Dark Heat: The Dark Kings Stories (42 page)

Stupidly, she had thought she’d found her happily ever after. It existed. All she had to do was look at Cassie and Jane to see that. But for some reason, it wasn’t meant to be hers.

What had she done wrong? How had she lost him? Guy wasn’t the type to lead a woman on. He had wanted her at Dreagan at one time, but something had changed.

They used to communicate so well, but somewhere, somehow everything had changed.

She wanted to cry the tears building up inside her, but she feared if she let them out she might never stop. And there was no way she wanted to leave Dreagan sobbing uncontrollably.

But deep inside, in the furthest reaches of her soul, she was shattered, devastated.

Destroyed.

An emptiness, colossal and vast, filled her chest where her heart used to be. She might be leaving Dreagan, but her heart would remain behind. Forever.

It was Guy’s. Her heart had been Guy’s from the first moment he had come upon her in the caves when she thought she would die. He had lifted her into his arms, his hard body and warmth tying her to a world she had been drifting from.

And then he had touched her.

Elena sat up and rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she thought of the first time they had made love. Each time after had been as glorious and exciting as that first time.

That was Guy. He had a way of touching her as no one else could, as no one else would dare. He had seen her, the girl she had only dreamed she could be. Then he had given her the courage to reach for any dream, any possibility.

Which had been him.

Elena had given all of herself to Guy. She’d held nothing back, had never thought to. He had a way of pulling everything from her without even trying, and she was powerless to resist.

He was a Dragon King after all.

Elena stood and pulled out her suitcase. Not everything would fit, but she could have the rest sent to her once she got settled.

Her gaze went to her purse where the airline ticket Guy had given her waited. Now she knew the reason for his gift. She doubled over from the pain, her mouth opened on a silent scream.

How long had he been trying to get rid of her?

Elena covered her face with her hands and squeezed her eyes closed. Just before he left, they had made such sweet love. His kisses had been long and lingering, his gaze filled with some unnameable emotion.

He had been saying good-bye.

The realization hit her hard enough to take her breath. Elena had to brace her hands on her luggage just to stay upright. She gave herself a few minutes to collect her emotions before she began to pack.

Part of her wanted to wait until Guy returned and demand a confrontation. But what would she say? She couldn’t make him love her again. Nor could she turn back the clock and try to discover what had gone wrong. No, she would give him what he wanted and leave.

An hour later, Elena came down the stairs, but she couldn’t meet Banan’s or Jane’s eyes. When she reached the bottom, Banan silently took her suitcase and walked out the front door.

“This is complete shit,” Jane said, her voice heavy with anger.

Elena took a deep breath and forced a smile. “My time here is done. I’ll never forget any of you.”

“I’ll stay in touch.”

“No,” Elena said, more harshly than she intended. She swallowed and took Jane’s hands. “It would be too much for me. I have to make a clean break or I might never leave.”

“Guy loves you. I don’t understand.”

She squeezed Jane’s hands. “Give Cassie my love.”

And then, before she broke down in tears, Elena turned on her heel and walked from the manor. She found Banan standing beside Guy’s bronze Aston Martin DB9 with the door open.

“I called a cab,” she told Banan.

He shrugged. “And I sent it away. Take the car, Elena. Just let us know where to pick it up. You willna leave here in a cab.”

A few tears escaped when Banan enfolded her in a hug. She returned his hug and whispered, “I wish you and Jane all the best.”

Elena pulled out of his arms and got into the car blinking back her tears all the while. She started Guy’s car and backed out. As she put the car in drive, Elena took a second to gaze at the manor and lands she had come to think of as home.

Then she drove away.

*   *   *

Banan curled his hands into fists as he watched Elena. Once she was out of sight, he strode away from the manor and Jane’s questions he wouldn’t be able to answer.

He knew exactly where Guy was. Banan didn’t stop until he stepped into the mountain to find Hal and Rhys already there. Their gloomy looks said it all.

Banan walked into the narrow opening to find the cavern dark except for a single candle set off to the right. There he spotted Guy with his head in his hands.

“I’ve never known a bigger piece of shite than what I’m looking at now,” Banan said.

