Dark Heat: The Dark Kings Stories (37 page)

“You killed her,” Jane stated flatly.

“Aye,” Banan said. “It’s easy to look back now and think we should’ve found Ulrik and told him what we’d discovered. Then he could have decided what to do with his woman. In the heat of battle, in a war that was dividing the land, there isna a lot of time for decisions. We found her, and we killed her.”

Banan paused as he recalled Ulrik’s devastation. In all the centuries since, Banan had never comprehended why Ulrik reacted so to the death of one human. Now, Banan understood entirely.

He cleared his throat and continued. “Ulrik wouldna listen to reason after what had happened to his woman. He pushed dragons to kill humans, solidifying a war we were desperately trying to halt.”

“Did you kill Ulrik as well?” she asked.

“Nay,” Con finally spoke. “I had inflicted enough harm with the slaying of his woman. The only way to stop Ulrik was to take his power as King. He can no’ shift to dragon form, nor can he speak to his Silvers.”

Jane’s dark gaze turned to Banan. “So there are still dragons here? Besides the Kings?”

“We captured a few of Ulrik’s Silvers. They are under our magic and sleeping at Dreagan. Only Ulrik can wake them, and if that happens, the war will begin again.”

Jane’s forehead creased with a frown. “Where are all the other dragons?”

“We sent them away,” Con said. “I couldna chance them being killed off. They are gone from this world and safe.”

“Maybe,” Jane said as she looked at Rhys as a dragon. “But they don’t have their kings, and you don’t have them.”

Banan didn’t allow himself to think of the dragons he had once ruled. If he did, the ache inside from missing them would eat him alive.

But it was too late not to think of them. Jane had put the thought in his mind, and he couldn’t dismiss his yearning to have the Blues around him as they rode the wind currents. He couldn’t stop the longing to hear their roars in answer to his.

Suddenly, soft hands cupped either side of his face. He found his gaze staring into coffee brown eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Banan.”

He pulled her against him and buried his head in her neck. Just being able to hold her helped to push the gnawing ache to a small corner of his heart.

Her arms were full of strength and tenderness as she held him, and he never wanted it to end. She belonged next to him. But did she know it yet?

“There’s more to the story, isn’t there?” she asked.

Banan nodded.

She pulled out of his arms and urged, “Tell me.”

“I’m immortal, Jane. The Dragon Kings have been around since the beginning of time. After we sent the dragons away, the Kings set up residence at Dreagan in Scotland. We use the distillery as a cover for what we are.”

“Don’t people tend to recognize you’ve been alive for hundreds of years?”

Banan rubbed her arms with his hands as he felt her shivering. “We take turns sleeping in the mountain. Con is the only one who doesna sleep. But we are tied to Dreagan because of the Silvers we have caged there. It’s our magic that keeps them sleeping. We can leave, but only for short periods of time. Then we must go back or our magic begins to loosen its hold.”

“I see,” she said, and shoved a wet strand of auburn hair behind her ears. “So you’re immortal. Does that mean you can’t be killed?”

“No human can kill us. No’ even a dragon can kill us. Only a Dragon King.” At her frown, he elaborated. “In dragon form, Kings can battle one another and kill. As Dragon Kings, we each have a sword that belongs only to us. Only we can use our swords. In human form, Dragon Kings can battle using these swords and we can kill each other.”

“Wow,” she whispered. “No wonder you want to keep yourselves hidden. Is that all you can do?”

“Nay. Each of us is given a certain kind of magic as a Dragon King.”

She raised a brow. “Interesting. What is yours?”

“I can give hallucinations.”

“I wasn’t expecting that,” she said with a small smile. “Was it Ulrik who kidnapped me and sent Sloan to Dreagan?”

Banan shook his head and met Con’s gaze over her shoulder. “Nay. Con has him watched constantly. Ulrik had nothing to do with this.”

“Then who was it?”

“A verra good question, and one I had hoped we’d discover tonight.”

“He knows you,” Jane said. “He told me there were Dragon Kings. He said he wanted to be here to see my face when I learned what you are, and that he wanted to see your face as well.”

Banan felt the rage rise in him again. “He thought you’d run from me.”

