Dragon King: A Dark Kings Novella (1001 Dark Nights) (6 page)

There was something else at play here. Something that no one had thought of. Arian knew it was pointless to ask Con. The King of Kings wouldn’t divulge anything he didn’t want others to know.

As tight-lipped as he was in regards to the weapon, Con wouldn’t be telling anyone anything. Speaking of secrets, Kellan knew a great many as Keeper of the History. He had yet to tell a single one.

Arian stepped out of his mountain and lifted his face to the sky. It had been so long since he had seen the moon. As he looked, he spotted dragons flying among the clouds.

He glanced over his shoulder at Grace, and without another thought, hastily removed his jeans. He leapt into the air, shifting as he did.

His giant turquoise wings stretched outward, catching the air and taking him higher. The beat of dragon wings was all around him. He soared higher into the clouds to his brethren, twisting and turning as he remembered what it was to be a dragon again.

The more he flew, the more he missed his dragons. It was a hollow ache in his chest as he recalled the time before humans. Everything changed with the mortals’ arrival. That was the one constant throughout time, and yet he never thought he would see the day that dragons weren’t in the sky.

Arian usually didn’t fly so close to his mountain for fear of mortals seeing him since he was so near to the Dreagan border. But Grace was inside sleeping. He didn’t want to be too far away. Not that anything was going to happen, but he wanted to be prepared.

He gave a nod to Nikolai and Dmitri before he dropped his right wing and circled back toward his mountain. The others would remain until dawn, which was only a few hours away. Arian wanted to stay with them. And he would just as soon as Grace Clark was on her way home.

While flying, Arian had decided to let Grace go. Even if she was working for Ulrik or the Dark, she learned nothing from him. Nor would she. And the sooner she was gone the better.

One of the first things he would do was make damn sure she could never find her way back to the mountain again. Her or anyone, for that matter.

The first ray of sunshine crested the peaks. Arian saw his mountain and was getting ready to shift back into human form when he was alerted that Dark had crossed the border once more.

He flew faster when he spotted them on his mountain for a second time. How were they continuing to get in? He’d find that out later. Right now, his concern was getting rid of them.

Arian opened his mental link and told the other Kings there were two Dark that he was taking care of. If any of the other Kings came, it would likely wake Grace. Arian didn’t want her seeing anything.

He tucked his wings and dove. Then he stretched out his wings and opened his talons. He managed to grab one of the Dark, but not the other.

Arian crushed the Dark with his talons and tossed him in the air where he let loose a blast of dragon fire. Ash was all that was left of the Fae.

A volley of Dark magic hit Arian. He turned and flew back to his mountain. The Dark was close to the entrance. Too close, actually.

Did they know that there were tunnels deep below the mountains connecting some of them? Was that why they were resolute to get into his mountain?

Arian landed on the side of the mountain with his wings spread as he stared down at the Dark. He took a deep breath, ready to release another round of fire when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.

It was Grace.

* * * *

Grace knew her knees were going to give out at any moment. She didn’t recall why she had woken, only that she had. With the rain no longer falling, she wanted to see how wet it was. Only she saw two men climbing the mountain.

The next thing she knew, a large form dropped from the sky, only to go back up again the next moment. She gaped in horror when she saw the turquoise dragon burn one of the men.

Before that truly registered in her mind, things got stranger. The remaining man threw what looked like a large bubble at the dragon.

“What the hell,” she murmured.

Was she really seeing a dragon? A massive beast that was as beautiful to behold as it was terrifying.

“Dragons aren’t real. And yet, there’s one. Right there. Right in front of me.”

More bubbles hit the dragon. It must’ve hurt because the dragon spun around and flew back to the man.

Only to land on the side of the mountain.

Grace gawked at the immense width and breadth of the dragon’s turquoise wings as he spread them out. The scales fairly gleamed in the morning sun, shining brilliantly like metal.

The dragon had two short brow horns and another short horn atop its nose. The head and body were so huge she could barely grasp it, and the tail extended far behind the dragon, twitching as if waiting to be used as a weapon.

