by Donna Grant
“Don’t try to tell me it’s because I’m scared, because the truth is the only time I’m not terrified is when I’m with you.”
Sammi was getting ready to beg when he took her hand and tugged her after him as he entered the cottage. He whirled around and slammed the door as he drew her against him.
Just as his lips met hers, a woman’s voice said, “Hey, handsome. Am I interrupting?”
Sammi turned her head to find a drop-dead gorgeous woman sitting on the kitchen table idly swinging her legs. Her long black hair was pulled to one side in a fishtail braid that hung over her shoulder. Silver eyes that were crinkled in the corners with a smile watched them.
Tristan let out a long sigh. “Rhi,” he mumbled.
Sammi wanted to scream in frustration when Tristan stepped away from her to hurry down a hallway and return wearing a pair of jeans. She looked from Tristan to the beautiful woman at the table, unsure of what to make of what was going on.
The woman slid sensuously from the table, a wide smile on her perfect face. “Nice to finally meet you, Sammi. I’m Rhi.”
“Rhi,” Sammi repeated. “How do you know—”
“We have something in common,” Rhi spoke over her. “Neither of us likes to go by our full name. I think Sammi is wonderful. Lucky you. I could only shorten mine to Rhi. I guess I could’ve gone with something completely different like Charlie or something.”
“Rhi,” Tristan said as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Rhi rolled her silver eyes. “After all I did for you two.”
“I’m feeling a little lost,” Sammi said. “Someone please explain.”
Tristan dropped his arms and walked to the couch to sit. “Do you remember how we spoke about the Dark Fae?”
Sammi nodded. “Yes.”
“There are also Light Fae. Rhi is a Light Fae.”
She whipped her head around to Rhi to find the Fae smiling brightly. “I don’t normally help the Dragon Kings, but Tristan proved himself when we got Kellan and Denae away from the Dark last month. I didn’t expect to find Tristan jumping in to help Jane’s sister, but then again, it doesn’t surprise me.”
Sammi held up her hands, palms out. “Wait. Just hold on.” She rubbed her eyes as she took in what Rhi had just said. “I feel like I’m in a hall of mirrors where I’m getting a part of the story but so much is left out.”
“That would be Con’s doing,” Rhi said, the hatred dripping from her voice.
Sammi glanced at Tristan to see him wince. She didn’t know anyone by the name of Con, so how could he have something against her?
Rhi guided Sammi to the couch and plunked her down next to Tristan. “I’ll condense the story for you. The Dragon Kings and Fae don’t like each other because of the Fae Wars long ago. There is a truce, but the Dark broke it. The Dark are after a Dragon King and anyone else connected to them.”
“Keeping up so far,” Sammi said. “So how do you factor in?”
Rhi waved away her words. “Not important. I saw Tristan helping you and decided to give some assistance as well.”
“The mist?” Sammie guessed.
Rhi winked. “Perfect cover.”
“A Dark found her,” Tristan said.
Rhi’s smile faded quickly. She jerked her head to Sammi. “Tell me everything.”
Sammi explained about seeing the Dark in the water for a second time. When she finished Rhi’s forehead was furrowed as she paced back and forth.
“Can you describe the Dark One?”
“Handsome,” Sammi said.
Rhi grunted. “All Fae, Dark and Light, are good-looking. I need something specific.”
“He had long hair with silver running through it.”
“They all do,” Tristan said.
Rhi sank down on the stuffed chair next to the couch and frowned. “I was hoping I might know which one had been sent. Few keep their hair long now. Most cut it, so that will help narrow things down a bit.”
“No’ enough,” Tristan grumbled.
Rhi sat back and crossed one leg over the other. She ran her thumb over her silver nails with a striped design on each forefinger and ring finger. “They won’t be stupid enough to come this far onto Dreagan land.”
“They killed the men Banan and the others were interrogating,” Tristan pointed out.
“I was there. The Dark killed them because they were humans. Humans don’t know how to keep alliances or pacts,” Rhi stated. Then she looked at Sammi. “No offense meant.”
