Smoke and Fire: Part 4

by Donna Grant

  “Then what do you need of me?” Ulrik waited impatiently as Mikkel tried to think of something for him to do. “Exactly. When you need me, you know where to find me.”

  Ulrik walked from the office and down the hallway to the front door. Fast moving clouds hid the moon, making the night seem darker.

  It was a night for wreaking havoc.

  Ulrik got into his McLaren Spider and drove away from the manor on the west coast of Scotland. It would take him a few hours to drive back to the store, but that was time he didn’t have.

  He waited until he was forty minutes from Mikkel’s before he pulled over at a small village. He went inside a restaurant and used his new skill of teleporting to take him to Dreagan.

  As always, he arrived in his mountain. It was the one place he knew he could go that no one at Dreagan would ever think to look for him.

  From there he used the tunnels below the mountains to take him toward the mountain connected to Dreagan Manor. Dreagan was on high alert, which made Ulrik waste more time avoiding Kings who patrolled the tunnels.

  He paused to look in on his Silvers for a moment. Later he would go and spend more time with them. For now, he had to find Kinsey and Esther.

  Ulrik located Esther first. She was lying on a chunk of rock, unmoving. The mortal Henry North paced the cavern as Banan attempted to talk to him.

  Next to Ester in the adjoining cavern was none other than Kinsey, who was also unconscious. Except Ulrik didn’t find Ryder with her. It was Con and Dmitri.

  Ulrik wondered why neither of the mortals had been killed yet. Unless Con sent Ryder away as he’d done to Ulrik so long ago. But the Kings didn’t look as though they were getting ready to slay a human.

  They were in their locations for battle.

  Just what was going on? This wasn’t what he’d expected to see when he arrived. No wonder Harriet was so sure she could get Kinsey to do what she wanted.

  Ulrik wished he’d learned exactly what it was Harriet and her team had done to Kinsey and Esther, because it was enough that they knew the women weren’t dead.

  Some kind of tracking device perhaps? That was the most plausible answer.

  Ulrik ducked into the cavern across the narrow corridor as he heard voices. He saw Tristan and Roman walk into the chamber where Kinsey was.

  “Tristan, I need to see if you can get into her mind,” Con ordered.

  Ulrik moved to the other side of the cave opening so he could see across the way into Kinsey’s cavern. He watched as Tristan moved to stand at her head. Then he placed his hands on either side of her head and closed his eyes.

  “I can no’ find her,” Tristan said with a frown.

  Ulrik knew then that Kinsey hadn’t truly betrayed Ryder by her own choice. Mikkel and Harriet were controlling her. And that changed everything.

  Chapter Forty

  Ryder finished going through the log of Kinsey’s every key stroke since she’d arrived at Dreagan. He’d expected to find instances where she saved information about Dreagan and forwarded it or even downloaded it to a PIN drive.

  Yet there was nothing.

  Kinsey was good, but she wasn’t good enough to get through his firewalls because there hadn’t been enough time when she was alone to get through them.

  Even if she had broken through his firewalls, that would’ve immediately sent him an alert. But there hadn’t been any sort of alert.

  It was as if Kinsey had done nothing more than try and clear her name. Yet Ryder knew that couldn’t be the truth. He had damning evidence of her agreeing to spy on Dreagan for Kyvor.

  He checked a second and third time, but there was still no evidence that proved Kinsey did anything other than what he’d asked her to do.

  Ryder hid the virtual keyboard and pushed back from the table. With a sigh, he got to his feet and walked from the computer room.

  The manor was strangely quiet as he made his way downstairs. It seemed so odd after the cornucopia of laughter and conversation around the dinner table just a few hours earlier.

  The silence and stillness reminded him what Dreagan had been like after they sent their dragons away and took to their mountains.

  Ryder stopped when he descended the last stair. His mind ran through everything that could happen to Dreagan and those who called it home because he’d allowed his feelings to get in the way of precautions, and it made him ill.

