Fused in Fire (Fire and Ice Trilogy Book 3)

by K. F. Breene

  My mouth dropped open. Maybe not.

  Moss fell in behind us. “I apologize, Mr. Durant,” he said. “I know you said not to involve her, but I didn’t see any other way. Vlad had things pretty well wrapped up.”

  “Though it grieves me, you were right to bring her. I knew Vlad’s resolve, but I hoped to talk the others around. Those two elders are firmly in his pocket. They have too much power, all of them. I will need to do something about that.”

  “Who’s hungry?” I raised my hand, answering my own question, as we made our way out. Vampires crowded around the puddles of sticky goo from the two vamps I’d killed. They looked at us solemnly. Darius ignored them entirely. “Who wants to make dinner?” I pointedly looked at Darius.

  “How does Louisiana keep enough food to feed her?” Moss grumbled.

  “Jealous?” I grinned back at him, and he lowered his brows. He totally was.

  We made our way home, Darius and I hand in hand. I had wanted to stay away from vampires, and when that had proven impossible, I’d wanted to avoid getting intimate with one. When that had gone to hell, I’d forbidden myself to bond. Another strike against me. And now, here I was, utterly, irrevocably, in love with one.

  So much for doing the smart thing.

  “I love you,” I said softly.

  He stopped me (and waited for Moss to keep going) before brushing his lips across mine. “You are more precious to me than anything in my eternal life. You are my everything, and I vow to protect you always.”

  I smiled like a lovesick girl and pulled him down for a deeper kiss. He should have been all wrong for me, but he felt so right. He was my family now. My chosen mate. And if life should ever take a turn, and I could ensure we were safe, I wouldn’t be totally averse to expanding that family, if he biologically could. We were as close to normal humans as I ever hoped to get, and that was fine by me.

  He swooped me up into his arms and carried me the rest of the way.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  I knocked on the door to a pretty swank little spot in upstate New York. Roger had some dough, it seemed. The elves clearly paid well.

  Darius waited off to the side, staring out at the lovely trees dotting the landscape, starting to lose their leaves as summer waned. I would’ve snuck off and done this without him, but he owned the jet that had gotten me there.

  After putting Vlad in his place, I’d tracked down my loose-lipped were-dog friend, Red, to get Roger’s whereabouts. I needed to call off Roger’s efforts to amass an army. I figured he’d need to hear it directly from me. Since Darius owned his own jet, hasty travel plans weren’t a big deal. Money was great. It really smoothed out all life’s annoying problems. Well, except for the whole “being Lucifer’s daughter” thing.

  I had raised my hand to knock again when I heard footsteps behind the door. The handle jiggled before the door swung open, revealing a tight-bodied Roger, wearing jeans that hugged his muscular thighs and a white T-shirt that outlined his broad chest. The guy could really work the laid-back look.

  Surprise didn’t register on his face when he saw me, but his expression did harden when he caught sight of Darius.

  “I had to bring him. He insisted.” I shrugged. “Can we come in? Or just me, depending on your vampire-tolerance level.”

  “Red told me you were coming,” Roger said, stepping back.

  I hooked a thumb behind me. “Is he a yay or nay? We’re not here for any trouble.”

  Roger jerked his head and turned to lead us inside. Darius was behind me a moment later, closing the door after him.

  For a man with a casual dress code, Roger really did up his house. Plush furniture and matching decor set off a rustic look that really worked with the surroundings. Time, effort, and money had been poured into the situation, and it had turned out well.

  I pointed at a grand piano as we entered a sitting room. “This is going to sound like a dumb question, but do you play?”

  “I play some. I prefer the guitar. I have a setup for a band, and the piano rounds it out when someone competent sits at it.” His gaze flicked to Darius. He was correctly assuming Darius was someone competent.

  Roger put out his hand to indicate we should sit on the leather sofa. “Do you want something to drink?”

  “No, I’m good, thanks.”

  Roger looked at Darius. “Vampire?”

  “No, thank you for asking.”

