Warrior of Fire

by Shona Husk

  Cover Copy

  Is theirs a love match?

  For Leira Venn, her future is a given foretold by the oracle of the Albah, the ancient people she was born to. Which is why she knows from the moment she meets Dr. Julian Ryder that he is fated to be hers. But nothing else about the prophecy feels right. For the handsome doctor is shrouded by darkness, and intimately involved with a woman who seems intent on killing Leira …

  Or a death wish?

  Sorrow has shadowed Julian Ryder for as long as he can remember. But from the moment he meets lovely Leira, his heart is filled with hope for the future—a future that is as combustible as the powerful attraction between them. For Leira is marked for death by the very forces who killed his mother. The very darkness that stole everything he held most dear. Only this time, Julian is stronger, more in control of his powers than ever. But will it be enough to save Leira from those who would destroy her?

  Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com

  Books by Shona Husk

  Blood and Silver

  Lady of Silver

  Warrior of Fire

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

  Warrior of Fire

  A Blood and Silver Novel

  Shona Husk

  LYRICAL PRESS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  Copyright

  Lyrical Press books are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 by Shona Husk

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  First Electronic Edition: June 2017

  eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0039-2

  eISBN-10: 1-5161-0039-5

  First Print Edition: June 2017

  eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0041-5

  eISBN-10: 1-5161-0041-7

  Printed in the United States of America

  Chapter 1

  “Hey, babe. What are you doing tonight?” Emily’s voice was too loud in Julian Ryder’s ear. He turned down the volume of his phone and kind of wished he’d ignored this call the way he’d ignored the first two.

  “Walking to the train station.” He didn’t bother injecting any enthusiasm into his voice. He was tired after a long day.

  “Oh. I thought you’d be home already.” Her pout was almost audible.

  So had he, but he’d been caught up at the hospital and had no time to get home and get changed before he was supposed to be at his father’s place. If it had been any other get-together, he’d have begged off that he was too tired after a twelve-hour shift and that he just wanted to go for a swim and go to bed. Even if he had been free, he didn’t want to be spending the evening with Emily.

  “Sorry.” But he didn’t really mean it. He was not being a good boyfriend.

  “I know. I’ll meet you at home with some takeout.”

  He blew out a breath, as the train he’d hoped to catch sped away. Fifteen minutes until the next one. He really needed to buy a car for days like this. He’d had a feeling in his gut that the train was a bad idea and he’d ignored it. There’d been a cab out front of the hospital waiting for a fare and he’d paused for a moment before walking by.

  Right now that same feeling was warning him that Emily was getting far too clingy and needy. It was fun when they met up for a few hours once or twice a week, no commitments, no strings. Every so often she’d start expecting more, and he’d pull back until things settled down. She’d told him that she didn’t want a relationship. And yet when she’d learned he was a doctor, she’d started to expect more.

  “Nah, I’m having dinner with Dad.” Who he’d text to get picked up from the train station so that he wasn’t walking twenty minutes in the dark and running even later for the meeting.

  “Oh.”

  Silence.

  Julian could hear her thinking. He went down the escalator to wait for the train that was heading in the wrong direction to home.

  “We’ve been dating for six months and I still haven’t met your family.”

  He did not need this today. He was too tired to even bother breaking up with her. In part because he knew that in less than a week they’d be back together. He knew it wasn’t a healthy relationship—it wasn’t really a relationship—but it was better than being single.

  Maybe.

  Except on days like today.

  “Emily.” He breathed in and exhaled to keep the frustration out of his voice. He couldn’t take her to a meeting with other Albah, and he didn’t want to introduce her to his father and brother. That wasn’t the kind of relationship they had. She seemed to have forgotten that. “We’ll catch up tomorrow or something.”

  “Yeah…or something. You make me feel like the other woman.”

  He was not going to bite, and he didn’t want an argument. However, continuing this conversation was just as draining. He briefly considered hanging up or dropping his phone, but he needed it working, not in pieces. “I’m not married.”

  “Only to your job and your family.”

  “My family is important to me.” More than she could ever realize. Emily didn’t know about his mother, or his brother…or even his older half-brother. There was something about her that made him keep them separate. The more she pressed, the more he was determined that she wouldn’t meet them.

  “And what about me?” she pleaded. It was the tone she used when she was trying to be cute. If he’d been ten years younger, he would’ve fallen for it.

  A train pulled into the station with a gust of wind and a squealing of brakes. Not his train, but she wouldn’t know that. “Got to go. I’ll call you later.”

