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

by Willa Hart

  A guy at a stop light next to me looked over and started bobbing his head along with the song. I grinned, and together we shared one of those sweet L.A. moments when you connect with a perfect stranger over something trivial, yet it makes your entire day.

  Of course, it didn’t hurt that my day had started off pretty nicely, despite the encroaching cloud cover. After Ryen had dropped me off in the wee hours of the morning, I fell asleep almost instantly. Apparently, I had Ryen on the brain, because my vivid dreams featured him very prominently. Ryen beating the shit out of Crystal’s attacker. Ryen flashing me that mischievous smile of his. Ryen taking his shirt off and flexing his muscles. That was my favorite one. Honestly, I was just thrilled not to have woken up from a nightmare — although those had stopped almost completely since I’d discovered dragons really existed.

  After just a few hours sleep, I’d woken to the sound of my phone binging with a message. The text from Kellum said to meet them at Max’s office at eight. Normally, I would have groaned in misery at having to crawl out of bed so sleep-deprived, but the thought of meeting the Novak brothers again woke me up fast.

  My brain kept trying to tell me the feelings I had for them were completely inappropriate, totally out of line. It was wrong and totally unprofessional, plus a slap in the face to Max, who felt betrayed by them. But my body didn’t seem to care what my brain thought. It just wanted to be near them, all the time.

  Still, I had a job to do. Max had trusted me to find Enoch and bring him home to his family. And no matter what my body craved, I’d just have to suck it up and do my job. But when I pulled into the strip mall’s parking lot and saw Kellum’s big, black SUV, my heart thundered in my chest, despite my brain’s objections.

  I took a few calming breaths and checked my makeup before heading in. As soon as I pushed open the door and saw them lounging around the office like male supermodels, though, my good intentions flew out the window. Kellum looked smart in yet another bespoke suit and Danic couldn’t hide his brawn under his skin-tight black t-shirt and jeans. Then my gaze landed on Ryen and I couldn’t not see him shirtless and oh-so-sexy. My face burned with embarrassment.

  Damn, betrayed by my own body!

  He met my gaze with a knowing grin and nodded toward a tray of fancy coffees and pastries. “We brought breakfast.”

  “Oh, um, thanks,” I said, ducking my head and fiddling with my hair like a teenager with a crush. I couldn’t help it. Just looking at Ryen brought back fresh memories of my dreams.

  To my horror, it seemed his brothers caught my discomfort because they exchanged confused looks before the air in the lobby crackled with the same tension as before. Dropping my purse on my desk, I grabbed a cup marked “Favor” and a cherry Danish, then I turned to face them.

  “Morning,” I said, carefully avoiding looking anywhere near Ryen.

  I sipped my cup, surprised to discover it was a Mexican Mocha. Silence stretched between us for a full five seconds before Kellum finally broke the tension. “Ryen wanted to wait till you got here to fill us in on what happened last night.”

  I thought I caught a hint of irritation in his voice, as if he was asking about something besides our chat with Crystal. Such as what came after, but I decided to ignore it. Nothing had happened and I wasn’t going to feed his weirdness, if he was indeed hinting.

  Ryen and I spent about ten minutes recapping the events of the evening, but Kellum stopped us when we mentioned the other dragon.

  “Wait, what? A dragon attacked this woman?”

  “Yup,” Ryen confirmed. “And if my memory of Eastern European languages hasn’t failed me, the guy was Romanian.”

  “How do you know?”

  “He said some pretty choice things to me. Mostly, ‘Fuck you, you don’t know who you’re messing with, walk away before you get hurt,’ stuff like that.”

  Danic scowled at his older brother. “Were either of you hurt? I told you I should have gone!”

  “We’re fine,” I blurted through a mouthful of Danish. “He didn’t get anywhere near me.”

  “Don’t worry, little bro,” Ryen said, giving Danic a cocky smile, “the damage to my pretty face isn’t permanent. Just a few bruises. Not sure I can say the same for the other guy. He took off running after I pummeled him.”

  “What about the woman?” Kellum asked.

