Sword of the King Read Online Free Page A

heart, but a dragon was a dragon, and not the same as another human. He immediately felt guilty for spending even two seconds on a thought like that, and roughly shoved the thought away. "South, then. It's warmer, if nothing else. I fucking hate these cold, windy cities. How's the steak?"
    "Good," Nev said, licking his lips, amber eyes bright with satisfaction. "More?"
    Ken smiled and signaled their waitress, almost laughing at the way her eyes bugged when he ordered Nev a third steak. He reached across the table to tousle Nev's hair. "Silly lizard."
    "Good dragon," Nev corrected, scowling.
    "Yes, definitely," Ken agreed. Despite the fact it had been fifteen years since Nev had been kidnapped and turned into a dragon, fifteen years since they'd been taken in by Rick and raised mostly Clan style, it still amused him that the chatterbox boy who'd been his best friend as a kid had lapsed so easily into the lazy, one and two word way dragons had of speaking. Rick's dragon, Cal, was one of the few Ken knew of that bothered to form whole sentences.
    If dragons could get away communicating with just growls, rumbles, clicks, and teeth, they would.
    Ken finished his burger and went to work on the mountain of fries that accompanied it, mentally putting together a plan to head south. They needed gas and food, and he definitely was getting some new clothes because after a point even washing didn't do much good. "If we lay low, we can hang around for a day or two, get everything in order." Nev rumbled his approval, though Ken suspected it was more for the steak. He smiled faintly and finished his fries, ordered another soda.
    He wished he hadn't been so brash and reckless in the club, but maybe it was for the best. He'd taken a gamble, hanging around the club waiting for Blaze to show, approaching him when he did. Blaze had made it very clear that he belonged to Rust. Fucking sucked, but so it went. Ken sighed and leaned back in his seat. He pulled out his phone and turned it on, unsurprised to see that he had three texts and two missed calls waiting for him.
    He texted back that he was fine then shoved the phone back in his pocket. Rick had nothing to say that Ken hadn't heard a thousand times before, and he was done listening. If he had to keep working alone—well, with only Nev—then he would.
    Nev looked at him, blinked, then said, "Ready to go?"
    "Yeah," Ken replied, and climbed out of the booth. He pulled his jacket back on and threw money on the table. Nev took his hand, making Ken smile, and they walked out of the diner together and back to the car.
    "Caramel?" Nev asked after a couple of minutes.
    Ken laughed. "What about them?" When Nev growled at him, Ken snickered. "They're in my pocket, and if you ask very, very nicely—"
    He broke off as Nev growled a warning. Nev growled again, and a group of men came out of the alleyway by their car. He recognized one of the goons from the warehouse earlier, with six fresh faces at his back. Three of them were dragons.  "Are we really going to do this here, boys?" Ken asked. "We already kicked your ass once. Do we need to do it again? Are you seriously that stupid, or do you just like being beat?"
    "Rust wants you dead, bitch, he don't care where, when, or how. You fucked with his favorite cock sucker."
    Ken laughed, certain that Blaze would be unamused to hear himself described as Rust's favorite cock sucker. "You talk too much for a man that hits like a girl." He motioned to Nevada with a slight twitch of his fingers. Nevada growled in reply.
    The three dragons sent to kill them shifted, not even bothering to remove their clothes first. Ken rolled his eyes at the sloppiness. Behind him, Nev hadn't changed but he had stripped.
    At least nobody was drawing guns, yet. No matter how badass a dragon was, a gun would stop his owner rather effectively; a dragon without his owner was an uncontrollable nightmare.
    Three blacks. They must really be pissed with him. But even that much muscle