  He hung up, fully expecting to get a slew of text messages for the rest of the evening. Emily had fallen into his lap within four weeks of him moving back to Perth. He really should’ve remembered that if it seemed too good to be true, then it probably was.

  * * * *

  Emily slipped her phone into her pocket. He hadn’t been lying about leaving the hospital late. She’d watched him walk out the door. She’d spent a lot of time watching him and not enough doing anything. The times they were together they got as close as two people could, yet Julian had managed to keep the rest of his life completely apart from her. She was pretty sure that no one even knew they were dating.

  She sat in her car without starting it. They weren’t really dating and she shouldn’t be feeling pissed that he’d blown her off. He was a mark, not her lover.

  He was her kill to get her full membership to the Guardians of Adam.

  She closed her eyes and leaned over the steering wheel. So why
hadn’t she done it already? She should’ve done it months ago when they first met.

  She’d known that he was Albah from the curl of his ears. But he was also attractive, educated, and nothing like the egotistical magic-using maniacs her mother had told tales about. She should’ve questioned him and killed him two weeks ago while the undead horror was alive and killing. Now the Albanex had vanished and she knew a Guardian hadn’t killed it. The Albah were probably protecting it. Hiding and feeding it.

  She shuddered.

  How could Julian, a well-respected doctor and burns specialist, participate in something like that? Yet it was in his blood to become an undead, blood-drinking Albanex. She needed to find out where his father lived—which was harder than it should have been. She’d tried.

  There was a tap on her window. Her heart stopped and she almost died.

  What a Guardian she was, jumping at a security guard doing his rounds. She opened her window a crack. “Yes?”

  “Just checking you’re all right, miss.” The security guard looked concerned.

  Emily softened her features as though she’d seen a dying relative and sniffed. “Yeah. Just gathering myself before I drive home.”

  “Never wise to linger in the car park. Better safe than sorry.” He smiled. He looked as though he couldn’t run down a thief even if the thief was carrying a box full of donuts and a coffee to wash them down.

  Emily nodded and obediently started her car. When he didn’t move away, she pulled out of the bay. She needed to get home. It was late, but no doubt her mother would want a status update.

  No change. Nothing to report.

  The only excuse she could give for why the Albah was still alive was that he could lead them to more…and hopefully the Albanex.

  She paid for her parking and headed out of the city. She’d go to Julian’s place and wait to see if he came home tonight at all. That twinge in her chest was not jealousy.

  He didn’t have another lover.

  He barely had time for her.

  She knew the real reason Julian was still alive was because she did fancy him just the tiniest bit. And he saved people. Maybe he wasn’t like the other Albah.

  But all Albah could become Albanex. Albanex were the vampires that humans thought existed only in myth. Albah were more like the elves or witches, harmless until they did the magic that would make them drink blood and live forever. The Guardians should’ve wiped them all out 200 years ago instead of calling for a truce; then she wouldn’t be in this position.

  Doctor Julian Ryder, for all his good work, was still only one magic ritual away from becoming an undead monster.

  Chapter 2

  Leira hated it when Quinn called a meeting. She’d managed to avoid them for the last couple of years by handing over a lame excuse. This time that hadn’t worked; she’d tried. She got out of her car and locked the door. Her sister, Saba, was already here. Saba loved this stuff. The discussion and the Albah politics and the catching up with other Albah from around the globe. It was all very hush-hush. There should be a secret handshake at the door.

  There wouldn’t be.

  She was still annoyed at Saba for treating her like a baby and not telling her the truth about the recently dusted Albanex. There had been a real undead vampire running around the city and no one had told her. The reason had been to keep her safe, so the Albanex wouldn’t know she existed. But she wasn’t a child, and she should’ve been told. Attending meetings was one way of proving she was adult enough to be told next time there was a vampire in town. She had to take an interest in the Albah world and not just their history in her studies.

  Dale, the human cop, would be here tonight. He was being let in on secret Albah business because he was dating Saba. She caught herself. That judgment was a little harsh. He’d discovered too much about the Albah while hunting down a serial killer—who had just happened to be an Albanex—and falling for Saba. She could only imagine how thrilled Quinn Ryder must have been about the Albanex hunting on his doorstep, and that a human cop was on the case instead of him.

  Quinn was a cop and the leader of the scattered Albah.

  She knocked and wished that she’d had a pressing reason not to come. She hadn’t come up with one yet that would satisfy Quinn. He’d sent her a text and told her to be there—no excuses. So she’d been caught between wanting to dodge Albah gatherings, with good reason, or being treated like a child again. And here she was.

