by Honor James
Pulling back he glared at her. “Are you laughing at me?” he demanded softly, narrowing his eyes on her. “You are laughing at me, you evil woman.” Shaking his head he let out a heavy sigh. “Considering the building that had said window in it was on fire, my exit was cut off by a wall of flame, and I had a little girl in my arms, the window, at the time, seemed the most viable exit strategy. Course,” he grumbled now, “I didn’t realize it was plate glass when I went hurtling through it but since I didn’t feel like being extra crispy I didn’t really have much of a choice.”
“Ouch, yeah okay so I forgive you for throwing yourself out a perfectly good window.” Herself, that was what she lived with day in and day out. “The little girl is all right I assume?” She looked up at him and touched the creases around his lips and shook her head. “Next time leave the flame dancing to those who have been trained in it, all right?”
“It wasn’t on fire when I got there,” he told her in a dry tone. “I was there for the dirtbag who has been implicated in several other arsons around town. I was sweeping the place since my source implied there were innocents on the premises when it went up in flames. I found the girl on the way back out the door and then down came a beam and we went out the window.”
She shivered and nodded. “I’ve had those beams fall on me.” She touched her leg that seemed to hurt even in her dream. “They hurt like a bitch.” And that was no understatement either. “I think I know what arsonist you’re talking about. He was around town when I first started my training. He was put away for a few years and I guess now he is out?”
Running his hand down her thigh he encouraged her to hike her leg up higher and gently massaged her lower leg as he nodded. “Yeah, he’s a serious arsonist and a professional, too. He’s dedicated to his work and makes a fortune doing what he does. The only reason he got caught was because he left a witness that he didn’t even know was there. They turned state’s evidence against him and he got major time, but because of a small technicality he got a reduced sentence.” That technicality had been that the bastard had hired a guy from his neighborhood to do a fire with his signature so his time got shortened because the lawyer he had pointed out that there was obviously a mastermind still out there and that his client had been an unwitting victim of this grand scheme.”
“Oh goody,” she murmured and then winced. His hand felt wonderful on her leg. However, it was a pain from outside of that one that had her biting her lip to stop from crying out. “All right, I have to leave you because they are waking me now. They just shot adrenaline into my IV line.” She didn’t want to leave yet. Hell she hadn’t even asked his name. “Thank you for sharing my dream with me. Remember, fire is bad.” There was a smile on her lips but she leaned in and kissed him, her hands kneading his chest as she added, “I needed to remember the feel of you.” With that she was gone.
Reaching out sharply he cursed and forced himself to wake up. Shaking his head to get rid of the cobwebs he went to the bathroom and took a shower. Bracing his hands against the wall he wondered if she’d let him in her room if he showed up there. Chewing his lip as he turned his face into the water flow he let out a sigh. He couldn’t do that to her, not yet anyway. She was just waking up, her firehouse team was all there, and she was concerned about her friend.
Chapter 7
Her eyes opened slowly, the sticky feeling from the tape that had covered them making them water. She coughed slightly, the tube having abraded her throat, but there was Sam with a straw and water glass. “Hey, tiger, good thing you came back to us. I think that someone”—he grinned over his shoulder—“someone was about to arrest us all.” He leaned in closer and whispered, “The Demon is in the house.”
Desmonda, or Demon to her friends, stepped up close to Harker. “Hello, beautiful.” She pressed a kiss on her forehead. It was a running joke between the women. Everyone in their professions thought they were lovers when in truth they were simply just very good friends. “I told the twitchy boys that they deserve to be arrested for allowing you to be hurt.”
“Be nice to them,” she croaked out and took another drink of the water that Sam offered. “It’s not their fault that I am such a large target for flying debris, now is it?”
“Nope, that falls just on you, sunshine.” Demon squeezed her friend’s hand lightly. “You had me worried, missy. You’re not allowed to worry me ever again, do you understand me?”
“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” Harker gave with a smile. “How’s Bernie?”
“Honey, he didn’t make it.” It was Dean who spoke this time. “He tried, he fought like a lion but he lost the fight in surgery.”
Pain exploded in her chest. “Oh God.” She breathed through the hurt and pain. “When is his funeral?”
“Tomorrow, but you’re not going, Harker.” This came from Mike, chief of FDNY. “Harker, you need to take some time off and from what I have been told you aren’t being released for a week or more.”
“Chief,” she grumbled and went to sit up, only to fall back with a cry of pain. “Son of a bitch that hurts.” Her eyes opened as she watched him. “I’m going to his funeral. He was a friend and I am not going to lay in bed while he is put into the ground.”
“Don’t make me spank you, Hark,” Demon grumbled but nodded. “I will make sure she doesn’t hurt herself but I understand why she would want to go, so she’s going boys.” She smiled sweetly at the men in turn. “Now you all can grumble and complain, or you can help me ensure that she doesn’t hurt herself.”
* * * *
She sat stiffly in the chair offered to her. She watched as the priest spoke over the casket and when the rain started she didn’t even bother to accept the umbrella pressed into her hand. She could smell Demon’s perfume as she stood behind her with a comforting hand on her shoulder and the umbrella over them both.
