INTO THE FIRE (Forbidden Love)

by James, Danielle

  THIRTEEN

  “Rebel!” Leigh shouted as she lunged off the bed and scampered to his fallen body on the floor. “Oh Jeesh, Cowboy, what’s wrong?” She knelt down next to him. His forehead was covered in a sheen of sweat, his body rigid. His face was twisted into a grimace of pain and tears were leaking out of the corners of his eyes. Eyes that were unfocused and wildly searching the room. There was a trickle of her blood running from his mouth down his cheek and into his hairline.

  Leigh felt his neck, only to discover that his pulse was pounding erratically. “Shit, I killed you,” she whispered. “Come on, Cowboy, don’t do this. Come back. Fuck. Come back.”

  Leigh blindly reached behind her and grabbed a pillow to shove under his head. “Rebel,” she said louder, “Come on, Man, I swear by everything holy that if you don’t snap out of this, I’m gonna call Angel.”

  Rebel responded by jerking and flailing wildly. He was having a seizure. Did vampires have seizures? Hell, she didn’t know, but it sure as hell looked like it. Leigh tried to remember what to do for someone having a seizure. Wasn’t she supposed to hold him down? Or put something in his mouth so that he didn’t bite off his tongue? Fuck, fuck, fuck! The best lay she had ever had, and she killed him. Leigh felt a hot tear roll down her face.

  At a loss, Leigh called out for Angel.

  “What is it?” Angel huffed as he burst through the bedroom door.

  “It’s Rebel!” she sobbed. “I killed him! Oh God, you have to help him.”

  His eyes darted around the room and finally focused on Rebel. “Merde! What happened?” he hollered as he raced to his brother’s side, kneeling down beside him.

  “We were… and then he bit me, and then… Hell, I think my blood killed him.” Leigh was trembling all over, her arms wrapped around her middle as if trying to hold herself together. “You have to save him.”

  “He is not dead,” Angel said. He was very still for a moment and then the rest of the vampires in the house burst into the room.

  “What the fuck?”

  “What’s happened?”

  “Holy Hell!” Her sentiments, exactly, Leigh thought.

  “I poisoned him,” Leigh mumbled, slumping her shoulders in defeat. She was prepared for whatever the vampires wanted to do to her in retribution.

  “I doubt that,” Jacque drawled. “Tell me what happened.” Rebel had finally stopped flopping around like a fish out of water and was now perfectly still. Deadly still. His eyes were closed and Leigh would have thought he was dead if not for the barest of movement in his chest. He was still breathing. Leigh looked at Jacque. He had insinuated himself next to Rebel and was brushing his hand across the other vampire’s head. The motion was clinical, but also something else. It was genuine concern. Leigh could plainly see that Jacque truly cared for his brother. “What happened?” he repeated. “And is that wax on his chest?”

  Leigh blushed. She felt it spread across her face in a flash of white hot heat. Hadn’t they said that Jacque was the closest thing to a doctor that they had? Leigh took a deep breath, screwed her courage tight, and told Jacque what happened. When she finished telling him how Rebel reacted after drinking from her, she asked, “Did I do this to him?”

  “I do not know,” he answered with a shake of his head. “I need to run some tests. I have never heard of this happening before. We are usually immune to any diseases that our dinner may have.”

  “I am Not diseased.” Or dinner for that matter.

  “I wasn’t inferring that you were, Mademoiselle, only that we are immune to most everything.”

  Leigh humphed. Gage had wrapped a sheet around her still naked body at some point and was standing next to her with his arm around her back. She hadn’t even realized it at first, but she was glad for the support. She was grateful for the concerned look Gage turned on her. It didn’t make her feel guilty, which she was doing a great job of doing all on her own.

  “Let’s get him in bed,” Antonio suggested. Four vampires lifted Rebel gently, reverently, as if they were afraid to break him. Another stab of guilt sliced through Leigh’s heart. What the fuck had she done now? She knew she should have stayed away from him. Now look at him. The most beautiful man she had ever met, inside and out, and she had quite possibly poisoned him or worse.