“You are a fearsome sight.”

Banan’s chest constricted at the note of anxiety he heard in her voice. “You’re afraid of me.”

“No. No,” she said again, and gave him a quick, hard kiss. “I admit, at first, yes. I wouldn’t have come to you or touched you if I had been that afraid. I always knew there was something different about you.” She ran her hand over his tat. “The dragon tattoo makes sense now. I just wish you’d told me.”

Banan rejoiced at her words, but he couldn’t hold back anymore. He covered her mouth in a kiss. Her sweet taste enflamed him, the desire licking at his blood.

He wanted to lay her down on the floor and claim her body again, not just as a man, but also as a Dragon King. She hadn’t run from him, hadn’t left him.

His hands skimmed down her back to cup her round bottom in his hands and bring her against his aching cock. Her soft moan was music to his ears. And just when he was about to start stripping her clothes off, rain pelted them.

Jane tore her lips from him as she laughed. Banan looked for Con and Rhys only to discover them gone, and he hurried to get Jane out of the rain.

She was running toward the door left open by Rhys or Con, but Banan pulled her to a stop.

“I need to know something.”

She wiped the water from her face and smoothed back her hair, a smile dancing in her eyes. “What is that?”

“You’ve seen and heard a lot this night. Is it too much for you to be with me?”

She grew very still. “Be with you?”

Banan swallowed. He’d never been nervous before. He’d never been a lot of things before Jane, but he wanted to experience them all with her.

“Because of the human female’s betrayal, Con used his magic so that none of the Dragon Kings would ever fall in love with humans.”

“Oh,” Jane said, her gaze lowering to the floor.

“All that changed over five months ago. Hal fell in love with Cassie. Then Guy fell in love with Elena. Something has changed, Jane. I used to no’ fully believe it. Then I held you in my arms.”

Her eyes snapped to his. “What are you saying?”

“I’m say—” He paused because he didn’t want to mess it up. “—I’m saying I’m in love with you, Jane Holden. I want you as mine. Always. Will you come back with me to Dreagan? Will you stand by me in all that my now-uncertain future holds?”

For long minutes she didn’t reply, and Banan was trying to think of what else to say to convince her, when a lone tear fell down her face.

He stopped the tear with his thumb before it reached her chin. “Jane,” he whispered.

“I’ve waited for you all my life,” she said. “I’d go anywhere with you, Banan.”

A laugh exploded from him as he crushed her against him. “I love you.”

“And I love you,” she said between the kisses she placed on his neck.

EPILOGUE

Jane got out of the Jaguar and closed the door, her gaze locked on the same tavern she’d visited months before.

“You can do this,” Banan said as he came up beside her.

She smiled as he took her hand. “Yes, as long as you’re with me.”

“I’ll always be with you.”

“You didn’t answer me yesterday, by the way.”

He looked away from her as he asked, “What are you talking about?”

Jane shook her head. “You’re lying. Why are you afraid to tell me how this will work? Is it because I’m right, and you just don’t want to admit that I’ll grow old and die while you live on?”

“Jane,” he said, and suddenly had her pinned to the car. “I doona have any answers. I wish I did, but all this is new. For the little time when humans and dragons coexisted together, there were humans who mated with Kings. None of their offspring survived. Hell, half of the women never carried the babies to term. And all the women eventually did die.”

She cupped his face and looked deep into his gray eyes. “I’m not really keen on you seeing me all wrinkled and hunched over, but I want whatever time we have, Banan. I understand that you’ll grow tired of me one day.”

“Nay,” he said, and gave her a gentle shake. “You doona understand. I’ve never, no’ once in all my life as a dragon or a Dragon King, felt for anyone what I do for you. You, Jane, are different. I was going to wait until we reached Dreagan to tell you, but you willna relent.”

She laughed and raised an auburn brow as she waited.

“A human can be bound to a King. You’ll live, staying as you are now, for as long as I live. Only if I die will you die.”

“Oh.”

“Is it too much?” he asked, knowing she’d taken in a lot over the past few days.

Jane rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “No. Is it something you want to do?”

“Aye. Most definitely, but I was going to give you some time.”

She rolled her coffee brown eyes. “Apparently, I haven’t let you know just how much I don’t want to be without you.”

