Page 29 of Shadows and Flames (Twin Blades #2)

Chapter Seventeen

MELINE

T he salt air stirred the tiny waves of Elián’s hair escaping the knot atop his head.

Now far enough for the coasts to be lost in the expansiveness of sea and sky, we floated on dark waters matching the night above.

The moon provided just enough light to allude to the creatures lurking below, but the deep red and orange glowing from Elián’s eyes looked on brightly in hot disdain.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” I asked, lips trembling. After tearing ourselves out of bed, we washed and went in search of food. The small dining room for passengers was full, the air close with a mix of perfumes and aroma of supper.

Elián’s golden brown skin churned with an interesting olive hue almost immediately.

Now, with supper abandoned, save for a few hasty bites before following him to the deck, I watched him fight with himself.

He grunted in answer, and I teased, “You know, it’s not the ocean’s fault. Maybe letting yourself vomit will help?” Elián turned his glower onto me, and I lost the battle with the snickers. I cooed with a few circles of my gloved palm on his back. “I won’t think less of you, you know.”

“I’m—” He clenched his eyes and jaw, muscle jumping as he took a pointed swallow.

I clucked my tongue and continued my soothing.

As much as I enjoyed taunting him, I didn’t enjoy seeing him so uncomfortable.

After a few more moments, our fellow passengers milling about the deck and swaying from the waves or their own libations, Elián managed, “I am not going to vomit.”

“Well, you may be able to fool yourself, but I am not that easily deceived.”

He looked about to retort, lips parting in a weak sneer, but his stomach had other ideas.

Using Lylithan speed, Elián darted to the railing and pitched his breakfast and whatever else overboard.

I kept my amusement to myself as I caught up with him, resuming my back rubs. At least his hair was already up.

We drew a few concerned or amused glances from passersby, but the pointed stare over by the bow snagged my attention. They cocked their head, red eyes like drops of rubies under the moonlight.

Elián straightened after spitting spitefully over the sea. This evening, he wore clothing that was another nod to his heritage—the violet tunic with no sleeves exposed the striking tattoos up and down his arms, and the low cut in front once again displayed him from clavicle to sternum.

My own black and maroon blouse seemed quite subdued in comparison. But I liked him like this. The more vibrant of the two of us.

I reached up, caressing his lip as he’d done with me earlier. His expression harkened back to our first encounters, stony and closed down, so I pulled on the back of his neck, lowering him within my reach. I pecked his lips in reassurance—closed-mouth, but still—and he grumbled and huffed.

“And do you feel better?” I already had my answer with the color returning to his face, but I asked anyway.

This Elián, the one who’d shown me he was determined to rebuild in a new way, didn’t dismiss or bite my head off. With a sigh, he conceded with a, “Yes,” and for the first time in years, I grinned.

He paused, brow bunching slightly in thought. Elián swallowed again, licking his lips as he took my hand. He gave the gloves, matching the leather of my boots, two more breaths of consideration before glancing at me under black lashes. “You are beautiful, my queen.”

I blinked. “Oh, ah, thank you. And…” My words were tumbling more clumsily in the face of his earnest compliments than when I’d had his cock in my mouth.

The tight mounds of his arms, the soft loops of the gold in his ears and the waves of his hair. “You are beautiful, too. Otherworldly so,” I added that last part on a hoarse, vulnerable whisper.

Those dimples made an appearance, but one that seemed genuinely born from my words, rather than an action to placate me.

He didn’t need to do the pulling this time. The sea air was cool, certainly, but the temperature didn’t bother me. It was the air kissing my bare shoulders that forced to my awareness the fact his arms weren’t around me.

The heat was immediate as I walked into him, hummed into the embrace. Was this what we’d been missing the whole time we’d traveled together as bodyguard and royal charge? How different could the journey to Rhaestras have been if we’d had this?

I would’ve gotten a lot less reading done, but Elián certainly would’ve spent less time angrily pacing. The mornings in my mother’s homeland could’ve been spent luxuriating in the heat, naked and panting into each other, sweat-slicked skin joining over and over. Reading companionably by the pool.

“Do you bring any of those picture books?” I asked with a cheek resting on his chest.

“Yes. Two I had not heard of before, the third is the newest Joran installment.”

I snickered, pleasant swells of excitement in my stomach. “I’d like to read those with you, while we’re in bed.”

Elián grumbled, but it was a pleasant, pleased sound. He pulled me even closer. “I would like that, too.”

And maybe… maybe we could make plans. Learn more about each other and what we wanted this future to look like. Provided Tana and I won this contract. But even if we didn’t, Goddess willing, Elián would be here and so would I.

A scream cut through the night, one that communicated distress— fear —and I wrenched my gaze to where I’d seen those red eyes. Of course, the person was gone.

It took a while for the humans on the deck, with their weakened hearing, to notice something was amiss, but by the time confused then worried whispers started rumbling, Elián and I were already descending into the bowels of the ship, seeking out the danger and ready to snuff it out.

We flew down the steps, maneuvered around fumbling bodies unaware of or startled by the commotion.

The yells became louder as we got closer, even with the woman trying to console the source of the noise. Hand trembling and running over the man’s shoulders, she tried uselessly to shush and soothe him, but he squirmed and resisted.

