Prince of Fire

by Tawny Taylor

  He would not touch her again.

  He would not kiss her again.

  He would not permit himself any pleasure whatever.

  What he would do was prepare her for what had to occur.

  If the gods would permit him. And if—somehow—he was able to find the strength to deny his body what it demanded.

  Outside they ran, to the elevator. They rushed through the lobby and out into a bright, warm morning. Birds chirped. A soft breeze carried the scents of freshly mown grass and car exhaust to his nose. He glanced, nervous, unsure if they’d get away this time.

  The burning at his nape was stronger than ever. The killer was close, watching them, likely. He turned to Keri, offered his hand. She smiled through her tears, placed her hand in his and followed his lead as he ran.

  Chapter Nine

  Keri couldn’t believe she’d actually said those words aloud, I’m falling in love with you. Until she’d spoken them, she hadn’t believed them. After all, she didn’t fall in love. At least, she hadn’t before.

  This man…he was so different, so strong and commanding and special. Somehow he’d snuck right past her defenses and captured her heart without her even realizing it. Until it was too late.

  Now, all she could think about was finding a way to escape his curse. Any doubt she’d had about him had evaporated, and she was now fully convinced he was indeed destined to die. For her.

  She simply couldn’t let that happen.

  She needed to get some information. A computer. The internet. That was where she always turned when she had a question or needed facts.

  Her friend was out of town for a few more days.

  She had a computer.

  She lived close by.

  And although Keri didn’t have a key, she knew how to get into the house without one.

  “This way!” She stopped, turned and headed back in the direction from which they’d come. “It’s only a mile or so.”

  “What is?” Talen shifted the paper bag he held in his arms.

  “A friend’s house. We can stay there. She won’t mind.” Slightly breathless from the run-walk pace she was keeping, she tightened her hold on Talen’s hand. “How’s your neck?”

  “Burning like hell and getting worse.”

  “Shit.” Thinking quickly, she took a turn down a side street, a meandering, narrow road that curved through a subdivision full of middle-class brick colonials. “Better?”

  A short distance away, the screech of tires echoed, and a chill shot up her spine. She stopped beside a towering oak to catch her breath and think.

  Talen nodded. “Better, yes. A little.”

  “Do you think those squealing tires belonged to our killer?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “But he’s not following us?”

  He fingered his neck. “No. Not right now. But he isn’t gone either. He’s looking for us, circling around the hotel maybe.”

  Those words were enough to kick her fanny into high gear. She took a look around, glanced longingly at the car sitting in a driveway. “A car would sure come in handy right now.”

  “I can get us one.”

  “You can? How? And why didn’t you say something sooner?”

  He shrugged, slowing to a stroll as they neared a silver Isuzu. “Because you never mentioned it.” He handed her the grocery bag.

  “So, how’s this work? Do you make a wish or something, and it magically appears?”

  He laughed. “You’re funny.” He squatted next to the car.

  She mirrored him. “Then what…hey, what are you doing?”

  “Getting us a car. It’s unlocked. And I saw someone do this in a movie once…”

  “Oh no! I didn’t expect you to steal one.”

  He opened the door and slipped into the driver’s seat. “You were joking about the magic, right?”

  “No I wasn’t! Get out of there!”

  “But you said you wanted a car.”

  “Not that bad.”

  “Very well then.” He exited the vehicle and quietly shut the door, and she shoved the bag into his arms before making tracks for the end of the street. She hoped and prayed no one saw that stunt. Ohmygod, she’d almost become an accessory to grand theft auto or whatever it was called.

  A few minutes later, and a couple blocks away from the house with the almost-stolen car, she allowed herself to slow down. Only a smidge, from a jog to a race-walk. Breathless, and feeling like her lungs were on fire, she asked, “How’s your neck now?”

  “Not too bad,” he responded, not sounding at all winded.

  “Still stinging?”

  “Slightly. He’s not giving up easily.”

