by Donna Grant
“Morning,” she said with a small smile that quickly vanished.
He stepped back and widened the door. “Would you like to come in?”
She looked past him, hesitating. Finally, she moved into the flat. He softly closed the door and watched the way her gaze scanned the place.
Dorian paid no attention to the furnishings or the décor of the flat. It was a place to stay, to hide while on his mission. That’s all that mattered to him.
Or it had. Now, as he watched Alex inspect the penthouse, he very much wanted to know her thoughts. The Dragon Kings had homes in all major cities—sometimes more than one house. None of the Kings owned them individually, and yet the residences belonged to all of them to use as needed.
“I didna know you were aware of where I lived,” he said, needing to break the silence.
Alex turned her head to him. “Money can get you pretty much anything you want.”
Dorian searched for something else to say, but he was at a loss. He wanted to know why she was there. But mostly he wanted to know what she’d seen the night before. Those questions, however, remained unspoken.
Because he knew if he uttered them, he would likely get the answers he dreaded. Then she would be gone. So he was dragging out the inevitable, just to be near her for a little longer.
“Why didn’t you know about desserts or coffee?” she suddenly asked.
Dorian frowned at the unexpected question. “I told you, I removed myself from everything.”
“But what does that mean exactly?” she pressed. Alex blew out a breath and set her purse on a side table by the sofa. “Who are you?”
So here it was. The question she came to learn the answer to. “I told you.”
“You told me next to nothing.”
He looked toward the windows and the city. “I told you of my sister, which is something I doona share.”
There were only ten steps separating them, but it felt like a continent to Dorian. How did he bridge that gap? Or did he even try?
“And I thank you for that,” she said. “That was the only real thing you told me about yourself. What are you hiding?”
Dorian returned his gaze to her and lifted a brow. Having her near and not being able to hold her was worse than when he thought he’d never see her again. For his sake, and hers, he needed to end whatever this conversation was.
“You tell me, since you were here last night,” he stated.
Her lips parted in surprise as she took a little step back.
He snorted and shook his head. “You ran away only to return. Why?”
“I need answers.”
“You’re no’ going to get them.”
The fear in her hazel eyes was replaced with ire. “Because I don’t deserve them?”
“Because you’re better off no’ knowing.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck a hip out, a move that Dorian learned was one that meant the female was just getting started.
The smile Alex gave him was anything but kind. “Which of the artifacts did you come for?”
Dorian should’ve realized that she would figure it out. Alex was smart, which most people didn’t give her credit for. Still, he wouldn’t answer her.
She blinked rapidly as her chest began to heave. Her arms dropped and she hurriedly looked away as her face crumpled. “I thought you were different. I didn’t think you would use me, but you’re just like the others.”
“I’m no’.”
“You are!” she shouted, the anger back as her face flamed red. She irritably wiped at a tear that slid down her cheek. “I stupidly let you in. Everyone always disappoints me. Why did you have to do it, too?”
Dorian was unprepared for her words—or the shame that filled him. Because she spoke the truth. He had used her. He had disappointed her.
He watched helplessly as she grabbed her purse and stalked past him. But he couldn’t let her go. His hand snaked out and latched onto her arm, halting her.
She didn’t fight his hold, merely stopped and looked at him. “Either tell me what I want to know or let me go.”
“You ask the impossible.”
“I wish you had never come into my life. I wish with everything I had that I could erase any memory of you. Because while I’ve been used by many, no one has hurt me like you.”
She yanked her arm free. Dorian could do nothing but turn to watch her leave. With each step she took, it felt as if his world was unraveling. He didn’t understand the emotions that were overwhelming him, suffocating him. All he knew was that he had to make them stop.
“You hold an object that could be the answer we need to best an enemy,” he said as she walked through the door.
He held his breath as she stopped.
Turn around. Please, turn and look at me.
Air slid past his lips while relief surged through his heart when Alex pivoted toward him. She remained at the door, refusing to come back inside.
“Which one?” she demanded.
He frowned. “Enemy?”
“Artifact?”
“The one in the back corner that looks like a long oval.”
Her brows snapped together. “The stone? How can that help you?”
“I doona know. It may no’, but we have to try.”
“We who?”
Dorian shook his head. “Why do you need to know?”
“Why do you keep it secret?”
She’d seen him, but she wouldn’t say the words. He knew she was waiting on him. But he wasn’t sure he could give her what she needed.
Alex swallowed and licked her lips, glancing away. “I know you can steal it any time. Why didn’t you?”
“It would’ve been the easy thing to do, and the quickest. It’s what I wanted when I first came, but then again, I have no’ been out in the world in some time. The others wanted me to try and convince you to sell it.”
“It was those from Dreagan who made the offer a few weeks ago, wasn’t it?”
Dorian gave a single nod. “Aye.”
“Why did they send you?”
She was back to the questions he didn’t want to answer. But at least there was something he could share. “It was my time to rejoin my family and take my place among them.”