  She knocked again. There were people in there talking.

  Leira wiped her hands on her pants. What if he was there?

  Years ago Saba had read Leira’s future in the bowls of ink that she loved for scrying. Leira had held on to that potential, occasionally checking to make sure that she was still on track. She would meet the love of her life on a train. More importantly, he’d be Albah.

  Her sister and her mother might be happy with a human, but she wanted more than that. Not that she could tell her friends that she was waiting for a mystery man on a train because a psychic had told her it would happen. While humans might like the idea of psychics, they didn’t actually believe in magic. Leira was tired of hiding part of who she was.

  The door opened. “Sorry, we were trying to get the computers set up for the conference calls.” Saba smiled.

  Leira didn’t. She’d still done her shifts at her sister’s new age shop in Fremantle, but she hadn’t been gracious about it. Her sister wouldn’t fire her because then Saba would have to answer to their mother. At some point Leira would have to forgive her overly protective older sister.

  But not today.

  “How many are planning to call in?” What if he was on one of those screens? When she finished her degree, she was going to take a year off and travel—by train. She was getting rather tired of waiting for destiny to come to her.

  “All of them.”

  “What, every Albah around the world?” It wasn’t as though there were thousands of them. During the middle ages, witch hunts had decimated their numbers. And Guardians of Adam had taken another stab during the 1800s. History and witch hunts were her specialty. Trouble was, some of what she knew she couldn’t put in her essays because it was Albah history, and for the last couple of centuries the Albah had been busy pretending they didn’t exist so humans would forget all about them.

  She was pretty sure that if she ceased to exist, no one would really notice, except her sister.

  “A representative from all the families. Quinn hasn’t called a meeting like this in twenty-four years.”

  It took Leira a moment to do the math; she hadn’t even been born yet. But she caught what Saba was getting at. Twenty-four years ago, there had been a spate of accidents around the world that had resulted in the death of six Albah, including Quinn’s wife and nearly his two youngest boys. There was no proof that it had been the work of the Guardians of Adam, but some Albah were sure it was.

  The Guardians were doing a pretty good job of pretending that they didn’t exist too. Or maybe the Albah were still jumping at shadows and the hunters were gone and they could live in peace. The older the Albah, the more paranoid they were.

  “I am so thrilled to be here.” She brushed past her sister and into the house.

  Saba grabbed her arm. “If it’s meant to be, it won’t matter where you meet him.”

  Leira glared at her sister. “You know that’s bullshit. This could upset everything.”

  “A new path will form.”

  “Or not.”

  Saba sighed and released her. “Can you at least pretend that you are happy to see some other Albah? It’s like Christmas with extended family.” Saba seemed genuinely happy.

  Leira raised a ghost of a smile. Extended family that she didn’t really know and didn’t really care about. She barely knew Quinn. He was like the uncle she heard stories about, but had only met a couple of times her entire life. Mostly because she had grown up traveling with her mother before Saba set up shop and L
eira had been given the opportunity to go to high school and be normal. Normalish.

  The man in question, Quinn, came in the hallway. He nodded at her. “Glad you could make it this time.”

  Quinn looked more old punk, with his short, white, spikey hair than king of the Albah. Not that anyone ever called him that. She wasn’t a kid anymore, so she should probably give him a little more respect.

  Hard to respect the man when her mother and him had hooked up years ago and she had a half-brother who she only knew about because he was on some American soap opera. He managed to live in the open. Yeah, but Finley probably wasn’t accidentally starting fires with his magic. She wasn’t even sure what element his magic was connected to.

  Meanwhile she was still grabbling with the finer points of working with fire. And by finer points, she meant anything more complicated than lighting a candle. Leira widened her smile. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  She’d contemplated giving her own tire a puncture.

  Quinn studied her. “How’s the magic going?”

  “Great…just great.” Leira nodded and glanced at Saba, then looked away just as fast. She was so used to having her sister bail her out. “So, will there be any other fire-using women calling in?”

  Quinn paused for a moment. “Fire is a rare element in women. I don’t think there is one alive at the moment besides you.”

  Yay. She’d suspected that. Otherwise Saba would’ve had her chatting away to some fire user years ago. Instead Saba had done her best to help her.

  Some of the elements were rare. Saba and Quinn both had the power of air. Really common. Water was the next most common, then earth, like her mother—though male earth users were rare. Somehow she’d ended up being the odd one out.