  “Then he wants me dead badly.” Too tired to go on, she hurried around the back of a large delivery van, bent over at the waist and dragged in a few much-needed deep breaths. She tipped her head to look up at Talen. “I still don’t understand why anyone would want to kill me. I haven’t done anything to anyone. Well, except for that one time when I called someone a name on an online forum. She—if it truly was a she, I have my doubts—was a freak and an ass. She gave my email address to a bunch of spammers, stole my identity and posted a bunch of stuff on some forums. More or less made me look like a psycho. Do you think she, he, whoever, made good on her threat to come looking for me?”

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  She straightened up. “I have an idea. What if we figured out who it is? We could stop her—without your having to die…”

  “I’ve never been able to change a victim’s fate.”

  “Have you tried before?”

  “Only once, before I met you.”

  “It didn’t work.”

  “No.”

  After a long stretch of silence, she asked, “Did this person mean something to you? The one you tried to fight the curse for?”

  “They all did.”

  That was so hard for her to understand. Strangers, hundreds or thousands of them, they all meant something to him?

  She wasn’t exactly the world’s biggest bitch, but she wasn’t out to make friends with every stranger she passed. She was somewhere in between, or so she liked to think. She would never feel the way Talen did about strangers. People she would never see again.

  On the other hand, these were people he knew were about to die. She knew some doctors and nurses became emotional about trauma victims they’ve worked on in the hospital. Police and firefighters too. It could be the same kind of thing.

  Okay, she supposed it was somewhat understandable.

  She started walking again, taking a cue from Talen. He was rubbing his neck. “Then she was special like all the rest of us?”

  “What makes you think it was a woman?”

  “Just a guess.”

  After a few seconds, he said, “You are more special than the rest, even her.”

  Her heart lurched and she found herself wanting to lighten things up. “That’s just because we had sex.”

  “I had sex with her too.”

  And how many others? Her insides twisted, and she realized she was jealous. That was a total shock.

  “Nobody else,” he said as if he’d read her mind. He caught her hand in his empty one, threaded his fingers through hers.

  That meant he’d had sex with two people. In how many years?

  “She was a marchioness, a member of Henry VIII’s court and a lady in waiting to Her Majesty Queen Anne.”

  “Anne? The Anne Boleyn? That was…what? The fifteen hundreds. That’s a long time to wait for sex.”

  “Yes, it is. After she died, I vowed to never again become acquainted with another victim. I wished to spare them the horror of watching me die for them.”

  “But not me?”

  “That’s why I begged your forgiveness. I found myself…” he dropped the bag, crushed her against a tree and thrust his arms forward, trapping her between them, “…bewitched.”

  She met his gaze, saw the fire in his eyes and wishe
d she could stir it up a little more. But not now. Not with a killer chasing them. “I’m no witch.”

  “So you say.” He bent his elbows and angled lower, until his face was right there, in front of hers and their mouths were almost touching. “I say you are and you’ve ensnared me with your charms.” He brushed his mouth over hers. “I don’t wish to be freed, Keri. Ever.”

  “And I don’t wish to free you,” she admitted, shocking herself. She stared at him for a moment, her gaze taking in every detail of his features, wishing she could burn them into her memory. Wishing she wouldn’t have to face a future without seeing that face.

  Oh God, she was the one who was ensnared, bewitched, bedeviled, whatever!

  She wasn’t acting like herself, or thinking like herself, or even feeling like herself. It was as if this man had somehow drawn someone else out of her. A someone who wasn’t afraid to feel certain things, to take chances and face her insecurities.

  She wasn’t sure if she liked what was happening. “Um, we better get moving before that killer finds us again.” She shoved at his chest. “It isn’t much farther.”

  As he bent to retrieve the bag, he flinched, his face suddenly a mask of pain. She spun around, catching sight of a car taking the corner so fast its tires shrieked.

  She jerked back around, shouting, “The killer?”

