I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie (The I Like Big Dragons Series) (16 page)

Why that little shit!

I am most certainly not your toy
! I yelled at him, despite the fact that I had a gun trained on my head.

Hush, Drakina. Get ready to move
.

The gentle admonishment that washed over me cleared away every single ounce of nervousness from my body.

Now, instead of freaking out, I took in the area around us.

There were men in the trees.

Lots of them, in fact.

Joseph wasn’t taking any chances with this.

He was ready for anything.

I could tell some of the men had what looked like arrows in huge pipe things.

I assumed those were for the dragons seeing as they’d be overkill for a human.

“I knew you’d be here,” Joseph smiled nastily. “I just knew she’d make you come out.”

Keifer opened his arms wide, making the muscles underneath the shirt he was wearing ripple.

“Here I am. What’d you want?” He asked calmly.

“You took out eight of my best men,” Joseph snarled. “How would you feel if I did the same?”

Keifer’s smile slowly died on his face.

“You did do the same. Does Alaska, Anchorage specifically,
ring any bells?” Keifer
hissed with a deadly tone that could’ve stripped bark from the trees around us.

A cold chill started around me, and I knew it was coming from Keifer.

Although he had to be doing it without trying to.

He would never let his emotions get out of control like that if there was any way to prevent it.

Keifer’s control was legendary.

He’d proved that to me over and over in the past two months.

His brother was good, I’d give him credit.

As were the other members of The Dragon’s Warriors MC.

But they weren’t Keifer.

And if he was inadvertently using his abilities, that only showed how truly angry he was.

Get ready.

Declan’s voice bled through my worry, and I held my hand out at my sides, ready to jump or run if I needed to.

I didn’t need to do either.

One second I was standing, and the next I was in Declan’s massive claws.

Right alongside Keifer.

And he was pulling us away before I’d even realized we were gone.

“No!” Brooklyn screamed, jumping in front of her uncle who’d moved his gun from where I’d been standing to where I was now hanging from Declan’s clutches.

Joseph shot her.

Her blood sprayed, and I watched in horror as he followed her body down, and shot her one more time.

Her body jerked, and that was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes and screamed.

“Brooklyn!” I pleaded. “Get Brooklyn!”

Keifer and Declan didn’t listen.

In fact, they only went faster and faster until all I could see was the copse of trees that I’d left behind.

Then, the further we went, the more my heart seemed to break.

My best friend had been killed by her own uncle.

And I’d witnessed it.

Jesus, no.

Please, don’t let her be dead.

I’m sorry, Drakina.

Today I’m wearing a lovely shade of shut the fuck up. I didn’t sleep well last night.

-Blythe to Keifer

Keifer

“What’d you find?” I asked my brother who’d just come home only moments before.

“Absolutely nothing,” Nikolai dropped down into the couch beside me.

I clenched my fists.

“That fucker knew. How’d he know?” I growled in frustration.

“The friend. I think the friend knew more than she was letting on,” Nikolai told me gently.

I shook my head.

“She was scared, yes, but she wasn’t stupid. She’d protect Blythe even if she thought what she was doing was wrong. Blythe is the only family Brooklyn has left,” I told him softly.

Nikolai shrugged. “I don’t know. When we all got there, everyone was gone. It was like they didn’t care about us, they only wanted you.”

I shook my head. “Why me? Why am I so special?”

“Because you’re the prince,” Blythe whispered gently from the doorway.

I looked up to find her watching me.

Her eyes were red and bruised from crying.

She was in nothing but my t-shirt, and I found that I liked that.

I did not, however, like that my brother was watching her in nothing but my t-shirt.

“Come here, Drakina,” I ordered gently, holding out my hand to her.

She walked forward slowly, taking my hand once she was close enough, and folded into my lap.

“She wasn’t there?” Blythe asked hopefully.

Nikolai shook his head.

“Blood. That’s all that was left. She wasn’t there. The Purists weren’t there. It was just a wet spot in the middle of the park,” Nikolai murmured tensely.

