Bed and Breakfast [Bloodkin 1] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (22 page)

Aran clung to his son’s palm and nodded. “I promise.”

“And that…you won’t h–hurt…I want El…”

His eyes fixed on something beyond Aran’s shoulders, and he reached out in a clear gesture of desperation. A slight shift in the air alerted Vane to what was going on. Realization dawned on him. Eli had intelligently stood cloaked all this time, without revealing his presence, but with Dante dying there, in front of him, the elf would give himself away.

Following his instincts, Vane reached out into thin air and caught Eli’s arm. “Don’t. You can’t help him. You’ll just get caught.”

Eli released himself from Vane’s grip, but then Vane saw Dante mouth something that seemed like, “Go…Live…I…”

The words became unintelligible as the light dimmed in Dante’s eyes, then faded altogether. Vane surmised Dante intended to tell his father not to hurt them, but never had the chance. This was a very bad thing for them. For all his faults, Aran seemed to love his now deceased son, and he’d choose to take revenge on them.

Eli had frozen on the spot, and the glamour around the elf was fading. Vane swiftly shielded them both, as well as Moss and Kier.

Chaos erupted around them as the Imperator screamed, “No! Dante…No!” Guards rushed around, not knowing what to do, obviously startled at the Imperator’s show of emotion. Vane needed to find a way out for them, before it was too late. “Come, we need to go,” he whispered.

Kier shook his head and threw a look Cole’s way. “I can’t. Not without him.”

Thankfully, Cole must’ve heard or felt Kier’s desires, as he made his way toward them. To Vane’s surprise, his brother took Kier’s hand and kissed it. “Let’s get out of here.”

The whole exchange lasted maybe a minute, during which Aran focused on Dante, holding him close and weeping openly. Before they could make their escape, however, Aran recovered, and his eyes snapped open. “What are you doing, fools? Cover all exits. I want them caught.”

Mobilized by their lord’s order, the Imperial guards posted themselves around the doors. But sheer luck or some sort of divine intervention made the people from outside burst in upon hearing the commotion. Vane wondered what they thought upon seeing Dante on the ground, in the arms of a bloody Imperator, the Imperial Blade stuck in his chest. He got his reply when Dante’s men advanced on Aran’s. What did they intend to do? Avenging Dante made no sense now, and Vane very much doubted Dante would have wanted them to die for him.

A soft voice drew Vane’s attention. “This way.”

Vane jumped, having almost forgotten about the elf’s presence with how silent the man had been. But Eli’s voice, in spite of its weakness, drew Cole’s attention. “What’s he doing here?” he whispered.

“Not now,” Eli answered. “Keep your temper in check until we actually get out of here alive.”

So Cole and Eli knew and hated each other. To Vane, it seemed their chances of escape were getting slimmer and slimmer by the second. By some miracle, Cole did keep his mouth shut. Vane followed the elf and noticed an opening behind Dante’s men. With the Imperial guards distracted, they managed to flee the lounge.

But the corridors would be flooded with guards by now. Getting out of the palace and the capital wouldn’t be so easy. This time, Cole came to their aid. “There is a passageway from Aran’s bedroom. We can escape through there, until he figures out where we’ve gone. But it won’t hold them back for long.”

“A few miles from Tachaka there is a gateway to Manturanael,” Eli said. “If we reach that point, we’ll be out of their reach.”

The exchange seemed polite enough, but Vane caught the undercurrent of tension. Cole glared daggers at Eli as he spoke. For Eli’s part, the man sounded absent, as if his mind weren’t quite there. He kept glancing back to the lounge, his white complexion almost pasty. All the while, Kier looked at them, shoulders slumped as if in defeat.

In the end, Cole nodded and led them to the bedroom. The room smelled like sex, and Kier tensed up upon seeing the mess of sheets. Cole must have slept with Aran just before the entire dinner debacle. A conflict could have started right then and there, but Kier had too much dignity to cause a scene. They heard voices just outside and Cole rushed to open a passage behind a bookcase, much like Dante had done in his own quarters. “Follow my exact steps and—”

“Don’t touch the walls,” Vane interrupted him. “Yes, we know. Now lead the way.”

