Read Kindling Flames: Stolen Fire (The Ancient Fire Series Book 4) for Free Online Page B

ready for their upcoming guests. Turning to his bed, he found that Vicky had been kind enough to lay out something comfortable, yet presentable, for him to wear. He sighed his happiness with her. She did some of the most thoughtful things.
     
    ***
     
    Vicky, Vanessa, and Elliot sat in a group at one end of the glass table in Darien’s living room. Vanessa had brought over a file box filled with her ideas for Vicky’s wedding. They had spread the items across the glass table and were trying to fit them into Vicky’s idea of the perfect wedding. Vanessa wanted to go for a huge church wedding on a Saturday afternoon. Elliot had shaken his head and suggested they have a small ceremony at the local country club where Darien was a member. Vicky had sat back and let the two argue over the details, enjoying the way they played off each other. Darien had been right in choosing Elliot to help with the planning. He had a way of undercutting Vanessa’s ideas so far that she had to scale back her plans to find some middle point between the two. They were just starting to haggle over the number of guests when Vicky heard noises from the foyer.
    “Where is she?” Rupert’s voice boomed through the penthouse as he stomped into the living room.
    Sue looked up from where she was curled up with Zak in front of the fire.
    Rupert’s eyes ran across the people in the room and stopped when he found his sister in wolf form.
    Vicky pushed herself up from the floor, trying to draw the alpha werewolf’s attention. “Good evening, Rupert. This is my friend, Vanessa.” She pointed out her human friend, trying to get him to realize that this was not the time to go into supernatural issues.
    Rupert just grunted without looking away from Sue.
    Darien stepped through the door from the kitchen and looked over the scene.
    Elliot met his eyes for a moment of silent communication. “Why don’t we go out and check on dinner?” The younger vampire touched Vanessa’s shoulder, breaking her from the tension building in the room.
    She looked up at him. “But, Darien’s cooking,” Vanessa protested. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but it didn’t take a genius to know that something was going to go down.
    “I’m sure he needs a female’s touch.” Elliot pushed his will into the words, and Vanessa stood up.
    “Of course.” She bent under the suggestion, and Elliot drew her out of the room to the kitchen.
    “Thank you,” Darien breathed as they passed. Elliot nodded his head and kept his concentration on the woman he was guiding from the room. Now that the human was out of the room, the tension peaked as the two werewolves glared at each other.
    “What the hell happened?” Rupert hissed at his sister.
    Whining a little, Sue laid her head back down on the rug.
    “Don’t give me that,” he growled. “You nearly killed Bernie’s lieutenant.”
    Sue snarled at the mention of the injured wolf.
    “You know how important these talks are! Why the hell did you attack him?”
    She growled again.
    “Are you going to shift back so we can talk?” Rupert was trying to keep a level head, but it was easy to see he was very upset.
    Sue whined again without moving from the rug.
    “Damn it, Sue! Bernie wants your blood, and if you don’t shift back and explain yourself, I’m going to have to give it to him.”
    She squirmed and whined again, but she didn’t shift.
    “Fine,” Rupert growled. “If you won’t do it, I’ll just make you.” He lunged at his sister, intending to grab her.
    Sue must have known what he was going to do because she was up and out of his reach before he could catch her. Zak gurgled warningly at the mad alpha as Sue rounded the couch and stared at her brother.
    “Get back here!” he demanded and made as if he would chase her down.
    Turning, Sue slammed into Vicky, knocking her back to the loveseat. She buried her face into her friend’s chest and whined loudly.
    Thrown by the off behavior, Vicky wrapped