“If anyone is fighting him, it’s me,” Con announced. “But it willna be here. We’ll get Lexi. I’ll have my day with Ulrik soon enough.”
Thorn’s gaze was on the manor. “Hold on, Lexi. I’m coming.”
CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO
Lexi paced the room. The food had been delicious, and she ate every bite. Exhaustion was wearing on her, however. Fear kept her stress levels high, knotting her shoulder muscles so she couldn’t relax.
She replayed the shadow’s words to her over and over in her head. Dragons and humans weren’t meant to mix. If that were true, why did Dragon Kings mate with humans?
The door was thrown open to reveal a young twentysomething man with dark hair. His eyes were filled with hatred, as if he couldn’t stand to look at her. He might have been considered attractive except for the blatant loathing.
“I can’t believe our luck,” he said in an English accent dripping with callousness. “The Dark gifted us with a mate.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “How many times do I have to say that I’m not a mate?”
The man folded his arms over his chest and filled the doorway. “I knew a mate. She was a bitch of the first order. I helped kill her.” He laughed, the sound cruel and icy. “She was my sister.”
Lexi thought she might be sick, her stomach rolled so viciously. She knew there were people like this out in the world, but to come face-to-face with one was beyond disturbing. It made her want to get as far from him as she could.
He walked into the room, tracking her as she backed up until her legs hit the bed. He loomed over her with a smirk she was dying to wipe from his face.
Lexi was boxed in, his tall frame coming in contact with hers. She slapped his hand away when he tried to touch her cheek. Then he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked backward hard enough to wring a cry from her.
“I hear the dragons are good lovers,” he said with his face breaths from hers. “I’m not going to be kind or gentle. I’m going to take you rough and hard, and I’m going to make it last for hours.”
He yanked her sweater off her arm, ripping it at the seam so that it hung open, showing her breast. The man smiled wickedly.
“Even if somehow your King found you, by the time I’m finished with you, you’ll never let him touch you again.”
Lexi clawed at him, kicking and punching even as he held her at such an awkward position. She landed a couple of hits, which only made her throw more. The sick bastard had another thing coming if he thought she was going to meekly allow him to rape her.
Her knee came close to connecting with his balls. So close that he released his hold on her hair before backhanding her. “Bitch,” he growled.
Lexi hit the floor, her cheek feeling as if her bone had been shattered. She looked up at him, prepared to claw his eyes out if necessary.
“Leave, Kyle,” came a voice from the shadows.
Her shadow was back. Lexi didn’t think she would ever think she felt safe with him, but he was better than Kyle any day.
“He said I could have some fun,” Kyle said as he glanced over his shoulder. “Bedding a mate sounds more than fun.”
Lexi scooted away and got to her feet to put some distance between her and the psycho. She’d thought it was treacherous on the streets of Edinburgh with the Dark, but she was coming to realize just what Thorn had meant when he said that anyone who knew of the Dragon Kings was in grave peril.
“You’ll no’ touch her.”
The shadow’s voice had gone low, threatening. Dangerous. It even caused Lexi to shiver.
Kyle shifted so he could look into the shadows. “I don’t answer to you.”
The looming silence that followed was menacing.
Finally, Kyle lost his nerve. He sneered at her. “I wouldn’t want to sully myself with anyone who has let a dragon touch them.”
He pivoted and stalked out of the room, leaving the door open. Lexi hesitated for a moment before she decided to take a chance and make a run for it. She barely took one step before the shadow’s voice stopped her cold.
“Doona even try.”
Lexi glared into the darkness where he hid. “Why did you stop Kyle?”
“It’s wasna out of the goodness of my heart, I can assure you.”
“Then why?” she pressed.
“Perhaps I want to save you for myself.”
Lexi swallowed as she heard the callousness of his voice. “Let me see your face.”
“You appear brave, human, but I think it’s all a show. Besides, you doona want to see me.”
“Why?”
“Because if you do, I’ll have to kill you.”
She decided not to press any further. “I’ll get free. I’m going to—”
“What?” he interrupted with a dry chuckle. “Kill us? Kyle has already died. The Dragon Kings killed him. He was brought back from the dead.”
“That’s impossible,” she said with a frown.
“You’ve seen magic. You know it’s far from impossible.”
“He’s evil.”
There was a smile in the shadow’s voice as he said, “That he is.”
“I don’t sense that in you.”
“Then you’re an even bigger fool than I first thought. I’m worse than Kyle. Much worse,” he said with his voice dipping low.
Lexi couldn’t give up on getting free. She thought of Thorn and his claret scales. He was powerful and deadly. He came for her at Dreagan.
But he had no idea where she was now.
“Hope is dying within you,” the shadow said. “You’d be better off to let it die a quick death, mortal. No Dragon King will come for you. Because this is one place they would never think to look.”
“Go away,” Lexi said and turned her back to him.
None of this would be happening if she had gotten on the plane and returned to Charleston. But she hadn’t been able to leave Thorn. Even now in her dire predicament, she thought of him, hoping he might find her.
She heard the door close and lock. Lexi squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. She was a modern woman. She had lived on her own for many years not waiting on anyone to save her.
Though she was lacking in the magic department, there was always a way to get away. She would find it herself, no matter how long it took or what she had to endure.
Then she would find Thorn and throw her arms around him.
* * *
Balladyn stood looking over Mikkel’s Aberdeen estate from the cover of trees. Dark Fae were visible as they patrolled the manor from the flat roof and ground.
It sickened him to have his race at the beck and call of Mikkel. As much as he hated Ulrik, the King of the Silvers had never asked for such assistance. Taraeth had a plan, and Balladyn suspected it was one that was going to get many of the Dark killed.
What concerned Balladyn now was the fact Rhi was near. Mikkel was a vicious bastard. He would delight in capturing Rhi. It wasn’t that Balladyn worried about her being hurt. Rhi had enough power within her to rip Mikkel to shreds a dozen times over.
The problem was that Rhi didn’t always use her magic as she should.
Lexi was at the estate, which meant Rhi wouldn’t use the very thing that could prevent Mikkel catching her.
Balladyn blew out a long breath. “Rhi. Why couldn’t you stay away?”
But it wasn’t in her nature. She saved. It was part of who she was, her very essence. It was what drew him to her from the very beginning.
Just once he would like her to let the Kings fight their own battles. As long as she continued to help them, it proved she was still very much in love with her King.
Balladyn wasn’t giving up on her though. Once she was able to stop hanging on to a love that no longer existed, then she would begin listening to her body and accept him.
She wanted him. He had sensed it the last few times he was with her. When she allowed him to touch her, to place a soft kiss on her neck, Balladyn had known things were shifting his way.
“Did your master send you, dog?”
Balladyn jerked, a low growl rumbling in his chest as he turned his head to find Ulrik leaning nonchalantly against a tree with his hands in the pockets of his slacks. “I figured Mikkel would’ve had you on a tight leash.”