19. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
L ucas followed Ladon through the house to the back patio.
Ladon immediately went over to a lounger that Vaughan was lying on. “Move over, Butthead.” Ladon kicked the lounger, just nudging it with his foot.
“Rub my shoulders and I might think about it,” Vaughan said, not moving an inch.
“Get bent, man.”
“Fine, sit on the ground then,” Vaughan said.
“I hate being the youngest,” Ladon said and sat on the wooden slats of the deck. “We need another sister or brother.”
“Make it a sister, please,” Kristin said.
Vaughan grinned and moved his legs over. “Come here. Gods, you’re so sensitive.”
Kristin patted the lounger she was sitting on. “You can sit here, Lucas.”
Lucas smiled and walked over. For a second, he thought he’d have to plop his ass on the wooden deck too, not that he had an aversion to it or anything.
It was just that his ass sort of ached a little from Bennett’s cock being in it.
He wasn’t complaining about that either.
He rather liked the feeling. It was a reminder of his afternoon with the dragon, who was starting to become his whole entire world.
Bennett was always so gentle and thoughtful, even when they had made love. For that reason, he decided to give in. He was probably giving in too early but whatever. He didn’t want to be mad at Bennett.
“Where’s Bennett?” Kristin asked.
“In a meeting,” Ladon answered.
“With Ramsey and Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, wonder what they’re discussing. Something must be going on.” Kristin gave Lucas the side eye.
“They're talking about me.” Lucas folded his hands in his lap.
“Why?”
Lucas shrugged. He really had no idea what they discussed besides the vampire coming for him. There would be more. And when they came Bennett would have to fight again. But Lucas knew it most likely had something to do with what Mother Estelle saw when she read him. Something had concerned her.
Kristin winked. “When I was a kid, I used to make up stories about the stars. Before we moved here. You remember Tasha, Owen,” Kristin murmured.
Lucas smiled at her attempt to change the subject and put him at ease.
It was just starting to get dark and they all seemed to be waiting for the clan members to start showing up.
“Yeah, I remember her. She was human. Great at telling stories, though. Wonder whatever happened to her.” Owen sat at the small patio table with Gabriel .
“She used to help me make up stuff about what kind of life people would be living on a star.” Kristin chuckled. “We even wrote them down. I think she ended up with a whole shelf of those stories in her bedroom.”
“Are they still there?” Lucas asked her.
“What?” Kristin said
“The stories. Does she still have them?”
“I don’t know. We had to move here, and I lost touch with her. Maybe they’re still on that shelf.”
Maybe he wasn’t the only one with a sad story.
Lucas thought about Shawn and the last time he had seen him.
Shawn always loved it when Lucas played some of his songs.
He supposed that was a lot like Kristin listening to her friend tell stories about the stars.
He regretted so much about that day. He should have demanded Shawn stay at his house. Maybe he would have listened.
Then again, if things hadn’t happened the way they did then he wouldn’t have met Bennett. It might make him an asshole, but he wouldn’t exchange meeting Bennett for anything, not even his friend.
“What about that star?” Kristin pointed up at one of the stars. “What do you think is happening there?”
“I don’t know. I’m not good at this game.”
“I think it’s like that movie where the adults in the town take away the music.”
“My best friend used to love it when I played music,” he blurted out and immediately regretted mentioning Shawn. Nothing good could come of talking about that night.
“What happened?”
Lucas sighed. He brought it up, he couldn’t very well not talk about it now. “The vampires killed him. I tried to save him, but I think it might have been too late. ”
“What was his name?”
“Shawn,” Lucas whispered.
“Maybe he’s on one of those stars. If he is, what would he be doing?”
“Listening to me play the guitar.” Lucas smiled. “He was the best audience in the world.”
“Wait. You can play the guitar?” Ladon asked.
“A bit.”
“Ladon, go get your guitar,” Kristin demanded.
“You mean the one I got for Christmas but have no idea how to play. That guitar.” Ladon stood up and went back inside.
“You’ll play for us, right?”
Lucas shrugged. “Sure. I guess.”
“We are a non-musical family,” Kristin said.
“Hey, Ladon can sing pretty well,” Gabriel said, defending his little brother.
“That’s true.”
When Ladon came back, he handed the guitar to Lucas.
Owen stood and put his chair at the front of the patio as if it were a small stage. Lucas sat down. He sat on the edge of his seat and strummed the strings. He took the time to tune it. He smiled when he heard the sound he wanted.
“Okay, this is a song I was working on before I went on the run. Thinking of changing it up a bit. Making it slower. More of a love song, I guess. Like this,” Lucas explained. He started strumming, playing the cords.
Bennett, Ramsey, and Estelle came out of the door.
He winked at Bennett and started singing.
The entire time he sang, about being Bennett’s until the stars fall from the sky and the rivers ran dry, he had his eyes closed.
It was a song that had a very 1960s feel to it.
He liked that decade and had been experimenting with songs of his own.
It was quiet and so sweet, if not a little na?ve.
Lucas supposed the song showed more about himself than he really wanted to tell, about the way he wanted his relationship with Bennett to be.
Considering he’d written the song even before he’d met Bennett, he supposed it was more about what he hoped for in a relationship.
