Shadows of Fire (The Shadow Realms, Book 1)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “You might be the death of me, and the best you can say is ‘that was nice.’”

  “The death of you?” she asked.

  “Yes, but what a fantastic way to go.”

  “Very true,” she agreed, and he laughed again. She nestled against him again as his arms enveloped her. “I’m not on….”

  Damn it, she was starting to blush again. She tried to suppress the heat scorching her cheeks and failed miserably.

  If she was going to have sex, then she was going to discuss these things without blushing. She told herself this, but it didn’t change anything as her face burned.

  “I’m not on any kind of birth control,” she muttered.

  “I am.”

  She lifted her head again. “You are?”

  “Yes. I get a potion from a warlock that I take once a month.” There was no amusement on his face or in his eyes as he gazed solemnly at her. “I won’t leave a trail of children behind me.”

  She gulped. A trail of children. She was concerned about the possibility of one child, and he was concerned with having many of them… with numerous women.

  This realization doused some of her contentment. He’s a dark fae!

  She would be only one of many to him, and she had to keep reminding herself of this. While she was lost in a sea of happiness, he would move on and probably never recall his time here.

  Sorrow bloomed in her chest, but she pushed it aside. She could mourn the loss of what she’d discovered here when he was gone, but she wouldn’t turn into a melancholy mess while he was still here.

  “Have you fed from me?” she asked as she decided to change to subject.

  “You would know if I had, and I wouldn’t do it without your permission.”

  She frowned at him. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  “Yes, but you’re just starting to learn the pleasure a man and woman can give each other. I’m not going to add my need to feed into the mix. That will come in time.”

  “In time?”

  “Yes, we have plenty of it.”

  “You think Brokk will have to stay here for a lot longer?”

  “No, I think he’ll be ready to leave tomorrow, and I’ll escort him back to the Gloaming, but I will return.” And then his eyes narrowed on her. “Unless you would prefer it if I didn’t come back.”

  “Of course not!” she blurted before she could stop herself. “But.…”

  Her words trailed off as she tried to think of what to say.

  “But?” he prodded.

  “But you’re dark fae.”

  “I’m also lycan and man.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that I’m coming back.”

  He stated this with such authority that she didn’t know how to respond. She’d never allowed herself to entertain the possibility he might decide to stay, but she couldn’t help feeling doubtful.

  “For how long?” she asked.

  CHAPTER 50

  Cole buried his irritation over her disbelief. He knew the reputation of the dark fae—it was well-deserved and earned, but that wasn’t who he was.

  But wasn’t it? It’s who he’d always been, who he’d always planned to be… until she walked into his life.

  It wasn’t who he was anymore, and he hated her doubt in him.

  However, when he saw the uncertainty in her gaze, his annoyance faded. She wasn’t asking him these things because she wanted him to leave. She was asking because she was afraid.

  “What are you afraid of, Lexi?” he asked.

  Her mouth parted, and her eyes darted away from him. “I’m not… I’m not sure what you want from me.”

  “I want you. I thought I’d made that pretty clear.”

  “But for how long?”

  Her words were like a punch to his gut. He wasn’t going to leave her, and he needed to make that clear. But before he could respond, a knock rattled the doors.

  “Lexi!” Sahira called in a voice tinged with panic. “Lexi, are you in there?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  An oof of air escaped him when she planted her hand on his stomach and pushed herself up.

  “Sorry,” she muttered as she scrambled out of his lap.

  He almost pulled her back as he missed holding her, but she’d already scurried away from him. Cole rose as Lexi hastily tugged on her clothes.

  He hated this interruption, but he started to dress too. Something about Sahira’s tone didn’t sit well with him. He was pulling on his jeans when a thunderous boom shook the earth.

  Lexi released a startled cry and staggered to the side when the boom quaked the house. He caught her hand and steadied her before she toppled over the chair. Her eyes flew to his as a growl swelled within him.

  He didn’t know what was going on, but he would destroy it if it threatened her.

  He tugged his jeans on but ignored his shirt as he stalked toward the doors. He glanced back to make sure Lexi was dressed before he unlocked and opened the doors. Sahira took a startled step back as her gaze roamed over his chest.

  There was no doubt about what transpired between them inside that room, and he was glad of that. Sahira didn’t want him to be a part of Lexi’s life, but she didn’t have a choice, and she would learn that.

  He turned back to Lexi as she hurried toward them, straightening her shirt. She kept her eyes averted from Sahira’s as her cheeks burned. He stretched a hand back to her as another boom quaked the house.

  When a sound like the earth being torn apart reverberated through the air, he grabbed Lexi’s arm and pulled her against his side. The blush vanished from her face, and her skin paled when she looked at him.

  “What is going on?” he demanded of Sahira as he embraced Lexi protectively against him.

  Sahira’s shocked expression vanished as she gave him a steely look. Beneath her fury, he saw a flash of unease before she covered it up.

  “Dragons,” she said.

  An uneasy feeling coiled in his stomach as another boom rattled the windows, and from somewhere in the manor, glass shattered. Sahira turned and strode toward the front door as the shrieking bellow of a dragon rent the air.

