by Donna Grant
In all the time she had been alone with him he had been easygoing, his voice calm and even. Now he looked as if he were stretched thin, as if every nerve ending was on fire.
“What do you do back in South Carolina?” Darius asked her when the silence stretched for too long.
Lexi returned to her seat, putting her between Thorn and Darius at the round table. “I’m a masseuse. I work for a spa in Charleston near one of the B&Bs known for its romantic location. We get a lot of couples coming in for a massage.”
“You make a good living?”
“I do. I’m one of the senior masseuses, so I can set my own hours. I have loyal clients who come in every couple weeks on a constant rotation.”
Darius nodded in appreciation. “What brought you to Scotland?”
“Jessica,” she replied with a smile. “We all had destinations in Europe that we wanted to see. We pooled our money together and took three weeks off.”
“Sounds like fun. Tell me of your friends,” Darius urged.
She really didn’t think he was interested, but the more they talked, the more relaxed Thorn became. So Lexi kept talking. “Jessica’s family is obscenely wealthy. She doesn’t have to work, but to her mother’s horror, she got a job at the spa with me doing facials.” Lexi laughed as she remembered it. “Jessica is part of Charleston high society, so for her to be working for her mother’s friends doing facials was shocking.”
“I can imagine,” Darius said, a hint of a smile poking through.
“Then there is Crystal, whose family is on the fringes of high society. They make really good money. Her father owns a construction company.” Lexi paused for a moment, her smile dying as her thoughts turned to Christina. “Christina ran with the same crowd as Jessica and Crystal. Her parents are surgeons.”
She drank her water and saw that both of the men were watching her. Lexi licked her lips and set aside her drink. “Crystal dreamed of seeing Paris. Christina wanted to see Venice.”
“What did you want to see?” Thorn asked.
Lexi looked into his dark brown eyes and shrugged. “I was so happy to be getting out of Charleston that I didn’t care. I chose London since it was close to Paris and not that far from Scotland. We had three amazing weeks in Europe. We were flying out of Edinburgh in just days.”
Darius grabbed a handful of chips and ate them one by one. “How did you meet your friends?”
“I worked at the country club as a waitress my senior year of high school. I still don’t know why Christina befriended me, but as soon as she began talking to me, so did Jessica and Crystal. We all went to college together and stayed in a house Crystal’s parents owned.”
Lexi ducked her head. “The only way I was able to afford college is because I didn’t have to pay rent. Her parents took care of the utilities and kept the kitchen stocked with food. I wasn’t part of their social class, but they all took me in as if I was. I owe them so much.”
“Friends like that are rare,” Darius said.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Lexi that neither man asked about her family. She tore off a piece of fish and ate it. “I’m a fair hand at drawing. If I can draw Christina’s killer, will you find him for me? I owe it to her and her family to have her murderer brought to justice.”
Darius wiped his hands on a napkin. “It’ll be our justice, Lexi, no’ the authorities’.”
“I’m just fine with that.”
“We’ll find him,” Thorn said. “No matter how long it takes.”
Lexi knew that he would. Thorn was that kind of man. The kind like back in history who when he gave his word, he wouldn’t go back on it. Thorn had just given her his word, and she was able to breathe easier knowing it.
“Tell us about being a masseuse,” Darius urged.
She looked from Thorn to Darius. “You both have gone out of your way not to ask about my family.”
Darius lowered his gaze. Only Thorn kept eye contact.
“Do you already know?” she asked.
His chest expanded as he inhaled and then slowly released it. “Nay.”
“Now you’re lying.”
Thorn clenched his jaw. “I know you doona have family. I doona know more than that.”
“That’s right. I don’t have any family. It’s been like that for so long that I’ve gotten used to it.” Now who’s lying, Lexi?
Thorn and Darius waited silently for her to tell them however much she wanted to divulge. Everyone who mattered in Charleston knew of it, so she never had to speak the words. In college, no one had been important enough to share such a thing with.
Why then was it different now?
Lexi sighed and leaned her head back against the chair. “I was an only child. My parents’ marriage was rocky, at best. My father was a hardworking man who only wanted to give his family all that he could. My mother was an alcoholic. Despite that, my father stuck by her because he loved her deeply. I wish she could’ve seen his suffering.”
An image of her parents filled her mind. “We were at a New Year’s Eve party. It was my junior year, and I had turned seventeen two months before. My boyfriend dumped me before Christmas, so I was miserable. I didn’t want to spend the holiday at home alone so my father talked me into going with them. I actually had a good time.”
Thorn’s lips softened into a smile when she glanced at him.
Lexi lifted her head and continued. “We thought we were watching how much Mom had to drink, but she was sneaking drinks when we weren’t looking. As soon as we broke the New Year, we put her in the car and headed home.”
She stopped, the pain of it still hurting after all these years.
Thorn put his hand atop hers and squeezed.
Lexi slid her gaze to him and drew in a shaky breath. “Dad had driven her home so many times. Even I had. She always sat in her seat singing or laughing. I don’t know what made her reach over and jerk the steering wheel into oncoming traffic that night. I can still hear the crunch of metal.”
