Dark Heat: The Dark Kings Stories by Donna Grant Page A

look at one wing, and then the other. A moment later he was flapping both. “Can we fly?”
    Guy laughed and beat his own wings. “Oh, aye. No’ that we’re able to do it as we used to, but we most certainly can.”
    One by one they shifted back to their human forms and dressed.
    Hal was fastening his jeans when Tristan asked, “Why the sword?”
    “The sword is part of you,” Rhys said. “It’s the part given to us as humans. It’s also the only way a King can kill another King in human form.”
    Tristan frowned. “I thought you said we were immortal.”
    “Ah, but all immortals can be killed somehow,” Hal said. “For us, nothing a human does can kill us. It might wound us, but we’ll heal. The only way we can die is by a King using the sword when we’re human—”
    “—Or battling each other as dragons,” Guy finished.
    “So other Kings have been killed?” Tristan asked.
    Banan sighed loudly. “Unfortunately. The King of the Ambers was killed long, long ago in a battle.”
    “Why was I made into a King?”
    Rhys’s aqua-ringed dark blue eyes swung to Tristan. “A verra good question, one I hope Con might be able to answer.”
    “Con?”
    “Constantine,” Hal answered. “He’s the King of the Kings and ruler of the Golds.”
    Tristan rubbed his dragon tattoo—absently or not, Hal wasn’t sure. The dragon tats did move. It was a way they distinguished a King from a human.
    Hal listened with half an ear as they told Tristan how they leapfrogged through time and always had to stay near Dreagan. Hal followed as they walked Tristan out of one cavern and into another where the Silvers were caged.
    “Why?” was all Tristan asked as he looked at the Silvers.
    “Ulrik, their King, commanded them to destroy mankind,” Banan said.
    “That sounds verra neat and tidy. How much more is there to the story?”
    Hal was impressed at how Tristan’s mind worked. Hal and Ulrik had been close friends, which was why Ulrik’s betrayal hurt so badly.
    “It was Ulrik’s retaliation for humans hunting the dragons,” Guy answered. “Ulrik was betrayed by his woman, a human. She helped her people kill dragons, so Ulrik went to war.”
    “Despite Con telling him no’ to,” Banan said.
    Hal leaned a hand on the metal bars around the Silvers. “Ulrik had no idea he was betrayed. We discovered it.”
    “And ended it,” Guy stated harshly.
    Hal glanced at Guy. “Aye. We ended it. We killed Ulrik’s woman before he had a chance to know what was happening.”
    “That only propelled Ulrik,” Rhys said. “His woman’s death, along with her betrayal set him on a path he wouldna move from. He wanted war, but Con forbade it. So along with killing humans, he came after us.”
    Hal gave a small grunt as he pushed away from the bars. “War. Admit we all thought of joining Ulrik in his hunt of the humans.” Hal’s gaze caught Tristan’s. “The humans were killing dragons, the dragons we were supposed to protect.”
    “Just as we were supposed to protect the humans,” Guy added softly.
    Banan scrubbed a hand down his face. “Ulrik’s actions damned him. He went against Con’s orders, and even when Con demanded he halt, Ulrik was relentless in his destruction of humans.”
    “What happened?” Tristan asked.
    Hal looked at the ground, memories he wanted to forget rising in his mind. “Con had only one choice. He stripped Ulrik of his sword and his powers as well as his ability to talk to his dragons. We captured the Silvers we could, and used our magic to make them sleep.”
    “Ulrik is still a King,” Banan said. “He’ll always be a King. But even if his dragons were to wake, he couldna talk to them as a King does, or shift into dragon form. So he goes through each day, all the while we watch him. We’re always watching him.”
    The events of that day so long ago hadn’t been spoken about in ages. Despite the time that had passed, Hal couldn’t forget how Ulrik had gone into a rage when he’d