Alex walked toward him, their gazes locked. “I’ll give you the artifact. I’ll hand it over right now. If only you’ll tell me who you are.”
She stopped before him, so close he could lean forward and claim her lips. The yearning for her went deeper than he thought possible. But it was a union that could never be.
“As you said, I could steal it any time.”
It tore him up to see her struggling not to shed the tears that welled in her lovely eyes. How he could hold such disdain for humanity but care for one of them enough that he hated himself for hurting her?
“Then take it and get out of my life,” she told him.
Her words cut deeper than any blade ever could. Dorian was confused and mystified at the emotions that jumbled within him. Ceana would have had the answers. His sister always had.
Alex’s gaze shifted away as her tears spilled over. She took a step back and pivoted.
Dorian rushed to move around her because he couldn’t stand knowing that he put the pain in her eyes and her heart.
“You saw me,” he said. “The real me.”
She refused to look at him.
“I liked when I abhorred humans. Imagine my surprise when I met one so different that I couldna hate her.” Dorian swallowed as her gaze slowly lifted to his. Now that he began, he didn’t want to stop—couldn’t stop.
“I’m one of the first beings to inhabit this realm. I’m as old as time, an immortal dragon who has magic and the ability to shift into this form whenever I wish. I’m a Dragon King.”
Chapter Fourteen
Oh, shit.
It was true. Alex blinked up at Dorian, unable to form words. In the few minutes she had been in the penthouse, she’d withstood a bevy of emo
tions—and she knew it was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Immortal?” she repeated.
He nodded slowly, his blond hair moving about his shoulders. “Aye.”
“And you’re...well, old.” She winced when she heard herself, but her brain couldn’t manage math at the moment.
Dorian’s lips softened as he chuckled. “Aye.”
“How are you so normal?”
“We sleep.”
She gave him a shot of side eye. “Well, yeah. We all do.”
“Nay, lass. I’ve been in a deep sleep for millions of years.”
Her head was spinning. “I’ve got to sit down for this, I think.”
Alex moved past him and made her way to the hunter green sofa. She sat, letting the feel of the cool leather sink through her jeans and into her.
Dorian followed cautiously, watching as if he feared she might throw herself out the window. Which, if she were honest, she might have done had she learned all of this the previous night.
Immortal. Wow. She was actually having a harder time with that than the dragon part. Because if he was immortal, that meant he would continue to live long after she died.
And while they weren’t in a relationship of any kind, she might have been a bit premature and thought about what it would be like to be Dorian’s. Even that brief thought was enough to make her heart long for what she couldn’t have.
Dorian moved to sit in a chair opposite her. He leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “This is why I didna want to tell you.”
“It’s more than that,” she said, recognizing the truth. “You spoke of enemies. Enemies you didn’t want me to know about.”
“Aye, I did.”
“The video Meg told me about, that was you?”
He drew in a quick breath and leaned back. “I only woke a week ago, but aye, that video is of the Dragon Kings.”
“There is more than one of you? I don’t understand. I thought there could be only one king?”
Dorian stared at her a long moment. “Are you sure you want to know this? You can no’ repeat any of it. No’ to Meg or Paul or anyone.”
“I understand.”
“No matter what they try to tell you. This stays between us.”
“You have my word,” she promised.
He rubbed his hands on his jean-clad thighs, his gaze dropping to the large cream-colored rug. “Everything you’ve been taught about your history is a lie. For eons, dragons ruled this planet.” His eyes swung back to her. “Dragons of all sizes and colors. Each clan had a King.”
“So you were King of your clan,” she said, crossing one leg over the other.
“Aye. Each King is chosen by the magic within this realm. Only the strongest, the most powerful in each clan is chosen. Sometimes we have to issue a challenge to the current King in order to claim the throne.”
Alex held up a hand. “Wait. I thought you said you were immortal.”
“Only a Dragon King can kill another Dragon King. Dragons themselves are verra much mortal, though they have incredibly long life spans.”
“But if you aren’t a King, how can you kill another?”
There was a slight curve of his lips as he said. “Some want to be a King so badly they believe the magic has chosen them, when in fact it hasn’t. Those poor souls are killed by the Dragon King.”
“And the other ones? The ones who are chosen by the magic?”
“A few try to ignore their destiny, but I didna. I welcomed it. I challenged the King and won. It’s a fight to the death, so someone’s life is going to end.”
It sounded so barbaric, but then again, it was an entire other species. Who was she to judge? “How often do new Kings take over? Every year?”
“Some Kings remain in their position for hundreds or thousands of years, while others have a shorter reign if the magic discovers one who is better able to lead.”
“And what if that dragon doesn’t want to be King?” she asked.
Dorian shrugged. “I’ve never run across one who hasna, but I imagine that they wouldna issue the challenge.”
“Does the magic ever choose wrong? I mean, surely there have been some really bad Kings.”
“The magic doesna just discern our power and strength. It also sees our hearts. Only those the magic deems pure enough are chosen.”
