Sword of the King (3 page)

Blaze watched and waited until Ken and his dragon were gone. Heaving a sigh, he kissed Mercy on her cheek in apology as she came up to him. "Sorry for the fuss." He shoved some cash into her hand and beckoned to Erie, leading the way through the club and slipping out the back door into the alleyway.

He made straight for the parking garage of his apartment building, calling the doorman while they walked. One of the building staff met him by his bike, holding helmets and keys. Blaze wasn't normally keen on people having such easy access to his apartment, but like everyone else, the staff knew not to fuck with him or his belongings. He wasn't dumb enough to keep anything important in the apartment anyway.

Pulling on his helmet, Blaze slid onto the bike and started it as Erie climbed on behind him. He slowly made his way out of the garage, but once on the street he gunned it, shooting across the city... He needed to tell Rust about the run-in and have whatever the fuck was going on stopped before the wrong people found out about all the rules he'd broken with Erie.

"Ken stupid."

Ken laughed, and immediately regretted doing so. He gingerly tested his jaw; wincing and sighing inwardly at the bruise he could already feel forming. "Yes, well, I've never argued that fact. But, hey, I've still got my looks going for me for the moment." He laughed again, despite the pain, as Nevada rolled his eyes. He crooked his fingers, beckoning; Nevada huffed, but went to him, twining around Ken and kissing him, biting at his lip.

It did nothing at all to make his face stop hurting, but Ken would rather have the kisses. He rubbed a thumb over Nev's bottom lip, glad that Nev was all right—not that the fight they'd just ended had been much of a challenge.

"Stupid," Nev repeated.

"At least I have sense enough to keep my smart dragon around," Ken replied. He gave Nev another kiss, then turned to inspect the damage they'd done to the thugs that had just tried to kill them. Five men and three dragons total, but though two gales and a frost were nothing to sneer at, they just weren't enough to take on Nev. It sucked they'd gotten the jump on him, but so it went. Bruises hadn't killed him yet. "I don't think they liked us."

Nev growled his opinion of that, amber eyes flashing with irritation.

"Guess we'd better get the hell out of here," Ken said. "Damn it, I really thought that guy, Blaze, might be different. He seemed different." He seemed to care about his dragon, in a way that Ken didn't see outside of the clans.

He'd really thought Blaze might prove to be an ally. A friend, the back of his mind whispered, but Ken ignored it. He had Nev, always had and always would; they didn't need anyone else.

Except, well ... he hated to admit it, but being the hero who was going to save the dragons from the pits was proving to be fucking miserable. It was a lonely, frustrating, thankless endeavor. He didn't mind the frustration so much; he'd known it was going to be an uphill battle all the way. Rick had tried to talk him out of it at least a thousand times—was still trying to talk 'sense' into him—but Ken hadn't listened.

He still wasn't listening, and never would. He wasn't going to give up just because he was one man and one dragon against—well, more criminals than he could count, but whatever. Nothing would change if no one got the ball rolling, as it were. He didn't care what anyone said; he was going to stop the pit fighting.

Well, he did care what Nevada said. A good knight put his dragon first, and whatever Ken's flaws, he was a good knight. Even if, strictly speaking, he wasn't really a knight. The thought left the back of his throat raw, aching, and made swallowing difficult. Made his eyes sore, made it hard to breathe. He shoved the thoughts away, raked a hand through his hair in a futile effort to put the overlong mess back in order, and heaved a long sigh.

The frustration didn't bug him, but the loneliness certainly did, as much as he didn't want to admit it. Just having someone else to rely on, help him, someone else who understood dragons and why the fight was worth it ... but clearly that was too much to ask, and he needed to work harder at letting the idea go.

Ken bent to retrieve the jacket he'd discarded when the fighting had started and shrugged back into it, brushing off the dirt and other crap it had picked up from the warehouse floor. He looked over the unconscious men and dragons one more time, but they seemed well enough. The worst they'd wake up with was a lot of aches and pains.

He wondered idly if they would come after him again, or panic that they'd failed and tell their boss the job was done. Turning away, he held out his hand to Nev, who took it with a smile and stepped in close to kiss his cheek. Ken turned his head, took Nev's mouth, and let go of his hand to slide his arm around Nev's shoulders. He breathed in Nev's scent of metal and sugar, and nuzzled against him. "You're far too good a dragon for me."

