Light My Fire

by Katie MacAlister

  “Oh. Well, that would explain a lot. But it doesn’t change things, Drake. Not even your mind-numbingly fabulous kisses change anything. I’m still damned. Everything has been stripped from me. Everything I wanted and worked for is gone or ruined, all because of my incompetence.”

  “You have me. And I love you.”

  I slumped against the window again for a moment before turning and flinging myself in his arms, kissing him with every morsel of love in my being. “Boy, you sure know how to squelch a pity party, don’t you?”

  “It was an excellent attempt, but such a maudlin attitude does not suit my mate.”

  “The red dragons are at war with us. And now Fiat—” I started to say.

  He kissed the words right out of my mouth. “That, too, we will deal with. We have been at war with the red dragons before. Sooner or later Chuan Ren will realize that war is not the answer. Until that time, I will keep the sept safe.”

  “And Fiat? If I’m technically his mate now, what does that mean to us?”

  “Nothing. I will determine what to do about Fiat as soon as I know what his intentions are.”

  I looked at the man I held in my arms, his eyes blazing his emotions, every angle of his face as well known to me as my own, his being so closely bound to mine that I knew no one would ever be able to separate us again. Somewhere along the line, I’d taken him into my heart, and he’d filled the empty spaces in me I’d not known existed. I nodded, my throat tight with unshed tears. “Your heart rate is up,” I said, my lips on his pulse point.

  “You have that effect on me,” he answered, a smile in his voice.

  “Well, you know what they say: When two hearts race, both win.”

  He lifted my chin to kiss me again. “Who said that?”

  “I don’t know. I saw it in on the inside of a Dove chocolate wrapper. But it fits, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, it fits.” His hands slid around to my stomach again. “Does my child rest in there?”

  Fear pricked at me for a moment, but as I stood there clasped tightly to Drake, I realized that there wasn’t anything I had to bear alone. Fiat, the demon lords, Nora and the Guardians, even Rene the master of fate—all of them could be faced so long as we were together.

  “I don’t know,” I whispered, peeking up through my eyelashes at him. “I really don’t know.”

  He nuzzled me, the gesture so unlike the stern, arrogant, unbending Drake, I turned into a big puddle of goo.

  “I look forward to seeing what you make of your life, Aisling Grey. I look forward to being a part of it forever.”

  I smiled into his kiss. I had Drake, I had Jim, and I’d find a way to get Nora back as my mentor. Everything else, from cleansing my soul to ending the dragon war, I’d work with Drake on fixing. I was a professional, dammit. Nothing was so wrong that I couldn’t eventually right it.

  So naive, the dark power whispered to me. We, too, look forward to what your life will become.

  * * *

  Read on for an excerpt from Katie’s next vampire paranormal

  The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires

  Coming in May 2007

  * * *

  “Na then, t’get ta the faery circle, gwain ye doon the road past Arvright’s farm—ye know where that be, then?”

  By focusing very, very hard, I managed to pick out words in the sentence that I understood. “Yes.”

  “Aye. Gwain ye doon the hill past Arvright’s, then when ye see the sheep, ye turn north.” The old man pointed to the south.

  “Is that north?” Sarah asked in an undertone, looking doubtfully in the direction the man pointed.

  “Shh. I’m having enough trouble trying to get through his West Country accent.” I turned a cheerful smile on the man. “So I turn left at the sheep?”

  “Aye, ’tis what I am sayin’. Na then, once ye’ve skurved past the sheep, ye’ll come to a zat combe.”

  “Zat combe?” Sarah’s face was fierce with concentration. “I’m not sure I…a zat combe?”

  I wrote down the old man’s directions, praying we wouldn’t end up wandering into someone’s yard.

  “Aye, ’tis right, zat. Full o’ varments.”

  Sarah looked at me. I shrugged and said to the man, “Lots of them, eh?”

  Behind my back, Sarah pinched my arm.

  “Chikky, too. They needs a good thraipin’, but none here’ll be doin’ it.”

  “Thraipin’,” Sarah said, nodding just as if she understood.

  “Well, thraipin’ chikky varments is an acquired skill, I’ve always found,” I said, continuing to take notes that made no sense. “So we go through the zat combe with the varments? Then…?”

  “Ye be up nap o’ thikky hill.”

  “Ah.”

  Sarah leaned close. “I recognized a word in that sentence. I think I’m getting the hang of this language. It’s good to know that all those years of watching BBC America are paying off.”

  “And that’s where the faery circle is?” I asked the man, trying not to giggle. “Up nap o’ thikky hill?”

