Fire Marked

by Val St. Crowe

  “What?” His eyebrows shot up.

  “It’s just that you already have the contacts, and that Jackal guy really seems to like you, and we could just play along long enough to find the information we need and… well, I don’t know… I guess it’s a dumb idea.”

  “It’s definitely a dumb idea.”

  “Tell me how you really feel.”

  He poured himself more whiskey. “It’s dangerous, Penny. You have no idea what these guys are capable of. They’re all vampires. They regularly drink dragon blood, so they have magic. And they don’t have any qualms about killing someone they think is a traitor.”

  “Yeah, but we can take care of ourselves.”

  “We?” He shook his head. “No, if I did it, and I can’t do it, I should do it alone.”

  “No way,” I said. “I have to come with you. Because we’d be stronger together. We have the blood bond.”

  “So what?” he said. “If things go south, we just blow them all away with whiteflame?”

  I chewed on my lip.

  “Crazy idea,” he said. “Dumb idea.”

  “Yeah.” I rubbed my forehead. “It’s only that it was kind of… exhilarating today, doing the undercover thing. And then after we killed that rogue, I felt a little keyed up, you know? I started thinking about how we’re going to have a baby soon, and we’ll be tied down, and we won’t be able to go do crazy things together on the spur of the moment, and then this idea occurred to me, and I guess I got swept away.”

  He downed his whiskey and closed the distance between us. He brushed hair away from my forehead. “Whatever we did with the rogue did feel really great today, didn’t it?”

  When his fingers touched me, it felt electric. I grinned up at him. “Everything with you feels really great.”

  He laughed. “Ditto.” His gaze flicked from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, and his grin widened. “I liked your little undercover outfit, I have to admit.”

  I giggled.

  He leaned in and kissed me. Quick, just our lips pressing close for a second. Then he pulled back.

  But I grabbed his arm, holding him in place.

  His gaze searched mine for a second and then he pressed close again, and kissed me again, this time thoroughly. His tongue claiming my mouth, his hands sliding over my back, over my hips.

  I wrapped my arms around him, surrendering to him. I could taste the whiskey on his lips. It excited me somehow.

  He pulled away, regarding me with half-lidded eyes. “You know,” he drawled. “Just because your little idea is really dumb doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work.”

  “Really?” I raised my eyebrows.

  “I mean, it’s crazy, but maybe crazy’s good.”

  I grinned.

  He took a step back, grinning back at me, his chin dimpling. He poured himself another shot of whiskey. “If I did go back into the crew, I guess I don’t like the idea of leaving you here by yourself when you’re being attacked by rogues every couple days.”

  “Exactly,” I said, nodding. “It would even be a good thing for us both to leave. We’d lead the dragons away from the hotel, away from Felicity and Connor. Everyone would be safer.”

  He sipped at the whiskey thoughtfully. “Yeah, I’d feel better if we were closer. But if we do this, you have to go in as a vampire. You drink blood, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

  I winced. “Would I have to drink dragon blood?”

  He shook his head. “No, they don’t drink that day-in, day-out like regular blood. It’s special, and as a new member of the group, you probably would have to work very hard to be offered some.”

  I nodded. “I mean, if I really had to do it, maybe I—”

  “No.” He shook his head. “You shouldn’t even think about it.”

  I rubbed my belly. “You think I can really hide this?”

  He looked down at it too. “You’ll need different clothes.”

  “But you think it’s possible? I don’t look that pregnant?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Connor said that I didn’t, but you wouldn’t say anything,” I said.

  “I think if you wore baggier shirts, no one would notice,” he said. “Which would be fine. Because most of the women in the Bryant clan dress sort of, uh, bohemian. Flowy shirts and skirts and stuff.”

  “Like the guys,” I said, thinking of Paisley Shirt. I eyed Lachlan. “You’ll need different clothes too.”

