The Complete Midnight Fire Series

by Kaitlyn Davis

  “So yell at me,” Kira said. It was what she had been expecting anyway.

  “Nah.” Luke shrugged and laughed at Kira’s exasperated expression. She, in turn, could feel her stubborn side coming out full force. Kira raised her eyebrows and stared him down, waiting for some explanation for his bizarre attitude.

  “Well, what do you want to do then?”

  “Nothing.” He folded an arm behind his head and fell back against the bed. “I’m just going to lie here and enjoy being in charge for once.”

  Kira slapped his leg. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.” He nodded and kept his eyes on her. Kira didn’t like the mischievous gleam gathering there.

  “I haven’t always been in charge,” Kira said slowly, getting a snort from Luke.

  “Come on.” He sat up quickly. “First, I was the one who kept being a conduit from you. So when you found out, you totally guilt-tripped me. Then you saved my life and landed yourself in a coma, putting me in your debt for life. Now, you can go inside my head whenever you want and know exactly how I’m feeling. Following Diana to Baltimore was completely your idea, and do I even need to mention this little European adventure?”

  “Okay, okay,” Kira said, not liking the slightly smug look on his face. “Well, what do I have to do to make things even again?”

  “I think I’m charging you…” He looked around the room, pretending to be deep in thought. His eyes landed on her, sending a slight jolt down her spine. Kira put all of her concentration into keeping Luke’s mind separate from her own. She could feel excitement and heat coming from the other side of the barrier, making a slight flush rise to her cheeks.

  “You owe me one kiss,” Luke said. The lighthearted grin was gone. Kira hesitated before breaking contact.

  “Luke, be serious,” she said and attempted an easy laugh, trying to play it off as a joke.

  “I am,” he said, and something in his tone made Kira pay attention. “You see, I realized something. Well, actually, my sister helped me out with this one. But I finally realized that you are totally into me, you just won’t admit it.”

  “How’d you get there?” Kira said, letting mirth flow into her words in an attempt to keep the mood light.

  “I admit it. I was mad at you—I mean really furious—after you left me in that airport. I didn’t want to think about you or even look at you after that happened. When I finally got home, everyone kept asking where you were and why you didn’t come back with me. I told the council that our plans had changed, made them think I was in on it, but I was really seething.” He clenched his fists with the memory. The slight movement made Kira wince. She didn’t want to remember how badly she’d hurt him or the coldness she'd heard in his voice little more than a week before.

  “As you can see…” He put his arms out wide. “That all changed. My sister knew something else was up. She’s got this like freakish sixth sense. Anyway, she pulled me aside and made me tell her what happened. I thought she would hate you—I mean, you two weren’t on the best terms during your last visit—but instead, she was happy when I finished telling her what happened. And that’s what she helped me realize. If we had just been friends, if you really didn’t feel anything for me, you would have told me what you were up to. You would have explained that it was for my own safety, you would have given me some sort of heads up, and maybe still sneaked off, but it wouldn’t have been a complete and utter lie.

  “No, you weren’t afraid that telling me would make me want to follow you and come along. You were afraid that if you told me the plan, you wouldn’t be able to leave me behind. You sort of love me, and if you had told me the plan, you might not have been able to go somewhere alone with Tristan. You might have wanted me to come along instead.”

  “That’s a great theory,” Kira whispered. Her ears were drowned out by the thumping of her heart.

  “That’s what I thought too,” he said happily, turning to Kira in his normal teasing manner. “And, not to sound too self-confident, but one kiss ought to show you I’m right.”

  “So when does this kiss need to happen?” Kira asked, looking at the wall behind Luke rather than at his face.

  He looked down at his empty wrist. “I’ve got some time right now…”

  Kira wanted to throw a pillow at him. But getting a pillow would mean she had to reach over his stretched out body, and she wasn’t sure if she could deal with the proximity. Something in Luke’s words rang uncannily true to Kira, but she couldn’t get Tristan out of her head. The cold, accusing chill to his words when she mentioned Luke’s name still stung. She owed it to everything she and Tristan had had to turn the conversation back to Aldrich, back to what she had actually come here to discuss.

