Sword of the King (19 page)

"Oh, we'll be fine," Amr said, shooting Ken a look that Ken returned with full hostility. "We have things to discuss."

"Have fun, don't break anything," Blaze said, wondering when the fuck he'd become house mother—and when he was going to get paid for it. That reminded him that he should pull out as much money as he could from his account, because Rust wouldn't waste time cutting off all of Blaze's funds the minute he found out about Blaze's betrayal.

Blaze put the matter aside for the moment and left the house with Erie at his heels. He probably should have brought a jacket, but the chill was mild, more pleasant than not, and walking would warm him quickly.

Erie prowled around the property as they walked, getting into and investigating everything, and growling as they passed through the place where Ken had come close to dying—closer than he probably realized.

When they got closer to the lake, Blaze walked along the bank, just out of range of the water. Well, he stayed out of range; Erie of course went straight for it and immediately began to splash about. "Dragon, if you get me wet I will destroy you."

Making clicking-chirping sounds of laughter, Erie paused in splashing and turned, tensed—

"Don't even!" Blaze backed up a step, but it was too late, and he went down with squawk of protest as Erie tackled him. "Get off me, dragon!"

Instead, Erie shifted, and Blaze decided that was an acceptable compromise. He ran his hands down Erie's body, tugging him close, and sighed softly as Erie took his mouth in a hungry kiss, leaving his lips bruised and sore. "Good dragon?"

"Brat dragon," Blaze replied, laughing when that got him a bite to his shoulder that would definitely leave a mark. "Stop putting holes in my clothes, dragon."

Growling in defiance, Erie made short work of getting Blaze's shirt off—then threw it into the lake with a smirk. "Hey!" Blaze said. "If I have to walk back to that house naked, dragon, I will murder—mmph—" He struggled briefly against the hands that pinned his wrists to the sand, but they both knew it was a token effort. "Seriously, dragon. Don't destroy my pants, too."

"Yes, Blaze," Erie said, clearly more interested in seeing how many bruises and scratches he could get away with. Every time Blaze started to yell at him about one, Erie's rough tongue was there, soothing the sting in the most evil of ways. Blaze writhed and jerked and tugged in his hold, but he knew he wasn't going anywhere until Erie was done, or he made it a serious order. "Stop torturing me, dragon."

Erie just laughed, his breath hot against Blaze's skin—and his body almost too hot, but it would hardly be the first time Blaze was left well-fucked and seriously overheated. He wondered if Rafael ever suffered frostbite in awkward places, and laughed—then swore as Erie bit him. "Ow!"

Erie kissed him hard, not stopping until Blaze's already sore lips were left throbbing. Blaze didn't even dare lick them, lest Erie decided to show his possessiveness in more damaging ways. Satisfied, Erie turned his attention to leaving marks all along Blaze's torso, biting so hard in some places he broke skin, rumbling softly the entire time.

Blaze swore and bitched, but fuck if he didn't love every minute of it. When Erie finally let go of his wrists to tug open his pants, Blaze thought he'd come just from a touch—a touch the little bastard didn't give him. Glaring at the smirk Erie gave him, Blaze rolled forward and tackled Erie to the sand. He bit Erie's shoulder hard, then did his best to repay all the nips, scrapes, and licks that had been inflicted upon him. When he finally reached Erie's cock, however, he wasn't a tease.

Spurred on by Erie's growls and the claws raking gently along his scalp, Blaze worked Erie's cock, sucking until his jaw ached and he knew his throat would be raw. Precum and saliva dripped down his chin and his cheeks flushed with his efforts. Erie's claws dug into his scalp, creating little pinpoints of pleasure-pain right as Erie came down his throat.

When Erie finally calmed, Blaze pulled slowly off, wiping his face and drawing in ragged breaths. Erie rose up to his knees and pushed Blaze back down, holding his wrists tightly in one hand, the other wrapping around his cock to stroke him hard and fast. Blaze shouted when he came, panting as he watched Erie idly lick his hand clean, and then bend to clean Blaze.

Blaze tugged Erie close and kissed him softly. "I'm going to have twenty new bruises now, dragon."

"Good," Erie said, and slumped on top of him, clearly deciding it was time for a nap. Blaze let him, partly because Erie was heavy but also because he was incredibly warm. It was nice to just be with his dragon for a bit. That, and Erie had worn him the fuck out.

