and eavesdropped on their conversation. It’s how I know of the war and everything else.”

  “A likely story.” Gorul gripped her face and turned it to the side. He licked her neck up to her jaw. “It doesn’t expl
ain how you’re here now, does it?”

  She was repulsed by his touch. Lexi tried to pull away from him, but he held her tighter. In his red eyes she saw the confidence that stole whatever courage she had.

  “Let her talk,” came a deep voice behind Gorul.

  Gorul’s face went slack. He dropped his hand and spun around, going to his knee. “My king.”

  Lexi’s day kept going from bad to worse. The king of the Dark now stood in front of her. His black and silver hair hung midway down his back, and he was missing his left arm from above the elbow. He wore solid black from head to toe.

  Next to the king was a tall Fae who looked as if he couldn’t care less to be there. His black hair hung well past the middle of his back, and it was liberally streaked with silver. He also wore all black, but the inside collar of his silk button-down was dark silver.

  There were a few other Dark Fae with them, but Lexi knew those two were the ones with the most power.

  She was in deep shit now.

  The king waved Gorul away, his focus locked on Lexi. Why did all the Fae have to be so damned gorgeous? She might not be begging them for sex, but she couldn’t deny the effect the king and the man with him had on her. If she let herself, she could give in.

  Then she thought of Thorn and was able to look the king in the eye.

  He smiled slowly. “Some of my people love when humans are meek and weak. For me, I crave the spirited ones. Like you, my dear.”

  Lexi refused to move when he touched her. She would show him nothing. The more defiant she was with him, the more he would want her. And that was one place Lexi didn’t want to find herself.

  “You were telling a very curious story.” His Irish accent was defined, but not guttural. “I’m curious to hear how you came to be here.”

  “I ran,” she said. “I saw more and more of your kind flooding the streets, and I knew I had to get out of the city.”

  “With no car?” asked the Dark with the king.

  The king smiled. “That’s Balladyn, my dear. He’s my right hand, my enforcer. He’s very adept at picking through lies.”

  “Then he’ll have a hard time with me because I’m not lying.”

  Balladyn crowded her left side. Lexi kept her gaze on the king, pretending that she didn’t want to shove past both of them and run screaming from the room.