Fire and Fantasy: a Limited Edition Collection of Epic and Urban Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  “No, no,” he said. “I think I’m staying here. I just… the last few days are kinda bits and pieces, and I’m just so flipping exhausted I think I could cry. Even—” he stopped himself before he said even in front of an incredibly gorgeous woman like you. “—I mean, except that would just make my head hurt more.”

  It would. His body seemed to have finally realized he wasn’t dying, and everything came crashing down on him. If he’d thought he was tired before… this was a million times worse. Even his toes ached. There wasn’t a single muscle in his whole body that wasn’t screaming for relief.

  He just needed a nap. A little one. His neck felt weak, and his head nodded forward to rest against the window. Then his eyes began to droop. He blinked once and the city was much closer. He blinked again and couldn’t manage to reopen his eyes.

  Two

  A bolt of lightning flashed outside the window, jolting Wash awake in the leather seat. He jerked back against the restraint before remembering where he was. His mind lingered in his dream before it all came back to him. The water, the rescue, Caitlin.

  He looked over at her, half expecting her not to be there. She flashed him a brilliant smile and waved at him.

  No, not at him. Past him, out the window.

  Outside the car, dozens of people were pressed up against the windows. Drones, phones and purpose-built cameras snapped hundreds of photos per second. Wash pulled back from the window, startled, and bumped into Caitlin.

  “What the hell?” He looked at her.

  “I’m super sorry about this,” she said to him, the smile never slipping off her face. “If I don’t give them something, they’ll just make it up. So smile and do your best to look like were having a good time. You’re pretty much my current boyfriend by now. No way to avoid it.”

  Her what now?

  She pressed the button on the dash that depolarized the windows along with dropping the expensive privacy screen. She leaned over next to him. Her hair smelled like sea water, mixed with jasmine and sage.

  He did his best to smile along with her, hopefully not showing how confused he was.

  The cacophony outside the car was almost deafening.

  “Cait, darling, love your hair! Was that you at the beach?”

  “Did you save those people from the tsunami?”

  “Ms. Vnois, aren’t you dating Dirkshire? What about Givens? Are you planning on rebutting Dirkshire’s public announcement of your relationship?

  It was subtle, but he noticed a slight shift in her body language at the mention of those names. She casually draped an arm over Wash’s shoulder, leaning in even closer.

  “I’m honestly really sorry about this. We’ll sort it all out later, okay?” Her lips were so close to his ear as she whispered it sent a shiver down his spine. All he could do was nod dumbly.

  Well, she might be sorry, but he wasn’t. She was touching him, and although it freaked him out a little that it affected him so much—though, honestly, what did he have to measure her against?—that didn’t mean he wasn’t enjoying it. He tried to look at the reporters, but he couldn’t quite tear his eyes away from her.

  “Are you going to make a statement about your sister being here? Is Atlantis making an official alliance with Osiris?”

  That seemed to catch her off guard. He didn’t know her well, but universal body language didn’t lie.

  “That’s all folks,” she said in a pleasant voice. “Enjoy the sun!”

  She flipped the privacy back on and the windows immediately darkened. All the questions and chatter vanished.

  “What was your name, again?” he asked as she pulled her arm from around his shoulder and put her hands on the wheel.

  Atlantis. That’s what the reporter said. He didn’t really follow international affairs but everyone knew about the island kingdom that just appeared and claimed to be Atlantis. Populated with elves out of legend or something like that.

  He started to think he’d missed something really obvious, and he might have offended her.

  “I don’t live under a rock, really…” he began. Well, that was half true. He’d done a pretty good job of shutting things out for the past few years. He didn’t have much time left over, what with his mom and everything.

  She let out a sigh.

  “Sorry. I kind of screwed up, here. After you passed out, I realized I really didn’t want to dump you at some random hospital and hope you’d be okay. The hotel here provides an in-house doctor to a certain portion of his clientele—including me—and I thought maybe I could bring you here, and then I wouldn’t worry.”

  “About me?” he asked dumbly.

  She shot him a narrow look. “Yes, you. Of course, you. I just… I didn’t think about all of this.” She waved behind her.

  Wash looked back at the crowd of reporters being held off by hotel security as the car descended into the parking garage. He couldn’t think of a more confusing day to have a head injury.

  “It was stupid,” she went on. “I’ve been in the game long enough to handle this stuff with my eyes closed, but with the tsunami and you and… some other things… I just wasn’t thinking, and I’m sorry.”

  “I have a gorgeous girl driving me around in her Aston Martin, pretending to be my girlfriend. I should really sue or something.”

  She looked at him for a moment and then laughed.

  “Okay, okay. Still—you don’t know how complicated these things can get.”

  “But you do. So… really. Who are you?”

  That drew a sly smile out of her, and she patted his leg. “I can’t say. I mean, I could, but… I’ve really enjoyed having someone around who doesn’t know who I am. It’s nice. Let me enjoy it for a little longer?”

  Curiosity burned inside him. “But you will tell me?”

  “After we get you checked out. And maybe grab some dinner.” She opened her eyes wide in a pleading look that no one could possibly resist. “Please? You do owe me your life.”

