The Fire Within

Chapter Six

Darius could feel his eyes sparking with heat. Making love to Samantha hadn’t been smart, not at all. It had done nothing to sate him, and everything to make him want her again. Not a good time, considering what she’d recently been through.

Swearing under his breath, he brought his power under control, enough so that he knew his eyes cooled under the uncomfortable dark contacts he was forced to wear. Samantha simply continued to stare and he thought maybe he’d pushed her too far.

Sighing, he took her by the shoulders and looked down into her wide, stunned green gaze. “Look, I know all this is hard to believe. Trust me, I know the feeling all too well.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair.

Maybe ordering her to come with him had been harsh. His eyes lingered on her vulnerable neck. After what she’d been through, not only with ’Sin Garu but also with the combustible chemistry they seemed to share, she had a right to be wary.

“Samantha, I’m asking you to please come with me. I promise, once we’re at my house, I’ll answer all your questions and tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know.”

She stared at him, her gaze deep and assessing. “I’ll go with you,” she said slowly. “But I want you to promise you’ll stay out of my mind.”

He nodded, though it would take no small effort on his part to give her the space she desired. For some reason, his mind tuned to hers naturally, and the more he was around her, the less he was able to remain distant, both mentally and physically.

He didn’t feel comfortable with this sudden need for a constant ‘mental touch’, and the desire he felt when around her had not abated. Not at all. No, the orgasm he’d just experienced hadn’t sated him, merely made him hungry for more of Samantha’s delectable body.

As he watched her throw her things together into a bag, he wondered at the lack of spark in the crystal embedded in his skin. If Samantha was his true affai, the crystal should have been pulsating or doing, well, something. But it did nothing, merely sat like a scar on his chest.

Samantha finished packing her clothes in record time and he gratefully grabbed her bag, using the motion to take his mind off anything related to the word ‘affai’.

They walked to his truck in silence, his attention on the dark world around them, conscious now of the Djinn threat. Samantha, he imagined, was trying to come to grips with what had happened in her hotel room.

He had driven halfway to his house before she spoke.

“What is an affai?”

He turned to her in shock. “What?”

“Watch the road!”

He barely managed to avoid the car in front of him. “Where did you hear that?”

“From you.”

“When?” He didn’t remember mentioning anything about an affai to her. Hell, he had planned to avoid explaining that part of the story until he absolutely had to clarify it. The thought of marriage still made his stomach roll.

“When we were making love. You called me affai.”

His gaze remained on the road but he could see her blush out of the corner of his eye.

“It’s a term of affection, nothing more.” Why had he called her that? Granted, making love with her was better than anything he’d ever experienced, but great sex was a far cry from a lifetime of commitment.

The stupid crystal around his neck seemed no help. Despite not wanting an affai—not in the slightest, he told himself—he was disappointed the stone hadn’t reacted to Samantha.

Silently cursing the vexing stone burned into his skin, he knew it was best to keep any talk of a bride and permanence to himself, at least until he knew just what his connection with Samantha truly meant. Better to gauge her reaction to his explanation of Tanselm and the Storm Lords. No need to overwhelm her with talk of a binding future, especially if there wasn’t one.

For her part, Samantha seemed to accept his explanation and remained quiet the rest of the drive. Thirty minutes later he escorted her into his home, more than curious to see how she would react to his brothers. In Tanselm, a place where the Royal Four existed and were accepted, people continually stopped and stared when he and his brothers grouped together.

His mother liked to think it was ‘the sheer beauty of her four handsome sons’ clustered in one place that caused such awe, but Arim speculated the brothers’ energies bonded, charging the space around them with a powerful presence impossible to ignore.

Since entering this realm a year ago, Darius had brought only three other women to his home to meet his brothers. One of the women had been so intimidated she’d immediately broken off with him. The other two, he grimaced remembering, had boldly hinted at an open sexual relationship with him and his brothers, even after he’d tested the waters promising a more permanent relationship.

Disturbed by their greed, he’d ended their association without a qualm. As a general rule, he and his brothers didn’t share women, not about to allow a female to come between them. The women he’d brought home, however, he couldn’t have cared less about sharing. Their lack of principles disgusted him.

But now, with Samantha… He didn’t like the possessiveness he felt. He didn’t want to think of his reaction should she prove as fickle and shallow as the women he’d brought home. But more than that, he didn’t want to face the secret desire building within him should she prove a false hope.