  “Aye.” The old man narrowed his eyes, and spat neatly to the side. Sarah looked appalled. “Dawn’t ye go kickin’ up t’pellum on thikky hill.”

  “We wouldn’t dream of it,” I promised solemnly.

  “Ye maids be master Fanty Sheeny t’gwain ye ta the faery circle. ’Tis naught good ye find up nap o’ thikky hill.”

  “Well, now, that’s just lost me,” Sarah said helplessly, turning to me for translation.

  I winked at the old man. “Really? Bad, is it?”

  “Aye. ’Tis evil.” He winked back at me, and spat again.

  “That’s a common fallacy, you know,” I said, tucking away the notebook. Beside me, Sarah groaned. “Although faery rings have been considered places of enchantment for many centuries, they aren’t really made by faeries. They are the result of a fungal growth pattern. Mushrooms, you know?”

  The man blinked at me. Sarah tugged on my shirt and tried to pull me to the car she’d rented for our trip.

  “I know this area is rich in folklore, and faery rings certainly have their share of believers, but I’m afraid the truth is much more mundane. It turns out that there are three distinct types of rings, and the effects on the grass depend on the type of fungus growing there, although not all rings are visible….”

  “Ignore her, she’s a heathen,” Sarah said, yanking me toward the car. “Thank you for your help! Have a good day!”

  The old man waved a gnarled hand, spat again, and hobbled past us toward the pub.

  “You are so incorrigible! Honestly, spouting off all that stuff about fungus to that very colorful old man.”

  I got into the car, taking a moment to readjust myself to the English-style automobile. “Hey, you started this bet, not me. I’m just doing my part to win serious ‘I told you so’ rights. Ready?”

  “Just a sec… Oh, whew. Thought I’d forgotten this.” Sarah folded a wad of photocopied pages and stuck them in her coat pocket. “I can’t wait to see what effect these spells have on the faery ring!”

  “I am obliged by reason to point out that some weird quasi-Latin words found in a Victorian book on magic are not very likely to have any result other than making your friend and companion don a long-suffering look of martyrdom.”

  Sarah lifted her chin and looked placidly out the window as we crept through town. “You can scoff all you want—these spells were written by a very famous medieval mage and passed down through one family over the centuries. The book I found them in was very rare, only fifty copies printed, and most of them destroyed. And I have it on the best authority that the spells are authentic, so I have every confidence that you’ll be eating that long-suffering martyred look before the sun sets.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  By dint of Sarah consulting the hiking map she’d picked up in London, we tooled past the lazy river that wound around the town, headed over the stone bridge, and turned the car in the direction of
farmland and the famed Harpford woods.

  “Left side,” Sarah pointed out as I strayed to the right.

  “Yup, yup, got it. Just a momentary aberration. Let’s see…down past the big farm, then take the road south to a bunch of trees. Beware of the varments. What do you think a zat combe is?”

  “I have no idea, but it sounds fabulously English. Here, do you think?”

  We pulled off the road and got out of the car to eye the field stretched out before us. It was the perfect day for a walk in the country, what with pale blue sunny skies; the bright green of the newly dressed trees; hundreds of daisies scattered across the field, bobbing their heads in the breeze; birds chattering like crazy as they swooped and swirled around overhead, no doubt busily gathering nesting materials. Even the sheep that dotted the hillsides were picturesque and charming…at least when viewed from the distance.

  We gave them a wide berth as we followed what the hiking map showed as a right-of-way through a huge open pasture, up a hill to where a sparse crowning of trees waved gently in the June breeze.

  “This is so awesome. It’s absolutely idyllic! And the emanations—my god, they’re everywhere. We have to be close, Portia,” Sarah said emphatically, looking around us with happiness. “I feel a very strong sense of place here.”

  “Yeah, me too,” I answered, stopping by a fallen tree to scrape sheep poop off my shoe.

  “I knew you’d feel it too. I can’t wait to try the mage’s spells—they simply can’t fail. Interesting arrangement of the trees, don’t you think? They appear to make a circle around something. Shall we investigate?”

  “Lead on, Macduff.” I followed obediently as Sarah, glowing with excitement, broached a sparse ring of trees. In the center, a space of about eighteen feet, covered in lush, emerald grass, was open to the sky.

  “There it is!” Sarah grabbed my arm and pointed. Her voice dropped to an awe-filled whisper. “The famed West Country faery ring! It’s perfect! Just what I imagined it would be! It’s like a holy place, don’t you think?”

