Page 34 of Blood Loss (The Obscura Saga #2)
LATH A N
The guest house is, in the end, offered to Lathan and Kylo. Lathan feels bad, again, because Kianna and Bruce have a son, and deserve the space too. He and Kylo were prepared to stay at a nearby hotel, but the mention of doing so nearly had Maria in a fit, and she quickly assured them both that being in the main house is actually better for Mateo because there’s more people around to watch him.
Lathan wonders if it’s actually better for her —being an arm’s reach from her grandson.
Lathan avoids the bedroom in the guest house at first. It’s the little desk under the window where he first bit himself, after walking home alone from Kylo’s hospital. After the lights illuminating the driveway turned off when he arrived. After he betrayed the entire Garcia family and was shunned.
He still struggles with believing he’s a good person. That he deserves this amazing family he’s been brought into. And he wants to be on his best behaviour, feeling like he has even more to prove nowadays than ever before.
Eventually Kylo throws the desk outside in the snow so they can sleep in the bed. It’s gone by the next morning, and no one brings it up.
◆◆◆
Yule morning begins for Lathan in the small kitchen of the guest house, making two spiced chai teas. Kylo’s still asleep, and Lathan doesn’t know the etiquette when it comes to participating in the holidays with family, so he lets him.
The small space smells warm and earthy and sweet as the bags steep. Kind of like the candle he was gifted from Eunice and Ellie, which he has burned most nights since. He rests against the counter and blows on his drink, facing the front door and paired windows on either side. Through them, he has a view of the main house. He wonders if people are awake yet—it’s eight in the morning.
From the other side of the sink, he picks up a small, ivory-coloured device and puts it into the opening of his ear, hooking the top around the cartilage. He hasn’t used his hearing aid much, but he wants to be as present as he can while around family. It amplifies the sound he’s lost, specifically designed for vampiric frequencies. Once powered on and settled, he can hear, much clearer, little Mateo squealing as he runs around the living room in the main house. And he smiles.
But he doesn’t want to go over alone. Doesn’t want to interrupt if it’s just Kianna, Bruce, and Mateo. Or if the Garcias are enjoying the early hours as a family.
‘You are family,’ David had told him back in the hospital, and nearly cried over how much he believed the words he was telling the vampire. Lathan closes his eyes. It’s still difficult to accept that he is, but he’s started to.
It isn’t that he doesn’t feel like he belongs that he doesn’t want to go over yet. Mostly he just doesn’t want to go and experience this without Kylo. Last year he was told he’d never be alone again for the holidays. So he’s not leaving Kylo either.
It’s not long before the sweet, spiced aroma wakes a hungry wolf in the nearby bedroom. Kylo pads out of the open door, rubbing his eyes and sniffing the air.
“You made chai?” he says groggily, wearing nothing but his patterned briefs. Little snowflakes and pastel blue dinosaurs in pink knit sweaters adorning his tightly wrapped package.
Lathan turns his head from the front door, his white mug just below his chin, and smirks as his eyes drop to Kylo’s underwear.
“Yeah.” He nudges Kylo’s mug across the counter. “Felt festive enough.”
Kylo hums, delighted, taking the hot drink in both hands before leaning both elbows onto the counter. He gulps down two mouthfuls of delicious liquid, which seems to wake him and soothe him at the same time.
“Family should be up.” He straightens, then stretches out his arms and back, careful to keep the mug from spilling.
“They are,” Lathan says, angling his head and his right ear toward Kylo. “I can hear Mateo from here.”
Kylo’s eyes move to the aid in his mate’s ear, and he looks happy about it. “We can head over whenever you’re ready.”
“I mean… I’m fine with what you’re wearing—and what you’re not —but…” He eyes Kylo’s full, mostly nude body as he sips from his mug, his hair in a low ponytail to keep from his face. He’s been dressed for an hour already, in a dark red, knitted sweater that Maria just could not wait until this morning to gift him, so he’s wearing it today for her. It’s different from his black palette, but she was right, it looks good on him, against his pale skin.
“Ha ha, very funny.” Kylo’s cheeks bud a pretty pink. “This look is for your eyes only.” He slides the mug onto the counter, licks his pointer finger dramatically, then turns and pokes it into his buttcheek with a “ tss ” sound he makes through his teeth.
Lathan places his mug down, honing his gaze onto Kylo—onto his ass—and moves toward him, almost like a wild cat preparing to pounce on its meal. “Do I get to see the look without the briefs?”
“You know, you could have, but it’s already eight fifteen so they’re probably waiting,” he teases as he backs up with each step Lathan takes.
Lathan’s eyes narrow playfully. “Then you have until I reach the bedroom to get dressed.”
Kylo is only five steps from the bedroom himself, which he sees over his shoulder. He fails to hide a sneaky smirk as he turns on his heels and sprints past the threshold.
Once Lathan reaches the door frame at his casual pace, Kylo is laying on his back on the unmade bed with the back of his hand draped over his forehead like a cartoon damsel in distress. “Oh no! I didn’t make it in time! Whatever will I do?”
Lathan’s smirk has spread into a full grin. He enters the room, eyeing Kylo’s silly pose—his sexy nudity—from the lick of his brown curls to the splay of his toes, hanging over the bed.
“ Take it ,” he answers, and shuts the door.
◆◆◆
Forty minutes later, they’re both redressed and walking up to the patio. Kylo adjusts his baggy pants and taupe turtleneck before reaching for the door.
Inside, it smells of warm vanilla, with notes of coffee and cinnamon and pine.
“Morning, sleepy heads!” Kianna calls from the living room—where everyone is sitting and chatting near the tree, decorated in gold, red, and white. Bruce is on the floor between the living and dining space, entertaining Mateo with a toy car, which Lucas steps around on his way to the kitchen.
Kylo’s brother glances up at the two and smirks. “Get up to anything fun this morning?” he says as he makes his way to the coffee machine, pouring himself another cup.
“I dunno know what you’re talking about,” Kylo says unconvincingly, his flush giving him away immediately .
Mug full, Lucas turns back around and nods his head to Lathan, tapping the side of his own neck.
After waving a hand at little Mateo, who raises his new truck in the air for Lathan to see from where he stands—Bruce fighting to keep his son from running straight to the poor vampire like he always does—Lathan looks over at Lucas’ gesture. His brows curve, and he looks confusedly between him and Kylo. Then his heart sinks, scared Lucas is about to say something about the bloodsucking, that maybe Maria and David told him.
“What? He looks great in his sweater!” Maria jumps up from the couch where she’s nursing a cinnamon bun, leaving the pastry behind as she shuffles over to the boys. “Red is his colour! You should wear more col—oh.”
She stops fluffing his shirt and pats him on the knitted chest, giggling as she looks at the hickey on his neck.
Finally Lathan clues in and he slaps a hand over his neck, where he assumes the bruise is, and glares at Kylo. The wolf sucks his lips into his mouth and looks up at everything and nothing with squinted eyes, avoiding Lathan’s look of disapproval.
“Anywho!” he exclaims after a beat of awkwardness, clapping his hands together. “Who wants to unwrap presents?”
Walking into the living room behind Luc and his mom, Kylo turns quickly to Lathan, mouthing ‘I’m sorry!’ with a scrunched expression.
Lathan’s gaze remains narrowed as he follows behind everyone to the lit tree and baked breakfast goods. At least until he’s in sight of Mateo, who races over to him on his hands and knees and sits by his legs with his toy truck, driving it over Lathan’s feet.