Kindling Flames: Flying Sparks (The Ancient Fire Series Book 2) (29 page)

“What time?”

Darien crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ll leave here at six thirty.”

“Ouch.” Rupert winced.

Darien shrugged.

“Okay, Phelan isn’t busy tomorrow, but I don’t think he has the right clothing for it.”

“No problem.” Darien pushed away from the dresser. “He is close to my size; I think I might have something he could wear.”

Rupert followed him down the hall, leaving Vicky to wonder why Darien would need a guard at work.

***

“I have got to go to bed.” Vicky pushed away from the dining room table. It had been the only table in the house big enough for the strange game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s works. The complicated game had ended when the large monster had woken up to eat everyone’s souls. It had been fun, but it had also been really long, and it was past the time Vicky had planned to go to bed.

“Are you sure you can’t play another round? It’s only eleven,” the woman who had brought the game asked.

Vicky dragged her name from her memory. “No thanks, Zoe.” She shook her head and stood up. “I have to get up early tomorrow for work.” Zoe nodded as Vicky stood up. Another one of Rupert’s wolves sat down in the open chair to join in the next game.

Stretching, Vicky headed up to her room to find a group sitting on the floor playing strip poker. They barely looked up when she walked in. She begged their pardon as she rounded up her bag and work clothing in record time. The partially dressed people wished her a good night as she nearly bolted from the room with her things.

“I was starting to wonder if you were going to come to bed tonight,” Darien teased as Vicky came into the room. He marked his place in his book and placed it on the table beside him.

“I got caught up in a game,” she said, dumping the armload of stuff on the bed to sort out.

Darien came over and took her work clothing to hang in his closet so they wouldn’t get wrinkled.

Stacking the rest of her personal items in a neat pile, Vicky placed them on the corner of the dresser. Looking at the pile, she glanced at the doorway Darien just disappeared through. She yanked open the end drawer and dropped the pile in. Vicky felt a little lewd, leaving her underwear sitting out in the open. When she turned back to the bed to get her nightclothes, she found that Zak had finally decided to join them and was currently rolling on her pajama set.

“
Zak
,” Vicky whined as she went over and took the top away from him. It had little flower buttons down the front, and Zak had pulled the top two off as he played with the shirt. “
Now
what am I going to wear?” She ruffled the little fay.

“Make him go get you something else,” Darien said as he walked back into the room.

Vicky looked up at him, confused. “What?” How would the little, doglike fay know what to get?

“Zak,” Darien called as he walked over to take the damaged set from Vicky. “Go get her something else.” Taking the shirt and pants, he dropped them into the clothes hamper.

Zak answered with a bark and wobbled off the bed.

“Can he really do that?” Vicky asked as Darien took the two buttons the fay had pulled loose.

“He’s a lot smarter than you realize,” he said before pulling his pajamas out of the dresser.

Vicky sat on the bed, thinking about this as Darien started to tug off his shirt. She quickly found something interesting in the wood grains of the floor as he proceeded to strip out of his pants. It was hard enough dealing with Darien without a shirt on, let alone without his pants. What was it with these people and their lack of inhibitions?

Vicky didn’t have long to wait before Zak came scuttling back into the room, waving around a piece of light purple cloth. She took the short nightgown and looked at it. There was no way she was going to wear this to bed. Yes, it was one of her favorites, but it was much too revealing for the situation.

Zak wiggled, waiting for praise at doing a good job. Vicky petted him, and he purred happily.

“It’s late. Change so we can get to bed,” Darien urged her.

Looking at him, wide-eyed, she got up to go to the bathroom to change. She thought about getting something else to wear, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to see how far the game of poker had progressed. Anyway, Darien said Zak was smarter than she gave him credit for. Would he get mad at her for not wearing what he brought? Vicky looked at the outfit again. This one had been in the bottom of the drawer two days ago. Had Zak dug through everything to get it out? She changed her clothing slowly, thinking about this. Looking at the short gown, she tried adjusted the straps a little. It was far from what she would call sexy, with the cute, little bows where the straps attached on the front, but it was short. Vicky tugged at the hem, trying to lengthen the material that didn’t quite reach mid-thigh. After a few minutes of unsuccessful pulling, she gave up. Drawing up her courage, she headed back out to go to bed.

Darien looked up from playing with Zak when Vicky stepped shyly into the room. His eyes swept from the golden hair surrounding her slightly flushed face, across the short nightgown, and down her shapely legs to her bare feet. She was stunning in the simple outfit, and he questioned how he had missed this fact when he had first met her. Darien turned his attention to the little fay next to him, staring at Vicky and purring. He grabbed a few tentacles and tugged on them lightly to get Zak’s attention before complimenting his choice with a simple ‘nice job’. Zak cooed lightly in response. Darien had to give the small horror credit—he really knew how to choose a fetching outfit.

The kitchen was full of people when Vicky walked in to get her breakfast. The only person she recognized was Josie, standing at the stove flipping pancakes onto plates. A woman Vicky had seen coming in with Rupert stood next to her, and the two were laughing about something. Zak skittered past Vicky and bumped into the back of her legs, begging for a treat.

Vicky snickered at the way the women backpedaled from the wiggly creature. “Come here, you.” Scooping Zak up, Vicky held him back from the wolf. “Stop scaring people.” Everyone had either heard about or seen yesterday’s event with Bobby, and they were being very cautious around the unpredictable creature. Several of the kitchen’s occupants took the plates they had been fixing and disappeared through the door into the dining room.

Vicky picked up a piece of sausage from a plate and took Zak into the breakfast nook. She set him down in the corner and gave him the meat to chew on. “Now, be good,” she said as she went back into the kitchen.

“Thank you,” the woman said to Vicky. “That thing scares the crap out of me.”

