Passion Ignites (22 page)

“Dreagan,” Thorn murmured.

Lexi nodded. “Dreagan. I knew that name. It sounded so familiar, but I couldn't place it. It wasn't until I looked at the dragons again that it all came back in a violent rush. I got up, found a taxi, and returned to the city. That's all there is.”

“Who was sitting beside you?” Guy asked.

She shook her head as she thought back. “No one. I sat on one end, and there were two men sitting on the other.”

Con studied her, his gaze seeming to size her up. “Did they speak to you?”

“No one but the bartender spoke,” Lexi answered.

“What was the first thing you remembered?”

Lexi couldn't hold Con's gaze. His black eyes were too sharp. They saw too much. She looked down at her coffee. Her pause lengthened, not because she couldn't recall, but because of how fiercely his name had bellowed through her head. “Thorn.”

“Doona look at me,” Thorn said to Con. “I was killing Dark.”

Con gave a single nod. “As Darius said. You were going to let Lexi leave?”

“Aye.”

“Why?”

This Lexi was dying to hear. She'd wanted to know since she woke from her injuries to find him gone. The story Darius told her was heartbreaking, and that did play a part. But after their lovemaking last night, it didn't make sense. Nothing made sense.

“I had to,” Thorn bit out.

That seemed enough for both Con and Guy, but not nearly enough for her.

“That's it?” she asked Thorn. “You had to? If I hadn't remembered, I'd be back in Charleston.”

“And away from the danger here,” Thorn pointed out.

“And you.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. Finally he said, “Aye.”

Did that mean he was going to walk away from her again? It was a possibility she had known the night before, but everything seemed so different in the light of day after heated hours in his arms.

He had held her so tenderly, loved her so thoroughly. Then been gentle and fierce in turns, and it made her stomach flutter every time she thought of it. The soreness between her legs helped to remind her that it hadn't been a dream.

Lexi dropped her head and pretended to get sleep out of the corner of her eye while she took that time to try and gather the pieces of her obliterated soul.

To be fair, Thorn had made no promises. There had been nothing said of feelings or what was to come. Only the ecstasy they found in each other's arms.

She wanted to stand and make him face what was between them. But how was that fair? There was a war going on, a war that she might not otherwise know about had Christina not died.

Yet she did know about the Dark Fae, Dragon Kings, and magic. There was no pretending. Thorn was needed. If she wanted to show him and the others that she understood, then she should support him. Though it was going to kill her to do it.

“You're right,” she said as she lifted her head. “I shouldn't have to be reminded about the Dark.” She slid her gaze to Con. “I have no answers for you.”

“I believe I have what I came for,” Con stated after a brief pause.

Lexi frowned, not sure what she could've said that satisfied him. Con's eyes didn't look away from her. She took a deep breath, waiting for Guy to grab her and take her memories again.

This time would be even worse, because she wouldn't be able to look back and think of her time in Thorn's arms.

“What will you do now?” Con asked her.

Lexi blinked in surprise. “I don't know.”

At the same time, Thorn said, “I'm protecting her.”

She swiveled her head to him. Did that mean they weren't going to wipe her memories? Or did that mean that Thorn was going to make sure she got on the plane this time?

“As I assumed,” Con said to Thorn. His eyes returned to Lexi. “Did Darius tell you how we made sure never to fall for a human again?”

Lexi turned her mug around in her hand. “No.” And she wasn't sure she wanted to know. “I know of Ulrik and the betrayal by his woman.”

“After Ulrik's banishment, the Kings combined our magic and cast a spell to ensure that we would never be betrayed again.”

It sounded as bad as she thought it might. It also answered her question about whether Thorn had any feelings for her.

“For thousands of years the spell remained in place,” Con continued. “Until a few years ago. We didna know the reasoning at the time, but the spell was broken. The Kings began to find love with humans. They took these mortals as their mates.”

Guy bowed his head at her. “I'm one of them.”

