Dark Heat: The Dark Kings Stories (43 page)

The air whooshed around him a second before lightning struck him through his left wing. Guy rolled and then spread his wings again, daring the lightning to take him down.

His heart was heavy with anguish, leaden with grief. The sadness, the regret bombarded him as steadily as the rain, and all the while he wished he could have been the man Elena needed to fill the void her job had left.

He thought of her hands gliding over his back as he made love to her, he recalled how her sighs turned to soft cries as her passion grew. And he remembered how she clung to him as their bodies peaked and they shared their souls.

Guy let out a roar and turned back to Dreagan. He would seek out his cave and sleep. In his dreams he would relive every second he’d had with Elena, and hopefully, thousands of years from now when he woke, he would be able to walk into Dreagan Manor without thinking of the woman who had stolen his heart.

By the time Guy reached Dreagan land the sky was full of Dragon Kings. He made sure to fly higher than any of them. He wanted no words of comfort, no talk of finding his true mate later, because he knew Elena was his bride.

Guy spotted an amber dragon below him who casually turned another away who had been on his way to Guy. It didn’t take long for Guy to spot Rhys and Hal doing the same as Tristan.

When Hal tried to open their mental link, Guy hastily shut him off. He then used the time to dive to earth, spreading his wings to slow just before he reached the back entrance to his cave.

Guy landed and tucked his wings. He turned his great head to the manor wishing Elena was waiting for him. With one last look at the window of their rooms, Guy walked into the mountain.

Darkness met him, but with his dragon eyes the night didn’t bother him. He curled up in a back corner hidden by boulders and rested his head upon his arm.

After a long sigh, he closed his eyes even as he picked up the sounds of approaching footsteps. Guy didn’t need to open his eyes to know it was Con coming to pay him a visit. It had only been a matter of time before Con came to him. Before every King took to their sleep, Con would spend time with them. Guy would be no different.

Con’s steps slowed before he entered the cave. Guy shifted into human form and waited for Con to speak. For several minutes Con’s eyes searched the darkness for Guy before he leaned back against the rock and crossed one ankle over the other.

“How long will you sleep?” Con asked.

Guy was surprised Con hadn’t wanted to know what went wrong with Elena, but no matter. Guy was grateful not to be talking about her. “I doona know. A couple of millennia at least.”

“Will that be enough?”

Guy understood Con was asking if it would be enough time to ease his shattered heart. “Nay.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Keep the others away. I know they mean well, but I doona want to talk of her.”

Con rubbed his jaw as he looked at the ground. “Sleeping will no’ erase her from your memories.”

“I know, but if I doona sleep, I’ll go to her.”

“Would that be so bad?”

Guy fisted his hands, hands that had held Elena just a few nights earlier. “She has a career, Con. I need to let her go and no’ tie her here.”

“Have you thought you might be making a mistake?”

Guy frowned. Mistake? He knew what he had seen, and it hadn’t been easy to come to his decision. It had nigh killed him to leave her the way he had. “Nay.”

Con shrugged and straightened from the wall. “I’m sure it’s all for the best. We’re better off without the pain the humans bring us.”

Guy waited until Con’s footsteps faded before he shifted back into a dragon and resumed his position. Only then did he force his eyes closed.

And an image of Elena filled his mind.

CHAPTER
FOUR

“Last call for boarding flight 1683 to Newark,” came the nasally female voice over the intercom of the airport.

Yet Elena remained in her seat. If she got on the plane and returned to the States, she would never come back to Scotland. Ever. It would be too hard.

But to stay … that was just as difficult.

If she remained, there was a chance she would run into Guy. What if he was with another woman? How could she survive that? Then again, how could she leave Scotland and never see him again?

Elena bent over at the waist and squeezed her head with her hands. She didn’t know what to do or where to go. Her mind was full of Guy and decisions were impossible to make.

She grabbed her purse and found the customer-service desk for United. There she cancelled her ticket and gave the address to her hotel for her luggage to be returned to her.

