Alone. It was such an
insignificant word. Or it had been for centuries. He’d sought out the solitude,
had slept away centuries in his cave without hesitation.
And now? Now he hated the
quiet.
He detested being alone.
It wasn’t that he missed the
other Dragon Kings. He could communicate with them via their mental link at any
time. It was something much deeper, much stronger that twisted his gut.
He’d told the other Kings he
wanted to end the war with the Dark Fae so he could return to his mountain and
the dragon sleep. It had been the truth. For a bit. Now, he found himself
searching for something he didn’t understand or know.
No matter how many times he
walked the streets of the city, no matter how many times he killed the evil
Dark Fae who sought to slaughter the innocent humans, Darius was never
satisfied.
It was as if he were missing
something. That only made him hunt longer and harder. He’d tracked the last
remaining Dark Fae who hadn’t been smart enough to leave the city, running the
bastards to ground.
Since the Dark fed off the
souls of the humans, Darius took great pleasure in killing them. But not even
that helped to ease the tension within him.
But it did help him remember
that he was a lethal warrior. He did what he did not just for himself, but for
his brethren at Dreagan who hid amongst the humans distilling world-famous
whisky. And he did it for the humans.
The realm might’ve been the
dragons first and foremost, but the humans were part of that world as well. The
Dragon Kings fought for themselves and the mortals who once tried to kill them.
Darius removed his shirt and
folded it before neatly stacking it on the table on the other side of the
warehouse. After removing his boots and setting them tidily together, he
unfastened his jeans and stepped out of them. Folding them, he set the jeans
beside his shirt and turned to face the dead Fae.
With just a thought, he
shifted, his body transforming from that of a human into a dragon. He shook his
great head and blinked his eyes as he fastened them onto the Dark.
The greed and extravagance of
the Dark Fae had caused the city to erupt in chaos. Edinburgh hadn’t been the
only place bombarded with the Dark, however. Every major city in Scotland and
England had been attacked.
It caused the Dragon Kings to
take drastic action against the Fae. In doing so, the Kings played right into
the Dark’s hands’.
The Dark Fae filmed the Kings
on Dreagan flying, fighting, and shifting. That video had been released onto
the Internet, and a fury storm of questions fell upon Dreagan.
Their leader, Constantine,
King of Kings, ordered that no Dragon King could shift out of human form.
Darius was doing what his brethren hadn’t been able to do in weeks.
He wasted no time in breathing
fire upon the Dark. There was nothing on any realm as hot as dragon fire, and
it scorched the bodies into ash almost instantly.
Darius immediately returned to
human form and dressed. He wouldn’t stay in his true appearance when the others
couldn’t. It wasn’t fair. And it only made him hate the Dark Fae even more.
Once, long ago, there was a
war on Earth between the Fae and the Kings. The Fae Wars had lasted for decades
with hundreds dying.
The Kings eventually won. It
was supposed to have been a war that would never be repeated. It would’ve
remained that way if the Kings hadn’t had to hide their true selves. There was
only one race to blame for that: the humans.
Darius dressed and left the
warehouse. It was just after five in the morning. There was still time to do some
hunting. Perhaps he’d get lucky and see who was killing the Dark.
He hadn’t gone more than five
blocks when he found himself turning to the left. Darius walked another two
before he realized he was on his way to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
His feet halted instantly.
Every time Sophie entered his
thoughts, he hastily squished it. She was a distraction he didn’t need - and
couldn’t afford. Yet, when he walked the streets, every time he saw a flash of
red hair, he hoped it was her.
There was only one time in the
two weeks since he’d made love to her on the street, shrouded by shadows with a
hunger for her riding him hard, had he allowed himself to see her.
A day after their encounter
he’d remained hidden atop a roof watching as she left the hospital. She hadn’t
even looked in the direction where they’d had sex against the building.
Did she remember how her nails
bit into his flesh? Did she recall how her body shuddered with the force of her
climax? Did she forget how he had to swallow her screams of pleasure with a
kiss?
He had no trouble recollecting
all of that and more. So much more. For days after he had the taste of her on
his tongue. Even now he recalled the feel of her soft, warm skin beneath his
hands. He knew the weight of her breasts and how sensitive her nipples were.
If he allowed himself, he
could get drunk off her kisses alone.
It was that reason alone that
he hadn’t returned to the hospital or anywhere near Sophie’s home. She was much
too alluring and entirely too much of a temptation to put himself in close
proximity to her.
So why was he now heading
toward the very place he shied away from? His thoughts had been on the Dark and
eradicating them forever from this realm. He hadn’t even been thinking of
Sophie.
Darius turned on
his heel and retraced his steps. He had to get far from Sophie. Nothing good
could come of him seeing her again.