Nev growled low in disagreement and nipped his jaw lightly. "Good master."

"Not really, but thanks all the same, babe," Ken replied. Nev slid an arm around his waist, and they stayed that way as they left the warehouse and walked back to, then past the strip club until they reached the parking garage where they'd put the car.

Ken pulled his keys out of the pocket of his jeans and slid behind the wheel of his old, beat up Firebird and started it up as Nev slid into his own seat. "Guess we should get some food, huh? I saw a diner not far back, should have decent grub." Nev growled his approval, and Ken smiled as he pulled out of the garage and headed back down the street.

Half an hour later Nev was making quick work of two rare steaks while Ken worked through a burger that was damn near bigger than his face. "Since I clearly have fucked up here, where do you want to head next? We could go east, toward St. George territory, or more south. I don't know the syndicates in that area as well, but they're plentiful and nasty."

Nev shrugged, completely uncaring, and Ken stifled a sigh. He loved Nev with all his heart, but a dragon was a dragon, and not the same as another human. He immediately felt guilty for spending even two seconds on a thought like that, and roughly shoved the thought away. "South, then. It's warmer, if nothing else. I fucking hate these cold, windy cities. How's the steak?"

"Good," Nev said, licking his lips, amber eyes bright with satisfaction. "More?"

Ken smiled and signaled their waitress, almost laughing at the way her eyes bugged when he ordered Nev a third steak. He reached across the table to tousle Nev's hair. "Silly lizard."

"Good dragon," Nev corrected, scowling.

"Yes, definitely," Ken agreed. Despite the fact it had been fifteen years since Nev had been kidnapped and turned into a dragon, fifteen years since they'd been taken in by Rick and raised mostly Clan style, it still amused him that the chatterbox boy who'd been his best friend as a kid had lapsed so easily into the lazy, one and two word way dragons had of speaking. Rick's dragon, Cal, was one of the few Ken knew of that bothered to form whole sentences.

If dragons could get away communicating with just growls, rumbles, clicks, and teeth, they would.

Ken finished his burger and went to work on the mountain of fries that accompanied it, mentally putting together a plan to head south. They needed gas and food, and he definitely was getting some new clothes because after a point even washing didn't do much good. "If we lay low, we can hang around for a day or two, get everything in order." Nev rumbled his approval, though Ken suspected it was more for the steak. He smiled faintly and finished his fries, ordered another soda.

He wished he hadn't been so brash and reckless in the club, but maybe it was for the best. He'd taken a gamble, hanging around the club waiting for Blaze to show, approaching him when he did. Blaze had made it very clear that he belonged to Rust. Fucking sucked, but so it went. Ken sighed and leaned back in his seat. He pulled out his phone and turned it on, unsurprised to see that he had three texts and two missed calls waiting for him.

He texted back that he was fine then shoved the phone back in his pocket. Rick had nothing to say that Ken hadn't heard a thousand times before, and he was done listening. If he had to keep working alone—well, with only Nev—then he would.

Nev looked at him, blinked, then said, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah," Ken replied, and climbed out of the booth. He pulled his jacket back on and threw money on the table. Nev took his hand, making Ken smile, and they walked out of the diner together and back to the car.

"Caramel?" Nev asked after a couple of minutes.

Ken laughed. "What about them?" When Nev growled at him, Ken snickered. "They're in my pocket, and if you ask very, very nicely—"

He broke off as Nev growled a warning. Nev growled again, and a group of men came out of the alleyway by their car. He recognized one of the goons from the warehouse earlier, with six fresh faces at his back. Three of them were dragons.  "Are we really going to do this here, boys?" Ken asked. "We already kicked your ass once. Do we need to do it again? Are you seriously that stupid, or do you just like being beat?"

"Rust wants you dead, bitch, he don't care where, when, or how. You fucked with his favorite cock sucker."

Ken laughed, certain that Blaze would be unamused to hear himself described as Rust's favorite cock sucker. "You talk too much for a man that hits like a girl." He motioned to Nevada with a slight twitch of his fingers. Nevada growled in reply.

