Kissed by Smoke (8 page)

I glanced down at myself. I must admit I was
a bit of a sight. “My pajamas. What does it look like?”

“Morgan … ”

“Thanks for the heads up,” I interrupted,
“but as you can see, I’m fine.”

“Morgan,” his voice was nearly a snarl, “how
can I protect you … ”

“I don’t need your protection, Jack. Don’t
you get that? I can take care of myself. Obviously. I killed the
bad little vampire all by myself.” I didn’t mention the contract.
The last thing I needed was to give Jack more of an excuse to play
Guardian.

“I know you can take care of yourself,
Morgan, but I’m your Guardian. I’m supposed to watch out for
you.”

“Then how about you do it from a distance?”
It was mean, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to deal with
Jack. Maybe I couldn’t deal with Jack. “Now, it’s late and I’d like
to go to bed.” I glanced pointedly at the backdoor.

“Fine. But I
will
be watching.”

I had no doubt of that.

***

“Someone has a hit out on you? You’ve got to
be kidding me.” Inigo’s voice on the phone had lost all sound of
sleepiness the minute I’d told him about the vampire attack.

“No, I’m not kidding. I’m staring right at
the advertisement.” The vamp hadn’t been lying about that. It was
right there on the website in black and white. Somebody wanted me
dead and they wanted it bad.

Welcome to my life.

“I’m coming over, Morgan.”

Part of me wanted to argue. That old
independent streak rearing its head. But a bigger part of me just
wanted to curl up in his arms and hide from the world for awhile.
Inigo might not be as big and muscular as Jack, or Trevor, for that
matter, but he was mine.

And he was a freaking half-dragon for crying
out loud.

I figured I might as well make coffee. I
sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep.

I closed my eyes on a sigh. I fingered the
Atlantean amulet that hung around my neck. There was no use denying
it anymore. Ever since I’d come into contact with the amulet, my
life had been turned upside-down and sideways. That included the
fact that I was now some kind of human conduit for every superpower
the people of Atlantis had ever concocted.

Shit.

Fortunately, Inigo arrived before my
thoughts could get too maudlin. He tsk-tsked over my ruined robe
and promised to buy me another. I didn’t doubt it, though I was a
little scared about what he might buy. With my luck it would be
sheer. And pink. I shuddered at the thought.

He hauled me off to bed, not for sex, just
to cuddle. Having a boyfriend who could read your every mood was
sometimes a really good thing. I snuggled into the heat of him,
inhaling the chocolatey campfire smell of him. Sometimes I wondered
what I’d ever done without him in my life.

His arms were deliciously warm as they
wrapped around me. I could hear his heart under my ear, its strong
beat lulling me. Before I knew it I’d slipped off into
dreamland.

***

“
You owe us, Marid.”

“
We owe you nothing, kinsman,” the giant man
spat. His overdeveloped muscles bulged and shifted under reddish
hued skin. His enormous frame completely dwarfed me.

“
We brought you here,” I reminded him. My tone
was calm, but inside my heart was beating furiously. “We saved you
from certain death. Without us, you would have died along with our
sun.”

“
You should have let us die,” the Marid spat.
“This place is not a place for us. It cannot sustain us. We will
die here, despite your meddling. I should kill you for that
alone.”

Fire danced at his fingertips and the wind kicked
up, swirling around us until my heavy silk robe flapped around my
frame. It snapped so hard, I would no doubt have welts
afterward.

I swallowed. The Marid were the most powerful of the
djinn. Even on our homeworld they were difficult to control. Here
…

“
Listen carefully, Marid, there is a
way.”

“
Impossible,” he snarled. “Half my village has
already perished. What can you do, Priest?”

I smiled at that. Despite his hatred of me, he was
still afraid. In this instance, fear was good.

“
Give me what I want, and I vow by all the gods
your people will survive.”

The giant man pondered for a moment. “You fail me
and I will destroy you, Priest.”

He could try. But I kept silent and let him have the
last word. “So shall it be.”

***

I woke with my face smooshed into my pillow
and Inigo’s arm wrapped around my waist. At some point in the night
I’d turned and we’d ended up spooning. My favorite.