  Roger lowered into the love seat, and while he leaned back and crossed an ankle over a knee, only an idiot would assume that meant he was relaxed. I didn’t know if alphas like him ever relaxed. “What can I do for you?”

  “Information share. We’ve been busy.”

  “We?” Roger glanced at Darius.

  I toggled my thumb back and forth between Darius and I. “We, yeah. I’ll start from the beginning, shall I?”

  I didn’t, at all, start from the beginning. Or tell the whole truth. I told him about calling the demon, about Vlad’s efforts to spread news of the coming demon attack, then made up a rambling story about forcing the demons to do our bidding. He couldn’t know we’d gone to the Dark Kingdom ourselves—it would give me away, and besides, he didn’t need to know. He just needed an assurance the threat was canceled.

  At the end of my tall tale, he stared at me quietly with that hard alpha gaze. My magic pounded in my middle, but I kept it at bay. While the new me still did not react well to challenging stares, I could keep from punching people in the face. Mostly. I’d matured a little.

  “He helped you with all this?” Roger nodded toward Darius.

  “Yes. You probably know, but just like shifters, vampires want to be the king of the hill. Only they go about it differently. By helping me, Darius gained some choice information.”

  It was true, and also something Roger would understand. There was no way I’d run around saying Darius and I were bonded and in love. I’d have a shifter follower immediately thereafter. They would never trust me again.

  “If you’re lying…” Roger let the sentence linger, and I couldn’t tell if it was a threat, or if he was legitimately asking for me to assure him I wasn’t.

  I chose the latter. “Look, here’s the situation. I created this mess by failing to snuff that demon in Seattle. I’m the one they would be after if they came to the surface. If I’m lying, it’s my ass that’ll be in a sling. I didn’t need to tell you any of this at all. I could’ve just let you wait forever. But you were upfront with me, so now I’m being upfront with you. We’re good. I’m safe. Now I’m going to lie low, keep to myself, and let the world turn.”

  He surveyed me again before nodding. “Okay. Thank you for letting me know.” He paused. “I’ll forget about the incident in NOLA where you chased a few of mine.”

  I paused in getting up and grimaced. “Ah. Yes. About that. I was going through something.”

  “Clearly.”

  “But they are pretty fast—” I paused, because now I was even faster. I could totally get that were-badger. Probably some of the wolves as well. “Anyway.” I let it go. It wasn’t a great idea.

  Darius and I stood. Roger did so a moment later, playing a gracious host, even to a vampire. Tough but housebroken. The man had many layers.

  “No more bounty hunting?” Roger asked as we walked to the door.

  “No. No more.” I paused on the front porch. “I’m honestly going to lie low. I want people to forget my name.”

  Roger huffed out a laugh, something that didn’t seem natural for him. “What will you do with your time?”

  I sighed. I had no idea.

  Epilogue

  I wrung my hands as I waited on the wide porch of Callie and Dizzy’s house. It was the night of the big meetup, nearly two weeks since our return from the underworld. A terror-filled, cowardly couple of weeks.

  “You need to ring the doorbell, love,” Darius said softly. I could hear the humor in his voice. He thought this was hilarious.

  “I know, I know. Don’t rush me.”
I had braced my hands on my hips and taken a step toward the doorbell when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

  I fished it out and read Callie’s text. You had better get here soon, or I will come and get you myself.

  This was a pre-agreed time and date. I had made myself do it so I wouldn’t weasel out and put it off any longer.

  I really wanted to weasel out and put it off.

  The front door swung open and I jumped back, startled. Dizzy jumped forward with an “Ah!” and groped at an invisible satchel.

  His eyes focused on me and he sighed. “Oh, Reagan, it’s just you.” He chuckled and put his hand on his chest, half covering a burned area. “You scared me. I wasn’t expecting you out here.”

  “I was just about to ring the doorbell.” I showed him my pointer finger as though he had asked for proof.

