Page 88 of Tell No Tales
"Maybe another floor?" Klaus asked.
"I'm not hauling mattresses up those stairs," he grumped. But he could ask Nola. "Let's see what we can find."
Fifteen minutes of grating and scraping at every locked door, they finally found a room packed from floor to ceiling with desks, headboards, and mattresses. Thankfully, they were untouched by rodents.
Vadim expected Nola to complain when they asked her to cart four mattresses upstairs, but she seemed relieved. "My back thanks you," she said once she'd deposited the mattresses and situated Trin and the boys on theirs.
They left Martiz without any comfort. He was already in a fetal position on the hard floor with Yvette watching over him.
"Food and water are enough," Nola said, voicing Vadim's own opinion. "Soon enough, it won't matter."
Vadim's conscience tried to chime in about Martiz's future, but he forced the former healer out of his mind. He bid Nola good night and returned to his room.
Klaus was naked, wrapped in the blanket Vadim had brought with him. His eyes fluttered open when the door opened, but it wouldn't be long before he fell asleep.
"Need you," he muttered as he rolled onto his side.
Vadim needed Klaus like he needed air, but he didn't know how to say it. It didn't help that Hesse's words echoed in his memory, bouncing off the walls of this very room."Show it. Don't say it. People say they love me all the fucking time because they want something from me."
Vadim had wanted something from Hesse, too, but it was something Hesse couldn't give.
He stripped out of his clothes and dug another blanket from his pack. He didn't extinguish the candle, for fear he would lose his hold on reality. In the dim light, he could see the unfurnished room and the beautiful man before him. The past lay in wait in the dark, and he wasn't ready to face it.
Klaus frowned at him. "You're wasting the candle."
"We'll grab another tomorrow night."
Klaus opened his mouth to argue, but then he nodded.
After some shuffling with the blankets so there was one below them and the warmer of the two over the top, Vadim lay on his back. Klaus turned and rested his head on Vadim's chest. He traced the cut across his breastbone and sighed. "I'm glad I've never been in love."
"Oh?" Vadim turned to face Klaus, who followed the path of his fingers along Vadim's scars like he was studying a treasure map.
"Hesse hurt you."
"I hurt myself," Vadim countered. "I knew who he was, and I fell for him, anyway. I'd do it again, too."
Klaus met his gaze at that. "Why?"
"I gave him two of the best years of his life." They'd been the best two years of Vadim's life, too. The rest hadn't even come close until recently. That wasn't a barb against Efren. Sailing was hard work, and often lonely. "With me, he had the freedom to ignore what his father wanted. We could just be." Tears pricked his eyes, but he kept going. "He died far too young to take those years of happiness away from him. From us."
"Are you saying your best years are behind you?" Klaus's tone was teasing as ever, but there was an edge to it.
"No. My best years are well ahead of me."
Something in his answer, or the desire in his gaze, satisfied Klaus. He rolled over on his side, his back to Vadim, to resume their position from earlier in the day. Vadim pulled him close, loving the silky feel of his skin. Vadim fell asleep well before the candle guttered out.
At noon, Nola woke him to take over Martiz's watch. He kissed the shell of Klaus's ear before dressing and meeting Nola in the hall. He hated to be in the same room as Martiz, but he had to do his part. The scheme had been his idea, after all.
The man was harmless, at least, that was what he kept telling himself. It was a hard sell to his overactive imagination. Every time the man moved, Vadim nearly jumped out of his own skin.
Thankfully, Martiz didn't speak to him. He chuckled to himself once or twice. Vadim didn't want to know what he was thinking, so he didn't ask.
Finally, his four-hour watch ended, and Roy relieved him of duty. It was time to follow the tunnel from the prince's former room to the palace, if that's where the tunnel went.
They left Roy and Ray behind to watch Martiz. Trin stayed bundled on her mattress in the girls' room, since she was still weak from healing.
"She's tough," Yvette said. "She'll pull through."
