The Spark of the Dragon's Heart: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Fantasy Romance (Harem of Fire Book 1)

by Willa Hart

  “As if any of you are of use to me anyway,” Bertram snorted. “You’re mere children. I need someone with experience in these matters, not foolhardy fledglings who haven’t seen a tiny fraction of what I’ve seen in my time on Earth.”

  “For your information, we work the same kinds of cases Maximus does,” Ryen said, his voice turning more gravelly the bigger his body grew.

  “And we do it better!” added Danic fiercely.

  I scowled at the back of his head. As much as I appreciated their offer of help — despite how it was turning out — I didn’t appreciate them badmouthing Max. Apparently, neither did Bertram.

  “Better? What a laugh! Who in their right mind would trust a human with such privileged information? Certainly not the elder dragons of this weir. We keep higher standards.”

  “You don’t have to condescend to us about the ways of dragons, Mr. Trinkas,” said Kellum in a tense, even tone. “We know perfectly well the intricacies and secrets of how we must live. We understand more than you assume.”

  “Perhaps you know something, but that girl certainly does not!”

  And on it went, first Bertram snarking, then one of the boys snapping back at him. With each exchange, they grew just a little bit bigger, a little more dragony.

  “Stop it,” I pleaded with Danic, but he shuffled me behind him, as if to protect me.

  I turned to Ryen. “Stop it.” But he ignored me and told Bertram he was a relic with his head up his ass.

  “Kellum, stop it.” I grabbed his arm, desperate to get him to look at me, but he was too busy telling anyone who would listen — which was no one — that he and his brothers were descended from a long line of casiques.

  Nothing pissed me off more than being dismissed, and while the men shouted over each other, I mumbled, “Stop it, stop it, stop it.” Tears burned my eyes as frustration built up inside me until my head felt like it might explode.

  STOP IT! I screamed it so loud inside my mind that I startled myself.

  All three Novak brothers jerked as if they’d touched a live wire, then spun around to gawk at me. Bertram raged on, shaking a finger in the air and hurling insults at us, but the boys didn’t seem to hear him any longer. They stood staring at me, totally mute, until Bertram fell quiet, obviously as confused as I was.

  Without even glancing in Bertram’s direction, Kellum quietly said, “Can we have the room for a minute, Mr. Trinkas?”

  Bertram puffed up at the indignity of it all. “Are you really trying to kick me out of my own library?”

  “Yes.”

  Bertram must have heard the undercurrent of threat in Kellum’s one-word answer, because a flash of something close to fear flickered in his eyes. He wasn’t so frightened he ran out of the room, but he did stomp through the same door he’d used before, grumbling under his breath the entire way. Once the door slammed shut behind him, Kellum took a step closer to me.

  “What was that?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

  My gaze bounced between the three men, completely clueless. “What was what?”

  Ryen wiggled the tip of his pinky in his ear and winced. “You just shouted at us and my ears are still ringing.”

  I’d pleaded with them to stop, that was true, but I purposely hadn’t raised my voice. It was a technique some foster parents used to calm down agitated kids — keep your tone low and calm and the kids will have to quiet down to hear what you’re saying.

  “I swear I didn’t,” I said, then a tendril of disbelief wriggled up my throat until I had to swallow hard to keep from freaking out. Was it possible?

  “You shouted at us with your mind, Favor,” Danic said, confirming what the tendril was trying to ignore.

  I blinked up at them, then snorted. “Okay, very funny. Joke’s over. Now can we get on with the interview?”

  I moved to go fetch Bertram, but Kellum laid a hand on my arm to stop me.

  “Favor, we all heard it. And you know it’s true, as hard as it is for you to believe.”

  Not a single one of them looked as if they were hiding a smile. Quite the opposite, in fact. But still, what they said made no sense.

  “Impossible.”

  “Not impossible,” Kellum replied. “It happened. And maybe it’s not all that surprising. You are the daughter of a very powerful dragon keeper, plus Max has been training you. Maybe you’re just finally coming into your powers.”

  “If by ‘training’ you mean having me do all of his paperwork and blabbing endlessly about dragon history, then yes, Max has been training me.”