The minute Samantha walked through the door of his fabulously expensive house and faced Darius’ family, she froze in what she hoped was the last shock of the day.

Darius had said little on the drive home. After being stunned by her mention of an ‘affai’, whatever that was, he’d made a short phone call. Apparently he hadn’t intended to bring her home until he saw her injury in the hotel room, for he made a rather vague explanation to whoever he talked to on the cell phone before grunting and hanging up.

When she’d questioned him about his home, he evaded her enquiry about his family and grew stiffly silent. Not that she expected small talk from Darius, but even a comment about the weather might have eased the tension in his rickety truck. Tired, she accepted the quiet. She might have reacted differently had she not still been recovering from the nightmare from hell and from her astonishing lack of control when it came to Darius.

Now, however, she wished she’d pressed him. Darius Storm was one of four identical quadruplets. Identical. Quadruplets. Good Lord, that a man as good-looking as Darius existed boggled the mind. But to see four of him, all standing together, well, it was all she could do to keep from drooling.

She stood inside the foyer staring at all of them, unsure of what to say. They possessed a magnetism she found irresistible, and as she adjusted to their presence, her eyes drifted automatically to the annoyed man next to her.

Darius eyed her like a cat about to pounce, and she was aware she stood on a precipice of some kind, that her response to his unique family would answer some test she’d unwittingly been assigned.

“Please tell me this is the last surprise of the day,” she muttered wearily, not able to think of anything witty at the moment. “I’ve got a massive headache, and the cause of said headache drove me here. I can’t handle three more of him, not on four hours of sleep and no caffeine.” Listening to her inane comments, she scowled at Darius. It was all his fault she sounded like a blithering idiot.

Three of the four men smiled, Darius’ grin slower to appear. “Well said,” one of them replied and shook her hand. All four of them stood the same height and possessed the same brawny handsomeness that made her mouth water. And as she studied them trying to find a way to tell them apart, Darius gruffly introduced them.

“Marcus, Cadmus and Aerolus, meet Samantha Brooks. Samantha, my brothers.”

She nodded politely, surprised to note each brother had a different eye colour. Marcus had blue eyes—he must have been the man she saw outside the restaurant yesterday. She frowned at him, then turned to the man who’d shaken her hand, the brown-eyed Cadmus, and finally settled a tight smile on the grey-eyed Aerolus.

Darius stepped closer to her and placed his arm around her shoulders looking strangely satisfied. “Welcome to my home, Samantha.” He led her further inside to the living room couch and sat down next to her. Way too close. She was extremely aware of his body heat bleeding into her everywhere they touched.

“I’m sorry to barge in on you like this,” she said to the room at large, the three mirror images of Darius dwarfing the open space as they sat around her. She aimed a glare at the stubborn man beside her. “It wasn’t my idea.”

“No worries,” Cadmus said with a twinkle in his gaze. “Trust us, we know what a jackass Darius is. We live with him.”

“Yes,” Aerolus parroted his brother with a straight face. “He’s a complete jackass.”

His words sounded funny, spoken with a strangely exotic accent and murmured from a stoic face.

Marcus rolled his eyes. “We’re all in agreement as to what a pain Darius can be. Now Darius, tell us exactly what’s going on. Samantha obviously doesn’t want to be here, so why did you drag her here? I thought the plan was to stay with her at the hotel.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to be here, specifically, but… What do you mean the plan was to stay with me at the hotel?” She jerked away from Darius’ heavy arm.

The others grew silent but Samantha had eyes only for Darius. He looked faintly uncomfortable, more so surrounded by his brothers.

“Samantha,” he began in a low voice meant to soften her. She didn’t blink, refusing to bend, and he sighed. “I told you I’d explain.”

Silence.

“Well?” she prodded, her arms crossed, her posture screaming at him to give her the answers she wanted or she’d explode.

“Fine.” He cursed, his brows knit in irritation. “You want answers? How’s this? We four,” he paused as he motioned to his brothers, “are known as the Royal Four, the next in line to lead Tanselm, a world you’ve never heard of that’s under attack from the same evil you experienced this morning.”

“What?” Aerolus shot off the couch, Marcus and Cadmus both stunned as well.

Samantha’s head throbbed. “Say that again?”

“By the Light, Darius.” Marcus shook his head. “I think a decent explanation is in order here, for Samantha and for us.”

