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The Immortal's Hunger
Kelli Ireland
WHEN YOU PLAY WITH FIRE . . .It was only a matter of time before Gareth Brennan had to die. Before he made that ultimate sacrifice, the assassin wanted to know warmth once again. His recent experiences had destroyed his ability to create fire, yet sexy bartender Ashley Clement was now igniting one within him.As a Phoenix, Ashley had limited time herself; soon a male Phoenix would claim her. Unless she could find a lover. Gareth was the perfect man for the job. Except he was no human, and their union might draw even more danger. But to deny their fiery attraction…that was a truly impossible task.
WHEN YOU PLAY WITH FIRE...
It was only a matter of time before Gareth Brennan had to die. Before he made that ultimate sacrifice, the assassin wanted to know warmth once again. His recent experiences had destroyed his ability to create fire, yet sexy bartender Ashley Clement was now igniting one within him.
As a Phoenix, Ashley had limited time herself; soon a male Phoenix would claim her. Unless she could find a lover. Gareth was the perfect man for the job. Except he was no human, and their union might draw even more danger. But to deny their fiery attraction...that was a truly impossible task.
“I’ll show you mine when you show me yours.”
Ashley leaned into him and the smell of sunshine and dry heat intensified. “Clever man. I suppose closing time will provide us both the answer I’ve not yet decided on. Stay if you will.”
Spinning on her heel, she strode across the pub and slipped behind the bar.
Gareth stole a look at his watch.
Midnight.
Two hours to kill.
If this woman was his last chance? If she could give him the chance to find even a moment’s peace before an eternity of torment? There was nothing he wouldn’t do, no sin he wouldn’t commit. And he would do any of it, all of it, without batting an eye. After all, he was already damned, a dead man.
There was nothing left to lose, only a warm woman to gain.
KELLI IRELAND spent a decade as a name on a door in corporate America. Unexpectedly liberated by Fate’s sense of humor, she chose to carpe the diem and pursue her passion for writing. A fan of happily-ever-afters, she found she loved being the puppet master for the most unlikely couples. Seeing them through the best and worst of each other while helping them survive the joys and disasters of falling in love? Best. Thing. Ever. Visit Kelli’s website at www.kelliireland.com (http://www.kelliireland.com).
The Immortal’s Hunger
Kelli Ireland
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Dear Reader (#ulink_8bbaefc4-9bd2-5ac9-a7f3-7944cb8ca633),
Welcome back to the myth and magic of Ireland! The first book in the series introduced you to the five men, all Druids, who make up the Assassin’s Arcanum. This second book introduces the man who’s second in command, or Regent: Gareth Brennan. Darkness has weighed him down for too long, but the personal sacrifice it will take to shed that weight may be too high a cost. Only time, and the power of love, will tell.
I was fortunate to spend several weeks in Ireland not long ago. The country is as charming as it is indescribably beautiful. And I can tell you without batting an eye that the country is as green as it’s reputed to be. And the people? They’re warm, friendly and have a quick wit about them. I made friends there that I still miss (waves at Mary and Tommy!).
Every time I delve into an Arcanum member’s story, I’m transported back to this land. Ireland wove her own magic around me. It seemed anything...everything...was possible while I was there. I’ve cherished each discovery I made in Ireland, both personal and professional. But that particular feeling of being able to do anything I set my mind to? I’ve held it closest of all.
May that sense of wonder and the urge to believe in the impossible find you somewhere within the pages of Gareth’s story.
Until next time,
Kelli
To all the amazing people who touched my life while I was in Ireland researching this series.
