Darkest Flame, page 6
part #1 of Dark Kings Series
Kellan left the room and shut the door behind him before the head between his legs ruled him instead of the head atop his body.
“How is she?” Rhys asked as he ascended the last few stairs to the second-floor landing.
Kellan couldn’t get the image of her breasts swaying beneath her shirt out of his head. How easy it would be to rip that flimsy shirt in half and feast his eyes upon her.
He also couldn’t stop thinking of her story about Renee. There had been true remorse and guilt in her eyes. The pain of her sister’s death haunted her.
“Kellan?”
He inwardly shook himself and looked at Rhys. “She’s hungry. I need to get her a tray of food.”
Rhys narrowed his aqua eyes on him. “Let Kiril bring her the food. I think I should drive you to Inverness.”
“Con wants me to get close to her.” Though Kellan wanted to be anywhere but there. A ride to Inverness sounded great, especially because it would get him farther from Denae, but also because he could find a willing woman to slake his lust on.
“Does Con know you’re barely holding it together?”
Kellan briefly squeezed his eyes shut. “I suspect he does. I also suspect he’s doing it on purpose because I’ve been asleep so long.” Kellan didn’t bother to say the third reason, the main reason he had decided to sleep—the one only Con knew.
“He can be an arse,” Rhys stated flatly. “I wouldna put either past him. None of us begrudged you your sleep. Return now. I’ll see to Denae.”
Without a doubt Rhys would do exactly as he claimed. It was Kellan’s way out of all of it. Con might be the King of Kings, but that didn’t mean he controlled the Dragon Kings.
So if Rhys was giving him the excuse to leave as he wanted, why then wasn’t Kellan taking it?
All of a sudden, the image of Denae’s hand shaking over the medicine bottle flashed in his mind. There was much the female was hiding. It could be something to harm the Kings, in which case Kellan couldn’t return to his sleep.
At least that was what he told himself.
“No’ yet,” he said to Rhys. “I want to get to the bottom of all of this.”
“Has Con filled you in on everything?”
“Last night,” Kellan said. “It’s quite a story how the women came to be mated with Hal, Guy, and Banan. The Silvers really moved?”
Rhys nodded woodenly. “We’ve still no’ uncovered how or why.”
“And the Warriors.” Kellan had soaked up all the information on the Warriors and Druids of MacLeod Castle and their many battles with the evil Druids, or droughs. “Con actually told the Warriors what we are. And he fought beside them.”
Rhys smiled widely as he stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Kellan, it felt wonderful to fight again. Besides, Charon and Phelan are good men. You’d like them, I think.”
“So much has changed.”
“And so much hasna,” Rhys said softly. “We still wait until nightfall to take to the skies. Sometimes if the storm is intense enough we can fly during the day. We’re no’ free.”
Kellan scratched at his chin and felt the whiskers growing. “We’ve no’ been free since the humans arrived, my friend.”
“I’ve missed you. I know it was your hatred of the mortals that kept you sleeping so long, but it’s good to have you back.”
His words eased Kellan somewhat and he forced his lips into some semblance of a smile. “It’s good to see you again, too. Doona tell Con, but I’ve missed walking around this place.”
Rhys laughed loudly. “Anything to put a knot in Con’s knickers.”
Kellan found himself freely grinning. Rhys never failed to irritate Con one way or another. “How many of us are awake now?”
“About a third. Most took one look around and returned to their caves. The others are a bit more curious. We took turns through the centuries keeping up your work, but since we’re no’ official Keepers of the History, it might no’ be all there.”
At the mention of the history of the Dragon Kings, Kellan pushed away from the door and started for the stairs. As Keeper, he didn’t need to be at an event to record it. It showed in his head much like the movies that were so popular. They continued even while he slept away the centuries. All he had to do was record them now.
At one time being Keeper of the History had been something Kellan had been proud of. That wasn’t the case anymore. He turned his mind away from then when he heard something hit the shower wall. “Listen in case Denae falls. She’s stubborn.”
It took ten minutes for Kellan to find Cassie downstairs and then make his way back to Denae. As he neared her room, he found the door cracked with Rhys nowhere in sight.
Then he heard Denae’s laugh and Rhys’s voice. Kellan pushed the door open to find the pair at the window looking out.
“The sheep are climbing over each other,” Denae said in awe as she laughed.
Rhys leaned a forearm against the wall. “They tend to do that sometimes. The sheepdogs run along their backs, especially when the sheep are penned as they are now.”
“The sheep aren’t being slaughtered, are they?”
Rhys’s laugh was long and deep. “Nay, lass. They’re being sheared.”
“But you do slaughter them here,” she said as she turned her head to him.
“A few. Mostly we sell them. They’re loaded onto a truck and shipped off.”
“Will you bring them all in? I see some far off in the distance that look like little white specks.”
Rhys turned his head and spotted Kellan. “Aye,” he answered Denae. “I think my time here is done.”
“Done?” she asked and turned to see where he was looking.
As soon as her gaze locked with his, Kellan felt his blood heat. Her hair was still loose, beckoning him to touch it—to touch her.
