Set In Sparks (Morningstars Book 2) (4 page)

“Oh, it seems to be a treatment both of you perfected,” she cried, then she stormed out of the foyer and Kaden stayed back. If he’d follow her now, he was likely going to press her against a freaking wall and kiss the ever-loving shit out of her. It was something he definitely wouldn’t be going for when Jaden was around.

“Kaden, what the hell are you doing?” He groaned, looking at the little courtier who just came out of the kitchen, joining him in the foyer.

“Don’t even ask me that, Hurricane,” he growled softly, knowing very well that he was throwing off a dangerous vibe. He didn’t mean to, but his feelings were getting the best of him.

The female paled visibly and it gave Kaden a grim satisfaction. She was just caught in the crossfire, but something had to give. “What did you call me?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“You heard me. I know, Cany. It’s my job to know. You are with the Queen, one of two people I’d give my life for. I needed to know who you are, even if Jaden didn’t care. He always was a better soldier, following orders and taking everything for granted.”

“I’m not going to hurt her, Kaden,” she whispered and he pressed his lips together, breathing deeply a few times. He forced his face to relax and then gave her a smile.

“I know, girl. I still needed to point it out, but I won’t tell anyone your secret until it’s relevant. I have to be honest though, this is a trust – relationship with her. Maybe you should consider telling Maya. Trust her enough to stand by you regardless,” he remarked and she closed her eyes. “Oh, and Cany?” He waited until her hazel eyes met his again. “I’d like to stay for the day. Maya invited me and even though I told her I wouldn’t, she made some valid points.” He started walking towards the door which Maya had left through, figuring that staying was the best way to ease his Origin's fury.

“Of course she did. You hold her heart and yet you are nothing but an asshole. She knows how to deal with those,” Cany called after him and he couldn’t help it, he actually laughed.

“Clearly, so do you,” he winked over his shoulder, seeing how finally her rigid pose relaxed. He hated being what she had just called him, but in lately that side of him seemed to be too dominant for his own likin
g
.

The house was finally silent and as much as Jaden had wished that Kaden wouldn’t have interrupted things between him and Maya, he no longer had been in a mood to seduce her afterwards. However she had done it, Kaden had stayed, too. No running away, no terrible excuses, no nothing for his elusive twin.

Now though, he wanted to talk to Kaden. They hadn’t had a chance earlier since Matt and Ryder had joined them for dinner and there really hadn’t been a reason to mention their troubles in front of the other warriors, yet now Jaden was curious.

Kissing the side of Maya’s head, he got up, just pulling on his jeans and nothing more, knowing that his twin had seen it all anyway. He slipped out, finding the hallways dimly lit. There was no sunlight filtering in since the shutters had been closed for the day. He didn’t miss the sun any longer; if he needed to see something shine, he looked at Maya whenever he brought her a single white rose or that tea she liked so much from one of the cafés downtown. She was his sun, his stars, and his moon now. She was his everything and he was ready to do whatever was needed to get her to finally feel comfortable.

If he’d have to describe her feelings, he’d probably say that there was a shadow hanging over their happy cloud and Jaden didn’t like that at all.

He knocked softly, taking care not to wake everyone in the household, which was the burden of preternatural hearing.

Kaden opened, basically wearing the same outfit he did. It was crazy, but with his twin standing inside the room and him standing outside, it was like a bad mirror: Kaden looked a lot brawnier than Jaden remembered while he was still looking as healthy as they came. It was weird that suddenly Kaden was the serious twin, the intense one. Now though a smile cracked up his face.

“Nice outfit,” he grinned and then gestured for Jaden to enter with a simple nod of his head.

“You, too,” Jaden replied with humor in his voice, then he reminded himself that he was pissed at his twin. “What if one of those nights you were supposed to be with us, we would have been attacked? I couldn’t have saved Maya by myself,” he accused and Kaden’s shoulders instantly tensed.

“I had stuff to do. I didn’t think they’d let you and her go alone,” he admitted and Jaden sighed.