Darius mumbled something as he shook his head. Thorn’s look of regret was better than any words he could’ve spoken.
“You’ve been on your own ever since?” Darius asked.
“Yes,” Lexi said. “In a way. In others, I had Crystal, Jessica, and Christina.”
Thorn’s thumb gently smoothed over her hand. “Now I know why you were so determined to find Christina’s killer.”
“I want to be able to tell them he’s dead.”
“You will,” Thorn vowed.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Lexi rose the next morning feeling more like herself than before. She showered and changed, only to find it was Darius once again with her.
“I thought I heard Thorn when I was in the shower,” she said.
Darius nodded, flipping through the TV. “You did. He’ll be back later.”
The hours passed slowly as she and Darius watched movies. She kept waiting for Thorn to return, but he didn’t.
“I’m going to go out for food,” Darius said that evening. “Anything you want?”
“Whatever you’d like,” she answered.
“Be back shortly,” he said and left the flat.
Lexi jumped up and went to the window to look outside. Darius exited the building and turned right. He had gone only a block before she saw him cross the street and step in front of a man.
A moment later, Darius shoved him into the alley. Lexi held her breath as she tried to find an angle that would let her see into the alley, but nothing worked.
When she next saw Darius, he had blood on his shirt. He looked both ways down the street. Just as he was about to duck back into the alley, two men ran toward him.
Lexi gasped when she saw the black and silver hair of one. “Dark,” she whispered.
She watched as Darius took out a knife and began to fight them. Lexi stumbled back a step from the window when she saw a bubble about the size of a grapefruit appear in one of the Dark’s hands. He then threw it at Darius.
Darius ducked, and the bubble glanced off him. Still, it seemed to impair him as Darius shook his head as if to clear it. The Dark advanced on him then.
Lexi screamed his name, pounding on the window. She started to turn to leave the flat when Thorn appeared on the rooftop across the street.
He jumped from the six-story building to land as light as a cat behind the two Dark. They spun around to fight him. That’s when she spotted that he also used a knife. He was so quick in his movements that she couldn’t keep up with him. The Dark continued to throw their bubbles, and it seemed that every one that hit Thorn only angered him more.
The fight was over in quick order with the Dark laying dead between Darius and Thorn. Lexi wished she knew what they were talking about standing there so casually. Anyone could come upon them and see the bodies.
She couldn’t believe all of this happened so close to the flat. As soon as she saw Thorn start to turn around, she jumped to the side of the window, plastering herself against the wall.
Lexi counted to sixty before she peeked around the corner and saw that Thorn was already gone. Darius had two dead bodies draped over his shoulder.
She didn’t think twice. She ran to the door, grabbing her coat as she did. Her jacket was on by the time she reached the door to the building. Lexi looked through the glass for any sign of Thorn or Darius—or Dark.
With the coast clear, she hurried out of the building and across the street. She ran to the alley, stopping as she reached it and slowly looking around the corner. Lexi caught a glimpse of Darius as he turned left.
Lexi was silent as she jogged after him, occasionally looking up to make sure Thorn wasn’t watching her from above. She had to know who they were to jump from buildings and heal like Thorn did. Not to mention being hit with those bubbles by the Dark. Those bubbles were weapons, and she imagined they were magic.
Your kind. Darius’s words replayed in her head as she followed him down one street to the next, staying far enough back that he wouldn’t see her.
No human she knew could jump off buildings and land on their feet without breaking bones. And taking the bubbles of magic? She couldn’t imagine that was easy.
Lexi lost Darius’s trail when she came to a warehouse. She was about to retrace her steps to the last turn to see if he had gone another way when she climbed some grates to look into the warehouse.
She saw the numerous dead bodies of the Dark before she saw Thorn and Darius. Though she knew they hunted the Dark, it was different seeing the outcome of their work.
Then again, the Dark weren’t of this world. They were aliens, beings who fed off humans. What did she care if they were killed and their bodies gathered in such a manner? She couldn’t feel anything for them, because the Dark didn’t feel anything for humans.
She pressed her face closer to the window when she saw Darius begin to undress. What could he possibly be doing?
As soon as he folded his shirt, he took a deep breath and changed. Into a dragon.
Lexi gasped in surprise and jerked back at seeing the purple dragon, toppling off the crates to land hard on the concrete. She scrunched her face as pain radiated through her.
“What a pretty thing,” said a male voice with an Irish accent.
“Leading us straight to the Kings, too,” said another.
Lexi opened her eyes and found three Dark standing before her. She tried to roll over and get away, but they roughly took hold of her.
She could feel the seduction they were pouring into her, but she refused to give in to it. Lexi wasn’t going to end up like Christina. She knew what these beings were and what they wanted. She was strong. She could—no, she would—fight.
They dragged her to the door of the warehouse and barged in. Darius was once more in human form, though he was naked. She saw a dragon tat on his back before he whirled around, his lips lifted in a sneer when he spotted the Dark.
“Look what we found,” said the Dark with a thick Irish accent who walked behind her. “She led us right to you. I had no idea she would deliver such a fine prize, but I’ll not look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Lexi looked at Thorn, but his gaze was on the three Fae. Anger rolled off him in thick waves. His eyes promised death. And pain.