Rhys cleared his throat into the silence. “Uh, Kellan, I told her I’d go see about finding her some clothes. She’s no’ comfortable walking around in…” Rhys pointed to the shorts and shirt on her body. “Well … that.”
Kellan didn’t understand why not. She hadn’t said a word yesterday or earlier about wanting something else to change into. As it was, he wanted out of his shirt, jeans, and boots.
He wanted to be in the clouds, floating upon the currents and looking at the world from high above. He wanted his hands in Denae’s hair, her body beneath him.
He wanted inside her.
Kellan looked away from her to Rhys. “That’s a good idea. I’ll go see about it.”
“Already on it,” Rhys said and hurried out of the room.
Kellan looked at the empty doorway long after Rhys walked out. There was no way he could begin to interrogate Denae until he had his body under control. That much was obviously—painfully—clear.
“Now it’s my turn to ask if I make you uncomfortable,” she said.
“Nay.” It was all he could get out. And he prayed she stayed away from him. He wasn’t sure how much restraint he could maintain if she came near him.
“Dreagan is a beautiful place. I’ve tasted the whisky as well. It’s no wonder y’all have done so well.”
He regarded her, comprehending that she was going somewhere with her talk. “But?”
“But … I get the feeling there is much more to this place. Take you, for example.”
“What about me?” He shouldn’t engage her in such a manner, but he was curious how she saw him.
She licked her lips, bringing his attention to their fullness, their plumpness that begged to be kissed. “You’re different. When I look in your eyes, it’s almost as if … as if I’m looking back in time.”
Kellan knew he couldn’t allow her to go on. He had to turn the tables on her, to get her to talk about anything but how she saw him. It was too dangerous for her—and for him.
He decided to repeat the questions already put to her. Perhaps he would learn something different, because there had to be more. He didn’t want her to be a woman in need of assistance. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could ignore her sweet curves.
Admitting that, even to himself, infuriated him. She was a human. He must remember what they had done to him and his bronze dragons.
“What did you and Matt really think you were going to find here? What did Matt believe would come out once he had you wounded and used as bait?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Denae wasn’t fooled. Kellan changed the subject because something she said hit a chord. She refused to look away from his celadon gaze as he challenged her with his words.
“I got the feeling Matt was expecting something to come out.” She closed her eyes and thought back to the cave. Denae had been intent on staying alive, but her training and her photographic memory let her catch every detail. “The way he said I was bait. It’s almost as if…”
Her eyes flew open as a thread of disquiet wound through her.
“As if what?” Kellan pushed.
“As if Matt was expecting an animal. He wanted me bloodied, hurt so that I couldn’t escape or move. The only reason for that would be if there was some kind of being and he wanted to get its attention.”
Kellan looked away, a muscle in his jaw jumping as he clenched his teeth. “What was Matt’s plan when this ‘thing’ he was trying to see arrived?”
“I don’t know.”
“Guess,” he said tightly.
Kellan might be so damned gorgeous that she couldn’t think straight, but he was infuriating as well. She allowed herself to glare at him a second before she considered the cave and what Matt might have been waiting for, plus their gear and weapons. “I would have returned to the water. The air tanks had more than enough oxygen to make several trips back and forth.”
“Does MI5 no’ need more than just one agent’s eyewitness account?”
Denae nodded slowly and leaned against the wooden footboard of the bed. “They would’ve wanted definitive proof. Matt must have had some sort of device on him to take a picture or recording.”
“And you expect me to believe you had no idea what you came to Dreagan for?”
“I’m cooperating, but no, I don’t have any proof that would tell you I was the one who was betrayed. They wanted me dead. I was expendable, dispensable. The UK might not be my country, but I took an oath to protect it.”
“MI5, however, didna take an oath to protect you, did they?”
How she hated that he was right. “No. I could say the same of any intelligence agency in any country. I knew if I was ever caught during a mission that I was on my own. This was different. I was set up, my own people turning on me.”
“It’s no’ a good feeling, is it?”
The way he said it, the fury-laced words and bone-deep resentment told her that something similar had been done to him. “The feeling is enough to change someone forever,” she said and watched him closely.
“More than you know,” he murmured before he took a deep breath. “What else can you tell me about what MI5 knew concerning Dreagan?”
At that moment, Rhys returned, smiling. “I got you some clothes. Cassie pointed out that you might not want anything too constricting near your injury, so she gave me some of these.”
Denae watched as Rhys held up a pair of black yoga pants. “Those will do nicely. Thank you, Rhys.”
“My pleasure.” He handed her the clothes with a wink.
She laughed at his flirting, because she knew it was harmless. Rhys was one of those guys who would flirt with any woman up to the time he found one who captured his heart—if he ever allowed that to happen.
At Kellan’s odd look, Denae slowly made her way into the bathroom to change. She was elated to find a cami that had a built-in bra. Denae stripped out of her bottoms first.
Whoever had undressed her had removed her wetsuit and bathing suit she’d worn beneath, and then put her in a pair of bright pink cotton panties.
Denae turned on the sink faucets and grabbed a washcloth. She might not be able to get her stitches wet in the shower, but she was going to bathe.
