Free Burning Desire by Donna Grant

yourself, douche canoe.”
    Balladyn’s cold smile was his response.
    Rhi inwardly shrank away, because she’d pushed him too far. Perhaps he would unintentionally kill her and end the hell she was living in.
    Balladyn’s red eyes held hers as he stood and took a few steps back before he spread his legs and held out his hands, palms facing each other level with his chest. Rhi whimpered when the black cloud billowed from his hands, but it was drowned out by the deafening sound of evil yawning toward her.
    She thought about the first time she had seen her lover, her magnificent Dragon King. The thought was barely in her mind before she was thrown across the room, her body slamming against the stone.
    A scream tore from Rhi as bones shattered.
    *   *   *
    Shara entered her family’s home, her heart still pounding with excitement over her time with Kiril. After Kiril dropped her off in Cork, she was surrounded by Dark who had escorted her home.
    She walked to the kitchen and looked around. They, like so many other Dark, had taken residence in a human home. Shara didn’t even want to know what her family had done to the original occupants.
    The manor was large, the design ancient, and yet her family kept it updated with modern conveniences. Three hundred years ago, her mother had decided to give the manor a facelift and had the entire outside redesigned to look more modern.
    The Fae—both Light and Dark—once fought to claim Earth as theirs, but the Dragon Kings hadn’t stepped aside. The Fae had relented to a truce when the Kings began to pull ahead. The truce stated that no Fae could venture into Scotland or remain on the realm for long periods of time, but there was something about humans that drew them. None could stay away for long. And somehow, someway the Fae began to integrate with the humans in Ireland. They kept themselves separate, but always near the humans.
    As Shara looked around the house, it gave the appearance of humanity, but there wasn’t a scrap of good within the walls. Evil lived, breathed, and bred there.
    She lived there.
    How was it that she didn’t feel evil after spending time with Kiril? She was born into a Dark family, had done evil herself as was evidenced by her eyes and the silver in her hair. As she looked around, she felt like a foreigner in her own home.
    “You’re back early,” Farrell said as he sauntered into the kitchen, his eyes raking over her. “Your hair is messed up. Did you get him in bed?”
    She wasn’t sure why she made the decision to lie, only that she did the instant the words came out of her mouth. “Kiril has a convertible, if you’ll remember. Of course my hair is going to be messed up.”
    “You were at his house. Didn’t you use your wiles?” he asked in a mocking tone.
    “I did. He kissed me.”
    “Kissed you?” Farrell twisted his lips in a smirk. “Is that all you managed with your seduction ?”
    It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to go screw himself. Instead, she smiled sweetly. “I suppose you’re used to the whore’s seduction, brother dear. Would you even know what it was if a lady seduced you?”
    “You’re no lady.”
    Her smile grew. “Oh wait. You don’t know because you don’t know how to get a woman without using your name or the family money.”
    “You little bitch,” Farrell growled and came at her.
    He wrapped his hand around her neck, much as Kiril had done earlier in the night. The difference was, Kiril had held her firmly without hurting her, but Farrell was squeezing painfully. Shara stared into his eyes, daring him to do what he had wanted for decades.
    “Farrell,” their mother said from the doorway. “Release her.”
    Shara didn’t rub her neck as she longed to do when Farrell’s hand finally dropped away. She kept her arms by her sides and watched their mother all but glide into the room. Her completely silver hair was cut in a bob at her chin, not a hair out of place.
    Her eyes blazed in red fury