  He nodded.

  Instinct kicked in. She grabbed Talen’s hand and sprinted toward a house.

  Safety. Hide.

  She heard the car’s engine behind them. Too close. What if he had a gun? A moving target was harder to hit. Keep running. She raced around the side of a red brick ranch, legs burning, lungs on fire. Dead end. Locked gate. Dammit!

  Terrified, she glanced over her shoulder. The car was parked on the street.

  She grabbed the wooden gate and shook it. Fumbled with the latch. “Talen!”

  He reached over the top and unhooked it from the back, the gate swung open just as the pounding sound of footfalls rounded the corner behind them.

  Too close! She ran harder, pushing her legs to go as fast as they could. She felt lightheaded, like she was about to pass out. Her legs hurt so badly, yet she couldn’t slow down. Across a grassy backyard, she dashed. Around a wooden play structure with bright colored swings and slides. At the rear, she saw another gate. Talen was behind her. She heard him following as she literally slammed into the gate at the rear of the yard. She flipped the latch and shoved the gate open.

  A park. Wide open field. Not good. She raced toward a small copse of trees along one side, hoping their pursuer might lose her in there.

  But before she reached it, her exhausted muscles gave way. Her knees turned to jelly, and down she went. She hit the ground hard, scrambled back to her feet and tried to start running again, but someone caught her from behind, yanking her backward. Down she went. On her back.

  It was him—the man from her apartment.

  “No, please,” she begged, too focused on him to try to find Talen. Where’d he go? “Why?”

  The man didn’t speak, just thrust a hand into a worn denim jacket. Before he withdrew it, he was suddenly thrown off her by one red-faced Talen. While she rolled over and jumped to her feet, the two men fought furiously. Talen got in a good punch but the killer returned in kind. And before she had exhaled, both men were bloody and battered.

  Finally, Talen threw a punch that had to have broken a few bones. The killer crumpled to the ground, and she snatched up the grocery bag and was on the run again, with Talen at her side. They raced through the park then took a roundabout route through the subdivision, keeping out of sight as much as possible.

  She glanced at the sky as she jogged. It couldn’t be past ten o’clock, and so much had happened already today. What would the rest of the day hold?

  She hoped anyone’s death wouldn’t be a part of today’s festivities. Silent, lost in her thoughts, she led Talen to her friend’s house. As expected, the front door was locked. Same with the garage and French doors in the back of the house.

  But, as usual, the bedroom window’s lock was disengaged and the window didn’t fully close. They were inside, safe and sound, within minutes.

  At last, Keri could breathe easier.

  When Talen excused himself to use the bathroom to clean up, Keri started pulling things out of the grocery bag he’d been carrying.

  She found a long, narrow velvet-covered jewelry box at the very bottom, hidden beneath a plastic carton of fruit. Inside, she found a beautiful choker. Two rows of sparkling red stones comprised the wide band. From the center hung an amulet of some kind, fashioned out of silver metal and studded with more red stones.

  Breathtaking, even if the stones were glass. They sure were gorgeous, for fakes.

  At the sound of Talen’s approaching footsteps, she laid the choker in the box, but she didn’t have it closed before he entered the room.

  She knew because he said, “Oh.”

  “I found it in the bottom of the bag,” she explained, feeling as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. The box’s hinged top snapped when she closed the lid. Awkwardly, she handed the box to him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have opened it.”

  “It’s okay.” He waved a hand, indicating she should keep it. “It’s for you. I was hoping to pick the right time to give it to you, but, well, I guess this is it. Eh?”

  “You bought me a present? That’s very sweet.” She ran a fingertip over the top of the box then opened it again, this time noticing the name printed in gold letters on the box’s satin-lined top. Exquisite Jewelers. Specializing in custom-designed fine jewelry since 1961.

  Something hard wedged itself in her throat.

