Kindling Flames: Flying Sparks (The Ancient Fire Series Book 2) (25 page)

“
Yes!
” Karl cried as the game announced KO, and Roger groaned in defeat. Cheers and awws came from the audience as Roger got up to let the next person play against Karl. Sue took the controller and sat down to try to kick his butt.

Roger stretched and looked up to see Vicky watching them from the entrance to the living room. “Hey there,” he said, and everyone looked over to see what had caught the mechanic’s attention.

“Sweetie!” Jenny cried as she got up from the couch and came over to Vicky. She wrapped the surprised woman in a hug that Vicky returned. “It is
so
good to see you up. How do you feel?” Jenny released her and looked Vicky over.

“Okay.” Vicky said. She was still a little tired and very hungry, but she didn’t feel too bad.

Jenny pulled her into the room, and the rest of the group greeted her.

Vicky was introduced to Phelan, Rupert’s second, and Tina and Billy from Elliot’s menagerie. The woman from the other room came in and was introduced to Vicky as Annie.

“I love your hair,” Josie said as she gave Vicky a hug. “How did you get it so long?” She played with the knee-length, damp hair.

“Fay.” Vicky laughed wryly.

“Do you think I could get them to do to this to mine?” Josie asked.

“I wouldn’t suggest it,” Vicky said with an ironic smile. A few more pleasantries were made before Vicky excused herself to go find something to eat. She waved the group back to their game and left for the kitchen.

***

Vicky smiled at the plate sitting out, waiting for her. Even with the addition of nine people in the family room, Odette had made sure Vicky had a good meal. She called a thank you to the mysterious housekeeper and added a glass of milk to her food. Picking up the plate and drink, she turned towards the breakfast nook and paused when she saw three men sitting around the glass table.

Dakine, Brian, and Rupert sat in the cheery, English-style room, talking. They looked up from their conversation when Vicky entered.

“Pardon me,” she said, starting to back out of the room.

Brian stood up before she could leave. “Please sit down
,
darling.” He pulled out the empty chair for her.

She took another step back. “I don’t want to interrupt you.”

“Sit and eat,” Rupert growled.

Vicky stopped her retreat. She wasn’t about to argue with the alpha wolf, so she came over and took the chair Brian pulled out for her. Odette had already set her place at the table like normal. Vicky sat down between the werewolf and Clara’s right-hand man.

Dakine looked at her from the other side of the table, where he sipped on a cup of tea. The other two men also had cups they were drinking from, but they looked like coffee.

Brian sat back down to pick up the conversation where they had left off. “You’ll need to check the gap on the spark plugs to make sure they’re right,” he explained, picking his cup back up. “That could cause part of the issue. If you like, I can get Roger to check it out for you. He’s pretty handy when it comes to things like that.”

Vicky ate her food as she listened to the two men talk about motorcycles and their upkeep.

Dakine listened to them and added his insight occasionally, but the elf’s lavender eyes watched Vicky as she ate.

She could feel him evaluating her as he listened to the other two talk. It was like he was trying to identify what about her had caught the interest of both Darien and Zak. Vicky shifted in her seat as she finished her meal under the man’s watchful eyes. Her attention was pulled back to the conversation between Brian and Rupert as the subject switched.

“We’ll have to wait for Clara and Darien to wake up before we can make any specific plans,” Brian answered to a question that Vicky hadn’t registered.

“It has to be done before Thursday’s full moon,” Rupert said. “Otherwise, we’ll have to wait a full month till my wolves are strong enough to be able to help against this thing.”

“How the hell did it get inside the circle in the first place?” Brian asked, thinking about the scene from last night.

“It has a link with our lady here,” Dakine said, and the other two men looked at her. Vicky suddenly wished she hadn’t sat down.

“Please show them your hand.”

She held out her left hand to show the burn mark on the palm. It had finally healed enough for her to stop covering it.

“That’s nasty.” Concern filled Brian’s voice. “Did you get that in the fire?”

Vicky nodded. “It’s the only burn Darien couldn’t heal,” she told them and pulled her hand back.

Brian turned to Dakine. “Will we be able to use that to track the ifrit down?”

Dakine nodded. “It will give us the scent of our quarry, and the hounds of the Wild Hunt will be able to follow it from there.”

“The Wild Hunt!” Brian gasped. “You’re calling
The Hunt
on this thing!”

Vicky looked at the man next to her. The fear in him was easy to read. “What’s the Wild Hunt?” she asked, not understanding why Brian was so terrified by the mere mention of it.

“The Wild Hunt is a tradition older than record,” Rupert answered. “There are many legends and tales about it.”

“It’s a call to hunt down something,” Dakine explained. “The fay will ride forth on dark horses, led by hounds…”

“Hellhounds,” Brian corrected.

“
Hellhounds
,” Dakine amended, “in search of a given prey. In this case, the ifrit and whatever is controlling it.”

“The Hunt is relentless,” Brian added. “It doesn’t matter where the given target runs, the Wild Hunt will not stop till it finds what it is looking for.”

“What happens when they find it?” Vicky asked as goose bumps ran up her skin.

“We kill it,” Dakine said with a wicked smile. She shuddered at the joy held in those three words.

“But the Hunt isn’t safe for humans,” Brian protested. “The mounts have been known to run off with their mortal riders after the prey is downed. I can’t ask my people to risk that.”

“That’s why we need the werewolves.” Dakine looked over to Rupert. “The magic in the wolves will allow them to keep control over the horses. The only mortal that has to go is our lady here. She’ll need to give the hounds the scent.”

Vicky’s eyes widened at the prospect of joining something that might carry her off, and Brian’s worried eyes turned to her.

“Don’t worry,” Dakine said to them. “Darien and Zak will see the Hunt doesn’t make off with her.”

