Dark Heat

by Donna Grant

  * * *

  Cassie was momentarily stunned at the brutality she saw in Hal and the man he fought. There was no quarter, no pulled punches. They meant to kill.

  And there was no way she was going to stand by and watch it happen.

  She dodged Guy’s hands as she raced toward Hal in the cavern set ablaze in light from the many torches along the walls. He and the other man were running toward each other again. She called Hal’s name, but she knew she couldn’t get through to him in his furious state.

  And then she was in front of him, her hand on his chest. “Hal,” she said, panting from her frantic run into the cave, and then to him.

  He halted instantly, and looked down at her.

  Cassie glanced over her shoulder to see the other man had also stopped, but the violence radiating off him was undeniable.

  “Stop,” she told the other man, and then Hal. “Stop this at once. You’ll kill each other.”

  Hal’s forehead furrowed as his hands came around her arms. “Cassie. You need to leave. I must finish this.”

  “No. If this is about me, then I’m not worth it. These people are your family. Don’t fight.”

  “Cassie,” he said, and closed his eyes, his chest heaving.

  Cassie blinked back her tears as she turned to Con. “I know you don’t like me, and that’s all right. I’m an outsider. I get it, but shouldn’t his feelings matter? If he’s family, shouldn’t you accept whoever he choses and be happy for him, whether that person is me or not?”

  The silence was deafening. Cassie swallowed past the lump in her throat and dropped her hand from Hal’s chest. More than anything, she wanted to throw her arms around him and hold him.

  She and Dan never fought. How could they when they rarely spoke and never saw each other? But it killed her to see Hal fighting with his family.

  As much as she wanted to stand by his side and tell his family to kiss off, she wouldn’t do that to Hal. Because she knew, better than most, what it was like not to have family around.

  “This, I didna expect,” came a cool, deep voice behind her.

  Cassie looked over her shoulder. His golden blond hair remaindered her of a surfer. His eyes were so black and in complete contrast to his hair, and when she looked in his eyes it was as if she were looking through a mirror of thousands of years.

  Hal’s fingers tightened before he dropped his arms altogether. “Wait outside, Cassie. I’m no’ done here yet.”

  She rolled her eyes and moved so she could look at both men. “Yes, you are,” she told Hal. “This fighting will accomplish nothing.”

  “It’ll do more than you know.”

  His words brought a frown to her face. Cassie’s gaze shifted to Con to find him watching her with cool indifference. A quick glance found Guy and two other men watching her intently.

  “Guy, care to explain how Cassie got here?” Con asked.

  Guy leaned a shoulder casually against the rock of the cavern. “I wasna paying much attention to her.”

  Cassie cleared her throat at Guy’s lie. “I’m going. I just wanted to stop this.”

  She started to move away, when Hal dragged her against him, his mouth on hers in a scorching kiss. She clung to him, her body engulfed in desire so hot, so needy that she trembled with it.

  Hal ended the kiss and rested his forehead against hers, their breathing harsh and erratic. “You shouldna have come here and seen me like this.”

  She couldn’t shake the feeling there was an undercurrent of something dangerous and not exactly dark, something she couldn’t understand, going on.

  “How much do you care for Hal, Cassie?” Con asked, his voice ringing in the cavern.

  “A lot,” she answered without looking at him.

  Hal’s head jerked up as he looked at Con over her head. “Con,” he warned.

  “Cassie, I’ve something to tell you.”

  It was only when Hal tried to talk that she put her fingers over his lips to silence him. Then she turned toward Con. “So that’s what this is about? Let me guess. You want to tell me something to frighten me away? But Hal wants to be the one to tell me.”

  One of Con’s blond brows lifted. “Aye.”

  “All right.”

  “Nay,” Hal growled. “I’ll be the one to tell you.”

  Cassie smiled at him. “Nothing Con will say will scare me off from you. Let him tell me.”

