Lost Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 4)

“So you’re not hostile, but you come in, claim territory, and decide to inform us that you will not abide by our law because you have your own reign?” I ask, once again garnering their attention.

Darius moves his cold glower to me, and his lips twitch when he stares for too long.

“You’re one of us.”

“Only partially.”

“I mean one of us in particular. You’re not the red with yellow.”

Teya bristles, her eyes flicking between us.

“Dagans must have stayed behind during the first purge,” he adds.

“You mean dragons,” Dice interjects.

“Dagans,” Darius says again. “Black dragonites. The red with yellow are called the Purtains.” He measures me with a wary eye. “Our people seek refuge, not domination. I will defend them, but I will not wage an unnecessary war when our numbers are so few in comparison to yours. However, I will not bow to no Budair or Judair who is not mine.”

“Let me guess, Judair is queen? What’s a princess? Because we have one of those too.” Dice is just baiting them now.

Teya’s eyebrows go up. “You produce royal females?”

Darius studies her as the hope in her eyes seems to bubble.

“That’s all that seems to come from the royal line,” Dice tells her.

Teya grins broadly, and Darius steps back, still watching her face. “Our race is male dominant. Most of our women died during the fever that started after our world began dying. Only myself and a handful of others survived, but no female royal has ever been birthed.”

“You’re telling them a bit much,” Darius chides, but there’s no heat to his tone.

She ignores him.

“Your people have greatly evolved too, just as ours have. I think we can negotiate peace without any blood being drawn,” she goes on.

A squawk comes from the dragon still behind her, and the light in her eyes dies.

“I must go. Please inform us when your queen has reached her decision.”

Darius’s jaw tenses.

“What just happened?” Dice asks as Teya steps close to the red dragon. Sure enough, there’s a thin yellow line right down its spine.

The dragon wraps its claws around her shoulders, and she winces. Then it takes off with her in tow. Darius looks colder now, more hardened.

“Be wary of the males who send a fragile female in their place. Not all beasts bite the hand. Sometimes they sting you from behind,” he tells us before he launches himself into the air, leaping at least thirty feet up before he shifts in less than a couple of blinks and darts off like an onyx rocket of scales and a long tail.

“Well, that was underwhelming,” Dice says dryly. “Makes your desperate declaration of love a little anti-climatic.”

When I cut my eyes to him, he shrugs.

“Just saying, you told her you loved her too. She never said she loved you.”

I don’t bother telling him that Kya was freaking out, showing more concern than ever before. She didn’t say the words, because she doesn’t understand the words. But she said enough for me to know exactly how she feels.

“Then we get here and it’s all peace talks and cryptic tension. By the way, serious sexual tension going on between those two. And what’s up with all the similar royal names? And all dudes? Can you say hashtag—sausage party? Are they a male on male race? I guess they’d have to be, considering the distinct lack of pussy. I’d go ahead and slit my own throat if I didn’t have pussy. What would be the point of living? All that—”

“Dice,” I interrupt, growling.

“What?” he snaps as I grab his shoulder.