  They ignored my snide comment and turned to each other.

  “I wonder what her reach is,” Ryen said, his brown eyes lighting up with excitement.

  “Yeah, we should do an experiment,” Danic agreed.

  “Definitely,” Kellum said. “It’ll have to wait until we deal with Mr. Stick-up-his-ass. You two go wait in the car. This shouldn’t take long.”

  “Why?” Ryen and Danic sputtered in unison.

  “The guy is obviously intimidated by the three of us ganging up on him. Plus, you’re a hothead,” he said to Danic, then turning to Ryen, he added, “and you don’t know when to keep your big mouth shut.”

  Ryen and Danic’s narrowed gazes darted between Kellum and me. For a second, it seemed as if they might be jealous…but that was ridiculous.

  “Kellum’s right,” I said, trying not to let their injured expressions get to me. “He probably feels ganged up on. Hopefully he’ll loosen up.”

  They looked like they wanted to argue, but in the end, they huffed in bitter disappointment and trudged out of the room. Kellum knocked on the study door and Bertram re-entered the room. He was clearly still irritated, but the absence of two big, burly dragons seemed to calm him a bit.

  “Can we please try this again, sir?” Kellum asked in a perfectly professional voice. “For your brother’s sake?”

  Bertram gave me one last dirty look, then nodded. “Fine.”

  “Thank you. Now, what can you tell us about Enoch?”

  “Maximus would already know all of this,” he said with a huff. “But since he’s saddled me with you lot, I suppose I have no choice but to open the family vault.”

  He motioned toward the suite of cushy chairs in front of the fire and took the plushest for himself. I still couldn’t figure out why he had a fire burning on a beautiful Southern California day, but the temperature in the room was perfectly comfortable, and it had been a long time since I’d sat in front of a fire, so I went with it.

  “The first thing you need to know is that this isn’t the first time Enoch has gone missing.”

  “Really?” Kellum asked.

  Bertram nodded. “My brother has a good heart. He doesn’t mean to cause trouble, but he has a natural talent for it. Unfortunately, that’s made him the black sheep of the family. It doesn’t matter how good a person you are inside if you always make bad decisions and never learn from them.”

  “But he always comes back, right?” I asked, setting up internal barriers to block the laser beams of death Bertram’s eyes shot at me.

  “Obviously.” Returning his gaze to Kellum, he explained. “In the past, Maximus has usually been able to track him down before he gets into enough trouble the family loses face. He always delivers my brother without telling me where he found Enoch, or in what condition. I have no need for that information.”

  “You suspect Enoch’s usually up to no good when he disappears like this?” I asked.

  He didn’t even glance my way, just kept his eyes locked on Kellum. “Suspect? No, I know it. Whatever the specifics of the trouble, it usually comes down to money. You see, I have control of the family fortune. Enoch always comes crawling back home when he runs out or needs to pay off someone.”

  Kellum leaned forward. “Why do you seem so worried this time, Mr. Trinkas?”

  Bertram looked into the fire for a few moments while we waited patiently. Finally, he looked at Kellum, then at me.

/>   “This time I have an inkling he’s not just holed up in some tawdry casino in Las Vegas.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  He looked me dead in the eye. “I haven’t heard from Enoch in four weeks. That isn’t entirely unusual, but I have a bad feeling. An instinct, if you will. I’m…concerned.”

  The man’s shoulders slumped and he suddenly looked much older and totally exhausted. I actually felt a little sorry for him. He must have been beside himself, not knowing what had happened to his brother. And then a herd of snarky dragons ganged up on him. No wonder he was so prickly.

  “Any idea where he might have gone?” asked Kellum.

  “If I did, I wouldn’t need you, now would I?”

  To his credit, Kellum refused to rise to the bait. “If you can think of any leads that might be useful, here’s my card. Thank you for sharing what you did. We’ll be in touch.”

  He stood and offered his hand. Bertram stared at it for a moment, then stood and shook it. He did not shake mine.

  “Thank you,” he said, just barely above a whisper. Then he slumped back into the chair and stared into the fire.

