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.
She was born and raised in Texas but loves to travel. Her adventures have taken her throughout the United States as well as to Jamaica, Mexico, and Scotland. Growing up on the Texas/Louisiana border, Donna’s Cajun side of the family taught her the “spicy” side of life while her Texas roots gave her two-steppin’ and bareback riding.
Despite deadlines and voracious reading, Donna still manages to keep up with her two children, four cats, and one long haired Chihuahua.
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