The dream came back to me in bits and
pieces. I’d been the High Priest again. Freaking fantastic. Well,
at least I hadn’t gone crazy and murdered anybody this time.

I frowned. Something had woken me. I just
couldn’t …

The first few perky bars of Caro Emerald’s
“That Man” filled the room. Phone. I squinted at the clock. 4am.
Somebody better be dead.

“‘Lo?”

“Morgan, it’s Trevor.”

I sat up in bed. Inigo grunted in his sleep
and tried to pull me closer. Men.

“Trevor, what’s wrong?” I could hear it in
his voice. All was very definitely not well.

“I’m in the hospital. In Bend.”

Bend was about an hour’s drive from Madras
and the closest hospital to the small town. I didn’t like the sound
of that. “What happened? Are you okay?” I must have sounded half
hysterical, because that woke Inigo up quick.

“I will be.” My brother’s voice was a little
huskier than usual, but he didn’t sound too bad.

“What do you mean, you will be?”

“Morgan, I’ll be fine.”

“Trevor.” I couldn’t help if I sounded a
little testy. The man was trying my patience.

“I was attacked last night. In my hotel
room. Fortunately somebody called the cops and the attackers ran
off, but they gave me a pretty good ass-kicking. I’ve got a cracked
rib, some contusions, and they’re insisting on keeping me for
observation. It’s no big deal.”

“You’ve got a concussion, don’t you?” Why
else would they keep him for “observation?”

He sighed. “Yeah. A little bit.”

“Dammit, Trev.”

“Morgan, I’m fine.”

“Were they human?”

“I think so. They seemed human. But … ” his
voice trailed off.

“But you think somebody else was pulling
their strings.”

“Yeah, I’m sure of it. One of them said
something about not getting paid if they didn’t finish it.”

Another hit. It wasn’t just me, they were
after my brother, too. What the fuck was going on?

As if sensing my distress, Inigo wrapped his
arms around me, pressing his chest against my back and rubbing his
cheek against my hair. It felt good. And a little distracting. I
probably should have shoved him off so I could concentrate, but I
liked his touch, and I think he needed to touch me as much as I
needed him to.

“Okay, Trevor, you stay in the hospital and
do what the doctors tell you. No being macho, okay?”

There was laughter in his voice. “Okay. What
will you be doing?”

My own voice was grim. “Finding out who did
this to you, and ripping them limb from limb.”

***

Okay, maybe I went a little overboard, but I
get a little pissy when one of my people is threatened. And Trevor
Daly was very definitely one of my people. He wasn’t just my half
brother, he’d helped me save Inigo’s life. That meant
something.

We were headed back over the mountains
toward Madras and Trevor’s hotel room. I was hoping we’d pick up on
something. Something that would lead us to the people who’d hurt
Trevor, and hopefully, whoever had hired them to do the job. I had
no idea if the hit on Trevor was related to the hit on me, but it
was just one too many coincidences for my liking.

I was staring glumly at the road in front of
us, the trees dark shapes against the pre-dawn sky. Suddenly The
Cure blasted from the stereo.

You need thinking time
. Inigo’s mind touched mine.
Music always helps
you think. I’m here when you need me.
Then he withdrew from
my head, a smile hovering as he drove my car deeper into the
mountains.

I was a little overwhelmed at his
thoughtfulness. Sometimes I thought he was way too good for me. How
could I ever possibly deserve him?

I reached across and took his hand, tangling
my fingers through his before letting my thoughts drift away. I’m
telling you, every girl should have a mind-reading clairvoyant
half-dragon for a boyfriend.

***

Trevor had been staying at the nicest of the
three hotels in town, which wasn’t saying much. It was pretty
basic, but it was clean and tidy and the manager was no-nonsense.
There was no way he was letting us in Trevor’s room.

When I told him I was Trevor’s sister, he
gave me a look that plainly said he didn’t believe me. He was very
clear on one point: He didn’t care if I was the frigging Queen of
England, I wasn’t getting in that room.

A little bit of outrageous flirtation with
the maid and we were in. I should probably point out the flirtation
was done by yours truly. Apparently Inigo wasn’t quite the maid’s
type.