Vicky heard a gurgling bark from behind her and turned to see Zak speeding towards them. She scooted back as he lifted himself into her lap.

He wiggled menacingly at the three men before turning around and rubbing his face in her stomach. She giggled at the tickling movement and pulled her hands over him, tucking his tentacles in around him. He purred in pleasure as he curled in her lap, contented.

Brian looked at the little horror sitting in Vicky’s lap. “I don’t think I will ever get use to that.”

She played with one tentacle curling around her fingers. “He really is very sweet.”

Dakine chuckled at her comment and sipped his tea quietly. He wasn’t about to tell her the truth about the creature resting in her lap.

Darien drew a shuddering breath and pulled himself to life as the sun went down. Looking around his empty bedroom, he stretched his tired muscles. He hadn’t noticed when Vicky and Zak had left his side. A laugh slipped from him as he shook his head. It had been nearly seven hundred years since he was last held by the power of the sun. It just went to show how weakened he had been by the rebounding magic. Darien pulled himself from his bed to go get cleaned up before heading down to see about food.

***

Darien looked at his living room in surprise. All the furniture had been moved around to face the windows. The lamps and the glass table had been relocated to the family room, and several of the chairs from the dining room had been dragged in. Someone had found an easel and whiteboard and had it set up in front of the windows.

Elliot scribbled on it furiously as the rest of the group yelled answers, trying to guess the movie-themed picture. Elliot cheered when Phelan yelled
Hello Dolly
, and he wiped the board clean for the next person.

Darien was glad to see that the wolves were mixed in with the vampires having a good time.

Zak gurgled as Vicky dislocated him and got up to take her turn at the board.

Darien leaned into the wall and sighed as he watched the woman stand up to draw a card from the box. Someone had pulled her hair back into a loose braid, and she flipped it behind her as she picked up the pen to draw on the board. He watched Vicky, unnoticed for a while, as she scribbled furiously to the calls of her teammates. Watching her smiling and laughing warmed his heart. He liked it when she was happy.

Pushing away from the wall, he retreated towards the kitchen to get something to eat. The soft sounds of skittering on the floor drew his attention, and Zak scampered up to him. Darien greeted the small fay and leaned over to ruffle his tentacles. Zak chattered at him and wiggled appreciatively as the vampire continued on his way.

The kitchen itself was empty when Darien pushed the door open, but he could hear voices talking from the breakfast nook at the other end of the room. He ignored the group and pulled his usual glass down, rummaging in the refrigerator for his blood packs. A disapproving sound came from the other room.

“What are you doing?” Clara asked as she watched Darien pull out the scissors to open his breakfast.

“Eating,” he said, emptying the first bag into the glass and dropping it in the sink.

She gave him a pointed look. “There is fresh blood in the other room.”

“It’s busy right now.” He dropped the empty packs in the trash and picked up his glass. “I didn’t want to disturb them.”

Clara rolled her eyes. “Disturb them,” she grumbled. “You need something with more life in it than
that
.”

Darien shrugged as he brought his glass over and leaned against the wall of the doorway. “This will do for now.” He took a long pull from the container. “I’ll get someone to donate when they aren’t having so much fun.” The action in the other room chose that moment to reach a peak, and the cheers could be heard clearly.

Clara grinned and shook her head at him. “All right,” she said, “but make sure you feed well later. You need to get your strength back.”

Darien nodded and took another pull from his cup.

“Maybe you could get one of the wolves to offer,” Dakine said from the far side of the table. “The magic in them would do you good.”

Rupert chuckled at this. “Ask Karl,” he said. “He was fascinated watching Clara feed earlier. I’m sure he’d be willing just for the experience.”

Clara laughed at the memory of the medic asking Brian a slew of questions after she had finished with him.

“If he’s willing,” Darien agreed and finished his glass. He set the empty container on the counter behind him and came to sit at the table with the leaders of the groups. “So, have you decided what we’re going to do?” Leaning back into the chair, he let Zak jump up in his lap, and smoothed down the fay’s top tentacles.

Dakine laughed at the picture the two presented. “Your lady has turned him into a lap dog.” He smiled down at Zak purring in Darien’s lap.

Darien shrugged and pulled on the feeler wrapped around his wrist.

“We were waiting for you to get up before we finalized the plans, but yes.” Rupert pulled the conversation back to where it needed to be.

Darien looked at the alpha. “So, what are we doing?”

“A Wild Hunt,” Dakine said.

Darien sat up, disturbing Zak. The fay gurgled his displeasure and wiggled around in Darien’s lap.

“I’m not saying that’s a bad idea.” Darien pulled his hand free of Zak’s grip. “But is that wise? I mean, the Wild Hunt will go after anything that flees from it.” He was truly concerned to call a power so great into the city. If it got out of control, things could get very bad.

“We’ll use the mark the jinni left on the lady to lead the hounds,” Dakine said. “Once they have prey, they won’t stop for anything else.”

Darien took a deep breath and let it go in a drawn-out sigh. He didn’t like exposing Vicky to another danger from the darker parts of the world. This was definitely the best way to solve the problem fast, but still, there were risks involved. “Very well,” he agreed. “But I’ll need a few days to recover. And we need to talk about who can go on this hunt.” He wanted this thing dead, but he wasn’t willing to risk others unnecessarily to do it.

“We’ve already done that,” Clara said. “The wolves and vampires will go, but the danger to anyone else is too high.”

Dakine and Rupert nodded their agreement.

“But, Miss Westernly will have to go to lead the hounds,” Rupert added.

Darien sighed again and closed his eyes to think. There was no getting around that. Now, he just had to find a way to keep the fay from running off with her. He felt soft touches on his chest and looked down at the creature in his lap.

Zak stared up at him with beady, little eyes and chirped reassuringly at him.