Kindling Flames: Flying Sparks (The Ancient Fire Series Book 2) (33 page)

“Are we still worried about the ifrit showing up?” Vicky followed Darien upstairs after breakfast.

“Yes,” he said, leading the way into his study. “But I think you’re safe for now. Let me trim your hair again.” Going to his desk, he picked up the scissors. The braid had started to drag the floor again, and Zak was busy chewing on the end as they walked through the house.

“Is it me, or is it growing faster than before?” Vicky turned around so he could clip the braid off even with her shoulders. “I thought you said the fairy magic would fade over time.”

Darien made a noise deep in his throat as the iron shears cut through the strands of hair. “It usually does.” He pulled the severed hair away from Zak’s mouth to coil it up. “Maybe we need to talk to Dakine about this. You know, it was fairy magic that made Rapunzel’s hair grow so long.” Turning to the shelves behind the desk, Darine added the braid to a pile already there.

“Rapunzel was real?” Vicky asked in surprise.

“I thought I told you that most old fairy tales were based in truth.” Darien looked back at her. “The Grimm’s stories had it mostly right.” He turned his attention to the shelves as he talked. “They only messed part of the story up. The witch locked Rapunzel in the tower to keep her away from men. She needed the heart of a virgin for a special spell to keep her young and had to wait till Rapunzel turned twenty before she could take it. The ‘prince’ that found her was really just one of the local farm boys.” Darien paused for a moment, thinking.

“The Brothers Grimm liked to dress things up to make the stories more interesting.” He shrugged and went on. “Anyway, the fay gave Rapunzel the gift of long hair so the boy could climb up and spoil the witch’s plans. The evil woman had been causing problems for the fay around her home.”

Darien moved across the room and started looking on another set of shelves. “When the witch found out, she tried to kill Rapunzel, but found that the fay had woven their spell to stay the witch’s hand. So instead, she chopped off the girl’s hair, chucked her out into the wilderness, and took her revenge on the poor boy. But, that wasn’t what broke the spell on Rapunzel.”

“What did?” Vicky asked, immersed in the tale.

“Oddly enough, it was the blinding of her lover.” Darien grimaced as he thought about that. “I hope the fay have grown a better sense of style since then. I would hate to have to hunt down your last lover and gouge out his eyes.”

Vicky blanched as she tried to recall who the unlucky man would be. It must have been just after she broke up with Tim. She’d had a short tryst with one of her classmates named Alex, who had been a little more than a one-night stand.

The man turned out to be a creep, and Vicky ended it right away, but he still stalked her for nearly a year afterwards. He had finally gotten the message when she had him arrested for breaking into her home one night. The subtle application of a frying pan to his head had ensured he was still there when the police arrived.

“Would it really come down to that?” Vicky asked, finding this option really didn’t weigh too heavily on her mind. The creepy letters over that year hadn’t endeared the man to her very much. She was just glad when he stopped following her around. The whole experience had put her off from one-night stands since then.

“Hopefully not,” Darien said as he pulled what he was looking for from the back of the shelf. He took an old sword from its worn, leather scabbard and inspected the edge. The metal of the sword looked as if it had been folded and twisted on itself millions of times before being forged into an edge. Lines were etched into the fuller running down the center of the blade. Vicky couldn’t read the runes in the groove, but she could tell they were some sort of writing just from the intricacy of their workings and the regularity of their spacing. It looked old—really old—as Darien spun it around in the confines of the room. She was amazed to see how well he handled the sword as he walked through a short series of exercises.

He made an unhappy noise as he sheathed the blade and shook the hand he had held the sword with. Stretching the muscles in his back, he dropped the weapon to the desktop.

“What’s wrong?” Vicky asked as she looked at the sword.

“I’m out of shape,” Darien turned back to the shelf and pulled out a leather belt and pouch that looked just as old as the sword. “I wish I had a few weeks to practice before going on a hunt.” He put the belt on the desk next to the sword.

Vicky looked at the hilt of the old blade. The leather wrapping was stained dark and well worn, but the pommel shone, brightly polished with years of use.

“I’m so going to have blisters tomorrow.” Darien turned back to the shelves and started searching for something else. “Years of pushing papers around have softened my hands too much.” He looked at the redness on his palm that the short swordplay had caused. “Where does one go to swing a sword nowadays?”