  “Cassie.” His voice was low and deep, and it tore at her heart because she could see the anguish in his eyes. He feared what Con would tell her.

  The only way she could prove to Hal that she wasn’t easy to scare away was to come back to him after Con was done. Only then would Hal understand.

  She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss before she turned to Con. “Shall we get on with it then?”

  Hal kept a hold of her hand as she followed Con. With one last squeeze, Hal released her hand. Every step she took away from him was like a piece of her heart was being torn from her. And left behind.

  Cassie didn’t look at any of the other men, for fear she might lose control of the tight rein she had on her emotions. She inhaled deeply as she reached the outside and let her eyes look over Dreagan land.

  It was beautiful blanketed in a thick layer of white, but she imagined it was stunning in the summer when everything was vibrant and green.

  Would she be around to see it, was the question.

  * * *

  Hal watched his King and Cassie walk away, knowing Constantine was going to do his damnedest to scare Cassie away. He’d have won against Con, Hal knew it. But it had been Cassie who stayed his hand and took the decision from him.

  It killed him to see her walk away with Con, recognizing she might never return to him.

  Banan came up beside Hal and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Cassie feels for you, old friend.”

  “Aye. But is it enough?”

  “We’ll soon find out,” Rhys said.

  Guy pushed away from the wall and stared out the cavern entrance. “I didna want to believe our dragon magic had failed and Hal felt something for a human. But none of you were standing there when Cassie wanted to return to him. She was prepared to fight me to get to Hal.”

  “Has dragon magic ever failed before?” Banan asked.

  “Kellan would know.”

  Hal looked to Guy. He was right. If anyone knew everything of dragon history, it was Kellan, who did nothing but keep track of it. “So we walk to Kellan.”

  “Only Con knows where he’s at,” Rhys pointed out ruefully.

  “Then all we can do is wait.” Hal slumped down on a boulder and dropped his head in his hands. “I was selfish, wanting to be with Cassie. I knew nothing good could come of it. Even when I knew I needed to stay away, I couldna.”

  Rhys sat down beside him. “I thought Cassie might have done something to disturb the Silvers and the magic preventing us from feeling, but I doona think that anymore.”

  “Then it’s something else that caused this,” Banan said, his lips twisted in a sneer. “I was quite content no’ having to battle the treachery of humans.”

  Guy began a slow circle around the cavern, his forehead furrowed as he thought. “It can no’ be Ulrik. The only ones who could break dragon magic would be us, and we all know no’ to touch that magic.”

  “Which leaves what?” Banan asked.

  Rhys snorted. “And what does that mean for the rest of us?”

  Hal looked to each of his friends. For the first time in eons, their futures were uncertain once more. They would have to stay on guard, to be vigilant against everyone and everything.

  “So many years of peace,” Guy said.

  Banan rubbed his hand over his chin. “I doona relish battle again, but I long to soar freely in the skies. We dare it at night, but to fly during the day with the sun upon my scales. I long for it.”

  Hal knew exactly how Banan felt. He, too, longed for days when they hadn’t had to hide what they were. When they co
uld take to the skies as often and as long as they wished.

  “Maybe our time here is done,” Rhys said.

  Guy stopped beside them and sighed. “This was our planet long before the humans inhabited it. I doona want to give it up so easily, but maybe Rhys is right. Perhaps it’s time we took the Silvers and Ulrik and went with the other dragons.”

  “We could be the Kings we were meant to be,” Banan murmured.

  All Hal knew was that he wasn’t going anywhere without Cassie. Regardless of what evil or magic or whatever it was that nudged the Silvers and changed dragon magic, Cassie was his.

  CHAPTER

  TWELVE

  Cassie watched Con as he stopped beside her and gave a small smile.

  “Let me formally introduce myself. I’m Constantine, and I run Dreagan.”

  “I would say it was nice to meet you, Constantine, but I’d rather you just tell me whatever it is you need to say.”

  “You get right down to the heart of things. I like that.”

