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

by CK Dawn

  The men who took Daphne were wearing masks, which was a good thing. That meant they didn’t intend to kill her, at least not yet—not at all, if they had any desire to live themselves. But she still couldn’t imagine what they hoped to gain.

  “That shower is amazing.” Wash interrupted her thoughts as he emerged from the bathroom, toweling off his dark hair. “There are something like twenty shower heads. At first, I thought I was going to drown. You know, again.”

  She smiled at him. “Perks of—”

  “Your mysterious job. Yeah, I guessed,” he said, returning her smile. It was a nice smile. Wash had a good-looking face, but it was at its best when it was in motion, and full of expression.

  The boots added an inch to his already tall, lean frame, and she’d guessed right on his sizes. The clothes fit well, and the designer detailing didn’t look at all out of place on him.

  “You look fantastic.”

  “I hope so.” He ran a hand through his hair. “The labels on these clothes could make a dumpster look good.”

  Even with the faint flush on his cheeks, there was a sense of ease about Wash. She liked that. He didn’t seem to get ruffled. Not by the reporters or the kidnapping or getting shot at…

  No, not shot at. Shot.

  The man came with a million questions and she wanted answers to them all. How did he chase down a speeding van? Why did he disrupt her magic?

  Wash shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. “So, I guess I’ll go now. Thanks for… everything. You know. The saving my life thing, and all—”

  Go?

  “You’re going to leave?”

  His head shot up.

  “Uh, well. I mean… you bought me dinner, and, uh, I’m feeling pretty good. I don’t think I’m going to drop dead from a brain hemorrhage or something, so you don’t have to worry…”

  He raised his eyebrows, meeting her gaze with an adorably bewildered look on his face.

  Caitlin studied him for a moment. His confusion was genuine, not feigned as a way to get her to let down her guard and possibly persuade her to do something she wouldn’t—couldn’t—do with a human.

  She realized she almost accepted that as a given from men.

  Other men. Not Wash.

  “I’m sorry, Wash. You have your own life, and you probably have things to do—”

  Wash’s lips tightened as she spoke, and she saw him begin to nod politely.

  “—but I could really use your help finding my sister. I really don’t know a lot of people in town. It’s kind of hard to make friends when you’re… well, me.”

  A smile crept across his face. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you, but I don’t buy for one minute that you don’t have friends here. Everyone you’ve talked to today obviously adores you. Even that shifty guy trying to take pictures in the lobby.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “Why is that? Do you have some kind of magical love me ray or something you shoot at everyone?”

  She laughed.

  “Kind of. It’s easy to explain, but kind of hard for some people to grasp.”

  “Well,” he swiped several strawberries off the tray before coming to sit beside her on the sofa. “Let’s see if I’m some people.”

  The vague seaweed smell that had followed him around all day was gone, replaced by the smell of hotel shampoo and… something soft, with a hint of ozone. That was odd, though not unpleasant.

  She took the strawberry he held out to her. “You might have noticed I have some resources.”

  He chuckled. “Just a few.”

  “Sorry. Understating is a big thing in my culture. Yes, I’m rich. Not buy my own country rich, but pretty up there.”

  He nodded, seeming unsurprised as he popped a strawberry into his mouth.

  “The secret to all these people liking me is… I buy them off. Presents, cash.”

  He looked up at her with a puzzled expression.

  “I’m kidding, Wash.” She grinned at him. “It isn’t cash, and it isn’t magic. I mean… I suppose I could do it magically, though that’s pretty unethical. The secret is that I’m just… nice to them. I treat them like people, and I talk to them. Or, more precisely, I listen when they talk. You can find out a lot about a person while they clean your room if you care to. Most people just don’t.”

  Wash leaned back, looking at her with a mysterious expression.

  “What?” she asked, suddenly—to her surprise—self-conscious.

  “You’re just…” he shook his head. “Unusual.”

  “Unusual good?”

  Wash grinned. “What do you think?” He leaned forward and handed her another strawberry. “So, the reason I’ve been getting death glares since I arrived…?”

  Caitlin let out a short laugh that ended—to her unending humiliation—in a giggle. She covered her face in embarrassment and then peeked up at him through her fingers. “Really? From who?”

  “Everyone! Alfredo, Chico—I mean, I know Rodrigo and Sanchez aren’t technically Marriot staff, but they did threaten me with actual violence.”

  “Well, that is their job. Besides…” She hesitated, not sure how much she really wanted to tell him. Everything seemed so nice right now between them. “I’m not the luckiest in love, you know?”

  “Caitlin, if there’s anyone that doesn’t need to rely on luck, it’s got to be you.”

  She smiled and looked down at her hands. “Thank you. But… it’s never that simple.”

  “Yeah, I imagine not.”

  “The people here… they’re good people. I’m a big girl, and I don’t need someone to look after me, but… it’s nice to have people around who are willing.”

  “Do you stay here a lot?”

  She shook her head. As appealing as that would be, she had too many commitments elsewhere. “I get here two or three times a year, usually for a couple weeks. I’ve just been coming here for a long time.” She finished her strawberry and flicked the green part back onto the tray.