  Once Rebel was settled in bed and covered in with a thick blanket, Angel directed his men out of the room. Only Jacque remained. He was sitting beside the bed in a chair that Leigh hadn’t even noticed was in the room before now.

  “Is he going to be ok?” she asked, sitting on the edge of the bed beside Rebel’s still form.

  “I don’t know,” Jacque answered. “I will have answers soon enough, though. Antonio has gone to get my supplies. I will take blood and run tests. If there is a way to help him, I will find it,” he vowed.

  Leigh watched Rebel’s face. He was even more beautiful when he was at rest. Her heart tugged in her chest. He said that she was his mate. He said that he wanted her. Leigh felt stupid for even entertaining the idea for even a minute. Look where it got him. “I guess I’m not really his mate,” she mused aloud.

  “I wouldn’t discount the possibility,” Jacque said. “Sometimes fate has a really twisted sense of humor.” Leigh didn’t miss the note of disdain in his voice.

  “You lost your mate,” she said.

  Jacque nodded. “I don’t think that she realized I was hers. I like to think that it was just ignorance. It is too painful to think she rejected me.”

  “Did you tell her?”

  “I never got the chance,” he said. “She left me before I could.”

  “Why didn’t you follow her? I mean, if this whole mate thing is as strong for vamps as it is for dragons, nothing on Heaven or Earth would keep you from your true mate.”

  “I was not aware that dragons had mates.”

  “I never had one. But yeah, we have that mating issue too. When we bond, it’s for life. When we mark our mate, it’s permanent.”

  “Did you mark Rebel?”

  “I..um..I don’t know. I think I might have. I mean, hell. I figured he was just infatuated and would get over it in time. Most men do.”

  “We do not throw around the word mate carelessly,” Jacque said through gritted teeth. “He would die for you.”

  “I know that now,” she conceded. “I just wish I hadn’t hurt him.”

  Antonio entered the room at that moment. He was carrying a tray full of various medical supplies. Leigh watched as Jacque systematically used each one. He took Rebel’s temperature, which was one hundred and one, too hot for a vampire, he drew blood, checked his eyes and his vital signs.

  “If he were human, I would be very concerned,” Jacque said. “His temp is too high, his pulse is erratic, and his breathing is shallow. His blood pressure is through the roof. His abdomen is making odd noises. I need to get him downstairs and into CAT scan.”

  They kept a CAT scan machine on hand? She thought. “Amongst other things,” Jacque answered her thought aloud. Or perhaps she had spoken the words out loud. “We keep a fully functional medical clinic in the basement. You just never know when we might need it.” Ok, either he was very powerful and she was projecting, or she was speaking her mind out loud.

  Antonio nodded. Together, the two men lifted Rebel out of the bed and carried him away. Leigh considered following, but Antonio told her no. “We will bring him right back.”

  Leigh flopped back on the bed. The bed that belonged to Rebel. The bed where he had made love to her. It still smelled of their combined scents. Leigh couldn’t help but wonder if it would ever happen again. No, she decided, probably not. She had really screwed up this time. She lay back on the pillows and sank into their softness. The dam she had erected against her heart broke and her emotions tore free. She turned her face into the pillows and cried.

  Jacque had never seen anything like it. Rebel was out cold. His body was still functioning, albeit not very well, but working. He would do whatever it took to keep
his brother alive. He would not let him die.

  But a part of Jacque’s mind didn’t think he was dying. He had to get some lab results, and fast. The rest of his family had taken up in the kitchen, all of them doing what they did best. They were researching any and all information they could find about dragons and about vampires. Even if it was a myth, there might be a fraction of truth in they could use. At this point, they were desperate.