Suddenly, the dragon’s black eyes turned to her. She froze in fear, unable to move. The last thing she wanted was to bring the dragon’s attention to her. She didn’t want to get eaten.

What was that old expression? Don’t anger a dragon because you are crunchy.

Well, she didn’t want to anger this dragon. She just wanted to go back to the B&B, get some sleep, and then check herself into a mental institution because she was obviously losing her mind if she was seeing dragons.

The dragon’s head snapped back to the man, a low rumble coming from its chest. Grace told herself to go back inside the cave and find Arian, but she still couldn’t move.

Whether it was from fear or curiosity, she wasn’t sure.

But she remained to see what would happen. And as the man began to throw more bubbles at the dragon, she was glad she did.

The dragon was a large target. Even when the dragon knocked the man sideways with its wing, he got back on his feet. As the sun rose higher, Grace got a better look at the man. His short black hair was liberally laced with thick, silver strands.

Everything was odd about the entire scene, from the man to the dragon. It had to be a dream. There was no other explanation for such things.

The man blasted the dragon with several bubbles in a row, and to her shock, Grace watched the dragon disappear in a blink. And in its place was none other than Arian.

He pushed up on his hands and glared at the man. “You’re going to die here.”

“Not before I find what I’m looking for,” replied the man in an Irish accent.

Grace rubbed her eyes. When she opened them and Arian still stood there as naked as she had found him the day before, she wasn’t sure what to do.

Then it didn’t matter as he and the other man began to attack each other. The fight was vicious in both sight and sound. Arian hit the man hard while more bubbles barreled into Arian.

Then Arian fell to one knee with burns covering his body where the bubbles hit him. Grace covered her mouth with her hand. The shock of seeing him so wounded turned her stomach, but it also made her angry. Who was the man to attack Arian so?

The wounds looked extremely painful. By the way Arian grimaced, they were.

She silently urged him to get up and keep fighting. The fact he was the dragon was something she would face later. She instinctively knew that whoever Arian was fighting wasn’t a good person.

The stranger threw another bubble at Arian that caused him to growl in fury. Grace took a step back when she saw the wrath on Arian’s face.

He got to his feet and attacked the man again while Grace watched. They were locked together with more bubbles hitting Arian at very close range.

Grace couldn’t tell who was winning as the two of them fell together and rolled. For long moments she waited to hear or see something. When nothing happened, Grace walked out of the cave and looked down to find them.

She spotted the black and silver haired man lying face down, unmoving. Arian was on his side with his back to her. And he wasn’t moving either.

“Arian,” she whispered, worried for him.

Grace briefly thought of getting her laptop and running far away. There was something strange going on at this mountain, and it would be better if she wasn’t involved.

But she couldn’t leave Arian. He was hurt, and she didn’t like how much that upset her. With a sigh, she made her way down to him.

When she reached him, Grace knelt beside him and looked over his body. There were burns everywhere. She bit her lip and gently turned him onto his back. There was no ignoring the fact he was completely naked. His entire torso was littered with wounds. Yet he was still breathing.

She blew out a relieved breath and found herself shaking with a mixture of happiness and concern. Now, she had to get him up and back inside the cave. Since he was so much taller than her, not to mention he outweighed her with all those muscles, she wasn’t sure how she was going to accomplish that feat.

Grace glanced at the other guy and picked up a rock to bash him on the head. She got to her feet and cautiously walked to him.

She pushed him with her foot, but he didn’t move. Grace gave him a harder push, turning him onto his back. She dropped the rock as she gagged at seeing a gaping wound in his chest where his heart had been.

Whoever the man was, he wasn’t going to be bothering Arian anymore.

Grace hurried back to Arian. His eyelids cracked open as she leaned over him. Grace gave him a nod. “We’re going to get you back in the cave.”

“Scared,” he murmured brokenly.

At first Grace thought he was saying he was afraid. Then she realized he was speaking of her. There he was on the side of a mountain injured terribly, and he was worried about her.