“Zak isn’t so bad.” Vicky picked up a plate and started adding things to it from the platters around the counter. “He really is a sweetheart.”

The woman shot Vicky a ‘you have got to be kidding me’ look. Zak chose that moment to poke around the corner of the doorway and gurgle at them. The woman took part of a step back at the sight.

“He’s just misunderstood.” Vicky smiled at her before tossing a piece of bacon towards the creature. Zak snagged it out of the air and munched on it happily. She thanked the two girls for their cooking and took her plate into the breakfast nook to eat.

***

The number of people hanging out in his house this morning surprised Darien. He knew that both Clara and Rupert had opened the invitation to everyone, but still. When he had gone downstairs to make sure Phelan was awake, he had been awed to see there were still movies playing in the family room and people gaming in the living room. A group had set up some role-playing game on the dining room table and were busy tossing dice around. The entire weekend had been an amazing flourish of activity wrapping around the clock. Did these people ever sleep?

The other thing that amazed Darien was how well the vampires and the werewolves got along together. Most of the members of both groups were too young to remember what had caused the conflict between the two parties. It was really only the older wolves and vampires who were still having problems getting over hard feelings. It helped that Zak reminded them all fighting wasn’t welcome.

“Who did your hair?” Darien asked as he came into the kitchen with the silver wooden sticks in hand, ready to fix Vicky’s hair. He had been stopped in the foyer by Clara, who insisted he have a proper breakfast and not ‘that bagged crap’ he normally ate. The little side trip had delayed him for a few minutes, making him worry that they’d be running late.

“Terrence did it.” Vicky turned around to show off the intricately plaited braid the delicate man had woven in her hair.

Pushing aside the twinge of disappointment, Darien smiled appreciatively as he slipped the sticks into his inside coat pocket. He liked running his fingers through her soft curls as she sat with her eyes closed, trusting him. Reminding himself that he had spent all night cuddling her, he cheered up.

“It looks beautiful.” Darien complimented. “Are you ready to go then?”

She pushed Zak off her lap and stood up. “I just need to grab my bag,” Vicky said as she headed out of the room. “I’ll meet you in the foyer in just a minute.”

Darien nodded in response and reached down to grab up the ball of tentacles following her. “Now listen,” he lifted Zak up to eye level, “I know you want to come with us today, but you can’t.”

Zak growled at him.

“Not even as a dog. I need you to stay here and make sure everything’s okay.”

Zak wiggled his tips angrily at him.

“I promise she’ll be okay. If anything should happen, I’ll send word back to you.”

Zak stared at him hard before sneezing.

Darien dropped the little horror to the floor and opened the refrigerator to pull out one of his blood packs. “Here.” He tossed it down to the little fay.

Zak snatched it up happily.

“Make sure you put the bag in the trash when you’re done.”

He gurgled his agreement and took off with the blood to enjoy it in peace.

***

“Stop pulling at your tie.” Vicky shook her head at Phelan as he tugged on the unfamiliar clothing. “You’ve got it all crooked.”

“It feels like I’m wearing a collar,” Phelan grumped as he attempted to fix what he had messed up.

“Technically, you are.” Darien smiled, and Phelan sneered at him.

“Cut it out.” Vicky turned to the wolf dressed in her boss’s clothing. “Hold still and let me fix it.” She stepped in so she could mess with Phelan’s tie.

Darien shut his eyes and pushed away the anger that stole over him. He had this irresistible urge to yank her away from the wolf and yell ‘Get away from her, damn it. She is mine!’ Surprised by the pang of possessiveness that coursed through him he shook his head to clear it of rampant thoughts. It had to be the stress from the weekend messing with his head. He had spent most of the time watching her and thinking about what he was going to do to ensure her safety. Darien opened his eyes when he felt Vicky’s gentle fingers at his neck and smiled as she fixed his tie, too.

“Thank you,” he said softly as she pulled away from him. Somehow, that simple gesture was enough to calm him.

“You’re welcome.” Turning to face the door, she stood between the two men. “Now don’t mess them up,” she warned as she stepped out of the elevator.

Phelan dropped his hand away from his collar before he touched the offensive article.

Darien just snickered and followed her out onto their floor.

Dropping her bag in its customary spot and opening her computer, Vicky ignored the guys as Darien went into his office, leaving Phelan to his own devices in Vicky’s room. She looked up at the man slightly out of place in the corporate world. “Did you bring something to do?”

Phelan shook his head as he looked around the room.

“Here.” Taking pity on the man, Vicky unplugged her laptop. “I don’t need this for a while.” She picked up the computer and handed it to Phelan.

“I’m here as a guard.” He tried to refuse.

“True,” Vicky said. “But there’s no reason for you to be bored,” she insisted, pressing the computer into his hands. “I really doubt that anything is going to happen.”

Phelan just looked at her for a moment.

“Besides, it’s not like you’re going anywhere.”

The wolf finally gave in and took the laptop.

Vicky went back to her desk and pulled out Darien’s appointment book so she could get busy rearranging his schedule for the week.

Phelan held the computer in his hands and found a seat on the couch next to the desk. At least now he would have something to do for a while.

***

“I’m heading down to the café to get something for lunch,” Vicky said after Maurice left looking more than a little chewed, but glad that Darien hadn’t fired him over the massive shipping error. “Did you want anything?”

Darien looked up from his desk to his thoughtful assistant. “Just the usual, please.”

Vicky nodded her understanding before slipping from his office.

Darien let out a contented sigh and went back to the file he was trying to read before his next meeting. He was so glad that the temp agency had sent Vicky to him. Now, if they could just make it through this week, he would be able to act on his growing feelings without being overshadowed by some chaotic event.