Kindling Flames—Gathering Tinder
Read Kindling Flames—Gathering Tinder Online
Authors: Julie Wetzel
Tags: #Fairies, #Vampires, #paranormal romance, #New Adult, #shifters
Kindling Flames
Gathering Tinder
Julie Wetzel
Crimson Tree Publishing
THIS book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the authors' imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
NO part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Kindling Flames-Gathering Tinder
Copyright ©2014 Julie Wetzel
All rights reserved.
Cover Design by: Marya Heiman
Typography by: Courtney Nuckels
~Smashwords Edition~
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I’d like to dedicate this book to my sister, Amanda, and the sailors from the maiden deployment of the USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77). Without you this story would never have happened. May you find calm waves to bring you safely home once more.
Rupert surveyed the carnage, while the screams of approaching
sirens split the air. Flames licked at the night sky as they consumed the once beautiful home. Stepping back into the shadows of the neighboring houses, he watched as the fire truck roared up and spilled out first responders to quench the raging inferno. The light of the fire glistened off the bloody mess on the lawn that had once been his friend.
Turning from the chaos, Rupert slipped into the night, trying to wrap his mind around events. It had been nearly a month since the first of his people went missing. It took two days to determine that the bloody chunks strewn across the lawn of the first unexplained fire had been the missing man. The body had only been identified by the cell phone and wallet found in the mix. The police concluded that he came over to help his neighbor and was caught up in whatever had flash-burnt the home. Rupert had called for patrols of the surrounding area in an attempt to find what was responsible for the death. Now, a second fire had broken out, and another of his was dead. But how? He hadn’t been away from Brian for very long. What could reduce a body to fist-sized bits in a matter of minutes?
A tawny wolf appeared out of the darkness to rub against his leg. Rupert scrubbed his fingers into the scruff at the back of the wolf’s neck. “They will pay,” he promised. Whoever had done this would pay dearly. Rupert’s mind turned on the possibilities. There was no way a human could have killed like that, but what could? A rampant werewolf? A crazed wolf could have caused that degree of destruction, but it would have taken much longer than the few minutes allotted. A vampire? They had the strength and speed, but how had they gotten the fire to engulf the home so quickly? The fay? There were certainly possibilities there.
Rupert turned back to where he had left his van. He could do no more until the police finished processing the scene. Later, he would bring others back to see if they could find anything the police had missed. It had to stop. Something capable of this couldn’t be left loose in the city. If they couldn’t figure out what it was, he could only think of one person that would have the resources to help.
Rupert’s eyes turned north towards the heart of Brenton. Darien could help if he could just be persuaded into action.
Darien looked up from his desk to the young woman waiting and sighed. This was the fourth personal assistant the temp agency had sent this month, and she didn’t seem any more promising than the last three. His own personnel office had already offered six possible candidates, all of whom had been unable to handle the task of dealing with his hectic life. Oh, how he longed for Marianna to come back, even if she was five months pregnant with triplets. If only she hadn’t fallen in love with that rascal, she would be here, running his life, not stuck in bed with a high-risk pregnancy and three brats to look forward to. Letting out another sigh, he read over the girl’s credentials one more time.
He read the name from the file. “Victoria Westernly.” He saw the slight purse of the woman’s lips as he used her full name, but she kept a cool and confident air. “Do you go by Victoria?” he asked.
“I’ll answer to Victoria, but I prefer Vicky,” she answered.
Darien wrote the nickname on her file, disappointed that she would shorten such an elegant name.
Continuing on, he looked at her schooling. “Mid-State University?” he asked, reading over her course list. It was a local school, well known, and her marks were good.
“Yes, sir,” Vicky answered politely.
She still stood confidently, but Darien could smell her fear. He hadn’t gotten where he was without learning to detect the subtle tang of adrenaline. Raising his eyebrow at her, she straightened a little more. He considered her for a moment longer before continuing. “All right, Miss Westernly, I understand this is your first time as a personal assistant.”
Vicky nodded and took a breath to relay her job history, but Darien stopped her with a wave of his hand. She let the air out and shut her mouth, waiting for her potential boss to speak again.
Darien liked that she could follow simple instructions without having them explained. Wanting to see how much the girl would fidget, he tested her patience by flipping through her entire file one more time.
He watched her carefully for a few minutes more, pretending to read. Every now and then, her eyes would be drawn to something in the room, but they would quickly come back to him. The only major movement he detected was when Vicky shifted her weight from one foot to the other as her legs tired from standing in the same place for too long. There were two very nice leather chairs in front of his desk, but he had purposely forgotten to offer her a seat to see how she would handle it. He was pleased to see she hadn’t taken one without being offered. The only other thing he noted was the incessant movement of her thumb as she scratched the pad of her middle finger, waiting for him to answer. Had he been a normal human, Darien might never have detected the slight, nervous fidget from where Vicky hid it in her folded hands.
“One last question.” Darien looked up and locked eyes with the woman. “What’s sitting on the corner of the desk just outside this room?”
Vicky cocked her head and gave the man an odd look as she searched her mind for the answer. She had spent thirty minutes sitting in that room, studying the desk. “A glass vase filled with water. There was blue gravel in the bottom and some kind of water plant growing from the top. It had a red beta in it,” Vicky answered, picturing the desk.
Darien made a noise in his throat and marked something on her file.