  “I still have a few things,” he said. “I kept stuff. But I never quite dressed exactly like them, anyway. Would have been too obvious. I can handle that part, trust me. It’s the least of our issues, anyway.”

  “What else would we need to do?” I asked.

  “Well, I have to get out of work, for one thing,” he said.

  “Oh,” I said. “I hadn’t thought of that. I guess you can’t just disappear.”

  “No,” he said. “I’d have to take personal time.”

  “How long would this take? Do you have enough?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got some saved up. Enough. Only thing is, I was saving it for when the baby’s born.”

  “Oh,” I said, chewing on my lip. “Well, that sucks.”

  “Yeah.” He took another sip of whiskey.

  “But if we don’t solve this dragon problem, I might be getting attacked left and right after the baby is born—”

  “And then I’d be spending all my time fighting off rogue dragons anyway,” he said. He nodded. “Good point.”

  “I thought so,” I said.

  He took a long, slow breath through his nose. “This could work. This could actually work.”

  “You really think so?” I felt suffused with excitement. I was almost giddy. This seemed like a big adventure, and I wanted it desperately suddenly. “Really?”

  He nodded slowly. “Really.”

  “So, are we doing it?”

  “I don’t know.” He took another sip of his whiskey, and then turned his gaze greedily back to me.

  I felt his gaze almost sear into my skin. Suddenly, my clothes felt too tight in a pleasant way. I ran my tongue over my bottom lip, feeling sultry.

  He sucked in an audible breath. “Right now, I feel like I could conquer the world if I wanted,” he said in a gravelly voice. “You should take your shirt off.”

  My breath caught in my throat. “Lachlan,” I protested softly.

  He looked me over again.

  I could feel his eyes on me. I swallowed. “You first.”

  He set down his glass and he tugged his shirt off. And he was rippling and taut and tan and… tugging me against him, then pushing my shirt out of the way. His thumbs brushed my nipples, his mouth went to my cheekbone. “I’m feeling like we can do anything we want, Penny Caspian.”

  “Me too,” I gasped.

  “So, let’s do it,” he said. “Let’s go undercover.” He gave me a wicked smile. “But first, right now, let’s do this.” And then he pulled my shirt over my head.

  * * *

  “Did you ask Ophelia if she could do something for you?” said Felicity, who was sorting through the bags of clothes that I’d brought back with me and dumped on my couch. I’d been out shopping for a wardrobe for my alternate identity—Presley Nelson—all morning.

  Lachlan had said it would be better if I picked a name that sounded somewhat like my regular name. Easier that way, he said.

  I then asked him what was going on with Hawk?

  He said that his undercover name was Lonan, but that they were big on having nicknames in the Bryant clan, and Hawk was what he’d ended up with.

  “Ophelia?” I said, wrinkling up my forehead. “This is out of her capabilities. Anyway, if she could have protected us, she would have offered to do it already. She knows what’s going on.”

  “She thinks it’s the hotel still,” said Felicity, “which is what I thought until just now when you told me otherwise.”

  “So?” I said. “That doesn’t make a difference, reall
y. If she couldn’t stop the hotel from being attacked, she can’t stop me from being attacked.”

  “Okay, but you didn’t even ask her?”

  I yanked a shirt out of one of my bags and held it up. “What do you think?”

  “Looks like something a day-glo hippie would wear.”

  “Perfect,” I said. “That’s exactly what I’m going for. Kind of gypsy-chic.”

  “Um, I don’t know about chic,” she said.

  I threw the shirt at her. “Shut up.”

  The shirt landed squarely over her head. She peeled it away from her face. “Seriously, Penny, I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

  “Well, believe it,” I laughed. “I’m going undercover. Isn’t it exciting?”

  “I think it’s crazy,” she said.

  “What? Why?”

  She moved some of the bags onto the floor, sat down on the couch, and patted a space next to herself. “Sit down.”

  I didn’t. I folded my arms over my chest and stared her down. “What?”

