Kindling Flames: Burning Nights (The Ancient Fire Series Book 6) (21 page)

“The bottle of wine?” Makani asked.

“Of fairy mead,” Darien corrected. “I need it.”

Makani gave him an odd look. “I think he threw it out.”

Anger tightened Darien’s jaw. “Did he pour it out, break it, or just throw it out.”

“He just threw it out, I think,” Makani answered.

“Then could someone please go find it.”

“I’ll go!” Dexter said and scurried off.

“What do you need wine for?” Polunu asked.

Darien turned to look at the man. “She’s going to need a great deal of blood to recover from this. Will you offer up yours or Nalani’s for this?”

Polunu glared at Darien and wrapped his arm protectively around Nalani. “No.”

“I wouldn’t risk Victoria either,” Darien said to ease the tension between them. He looked back at Kimberly curled on the mat. “And Kusanagi was right. I haven’t fed since before I arrived on the islands, so my blood isn’t going to be enough to revive her properly.”

“Why revive her?” Polunu said with disgust. “She’s only Kusanagi’s plaything. Besides, she’s probably going to die anyway. She’s not strong enough to survive on her own.”

Rage made Darien clench his fists. He stood up and spun to face Polunu. “She’s a living, feeling human being.” He growled at the younger man. “And it doesn’t matter what she was, no one deserves to live or die like this.” He threw his hand back, pointing to the wretched girl on the sleeping mat.

Polunu’s spine straightened and he glared at Darien. “She tried to kill your lover.” He pointed out.

Darien’s eyes narrowed. “And she will answer for that once she is
able
to speak for herself.”

“You’re weak,” Polunu said harshly.

“Are you challenging me?” Darien said taking a single step towards the other vampire.

“He’s not,” Makani said, stepping between them and glaring at Polunu until the other man backed down.

Darien let the tension drop from his posture and straightened up into a less menacing stance. “Life is a precious gift that you should never take for granted,” he explained. “And taking the time to verify your facts is never weak.”

An ashamed look crossed Polunu’s face as he thought about Darien’s words, he drew in a breath to respond, but didn’t get the chance.

“I found it!” Dexter said, rushing into the room and disrupting the conversation. He stopped and stared at the tense scene he’d broken into.

Closing his mouth without speaking, Polunu wrapped his arm around Nalani and pulled her out of the room with him.

Darien shook his head and turned to Dexter. “Thank you,” he said, walking over to take the bottle from him. The cork was still in place. “Did you happen to bring a bottle opener?”

Dexter’s mouth worked like a fish out of water. “I… I… I’m sorry my lord.”

“It’s all right,” he said, turning away from the flustered man. “I’ll figure it out.” On a low table next to the wall was a rack with a set of swords on it. Picking up the smallest, Darien drew out th
e
tantōand examined it. The edge was wickedly s
h
arp. Using the blade, he scored a circle around the neck of the bottle while he walked back into the closet. Looking around, he found a set of beautifully molded clay teacups. Picking one up, he tucked it under his arm before coming back out. Setting the cup down next to Kimberly, he scraped the sword around the neck of the bottle, deepening the groove. Turning away from the injured woman, Darien swung the short knife at the bottle top, hitting it with the blunt backside. The top popped off along the line Darien had scored.

Ignoring the astonished look of his audience, Darien raised the broken bottle to his lips and carefully took a sip, testing that the mead was still good. The power of the fairy magic tingled along his senses as he drank. Happy with the quality of the drink, Darien knelt down next to Kimberly and poured a generous helping of the liquid into the glass. Carefully setting the bottle out of the way, he lifted the woman into his arms and picked up the cup.

“You aren’t going to give her that, are you?” Dexter asked, shocked.

Darien glanced up at him. “Yes,” he said matter-of-factly before turning back to the woman and raising the cup to her lips. “Drink,” he coaxed.

“It’s all right,” Vicky said to the concerned vampire. “We got the mead from the queen of the fairies. It won’t hurt vampires.”

Dexter looked between Vicky and Darien, pouring the drink into the limp woman, unsure how to respond.

After emptying the cup, Darien laid Kimberly back on the mat. Placing the cup next to the bottle, he stood up and turned to Makani. “She needs rest, but she should make a full recovery.”

Makani stared at him with shock. “And the poison?” He looked down at the woman, her color was still very pale, but she was already starting to look better.

“I’ve neutralized it,” Darien said.

“You can do that?” Makani asked, astonished.

“Yes,” Darien said and held out his hand. “If you’ll let me, I’ll show you.”

Slowly, Makani stepped closer to Darien and let him lay his hand on his shoulder. The soft feel of feathers brushed over him and drove the ache from his bones. “Amazing,” Makani said as he held up his hands and bent his fingers, free of the pain that had been haunting him.

“And I can do this for all of those affected by Kusanagi’s poison,” Darien assured him as he pulled his powers back.

Makani eyed him warily. “At what cost?”

Darien shook his head. “At no cost,” he assured the cautious man. “The master of a Council may be the person in control of an area, but he is also responsible for the health and wellbeing of those under him. Something tells me that Kusanagi didn’t understand that.” Darien’s eyes scanned over the rest of the people in the room. “I understand you’re going to need some time to adjust to this. So take the next few days to go home, tell your people, and bring any that want to be cured back here. As for me, I’m going to take Victoria back to my hotel and try to enjoy some of my vacation while I can.” Pausing, he turned to face Shuri.

“Shuri,” he called to her. “I need you to watch Kimberly until she’s well. Keep giving her the mead until it’s gone. And if anything should arise, I’ll leave my number. Call me and I will come.”

Shuri glared at him. “Yes, Master,” she said with a clenched jaw before stiffly coming over and sitting next to Kimberly.

