Kindling Flames: Smoke Rising (The Ancient Fire Series Book 3) Read online

  “We were heading home after dropping some stuff off at the Lock-N-Store,” the man that had helped Darien out of the car answered. “We were stopped at the light over there,” he said, pointing to the cross street, “when this black SUV ran the light and slammed into him.” The man pointed at Darien. “He must have seen the thing coming, because he hit his brakes before making it out into the intersection completely. I have no idea how, because the asshole didn’t have any lights on at all. Hell, I didn’t see him until after they hit. Then the jerk didn’t even slow down! Just barreled right past, like nothing had happened.” More police cars and an ambulance pulled up as the man talked.

  “If you could come with me,” the policeman said, “I would like to get your statement.”

  “Gladly.” The man and his wife followed the police officer, leaving Darien and Vicky to the care of the EMTs.

  An EMT came over to check on the injured pair on the sidewalk. “She’ll be all right,” he said reassuringly.

  “I know.” Darien spoke softly as he let the man look at Vicky. He had healed the internal bleeding and the concussion, but it was taking a lot longer than he was used to. There hadn’t been time to start on the busted ribs yet. In fact, his ribs were still complaining. Usually, his body healed more rapidly than this.

  The medic looked over Vicky with his little light before fitting her with a medical collar and letting two more EMTs slide a backboard under her.

  Darien had to move out from under her so they could get Vicky strapped in properly. His femur screamed in pain, and he clutched at it, surprised. It should have knitted during the time he sat there.

  “Let me help you,” the medic offered, when he saw Darien was hurt, too.

  Darien pressed on the injured leg. “Please, give me a moment.” Turning his mind to the wound, he pushed his power into the damaged bone and felt it knit together. It was the first time he had ever had to use that ability on himself.

  “Are you ready now?” the medic asked.

  Darien took the man’s hand. “Yes.”

  The medic was shocked when Darien only used him for a little balance.

  Darien picked the woman’s jacket up and gave it to a police officer. “This belongs to the young lady.”

  The officer took it.

  “Thank her again for her help,” Darien said as the medic waited for him to come. He picked up Vicky’s bag and went over to the car. Sticking his head in, he fished around until he found the cell phone and the battery that had popped out of it. He put the thing back together as the medic took him to the ambulance into which the EMTs had loaded Vicky. Darien had just gotten the battery in and phone back on when it rang.

  “Darien!” Elliot’s frantic voice sounded down the line.

  Darien smiled as he climbed into the ambulance. “Cutting it a little close there,” he said weakly. His head hurt badly.

  Elliot let out a sigh of relief. “I let you know as soon as I knew. Are you okay?”

  “Car’s totaled.” Darien looked back at the little, black sports car, smashed into pieces. “They are taking us to…” Darien turned to look at the EMT. “Where are we going?”

  “Bethesda,” the medic answered as she ran an IV into Vicky’s arm.

  “Did you get that?” Darien asked Elliot.

  “Yes,” Elliot said. “We are already on our way.”

  “Good.” Darien looked down at the blood on his dress shirt. He hadn’t realized he was bleeding. “I think I need something to eat.” Pressing his hand over the rib poking out of the skin, he pushed it back into place. The hiss that came from him drew the attention of the medic.

  “Let me see.” The medic pulled Darien’s hand away to find the rib healed.

  “It must have come from her head wound,” Darien mused as the medic searched his side for the source of the blood. He’d made short work of that broken rib, but he had at least three more that were not healing properly.

  “How is she?” Elliot asked, drawing Darien’s attention back to the phone in his hand.

  Darien looked past the EMT trying to check him over. “She’ll be okay.”

  “How are you?” Elliot sounded more concerned.

  “Hurry,” Darien replied. If he didn’t get some fresh blood to get his system working right, the doctors would find out that he wasn’t quite normal.

  “We will meet you at the emergency room.” Elliot cut the line off, and Darien lowered the phone.

  The EMT was working to get Darien’s coat off so she could check his blood pressure.

