Smoldering Hunger (21 page)

“Yeah,” she murmured. Then she turned her head to him. “I was in a relationship for ten years with another doctor. We were engaged and living together.

“I was in love with him. He made me laugh every day, and everyone liked him. He was the life of the party. We did everything together, spent every minute as one. Or so I thought.”

When she paused, Darius knew she was going back through her memories. It killed him to know she’d suffered so, because he’d already guessed what she hadn’t yet said.

“There was a new doctor Scott was helping out,” Sophie continued. “She was nice. I liked her. Not that I spent much time with her. What I didn’t know was that they began having an affair months earlier. All those texts from work were actually from her.”

“The ultimate betrayal,” Darius murmured.

“To give someone your love, devotion, trust, and your soul only to have them trample on it as if it meant nothing. That was awful, but it didn’t stop there. He shagged her in our bed and took pictures. They made me out for a fool, and I never expected any of it.”

The solid, beautiful doctor was vulnerable, and he hated seeing her like that. Darius wanted to avenge her in some way. Because no one should have to suffer from such a fate. “Shall I kill him?”

Sophie smiled softly. “Had I known you a few years ago, I might’ve asked you to rough him up, but now … I just want to forget all of it. I don’t care about Scott or what he’s doing.”

He reached over and placed his hand atop hers. “He was an idiot to let you go.”

“I kept what Scott did close to keep it from ever happening again. I expected to live my life alone. Then you walked out of the shadows.”

Darius felt his blood heat when he saw the desire in her eyes. Did the woman not know what she did to him? Surely by now she had to, and perhaps that was the point. “For you.”

She threaded her fingers with his. “I think that’s why I understand Ulrik’s need for revenge, because I got mine.”

Darius’s brows rose. “How?”

“I convinced another doctor to get Scott’s lover to have sex with him in his car. I was snapping photos of all of it, which I promptly sent to Scott. Their relationship blew up spectacularly all over the hospital.”

“Did your retribution feel good?”

“For a time. Then I felt slimy for setting it up. It would’ve eventually happened. Once a cheater always a cheater, right?”

“You just facilitated things,” Darius said.

She chuckled wryly. “He tried to come back to me about a year later. It felt so good to tell him to kiss off and slam the door in his face. I’ve been broken for a long time, but I didn’t realize it until quite recently. Until you.”

“I’m sorry you had to endure such a thing. You didna deserve that.”

“Does anyone?” she asked.

“Nay.”

Her olive gaze searched his. “Where does that leave us? Whatever it is that we are.”

Darius wanted to be with her—craved it actually. But he’d already been down that road. He’d already lost his mate. “I’m no’ sure.”

“All right.”

She began to pull her hand away, but Darius stopped her. There was a question in her eyes—and there was hope.

He let his gaze roam over the lace of the dress that covered her arms just past her elbows and from her neck down to her breasts, showing just enough of their swells to make his cock twitch with longing.

Her flame red hair was vibrant against the black, beckoning him to take a fistful of it and hold her steady while he kissed her.

“I’ve kept my secret from you to keep you safe,” he said.

“I want to know. All of it.”

“I doona think you do.”

She shifted so she faced him fully. “I’ve seen all kinds of trauma in the hospital. I can handle whatever it is you’re trying to protect me from.”

Darius wasn’t so sure. Then again, he’d known all along she would learn who he was. Perhaps it was time. It would also keep her away from Ulrik, which was exactly what needed to happen.

It would be neigh impossible to convince her of the Dragon Kings and Fae without proof. Sophie was practical. She’d already admitted she didn’t believe in any kind of fantasy things like dragons.

How would a complete nonbeliever in such things react when she saw one? It wouldn’t be good, of that Darius was certain.

“I can take it,” Sophie said with a firm nod.

Darius rubbed his jaw, trying to think where to start. How did he tell someone he was immortal and had been around since the beginning of time?

“I doona work for the government,” he stated. “The group I speak of is all I have left. They’re my family, my home.”

“All right,” she said with a nod.

Darius rose and paced slowly. He glanced at Sophie to find her watching him closely. “There’s no other way to say it than to just say it.”