  “You don’t have to ring the bell, you know that. Just come on in.” He gave me a huge smile and stepped out onto the porch to wrap me in a bear hug. “Thank God you’re okay. We were worried sick! Callie was ranting and trying to figure out how to go in after you. We couldn’t, of course. Did the demon find you? Well, wait. Let’s get in the house so you only have to tell the story once.” He stepped back and jutted out a hand to Darius. “You went with her. You knew she’d go. Boy, am I glad you were the vampire she was hooked up with all those months ago. She got really lucky there.”

  Darius shook Dizzy’s hand and nodded, before stepping back and moving to put his hand on the small of my back. He stopped himself and pushed his hands into his pockets instead.

  If Dizzy noticed the slip, he didn’t let on.

  “Come in, come in.” He motioned us in and stood by the door until we complied.

  “Were you going outside for something?” I asked Dizzy. His car was in the garage.

  “Oh.” He paused in closing the door and stared vaguely. His brow furrowed. Then he shrugged. “It’ll come to me eventually. My memory isn’t what it used to be. Come in!”

  With a smile, he led us through the large, spacious house and into the kitchen. That was where we conducted business as well as casual conversations. Or, in this situation, groveling and possible violence.

  Callie stood at the island with her hands on her hips, glaring down at her cell phone. She glanced up with an angry scowl when Dizzy entered. “She’s going to chicken out. Didn’t I tell you? She will. I’m going to go hunt her down.”

  “Hon.”

  Callie finally clued in. Her eyes went from angry to blazing. In contrast, her face lost all expression.

  A shiver of fear worked through me. And I’d thought the underworld was terrifying.

  “Reagan,” Callie said in an even tone.

  “Hi. Look—”

  “No, no.” She held up a hand to stop me. “Let’s get settled first.”

  “I’m on it.” Dizzy brought out the whiskey, and a cognac for Darius. He poured large portions and passed them around the island. Darius and I took a seat. Callie remained standing. And staring. With that horribly flat expression and the raging eyes.

  “Now, then. Where were we?” Dizzy said as he sat at the end of the island. Always the good cop, making everyone feel happy and welcome before the battle-axe came down.

  “It was the only way,” I blurted. “I told you that.”

  “You told me something, yes,” Callie said, ignoring her whiskey. “Then did something completely the opposite. I got a letter from a vampire telling me where you’d gone. A stuck-up, stubborn vampire at that. One who wouldn’t fill us in on any other information. Who practically ran out of here when I went for my satchel.”

  “You were planning to torture the information out of him, hon.” Dizzy sipped his drink. “You can’t really blame him for taking off.”

  “Oh, I can blame him for a lot of things.” She braced her hands on the island and leaned toward me. “Then you ran off into a world you were unprepared for without so much as a hasty plan.”

  “I did have a hasty plan. Of sorts.” I grimaced when sparks went off in her peepers. It wasn’t a good sign.

  “There is no way any of that should have worked. It was a fool’s errand, Reagan.” She took a deep breath and her eyes misted. “I thought I’d lose you, after only just meeting you again.”

  “I know,” I said softly. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. I knew you wouldn’t want me to go. That you wouldn’t understand. But they were planning to come for me, and it would’ve been a slaughter if an army of them had come for me. Those demons were incredibly powerful. I would’ve been taken, and a lot of innocent people would’ve died.”

  She took another breath, this one decidedly more ragged. “I know why you did it. And I knew you would, if I’m honest with myself. You’re just like your mother in that way. Purely bullheaded.” Her gaze shifted to Darius, and the anger rekindled. “You took the vampire in with you.”

  “He said he’d help me,” I said meekly.

  “You know what I mean.”

  Yes, I did. She knew about the bond.

  “It was the only way,” I rushed to say. “He had to share my power to get in, and I needed him. I knew I couldn’t do it alone, and he was my best, and only, bet.”

  “Reagan, you are bonded to an elder. For life.” She sagged and pulled over a stool. “I don’t have the energy for all this.”