“You could always go join the SCA.” Vicky giggled. “They run both Renaissance festivals and Civil War reenactments. I am sure they would love the input of someone who had lived through both.”

Darien looked over at her as he pulled a pair of daggers from another shelf. “That’s not a half-bad idea.” He grinned wickedly. “Come here, wench.”

Vicky scoffed at him but came over to see what he needed.

Darien handed her the daggers along with another sword and belts made for both. “Hold these.” He added the belt and the sword from the desk to her pile before pulling open the closet. Pulling out two cloaks, he hung them over his arm.

Zak barked and took off into the open closet before Darien could shut it.

“Zak!” he yelled at the fay and dropped his cloaks to dive into the closet behind him. There were things in there he didn’t need the fay chewing on. “You don’t need anything in here,” he yelled as he tried to get Zak out.

He felt a touch of magic and the familiar pang of desire as he brushed into the scarves of Vicky’s spider-silk dress. “Damn it, Zak!” Darien growled. “If you don’t get out of here right now, so help me, I will send you back to Fairy and make sure Lady Aine makes you stay there!”

A threating growl answered from deep in the closet as a tentacle shot out and grabbed Darien’s ankle. It jerked hard, toppling him over backwards with a bang, before pulling him fully into the darkened closet.

“Darien!” Vicky gasped and dropped her armload of weapons on the floor before heading in behind him. “Turn him loose, Zak!” she cried, pushing past the boxes and hanging clothing. Her eyes landed on the ball of tentacles struggling with Darien under a rack of clothing. Wading in, she tried to pull them apart, but found that Zak was not easy to get a hold of. She ended up falling on top of them with tentacles wrapped around her arms and legs.

Both Vicky and Darien struggled to get free from the fay. Zak held on to them, determined to get what he wanted from the closet. Seeing they were losing the battle, Vicky took a deep breath and went limp.

It took Zak all of two seconds to stop struggling when Vicky stopped moving. Darien followed shortly behind as concern for the still girl filled him. Zak gurgled softly, and Vicky slowly let out the air she was holding, but didn’t move. The fay released Darien and turned his full attention to Vicky.

Darien pushed himself up to his elbows, worried that little horror had hurt his assistant unintentionally. “Victoria?” He rolled a little so he could look at the limp woman. “Are you all right?” The sound of her breathing again let him know she wasn’t dead, but that didn’t explain why she wasn’t moving.

Zak whimpered at her and touched her softly on her face.

“Are you two done fighting?” Vicky asked from where she lay crumpled on the floor. Zak gurgled softly as Darien raised both of his eyebrows in surprise. She opened her eyes to look at the two males in the darkened closet.

“Um… Yes?” Darien said, unsure what she was playing at.

“Good.” Vicky sat up to lift Zak from the floor. “What did you want in here?” she asked the little fay.

Zak gurgled and reached up to pull down another cloak from the rack above them.

Darien looked at the coarsely woven material and chuckled. “I hadn’t forgotten about her.” He picked up the cloak Zak had dislodged. “I was planning on her wearing the shawl Michael had given her.”

Zak gave him his best impression of cocking his head in confusion. He gurgled and grabbed on to the edge of the cloak in Darien’s hand.

“If it’s that important to you, she can use this one.” Darien released the cloak as Zak pulled it over to Vicky.

The fay gurgled happily and wrapped it around her before pulling himself from her hands. He wiggled over to the door and held it open for them.

Darien shook his head and got up. “All you had to do was ask.” He dusted his hands on his pants.

“What was all that about?” Vicky said from where she sat, stunned, on the floor, wrapped in the woolen material.

“I guess he wanted to make sure you have a cloak for the hunt tonight.” Darien reached down to help the woman to her feet. “He probably overheard Elliot asking to borrow one and thought I was forgetting about you when I only got two out.” He led the way from the closet and picked up the two cloaks abandoned on the floor.

Vicky went back to where she had dropped the weapons to gather them up. “Why do we need cloaks?” she asked, draping the belts over her shoulder. “It’s not supposed to be cold out tonight.” Tucking the two swords under one arm, Vicky grabbed the daggers in the other hand and stood up.