  He’d already decided to let it go for now, but he selfishly waited for one more ‘Please?’ before giving in. Damn, she was adorable.

  He certainly couldn’t complain about spending more time with her. Whoever she was, she was probably only keeping him around for the novelty of his company. Once the mystery was solved, she’d send him on his way.

  There was no harm in enjoying the weird ride while it lasted. Besides, he wasn’t quite sure what his alternative was…

  “We’re here.”

  She stopped the car next to an elevator with two men in security uniforms. They appeared to be local, each sporting a tactical vest with a radio, Taser, and a large, black sidearm.

  “Do hotels always come with armed security?” he asked.

  “Sanchez and Rodrigo are on loan from the San Juan PD. They were pretty happy to have me here, and they insisted. It would have been rude to say no.”

  Who indeed? Wash’s curiosity gnawed at him but he didn’t chase it. He didn’t know who she was when she saved him, he didn’t need to know now. One of the men crossed in front of the car to open her door, his eyes scanning the shadows for threats. Wash didn’t know them, but he knew their type.

  “Thank you.” She used a polite, formal tone that he hadn’t yet heard from her. The other man opened Wash’s door, glaring at him as he hauled himself out of the seat.

  Wash was usually the tallest person in the room, but both of these men towered over him by a good three inches. They also had the serious, hardened look of true operators. He’d seen enough of them in the Navy to know neither should be taken lightly.

  “Harm her in any way, and you’ll answer to us,” Rodrigo said quietly to him as he walked past. “You don’t want that.”

  It wasn’t bravado, either. There was real, genuine threat there. Before he could respond, Caitlin threaded her arm through his. She seemed to look at him intently as she did, almost like she was looking through him, and squeezed his arm a bit tighter than he expected.

  “Are you
okay to walk?”

  Oh, she just thought he was about to fall on his face. If he looked as bad as he felt, it was probably a reasonable assumption.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” he said anyway. He was really going to pay for this in the morning.

  “Okay… there’s just one more teensy little gauntlet, then we’ll get you off your feet.”

  They were in the elevator on their way up before he stopped to think about what she meant by gauntlet—after all, she was touching him again, and that seemed to scramble his brain like he was a fourteen-year-old on his first date.

  The elevator’s buttons were all labeled as garages, not floors, with the exception of the lobby.

  Gauntlet. Reporters. Right.

  “So, they let press into the lobby?”

  “Not generally, but there are a few persistent ones that like to break the rules. Most of them are hoping I’ll give them something they can turn around and sell.”

  She shrugged, as though this was completely normal, and then dug something out of a bag he hadn’t seen her grab.

  A pair of shorts. She was wearing the swimsuit and t-shirt from the beach, and she didn’t take anything off, but he still felt almost like he ought to look away as she wiggled into the cutoffs.

  The woman could literally wear garbage, and she’d look like a million bucks. Where anyone else would just seem wet and bedraggled, she gave off a sense of effortless beauty that didn’t need any embellishment.

  Wash fidgeted with the borrowed hoodie he was wearing, stretched tight over his shoulders. His feet were bare, he was wearing a wetsuit, and the look was definitely leaning toward wet and bedraggled on him. He didn’t even come close to looking like he belonged next to her.

  The San Juan Marriott’s lobby had a very high-end, luxury hotel atmosphere. Not the sort of overt luxury meant to impress, but real money. The huge lobby was crowned by a tall, domed ceiling and lights that were the perfect shade of gold to cast an ethereal glow over everything.

  The furniture was leather, white, and unmistakable expensive, set on a pristine carpet that felt almost cloud like beneath his feet.

  This was nothing like the crappy motel he was staying in.

  He froze as an image of his motel flashed through his mind… a dump on the edge of town. Definitely the kind of place you went to as a last resort. He opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off as she whirled around, pulling him with her.

  A man was standing off to the side, with an obvious link pointed right at them.

  “Cole, you know better than to try and sneak up on me,” she said to him. “Just ask, darling.”

  Something in his body language shifted very abruptly, and what was almost a sly grin slid off his face. He lowered his eyes and seemed to squirm a bit beneath her gaze.

  “Sorry ma’am, couldn’t resist the chance. Would you mind?”

  Clay in her hands. At least Wash knew he wasn’t the only one.

  “Of course not.” She smiled at Cole. “Ask next time, okay?”

  “Of course, ma’am. Thank you.”

  She wrapped an arm around Wash and leaned into him, flashing Cole a peace sign. Like they were some random couple on vacation.

  “Thanks again, Miss Vnois,” Cole said, smiling at her.

  “Say hi to the family, Cole.” She waved and pushed Wash forward.

  “What did you do to him?” he asked.

  “Do to him?”

  She wasn’t even looking at him, too busy scanning the lobby as they headed toward the front desk. A few people in hotel uniforms greeted them, and she responded pleasantly to all of them, using each person’s first name. How often did she stay here? For all he knew, she lived here and these people were old friends by now.

  “That guy—Cole. He was trying to sneak a pic of you, but you said a couple of words to him and he acted ashamed. I don’t know a lot about professional paparazzi, but a conscience doesn’t seem like a helpful trait in that business.”