  “I get the feeling there isn’t much you like about anyone.” Cassie didn’t know what had come over her. She knew agitating Con wasn’t going to get her anywhere, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  He smiled then, only half a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You doona like me.”

  “Not really, no.”

  “Honesty, good. How about I tell you everything, every secret we hold. But in exchange, you have to answer any question I pose truthfully.”

  She frowned. It sounded too easy. There had to be a catch somewhere. “Why didn’t you want Hal to tell me?”

  “Because he would try to soften the blow, and I believe the best way to approach this is by telling … and showing … you exactly what you’ll be getting into.”

  Cassie didn’t see that Con had any maliciousness planned. Only a frank talk that she might or might not like.

  “First, I need to know what you feel for Hal.”

  She was unprepared to answer that question, since she herself hadn’t dared to look too deeply into her feelings. “I don’t know.”

  “I asked for honesty, Miss Hunter. If you can no’ give it to me, then this discussion is over.”

  “Wait,” she said, and grabbed his arm. When he looked down at her hand, she hastily released him. “I was speaking the truth. I haven’t been brave enough to think about what I feel for Hal. I’m afraid of what I’ll find.”

  “That you’ll love him? You’re afraid to love him?” Con asked, frowning.

  “Yes. And no.” Cassie rubbed her cold nose. “What I feel for Hal I’ve never felt for anyone before. I’m afraid that if it is love, I’ll grasp it with both hands and give it my all. Only to lose him. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to survive that.”

  For long moments, Con simply stared at her. “I think you’re stronger than you realize. Come with me, Miss Hunter. We’ll go to my office, where you can get warm and we can talk privately.”

  Cassie glanced over her shoulder into the caves before she followed Con. It was a short walk from the entrance to the mansion hidden by a small garden to a side door of the solarium.

  Green was everywhere. Large potted trees to small pots of plants. Green and an array of flowers like one could only find in a tropical forest surrounded her.

  “It’s one of my favorite places,” Con said.

  “I can see why. It’s like another world in here.”

  For the first time, she saw his eyes soften a fraction. Then he continued onward with Cassie at his heels.

  She was so busy looking around the mansion at the colorful rugs against the stained wood floor, the dark molding, and the same dark wood covering some of the walls that she had no idea how many times they’d turned corners or how many flights of stairs they’d taken.

  He took her down a long, narrow hallway where there were massive paintings of dragons over ten feet high and six feet wide. Some simply flying through the air, some in battle.

  “These are lovely,” she said as she stopped beside one canvas to stare at a green dragon locked in battle with a silver dragon. “I’ve never seen paintings like these. The artist is amazing.”

  “Why did you stop beside this one?”

  Cassie looked at Con and lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know. Something about it drew me. The eyes of the green dragon look like emeralds, and the way its scales fade from the dark emerald green to a lighter green toward the front of its body is…” She shrugged and grinned. “Well, it’s beautiful.”

  Con grunted and proceeded down the hall. Cassie wanted to stay and look at the painting some more, but she reluctantly followed Con to where he stood next to an open door.

  She walked into the lavish office where floor-to-ceiling windows sat behind the large mahogany desk and looked out over the mountainside where sheep were grazing.

  “Please, sit,” he said, and motioned to the two leather chairs while he sank into the chair behind his desk.

  Cassie lowered herself into the chair and looked around her. Expensive lawyer’s paneling covered the walls. A fireplace stood at one end of the office with a burgundy leather couch positioned before it. The paintings were of more dragons, but these pictures were much smaller, and each one showed just one dragon though each were different colors and sizes.

  On the right-hand side of Con, where the windows stopped, was a sword that gleamed in the lamplight.

  The office appeared to be a private one, not one that Con used to run the businesses. Cassie turned her gaze to him then. He was young and handsome if one could get past the cynical look in his eyes.

  “This is your personal office. Why bring me here?”

