Page 7 of Tell No Tales
That was all it had taken to set their life link. Vadim's darkness had spiraled around him, and Klaus had felt stronger than he had in weeks. It was worth it until Vadim's thoughts started drifting through his head as though they were his own.
"Stop thinking so loud."
"What am I thinking?"Vadim asked.
"That you want to go home. Where's home?"
"Fuck's sake."Vadim had studied him for a moment, and then he'd blushed."It's better than … is that all you ever think about?"
Klaus had been thinking about how good Vadim looked in his white tunic with the laces undone and the tight pants he always tucked into his boots. Vadim dressed like a pirate, while the other Embertide naval officers dressed like they never got their pant legs wet from the ocean spray when it landed on deck, even as they walked around, soaked to the knees.
"You look good. That's all I was thinking."
Vadim hadn't acknowledged his words, and then the weird humming began until Klaus tuned him out.
Vadim had shaken him awake the first night, though."I can't sleep with all your thinking."
"I'm not thinking."He'd tried to turn away, but Vadim grabbed his arm.
"You're not?"
"I was sleeping."
"Your dreams are very logical, and nothing like your waking thoughts, then."
"What was I dreaming?"
Vadim shook his head."Nothing. Go back to sleep. I'll be on deck. We'll sleep in shifts."
"If you leave me in here alone, someone will try to take me for themselves."
Vadim withdrew a key from inside his boot."Here."
It was a key to Vadim's cabin, the only one, from the look of it.
"Leave it unlocked when you're gone."
"And when I'm here alone?"
"I know where you are at all times."
That, and the incident inStarlight Specter'shold, had been how Klaus knew Vadim could find him on the open sea when Coryn had taken him and Niall. Klaus was still amazed Vadim had come after him. Captain Efren had told the tale of Vadim's trial, when Vadim had stood up, knocked his chair over and shouted that Coryn had taken Klaus with her.
Klaus wished that tether still bound them. Now that it was gone, he missed it, and he hated that he missed it. Once linked, he'd wanted only to be rid of it, and Vadim. He'd been certain the death weaver was another of Coryn's officers who wanted to use Klaus for their own gains.
Vadim's only difference was that he wanted to use Klaus for his seeker ability, not for his body. In his brief time connected to Vadim's thoughts, Klaus had come to understand the death weaver's obsession with freeing Emperor Hugo, all else be damned.
Klaus had always wanted to be someone's single-minded focus. This must have been the universe's attempt at retribution. Klaus had found someone capable of the focus he desired, but he was obsessed with someone else.
Vadim wasn't attracted to Hugo, though. Klaus knew that much with certainty. He'd overheard a couple of the crew saying Vadim was enamored with someone, but every time Klaus tried to get close enough to spy on them, or better yet, ask them what they were talking about, they glared at him and changed the subject. At one point, he'd thought Vadim might even be interested in him. After last night … he'd been wrong. Dead wrong.
Now, he could only hope Vadim never found out what he'd done to the sail bed.
Chapter 2
Vadim
Stan studied his craftsmanship from the day before with a critical eye. Stan still amazed Vadim every time he squeezed himself into spaces as tight as the far corner of the crate. It was as though he used his earth weaves to make himself physically smaller. Finally, he straightened and shook his head, a single brown curl loose from his kerchief swinging like a pendulum. "Both the wood and the screw are stripped clean. It makes no sense. I can't even tell you how it was done."
