Chapter 4
Together
“I’m going to carry you home,” Ryder purred in Grayson’s left ear as the front doors to the Kaly Palace closed behind them.
“Which home? Your palace or the dorms?” Grayson couldn’t help the cheeky smile that appeared on his face. He hadn’t yet seen their bedroom in the palace. It would be all furs and fire.
“I wish it was the palace, but rules.” Ryder rolled his silver eyes.
Grayson let out a bark of laughter. “After tonight’s party at the Mirryrs where every single rule was broken, you’re still going to follow them?”
“We must try.”
“I can practically feel Balthazar cheering from here and he’s not in my head.”
“Yes, I’m sure. But he has perhaps earned it.”
Grayson nodded. “Yes, yes, he has.”
While Fiona had teleported back to her palace–she’d offered them a lift, but they’d declined–Christian, Julian and Balthazar had remained behind in the Kaly Palace to stay with Caemorn for the night.
They’d left Balthazar prattling happily again at how brilliant he was with both gifts.
Bone Bear had even appeared and sat beside his chair.
Balthazar had been patting him happily while the big beast let out content sounds.
Even as they left, the palace had already been changed to adjust for Balthazar’s presence.
Jewel colors flowed over everything. The rooms became cozier.
If anyone had believed that Kaly was incapable of feelings–which Grayson had never thought–they would only have to see how warmth filled the Kaly Palace to see how wrong they were.
Everywhere Balthazar went, the palace reflected what he wanted.
Kaly’s own desire was for Balthazar to be comfortable, safe and happy.
Kaly is the most romantic of us all. He even gives Daemon a run for the money. To think he should be so devoted to Eyros. A Childe of his very own.
And that brought Grayson’s mind to the fact that Balthazar wielded both Bloodlines’ gifts.
And he did it well and powerfully. Which meant that he had a reason–a cover–for doing the thing that he wished to do in his heart.
This weakness, being human, had him feeling hemmed in, unable to do all he needed to.
He had to decide who was to turn him. And then…
then they would still have to wait. He glanced up at Ryder who was gazing down at him, smiling at him, loving him.
Ryder moved a lock of hair back from his forehead. “You really are exhausted.”
“I should take offense at that. But you’re right.” Grayson sighed and nodded. “I am. I remember myself as an Immortal. I remember my strength and vigor and act as if those things are still mine. But they are not.”
“They will be yours again,” Ryder promised him. “As soon as you wish it.”
Grayson nodded. “But you saw how well it’s worked with the Sect thinking I am the naive little boy, didn’t you?”
Another roll of those silver eyes. “I have always loved your feistier side. The meek, sweet child has its place, but I enjoy it when you are in charge.”
“Yes, because I do love to be in charge.” Grayson laughed as he hooded his eyes at Ryder. Being in charge was something he so adored to be with his powerful Soldier. “And what about you? I’m not sure which side of you I love more. The puppy side.”
“Puppy?! I am a wolf!” Ryder snorted and tossed his head.
“Or the side that breaks someone’s ankles simply for looking at me, seeing the part I’m playing and drawing the correct conclusions from it,” Grayson chuckled.
“He wanted to hurt you! Given any chance, he would have. If you were not who you are, Grayson, you would likely be dead. The academy would be indelibly stained. King Daemon’s great plans potentially ruined, or, at least, set back,” Ryder said.
“Yes, it is true, which is why I must keep playing this role for now,” Grayson sighed.
It had been interesting to take on that role. Even when he had just been Grayson, he had never been weak. Not even at the start. But a human among Vampires would be wise to be that way. They were prey. Even the ones they turned. There was something predatory about that too.
“I should desperately wish to bring you to the Weryn Palace tonight. But, as you said, you are still playing this role and you used too much of your power today. You can’t afford to lose any more energy.
” Ryder caressed his cheek. “And the Ashyr Palace is simply too close to mine for it to be completely safe, especially in sleep. Your Palace may drain power from you.”
Grayson ducked his head, frustrated by his weakness. The palaces were opposite one another. They were even physically connected below. While he had felt fine in the Weryn Palace earlier, what would he feel now.
“I–I didn’t think of that.”
“I can feel my palace reaching for me. Does yours?” Ryder asked.
“I definitely felt it doing so when I was closer,” Grayson admitted as he bit his lower lip.
He had nearly passed out back then and he’d been much stronger then. He could very well imagine going anywhere near it now it might at least nip at him and he couldn’t even afford to lose a nip.
