Fire Rising (Dark Kings) Read online

  “Bad people. Very bad people.” God, why had she let that slip? It wasn’t too much, at least, and as Banan had mentioned, an idiot could’ve figured that out. Still, she shouldn’t have told him.

  Tristan walked to the foot of the bed and braced his hands on the iron footboard. “How long have you been running from them?”

  They were asking such simple questions, but if she wasn’t careful, they would get it all out of her piece by piece. “A while.”

  Banan exchanged a look with Tristan. “Vague answers again.”

  “It took verra little to discover what happened to your pub,” Tristan said. “Why did you no’ want Jane to know that it was blown up and that your business partner is missing?”

  Sammi squeezed her eyes shut. Poor Daniel. She’d known he was dead, but hearing it brought a fresh wave of pain. Even though Daniel had brought it on himself by being involved with such people.

  “Where is Daniel?” Banan asked. “You doona seem the type of woman to blow up your own pub because your ex-lover pissed you off.”

  Sammi’s eyes flew open as she glared at Banan. “Daniel was my friend and had a good head for business. He made me money.”

  “Did you know he had spent some time in jail for petty crimes?” Tristan asked.

  She glanced at him but couldn’t look in his eyes. “Not at first. Only once we realized we made better friends than lovers. He told me about his past, but he said he had changed.”

  Banan sat back, causing the chair to creak. “Daniel lied, did he no’?”

  “Yes.” And that’s all she would tell them. Let them dig into Daniel’s past or hers. She wasn’t going to say any more, and the first chance she got, she was leaving. The more distance she put between her and Jane, the better.

  “You should eat,” Tristan said into the silence.

  Sammi looked at the tray loaded with fruit, meats, bread, and fried eggs that were now cold. She had been famished when Jane brought in the food, but then the questions had begun.

  “When was the last time you had a good meal?” Banan asked.

  Sammi scrunched up her face and looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’re skin and bones. No’ the way Jane and I last saw you.”

  “Maybe I’m on a diet,” she said with a shrug, hoping he bought it and had forgotten how much she loved junk food.

  Banan gave a loud snort, telling her he knew she lied.

  “Fine,” she said. “It’s only been a day since my last meal.”

  “You’ve been here three,” Tristan said.

  No. That couldn’t be. The last time she had remained at one place for longer than two days, the Mob had come close to catching her. She had learned the hard way to stay on the move and talk to as few people as she could.

  It was always the tingle at the back of her neck that alerted her she needed to move on. That tingle was back, something she hadn’t expected while at Dreagan.

  Then again, she hadn’t intended to stay but one night. What had she done? What had she brought to Jane?

  The dread, the anxiety was like acid churning in her stomach, making her sick.

  “Sammi?” Banan said as he jumped up and came to stand beside her, his hand on her arm. “What is it?”

  “I have to go,” she said and tried to lift the tray off her. Her shoulder twinged, the stitches pulling at her effort.

  Tristan was immediately at her other side. “Easy,” he said and took the tray. “You’ll bust the stitches.”

  Even with the tray gone, she couldn’t leave the bed because Banan kept ahold of her arm. Then Tristan was back, boxing her in.

  “You don’t understand,” she cried. “If they come, they’ll destroy it as they’ve destroyed my life!”

  She was panting from the exertion, sweat dotting her skin. Something warm and wet ran down her arm, but she was too upset to worry about it.

  Sammi shoved the covers aside and swung her legs over the side, barely noting that she was in a Victoria’s Secret cotton T-shirt gown that must belong to Jane.

  Tristan’s hands came down on her shoulders and held her steady as he knelt beside the bed. “You’re bleeding.”

  “I have to leave.”

  “Why?”

  Sammi shook her head. It was as if her thoughts were muddled, as if sleep once more weighed her down. “They’ll come for me. They always come for me.”

  “Who?” he persisted.

  Sammi’s already weak body was fast losing what little energy she had. Tears stung her eyes as frustration filled her. She was so tired, and they kept asking questions. She couldn’t remember what she had told them and what she hadn’t. The burden of it all pressed down on her, sinking her further and further into a place she knew she’d never come back from.

  She shoved him aside and got to her feet. He was standing before her once more, blocking her way and forcing her to look at him. His hands were large and held her carefully but securely in front of him.

  He watched her cautiously, as if studying her. In his eyes she saw truth and understanding. If anyone could help her, it just might be Tristan.

  If she dared to tell him.

  He smoothed a lock of hair away from her face, his large hand gentle and reassuring. It would be so good to let someone else carry her burdens for a while. She was just so … tired.

  “Sammi, who is after you?” he urged, his voice going deeper, smoother.

  It was almost as if his voice was inside her head. “I don’t know who they are exactly.”

  He gave a nod, a slight lift to the corner of his lips. “Tell me what you do know. Let me help.”

  She shook her head. Sammi didn’t know how she kept from telling him everything. In her mind she recounted the entire incident.

  It was a relief actually. To share her burden within her mind helped more than she had realized. She should have done it sooner.

  “It’s all right.” Tristan’s thumbs were slowly rubbing her arms in circles. It was such a small movement, but it was comforting. His touch soothed her, calmed her.