“Need some help?” Rhys asked her through the door.
“Bugger off,” Kellan said. “We were talking.”
Their words became muted, and even when she turned off the water she still couldn’t hear them. A moment later she heard Rhys leave the room.
Denae found the soap and began to bathe as best she could. “This place holds many secrets,” she said, raising her voice so Kellan could hear her.
“Every place holds secrets.”
She thought of the beach house her family owned, of that terrible day years ago, and knew he was right. “Will Con really let me go? Or will he turn me over to MI5?”
“MI5 came after us,” Kellan said, his voice hard and unforgiving. “As long as you hold up your end of the bargain, we’ll keep ours.”
“There’s a catch,” she said as she dried off and began to dress. When she was finished, she opened the bathroom door to find Kellan sitting in his usual chair. “There’s always a catch.”
“And what do you think the catch is this time?”
“I don’t know yet. There is something about Dreagan I can’t put my finger on. It’s a beautiful place with secrets, although, as you pointed out, there are many of those. There is still something different about this place. And you.”
Kellan ran a hand through his long hair and shrugged. “We make whisky and raise sheep and cattle. No’ anything to worry MI5 about.”
“You were in the cave.” The realization hit her out of the blue. How could she have forgotten that he’d said she was in his cave?
One caramel eyebrow lifted. “I’ve said it was my cave.”
“But you were in it. How else would you know I was there?”
“It was luck that had me walking those caves and finding you. That is all.”
Denae sank onto the chair near the bed and pulled her hair over one shoulder to braid it. She had thought another piece of the puzzle had been found, but Kellan had a believable answer to every question or statement she had.
“What would happen if both you and Matt had died and I hadna found you?”
“I suppose MI5 would have sent another team in, but more likely several teams. They would’ve guessed that whatever we’d been sent here to find had killed us.”
“So you admit to being sent to find something?” he pressed.
Denae rolled her eyes as she finished her braid and tied it off. “For the third time, yes. I don’t know what it was however.”
“Did you no’ have communication with MI5?”
“No. We were going in blind. MI5 didn’t want anything traced back to them.”
Kellan gave her a sardonic look. “And two agents wouldna lead us back to them?”
“We had nothing on us to suggest we worked for MI5. We could have been anyone. The only reason you know who we worked for is because I told you. MI5 has spies everywhere. You might think you’re keeping me hidden, but I can guarantee they know I’m alive.”
He sat forward, his gaze fixed, direct. “And we’ve guaranteed your safety as long as you cooperate.”
“Which is what I’m doing,” she said, exasperated. It was hard to stay irked when Denae didn’t know if Kellan’s anger was directed at her or something else.
He made sure to keep his distance from her. If she got too close, he would move away. It was subtle, but obvious.
“You said MI5 had a file on Dreagan,” Kellan said, putting the conversation back on track. “What was in it?”
“Next to nothing. There were maybe twenty pages, tops.”
“Anyone’s picture? Any names?”
“Con’s. His name, but not a picture. There was a picture of a woman with blond hair and green eyes. It said she worked for PureGems both in the US and UK.”
Kellan’s chin dropped to his chest. “That would be Elena. She’s now married to Guy and living here. What else did they say about her?”
“They had a question mark by her name.”
His head lifted, and the grim set of his features said that her words weren’t what he wanted to hear. “A question mark? Why?”
“It could mean anything. For instance, it could be that they don’t know if she’s alive or dead, or if she’s still in the country or not.”
“Or if she’s a part of whatever is going on at Dreagan, aye?”
Denae clasped her hands in front of her. “That is another possibility.”
“Any other names or pictures in the file?”
“No, which is what really struck me as odd and very unlike MI5. When I questioned it, I was quickly put in my place and told my job was to complete the mission I was given.”
Kellan rose to face the window, putting his back to her. The tan pullover he wore was just as fitted as the shirt from the previous day, and just as before, he looked uncomfortable in it. Though he didn’t shift his shoulders as much.
Denae scooted back in the chair. “I wasn’t given long to look at the file, but from what I could see, it was mostly pictures of Dreagan taken from a satellite.”
“What did the pictures show?” he asked as he turned his head in profile to her.
“All of Dreagan. In every season. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me, but I did notice some of the mountains were marked as well as certain spots. Your cave was one of those.”
When he didn’t reply, she pushed her braid from her shoulder. Kellan stood as still as a statue. He was troubled by what she had divulged, the emotion evident in his gaze and rugged features.
“I can tell you some ways they’ll come at y’all,” she said. “Come at you,” she corrected. “But I need something in return.”
“You’re alive,” he bit out, turning his head slightly to the side. “We’re keeping you alive. That should be enough.”
It was more than anyone else would give her, but it still wasn’t enough. “Will you give me proof that I’ll leave here alive and with a new identity?”
“I could, but it might be a lie.”
“I know.”
He slowly turned to face her, his brow furrowed in a frown. “You would trust me?”
“As much as anyone in my position can. I don’t fully trust you, just as you don’t really trust me. You hold my life in your hands. I’m at your mercy.”
