Fire Rising

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The chopper was loud as it hovered near them, and it was all Tristan could do not to lean down and kiss Sammi. He struggled to rein in his desire without succeeding.

Sammi’s hair was like cool silk against his hand. She gazed up at him with passion-filled eyes that made his cock twitch with need.

The mist cocooned them, blocking out everything but the sound. A flash of color had Tristan glancing up to see Rhi smile and point to the sky where she used magic to make it appear as if he was in dragon form and flying away.

The helicopter took the bait and flew away the same instant Rhi disappeared.

Leaving Tristan alone with a woman he couldn’t seem to stop touching. She was an enchantress, luring him in with her charismatic eyes, tempting body, and sinfully full lips.

He knew he should pull away even as he stared into her powder blue eyes and wound her sandy waves around his fingers. Tristan didn’t lie to himself for just one kiss, because he knew one taste of her would never be enough.

Since he first saw her on Dreagan he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. Her gaze had ensnared him, her delicate touch had mesmerized him, and her courage had fascinated him.

It was too dangerous to give into his desire out in the open. They might be on Dreagan land, but Sammi was still a target.

Tristan dropped his hand and moved away from her. He closed his eyes and fought to contain his raging body. His cock was hard and aching, his body heated and eager.

“What now?” she asked.

Tristan swallowed and kept his back to her. The safest place for her was back at the manor, but that would mean giving her up to Jane to take care of.

He wasn’t ready for that yet. But neither should she remain where she was.

“Isn’t this where you tell me I belong with my sister?” Sammi asked. “How she and everyone will keep me safe?”

Tristan fisted his hands. “That’s what Jane and Banan want me to do.”

“And you don’t?” she asked, a note of surprise raising her voice.

He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “There is much you doona understand.”

“I’m getting the picture now,” she said as her voice grew nearer. She walked around him and stopped when she stood before him. “The dragon on the label of Dreagan scotch. You changing from a dragon to human form. And what did you call yourself? Oh, yes, a Dragon King. And this,” she said as she traced his tattoo with her finger.

Tristan stopped breathing at her touch. The dragon part of him, the primal, beastly part of him rumbled with excitement at her touch.

He swallowed past the desire and need to focus on her eyes. “So you believe we can protect you.”

“Without a doubt.”

He narrowed his gaze. “Why then do I no’ believe that you’ll return to the manor?”

Her hand dropped away, leaving him aching to have her touch once more.

“Because of Jane. Because of Banan. Because of you. I was wrong to have brought all of this to your door. These people are dangerous. I’ve seen what they can do without hesitation. I don’t want Jane’s world shattered as mine has been.”

Tristan looked over her head and took a deep breath before slowly releasing it. He debated whether to tell her about Rhi and the Dark Fae, and was about to think better of it when he remembered the Dark One in the village.

“There is more in the world than just us Dragon Kings,” he said as he looked back at her.

She shivered and rubbed her hands along her arms. “Does this have anything to do with guys that have red eyes?”

“Shite,” Tristan said and gave a shake of his head in regret. “Aye, it does. I wasna sure you saw him.”

“In the village and here.”

“Here?” Tristan grabbed her and pulled her against him as he looked around them. All desire vanished as the threat to her took precedence. “Where? When?”

She bit her bottom lip and jerked her chin to the left. “At the stream. I was filling my water bottles and saw his reflection in the water as if he were standing over me, but when I turned around no one was there.”

“What you saw is a Dark Fae.”

“I gather the red eyes aren’t a sign of goodness.”

“Nay. They are evil. The males like to take women and pull out all the hope and laughter from their souls until they are just shells. Some then use the women for sex.”

“And the female Dark Fae?” she asked after a moment’s hesitation.

“They take men for sex. The more sex they have with them, the more the men are bound to the Dark Ones. Either way, once they have you, you’ve lost your soul.”

“Why do they want me?”

Tristan walked to where her purse was and picked it up to hand to her. “They’re working with the men who are after you.”

“Just great,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “Anyone else want to join in?”

“Doona ask that,” he told her.

She pulled out of his grip. “Okay, so the Mob is scary, and what you’ve told me about the Dark Fae is downright terrifying. But why do I get the feeling you’re more worried about the Dark Fae?”

“Because you walked away from one.”

She shrugged, her brow puckering in confusion. “So?”

“So,” he said as he tilted her chin up. “Their allure stops women in their tracks. No one walks away from a Dark.”

“Oh.”

“Exactly. That Dark wants you now that you were no’ falling all over him.”

She visibly swallowed. “Can the Dark Fae get inside the manor?”

“They’re no’ supposed to be on Dreagan land at all.”

“I lost my mother a few years ago. Jane is all the family I have. I don’t want her getting hurt.”

“It’s why you willna return to the manor,” he guessed.

She gave a slow nod. “I don’t want to die either. What do I do?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Oddly enough, I do.”

“There is somewhere I can take you.”