Leaning over, Darien placed his hand on Shuri’s shoulder to steady himself. “I’ll deal with you later,” he promised.

Her eyes flashed with anger, but she didn’t say anything.

Straightening, Darien turned to the rest of the group. “Come on,” he said, leading the way out of the room. “I’ll take care of the rest of you before you leave.”

“You’re going to let us go?” Gabriel asked.

Darien looked at him with surprise. “I assume you all have kisses outside the Council?”

“Yes.” Gabriel answered. “But—”

“But nothing.” Darien cut him off. “It’s not good for a master to be away from his menagerie, and I have a feeling that you’ve all been away from your people too long.” Walking across the room, he made his way out of the bedroom to give Kimberly some peace to recover. Drawing in a deep breath, he centered himself and got ready to heal the few people who were there. Hopefully none of them would be any worse than Makani was. Anything more complicated was going to have to wait until after Darien had rested and fed. The whole trip was starting to test his limits, and Lady Aine’s mead had been very helpful, but it didn’t have exactly the same effect as fresh blood. It gave him a fantastic boost in his power, but it didn’t last nearly as long as a proper diet would have. And with everything that had happened in the last three days, he was more than ready to take Vicky back to the hotel, get out of his bloody clothing, and head out to see if he could find someone he could convince to donate a few pints before he crawled into bed for a couple of hours rest.

***

As she slid into the passenger’s seat of the black sedan, Vicky watched Darien get behind the wheel. He looked horrible. Usually, he had a nice warm tone to his skin that made him look like a human that never went out into the sun. But tonight, he looked like the vampire he was. His skin was pale and he looked more haggard than she had ever seen him.

She watched as he settled into the driver’s seat and eased the car into motion. “What happened tonight?” she asked.

Darien let out a heavy breath, but didn’t take his eyes off the road. “I took over the Hawaiian Council,” he said. The tone in his voice made Vicky believe that he regretted doing it.

“I already figured that part out,” she said, trying to understand things. “What I want to know is why?”

“Because I had to,” Darien said softly.

Vicky sat quietly, staring at him and waiting for him to explain.

After a few minutes, he drew in a deep breath and let it rush out. “Because they gave me no choice,” he said in exasperated tone. “Kusanagi had it in his head that we’d come to take over the Council.”

“But we didn’t,” Vicky said defensively.

“I know this.” Darien soothed her. “And I tried to tell him that, but he wouldn’t believe me.”

Vicky considered this as Darien paused to gather his thoughts.

“He was so sure that I’d come to kill him that he tried to have us both murdered.”

“
Both
?” Vicky asked shocked.

Darien nodded. “When your poisoning failed, he decided to take another route and tried to have Shuri kill me before I could contact the Great Council,” he explained. “So she kidnapped you and tried taking your place. She was pretty convincing at first, but she left out a major detail that blew her disguise.”

Vicky dropped her hand down over her stomach. “The babies?”

“The babies,” he agreed. “When I called her on it, she refused to tell me where you were until I destroyed Kusanagi.”

This confused her. “Why? Didn’t she work for him?”

“She did,” Darien agreed. “But it wasn’t by choice.” He glanced over at Vicky as he explained. “Kusanagi had taken something from her and was forcing her to help him.”

Whatever Kusanagi had taken must have been very important to Shuri. “So you agreed to help her?”

There was a long pause before Darien answered. “If I had done nothing, Kusanagi would have discovered Shuri’s betrayal and come after both of us. And I couldn’t just leave. Shuri wouldn’t tell me where she had hidden you.”

“So you challenged Kusanagi,” she said, working through the logic to see that he really didn’t have a choice in his actions.

“I really didn’t want to kill him, but I couldn’t find a way around it,” Darien said unhappily. Realization flashed across his face, and he cursed as he slammed on the brake. “I forgot about the body!” he said in a horrified tone.

Vicky reached out and placed her hand on his arm. “Is he going to come back?” she said calmly.

Darien looked down at where she comforted him before meeting her eyes. “No. I left him in a very sorry state.”

Horrible thoughts raced through her mind, but she pushed them away. She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by a sorry state, but she was sure she didn’t want to think about it. “Then let the Council people deal with him,” she said. “I’m sure they can take care of one body.”

A thoughtful look crossed Darien’s face. “You’re probably right,” he agreed. “The mats will have soaked up most of the mess, so it should be easy just to roll them up and burn them.”

Vicky raised a curious eyebrow at him. “Do I want to know?”

Darien grimaced at her, thinking of what he had done. “Not really.”

“Then leave it to the Council,” she said again. “You need to rest more than you need to worry about micromanaging the situation.”

Chuckling, Darien lifted his foot off the brake and put the car back into motion. “I’ll call Shuri to make sure it’s taken care of when we get back to the hotel.”

Vicky shook her head but let the conversation fall into a comfortable silence as she looked out of the window and watched the darkened countryside roll past. After a few minutes, she drew in a breath and turned to face Darien again. “So what do we do now?”

“I don’t know,” Darien admitted in a tired voice. “My plans ended when I got you back from Shuri. I’m going to have to really think about what to do with the Hawaiian Council now that I’ve taken it over.” He paused as the seriousness of his predicament hit him. “Damn it. I don’t want to run a Council. I’ve got too much going on already,” he said, slightly angry at the entire situation.

The silence hung between them for a few minutes as they thought about everything. Finally, Vicky broke the atmosphere with a disappointed breath. “I guess this means our vacation is over.”

After considering her disappointment, Darien gave her a quick glance with a smile. “I don’t see why it should be.”

“But the Council?” Vicky protested, unable to see how they could continue on with their plans and take care of Darien’s new responsibilities. Running his new kiss had been a major undertaking. Running a full Council was going to be a monumental task!