Dark Flame

  Mary was recovering slowly. She had dark shadows beneath her eyes and no appetite. She was on two different kinds of intravenous fluids intended to heal her and to suppress some of the withdrawal symptoms.

  Each of the alter species could self-heal. But an addiction to any of the flame drugs created a new set of problems that took time to counteract, especially given the quantity used on Mary. Her body had been saturated with dark flame to keep her unconscious. Juliet wasn’t sure of everything that had happened to Mary during her captivity, but a loss of consciousness would have meant she hadn’t been used sexually.

  On the fifth night after Brannick’s departure, Juliet sat in a chair chatting with Mary about nothing and everything. During their time together working in Brannick’s rescue organization, she and Mary had become friends.

  As she sat beside Mary’s bed, Mary slid both hands prayer-like beneath her cheek. “A very faint memory of leaving my cell at Roche’s sex club keeps circling back to me, even though I was unconscious. I have an impression of being held by powerful arms, but they don’t feel vampire in nature. Did Brannick carry me out?”

  Juliet shook her head slowly. She knew how Mary felt about the wolves of Savage. “Fergus was with us. He’s the one who took charge of you and flew you back to my home.”

  Mary looked away, her lips turning down. “I suppose I should thank him at some point, but I hate owing anything to Fergus or any of his kind.”

  Juliet then recalled how Fergus had picked Mary up and released a potent howl. She told Mary about it.

  “I don’t understand. Why would he do that? He must have risked all our lives making such a primal sound.”

  “I honestly don’t know what came over him. He was otherwise in supreme control. I hate to say this, but I think it might have been because of you.”

  “Me?” Her light blue eyes widened. “Why?”

  Juliet was reluctant to speak the words, but she said them anyway. “He’s reaching the peak of his mate-hunting cycle. I think he liked you.”

  Mary made a disgusted sound at the back of her throat. “Shifters. Ugh.” She even shuddered. “Okay, let’s not talk about Fergus anymore. Has Brannick called you back yet?”

  A few days ago, Juliet had confessed everything to Mary. Her friend had been stunned, even appalled until Juliet confessed being very much in love with a vampire from Crescent.

  “No, he hasn’t reached out to me. Just the once to make sure I was still alive and kicking. He hung up pretty fast.”

  She forced herself to keep breathing, but the mere mention of him made her chest feel like it was being pulled in a dozen different directions all at the same time. She hurt though she tried hard not to let too much of it show. “I don’t expect him to be calling anytime soon. He doesn’t really have a reason to. I mean, getting you away from Roche was his biggest concern and now you’re here and very safe.”

  “You really love him, don’t you?”

  Mary was a very direct sort of person, so the question didn’t surprise Juliet.

  Tears bloomed in her eyes. “I ... Oh, God … Yes, I do. More than I can possibly say.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Brannick yelled at the punk vampire, high on dark flame. “Use your levitation, asshole, or you’re going to fall off that ledge and break your fucking neck.”

  He stood outside a supermarket in a fairly safe area of Crescent. An emaciated drug addict was walking the edge of the metal ramada that covered most of the parking lot. Dark flame tended to put its addicts into a dreamy state, much like the dreamglide he’d shared all that time with Juliet.

  He got tired of watching the man weave back and forth. Besides, the audience was growing and in a situation like this, if the man fell, he could end up hurting one of the bystanders.

  Brannick levitated up behind the addict and put him in a chokehold. He swung him quickly in the direction of his patrol SUV, then flew him straight to the vehicle. Once there, Brannick cuffed him and tossed him in the back. By then, the vampire had passed out.

  He grumbled to himself as he put the SUV in motion, heading back to the station. “Exciting life of a peace officer. Taking care of drunks.”

  Great, now he was talking to himself.

  Brannick’s nights had been less than stellar since he left Agnes’s compound. His boss, Easton, had been punishing his two night absence with shit jobs like pulling drugged-out vampires off ramadas. Other duties had been equally as meaningless. Three of the drug-runners he’d captured in west Crescent had been released on Easton’s orders, despite having been caught with vests stuffed with a variety of flame drugs.

  He had no patience these nights. He was irritable as hell and blamed Juliet for that. He had a lot of fae intuition mucking up his thoughts as well as his nightly patrols. Granted, he’d saved more than one life, because he sensed something else was going on in a given situation. His odd faeness had ferreted out the truth when otherwise he couldn’t have done it.

  Mostly, he was discontent in a way he hadn’t been in a long time, not since he arrived in Five Bridges thirteen years ago. Every other thought belonged to Juliet, even though he’d never be able to forgive her for what she’d done. She’d violated his dreams and seduced him.

  Did he have thoughts that maybe he shouldn’t care so much? Sure he did. He was a man first and what he’d had with Juliet was nothing short of amazing. He’d be a fool not to want her in his life. But how could he trust a woman who’d lied to him, besides crossing that forbidden boundary?

  He worked at building up his wall against her. He knew in time, the searing memories of being with her would fade. Although, it would help a lot if he had serious work to do, like taking out some bad guys in Rotten Row.