Guy didn’t even twitch at his words. “I’m trying to make her happy.”

“Happy?” Banan snorted his derision. “If you had seen her before she drove off, you’d know she was anything but happy.”

The silence was almost eerie as Guy slowly lifted his head, his pale brown eyes haunted and hollow. “She’s … gone?”

Banan frowned, seeing for the first time just how hard Guy was taking it. His friend was barely holding it together. And with Elena gone? What would happen to Guy now?

“Aye,” Banan finally answered.

Guy threw back his head and bellowed, the sound forlorn and enraged. In the next instant Guy shifted into dragon form. Guy let out a loud roar as Rhys and Hal came running into the cavern.

But it was too late. The Dragon King they knew was gone. Banan held the others back when they attempted to stop Guy from crashing through the back entrance and taking flight.

“Con is going to be pissed,” Hal said.

Banan ground his teeth together. “Con can go sod himself. He didna just see what I did.”

“I agree with Banan,” Rhys said. “And you all wonder why I have a different woman every night. I doona want to feel that kind of pain.”

Hal narrowed his gaze on Rhys. “And the happiness of finding your mate? You doona want that?”

“Happiness?” Rhys pointed to where Guy had left. “Does that look like happiness to you, because it sure didna to me.”

Banan raked a hand through his short hair. “We need to do something. We’ll lose Guy if Elena doesna return.”

“And how do you suppose to get her back?” Con asked.

Banan stilled, hating when Con snuck up on them as he loved to do. Banan turned to face his King. “How much did you see?”

“Enough,” Constantine said, his voice holding a note of sadness Banan hadn’t expected.

Rhys crossed his arms over his chest. “One of these days we’re going to sneak up on you. I thought you were out of the country.”

“I was. I sensed something wrong, so I returned.” Con looked at each of them before he said, “Guy did what he had to do for Elena. It’s now up to her.”

Hal spread his arms wide. “Really? You want to leave it up to Elena? She’s gone, Con. Gone.”

“How could Elena think Guy wanted her to stay anyway?” Rhys asked. “He’s made her think he was gone while he’s been hiding here.”

Banan knew he couldn’t just sit back and watch Elena and Guy be destroyed by their love for each other. “Those two are meant for each other. We all knew it the instant they met. I’ll go talk to Elena.”

“Nay.” Con’s voice was hard, the edge giving the word a finality to it. “No one will speak to Elena. She must come back on her own.”

“Then Guy is fucked,” Rhys said and walked away.

Hal sighed loudly. “I agree with Rhys. Neither Guy nor Elena will be happy now.”

When Hal departed, it left only Banan and Con. Banan wanted to argue the point with Con, and he opened his mouth to do just that when Con held up a hand.

“I know you think I’m cold, and in this I am being a cold bastard. But think about it. If Elena doesna return on her own, Guy will forever doubt if she returned because she truly loves him. Then we will be back to repeating this same scenario.”

“You really doona want us to find our mates, do you?” Banan gave a sad shake of his head. “I stood up for you, but I think the others are right. You would rather us be alone.”

Con raised a blond brow. “Would I rather none of you experience pain or betrayal if it meant you never found your brides? You’re bloody damn right,” Con said, his voice rising an octave. “I’ve seen too much. Need I remind you about Ulrik?”

“That was one fekking woman millions and millions of years ago! Let it go, Con.”

“I’ll gladly be the bad guy in this. None of you were there when I talked to Ulrik. You didna see what I saw, didna hear what I heard. And I never want to see or hear that again. If it means we spend eternity alone, then so be it.”

Banan could only stare at Con. It was the first time he had ever hinted that he had gone to Ulrik after they had killed his woman. Why tell him now? What point was Con trying to make? But it didn’t matter.

“You’re one cold bastard,” Banan said and stormed past him before he let his temper loose.

Con casually put his hands in his slacks and stared at the rocks now crumbled at the back entrance to Guy’s cave. There was more than enough room for Guy to leave in his dragon form. The fact he had nearly taken out half his cave in his bid to get free said more than any words.

Con turned on his heel and walked away. There was business he needed to see to.