They couldn't stay too long, of course, not with Leo showing up at noon. Blaze tried to quash his anger at the thought of the creep, but he'd wanted to smash Leo's fucking face in ever since he'd first struck Rafael. Rust could be a bastard, but he didn't hit people without good reason. Blaze had only been cuffed once in all the years he'd worked for Rust.

"We need to head back soon," he said, but Erie only snuffled and settled more firmly on top of him, clearly more asleep than awake.

Blaze stared up at the sky, watching the clouds that were slowly gathering. He bet the lake was a sight to see when there was a storm. Lazily trailing his fingers along Erie's skin, Blaze closed his eyes and dozed for a few minutes.

He woke to the sound of another dragon growling, and shoved at Erie. "Off, dragon."

Erie groused and grumbled sleepily, but obediently rolled off, shifting back to dragon form. Growling inquisitively, and then in pleasure, he padded up the beach to butt heads with Conway. Blaze flushed when he spied Rafael, and realized it must have been obvious what they had been doing. Hastily doing up his pants, he went to wash his hands in the lake and see if he could find his shirt. "Seriously, Erie! Where is my damn shirt? I can't believe—" He turned around to glare at Erie, and crashed into Rafael, who caught his arm to steady them both. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Rafael replied. "Here, you can take my jacket."

"Thanks," Blaze muttered, shrugging into the leather jacket, loving the way it smelled faintly of some fancy cologne. It was a little too big for him, but he didn't care. "What time is it?"

Rafael smiled and stuffed his hands in his jeans as they walked back to the footpath where their dragons were horsing around. "Eleven thirty. We were starting to wonder where you were."

"Sorry," Blaze said, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "How is everything back at the house?"

At first, Rafael didn't reply, a pensive look on his face. "Interesting," he said at last.  "I am eighty percent certain that Ken will murder Amr before the day is out; I haven't seen a pair that volatile in a long time."

Blaze shrugged. "I'm sure they'll simmer down eventually. If not, well, we're not exactly going to be housemates forever. Once we figure out what the fuck to do about Cam ... though I'm not sure what the fuck we're supposed to do with a Pendragon who is owned by a Mordred." Fuck, he did not want to break that news to the clans if even half of what Ken had said about them was true.

"We'll figure something out," Rafael said. "For now, our only priority is to get Cam safely out of reach of the syndicates. I suspect our best bet for now is to get Amr and Cam back to Clan Mordred. Ken will probably be safe there as well, though he'll probably go kicking and screaming the whole way."

"Probably," Blaze said with a laugh.

So Amr, Cam, and Ken would all be safe with Mordred. He had the feeling that Leo's days as the St. George Boss were numbered; Rafael wouldn't be running if he wasn't planning eventually to take Leo down.

Where did that leave him and Erie? He definitely had no interest in the clans, even if for some reasons they did offer to help him. No doubt Rafael would let them stay with him and Conway, but Blaze didn't need anyone's pity or charity.

But that let him at a complete loss. He wasn't good for shit beyond pit fighting; it was all he'd ever done. Just the thought of turning into a freelance pit fighter made him ill; he'd rather die than subject Erie to that life. Better to stay with Rust than freelance.

That left him with little choice, but to hope Rafael let him hang around. Ugh. He didn't want Rafael to feel sorry for him—he wanted Rafael to want him, as little sense as that made.

"You look gloomy," Rafael said with wry amusement, drawing Blade from his thoughts.

Blaze shrugged. "Eh. Not really. This will all be over soon, for Erie and I at least. I'm just trying to figure out how we'll stay one step ahead of Rust and sustain ourselves. We're not really good for anything, but pit fights." Shit, he didn't even have a proper education and all that crap—not unusual among abnormals, but no one really considered pit fighters abnormal, just filthy assholes who abused abnormal creatures.

All his thoughts of running away, and he'd never realized that he didn't know how to be anything but a pit fighter. That was definitely one hell of a fucking obstacle.

"Aren't you going back with Ken? Or somewhere with Ken?" Rafael asked, stopping.

Blaze stared at him in confusion. "Why would I go somewhere with Ken? He's got his clans and shit, which is cool, but not my scene. Anyway, we might be friends, but I think if we're in the same place for too long we'll start beating the shit out of each other just to alleviate boredom."

