Darkest Flame (34 page)

Denae sighed and sat up. Her muscles were sore, but she didn’t feel any lasting effects from Taraeth’s blast of magic. She threw off the blanket and looked down to find she was still in Kellan’s shirt. Despite all she had been through while wearing it, she could still smell him on it.

She took it off and neatly folded it only to hide it behind a pillow in the overstuffed chair. That way when she left Dreagan, she would bring a part of Kellan with her.

Denae walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower until the water was steaming hot. Her mother used to laugh at her, not understanding how it could be nearly a hundred degrees outside but she always had to take a hot shower.

As soon as she stepped into the shower and the water fell over her, Denae let out a sigh. She tilted her head back to wet her hair as she closed her eyes. For several minutes she stood there, enjoying the heat of the water before she washed her hair and body.

She was rinsing the last of the conditioner from her hair when she was hauled up against the shower wall by a muscular form. Kellan didn’t give her time to acknowledge him before he was kissing her. He kiss was deep and thorough, calling her passion and desire easily.

Her body melted against his. She was insatiable when it came to him. He had woken a shameless wanton with his skilled touch and ravenous kisses.

His hands were suddenly everywhere, touching every part of her until she didn’t know where he ended and she began. With greedy hands she touched his steely muscles and warm flesh. His moan of pleasure only inflamed her own desires.

“You were no’ in the bed,” he said between kisses down her neck.

“You weren’t in the room when I woke.”

“We doona need a bed.”

She shook her head and then gasped as he bent and closed his lips around her nipple before suckling. “No, no bed ne … needed.”

“Do you like that?” he asked, his voice husky from desire.

Her voice would no longer work. Denae simply nodded her head.

He began to kiss down her stomach, and she hastily pulled him back up for a kiss. She knew if she let him have his way with her it would be hours before she could think straight again, and she wanted her fun with him this time.

Denae shoved him back until he was against the wall, a teasing light in his celadon eyes. “What’s this?”

“This,” she said as she ran her hands down his chest until she wound a hand around his engorged rod, “is my turn.”

His fingers flexed on her arms, but he didn’t stop her. Instead, he watched her, the hunger growing in his gaze until her knees nearly buckled from the passion running through her.

Denae knelt before him with the water beating upon her back. She looked at his impressive arousal, running both hands along his length. Then she looked up at him and slowly wrapped her lips around the head of his cock.

As she took him into her mouth, he let out a long, low moan. Denae squeezed her legs together and sucked him deeper, moving her head so he slid in and out of her mouth.

She had barely gotten into a rhythm before he had her on her feet and against the wall. He hooked an arm beneath her knee and filled her with one thrust.

“Your sweet mouth was about to make me come, and I needed to be inside you,” he said with heaving breaths.

Whatever words Denae was going to say were lost as he began to move inside her. She clung to him, her nails digging into his shoulders as her head dropped back.

There was a hurried and frantic feel to their lovemaking. He swept her on a tide of unending, frenzied passion that took her breath and thought.

With each thrust he went deeper, harder. Try as she might to deny it, Denae felt the strings of their bond growing thicker, tighter.

It frightened her, this draw he had, and when she tried to pull away, he pinched her nipple, reminding her that she was his—even if it was just for the moment.

Denae couldn’t deny him, not even when her heart was in jeopardy. She opened her body and her heart to him—whatever the consequences.

His fingers dug into her hips as he pounded inside her, the water slicing between them. The climax came with no warning, it was wild and intense, made only more so as Kellan continued to plunge inside her.

Denae was hanging onto Kellan, wondering how he could remain standing. Her body hummed with satisfaction, but she should’ve known he would want more from her.

He withdrew and positioned her so that she was leaning forward with her ass in the air. He came up behind her and filled her.

Denae moaned, her hands spread on the wet glass as she rocked forward with every thrust. The feel of his balls grazing her thighs sent a flood of desire straight to her already sensitive sex.

Then he reached around and cupped her breasts, teasing and massaging her nipples. As if on cue, her body responded to his touch.