  “As much as I’d like to keep talking with you about… well, whatever,” she said with a smile, “there’s some other stuff we have to go over.”

  “Right, your sister.”

  She was thinking about how he survived the bullets, but yes her sister too. “Of course. First, I have to ask—how did you disrupt my spell when you stepped out from the balcony? The moments our skin touched, I felt like I’d been put in a paint shaker.”

  Confusion flashed through Wash’s dark eyes. “You mean, that’s not what magic normally feels like?”

  “Poseidon, no. Why would I craft a spell that would send me free falling for twenty stories and stop only at the last second?”

  “Uhh… well, to be fair, everything I know about magic I was taught in school—and based on how incredibly wrong they were about everything else they taught me, I’m going to assume I have no actual knowledge on the subject.” He paused. “Why are you looking at me that way?”

  “You just admitted you didn’t know something… are you really sure you’re a guy?” she asked.

  Wash’s eyebrows shot up. “Reasonably sure, yes.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.” Caitlin slapped her hands over her face again. “I’m sorry!”

  His deep, warm chuckle brought her back out from behind her hands. “It’s okay. Though you’re really pretty cute when you do that.”

  She smiled. “Just when I do that?”

  He leaned forward. “No, not just.”

  Caitlin’s heart rolled over. “Right.” Her pulse was suddenly loud in her ears, brain scrambling for words. “Um. Let me give you a primer, then,” she said, desperately clinging to the subject of magic. “There’s—there’s only one kind of magic, even those some people claim otherwise.”

  Wash nodded. If he was surprised by her sudden need to explain magic to him, it didn’t show on his face.

  “It’s this kind of arcane energy that flows through every living thing—”

  “Like the fo
rce?”

  She stopped short. “The force?” He said it like it was something significant, but... “Oh! The movies? Yes—yes, absolutely. A lot of human myths and traditions are actually based on history, just lost over time. However, magic is a force of nature. It’s not good or evil in and of itself—it’s just a tool, like a gun or a hammer. Your human mages wield the elements, fire, water, et cetera… they command them and create them, using and harnessing this energy. For them, that is all there is to the world. But for me and my people—”

  “You mean elves?” He seemed to have moved closer to her as they spoke, without her noticing. Their knees were almost touching. It was really hard to think about things with him so near.

  She closed her eyes for a moment. Focus, Caitlin! “Yes, sort of. You… you still don’t know who I am, do you?”

  “No,” he admitted. “I kind of wanted to search for you on the link, but… I figured that was, you know, cheating.”

  Caitlin laughed. “You could have looked me up and then pretended to be surprised.”

  Wash sat up a little straighter, looking affronted. “I couldn’t do that. Besides… I’m sort of terrible at pretending.”

  “I’m starting to get that impression,” she said, smiling. Poseidon, he was… cute. And… different, in a really, really nice way. “It’s a little more complicated than elves. Let’s just call them my people for the moment.”

  He nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “I can conjure similar effects as human mages, but it isn’t because I channel energy… it’s because I just ask.”

  He opened his mouth to speak but then closed it. Rubbing his face for a moment he finally asked, “Who do you ask? Like, God?”

  Caitlin’s eyes widened, and without meaning to, she laughed. Squeezing her eyes shut, she put her hand on her chest and tried to compose herself. “Ahem.”

  When she opened her eyes, the expression on his face had changed, some of the warmth leaving his eyes and replaced with… hurt. Oh, no.

  “No!” She reached over to touch his knee and then decided against it. “No, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t laughing at your faith. I wouldn’t do that. It’s just…” How to explain? “No one has ever asked me that before. And you have to understand, I’ve been doing this a long time, and…” She shook her head. “Wash, I so rarely find things that are new. And you are, in a lot of ways. New, and strange—in an amazing way. I forgot what it was like to feel surprised.”

  “That seems like a strange way to live your life.”

  “I suppose,” she said. “But I guess it’s all I know, really. It starts to feel normal after a while until something—or someone—comes along and changes things.”

  His eyes had turned warm again. Enough that she entirely forgot the question he had originally asked.

  “Who do you ask, then?” he said, prompting her to continue. He was leaning slightly forward as he spoke, eyes intent as though she were the answer to every question he had ever had.

  “Well… the spirits themselves. I can speak to them, and ask them to help me.” With all her knowledge of magic, and it was considerable, she still wasn’t quite sure why humans didn’t seem to be able to see or feel the spirits on a corporeal level.

  “Spirits? Like ghosts?”

  “Something like that. Have you ever been in a place and it felt… wrong?”

  He thought for a moment and then started nodding. “Yeah. I remember, when I was a kid, there was this house on the beach. It had been abandoned for years, and we’d dare each other to go in. I remember mustering all my courage to step inside…” He shook his head. “I ran like hell, and never went back.”

  “Exactly!” She jumped up a little, folding one of her legs underneath her on the couch. “There are spirits in everything. This hotel, for instance. What if I told you it had a spirit, and its name was Bob? And the reason I order extra strawberries, besides how delicious they are, is because Bob likes them?”

  Wash laughed. “Bob likes strawberries?”