The three dragons sent to kill them shifted, not even bothering to remove their clothes first. Ken rolled his eyes at the sloppiness. Behind him, Nev hadn't changed but he had stripped.

At least nobody was drawing guns, yet. No matter how badass a dragon was, a gun would stop his owner rather effectively; a dragon without his owner was an uncontrollable nightmare.

Three blacks. They must really be pissed with him. But even that much muscle wouldn't do any good; it would take more than three blacks to defeat him and Nev. "Didn't you learn the first time?" he asked the guy in charge. "You're just wasting dragons at this point."

"Fuck you."

Ken ignored that, and with a flick of his fingers, set Nev loose. Nev shifted, growled, slammed the sidewalk pavement with his tail, and then bolted into the street where there would be more room to fight. The other dragons chased after him.

None of the surrounding streetlights were on, and they definitely had been before he and Nev had gone to eat—clearly, the goon squad been waiting. He must have really pissed them off earlier in the warehouse.

In the near-perfect dark, with only the moon and the distant diner to provide light, Nev's scales gleamed silver. He growled as the three dragons came at him. His tail flashed as it cut through the dark, catching one of the dragons on the side of his head. The dragon yelped and crashed into the one right beside him.

That was all the delay Nev needed to go on the offensive, launching himself at the nearest dragon and sinking teeth into his throat. Fire burst from two of the dragons, but the flames simply washed over Nev's scales.

Surprised, the two remaining dragons withdrew while Nev cast aside the one he'd already knocked out. He didn't look dead, quite, but it would be months probably before the dragon would be able to shift or fight.

Nev growled tauntingly, and the two dragons snarl-hissed at him—but they stayed away, intimidated by the significantly greater power Nev radiated. Nev lashed his tail back and forth across the road; it made a scraping sound as it scored the blacktop. He growled again and launched himself at the remaining two dragons.

Ken couldn't see the faces of the dragons' owners, not clearly, but their silence was all he really needed.  He shifted his gaze back to Nev, watching him in the dark as he showed the blacks exactly why they would never be his equal. Growls and snarls and screams of pain filled the night, as Nev quickly made short work of them.

The two blacks got in a few desperate scratches and one a good bite on Nev's ear, but in the end they fell, just like their comrades from earlier. Ken jerked his head, and Nev launched himself at the men, who screamed and tried to run, and went down far more easily and noisily than their dragons.

He growled when he was done and prowled toward Ken. Reaching, Nev butted against him, rubbed, and growled some more. Ken stroked his head and his brow, rubbing his fingers over the hard, smooth scales. "Good dragon," he said softly. "There's no one better than you, Nev."

Growling again, this time in clear agreement, Nev butted his thigh again and walked around to the other side of the car—and roared a warning.

Ken reacted a beat too late, grunting as his head was slammed against the car roof. Blood dripped from his nose when he was yanked away and thrown to the ground. Someone kicked him in the gut, and he barely managed to dodge it as another boot came at his face. He'd managed to climb to his knees when he saw Nev land on top of one of the bastards. Ken left him to it, standing and swinging around to face the other bastard. There were two of them, as it turned out, and both looked as though they wished they'd thought twice about attacking.

Ken threw himself at them, slamming his fist into one guy's nose in revenge for his own, then threw him aside and went for the other. He clipped Ken on the jaw, sent him reeling, but even as Ken recovered and made to retaliate, Nev was there to end the matter.

"Stop," Ken ordered, wiping blood from his face with the sleeve of his jacket, wincing at the pain in his throbbing nose. Not broken, but close. Ugh. He could feel a cut on his cheek where the other guy had gotten him and another scrape on his temple from the boot. His side was going to have a lovely bruise as well, but at least there didn't seem to be any real internal damage. He didn't care about his own injuries, as long as they weren't slowing him down. "Are you okay, Nev?"

Nev shifted back to human, shivering in the cold. "Sorry missed them. Ken okay?"

"I'm fine," Ken reassured him, tugging him close and embracing him tightly, kissing him. "You're a great dragon, you kicked all their asses. Let's get you dressed, huh?" Nev just growled unhappily; Ken kissed him softly again before letting him go to the car while he fetched Nev's clothes.