“So spit it out.”

He halted and faced her. “My dragon tat isna there because I chose it. It’s there because it’s what I am.”

She gazed at him silently for a moment before she said, “I don’t understand.”

“I’m a Dragon King, Sophie.”

“Okay,” she said, drawing out the last syllable. “Is that some kind of gang or something?”

Darius wished Con or someone else were here to explain it to her, because he was mucking it up badly. “Let me start at the beginning. This realm formed when time began, and with time came dragons.”

“Realm?” she repeated with a small frown.

He was losing her, he could tell. But he had to finish. “There were millions of us. Every size and all colors. It wasna just birds in the sky, but dragons as well. We were divided by colors, and within each faction was a leader—a king. The most powerful of the kings became King of Kings.”

Sophie barely batted an eye as she listened.

“For eons we lived here and ruled this planet. Then one day, humans were here. Suddenly each of the Dragon Kings shifted into the form of a mortal. That’s how we were able to communicate with them.”

“So you became a human?”

“We were able to shift at will.” Darius sat on the arm of the sofa. “We moved dragons out of territories so the mortals would have somewhere to live. Tensions were always high, but we managed it and kept the peace. Some of us Kings even took humans as lovers. Ulrik was such a King.”

Sophie’s eyes widened, but she didn’t speak.

“He was going to take her as his mate. It’s a ceremony in which the mortal would then become immortal, living as long as her King did. But it wasna to be.”

Darius squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Con, the King of Kings, discovered Ulrik’s woman was going to attempt to kill him. It was a foolish plan, because the only thing that can kill a Dragon King is another Dragon King. But she didna know that. All she wanted to do was instigate a war.

“Con sent Ulrik away on some mission. While he was gone, we cornered the woman and killed her. When Ulrik returned he was furious. With her, with us. With the world. He turned that hate to the humans.”

“What did Ulrik do?” Sophie asked in a soft voice.

“He started a war. Mortals killed dragons, and dragons killed mortals. When the humans came, each King vowed to protect them. We had to stop Ulrik, except he wouldna listen to reason. Nothing we said made a dent in his anger. The dragons had magic, and we were stronger. We could’ve won the war with the mortals, but it was our vow that prevented us from joining Ulrik.

“To help put an end to the war, we sent our dragons away. We all thought it would be for a short time, just until the mortals calmed down. Four of Ulrik’s Silvers wouldna leave his side. We captured them and put them into a magical sleep. Then we went after Ulrik.”

Darius dropped his chin to his chest and closed his eyes. “We stripped him of his magic, preventing him from shifting into a dragon so that he was destined to walk the world as the very thing he hated.”

“A human.”

He nodded, not looking at Sophie. “We banished him from Dreagan. Afterward, we all went to our mountains and slept away centuries, waiting for a time when we passed into myth. After a few hundred years, we awoke and took our places beside you. We hide our true selves, only taking to the skies during the night. Or at least we used to. All that has changed with Ulrik’s revenge and his allegiance with another group.”

Silence met him. After a while, Darius lifted his head and found Sophie staring at him. Her face was ashen, her eyes glazed over.

“I ken it’s a lot to take in, but it’s all true. I’ve never lied to you. And I never will.”

“That story is preposterous,” she said. Then she closed her eyes and shook her head as she turned away. “I trust you, and you haven’t lied to me. I don’t want to believe any of this. It doesn’t make sense.” She looked at him then. “Can you show me?”

“If I shifted now, I’d destroy your flat. But there is something I can do. If you’ll allow.”

She gave a quick nod. Darius moved to sit beside her, then he took her hands in his. As he held her gaze, he thought of the time before humans, a time of dragons. Then he pushed that thought into Sophie’s mind with his dragon magic.

*   *   *

Sophie wanted to believe Darius, but how could she? Everyone knew dragons weren’t real. If there were dragons, someone somewhere would’ve seen something. Nothing could be hidden in this technological age. Nothing.

She felt something push against her mind while she gazed into Darius’s chocolate eyes. Then it was there, the memory playing in her head as if it were her own.