  “Shit,” he snarled.

  He wanted to push Lexi back into the library and shelter her from whatever was happening, but he wouldn’t part from her. Instead, he kept her tucked against him as they followed Sahira outside.

  The sun beat down on them, the sky was a crystalline blue, and the serenity of the day was broken only by the birds filling the sky. Another bellow drown out the cries of those birds.

  He didn’t see any of the monstrous creatures until they turned the corner of the manor and one of the beasts soared into view. It swept low over the land with its fifty-foot wings spread wide, its head extended, and its tail out behind it.

  The sun glinted off its red scales as a plume of fire erupted from its mouth and it rained destruction on the land. Chunks of earth flew up as it plowed a ditch into the fire-scorched ground. Pieces of wood shot into the air as trees and the marketplace's ramshackle buildings toppled beneath its onslaught.

  When its fire went out, the dragon soared high into the sky. The sun created a glow around its wings as it hovered in the air.

  Then it roared and dove toward the earth. Another wave of fire erupted from it. The marketplace was half a mile away, but Cole’s position allowed him to see that nothing remained of it.

  “No!” Lexi gasped.

  She jerked free of his arms and lunged forward. She ran toward the road as Sahira started after her. Cole caught her before she made it ten feet. He pressed her against his chest as she struggled in his grasp.

  “There’s nothing you can do,” he told her.

  “But… but… they didn’t do anything!” she protested as tears shone in her eyes. “It’s killing them, and they didn’t do anything!”

  He despised her tears and the heaving breaths shaking her slender frame, but he couldn’t do anything to stop this. Not yet, anyway. But o
ne day, he would end this.

  He cradled her while the smoke rising from the burning remains choked out the sun. He didn’t care about the mortals and immortals at the market, he was tired of senseless violence, but their lives weren’t important.

  What he cared about was what would happen if the Lord continued to unleash such destruction on Earth. Eventually, he would run out of things to destroy and turn his insanity on the Shadow Realms, including the Gloaming.

  And Cole did care about immortals there. He’d already lost most of his family; he would not lose any more of them.

  He also had Lexi to protect now. And no matter what he had to do, he would keep her safe.

  “It doesn’t matter if they did something or not,” he said.

  And that was completely true. It didn’t matter if the humans and immortals at the marketplace were innocent; if the Lord deemed them a threat, he would destroy them.

  “Holy shit,” Brokk breathed as he arrived beside him. “What is going on?”

  No one answered him; there was no reason to reply. He could see what was happening with his own two eyes.

  The dragon released another roar before turning and swooping toward them. Cole held Lexi against his chest, but there wasn’t enough time to turn and flee with her. If the dragon decided to unleash its wrath on them, they couldn’t stop it.

  • • •

  Lexi ducked a little as the gigantic beast soared toward them. The beat of its wings kicked dirt up from the ground and fanned the flames of the marketplace fire as the screams of the wounded and dying filled the air.

  So many wounded and dying. So many faces she knew. And they were burning.

  She tried not to vomit as the scent of burning flesh mingled with the burning wood and earth stench. Her heart thumped a little faster, her mouth went dry, and she gripped Cole’s arms as she tried not to cower.

  If it unleashed a wave of fire on them, they’d be crisp fried as soon as it hit them. And then the dragon soared over the top of them.

  Despite its formidable power and the death it just unleashed, something was captivating about the ruthless beast. When it twisted to the side, the sun's angle turned its scales the color of blood.

  She tried not to be awed by the thing, but she couldn’t stop her mouth from parting as she gazed at its underbelly. It was huge! It blocked the sky until it was all she could see.

  When it flapped its wings, the wind it created blew her hair back from her face and plastered her clothes to her. Dirt swirled around them until the cascade of particles briefly blocked out the underbelly of the beast.

  By the time the dust settled, the dragon was past them. She turned to track its movements as from one second to the next it vanished.

  “Where did it go?” she breathed.

  “It returned to Dragonia,” Sahira said.

  Lexi stared at where it had vanished before shifting her attention back to the ravaged marketplace. People and immortals crowded the road as they fled the destruction, but there were a lot less of them than there should have been.

  “We have to help them,” she said.

  CHAPTER 51

  Cole studied the smoldering remains of the marketplace as he leaned his hand against the windowsill. The full moon was the only illumination over the ruined land.

  In the dark of night, the glowing coals of the torched buildings looked like the eyes of some beast lying in wait to spring its trap. But then, that trap had already sprung.

  He’d mistakenly believed that once the Lord won the war, he would stop unleashing his dragons. Cole hadn’t expected the insane man’s ruthless determination to wipe out anyone he perceived as an enemy.

  The breeze drifting across the land carried with it the stench of fire and the faint aroma of burnt flesh. He started to close the window against the stench when a crow flitted down to perch on the sill.

  He wasn’t surprised to see the bird; he’d sent a message to his father after they returned to the manor.

  After the attack, Lexi insisted on going to the marketplace to see if they could help the survivors. By the time they reached the fires, any survivors had fled, and those who weren’t fortunate enough to be able to run were dead.

