Desert Flame Page 3

  The man chuckled and turned towards the door just as Vera opened it. The witch stepped aside, smiling at the customer, but as the man brushed by her, she jerked back.

  The guy didn’t seem to notice and continued on his way.

  “What’s up your arse?” Drew asked.

  Vera let the door close and stared after the tourist.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve got the hots for him, too,” he went on, rolling his eyes.

  Drew still hadn’t gotten over his jealousy of the last guy who came in here, frothing at the mouth over the witch. Vera said it was just his alpha dingo trying to control a substitute pack since Eloise had made the Dust Dogs disappear. He was still adamant it was because he simply cared about her—not in a romantic way, but the brotherly kind. She’d taken him in when he was nothing but a ragged whelp on the run.

  “What are you on about?” Vera asked, blinking.

  Drew nodded to the window, where the man had gotten back into his car and was reversing onto the highway. “Aren’t you busy with Sergeant Clarke?”

  “This has got nothing to do with Andy,” the witch huffed. “You didn’t feel that?”

  “Feel what? Annoyed?”

  Vera sighed. “Sometimes you act like a teenage girl, Drew, you know that?”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “That guy…” She looked out the window again, but the car had already driven away. “There was something about him…”

  Drew hesitated. “You think he was supernatural?”

  “Yeah. Other supernaturals have passed through before,” she explained. “Most don’t notice what we are, let alone what lies beneath. What did he say?”

  “He was asking a lot of questions about the town.”

  “And what did you tell him?”

  “The usual bland speech.”

  “What did he buy?”

  “Random shit.” He ticked off the list on his fingers. “Tiny Teddies, chips, a high-vis vest, party poppers, toothpaste… Oh, and Band-Aids.”

  Vera laughed. “Party poppers? Quit pulling my leg.”

  “At least he was smart enough to buy water.”

  “Well, random shit aside, keep an eye out for him,” the witch said, picking up the book from the counter. “He might come back, judging by what he bought.” She scanned the cover and her eyebrows rose. “What in the world are you reading?”

  “Hell if I know,” Drew told her. “I don’t understand half the words in it.”

  That night Eloise ventured to the pub early, keen for a drink and some air conditioning.

  The short walk from Hardy’s was brutal. She dodged between each patch of shade, carving a zigzagging path across the yard. Sunburn was far from a picnic when there was little to no ozone layer.

  Once inside, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “There she is,” Finn said.

  He’d chosen a seat at the Exile’s usual table instead of keeping to his perch at the bar. The change made her pause for a moment, but she decided not to bring it up, lest she scare him back to the corner.

  “On the wine already?” Eloise sat beside him and nodded to the red liquid in the only wine glass Blue seemed to own.

  The fae lifted it up. “McGuigan Black Label shiraz. Want some?”

  “I’m not into wine,” she replied. “It’s too bitter for my taste. I’ll stick to cider.”

  “Suit yourself. More for me.”

  Blue stuck his head out of the kitchen. “Did I hear you want cider?”

  She lifted a hand in a wave. “Please.”

  As Eloise settled and Blue got her a glass of sweet apple cider, Kyne and Wally wandered in, shortly followed by Vera.

  “How’s things with your cop?” Finn asked as the witch sat down. “Get some yet?”

  “Finn!” Vera exclaimed. “Can’t you just say hello for once?”

  Kyne and Wally sniggered, earning themselves a glare from Eloise. It was great that Vera was trying to patch things up with Clarke. Not that he remembered anything about Solace, the seal, or the Exile’s supernatural status, but the witch deserved some happiness. They all did.

  “Valentine’s Day is coming up,” Blue said. “Got any plans?” His gaze moved from Vera to Eloise and Kyne.

  “Uh…” Kyne squirmed.

  “He’s too busy with his big yellow drill,” Finn said, smirking.

  “Finn!” Vera shrieked.