Although it was obvious there’d been a fight
in the room, it didn’t look as if anything had been taken or rifled
through. They’d definitely been after Trevor, not robbery. Dammit.
This was not looking good for either of us.

“They were human.”

I glanced over at Inigo who was prowling
around the room. “You can sense them?”

“Hell, no,” he laughed. “I can smell them.
They all seriously need to bathe. And I think they’re on
something.”

“Tweakers?”

He shrugged. “Can’t tell. You get
anything?”

I frowned. “No, but I think there’s a lot
more to this than a bunch of druggies who need a bath.”

“I agree. Next step?”

“We find them.” Yeah. So easy.

Needle. Meet haystack.

Thanks to Inigo’s sense of smell, tracking
Trevor’s attackers wasn’t all that hard. We found them, or rather
one of them, in a rundown apartment block on the outskirts of town.
The place made the motel Vega had stayed in look like a palace.

I rapped on the door. There was a shuffling
inside, then a sleepy voice, “Who is it?”

“Pizza.”

“I didn’t order any … oh.” The young man
that opened the door was scrawny, bleary-eyed and wearing nothing
but a pair of saggy tighty whities. So not attractive.

“Yeah, oh. What’s your name, kid?” I kept my
voice firm, professional, but with just an edge of good humor. No
use freaking him out. He was obviously half strung-out already.

“Uh, uh, Mikey.” He peered at me through
long strands of dirty blond hair.

“Mikey, huh. Listen, Mikey, I’ve got some
questions for you. Mind if we come in?” I slid one booted foot
across the door frame so he would be unable to slam the door on
us.

“Why? What questions? I don’t know
anything.” He was starting to panic, sweat popping out across his
forehead, skinny body trembling.

“Listen, we just want to come in and talk to
you for a minute, no biggie.” I kept my voice light and cajoling. I
was afraid it wasn’t going to work. I was right.

Mikey slammed the door, which bounced right
off my boot, then he took off running with his drawers sagging
halfway down his butt. I so did not need to see his pasty white
cheeks. I’d have nightmares for a month.

“I’ll get him.” Inigo flashed a grin and
took off after the kid. Two bounds and the junkie was laid out flat
on the floor.

I stared down at the kid curled up on the
floor. He couldn’t be much more than eighteen.

“Not the face.”

“What?” I stared down at Mikey, then glanced
up at Inigo who gave me a shrug. “What are you talking about?”

“Please, beat me up, take what you want.
Please just don’t hit me in the face.” He was practically
sobbing.

And that’s when it hit me. There were a few
professions where the face was an important part of the package,
but I doubted Mikey was an actor. My stomach turned sour and I
wanted to throw up. “How old are you Mikey?” I kept my voice soft,
my body still.

Tears trickled down his face.
“Seventeen.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. “Where is your
family, Mikey?”

“Ain’t got one.”

And knowing the way the foster system
worked, he was probably worse off in the system, believe it or not.
Double shit. I felt sorry for the kid, but he’d been involved in
beating up my brother. Maybe even in murder. I couldn’t let that
stand, no matter what kind of shitty life the poor kid had
lived.

Still, he didn’t strike me as the type that
could take down a man like Trevor Daly. Not even on a good day.
There was more to all this; I could practically smell it.

“Listen to me, Mikey,” I didn’t let a hint
of anger slip into my voice. He was freaked out enough. I needed
him calm. “I want to help you, I do. I want to make sure you don’t
have to … ” My voice thickened and I had to clear it. The tears
wanted to come, but damn if I’d let them. “I don’t want you to ever
have to do that anymore. You got it?”

“You can’t help me.”

“Yes, yes I can. You help me and I promise.
I promise I will help you.” I had no idea if I could keep that
promise, but damn if I wouldn’t kill myself trying. Nobody deserved
this kind of shitty life.

“What … what do you want?” his voice
trembled.

“Last night you were there at the Madras
Hotel when a man was beat up. Beat so bad, it put him in the
hospital. That man was my brother.”

Mikey squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry.
I’m sorry.”

“Listen to me, Mikey. I need to know what
happened. I need the truth, okay?”

He nodded a little, his cheek smooshing
against the carpet. “Okay.”