  “She was shaken, but otherwise unhurt,” I said. “After that, she opened up and told us everything she knew.”

  All three brothers exchanged amused glances, almost as if they wanted to say, “Aw, look how precious she is.” I flushed again, this time with indignation. Now I knew how Yaz felt when we teased her about her naïveté.

  “No, really. I didn’t get a sense she was lying.”

  “I thought you could only read dragons,” Kellum said gently, trying to not hurt my feelings.

  I huffed. “Fine, but I still believe her. She obviously cares about Enoch, enough to be worried, if not terribly surprised by his disappearance.”

  “Probably because he’s done it several times before,” Danic pointed out.

  “Six times, in fact,” Kellum added. “And every single time, Uncle Max found him and brought him back. While you two were dealing with Crystal and her attacker, Rufus, Danic, and I managed to find Max’s hidden files on Enoch. Seems our missing friend has disappeared for a lot of reasons in the past, none of them good. As the casique of our weir, Max was tasked with both recovering Enoch and doling out his punishments.”

  “Punishments?” That surprised me. “Like what?”

  “A few of the times, Enoch was just off partying somewhere and Max simply dumped him on Bertram’s doorstep. But other times, Max discovered he’d stolen something of value from another dragon. If the moron had only stolen from humans, Max would have let local law enforcement handle it, but when the crime is dragon-on-dragon, he has to get involved. He’s always fair and he never hands down sentences that cause permanent harm.”

  Danic snorted. “I dunno. Being exiled to the Arctic for a year could really mess with a man’s psyche.”

  Kellum seemed unimpressed. “It certainly didn’t change Enoch’s ways. After that, he was forced to basically become a sort of indentured servant to his victim, but most of the punishments were your basic community service jobs.”

  “If you ask me, Uncle Max was too soft on the guy,” Danic said.

  “No one’s asking you,” Ryen snapped, surprising everyone but him.

  Danic shot him a glare, but Kellum quickly got the conversation back on course.

  “Enoch always did his time without complaint. The fact he was a repeat offender suggests he’s operating under a delusion or is mentally ill. He certainly doesn’t commit his crimes out of desperation. He could live the rest of his life like a king, if he wanted to.”

  “That’s the problem,” I explained. “He doesn’t want to live off his family’s money. He wants to make his own way in the world. He’s trying to prove himself. To his family, to Crystal, to himself, I guess.”

  Ryen nodded. “She’s right. The dumbass is the black sheep of the family and he resents it. He may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he’s resourceful. And persistent.”

  “Did this Crystal woman tell you anything else?” Kellum asked.

  I shook my head, but Ryen jumped in. “Actually, yes. Shortly before he turned up missing, he took Crystal on a weekend ski trip.”

  Shit! I’d totally forgotten about that. Some private eye I turned out to be.

  “Where to?” Danic asked. “Maybe he went back for more slope time.”

  “She didn’t say,” I replied, then an idea popped into my head. “But what if it was to play double duty?”

  The boys waited for me to explain.

  “What if the ski trip was both for pleasure and business? What if he took her as cover for casing out the place he robbed? Think about it. The towns in and around ski resorts are always filled to the brim with luxury homes for the rich and famous. Enoch wa
nts to case the joint, so he takes his squeeze along as a front. A couple days later, he goes back and finishes the job.”

  Ryen’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “Now that’s interesting. Why didn’t I think of it?”

  I glowed under his admiring gaze. Maybe I wasn’t totally useless after all.

  “But where?” he wondered. “For all we know, he took her to Aspen.”

  “No,” I said, “that doesn’t make sense. Bertram told us he hasn’t seen or spoken to Enoch in a month. I think it’s safe to assume he hadn’t pulled the job yet, which means he was probably running low on cash. It’s been a couple of weeks since my last all-expenses-paid luxury ski vacation to Aspen, but I suspect the price tag would be too high for Enoch.”

  “What about the woman?” Kellum asked.

  Ryen shook his head. “Bartender in San Bernardino. Lives in a crappy apartment and drives an even crappier car. She has no money for that kind of trip.”

  An image I’d all but forgotten popped into my head. “Boots!”

