Daring Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 2)
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Authors: Mallory Crowe
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Copyright © 2015 by Mallory Crowe
Mallory Crowe (2015-12-01). Daring Fire (Bad Boys Of The Underworld Book 2)
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Marcus could think of thousands of places he would rather be than standing in the throne room of the reigning vampire king, Aleksander. Ever since the incident with Fredrick last week, Marcus had tried to remain scarce. Some serious plots and schemes were making their way around the compound, and he didn’t want to be drawn into the crossfire if he could avoid it.
And he would’ve succeeded in staying out of it if he’d kept his nose out of other people’s business, too. Probably would’ve been best if he’d just let the damn human die. He didn’t owe Anna anything. But even so, he’d given her his blood, and now she was a newly minted vampire.
He was not a nice man. He happened to know Anna hated him, and her boyfriend, Nicolas, would kill him given the chance. However, the sight of the defenseless Anna’s life slipping away had struck a chord within him.
In a spur-of-the-moment decision, Marcus opened up a vein and forced Anna to drink as much of his blood as he could pour down her throat. As soon as her heart stopped beating, he hightailed it out of there. There was no guarantee the transformation would work, and he would not be responsible for any false hope.
However, she’d healed from her wounds and woke the next night as a vampire. Nicolas had barely left her side since. Marcus was surprised she wasn’t here now, but it was just Aleksander and Nicolas who stared at him with grave expressions on their faces.
Marcus had a bad feeling about this. He stared down the two large men, refusing to be the first to break the silence. There were three very different personalities in the room.
Nicolas resembled a caged animal. With dark hair and eyes, he looked as if he’d just crawled out of hell and was ready to attack anyone who stepped too close.
In contrast, Aleksander looked like the king he was. He was nonthreatening enough to make powerful friends in high places, with sandy-brown hair and eyes the same color, but Marcus had seen Aleksander in battle. The man was deadly with a sword. And with his teeth. And hands.
But as different as the two men seemed, Marcus knew he was the odd one out in the room. Even in the shadows, Marcus had been told he could never truly blend into the darkness. He had bright blond hair that usually only came out of a bottle and blue eyes that had seduced even the most chaste of women. One corner of his mouth sardonically twisted up as bitter memories filled him.
He stared at Nicolas. Just a few days ago, Marcus was lining up to get a few swings in at the old prince. The human had stopped him in his tracks. Only once had he met anyone like Anna. As much as he hated Nicolas, seeing the powerful vampire dote over the strong-willed human had softened his hatred a bit. But not much.
Aleksander finally broke the silence. “We’re living in strange times,” he said.
Marcus scoffed. “That’s an understatement.” His voice still had a pronounced British accent from his years in England. He could pull off a perfect Russian or Midwest accent if he wanted to, but he didn’t care to go through the trouble.
“Did Fredrick ever say anything to you that might indicate why he turned on Aleksander?” asked Nicolas.
Marcus shrugged. “Fredrick was beneath me, so I didn’t socialize with him much.” He saw Nicolas glower at him and smiled. Not being one to let anyone get off easy, he baited the bear. “The last revolt was because the previous king went bat shit crazy,” he said, casually throwing out the insult about Nicolas’s father. “Have you gone on any killing sprees lately, Aleksander?”
A low growl emitted from Nicolas’s throat and Marcus tensed, almost hoping for a good fight.
Aleksander chimed in, ever the voice of reason. “You two are not children. You can be in a room together for a few minutes without killing each other.”
“Debatable,” responded Marcus. “Is that all you called me in for?”
“We have investigated Fredrick’s computer and cell phone. We can find no traces of communication with any other rebels.”
“Isn’t that good news? That means less people want you dead.”
Aleksander met eyes with an agitated Nicolas before he turned back to Marcus. “It would make things easier, but I don’t believe Fredrick was acting alone. He was loyal for the last four centuries. Someone had to convince him to turn on me.”
Marcus completely agreed with Aleksander, but he’d be damned if he’d let him know it. “What does any of this have to do with me?”
“Why did you turn Anna?” asked Nicolas.
The out-of-the-blue question and sudden change of topic startled Marcus. “Fuck you,” he shot at Nicolas. “Some of us don’t walk across humans bleeding all over the fucking floor and ignore it.”
“He didn’t mean to offend you,” said Aleksander. “While I have always been sure of Fredrick’s loyalty, your allegiances haven’t always been so clear. I am honored that you’re a better man than Fredrick was.”
“My loyalty was in question?” asked Marcus, but he knew exactly what Aleksander meant. Though he overall liked and respected the king, he was the first to openly disagree with Aleksander when he thought the situation called for it. Because of his standing in the High Council, his disagreements with Aleksander were well known.
“We don’t know who to trust at this point,” said Aleksander. “I know Nicolas was being set up by these usurpers. I also know that by turning Anna, you actively worked against them. This means that you two, Anna, and my wife are the only people I can truly count on right now.”
The train of logic made sense to Marcus, but he didn’t want the responsibility. “What do you want me to do?”
“No one knows you turned Anna. Everyone assumed Nicolas found her in time and saved her. I want you to try to infiltrate the ranks of the traitors. With Fredrick gone, they’ll be looking for new spies. You are in the perfect position and it’s no secret we frequently fight.”
Marcus rolled his eyes. “So we fight. That doesn’t mean someone is going to try to get me to kill you.”
“Those chances will greatly increase if you’re kicked out of the compound,” said Nicolas.
Realization dawned on Marcus. “You’re going to pretend you believe I was working with Fredrick?”
“The Tower is opening in New York in a month. It’ll be the perfect time for an attack. As a High Council member and part owner, you will be expected to attend. If you go to New York now, we think you’ll be approached sometime before the opening.”
