Smoke and Fire: Part 1 (3 page)

“It’s real,” Ryder said. He lifted his hand to touch her cheek, but stopped at the last moment. “This is my life, Kinsey. This is where I live and work. These people are my family.”

“Dragons?” she whispered.

“Dragons.”

Kinsey didn’t know what to say. She’d seen Ryder, the real Ryder. A massive, flying, fire-breathing monster that dove from the sky with scales the color of smoke, and blending in with the night.

“You were never supposed to know that was me,” he said. “Then I saw one of the Dark go after you. I couldna attack him without hurting you unless I was in this form.”

She wanted to touch him. There had always been something about being in his arms that made her feel as if she could tackle anything and the world wouldn’t dare get in her way.

“How long have you been a … dragon?” she asked.

His eyes looked away for a second. “The exact time doesna matter. Just know it’s been for a verra long time.”

“How long?” she pressed. There had been something in his words, something that told her he hadn’t told her everything.

Ryder studied her for a long time. Then he said, “Millions of years.”

Kinsey gave a dry laugh. “Nice one. The truth, please.”

“That is the truth,” Dmitri said with his back still to them.

She looked from Ryder to Dmitri and then back to Ryder. “Millions?”

“We can no’ die.”

“Immortal?” she whispered in awe.

“Aye.”

Kinsey put her hand to her throat as it all came into focus. “You were never going to tell me about who and what you are, were you?”

Ryder gave a single shake of his head.

She wanted to cry. All the old feelings welled up just like when he’d left her. “I thought we had something special. I thought you were The One. I saw my life with you by my side. You let me think that. You let me fall in love with you.”

“Kinsey,” he began.

“Then you left. You left me standing on the sidewalk, waiting for you to show for our lunch date.” She sniffed back her tears, anger beginning to bubble. “You canceled your mobile and your e-mail account. You made sure I couldn’t get in touch with you in any way. I thought I did something to push you away.”

Ryder grasped her arms. “Never,” he said adamantly.

She shoved him away with all her might. He couldn’t touch her, because when he did, she forgot all the bad and focused on how he’d once made her feel. “Now I know it wasn’t me. It was you. Is this what your kind does? They get involved with us mere humans and make us fall in love, then you leave? Do you laugh at how we have to scrape ourselves off the pavement and try to live again?”

“It killed me to leave you!” Ryder yelled.

“I doubt it.”

Kinsey grabbed her purse and bag and walked to the door. If she had to tear it down with her bare hands, she was going to walk out.

But the door opened when she turned the knob.

It was time for her to blow this joint and put Ryder in her rearview mirror for good.

Chapter Three

Ryder intentionally let her leave the computer room. He followed her into the corridor and toward the stairs. Kinsey’s black boots made little sound on the thick rug over the hardwood.

She looked back at him as she descended the stairs. “I can find my way out.”

Ryder didn’t bother to comment. He wasn’t following her because he worried she would get lost. He was following her to make sure she didn’t run into Con. Her leaving wasn’t an option, not after learning the work order had her name on it.

He lengthened his strides and came even with her in the foyer. Ryder opened the front door. She met his gaze as she walked past him, and then came to a dead stop when she saw the sleet.

It was no freak storm. No, this was all the work of Arian. No doubt Tristan or Dmitri had told him to keep Kinsey on the estate.

When Kinsey started to walk from the shelter of the overhang, Ryder stopped her. At her cold look, he released her and held up his hands. “Easy. I doona think getting wet in this cold is wise.”

“Because I’m human and can die?” she asked saucily.

“Aye. That’s exactly why.”

Some of the fire went out of her. Kinsey adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “I can’t be near you.”

“Because I frighten you,” he said with a nod. “I understand, but you also need to realize that what you’ve seen is no’ something we want repeated.”

“Who would I tell?”

“Anyone. We’ve lived in secret for thousands of years. It needs to remain that way.”

She wrapped her blazer tighter around herself to ward off the cold. Kinsey looked out at the sleet that was turning into snow. “You still think I wrote that work order to get myself here.”

“Nay, I doona.” The shock on her face had been too real. “I contemplated it for a wee bit, but I realized it wasna you.”