  “We have more important things to talk about right now,” Kira said softly, letting a foreboding deepness lace through the words.

  “What? Did Tristan lose a fang?” He threw a playful pout in Kira’s direction.

  “No,” Kira paused and took a deep breath. “But I might gain some.”

  “What?” The grin was gone from his face, and he reached a hand out to touch Kira’s arm. His lips were drawn in a tight line.

  “Aldrich said he can turn me into a vampi—”

  “You can’t be serious!” Luke interjected, tightening his grip on her bicep. “Kira, it’s not—that’s crazy. What are you even saying?”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Would you let me finish?” Kira said with a shaky laugh. “Aldrich said he can turn me into a vampire, but I obviously don’t want to become one.” Luke leaned back a little, loosening his hold. “That’s not exactly what I told Aldrich though,” Kira continued and began telling Luke everything that had happened since she had landed in London.

  Kira started with his castle, with Aldrich’s bizarre sense of style, which got an expected grimace and “creepy” from Luke. Without stopping, Kira moved onto meeting her mother—the shock of believing she was a vampire and Aldrich’s notion that the ability to resist was the only reason conduits were never turned. Kira had to stop Luke from interrupting. He kept shaking his head and trying to explain how it was not possible for conduits to turn, how some had tried before and failed, that they had run extensive experiments with conduit and vampire bodies and blood. Eventually, Kira slapped her hand over his mouth to stop him.

  “I know,” she said firmly, going on to describe the look in her mother’s eyes that had told her she was a fake. Kira skipped over the night with Tristan, wanting to keep it private and to herself. Luke didn’t need to hear about his shattered dreams or Kira’s brief belief that being a vampire wouldn’t be as horrible as it sounded. Better for Luke to think that Kira never swayed, never faltered in her desire to keep her powers.

  Kira rushed past the next few days of sitting with her mother discussing the transformation and talking with Aldrich about his past.

  Eventually, she reached that morning, reached the glass tunnel system within the house. Luke nodded when Kira confirmed that the woman was not her mother, but was an old vampire only pretending to be Lana. She described the dungeon she'd found, telling Luke that finding out Aldrich’s plan wasn’t the only thing they needed to figure out. A rescue mission was also in order. She told Luke about the female vampire Pavia, and how she thought the girl knew a lot more than she was letting on.

  But then Kira hesitated. Thinking back to the flaming redhaired man and his accusation that Kira was already falling, had already taken one step toward turning into a vampire.

  “What?” Luke asked, sensing that Kira was holding back.

  Did she really want to hear what Luke had to say? Kira remembered the way Luke had looked at her when her eyes had first turned blue, the way he’d stepped back, shocked and like a stranger. It had only lasted a second, but fear tainted his expression in those few moments after Diana’s death. What if he couldn’t deny the Punisher beliefs? What if all he did was make the possibility that Kira’s soul was blackening seem all the more real?
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br />   “Nothing,” Kira finally said. Luke put his hand on her knee reassuringly.

  “You can tell me,” he said. Kira looked at him and smiled weakly.

  “I’m just a little scared, you know? I don’t know what to do.” She shrugged.

  “Why don’t you just leave? We can treat this as a normal rescue mission and send the trained conduits in. I promise they won’t come shooting through the windows this time.”

  “I can’t. Part of me knows that Tristan and I should have both left that castle the minute I realized it wasn’t really my mother waiting for me, but a bigger part of me knows I needed to stay. I can’t fight this feeling that whatever Aldrich is planning is huge, and definitely involves me. We just need a mode of attack.” Kira started chewing on her lip, lost in thought about how they could corner Aldrich and get the information out of him. How do you trap someone who can move any object in the world just by thinking about it? He would bring the house down on any conduits who tried to trap him. He could easily knock Kira out, kill Tristan, and escape without straining a muscle.

  “This is really important to you? Important enough to not run away?” Luke asked. Kira nodded affirmation. “Then the only thing to do is let him try to turn you.”

