Chapter 15 Useless Thoughts
The future of the Kingdom of Vadin lay in his arms. That future was sucking on its thumb, looking as cute as a fucking button.
Please, please, all the gods and goddesses up wherever you are, don’t let me drop the infant, Cecil prayed. He did not want to die today, and he was pretty sure dropping the kings’ kid would end with him losing his head.
Figuring it was better not to risk it, Cecil carefully stepped into the playpen and laid Prince Silas down.
He sat on the blanket that cushioned the floor in front of the little tyke and watched.
Cecil could count the number of times he’d been around babies on one hand.
Actually, one finger, because this was the first time.
Prince Silas gurgled at him and reached for Cecil with both hands, his chubby little fingers opening and closing. He didn’t know what the baby wanted, so he did nothing. Silas’ face scrunched up and his bottom lip popped out.
Even with his little experience, Cecil knew what that meant. The baby was about to cry—oh, shit. “Fuck,” Cecil swore softly, and then instantly regretted his life.
Cecil had said fuck in front of a baby, and not just any baby, but the kings’ baby. He was doomed.
Peering quickly to the right, the kings, Sin, and two other men were still sitting in high-backed chairs, lost in whatever discussion they were having. Which meant they hadn’t heard him, right? Probably had…
Definitely had. Sin was looking at him out of the corner of his eye. It wasn’t an ‘aww, so cute, look at the boy playing with the baby’ look, it was more of a ‘going to kill Cecil later’ kind of look.
A pathetic, but adorable, whimper had him looking back down. Little Silas’ bottom lip was trembling and he was wiggling on the blanketed floor.
With panic setting in, Cecil frantically searched the large playpen for something that would stop the impending baby meltdown. There were so many toys scattered about that, for a few moments, he had trouble making sense of it.
Then he saw something that made him almost cry for joy—a beautiful green binky. Cecil lunged for it like his life depended on it—which it could, for all he knew. There was probably some archaic rule somewhere about not making the future king cry.
Right when Prince Silas’s mouth opened, to no doubt let out an eardrum-shattering scream, Cecil shoved the pacifier into his mouth. It worked…for about a minute.
A few sucks later, Silas’s eyes narrowed, his button nose scrunching once again. And then, the baby spat the binky at him. Cecil flinched as it hit his face and a loud wail tore through the room.
Picking the infant up again, he held him against his shoulder and tried to shush him. Cecil was surprised when seconds later the cries stopped. He was even more surprised, and then very, very pissed, when the baby let out a squealing giggle, his little feet kicking happily.
Oh. My. Gods! What a little faker—the brat!
Sin was not sure what he would do to Cecil, but he had to do something. Swearing in front of a baby—really! What was he thinking?
“He is rather cute,” King Adrian drawled as the man’s child started crying—crying that cut out moments later.
With a touch of apprehension, Sin turned to King Adrian. The man was smiling slyly. “I hadn’t noticed,” Sin murmured.
Adrian was not an idiot, he would know it was a lie. While Sin knew it was wrong of him to lie to his king, at the moment, he didn’t care.
It would not stand up under the barest of scrutiny, but he hadn’t expected it to. His words were only an attempt to stop Adrian from saying his thoughts on Cecil.
Knowing the man, Sin was not so foolish to believe anything he said would stop his king from voicing his opinion. Very little stopped Adrian when he wanted to do or say something. Probably only Baylin or Xavier had any chance of succeeding in that task.
“Oh, I don’t know…I think you have more than noticed,” Adrian purred.
“Adrian, we should stay on topic. Missing people take precedence over Sin’s sex life,” King Xavier admonished.
“Cecil has nothing to do with my sex life!” Sin gasped in horror.
Heat swarmed his face when the men around him stared at him with looks full of skepticism. Well, all except for Dante’s new executioner, Jayden. The tall man was staring off. In fact, his empty black eyes were on Cecil—which had Sin’s hackles rising.
“Of course, he doesn’t,” Adrian said in an attempt to placate him.
Adrian even reached over and gave him a pat on the arm. It was not believable in the slightest. Adrian’s voice was full of too much mirth.
Worst of all, Dante’s gaze was bouncing between him and Cecil. His grin was growing wider by the second.
“Dante, if I hear even a hint of a rumor floating around, you will find me at your doorstep,” Sin said tightly.
Dante beamed at him, his eyes too shiny for Sin’s liking. “I would never gossip about such things.”
That lie was about as believable as my own, Sin thought with exasperation.
“I apologize,” Xavier rumbled. “I should have worded that differently.”
“I can’t read Cecil,” Jayden announced, effectively ending the discussion.
Sin reluctantly admitted, “I don’t think anyone can.”
“How is that possible? Are you sure?” Jayden asked blankly.
Sin nodded.
“Not even if I touched him?”
The words stirred him up in ways he would never admit.
Sin wanted to block Cecil from Jayden’s view.
It was a ridiculous reaction. Whether it was his second time meeting him or not, he had heard enough about the young man to know he would not hurt an innocent.
Not to mention, Adrian and Xavier would never allow anyone they considered a threat around their child.
Jayden turned to him, and a small grin graced his face.
Combined with the man’s empty black eyes, it was chilling.
With that, he made sure his mental walls were shut tight.
An action that only caused that unnerving grin to widen.
Sin had heard the young man’s powers were growing, but he hadn’t expected this.
“There are just some immortals that cannot be read. So far, no reason has been found. Though from what I have seen over the years, the majority of the individuals are arcadians. Nothing to worry about in this case.” And as if he hadn’t been the one to derail the conversation in the first place, Adrian chided, “We really should get back on topic. Now, what did you find out, Jayden?”