  Caitlin was only half joking. She didn’t know if the spirit’s name was Bob, but he clearly loved strawberries. She placed a few fingers against her silver astéri dangling from the chain she’d wrapped around her neck. The miniature representation of herself dangled over the hollow of her throat. She didn’t need much power, just a hint.

  Energy swept through her, rushing from the larger source of her home, to channel through her astéri into herself.

  “Come to me,” she whispered. A cold breeze buffeted the curtains and ruffled the used napkins on the tray.

  I am here.

  She knew from experience that humans couldn’t hear the spirits, but—

  “Who the hell said that?” Wash shot to his feet, looking around the room. “I swear someone just said—”

  She lost her focus, and Bob vanished back into the aether. “You… you heard that?” Ohhhh… her parents were going to be so pissed.

  Humans couldn’t hear spirits. It was a fact—and a fact that her parents were pretty proud of. Elven superiority and everything. They were the only ones who could hear and speak to spirits.

  She rose to her feet, stepping forward to place her hands on Wash’s chest. “It’s okay. Wash.”

  He looked down at her, eyes still a little wide.

  “It’s okay. That was Bob. You… you shouldn’t have been able to hear him. At all. Maybe felt him a little, but not heard.”

  “After we fell… I swore I heard someone say goodbye, but—well, a lot of stuff was happening right at that moment.”

  “That’s amazing. You’re… Wash, you’re amazing.” Suddenly, she realized she was touching him. Her hands were on his chest. She could feel his heartbeat and smell the soap he had used. The air became warm.

  “I… it was more than just a voice,” Wash said softly, raising his hands to slide up her bare arms. “I felt it… right here, in my chest…”

  Her heart was pounding now. “That’s how they work,” she whispered.

  He was leaning towards her now, and time seemed like it was standing still. Her hand was on his face, and then in his hair…

  Fool, she cursed herself helplessly, but she couldn’t stop. She needed to kiss him. Her fingers twisted into his hair, and his hands slid down her back, lips just grazing hers…

  A flash of light filled the room. Caitlin jumped, the moment shattering like glass. She spun around to see a black drone hovering outside the balcony door. Another flash of light as it took a second picture.

  Anger flared through her, and she lashed out. A bolt of pure power flowed from her astéri and through her fingers. The drone exploded in a shower of sparks.

  Caitlin swore. Of all the ungrateful, crap moves… taking a picture of her while she was in her hotel room.

  The pictures had already been uploaded somewhere via link, but she didn’t care. She stormed over to the drone and stomped on the smoldering casing before kicking the shattered remains off the balcony.

  “You okay?” Wash came up behind her.

  “No!” She turned around, fingers curling into fists. “I had a deal with them. I pose, they snap all the pics they want, but they do not invade my privacy. Ever!” She stopped, going cold. “Unless…”

  He stepped forward, raising one hand and then dropping it, as if he wanted to touch her, but wasn’t sure if he could.

  “Unless?”

  She looked back at the black streak on her balcony, where the drone had crashed.

  “I think I know who took my sister.”

  Four

  Wash ran his hands through his hair as he waited by the car. What had he been thinking?

  His thoughts were racing, shooting from crushing doubt to elation and then back again in a matter of seconds.

  What the hell was happening? He’d almost—damn it. Caitlin was… she was something he didn’t even have words for, and he was a swabby with… well, apparently with delusions of grandeur.

  And he’d almost kissed her. What the hell, Wash? Exc
ept… it had really looked like she was going to kiss him back. She had her fingers in his hair. Women didn’t do that out of friendliness, at least not in his—admittedly sparse—experience.

  The woman was wealthy and famous, and… probably elven nobility or something.

  Her parents would absolutely never approve. Assuming she had parents. Elves had parents, right? Like, they didn’t spring fully-formed from the ground.

  What was he thinking?

  He wasn’t anywhere near her league. What, were they going to kiss, and the music would start playing, and they’d run off together into the sunset?

  Argh. Idiot.

  And then she was there. He could smell the jasmine and sage of her perfume waft through the air before he saw her.

  She stepped out of the elevator, flanked by Sanchez and Rodrigo. “All ready?” she asked him.

  The hell I am. “Yeah.”

  Neither of her PD-on-loan bodyguards had seen the kidnappers, but they’d spotted a suspicious man taking pictures outside the hotel.

  “That was Milo Rourke,” Caitlin had explained. “My own personal stalker. Lucky me.”

  From there, it had been easy for hotel security to pull up footage of him creeping around outside with his camera and drone. A few calls to the auto-cab company, and before Wash could come up with any kind of plan, Caitlin knew where he was staying and was ready to storm the fort.

  He had no idea why she’d asked him to come along. A woman like her didn’t need him for help. If he were smart, he would take off now and save himself the inevitable heartbreak later when she switched gears and told him what a good friend he was.

  But… the moment they’d had upstairs felt pretty damn real to him. Or had he imagined the whole thing?

  As she strode confidently to the Aston, he realized it was too late to back out now. The two men flanked her, falling in step without even looking. It hit Wash, watching them walk, that they were brothers. The similarities were too striking.