  Kellan hesitated on his way toward the foyer. He eyed Ryder for a moment before he said, “Delaying the inevitable only makes things worse.”

  “I should’ve seen it.”

  Kellan put his hands on his hips and released a long breath. “Ryder, I’m going to tell you something that Con never will. All of us could’ve seen it in her, but none of us did. No’ even Con. Doona allow the blame to rest so heavily upon your shoulders. As soon as you discovered the evidence, you acted. No one was hurt, and nothing was done to Dreagan. It’s going to be all right.”

  Ryder nodded, appreciating Kellan’s words. He didn’t bother to tell Kellan that nothing would ever be fine again, because there was no point. Kellan had his mate, he’d found love. He didn’t understand what it felt like to have the woman he wanted only to lose her to treachery and deceit.

  There was only one other King who did—Ulrik.

  Not that Ryder would be calling him up anytime soon to commiserate.

  Kellan patted him on the arm as he continued toward the foyer and walked out the front door. Ryder’s feet felt like lead as he made his way to the entrance of the mountain.

  He didn’t encounter another soul until he reached the cavern where Kinsey was being held. When he saw Tristan standing at Kinsey’s head with his hands on her, Ryder halted.

  “He says he can no’ find Kinsey,” Dmitri whispered.

  Ryder frowned. What was that supposed to mean? Even unconscious, Tristan should be able to see her thoughts.

  On the other side of Dmitri, Roman shifted his feet. Ryder looked from Roman to Con who was staring back at him. Tristan could read someone’s thoughts, and Roman could control metal. It made sense to bring Tristan to Kinsey, but why Roman?

  Ryder started to walk to Con to ask him what was going on when Tristan winced, his face contorting. Ryder froze, instantly on alert.

  “Magic was used,” Tristan said. “Druid magic.”

  Druids? The last time a Druid used magic was when Darcy unbound some of Ulrik’s magic. Darcy had family on the Isle of Skye, and the Druids there weren’t enemies of the Dragon Kings.

  The next largest sect of Druids were those at MacLeod Castle married to Warriors. There were other Druids around the world, but most kept to themselves.

  “It seems we’ve yet another problem,” Con said.

  As if they didn’t already have enough.

  Tristan opened his eyes and looked at Ryder. “The magic used is a spell blocking me from getting to Kinsey.”

  “I doona understand,” Ryder said.

  Dmitri grunted behind him. “Ditto.”

  “Add me to that list,” Roman said.

  Tristan looked from Ryder to Con. “Imagine the brain is like a house with thousands of rooms. Kinsey is locked inside one of the rooms, and I’m going to have to bust through the door to get to her.”

  “Will it destroy her mind?” Con asked.

  Tristan hesitated as his dark brown gaze moved to Ryder. “There’s a possibility depending on how much of my magic I’ll have to use to get in.”

  “Do it,” Ryder said. All the while praying that Kinsey would be whole when it was over.

  If they wanted to know the full extent of what happened, they needed her awake and cognizant, not under the control of Druid magic.

  Tristan nodded and closed his eyes again.

  * * *

  Kinsey held out her hands in front of her. Was she blind? Why was everything black as pitch? She didn’t know where she was or how she had been taken from Ryder’s bedroom.

  “Ryder!” she shouted for the hundredth time.
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  Her throat was sore from screaming. With her not being able to see, she moved at a snail’s pace, inching her feet forward so she didn’t trip on anything.

  The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in Ryder’s arms after they’d made love. Wait. No. After that there was something …

  Kinsey stopped walking and concentrated, trying to pull up the memory that teased the fringes of her mind. It felt like forever before a flash tile flickered in her mind.

  The bathroom. Suddenly she recalled being nauseated and rushing to the toilet. There was nothing after that except waking up in the darkness.

  “Where are you, Ryder?” she whispered.

  Emotion choked her, but Kinsey refused to give in to the tears. She had to keep moving and figure out where she was. Ryder had said he’d protect her. She knew without a doubt he would find her, because that’s who he was.