Sammi scooted back on the sofa. “None taken.”
“Let’s no’ forget the mercs who came onto our land in a chopper,” Tristan said.
Rhi folded her hands in her lap. “Ex-MI5. They were testing you to see if you would attack.”
“Ex-MI5? It’s the Mob after me,” Sammi said.
Rhi and Tristan exchanged a look, which only angered Sammi. There was still more of the story she wasn’t getting.
Tristan cleared his throat. “We think the Mob targeted your pub to get to Jane and thereby Banan.”
“Not possible,” Sammi said. “Daniel was laundering money for a couple of years. Why would they wait that long? Besides, it was Daniel skimming money that brought the Mob to my door.”
Rhi scrunched her face. “That could be the truth. The Mob isn’t known for being forgiving. If they thought someone cheated them, they would keep after them until they got what they wanted.”
“They think I wasn’t at the pub the night they blew it up,” she said. “Daniel told them I was away. I tried to stay hidden after that, but I still felt as if they were following me.”
Rhi looked to Tristan. “Has Banan called Henry North yet?”
“No’ that I know of.”
“Maybe I’ll pay him a visit,” Rhi said with a grin.
“Nay, Rhi,” Tristan stated. “Doona trifle with Henry. He’s a good man.”
Rhi sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
“Who is Henry North?” Sammi asked.
Tristan braced his forearms on his thighs. “He works for MI5 and is a friend. The fact is, Sammi, when the Dark Fae showed up we began to suspect there was a connection between you and our enemy. We stopped the mercenaries who were after you, and while I followed you to keep you safe, Banan and the others took the men for questioning.”
“Where the Dark killed them before they could tell you anything,” Sammi finished. “I understand all of that, but I’m telling you, there’s no way the Mob is in with the Dark Fae and MI5.”
“There has to be a connection,” Tristan insisted. “That is you and Jane. Jane, as mate to Banan, is a link to the Dragon Kings.”
Rhi added, “And you are Jane’s only sister. It makes sense.”
It seemed like too much of a leap for Sammi, but then again, she didn’t have any knowledge of fighting evil things, and apparently Tristan and Rhi did.
Suddenly Sammi had a thought. She looked from Rhi to Tristan. “What if we’re looking at this all wrong?”
“How?” Tristan asked.
“What if it isn’t the Mob, the Dark Fae, and these mercenaries? What if it’s just one group?”
Rhi was shaking her head before she finished. “The Dark Fae are separate. They did strike a deal with the Kings’ enemy, whoever that may be.”
“So what if the Mob and the unknown enemy are one and the same?”
Tristan ran a hand down his face, his expression full of unease.
Sammi shrugged. “I’m probably wrong. I don’t know who this enemy of the Dragon Kings’ is anyway. Hell, I don’t even know what a Dragon King really is.”
“A Dragon King is as old as time,” Rhi said. “They’re immortal and powerful. They shift, as you’ve seen, and they can only be killed by another Dragon King. The rest of their history I’ll let Tristan tell you. As for the evil…” She paused and drew in a deep breath. “He wants to expose the Kings. No one knows why.”
“Has anyone seen him?” she asked.
&
nbsp; Rhi gave a slow shake of her head. “Only his voice. They say he has a cultured English accent.”
Sammi felt as if the floor came out from beneath her. Tristan wrapped an arm around her and she clung to him. “The man who killed Daniel. He had a cultured English accent.”
“You’re safe here,” Tristan vowed.
Rhi raised a brow at Tristan. “Your enemy has managed to get MI5 and the Dark to ally with him. It makes sense he would use the Mob as well. Sammi was right. We found our connection.”
Sammi wished she had kept her mouth shut. She had thought she stood a chance against the Mob. Now she knew she had no chance at all.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Somewhere in Ireland …
Taraeth stared at his missing arm and could still feel his fingers moving. Humans had always been used as entertainment. He had neither hated nor cared about them. Now, he loathed one mortal with all the viciousness in his black heart.
