Kissed by Fire (20 page)

“I thought you might want to know Jack’s
gone.” A wry smile spread across his handsome face. “He caught a
flight this morning. He asked me to tell you, figured you wouldn’t
be interested in seeing him.”

“He got that right.” I stalked toward the
desk to turn on the kettle. I suddenly felt the need for a hot
chocolate. As I shooed him out of the way, I noticed something.
Something I hadn’t noticed before. He was wearing a medallion
identical to my father’s.

I reached out and grabbed it so quick he
didn’t have time to move. “Where did you get that?” I snarled.

“It was given to me.” He tried to place his
hand over mine, but I snatched it away. He was hiding something. I
could tell.

“That’s my father’s medallion. What the hell
are you doing with it?”

He swallowed, “Listen, Morgan ... ”

“Don’t you ‘listen Morgan’ me,” my voice
rose. “I want to know what you’re doing with that medallion and I
want to know
now
.” I knew I was acting like a spoiled
teenager, but I couldn’t stop myself.

“It was given to me.” I could feel the
tension radiating off his body.

“Who gave it to you?”

“Your father.”

I swallowed. Hard. “Liar,” I meant it to be
loud and forceful, but it came out barely a whisper. “My father is
dead.”

“I know, Morgan.” This time he did place his
hand over mine and even though I tried to shrug him off, he held
on. “He gave it to me before he died.”

I shook my head. “That’s impossible. He died
when I was a baby. You couldn’t have been much older than that. Why
would my father give you a gold medallion? That’s ridiculous.”

“I’m sorry, Morgan. This isn’t how I wanted
to tell you.” Trevor’s voice was a little strained, his mocha latte
skin glistening with fine sheen of sweat. He was obviously nervous,
which was kind of freaking me out.

Anger surged through me so hard and fast it
nearly knocked me over. “Tell me the truth, Trevor. Now!”

“Your father didn’t die when you were a
baby.”

“What are you talking about? Of course he
did.” My mom had told me so and she wouldn’t lie about something
like that. “He was a salesman and he died in a car accident.”

He shook his head. “No, the sales job? That
was something he told your mother because he couldn’t tell her the
truth. And his death? That was a lie, too. To protect her, and you.
He worked for the government. For the Supernatural Regulatory
Agency, just like I do. He died, but not until years later. He was
investigating something he shouldn’t and he got too close.”

“Did you kill him, Trevor?” I didn’t know why
that thought crossed my mind, but I had to be sure.

“Not me, Morgan.” He squeezed my hand as if
willing me to understand. But I didn’t understand. I didn’t
understand any of it. “The government had him killed. He was too
dangerous. They thought he was too dangerous.”

I looked down at the photo of my father
standing side by side with Alister Jones. “Why? Why did they think
he was dangerous?”

“Partly because of the investigation and
partly ...” he hesitated. I looked up. Whatever he saw in my face
pushed him forward. “ ... and partly because he wasn’t entirely
human.”

If he expected me to be surprised, he was
disappointed. I already knew the freaky weirdness about my DNA. My
Atlantean genes had to come from somewhere.

I gave Trevor a good hard look. He worked for
them. For the government that killed my father. It didn’t matter
that his hand hadn’t held the knife or the gun or whatever they’d
used. It mattered that he worked for an agency that killed people
just because their DNA wasn’t entirely human.

My right hand clenched into a fist. “So, I
guess that means I’m a threat, too, huh? Daughter of a monster. I
guess that puts a price on my head then, seeing as how I work for
the same government.” Probably not the best idea to taunt a
government agent, but what the heck.

His voice was so quiet that I almost didn’t
hear. “Well, then I’m a monster, too, and there’s a death price on
my head.”

It took a minute for his words to sink in,
and even then I wasn’t sure I understood what he was saying. Wasn’t
sure I grasped the entire picture. “What did you say?”

His chocolate brown eyes stared directly into
my mossy green ones. “He was my father, too, Morgan.”

“Get the fuck out.” I searched his face, his
features, but there was nothing familiar. Nothing like mine. I was
sure of it. “You’re a liar.” It came out a lot less confident than
I was aiming for.