  I followed Kellum out of the room and down the hallway toward the front door. I couldn’t get my mind off how upset Bertram had looked by the time we left. The man loved his brother, no matter how much of a fuck-up he was, and I wanted to do whatever I could to bring him home.

  I was so distracted by trying to figure out where to start looking, I wasn’t paying attention when we stepped outside and tripped over an ornate planter. I managed to choke out a startled cry as I flew head-first toward the steps, but before my head connected with anything solid, Kellum caught me in his powerful arms.

  Being cradled like that — by him — felt so natural, so right. Moving on their own, my hands skimmed up his shoulders and locked behind his neck, bringing our bodies just a little closer, but not nearly close enough. His eyes blazed like ice on fire, threatening to scorch me if I dared to get too close.

  The sound of car doors slamming jerked me back to the present. Kellum helped me back to my feet, and when I looked up, I found Ryen and Danic standing next to Kellum’s SUV, arms crossed and mouths pressed into grim lines. Something subtle, yet undeniable, shifted in the group dynamic. Something I could not name, could not describe, but which I felt clearly. It unsettled my very heart.

  Chapter Six

  I may have had more awkward car rides, but the one heading back to Max’s office from Bertram Trinkas’s palatial mansion had to be close to the top of the list. At first, I thought it had to do with Kellum kicking his brothers out of the meeting. But that wasn’t it — or not all of it, anyway.

  I could almost taste and hear the tension in the air. It wasn’t anger, precisely. It felt like a mix of confusion and a bunch of other emotions stewing under the surface, and none of us knew what to do with it all. Whatever was happening, I breathed a sigh of relief when we pulled into the parking lot and I spotted Rufus’s old Jeep. At least he’d be there to distract us from what was percolating between us.

  Rufus sat at his desk, smiling at the tiny succulent sitting in the palm of his absolutely massive hand. When he spotted my escorts, he quickly set the plant down and stood up to his full, massive height. I couldn’t help smiling at his hesitation over letting the Novak boys see his softer side.

  “I thought something smelled familiar when I got here,” he said, nodding at all three guys as they followed me inside. He gave me a worried look. “Um, does Max know about this?”

  “No,” I said, dropping my purse onto my desk. “And he doesn’t need to.”

  Truth be told, my stomach had felt like a lead weight ever since I agreed to meet with Kellum. I’d gone behind Uncle Max’s back to do something he absolutely, unquestionably wouldn’t approve of. The guilt still gnawed at me. I’d only feel better once we found Enoch and brought him home.

  “Yeah, no ratting us out, big boy,” Ryen said with a wink as he plopped down in the conversation pit. “You’re cool, right?”

  “Uh, sure,” Rufus said, even though he didn’t sound too sure. “Still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.”

  “We’re helping Favor,” Danic replied, sitting in the chair opposite Ryen.

  “Doing Favor a favor, so she doesn’t fall out of favor,” Ryen added, grinning madly.

  Rolling my eyes, I asked, “How long have you been sitting on that one?”

  “All damn day.”

  Rufus blinked his confused brown eyes slowly, trying to catch up. He even scratched the top of his crew cut, his dark red hair barely budging. Poor guy looked completely perplexed so I took pity on him.

  “Sorry, Rufus. Max had to go out of town and he asked me to handle a missing person case. But the guy who hired us wouldn’t talk to me because of my inferior human blood. I called in some dragony backup.”

  “Who? Who hired us?”

  “Bertram Trinkas.”

  To my surprise, Rufus shook his head and snorted. “Enoch’s missing again?”

  The rest of us exchanged glances. I was about to ask him what he knew about the guy, but Kellum beat me to it.

  “Bertram said Uncle Max had found him before. How often does this happen?”

  Rufus shrugged his mammoth shoulders. “I dunno. Lots. Probably a few times a year, though he keeps it hush-hush to protect the Trinkas family name.”

  That would explain why I’d never heard of the guy before.

  “Ooh, this sounds juicy,” Ryen said, rubbing his hands together and heading to the coffee maker.

  “Annoying, more like,” Rufus said. “What did Bertram tell you?”

  “Just that Enoch gets into trouble from time to time and disappears for a while,” Kellum explained.