Denae.
She had not just been immune to his seduction, but she had dared to use a blade forged by the Light Fae that had taken his arm.
But the punches didn’t stop there. He had used a blast of magic with enough force to kill two humans, and somehow Denae had survived.
He had yet to figure out how she had managed to do what no other mortal had been able to. None of his spies had been successful in learning her new location either. Kellan, damn his dragon heart, was being cautious with his mate.
“As well he should be,” Taraeth muttered to himself.
Because when he found Denae, there was going to be nothing left of her for Kellan to mourn.
Taraeth looked up when he heard someone outside his chamber. The twenty-foot iron double doors slowly opened as Balladyn strode toward him.
Balladyn was once a high-ranking warrior in the Light Fae army. He had been good of heart and pure of soul. His exploits as the Queen’s Guard were legendary, even among the Fae.
Taraeth had wanted him on his side from the very beginning. It had taken a great amount of bribery at first, and when that hadn’t worked, Taraeth had tried another tactic. During one of the battles in the Fae Wars Taraeth had sent an entire battalion to find and wound Balladyn.
After that, Balladyn was in his clutches. It hadn’t taken nearly as long to break him as Taraeth had expected, but then again, the pure of soul rarely were, because somewhere deep down inside was a grain of evil waiting to take root.
“What have you learned?” Taraeth demanded.
Balladyn stopped before him and lowered his head in a bow. “Samantha Miller has evaded me once more.”
“Humans aren’t that adept, Balladyn,” Taraeth growled. “She had to have had help.”
“I suspect she did. There was a mist about her that was anything but normal.”
Taraeth tried to scratch his face only to realize it was with his missing hand. “The Light don’t yet know what we’re about. They couldn’t have helped her. Do the Kings have an ally in the Light?”
“They have a truce with the Light just as they did with us,” Balladyn said. “The Kings hate all Fae.”
“That might be the case, but I saw a Light while Kellan attacked with the other Dragon Kings. The Light Fae stood near Denae. She looked familiar.”
Balladyn clasped his hands behind his back, his glossy black and silver hair hanging straight down his back. “As you say, my lord.”
“I doubt the Kings would sully themselves to align with a Light, but let’s be sure anyway,” Taraeth said. “Find out who the female was who helped them. I’d like to have a word with her.”
“Is this before or after I capture Samantha Miller?”
Taraeth stared at Balladyn, wondering if that was sarcasm he’d heard or a simple question. “After. We need the human to get to Banan.”
“Samantha is related to Banan only by marriage. The Dragon King won’t put Dreagan in danger for her.”
“You know so little of humans,” Taraeth said as he stood and walked around his spacious king’s chamber with its vaulted ceiling. “Banan wants his mate happy. Samantha is Jane’s sister, so Jane will do anything for her sister. Thereby, Banan will give himself up in exchange for Samantha.”
“We couldn’t hold Kellan, and he was not yet mated. Banan will be even more difficult to hold.”
Taraeth chuckled as he walked around his lieutenant. “Banan will be even easier to hold. As long as he believes we will leave Jane alone, he’ll do whatever we want.”
“A brilliant plan.”
“It’s why I’m leading and you aren’t.” Taraeth glanced at the door. “You’re dismissed. Don’t come back until you have Samantha Miller.”
He waited until the doors closed behind Balladyn before he grasped the shoulder of his missing arm. Whispers moved through the corridors of his kingdom. He felt their eyes on him when he walked among them.
They questioned his leadership since being maimed by a human, but he would show each and every one of them why he was the only one fit to lead.
The alliance with MI5 served its purpose. It was the union with Maitland that he had yet to figure out. He and the Dark got a great deal, but Maitland wasn’t stupid. Maitland claimed to want nothing more than to expose the Dragon Kings and take them down.
Taraeth knew there was much more to it. It might take him awhile, but he would learn just what it was Maitland was keeping from him, just as he would eventually learn Maitland’s real name.