Cadmus nodded, his frown clearly disapproving. “Yeah. You really have no sense of tact.” He turned to Samantha. “Though your taste in women is definitely improving.”

Darius growled and Samantha held up a hand to stop the insanity. “Everyone just shut up.” Her voice rose over the brotherly discourse. “You, Aerolus, you’ve been fairly quiet. Why don’t you explain this to me?”

The calmest of the four, and the one with the most mysterious eyes, sighed. “With the way my brother acts, it’s a wonder you’re still here.” He shot Darius an accusing glance, one that wounded him into silence.

“Samantha, what Darius has said is all true. It may be hard to accept, but we four are from another world, a place in which magic exists and evil and the Light are fighting a battle for control.”

“Of course you’re from another world. I should have guessed that from the start.” She thought she’d said that quite calmly, but Marcus snickered.

“Take out your contacts, Darius,” Aerolus said. “That might help.”

With a sinking feeling, she watched Darius remove his lenses. His dark eyes turned a startling red, as they had in the hotel room. Well, so much for the ’I must have imagined that‘ theory. Then the sudden remembrance of her erotic dream in the hotel room became vibrantly significant. Red eyes. Affai. She hastily visualised a mental barrier when his brows drew in puzzlement, then in heat. So much for not reading my thoughts.

“Here, in Seattle, all of us but Darius could pass for your kind, though I’ve yet to see identical quadruplets.” Aerolus appeared thoughtful and Darius groaned.

“Just get on with it.”

“Yes, well,” Aerolus coughed as if to hide his amusement. “We are the sons of a mighty Storm Lord, a man born of elemental magic who ruled the western portion of Tanselm, our world. Specifically, our father commanded the winds. He died over a year ago.”

Samantha clearly felt their pain, and without thinking she reached for Darius’ large hand. Warmth unfurled through her at his touch, and she gripped his palm before trying to ease free. He wouldn’t let her. Why this pleased her she couldn’t say, but unwilling to show it and give him the upper hand, she sat quietly, waiting for Aerolus to continue.

He stared blatantly at their hands and the corner of his lips curled. “My father was one of four identical siblings, like us, and so was destined to rule one of the four kingdoms. Our uncles ruled the south, north and east, leading their kingdoms under the power of the Storm Lords.”

“What does that mean exactly?” She eyed them all, wondering how she could possibly believe any of this.

“Storm Lords command the elements.” Aerolus waved his hand in the air and a breeze stole through the still room. “As you can see, I command the winds. Each one of us, of the Royal Four, is born with a certain ability to leash and control a specific element of nature. Marcus controls water, Cadmus the earth, and Darius harnesses the power of fire.”

She stared in astonishment as Marcus made water appear in his palm out of thin air and Darius snapped a flame to life. She turned to Cadmus, who shrugged.

“If I make the house shake again I’ve been threatened with a week’s worth of dishes. Earthquakes aren’t too popular around here.”

Having seen their power with her own eyes, Samantha’s disbelief began to fade, replaced by awe and uncertainty.

Aerolus seemed to sense her unease for he continued in a gentle voice. “Despite the power of the Storm Lords, they, we, are but mortal. Father was killed by dark magic, and soon after our uncles and their families were killed too, all by an evil sorcerer known as ’Sin Garu and his minions the Netharat.”

Darius squeezed her hand. “’Sin Garu is the blond you met this morning.” He briefly explained her dream, making no mention of their lovemaking, for which she was grateful. Hearing it all again, however, reinforced her fear.

Her mouth grew dry. The tale of an alternate world, which had started as entertaining, now felt all too horrifyingly real. “Saying I believe all this, what does this ’Sin Garu want with me?”

Aerolus opened his mouth but Darius interrupted. “We’re not sure. Bottom line is that this is real, you are in danger, and you’re not leaving until we know why he wants you.” His voice grew harsh, his eyes like lasers that pinpointed her desire to flee all too readily.

She swallowed around the lump in her throat, determined not to lose it in front of him or his brothers. Focusing on her strengths, she met his arrogance with resistance, just to show him he couldn’t push her around, that she wasn’t that afraid.

“If I stay it’s because I decide to stay, not because you’re ordering me to.” She tried to glare at him but couldn’t maintain the fiction when she met those dark red eyes. He didn’t look even slightly freakish, rather like a supernatural lover who could melt her with one glance.

Someone cleared his throat and she realised she’d been staring at Darius, and he at her.