  He shrugged and locked his fingers over his abdomen. “What I have to say is private. No one from the distillery or the farm would dare to bother us here. I have no idea how long this conversation will take, but I refuse to be interrupted during any of it.”

  “All right. Then get on with it.”

  Con chuckled. “What has Hal told you about us?”

  “Nothing other than he has secrets he can never share.”

  “Well, Cassie, I’m going to share those secrets. What I’m about to tell you can never be uttered again.”

  She inclined her head and said, “I understand.”

  “Nay, you willna until you’ve heard what I have to say.”

  Cassie sniffed as feeling came back into her nose from the warmth of the room. “You’re going to try to scare me off from Hal. It’s going to take a lot to do that. What, are you all part of the mob or something? Drug dealers?”

  “Nothing like that,” Con said with a laugh.

  “Then what?” She was becoming nervous the longer they talked.

  Con leaned forward so that his elbows rested on the impeccably neat desk. “We’re no’ human, Cassie. No’ fully.”

  Of all the things he could have said, that she wasn’t prepared for. She could only stare at him, waiting for him to continue.

  “We’re immortal with powers unlike anything you could imagine. We were created to guard mankind. And dragons.”

  She glanced at the paintings of dragons. “Dragons? As in … dragons?”

  “Aye. Dragons. We’re part dragon. Since the beginning of time, dragons have inhabited this earth. We used to fill the skies. And then man was created. In order for dragon and man to live in harmony, there had to be someone who was a part of both worlds.

  “Each of us was leader of his dragons. And then we were created so that we could shift between dragon form and human form. The Dragon Kings.”

  Cassie hadn’t realized she’d gripped the arms of the chair so hard until her hands began to ache. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from Con.

  “You’re saying you’re dragons?” she asked slowly.

  Con lowered his head before he looked at her, his black eyes pinning her to the chair. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Shall I prove it to you?”

  He rose and motioned for her to stand beside him at the wind
ow. Cassie wasn’t sure her legs could hold her, but she managed to rise and walk stiffly to the window.

  They didn’t have long to wait. In the valley, sheep began to scatter as a man ran down the mountain. It took a moment, but Cassie recognized that it was Tristan. He fell to his knees and grabbed his head as if he was in great pain.

  “I—”

  “Watch,” Con interrupted her. “Tristan is new to us. The tattoo signals him a King. He’s learning how to listen to the dragon within him. Each day at this time he comes out here.”

  Before her eyes, he shifted into a large amber-colored dragon and roared. Suddenly she realized the sound she had heard earlier hadn’t been thunder, but a dragon roar.

  Tristan’s dragon wings unfurled from his body, and he raised his great head to the sky.

  “Shite,” Con said, and started to unbutton his shirt when four men ran into the valley.

  Cassie watched, transfixed, as Rhys, Guy, Banan, and Hal surrounded the dragon. Tristan charged Hal, and just when she thought Hal would be eaten, a green dragon stood where he had once been.

  She stumbled backwards and ran into the desk, her hand on her mouth.

  “Now you see,” Con said.

  Cassie’s words were locked in her throat as she realized the green dragon she looked at now was the same one in the picture she’d gazed at so long in the corridor.

  That dragon was Hal.

  One by one, the other men shifted until there was a yellow, a blue, and a red dragon standing around Tristan. When he tried to jump into the air to fly away, it was Hal who grabbed his legs and threw him back to the ground.

  Cassie wanted to turn away, but she couldn’t. She was fascinated with what she was seeing. Hal, her amazing, gorgeous Hal, was a magnificent dragon.

  Just when she thought it was over, Tristan rose up and opened his large mouth and roared. He slashed his talons at Hal and the others as they closed in around him.

  “You said you’re immortal. Does that mean you survive everything?” she asked as Hal let out an angry roar as his chest was sliced open.

  “The only ones who can kill us are other Dragon Kings.”

  She glared at Con. “So do something. Get down there and stop this before Hal or someone else is hurt.”