Now Lexi was even more confused. So the Kings couldn't fall in love, but now they could?

Con smiled, as if he knew she was baffled, yet his smile didn't reach his eyes. “I'll be the first to tell anyone that I doona want my Kings to take mates. We've been lucky so far, but I know a betrayal will happen. I tell you all of this because we've noticed a trend.”

She watched as Con got to his feet and stood behind the chair. He adjusted his sleeves and cuff links before he rested his hands on the back of the chair.

“What's that?” Lexi asked.

His hard gaze softened just a fraction, and she thought he might have given her a true smile—though it was small.

“Because those mates are immune to the Dark after coming in contact with their Dragon King.”

Lexi sat back and shook her head. “You think that's why I'm immune to the Dark?”

Con's blond brows lifted in his forehead. “Are you now? Interesting.”

“I'll be damned,” Guy said with a smile. “That's how my magic was broken.”

Lexi threw up her hands in frustration. “Will someone enlighten me?”

Guy chuckled. “The kiss you shared with Thorn. You held on to that tightly. It took me a lot to erase that memory.”

Lexi was afraid to look at Thorn, afraid he might be appalled by what Con and Guy were saying. A mate? Her?

No, that couldn't be possible.

Did she lust after him? Did she want to jump on him and strip off his clothes? Did she want to curl up on the couch and watch a movie with him?

Hell yes.

Lexi turned her head to find Thorn staring at her, his expression closed.

Which pretty much said it all.

 

CHAPTER

TWENTY-EIGHT

Rhi stood in her small cottage in Italy. It had been awhile since she visited. The last time was when
he
had been there.

How long had he known of the house? Not that it mattered. It was her last time there. The cottage was once a sanctuary for her, a place she could go that no one knew about.

Yet now there were two who knew. Her love and Ulrik. And that was two too many.

One by one she took down the bottles of nail polish and put them in a box. She took the clothes from the closet and put them in another box. It wasn't until she turned to the bed that she saw the nail polish.

Rhi stared at it for a long time before she picked up the bottle. Why did he keep returning? If he wanted to talk to her, he knew how to find her. Or was he becoming interested because she was trying to stop loving him?

She turned the bottle upside down and read aloud, “Titanium.”

It was a shimmery dark silver with black, grays, and whites. It would go perfectly with her choice of clothes lately. The fact she hadn't used the pink he left behind—and that he knew it—made her chest ache.

But at least this time she didn't fall into the fetal position and cry.

It was a step in the right direction.

Rhi tucked the nail polish into the front pocket of her jeans and teleported away with her boxes. She breathed in the fresh sea air at her new destination.

She was on a small island in the Caribbean without another soul for miles. It truly was a refuge now. No one could stumble upon her here without her knowing about it.

The hut was sparse, but perfect. Palm fronds were laid over the metal roof, and it didn't have a single wall. The bed was queen sized and hung suspended by rope as thick as her wrist from the beams above.

The shower was as sparse as the hut. It had a showerhead that was attached to a three-foot-wide wall of cut bamboo that rose up six feet. The kitchen was nonexistent, and besides a tiny table with two chairs, the only other furniture was a hammock, a chair and umbrella in the sand, and a chest for her clothes.

“Perfect,” Rhi said and snapped her fingers, exchanging her jeans and shirt for a white bikini.

She left the unpacking for later and dove into the water. For hours, she swam with the fish and dolphins. Beneath the water she wasn't being bombarded with everything. She could focus on one thing at a time.

The Reapers were being looked into by Balladyn. She would worry about his “payment” when it came due, and if he told her anything of importance.

Her biggest issues were Usaeil and the war. Rhi knew the queen was making the wrong decision about not helping the Dragon Kings. She couldn't understand why Usaeil wouldn't align with them.

The Dark's deliberate attack on Scotland to rile the Kings worked to perfection. The war the Dark craved was in motion.

Rhi wasn't sure her participation in helping the Kings would be welcome after not coming to Warrick and Darcy's aid.