She slid her purse over her head and looped the strap through one arm so that it rested across her body. “Then what are we waiting for?”

“I’ll have to take you while in my dragon form.”

“I wanted a better look at you anyway.”

Tristan must be going crazy to agree to shift in front of her again, but with the helicopter full of mercenaries after her, there wasn’t time for anything else.

He walked past her until he was far enough away to shift. Her quick inhale when he stood before her in his true form made his gut clench.

There was wonder in her eyes as she looked him over. Tristan wanted to remain still and allow her that time, but it would have to wait.

He held out a palm and waited for her to walk to him. Once he had her in his grasp, he leaped into the air and spread his wings.

In two flaps of his wings he was in cloud cover. Normally he wouldn’t have cared, but with the chopper about, he didn’t want to take any chances with Sammi’s life.

Shifting into dragon form didn’t stop the hunger for her. In fact, it only increased. He imagined stripping her clothes off one by one and laying her down before covering her body with his.

He thought about sinking into her slick heat, of hearing her cries of pleasure, and he flew faster. The unrelenting yearning had a grip on him that refused to abate.

Ten minutes later he spotted the cottage they used during patrols and tipped his wings so that he flew to the ground. Tristan landed and gently set her down, already missing the way she stroked his scales.

Before he shifted back into human form, he contacted Banan over their link and let him know he had Sammi. Tristan ended the connection before Banan could ask where they were or what had happened.

They were deep in Dreagan territory, and Tristan doubted any Dark would dare to venture there. If Sammi wouldn’t return to the manor, that left only one option—having the others come to them.

Banan opened the door to the antiques shop called The Silver Dragon. The entire drive to Perth he’d been listening to Jane, over his mobile, beg him to let someone else go, but Banan couldn’t do that. Jane didn’t realize that when it involved her, he couldn’t sit by and do nothing.

And this time there was nothing his friend in MI5, Henry North, could do to help. This was Dragon King business.

A glance around the shop showed a large front area with the antiques displayed by time periods and arranged in a manner most would find appealing.

Banan let his gaze wander from the Victorian section, past the Regency, Georgian, and Jacobean to the Elizabethan and Renaissance, and finally to the Middle Ages.

The shop was larger than he expected with a second floor housing an impressive array of books on one side and weapons on the other.

Banan lowered his gaze and found who he had come to see. Ulrik. The banished Dragon King stood as still as a statue. He wore dark jeans and a thin cream sweater with the sleeves pushed up past his elbows.

Ulrik’s black hair was in a queue at the base of his neck. The only emotion was the fury that burned in his gold eyes.

They stared at each other silently until Banan said, “It’s an impressive shop.”

“Say whatever you came to say and get out.”

Banan had been prepared for a sarcastic comment or even a dig at the fact none of the Kings had visited Ulrik in all the thousands of centuries since he had been banished.

What Banan hadn’t expected was to be ordered to leave.

“If you want revenge on us, then take it, but leave everyone else out of it.”

Was it Banan’s imagination or had a flash of confusion flitted through Ulrik’s gaze? Banan couldn’t be sure.

“Revenge,” Ulrik repeated. “Aye, I’ll have it.”

“I’m here to ask what I need to do for you to leave Sammi out of it.”

Ulrik lifted a black brow. “Am I supposed to know a Sammi?”

“You’ve sent men after her,” Banan said tightly. He should have expected Ulrik to play innocent, but it infuriated him. “She doesna know anything. Leave her out of it and take your revenge on me.”

“Why would I want to make things easy on you?”

“Because you were once honorable.”

At those words, Ulrik’s mask of indifference fell and rage filled him. “Before those I called brothers betrayed me, you mean?”

“Mortals shouldn’t be involved in our fight. Why you want to expose us we’ve no’ figured out yet, but we will. If you think by alerting the world to us that Con will grant you your magic back, then you doona know him at all.”

“Oh, I know Con better than any of you. You think he’s some hero, but there is more to Constantine than any of you realize. He keeps it hidden well, I’ll give him that.”

Banan cut his hand through the air. “I doona care about your grievance with Con. I’m here to offer myself in whatever capacity you want to stop this nonsense about hunting Sammi. What kind of man have you become to use ex-MI5 and Dark Fae?”

“How about you live for hundreds of millennia without the ability to shift into dragon form and tell me what kind of monster you turn into,” Ulrik said tightly, his lips pulled back in a harsh line.

“You willna call off your men, will you?”

Ulrik simply stared at him.

Banan ran a hand down his face. Ulrik had had his woman killed. Banan wasn’t going to use Jane as an excuse and have Ulrik take her from him. That was something he couldn’t bear.

He had come here to beg, which was the hardest thing he had ever done. But he was willing to do anything for Jane. Now he realized it had been a waste of time.

Banan turned on his heel and strode to the door. His hand was on the knob when Ulrik’s voice rang out.

“Doona ever return. Tell Con he can stop having me watched and followed as well.”

Banan shoved open the door and walked out into the rain to his car parked down the street.