  Kinsey began to shuffle her way forward once more with her arms out in front of her. Eventually she’d have to run into a wall or something. Until then, she would keep moving.

  “Ryder!”

  She gasped and halted as it felt as if the world was spinning around her a million miles a second. Her stomach rolled, and despite the darkness, she closed her eyes.

  Nothing helped. She could still feel it turning this way and that, rotating from side to side as if trying to dislodge her.

  Kinsey held out her arms to the sides. To her shock her left hand connected with a solid surface. She quickly put her back to it and slid down the wall until her knees were at her chest.

  She wrapped her arms around her legs and kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Added to the twists and turns was the odd sensation of feeling like someone had paused the world and then quickly pushed play again.

  “Kinsey? Can you hear me?”

  The male voice came through at a whisper. Disappointment filled her that it wasn’t Ryder, but she recognized the voice. Though she couldn’t put a name to it.

  “Kinsey, this is Tristan.”

  Yes, that was Tristan’s voice. What was he doing in her head, she wondered?

  “Listen carefully. It’s going to take a lot for you to answer me, but I need you to try.”

  What was he talking about? Hadn’t he heard her screaming for Ryder? The situation was becoming more and more odd. All she wanted to do was be back in Ryder’s room with his arms around her.

  She opened her mouth to say his name, but the spinning increased so she couldn’t even lift her head. Wind howled around her, pushing her back against the wall so she couldn’t move.

  “You’re in danger, Kinsey. I can’t help if I can’t find you. Say something. Anything,” Tristan urged her.

  She could barely hear him anymore. Fear took hold then, pushing her to act. Each time she lifted her head, the wind took her breath, preventing her from speaking.

  Kinsey had no choice but to keep her head buried against her legs. “Tristan! Hear me,” she yelled as loud as she could. “Please help me!”

  If Tristan responded, Kinsey didn’t hear him over the roaring in her ears.

  “Ryder, I need you,” she whispered.

  Was this how she would die? Huddled and scared? This wasn’t the woman she was, nor was it the person she wanted to be.

  Kinsey put her hands back against the wall. Slowly, she used her hands to help her get to her feet. Only by turning her head to the side away from the wind was she able to take a breath.

  “Ryder! Tristan! I’m here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  She jerked when it felt as if someone had touched her. Suddenly there were hands all over her, pushing and pulling her this way and that.

  “Ryder! Help me!” she cried.

  More hands found her, their fingers biting into her flesh. Kinsey fought against them, kicking and punching.

  As unexpectedly as it all began, it abruptly ended. With the wind no longer holding her, Kinsey fell face-first to the ground. The darkness vanished, leaving a room so white it blinded her.

  She pushed up on her hands and knees and looked around, wondering what to do now.

  “Kinsey?” Tristan called. His voice was louder, clearer now.

  “I’m here.”

  “You’ve made it through the toughest part. Now you just need to find your way back.”

  “Back? What are you talking about? Where’s Ryder?”

  There was a pregnant pause before Tristan said, “I can no’ help you because someone has trapped you within your own mind. You’re the only one who can get yourself out.”

  “I want to talk to Ryder.”

  “It’s because of my power of being able to see your thoughts that I’m here.”

  Now she was really confused. “So you’ve done this before?”

  “Nay.”

  Well that was reassuring. Kinsey got to her feet. “If you are only supposed to see my thoughts, how are you talking to me?”

  “Dragon magic.”

  As if that explained it all, and she supposed it did. “Is Ryder all right?”

  “He’s fine. We just need to get you sorted out.”

  That’s when it hit her. “What did I do, Tristan?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Stop it,” she said and dropped her chin to her chest. “Stop trying to not answer me or stall. Just tell me the truth. What did I do?”

  He sighed loudly. “You know what you did.”

  “Remind me,” she demanded. The nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach multiplied by a hundred. It had to be something very bad for Tristan to not want to talk about it.

  “You came here to spy on Dreagan and Ryder. We all know how you’ve betrayed him.”