  Reassured her.

  How could she fight something that felt so good? Her dream man was touching her, talking to her in his sexy voice. If only she was brave enough to tell them all she knew. If only she had the strength to stay on her feet for more than two seconds.

  She didn’t resist when he pushed her back onto the bed. His hands were quick and concise as he pulled up her sleeve and wiped away the blood before replacing the bandage.

  Then she was once more beneath the covers. As soon as she was able, she would leave, she told herself as her eyes grew heavy. It was the only option left to her.

  * * *

  “I doona think she even knows she told you,” Banan said.

  Tristan gazed at Sammi. The panic and fear he had seen in her eyes left him cold. “Nay, she didna.”

  “How did you do it?”

  He had no idea. Something inside him urged him to push Sammi, but even as he did it, he could feel his magic probe into her mind. Now he knew the magic he had as a Dragon King—he could make people tell him whatever he wanted.

  Sammi wouldn’t appreciate it. If she ever found out.

  Tristan shrugged. “It just happened.”

  “Ah,” Banan said with a nod of understanding.

  Tristan rubbed a strand of her hair between his fingers. He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her. He wanted to shelter her from the people who dared to go after her.

  He looked up to find Banan watching him. Tristan released Sammi’s hair but didn’t step away from the bed.

  “Sammi is Jane’s sister,” Banan said. “Doona trifle with her.”

  “In other words, stay away?”

  Banan walked around the bed to stand beside him. “I’m just asking that you no’ mess with her if you need to ease your cock. Find another woman for that.”

  Tristan made himself look away from her and into Banan’s face as he calmly changed the subject. “Our i
nitial check showed she hasna used her credit cards, mobile, or accessed her bank in a month.”

  “The pub was destroyed a month ago. That means she’s been out there on her own this entire time.”

  “What has she been living off of?”

  “By how skinny she is, I’m betting she missed quite a few meals.” The longer Tristan thought of all Sammi had told him, the angrier he got. “I’d like to meet the assholes who blew up her pub and shot at her.”

  “Me as well. Want to help me look for them?” Banan asked with a cheeky grin.

  “I’d like nothing better. Then I’ll show them they should pick on someone their own size.”

  “And if it’s Ulrik?”

  “We’ll put him in his place once and for all.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Sammi’s eyes snapped open. For a minute she simply stared at the wall. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so rested. It wasn’t just her mind either. Her body was better as well. Her shoulder still ached, but it wasn’t the constant pain of before.

  She rolled onto her other side to see the clock read 5:03 a.m. in soft green light. Sammi jumped out of bed and shoved aside the curtains to see the sky already lightening.

  It would be dawn soon. She could easily slip out of the manor to her car and leave before anyone woke. It wasn’t exactly the nice thing to do, but she wasn’t trying to be nice.

  She was trying to keep her sister and those at Dreagan safe.

  Sammi jerked off the nightshirt as she strode into the bathroom and turned on the shower. A quick dig in her purse produced a clip that she used to secure her hair before she stepped into the spray of the hot water.

  Careful not to get her stitches too wet, Sammi hurriedly showered. She dried off just as quickly and only then wondered where her clothes were.

  She walked out of the bathroom and let out a sigh when she spotted her jeans and several shirts stacked neatly on a chair. Not wasting another minute, she dressed and ran her fingers through her hair.

  It didn’t really matter what she looked like while running for her life. Sammi stared at her reflection in the mirror and hated the person she had become.

  At least she had managed to keep the truth from spilling out and involving Jane and the others more than they already were.

  Her life hadn’t exactly been perfect, but she’d had the pub and a decent living. She might have been lonely and actually contemplating Internet dating, but it was a far cry from where she was now.

  How had she not known Daniel had been involved with such people? Was the idea of making money so appealing that anything that might have caught her attention had been pushed to the back of her mind?

  If only she’d seen who he really was. Maybe then she would have fired him instead of getting involved in such a fiasco.

  With Daniel’s lie of her being out of town when the Mob had paid a visit to her pub, they knew she was alive. So there was no rest for her. The Mob would continue searching, waiting for her to screw up somehow so they could find her.

  In all the time she had known Daniel, she’d never seen him so scared. He hadn’t been the wisest when it came to getting involved with the wrong people, but he had always managed to talk his way out of any situation.

  Until this last time.

  Sammi could still hear the leader’s voice in her head. And it gave her chills of dread every time.

  With a shake of her head, she turned away from the mirror and walked to the door. Slowly, she turned the knob without making a sound and inched it open.

  When she didn’t see anyone standing across from her door, she looked to the left and then the right. There wasn’t a soul in sight, just as she’d hoped.

  Getting out of the massive house, however, was going to be another matter entirely. Sammi kept to one side of the long corridor and half-ran, half-walked to the left, only to come to a wall.

  With no other choice, she turned and started back the other way. It didn’t take her long to find the stairs. By the time she reached the bottom floor, her breath was coming in great gasps.

  Sammi paused as she tried to remember how Jane had brought her into the manor. It wasn’t from the front door. Cautiously, she moved from room to room until she finally located the kitchen.