  “Okay, but in my defense, he does actually love me. And he has put his life on the line for me more than once. He’s genuine. I know that’s hard to believe, and it’s not how this usually works. I also know he’ll try to keep things from me, because that’s his MO, but he is a good guy. Despite the fact that he is not actually a guy.”

  “Vampires can’t love,” Callie said accusingly.

  “Not usually, no,” Darius said in his eloquent voice. “And I do not know why it is possible now. Many things might be possible now. But it has happened. I do love Reagan, and one day, I will make her my wife.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I held up my hand. “No one said anything about marriage. That’s a hard no. Hard no.”

  “Oh, lovely! I love weddings.” Dizzy beamed. He was going out of his way to be the nice guy. Callie must’ve been a terror these last weeks.

  Callie ran her hand over her face. “I am now glad I never had children. You want the best for them, and then they go and make the worst possible decisions regarding their lives.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said simply. A drip made me jerk and look up. It took a moment to realize it had been from the faucet in the sink. The drips from the edges of the underworld might just haunt me forever.

  Callie wiggled her nose and looked away, not reacting to my strange antics. She blinked rapidly. With tight lips and a clenched jaw, she nodded, and I could tell she was trying her damnedest not to break down in front of everyone.

  So maybe that was why Dizzy had been trying to stay so upbeat. Callie clearly didn’t like crying in front of people.

  “I’m also eternally grateful you sent that demon to help us.” I took a gulp of whiskey. “We got lucky on the way to Agnon’s sect and found a demon that was all about my old pouch. But the way back would’ve been a shit show if not for that demon you forced into helping us.”

  “That was a stroke of genius, that was.” Dizzy pointed at Callie. “All her, too. She came up with that on her own. I told you. My wife is not to be messed with when she is up against tough odds.”

  “Bah.” Callie waved away the compliment. “That was logic, is all. Good. I’m glad I at least helped. I had to do something, after all.”

  “So…do you want to hear about it, or…” I let my voice trail away.

  “Of course we want to hear about it!” Callie made a gesture indicating I was insane.

  “Start from the beginning and tell us everything,” Dizzy said. “I’ve been able to think of nothing else. Well, ever since we found out you’d come back in one piece.” He leaned forward in anticipation.

  “First, did you know that dragons are real?” I grinned.

/>   Their eyes rounded and smiles slid up their faces like children on Christmas morning.

  I talked through the night, describing all the beautiful places and ugly creatures we had seen. The goats bewildered them as much as they did me, and they wanted more information about the dragons and the strange boatmen on the river. When I was done, silence filled the kitchen.

  “Wow,” Dizzy said, leaning back and scratching a place on his stomach that looked like it had a coffee stain. “That must’ve been some adventure.”

  “And you killed everyone who knew about you?” Callie asked.

  “Except that demon you branded. They were being tight-lipped about it.”

  Callie nodded, and given Darius’s thoughts on the subject, and Vlad’s only telling two elders under his thumb, that made sense.

  “So you’re clear,” Callie said.

  “I’m clear.” I sighed through my relieved smile.

  “Except for him.” Callie pointed at Darius.

  I laughed. “Right. Clear except for having bonded an arrogant yet romantic vampire.”

  “So now what?” Dizzy asked.

  I shrugged and leaned against the counter. “I disappear for a while. Darius has to ‘manage his estate,’ which means he’ll be checking on properties or toying with nations or something, so I might travel with him for a while and see the sights. I want to lie low and let all this die down. I want people to forget my name.”

  “That’s probably wise. You’ve been too much in the limelight. You need to settle down.” Callie lightly tapped her fingers on her glass. “Things will go back to being boring.”

  Dizzy reached over and patted her arm. “I’m sure something will come up, hon. Oh. You didn’t give him the scroll.”

  Callie glowered at Darius. “I’m not sure he deserves it.”

  Dizzy patted her hand again.

  Callie rose and left the room. When she came back, she had a scroll in her hand, like the map we’d taken into the underworld. She put it on the counter in front of Darius. “The demon came back with more information on Vlad’s activities in the underworld. Most of it is probably hearsay, but maybe you can get something from it.”