Lucas opened his eyes and smiled at Bennett. They were certainly on the right track.
He shut his eyes again and finished the last chorus.
He heard several people clap, way more people than was originally there.
Lucas held a hand against the strings of the guitar to quiet them and opened his eyes again.
He blushed with embarrassment, so he didn’t want to turn to see all those people.
“Bennett.” Lucas didn’t need to say anything else. Asking for help and getting it only took saying Bennett’s name.
Bennett closed the distance between them. “That song was for me?”
Lucas couldn’t decipher the look of stone. “Yeah. I was thinking about you when I sang it.”
“Go in the house and wait for me.” Did his eyes just soften? Gods, Lucas hoped so.
Lucas nodded, not wanting to create even more of a scene than he already had. He stood and walked past Bennett, handing Ladon the guitar. “Thanks for letting me play.”
“That was amazing. Can you teach me?”
Lucas smiled. “Later. I’m pretty sure Bennett’s going to yell at me now.”
Ladon crooked his finger at Lucas and then whispered into his ear. “Bennett has to maintain his badassness for the clan, but he loved it. You should have seen his face before the clan showed up. ”
Lucas waited in the living room. He paced and wondered what Bennett was doing. Probably acting all threatening. Bennett could be like that, not that he ever really was with Lucas, but he was with everyone else. Literally everyone.
I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. He projected out to Bennett.
Nothing from Bennett.
“Did you mean it?” Bennett asked from behind him, and Lucas jumped.
He held a hand to his heart in an attempt to keep it in his chest. “Shit. You scared me.”
“Did you?”
Lucas saw the hope on Bennett’s face, and he realized that Ladon was right about Bennett. He really did love the song. “I meant everything I sang. Every word, Benny.”
Bennett flexed his fingers as if wanting to touch Lucas but not at the same time. “That was amazing, baby.”
“Really? You weren’t embarrassed?” Lucas hadn’t known he was even worried about it until he let out a breath and smiled at Bennett.
“No, baby. Not at all. I just couldn’t show emotion in front of some of the clan members.”
“Why don’t you come over here and kiss me then?”
“If I do that, I’m not going to let you go and I have a clan to see to. The meetings can sometimes get rough.”
“I’m good with you not letting me go. Really good with it, as a matter of fact.” Lucas grinned and stepped closer.
Bennett smiled and hooked an arm around Lucas’ waist once he got close enough.
Bennett was so perfect, so gentle, even though he was so big.
That always came as a surprise to Lucas and he wasn’t completely sure why.
He hadn’t been scared of big men before meeting Bennett and it wasn’t fear that motivated his surprise.
It was more about him stereotyping bigger men as big brutes who liked rough sex, which wasn’t true at all, not for Bennett.
God, he was such an asshole for thinking that about his mate. Maybe Bennett’s size was why he’d held back all along. He’d have to think about that. If that was the case, then he owed Bennett an apology.
Lucas gripped the back of his neck and stood on his tiptoes as he came in for a kiss.
He could feel Bennett’s hard length against his stomach and that alone made him want to climb his mate like a tree.
Lucas had been about ready to give a little jump and wrap his legs around Bennett’s waist when Bennett broke the kiss.
“I have to get back out there. I’m sorry, baby.”
“Later, then,” Lucas said smiling.
“I need you to promise me something, though,” Bennett said with a seriousness Lucas had never seen.
“What?”
“Promise me you’ll protect yourself. Keep yourself safe.”
Wait, Bennett thought Lucas wouldn’t protect himself when the time came?
“I…” Lucas started to say that he would, but then he thought about himself in certain scenarios.
He thought about himself when the vampires had been chasing him and realized he hadn’t really protected himself.
He had protected other people only. “I’d die for you, Benny. You know that, right?”
“I do. Now promise me you’ll keep yourself safe.”
“I just do what’s instinctive. I’ll promise to try.”
Bennett frowned. “You’ll start training with Gabriel tomorrow afternoon. And your sessions with Mom will get bumped up to three times a week.”
“Um, okay. Knowledge is power, right? ”
Bennett nodded once and pulled away, grabbing his hand as he made his way out of the living room. Lucas followed. “I’m concerned for your safety, baby. I need you to help me keep you safe. It would kill me if something happened to you.”
And there was the one reason Lucas had for keeping himself alive when the vampires came.
“I see what you did there,” Lucas said and stopped Bennett’s forward progression. Lucas was starting to understand what the meeting they had was about. “It’s about the healing thing, isn’t it? It’s in my nature to protect others, even at the expense of myself.”
“That’s what Mom said, yes. And we think that if you’re threatened, you’ll run.”
“Not without you, I won’t. You know that, right?”
Bennett let out a breath and smiled, pulling Lucas against him once again.
“I wasn’t sure until I heard the words to the song you sang.
” That’s why Bennett had asked him if he had sung that song to him.
He wanted to make sure he meant every word.
In Bennett’s mind, it confirmed Lucas wouldn’t leave him behind.
“I think we’re finally figuring each other out,” Lucas lifted onto his toes, placing a small kiss on the underside of Bennett’s jaw. “I promise, Benny. If it keeps you safe, then I promise.”