The two Dark holding her exchanged worried glances. Lexi let her lips curl into a smile. She had them worried now.
The Dark leader gripped her hair painfully, jerking her head backward. “You think the only way we kill is by fucking you?” He laughed. “Ask your Dragon Kings. Ask them what else we can do. Or perhaps I’ll show you.”
His hand came around her, palm out. Lexi looked down to see a bubble grow. It was perfectly round and clear except for the faint shimmer of iridescent color.
The Dark leaned close so that his mouth was next to her ear. “You may be able to withstand our appeal, but you won’t be able to hold back your cry of pain when you feel this. Know that while the Kings are trying to protect you that I’ll take great joy in killing them.”
Lexi glanced at Darius who stood silently behind and to the right of Thorn. When she looked at Thorn she thought his look alone would slay the Dark where they stood.
There was a moment where everything was hushed, as if the world took a deep breath and held it. In the next instant, everything moved frantically.
The Dark turned his hand to push the bubble into her at the same instant Lexi saw Thorn change into a dragon with scales the color of wine, followed a heartbeat later by Darius.
Thorn roared, the sound deafening, and pulled in a breath. She saw fire swirl in his throat. His massive hand rose over Lexi. She could only stare in a mixture of terror and panic.
The two Darks holding her loosened their grip. She yanked her arms away and dove to the ground as the first of the flames flew from Thorn’s mouth.
She huddled on the floor with her arms over her head. The heat never touched her as she’d expected. Lexi turned her head when she heard screaming and saw that something was over her, something with the same deep wine scales that she had seen on Thorn when he shifted.
Lexi remained where she was until the last of the screams died. Then Thorn’s hand was gone. She still didn’t move. Dragons. My God, Darius and Thorn were dragons!
The ground trembled when Thorn stepped away from her, but Lexi still didn’t have the nerve to lift her head. Fae and now dragons? What else was on her world?
“Lexi,” Darius said, standing near her. “It’s over, lass. You can lift your head.” When she didn’t move, Darius chuckled wryly. “This from a human who bravely trailed the Dark? You doona need to fear us.”
“You’re dragons,” she mumbled.
“That we are.”
It was said so matter-of-factly and without a hint of apology that Lexi lifted her head to see Thorn in human form standing twenty feet away with his back to her and his hands braced on a table.
A hand was held in front of her face. Lexi hesitated for just an instant before taking Darius’s hand as he helped her to her feet.
He wore nothing but a pair of jeans, and with his close proximity she could see that his dragon tat went from his back to his front with his dragon’s head looking over his right shoulder in the same black and red ink.
“Go to him,” Darius urged in a whisper.
Lexi turned her gaze to Thorn. The man who had so tenderly held her was a fire-breathing dragon. A real-life dragon. Her brain was having an impossible time registering the facts.
She took a few half-steps toward him, slowly closing the distance. When Lexi looked behind her, it was to discover Darius gone and all that remained of the three Dark Fae were piles of ashes.
Lexi stopped when she was six feet from Thorn. He stood naked, his back expanding with every breath he took. She had known he would be heart-stoppingly gorgeous naked, and she had been right.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked in a soft voice.
“Because of this verra reaction.”
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
Thorn’s heart still raced at how close Lexi had come to death. He had been given the barest hint of hope when she had bravely stood against them.
Her defiant words appealed to him on a primal level, but her precarious position made his blood turn to ice. Thorn had been so enraged, so incensed that he had one thought—save Lexi.
It wasn’t until it was over that Thorn realized what he had done. She had seen him shift. Lexi now knew the secret that everyone at Dreagan worked so tirelessly to protect.
“You’re the other beings killing the Dark,” she said.
He closed his eyes. “Aye.”
“You’re a dragon.”
His chin dropped to his chest. There were many reasons he hadn’t intended to tell her what he was, but the biggest was the way she was handling things now. She was in shock from all she had seen. When that shock gave way, she would be too frightened of him to even be in the same city.
“You’re a damn dragon!” she yelled.
Thorn was going to have to have Guy wipe Lexi’s memories of anything to do with him. It might even be better if she didn’t remember the Dark either.
“Look at me,” she demanded.
He whirled around and held out his arms. “What do you want me to say? Aye. I’m a dragon!”
“How?” She gave a small shake of her head, her voice breaking on the word.
“We’ve been here since the beginning of time.”
“Impossible. We’d have found something.”
Thorn lifted one shoulder. “We have some human allies who have helped to keep us hidden.”
“This makes no sense.” She looked around at the warehouse as if seeing it for the first time.
“None of this would be an issue if you’d remained in the flat as I told you.”
Her gaze narrowed on him. “Told me? I’m not some dog to be ordered around.”
“Nay, you’re a human who has stepped into a war she has no business knowing about!”
“Maybe if more of us humans did know we wouldn’t be dying by the dozens every day because of the Dark!”
Thorn took a step toward her. “You really think knowing of the Dark would stop the deaths?”
“It certainly couldn’t hurt,” she replied, moving toward him.
“That simple thinking is why the Fae came for you to begin with. You think in the entire universe that you’re the only beings? Do you really think there are no’ other planets with life on them?”
“I don’t care about them, I—”
“Well you should care,” he interrupted. He took another step. “Use your brain, Lexi. You’re smart. Look around at your world. Do you really think cancer can no’ be cured when your doctors have cured almost everything else? The Dark keep preventing it. They want you weak and stupid.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“I told you how dangerous it was out on the streets. I told you to remain inside the flat.”
She rolled her eyes. “I had every intention of doing just that except I saw you jump off a six-story roof. Humans can’t do that.”
“That still doesna mean you should’ve followed us!”
They were so close he could see the black circles around her irises. Her gray eyes were stormy with anger, fear, and anxiety.
“I used my head,” she retorted.
Thorn looked down at her and nearly groaned when he felt her breasts rub against his chest. To his horror, the fury in her gray eyes turned to desire.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop himself from yanking Lexi against him as he took her lips in a savage kiss.
He spun her around and pressed her up against a wall. Her hands delved into his hair as she answered his kiss with one just as fierce and violent.
Thorn came to his senses and lifted his head. He looked down at her swollen lips and his hard cock begged him to continue. Whatever thought he had vanished with his craving of her.
He touched her cheek before he slid his hand around to the back of her neck and held her head as he slowly kissed her, tasting the passion and need.
His hand slid between them intending to unbutton her coat when he heard her hiss. Thorn leaned back, concern filling him when he saw her look of pain.
“It’s my left side,” she said, breathing heavily.
Thorn knew he hadn’t touched her with his talons. That meant it was … He couldn’t finish the thought.