  All three brothers stared at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.

  “Boots,” I repeated, excited at remembering the clue. “Crystal’s pair of winter boots were sitting by the door. A puffy parka was on the hook, and it’s been way too warm to wear either of them.”

  “So?” Ryen asked. “She told us about the ski trip.”

  “So…didn’t you notice the mud next to her boots? The soles of her boots were clean, but there were muddy boot prints right next to them. I bet you a dollar they belonged to Enoch. Only a guy would walk around a woman’s house in muddy boots.”

  “Hey!” they all three cried in unison.

  “Kidding!” I said, laughing at their outrage. “Actually not, but anyway, wherever they went, it had to be somewhat close to L.A. Half-day’s drive, maybe?”

  “Unless they flew,” Kellum said quietly.

  “But I just said—“

  Kellum gave me a look that silenced me. “I mean…flew.”

  “Oh.” I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. “I don’t think so. I didn’t get the sense she knew that part about him. Did you, Ryen?”

  “Nope. I looked over at you two a couple of times when I was fighting off that Romanian asshole, and she had her face buried in her hands the entire time. She never gave any hint about dragons at all. I honestly think Enoch kept her in the dark.”

  “Okay, so where did they go?” Kellum mused, pacing the room. “If they didn’t fly — or fly — they must have driven. And if it was just a weekend trip, they probably wouldn’t have wanted to drive a day each way. Let’s use a half-day’s drive from San Bernardino as the max.”

  “That narrows it down,” Ryen said. “Mountain High, Mt. Baldy, Snow Valley, and Big Bear. That’s pretty much it.”

  Something clicked in my head. I set down my coffee and dug around in my top desk drawer. “Found it!” I held up Max’s note for them to see and then read it out loud.

  “Have to go help out an old friend up in Big Bear whose house was broken into last night. Not sure how long I’ll be gone. I want you to take the lead on the Enoch Trinkas case. You have an interview with his brother Bertram tomorrow morning. I’ll touch base when I can.”

  I grinned at them, but they just looked at each other in confusion. I flapped the note at them again, as if it might knock some sense into them.

  “You said Enoch only steals from other dragons, right? Max went to Big Bear to find the jewelry Enoch stole!”

  “Of course,” Kellum groaned, slapping his forehead. “Okay, everyone spread out and look for anything that mentions Big Bear or jewelry. We need to find out who Max’s friend is.”

  “Where did you find Enoch’s files?” I asked.

  “Secret compartment in Max’s desk,” Danic answered.

  We all bolted for Max’s office. Ryen and I let the other two search for other compartments, while we watched from the hallway. He snatched Max’s note from my fingers and looked at the front of it, one eyebrow jumping halfway to his hairline.

  “Party Favor?”

  I snatched it back and stuffed it in my jeans pocket. “It’s Max’s nickname for me. I know it’s stupid.”

  I didn’t really think it was stupid, but I wasn’t much for being teased about it either. Ryen nudged me with his shoulder until I looked up at him.

  “It’s not stupid at all. It’s cute. Adorable, even. It suits you.”

  I bit back a smile and glanced into the office, where Kellum and Danic stood scowling at us. It almost felt like jealousy, but not quite. Domination, maybe? Sibling rivalry? I didn’t know what was going on between us, but the tension upset me. My head hurt and I felt a little out of breath.

  “I-I’m gonna go get some air,” I stammered, backing away from the trio of burly dragons.

  The door whooshed open behind me, and when I whirled around to greet the newcomer, I nearly bumped into two more tall and impossibly handsome men. The first thought that blasted through my brain was Dragons. Then I took a better look at them and realized I knew them. Well, I didn’t know them, but I knew who they were — Ash and Hale Campbell, Max’s remaining two great-nephews, and cousins to the Novak brothers.

  I moved to introduce myself, but my arm didn’t want to work properly. It hung half-dead at my side as I stared at the twins. They both looked identical — taller and lankier than their cousins, definitely younger, brilliant eyes the color of the Caribbean Sea — except their blond hair. One wore his high and tight, the other quite a bit longer, like a surfer’s.

