Dragon King: A Dark Kings Novella (1001 Dark Nights) (13 page)

But where to start? A simple apology wasn’t going to cut it.

Arian lifted his head and looked at the cottage across the street. Grace was inside, probably still upset. He recalled the fear in her pretty eyes and how they had welled with tears when she realized what he had done.

He’d hated himself at that moment. Though his actions had been to help safeguard his brethren, it had hurt Grace deeply. He’d promised to protect her, and instead he had done the opposite.

No, she hadn’t been hurt physically. That didn’t mean he hadn’t harmed her emotionally and mentally.

Arian palmed the keys and got out of the vehicle. He closed the door behind him as he strode across the street. His hand shook when he knocked upon the bright blue wooden door.

The seconds that ticked by felt like eons as he waited for someone to come to the door. Finally, there was a creak in the floor when someone approached.

A moment later and the door opened to reveal a man in his early sixties with a solid white head of hair and gray eyes. He was beginning to hunch forward, but he stared at Arian with a clear gaze.

“Can I help you?” the man asked.

Arian gave a nod. “I’d like to speak to Grace Clark, please.”

One thick, bushy white eyebrow rose. “Grace, aye? Stay here, lad, and let me see if she’s in.”

That was his way of telling Arian he was going to see if Grace would talk to him. Arian remained on the front step, trying not to fidget. He looked around the area, noting all the houses had taken the place of forests of trees.

Arian fiddled with the keys. He ran his hand through his hair. He kicked at the dirt on the path. He watched cars pass.

And all the while he thought of Grace.

He imagined running his hand along her face, of threading his fingers in her hair.

He thought of her smile, of the way her navy eyes lit from within when she gazed at him.

He remembered the touch of her hands on him, of the way she breathed when he was making love to her.

Then he recalled her fear, a fear he’d exploited. Her terror for storms went bone deep—so deep she might never get over it. He would try to show her the beauty of storms, but it would be asking a lot of her.

Arian knew then that even though it was his power, he was willing to never use it again if it meant he could be with Grace.

The door opened behind him.

Arian turned around, words already tumbling from his lips. But they fell silent as he looked not into the navy eyes of Grace but the old man.

“I’m sorry, lad, but she’s no’ available,” the man said.

Arian looked above him to the windows of the second floor. Grace was up there. He could force his way in and make her talk to him, but what good would that do?

“I see.” Arian hated the bitter taste of disappointment.

The old man’s gray eyes were steady as he watched Arian. “Perhaps latter, lad,” he offered.

“Perhaps. Thank you for your time,” Arian said with a bow of his head. He then turned on his heel and walked back to the Mercedes.

Arian got back inside the vehicle and simply sat there. It wasn’t a good sign that Grace wouldn’t see him, but Arian wasn’t about to give up. He would wait however long it took for her to talk to him.

He looked around the village. If the Dark could gain access to Dreagan, they could be there as well. Arian started the SUV and pulled onto the road. No Dark were going to get close to Grace.

* * * *

Grace’s hands were shaking as she pulled her laptop on her legs and reclined against the iron headboard. Arian was there. To talk to her.

But she couldn’t see him. Not now. Not after what he had done.

Everything bad in her life happened during a storm. For the first time, she had felt safe during the thunder and lightning as long as she was with Arian.

Then she learned he was controlling it, making the storm rage while Con interrogated her.

Grace didn’t take an easy breath until she heard the SUV start up and drive away. She had seen Arian pull up, and much to her dismay, she had been ecstatic that he had come for her.

But she somehow found the courage to turn him away.

She opened a new document, the cursor blinking on the blank screen. She tabbed down and typed “Chapter One.” Her fingers hovered over the keys for a moment, and then the words came out like a deluge.

She stopped seeing the words as she relived the scenes in her head. The smells, the sounds, the stillness of the water. The cool air, the heat from Arian’s body.

His touch, his kisses.

The way he made her laugh and feel comforted.

