Page 6 of Tell No Tales
That was troublesome. Stan wasn't a spiteful prick like Efren. He'd welcomed Vadim back toStarlight Specterwith the most warmth of his former crew. He was also the best earth weaver Vadim had met in all Embertide. If Stan said the sail would hold, the sail would fucking hold.
"I'll have him look at it tomorrow." Vadim pulled his hood tighter around his head. "For now, I think I'll watch the stars and enjoy the sea air."
"You're already cold?" Olivia had always laughed at his thin skin, but now she seemed more curious than mocking.
"It is already cold." The words were out of his mouth before he realized he wasn't as frozen as he'd expected to be. The wind was no cooler than the hold had been. He still wasn't warm, but there was some truth to Elder Beatrice's claim all those years ago."Balance will bring you added heat."
Now, he had balance, but no real understanding of what it meant. He hoped Hannah would be willing to teach him if they didn't strike him dead with lightning first.
∞∞∞
Klaus
Klaus was freezing. He pulled the sail tight around him, disappointed by how cold it was. Vadim was gone.
Klaus had known better than to pleasure himself with Vadim in bed with him. This wasn't the orphanage, and Vadim wasn't some schoolboy who would immediately decide to give Klaus a helping hand. Nor was this the pleasure house. Klaus couldn't see Vadim as a paying client, even when he was younger. The death weaver had been Prince Hesse's bodyguard when they were both students at the academy. Vadim probably had stood guard outside many a pleasure house door, waiting for the prince. That made Vadim the same age as Klaus's father. Both Vadim and his pa had run off to the academy in Hearthstone the year he was born.
Vadim was also the scariest man in all Embertide. He'd been Coryn's enforcer and captain of Emperor Hugo's guards for the last five years.
Klaus should have known better, but he tended to act on his baser instincts. He wanted Vadim, and he would stop at nothing to get him.
But why?
The question nagged him as he huddled beneath the sail. He thought over the events of the previous evening. He'd climbed into bed naked, but then Vadim hadn't even looked at him. He'd lain on top of the sail, hoping Vadim would turn over. When he finally did, Klaus had hoped he would be so moved that he wanted to join in.
Instead, he'd been disgusted, which was still better than his usual apathy where Klaus was concerned. It was damn near impossible to get a rise out of him, but Klaus had finally done it. He wished he felt some sort of victory to drown out his shame.
Klaus hated all weavers in Coryn's imperial navy, but he couldn't bring himself to hate the man who had cared enough to keep him alive. Yes, Vadim had his reasons. Klaus was one of the best seekers in Coryn's military. He recognized powerful weavers at a distance, especially the unbalanced ones like Vadim had been, or Emperor Hugo himself. There were so few spectral weavers, he didn't know what he was seeing when he first noticed a silver shimmer around Niall. Now that he'd met Elder Beatrice, he recognized it as a spectral aura, but it had seemed foreign at first.
As foreign as an imperial death weaver lying to keep his crew from passing Klaus around the hold between shifts. Vadim had built him a bunk in his cabin to save him from his crew.
Klaus was surprised Vadim didn't already have a cabin bunk, to be honest. The ship must have been made to his specifications. It was the newest, nicest ship Klaus had ever seen.
Instead, Vadim slept in a sail like the crew. Most naval captains had double-wide beds and made no secret that the greenhorns were expected to bunk with them and be their nightly fun after hard days of swabbing the deck and learning their place among the crew.
Vadim had always been different. He knew everyone feared him, and sometimes he went out of his way to put people at ease. Was that all Vadim's care toward Klaus had been? An attempt to calm him until they achieved their goal and freed Hugo?
Klaus hadn't expected it to be easy, but he'd at least thought Vadim would show some sort of attraction toward him. Klaus had heard a number of lewd tales about Vadim and Captain Efren during his time onStarlight Specter. The two had been madly in love, according to Olivia, the self-professed hopeless romantic. She'd regaled him with tales on their return trip to the Equis Islands. She'd singled him out because she wanted to save him from falling for Vadim."He was no good for Captain Efren, and he's no good for you."
Elder Beatrice had scolded Olivia, and then she had shared her own tales about Vadim. In her stories, he was the hero Klaus had come to expect. He wanted to save Embertide and all their weavers from whatever fate Coryn had planned, and he was willing to forsake the love of captain and crew for it.
Klaus had assumed from Olivia's and Beatrice's willingness to share Vadim's secrets with him that Vadim had said or done something to imply he was attracted to Klaus. Vadim had saved his life, after all. Still, the man was as immovable as the artifact buried on Stony Eel Island.
Klaus had used his own body to get whatever he wanted since the day he aged out of the orphanage at eighteen. Even before that, if he were honest. A blowjob here or there had earned him bodyguards and an extra helping of food from time to time.
When he'd offered his services before, Vadim's excuse had been that Klaus was too sick to do anything physical. Then, he'd changed the subject by singing a tune in his head until Klaus ignored him again. Vadim had a pretty voice, but Klaus had been far more interested in hearing how he sounded when he came.
Vadim had rolled back over at the sight of Klaus's cock so fast, Klaus wondered if he'd gotten a deformity from Niall's healing, but it looked the same to him in the light from the doorway. It was still as long and hard as ever when he thought about the sexy death weaver. Vadim had the body of a dancer, the eyes of a dragon, and the stark white hair of someone who had killed early and often. Klaus wondered what Vadim had seen to make him react with such revulsion.
Despite his shame, Klaus's cock ached even more. He stroked it, trying to reassure himself he was still a thing of beauty coveted and craved throughout Embertide. If Vadim didn't want him, well, fuck that man.
He groaned. He really, really wanted to fuck that man. He needed to get his infatuation out of his system. It had always worked before. The moment he'd fucked Landale's mayor, his desire for the man shriveled to nothing. That's all this would take, and then he could give Vadim back his sail bed and they could return to their lives as though they'd never had a life link.
Klaus didn't know how he'd ended up with the life link to begin with. One minute, his lungs were bubbling out of his chest, and the next, Vadim was cupping his cheek, saying,"Let me help you,"inside his head. Gods, the death weaver's otherworldly voice was almost enough to scare his spirit out of his body without his consent.
"I don't want to die!"he'd shouted, though he couldn't even open his mouth to speak.
Vadim reared back as though Klaus had slapped him."I won't let you die."