“Damn right it wasn’t me,” she said with a lift of her chin.

Ryder fought back a smile. He’d always loved her fire, her spirit.

Her lips pursed briefly. “The question then is who sent me?”

“That’s what I need to determine. We’ve a lot of enemies.”

She turned to face him then, her arms crossed over her chest as her nose was beginning to turn red. “Someone knew about us.”

“That’s what I’ve concluded. Why else would they send you?”

“I don’t like this,” she muttered.

Neither did he. If she was innocent, Kinsey was a pawn in this vicious war. “I could use your help finding out who it is.”

Kinsey gave a quick bark of laughter. “No, you don’t. You’re the best I’ve ever seen with computers.”

“I’d like your help then,” he tried again. “The Kinsey I knew wouldna have passed up a chance to clear her own name.”

She looked away and remained silent for several long minutes. “Look, I don’t think it’s—”

The sound of Shara’s laughter as Kiril chased her through the snow from around the side of the manor interrupted Kinsey. Shara was quickly caught in Kiril’s arms where they shared a passionate kiss.

Before the kiss could get heated, Rhys came around the house. Kiril released Shara right before Rhys tackled Kiril to the ground while Lily came to stand by Shara as they laughed.

“War!” Kiril shouted. “Some help.”

Warrick and Darcy walked arm in arm from around the manor. Warrick shook his head with a smile. “I’d rather stay right where I am. Dry.”

“Scared of me, huh?” Rhys said as he and Kiril tried to get the upper hand on each other in the snow.

Lily clapped her hands together and smiled at Rhys. “Come on, honey. Kick some ass!”

“Kiril, you can take him,” Shara cheered.

Ryder studied Kinsey as she watched the group. He was glad she’d been interrupted, because she had been about to leave. And that was something he couldn’t allow. He wanted her to think staying was her idea. Forcing her would only hurt his cause, not help it.

“You were saying?” Ryder prompted after a moment.

Kinsey cleared her throat and turned back to him. “I was saying that I don’t think it’s wise for you to look for these people on your own. They put me in the middle of it. I want to find out who it was.”

Ryder let her lie because it benefited him. He opened the door for her to return inside, sending a wave to the others as he followed her.

They managed to make it up to the third floor and back into the computer room without anyone seeing them. Dmitri was gone, but that’s how Ryder wanted it. Though he wasn’t sure how he would be able to remain near Kinsey and not pull her against him for a kiss.

Her kisses were breathtaking. Just as she was. He could kiss her for hours, and sometimes they’d done just that. The woman could seriously kiss.

“You can take this seat,” Ryder said, indicating the chair Dmitri had abandoned.

Kinsey set her bags against the wall and pulled the chair up to the metal table. Her gaze looked over the monitors. Ryder took a few minutes to point out the location of the cameras and the layout of Dreagan.

“It’s bigger than I imagined,” she said.

“Dreagan consists of sixty thousand acres. Up until a few weeks ago there was a no-fly zone over the entire estate.”

“Until the video was released,” she guessed.

Ryder sighed and sat back in his chair. “Everything changed then. MI5 patrols our land for the moment,” he said, pointing to several cameras that showed the agents.

“They’re looking for dragons.”

Ryder shrugged and tapped the table near Kinsey so that a keyboard appeared. He did the same in front of himself. “Hopefully they’ll be gone soon.”

“The video showed the dragon changing into a human. Didn’t they see that?”

“They did,” Ryder said. “They’ve asked us repeatedly to change into a dragon. We laugh and go about our business. They can no’ prove anything.”

“Unless you’re caught again.”

That was exactly what he’d been thinking for weeks now. “Aye,” he replied in a low tone.

“How were you caught to begin with?”

Ryder hesitated. Kinsey might know of him, and she had already seen the Dark, but why get her involved more? Though she was already fully involved if someone—and he hated to think it was Ulrik—had sent her to Dreagan.

“I need to know,” Kinsey said. “How else can I help you? You said you have enemies. Tell me.”

“You doona need to know more than you already do.”

“Why?” she pressed.

Ryder ran a hand through his hair. “Because it’s no’ safe.”