  He conceded and let the woman pull his jacket off. She looked over the bloody spot again before wrapping the blood pressure cuff around Darien’s arm and pumping it up. He was interested in what it would come out to be.

  The woman pumped it up three times, rechecking the levels. “That’s weird.”

  “What?” Darien asked.

  The medic checked her machine. “Your blood pressure is eighty-nine over sixty-four.”

  “Is that good?” Darien asked.

  “It’s way low.” She pulled out her stethoscope. “But blood pressure usually rises in stressful situations. Breathe in for me.” The woman placed the listening device against Darien’s chest.

  Drawing in a deep breath, he made sure his heart beat normally. He reached over and touched Vicky’s leg to match her pulse. A confused look crossed the woman’s face, and she looked up at him.

  “Do you have a heart arrhythmia?” she asked as she moved the stethoscope around on his chest.

  “Not to my knowledge,” Darien said as she listened. He contemplated stopping his heart to see what she would do but decided that would cause more trouble than it was worth.

  When she was done listening, she pulled out a penlight and shined it into Darien’s eyes. “How do you feel?” she asked, checking over the bump on his head.

  “All right,” Darien lied. His head hurt badly, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. He was hoping that some fresh blood would set him right. For a moment, he considered biting the nice EMT pestering him, but he shook that idea away. Not only would her driver notice, but she was also taking care of Vicky. Darien tried not to feed from emergency crews. They did more good with their blood in them.

  “Looks like you have a bit of a concussion.” The woman put her light away. “Just relax, and we’ll get you to the hospital.” The medic turned her attention back to Vicky, who was just stirring.

  Darien placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder. “I’m fine. Worry about her.” He pushed the woman to forget about his condition.

  The medic nodded and bent under his suggestion.

  Sitting back, he rubbed Vicky’s legs as the medic looked her over. His fingers found the silver ring of flowers Zak had placed on her ankle. He fiddled with it, thinking about what the little fay was going to do to him for letting Vicky get hurt again.

  ***

  Vicky woke up to the comforting feeling of Darien driving the hurt from her. She opened her eyes to find she was strapped to a gurney with a woman leaning over her, checking her vitals. Vicky followed the source of the warmth down to see Darien leaning forwards with his eyes closed, holding on to her leg. The woman fired off a string of questions, but Vicky ignored them, worrying about the man near her feet. “Darien?” Vicky called softly.

  He looked up and gave her a reassuring smile that he really didn’t feel.

  Vicky leaned back and gave her attention to the medic. It only took another five minutes for them to arrive at the hospital, but Vicky felt infinitely better than when she first woke up. The EMT was surprised that Vicky was in such good condition after such a hard crash. The only things Darien hadn’t fixed yet were the surface wounds and the broken bone in her arm.

  “Let’s get you inside,” the EMT said as her partner opened the back of the ambulance.

  Darien released Vicky’s leg and got down. His head was killing him, and he was a little shaky on his feet, but he did his best to not show the injury to the medic. It would be p
roblematic if they tried to get him into the emergency room.

  The pair of medics pulled Vicky out and wheeled her through the double doors into the hospital. Elliot and two others were waiting for their arrival and stepped up as soon as they saw Darien get out of the back of the ambulance.

  “Darien.” Elliot grabbed him before he fell over. “Are you all right?”

  “No,” Darien admitted. “I’m not healing.”

  Elliot looked around at the open entryway. “Come on.” He grabbed Vicky’s bag and Darien’s coat from the back of the ambulance and pulled his friend off towards the cars parked to the left of the entrance doors. “Cassie,” Elliot called to the female with him. “Can you?” He handed Darien off to a short woman with brown hair. She had no problem supporting the taller man as she raised her wrist up for Darien to bite.

  “Thank you,” he said softly before sinking his fangs into her wrist. A tingle of energy told Darien that this woman was a werewolf. He took two long pulls of the woman’s blood before the pain in his head subsided. Drawing two more mouthfuls, he licked the wound closed.

