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Chapter Four
Kyson
A Little Help From My Friends
It takes everything in me not to immediately storm back into the suite. The sound of Scarlet’s heartbreak is palpable and it wrenches something inside of me that hasn’t moved in a very long time. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a woman who slips so easily under my skin.
Of course, she is my consort. Every cell in my body craves her. Not merely the taste of her, no matter how my mouth waters for it with every whiff of her scent, but her touch. Her nearness.
I will have to let her sit with her pain and the harsh reality of the situation, at least for a short while. I will also have to work harder to remember not to lose my temper so easily. As hard as it is to prepare for the way her presence scrambles my common sense, I must hold onto my focus the next time we speak.
We need to speak, properly. It’s high time she tolerated a single conversation. Otherwise, we’ll never move forward.
I hear a distinct, feminine whimper as her sobs quiet down. My forehead lands on the door as the last of my short-lived rage flees my system. All I want now is to hold her and soothe her pain.
That opportunity is also denied me when I hear the soft footfalls of approaching steps. Two pairs, coming from the other direction. One belongs to a subdued, but nonetheless audible, heartbeat. I know instantly who these visitors are and I turn to face them. I don’t think about placing myself between them and the door to the room where Scarlet is, I simply do so.
They stop with several feet between us. I spare barely a glance at the female, in part because it’s rude and in part because my own interest is elsewhere.
“Luther,” I say to my covenmate, a man I have known for slightly more than a century. “You know the Consort Suite is occupied.” Just as we both know Luther’s consort hasn’t resided within its walls in many years.
Luther offers me a tight-lipped smile and curls his arm around his mate’s shoulders. “Lily wants to meet her.”
My eyes widen and this time I meet the petite woman’s gaze. She has been bonded with Luther for several decades, and so is a vital part of our coven in her own right. “Lisette,” I say, but I hesitate.
Lisette smiles warmly. She seems to have expected my resistance. “We heard some shouting. It doesn’t seem like Scarlet’s coming around so easily, and I thought maybe if she had someone else to talk to other than grumpy you, she’d soften faster.”
Luther’s lips twitch at the same time as a low growl rolls up my throat. I’m becoming rather tired of everyone calling me that.
Lisette continues. “It’s not like I’m asking to be locked away in there until she comes out. Luther would never go along with that.” She reaches over and pats his chest in a fond manner I’ve seen a thousand times. Only this time it makes my own chest ache with an unfamiliar longing.
“To be frank,” Luther says, “I don’t love this idea. She hasn’t even been let out yet.”
The words sober me and I clench my fists. “He’s right, Lisette,” I say. “Scarlet’s not in a conversational mood.” She hasn’t yet been, in her waking hours. Though I can’t blame her. “I’d suggest waiting a few more days before—”
Lisette plants her hands on her hips, knocking her elbow into her mate, and furrows her brow at me. “Absolutely not. I know she didn’t come here willingly and the Oracle warned she would be a challenge, but you’re treating her like a prisoner and she’s never going to love you the way you need if you refuse her any other kind of experience.”
Another growl builds in my chest and I don’t try to stop myself from glaring back. “I said no.”
Luther moves his hand to her nearest shoulder and turns so he can easily step between us. He generally functions as one of our gatherers when we need supplies from the nearby city, and helps wherever he can pitch in around the house. I’m usually fond of him. Right now, I’d rather throw them both back down the stairwell. “Lily,” he says.
His mate remains undaunted. “She needs a friend, Kyson. Someone who’s not demanding anything of her. Give me an hour to keep her company, then come kick me out.”
I remember the pain and sadness in Scarlet’s cries from minutes earlier. I doubt she’s in the mood for a stranger’s company, but if anyone is going to cross that boundary other than myself, Lisette is the only person I could accept in such a role. Scarlet may be my ordained consort, but she hasn’t accepted me yet. She is still a single, human female in a house full of lustful male vampires. Until she’s open to some level of consideration of her own fate, I cannot let her out of that suite.
Certainly if I did so now, she would run. But we are a good distance from the home she knew. She is more likely to run into a Jagter than to find her way to anywhere familiar.
“She’s not going to back down on this, Kyson.” Luther’s words anchor my focus.
I look down into Lisette’s eyes. Perhaps she’s right. Perhaps a different face, a potential friend, will help turn the corner. “Fine,” I say. I dig the key from my pocket. “I’ll give you one hour.”
Her stance relaxes and she beams up at her mate. Again, my heart aches. Yearning, I realize. This sensation is yearning. Something I haven’t felt since I was human.
Lisette angles forward and clasps her hands behind her back with clear impatience. “So what have you told her? How much can I say?”
“Lily, that’s Kyson’s job,” Luther says in a firmer tone.
I turn toward the door. “You’re not going in there to play spy. When Scarlet’s ready to talk, I’ll explain everything to her. I don’t need help with that.”