“We’ll start making plans for the ceremony once we reach Dreagan.” He stared at her a moment before he chuckled. “Now, have you wasted enough time? Are you ready to meet Sammi?”

“No, and I don’t know. I’m scared, Banan,” she admitted.

He pulled her into his arms. “It’ll be all right.”

Jane took a steadying breath, and then they walked into the tavern. Sammi was behind the counter, drying some glasses and laughing at something a customer said to her.

Her sandy brown hair was pulled away from her face in a high ponytail as bangs covered her forehead. And then her eyes swung to Jane.

Banan smiled down at Jane as she gave his hand a squeeze and went to her half sister. He stood back and watched while she hesitantly began to tell Sammi everything.

It wasn’t until she pulled out the letters she’d found that Banan slid into a bench and relaxed. Everything was good. For now.

How long it would last, he didn’t know. Rhys and several other Dragon Kings, with the help of Henri North, were still scouring London for any sign of the man who had kidnapped Jane and killed Richard Arnold.

But so far, they had come up empty-handed.

The unease Banan had felt ever since he’d been unable to detect the man in dragon form had only grown. They hadn’t seen the last of the bastard, that was for sure.

“Banan,” Jane called.

He lifted his face to her. “Aye?”

“Come meet Sammi.”

Banan greeted Jane’s smile with one of his own. Today was theirs. Tomorrow, the Dragon Kings would begin to look for their enemy.

*   *   *

He stared at the little tavern in Oban from his car window. It had taken all he had not to get out of his car and kill Jane while Banan had been holding her.

His plan should have worked. It
would
have worked.

But he hadn’t factored in Banan and Rhys turning into dragons and attacking as they had. It had broken the rules Con put into place.

Still, though his plan might not have played out as he wanted, it hadn’t been a total waste. It had gotten Con to London.

He hadn’t been able to stay and listen to the conversation between Jane and the other three since he had to run for his life. Yet in the end, the retreat had worked to his advantage.

The Dragon Kings knew they had an enemy, but they didn’t know who. And they had shown a weakness—one he would exploit until they were all dead.

PASSION’S CLAIM

P
ART 1

CHAPTER
ONE

Dreagan Manor
October

Jane surreptitiously glanced at Banan through the mirror of her vanity as he changed his shirt for the third time. He was unusually edgy as they readied for their night out.

“Do you like this one?” he asked as he finished buttoning the black shirt.

“Very much.”

He looked at her with a droll expression. “You’ve said that about all three shirts.”

“Because I like all three shirts. I helped you pick them out at the store, remember?”

“Aye,” he mumbled and quickly unbuttoned the shirt before he jerked his arms out of the sleeves and wadded it up to toss on the floor with the other two.

Jane dusted the blush on her cheeks, wondering if Banan was growing tired of their relationship. She knew she could be bound to Banan and live as long as he did. He’d offered her that option, and she had gladly accepted it.

Upon their return from London—with a short stop to introduce herself to her half-sister, Sammi—they had begun to make preparations. But those arrangements had been put on the back burner as the Dragon Kings looked for their enemy and helped the Warriors from MacLeod Castle.

Jane didn’t mind. She loved Banan, so it was enough to be with him. Was it still enough for him though? Had he changed his mind about the binding and just didn’t want to tell her?

Her stomach began to sour the more she thought about it. Jane didn’t want anything to ruin their first night out alone in weeks. She was determined to enjoy it, and if Banan wished to keep their relationship as it was, she wouldn’t argue. She had once told him being with him for as long as he wanted her would be enough.

She hadn’t lied. She loved him with her entire being, but he was a Dragon King. He had been alive since the beginning of time. He had commanded dragons, flown high in the clouds. When the endless passing of days grew too much, he—like so many of the Kings—would sleep away centuries in the mountains.

How could she compare to everything he was? He was immortal and powerful. He could shift from human to dragon form and back again with nary a thought. The only thing that could kill him was another Dragon King.

And what was she? Mortal—with a life span that passed in a blink to someone like Banan. Many women had shared his bed, and though she understood this, it didn’t stop the spread of insecurity that she might be just one of thousands.