Her second orgasm was coming closer, her body on fire once more. One of Kellan’s hands then found her clit. With one swirl of his finger, she was tumbling into another climax, this one stronger than the first.

She screamed his name, just as he gave a bellow and thrust deep and gave in to his orgasm.

For a long time they stayed as they were. Any minute the world would intrude, but each precious second was theirs. Kellan kissed the back of her neck and slowly pulled out of her.

Denae straightened and turned as he grabbed the soap and began to wash her. Laughter filled the bathroom as they washed each other, stopping for long kisses and teasing touches.

It was during one scorching kiss that a series of loud bangs could be heard from the bedroom door. A beat later someone shouted for Kellan.

He pulled back, a slight frown marring his features. “I have to go.”

“I know,” she said and made sure he accepted her forced and shaking smile. She wanted him to walk away without knowing that she was falling completely apart.

She waited, her heart in her throat, for him to say they needed to talk, or even to ask her to stay awhile. Instead, he turned off the shower and handed her a towel.

Denae held the towel against her as he walked from the shower and into the bedroom.

Just as she knew in her heart he was walking out of her life.

CHAPTER FORTY

Phelan walked into the cottage he shared with Aisley to find her sitting in the living room sharing a drink with Laura and Charon.

All three heads turned to him when he entered through the door. Charon, a fellow Warrior and a close friend, immediately frowned. Aisley was on her feet and walking to Phelan before the door shut behind him.

He welcomed her loving arms as she wrapped them around him. Phelan held her tightly, burying his head in her neck.

“You’re home now,” Aisley whispered.

They didn’t keep secrets from each other. She knew why he had gone to Dreagan, and he had kept her as up to date on things as he could. What he hadn’t wanted to tell her until he returned home was that Tristan was Duncan.

Such a secret weighed heavily upon him, and Phelan knew that as soon as he shared it with her, things were going to change for all the Warriors and Druids, but most especially those living in and around MacLeod Castle.

Aisley pulled back and ran her hands over his face, her worried gaze searching his. “You look like you could use a drink.”

“Two or three, in fact,” he said. He kissed her, reveling in the fact such a woman was really his.

She wasn’t just a Druid, she was a Phoenix—able to regenerate after death with fire. Phelan had lost her once and thought he’d have to live the rest of his immortal life without her. But when they burned her body, she had returned to him. It was how everyone, including Aisley, learned of the rare heritage passed through her family.

At least when he ended the kiss and she pulled out of his arms, Aisley was smiling. With her in his life he could face anything—even something as awful as what was coming.

“We were getting a bit worried,” Laura said as she greeted him.

Phelan smiled at the wife of his best friend and fellow Warrior, Charon. “I want a shower to scrub the stink of the Dark Fae off me, but not yet. There are things everyone needs to know.”

“That sounds ominous,” Charon said with a frown after they clasped hands and he resumed his seat on the sofa opposite Phelan. “I thought you were just going to Dreagan to chat with Con and the others.”

Phelan looked at Aisley in the kitchen, who gave a shrug.

“I didn’t know how long you would be, or what would happen,” she explained. “Had I told Charon everything, he’d have been at Dreagan himself demanding to be standing alongside you.”

Charon’s frown deepened as he looked from Aisley to Phelan. “I’m getting pissed. What the bloody hell are you two talking about?”

Laura put her hand atop Charon’s. “It looks like Phelan has gotten himself involved in something.”

“I think you’re right,” he answered, continuing his hard stare at Phelan. “And I’ve got a feeling the Kings didna bother to mention how deep the shite was before Phelan stepped in it.”

Aisley sank beside Phelan on the sofa and handed him the opened bottle of ale. He drank down three huge gulps before he set the bottle on the table between the sofas and met Charon’s gaze. “I knew the shite was deep when I agreed. I wasna fooled into helping out.”

Charon took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “How bad is it?”

“Potentially devastating.”

Phelan went on to tell them about Denae, MI5’s involvement with the Dark, Denae and Kellan being taken by the Dark Ones, and Rhi helping to locate the Dragon King and human in Ireland. He described the Fae doorways, how the Dark Fae had taken over an abandoned manor and somehow opened the Fae world beneath with tunnels, and how Phelan and Tristan helped to get Kellan and Denae out of the tunnels.