“You two are insane,” said Marcus.
Nicolas shrugged. “No one will think less of you if you are too scared.”
Marcus bared his fangs but responded in a calm voice. “I could use a little city life.”
“So did you and Ryan make the beast with two backs last night?” said a voice from behind Gena in the hospital locker room.
Gena jumped at the unexpected noise and looked over her shoulder at Joy, the young woman with an oversized grin and expectant expression. “The beast with two what? Eww, no!”
Joy shrugged one thin shoulder. “He was waiting twenty minutes for your shift to end just so he could walk you to your car. It’s not crazy to assume that you’d finally let him come home with you.”
Gena stifled a groan. She’d hoped to get through as much of her nursing shift as possible without the subject of last night being brought up. She hadn’t even been in the building ten minutes.
“I didn’t go home with Ryan,” she said calmly. Gena shut her locker and walked over to the mirror to get one last look at herself before her shift started.
Her long black hair was pulled away from her face in a ponytail and her pale blue eyes stared back at her. She wore no makeup today and did nothing to make herself look any more attractive. Her bone structure was nice, but she was about fifteen pounds and a good nose job away from being a perfect ten. But working twelve-hour shifts at the hospital didn’t exactly motivate her to break out the mascara. Especially after the fiasco that happened last night.
Joy, on the other hand, could’ve been walking runways in Paris if she wanted. She was a tall and striking blonde. She’d recently chopped off all of her hair to a short one inch, but heads would always turn when she walked by.
So if Gena was average and Joy was stunning, why on earth was Ryan Stone convinced Gena was his future wife?
Ryan was very important in this hospital. His father, Bill Stone, was a self-made millionaire who, about ten years ago, donated a
lot
of money to the hospital. This donation ensured a few things for his family. He got a wing of the hospital named after him—Stone Birthing Center—he got a few lifetimes’ worth of ass-kissing from all employees of the hospital, and his no-good son was guaranteed a job there his entire life.
Ryan had flunked out of three different colleges, so his father had finally decided to stop wasting the tuition money and saddled Ryan with a menial desk job to keep him out of trouble.
As messed up as he was, Ryan had a lot going for him. Besides being trust-fund rich, he was unbelievably attractive. The definition of tall, dark, and handsome. Half of the female staff of the hospital fought to gain his attention. So if Ryan could choose between most of the female staff, one being the incredibly beautiful Joy, why had he suddenly decided he and Gena were meant to be together?
“Well? What happened after you left?” asked Joy.
Gena shook her head. “Nothing happened. He asked me to have dinner with him and I said no.” She made a show of looking at her watch. “I have to start my shift.” She walked past Joy and away from the interrogation.
She hadn’t really lied. Ryan had asked her to dinner and she’d said no, but he then went on to say so much more. It would’ve been romantic if it wasn’t so weird. She felt a hand on her arm as Joy pulled her to a stop.
“I’m not letting you get away that easily,” she said. “Tell me what happened.”
Gena looked around the hallway to see who was in earshot. She spied an empty patient’s room and pulled Joy inside and closed the door. “You have to promise you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.”
Joy nodded. “Our secret.”
“Ryan was...strange last night.”
“He’s a spoiled brat. He’s always a little strange,” responded Joy.
Gena shook her head. “It was more than that. It was the words he chose. He basically told me we were going to get married.”
Joy’s dark blue eyes widened in surprise. “He said that? There are a lot of girls here who are going to want you dead.”
Gena rolled her eyes. “I’m not marrying anyone, let alone Ryan.”
“Why not? Handsome? Check. Steady job? Check. More money than everyone you know combined? Check.”
“Steady job? He has been kicked out of three colleges.”
Joy smiled. “Your job is always steady when your father is as powerful as Ryan’s is. Are you against marrying someone without a college degree?”
“What? No!” She wiped the exasperated expression off her face. “It’s not that. When I was in school, I studied hard for my good grades. Some people I knew studied harder than me and got worse grades. Others hardly studied at all and received better grades than I did, but they all cared at least. I could never be with someone who didn’t care. That doesn’t matter anyway, because that boy is
insane
.”
“Did he say something stranger than he wanted to marry you?”
Gena dropped her voice a bit in case anyone was listening. “He said I was the whitest person he knew.”
Gena opened her mouth to say more but Joy interrupted, “He’s racist?”
Gena shook her head. “He was talking about how everyone else he sees is black and gray, but I’m the only one glowing white. Apparently that makes me the best, and Ryan is convinced he deserves the best.”
Joy had a confused look on her face. “Who is gray? What does that even mean? Did he actually use the word ‘glowing’?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I gave him some spiel about not dating men I work with and drove home as quickly as I could.”
“And how was marriage brought up?” asked Joy.
“He said we were destined to be and would spend the rest of our lives together. It gave me the creeps, Joy.”
She nodded in agreement. “Did you feel threatened?”
Gena rubbed her temples and thought about it. “I don’t know. I left really quickly, but he seemed stunned I was turning him down. I’m afraid to run into him today.”
“I can’t believe he wants to spend the rest of his life with you. Because you glow. Because you glow white, as opposed to everyone else. Besides, it would never work between you two,” concluded Joy.
“Now you agree with me?” asked Gena.
“Are you kidding? Ryan would never live in the same space as a pit bull,” pointed out Joy.
Gena got a stern look on her face. “Lady is not a pit bull. There are no papers saying that.”
“I’m not saying she’s a mean dog, but she is what she is.”
“As far as I’m concerned, Lady is some mutt I found on the streets.”
Joy snorted at that, but Gena could see her point. Ryan would settle for nothing less than a show-quality purebred. Gena had found a skinny and weary Lady shivering next to a dumpster, trying to hide from the rain, two years ago.