Page 69 of Dragon Blood
After the call, all four drove to the airport in Kai and Astred’s rental, where they returned it to the company.
Aaron boarded his flight to Europe where Kane was headquartered, while Kai, Astred and Bayn flew to Asia. Bayn had decided his presence would facilitate the retrieval of the stone, since Astred had no previous experience dealing with his family.
The flight touched down before dawn, allowing them to take advantage of the darkness to travel the rest of the distance in dragon form.
It had been decades since Kai had last seen Shouwàng Zhe territory.
Bayn had been like an older brother, though he and his older brother Dai Zen were actually his grandmother’s brothers, and he understood why they’d never told him about the circumstances around Kolina’s presence in the east. Granted, he’d never asked him, either. Those questions had been relegated to his father, who’d refused to entertain Kai’s curiosity. Hence why he’d known little of his own history and heritage.
Now, it seemed, his existence, due to Aeleftherian politics, had taken on a new facet.
He glanced at Astred as they followed Bayn through the royal compound.
He’d met her purely by chance.
Hadn’t he?
Her red-sailed ship had floated into the harbor down the hill from his penthouse.
Now that he thought about it—really thought about it—he wasn’t so sure.
He’d been strong-armed by an old friend of Bayn’s into attending a charity party that he’d had no interest in, where he was specifically introduced to the fiery red-haired beauty with the swagger of a sailor and the magnetism of a starlet.
She’d instantly captured his heart, sailing away with it at the end of the enraptured weekend.
Six months later, she returned with it, freshly scrubbed with sea air and adventure for a night on the town.
And a hell of a night it had been. He hadn’t been able to believe she’d picked a fight at every bar she’d hopped them to, paranormal and human alike, then invited him to make love to her in the aftermath.
How could he not, after the way she made his blood burn?
Wild and fearless.
It had taken many more returns to port before she’d started to let him see her softer side. He’d had to coax it out of her, but found it he did.
He’d known at first sight he wanted her.
As she’d wanted him.
Once he finally met the deepest part of her, he’d known it was forever.
His heart felt that desire in hers, in the way she looked at him, the way she relaxed into the security of his arms.
Or so he’d thought.
He’d been foolish to believe that someone so untameable would settle into a commitment of any sort.
Curious how those memories reeled him back to that past, now, when they were about to face a far deeper past that included both of them, long before either had been born, rippling through time with beckoning fingers.
Like they’d been destined for this moment, though Kai couldn’t see his involvement in it.
Yet.
He glanced at Bayn’s set face as he opened the door to his brother’s study. The head of the Shouwàng Zhe.
King Dai Zen Long.
But that sense of destiny slithering up through him persisted.