  She sighed. “This is crazy, Penny. You can’t do this. You can’t leave the hotel.”

  “It’s only for a few weeks. And besides, you and Connor will look after everything.”

  “Sure, but it would have been nice if you asked us, instead of just assuming.”

  “Right now, whenever I’m around, there’s a dragon attack every five seconds. I’ll leave, and things will actually calm down around here. I’m actually helping things.”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not sure that you are. I don’t know what it is that you’re doing, but it sounds really dangerous to me. And not smart. I don’t think you should go pretend to be a vampire and live with a bunch of criminals for weeks. There has to be a better way to stop the rogue attacks.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, I don’t know.”

  “This is the best idea we’ve got,” I said.

  “This is the only idea you’ve got.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s because it’s not exactly an easy problem to solve.” I shook my head. “I don’t get it. I can’t see why you’re making this into such a big deal.”

  “I’m doing it, because this isn’t like you. You don’t usually up and leave out of nowhere.”

  “My baby is in danger, Felicity. Do you understand that? These dragons keep coming, and I don’t know what is going to happen to my little guy.”

  “But if you leave, the dragons are still going to be following you. It’s only that you’ll also be trying to pretend to be a vampire, to be not pregnant, and you’ll be trying to blend in with the kind of people we would usually be going up against.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is so. It’s a vampire gang, right? We killed the last leader of a vampire gang that gave us trouble.”

  “This is different,” I said.

  She pressed her lips together.

  “Try to chill out,” I said. “Everything’s going to turn out fine.”

  “And you saying that?” she said. “That’s definitely not like you. Since when did you get all optimistic and chipper?”

  “This is a good plan,” I said. “It’s going to be kind of fun. And we’ll stop the rogues in the process. It’s a win-win.”

  “I don’t see how it’s going to be fun hanging out with criminal vampires.”

  “I’m sure they’re not going to be that hard to handle.” I shrugged. I crossed the room and sat down next to her. “Lachlan and I have a blood bond, remember.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “About that…”

  “What?” I drew back.

  “Well, hasn’t basically everything that you’ve learned about this blood bond indicated that using it might, I don’t know, corrupt you or something?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “I think that the bad press that blood bonds have gotten has all stemmed from jealous, spurned dragon mates, who don’t like that their female mates have started shacking up with vampires. They go and try to take their women back by force, and when the women won’t go and the couple has to use the blood bond to protect themselves, then the spurned mates are all whining about how evil they are. But there’s nothing wrong with the blood bond.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  I shrugged. “Pretty sure. I mean, I don’t feel abundantly evil and violent.” I laughed.

  “But you’re itching to go and spend several weeks with violent lawbreakers.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Please, Felicity. There’s nothing wrong with the blood bond. It’s saved our asses a zillion times.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lachlan riffled through the clothing I had purchased, nodding slowly. “Yeah, this should all work.” He paused, picking up a pair of bell-bottomed maternity jeans. He arched an eyebrow.

  “I tried on the regular ones in three different sizes,” I said. “None of them fit right. They either wouldn’t button or they fell off. So, I had to get those. Those will stay on. Anyway, with a long shirt over top, no one will notice.”

  “You sure?”

  “Positive.”

  He tossed them back with the other items of clothing. “Well, I’ve got something to show you as well. It’s outside.”

  “Outside?” I said.

  “Yeah, it’s big,” he said. He gestured toward the door. “Come on.”

  I followed Lachlan out of the apartment, down the steps, and down to the parking lot in front of the hotel. There in the parking lot was an old, beat-up truck attached to a camping trailer. Lachlan gestured. “Ta da.”

  “This?” I said. “What’s this for?”

  “The Bryant clan is nomadic,” he said. “They travel all over. You want to travel with them, you either sleep under the stars or you need transport. I got this for us. I figure we’ll be more comfortable that way. You want to see inside?”