“Seriously? With all those Hellraise coming to have her blood, you thought the warriors had someone to spare? You were my backup. You left me hanging. You left her hanging,” Jaden growled and Kaden turned away from him. Something was very wrong, but just like Maya wasn’t speaking, Kaden seemed reluctant to offer any real information. “Does Maya know what you are doing? Is that why she is not mad at you when you put her second?”

Kaden’s head whipped around, his brown eyes firing daggers at Jaden. “Leave Maya out of this. She never will be second for… any of us.”
Me.
Jaden had heard it as clear as if Kaden had actually said the word. The break was too obvious and something started to nag at him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Something was very wrong with Kaden and yet Maya was as protective of him as his twin was of her.

“She knows, doesn’t she?” Jaden inquired again and Kaden combed his fingers through his dark, blond hair, leaving it messy. It was such a typical scene for them that Jaden almost saw hope for his twin. Maybe he was less lost than Jaden thought.

“Maya knows nothing. She has enough to deal with at the moment. I wouldn’t want to make me another one of her problems.” He was heartfelt and sincere, which reminded Jaden of something different that he had wanted to ask.

“How did you know she was feeling so terrible? I have that blood-link with her and I hadn’t realized it was that bad.” Kaden shrugged and looked away from his twin, but Jaden picked up a brow.

“I don’t know. It was in her eyes. There was this cloud hanging over her shining violet eyes. One look at her and I just knew,” he tried to explain. “Honestly, Jaden, there’s not a certain telltale. It was just something about the way she held onto me, you know? You probably feel it too, sometimes; you just don’t recognize it yet. It’s when she hugs you and she holds you like always, but then suddenly, she squeezes just that bit tighter. That’s when she wants to tell you something.”

It was as if Jaden had hit a brick wall and the impact had suddenly made him see clear. Since he had felt that, Jaden knew exactly what Kaden talked about.

His twin actually looked smug. “See? I knew you felt it before. There are more of those little signs. You just need to learn to read her better and I know you can do it.” Kaden gave him an encouraging pat on the back and Jaden went over to his twin’s clearly unused bed, sitting down.

“If I tried to make you tell me her secret, would you?” Jaden’s question made Kaden instantly swallow and he realized that there was something Maya was hiding. “And do you think she would tell me yours?”

“I don’t have a secret,” Kaden protested, but there was real heat missing.

“When did you start lying to me, Kaden? You were always the better brother.”

“That was until you broke my heart and my trust in you,” Kaden snapped, and Jaden buried his face in his hands, suddenly feeling terribly exhausted. He wouldn’t ever be able to forget that he hadn’t told Kaden about the fact that Maya wouldn’t be with them or that he had agreed to go along with it. The former was what Kaden meant with breaking his heart and the latter with what he considered breaking his trust. Kaden and Maya had bonded so instantly that Jaden had spent quite a lot of time pouting in jealousy, even though now she and Kaden hadn’t seen each other in more than three months, nothing had changed about that. Only now, Jaden knew there was no reason to be jealous because fate always got its way, and Maya was his Origin and devoted to him, just like he was to her.

“Next time you hear that you are going out with us, Kade, do me a favor and show.” He didn’t think that Kaden would tell him what was up or bothering him, and he had a warm, soft Origin in his bed that deserved his attention.

“Word on the street has it that Destra moved back into the city,” Kaden suddenly spoke just as Jaden reached for the door. They had looked for their Most Wanted a lot during the first few weeks, but eventually it just became obvious that she had stayed away. There was no telling if she knew that Jaden was alive or not. As it was, the Hellraise in the city couldn’t really tell him and his twin apart. No one knew for sure if they were still two, and Destra wouldn’t trust anything unless she saw it with her own eyes. He couldn’t believe that Kaden had information like that, and important one at that, and kept it from him. “It’s the reason I was a no-show. I was worried that if I rallied the forces for nothing, we could endanger Maya more. She refuses to stay at home or to send Cany to do the job alone and I couldn’t risk pulling any of you away from here and her,” his twin suddenly added, staring at a spot on the wall.

Jaden looked towards the same wall, knowing Maya was asleep behind it. “How sure are you?” he wanted to know, watching his twin again. If there were just the slightest hint that Kaden would lie to him, he’d go wild. Maya was the only thing that mattered.