Elena walked out of the airport and waited for a taxi. She didn’t know how long she stood there before she noticed someone was beside her.

She slowly turned her head to find Constantine. Elena hastily looked away. He was a reminder of the life she had left, of the man who had loved her—if only for a brief time.

“I’ve been watching you,” Con said.

Elena shrugged, still refusing to look at him. “That’s nice.”

“You look like shite, Elena.”

“Bugger off, Con.”

He sighed loudly. “You didna use your ticket.”

“How very observant of you.” She was tired of being polite, tired of holding the rage and pain back. Con was the perfect person for her to take everything out on. And she intended to do just that.

“Why did you stay?”

“None of your business. You may rule the Kings, but you don’t command me anymore.”

He made a sound at the back of his throat. “You’re a fool if you thought I ever commanded you or any of the women, Elena.”

“What do you want, Con?”

“I want to know why you didna get on the plane.”

Elena swallowed and looked out over all the parked cars, not seeing the people milling about. “I knew if I left Scotland that I’d never return.”

“Nothing would prevent you from returning.”

“Memories. If I put that kind of distance between what once was and a new life, I’d never be strong enough to return.”

Con turned so that he leaned against a column to face her. “So you stay?”

“I couldn’t get on the plane today, but I’m tired of sitting at the airport. I want a bath and a bed.” So she could cry the tears she had been holding back all day. “I’ll face tomorrow and any decisions when it arrives.”

“So you doona have a job waiting for you?”

Elena’s head jerked to Con to find his black eyes watching her with amusement. “Job? No.”

“You doona have offers?”

“I’ve had a couple. What difference does that make?” She hated when Con didn’t come right to the point. He loved to take the long way around things as if he had all the time in the world—which he did. And it infuriated her.

Con shrugged one shoulder. “Have you accepted an offer?”

“No,” she said angrily, and she didn’t try to hide it from him. “Why? Why would you care if I had a job or not?”

“No job and you are no’ returning to Atlanta. What are you going to do?”

Elena turned and walked away. She had taken only three steps when she whirled back around and stalked to Con. “Ask what you really want to know.”

“Why did you leave Guy?” Gone was the delight she had seen in his black eyes earlier. Now they stared at her with a singular intensity that left her shaken.

Emotions too tightly bundled and shoved aside suddenly enveloped her. She hastily blinked away the tears, not wanting Con to see how devastated she was. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep everything at bay.

With her heart ripping in half, the flood of tears broke. She ducked her head and turned away. The pain was too raw, too fresh for her to share it with anyone else.

To her surprise, Con wrapped an arm around her and started walking, leading her she knew not where. When he finally stopped, she looked up through her tears to see his car, a bright blue Maserati.

He opened her door and waited for her to climb inside before he shut it and walked to the driver’s side. Once he was behind the wheel, he looked at her and asked, “Where do you want to go?”

She couldn’t tell him Dreagan, so she told him of the hotel she had given the airport.

The car roared to life and they drove away, the silence growing with each turn of the wheels. Con hadn’t pressed her to answer his question, but he waited patiently for the answer.

“I left because he doesn’t want me anymore. He deserves happiness, and I don’t want to be in his way.”

Con didn’t respond as he continued to weave through the dense traffic of Edinburgh.

Elena shifted in the seat. The longer there was no response, the more antsy she became. She grew confused when he passed the hotel where she had planned to stay. By the time he pulled up to the curb of another hotel, Elena couldn’t wait to get out of the car.

With her hand on the handle ready to open the door, Con said, “Tell me, Elena. Would Guy ask you to stay at Dreagan if he didna love you?”

“No. I know he loved me. I guess something went wrong. These things happen. I didn’t expect it to happen to us.”

“And you willna fight for him?”

She looked at Con with narrowed eyes. “Is that what this is? A test?”

“Nay, lass,” he said casually. “It is merely a question I pose to you. You claim to love him.”

“I do. More than I could possibly explain.”

“But you’ll just walk away from him?”