  “Can we change the subject?” Eloise asked, her cheeks heating. Kyne had been her first kiss and anything other than that had been a no-go considering her powers. One touch was all it’d taken for her to screw up someone’s mind, but now that she had a handle on things, the door leading to more was open. Wide open.

  “I was talking about a nice romantic dinner and some stargazing,” Blue grumbled. “Some us don’t live in the gutter, you know.”

  Wally coughed loudly and turned to the miner. “So, when are you breaking ground?”

  “Tomorrow,” Kyne replied. “I went out today to check where the seam starts and picked a good spot. Oh, and thanks for letting me park the rig behind the servo. I didn’t want to leave it out on the lease where someone could see it.”

  “Who do you think is going to see it out there?” Finn asked, rolling his eyes. “The boogie man?”

  “Ratters,” Blue told him.

  The fae snorted. “Ratters?”

  “Thieves. You’d be surprised how far some people go to steal opal.”

  “Hardy’s been selling a lot of black lately,” the elemental added. “People talk…and they ask questions. Wouldn’t be surprised if a few more leases open up this season.”

  “Is that wise?” Eloise asked. “I mean, with the seal and all.”

  “We’ve dealt with it before,” Wally said.

  “Yeah, but not with the level of chaos we’ve bene experiencing,” Vera told them. “It’ll be trial and error, I suppose. We can’t stop people from coming here.”

  “There’s those pesky questions again,” Finn drawled, raising his glass.

  The pub door opened, and Drew came in, followed by a gust of hot air.

  Vera kicked out a chair for him. “You lock up?”

  “Yeah,” he drawled, flopping into the seat, “I remembered to lock the doors and turn off the lights.”

  Vera kicked him under the table, causing him to yelp. “Any more visitors?”

  Kyne narrowed his eyes. “What visitor?”

  “Some tourist rubbernecking at the stupid people who live out in the boonies,” Drew told him. “He had a look, rolled his eyes, then drove off like they all do.”

  “What did he buy?”

  The shifter began ticking off items on each of his fingers. “Band-Aids, toothpaste, air freshener, a high-vis vest, some other stuff, party poppers…”

  “Party poppers?” Finn asked, looking perplexed.

  “Why do you even stock them?” Wally wondered.

  “They had a fine layer of dust on them before the tornado,” Drew said. “Maybe the bloke wanted to celebrate leaving the hottest arsehole on the face of Australia.”

  While the Exiles were laughing about the party poppers, Eloise leaned towards Finn. “How are you?”

  “Me?” He smirked and waved a hand through the air. “I’m just lishri.”

  “Lishri? What does that mean?” Eloise always found the snippets of his language intriguing. Each little word sounded like a magical spell compared to English.

  “It means that I’m fine,” he told her. “Good, okay, well, indifferent.”

  “How are the fae?” Kyne asked, giving away that he’d been listening in. “It was a close call after what had happened with the Nightshade.”

  Finn narrowed his eyes, his displeasure clear. “How are the fae? How do you think?”

  “Pissed off, I’d say,” Drew drawled.

  “You’d know if you came to ask,” Finn went on. “But you haven’t, have you?”

  “Your people have made it clear that they don’t want anything to d
o with us,” Kyne said, his tone turning serious.

  Eloise put her hand on Kyne’s leg and turned to Finn. “If there’s something going on, you can come to us for help, you know that right?”

  Finn said nothing for a moment, his silver gaze not moving from hers. “The fae are restless,” he finally said. “They don’t care. If you want their help, they won’t give it anymore.”

  “That’s not—” Eloise bit her tongue as Kyne grasped her hand.

  “Turning me into a battery was the last straw.” The fae lifted his glass and Blue grabbed it out of his hand before the whole contents spilled across the table. “If you get lost again, you’re on your own!” He sliced his hand through the air. “Ash’au li ak’ande du!”

  “Right, I reckon you’re had enough for one night, mate,” the publican said, confiscating the wine glass.

  “Sober to drunk in ten seconds flat,” Drew muttered.

