Sword of the King Read Online Free Page B

wouldn't do any good; it would take more than three blacks to defeat him and Nev. "Didn't you learn the first time?" he asked the guy in charge. "You're just wasting dragons at this point."
    "Fuck you."
    Ken ignored that, and with a flick of his fingers, set Nev loose. Nev shifted, growled, slammed the sidewalk pavement with his tail, and then bolted into the street where there would be more room to fight. The other dragons chased after him.
    None of the surrounding streetlights were on, and they definitely had been before he and Nev had gone to eat—clearly, the goon squad been waiting. He must have really pissed them off earlier in the warehouse.
    In the near-perfect dark, with only the moon and the distant diner to provide light, Nev's scales gleamed silver. He growled as the three dragons came at him. His tail flashed as it cut through the dark, catching one of the dragons on the side of his head. The dragon yelped and crashed into the one right beside him.
    That was all the delay Nev needed to go on the offensive, launching himself at the nearest dragon and sinking teeth into his throat. Fire burst from two of the dragons, but the flames simply washed over Nev's scales.
    Surprised, the two remaining dragons withdrew while Nev cast aside the one he'd already knocked out. He didn't look dead, quite, but it would be months probably before the dragon would be able to shift or fight.
    Nev growled tauntingly, and the two dragons snarl-hissed at him—but they stayed away, intimidated by the significantly greater power Nev radiated. Nev lashed his tail back and forth across the road; it made a scraping sound as it scored the blacktop. He growled again and launched himself at the remaining two dragons.
    Ken couldn't see the faces of the dragons' owners, not clearly, but their silence was all he really needed.  He shifted his gaze back to Nev, watching him in the dark as he showed the blacks exactly why they would never be his equal. Growls and snarls and screams of pain filled the night, as Nev quickly made short work of them.
    The two blacks got in a few desperate scratches and one a good bite on Nev's ear, but in the end they fell, just like their comrades from earlier. Ken jerked his head, and Nev launched himself at the men, who screamed and tried to run, and went down far more easily and noisily than their dragons.
    He growled when he was done and prowled toward Ken. Reaching, Nev butted against him, rubbed, and growled some more. Ken stroked his head and his brow, rubbing his fingers over the hard, smooth scales. "Good dragon," he said softly. "There's no one better than you, Nev."
    Growling again, this time in clear agreement, Nev butted his thigh again and walked around to the other side of the car—and roared a warning.
    Ken reacted a beat too late, grunting as his head was slammed against the car roof. Blood dripped from his nose when he was yanked away and thrown to the ground. Someone kicked him in the gut, and he barely managed to dodge it as another boot came at his face. He'd managed to climb to his knees when he saw Nev land on top of one of the bastards. Ken left him to it, standing and swinging around to face the other bastard. There were two of them, as it turned out, and both looked as though they wished they'd thought twice about attacking.
    Ken threw himself at them, slamming his fist into one guy's nose in revenge for his own, then threw him aside and went for the other. He clipped Ken on the jaw, sent him reeling, but even as Ken recovered and made to retaliate, Nev was there to end the matter.
    "Stop," Ken ordered, wiping blood from his face with the sleeve of his jacket, wincing at the pain in his throbbing nose. Not broken, but close. Ugh. He could feel a cut on his cheek where the other guy had gotten him and another scrape on his temple from the boot. His side was going to have a lovely bruise as well, but at least there didn't seem to be any real internal damage. He didn't care about his own