Jayden wasted no time getting to the point.
“Luckily, Cecil’s father is…well, his walls are pathetic.
A good thing, I guess. I had no interest in actually touching him.
Unless it is with a knife, of course,” Jayden said with a devilish smirk.
“The information you gathered is correct, Sin. The man is up to his knees in immortal trafficking. Unfortunately, he’s too low level and won’t be able to lead us to anyone of any importance.
He is connected to the rest, but was told nothing about who was in charge or even who was above him.
Him and his group of assholes, we can take down though.
The majority of those he works with actually live around your other branch in Dusburn. ”
Sin sighed. “I suppose the timing is fortunate. I’ll be returning to the other branch soon.”
Part of him wished to be the one to take Ernest Baxter in, but he had to go back.
On top of needing to orchestrate the takedown of Ernest’s partners, he had positions to fill.
The second-in-command of Dusburn had recently retired.
He had replaced him at the last moment with two men—twins, in fact.
However, the twins had been his only enforcers.
On filling the position, he had created two new openings.
Sin had already put it off longer than he should have. In all honesty, it would have been beneficial if he had multiple enforcers at each main branch. Having more than two would spread out the responsibilities, so they were not constantly traveling.
“So we are at a dead end once again?” Adrian mused.
“It appears so.” Xavier sighed.
“We will keep looking. With Jayden’s powers, we are sure to find something eventually,” Dante assured.
“Please, tell me I can kill whoever I find,” Jayden groused.
Dante and Adrian burst out laughing. Sin personally didn’t find murder particularly entertaining, necessary or not. Well, most of him didn’t—the shadow in his mind quite enjoyed it.
“When we are done with them, they are yours,” Adrian promised Jayden darkly.
As if he were listening to something, Jayden’s head tilted, his eyes glazing over for just a moment before he said, “We can accept that.”
The ‘we’ confused him at first, before he remembered Jayden’s entity.
No doubt having picked up on the ‘we’, Adrian asked, “Oh, how is Bow? Stephan has told me he is quite excited for the baby.”
Jayden appeared relaxed, but he was vacantly eyeing King Adrian. Sin wouldn’t exactly call it a friendly look, but then he didn’t know the man well. “He’s fine. And, yes, he is.”
“You know, I really would like to meet him. You don’t suppose I could…” Adrian started to reach out toward Jayden.
“Adrian,” Xavier growled.
Adrian stuck his bottom lip out. “What?”
“Don’t.”
“I just wanted to…” Adrian trailed off. He must have noticed the change in Jayden’s posture.
The man was no longer relaxed, he appeared stiff, as if waiting for an attack.
It hit Sin then, that even knowing bits of Jayden’s history, he hadn’t thought of him the way he thought of Cecil.
There was no denying Jayden was deadly, but the fact remained, he had been abused just as much, if not more so.
Of course, an individual’s suffering should never be compared to another’s.
Jayden expected Adrian to give him no choice in the matter. The man was preparing for the feeling of vulnerability that came with allowing someone into your mind—someone he didn’t trust.
“I’m sorry,” Adrian said gently.
Jayden’s eyes widened at the apology, and he gruffly replied, “No harm done.”
Jayden found it amusing watching adults melt into babbling idiots when around a baby. He promised himself then to never talk to his daughter that way.
Besides him, the only one to stay back was the leader of the Draven Zaytari group, Sin. His eyes were on them though. Specifically, on the young man named Cecil.
When he’d first met Sin, months ago, his walls had been firmly in place. Steady, like all the others in the same position. But his mind was distracted now.
Or Jayden’s powers had grown again, which would suck. He heard too much already. So, in denial, he was going to go with ‘distracted’.
“He has a doggy,” Bow chimed happily.
Ah, leave it to his monster to call it a dog. Though, who was he to talk. Jayden was sure he would get along with it.
On second thought, while they did have many things in common, Sin’s ‘dog’ would murder too indiscriminately for Jayden’s liking if it was free. From what he had seen, Sin hated it.
Whatever it was, it felt unnatural. There was a story there, one he hadn’t had a chance to dig for before Sin pushed him out.
“I would say it was more of a wolf,” Jayden told him.
“We should play with it.”
Bow wanting to play with it was somehow not surprising.
“Maybe later,” Jayden told him.
Walking over to Sin, he stated, “You are a very interesting man.”
Sin startled and looked at him. “I am not sure how to take that, considering who it is coming from.”
“Probably for the best. Wouldn’t want to become too easy to understand, would I?” Jayden drawled. “You are hesitating. Why?”
“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”
“Is it his age? Or what he used to do?” Tilting his head, he grinned. “Or is it you that you are worried about?”
Sin’s face shut down and his eyes turned cold. “Young man, tread carefully.”
Oh, he’d hit a nerve—good. Jayden had fudged the truth a little when he said he’d read nothing from Cecil.
While there were no words or memories, there was a taste of something.
A touch of darkness in Cecil’s mind. Darkness that reminded him very much of how Stephan’s mind felt when his Hunny Bunny was degrading himself.
But the weight of it felt ten times heavier.
Cecil was more fragile than he let on. Jayden had a feeling that Sin was on a path that wouldn’t end well for either of them.
“Let me give you some advice. Don’t be a fool. Don’t let useless thoughts ruin your chance at happiness. Us monsters need to hold on to the people willing to look past everything to love us.”
Sin’s mouth opened and closed, the older man clearly speechless.