CHAPTER
THREE

It was the roar that had Elena jerking the car to the side of the road. She threw it in park and opened the door to step out just in time to see the deep red scales of the dragon disappear into the clouds.

“Guy,” she whispered.

He had been at Dreagan the entire time. There had been no mission. He had simply wanted to be away from her. Anger sizzled through her.

Elena got back in the car, her hands on the wheel as her sadness turned to rage. She threw the car in drive and smoked the tires on the road before she sped off. Her destination was Edinburgh where she could get a flight back to the States.

Except the hours it took to reach Edinburgh were plagued with the memories of her time with Guy. His smile, the desire in his eyes, the way his hands knew how to touch her to bring about the most exquisite pleasure. Elena forced herself to stop thinking of all the wonderful ways Guy had enriched her life. Despite how angry she was, she couldn’t turn it on him.

Her ire was aimed more at the world. She had done everything right, had given all of herself to Guy.

Or had she?

At the back of her mind, something twinged, a memory she didn’t recognize that suddenly sprang up reminding her of how she had struggled and worked to climb the corporate ladder at PureGems.

That part of her life was over. Or at least it had been. Elena didn’t want to think of the future yet. Her pain was still too raw, too visceral to manage.

Instead of breaking down into a pile of sobs, she focused on the road. She turned on the stereo, glad to hear an AC/DC CD. While the strings of “Back in Black” roared through the speakers, she sang at the top of her lungs.

With AC/DC she didn’t have to worry about hearing a sad love song. They would maintain her resolve to hold things together. For how long she couldn’t be sure, but at least long enough to reach Edinburgh.

And two hours later, the CD had done the trick. She turned off the stereo as the road took her through the city to the airport.

Elena circled the airport twice before deciding to spend the night at a hotel. Yet, as she drove to the hotel, she didn’t think she could stay another minute in Scotland. Guy was too close, and her willpower too low.

Sitting in his car, it was all she could do not to call him and try to talk. Then she remembered seeing him fly away after she had left.

Elena turned the car around and headed back to the airport. She parked the car and pulled out her luggage before she tossed the keys into the trunk. She sent a quick text to Banan telling him where the car was just as she’d promised.

With her shoulders back and her head held high, Elena walked into Edinburgh Airport to the United terminal and redeemed her ticket to Atlanta. It wasn’t until Elena was sitting at her gate that she wondered why she was going home.

Elena leaned back in the chair and stared out the window at the planes. Her flight didn’t leave for another six hours. How she was going to make it through until then she didn’t know.

To keep her mind off Guy she played games on her phone, watched a movie on her iPad, wandered the airport visiting the gift shops and eating, and then she tried reading.

It worked. Until she fell asleep. Then she dreamed of bloodred scales and white eyes, of Guy’s tattoo and the first time she saw it move. She dreamed of his tantalizing kisses and his deep voice.

Her eyes flew open as her body trembled with need. Is this what her future held? Would her body, her heart even allow her to forget Guy and the love they had shared? Would time dim her feelings?

“Oh, God,” she moaned as the truth slammed into her.

There would never be another for her. What she and Guy shared was special, too special to ever attempt to repeat. There was no man on earth who could compare. She would spend the rest of her life alone with only her memories of Guy and Dreagan to see her through the long, lonely years of her life.

As thunder boomed around her, the rain fell in thick sheets. Elena rose and walked to the large windows. Up in the clouds she knew Guy and the other Dragon Kings were flying. He never passed up an opportunity to take to the skies.

Guy would often tell her stories of his time before there were humans and how the dragons had ruled the earth. His pale brown eyes would grow distant as he talked of how it felt to feel the wind beneath his wings, of how he soared through the air, his Reds behind him.

She knew how terribly he missed his Reds, and how fiercely he fought for both the dragons and humans in that awful war that had divided the two races.

*   *   *

Guy tucked his wings and dove from the clouds while the lightning forked around him. The air crackled with electrical currents, but he didn’t care. He flew higher, farther than he had in ages, but no matter how fast he went—or how far—he couldn’t outrun the pain that was threatening to swallow him.