  The unexpected attack hadn’t left much of a chance for survivors. Though he felt the distress emanating from her, Lexi kept her chin high and her shoulders back as they returned to the manor.

  Once there, he led her to her room, and while she showered, he sent a letter to his father.

  Now, that response had arrived.

  He glanced back to where Lexi lay ensconced in her blanket. It had taken her a while to fall asleep, and she hadn’t spoken while she lay nestled in his arms.

  He didn’t talk either. After what he witnessed today, the memories of the war were closer to the surface and raw. The only thing that helped ease the screams and the cloying scent of blood haunting his memories was holding her in his arms.

  And so he’d kissed and held her, but he didn’t try to do anything more. Finally, she fell asleep in his arms, and when she did, he rose from the bed and walked over to stare out the window. After the events of today, he didn’t dare fall asleep with her in the room.

  The crow dropped the letter on the windowsill. Cole lifted it and slid the window closed. He walked over to the chair in the corner of Lexi’s room and sat. He sank onto the cushion of the plush, baby blue chair and opened the note.

  He recognized his father’s elegant scroll immediately. The Lord received word traitors were in the marketplace. He took the necessary quick and effective action.

  Cole knew his father had a lot more to say about what happened today, but he couldn’t put them in a letter that might be intercepted. Cole crumpled the letter and threw it in the trash can only a few feet away from him.

  He leaned back in the chair and clasped the arms of it as he contemplated his father’s response. Who told the Lord there were traitors in the marketplace?

  Cole hadn’t seen any sign of such activity taking place there. Most mortals and immortals were too scared to do anything more than sell their wares and go home. But someone had put it in the Lord’s head that something more was going on there.

  And there was also the chance the Lord never received any such word. It was just as likely he’d made it up so he could use it as an excuse for slaughtering a bunch of innocents. Though, he didn’t need any reasons; no one could stop him while he controlled the dragons, and there were far too many of those beasts to slaughter.

  However, even knowing all this, he kept picturing Malakai walking through the marketplace with that smug look on his face. Cole wouldn’t put it past the vampire to report traitors in the market just to watch it burn.

  Cole had no way of knowing who was whispering about treachery in the Lord’s ears, but he suspected that the vampire had a hand in what happened today.

  Malakai had done something to earn that amulet.

  Cole drummed his fingers on the ends of the chair as he gazed around the room. Much like the woman who slept in the bed, there was something delicate and feminine about it. The curtains surrounding the windows were a pale blue that matched the covers pulled around her.

  Pictures of her father and Sahira decorated the walls, and he found himself staring into Del’s grinning face. A small pang tugged at his heart; he missed that smile and the man who bore it.

  He didn’t know how Del would react to his relationship with Lexi, but he doubted his friend would be thrilled. Del had gone out of his way to protect Lexi; he would not want her entwined with a man who was front and center in the war.

  As much as he missed his friend, he also didn’t give a fuck what Del wanted for her. Cole was not giving her up.

  When Lexi whimpered in her sleep, he padded across the cool, hardwood floor until he stood beside the bed. He pulled back the comforters and slid into bed beside her.

  Tonight, she was the one having nightmares, and he despised it. What happened today never should have occurred. If there were tra
itors in the marketplace, then there were other ways to handle the situation, but the Lord was too far gone in his madness to see that.

  Drawing Lexi into his arms, he kissed her temple. She murmured something before settling down and relaxing against him.

  He was exhausted, but he wouldn’t sleep tonight. As long as he held her, he didn’t trust himself to sleep, but he wasn’t going to let her go.

  • • •

  A tapping at the window drew Cole’s attention the next morning. Shifting his hold on Lexi, he slipped out of bed and walked over to the crow perched on the other side of the glass. The crow’s black eyes watched him as he opened the window, and then it set a note in front of him.

  Cole ran his fingers over the bird’s soft feathers before it flew away. He closed the window against the stench of the fire and lifted the note. He opened it to read his father’s words.

  If Brokk is capable of the journey, it is time to come home.

  Cole crumpled the note and tossed it in the trash before lifting his gaze to the glass. A heavy fog had settled over the land; its silvery tendrils hugged the window and obscured the destruction of the marketplace.

  “What did it say?” Lexi asked.

  He turned to find her sitting up on the bed; her honey hair tumbled around her shoulders in tousled waves. Her green eyes were troubled, but she looked achingly lovely as she gazed at him.

  “My father wants us to return,” he said.

  The slight clench of her jaw was the only indication she didn’t like this news before she gave a small nod.

  “Come with me,” he said.

  Her eyebrows rose as her mouth parted. “I can’t.”

  “It will only be for a couple of days.”

  “I can’t leave Sahira here to deal with everything on her own. She hates the stables; she claims they smell. And now that the market is gone, it will be harder to find food, and our gardens aren’t ready to be harvested yet. I have too many responsibilities here to go, even if it’s only for a couple of days.”

  And no matter how much he didn’t want to leave her, especially after yesterday's events, he had too many responsibilities to stay. There were far too many lives depending on him to return.