  “Is that enough?” Cassie asked as Darien pulled away from her wrist. The vampire hadn’t taken nearly what she’d expected him to.

  Darien straightened up and leaned against the car behind him to heal. “Yes.” He turned his attention to Elliot. “I need to get in to Victoria.”

  “Are you sure you’re all right now?” Elliot asked.

  Darien swallowed, clearing the last of the blood from his mouth. “Yes.” He stood up. “That helped a lot. Thank you.” Taking his coat and bag from Elliot, he led the way to the emergency room. The magic in Cassie’s blood had kicked his system into gear, and the pain had subsided. He could feel his ribs knitting back together as they made their way into the hospital.

  Elliot and his two friends followed Darien in to find Vicky. The EMTs had helped the nurses transfer her to a normal bed before gathering up their stuff to leave.

  Vicky looked up to find the group standing back, watching. “Darien,” she called. He looked a lot better than when he had been sitting in the ambulance. Her eyes found Elliot standing behind him.

  Darien pulled his coat back on to cover the bloody spot on his shirt. “Everything is fine now.” He stepped back to give the nurses more room to work.

  “What happened?” Elliot asked as he looked over Vicky lying on the bed.

  “Someone ran a red light and tagged the front end of my car.” Darien tried to make himself more presentable. “If you hadn’t warned us, they would have T-boned us.”

  Elliot nodded. “Sorry I couldn’t have warned you sooner.” He looked over Darien.

  “I appreciate what you did do,” Darien said. “I think I now owe you a boon.” His eyes turned back to Vicky. “Or two.”

  Elliot chuckled. “You have already done enough for me, My Lord. It was the least I could do.” He tilted his head forwards in a slight bow.

  “Stop it, my friend.” Darien raised him up by the shoulder. “Those days have long past.”

  Elliot stood up and chuckled lightly again. “True, but I’m still honored to be called your friend.” He looked over at the nurse drawing blood from Vicky. “But, what I really want to know is what happened with you.”

  Darien stilled as he thought about his reaction after the wreck. “I don’t know,” he said softly. “I had a bad reaction to something earlier today.”

  Elliot turned concerned eyes to him.

  “I suspect that whatever was affecting me then is still bothering me now.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m not sure.” Darien looked over at Vicky on the bed. “I was confused and couldn’t think straight.”

  “Did you eat?” Elliot worried.

  “Victoria forced me to eat both a sandwich and the regular fare. It took about half an hour for it to clear out.” Darien looked over at his friend. “I have no idea what caused it. Victoria said I was acting as if my blood sugar were low.”

  Elliot gave him a really confused look. “Do we even have blood sugar?”

  “I have no idea,” Darien answered. “Victoria thinks I should find someone that knows more about us and ask them.”

  Elliot snorted at this idea.

  Darien smiled at his reaction. “Those were my thoughts exactly.”

  “If anyone knows more about us than you, it would be Lord Dakine.” Elliot cleared the humor from his words as he spoke.

  “I will talk with him as soon as I can.” Darien turned to look towards the door. Two police officers had just stepped in and were heading his way. “I think I have company.” He tugged on his jacket as the two police walked towards him.

  “Mr. Darien Ritter?” one of the cops asked.

  “Good evening, gentlemen. How can I help you?” Darien asked.

  The cops looked at each other, surprised that Darien was even standing. “We need to get your statement about the accident,” the officer said.

  “Of course,” Darien answered. He looked at Elliot. “Could you stay with Victoria?”

  Elliot nodded, and Darien walked off with the two officers to find a quieter place to talk. Elliot turned back to wait for the nurses to stop buzzing around Vicky like bees.

  “I’m sorry.” Darien said as he and Vicky rode up to his penthouse. Elliot had hung around to take them home after the doctors had released Vicky with her new cast. They were amazed that she had come through the wreck with as few injuries as she had.