She jumped at the first fire of the twenty-one-gun salute and closed her eyes in pain as she heard people starting to leave. Bernie was an orphan. He had no wife and kids, just his brothers and one sister at the Fifty-Ninth and now, now it was killing her to have to accept that he was gone.
“Come on, Harker, we are going to the Edge. All of us plan on getting wasted and so are you.” Dean said with a smile, “Come on babe, let’s get a move on.” His hand out to her he tugged her to her feet and she blindly went along with him.
Chapter 8
The music was so loud it made her very blood jump. The smells all around seemed to tone down the grief that seemed to pour from her very being. Taking a seat in the corner she watched as the men left and Demon moved off to take a call from her boss. There she sat, miserable, hurting, and dammit all, the only thing she could focus on were the hands that caressed an old hurt in her dreams, of the man who had given her pleasure and hope.
Moving around the bar Miklos took out a beer and cracked it open as he watched his baby brother race around like a madman. “Do you need a hand?” he asked with a grin even though he felt an odd ache in his chest. Rubbing at it again he wondered if it was gas or not.
“No, go the fuck away, Mik. You’re in my way back here,” Janos snarled, pushing his brother’s shoulder. “We’re damned well packed and you’re pissing me off.”
“Fine,” Miklos said, lifting his hands in peace and headed around the bar. A scent caught his attention and he froze. “Rain storm,” he murmured.
“What?” Janos asked, looking up.
Shaking his head Miklos moved further out around the bar and followed his nose to a back corner. “Damn me,” he murmured when he saw the white-blonde hair catching the light and moved closer to the table. “Harker?” he asked just loud enough that she’d hear him and just soft enough that she, hopefully, wouldn’t leap out of her skin.
Harker looked up and frowned. “Yes, do I know you?” She sure as hell did. He had played a starring role in too many of her fantasies, but how did he know her name? She didn’t know who he was so how did he know her name?
Her confusion was clea
r on her face and Demon stood, moving slightly so that she blocked Harker. “And you would be?”
“Miklos Farkas,” he said quietly as he watched her. “I was the guy that flew out a window of a burning building,” he added, his eyes never leaving Harker’s face. “I’m going to guess that you are her best friend.” he switched his gaze to the other woman. “And, if the rumors hold true, the one they claim is very, very friendly with the firefighter here. I’m also Janos’s older brother.” He pointed to his brother behind the bar running around.
Demon placed a hand on Harker’s shoulder, trying to look as a lover would look, but failing to any who actually understood body language. “You are a detective on the local force,” she stated and nodded. “Nice job saving that kid, and yes, the rumors are very true so I would suggest that you go and give your brother a hand?”
Snorting at that Miklos shook his head and chuckled. “Nice try but if you want to pull off that vibe try to look like you want to do her and not like you’ve got a stick up your ass.” When she stiffened Miklos shrugged. “I think I’d like to talk with Harker alone for a minute sans the pit bull.” When she seemed to bristle Miklos looked to Harker for a moment and waited. “Maybe a quick dance if your leg isn’t bothering you too much like it did the other night, Harker?”
It suddenly became clear and Harker stood. “It’s all right, D. I think that he just asked me to dance, didn’t you?” How the hell had he remembered the dream? Did he do something to her? It wasn’t until he had stepped closer that she realized that he hadn’t remembered the dream. It was her dream and how could he share it? Everything he had said could have been gleaned from any number of sources.
Taking her hand in his he led her onto the floor and then gently began to move her around the floor. “I can see you trying to figure it out,” he murmured. “The bed was huge, covered in black silk sheets and the only light was from dozens upon dozens of candles. You asked me a question and I told you that I wouldn’t answer it until you were awake and aware just before the doctors started waking you up from the drug-induced coma you were in.” Leaning in a little closer he rubbed his nose to her cheek. “Just like right after a thunderstorm, clean and crisp with a hint of rain,” he murmured.
She stumbled but his arms holding her close kept her upright. If she could see anything other than him she would see all of the men in her firehouse looking at the couple on the dance floor, moving as if they were one body. She didn’t see every single one of them freeze, some with their beers halfway to their mouths and some with their mouths simply hanging open. “How?” she whispered when his strong arms steadied her and moved them once more in synch and toward the darkened hall that led to the offices. “You left me for a while and then came back. I was only half-awake when you came back but you were there, holding me. How?”
“My doorbell rang from a lost UPS driver,” he muttered as he stopped dancing and slowly led her to his brother’s office. Opening the door he waited to see if she wanted to go in. “So we can talk normally,” he said. “I’ll explain everything, if you’d like to listen that is.”
She hesitated and when Sam started across the dance floor she nodded. “I’m going to hold you to that. However, first let me assure my friends that I am safe, all right?”
Sam stepped before them and looked from her to him and back again. “I’m fine, Sam. This is Miklos Farkas, he is an old friend of mine.” She smiled up at Miklos and shook her head. “No, old friend is pushing it.” She felt something so soul deep for this strange man that it scared the hell out of her. “I’ll be back. For now he wants to see my pretty scar.” Yeah right.