It would take patience. That he had in spades. After all, he had waited thousands of years to have Balladyn as one of his own.
* * *
The sky was clear but for a few clouds drifting lazily by. The half moon shed only meager light upon the ground, but Tristan didn’t need it to see as he scoured the area from the air.
He circled back around the cottage and made a wider arc as he thought of Sammi and her kisses. They had rocked him to his very foundation and created a craving for her he knew would never lessen.
That was why he was in dragon form patrolling. It was a coward’s way out, but he wasn’t strong enough to resist Sammi and her appeal.
He had left her after their silent meal to take a shower. The mere thought of her naked beneath the water had sent him running into the night not even bothering to shed his jeans before he shifted.
Tristan glanced at the cottage to see the last light turn off. Had she gone to bed? He groaned as he imagined her lying back with her sandy waves around her.
A black blur whizzed past, knocking into him. Tristan roared his irritation, only to hear Laith’s laugh in his head through their mental link.
“Your mind was elsewhere. Or should I say it’s on Sammi,” Laith said.
“Sod off.”
Laith laughed louder. “I’m no’ sure why you’re up here when you obviously want to be with her.”
Tristan swung around and went the other direction, hoping it would let Laith know he didn’t want to be in the conversation.
Laith wasn’t deterred however. “Tristan. Why are you no’ with her?”
“Leave it.”
“Nay. No’ when I know something is wrong.”
Tristan swung around when he saw Laith flying toward him. “How can you know anything about me? I doona even know myself!”
Laith was silent for a moment before he said, “I wondered when this would come up. For two years you settled into your role as Dragon King as if it had been yours for thousands of years.”
It was true. Tristan had done exactly that. Not even when he learned he had a twin who was an immortal Warrior did it bother him.
Then he met Sammi.
He touched her and saw flashes of his past, a past when he had been Duncan Kerr.
It was those memories that showed Tristan he had been deluding himself when he thought his life was just how it should be. He had a past he wasn’t sure he wanted to know because he didn’t know how it would affect his future.
“I’m a Dragon King,” he stated.
Laith mov
ed next to him and looked at him with vivid purple eyes. “No one disputes that. The fact you are in dragon form is enough for me.”
“Is it? Why was I made into a King? Why was I brought here now? What am I meant to do?”
“None of us have those answers, mate. I doona care why you were brought to us. Frankly, I’m just glad to have another Dragon King. We lost so verra many in the wars with both humans and Fae.”
“I need to know why I was chosen to be a King.”
Laith hit his wing against Tristan’s. “Is that what’s stopping you from going to Sammi?”
“She’s no’ just some woman, Laith. She’s Jane’s sister.”
“Aye. Sammi shouldna be trifled with, and if you were anyone else I’d be telling you to stay away.”
Tristan blew out a breath and saw flames erupt from his nostrils. “Why am I different?”
“Because of the way you look at her, jackass. Doona think we didna all see it.”
He glanced at the cottage to see the glass doors leading from the bedroom to the garden were thrown wide. Sammi reclined on one of the lounge chairs in a white robe with the edges falling open to reveal her lean legs with one slightly bent and the other stretched in front of her.
“Tell me you doona crave her, hunger for her,” Laith urged. “Tell me she isna in your thoughts every hour of every day.”
“Aye, I want her. After kissing her, I doona know how I can keep my hands from her.”
Laith circled away. “For once, Tristan, do something that you want to do. Forget about what’s expected of you. And for God’s sake, stop thinking!”
Tristan couldn’t take his eyes off Sammi. The glimpse of her legs was enough to make his blood heat. Maybe Laith was right. Maybe he did overthink things.
He certainly always tried to do what was expected of him. It seemed the natural thing to do when he’d arrived and learned just who he was.
The others had been around for hundreds of thousands of millennia. He was still trying to learn the history of the Dragon Kings.
Why he had become a King and hadn’t just died began to plague him when Phelan had told him he had a twin—Ian. Tristan hadn’t wanted to believe it. He had all but pushed it from his mind until the images began to flash in his head.