“So long as you stay, I don’t care the reason,” he conceded, his voice husky. “It’s clear you’re tired and you need time to, ah, adjust to all this. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pressed you.” She noted his brothers’ surprise. “Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”

She stood when he did, her sluggish body finally breaking down. She would have fallen to her knees had Darius not caught her.

“She’ll stay with me,” Darius murmured as he carried her out of the room and up the stairs.

She heard male mutterings but hadn’t the heart to question Darius anymore. As much as she wanted to walk strong on her own two feet, she couldn’t stop the pounding from behind her eyes, or the weakness invading her limbs.

Darius carried her with ease, her desire to be strong of no consequence. He felt her pain, could sense her near the end of her tenuous hold on control. Cursing his stupidity for not allowing for her comfort first, he placed her gently on his bed.

When she made no move to get up, he knew she’d reached the end of her endurance. Staring down at her, a spiral of tenderness blossomed, surprising him with the amount of feeling he suddenly experienced for the lovely Samantha Brooks.

Though just having her near made his cock ache and his heart jump, he made no move to seduce her, knowing she wouldn’t say no but unable to take advantage. With any other woman it would have been easy to get his way, to use every means available to press his suit for protection.

Samantha, however, made him conscious of a sudden softening in his attitude. Her eyes fluttered closed and she breathed softly in his bed, under his watch. Thoughts of Tanselm paled in comparison with the need to keep this woman safe and by his side.

Thoughts of Tanselm paled… As his awareness of the moment penetrated, the crystal around his throat came to life. Blazing with heat, the Knowing Crystal seared through his flesh, rising to rest on his chest in flashing lights of blue and silver.

He fell to his knees on the bed and toppled on the covers next to Samantha, anger at the pain in his throat fading under a sudden alarm. The crystal’s power shook him, as for the first time in his life he found himself unable to control the fire burning him from the inside out.

“Do you think Darius has been drinking?” Cadmus grinned, his eyes on the doorway through which his brother had recently left.

“If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, I wouldn’t believe it.” Marcus shook his head. “Darius actually apologised to a woman for being too high-handed? He did do that, didn’t he? I’m not dreaming?”

Aerolus barely managed to stifle a chuckle. He’d been hoping something like this might happen. Finally. Darius had found someone to penetrate the shield encasing his heart. Affection, maybe even love, was there in the way Darius looked at Samantha, in the way he said her name.

“What do you think, Aerolus?” Both Cadmus and Marcus stared at him, waiting for an answer.

“I think Darius has finally met his match.”

“Hot damn.” Cadmus shot to his feet and threw his fists in the air. “I can almost feel the black earth of Tanselm running through my fingers. I can almost smell the sweet aroma of leraffes in bloom as the onset of spring beckons me home.”

Marcus rolled his eyes as Cadmus continued to wax poetic, but Aerolus could see the excitement the word ‘Tanselm’ instilled in his shining blue gaze.

“You might not want to get too happy just yet,” Aerolus cautioned, not wanting to douse hope but a realist nonetheless. “Whether Darius succeeds with this woman or not is no sure path back home.”

“He’s right.” Arim’s quiet voice surprised them. He stepped from the far wall of the room as if separating from the very paint and plaster, a misty haze of man that coalesced into flesh and blood. “There’s been a disturbance between the planes, a darkness pocketing the realms where there should only be waiting space.”

His black eyes glimmered into blue, then purple, turning a rainbow of colours, all blazing with a rage Aerolus had only seen once in all the time he’d known Arim. “I need to see Darius right now.”

Sudden fear for Darius scored Aerolus’ heart.

“But he just went upstairs with Samantha.” Marcus frowned, not liking Arim’s tone either.

“Where?” Arim snarled the word, worry evident in his eyes, and startled, Marcus directed him to Darius’ bedroom.

In a flash Arim disappeared. Shaken, Aerolus teleported into Darius’ room. He stared in horror as his brother and Samantha lay in an unholy blaze, black and blue flames singing their bodies and souls as they lay helpless under the Wraith’s Kiss.

His eyes fixed on the flaming bed, he hadn’t yet noticed Arim until chanting sounded from the other side of the room. The sorcerer shoved his hand through the blaze just as Marcus and Cadmus burst through the door.