  She’d heard of that place. It was a little shop tucked between Kroger grocery store and a Coney Island restaurant, and they sold uber-expensive stuff. Platinum and diamonds, natural rubies and emeralds. She’d wandered in there once. Didn’t stay long.

  Nobody had ever bought her such a nice gift. She didn’t want to guess how much something like this must have cost.

  One thing was for certain—nothing came free. Everything she’d ever possessed had cost her in some way, even if she hadn’t paid money for it. Gosh, what sort of strings would be attached to a present that had to have cost as much as her car? Freaking steel chains? Then again, what sort of strings could a man who was about to die require?

  “Talen, I don’t know what to say.” Why would he do such a thing? He’d purchased it before he’d known about her gift to him—which now looked like a kid had made it in kindergarten, compared to his.

  “Thank you would be fine.” Looking a little stiff, he grabbed a foam carryout box and flipped the top.

  “Sure, yes. I mean, thank you. But, Talen, it’s so expensive.”

  His gaze snapped to hers. Intense. Dark. “Do you like it, Keri?”

  It was a question, and yet she heard something else in his voice. Fear? Doubt? What was he feeling?

  “It’s absolutely beautiful.”

  “But you can’t accept it.” This time, it wasn’t a question.

  “Nobody gives presents to people they hardly know. Not for no reason.”

  “I die for strangers, Keri.”

  Good point.

  “And I do not—would not, even if I could—ask for anything in return.”

  She was so not used to such thinking. People in her world never did anything for anyone, not without some kind of expectation. That included herself. Which made her realize that her gift had been more or less her way of paying Talen for what he would do later. It was such a piddly price to pay, actually a slap in the face when she thought about it.

  A drawing that had taken her less than an hour, in exchange for his acceptance of the suffering and death that had been meant for her.

  She closed the lid, realizing she would not be able to wear that choker after he was dead, not without feeling like she’d had her insides squeezed in a vise. “You’ve already given me enough.” She tri
ed to hand it back to him, but he refused to accept it. So instead, she set it on the counter, between the foam box loaded with some kind of omelet and another one cram-packed with buttered toast.

  Silently, her thoughts whirring through her head like a swarm of insects, she filled a plate with food and warmed it in the microwave. Talen was sitting at the table, his hands resting on either side of his plate and a distant look on his face. He was staring at something. She glanced over her shoulder but saw nothing.

  Her plate clacked on the table’s glass top—ceramic striking glass. Another loud clatter echoed through the room when she set down her silverware. Talen bound to his feet when she dragged her chair out to sit and quickly grabbed at the chair’s back to push it in as she lowered into the seat.

  “Thanks,” she murmured.

  He responded with a strained smile that told her something was wrong. That sense grew increasingly pronounced as they ate. He said nothing. Not a single word. She found herself tempted to chatter about nothing and everything, just to fill the uncomfortable silence.

  If she hadn’t been absolutely starving, she would have had a terrible time eating. Now that she’d stuffed herself full of eggs, fruit and toast, however, she was feeling like she’d swallowed a lump of concrete. Her chest burned too. It was a terrible feeling, one she couldn’t endure for another minute.

  After putting her dirty dishes in the dishwasher, she turned to Talen, who was dropping the empty carryout cartons in the trash. “Talen?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Are you upset with me?”

  “No.”

  “You’ve grown so quiet.”

  “I guess I ran out of things to say.”

  That was such a guy thing.

  “No, it’s more than that. I can tell.” When he didn’t respond, she added, “Is it because I didn’t want to accept the gift you bought?”

  He shrugged, and she realized, shockingly, that the shadows she’d seen in his eyes weren’t from doubt or fear, but hurt.

  “I can’t accept that choker from you because it’s too expensive, Talen, not because it came from you. That was the most generous, kindest thing anyone has ever done for me, but you’re already giving me a precious gift and…” Whatever words she’d wanted to say slipped from her mind, and she was left floundering, lost for words, her face warming.