  Jacque watched as the machine spun around Rebel’s still body. What if he didn’t wake up? What if dragon blood was poisonous to vampires? Jacque didn’t think he could bear to lose another person he loved. Nor could any of the others in his family. Yeah, they were a strange lot, but they all fit well together. They had been together for so long that they had formed a permanent bond. They were brothers. No matter what.

  When the CAT scan was finished, Jacque leaned over and whispered in Rebel’s ear, “Wake soon, my beloved brother.”

  By the time Rebel was returned to his bedroom, Leigh had managed to make the bed up with fresh sheets and pull on a pair of his boxers and t-shirt. They were too big, but at least she wasn’t naked anymore. She could have went in search of her bag for her own clothes, but she was loathe to leave his room for fear that she wouldn’t be there when he returned.

  She was pacing the floor, wearing a rut in the plush carpeting, when Jacque appeared in the doorway. He had Rebel cradled in his arms, as if he were a small child instead of a six foot warrior. Jacque’s expression was grim, his mouth a thin line, his eyes were wary.

  “Any luck?” Leigh asked as she pulled the sheets back on the freshly made bed for him.

  “Not yet,” Jacque replied. He gently laid Rebel down on the bed and untwisted the sheet he was covered with from his body. Someone had cleaned all the dried wax from his body. Heat singed Leigh’s cheeks again. “I will know more as soon as I run the labs.”

  “I’ll stay here with him.”

  “I would expect nothing less from his mate,” Jacque said with a sad smile.

  Leigh hated that she had caused all this angst. Hated that she had let herself succumb to a moment of weakness that had quite possibly put Rebel’s life in danger and caused so much hurt among his brothers. And she could feel it. Their pain saturated the air and made it heavy and thick. She opened her mouth to apologize once again, but Jacque cut her off.

  “It is not your fault,” he said. “You couldn’t have known. None of us did. The others are researching every myth and every fable, trying to find any useful information. Now, your job is to stay with him. Take care of him. Alert us to any changes. Any at all.”

  Leigh nodded her head. She could do that. It was the least she could do. “What about Merrick?” she asked. What if he decided to attack? What if he found out that Rebel was sick? What if he chose to hurt him while he was defenseless? She felt the heat rising in her blood. Over her dead body. Merrick could try to hurt Rebel, but he would sorely regret it. Leigh tasted blood and realized that she was gnashing her teeth together so hard her gums were bleeding.

  “Merrick is of no concern. If he dares show his ugly mug around here, we will kill him. No questions asked.” Jacque turned for the door.

  “What about the press?”

  “We will handle it.”

  Jacque strolled out of the room on that note, leaving Leigh alone with Rebel. How had her life gotten so fucked up? How had it all come to this? She liked her life at one time, damn it. All she had to worry about was herself. Take care of herself.

  But when she thought of going back to that life, a fierce pang of loneliness stabbed her heart. She didn’t want to be alone anymore. Freaking hell, she wanted the vampire. Now, if he would only live….

  FOURTEEN

  They had gone and done it this time. Those vampires had brainwashed Leigh. Had her so badly under their mind control that she believed that she wanted to be with them. Had her believing that she was the mate to one of them.

  How sickening was that?

  Dragons did not mate with vampires. It just wasn’t done. Surely Leigh knew that? But perhaps not. She was, after all, enthralled by them. They were controlling her. But how to break her free? Would the public believe that Angel Knight would brainwash another person? He was something of a hero to them. What had the world come to, when a filthy bloodsucker was considered a hero? Pathetic, really.

  Someone knocked on the hotel room door and Merrick cursed. “What?” he snapped in the direction of the door.

  “I’m looking for the dragon, Merrick. I have an appointment.” The small voice was definitely feminine. She had an appointment? Merrick looked at the digital clock beside the bed. Nine a.m. Oh yes. He had an interview with some kind of environmentalist.