“No. I’m not. And you know it.” He pulled the
cord up and flashed the pendant. The same pendant my father wore in
the picture my mom had given me. “This is the sun symbol of the
Atlantean Royal Bloodline passed down from father to son for
generations. I’m your brother, Morgan.”

As though from a distance I watched him take
my hand, his dark skin a sharp contrast to my pale skin. For the
first time I realized we had the same shaped hands. Hands like my
father’s. Like our father’s.

My brother. Trevor Daly was my brother.

I needed something a lot stronger than hot
chocolate.

I let go of his hand and backed away. It was
all too much, but before I could say anything my cell phone rang.
“Yeah?”

“Morgan, I think I’m in trouble.”

“Inigo? What’s wrong?”

There was a crackling on the other end of the
line. “I’m being stalked. Someone wants me dead.”

“Shit. What happened? Where are you?”

“I’m at home. I’m safe for now, but Morgan,
hurry. Please! There isn’t much time.”

The phone went dead.

I slid a look at Trevor out of the corner of
my eye. Kabita had opted to take a seat in another aisle of the
plane so Trevor and I could “talk.” I made a mental note to “thank”
her later. The good thing about flying first class was that there
was enough space between us and the rest of the passengers we could
have a decent conversation without anyone overhearing.

I hadn’t told Kabita yet about Trevor and me.
It was all too weird and I was trying to get used to the idea
before I told anyone else, even my best friend. Still, she’d had
that look that told me she knew something was going on.

A low chuckle escaped him. “You don’t have to
be subtle, you know. If you want to stare, go ahead. We’re family,
remember.”

Family. Until now, family had been my mom, my
grandma and various aunts, uncles and cousins. My dad had been a
bedtime story and siblings hadn’t even factored into things. Now I
had a brother. A freaking brother. Dear gods. My mother was going
to blow a gasket.

“Um, so obviously we don’t have the same
mom.” I winced. Way to go, Captain Obvious. Fortunately Trevor
appeared to have something of a sense of humor after all.

“No. My mother’s name is Anita. She married
our father when she was just eighteen. Dad was twenty. They married
because she was pregnant.”

“With you?”

He nodded. “Yes. I’m an only child.” He
glanced at me and smiled. “Was an only child. You can imagine the
scandal at the time, an interracial couple pregnant out of wedlock.
It wasn’t easy for either of them.”

“No, I imagine it wasn’t. Did they love each
other?”

He gave me a smile that was held a hint of
sadness and maybe a little pity. I ignored the pity. “Yeah, they
did. They were crazy about each other. At least, for a while. Then
Dad discovered what he was.”

I cleared my throat. “The Atlantean
gene?”

He nodded. “Not just that, but the Royal
Bloodline. His dad was ill, dying, so he gave him the amulet along
with the story. That’s how it’s done.”

Would have been nice if someone had bothered
to tell me the story. “So, what happened? How did he meet my mom? I
mean, I know how they met. They ran into each other in a grocery
store, literally.”

He grinned. “Yeah, Dad told me about
that.”

I was surprised. “He did?” I couldn’t imagine
a man telling his son about the other woman in his life. Then
again, what I knew about my dad could fill a thimble.

“Yeah, he told me a lot of things.” He leaned
back in his chair, hands folded over his stomach. I could tell the
memories were making him sad, but I needed to know. “I think he
knew they were going to kill him, that it was only a matter of
time. So, he passed the amulet to me when I was fifteen.

“He told me about your mom, then. How he was
sent to Portland on a mission. How they met, fell in love. By then
my parent’s marriage had fallen apart. They barely spoke to each
other. It was ... ” He shook his head.

I don’t know what made me do it, but I
reached out and laid my hand over his like he’d done with me back
at the hotel. Family. Solidarity. I think I kind of got it. It was
so weird, though. I was used to being on my own.

He shook his head as though to clear it. “It
was love at first sight with your mom. She got pregnant with you
right away. I don’t know what he planned to do, if he planned to
leave us or what. In the end it didn’t matter.”

“Why?” I frowned.

He turned his head and looked me straight in
the eye. “Because the minute you were born he knew what you
were.”