  Kinsey’s knees threatened to buckle. Betray? She’d never do that to Ryder or anyone.

  It took her a full minute to pull herself together. There was only one way she was going to get out of this. She had to put all the emotions aside and tackle this like she would any work project.

  After she found her way back to wherever she was supposed to go and faced Ryder and the rest, then she could allow the emotions to come through.

  Because if Tristan helped her, it was for one reason only—to get information.

  Chapter Forty-one

  Ryder hated not knowing what was going on. He trusted Tristan, but it was his mistake about Kinsey, so he should be the one helping her.

  But his power would only hurt her, not help. His ability to build anything electronic did nothing either. So he stood, helplessly, watching as Tristan tried to reach Kinsey.

  “I found her,” Tristan said. “She’s asking about Ryder.”

  Ryder was at one moment relieved that Kinsey’s mind might come out of this intact, and another furious that they were in this position.

  After a moment, Tristan dropped his hands and stepped back. “I’ve never communicated that way before.”

  “You spoke with her?” Con asked.

  Tristan nodded. “The magic was hard to pierce on my end and hers, but Kinsey managed it. She kept asking what was going on. I told her she was trapped in her mind and must find her way back.”

  “You couldna lead her out?” Dmitri asked.

  Tristan ran a hand through his light brown hair streaked with gold. “I wish it were that easy. Only Kinsey knows the way around her mind. If I attempted to help her, I might get her trapped somewhere.”

  “How long is it going to take to find her way?” Ryder asked.

  “I’ve no idea.”

  Roman stepped forward then. “I suppose it’s my turn now.”

  “It is,” Con said and motioned him to come closer to Kinsey.

  Ryder stepped between Roman and Kinsey. Then he looked at Con. “Why is Roman here?”

  “I want to see if there’s anything implanted in Kinsey,” Con said in an even tone.

  Ryder turned and looked at her. Implanted. He hadn’t thought about that, but there was a possibility there could be. “Why use magic only then to use technology?”

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p; “To cover both bases,” Con said.

  Ryder moved back, giving Roman the space he needed. His instincts kept telling him to protect Kinsey, but the proof upstairs warned him to do nothing. He’d never been more confused in his life.

  “Kinsey asked for you,” Tristan said as he came to stand beside Ryder.

  He hated how his heart leapt at the thought. “She’s probably worried about how much I knew.”

  “She sounded genuinely confused about all of it.”

  “As we’ve learned, she’s a verra good actress.”

  Tristan crossed his arms over his chest. “Is she? I’m beginning to wonder.”

  That got Ryder’s attention. He swung his head to Tristan. “About?”

  “Her mind was laced heavily with layers of magic. Why did they need to do that if she wanted to spy on us?”

  Ryder shrugged and turned his attention back to Roman. “She might have had them do that to help her in her acting.”

  “That’s a possibility.”

  Or they could’ve used her.

  No. Ryder refused to hold onto that small bit of hope. With the evidence they’d discovered and Kinsey’s actions, the truth was staring him right in the face.

  Roman held his hands palm down over Kinsey’s stomach. Within moments he said, “I’ve found something. It’s in her left arm just above her wrist.”

  “How deep is it?” Con asked.

  Roman walked around to Kinsey’s left arm. “Just beneath the flesh.”

  “Remove it.”

  Ryder clenched his fists as Roman pierced her flesh and an elongated metal tube about half an inch slid from her skin. Con then placed his hand on her and healed the wound.

  “It’s a tracker,” Roman said.

  Dmitri muttered a string of curses. “They wanted to keep track of her.”

  “That’s for certain,” Tristan said.

  “Should I destroy it?” Roman asked as he held the bloody object.

  Con shook his head. “No’ yet.”

  Roman handed the tracker to Con who tucked it into his pocket.

  “Now what?” Ryder asked.

  Con turned to Tristan and Roman. “Repeat these same steps with Esther.”

  The two gave a nod and walked out of the cavern.