“You’ve made a dreadful mistake,” Thorn said in a dangerously low voice.
Chills rose up on Lexi’s skin. She had seen Thorn smiling, had known his gentle side. This Thorn … well this Thorn was lethal.
The Dark returned to stand behind her. Thorn’s nostrils flared in fury, his face set in hard lines. Lexi tried to swallow. She was getting a firsthand experience of battle and danger, and she didn’t like it. In fact, she was frightened to such an extreme that she was shaking.
“Does the woman mean something to you?” the Dark asked Thorn as he touched her face.
Lexi jerked away and turned her head to glare at him. “Touch me again, asshole, and I’ll cut your balls off. We’ll see if you can fuck a human to death then.”
The moment the Dark’s smile turned to a sneer Lexi knew she might have overstepped things a little. More than a little by his furious glare.
“You dare to talk to me in such a way?” the Dark asked her.
All the anger over Christina’s needless death that had kept Lexi going for days returned with a vengeance. It choked her it was so strong. Her vision turned red, and all rational thought vanished as she focused on killing a Dark—any Dark.
“You dare to come to my world and slaughter us as if we mean nothing?” she returned with a scathing look. Lexi looked him up and down and laughed. “I’ll fight every one of you. I’ll make it my goal to slice off every Dark Fae dick. I’ll make sure that you can’t harm another human again.”
She was surprised Thorn and Darius hadn’t told her to be quiet. In fact, she was astonished they stood silently, but she couldn’t take the time to think of it. She was confronting a Dark, and even though he wasn’t the one who had killed Christina, he was still an ass.
The two Dark holding her exchanged worried glances. Lexi let her lips curl into a smile. She had them worried now.
The Dark leader gripped her hair painfully, jerking her head backward. “You think the only way we kill is by fucking you?” He laughed. “Ask your Dragon Kings. Ask them what else we can do. Or perhaps I’ll show you.”
His hand came around her, palm out. Lexi looked down to see a bubble grow. It was perfectly round and clear except for the faint shimmer of iridescent color.
The Dark leaned close so that his mouth was next to her ear. “You may be able to withstand our appeal, but you won’t be able to hold back your cry of pain when you feel this. Know that while the Kings are trying to protect you that I’ll take great joy in killing them.”
Lexi glanced at Darius who stood silently behind and to the right of Thorn. When she looked at Thorn she thought his look alone would slay the Dark where they stood.
There was a moment where everything was hushed, as if the world took a deep breath and held it. In the next instant, everything moved frantically.
The Dark turned his hand to push the bubble into her at the same instant Lexi saw Thorn change into a dragon with scales the color of wine, followed a heartbeat later by Darius.
Thorn roared, the sound deafening, and pulled in a breath. She saw fire swirl in his throat. His massive hand rose over Lexi. She could only stare in a mixture of terror and panic.
The two Darks holding her loosened their grip. She yanked her arms away and dove to the ground as the first of the flames flew from Thorn’s mouth.
She huddled on the floor with her arms over her head. The heat never touched her as she’d expected. Lexi turned her head when she heard screaming and saw that something was over her, something with the same deep wine scales that she had seen on Thorn when he shifted.
Lexi remained where she was until the last of the screams died. Then Thorn’s hand was gone. She still didn’t move. Dragons. My God, Darius and Thorn were dragons!
The ground trembled when Thorn stepped away from her, but Lexi still didn’t have the nerve to lift her head. Fae and now dragons? What else was on her world?
“Lexi,” Darius said, standing near her. “It’s over, lass. You can lift your head.” When she didn’t move, Darius chuckled wryly. “This from a human who bravely trailed the Dark? You doona need to fear us.”
“You’re dragons,” she mumbled.
“That we are.”
It was said so matter-of-factly and without a hint of apology that Lexi lifted her head to see Thorn in human form standing twenty feet away with his back to her and his hands braced on a table.
A hand was held in front of her face. Lexi hesitated for just an instant before taking Darius’s hand as he helped her to her feet.
He wore nothing but a pair of jeans, and with his close proximity she could see that his dragon tat went from his back to his front with his dragon’s head looking over his right shoulder in the same black and red ink.
“Go to him,” Darius urged in a whisper.
Lexi turned her gaze to Thorn. The man who had so tenderly held her was a fire-breathing dragon. A real-life dragon. Her brain was having an impossible time registering the facts.
She took a few half-steps toward him, slowly closing the distance. When Lexi looked behind her, it was to discover Darius gone and all that remained of the three Dark Fae were piles of ashes.
Lexi stopped when she was six feet from Thorn. He stood naked, his back expanding with every breath he took. She had known he would be heart-stoppingly gorgeous naked, and she had been right.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Because of this verra reaction.”
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
Thorn’s heart still raced at how close Lexi had come to death. He had been given the barest hint of hope when she had bravely stood against them.
Her defiant words appealed to him on a primal level, but her precarious position made his blood turn to ice. Thorn had been so enraged, so incensed that he had one thought—save Lexi.