The way he welcomed her into his world.

Hours later, she looked up to see that it was time for dinner. She surveyed the hundreds of pages she had written, stunned that it had all come so easily.

Words had never flown so effortlessly from her mind to her fingers, and she doubted she would ever again be able to write a story in so quick a time.

Then again, it was her story. She’d lived it, breathed it.

Survived it.

Grace set aside her laptop when there was a knock at her door. She rose and opened it to find Mr. McKean.

“Lass, you missed lunch and tea,” he said, concern lining his eyes. “We didna want you going hungry.”

At that he stepped aside, and one of the young girls helping at the B&B walked into her room with a tray in hand. The young girl came inside Grace’s room and set the tray on the table.

“Eat,” Mr. McKean urged Grace.

She blinked her tired eyes. “I will. Thank you for being so kind.”

“That young man was brokenhearted that you didna see him, lass.”

Grace lowered her gaze as she thought of Arian. She believed he might feel something for her, but more than likely he was concerned she might tell others his secret.

“He’ll be fine,” Grace said and smiled at Mr. McKean. “Thank you again for the food.”

He returned her smile, and he and the girl walked away. Grace closed the door as her stomach rumbled. She sat at the small table and took a large bit of the shepherd’s pie.

As she ate, she looked at her laptop. She was at the part of the story where Arian had driven away from the B&B. Grace knew what the future held for her, but this was where she could make it into whatever she wanted.

And since it was a romance story, the couple had to end up together. She might not get her own happily ever after, but her characters could.

Grace finished eating and returned to the bed. With the computer back in her lap, supported with a pillow underneath, she began typing once more.

It was easy for her to lose herself in the story. It was
her
story, after all. Her very own touch with having an HEA of her own. After the books she wrote and characters she lived through before she finally sold, she had never thought she would find anything close to what was in her books in real life.

And yet she had.

The part that hurt the worst was that it was over—before it had barely begun. It wasn’t like she could delete parts and rewrite her story.

What happened, happened. There was no changing anything in her life like she could with the words on a page.

As she wrote the epilogue to the story where the characters—really it was her and Arian—remained together with a love that would last for eternity, she found herself crying.

Not just because the characters were in love and together, but because her heroine had been able to get over her fear of storms for the hero—something Grace wasn’t sure she could ever do herself.

When the last period was typed, she saved the document, staring at the manuscript. She wasn’t worried about her telling of the Dragon Kings, mostly because her books were fiction and no one would believe it anyway, but also because she changed all the names and locations just in case.

With a sigh, Grace closed the laptop.

For long moments she sat without moving, her gaze out the window. It had felt good to get her story out, but she was feeling a plethora of emotions.

Happiness at recalling her time with Arian.

Fear at reliving the storms.

Sorrow at having to say farewell to Arian.

And finally, gratification at being able to once more get her HEA—this time with her very own story, even if it wasn’t in real life.

 Grace blinked. Night had fallen without her even noticing. Was Arian up in the sky, flying? What did the moon look like reflected upon his turquoise scales?

Grace curled onto her side and closed her eyes as she imaged looking up and finding dragons soaring overhead. The fear she felt when she first saw Arian was gone, as if it had never been.

Now all she felt were possibilities for who the Dragon Kings were and what they could offer the world.

But she also felt desolation because she knew the Kings wouldn’t be welcomed by all.

It was no wonder the Dragon Kings stayed hidden. And why they took their privacy so seriously. The world wasn’t ready to know about them, magic, immortality, or the Dark Fae.

No amount of movies or TV shows or books could prepare a person for the real thing. The sheer size of Arian in dragon form alone was enough to make her feel as if her heart were going to burst from her chest.

With her eyes stinging from staring so long at the computer, Grace closed them. Her mind drifted once more to Arian and how he had so gently and possessively taken her into his arms and kissed her.

Another tear leaked from the corner of her eye. He was “The One.” The one man who could’ve given her the great love she had always dreamed of. The one who was the other half to her soul.