  I tried to remember which was which — Aunt Shirley had pointed them out repeatedly over the years — but my head hurt too much to think that hard. Goosebumps pebbled my entire body and my stomach threatened to eject my Danish and coffee all over their button-downs and khakis. I felt dizzy. Weak. Off-kilter.

  Then the entire building shifted to one side. The walls rattled and the floor rolled under my feet. My vision grew as fuzzy as my head. I thought I heard Danic shout, “Earthquake!”

  Then the world went dark.

  Chapter Ten

  My eyes snapped open and I was somewhere else. It was hard to tell where exactly, thanks to smoke or fog or smog filling the space. It didn’t smell like smoke or smog, and it wasn’t chilly enough to be fog. In fact, it almost didn’t seem real.

  Static.

  The word popped into my head and I knew it was the right one. It was as if I was inside a television set that was set to a staticky channel, only now I had eyes that could see through the snow. Stranger than that was how familiar the place felt. I took a few steps forward, holding my hands out so I didn’t bump into anything.

  The ground under my feet felt real enough, but also distant, as if I was walking in really tall platform shoes with rubber soles. The farther I moved into the room, the more I could tell it had a high domed ceiling. Some kind of blue flames flickered against the dark walls, lighting the place and adding to the eeriness of the situation.

  I shuffled through the haze blindly, hoping I wouldn’t plummet to my death at any moment. A heavy, dark chair appeared out of nowhere and I braced myself for the tumble I was about to take. But I didn’t fall. I peeked open one eye and I was standing in the chair — the back half of my body on one side, the front half just peeking out of the other.

  What the hell! I wanted to believe I was dreaming, but I couldn’t quite do it. It felt more like a surreal middle ground between dreams and reality. I forced my feet to move again. I had to be here for a reason, I just needed to figure it out.

  A dark shape loomed through the gloom. As I edged closer, I could make out the shape of another chair. A very large, very tall, roughly hewn chair, almost like a throne. Kellum could have stood on the seat and still not reached the top of it with his fingertips. Defying all logic, a man was seated on the throne, peering down at me with a warm smile on his face.

  He had a long salt-and-pepper ponytail, rich dark brown eyes, tan leathery skin that could co
mpete with any saddle out there, and a paunchy tummy. He may have only looked about sixty-something, but I knew he was actually over a thousand years old.

  “Good to see you, Party Favor,” Uncle Max said.

  I was hit with the same feeling of remembering the tune to an old song. The shapes in the room seemed familiar, as did Max sitting on his “throne.” This was what I’d dreamed about in the car with Ryen, that fuzzy dream that was all snowy shapes and static. But this time, everything felt so real, I knew it wouldn’t fade when I woke.

  “I’m glad to see how quickly your powers are developing,” Max said, leaning forward and giving me that same thoughtful smile he’d given me many times at the kitchen table with Aunt Shirley. “I knew they’d show up sooner or later, but as always, you’re soaring right over my expectations, just like your father.”

  “Where are we, Uncle Max?” I asked at last, not sure whether to be afraid or burst out laughing at some elaborate prank.

  He waved his hand as if batting away an annoying fly. “We have more important things to discuss.”

  “Seriously?” I said, any hint of worry fleeing. I jammed my fists on my hips and gave him my best don’t mess with me look. “You’re really going to tell me the magic room filled with spooky smoke and blue fire isn’t the most interesting thing we have to talk about?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m telling you, kid,” he said with a matter-of-fact smile.

  I chuckled. “Well, that confirms it. You really are Uncle Max.”

  “You might change your mind after you hear what I’m about to say.” He leaned back and steepled his fingers in front of him. “Favor, as much as my nephews hurt me, you need to ask them to help you find Enoch.”

  My cheeks burned and I dropped my gaze. On the one hand, if he was telling me to seek out his nephews, he couldn’t possibly be angry that I already had. On the other, it was Max. If he smelled the slightest whiff of betrayal, he might just cut me out of his life completely. I had no idea which way he’d react, I just had to lay it all out there and hope for the best.