Cole wordlessly obeyed, and Vane lifted Moss in his arms once again. This time, they didn’t have time to go slow, and the speed with which they moved gave Vane the impression the corridor would crumble on top of them any moment now. He shut down his emotions in a distant part of himself and focused on his abilities. There could be no failure if he wanted to get himself and his loved ones out.

At last, Cole stopped, hesitated briefly, then opened a door in front of them. They left the corridor and emerged into an armory. “We should be able to go out to the kitchens from here and from there outside the palace and into the city.”

They did just that, although Vane did stop to grab a few weapons for them. Better equipped, they ran out of the armory and into a storage area. Foodstuffs surrounded them, emanating enticing smells, but Vane didn’t bother with such things. A hearty meal wouldn’t help them if Aran caught them.

The kitchens were empty, the servants having obviously run off to see what was going on. Outside, however, they ran into a group of veteran guards. Vane hoped their glamour would help them get away unseen, but it must’ve faded during their insane trek here. Too much strain could do that to any elf or bloodkin. The soldiers spotted them. “In the name of the Imperator, stop this instant.”

Vane ignored the guard and scanned the area for a way out. “The stables, quick,” Cole said.

“What kind of horses can possibly help us now?” Moss asked, still in Vane’s arms. The human couldn’t have kept up with their pace, but luckily, he weighed very little, so Vane didn’t have any trouble carrying him.

Cole grinned. “Bloodkin horses.”

A special breed of horses, the bloodkin horses were reserved strictly for the Imperator’s use. The strongest stallions were chosen for the task of insemination, as well as beautiful, pure mares. Once the seed took root, the breeders added blood essence to the mare’s feed. The process had been perfected in time, and the resulting animals were among the fastest and fiercest beasts in existence.

Vane hoped his brother knew what he was doing, because such horses could be very dangerous. But so far, Cole had not led them astray. They followed Cole to the stables. Yet again, they ran into a number of guards, but they didn’t bother with stealth. Cole and Eli took them out in a few swift and agile motions.

At last, they reached the corral holding the horses. The animals reared and bucked, neighing agitatedly and baring sharp fangs at them. “Are you sure about this, Cole?” Vane asked.

“We don’t have much choice, I’m afraid.”

Eli nodded. “I hate to agree with him, but the gateway is too far for us to reach before they catch us, and there’d be over three dozen guards between us and that area.”

Vane had no idea how Eli would know that, but it was, indeed, the case. Still, the horses looked like they were going to eat them alive. When Cole jumped inside the corral, one of the beasts lunged at him, missing Cole’s throat only because he backed away at the last moment.

“This is hopeless,” Kier said. “We’re wasting time.”

Eli sighed. “Let me. I’ve always been good with animals.”

“Yeah, I bet, since you’re not so good with people,” Cole answered, voice dripping with poison.

“Cole, drop it, please,” Kier said with a sigh.

Vane felt like he’d ended up in a weird triangle of emotions. This was a terrible time for Cole to be jealous. Thankfully, Eli didn’t take the bait. Instead, the elf slipped inside the corral, and the beasts immediately began to quiet down. As Eli murmured to them, Vane felt a weird emotion stir in his heart. It was as if Eli’s words held a silent sorrow. A flash of memory passed through Vane—Dante dying on the floor of his father’s lounge—and he swallowed against the knot in his throat. He shouldn’t care about it, but he did. Dante had died to protect Cole, and he’d been so young. Vane wished things could have been different. Why did ideals always have to kill?

Miraculously, Eli pacified the horses and led them out of the corral. There were three animals, so Vane and Moss took one, Cole and Kier the second, and Eli the third. Cole rode out of the stables, with Vane and Eli following.

They went so fast it even surprised Vane. Moss cuddled against his chest, obviously frightened, but not saying anything that would give him away. Moss’s heat felt good against him, and in spite of the entire situation, Vane’s dick hardened. Not that Vane intended to do anything about it, not anytime soon at least.

