Fire Rising (Dark Kings) Read Online Free PDF Page A

crude stitches. Sammi had managed to stop the bleeding, but that didn’t mean she had gotten the bullet out.
    That thought caused Tristan to gently turn her onto her right side to make sure there wasn’t a second wound, and just as he suspected, there wasn’t.
    “The bullet may still be inside her,” he told Jane.
    Banan stalked to the doorway and gave a loud whistle. Within seconds Darius, Laith, and Ryder came into the room. Tristan was intent on removing the stitches while Ryder lifted a light over him and held it there so he could see.
    With the stitches removed, Tristan carefully prodded the abrasion. Sammi shifted away from him. Darius grabbed her ankles while Banan knelt on the other side of the bed prepared to hold down her right side while Laith grabbed her left arm.
    Tristan looked to Jane. “I’ve never dug out a bullet.”
    “None of us have,” Banan said. “You doona have a choice since Kellan isna here. Get to it.”
    Tristan took a deep breath and probed farther into the wound. Sammi once more tried to pull away, but she was held down. Moving as quickly as he could, Tristan prodded for the slug with tweezers while Jane wiped away the blood.
    Sweat beaded his forehead the longer it took and the more pain he was causing Sammi. Then the tweezers hit something metallic. It didn’t take long for him to realize the bullet was imbedded in her shoulder bone.
    Tristan wiped his forehead with his arm and glanced at Sammi’s face. She was pale, but at least she hadn’t woken. Who had done this to her? Who would want to hurt someone so beautiful?
    He rotated his shoulder to stretch it and focused on the slug. It seemed to take eons before he finally got it to loosen. With one final tug, he felt it give.
    “Got it,” Tristan said as he pulled the bullet out and held it up for everyone to see.
    He looked at Sammi to find her powder blue eyes open and watching him. Time halted, froze as they stared at each other. Then her lids closed, breaking whatever hold she had over him.
    There was no moment to consider his reaction as Tristan handed the bullet to Laith and set about cleaning the wound and draining away the puss so he could stitch it again.
    With the last thread in place, Tristan tied it in a knot and cut it. Ryder clapped him on the shoulder and moved away after he set aside the light.
    Tristan sat back and saw the blood on his hands. Suddenly, an image of those same hands covered in blood flashed in his mind, but his skin had been pale blue with long blue claws extending from his fingers.
    As quickly as the image appeared, it vanished, leaving Tristan with an odd feeling in his gut. He tried to forget it, but he didn’t think he would ever be able to. Was it a vision from his past, the past everyone claimed was of Duncan Kerr?
    “Good job,” Banan said.
    Laith held out the bullet after he had cleaned and dried it. “I think you all need to see this.”
    Ryder took the mangled slug and looked at it. “There’s something etched on it.”
    “What is it?” Tristan asked.
    Banan took it next and after looking at it a moment walked out of the room only to return with a magnifying glass. He held it over the bullet for a minute.
    “This can no’ be,” he mumbled.
    Jane wiped Sammi’s brow with a damp cloth. “What is it?”
    The bullet and magnifying glass were passed to each of them until Tristan finally got to see. He saw what was obviously a dragon etched into the metal.
    “What does this mean?” he asked.
    Laith snorted. “It means we’re fucked.”
    “It means Ulrik. It means that he has revenge in mind,” Darius said.

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    Sammi stared at the tray across her lap and tried to ignore her sister’s determined glare. Sammi awoke feeling rested and without her body aching as it had for the past month.
    That’s when Jane explained she had fallen unconscious at the kitchen table. They had brought her upstairs and found the wound. Apparently she had someone named Tristan to thank