Back At It

"You seem to be moving a bit slow today. Are your injuries still bothering you?" Gabriel, King of the Dragons, asked Damascus. They had gotten back to their routine training a few days prior. Damascus's injuries had taken some time to heal, and Gabriel did not want to hear any arguments from Damascus about giving his body proper time to heal. 

"I am only slower because you have forced me to become a bed potato for the last four weeks," Damascus said under his breath. Damascus had not been the best patient for those that Gabriel had sent to make sure that he complied with Gabriel's command to rest. 

"You would not have healed otherwise. We both know how you like to overdo it," Gabriel retorted. Damascus only made a noise in response which caused a smile to spread across his friend's face. Gabriel and Damascus had a different relationship with each other than most kings and seconds. They bickered as if they were brothers but would go to the ends of the Earth for one another in a heartbeat. 

"That will be all for today. I must go over the final plans for the banquet tonight," Gabriel said as he walked over to the side of the room that held spare towels and bottled water. Gabriel grabbed one of the stark white towels and wiped his face. Both men were shirtless, and their excursions showed by the amount of sweat that dripped off both of their chiseled bodies. 

Damascus followed Gabriel to the side of the room and picked up one of the bottled waters and downed it in one go. "Since when do you oversee the details of a party? Don't you have people for that?" Damascus asked as he capped the bottle and crushed it between his hands. 

"This one is different. It is being held in the human city. Many of the guests are the elites," Gabriel explained as he ran the towel through his hair and draped it around his neck. 

"My question still stands," Damascus said blankly. He never understood why Gabriel made such an effort with humans. If they knew what they were, no doubt a war would break out. 

"The human city is too close to us to cause problems with. The last thing we need is a call into the pentagon that a dragon kingdom is only a few miles from their city," Gabriel hit Damascus's shoulder before turning towards the door that led out into the hallway. "I also expect you to be in attendance tonight," Gabriel threw over his shoulder before exiting the door. 

"Prick," Damascus said under his breath. He knew that Damascus could not reject the order once given. Gabriel knew how Damascus felt about parties and banquets. It was a room full of people who thought that their shit didn’t stink. Not the place for someone who had no issue with telling them all to go to hell. 

Damascus downed one more water before heading off towards his rooms to shower and change. He needed to check on the training of the warriors. Since he had been laid up for a few weeks, the training had been left to Cain, the warrior who was next in line right behind Damascus himself. 

"Cain," Damascus nodded to the man as he walked out onto the field that the warriors were currently training on. The grass was always cut short and well kept. Training equipment was kept in a building not far from the field. 

"Damascus," Cain nodded in return and turned back towards the small group that he was currently giving directions to. "Ebony, watch for the counterattack, you are getting too cocky," Ebony stuck her middle finger up telling Cain exactly what she felt about his instruction. Cain chuckled and looked at Damascus once more. "She is too easy to rile up," Cain said. 

"You enjoy it too much," Damascus responded flatly. Cain only grunted in answer as he looked back at Ebony. Damascus knew the two liked each other, but they would never admit it to any of the other warriors. 

Unlike Werewolves, Dragon did not have anything such as mates to distract themselves. That was why Dragons were seen as the more superior when it came to battles. Dragon's chose their own partners, and most warriors only chose partners after their prime had passed. Since they also lived longer than humans, that meant that most warriors had a good fifty years of battles before having to finally settle down. 

"I heard that King Eros wants you at his side tonight. Don't worry there will be other detail there to make sure you two are protected," Cain never wasted an opportunity to goad Damascus either. 

"I will be there, but I will be by his side only to make sure there are no threats," Damascus answered. Damascus refused to dress up like a side show to the King. 

Cain chuckled once more, "Whatever you say, D." 

Even though Cain never missed an opportunity to ruffle Damascus's scales, there were as good of friends as any of the other top warriors among the Kings men. Ebony was one of the only women that chose to be a warrior. Most of the other women in the kingdom chose to be a part of the parties and do whatever it was that the women of the kingdom did. 

Damascus has stayed clear of the other women for the most part. He was only a man in the end though. Most tried to attract his attention, but no one had succeeded yet in keeping it. 

Damascus and Cain talked through a few new training strategies that Damascus had come up with while being bedridden and Cain agreed that they were sound, and they would begin to implement them in the next few days. By then Damascus would be back full-time with the other warriors and get back to his normal schedule of training and protecting the King. 

The hours flew by and before Damascus knew it, he was sitting in a blacked-out SUV next to his highness himself. Gabriel flipped through some paperwork that he had brought with him for the car ride. "There is a marketing manager here tonight that I would like to talk with. I know that she is human, but her work speaks for itself. We are in need since the last one had to leave abruptly," Gabriel explained. 

"She was the one who chose to run off with a werewolf," Damascus said plainly. It was not unheard of to mix species, but it was frowned upon in both worlds. In the end the werewolf and dragon who chose that life, also chose a life outside of the kingdom and packs. "How exactly would you plan to bring a human into all of this?" Damascus asked. He was genuinely curious as that was the last thing that they needed. A noisy human learning of their secrets.

"We need someone who can keep the light off of us, but one who can also still assist in getting the right publicity. I have a Kingdom to run after all," Gabriel said, still looking at the papers in front of him.