  Caitlin shrugged. “A lot of them are just people trying to make a living the best they know how.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “A few of them, though… they do it because it makes them feel powerful, and they enjoy other peoples’ misfortune. There’s a special place in Hades for those ones.”

  The front desk was a large, carved wooden barrier with gold-leaf accents. Several smiling people were behind it, tapping away on augmented reality keyboards he couldn’t see without a link.

  The man in front of them, an older fellow with dark skin and a thin, graying mustache greeted them with a friendly smile.

  “Señorita Vnois, how may we help you today?”

  Wash had always loved the Spanish accent. It seemed to make every sentence a little more colorful, somehow.

  Caitlin smiled at him and replied in Spanish. There was no way for him to tell how well she spoke the language, but the man immediately smiled and nodded.

  “Of course,” he said, politely responding in English for Wash’s benefit. “It’s our pleasure to serve. I’ll have two new links sent up to your room, and the doctor will be there shortly to take a look at your guest.”

  The word guest was spoken almost like a question. His attention moved to Wash, and the warmth of his smile faded into mere courtesy.

  “Yes, thank you. I’d appreciate it. Also, Alfredo, we’re starving. Could you have the kitchen whip something up for us?” She turned to him. “What do you like? Seafood? Steak? Are you vegan? Do you have any allergies?”

  His eyes widened at her barrage of questions. “Uh, no—I’m not vegan. I’m really not picky—” His mother would call him a liar for that one, but he wasn’t about to make a list of demands. “Whatever you like, really.”

  “Hmm… how about my favorite from menu six?” Caitlin said to Alfredo, and his smile was all warmth again.

  “El arroz con gandules y lechón?”

  “That’s the one. And the porterhouse for my American friend. With all the extras.” She turned to Wash briefly. “So good! You don’t even know. I’ve never had a steak as good as Ramón’s.”

  “Right away,” Alfredo said. “Are you dining for two, or will your sister be joining you?”

  There was a slight faltering of her pleasant smile, just a tiny hiccup that probably wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone who wasn’t watching her as intently as Wash was.

  “Just the two of us.”

  “Muy bueno. You are a joy to have with us, señorita, as always. If there’s anything else we can do, don’t hesitate.”

  He handed her a room key with a slight bow.

  “Thank you, Alfredo. Say hi to your daughters for me, and tell them to keep practicing. I know talent when I see it.”

  Caitlin smiled and pulled Wash along. She hadn’t let go of his arm for a second since they left the car, but he wasn’t going to argue that point with her.

  Everything else in the hotel was just as elegant and sumptuous as what he had already he had already glimpsed. Exotic plants—real ones—adorned every corner. Natural sunlight poured in through overhead skylights, warming the air. It would have been prettier to Wash, had his head hurt a little less. It had subsided since the beach, but a dull throb was definitely still present.

  “How often are you here?” Wash asked as they waited for the elevator. “You seem to know everyone pretty well.”

  She nodded. “I’m here once or twice a year for my job, and Alfredo is a very old friend.”

  He couldn’t be that old a friend. She was mid-twenties, tops. But then again, this was an elf. He honestly didn’t know much about elves, or orcs, or any of the metas—not really, beyond the rumors and folklore.

  All of that had appeared before he was born, along with Atlantis and magic. It must have been a big deal to the people who were alive for the event, but he’d known about it his whole life. And yet, he knew as much about Atlantis as he did Morocco, which was not a lot.

  He knew they had a royal family, and that, because it had appeared in the Mediterranean, they’d
named it Atlantis… and that was about it. Kind of sad, really. He’d been pretty tunnel-visioned about his own life for… well, always. He figured that was how most people lived.

  Caitlin was staring off into space as the elevator slowly made its way down to the lobby, her eyes unfocused as though she were lost in thought.

  They were dark green, and slightly larger than what he would expect. Or maybe it was just her iris that was larger. It gave her a wide-eyed, almost innocent look.

  The elevator doors clicked open and pulled him inside, jamming the top floor button with one finger.

  “Penthouse, huh?” he said.

  “Another of the perks of my job,” she said, sliding her door-key against the panel as the elevator prompted her for authorization.

  “Ah.” He raised an eyebrow at her.

  “You’re probably not going to tell me what your job is.”

  She smiled.

  “Not yet.”

  He looked down at her as they rode in silence. She seemed lost in thought again, and so motionless that she almost looked like a statue, cast in bronze. A Greek statue.

  All at once, an uncomfortable feeling rose in his chest. What was he doing here? What was she doing here with him?

  “You know,” he said, breaking the silence. “I know you have to deal with the press and everything, but I’m kind of taking over your life right now. I’m completely okay just riding back down. No one will even notice me leaving.”

  She looked up at him, the overhead lights shining in her green eyes.

  “Are you saying you don’t want to have dinner with me?”

  “Uh, no… that’s not it, I just—” If there was ever a moment he wished he was one of those smooth people with all the right words, this was the one.

  “I’d love to have dinner with you. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to.”

  Her arm tightened around his. “I’m not sure who you’re used to dealing with, Wash, but I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it.”