  He strode to the door and opened it. What he saw took him back. Definitely feminine. Definitely human. The little woman was barely five feet tall, if that. Her golden hair fell from her head in long tresses, curling around her perky breasts and dipping nearly to her naval. He assumed it would brush her backside if he could see behind her. She had wide, blue eyes that looked at him with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Her petite nose was straight, except for the slight lift at the end. Her pink lips were full and stretched around a mouthful of perfect white teeth in a nervous smile.

  Merrick’s cock punched against the zipper of his jeans, painfully aware of her beauty. It demanded that he take action. Take her. Why, he didn’t understand. He hadn’t reacted to a female like this in centuries. And never to a human female.

  He shoved the physical reaction aside. It had been too long since he slaked his lusts, he decided. And now was not the time. Not when he was so close to his goal.

  “Welcome, Miss..”

  “Elizabeth Redley,” she supplied, holding her hand out to him. “I work for the Agency For Extinction Prevention. It’s nice to meet you, Merrick.”

  Merrick took her outstretched hand. He thought he was supposed to shake it, but he had better manners than that. It felt small and delicate in his own broad and calloused palm. He lifted her hand to his lips and skimmed her knuckles. He drew in a breath through his nose. Lilies. She smelled of lilies.

  He was quite satisfied with the rosy blush that covered her cheeks. “Won’t you come in,” he suggested, not waiting for her answer, but leading her into the hotel room. She had to jog to keep up with the pace of his longer legs. He led her to a small dining table and pulled out a chair for her.

  Merrick knew that the impression he left on this woman would make or break his case with the human public. If he was a total ass, she would convey that sentiment to the press. The same if he scared her. He was going to make certain that she was completely enamored with him by the time she left his hotel room. Yes, this lovely woman was the perfect advocate for his cause.

  “Welcome, Miss Redley,” Merrick drawled. “May I offer you something to drink?”

  She shook her blonde head. “No, thank you. Mr. Keller, I have a lot of questions for you. I would like to get started right away, if you don’t mind.”

  A woman who got right down to business. He liked her already. “Go for it,” he answered. He took the seat across from her at the small table. “What would you like to know first?”

  “Well, first of all, how can you be sure that you and Leigh Harmond are the last two of your species?”

  “I was there when the wars were fought. I saw the carnage first hand. I have searched the world over for more of our kind, with no luck,” Merrick answered.

  “Tell me about these wars,” she said, propping a tape recorder on the table. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” Merrick said with a smile. He told her of the wars between the Magi and the Coni. He told her of his search for more of his kind. He even told her of his trials with Leigh.

  “If she doesn’t want you, why pursue her?” Elizabeth asked, quirking a finely sculpted brow at him.

  “For one, we were promised to each other. It is the way of our people. For two, I do not persona
lly want to see the end of our line with us. It is pertinent to the continuation of our species for us to mate. A dragon can only produce young once every hundred years or so. I do not wish to waste what time I have left alone and without young.”

  “How long does a dragon live?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I am six hundred and fifty seven years old,” Merrick told her. “I do not know how long I will live, because I have never met a dragon who died of old age. The oldest dragon I have ever known was fifteen hundred years old.”

  “You don’t look a day over thirty,” she told him with a dubious brow.

  “We age very slowly. Our progression from infant to adult takes about a century. Our bodies are full grown by the time we are about fifty, but mentally and magically it takes at least fifty more to mature.” Merrick stood and fetched himself a beer out of the mini-fridge. “You sure you don’t want one?” he asked.

  “I would like one, but I never drink on the job.”

  “Suit yourself,” he said as he dropped back into his chair. “What else would you like to know?”

  “You can fly, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Change your shape, breath fire, and perform magic?”

  “Yes, yes, and yes.”

  “How do I know that you haven’t cast some spell on all of us, you know, to make us more receptive to you?”

  Merrick whipped his head around and glared at her. “I am no vampire. I do not bewitch humans to do my bidding. I would never screw with someone’s free will.”

  Elizabeth, nonplussed by his reaction, continued, “Is that what you believe has happened with Leigh? You think the vampires have her under some kind of mind control?”