Elena briefly closed her eyes. “It’s what he wants, Con. Whatever we had is over.”

“I didna expect this from a woman who went back into the caves after she nearly died there. I thought you were stronger than that.”

Elena glared at him, hating Con more than she thought possible. “You like hurting me, don’t you?”

“Nay. I also doona like to see my men hurting.”

“Con,” she said with as much patience as she could muster. “You’re making my head hurt. What do you want from me?”

“I wanted to see if you were worthy of Guy.” He turned his head to stare out the windshield. “I was wrong.”

Her door was suddenly opened by a bellman. Elena got out of the car. The door had barely closed when Con drove off. She tried to walk away, but the bellman knew her name and urged her inside. She woodenly walked into the hotel only to learn Con had paid for her room in advance for as long as she wanted to stay.

In the room, Elena did exactly what she’d told Con she wanted to do. After she ordered room service, she took a long, hot shower as sobs wracked her body.

*   *   *

If Elena thought she would sleep that night, she was dead wrong. In between bouts of crying, she would alternately curse Guy and wish he was with her.

But what she kept coming back to was Con’s question.

And you willna fight for him?

She hadn’t fought for him. He had pulled away, and she had let him. She hadn’t made him sit down and talk to her about what was wrong. No, she had simply left.

What a damn coward she was. She had railed against Guy all night, but the one she should be angry at was herself. Elena threw off the covers and rose from the bed. She walked into the bathroom and looked at the clothes she had worn the day before.

With her suitcase God only knew where, she had no makeup, no clothes … nothing. As angry as she was at Con, he hadn’t left her. He had paid for the room for as long as she wanted to stay.

Elena picked up the phone and called the front desk. “Yes, hi. Can I get a toothbrush and toothpaste, please?”

“Of course, Miss Griffin,” the man on the other end of the line said. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Actually, there is. My luggage is on a plane. I don’t have anything.”

“No’ a problem. Let me send Janet up to you so she can get your measurements and a list of anything you need. Are you in a rush?”

“Um … a bit, yes.”

“Expect Janet in a matter of minutes, Miss Griffin. And if there is anything else I can get you, please doona hesitate to let me know.”

Elena hung up the phone and gave a bark of laughter. So, that’s what money could do. She had expected to be told there was a gift shop or something since she hadn’t paid much attention the previous night.

No sooner had she ordered breakfast than there was a soft knock on the door. Elena opened it to let in an older woman with graying dark blond hair and kind blue eyes. In less than ten minutes she had given a list of items to Janet as well as her measurements with Janet promising to return within two hours.

Elena wasn’t going to waste that time. When breakfast arrived, she ate, making up for the lackluster food she had managed to get down the day before.

Then she showered and let her hair dry naturally as Guy liked. While she tried to plan out what she would say to Guy, Janet returned with everything she’d asked for.

Elena gave Janet a nice tip and a wide smile she didn’t quite feel. If anyone thought she was armoring up, that’s exactly what she was doing.

Because if she was going to return to Dreagan, she was going to fight for her Dragon King as she’d never fought for anything in her life.

*   *   *

Elena stepped out of the hotel, about to ask the bellman for a taxi to take her to rent a car when she saw the bronze Aston Martin parked along the street.

“These belong to you, ma’am,” the bellhop said as he gave her the same keys she had tossed in the trunk when she’d parked the car at the airport.

Elena stared at the car, then said a belated thank you to the bellman before she walked to the DB9 and slid into the driver’s seat.

There was a piece of paper laying on the passenger seat with one word: Hurry.

Elena started the car and pulled into traffic. In seconds she was headed back to Dreagan, and this time she pushed the sports car to its limit.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Guy knew he was sinking further into his memories than was safe. Most Dragon Kings would sleep just deeply enough not to realize the passing of time, but sufficiently alert for when Con would come to them every decade or so and fill them in on what was happening around the globe.

It’s what Guy intended, but as memories of Elena poured through his mind, as well as the realization that he would never hold her again, it became too much.