  When a call came in regarding three prostitutes in a cat fight outside a dive bar near Sentinel Bridge, he rolled his eyes and turned his vehicle around.

  But as he drove, his discontentment turned into something bigger, as in what the hell was he doing with his life?

  ~ ~ ~

  A full week after Mary’s rescue, Juliet woke up with a headache. And she never had headaches.

  She tried to recall her dreams, but couldn’t. Also unusual. She believed in keeping dream journals and had written in one up until about five months ago when her erotic relationship with Brannick had taken off.

  She felt uneasy as she prepared for the day. She’d already decided to extend her stay in Agnes’s compound for a few more weeks. Roche’s abduction of Mary had changed things for her, even though she had no idea what his present intentions might be. It wasn’t just that she wanted to be safe, either. But she also didn’t want to put anyone else in harm’s way because of Roche’s fixation on her.

  As she rubbed her temple, she wondered absently if Roche was trying to mess with her in the dreamglide. She didn’t have a real concern, not after she’d built up her block as thoroughly as she had. Still, the headache bothered her.

  She crossed to her closet, and pushed hanger after hanger aside, most bearing her usual gauzy loose clothes. Some were dressy club gear she hadn’t worn in the four years she’d been in Five Bridges. She and her husband had enjoyed going out a lot. The black dress she’d worn at the White Flame was the first time she’d gotten dressed up since her alter transformation.

  She was restless, something that had to do with Brannick, yet didn’t, not really. This was more about her and how her time with Brann had changed her, made her want something different from her life in their tough alter world.

  She missed Brannick like crazy, but he’d made no effort to contact her. She was pretty sure he’d moved on or was at least trying to. Her gaze dropped to the floor and she saw Brannick’s duffel, the one he’d left here when he took off the last time. She missed him so much.

  But he wasn’t here anymore, and like him, she needed to get on with things.

  She sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at her clothes. She’d always been on the artsy edge of things and part of that had been in an attempt to
work around her curly hair. Loose clothes and her philosophical attitude toward life, seemed to jive with her, at least up until now.

  She rose from the bed and started pacing. The cottage bedroom took up the entire distance, from one window on the north side back to the window near the bed at the opposite end.

  Something else had to change, she just wasn’t sure what.

  ~ ~ ~

  Well over a week after he’d left Juliet for good, Brannick had another three vampire prostitutes in the back of his SUV. All of them had been drinking and one of them showed the red marks of blood flame on her throat and cheeks.

  He was still on shit-job duty and getting sick of it.

  The loose-tongued women started flirting with him, asking if he wanted one of them to blow him. They were a noisy bunch, which set his nerves on fire.

  His temper had gotten worse, and his dreams had been full of Juliet. To her credit, she never once tried to snag him in her dreamglide.

  When the woman addicted to blood flame asked him how many inches he had, something inside him snapped.

  He was done.

  He put on his siren and sped back to the Crescent station. He called on a couple of rookies to process the women, then went inside. He lifted a hand to Lily who called out a greeting, but he didn’t stop to chat.

  He wasn’t in a chatty mood.

  He went straight to Easton’s office, but the corrupt chief wasn’t there. Brannick thought for a moment, then unclipped his Glock and holster and placed them on the middle of the desk.

  He was done being a border patrol officer, done cleaning up the sour mess of his messed up world, done taking orders from a man who took his from the three drug cartels that ran Five Bridges.

  When he left the office, Lily met him in the hall, her eyes wide. “Did you just do what I think you did?”

  “Yep. I quit.”

  “Just like that?”

  He searched her eyes. “You ever have one of those moments when you know you can’t keep going, or if you do your head will explode?”

  Her lips quirked. “I did, right before I threw my second husband out of the house. It was either get rid of him, or kill him. Since I didn’t want to go to prison, I kicked his lazy ass to the curb and never looked back.”

  Brannick’s lips curved, then something caught his eye—light brown curls. He looked past several officers. The woman was staring at something on the wall.

  It couldn’t be …

  “Lily, excuse me.”

  “Sure. I’ve got to get back to my desk anyway. I can hear the phone ringing.”

  He moved swiftly and had just pulled the door to the entrance open, when the light brown curls turned toward him.

  Holy fuck, if he hadn’t seen Juliet with his own eyes he wouldn’t have believed it. “You came to Crescent? Here? To see me?”

  “I did.” Still the same soft warm voice, but she didn’t seem like the same woman. His acquired fae abilities intuited something major was going on with her.

  He looked her up and down. “You’re wearing leather and suede.” The purple suede vest, dangling with fringe, was snug at the waist and the black pants fit her like a glove. She had on boots as well. Where were the loose clothes?

  There were too many people milling around, so he took her arm and led her out onto the sidewalk. “I don’t get this. What are you doing here? And why are you wearing this get-up?”

  Even her hair looked different. She wore it up off her neck with most of it pulled back. It still had a rough-and-tumble look but with an edge this time. Her lipstick was a darker shade as well, very striking.

  She didn’t smile either. There was a seriousness about her that hadn’t been there a week ago.

  She held his gaze. “I have a proposition for you and don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you and me on a personal level.”

  He had no idea what she could possibly have in mind. “What kind of proposition?”