  Just as she was about to walk into the room, she spotted a man pouring two mugs of coffee. Sammi hastily plastered herself against the wall and prayed he didn’t see her.

  She ducked behind a tall plant seconds before the man walked out whistling some nameless tune. Sammi released the breath she’d been holding.

  After counting to five, she stood and ran into the kitchen. The smell of the coffee was tempting, but she ignored it as she slipped out of the manor.

  A quick look around showed she was alone. She wanted to run to her car, but that would only cause suspicion. So, with great effort, she kept her pace to a fast walk until she passed a row of tall, thick hedges and she saw the distillery and guest parking.

  Sammi ran the last bit to the stolen car, sliding on the gravel when she grabbed the door handle. She managed to stay on her feet and yanked the door open. Once she was behind the wheel she cast another glance around.

  In the fields off to her right she could see men releasing sheared sheep loose from their pens. Her luck was holding because other than that, there was no one else about.

  She didn’t give it another thought as she started the car and put it in reverse. In no time she was driving down the long drive and she let Dreagan grow smaller in her rearview mirror.

  * * *

  “Are you sure this is the way to handle this?” Jane asked Banan for the third time that morning.

  “Aye, love.”

  Tristan didn’t take his eyes off the faded red of the car as Sammi drove away. “She wanted to leave last night. Had I not forced her to sleep, she would have. Now at least we’re prepared to follow her.”

  Jane blew out a frustrated breath. “She’ll never forgive us.”

  “Would you rather have her forgiveness or have her alive?” Banan asked. “Because that’s what it’s going to come to. The Mob is after her, love.”

  Tristan rubbed his jaw. “I find it verra concerning that there is another woman on Dreagan running from someone.”

  “That does seem odd,” Jane replied with a frown. “You don’t think the Dark Fae have anything to do with this, do you?”

  Tristan and Banan exchanged a look.

  Banan took Jane’s hand in his. “At this point, anything is possible. We willna know until we see if anyone is following her.”

  “Just be careful. Both of you,” Jane added. She gave Banan a kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck as she held him to her. They stayed like that for several minutes.

  Then, to Tristan’s surprise, Jane hugged him. “Keep my sister alive.”

  “I will.” He stepped away and walked to the waiting BMW 640i Coupe.

  A moment later Banan slid behind the wheel and started the car. He gave Jane a wave as they pulled away. “She’ll never forgive me if anything happens to Sammi.”

  “We willna let anything happen to her.” Tristan felt Banan’s gaze on him.

  It wasn’t just that Sammi was in trouble that made Tristan jump to protect her. She was Jane and Banan’s family, which meant that even though Sammi had no idea they were Dragon Kings, she was also a part of their family.

  Unbidden, the image of hands the color of pale blue and long claws covered in blood flashed in his head. Tristan hadn’t allowed himself to consider why that image suddenly appeared or the meaning behind it.

  He knew the Warriors’ skin changed the color of the primeval god within them when they called the god forth. Tristan also knew they had claws.

  Had it been a flash from his past? Were there memories there as Laith had suggested, and they were just repressed? If so, what had he done to let one out?

  More importantly, did he want more?

  In some ways, it was easier to continue on as he was, without
the memories of a past life as Duncan Kerr, an immortal Warrior with a god locked inside him.

  Then there was Ian. Duncan’s identical twin brother.

  So far, Ian hadn’t come to Dreagan or attempted to contact him, but Tristan knew it was only a matter of time until he did. Then what?

  “That’s a deep frown you’re wearing,” Banan said.

  Tristan relaxed his features and shrugged. “There’s a lot to think about.”

  “Why do I have the feeling you are no’ referring to Sammi and her troubles, but instead to a certain Warrior named Ian?”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  Banan shook his head as he glanced at the screen on the dash where a red light was flashing, showing them where Sammi was, thanks to their putting a tracking device on her car obtained from Banan’s friend and contact in MI5, Henry North. “I know Phelan has been pushing you. Doona be angry with him. He’s doing it for Ian. And for you.”

  “He doesna know me.”

  “He may no’ have known you as Duncan, but he knows you as Tristan. The Warriors have as tight a bond as we do. They look out for their own. Ian nearly didna remain in control of his god he was so devastated by your—I mean Duncan’s—death.”

  Tristan shifted in his seat and plucked at the seat belt he hated wearing. “Did you know who I was when I first came to Dreagan? Did you know I was once a Warrior?”

  “Nay. No’ at first.”

  “When did you realize it?”

  Banan’s lips flatted. “The first time we fought alongside the Warriors. I think Con knew before that, but he kept it to himself.”

  “Has anyone wondered that there might be a verra good reason I doona remember that other life?”

  “It has occurred to us.”

  “But everyone still thinks I should meet with Ian.” Tristan had expected the rest of the Kings to stand beside whatever decision he made about the matter. Instead, they, like Phelan, thought he should meet Ian.

  Banan slowed the car to go around a sharp turn before he pressed the accelerator and the engine roared as it sped down the road. “Because you have what we do no’. Family. All of our family either died in the war with the humans or they were sent away.”