  Eloise didn’t take her eyes off Finn. She suspected the fae had been drinking well before he had arrived. Could she blame him? What he’d been through was awful, and by the sounds of it, his people hadn’t made things easy for him. They didn’t like the Exiles, no matter how hard she or anyone else tried to bridge the gap.

  She wanted to say something to make it all better, but that was easier said than done.

  Before the conversation soured any further, the door opened, and Hardy arrived.

  “Sorry I’m late,” the vampire said, taking a seat. “Did I miss anything?”

  “Did he miss anything,” Finn exclaimed.

  Kyne coughed loudly and shook his head.

  “Well, I have some news,” Hardy went on, trying to cover the awkwardness.

  “Look out,” Wally said. “It ain’t anything bad, I hope.”

  “I don’t think so, but I’ll be heading into Brisbane tomorrow,” Hardy said. “I’ll be gone for a few days.”

  “It’ll take you a few days to get there,” Drew muttered.

  “Why?” Kyne asked, ignoring the shifter. “Have you heard something?”

  “Maybe,” the vampire told him. “I’m meeting with my contact. She says she has some news on those EarthBore permits.”

  Eloise’s heart dropped. It was too soon… They’d been happy for the past few months—the seal was dormant and trouble was a distant memory.

  Hardy’s gaze moved to her, and she swallowed hard. She’d forgotten that he could hear her heartbeat.

  “Here,” he said, fishing in his pocket. He pulled out a set of keys and slid them across the table towards Eloise. “Keys to the shop. You can keep cutting while I’m gone if you’d like. It’s still too early for the shopfront to be open, so it won’t hurt to keep that shut up for now.”

  She reached out and picked them up. “Wow…really?”

  Hardy chuckled. “Sure. You’ve earned it.”

  “If Hardy trusts you with the keys to his castle, then you’re so in,” Vera told her. “Welcome to the inner circle.”

  “Pfft,” Finn spat. “What inner circle?”

  “It’s a joke,” the witch fired back. “Don’t get your fairy wings in a twist.”

  “I don’t have wings, I cast illusions!” He leapt out of his seat and raised his hands.

  Eloise felt magic in the air as a brown snake slithered out of the wine bottle, growing as it wriggled from the small opening. It plopped onto the table and began to glide around the pint glasses.

  “Finn!” Vera shrieked, recoiling. “Do you have to summon snakes at the dinner table?”

  After dinner, Eloise and Kyne walked back up the hill to their dugout. The sun was still a way off from setting, the long summer days stretching well into the night.

  “Hardy has been a little distant lately,” Eloise said.

  Kyne glanced at her. “How so?”

  She frowned, trying to think of how to put it. “He’s been…sad.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about him. Hardy’s always been the strong and silent type. Stoic is his middle name.”

  “Did you know he’s over two hundred years old?”

  The miner paused, and they stood together on the side of the road. “Shit. You don’t say?”

  “He never told you?”

  Kyne shook his head. “Hardy isn’t one to talk about his past.”

  “I get where he’s coming from, I guess.” She remembered how he’d told her that not all vampires had chosen to become what they were. That their pasts could be tragic. It felt like he was trying to tell her to leave off in his own subtle way.

  “He gave you the keys to his workshop, and he confided in you,” Kyne went on. “A vampire’s trust is a big deal, and you have his. It’s more than he’s given me, and I lived with the guy up until last week.”

  Eloise was still confused. “So, I should be flattered, not worried?”

  “No, not about Hardy. Finn, on the other hand…” He sighed. “I’d like to understand him and the fae more than Hardy’s past.”

  “Finn will always be eccentric. What happened to him…” Her heart ached knowing what he must have suffered in the water tank. “He needs time and to know we’re here for him.”

  Kyne looked off into the distance towards the fae camp. Well, at least that’s where Eloise thought it was.

  “I think they’re telling him things,” she went on, “and he doesn’t know who to listen to.”

  “I have the same feeling,” Kyne said. “At least he’s sitting at the table with us. That’s a start.”

