Page 62 of Two Thousand Blades

If he wasn’t technically a god, he was only a half step below that level. His powers were immense, and his dragon form was breathtaking.

Why in all the world would Kai be interested in him? His own ancestors would cackle themselves all the way into their next lives at the thought of him being able to win the attention of a dragon.

Besides, he’d done some not great things while he followed the command of Jiang Chong.

He’d done some not great things in his long lifetime without needing Jiang Chong to command him.

How could he ever be worthy of someone like Kai?

“Xiang!”

“Huh?” His head snapped up, and he blinked at Rei in the passenger seat, who was watching him with a very confused expression.

“I said the light turned green.”

As if to emphasize his point, the driver behind them blasted them with his horn.

Xiang cringed and stepped on the gas, leaping out into the intersection and into the flow of the rest of the traffic.

“So, your mind is not even remotely on this task,” Rei drawled. “That’s reassuring.”

“No, sorry. I’m paying attention now. I’ll keep you safe,” Xiang argued, his hands tightening on the wheel as he wove them deftly into traffic that was dwindling as the morning commuters reached their final destinations. He adjusted the visor to block some of the sunlight reflecting off the cars and tried to push Kai to the back of his mind.

“I’m teasing.” Rei chuckled. The elf stretched out his long, lanky body in the seat and tweaked a vent, so the cool air blew on him. “You know, it might help to talk about it.”

“It’s okay. I’m good now.”

Rei groaned and somehow slouched even more in his seat. “Come on. I’m trying to be nosy. Tell me what it’s like to fuck a dragon.”

Heat rose in his cheeks while Xiang sank in his seat, his eyes barely above the top of the steering wheel. He’d told himself that they weren’t that loud. That his clan didn’t know he was having the best sex of his life.

Pretty much every chance he and Kai could find even a modicum of privacy.

Wonderful…

“I’m not discussing my sex life with you,” Xiang grumbled.

Rei sighed and rolled his head across his seat so that it was tilted toward Xiang. “Yeah, Yiyi said that you’d say something like that. No fun.”

“And you can drop the pout. I now know that no one can pout as well as Kai, so it won’t work on me.”

The elf rubbed his bottom lip with one finger and nodded. “You’re right. He has some serious pout game. I’m going to need to take some lessons from him.” Rei dropped his hand to his lap and turned his attention to Xiang again. “Fine. No sex talk. Does this mean that Kai is now your mate and he’s going to join the clan?”

“I…I don’t know. No. I mean…we haven’t talked about anything like that. His focus is on getting his sword back and stopping the fae,” Xiang stammered and pushed through, trying to make it sound like his own comments weren’t twisting knots in his stomach. Because until now, his mind hadn’t dared to think about a day when Kai would fly out of his life. His heart blissfully believed he’d always open his eyes, and the first thing he’d see would be Kai’s handsome face. It was even better now that they were sharing a bed. All he had to do was roll over, and Kai was right there on the next pillow. That was assuming Xiang wasn’t already using Kai’s chest as a pillow.

Thankfully, the GPS chirped that their final destination was five hundred feet up on their right. No more time to talk about this. Time to focus on Trin. The elf either had valuable information to share, or he was scheming to backstab them.

Ignoring Rei’s attempts to pull more information out of him, Xiang parked the SUV on the side of the road and turned off the engine. Tree limbs reached across the residential street, creating a green tunnel that allowed through only thin rays of sunlight to spot the worn asphalt. Birds sang, and a dog barked in the distance, but there were no sounds coming from the humans. No cars rushing down the street. No lawnmowers or other mechanical things that made their lives easier.

He leaned forward so that his chest brushed the steering wheel, and he squinted at the houses, only now noticing that some of them were boarded up as if against a typhoon forecast to blow through their town. There were few cars parked on this street and no signs of human life.

“Are there any humans here?”

“Not on this street,” Rei replied as he opened his car door and climbed out. Xiang followed him around to the rear. He opened the door, and they both pulled out weapons, strapping them on their bodies as Rei spoke. “Ever since that night when Kai took you, the humans have been moving away. According to the news reports, they’re going west and piling into the bigger cities where they feel safer. On the local news, they say there isn’t an empty bed to be found in downtown Hartford.”

“And the cause of this explosion of nature and trees overtaking cities and towns?”

Rei snorted. “God. Satan. The Russians. The gays. Government experiments gone wrong.”

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