The fact was, she liked Earth. She liked humans. She didn't want to see the realm razed by the Dark. Whether the Kings wanted her help or not, she was going to give it.

Rhi swam to shore and walked onto the sand. Her watcher had found her again. Sooner than she had expected.

“Who are you?” she demanded angrily. “Show yourself!”

She used her magic to try and make them appear, but it bounced back at her, knocking her backward a few steps. Rhi stared at the spot where she had thrown the magic.

“What do you want with me?” she asked.

There was no response, just more silence.

She didn't have time for that. She used magic again and changed from her bathing suit to black jeans, black spiked boots, and a black turtleneck.

Magic also dried her skin and hair. She braided her hair in two small braids on each side of her temple, then gathered the bulk of her hair into a bun at the back of her head.

She closed her eyes and held out her hand. With a few whispered words, her sword appeared. Rhi strapped the sheath across her upper body so the sword rested against her back.

With a thought, she was in Edinburgh.

Rhi barely had time to look around before a Dark came at her. She unsheathed her sword and beheaded him. Looks like she arrived just in time, she thought with a smile.

Two more Dark came at her, their red eyes glowing in the night. Rhi backed into an alley, her sword at the ready. In two swings of her sword they were dead.

*   *   *

The morning went by quickly for Lexi. Since all three Kings—Thorn, Guy, and Con—asked her to remain in the flat no matter what, she had agreed. Although, she had nowhere else to go.

It wasn't long before another two couples from MacLeod Castle arrived looking weary and exhausted. She cooked them brunch as they rested and changed clothes.

She had just begun to clean up when a man popped into the flat. He just appeared. Out of nowhere.

Lexi gaped at him, but he merely smiled.

“It's good to see you up this time, lass,” he said in a deep Scottish brogue.

Lexi couldn't remember meeting him. Her gaze dropped from his green eyes to the gold torc around his neck.

“I'm Fallon MacLeod. The eldest of the MacLeod brothers.”

“A Warrior,” she said with a nod, piecing it together. Fallon was the one who could teleport. He was also the one who had brought Druids to help heal her the night she was hit with Dark magic.

He gave her a wink. “I'm here to take this lot back,” he said, motioning to the four behind him.

Lexi watched as he walked to them and put his hands on the shoulders of two of them. When they were all touching, they vanished.

“Now that could definitely be something I'd use,” Lexi said with a chuckle. “No more astronomical plane tickets to visit places. He could just pop me back home.”

If she wanted to return to Charleston. Which she didn't. That hit her suddenly.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see her friends, but the idea of leaving Thorn seemed … preposterous. It wasn't as if she had known him for long. Yet it felt as if she were meant to be there—even in the middle of a magical war.

She stood there thinking about her night with Thorn. A more magical, dreamy night she had never imagined. How she wanted a million more of them.

With a smile she gathered the dirty dishes and brought them to the sink. Lexi just finished washing the last of the dishes when there was a knock on the door and Darius entered. He held several bags of food that he put on the counter. Then with a wave, he was gone.

Lexi laughed at the closed door. She wiped her hands on a towel and went to inspect the bags. As she drew close she smelled the fish and chips, and her stomach immediately rumbled with hunger.

She eagerly dug into the food and ate until she couldn't put another bite in her mouth. Then she moved to the couch.

Lexi didn't mind having most of the day to herself. It gave her time to think, which only proved to give her more questions than answers.

The afternoon passed with no one arriving. She tried to watch some TV, but she couldn't concentrate. With nothing else to do, she began to cook. She had no idea if the Warriors and Druids would return or if Thorn and the others would be hungry.

She baked a cake and some scones while she considered how she felt about Thorn. Like appeared too soft of a word for how she felt, but she wasn't sure she could call it the other “L” word.

That word seemed so … intense.

But that's exactly how she would describe how she felt for Thorn—intense.

Passionate was another.

Then there was fierce and profound.