  “Yeah.” Eloise smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist. “It’s a start.”

  Chapter 4

  Hardy stood on the balcony of his hotel room and looked out over the Brisbane skyline. His gaze followed the curve of the muddied Brisbane River as it snaked its winding path through the centre of the city, and he studied the beige buildings on the opposite shore with a resigned sigh.

  The sky was bruised black and purple, the tail end of a cyclonic weather system passing by to the south. A heavy burst of rainfall grazed across the horizon, blurring the sharp line between land and sky.

  After spending so much time in Solace, being in the city again was a deafening experience. With his enhanced hearing, every noise was amplified tenfold—sirens, traffic, people, music, and even the rattle of trains passing by in the tunnels underneath the CBD.

  And it was humid. The breeze stirred by the unstable weather was doing nothing but swirl the already murky air around and around. It stifled him, and he longed for the dry heat of the outback summer.

  He dabbed at the corner of his mouth. Pulling his fingers away, he frowned when he saw a red smear of blood coating them.

  As the years progressed, he’d grown better at feeding, and leaving less mess behind. He’d learned how to cover his trail and avoid detection, while being as humane as possible towards the humans he had selected. Modern times had seen the invention of blood transfusions and specialised banks to keep donations fresh and secure. This leap in the medical field had also provided him a way to abstain from directly feeding from others…human or otherwise. However, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the old way.

  “Hardy?”

  At the sound of his name, he wiped his thumb across the stain on his mouth and sucked the blood away. He turned and stepped inside the room, making sure to close the sliding door. As the glass hit home, the abrasive sounds of the city reduced to a dull roar.

  A laptop sat open on the table in the corner. Beside it, a rolled-up map had been spread out, the edges held down with a coffee cup and two glasses from the room amenities. The fourth corner was pinned in place by the elegant, manicured fingers of Emmaline Montgomery—Hardy’s contact within the Queensland Government’s Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.

  She was a beautiful creature—tall, dark-haired, pale, pink lips, with dazzling hazel eyes—and they enjoyed each other’s company a great deal. So much so, he could still see the fang marks on her neck.

  Hardy sat on the chair beside her and bit his t
humb. A drop of blood pooled on his flesh and he reached towards her, tugging the collar of her black silk blouse.

  “Oh, thank you,” she said, her accented voice soft against his poor, abused eardrums. She was French, and even though her English was impeccable, she still sounded every part an elegant Parisian woman.

  He stroked his blood over the wounds in her flesh, smiling as they healed. “What have you found?”

  Emmaline blinked, her expression dazed for a second, before she tapped her finger on the map. “This is the preliminary geological survey conducted by EarthBore.”

  “They’ve been out to the site already?”

  “Not in any official capacity. This is a simple topographic view of the land, some data from ground penetrating radar, LIDAR, and some small core samples.”

  “It sounds a lot more than preliminary to me,” the vampire mused.

  “It’s all standard.” She let go of the map and the corner flicked upwards, rolling in on itself. “There is much more work that needs to be done before the mine can officially break ground.”

  “What kind of work?”

  “They have yet to complete an environmental survey. A mine this size would have a significant impact on the surrounding land, including the water table and wildlife.”

  “What about the cultural walk through?”

  “Vetoed,” she replied. “There won’t be one.”

  Hardy leaned back in his chair. “They’re cutting corners…”

  “Which means this iron ore is serious business.” Emmaline shook her head and began to type on her laptop. “I’ll send you everything I have.”

  He moved closer to her and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “What’s wrong, mon amour?”

  Her hands froze at his touch and her eyelashes fluttered. “This… This deposit is like nothing I have ever seen. If it’s passed, it will rival even the Carajás mine in Brazil.”

  “Carajás?”

  “You’ve never heard of it?” When Hardy shook his head, she grimaced. “Carajás is the biggest open-cut iron ore mine in the world. It’s estimated to contain over seven billion tonnes of iron, copper, nickel, gold… This mine EarthBone is proposing…”