Contents
Cover (#ue4613d6f-e95e-597d-bec5-f90d63a736fd)
Back Cover Text (#ubad54ab7-66e8-5424-ac28-bbe510955958)
Introduction (#uf0c69602-dd0c-51d6-b55b-a8deed94931e)
About the Author (#u2830645b-8b32-5985-8d4e-9e3eccf08e41)
Title Page (#u9d90739f-b3ba-57be-a394-85f36b427481)
Dear Reader (#ulink_96c05b6e-65da-5192-b959-98692ae0d065)
Dedication (#ub50ab6f2-290a-524d-a82e-1a29594e5b92)
Chapter 1 (#u9a66318b-85d5-5b0e-b544-bbe66cc77b66)
Chapter 2 (#u9b6d275f-7417-5c55-bd49-6175159f7a4e)
Chapter 3 (#u3ee3f77d-fbdf-5fa4-8359-7a7326061ccf)
Chapter 4 (#u9960b57b-0a91-5d1a-975c-83d36c5e0b1f)
Chapter 5 (#u06bfb091-5c4c-5dcf-a355-863dfd2c78f7)
Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1 (#ulink_d1f35b1a-81fd-583c-9c69-7cc1cf03c77c)
Gareth Brennan considered the frost-rimed grass, yellowed and made brittle by a persistent cold no summer month in Ireland had ever seen. Toeing the edge of the macabre pattern of cracked earth with his booted foot, a hard shiver raced up his spine. The Old Ones, ancestors lost long before the modern day, held that a man knew when someone passed over his grave. They’d known with certainty what time such events occurred and disbelief at the myth had turned into an old wives’ tale, suggesting that the connection between life and death was so thin that the soul rebelled at death’s most subtle threat.
Gareth had died here a little more than six months ago. And he’d been resurrected. His connection to this very place had been cemented that day. Whether anyone believed in the old legends, or his reactions, was irrelevant. Gareth knew every time man, animal or...other...crossed this ground.
Clumps of dark, cracked soil broke away as he continued to think. The ground seemed to sigh, exhaustion bleeding out of the unnatural fissures. It shamed him that fear, not fury, was his immediate response to that sound, the sound that called up memories of his death. The goddess, Cailleach, bound millennia before to the Shadow Realm, had sought to break her chains and return to this plane. She’d sought to displace the gods and remake the world to her satisfaction, placing her and her siblings as rulers over mankind.
Gareth hadn’t been of an accord. And he also hadn’t been willing to fight her, not when she’d possessed a woman who bore no responsibility in the merging of souls beyond having been born to the wrong bloodline at the worst possible time. He couldn’t condemn her for something so beyond her control. Well, that and the fact the Druid’s Assassin, Gareth’s boss and brother by choice, loved the woman. That had certainly influenced him, as well. As Regent to the Assassin and his Arcanum, second in command in all things, he’d made an executive decision. Dylan’s happiness trumped the man’s loneliness. So Gareth didn’t fight back, instead allowing the woman to run him through with a sword. A large sword. Bloody bad idea that had been.
He kicked at the earth again, and it did, indeed, sigh.
His fear intensified at the sound, one so familiar to the breathy voice that haunted him both waking and asleep.
Death.
Phantoms.
The goddess.
War.
Gareth shuddered and took a step back as he considered the scarred soil.
How much stronger was the connection between life and death if a man experienced death and rebirth in the same spot? How tightly bound would he be to the place if the Goddess of Phantoms and War herself told him she’d see him here again come Beltane?
There wasn’t an easy answer. He only knew that each time someone crossed this patch, his entire body shuddered with repulsion. His breath stalled. The goddess breathed into his ear, her voice as chilling as mortals believed it should have been hot.
“Beltane.”
Always the same singular word, and always uttered with the same undisguised intent.
She’s coming for me.
He fought the urge to run, to get in his car and drive, to get away from Ireland by plane or by sea and never, ever look back. But to what end? History had proven over and over that there was nowhere one could run to that death couldn’t find him. The goddess was cagey like that.
Bitch.
He backed away several feet, eyes on the ground as if she’d emerge at his unfavorable thought. When nothing happened, he turned and stalked toward the giant keep.
Mortals, and particularly tourists, who came to the cliffs saw only a decrepit building of tumbling stone and vine. If they came too close, a sense of bowel-loosening foreboding repelled them. And if they persisted? A little magickal push from one of the Assassin’s watchmen sent them on their way.
He saw the place, known as the Nest, for what it was. A rather foreboding castle, it had a tower on all four corners. The courtyard had been enclosed to make a huge foyer over two hundred years prior. The garage was a bit archaic seeing as it had, for centuries, housed horses versus horsepower. And Wi-Fi had gone in—thank the gods—four years ago. The place was still a drafty monstrosity, and it always would be. But it was home.