"Oh."

"Oh, what?"

Rafael shook his head. "I thought you two were together, that's all."

Blaze burst out laughing. "No way. I think he hit on me when we first met, but it was ninety percent about pissing me off. He is too fucking much for me, man." Was ... was he crazy, or was that relief on Rafael's face? Did he actually look pleased?

"I see," Rafael said, and yeah, he was definitely pleased about something. Blaze's heart began to pound in his chest, because that kind of smug satisfaction only had so many sources.

He surrendered to the impulse before he even fully formed the thought, stepping forward and bracing one hand on Rafael's chest, leaning up—

Rafael jerked back.

Blaze recoiled, face going hot with mortification. Stupid. Why had he assumed that Rafael wanted him? It could have just as easily been Ken—obviously was Ken.

Fuck, when had his life become some teenage drama? "Sorry," Blaze bit out, not able to look at him, and fled, ignoring Rafael when he called his name, wishing he could crawl into a hole and die. Was anything about the stupid trip going to turn out well? He'd always thought that being free of the syndicates would make his life easier. Clearly, he was even more of a fucking idiot than he'd suspected.

At his side, Erie growled, whined, and butted against him so hard that Blaze nearly tripped and fell. "Stop it!" he snapped, and bolted up the porch steps, charging into the house—

And stopped abruptly when he saw that Leo with a hell of a lot of fucking goons around him. He pointed at Blaze. "That's Rust's leak. Get rid of him. Capture the dragon if you can, but if not, kill it."

Four of the men shifted into black dragons. The remaining six drew guns and Blaze swore inwardly at himself for not remembering his own when he'd gone for a walk. Seriously, how the fuck had he managed to forget his gun? But even as he cursed himself, he ordered Erie forward. The temperature in the room rose at an alarming rate and the carpet burned wherever he stepped on it. The men fired at him, but the bullets only ricocheted around the room. Blaze swore and dove for the kitchen as Erie knocked two of the men down with his immense tail. They screamed as the touch burned their flesh through their clothes. In the kitchen, Blaze saw his gun on the counter where he'd left it while he was cooking.

Seriously, he was the world's biggest fucking dumbass.

Another roar joined Erie's, and relief shot through him when he realized Rafael and Conway had returned. Keeping low to the ground, Blaze craned his head around a cabinet to look. Leo was gone, which was ominous. The men were all distracted by Erie and Conway, and they'd put away their guns—probably to avoid hitting Rafael.

Blaze took aim, and fired, the noise of the gun making his ears hurt. His target dropped like a rock, and he wasted no time in hitting two more. But the sound of the shots had barely faded when more men burst in. Too many. Fuck. Four came after him, but Blaze only got in two more rounds, one shot missing, before they tackled him. He was no pushover, but three against one was shitty fucking odds when their only goal was to kill him.

Blaze cried out as they slammed his head into the counter, then shoved him to the floor and started kicking him. Where was Erie? He couldn't hear the dragons anymore. What the fuck was going on?

He heard the cock of a gun and laughed bitterly. It was supremely fucking unfair that he was going to die and his last memory was of being turned down after his one and only try at taking the initiative with another human.

The gun went off, and Blaze flinched, expecting pain. When it didn't come, he opened his eyes—and barely managed to roll out of the way as three bodies dropped to the floor. He struggled to his knees and saw Ken standing in the doorway. He was banged up and bloodied and, from the expression on his face, livid.

"What in the hell is going on?" Blaze demanded.

"Later," Ken said as he crossed the kitchen. He grabbed guns off the guys on the floor, pressed two of them into Blaze's hands, then grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the door. After carefully checking that the coast was clear, Ken dragged him into what was left of the living room.

The place was a fucking disaster. What hadn't been burned was shattered in bits of ice. All the furniture was destroyed, and bullet casings littered the floor. The only thing missing was dragons. "Where's Erie?" Blaze asked, fear filling his veins.

"They took all the dragons," Ken said bitterly as he wiped futilely at a badly bleeding cut on his forehead. Picking up a scrap of something from the floor, he pressed it to the wound and continued. "They busted in here like their asses were on fire. Don't think they were here long before you showed, but they had Amr and Cam out the door in seconds, and unfortunately Nev followed shortly thereafter. I don't know what the fuck happened with you and Raf."