To have held him so close only to lose him seemed too cruel for it to be real.

Chapter Fourteen

Arian paced Con’s office. He had searched the village and didn’t find a single Dark Fae or anyone who looked suspicious. Yet they had killed three more Dark who dared to try and enter Dreagan.

“You’re making my head ache,” Con said from his chair behind his desk.

Arian cut him a dark look. “You’ve never had a headache. You wouldna even know what one felt like.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised.”

Con’s cryptic words halted Arian. He faced the King of Kings. “What are you no’ telling me?”

“A lot, but that is the nature of my position.” Con tossed his favorite moon pearl Montblanc fountain pen on the desk.

“You’ve always hidden things well, Con. Your anger, worry, anxiety. Even your fear.”

“Fear?” Con asked with one blond brow raised.

Arian nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. “I want Grace as mine.”

“You doona even know her.”

“Are you my parent that I must convince?”

Con grew even more still. For long minutes he simply stared at Arian. “What I am is your king. What I do is for our continuation and survival.”

“We’ll always survive here,” Arian argued. “Tell me, why did you no’ wipe Grace’s memories?”

“She left before I could.”

Arian grunted. “You allowed her to leave. Admit it.”

Con simply returned his stare.

“What are you up to?”

“I’ve told you.”

“Do you have a lover, Con?”

“As if that’s any of your concern.”

“It is. As long as you interfere in my love life, I’ll interfere in yours. Who is she, Con? Who is the woman you’ve been spending time with?”

“None of your goddamn business.”

Arian blinked, taken aback by Con’s words. It hadn’t been an outburst as some who might have shouted those words. Instead, they were spoken in a cool tone. Entirely too controlled, which confirmed that whoever Con was seeing was important to him.

“One way or another I’m going to convince Grace to be mine.” Arian dropped his arms to his sides. “I’ll take the time to get to know her and for her to know me. But she’ll be mine.”

Con put his hands on the desk and slowly stood. He leaned on the desk and held Arian’s gaze. “You’re claiming her? Even though she may no’ want you?”

“I am.” Arian knew how she responded to his touch. She may not want him now, but he wouldn’t give up until she remembered her initial reaction to him.

“All right,” Con said and straightened. “I’ll welcome her as I have the others. But I’ll also warn you as I have the other Kings. I killed a human who betrayed one of you. I’ll no’ hesitate to do it again if need be.”

“We were all right there with you, Con. You didna kill Ulrik’s woman on your own.”

“I was prepared to.”

“Grace isna like that. She wouldna betray me.”

“Ulrik thought the same of his woman. We may look like the mortals in this form, Arian, but we’re no’ them. And they are no’ us. They doona think as we do.”

Arian thought of Grace and her acceptance of him. “Perhaps no’, but there are many other ways our two species are the same.”

“We mate for life. Verra few of the humans even grasp that concept. They take marriage vows no’ thinking forever. It’s for the here and now. That’s why so many commit adultery or leave the marriage when things get rough instead of working through it.”

Arian put his hands on the back of the chair in front of Con. “You make it sound like we’ve no’ made any mistakes. We’ve made plenty. We’re no more perfect than the mortals.”

“I could argue differently.”

“Do you hate them?”

Con’s black eyes became distant. “I doona know what you mean.”

“I get the feeling you do, but then why do you defend them so fiercely? If you hated them, why no’ allow Ulrik to rid the realm of them once and for all.”

“We took an oath.”

Arian shrugged one shoulder. “So you do despise them.”

“I didna say that.”

“You didna deny it, either.”

Con adjusted the gold dragon-head cuff link at his wrist. “My feelings toward the mortals doona matter one way or the other. My first duty is to all of you and our way of life. Only after that do I consider the vow I took regarding the humans.”

Arian looked past Con to the window. Night was still upon them. It was time to stretch his wings and look in on Grace.

After all, debating anything with Con was an exercise in futility.