The corridor was filled with the well-intentioned and nosy alike, but we were easily able to cut through enough to see. She was about my height, young and pretty, and by scent, the other was her brother. His coloring mirrored hers, as did the wide, flustered look in his eyes.

“What in the name of God have you done?”

The woman cast quick glances at all of us. Some older woman tried offering a robe to compensate for the torn front of her chemise undergarment. “Viktor, please . Come back inside, and we will talk about this in private .”

“No! No,” he pointed a shaky finger, “the one who did that is on this fucking ship!” His chest heaved, and the scent of fear turned quickly to anger.

There was no mistaking the sweet scent of her blood, or the crimson drops staining the slippery white fabric she wore. Even with the poor attempt at a bandage she held to her throat.

Fuck.

I glanced at Elián, only to find his jaw clenched. The ship held mostly humans, and a misguided hunt for the culprit would prove annoying at best. Dangerous at worst.

I started slowly pulling away first, and Elián’s presence remained beside me. We melted back into the crowd as more humans started asking questions, wondering if someone had seen something, if she’d been attacked.

We stalked on silent steps, but as we approached the section containing our cabins, Elián turned away. “I will go find Tom, and we will meet you back in our cabin.”

His absence from my arms was harder to bear this time, but I pushed past it to the cabin I’d rented with Tana. At our knocking pattern of two slow, three quick, and one more, Tana opened the door with a bewildered pout.

“Did you hear that screaming?” she asked after I quickly shut us inside and pinched the bridge of my nose. We were sailing the waters of Nalya and far away from our home continent of Eryva.

In Morova, we’d encountered many who approached us with lust, but there were also many humans who feared our need to drink mortal blood. Here, on this side of the world, there was also trepidation. Hatred, in some cases.

Luckily, Tana and I had not experienced the latter, but the contempt in the man’s words was raising my hackles and agitating my powers.

Slaughtering any that came for us would be an effective yet unhelpful solution, but would we be able to staunch the risings of a mob?

By the time Tana and I were pacing in the cabin Elián and I shared, he brought in a frustrated Tomás who kept glancing toward the corridor.

“Bloody awful timing,” he grumbled, and El rolled his eyes.

Judging by the half-dressed state of him, Tomás had been making very quick work of the ship captain before Elián brought him here.

“They are beginning to search for the one who drank from her.”

I cursed under my breath, and Tana froze. There was no hiding our fangs, and we hadn’t embarked on the boat with lips closed or hiding in the cargo hold. It had only been a few hours, but if no one calmed them, the humans would eventually make their way to us.

“Well, it must’ve been that Vyrkos male,” Tana mused, echoing my previous thoughts. I’d only caught a glimpse of him, but other than slight surprise, I’d thought nothing of his presence. “Unless you made a stop in her cabin before wherever it was you went.” She gestured to Tomás’s bare chest.

He crossed his arms, one of which had the same snake tattoo as Elián. “ Please . The bloke is over there screaming about the loss of his sister’s precious virtue. What would I want with a virginal rube with an overprotective brute of a brother prone to hysterics?”

Tana mirrored his posture and shrugged. “You don’t seem to be all that discerning, so it was a fair possibility.”

“Why, you—” he started but threw his hands up. “What are we worrying about? I’ve been with the captain all evening, these two,” he waved a hand at Elián and me, “have been fucking, judging by the smell in here, so all we need to concern ourselves with is accounting for your whereabouts.”

“ My whereabouts?” Tana’s voice raised to an uncharacteristic pitch, jolting me out of the possibilities running through my mind. “I had supper in my room, took a bath, and have been reading by myself.”

I rubbed at my temples, more dread creeping in.

“So, people certainly saw you eating,” I deduced.

We had at least seven days on the water, provided the weather remained forgiving.

Holing up in a cabin for the entirety of the journey was not impossible but certainly uncomfortable.

Would the commotion die down? “What did the captain say?” I asked Tomás.

“Not much of anything since we were otherwise occupied when Nogón bursted in.” He swept a mass of locs over his shoulder, and I frowned at the name he directed toward Elián.

What did it mean? “One would hope that since he was begging for my own bite, he won’t lead the charge brewing, but I have little faith in humans. ”

“I did not see this Vyrkos, but he must know by now they are looking for him.”

We all nodded, quieted to listen for what was happening on the level below us.

There were too many to focus long on any one conversation, and the absence of the previous shouting wasn’t at all encouraging.

There was a definite cluster still convened on the corridor where the human and her brother were located.

Were they calming the siblings? Conspiring with him to hunt for blood?

“They hardly know the difference between a Lylithan and a Vyrkos here,” Tomás grumbled and sank into the desk chair.

“But really, that does not matter.” We all turned to Elián as he spoke. “Even if they were to rightfully name the Vyrkos as the culprit, they will likely not stop at him.”

Tana and I silently agreed, foreboding groaning along with the settling of the ship. “So, should we find him? The Vyrkos?”

“The more we know about what’s going on, the better.” I also wasn’t convinced that the woman was attacked. The way she’d pled with her brother to calm down so that she could reason with him was a curious detail. Maybe she simply did not want to cause a ruckus. Or, maybe not.