“By the Light’s holy fire.” Cadmus paled as they helplessly watched Arim battle the Wraith’s Kiss, a cursed spell originated in the darkest realm. They’d all seen it before used all too readily and with great success by the Netharat.

Grimacing, Arim closed his fist around the Knowing Crystal. Gradually, the blaze transferred from Samantha and Darius into him. Arim’s skin turned a mottled blue-black, the smell of charred flesh filling the air. Then suddenly, the unnatural fire ceased.

Arim stood, chalk-white but otherwise unharmed. After a few calming breaths, his colour slowly returned, and he bent low to place one hand on Darius’ unmoving chest.

Aerolus heard a small whoosh and exhaled a sigh of relief when Darius took a deep breath. His brother’s eyes opened, blood red with fury.

“What the hell was that?” he asked in a croak, shaking as he sat up with Arim’s help. He quickly looked to Samantha, relaxing a fraction when he saw her even breathing.

“You have found your affai. There can be no question now.” Arim nodded towards Samantha, who lay still under their regard.

“No question?” Darius stood on unsteady feet. “I almost died in that bed.”

“Not a pretty sight.” Cadmus cringed. “Not at all.”

“I thought the Knowing Crystal was supposed to show you your affai, not burn her to a crisp,” Marcus drawled, as if he hadn’t just witnessed his brother’s flamedance with death.

Arim said nothing, simply stared until Marcus looked away after a mumbled apology.

“What are you doing here anyway, Arim?” Darius glared at the sorcerer. “Seems the only time you bother to show up anymore is to tell us to wait and be patient.” He snorted. “Not that I’m complaining about your timing, but I’m sure you’re not here to bring us home.”

Arim took a hard look at the four men waiting impatiently for him to explain. Aerolus thought he looked tired, a slight darkening under his eyes barely perceptible.

Taking a soft breath before speaking, Arim remained locked in place, his face devoid of any expression. But his eyes, his eyes blazed hotter than any fire Darius could conjure or control.

“’Sin Garu has infiltrated the Royal House. Until the breach is found and eliminated, everything is held in the balance. You must remain vigilant in your guard, and you must remain here.”

Marcus, Cadmus and Darius spoke at the same time, their voices perfect echoes of frustration, anger and disbelief.

“The Royal House?”

“Mother! Is she safe? Does she know?”

“What are you waiting for? Send us back before everything is destroyed!”

Arim crossed his arms and shook his head, but Aerolus could feel the strain burdening him.

“We can help you,” Aerolus added in the sudden quiet.

Arim’s ink black gaze swept the room, lingering on Aerolus with a disturbing intensity before finding Marcus. “You need to hone your skills, and soon. Parlour tricks— moving glasses, pulling out a chair, and fetching a newspaper with your mind are one thing, fighting wraiths is another.” He turned to Cadmus. “You should be using your visions to counter future troubles, not questioning everything you believe you see. Open your mind and use your visions, Cadmus, before they begin to use you.

“And Darius,” he stopped to take a deep breath. “The most stubborn of the Royal Four. How appropriate then that you have found the first of the royal affai. You did not want to wed, yet here she is.” Arim strode to Samantha’s side of the bed and grazed her cheek with his hand. “A tender flower that can withstand any storm. Do not underestimate her power.” He narrowed his eyes. “And watch your temper around her. I’ve no wish to put out any more flames.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Darius stared down at Samantha with disbelief. “Are you telling me she did this? She cast a spell on me? A Netharat spell?”

“No. The Knowing Crystal had been tampered with. Someone had enspelled it with the Wraith’s Kiss. It worked on your magic, and because Samantha is your affai, it worked on her as well.”

“Because she and Darius share his magic,” Aerolus said softly, understanding.

Arim nodded. “The woman is of this world, yet she’s capable of withstanding elemental magic. Theoretically, she could learn to use fire, even to control the Wraith’s Kiss with proper training.” Arim turned to Aerolus. “You’re quite perceptive, aren’t you, Wind Mage?” he said softly, pausing as if in debate with himself. His eyes blazed. “Come with me.”

Aerolus vanished with Arim, back to Tanselm or wherever Arim spent his time. Darius didn’t know what to say or do, and his brothers looked similarly stunned. The room smelled of burnt wool, and the air remained uncomfortably warm, even to Darius. He was about to ask Marcus and Cadmus what exactly they had seen when Samantha blinked her eyes open.

Instead of the mysterious green gaze he expected, her eyes burned a bright, curious crimson.