Page 16

Choice

“ H e’s waking up,” Balthazar said and stood up from Ryder’s side and took a few steps away.

“ Who is waking up? Weryn or Ryder?” Caemorn asked pointedly.

“Ah, that is unclear,” Balthazar admitted. “Hence, I am taking a few steps back. Not that it would matter considering… well, considering everything.”

“Yes, he is more powerful than I imagined,” Caemorn stated.

Caemorn actually motioned for Balthazar to stand behind him.

The Eyros Vampire blinked, but shuffled half behind the Kaly Vampire, looking almost touched.

Caemorn took out several glowing stones that he held lightly in both hands.

Demos stiffened in his chair. He watched Ryder like one would a wild animal. Dani watched Grayson.

“That thing you did to his mind to make Ryder on top, you don’t think it worked?” Grayson asked.

“I have never done something like that before so I really wouldn’t count on it,” Balthazar admitted. “I gave it my best shot, but I didn’t want to risk making him go mad… or madder, as the case may be.”

“Right,” Grayson said, realizing that messing with a mind already on such shaky ground was likely not a good idea. But he couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing and speaking to Ryder again.

I will find you.

Grayson got to his feet. He felt shaky, but all right. Okay, so his head was still throbbing, but the juice and cookies had helped. Unlike the others, Grayson went towards Ryder.

“Grayson, perhaps we shouldn’t do that,” Dani said as she half rose from his chair.

“Whether it’s Ryder or Weryn, we have to deal with him, right?” Grayson pointed out. “Besides, if he tries anything, I freeze him.”

She grimaced, but nodded, acknowledging what he was saying. What he didn’t say was that he felt very unable to use his gift at the moment.

Grayson wobbled over to Ryder and sank down to his knees on the pillows and furs beside Ryder. Ryder’s head thrashed and his body jerked. It looked like he was having a fight with someone.

Maybe with himself.

“Ryder?” Grayson asked as he put his right hand on Ryder’s forehead.

His skin felt hot as if he had a fever. Ryder stilled the thrashing, though his body still twitched and jolted.

“Ryder, it’s me and Demos and… everybody,” Grayson didn’t think Ryder liked Caemorn and Balthazar particularly.

So he didn’t think mentioning them by name would be a good idea.

Plus didn’t Dani just mention that Kaly--aka Caemorn--had killed Weryn’s great love?

Yeah, not a plan to mention them. Caemorn’s defensive posture indicated that he thought so too. “You’re okay. Everything is okay.”

Ryder’s upper lip curled back from his teeth to reveal those white, sharp fangs. He was clenching his teeth so tightly that Grayson swore he heard them creak . He stroked Ryder’s jaw trying to urge him to release.

“Ryder, you’re safe. You’re safe,” Grayson kept repeating.

It was what he had told himself when his powers had become unmanageable.

That had always calmed him down. He had no idea if that would work here.

Ryder--or Weryn--had not been afraid at all.

He had simply been angry. And though Dani had said that he had started the War as revenge for Ashyr’s death, he hadn’t seemed all that concerned with a lost lover.

He’d just seemed ready to dish out punishment. Hardly romantic.

Until the end when he looked at me and really saw me. Or was it me he saw? It was more like he thought he was looking at a ghost.

But that made sense. He had Ashyr’s powers, well, he had telekinesis, and they had made love that morning. Ryder’s warm feelings for him likely had surfaced. Combine all of that and maybe he had thought that Grayson was Ashyr.

Makes sense. Maybe I should lean into that… if he comes back murderous and crazy.

“Demos, maybe you should come over too, so that he sees you,” Grayson suggested.

Demos was still at the table. He was staring down at his hands.

Grayson’s heart twisted. He could only imagine what Demos was thinking.

He had backed Ryder with everything he had.

He’d wanted something better for the Weryn Bloodline, but then Ryder had turned and said: I’m going to burn it all down .

“Demos?” Grayson asked then shook himself, “if you don’t want to--”

“He’s my Blood Brother.” The chair scraped back on the floor and Demos was standing. “No matter what. I just had to get my mind around it.”

Demos came over to the other side of Ryder. Both he and Grayson took one of Ryder’s hands and stroked the back of it.

“C’mon, my man, you need to open those eyes for us,” Demos said. “You cannot be sleeping. We have a lot to do.”

Grayson noted that Dani had left the table and was now behind him, ready to wrench him away at the earliest sign of trouble.

He frowned. On the one hand, her actions felt right and expected , but on the other, she didn’t know him.

Why did she care what happened to him? Because he was a student?

Because he could do what she could do? No, none of that felt right.