Grace could only stare at him, wondering if men like him really existed. Most people would be concerned about themselves, but not Arian. His thought was of her.

Then it hit her. She had seen him as a dragon. Was she afraid? Yes, in many ways. But how could she be scared now as Arian lay wounded?

She licked her lips and met his gaze. “Yes. But my father didn’t raise me to leave someone who is hurt. So, I’m going to get you back into that mountain. Then I’m leaving.”

The last part had been more for herself than him. She really should leave, but how could she after all she just witnessed? Remaining meant her life was in danger, as was obvious by the battle she had seen.

Then there were Arian’s wounds. Someone would need to help him. It was the least she could do since he let her stay and write in his mountain.

Dragons
.

Yep, the man she was looking down at was a dragon. Why wasn’t she more scared? Most people would’ve been running for their lives. But there was something about Arian that calmed her. She trusted him.

Arian gave a slight nod in response to her words.

Grace winced as she looked down at him. “This is going to hurt.”

At that, Arian rolled back to his side slowly and began to sit up. She was there to lend a hand and keep him steady. He was tall and muscular, and Grace wasn’t sure how she was going to get him on his feet, much less up the slope to the cave. But she was going to try.

Once he was on his feet, he only put a small fraction of his weight on her. Grace draped his arm over her shoulder and wrapped an arm around him.

The climb up to the cave was as strenuous as she imagined it would be. Both of them were soon covered in sweat. Grace tried to take more of his weight to help him.

It seemed to take an eternity to reach the entrance. Arian breathed a sigh when they stepped inside the cave.

“Water,” he said, motioning with his other hand to the body of water.

Grace walked him to the fire and helped him down. He stretched out on his right side with his eyes closed and didn’t utter another word.

She hurried to get a bottle of water from the basket and brought it to him. While she held it to his lips, Arian drank the entire bottle, never opening his eyes.

Grace put the cap on the bottle and sat on her haunches as Arian appeared to slip into unconsciousness. Her mind urged her to leave, but she hesitated. What if there were more of those black and silver haired men about?

She would rather take her chances here with Arian than encounter one of those men. Then she also wanted to see if Arian would speak of what had transpired.

Besides, if she saw something she wasn’t supposed to, running would do her no good. Arian and any others like him would find her soon enough. So Grace remained.

She got another bottle of water from the basket and one of the napkins. After she soaked the cloth napkin, she began to clean Arian’s wounds.

Her eyes drifted freely over his magnificent body, from his wide shoulders, contoured stomach muscles, and trim waist. Then lower to his narrow hips and his flaccid cock.

She bit her lip at seeing so much of him when he was unconscious, but with a body like his, it should be showed off.

“Oh my,” she whispered as she drew in a stuttering breath.

There wasn’t a part on Arian that wasn’t absolute perfection. And she wanted to touch every inch of him.

Chapter Six

Grace was wondering how to get Arian out of the mountain and to a hospital when she noticed his wounds didn’t look quite as bad as before.

As she watched, she saw his injuries begin to heal. The burns disappeared and his skin knitted back together without a trace of any damage.

“Oh, shit,” she murmured.

“Doona be afraid,” Arian said.

Her gaze jerked to his face where his champagne eyes were open and watching her. “Yeah, a bit late for that.”

“I didna mean for you to see any of that. I thought you’d still be asleep.”

Grace shrugged and fiddled with the now useless napkin. “But I did witness it.”

“Aye. You did.” Arian pushed himself up into a sitting position.

She pointed to his now healed wounds. “What was that out there?”

He eyed her for several long, silent moments. Then he said, “Magic.”

“Magic,” she repeated. Well, she did see a dragon. Would it be too far of a stretch to accept magic as a weapon?

“You didna leave. Why?” Arian asked.

Grace looked at his chest again as she imagined him as a dragon. A huge dragon with the most beautiful turquoise scales that reminded her of the waters off the Bahamas.