  I bit down on my lip. I was worried. “Um, okay.”

  He grinned. “Come on.” He was excited. I could see it in the way he moved. There was a little lift in each of his steps. He climbed up the steps to the door of the trailer and opened it.

  I followed him.

  The door opened onto a tiny kitchenette. There were cabinets of dark cherry wood overhead. Beneath them a stainless steel sink with gleaming fixtures. A small refrigerator and a four-burner stove flanked the sink. Both looked new and in good condition.

  “This is… nice,” I said.

  He grinned at me. “Surprised?”

  “Well, from outside, it looked a little…”

  “Yeah, I may have done some weathering to it,” he said. “Just to make it blend a bit. But I wasn’t going to skimp on the interior. This will be our sanctuary. No one will come in here with us. So when it’s too much, and we need to get away, we come in here.”

  I smiled. “Okay.”

  “I’ll show you around.” He gestured. “This is the kitchen.” Then he went to the wall opposite the sink, and he pulled out a table that folded into the wall. He set it up. “We eat here, and there are stools underneath.” The stools folded up as well. They slid into little grooves on the back of the table. He grabbed a stool, slid it out, and unfolded it.

  “Not bad,” I said.

  Lachlan folded the table up. He pointed to his right. “Up there is the living room.” He walked into a small space that contained a built-in couch with big, burgundy cushions and matching pillows. “In this cabinet, we’ve got our entertainment system.” He opened it up. There was a nice-sized TV and DVD player and some speakers.

  I grinned. “Snazzy.”

  “It’s not the Ritz, but it’s good enough,” he said. “Back here is the bedroom.” He pointed to his left, to the other side of the kitchen. We went through the kitchen, and there was a little door. Lachlan opened it.

  The whole back of the trailer was filled up with a king-sized bed, covered in a patchwork quilt and smothered in pillows.

  “Oh,” I said.

  “Sit down on it,” he said.

&
nbsp; I did. “Comfy.”

  “Nothing but the best for my girl,” he said, winking.

  I laughed.

  “And right off the side there is the bathroom.”

  Another tiny door. I pushed it open to find a small space with a stand-up shower, a tiny sink, and a toilet. “Whoa,” I said. “I think I’m going to like it here.”

  He tugged me close. “Welcome home, Presley Nelson.”

  “Oh, thank you… Hawk,” I said, looking up at him.

  He pressed his lips into mine.

  I wrapped my arms around him.

  * * *

  “Are you kidding?” Lachlan shook his head. He was pouring himself a shot of whiskey in the living room of my apartment at the hotel. “I have to make first contact alone. I can’t bring you along.”

  “Well, you can’t go off on your own. What if it goes south?” I said.

  “Penny, I take my girl, it makes me look pussy-whipped and weak.”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  He downed the whiskey. “Which I am, of course, and happy about it, but he shouldn’t know that.”

  I lifted my chin. “Now, now. You’re not weak.”

  He laughed.

  “But otherwise…” I made a noise as if I was cracking a whip.

  He poured himself another shot, shaking his head at me. “You better be careful, there, Presley. You tease a man like me too much, you never know what I’ll do.”

  I just giggled. “What can I say, Hawk? Sometimes, when I look at you in this light, I just can’t quite keep my wits about me.”

  He downed the second shot, set down the shot glass, and came across the room for me.

  I tried to duck out of his way, still giggling.

  But he grabbed me and kissed me.

  I mock-struggled, still laughing, his mouth sweet against me.

  He pressed me into the wall, pinning me there.

  I sighed against him. He tasted like liquor and danger.

  His hands smoothed hot trails down over my body.

  I wrapped my legs around him.

  He pulled back, out of breath. “I can’t take you along.”

  I kissed his chin. “Okay, so I can’t be with you, not exactly. But I could stay out of sight. Be your backup.” I kissed his neck.

  He sighed. “I don’t know. It’s dangerous.”