“Am I safe if I return home?”

He met her gaze for a long stretch of silence before he grudgingly said, “Nay.”

“And I’m not safe here.” She said it flippantly and turned to the monitor.

He grabbed her chair and swung it around to face him. “I’ll die before I allow anyone to hurt you.”

Her face softened. Her unusual, beautiful violet eyes regarded him before she nodded. “That I do believe.”

“Good.” He released her and allowed her to turn the chair back to the screens.

“Tell me,” she insisted. “Those people with red eyes in Glasgow. What were they? I thought they wore contacts and colored their hair. You called them dark.”

Ryder grunted. If only that were the case. “They’re Dark Fae.”

“Excuse me?” she asked and turned her face to him.

Her eyes were wide, disbelieving. This was why he hadn’t wanted to tell her anything. It was going to be a lot for her to understand and accept. Considering how violently she’d reacted to seeing him shift, he wasn’t expecting things to go smoothly.

“Dark Fae,” Ryder said. “There are two kinds of Fae. Light and Dark. Both are so beautiful that it’s almost like they’re no’ real, and both have magic.”

Kinsey nodded solemnly. “All right.”

“The Light have silver eyes and coal black hair. The Dark are the ones with red eyes and black and silver hair. Their eyes turn red the first time they do evil. The more silver in their hair, the more evil they’ve done.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said. “Why were the Dark killing humans?”

“They feed off your souls while having sex with you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like I’m going to let that happen now that I know.”

“First, the Fae can use glamour to disguise themselves. Second, you willna be able to resist them. They’re a drug to humans. I’ve seen women strip in the middle of the street to allow a group of them to have her.”

“One came after me. I remember that.”

Ryder did as well. He relived it in his dreams every time he closed his eyes. It was one reason he didn’t sleep often. “I wasna going to allow that to happen.”

“So you showed yourself to me.”

“Aye.” And what had he gotten for those efforts? Kinsey running screaming in terror from him. But at least she hadn’t been attacked by a Dark.

In Ryder’s opinion, that was more than a good trade.

“Why are you and the Fae fighting?”

He rocked back in his chair and laced his hands behind his head. “Once, a verra long time ago, there were the Fae Wars. It was us against the Fae—both Light and Dark. Eventually, the Light helped us defeat the Dark. The Dark are our enemy, but the Light have aided us. You’ve already seen one Light Fae today.”

“Who?” she asked with her head cocked.

“Shara. She and Kiril were the first to come running from around the side of the manor. The second couple was Rhys and Lily, and the third was Warrick and Darcy.”

She scrunched up her nose. “You know I’ll never remember their names.”

“I know,” he said with a grin.

She shook her head, but there was a ghost of a smile on her lips. “Shara was beautiful. Then again so were Lily and Darcy.”

“Shara is the only Fae mated to a Dragon King. The other women you see are mortals.”

“Excuse me?” Kinsey interrupted him with wide eyes. “Did you just say ‘Dragon King’?”

That was one thing Ryder planned to ease into. He could talk forever about their enemies. It was his hope that he could keep her occupied with those stories and not get into who he was. But he slipped up.

Kinsey always did that to him.

He was so at ease with her that he forgot to be cautious and consider his words. It had been that way from the moment they first spoke to the other.

“I did,” he confessed.

She raised both brows as she held out her hands. “And you’re just going to leave it there? I don’t think so. Spill.”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’m a good listener.”

Of that he knew for sure. They could talk about anything and everything, but there had been times they were content to just sit quietly in each other’s company.

Ryder blew out a breath. “You know I’m millions of years old and immortal. What you doona know is that the dragons were the first inhabitants of this realm from the beginning of time.”

“How many dragons?”

“Millions. Billions. I doona know for sure.”

“Do they all look like you?”

He was happy she was asking questions. That was a good sign. At least he hoped it was. “Nay. Imagine the colors of a rainbow. That’s how many hues of dragons there were. As for sizes, there was a wide range of sizes. I’m one of the largest.”

“And the king part?”

“Each dragon group, or color, had a leader. The strongest and the one with the most magic. I was such a dragon.”