  I left her hugging herself with delight and marched over to squat next to the bare earth that marked the boundaries of the faery ring. The ring was about four feet wide, a perfect circle of bare earth surrounded by lush grass growing on the inside and outside of it. There was nothing to indicate the cause, no mushrooms visible, but I knew they weren’t always seen. I touched the sun-warmed dirt and mused, “I wonder if there’s a lab around here where I could send a soil sample so we can find out just which fungus caused this ring?”

  “Infidel,” she said without heat, slapping her coat pockets, pulling out the spell pages, and turning around in the way women who have forgotten their purses have. “Do you have the camera?”

  I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You took it away from me at Denhelm, if you recall.”

  “Oh, that’s right—you insisted on taking pictures of the farmer’s son rather than the bog man mummy. I must have left the camera in my bag.”

  “You have to admit, the son was much better looking than that moth-eaten old bog man.”

  Sarah straightened up to her full five foot nothing. “That bog mummy is said to have been used in a druid sacrifice, and thus could well contain the spirit…Oh, never mind. I can see by the mulish expression on your face that you are closing yourself up to any and all things unexplainable. Let me have the car keys so I can run back to town and get the camera.”

  “I’ll do it—”

  A little sparkle lit her eyes. “No, you stay and meditate in the faery ring. Maybe if you open yourself up to the magic contained within, you’ll see how blind you’ve been all these years. Here, you can read the spells over while I’m gone, but don’t try them out until I get back. I want to see everything the ring has to offer!”

  I took the pages she handed me and plopped down to sit with crossed legs in the middle of the circle. “All right, if you’re sure you’re okay with driving on the wrong side of everything.” I plucked a piece of grass and chewed the end of it as I shucked off my light jacket. “I’ll soak up a bit of sun while you’re gone.”

  “Portia!” Sarah’s eyes grew huge. “You can’t do that!”

  “Do what, sunbathe? I’m not going to take off my clothes, just roll up my sleeves,” I said, suiting action to word.

  “You can’t eat anything that grows in the faery ring. It’s… it’s sacrilegious! In fact, I don’t think you should be in the ring at all. I’m sure that’s going to anger the faeries.”

  I rolled my eyes, chewing on the blade of grass. “I’ll take my chances against the fungus. Remember to stay on the left.”

  She hurried off after delivering a few more dire warnings as to my fate if I continued. I sat enjoying the sun for a few minutes, but that quickly lost its charms. I made a search of the area surrounding the ring, but there was nothing but trees, grass, daisies, buttercups, and the wind whispering through the leaves.

  “Right. A little scientific investigation is in order,” I said aloud to break the silence. I seated myself again in the faery ring, plucking another blade of grass to chew while I consulted the photocopies Sarah had thrust upon me. The text explaining the purpose of the spells was couched in dramatically obscure language, no doubt fooling the more gullible reader into believing its authenticity. “It’s going to take a lot more than some lame attempts at mysticism to fool me,” I muttered as I ran my finger down the spells. “Magicus circulus contra malus, evoco aureolus pulvis, commutatus idem dominatio aqua …Oh, for heaven’s sake, how hokey can you get? I bet this isn’t even real Latin—”

  A glimmer of something caught the corner of my eye. I turned my head to look at it, assuming someone had dropped a penny or bit of glass on the ground that had caught the sunlight, but there was nothing.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, as if something that posed a threat was approaching.

  “Honestly, Portia, how pathetic is it that you’re letting Sarah’s chat about magic get to you?” I rubbed my arms against a sudden prickling of goose bumps and gave my self a mental lecture about allowing someone’s enthusiasm to sway my common sense.

  A little flash of light in midair had me whipping around to look at it.

  There was nothing.

  “Oh, this is ridiculous. I’m spooking myself, and over what? Figments of an overactive imagination…”

  Directly in front of me, something twinkled in the air again, just as if tiny motes of metal had reflected the sunlight.

  To my astonishment, the twinkling continued, growing thicker until the air around me seemed to collect, flashing like a thousand tiny, nearly imperceptible lights.

  “I’m hallucinating,” I said, closing my eyes. “It’s the sun. I’m sun blind, or having heatstroke, or the fungus in the faery ring is a hallucinogenic.”

  I opened my eyes, sure I would see only the top of a sunny hill, but instead I gawked as the twinkling lights gathered themselves into an opaque form.

  “It’s got to be the fungus,” I said quickly, getting to my feet and backing out of the ring. “It’s from the peyote family or something—”

  As I backed away, I stumbled over a lump in the grass, falling onto my butt. My mind came to an abrupt stop as the form turned into a person. I shook my head, blinking rapidly to clear my vision. “All right. Time to get some medical aid. This silliness has gone on long enough.”