Page 33 of Two Thousand Blades

His friend glanced over his shoulder at the giant cavern of collected treasures and laughed. “Clearly, this is one of those dragons that does.”

“Dragons start most hoards to protect a single, rare and priceless treasure. Of course, the dragon begins to obsess about the other items, but the focus remains on that one treasure. That item is the heart of the hoard.”

“Why do I have a terrible feeling? I’m not sure I want to know anymore.”

Kai lifted an eyebrow at him. “Want me to stop?”

“Of course not! Keep going,” Xiang ordered with a wave of his hand.

“The legend is that if you can sneak into a dragon’s hoard and steal the heart, you can gain control of that dragon.”

“Fuck,” Xiang whispered.

“That’s why dragons build up such enormous collections. It’s nearly impossible to find a hoard in the first place and sneak past the dragon, but once you’re there, you must locate that one thing among all the thousands of things.”

“So, Queen Belladonna somehow found the dragon’s hoard and stole the sword that is the heart of the hoard?” Xiang jumped to his feet and paced away from the bed, his hands shoved into his hair. “That’s…that’s crazy. How were the fae even able to find the hoard? Or gain knowledge of which item to even take?” He stopped and glanced around the treasure collection before whipping his gaze to Kai. “Unless they took a bunch of stuff.”

“The thief didn’t,” Kai grumbled. “It happened more than a hundred years ago when the door between worlds was last open. I don’t know how the hoard was located, but I have a guess as to why the sword was taken.”

Xiang paced to the bed and sat. “Well?” he prodded.

“The sword…it has a certain special magic energy. It was a gift for some assistance the dragon provided a very long time ago.” Kai hesitated. It was so strange talking about himself in the third person. Most of the time, he’d skirt conversation about the dragon, so he wasn’t in danger of making any slips, but Xiang needed to know what was happening. Unfortunately, his brain was still so foggy after his fight with Queen Belladonna. It was getting harder and harder to keep himself separate from the dragon.

Xiang’s eyes widened and pointed toward the door. “Are you telling me the dragon who kidnapped me is Shenlong?”

Kai groaned and covered his face with his hand. Shenlong was one of the highest ranking of all the dragons in Chinese mythology. He was the thunder god with control of the weather. He had been heavily worshiped because the old agrarian culture relied on benevolence for the survival of their crops. Shenlong was right up there with Tianlong, the celestial dragon who guarded the heavens.

“No, he is not Shenlong,” Kai said, his voice muffled under his hand. “The dragon…” He paused and dropped his hand to glare at Xiang. “All the details about the dragon’s past aren’t important. The key thing here is that the sword was a gift for helping some people out. The dragon felt honored by the thoughtful gift, so he treasured it. However, years later, the man who gave him the sword became a god, so the sword gained some extra power. It’s that power the fae likely latched on to. I doubt they knew they’d gained the ability to control a dragon.”

Xiang’s mouth opened and closed without him making a sound. He stood up and pointed at Kai, then sat down again.

Great. He’d broken the vampire.

It was a lot to take in. This was thousands and thousands of years of history dropping on his lap. Xiang took pride in being over two thousand years old. That was an impressive accomplishment, but when it came to Kai’s lifespan, that was still only a blink of an eye.

Xiang held up one hand and tried to speak, but still no words left him.

Kai grabbed his hand in his own and squeezed. “Just let it go. Forget everything I told you. It’s not important where the sword came from. The key here is that the sword is the heart of the hoard. With an accumulation of magical power, Queen Belladonna can wield the sword, commanding the dragon to do all sorts of things.”

After dragging a shuddering breath into his lungs, Xiang nodded, and it seemed to break through the block in his brain. “Okay. You’re right. Putting all that stuff aside, what we need to focus on is getting that sword.”

His fingers twitched around Xiang’s hand, and he fought the urge to withdraw from him. “And what do you think we should do with the sword once we get it away from the fae? What would you command the dragon to do? Kill the queen and all the fae?” It was a struggle to keep the bite from his voice, but the smile that spread across Xiang’s face said that he’d failed pretty miserably.

“Tempting. But why would I get the dragon to do the one thing I’ve been dying to do ever since the fae stole away my didi?” Kai pulled his hands away, but Xiang caught one of them and threaded their fingers together, holding him tight. “The fae held Wu Yichen, my shidi, for a hundred years. They tortured him and his mate, Rei, before they could escape. And it’s pretty clear the dragon isn’t fond of the fae queen issuing commands. He could have killed me at any time, but he didn’t.”

“The dragon doesn’t kill innocent people,” Kai whispered, unable to tear his eyes away from Xiang’s. There was a burning light in their dark depths that touched a cold part of his soul. Even as that light threatened to set him on fire, he couldn’t turn away. Didn’t want to.

“Queen Belladonna and her followers need to pay for the deaths and pain they’ve caused. I’m looking forward to handling that personally.”

Kai’s heart raced and the last of the fog in his brain burned away. There was something about Xiang’s bloodthirsty nature that was such a turn-on. Not that he’d let the vampire anywhere near the fight with the fae. No. No. Xiang needed to stay here in the hoard where he was safest.

“So, you wouldn’t command the dragon to do anything if you had the sword?” Kai inquired, shoving aside those stray thoughts.

“I didn’t say that.”

With Kai’s hand still held in his left hand, Xiang put his right hand on the mattress next to Kai’s left hip, leaning across his body and putting their faces incredibly close.

Why was he so close?

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