“And all your defenses were up then, too. In sleep they won’t be,” Ryder said, running a hand through his hair. “It’s too dangerous.”
Grayson nodded. “You’re right on all counts though it pains me.”
“I won’t be sleeping there until you can,” Ryder said.
Grayson’s heart beat harder. He couldn’t help it. “I would have you nowhere else. And, as a little naive boy, I should be at the dorms.”
“I think on page 132 of the rules, under certain conditions, I am allowed to sleep over, but there must be a chaperone.” Ryder flashed a brilliant smile.
“Let me guess? Balthazar!”
“Who else?” Ryder snorted. “Can you imagine how it would be to have Balthazar sitting there, watching the happy couple? So not happening.”
“And it is on page 132? A lot must happen before that! Did we get through all of that already?” Grayson chuckled. “But I’m pretty sure for me to sleep over with you it’s probably on page 355.”
Ryder snorted. “Undoubtedly, so we aren’t completely following the rules.”
Grayson saw the fountain up ahead. The graceful avenue that led up to it was surrounded by trees, and the blue-white lamps that cast pools of eerily light every ten feet or so. Ryder was walking at a leisurely pace, but Grayson found it challenging and tugged on the Vampire.
“Slower, I’m just a poor human, remember? Your little potential fledgling who needs to hide behind you can’t walk that fast,” Grayson protested.
“Then I should definitely carry you.”
“Over the shoulder?”
“Bride-carry, of course! Nothing less than that.” Ryder kissed his temple.
Grayson grinned. “I could take you up on that.”
“Why don’t you?” Ryder asked, gently bumping his arm as they entered the curve of the fountain. “Are you just being stubborn?”
“Maybe. Yes. No.” Grayson laughed. He looped his arm through Ryder’s and leaned heavily against him.
Not that it was difficult for Ryder to bear his weight at all.
“I just want to walk a bit more with you before sleep takes me and I can’t feel your arms around me.
I’ll just have a furry body. I don’t know if I want the bear or the wolf to cuddle all evening. ”
Ryder lowered his head. “I am sorry about that. Sorry that we cannot be fully together. But the scent of your blood… sometimes it is too much.”
Grayson nodded. “I like you fuzzy. But I also remember the thirst. When I met Kaito for the first time, it was after my boat had gone down after a storm, and I was beyond hungry.”
Grayson remembered the rumble of thunder and crack of lightning.
The dark sky had been ripped apart by light.
His boat had been tossed up and down like a cork.
They had climbed up waves so steep that without Grayson’s ability to move water, they would have been capsized long before.
Riding down them into troughs so deep he thought they would see the ocean’s bottom had been just as terrifying even though neither wave nor water could harm him.
“I tried to keep the boat together. But the timbers of its hull splintered in the end. I could not hold toothpicks together and so it went down,” Grayson told him.
“You were sailing to Japan?” Ryder’s eyebrows rose.
“Daemon sent me to open one of the gates to Lasting from there,” Grayson said, his eyebrows drawing together. “It was locked though… how that was I am not certain. Someone must have locked it because otherwise we could have simply opened it from Lasting.”
“That sounds a mystery,” Ryder said.
Grayson’s lips flattened. “I wish I could remember…” But the more he chased that memory, the farther away it went and he felt his incipient headache become more present.
“Stop thinking so hard.” Ryder slid a finger down his nose.
“How can you tell I’m thinking too hard?” Grayson laughed. “Do you have the Eyros gift, too?”
“You do a certain nose scrunch,” Ryder told him.
Grayson laughed, tossing his head back, even as the headache throbbed. Still it was worth it to laugh.
“So you were in a storm of the century in a little boat,” Ryder prodded.
“Yes, the boat was lost as were the crew, and I was alone in the open sea,” Grayson told him.
Ryder stiffened. “In the ocean with no way to protect yourself from the sun? Or were you close enough to land to seek shelter?”
“I was not. The only way was for me to dive deep and keep well out of the sun’s rays. I swam for as long as I could, but I felt the sun rising and I had to hide from it in very deep water,” Grayson explained.
“That could not have been safe!” Ryder tightened his hold on Grayson’s arm as if he feared the sun might rise on them now in the Ever Dark.
“It was frightening. Exhilarating, too, of course. Especially when my first hiding spot was not deep enough. I could see the light filtering down towards me like liquid gold. It was beautiful.” Grayson frowned then as he recalled staying too long there as the sunlight reached him and his skin began to burn.
“You swam deeper?”