Page 28 of Two Thousand Blades

Kai said nothing. He never spoke to the queen. If she wanted to think he was nothing more than an animal, so be it.

The truth of the matter was that he hadn’t realized he’d nabbed the wrong person until he’d overheard Xiang talking to himself days later in the hoard. That early morning had been a mess of dead bodies and a flourish of magic. When he’d appeared at the queen’s summons, he’d still been taking in the chaos. She’d pointed the sword and issued her command. There had been a flash of motion, and then one vampire had remained where she’d indicated. How was he supposed to know Xiang had pushed his brother out of the way?

“I’m assuming you still have the creature in your clutches,” Belladonna continued, her tone dismissive. “I command you to kill it and deliver the body to his people.”

A surge of energy rushed through Kai, urging him to return his hoard, all while Belladonna’s command echoed through his brain. Digging his claws into the earth, Kai roared loud enough so that it could be heard for hundreds of kilometers. He didn’t care. He wasn’t moving.

Around him, the elves whispered, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying over the rush of blood in his ears. It couldn’t be good. The elf queen’s pale face flushed red, and she shook the sword at him.

“I command you to kill the vampire and deliver his body to his people,” she repeated, her voice loud and slightly hoarse in her rage.

Kai roared again, even as the pain ripped through his body and dug deep into muscle and sinew.

Kill, kill, kill, repeated through his brain.

Pushing off his rear feet, Kai launched forward, intending to rend all the gathered fae into bloody chunks, but he immediately slammed into a magical barrier. He clawed and bit at it, but got no closer to the fae queen. Arrows soared through the air and bounced off his golden scales. They couldn’t harm him, but that didn’t matter. He was harming himself plenty, fighting her command.

“Obey me, dragon!” Belladonna shouted, her voice cracking. The pallor of her face had shifted from white to gray. The power required to command him was draining her life force. If he could hang on a little while longer, she might kill herself in her efforts to command him.

Except he had nothing left. The agony of fighting her commands was destroying him. The strength that had held him in place was now gone. He couldn’t hold on any longer.

With a last roar, Kai coughed up blood and soared into the air. He needed to get away from the queen and her control over him. Pain clouded his vision. He cut through the air, swift and nearly soundless, moving purely on instinct.

However, that instinct was carrying him to the one place he felt safe. His hoard. Back to Xiang. The one spot he didn’t want to go. He wasn’t sure if he had enough strength left to fight the magical impulse goading him to kill the vampire. The wind swept away tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. Blood filled his mouth and trickled past his fangs.

If there were even a shred of goodness within him, he would dive into the ocean and curl up on the murky floor, lose himself to time and the world, only daring to return a thousand years later when everything that had been was gone.

Yes, he knew he was dying. Fighting the magical spell that controlled him was killing him as surely as a knife to the heart. And if he were to die, he wanted to see his hoard one last time. He wanted to hear Xiang’s giggling, teasing voice. To smell his musky scent and feel the cool touch of his skin brush against his.

A choked, blood-filled laugh escaped him. His last act of defiance would be to tell Xiang how to escape the cave.

In the blink of an eye, Kai was diving into the river and swimming up into his cave. On a gasp, he crawled a few feet and with the last strength he could muster, he changed into his human form. At least, if something went wrong, and he attacked Xiang, the vampire would have a slight chance of defending himself.

A roar morphed into a scream of pain as he collapsed onto the floor, exhausted and bloody. His vision was so dark, he could no longer tell if his eyes were still open. With a deep exhale, Kai laid his head on the cold stones and allowed the darkness to swallow him.

I’m sorry…

Chapter 9

Li Xiang

Xiang lingered near the open doorway, his hands opening and closing at his sides. Here and there, he would dart out into the dark cave with the flashlight on his cell phone shining in front of him, but he never got more than a few dozen meters before he was cursing himself and returning to the hoard.

With each new step into the cave, he would argue that he was trying to find his way out so he could later show Kai.

But then he was backtracking, calling bullshit on his reasoning. If anyone knew his way along the twisting paths of the cave, it was Kai. He wouldn’t need Xiang to show him the way.

Minutes later, he was stepping out again, arguing that he wanted to find the man to make sure he was okay. He hadn’t looked good in those last minutes.

But if Kai wanted to be found, he’d appear in the cavern.

Back and forth he went. Even with the clock ticking in the middle of the treasure room, he had lost all track of time. His mind was a mess. What the hell had happened to Kai? Where was he? What was going on with the dragon? He’d mentioned something about the queen summoning the dragon, yet none of this made any sense.

A summons from Queen Belladonna couldn’t be good for any of them, though. It was clear she had control of the dragon. Was she right this second ordering the dragon to attack his clan?

That image alone sent him running into the darkness, but his feet carried him only a couple of meters and he was stopping again. What the fuck was he supposed to do against a dragon? And that was assuming he could even find his way out of the underwater cave.

What about Kai? He’d promised the man that he’d take him to his clan. There was no way he was leaving him behind.

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