“Not at all. I don’t trust the few insane vampires I met. They speak about great evil coming and precious blood being spilled, but then, all blood is precious to us,” his brother shrugged and Jaden didn’t sense any lie in him. Just then he realized that his brother was roaming the streets every night all by himself.

“Do you realize that this could get you killed?” he asked and Kaden turned back to him, his gaze steady.

“It’s better it kills me than you. You are mated, my brother, bonded to the Queen of the race. We can’t afford to lose you and, in the process, her.” There was pain in his brother’s eyes, so much that Jaden wanted to grit his teeth against it. The only problem was that he had no idea why.

“When was the last time you drank blood to sustain your strength? If you insist on being out there alone, I at least need to have peace of mind and know that you’ll be at your strongest.” Another one of those painful looks and Jaden closed his eyes.

“One of these days, Kaden, you’ll have to tell me. You know that you’re my bother, right?” It was a stupid question, but Jaden still had to ask.

“For eternity,” Kaden agreed and Jaden went back to him, standing there like a mirror image.

“Good, because I know as much as I had to make it up to Cupcake I had to make it up to you. Actually I still do, and I intend to follow through. Just know that you can always come to me, Kaden. You can tell me anything. Never, in my whole life, could I hate you, okay?”

There, how was that for getting in touch with his emotional side? He was acting all female and talking about feelings. It was what Cany had told him would help make Maya more his. Besides, it was the truth. Kaden would always be his blood, just like Maya. Kaden seemed frozen to the spot, so Jaden decided to leave after this rather embarrassing moment. When he reached the door, he could’ve sworn he heard his twin say something that sounded damn close to ‘never say never, brother.’

Cany snuck down to the kitchen, even though the house was silent. She knew that the twins both were in one room since she had heard them talk earlier, but now there were no noises. She couldn’t possibly close her eyes now, not after having known that not only she knew Kaden’s darkest secret, but he knew hers as well.

With the way things were, Kaden was unpredictable. She had no idea when he’d explode in a moment of utter pain and just spill it to everyone. Seeking comfort in food was such a human thing to do that Cany almost laughed out loud. As it was, her mother had hated this habit most about her. In fact, there was little her mother
didn’t
hate about her.

Which actually brought on the second reason that she wouldn’t find any sleep that day. The next night, she and Ryder would be going to see her family. She tried everything to go alone, but somehow there was no chance. The warrior was insistent when it came to her being accompanied and so far, she had managed to rearrange her schedule every time someone was going with her, but somehow it just never occurred that everyone was busy.

Just then she realized that the air behind her was moving ever so slightly and cue the third reason why she couldn’t get any sleep.

“You are awake. Again.” Cany closed her eyes as the warm voice settled over her like a blanket.

“So are you, Ryder,” she remarked and then steeled herself before turning. Each time she looked at the Queen’s brother, her hormones went crazy. Most of the time he angered her like no one else could, but sometimes, like those dangerous hours during the day, when everyone else was sleeping and she was with no one else but herself, then she wanted to curl her small body around him and have him make her forget all her worries. She wanted him to help her to forget her secrets, too. She didn’t have any experience with guys whatsoever, but she had read it all, had seen it all and, most of all, had dreamed it all. She had spoken to her friends about it and what to expect, at least to those who had snuck out to be deflowered.

“I heard you moving,” he explained, leaning in the door and crossing his arms. They were strong, obviously well trained, and would be the perfect thing to cage a girl like her. But no, she shouldn’t even think about that.

Because after all, there was problem number four, which usually had been far off for her, but got more prominent the more she was around Ryder.

“You are a liar,” she whispered with a smile and he pushed off the frame, sighing.

“Okay, I figured you’d be up again. I’m itchy, too, with the twins in the house,” he admitted, walking over to where she was seated on the counter.  He reached his long fingers into the bowl of cereal she had just poured herself and made the little pieces vanish between his lips, his tongue sneaking out to lick away the last of the sugar remaining on them. Cany shouldn’t have been watching him that closely, but she couldn’t help it. She pulled herself together though, trying to remember what he had just said.