She was his friend. He sensed it. Bone deep, he knew she was there for him.

And he never believed that of anyone. But there it was.

Another surprise that had awaited him in the Ever Dark.

“Does he need blood?” Grayson asked.

“I do not think feeding him is a terribly good idea,” Caemorn responded dryly.

The Kaly Vampire had urged Balthazar over by the open balcony doors.

He appeared ready to shove Balthazar out of them to keep him safe.

Balthazar kept looking at him and blinking.

Grayson wondered what on earth was going on there.

They weren’t lovers. They were friends in their strange way, for sure.

But this felt like Master and Childe. Protective.

Like it should have been between Ryder and Demos and Lawson, but wasn’t.

“Oh, hey, hey! He’s opening his eyes!” Demos cried.

Ryder’s eyelids fluttered open. At first, his eyes were unfocused. He looked, but did not see. He blinked rapidly and frowned.

“Brother, can you hear us?” Demos asked.

“D-Demos?” Ryder’s voice sounded like a dry croak.

He blinked again and brought a hand up to his face to rub his eyes. When he brought it down he saw Grayson. Grayson knew this was the moment of truth. If it was Ryder, he would react one way, Weryn, another.

“Grayson? Grayson!” Ryder rocketed upwards and immediately groaned, putting a hand against his temple. “Ah, my head ! What the Hell?”

“Ah, that headache might be my doing. Had to poke around a little in there,” Balthazar said from over Caemorn’s shoulder.

Caemorn shot him a warning look. “I do not think it wise for you to claim any credit for any injury he might have, do you, Balthazar?”

“Hmmm, you may have a point. I just didn’t want him to worry,” Balthazar said. “I can suppress the headache--”

“No,” Grayson, Ryder and Demos said that as one.

“It should go away soon,” Balthazar said.

“Ryder, are you okay? It is you, right?” Grayson asked.

Ryder focused on him. His expression was so tender. He cupped Grayson’s face. Grayson couldn’t help but turn his head into the touch. Relief flowed through him. He saw Demos’ shoulders slump as the other Weryn Vampire said a silent prayer.

“Are you all right?” Ryder asked. “I don’t remember hurting you before, but--”

“You didn’t. You didn’t hurt anybody… well, except for Lawson and the other guy,” Grayson said with a since.

“Other guy?” Ryder asked.

“Iskail. He gave Lawson the axe,” Demos explained. “You, ah, gave the axe back to him. He did deserve it.”

“He’s dead, right? You said that Horys Vampire wasn’t,” Grayson said to Balthazar. “And those wounds were far worse.”

“It was an axe to the head,” Balthazar pointed out.

“So I should rip Vampires’ heads off if I want to kill them permanently?” Grayson asked.

Balthazar blinked. “Ah, no, no, they likely could be attached. But fire does work--”

“As does sucking out their souls.” Caemorn held up one of those glowing gems.

“Should we really be talking about killing Vampires with him?” Dani indicated Ryder with her head.

“I’m fine. I’m not going to kill anyone.” Ryder struggled to get to his feet.

Grayson took one arm and Demos the other. They lifted him up. Ryder wobbled for a moment, but then his stance firmed.

“I could use a drink, Brother,” Ryder said to Demos.

“Ah! Maybe not? Maybe no blood until we’re absolutely, positively sure you’re staying on top,” Balthazar suggested with a pained smile.

“My Brother wants a drink. I will give him one. You did your thing. You can leave,” Demos said.

“Really? We did our thing? What is our thing exactly?” Balthazar stepped around Caemorn, or tried to, Caemorn put an arm up like a gate.

Balthazar’s eyebrow lifted, but he stayed where he was.

“Ryder going all Weryn on us, killing people, is not on the curriculum for the school, might I remind you.”

“I will not be killing anyone ,” Ryder gritted out and he staggered to the table.

“Until Weryn comes out to play and then? Is your fractured psyche in full agreement? Because what I saw of it, it certainly wasn’t,” Balthazar said.

“You have it so easy,” Ryder said, “you choose not to remember.”

Grayson helped him sit down while Demos brought over a decanter of what looked like red wine, but was way too thick to be pure alcohol.

He poured a large glass. Ryder drained it and put it on the table with a clack .

He gestured for more. His hand by the glass trembled.

Grayson reached over and covered it. The trembling stopped and Ryder looked up at him gratefully.

“It’s interesting that you see this as a choice,” Caemorn said. “Because if that is true then you chose to be like that earlier and you can choose to be like that again.”

Ryder glared at him, but then the angry expression drained and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t know what happened to me. People have always said I was Weryn reborn, but I didn’t…”