“True,” Darien held the door open for her, “but you never know what type of weather we’ll run into. It’s best to prepare for the worst.” He made sure Zak was out of the room before pointing Vicky to take her load into his bedroom.

She dropped her bundle on Darien’s bed. “Are you really going to use this stuff?” Pulling the cloak off, she laid it next to the weapons. Vicky rubbed her fingers across the blue and purple woven fabric. It reminded her of a blanket with a split from the center to one end, but there was a hood attached around the hole in the middle.

Zak jumped up on the bed and sniffed at the swords.

“Yes.” Darien dropped the two heavier cloaks on the bed next to Vicky’s. “Some of the wolves will have bows, and others will run with the hounds. Hopefully, there won’t be too much hand-to-hand,” he said as he went to the dresser to pull out some clean clothing.

“Um… you mean, like, hack-and-slash type of thing?” Vicky mimicked swinging a blade around her head.

He looked back at her and grinned at her antics. “That’s what you normally do with a sword.” Darien set several articles of clothing on top of the dresser as he spoke. “And it’s been years since I’ve done any martial arts.”

Vicky turned a little whiter and looked down at the swords on the bed. “You don’t expect me to, um…” She poked the air with her imaginary sword again.

Darien shook his head. “If all goes well, you won’t even have to get down.” He brought the clothing over and dropped the long-sleeved shirt on the bed.

Vicky looked at the black shirt and recognized it from Darien’s trip to the club. Picking it up, she shook out the material. “Get down from what?” she asked, holding the shirt up to see how it would look on her. Turning, she looked at herself in the mirror over the dresser.

Darien took the shirt from her and tossed it back on the bed. “The Hunt,” he answered. He led the way back down the hall to the larger of his walk-in closets.

Vicky followed, with Zak in her wake. She was still not sure what Darien meant by ‘The Hunt’, but he didn’t explain any more.

Digging into a box, he pulled out some pieces of curved leather with holes punched in the sides. A long length of cord hung from the holes.

“What’s that?” Vicky asked as she scooped up Zak from the floor to stop him chewing on the ends of one of Darien’s shoelaces.

“Bracers,” he answered. Pulling a pair of plainsmen boots out from under the rack of clothing, he tucked the leather bracers into their tops. Darien looked at his boots and bracers before snickering to himself and adding the leather pants from the club to the mix. If he was going partway, he might as well do it right. He waved her out of the closet so he could take the rest of his clothing back to the bedroom.

“So is this a period thing?” Vicky asked as she watched him lay out the clothing. “Do we all get to dress up?”

Darien smirked at her. “Only if you want to. I think I might have a corset around here that you could wear,” he teased. “There’s always that cabaret dress in the closet.”

Vicky made a face that spoke volumes, as she shook her head no. She circled around to sit cross-legged on the other side of the bed as Darien looked over his preparations. Picking up the black shirt again, she rubbed the soft material between her fingers. She really liked it. “So, what should I expect this evening?” Vicky asked, slipping the black shirt over her head and fluffing her hair out over her back.

Darien’s heart skipped as he looked up to see the beautiful woman sitting in his bed, wearing his shirt. Now, if she was wearing just his shirt… Shaking his head, he tried to clear his mind of that thought. He really needed to concentrate on the hunt tonight. Once the ifrit was taken care of, he could have the luxury of thinking how good Vicky looked in his clothing.

“Well,” Darien turned away to get her messenger bag. “At dusk we’ll head out of here and hook up with Rupert, the wolves, and the rest of the vampires outside of Sharron Woods. Lord Dakine will meet us with the fay in the big field just south of the edge of the park.”

“The one off Willard Road?” Vicky asked. Some of her friends from the astronomy club had taken her out there stargazing a few times. For some reason, electrical things didn’t work well in that area, so there were no lights around. It made it the best place to look at the night sky.

Darien started to unload the bag onto his dresser. “That’s the one.”

Vicky watched him closely as she petted Zak who had settled into her lap again.

“We’ll call up the hounds there and start the Wild Hunt.”

Zak shivered a little in her lap, and she scratched him gently.

Darien came over to drop the empty bag on the bed. “From there, it’s anyone’s guess.”