  Vicky leaned in against Darien. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Putting his arm around her, he pulled her closer. “I’ll get something to get that off.” Darien promised as the elevator opened and they stepped out. He had already healed the bone in the car on the way home.

  Vicky tapped her nails on the plaster and sighed. It had been her first cast.

  They hadn’t taken more than three steps into the foyer when a terrible roar broke the silence in the apartment. Vicky turned just in time to see Zak barrel out of the living room and slam into Darien. The vampire fell over backwards with the mass of angry tentacles writhing on top of him.

  “Zak!” Vicky grabbed at the hellhound, trying to keep him from eating Darien.

  Zak snarled at the vampire and snapped at Vicky in his fury.

  She fell backwards, surprised that the fay had tried to take a chunk out of her. “Zak!” she cried.

  The fear and hurt in her voice made the fay pause in his attack. He held Darien down and looked to where Vicky had landed on the floor with her arms held protectively in front of her. Zak reached out an end to touch her, and she flinched away from him. He gurgled apologetically as sense came back to him. The little horror wiggled carefully over to Vicky, leaving Darien slightly mauled on the wooden floor of the foyer.

  She tensed as Zak drew near, gurgling.

  He whined and wiggled his feelers at her, but he didn’t touch the frightened woman.

  Darien sat up and checked to make sure he was still in one piece.

  Vicky relaxed, seeing that Zak had returned to himself. She held out her arms, and he swarmed over to bury his face into her stomach. “I’m okay.” Vicky rubbed the worried little fay. “You just frightened me.”

  He whined, touching her all over. A tentacle wrapped around the cast on her arm.

  “That’s okay, too.” Vicky rubbed Zak reassuringly. “Darien already healed it.”

  The fay turned around and growled at the vampire on the floor.

  “Stop it. It wasn’t his fault.”

  Zak whined again and held on to her.

  Darien found his feet and pushed up from the floor. “I’m sorry,” he apologized to the distressed fay. “If I could have stopped it, I would have.” Reaching down, he attempted to pet Zak’s head.

  Zak growled at him.

  Vicky patted him on the bottom. “Stop it,” she demanded.

  Zak whined but let Darien pet him.

  Darien looked at the cast. “Would you like to help me get that thing o
ff her?”

  Zak gurgled his agreement before pulling Vicky’s arm over to him and chomping down on the cast. The plaster cracked under the pressure of the fay’s teeth.

  “Not like that.” Darien pulled the fay off Vicky. “You could hurt her again.”

  Zak wiggled, but let the vampire pick him up.

  Darien tucked him under his arm and reached a hand down to help Vicky to her feet. Once she was standing again, he handed the fay back to her. “I have a Dremel upstairs.”

  Vicky chuckled as Zak wiggled his feelers under the cast and started pulling it apart. “You may not need it.” She grinned as they went up to Darien’s office.

  Zak chewed on the edge of the plaster as they walked. He had nearly devoured half the cast by the time Darien had gotten out of his coat, found the Dremel, and put a cutting wheel on it.

  Vicky dropped the little fay to the floor and held what was left of the mangled plaster out for Darien to remove.

  Zak wrapped himself around Vicky’s ankles as Darien carefully cut a line down the cast and pulled it free of her arm.

  “See.” Vicky bent her wrist around before holding it down for Zak to examine. “It’s okay.”

  The little fay wrapped his ends around Vicky’s arm and sniffed at it to make sure. He released Vicky and snorted at Darien.

  Darien dropped the damaged plaster into the trashcan.

  “I’m going to go take a bath.” Vicky headed out of the office.

  Darien shook his head as he watch Zak drag behind her by a tentacle wrapped around her ankle. He rolled up his sleeves as he turned to search the shelves for the things he would need to contact Dakine. He really needed to get someone’s opinion on what was happening to him.

  ***

  “Darien.” Vicky’s voice echoed out of the bathroom in the master suite.

  Darien turned from the pattern he was drawing on his bedroom mirror. “Yes?” he called. He was in the middle of a rather complicated communication spell and really couldn’t walk away from it.