Sam could only nod dumbly and look at Miklos. “Cop or not, you hurt her and we will tear your heart out.” With that Sam walked back to the other men of House Fifty-Nine.
“Knowing Sammy you are likely now being equated with being a long-time lover, so be warned.” She sighed and shook her head. “I want that explanation though.” And with that she stepped into the office and waited.
Moving in behind her he closed the door and waved her toward the couch. “Sit,” he said softly. “Do you want some water?” he asked her as he pulled open Janos’s fridge and took out two bottles.
Walking to the couch he sat down next to her as he handed her the bottle. “We connected in our dreams, Harker,” he told her quietly. “I don’t know if you know this or not but…” He licked his lips and looked to her. “I’m Wolf,” he said.
Chapter 9
“Right, Wolf.” It fit. He was huge, larger than anyone she had ever seen before. He had been injured but was walking around as if there was not a thing wrong with him. “And we connected in our dreams because?”
“The reason we connected in our dreams was because…” Oh brother, this would be a bitch, and if she hit him or screamed, he wouldn’t blame her. “We’re fated to be mates,” he told her. “It’s the initial stages of the mating process. A Wolf that has met his mate finds her in his or her dreams and eases them into the knowledge. It also allows them to get to know one another.”
It was close to thirty seconds of not breathing before she gasped for air and then said, “Fated mates?” It made sense. She didn’t have any real desire for sex, had only done it once, but with him, she could look at him and her body melted and tingled in need. “I don’t recall doing a lot of talking that first connection. It was hot, and amazing.”
“It usually is more instinct than anything else, a need to burn off some of the heat between mates. But we did talk after, when I just held you,” he reminded her softly. Passing over the second bottle he watched her. “I’m sure you have a hundred and one questions. I’ll try and answer them as best I can if you want to ask some,” he told her softly.
“I really liked the holding afterward,” she admitted even as she took a drink. “All right, how old are you really? The Wolf culture is not exactly something that is common knowledge, so I think I will need instruction here. How old are you? Did you come from overseas or were you one of the ones born here?”
“I’m a hundred and ninety-nine years old, I’ll be two hundred in another four months,” he said softly. “I was born in Hungary with two older brothers and in the years that followed I got two others. When my parents were killed my brothers and I fled to England for safety. Then, when we were older we moved here to New York and set about starting our new lives.”
“Wow, so you are completely robbing the cradle with me?” she teased and then placed her hand into his. “I’m sorry about your parents, Miklos, I really am. At least you had your brothers.” Something niggled at the back of her mind and she frowned. “Wait.” She paled when it hit her. “You are one of the Princes, aren’t you?”
Wincing, Miklos nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he said warily as he watched her. This could totally ruin his chances, which was why he’d skipped around the fact. He’d kind of been hoping for a little more time for them to get to know one another before he dropped that bomb.
Well hell, she thought to herself. “That isn’t going to play a factor in anything by the way,” she informed him simply. “You do know that I am not exactly ladylike material, right?” Hell most days she wasn’t even female material, not with growing up rough-and-tumble and fighting for the top in a man’s world. “The boys at the house will want to know everything about you, too, by the way, and Demon.” She thought of her friend and grinned. “She is a force of nature and she will demand to know everything.”
“Oh goody,” he muttered even though he was relieved she wasn’t going to hold it against him. “And it’s a happenstance of birth not who I am, Harker. I’ve never used my title or birthright to get anything in this life and I’d much prefer that no one damn well knows who I am. We have enemies…” And he’d put her in danger. “Shit,” he muttered. Rubbing a hand over his face Miklos sighed. “I’m sorry, Harker, but because you carry my scent you’ll be a target, too.”
“I do take baths you know, Miklos. I might smell like you now, but I won’t after
my bath.” She snickered and added, “I even use soap.” She teased but seeing his face she frowned and asked, “It’s more than just that, isn’t it? More than just on the surface of my skin, right?” Oh boy, joy. “All right, so I will be a target.” Beautiful, note to self, do not tell Desmonda or she will have your hide.
“I’m sorry,” he said again softly. “But it permeates the skin. Only another Wolf will know the scent for what it is and that’s the problem. My family has many enemies that want us all dead. They killed every member of my family that had a claim on the throne in a single strike on one night. My brothers and I only survived because of a maid that we were friends with and she had a good heart.” Shifting he looked blankly across the room. “We’ve heard rumblings that the packs that are against the Crown want to finish the job.”
Harker nodded and licked her lips. “And taking out the weaker of the two, the female, would be the sure way to get rid of at least one of the brothers.” Looking up at him she asked, “So I need to invest in those self-defense classes I keep putting off then, huh?”
Nodding slowly he shrugged. “The other option is that you refuse any claim I make, I stay away from you, and the scent will fade until no one will ever know.” He left out the part about him going insane from the strain of avoiding her in his dreams, the danger he’d become, and the fact he’d be hunted down like a dog. “You’d be safe likely within a week if you overdo it a bit on a perfume that is heavily musky and after that you’d be at no risk at all.”