Dragons. Thousands of dragons. There were massive ones flying in the sky. Tiny ones who built their homes in the sides of cliffs, and even ones who called the oceans home. Just as he’d said, they were every size, every color. And they were beautifully magnificent.

The memory faded away. Sophie blinked, looking at Darius anew. “That was you?”

“With my dragon magic.”

Magic? Was she really going to believe in that and dragons?

“Now do you understand why I didna want to tell you?” Darius asked.

Sophie took a deep breath. “I do.”

“That’s who I am.” He hesitated, swallowing. “But it isna my past. I was also going to take a mate.”

Those few words hurt Sophie more than she’d thought possible. That’s how she knew she’d fallen head over heels for Darius.

“We doona carry diseases, but we can impregnate a mortal. There is something incompatible between our two species. Most of the women miscarry within weeks. But each month that passed, her belly grew. I held out hope my child would be the exception to the rule.”

Sophie tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry. She held Darius’s hands tighter.

“She went into labor. Every Dragon King held his breath to see if the bairn would live. A few women managed to carry the infants to term, but all of them were stillborn. My child was strong. He was going to beat the odds.”

Tears gathered in Sophie’s eyes, but she refused to let them spill.

“There was a problem with the birth,” Darius continued, his voice flat. “There was so verra much blood. We tried to help her, but nothing worked. Con could’ve healed her. He would’ve. If he’d been there. She was so weak she could barely birth our child. She died as he came into the world.”

Sophie felt a tear drop onto her cheek. Darius’s chest expanded before he released a breath, sadness filling his gaze.

“My son followed her a few minutes later. I lost them both in one night.”

There were no words to heal the wounds inside Darius, and Sophie didn’t even try. She wrapped her arms around his neck and simply held him. The way his arms tightened about her, almost crushing her, told her how much he was hurting.

And she hurt with him.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE

Darius stood on the roof and stared at the Portuguese restaurant that Ulrik had recently entered. His emotions were still raw from his talk with Sophie. The rage roiling inside him at Ulrik’s attempt to get her alone overflowed.

The stone crumbled beneath Darius’s hands. He released his hold and leaned back from the edge of the roof. His emotions needed to be brought under control if he was going to proceed with his plan.

It wasn’t easy when all he wanted to do was race back to Sophie and make love to her. What was wrong with him? Was it because he’d shared his past? Surely not.

It was one thing to slake his lust with her willing body. It was quite another when he craved her to such a degree that he was willing to do anything to have her in his arms.

Darius didn’t want to imagine how this night might have gone had he and Sophie not trusted each other. She could be here instead of him—and maybe not as bait. Ulrik was persuasive. He might’ve talked her into joining him.

That made Darius extremely thankful. It also reminded him that it was time for him to get down there and confront Ulrik.

He jumped silently from the roof to an alley. He bypassed Ulrik’s men—who were entirely too overconfident—and snuck close to the restaurant.

There was a grunt then the sound of someone hitting the ground. Darius turned, only to find Con walking toward him.

“Did you just knock out one of Ulrik’s men?” Darius asked.

Con smiled brightly. “I may have knocked all six unconscious. Including the MI5 agents following me.”

Darius had to chuckle. “You didna save one of Ulrik’s men for me?”

“You’re the one who walked right past them.”

That had Darius narrowing his eyes on Con. “How long have you been here?”

“Awhile.”

“How did you know the restaurant?”

Con shrugged, his jacket opening to reveal the blue shirt beneath. None of them got cold, but in order not to draw interest, the Kings wore coats in the winter. Sometimes.

“I found you earlier,” Con said. “I said your name, but you didna hear me. I gather the building you snuck out of is the doc’s?”

“Ballocks.”

“You were focused on Sophie.”

Darius sighed. “She wanted to use herself as bait. I talked her out of it.”

“And?” Con pressed.

“She shared her past.”

Con’s lips pinched. “I gather you shared yours. Did you also share our secret?”

“Aye.” Darius wasn’t going to apologize for it. He’d made a decision, and he’d stand by it.