He jogged through the front doors, fighting the compulsion to keep his jacket on. He was cold, was always cold, now.
“Yer late,” a thunderous voice called out, and he knew for whom that particular boom tolled.
“And you’ve no cause to announce to the world I’ve come to drop my trousers for you,” Gareth countered.
The burly man grinned as he stepped full out of the doorway to the infirmary. “Ye’ll drop yer drawers because I’m the only one who can give ye what ye need.”
“Yep, your reputation’s toast,” an identifiable male voice called from an invisible point and was followed by general male laughter.
“Shut up,” Garret called, shaking his head. “Bunch of tools.”
He strode into the Druidic version of a physician’s office. The eye of newt was missing, but beyond that, it was relatively similar to that which a nonmagickal person would expect. Natural remedies, crushed herbs and preserved root stock shared space with modern medical equipment and, in some cases, drugs. In the midst of it all stood Angus O’Malley, the Druid’s version of a physician and owner of the voice that had started the trainee assassins chattering in the hallways.
“Did you have to call out like that, Angus? You know they’ll fear coming in here now.” Gareth nudged the door shut with his hip and, with reluctance, shed his jacket. The cold that had chilled him became abrasive and he couldn’t repress a hard shudder.
Angus looked him over with a critical eye. “No better, then.” A statement, not a question.
“No worse,” Gareth countered.
“Yer optimism’s noted.” He jerked his chin to an exam table. “Drop your denims and assume the position.”
Scowling, Gareth undid his jeans and braced his palms on the table edge. “You know, I hate this. Just get it over wi—ow! Fecking hell,” he said, teeth gritted, hands clenching. The burn of the injection and the subsequent medication was almost as painful as Angus’s warm hand laid against the bare skin of his hip. He thought it possible he melted under the incredible heat of the healer’s touch, was less than a breath away from calling stop and begging to have the needle removed, when the large man pulled it free of his flesh.
Gareth yanked his jeans up with enough force he doubled over with a grunt. He shot a sharp look at Angus. “What was in that bloody injection? Hydrochloric acid? Perhaps a little potassium sulfate to enhance the burn?” He rubbed his hand over the offended butt cheek. “Gods be damned, but in the course of this...this...nonsense, that was the most painful ‘treatment’ yet!”
“‘Nonsense,’ is it?” Angus asked as he skewered Gareth with a sharp look. “As Regent, the Assassin’s second in both rank and command of the Assassin’s Arcanum, and considerin’ yer one o’ the brighter men I’ve yet tae meet, I believe I’m safe in saying the problem’s no’ the mix. The problem centers around yer fear, Gareth, and well ye know it.”
Heat, unusual and yet welcome for its rarity if not the cause, burned across Gareth’s cheeks. “Tell a soul I’m scared o’ needles and it’ll mean fists between us, auld man.”
Sighing, Gareth tucked the tails of his henley under his waistband with fierce jabs, retied his combat boots and—more gingerly—situated his pants legs before facing the man who’d treated his every injury since childhood. He propped one hip on the exam table and crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring Angus’s posture. “Is there anything you’ve found in treating me, anything so wrong that himself’s a need to know this very minute?”
Besides the fact the phantom goddess marked my soul as hers, sealed the claiming with forced sexual contact and has promised to fetch me home by Beltane? Sure, and there’s that.
Thank the gods he’d shared that with no one. “Well?” he pressed Angus.
The healer rolled his shoulders forward, lips thinning. “Nay.” He shoved meaty hands into hair that resembled the topknot of a Highland steer. “That doesna mean yer symptoms aren’t worsening, though. Only that I doona know best how tae treat ye.”
Ignoring his internal voice, the one that latched on to the admission he was worsening with a silent wail of rage, Gareth gave a sharp nod. “Then what do you recommend I tell Dylan? Should I say that I’m...what? Can you definitively prove that I’m...I’m...dying?” He swallowed hard and waited. What if Angus says yes?
“I doona ken, but...no.” Angus dropped his hands to his sides, his wide shoulders sagging. “Ye’ve symptoms the likes o’ which I’ve never seen, symptoms as would scare a logical man near tae death. But I cannot predict death any more than you.”