  “What?” Kira blinked. Those were probably the last words she ever expected Luke to say.

  “Delay him for one night, make some excuse, and tomorrow let him go through with whatever ceremony he has planned. When you’ve learned what he is up to and why trying to turn you is so important, you and Tristan can attack. Aldrich will be vulnerable. He won’t be expecting it and I’ll bring a team of conduits, so we can enter the house while he’s distracted. Half of us will go save the prisoners and the other half will help you destroy Aldrich. It’s risky, but I don’t see any other option.”

  “But,” Kira started. It was a solid idea, and the only solution to finding out what Aldrich wanted. Tristan would be fine, Kira knew, Aldrich would never hurt him. He viewed Tristan as more of a son than an enemy. And when all of the conduits arrived and his plan was thwarted, Aldrich would probably do the smart thing and run. But there was a knot in Kira’s throat preventing her from agreeing to Luke’s idea. Realizing what her real hesitation was, Kira quietly asked, “But what if I do turn?”

  “Kira, it’s not possible. I—”

  “But what if it is?” Kira interjected. “What if I heard somewhere that mixed breed conduits can turn?” She still didn’t want to go into the depths of the Punisher beliefs, but if she was offering herself to Aldrich, Kira needed to be prepared.

  Luke took both of her hands, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “Do you really think that I would ever suggest this plan if there were the slightest chance that you would turn? Conduits cannot become vampires. It is just not possible. I believe it with every fiber of my being.”

  What if I’m more than a conduit, Kira thought quietly, what if I really am some sort of angel? But the word sounded ridiculous to her, silly even. An angel? Who was she kidding?

  Kira took a deep breath and clenched Luke’s fingers, which were sturdy and warm. “Okay then, let’s do it.”

  “Excellent,” Luke said, then turned toward the door to shout, “Jack! Mary Beth!”

  “Yeah, mate?” An intermix between male and female voices shouted back at them through the door.

  “Get in here.”

  The door opened a moment later and Mary Beth’s blonde head peered nervously around the bend. When she saw Kira and Luke sitting a comfortable distance apart, her features brightened and they walked in.

  Kira looked toward Luke and could practically see the wheels spinning in his head as he started formulating a plan with Jack and Mary Beth. Paper and pens were soon supplied to all four of them, and Kira drew plans of Aldrich’s home, describing each room and remembering the secret tunnel system as best she could. To slightly shocked gazes, Kira asked them to let the vampire Pavia go free when they reached the prisoners. Vampires caught by conduits were usually bound and questioned, but Pavia had already been imprisoned for too long. And Kira had a feeling that Pavia would happily join the fight if given the chance.

  Before long, conversation switched to conduit tactics, and Kira lost track in the jumble of names and strategies she had never gotten the chance to study. They started talking about the part of the fight Kira wouldn’t be involved in, and she turned away to look out the window at the gray London sky. Her mind began to wander, and eventually she found herself glassy-eyed and thinking of Tristan.

  His presence was vital to the plan. Aldrich had to think everything was going his way, that Kira wanted to turn. But she couldn’t bring herself to tell Luke what happened, that Tristan had run away. She didn’t want to face the fact that he might not be coming back. The minute doubt in him was there—heck, had Kira and Tristan switched places, Kira probably would have run away and never looked back.

  But Tristan knew that if he didn’t return to Aldrich’s with her, it would probably cost Kira her life. She tried to picture his muscular frame, walking slowly down the side of a country road, mind lost in thought and body immune to the damp air. He was out there. He had to be waiting for her somewhere.

  “Uh, Kira?” Luke asked. His open, honest eyes looked at her with concern.

  “I have to go,” she said and stood abruptly, ruffling the papers by her legs. She needed to leave. No one needed her here any longer, and she had to find Tristan. Things would be better, somehow.

  Remembering her manners, Kira turned to Jack and Mary Beth, thanking them and saying how pleased she was to meet them. Kira told Luke to text her tomorrow, updating her on his progress. And then she was following her feet as they led her to the hallway, out the door, and over toward the rickety elevator. Kira pressed the down button and waited while ascending numbers lit up above the door.