  “Is there someplace we can go and talk or do you need to get back to patrolling?”

  He knew his mouth was agape, and it took him a minute to bring his thoughts together. “I quit.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I resigned about three minutes ago.”

  She shook her head, her curls bobbing. “Why? You love your job.”

  “I do. I did. Things have gotten so fucked up over the past few years. The cartels …”

  “I know. They run just about everything.”

  He dipped his chin. “But I don’t want to have this conversation here.”

  Her lips curved. “I know a place in Elegance we could go.”

  He held her gaze for a long moment. “I hope you don’t think I have any interest in a relationship.”

  “I don’t. Like I said, this has nothing to do with you and me.”

  “Then the White Flame it is.”

  Without another word, she rose into the air, using her newly acquired levitation skills and headed southeast toward Elegance. He stayed right with her, passing over Sentinel Bridge that connected Elegance with Crescent, but slowing and making a descent a couple streets before the tall, stone Tribunal building.

  The club was named for a mythical antidote that would reverse the genetic mutations of the various alter serums. There wasn’t an alter person in Five Bridges who didn’t wish the myth was true.

  The marquis was a sophisticated black and silver with a flickering white flame at the right end towering twenty feet into the sky. Roof supports held it locked in place.

  Once settled in a maroon leather booth, Brannick sat across from her as he had the night he first met her. He didn’t want any misunderstandings about their relationship. He might like her in leather and he might be intrigued by the obvious shift in her personality. But she would always be the fae woman who had violated his dreams.

  She ordered a rum drink. He order scotch neat.

  She sat back, hands settled on her lap. She looked around at those dancing to the music, to others in the neighboring booths. “They look almost normal, don’t they?” She was smiling, but even her smile seemed different.

  “Okay, what gives? You’re not the same woman I was with a week ago.”

  She held his gaze. “I’m not sure. I’m part vampire now and it’s changed me. I feel purposeful, more than I was before. In fact I’m not sure without have acquired your skills that I would have risked flying into Crescent.”

  “Shit, I just realized you made this journey by yourself. Weren’t you afraid of Roche? That he might be on the lookout for you?”

  “I was careful. I held my cloak tight. I figured if he couldn’t see me in his own place of business, he wouldn’t be able to detect my presence in the dark of night.”

  He felt his desire for her rise, a tide within him that wanted to flood his entire being. But he held it in check. Besides, nothing about her demeanor spoke of her interest in him.

  She was all business.

  The drinks arrived and he brought the cool glass to his lips. Gulping a solid swig of scotch helped. Juliet sipped her mai-tai through a narrow red straw.

  “So, what’s this proposition?”

  Her dark blue eyes lit up, and she leaned forward, but sent the words into his mind. I want to take down Roche’s empire.

  He frowned. You’re kidding.

  Nope. She wagged her head back and forth. Not even a little. Listen, Brann, I’ve had time to think everything over during the past week. I know I’ve offended you badly because of what I did. But as I said before, I don’t regret it. I can’t.

  Her attitude wasn’t warming him at all.

  She continued, I feel as though what I gained from being with you in terms of an increase and even shift in alter power has been worth it. Of course I didn’t go into the relationship thinking I’d be gaining a vampire persona, or anything like that. I just wanted to be with you.

  But the result has astounded me. She set her drink on the table. Until I met you, I thought I had to just keep my head down.
But I know that’s not true anymore. In fact, I think it’s just the opposite, especially since Roche has been trying to mess with me in my dreams.

  His temper fired up. “You mean he’s still after you?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?”

  She lowered her chin. We should stay in telepathy, don’t you think?

  He agreed. But why didn’t you call me, Juliet? I told you I would protect you.

  I know. And actually, this is part of the reason I came to you tonight. Roche’s recent attempt to gain control of me only recently happened over the last few days. When I was waking up, I couldn’t remember a single dream and that’s not like me at all. And I had a headache. In addition, the fae part of me knew he was hovering around my dreamglide, trying to find another way in.

  He’s still after me, and that won’t change. But once I realized what he was doing, I knew it wasn’t enough to play defense anymore. You know, Emma and Vaughn took that horrible wizard down. I don’t remember his name.

  Brannick did. He helped carry several frightened young teenage girls out of the bastard’s underground labyrinth. Loghry. His name was Loghry.

  That’s right. She sipped her mai-tai again. But it got me to thinking that maybe you and I coming together wasn’t just an accident or a random lustful act on my part. Even if we can’t be together romantically, maybe we can form a team. Maybe you and I can help fix what has gone so horribly wrong in Five Bridges.

  He thought for a moment. A force for good.

  She nodded slowly. And that’s my proposition. A partnership, maybe even a very secret one that no one knows about, something just between you and me. And completely on the down-low, the way you run your tunnel rescue system.

  Brannick eased back in his seat and stared at Juliet. Now that he had all the memories from their time together in the dreamglide, he could look back at them whenever he wanted.

  Juliet was right. She wasn’t the same person that had broken into his dreams and taken him in her dreamglide. She might have come after him out of her loneliness, but she’d found something of far greater value, a strength of purpose that hadn’t been there before.