He drained the last of his ale as he told of the battle and how the Kings, along with Denae, got back to Scotland.

“The Fae opened their world up into ours?” Aisley asked, her voice shaking.

Phelan took her hand in his. “No’ yet. Rhi and the Kings are worried it might come to that. For now, it’s confined to the tunnels beneath the manor.”

“How bad is it?” Charon asked.

“Bad. Verra bad,” Phelan said. “The creatures we encountered are huge and vicious. If the Fae world bleeds into ours, the humans willna know what to do.”

Laura’s intelligent eyes met his. “Are the Light Fae doing anything about the Dark? Or are they joined in this together?”

“This was all the Dark,” Phelan said. “Rhi was right there beside us battling them. There wasn’t much said, but I know the Kings are suspicious of the Dark Fae’s alliance with MI5.”

“And just who put that alliance into motion,” Aisley guessed.

Phelan grinned. His wife had spent enough time in the midst of her evil cousin to know how villains thought. “They suspect it’s Ulrik.”

“That name again,” Laura said with a shake of her head. “I have a feeling he’s the one who came into the bar months ago. He looked lost, haunted. I wouldn’t peg him to be evil.”

“But evil has many faces,” Charon said. “We learned that well enough.”

Laura tucked her legs beneath her and twisted her lips in a grimace. “Truer words haven’t been spoken.”

“So,” Aisley said. “Where does that leave things?”

Phelan leaned back and regarded the three people around him. They were his family. For centuries the Warriors had battled
droughs,
or evil Druids. Aisley’s cousin, Jason, had been the last to be killed.

It would be easy to tell the Dragon Kings to fight their own battles. How many centuries had passed before the Kings had deigned to tell the Warriors of their existence? Not once did the Kings step in and help during the Warriors’ war.

Not until it appeared that the war was bleeding into the humans’ lives.

Just as things were about to now.

Phelan blew out a harsh breath. “The Kings are powerful. I saw just what kind of damage they can do to the Dark. I also saw how the Dark Ones could inhibit the Kings, all but preventing them from shifting into dragon form.”

“Fuck,” Charon mumbled.

Phelan couldn’t have said it better. “I think we need to be ready in case they do call upon us for anything.”

“I agree,” Aisley stated.

Laura and Charon nodded together.

Phelan licked his lips. That was one burden off his shoulders. He would have to repeat it all again at MacLeod Castle for the other twelve Warriors and their Druid wives.

“There’s something else,” Aisley was quick to say.

Phelan ran a hand through his hair. “What I’m about to tell you three must remain between us for the time being. I’m no’ sure what to do or how telling the others will impact things.”

Charon finished off the last of his Dreagan whisky and set down the glass on the coffee table. “Well, you’ve certainly got my attention. What kind of secret did you learn?” he asked with a smile.

Phelan couldn’t share that smile, not when he knew the chaos that was about to ensue.

“Just tell us. The anticipation is killing me,” Aisley said with a grimace.

“I met a Dragon King today called Tristan.”

Laura raised a brow. “All right. What is it about him that has you worried?”

Aisley’s eyes widened as she realized what he was about to impart to the others.

Phelan cleared his throat. “As many times as we four have been to Dreagan, can you remember meeting him?”

Charon chuckled. “Every time we’re there more Kings are around. I can no’ keep up with them all. But the name doesna ring a bell.”

“I don’t either,” Laura said. “Most of the Kings not mated tend to stay away from the manor.”

It was as he’d expected. Some would be suspicious that Con had made sure to keep Tristan away from the Warriors. And they would be right.

“Do any of you recall seeing an amber dragon?”

“Yes,” Aisley immediately answered. “Several times in the battles we had with Jason.”

Charon’s smile slipped a little. “I do as well.”

“Count me as one who’s seen him,” Laura said.

Now came the hard part. Phelan wasn’t sure how they would react. In hindsight, he could have handled things with Tristan better than he had.