  “Kira!” Luke careened out of the apartment and walked determinedly toward her. Kira turned and waited for him to keep talking. He stopped a foot away from her and looked down at his feet, jumping on his toes a little bit.

  “So I was thinking, I don’t really like being in charge.” He grinned.

  “Really? You seemed to have it all under control in there,” Kira said, eying him warily.

  “Still,” he said, letting the word drag out as he stepped closer. Kira could feel the heat gathering in the small space between their bodies. “I think it’s high time I do something really stupid.”

  “Luke,” Kira said and turned away from him. He grabbed her hand. An electric charge zipped up her arm at his touch. She tried to ignore the buzz spreading throughout her body, flushing her cheeks and setting her nerves on end. Luke gently pulled her around so she faced him and slipped his free hand up to her face. Gently, he rubbed his thumb along her cheek, tilting her head up ever so slightly, forcing Kira to meet his eyes. They burned her skin.

  “Luke,” Kira said. It came out as a whisper and not in the stern, commanding way Kira had meant it to.

  “You can yell at me after,” he said softly and kissed her.

  Chapter Twelve

  As soon as Luke’s lips touched Kira’s, a torrent of emotions rushed through her body. The barrier she had spent so much time building up crashed, letting Luke’s thoughts flood into her like a tidal wave. Her mind was consumed with his excitement, his happiness, his fulfillment.

  It was Luke’s pulse rapidly beating through her veins, his heart bursting with the perfection of the moment, his limbs that tingled with each touch of her hands as they trailed up his chest.

  But his feelings were Kira’s. They were one, completely matched in the moment. One of his hands found its way to her back, burning a path along her skin. He pulled her closer, or was it Kira who pulled him closer? Her fingers stretched into his hair, playing with the short, soft strands at the base of his neck. He matched her movement, running his hand up into her curls, bringing her lips even firmer against his.

  And then, a feeling settled in her heart, matched by Luke’s surging in her
head. She felt light, as though she were floating on a cloud, and Luke’s body was the only thing keeping her grounded. Pure gold seemed to pump through her veins, making every touch richer, every emotion fuller. Every outside distraction disappeared, and a rush of fire pulsed down her body.

  They kept kissing until there was no air left in their lungs and an innate will to live forced them apart to catch a breath. Kira rested her forehead against Luke’s, breathing heavily, and she slowly opened her eyes to find his. The yellows and oranges in his irises seemed to dance they were so bright, reminding her of flickering flames. Kira knew her eyes must be burning a stark blue, but Luke never flinched, never looked away.

  A smile tugged at her lips, but from the corner of her eyes, Kira saw real flames swirling, burning and sinking into Luke’s skin.

  Shocked, Kira pulled away from him, clenching her fists down by her side.

  “I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t even realize.” Kira looked away, cursing her lack of control. Luke captured her small hands in his, covering the flames and letting them sink into him.

  “You can’t hurt me, Kira.”

  But the cool air she was sucking in through her lips had cleared Kira’s head.

  “I have to go,” Kira said as Tristan’s wounded face glimmered to life in her mind. How could she have lost control like this?

  “Kira.” Luke tugged on her hand, not letting her leave. The elevator dinged, opening behind her, and Kira wrenched free of his hold.

  “I have to go,” she pleaded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” The door slid closed and Luke’s confused face disappeared behind a wall of metal. Kira wished it would be so easy to get Tristan out of her mind. But his features settled in like stone, determined to haunt her.

  He had only asked one thing of her, one little thing, to not fall right into Luke’s arms. And though they were open and waiting, Kira still didn’t think she would fly into them so willingly or so quickly. Luke was her best friend, there weren’t supposed to be feelings there. He was her guardian, her protector. But that kiss was seared into her memory—was he right? Was one kiss all it would take? Kira had mistaken his words for typical Luke cockiness, but as her body stirred at the mere thought of what just happened…