  “And that he turns up again when he runs out of money or needs to be bailed out,” I added.

  Rufus shook his head ruefully. “I’m sure that’s exactly what he believes. But Bertram doesn’t know just how bad the trouble is.”

  “Drugs?” Danic guessed.

  “Nah, not in any kind of big way, at least. He’s basically just a thief. He’d probably call himself a cat burglar or something, but…he’s a thief.”

  “Big targets or are we talking petty stuff, like jacking cars?” Danic asked.

  “Mostly bigger stuff. Here’s his usual M.O. He plans out a heist, then goes ‘missing’ for a week or two, just until the dust settles. While he’s in hiding, he somehow finds a way to blow through all the money and comes running home to big brother. Rinse and repeat.”

  “Wow, sounds like a real winner,” I said, smiling up at Ryen as he handed me a cup of coffee. It wasn’t my favorite Mexican Mocha, but I wasn’t about to complain that a tall, handsome man had made me coffee. Every girl’s dream come true.

  “He’s an odd one,” Rufus said, not quite agreeing with me. “Doesn’t do it for profit. Anyone else, I’d say there’s a growing nest egg in some Swiss bank account, but not Enoch. He steals for the thrill of it. It’s like a sport for him. Sometimes for himself, but from what we can tell, usually for the highest bidder. Makes sense for him to freelance. He’s all skill and no brains.”

  “Jesus,” I said, taking a big swig to steady my nerves. I’d had no idea I was chasing down a hardened criminal. “Any thoughts on where he might be hiding out this time?”

  “Last time I found him, he was at this scuzzy bar in San Bernardino. Liked to hang out with this human woman — barmaid, real tall, hard to miss. Not to sound like an asshole, but she looks like the kind of gal who’d run with a guy like Enoch.”

  “Great!” I jumped up and slung my purse over my shoulder. “Let’s go!”

  I was already halfway to the door when Rufus stopped me. “I, uh, can’t exactly show my face there, not after the last time I dragged Enoch’s happy ass home. I’m still dodging the bills for the tables we wrecked in the scuffle. They’ll take one look at me and call the cops, and the last thing anyone wants is to get them involved.”

  “Wel
l, give me the address,” I said. “I’ll go talk to her, woman to woman.”

  Rufus started to write it down when Danic jumped to his feet. “Alone? Oh, hell no.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine, Danic. I’ve been to bars before.”

  “A little slip of a human girl walking into a dive bar in San Bernardino? Alone? Like, I said, hell no.”

  Kellum nodded, taking the address from Rufus. “That’s a sketchy area, Favor.”

  “We definitely shouldn’t all show up like Bertram’s goon squad,” Ryen said. “If this Enoch guy is what he sounds like, then three big dudes asking around about him will just send him into hiding all the faster. Especially if his squeeze works at this joint.”

  “Agreed,” Kellum said.

  When Kellum’s gaze locked onto mine, I had the unmistakable sensation of being sized up. It didn’t worry me, exactly, but I did feel incredibly exposed. Then he smiled and my tummy fluttered with anticipatory butterflies.

  “Here’s a thought,” he said. “Favor, this is your case, and ultimately it’s your call—“

  Ryen interrupted him before he could finish his thought. “Unless it might put you in danger because I’m pretty sure Aunt Shirley will cut off very precious parts of our anatomy if we let anything happen to you.”

  All four men nodded gravely, and I couldn’t argue. Never having had kids of her own, Aunt Shirley doted on me as if I were her own daughter, instead of simply her grand-niece.

  “As I was saying,” Kellum continued. “Maybe you and I should go undercover. Pose as a couple just out for a drink at the local watering hole. We could scope out the place, chat up Enoch’s lady friend.”

  My cheeks warmed and my heart flipped around inside my chest at the suggestion of going on a “date” with Kellum, even if it was just pretend. A vision of my arm laced through his as he opened doors for me popped into my head and wouldn’t leave. I had to admit, we looked pretty damn good together — in my head, at least. Judging by the way Kellum’s eyes turned a slightly brighter shade of blue, I suspected he felt the same.