Page 51 of Walking in Darkness

“They did, yes. Thanks for asking.” Kit waved Beckett to the little table in his office where they were sitting.

“I liked them. I can see bits of their personality in you,” Beckett said, coming into the office. He sat down in one of the extra chairs.

“Why, thank you. I like them too.”

Beckett snorted, then he glanced at Hudson and Connie. “Do you guys have a few minutes?”

Hudson raised an eyebrow. “Of course. What’s going on?”

Beckett eyed the pastries on the table, then helped himself to one. He grabbed a napkin too. After taking a bite, he laid it on the napkin in front of him. “These are good. So, do you remember Connie asked me to see if I could find anything in my hoard about humans mated to dragons?”

“I do, yes. I take it you found something?” Hudson turned to Kit. “Beckett’s dragon collects rare books and such.”

“I know, he told me,” Kit said. “I’m incredibly jealous.”

“I came across some scrolls dating to the third century BCE. Most of them are written in Hebrew, so I had to get them translated. Which took involving a specialist since they were written on parchment.”

Kit gaped. “Jesus. When you said rare, I certainly wasn’t expecting something like that.”

“There’s no telling what his hoard’s estimated value is,” Connie said, licking the icing off his fingers.

Kit hummed in his throat as he watched Connie.

Connie cleaned his fingers really, really good, then winked at Kit.

Kit cleared his throat. Dragging his gaze from Connie, he turned back to Beckett. “Um, what?”

Connie snickered.

“The scrolls are old. Very, very old.” Beckett rolled his eyes. “Try to pay attention.”

Kit pointed a finger at Connie. “Tell him that!”

“I’mpaying attention.”

“You’re distracting me, that’s what you’re doing.” Kit reached down and adjusted himself. “Anyone want any more coffee? I feel the need for more coffee.”

Hudson held up his cup while Connie shook his head no. So he was still smiling. So what? There was a hint of color in Kit’s face, which was adorable.

Kit hopped up and got Hudson’s cup.

Beckett was still sipping on his. “I just got the translation back. The scrolls were slightly damaged by the time they came into my possession, so the translation was incomplete.”

“But apparently there’s something there, enough of something that you felt like you needed to tell us.” Hudson nodded his thanks to Kit when he returned with the coffee.

Kit walked past Connie on his way to sit back down, purposely bumping into him. Connie chuckled.

“Yes. I found a few other books on the subject, but this scroll was certainly the oldest.” Beckett rested his elbows on the table. “As you know, a red dragon is immune to another red dragon’s fire.”

“That’s not really something new,” Connie said. He turned to Kit. “You might remember that there are four dragon courts: Fire Court, Storm Court, Winter Court, and Night Court.”

Kit nodded. “Right. There’s a distinguishing feature to each court. Like you guys have red hair and brown eyes because you are red dragons.”

“That’s true,” Hudson said. “The Storm Court, for example, can have any color hair, but their eyes are this weird combination of blue, green, and purple. They control lightning, storms, wind, and rain. Where we breathe fire, they breathe lightning.”

“Technically, I’m not a soul bond of Hudson’s, but I still wouldn’t be affected by Hudson’s fire because we’re both red dragons,” Connie said.

“But I’m not a red dragon.”

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