Page 18 of Edge of Darkness

Hudson turned his head and kissed the inside of Connie’s palm. “I mean it, Connie. My feelings for you are strong. Stronger than any I’ve ever had for another person.”

“I feel the same. I don’t know what this is, but it’s something serious. It’s huge, and it’s kind of scary, but I want to see what it’ll grow into.”

“Me too. I want that with every fiber of my being.” Hudson kissed Connie hard and fast. “Now, let’s fly, sweetheart.”

“Yes, my king!”

With a smirk, Hudson took off running toward an open field not far from the back of the house. From the blink of the eye to the next, Hudson’s form blurred.

His human body disappeared, and in its place a red dragon powered across the field on four legs. With every step it took, its size expanded until it was the size of a three-story house.

The ground shook under Connie’s feet as the massive dragon ran. His wings snapped out, and the dragon launched itself into the air, wings beating strongly.

“Magnificent,” Connie breathed.

Out of all the Fire Court dragons, Hudson was by far the largest, but that was normal for a king or queen.

Dragons were not like werewolves—they didn’t share their human body with an animal. Instead, the animal shared its form with a human body, but they were still two parts of a whole. They were also creatures of magic, which accounted for how they transformed and their spell work.

They didn’t so much as shift as they dropped the human façade and became what they truly were, much like the daemon. And like the daemon, they were born and couldn’t change a human into what they were.

“Shit.” Connie swore softly as the dragon circled above him. “He distracted me with that kiss and beat me into the air. Cheater!” Connie yelled at the skies.

The dragon dipped a wing in response.

Laughing, Conrad ran across the field and flung himself into the nighttime sky, taking on his true form. He aimed for the huge dragon waiting for him.

He was sure Hudson had already taken care to hide them, but he still mumbled a spell in his head that kept humans from seeing them and took off after Hudson.

Hunters on the prowl, bookstore owners, the never-ending headache of running a court this size, petty arguments… it could all wait. For right then, the dragon in front of him and the open sky were all that mattered.

CHAPTER FIVE –KIT

KIT COULDN’T do it.

God knows, he’d tried, but he just couldn’t get past what had happened in his office. Every time he stepped in there, his skin crawled and his heart beat faster, which made his head hurt.

People thought vampire-like teeth were sexy. People were idiots. He still had nightmares about those long, sharp fangs sinking into his neck. It had felt like two large gauge needles piercing his skin.

It had hurt, and there was nothing sexy about that. At all. And there was nothing sexy about feeling that… that…thingsucking his blood either.

Kit’s shoulders slumped. Dammit. He had to stop thinking that way. Nox wasn’t a “thing.” He shouldn’t call any paranormal that, and Kage had been quick to point that out. It was insulting. And Kit knew all about how insulting language could hurt somebody.

He was a perfect example. He was a gay guy with a slightly femme, androgynous look who liked to wear things that were not considered ‘boy’ clothes.

Although today was the exception to the rule because of, well… reasons.

So, he was trying to modify his language. He knew firsthand how hating on somebody because of how they were born was simply ridiculous. But he also couldn’t get past what Nox had done to him in his office. And now Kit couldn’t stand to be in there.

Thus the “reason” why he was dressed in plain old jeans and a simple T-shirt on this bright, lovely day—he needed to move his things to a new location.

Good thing there were other empty rooms in the building. His original office might’ve had the biggest window and all, but it was going to be a storage room now. Or something. What it wasnotgoing to be was Kit’s office.

It took most of the morning, and involved asking favors from his staff, but Kit got his office equipment moved to a different room. It did have a window, although it overlooked the parking lot. Meh. At least he had natural light.

Once he got everything situated how he wanted it, and plugged in again, he stood in the doorway surveying the room. Yep, it was definitely smaller. And the plain white walls offended him on a personal level. He liked color.

And speaking of color, he had the most perfect idea of what colors he wanted to do his new office in—seafoam green and apricot. In fact, outside of the office furniture, everything else had to go. He was going to start completely over.

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