I was truly baffled over that one. “What does
that mean?”

“Morgan, I have a single Atlantean lineage
from the Royal Bloodline passed to me through my father. You,
however, have two bloodlines, both Royal.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your mother is Atlantean, too.”

I gaped at him, mouth open like a fish. “Are
you nuts? My mother? The woman who obsesses over my love life and
spends her time playing gin rummy with my grandmother?”

“That’s the one.” He grinned.

“Nuts.” Yeah, my mother would definitely
freak.

He laughed. It was good to see him relaxing.
Damn, why was I all protective of him all of a sudden?

“Anyway, he had to leave you and your mother
in order to keep you safe, prevent the government from finding out
about you. He did a damn good job of it, too. They never knew he
had a second child.

“After he left, he had a friend contact your
mother telling her he’d been killed in a car accident. He went back
to my mother and they had several more years of being miserable
together. He never regretted it either. Hiding my lineage was one
thing; he faked the tests so it looked like I hadn’t inherited the
gene, but hiding yours was another thing altogether. Especially
with your Hunter abilities, though they were latent.”

“But surely they know about you, the
government? If they knew about Dad. They must have retested you
when you joined.”

He shook his head. “Daly is my mother’s
maiden name. I use it so no one suspects who my father was. And I
have friends who help to keep my true identity hidden. Didn’t your
mother ever tell you Dad’s name?”

“No. She left it blank on my birth
certificate. She just always called him my dad.”

He nodded. “Probably he asked her to do that.
Again, to keep you both safe. Our father’s name was Alexander
Morgan.”

I swallowed hard. “Mom named me after
Dad?”

The smile on his face was warm and genuine.
“Yeah. She did. Dad told me that, too.”

“Why did he tell you about me? Surely he must
have known it would upset you, to know he’d loved someone besides
your mother. That he had this whole other family out there.” I knew
it hurt me, even though part of me was thrilled to know I had a
brother.

“I guess it did, at first.” He tilted his
head back, thoughtful. “But Dad told me you’d need me. That I
needed to find you, protect you. He made me promise. So, that’s
what I did. I joined the agency under my mother’s name so I could
use their records to find you, and when I did, I made sure I was
put in charge of your team.”

I blinked back tears. All this time he’d been
watching out for me as best as he could. “Why didn’t you tell me
before?”

He shook his head. “The time never seemed
right. And for a long time, you were just another Hunter. You were
safe. All that’s changed now.”

I tucked my hand back in my lap. “This is
weird. Sorry, but I’m sort of ... wigged out a little. I mean, it’s
cool. I always wanted a brother, but ... ”

“But this isn’t quite how you pictured it?”
His grin was wry.

“No, not exactly.” I grinned back.

“That’s OK. You’ll get used to it. We both
will. I’m not going anywhere.”

That actually made me feel good. This whole
brother thing might be okay after all.

I decided it was time to change the subject.
“So, tell me, big bro, do you have any idea what’s happening with
Inigo? You are the government man extraordinaire, after all.” I
knew I came off a bit flippant, but I was really worried about
Inigo. I’d tried to ring several times, but no luck. It kept going
straight to voicemail. I couldn’t seem to help the edge of panic
lurking inside me at the thought of him being in danger.

“I think it has to do with his heritage.”

“Excuse me? How does being English put him in
danger? It’s not like we’re at war or anything.”

He sighed. “There’s more to it than that, but
I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. I took an oath.”

I blinked. An oath? What could be so secret
about Inigo that he had to take an oath? “If it’s about his
clairvoyance, I already know about that.”

“You really should talk to Kabita about it.
I’m sorry.”

That just made me more worried. And a little
mad. What hadn’t they told me? What could possibly have put Inigo
in danger? I could only hope we weren’t too late.

I leaned my head back against the seat. I was
a little surprised at just how worried I was about Inigo. I mean,
sure, it’s normal to worry about a friend, but this was more than
that.

Jack. I’d been fascinated by Jack from the
beginning. He was hella sexy. Exotic. Different. And nine-hundred
years of experience made him damn good in bed. But beyond that?