Her brows shot up. “It’s too bad the magic can’t pick our leaders, because we seriously need to do some house cleaning. All over the world.”
“I can no’ disagree with you there,” he said with a smile.
She stared at his mouth for a long moment, basking in the glory of his grin. “Why doesn’t the magic help humans?”
“Perhaps because you are no’ of this realm? It could also be that you doona have magic. I can no’ answer that.”
“Can you ask the magic?”
He gave a shake of his head. “The magic isna a being we converse with. It’s a part of us.”
That made no sense, but she would save a more in-depth discussion about that for later. “Okay. Back to the story.”
“We have a King of Dragon Kings. His name is Constantine. Con is the one responsible for keeping us together.”
“Where are all the dragons? I’m sorry, I’m probably moving ahead of your story, but surely if there were that many, someone would’ve seen one.”
A great sadness came over Dorian’s face. “Your kind arrived one day.”
“Arrived?” she repeated, her head cocked to the side. “What do you mean?”
“One minute humans were no’ there, and the next they were. The Kings were drawn to the group, and when we gathered, each of us shifted for the first time in order to communicate with your kind. Dragons speak telepathically.”
She rotated her ankle. “And humans do not.”
“We learned that the group held no magic, and the Kings agreed to offer protection and refuge. We realigned our territories so the mortals would have a place to live. But it soon wasna enough. They kept asking for more. Dragons became irritated and there were clashes.”
Alex frowned. “I can’t imagine that ended well for the humans.”
“They retaliated by hunting the smallest dragons.”
Her heart thudded at the anger in his voice. “Did you go after the humans then?”
“We made a vow. Once a King gives such a promise, we doona go back on it. We were able to broker a truce, but by that time, the toll had already been dealt to that clan of dragons. It wasna long before the mortals began hunting them again. By the time their King realized that he was the last, it was too late.”
“And the humans couldn’t kill him.”
“Nay.”
She didn’t even know this King, but her heart broke for him. To have lost his entire clan without being able to defend them seemed wrong. “What happened to him?”
“He died when we battled each other, but I’m getting ahead of myself.”
“That’s...horrible.”
Dorian drew in a deep breath and released it. “There were other Kings who had better experiences with mortals. Ulrik, who was like a brother to Con, had such a union. Or so we thought. Like other Kings, he took a human as his lover, and he fell in love with her. To our shock, he asked her to be his mate. Dragons mate for life, so it means something when we make such a decision.”
Alex nodded, eager to hear more.
“During the early years, we learned that our seed rarely planted in the females. The few times it did, the bairns always died either in the womb, or were stillborn.”
“That’s awful,” Alex murmured.
Dorian twisted his lips. “That was a drawback of our pairings, but what the humans didna know was that being mated to us, they became immortal. Whether we took a dragon or a human as ours, they would live until we died.”
Well. She hadn’t seen that bit coming. In fact, she felt a kernel of hope spring up in her heart. But Alex hastily tried to squash it. It would do no good to dream about a man, er, dragon
, that she couldn’t have.
“The woman Ulrik chose didna love him,” Dorian continued. “She felt beholden to him for all the things he’d done for her and her family. So Ulrik’s uncle, Mikkel, contrived a plan with the help of a Druid.”
“Druid?” she asked before he could go on.
Dorian wrinkled his nose. “Over the course of several hundred years, a few mortals garnered magic—the Druids.”
He said it as if that should answer all her questions about them. It didn’t even come close. But she’d let it go for now.
“The Druid utilized a spell to be able to converse with Mikkel and they used Ulrik’s woman, telling her that she needed to kill Ulrik before she was bound to him for life.”
This was better than any book Alex had read in years. She uncrossed her legs and sat up straighter. “Didn’t Ulrik tell her he couldn’t be killed?”
“He had no reason to give her such information. But she would never get the chance. Con wasna sure her love for Ulrik was real, so he took an interest in her. He discovered her plan before she could carry it out. You need to understand that Ulrik was the best of all of us. He loved to play jokes on others, and was always laughing, always helping. Con knew the betrayal would destroy him. So Con sent him away on a mission and gathered the rest of us. As soon as we heard, we all volunteered to kill her ourselves.”
Alex gaped at him. “Kill? Surely there was another option.”
“After all we had done for the mortals, this was how they repaid us? Nay, Alex, there was no other way. Con said we would find the female, kill her, and that would be the end of it. Less than thirty minutes later, the deed was done.”
She leaned forward, unsure of how she felt about the woman’s murder. “And Ulrik? What did he say when he returned?”
“He was furious. He didna lash out at us, though.”
“Of course not,” she said angrily. “You’re his brothers, his friends. As irate as he was, he knew you tried to help him.”
Dorian scratched his jaw. “Which meant that Ulrik took his anger out on the only ones he could—the humans.”
Alex slowly sat back, realization dawning. “There was a war.”
“The Silvers are some of the largest dragons along with the Golds. Ulrik, as King of the Silvers, attacked immediately. Half of the Kings sided with Ulrik, while the rest of us remained with Con.”