Blythe winced, and I wanted to smack my brother for being so inconsiderate.

“No.”

One simple word was said from Blythe, and I felt it down deep into my heart. Like I was stabbed, making me inhale sharply to breathe through the pain.

But it wasn’t my pain.

It was Blythe’s.

“I’m sorry, honey,” I whispered to her, pulling her into the shelter of my arms.

The closeness of our bodies made our energies collide.

Mine. Hers. And our baby’s.

Thank God I hadn’t lost her.

“What now?” She whispered brokenly.

I shrugged.

And I could tell Nikolai was thinking much the same as me.

Was it worth it to risk more of our own to search for a woman that was most likely dead or on the brink of death?

I could tell instantly that Nikolai didn’t think so.

Ultimately, though, it wasn’t up to him.

It was up to me.

“Keifer?” Blythe called.

I looked down at her.

“Yeah?”

“Why aren’t you King?” She asked gently.

I froze solid.

“My dad’s the King, which made my mother Queen,” I told her.

“But your dad is dead, and it’s the men of your society that hold the power. Why is your mom still considered Queen when you should be the King?” She wondered aloud.

I ran my hand up the middle of her back, letting my hands smooth down the hair that fell down to her butt.

It was Nikolai that answered, though.

“Because he’s scared,” Nikolai laughed.

I shot him a glare.

“I’m not scared. It’s Mom’s. I’m Prince. And I can’t be King until there’s no longer the Queen,” I told him honestly.

A sound at the doorway had me looking up to find my mother there.

The moment she realized I had her attention, she started to sign.

Actually, honey, I think that may be what they’re trying to prevent from happening.

I shook my head, looking away. The stomped foot had me jerking my head up to find her standing with her arms crossed at her front, staring at the three of us with tears in her eyes.

It’s time
, she mouthed.

I shook my head.

“No.”

“Yes,” Blythe urged. “I think it is.”

“We’ll take a vote. H
ow does that sound?” Nikolai suggested.

I turned my eyes to him. “How can you be okay with this? If Mom’s not the queen, then she’s nothing in this society and everyone will know it.”

“She’s not nothing, honey. She’ll be the Dowager Queen. She’ll still live here. She’ll still take care of the sanctuary. Everything will be the same except she’ll no longer have the title. She’ll still be your mother,” Blythe explained.

I leaned my head forward until my forehead was leaning against her shoulder.

“Why would my being King change anything?” I tried a different tactic.

Nikolai and Blythe didn’t have an answer, but the man walking into the living room with crutches under his arm and my nagging sister behind him telling him to ‘sit the hell down,’ did.

“Because you’re going to change the world. There’ve been prophecies,” Derek gasped breathlessly.

Nikolai stood and offered his seat, which Derek gratefully accepted.

“What prophecies?” I asked.

He leaned his head against the back of the couch and lifted a notebook from the pocket of the generic robe we kept in the infirmary for such instances.

“I wrote it all down,” he offered me a spiral bound notebook.

“What all?” I asked, leaning forward and taking the book from his outstretched hands.

“It’s two pages’ worth. I wrote it all down as I sat beside a Purist as he was dying. He kept repeating this over and over while I tortured him to death,” Derek explained, calm, cool and collected.

As if he hadn’t just said he’d tortured a man to death to get the prophecy.

“And when did you find time to do this?” I asked skeptically. “You’ve been in a coma for more than a month. You’ve been out of the coma for less than four hours.”

Derek grinned. “My dragon kept it for me.”

I was utterly surprised at that.

Dragons were usually very forthcoming with their information, and for Derek’s paired dragon, Ulysses, to keep anything from us was huge.

“What’s going on, Derek?” I asked finally
, once the silence carried on too long.

He nodded to the paper.

“Read it.”

Sighing in annoyance, I did just that.

A cold night in August, the king and the queen shall bring forth
a powerful being the likes of which this Earth has never seen before.

