Dark Flame (Flame 3)

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Juliet Tunney stared at Brannick for a long, difficult moment. Something had happened just now, but she didn’t know what and she was afraid she’d say the wrong thing. So she remained silent, watching him carefully.

She could hardly breathe. She suspected it might have to do with their secret bedroom activities, but his dream-self had sworn her never to reveal the truth. The real-time Brannick wasn’t supposed to know what they did together in her fae dreamglide.

Yet here they were, face-to-face, and it looked like he’d just remembered one or more of their shared dreamgliding experiences.

She decided the best course, given her gag order, was to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about. “I don’t know what you mean, but you seem really upset. What’s going on?”

He narrowed his green eyes. “I’m not sure, Juliet, but what I just saw flashing through my head in extraordinary detail makes me think it wasn’t a dream, but something else. A dreamglide, in fact.”

Juliet had feared this moment for a long time, when Brannick’s sub-conscious mind would finally force the truth to the surface. However, it appeared he was only recalling one dream and not everything that had happened between them.

She shuddered just thinking about how Brannick would react once he knew the whole truth, especially how their affair had gotten started. She was guilty of breaking a law, a big one in both Revel Territory and Five Bridges. Once Brannick knew what she’d done, he could prosecute her.

She needed to buy herself some time.

She glanced at the closed tunnel door. “We need to get this job done, then get out of here.”

Brannick glanced at the boxes then back to her. “You’re right. But then we’re going to talk.”

“Of course.” She’d have to stay calm and let him lead the conversation. She didn’t need to tell him anything he couldn’t remember.

He headed over to the scattered tubs, bags and boxes and started picking them up and moving them back into place.

She offered to help, but he said he’d prefer to arrange them according to weight and it would be faster without her assistance.

She didn’t argue. If anything, she wanted distance from him right now.

She moved to the van. The sliding door was still open, so she reached inside and grabbed a bottle of water from the small cooler. Water would help. Staying hydrated in the desert, even for an alter fae, was important.

The van was sufficiently large and her ass just small enough that she could sit on a combination of the floor and the running board. Wearing a dress, she angled her knees away from Brannick.

She unscrewed the lid of her water bottle and took a sip, then repressed a heavy sigh. She’d been dreading this moment for months now and couldn’t believe it had come. Although, she suspected it had happened because they were together physically for the first time since the dreamgliding sex had started up.

She’d been warned this could happen. Her sage teacher, Agnes, had told her all about dreamgliding, how it was done and how only fae of a certain level of power could engage in a dreamglide. Though it was also true that the dark flame drug could prompt dreamgliding even in humans.

She could kick herself for not having provided a secondary transport option for the women. Mary always drove which had prevented Juliet from ever seeing Brannick in real-time.

Up until tonight, Mary had been completely reliable. But life happened, especially in Five Bridges, and moving forward Juliet would engage a back-up driver.

She took her cell from the pocket of her dress and checked for a text from Mary, but nothing was there. So, where was she?

Juliet smiled. Mary was tall, blond and gorgeous and had been a model in her previous, human life. She always had men buzzing around her. Maybe one of them had finally caught her eye, and Mary had lost track of time.

The van would stay in the garage for at least a week, and Juliet would fly out with Brannick, just as Mary always did.

Juliet would have him take her to her canal home in Revel, using his vampire cloaking ability to shield them from any other species that might be out flying. It was an easy way to get home and at the same time avoid the requisite vehicle stops at either of the intervening main bridges and their security checkpoints.

As Brannick worked to stack up the boxes, Juliet wished the van faced a different direction so she didn’t have to look at him. Like most of the male, border patrol officers, he had a body to die for. Watching him move around tore at every resolution she’d worked so hard to build over the past several months.

He wore a typical border patrol uniform of black leathers, a way-too-sexy tank top, and his Glock holstered on his belt, though he’d left off the short sword. The uniforms

of Five Bridges were very different from the human part of Phoenix and enhanced the physiology of the alter species. The essential change in DNA added to the muscles and power of the men designed for law enforcement, a necessary component for any species grappling with drug-runners and killers every night.

Brannick was a gorgeous man and the mere thought of what they’d been doing in secret, had her trembling all over. She sipped some more water and tried to calm down, but she had it bad for the vampire. She wished it otherwise, but she’d gotten to know him over the five months they’d been seeing each other in the dream-world.

Five months ago, she’d offered to become part of Brannick’s operation to rescue abducted human women out of the Revel sex clubs. The brief time she’d spent with him at the White Flame club while he interviewed her had been intoxicating.