Cole led them out of the palace grounds, passing by confused guards and dodging flying arrows. In the distance, Vane thought he could hear Aran shouting, but he ignored it. The busy Tachaka streets were even more difficult to navigate through. At this hour, bloodkin of all ages filled the pathways, and it took all of Vane’s expertise in horse riding to avoid trampling the people in his way.

City guards tried to stop them, but failed. Then, Vane spotted the city gates straight ahead. They were closing. It would be a close call. Cole sped up, and so did Vane and Eli. They managed to jump over the guards blocking their way and slip outside seconds before the heavy gates shut.

Even so, they weren’t out of the woods yet. From the barricades, archers shot at them and the gates would reopen any moment now. They needed to make haste toward Manturanael.

As the only one who knew their current destination, Eli rode ahead. Behind them, a cloud of dust rose, visible even through the darkness of the Tachakan plains. Their horses bravely kept on racing, but they would begin to tire soon. Not even bloodkin-bred animals were immune to fatigue.

The miles seemed to stretch on and on, until at last, Eli began to slow down. “It’s here,” he said.

Vane couldn’t see anything, but then again, he was bloodkin, not an elf. Bloodkin had lost many of their original elf abilities, including the one allowing them to use the natural elven portals leading to Manturanael and back to the main continent. In a sense, Vane couldn’t be more thankful for it. Had bloodkin been able to use these portals, a war between them and the elves would have erupted a long time ago.

Eli ushered them into a small grove and gestured for them to gather around next to a tree stump. The portals were always in a seemingly innocuous place, but in a very specific spot. In Vane’s former residence, it had been marked by a gazebo. Ironically, Vane himself had built it, somehow feeling the special energies around it, but only after Kier discovered it did they realize a portal was there.

As they dismounted, Vane gave Eli an inquiring look. “Are we taking the horses as well?”

Eli nodded. “They deserve better treatment, especially after saving our lives.”

“Besides, if we just vanished into thin air, without the horses, it would be even clearer than it already is that we used a portal,” Kier added, entwining his fingers through the fine hairs of his horse’s mane.

No one asked any more questions. With Kier still weak, Eli did the honors of summoning the energies of the portal. Vane had been through this several times before, so the sensation of swirling didn’t take him by surprise. Animals coped with the transition well, but he didn’t know if Cole and Moss had ever been to Manturanael. His human might’ve visited since he knew Eli, but the process would still be difficult on him.

Still, when the dizzying void melted into the elven lands, Vane felt relieved. They’d gotten out of their predicament unscathed. That, in and of itself, was a miracle.

Vane had the distant thought Moss’s skin now matched the color of his eyes. Cole looked similarly affected, but he recovered faster. The horses, completely unfazed, ran off to hunt some dinner.

“So now what?” Kier asked, sitting on a tree stump positioned in an exact corresponding position as the one in the Tachakan plains.

Good question. They couldn’t stay here and risk the elves finding them. They’d be better off in Aran’s dungeons. Out of all things, he didn’t expect Moss to reply, and yet, his human did. “I have a suggestion, or rather, a request. Would you help me go back to Elmya? My parents and siblings might be in danger.”

Moss had a point. If Aran couldn’t find them, he might try to hurt Moss’s family instead. Moss didn’t seem to realize this, as Vane could sense no panic, only concern. Vane made a mental note to be careful what he said around his human.

Cole hummed thoughtfully. “You have a point. Given the prince’s death, Aran might want to take revenge on them.”

Moss’s eyes widened. “But they don’t have anything to do with this,” he cried.

“No, they don’t, but sometimes, that doesn’t matter,” Vane answered. He held Moss tightly, trying to be as comforting as possible in the circumstances. “We’ll go, Moss, if you want to.”

“You can count on me,” Kier offered. “What about your uncle? Would he be in danger, too?”

Moss trembled in Vane’s arms. “I–I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in many years.”

“We’ll split up,” Cole said. “Kier and I will go see your uncle. You and Vane can go to Elmya.”