It shall be of light and darkness.

Pureness by choice, but vicious by need.

The child of the light and dark will be the one to change the future of this world as we know it.

Dragon riders will prevail, because of one being only.

Reed.

“I like the name Reed,” Blythe interrupted my reading.

I raised my brows at her.

“Why?” I asked, stunned.

I didn’t like it.

Not at all.

“Because it’s different, like yours. We can’t name him Keifer again. I don’t do Juniors,” she informed me.

I shook my head. “You don’t do Juniors?”

She nodded. “Right.”

“What’s wrong with being a Junior?” Derek asked, offended.

Derek was named after his father. Derek Reedus Donaldson.

Which I guessed was maybe where Reed had come from. A shortening of Reedus.

“Read the rest of it,” Nikolai growled in frustration.

I continued reading, my skepticism fading the more I took in.

When the two moons rise, and on the eve of
Prince Reed’s arrival there shall be only one faction. That faction will forever rule, trifle from the pure no longer.

I finished reading the paper and passed it over to Nikolai so he could read it as well.

“So, what does this mean?” I leaned my head back to rest against the couch.

“It means that whatever your child is, that he’s important, not just to the dragon riders, but to the whole world. It also means that he’s already in great danger. That they want you, and they want Reed, which I have to thank you for naming him after me, by the way,” Derek teased. Then he sobered. “You need to be on your game. You need bodyguards. You need to stay safe, vigilant, and aware. And you need to make peace with the knowledge and accept the fact that this child is about to change the world. Literally.”

I clenched my hand into a fist on the side of Blythe’s hip, feeling like shit that I’d damned this child,
my child
, to this future.

“And it also means the time has come for you to accept the title of king. There’s a reason they don’t want you to be the king. The prophecy is only half of a whole and can only be realized if you take your rightful place. You need to do this, Keifer, and you need to do it now,” Derek continued.

I closed my eyes, feeling like a large pile of shit for doing what I was about to do.

“Call the brothers. Get them here.”

That was directed at my brother.

“As for you,” I told Derek. “Get back to bed. Let your mind do its job, but stay in bed while you’re doing it.”

Derek saluted me.

“Yes, your Highness,” he conceded.

Then the bruised fucker got up and walked swiftly out of the room while the rest of the room was still holding their breath.

“King,” Nikolai laughed. “That’s got kind of a ring to it, doesn’t it?”

I flipped him off, causing Blythe to laugh softly against my chest where she was resting.

My mouth went involuntarily to the top of her head, and I brushed my lips over her hair.

“You ready for this?” I questioned her softly.

She looked up at me and offered me her lips. “Ready when you are, Dragon.”

I slammed my mouth down on hers.

“Good. At least someone is.”

If I had a dollar for every time my siblings listened to what I said, I’d have to borrow a dollar.

-Keifer to Blythe

Blythe

I knew something was wrong.

He wouldn’t answer my calls. My summons. My pleas.

Nothing.

It’d been two weeks since he’d decided to take up the crown, and in that two weeks…he’d
changed
.

No longer was he the carefree prince.

Now he was the solemn King who made impressions on everyone just by breathing.

He had to watch his step.

He’d done this for two weeks now, and I knew it was wearing on him.

Badly.

He didn’t joke anymore. He didn’t work at his shop. He wasn’t seen out in public.
I
wasn’t seen out in public. He hadn’t had sex with me. He’d been in closed door meetings with his mom and those of his inner circle every single free minute of the day—without me included.

Yet, here I was, confused, upset, and to be honest, hurt.

I was receiving no explanations.

None, zero, zilch.

I’d spoken to him for a total of ten minutes a day when he kissed me in the morning and told me he was leaving. Then once again when he curled around me at night.

Something had to give, and it was going to give right now.

Stomping toward the door to the library where all these ‘secret’ meetings were taking place, I blasted my way inside.

I’d gotten pretty good at doing that lately.

What else did I have to do?